When you read this post, you’ll probably think I’ve gone off the deep end, or that I’m extremely cynical. You may say I’m a skeptic, maybe even paranoid. And some of you might suggest that I’m hawking a crazy conspiracy theory.

But consider this. So far there have been 12 pipe bombs delivered or mailed to some very high powered Democratic politicians, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Maxine Waters, and Eric Holder. Some of those bombs were sent to Trump critic and former CIA Director John Brennan, the liberal billionaire donor George Soros, and outspoken anti-Trump actor Robert De Niro.

The good news is that none of the pipe bombs detonated and no one has been injured. The FBI confirmed that these were “live” bombs (i.e., not fakes), but there are questions, based upon the way they were constructed, about whether or not they would actually function (i.e., detonate).

Now consider this. The stories of these attempted bombings have dominated the news over the past three days. The bombings have essentially pushed some other very disturbing stories off the news:

• The brutal, barbaric murder of Saudi journalist, Washington Post columnist, and permanent U.S. resident, Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey, which was likely sanctioned by Jared Kushner’s good buddy Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• While Congress is in recess, Mitch McConnell is pushing through young, very conservative judges to fill lifetime federal judgeship appointments without any hearings or input from Democratic senators.
• Trump insists on using his personal, unsecured iPhone (the one he tweets from and from which he talks to close confidants, including Fox News personalities) even after he’s been told that Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies are certainly listening in.
• GOP candidates are falsely claiming that only they will save the pre-existing conditions provisions from Obamacare even though they have consistently voted to kill Obamacare, including protections related to pre-existing conditions.
• Republican politicians in red states continue, less than two weeks before the midterm elections, to play all kinds of dirty tricks designed to suppress the votes of primarily minority voters. And in Texas, a number of voters who attempted to vote the straight Democratic ticket saw their votes for Senator going to Republican Ted Cruz.

So why am I bringing up these items that would otherwise be making headlines but aren’t because of these pipe bombs? Well, might it be possible that we are dealing with a real life “Wag the Dog” scenario? (If you’re not familiar with “Wag the Dog,” click here.)

Could Republican political operatives — with or without Trump’s knowledge — be behind these “bombs” in order to distract us from other, more important issues? Could these apparently poorly made and possibly incapable of detonating bombs merely be a way of diverting attention away from all of the other awful things that Donald Trump and his administration are doing just below the radar?

Yes, I know…I’m nuts. But is it any more inconceivable that Republican operatives are behind these bomb attempts than, for example, Trump’s claim that there are “unknown Middle Easterners” traveling with the group of Central American migrants moving north through Mexico toward the U.S.? Or Mike Pence’s statement that “It’s inconceivable there are not people of Middle Eastern descent” in the migrant caravan?

Seriously, as crazy as it sounds, nothing would surprise me anymore.