President Trump and US politics catchall

[Ymx]

The balloon has been shot down

[GogLais]

The balloon has been shot down

What do I know but I was sort of surprised that there wasn’t enough open space in Montana where it could have been safely shot down.

[Ymx]

I was thinking the same.

[Guy Smiley]

The debris field covered 11km...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64524105

Defence officials told US media the debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11km). Two naval ships, including one with a heavy crane for recovery, are in the area.

good luck directing a tattered balloon into the spot you want it to go.

[Hal Jordan]

Dept of Defence put the boot into the MAGA fuckwits moaning about how long Biden took to shoot it down by casually releasing the information that three balloon incursions happened during Trump's time in office and nothing was done about it.

[GogLais]

The debris field covered 11km...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64524105

Defence officials told US media the debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11km). Two naval ships, including one with a heavy crane for recovery, are in the area.

good luck directing a tattered balloon into the spot you want it to go.

Wouldn’t they shoot down a manned Chinese reconnaissance plane over Montana?

[fishfoodie]

The debris field covered 11km...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64524105

Defence officials told US media the debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11km). Two naval ships, including one with a heavy crane for recovery, are in the area.

good luck directing a tattered balloon into the spot you want it to go.

Wouldn’t they shoot down a manned Chinese reconnaissance plane over Montana?

Manned, No !

They'd send up fighters & get close enough to take the pilots temperature, & try to force them down, & they'd send lots of Diplomats home, & close a few consulates etc, but once you start killing people you ratchet things up.

The US flew weather balloons with cameras across the USSR in the 50s for dogs sake

[GogLais]

The debris field covered 11km...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64524105




good luck directing a tattered balloon into the spot you want it to go.

Wouldn’t they shoot down a manned Chinese reconnaissance plane over Montana?

Manned, No !

They'd send up fighters & get close enough to take the pilots temperature, & try to force them down, & they'd send lots of Diplomats home, & close a few consulates etc, but once you start killing people you ratchet things up.

The US flew weather balloons with cameras across the USSR in the 50s for dogs sake

Surely at some stage they’d have to shoot it down, they couldn’t let a potentially hostile plane fly around with impunity for ever.

[fishfoodie]

Wouldn’t they shoot down a manned Chinese reconnaissance plane over Montana?

Manned, No !

They'd send up fighters & get close enough to take the pilots temperature, & try to force them down, & they'd send lots of Diplomats home, & close a few consulates etc, but once you start killing people you ratchet things up.

The US flew weather balloons with cameras across the USSR in the 50s for dogs sake

Surely at some stage they’d have to shoot it down, they couldn’t let a potentially hostile plane fly around with impunity for ever.

Again, in the 1950s Eisenhower proposed to the Soviets that they should have an, "Open Skies Policy", because he saw both sides being able to spy on the other as a good thing. The Soviets rejected the idea, & hence Garry Powers got shot down, but they also unintentionally opened the door to the US when they sent Sputnik into an orbit that went over the US. If the US had followed the Soviets example & shot it down, they would have invited tit for tat retaliation.

The fact is that hostile satellites fly over the US ever day, dozens of times, & they could, if they wanted to, shoot them down.

Ask yourself, what can they learn from a recon balloon that they couldn't learn from a satellite, or by secretly packing a civilian airplane with electronics, or just driving a van around the Mid-West ?

It's arguable that sending up fighters & shooting it down is a mistake because it gives the Chinese information on the radar systems, & flight performance etc, that they don't get if they just ignore the balloons.

[TB63]

The replies!...

[TB63]

Dept of Defence put the boot into the MAGA fuckwits moaning about how long Biden took to shoot it down by casually releasing the information that three balloon incursions happened during Trump's time in office and nothing was done about it.

But,but,but...

The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration. They are only good at cheating in elections, and disinformation — and now they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the “heat” off the slow moving Biden fools. China had too much respect for “TRUMP” for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!

[Slick]

The debris field covered 11km...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64524105

Defence officials told US media the debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11km). Two naval ships, including one with a heavy crane for recovery, are in the area.

good luck directing a tattered balloon into the spot you want it to go.

Wouldn’t they shoot down a manned Chinese reconnaissance plane over Montana?

The whole thing just seems a bit odd to me. Nothing particularly sinister, just odd. The distance and flight path the balloon had to go makes it look like a very long shot that it would ever do anything useful and of course it would be spotted and shot down. I just don’t see the point when anything useful it could gather could be got from a satellite or similar

[Niegs]

Dept of Defence put the boot into the MAGA fuckwits moaning about how long Biden took to shoot it down by casually releasing the information that three balloon incursions happened during Trump's time in office and nothing was done about it.

But,but,but...

The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration. They are only good at cheating in elections, and disinformation — and now they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the “heat” off the slow moving Biden fools. China had too much respect for “TRUMP” for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!

So legitimate information then?

