"....Sexual Harrassment Is Like The Weather...Everybody Talks About It, But..."

There's nothing particularly funny about this whole Bill O'Reilly thing.

And yet...

As O'Reilly's Fox demise sucks a considerable amount of media oxygen out of the news cycle, it's been bantered about, more than once, that O'Reilly's early, for lack of a better, less cringe worthy word, championing of the Donald in the early days had a major impact, ergo, played a major role in scoring Trump the lease at 1600 Pennsylvania.

And Donald, of course, while deserving, in some eyes, of praise for his recently begotten title and the traditionally accompanying respect, is , as all of us know, but only some of us admit, a video captured, audio verified member-in-chief of the very same club where O'Reilly enjoyed membership, at least, of course, until this week.

The club doesn't haven't an official name but informed and well adjusted folks know that the prerequisites for membership are centered and/or essentially focused on pussy.

Either coveting it and/or its owner, ridiculing it and/or its owner, denigrating it and/or its owner or, of course, in some of the more notorious moments, grabbing it.

And/or its owner.

So, again, while there's nothing laugh out loud funny about what's happened to O'Reilly, the fact that he's been hoisted on the very petard that every classy decent person on the planet thought would skewer Trump's chances of getting within a country mile of the Oval, you just gotta see the humor.

And if not the humor, then, come on, step up, concede me the comedy tinged irony.

By the way, just so you know, I'm fully cognizant of the fact that a lot of people reading or listening to this piece might be a little put off at my lack of hesitation at using the unabridged, unedited, un-bleeped form of the word "pussy".

Well, hell, it didn't bother 60 plus million of you when you heard it come out of the mouth of the guy you elected commander-in-chief and chose to represent all Americans on the world stage, so, it's more than just a little ridiculous, not to mention hypocritical, that you've suffering from bunched panties hearing it from me.

So, due respect, grow up. Don't be such a pussy.

Meanwhile, at this writing, O'Reilly's show has been canceled, he is to be paid what is being reported as "tens of millions"of dollars in severance, the publisher of his best selling "Killing" series of historical novels is standing behind their profit making man and, thank you, Stephen Stills, when it comes to weighing in on the Fox News decision to spin Mr. No Spin right out of the old studio swivel seat, "battle lines are bein' drawn."

And it's that battle line drawing business that is doing a pretty articulate job of highlighting the issue within the issue that really deserves scrutiny, assessment and good old fashioned U.S.of A. back and forth banter.

Some might dare say, the real issue at hand in this genitalia generated controversy.

Kirsten Powers, a once upon a time Fox News regular and a current CNN contributor said, in an interview this week, that she and a fellow guest on the O'Reilly show, some years ago, were offended by O'Reilly's snarky and condescending on air reference to them as blondes. She went on to relate how she complained to management and demanded an apology that, naturally, never materialized.

The immediate problem with Powers testimony was that a 2014 op/ed piece from USA Today written by Powers surfaced, immediately, in which she went out of her way to defend O'Reilly from allegations that he was a sexist. The op/ed piece was titled, not so cryptically, "Bill O'Reilly Is Not A Sexist."

Crass opportunism and a clear intention of sucking up the guys signing the contributor paychecks around Fox notwithstanding, Power's current assertions are arguably not without merit, if only because she's not anywhere close to being a lone voice. She is, in fact, a member of a choir that is singing the same song and growing with each passing moment.

And in a country where the freely elected (term ever so loosely used) President of the United States can pivot positions with a speed that makes that old Tasmanian Devil from our Warner Brothers cartoon childhoods look like he's in stop frame slow mo, it's hardly cricket to castigate anyone else their freedom to flip flop. One imagines, actually, that USA Today will shortly be offering up an updated op/ed from Ms. Powers entitled, "Okay, I Was Just Sucking Up To The Paycheck Signers At Fox Last Time, But, Trust Me, This Time I'm Telling It Like It Is, Bill O'Reilly Really IS A Sexist."

Insinuations, allegations and outright accusations, of course, the grist for the mill of the main issue here.

Not to be confused with the real issue, here.

Bill O'Reilly, and Donald Trump, for that matter, might be the sleaziest couple of misogynist pond scum sucking losers to ever foul and soil a national platform. Or they might be a couple of sincerely misunderstood, falsely accused, patriot/choir boys that ever graced the nation with their sacrifice and unerring, unending contribution to truth, justice and the American way.

Wouldn't change a hair on the head of what's really at issue here.

Despite all the kumbayah, you've come a long way, baby, delusional wishful thinking being thinked by those who want and need to not believe it, America has always been, is now and will, for the foreseeable, be an blatantly rock solidly sexist nation.

From founding "fathers", no mention of mothers to the good old boys club to the nation's highest office held by a man who "came at em like a bitch" and reveled in the freedom to grab groins in just ten generations, give or take.

And while Fox News, read, "the Rupert Murdoch family" showed, at the very least, some seemingly laudable and, the case could be made, rare awareness of a high road by showing O'Reilly the door, a couple of things loom large amidst the dust raised by that door being thrown open.

