tuscl

The Chicom Balloon?

TheeOSU
FUCK IT!
Saturday, February 4, 2023 7:13 AM
WTF? I'm surprised none of you have posted about this. I'm posting this in politics but this goes way beyond politics. So what do you guys think is going on regarding that balloon? Actually there's a second one that appeared over South America but that one doesn't concern me ATM. I'm concerned about the one floating over sensitive areas of the country possibly, no probably gathering information on the missile silos, air bases and other military installations it's passed over or near to. Is it possible that it's some kind of test run to measure our response? Is it possible that it's a test run for a future EMP attack or dumping a new virus or biological weapon in the future? And why are we just letting it go? Sure this is uncharted territory but how can brandon and his puppet masters just let it go? So far the only response seems to be that blinken canceled a scheduled china trip because it's concerning. Lol Well if it's concerning why haven't we done anything about it? What does it take to react when a hostile country with obvious designs on defeating us in the future sends a probe into sovereign air space across the heart of the country? The bogus explanation regarding shooting it down is it might cause damage. How much damage is being done by just letting it go? Do you think china would just let it go if we did the same to them? We had to see this thing coming, why wasn't something done before it actually reached the west coast? And now that it's up there at times it's passed over large swaths of sparsely populated areas where any damage on the ground would be limited or nonexistent. What does it take for the powers that be to not look like the punks they are and put an end to this intrusion of America?

123 comments

  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    The balloon is a way for China to discover our military response and our political will. We’ve failed the test.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    Yes we have Mark!
  • motorhead
    •
    a year ago
    Or……. TUSCL is banned in China and some horny Leonard & Sheldon types are searching for the best strip club boobies
  • twentyfive
    •
    a year ago
    Hide the cows What would you have them do, launch the nukes ?
  • Call.Me.Ishmael
    •
    a year ago
    This is most likely a theatrically provocative stunt in response to the U.S. stances on Taiwan, status of the South China Sea, issues with Chinese technology companies, etc. A "spy" balloon is like a "stealth" aircraft carrier... neither can exist today. Why? Because current surveillance, reconnaissance, and signals intelligence makes it impossible for either of those things to go undetected. So, it's highly likely that the balloon was intended to be seen and reacted to. It's bait. It almost certainly not intended to capture any novel intelligence, because the Chinese have many other (and better) means to capture that intelligence. This includes the satellites that they have in orbit over the U.S. (as we have satellites in orbit over China). What that balloon was intended to do is capture our attention. It's a psychological ploy. And, from that perspective, it's been very successful. I mean, it even generated a thread on a strip club website. We don't think or worry about the many surveillance satellites above us (and not just Chinese) because we can't see them. But, make it big, shiny, and white and low enough to be seen from the ground, and it becomes the pearl-clutch heard around the world. Shooting it down would be rising to the bait and possibly hazardous to people and property on the ground.
  • shadowcat
    •
    a year ago
    Does Hunter Biden have a financial interest in the balloon company?
  • Studme53
    •
    a year ago
    There’s got to be a controlled way to bring it down or at least destroy the high def cameras and transmitting array under the ballon. To let it float over our entire country until it gets over the Atlantic seems weak. That said, how much more effective for spying is a ballon at 50000 feet than a satellite? Bottom line - China lies about everything. They project power but they’re rotting from within.And their country is doomed due to low birth rate and the rely almost 100% on foreign sources to feed their people. They don’t have the ability to adapt, create or innovate, only steal technological advances and reverse-monkey it. China will collapse and have mass famine in less than 15 years.
