Last summer’s blockbuster slate was peppered with the usual uninspired dreck one can expect from the charnel houses of Hollywood, with the only bright spots being the nostalgia-fest “Top Gun: Maverick” and the latest social-horror from Jordan Peele, “Nope.”

The long-awaited sequel to the ’80s’ classic made it to the silver screen without the late Tony Scott or Don Simpson, but was nonetheless an inspired throwback that proved how starved audiences had become for some pure undistilled, unabashed, and unashamed blockbuster Americana. The other is about a giant white balloon-shaped thing in the sky swooping down to hoover up everything from horses to people if they look at it too long.

Peele’s film has been on my mind lately considering how many unidentified objects have been brought down from the sky over the last couple weeks. Through exploring the consequences of humankind’s insatiable desire to capture and observe the uncanny and the inexplicable, Peele showcases what is lost in the process and how hollow and ephemeral notoriety and spectacle really have become since the turn of the 21st.

Fortunately for that dude in Billings, Montana, who saw that first balloon with his naked eye, he didn’t have to get up close and personal to know there was something going on. Now the whole planet is paying much more attention to the sky, while the Politburos of Communist China and Washington, D.C., beclown themselves with a progressively dangerous game of “yes, and… .”

These balloons of unknown origin have been clandestinely capturing and observing God knows how much of the mainland United States for God knows how long. The massive balloon-shaped creature from “Nope” only attacked when observed, as though anyone could be expected to avert their eyes from a vision such as that. The balloons in our skies are obviously a spectacle all on their own, but serve a different purpose as a news narrative, and that’s mostly to distract us from everything happening on the ground.

That train derailment and the resulting vinyl chloride spill outside East Palestine, Ohio, is being described in historical terms that evoke the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, or at the very least has shades of the disastrously bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

If nothing else for many Minot residents it probably brings to mind the 2002 derailment of a Canadian Pacific freight train carrying ammonia gas that sent a noxious cloud of its own across the city. That particular derailment was the result of small fatigue cracks on the rails and joint bars that went unnoticed by the cursory visual inspection that were the standard at the time. All told the environmental cleanup costs and damages were estimated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to be around $10 million total, and a local ordinance was put in place to restrict the speed of trains passing through Minot.

Mayor Pete, our part-time Transportation Secretary and father of twins, has done the tried and true “blame the last guy” technique by alleging that Trump rolled back safety regulations that would have prevented the East Palestine disaster. The reality is the regulations in question were restricted solely to the transport of oil by rail, done in response to the unpopularity of pipelines in some parts of the country. The primacy that energy held for the Trump administration ran headlong into the clown world reality of the Green Lobby, and wouldn’t you know it the solution to the problem was offered by a rail industry deeply interested in undermining pipelines, but who has nothing for contempt for the notions of safety.

If Pete or anyone else ever bothered to check, the real culprit responsible for lessening restrictions that would’ve limited the speed of trains transporting materials like vinyl chloride, was actually 43rd President Barack Obama. While the NTSB did indeed recommend rules requiring better braking systems for cars carrying flammable and dangerous cargo such as in East Palestine, the Obama administration regulators sided with industry lobbyists instead, exempting around 75% of such railcars except for those moving oil and ethanol.

So yes, the Orange Man “rolled back” a rule that was effectively targeting only the energy industry, which also allowed the unsafe transport of God knows how many other chemicals over the years, including that fateful transport outside East Palestine. But that just begs the question, now that our friend Pete is in charge of such things, why haven’t he and his boss given redress to this grave wrong?

The East Palestine disaster comes just weeks after railroad workers were essentially strong armed by the Administration into a deal that didn’t include certain infrastructure updates or additional funding for more thorough safety checks. It’s also relevant to point out who owns the “Civil War” era infrastructure maintained by the track’s owner Norfolk Southern, which includes the likes of Black Rock, Vanguard and JP Morgan. For some reason this industry is able to supersede calls for reforms that would compel them to use some of their precious profits on things that might make their industry safer for everyone, not just their employees.

What’s even more surreal is that East Palestine served as the shooting location for the Netflix adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel “White Noise,” which satirically explored what happens to a community after a toxic train derailment and government quarantine. Unfortunately, any future cancer diagnoses won’t go away once Noah Baumbach says cut.

In the real world the authorities may have triggered an ecological and healthcare disaster by ignoring workers’ concerns and by inexplicably blowing up the hazardous contents and reducing the entire area into a No Man’s Land not seen since the trenches of Verdun. Now these same authorities are telling citizens their homes are safe and the water can be drunk without fear. And people wonder why the public is so skeptical of the government and the intentions of corporations.

All the more reason for Americans to have something else to look at and think about. Now with the Super Bowl has come and gone, it’s up to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to obfuscate by performing elaborate theater kid “magic hands” and shouting “ALIENS!” like a deranged Giorgio Tsoukalos.

Don’t think about why there are massive constructs floating in the sky, or why trains all over the country are crashing. Don’t ask why our Transportation Secretary seems more concerned with combating racism in the construction industry than administering a functioning mass transit system he’s in charge of. Don’t ask why our government can’t make a coherent statement on anything from the benign to the existential.

Just tune in for the next crazy thing that will demand our attention, but none of our concern, and definitely no action that any rational mind would expect. Just watch. That is all that is required of you. That and not changing the channel before the next ad block brought to you by Pfizer and Raytheon.