Flight of the Valkyries

[woodchip]

So we have a gigantic balloon over Montana. All I hear are excuses as why we can't shoot it down. Can't be anything to do with it's a chi-com object and they got a hold of their buddy Biden to get some payback on what they are paying hunter? Now the military is saying it is a spy balloon and yet it is still floating around. Wonder if CCP would allow one of ours to do the same.

[Ferno]

Shut the ★■◆● up.

[Vander]

Wait, so you’ve heard a lot of reasons why we won’t shoot it down, but you disregard them and think it’s because Biden won’t let anyone shoot it down because Hunter Biden got money from them?

We should wait until it’s over your house and shoot it down.

[Top Gun]

Can we put him in a home yet?

[Tunnelcat]

I heard that the military is thinking of shooting it down just as it floats over the Atlantic and is still within our territorial waters. I agree that the damn thing needs to be shot down and the payload captured for study. Effing Chicoms. I don't know why it wasn't shot down when it was over sparsely populated Alaska in the first place. It also floated over sparsely populated sections of Canada and they didn't shoot it down either Ferno. I'm also quite sure China would have no hesitation at shooting down one of our "spy" balloons. The Soviets had no compunction about shooting down one of our spy planes during the Cold War or worrying about who it would hit when it crashed. Personally, I wouldn't want a 3 bus-sized chunk of Chicom spy crap flattening my house, even in the name of national security.

As for Hunter Biden, he's now taking legal action over the unauthorized release of the information on his laptop (which he's now admitted is his) and those who promulgated what he claims are false conspiracy theories and defamatory comments concerning any personal contents. Those would be Giulliani, Bannon and Tucker Carlson to name a few jackasses. Would you want the files on your computer released in an unauthorized dump by to the public by some slimebag computer repair person woody?

https://www.news10.com/news/politics/ap ... er-laptop/

[TigerRaptor]

What are the the chances of it saying made in China.

[TheWhat]

Well, I have faith that God will protect the great ole USA from the godless China balloon collecting data about bald eagles, brown bears, gophers, and weapons launch silos. Who knows why those looney tunes be using godless bahwoons when they have satellites with freaking laser beams on them that can count all the microscopic skin mites on all the Montananites arms. It is a mystery to me.

Please please please God, please protect the great ole USA from the balloon sent from the Woohahn Open air wet Market with diseased bat giblets and Monkey Pox bung juice. Please protect us from the bahwoon

[Tunnelcat]

Sit in your bed all warm and comfy and hold that thought.

https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/a-chinese ... erability/

[CDN_Merlin]

And now there is another one.

[Spidey]

Why don't we just poke some holes in it with our Jewish space LASERS.

Then it can just land softly.

[woodchip]

Sit in your bed all warm and comfy and hold that thought.

https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/a-chinese ... erability/

And here's another interesting take:
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/02/joe ... y-balloon/
The balloon shows how the much vaunted US military failed to stop this thing before it even reached Alaska. How do we know this balloon doesn't have some nasty variant of the covid bug ? Are we hoping it drifts on to the Atlantic where we either shoot it down or let it become Europe's problem. In any case, as long as Biden is in office I have no faith that our military will protect us.

[Vander]

Why won’t Brandon save us from the ballon.

[Top Gun]

Onoz they're dropping Covid from SPACE BALLOONS now. We're boned.

[vision]

Imagine being afraid of a balloon. Also imagine China, a country with spy satellites and who operates not one but two active space stations, needs a balloon to check up on us.

[Krom]

Perhaps the reason the military did not shoot down the balloon is because they didn't want to reveal whatever capability they have of shooting down a balloon. Like even the Chinese have tested/demonstrated the ability to shoot down a satellite, which significantly pissed off the international community because blowing up a satellite, even a already dead one that you own yourself, is very frowned upon because it turns one big relatively easy to track chunk of space debris into a large field of potentially thousands of smaller and much harder to track pieces of space debris. I would be extremely doubtful that we do not also possess the capability of shooting down pretty much any satellite or balloon we wish, but revealing the details of our capability could easily be more harmful to national security than just letting the balloon blow by. Especially when you consider the Chinese are launching military satellites practically multiple times a week, so there is little or nothing this balloon could spy on that they wouldn't already know about from their likely massive constellation of existing spy satellites.

