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Balloons, UFOs, and other incursions of US airspace "You send 'em, we shoot' em"

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Phoenix520
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#51

Post by Phoenix520 »

There was some discussion in the Abbott thread about TX passing a new law forbidding certain ethnicities from buying land. It’s not just TX.
According to the USDA, Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland increased from $81 million in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2020. And reports have shown that Chinese investors are buying farmland near military bases and other critical U.S. infrastructure.

As of December 2020, Chinese investors owned 352,140 acres, just less than 1% of all foreign-held farmland, according to the USDA.
https://qctimes.com/news/state-and-regi ... 2d5d2.html

I heard a discussion about it on Maddow’s podcast today. (It’s late and I’m on my phone. This is all I can muster. )
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#52

Post by pipistrelle »

Lots of chatter on Twitter about how the military made Biden wait. Whoa, who's in charge? He's not. He must be really out of it. Etc. Well, a lot more vile. Reading the same thing, my thought was, Someone who listens to experts. How different.
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#53

Post by raison de arizona »

pipistrelle wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:02 am Lots of chatter on Twitter about how the military made Biden wait. Whoa, who's in charge? He's not. He must be really out of it. Etc. Well, a lot more vile. Reading the same thing, my thought was, Someone who listens to experts. How different.
Yeah, I heard a lot of that as well. Kilmeade literally said, who is in charge? The commander-in-chief or the generals? Well... Uh... Don't you think it makes sense for the commander-in-chief to listen to the generals? I do. Anyway, here's Snoopy.
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#54

Post by RTH10260 »

pipistrelle wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:02 am Lots of chatter on Twitter about how the military made Biden wait. Whoa, who's in charge? He's not. He must be really out of it. Etc. Well, a lot more vile. Reading the same thing, my thought was, Someone who listens to experts. How different.
:brickwallsmall: but when they want the US government overthrown, the question is "why hasn't the military acted yet and taken back control" :blackeye:
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#55

Post by RTH10260 »

Note w/o link: There have been speculations that the ballon was to be tested for the purpose of carrying a payload that would be a glider plane (aka drone).
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#56

Post by bob »

Slim Cognito wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:01 am That SNL open is the funniest thing I've seen since Weekend Update interviewed the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.
Same actor: Bowen Yang (who is hella funny).
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#57

Post by RTH10260 »

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#58

Post by Gupwalla »

Another one today, shot down as it entered Alaskan airspace. Not yet classified as a balloon, officially.

So two down, 97 to go…

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#59

Post by Volkonski »

AP

The United States has blacklisted six Chinese entities it says are linked to Beijing’s aerospace programs as part of its retaliation over the alleged Chinese spy balloon that traversed U.S. airspace.

https://apnews.com/article/politics-uni ... b6d7b9526c
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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#60

Post by RTH10260 »

Management summary as gleaned from article: Incursions into US airspace was limited to minimal. Event reports did not bubble up any command chain.
Why Trump officials were unaware of Chinese spy balloons

Brett Samuels
Sat, February 11, 2023 at 6:00 PM GMT+1

Former Trump administration officials have expressed frustration and confusion in recent days over revelations that Chinese surveillance balloons hovered over U.S. airspace during their time in office.

As more information has emerged about the extent of China’s use of balloons to surveil the U.S. and other countries — another object was shot down over waters near Alaska on Friday afternoon, though it is unclear where it came from — it has fueled questions about why officials from the Trump administration were unaware of previous incursions and spurred frustration among some of those officials.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-trump-of ... 00489.html
(original: The Hill)
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#61

Post by RTH10260 »

White House: Improved surveillance caught Chinese balloon

ZEKE MILLER, LOLITA C. BALDOR and AAMER MADHANI
Mon, February 6, 2023 at 8:04 PM GMT+1

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Monday that improvements ordered by President Joe Biden to strengthen defenses against Chinese espionage helped to identify last week’s spy balloon — and to determine that similar flights were conducted at multiple points during the Trump administration.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that after Biden took office, the U.S. “enhanced our surveillance of our territorial airspace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.”




https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house- ... 45396.html
Comment: my interpretation about the earlier incidents during the former administration is that after the current event the archived intelligence data was screened for similar patterns and events discovered.
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#62

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Trudeau ordered U.S. fighter jet to shoot down object over northern Canada

World
Feb 11, 2023 6:18 PM EST

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that on his order a U.S. fighter jet shot down an unidentified object that was flying high over the Yukon, acting a day after the U.S. took similar action over Alaska.

North American Aerospace Defense Command, the combined U.S.-Canada organization that provides shared defense of airspace over the two nations, said it had detected an object flying at a high altitude over northern Canada. It wasn’t immediately clear how high up it was flying or what it was.

Trudeau said he also spoke with President Joe Biden, who himself ordered the downing of an unidentified object over remote Alaska on Friday.

A spokesman, Maj. Olivier Gallant, said both Canadian and U.S. jets operating as part of NORAD had been deployed. The jets were scrambled and it was a U.S. jet that shot it down.

F-22 fighter jets have now downed three objects in the airspace above the U.S. and Canada over seven days, a stunning development in the skies that is raising questions on just what, exactly, is hovering overhead and who has sent them.
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#63

Post by RTH10260 »

Dave from down under
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#64

Post by Dave from down under »

"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," General VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, said.

He said he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation.

"I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out," he said.

Another defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity
► Show Spoiler
, subsequently said the military had not seen any evidence that the objects were extraterrestrial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-13/ ... /101964386
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#65

Post by neonzx »

Dave from down under wrote: Sun Feb 12, 2023 11:32 pm "We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," General VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, said.

