If Germany sent us their balloons, they would be much smaller. But there would be 99 of them. All red in color.

I love me some bill maher

Well yeah. Trump was abruptly and unilaterally changing US foreign policy on his own in a manor cabinet officials and other people working for the government refused to justify or defend like agreeing with Putin on Russian election interference or soliciting election interference/a bribe from Ukraine. So it was clear Trump was not really working on behalf of the US government but shady personal interest. Biden simply isn't doing that and the US government stands behind his policies.

Excellent.

On an almost weekly basis the US runs warships right by the artificial islands China built up in the South China Sea to assert our freedom of navigation. Our aircraft are engaged in a constant cat and mouse game with the Chinese airforce iin the airspace near the Chinese airfields. Biden in Sept 2022 approved the sale of 1.1 billion dollars in anti ship and air to air missiles to Taiwan, an island China considers an integral part of its national territory. They have seen Biden provide billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine to kill Russians.

Do you really think their assessment of Biden's resolve on national security is based on whether or not we choose to shoot down a balloon?

They shot down the balloon. Waited for it to get to the coast, but took it down within the 12 mile limit.

my uneducated guess from what i've read is, us noticed the balloon realized if it were giving information that it was giving no more information than satellites already over head and basically said "meh". Biden apparently gave the order to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as it was over water.

i do like the "wont it just fall straight down?" from 80,000 feet.

good republican PR to keep inserting the word "spy" into all talk about the balloon though. smart move

Nope

But I'm getting ready to replace my Ukrainian flag with whatever anti- cee cee pee flag gets promoted.

What sort of balloon do you think it is?

think they said it was a weather balloon. and while taking china at face value is silly. it seems equally silly that they would send a balloon to do a job that they are easily already doing from satellites.

We were lucky it was just one.

Well let's say that I agree that there are lots of answered questions about the whole thing and don't think that anything should be taken for granted

A second balloon was spotted over Latin America. Take that as you will.

Whatever the FAA says it is, I guess.

I assume there are international protocols about what constitutes a nation's airspace.

Like all borders they end and start where a country says they end and start. Respect for said claim depends on diplomacy, geography, politics, history, demography, alliances and language. Per tradition number of cannons is also very important.

I could be wrong, but I think with our technology we probably figured out quickly if the balloon was armed or not.

And you shoot it down while it's still over a sparsely populated region in Montana.

Although the animal "rights" crowd and assorted bureaucrats would be upset over the possible killing of wildlife without the written consent of the Department of the Interior.

Yes!

A+

Since they waited until the balloon was safely beyond range of land, I doubt this was the case. That is, either they thought there was risk shooting it down over land, or the balloon posed additional risk if it were to crash into the ground.

Offensive balloons are nothing new. The US developed those in the 50s. It's the perfect trolling weapon as most people think these things are harmless, as can be attested by near zero public perception of it as a threat.

Balloons can perform different tasks than satellites. They can be offensive weapons, and they can surveil using different techniques than satellites, as they are much closer to the ground.

Now that the Chinese 'weather balloon' has been shot down, the MAGAts can go back to obsessing over Hunter Biden's laptop.

That's a really good burn. I'm sure they'll all think twice before saying anything again should a similar situation arise.

Or maybe not.

Or maybe so.

So, are you going with some theory that the Chinese asked Joe to wait to shoot it down until after it crossed the country and supplied them with all that data?