I might be suspicious of pretty much everything anymore, but I wonder about the FlyDubai incident. The first thing that came to mind was Bibi had something to do with it.

A plumber (undercover security?) apprehends the assailant and employs knowledge gained from a TV show to pull the plane out of a dive? And there just happens to be a third capable pilot on board (actual airline policy?) who can land the plane safely?

I suppose this could be a genuine hero story, but the fact that my first inclination was to discount the whole thing says something about me, I guess. But it also says something about the times we’re living in—that not much of anything is as it appears or as someone reports it. I can’t just hear this story and take it at face value. There must be something more, something that takes the shine off.

Something we’re gonna learn down the road that changes it from a miraculous turn of events to some choreographed, politically motivated, and shockingly depraved plot.

Europe suffered through a blazing hot summer with wildfires galore, Arizona is keeping an eye on a stressed dam and residents are facing flooded highways and dwellings, the Outer Banks and other east coast spots are assessing damage after a massive, lingering nor’easter unleashed strong winds and dumped massive amounts of water.

I suppose it could all be coincidental. After all, droughts happen, heat happens, this is the season for tropical wind and rain, along with clashing warm and cold fronts at the change of seasons. But let’s leave some room for the likelihood that this collection of instances of excess is something more than coincidence, that there’s rhyme and reason to it.

Maybe the increased volatility and strength of some of these systems is indeed because the atmosphere continues to warm at an accelerated rate, as it has since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and more strikingly since the late 1950s.

In the long—or maybe not-so-long—run, we won’t be able to handle it. The water will keep getting deeper and reaching places it previously never reached. The heat will reach a point where crops won’t grow and there will be no place for us to hide.

The current administration is acting as if none of this is real. Donald Trump conveniently and ignorantly calls it all a hoax, as do other elected officials beholden to Exxon and BP and oil sheiks everywhere. We should be incensed by this purposeful neglect. Besides not deserving one more vote, maybe it’s just time to put our faith in the private sector and concerned citizens who know a problem when they see it and apply themselves to finding solutions. While they still can.

I realize there are no perfect people, and it supposedly takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round. I’m not enamored of that tired, maxed-out cliché anymore.

There are some people—Donald Trump, for example—who go out of their way to be worthless. To be the center of attention, to be the loudest voice in the room or in the media, but nothing more. That’s it. That’s all they can muster, all they’re good for.

I’m all for someone who can show restraint, who keeps whims and urges in check. Trump isn’t built that way. All that matters to him is that all eyes and mics are on him anywhere he goes. Imagine that.

No thought given to actually doing his job, no consideration for tending to the traditional responsibilities of the high office he’s been handed for an unfathomable second time. All he’s done is embarrassed us, rendered us a laughingstock among nations, and he’s viewed by many as a bloviating failure unfit for any supervisory role at any level.

He’s wasted 11 years of this country’s existence, indulging his anger and selfish tendencies, cozying up to the world’s top human rights violators and despots, and skewed visionaries here at home. His negligence and incompetence are the only truly legendary things about him, certainly not anything to be proud of.

Seventy-seven million people, many knowingly, voted for a horrid human being to speak for them, to maybe work on their behalf, and almost certainly to indulge their own fears and hatreds. Now, finally, maybe, they are beginning to regret their choice.

Is this the pattern we need to be aware of?

A week or two ago, the Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a supposed defeat when they ruled against him on the mail-in ballot question. But yesterday the court gave Trump a win by allowing him to use some sort of controversial voter verification system.

And the question becomes, “Was this the plan all along?” Throw the general public a bone, make it look a bit like they’re not in Trump’s back pocket, and then lower the boom a short time later?

The fact that we need to be suspicious of the Supreme Court is a sad and dangerous place to be. Yet this is what we’re in for leading up to November 3. I’m sure there’s more aiding and abetting, more sabotage to come. In fact, this latest ruling may come back to haunt us when the angst-ridden lead-up to 2028 commences on November 4, or shortly thereafter.

Trump will have to have a go at the midterm results first– you know, the usual litany about rigged elections and hoaxes and fake news and such.