- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! The temperature might be freezing in the middle of a long,
bitter and intolerable winter in Mongolia - “We’re more than just great
barbecue! - but that won't stop thousands of angry Mongolians from rising up
for the second time in recent weeks to demand that their inept government do
its job and address the growing issue of air pollution. The most recent protest
drew an estimated 7,000 people, many of them wearing air masks underneath thick
winter hats and creating some unintentionally comical visuals in what was
otherwise an angry and inspiring get together. Protestors rose up and spoke out
despite temperatures that fell below minus-4 Fahrenheit in the city's central
square as they toted black balloons and protest signs. Solving the pollution
problem is a big challenge anywhere in the world, but it’s doubly true in
Ulaanbaatar, which is one of the world's coldest capitals. Plagued by poverty
and in many ways defining what Third World living is all about, more than half
of the city's 1.3 million residents rely on burning raw coal, plastic, rubber
tires and other materials to stay warm and cook meals and life is even tougher
in impoverished neighborhoods that ring the city. There, residents live in
traditional round tents without heating, leaving them to burn polluting fuels.
Protestors want the government to come up with viable solutions to change these
subpar conditions while also keeping everyone from freezing to death, a task to
which the powers that be have not risen to this point……..
- Let
the spinoff parade continue. Marvel has announced the start of production on
its “Black Panther” spinoff, an offshoot of the Marvel universe that takes
place after the events of “Captain America: Civil War” and stars Chadwick
Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and Martin Freeman. The
studio posted a photo of a director’s chair with ‘Black Panther’ written across
it on its Instagram account, teasing a project that follows protagonist T’Challa
who, after the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” returns home to the
isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to assume the
throne as king. The problem, believe it or not, is that the story doesn’t go
smoothly and a mysterious conflict draws the king into some drama that puts the
fate of not only Wakanda, but the whole world at risk. As fanboys know, the
movie is based on the Marvel comic character who first appeared in Fantastic
Four, Vol. 1, Issue 52, published in 1966. Boseman played the role in “Captain
America: Civil War,” so fans have seen him in the role before and the film is
directed by “Creed” director Ryan Cooglar. It nicely continues Marvel’s ongoing
quest to give at least one standalone project to literally every character who
grabbed more than four seconds of screen time in “Civil War,” because clearly
this superhero gold mine has real estate left to be exploited and Marvel isn’t
about to let any of it go unexplored…….
- Law
enforcement officials around America are familiar with the problem: not enough
money and manpower to sufficiently police their communities. Everyone
approaches the quest for a bigger budget differently, but no one has taken
quite the tact that Angelina County (Texas) Sheriff Greg Sanches has taken to
convince county commissioners to accept his request for more manpower and
increased pay for existing employees. Sanches, a former amateur boxer, looked
to use his past to promote his present by posting two videos to his
department’s Facebook page, one showing him talking to an employee about the
pay situation as he is working out on a speed punching bag at the sheriff’s
office. He claims that he’s been waiting patiently for four years for his
request to be approved and in the commissioners court's meeting room, he’s been
forced to remain respectful. He didn’t have that issue in the first where one
of his department’s administrative assistants, Libby Parrish, asked him, “What
are you doing?” Her convincing acting set the sheriff up to deliver his message
in equally stilted fashion. “I’m kind of mad today,” Sanches said. “We had
commissioner’s court yesterday, and it didn’t go so good. It hasn’t gone good
for about four years. Our deputies are underpaid, and they’re putting their
lives on the line out there.” He goes on to lament low pay for good deputies and
concludes by letting everyone know that Angelina County Sheriff’s Office
deputies are going to train and try to be prepared for what they have to deal
with on a daily basis. The second video is more conventional and was shot in
front of the Angelina County Peace Officer’s Memorial in front of the downtown
courthouse, during which Sanches notes that the sheriff’s office hasn’t had any
kind of significant manpower increase since 1996. Unfortunately, he doesn’t
punch anything in the second clip………
- Two
good players on two teams that don’t matter this season in the NBA are engaging
in a social media feud that also does not matter. Meet Portland Trail Blazers
guard C.J. McCollum and Memphis Grizzlies forward Chandler Parsons, who are
both quality NBA players, but who play for teams that have no hope of winning a
championship this season. The social media scrap started during the Trail
Blazers' 112-109 victory in Portland when Trail Blazers' official account
trolled Parsons by posting a video of him shooting an air ball on a 3-point
attempt, sarcastically noting that the NBA 3-point line is a long way from the
basket. Rather than focus on the fact that his team lost the game and worry
about getting ready for the next one, Parsons fired back with a tweet in which
he wrote, “@trailblazers good luck in the lottery show this year.” Ah, a clever
reference to the fact that his team will probably make the playoffs and get
eliminated in the first round while Portland is on the outside looking in when
it comes to the postseason. That inspired McCollum, one of Portland’s best
players, to respond by telling Parsons that his team "hit the lottery by
not signing you." Smacking a guy who signed a four-year, $94.4 million
deal with the Grizzlies in July but has appeared in just 20 of Memphis' 48
games this season because of knee injuries is a surefire way to provoke a
response and so Parsons fired back, “@CJMcCollum stop it. Technically, I hit
the lottery.” Just imagine how good this beef would be if it were between
players for two great teams instead of the seventh- and ninth-best teams in the
Western Conference………
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