Wednesday Reads: Mambo Italiano Muthafukkerz…
Posted: February 12, 2014 Filed under: Congress, Crime, Environmental Protection, FBI, Federal Budget and Budget deficit, Foreign Affairs, History, House of Representatives, Italy, Main Stream Media, morning reads, nature, Political and Editorial Cartoons, racism, Republican Tax Fetishists, the GOP | Tags: ’Ndrangheta, Bonanno, Calabrian Mafia, coal ash spill, cocaine, Cosa Nostra, Gambinos, Historic Ice Storm, John Boehner, Kanawha River, Mexican cartels, Samuel L Jackson, Sicilian Mafia, West Virginia, winter storm 74 Comments
Good Morning
Well, another storm is hitting here in Banjoville. The weather people are saying we should get a total of 6 to 12 inches of snow when it is all said and done.
Down south things are a lot worse…if you have not seen the big headlines over at Huffington Post or Drudge, take a look at this:
Via Drudge
HISTORIC ICE STORM UNFOLDS IN SOUTH...
GEORGIA WARNED: 'CATASTROPHIC'...
SEEN FROM SPACE...
Hundreds of flights cancelled...
Roads deserted...
Panicked Shoppers Fight Over Food...
Nor'easter Could Be 'Biggest Of Season'...
'Snow Rage' Afflicts Storm-Weary Locals...
And HuffPo
SOUTH BRACES FOR ‘CATASTROPHIC’ STORM
Deadly ice and snow storm bears down on U.S. South | Reuters
The storm could be “a catastrophic event” of “historical proportions,” the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City, Georgia, said of the latest blast of wintry weather to hit the region.
Conditions were expected to worsen overnight, with up to an inch of ice predicted in parts of Georgia and central South Carolina.
Two to 6 inches of snow fell in north Georgia on Tuesday, with another 5 to 9 inches expected by Thursday morning, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Darbe.
But Darbe said ice was the bigger worry, with a quarter to three-quarters of an inch expected in the area that includes metropolitan Atlanta.
[…]
Officials were quick to make plans for dealing with the weather after being criticized for inadequate preparation before a storm two weeks ago. That storm paralyzed Atlanta area roads and forced more than 11,000 students in Alabama to spend the night at their schools.
Oh you bet your ass they were ready this time…
0211 Luckovich cartoon: Drift away | Mike Luckovich
In other news, House Approves Higher Debt Limit Without Condition – NYTimes.com
Ending three years of brinkmanship in which the threat of a devastating default on the nation’s debt was used to wring conservative concessions from President Obama, the House on Tuesday voted to raise the government’s borrowing limit until March 2015, without any conditions.
The vote — 221 to 201 — relied almost entirely on Democrats in the Republican-controlled House to carry the measure and represented the first debt ceiling increase since 2009 that was not attached to other legislation. Only 28 Republicans voted yes, and only two Democrats voted no.
I guess you could say hell froze over?
Simply by holding the vote, Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio effectively ended a three-year Tea Party-inspired era of budget showdowns that had raised the threat of default and government shutdowns, rattled economic confidence and brought serious scrutiny from other nations questioning Washington’s ability to govern. In the process, though, Mr. Boehner also set off a series of reprisals from fellow Republican congressmen and outside groups that showcased the party’s deep internal divisions.
“He gave the president exactly what he wanted, which is exactly what the Republican Party said we did not want,” said a Republican representative, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, who last year unsuccessfully tried to rally enough support to derail Mr. Boehner’s re-election as speaker. “It’s going to really demoralize the base.”
The NYT article goes on to say it was a victory for the President and the Dems…but considering the shit we have dealt with the last few years, and those poor people who will be dealing with lower food stamp funds, how can that be a victory?
Meanwhile in West Virginia, another spill is causing the citizens grief: ‘Significant’ slurry spill blackens Kanawha creek
More than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry poured into an eastern Kanawha County stream Tuesday in what officials were calling a “significant spill” from a Patriot Coal processing facility.
Emergency officials and environmental inspectors said roughly six miles of Fields Creek had been blackened and that a smaller amount of the slurry made it into the Kanawha River near Chesapeake.
“This has had significant, adverse environmental impact to Fields Creek and an unknown amount of impact to the Kanawha River,” said Secretary Randy Huffman of the state Department of Environmental Protection. “This is a big deal, this is a significant slurry spill.”
“When this much coal slurry goes into the stream, it wipes the stream out.”
