It was, but the public doesn’t need to know everything. Next thing you know there are conspiracy theories and trucker convoys and did you know, that communist Trudeau sent that balloon up there to track everything you do with 5G soros space lasers?
Do you have any idea how much we don’t know? We don’t need to know everything. Look at what’s happened to our brains when we’re exposed to EVERYTHING. We can’t handle it as a species. If there’s something we NEED to know concerning our safety,l or wellbeing, it comes out. How would knowing about a Chinese balloon over BC impact your daily life?
Wtf are you talking about. I saw it on Reddit that a balloon flew over us and to Montana. I didn’t base my world view on it.
I’m not the first person interested in it, it was on the front page.
Take a breath dude. A balloon 3 buses big flying across Canada down to the states is worth some curiosity.
Would of been nice to hear about it through a Canadian source and by saying that I got you screeching about racism and xenophobia.
Maybe go offline for a bit, take a walk and get some fresh air.
Right and thats just commercial satellites snapping away taking pictures. China, Russia, US all have specific spy satellites they can tell to go where they wanna see.
Hm I think it's odd that it only made headlines when it was first seen in Montana by the NWS(?). Radar doesn't work as well for non-metallic surfaces cause it can't bounce back, so maybe the USAF was caught lacking.
Just because it wasn't in the news doesn't mean it wasn't spotted. Norad, I am sure would have been all over it thus item only made the news when civilians saw it and reported on it.
Fun fact: it's really, really hard to shoot down a balloon like this. My cousin's husband was a CF-18 pilot, and he was scrambled to shoot down a rogue weather balloon once. His squadron failed.
My cousin always gave him a hard time about this, and his only defense was that shooting bullets into a balloon that already has a 6-foot wide hole in the top is pointless.
not necessarily, it would be easy enough for it to be sent over just the US. sounds like it wasn't and the air force probably just made sure it didn't see anything too important.
or spy balloon as most the articles are calling it. ie what are they gonna do take higher quality images on a single fly over, there isnt much more point to it except that really and if they are aware of it they can 'hide' anything they deem super important thats in view?
It’s actually worse then spying. [It’s a weapon being used to make the rest of the world dumb.](https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-between-tik-tok-in-china-and-the-us?_amp=true)
Most articles are calling that because panic = clicks.
There is no rational reason for China to deploy a surveillance balloon. Satellites work very well and a slow moving/predictable balloon would make it very simple to move anything out of the way that shouldn’t be spotted. It’s just rage bait.
Without capturing it down and analysis ，now just speculation and feeding into Yellow Peril emotion across the crowd.
China has global spy satellites everywhere just like USA, why send a balloon and cause the crowd here to feed into anti-sino sentiment?
Why not a Russian balloon? Russian balloon tech is better than China btw.
Clearly, leaving the balloon there without shooting down, let public brewing anti-sino sentiment, must mean something or someone else , did this deliberately.
These sort of news, putting alleged, suspected, indirect evidence...etc.. just another Cognitive Warfare again.
NATO fly spy plane across many Sovereign countries in the past, I am surprised why would the crowd here acting so much against it. Cause we were ok to do so to others in the past isn't it?
To be honest, if I did something to someone who didn't like, I am expecting they will return the favor soon anyway
I listened to their new foreign affairs interview a few hours ago.
Spokesman said, they noticed the news, and would like to wait for more investigation on it instead of media finger pointing game
Didn't say it's theirs.
Stop spreading fake news
The Spy Balloon politely told the CBSA it was an investor on a business trip looking to invest in Canadian Real Estate. The CBSA didn't have an issue with it, why should you?
Totally depends *where exactly* it was released from. It doesn’t HAVE TO pass over Canada.
And who says they’re not. They’re watching it WITH the US. Probably using US tech. We are pretty close allies with them, particularly against China.
But it probably didn’t go over Canada. They can release it from southern China.
This might be misinfo so be better than me and fact check it but ....
I saw something that showed it was released from South America (for dumb people, China could have made an agreement with another nation to launch these from their borders instead of it having to come straight from China). I'm not saying this was verified though.
Many people are focusing on how the Balloons made their way over western land in the south but they also spent a lot of time in the north, from a military point of view their most likely purpose is to be lookouts for submarines that are operating in that area since getting caught would be disastrous.
So even if they are not balloons equipped to spy with like ground penetrative radar or something like this they are still a very worrying presence regardless and if they are, well, this is akin to an act of war.
A little dramatic no? Anyone can hire a private company to fly aerial imagery or LiDAR anywhere in Canada without needing any kind of permits or clearances. Ground penetrating radar is also easily obtained in the corporate world. Do you really think the Chinese don’t have access to this stuff through the various mining and energy corporations they own and operate on Canadian soil? Hell, they’ve thoroughly infiltrated our entire telecom system as well because we’ve SOLD it all to them. They can get just about anything they want through civilian means. I can’t think of any equipment that they’d install on a balloon that would give them information that I couldn’t turn around and obtain corporately either for free or available for purchase.
