A 53" balloon costs $9.99. You could shut down all large and medium hubs in the US for $629.37/day. The asymmetry is astounding and I'm surprised we don't defend against this kind of attack more efficiently.
Is there any reputable source for this claim? Apologies if I missed it but didn't see one linked in the article. I ask because it's not what I'd read or understood yesterday.
It was NOT the party balloon, it was the CBP's [0] massively irresponsible use of the laser weapon as a response to a threat it failed to identify properly, inside commercial airspace with zero coordination with the FAA or other air operators.
Any significant competence or even communication would have turned this into a literal non-event.
But this so-called 'administration' values only loyalty to a leader and find competence an impediment to implementing authoritarianism. So, here we are, squandering a half-billion dollars on a horde of idiots with a laser and a party balloon.
[0a] "Defense Department has a working relationship with Homeland Security, where CBP is headquartered, that allows its personnel to use certain military equipment for its objectives, testing, evaluation and use along the southern border.". Seems the laser was on-loan from the DoD, and the yahoos at CBP just decided to go wild.
Thinking more practically though. Why wouldn't there be "narco drones", with drone technology becoming so ubiquitous and cheap? And what would their operators care about airspace restrictions? The practical ones, as in "not get sucked into a jet engine or damage a wing and cause a plane crash"?
Is this the case of radar automatic targeting unable to distinguish between a balloon and a drone. Or was this a border guy manually pulling the trigger with bad eyesight?
So can we dismantle other security theater with balloons? Can we make a balloon for Tsa that is harmless and will cost too much to fight and demonstrates the pointlessness of Tsa?
the double down on stupidity is that the cartels now know that deploying party balloons will work as decoys, too bad they dont have mirror finnish ones, oh wait!
More alarmingly, the laser weapon was deployed before the FAA actually shut down the airspace:
https://apnews.com/article/faa-el-paso-texas-air-space-close...
I'd say these trigger-happy clowns chasing tough-guy optics are going to get innocent people killed, but then they already have -- multiple times.
The rate of return on this is phenomenal.
A 53" balloon costs $9.99. You could shut down all large and medium hubs in the US for $629.37/day. The asymmetry is astounding and I'm surprised we don't defend against this kind of attack more efficiently.
> Who among us hasn’t, at some point, mistaken a party balloon for a cartel drone? Let him cast the first stone.
Is there any reputable source for this claim? Apologies if I missed it but didn't see one linked in the article. I ask because it's not what I'd read or understood yesterday.
To be more clear than the headline:
It was NOT the party balloon, it was the CBP's [0] massively irresponsible use of the laser weapon as a response to a threat it failed to identify properly, inside commercial airspace with zero coordination with the FAA or other air operators.
Any significant competence or even communication would have turned this into a literal non-event.
But this so-called 'administration' values only loyalty to a leader and find competence an impediment to implementing authoritarianism. So, here we are, squandering a half-billion dollars on a horde of idiots with a laser and a party balloon.
[0] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/cbp-shot-...
[0a] "Defense Department has a working relationship with Homeland Security, where CBP is headquartered, that allows its personnel to use certain military equipment for its objectives, testing, evaluation and use along the southern border.". Seems the laser was on-loan from the DoD, and the yahoos at CBP just decided to go wild.
"99 Luftballons", Mariachi remix.
Thinking more practically though. Why wouldn't there be "narco drones", with drone technology becoming so ubiquitous and cheap? And what would their operators care about airspace restrictions? The practical ones, as in "not get sucked into a jet engine or damage a wing and cause a plane crash"?
Is this the case of radar automatic targeting unable to distinguish between a balloon and a drone. Or was this a border guy manually pulling the trigger with bad eyesight?
This recalls the Miami Miley Cyrus Hanna Montana balloon incident of 2008. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/11/11/Hannah-Montana-birds...
I remember things.
Alexa play 'Nena - 99 Red Balloons'...
At least it's better than when the moon nearly caused nuclear apocalypse https://blog.ucs.org/david-wright/the-moon-and-nuclear-war-9...
There is no defence against an enemy that can cause hysteria so easily.
Speaking of, that helium is a precious non renewable resource.
Nena, you are a messenger from god!
https://youtu.be/Fpu5a0Bl8eY?si=vpSXWV5-pUOIjvac
And when there are exactly 99 comments on this subject.
Someone please make this into a meme.
We are on the dumbest timeline.
Imagine if there had been 99 balloons?
So can we dismantle other security theater with balloons? Can we make a balloon for Tsa that is harmless and will cost too much to fight and demonstrates the pointlessness of Tsa?
maybe it wasn't a "party balloon"
Is it even legal to release a party baloon in class D airspace?
Compared with the AI bubble $573k is nothing.
the double down on stupidity is that the cartels now know that deploying party balloons will work as decoys, too bad they dont have mirror finnish ones, oh wait!
[dead]
The Secretary of Homeland Security thought the balloon was her dog and treated it as such (/s?)