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My goodness. Has it just taken this long for shock to wear off after the election for the real meltdown to begin? It's crazy. This board lost its mind (what mind it had) all of a sudden.

The true story behind America's biggest military surrender is now told.

President Biden was so mentally fatigued that he skipped out on a phone call from the chair of the powerful House Armed Services Committee ahead of the US’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a report.

Biden, the oldest president in US history, was incredibly hard to reach — even for lawmakers in his own party — as his aides attempted to keep Biden’s evident mental and physical decline under tight wraps, a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed.

That inaccessibility proved to be immensely consequential for one of the administration’s biggest snafus that would mar the remainder of Biden’s presidency.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, had tried to contact the president in 2021 to share his concerns about the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Smith said he was worried about the administration’s optimistic comments about pulling out from Afghanistan — which, after working extensively on the issue, the congressman believed would be significantly more difficult than White House officials were letting on and wanted to share his findings.

“I was begging them to set expectations low,” Smith told the Journal — but he couldn’t get the commander-in-chief on the phone.

Thirteen US service members and more than 170 Afghans were killed in the chaotic evacuation in August 2021, which ended the longest conflict in US history and left the Taliban victorious and in charge.

The US also abandoned some $7 billion in weapons and other military equipment.

In the aftermath, Smith commented to the Washington Post that Biden’s administration lacked a “clear-eyed view” of the toppled US-backed government’s durability.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, enraged over Smith’s remarks, called the congressman to chew his ear— but Smith ultimately ended up giving it back to Blinken, according to the Wall Street Journal. Blinken would later accept responsibility for the Afghanistan catastrophe.

Soon afterward, Smith also received an apologetic call from Biden — the only call Biden made to Smith in his four years in the White House.

“The Biden White House was more insulated than most,” Smith said. “I spoke with Barack Obama on a number of occasions when he was president and I wasn’t even chairman of the committee.”

Biden would alter or cancel scheduled meetings depending on whether he appeared up to the task beginning almost as soon as he was in office, the Journal reported.

A national security official told an aide in the spring of 2021 that the president “has good days and bad days, and today was a bad day so we’re going to address this tomorrow.”

Meetings were often scheduled for later in the day — a fact first revealed after Biden’s awful debate performance against former President Donald Trump, when staff admitted the then-Democratic nominee had difficulty functioning outside a six-hour window that closed around 4 p.m. daily.

The Afghanistan blunder would be a glaring stain on Biden’s record for the remainder of his tenure and was a major talking point for his now-successor, President-elect Trump, on the campaign trail.

Fannie Willis will go down in history as one the biggest failures in the legal field.

Georgia attorney Ashleigh Merchant reacted to news that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had been disqualified from her "weak" election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday.

A Georgia court of appeals filing declared that the "appearance of impropriety" stemming from an affair Willis had with Nathan Wade prior to hiring him to prosecute the case required her disqualification from the case.

Merchant, who exposed the improper affair months ago, told "Fox & Friends" on Friday that she believed Willis stuck to the case despite the scandal because she didn’t want anyone else to know how "weak" the case was.

"She could have done the right thing early on, whenever we brought this to everyone’s attention, and said, ‘Hey, let’s have a neutral prosecutor handle this case. Let’s have someone else look at it.’ But I think she was terrified because her case was so weak, she didn’t want someone else to look at it," Merchant told Fox News Channel’s Steve Doocy.

Based on Merchant’s uncovering of Willis’ relationship with Wade, Judge Scott McAfee ruled in March that Willis must either withdraw herself and her team from the 2020 election interference case or remove Wade as special prosecutor. Following the decision, Wade resigned from his position in the case, leaving Willis to continue it.

At the time, Merchant expressed her desire to have seen Willis removed from the case entirely, writing in a statement, "While we believe the court should have disqualified Willis’ office entirely, this opinion is a vindication that everything put forth by the defense was true, accurate and relevant to the issues surrounding our client's right to a fair trial."

Merchant’s goal to see Willis ousted happened months later on Thursday, after the state appeals court declared that Willis’ "appearance of impropriety" constitutes "the rare case in which disqualification is mandated, and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings."

Merchant characterized it as an obvious decision, telling Doocy that Willis’ impropriety was "something that you couldn’t turn your eye away from, and I think that’s something the court of appeals said."

