comment: >
  
  I am sure there is someone in Texas that has pondered making one.
context: CNN is reporting that Biden gave the order on Wednesday to shoot it down as soon as it could be done safely. >
  
  What if it had some kind of bomb or chemicals they didn’t want to shoot it down over civilians >
  
  It's also the fact that it's still a balloon with a bunch of stuff attached to it at 60,000 ft, that falling to Earth is going to cause a pretty significant impact. I can't imagine at that height it make much of a difference, but maybe the water would damage it less so we can analyze it? Although at that height again I'm assuming that water is essentially as hard as concrete so who knows >
  
  Probably allows us to at least determine what the capabilities of the instruments was >
  
  White smoke means new Pope right? >
  
  No, it means the GQP will complain that Biden shot it down.  
  Also, they would complain if he didn’t shoot it down. 
  Also, fuck them… >
  
  I am think in this case the complaint will be why did it take him so long. >
  
  They waited until it was over the water, like they said they would do multiple times. They closed the air space and made sure there were no boats. Ya know, responsibly >
  
  And it was the advice of the military to wait to shoot it down.
  Can’t wait to see how republicans spin this into “Biden is old and weak and won’t even let our military do its job when America is threatened” when he was actually taking the expert advice FROM THE MILITARY to wait. >
  
  Dude listens to his advisors and he surrounds himself w qualified ppl.  Part of the reason why Ukraine is still Ukraine and not Russia. >
  
  To be fair, the Russian military sucks. Ukrainian farmers were stealing Russian tanks before they got our weapons. >
  
  Yeah, other part is Ukrainians giving their all to protect their homeland. >
  
  No better motivation than survival. >
  
  The GOP gave Biden a fucking layup here.
  “Biden doesn’t have the BALLS to shoot it down! Trump would have shot it down because he’s a REAL man!”
  Lmao okay well Biden shot it down so you can shut the fuck up now >
  
  Except now they’re saying he waited too long. 🙄 >
  
  He waited until it was over the ocean so it wouldn't fall on people? And the ones wanting to shoot it down were the ones living beneath it supposedly shooting handguns, Imagine wanting a balloon to fall on you to own the libs >
  
  And their bullets wouldn’t have been able to even reach the balloon lol >
  
  
  The United States has shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean Saturday at approximately 2:40 p.m. ET.  
  Less than an hour prior, two anonymous U.S. officials told the Associated Press Saturday that U.S. President Joe Biden has made the call to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon currently floating over the Atlantic Ocean near North Carolina. >
  
  Gee....idk the maybe FUCKING PEOPLE BELOW IT? >
  
  why were people fucking under it? >
  
  Very niche Chinese porn. >
  
  still more understandable than feet. >
  
  I hope it is recovered and the public is informed of what the balloon was actually carrying. >
  
  How much do you think was spent on this whole ordeal. >
  
  Honestly probably nit much two ships were diverted from normal patrol and a pair of jets got service time. It's a drop in the bucket. >
  
  There was more assets involved in this than two jets and a couple of ships. P8 poseidons and coast guard helis too. >
  
  Still not a massive expenditure by any means >
  
  Yet.  Wait until you see the next wave with 1.4B red balloons backed by plenty of MOABs and DDTs >
  
  You guys should really go on over toe /r/Conservative  and read through the comments on the several posts about this balloon. It seems like  about 50% of the comments are russian trolls, 40% are at the level of a 15 year old or at least the education level of one and 10% maybe are rational adult comments. >
  
  Best comment I read so far:
  "The only possible reason for letting it go then shooting it down is to recover whatever was on the balloon and investigate exacty what they were looking at. But that is like a 1% chance they will get anything out of it. My worst fear is that it was releasing chemicals. A new covid strand if you will" >
  
  “A new Covid strand if you will” gave me the chuckles. Hard to say exactly why. Maybe it’s the misplaced sincerity or being so confidently incorrect, but definitely something along those lines. >
  
  You can’t just say “perchance”! >
  
  Perhaps I cannot, however persons with similar thought processes prefer to be scripturient in their march towards a penultimate show of true bêtise.
  And so it shall be. >
  
  I suppose it was safer to shoot it down over the ocean?  I heard the the equipment that thing was carrying was the size of a school bus.  Maybe would have killed someone if it landed on a house or a car. >
  
  Now the narrative will change to why wasn't it shot down sooner. >
  
  it already did the maga yokels were saying he let it fly over half the country. they are perpetually butthurt that biden is president lol >
  
  Yet they won't mention said guy wanted to nuke a hurricane. >
  
  They won't mention the guy who literally was caught with highly classified material out in the open at his Golf Course/Country club home and also had a Chinese spy caught wandering around Mar-a-Lago.
  Oh, also that same President had a secret Chinese Bank account he didn't disclose and when this was discovered he lied about closing it prior to becoming President.
  Oh also the former Senate Majority Leader and his wife former Secretary of Transportation have received literally millions from CCP members and guess what?! His wife's father was the right hand man to the former Chinese Premier and his wife's sister is responsible for building the Chinese Navy.
  Hmmm ...
  Gaslighting. Obstruct. Project. >
  
  Wait , Moscow Mitch is actually Mandarin Mitch? >
  
  Always has been. >
  
  I’m sure George santos is going to claim he shot it down. >
  
  He is after all an expert marksman as demonstrated when he was at Iwo Jima. >
  
  Fighting for imperial Japan >
  
  Ahh, the long awaited sequel to Up!  
  Down! >
  
  Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest SOB in space. >
  
  THAT IS WHY, SERVICEMAN CHUNG, WE DO NOT "EYEBALL IT!" >
  
  THIS IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION! >
  
  I never got to say goodbye 😢 >
  
  Yeah. I sort of miss the spy balloon now. Goodbye spy ballon we hardly knew you. >
  
  Can't wait for the MAGA crowd to say he only shot it down because they "exposed his Chinese connections" or whatever other stupidity they're planning on saying now. >
  
  Already happening,  alas. >
  
  Chinese Aircraft Shot Down By Biden: 1
  Chinese Aircraft Shot Down by Trump: 0
  Trump is a pussy and is scared of China. Biden has balls and doesn’t fuck around. /s >
  
  And now the running narrative for the right is Biden let it gather info so it could send it to China. I mean if Biden is bought by China then why the fuck would China need a balloon over Montana >
  
  Exactly, he would just do what Trump did and give classified documents away. >
  
  Don’t be silly. He didn’t give them away he sold them jeez. >
  
  It was a gender reveal! >
  
  Dark Brandon isn't messing around. >
  
  I bet that balloon wished it had never been inflated when it met Dark Brandon's wrath. >
  
  Nice shot >
  
  There may or may not have been a boy in that balloon! >
  
  About time.
  Really curious how they didn’t defect it as it flew into the Aleutians, across AK and Canada, and then into very sparsely populated US territories. >
  
  I have read that we detected it ever since it left China. We did not want to take it down while in international waters so they waited until they could safely do it within our 12 mile international limit. I am sure we did some snooping on it while it traveled over the continental U.S. >
  
  Interesting. Wonder why it wasn’t shot down over AK (super remote, no risk of losses on the ground). Or over Canada. >
  
  I imagine it’s harder to recover debris deep in Alaska. They shot it down next to a navy ship that was close enough to collect the debris quickly. Probably safer and cheaper with more intel being recoverable. But I’m just speculating. >
  
  Good. >
  
  Chinese have already so thoroughly covered monitoring their own citizens they need to look for new groups of people to spy on - perfectly understandable (/s) >
  
  They’re a curious lot. >
  
  What is wrong with China's satellite program is the real question? >
  
  Nothing's wrong with it.  They're being provocative.  It's a psyop more than anything.
  And nobody should be surprised if they use this as a pretense for escalation in the South China Sea.  They're looking for a reason to pop off over there. >
  
  They purposely flew it at 60k ft likely to test the US air defense.  At 100k it’s likely no jets will be involved and they want to see what the US will do >
  
  I hope the fighter pilots had the winny the Pooh theme song going in the background! >
  
  The Chinese look like bumbling idiots, the Republicans who second-guessed this administration and the military look like fools, and Biden had clear, daytime weather with cameras rolling for an international and domestic public relations coup.  It’s a great day to be American and be a Democrat! >
  
  If this makes anyone look like idiots it’s the Americans. This is a massive dub for China. I can imagine the CCP laughing at Americans for freaking out over a damn weather ballon >
  
