johnzo

In other US news, students at the University of North Carolina have torn down Silent Sam, a Confederate monument, Saddam-style. They are technically vandals, yes, and ideally that's not the way that change happens in a country with the rule of law. But let's check out the context of the statue -- here is an excerpt from the speech dedicating it. It is ******* vile stuff so I'm gonna put it behind a spoiler. So yeah, tear that motherfucker down. I'll chip in for legal fees. (just to bring it home, Brian Walker and Travis Bond played at UNC)

The Manafort jury has reached consensus on all but one of the 18 charges against him, so this could be a Very Big Week for Trump henchmen and the courts.

She was the Queen of Soul, but now she's a goddess. RIP Ms. Franklin.

It's confirmed that Manziel's absence was for concussion protocol: https://canoe.com/sports/football/cfl/alouettes-put-quarterback-johnny-manziel-under-concussion-protocol Pipkin likely to start this week. Fifth starting quarterback in nine games. Good lord.

The Als scored a go-ahead touchdown on the play when he was hit and it looked like he was turning the corner and starting to move the team. From a winning-football-games standpoint, the Als had every reason to leave him in.

So yeah, you've got both of them lined up on the punt team, you've got a lot of different fake options for the opposing STC to think about, and since Bennett appears to have some tackling skills you're not sacrificing any coverage ability with him in there.

You should know that the CFL is totally chill about protests that take place during the nation anthem. I suspect that a lot of American-born CFL players hold the same beliefs as NFL players -- when the police brutality protests were at their height last fall, there were a number of news articles asking the opinion of CFL players and my memory is that they were pretty sympathetic to the protesters...

Welcome Doug! I am Canadian born and live in Seattle now, but my wife is from southern Colorado and I have fallen in with a bunch of folks who've moved up here from ABQ so I've eaten a lot of green chiles and hooo boy nothing I ever ate in Canada prepared me for how goddamn delicious they are. You want some good Southwest / Canadian fusion eating, try green chile poutine -- just use a green chile burrito sauce instead of brown gravy.

Wonder if Briggs will be the other upback ... all kinds of fake possibilities with Briggs and Bennett in there.

Amazing how he turned it around after Austin was replaced .. he looked completely done in the first half of 2017. Wonder if Ernest Jackson will have a similar turnaround if/when he escapes the Als.

I remember when Zontar asked here about Westerman, everyone talked up how he got one major foul a game, usually at the worst time. So there ya go, Zontar. Westerman wasn't the decapitation shot, though, that was the linebacker Dean who took Nichols down by the face mask ... Westerman's was the horsecollar tackle from the front, a call I've never heard before.

Anyway, this Ingraham stuff is pretty ******* scary. I am a legal immigrant to the USA. I don't feel personally targeted by the current administration because I'm the whitest goddamn person on the planet (I'm mostly English + Danish) and my record is squeaky-clean here ... but every time I see a headline about targeting legal immigrants I get a little nervous. I need to get my ass naturalized soon, because this is my home, and I need to feel secure in it, and also being able to vote will be good. Just in case anyone is curious -- I don't resent "illegal" immigrants because I got to emigrate to the USA by choice, I was at the end of a bad relationship and needed a change, and hey, why not Seattle? But I could have moved anywhere in Canada, or a lot of other countries, and I would've been fine. I didn't come to the USA under duress, because my home country is a bomb-paved hellscape, or because there's no other way I can support my family, or because my government is killing people of my religion. A lot of those folks have faced enormous hardship that I simply can't imagine, and once they're here, they are paying taxes and working hard -- much, much harder than I do, with my super cushy office rocket programming job. And so I'm not going to condemn those folks on the basis of them being on the wrong side of a border as a survival strategy.

I dunno if the Irish and Italians and especially the Jews were welcomed back in the day, or even considered "white." There's lots of examples of violence and organization against them .... tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were turned away from America in the world war years. Which makes it especially galling to see people like Bill O'Reilly -- the descendant of Irish refugees -- going on about how refugees and immigrants suck.

O'Connor would have to win the remaining votes 70-30 to pull this off, and that's assuming no provisional ballots are discarded. It could happen, but I think this election is in garbage time. Tho of course O'Connor should do everything he's entitled to do to make sure the ballots have been cast and counted correctly.

The Ohio congressional victory for the GOP was like us beating the Alouettes 7-6 on a last minute safety touch. Bombers still get the two points, but morningbigblue would be rightfully freaking out about our underperformance. Re, the bigger picture. it's a pat and often lazy left-wing thing to say that the Republicans are driven by racism, but man, after watching this Laura Ingraham piece I have to wonder about that. Her problem is that there are too many brown people in the USA, and that the USA she loves is gone because of that. (the bit about not voting for that massive demographic change is kinda funny, as Reagan and Bush I did far more to formally legitimize immigrants than Clinton or Obama, and Bush II almost got a giant amnesty bill to sign, before it was derailed by congressional opposition)

Man, who could the Als hire to rebuild after they fire Reed? Who would want the job given the way they've burned their seed corn? Tom Higgins and Jim Barker are the only names to come to mind, and you gotta wonder what kind of baggage Higgins has in Montreal.

my biggest question about last week's game ... why did that Argo dude bring his giant framed panther poster to the sideline?

My band Pony Camp just cut this, it's our first ever studio recording. I'm on drums and singing backup during the spirited parts.

How much hassle could it have been? Hamilton held all the cards. Dude made lots of noise and negotiated in public, but at the end of the day, if he wanted to get paid to play outdoor football in North America, Hamilton was his only option. If I were a Ticats fan I'd be over the moon about this deal. They paid backup coin and zero football assets (unless you count Adams, who got cut to make room) to sign a raw guy with some upside but zero future in the league, and then they turned him into 2 high first round picks, a starting Canadian, and Chris Williams who could still have game? That's some Rumplestiltskin GMing right there. It's a fun thing to think about but I don't think 1996 Doug Flutie could light it up with the Als at this point.

yeah, Harris is having a great year and is definitely our MOP. but I don't think he'd be beasting like he is if it was someone like Alex Brink handing him the ball. Having a viable passing threat makes space for Harris to do his thing.

I'd settle for Rod Black being able to distinguish between Trevor Harris and Travis Lulay. Dude called Harris "Lulay" like six times last weekend. Need to sub Kate Beirness in for Rod Smith in the studio full-time and the get Rod S. and Dunigan out as a regular full-time broadcast team. That'd go a long way towards fixing up the TSN broadcasts.

Here's a preview of how it's gonna work out:

This is a pure 90s-era Ottawa Rough Riders move, tho at least the Rough Riders didn't have to trade their entire future to get Andre Ware.

Noticed last night that when Couture is in for tight end sets, Bowman is the guy subbing out. So Bowman is not only getting fewer targets, he's getting fewer snaps. (love that TSN over-the-huddle camera, makes it so much easier to track lineup changes on O)

I wonder how often Bowman is one of the first reads in the Lapo offence? Like, is Lapo calling plays that feature him at all? Seems like Lapo's offense is all about featuring Harris and Adams and Streveler and (in the BC game) Demski and leaving everyone else the scraps. Also (and I haven't run the numbers on this) it seems like we are featuring the run way more than we did last year even with Nichols in there ... that's going to take touches away from our receivers. Dressler's numbers are down too. Maybe Bowman has just aged out and can't get open, I dunno, but maybe it's something else. I remember how Lapo couldn't figure out how to use him last time they were both in Winnipeg...