Chinese Spy Balloon is Dead to me!

Maybe it was just a weather balloon for research.

Maybe it was a wonton delivery.

Shot down over the Atlantic.

He may or may not have had a hot gas delivery system to maneuver, but he couldn’t live forever.

The sky was so blue!

Maybe the balloon was all the friends me made along the way.

No balloons needed. Tik Tok takes care of all the PRC surveillance needs

Now that the balloon is taken care of, magats are already declaring this incident is "fake news".

Who cares what they think or "declare," r8?

I was hoping to see it pass over DC.

did they get the electronics out of it?

I knew a Chinese Spy Balloon.

And then it died.

🎵 "99 Chinese Balloons"🎵

It was a wonton act of spying.

Eric Swalwell had the best burn against Trump Jr Trump tweeted the Baloon was named Fenn Fenn or something like that Swalwell tweeted balloon has two l's in it, like eight ball - LOL

What if was filled with an airborne virus and it’s now spreading to all of the ocean sea life?

It live-streamed its reconnaissance back to headquarters.

The Chinese have spy satellites. The idea that they need to collect intel with balloons is absurd.

I think it was something different. I can’t help wonder if it was just a nose thumbing by the PRC. We regularly enter airspace and sea lanes they claim (in violation of international conventions) to prove a point, and their leadership uses that to rile up antagonism against the USA in their population. They may have done this in a tit for tat thing, as red meat to throw to their ultra-nationalists.

*

I'd rather see a UFO.

What was on its iPod?

Did Pink Lady survive?

R22 Pink Lady were Japanese not Chinese

Has China responded yet?

What happened to Nena's hairy armpits?

R16- Benjamin Dreyfuss will need to start masking again. 😥

There goes my door dash of sesame chicken with fried rice.

Sum ting wong.

^ Wi Tu Lo

^ Ho Lee Fuk 😳

Okay, which lucky bitch had the Chinese Spy Balloon on their death pool?

Testing of the future US-wide delivery system for smallpox.

Wow such a thoughtful bunch thank you for your depth and intelligent thoughts.

It's gone, but I wanted another balloon an hour later!

"Pink Lady were Japanese not Chinese"

What's the difference?

Chinese Spy Balloon should have kept its scummy motherfucking mouth shut.

[quote] Has China responded yet?

I would think that they told the Chinese this is what would happen as soon as it was safe to do so.

How many minutes into the Oscar opening is Kimmel going to have a balloon float across the stage? How many times will it float across the stage throughout the night in an hilarious beyond all belief running gag?

^ About as many times as he talks about Prince Harry's frozen dick 🙄

Good night, room.

Good night, moon.

Good night, cow jumping over the moon.

Good night, Chinese Spy Balloon 🎈 😴

It has come to light that this is not the first time. How much truth there is to these accusations, we’ll have to wait and see . No sources for this news other than “a defense dept release”.

What’s really crazy is the maga Republican response to the balloon. Ben show pictures they posted on social media showing them with their firearms ready to shoot it down.

This goes to show these crazy Rs will use their own guns on anything. Yeah, I’m looking at you Paul Gosar.

Come on. All those yahoos with guns and nobody shot it down?

Gee, I wonder why Trump did not shoot down Chinese spy balloons during his administration?

[quote]Ivanka got 18 trademarks from China cuz of her dad

[quote]She got $100 million for her “women’s fund” from the Saudis cuz of her dad

[quote]She & Kushner made $640 million while in the White House cuz of her dad

[qutoe]If you claim to care about corruption but don’t care about this, sit the F down

[quote]Come on. All those yahoos with guns and nobody shot it down?

Go look up the balloon's altitude and get back to us, Einstein.

So 3 Chinese spy balloons while on the fat racists’ tenure and nobody knew?

And these asshole repigs get bent out of shape with this one?

Fuck them.

[quote] Go look up the balloon's altitude and get back to us, Einstein.

You never heard of private planes, Aristotle?

