- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Morocco is a place where the
people’s voices are often stifled by its monarchial regime, but such was not
the case this week when enraged Moroccan demonstrators frustrated over
inequality and corruption gave a hearty middle finger by defying a police ban
by holding a protest in a northern city that has become a symbol of growing
public anger. As folks in El Hoceima raged against the machine despite a heavy
police presence, Moroccans from other cities and abroad expressed their support
on social networks for the protesters, whose Hirak protest movement has become
the biggest challenge to the kingdom since the Arab Spring in 2011. In a place
that’s a key U.S. ally known for its stability, any uprising is bound to
generate a lot of attention. Movement leader Nasser Zefzafi called for a
protest July 20 before his arrest last month following a dramatic manhunt and
knowing what was coming, authorities banned this demonstration for “administrative
reasons,” which isn't even typical government oppression bullsh*t - it’s just
lazy. Protesters are demanding government investment in the impoverished northern
Rif region, and in a nice bonus cause, they’re also clamoring for justice for a
fish vendor crushed by a garbage compactor. It’s a fun hodgepodge of reasons to
riot and should make for some interesting days ahead on Africa’s
northwestern-most nation…….
- He has one of the most distinct voices of any professional
athlete past or present and now, Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo is
aiming to make his the most important voice in the room for the Houston
Rockets. The 7-foot-2 former All-Star says he wants to get into NBA ownership
and is looking for partners to join a bid to buy the Rockets, one of the many
terms for whom he played during his 18-year NBA career. "I'm trying to convince some people about
trying to buy this team," Mutombo said. "It's one of the best
franchises right now. It's really the right time." Given that he may not
have the 10-figure net worth it typically takes to own an NBA team, Mutombo is
looking for partners who can "cut the check and they can make me be part
of it." This push was spurred by current Rockets owner Leslie Alexander’s
announcement that he would put the team up for sale after 24 years of
ownership. Mutombo admitted that he missed his chance when the Atlanta Hawks,
who retired his No. 55 in 2015, were sold that year to a group headed by
billionaire Antony Ressler. He balled in Houston from 2004 to 2009 and after
the team recently paired Chris Paul with franchise star James Harden in the
quest to overtake the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference, the
Rockets are enticing to plenty of potential buyers. With his extremely deep,
occasionally indecipherable voice and trademark style, Mutombo would certainly
stand out from most NBA owners and if he can bring a title back to Houston,
he’d be a hero in the city…….
- Nothing quite like lighting a Molotov cocktail of bigotry
and hate and chucking it without warning into what was supposed to be a
typical, bland forum about opportunities for youth in St. Petersburg, Fla. But
then again, when you’re longshot mayoral candidate Paul Congemi and you have
zero chance of winning and little chance of garnering much attention unless you
go full-on hate speech, you do sh*t like that. For the record, Congemi lashed
out at an opponent’s supporters, members of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, who
have backed Jesse Nevel as he has expressed support for its effort to create
reparations for slavery. “Mr. Nevel, you and your people, you talk about
reparations. The reparations that you talk about, Mr. Nevel, your people
already got your reparations,” Congemi said, pointing a finger at the audience.
“Your reparations came in the form of a man named Barack Obama. My advice to
you, if you don’t like it here in America, planes leave every hour from Tampa
airport. Go back to Africa. Go back to Africa. Go back.” It was so blatantly
xenophobic as to almost be comical, but the audience wasn’t laughing as one
woman yelled at Congemi to, “Get out of here!” In the wake of the immediate and
thoroughly predictable blowback to his remarks, Congemi tried to insist that
his words were meant only for Nevel’s supporters in the USM, not all
African-Americans, a spin job that isn’t doing much good for a candidate who
really isn't either…….
- When you’re a true artist, your work is never done. For a
rock star like U2 frontman Bono, that includes one of his band’s most iconic
tracks, ‘Where The Streets Have No Name,” which is three decades old yet back
at the forefront as the Irish rockers tour in celebration of the 30th
anniversary of ‘The Joshua Tree,” on which the song appears. Speaking about “Streets,”
Bono noted that he views the lyrics as unfinished. “Musically it’s great and the band deserve credit for that,
but lyrically it’s just a sketch and I was going to go back and write it out,”
he said. “Half of it is an invocation, where you say to a crowd of people ‘Do
you want to go to that place? That place of imagination, that place of soul? Do
you want to go there, ‘cause right now we can go there?’ To this day when I say
those words you get hairs on the back of your neck stand up because you’re
going to that place.” He revealed that producer Brian Eno gave him the words of
wisdom he needed to move forward with the lyrics when the song is released, but
sounds like a man who still wants a rewrite. “Brian said, ‘Incomplete thoughts
are generous because they allow the listener to finish them’,” Bono added. “As
a songwriter I have to realise that the greatest invitation is an invocation.”
He added: “‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ is not a great lyric. I just
wouldn’t have rhymed ‘hide’ with ‘inside.’” It’s your song, B., the rest of us
are simply singing along…….
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