U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by davidu on Saturday February 04, 2023 @06:56PM (#34659848)

Not sure where your info is from, but this balloon was seen by the naked eye and all over social media. As someone who lives in Montana, many many people could see it. The idea that the USG prompted the publicity is unlikely to be accurate (would suggest a calculated social media psyop). Not impossible, but not likely.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by colinsane on Saturday February 04, 2023 @07:34PM (#34660170)

there’s a bit of difference between it being spread as a meme online and then quietly fading into the background v.s. the President of the country ordering it to be shot down by a jet and then announcing said order to the public.

just how close/far is this from “business as usual”? if this balloon were no big deal, i wouldn’t expect it to be escalated to the Commander in Chief. which tells me either (a) there’s (suspected to be) some real serious shit aboard that balloon or (b) Whitehouse is making a show of this for political reasons (e.g. to justify upcoming action against China, another surveillance bill, etc) or (c) top officials are clueless and don’t understand the signals they’re giving to the public here.

none of those explanations i find reassuring.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by itake on Saturday February 04, 2023 @07:43PM (#34660229)

I pick (b)! There was a negotiations meeting with China coming up that was canceled.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by LarryMullins on Saturday February 04, 2023 @08:01PM (#34660370)

(d) The government usually ignores it, but the public caught onto this one and started calling Biden weak on China for ignoring it.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by jcampbell1 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @10:06PM (#34661348)

(d) Joe Biden is desperately in need of some crisis. He is facing a Republican Congress which is going to accuse him of working with his son to secure their financial future through shady corrupt deals in China and Ukraine.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by riskpreneurship on Saturday February 04, 2023 @11:04PM (#34661723)

Eh, it's been a slow news week for the US.

According to the front pages...New England had some cold weather today.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by twelve40 on Sunday February 05, 2023 @01:53AM (#34662620)

if there was as you say some real serious shit aboard they would have shot it right away before it got to do its thing, no? I really don't buy "after it could cause damage by falling" because it flew over some pretty deserted spaces.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by snozolli on Saturday February 04, 2023 @07:19PM (#34660063)

How big was it? I don't mean your well thought out estimate, I mean your gut impression.

Smaller than the end of your pinkie at arm's length?

I gather that it gave the impression of being somewhat normal sized and much closer than it actually was, gauging by the number of people who thought they could shoot it down with their firearm.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by heartbreak on Saturday February 04, 2023 @07:32PM (#34660154)

Not the commenter, but my gut impression was that it looked a lot lower than normal commercial air traffic that I see around here. The circling fighter jets were very hard to see (other than their vapor trails) but the balloon was extremely visible.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by slim on Sunday February 05, 2023 @01:37AM (#34662553)

How did you know it was chinese ?

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