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China's Spy Balloon

3 points by Leary 3y ago

h2odragon 3y ago
So the official explanation is that it was a weather balloon all along? The media threw a panic over nothing? say it ain't so, my heart can't take the thought /s There's people out there deeply convinced and ready to argue that the thing was under control the whole time and maneuvered against the wind (at least. some will claim it did UFO tricks). There's a few that said the whole panic was horse shit and it was a weather balloon from the start. Them folks mostly quit arguing about it a long time ago. The people that want to believe otherwise will do so no matter what; and their disconnect from reality ain't our problem. ..its a good reminder to ask, tho: where's the "after action" reports on that whole fiasco? how were continental defense radar filters changed? did they finally hook up with the FAA's amateur balloon registry thing so as to keep from shooting down more high school kids' projects? Or was the full result of that panic to get the media leaned on to stop talking about the unknown flying things that were drones and balloons and no one knew whose?
- mytailorisrich 3y ago
  Whatever it was we can ask ourselves if it is a good idea to send a balloon visible by everyone and extremely vulnerable to spy on the continental USA. If the answer is an emphatic 'no' then there is a good chance that it wasn't that...
- hindsightbias 3y ago
  Americans and HN couldn’t handle a whatever balloon, they surely couldn’t handle an alien vehicle.
- MilnerRoute 3y ago
  It was a spy balloon (according to the article). It's just the technology inside the balloon wasn't activated. China had a global surveillance program going. "According to U.S. officials, the balloon carried antennas and other equipment capable of geolocating communications signals, and similar balloons from China have flown over more than 40 nations." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/09/chinese-balloon-surveillance-program/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/09/...

3 points by Leary 3y ago

So the official explanation is that it was a weather balloon all along? The media threw a panic over nothing? say it ain't so, my heart can't take the thought /s There's people out there deeply convinced and ready to argue that the thing was under control the whole time and maneuvered against the wind (at least. some will claim it did UFO tricks). There's a few that said the whole panic was horse shit and it was a weather balloon from the start. Them folks mostly quit arguing about it a long time ago. The people that want to believe otherwise will do so no matter what; and their disconnect from reality ain't our problem. ..its a good reminder to ask, tho: where's the "after action" reports on that whole fiasco? how were continental defense radar filters changed? did they finally hook up with the FAA's amateur balloon registry thing so as to keep from shooting down more high school kids' projects? Or was the full result of that panic to get the media leaned on to stop talking about the unknown flying things that were drones and balloons and no one knew whose?

mytailorisrich 3y ago
Whatever it was we can ask ourselves if it is a good idea to send a balloon visible by everyone and extremely vulnerable to spy on the continental USA. If the answer is an emphatic 'no' then there is a good chance that it wasn't that...
hindsightbias 3y ago
Americans and HN couldn’t handle a whatever balloon, they surely couldn’t handle an alien vehicle.
MilnerRoute 3y ago
It was a spy balloon (according to the article). It's just the technology inside the balloon wasn't activated. China had a global surveillance program going. "According to U.S. officials, the balloon carried antennas and other equipment capable of geolocating communications signals, and similar balloons from China have flown over more than 40 nations." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/09/chinese-balloon-surveillance-program/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/09/...