Idiots out Walking Around:

By a 2-1 margin, Iowans favor gradually reducing the state’s income tax until it is eliminated, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll finds.

The poll shows a majority of Iowans support Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republicans in the Iowa Legislature as they discuss ways to lower the income tax or do away with it completely.

More:Kim Reynolds wants to cut Iowa taxes — again. Here's how it would work and who gets a break.

Sixty-two percent of Iowans say they favor gradually eliminating the income tax, while 30% oppose eliminating the tax and 8% are not sure.


The poll shows a partisan split on the issue. Nearly three-quarters of Iowa Republicans (74%) favor eliminating the income tax compared with 63% of political independents and 42% of Democrats.

Meanwhile, a plurality of Democrats oppose eliminating the income tax (44%), compared with one-third of independents (33%) and one-fifth of Republicans (20%).

The poll of 804 Iowa adults was conducted Feb. 25-28 by Selzer & Co. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Carla Sams, a 64-year-old poll respondent from Anamosa who agreed to a follow-up interview, said getting rid of the income tax would help people who are struggling with the cost of groceries and other goods.

“If there’s a way to get rid of the state income tax that is fiscally responsible, without raising everything else, like property taxes and that kind of stuff, I would be for it,” she said.


Still, Sams said she doesn’t want to see state programs cut as a result.

More:Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' tax bill advances, but GOP lawmakers keeping options open for cuts

“They would have to make sure their ducks are in a row and whatever state programs that we have stay before they got rid of the state income tax,” she said.

Bills to criminalize pornographic images and videos that have been digitally altered to look like a specific person, known as “deepfakes,” were passed Wednesday by the Iowa House.



The bills come as legislators across the country consider how to respond to the emerging problem fueled by artificial intelligence technology.


One bill, House File 2240, would make a person who distributes a digitally altered image or video that portrays a person undressed or engaging in a sex act guilty of harassment. The bill builds on a law passed in 2017 that criminalized “revenge porn,” the distribution of porn images or videos of a person without consent.



Another bill, Senate File 2243, adds deepfake or digitally altered images and videos to the definition of child pornography in Iowa law. Under the bill, digitally created or altered depictions of an identifiable minor engaged in a sex act would be treated the same as real photographs and videos. Possession of deepfake child porn would be punishable by a Class D felony for the first offense.


Both bills passed the House unanimously. The child exploitation bill has already passed the Senate, and is eligible to be signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Rep. Helena Hayes, R-New Sharon
Rep. Helena Hayes R-New Sharon, who proposed both bills in the House, said there has been a dramatic rise in AI-created, nonconsensual pornography.


“These AI-generated images are a more modern take on revenge porn, without a defendant needing to obtain compromising photographs of the intended victim,” she said.


In 2023, the FBI warned of a sharp increase in deepfakes being used in “sextortion” schemes, in which a person threatens to distribute sexually explicit images and videos of a person unless the victim pays.


Rep. Mark Thompson, a Republican from Clarion, said he met a South Carolina representative at a conference last year who lost his son to suicide because of an extortion scheme using pornographic images. He said there have also been cases of minors in Iowa being subject to similar extortion schemes.


“So if we take this bill seriously, and we implement it today, and we get it toward implementation, I think we have a good start on fighting that scourge,” he said.


A harassment charge under HF 2240 would constitute an aggravated misdemeanor, punishable by up two years in prison and a fine between $855 and $8,540.






Under the child pornography bill, the first offense would be a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,245. A subsequent offense, a Class C felony, would carry up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $13,660.


Other states have moved to crack down on deepfake pornography in recent years. At least 10 states have restrictions on the books, according to the Associated Press. Some states, like California and Illinois, allow victims to sue a person who creates fake images of them.

The owner of a Johnson County puppy farm, which surrendered 131 dogs to Iowa City Animal Services last year, has been arrested and charged with 41 counts of animal neglect, according to a news release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.



Loren Yoder, 62, is facing five serious misdemeanor animal neglect charges, and 36 simple misdemeanor animal neglect charges.

Loren Yoder (Johnson County Sheriff’s Office)
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship conducted a surprise inspection at Yoder’s farm — Sunset Valley Farm at 3027 540th Street SW, near Riverside — on Aug. 24, 2023.


The inspection found the dogs were being kept in hot, dirty conditions and many of them were in a state of distress.


