There’s been a big hullabaloo this past week about a Chinese high-altitude weather/spy balloon that drifted over U.S. airspace.
Predictably, Republican legislators and prospective 2024 candidates have used the “incursion” to excoriate President Biden for not shooting the balloon down immediately. They claim that he “showed weakness” to the Chinese who, for their own part, expressed remorse that the balloon had drifted off course.
The whole thing seems like a tempest in a teapot because the Chinese don’t really need balloons to gather intelligence on American military bases (they have spy satellites like we do) and this is not the first time that Chinese balloons have trespassed into U.S. airspace: news reports indicate that there were three such instances while Donald Trump was President.
It wasn’t big news then, Trump didn’t have them shot down, and no Republicans made a big deal of it at the time.
President Biden refused to take out the balloon when it was over U.S. property because he didn’t know what was in it and didn’t want debris falling on American cities and people. When the balloon got to the South Carolina coast, Biden had it shot down and the military is now recovering the balloon and its cargo from the ocean. Hopefully, something significant will be learned.
Several G.O.P. politicians ranted and raved about Biden’s “irresponsible” behavior during the week, piggybacking on the Fox News constant drumbeat that the President is too old and mentally unfit for his job… as if he was the only person in the Administration (State Department, the Pentagon, C.I.A., National Security Agency) assessing the problem and coming up with options for the President.
Give me a break.
And what about the credentials of the legislator who is doing all of the criticizing? What is his expertise? What think tank is providing him with better information than that of the Biden Administration?
Anyone can get elected to Congress. Used car salesmen, disbarred attorneys, TV personalities, crooks, election deniers, White supremacists, football coaches, and social media influencers can, and do, run for office. With plenty of campaign money, a “safe” district, and support of the local political machine, even marginal candidates can win. Once elected, the new Congressman can hold a press conference and shoot his mouth off about any subject under the sun… as if he knows what he’s talking about. (For awhile, there was an avowed Ku Klux Klansman who represented a Conservative congressional district in San Diego County. He had all manner of wild opinions.)
A bunch of hot air, it is, just like the armchair advice given out by pissed off Congressmen during the Covid 19 pandemic.
It might turn out that the Chinese balloon was loaded with Covid-23 virus and the Chi Comms were hoping that the Americans would shoot it down over the heartland, infecting millions and re-devastating the U.S. economy. If that were the case, Joe Biden would be a genius for his forbearance.
Should something like that actually come about, he would receive zero credit from Fox News or the loudmouth Congressman, who would revert to shooting spitwads about other alleged Biden brainfarts.
Speaking of that, I’ve noticed that Fox News, several times per week, highlights public speaking flubs that President Biden makes, giving the impression that his 78-year-old brain is not working so well. I don’t know about that, but I do know that he is called upon to regularly speak to the public and reporters. The more exposure, the more chances for misspeaking. (I used to have a job that required public speaking, and I can assure you that it is easy to flub a line or misstate yourself when talking off the cuff in front of an audience. Confusion can happen at any age.)
It is interesting that Fox News is so focused on Biden’s occasional speaking flubs, particularly when that network was absolutely mute while ex-President Trump was lying to the American public every day for four years. The Washington Post kept a record of Trump’s public lies, and it was determined that he lied over 30,000 times to reporters, on TV, and at rallies during the almost 1,500 days he was in office. That’s an average of twenty public lies per day, and not once in four years did Fox New criticize the President his big whoppers.
I don’t believe that Fox News has yet denounced The Big Lie (i.e. the alleged “Stolen Election” of 2020). I am also pretty sure that none of the Fox News talking heads have yet criticized and called for the ouster of Congressman George Santos, who has lied about what his name is (he’s used at least four in the past twenty years), his ancestry, his education, his collegiate sports achievements, his mother’s death, his business experience, his sexuality, his charity work, his property ownership, his campaign financing, and crimes of which he claimed to be a victim.
More hot air was dispensed recently when some Congressman got all worked up about “Biden’s plan” to outlaw all gas stoves in the U.S. What actually happened was that one member of the Consumer Product Commission mused about phasing out gas stoves for safety/environmental purposes. His idea was not supported by other commissioners, nor by the Biden Administration. But, it made headlines on Fox News, riling up lots of Americans who were looking for one more excuse to hate on those bastard Democrats.
That reminds me of the big hue and cry several years ago when the Republicans raised a stink about an alleged plot by President Obama to outlaw the consumption of beef. The whole episode, a political stunt, was a “nothingburger” made out of 100% hot air. Some Montana Congressman made some political hay off of this stunt and then moved on to another one, while a lot of people were left concerned and angry.
What do you expect? It’s Washington D.C., the hot air capital of the United States.