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Bullying tactics

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Trump says he has agreed to three debates in September, awaits Harris response (Reuters)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-says-he-has-agreed-to-three-debates-in-september-awaits-harris-response/ar-AA1otwQB?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=94e66e175fc547c187ee55656785ee84&ei=39

In the article, the first debate is the infamous September 4 debate on Fox that Trump proposed last week and which the Harris campaign declined.

Trump's second debate is September 10, but on NBC. September 10 was the same date as the previously agreed to debate on ABC.

Finally, Trump's third debate is September 25 on ABC. Notice that the horrible, failed ABC who has it in for Trump is allegedly broadcasting the last of three debates.

Maybe the Trump campaign has talked to all three networks and reached agreement with them. He hasn't got the Harris campaign on board.

He's trying to invite himself to a series of debates and browbeat Harris to participate in the process. I think the Harris campaign ought to respond that she'll show up to the previously agreed to debate on September 10 on ABC. Will he honor his commitment and be there?

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THREE debates in a month? No one wants to see that.

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No kidding. You'd have to be a glutton for punishment to watch three debates over 21 days. Yeesh.

Mitigation: watch it strictly as a drinking game.

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Anyway, the fact that the Trump team is asking for this indicates that they know they're losing now.

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Exactly. I think panic is setting in because Harris has not only reset the campaign, the Harris campaign is on the offensive and the Trump campaign is dead in the water (metaphorically speaking).

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Football practice postponed to 3pm due to campus shooting.

https://www.si.com/college/cal/football/cal-football-practice-postponed-after-campus-shooting-incident-01j4sg46mhdv

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Bruh. Someone shooting at runners on Clark Kerr tracks. That's messed up.

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sunny southern CA ..

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

here for a few days and staying w/ some friends in Newport Beach before heading up to the Bay Araa.

yesterday i was walking around Venice (LA) and bought a pair of cheap, fun sunglasses from GoodR's aviator collection.

i think HSB would approve >>> Buzzed On The Tower

https://goodr.com/products/buzzed-on-the-tower

Cadet green aviator sunglasses designed to fulfill a (metaphorical) need for speed. Sunnies can’t make you run faster, but the no slip, no bounce frames stay put while you sweat and gradient polarized lenses with UV400 protection keep your peepers safe and your vision sharp.

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Oh do you like Goodr? I got a pair for free at an event and never took them out.

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I feel the need, the need for speed!

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I like the look, but I'm not sure my noggin is big enough.

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Assuming the same results, would you rather...

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It's called the muddled middle, which Cal only occasionally, and temporarily, deviates from, for better or worse. Offense excites, and sells seats, and beer, better, or at least longer, than rock fights.

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Did Sonny get Butts-in-seats?

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

Yes, he did, but it was a build and Cal Memorial 2.0 was a decidedly smaller capacity venue.

Even so, the Dykes years were underperformers compared to the best Tedford years ('04 though '09).

I have the data at home that can provide elaboration.

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

He also had to rebuild from a 3-win Tedford team while the stadium was under renovation, which absolutely demolished attendance. I love Wilcox as a human being, but I'd rather watch the 60-59 monstrosities over a team that legitimately cannot score.

If we cannot turn it around this season I'm of the belief we need to move on from him for the sake of energy. Our HS recruiting is currently unacceptable and i'm thinking is dead because of his tenure at this point.

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I must wonder if Wilcox's run-down-the-clock heavy defense strategy lacks the entertainment value for fans.

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When Sonny took over the team in 2013, the renovation had been fundamentally completed for a year. But capacity had been reduced by about 9,800 seats (!).

That first season, 2013, Cal won only 1 game, a 37-30 win over Portland State on September 7. We won't speak of the Big Game that year.

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Our attendance was a bit better under him, though it's hard to say how much of that was hangover from the high-attendance Tedford years.

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

That, and Goff was must watch. It felt like Cal was never completely out of a game. Same with Davis Webb, to a lesser extent. You could count on plenty of fireworks. Cannon got a workout.

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A really good Cal game is when the cannon runs out of ammo. LOL

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It seemed like they didn't fire the cannon after each TD this year, maybe only at the beginning and the end of wins.

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It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s question of the day.