According to the news release, physical exams conducted after the dogs were surrendered to the shelter found many of them had developed conditions caused by a lack of adequate care.


“These conditions then caused unjustified distress, suffering, and pain to the affected animals,” the release states.


Yoder has surrendered his commercial breeding license through the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. He had previously been cited multiple times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


Nine of the 131 dogs that were taken from Yoder’s farm died. The rest were adopted out from Iowa City and from other dog shelters across the Midwest.


A criminal complaint with more details about the charges against Yoder was not available Wednesday.

Looks like Trump and Biden are going to win the nominations. For such a great nation, how the hell can our choices of leaders be limited to these two over-the-hill morons? Our state of politics is absolutely awful.

Big Grove Brewery says it plans to open an Omaha taproom next year as it expands its distribution into Nebraska.

The Solon-based brewery said Tuesday it will build the 10,500-square-foot taproom and restaurant, with a 6,000-square-foot patio, in Catalyst, a 170,000-square-foot mixed-use building the University of Nebraska Medical Center is constructing in the shell of the former Omaha Steel Works next to its campus.

In addition to Solon, Big Grove has taprooms in Iowa City, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. The fast-growing craft brewer is building a 40,000-square-foot production facility in Iowa City, 50% larger than its existing one, which will expand its capacity to more than 90,000 barrels a year. Its beers are widely available across Iowa and it began distributing in western Illinois in December and in Nebraska last week, said Bryan Ferrell, a spokesperson for the company.

The release said Big Grove hopes to open the Omaha taproom in spring 2025.

It said the new outpost will be similar to the 12,000-square-foot Des Moines taproom Big Grove opened in 2022 in the former Crescent Chevrolet building at 555 17th St. in the Sherman Hill neighborhood near downtown's Western Gateway. Big Grove announced last week that it is partnering with neighboring Lua Brewing to distribute Lua's Climbing Kites line of THC-infused beverages.

Before I start this paragraph I will acknowledge it will not be popular. I will admit, I keep having this intrusive thought that because of the timing of the WNBA season being almost right after our season is over maybe CC is looking ahead to the draft and her pro career.

But then when I think about the competitor she is I’m reminded that there’s no chance she isn’t 100% focused on winning a national championship and finishing what we started last year.

Has anyone else had these thoughts creep in or just me? Lol go Hawks!!

A key Republican election official in Arizona’s most populous county filed a defamation lawsuit on Thursday against Republican Kari Lake, the former television newscaster who narrowly lost her 2022 race for governor and has falsely blamed widespread fraud and malfeasance in the months since.

The lawsuit by Stephen Richer, a Republican who has served as recorder of Maricopa County since 2021, marks the most aggressive attempt to hold Lake and her allies accountable for election-related misinformation. It comes amid other efforts to make right-wing figures and media answerable for spreading election fabrications.

In the complaint, Richer alleges that Lake, her campaign and a nonprofit organization tied to her repeatedly and falsely accused him of causing Lake’s 2022 defeat. Lake and the two organizations, the complaint alleges, falsely claimed that Richer “sabotaged the election to prevent Republican candidates, including Lake, from winning.”


ADVERTISING


Richer’s complaint focuses on accusations made by Lake at campaign rallies, in podcasts and on social media that Richer intentionally caused polling place printers to jam on Election Day. The glitches caused temporary disruptions in tabulating the votes, but an independent review has found the problems were not pervasive and did not prevent people from voting.
Richer’s complaint claims that, during a “Save Arizona” rally in January, Lake “falsely and with actual malice” accused Richer of sabotaging the election by misprinting ballots. Lake added that Richer and Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, also a Republican, “intentionally printed the wrong image on the ballot on Election Day so that those ballots would intentionally be spit out of the tabulators.”
“Well these guys are really, really terrible at running elections, but I found out they’re really good at lying,” Lake said at the rally.



The combination of heavier paper and longer ballots was responsible for problems tabulating votes at dozens of polling places in Maricopa County, according to a report released in April by a former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. The same report found no evidence of malfeasance by county officials or contractors.
Richer also accused Lake of falsely claiming that he inserted 300,000 “phony” early-voting ballots into the Maricopa County system. In December, a judge ruled that there was no convincing evidence that ballots were mishandled in a way that would have affected the outcome of the Arizona election.
Richer’s complaint says that Lake continued making the false claims weeks after the Maricopa County Superior Court found that she provided “nothing more than ‘speculation’ and ‘conjecture’ to support her claims of intentional misconduct.”



