My two older granddaughters are both in school now, but I still get to spend a lot of time with my grandson, George, who's three. Comparing his take on the world--which includes a lot of talking about and playing with good guys and bad guys--to the rantings of GOP 'adults', I'd give George the edge on rationality by a country mile.
MTG: "I just spoke with our GREAT America First President Trump.
He would have never allowed China to fly a spy balloon over our country and our military bases and assets. Pres Trump would have shot it down before it entered the US. And so would I."
I can not confirm this, but I have heard that MTG has been added by Webster's Dictionary as a synonym for idiot and several other nouns that connote mental imbalance.
When are the reasonable people in this country going to stop trying to satisfy people who refuse to be satisfied? If Biden had ordered the balloon shot down over a populous area, he would have been criticized for harming civilians. "How dare he put citizens at risk? What kind of man would allow this to happen? He must be working with the Chinese to destroy America."
Because Biden listened to the advice of the experts and waited until it was safe to shoot it down, he is being criticized for being too slow to act. "If Trump had been President, this would have been taken care of immediately. Who knows what intel was gathered by this balloon as it made its way across the entire country? Biden doesn't care about security in this country."
Nothing Biden does is praised by those who didn't vote for him even if they greatly benefit from his good works. No. All they want to do is criticize and fantasize about how Trump would have been so much better even though he harmed them in so many ways. There is no way to satisfy them.
I personally feel there are still a persuadable middle of independents and a small minority of GOP moderates whom we can persuade, and so that is where I hope to make progress.
Absolutely agree, Jay! Those would be "middle left and right hump" voters on the bell curve. They are teachable and persuadable, given a compelling message and the right messengers (influentials). What we need to do is focus all of our energy on the far left (innovators/early adopters) to right & left center of the bell, and leave the MAGA's on the far right to laggard in their own stew. We are in synch!
Hard-core Republicans are utterly "unpersuadable," in marketing terms. You might actually call them uneducable. Following the bell-curve model. They occupy the far-right small block, typically about 15% of consumers. 
Generally, talking about consumer behavior re: buying decisions. I'm creatively applying to voters. I would then say 15% of all adult voters could be considered unpersuadable MAGA.
Some groups are more motivated participants, right? So is that registered voters or actual voters? 🤔 😄 I'm freaking out over a throwaway comment, aren't I? 😅
This would be, nominally, the total pool of potential MAGA Republicans. Do not conflate with actual voters. However, that being said, MAGA's are highly motivated voters. Witness what happened in the R primaries in 2022; the trumpiest candidates often won despite being woefully unqualified.
A consistent problem for Democrats / Independents has been that we outnumber self-identified MAGA's, BUT we historically do not vote at the level of MAGA Republicans due to a fervor gap. In this way, 15% of voters can carry inordinate weight if most of them cast ballots against a lackadaisical or disaffected D/I voting bloc. These types of calculations require sophisticated computer modeling, which I do not have the software (or training - I hired these mathematical models out) to render. But, I hope you get the general drift?
At this point, anything the GQP gets worked up and carries on about is - essentially - performative. All appearance and no substance, recommendations, or realistic actionables. The real tragedy so wasting two years with GQP-controlled House while there is so much serious work to do. SMH.
Its a "huge embarrassment" for the cognitive disabilities of too many Americans. Let's see how the populations of South America handle the same event as compared with North America.
Reminds me of the mass hysteria in Los Ageles circa1942 over non-existant "Japanese [phantom] Bombers as compared with the population of London at the same historical moment. But, the Brits had very real, too real fears based on facts & real death.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. There no winning scenario for Biden in the eyes of the GOP, listening to advisors is what he did and should have done unlike the last clown in office
NASA has launched a number of balloons over the years, including one equipped with telescopes that was the size of football stadium (nearly 19 million cubic feet of volume) when cruising at full altitude. It was released from a site in New Zealand, and was intended to encircle the Southern Hemisphere every couple of weeks, at an altitude of more than 100,000 feet. It's been doing this for years. It even has its own blog.
Thank you. Your statement in the last paragraph sums it up nicely “there’s no winning”. The GQP is desperate to keep their gullible sheep/base outraged, especially as they strive to weaken social security and Medicare. If their base wasn’t so brainwashed and clueless, the GQP would be in real trouble.
