What Did You Expect?

To lighten the mood a bit, I've decided to take tidbits from the news and from social media and ask one of the most profound questions in all of history:  What did you expect?  These are morsels of truth that no one really likes to swallow but are as necessary for survival as oxygen; and we need to laugh at and with ourselves once in a while.  

Journalist Who Profiled Melania Trump Files Police Report After Getting Threats:  What did this journalist expect?  She pulls no punches in a story about the wife of a bombastic and incendiary POTUS candidate and she gets threats.  This should be under the "profound grasp of the obvious" file because there is no doubt she knew (Julia Ioffe) that it was inviting trouble.  You can't jump into a pit of vipers and then bitch about the fact that your dumb little butt got bit.  I'm not saying that threats are a good thing and neither am I justifying them.  I'm just saying that when you're in the media and you stir up some poop, you have to expect to get some poop on you yourself.  

Raising Taxes to Solve Revenue Problem:  Our legislature in Oklahoma as well as the Governor herself have considered that one way to solve the "problem" of an income crisis is to raise taxes on citizens, but to leave in place countless incentives for the richest among us.  For example, the Thunder organization is not required to pay payroll taxes on their massive payroll.  This benefits the multi-million dollar players and the millionaire owners, but doesn't do a damned thing for the average working Joe in Oklahoma.  Yes, I know that the Thunder has become a sacred cow in Oklahoma City, but the truth is what it is.  They receive a ridiculous incentive that they just don't need.  Yet, it is not just limited to the Thunder, but rather extends to the rich and famous in Oklahoma.  Instead, they are planning to raise taxes on cigarettes (again) because Medicaid needs the money and they want to toss some by way of the education infrastructure.  But what did we expect when we elected this particularly raw group of narcissists?  We knew that it was fame and fortune for them and for most of them in office, it's the best job they will ever have.  What did we expect, really?

American Ninja Warrior at the Capitol:  ANW is filming in Oklahoma and they are filming in the parking lot of the methane gas filled dome.  Seriously?  What did we expect?  It's the perfect location for horseplay such as that.

Axl Rose Singing for AC/DC:  The response has been tepid at best where the Guns-N-Roses front man heading up AC/DC is concerned and really, we shouldn't be surprised.  Live performances when Rose was in his prime were always a crap-shoot, and now that he is forced to sit on a throne because of a broken leg and screech out what we thought were AC/DC tunes, he sounds like a cat that needs to be put down with impunity.   

Hillary Targets Female Voters, Attacking Trump's Standing With Women:  Hillary has most meat-eating conservatives on the right chomping at the bit to see her in jail and most of the Hillary-haters are men so, it should not be a surprise at all when we see Hillary trying to cuddle up to the female voters in the attempt to make Trump look like a big meanie who hates girls.  Trump doesn't have the greatest family values record, to be sure, and admittedly, neither do I.  But there are a ton of Americans who have grown tired of the chest-thumping of the dominionists who want to run the country (and state) like a theocracy.  They want efficacy and a no-holds barred approach to problem solving; not a bunch of hand-wringing bed-wetters who are strong only on religious issues, but are sissies where issues of Constitutional import are concerned.  It was predicted that this would be the way she would steer her strategy.

These were just a few issues and problems that were just too funny not to mention and do so with a sense of humor.  We live in wickedly weird times, my friends and it's only going to get more strange.

Of course, these are just my not-so-humble opinions and I could be wrong.  But, no.  I'm not.

Gorilla

Posturing Over The Killing Of OBL

Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Green Party members, Hemp Party members and pretty much every member of every political party celebrated at least a little bit when the news broke that Osama Bin Laden (OBL) was a dead man.  But it didn't take long for the posturing to begin, of course.  In correspondence from Oklahoma GOP Chair Matt Pinnell, no mention is made of President Obama but rather a quote from former President George W. Bush:

"As President Bush said shortly after 9/11, "We will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory." Thank you to the men and women who have sacrificed their lives fighting the War on Terror. Al Qaeda is unfortunately not a hierarchy, but a network, and the fight should and must go on."

But not to be outdone, the Democratic operatives have been working hard to ensure that everyone in America knows that it was President Obama who made the call to go into Pakistan with our elite SEAL Team Six to eliminate OBL.

Democrats and Republicans alike have to be careful not to overplay their hands on this situation.  Radical Islam has already sworn "revenge," and the fight is hardly over.  If Democrats like MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell continues to push the issue that "Democrats are not soft on defense" and radical Islam attacks American interests, their incumbent candidate for President will find himself struggling to explain why those on the left have their own "Mission Accomplished" moment.  Watch his video compilation for yourself and determine whether or not he is over the top...

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Conversely, Republican commentators would do well in giving credit where credit is due - it was, in fact, President Obama who made the very tough decision after receiving actionable intelligence to go into a sovereign nation to extract OBL.  Not an easy decision to make at all, particularly when President George W. Bush had said previously that he wasn't "too concerned" about OBL and absolutely would not go into Pakistan, regardless of actionable intelligence or not.

The American people as a whole are glad that one of the world's worst terrorists has met his end and the rhetoric that has already hyped up serves no one except the over-inflated egos of commentators and party operatives who are already laying out their spreadsheets, determining how they will profit from this event.  The families of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are breathing a sigh of relief, experiencing a moment of clarity and thankful to our Armed Forces for popping the pimple on the ass of the world - namely, OBL.  They are thankful that while we know that terrorist scumbags will do their level best to seek revenge, the mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks is now fish food.

Tony Blair had an incredible statement on Piers Morgan's show wherein he said something to the effect that America is a beacon of freedom, a place where people of many religious backgrounds and ideologies can come together and co-exist in peace with one another - much like that in Britain.  He also warned everyone watching that the death of OBL could very well energize splinter groups of radical Islam and spur them on to action.