comment: >
  
  Where are the photos then?
context: I’m pretty sure the only reason we knew about this one is because people saw it.
  Edit: ima stop replying to ppl in this thread and just put a general comment here. Stop acting like if you saw a giant ass balloon in the sky you wouldn’t be curious or concerned at all. >
  
  How would people seeing it, know its a Chinese Spy Balloon, that info had to come from somewhere, I feel moderatly intelligent people who see a big balloon in the sky (See it in the sky, is kind of loaded, it would probably be very hard to tell what it is without binoculars looking right at it) would just assume its a weather balloon. >
  
  From my understanding this balloon is far larger than weather balloons and also stayed in the air much longer, weather balloons are only in the sky for a couple hours before they pop. >
  
  How would you judge the size? It’d be impossible to know if it’s a small object at relatively close or a larger object further away. 
  I’ve seen similar experiments where people guess birds wingspans from the ground. At the height of a flagpole, with the flagpole in view they’re relatively accurate. Once there is no flag pole and the distance is random it became impossible. >
  
  Well first this thing flew in clear view of the public in Montana, I’m sure at least some people there had range finders for hunting or target shooting.
  But also you don’t need to be able to judge it’s exact size, you can realize pretty quickly that it’s damn far away and still looks big. >
  
  Regular range finders don't hit from 60,000 ft lol. >
  
  Oh man you’re so close. If you try to range find something and you can’t get one, what does that tell you. >
  
  Quick googling tells me a good rangefinder can go ~5,400 feet.
  So really, if you can't get the range, it tells you the balloon is more than ~5,400 feet away from you. It really doesn't give you much info, considering that is far lower than a spyballoon or weather balloon or typical airplane will fly. >
  
  Good range finders can go up to like 10-11k, but regardless it's literally miles apart from 60k. >
  
  I didn't realize that this needed to be said, but the comments so far suggest it is: the president has broad powers to control which information about national security matters are made public and which are retained. This assumption that "the media" or "the Democrats" would have outed this seems profoundly ignorant. >
  
  If there are clouds, then people will not see the balloon. And it is too high for normal aircraft to risk running into it. >
  
  Plus even if people did see it, what exactly would they see, and what would they make of it? UFO? Assume it's a weather balloon? 
  The only reason we know what it is comes down to a disclosure by the American government, so if the Trump administration didn't do that... even if people saw something, they wouldn't know what. >
  
  This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 71%. (I'm a bot)
  
  
  Balloons similar to the one that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina this weekend flew over the U.S. at least three times during the Trump administration, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
  As Republicans spent the past few days criticizing the Biden administration over its response to the suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew across the country, an official revealed during a briefing on Saturday that the U.S. was aware of three other instances during the prior administration and one instance earlier in the Biden administration that such an apparatus "Transited" the country.
  Trump denied the revelation by defense officials that Chinese balloons flew over the U.S. during his administration, calling it "Disinformation."
  
  
  Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: balloon^#1 administration^#2 official^#3 over^#4 Chinese^#5 >
  
  “i don’t know why, Russia, would do it, He said, he didn’t do it”… remember…. trump, doesn’t know a truth >
  
  To Trump that fundamentally was the truth. 
  Present a narcissit with two options: 1, they didn't do it or 2, they did it because they knew they were playing you like a fiddle. The narcissist will go to extreme lengths in their own mind to hold true to the first because they are temperamentally unable to accept the second. >
  
  The Chinese: how do we sow more dissent and further polarize and weaken America?
  The Russians: duuuuuhhhh no idea.  Hey... have you tried a balloon? >
  
  Will someone please get this gentleman some tasty pizza & something to drink? >
  
  Pizza sounds great right now. Nothing like the back and forth of random reddit users to whet the appetite. >
  
  Honest question, what can a high altitude spy balloon do that a spy satellite can't? 
  I can't think of a sensor you could put on a balloon that isn't already on a satellite; radar altimeter, high res camera... Maybe signals intelligence would be better. Because signals probably bounce off of the ionosphere. Weather data?
  Edit: china already has spy satellites what do they gain with balloons?
  Edit 2: I may have found the balloon advantage. Balloons can linger in an area. Satellites are orbiting have a limit time to see a specific geographic area. And the US would never stand for China have spy satellites in geosynchronous orbit over the US mainland. >
  
  it's a hell of a lot cheaper. >
  
  What mean is china already had spy satellites. What do they gain? 
  No one has done secret shit above ground since the cold war. Especially the US. >
  
  thats like saying the US or russia already has spy satellites what do they gain with more, but they still send more up on a regular basis. >
  
