I'll take "Things that inflate" for $500, Alex

 It was either that, or a Carnac reference, but since a blog is text-based, nobody would be able to see the turban/envelope schtick.  Besides, these days someone would accuse Johnny of cultural appropriation.  But hey, let's do it anyway.  [Holds envelop to be-turban-ed head.]  A balloon, a jobs report, and Hunter Biden's legal bills.

Hey-O!

See, this is why I need my own Ed McMahon.  You sound funnier with a drunken sidekick.  Also, you sound funnier when you are funny, but it's not like anyone is paying me to write this damned thing, so here.  Have your refund.  Go count it.  If you're Marjorie Taylor Greene, that'll take you a while.

Moving on, I have no insight into Hunter Biden's legal troubles, except to say that daddy probably won't help him.  If you are going to commit those kinds of crimes with a famous politician for a father, you should have the good sense to be born to a crooked shitbag like Donnie.  Biden?  Nope.  You're on your own.  As for that jobs report?  Wow.  It was almost certainly anomalous, and hence the Carnac schtick, but beyond that, I got nothin'.  So let's talk balloons.

I have two questions.  First, huh?  Second, what the fuck?!  The obvious questions, once one gets past every variation thereof, are as follows.  What was the Chinese government thinking, and why did it take so long to shoot the shit out of that thing?  The story broke when it was floating over Montana, where the average teenager should have enough firepower to take that thing down!  Why have such arsenals if you can't shoot down a balloon?  You get yourself a posse together, and  you go balloon huntin'!  Big game!  And if you know how big that fucker was, it was big game!  In my day, gran-pappy could hock a loogie up there 'n bring'r down faster'n you can say sky-road kill!  I tell ya', I don' know what this gen'ration is comin' ta!  Too much Tik-Tok, and not enough loogie-hockin'!

Wait!  That's it!  That's why they got tha kids on tha Tik-Tok!

I... do not know why that turned Southern.  The balloon was first noted over Montana, but I do not know how to write in a Montana accent, so I just went generic redneck.  Anyway, legitimate question:  even though a hunting rifle could not take down that balloon, why such a delay in downing the Chinese spy balloon?

Key word:  "spy."  As in, the kind of thing that you fucking shoot.  Any time the word, "spy" is involved, you do one of a couple things.  If it is a person, you nab the person, and either throw the person in a military prison, Supermax, for keepsies or trade.  If it is a device, you either conceal that you found it, and feed false information into it, or blow the fucking shit out of it.

So what took so long?

Supposedly, the balloon could not gather any intelligence that Chinese satellites are not already gathering, and debris would have been dangerous.  If true, that would explain waiting until the balloon could be shot in a safer location, but all of this raises a bigger question.

If the balloon was informationally useless, then why bother?  It was either totally irrational, or a move just to see what we do.  Provocation, to see if they can get away with it.  And here is the difference between living your life as a person, and government policy.  If someone tries to provoke you without doing any real damage, your best move is to ignore it and move on with your life rather than start a fight over perceived disrespect.  That way lies badness.

At the level of international politics, it doesn't work that way.  This is not a matter of "respect," but about boundary-testing.  No, China will not invade the US.  We are not, in any way, international allies, though.  We are economic and geopolitical adversaries.

Without a response, the question is one of incremental escalation.  What can China do without incurring a response?  How much can they do?  At the personal level, get this person named "China" out of your life, because "China" is an asshole.  Not quite as much of a violent psychopath as his neighbor, Russia, but China is a douchebag, and your life is better off without him.  Wouldn't you rather hang out with nicer friends, like that club, NATO?  They don't go around hitting each other, or anything like that.

At the national/international level, you cannot say, fuck this, I'm just going to go hang out with my NATO friends.  A response must be made.

It was a calculated act of provocation, intended to be small enough so as to ensure that it could not be reasonably interpreted as an act of war, but brazen enough that if we do not respond, more brazen acts of incrementally greater significance follow.

Respond immediately.

John Renbourn, the title track from The Black Balloon.