I Have Some Opinions About Stuff

Holy smokes–a lot of stuff happened today.

Let’s start with the United States Navy. Apparently we lost the USS Carl Vinson and its battle group.  No kidding. Read about it by clicking here. The White House didn’t know where it was. Weird, because for several years I could see the Carl Vinson outside my window at home. Now, to be clear, I am sure the Navy knew where the vessels were. I am also sure the ships knew where they were. What is unclear is where the White House thought they were and where they really were. The whole things sounds like the plot to a James Bond movie. Tomorrow Never Dies comes to mind. Salon had the best take on it, calling it “Schrodinger’s U.S. aircraft carrier.’ 

What I am trying to figure out is whether or not it was purposeful. You know, did they actually never intend for it to go to North Korea, but it was a media disinformation bluff? I’d like to think so. I’d like to think so, until I think about it some more and decide no, I don’t want that because that is the kind of thing totalitarian regimes do. I decided that either way, this is not really a good story.

Starbucks has wowed the American non-coffee drinking public with yet another goofy drink. Apparently it is called the unicorn frappuccino. It looks like whipped Pepto Bismol. No thanks. I prefer coffee. However, I applaud the marketing folks at Starbucks. You’ve done a great job getting people who don’t like coffee to buy stuff from a coffee shop. Reminds me of some churches that are trying to get people who don’t want to go to church to enjoy church. Takes a lot of pink stuff, sugar, marketing, viral campaigns, and probably isn’t very good for you. But hey, it works.

People are making a big deal about a runoff election in Georgia. Apparently Democrats think it is a sign that people are tired of Trump or something. As I have stated often, I’m not POTUS’ biggest fan and have grave misgivings about both his character and abilities, but this is silly talk. The Georgia 6th Congressional District has no bearing whatsoever on national politics for 2018. The electorate–the people who vote in this country–have become firmly Republican. Republicans control all three branches of government, most state houses and most governors’ mansions. The only thing that will help the Dems is for them to alter their uber-progressive message and bring some young leadership in front of the country.

More military news–The United States scrambled military jets in response to Russian bombers in Alaskan airspace. I am pretty sure this kind of thing happens all the time. I mean, I saw Top Gun. The frightening part, to me anyway, is that we know about it. We shouldn’t know about this. Can anybody in the government keep a secret anymore? What worries me most about this one is that it is probably the most important news story of the day, but so many other ‘sensational’ things grabbed the headlines. 

Fox News finally did the right thing. They fired Bill O’Reilly. I don’t say that as a political move. Sometimes I agreed with the guy, especially early on. I even enjoyed his first book–the one he wrote before he started killing people in the titles. Nevertheless, he was clearly a womanizing abuser of power and privilege. He had to go, and that is no spin.

Another shooter. This time in Fresno, California. Apparently he shouted “Allah akbar” as he shot three people. Last week he killed someone else, for a total of four. he fired 16 rounds. Authorities are saying it was a racially motivated crime and not religious. I seriously doubt that. But that is not what my key opinion is here. The media and the police are calling this a ‘hate crime.’ Can I tell you how much I deplore that label.  Does it matter what his motive was? He killed four people, and tried to kill more. What matters I that he had a motive. If he’d been trying to steal money from them it wouldn’t have mattered. They would still be dead and he would still be guilty. The whole ‘hate crime’ motif is stupid and useless.