  I read This article, which says in part balloons can linger where satellites cannot. 
  Also I know they are the answer is why. >
  
  its not just that, technology changes fast now days, the tech that's in a satellite could be out of date in a year or two, using bloons allows you to use the most up-to-date tech. >
  
  That's the key! Thank you. 
  You can put a balloon up in days for little or nothing. Just the cost of the sensors mainly. >
  
  And then there's tik tok. Maybe that's too much cognitive dissonance to bring up. >
  
  Remind what that is ? >
  
  It's the sound a clock makes. >
  
  Former defence secretary Mark Esper has come out to state that he had no knowledge of such balloons during has time in the trump white House. However, the DOD reportedly knew of said balloons but didn't think it serious enough to have made a fuss about it. Trump himself was not informed.
  It is known that the Chinese regularly send up such balloons as a means to gather intel(they already have satellites for that so it is strange why they use balloons).
  What i find funny is the outrage on the right because of this incident. They seem to have forgotten that chinese spies infiltrated Mar a Lago where top secret US documents where stored illegally. >
  
  Cheaper, higher quality data, and clearly it worked except for this time. Frankly it’s very refreshing to have a somewhat transparent administration. >
  
  Fuck Donald Trump >
  
  Free karma words >
  
  It’s a pretty bold and brave statement. I doubt he’d ever say the same thing about Vladimir Putin >
  
  So why was this never reported before? Someone must have seen them, right? >
  
  If his cult could read then they’d be pissed. >
  
  So... this is like Benghazi then? Attacks on consulates happen under Bush and other Republican administrations and aren't news for the conservative media, but is news under and Democratic administration... >
  
  He was probably too busy assuring everyone that a wall was going to be built by Mexico or some other promise that was never to be kept. >
  
  How come we were never told? >
  
  I get it, I get it, ya'll hate Trump.  But you know he's not the president any more, right? >
  
  Trump was ranting at Biden like a fucknut to shoot the balloon down. God forbid he get called out for the actor and conman he is. >
  
  You don’t find it unique when Biden admin gets criticism there appears these news sources that go “unnamed source says but trump!”? >
  
  Because he's both the former president and the one giving the criticism. >
  
  These two guys have a lot in common. Balloons, classified docs........ >
  
  Neither of which is all that comparable.  Fucking lol. >
  
  I mean the balloons are. Sound like none of the instances matter. >
  
  Oh, I’m sorry.  I missed the part where the Trump admin disclosed the presence of the balloons and shot them down. >
  
  I have not been really keeping up on this but I do have one question- who is using  the terminology “spy balloon”? Was this confirmed by there officials in charge or have other terms been used? I mean I strongly suspect it may have been sent to “spy”/gather data on us. But was there any confirmation or is this a case of the media using the term “spy balloon” in a more sensationalist/inflammatory way? >
  
  Cool since people want to be political:
  1) This is not the first time this has happened, there are reports that one went down over Hawaii and other times before 
  2) They also flew over during the Trump Admin he is denying it and claims he was never told I am calling bullshit.
  3) So using these 2 admins having balloons violate our airspace, why tf have we not shot them down before?
  4) Why were we not told about this, this balloon was visable is that the only reason we were told? 
  5) Most important point, who tf is not doing their job? Who needs to be crucified for this? It makes us look like complete jack asses.
  I look forward to the Senate Brief  that is supposed to happen next week. >
  
  
  Bullshit
  
  Yep, Trump was definitely  responsible for much bullshit. >
  
  Enough already. >
  
  Trump thought it was a golf ball. >
  
  🎵 oh, the balloon outside is floating
  And the guys inside are toking 
  And since they say it's no spy
  Let it fly, let it fly, let it fly. 🎵 >
  
  Of course it did. >
  
  The sys admin rn who isn’t speaking up because they don’t  want to lose their job for forgetting to patch googles latest loon balloon so it lost coms as a result making it appear suspicious and foreign because there’s zero replies from it 👁👄👁 >
  
  B B But trump would never let this happen….