Pentagon: Chinese Spy Balloon Will Stay Over U.S. for ‘a Few Days’, Look at the Sky if You Want Its Location
Excuse me? “The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and — and see where the balloon is.”
The Pentagon offered the usual government vague press conference when confronted with important questions.
Defense Department spokesman Brig. General Pat Ryder confirmed the Chinese lied when they said the balloon was a weather balloon:
“So first of all, we are aware of the PRC statement. However, the fact is we know that it’s a surveillance balloon. And I’m not going to be able to be more specific than that. We do know that the balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable. And so we’ve conveyed this directly to the PRC at multiple levels,” he told reporters, a day after the department disclosed it was aware of the incursion.
.@PentagonPresSec: "We are aware of the PRC's statement. However, the fact is, we know that it's a surveillance balloon. I'm not going to be able to be more specific than that. We do know that the balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable." pic.twitter.com/cZXNY4qUaN
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 3, 2023
Of course, they don’t have any new information, but promised the balloon isn’t a threat:
RYDER: “In regards to our announcement last night regarding the high altitude surveillance balloon, I’m not going to have much new information to provide other than to say that the North American Aerospace Defense Command continues to monitor it closely. While we won’t get into specifics in regards to the exact location, I can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental United States.”
The Pentagon says the suspected Chinese spy balloon, which is now over the "center of the continental" U.S., poses no "military or physical threat" to people on the ground. https://t.co/DXSXaww8nn pic.twitter.com/achF190bip
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 3, 2023
The Pentagon won’t give the American people the balloon’s location. Their advice? Go outside:
REPORTER: “I understand it might be inconvenient but as the public not have a right to know if the ballon is over the state –“
RYDER: “The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and — and see where the balloon is.”
REPORTER: "Does the public not have the right to know…?"
PENTAGON: "The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is." pic.twitter.com/3mLU3BQTRQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 3, 2023
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Comments
Chinese spy balloon. Has Eric Swalwell(D) tried to have sex with it, yet? TikTok
Or Pedo Crackhead Hunter….
Surely the balloon has it’s own Twitter account by now.
Shoot. It. Down.
China has assured us that everything is hunkey dorey, so no worries.
This thing is flying over flyover country. You can be assured that Billy Bob will take it as a challenge.
He got a promotion and now works in the office. Now, he’s William Robert.
He got fancy and instead of ordering a sloppy Joe he asks for an uncouth Joseph.
And any American citizen that shoots the Chinese Communist Party balloon down with their favorite Barrett M82 will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of federal law.
They gotta catch him first.
Must be nice that the Chinese having a operative in the WH.
Whatever they paid the Biden Crime Family( and lots of government officials) they got their money worth
Trump would have fired the Generals one at a time until he found one to shoot it down. Could allowing a foreign adversary to do aerial surveillance be a court martial or impeachable offense?
Pentagon to Discuss Chinese Spy Balloon and Why Brandon Is Mocked by the World
The Briefing Is a Lie; Pentagon Refuses to Say Anything Except “Everything’s Fine”
—Ace
Biden is a coward
President Trump
Would have shot that thing down,
Then again if President Trump didn’t have his presidency stolen, the Chinese wouldn’t have had the balls to send it!
Just get your power back?
This should serve as a “Sputnik Moment”, but the fact that it isn’t is even more troubling than the balloon’s location. For at least half of the country, patriotism is very much dead,
Turn on the black light and see the invisible strings on China’s puppet.
You mean, Dr Jill’s husband?
After meeting with the appropriate officials, Generals Milley and Austin are completely satisfied.
(Yeah, I know they’re Japanese, but I can’t make up a Chinese version to order.)
A balloon animal expert would have twisted it into a dragon.
Why won’t Xiden shoot it down? Is he being blackmailed? Our leaders are a feckless group of fools!
I’m wondering if there may be crew onboard? Being that it has maneuvering capability I gotta wonder. We would be looking bad if we did shoot it down and it really was a scientific mission with a small crew encapsulated inside the outer envelop. I also don’t know if it actually violated US controlled airspace if it stays above 60k feet. Where does space begin?
