johnzo

as an immigrant to the USA I am of two minds about this: 1. yeah, you can't have a government unless you can collect taxes, dummy. the US federal government spends money as stupidly as any other trillion-dollar organization, but it pays for medicare, medicaid, social security, infrastructure, weather safety, food safety, javelin missiles for Ukraine -- lots of good ****. there is value in those tax dollars. 2. American tax law is so jacked up that you can buy your way free of taxes with the right help. Many wealthy Americans will happily pay their accountants $100K to avoid a $101K tax bill. So is the extra IRS enforcement going to help mitigate these structural issues and make the wealthy pay their fair share? Or is the burden of the extra attention going to fall on the smaller fry?

Ted Cruz's wife has been there. Trump called her ugly and also said that Cruz Sr. probably collaborated on the JFK assassination. And yet on 1/6 Ted Cruz did his best trumpian footsoldiering in the Senate, trying to coup the creep into another term. I don't like seeing the world as alphas and betas but damn that was some accomplished beta work there.

Will always remember our home game vs. BC in the great 2016 turnaround season. Nichols was in peak form -- he caught a TD pass from Rory Kohlert! Denmark was continuing his great comeback season, Fogg and Leggett were making big plays all over the field. We won, but BC gave us a hell of a game, largely because Burnham played ludicrous. He put 200 yards on us that day, we could not deal with him. Just dominating. Good luck to him with his next chapter.

Buck refutes Milton: better to serve in heaven than to reign in hell

yeah, I would not classify Twitter as something that was thriving business-wise. It has a massive audience of super prominent people but no one has ever figured out how to monetize it. I'm mainly watching musk's twitter rampage as a software engineer. It's extraordinarily complex with some gnarly failure modes. I am curious to see how it runs with 10% of its original engineering headcount being under the gun to roll out new features. you know that Ted Cruz's father killed JFK, right? Connect the dots, man!

I agree, my experience is the same. I don't know anyone personally who died from Covid. I also don't know anyone who lost money when FTX went down. I don't know any Iranians who have been executed for protesting. I don't personally know anyone who voted for Trump, either time. I don't know anyone who protested in Ottawa or at any border crossings. I don't know any Ukranians who are shivering in candlelight because some Russian fuckstick droned their neighborhood substation. I don't know any trafficked women. I also don't personally know any exobiologists, or forensic accountants. however that does not lead me to conclude that those people do not exist.

this is a great conversation. like a lot of others, I've got my own emotional / mental health things to deal with. all best to all those who struggle.

I can feel this, I stepped back from sports in general in 1996 when Jets 1.0 packed up, the Rough Riders folded (I was in Ottawa then) and the CFL -- my original sports true love -- was just about dead. Prior to that I was a massive sports fan, really into everything. I've never really been bothered by teams winning and losing -- that's cyclical -- but the ongoing existence of the league is where my anxiety would go if I let it. So nowadays I tune out all mention of the CFL's economic health and management and just watch the games on TSN (occasionally live too). I'm thankful for every kickoff and I actually kinda can't believe the CFL still exists in the same form it did when I first fell in love with it. since it's USA thanksgiving tomorrow, ought to note I'm thankful for MBB too, this place really helps me feel the bomber love, the strange, ineffable thrill I get from watching the blue and gold kick ass. this place really keeps my fandom alive. thanks folks.

I'm not going to rewatch that **** but my takeaway from Sunday is that Toronto found ways to get pressure on Collaros that he couldn't cope with -- they dialed up some excellent pressure in the 4th quarter with delayed blitzing that got home. Normally in the 4Q our OL goes fortress mode, but the Argos found the cracks. Credit to Corey Mace and their D for that. I don't think Collaros was 100%. That missed throw to Ellingson, he's made that throw dozens of times as a Bomber. I think he was well enough to play, but not to play well. I wonder if that influenced the playcalling, if Collaros' injury shortened the Bomber playbook?

If Schoen bolts for the NFL, Lawler would be a real nice replacement. Bailey and Ellingson appear to be free agents after this year -- the signing stories I see talk about them both signing single-year deals prior to this season.

GRANT!

foodwise I am simple. my usual Grey Cup thing is a trough of poutine. I get some oven fries and some real nice curds from the fancy cheese store. maybe some chopped bacon in there, some green onions, whatever else is lying around. Assemble in baking pan, cook in oven, cover with envelope gravy and lots of good coarse pepper. delicious. If I get inspired to peel some ginger tomorrow, I might have some homemade ginger ale too. Alas I can't drink anything harder anymore, doctor's orders. my birthday falls near the Grey Cup so sometimes there is leftover cake too!

maybe a youtube tour? something of this magnitude might need video...

please does anyone have a picture of the Argos practicing in parkas? I think one could have some fun with that.

Can't find it now but I remember a photo of an awesome whiteboard in the Bomber dressing room with a game day weather forecast written on it. it went something like: Winds: 50km/h Snow: 30cm Temperature: -10 C Forecast: WE DON'T CARE wish I could find that. searched on twitter but no love, Musk probably broke their search. wind really helped us too. I think the TiCats win that game if they had a punter who could punt into the wind even a little bit. Those repeated nine yard punts he gave us were basically turnovers..

I love this whole weird league of ours and TBH if Hamilton had managed to close out last year's Grey Cup I would have been happy because the game was real competitive & dramatic. Certainly less happy than I was with the epic bomber win, but I wouldn't have been too bummed about a bomber Grey Cup loss in 2021. The only team I really hate is the maple leafs. I grew up around a lot of super dumb Leaf fans and so I will continue to celebrate Leafs Elimination Day and if I need a pick-me up I go and read about their recent playoff collapses.

Can't argue with the results. Thank you for your service!

I am not a baseball fan but I love me some freak pitchers. Dock Ellis will always be my #1 baseball hero.

oh man I thought I was the only one who did this. cheers to a happy but unproductive Monday.

my crunch of the game: BC receiver is fighting hard thru multiple tackles for an oliveira-style first down. Looks like he might make it, he's really givin er out there. Could be a great football play-- but then BA comes into the frame like a goddman thunderbolt and stops him COLD. 100% pure downhill safety play. You love to see it. my block of the game: Bailey, multiple times. Once he led B.Oli through the line like a damn fullback. Another time, he came flying in to chip a BC guy and turned a zero-yard swing pass into a five-yard Oli rumble. we crap on TSN but I really appreciate Suitor and company calling out those sweet blocks. Featured in the replay both times. Suitor does have a legit solid appreciation of hard nosed lunchpail players.

I don't think I've ever seen a team come apart like that on their final crunch-time chance, especially in the playoffs. Even the worst teams in the CFL can get lined up when they get down to crunch time, it just seems like basic football competency. and most of these players have played in front of bigger crowds than the IGF one. Bombers played down far enough to give the Lions a longshot 60-second drive to redemption and the Lions were just flat-out were not ready for the opportunity. TSN talked about the numerous second-year starters on the team, implying that's a young team by CFL standards. Some of them definitely got an opportunity to learn a lesson yesterday. A couple times during the game I noticed that Bighill was blitzing while WJ was dropping into pass coverage ... looked like they were trying to bait throws to crossers running through Biggie's space...

2021 health stuff can go to hell. Congrats on being well and enjoy your 1/30000 share of the crowd HH.

man why didn't I take up my pals on the offer of Kraken tickets today ... could've worn a bomber jersey and gotten some high fives...

HH to the Winnipeg crowd that basically closed out the game. Completely discombobulated Rourke and the Lions. TBH I'm shocked at how badly BC was prepared for noise but I'll credit our side with it and move on.

team with home field advantage gets to pick uniforms, right?