10. Sharon Tirabassi

In 2004 Sharon won around 10 million Canadian dollars (about 48 million TTD) in an Ontario lottery. Mrs. Tirabassi made it rain on a “big house, fancy cars, designer clothes, lavish parties, exotic trips, handouts to family and loans to friends.” Less than a decade later she’s back riding the bus, working part-time, and trying to pay her rent.

9. Evelyn Adams

Against all odds, in the mid-1980′s Adams won the lottery twice, once in 1985
and again in 1986. The New Jersey native won a cool $5.4 million USD, but it alleged that she gambled it all away in Atlantic City.

Today she resides in a trailer park.

8. Michael Carroll

Michael Carroll was at his peak when he won Britain’s £9.7 million($90 million TTD). However, a love for life in the fast lane — cocaine, parties, hookers, and cars — put him back at square one in five years. Last reports were that the ex-garbage man was trying to get his old job back.

7. Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr.

In 2002, West Virginia building contractor Andrew Jackson Whittaker Jr. walked away with $114 million after taxes on a $315 Million multi-state Power ball draw!!! However,that was just about his last stroke of good fortune.

In two separate instances, thieves ran off with $745,000 Whittaker stashed in his car. Later on, he was sued by Caesar’s Atlantic City for allegedly bouncing $1.5 million in checks.

Amazingly within four years, his fortune was gone.

6. Willie Hurt

Willie won a $3.1 million jackpot in the Michigan Lottery.

Fast-forward two years later and Hurt got divorced, lost custody of his children, was charged with attempted murder, and became a crack head.

The habit was so bad that it sucked away the rest of his entire winnings.

5. Denise Rossi

When Denise Rossi won $1.3 million in the California lotto, she left her husband without a word. Her husband, Thomas, knew something was up, but agreed to divorce her anyway. Two years later, he intercepted a letter at his new L.A. pad revealing the truth.

He sued Denise for not disclosing her winnings in the divorce, and the judge awarded Thomas every cent.

4. Janite lee

After winning an $18 million lottery jackpot in 1993 (almost Ah hundred and twenty million TTD), Janite Lee’s earnings were gone within a decade.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports Lee, a wig maker from South Korea, blew her winnings on charity.

A reading room was named after her at Washington University’s law school, and she was a big time donor for the Democratic Party.

But her giving hand, coupled with a little gambling addiction helped drain her accounts.

3. Luke Pittard

Welsh-born Luke Pittard won a £1.3 million jackpot in 2006, but spent it all on a trip to the Canary Islands, a wedding and a house.

A year and a half later, Pittard was forced to take a job at McDonald’s flipping burgers.

He says he’s happy, and at least was able to salvage some of his leftover winnings, which are collecting interest.

2. Callie Rogers

Teen mom Callie Rogers was too young, or too dumb to spend her money wisely. Callie Rogers was just 16 when she won £1.9 in the U.K.’s lottery (about 18 million TTD) in 2003; too young to know how to manage her money or where it would lead her.
Rogers hooked up with a guy, had two children, then blew the rest on partying, vacations and gifts for her friends.

Now Rogers works as a cleaning woman and is reportedly facing bankruptcy.

1. Gerald Muswagon

In 1998, Gerald Muswagon won the $10 million Super 7 jackpot (almost 50 million TTD) in Canada. In 7 years he partied and drank away every cent. WTF!

Filled with remorse, Muswagon hanged himself in his parents’ garage in 2005.

Some Key Points

On-the-Job (OJT) trainees to get a 20 per cent increase in stipends effective January 2016. Bout f%cking time. Years now D youths them scruntin. lol.

They plan to remove all D traffic lights from Town tuh Grande, and constructing roundabouts and other infrastructure in POS and Chaguanas.

Skylackers beware! In coming years not everyone going to receive GATE jusso jusso.

Imbert: We will reintroduce the rent to own home ownership plan. Hmmm.

A National Health Insurance system will be in place soon. How soon is soon tho? Trini soon? Or Oxford dictionary soon?

A free national public wireless network beginning with free wifi hotspots. Eyyy! We GT boi! Free Wifi Dawg!!!