  • motorhead
    •
    a year ago
    I’m certainly not a defense expert but I’m not sure I buy into the argument that falling debris poses a risk. It was over Montana. No one lives there. There’s more risk from 17 year old girls texting while driving
  • Cashman1234
    •
    a year ago
    I’m unsure how cancelling the Secretary of State’s trip to China is an appropriate response to the balloon flying over our airspace? In my view, we should have taken it down before it reached our shores, and then the Secretary of State could have made his trip and handed it to the Chinese president. “Here’s your lost weather balloon…”
  • goldmongerATL
    •
    a year ago
    Not sure how much mass it has, but the sensor array is the size of a small house. So if it hit that 17 year old girl texting while driving it could do some damage. I like how the Chinese claim they can't really control it, but it manages to change course and hit every sensitive site along the way.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    One theory is that it’s preparation for an EMP attack on our nuclear silos. Keep sending balloons until it’s clear we will let them through. Then, send one with a nuclear device that can fry all the electronics for our nuclear response.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    Just saw this article while web surfing a few minutes ago. [view link]
  • Call.Me.Ishmael
    •
    a year ago
    Another theory is that Santa fired his reindeer.
  • rattdog
    •
    a year ago
    the japanese did this in the 1940's: [view link] surely our govt has the capabilities to build and send one of these types of balloons from alaska to china the same exact way as china has? our govt should do the same in return to see how ping and his cohorts would respond.
  • Muddy
    •
    a year ago
    Some redneck dude is gonna shoot at it if it passes over his house. I'm totally fine with that
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Making a prediction: When it gets over water it will be shot down, but not until it's so far out that it sinks to a depth it can never be recovered. They will continue to claim "safety reasons" like it might fall on a boat or some such nonsense. Whatever is on that balloon will never be seen or proven.
  • motorhead
    •
    a year ago
    I agree with orange. It’s now over more populated areas. But it will come down over open ocean
  • Mate27
    •
    a year ago
    I was surprised to see a report that the base of the balloon is as large as two and a half busses, not including the inflatable part! That was the main reason for letting it float on by, even in the sparsely populated area. Not sure if they got any Intel out of it, apparently not any more than satellite imaging.
  • Tetradon
    •
    a year ago
    "Shooting it down would be rising to the bait and possibly hazardous to people and property on the ground." Right, Ishmael, the CCP would send a balloon over nuclear missile siloes just to troll us. We look like a fucking joke.
  • docsavage
    •
    a year ago
    Greg Gutfeld said the plan is to drop a million Chinese takeout menus on Americans.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    Speaking of china... [view link] Our leaders/government are selling us out by allowing things like this to happen. It started when nixon opened relations with them, was compounded when clinton allowed full whitehouse access to chinese agents posing as businessmen and allowed them to acquire secret rocket technology in exchange for campaign contributions and continues to this day. China is in it for the long haul, playing chess while we play checkers.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    It's too bad some governor didn't take it down and recover it using state assets. The Feds' involvement means whatever we are told will be lies.
  • whodey
    •
    a year ago
    Does anyone really think the US hasn't flown intelligence gathering missions over China, Russia, N. Korea and most other countries recently? I don't know if we do it with balloons, drones, planes or a combination of all three but I am sure we do it just like China and Russia do. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we have multiple surveillance missions over China right now. That doesn't mean we shouldn't shoot them down when we catch them in the act, we absolutely should. I just don't get why the public is so shocked to learn it happens.
  • Mike Rotch
    •
    a year ago
    Maybe it contains the new covid variant, freshly made in their Wuhan labs. If it flies over NYC and suddenly pops, we'll know for sure.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    It looks like they're getting ready to shoot it down and apparently we'll get to watch it live. Should be pretty cool, regardless of all the bullshit.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    They waited until it was over the ocean, so we won’t find out what it was carrying. Dumb. It flew over plenty of sparsely populated areas where we could have safely brought it down.
  • Mate27
    •
    a year ago
    Docsavage, did you know that in China it’s not called Chinese food? It’s just called food.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Xi Jinping loaded that thing full of Biden blackmail info and communicated that to him via the secure hotline. Joe had two choices, knock it down safely and expose the info he doesn't want seen by anyone, or look like a FOOL by allowing it to proceed unopposed across the entire US, loitering over important military bases along the way. Joe chose the latter because jeopardizing US security and looking like a fucking idiot on the world stage is how he rolls. Now it's at the bottom of the ocean. If they recover it at all it will be done under top secret conditions and all we'll ever hear is what they want us to believe.
