“Meddled?” “Rigged?”

There is a character in Steve Martin’s brilliantly funny new play, Meteor Shower, who suffers from “exploding head syndrome.”

I think I may suffer from a touch of it myself because there’s just so much to say (which accounts for this post’s being late) that I don’t know where to start — or how to keep it from being book length.

So let me just throw out some data points:

WheelTug followers: Here’s Jan Vana’s recent presentation from earlier this month at the Smart Airports conference in Munich.  Inch by inch, we approach the Promised Land (or so I hope) . . .

Tax cut followers: If you saw my post yesterday, you know my thoughts and saw me waving my arms around.  Now that we’ve seen the details, and heard Republicans saying no, it’s not a gift to billionheirs (etc.) . . . well, how could your head not explode?  It would be just nuts to pass this thing, or anything like it, adding to our deficit, robbing us of funds needed to revitalize our infrastructure, making inequality yet worse.  Nut, nuts, nuts.

DNC followers: I love Donna Brazile (and virtually all that Bernie stands for), but if you’ve been following the hoo-ha, please take a minute to read this: Primary Error: Donna Brazile Mixed Up Two Different Clinton-DNC Agreements.  It seems she made a really big error.  I’ve ordered the book and expect there will be much in it of interest. Donna is a spectacular human being.  But no, to my knowledge, the primary election was not “rigged.”  That’s just way too strong an assessment.

I tried to address this ages ago and may take another stab at it after I’ve read her book.  But for now, check out that link.

Meanwhile . . .

Civilized humans: Just as “rigged” is way — way — too strong a word for what went on in the 2016 Democratic primary (even if with hindsight some judgments could have been made better and more transparently and there were, for sure, some management weaknesses) so is “meddling” way — way — too weak a word to describe Russia’s involvement in the 2016 general election, as becomes ever more increasingly clear.

You don’t reach 126 million Facebook users and 288 million Twitter users without having an impact.  To say Trump would have won Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin without the massive Russian assault — remember, he won those states by less than one percent — strains credulity.

The Russians were expert at turning people off to Hillary, turning Bernie people against Hillary — are probably, as we speak, working to amplify the Donna controversy — and, I would guess (though it’s just a guess), played a role in Brexit and have been stoking passions in Catalonia and have been doing something weird with sound waves in Cuba, all to sow discord and division.

That Trump never refers to Russia’s ongoing war against us and our allies is reason enough to consider him a traitor to our democracy.

CNN watchers: Do you even have a TV?  If so, do you watch Fareed Zakaria without fail every Sunday morning?  It is so sober, professional, and informative and important.  Here’s the transcript from last week.  It begins with a quick assessment of the damage Trump has done to our standing in the world (“Countries like Australia, The Netherlands and Canada now all have a more favorable view of China than of the US. Many of the countries surveyed including Germany, Chile and Indonesia have greater confidence in the leadership of Xi than of Trump.”) Then quickly segues into a riveting six minutes with Bill Browder, whose lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, Putin had murdered, which ties back to the meeting in Trump Tower, where Russians were hoping to get the Magnitsky Act repealed.  Watch!

Have you seen Tom Steyer’s ad?  He calls for impeachment.  Sixty seconds.

Have a great weekend.  Don’t let your head explode. Spread the word.