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Massage chairs

Anyone have one? I tried one as part of a marketing thing and it was quite nice on the back. There is a vast range of prices. Seems like a rare enough splurge where I do not see a lot of reliable analysis of them. If you have a family of people 6 feet tall or under, do you have one you like? Are there brands to avoid? Features you like or could do without?

Gov. Reynolds leads a full assault on civil rights in Iowa

For one brief moment, it seemed as if the Legislature knew it had gone too far — that repealing gender identity from the civil rights act was unacceptable. We are a state with a long history of proud civil rights achievements — such as eliminating segregation 100 years before the rest of the country.



Gov. Kim Reynolds decided that if the legislature didn’t end civil rights in Iowa she would personally lead the charge. Her bill HSB 649 would reinstate ‘separate but equal’ and functionally erase transgender people from Iowa Law.


Reynolds says that she wants to protect women.





However, a telling moment happened when the House was reviewing the legislation.


Rep. Sharon Steckman, D- Mason City, asked the governor’s aid whether any domestic violence shelters were consulted what problems and needs they had, and whether the governor had had spoken to any trans Iowans.


The governor’s aide simply responded with a boilerplate text “Just as like the governor and the Legislature did protecting women’s and girls' sports the bill is necessary to protect women.”


Which is an admission that they didn’t consult anyone save the Heritage Foundation and the worst parts of Twitter.


Because the facts are inconvenient to the governor’s feelings. Because there likely are no instances of transwomen going to domestic abuse shelters to abuse women and there are no instances of men pretending to be trans to gain access to these spaces to do the same.


Moreover, anti-trans laws increase harassment of women in women’s spaces as happened after the 2016 North Carolina bathroom bill, because right-wing grifters are always trying to catch a trans in the bathroom (which is just gross) any woman who doesn’t meet their insane and often contradictory criteria for how a woman should look or act is at risk of harassment.





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This bill will put men in women’s spaces, though not in the way the governor thinks. Because trans men exist (assigned female at birth and transitioning to male later), the inane wording of this law requires that transmen be put in women’s space.


It’s a stupid bill.


Reynolds and members of the Legislature traffic in the same tired slander that trans women are predators and they fearmonger because that is the only way they can eliminate civil rights in Iowa and hide the failures that their policies have had for Iowans.


The governor’s record for protecting women itself is atrocious, which she well knows. Reynolds deprived Iowa women of bodily autonomy when she personally sought to end abortion rights, knowing full well that these laws make pregnancy more dangerous as they force women to carry unviable pregnancies to the point where they are on the verge of death before they can get abortion care and maybe not even then.


Anti-abortion laws keep the best OBGYNs out of the state. This has a further knock-on effect that screening for cervical, uterine, and ovarian will be delayed or missed, and don’t forget Iowa has one of the highest cancer rates in the U.S. To say nothing of the expanding maternity care deserts that spread throughout Iowa.


When it comes to abusing women rights, Reynolds is one of the biggest offenders If she truly wanted to protect women she would resign because her legacy has produced the single greatest rollback to women’s rights in a century.


It shouldn’t be a surprise that Reynolds dusted off transphobia the moment she knew that her unpopular AEA bill was in trouble. The Iowa House held hearings on both the AEA and gender identity bills on the same day and time with the same result.


The trans community in Iowa is Reynolds’ favorite punching bag because we only make up 0.29% of the population and there’s a whole right-wing media ecosystem ready to slander us.


Reynolds says the only way to protect women’s rights is to eliminate trans rights. Yet this is a false choice. The alibi of tyrants is to claim only they can protect you while destroying the rights and lives of others.


This is what fascism looks like.


Fascism by the simplest definition is conform … or else.


Our government is weaponizing it’s power against its citizens because people have stood up against their policies.


And trans people aren’t the only targets. They attack us overtly, but they are covertly attacking others by moving the following bills to — defund the AEAs (SSB 3073), engage in union busting (SSB 3158), defunding, harming public libraries (HSB 678) and erasing gender parity on state boards (SF2096).


The greatest mistake anyone can make in the face of authoritarianism is to say it doesn’t or can’t affect them. Across the world, authoritarian parties often purge members of their own parties first and systematically attack all who don’t fall in line after.


Personally, speaking as an American — I reject conformity. I reject Reynolds’ attempts to erase us in the eyes of the law. And I sure as heck reject any attempts by this Legislature to reduce queer Iowans to second class status.


Reynolds and her allies in the Legislature no longer represent Iowa’s most sacred values “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” I ask you to write, post, and call out Gov. Reynolds and remind her that liberty and justice for all is not optional.


It is up to Iowans to stop this and once again I must call upon Iowans to oppose this law in every way possible. Write your representatives, talk about this on social media, stand with the trans community during our darkest hour, and then vote the autocrats out of office in November.


