- The hammer has been dropped, although it’s probably wise
not to give Brazilian President Michel Temer too much credit for announcing
that there will be no amnesty for politicians who have taken illegal campaign
contributions. First, Temer’s announcement is a completely transparent attempt
to curry favor as he tries to quell growing discontent with his government.
Secondly, the president remains deeply unpopular with many Brazilians and is
now facing a growing political crisis amid allegations of misuse of power by he
and his administration. Still, he put on a good show with his announcement,
which he made flanked by the leaders of both houses of Congress. Temer tried to
puff out his chest and appear imposing as he declared that anti-corruption
measures before Congress will not let politicians off the hook who have hidden
or not declared campaign contributions. That won't do much to convince the many
Brazilians who are concerned the legislation to toughen prosecution of
corruption might actually offer amnesty to politicians who had previously
engaged in the practice. Anyone in Temer’s camp who believed that making this
proclamation would silence the doubters and give the president a bit of leeway with
the public was quickly dispossessed of that notion when opposition groups
reacted to the announcement by planning even more protests calling for the
president’s ouster. All in all, it’s simply another normal weekend in the
long-running saga of a fiscally struggling, leadership-poor country that certainly
doesn’t appear to have had its fortunes completely turned around by hosting
both the Olympics and the World Cup in the past three years………
- As usual, the members of one of rock and rolls most dysfunctional
bands are nowhere close to being on the same page, in the same book or even
near the same library. On one hand, you have portly frontman and rumored Donald
Trump inauguration muse Vince Neil suggesting that after Mötley Crüe completed
their final tour last year, there was a glimmer of hope for a new album from
the combustible rock outfit. “We’ve never said we were breaking up; we just
said we’re not touring anymore. We’re gonna be definitely making more music
together for different projects and stuff. But right now we’re really just
focused on doing these shows this year and finishing with a bang,” Neil said
earlier this year. That was clearly news to Nikki Sixx, who was asked about
Neil’s remarks and was adamant that there is no chance of a new Mötley Crüe
album. Of course, the same would have been said about touring when the band
announced their split in 2014 after Neil, Sixx, guitarist Mick Mars and drummer
Tommy Lee signed a “cessation of touring” agreement to ensure that none of the
band could try reviving the band’s name for future shows. “I’m still close with
Vince,” Sixx said when asked about the band’s status before insisting there was
no way a new album would happen. “I want to just leave it intact. I see no
reason. We couldn’t be creative as a band, so how the hell can we continue? But
I’m glad the way it finished — we did it all, we did what we said we were going
to do, and now I’m excited about the future.” The fact that all four members
are still alive and haven’t overdosed on anything at this point is a reason to
be excited, so maybe it’s the right call to leave all of this alone and move on………
- Stealing someone else’s life story and passing it off as
your own is always a d-bag move. Stealing the life story of a combat veteran’s
story of valor before using said story to scam the government out of a house
and benefits is a whole new level of classless and that’s precisely the charge
levied against a former Marine who is now facing 21 years in jail for his
crimes. At the center o the mayhem is Brandon Blackstone, who allegedly passed
himself off as Casey Owens, a Marine who lost both of his legs in 2004 when his
Humvee hit an anti-tank mine and then killed himself after a decade of pain and
fighting the Veterans Administration. “It took my breath away that someone
would do something like that,” said Owens’ sister Lezleigh Owens Kleibrink. Blackstone
recently pleaded guilty to defrauding the government and faces sentencing in
February. The tie between the two Marines is that Blackstone and Owens
were in the same unit in Iraq and Blackstone clearly followed his former war
co-worker’s story enough that he was able to acquire a picture of the mangled
Humvee involved in Owens’ accident and show it one of Owens’ Marine buddies who
witnessed the explosion. “The only thing I can figure out is that he convinced
himself,” Kleibrink said of the level of Blackstone’s deception. She and her
mother plan to attend the sentencing hearing and say that they want Owens’ old
Marines pals to know that his legacy is restored after Blackstone spent years
telling countless audiences how he earned a Purple Heart when his Humvee ran
over a land mine, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury. Based on that story
and other falsified evidence, the Veterans Administration paid him monthly
disability benefits and a charity bought him a house. Not bad for a
pathological liar who actually left Iraq with a case of appendicitis……….
- Maybe it’s time for Morehead State basketball coach Sean
Woods to stop following the lowly example of Donnie Tyndall. Woods came to
Morehead State in 2012, replacing Tyndall, and started acting with a level of
integrity and decency similar to the man he replaced. Tyndall moved on to Southern
Mississippi and then Tennessee and is currently coaching in basketball’s minor
league’s because the NCAA hit him with what amounts to a 10-year ban after the NCAA
Committee on Infractions said Tyndall "acted unethically and failed to
promote an atmosphere for compliance when he directed his staff to engage in
academic misconduct" at Southern Miss. Woods might not be accused of
academic misconduct, but he is under the microscope for some sort of misconduct
and has been suspended with pay, effective immediately, while Morehead State
investigates complaints it has received. "Resulting from complaints
received, the institution has begun an investigation involving the head
basketball coach. While we continue through the formal process, we believe it
is prudent to suspend the coach until the investigation is finished,"
Morehead State athletic director Brian Hutchinson said. Hutchinson added that
assistant coach Preston Spradlin will serve as head coach until the
investigation is completed, but said the school wouldn’t comment further until
that happens. Still, it doesn’t take too much information from the school to
have a good idea of what’s going on since in his first season at the school
back in 2012, Woods was suspended for a game for shoving a player and rumors of
a similarly violent culture have swirled around ever since. On the plus side,
Woods was 75-63 in his first four seasons and received a contract extension this
past offseason through the 2019-20 campaign, but getting there by (allegedly) being
either physically or verbally abusive with your players is probably not the
best way to bolster your job security…….
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