  It wasn’t a weather ballon obviously >
  
  Doesn’t china know they can get Idaho weather with the free weather.com app? >
  
  And thus begins the era of the Balloon Wars. Buckle up! >
  
  Good to know a zillion dollar fighter jet can pop a balloon! >
  
  Conservatives only care who we piss off when it’s Putin. If it was a Russian spy balloon it would have been a different story. >
  
  It would have been so awesome if a giant cascade of glittery pink rained  down, and this was an elaborate gender reveal the entire time. >
  
  I hate arm chair experts. >
  
  Gender reveals are getting crazier and crazier >
  
  Seems dumb. Now the MAGA nut jobs will claim he was “shamed” by them into shooting it down. >
  
  Good thing nobody with more than half a brain takes them and their bs opinions seriously >
  
  Unfortunately that still leaves roughly half the country taking their bs opinions seriously. >
  
  About 20%. >
  
  And I'm sure Lauren Boebert will finally stop talking about it /s >
  
  Hot Damn Karli Lake and her shotgun really did it!! >
  
  Or maybe it was Gosar with his pistol. I guess we’ll never know. >
  
  Joe Biden winning again!! >
  
  It was just trying to live it's best life >
  
  Looks like the missile hit the very bottom of the balloon, separating the payload from it as it falls. >
  
  From what I understand A to A or anti-aircraft missiles generally explode before hitting the target in order to shotgun blast the target with chunks of metal and thus do heavy damage and don't have to be super precise to impact the moving target.  I'm not sure if they used something like that here, but the missile trail seems to stop well short of the balloon, and then the balloon is shredded, so it seems to fit. >
  
  Dark Brandon with the sniper. >
  
  It actually contained a small boy for Colorado and Republicans are bringing impeachment charges as we speak >
  
  Conservative news outlets will now switch their critique from “Biden’s too weak to shoot it down” to “why didn’t Biden take it down over the Pacific?”  Smh. >
  
  The most effective measure against rampant inflation yet! >
  
  Much ado about nothing >
  
  Seems kinda strange. This isn’t the first spy balloon but the US decided not only to make this one widely known but also shoot it down. Not saying it’s right or wrong, I just wonder what the angle is here >
  
  I think it’s also people saw it and they wanted to get ahead of conspiracies >
  
  As someone who believes this was a rich Chinese businessman's elaborate gender reveal, can anyone confirm or deny the presence blue or pink powder.  /s >
  
  They could not hijack it with a helicopter ?  Would like to see what was inside there >
  
  It was flying over 100,000 altitude. No copters can fly that high. >
  
  Republicans will now start screaming about what a Dangerous move it was to piss off the Chinese without consulting with ~~McCarthy~~ MTG first. >
  
  Anyone that knows: what could a “spy balloon” accomplish that a “spy Cessna” could not? Just recruit an amateur pilot, persuading with a giant duffle full of cash, load their plane with surveillance equipment, and fly it wherever. From my understanding US general aviation rules are pretty lax. You often DON’T have to file a flight plan or carry a transponder. 
  So was the balloon going into no-fly zones that would have gotten a plane shot down too? Or was it carrying some kind of active radar, that was bound to attract attention? >
  
  Stories like this just make common sense go out the window, especially from the right.
  I think intelligent people assessed this situation and said, "What on Earth could China possibly gain from a balloon in the stratosphere that they couldn't from satellites? If we shoot it down over the continental U.S. - It could potentially damage property or hurt someone. Let's ensure this poses no real threat and track it, then retrieve it at the safest moment." >
  
  I knew you could do it!!!! >
  
  Its over the ocean. >
  
  Now we switch sides everyone! 
  From 'Biden is a genius for not shooting it down and its no big deal and a civilian balloon.'
  To 'Biden is a genius for shooting the spy balloon down and its a show of real strength and leadership.'
  Rs will also pretend to be shocked and appalled at Biden the Barbarian for this unprovoked aggression.
  Repeat until you forget your prior positions. >
  
  What????? Your on social media or Fox News too much >
  
  Kinda surprised no civilians tried to take it down considering we have folks shooting out substations
  Edit: for those who need an /s, I was being sarcastic >
  
  What type of gun will shoot 60,000 feet into the sky? >
  
  Germany had a few that might have done for it.  Paris Gun as one example.  Not really a practical solution though. >
  
  It doesn't seem like something a typical citizen would own.