Say Hello to a Chinese Reconnaissance Balloon

 

A Chinese reconnaissance balloon has been hovering over Alaska, Canada, and Montana. The Pentagon says it has stayed for longer than “normal.” Normal? Is it normal for Chinese reconnaissance balloons to stay for any amount of time over the US? Apparently so.

But the Pentagon is not concerned. They don’t believe these balloons can collect much information that China can’t get from other means anyway. Plus, it might be dangerous to shoot it down.

What in the actual hell? The Pentagon can’t figure out why the Chinese keep sending these “useless” balloons to fly near military installations? Maybe, just maybe, they are not useless.

General Milley should be required to wear a dress to work until that thing is shot down.

Published in Foreign Policy
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  1. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.  

    • #61
  2. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    • #62
  3. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered. 

    • #63
  4. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Chowderhead (View Comment):

    WilliamDean (View Comment):

    I suspect they don’t want to shoot those balloons down until they can figure out what is in it. It’s been asked many times in this thread what can reconnaissance a balloon can provide that their hi-tech satellites can’t? Has it been considered that perhaps reconnaissance isn’t it’s purpose? What balloons can do that satellites can’t is carry things, and potentially deliver them. We have no idea what could be on that thing. My imagination can conjure up a lot of possibilities that would lead me to not want that thing coming to ground anywhere near us.

    My AR can poke a couple pretty little holes in it and bring it down slowly. Well, if I could reach it. You get the point. It is there for intimidation.

    Or maybe the balloon was sent so that  we would shoot it down. And then who knows what it would release into our atmosphere?

    • #64
  5. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    It’s been an ongoing concern.

    https://www.newsweek.com/us-running-out-weapons-send-ukraine-1775408

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html

    • #65
  6. Steve Fast Member
    Steve Fast
    @SteveFast

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    It’s been an ongoing concern.

    https://www.newsweek.com/us-running-out-weapons-send-ukraine-1775408

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html

    It’s crazy that we are running out of weapons so quickly, but it’s good that we figured out this is a problem now instead of a week into a war with China.

    • #66
  7. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Or could it be that our helping the Ukraine is part of the ChiCom plan? The major parties for whom this war is an advantage happen to be China and India, who can sit back in peace and comfort and watch Nations 3 and 4 tear each other apart.

    • #67
  8. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    BREAKING: Biden Must Have Sanctioned the China Flight Over the US – Per Former RAF and Commercial Pilot (thegatewaypundit.com)

    • #68
  9. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    On the other hand…

    It isn’t necessary to get the whole story on everything.  It isn’t necessary to know everything.  What is necessary in this case is to know that the Commies have violated our air space.  What is necessary isn’t second-guessing, but to actually DO something about it. 

    If innocents die, who is at fault? If a release of some terrible plague results, who is at fault? 

    Shoot it down!  Yesterday!

    • #69
  10. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    Steve Fast (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    It’s been an ongoing concern.

    https://www.newsweek.com/us-running-out-weapons-send-ukraine-1775408

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html

    It’s crazy that we are running out of weapons so quickly, but it’s good that we figured out this is a problem now instead of a week into a war with China.

    We’d probably run out of backbone before the supply of weapons were exhausted. 

    • #70
  11. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    It’s been an ongoing concern.

    https://www.newsweek.com/us-running-out-weapons-send-ukraine-1775408

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html

    Depends on the meaning of “it.”   If you mean there have been questions about military stockpiles, yes, there have been.  That’s why it costs money to send weapons to Ukraine.  We have to replace them, and Biden has to figure out how to turn those procurements into financial advantage for Democrats.  It’s hard work.  

    But you said this, and that’s what I’m referring to:

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    We are not sending ALL of our weapons to Ukraine. Biden has been rather stingy about what we’ve been sending to Ukraine.  And if you didn’t mean ALL, maybe you shouldn’t have said ALL if you wanted to be taken seriously.

    And Perun has given thought to how to replace them, which I would say means he isn’t the only person who thinks about these things, because he doesn’t invent these data on his own.

     

     

    • #71
  12. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Or could it be that our helping the Ukraine is part of the ChiCom plan? The major parties for whom this war is an advantage happen to be China and India, who can sit back in peace and comfort and watch Nations 3 and 4 tear each other apart.

    Teaching the world how Taiwan can resist invasion by China is part of the ChiCom plan?  I don’t think so.  

    • #72
  13. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Django (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Pentagon Briefing On Chinese Spy Balloon: “Does Not Pose A Risk To People On The Ground”

    The balloon “has the ability to maneuver” and has “changed course,” he explained. “Currently it does not pose a physical or military risk to people on the ground.”

    “It will probably be over the US for a few days.”

    “The balloon continues to move eastward… We’re not going to get into an hour-by-hour location of the balloon. We’re monitoring it closely. As I mentioned, it is over the center of the continental United States, that’s about as specific as I’m going to get,” he said.

    “Does the public not have a right to know?” a reporter asked.

    “The public certainly has the ability to look up at the sky and see where the balloon is,” he replied.

    Another reporter asked: “If the [Chinese spy balloon] is violating our airspace, why not take it down?”

