Things That Piss Me Off Tuesday - the WTF Florida, antitrust violations, resurrected Lewinsky, football bullies and gay actresses edition

Usually, I have a decent amount of things to mention in these TTPMOT posts. This week, there is an abundance....so much so that I have taken entire groups of things out to write separate stand alone posts about later on this week.

That much stuff.

Off we go.


Florida's Pro-Murder Assbackwardsness
On my mind more than any other news story this week, the sick and twisted most recent case of a murder of a child in Florida. The fact that most of the major news sites are running it is as the "loud music trial" is prejudicial and just flat wrong. There was a person killed, it was a murder trial, and the victim's name was Jordan Davis.

In the case, a drunk white man with a history of being a bigot pulls into a convenience store parking lot, gets offended that a car full of kids is playing loud "thug" music, somehow becomes afraid for his life even though none of them exits the vehicle, grabs his handgun (that he has a concealed permit for) and unloads 10 rounds into the car, 3 of them when the car was actually fleeing. Yes, he kept shooting after they tried to leave. None of them were armed.

Instead of alerting the authorities, he went back to his hotel room, poured a few more drinks, ordered pizza and took his dog for a walk. Since he has been in jail, the letters he's written to his daughters include things like, “This jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs.… This may sound a bit radical, but if more people would arm themselves and kill these fucking idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.”

What in the actual fuck????

He was tried for first degree murder of Jordan and also charged with attempted murder and shooting into a vehicle. The jury hung on the murder charge but convicted on everything else. Logically, I'm not wrapping my head around how he is guilty for shooting and not killing the other three guys in the car, but they couldn't agree he was guilty for shooting and killing the one person he actually killed. 

At least the jury hung and that charge can be retried. He faces up to 60 years as is for the convictions he already received. (That is quite literally the only positive thing I can say about the outcome.)

Florida's asinine "stand your ground" law needs repealed. Kids are dying. Paranoid people carrying weapons have been give carte blanche to commit murder. 

Whatever happened to antitrust laws?
Ahhh, America. The land of entepreneurship and capitalism in its infancy, now struggling to wade through huge multinational corporate control of more and more and more industries.

The latest one to be sullied by a patent lack of competition and total market dominance - cable. Not just cable, because cable isn't just cable anymore. They are the main providers of internet service and oh yeah by the way they are content providers too now.

This should bother you if it doesn't. I can promise you that.

Here's the thing, you guys.

We have antitrust laws for a reason. To encourage competition. To protect both consumers and the market from abuse of market share. To foster development and innovation.

Oh, but wait.

We don't need to be bothered with things like that anymore. Antitrust, schmantitrust. Chuck Schumer, Senate Democrat and member of the antitrust subcommittee supports the merger. Of course he does. Time Warner gave him more money than any other candidate the last time he ran in 2010 and his brother is in on the deal. 

We do elect them to do the bidding of huge corporations even if it hurts us and destroys competition, right???

She's baaaaaaack
The geniuses vying for the GOP spot on the presidential ticket have already pulled out all the stops in the campaign to destroy Hilary, but the most recent tactic even has Mitt Romney shaking his head. 

For serious. When Romney is all dude, you guys, that's not cool....maybe you should listen.

What could be so horribly bad that even he is defending Hilary?

Easy. Rand Paul has said that he's not above dragging out the Monica Lewinsky case to use against her in the election.

I wish I was kidding.

He's worse than a woman scorned bringing up the distant past, which oh yeah by the way, I'm fairly certain that Hilary had no part of. The affair was between Bill and Monica, not some bizarre Oval Office cigar laced three way.

AND EVEN IF IT WAS....why would that fucking matter? How many leaders of the GOP have cheated on their wives repeatedly? I don't think any of them have faced impeachment proceedings for it....

This is an old story that had nothing to do with Hilary, Rand. Get over yourself.

If you want to attack her, just talk about Benghazi 24/7. Oh wait....you already did that too.


Hi. My name is Rand Paul. I like to beat dead horses.

For the love.

Just a little racist bullying in the NFL, NBD
So, the case of Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito and the Miami Dolphins is over and done with, right? Just a little razzing by well-meaning teammates, right? This happens all the time, right? Martin was totally fine with it all, right?

This is what the NFL is all about, right?

No.

All the forced apologies and shrugged shoulders and shucks, it's not so bad interviews from a while back were bullshit.

In the past week, the actual effect the bullying has on Jonathan has come to light through messages to and from his parents that were released. The guy, clearly a sensitive soul to begin with, was being crushed by the taunts and racial epithets thrown at him, they were eating away at his self worth and making him question whether he belonged in the league at all.

He fell rapidly into depression.

The messages are heartbreaking to say the least. You can read them all here. 

This is what bullying does to people.

THIS IS WHAT BULLYING DOES TO PEOPLE.

THIS IS WHAT BULLYING DOES TO ADULTS.

Imagine being a 13 or 14 year old kid and living through what he did or an 8 or 9 year old kid, then being encouraged to act like it wasn't a big deal, like it was all fine, and smile for photo ops with the guys who were tormenting you.

There is no gay agenda
The "gay agenda" was invented by conservative Christians, not by the LGBT community. That should tell you everything you need to know about it.

It seems that the closer we get to achieving any semblance of equality in this nation, the more threatened people on the fringes are. As a fierce advocate for equality myself, this bothers me in some ways but amuses me in others.

It amuses me because it often appears like a bunch of toddlers throwing a fit because they aren't getting their way, so they start to get desperate and become willing to do anything that will get them attention.

Marriage equality, along with protection against discrimination, isn't a tool being used to manipulate society, much to the dismay of those who want to insist that it is. It is a basic and fundamental human rights issue. No more, no less.

There is no agenda. There is no recruiting going on. This is not contagious.

Not a single LGBT person I know honestly gives a shit whether a total stranger likes them or not, whether they approve of their life or not.

They just want to be seen as equal human beings in the eyes of the law with all the same rights and protections. They want to be insulated from discrimination and inequality.

You'll never be able to make me understand how a person can say that someone else being treated as an equal in the eyes of the law is a threat to their way of life.

You'll never be able to explain to me the inconsistency inherent in a person who simultaneously claims that their religious freedom is being infringed while they actively suppress the freedoms of others on the precise religious grounds they claim are being infringed. It's a logical fallacy.

Ellen Page, Michael Sam. Their coming out in the last weeks has been news because it is news and it will remain news for as long as homophobia exists. Until LGBT people no longer feel compelled to come out, until they no longer have to declare who they are to the world, until they are just accepted as equals, until they are seen as equals under the law, it will be news.

No agenda. Just a fight for fairness.