They really should have shot down the LAX jetpack guy. I understand he moved to Florida and the pack is in storage.
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There’s always a silver lining:
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The Europeans must be itching to shoot down a balloon to prove the merits of the Meteor, Mica, IRIS-T, ASRAAM, etc.
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Okay this is getting to be the stuff of nightmares. On a personal level I’m thinking of a person I recently lost to cancer. The big primary tumor was discovered, But it wasn’t removed for three months. (Yeah there can be long waiting periods in our medical system too). Well: whew, it’s gone. Then little “blebs” ” started appearing, ; they were dealt with one by one, “oblated” was the term the doctors used. That’s where we are right now. Picking these small incursions off as they pop up. Whack-a-mole.
I’m also thinking of a horror movie type scenario where you kill a monster and—each piece of it comes alive as a replica of the larger one!
But, dear polymaths, can you tell me: why don’t they capture at least one of these satellite tumors and biopsy it, to see where it comes from, what it is?
I’m getting the awful feeling that all this is being revealed to us now just BECAUSE the big white balloon made Biden look bad. I mean, at first, it was just: well three of ‘em went over during Trump’s term, too, y’know! Then, we read there were three HUNDRED they knew about! And NoW , it’s like one a day. The public demanded answers, and the feeling I’m getting is like: okay, let’s see if they can HANDLE the truth.
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I think that too! These things are not crafts, but creatures.
But is that what these current little objects are?
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Come on, everybody. We know that these are all weather balloons – lots of countries sending up weather balloons every day for forecasting & research purposes. The winds blow them hither & yon – that is the whole point of the balloon, to see where Mother Nature sends it. A couple of years ago, I even found one of them in my back yard – complete with instructions on how to Return to Sender.
Those that rule us have decided that the Balloon Gap is a great distraction from a corrupt incompetent government. And it allows the media to present a senile old man as Horatio on the Bridge – no balloons on his watch! They shall not pass!
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The way the information is presented makes it appear that our betters just pull the trigger and ask questions later. This is so absurd. We don’t know what it was, but we shot it down. I think you are correct. Did anyone ask the morons the logic behind shooting stuff down without knowing what it is?
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https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230216/p2g/00m/0na/047000c
Japan’s ruling bloc on Thursday approved the government’s plan of relaxing the requirements for weapon use against flying objects violating the nation’s airspace, amid concerns over how to respond to territorial incursions by Chinese spy balloons.
The plan, explained by government officials during a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party, would enable the Self-Defense Forces to fire weapons to secure the safety of air traffic and protect the lives and properties of people on the ground, LDP lawmakers said.
Currently, the Japanese forces can use arms only for legitimate self-defense or the avoidance of clear and present danger, while the SDF law stipulates that “necessary measures” can be taken if foreign aircraft enter Japan’s skies.
Whether Japan will also start taking a harder line against that other perennial security problem afflicting the home islands remains to be seen.
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Pilot denied his chance at an air-to-air kill.
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I wonder just how many ELINT aircraft were buzzing around that balloon? There was the U-2, at least one Rivet Joint, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were Global Hawks involved. I hope they got something worthwhile out of all that activity.
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“The War Zone” column at The Drive has published enlargements and analysis of the officially released U-2 photo of the balloon in “Our Best Look Yet At The Chinese Spy Balloon’s Massive Payload”.
The high-resolution image offers a much better look at the balloon’s payload, which consists of a center section flanked by two arrays of solar panels. U.S. officials had said previously that the entire assembly likely weighed two thousand pounds or more.
A closer look at the center section reveals additional notable details, including a relatively large white dish or platter-type antenna in the center. U.S. officials previously said that the balloon’s payload had multiple antennas that could be capable of gathering various types of signals intelligence.
In addition, there are four symmetrically positioned white fixtures, which appear to be propeller hubs with propellers attached. The Pentagon previously confirmed that the balloon had the ability to maneuver, but had provided no details. Existing images taken from the ground had not clearly shown active propulsion features. The need to power four electric motors, as well as various other surveillance and communications systems, would help explain the need for the very large solar steerable arrays.
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It is getting very hard to keep up. The standard Woke view would undoubtedly be that in a contest between a modern clean solar-powered “Green” balloon and a fossil-fuel burning CO2-spewing old-tech airplane, we all should be rooting for the balloon. After all, the Green balloon had traveled half-way around the world without using any fossil fuels. That is the future to which all Wokies are committed.
Yet this time around, the Green balloon is the villain and the fossil-fueled machine with its fossil-fueled rocket is the hero? Much too difficult to keep up!
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Ahhhh, but the balloon is filled with helium, which is a non-renewable resource produced as a by-product of EVIL natural gas wells, and the balloon itself is made from plastic that is produced from EVIL petroleum.
Extra Greta-credit for calling the second most abundant element in the universe a “non-renewable resource”.
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A nice bit of civilian photoanalysis.
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I find it hard to believe no one here posted the 99 Luftballons lyrics of the 1980s one-hit wonder by Nena (source)
Flash the message
“Something’s out there”
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it’s red alert
There’s something here
From somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where 99 red balloons go by99 Decision Street
99 ministers meet
To worry, worry, super-scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we’ve waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by[Instrumental Interlude]
99 knights of the air
Ride super-high-tech jet fighters
Everyone’s a super hero
Everyone’s a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
As 99 red balloons go by
Further evidence we live in a simulation which has been glitching a lot more often recently 
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