quote:

Originally posted by VBVAGUY:
LAZER.

Yea...where's that 747 with the laser in it?

There does seem to be some history about “weather balloons”.

Reading LOTS of speculation online that Biden Administration knew about and have been tracking the balloon for days; that they chose not report it to prevent any controversies about the upcoming China trip and perhaps having to cancel or delay. Their hand was forced when reports of the sightings began hitting the internet. I don’t have any trouble believing this scenario; I just wish the government would stop acting like ‘we’ are morons.

I think it’s much ado about nothing but I would have shot that SOB down as soon as it crossed our boarder in Alaska.

It surely had a purpose.
Its purpose was to collect information.
What type of information is the only thing in question.

I think chbibc's post (w Rittenhouse pic) shows a good look at the payload hanging under the balloon.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

Originally posted by VBVAGUY:
LAZER.

Yea...where's that 747 with the laser in it?

its in the boneyard in Tucson Arizona.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:
Reading LOTS of speculation online that Biden Administration knew about and have been tracking the balloon for days; that they chose not report it to prevent any controversies about the upcoming China trip and perhaps having to cancel or delay. Their hand was forced when reports of the sightings began hitting the internet.

Sounds correct to me.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Directed or useful ground surveillance with a free balloon—? Someone ’splain that to me?

Winds aloft are going different directions at different speeds. The long distance path can be fairly well controlled, though not for precision bombing. But plenty precise for electronic intel collection and other surveillance.

I've seen hot air balloons do amazingly precise navigation using altitude changes to find the correct wind direction. I've seen more than one balloon pilot land in the bed of his truck after flying around for an hour.

And that speculation, not surprisingly, appears to be 100% correct.

************

Biden administration tried to hide Chinese spy balloon from American public

President Biden and his administration knew for nearly a week that a Chinese spy balloon was hovering in U.S. airspace — but kept the incursion secret, fearing it would derail Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Republicans expressed “outrage” over the president’s refusal to act.

“Communist China’s surveillance balloon violates international law and threatens our homeland,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) told The Post.

“It’s an outrage that the Biden Administration spotted this balloon days ago as it was flying over the Aleutian Islands and did nothing about it,” she said. “The president has not even made a comment about this unacceptable act of aggression by the CCP.”

The politics of the looming 2024 presidential election also played a role in Biden’s actions, sources told Bloomberg, with the fraught US-China relationship expected to be a central foreign policy issue.

Team Biden became aware of the balloon on Jan. 28, Bloomberg reported, when it was spotted over Alaska.

The US military tracked it as it flew into Canadian airspace, then re-entered American skies on Tuesday. The next day, Biden received a detailed briefing on the balloon and its course, attended by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

Sources told Bloomberg that Milley and Austin argued against shooting the craft down due to the danger its debris could pose to the public. Biden initially wanted it destroyed, but acquiesced, according to the report.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/04/...campaign=android_nyp

It was passing over upstate SC this morning.
Kinda surprising how visible it was.

Since it's over the ocean now can we finally shoot it down?

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Biden initially wanted it destroyed, but acquiesced, according to the report.

I call bullshit. Biden is a retard; he can't make decisions. Some else decided.

Why not destroy it when it was over Alaska? How long was it over Canada? Not a peep from them? Clueless or stupid? Layers upon layers of stupid.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Since it's over the ocean now can we finally shoot it down?

What about the fishes? The coral? Do you hate hump back whales or something?

My speculation:
Eventually China will invade Taiwan. The current balloon flight (and there have been others, reportedly) is being used to gather information to see if balloon carried EMP or biological weapons could be used to hinder our response to the Taiwan invasion.

At this point in history I don't see much difference in the believability of the Chinese government or the Biden Administration, or the JCOS.

It is entirely possible that this is a normal weather balloon that went adrift and because it wasn't a threat the U.S. did nothing but track it. Shooting it down would create an "incident", so the military said, let it go.

Once people saw it, they decided to make up a "spy balloon" story TO DIVERT ATTENTION from Hunter's admission that the laptop is real, the fact the Joe is nearly broke and took a $250K equity line on his home because there is no more 10% going up to the "big guy". And because Republicans in the House will investigate Joe's China ties and potentially expose the endemic Biden family corruption.

Hunter and Joe were in bed (literally) with the Chinese. Now after criticizing Trump's China tariffs and "China Virus" comments, Biden has to show he is "tough on China" and divert attention from the fact that he was bought by China. Now that he is going against what he was paid to do, Chinese will not be very happy and may actually do something to expose him...

I do think it's likely that China is funding a lot of the "woke" agenda at Universities, special interest and activist groups, and media to destabilize the US in their effort to make the RMB the world reserve currency and become the #1 superpower.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Since it's over the ocean now can we finally shoot it down?

What about the fishes? The coral? Do you hate hump back whales of something?

Hey, balloons bring joy to kids, why not fishes? Everybody likes balloons! can't be any worse than all the trash NJ and NY have dumped in there for generations!