That small scientist crew could very well be working on new COVID vaccines in hostile environments and when we shoot it down the virus samples will be strewn loose into the upper atmosphere thereby poisoning the world. It doesn’t even have to be true to make us lose face. Also CCP can avoid liability for poisoning the world since we shot down their “aerial laboratory”.
I’m on a roll now. If it stays above 60k ft and can maintain VFR what justification do we have in preemptively shooting it down? I’m sure there are international notifications that were ignored but to shoot it down seems draconian.
The Russian and CHICOM nuke will be over the US for a few seconds. If you want to know where just look up. This is the regime you low IQ types keep backing. The rest of us don’t find this reassuring.
Does the balloon have the “UPenn” logo on it?
“The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and — and see where the balloon is.”
He’s wrong. I can’t see bupkus. Or they could just TELL US.
It’s almost as if this guy doesn’t understand that he works for the Citizens who pay for the toys the AF uses.
Violating international law?! Want to know what data CCP is collecting?Shoot it down; lasso and drag it down; or just hack the computers using Space Force. End. Of. Story. Unless DOD has become the Keystone Cops? Open borders! Open airspace? What’s next? :op
Brigadier General Ryder is a disgrace.
If this is a Chinese spying intent then it is a pretty lame one.
People don’t go shooting at it. Likely the bullet won’t reach and possibly it will hit someone on the head coming down. If the US wants to bring it down, there are easier and safer ways to do that.
OTpointed that I don’t know where in the sky to look for it.
{ disappointed that…
It’s a power move. They’re blatantly and publicly punking this administration, demonstrating that they can do whatever they want and the drooling dementia patient will just dither around doing nothing in response.
I know that I am old. When I was young, we were proud of and believed that our military would protect the country. And until the military doctor started sprinkling holy water on me to get me out of the infirmary when he saw how screwed up my back was, I wanted to spend my career doing the same.
Now things have changed, irredeemably apparently. We cannot trust the military [and the political command structure] to protect the country and if I should live long enough you can be sure that I will try to convince my grandchildren NOT to enlist if they show any sign of wanting too.
Subotai Bahadur
Just watch hour ago it is in the St Louis Missouri area, obviously will be heading east. It is at 60,000 feet doing 75mph
Google where is Chinese Balloon now
And oh, by the way, they’ve admitted its ‘independently maneuverable’, making this an INTENTIONAL act by China (as if there was any doubt).
Yeah, the lies keep changing EVERY HOUR. That’s the tickee!
This is a test run for the next balloon which may carry an EMT or biological weapon or dirty bomb. In fact, this may very well was is happening with this one.
This is a device that can be steered and our military has obviously agreed to allow them to take their time inspecting whatever they want. What if they don’t leave in 2-3 days? What if another balloon suddenly appears? To assume that it is not a threat is stupid beyond belief. We don’t know what they are looking for.
So never mind the sharp reprimand or sternly-worded letter. End it NOW! Shoot it down already! How about seizing all the property has purchased? Do it Kristi Noem! Eminent domain!
Dry run. They got away with this one. Make them understand next one will be assumed to be unmanned and will be destroyed before it gets over our ADIZ at any altitude.
Snippet from what I found
CBS meteorologist Ed Russo predicted that “at current speed, the balloon will be off the coast of the Carolinas around noon” on Saturday. His analysis put the balloon as floating south of St. Louis, then through Tennessee, passing north of Nashville, then traveling into the Carolinas near Charlotte before drifting off the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
We know if you permit bad behavior you will get it again.
Still I am convinced China showing they own Sundowner
I was thinking that too and that may in fact what this is about. It’s kind of like a moment we could be reminded of later when we discover China has already taken over the US. “With all of the obvious evidence that was out in the open, how did you not see it coming?”
But I have come to believe that this is more than a message. Read my next comment below.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called off his trip to Taiwan over this. I believe these two dots strongly suggest that there is threat involved here and so maybe it more than likely that the balloon is carrying something that represents a great threat to us. China is running our noses in something. This is NOT a minor incident. How compromised is our government?
I first thought that this was a staged distraction related to Congress announcing the start of an investigation of Biden’s China business relations but I now believe there is some very serious negotiating going on and something important hangs in the balance. Real danger.