By 2021, at least 10 per cent of energy must be from renewable sources.

“Free drivers’ permits and free passports to retirees over the age of 60. Granny yuh GT!

“Personal allowance increased from 60,000 annually to 72,000. Value Added Tax (VAT) reduced from 15 per cent to 12.5 per cent.” And yadda yadda yadda.

Good stuff. Good stuff.

Mr. Imbert also explained that the previous government had maxed out our overdraft. And We were running on fumes. Whether these fumes were ganja fumes, he did not specify.

Closing off, Mr. Imbert said, “I could have easily resorted to bacchanal. But the time for that is long gone. The majority of the population is exhausted by the political mamaguy.” Hmmm

The alleged shooter is 26 year old Chris Harper. Boylan, whose daughter survived the shooting, told US television network CNN that his daughter described to him how the gunman asked his victims to state their religion before shooting them.

“‘Are you a Christian?’ he would ask them, ‘and if you are a Christian stand up,’” the father recalled.

The gunman then told the victims: “because you’re a Christian you’re going to see God in just about one second”.

The shooting has left 10 people dead and 7 injured. Speaking on the shooting yesterday President Obama said, “We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.” A sad truth indeed.

11 Facts about gun violence in the US

1. There’s roughly one gun for every person in America

2. Gun crime is more prevalent in the US than in any other rich country

3. Gun homicide (like all homicides) are declining

4. Places with more guns have more homicides

5. There are more gun suicides than gun homicides in the US

6. Suicide is more common in places with more guns

7. Living in a house with a gun increases your odds of death

8. Guns contribute to domestic violence

9. Mass shootings are not getting more common–and are a tiny percentage of all shootings

10. A tiny fraction of gun violence is committed by the mentally ill

11. Gun control is popular but getting less so ]]> http://166.78.7.22/united-guns-of-america/feed/ 0 http://166.78.7.22/bake-macajuel/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bake-macajuel http://166.78.7.22/bake-macajuel/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:26:50 +0000 http://thescorch.com/?p=6129 Talk bout wild meat! This 27 year old man can’t because he busy knamming down macajuel.  Police arrested and charged the Rio Claro man for having two dead boa constrictor skins. When questioned further the man told the police he had already eaten one sssssssss-snake, and that he planned to eat the other.

The arrest happened a day before the two year band on hunting (Wednesday Night) was lifted. Constables Naim Mohammed and Vishal Rampersad from the Rio Claro CID conducted a sting operation pretending to be customers interested in purchasing the snake. Both officers met the gardner near his home at Cunapo, Southern Main Road, Rio Claro where he had  a crocus bag with the remains of one macajuel and the skin of another macajuel in the same bag. These snakes are protected under the Wildlife Conservation Act.  The skins of the two snakes were approximately 3.7 meters in length. Police said the man admitted he got the snakes from someone and was using it for his personal consumption.   The man also said the snake “Tasted like shark”.

That 130,000 pounds represents only what was seized and is no where near the total amount. 130, 000 pounds is what Charlie Sheen feeds his goldfish. That total seized by the United States CBP is muy muy muy pequeño, just tha tip of the iceberg. The Caribbean’s strategic location–especially Trinidad which is practically a broken puzzle piece off of Venezuela–makes it the ideal middleman between the producers in South America and the consumers in North America and Europe.

The Narco business is big mula. And when big mula is messed with there is an increase in the murder rate. We in the Caribbean are the gateway and the gate keepers to the flow of drugs. If this flow of drugs was regulated and legalized, it would be more transparent and a lot of the players, mainly the corrupted authorities who strike underhand deals and profit from the trade remaining illegal, would be held accountable…just food for thought.

“A 24 -year-old television reporter, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, 27, who was a cameraman, photographer and videographer, were killed, according to WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Va. as they were doing a live report. The incident was caught on film around 6:45 a.m. at Bridgewater Plaza when they were interviewing a woman with a local chamber group. Those at the station said they heard six to seven shots and then nothing as the camera fell.” – Washington Post

What in the actual _uck is going on in the world? These people left their homes, their families, their loved ones to enter into a profession that you would never expect to be so randomly affected by murder. These two employees weren’t covering a storm or even a murder court case where putting your life at risk is something you’re remotely prepared for. The latest reports claim that the shooter may be a disgruntled employee of that television station

Our condolences go out to everyone affected by this senseless tragedy.

