Chinese spying. Ha!
What will the balloon learn that Siri and Alexa don’t already know?
The Chinese balloon is an opportunity for Republicans to display pugnaciousness and outrage.
At first it was easy for them: Weak Biden. Negligent Biden. Soft-on-China Biden. Should-a, should-a. Then it got complicated. Apparently Chinese balloons entered U.S. airspace three times during the Trump administration. The general in charge of North American Aerospace Command said, "we did not detect those threats. And that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out."
Now the GOP outrage isn't about incursions. It is about how vigorously a president rattles the saber when a president does learn about an incursion. The issue is on-brand for the GOP, demonstrating that Republicans are angrier than "sleepy Joe." Republicans risk looking "soft" because they are divided on Ukraine and Russia's ambitions in Eastern Europe. Tanks are 20th Century and they cost tax money. China is the up-to-date 21st Century threat. Better to be outraged over China than Russia.
I consider the whole balloon matter to be posturing and performance. It isn't about spying. That horse has left the barn. it is primate behavior about aggression display. This is my territory, my harem. Scram.
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| Tough guy. |
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| Street View |
At the grocery store, there are multiple items on sale, but only for "Albertsons Club" members. Albertsons gives me discounts in return for letting them track me. If Albertsons knows what brand of toothpaste I buy, so does China.
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| I clicked on this |
The Hammacher-Schlemmer people send me an email every few days with potential oddball items I might want to buy. Out of idle curiosity yesterday at 3:32 p.m. I clicked on an image of an Air Force bomber jacket. I don't need it, I don't want it. I immediately deleted it. At 4:21 I get an email suggesting I take another look. They are watching. They noticed. If the Hammacher-Schlemmer people noticed, China noticed, or could if they cared.
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| I received this |
Safe and secure, and in the privacy of our homes, Siri and Alexa are listening.
Like most other Americans, I am wearing a wire and a tracking device. The Chinese don't need a balloon to spy on us. We do it to ourselves.
12 comments:
How do we know that China sent three balloons across the U.S.? The NORAD general says we didn't detect them; so who did?
Meanwhile, up in the Portland Metro area, the tax collectors didn't know when and how to send reminders and then delinquency notices to high-income taxpayers who have failed to pay. See Supportive Housing Services Tax and the Preschool For All Income Tax.
Yes, there is a lot of information being collected. Enough to rile up all the different factions who ARE paying attention. Something for Ds, Rs, and everyone in between.
And then there are a few who are paying attention, who don't let any of this info collection get under their skins.
"The [balloon] issue is on-brand for the GOP, demonstrating that Republicans are angrier than "sleepy Joe.""
Fear and anger are the Republican stock-in-trade – one of the reasons they think happiness is a warm gun. Anybody who thinks that’s hyperbole should watch a Trump rally or Jim Jordan in action. Since they’re trying so hard to pose as tough on China, it may seem incongruous that their cult leader frequently praised President Xi. But that’s no surprise – he praised Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un too.
Republicans like autocrats. That’s why they gave us Trump, a Putin wannabe.
Watching or stalking? Where's the line?
For the advantage of using the internet, for which we pay an exorbitant monthly fee, we have inadvertently relinquished some privacy. I would think we should have more choice in the matter, but as things stand now, the herd isn't particularly restless, though there are wolves watching from hiding. Waiting to pounce? For the moment I "x" every ad just to confuse the algorithm and while that's fun, it's sort of like "mocking the afflicted". I'm sure you've noticed that most of the targeted ads come after you've purchased and no longer need whatever item.
It does raise the issue of AI driven law enforcement, and the potential for surveillance that infringes on free speech. We may be comforted knowing that domestic terrorists and pedophiles are exposed through their online activity, but that same technology can and is being used by autocratic regimes to stifle dissent and we are up against a faction in this country hell bent on exactly that.
As for "The Republicans and The Balloon", which sounds like the title of a children's book, they look ridiculous, witness to the ever-lowering bar of knee jerk stupidity we suffer daily. Biden resign? Yes, laughably simian, however I would remind that humans are decidedly not gorillas, behavior notwithstanding.
At best Republican Congresspersons have become a clique, at worst a gang. Simian behavior-like but more schoolyard bullies and In-crowd. The ginned up anger should put us all on edge as it appears they are first to callout a supposed slight but run if they are required to put skin in the game. If the Republican congress were just a bunch of middle schoolers polishing their image within their clique there is little harm beyond the playground, but here and now they show an unwillingness to be a serious and reliable wartime body, and yet that is the fire with which they're playing. To contemplate going to war with these wingnuts in charge in a real nightmare.
Mr. Anonymous could answer his own question by reading the news. Of course, Trump denied the Chinese would do such a thing on his watch, but as most people know, he lies a lot.
Peter, you are leaving out the technical aspects of this balloon situation.
Reconnaissance satellites in low earth orbit are moving at around 17,000 miles an hour. They circle the Earth once every 90 minutes. They are over a particular area for only a few minutes.
Their orbits are predictable. If there’s something you want to hide from the satellites, you know when to do that.
Plus, the balloon was much closer (lower) than a satellite in orbit. This would have enabled higher resolution images, and the ability to eavesdrop on weaker electromagnetic signals.
The balloon was able to hover over any particular place for much longer. This gave it a larger window of time to do visual and electromagnetic signals intelligence gathering. It was much more inconvenient to hide something from that balloon while it was overhead.
During the Cold War, we used cargo planes to capture film canisters floating under parachutes that were dropped from our reconnaissance satellites. If the balloon had been just slightly punctured (like with one round from the fighter plane’s cannon) it might have been possible to use the same technique to capture the reconnaissance package intact. I wish we had done something like that.
You can watch it happen in this video.
Michael T, I share your disappointment (and some amazement) re making a slow leak in the ballon, assuming it wouldn’t have popped, like a ballon :)
However, I’m not convinced the Chinese ballon could hover. My climatology class (admittedly almost 60 years ago, so maybe wrong) said that there were fairly strong winds at that altitude (stratosphere, winds maybe 100 mph+?)
I can’t imagine the power requirements needed for a large balloon to overcome even much weaker winds. Again, I could be wrong. Science may have re-examined tropospheric winds since I studied climatology.
I would also point out that even Google Earth's satellites, going 17,000 mph, still have the ability to show a cat's 8” diameter food bowl on my quartzite patio! A military satellite may be able to read the ingredients on a cat food can. Maybe .
Mike you missed one.
Pentagon Press Secretary LLoyd Austin III said they don't believe the balloon could teach China anything more than what they could already learn by satellite, and took appropriate measures just in case. So whatever it was is not electromagnetic, visual or otherwise.
Now, what was the other traditional role and often secret mission of high altitude balloons?
Acoustic surveillance.
Taking extra steps could be simple as don't talk about stuff while near the surface. Not shooting it down earlier could be simply because we want that ocean recovery opportunity.
Malcolm,
I didn’t say, or think, that the balloon could hover. But even if it was in a jet stream at 60,000 feet, it still would have been going by at only a few hundred miles an hour, for slower than the 17,000 mph of low orbital speed.
Michael, dude, you said, “ The balloon was able to hover over any particular place for much longer.” 1106 yesterday.
And I agree that the balloon would pass by any point on earth at a slower speed than a satellite. But does that really matter much? I’m not familiar with satellites' hardware, but they may have dishes to increase their mage clarity, possibly something superior to balloons' capability. Maybe we’ll learn more when all the scattered pieces are reassembled.
Thanks for all your cogent comments; I think, in a lot of ways, you’ve got a better handle on this than I do. Glad you’re participating!
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