This is a little goofy, and likely another expression of the Beijing dragon doing the propaganda dance. According to multiple media sources a high altitude “spy balloon” is drifting over U.S. airspace and the Pentagon has discussed options for shooting it down yet they didn’t.
It’s goofy because the balloon is floating well above commercial airline routes and, well, what could China capture via balloon that they are not already capturing via satellite surveillance. It’s just odd. {Direct Rumble Link}
I can understand not shooting it down – after all, that approach would likely then involve bits of the thing falling to the ground, which then would pose both a hazard and a need to collect all the debris. It seems more like a Beijing propaganda effort than an actual risk to any U.S. military interests.
.
Washington DC – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday night called for a briefing of the “Gang of Eight” — the group of lawmakers charged with reviewing the nation’s most sensitive intelligence information — following reports of a Chinese spy balloon flying over Montana.
“China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent,” McCarthy tweeted. “I am requesting a Gang of Eight briefing.” (read more)
Have no fear, the Pentagon is investigating with their best men, whoops – I mean people, or people-kind, or non-binary persons who are within what we previously called the U.S. military, or defense dept. Whatever all that is now….
My thoughts got quickly forgotten once I saw the picture of Biden looking like a dog getting fed some “bones” for being good.
LOL!!
It’s full of something terrible more than likely.
.
Exactly my first thought.
Some kind of powder launched from Canada.
Now this is funny…
looks like “FJB”i have to agree with ya CR it probably has a more lethal version of the wuhan virus.
probably fjb
It says (from the top down):
Fang Fang
picture of Pink Heart
Eric
So: Fang Fang Loves Eric.
Photoshop?
Just scroll it bigger on your laptop and adjust the screen lighting and >>> Voila!
I mean, if it’s NOT photoshopped, then that’s pretty interesting!
Paging Eric Swalwell.
Also, if it’s NOT photoshopped, then I take back what I said below about not caring if it’s blown to bits over a desert-y area.
I want that sucker down in one piece if that’s what it says!
me
LOVE IT
( now ” take care of it ” )
“Me go pee-pee in your Coke”?
It says “Good Year”.
Chinese spy love you long time.
Nice!
Joke’s on US.
She could just hire one of those airplanes that write on the sky…. But, noooo … she had to be all drama!
Women 😏
I was thinking a broom that writes in the sky.
“eat at Joe’s?”
Sloppy Joe’s
👍🏼 ISWYDT!
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
First thought I had was EMP but can’t confirm elevation and projected path..
It could be…
Danny Deckchair
https://youtu.be/pZDeuux3-40
Fun movie btw.
That is a great movie!
Each night I pray that the people will awaken to realize that what is happening is not incompetence, it is intent.
Mostly. And even the genuine incompetence was intentionally caused.
In Continence ??
The pentagon leadership investigating the spy balloon, is a total joke. The pentagon has no leadership. I’d have more confidence, if high school ROTC students were looking into it.
It is a pretty safe bet the high school ROTC students are way, way WAY more competent.
“Discipline is the soul of an army.” — George Washington, 1757
“High heels are the sole of an army.” — F. Joe Biden, 2021
Can’t remember where I saw it, but in the last few days there was a story about the Chinese buying military academies in the US . . .
You might have seen the article at https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2023/02/02/companies-with-close-ties-to-ccp-are-buying-up-u-s-military-academies-including-the-one-donald-trump-attended-n697608 .
Surprise, surprise.
The US is involved with balloon spying and likely has balloons gathering intelligence over China and elsewhere.
Which is why they wont shoot down a Chinese spy balloon. Because they’ll get their own shot down.
Balloons are big in the spy business. All very hush, hush, you know.
https://www.darpa.mil/program/adaptable-lighter-than-air
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest
The other possibility is this is a US balloon which is spying on it’s own citizens. All very hush, hush, you know.
Why, when we both have multi-million dollar spy satellites that have way superior cameras, other sensors, and are more controllable than a floating ballon?
It’s a provocation more than a spying effort.
Or as someone else suggested: filled with the latest bioweapon virus?
