> Now that you know that atmospheric conditions are chaotic

They’re not at high altitude. They’re actually pretty stable.

> and that balloons have next to no steering capabilities

That’s not at all true…

> are you still convinced that China launched them so they can fly across the Pacific, through Canada, just so they fly visibly over precise sensitive locations in the US?

It’s been done many, many times before… the Japanese were doing it all the way back in WWII…

> Nobody is wasting money making spy balloons when satellites would’ve sufficed.

They don’t, actually. For camera or radio imaging, sure, but for signal scooping, you need to be in atmosphere due to the way radio waves reflect off the ionosphere. That’s why the US is flying radio signal intelligence aircraft in the Black Sea instead of just using satellites to intercept Russian radio communications and gather intelligence.

> It shouldn’t be hard to spot the military’s fear mongering.

Try being a little more educated before making wild assertions.