We doh know about you but whenever anything happens outside of Trinidad & Tobago, we put ourselves in their shoes. What the hell would we do if that were to happen here?! We are currently in the middle of a heated election season with words being thrown, accusations being made, alleged death-threats being sent and reporters allegedly comprising their integrity for a quick paycheck.

What would we as a people do if this media & political environment escalated to this level?

One thing we cannot do is dismiss it with our favourite “God is a Trini. Nothing bad does ever happen to us.”

When are we going to open our eyes and realise that this is not just a situation that we’ll follow on Twitter and see shared constantly throughout the day. Our criminals may seem to not be randomly motivated but we can guarantee you that they are just as, if not more, brazen and boldfaced with their criminal actions. It’s high time we as a people personally and collectively:

1.

2.

Take ownership for our role in the current economic, social and political environment.

3.

Educate ourselves with manifestos for both parties and not just the party yuh backing.

4.

Use the Internet, use Twitter, use Facebook. Read, research, educate ourselves on what has happened and what is happening.

5.

Go to a rally for each party. Experience the atmosphere of the supporters, look past the grand-charge talk and actually listen to what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.

6.

Vote not for what you think you know but for what you think the political party is capable of doing to improve our islands.

7.

Have an active role in creating the future for generations to come.

We know these points may seem airy fairy and it’s more fun to spend your day searching for the best picture for your #tbt post tomorrow (doh lie! We all go wayyyy back through in our Facebook on the hunt) but we beg you, urge you, promise to give you a free comp to a SCORCH cruise if you don’t just skim through the news coverage today, take some time to see the world for what it really is and pretty much, just give a little teeny bit of a sh!t.

The Beginning Of The Bacchanal

It all began last week, when Philly-born rapper Meek Mill took to Twitter to accuse Drake of not writing his own songs. He even stated that if he had known that Drake used ghost writers, he would have taken their collab song “R.I.C.O”, off of his latest album.
And apparently, not even a lil boy from the suburbs of the 6 taking that. So to retaliate, Drake released a song called “Charged Up”. However, Meek then returned to Twitter to give his own review of the Drake diss track. Meek Mill called it, “baby lotion soft”, and jabbed that even if he did write this song, that it was still weak.

But don’t think that Drake is the only one being clowned in this drama. In fact, after being accused of being “too emotional”, several comical tweets were sent out under the trend #MeekBeLike, mocking Meek for being so sensitive on social media.

The birth of Back to Back

Yet, it seems that despite Mill’s continuous attempts to lash out at Drake and call him out on his weak game, Drake has released yet another song aimed at his rival named Back to Back. And Mill, who is currently performing with his girlfriend Nicki Minaj on her Pink Print tour, seems to have given Drake enough material. In fact, in the song, he goes as far as questioning Mill, “Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?” This diss goes along with several other jabs, including Drake boldly stating that Mill was being “bodied by a singing n***a.” Yikesssss!

So…#TeamDrake or #TeamMeek?

However, while it seems that so far Drake is winning when it comes to “who could throw more fruit at the tree with the best/ripest fruit”, perhaps Meek does have a point. In the rap/hip hop genre, originality is something that should not really be praised, but expected. The fact that ghost writing is something that can be argued about, or even discussed, goes to show that there is clearly a decline in the quality of music since the days of Tupac.
Drake, who is claimed to be one of the best in the industry, cannot rightfully be given such a position when, in fact, he may not even be writing his own lyrics. Whilst the supposed ghost-writer has denied any allegations that he has written songs for Drake, he has been given credit on Drake latest mixtape for co-writing. One of the things that makes someone a great artiste overall, comes from being a great lyricist.