“Why?”
They are cheaper than satellites and gather lots more and better info.
Read the references.
Forget the bio weapons crap. Forget the provocations crap. These are spy machines.
Spy me to the moon and let me drift among the stars.
I wouldn’t bet the farm on that being the only use. They also have been used for projecting images at a distance.
Balloons can stay over a target alot longer than a spy sat..
Which is harder to shoot down?
“Hindenberg”.
Is the moon a balloon?
Don’t be silly.
We all know it’s made out of cheese.
It’s a celestial body.
I’m all for dat! Seen some walking the streets lately.
Testing our capabilities?
Or our will?
Both…obviously.
That ship sailed decades ago.
re. shooting it down:
Hasn’t it floated over hundreds of miles of pretty barren land tho?
I mean, there’s a LOT of that out West.
I get not shooting it down over forested land, but what about the other?
Yeah, it’d be a pain in the neck to go pick it all up. But it could be done. Right?
Does no patriotic American have a stinger missile in their garage?
If the DOD won’t do its job, self help seems in order.
Not really kidding. We may, sadly, be down to lower level action.
It looks like it is going to travel over at least 8 states. Call in the Kansas Air National Guard and light it up.
Or at least a Kamikaze Drone?
A backyard shotgun should do it?
It’s above commercial air traffic, so looking at well over 30,000 feet, possibly above 50,000 feet considering that’s where lots of military aircraft fly and that would be fairly intrusive to have to fly around it.
Not even the stinger suggested upthread would get anywhere near that.
Think out of the box. For example, many countries have airborne platforms that can shoot down satellites.
Btw…not many military aircraft fly at 50K – operationally speaking (i.e., not design driven).
Space X?
Eastern MT., S. Dakota, plenty of barren land with not many trees to get that sucker down.
Yeah, but if there’s a bioweapon there, they’d just love for us to do that!
if they wanted to kill us that way, wouldn’t they have thousands, hundreds of
thousands of balloons?
Because ONE balloon can get a surprising amount done (dropping a virus, or aerosolized Fentanyl), yet still be deniable as “off course” (as the PRC now claims), but thousands of balloons would be an obvious attack and provoke retaliation. ='[.]’=
Heck. Just trying to scope out a good piece of farm land.
Hmm, looks like it’s coming through my neck of the woods in Western KY.
Maybe they think Mitch is in town and just want to say hi and thanks.
Well, if Mitch or other spies needs a communication path that isn’t going to be intercepted, then yeah, having it float a certain place might be desireable on their part.
THANK YOU SIR ! Been trying to Locate a Projected Flight Path.
Search Engines that i Tried are ” DARK ” on the Subject
I thought we had a bunch of nukes in Montana — but they probably already knew that from satellite analyses. Anyone else missing a big balloon made in China? We found it!
Soooo….if it was launched in China…how far has it travelled to reach the US?
These silos are also in Wyoming and North Dakota. Warren AFB is right outside of Cheyenne, WY.
Maybe it’s investigating the weather control signals that might be used by the US. There’s got to be a reason why there’s atomized aluminum being dispersed over the country by geoengineering efforts. Aluminum reacts with radio signals, right? Possibly allows for cold weather and snow nucleation?
Or would this be related to that warning awhile back about terrorists using new tactics/techniques in a new attack? I speculated back then it would be spraying something over the populace.
It’s flying right over where I live! What’s the matter, Joe, not close enough to D.C. for you to worry about!?
Real concerns….Aggie girl is throwing a bit of humor this way since its predicted trajectory is south of Iowa and IL..
But will go near my favorite Tourist Trap on I-95, fondly remembered, as kids, we could not wait to get there and spend our allowance on the little plastic box of Mexican jumping beans. Our half way point from the pod in Queens.
https://www.sobpedro.com/
Iowa 80, for the discerning shopper… $215 dollars, a “Rubber Duck Hood Ornament”. The smiling Pig, $99.99…
On a serious note, distraction or real problem?:
https://www.sciway.net/gov/mil_bases.html
https://militarybases.com/north-carolina/
Missile silos along that track. But everyone knows that.
