Welcome to the Daily Bear Dump, a Write for California community board where one can talk about anything – Cal-related or off-topic. Comment threads are sorted by topic. Anything is fine, so long as you’re generally civil.
Trump's lockup period on his Trump Media (DJT) stock may expire on Sep 20th, so long the share price stays above $12. The share closed at $20.10 yesterday. Trump's 60% stake is worth $2.4b. I am going to LMAO when Trump sells, he tanks the stock and it eventually becomes literally worthless. While I wish it was Trump taking the zero, I'll settle for the next best thing - his most ardent supporters taking one in the wallet to compensate the so-called billionaire.
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado deny RFK Jr's request to be removed from ballot. However, he has been removed from the AZ, NV, PA, FL, OH, FL, and TX ballots. It is unclear if he has been removed from the NC ballot, but I suspect he will be since the bipartisan Board of Elections is 2:1 GOP
Bradley Whitford is criticizing Cheryl Hines after the actress issued a statement supporting her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The former West Wing star took aim at the former Curb Your Enthusiasm star after Kennedy dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump last week.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday said people need to lay off his wife, Cheryl Hines, over his recent endorsement of Donald Trump — even as he revealed she was the one who urged him to meet with the GOP candidate in the first place.
Hines most decidedly does not support Trump, RFK Jr. told TMZ Live, though he admitted it was Hines who advised him to answer the Trump camp’s phone call when they reached out hours after the July 13 assassination attempt.
The Athletics came out on top for the third straight contest on Wednesday evening, beating the Cincinnati Reds in the second of three and setting up a chance for a sweep in tomorrow’s series finale.
You can’t blame Kyle Harrison if he felt like the rug was pulled out from him in the 5th inning.
For the first four innings, the San Francisco Giants southpaw had been excellent. Holding up his end of the bout in the battle of the four-seam, Harrison and Milwaukee Brewers’ starter Freddy Peralta were in a dead heat. Through four innings, Peralta had allowed 1 hit, 2 walks, 0 runs with 5 strikeouts on 63 pitches. Harrison had allowed 1 hit, 1 walk, 0 runs with 5 strikeouts on 62 pitches.
In a matchup drastically affected by defensive errors, the Dodgers made the most out of the opportunities they were granted against an ace and capitalized en route to a 6-4 win over the Orioles at home.
As if nearly scripted, Shohei Ohtani made sure to play a pivotal role in this Dodgers win on his bobblehead night. Some might say he was simply trying to live up to the efforts of his dog, Decoy, who came out there on the field for the first pitch.
Former California rugby co-captain Alex Aguero was selected eighth overall by the Houston SaberCats in the 2024 Major League Rugby Collegiate Draft on Wednesday afternoon. Aguero is the third Golden Bear in as many years to have been chosen in the first round, following Sam Golla's No. 1 overall pick in 2022 and Max Schumacher's No. 2 overall selection in 2023.
BERKELEY – California volleyball begins its 2024 campaign this weekend for its first slate of matches under new head coach Jen Malcom, with the Golden Bears heading up to Portland, Oregon, for the Rose City Invitational Presented by Hotel Vance on Friday and Saturday. The program last competed in this tournament in 2018, winning two out of its three matches.
LIMA, PERU – California track and field sophomore Justin Pretre competed in the qualifying round of the World U20 Athletics Championships Men's 1500m on Wednesday at Estádio Nacional, earning an eighth-place finish in Heat 2.
Pretre, who won the Canadian U20 1500m title exactly two months ago, finished with a time of 3:46.66 – 1.54 seconds shy of a top-five time and a spot in Saturday's 1500m Final.
California cross country will begin its inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference on Friday at the USF Invitational in San Francisco. The Golden Bears will travel across the Bay Bridge to Hellman Hollow of Golden Gate Park. The men begin competition with the 8000m at 2 p.m., followed by the women 6000m at 3 p.m.