As for the balloons intended purposes, I'd guess spying is likely one of its intended uses even if it may not be the primary one. I highly doubt it is purely for weather observations at any rate.

So like, maybe we could burn this thing out of the sky with a laser, but doing so would in fact be telling the Chinese that we can burn things out of the sky with lasers and it is better to not let them know that.

[woodchip]

Krom, you bring up good points. It just may be a test to see if they can float something over our country just to see how we would react. Wonder how the Latin American countries are going to react now that they have a similar balloon in their airspace. As the old saying goes, "once is a coincidence, twice or more is intent".

[Spidey]

Yea all true, but I guarantee not knowing what's on board that thing is driving the people at the pentagon and many others nuts.

[Tunnelcat]

They finally shot the damn thing down. Good. ★■◆● you China. Now they need to nail the other one that's showing up over Latin America.

[woodchip]

Wonder if US will tell us what they found onboard.

[Spidey]

Egg Rolls!!

[Top Gun]

Yeah, it'd be a shame if we revealed our cutting-edge anti-balloon technology:

[Krom]

Think of all the taxpayer money they just spent to pop a balloon.

[Top Gun]

Hell, all we really needed were a few well-lubricated rednecks.

[Tunnelcat]

Even a sober redneck can't hit something way up at 60,000 feet unless he owns an anti-aircraft missile launcher.

[woodchip]

Hell, all we really needed were a few well-lubricated rednecks.

Nah, all we really need are a bunch of libs to pass a law making America a balloon free country.

[Tunnelcat]

Hmmm, so why didn't Trump do anything about the 3 purported Chinese balloons that sailed over the U.S. under his watch? He's out there denying it vigorously, but a defense department official claims it's true. Trump's lied about everything else under the sun, so why not this? Could it be that the only reason Biden got in trouble was because people saw it and reported it, while most people were blithely unaware of those 3 balloons when Trump ruled the roost? Trump never issued a shoot down order for any of them nor even mentioned their presence. I wouldn't have put it past him to supress it at the time too. Could it be because he didn't want to piss off the Chinese because he wanted to make "yuge deals" with them?

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-n ... 686e63527b

[woodchip]

Funny TC , How we never got the press coverage back then

[Tunnelcat]

Probably because no one in an aircraft or on the ground saw them. This time, people on a passenger plane and people in Montana spotted it and their partisan GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke raised a stink. And since the defense department KNEW about them while Trump was pres because they have enough eyes and ears to see everything in the airspace over the U.S., WHY didn't Trump order them shot down if you think he was so damn keen on national defense? You've got Marjory Taylor Green out there flapping her gums that Trump would've shot them down post haste down no matter where they were over the U.S. Who knows, that 3 bus sized surveillance package may have come down and flattened your house if one of those had been shot down over your state.

[vision]

I love woodchip's posts because they are a barometer for how good the country is doing. Everything is great right now and the right-wing media has nothing to keep the outrage machine churning so they are down to pushing Alec Baldwin, a has-been no one cares about, and a harmless weather balloon. Life is good under this administration.

[woodchip]

You're assuming this is true TC. Considering how the press hated Trump, I find it odd that it never made the new. Could it be because it never happened ?

[Tunnelcat]

The defense department said it happened 3 times. I'll take them at their word since they have better Mark 1 eyeballs over the country than we do. Maybe you should too.

[woodchip]

The defense department said it happened 3 times. I'll take them at their word since they have better Mark 1 eyeballs over the country than we do. Maybe you should too.

You'll believe the woke military but not your own lying eyes

[Tunnelcat]

Oh, so the military is "woke" since Biden is president. Give me a break. I gather you'd rather have Russia lover Michael Flynn running things over the DOD?

https://www.factcheck.org/2017/12/micha ... -timeline/

[Top Gun]

Anyone to the left of the Gestapo is "woke" in woody's eyes.

