Everybody with half a brain knew that President Joe Biden‘s presidency was going to be a horrendous disaster for the country, but even his worst critics must be a little impressed with how quickly Biden has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the world.

Under our current commander-in-chief, we have suspected Chinese spy balloons flying overhead while Chinese fentanyl comes pouring through the southern border. It should be noted though that this current national embarrassment isn’t quite Biden’s fault alone — we got to this point thanks to The Uniparty — the establishment of both political parties.

On Thursday night, The Daily Wire reported that an unmanned balloon was spotted over Montana. Big Sky Country also holds some very key facilities related to the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal.

The immediate question was, why hasn’t this been blown out of the sky yet? The Pentagon claimed that it couldn’t be shot down out of concern about possible civilian casualties once the debris landed on the ground. That might be plausible if this were over New York City, but again — it’s in Montana.

General Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, stated in a statement that “the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time. The balloon is currently traveling at altitude well above commercial air traffic.”

Of course, does anybody really think that former President Donald Trump would let a “surveillance balloon” from America’s enemy fly into U.S. territory? Not a chance in France.

The CCP, for its part, claimed Friday morning that it isn’t a spy balloon at all, rather it is a weather balloon that got off track.

If you actually trust the Chinese government, then you probably are also gullible enough also believe that the president’s son Hunter Biden really is an energy expert whom CCP-linked officials turn to for expertise.

Nonetheless, the statement raises the question, why didn’t the CCP notify the U.S. military of that once they realized a “force majeure” was to blame for the incident?

Well, perhaps it is because they’ve seen how the Biden administration operates and knows there won’t be any repercussions for it anyway — whether it’s for meteorological or clandestine purposes. They have no respect for America, so no need to inform our military leaders.

Biden has let China walk all over the U.S. — while his right-hand weatherman John Kerry kowtows to his communist counterparts to get them aboard his climate change agenda.

As pointed out by Robby Starbuck, the Chinese state propaganda is openly mocking America for the incident.

“China is now openly making fun of our air defense systems,” he posted alongside a screenshot from the CCP-backed Global Times. “Even they can’t believe we’d allow their balloon to fly over our people. People realize these are fully capable of carrying bombs right? Not capturing, inspecting and destroying before it flew over our people is madness.”

China is now openly making fun of our air defense systems. Even they can’t believe we’d allow their balloon to fly over our people. People realize these are fully capable of carrying bombs right? Not capturing, inspecting and destroying before it flew over our people is madness. pic.twitter.com/GCvfy6e0Sq

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 3, 2023

The CCP now knows it isn’t just the air defense system that is completely broken. America’s ground defense is dismal as well — particularly at the southern border.

According to Rep. David Trone (D-MD), authorities estimate that 98% of the chemicals used to create the deadly drug fentanyl — which was the leading driver of more than 100,000 American opioid overdose deaths in both 2021 and 2022 — come from China.

Those materials are then used by Mexican drug cartels to create the synthetic narcotic, where it is then trafficked over the border. The Biden administration claims that massive seizures of fentanyl at the border are evidence that they have strong security, but even The Washington Post isn’t buying that Pravda.

“Since July 2022, U.S. authorities have seized about 2,200 pounds of the lab-cooked drug per month — that’s more than they grabbed in all of 2018,” The Washington Post reported on January 10. “Even so, the feds guess they’re netting just 5 to 10 percent of the fentanyl coming in from Mexico. Maybe less.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to travel to China next week but has already decided to postpone his trip in light of the balloon. It should be noted that lawmakers such as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) have been demanding that he address the fentanyl issue head-on with members of the CCP.

Per statements given to CNN, it didn’t really seem likely that was Blinken’s first course of action.

Todd Robinson, the top State Department official for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, told the outlet that the best way to deal with China will be through “collaboration and cooperation.”

“China has its own problems with narcotics. Mexico has problems, has its [own] problems with narcotics. Colombia also has a problem,” he added. “And what we’ve been saying is, this is no longer an issue where you can solely use one or the other. Everybody’s got a problem.”

So despite China being responsible for nearly 100% of the materials used in Mexico to create the drug that’s killing thousands, our strategy is to seek collaboration with our killers.

As pointed out by The Federalist’s Sean Davis — Biden’s soft-on China policies aren’t attributable to the 46th president alone.

“The Chinese spy balloon is a shiny object,” he claimed. “Of course we shouldn’t allow it to exist. That Red China buys our politicians, steals our tech, supplies our enemies, hollows out our manufacturers, and infects our people — all with the approval of our elites — is a much bigger problem.”

The Chinese spy balloon is a shiny object. Of course we shouldn’t allow it to exist. That Red China buys our politicians, steals our tech, supplies our enemies, hollows out our manufacturers, and infects our people—all with the approval of our elites—is a much bigger problem.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 3, 2023

Indeed — since the Clinton administration — The Uniparty has ignored, emboldened, and benefitted from the Chinese Community Party staying in power. Biden, the useful idiot that he is, is just the personification of The Uniparty.

Throughout that time, it has been the average American who has watched millions of jobs be shipped overseas, their neighbors and friends die from street drugs, and general social degradation — all for the sake of crappy, cheap products.

Now, those same Americans can look up in the sky and watch a foreign aircraft dangle over their heads doing God knows what.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

In an age of rising anxiety and depression in teens, the last thing they need is to be told their problems can be resolved by becoming the opposite sex. What they need is to be heard, given compassion and help to dig deep into their pain.

We live in a world that wants to put every problem in a box, fix it and move on. As physicians we are anxious to give concrete help and I often feel this way. There are so many ailments that we don’t completely understand and often we just write a prescription.

