Sunday, June 04, 2017

A Kentucky Conn(artist), Childish Gambino's big tease and Stanley Cup stank breath


- The NHL postseason is a long, grueling grind with at-times questionable hygiene involved - scraggly, unruly playoff beards, anyone? - but rarely does a person’s stank breath factor into the equation. Apparently, bad breath is a topic of conversation in the Stanley Cup Finals between the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins, at least according to Nashville All-Star P.K. Subban. After Subban and fellow All-Star Sidney Crosby squared off as Subban approached the Penguins captain from behind and spoke to him at a close distance during a Game 3 that saw the two teams combine for 78 penalty minutes, including five game misconducts, Subban explained why he got in the Penguins star’s grille. "He told me my breath smelled, but I don't know," Subban said. "I used Listerine before the game. I thought my breath smelled great. So I don't know what he's talking about." The odds that Crosby simply made a crack about Subban’s breath would seem low, but sharing exactly what was said on the ice isn’t usually the way players operate, electing to leave the exact wording and context of someone’s remarks between the two of them. Maybe Crosby was upset with Subban’s mouth after the Predators beat the Penguins 5-1 to cut the defending champions' series lead to 2-1, given that prior to the contest, Subban boldly proclaimed that Nashville would win Game 3 at home. His team backed up his words and the two men will get more chances to settle their differences Monday night in Game 4, but Listerine alone may not be enough to solve this one……..


- Ignorant ass hats live everywhere. Give them time, access to social media and issues on which they can moronically speak out and they will reveal themselves, just like the former head of South Africa's main opposition party has done in earning potential suspension from party activities following tweets in which she said colonialism had some positive results. Espousing support for a practice in which a country takes over control of, occupies and economically exploits another nation is rarely a good idea, which means it should surprise no one that there was a massive uproar over Helen Zille's comments. The backlash underscored the challenges facing the Democratic Alliance, whose roots lie in white liberal opposition to apartheid decades ago. While the party has made strides and achieved large gains in local elections last year, the ruling African National Congress continues to downplay it as merely a representative of South Africa's white minority. Zille, who just happens to be white, is not really helping the party’s cause when she tweets that the colonial legacy was not only negative, citing "our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water etc." Given that South Africa held its first all-race elections after the end of white minority rule in 1994, race is kind of a sensitive issue for its people. Zille is now premier of the opposition-controlled Western Cape province, but her remarks damaged the party and undermined reconciliation efforts in South Africa, said Mmusi Maimane, a black who replaced Zille as party leader. "We live in a fragile democracy, which means our public representatives must, at all times, be sensitive to the legitimate anger that people still feel about our past and its legacy," Maimane said. As a result, party leaders have decreed that Zille should be "suspended from all party-related activities until such time as her disciplinary hearing is concluded," but she’s standing her ground and (stupidly) refusing to resign……..


- Nothing drums up interest in your next album quite like suggesting it will be your last. Donald Glover, a.k.a. rapper Childish Gambino, used his set at the Governor’s Ball in the United Kingdom to tease fans with the possibility that his next project will represent his exit from his career as a recording artist. Before performing ‘Baby Boy’ from his most recent album ‘Awaken, My Love!,’ Glover dedicated the track to his son, Legend, but also suggested that his most recent album could be the set-up for his career closer - whenever it would come. “I’ll see you for the last Gambino album,” he told the crowd. The proclamation shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given that Glover has previously expressed a desire to step away from his Childish Gambino persona and perhaps focus more on his acting, producing and other endeavors that could be more lucrative than being a rapper. Of course, all of this could merely be one man thinking out loud and bandying about one possible career move and weighing it out as the world listens, or it could be a savvy businessman who knows that keeping fans wondering and believing that they will never hear another album from him is a great way to sell more downloads of said album. Glover also wouldn’t be the first musician to claim that he’s retiring from the industry only to later double back and release more music, so placing too much weight on this not-really-a-proclamation proclamation isn't wise…….


- Representing the disabled doesn’t always mean a person is a good, decent human being who cares about those society so often dismisses or overlooks. Take as Exhibit A Kentucky disability attorney Eric Conn, a man who stole $600 million from the federal government and bribing a judge and then, after pleading guilty just a few months ago, violated the conditions of his bond by removing his electronic monitoring device late last week. It’s a shocking turn for a con artist who was ordered to pay back tens of millions of dollars and whose sentencing was scheduled for next month to go on the lam, prompting the U.S. District Court to issue a warrant for his arrest. David Habich, general counsel for the FBI’s Louisville office, said that Conn’s “whereabouts are currently unknown,” which is a bit alarming because this is a guy who clearly loves the spotlight. He started his practice in 1993 and has since built one of the most lucrative disability firms in the country, billing himself as “Mr. Social Security” and cranking out a series of over-the-top TV commercials in which he made outlandish promises. His illegal empire came tumbling down when federal investigators uncovered he had been bribing a doctor and a judge to approve disability claims based on fake medical evidence. Faced with a mountain of evidence, he struck a March plea deal in which he agreed to pay the federal government $5.7 million and to reimburse Social Security $46 million. Not only that, a federal judge ordered Conn to pay $12 million in damages and $19 million in penalties to the government and two former Social Security employees who tried to expose the scheme. One has to imagine that even as he agreed to that deal, Conn(artist) was already making plans for his great escape……..

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