- Nobody does hollow, allegedly magnanimous gestures quite
like the NFL. A league whose profit margin is trending near 11 figures annually
and who metes out justice using a wholly arbitrary, self-serving and
blown-by-the-winds-of-popular-opinion standard can afford to toss out a few
gold coins that are actually made of cheap chocolate wrapped in tin foil in
order to placate the masses. For example, say you have a draconian policy of
blacking out games in a team’s home market unless fans of that team agree to
pay blackmail-esque sums of money to park and attend said games to the point
that every seat in the taxpayer-funded-whether-they-like-it-or-not stadium is
filled. You won't allow whichever network would normally televise the game to
do so if all of the tickets aren't bought by an artificial pregame deadline and
the idea is that you refuse to allow loyal fans to sit home and watch the game
on their giant flatscreen using whatever cable or satellite provider they pay
hundreds of dollar for a month and which chip off part of their wealth for the
right to carry NFL games. But what’s that on the horizon? Why, it’s NFL owners
– i.e. 32 rich, white old dudes – munificently voting to suspend the league's local TV blackout policy for the 2015 season. The
blackouts will be suspended for preseason and regular-season games, which is
especially good in the preseason, when no one – players included – gives a damn
who wins or loses. The league plans to evaluate the move after the season and
the hollowness of this gesture is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that there
were no local blackouts during the 2014 regular season and only two of them in
2013……….
- No amount of dissent, regardless of how small it may be,
will be tolerated in Russia. If you should doubt that for any reason – and ask
Ukraine if you do – then take a closer look at disputes involving Volkswagen and
Peugeot factories in the Communist hell hole. There, 15 members of a union
protesting proposed layoffs at a Volkswagen plant in the central Russian city Kaluga
were taken into custody by The Man, according to Dmitry Trudovoi of the MPRA
union. Trudovoi claimed that the 15 were detained while meeting at the union's
office and unjustly held for around two hours and questioned about union
activities by police from an "anti-extremism" unit. Yes, because
there is nothing more extreme than a bunch of Russian auto workers who are
probably drunk off their ass on account of not working and having both time and
reasons to indulge in some vodka chugging, so it’s best you break their will
before they break the law. Police spun the detainment another way, claiming
just 12 activists were held as part of an investigation into a theft near the
union office. A theft? Of what, a couple of Swingline staplers and some
metallic gold Sharpie markers? This clearly has nothing to do with the union
and its members at the Kaluga-based plant and a Peugeot and Citroen plant
nearby daring to stand up against proposed layoffs. Trudovoi smartly accused
the police of trying to disrupt his union's activities to prevent politically
embarrassing street protests, or as Vladimir Putin calls them, the next reason
to ship people off to the gulag……….
- If you hit a home run on your first swing, it’s time to
demand your chance to manage your own team, right Ed Sheeran? After scoring big
with the first new artist he discovered and decided to develop on his own, Sheeran has
inked a deal with Warner Music Group to create a label to launch new acts. His
first big signing was singer-songwriter Passenger,
who had a worldwide hit and eventual commercial jingle with “Let Her Go.” With
that kind of ammunition, Sheeran had the momentum he needed to launch his own
label. "I've set up my first record label, it's called Gingerbread
and [British singer-songwriter] Jamie Lawson is my first signing. I wanted
Australia to be the launch pad because Australia is a country that I feel would
really really dig Jamie." Sheeran said while on tour in Australia. "I'm
going to focus on this when I'm on tour next year. Hopefully the acts will be
up and running by the time I take time off." He admitted that the first
time he seriously considered the possibility of having his own label was when
he spent two years on tour with Passenger, a.k.a. Michael David Rosenberg, after which he
took Rosenberg’s album to his
own label and “they didn’t get it.” He didn’t pursue the idea any further, but
when Passenger became an indie rock hit around the globe, he thought again. “After
that, everyone was like, 'Maybe Ed does know what he's talking about,'” Sheeran
added. His plan for a label is predicated upon the idea that there are many
artists out there who are more talented than he is, but haven’t found the
chance to shine. With his own relentless touring schedule and social media,
Sheeran is confident he can put the names of those talented artists up in
lights where they belong and ensure that they get their big break. He
isn't the first recording artist to have this same thought and some of his
predecessors have actually been successful……….
- Any doubt that heroin is the devil in powder form should
now be erased. Drugs have long driven addicts to do irrational, illogical and
immoral things in the name of their next high, but rock bottom for any junkie
is reverting to the evil of human trafficking as a means for financing a
plastic baggie of the good stuff. That’s precisely what an Ohio woman did to earn herself an indictment on charges she
trafficked her 11-year-old daughter for heroin. Read that sentence again and
dry heave right where you are and then we can move on. All good? Then meet April
Corcoran, who has been indicted on 27 counts, including human trafficking,
endangering children and complicity. As Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters
tells is, Corcoran would take her daughter to Shandell Willingham in exchange
for drugs, then leave her with him and come back later. Maybe she thought
Willingham was helping her daughter with the child’s math homework or watching
reruns of “Hannah Montana” with her, right? Right? Because the alternative is
that this sick freak and drug degenerate knew Willingham was committing
statutory rape on her 11-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER and she was cool with it because it
meant she could get high. Willingham is headed for some legal hell as well and
has been indicted on 26 counts, including rape, gross sexual imposition and
human trafficking. What a job it’s going to be for Corcoran's attorney, James
Bogen, and the best he could do was saying he's gathering the facts of the
case. Deters says the girl is now staying with her father and stepmother as she
begins what will probably be years of counseling and attempting to heal from
the horrible mental and emotional scars that have been inflicted on her by the
woman who was supposed to love her more than anything else in the world………
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