>

Im talking about more than these balloons
Hawaii and Florida. >

Spoiler alert! I was planning to read the article but now you ruined the suspense for me. I prefer articles to be a thrilling mystery. >

The only mystery to be had is discovering whether or not the article is paywalled, ad-spammed or full of partisan clickbait.
Reddit comments are just a (often times partisan) filter. >

As a rule, I try and read articles before commenting. Newsweek is one of the exceptions to that rule. For one, the site is awful. They also don't do fact-checking and play a little fast and lose with what is "news" >

ya, I remember an article a while back about a "Jewish man who survived the holocaust and explains watching the rise of Hitler". The man was born in PA,.. in 1939.... Never saw Europe during that period, obviously missed the entire rise of Hitler... .. but he was Jewish and survived the holocaust... so atleast Newsweek got that right. >

I’m a Jewish American who was born in 1965 and watched a show about the rise of Hitler on TV.
I’m here, Newsweek. Let’s do this. >

I’m a Korean man who read a Reddit post one time, I think I got this >

But the Maga assholes just yesterday told us, China would have never sent a balloon under Trump? >

Man, the ignorant pro trumps at my work all claim that Trump shot all the balloons down as soon as they were discovered and I had to explain to them that to perform such an action would reveal sensitive defense information for no useful reason, but they only see the act of invasion as weakness and violence as brave. Of course they ignore reality in order to continue their narrative. >

The dumb MAGAs of my locale are simply claiming it never happened. >

I know reading is hard for you guys but did you even read the article?
"Every day as a NORAD commander, it's my responsibility to detect threats to North America. I will tell you that we did not detect those threats," he added, stating that intelligence agencies were able to identify them post hoc "from additional means." >

Let me guess: donnie dipshit “doesn’t take responsibility at all.” >

From the article:
"Every day as a NORAD commander, it's my responsibility to detect threats to North America. I will tell you that we did not detect those threats," he added, stating that intelligence agencies were able to identify them post hoc "from additional means." >

So, NORAD is now more capable under Biden than under Trump? Good on Biden for getting that accomplished. >

I guess my being a little facetious was lost on some now deleted replies.
I don't think the fact that it was allowed to drift over the country until it was over the ocean before it was shot down is the scary part. This 200+ foot tall balloon carrying a payload that weighed a couple of thousand pounds went undetected multiple times in the past by one of, if not the most, advanced surveillance systems in the world is the scary part to me. 
​
I mean WTF, they can track Santa but not a Chinese weather balloon? >

Can we stop pretending this guy was even a bit presidential?  What a dark period in American history >

We're still in it, today we've got MTG presiding over Congress! >

One chamber of Congress that can't pass laws by itself, as a token gesture. Settle down, Beavis. >

Still too much power for her. >

Then organize in her district and find a candidate to defeat her. Fear should not be our bread and butter on the left. These Republicans are effectively powerless. Let's keep them that way in 2024 and beyond. Organize. Register new voters. Don't cower in fear. >

Why did China need to send a balloon when they already had trump? >

Fair point >

Not really. Asking a bunch of reddit nerds to speculate on national security causes and reasoning is probably the worst idea i've ever heard. We could sit here and guess for years and not get the right answer on why another country would do what it did... >

So true. Confident speculation. >

I wonder how many UFO sightings hushed up spy balloons explain? >

the color of his face will always stop me in my tracks. what’s a fucken weirdo. >

Fun game: if you lower the saturation on your TV until he looks normal, everyone around him looks like absolute ghouls (which they are) >

Based on what I read. I don't think the DoD withheld the info from Trump admin for nefarious reasons. They track hundreds of balloons everyday and are typically not threats. Unless their presence was out of the ordinary (like this past week) then it would be brought to Presidents attention. >

Every day* >

A big, beautiful balloon the likes of which the world has never seen. >

They didn’t draw it in crayon on his daily briefing so he didn’t hear it or see it while watching Fox newz. >

Funny that Trump's Chinesse spy balloons went across Florida....and Trump never knew they were there.   Funny that.
Right Ron DeSantis? >

Not so secret now huh big Donny!! He loves secrets!! >

Came to say the same thing.   The secret is out now… sorta like the secret documents at Mar-Largo. >

Those ones dont count, he called dibs on those files therefore legally allowing him to keep sensitive government information when anyone else would have been labeled a traitor! >

But I thought the Chinese respected and feared Trump too much to do that? Hunh, they are more like us than we thought. >

And Russian spy ships chilled off the coast of Long Island:  
Foxnews:
Russian spy ship spotted back off US coast 
Long Island Press:
Trump Vague on Response to Russian Spy Ship Near Long Island >

In a world of low level spy satellites, sophisticated intelligence gathering ships, planes, and drones, and multiple slews of spies, a balloon seems like an afterthought.  Yet one just snuck threw our defenses, flew across our country, and finally gave up the ghost somewhere over the Atlantic when a US jet stuck a pin in it.  In a world of high tech, sometimes low tech wins the day. >