That is disgusting. I don’t think the people of West Virginia will ever be able to drink the water again.
For a little laugh, here is my favorite actor of today…I know the reason for the video is not funny, it is disgusting, but of all the other “black actors doing commercials” it is good to see Sammy call the asshole out:
Samuel Jackson goes nuclear on reporter for confusing him with Laurence Fishburne – Salon.com
Local TV stations have a reputation for goofy unprofessionalism and quirky hiccups. This segment at KTLA in Los Angeles is something so much worse. Veteran entertainment reporter Sam Rubin begins his interview by asking about Jackson’s Super Bowl commercial, and things get real ugly real quick.
“What Super Bowl commercial?” responds a flabbergasted Jackson. ”See, you’re as crazy as the people on Twitter. I’m not Laurence Fishburne!” (Fishburne reprised his role as Morpheus in “The Matrix” for a Kia spot.) “We don’t all look alike!”
He then goes on to list other black actors in commercials, who he is not.
Of course, the news reporter is not the only one who was tacky as hell, as you can “hear” from the video at the link:
Just as uncomfortable as Rubin’s attempts to brush off the blunder by saying, “Really my big mistake … let’t talk about ‘Robocop,’” are the hoots and howls coming from Rubin’s peers who clearly don’t get how terribly offensive this “mistake” is. Rubin later apologized and claimed he was referring to a commercial for Jackson’s upcoming “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Regardless, the incident (and Jackson’s blunt response) is a reminder of Hollywood’s serious race problem that was starkly evident at the Golden Globes.
You can see the look on Jackson’s face at the end, it really does show how tired he is of all the shit.
I noticed yesterday y’all were talking in the comments about books you were reading, I just started to read this one about cuss words as discussed in this link here: Here’s the first recorded instance of the F-word in English
And it’s a monk expressing his displeasure at an abbot. In the margins of a guide to moral conduct. Because of course.
Technically, “fuck” appeared two times before this. In 1500, it was used in a satirical poem to describe some friars. In that case, nothing like “fuck” was actually written out. Instead, the word was hidden in a code. And in 1513, it appeared in a Scottish poem as “fukkit.”
But for English’s first use, we’ve got a dissatisfied 1528 monk. He’s written “O D fuckin abbot.” Melissa Mohr, author of Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, says this “fuck” could be either literal or metaphorical:
It is difficult to know whether the annotator intended “fucking” to mean “having sex,” as in “that guy is doing too much fucking for someone who is supposed to be celibate,” or whether he used it as an intensifier, to convey his extreme dismay; if the latter, it anticipates the first recorded use by more than three hundred years. Either is possible, really—John Burton, the abbot in question, was a man of questionable monastic morals.
So, either this monk was recording his abbot’s sex life or he was the first person to be so angry that only “fuck” could convey it’s scope.
Did you all see the big joint news out of New York and Italy? I’ve got a few articles on this mass arrest from both Italian and US sources:
‘
Ndrangheta ‘snatching U.S. Cosa Nostra drug trade’ – GazzettaDelSud
Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia, once a poor relation of the Sicilian Mafia, has grown in heft and reach thanks to its dominance of the European cocaine trade and is even muscling in on the drug operations of one of Cosa Nostra’s historic five families in New York, investigators said after a major Italian-FBI bust Tuesday. “This was an important operation because we proved that the power of the ‘Ndrangheta now far surpasses that of Cosa Nostra”, Reggio Calabria prosecutor Nicola Gratteri told ANSA from New York after 26 arrests in a probe into a new drug route from Guyana to Europe via the ‘Ndrangheta-infiltrated Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro.
According to the Gazzetta Del Sud, this ‘Ndrangheta Mafia even used Mexican cartels in a joint venture in their set-up to traffic cocaine.
As for the US side of the take down: Arrests in New York and Italy Thwart Mob Drug Scheme, Authorities Say – NYTimes.com
“They put a hundred grams, two hundred grams in each fish” and “it takes a day to defrost and then it takes a day to take out,” Franco Lupoi said, according to prosecutors who say the conversation was recorded by investigators.
On Tuesday, federal authorities announced the arrests of Mr. Lupoi, the owner of a Brooklyn bakery, and six other people in New York on charges that included narcotics trafficking and money laundering and that were the culmination of a two-year undercover F.B.I. investigation. In Italy, the police announced the arrests of 17 people in connection with the investigation.
What made the case remarkable were not the charges but the defendants’ links to the ’Ndrangheta, the organized crime group based in Calabria that is notorious for kidnappings and for its success importing cocaine into Europe.