  • motorhead
    •
    a year ago
    Don’t know if it was joke or the guy was being serious, but a guy posted on Facebook how this is “proof” of a flat earth. Because if there were intel gathering satellites, a balloon isn’t necessary. Lol. People are funny
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Jeez, I was close. I predicted they would sink it too deep to recover. Instead they blew it to bits with a sidewinder missile, creating a 7-mile-long debris field. Every single military analyst said the way to do this was to shoot the balloon with 20mm cannon fire, punching it full of holes, causing it to deflate slowly and float down to earth with the tech package intact. But they completely blew it to shit. Now there's no possibility of getting information from it. Good job Joe!
  • twentyfive
    •
    a year ago
    If this was an intentional act on behalf of the Chinese, there’s likely to be very little intelligence to be gleaned from the recovery of the debris from the balloon.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    Oh yeah, there is absolutely no value in examining Chinese sensor technology. We wouldn't want to know what they were looking for, what they got, how good they are at getting it, how they transmit the intel, what radios/chips/circuitry they use. Yeah, total waste of time to collect and examine the ballon wreckage. Dumbass. What do we need to do is get hardcore on reducing the impact of Chinese goods and technology in American lives. Increase tariffs. Ban TikTok. Park an aircraft carrier group in TaiPei harbor and grant full diplomatic recognition to Taiwan. Assert eminent domain to purchase any and all Chinese-owned land in the United States. Biden won't, because he and the Clintons got and are getting rich off Chinese bribes.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    @twentyfive - I hear what you're saying but I respectfully disagree. Even IF there wasn't any useful intel, why blast this thing into a million pieces? They're so goddamned worried about plastic straws in the ocean, but okay, let's drop 3 school busses worth of mutilated electronics in there! Two reasons I can think of. Like I said above, something on there damaging to Joe and the Biden family and he knew it. Or if that sounds like too much conspiracy theory, then how about they want people to think this was the only way to do it, thus demonstrating why they "couldn't risk" brining it down over Montana. I promise every news agency (except Fox News) will run with that narrative. I can hear them now, "Oh my goodness. Joe was so right to wait until it was over the ocean. Can you imagine all that debris falling on people?" They will completely ignore the fact that a sidewinder missile was total overkill to take down a fucking balloon. There is no logical reason they had to blow it up like that. I saw two retired Generals say this was a routine shoot-down, and you hit the balloon so it drifts down mostly intact.
  • twentyfive
    •
    a year ago
    ^ I don’t know seems to me this was a provocation and I think it mostly undermined Xi as he’s not had the best time of it lately, Chinese are trying to recover and I think they need us more than we need them, our economy is recovering at a fairly rapid rate, and all things considered this was stupid considering they don’t really want to get into a fight with us, they need someone to buy their products and it ain’t going to be the Russians, they’re locked in a cold war with India, and Africa is not yet in a position to participate in the world economy yet, most of Africa has real problems and even at home in Asia the Japanese aren’t willing to help them and North Korea is draining their economy as well. I don’t really see this as anything other than infighting between the Communist party’s leadership.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Well, they obviously wanted it to be seen and go viral the way it did. For what reason, now we'll never know, because they blew the fuck out of it.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    The payload was the size of a small house. I’d really like to know what was in it.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Lol... Don't worry mark94, I'm sure the Pentagon will tell us all about it. You just have to trust what they say since the sensor equipment has been blown to shit. I mean really, if you can't trust your own government there's not much left, is there?
