- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Valparaiso,
Chile is the place and President Michelle Bachelet is the reason for
the rage as police and protestors are at each other’s throats after the long
arm of the law launched water cannons and tear gas to repel protesters trying
to get past a barrier as the president attempted to address her nation. Officers
squared off with marchers several blocks from the Congress building in the port
city of Valparaiso, about 66 miles northwest of Santiago. The protest started
calmly and likely would have stayed that way if not for a few innovators who
donned masks and boldly set barricades ablaze in the street. These masked
madmen also vandalized nearby businesses and as anyone knows, you can't start a
revolution by being meek and mild. Multiple arrests were made and it was an
awesome way to celebrate Naval Day, a holiday when presidents traditionally
speak to the nation. This year, the holiday just happened to fall at a time
when Chileans are increasingly fed up with politicians amid several scandals.
The real shocker here for a president whose approval rating is hovering around
30 percent isn't that these violent demonstrations took place, but rather than
there weren't more people rising up to smash and burn their own city in order
to make the point that they are unhappy with their government. Any gathering
that doesn’t include a few Molotov cocktails just isn't a real party, so credit
to those who stepped up to make this Naval Day a memorable one for all of
Chile. You all are good people………
- It’s like “Juno,” only in reverse and with its stars a few
years older. A new comedy film titled “Tallulah”
will reunite “Juno” stars Ellen Page and Allison Janney under the
leadership of Sian Heder, best known as the moment for penning four episodes of
“Orange Is The New Black.” Heder wrote
the script for “Tallulah” and will make her directorial debut with what
has been dubbed a dramatic comedy, with a plot that follows a woman who rescues
a baby from a reckless mother and proceeds to raise the child with her
ex-boyfriend's mother. “Juno,” of course, saw a teen mother played by Page give
her baby up for adoption because she knew she couldn’t raise it properly.
Janney played her stepmother in the movie and the duo also worked together in
the 2013 indie film “Touchy Feely.”
Their new joint venture is scheduled to begin shooting next month, with no
official release date yet set. "We believe in emotionally charged stories
with universal themes," said Russell Levine, CEO of Route One
Entertainment, the production company behind the film. "This project has
award-winning talent teamed up with a gifted young writer-director who wrote a
brilliant script. Ellen Page and Allison Janney will give this film the nuanced
comedic and dramatic strength it needs and we're thrilled to move this project
forward." This movie may or may not be Oscar-winning as “Juno” was, but
both are solid actresses who should lend both credibility and acting chops to
the movie even if its creator is a relative unknown……..
- Air travel is often stressful. It can drive even the most
patient person past their wits’ end and push folks to become a screaming rage
monster even their closest friends scarcely recognize. It can leave them with beings
bulging in their neck, devoid of any clothing and putting on an impromptu
nudist exhibition for hundreds of horrified strangers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport… as an example. Let’s
just say that a certain male traveler was one of the many people who have found
themselves in a pinch because their airline did something that should be
illegal and overbooked his flight. Set aside your indignation at airlines being
able to sell seats that don’t exit and simply be awed by the performance of a would-be
passenger who first turned his ire on a gate agent for not having a seat for
him on a US Airways flight to Jamaica and then turned his rage on his wardrobe,
deciding to get undressed right in the middle of the concourse. According to a
witness, the man still had his clothes on while he was yelling at the gate
agent. That changed some time in the moments after the confrontation as the man
began removing clothes and saying nothing as security agents arrived to
surround him. What ensued, weirdly, was not the man being arrested for any
number of crimes including but not limited to public indecency, but rather this
kook standing naked in the concourse for about an hour. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Police eventually took the man into custody and announced that he was taken by
emergency personnel for treatment of what was termed "a medical
issue" and will not face charges. Still, it’s something to think about the
next time you want to go to war with that person in the seat next to you over
custody of your shared arm rest………
- If another Sepp Blatter reign of terror is inevitable,
should the soccer world just sit back and enjoy it? That’s a trick question
because it doesn’t matter. The corrupt, tyrannical leader of soccer’s
international governing body is going to be re-elected because, well, soccer. It’s
a bit sad to watch fringe candidates who never had any chance of unseating
Blatter drop out of the race, just as Luis Figo did on Thursday, calling football's
governing body a dictatorship under Blatter. The Portugal great and former FIFA
world player of the year dropped out of the FIFA presidential election with a
statement in which he said he would not be a part of an electoral process that
is designed "for the delivery of absolute power to one man" --
indicating Blatter. Figo bowed out mere hours after another candidate, Dutch
football federation president Michael van Praag, did the same. The only sham
candidate left in the race is Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan and there is
no way Ali can buy off, er, win over enough voters to pull the upset of the
century. Unsurprisingly, Figo said during campaigning that he encountered
hypocrisy among federation presidents around the world, but wouldn’t name any
names. "I have seen with my own eyes federation presidents who, after one
day comparing FIFA leaders to the devil, then go on stage and compare those
same people with Jesus Christ,'' Figo said. He then landed a haymaker by saying
FIFA was "living under a dictatorship" with Blatter and had lost
credibility amid corruption scandals and accusations of nepotism leveled the
embattled leader. Rumors of Blatter-related improprieties are both abundant and
hard to confirm, but odds are that Figo is spitting truth here……..
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