- All bands eventually go away – yes, even you, Rolling
Stones – and most of them don’t do so peacefully. Large or small, good or
awful, a band has a much better chance of imploding in a fiery ball of insane
ambitions, pompous creative aspirations, drugs, alcohol and money than it does
of riding off peacefully into the sonic sunset. Blink-182 took longer to get there than
most, but get there they have. Technically, the formerly great SoCal punk
outfit is still together, but their original lineup is dead on arrival after
some semantics and social media wrangling among the members. First, Blink-182
released a statement saying co-frontman Tom DeLonge had apparently left the
band “indefinitely.” DeLonge fired back on Instagram, angrily denying the
report. "To all the fans, I never quit the band," he wrote. "I
was actually on a phone call about a Blink-182 event for New York City when all
these weird press releases started coming in. Apparently those reports were
'sanctioned' from the band. Are we dysfunctional – yes. But, Christ. #Awkward.”
Quit or split, the reports turned out to be accurate when Mark Hoppus and
Travis Barker released a statement confirming their split from the "disrespectful
and ungrateful" DeLonge and saying he backed out of Blink-182's upcoming
commitments, including the recording of a new album and an upcoming festival
appearance at Barker's Musink Tattoo Convention and Music Festival. "We booked
January 5th to go into the studio. On December 30th, we get an e-mail from
Tom's manager saying that he has no interest in recording and that he wants to
do his other, non-musical stuff and that he's out indefinitely," Hoppus
said. Mix in all alleged email from DeLonge’s manager saying, “Tom. Is. Out,”
and you have your final answer………..
- Here’s hoping Venezuelan officials are
lying and doing what embarrassed governments always do when faced with an ugly
scandal that threatens to drastically undermine the legitimacy of their rule.
The scandal in question revolves around a juicy report linking the head of the
socialist South American country's parliament to the drug trade and even in a
drug-producing powerhouse like the House that Hugo Chavez built, the government
typically hates to be tied so directly to unsavory activities like peddling the
booger sugar. The details here are especially savory, with the chief bodyguard
of National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello having allegedly fled the
country with information implicating him in the aforementioned drug activity.
If Leamsy Salazar has fled to the United States and is preparing to testify
that his boss heads a drug cartel made up of political and military officials,
the this is just about the best news ever because Venezuela has a special blend
of hate for the U.S. that it brews up fresh on a daily basis. Being the place a
disgraced official flees to spill the beans on a government drug cartel would
be an epic plot twist even though U.S. officials have declined to confirm or
deny the report. Loyalist Congressman Pedro Carreno took to Twitter to fan the
flames on this drama, accusing the CIA of buying off Salazar. Cabello also
flexed his social media muscles, saying on Twitter that every attack only
strengthens his spirit and resolve. Grab a ringside seat, folks, because this
is getting hella-good in a hurry………
- As always, it’s good to be a billionaire who owns an NBA
franchise. Just ask Wesley Edens and Mark Lasry, who purchased the Milwaukee Bucks last year from ex-U.S.
Sen. Herb Kohl. The duo ponied up some $500 million to pry the team from Kohl’s
aging hands and with the promise that they would work to keep the Bucks in
Milwaukee. Given that both men possessed enough money to buy the team on their
own and the fact that league revenues are soaring more and more each year, the
notion that the Bucks needed a new arena and that anyone other than the owners
should foot the bill seemed ridiculous. Yes, the rich dudes who own teams never
actually have to pay for their new arenas, but they should. Of course that won't
happen with the Bucks, not after Gov. Scott Walker proposed a measure that
would see the state of Wisconsin build a new basketball arena for the with $220
million in bonds that would be funded by projected growth in income taxes from
NBA players. Walker, who earlier this week pissed off iconic Boston punk
rockers Dropkick Murphys by walking out on stage at an even to one of their
songs, said his "Pay Their Way" proposal would protect the state's
taxpayers keeping the team in Milwaukee. With the cost of a new arena in
downtown Milwaukee pegged at about $450 million to $500 million, Lasry and
Edens are offering to chip in a mere $150 million for the project. Kohl has
offered up $100 million of his own money to help replace the BMO Harris Bradley
Center, so this thing is rolling along quite well. Walker is pimping the hell
out of his plan, calling it “one of a kind” and basing it on the more than $6.5
million that's collected from taxes on the salaries of the Bucks and visiting
NBA players that would continue to go to the state's general fund. With rising
salaries and revenue from the NBA's TV contracts expected in the years ahead,
the arena would be paid for in a mere three decades…………
- Points for creativity. None for intelligence when it comes
to Marlow Holmes and his efforts to covertly transport a large
quantity of the Colombian nose candy. Holmes is now better known as a Delaware
drug suspect who was arrested during a traffic stop when officers found a heavy
dose of the sticky icky hidden inside his prosthetic leg. He can thank police
dogs for his apprehension, as the canines alerted officers to the presence of
narcotics inside the car Holmes had been riding in. For some odd reason, the
officers who made the stop were suspicious of the driver and his passenger and
sure enough, a search of the car turned up 28 grams of cocaine in a place other
than under the seat, inside a hollowed-out seat, in the glove compartment or
under the floor mats. A suspicious man might wonder if the driver selected
Holmes as his passenger specifically because he was rocking a fake leg with
plenty of storage space inside, but drug dealers and their friends never stoop
that low or use people in such a way to further their criminal enterprises. Holmes
is now staring down charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine and
possession of drug paraphernalia and while police did confiscate his valuable
intra-body cargo, they did return his leg so he could have more than one leg to
stand on when he attempted to defend himself in court……..
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