If Republicans Couldn't Overreact, They'd Be Incapable Of Reacting At All
The Chinese balloon is the greatest threat to America since...Tuesday
We have become a nation of thoughtless rushers, intent on doing before thinking, and hoping what we do magically works out. If it doesn’t, we rush to do something else, something also not well thought-out, and then hope for more magic.
Len Holman
OK, so there’s a Chinese balloon flying over Montana. Does any rational person REALLY think the Chinese would be stupid enough to do something so patently obvious and ridiculously stupid? If the Chinese were looking to spy on American military capabilities, there are other, more clandestine methods available to them.
If China was engaged in serious skullduggery, would they be engaged in something a civilian armed with an iPhone could photograph?
The North Stars & Cowboy Bars paywall launch special:
Subscribe to an annual plan- $50.00- before 3.15.23 and receive a 20% discount! That means you get a year for $40!
In this case, it looks as if this is much ado about nothing. Still, Republicans on Capitol Hill aren’t about to pass up a perfectly good opportunity to embarrass President Biden by demanding that he SHOOT DOWN THE G*****N BALLOON!!
Because in America, we don’t think, WE ACT!! Winners shoot first and ask questions later.
A defense official told The Associated Press the spy balloon was trying to fly over U.S. missile fields in Montana, but the U.S. assessed that it had “limited” value in providing China intelligence it couldn’t already collect by other means, such as through spy satellites.
On Friday, China acknowledged the balloon was theirs but called it a “civilian airship” that blew off course.
“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure. The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Of course, Republicans are defaulting to assuming the worst, because it gives them the best opportunity of embarrassing a President they despise. So they’re demanding that President Biden order that the balloon be shot down. And if the debris happen to injure civilians on the ground (or worse)…well, they’ll blame him for that, as well.
That’s how Republican “GOTCHA!” politics works.
READY! FIRE! AIM!
Unsurpringly, even Orange Jesus is getting into the act, with all the calm, rational thinking you’d expect from him.
The are legitimate concerns about shooting down the ballon, however. The Chinese are claiming it’s a meterological ballon blown off course, but they’re not saying what equipment the balloon is carrying. If the Air Force does take it out, the debris will have to land somewhere, and there’s no way to know if they’ll land in an open field or a populated area.
Of course, if the debris do land in a populated area and does damage there, you can bet that Republicans will hold President Biden responsible for that.
According to the Pentagon, there’s as yet no indication that the ominously named “Chinese spy balloon” poses a threat to American national security. That being the case, there’s no impetus to shoot it down- except to satisfy Republicans who don’t want a President who’s “soft on China.” Since they don’t know what sort of equipment the balloon is carrying and where it might land if it is shot down, the Pentagon wants to err on the side of caution.
Republicans, however, WANT ACTION NOW!! That way they can put President Biden in a damned-if-he-does-and-damned-if-he-doesn’t bind. No matter what he does, they want to use this incident to embarrass him. It has nothing to do with the “Chinese spy balloon.” Republicans can’t pass on an opportunity to throw mud at the President.
Of course, anything Chinese is bad and evil and thus must be destroyed forthwith to prove American unfuckwithability. Yeah, we’re badass. We shoot first and ask questions later. If we ask questions at all.
It’s sad and pathetic, but such is the state of Republican politics these days.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.)…fired off a letter to the Pentagon with concerns about resulting civilian traffic disruption in his state. “The administration failed to protect our border and now has failed to protect our skies,” Daines wrote….
The heated rhetoric is only the latest chapter in Republican efforts to characterize Biden and other Democrats as soft on China. Others include attacks against Biden’s son Hunter over his Chinese business ties.
At this point, Republicans look like what former Vice-President Spiro Agnew used to call the “nattering nabobs of negativity.” The was his pet pejorative for the White House press corps, but it’s a perfect descriptor for Republicans always looking to get one over on the White House.
Ferchrissakes, y’all; it’s a freakin’ balloon aimlessly bobbing through the atmosphere at 60,000 feet. How much damage do you really think it’s going to do?
It’s a constant game of “GOTCHA!” in which the GOP attempts to create scenarios that place the President in no-win situations so that no matter what he does, he gets pilloried by the Far-Right.
Don’tcha just LOVE the two-party system?
This isn’t about a Chinese spy balloon. It’s about a 24/7/365 political dick-measuring contest, and Republicans are constantly determined to prove that theirs is bigger. Yeah, they’re just that insecure. (I’m a bit worried about Marjorie Trailer Greene, though. Hers just might be bigger.)
Rather than constantly trying to play political games, perhaps the GOP might consider agreeing to a different strategy:
(courtesy Jack Ohman)
Oh, and just when you might have thought this story couldn’t become any stranger, the Pentagon announced that another Chinese spy balloon has been spotted…over Latin America.
Oh, the humanity….
Once this blows over, something else will pop up, and the Freedumb Caucus ninnies will play their “mine is bigger” card all over again. It never ends.
You’d think they’d tire of the pointless games, but it’s their raison d’ etre. Yeah, and you thought it was about policy and doing about what’s best for America?
Naïve much?
"Once this blows over" -- I saw what you did there ...
Two things that can now be added to the story. The first is that DoD estimated that the balloon carried somewhere around a 1/2 ton of equipment. So def not the kind of thing you want dropping on your house. The second is that, again according to DoD, at least three such balloons flew across US skies during Trump's administration: https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/suspected-chinese-balloon-over-us-02-04-23/h_1f1e4d057e1aa906e5ef3b686e63527b