Chinese Weather Balloons, and Should You Worry About Them?

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cwbullet said:
I think it is time we cut the Chinese off.
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kuririn said:
Agreed.
There should be serious repercussions.
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How do y'all feel about not being able to buy any Estes products for the next 3-5 years? TVs? Thumb drives? How will your friends and neighbors feel about that? How will Target and WalMart cope with having half or more of their stores empty? Because that's what it means to cut China off (among lots of other stuff).
 
jbsommerfeldt said:
Exactly.
In AK I know for a fact:
the F-15 that blew up on take off at Galena was an animal intake
the Korean airliner that reported an engine shut down was caused by volcanic ash across the bay from Anchorage Intl
the Japanese airliner that reported UFOs and refused to land saw Northern Lights and American speaking translators had a hard time explaining as he made an ER landing.

I do not believe:
Media
Govt
this forum
my neighbor


And the voices in my head.
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I should mention all of the above happened in the 80s. Along with one I didnt mention:
Anybody know about the Black Scorpion supposedly stationed at Eielson AFB AK? Maybe had alien radar to mess with USSR and accidently involved a civilian Korean airliner.
 
boatgeek said:
Anyone else who disputes this account is welcome to post a link to their sources so that we can judge the relative reliability.
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I was part of the DoD in the "Five sided puzzle palace" and I can tell you that not everything that comes out of there is truthful...sometimes to the point it would make your toes curl. Sure, most of it is puerile but the thing that most Americans fail to grasp is that once you make Flag rank and are at the highest levels of the military, you are not longer a warrior and mostly politician.
 
boatgeek said:
How do y'all feel about not being able to buy any Estes products for the next 3-5 years? TVs? Thumb drives? How will your friends and neighbors feel about that? How will Target and WalMart cope with having half or more of their stores empty? Because that's what it means to cut China off (among lots of other stuff).
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Yeah, and where am I going to get a cool weather balloon? (I hear they make the best ones).

ssixisixsix
 
boatgeek said:
How do y'all feel about not being able to buy any Estes products for the next 3-5 years? TVs? Thumb drives? How will your friends and neighbors feel about that? How will Target and WalMart cope with having half or more of their stores empty? Because that's what it means to cut China off (among lots of other stuff).
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I was thinking tit for tat. Launch our own giant balloons from NATO bases in say, Turkey.
Steer them over ICBM fields like in Yumen, Gansu and Hanmi.
Then when the Chinese have a cow just say "Oh, sorry. Weather balloon went astray".
Bring them to the negotiating table and strike up a treaty banning balloon overflights.
Like my parents used to say "Don't dish it out if you can't take it".
;)
 
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Bravo52 said:
I was part of the DoD in the "Five sided puzzle palace" and I can tell you that not everything that comes out of there is truthful...sometimes to the point it would make your toes curl. Sure, most of it is puerile but the thing that most Americans fail to grasp is that once you make Flag rank and are at the highest levels of the military, you are not longer a warrior and mostly politician.
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Shocking.
Who will I trust to keep my precious bodily fluids pure?

ssixsixsix
 
Bravo52 said:
I was part of the DoD in the "Five sided puzzle palace" and I can tell you that not everything that comes out of there is truthful...sometimes to the point it would make your toes curl. Sure, most of it is puerile but the thing that most Americans fail to grasp is that once you make Flag rank and are at the highest levels of the military, you are not longer a warrior and mostly politician.
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If thats true, its sad. I might be seeing my past with rose colored glasses but, it wasnt that way for me. Now how many "flag" officers did I deal with, not many. But the best officers that I worked with are former enlisted (non commissioned).

That being said the worst officer I worked for was a Lt. Col. Lost his fighter pilot rating due to kidney stones. Former Vietnam fighter pilot. Get him off talking military he was ok to deal with. Otherwise he was an a-0 If a fighter pilot losses his wings you might as well stab him in the heart.
 
hobie1dog said:
A debris field 15 football fields wide by 15 football fields long, if they would have just taken the balloon and put a big hole in it instead of having the missile Blow The Smithereens out of all of the hardware below it, then it might have come down within one football field
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Couldn't....they waited so long that the trajectory might have allowed it to float down in international waters. That would have complicated the "diplomatic" condition of threat to our sovereignty.

