You're going to be amazed at how quickly the Chinese balloon story drops out of the news (except by MAGA-land) as more information about it surfaces. Most of the ranting I've heard about it all day appears to be massively overblown on all counts, including claimed maneuverability, theoretical spying capabilities over those of a satellite, etc. There even seems to be a lack of absolute confirmation about the second balloon claimed to be over Latin or South America.

What's really going on isn't entirely clear, but for sure the GOP is many orders of magnitude more of a threat to this country compared to this balloon.

@lauren I've been thinking this balloon is probably a college kids weather balloon experiment.
@tippenring With a payload the size of three school buses?

@lauren @tippenring

The #balloon is the size of three buses, not the payload.🙂

Amateur radio guys are sending smaller ones round the world all the time.

@mkarliner @lauren the balloon the "volume" of three buses makes much more sense than "payload."

Weather balloons expand tremendously as their altitude increases.

However, a payload volume of "three buses" must have very little mass. A balloon just can't carry very much weight.

@tippenring @lauren

Must be a stealth balloon....

🙂