[quote]You never heard of private planes, Aristotle?

Assuming that any of the inbred Trumpistas firing AR-15s in the air have the brains or resources to set up their own private air force is a very special kind of stupid.

R47 who knows little about the parts of this country outside the coasts and suburbia. Plenty of very wealthy gun owners out there. Plenty of not wealthy people with a pilot's license.

Something about this just doesn't add up. It hovered over Billings for a good length of time. It stayed 200 miles away from Great Falls - which is where the missiles are. Maybe it got a little lost and thought Billings was Great Falls? All Billings has are some rich oil companies.

Tester says they want to land. Maybe land with oil drilling possibilities?

Has Susan Dey commented yet?

[quote]Plenty of very wealthy gun owners out there. Plenty of not wealthy people with a pilot's license.

Uh-huh.

You're taking your private Cessna jet up to 60,000 feet (20 miles) to open the pressurized door and shoot at a fucking balloon?

Love arguing with crackheads on the internet.

Correction: flying up to 60,000 feet/ 11 miles.

Point about being a crackhead remains.

ABC's Jonathan Karl called out Sen. Marco Rubio during a tense exchange about the Chinese spy balloon.

Rubio said Biden should not have "waited so long" to tell people about the balloon.

But Karl said Trump did not disclose three balloon sightings that happened during his term.

ABC anchor Jonathan Karl called out Sen. Marco Rubio during a tense exchange on Sunday about the Chinese spy balloon.

99 red balloons Floating in the summer sky. Panic bells, it's red alert There's something here from somewhere else. The war machine springs to life, Opens up one eager eye. Focusing it on the sky as 99 red balloons go by...

[quote] It stayed 200 miles away from Great Falls - which is where the missiles are.

Oh, fank you. Fank you velly much.

[quote] Ben show pictures they posted on social media showing them with their firearms ready to shoot it down.

Wtf is this??

Stupid bastards!

R53, that look on Rubio's face when he got shut down at the very end of the interview was priceless.

Three times under Trump?

With six you get egg roll.

Maybe a dumb question, but was the balloon just floating on the wind, or was it controllable?

You didn’t see the Chinaman with the big remote control?

Did Large Marge shoot it down?

I hope China isn't pissed off enough now to unleash a zombie apocalypse on us this time.

R61 NYT quotes the NSC spokesman: “It is true that this balloon had the ability to maneuver itself. . . So it had propellers. It had a rudder, if you will, to change direction.”

That is, it was akin to an airship or a dirigible, not some gone gone gone with the wind meteorological balloon.

[quote] But Karl said Trump did not disclose three balloon sightings that happened during his term.

Trump was not told about them. Seems as though they may not have been aware they briefly went into US airspace until after trump left office. Now whether they discovered their presence studying past data or they knew at the time but did not tell the White House - I don't know.

So not the same.

I heard a report that the balloon was maneuverable by remote. So someone was controlling it. This really was a bad breach.

So that’s better? That it wasn’t discovered in his administration at all even though they were there?

That doesn’t sound too much better to me.

R67, not an opinion, just a fact. I imagine there are lots of minor transgressions by foreign countries that do not get reported to the White House. Like a plane momentarily straying into US airspace. I'm sure there's a protocol for what level of "transgression" bother to get reported. The US also transgresses at times, they don't inform the WH of all those either.

In any event, I'm not clear if these "intrusions" were actually seen or "observed" at the time or not until later via a review of older radar or whatever surveillance was used. One report indicated they were not detected until after Trump left office.

As to why use balloons when you have satellites, NYT has a good summary:

"They fly closer to earth and drift with wind patterns, which are not as predictable to militaries and intelligence agencies as the fixed orbits of satellites, and they can evade radar. They can also hover over areas, while satellites are generally in constant motion. Simple cameras on balloons can produce clearer images than those on orbital satellites, and other surveillance equipment can pick up signals that do not reach the altitude of satellites."