BERKELEY - The California women's basketball team is hosting its fifth annual Race For Change at Lake Merritt in Oakland on Sep. 28 at 3 p.m. PT. The event has become a Cal community social justice event over the years, led by the Golden Bears. In its fifth year, the mission stays the same: to work together to strive for justice, create sustainable change and to slowly but decisively dismantle systems of oppression and uplift the Black Community.
Watching the rest today. Clearly they want to educate the rest of the conference about who Cal is. Gave a rundown of Notable Cal Running Backs: Lynch, Forsett, Arrington, Best, Vereen. Followed by a nice film room discussion with Ott. And several minutes from that documentary about the Play. Too much red, but otherwise OK.
NC A&T is an HBCU with about 15k students in Greensboro NC. It is a public university that is part of the UNC system. Unlike California, the UNC system is a singular body operated by school-specific board of trustees, but governed by a Board of Governors for all the UNC, NC State, HBCUs, and other public universities. The Board of Governors is drawn from the state assembly, which is gerrymandered to be veto-proof GOP - so it is very conservative. The public generally holds UNCs in higher regarded by than the "state" schools, but there are notable exceptions. UNC Pembroke and Greensboro are both considered to be pretty bad schools, while NC State is the state's premier engineering university. UNC Chapel Hill doesn't even offer engineering degrees. The five public HBCUs are not treated the same, which is a political commentary in itself.
FCS level NC A&T was terrible last year (1-10 and winless in league) and had a power ranking of 293- making it one of the worst teams in football. It starts a new QB via senior QB Justin Fomby - the QB who lost his starting job at Houston Christian after having a terrible season in 2022. Wake Forest is bad, but Hank Bachmeier should be good enough to beat the over on this game.
To put into perspective who was in Cam Rising's high school graduation cohort:
Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy, Zach Wilson, Matt Coral, DTR, Justin Rogers (the TCU QB we couldn't sack in the Cheez-INTs Bowl despite him not feeling his foot), Justin Fields, Tanner McKee.
There are pay games and then there is this. Lindenwood wasn't even FCS level three years ago (provisional FCS two years ago, full FCS last year). The game was scheduled in January 2024 when it was already apparent that Kansas is going to be good.
Anyone remember what the spread was when 'Furd beat U$C at the Coliseum during Harbaugh's first(?) year? I seem to remember it being somewhere in this stratosphere.
My memory is kind of vague on this point, but I remember the spread being something like 28 points. And I think it would have been 2007. 2007 was Harbaugh's first year at LSJU.
The 2009 LSJU-USC game was a Stanfurd rout, and Cheaty Petey wasn't pleased. At all.
Western Carolina University is a 12k student university that is part of the UNC System. The school is in the middle of nowhere in the Appalachians in the far tip of the state and there isn't much to the town of Cullowhee apart from the school. It is a top quartile football FCS program, finishing with a power rating of 169 - slightly weaker than FBS UNC-Charlotte (167) but ahead of Nevada (171). I'd still take the over for NC State.
Another example of a state school in a remote location (see also Washington St in Pullman, vs Spokane), placed there to take advantage of cheap to free land no one wanted for something more profitable.
I'll probably take an interest in seeing the 4 B16 (whatever) teams, only because of the strong past connection to all four schools that left. That'll take some time for me to ween myself off of...but I was pleasantly surprised at how much interest I took in the Georgia Tech/FSU game last week. It was really fun watching FSU lose and lobbing loud swear words at them in the process.
My enthusiasm/interest in the former PAC 12 teams has appreciably wained. For me, it best manifests itself in my former habituation of following their blogs & podcasts, etc in the preseason and season. With 2024 having hardly any, if at all, interest in them.
Now, I may watch some of their games if it suits my fancy and is convenient....otherwise it may just be highlights. My emphasis will be on following ACC teams as the new vis -a- vis. Will see how well I adjust...remains to be seen.
