What the Chinese Balloon Incident Tells us About Conservatives

The three day episode of the "Chinese balloon"--for lack of a better descriptive term, that's what I'll call it--has been an eye opener as far as right wing politics goes.  It reminded me of the childhood tale of Chicken Little, and that's a very accurate analogy of the reaction of many conservatives who went to the media with their opinion of how this should be handled, and how they wanted to claim the Biden administration wasn't handling it.  

Let's Put Some Perspective On This

The United States entered the space age with a rocket launch in 1958 and put a human being in space in 1961.  Since then, the rapid development of American space exploration and technology has sent probes to the far reaches of the solar system, put human beings on the moon, and has developed and placed hundreds of satellites in orbit around the planet with massive capacity for communication.  

If you think the Air Force, or NASA, or any intelligence branch of the government, was not exactly certain about any of the radio signals, messages or whatever communication the equipment being carried by this balloon was doing, then you are living in a Chicken Little world.  If it had actually posed a security threat, you can bet the Air Force would have shot it down before it entered American air space.  Somewhere, there's information on everything the equipment attached to that balloon was doing, intercepted, decoded and reported to wherever it needed to go.  

Republicans Think Their Constituents are the Most Stupid People in the World 

The kind of propaganda and messaging that goes from Republican leadership to their voting constituents sends a very clear message.  The party leadership thinks that their voting base is bottomless in the depth of their ignorance and stupidity.  They say the most outlandish things, and expect their base to buy it hook line and sinker.  And most of the base does, without giving it any thought at all, because that would require intelligence, education and common sense, qualities that are sorely lacking in Republican politics nowadays. 

How much sense does it make to holler about shooting it down, and at the same time, some of the same people are claiming that it was some kind of biological weapon, loaded with anthrax or more coronavirus or maybe even fentanyl.  So, as it floats over Montana, shoot it down, so that there's a chance the pieces come to earth in Billings, or in some small town, unleashing whatever biological weapon the Chinese put inside.  Even if it fell in the wide open spaces, it wouldn't be a good idea to shoot down and release whatever potential biological agent lurked inside.  

Can Republicans not see the contradiction in their flawed conspiracy theories?  If they can't then they are, indeed, living in a Chicken Little world where the sky is about to fall. 

Then there's the risk of having it fall on people.  Sure, I know that Montana is big sky country, small population, ten times more cows than people.  But if the odds are 1 in 1000 that a balloon that size would smash through the roof of someone's home, or hit cars on a highway, or drop onto the playground of a school, and the danger from the balloon is not apparent, then the plan to let it get out over a large body of water, preferably the ocean, and then shoot it down, makes the most sense.  Since that's exactly what happened, we can give the Biden administration credit for doing the right thing, and the conservatives yelling about shooting it down, including Trump Sr. and Jr., criticism for looking like foolish idiots who didn't get an intelligence briefing.  "Trump" and "intelligence" is an oxymoron. 

Even for a country like China, which is rapidly developing technology, it seems that a balloon, slowly floating over the United States at about 60,000 feet, would be a much less effective and efficient way to spy and gather intelligence.  We have satellite technology that is so sensitive and accurate, it can listen in to conversations taking place in venues hundreds of miles away from the source.  The FBI actually has on display in their museum spy equipment that can pinpoint and listen in on conversations from a satellite, and there's not much on the surface of the earth now that hasn't been repeatedly photographed by high tech cameras and surveillance.  Our country has some of the most sophisticated spy technology on this planet.  My guess is that they know exactly what China is up to with this balloon technology. 

An Experienced President Who Knew Exactly What to Do

President Biden's reaction was neither understated nor an over-reaction.  Like any good President would do, and so unlike what his predecessor would do, he relied on his military experts to deal with the situation, inform him, get back to him, and follow his instructions, which were to wait until it got over the open water before shooting it down.  

And there is the difference between a seasoned and experienced President like Biden, and an incompetent, inexperienced, selfish, agenda driven failure like his predecessor.  Tonight, the pieces of the balloon and the equipment it was carrying are secured in a facility in Virginia somewhere, where they will be examined as closely as possible.  

After seeing Trump Sr. and Trump Jr. try to make a political issue out of this today, I am doubly glad Biden won the election and Trump did not.