He said he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation.
:eek:

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#66

Post by Dave from down under »

"counterintelligence community"

Paging MTG, Paging MTG, please pick up the white curtesy phone ...
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#67

Post by RTH10260 »

we continue to attribute all current UFO sightings to Sheeenaaa (for reason :roll: )
US shoots down ‘octagonal’ flying object near military sites in Michigan
Incident is the fourth flying object downed by US or Canadian jets this month, after the downing of a large balloon claimed by China on 4 February

Ed Pilkington
Sun 12 Feb 2023 23.01 GMT

The US military shot down a fourth flying object over North American airspace in a week on Sunday over Lake Huron in Michigan, confirmed the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

“I’m glad to report it has been swiftly, safely and securely taken down,” she said.

The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, is understood to have been the same item that was picked up by radar over Montana on Saturday. At the point it was struck by an air-to-air missile launched by F-16 fighter jets, it had been flying across the Great Lakes region at 20,000ft, a height that could have posed a risk to civilian aircraft.

The Pentagon said the object appeared to have traveled near US military sites and posed a threat to civilian aviation, as well as being a potential tool for surveillance.

The US air force general overseeing North American airspace said the object likely fell in Canadian waters.

Military personnel equipped with specialist diving gear designed for the extreme cold waters of Lake Huron were expected to be deployed quickly to search for pieces of the destroyed object. So far, there is no intelligence on who was controlling the structure or whether it was actually engaged in any spying activities.

The octagon was the fourth unidentified flying object to be downed by US or Canadian fighter jets this month. The extraordinary spate of military interventions began on 4 February when a large balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina. That object was claimed by China, although Beijing has insisted it was involved in innocent weather research.




https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... n-airspace
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#68

Post by RTH10260 »

What do we know about the four flying objects shot down by the US?
Downing of Chinese balloon off the US coast has been followed by three incidents, raising questions about North American security

Agence France-Presse
Mon 13 Feb 2023 01.05 GMT

The downing of a huge Chinese balloon off the US coast, followed by the shootdowns of two smaller objects over Alaska and Canada – and another over Michigan on Sunday – has raised concerns about North American security and further strained relations with China.

Here is what we know so far:



more at the link https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... -by-the-us
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#69

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Schumer says Chinese ‘humiliated’ after three flying objects shot down
‘Chinese were caught lying',’ says Senate majority leader as US and Canadian military scramble to recover pieces

Ed Pilkington in New York
Sun 12 Feb 2023 19.24 GMT

US and Canadian military are continuing to search by sea and land amid hostile weather conditions in a scramble to recover portions of three flying objects shot down over North American airspace in the past week.

The Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he had been briefed by the White House and that officials were now convinced that all three of the flying objects brought down by air-to-air missiles this week were balloons. He put the finger of blame firmly on China.

“The Chinese were humiliated – I think the Chinese were caught lying,” he said. “It’s a real setback for them.”

Comment: :doh: how stupid is such a remark - it's a diplomatic hickup. Diplomatic window dressing belongs to the job of running reconnaissance when things get uncovered. It's part of the risk of doing business in that field.

Remember the U2 that Russia suddenly got down after the US holier than thou had proclaimed not doing anything in Russian airspace!
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#70

Post by neonzx »

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#71

Post by RTH10260 »

Here's why mysterious flying objects are suddenly popping up all over the place, according to the military command that's been shooting them down

Jake Epstein,Grace Eliza Goodwin
Mon, February 13, 2023 at 6:35 PM GMT+1
  • Four suspicious flying objects have been shot down over North American skies in recent days.
    The NORAD commander explained why more of these objects seem to suddenly be popping up.
    NORAD changed its radar filters to help spot smaller, slower objects after a Chinese spy balloon drifted over the US.
A US Air Force general overseeing a bilateral command tasked with defending US and Canadian airspace explained that's there's a reason mysterious flying objects seem to suddenly be popping up all over the place. The command has changed the way it looks for them and is now finding more of these objects.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-my ... 47135.html
(original: Business Insider)
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#72

Post by Dr. Ken »

ImageImagePhilly Boondoggle
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#73

Post by RTH10260 »

I am sooooo relieved - I would not want their green relatives to get angry over another police shooting :twisted:
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#74

Post by Frater I*I »

Please, when aliens pass by Terra they lock the doors....
"He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see, He tries to tell me what I put inside of me
He's got the answers to ease my curiosity, He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity"

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Balloons, UFOs, and other incursions of US airspace

#75

Post by RTH10260 »

‘Significant’ debris from China spy balloon retrieved, says US military
Sensors and electronics pulled from waters off South Carolina, says military, after White House says Beijing’s surveillance program dates back years

Richard Luscombe
Tue 14 Feb 2023 05.07 GMT

The US military has recovered “significant debris” from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this month, the Pentagon has said, after the White House claimed China had been operating a high-altitude balloon program spying on the US and its allies for many years.

The US Northern Command said in a statement: “Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure.”

The balloon, shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February, was the first of a series of mysterious objects shot down by the US military over an eight-day period in North American airspace.

However, China’s surveillance program, according to John Kirby, the US national security council spokesperson, dated back to at least the administration of Donald Trump, which he said was oblivious to it.

“It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it,” Kirby said.

“We detected it, we tracked it. And we have been carefully studying to learn as much as we can. We know that these PRC [People’s Republic of China] surveillance balloons have crossed over dozens of countries on multiple continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners.”

There will be an all-senators classified briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning, the office of the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said, and the White House’s office of national intelligence will brief John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, on Wednesday, CNN reported.





https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ng-objects
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