- It’s been a hell of a week for Albania. There was the
revelation of (allegedly) amazing undersea artifacts the government believes
will help spur tourism, an impromptu protest in which opposition leaders helped
block traffic and were joined by citizens in helping demand that the current
regime get the hell out of the way and hold elections to elect a new (hopefully
legitimate) government and now, Albania's main opposition Democratic Party
leader is insisting that the rebellion will not stop any time soon. Lulzim
Basha led a protest of several thousand supporters in accusing the ruling
Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Edi Rama of trying to manipulate the
voting process and in the wake of those claims, Basha is vowing to keep leading
revolts until the government resigns and hands over power to a caretaker
cabinet to take the country to free and fair elections in June. No matter which
side you’re on, the one fact everyone seems to agree on is that parliamentary
elections scheduled for June 18 and for many, these elections carry high hopes
of paving the way for Albania to gain European Union approval to launch
membership negotiations. The governing coalition currently holding the
electoral process hostage claims that there is no time to meet the opposition's
demand for electronic voting, but in a post-communist nation whose elections
have never been described as either fully free or fair by international
observers, that might be the only way to inject even a modicum of fairness into
the process……..
- There’s always been a curious line between
on-court/field/track violence in sports and the legal world. That line got
sucker-punched in the face over the weekend by the Daniel Webster men's
basketball team, which now has not one, but two players charged with various
crimes following a fight during a game that required 25 officers to restore
order. The line of demarcation between a hard foul/physical play and a felony
was apparently crossed when Daniel Webster guard Marquise Caudill (allegedly)
assaulted a player from the opposing team following some hostilities in the
course of the game. When the fight broke out, at least one teammate had
Caudill’s back, as police claimed that Antwaun Boyd appeared to be inciting an
already hostile crowd that had surrounded an officer Caudill is accused of
threatening even though that officer was working a security detail at the game.
The chaotic scene was an embarrassment to both teams and universities involved,
but Southern Vermont College walked away with the win after Daniel Webster
forfeited the contest. The official score for the game will go down 2-0 in
favor of SVC, while the official score for the criminal portion of the contest
will be recoded as a 2-0 edge for Daniel Webster. Credit to all those, fans,
players and coaches alike, who turned this game into a major black eye for
their schools for at least getting people to talk about small-college
basketball for a few minutes………
- Don’t do that, Texas election officials. You might think
you’re doing the right thing by acknowledging that hundreds of people were able
to bypass voter ID laws and improperly cast ballots in the presidential
election, but you’re not. Yes, conceding that voters were able to sign a sworn
statement instead of showing ID and letting everyone know that chief election
officers in two of Texas' largest counties are considering whether to refer
cases to prosecutors for possible charges seems honorable, but what this
admission is going to do is give endless fuel to the fire of America’s
Circus-Peanut-In-Chief Donald Trump and his supporters who continue with their
asinine claims that he actually won the popular vote because 3 million people
voted illegally and apparently, he knows that all of them voted for Hilary
Clinton. Officials in other parts of Texas are willing to let these errors
slide due to widespread confusion among workers and voters., but the fact
remains that the law requires voters to show one of seven approved forms of
identification. Texas adopted the affidavit process after an appeals court ruled
that the voter ID law discriminated against minorities, but the change was
actually intended to help voters who could not obtain identification for a
variety of reasons related to health, transportation or scheduling issues.
There were roughly 13,500 affidavits submitted in Texas' largest counties and
among them, at least 500 instances in which voters were allowed to get around
the law by signing an affidavit and never showing a photo ID. Tarrant County
had at least two dozen and yet amazingly, Trump defeated Clinton by more than
800,000 votes statewide. These disputed ballots made no difference, so Texas
should have let them go and kept quiet……..
- Disney is chugging onward with its forthcoming live-action
remake of “The Lion King” and while last year’s “The Jungle Book,” which
featured the voices of Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in a
similar live-action remake was extremely disappointing on multiple fronts, the
studio is determined to keep on trotting out unoriginal content in the name os
making boatloads of cash without having to actually come up with new, fresh
ideas. Thus, Disney is remaking the classic 1994 animated film featuring Simba
and friends in a CGI-created, live-action adaptation of the tale. Donald Glover
has been cast in the role of Simba and will work with director Jon Favreau, who
also presided over the ill-fated “Jungle Book” remake, which should have earned
him a one-way ticket in the opposite direction from any future live-action
remake of a past Disney film. Glover, who is also a recording artist under the
Childish Gambino moniker, was confirmed for the lead role in a tweet by
Favreau, who might also want to enlist his new leading man’s musical talents if
he hopes to truly flesh out all aspects of this project and make it more of a
success than “Jungle Book” ever was. The rest of the cast is still taking
shape, but even if Favreau manages to enlist an A-lister for every single role
from Timon to Nala, it’s going to be difficult to do the original film the
justice it deserves……..
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