Except it got China to publicly lie and perform an amateurish cover-up. >

So you are saying for 1 second they looked as bad as we did for the entire 4 years of Donald Trump being president?
Do you really think that is as bad as you are making it out to be? >

We had a clown for 4 years. China has a confirmed clown as a lifetime appointment. >

But our clown has bigger suits, smaller hands and funny hair! >

Happened 3 times under Dump’s administration. >

Why are we just hearing about it now? >

I know you’re just asking deep, probing questions in good faith here, but I suspect it might have been naive for the former Trump administration to attempt to assign blame here on the Biden administration when it does nothing to address the fact that these balloons have happened under the watch of multiple presidents. >

The mental gymnastics are in full swing.
Republicans: "China would never spy on us under Trump's watch."
Also literally fucking republicans: "CHINA VIRUS!" >

Trump really was impotent on almost every Presidential front. >

I just find it hard to believe. No one knew or leaked this back then but now suddenly when 1 balloon did slip through, there were multiple non noticed that they know everything about. Shits weird >

I don't know if you noticed this, but the last president was the most unqualified, least intellectually curious, and chaotic president in US history. Could explain why we didn't hear about it from them. >

They track balloons like this all the time, and have been for multiple presidencies - Trump, Obama, Bush, etc. And this wasn't the only one spotted in Biden's presidency, either. >

It's almost like it's a semi-regular occurrence that you are only hearing about now as the GQP attempts to throw every single piece of shit they create at the wall to see what sticks. 
They saw an opportunity to spread memes to their dipshit followers and they took it; the hypocrisy is a non-issue as the people who see the lie and believe it outweigh the number of people who see the lie, know what it is, and tell others about it.   All there is to it. >

Florida?
So Trump and DeSantis are both incompetent nice. >

"Trump did it too" is a really shitty defense >

Trump ignored or was unaware of an incursion on US airspace. Biden knew about it, tracked it, and took it down. Only one of these was a grossly incompetent response. >

If the balloon was not detected how can a lack of response be grossly incompetent? Allowing it to cross the entire US is closer, but even that was probably smarter than destroying it off the coast of Alaska. >

It was detected by the Pentagon, Trump just wasn't aware or ignored it >


Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, told reporters on Monday that the U.S. military had a "domain awareness gap" that allowed the balloons to travel undetected. >

A balloon over Florida, a spy in his personal home, banks overseas… this guy… >

And the military never knew. >

do we have any actual confirmation at all that these are 'spy' balloons? it's a hell of a stretch to assert that China is using cold war tactics for intelligence gathering. especially considering there are millions of Chinese-Americans, surely some could snap some pictures and get paid, and do it covertly instead of a giant flying orb in the sky. >

It is possible. If the balloon is high enough it may get missed by radar. This was 60000 feet, what if the others were 75000 or higher?  Plus if the happened to be in clouds, it is possible. Just like this one. It may have been mixed into clouds and if someone did see it they may have thought it was a hot air balloon. >

Imagine having to defend Biden without mentioning Trump, or the last guy or the guy before. Gets a lot harder. >

How is it a defense of Biden by pointing out that it happened multiple times during trump …. who claimed it would never happen on his watch? >

It’s just another media lie that the braindeads love to eat up. Nothing like that would’ve happened under trump. Yes he’s a little crazy with what he says sometimes but he’s not a dementia patient.
Ukraine would never have been invaded if trump was still in office as well >

This is arguably the most inane bullshit I have read here. >

How so? >


he’s not a dementia patient

"Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you're a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible." 
Sounds like something a totally sane person would say. >

Lol this is so pathetic. Always pointing at the previous administration. Who fucking cares. Im so sick of democrates and republicans fighting for gotcha moments. I’m embarrassed for you if you think this is somehow a win. >

It seems more of a direct response to the republican's criticism of Biden's handling of the situation. If you have political leaders saying trump would never let a Chinese balloon in the US but it turns out 
It's a problem since responding to the criticism, which is definitely not made in good faith, puts you in the territory if "Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience" 
But not saying anything lets them control the narrative. >

I can understand that. This article is a response. Without that prior knowledge it does seem pretty stupid to anybody looking in >

That's because the attack on Biden is that this wouldn't happen under Trump, but it did. If the attack mentions Trump then the defense should include him as well. >

Who cares?
I hope China takes over the U.S. I'd laugh my ass off at the scared Boomers, vainly begging people of combat age to fight the Chinese and risk their lives for a country that didn't do shit for them. >

Can we just agree that both sides, democrat and republicans, suck at their job. We need a new party to challenge them. And not a maga extremist party. A party that will actually work for the people and not for a bribe >

Spare us the both sides bullshit. This is our government working correctly. trump didn't even know these things were floating through on his watch.