Biden Balloon Gate
- Thread starter GURPS
- Start date
I wonder if he got the full Top Gun reception when he landed?
Tech
Well-Known Member
Just hanging out at Surfside.
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Toxick
Splat
I'm pretty sure the "the two parties" have been cooperating with each other for some decades now.
The fact that people refer to "the two parties" is a pretty big bi-partisan achievement. The fact that people think there is a actually difference between the two is another.
glhs837
Power with Control
Nah, that was his old pal LtCol CornPop.
Finally figured out why it took so long to shoot it down. They were looking for uber-cool callsigns for the flight. Ended up using Frank 1 and Luke 1. Frank Luke was a WWI ace credited with 19 air victories of which (I believe) 17 were surveillance balloons.
Sneakers
Just sneakin' around....
Didn't we do this already?
General Says NORAD Missed Previous Chinese Spy Balloon Incursions During the Trump Administration
When asked during a press briefing whether NORTHCOM was involved in tracking previous Chinese spy balloon that flew into the U.S. airspace during the Biden and Trump administrations, VanHerck responded:
He indicated that the intelligence community tracked those previous balloons after the incursions through “additional means.”
“The intel community, after the fact — I believe has been briefed already — assess those threats to additional means of collection from additional means and made us aware of those balloons that were previously approaching North America or transited North America,” he said.
The Biden administration had revealed last week that China had sent spy balloons into U.S. airspace during the Trump administration, implying that the most recent incursion was not a new occurrence and that the Trump administration did nothing about it. However, the fact that the U.S. military did not detect the incursions that happened under the Trump administration deflated that criticism.
Exclusive: US intel assessment documents Chinese spy balloon incident under Trump
The April 2022 report, titled “People’s Republic of China High-Altitude Balloon,” found a Chinese spy balloon “circumnavigated the globe” in 2019 – while Donald Trump was president – at an altitude of roughly 65,000 feet, and “drifted past Hawaii and across Florida before continuing its journey,” the US Air Force document states.
The Air Force intelligence report is the first indication that the US military was aware of Chinese spy balloons well before the latest incident.
However, it is not clear from the documents when US officials first became aware of the Chinese flights or what they assessed regarding their purpose.
New Info on Chinese Spy Balloon From NORAD Commander Is Jaw-Dropping
One of the big questions that people have had is why the balloon wasn’t shot down earlier, for example, over the Aleutian Islands, near Alaska. Or over any of the less populated areas of Alaska, Canada, or Montana that it went over?
Um, what? You let a spy balloon from a hostile foreign power enter our airspace with God knows what intention because it wasn’t demonstrating “a hostile intent”? Exactly how do you judge that? Wait until it gets to where it wants to go and drops something? My colleague Bob Hoge outlined any number of things that such a balloon could be involved in, including an EMP attack. Do they have to be holding up a sign that says: “We come to attack you/spy on you”? Come on, man! This seems to be an insane military reaction. Not to mention a terrible signal to our enemies that we are risk-averse and won’t do the basic things we need to do to protect our country.
That answer also evolved — did you not take the shot because you didn’t have a shot or you didn’t take it because it wasn’t demonstrating hostile intent? Which was it here?
But it gets worse.
Narrative on Supposed Previous Chinese Spy Balloons Gets Even More Confusing
The mainstream media, not surprisingly, has been carrying water for the Biden administration on the issue when it comes to their narrative that it happened under the Trump administration.
"Republicans are blaming Biden for letting a suspected Chinese spy balloon cross into the US. It happened 3 times during the Trump administration, officials say," read Lloyd Lee's headline for Business Insider.
Bloomberg's report from Jenny Leonard and Jennifer Jacobs read that "Three Chinese Balloons Flew Over US During Trump Presidency." This is hardly the only article that the outlet has put out there to make the Biden administration and their narrative look good. As our friends at Twitchy highlighted, another report from Leonard, written with Iain Marlow, was mocked and ratioed for offering "Biden’s Timing on Chinese Balloon Takedown May Work in His Favor."
During Sunday's edition of "This Week," ABC News' Jonathan Karl appeared to take such a narrative as gospel, including while ending the segment with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was given no chance to respond.
Making these reports even more stunning is what little there was to go on. The Hill's report by Stephen Neukam on Gen. Glen VanHerck's remarks closed by mentioning "It is unclear how the Biden administration learned about the previous flights."
Republican members have already called for investigations into Biden's handling, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). As Neukam mentioned in his report, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is also looking to take action when it comes to why it is that the Trump administration was not made aware of such balloons.
How the Press Was Filled With Hot Air in Defense of President Biden’s Bottom-Flight Response
2.06.23
(It has been a fun weekend watching the press contort the story of the Chinese spy balloon, desperate to deflect from the Biden administration's incompetence.)
Low Octane Gas Lighting – CNN
You know the story of the spy balloon fiasco last week was a fiasco by the way the press reports were constantly shifting as new information kept derailing narratives. First, Biden was caught by surprise (then they knew about it a week ago), or the balloon was an innocent civilian craft. Then it was said Republicans are wildly exaggerating it, but then Biden was a hero for shooting down the "innocent" balloon, and when asked why it was not brought down before entering our airspace, Biden was said to have wanted to shoot it down earlier but was overruled by generals.