More from the LA Times: Italian-U.S. Mafia drug trafficking ring busted, FBI and police say
The FBI and Italian police said they had broken up a global heroin and cocaine trafficking ring Tuesday after stumbling upon a fledgling alliance between a Calabrian Mafia group and associates of New York’s notorious
Twenty-four arrests were made in Italy and the United States after a two-year operation that relied on both wiretaps and an American undercover agent named by investigators as “Jimmy,” who is said to have infiltrated the Gambinos and fooled Italians into believing he was a heroin dealer. Seventeen of the arrests were made in Italy and seven in the United States.
Those arrested in the U.S. were arraigned before a federal magistrate in Brooklyn. The men, some of them suspected of being members of the Gambino and Bonanno “families,” were listed as using various street aliases such as “Lello,” “Freddy,” and “Charlie Pepsi.”
I am sure more information will be coming forward, but…
The coordinated sting halted the planned shipment of more than a ton of cocaine from Latin America to Italy in liquid form, smuggled with help from Mexican cartels in coconut and pineapple cans, law enforcement officials said. They put the street value at $1 billion.
One more link…on the additional discovery of ‘Ndrangheta connections with the Far East heroin trade: Gambino, Bonanno family members held in joint US-Italy anti-mafia raid – CNN.com
Raffaele Grassi, head of the Criminal Unit of the Italian State Police, told reporters that the operation demonstrated
that the “‘Ndrangheta is one of the strongest organizations in the world in illegal drug trade.”
He cited its sophisticated network of contacts and its ability to adapt and find new markets, including “expanding beyond Italian borders.”
Grassi said that historically, the Gambino family had had ties with the Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra. But their involvement in the illegal traffic of heroin, known as the “Pizza Connection,” was dismantled or severely curtailed in the 1980s, he said, and they are now trading mainly cocaine.
The latest operation, according to Grassi and FBI officials, shows that the mafia families of the “new continent” are still seeking and relying on “old country” connections — which is why investigators dubbed the operation “New Bridge.”
According to Grassi, the Italian-American mafia families “need this new bridge to connect and support the traffic of cocaine.”
While the existence of a connection between the Calabrian mafia and U.S. mafia families has been well known, Tuesday’s operation shows its great strength and reach, investigators said.
One of the more alarming discoveries to emerge from the operation was evidence that ‘Ndrangheta has also reached out to the Far East in the heroin trade, another investigator said.
While on the subject of the Mafia, 10 Real-Life Inspirations For Characters In The Godfather – Listverse
It’s one of the immutable laws of nature: You’re channel surfing, and there, between some cooking show and an infomercial, you come upon The Godfather. Even though you own the deluxe Blu-Ray DVD box set with three weeks’ worth of special features, you are glued to that station until the credits roll. And if it’s the first in a Godfather marathon, your day is shot.
You’re not moving, except to warm up some frozen lasagna between Godfather 2 and Godfather 3.
The Godfather is a classic of American cinema, and Godfather Part 2 is considered by some an even better movie. This story of the patriarch of a New York crime family, and his son who takes over the “family business,” is largely based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name, with director Francis Ford Coppola and Puzo producing new material for the films.
Puzo based many of the characters on the real underworld players he heard about growing up and working in New York City.
That thing about getting stuck watching the trilogy on TV, it is so true…it just happened to my mom and me last week, and it was on one of those channels with the commercials.
(So you know how annoying that can be, and how “glued” we were to stick it out for the three full movies.)
In wrapping this post up, I will end with this tune…a perfect finale to a mob focused post. I know that I have used this song before, but what can I say…
If you gonna be a square
You ain’t a gonna go nowhere
Hey mambo! mambo italiano!
Hey mambo! mambo italiano!
Rosemary Clooney – Mambo Italiano Lyrics
Have a wonderful day, and if you are in the storm’s wake, please stay safe and warm.
And be sure to share with us, what is on your reading list today?
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Sky Dancing 
OMG, what a fantastic post! I’m already cheered up, despite the bad news.
I hope you are keeping your kids home today, JJ. I wouldn’t want to be in GA today, but it would be better than being in WV! Stay safe and warm.
The storm will hit us tomorrow, and they’re saying it’s a classic nor’easter. I plan to stay inside till it’s over. We’re supposed to get 8-10 inches. That will be piled on top of the 15 or so inches from the last storm, very little of which has melted because it has been so cold.
