HOW DO WE KNOW IT’S A SPY BALLOON? Pentagon Says It Detected a Chinese Spy Balloon Hovering Over Montana.

The United States has detected what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northwestern United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday, a discovery that comes days before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s visit to Beijing.

President Biden has chosen, for now, not to shoot down the balloon after a recommendation from Pentagon officials that doing so would risk debris hitting people on the ground, according to a senior defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Well, that’s absurd. A balloon won’t produce much debris, and there aren’t many people on the ground in that part of the United States. Unless the balloon contained something more dangerous than cameras.