Chinese spy balloon hovering over Montana

[InVOLuntary]

The sheriff is right. Now we are finding out Milley was the lead decision maker. Is this guy a plant or just an ideologue?

He's a Chinese operative just like many in this administration.

 

[WoodsmanVol]

The guy constantly typing “republiars” instead of simply typing republicans is accusing others of acting like 3 year olds, how rich.

You're rich? And bragging about it? Of course, what else should one expect from a spoiled toddler. Anything further you'd like to boast about?

 

[BowlBrother85]

It baffles me to use a balloon when they have satellites with high resolution cameras that can do the job as well or better.

Nothing about this goofy story makes any sense ... with the strangest aspect being the balloon itself.

 

[Majors]

The Biden Administration tried to hide this so they could still send Blinken on his trip to China.

And blew it up in the ocean so they couldn’t recover everything. Blow it up over land with the 7 miles radius and you collect majority. As opposed to items just casually floating to the bottom of the ocean floor.

 

[WoodsmanVol]

Nothing about this goofy story makes any sense ... with the strangest aspect being the balloon itself.

You may be right. However, Xi * Co., may be looking at the self-destructive Murican vs. Murican stupidity in this country, so-called leaders in the circus we call Congress acting like clowns clambering to all be the ring master, I'd figure to see what I can do to encourage collapse. Create yet another point of contention among them. Take a cue from their playbook, and lie, lie, lie about it. Get the clowns to yet another vicious circle of finger-pointing, blaming. Instead of collaborating, on an effective response to the situation. Get them into YET another silly game of what's basically whack-a-Mole with each other. They might even divide the country regionally, and turn their nukes on each other. No more Murica. They figure we are that stupid, and we darn sure haven't done much to show they're wrong. In that context, the balloon might be a brilliant ploy.

 

[jvol1]

Biden and classified info and Trump and his permissive weather balloon policy. Our system satirizes itself.

 

[Sgt_Nick_Fury]

Biden and classified info and Trump and his permissive weather balloon policy. Our system satirizes itself.

Yeah accept the Trump part is a complete fabrication and lie. Your TDS satirizes itself also.

 

[85SugarVol]

the Republicans should bring in helium tanks to Congress and hand out balloons to their members just prior to the State of the Union Speech

Top Secret is another classic in that genre, sadly almost forgotten now. And the central part of Kentucky Fried Movie (a Fistful of Yen) was an absolute masterpiece

Take him to Detroit!

 

[BowlBrother85]

Why Would China Use a Spy Balloon When It Has Satellites?


This floats some reasoning behind it .... still a goofy story, which is easy to sensationalize.

 

[85SugarVol]

If the morons are still claiming that 3 balloons went over the US during the past administration's tenure, and not a single plane or cell phone snapped a pic, and NORAD didn't detect them, I don't think further discourse is productive.

Even if 3 balloons went over - were they being tracked on NBC’s The Today Show like this one was?

This balloon was front and center in the public domain.

 

[85SugarVol]

Why Would China Use a Spy Balloon When It Has Satellites?


This floats some reasoning behind it .... still a goofy story, which is easy to sensationalize.

What altitude do low orbit satellites traverse at? 250k feet?
How many layers of atmosphere are those satellites peering through?
Can you get better imaging 30 miles closer to an object on the ground?

 

[NorthDallas40]

What altitude do low orbit satellites traverse at? 250k feet?
How many layers of atmosphere are those satellites peering through?
Can you get better imaging 30 miles closer to an object on the ground?

Most atmospheric impact occurs closest to the earth where the atmosphere is most dense and there is little difference between 60k and 100+k due to atmospheric conditions. But sure the closer you are the better your optical resolving power is. That’s just a function of telescope aperture size as related to the diffraction limit of the optics and geospatial distance.

 

[Sgt_Nick_Fury]

What altitude do low orbit satellites traverse at? 250k feet?
How many layers of atmosphere are those satellites peering through?
Can you get better imaging 30 miles closer to an object on the ground?

THIS. People have bought into movie depictions of satellite imagery, the diff between high altitude and low orbit is huge.

 

[hog88]

What altitude do low orbit satellites traverse at? 250k feet?
How many layers of atmosphere are those satellites peering through?
Can you get better imaging 30 miles closer to an object on the ground?

Better imaging, better signals, longer linger and a helluva lot cheaper.

 

[hog88]

Most atmospheric impact occurs closest to the earth where the atmosphere is most dense and there is little difference between 60k and 100+k due to atmospheric conditions. But sure the closer you are the better your optical resolving power is. That’s just a function of telescope aperture size as related to the diffraction limit of the optics and geospatial distance.

What's the word I'm looking for?????


Oh yeah - NERD

 

[85SugarVol]

Most atmospheric impact occurs closest to the earth where the atmosphere is most dense and there is little difference between 60k and 100+k due to atmospheric conditions. But sure the closer you are the better your optical resolving power is. That’s just a function of telescope aperture size as related to the diffraction limit of the optics and geospatial distance.

