- As always, people will sell (and traffic) in whatever they
can make money selling. That means if you live in a godforsaken outpost of a
state like South Dakota, you may some day end up being indicted for illegally
trafficking eagles and other migratory birds after a two-year undercover
operation potentially involving hundreds of birds. Federal officials in South
Dakota, led by U.S. Attorney Randy Seiler, announced the arrests and claim that
they expect "significant" additional federal charges in the case,
which focused on trafficking of eagles and eagle parts such as feathers for
profit. There really aren't enough people out there willing to extend a massive
middle finger to the laws protecting these privileged birds, so it seems harsh
to prosecute those willing to fly in the face of convention, but such is life.
According to authorities, the case involves more than 100 eagles, a number that
could climb as high as 250 in what Seiler coldly described as essentially a
"chop-shop for eagles" in which eagle feathers were stuffed into
garbage bags, so clearly this was a sophisticated, high-end operation. Seiler
stated the obvious by noting that this was clear that it was a moneymaking
operation and that the feathers and other eagle parts such as talons and beaks
were treated as merchandise. "There was no cultural sensitivity. There was
no spirituality," Seiler said. "There was no tradition in the manner
in which these defendants handled these birds." Perhaps the best part of
this whole story is that three Rapid City men charged in the case are involved
with Buffalo Dreamers, which performs Native American dance programs, yet they’ve
flown in the face of so much of what Native Americans are supposed to be about
when it comes to land and nature……..
- At least they got the city right …. sort of. The
Chainsmokers are everyone’s favorite electro-pop outfit at the moment, teaming
up with Coldplay and showing up everywhere you can possibly cram a pop song
these days, but they may not stay at the top for long if they can't show proper
respect to the cities where they perform. Artists on tour who forget which city
they’re in on a given night is nothing new and some of the biggest names in
music history have made the error of saying how happy they are to be in a city
other than the one where they currently occupy a stage, but The Chainsmokers
fumbled the ball in a different way when they misspelled Pittsburgh in an
on-screen message thanking the city’s fans at the end of a recent gig. During
the encore, the band displayed a thank-you message to fans, a message that
read, ‘Thank You Pittsburg.’ Either the band had recently played a show in Pittsburg,
Kansas or they have someone on their crew who doesn’t know how to spell, but
after band member Andrew Taggart made it a point to talk about how great the
city had been to The Chainsmokers and shamelessly pandered to the crowd by
telling them that they were more enthusiastic than other cities in which the
band had played, the spelling faux paus was especially awkward. The duo
addressed the error after the show in a since-deleted tweet in which they
wrote, “lol totally putting our visual guy on blast for misspelling Pittsburgh
at the end.” The good or bad news is that there are still plenty of cities left
on the band’s current tour and the crew member tasked with putting those thank
you messages together will have a lot of chances to redeem or further embarrass
themselves…….
- Score one for….anti-censorship? In a bizarre twist,
Croatian police have intervened to protect the right of a controversial play
that contains scenes of nudity and rape to go on by preventing a group of
extreme nationalists from disrupting a performance of Oliver Frljic's "Our
violence and Your Violence,” which deals with Europe's refugee crisis and has
been denounced by the Catholic church and previously also by Muslims. The
play’s message had the ire up for about a dozen right-wing supporters toting a
hastily made banner reading "Satan, leave our city," as they chanted
extremist slogans and sang nationalist songs inside the theater in the coastal
town of Split before police pushed them out. Those who attend this particular
performance definitely had a theather experience to remember as the play was
further delayed by a bomb threat and all of this came after a few hundred
nationalists staged a protest outside the theater demanding that the
performance be canceled prior to the curtain going up. Predominantly Catholic
Croatia is a predictable backdrop for this drama to play out, as the church has
said the play is insulting for Christian believers. Of course, this drama plays
precisely into Frljic's hands, as his plays often stir controversy and spark
protest, drumming up a lot more interest than they would otherwise incite given
their overall quality and content. Score one for clever self-promotion by means
of inciting ass hats………
- Sounds like someone has gotten a wee bit oversensitive, eh
Major League Baseball? No one loves to get riled up about their secret code of
conduct quite like MLB, where there’s a “right way” to play the game that even
players themselves can’t fully explain - but they can damn sure tell you a code
violation when they see one. The league office has its standards too, which is
why Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano has been suspended for one game
and fined by MLB for what it deemed "aggressive actions" that caused
benches to clear during a game against the Detroit Tigers last weekend. No, not
for any actual fight, but because after Detroit's JaCoby Jones was hit in the
face by a pitch from Justin Haley in the third inning of the Tigers' 5-4
victory, it took the Tigers two innings to respond in the form of Detroit's
Matthew Boyd throwing behind Sano, who pointed his bat toward Boyd and yelled
out at the mound. From there, it was truly tame MLB rage of display as Tigers
catcher James McCann intervened and appeared to put his mitt in the face of
Sano, who responded immediately with a right hand to McCann's mask. That was
enough to net a one-game ban for Sano, although the players' association
appealed, allowing him to continue playing until the appeal is heard and
decided. Amazingly, all Boyd received was a fine after MLB concluded he intentionally
threw a pitch at Sano, with Twins general manager Thad Levine saying the organization will support Sano's decision
to appeal "by providing video and some commentary around the situation
that Major League Baseball may otherwise not have the benefit of." Sano is
adamant that in his mind he “didn't do anything wrong, so we'll see what
happens,” which probably means this will see some form of reduced punishment
and we’ll all move on and forget that either of these two teams exist because
neither has a shot in hell of winning a World Series title this season……..
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