“Look! A baby wolf!” – 1941
Shooting down that Chinese balloon was the only thing Biden ever did to fight inflation. (All memes as found)
On the 24th of February, 1942, the battle of Los Angeles occurred. The sound of air raid sirens, a new sound for Los Angeles, pierced the night. Air defense cannon were engaged, and over 1,400 shells were fired that night. The most likely explanation is that the “attack” was likely a weather balloon. Or angels.
Okay, I’ve heard that one before. Or is that where that started? Regardless, no aliens or Japanese were downed that night, though a slightly humorous movie was made about the whole incident that managed to rake in about $95 million dollars in 1979.
Lately, there have been large numbers of reports of drones around several places in England and, well, New Jersey. I did get an email from a reader about what my thoughts were. I sent an answer off the cuff, and, after reflection, I’ve thought a bit more and have some revisions, none of which involve John Belushi as a fighter pilot.
What could the drones be?
Here are my thoughts of what these things are, in the order I originally thought of them. Feel free to opine on what I missed in the comments, since this analysis is as shallow as Greta Thunberg’s understanding of physics. Okay, maybe not that shallow.
First thought: It is not aliens. I can be certain because observers have heard rotors and heard various drone sounds. There’s simply too much evidence that everything observed is entirely terrestrial technology, easily achievable with known technology. If aliens are able to conquer interstellar space, time travel, or move through dimensions, they’re probably not bringing things that could be mistaken for DJI® drones.
Second thought: It’s not an individual or individuals. One thing I’ve noted is the government would in no way allow this level of fun at this scale. I think there’s a law against it, or if not, there’s always Gitmo. Overall, the phenomenon seems too coordinated and at too many places, even for a club. Additionally, the government would be taking this far more seriously in the press, and you would have seen or heard of an arrest by now.
Third thought: It’s not a private company, since they’ve got too much to lose, and yet not much to gain. The only one that I could see doing this would be Elon, and it would just be for giggles. But there is no evidence that Elon would ever visit New Jersey, since he’s too busy making cars that drive into lakes.
Hopefully Elon didn’t bring bearer bonds.
Fourth thought: It’s unlikely to be a foreign government, because if it were Iranian, it would have a two-stroke engine and a pull start, the North Koreans can’t pedal fast enough to get lift, the Russians would have sent five million of them with the expectation that all but one would be shot down, and the Chinese already know all our secrets. One New Jersey state senator claimed it was from an Iranian naval vessel, but at last count all of their inflatable rafts navy is accounted for.
Fifth thought: It’s us testing our stuff, unlikely, because why would we do so in New Jersey?
Sixth thought: It’s a distraction for the American public. You know, a shiny object. “Look! A baby wolf!” So, a psyop.
Seventh thought: It’s an actual, operational system. The military says it’s not theirs but, I have no confidence the military has any idea what it’s doing on a daily basis. Everyone who talks about it is pretty calm. “Oh, no, we don’t have any idea what it is, though it’s perfectly safe and there’s no indication that any laws have been broken. It might have been Mexicans. We won the war. Go back to sleep.”
Evidence for the seventh point actually goes back a few years. I recall reading a news story about drones seen at night in eastern Colorado/western Kansas. Not one or two, but swarms. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever driven through that part of the world, but you can drive about 120 miles without seeing a tree, let alone another car. It’s not as sparsely populated as Wyoming, but it would probably be a violation of safe working conditions to send employees to Wyoming. If I were guessing, that was the actual test. Heck, they might even have ignored that documentary, The Terminator, and have these things being run by A.I.
Are creepy metal wind chimes Stranger Tings?
What are the drones doing?
My guess is they’re only in New Jersey if they’re active, as either part of some new defensive system meant to intercept other drones or some other remote sensing. As we see from Ukraine, even low-tech drones are better than artillery at taking out armor or even squad-level groups of soldiers. New drones showing up in Russia aren’t radio controlled and susceptible to jamming – now they spool miles (3.1milliCoulombs) of fiber-optic cable behind them. I’d be surprised if we weren’t fielding active area denial systems against drones.
So, to summarize:
- Aliens: 0%
- Individuals: 5%
- Elon: 5%
- Iranians!: 2%
- Testing: 11%
- Psyop: 10%
- Active Defense System: 75%
- The ghost of John Belushi in a P-40 Warhawk: Infinity%
Heck, it could be angels?
“…because if it were Iranian, it would have a two-stroke engine and a pull start”
You mean like the model planes we built as kids? I put together a few of the old style RC airplanes in my youth that included the methanol engines. They didn’t use a rope to start (which would have been an upgrade) but instead the coil spring that attached to the propellor. As you wound the propellor up tighter and tighter, you increased the chance that the engine would start when you let go, but also greatly increased the chance that you would lose a finger in the process.