It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s question of the day.
I worked at a school where they changed the title of the receptionist to reception coordinator and another school where the janitors were renamed custodial services. Who do you suppose they were trying to kid?
Words accumulate connotations like a ship does barnacles, so people change terminology to get away from old connotations. It’s understandable but there is an art to this - I appreciate the more euphemistic ones like sanitation engineer for garbage man.
Are you sure the reception coordinator wasn't also involved with recruit visits as a added responsibility? A good way to not draw too much attention to that back when it might be a potential NCAA or Title IX issue.
I thought you were referring to Cal initially. Although, "potential NCAA or Title IX issues at immersive English language schools for international students" could describe a good segment of the goings on in Berkeley, come to think of it.
There's awkward small talk around the water cooler and then there's this...
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/27/chaffee-county-search-rescue-hiker-coworkers-retreat-injured-mount-shavano/
I hope the hiker left behind has the moxie to look for another job elsewhere. He sure as shit can't count on his co-workers to have his back.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Trump's lockup period on his Trump Media (DJT) stock may expire on Sep 20th, so long the share price stays above $12. The share closed at $20.10 yesterday. Trump's 60% stake is worth $2.4b. I am going to LMAO when Trump sells, he tanks the stock and it eventually becomes literally worthless. While I wish it was Trump taking the zero, I'll settle for the next best thing - his most ardent supporters taking one in the wallet to compensate the so-called billionaire.
And yet, his followers will keep throwing money at his grifting.
Which is exactly why he keeps running scams like this.
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado deny RFK Jr's request to be removed from ballot. However, he has been removed from the AZ, NV, PA, FL, OH, FL, and TX ballots. It is unclear if he has been removed from the NC ballot, but I suspect he will be since the bipartisan Board of Elections is 2:1 GOP
https://www.businessinsider.com/states-denying-rfk-jr-ballot-removal-2024-8
Update: NC has refused to take RFK Jr off the ballot
I love it when the best laid plans of mice and autocrats go awry.
Bradley Whitford Slams Cheryl Hines for Supporting Her “Lunatic Husband” RFK Jr.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/bradley-whitford-cheryl-hines-rfk-jr-trump-1235984535/
Bradley Whitford is criticizing Cheryl Hines after the actress issued a statement supporting her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The former West Wing star took aim at the former Curb Your Enthusiasm star after Kennedy dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump last week.
RFK Jr. says wife Cheryl Hines does not support Trump, tells bullies to lay off
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/rfk-jr-says-wife-cheryl-hines-does-not-support-trump-tells-bullies-to-lay-off/
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday said people need to lay off his wife, Cheryl Hines, over his recent endorsement of Donald Trump — even as he revealed she was the one who urged him to meet with the GOP candidate in the first place.
Hines most decidedly does not support Trump, RFK Jr. told TMZ Live, though he admitted it was Hines who advised him to answer the Trump camp’s phone call when they reached out hours after the July 13 assassination attempt.
PRO
Four home runs help Athletics beat Reds
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2024/8/28/24230980/four-home-runs-help-athletics-beat-reds
The Athletics came out on top for the third straight contest on Wednesday evening, beating the Cincinnati Reds in the second of three and setting up a chance for a sweep in tomorrow’s series finale.
Kyle Harrison got Stu-ed (Giants lose to the Brew Crew 5-3)
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2024/8/28/24231144/mlb-final-giants-brewers-8-28-2024-recap-kyle-harrison-stu-scheurwater-gets-stu-ed
You can’t blame Kyle Harrison if he felt like the rug was pulled out from him in the 5th inning.
For the first four innings, the San Francisco Giants southpaw had been excellent. Holding up his end of the bout in the battle of the four-seam, Harrison and Milwaukee Brewers’ starter Freddy Peralta were in a dead heat. Through four innings, Peralta had allowed 1 hit, 2 walks, 0 runs with 5 strikeouts on 63 pitches. Harrison had allowed 1 hit, 1 walk, 0 runs with 5 strikeouts on 62 pitches.
