Shit that Pissed me Off – 7/29

The Debate Rages Over Slaves who Built the White House

If you missed Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC, she basically dropped the mic. At which point, she picked it up and dropped it again.

She killed it so hard, not even many Republicans had bad things to say.  So they attacked the one thing that, you would think, no smart person would attack.

Obama pointed out that she lives in a house built by slaves.  Because, you know, the labor that built the white house was at least partially slave labor.  I mean Abigail Adams wrote about it. Fact checking what Obama said, it would seem that perhaps she could have said “partially built by slaves” to be more accurate.

Not that it should matter.  She is a black woman in America and when she points out that her home was at least partially built by slaves, it shouldn’t fucking matter what percentage was built by slaves.

The response should be “good point, Michelle.  As a white person, there is no way I could relate to how that feels.”

Instead, we are hearing that it wasn’t entirely built by slaves (so how many would be an OK number) and Bill O’Reilly told us the slaves were “well fed” (thanks for the good meal but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t sell my son).

O’Reilly definitely knows a lot about being well fed.

The fact this is a conversation should embarrass all of us.  The white house was at least partially built by slaves and when a black woman living in that house points it out, you should think about what that means instead of being a nit-picky racist asshole.

Because seriously, lecturing a black woman on slavery is pretty fucking racist, don’t you think?

14-Year-Old Girl Dies in India After her Rapist Attacks Her Again

So a teenager was raped and her attacker was caught.  Unfortunately, he was set free on bail and he attacked her again.  This time, he managed to kill her as well.  I suppose if he gets out on bail again, they will reason that it’s fine because he can’t attack her a third time.

The girl was from India’s lowest caste, the Dalit, and girls from that caste have traditionally been the most vulnerable to sexual assault.

I’m not going to rail on the caste system in India because I don’t understand it well enough.  My personal bias, though, is to think that calling someone “unclean” based on their parentage is just a little bit fucked up.

That societal problem aside, however, sexual assault is something the whole world just can’t figure out.  It’s amazing to me that our concern seems to be far more focused on making sure we don’t over punish rapists instead of how we create a society where people don’t get raped.

Sexual slavery is still a thing.  How is it that we aren’t all doing something to stop it?  How is it that every time we hear about the victimization of women we don’t all, as one, say “holy fuck we need to end this shit right now?”

Is it because not enough of them built the White House?

There’s a Whole Bunch of People Bitching About Flags at the DNC

We have some completely misleading art so it qualifies as this week’s meme that pissed me off!

Look at how many flags are behind Trump!  And the DNC features zero flags! What a bunch of unpatriotic assholes!

Note, however, that in both cases we are looking at gigantic video walls.  Video walls!

If the Democrats want to put some flags up there, they can.  And they did.  Just not when this picture was taken.

Apparently, however, both the DNC and RNC also had real flags on the podium.  It’s just that the RNC had a whole lot more of them.

That’s the narrative the Republican party has always wanted, though. They want Americans to believe that their party loves America and the Democrats only sort of like America.

Democrats want to burn the flag and Republicans want to be wrapped in one.  Preferably when it is not on fire.

It’s all a bullshit side show, though.  It is an argument about stage dressing when words and actions are what’s important.

The meme itself, though, is a total lie.  It picks specific moments from each convention and says “this is what the entire convention was like.”  It’s like choosing a shot of Sheriff Brody from Jaws and saying “what the fuck kind of shark movie doesn’t even have a shark in it?”

Tim Kaine Gets Mocked for Wearing a Lapel Pin Honoring his Marine Son

Speaking of giving a fuck about the American flag, Tim Kaine got mocked on twitter for wearing a lapel pin that wasn’t the American flag.  North Carolina Republicans said he was wearing a Honduran flag because, apparently, they don’t know what the Honduran flag looks like.

