A Chinese balloon was spotted over the northern United States earlier this week, with sightings most recently in Billings, Montana. China has since confirmed the suspected spy balloon is their’s, though stopped short of admitting it’s being used for surveillance (like many in the U.S. suspect). According to CNN, military officials advised President Joe Biden NOT to destroy the balloon, ‘due to fear the debris could pose a safety threat to people on the ground.’ But in this clip, Glenn explains why NOT destroying this 'spy balloon' could be a very BIG mistake…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Let me talk to you about the spy balloon. Stu, what do you know about the spy balloon?
STU: Well, apparently, the spy balloon, flying from a product of China. Flying from our western United States.
GLENN: Yeah. It's over Wyoming.
STU: Alaska. Wyoming now.
GLENN: Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
STU: I did have a question of, when we have satellites and TikTok, why would we need a balloon? I don't know.
GLENN: It does seem to be a little old-timey, you know.
And at first when I heard that, I thought, they're down to hot air balloons. That's good. You know, that's good. But it's not good.
And here's why: And I'm not hearing anybody talk about this. First of all, the -- the balloon's current path, it carries -- it carries this balloon over a number of sensitive military sites. And they also say -- the United States says, they don't want to shoot it out of the sky because of falling debris. Really?
We don't have anything that would just obliterate that thing in the sky. Really? So, anyway, it was over Canada. And then it flies into the United States. And it's flying over sensitive military nuclear sites.
And the Chinese foreign ministry said, you know, relax, America.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm -- China should be happy that we don't have a female for president. Because females don't really like it when males say, okay. Sweetheart, relax.
And I think that's kind of what China just said to us, in a very condescending tone. Oh, please, relax. It's just a spy balloon. What are we going to get?
Well, here's the one thing that -- one thing that I -- that I wanted to check, when I saw this.
The -- the balloon, they think, is in an altitude between 80, and 120,000 feet. Now, I'm not saying, that this is what it is.
But I am saying, if we don't shoot it down, and make sure that our own airspace remains sacred, we're out of our minds. Can you imagine Russia. If we had a spy balloon, ask we told Russia or China, ah, relax.
The balloon is at an altitude, they believe between 80 and 120,000 feet. The minimum altitude for an airborne EMP is 94 or 95,000 feet. So that's right in that range. I just want to throw that out there.
I don't think it's an EMP. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not an EMP. However, if they can fly things over our country. And we do nothing about it.
And they're flying them over our nuclear sites. I think that's a problem.
I don't know about anybody else.
But I'm not really relaxed about it. How about you? Hmm?
STU: Sounds like a big problem. And, you know, certainly, I think, they will learn, that they can do this, if they want to do it. Right?
GLENN: Yeah. Absolutely.
STU: Take a lesson from this.
GLENN: That's the intelligence that they're gathering.
I really believe, they are gathering the intelligence of, will America even respond?
I don't think they will. No. Of course, they will. No. I don't think they will.
Let's fly it over. Fly it into US airspace. And fly it spew their really sensitive military sites. And see if they say a word. No!
That's the intelligence they're gathering.
STU: That's all we do, though. Is we say the word. They're talking about how they're going to make a very uncomfortable meeting, I guess when I guess Blinken meets with them.
GLENN: Oh, very uncomfortable.
We might send them a sternly worded letter. Why not blow it out of the sky? Sincerely. Why not blow it out of the sky.
Just saying.
If it's a balloon, I'm not so worried about shrapnel coming down. Are you?
STU: Well, looking it though, the pictures that are seemingly of this balloon. It doesn't look like a balloon. Like you would think of a balloon.
It looks like there's a decent amount of equipment on it. How would you describe this picture? It looks almost like a satellite.
GLENN: Almost like Sputnik.
(laughter)
Yeah. So it looks kind of like a satellite. I wonder what equipment might be on it. And honestly, there is nothing that a balloon can gather, that I'm aware of. And I talked to some expert about this. There's nothing I'm aware of, that they can't gather very satellite. They can watch us via satellite, they have that technology. So why launch a balloon?
The only answer I and others can come up, that I've talked to. Is they're just testing, whether or not they can invade our airspace. And we do anything. Now, why would they want to know that? This is not good. It's not good.
GLENN: Just saying. Leave it at that.
STU: Your summary of it, do we get a headline out of it? Is that a clickbait-y headline that we can get?
GLENN: Yeah. China flying mysterious balloons with equipment on it, over sensitive US air -- US sites. Suboptimal.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Suboptimal. I'm just saying.
STU: Suboptimal.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
STU: Emphasis on the sub.
GLENN: Yeah. Which they can launch a lot of things.
Anyway, there is a new poll out, and it's a record-setting poll. And I think this is exciting. Only about a third. 36 percent of Americans, say they are satisfied now, with a set of policy issues spanning all aspects of government.
Among the lowest rated issues was the state of the economy. Which our president said, is fixed right? I mean, it's booming.
STU: It's strong as hell, Glenn.
GLENN: Strong as hell. No joke, people. I'm not joking. I'm telling you the truth. I'm shooting straight.
It's strong as hell. A quarter of Americans say, yeah. I'm satisfied with it.
It had the largest year over year decline, dropping eight percentage points.
Satisfaction with gun laws, also dropped sharply this year, to a record low of 34 percent.
Now, this one, I would like you to look into, Stu. I would like you to know. Is that like, yeah. Our gun laws aren't strong enough.
You know, we have to be more like California. Which, well, don't think about the stats on that one, too much.
Because we already have the toughest gun laws in California. But that's because of other states, that we're having all these problems.
Uh-huh. So the satisfaction of gun laws dropped sharply to a record low. Policies on abortion. Efforts to control crime.
Quality of public education. And efforts to combat poverty and homelessness, also remain at near all-time low points.
So we're not in a good mood. Now, they say, there are things we can build on.
Sure, there's a rise of polarization. And a decline in national harmony.
You know, we've always had a baseline, where, you know, people were generally content with America.
And now, people are not. I wonder what could have changed that.
So the perception of overall quality of life in the US has dropped to a record low this year.
As did perceptions of wealth inequality. Less than a quarter of adults now say that they are satisfied the way income and wealth is distributed in the US.
Less than a quarter of adults. So does that mean only a quarter of us believe in the free market?
STU: Is it that high?
GLENN: Is it that high?
STU: I mean, think about that, you are constantly beaten over the head, with how much this country sucks. How terrible it's been. How everything it does is wrong. How every police officer is out to kill minorities. I mean, it's on and on and on.
How every rich person is trying to kill poor people for profit. Every company is out to get you.
You think about how that has to wash over a population over multiple decades, and what other ending can you come to?
Only if people are hard-core their principles.
GLENN: Yeah, they know that. They hard-core know that. And just when you think that things are horrible, the groundhog dies, on Groundhog Day.
It's suboptimal. I'm going to leave it at that.