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández lead Dodgers over Orioles
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/8/28/24231132/shohei-ohtani-teoscar-hernandez-home-runs-dodgers-orioles
In a matchup drastically affected by defensive errors, the Dodgers made the most out of the opportunities they were granted against an ace and capitalized en route to a 6-4 win over the Orioles at home.
As if nearly scripted, Shohei Ohtani made sure to play a pivotal role in this Dodgers win on his bobblehead night. Some might say he was simply trying to live up to the efforts of his dog, Decoy, who came out there on the field for the first pitch.
Ohtani's dog throws out the first pitch on Othani/Decoy bobblehead night. The bobblehead is both Ohtani and his dog Decoy.
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1828987297351774330
CAL
[RUBGY] Aguero, Tomasin Selected In 2024 MLR Draft
https://calbears.com/news/2024/8/28/aguero-tomasin-selected-in-2024-major-league-rugby-draft.aspx
Former California rugby co-captain Alex Aguero was selected eighth overall by the Houston SaberCats in the 2024 Major League Rugby Collegiate Draft on Wednesday afternoon. Aguero is the third Golden Bear in as many years to have been chosen in the first round, following Sam Golla's No. 1 overall pick in 2022 and Max Schumacher's No. 2 overall selection in 2023.
TIL there is pro league rugby.
[VB] Bears Open Season At Rose City Invitational
https://calbears.com/news/2024/8/28/volleyball-bears-open-season-at-rose-city-invitational.aspx
BERKELEY – California volleyball begins its 2024 campaign this weekend for its first slate of matches under new head coach Jen Malcom, with the Golden Bears heading up to Portland, Oregon, for the Rose City Invitational Presented by Hotel Vance on Friday and Saturday. The program last competed in this tournament in 2018, winning two out of its three matches.
[T&F] Pretre Takes Eighth In World U20 1500m Heat
https://calbears.com/news/2024/8/28/track-field-pretre-takes-eighth-in-world-u20-me.aspx
LIMA, PERU – California track and field sophomore Justin Pretre competed in the qualifying round of the World U20 Athletics Championships Men's 1500m on Wednesday at Estádio Nacional, earning an eighth-place finish in Heat 2.
Pretre, who won the Canadian U20 1500m title exactly two months ago, finished with a time of 3:46.66 – 1.54 seconds shy of a top-five time and a spot in Saturday's 1500m Final.
[XC] Cross Country Begins 2024 Season At USF Invitational
https://calbears.com/news/2024/8/28/cross-country-begins-2024-season-at-usf-invitational.aspx
California cross country will begin its inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference on Friday at the USF Invitational in San Francisco. The Golden Bears will travel across the Bay Bridge to Hellman Hollow of Golden Gate Park. The men begin competition with the 8000m at 2 p.m., followed by the women 6000m at 3 p.m.
[WBB] Women’s Basketball Hosts Fifth Annual Race For Change
https://calbears.com/news/2024/8/28/womens-basketball-womens-basketball-hosts-fifth-annual-race-for-change.aspx
BERKELEY - The California women's basketball team is hosting its fifth annual Race For Change at Lake Merritt in Oakland on Sep. 28 at 3 p.m. PT. The event has become a Cal community social justice event over the years, led by the Golden Bears. In its fifth year, the mission stays the same: to work together to strive for justice, create sustainable change and to slowly but decisively dismantle systems of oppression and uplift the Black Community.
Watched some of the ACCN Visit to California last night.
They set up at practice and interviewed Wilcox and many of the players. Generally a light, positive approach.
They picked Cal to win 7 to 8 games, agreeing with DBD!
