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Opinion Republicans discover a secret elixir that cures dementia with one dose

Rep. Byron Donalds’s medical education consists of a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from Florida State University. But the Florida Republican played a doctor on TV over the weekend, telling Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that, after examining President Biden, he suspects the president is receiving a secret medication that makes him appear to be sharp-witted and totally on the ball.


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“The American people need to understand if they’re giving him some injection so that he can actually look like he’s coherent,” Donalds said.
Dr. Donalds seemed not to have considered the obvious possibility that Biden looks like he’s cogent and clear because he is cogent and clear. Still, the good doctor’s diagnosis raises some key questions that must be considered:

There is a shot that cures incoherence in one dose? How can I get some? Why has nobody thought to give it to Kevin McCarthy all these years? And why, for that matter, doesn’t Dr. Donalds, who seems to think he should be Donald Trump’s running mate, inject his prospective boss with the stuff? Just last week, Trump’s attempt at saying “carried out by radical Democrats” came out as “carried owby rgbgb tdai.”


Donalds was obviously trying to please Trump, who had just announced he would “demand a drug test” of Biden before going on the debate stage. (Another VP aspirant on Bartiromo’s show Sunday morning, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, also loyally endorsed the demand for a drug test.) “He’s going to be so jacked up for those debates, you watch,” Trump predicted. Apparently, Trump realized he had set expectations for Biden a bit too low when he said the incumbent “can’t talk” and “can’t put two sentences together,” so he was attempting to come up with an alternative explanation for when Biden proves to be thoroughly compos mentis. That’s how Trump explained Biden’s energetic delivery of his State of the Union address in March: “He was high as a kite.”


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...tid=mc_magnet-oppodcasts_inline_collection_20

A group of House members calling itself the “GOP Doctors Caucus” is debasing itself to substantiate Trump’s fabrication. A few days before Donalds offered his diagnosis to Bartiromo, Rep. Greg Murphy (N.C.), a co-chair of the “caucus,” told the Fox anchor that he had proof that Biden was drugged. “I absolutely believe that from a medical viewpoint,” said Murphy, speaking like a neurologist, although he is, in fact, a urologist. “I actually have a little bit of good knowledge that that had captained — that that had happened,” he added.

That had captained? Give that man a coherence injection! “You know, maybe we can talk offline and I’ll show you something that I think that proves that,” Murphy offered to Bartiromo.

Even Bartiromo, a reliable Trump mouthpiece, was skeptical. “You’ll show me what?” she asked. Bartiromo’s promised “follow up” on this supposed evidence never came, though she did later repeat for her viewers that “the GOP Doctors Caucus chairman did say, ‘I have experienced this and I know this for sure.’”


Not since then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) wrongly diagnosed the brain activity of a comatose woman 20 years ago has a doctor-legislator committed such malpractice. But it was to be expected from the “GOP Doctors Caucus,” which counts among its 19 members five dentists and two pharmacists. Another of its co-chairmen, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (Ohio), is a podiatrist, and he used his extensive knowledge of the human foot to lead the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic through its attempt to validate various conspiracy theories. Another member of the caucus, Rep. Andy Harris (Md.), proudly prescribed the deworming medicine ivermectin as a covid treatment, and still another, Rep. Ronny Jackson (Tex.), was dubbed the “Candyman” for his liberal dispensing of pills as White House physician.

Trump’s accusation that Biden is using performance-enhancing drugs is a retread; he used the same attack on Biden in 2020 and against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Still, we can’t dismiss Trump’s own medical qualifications, which include his pioneering discovery that covid could be cured by injecting bleach into people’s lungs and his dogged advocacy of hydroxychloroquine as a covid cure, which led people to consume fish-tank cleaner.

And drug use isn’t entirely unknown to our nation’s political leaders. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) alleged on CNN that his former House colleague Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) “would brag about how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with energy drinks so he could go all night.” Then-Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) alleged that he had watched some of his colleagues “do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you.” This followed by several years the resignation of Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.), who was caught buying cocaine from an undercover federal agent.
At the time, I didn’t believe Cawthorn’s claims of drug-fueled orgies in the House Republican caucus. But now these guys would have us believe that the president has reversed an advanced case of dementia by taking a magical elixir unknown to medical science? They must be high.
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Caitlin Clark limps off court

Just had a bad misstep playing defense, limped off the court. Per Holly Rowe, she's back in the locker room and it looks like they're going to try re-taping it. Would be an indication that it's not too serious.

I'm reminded of asking Jan Jensen about Clark's ironwoman streak at Iowa. Jensen said Caitlin never even missed a practice, much less a game (didn't do every single drill, obviously).
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Osteen signs with the Hawks







It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling Fan.

Go Hawks!

B1G outpaced SEC with $880 million in revenue for 2023

Big Ten outpaced SEC with $880 million in revenue for 2023 fiscal year with most schools getting $60.5 million

USA Today

The Big Ten Conference had nearly $880 million in total revenue and distributed about $60.5 million to each of its 12 longest-standing schools during its 2023 fiscal year, the conference’s newly released federal tax records show.

