It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an EMP!

Preparing for the unknown effects of an EMP scenario.

I had just finished reading One Second After when those pesky balloons started showing up in our heretofore lackadaisically monitored (or so they claim) skies.

The balloon story reminds me of that 1984 song by Nena, 99 Red Balloons. The lyrics are eerily apropos:

99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
The 99 red balloons go by

Personally, I’m not buying into the hype. When your president promises to destroy another country’s pipeline (which is, by the way, a war crime) and then that same pipeline is “mysteriously destroyed”, pointing up at the sky and shouting, “Look! Aliens!” can be an effective distraction.

The timing is also suspicious, especially since a report detailing the who, what, and how of that mysterious explosion coincided with the “balloon” appearances.

But don’t look at the report. Just keep watching the skies.