Bombs away

This has been one of the craziest weeks, news-wise, in recent memory.  Typically, one story gets most of the press but this week we've had the Khashoggi murder, the Caravan, and now the bombs being sent to folks who oppose Trump.  What's an editor to do?  I won't say that there are echoes of Wag the Dog but the Mueller investigation has dropped out of the spotlight.

The bomb story is baffling; their shoddy and inept construction seem intentional, like they are designed not to blow up or cause any real damage.  There have been no explosions thus far and I wonder if the "bombs" are an elaborate prank designed to cause nothing more than confusion and misdirection.  On the other hand, they could also be part of a bigger plan to tie up valuable (and limited) resources while the real bombs are being deployed.

In an article about the bomb forensics the AP included this interesting bit of information:
The U.S. Postal Service operates a sophisticated imaging system that photographs the outside of each piece of mail processed across the country and can be used to determine the specific location of where it was sent.

This boggles the mind.  The Post Office photographs every piece of mail that passes through their system?  I wonder what they do with all that information, maybe they're comparing handwriting samples, you know, just in case.

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Some folks have been wondering why Trump has been so soft on the Saudis regarding the killing of the reporter, and The Intercept had an interesting take on it in one of their recent podcasts.  As politics make strange bedfellows, the Saudis and the Israelis are hell-bent on going to war with Iran and the US is their third partner.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend; until he's not.  And it's strange how after thousands of years the West is still fighting the Persian Empire, or what's left of it.

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Although I doubt that any second-hand smoke is wafting south from the Great White North it's funny that Uncle Ken mentions Canada and their recent cannabis legalization.  The South Koreans have warned the tens of thousands Korean students in Canada that they will be arrested, once they return to Korea, if they have smoked the wacky weed.  Even if they're not in Korea they must adhere to Korean law.  That's a pretty hard line, one I did not anticipate.  It's like if you took a trip to Vegas and got arrested for gambling when you returned home. 

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I'm not going to say that we are doomed and the world has gone to hell but we are now shitting plastic.  In deference to Uncle Ken's dislike for links I will only suggest a search for "plastic in poop" for those inclined to read more on the subject.  What a world we live in.