by John Walters

Great Dame

The undisputed team of the NBA’s Bubble Season has been the Phoenix Suns (8-0) but the MVP has been Portland’s Damian Lillard (he made that shot above, by the way). Lillard put up 42 in the Trail Blazers’ win yesterday, which is only his fourth-best scoring effort in the past eight days.

The Weber State product has had games of 45, 51 and 61 just since August 6th. Portland has advanced to the Western Conference’s play-in game, where they’ll meet the Memphis Grizzlies.

Mail Harried Pass

The Democrats in Congress have proposed a $3.6 million expenditure for mail-in voting for the November election and $25 billion in general for the United States Postal Service as part of the new pandemic relief bill.

You’ll never guess who is opposed to that. President Trump, who sees an efficient mail-in voting process to be the instrument of his ruin. It’s like the defending champion of the Daytona 500 being against the use of gasoline in this year’s race.

Why can’t we all just vote on Facebook? Put Biden on one page and Trump on the other and with your “Like” of either candidate you put your Social Security Number. None of us have enough money any more to worry about someone stealing our identities and robbing us blind so who even cares?

Lasting Middle East Peace? Not Again!

Apparently, there’s peace in the Middle East again. Stop us if you’ve (“Let my people go!”) hear that one before. With the help of the White House (yes, give him a “W” on this one), the United Arab Emirates has agreed to “normalization of diplomatic relations” with Israel and in return, Israel will stop attempting to annex the West Bank. Also, Israel will not have to sit in the middle seat on any Emirates flight of more than four hours in duration… and let’s face it, that was the kicker.

Now if we could only achieve peace in the Midwest.

Fall On Me

There will be no fall sports NCAA championships this year (with the possible exception of FBS football), which was sort of a foregone conclusion. “We cannot, at this point, have fall championships,” said NCAA president Mark Emmert, noting that even if the redneck conferences choose to go ahead and MAGA their way through the pandemic, that it would constitute less than half the schools eligible to participate.

The NCAA controls ALL fall sports championships with one major exception: the most lucrative of them all, the College Football Playoff. I wonder who will be the first Selection Committee member to break ranks and announce that it is irresponsible to hold a playoff and thus he or she will not participate on the committee this year. Hmm. Should we hold our breaths?

Oceans

I’m a sucker for a lead singer with a pocket square. That’s Nate Ruess of The Format, the band he fronted before hitting it big with Fun. The Format had a cult following in Phoenix, where they were from, and in general and this tune, from the album Dog Problems, has always been our favorite. Ruess’ vocal talents and stage presence are irrefutable.

We’re happy for him that he hit it big-time with Fun., but this is our preferred version of Ruess. Not sure how old this performance is, but it’s only been out on YouTube within the last year.