Chinese spy balloon over USA

[ryoder 1,590]

Apparently, Jr has a sense of humor. I screen-grabbed this directly from his Twitter account:

 

[gowlerk 2,198]

And today the US shot down "something" at 40,000 ft over Alaska. Word on the street is that China will soon protest by launching 99 red balloons over Disney World in CA. 

[ryoder 1,590]

Is there a bag limit on these?

US shoots down another ‘high-altitude object’ over Alaska

[billvon 2,995]

So MTG has the vapors over this balloon.  She is angry that no one shot it down and that we now look "weak" - we should have retaliated somehow.  She further is portraying the balloon as some kind of combination space telescope/Xray device, one that can "gather intel from all our military bases, our food factories, our cities, our critical infrastructure to send it back to China."  But this one is in a balloon, not on the satellites that actually have great optics for just that purpose.  She blamed Biden, the DOD and the Pentagon (not sure where she draws the line between the last two) for not acting more aggressively, asking "why our government is afraid of China."

And then she tweeted the lyrics to that Nena song.

First she overreacts to a few balloons and calls for retaliation, then manages to find the only popular song in existence that explicitly warns people against overreacting and retaliating when balloons drift over their country.  And something tells me she isn't even aware of the irony.

Reminds me of all the republicans who were playing "Born in the USA" for their ultra-patriotism rallies:

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
 . . . .
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

[kallend 2,027]

I'm not sure who is worse, MTG or the imbeciles who voted for her.

[JoeWeber 2,720]

3 hours ago, kallend said:

I'm not sure who is worse, MTG or the imbeciles who voted for her.

I'm thinking about certain persons who post here and have not been able to de-tribe for 2 seconds to say out loud, and without encouragement, that she's a disaster of republican construct. But they won't because they can not without admitting that how they have voted for years is why she exists.

[ryoder 1,590]

3 hours ago, kallend said:

I'm not sure who is worse, MTG or the imbeciles who voted for her.

You mean that clueless fool who was just berating Twitter execs for "violating her first amendment rights"?

People who have never read the Constitution have no business in the House nor the Senate.

[JoeWeber 2,720]

56 minutes ago, ryoder said:

People who have never read the Constitution have no business in the House nor the Senate.

That's a problem, sure, but the USSC justices who have read it but do not understand it is the real problem.

[kallend 2,027]

6 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

That's a problem, sure, but the USSC justices who have read it but do not understand it is the real problem.

Oh, they understand it just fine.  They simply distort it to meet their own ends.

[ryoder 1,590]

22 hours ago, gowlerk said:

And today the US shot down "something" at 40,000 ft over Alaska. Word on the street is that China will soon protest by launching 99 red balloons over Disney World in CA. 

On another forum, some wag started a thread about this, titled:

US shoots down Santa's sleigh, during a routine maintenance flight

LOL!

[ryoder 1,590]

It sounds like yet another "object" has been shut down today over the Yukon:

Norad shoots down 'unidentified object' over Yukon, PM Trudeau says

[Phil1111 1,149]

1 hour ago, ryoder said:

It sounds like yet another "object" has been shut down today over the Yukon:

Norad shoots down 'unidentified object' over Yukon, PM Trudeau says

See, that answers perfectly Joe's concerns about the lack of Canada's spending on defense. The F-22 pilot can paint a red balloon kill under his cockpit canopy. Both Canada and the US can feel good about it all. The money Canada saved on deferring the purchase of new F-35s. Can pay for some new hip replacements of Canadian seniors.

A win all around!

[kallend 2,027]

Thanks to the "just shoot 'em down" mentality of certain politicians it appears that a cheap way for some hostile nation to make us waste our $400,000 AIM-9X missiles is to launch car size helium balloons with some kind of dummy payload and let them drift over on the prevailing winds.

I reckon they could manage a cost/benefit ratio of around 1000:1 

[lippy 918]

7 minutes ago, kallend said:

Thanks to the "just shoot 'em down" mentality of certain politicians it appears that a cheap way for some hostile nation to make us waste our $400,000 AIM-9X missiles is to launch car size helium balloons with some kind of dummy payload and let them drift over on the prevailing winds.

I reckon they could manage a cost/benefit ratio of around 1000:1 

By my count that's 3 luftballoons down, 96 to go

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

1 hour ago, kallend said:

Thanks to the "just shoot 'em down" mentality of certain politicians it appears that a cheap way for some hostile nation to make us waste our $400,000 AIM-9X missiles is to launch car size helium balloons with some kind of dummy payload and let them drift over on the prevailing winds.

I reckon they could manage a cost/benefit ratio of around 1000:1 

Well, if it happened a bunch of times, I'd be more suspicious of Raytheon, rather than 'some hostile nation'.

 

[ryoder 1,590]

Number 4, (assuming I haven't lost count):

US fighter jet shoots down airborne object over Lake Huron on Sunday

At least the F-16s are getting in on the action now.

[ryoder 1,590]

NYT seems to have dug up the backstory on the Chinese balloons:

China’s Top Airship Scientist Promoted Program to Watch the World From Above

[JerryBaumchen 1,364]

3 hours ago, ryoder said:

NYT seems to have dug up the backstory on the Chinese balloons:

China’s Top Airship Scientist Promoted Program to Watch the World From Above

Hi Robert,

It would seem as though he has been a very busy boy:  Top general says suspected Chinese spy balloons have flown over Middle East - POLITICO

Jerry Baumchen

[kallend 2,027]

Why it's a bad idea to shoot down UFOs over the continental US.

From the BBC:

In the Lake Huron strike, the first Sidewinder missile fired by the US F-16 warplane missed its target and exploded in an unknown location, US media reported, citing military sources.

 

[piisfish 140]

I wonder why they missile down those things. They should cannon/gun them down, would make for a slower fall and ease the research of the bits and pieces. 

[JoeWeber 2,720]

1 hour ago, piisfish said:

I wonder why they missile down those things. They should cannon/gun them down, would make for a slower fall and ease the research of the bits and pieces. 

Altitude.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

10 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Altitude.

In all fairness, that was the reason for the balloon. A few of the subsequent objects were at reported altitudes well within the range of the engaging fighter jets.

[JoeWeber 2,720]

2 minutes ago, SkyDekker said:

In all fairness, that was the reason for the balloon. A few of the subsequent objects were at reported altitudes well within the range of the engaging fighter jets.

The gentlemen was interested in knowing why missiles were used and not gunnery. I believe the answer is that at those altitudes gunnery is substantially less effective. I'll defer to your better understanding and await someone asking why it was the Chinese.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

1 minute ago, JoeWeber said:

I believe the answer is that at those altitudes gunnery is substantially less effective.

At 40,000 and 20,000 feet gunnery is less effective than at what altitude? What exactly makes it less effective?

[gowlerk 2,198]

7 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

The gentlemen was interested in knowing why missiles were used and not gunnery. I believe the answer is that at those altitudes gunnery is substantially less effective. I'll defer to your better understanding and await someone asking why it was the Chinese.

Most likely the object look a lot like a nail. Therefore they did the logical thing and took the hammer to it.