  • twentyfive
    •
    a year ago
    Scrubby come on down, the only thing that’s 6’5” is the puddle that you leave on the street after I kick your ass back under the rock you crawled out from under.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    Yeah blowing it up made no sense when it could have been brought down slower and more intact but that's par for the course from the brandon bunch going back to the afghan withdrawal and everything since. This article came out before the shoot down. It mentions their possible reasons for doing what they did. [view link]
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    ^ china's reasons that is.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Military officials determined that bringing the balloon down over land from an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose an undue risk to people on the ground. Seems like a smart decision to have waited until it was over the Atlantic ocean.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ Not worthy of a response you fucking asshole.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Anyone who thinks this balloon thing was handled well is either a traitor or a fucking retard.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    They saw it before it ever entered Alaska airspace, if they wanted to bring it down over water they could have done it then before it crossed Alaska, Western Canada and the continental U.S. That would have been smart, letting it spend days floating across the country was stupid like most of your kool aide drinking comments. Now give me a dislike as you're prone to do so it makes you feel empowered. LMAO
  • Studme53
    •
    a year ago
    Big fucking mystery. How do you slowly make a ballon float down to earth?. I’ll take a wild fucking guess. Make a hole in it and let the air out ? They think we’re stupid.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Studme53 are you kidding? Everyone knows the only way to bring down a balloon is an F-22 Raptor blowing it to smithereens. C'mon man.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Look at the right wingers hurling their insults again - how pathetic !
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ I'm sorry wld4. Calling you a fucking retard really is an insult to fucking retards, and I apologize to them.
  • shailynn
    •
    a year ago
    I heard Mamisan was scouting the states to find where to put some new massage parlors and buffets.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    So funny. The Yahoo! news feed only has one article about this topic, and if you want to comment on it you need an AOL account. WTF? I didn't even know AOL was still in existence.
  • Mike Rotch
    •
    a year ago
    This is sad, the balloon flew across the ENTIRE country over several days. If it was a spy balloon it probably got all the intel it needed. Imagine it had been carrying a nuke. Game over.
  • Studme53
    •
    a year ago
    Hey - I have an idea. Get rid of our B1 bombers and just replace them with balloons. We spend a $trillion on our military and it took a week and thousands of miles over our country to figure out how to bring it down. Talk about gaslighting.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    Biden’s defenders are making it seem like a “balloon” is no threat but our military considers it an ideal platform for many missions: [view link]
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    They made the smart decision to bring it down over the ocean rather than land where people could have been killed. Any administration Democrat or Republican would have made the same decision.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    @wld4dicks - You are one dumb motherfucker. You and Icee should start a think tank where you sit around coming up with stupid ideas and reciting bullshit back and forth to each other. 1) They could have shot it over water before it reached Alaska. 2) There was NO reason to blast it with a sidewinder missile and create a 7-mile debris field. Prior to the shoot-down, every single military commentator said you put some holes in the balloon, and it slowly drifts down to earth with very little risk in an open area like the mid-west. The way they took this down was a complete and total failure. Unless there was some other reason they wanted it blasted into a million pieces.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    @ Orange, wld4testes is a good comrade, he follows the leftist mantra of if you repeat something wrong over and over you might change a few weak minds and magically make it right. Reason is something that never works with that bunch.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ True. Within minutes of "sidewinder missile" being reported, I predicted exactly what the mainstream media would say (scroll up). Praising Biden, repeating the "danger" of bringing this down over land, and ignoring the fact it could have been done with almost no risk at all. As if on cue, wld4boners starts using those exact same bullshit talking points. The little faggot is just a lost sheep.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    Once it floated out into the Atlantic, destroying it was nearly pointless. It just showed how weak and indecisive Biden and his military are, and gave China all the intel they wanted an excuse to respond in kind. China just violated our sovereignty with impunity. Our executive response? Weak and feckless, practically non-existent. This dereliction of duty is grounds for impeachment.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    @misterorange: "useful idiot" is the official democrat moniker for voters like w4t
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    I'm telling you Xi Jinping has weight on Biden because that fuck and his junkie son did a shit-ton of dirty business over there. Whatever was on that balloon had something to do with Biden or they wouldn't have smashed it to bits like it was one of Hillary's fucking hard drives. Those chinamen are laughing their little chinaman asses off over there and I'm sure this is not the last provocation where Joe will respond with inexplicable stupidity. This was Xi poking his thumb in Joe's eye, letting him know not to fuck with China or they will ruin his Presidency even faster than he's doing that by himself.