[TB63]

Who sends a Billion Dollar blimp, with the most sophisticated equipment in the World, and large enough to hold ten cars or 3 large buses, into a complex pattern over the United States, without it quite possibly being manned, such as the “manned spacecraft?” China should have been called to ask. If “no,” shoot it down, if “yes,” negotiate the greatest deal EVER!

Wot?..

The Chinese would never have floated the Blimp (“Balloon”) over the United States if I were President!!!

Oh..Riiiiight.....

Twat..

[fishfoodie]

Who sends a Billion Dollar blimp, with the most sophisticated equipment in the World, and large enough to hold ten cars or 3 large buses, into a complex pattern over the United States, without it quite possibly being manned, such as the “manned spacecraft?” China should have been called to ask. If “no,” shoot it down, if “yes,” negotiate the greatest deal EVER!

Wot?..

The Chinese would never have floated the Blimp (“Balloon”) over the United States if I were President!!!

Oh..Riiiiight.....

Twat..

This is the super genius that thought that bleach applied internally was a good idea, or nuking hurricanes.

[fishfoodie]

Oh look, who's the traitorous scrote now ?

[GogLais]

Manned, No !

They'd send up fighters & get close enough to take the pilots temperature, & try to force them down, & they'd send lots of Diplomats home, & close a few consulates etc, but once you start killing people you ratchet things up.

The US flew weather balloons with cameras across the USSR in the 50s for dogs sake

Surely at some stage they’d have to shoot it down, they couldn’t let a potentially hostile plane fly around with impunity for ever.

Again, in the 1950s Eisenhower proposed to the Soviets that they should have an, "Open Skies Policy", because he saw both sides being able to spy on the other as a good thing. The Soviets rejected the idea, & hence Garry Powers got shot down, but they also unintentionally opened the door to the US when they sent Sputnik into an orbit that went over the US. If the US had followed the Soviets example & shot it down, they would have invited tit for tat retaliation.

The fact is that hostile satellites fly over the US ever day, dozens of times, & they could, if they wanted to, shoot them down.

Ask yourself, what can they learn from a recon balloon that they couldn't learn from a satellite, or by secretly packing a civilian airplane with electronics, or just driving a van around the Mid-West ?

It's arguable that sending up fighters & shooting it down is a mistake because it gives the Chinese information on the radar systems, & flight performance etc, that they don't get if they just ignore the balloons.

All that may well be true, which assuming it wasn’t an off-course weather balloon means that it was basically a Chinese provocation. That being the case and if you don’t want it to happen again you shoot it down asap, not after it’s flown a few thousand miles over your territory. Bit of a mixed message imo.
I’d have thought there’s enough empty space in Montana to enable it to be shot down reasonably safely. No guarantees of course. And anyway, they like shooting things there.

[Biffer]

I'd want to shoot it down in conditions where as much if it as possible is recoverable, so I can find out what they're doing.

[fishfoodie]

I'd want to shoot it down in conditions where as much if it as possible is recoverable, so I can find out what they're doing.

It's entirely likely that it also contains self-destruct mechanisms too, & these aren't the kind of things you want dropping on land.

[Sandstorm]

I'd want to shoot it down in conditions where as much if it as possible is recoverable, so I can find out what they're doing.

It's entirely likely that it also contains self-destruct mechanisms too, & these aren't the kind of things you want dropping on land.

Couldn't they have waited until it drifted over a certain golf course in Florida?

[GogLais]

I'd want to shoot it down in conditions where as much if it as possible is recoverable, so I can find out what they're doing.

Hard to imagine they’d have anything mega high-tech fixed to a balloon. Surely?

[Biffer]

I'd want to shoot it down in conditions where as much if it as possible is recoverable, so I can find out what they're doing.

Hard to imagine they’d have anything mega high-tech fixed to a balloon. Surely?

I'm not talking about recovering cool tech, I want to know what was on it and what they're doing. It doesn't have to be high tech to be interesting

[Biffer]

Also worth saying - a 10cm camera will get a ground resolution of just over two metres max from low earth orbit (more likely 3-5m given all the real world complications). The same camera on a balloon 20km up will give you a resolution of 2-3cm.

[GogLais]

Also worth saying - a 10cm camera will get a ground resolution of just over two metres max from low earth orbit (more likely 3-5m given all the real world complications). The same camera on a balloon 20km up will give you a resolution of 2-3cm.

All the more reason to shoot it down sooner rather than later then. Maybe it's just as well I'm not POTUS.

[TB63]

Well they said they couldn't shoot it down straight away as it was over international waters!
So they blocked all transmission from it, read the data and left it drift till it was over water. Easier to recover as a water splash is less damaging than a hard ground crash down...

[Uncle fester]

But why use a balloon?
Satellite world get you everything you need no?

