“That fake Al Capone sh*t we don’t condone. I am about to turn this whole Game into a funeral home”. – Keith Murray
We already know that America is on a heavy downslide.
It always amazes me when I get back to The States from my travels around the world is how many guys in America are walking little dogs.
It’s pathetic, from a Style standpoint, and annoying because, I am trying to get my roadwork in and get to my Boxing Gym. The little dogs are never trained and clog up the sidewalk.
If you think about it (which I try not to), it is either guys actually wanting little dogs as pets, or guys walking the little dogs of their girlfriends as a slave favor.
Both options are despicable.
Keep in mind, I don’t really condone the phoney goateed, sleeve tatted steez cat, thinking he is causing a crime wave with his pitbull either.
But honestly, I feel less nauseous after drinking 20 Goose and sodas and eating 3 quesadillas with extra guac than I do after seeing a guy walking a little dog.
Someone has to put a stop to this.
I am kind of surprised that The Chinese or The Russians don’t just make a move on US now while we are at our weakest.
Roberts returned from Vietnam to New York with screws and a metal plate in his head — the aftermath of an explosion. By the time he was 20, he was one of New York’s biggest nightclub impresarios, rubbing shoulders with everyone from Jimi Hendrix to John Lennon.
But after a business partner turned up dead and an informant told the police Roberts was involved, he hightailed it to sunny Miami. The year was 1975.
“When I first came to Miami, I wasn’t smuggling: I was like all the other dealers on the street just trying to make a living, and it got to a point where I had so much business that these people just couldn’t supply me,” he says.
That’s when Roberts shifted from being a drug dealer to a drug importer for the Colombian Medellin cartel.
Importing paid well: By the end of 1976, Roberts says he was moving 50 kilos of cocaine worth $500,000 or more a month. Roberts was living it up: He had half a dozen servants, a Porsche, multiple houses, dozens of race horses and friends in high places, including the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
The U.S. government labeled Roberts the “American Representative” of the Medellin cartel; he became known as “the bearded gringo” on Miami’s streets.
Roberts and a few American partners created a highly advanced drug-smuggling system that included secret airfields, listening posts to eavesdrop on Coast Guard communications, and homing beacons for tracking cocaine shipped by sea.
“We ended up getting, up by Tampa, a 450-acre farm and it was all surrounded by trees and we put two runways in there and we put hangars in for the planes to go in,” Roberts says.
Their drug-smuggling schemes stymied the U.S. government for nearly a decade.
Death came for Jon Roberts, the infamous cocaine cowboy, on Dec. 28 at age 63, after a long battle with cancer. But his public career as a charming monster is just beginning
A true-crime memoir, “American Desperado” (Crown; $28), written with journalist Evan Wright, has just been published. In Hollywood, director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg are developing a movie based on his exploits.
Dying at his ease in Fort Lauderdale in the company of a devoted younger spouse and his 11-year-old son Julian, product of an earlier marriage, was an improbable end for a man who never repudiated his lifelong philosophy that “evil is stronger than good.”
“How many times have I encountered a crooked politician who wants to establish he’s a nice guy, or a killer who wants you to think he’s a good guy at heart,” says Wright. “I was fascinated because here is a guy who has done monstrous things and he’s not trying to portray himself as a nice guy or a victim.”
As Roberts tells Wright in “American Desperado,” “I might be a sociopath. Most of the time I’ve been on this earth I’ve had no regard for human life. That’s been the key to my success.”
If “American Desperado” is to be believed, Jon Roberts beat people to death in New York, skinned enemy POWs alive in Vietnam, and helped a future CIA agent murder famed mobster Meyer Lansky’s stepson in Miami – with Lansky’s approval.
Roberts first came to national attention as one of the stars of “Cocaine Cowboys,” a Miami-produced documentary that was a surprise hit in 2006. The film details the early 1980s, when Miami became a nearly lawless place awash in cocaine, violence and corruption.
As an American representative of the Medellin Cartel, Roberts helped import some $2 billion worth of cocaine into South Florida, working with infamous figures like Albert San Pedro, Pablo Escobar, Bobby Seal, Max Mermelstein and Bobby Erra.