  • Studme53
    •
    a year ago
    How long before Joe privately apologizes to Xi and gives them something of much higher value?
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ Probably done already.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Pure wild speculation orange, which really calls into question your prior comments as well. As does your tagline "FUCK Joe Biden"... who really thinks you're capable of providing a rational analysis of anything related to Biden? LOL. Maybe a few other right wing koolaid drinkers. As for your two points above, I'll defer to what our military has to say.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Oh, I was wondering when wld4ding-a-lings would chime in again.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Here's a statement from a senior defense official. "The surveillance balloon's overflight of U.S. territory was of intelligence value to us," the official said during a briefing on Saturday. "We were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable."
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Meanwhile, far right idiots like Marjorie Taylor Greene were suggesting US citizens shoot at the balloon to take it down. Which forced local police in both North and South Carolina to issue warnings to residents to NOT shoot at the balloon.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    @wld4gonads Look, you dumb fuck. You can quote unnamed Biden lapdogs all day long. And I can look up quotes from retired 3-star Generals and other military experts that dispute whatever you say. The bottom line is they destroyed the spy device beyond repair, when they could have easily brought it down intact over land or sea, whichever. So now all we're left with is a he said / she said / you said / they said situation because any real evidence is gone. And I'm saying there's no way they would have done that unless they're covering up what was on that fucking balloon. It's not a wild conspiracy theory, just common sense to anyone with some degree of intelligence. Even if your unnamed source was truthful in saying they learned "something" from this thing while it was flying, any idiot can surmise that "something more" could have been learned by capturing the device intact and sending it to a laboratory.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    This balloon shoot-down was akin to the Keystone Cops showing up to the scene of a murder, finding a bloody baseball bat next to the body, and the first thing they do is throw it into a burning fireplace. Then they say, "Yeahhh, hmmm, there was a bat. Could have been the murder weapon. Didn't look like there were any fingerprints on it, so we burned it up."
  • mike710
    •
    a year ago
    It was just delivering Eric Swalwell's mail order bride from China. Nothing to worry about.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    Shooting the balloon down after it had passed over our entire airspace and out over the ocean, is the TUSCL equivalent of a monger closing out the strip club and taking a Viagra in his car, alone, at 2:01AM. It is indefensible pointless and stupid, and only a leftist shill like wld4cocks would try and praise it.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    >And I'm saying there's no way they would have done that unless they're covering up what was on that fucking balloon. It's not a wild conspiracy theory, just common sense to anyone with some degree of intelligence. Wait, you're saying China maybe had some dirt on Biden, and it was on that balloon, so Biden wanted it destroyed? If China wanted to release some dirt on Biden, why wouldn't they just put it on the internet ?
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    @wld4ballsinyourmouth How fucking stupid can you be? If you had dirt on your next door neighbor and you wanted to blackmail him, would you put it out on the internet and then expect him to pay you? Xi is fucking with Biden, making him nervous, and putting him in a position where there isn't any good option. Once they failed to stop that thing over the Aleutian Islands, Xi was calling the shots. Then Biden made the best bad decision he could under the circumstances. Not best for America, I mean for himself, politically. At least he came away from it with no hard evidence of anything, and with the help of the corrupt media brainless morons like you will celebrate him. To normal people he looks like a fucking FOOL but he's well accustomed to that. Nobody expects anything more from him.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    OK so Xi put dirt on the balloon to blackmail Biden, is that it ? LMFAO
  • Studme53
    •
    a year ago
    Biden admin tries to hide everything embarrassing or challenging for the old dim wit and it usually blows up in their face. Even the Democratic media lap dogs are tired of burning credibility spinning for him
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    @wld4dickintheass Call it whatever you want you fuckin jackass. I'm saying Biden is so dirty, the Clintons are jealous of how dirty he is. He's so dirty, when he vacations every single weekend in Delaware, I can smell his stink up in central NJ, and that's on top of the already existing stink from oil refineries and landfills. I'll repeat for the umpteenth time it is way beyond suspicious, beyond comprehension really, that they blew that device to kingdom come. You pop the balloon, and you pick up the device, it's that fucking simple. If for no other reason than you don't want to litter the ocean with a million pieces of busted up electronic junk. It's just common sense, of which you obviously have none. They blasted that thing into oblivion for no apparent reason. You don't do that unless you're trying to hide something. The whole thing stinks like shit. So "LMFAO" all day and night you dumb fucking cunt. You're an idiot if you believe a single thing that Joe or any one of his quacking duck spokespeople ever says.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    ^ Amen
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    ' any idiot can surmise that "something more" could have been learned by capturing the device intact' No doubt
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Of course there could be another explanation. One sidewinder missile costs roughly $470,000. A few 20mm cannon shots probably cost about a hundred bucks. Maybe Joe just couldn't resist the chance to piss away some more of our tax dollars.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Well orange either you believe in your bullshit theory or you don't, which is it?
