The drones
Have we watched Independence Day too much, or not nearly enough?
Contents
A major national news story (well, New York–area news story, which makes it national news), is that drones have been spotted flying above New Jersey, doing recon on Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley as he performs his nightly ritual of crimes.
No one is quite sure what’s going on with these drones. Well, that’s not true. New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a dentist turned Democratic congressman turned Republican congressman, knows what’s going on with these drones. “I’m going to tell you the real deal. Iran launched a mother ship that contains these drones,” Van Drew said on Fox News on Wednesday. “It’s off the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones.” Van Drew further wrote a letter to the president that states that while he further remained open to “alternate explanations for the drones,” he’s pretty sure it’s Iran, and he’s pretty sure they’ve got a mother ship out there.
By Thursday, he’d downgraded his certainty a touch, arguing that there’s a “real possibility it could be Iran, that it could be a ship.” Could be! It could also be Bermuda, Elon Musk, teenage pranksters, the U.S. Air Force, creepy yet ultimately harmless voyeuristic aliens, or murderous aliens. To be fair to Van Drew, the federal government could be doing much more to alleviate people’s fears about these drones—and limit the conspiracies—by not just refuting that they’re coming from an Iranian mother ship off of Wildwood, but by saying what they are.
The sightings are spreading, with former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, for example, now sharing grainy videos of flying objects in his state. Alternately, the public might settle for one or two of them being blown up, balloon-style.
|