Lots of interesting news today

UTfball68 said:
I don’t wanna go all conspiracy theory…but a balloon traveling at that altitude didn’t raise a little bit of curiosity before it got to the point of ‘don’t shoot it down out of safety concerns’. And if it was traveling a threatening enough path, I doubt it would have made it to the beach. So what was attention being diverted from and why’s the dog being wagged.
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and yet
www.dailymail.co.uk

Three Chinese spy balloons infiltrated the US during Trump admin

The Department of Defense reported that three Chinese spy balloons entered US airspace during the Trump administration, something that was not previously disclosed.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
www.foxnews.com

Chinese spy balloon crashed off Hawaii coast 4 months ago, US officials say

A Chinese spy balloon crashed off the coast of Hawaii four months ago, and at least one Chinese spy balloon flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com

Interperet however you wish.
 
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RatLabGuy said:
and yet
www.dailymail.co.uk

Three Chinese spy balloons infiltrated the US during Trump admin

The Department of Defense reported that three Chinese spy balloons entered US airspace during the Trump administration, something that was not previously disclosed.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
www.foxnews.com

Chinese spy balloon crashed off Hawaii coast 4 months ago, US officials say

A Chinese spy balloon crashed off the coast of Hawaii four months ago, and at least one Chinese spy balloon flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com

Interperet however you wish.
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Exactly…wasn’t an ‘issue’ previously…so what makes it an now?
 
RatLabGuy said:
and yet
www.dailymail.co.uk

Three Chinese spy balloons infiltrated the US during Trump admin

The Department of Defense reported that three Chinese spy balloons entered US airspace during the Trump administration, something that was not previously disclosed.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
www.foxnews.com

Chinese spy balloon crashed off Hawaii coast 4 months ago, US officials say

A Chinese spy balloon crashed off the coast of Hawaii four months ago, and at least one Chinese spy balloon flew over portions of Texas and Florida during the Trump administration.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com

Interperet however you wish.
Click to expand...


Honestly, do you REALLY think that if three separate Chinese spy balloons had infiltrated US airspace during the Trump administration that SOMEONE would have noticed? I mean people were able to get pictures of a balloon floating 60,000 feet in the air with cell phone cameras across the country. And conveniently, now all the sudden there were three separate instances supposedly that nobody can confirm when or where, and people are just supposed to believe that? Gaslight much?

I personally couldn't stand Trump (had to vote for him because my guy had already dropped out of the race before our primary), but there were SO many people that would blame him for anything at the drop of a hat that if that were true, it would have been headline news everywhere with people getting pictures of it themselves. Just doesn't add up that 2 years later it's like, "Oh yeah.... I just remembered Trump let three balloons fly over the US."
 
ManglerYJ said:
Honestly, do you REALLY think that if three separate Chinese spy balloons had infiltrated US airspace during the Trump administration that SOMEONE would have noticed? I mean people were able to get pictures of a balloon floating 60,000 feet in the air with cell phone cameras across the country. And conveniently, now all the sudden there were three separate instances supposedly that nobody can confirm when or where, and people are just supposed to believe that? Gaslight much?

I personally couldn't stand Trump (had to vote for him because my guy had already dropped out of the race before our primary), but there were SO many people that would blame him for anything at the drop of a hat that if that were true, it would have been headline news everywhere with people getting pictures of it themselves. Just doesn't add up that 2 years later it's like, "Oh yeah.... I just remembered Trump let three balloons fly over the US."
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UTfball68 said:
Exactly…wasn’t an ‘issue’ previously…so what makes it an now?
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Could possibly the Trump administration not have been forthright about their existence? Aka not allowed their presence to be acknowledged? I've seen weather balloons before and didn't think anything of them. I cant tell a weather balloon from a spy ballon. If the .gov hadn't said anything, I doubt the general populous would have known the wiser.
 
awheelterd said:
Could possibly the Trump administration not have been forthright about their existence? Aka not allowed their presence to be acknowledged? I've seen weather balloons before and didn't think anything of them. I cant tell a weather balloon from a spy ballon. If the .gov hadn't said anything, I doubt the general populous would have known the wiser.
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That’s fair. But I would have assumed things would have been handled in a similar manner…and airplanes shooting things out of the air, tend to draw attention. I’m not claiming to have the faintest knowledge of how our airspace is defended, just seems like one of these things is not like the other.
 
UTfball68 said:
That’s fair. But I would have assumed things would have been handled in a similar manner…and airplanes shooting things out of the air, tend to draw attention. I’m not claiming to have the faintest knowledge of how our airspace is defended, just seems like one of these things is not like the other.
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That was more of a @RatLabGuy ish devil's advocate post. 😂. I think both prezs we're/are useless pieces of shit so I don't want to look like I'm giving one more credit than the other
 
UTfball68 said:
That’s fair. But I would have assumed things would have been handled in a similar manner…and airplanes shooting things out of the air, tend to draw attention. I’m not claiming to have the faintest knowledge of how our airspace is defended, just seems like one of these things is not like the other.
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awheelterd said:
That was more of a @RatLabGuy ish devil's advocate post. 😂. I think both prezs we're/are useless pieces of shit so I don't want to look like I'm giving one more credit than the other
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I agree that stuff does get swept under the rug in the name of national security, but I find it funny that in all the news reports that seem to claim that they existed under the Trump admin, it's just listed as "The Pentagon" saying it, or at best, "A Pentagon Official" with no name listed, but those who are denying that they were EVER aware that this ever happened under the Trump administration are expressly named, (i.e. John Bolton, who was typically quick to rip on Trump and would have had an easy target this time, former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grennell or former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who has also been outspoken against Trump). My point is, if you are going to make the claim, have the balls to stand behind it and place your name on the statement.
 
