comment: >
  
  If one does not affect you the other cannot.
context: POTUS just gave the order to shoot it down over Myrtle Beach >
  
  Looks like the scrappers will be eating steak tonight.. >
  
  Post it bro >
  
  Ima try, gotta calm down. It is shaking shit quality! >
  
  Doesn’t matter if it’s potato lol you got a historic moment and that’s awesome. >
  
  Yeah now post it so we can all complain about the cameraman >
  
  Its been shot down just right now >
  
  And the pubbies are still bitching and moaning. 😡 >
  
  Some of the posts in this thread are good comedy. I can tell there are a lot of people on this sub who never lived during the cold war. Some are predicting WW3 over the potential downing of this balloon, or scared that the Chinese now know where nuclear missile silos are, even though they could just look that up on the Internet because the people who live near them know they are there, so it's hardly a secret.
  I realize being young means less life experience but people at any age above probably 5 can use critical thinking skills before posting dumb crap on the Internet. >
  
  Missile silos are also not a secret because of START and new-START. Basically, all ICBMS are inventoried and given to the Russians and we inform them ahead of time if we're going to move anything or do any testing or replacing. It's important so they don't freak out if their satellites detect movement. >
  
  They also aren't even remotely camouflaged here in the states....
  IE, some are literally labeled on Google Earth.
  You can also clearly see the silo, not exactly secret.
  Heck, if you visit Minuteman Missile National Historical Park you can even take pictures of silos. >
  
  Minuteman is a super cool tour, and it's right by Badlands National Park too, so worth a stop if you're passing through. Easy to miss both, though, as Wall Drug would like you to believe it's the premier attraction in the area. >
  
  Wall Drug was uh, a decent place to stop for a drink/eat but not worth seeing on its own. Badlands and the missile silos were cool though. >
  
  The main value of stopping at Wall Drug is so if people hear you went through South Dakota you can say “yes, I stopped at Wall Drug”. I thought the corn palace was way cooler, and they pale in comparison to Badlands, Devils Tower, and The Needles (mt Rushmore looked boring but driving through the needles and seeing it in the distance was sweet. >
  
  Prob gathered what they could and now the military says its fine to shoot down. Still find it funny the folks trying to say Biden wont shoot it down when all the reporting has stated the military was the one telling Biden to not shoot it down originally. >
  
  People are dumb and think President just does what he wants…oh yeah they used to trump… >
  
  Republicans just like to blame everything on Biden and twist every event into some way to criticize him. >
  
  If he shot it down, the story would be that Biden is scared of a balloon like a little weenie and why is he so weak and scared? 
  The only thing that matters to them is "whatever Biden does is wrong" and they'll figure out why afterward. >
  
  Yeah and I love how they blame him for inflation even though that’s due to supply chain disruptions from Covid and the war in Ukraine. Also, the market forces of capitalism which gouge prices to take advantage of the situation.
  But they blame government spending, which is extremely necessary to fix our outdated infrastructure and invest in the future of society.
  Of course, republicans will never let democrats tax the rich to pay for these needs or fix the deficit. >
  
  And they conveniently forget about the trade tariffs Trump imposed on China in 2017 >
  
  But it’s been flying thru the clouds. There’s a lot of information stored in clouds. >
  
  Lmfao God damn that's a good one 💀 >
  
  They already shot it down over the Atlantic ocean. >
  
  80 million+ Americans using Tiktok, but we're this scared of a balloon. >
  
  People have already accepted our smart phones spy on us, for all kinds of interests. The spy balloon is a brazen airspace violation, which makes it more fascinating. >
  
  I'm surprised a fuckin home drone hasn't been out there to stab the damn thing. We're just watching this old as shit balloon with spy equipment just slowly drift across the country in full goddamn view and it has yet to be shot down. >
  
  It’s … really high. Like higher than almost all airplanes can reach. No home drone is getting even 20k ft near it >
  
  The amount of ridiculous suggestions I’ve seen over the past 2 days is truly scarier than any balloon lol. >
  
  What if we just jump really high and pull it down >
  
  Are you not listening? It's really high!!
  We've already lost dozens to the dark void of space that never came back down.
  Jumping. Not even once. >
  
  What if I bounce off of a trampoline? >
  
  Bounce of a trampoline while throwing a pin at it REALLY REALLY hard? >
  
  we're tracking it live >
  
  Oh fun! >
  
  If the balloon is 60000 feet up, math (sqrt 60000 x 1.23) says that the balloon can see 301 miles to the horizon in any direction.  That means 301 miles to the north of the flight path and 301 miles to the south of the flight path, so it can also see it for a total swath of 602 miles wide.  The US is generally around 1100 miles from north to south, meaning that this balloon is theoretically visible to more than half the country (not necessarily half the eyes).  People will get to ask, "Where were you when the balloon floated by?" >
  
  Shoot it down then ban tiktok. Win-win. >
  
  I hope they do it carefully, in case a little boy hid in it before it took off from his parent's house... >
  
  I'm thinking this is going to be a big fat nothing burger, given a similar balloon is heading over Latin America (not exactly big spy opportunities there).  
  But it gave Fox News something to talk about for a couple of days. >
  
  Actually, even CNN is all over this too.
  The only main difference is
  Republicans - "Shoot it down"
  Democrats - "Capture it instead" >
  
  They’re both saying the same things using different words, wowe >
  
  Why don't they just bring it down and check the equipment and technology on it... maybe it's useful... maybe it's trash. NORAD been tracking it for 19 days... seems sus. >
  
  Oh yeah we will just go up there and gently put it on the trailer behind an F-15 >
  
  Laser!  Burn a small hole, so that the balloon falls slowly enough so that we can examine unsmashed instruments. >
  
  I know it’s way too late to comment, but small holes in a balloon like this don’t really help, because the pressure in the balloon is almost the same as the outside pressure at that altitude >
  
  I’d be very amused to see China’s reaction if we flew some balloons into their airspace like this. Because I don’t think they would “urge calm”. Pretty sure they would go full Karen and scream about it for months. >
  
  What did they say about the SR71 overflights? >
  
  They said, “what decade is it again?”