An American intelligence assessment found that the balloon used a commercially available U.S. network to communicate, primarily for navigation, U.S. officials say.
    • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      15·
      6 months ago

      Yes and people fall for it. Had an angry German Redditor arguing with me that it was a spy balloon and I was being a stupid leftist for thinking otherwise. I told him that it was almost time for his hourly penis flattening by his American masters.

    • stevatoo [they/them, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Yep, otherwise people might start questioning why the story broke the news 24 hours after Tyre Nichols bodycam footage released.

      I mean, they won’t. But it’s still absolutely wild that it was just smoke and mirrors to stop Biden from having to put down nationwide BLM protests.

  • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    27·
    6 months ago

    I didn’t paste two different sections together, that’s literally how it goes. China official is like “it’s a weather balloon, you fucking morons.” and the article just ignores that and keeps going, not directly saying the official is lying, but doing a very weaselly thing where they say “China has used local services in the past for spying so…connect the dots yourself audience.”

    Multiple news articles have already admitted that it was just a weather balloon and were ignored by the public, I guess they’re sticking with this bullshit because it generates clicks. People in the US want an easy villain to hate, they go to sleep dreaming of all the death and destruction that the US could inflict on its enemies. This might seem mild, but them ignoring the most basic facts and trying to turn a total non-event into one of the biggest issues of the year is terrifying, they’re champing at the bit to start a war with China and don’t care if it would literally end all life on earth if they did so. Monstrous.

  • invo_rt [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    6 months ago

    WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - A Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States earlier this year before being shot down did not collect information as it went across the country, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

    “We assess that it did not collect while it was flying over the U.S.,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters.

    The balloon spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before the U.S. military shot it down off the Atlantic Coast on Biden’s orders.

    Yeah, a spy balloon that apparently didn’t do any spying.