In fact, Kaine was wearing a blue star service pin worn by people whose families serve in the military.  They look like this:

But I can see why people would say the pin looks a lot like the Honduran flag because it looks like this:

Well yeah – I mean this is practically the same th…wait a minute.

I mean if they were going to pick a flag of a country that had a star on it, they should have gone for something more controversial.  There are stars on the Chinese flag and that flag, like the Honduran one, doesn’t look anything like a blue star service pin.

Clearly this means that he actually intended to wear a Chinese pin but put on a blue star service pin by accident! It makes sense!  We’ve all seen The Manchurian Candidate, right?

Come on, North Carolina Republicans!  You need to up your game!

And I know what you’re thinking “Hey Tim, you are just defending Tim Kaine because you are a liberal and he’s the Democratic VP nominee.”

To which I respond: No.  I’m defending him because he’s named Tim and we Tims have to stick together.

Hillary Clinton Picks Tim Kaine as her VP Nominee

But let’s get real about Kaine for a minute.  He seems like a nice guy.  He’s kinda centrist, which is pretty typical for a Democratic VP nominee.

And he’s a white dude.

Clinton got some bad advice here and I’m sad she took it.  Given the list of qualified candidates, could she not have chosen a black man or a hispanic woman or an Asian gay man (George Takei for the WIN)?  Kaine represents the most boring of her possible choices.

And I get that the one demographic that is overwhelmingly for Trump is white dudes.  Hillary needs to find some way to convince white dudes to vote for her in larger numbers.

Except I don’t think she does.  I think she needed to embrace the diversity of her own party and she missed that chance.

And I know I said we Tims need to stick together but then I read about this guy named Timothy Krajcir, who was a serial killer, and my argument kind of fell apart. That guy seems like a pretty sad excuse for a Tim.

And look, I don’t hate Kaine.  I just wish that a week that saw us finally nominate a woman for the office of President would have seen something a little more daring as the other half of the ticket.

Donald Trump is Pissed off About What Folks at the DNC Said About Him

There are so many reasons I think Trump is a disastrous choice for President but here is another one: He can’t take criticism.

In spite of the fact that the speakers at his convention spent a week hammering Hillary Clinton, Trump got flustered because speakers at the DNC were hammering on him.

I am shocked to learn there are people talking smack about the Republican nominee at the Democratic National Convention!

He told his faithful that they made him feel kind of bad and he would “hit” them if a governor friend of his hadn’t told him to stay focused on Clinton.  It’s all presented as kind of a joke except I don’t feel like it is.  I feel like Trump really took all this political rhetoric personally and he’s keeping a list.

Earlier this week, Trump “joked” that Russia ought to find more of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails.  His jokes make people think he’s folksy and honest. He was totally being sarcastic! Really, they reveal a guy who will use every means at his disposal to hurt people if he’s given the chance.

He is keeping score and he will use the office of the President to get even.  He won’t be the commander in chief.  He will be the bully in chief.

White Supremacist Gets His Tatoos Covered for his Trial

Look, I don’t know what to think about this one at all.

Brayzle Morgan, who is accused of theft and (in a different case) murder, has swastika tattoos on his face.  A panel of prospective jurors admitted that such tattoos might create bias against him in trial.

So a judge ordered that his tattoos be covered for his trial.

And I’m thinking OK, we need to make sure he has a fair trial.  We don’t want to put an innocent man in jail.

But if this guy who is almost certainly a thief and a murderer chose to put a swastika on his head where everyone could see it, isn’t that his problem?  I mean, there seems to be an issue when the character of the accused can simply be covered up by some makeup, doesn’t it?  He wanted people to know that he was this guy.

Until he’s on trial. Then he wants people to think he’s some other guy.

Personally, I wish the cosmetologist was a gay man because I’d have to think that would make a neo Nazi extremely unhappy.

And hey – this week’s short story is pretty nerdy.  If you don’t know a lot about classic D & D, it might not work for you.  If you do, however, I think it’s quite silly.  You might also think so.