u/Schmutzie_

Northwestern christened their new stadium last night, and beat the hell out of Penn State in the process. Ryan Field is named after Pat Ryan, billionaire founder of Aon Corporation, as well as minority owner and board member of the Chicago Bears. It cost $850 Million, seats 47,000, and is absolutely beautiful. Especially at night.

Speaking of new stadiums, the Bears need one. They hired Kevin Warren in 2023 to head up the group that was charged with getting a new stadium deal done, and that has been an absolute disaster. Three years of buffoonery. What started as a plan to build in Arlington Heights (a northwest suburb of Chicago), on the site of the former Arlington Park racetrack, which the Bears already purchased, turned to threats from the Bears that they're going to scrap that idea and move to Hammond, Indiana.

It came to a head this week when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, members of the Illinois legislature, and a representative from the Bears got together to find a way to get the Bears new stadium built in Illinois.

The representative from the Bears? Pat Ryan. He's 89 years old, and he needs this headache like he needs a kick in the shin. He did get Ryan Field built in Evanston for under $1 Billion, so there's still hope that the Bears will stay local.

Lost in the blizzard of bullshit was the announcement on Tuesday by Air Force Secretary Troy Meinks that the US military has deployed weapons in space. The Outer Space Treaty went into effect in 1967, and while anyone with a brain knows the Pentagon wipes its ass with treaties, it's a different business entirely to announce it. That's basically saying there's no more treaty. They've been messing around with shooting down dead satellites for 40 years but deploying weapons in orbit has always been hush hush black ops stuff. Not with our current military. They couldn't care less if it leads to escalation. Got to show the world what big dicks we have.

"Until this moment, Senator(s), I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Let us not assassinate this lad (republic) further, senator(s). You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

When the Trump experience is over, and we set about the business of de-Trumpifying and re-building, the Republican Senate led by Mitch McConnell will bear a lot of the blame for what became of the country, rightly. From the Supreme Court to Trump's catastrophic second term, none of it would have happened without McConnell.

He's basically on life-support now, which is somehow fitting. Besides, I'm afraid that if Joe Welch's ghost appeared and asked McConnell and the rest of the Senate Republicans the same question about a sense of decency, the lot of them would answer with a resounding "Nope."

I was unaware that he had expressed an opinion on trans athletes at all. That's likely because I haven't paid much attention to the US Senate race in Texas, having already cast my pretend ballot for Talarico. Ham Sandwich vs Ken Paxton? Ham Sandwich baby!

But apparently Talarico had voiced support for trans college athletes in the past, and now has completely flip-flopped and is open to a ban on trans athletes in college sports.

Knowing a bit about the guy, I was more surprised to learn that he had expressed previous support for trans athletes. He's a loudly religious fellow which usually doesn't equate with adamantly pro-trans rights. He's running in Texas (Hi Mike!) which isn't exactly known for being a hotbed of pro-trans activity. His flip-flop on the issue isn't a huge shock. He is never going Full Beto.

I know it's a huge issue for a lot of people, but it's pretty far down on the list for me. I fully support civil rights for trans people. I still put that below stopping the GOP from dismantling the mechanism we all use for protecting all of our civil rights.

To me there's only one goal, regardless of particular issues. Vote every Republican out of office.

I like him! Dude knows his stuff. A nice weekly addition. I look forward to him being pissed off at Kyler Murray by Week 6.

Interesting take on social media. Dan was the person who suggested I get on Twitter in 2009. Already knew him from 5 years of WYC submissions. Now, that Nazi CSAM hub is in the rear view mirror, and I'm posting about it on reddit. It's a little shocking to see how young these people are, and how old Dan is, relatively speaking., but a reminder that a lot of folks are just getting to know what's his name. Jesus Christ, where did the years go? Have a safe Labor Day, my frentz.

Go get 'em Tim

It started August 21st and ended September 17th. Largely caused by the Greenwood Fire in the Arrowhead region. The fire burned about 27,000 acres and was considered contained by mid-October. The fires this summer, started by storms on July 6th, have burned almost 70,000 acres.

I think the reason they re-opened the BWCA in 2021 is because it was isolated, and they were able to close the closest entry points. The problem they face now is the number of fires burning and how spread out they are.

They may cancel entry permits one week at a time, but they're not going to rush the re-opening.

I know they're busting their tails but seriously, they need better communication with the public.