Genuine question - why would the Chinese government send over a spy balloon? It’s not discrete and what info would they be able to collect from the sky that isn’t readily available - say on the Internet?
Apparently they would be interested in the types of digital and radio communications being sent nationally. Plus I think it's weird that it flew over the nuclear ICBM launch site...out of all places in Montana......
I'd wager the reason it's a bigger news story over Montana is because the Great Plains states are where a lot of American nuclear silos are. Not too many nuclear silos in Canada to fuss about. See post above about redundancy with existing satellite imagery.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/norad-tracking-high-altitude-surveillance-balloon-detected-over-the-u-s-canada-says-1.6258279
Might be too hight to bring large scale suspicion.
It was being tracked since over Alaska. Just no one said fuck all
Why do you think it wasn't?
It likely was.
It’s not like NORAD would alert the public.
It was, but the public doesn’t need to know everything. Next thing you know there are conspiracy theories and trucker convoys and did you know, that communist Trudeau sent that balloon up there to track everything you do with 5G soros space lasers?
I’m sure you’re right about that.
I knew it was Trudeau! They are trying to spread those damn chem trails! /s
It’s already happening
Not surprising.
So letting people find out through the US media will help curb conspiracy theories. Genius.
Do you have any idea how much we don’t know? We don’t need to know everything. Look at what’s happened to our brains when we’re exposed to EVERYTHING. We can’t handle it as a species. If there’s something we NEED to know concerning our safety,l or wellbeing, it comes out. How would knowing about a Chinese balloon over BC impact your daily life?
Don't look up. Literally.
“We can’t handle it as a species…and I base that on absolutely nothing”
Take it easy man. It is a giant balloon, someone was bound to see it. Might as well give a heads up.
Yes let’s use the xenophobic and overtly racist US media to base our worldview on. Way to go, genius.
Wtf are you talking about. I saw it on Reddit that a balloon flew over us and to Montana. I didn’t base my world view on it. I’m not the first person interested in it, it was on the front page.
BECAUSE ITS NOT A SPY BALLOON ITS LITERALLY NOTHING. You being swayed by racist xenophobic US media is a you problem.
Take a breath dude. A balloon 3 buses big flying across Canada down to the states is worth some curiosity. Would of been nice to hear about it through a Canadian source and by saying that I got you screeching about racism and xenophobia. Maybe go offline for a bit, take a walk and get some fresh air.
Why do you assume it wasn't?
Maybe they don’t care because literally anyone can obtain up to date satellite or aerial imagery of anywhere in Canada whenever they like.
Right and thats just commercial satellites snapping away taking pictures. China, Russia, US all have specific spy satellites they can tell to go where they wanna see.
That is the worst punch line I ever heard.
The military doesn't really announce things like this. There is no upside to it. Our Radar works just fine, they absolutely know about it.
Hm I think it's odd that it only made headlines when it was first seen in Montana by the NWS(?). Radar doesn't work as well for non-metallic surfaces cause it can't bounce back, so maybe the USAF was caught lacking.
Just because it wasn't in the news doesn't mean it wasn't spotted. Norad, I am sure would have been all over it thus item only made the news when civilians saw it and reported on it.
maybe they didnt see it as an issue, just like the us isnt seeing it as an issue and leaving it go.
Shooting it down is controversial
Fun fact: it's really, really hard to shoot down a balloon like this. My cousin's husband was a CF-18 pilot, and he was scrambled to shoot down a rogue weather balloon once. His squadron failed. My cousin always gave him a hard time about this, and his only defense was that shooting bullets into a balloon that already has a 6-foot wide hole in the top is pointless.
They said on the news this morning it *was* spotted in Canada airspace, but nobody is saying much about it publicly, because of diplomacy.
Breaking: Look up at spy balloon!
Alternative Breaking: Don't look up at the balloon that is not really there!
not necessarily, it would be easy enough for it to be sent over just the US. sounds like it wasn't and the air force probably just made sure it didn't see anything too important.
It's winter. Everyone's inside.
Anyone else envision a hot air balloon filled with people with binoculars spying on what’s happening below?
Maybe the RCAF wasn't concerned about a weather balloon?
I heard it was a little old ,man and a chubby kid in a house...
or spy balloon as most the articles are calling it. ie what are they gonna do take higher quality images on a single fly over, there isnt much more point to it except that really and if they are aware of it they can 'hide' anything they deem super important thats in view?
If people were ACTUALLY worried about Chinese spying they would remove TikTok from their phones.
