FOX News! Everybody drink!

Don't you have a better retort than that?

Migrant border crossings in fiscal year 2022 topped 2.76 million, breaking previous record

My question is why China purposely had the spy balloon at 60,000ft instead of higher (perhaps in the prior admin) so that people in the US could SEE it from the ground? I imagine that the CIA is working 24 / 7 to answer THAT question. My 1st thought was that MAYBE it was a fake-out to cover up some OTHER activity like positioning submarines around Taiwan. But, by now I think that it would have been figured out. Maybe there IS more to find out and MAYBE (?) we will find that out someday?

I disagree.

I believe that a MISSAL is a book the Catholics use at mass.

Yea, but who said they put a bullet hole in it, the F-22 shot it down with a Patriot Missle. F-22’s have a ceiling of 50,000 ft. You could see in news that the jet was well under it. It was well in range for a Patriot missle.

Attachment 96801

Are you saying they launched a Patriot Missile from a F22 ?

According to the "Google Machine", it was an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile...

It was reported that the F-22 used a Sidewinder air-to-air missile and was at 58K feet and below the balloon.

60,000 feet. The F-22 and other fighters can reach this altitude, but only the F-22 can perform tactical maneuvers at this level, which is about twice the altitude at which other jets can perform tactical maneuvers.
Speed Mach 1.8 (supercruise: Mach 1.5)

The Patriot is a surface-to-air guided missile system that was first deployed in the 1980s and can target aircraft, cruise missiles and shorter-range ballistic missiles.

Each Patriot battery consists of a truck-mounted launching system with eight launchers that can hold up to four missile interceptors each, a ground radar, a control station and a generator. It is not air launched.

You seem to have come up with an entirely new weapons system.

This reminds me of a thread I started in "Nextdoor", several months ago...

I posted a video of a bobcat walking up my driveway and walkway (captured on my security camera).

The first post asked "Bobcat?" I replied, "Yup!"

Then came several days of people posting that it looked like a cougar.

Then, I posted a pic of a bobcat vs a pic of a cougar, and I showed the significant differences between the two...

The thread continued with, "Looks like a cougar" posts, with some, "Might be a panther" posts added in...

No matter how many times I said, "No, it's a bobcat, go look at the pics I posted", the idiots continued...

It's a pet peeve of mine when people chime in, without reading the first page of a thread, with incorrect info, or to repeat the same correct info for the umpteeth time.

The "Black Racer Snake" thread is another example.

You can simply chose to ignore those posts. I do 95% of the time. I have found commenting here drags you into the detritus that passes as witty retorts. For doing this, I broke my own rule. Not good. Cheapens me in my mind. I will go back to the silenced intel gathering mode.

I could, just as you could have...

I choose not to. My choice...

Japan in 1944 launched several fire bomb balloons over the US. One killed a group a group of hikers. I think it was 4. One took out a power line in Washington state. One was found in Michigan.
An added note There was a record broke in Sailplanes recently. Over 100,000 feet!
They have been able to fly over 60,000 feet for decades.
Balloons have been used in spying for hundreds of years.
You don't need a U2 or a F 22 to get high enough to shoot it down.

Shooting down the balloon was probably limited to an F-16, F-15, F-22, or F-35. I don't believe the U2 carries missiles, it is a reconnaissance aircraft.

According to the news. A U2 was deployed to get some recon on its cargo.
I bet When equipment is still in on peace it's easier to tell what is.
I do have a question. Why is the FBI involved? Possible Proud Boys, Or Antifa involvement?