On the other hand, there can be the argument of whether it truly matters who has written the music, once it is performed well. Some may agree that while Meek can boast of writing his own music, it doesn’t go much further from there. Drake, despite all the fight down, is more or less a strong musical artiste. Whether it be that he’s not a rapper, or more an R&B artist, he has been known how to sell his music and make a brand for himself. So perhaps, being a strong artiste is more than just having original lyrics.

So tell us what you think, which side of the debate are you on? And as for Meek Mill….well the ball is now in your court. Our guess? It’s either he’s finally working on that comeback song, or a reaaaaal fire tweet.
Stay tuned.

But wait, let’s backtrack a bit. Bland was pulled over by state trooper, Brian Encina, on July 10th for failing to use a signal before changing lanes (sounds familiar?). Bland, obviously vex, began to quarrel about how ridiculous she found the ticket was, Encina repeatedly screamed at her, ordering her to step out of the vehicle. As Bland refused to co-operate and continued to argue her case, Encina replied with “I’m going to drag you out of here,” and reportedly took out a taser and threatened, “I will light you up” ,before arresting her.

After her arrest, police stated that she continued to protest her arrest, whilst Bland complained of mistreatment from the police. Videos are even surfacing around the Internet of her arrest, where she clearly states that the police have slammed her head on the ground.

While her autopsy reports her death being due to self-inflicted asphyxiation, there are many suspicions surrounding this case. However, it is said that Bland had previously suffered from depression and had even attempted suicide before, and had even reported this upon arrival at the jail. So in that case, should she then not have been put on suicide watch? Instead of placing her in a cell, usually fit for four, alone?

On the other hand, she was said to be found hanging from the plastic from a garbage bag, which she tied to the partition of her shower. But….apparently garbage bags are not even allowed in the cells of inmates, neither did she have any lacerations consistent with a hanging. Thoughts?

Something isn’t adding up. What do you think? Is it just a plain case of negligence? Or do you sense foul play? When you dig into your inner Mariska Hargitay, comment and let us know what you think. But for now, from this view, it seems that being black is another thing that needs to be legalized in the US, apparently.

To give you further insight of the f*ckery, here’s a brief list of only a few of the remaining 28 demands:

• Power to refuse moderator.
• Wants questions placed in a guarded box at CNMG.
• Wants to be referred to as Prime Minister.
• Power to refuse panel.
• Power to approve backdrop of the debate 1 month in advance.
• Freedom to choose her attire.
• 2 preparation rooms.
• Debate must only be located in POS. (Like somebody wanna use dey helicopter boy)

Sounds pretty much like an Anal Annie to us. What do you think of these demands? Justified or not?

Next it’s really important to begin sifting through what is white noise and what is factual. A lot of money has been spent to keep us distracted from the real issues. We are too busy waiting for the next Sunshine bomb to ask the pertinent questions. As such, I’ve compiled a quick list of things we should all be paying attention to:

• The National Budget: With elections being held a mere month from budget month, you would think there would be some kind of plan in place to hit the ground running. As it stands, with no due parliamentary process, there is no account for the spending being done by the current government in the interim months. If we do see another 5 years of UNC rule, what things are in place to ensure a successful budget? If we go into a PNM government what have they been doing to ensure they have a clear grasp on the country’s financial standing before executing any plans?
• Unemployment: Anyone who is friends with a recent graduate knows how hard it is to find a job in any field that doesn’t require sandwich artistry or any use of a hair net. While we completely respect our hard workers in Customer Service, ’tis a bit discouraging to spend 3 – 5 years working on a Bachelor’s degree to have your only option be in the Fast Food or night life arena. We need our next government to stop lying too us and start working to create genuine jobs in various fields.
• War on Crime: Drugs and illegal arms are rampant on our little island. Pair that with a number of disappearances and we definitely need a serious plan for border control.
• Immigration: globalization is great but the legal movement of immigrants in and out of this country is one of the key stones to addressing a number of larger issues. We need to crack down on persons living and working illegally and pair it with realistic solutions to afford them proper integration. This is a plus for everyone as a lot of illegal immigrants are being taken advantage of by employers and family members in some cases.

This list is just my initial thoughts on what needs to be dealt with in the coming five years. Head to Facebook, Twitter or the comments below to share what you think should really be discussed on the campaign trails.