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    It also remains to be seen whether it was 'blasted into oblivion'. It looks like the missile hit the balloon, not the payload. [view link]
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    @wld4ajizzmilkshake Yeah that's probably what caused the 7-mile-long debris field and why after more than 24 hours there's been no report of wreckage recovery or even sighting of it in 45 feet of water.
  • ilbbaicnl
    •
    a year ago
  • motorhead
    •
    a year ago
    The scariest part of this for me to come out was the fact some “experts” claimed we didn’t initially shoot it down because “it’s not so easy to bring it down”. (Little heat signature, hard to detect on radar etc) If true, it really makes one question our military capabilities - the damn thing was the size of 3 busses. As it turns our, it didn’t seem so hard. Maybe the experts were just mouthing the company line. I’d love to hear an interview with the actual pilots to hear truthfully how difficult it was.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    Likely, it wasn't hard at all. The target was 120ft x 120ft. It would have been very east to lase the target or visually guide in the missile. No mention was made of stealth or radar defeating paneling on the balloon, so it also could have been a radar guided missile. Other accounts place the missile at 60,000' at the time it was shot down and the F-22 has a service ceiling of 65,000. That is crucial. It means the cannon could have been used to "pop" the balloon and keep the payload intact. Even a deflated balloon would have acted as an airfoil and slowed the descent of the payload and make recovery easier. There is every reason to believe it could have been stopped/destroyed at the Alaskan ADIZ. I would be more afraid if NORAD did not know about it, than if they knew about it and conspired to hide it from the public. The lack of action, whether from ignorance or deception, if abhorrent. Rogue nations already have nuked- Pakistan and the DPRK. Iran has all but completed their nuclear program. Just imagine if some ship, sitting out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, were to attach a nuclear device to a super-high altitude balloon and detonate it over the central US. An EMP could be more destructive than several nukes. Over the heartland disabling midwest food production. Disabling all rail, airplane, and vehicular transportation. A big hole in the middle of our communication and internet network. Million of tons of various base and finished product gone. The damage to our nation would be catastrophic.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Some of these balloons are capable of heights over 120,000 feet. I'll bet at that level they are a lot harder to detect and/or bring down.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    Let's apply Occam's Razor, shall we? From Patrick Hauf at Fox News Digital: "The Pentagon said it waited to destroy the Chinese balloon over concerns the debris could harm civilians and destroy property. Weichert said there may be more at play, as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was set to visit China on an official trip this week before it was suspended after media backlash over the balloon, leading to a public debacle that "made us look weak." "This was a political decision — they didn't want to upset China before the event," Weichert told Fox News Digital. "Biden is willing to sell out our national security to get a piece of paper with China on global warming."" full article here: [view link]
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ I can totally see that... especially he's got jackwagons like Al Gore and John Kerry whispering in his ear.