If “the balloon is carrying something that represents a great threat to us”, why didn’t these geniuses anticipate the possibility and shoot it down before it got to our Pacific coastline?
Geniuses? I think I see the problem.
It is my belief, unsupported by any facts, that the Chinese are simply running a test. The test question: Is Biden an honest politician?
Of course, you have to remember the ages-old definition of an “honest politician”: Once you’ve buy him, he STAYS bought.
I believe that we have the answer. The ChiComs bought Biden long ago, and he is staying bought.
Does anybody remember the phrase, “To float a trial balloon”? Here the ChiComs are floating a literal balloon, to find out what the US political and military response will be. When Biden and the horrifically weakened (but politically correct) military do absolutely nothing, it will be their invitation to invade Taiwan. Not immediately, since they’ll need a delay to make it look like their testing of Biden’s paid-for status is unrelated, but eventually.
Between the Chinese and Taiwan, and the Russians and Ukraine, I fear for our future.
Did anyone call Gen. Milley? He probably knows.
In further developments, there are unconfirmed reports of an explosion over Montana…….
Looks like all of the reports, and there are quite a few, are connected to a single tweet by a source of questionable reliability. Governor is apparently denying any knowledge. Meanwhile, the first balloon has been reported at around 50K feet over Kansas by a couple of private aircraft flying at/around 45K feet.
I’m terribly disappointed that the balloon doesn’t have a tracker setup yet that we can watch on the internet.
We know that the general in charge is Milley and he told the CCP that if any kind of attack or aggressive move by the US that he would call them to warn them. I guess he has phoned them to let them know their balloon is safe.
It all seems so surreal.. But then, that’s living through bad history.
Maybe this is all a nonsense response from Brandon&Co for a reason. They are jamming it so nothing collected is going anywhere. It’s too high to recover and if they shoot it down it will be destroyed so they are waiting for it to get over water where they will shoot it down and recover it from the ocean. That is what I would do.
“…shoot it down and LOSE it in the ocean.” Fixed it for you.
Have you ever been in northeastern Montana? It’s pretty much sagebrush desert, with one of the lowest population densities in the lower 48. Straight-line distance from the Canadian border to Billings is just over 200 miles, with plenty of totally empty space (aside from a few cattle). Their excuse of not wanting it to come down on a populated area was transparent BS.
Not to mention the fact that it’s a frickin’ BALLOON. It’s effective weight is exactly zero, and it’s going to have been made from the most light-weight low-density materials possible. It’s been mostly at around 60,000 ft, and the (publicly stated) operational ceiling of an F15 is 65,000 feet. You don’t have to make the thing explode, and the speed with which it would descend would depend on how MANY holes you poke in the thing. Poke just a few holes, it comes down slowly. Poke a lot of holes, it comes down faster. Blow up the balloon envelope and the payload crashes to the ground at terminal velocity (whatever that would be).
So they could have picked a nice piece of empty prairie, poked a bunch of holes, and then watched it slowly descend over the course of an hour (or a few hours) and recovered it completely intact…unless the ChiComs have it rigged with a self-destruct, in which case it rally wouldn’t matter.
The U.S. military has become totally emasculated under the Dumb-o-crats’ leadership, and, our foreign adversaries know it.
With worthless and subversive generals such as “I want to know about ‘white rage’ ” Milley and his activist ilk leading the charge, the Pentagon is clearly more concerned about promoting ridiculous Dumb-o-crat obsessions and frivolities, and, engaging in narcissistic virtue-signaling stunts, than in fielding and maintaining a deadly and effective fighting force.
So they send out an arrogant sob with eight layers of participation ribbons to tell me “just look up” when I want to know where this Chinese gadget is.
Just close the Pentagon and let the FBI have it.
Ayden, NC is in a panic as the balloon floats over town. The populace is stampeding in fear…all but one man.
Junebug Steen ambles out of the singlewide he shares with Regina with his Winchester, takes aim and ruptures the balloon with a one-in-a-million shot.
The balloon turns into a curious cloud that slowly settles to the ground.
Junebug races over and discovers the cloud is millions of paper leaflets, upon which are printed “Did You Or Your Loved Ones Work At Camp Lejune Between 1978 And 1984?”
Answer to the chickenshit military – you don’t have to blow it up, just put a hole in it.