The figures represent about a 4% increase in total revenue and a nearly 3% increase in per-school payouts compared to those in fiscal 2022.

Both the revenue total and the per-school number kept the Big Ten ahead of the Southeastern Conference, which released its tax returns in February. The SEC reported nearly $853 million in revenue and an average of about $51.3 million being distributed to each of its 14 member schools.

The Big Ten’s new document — provided by the conference on Monday in response to a request from USA TODAY Sports — showed that the conference operated at a deficit of just over $17.5 million for the year, but still had net assets totaling $247 million.

Including its distributions to the schools, the Big Ten reported spending just over $897 million in 2023, compared to just over $851 million in 2022.

Big Ten revenues in the bigger picture

All of these figures take on new significance as the NCAA and the Power Five conferences work toward a settlement of a series of antitrust lawsuits that variously seek billions of dollars in damages, as well as an end to the association’s limits on compensation for athletes.

According to a summary of proposed settlements terms first reported by Yahoo! Sports and later obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the NCAA would pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle the damages claims over 10-year period and the remaining Power Four conference schools would begin sharing future revenues with athletes. Part of the money for the damages settlement would come from reductions in the NCAA’s distributions to Division I schools and conferences.

Many Power Four schools would be looking at a tab of more than $20 million a year from the combination of reduced revenue distributions and increased payments to athletes.


However, Big Ten and SEC schools soon will be seeing significant spikes in revenue from new TV agreements and/or increases in rights fees connected to expansion that will occur, beginning with the 2024-25 school year. UCLA, Southern California, Oregon and Washington will be joining the Big Ten; Oklahoma and Texas are entering the SEC.

The conferences also will be benefiting from an expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams from four, but the larger increase in revenue will come after the current playoff deal with ESPN expires after the 2025 season.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti's pay

The conference’s current commissioner Tony Petitti moved into that job in May 2023, so his pay is not reported on this return, which covers employee pay for the 2022 calendar year.

Then-commissioner Kevin Warren, now the Chicago Bears’ president and CEO, was credited with just over $3.7 million in total compensation from the Big Ten in 2022. This included $2.9 million in base pay and nearly $785,000 in retirement and other deferred pay. His base pay was unchanged from 2021. His deferred pay increased by about $100,000.

Jim Delany, who retired from the Big Ten in the middle of 2020, was credited with a net total of nearly $3.1 million in pay that represented the fifth year’s worth of money from the more than $20 million in future bonuses for which he became eligible in July 2015 and the conference said he will be receiving over a 10-year span, running through the 2027 calendar year. In addition, during the 2022-23 fiscal year, Delany Advisory Inc., received $400,000 for what the new tax record described as consulting services.

In addition, the return shows that BLACCA Enterprises, LCC, of Madison, Wis., received just over $750,000 in fiscal 2023 for consulting services. Big Ten chief financial officer Laura Anderson said that firm is operated by former Wisconsin athletics director and football coach Barry Alvarez, and that it worked media rights and other matters.

Also, not coincidental to the Big Ten’s part in the college sports antitrust entanglements, the return shows that the conference had nearly $5 million in outside legal expenses in fiscal 2023, up from just over $3.1 million a year earlier.

Explaining differences in Big Ten distributions for schools

The Big Ten’s per-school distributions grew by lower rate than its total revenue in fiscal 2023, as Nebraska received a full profit-share from the Big Ten Network for the first time and other relative newcomers, Maryland and Rutgers, moved closer to full profit shares, Anderson said.

The conference’s advance of money to Maryland after it joined in the conference in 2014 also impacted conference revenue and revenue-distribution figures for 2023, Anderson said. The deficit for this year resulted from the conference having recognized certain revenues in 2018 that it used as an advance to Maryland, whose repayments have gone to the other 12 schools that were in the conference when it joined. In fiscal 2023 Maryland and Rutgers each received about $2 million less than the other 12 Big Ten schools did, the return shows.
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Trump Media merger wins investor approval, netting Trump potential windfall

Shareholders voted Friday to take former president Donald Trump’s media company public, a long-delayed move that will open the owner of Truth Social to stock-market investors and grant Trump a stake worth billions of dollars.

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The vote Friday by investors in Digital World Acquisition authorized the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group as part of a process that will avoid a more traditional public offering.

Trump will own about 60 percent of the company, which at Digital World’s current share price would be worth about $3.3 billion. He and other investors could earn tens of millions more shares through an “earnout” provision tied to the stock’s performance, Digital World said in an SEC filing.

But a lockup provision in the merger agreement will prevent Trump and other major shareholders from selling their shares for six months unless he is granted a waiver by the post-merger company’s board.