I never got those planes to fly more than once because it is tricky to land something you’ve never flown before, particularly when your fingers are lacerated from the 2 hours it took to get it started. The ground is a harsh mistress to a plane built from balsa.
There is a former military analyst who has a daily analysis of world events on YouTube, S2 Underground. His analysis from yesterday was mostly about this drone situation, and I thought it was a fairly good analysis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hca4ihH3Gwo.
It’s the FBI spying on Trump and others to prepare for their overthrow of the .guv. This could be sarcasm…but give it six months hahaha
They are spreading vaporized Bird Flu, its owner is DHS
The flavor of the month is African Swine Fever.
My theory: They’re not drones, they’re Starlink Version 2 satellites – Elon’s orbital internet system. The V2 Starlinks are heavier than the V1 (at 1760 pounds vs. 570 pounds) and bigger (20X10 feet vs. 9X5 feet). There’s currently 6700+ Starlink satellites up there, but the V2s didn’t start launching until Feb 2023. The four previous years of V1 launches since 2019 produced far less light pollution that only astronomers noticed in their telescope photos.
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-elon-musk-next-gen-starlink-satellite-details/
Check out this video. Note how they blink out when they reach a certain point in the sky. This is when they pass from daylight into nighttime and pass the terminator (no, not T-1000, the moving line seen from space between night and dark as the Earth rotates). It’s dark on the ground, but still light for something at an altitude of 350 miles up. This is why they are only seen at dusk (or dawn, if more people were up that early?).
https://x.com/jayroo69/status/1866678487966162980
Elon plans to put up 42,000+ V2 Starlinks to provide internet service to literally everybody on the planet and become the first trillionaire. It ain’t your calm, pretty night sky anymore, it’s his. Get used to it.
Here’s some additional interesting details. The V1 Starlinks may be roughly 9X5 feet, but that’s the satellite body. What’s reflecting the light is the unfolded solar array, which for V1 is even bigger at 9X26 feet.
https://starlinkinstallationtechs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/how-big-is-a-starlink-satellite-1.png.webp
Here’s an early estimate of just how many reflecting solar panels were planned to be orbited for the OLD (and now obsolete) planned V1 Starlink system…
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F0zd8wbpplj251.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D311cfcd4dbe39b4ca7d902bcd724dc8aea5b2f44
But with the success of Falcon 9 and soon Starship for SpaceX, Elon is now thinking MUCH bigger : 42,000+ V2 Starlink satellites, each with 9X66 foot solar panels. So Elon’s CURRENT plan is to put up 3.5X more satellites, each with a solar array that is 2.5X bigger – for a total of around NINE TIMES the light pollution solar array area of the original summary chart above. And remember, there’s only a relative handful of V2 Starlinks up there now. Kids being born today will think it’s normal for there to be not just a handful but literally hundreds of “drones” always in the sky every night…
Or…maybe I’m totally wrong. From this map, it doesn’t look like there’s that many Starlink satellites around NJ, or that they’re moving all that fast as seen from the ground…
https://satellitemap.space/
If they were aliens and they showed up to Earth and the first thing they saw was New Jersey? They would likely Death Star the planet and move on to the next solar system.
John, I think conclusions 1-4 are spot on. There are indeed laws against such things (especially in certain locations) and private companies (and Elon) would have to much to use.
Maybe a defense system? That would represent a lot more conscious thought than what I feel I can give any branch of the Government credit for these days, but one never knows.
Don’t wanna rain on anyone’s conspiracy parade, but the project I am currently assigned to at Warlabs, Inc. involves adapting our air missile defense radar to detect UAVs (i.e. drones). Of course, we have to test our systems with live data, after all the simulations are completed.
Move along, citizens. Nothing to see here.
This is obviously a new project by Buckaroo Banzai.
It ain’t good
I think someone decide the best way to get rid of pesky drones is to scare people with them, get someone to shoot at one, and make it illegal to fly one…unless you pay the exorbitant local fee/tax. It’s a win-win for a taxing entity, police calls go down, voyeurs are thwarted, and somebody might get some sleep knowing they’ve stopped their pesky neighbor from flying their drone at odd hours of the night.
It’s PUTIN!!! The Rooskies have a secret underground base in The Pine Barrens! Once they conquer Trenton, they’ll make Putin King of Noo Joisey.
Hey, as it says on the bridge, “Trenton makes, the world takes.”