  • motorhead
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ yeah, I said all along the danger to humans on the ground was overstated BS. Canada said it supported shooting down the balloon so I’m guessing they would not have objected if it was shot down over Canada. Multiple opportunities to knock ii out of the air over Alaska, Canada, Montana or the Dakota’s with very minimal risk
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    Biden quietly released al Qaeda terrorist Majid Khan to Belize after 16 years in CIA custody in Guantanamo Bay as US was focused on Chinese spy balloon: Terrorist who was radicalized by 9/11 says: 'I promise I've changed'
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Oh cool another right wing kook theory: Biden was trying to keep the whole balloon thing hush hush to not upset China prior to a climate deal discussion. That sure fits right in with last week's announcement of the US-Philippine military base agreement.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    Speaking of a kook theory, the “ there were balloons during Trumps presidency “ has been changed to reflect the lack of evidence. It’s now “ there were balloons, but General Milley hid it from Trump to prevent him overreacting”.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    From the NY Post “China accused the United States of indiscriminate use of force Monday after two US Air Force fighter jets shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast — saying the response dealt a “serious blow” to relations between the two countries. Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng placed a formal complaint with the American Embassy over the “US attack on a Chinese civilian unmanned airship by military force.” Fuck em
  • Studme53
    •
    a year ago
    My handjob neighbors have a sign on their lawn that says “We believe in science!” So they believed the Chinese scientists when they said Covid came from bats sold in a flee market, not created in the lab next door. Why would scientists lie? Trump didn’t believe them because he’s racist. So I guess they believe the Chinese scientists who say it was a weather balloon. Anyone who doesn’t believe them is racist.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    Chinese donations to University of Pennsylvania totaled $61 million from 2017-19, an increase from $19 million during the previous four years. The managing director of the Penn Biden Center from 2017-2019 was Antony Blinken, current Sec of State.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    Inflation before Biden: 1.4% Inflation with Biden: 6.5% Gas prices before Biden: $2.39 Gas prices with Biden: $3.45 Border crossings before Biden: 73,994 Border crossings with Biden: 251,487 That's the real State of our Union.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    What’s Going On? US Military NOW SAYS There Were SIX China Spy Balloons Spotted During Trump Years – BUT NO ONE WAS NOTIFIED
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Here's the MTG tweet scrub: "It would be great if an average Joe shot it down because China Joe won’t." Not that anyone believes you though, you've got the lowest cred on TUSCL by far. [view link]
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    An article from newsweek, the bastion of accurate/factual/centrist reporting, Lol According to this writer the balloon is an embarrassment to china, not us. [view link]
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    Who has the lowest credibility on TUSCL? There's a thread for the ages.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ Hmmm, let's see... wld4gaysex maybe?
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    Turns out all that talk of UFOs was actually a way for the US government to hide Chinese surveillance from us for a decade [view link]
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    Oh gee? What's different this time? Object shot down after entering Alaska air space. [view link] I guess brandon is still smarting after the whipping he received over last week's shoot down so maybe his handlers decided it's not so smart to wait 3 days this time Lol
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    And again they blew it up. Put a couple bullet holes in it and it drifts down, probably with enough helium left in the deflated balloon to stay afloat until you can fish it out of the water. But NOPE - Let's obliterate the fucking thing.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    How can the Iranians hijack one of our drones, but we can only shoot this shit down?
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    I'm sure the US military reviewed all options, and there were sound reasons for the decision.
  • Hank Moody
    •
    a year ago
    This one wasn’t a balloon. It was a drone. No balloon to pop.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    ^^ wld4buttpirates Yes, sound reasons, I'm sure. Completely illogical, but definitely sound. Let's never question authority.
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    @JimmyMcNulty - Sure sounds like a balloon to me. At least more balloon than drone. According to ABC news: ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz first reported that when fighters were scrambled, the pilots did visuals, got images and said there was no sign the object had propulsion. It was described as "cylindrical and silver-ish gray" and seemed to be floating, a U.S. official said. Asked if was "balloon-like," the official said, "All I say is that it wasn't 'flying' with any sort of propulsion, so if that is 'balloon-like' well -- we just don't have enough at this point." [view link]
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Haha... now there's another one. Yeah #3. It's getting to be a joke. Maybe it's Raytheon doing it, since we shoot one of their half million dollar missiles every time. Lol
  • doctorevil
    •
    a year ago
    Now another shoot down, the fourth in eight days. Sure seems like someone is probing out air defenses.