Love the Luckovich cartoon, the Samuel L. Jackson story, and the history “f&ckin’ Abbot.”!!
This link from the post is crazy. Typical New Yorkers…..
‘Snow Rage’ Pits Storm-Weary Residents Against Plow Drivers Just Trying To Do Jobs
Bet that guy wasn’t dressed as a banana 😉
No, Texas has NY beat by a mile!
I often feel that way when the plows dump a wall of snow at the end of my driveway!
Well, not homicidal but very, very upset no matter how unavoidable.
Me too.
Back when my daughter was a toddler and my husband was working out of town 5 days a week, the Richmond, VA area got 18 inches of snow. Of course, everything was closed one day, but I knew I had to get out the next day to go to work so there was nothing for it, I had to go out and shovel the driveway while my daughter was down for a nap. So I did it. It took a long time and just as I tossed the last shovel full of snow onto a snowbank, I saw the plow coming. My throat tightened up because I almost started to cry but then I just resigned myself to what was about to happen. Just as he was about to get to my driveway, the snow plow driver lifted his blade, went around my driveway, honked and waved. I’ve never wanted to hug a snow plow driver so much in my life. 🙂
Maybe I need to stand out there like the Statue of Liberty and hopefully get the same result.
Of course at my age I am not as “cute” as I used to be so chances are they would ignore me as they drive by.
lol! Trust me, after shoveling the entire driveway, a lot could be said about what I looked like but “cute” isn’t one of them! 😀
What a great story, Janice!
yup
Love this post! Stay warm and, like BB said, keep your kids home. I hope the storm isn’t as bad as they expect for you or BB. Still freezing at my house but it’s supposed to warm up today. Yay. Now if it will only do it.
My biggest fear is losing power since it was only two years ago we in WM went without for up to 10 days.
They have been warning us here in Virginia that power outages are a distinct possibility this time. Be sure to have all of your devices charged.
One of the big reasons for losing power will be the trees. In California they make people and agencies trim and cut trees, because they will hang over, and fall on power lines. In California it required because of fires. They have crews who paid to walk those power lines, and check for any risk from falling trees. This is how you “create jobs”, and that should be a good paying job.
Yeah, JJ, fabulous……….twirled to the kitchen for Italian Omelet that I made with mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomato, basil, parsley with 3 egg whites, grated parmesan, and heated up that fry pan with olive oil and some red crushed peppers, then heated up 1/4 cup marinara sauce to go on top of the omelet. Small bowl of fresh fruit, except fresh pineapple (it’s 5.99 lb), so I went with Dole chunks.
I am good to go for the day.
Yummy!
I like my omelets with browned leftover potatoes, two eggs, a little cheese in the middle and lots of salsa on top.
Thanks BB, the kids are home today too.
We’ve had snow or ice pellets since last night, and this is expected to continue until tomorrow.
Things are bad enough that the DOT trucks are slipping off the roads: Two DOT dump trucks slide off N. Ga. roads in icy weather | AccessNorthGa
Some pictures of Blairsville: http://www.accessnorthga.com/photopop.php?n=271058#124343
Speaking of books: I just read “LIfe After Life” by Kate Atkinson and it was the most confusing, ridiculous book I have ever purchased. More so since it was one of those that was listed as one of the Top Ten for 2013!
For anybody contemplating picking this one up, beware. I have no idea what this author had in mind when putting this one on paper but it was one of the most senseless stories ever IMHO.
Not sure who is reviewing these books but some of those that have been feted with honors lately are some of the dumbest stories ever to see print.
A good story is a good story regardless of who writes it but lately some of the material I have read is pure crapola.
I guess it is time to return to the classics if this is what is considered the “best”.
Sycamore Row by John Grisham is a pretty good book. He returns to Ford County, the site of his original novel A Time to Kill, and builds a darned good story with some of the original characters.
I read that one too Ralph and I thoroughly agree. A good read.
If you like mysteries, ‘If You Were Here’ by Alafair Burke is good. Along with anything else she or her father, James Lee Burke, have ever written.
Our weather forecast: Nor’Easter To Be A ’3 Commute Nightmare’
I wouldn’t be surprised to see all schools shut down for both Thursday and Friday. Monday begins the Feb break so they probably wouldn’t think twice about closing them in advance just to avoid the traffic that is sure to be one huge mess.
That sounds horrible. Take care up there!