I’ve never seen a yard for sale at a yard sale nor a garage for sale at a garage sale. Can we talk about this?

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i tell the kids thety are called "junk sales" because you are literally buying someone else's junk and helping someone else avoid throwing it in the garbage.

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I've also never been able to buy a decent fire at a fire sale.

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

Well, Yard Sale and Garage Sale are a bit less off-putting than Castoff Stuff Sale, My Trash Is Your Treasure Sale, or House Barf Sale.

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| House Barf

LOL

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PRO

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If you're competing against a bitter rival, do you a) work extra hard, b) prepare mentally, or c)...

https://www.chess.com/news/view/russian-chess-player-suspended-after-allegedly-poisoning-her-rival

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No hitter with two out in the ninth ruined. Again.

https://twitter.com/YahooSports/status/1821010709418774749

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OLIMPIQUES

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Gold medal count is tight! Hope we lock some of these final ones down.

Also totally forgot about Russia - sports world is totally fine without them.

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

But considering she did college crew starting around 12 years ago, that's a strong base with similar conditioning.

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Who was the speed skater who medaled in Salt Lake City (2002) and then went on to medal in cycling in 2004? That guy had massive thighs.

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I remember Eric Heiden also cycled professionally, but I don't remember if it was in the Olympics.

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Okay, now I know that I'm conflating stuff, because I'm thinking of Heiden and one other speed skater. Heiden medaled at Lake Placid (1980).

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WADA hits back at USADA in feud by anti-doping agencies

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/08/nx-s1-5067767/feuding-anti-doping-agencies-usada-wada-chinada-olympics

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Undercover agents! The next James Bond movie will have athletic doping as a plot theme. Bond himself will be an Olympic athlete.

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Icarus 2

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How optimistic are you about this Cal season compared to how you normally are.

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

I feel like we could get 8-10 wins, but enough bullshit will drag us down to 6-7. That said, we generally do well OOC and this whole season feels OOC.

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Lawrence Ross and I share the same view. 6-8 win season

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTxeqx6YZow#t=8m

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BTW- Heard Lawrence Ross aka Alpha on Locked on the ACC podcast.

At first, I thought it might be one of our sunshine pumpers, but he made a good case for an 8 win season.

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I'm more optimistic than I've been in several years. I think we can reach the eight-win mark (int the regular season).

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16-0, bitches!

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I'll have what you're having...

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Just had an out of body encounter with a sports oracle.

I was shown that, even if we had an Uncle Phil-level football patron, who infused huge amounts of cash, including paying off the CMS mortgage, we would still not have butss-in-seats, because campus culture has shifted away from school spirit.

I had a vision of Justin Wilcox as the kindly reassuring hospice nurse easing us into our final passage to football Heaven.

As a Cal fan, ot course, I will rationalize that the oracle is wrong and I should seek a second opinion. "The Bear does not quit. The Bear does not die!," I yelled at the defective oracle.

Denial and irrational optimism is, IMHO, the hallmark of being a Cal fan and is TypiCal ©BobR

So, I am excited about this season and the new conference, and will remain so, until my heart gets broken in a series of Cardiac Cal events.

#CalFanDefibrillator

Go Bears!

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counter point: Campus culture has NEVER been about school spirit first.

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Well, to clarify, campus culture has shifted away from what school spirit there was. And I agree school spirit was never first priority.

IMHO, few things so clearly illustrate the gap between students and life's stark realities as the Ax stare-down in the Big Game. This is where civilian students show their understanding of the importance and meaning of school spirit and pride. Bless their hearts, but I've seen puppies look more fierce.

Grrr Rahhhh!

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The change in conference injects some uncertainty to my outlook. It's not as though the ACC teams are unknown, just not as intimately known as the old Pac-12 teams were. I'm optimistic, but very cautiously so.

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i am generally optimistic at the start of every Cal season. just no Rose Bowl to dream about anymore ..

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concur

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Me too.

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Same.

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Just about the same as other years

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So we can count on the usual balanced mix of comments of wild (and unfounded) enthusiasm, sunshine pumping, DOOOOOM, and "Fire Wilcox" we have been able to depend on CGB, and now WFC, to provide for years? 😉

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Where are the tree sitters when we need them.