I would disagree on the use of the word “panic” to describe the reaction of most rational Americans to the balloon. I would say for most of us the reaction was mild curiosity and/or amusement. It seems pretty clear that, whatever it was, it was a huge embarrassment for the Chinese.
I wish it were the case that many in America didn’t panic. But I was watching Fox News reporting and seeing the internet light up from the right, and it was certainly panic.
Glad you Americans can see the ridiculous stance various figures from. the GOP have
taken on the balloon caper. We had a similar balloon incident in Canada 25 years ago when one of our huge weather balloons drifted over Canada, the US & the UK - the difference being that the air defence forces didn’t waste a missile on the balloon but couldn’t shoot it down. Rather than getting their nickers in a knot the balloon was allowed to land harmlessly in Finland.&&
Probably that errant party bus was deployed precisely to stir up some acrimony ane bluster and thereby entertain our foreign rivals; in this calamitous era of progressive absurdity, these reality shows courtesy of pervasive derangement are likley worth the cost of a relic balloon (baloon if you're Don Jr)
This is why I don't watch the news anymore. We only have antenna TV anyway, but living in socal affords is a good many station choices, ours being PBS Newshour when we do watch. We miss all the hype and anger and nonsense. I read Substack pieces instead.
I'm extremely grateful that you do, as well as some other authors I subscribe to. We don't have cable so our choices are pretty limited anyway. I'm not sure I personally could handle it. We "listen'" to our Substack's while drinking coffee, get up and have breakfast, then head out for our morning doggy walk. You usually hit our inbox when we get home or we listen in the afternoon. I personally need to spend as much time outside as possible to rebalance myself after discouraging news, but after the SOTU address last night I slept like a log!
My two older granddaughters are both in school now, but I still get to spend a lot of time with my grandson, George, who's three. Comparing his take on the world--which includes a lot of talking about and playing with good guys and bad guys--to the rantings of GOP 'adults', I'd give George the edge on rationality by a country mile.
The only thing the Republicans have to offer these days is “fake anger” and lies designed to rile up their ardent but dumb supporters!
Biden could say the sky is blue and the GOP would pitch a fit and argue about it.
Well, of course, it's a partisan ... blue sky.
That’s a good one!
Careful of red sky, "red sky in morning sailor take warning".
😂
MTG: "I just spoke with our GREAT America First President Trump.
He would have never allowed China to fly a spy balloon over our country and our military bases and assets. Pres Trump would have shot it down before it entered the US. And so would I."
I can not confirm this, but I have heard that MTG has been added by Webster's Dictionary as a synonym for idiot and several other nouns that connote mental imbalance.
When are the reasonable people in this country going to stop trying to satisfy people who refuse to be satisfied? If Biden had ordered the balloon shot down over a populous area, he would have been criticized for harming civilians. "How dare he put citizens at risk? What kind of man would allow this to happen? He must be working with the Chinese to destroy America."
Because Biden listened to the advice of the experts and waited until it was safe to shoot it down, he is being criticized for being too slow to act. "If Trump had been President, this would have been taken care of immediately. Who knows what intel was gathered by this balloon as it made its way across the entire country? Biden doesn't care about security in this country."
Nothing Biden does is praised by those who didn't vote for him even if they greatly benefit from his good works. No. All they want to do is criticize and fantasize about how Trump would have been so much better even though he harmed them in so many ways. There is no way to satisfy them.
I personally feel there are still a persuadable middle of independents and a small minority of GOP moderates whom we can persuade, and so that is where I hope to make progress.
Absolutely agree, Jay! Those would be "middle left and right hump" voters on the bell curve. They are teachable and persuadable, given a compelling message and the right messengers (influentials). What we need to do is focus all of our energy on the far left (innovators/early adopters) to right & left center of the bell, and leave the MAGA's on the far right to laggard in their own stew. We are in synch!
Hard-core Republicans are utterly "unpersuadable," in marketing terms. You might actually call them uneducable. Following the bell-curve model. They occupy the far-right small block, typically about 15% of consumers. 
That's close to 50 million people, yeah? If so, that's quite a lot. Or is it 15% of any given sample, not total US population?
Generally, talking about consumer behavior re: buying decisions. I'm creatively applying to voters. I would then say 15% of all adult voters could be considered unpersuadable MAGA.