Christian School Faulted for Halting Abuse Study
Fucking assholes…
Ted Cruz must feel abandoned, though I’m sure he’ll grift lots of money from this.
tpm: Senate To Pass Debt Limit Hike Today
Holy Shit! National Guard in Banjoville Downtown:
Hah! Looks like your gov doesn’t want to mess this up again!
Oh yeah!
And there’s hardly any snow yet. Deal isn’t taking any chances this time!
There is ice, and snow plows have gone off the road up here, so the weather is worse than it looks.
We also have only one snow truck for the whole county so it sucks ass.
Oh, that is not our truck btw…that is White county
Ice is way worse than snow, imnsho. Drivers have no control when driving on ice without real traction devices, like chains. 4-wheel is no substitute.
Makes me thankful I live in a temperate (if usually damp) area. We pulled out of our 20-deg weather over the weekend, got a mere 2-3″ of snow which got rained away in about a day as things warmed. We’re back in the 40s and rainy. Weirdly, and unpredicted, today there’s been a few hrs of sunshine — and it’s my day off! Nature’s blessing.
I also live in the PNW so it was a perfect snow event. The trees were beautiful Saturday night,by Sunday night it was back to normal rainy weather.
We’ve hit 50s here with sunshine. I feel better already.
(Waving to Tmarie) Nice to see someone from the ‘hood. I went for a walk at night Sat. just admiring everything coating in white. Sunday morning was pretty, too.
Now Cliff Mass says we getting an “atmospheric river” with lots of wet weather hitting us over the next 6 days. The mountains can certainly use it!
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2014/02/atmospheric-rivers-strike-pacific.html
Wow, they should have been out trimming and cutting trees, so you don’t lose power.
I wonder why there are no Peace trees around this church?
That is the old court house. There used to be huge trees around it, but they cut them down, caused a huge stink too. I think the National Guard is here cause we are like a crossroads to north, south, east, west.
Jury just got back on Nagin trial. Guilty on 20 counts!
Ray Ray gonna go Bye Bye for a few years?
longggggg time ….
We’ve been joking that he already has been doing time in Dallas
Some truth in that 🙂
Yayyyyy!!!!
Good, he’ll soon fine a himself in a new home. I wonder if Christie is paying attention, if so I bet he’ll go for the “insanity plea”.
Yeah! What jail will that be Kat? Angola?
Fed prison not state … oak dale
Ah…well, that will be interesting too.
Hey: Sid Caesar Dead: Comedic Legend Dies At 91
Gambit @The_Gambit 2h
Former New Orleans mayor @RayNagin found guilty on 20 of 21 counts in his federal corruption trial: http://bit.ly/1aVxrfM #nagintrial
Vote was 67-31 for passage.
McConnell, Cornyn Vote To Advance Clean Debt Limit Hike
First flakes falling in Richmond, VA area. It starts.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ghostery/mlomiejdfkolichcflejclcbmpeaniij?hl=en
Software that tracks which corporations are gathering metadata on you and what they tend to do with it … the real threat to your privacy.
Oh yeah. I’m far more alarmed at for-profit companies sucking up personal data than at the gov’t. Although with so many private contractors working on government programs, there’s got to be overlap.
ghostery for firefox…
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/?src=cb-dl-mostpopular
Thanks; added it.
cool. looks like it works pretty well to me.
I got it back when Bob Cesca first wrote about it, but I forget to use it.
Yup… http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/sarah-palin-birthday-021214
Damn PLUBs are everywhere!
This guy is the dean of Dallas sportscasters. Been there forever.
The guy did a great job of pointing out things that should have been issues for fans of the NFL, but aren’t. I’ve read that the responses to his commentary have been very positive which proves that many of us already knew what he had the courage to say on air. More power to him
Dale Hanson has gotten near universal support and I imagine a lot of people are quite surprised at that, maybe including him. More power to him indeed!
How did JJ do? Is it bad down in GA? I’ve been off the grid for hours.
Glad to hear you’re back on, BB.
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said “off the grid” I was just hanging out with my nephews all afternoon and evening. Our storm starts tomorrow early morning. They are still saying 6-10 inches and high winds.
Current conditions, from one of JJ’s GA links above:
Hope you and family are safe and warm, JJ!
Oh no, that’s awful. I hope JJ didn’t lose power.
Look at the list of Sid Caesar’s comedy writers:
Funny, funny people and the talent ran so damn deep. Thinking of Sid Ceasar, Jackie Gleason, George Burns and Gracie Allen always brings big smiles. Johnny Carson was the perfect host for late night TV. They may be the greatest generation for more reasons than WWII.