[Tunnelcat]

Ok, we're getting some kinda clarification. According to NORAD, there were 3 close brief incursions, including over Texas and Florida while Trump was in office. BUT, they weren't discovered until long AFTER Trump left office. They apparently went through old tracking information and found them, prompted by the most recent incident. They won't reveal how they were discovered, but claim those incursions occurred while Trump was president and they were long gone from U.S. airspace without any warnings from the military, until now. Trump probably never knew or was even told about it, so I'll give the orange bastard the benefit of doubt.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/0 ... were-gone/

[Tunnelcat]

Daddy Trump might not be too happy with this little Tweet by Don Jr.



Then you got Baby Brain Daddy Trump suggesting those good ol' boys in Montana could remedy the situation all by themselves. Never mind that the balloon was over 20 thousand feet up in the sky and there's not a rifle in Montana that could hit it. Then there's the issue all those bullets that would've come down to the ground somewhere.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-t ... 928871075b

“If Joe Biden and his administration are too weak to do the obvious and shoot down an enemy surveillance balloon perhaps we just let the good people of Montana do their thing… I imagine they have the capability and the resolve to do it all themselves.”

[woodchip]

Ok, we're getting some kinda clarification. According to NORAD, there were 3 close brief incursions, including over Texas and Florida while Trump was in office. BUT, they weren't discovered until long AFTER Trump left office. They apparently went through old tracking information and found them, prompted by the most recent incident. They won't reveal how they were discovered, but claim those incursions occurred while Trump was president and they were long gone from U.S. airspace without any warnings from the military, until now. Trump probably never knew or was even told about it, so I'll give the orange bastard the benefit of doubt.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/0 ... were-gone/

You don't suppose all your info is suspiciously brought to life by fake news experts to protect Trump? Nan they'd never do that. Only gullible types would fall for something like that.

[Ferno]

You'll believe the woke military but not your own lying eyes

The same woke military you lied about being part of? The same woke military you once feverishly supported? The military didn't change. You went batshit and when you die from old age, you'll die angry and alone.

[Tunnelcat]

Woody, you wouldn't believe the "truth" even if it bit you in the ass, or it came out of the Orange Kindergartener's pie hole. I even gave you an out that Trump wasn't told about it, had no knowledge and you still don't believe it. What is your problem?

On a separate note, the Chinese want their damn balloon back. Our government told them; "nope". I would've told them to go ★■◆● off. It was over our territory and violating our airspace, it's now ours. In fact, the Navy is having to be careful when recovering this thing. They believe it has explosives on board for self destruct capability. And here Republicans wanted it shot down over the U.S.

Ferno, what is everyone saying in Canada? It traversed your country for quite a distance before entering ours.

[woodchip]

Woody, you wouldn't believe the "truth" even if it bit you in the ass, or it came out of the Orange Kindergartener's pie hole. I even gave you an out that Trump wasn't told about it, had no knowledge and you still don't believe it. What is your problem?

On a separate note, the Chinese want their damn balloon back. Our government told them; "nope". I would've told them to go ★■◆● off. It was over our territory and violating our airspace, it's now ours. In fact, the Navy is having to be careful when recovering this thing. They believe it has explosives on board for self destruct capability. And here Republicans wanted it shot down over the U.S.

Ferno, what is everyone saying in Canada? It traversed your country for quite a distance before entering ours.

If the "truth" comes out of a politicians mouth or the military tells us...I'm always skeptical, even if Trump says it. Though I notice you believe most anything Biden says. My problem are things that pop up years later to make some person look bad.
Most Republicans wanted it blown up when it was over the Aleutians. Your President was told by his Chinese masters to let it keep floating. And you'll vote for this dementia ridden bag of idiocy when he runs again.
As to Canada, Trudeau is another socialist that doesn't want to offend the ChiCom's. There's a saying down in Texas that applies to both Trudeau and Ferno, "All Hat and no Cattle"