US US Politics General - Discussion of President Biden and other politicians

Status
Not open for further replies.
BidenGIF.gif
 
Last edited:
Am I a little paranoid here if I think this is less about spying and more about testing if they can penetrate U.S airspace without reprisal?
"We don't want to risk pissing off the Chinese" is not something an American should EVER say, especially not our fucking government, when China may be openly violating our national sovereignty.
 
I never said anything about not shooting it down. That's not an issue for me. I just find it to be the most obnoxious way for them to spy on us. Consider all the other ways they could do that without alerting us. They could have just as easily used American made drones (not the military ones mind you) or even a private aircraft to surveil us, but instead they chose to use something that they can't really control. Why?
Well if you want a hypothesis for why it would be a balloon of all things I have an idea. Communist China is very known for its "West bad" rhetoric and may of launched it to accomplish one of two things in case it is either allowed to be shot down or stay up. If the balloon is the shot down Xi Jinping can go on his shtick of the USA is bad and imperialist or whatever and start some new propaganda campaign. If the balloon isn't shot down it makes the USA look weak and could be a sign the country current's leadership will tolerate probing by more surveillance Chinese aircraft.

Do be aware I don't intend to make Biden and his defense advisors look smart for not doing anything. If the administration had the same hypothesis and thought of something similar they would be shouting it out to the media constantly to make him look like some kind of foreign policy mastermind. Their most likely either cowards or compromised in some way.

The best theoretical course of action I think would be to take the balloon out of the sky but try to do it in such a way you can salvage some information from what was inside of it to get a better idea for what China was watching. With surveilance planes you have to destroy the whole thing, but with something like balloons though you could potentially try to carefully slow the descent in order to limit damage to internal equipment.
 
"The Chinese have spy satellites so who cares?" is a pretty bad argument in my mind. It's like saying that because the Chinese government has really good hacking capabilities that we shouldn't care that the CCP implants loyalists into Western industries and universities. If it is a Chinese spy balloon and it has no value to the Chinese, then it wouldn't be floating over the United States right now. The DoD has been super cucked over the last few years and the cracks are really starting to show. The only thing that would make it more predictable is that we can't shoot it down because we gave all of those type of missiles to Ukraine.
If the USA blows up a Chinese spy device flying over its territory, then doesn't China equally have the right to do so with the many USA spy devices that fly over its? Presuming this is a spy device, then the only difference between this and numerous US satellites is altitude.

EDIT: On re-reading, the above might sound like I'm arguing that the USA mustn't shoot it down for fear of reprisals. If I were in charge I'd shoot it down. No balloons without my consent.
 
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: Vyse Inglebard
"We don't want to risk pissing off the Chinese" is not something an American should EVER say, especially not our fucking government, when China may be openly violating our national sovereignty.
If that balloon had been Russian, we'd be at DEFCON 2 by now.

The ChiComs violate our airspace, and all the talk is about how we need to reconcile and be all cumbayah with China. We all know why. We're living under Beijing's Vichy regime.

At the very least, there should be sanctions and diplomats expelled for this. But that won't happen.
 
If the USA blows up a Chinese spy device flying over its territory, then doesn't China equally have the right to do so with the many USA spy devices that fly over its? Presuming this is a spy device, then the only difference between this and numerous US satellites is altitude.
Realistically if China reacted in a way like that, that would practically guarantee the CCP faces a soft power crackdown in the United States and the destruction of all of their own surveillance devices. Not to say they couldn't possibly do that, it would just be a short-sighted goal, jeopardize the operation of existing intelligence networks and solidify that feeling of a Second Cold War between China and the USA which would have all sorts of ramifications.
 
Realistically if China reacted in a way like that, that would practically guarantee the CCP faces a soft power crackdown in the United States and the destruction of all of their own surveillance devices. Not to say they couldn't possibly do that, it would just be a short-sighted goal, jeopardize the operation of existing intelligence networks and solidify that feeling of a Second Cold War between China and the USA which would have all sorts of ramifications.
I agree with all of the above. I personally would shoot it down - it's unmanned, no loss of life - unless the Chinese admitted ownership and provided me some pretty solid assurances of what it was that I could trust (good luck with that). I would be polite about it though and say: "Sorry, had to. Hope you understand."

But I think sooner or later, and probably sooner, China is going to come around to the same position as Russia and realise that America will never be its friend no matter what it does short of complete dissolution as a potential rival, and begin preparing for confrontation. I mean, that is what it IS doing. The only difference between it and Russia is that Russia was able to meaningfully prepare over the last eight years whereas China has internal problem after internal problem. I wouldn't write them off, though. I mean, it's obvious the USA sees them as a rival so clearly they can be.
 
