Watch The Skies

I find it difficult not to compare the way our world is spinning currently to the first act of a Michael Bay movie. About how many minutes away from discovering that all these airborne curiosities are giant robots from Cybertron?

And don't we know that our alien overlords have only been probing us, if you'll pardon the allusion, attempting to discover the limits of our defenses?

Of course the number of unidentified flying objects dispatched before the downing of the giant Chinese spy balloon might frighten us to know, but now that we have begun to shift our collective gaze to the heavens, we will probably start seeing spaceships on a weekly if not daily basis. 

Now there is a version of this story in which those oddly shaped, high-flying objects were put there by our own military. On command from a President who was looking to score points for his tough new extraterrestrial immigration plan, they are being blown up by a group of generals who have grown restless and trigger happy. It's a win-win. 

It does raise the age-old question of exactly what a UFO is. The Unidentified part is the point of debate. The fact that we as a nation are now given unprecedented access to information about what is happening where, no one is safe. Try as we might, our phones and remote cameras give us away in spite of our concerns for privacy. "They" are watching. 

Which brings me back around to Michael Bay, who was not responsible for the shenanigans in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his spirit certainly runs rampant through it. Those giant aircraft carriers in the sky? Those were instruments of the US government intelligence community, eventually commandeered by the double agents inside that organization and turned on our own people. 

It took a couple more movies for the aliens to arrive. 

The question for all of us to ponder is where we are in this cycle. Are we still in the corrupt governments phase, or have we pushed on through to the point where Michael Rennie will soon arrive with his indestructible Gort to settle our hash, once and for all. "It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you."

That last bit? Personal responsibility? That's going to be the tough part. It's so much easier blaming the Democrats.