First, there's that little matter of a whole lot of ka-ching accompanying that catch ya later. The aforementioned tens of millions of dollars that Bill will have to heal the hurt, the cash with which he can kiss the boo boo and make it all better. More than a few commenters have already zealously commented that the message being sent by the size of that golden parachute is only marginally subliminal, that it is, in fact, a clear signal that crime might not pay, but chauvinism, crassness and crudeness make the bucks flow like a bitch.

But even if you write off the cash that both O'Reilly and Fox will almost certainly write off, there's another little telltale that tells the tale of America's ongoing attitude when it comes to the fairer sex.

And for that telltale, we turn to that location to which we turn more and more often in these days of mass observation, opinion and unprecedented expertise, known by a designation that is becoming more and more bitterly ironic with each passing moment of every passing day.

"Social" media.

You can put aside your assorted articulate, professionally composed news reports, articles, observations and/or opinion/editorials.

You want the real deal, throb like a bitch American pulse where you can put your finger?

Two words, Benjamin.

Comment.

Threads.

I'll spare you the enlightening (or annoying, depending on what it says on your favorite cap) examples of what passes as conversational contribution in this era of a functional illiterate in the White House and a doorknob running the now hilariously oxymoronically titled Department of Education and just give you a quick bullet point "greatest hits" of the dumbed down dust being churned up by the prevailing winds.

• Bill O'Reilly is being railroaded by "the left" who are still pissed off that Donald put a whuppin on Hillary
• Kirsten Powers is either 1) a "snowflake" who needs to grow up and stop boo-hooing that "big, bad Bill" called her a blonde or 2) a hypocrite because of the aforementioned flip flop on her assessment of O'Reilly's way with the ladies
• Fox fired O'Reilly although he hasn't been officially "convicted" of anything and that's not how it's supposed to go in this great, red state Republic
• Women, in general, need to knock it off already with all this whining about how mistreated they are 
•  What Bill O'Reilly is no different that what Bill Clinton did

The list, like the embarrassment of living in this country these days, goes on.

Let's take each of those bullet points and fire a return shot.

• The moronic notion that anything is still happening at this point because Hillary lost the election six months ago aside, "the left' could railroad Bill O'Reilly all along the Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe and it wouldn't have mattered squat in terms of Fox, read the Murdochs, cutting him loose. The moron in charge of this notion lack the medulla to comprehend the simple logic truth that if "the left" could exert any control over Fox News at all, they would have found a way to put an end to Fox News a long time ago.
• Kirsten Powers' flip flop is undeniably a flip flop. Hi. Have we met? I'm Washington DC and flip flop is a skill you have to prove you have to get any kind of certification in this town. And for those Trump groupies who were waiting to pounce because they just knew I was going to pull one of those "it's okay Kirsten did it because Donald does it" double wrongs making a right thing, guess again. Not going there. Tomorrow I might talk about every single campaign pledge Trump has made that has been 180'd in the first 100 days. But not today. Consider yourselves neener neenered.
• That Fox didn't fire Bill because  he was convicted of something is irrelevant. They are a private company and they can fire who they want when they want if they are prepared to do battle with some who has a contract. Unless, of course, the battle is headed off at the pass by cooling the eliminated employee's temper to the tune of, say, "tens of millions of dollars."
• Only an idiot would say something like women need to stop speaking out about mistreatment. Well, okay, idiots and Ted Nugent. But I repeat myself.
• And as far as what Bill O did being no different than what Bill C did, here's a very complicated existentially philosophical question for the "yeah, what he did" advocates to take a pass at comprehending. How about that kind of behavior is simply unacceptable whenever and wherever it occurs no matter who behaves that way?

 The issue seemingly in the forefront of this soon to blow over storm is the fairness, or lack, of the termination of Bill O'Reilly's employment at Fox News.

The real issue is the misogyny, chauvinism and sexism that is as much an undeniable presence in America as the prejudice, intolerance and racism that is equally undeniable.

Until that issue is confronted, acknowledged and rectified, the actors playing the parts will change, the characters will remain and the show will continue its record breaking run on the American stage.

And every incident that rears yet another ugly head of sexual misconduct, be it a Roger Ailes or a Clarence Thomas, be it a Clinton or a Cosby will find the effort to deal with and, ideally, put a stop to repeat offenses thwarted by an atmosphere, an attitude, a mindset embedded so deeply into the American psyche that it generates hundreds of thousands of comments and posts and tweets that blame anything and everything except what is really to blame.

That America, in 2017, remains a blatantly rock solidly sexist nation.

Complete with that atmosphere, attitude and mind set that have been a part of this nation's DNA since the founding "fathers" took care of business while the "mothers" took care of getting dinner on the table.

Put simply, this mindset, that factors into every well intended determined effort to put a stop to behavior like that just cost O'Reilly his job, is nothing new.

It just never had a name before.

One suddenly occurs. One that is, in fact, now available because it's previous use has been made academic.

The O'Reilly Factor.