Posts: 16865
Threads: 461
Joined: March 29, 2015
Reputation:
30
The Balloon
February 3, 2023 at 11:38 am
So there is a spy balloon over Montana and it seems like the army can not bring it down because it is too high up, and, being a balloon, you can not lock rockets on it.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Posts: 16865
Threads: 461
Joined: March 29, 2015
Reputation:
30
RE: The Balloon
February 3, 2023 at 2:47 pm
Maybe they could send a balloon to catch the Chinese balloon.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Posts: 29599
Threads: 116
Joined: February 22, 2011
Reputation:
159
RE: The Balloon
February 3, 2023 at 3:04 pm
Posts: 9915
Threads: 53
Joined: November 27, 2015
Reputation:
92
RE: The Balloon
February 3, 2023 at 3:25 pm
Apparently, it’s Biden’s fault.
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”
Wiser words were never spoken.
Posts: 67172
Threads: 140
Joined: June 28, 2011
Reputation:
162
RE: The Balloon
February 3, 2023 at 3:49 pm
Either it's a weather balloon, or we can pack it all up and cede the world to china, because they figured out how to drive weather balloons.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Posts: 19789
Threads: 57
Joined: September 24, 2010
Reputation:
85
RE: The Balloon
February 3, 2023 at 4:17 pm
(This post was last modified: February 3, 2023 at 5:10 pm by Anomalocaris.)
It’s not necessarily a wayward weather balloon. Pentagon’s claim that the balloon provides China with no additional reconnaissance capability over satellites is incorrect. Balloons can sample air and detect isotope traces of buffered nuclear tests, leakages from chemical weapon tests, etc in a way no satellite can. And it is easy to release the balloon into the right jet stream and predict reasonable well where it would go. A more sophisticated balloon with satellite link can maneuver by changing altitude to take advantage of different wind direction.
The reason not to shoot it down, and down play its potential reconnaissance value is probably political. There is not reason to escalate this into a situation analogous to 1960 U-2 shoot down until China’s exact intention is clear. Shooting it down as a threat would unavoidably create a crisis that causes any negotiation or diplomatic interplay between China and the U.S. to seize up, In exactly the same way as the Soviet shoot down of U-2 in 1960s scuttled the Paris disarmament summit talk scheduled for that year.
If the balloon is a surveillance air sniffer, there maybe reason to let it keep sniffing because sometimes you do want to let your adversary know that you are not cheating or doing nefarious things under the table because if they think you are, they might respond by taking steps that you would not like.
Posts: 16865
Threads: 461
Joined: March 29, 2015
Reputation:
30
RE: The Balloon
February 4, 2023 at 1:38 am
Maybe it is not that good to let it float because it is creating hysteria. Like Fox News is claiming that the balloon is spreading new Covid.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Posts: 23009
Threads: 26
Joined: February 2, 2010
Reputation:
106
RE: The Balloon
February 4, 2023 at 11:29 am
(February 3, 2023 at 11:38 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: [...] the army can not bring it down because it is too high up, and, being a balloon, you can not lock rockets on it.
1) The Air Force is responsible for defending American air space. The Army wouldn't be tasked with bringing it down except in a tactical- or operational-level combat.
2) You can certainly lock missiles onto a balloon. The gondola on this one will return usable radar image, and I'd be willing to bet it throws a sharp infrared gradient in the cold air that high.
3) I'd bet the AMRAAM would be able to hit it if fired inside a good envelope, i.e. supersonic climb.
Posts: 46031
Threads: 538
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: The Balloon
February 4, 2023 at 1:17 pm
ohdearcountriesmightbespyingoneachotherwhateverwillwedo
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
Posts: 9853
Threads: 21
Joined: September 8, 2015
Reputation:
79
RE: The Balloon
February 4, 2023 at 1:33 pm
^  I'd rather balloons than cyberspace.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
|
![[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/zf86M5L7/extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg)