Aides to Lake did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment.
In Maricopa County, the recorder is responsible for voter registration and early voting. County supervisors are responsible for Election Day operations.
Since her loss, Lake has regularly criticized county officials while insisting she remains the rightful winner of the governor’s race. She has been a frequent visitor to Donald Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, while weighing a bid for a Senate seat. Some Republicans view her as a possible contender to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick should he win the nomination for president.
After Trump lost Arizona in 2020, helping to doom his presidential reelection bid, he and his allies spread baseless claims that the election had been rigged, particularly in Maricopa County. Lake’s defeat in 2022 only deepened mistrust among conservative activists about the state’s voting systems and outcomes.



Richer, 37, said in an interview with The Post ahead of the complaint’s filing that misinformation spread about him by Lake and her affiliates has harmed his relationships with friends, family and past political supporters. He said he sees a direct link between rhetoric from Lake and her allies and threats against him.
At a rally of supporters in January, Lake displayed a photo of Richer for the crowd and accused him of lying about the 2022 election. Richer at times has been assigned a security detail by county law enforcement in response to threats and harassing communications, he said.
Richer said he now rarely attends political functions held by grass-roots GOP activists, many of whom remain convinced of malfeasance. At one point, he said, his wife was removed from a work event by law enforcement because of verbal attacks on him and her. He said the nonstop attacks have taken a mental and physical toll.



Richer said he has tried pushing back against the false claims on social media and through memos, press releases and news conferences. He said he worked with members of Lake’s team to answer questions they had during and after the 2022 election.
But none of that stopped the accusations from Lake and her supporters, he said, leading to his decision to sue.
“My name continues to be dragged through the mud in front of millions of her online viewers in various platforms,” he said. “And I felt that I needed to take the only recourse left.”
Dominion settlement tab may be just the start of Fox's financial woes
Public officials generally face a steep challenge in trying to prove defamation cases. But Richer and an attorney representing him from Protect Democracy, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, anti-authoritarianism group,” said reams of public information show a disregard for the truth and, in their view, malice.



“They have repeated false claims about Stephen over the last several months again and again and again,” said Ben Berwick, who co-leads Protect Democracy’s elections and voting rights team. “The claims that are the basis for our complaint are obviously and provably false and she has repeated them even though she should know they are not true or was sort of recklessly blind to the fact that they are not true.”
Richer was elected recorder of Maricopa County, one of the most populous voting jurisdictions in the nation, in 2020, unseating a Democrat who had held the seat. Richer splits election duties with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which is controlled by Republicans. In 2021, Richer created a political action committee to support “pro-democracy” Republican candidates — a move that Lake has criticized.

Same list of Presidential Candidates as the other poll, but now pick up to 5 who you consider the least presidential.

Here's the link to the "most presidential" poll for those who haven't yet voted:

Bernard Langer’s golf career might be finished because of an injury he suffered playing pickle ball....an Achilles heel (possibly ruptured) injury...
Anyone else hear anything about this? He’s won an awful lot of tourneys in his lifetime.

Democratic lawmakers tell Axios that President Biden's State of the Union performance on Thursday will be pivotal for his attempts to dispel voter concerns about his age.
Why it matters: Some Democrats dread a high-profile senior moment. Others expressed confidence that Biden can repeat last year's energetic performance.

• "We are all nervous," said one House Democrat, citing concerns about the 81-year-old Biden's "ability to speak without blowing things."
• Another House Democrat said: "Listen, Trump has made rhetorical slips … Biden is going to make rhetoric slips, I think the key is his energy level."

Zoom in: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told Axios he expects a strong performance: "It's important that it be good."

• "There's no doubt that he has the vigor [for a second term], but that's being questioned," said Hoyer. "He's quick, and he needs to show that."
• "Of the various speeches speeches a president gives, the State of the Union in an election year is a big one," said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.).
• Longtime Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik — who regularly publishes analyses of the 2024 campaign — told Axios: "Given concerns about Biden's age, his delivery will be as important as his substance."

Between the lines: Many Democrats pointed to Biden's verbal sparring with right-winger hecklers at last year's State of the Union as a reason to have faith in his rhetorical abilities.

