Praying + Preying: Roy Moore and Rian Rodriguez

I stopped watching the morning news a long time ago because it put me in a foul mood watching a lot of current events go down.  In fact, I got up one morning and started unhooking the bedroom television in a fit of rage.  I couldn't take it off the arm so I had to wait for Robby to do that and he did so quickly knowing I was fed up with the ridiculous noise squawking from the damn thing every morning.

I went for almost a year without a television in the bedroom.

When Hulu Live TV started, we got rid of cable finally (we had to get it again at the level where The Robinator could watch his games because he realized he didn't want to live without his beloved Ravens) but on the day "This Is Us" returned, we realized that Hulu Live TV didn't show NBC Live and there was a scramble to get a television up and running with an antennae where I could watch.

I drove that word train all around the track to basically say...we have a television in our bedroom again and I have been slowly adding morning news, ON OCCASION, back into my diet.

This morning was one of them.

I watched a segment of Roy Moore, Republican Senate candidate who molested 14 and 15 year old girls so much so that a local mall BANNED HIM FROM THE DAMN MALL FOR SEXUALLY HARASSING KIDS.  He was giving a speech in a Baptist church last night.  He was standing at the pulpit and out of his mouth came words like "protecting our conservative values" and "God wants..." blah, blah, blah...

Moore walked up to the pulpit with a bible in his hand.  He opened the bible and started speaking. He spoke of his soul being tried and the soul of the nation being tried.  He praised that dude in our White House and he called upon his work as "God's work."  He disparaged gays, etc.  He spoke to applause.  A church filled with applause.  The pastor of the church got up and said that it is ILLEGAL to interrupt a worship service and that hecklers would be turned over to the police who were waiting outside.  Moore leaned HEAVILY on the Christians in the church.  Christians he considers, JUST.LIKE.HIM.

To me, he represented evil.  Pure, sick evil.  Holding the bible.  Quoting scripture.  Standing at the pulpit of a Baptist church PRAYING. Knowing he'd PREYED upon those girls.

Oh.

That church is DIRTY for that.  Dirty, dirty, dirty.

The very next segment showed a nationwide manhunt, which started in Florida, for 27-year-old, Rian Rodriguez who appears to be traveling with 17-year-old Caitland Friscina.  There is footage of him in a pawn shop in NC and they think they are headed to Canada.  Authorities are asking Rodriguez to turn himself in and the pundits are expecting Rodriguez to be caught within the week.  

You know...cuz he's not running for Senate.

And his last name is Rodriguez.

He won't be invited to speak at the church house.

SIP:  They might shoot his azz...

Queue the music folks! "O'er the laaaaaaand of the freeeeeeeeeeee and the hoooooooome of the braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave!"

Work. Sex. Work. Sex.

Did you hear about the one where Weinstein finished off in a plant?  Dude...A PLANT.  

There was a lot of sick ish in these stories.

I've always had a good relationship with men.  I never really thought about it to figure out why...I just did. I grew up with 3 brothers and I was/am a tomboy so I've never had a problem communicating with them.

I've always had male friends and I mean friends for real and not a situation where someone was waiting on a romantic overture from the other.   Because of this, I've always been aware of "dude" language and, more importantly, "dude" body language.

I've never had a problem with being sexually harassed at work even though I've been tested.  

There was the time when a dude, much higher up the food chain, said he'd never been with a Black woman before but that he'd like to.  I looked him in the eye and said, "Well good luck with that."  We never spoke of it again.  There was the time when a colleague came a little too close to me in a copy room when he had a lot of room to move around.  He had a stupid grin on his face and I said, "Keep playing, here?" as only a Black woman with a crazy daddy could.

Cuz we all know that is a question that's not really a question.  It's more of a warning.

There was the time a client asked me if I wanted to grab a nightcap with him and I pretended I didn't hear him and there was the time the big boss told me to come up to his hotel room, on a work trip, with a stack of files and I gave them to the concierge to deliver them.  Just didn't feel right, you know?  Room, bed, man, woman...I'm good down here.

I've been around guys at work where they said some pretty inappropriate stuff but I never saw it as a big deal since I knew that guys were pigs and well...I can hold my own in a dozens conversation and I also know how to completely and unequivocally shut shit down.

