- When the soldiers go on strike, problems generally follow.
They’re the men and women who typically have the biggest, baddest and best
weapons, they’re endowed with the power to attack, defend or destroy at the
whim of their commander in chief and if they refuse to work, then your country
is up sh*t creek until they go back on the job. In other words, good lucky,
Ivory Coast, where authorities say soldiers have launched mutinies in three
cities across the West African country. The mayhem commenced in the
second-largest city, Bouake, where the soldiers began demanding higher pay.
Demanding higher pay apparently means squeezing off a few rounds to make your
point clear, as residents reported hearing intermittent gunfire beginning
around 1 a.m. In the wake of the chaos in Bouake, similar mutinies occurred in
Daloa and Korhogo and witnesses in Daloa reported seeing heavily armed men are
parading through town and security forces going AWOL from their posts, upset
that the government hasn’t capitulated to their demands for more money. Those
who pay attention to the goings on in impoverished West African nations may
recall that Bouake was the stronghold of the rebel-controlled north throughout
the country's civil war and given that many of those fighters have been
integrated into Ivory Coast's army and believe that not all the promises made
in a 2007 agreement have been implemented, it should surprise no one that these
work stoppages are happening now……..
- There are few more lucrative parts of the NFL’s corporate
empire than its byzantine fine system for players who have a little too much
fun celebrating their accomplishments on the field. While the money from such
“infractions” is channeled to charitable causes, the league still looks
overbearing and intolerant when it rips tens of thousands of dollars from
players for atrocities such as dunking the ball over the goal post following a
touchdown or dancing a bit too suggestively in the end zone following a score.
Few players have been hit harder in recent memory than Miami Dolphins wide
receiver Jarvis Landry, whose 8-yard touchdown catch in his team’s
regular-season finale helped the Dolphins slice into the New England Patriots'
sizable lead, though Miami went on to lose 35-14. His touchdown celebration really
rankled the militant rule enforcers at the league office, who fined Landry for
two separate unsportsmanlike conduct incidents on his touchdown celebration in
the second quarter -- $24,309 for grabbing his crotch and $24,309 for slamming
his helmet. Tally those fines up and the total of $48,618 makes it an extremely
costly trip to the end zone for a talented player who finished the regular
season with 94 receptions for 1,136 yards and four touchdowns. He’s going to
more than make that $48,618 back in the years ahead, as he’s one of the
league’s best young receivers, having totaled 288 receptions in his first three
seasons. If the league continues to crack down unnecessarily on players for
anything more than a polite high-five in the end zone after they score, the big
deal coming his way will be useful in staying on the right side of the
financial break-even point………
- The American roadway is supposed to be a level playing
field for anyone with enough money to own and operate a vehicle; a place where
the rules are the same for everyone, a path to get each person where he or she
needs to go safely and in relatively expedient fashion. Sure, there are a few
toll roads that states use to gouge motorists for extra cash, but even those
are supposed to be at a relatively affordable fixed rate…except for drivers in
northern Virginia, navigating the year’s first snowfall and trying to keep it
between the lines while also keeping their bank accounts out of the red. That
became a much tougher proposition for those presented with the option to drive
in the express lane during rush hour as long as they were willing and able to
fork over t $30 or more for the luxury. A photo emerged on social media showing
a $30 charge for a segment of the turnpike, though it was later reported that a
36-minute trip cost over $45. That number is bad enough, but the scary part is
that, according to a spokesman for the company that manages the express lanes,
there is no cap on how high the prices could fluctuate based on the real-time
traffic demand. According to Transurban, tolls can range from as low as $0.20
per mile during less busy times to as high as $1 a mile for in-demand segments
of the roadway during rush hour. Factors such as unusually heavy congestion,
traffic accident or lane closure could allow Transurban to price gouge further,
although the poor folk can always stick to the free sections of street and
instead spent their money on all of the extra gas they’ll expend trying to get
where they’re going………
- Fanboys, your future hope for another round of superhero
movies may be taking flight soon. Marvel is beginning the process of teasing
out a new comic book, presumably because at some point it will run out of
characters from existing comics to create feature films, spin-offs and
superhero team-up movies around. The new comic, believed to be titled Secret
Empire, had a teaser image of a possible cover - featuring Captain America’s
shield - teased by Marvel. That suggests it could be associated with the
current “Captain America: Steve Rogers” series, though the teaser image was
emblazoned with the tag line, “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.”
Fans of history as opposed to comic books will remember that President Abraham
Lincoln uttered those very words long before he became a movie vampire hunter,
and Marvel fans will recall that the same phrase was also a promotional tagline
used in Marvel’s 2016 Marvel Now! relaunch – “Divided We Stand.” Writer Steve
Englehart created “Secret Empire” when he was writing the Captain America and
the Falcon series and in his books, this organization was headed up by the
President of the United States. It was more suggested than stated outright in
the comics, but other Marvel comics of the same era referred to him as
President. This is the first of what will likely be a series of teases by
Marvel and the new Secret Empire comic book is expected to be released later
this year, after all of the hype has been allowed to build to a fully
sufficient crescendo………
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