From the left: Too Much Ado ’Bout Balloon

The Chinese-balloon affair, grumbles Racket’s Matt Taibbi, “speaks directly to our leaders’ new dependence on government-by-panic,” ending “in Kubrickian spoof, with one unsmiling official after another lining up to declare victory over a balloon. And nobody thought it was odd.” The F-22 is “one of the most expensive weapons ever built, costing taxpayers $334 million per plane”; “that this celebrated super-weapon got its first air-to-air victory shooting down a f - - king balloon is as perfect a demonstration of the pitiful mindset of modern American leaders as could be conceived.” It’s of a piece with all the “attacks on our democracy” that really weren’t. “The real crisis is the loss of public faith in government,” yet “the bottomless well of panic narratives” ensures “people aren’t calm, happy, and free to assess world events with a sober, independent mind.”