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Colombia's Air Force said the object with "characteristics similar to those of a balloon" was detected on Friday and "monitored until it left the national air space."
The object flew at an altitude of 55,000 feet (17,000 meters) and an average speed of 25 knots (29 miles per hour, 46 kilometers per hour), said an air force statement Saturday, adding it "did not constitute a threat to national security and defense or to aviation security."

So China is sending balloons all over the Americas and now it's out somewhere over Venezuela or Brazil?

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02-06-2023 , 12:29 AM

#3052

Montrealcorp

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

To be sure, I have no idea what's going on here but the story smells like bullshit and there is zero reason to believe either the Pentagon or China-- both being known liars.

Come to think of it their was actually no balloon

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02-06-2023 , 12:31 AM

#3053

Luckbox Inc

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Originally Posted by Montrealcorp

Come to think of it their was actually no balloon

It's good that you're questioning these things now.

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02-06-2023 , 01:23 AM

#3054

chillrob

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

To be sure, I have no idea what's going on here but the story smells like bullshit and there is zero reason to believe either the Pentagon or China-- both being known liars.

Sure, but when they're telling the same story it's tough for me to believe something else is happening.

And the Republicans are taking the president to task about letting this thing float across our airspace for days. This isn't doing anything good for Biden. Do you really think he needed another opportunity to look like he is soft on China?

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02-06-2023 , 01:24 AM

#3055

chillrob

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

https://m.timesofindia.com/world/res...w/97626829.cms

Colombia's Air Force said the object with "characteristics similar to those of a balloon" was detected on Friday and "monitored until it left the national air space."
The object flew at an altitude of 55,000 feet (17,000 meters) and an average speed of 25 knots (29 miles per hour, 46 kilometers per hour), said an air force statement Saturday, adding it "did not constitute a threat to national security and defense or to aviation security."

So China is sending balloons all over the Americas and now it's out somewhere over Venezuela or Brazil?

You're our man in Colombia; what are people there saying about it?

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02-06-2023 , 01:58 AM

#3056

Montrealcorp

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

It's good that you're questioning these things now.

You really are into conspiracies aren’t u .

Let’s say you are right and both are lying and the balloon do not belong to any of them ?
What gains or purpose ?
And why risk strong exposure of a lie to being easily dismiss by the right proprietary of the balloon coming forward ?

And geopolitically, because of Russia situation , it is not in the best Interest of the US to lie just for fun and push China toward a better relation with Russia either .

Point being china and US have big domestic problem economically and other issues so why would they complicate their own life by lying about this ?

Last edited by Montrealcorp; 02-06-2023 at 02:04 AM.

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02-06-2023 , 03:24 AM

#3057

nutella virus

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It hovered over Montana, and that state is ripe with nukes. So likely real event, and not some international conglomerate's visual marketing campaign. But one can dream

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02-06-2023 , 08:54 AM

#3058

Luckbox Inc

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Originally Posted by chillrob

You're our man in Colombia; what are people there saying about it?

First I'd heard of it was last night but I don't have a TV. I do see from YouTube that at least one of the national broadcasters covered it but the tenor of the reporting and the statement released by the military suggests that it was no big deal.

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02-06-2023 , 09:24 AM

#3059

Luckbox Inc

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Originally Posted by Montrealcorp

You really are into conspiracies aren’t u .

Let’s say you are right and both are lying and the balloon do not belong to any of them ?

I'm saying it belongs to the US

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What gains or purpose ?

To manipulate the news cycle mostly

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And why risk strong exposure of a lie to being easily dismiss by the right proprietary of the balloon coming forward ?

That wouldn't happen since it's a US balloon.

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And geopolitically, because of Russia situation , it is not in the best Interest of the US to lie just for fun and push China toward a better relation with Russia either .

Point being china and US have big domestic problem economically and other issues so why would they complicate their own life by lying about this ?

I'm not sure I follow on this last question or how the balloon issue affects them economically or with Russia.

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02-06-2023 , 09:25 AM

#3060

Luckbox Inc

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Originally Posted by chillrob

Biden blew the balloon up and they're reporting that Trump had multiple balloons he didn't blow up. It's a win for Biden.

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02-06-2023 , 10:23 AM

#3061

lozen

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

Biden blew the balloon up and they're reporting that Trump had multiple balloons he didn't blow up. It's a win for Biden.

No it's not a win for Biden as we're talking about a balloon that we would not be talking about if the administration had told us about it before CBS broke the news. It takes away from everyone talking about the great job numbers of 517,000 only .

Same can be said about the classified documents that they hid from the people unless a news organization broadcast it

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02-06-2023 , 10:26 AM

#3062

Luckbox Inc

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Originally Posted by lozen

How did CBS break the news? Wasn't it because the Pentagon told them?

