Tuesday, April 04, 2017

South America's overflowing rage, Gnarls Barkley stopped by Trump and the new Summer of Gronk


- Sure, there’s a sh*tload of problems you can blame Donald Trump for creating, perpetuating and failing to solve for lack of common sense and having a soul, but this seems like piling on. Full-time producer and part-time member of the two-man musical outfit known as Gnarls Barkley Danger Mouse has addressed recent rumors that he and bandmate CeeLo Green were about to reunite, claiming that the reason their return as a group hasn’t happened is Trump’s election win late last year. As Danger Mouse tells it, both he and Green are amenable to a reunion, but they were supposed to get together on Nov. 8, only to have his world - and every other American’s world - fed a massive turd sandwich when Trump was elected president. “I’ll say this … CeeLo and I have always been in touch and we’ve always remained friends and still do and always have a creative desire,” Danger Mouse said. “That was a part of our lives that never really felt over and never really felt finished and he and I still do discuss it a lot. So that means there’s never not been a potential in my head, so it’s definitely a possibility.” That Nov. 8 meeting never happened because Danger Mouse ended up “drinking heavily on a couch by myself, staring at the TV,” which is yet another reminder that famous people are just like the rest of us - they’re f*cked with Trump as president, with the small exception that they can fly their private jet to Canada while the rest of us have to drive or fly coach. Two years ago, Green said that “the people need another Gnarls Barkley album and yet, he continues to pursue his solo career while Danger Mouse focuses on his production work. Maybe an anti-Trump album can bring these two men back together and God knows, there will be no shortage of famous musical faces happy to contribute their talents to the effort…….


- Damn, South America. Someone’s angry this year. There are riots in Paraguay over recent governmental decisions, Venezuela is trying valiantly to overthrow despot Nicolas Maduro and now, French Guiana wants in on the action. While the people may not be demanding a regime change immediately, protesters have rejected a 1 billion euro government aid offer as too small to resolve their deep, well-rooted fiscal and security problems. Protest spokesman Manuel Jean-Baptiste explained why the South American territory needs more than the paltry 1 billion euros currently on the table: because French Guiana needs a nice, round 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) instead. Given the territory’s name, it makes sense that the party on the other end of this negotiating line is France and in response to Jean-Baptiste’s lofty demand, French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called that figure "unrealistic." Even so, Cazeneuve held an emergency government meeting Monday in Paris to address the demands of protesters, who are enraged over high unemployment, crime and living costs - i.e. the same damn issues plaguing nearly every developing nation in the world. Not only that, these dreamers are also seeking money for better security, health care and infrastructure and to make their point, they’ve held strikes, protests and riots in recent weeks, in the process disrupting flights, business and even a planned rocket launch. A nice week-starting roadblock kicked off this week and proved that you can’t buy these people off with a meager 1 billion euros……..


- It isn't summer yet, but the Summer of Gronk has begun in earnest. That term applies to the epic, bro-tastic period of time between the end of each NFL season and the way-too-early start of preseason activities for the next one, a period during which New England Patriots tight end and lifelong frat boy Rob Gronkowski engages in the best chunks of the never-ending party that is his life. Whether it’s holding his own weeklong high seas kegger/cruise, hanging with porn stars or being the life of the party at his favorite club, Gronk enjoys the life we’d all love to have if we never had to worry about growing up. The first big moment of the SOG came Sunday night in Orlando, where Gronk played an active role in the WWE’s WrestleMania pay-per-view. He interfered in a match to help his real-life friend, WWE superstar Mojo Rawley, win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, delivering a nice, pre-planned shoulder block to another wrestler to assist his buddy. Less than 18 hours later and one long flight north, Gronk was on the field doing Gronk things as he, three New England Patriots teammates and team owner Robert Kraft helped the Boston Red Sox open their 2017 season. Quarterback and all-around-wonderful-American Tom Brady proudly displayed one of his stolen Super Bowl jerseys for the crowd, but the jersey that had just been found in Mexico was immediately thieved by Gronk, who hilariously ran from Brady before the quarterback tackled his tight end in shallow right field. Brady later threw out the ceremonial first pitch, but it was clearly Gronk who proved that he will once again live the f*ck out of the SOG………


- After all, isn't this why anyone gets into the legal profession in the first place? So that when - not if, but when because it happens to us all - you end up in a convoluted love triangle with a police detective and a fellow prosecutor in your office, you can use your position to establish and exploit an illegal wiretap to spy on the other two other people in your love triangle. Unfortunately, you not only need to be able to carry out that plan, but also get away with it if you don’t want to go to jail. Enter Tara Lenich, a former New York City prosecutor who pleaded guilty to charges she used that illegal wiretap after forging documents that allowed her to tap the phones of a police detective and another woman working as a prosecutor working in the Brooklyn district attorney's office. Lenich found herself on the other side of the courtroom and entered a guilty plea, admitting to forging those documents even though authorities haven't revealed the identities of her targets. Given that her crime is a white-collar one, she of course won't be staring down a scary amount of prison time, unless you realize that as a former prosecutor, spending even one day behind bars when that’s where you spent your career sending people is a very dicey proposition. Lenich, who was fired last year, faces up 14 months in prison under sentencing guidelines and as always, at least there’s a good, wholly defensible reason why a grown, college-educated adult flushed their life and career down the toilet and will now go through the remainder of her life with a criminal record and a dump truck full of regrets…….

No comments: