These are crazy times

Headlines from the past eighteen months which I would have had no reason to believe could have even be possible a few years ago and yet which were true.

Obama spies on Congress

Dianne Feinstein, former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has a Chinese spy as her chauffeur

Pakistani IT support group accused of theft, fraud, and espionage while providing services to House Democrats is sponsored and defended by former head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

Hilary Clinton sets up a home brew server to circumvent security and records protocols.

John Podesta falls victim to a routine pfishing hack, making public numerous embarrassing Democratic campaign emails.

Anthony Wiener keeps his wife's top secret emails on his laptop despite conviction for sexting a minor.

These are crazy times.

Surely there must be a Poe's Law equivalent for headlines.

Without a clear indicator of satire, it is impossible to create a headline so obviously exaggerated as to not be mistaken by some readers for a true report.

With all these outrageous and virtually inconceivable real-life headlines, is it any wonder the public might see the FBI/CIA/NSA's efforts to purchase tawdry fictional materials from international spies in order to warrant spying on members of a new administration as a mix of Keystone Cops incompetence with establishment interests trying to launch an off-the-books slow-moving procedural coup to reverse a free and fair election?

When everything seems possible, nothing remains impossible. We need to tighten the reality field and clean up deviances from the norm. We need to expect better from our establishments.