comment: >
  
  Plot twist: It releases covid 2.0 upon being shot down. ..../s
context: "Did you say Abe Lincoln?"
  "No, I didn't say Abe Lincoln. I said Hey, Blinkin." >
  
  "Hold the reins man, damn." >
  
  It could collect signals intelligence that a sat can't. And it has great loiter time. >
  
  OK, but what's it going to do with the signals it collects?  Broadcast them to some satellite?  And nobody's reported it sending out any RF. >
  
  I suppose it could be collecting data to damage the US civilian infrastructure. Without our industry, our military is on a timer during a conflict. If it were me I'd be marking all the communication relays, major power distribution centers etc. A lot of people are pointing out it can't gather more than is already on display from most spy satellites. I'd imagine foreign governments know that the American leadership can't hardly function if it's citizens are in disarray cause they can't text or call Grammy, get hair cuts, and watch the Sunday night game. >
  
  Seriously,  how many reservists and national guard would show up for activation in the event they couldn't find nor contact their families and children. I'd be willing to bet they would take care of their own first. >
  
  I'd imagine the Chinese are prodding a bit and seeing what the US response to something like this is. 
  Nations spy on other nations and pull shit like this all the time. That's what half of training exercises and war games are for. Testing reactions of other countries while simultaneously remaining prepared and showing off certain capabilities. 
  If the military has decided not to shoot it down, they've probably got plenty of reasons not to. 
  I think it's a waste of taxpayer money to shoot a million dollar missile at something we can track and has been determined to be not much more than a minor annoyance. >
  
  We aren't shooting that thing down until Raytheon has a contract signed sealed and delivered to profit from it. >
  
  Meanwhile Sean Hannity is screeching about this like China bombed the country. It's a fucking balloon home. You really think we aren't spying on China right now? >
  
  The right love a strongman reaction. Even when there's more to be gained out of a steady hand. Because any slight that isn't payed back with escalation is weakness to them. >
  
  nah, it's more like: whatever Biden does, the right answer is the opposite of that. >
  
  Is the spy ballon illegal? If so, I imagine it would be intercepted and removed. >
  
  Yes, and no. They don't want to shoot it down out of fear it may cause damage or hurt someone on the ground. There's apparently no intel to be gained from it being shot down and since it's at the mercy of the jet stream and they know it's location, it will be easy to hide things if it flies in that direction.
  That said, we absolutely need to call China out on this and impose some serious sanctions for this violation of our sovereign air-space. China would be howling at the Moon if we did this. Well, we do it with satellites, not shitty balloons. >
  
  My guess is that military or law enforcement could devise a safe way to bring it down, if that was desired. A small hole in a ballon could bring it down slowly.
  Although there may be no intel to be gained from it, still, if it is illegal and allows spying, it should be terminated. >
  
  The military leaders are the ones who said they have no way of bringing it down without possible damage to civilians >
  
  To add a reason as well, you would almost certainly need to use an AIM-120 to shoot it down.
  That isn't a problem from an ability side, and AIM-120 can absolutely do that with no issues with a target that big.
  The issue is that an AIM-120C costs >$1 million per unit.
  Save a million dollars and get to study it for free? Sounds like a win-win to me. >
  
  Space laser? >
  
  Depends. Is it a lot jewy or a little jewy? >
  
  It's jew-ish. At least that's what Santos said. >
  
  I mean, I'm not a nut job, far right conspiracy theorist or anything, but shoot the fucking thing down. 
  Keep your shit out of my yard, and it won't end up dead. If China feels like they can just float anything through our airspace, then what's next? >
  
  Everyone saying shoot it down- you really think you know better than a room full of 5 star generals, tech wizards, and military experts, which is who advises Biden? The arrogance is unreal. >
  
  Exactly this,
  and fwiw, there are serious benefits to leaving it up.
  For one, you can study what it is studying. This is important in order to assess what may or may not be compromised.
  Furthermore, you can study the design of the payload.
  Heck, you can even check out if it is broadcasting or communicating and tap into that. The intelligence benefit for being able to directly observe and catalogue Chinese communications encryption alone is a huge intelligence boon.
  At the moment, it actually benefits China more if we shoot it down and stop it communicating or otherwise damage it in a way we would lose an opportunity to study it. >
  
  I think the US does nit fear much the balloon could gather. After all the US has highly capable spy satellites, so I imagine that everything of interest is hidden that not even these same spy satellites could see it.
  And lastly, this stunt could put a bunch of political pressure on China in a way that China flew a balloon over the US that there's also nothing wrong with the US flying (spy) balloons over China. While shooting it down would set the precedent for China to shoot down american flying objects. >
  
  What about Wynken and Nod? >
  
  The amount of people bitching about this balloon, most likely a weather balloon, who have Tik Tok installed on their personal devices is too damn high!!! >
  
  It's China pretty much saying "We can fly shit over your country, and you'll do fuck all. You're not safe from us!" >
  
  The Chinese operate 499 satellites. This balloon is not the first Chinese-made object to "fly over" the US, and won't be the last. The US operates a couple of thousand satellites, so we return the favor.
  This hysteria about: "oh no the communists are flying scary things over our heads!" was pretty novel and interesting in 1957 with Sputnik, but a balloon at 20 miles up is not really more strategically threatening than the hundreds of foreign satellites that pass over the USA every day.
  As for Tik Tok, it is a conduit for surveillance and manipulation under Chinese control that is in the pockets of millions of Americans. Also probably not something to get frantic about, but certainly more of a strategic vulnerability for the US than one balloon. >
  
  Fu Go balloon bomb 
  From WWII. Incendiaries, not surveillance devices.