I dont understand how a balloon floating a fairly random path is useful for "spying" when they have hundreds of satellites with way better aiming/recording/transmitting capabilities floating around at all times.
 
No fawking way a Chinese spy balloon went over the USA while Trump was in office without him shooting it down immediately, then posting about it on Twitter.
 
drkelly said:
No fawking way a Chinese spy balloon went over the USA while Trump was in office without him shooting it down immediately, then posting about it on Twitter.
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3d chess here, but I could see him being embarrassed that it made it in on his watch so
he completely ignored it and pretended like it wasn't a big deal. Kinda like that other thing from China that got in here under his watch.....
 
Also, why did we shoot it with a fawking missile? Seems to me like freefall from 50,000 ft would render most anything of value on it useless. Never mind being strowed over a hundred square miles of ocean. I'm sure some nerd could have figured out precisely how many 50 cal holes it needed to drop at a predictable rate where we could have recovered it nearly if not completely in tact. And the part about not shooting it down over Montana for fear of harming people on the ground was bs too. Montana has like 3 congressmen, ain't nobody there for it to have landed on.
 
drkelly said:
No fawking way a Chinese spy balloon went over the USA while Trump was in office without him shooting it down immediately, then posting about it on Twitter.
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And the Democrats trying to impeach him over it.

BTW - Why wasn't it shot down as soon as it hit US waters on the west coast?
BTWx2 - In the videos it looks like they actually hit the satellite .... shrapnel got the balloon.
 
awheelterd said:
Also, why did we shoot it with a fawking missile? Seems to me like freefall from 50,000 ft would render most anything of value on it useless. Never mind being strowed over a hundred square miles of ocean. I'm sure some nerd could have figured out precisely how many 50 cal holes it needed to drop at a predictable rate where we could have recovered it nearly if not completely in tact. And the part about not shooting it down over Montana for fear of harming people on the ground was bs too. Montana has like 3 congressmen, ain't nobody there for it to have landed on.
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Because shotgun vs arrow


awheelterd said:
That was more of a @RatLabGuy ish devil's advocate post. 😂. I think both prezs we're/are useless pieces of shit so I don't want to look like I'm giving one more credit than the other
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Remind me I owe you about 37 beers and a few hours of campfire conversation when you can make it to one of our rides 🤘🏼
 
us.jpeg
 
CasterTroy said:
Because shotgun vs arrow



Remind me I owe you about 37 beers and a few hours of campfire conversation when you can make it to one of our rides 🤘🏼
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Seems like they could have just used an Amazon drone and delivered it to the CIA 🤷‍♂️
 
JSJJ388 said:
No problem with it? Or just don't have a solution? I don't like all the apps that track every last thing, but there's not much way around it. This problem had a simple solution: shoot it down. Shouldn't have taken days.
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There is a solution. Limit the number of "smart" devices in your life. Go back to doing things like it's still the 90s. Yeah, it wont eliminate everything, but will alot. Most people have become hooked to the convenience of technology, and dont really care what information they are giving away.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
There is a solution. Limit the number of "smart" devices in your life. Go back to doing things like it's still the 90s. Yeah, it wont eliminate everything, but will alot. Most people have become hooked to the convenience of technology, and dont really care what information they are giving away.
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Easier said than done, but I totally agree. About once every 3 or 4 months, I try to convince my wife to cancel the internet. She rolls her eyes and says you couldn't do that. And shes right, but I'm willing to at least try.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
There is a solution. Limit the number of "smart" devices in your life. Go back to doing things like it's still the 90s. Yeah, it wont eliminate everything, but will alot. Most people have become hooked to the convenience of technology, and dont really care what information they are giving away.
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as great as that sounds, its not terribly feasible. I do limit my smart devices (1 smart phone and a tablet) and dont use any of the home automation or whatever. But with the amount of public surveillance and the info required to do anything these days, you cant hide from it.
 
So carrying on the tradition of seasoned airfighters - is some F-22 gonna have a balloon painted on the side of it now?
 
RatLabGuy said:
So carrying on the tradition of seasoned airfighters - is some F-22 gonna have a balloon painted on the side of it now?
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Clearly you didn't watch the youtoob vid:
1675719233562.png
 
jeepinmatt said:
Clearly you didn't watch the youtoob vid:
View attachment 391343
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You know growing up I used to think that one day there would be a Red Dawn type invasion and we would all be running around fighting commies shooting AK-47s and we'd be blasting away tanks with RPGs while hollering "Wolverines!". Painting Winnie the Pooh's balloon on the side of a F-22 that shot it down with a sidewinder missile seems a little anti-climactic.
 
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