[GogLais]

Well they said they couldn't shoot it down straight away as it was over international waters!
So they blocked all transmission from it, read the data and left it drift till it was over water. Easier to recover as a water splash is less damaging than a hard ground crash down...

I didn’t mean shoot it down the minute it left China!

[Biffer]

But why use a balloon?
Satellite world get you everything you need no?

I gave a very good reason just five posts ago.

[Uncle fester]

Also worth saying - a 10cm camera will get a ground resolution of just over two metres max from low earth orbit (more likely 3-5m given all the real world complications). The same camera on a balloon 20km up will give you a resolution of 2-3cm.

Is that level of resolution worth the risk of antagonising the US and also the difficulty getting it to go where you need it to go?

[Biffer]

Also worth saying - a 10cm camera will get a ground resolution of just over two metres max from low earth orbit (more likely 3-5m given all the real world complications). The same camera on a balloon 20km up will give you a resolution of 2-3cm.

Is that level of resolution worth the risk of antagonising the US and also the difficulty getting it to go where you need it to go?

You'd need to ask the Chinese. I'm just pointing out what you can do from a balloon that you can't from orbit.

[fishfoodie]

The Biden Taylor Greene exchange is so deeply depressing as was the Romney Santos one

It's always a dangerous time when Democracy functioning is dependent upon a few unhinged individuals.

Just look what happened when the DUP held the balance of power during Brexit !

Now there's a great risk of the US defaulting on it's debt, if the pond scum get their way

[TB63]

He's fucking delusional...

So Ratings Challenged, FAKE NEWS CNN, which just had their lowest & worst numbers in History, wants to give wacky liddle’ Bill Maher a shot at bringing them back to just normal “bad” when Bill Maher suffers from the same affliction as CNN — BAD RATINGS! How’s that for television “programming?” Actually, there’s only one person that can save CNN — he’s done it for 6 years — “TRUMP,” but he’s not available, he’s going to WIN the Presidency for the THIRD time, & save our Country from going to HELL!

[TB63]

So the GOP have released the Jan 6 tapes..


To the Tucker Carlson show!..


You couldn't make this shit up....

[fishfoodie]

So the GOP have released the Jan 6 tapes..


To the Tucker Carlson show!..


You couldn't make this shit up....

The same week that court filings show everyone from The Ozzie cunt on down knew that the claims of Election fraud were bullshit, but as Carlson said in an email, CNN were taking ratings off Fox, & they needed to push the fraud lies to generate market share with the crazies, & lo, that's exactly what they did !

And now, because Dominion, & Smartmatic have all those emails, & SMS messages, their case is proven, & it's just a matter of whether Foxs lawyers get told to settle quick, or they risk punitive damages on top of the $3B they're being sued for !

[Biffer]

So the GOP have released the Jan 6 tapes..


To the Tucker Carlson show!..


You couldn't make this shit up....

The same week that court filings show everyone from The Ozzie cunt on down knew that the claims of Election fraud were bullshit, but as Carlson said in an email, CNN were taking ratings off Fox, & they needed to push the fraud lies to generate market share with the crazies, & lo, that's exactly what they did !

And now, because Dominion, & Smartmatic have all those emails, & SMS messages, their case is proven, & it's just a matter of whether Foxs lawyers get told to settle quick, or they risk punitive damages on top of the $3B they're being sued for !

Saw some commentary the other day about the Dominion court filing where they said it was very possible this would be the first ever defamation case before the US courts where a clear judgement was given purely on the basis of the filing.

[Kiwias]

So the GOP have released the Jan 6 tapes..


To the Tucker Carlson show!..


You couldn't make this shit up....

I am sure that Kevin has Tucker's assurance that there will be no "creative" editing of which portions of the tapes will be shown on his show.

[Hal Jordan]

Somebody had to take the babysitter home, then I noticed she was sitting on / her / sweet can... / so I grabbed / her / sweet can... / Ohhhh, just thinking about / her / can... / I just wish I had / her / sweet, sweet / s/s/sweet can...

[Sandstorm]

Somebody had to take the babysitter home, then I noticed she was sitting on / her / sweet can... / so I grabbed / her / sweet can... / Ohhhh, just thinking about / her / can... / I just wish I had / her / sweet, sweet / s/s/sweet can...

[fishfoodie]

Apparently the forewoman of the Georgia Grand Jury has done a couple of interviews, & dropped a heavy hint a certain cheating golfer is one of those the GJ recommended be prosecuted for election interference, an offense that could disqualify the person from appearing on any ballot in the State, (as I understand it).

I actually thing the GOP would be ecstatic if this happened, as it would be the cleanest way of removing the steaming pile of excrement from the race, & no blame would attach to them.

[Gumboot]

The most immediate concern if/when the traitorous turd gets indicted will be all the MAGA lunacy and violence. It's not like they don't have form, and who knows how truly feral things could get once the disinformation grifters like MTG and Gym Jordan really rile up the mobs. Fun times ahead.