I guess I should have been able to reason out the atmospheric question.
higher air = thinner air.

Are satellite cameras demonstrably better than balloon cameras?
Do they capture a better image?

 

[Sgt_Nick_Fury]

Sunday Talks, Former DNI John Ratcliffe Gives His Opinion of "Chinese Spy Balloon" Story - The Last Refuge

The more I see how much attention was exhausted focusuing on the Chinese balloon, the more I am inclined to believe the attention was manufactured by internal deep state operatives.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken cancelled his trip to China over the spy balloon issue, and beyond the general cancellation, he also cancelled a rare meeting with Chairman Xi. Xi never almost never meets with foreign ministers, only Presidents and Prime Ministers. So, what gives? Did the intelligence community expose the balloon crossing to stop the Xi/Blinken meeting? I don’t know, but something is fishy.

Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe gives his .02 cents. Ratcliffe takes the position that it was an intended spy and surveillance operation by China, and it was successful.
-Sundance
WATCH:

 

[Weezer]

While I can understand not wanting to shoot the Chinese Blob craft down over land, it should have been despite potential risks to the citizenry. Although Republiars would have found cause to wail like the three yrs old they are, about that too. A land shot, would have allowed easier retrieval of the hardware and whatever data it has. Now, for those claiming lack of photo evidence of Trump era balloons, while it seems odd, it's not surprising. The thing transverse Canada to get here. The Canucks didn't notice it. No photos of it, and talked about only after the USA detected it. All that said, I think it should have been brought down the moment it was projected to violate our skies. It baffles me to use a balloon when they have satellites with high resolution cameras that can do the job as well or better.

No way in hell do I think Canada didn't notice a giant balloon flying in their airspace. FFS, IF by some chance NORAD wasn't tracking this thing well in advance, then our national security is more threatened than I realized. The politicians are playing on the rubes not understanding how this works. If it's in the air, NORAD is tracking it. This was not some "stealth" balloon with advanced technology that made it invisible to radar.

As for the claims this happened under Trump, where is the proof? Show me some actual proof and I'll believe it, otherwise, it screams like Democrats playing politics and deflecting. Trump had his own screw ups. This administration needs to stop deflecting and own their screw ups. This balloon should have been shot down while it was still over the Pacific. They have no problem calling it a "spy balloon", so they willingly put national security at risk by failing to take action sooner.

 

[NorthDallas40]

I guess I should have been able to reason out the atmospheric question.
higher air = thinner air.

Are satellite cameras demonstrably better than balloon cameras?
Do they capture a better image?

No idea honestly. While I worked in electro optical systems my whole career I never worked on high altitude or space. In the business if you see the telescope aperture diameter and suspect the camera imaging wavelength you know all you need to know on what the theoretical resolution limit is.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

So wait... has it been confirmed if this really was a "spy" balloon and not just a weather balloon that went of course? Do we really think that it is reasonable that China can navigate a balloon to the US and use that as a spy instrument?

Is this "really" a serious issue or is this something that is being pumped up to lay down the groundwork for a war with China?

 

[Toucan Sam]

Why didn't they shoot it down over the Aleutian Islands instead of waiting till it made it to South Carolina?

 

[hog88]

So wait... has it been confirmed if this really was a "spy" balloon and not just a weather balloon that went of course? Do we really think that it is reasonable that China can navigate a balloon to the US and use that as a spy instrument?

Is this "really" a serious issue or is this something that is being pumped up to lay down the groundwork for a war with China?

Good grief.

 

[hog88]

Why didn't they shoot it down over the Aleutian Islands instead of waiting till it made it to South Carolina?

Because it hadn't completed it's mission then and more importantly hadn't been seen by civilians and made the news.

 

[Sgt_Nick_Fury]

No way in hell do I think Canada didn't notice a giant balloon flying in their airspace. FFS, IF by some chance NORAD wasn't tracking this thing well in advance, then our national security is more threatened than I realized. The politicians are playing on the rubes not understanding how this works. If it's in the air, NORAD is tracking it. This was not some "stealth" balloon with advanced technology that made it invisible to radar.

As for the claims this happened under Trump, where is the proof? Show me some actual proof and I'll believe it, otherwise, it screams like Democrats playing politics and deflecting. Trump had his own screw ups. This administration needs to stop deflecting and own their screw ups. This balloon should have been shot down while it was still over the Pacific. They have no problem calling it a "spy balloon", so they willingly put national security at risk by failing to take action sooner.

 

[BowlBrother85]

Sunday Talks, Former DNI John Ratcliffe Gives His Opinion of "Chinese Spy Balloon" Story - The Last Refuge

"It's pretty easy and pretty clear .... at least it should be to all Americans. The People's Republic of China executed an incredibly successful intelligence operation over the mainland of the United States, and conversely, the Biden Administration, committed an unprecedented national security blunder of incalculable damage ...."

That is hyperbolic partisanship from someone whose primary focus is on politics, rather than national security.