Some groups are more motivated participants, right? So is that registered voters or actual voters? 🤔 😄 I'm freaking out over a throwaway comment, aren't I? 😅
This would be, nominally, the total pool of potential MAGA Republicans. Do not conflate with actual voters. However, that being said, MAGA's are highly motivated voters. Witness what happened in the R primaries in 2022; the trumpiest candidates often won despite being woefully unqualified.
A consistent problem for Democrats / Independents has been that we outnumber self-identified MAGA's, BUT we historically do not vote at the level of MAGA Republicans due to a fervor gap. In this way, 15% of voters can carry inordinate weight if most of them cast ballots against a lackadaisical or disaffected D/I voting bloc. These types of calculations require sophisticated computer modeling, which I do not have the software (or training - I hired these mathematical models out) to render. But, I hope you get the general drift?
I do! Thank you for taking the time to explain it a bit :)
At this point, anything the GQP gets worked up and carries on about is - essentially - performative. All appearance and no substance, recommendations, or realistic actionables. The real tragedy so wasting two years with GQP-controlled House while there is so much serious work to do. SMH.
Is this legit? Have you been spoofed or hacked? Seems like a phishing attempt.
Its a "huge embarrassment" for the cognitive disabilities of too many Americans. Let's see how the populations of South America handle the same event as compared with North America.
Reminds me of the mass hysteria in Los Ageles circa1942 over non-existant "Japanese [phantom] Bombers as compared with the population of London at the same historical moment. But, the Brits had very real, too real fears based on facts & real death.
I thought of this, too. George Takei told me many stories about these scaremongering tactics.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. There no winning scenario for Biden in the eyes of the GOP, listening to advisors is what he did and should have done unlike the last clown in office
NASA has launched a number of balloons over the years, including one equipped with telescopes that was the size of football stadium (nearly 19 million cubic feet of volume) when cruising at full altitude. It was released from a site in New Zealand, and was intended to encircle the Southern Hemisphere every couple of weeks, at an altitude of more than 100,000 feet. It's been doing this for years. It even has its own blog.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/superpressureballoon/2016/05/16/up-up-and-away-nasa-launches-globetrotting-super-balloon/
Thank you. Your statement in the last paragraph sums it up nicely “there’s no winning”. The GQP is desperate to keep their gullible sheep/base outraged, especially as they strive to weaken social security and Medicare. If their base wasn’t so brainwashed and clueless, the GQP would be in real trouble.
I would disagree on the use of the word “panic” to describe the reaction of most rational Americans to the balloon. I would say for most of us the reaction was mild curiosity and/or amusement. It seems pretty clear that, whatever it was, it was a huge embarrassment for the Chinese.
I wish it were the case that many in America didn’t panic. But I was watching Fox News reporting and seeing the internet light up from the right, and it was certainly panic.
Bowen Yang - For the win!
He is hilarious. He also played the iceberg that sank the Titanic a while back.
Glad you Americans can see the ridiculous stance various figures from. the GOP have
taken on the balloon caper. We had a similar balloon incident in Canada 25 years ago when one of our huge weather balloons drifted over Canada, the US & the UK - the difference being that the air defence forces didn’t waste a missile on the balloon but couldn’t shoot it down. Rather than getting their nickers in a knot the balloon was allowed to land harmlessly in Finland.&&
Notice that Canada didn’t freak out when the balloon in this instance traversed its borders.
“There simply is no winning with that crowd.”
Sums it up perfectly.
Probably that errant party bus was deployed precisely to stir up some acrimony ane bluster and thereby entertain our foreign rivals; in this calamitous era of progressive absurdity, these reality shows courtesy of pervasive derangement are likley worth the cost of a relic balloon (baloon if you're Don Jr)
This is why I don't watch the news anymore. We only have antenna TV anyway, but living in socal affords is a good many station choices, ours being PBS Newshour when we do watch. We miss all the hype and anger and nonsense. I read Substack pieces instead.
I certainly don’t watch the news for the news. I watch it to measure the extremism of our media.
I'm extremely grateful that you do, as well as some other authors I subscribe to. We don't have cable so our choices are pretty limited anyway. I'm not sure I personally could handle it. We "listen'" to our Substack's while drinking coffee, get up and have breakfast, then head out for our morning doggy walk. You usually hit our inbox when we get home or we listen in the afternoon. I personally need to spend as much time outside as possible to rebalance myself after discouraging news, but after the SOTU address last night I slept like a log!