Monday, October 24, 2016

Kanye v. Grammys, Venezuela v. its dictator and Browns v. healthy quarterbacks


- Cleveland hasn’t been a city known for its great jobs over the years. However, working in a city with a (allegedly) very corrupt police department where the river once caught on fire and where the terms Rust Belt and industrial decay have never felt more at home has never been more hazardous than when it pertains to attempting to quarterback the NFL’s lone remaining winless team in 2016. On Sunday, rookie quarterback Cody Kessler became the latest Cleveland Browns signal caller to end up in the hospital and fellow rookie Kevin Hogan took his place, becoming the team’s sixth starting quarterback on the season. Kessler suffered  a concussion with 7 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first half of Sunday's 31-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals and in came Hogan as lucky No. 6 to run the offense. He followed in the pain-medication-enabled footsteps of Robert Griffin III, Josh McCown, Terrelle Pryor, Charlie Whitehurst and Kessler and finished 12-of-24 for 100 yards and two interceptions in the Browns' loss, which kept Cleveland (0-7) winless this season. "These quarterbacks only have so many these hits in their body, you know? Pretty soon, guys don't get up all the time, and that's what's been happening. It's unfortunate. It's just been happening way too much," Browns coach Hue Jackson said. It’s hard to determine if having used as many starting quarterbacks as your team has losses is a bad thing or a terrible thing, but given that one of the quarterbacks the Browns managed to sniper was Charlie “Clipboard Jesus” Whitehurst, it really might take a miracle to turn this dumpster fire of a season around………


- Arizona law enforcement takes all kinds of suspects into custody, ones that hail from many different countries and speak different languages in committing all sorts of crimes. This past week brought an unusual suspect to that collection, as Arizona State Troopers sprung into action to corral a long-legged big bird wandering the highway. Officers were called into action after an emu was spotted on the Interstate 10 and ever the comedian, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Quentin Mehr hopped on the department’s Twitter feed to let the world know what was happening. "Wild day on I-10 west of Phoenix. Emu on the loose!!” Mehr tweeted. According to authorities, the animal crossed the median and onto the dirt shoulder of the roadway, helping calm the situation down rather than continuing its flight (#emuhumor) and evading police further. Eventually, a state agricultural official used a lasso to capture the bird and placed it into a transport trailer. "And the emu, and motorists are safe," Mehr tweeted. The bird may have been grounded, but it’s still a mystery how the emu got loose and onto a busy highway in the first place. "We do not know where the emu came from. I am unaware of any emu farm in that area and, I believe, the Phoenix Zoo is the nearest zoo," Mehr said of the incident. The real question is whether this was an illegal Mexican emu that could have been stopped if only Donald Trump’s massive border wall truly existed outside of his fragile, deluded little mind………


- Threat or promise, Kanye West? The egomaniacal rapper has said that he’ll boycott the Grammys if Frank Ocean‘s recent album isn’t nominated and while Ocean’s release is a quality one that should be strongly considered, the possibility of keeping an attention whore like West away from the Grammys is awfully enticing. He’s currently on his Saint Pablo tour and took time out of a recent performance in Oakland to comment on the Grammys. “The album I listen to the most this year is Frank Ocean’s album,” he said. “I’ll tell you this right now: If his album’s not nominated in no categories, I’m not showing up to the Grammys.” That could just be a guy who’s up on stage talking out his backside and doesn’t intend on following through on his words, but West did work with Ocean on the track “Wolves” and noted that he has worked with the singer previously. He also addressed Ocean’s reported falling out with Def Jam, which led to Ocean releasing a smokescreen visual album one day before he dropped the project he really wanted to release independently. “They get smacked in they face over political bullshit,” West said before encouraging the head of the Grammys to “come and holla at Ye.” Ocean recently gave his first interview in three years and hasn’t really done much to promote his album “Blonde” or its visual companion album “Endless,” creating an extra air of mystery around both releases as he moves forward from his critically acclaimed 2012 album “Channel Orange.” If Kanye has his way, Ocean will be speaking at length about his latest work when he accepts his Grammy in a few weeks…….


- And the battle heats up. Control of Venezuela hangs in the balance and after a court killed opposition lawmakers’ chances for staging a recall referendum to throw out unpopular President Nicolas Maduro this year, the legislature is swinging back. Opposition legislators gathered at a special session as pro-government militia members rallied outside the capitol building, with the legislature plotting ways to strike back at the court and the corrupt members of the government doing all they can to stifle dissent and keep the country’s increasingly unpopular dictator in power. Lawmaker Julio Borges said the opposition-held congress is now in open rebellion against a government it says has no respect for the constitution and in their not-so-secret meeting, the lawmakers debated a variety of measures to force a political change, including an effort to replace national elections officials and Supreme Court judges, and a move to take legal action against Maduro for what they call his disregard of constitutional order. They have plenty of international support in their quest, as the court’s controversial ruling drew condemnation from the U.S. State Department and the Organization of American States. None of that is going to pry power from Maduro’s cold, despotic hands, but the quest to oust a dictator and the hand-picked successor to the late dictator Hugo Chavez simply has to start somewhere……

No comments: