comment: >
  
  Borrow the space lasers from Israel. Duh.
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?” >
  
  If one does not affect you the other cannot. >
  
  Have there been increase in Chinese assertion that it is only a weather balloon and not spy balloon this last 12 hours? >
  
  Who didn't see this as the inevitable outcome?
  "Nice troll, China. Now, if you want your toy back, go fish the pieces out of the water." >
  
  Just watched it get shot down on a TikTok live over Coastal Carolina >
  
  TIKTOK is more scary than the balloon. Tiktok  is stored in your personal phones. >
  
  don't be fooled. It's not the privacy issue that's concerning about tiktok. Rather, it's a widespread social media platform that can be weaponized by Xi himself. Its claim to fame is a highly selective profiling algorithm that slices & dices its user base & constantly feeds them specific content. If the CCP wanted they could foment more unrest & division in the US public by promoting alt right conspiratorial clips. Instead of dancey dances of dogs a certain segment would be seeing a constant barrage of angry Karens and Chads brandishing their AR15's and complaining about the Libs & Biden. >
  
  Manufacturing consent machine goes brrrrrr. >
  
  Capture it and see what the device really is.
  CAN'T fucking believe people are accepting of 'Truth' only from merely a 'suspicion,' and not of physical evidence!! I am not educated  this way.
  Capture it, open it up and see what Chinese REALLY were capturing instead of destroying it 100% >
  
  The balloon is just a misdirection tactic. The real threat we didn't discover yet. removes tinfoil hat >
  
  Balloon is shot down and coast guard goes to examine it at sea. Cthulhu rips away remnants of the balloon and swallows the ships entirely. Cthulhu speeds towards land... we are all doomed. It was meth for Cthulhu he ordered that we just gave him. The Chinese played us perfectly >
  
  sure, why not >
  
  If they can shoot it down precisely enough to hit a 12-mile long strip of ocean, why can’t they just shoot it down over farming fields in the Midwest? This makes no sense and we clearly are not being told everything >
  
  Does nobody think about the fact that it might be a little less damaging to shoot it down over water than over land? I mean, sure, the ocean is going to be rock hard as well when it hits the ground, but I think it would give a higher chance of it staying intact
  Lol Reddit scientists downvoting me >
  
  Interesting point, one I haven’t seen yet. But I still think that if they thought that the balloon was at all a threat to safety and needed to be shot down immediately, they would do it asap over land. I’m surprised it got to the Atlantic Ocean as fast as it did though >
  
  Yea this is so important because we totally dont have billion dollar satellites spying on the US. >
  
  We actually have our own spy balloons. >
  
  Absolutely.  And what do you think would happen if ours - oops - got caught up in some jet stream and “accidentally “ floated over China? >
  
  Our own government spying on us? Totally cool! But China? No that’s BAD! >
  
  Agree but that doesn’t answer my question. >
  
  We overreact to everything >
  
  Just so we’re aware, popping this thing won’t start World War III, right? I know Fascist News is fearmongering the shit out of this, but I figured I’d ask anyway in case this is one of the extremely few times that they’re actually right. >
  
  Nah. It's in our airspace. We can do whatever we want. And according to China, it's only a weather balloon anyway. >
  
  Spreading monkeyebolacovid666 pox >
  
  Why not?  Once it's over the sea, it's already transmitted all of the useful info it gathered. >
  
  Can someone explain to me - Did the chinese not think the US would notice? Or were they just like "heck it, we already got the footage"? >
  
  So after a Spy balloon with unknown capabilities has fully traversed the country they're going to shoot it down over the ocean. Why bother now. >
  
  China is like a little kid saying “can’t touch me can’t touch me!” >
  
  So…. After they get everything they want? >
  
  China gets far more from Tiktok than they do from this >
  
  Omgomgomgomgomfgomfgomgomgomfg guys guys guys balloon update BALLOON UPDATE >
  
  Did someone finally tell Joe about this? >
  
  The US knew about the balloon pretty much immediately, but the military advised against blowing it up over land due to a massive potential range for debris.  
  Some people make decisions based on information rather than emotion. >
  
  Get out of here with your rational thinking. There are people needing to lash out at Biden and insist they can shoot down something that is higher than an airplane. >
  
  It just got shot where’s the video?? >
  
  That’s great thanks. Now to recovery mode!! >
  
  Wow. Congrats on shooting it down after it traversed the entire country. >
  
  WHY not capture it instead and see what the content REALLY is??
  CAN'T fucking believe people are accepting of 'Truth' only from a 'suspicion,' and not of physical evidence!! >
  
  How do you capture it? >
  
  By letting the air out of it... Maybe with a bullet or something similar.  They might need to use a plane or something to get up that high though. >
  
  if they shot it it would have just popped from the pressure differential and free fell to terminal velocity. >
  
  Genuinely curious. Where are we going to draw the line between spy balloons and spy satellites? How do we respond when they send a missile to down one of ours? >
  
  To be a smartass: The Karman Line.
  Seriously though, pretty much every nation has accepted that space is open, you can't not fly over countries when in orbit around a spinning ball. Plus, space debris is a serious issue if you want to send things or people to space. >
  
  time to call in the Kingsman >
  
  Now China would fly the balloon towards Pacific. >
  
  There are jets Circling it so…I think they’ve made that decision.
  Source: everybody I know who is in Tabor City to Murrel’s Inlet on Facebook >
  
  It's already been shot down >
  
  Yep.  I’m enjoying all the videos I’m now seeing if people arguing about how long it’s going to take to hit the ocean. >
  
  Just catch it and dissect it. >
  
  Yea, cause the real risk of collateral damage of downing it over Montana was vast. >
  
  Anybody see any ships going out to recover the wreckage?   I'm just curious whether or not the military wants to look at the tech or not.. >
  
  I wonder whether it would be better to shoot it down while it’s in our 12 mile territory? >
  
  Some Coastguardsman off the Carolina coastline picking up the instruments from the deflated balloon
  "Wait is that just a fucking camcorder duct taped to a satellite dish??" >
  
  My guess is that it’s not technically a big deal but the publicity means that the govt is worried about revealing recovery tactics and technology. So it’s less about the balloon than it is not revealing their hand. >
  
  Watch and learn, canada >
  
  What the fuck was it doing??? They don’t have satellites?? >
  
  So, what does this mean?
  Is it a warning, like a new century's version of the Japanese fire bombs? 
  I imagine that must be way cheaper than the air to air missile fired by the f22. An overwhelming number of these could empty stockpiles.
  Do we have an airborne gun that can  reach such altitudes? Warthog couldn't, could it? >
  
  American government probably sent the balloon up themselves and now want to blame China for it.