Jim Dabrowski

Starting ratlines on main mast.

My dream scenario: Bears trade with Texans to go to #2, then on draft day trade down again. End up with multiple first round picks this year and next plus lots of other picks. And I don’t think this is unlikely either. Poles wants draft picks, not just the top one.

The more I listen and read the more I think the Bears will not only trade the first pick but will trade down multiple times in round 1. Look for Poles to stockpile picks in this draft and acquire multiple first round picks in 2024.

For a team with as many injuries, rookies and practice-squad level players they have, the Bears sure do over-perform on the field. Not in the final score, but man, they should not look as good as they do. Makes me hopeful for next season (as usual).

Eagles at Bears game prediction: Bears lose. It’s that simple. I think Fields will continue to make things happen but the Bears are just totally overmatched. It won’t be close, but I hope its fun to watch.

Late Bears on bye prediction: Bears are off this week then have four more games to end the season: Eagles, Bills, Lions and Vikings. My prediction, Bears win 3 of these last four games and fans go bat-shit crazy because they play themselves out of a top-3 pick.

Good old Cox communication. After being on hold for 15 minutes I get transferred to collections for some reason. They can’t help me so they go to “transfer” me and hang up. Now I get to start all over again.

And the cable internet industry wonders why people hate them and are fleeing in droves. Trying to close my account because I am moving. They deliberately make this as painful as possible.

Packers @ Bears game prediction: This is going to be ugly. Rodgers will simply torch the Bears all game long. No pressure, no secondary - damn right I’m starting Christian Watson in Fantasy. He alone will probably win me my matchup this week. With Fields likely starting, I’d take the over on 70 points scored this game. 40+ to 30+? Oh yeah.

Bears @ Jets game prediction: I think Bears fans will see how unwatchable this team would be without Fields and with a bad defense. Not saying it’s a blowout, but I do think the game will be borderline unwatchable. Look for a big day from the punters.

Bears @ Falcons game prediction: My prediction is more of the same. The Bears on offense, and Justin Fields in particular, will continue to shine and score 30+ points. The defense will continue to struggle resulting in giving up 30+ points. Who wins? Who knows? It’s a toss-up.

Lions @ Bears game prediction: Little late posting this today, but still holds. I think the Bears defense has a bounce-back game. Eberflus will not let the defense continue to look as bad as they did last week vs the Dolphins.

Dolphins @ Bears game prediction: Don’t know what the over/under is for this game but I predict we’ll see both teams with 30+ points. Gonna be a shootout.

Commanders at Bears game prediction: I think the Bears a .500 team and will hover at +/- 1 game of .500 all season. Therefore I predict a Bears win just to keep them even at 3-3. My only worry, everybody is predicting a Bears win so that right there might just doom them.

Bears @ Vikings game prediction Unfortunately, I think this week’s prediction is pretty easy again. The Bears have, by far, the worst run defense in the league. The Vikings have Dalvin Cook. The Bears have a rookie corner who has been picked on and looks a bit lost in coverage. The Vikings have Justin Jefferson. Enough said.

Bears @ Giants game prediction This is my annual pilgrimage game seeing the Bears play against every other team in the NFL. Unfortunately they haven’t done so well when I go to these games so my prediction is the Bears lose just because I’m here. Let’s hope I’m surprised.

Texans @ Bears prediction These are two not good teams but todays game might tell us something about each club’s direction. I expect both teams will struggle on both sides of the ball in a low scoring affair. Coin toss.

Bears @ Packers Prediction I sure would like to see the Bears beat the Packers today. I don’t know I’m quite ready to drink the KoolAid and predict a win. The Bears put up a fight and look competitive, but unless the Pack plays like crap, I don’t see the Bears pulling out the win.

49ers @ Bears game prediction: In a low-scoring affair (fewer than 40 points in total) the Bears give us four full quarters of exciting football, keeping it close until the end, but fall to the Niners.

Unfortunately, my frustration continues. Today I read this article wherein the author says, “The Chicago Sports Alliance isn’t just issuing statements. It’s taking action.” Apparently the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, Sox and Blackhawks got together and donated $300,000 to a couple of charities in response to the Uvalde Massacre. This is considered “taking action”.

Let’s put this in perspective.

The Bears, Bulls, Cubs, Sox, and Blackhawks have a combined net worth of over $14 billion. They just donated .002% of their combined net worth to those charities, and this is “taking action”.

According to this site, the average Illinois resident has a net worth of just over $690,000. Keeping things proportional, this is like that average resident donating $14 to those same charities. I’ll bet most of those people with a net worth of $690,000 spend that much on lunch on any given day.

This isn’t “taking action”. Taking action would be publicly supporting political candidates who actually do something about passing legislation to end gun violence. Taking action would be actively speaking out against those politicians who don’t. Taking action would be allowing the entire team to boycott a game or more until meaningful change happens similar to what the Milwaukee Bucks did a couple of years ago. That would be taking action. Donating what amounts to pocket change so you can wipe your hands of the issue and feel good about yourself isn’t taking action.

I’m so angry at our (I hate to use the term) “lame-stream media”. I tried listening to a podcast and of course they’re discussing the Uvalde Massacre and how or whether something political will be done.

Of course they talked about how after past massacres there seems to be momentum for change, but then “nothing happened”.

IT’S NOT THAT NOTHING HAPPENED!! It’s that ONE party, the Republican Party, refuses to do anything about the issue of gun violence. ONE PARTY refuses to bring any legislation to the floor. ONE PARTY filibusters anything that may actually make it to the floor. But the f-ing media never mentions that! They say, “nothing happened”, or they say “congress was unable to take action” without ever pointing out WHY nothing happened.

As long as the media refuse to lay blame where it belongs, the public will continue to be deluded into thinking it’s congress as a whole that is ineffectual when that simply isn’t true. It is the Republican Party that is solely responsible for the epidemic of gun violence in this country and the media refuses to say this.

Our democracy depends on a media that is unafraid of speaking truth to power and our media in this country is failing us.

Misoyaki Butterfish

Ok time to get off that topic. Last night on Oahu, last night of our vacation. Dena and I want to Roy’s and had the most amazing fish I’ve ever had for dinner. Now time for dessert.

What can be done? I think we need to elect people who commit to passing responsible gun ownership laws at the local, state and federal level. If you own a gun, you should be held responsible for what happens with it. Jim Wright proposed this years ago and I think it makes sense.

The Republican Party has consistently opposed any actions that would reduce the epidemic of gun violence in this country. If you vote for a Republican for any office you are supporting the continued mass murder of children in schools.

It’s that simple.

I learned jekyll has an admin plugin that lets me create and maintain my site via a web-based GUI. This is my first post using that plugin. Nice.