Aime J. Wichtendahl is the first openly transwoman elected in Iowa — serving on the Hiawatha City Council. She is a candidate for the Iowa House in District 80.

Iowa gets ripped further on kids' super bowl cast

This can't be good, right? Or does it qualify as any attention is good attention?

Evan Bland’s preseason Big Ten baseball rankings for 2024

Here comes the swan song for the Big Ten as a 13-team baseball league.
This will be the ninth and final full season of this iteration of the conference — the 2020 season never happened because of the pandemic — since Rutgers and Maryland joined in 2015.
The 2025 Big Ten campaign will add USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington while possibly bringing about divisions and certainly prompting more than the current 24 league games.
For now, this old Big Ten will aim to build on three NCAA regional qualifiers from a year ago — Maryland, Indiana and Iowa — while facing the familiar annual challenges of cold-weather teams.

Here is a look a how the conference shapes up, in order of projected finish.

1. Iowa (44-16 in 2023)​

A regular-season league title would be no small thing for the Hawkeyes, who have captured just two (1972, 1990) since World War II.


They are the only Big Ten squad with two proven aces in juniors Marcus Morgan and flamethrower Brody Brecht atop a deep stable of pitchers, which lessens the pressure on a new-look offense.

A favorable league slate — Iowa misses both Indiana and Maryland — and challenging nonconference lineup further suggests a second straight NCAA regional is coming under longtime coach Rick Heller.

2. Indiana (43-20)​

The Hoosiers were a game away from a super regional last season and bring back virtually all of a powerful offense headlined by reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year outfielder Devin Taylor (.315 average, 16 homers, 59 RBIs).
Of 11 returning double-digit homer bats in the league, four are Hoosiers who also add All-Summit League transfer outfielder Nick Mitchell from Western Illinois.

IU will miss injured Big Ten strikeout leader Luke Sinnard (elbow) but again has depth to piece together pitching in unorthodox yet effective ways.

3. Nebraska (33-23-1)​





The Haymarket Park-sized question for Nebraska baseball isn’t whether new stars will emerge — they tend to. It’s how much depth the Huskers have as they aim to end a two-year NCAA tournament drought.



Two consecutive Junes without baseball matches the longest drought for the Huskers in the Big Ten era.

Big Red responded by hiring two new assistants — including renowned pitching coach Rob Childress — and prioritizing pitching abundance coming off a 6-6 midweek mark.

The offense won’t approach its school-record 97 homers from last year but returns big outfield bat Gabe Swansen while emerging star Dylan Carey moves from third base to shortstop to help lead a more versatile attack.
Depth of talent will determine the degree of NU’s bounce-back.

4. Rutgers (33-23)​


Fifth-year coach Steve Owens has quietly molded the Scarlet Knights into a rising force in the Northeast.
After years of placing near the bottom of the Big Ten, Rutgers’ last three finishes have been eighth, tied for second and fifth.


Sophomore Christian Coppola is back as the league’s ERA leader (3.68) and is set to be joined by former ace swingman Justin Sinibaldi for potentially the best 1-2 pitching punch outside of Iowa.
A high-upside infield is where a lineup reset begins as the program eyes its first NCAA tournament berth since 2007.

5. Michigan (28-28)​


The Wolverines’ first non-winning season in more than a decade came in the wake of a coaching change and a lineup among the lowest-scoring in the country.
Coach Tracy Smith — who led Indiana to the College World Series in 2013 — responded with multiple all-conference portal adds in outfielder Stephen Hrustich (Northwestern) and infielders Mack Timbrook (Kent State) and Cole Caruso (USC Upstate).


A sixth NCAA regional in the last nine full seasons may hinge on how well multiple former high-leverage relievers transition to full-time starters.

6. Maryland (42-21)​

New era in College Park. The Terps lost two-time reigning Big Ten Coach of the Year Rob Vaughn to Alabama and promoted longtime assistant/staffer Matt Swope to his first head gig.
Maryland also resets from losing six of its seven All-Big Ten performers from last season including most of the power from its homer total (131) that ranked fourth nationally.
A few veteran bats still populate the lineup but the offense doesn’t appear to have near the firepower that consistently bailed out one of the league’s worst pitching staffs a year go.


7. Penn State (25-25)​

This isn’t Babe Ruth calling his shot, but 2024 is when the Nittany Lions end a streak of 10 straight losing records in Big Ten play.


Longtime coach Rob Cooper resigned after winning at a 42% clip and gives way to proven former Boston College skipper Mike Gambino.
PSU will be an older team with a pair of decent starters back in Travis Luensmann and Jaden Henline while adding an impact bat in Wake Forest transfer outfielder Adam Cecere (.284 average, 10 homers).
Qualifying for the eight-team league tournament would be tangible progress.

8. Illinois (25-27)​





Big Ten baseball will look much different in 2025, which means a new standard to meet is coming for Nebraska. Plus Husker breakouts to watch, roster moves and the in-season impact of new assistant coaches.



