Hold onto your cosmic hats! We’re gonna do a down-and-dirty overview of three stories that made the news in recent days – the terrorist attack in Moscow on March 22nd that left more than 130 dead; the diminution of Donald Trump’s civil fraud bond on the 25th; and the catastrophic bridge collapse in Baltimore on the 26th. Each deserves a deeper dive, buy hey! I’m only human.
Let me say up front that I have seen neither of the summer blockbusters, “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer,” which combine in this article’s portmanteau title, nor do I intend to. That said, it simply isn’t possible to ignore them, or be unaware of their existence. “Barbie,” in particular, has been cross-publicized in a dizzying variety of promotional tie-ins to other products and services, everything from fast food to auto insurance. Watching commercials for the two weeks prior to its release was like living a Pepto Bismol fever dream.
Nevertheless, Barbenheimer is fast on its way to becoming a cultural phenomenon, and as such, worthy of celestial consideration. And the cosmos has been paying attention, no doubt.
Between Monday 22 October 2018 and Thursday the 25th, ten explosive devices were found or intercepted which had been sent to political opponents of Donald Trump. Small and poorly constructed, none of the pipe bombs detonated, but were live devices, not hoaxes. Return addresses on the packages falsely identified former DNC Chair and US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida as the sender. The first package was discovered at the home of billionaire investor and liberal activism funder George Soros on the Monday, kicking off a spate of potentially lethal mailings.
