After the end of World War II in 1945, Republicans and Democrats attempted to paint each other as being stronger when dealing with Communists. "Who lost China?" was one political balloon designed to show the nation and the world that Republicans (or Democrats) were stronger against the adversaries of the free world. America's "Cold Warriors" tried to out-do each other proving they could stand up to the USSR or Red China. 

Today, a balloon floats over Montana and the same debate errupts in an almost totally inempt Congress. Even conspiracy theorist and QANON Queen Rep. Margorie Taylor Greene wants the balloon shot down while Secretary of State Blinken, who just returned from the Middle East after a blundering attempt at peace, has cancelled a trip to meet the Chinese President  Xi Jinping. The Chinese, however, state that the balloon is non-government and non-military.

Republicans are quick to say Biden is weak. As in the Cold War, that kind of partisan nonsense got America hopelessly entangled in Vietnam, earlier, in Korea, and consistently fed the Eisenhower years with one potential conflict after another.

I can't get the Nena ditty, "99 Redballoons," out of my head. But this one balloon is white.