When chyna owns you chyna does what chyna wants…
..but never mind that. Putin bad. Orange man bad.
My very first thought when I heard about this was, “They have satellites.” My second was, “Some kid didn’t just accidentally let the string go. We’ve seen this before.” The last time an Asian aggressor nation launched balloons over the continental US, it was Imperial Japan during WWII. They tried to set fires… and also spread disease. And why wouldn’t the PRC? Not like it’d be the first time. ='[.]’=
Ever dropped a weapon, any weapon, from 50k feet?
An aerosol could be spread over a WIDE area by dispersing it into the jet stream; bio-agents or chemicals (Wuhan Flu or Fentanyl, 0r perhaps more traditional nerve agents) could be deployed and only come to earth a long time after the balloon is past. Concentrations needn’t be very high on contact to be disruptive to target populations. The fact that the Pentagon overruled the Commander-in-Thief’s order to shoot the thing down indicates to me that I might not be the only one suspicious about a possible payload in that thing. ='[.]’=
There are better ways IRT accuracy and control.
Suppose what you hypothesize were the case. What would be the next steps? And are we seeing that script played out now?
IMO, any threat nation has had two years of basically unimpeded access to our Southern border. What wld be the objectives, coordinated/precise targeting…or broad, shorter term effects?
Not challenging your thinking through a problematic information set…just asking/wondering how people place the event into a larger Chinese strategy.
Looks like the distraction the rotten regime (Biden) is looking for. Laptops? What laptops? Classified documents stashed in various places? What documents? China your up, new crisis. Pentagon is compromised and many know this to be true.
Or hoping a patriot with an itchy trigger finger on their AR?
President Trump Re-Truthed
Jack Posobiec https://truthsocial.com/packs/emoji/1f1fa-1f1f8.svg
@JackPosobiec
·
5h
The Pentagon said the quiet part out loud
The CCP can send spy balloons over our nuclear silos and we will do nothing
Bc we are ownedl
This is the privilege of a Colonial Power.
They’ve colonized the Oval Office.
I have no confidence that our military leadership is even capable of defending our country. With their complete embrace of the woke agenda and how they botched the Afghanistan withdrawal, and now a spy balloon drifting around over US territory, its obvious threats to our country will be met with incompetence and indecision. One would think any intrusion would have been dealt with BEFORE reaching US airspace. That balloon is a test of our alertness to danger and a signal to China, Russia or Iran that our defense is asleep at the wheel.
Maybe it takes a certain kind of radar to home in on a balloon, and the Chinese want to know what it is prior to an attack on Taiwan.
Wasn’t it General Milley that told China he would give them the head’s up if Trump decided to do anything? One of said that, so yeah, our military leadership gives not one rat’s arse about us.
All the satellites floating around……
And our Government is having a meltdown about a balloon 🎈
Trump would knock it down. Then again, China would not bother testing him…rendering this question moot.
None of this sh*t going on would happen under his watch.
Tucker is talking about that stuff people say he never talks about…
Nah, just old stuff most of us already should know about. But now that Tucker said it, its official. Promise.
I believe you said that already… many times.
Yes DanDan has…wonder why?
Because a few Einsteins on this site has said numerous times that Tucker is ‘controlled opposition” owned by the CIA… smh
Chicoms dont need balloons. They already have the bidens
Epstein island even.
Even the little kid looks high!
Lol. At least half of them look like they’re all drugged up…bring back the masks for only the Biden clan!
What comes to my mind is the famous tale of the gigantic wooden horse left outside of Troy by the Greeks. The surprised Trojans thought the giant horse must be a gift left for them. They pulled it into their city as a “prize.” Late at night, a trap door underneath fell open and Greek warriors jumped out to slay the Trojans.
This trespassing balloon may be a test to see if they can get away with such a non-threatening trick. Next time, a balloon may be carrying a nuclear weapon to detonate at high altitude and destroy America’s electric grid by a massive electro-magnetic pulse unleashed at detonation. It could cripple the USA.
There would be no warning and little time to respond.