This isn’t because we don’t care, but we do fall into the same trap as parents and counselors. We hate to see kids hurt, so we do our best to give any help — even if it’s a band aid. But now we’ve walked into dangerous territory. When kids come to us and say they are gender confused or dysphoric, we are too quick to advise a dangerous solution — medical transition.

Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, director of the University of California San Francisco’s Mental Health Department, said, “Parents say to us, ‘what do you really know about the long-term effects of puberty blockers? Who has really studied the children over 20 years?’ We say: ‘That’s what we plan to do.’”

Gender dysphoria is a complex issue. I fear taking children down the road of “fixing” their dysphoria with hormones and/or surgery will deepen their angst.

Several years ago, a young boy I had seen since he was a baby came to me saying he wanted to transition to a girl. He was confused and depressed and it was getting worse. He wore camouflage pants, sparkly nail polish, and one half of his hair was buzzed while the other half was long. My heart sank, because I could list the reasons he was depressed and one of them was not desiring to be a girl.

He grew up as the oldest of four kids. When his mom and dad divorced, two of the younger kids struggled with the divorce, so he stepped in to “parent” them. His dad was a drug addict and sold drugs out of his home during the days and nights his kids stayed with him.

“I would hear men’s voices in the living room after we went to bed. I cringed. They were using drugs. Some of them would say weird things about sex and I was terrified they would come in one of our rooms and hurt my sisters.”

As the years went on, he kept going to his dad’s because the court said he had to. His mother knew this was going on but was too afraid to confront her ex-husband for fear that he might become violent. She met a boyfriend and he moved in. “He hated us” my patient said. “We never liked being around him because he was mean.”

This went on for years. He would often cry when he came into my office and we spent countless hours talking.

By the time he was 12, he came in to see me and his mother came along. She did most of the talking.

About halfway through the appointment she said, “We need to call him Clare now, Dr. Meeker. He wants to transition to a girl and we fully support that.” From my experience, parents are frequently the ones to push for gender transition, believing they’re genuinely helping their kids.

I stared at my patient. He looked empty.

“We’re taking him to U. Michigan to the gender transition clinic,” stated his mother.

I tried hard to get them to wait. “We need to treat his depression aggressively before we consider this,” I said.

I also cited research: A 30-year-long study from Sweden showed that 10 years after reassignment, transgender patients were 19 times more likely to die from suicide. And those transitioning from male to female are higher risk.

My pleas failed. He went to the University of Michigan and here is what he told me happened. He was interviewed for two hours by therapists and then spent one hour with a physician. Then, he came home with the first round of puberty blockers. I felt sick. I had known this boy for 12 years and they talked to him for three hours and began the process of changing the trajectory of his life.

This is happening all over the country. Health care workers are well-intentioned. The problem is, they don’t know these kids. They give them a ‘fix’ because they are anxious to help. But giving kids growth hormones to stop puberty doesn’t help.

There is a plethora of data arising on the harmful effects of transitioning children. Researchers, Irene Ericksen and Stan Weed from The Institute for Research and Evaluation meticulously reviewed hundreds of papers on it. Here is a summary of what they found:

First, “Scientific evidence has not shown that cross-sex medical treatments are beneficial to children or adolescents. The research making these claims is not scientifically liable. In fact, there is evidence of harmful impact. Consequently, a growing number of scientific agencies do not recommend such treatments. Instead, they recommend counseling and watchful waiting for gender confused youth.”

I want to be clear. We are not denying that children with gender dysphoria have legitimate feelings and desires. What we must do is fastidiously examine our response to these feelings.

Second, many parents and practitioners fear that if gender confused children aren’t transitioned, they are more likely to commit suicide. The mantra, ‘it’s better to have a transitioned child alive than one who wasn’t, dead.’

Fear is a powerful motivator and I get it. But, as the study states, “Research does not show that medical gender transition is necessary to prevent suicide. In fact, there is evidence that medical transition procedures may increase risk of suicide in gender confused teens.”

Even if you are a staunch advocate of gender transition in kids, there is powerful evidence to at least pause. Empathetically embrace the child and help him/her with his/her feelings.

Third, many believe that if kids aren’t allowed to transition, they will live with gender confusion for the rest of their lives. This isn’t true. “Research shows gender dysphoria in children usually goes away on its own by young adulthood, if transition is not encouraged. This avoids the harmful effects of cross-sex medical interventions.”

Fourth, “Scientific evidence indicates that the causes of gender dysphoria are complex. Social and cultural factors have significant influence on whether a young person will identify as transgender.”

The research goes on and on. Here’s the bottom line: There is enough evidence from the most respected institutions around the world that the real and long-term effects of transitioning kids is still unknown. Therefore, it is completely unreasonable to put puberty blockers into children to transition them. Changing a child from male to female or female to male is very serious business.

An article in the prestigious European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry states, “Empirical evidence concerning the psychosocial health outcomes after puberty suppression and gender-affirming medical intervention of adolescents is scare.” This alone is justification for not giving puberty blockers. Realize too, that the hormones: growth hormone, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone are not approved by the FDA for use in transition. This is sobering.

The best response we should give to children who claim gender dysphoria is: wait.

Understand and empathize. Talk to the kids. Tell them why gender transition is not a treatment that should be done on children. If they still want to undergo the transition when they are 25, they will be the ones to decide. But teenagers are completely incapable of making such a life-changing decision. As adults, we must step in and stop such a serious process.

Meg Meeker, M.D., has spent more than thirty years practicing pediatric and adolescent medicine and counseling teens and parents. Dr. Meeker is a fellow of the National Advisory Board of the Medical Institute, an associate professor of medicine at Michigan State School of Human Medicine, and a best-selling author.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.