Master-Debater131

Yeaaaaa.......I suck. I kinda got super busy there for a few weeks and didnt put any picks in, then I was too far behind to care. That said, GO EAGLES!

DoD was tracking and we have shot down another "high altitude object" that was in Alaskan airspace. Edit: Some of what they are saying at the Pentagon breading. It was at about 40k feet, they saw it yesterday, POTUS ordered the shoot down, F-22s got the job done, they are working on recovering it now, it posed a threat to air traffic, it was about the size of a car.

I read a report that Canada had tried to shoot one down this way and it didnt work. Apparently the balloons are designed to maintain some integrity even if they are punctured a bunch.

I waited to buy it until I heard from friends how it worked. A few of them took the day off of work to play it and are raving about it. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive. So far it sure seems like its living up to the hype. Purchased it and installing it now. I cannot wait to play it this weekend. All the drama around it is dumb as hell as well. And the people out there trying to actively spoil it because someone is daring to enjoy a game are childish as hell. Takes a special kind of joyless and miserable person to try and ruin someone having a good time.

I didnt bother to watch it last night, there was a hockey game on that was far more entertaining. Ive seen a lot of takes this morning that are pretty hilarious. Among the best are the ones claiming that McCarthy broke decorum with his facial expressions throughout the night. These claims are coming from the same people who lauded Pelosi for tearing Trumps SOTU live on TV, so I have a hard time buying their "outrage". All a modern day SOTU is is performance art designed to give pundits a chance to express "OUTRAGE111!!!!1!" over something they said while allowing supporters a chance to gush over some useless thing said. We should just go back to delivering the SOTU as a written report and move on with our lives.

All the more reason to start shooting these down as soon as they get close to our airspace. No more of this let it float over North America. Once its by the Aleutian islands, shoot it down.

No, but I did hear that a bunch of honey was seen falling from the sky in the region after we popped it.

We shot it down right outside of Myrtle Beach

I wasnt really referencing a specific incident. More just saying that flying through other countries airspace is a pretty big no-no. Im not so sure that its useless. We know generally where winds take stuff. And it is very hard to see these balloons at that altitude. EMPs arent precision weapons. If China, or anyone for that matter, wanted to cause a lot of chaos over a widespread area they would just have to get one of these balloons into the rough vicinity of their target. China wants to take Taiwan, badly. They also know that if they do it through their military we are probably going to war with them. They could float a few of these EMPs over our country before they attack Taiwan, detonate them, and then watch as we deal with a ton of internal chaos as China invades Taiwan. Thats a pretty grim thought, and probably not that likely, but its still a possibility.

I dont really think this is a "nothing" sort of thing though. China is now flying their spy equipment through our airspace. Practically there is likely little to no difference between this and their spy satellites. But Functionally its a huge difference. Its a piece of Chinese military equipment within US airspace. Thats a clear incursion into our airspace. It would be like us flying spy planes over China. No way would that be OK. The more nefarious one that Ive started to see this afternoon is that these could be dry runs for potential EMP attacks. A nuclear weapon detonated at that altitude would knock out all electronics in a multi-state area. Potentially including in our nuclear missile silos. Its a lot harder to spot one of these balloons than a ICBM. So if China wanted to either surprise us or we ever did get into a hot war with them they could float one of these balloons over and wipe out all electronics before we even knew what his us.

Thats why I dont fully believe that excuse. Its makes more sense to shoot it down once its over the plains where its easier to get to.

There have been a couple of explanations floating around for why we actually havent shot it down yet. 1. It doesnt really do anything that a Chinese spy satellite can already do. 2. If they shoot it down now it may fall into a populated area in Montana 3. They are waiting until it is over a flatter area to shoot it down so its easier to retrieve whatever is on it 4. We are back-hacking it in real time so its better to just let it do its thing because we are using it as a way to spy on China 5. They are trying to figure out how to capture it instead of shooting it down. Those are the big explanations Ive heard and seen floating around in news articles.

China is claiming that this is just a research balloon that got away from them. Which is hard to believe in the best of circumstances, but even less so considering Canada has said they believe to have spotted a 2nd balloon. https://www.barrons.com/news/canada-says-potential-second-incident-linked-to-spy-balloon-01675402508

Well, this sure is getting interesting.

This also means the circle is complete. Peyton Manning, George Paton, and Sean Payton. 3 different ways to spell the same name. OUR POWER IS MAXIMUM!

YES! Finally a good coach. If he cant fix this team then its time to burn it to the ground and rebuild. Instantly expect 10 wins next year now.

I mean, you all only have two options here. Only 1 if you dont want me to hate you all forever. Seriously, fuck the chiefs

I used this in another thread but it feels like it works here to. Rare day when I get to use the same Futurama reference twice.

This doesnt fundamentally change anything. It does interfere with the narrative that Biden has been pushing though. Im sticking with what I have been saying for a while. Nothing will come of any of this.

This would explain why I always have riots in Prison Architect. Never thought to keep the gangs separate before......

Honestly, this just furthers the point that we over classify documents and we have an absolutely atrocious process for taking documents when you leave government. The entire thing needs an overhaul.

Not really disagreeing with you. She has a lot of work to do if she wants a win. She doesnt have to do a whole lot though to play spoiler to a Democratic chance in 2024. She can do just enough to pull 5% or more away from Democrats in 2024 and hand the seat to the GOP*. *pending the GOP not being complete idiots. Which is a very tall task these days.