And maybe this one has the EMP weapon ready to go
How do we know it is a Chinese balloon?
There’s a tag on it that says Made in China, and Amazon Prime, free air delivery!
Because everything is made in China.
“It has USA HOT ERR BARROON stenciled on the side.”
[stolen from a commenter @ Ace of Spades HQ blog]
Because the User Manual is written in broken English and it explains nothinging clearly, half it missing. I’m sure it Chyna. It no be else.
Perhaps it’s just a dry run … to see if we will shoot it down. If we don’t, then perhaps some time in the future one will be loaded with the latest bioweapon? Or maybe it’s just doing climate change research?
Latest bioweapon could be present and no dry run.
If some new super variant spreads very soon in the approximate locations this balloon has traveled it will be denied by our very own government.
Anyone claiming it will be called a COVID misinformation, conspiracy theory nut job.
Blatant Nefarious spy apparatus, with God knows what capabilities, in our airspace by China a country that wants to continue to cause our demise and it is just flying around to the point by next month this may be another outrageous event that becomes normalized.
POSSIBLY…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding
&
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-cloud-seeding-india/
Or maybe this time be real wet run. You no have electricity when wake up. Or maybe it have spray for chicken killing, or taint chicken feed so no eggs laid, in case Monsanto gets found out for causing no eggs laid. (I’m kinda getting into talking Chinese User Manual lingo. Still trying to get Bluetooth working on new Chinese TV. It no say how.)
Kinda like the dry run of releasing a little hot air from Woooohaaan.
okay they sent 1, Lets send over 10k of those babies…
Nobody knows who owns that balloon.
Someone wants you to believe China put it there.
BS. That is a US balloon.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/military-surveillance-balloon-spy-midwest/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cold-war-balloon-surveillance
https://warisboring.com/the-soviets-built-a-high-flying-jet-to-shoot-down-balloons/
Probably be some tik tok videos about it.
Just looking for more land to buy?
Are we sure it’s not part of Hunter Biden’s opium smuggling operation out of China?
“…’President Biden cannot be silent,’ McCarthy tweeted.
Oh, dear.
Silence is our safest option where biden is concerned, isn’t it?
Great way to deliver an EMP attack.
Rumor has it that it it had LED lighting that flashed like a ticker taper….” DON’T FORGET XIDEN. WE OWN YOU. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. OR NO 10%”.
Well, this would be brazen as hell:
You would assume our fighters and spy planes have already surveilled every inch of that thing to make very sure it isn’t dripping or spraying anything.
That’s assuming we have an armed forces still somewhat loyal to the US, of course.
The Chinese would probably view it as a justified counterattack, to be honest. Knowing what we know now about the US bioweapons labs and their locations and the probable traffic of those pathogens out of Ukraine, what are the odds that pig Ebola outbreaks occurred more or less simultaneously in China and in Eastern Europe? Or how about the corn virus that hit Chinese corn a couple of years ago?
Lots going on.
Not to downplay something so serious, but this is honestly the first thing that came to mind.
Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas…..
It’s actually our national debt that China is reminding us of.
Probably made by the Bang Ding Ow balloon company. Gotta find my “Skylab is falling” hard hat.
“Wi Tu Lo”
And Japan was floating balloons over the US during WWII. Some of the firebombs actually landed.
A murgough trial distration by the chinese?
What goes up doesn’t need to come down if its still in the air etc.
Pink panther weather balloon?
A balloon formed by greenhouse gasses?
A runaway hot air balloon?
Who knows.
The West has been completely emasculated by the CCP
BREAKING: Canada’s Defense Department reports there is a possible second spy balloon incident
what are they seeding?
What? Hot air balloons!? Hahahahaha ha … we got B-21’s, satellites an shit! The CCP are still using WWI technology? No worries … we’re safe. Red Dawn! Wolverines!!!
Just your average EMP nuke, nothing to worry about
So China has floated a trial balloon.
Appears that it worked.
Got the entire country focused on it.
While they do something nefarious that no one sees.
Because we’re more interested in a gas bag.
Likely spying on the Dutton’s Yellowstone ranch.