“He’s a killer,” says Wright, author of the acclaimed Iraq War book, “Generation Kill.” “The notion that Jon is a monster because he kills people doesn’t disqualify a person in my code of life. He’s a killer — let’s move on from there. Let’s find out more.”
Last night, I spoke to Roberts’ smuggling partner and costar in Cocaine Cowboys, the laid-back and quirky Mickey Munday, with whom he had epic disagreements. The last time Munday saw Roberts, he recalls, was at a Miami restaurant with Peter Berg — where the cancer-stricken old criminal vowed to kill Munday before he kicked the bucket: “Before I go, I’m going to get you.”
“I told him: ‘If I had a bucket list, I might put that blonde over there on it,'” Munday says. “‘But not whacking somebody who’s known me for 25 years.'”
“I always thought that he would beat this, I really did,” Munday told me. “If anybody could, it was him, because he’s the meanest son of a bitch I knew. If cancer could get to him it could get to anybody.”
Munday later texted me, referring to Roberts’ nemesis Mermelstein, who also died of cancer: “I hope Jon is kicking Max from one end of Hell to the other.”
Travel Bum Show: The Cuba Prostitution Documentary
“Cuban women can take a compliment without sneering at you as though you offered them your entire soul.” – Andrew Lindy
A friend of mine recently sent me The Cuba Prostitution Documentary by Andrew Lindy.
This cat obviously has talent. It is pretty damn good.
It is not a documentary about “prostitution” Cuba per se (and I don’t mean Thomas Keller’s restaurant Per Se either), as in the guy pays money in exchange for sex, it is more about the cat trying to pick up girls in Cuba.
I have been thinking someone needs to do an Anthony Bourdain-style travel show for the swooping girls set.
It sometimes makes me wish I could get in front of a camera and bust something out. It would be probably the dopest video show on the Internet. But I never would for a host of reasons.
Cotto VS Margarito II. I might not have technically been the “best fight” of 2011, but Cotto’s revenge stood out a the greatest win in Boxing for 2011. Hell, it was the greatest win in all of sport for 2011.
And if you think about it, this win erases the Margarito “loss” and only leaves the Pac-Man loss on Cotto’s ledger. Cotto is back in biz in a big way.
Best Fights:
These fights were all tops in my book.
Alfredo Angulo vs James Kirkland. Unbelievable come from behind win for Kirkland.
Andre Berto vs Victor Ortiz. This fight was pure amazing. I am a big fan of trading knockdowns so Round 6 was a modern day classic in my eyes.
This fight even had Emanuel Stewart saying “Oh my God!” And you don’t hear that very often.
Akira Yaegashi vs. Pornsawan Porpramook. Almost everyone slept on this thrilling beauty. Who says “Minimum Weight” fighters can’t throw it down?
Erik Morales vs Marcos Maidana. Two of the toughest guys in boxing show you how its done. Pure heart and soul.
Bernard Hopkins Vs Jean Pascal II. My main man Bernard (remember I used to roll in his entourage back when I was a young proto-type G. Watch the old fights, I was the handsome, dashing kid in the Custom Suit. Or just look for the only non-African American cat) does it again. Masterful performance in becoming the oldest man in the history of the sport to win a major world title, supplanting George Foreman.
Fighter of the Year:
Miguel Cotto. Thought it wasn’t? When was the last time you came back from a soul sapping, crushing defeat with loaded gloves to put on a performance of a lifetime? Honestly, I can’t believe the mainstream media didn’t give Cotto more credit.
Let’s get a little Latin flavor on this:
Future World-Wide Superstar:
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. The kid is Mexican, and looks Irish. And fights like both. Great extension on his punches. Real power. Loves to fight. Dates a former Miss Mexico Universe, so his “International Playboy” street cred is in order. What is not to like about this kid? Four big wins in 2011. Canelo is the future of boxing.
Knockouts of The year:
Floyd Mayweather’s KO of Victor Ortiz. I am sure I will get a lot of flack for chosing this one, but I loved it. Protect yourself at all times.
Fernando Montiel vs. Nonito Donaire. Now this was nice.
