TGIF 5/27/22

Another week in the books, a week of sadness and darkness and pain and grief and anger and distrust and disbelief and a whole lot more.

Some expectations were not met - the most important ones - while others, the banal and least consequential, were met with flying colors.

Does this flip the concept of the good week / bad week lists? I'm not sure.

Here's an assemblage of expectations met:

• Kevin McCarthy suggesting he won't comply with the House January 6th Committee's subpoena, and demanding information from the Committee before he ultimately refuses to participate.

• Ted Cruz giving all the reasons why mass shootings happen; none of them have anything to do with the easy accessibility of what I called "guns that an evil bastard can use to kill a bunch of innocent people" or anything else having to do with guns, other than the guns people see used in video games and movies. Which, often are the same ones that are used in real life mass shootings, but hey, what do I know?

• Literally everyone who, immediately after the news broke of the school shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, who congratulated law enforcement 'heroes' who did their job and saved countless lives. Little did they know...

• Everyone who said that we need to re-implement the assault weapons ban, as if this shooting, in a state where the governor was embarrassed that residents weren't purchasing enough guns, in a state has no license/no training open carry, is the one that matters enough to get entrenched opponents of anything resembling a ban on any gun to swing over to the other side. 
• President Biden finally signing an Executive Order on police reform, knowing as he did so that it didn't go far enough, and correctly placing the blame on elected officials who refused to work together on legislation. The EO was announced on the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.

And, of expectations not met:

• Everyone at Robb Elementary School, who were mere days away from the end of the school year, and holding their awards ceremony, who thought that May 24th was going to be just another happy day.
• The teacher, who reportedly propped open the door not just once but twice - the door through which the shooter entered; surely, she did not expect that.
• The parents of the children who were killed, who had expected their children to come home on Tuesday, just like any other school day.
• Anyone in law enforcement, knowing what should have happened, and hearing what didn't happen, until it was oh so late, much too late. 
• Gov. Abbott, and everyone else in 'official' Texas, who were not given accurate or complete information about the shooting, and therefore provided false information to the families and the media.
• And pretty much everyone, everywhere, watching this nightmare unfold.

Hold these families close to your heart, and continue holding the families of the victims in the Buffalo Tops shooting close to your heart, too.

TGIF, everyone.