02.06.23
(It has been a fun weekend watching the press contort the story of the Chinese spy balloon, desperate to deflect from the Biden administration's incompetence.)
Low Octane Gas Lighting – CNN
You know the story of the spy balloon fiasco last week was a fiasco by the way the press reports were constantly shifting as new information kept derailing narratives. First, Biden was caught by surprise (then they knew about it a week ago), or the balloon was an innocent civilian craft. Then it was said Republicans are wildly exaggerating it, but then Biden was a hero for shooting down the "innocent" balloon, and when asked why it was not brought down before entering our airspace, Biden was said to have wanted to shoot it down earlier but was overruled by generals.
Now comes this gem from CNN that the Biden administration has "discovered" that other balloon flights took place. There is every reason in the world to laugh at it, starting with the fact it is written by Collusion truther Natasha Bertrand, clearly working off of a fed piece of intel. The new claim is that the Chinese flew several balloon missions over the US during the Trump years, proof this is a manufactured hysteria. There are numerous problems with this narrative. Denials have come from numerous members of the Trump team, including distinctly non-supportive John Bolton. This all leads to three disqualifiers:
- How is it that no one from the intelligence community – like the 50+ who signed the Hunter laptop Russian letter – came forward to announce these events?
- How are we expected to believe that something negative of this magnitude would never have been leaked in an effort to damage Trump?
- If the intelligence community was aware of these balloon flights, how is it that the government was caught off guard and fumbled all of last week as this craft crossed the majority of the country?
These are questions Bertrand and CNN never appear to get around to exploring.
Democratic Custodial Services – ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zeke Miller over at the AP also tries to blow smoke about blowing up the balloon, insisting that this was a show of the increased detection techniques. Yes, the administration that cannot seem to patrol a fence at the southern border has stepped up high-tech airspace detection methods. Uh huh, suuuuuuuurrrre they have.
- "White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that after Biden took office, the U.S. 'enhanced the surveillance of our territorial airspace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.'"
These methods are so good, in fact, this was…uh, this was how they were able to detect past flights that took place during the Trump years. So what exactly were these new methods, which were not brought to light until a Montana citizen posted pics of the balloon on social media? Well, Zeke plays the good stenographer here and goes with the "take our word for it" method of administration revelations.
- "Sullivan did not explain what specifically allowed the U.S. to detect and track the latest balloon where the previous administration might not have. Officials have said, without elaborating, that China has flown similar balloons over parts of five continents in recent years."
— Dianna B. M. (@newswithdianna) February 6, 2023
Legalized Press-titution – BLOOMBERG
In a blatant attempt at polishing the pile left behind by a Pekinese, Bloomberg attempted to sell us on the concept that Biden's meandering response to the spy effort was a great move. They say that waiting the week before it is off the Carolina coast was a bold decision, despite meaning the craft floated down from Montana and across the country. But – they also report that Biden wanted to shoot the balloon down far earlier; however, he was overridden in that decision by military leaders. So either he is not in charge of this mission, or he does not deserve the credit for the decision made by his generals.
All of which ignores a central point – now that we learned the White House knew of this balloon flight well in advance, they could have shot it down off the coast of Alaska before it ever came across American borders.
Actually, commie spy balloons are a good thing…. Biden’s Timing on Chinese Balloon Takedown May Work in His Favor https://t.co/keaDugQNgL
— mattf (@mfmf100) February 5, 2023
Low Octane Gas Lighting – MSNBC
- Allowing the Chi-Coms a full week of espionage was a good thing, you dolts!
Joining in on the cleanup detail was Joe Scarborough, who needed to alert you hysterics on the right that there was a significant benefit to waiting out the week to bring down the balloon. You know, that balloon we were previously told was nothing at all to be concerned about.
Mo-Jo tells us that shooting it down over the ocean allows us to now recover the "payload," so this becomes a win for the U.S. Joe seems to believe that there was no transmission capability in the Chinese aircraft. He also seems to think that the debris field stretching over seven miles will make it easy to recover any tech that survived the explosion. And plummeting from tens of thousands of feet. And being immersed in saltwater at unknown depths.
Joe tries selling us the Chinese spy balloon was outfitted with a Polaroid camera, not sending real-time telemetry back to Beijing, for days.
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) February 6, 2023
Ron Klain is no longer around to retweet favorable posts, but you'll probably see this sent around China's social media on Xi's account. https://t.co/8fGJFydrmk
Pounce of Prevention – WASHINGTON POST
We'll just leave you with this sub-wisdom from the ever-dependable Max Boot. He sees what the real danger was in the Chinese spy mission. It was not a hostile government violating our airspace, it was the citizens who were concerned over it taking place and our president acting more neutered than a professional wrestling referee.
- "The whole incident leaves me feeling unsettled and alarmed. Oh, I'm not worried about the spy balloon. The violation of U.S. airspace was unacceptable, but it did not pose any actual threat, and it's doubtful that it gathered any intelligence that Chinese spy satellites cannot. What concerns me is the hysterical overreaction on the part of so many Americans to the balloon's progress."
Should Biden have personally climbed into an F-22 & led the attack on the balloon like the president in “Independence Day”? Should he have launched nukes in retaliation? The GOP didn’t have a clear alternatives but that did not stop their hyperventilating. https://t.co/3BiOVaMqaD
— Max Boot 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@MaxBoot) February 6, 2023
