Friday, December 02, 2016

Kid Cudi rises again, a leprechaun at large in Manhattan and MLB finally stops being stupid


- A stint in rehab and a wholly unprovoked and classless social media attack from Drake may have knocked him down, but Kid Cudi persists. The Cleveland rapper has announced the release date for his much-anticipated new album ‘Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin,” giving a firm timeline for his sixth studio album. The album was originally slated to drop back in September, but Kid Cudi delayed it and cited “sampel clearance issues,” which were further muddied a few days later when he checked himself into rehab after suffering from “depression and suicidal urges.” During that rehab stint, Drake insensitively trolled Cudi on social media, pulling from his rival’s lyrics and persona to craft a hateful message that was totally uncalled for. Despite that hate, Cudi left rehab last month and issued thanks to a few famous faces who didn’t act like giant ass hats during his time in therapy, namely Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and A$AP Rocky, before making his live return on stage with Williams and Travis Scott. With that return to the stage accomplished, he is ready to move forward with his next album, which will be released digitally on Dec. 16 and will drop in a physical form one week later on Dec. 23, just in time for Christmas. Here’s hoping the album has a late addition in the form of a dis track aimed at Drake so Cudi can finally fire back at a peer who seems to have forgotten what basic human decency is about…….


- Someone is a bit insecure about their economy and their country’s ability to compete with products from abroad, eh Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi? El-Sissi threw down an economic gauntlet this week when he announced, through government publications, a second increase of tariffs on hundreds of imported products. The president’s decree contains a long list of over 350 items including fruits, foods, perfumes, furniture, and others, all of which will be subject to an increase in customs duties of between 40 and 60 percent. Those increases would be bad enough, but they come on top of a previous increase earlier in the year on items the government generously - i.e. falsely - views as luxury items. Yes, because fruit and basic food staples are luxuries. Oh, and nothing is quite as luxurious as a simple piece of furniture, so you need to make sure people pay the price of they want to live such a lavish lifestyle as to have a chair to sit on or a table on which to place their books, plates or papers. This new piling-on against foreign products comes just  a month after the government floated its currency and raised fuel prices to qualify for a $12 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, which the government hopes will improve Egypt's economy after years of unrest. Forcing people to buy domestic items regardless of their quality compared to options from overseas by sending tariffs on imports soaring is always a solid idea too, eh el-Sissi? Maybe just refuse to accept imports at all and really stifle the competition…….


- After 14 seasons of stupidity, Major League Baseball is finally getting it right. MLB’s outright ass-hattery began after the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee, which memorably ended in a 7-7, 11-inning tie when both teams ran out of pitchers. Then-commissioner Bud Selig was booed in the stadium of the very team he once owned and quickly responded with the worst and most overreactive idea possible. The tie begat the "This Time It Counts" innovation, which mandated that the league that won the ASG would get home-field advantage in the World Series, which was moronic because a second baseman from a last-place team could get a game-winning hit off an anonymous middle reliever from a last-place team in the other league and earn home-field advantage despite neither of their teams ending up within 30 games of the playoffs. Meanwhile, teams such as last season’s world champion Chicago Cubs could finish the regular season with a league-best 103 wins only to miss out on home-field advantage to a World Series opponent such as the Cleveland Indians, who won nine fewer games. That meant Game 7 was played in Cleveland instead of at Wrigley Field, although the Cubs overcame that disadvantage and won anyhow. Now, as part of MLB's tentative new collective bargaining agreement, home field will now go to the pennant winner with the better regular-season record. There are other, lesser elements of the deal, such as the minimum stay on the disabled list being reduced from 15 days to 10 and the expansion of the season by five days, but the real story is that the ASG will have nothing to do with the World Series, nor will home field rotate between the National and American leagues, as it generally did up through 2002. Commissioner Rob Manfred and the players’ union got it right where Selig never did and baseball is better for it………


- Is there a leprechaun in Manhattan? When a tale of someone making off with a pot o’ gold in Midtown emerges, it’s a question worth asking and it continues to be as police persist in their search for a suspect who was seen on surveillance video stealing a bucket of gold flakes off an armored truck smack dab in the middle of New York City recently. The theft happened around 4:30 p.m. as the armored truck was parked on West 48th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Guards foolishly left the truck unattended for a short time and the opportunistic suspect jumped in and seized the day by seizing that pot of gold. “The helpers actually left the truck to do a pick up, and the one that was securing the vehicle from the rear stepped away,” said Det. Martin Pastor of the NYPD’s major case squad. According to the NYPD, the suspect first scoped out the truck, focusing on its open back door before grabbing an 86-pound, unmarked and sealed black metal bucket containing $1.6 million-worth of gold flakes and escaping east on West 438th Street toward Third Avenue, winding his way through the mass of people who clog the streets of Manhattan on a daily basis, with those around him not bothering to notice a man lugging a giant black pail because there are about 75 more interesting things going on along your average New York City street at any given moment. Eventually, carrying the heavy bucket wore the thief down and he can be seen on surveillance footage setting it down, picking it back up and loading it into a white Ford sedan he then drove away. The walk to the car took nearly an hour, while guards from the truck noticed the bucket’s absence after the driver returned to the truck and sat on another bucket in the rear. That was weeks ago and police are still trying to find the suspect, which isn’t exactly a reassuring fact for New York’s finest………

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