Someone blew up an Ariana Grande concert.
That’s terrible, and it makes it abundantly clear that we’re not safe anywhere, if a teeny-bopper concert can be infiltrated by a bomber.
But that’s not the primary thing that has me feeling like we live in an alternate reality. The former head of the CIA said this:
“I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and US persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals. It raised questions in my mind about whether Russia was able to gain the cooperation of those individuals.”
Here’s a link.
Here’s John Oliver explaining– better than most news outlets– what is going on with Trump and Comey and the FBI and Russia.
I used to be a big fan of a JJ Abrams show called Fringe. The premise of Fringe was that a scientist, Walter Bishop, failed to save his son from dying young, so he developed a technology that allowed him to reach into a parallel universe and take the version of his son that lived there, essentially stealing a life from one world to give it to another.
On that show, the other universe– it was called the Red Universe– still had the twin towers and had developed a technology to fight instances of the singularity. MLK was on their $20. There were lots of other weird coincidences and changes that shaped the story. It’s a good show.
But I sort of wonder if we aren’t in the parallel universe now.
I can remember a time when small things were grounds for public outrage. I can remember when individual morality– over an intern and a sexual encounter– brought this country to a grinding halt.
Now we have a President who shares secrets to boast, who apparently can’t do math when suggesting a budget, and who very well may have conspired with the Russians to influence our election (and possibly fired the people who were onto him to protect his neck).
I won’t pretend to know the truth, and I won’t pretend to know better, but I will say that the internal sense of justice that I’ve mentioned numerous times on this blog– the flaw that I was once told would ruin my life and any chance I had at a career– screams out to me that everything that is happening right now in our government is wrong.
The fact that so many see it, but at the same time so few see it (or so few seem to care) really, really concerns me on a nearly genetic level. I can’t shake the sense that everything that is going wrong could easily be fixed if people would just say “hey, wait… what the fuck?”
I’ve been playing Injustice 2 to unwind the past week or so. in Injustice (the first one– the story continues here), Superman has become what Lex Luthor always feared. He kills those who disagree with him and presumes to know best what to do with the country/the world.
In the world of Injustice, Batman represents the last chance of compassion, democracy and wisdom in the face of Tyranny parading as justice.
I wish Bruce Wayne were here, in whatever universe this one is. I need him. He’s the hero this city needs.