"Many Bothans died to bring us this information, Senator."

Imperial Probe Droid

We still don't know what's behind reports of mysterious "car-sized" drones circling over the skies of much of the East Coast over the past weeks.

And while the FBI and other agencies are continuing their investigation into the sightings, people are coming up with increasingly unhinged "evidence" of a government conspiracy.

Case in point, Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano posted a picture of what he claimed to be a "crashed drone" on X-formerly-Twitter earlier this week.

As practically anybody who's ever watched a movie could tell immediately, the picture showed a replica of a TIE Fighter spacecraft from the fictional "Star Wars" universe, tied to the back of a semi-truck.

"You can’t be that stupid," one user shot back, "or can you?"

Others took the opportunity to indulge in humor steeped in "Star Wars" lore.

"Many Bothans died to bring us this information, Senator," another user wrote, referring to a fictional species that secretly informed the Rebel Alliance of the location of Emperor Palpatine's presence aboard the second Death Star. "Please do something."

Nerf Herders

The news comes after Former governor of Maryland Larry Hogan shared a video last week, claiming to have "personally witnessed... dozens of large drones in the sky above my residence."

As the X community quickly pointed out, Hogan appeared to be referring to the constellation Orion, and specifically the stars Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, which are established by science to not be drones.

In short, the theory that these "mysterious drones" are simply commercial aircraft, satellites, or even stars is growing by the day.

"We assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones," White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters during a Monday briefing, as quoted by CNN.

"I can’t rule out the fact that we might find some sort of illegal or criminal activity, some nefarious activity, (but) all I can do is tell you that right now we see none of that," he added.

If it were up to Mastriano, however, the federal government would simply shoot these drones — whatever they may be — out of the sky without a second thought.

"The fecklessness of this administration was on display last year when a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly over the entire continental United States before being shot down," he wrote in his post. "Such should be viewed as a threat to our nation and citizens and action is long overdue."

Meanwhile, netizens were apparently not convinced of this urgency, given the fact that he shared a picture of a movie prop to underline his point.

"These aren’t the drones you’re looking for," one X user replied to the senator. "Move along."

"In any normal country, this would be a career-ending diatribe," another user argued.

More on the drones: Former Governor of Maryland Mocked for Posting Video of "Drones" That Appear to Be Ordinary Stars


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