    The Pentagon spokesman replied: “We assessed that it does not pose a risk to people on the ground as it is traversing the continental United States.”

    What the hell, Pentagon?

    I remember someone saying that “over-flying a country without its permission is an act of war.” More than one legal beagle has said that is true. If you do it with a B-52, it has to be. Satellites don’t care about boundaries and Kepler don’t lie, so we all look the other way. Where do balloons fit in? Is shooting it down an act of war?

    I think anything over FL600 is not controlled airspace so maybe it’s a middle area. The Pentagon might be being cautious because of some capability we will want to try. 

    • #73
  14. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Pentagon Briefing On Chinese Spy Balloon: “Does Not Pose A Risk To People On The Ground”

    The balloon “has the ability to maneuver” and has “changed course,” he explained. “Currently it does not pose a physical or military risk to people on the ground.”

    “It will probably be over the US for a few days.”

    “The balloon continues to move eastward… We’re not going to get into an hour-by-hour location of the balloon. We’re monitoring it closely. As I mentioned, it is over the center of the continental United States, that’s about as specific as I’m going to get,” he said.

    “Does the public not have a right to know?” a reporter asked.

    “The public certainly has the ability to look up at the sky and see where the balloon is,” he replied.

    Another reporter asked: “If the [Chinese spy balloon] is violating our airspace, why not take it down?”

    The Pentagon spokesman replied: “We assessed that it does not pose a risk to people on the ground as it is traversing the continental United States.”

    What the hell, Pentagon?

    I remember someone saying that “over-flying a country without its permission is an act of war.” More than one legal beagle has said that is true. If you do it with a B-52, it has to be. Satellites don’t care about boundaries and Kepler don’t lie, so we all look the other way. Where do balloons fit in? Is shooting it down an act of war?

    I think anything over FL600 is not controlled airspace so maybe it’s a middle area. The Pentagon might be being cautious because of some capability we will want to try.

    Gary Powers was shot down at about 70,000 ft. The internet tells me the balloon is at about 66,000 ft. altitude. 

     

    • #74
  15. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    Gary Powers was shot down at about 70,000 ft. The internet tells me the balloon is at about 66,000 ft. altitude. 

    I think the Pentagon is more concerned about the intersectionality of dealing with the balloon than the mechanics of shooting it down. 

    This is an own-goal by the Bidet Administration.

    • #75
  16. Chowderhead Coolidge
    Chowderhead
    @Podunk

    Well, it looks like Biden finally got permission from his boss Xi to shoot the balloon down.

    Edit: Drudge is still the only one saying it as of 6:50am

    link

     

    • #76
  17. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    Maybe our ruling class believe they are just renting us out. 

    • #77
  18. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Chowderhead (View Comment):

    WilliamDean (View Comment):

    I suspect they don’t want to shoot those balloons down until they can figure out what is in it. It’s been asked many times in this thread what can reconnaissance a balloon can provide that their hi-tech satellites can’t? Has it been considered that perhaps reconnaissance isn’t it’s purpose? What balloons can do that satellites can’t is carry things, and potentially deliver them. We have no idea what could be on that thing. My imagination can conjure up a lot of possibilities that would lead me to not want that thing coming to ground anywhere near us.

    My AR can poke a couple pretty little holes in it and bring it down slowly. Well, if I could reach it. You get the point. It is there for intimidation.

    Or maybe the balloon was sent so that we would shoot it down. And then who knows what it would release into our atmosphere?

    Is it over D.C. yet? 

    • #78
  19. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    Chowderhead (View Comment):

    Well, it looks like Biden finally got permission from his boss Xi to shoot the balloon down.

    Edit: Drudge is still the only one saying it as of 6:50am

    link

    I heard someone was shouting “Wolverines” just before the Red Balloon popped.

    • #79
  20. Nanocelt TheContrarian Member
    Nanocelt TheContrarian
    @NanoceltTheContrarian

    At one time my son (born in the USA) was engaged in making a documentary film about levee systems in Louisiana. As part of that effort, he would fly a drone to film levee construction projects undertaken by the Army Corp of Engineers. These were public projects and he had every right to be doing that. Yet he was routinely detained and prevented from filming such construction with his drone.

    But China can surveil our ICBM sites at will?

    How much money did Biden get from the Chinese?  Farmland and University professors don’t seem to be the only things the Chinese are buying. Looks like Biden’s income after his vice-Presidency was coming from the Chinese via the Penn Biden Center. Obviously we can’t call him a Manchurian President because that would presuppose a brain that could be washed. His, such as it is, apparently was simply bought by the Chinese like some Iowa farmland.

    Thanks to all those former and current CIA and  FBI Intelligence officials, along with the social media titans, who got Biden elected. Next we are going to have to ask, not “Who lost China?”  but “Who lost America?”  This time it seems the State Department had a very limited role and a very lot of help from other quarters, public and private.

