201
Smartest army in the world
They're warriors of the war department! No fatties!
Hey, I've heard that song.
Yeah, the Trump administration have always been fans of things that sounded better in the original German I guess
War machine springs to life
WTF is really going on over there? They closed the airspace with no notice now they are shooting down party balloons. Someone is super nervous over there and has a hair trigger for a reason.
Not too long ago, I saw at least 8 F16s leave the Sioux Falls airport, headed south, in a single day.
More than that in total over several other days, blackhawks, chinooks, more f16s, etc.
This was not too long before the snatch and grab of Maduro.
My total guess would be we've got a lot more airframes than normal positioned at or near the southern border.
Beyond that... uh, aluminum foil type balloons basically show up quite brightly on radar screens and such... they're a lot like chaff.
So, if the computer systems attached to the radar system failed to flag it as 'probably a balloon or something', well, it could have just been blown along by the wind at approximately drone speeds, at approximately a drone altitude, on a trajectory that I guess looked hostile or suspicious.
And if it was a bunch of aluminum foil balloons, that could look like a drone formation or swarm, if they more or less got picked up by the same air current.
Apparently the explanation is 'we thought it was a cartel drone swarm'
“The FAA and [Department of War] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region. The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a statement.
So... yeah, itchy trigger finger, and it means aluminum foil party balloons are apparently, in at least some conditions, not able to be filtered out as party balloons by the involved radar/computer systems and/or whatever humans are in charge of making a call.
Or, who knows, maybe at this point it was fucking Grok that made the call, after all, Hegseth made a big show of incorperating xAI into as many military systems as possible.
“You’re absolutely right! That was just a party balloon!”
I wonder how many times it's going to take before they "accidentally" instigate a civil war.
They're still hoping we'll give them a flimsy reason to respond with overwhelming force.
As we get closer to the midterms, I expect them to stop hoping and start doing it anyway.
You and I, in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we got
Hast du etwas Zeit für mich?
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht grad an mich?
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und, dass sowas von sowas kommt!
And the UFO community is like “it wasn’t a balloon, I insist!”
Actual spy balloons.
Did nothing.
Party balloon.
"Ehr ma gerd! It's a spy drone!"
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
201 points (98.6% liked)
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