It's all about the balloon

'99 red balloons...Panic bells, it's red alert...There's something here from somewhere else...The war machine springs to life.' -- NENA

As the Democrats, egged on by the Republicans, stumble and bumble their way toward all-out war with China, it’s become difficult for me to find any comic relief. But I found a little last night when I was able to stay awake just long enough to catch the cold opening of Saturday Night Live.

The bullshit "Chinese spy balloon" story made for great SNL satire with Bowen Yang playing the balloon.

Even more SNL skit-worthy were Pentagon officials claiming that the weather balloon was a boon for our spy agencies since they could “study and scrutinize” it and learn from China’s balloon technology.

Natasha Bertrand @NatashaBertrand

Senior defense official to reporters just now: "The surveillance balloon's overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us... we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable."

Funnier still—

It was “catastrophic,” say Republicans.

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I couldn’t get this song out of my head yesterday.

99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
The 99 red balloons go by

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A little bit of history: The rubber balloon was invented in 1824 by Professor Michael Faraday, to be used in his hydrogen experiments at the Royal Institution in London. Faraday made them by cutting two sheets of tacky rubber and pressing the edges together to seal them.

Faraday

That’s all I’ve got.