Shit that Pissed me Off – 2/15/19

The Cleveland Browns Signed Kareem Hunt and Colin Kapaernick Still Doesn’t Have a Job

Hunt was kicked off his former team (the Chiefs) after video of Hunt assaulting a woman became public. They claimed they knew about the incident but that Hunt had “lied” about it to them.

So Hunt was out of Football. At least he might have been were he not so gosh darn talented.

I could point out that Colin Kapaernick is more talented than – well – just about every third string quarterback in the league, probably most of the second string ones and maybe even a few first string ones and he doesn’t have a job in the NFL. Because he didn’t hit a woman on camera. He kneeled during the National Anthem to call attention to systemic racism.

But Kareem Hunt deserves “another chance.”

I’m not even going to argue that he doesn’t deserve another chance. I don’t know. Maybe he really has figured his shit out and is going to make amends and be a decent guy.

Who doesn’t want to believe, right?

What I’m arguing is that a guy who punches women has an easier time getting a job in the NFL than a guy who kneels during the national anthem.

Moreover, the response to the Hunt allegations is muted. People are shocked but immediately say “we don’t really know enough to leap to judgement.” The response to Kapaernick isn’t muted at all. It is angry. Vocal. And filled with people who are telling him that they don’t give a fuck what he says until he says it the way they want to hear it (not that they plan on telling him what would make them listen).

The NFL is a business. And they know full well that in a game as violent as Professional Football, their audience has shown a willingness to accept players who are violent off the field. What they can’t accept is a player who peacefully points out institutional racism and – yes – violence.

Note: It was just announced that Kapaernick reached a settlement with the NFL in his collusion case that claimed the NFL colluded to keep him out of a job. Of course the terms are confidential so the NFL doesn’t need to actually admit to doing anything wrong…

Speaking of Kaepernick, A Colorado Store that Boycotted Nike Because of him is Closing

I guess this doesn’t really piss me off. The owner of a sporting good store decided that he wasn’t going to sell Nike products because he had an issue with someone silently protesting systemic racism.

Thing is, if a lot of your business is selling football jerseys and they are made by Nike, you might not have a business for much longer.

And look, that’s the way business works. The guy made a decision and he has to live with the results. Hell, his business actually seemed to be doing OK because of all the people who were shopping there because he took a stand against Kaepernick.

….see what I did there?

He talked about understanding that the murder of Trayvon was awful but…I mean…it’s the national anthem.

In the linked article, he talks about Kaepernick “trampling over the men” who gave him his right to free speech.

Yes – just men. Not women. Men.

But I digress.

The fact we are still having to talk about this is maddening. The National Anthem is not a stand-in for the military. So kneeling during the anthem does not disrespect the military unless you decide that is what it means.

And that’s not on Kaepernick. That’s on you. Because he’s been very clear about what he is doing and why.

So this dude is going out of business. Probably not only because he can’t sell NFL jerseys but because a lot of businesses in his mall are closing down and he is losing business to online stores.

But what’s going to happen as a result of this story? A whole bunch of people are going to buy out his inventory because they feel sorry for him. Even though he’s not going out of business because he took a stand.

He’s going out of business because people go out of business all the time.

Republicans in Tennessee are Trying to Repeal Same-Sex Marriage

This happens a lot in a lot of states. Always sponsored by Republicans. Republicans (of the evangelical Christian variety) really want to find a way to not have to follow any Supreme Court ruling they don’t like.

Since it happens all the time, I shouldn’t waste too many words on this particular bill, I suppose.

But the name of the act they are trying to pass is the “Natural Marriage Defense Act” which just makes me want to set their bill on fire and then use the bill that is on fire to start a fire that burns down their house.

Same-Sex marriage has been the law for a while now and yet we are still arguing about “defending” marriage? It’s as if “natural” marriage (fuck that terminology) has gone away. I’ve been to a lot of weddings since the Supreme Court ruling and even though I have a lot of friends in same-sex relationships, almost all of those weddings have not been between same-sex couples.

No lie – I found this picture on being used on a divorce lawyer’s website. They don’t even seem to be advertising to same sex couples! What the heck?

The institution of “normal” marriage (again I cry bullshit on that terminology) is fine! Society has not collapsed.

So the only reason to pass such laws is homophobia. Nothing else. There is no rock under which to hide. Not even a Bible-shaped rock.

Because marriage between opposite gender couples is not threatened by marriage between same-sex couples. It doesn’t need a defense. Really, they just would prefer that gay people go back to kissing behind closed doors like they used to.

Speaking of Being Threatened, We are Now in a State of Emergency

Our racist-in-chief really wants to build a wall. He’s shut down the government over it. That didn’t work.

So he figured out that if he declared a State of Emergency, he could release funds we keep saved for shit like helping people recover from hurricanes and floods. Now he says we have a state of Emergency because a whole bunch of (brown people) are crossing the border and bringing in drugs and murder and…I don’t know…bad music.

Now I did some digging to figure out if things are worse than ever before and, indeed, there are more large groups of people trying to cross the border.  Interestingly enough, these groups consist of a lot more families and children than before. They are trying to escape violence and are asking for asylum.

Now in other parts of the world, this constitutes a refugee crisis and we should be trying to help these people. $5.7 billion would probably do a lot to help with that. In fact, reading about issues at the border, it seems to me that the biggest problem is they don’t have enough resources to deal with all the families with kids who are requesting asylum.

Why aren’t we talking about that?

Hint: skin color.

Here in America, we don’t want those people because unemployment is so low there aren’t enough jobs for everyone. Wait…

Anyway, Trump claims there are a bunch of drugs coming in and a wall would stop that (it wouldn’t as the link above explains).

But look – do you want to stop the flow of illegal drugs into our country in a way that would actually increase national revenue and not require building a wall? It’s pretty simple.

Legalize drugs.*

*Yeah, a whole host of other problems get rolled into doing something like that but seriously – we need to start talking about radical solutions. Not declaring an emergency to build a wall fence.