evidence: There was a Chinese government balloon floating over Montana on Thursday that now appears to have blown to Kansas City, and it’s causing an old-fashioned international incident in addition to earning five-alarm BREAKING LIVE TRACKER coverage on every cable news network. Let’s get into it. [...] Late Thursday afternoon, NBC News reported that the U.S. military was tracking a "suspected Chinese surveillance balloon" that had flown into airspace above Billings, Montana, via Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and Canada. (The Associated Press has since published the sentence "The balloon was first reported by NBC News." Thank you for reporting balloon, NBC.) As of this writing, it appears to be hovering above Kansas City, Missouri. [...] A spokesperson for the Chinese government confirmed Friday that the balloon originated from thereabouts, but claimed it was not a spy balloon—merely a "civilian airship" used for research about weather patterns. In this case, the balloon "deviated far from its planned course," thanks to its "limited self-steering capability" and the strong wind currents of the westerlies. The U.S. government is suspicious of this explanation. (Reasonable, considering the Communist Party also said Friday that "China is a responsible country"—hmm—"that always abides by international law"—uh-huh—"and has no intention of infringing on any country’s territory and airspace." Totally, yeah.)