Was it Hacked?

A brief but intense rain fell just now, while I was looking up "seam ripper" and "was it hacked" on Google. It pelted against the sides of the lookout for a few minutes, then stopped. Glad it didn't start until I had climbed up here -- it takes forever for my jacket to dry out if I hang it up wet in this tiny space.

Did you ever get the feeling that you were living in a work of fiction? That absurdly unlikely (or just absurd) things have happened that seem out of place anywhere but a cheap novel?

It gets particularly disturbing when the world seems to be acting out a work of fiction based on "real-world" events. For instance, the travails of the Uribe administration in Colombia seem like a roman a clef of Bill Clinton's Presidency, with everything exaggerated: instead of a slightly left of center Democrat, the President is a borderline socialist. Instead of a trumped-up impeachment, he faces a coup attempt.

Another interesting example: the Ukrainian election, where blatant election fraud has resulted in angry charges and counter-charges, ineffectual attempts by elder statesmen to calm things down, the Supreme Court stepping in and sinking to its navel in the muck, threats of secession by the regions most displeased by the whole mess . . . .

But Ukraine is a real country, and so is the USA. And there really were two elections, and there are two controversies. Really and truly.

If you type "was it hacked" (including quotation marks) into Google, you will get links to several interesting items. The first link, to an article published earlier this month in the Orlando Weekly, is particularly good: informative, well-researched and only just as shrill as the occasion demands.

So, was the election hacked? I don't know. Nobody knows, unless it would be the hypothetical traitors themselves. Wouldn't it be good to find out?