All of this sexual harassment talk in the news has put the conversation on the highest volume possible and we can't do anything but listen and read.  And man...some of the stuff sounds super crazy.  Makes you wonder, did Weinstein start off by trying to sidle up and touch a co-worker in the copy room?  Did he just keep doing small things like that until he was in charge and able to press harder?  Or, did he not come in contact with someone who said to him, "Keep playing, here?" so he thought it was perfectly fine to get bolder and bolder?  Makes you wonder if I should have considered those encounters sexual harassment and reported them. 

Hmmmmmmm...

What if I was 23 and hadn't had a lot of male friends so I was able to peep game and my boss asked me if I wanted a massage?  Would I have let him massage my shoulders? My very powerful boss who could pave the way for me to do anything I wanted to do?  What if I let him and then he was at second base?  What next?  

And how would it feel to believe you had no options other than to deal with whatever dude dealt you?

What do YOU consider sexual harassment and have you ever encountered some version of it and not reported it?  If you shut it down...does it mean it didn't happen?  Are we enabling men's bad behavior and emboldening them by not taking the proper channels to report them?

Hurricane Maria victims NEED OUR HELP!

I've been reading to see how we can help and this article has a lot of really great suggestions:   How You Can Help Hurricane Victims in Puerto Rico 

I mean...it's a shame how this has happened.  They really missed the boat on this one and the more you read, the angrier you get.  

Hurricane Maria pushes Puerto Rico's struggling hospitals to crisis point

By the numbers: More than half of Puerto Rico still without drinking water

One Day in the Life of Battered Puerto Rico

And the latest...

President Trump dedicates golf trophy to hurricane victims, Puerto Rico

I mean...there are seriously just NO.WORDS for this level of incompetence that is currently our government.  They aren't by the people nor for the people.  Just...no.

Oh well, share that link.  I pretty much have nothing to say nice.

When Little Johnny Football Becomes a Thug

I don't keep up with college football so I wasn't aware of Johnny Manziel until he was big time in the spotlight.  He talked a lot of trash and The Robinator would frown whenever he was on the screen.  Then, he'd speak and The Robinator would curl his lip and say, "What a jerk."

I started paying more attention to Johnny after that, wondering if he was getting a bad rap.  He was spirited and passionate about his wins and losses.  His emotions would come into play and hey...when your adrenaline is at a high...your emotions might come across kinda jerky right?  But then...you calm the hell down and be better right?

His trademark "make money" dance wasn't a big deal to me because hey...they all come up with their own thingy right?  I mean...I love when Cam dabs on 'em.  LOL!

Since the beginning of his college football career, Manziel has been in and out of trouble.  Little stuff, in my opinion, that folks normally overcome once your parents and your Elders snatch your azz and shame you up at the church when Pastor asks how college is going and your mother tells him that you out there acting like you weren't raised right.  But...being the starting QB in a college town can be an ego boost that arrogance responds to differently.  His parents started speaking out and Little Johnny Football got worse.  

Big time partying?  CHECK.

Not fulfilling practice obligations?  CHECK.

Cutting the EN-TIRE fool?  CHECK.

Drinking excessively?  CHECK.

Rehab?  CHECK.

I have always been a firm believer of respect for your parents being the first level of having respect for authority so reading about his parents saying he probably won't live to see age 24 when the child is 23 made me go HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

Yesterday...new stuff popped off about to take Johnny on a journey.  Last night?  Little Johnny Football partied like a rockstar without a care in the world.

So...this morning I went into the ugly part of the internet to read what folks had to say.  The ugly party of the internet you ask?  Any place that allows anonymous comments.  I read a few dozen and was surprised that I didn't find much reference to Little Johnny Football being a thug.  Folks were praying for him to find his way back.  Some people were even calling his parents to task for not staying on top of him.  Basically, at 23 years old, in their eyes, he's just going through some things and he will show us all that he can still be the star QB in the NFL same as he was in college.

Little Johnny Football is getting a pass even as he is about to deal with these allegations of choking out his girlfriend.

I wonder what Cam thinks about that?

Angie Stone #CookieFluenced?

Yesterday news broke that Angie Stone's adult daughter, age 30, swung on her mama after her mama told her to clean her room and control her kids.

Angie picked up a metal stand and bust her in the mouth knocking her teeth out.  

SIP:  Was she wearing animal print at the time?

Thoughts?

Singer Angie Stone bashes daughter's teeth in fight

Dear Mo'Nique:

Have you been keeping up with Mo'Nique?  She says she was blackballed because she wouldn't play the game to campaign for the Oscars for "Precious."  Folks say she showed her behind...she says she put her family first.

I just read.

Now?  She's escalating her beef and saying Lee Daniels said this that and the other about people.

So...whatchall thinking?