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That could limit Trump’s ability to use the windfall to help pay off the hundreds of millions of dollars he owes in legal judgments. Trump does not have the cash to secure a bond that would delay enforcement of the $464 million judgment in a New York fraud case, his lawyers said. If he does not post a bond by Monday, the New York attorney general could move to seize his bank accounts, real estate and other assets.
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Any lockup change or waiver will be decided by the post-merger company’s board, which will be stocked with Trump allies, an SEC filing shows. The board’s nominees include Trump’s oldest son Donald Trump Jr.; Trump’s former trade representative Robert E. Lighthizer; Linda McMahon, who headed the Small Business Administration under Trump; and Kash Patel, who served on Trump’s National Security Council.

The post-merger company, which will be called Trump Media, could begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange as soon as Monday under the ticker symbol of Trump’s initials, DJT. That symbol was also used for Trump’s only other public company, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, which collapsed into a penny stock in less than a decade and filed for bankruptcy in 2004.


The merger will net Trump Media $300 million that Digital World initially raised from investors. Trump’s allies and company executives will also be granted bundles of shares in the new company that could be worth millions of dollars.
But trading on the stock market will also open the company to more public scrutiny, and any drops in share prices would affect the value of those stakes. Though launched as an alternative to Twitter, Truth Social retains a fraction of its online audience

Critics have said Trump Media is a “meme stock” with a more than $6 billion valuation they say is out of sync with its financial outlook. Trump Media lost $49 million in the first nine months of last year and brought in $3.4 million in revenue, Digital World said in an SEC filing.
Two former contestants from his reality show “The Apprentice” proposed the idea of a “free speech” media and internet business to Trump after he was kicked from Twitter and other social networks following the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.


The company’s merger proposal with Digital World has faced years of hurdles and delays since then due to investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which agreed to an $18 million settlement, and the Justice Department, which has probed insider-trading and money-laundering allegations involving Digital World investors.

Last summer, when the deal’s certainty was in doubt, Trump asked billionaire Elon Musk whether he wanted to buy Truth Social, two people with knowledge of the conversation told The Washington Post. The proposal went nowhere, though the two men have communicated since.
More recently, the deal has been embroiled in a legal battle royale, with four lawsuits in three states involving Trump Media, Digital World, the co-founders Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, and Digital World’s former chief executive Patrick Orlando.


Orlando, who was fired as chief last year but remains in control of Digital World’s biggest founding investor Arc Global Investments II, had refused to vote in support of the merger before Friday’s vote, potentially imperiling the deal, attorneys for Trump Media and Digital World said in a lawsuit this week seeking to force his vote. He spoke only briefly on a shareholder call Friday and did not offer further comment on the suit.

Digital World’s more than 400,000 retail investors included supporters of Trump and speculators hoping to cash in on the deal’s attention. One investor, dressed in a pirate costume and calling himself “Captain DWAC,” live-streamed the shareholder vote on Rumble and played sounds of applause when the successful vote was announced.
Digital World’s share price slid 5 percent during the meeting.

Cats

Does anyone else here see them as filthy sneaky animals with no business living among us? My son has 2 of them and they're driving me crazy. They piss and crap in the house (ok litter box in the house). They're up on the counters knocking shit down. They're constantly appearing out of nowhere and ending up behind closed doors. I can't wait till he takes them with him when he moves out.

Oregon State Track - Transgender Athlete Edition

Can't believe you fellas haven't posted this yet. Some serious red meat for many of our HORTers. Some heads going to explode!

FTR - I still disagree with it and think it should at a minimum be kept out of K-12. I just love watching a good HORT meltdown. If it makes you feel better members of the audience booed Gallagher at the end.

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Are there really that many people who don’t need to get where they’re going on airplanes?

It amazes me that a person would choose this shit over getting where they were planning on going on a flight on which they meticulously chose to travel.

How do you buy the ticket, pay the bill, pack a bag, travel to the airport, wait at security checkpoints, hang out at the gate, board the plane and then decide, “I’m gonna just cancel all this shit because I now choose to be a goddamned fool for no reason whatsoever.”

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Biden or Trump Voter?

Multiple People Shot With Pellet Gun Outside Four San Diego LGBTQ Nightclubs, Police Seek Suspects [VIDEO]​

May 20, 2024

San Diego’s CBS affiliates reports:
Several people were hit with non-lethal rounds after at least four LGBTQ bars were shot at with a pellet gun early Saturday morning.
According to San Diego Police, they received reports of a pellet gun being fired out of a vehicle just after 1 a.m. Saturday morning. As of Sunday evening, the locations police could confirm were shot by the assailant were Rich’s, The Rail, #1 on Fifth Avenue and PECS in the Hillcrest and North Park neighborhoods.
Witnesses told CBS 8 it appeared to be a BMW, but police have not released an official suspect or vehicle description. CBS 8 spoke with victims from Rich’s and The Rail after the incidences. They said they’re glad it wasn’t worse.
Read the full article. A doorman at Rich’s says he was hit in the face with a pellet after hearing slurs shouted from the car. According to witnesses, the gun resembled an AK-47. Watch the video reports below.
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