- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Serbia - at least part of it - is
enraged and not willing to accept the apparent presidential election victory of
Serbia's powerful Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. With fresh allegations by
the opposition of a rigged vote count to motivate them, thousands turned out to
protest the results, marking the seventh straight day that angry mobs have
taken to the streets to make sure the government knows that its apparent
election-fixing hasn’t gone unnoticed. As is so often the case, it was the
younger segment of the population that cared enough and had the energy to speak
out, just as they’ve done en masse every day since last Sunday's election, in
which Vucic polled 55 percent of the vote and avoided a runoff. The accusation
flung at the government are wide-ranging and diverse, including stifling the
voice of the media during the campaign, voter intimidation and bribes. It’s
fairly standard campaign fare/Election Rigging 101, largely propelled by Sasa
Jankovic, who was one of the other candidates in the race. Jankovic alleged
that ballots from 25 polling stations showed evidence of massive fraud in
Vucic's favor, but in a stunning plot twist, Vucic denied the allegation.
Perhaps confident that he could (allegedly) rig the election a second time, he
announced live on state TV that he'd told the state electoral commission to do
a recount from two voting stations. One has to wonder if those stations won't
be selectively picked because they just happen to be ones where he knows his
fraud and chicanery didn’t reach……
- There are few stories that are more NFL of the NFL than
this. On one side, an ass-puckered league, uptight about anything that’s not
über-buttoned up or has a whiff of fun and lightness to it and on the other, a
bunch of muscled-up pro athletes, jockeying for muscular superiority over their
peers wherever they can find it. It all centers on The Pro Football Arm
Wrestling Championship, which took place the past five days at the MGM Grand
casino in Las Vegas. The event featured more than 30 current and former
players, including Miami Dolphins
receiver Kenny Stills, San Francisco 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman, noted
workout fiend and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and retired
running back Marshawn Lynch, all of whom took part knowing that the event
wasn’t exactly a secret, as it is scheduled to be broadcast on CBS on May
27-28, with the championship round shown on June 3. It turns out that the
league didn’t have any idea the event was going on, as NFL spokesman Brian
McCarthy confirmed that the league office only learned of it after it had
already started. That means the players who tried to biceps their way to arm
wrestling glory could be in violation of the league's gambling policy and may
face fines, as all league personnel are prohibited from making promotional
appearances at casinos or other gambling-related establishments. The fact that
a chunk of the prize money from both the both individual and team competitions
will be donated to charities of the player's choice won't really do the
participants much good when it comes to avoiding the wrath of the league, but
that doesn’t mean the NFL shouldn’t try to remove the stick from up its ass and
let this one go………
- It’s nice to see an American leader inspire his country to
action. Some of those actions may be criminal, but inspiration is inspiration
whatever its form. Take a journey to Donald J. Trump State Park in Westchester
County, New York, where a local man has been arrested for an act of vandalism
at park named after the country’s current Jack-O-Lantern-in-Chief. Ronald
Atzmon of Carmel, N.Y., was charged with criminal mischief, a felony, and petty
larceny, a misdemeanor, in connection with the theft of a park entrance sign
bearing the name of the venue. Unfortunately for Atzmon, he committed a crime
in plain view of surveillance cameras because even though the park’s namesake
isn't too big on providing meaningful fiscal support for the country’s parks
system, this park had sufficient security coverage and that allowed New York
State Park Police to share images from surveillance cameras showing a man
inside a Ford Transit passenger van stealing the sign. The sad part of this
theft is that it was a repeat of a January incident that actually inspired
police to install the cameras and so it was that this time, the culprit was
tracked down. For those who don’t know, Trump Park consists of 436 acres of
undeveloped land in Westchester and another county, undeveloped largely because
Trump reportedly wanted to build a golf course but couldn’t secure permits from
government officials. In an “if I can't use it to make money, f*ck it, I’ll
give it away in a hollow gesture” display, Trump donated the land to the state
in 2006 with the oh, so predictable caveat that his name must be “prominently
displayed” at both entrances. Keep inspiring America to all kinds of
regrettable sh*t, D.T……
- And so it ends. Having gone from pop star whose success
far eclipsed her limited musical talent to profitable Vegas lounge act whose
success far eclipsed her limited musical talent, Britney Spears is set to end
her Las Vegas residency later this year. She’s spent more than over three years
performing her ‘Piece Of Me’ show at the Planet Hollywood venue, but her
manager says that this year will be the last one to see his client take the
stage at one of the many, many wildly overpriced entertainment and dining
venues in Vegas. We are done with this show, and our next move is undecided,”
Larry Rudolph said. What’s interesting is that, according to Rudolph, just
because the show’s run at Planet Hollywood is about to end, that doesn’t mean
the curtain is coming down on the entire operation. He noted that the show
could move to a new venue, either in Las Vegas or elsewhere, and joked that
Spears could do her thing “on the needle on top of the Stratosphere, and do the
bungee jump afterward. More than anything, this sounds like a straight-up
negotiating ploy on the part of the Spears camp. “Anything is possible. We have
made zero decisions. We expect a lot of interest from all parties. Britney
basically sells out every show, and she loves Las Vegas, she loves performing
in Vegas, and Vegas is a possibility going forward,” Rudolph said. Nothing
quite like rubbing elbows with Blue Man Group, Sigfried and Roy and their ilk
and getting a nice pay raise in the process……..
No comments:
Post a Comment