comment: >
  
  I love how the US said they were afraid to shoot it down over Montana because the debris might hit civilians… Montana is about 95% open range with a ranch home about every twenty miles.
context: “Sources told CTV News that a smaller object may have been released from the balloon that might pose a risk to planes.”
  The plot thickens. >
  
  Bottom line is, we don't know what these ballons are doing, and China is lying. We don't know how many there are, or where. China has been encroaching on Taiwan, India militarily. Chinese ships have invaded fishing waters around the globe. China has mining contracts in Afghanistan and across Africa. 
  I think the Chinese economic miracle has created a monster. >
  
  Am I missing something? 
  Could be irony, but I wouldn't call the Chinese economy a miracle. I haven't seen anything in the last decade from Pooh Bear that would leave me to believe he's anything other than another Putin, flailing at western powers as their country's slowly collapse in on themselves. The balloons are a joke from a country that is becoming one. >
  
  From a country that had famines 70 years ago to a country thats just 1 generation behind Taiwan in chip manufacturing. You really dont see any changes? >
  
  No homelessness and high speed rail makes me very frustrated at America's government/media. China does a LOT wrong, but let's not ignore how America has done nothing to improve the life of the average person in the last 20 years. We are headed toward serious problems if something doesnt change. Spending less on military to build public transit wouldn't be bending the knee to China. Rent control wouldn't be bending the knee to China. Universal healthcare wouldn't be bending the knee to china. Our media focusing on our issues at home with attention to the actual causes seems unlikely to ever happen when Tucker is the biggest show on television, and that has me worried about the next decade. >
  
  After having visited Japan just this last month... our country is letting us down in a variety of ways. Whatever is keeping your average American from rioting in the streets (seriously... there's a ton of reasons: healthcare, wages, treatment of citizens, police inaction unless they are shooting up innocent civilians, the list goes on) must be REAL good to keep everyone's ass on the couch. >
  
  I wonder this everyday lol. It has to be some kind of social conditioning. We live in a world so far detached from reality it’s like the entire country is a big TV show. >
  
  Personally, I think it's due to our size (literally in both senses). This is a much larger discussion, but it makes no sense for our country to be THIS big. Our wants and needs are vastly different region to region and sometimes even state to state. 
  The only reason we're still locked in is because the rich states subsidize the poor ones. >
  
  As long as food and drink are readily available its hard to unite behind a cause for mass rioting. I often wonder why we don't experience Shinzo Abe scenarios with a country full of guns combined with such a massive wealth disparity. Both parties have done an incredible job focusing on divisive issues which attract our attention. It helps when one party is legitimately insane. >
  
  The attacks on politicians have already begun. One in NJ just died after being shot in her car.
  But that's the R attacking the L. >
  
  It’s just my Shein order >
  
  Ohh that’s why it’s off track >
  
  Pack it up boys and girls and everyone in between or outside the binary, reddit solved anotha one. >
  
  I could be skeptical of the first balloon only because the idea of air current  - but for 2 to be located as a "oopsie" - no way      Find a space to safely deflate. >
  
  The first balloon was found to be steering itself. Balloons don't accidentally do that. >
  
  We should send one back in the shape of a dragon >
  
  “We will get Aunt Peggy’s cookie recipe once and for all.” >
  
  It's her Apple Brown Betty and the secret ingredient is horse manure. >
  
  Minh has a better recipe >
  
  Add nutmeg! >
  
  furious scribbling
  Okay, how bout this one? 🧁 >
  
  "Just monitoring the weather" >
  
  That’s no moon.  That’s a space station. >
  
  That's no balloon.  That's a spy station. >
  
  The local news coverage of these balloons is cracking me up. I feel like it's the national equivalent of half the small towns fire station trying to get a cat out of a tree. 
  Very Pawnee Indiana
  The news have no idea how mad they're supposed to be about a balloon floating above the 18 people who live in Montana, and the military seems to want to use this for fundraising so they can finally get those anti-weather balloon guns. 
  Since this isn't going away today or anything, I can't imagine how the multi day 24-hour news cycle is going to try to get people to care. It will be interesting to learn what a balloon expert looks like and their thoughts on the matter. >
  
  Oh no! What if it.... they put the satellite in space with the 10,000 other satellites Just like it? 
  Drops the satellite for fun?
  I  don't understand why this is so serious >
  
  Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie where the balloon drops or reaches ground level one way or another and releases a massive virus or some shit >
  
  Chapter 1 of a Zombie apocalypse novel. >
  
  There s always two of them! >
  
  no more, no less >
  
  I'm sure they will bring it down intact when it's over the ocean. Need to see that shit. >
  