• "He owned the Republicans when they tried to heckle him," said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, predicting Biden will do an "outstanding job."
• Others pointed to President Trump, saying the contrast between the two will ultimately be Biden's saving grace.
• Another House Democrat offered a simpler rationale for their confidence: "The State of the Union is a speech that's programmed. It's not a debate."

The other side: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), at a GOP Conference meeting on Wednesday, discouraged House Republicans from heckling Biden.

• The underlying message is it was bad form [last year] and ultimately helps the President. Let him babble on without our interrupting," said one House Republican who was present.
• Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) predicted Biden would "get interrupted many times by my colleagues across the aisle" to attempt to force gaffes.
• "It's going to be early, in my opinion. And it's not going to be one or two members. I think they're looking to turn it into a mess."

By the numbers: The State of the Union is watched by tens of millions of people — 27 million in 2023 — making it Biden's best opportunity to reach voters before November.

• "It's going to be one of the biggest audiences that the president will have this year, so it's a huge opportunity to make the case," said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio).

The bottom line: A Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said simply, "Let's see some main character energy!"

Do everything. Walls, lay new tile, replace the tub, toilet... new vanity. But it's a small bathroom, like 8x4 or whatever

Trump-Backed House Candidate Wanted For Murder​

March 6, 2024 Republicans, Trump cultists


Las Vegas’s Fox affiliate reports:

A former Congressional candidate and professional wrestler is wanted for murder in Las Vegas, according to court records. Records show Daniel Stephen Rodimer has a warrant issued for an open murder charge in Las Vegas Justice Court. A request for the warrant was issued March 5, records show. Jail records do not show Rodimer in custody as of Wednesday afternoon.
Police said he’s the suspect for a homicide that occurred on Oct. 29 of last year. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they became aware of the “suspicious death” at the 3000 block of South Las Vegas Boulevard. Medical arrived at the scene for service regarding 47-year-old Christopher Tapp. Police said he suffered from injuries as a result of a “purported accident.”|

Click to expand...

Wrestle Zone reports:

And yet Melania is of course nowhere to be seen at the big MarALago party. Not suprising I guess, as she really has nothing to do with him anymore, given his dirtbaggyness. Rumor on the street in Osage is that she is soon to be divorce #3... or is it #4? Loves those family values!!

Sell Me This Pen - The Wolf of Wall Street

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Jordan Belfort Sell this Pen

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SELL ME THIS PEN

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Nick Saban: The way Alabama players reacted after Rose Bowl loss 'contributed' to decision to retire​

"Nick Saban was not thrilled with the way his team reacted to losing the Rose Bowl."

"I was really disappointed in the way that the players acted after the game. You gotta win with class. You gotta lose with class. We had our opportunities to win the game and we didn't do it, and then showing your ass and being frustrated and throwing helmets and doing that stuff ... that's not who we are and what we've promoted in our program."


Really? I doubt that really contributed squat. In 17 years, that's the first loss where players got pissed? Clickbait, just like my thread title.

25 must-visit hidden gems from across the US.

From big cities to iconic national monuments to well-known tourist traps, there's no shortage of popular vacation destinations within the United States. However, sometimes the most memorable trips happen when you seek out unexpected, under-the-radar spots that you never would've known about without some prior research.

For instance, although the U.S. is home to 63 national parks, famous ones like Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park tend to get the lion's share of tourist attention. On your next excursion, why not try an underrated gem like New Mexico's White Sands National Park or Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park?

Even if nature isn't your scene, there are plenty of other underrated activities across the country that deserve to go on your bucket list, from Indianapolis' City Market Catacombs to the interactive art within Santa Fe's Meow Wolf.

Still, finding those under-the-radar gems can amount to quite a bit of work. So to help you get started, Stacker has compiled a list of 25 must-visit hidden gems from across the United States, using travel guides, news articles, national park and company websites, and more. Read on to find out where your next unexpected yet great vacation could be. You can thank us later!



Going up the Fenelon Place Elevator in Dubuque, Iowa
Located within the town of Dubuque, Iowa, the Fenelon Place Elevator has been dubbed the world's "shortest, steepest, scenic railway." A $3 round trip gives visitors panoramic views of the Mississippi River and three surrounding states: Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

She did it again.
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So many fond memories, not.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8QRApjaKr2Q

Trump was too much of a p*ussy to attend Biden's inauguration. Like a child, taking his toy and going home.