"The Chinese have spy satellites so who cares?" is a pretty bad argument in my mind. It's like saying that because the Chinese government has really good hacking capabilities that we shouldn't care that the CCP implants loyalists into Western industries and universities. If it is a Chinese spy balloon and it has no value to the Chinese, then it wouldn't be floating over the United States right now. The DoD has been super cucked over the last few years and the cracks are really starting to show. The only thing that would make it more predictable is that we can't shoot it down because we gave all of those type of missiles to Ukraine.
Keep in mind, these are the same people who constantly bring up the slavery days of the US and the Holocaust but are silent about China enslaving and genociding the Uyghurs.
 
If the USA blows up a Chinese spy device flying over its territory, then doesn't China equally have the right to do so with the many USA spy devices that fly over its? Presuming this is a spy device, then the only difference between this and numerous US satellites is altitude.

EDIT: On re-reading, the above might sound like I'm arguing that the USA mustn't shoot it down for fear of reprisals. If I were in charge I'd shoot it down. No balloons without my consent.
So we're just trading spy intel with China now? We are going to have to rename it to the 5 and a half eyes.
 
Anyone want to take any bets that if Trump wins, we're going to see the media "leak" all kinds of audio clips from Trump that were actually manufactured?

On another note, call me dumb and naive, but this "weather balloon" thing doesn't scare me at all. I don't even understand the point of it. It's pretty much the most inefficient way for the Chinese to spy on us considering how many spies and corrupted officials they already have in this country. Then again, maybe the point of it isn't to actually spy on us. It's just there as an eff you to Biden.
That's the fun part, they've already accused him of saying or doing everything their retarded minds could think of and none of it sticks. They don't call him Teflon Don for nothing.
 
I will point out that a balloons surveillance advantages are in loiter time - One of the hard parts of satellite observation is they're only over the target for a few seconds every few hours, so your doing a lot of guessing and stitching together to track activity. A balloon can go eyes on with a target for however long the winds carry it over, which will be significantly longer than a satellite by any conventional measure. This makes dealing with shadows, lighting conditions, natural movement and such far easier.

Either they're retarded, or their feigning retardation because they're shit scared of the balloon having something dangerous in it. Of course, I would argue that flying something carrying a bomb or some such shit over the US as a "shoot me down and you'll fuck yourself" device is pretty act-of-war in my books. And if its harmless, but the debris land on someones property? Bill China, they already admitted it was there's, and refused to leave the airspace (Not that it can, but your the one who chose to send it) and are therefore responsible for what happens.

Either way, shoot it down. You'd kill some dumb civvies drone without a second thought, so stop cucking out. Whats the point of a MIC if you don't start shit with big guns.
 
If the USA blows up a Chinese spy device flying over its territory, then doesn't China equally have the right to do so with the many USA spy devices that fly over its? Presuming this is a spy device, then the only difference between this and numerous US satellites is altitude.

EDIT: On re-reading, the above might sound like I'm arguing that the USA mustn't shoot it down for fear of reprisals. If I were in charge I'd shoot it down. No balloons without my consent.
Sure, but why would we fly spy planes or even drones perhaps over China though when our spy satellites should be able to do the job?

If any kind of confrontation were to occur in the skies over reconnaissance aircraft, I would wager it would be over the water.

I will point out that a balloons surveillance advantages are in loiter time - One of the hard parts of satellite observation is they're only over the target for a few seconds every few hours, so your doing a lot of guessing and stitching together to track activity. A balloon can go eyes on with a target for however long the winds carry it over, which will be significantly longer than a satellite by any conventional measure. This makes dealing with shadows, lighting conditions, natural movement and such far easier.
If the Chinese wanted something to spy on us that could hover for awhile and be able to resist the vagaries of the wind, they would have used a civilian American made drone. It's patently stupid for them to rely on a balloon to spy on us.
 
Sure, but why would we fly spy planes or even drones perhaps over China though when our spy satellites should be able to do the job?

If any kind of confrontation were to occur in the skies over reconnaissance aircraft, I would wager it would be over the water.
This is kind of funny to me.

In the days before 11 Sept 01, one of our planes was forced down by the Chinese, the crew taken prisoner, and China was screaming it was an act of war and that the crew were all spies and they were going to be treated as spies.

Things were getting a little tense.

Liberals and Democrats online were all posting "WATCH BUSH START A WAR!" during it. The press was breathlessly reporting on the possible fates of the crew.

China was talking mad shit about how they were going to punish the US for this blatant act of aggression and maybe it's time to put America's reputation to the test. "Paper Tiger" and "Fallen Empire" and "Fat and weak!" were the constant taunts.

Then the Pentagon and Twin Towers were hit.

Suddenly, it was all "Oh, US, your plane had mechanical issues! Luckily, we were there to save your guys! Look, they're staying in 5-star hotels and banging slant eyed whores! USA NUMBAH ONE! We'll give your plane back too, USA, old buddy, old pal, old friend! China and US best friends forever!"

It was fucking hilarious.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back