"It’s one of those things that you know it when you see it," Merchant continued. "It’s the appearance of impropriety. It is so great that it had to be enough to kick them off the case."

After speculating that Willis wouldn’t willingly leave the case because of its weakness, Merchant expressed her belief that if a more "neutral prosecutor" got hold of the case, they would have it dismissed.

"I’ve always thought, if a neutral prosecutor – someone who didn’t have a financial interest in this case and a political interest in this case – looked at it, that they would see things differently. And they would decide that the taxpayers, the courts, the people who are charging the case, they deserve this case to be dismissed."

Iowa will retire Clark's #22 at the 2.2.25 game against #7 USC.

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Release from Iowa:

UI Athletics Announces Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 Retirement Celebration

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- In a celebration of legacy, achievement and undeniable impact, the University of Iowa Athletics Department has announced plans to retire the iconic No. 22 of Hawkeye women's basketball legend, Caitlin Clark, during a ceremony scheduled for Feb. 2, 2025, inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

"I'm forever proud to be a Hawkeye and Iowa holds a special place in my heart that is bigger than just basketball,” Clark said. "It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up in the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I've admired for so long."

Clark will be in attendance for the game against USC on Feb. 2, 2025. Tipoff is set for 12:30 p.m. (CT) and the contest will air on FOX and the Hawkeye Radio Network.

“Caitlin Clark has not only redefined excellence on the court but has also inspired countless young athletes to pursue their dreams with passion and determination,” said Beth Goetz, Henry B. and Patricia B. Tippie Director of Athletics Chair. “Her remarkable achievements have left an indelible mark on the University of Iowa and the world of women’s basketball. Retiring her number is a testament to her extraordinary contributions and a celebration of her legacy that will continue to inspire future generations. Hawkeye fans are eager to say thank you for so many incredible moments.”

I like the concept a lot.

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I like the concept a lot. You're investing in someone who's invested in the program.

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I like the concept a lot.

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I like the concept a lot.

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For most of my time here, WBB recruiting has been contained in a single recruiting thread that gets restarted every year or two. The big disadvantage of that system is that it becomes very difficult to find information on specific players or class when players from 3 or even 4 different classes are discussed interchangeably.

My solution to that is class specific threads. I will start this post with information about some of Iowa's top targets in the class of 2025. My hope is to edit and expand this post over time to include more players, updated information, and commitments. I also plan to start a 2026 class thread in the near future when I've had more time to research the class.

Iowa Targets With Clear Ties to the State

Jordan Speiser​

Basic Information: 6’1" wing from St. Charles, Missouri

Ranking: #17 overall by ESPN and #17 overall by Prospect Nation

Offer List: Iowa, Iowa State, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, Marquette, Oklahoma State, Florida Atlantic, Arkansas, DePaul, Purdue, Missouri, Missouri State, Kansas State, Illinois, Kansas

Iowa Visits: June 16, 2021, September 28, 2021, February 26, 2023

Journey Houston​

Basic Information: 5’11" wing from Davenport, Iowa

Ranking: #19 overall by ESPN

Offer List: Iowa, Iowa State, DePaul, Michigan

Iowa Visits: October 1, 2022, likely many others

Divine Bourrage​

Basic Information: 5’10" guard from Davenport, Iowa

Ranking: #34 overall by ESPN

Offer List: Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, Florida, DePaul

Iowa Visits: September 25, 2021, likely others


Iowa Targets with No Clear Ties to Iowa

Jasmine “Jazzy” Davidson​

Basic Information: 6’1" wing- Clackamas, Oregon

Ranking: ranked #2 overall by ESPN and #1 overall by Prospect Nation

Offer List: Stanford, Oregon, Utah, UCLA, North Carolina, Texas A&M, Cal, USC, Iowa, Baylor, Michigan, Ohio State, Tennessee, South Carolina

Iowa Visits: None Known

Addison Deal​

Basic Information: 6’0’ wing- Santa Ana, California

Ranking: #12 overall by ESPN and #6 overall by Prospect Nation

Offer List: LSU, Iowa, others unknown

Iowa Visits: August 3, 2022

Avery Gordon​

Basic Information- 6’6" center from Brownsburg, Indiana

Ranking: #44 overall by ESPN

Offer List: Iowa, Maryland, Illinois, Purdue, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, Xavier, Toledo, Nebraska Omaha, Evansville, Butler
.
Iowa Visits: June 2022, October 1, 2022

David is a beat writer for 24/7.

