Monday was weird, for once. You could actually feel the opposing forces gathering their respective energies, diametrically opposed yet equally assured of the righteousness of their intent. It would almost be epic, were it not completely manufactured and needless.
Marco Rubio formally announced his intention to say whatever wealthy conservative donors want to hear in order to secure the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Guy's like a freakin' poorly designed dashboard bobble-head that only stops nodding when a progressive gets in the car.
The Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays to rack up their third straight victory. Fans inclined to use the word "streak" might want to remember that the average MLB team plays 7,429 games in the regular baseball season.
Longtime Tampa political activist Pat Kemp will run for the District 6 County Commission seat, joining transportation activist Brian Willis in the race for the seat being vacated by Kevin Beckner in 2016. It's a political fun-maker's nightmare: a scenario in which the subjects' snark-disarming earnestness wholly undoes the possibility of a punishing punchline. Good luck to all of them, dammit.
And finally, Lakeland Eye Clinic has agreed to settle the lawsuit brought against it by a former employee who claims she was fired after she began transitioning from male to female. To progressive folks, this may seem like an "obviously" moment, a small occurrence in a small town that's just a symbol of what's going to happen anyway, but it's big — one of the first couple of sex discrimination suits brought about by a trans person in which a company has publicly backed away, and as part of the settlement, the company will update its gender discrimination policy and its training programs. It may not go on the books as a judicial decision, but this is a huge, heart-swelling fucking win for everyone who thinks everyone else deserves to be happy. Softening up the beachhead, people.
