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Right-wing reaction to Chinese balloon incident is dangerous

Feb 07, 2023

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On the heels of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening, his controversial decision to shoot down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean will be front and center. China’s condemnation was swift, along with that of certain GOP members who were looking to blame Biden for mishandling the incident. Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman argues right-wing politicians are employing a dangerous narrative that’s only serving to embarrass the Republican Party.

Let’s talk about President Joe Biden popping the Chinese surveillance balloon.

So I have nothing new to offer you in terms of the facts of what took place. What we now know is that a Chinese surveillance balloon of some kind came in on a trajectory over Alaska, came through Canada over the United States. The Biden administration was notified of it, and subsequently ordered it blown up – I guess is the term I’m going to use – popped the balloon – off of the coast of South Carolina.

I am most interested here about the meta-narrative about the story – what is the story about the telling of the story that has been told.

Very quickly, the narrative from the Right, once we learned of the balloon, was: “Joe Biden is too weak, Joe Biden is too much of a beta to do anything about the balloon, and Trump certainly would have blown the balloon out of the sky by now.”

Very dangerous rhetoric in fact, partially because blowing up the balloon, shooting it out of the sky over land, could put human life at risk. And so the decision was made by Joe Biden to okay shooting the balloon out of the sky, popping the balloon, but it should be done when the balloon is over water. And that is exactly what happened.

Once that took place those very same right-wingers who were saying Biden would never have the balls to do it, right – okay, some of them talking in a New York accent, I don’t know why – they switch to: “Big deal, he blew it out of the sky, he took a while to do it and any president would have done that.”

Well, he took a while to do it, because he didn’t want the balloon crashing down on people and potentially hurting people. So that actually makes a lot of sense why he did that. And secondly, it turns out that a similar balloon, maybe the same one or one like it, overflew the United States three times while Donald Trump was president…

Let’s talk about President Joe Biden popping the Chinese surveillance balloons. So I have nothing new to offer you in terms of the facts of what took place. What we now know is that a Chinese surveillance balloon of some kind came in on a trajectory over Alaska came through Canada over the United States, the Biden administration was notified of it, and subsequently

ordered it blown up, I guess is the terms I’m going to use a popped the balloon off of the coast of South Carolina, I am most interested here about the meta narrative about the story, what is the story about the telling of the story that has been told very quickly, the narrative from the right, once we learned of the balloon was Joe Biden is too weak, Joe Biden is too much of a beta to do anything about the balloon, and Trump certainly would have blown the balloon out of the sky by now. Very dangerous rhetoric. In fact, partially because blowing up the balloon shooting it out of the sky, overland, could put human life at risk. And so the decision was made by Joe Biden to Okay, shooting the balloon out of the sky, popping the balloon, but it should be done when the balloon is over water. And that is exactly what happened. Once that took place those very same right wingers who were saying Biden would never have the balls to do it, right. Okay. Some of them talking in New York accent, I don’t know why

they switched to big deal. He blew it out of the sky, he took a while to do it. And any president would have done that. Well, he took a while to do it, because he didn’t want the balloon crashing down on people and potentially hurting people. So that actually makes a lot of sense why he did that. And secondly, it turns out that a similar balloon, maybe the same one or one like it over flew the United States, three times while Donald Trump was president. Now, initially, it was reported Trump knew and did nothing about it. More recently, it seems that Trump wasn’t even told about the balloon, crossing into us airspace three times during his presidency. If that’s the case, then we can’t blame Trump for not popping it, since he wasn’t told about it. But the narrative about the narrative is whatever right wingers can get away with at the moment that they think of saying something, there is something really funny about the very same people spending days saying week Biden will do nothing. Biden does the thing, and they say, doesn’t matter. Anybody would do that same thing. Well, but so then it doesn’t really matter.

In terms of your opinion of Joe Biden does it. And this is unfortunately, the reality. With a lot of these stories. There is the initial story, which is used by the right weaponized merely to go after a Democratic president. The facts completely reverse the circumstances. And then they switch to a new story, which is often easily debunked. We’ll talk about Afghanistan, this is a different situation. It relates to foreign policy and other countries. Trump had a plan to leave Afghanistan, the plan was essentially get up and get out of there. We’ve been there too long. It’s too expensive. We got to get out of there. I believe Trump was going to do it by May of 2021. Had he won in 2020. Trump last great. Joe Biden came into office. And he first said, Well, I’m not going to get us out in May. Because now that I’ve taken over, I need to review the plan. I need to feel good about the plan. I need to make sure this is the right plan, a responsible thing to do Maga immediately goes to Trump was going to get us out and Biden won’t Biden’s two alpha two beta. He’s Assissi. He won’t do it.

By the summer. Again, I’m thinking I think it was in July, maybe it was August. Biden says alright, I’ve reviewed the plan. We’re getting out of Afghanistan. Let’s go. He carries out the plan Trump was going to do a couple of months later than Trump was going to do it. We successfully get out of Afghanistan. And there is some chaos. Some lives are tragically lost. A bunch of equipment is left behind. Maga now jumps from Biden will never do it to Trump would have done it better. And of course, when Trump was actually given the opportunity to explain Well, sir, what would you actually have done differently on Afghanistan? Trump couldn’t articulate in any reasonable way, a single thing that he would have actually done differently. Now in retrospect, he says, Well, I would have taken our equipment. Well, how, what actually would have been the logistics of that? And of course, he can’t answer that question. So the balloon in and of itself

Some mildly interesting story. Countries spy on each other countries surveil each other we know that and it is interesting that this is something China’s doing. The story about the story is another one of these shifting verbal inkblots that Republicans end up painting themselves into a corner with and then having to try to paint their way out of it. It’s embarrassing.

 

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