Zab Judah KO’s Kaizer Mabuza. Brooklyn’s own Zab Judah has still got it. Very Mayweatheresque move.
Gary Russell Jr. vs. Heriberto Ruiz. Washington, DC’s own Gary Russell Jr. is one to watch. Beautiful. Speed = Power.
Best Handspeed:
Gary Russell Jr. Keep your eye on this cat. Literally and figuratively.
Yuriorkis Gamboa. The Cuban kid brings the Meth.
Upset of the Year:
Lamont Peterson over Amir Khan. Sure it was a hometown decision. But what do you expect? It’s Boxing.
Robbery of The Year:
Manny Pacquiao VS Juan Manuel Marquez III. Marquez won this one. Everyone I respect in the boxing world that I have spoke with agrees.
Paul Williams vs Erislandy Lara. The Cuban one this one too.
Prospect of The Year:
Jose Benavidez, Jr. I have seen this kid at The Wildcard, and he is the Holyfield.
With his usual holiday cheer Marc Faber’s most recent interview had him slamming the derivative markets. In an interview with Reuters he went over his predictions for 2012 which calls for more monetary easing, QE 3 etc. He also continues to worry about the growing EU sovereign debt crisis and the lack of real solutions. This was confirmed today after the ECB announced more banks than previously known tapped liquidity lines to the tune of $600 billion.
Of course his long-term views are decidedly bearish. He thinks people in 5 years time will have maybe 50% of their money. This wealth loss will be due to either equity collapses or inflationary pressures due to monetary easing. Obviously political solutions are out of the question at this point. One can look at the US government and see utter dysfunction. The GOP led house has refused to extend a tax cut due to lobbyist pressures on certain pet projects. Then in the EU you have France and the UK with increasingly cold diplomatic relations.
“I am convinced the whole derivatives market will cease to exit. Will become zero. And when it happens I don’t know: you can postpone the problems with monetary measures for a long time but you can’t solve them… Greece should have defaulted – it would have sent a message that not all derivatives are equal because it depends on the counterparty.”
Looks like 2012 is shaping up to be another interesting year. The Mayans may be wrong about the end of the world, but if Marc Faber is right we won’t be able to tell the difference.
Jim Rogers thinks Marc Faber has got it wrong about China, when he says the country is possibly headed for a hard landing, which would lead to a devastating impact on commodities around the world.
“Marc still does not understand China. There are going to be several hard landings in the next few years, but China’s will be less hard overall than others such as Greece, U.S., et al,” Rogers told CNBC in an email.
Rogers says some parts of China’s economy will have a “hard landing” but other parts will continue to boom. He says the commodity market will have a correction, but rebutted Faber’s view that it would be devastating.
“Yes, there will be consolidations in the commodity bull market just as all markets have consolidations,” he said. “In 1987, stocks declined 40-80 percent worldwide, but it was not the end of the secular bull market in stocks.”
Rogers said he was still long commodities, adding that gold went up 600 percent in the 1970s and then corrected by 50 percent scaring a lot of people. “It then continued its secular bull market and rose 850 percent. Corrections are the normal way of all markets.”
According to Faber, Rogers’ bullish call on commodities is misplaced. “If I was always bullish about commodities and completely missed out on the crash in 2008, then obviously, having tied essentially my reputation to commodities, I’d continue to be bullish,” Faber said.
But Rogers said Faber had got it wrong when it came to his call in 2008. “I proclaimed repeatedly far and wide that one should not buy commodities in the run up phase. I also explained that I was not selling mine since we were [and are] in a secular bull market,” Rogers said.
“I explained that my shorts of Citibank, Fannie Mae, all the investment banks and homebuilders, plus my long position in the Japanese yen would protect me in any sell-offs. When one’s shorts decline 90-100 percent, it is a good year even when one’s longs decline,” Rogers added.
According to Rogers, Faber is the one who has made many wrong calls, arguing that he “totally missed” the secular bull market in commodities that began in early 1999.
“Also back in those days, he and his friends proclaimed often that China was a mess and would continue to be so,” Rogers said. “They all were wildly excited about Russia. Some of his friends even left China to start operations in Russia. We all know how that resulted.”