  If they don't, then that's when we need to start criticizing. >
  
  99 red balloons go by >
  
  China always doing China shit >
  
  It'll all be OK guys. There monkeys being stolen from zoos, and I have a feeling they'll be equipped with darts >
  
  The future is history >
  
  China already playing victim.
  You really can't make this up. "We always respect international law and it's the US making us look like the baddies over a minor mistake of a civilian balloon that accidently hovers over key military sites and is accidently correcting itself when wind tries to push it along" >
  
  If this balloon is so critical to national security and secrecy, why isn't it taken down by now? Imagine whining about a floating balloon just so you can raise money for the military complex. >
  
  
  so critical to national security and secrecy
  
  Source?
  I haven't seen where this is critical to national security, the opposite actually that it's not a major security risk to US intelligence. >
  
  Atleast make an effort and give it some sky blue camo >
  
  It's ballooning out of control now... >
  
  Why can't they pop a hole in it, then let it fall slowly, then capture the equipment ? >
  
  Try it with a regular balloon >
  
  Instructions unclear, vaporized a balloon from Party City with my F-16. >
  
  Don’t shoot ‘em down. Trap them shits and read the info available >
  
  It’s about time the world sees what China is doing. Y’all are making a big deal out of the balloon while all your data is being given to the Chinese government by Chinese companies like tencent by law. They own a big part of Reddit you know? >
  
  Says the person typing on reddit who probably shops at Walmart too >
  
  Yes 😭 It’s almost impossible to avoid it, which is the problem. I use Snapchat, Spotify for example and all of them have the same issue as reddit. 
  Thankfully I haven’t got a Walmart for hundreds of km >
  
  Just take your phone cook it over a stove, mix it into a nice stew. Chow down, sell all your assets and don’t anything, boom now youre not supporting China now😀 >
  
  Whoa whoa whoa! That better not be a GAS STOVE! >
  
  Look to see if Christopher Robin is hanging off it. Incase Xinnie the Pooh is looking for Honeypot... >
  
  Are we sure it's not a "V" first contact like situation? >
  
  Aliens flying a battle bus? Maybe we're more akin to a batrle royale prelude >
  
  So anyways I started blastin >
  
  I'm thoroughly entertained by the idea of open espionage. Just have a shady dude walking around with "SPY" on the back of his uniform jacket just walking up to people asking invasive questions. >
  
  That's called: social media >
  
  Shoot ‘em down. Let’s get this show on the road >
  
  Maybe they've been taken over by aliens, and this was the only way to ask for help? 
  (goes off to write screenplay). >
  
  Maybe I’m just not up to date on foreign affairs but what are they spying on? Farmers, cars driving on highways, people living day to day life? I don’t get it. >
  
  Air Force bases would be my guess. Malmstrom AFB in Montana is one location where they maintain the minuteman III ICBM’s (inter-continental ballistic missile), part of our nuclear deterrence strategy. But again, that’s me just assuming stuff, nothing official. >
  
  Ya as someone who doesn’t understand this stuff, it sounds like some BS world leader pissing contest lol >
  
  Panama Canal Authority gonna be upset they missed a transit fee.🇵🇦 >
  
  I highly doubt that it's designed to spy on anyone. Almost all phones and electronic components are made in China, if they wanted to spy on anyone, they'd do it that way. We no longer live in the 50s, spying balloons make no sense. At best it's just some lost weather analysing equipment and at worst it's full of some new bioweapon that will erase humanity in a few years. But think about it, if they wanted to release a bioweapon into the world. There would be like a million better ways of doing it. So yeah. >
  
  Seems to me the simplest guess of its purpose is exactly what it’s achieving…pandemonium. It worked for Russia, who spent a helluva lot more on Republican politicians than China spent on a balloon. 
  Why would any adversary invest in any weapon against us other than simple internet fuel for crazy people? It’s the only thing necessary to keep this country in mortal hysteria and constant bickering. >
  
  It may very well be Operation: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.
  They may be testing how long Americans will stay complacent in the event of obvious foreign transgressions in a time of inept government. Right now, a heavily armed population is realizing how vulnerable they would be to a simple Trojan weather balloon. A population fractured by civil war that can't trust its militarized police. When you're a powder keg, all it takes is a spark. >
  
  Go touch some grass jesus christ >
  
  in times like these the most important thing for us to do is panic and catastrophize >
  
  inflation in china must be worst then ours. >
  
  Are the Feds watching the Coca Cola plants around the country?!?! Let’s not forget, people, these folks like to play jokes. If the taste of our beloved national beverage changes, we know who to blame!!!!!