The shoot down was a political reaction to the White House seeing a bunch of hurtful memes on Twitter more than anything. Dropping it in the ADIZ at least allowed the US to claim it was still over US territory.
 
kuririn said:
So Pompeo was lying when he said he knew nothing about Chinese balloons entering US airspace on his watch?
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Maybe. Let's find out. I am sure Rep. Mike Turner chairman of the house intelligence committee will look into this. Somebody is lying.
 
kuririn said:
Agreed.
There should be serious repercussions.
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BUT.....In 2021, 8.6% of total U.S. exports of $1.8 trillion to the World were exported to China and 17.9% of total U.S. Imports of $2.8 trillion were imported from China. And that's going to stop?
 
hobie1dog said:
A debris field 15 football fields wide by 15 football fields long, if they would have just taken the balloon and put a big hole in it instead of having the missile Blow The Smithereens out of all of the hardware below it, then it might have come down within one football field
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How many school busses can you fit in a foot ball field?

ssixsixsix
 
jbsommerfeldt said:
Are they shorty busses, extended busses, special bussess, end to end, side to side, where is Evel Knievel when you need him.
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School buses range anywhere from 20 to 45 feet in length. In general, buses that are 20-25 feet long are considered mini or short. While buses that are 25-35 feet long fall into the mid-size category, and buses over 35 feet are full-sized.
some of these are standard looking school buses and if they're butted end-to-end, it takes seven of them to go from one end zone to the other. you can put about six buses side by side to go from one side line to the other side line across the field.
 
stealth6 said:
Does the statement "and was debunked by several people in the USG" given as proof pass your smell test?

Some things are a lot smellier than others.

s6
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As the beautiful Redheaded Libertarian once said... "If there were Chinese spy balloons during the Trump administration, that sht would have been leaked to CNN, MSNBC, The View, WaPo, The New York Times, Fox News, BBC, Al Jazeera, TMZ, and the Disney Channel." 🤣🤣🤣
 
boatgeek said:
How do y'all feel about not being able to buy any Estes products for the next 3-5 years? TVs? Thumb drives? How will your friends and neighbors feel about that? How will Target and WalMart cope with having half or more of their stores empty? Because that's what it means to cut China off (among lots of other stuff).
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"Target and WalMart" pales in comparison to Amazon...
 
Wow. The fact that a few Chinese balloons made it over during the previous administration really hit a nerve in a few folks.

SAD!
 
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Bravo52 said:
I was part of the DoD in the "Five sided puzzle palace" and I can tell you that not everything that comes out of there is truthful...sometimes to the point it would make your toes curl. Sure, most of it is puerile but the thing that most Americans fail to grasp is that once you make Flag rank and are at the highest levels of the military, you are not longer a warrior and mostly politician.
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Oh, absolutely agreed that flag rank officers are politicians. And absolutely press offices range between spin and outright lying. But if someone just bleats "fake news!" with no sources or support to back it up, it's hard to take them seriously. They might be right, but if you're going to say the Pentagon is lying, you ought to provide a counterargument source.
 
cwbullet said:
I think it is time we cut the Chinese off.
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HooKay, everyone who agrees with that, stop buying ANYTHING from China, and make your families to stop it too.

Including "U.S.Made" products... that use any parts from China. Like microchips.

Also, say bye-bye to getting anymore electronic altimeters and other onboard electronics, as AFAIK many use at least one key electronic component from China. Sometimes, even the circuit boards.

Also NOTHING from Estes except engines, ignitors, and Wadding (the only things they make in-house). And no doubt several other hobby rocket companies that likely get some stuff from China.

Bet nobody will REALLY stop.

Just forum big-talk blather, not realistic.
 
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