Hardly breaking news when the government feeds you a story.

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02-06-2023 , 10:36 AM

#3063

campfirewest

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

Biden blew the balloon up and they're reporting that Trump had multiple balloons he didn't blow up. It's a win for Biden.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/polit...ion/index.html

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Chinese spy balloons under Trump not discovered until after Biden took office

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The official did not say how or when those incidents were discovered.

Spoiler:

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02-06-2023 , 10:40 AM

#3064

Luckbox Inc

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Originally Posted by campfirewest

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/polit...ion/index.html

Spoiler:

That doesn't matter. Biden supporters will ignore that. For them it's a win.

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02-06-2023 , 12:12 PM

#3065

lozen

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Originally Posted by campfirewest

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/polit...ion/index.html

Spoiler:

The problem is CNN will not state their source and some not friends of Trump say news to them . WE all know for CNN Rachel Maddow could speculate Balloons over the USA and that would be CNN's source and than Maddow's source would be CNN

Love how the Biden team and lefties here is always " yeah but Trump did it too"

Its not about Trump its about Biden. Heck I question why Canada did not shoot it down but we may have not been capable to do that with our military

Last edited by lozen; 02-06-2023 at 12:19 PM.

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02-06-2023 , 12:19 PM

#3066

Habman

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Since we're all focused on the balloon...

What else is going on???

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02-06-2023 , 01:07 PM

#3067

campfirewest

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

That doesn't matter. Biden supporters will ignore that. For them it's a win.

The laughing was directed at them claiming it happened before but saying there was no evidence of it, not at you.

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02-06-2023 , 01:23 PM

#3068

Luckbox Inc

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Originally Posted by campfirewest

The laughing was directed at them claiming it happened before but saying there was no evidence of it, not at you.

Yeah I realized that. My point is that it's still a PR win for Biden.

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02-06-2023 , 01:40 PM

#3069

PokerHero77

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-...ents-1.6738210

Quote:

As China and the United States tussle over what Washington says was a Chinese surveillance balloon over U.S. territory, dozens of Chinese documents point to surging interest in using balloon technology for military purposes.
...
"[The balloon can] induce and mobilize the enemy's air defence system, providing the conditions for the implementation of electronic reconnaissance, assessment of air defence systems' early warning detection and operational response capabilities," the researchers wrote.

That paper and several other articles by PLA-controlled publications also point to keen interest from the Chinese military establishment in studying how the United States and other countries used balloons militarily in the past, as well as a clear intent to close the gap in the field.
...
While U.S. officials say that China has more discreet and sophisticated ways to gather intelligence on its rival, such as its network of spy satellites, the PLA paper also said the low cost of using balloons was one of the reasons China should further deploy them.

"In response to the growing threat posed by ground-based air defence systems to air attack forces, it is necessary to use cheap air balloons to create active and passive interference to effectively suppress enemy air defence early warning systems and cover air attack forces to carry out their missions," it argued.

So basically balloons do not replace other military/surveillance efforts, but they augment them for significantly less cost.

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02-06-2023 , 02:24 PM

#3070

lozen

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Just me but at 60,000 feet you think you could see things better than in space ?
But than I thought the balloon would not have a debris field over 20 miles . Though it was 7 miles .

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02-06-2023 , 02:44 PM

#3071

Montrealcorp

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

I'm saying it belongs to the US

To manipulate the news cycle mostly

That wouldn't happen since it's a US balloon.

I'm not sure I follow on this last question or how the balloon issue affects them economically or with Russia.

China is displeased about US action .
China and U.S. are highly link economically .
It isn’t good for business for them to have even more conflicts.
Especially now with all the mess presently .

Why would China would lie and wants even more conflict with the US ?
China already have massive issues at home .
More likely they did pull the bs balloon like the US do for Taiwan and things like that lately .

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02-06-2023 , 03:08 PM

#3072

campfirewest

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Originally Posted by lozen

Just me but at 60,000 feet you think you could see things better than in space ?

Yeah, that's why the line about them already being able to do things with satellites so this doesn't matter doesn't really make sense. Presumably, instruments work better when they are closer and don't have as much atmosphere between them and the object of interest.

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02-06-2023 , 03:52 PM

#3073

shortstacker

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My sources tell me that the reason we didn't shoot down the balloon sooner is because the military feared that Dorothy and Toto were still on board.

Apparently the two safely vacated the balloon in Kansas.

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02-06-2023 , 04:00 PM

#3074

chillrob

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

That doesn't matter. Biden supporters will ignore that. For them it's a win.

I'm sort of a Biden supporter, and I think this is a negative. If everything we're being told is true, it could have been shot down soon after it was noticed, while over parts of Alaska where no one lives.