Protesting Marco
Everybody already knows about Sen. Marco Rubio’s absence of affinity for the LGBTQ community, his general towing of the party line, his teeter-totter take on immigration and his (alleged) past of defrauding taxpayers via his party when he was in the Florida Legislature. Everybody also already knows that he ran for president this one time and he lost. He also was noticeably absent from many votes in his previous senatorial stint. It’s easy to get bored when your laundry list gets long, but Rubio remains a bit of a bore, regardless of any of those terms. Somebody shake him and wake him up!
On Jan. 9, dozens of protesters showed up to Rubio’s Tampa office for a bit of what-for and protesting, specifically protesting his potential vote for President-Elect Donald Trump’s bizarre appointment of Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson (It’s Rex Manning Day!) as Secretary of State. Tillerson, it turns out, is a big Russian ally, which we don’t really need to go into anymore because Russia is running the United States.
But because Rubio does sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he’ll be important to the weighing of the vote eggs in the oil-splattered tundra of what we’ve become.
“I [sic] tell you this: Rex Tillerson should not be appearing before a Senate committee to decide his confirmation as Secretary of State,” said activist Kent Bailey to Creative Loafing. “He should be before the Hague, defending himself against charges of crimes against humanity and crimes against the planet…He should not be going to the White House. He should be going to the big house.”
Walking small
In what can only be considered a small victory, the Tampa Bay area has dropped on the charts of most dangerous places for street safety. Two years ago, the metro region was all the way up at number two; this year, it slides to number seven. But they’re working on it, people. Hold on to your heels!
According to the Tampa Bay Times, both Tampa and St. Petersburg have plans in the works to increase safety in your walk down the runway. One of them includes the term “bulbouts,” but we don’t want to talk about it.
“We don’t like getting on these bad lists, but we know what we’re doing here and we think we’re making progress and going in the right direction,” said Jean Duncan, director of Tampa’s Transportation and Stormwater Services Department to the Times.