EDIT: Looks like David deleted the tweet.

Sheryl's 3 big takes from today:

* The Fever would make the playoffs without Caitlin Clark. She even doubled down on this claim.

* Katie Lou Samuelson is more valuable to the Fever than Caitlin is.

* Angel Reese should be the WNBA Rookie of the Year.


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From the libtards! Vice President Trump will be there to back him up!

Aaron Graves, confirmed BACK.

STORY:

Anybody heard where Cade is going?!? Notre Dame as fourth string, maybe Upper Iowa to be a backup, possibly pushing for a starting spot at Coe or Central or Simpson?!?

Go Indiana!

Take the under

Dec 18 Update:

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Original Post (yesterday, Dec 17)

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There was a lot of QB talk from Kirk Ferentz on Friday, including:

* Iowa's newest QB (Hank Brown)
* adding more players out of the transfer portal
* Brendan Sullivan's health
and more.

I'm gonna try to hide this here, but over on the main Rivals board, I'm in the process of entrapping a Nebraska troll, of whom some or many of you are familiar with.

He is the mentally disturbed individual that like spams posts on this website with disposable usernames/accounts often mocking Iowa, the fans, etc.

He's more prevalent on the FB boards, but has occasionally been seen like spamming on the bball, HBOT, and wrestling boards as well. So while I'm attempting to "hide" this thread here on the wrestling board, I'm not operating under the illusion that this troll won't see it, which is fine.

I don't mind at all if he finds out that he's been set up.

With that out of the way, all I ask from my fellow Hawk fans, is to click the link to the thread below and vote for Nebraska in the poll. I know most of you probably can't post on that main board unless you are subscribed to Rivals or your account was grandfathered in, but you should still be able to vote, and that's all that's needed.

The poll itself is merely a ruse to draw out as many of the spam accounts by this Nebraska fan so that the mods can delete them. There's already 28 accounts that he's created just to vote in this poll and unwittingly shared for the mods to delete.

I simply ask that you all help finish the job by helping Iowa win the poll and get the last laugh, as well.

P.S. please do be sure to read the poll first before voting

Rivals poll link

2024 is over and it’s time to start looking ahead. I don’t have much more to say other than I picked 7 asterisks because it’s been that many years without this franchise winning a postseason game.

I’m not a rule maker, but I’m going to try to keep this thread off-season and forward-focused. Let’s definitely keep today’s mess in the 2024 thread.

I always say we’ll have plenty of time to be mad when it’s over. Well….Are you ready? I’m ready. HERE! WE! GO!

Well duh!:
Xowner Elon Musk earlier this week killed a bipartisan deal to keep the federal government open, and even many Republicans are reportedly not happy about it.

Writing on X, Fox News reporter Liz Elkind reveals that there is "a LOT of frustration at Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy from rank-and-file House Rs this morning" after the two men publicly killed the bipartisan deal.


"I'll have nothing to do with them after watching them publicly trash the speaker," said one, while another Republican lawmaker accused them of "freelancing and shooting off the hip" to kill the bill without understanding key provisions that they had criticized.



What's more, one unnamed House Republican even expressed frustration with President-elect Donald Trump for going along with Musk.



"Trump doesn’t understand Congress," this member said. "He wants all GOP wins and no concessions to Dems. The Senate and WH are still run by Dems. He’s not living in reality."

Musk has said that the government should simply shut down for the next month until the day Trump is inaugurated for his second term on January 20th.

Trump, for his part, has said that he's willing to accept a shutdown but is trying to shift the blame for it to outgoing President Joe Biden.

"How long do we have?"

Kirk Ferentz opened up on a host of hot-button topics on Friday, including:

* the transfer portal (and its problematic timing)
* Iowa's NIL positioning
* the impending 105-man roster limit

and much more. Lots of interesting stuff from KF here:

??????

Bad news first- as an Iowa fan I am completely sick of Fran and his fake tough guy act. Teams take on their coaches traits and it is no wonder Iowa implodes late in games more times than not. 16 freaking years with nothing but some individual star players to show for it. Beth better be ready to push him out and get on the phone to McCullom

Good news- HAMMERED the ISU moneyline when they were down double digits. Everyone with a brain knew Iowa would blow that lead.