Beth would take care of it!
we use drones to overfly china all the time. we used to use U2 spyplanes and SR-71’s. now we use drones and satellites
this balloon is bait. if we shoot it down, they’ll start shooting down all our drones and possibly even the satellites..
The Chinese basically have multiple high ranking Congressmen and Senators in their talons, such as Diane “Chaufer was a Chinese Spy” Feinstein and Eric “Farter who Bang-Bang Fang Fang” Swellell to provide the latest and most advance Satellite Imagary.
Using a High Altitude Balloon seems like something a bored Poli-Sci Journalist would write about on their first novel.
I can’t take it seriously because in Tucson Arizona we have a company called World View that uses surveillance ballon device. Founded in part by now democrat Senator Mark Kelly and with stock funded by Chinese firms. Originally it was given an illegal sweetheart deal on rent etc buy the democrats that run the city Tucson. It was supposed to take citizens up in the atmosphere on one of their ballon’s but since one blew up now they are used for survance of sorts.
The kicker is that’s this facility is located within walking distance of Raytheon, of the largest weapon manufacturers in the United States.
If they wanted to bring it down, there’s no need for a missile or such. A quick burst of autocannon fire to let gas leak out of the envelope might let it descend at a fairly moderate rate. Possibly slow enough for an eastern Montana elk or sheep to scamper out of the way. 😏
🐑💨
A laser would do it much easier.
In other words, their reason for not stopping it is an Official Lie(tm).
Aggiegirl’s Mad Cow theory in effect.
The who, how, what, when, where and why are already known variables.
I think we should fly our own balloons with McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Microsoft… you know… good old advertising.. and if the locals get uppity we just drop some viruses…. you know?
But, what amazes me, really, is that we didn’t shoot it down the second it crossed into North America. Isn’t that what NORAD is supposed to be about?
And here I thought Montana is so remote that it would escape the first wave of Enemy attack. Little did I know the government is doing strategeric things there …
What if……it isn’t a Xi Balloon?
how would we know if the fake news and the biden admin are telling the truth about this?
Perhaps, it’s really a deep fake by the deep state Industrial war complex in order to kick off another step in their WW3 plans?
J/S….. I don’t trust a thing they say
a “typical” spy satellite takes an orbit of approximately 90 minutes.
a “typical” spy satellite will also perform orbital “mechanics” such that it does not actually take the same exact trajectory path over the same earth plot. (there are exceptions to this: directional propulsion, but it comes at great cost due to fuel tax and launch limits and life cycle)
china has about 10 satellites “known” to be surveillance types. (it’s likely that number is at least 100), But even at the upper end of 100 satellites, there are “gaps” – these gaps are exploitable…meaning it is possible to perform certain types of activities that cannot be detected by satellites.
there are many types of spy satellites…some are optical…viewing in various light spectrum.. some are “listening” satellites, that operate to receive various transmissions across frequencies . Some satellites are are “other”…highly classified…and they perform missions that is not known in the public domain.
the reason I write these, is that ballons (or aircraft) have the capability to “loiter”…
a balloon is a logical choice for a loitering system, as there are no humans aboard….drones essentially. unmanned…but remotely guided.
there are some benefits to stratospheric/atmospheric satellites also..cheaper…long duration flight, loiter capability…remote operation..and specifically, the ability to detect things with high resolution …far greater than satellites can ever do.
I can’t know what china might be doing, but I understand the benefit of using them.
In a top secret classified mission, we deployed aerials in the gulf of mexico for drug interdiction…Now you might be thinking…everyone knows that. these aerials were deployed in a certain a specific way and pattern to LURE the drug pirates into OTHER corridors…thus allowing our missions to focus on a far more narrow area of traffic. Highly successful. (we also had other assets…joint operations as they say).
I would imagine there is real surveillance taking place…and it’s likely china could argue the point that these balloons just simply “got away from us”..plausible deniability as not to escalate.
unless the US military and the newly formed space force has completely failed it’s readiness mission, there isn’t anything these balloons are collecting and transmitting that they are not aware of.
jmho
God Bless America