  • orionsmith
    •
    a year ago
    The Chinese can spend a few million on hundreds or thousands of balloons with the ability to carry nuclear missiles and US satellites are apparently only set up to detect missile launches, not balloons floating over. It’s not a threat until an attack happens. A few EMP detonations via harmless weather balloons and the US population will be n the dark for months. Welcome to a mad max world. China’s probably secret way of saying if we go to war over Taiwan, they may not play nice. Plus a prediction that 90% of the US population will die if the power is out for a whole year. Of course the current administration doesn’t want the thought that we can’t defend ourselves from this kind of threat to be taken seriously. We need to have backups and get ready to bring the US grid back quickly to adequately prepare for war. That is if we can’t detect and stop potential EMP attacks by balloon. A few balloons and a surprise EMP attack, what are we going to do? Nuke China in response? They could do a surprise attack, then quickly attack Taiwan.
  • orionsmith
    •
    a year ago
    Never mind my post above. No one would ever dare to do a surprise attack on the US with a low tech thing like a balloon with EMP weapons or box cutters on airplanes.
  • gammanu95
    •
    a year ago
    An EMP is a weapon of mass destruction as clearly as any radiological, chemical, biological, or nuclear weapon. Our silos are hardened, we have nuclear weapons in overseas bases, and our ballistic missile submarines are always out there. Even if an EMP disabled the entire nation, we could hit them right back and more. Mutually assured destruction is still the deterrent.
  • mark94
    •
    a year ago
    One of the UFOs shot down last weekend by the US Air Force with a $400,000 missile may have simply been a $12 balloon belonging to an Illinois enthusiast club, a report said. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week on Thursday that it fears one of its diligently-tracked gasbags that recently went missing was mistaken as the mystery object taken out by the military over Canada on Saturday.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Another brain-dead copy and paste from Mark, from the trash tabloid NY Post. Of course, if that balloon was still up in the air, right wingers would be screaming about it. LOL I guess it's party over for the Bottlecap Balloon Brigade. Maybe they can pay the $400,000 bill?
  • Hank Moody
    •
    a year ago
    Sorry, wld, mark has you on this one. All the frothing at the mouth about the Chinese balloon led to some trigger happy stupidity. [view link] [view link]
  • misterorange
    •
    a year ago
    Turns out that balloon is the one they missed and had to fire a second missile, so we really spent $800,000 to bring it down.
  • TheeOSU
    •
    a year ago
    Well all of that is part of brandon's history of being on the wrong side of everything. Even nobama said something akin to "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up."
  • Hank Moody
    •
    a year ago
    “I guess it's party over for the Bottlecap Balloon Brigade. Maybe they can pay the $400,000 bill?” The balloon had a right to be there. I think the US owes the Bottlecap Brigade $12.
  • twentyfive
    •
    a year ago
    I don’t know for sure but what’s being said makes sense to my logical mind, the first balloon was Chinese and probably intentionally sent, we recalibrated our radar, and picked up a whole bunch of nothings, my guess is NORAD recalibrates their radars and updates the software and we’re not under any more threat then we ever were.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    Jim I didn't opine on whether the right decision was made by our military leaders (though I'm not going to second guess it at this point). I said that right wingers would be screaming if the balloon was still up in the air. Which we all know is 100% true. They are out to politicize it, as usual.
  • Hank Moody
    •
    a year ago
    I took your post as not believing the report that it was a pico balloon.
  • wld4tatas
    •
    a year ago
    If these pico balloons are truly authorized to be there, then you have a point maybe the US owes them $12. I imagine there is going to be a review of regulations and policies covering these balloons now.
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