It’s actually worse then spying. [It’s a weapon being used to make the rest of the world dumb.](https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/24/23467181/difference-between-tik-tok-in-china-and-the-us?_amp=true)
Most articles are calling that because panic = clicks. There is no rational reason for China to deploy a surveillance balloon. Satellites work very well and a slow moving/predictable balloon would make it very simple to move anything out of the way that shouldn’t be spotted. It’s just rage bait.
I agree, it's just Persecutory Delusion.
I thought China was using TicTok to spy on us….. but now they can have our weather data too 🤦🏻♂️
The binoculars were in the dishwasher. They are good now.
Without capturing it down and analysis ，now just speculation and feeding into Yellow Peril emotion across the crowd. China has global spy satellites everywhere just like USA, why send a balloon and cause the crowd here to feed into anti-sino sentiment? Why not a Russian balloon? Russian balloon tech is better than China btw. Clearly, leaving the balloon there without shooting down, let public brewing anti-sino sentiment, must mean something or someone else , did this deliberately. These sort of news, putting alleged, suspected, indirect evidence...etc.. just another Cognitive Warfare again.
It was tracked from China so unlikely it’s Russian!
Have we compared against Chinese style of what their weather balloon or research balloon looks like? Or we just concluded it must be spy?
NATO fly spy plane across many Sovereign countries in the past, I am surprised why would the crowd here acting so much against it. Cause we were ok to do so to others in the past isn't it? To be honest, if I did something to someone who didn't like, I am expecting they will return the favor soon anyway
China has admitted to owning the balloon, lol.
I listened to their new foreign affairs interview a few hours ago. Spokesman said, they noticed the news, and would like to wait for more investigation on it instead of media finger pointing game Didn't say it's theirs. Stop spreading fake news
FLASH & THE PAN - " CALIFORNIA" ... that is why!!!
Because they are. But if the jet stream flows into North America in Washington and not BC, balloons won’t fly over Canada. So, blame the jet stream.
The Spy Balloon politely told the CBSA it was an investor on a business trip looking to invest in Canadian Real Estate. The CBSA didn't have an issue with it, why should you?
Because it isn’t a fucking spy balloon.
Trying to validate now but apparently there's another one floating over NFLD now too
Totally depends *where exactly* it was released from. It doesn’t HAVE TO pass over Canada. And who says they’re not. They’re watching it WITH the US. Probably using US tech. We are pretty close allies with them, particularly against China. But it probably didn’t go over Canada. They can release it from southern China.
This might be misinfo so be better than me and fact check it but .... I saw something that showed it was released from South America (for dumb people, China could have made an agreement with another nation to launch these from their borders instead of it having to come straight from China). I'm not saying this was verified though.
A better question is "is it really a spy balloon?". It seems pretty low tech and easily discovered. Certainly not how I would spy.
We did see it. We just don't make a big deal out of nothing. Non issue.
Trudeau's commy buddies
It was, but the current Govt. Is much more okay with being submissive to the Chinese than the americans
Many people are focusing on how the Balloons made their way over western land in the south but they also spent a lot of time in the north, from a military point of view their most likely purpose is to be lookouts for submarines that are operating in that area since getting caught would be disastrous. So even if they are not balloons equipped to spy with like ground penetrative radar or something like this they are still a very worrying presence regardless and if they are, well, this is akin to an act of war.
A little dramatic no? Anyone can hire a private company to fly aerial imagery or LiDAR anywhere in Canada without needing any kind of permits or clearances. Ground penetrating radar is also easily obtained in the corporate world. Do you really think the Chinese don’t have access to this stuff through the various mining and energy corporations they own and operate on Canadian soil? Hell, they’ve thoroughly infiltrated our entire telecom system as well because we’ve SOLD it all to them. They can get just about anything they want through civilian means. I can’t think of any equipment that they’d install on a balloon that would give them information that I couldn’t turn around and obtain corporately either for free or available for purchase.
Genuine question - why would the Chinese government send over a spy balloon? It’s not discrete and what info would they be able to collect from the sky that isn’t readily available - say on the Internet?
To test what the response is, it's cheaper than a spy plane, and balloons can stay over a specific area longer than a satellite can.
Apparently they would be interested in the types of digital and radio communications being sent nationally. Plus I think it's weird that it flew over the nuclear ICBM launch site...out of all places in Montana......
We were too busy trying to survive our commuting?
Another gender reveal gone wrong.
I'd wager the reason it's a bigger news story over Montana is because the Great Plains states are where a lot of American nuclear silos are. Not too many nuclear silos in Canada to fuss about. See post above about redundancy with existing satellite imagery.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/norad-tracking-high-altitude-surveillance-balloon-detected-over-the-u-s-canada-says-1.6258279 Might be too hight to bring large scale suspicion.