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Also "Fire Sirmon" "Fire Everybody" "16-0" "Ott for Heisman"

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"Always RUN" followed by "Always PASS"

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WEATHER

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Continuing to cook in the NW, and today will be the peak for much of the region, with a slow, gradual decline over the next week. Not anything close to cool anytime soon, but you can tell fall is coming, especially in the early morning and later in the evening. Heat induced equipment problems and project delays will persist well into the fall though.

Debate the effectiveness of various measures at abating, much less reversing, the warming trend as you wish, but there's no debate we have had sustained increased heat, both spikes and elevated averages, and it has not proven to be good for much of anything.

The good news is minimal prospects for more lightning to start more large fires and high winds to spread them. The best news on wildfire is the amount burned should taper off because we have already burned most of it in a lot of areas.

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sunny and nice here in LA

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went to the beach in Santa Monica yesterday. took a quick dip in the ocean and walking along the beach for 20-30 min.

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No sunshine here. The leading edge of Debby is circling over.

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Getting soaked pretty good by Tropical Storm Debby now. Apparently, there were a bunch of tornadoes just east of me, which is a bit scary.

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Weird. A few hours ago, the wind direction reversed as we passed from the windward to the leeward side of the storm's rotation and then it all stopped as we are now near the eye of the storm.

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Part of Juneau AK flooded after a glacial dam flood (includes neat time lapse video)

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/climate/alaska-juneau-flooding-glacier-outburst-climate/index.html

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OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY

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Happy 50th anniversary of Nixon's resignation. (The story is that as he left the White House for the final time he bumped into incoming President Gerald Ford and said, "pardon me." The rest is history.)

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Today is the 50th anniversary of his televised resignation speech. Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of his formal resignation and Ford's inauguration in the East Room.

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[Lurch groan.gif]

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Gaza protestors interrupt Harris whistlestop in Detroit. Madame Vice President spits truth back at them.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4817646-harris-responds-gaza-protesters-rally/

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8

"Israel has a right to defend itself, but how it does so matters."

If that's not a direct quote, it a spot on paraphrase of what Harris said. It reflects my view as well. The protestors don't understand anything but hardline stances, so I doubt they'll understand what Madam Vice-President is saying.

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The protestors are just LARPing. They think that if they dress up and look like protestors then they are on the morally righteous side - it’s just an imitation of an image, not an actual substantive analysis of any kind. Harris is right to just tell them to STFU

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The weird thing is that Harris met with the leaders of the "uncommitted" movement in Michigan (those who refused to vote Biden in the primary because of Gaza) and gained their support. So yeah, whoever showed up to chant at her speech is likely just someone doing it for performative reasons.

I might have preferred she make a cheerier joke about the protestors before ignoring them and having them escorted out, rather than the stern option she took . . . but a dismissive response was warranted (and probably helps her more than it hurts electorally).

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Reminds me of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) at UCSC. You knew they had an event when you saw people dressed in what looked like Renaissance Pleasure Faire costumes running around the East Side of campus.

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They are also just repeating the message that we have all already figured out, no matter what side, or the middle, of the issue you are in, that we have a big, complex, costly problem. We have long past the point where calling attention to it is a necessary step.

Question is what are you going to do about it, or any portion of it, to effectively contribute to resolving it?

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El Paso middle school in a bit of controversy as administrators were never educated about the difference between causations and association

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/08/07/el-paso-middle-school-all-black-clothing-ban/74708416007/

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DBD AV CLUB

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ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE

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Hawaii and Oregon cancel their 2031 and 2032 home and home. In unrelated news, Cal doesn't even have any OOO opponents scheduled yet in 2031 and is set to play the home leg in 2032 after visiting Laramie in 2029.

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There is getting chippy during practice and then there is this [@App State]

https://x.com/hennyC4_/status/1820983953756402110

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Aug 8·edited Aug 8Author

NCAA punishes Michigan by [checks notes] suspending Harbaugh from coaching in the NCAA for a year due to his willful obstruction

https://www.ncaa.org/news/2024/8/7/media-center-michigan-committed-ncaa-violations-in-football-program.aspx

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I understand that Harbaugh also has a 4-year show cause order against him.

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