    One reminisces on Clinton’s 1996 campaign, which was funded by the Chinese military (via the Riady family, buddhist temple fundraisers, Charlie Trie, Maria Hsia, etc–“No controlling legal authority”Gore), for which paltry sums the Chinese got our top nuclear warhead designs (blamed conveniently on Wen Ho Lee, falsely), our nuclear submarine technology, and the wherewithal (with the help of Bernie Shwartz and Loral) to get their ICBMs off the launchpad without exploding. And ultimately, by the end of Clinton’s second term, the Chinese got permanent Most Favored Nation trading status (Phil Gramm emoted ecstatically on that vote, saying “This is the reason we kiss all those babies, to pass legislation like this!!!” or something similar), which led to China’s admission (early in the W administration) to membership in the WTO without ever having to obey the rules. Then you heard a truly giant sucking sound  of jobs flowing to China, and saw the Chinese economy explode, accompanied by increasing hostility to America and threats to Asian neighbors. To counter all this we had, of course, Obama’s pivot to Asia which wasn’t. There was a hiatus with Trump. Then the virus hit, courtesy of China, for which China has had no international accountability forced upon it (but we did fund it, even though China developed it, and, like China, we punished our own citizens for the virus while all officials responsible have skated.

    Now it’s off to the races with Biden, with the US now surrendering its airspace to China. And Blinkin furiously winkin’ and noddin’ with the postponement of his trip.

    • #80
  21. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Steve Fast (View Comment):

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Steve Fast:

    General Milley should be required to wear a dress to work until that thing is shot down.

    You assume that would be a punishment.

    He would have some familiar company . . .

    Did they play real football or powderpuff football?

    Is there a picture of Milley at QB standing behind Levine at center?

    • #81
  22. DrewInWisconsin, Oik Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oik
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Behold the Tweet of a broken man:

    (And he is also an enemy of the United States.)

    The replies are golden.

    • #82
  23. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Oik (View Comment):

    Is our entire government compromised by the Chinese?

    Have we already been conquered?

    No. We wouldn’t be helping Ukraine if the Chicoms had already conquered us.

    Unless getting us to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them is how they’ll take over. Just sayin’.

    Since nobody has decided to send all our weapons to Ukraine with no thought or plan to replace them, that would indicate we aren’t already conquered.

    It’s called extending. It is a legit military tactic.

    Hers’s a plan on how to do it to Russia:

    https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3063.html

    It looks more like we are the ones being extended.

    • #83
  24. Steve Fast Member
    Steve Fast
    @SteveFast

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Chowderhead (View Comment):

    WilliamDean (View Comment):

    I suspect they don’t want to shoot those balloons down until they can figure out what is in it. It’s been asked many times in this thread what can reconnaissance a balloon can provide that their hi-tech satellites can’t? Has it been considered that perhaps reconnaissance isn’t it’s purpose? What balloons can do that satellites can’t is carry things, and potentially deliver them. We have no idea what could be on that thing. My imagination can conjure up a lot of possibilities that would lead me to not want that thing coming to ground anywhere near us.

    My AR can poke a couple pretty little holes in it and bring it down slowly. Well, if I could reach it. You get the point. It is there for intimidation.

    Or maybe the balloon was sent so that we would shoot it down. And then who knows what it would release into our atmosphere?

    Is it over D.C. yet?

    Maybe it was supposed to pick up Biden and Commala and take them back to the mother ship in Beijing.

    • #84
  25. Steve Fast Member
    Steve Fast
    @SteveFast

    Bloomberg (via Daily Wire) is reporting that the Biden administration tried to conceal the balloon so as not to disrupt Blinken’s trip to China, but it was forced to acknowledge it when the Billings Gazette published a photo of it. But China obviously wasn’t concerned whether it would disrupt Blinken’s trip. Seems like Xi has full control of Biden. I’m so embarrassed for my country.

    Democratic Senator Jon Tester is going to hold hearings, and he’s not happy that this balloon floated over his home state and that his governor was not informed of what was going on. This balloon incident may turn out to be a big deal politically.

     

    • #85
  26. Steve Fast Member
    Steve Fast
    @SteveFast

    Here’s the story of the Montana photographer who went viral about the balloon.

    • #86
  27. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    On

    General Milley should be required to wear a dress to work until that thing is shot down.

    Give it a few years, that will be the new uniform for the “woke Military” 

    • #87
  28. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):

    On

    General Milley should be required to wear a dress to work until that thing is shot down.

    Give it a few years, that will be the new uniform for the “woke Military”

    They will claim some mumbo jumbo about kilts or the like. 

    • #88
  29. Chuck Coolidge
    Chuck
    @Chuckles

    Steve Fast (View Comment):
    I’m so embarrassed for my country.

    Well it’s been shot down, now that it’s seen all it wanted to see.  Big Whoop!

    • #89
  30. Steve Fast Member
    Steve Fast
    @SteveFast

    Chuck (View Comment):

    Steve Fast (View Comment):
    I’m so embarrassed for my country.

    Well it’s been shot down, now that it’s seen all it wanted to see. Big Whoop!

    It should have been shot down the moment it crossed into our territorial waters near Alaska. And Biden should have told the generals next time just to shoot down and not bother him with it. It’s so obvious what needed to be done, and they couldn’t do it.

    • #90
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