Watching the rest today. Clearly they want to educate the rest of the conference about who Cal is. Gave a rundown of Notable Cal Running Backs: Lynch, Forsett, Arrington, Best, Vereen. Followed by a nice film room discussion with Ott. And several minutes from that documentary about the Play. Too much red, but otherwise OK.
Go Bears!!! Beat the Aggies!
Bend
John -er: "A naked blonde walks into a bar with a poodle under one arm and a two-foot salami under the other..."
VERY rarely is anything NOT better with a monkey involved! Love that photo.
Agreed.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2024/07/pole-assassin-jeff-banks-texas-longhorns-coach-and-exotic-dancer-pole-assassin-wedding-monkey-bite
Oregon. Lovely city.
DBD AV CLUB
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
KEO left his starting gig at Cal and is now a backup at TCU.
https://x.com/Killer_Frogs/status/1828207811639287916/photo/1
Ben Finley starts for Akron against Ohio State. The Zips are over a 50 point underdog.
Tiumalu Afavala didn't crack SDSU's four-deep on the defensive line
Marquis Montgomery didn't crack BYU's four-deep TE or eight-deep at receiver, which includes three true freshman ahead of him
Marquez Dortch named second string Z receiver at Troy
Sai Vadrewale earns 2nd string Nickel position
Jermaine Terry keeps his starting position
Andy Alfieri is 5th string TE
Everett Johnson named second string LG at Montana
Brayden Rohme named starting LT for UMass
Mateen Bhaghani named starting PK/KO for UCLA
J Mike still a starter at UCLA
Kaylin Moore doesn't make the two deep
Jeremiah Hunter officially starting for UW
https://twitter.com/rtomashoff34/status/1828123099776311659
Tonight: NDSU @ Colorado (-10.0)
Tonight: UNC (-2.0) @ Minnesota
Tonight: NC A&T @ Wake Forest (-35)
NC A&T is an HBCU with about 15k students in Greensboro NC. It is a public university that is part of the UNC system. Unlike California, the UNC system is a singular body operated by school-specific board of trustees, but governed by a Board of Governors for all the UNC, NC State, HBCUs, and other public universities. The Board of Governors is drawn from the state assembly, which is gerrymandered to be veto-proof GOP - so it is very conservative. The public generally holds UNCs in higher regarded by than the "state" schools, but there are notable exceptions. UNC Pembroke and Greensboro are both considered to be pretty bad schools, while NC State is the state's premier engineering university. UNC Chapel Hill doesn't even offer engineering degrees. The five public HBCUs are not treated the same, which is a political commentary in itself.
FCS level NC A&T was terrible last year (1-10 and winless in league) and had a power ranking of 293- making it one of the worst teams in football. It starts a new QB via senior QB Justin Fomby - the QB who lost his starting job at Houston Christian after having a terrible season in 2022. Wake Forest is bad, but Hank Bachmeier should be good enough to beat the over on this game.
Tonight: Southern Utah @ #12 Utah (-38.5)
Cam Rising rises again!
Isn't he like 47 years old?
To put into perspective who was in Cam Rising's high school graduation cohort:
Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy, Zach Wilson, Matt Coral, DTR, Justin Rogers (the TCU QB we couldn't sack in the Cheez-INTs Bowl despite him not feeling his foot), Justin Fields, Tanner McKee.
But to show that Cam Ward isn't unique, that class includes other guys who are still playing college ball:
Spencer Petras (the guy who set records for offensive futility at Iowa last year is now playing at Utah State) and Tyler Shough (Louisville).
Apropos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n1NK1bZe3Q#t=13s
Tonight: Lindenwood @ #22 Kansas (-45)
There are pay games and then there is this. Lindenwood wasn't even FCS level three years ago (provisional FCS two years ago, full FCS last year). The game was scheduled in January 2024 when it was already apparent that Kansas is going to be good.
