- See, the United States isn't the only one still struggling
with how to smooth matters over with indigenous people its ancestors f*cked
over centuries ago. Chile is trying to do the same and President Michelle
Bachelet ramped up those efforts when she asked for forgiveness from Chile's
largest indigenous group for what she said were "errors and horrors"
committed by the Chilean state over the years. She also announced plans to
provide more resources to the Mapuche community, including financing for
infrastructure projects, and vowed to send a bill to Congress calling for
creation of a Cabinet ministry for Chile's indigenous peoples. "I want to
ask for forgiveness of the Mapuche people for the errors and horrors that have
been committed or tolerated by the state in our relationship with them,"
Bachelet said. "Since the beginning of our republic, the identity,
culture, territory and livelihood of the Mapuche were not safeguarded as they
should have.” In stating the blatantly obvious Bachelet noted that for more than
150 years, Chile's indigenous peoples have been scorned and discriminated
against. Given that Mapuche means "people of the land" in their
native Mapudungun tongue and these people resisted the Spanish conquest for 300
years, until military defeats in the late 19th century forced them into
Araucania, south of the Bio Bio river, they probably haven't gotten enough
respect. The fact that the government chased that forced migration with encouragement
for European immigrants to colonize the area and pushed the Mapuche into a
situation in which most of its 700,000 people are poor and often have no access
to education, an apology seems a bit light here. A few outlaw Mapuche have
occupied and burned forestry sites, farms, churches and lumber trucks to demand
the return of ancestral territories, so an apology from el presidente may not
soothe all lingering tensions……
- Seriously, EDM tweakers, can’t you guys just get along?
You guys beefing with one another is just a waste of time when there’s so much
quality Molly to ingest, so many glow sticks to wear and so many bounce houses
in which to romp. That means you, The Chainsmokers and Mickey Mouse on acid and
steroids deadmau5, as you senselessly continue your running feud because deadmau5
seems to feel threatened by Alex Pall and Drew Taggart’s recent run of success.
He’s taken numerous runs at the Coldplay-collaborating duo on social media and
his most recent run of tweets saw the masked one saying he is “100% convinced”
that the EDM duo are “shit.” But since a man who wears a giant mouse mask to
make a living doesn’t deserve to be taken too seriously, let’s call deadmau5 by
his real name, Joel Zimmerman. The Canadian DJ and producer took a protracted
run at Chainsmokers, making it clear his
rage is real. “sorry, i just made the terrible mistake of listening to a
chainsmokers song. at least the first 6 seconds of it. i was trying to do
something,” Zimmerman wrote. “I ALSO NEED TO LEARN HOW TO UNROLL A SUIT @thechainsmokers
i used to just say you were shit for fun. now im 100% convinced you’re shit. You
know what i did tho? for real. listened to the ‘top whatever songs’ just to see
if i was about to be blown away. nope. just dead inside.” Someone is very
lonely and bitter inside that giant rodent mask……..
- If a lifelong mob boss hits the century mark, is he still
a threat to society? The answer to that appears to be a firm no for John
“Sonny” Franzese, the United States federal prison’s oldest inmate, because he
ended his work week by getting released from the Federal Medical Center in
Devens, Mass. He’s been in and out of prison for decades, has a son who was one
of the only men ever to leave the mob and live to tell about it and after being
sentenced to eight years in prison in 2011 at age 93, he marked his 100th
birthday by rolling out of prison in a wheelchair. His most recent stint in the
clink came when he was convicted of extorting Manhattan strip clubs and a
pizzeria on Long Island and yes, you can still roll like a (mob) boss 90-plus
years into your life. Franzese was involved in a number of financial schemes
during his prime and Mafia history has home as a major spender and a regular at
the Copacabana nightclub, where he rolled with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis
Jr. and even had a financial stake in the classic porn film "Deep
Throat." He amassed much of his fortune through extortion and loan
sharking - oh, and law enforcement officials suspect Franzese has killed or
ordered the slaying of some 50 people. He’s largely the last of a fast-dying
breed, having lived a quiet life on Long Island, N.Y., with his family while
living a double life as a mob boss. That life derailed when he was convicted in
1967 of a bank robbery, sent to prison and paroled in the late 1970s. He
eventually rose to second in command of the Colombos, one of New York's five
Italian crime families, and despite seeing his son Michael walk away from the
same lucrative lifestyle he lived in the mob, the elder Franzese has never
managed to shake his mafia ways………
- Zero credit for stopping your racist behavior for a few
hours, Mexican soccer fans in Russia for your team’s Confederations Cup
appearance. Even though Mexico midfielder and captain Andres Guardado praised
El Tri fans in Russia for stopping their chanting of a phrase considered an
anti-gay slur by FIFA, but simply being silent as New Zealand's goalkeeper took
his goal kicks in Mexico’s 2-1 win deserves no praise. The chant made a
prominent appearance in Mexico’s first game of the tournament against Portugal,
but in the face of FIFA heat for their words, Mexico’s homophobic fans stepped
down. "It's good that they stopped
in the last game," Guardado said. "FIFA has made an effort to
identify people [who shout the chant] and I think they ejected a couple of
countrymen for the chant." FIFA did warn Mexican fans prior to the New
Zealand game, but didn’t confirm that two Mexico fans had been thrown out of
the stadium in Sochi during the Portugal game. A few non-bigoted Mexico fans
held up a banner outside the stadium before kickoff against New Zealand asking
their hatemongering peers to end the chant and distributed pamphlets with a
similar message, while Mexican federation general secretary Guillermo Cantu
added an official layer to the effort. "It was time to take a radical
measure so that they stop doing it," said Guardado. "We hope they do
the same at home and that people understand that it does help us a lot if they
stop shouting it." Again, zero credit for ceasing to spew hate when you
never should have done it at all………
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