Now comes this gem from CNN that the Biden administration has "discovered" that other balloon flights took place. There is every reason in the world to laugh at it, starting with the fact it is written by Collusion truther Natasha Bertrand, clearly working off of a fed piece of intel. The new claim is that the Chinese flew several balloon missions over the US during the Trump years, proof this is a manufactured hysteria. There are numerous problems with this narrative. Denials have come from numerous members of the Trump team, including distinctly non-supportive John Bolton. This all leads to three disqualifiers:
- How is it that no one from the intelligence community – like the 50+ who signed the Hunter laptop Russian letter – came forward to announce these events?
- How are we expected to believe that something negative of this magnitude would never have been leaked in an effort to damage Trump?
- If the intelligence community was aware of these balloon flights, how is it that the government was caught off guard and fumbled all of last week as this craft crossed the majority of the country?
The new methods indicate that Chinese balloons crossed US airspace at least three times during Trump’s tenure. As I’ve previously written, balloons are cute at birthday parties, and can be effective information gatherers about the weather—but military balloons could also be used to drop munitions, conduct high-level surveillance, and even launch drone armies and EMP attacks. They’re no joke.
You’d think they wouldn’t be that hard to track—but they’re flying at heights well above the altitude of commercial aircraft. According to CNN:
Of course, CNN also said they got this info from “six people familiar with the matter,” which seems oddly specific for a super-secret ability we just discovered this week that allows us to go back in time to criticize Donald Trump. Given that the intelligence community, media, and even Democrat leadership (but I repeat myself) are really invested in destroying the 45th president, I’d take this particular leak with a big grain of salt.
China has developed an entire fleet of these military balloons—which have been seen in other countries besides the United States—and hopefully, the autopsy of the one the US recently shot down will help us understand just what the heck the CCP is up to.
You’d think they wouldn’t be that hard to track—but they’re flying at heights well above the altitude of commercial aircraft. According to CNN:
Of course, CNN also said they got this info from “six people familiar with the matter,” which seems oddly specific for a super-secret ability we just discovered this week that allows us to go back in time to criticize Donald Trump. Given that the intelligence community, media, and even Democrat leadership (but I repeat myself) are really invested in destroying the 45th president, I’d take this particular leak with a big grain of salt.
China has developed an entire fleet of these military balloons—which have been seen in other countries besides the United States—and hopefully, the autopsy of the one the US recently shot down will help us understand just what the heck the CCP is up to.
The new methods indicate that Chinese balloons crossed US airspace at least three times during Trump’s tenure. As I’ve previously written, balloons are cute at birthday parties, and can be effective information gatherers about the weather—but military balloons could also be used to drop munitions, conduct high-level surveillance, and even launch drone armies and EMP attacks. They’re no joke.
You’d think they wouldn’t be that hard to track—but they’re flying at heights well above the altitude of commercial aircraft. According to CNN:
Of course, CNN also said they got this info from “six people familiar with the matter,” which seems oddly specific for a super-secret ability we just discovered this week that allows us to go back in time to criticize Donald Trump. Given that the intelligence community, media, and even Democrat leadership (but I repeat myself) are really invested in destroying the 45th president, I’d take this particular leak with a big grain of salt.
China has developed an entire fleet of these military balloons—which have been seen in other countries besides the United States—and hopefully, the autopsy of the one the US recently shot down will help us understand just what the heck the CCP is up to.
If its been going on all over the world its for real estate investment.
Some Chinese Spy Balloon Parts Were Made in the USA; Six Companies Placed on Trade 'Blacklist'
In appearances on two Sunday talk shows, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) said that China sending a high-altitude spy balloon across the continental United States “was an act of espionage in plain sight” and revealed that the balloon had a greater capability than satellites to gather and collect imagery, and left open the possibility that these signals and images were still transmitted to Beijing even though US intelligence officials claim that they “mitigated” the damage.
On “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo,” McCaul said:
☕️ COLLAPSING ☙ Tuesday, February 14, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
Are they UFOs or a psyop? Damar Hamlin struggles over key questions; new Russian offensive; East Palestine gets attention; wind turbines failing; CDC's stroke signal report; and lots more.
www.coffeeandcovid.com
Diligent independent investigators dug up 2019 stories that strongly suggested the Pentagon knows a LOT more about balloons and floating objects than it is letting on.
From the Guardian, 2019:
And USA Today, 2019:
When you dig deeper, it gets worse. Here’s an advertisement for military surveillance balloons from defense contractor Raven Aerostar:
And from Army Technology, as recently November 2021:
And from the War Zone Wire, May 2021:
And Sunday, democrat Senator Chuck Schumer even said the objects that have been shot down were balloons:
One begins to suspect there are a lot more balloons in the sky over the United States than we knew about. Naturally, with all that experience with spy balloons, you might conclude the Pentagon would have a pretty good idea of what it was looking at up there.