Tonight: Murray State @ #11 Missouri (-47.0)
What's up with SEC scheduling cupcakes? This may be one of the biggest mismatches I have ever seen.
https://www.rockmnation.com/2024/8/28/24228170/murray-state-racers-preview-mizzou-football-luther-burden-heisman-playoff-brady-cook
Anyone remember what the spread was when 'Furd beat U$C at the Coliseum during Harbaugh's first(?) year? I seem to remember it being somewhere in this stratosphere.
My memory is kind of vague on this point, but I remember the spread being something like 28 points. And I think it would have been 2007. 2007 was Harbaugh's first year at LSJU.
The 2009 LSJU-USC game was a Stanfurd rout, and Cheaty Petey wasn't pleased. At all.
Tonight: Western Carolina @ #24 NC State (-32.5)
Western Carolina University is a 12k student university that is part of the UNC System. The school is in the middle of nowhere in the Appalachians in the far tip of the state and there isn't much to the town of Cullowhee apart from the school. It is a top quartile football FCS program, finishing with a power rating of 169 - slightly weaker than FBS UNC-Charlotte (167) but ahead of Nevada (171). I'd still take the over for NC State.
Another example of a state school in a remote location (see also Washington St in Pullman, vs Spokane), placed there to take advantage of cheap to free land no one wanted for something more profitable.
When choosing non-Cal football games to watch, will you default to former Pac12 teams or ACC teams? (Or are non-Cal games dead to you?)
I'm going to favor watching ACC over ex-Pac12. Cal's present and future takes priority over its past
I realized I’m planning to watch UNC versus the Gophers without even checking who all Colorado or Utah might be playing.
I'll probably take an interest in seeing the 4 B16 (whatever) teams, only because of the strong past connection to all four schools that left. That'll take some time for me to ween myself off of...but I was pleasantly surprised at how much interest I took in the Georgia Tech/FSU game last week. It was really fun watching FSU lose and lobbing loud swear words at them in the process.
My enthusiasm/interest in the former PAC 12 teams has appreciably wained. For me, it best manifests itself in my former habituation of following their blogs & podcasts, etc in the preseason and season. With 2024 having hardly any, if at all, interest in them.
Now, I may watch some of their games if it suits my fancy and is convenient....otherwise it may just be highlights. My emphasis will be on following ACC teams as the new vis -a- vis. Will see how well I adjust...remains to be seen.
Paralympics in Paris
Watching Murderball. USA currently leads Canada 7-5. Wow, I'm really getting into it.
Camerawork is a bit sucky.
Have you seen the movie? It's really cool.
It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s question of the day.
I worked at a school where they changed the title of the receptionist to reception coordinator and another school where the janitors were renamed custodial services. Who do you suppose they were trying to kid?
Words accumulate connotations like a ship does barnacles, so people change terminology to get away from old connotations. It’s understandable but there is an art to this - I appreciate the more euphemistic ones like sanitation engineer for garbage man.
Oh brand evangelist for someone in PR is a pretty good one too
Someone was trying to fool the busybodies who objected to titles they considered menial or denigrating.
Here at EBMWU, we have Janitors, Janitor Foremen, and a Janitor Supervisor. No receptionists, though. We have clerical staff.
One that I never liked was the change from Director of Personnel to Director of Human Resources. Seems pretty widespread too.
We have a Director of Human Resources. But then again, for the 34+ years I've been here, that department has been known as HR or Human Resources.
Are you sure the reception coordinator wasn't also involved with recruit visits as a added responsibility? A good way to not draw too much attention to that back when it might be a potential NCAA or Title IX issue.
There aren't a lot of potential NCAA or Title IX issues at immersive English language schools for international students.
I thought you were referring to Cal initially. Although, "potential NCAA or Title IX issues at immersive English language schools for international students" could describe a good segment of the goings on in Berkeley, come to think of it.
I'm pretty sure OD refers to Berkeley Unified School District, though I could be wrong about that.
I worked in the BUSD for 20 years but have taught English at international language schools for the past 14 years.