Uncertain times in Champaign, where the Illini are coming off just the second losing season in 17 full campaigns under coach Dan Hartleb and must replace most of their starting rotation and outfield.
The lineup has power — only Indiana returns more double-digit homer bats than UI’s Drake Westcott (18), Jacob Schroeder (14) and Ryan Moerman (12) — while pitching is a mystery counting on transfers and younger players to take leaps.


A beacon of Big Ten baseball in the 2010s, Illinois’ last NCAA berth (2019) has sudden been a while.

9. Michigan State (33-22)​

The Spartans authored their first winning season since 2017 — and first league tourney appearance since 2018 — last year thanks to steady hitting and solid pitching.
One part of that foundation has reset, with MSU’s top four hitters now in pro ball.
Meanwhile, senior starter Nick Powers (4.21 ERA) is the only established high-leverage pitcher back on a staff primed for regression after missing bats (7.6 strikeouts per nine innings) at a rate tied for worst in the league.
A positive: MSU is the only club to miss both Iowa and Indiana.

10. Ohio State (31-25)​

The Buckeyes have missed the last two Big Ten tourneys but found reason for hope by ending last season on a nine-game winning streak.
Second-year coach Bill Mosiello — formerly a longtime TCU assistant — has a lineup that will again be aggressive on the base paths (third in league in steals a year ago) and is set to face a relatively challenging noncon slate.

OSU’s rotation has a chance to be decent as Gavin Bruni (4.87 ERA in conference) returns while closer Landon Beidelschies moves to a starting role.

11. Purdue (24-29)​

One scouting report remains the same for the Boilermakers: Keep speedy outfield table setters Mike Bolton Jr. and Couper Cornblum off base.
Both are back after finishing Nos. 1 and 3 in the league with a combined 54 steals in 60 tries as the mainstays of a lineup largely turned over with transfers and junior-college bats.
There’s also no clear ace among the staff, which lost its pitching coach to LSU in the offseason.
A thin nonconference slate could help build momentum — or lay bare potential deficiencies.

12. Minnesota (18-34)​

This will be the 43rd and final season for John Anderson as Gophers head coach.
It’s been tough sledding of late. Since Minnesota swept the Big Ten regular-season and tourney titles in 2018, it has gone a combined 76-138 (.355) with consecutive league finishes of 13th, 13th and 10th after the pandemic.
The lowest-scoring lineup in the conference last year will play 22 straight games away from home to open the spring.
UM has some veteran pieces led by All-Big Ten starter Tucker Novotny and infielder Brady Counsell.

13. Northwestern (10-40)​

A third straight year with a new head coach says how it’s going in Evanston.
Ben Greenspan — a well-traveled assistant and first-time head coach — takes over after the Wildcats fired Jim Foster for alleged bullying and abusive behavior.
Another portal exodus leaves behind virtually no established contributors for a team that plays its first 20 games on the road and ranked near the Big Ten basement in every major metric in 2023.
At least the Cubs and White Sox are only a train ride away.

U.S. prosecutors ask Supreme Court to quickly take up Trump immunity claims

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to quickly consider former president Donald Trump’s claims that he is immune from prosecution for alleged election obstruction in 2020 — an aggressive legal move designed to keep Trump’s trial on track for early next year.

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The filing by the prosecutor seeks to essentially leapfrog past an appeals court process that could take months to resolve, slowing down the Justice Department’s push for a March trial of Trump, who is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” the filing from Smith’s team argues.
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Trump’s legal claims of immunity, the filing said, “are profoundly mistaken, as the district court held. But only this Court can definitively resolve them.”


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Therefore, Smith’s team argues, the Supreme Court should take up the issue now “to ensure that it can provide the expeditious resolution that this case warrants, just as it did in United States v. Nixon.”

Simultaneously, the special counsel filed a motion in the federal appeals court in Washington. D.C. — a court that is a step below the Supreme Court — asking for expedited review of the immunity decision in case the Supreme Court chooses not to take up the appeal immediately.
In that case, the prosecutors wrote, a swifter appeal process in D.C. would still get the case to the Supreme Court by next summer.
Smith’s proposed briefing schedule in D.C. would give Trump 10 days to appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan that Trump is not immune from prosecution. Smith would then allow the government a week to respond, and Trump three days to reply to that response.
Even if the court agrees to that schedule, the appeals court judges can take as long as they want to render a decision. When Trump claimed immunity from any civil lawsuit over his actions on and around Jan. 6, 2021, oral argument was held in December 2022; but the decision — with the appeals court ruling against him — just came out this month.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Kudos to the McCaffery's--F Cancer

As much as I hate Fran's coaching and his temper, have to admire his wife and him to say F cancer and raise money and awareness. As a (nearly destroyed) family who has lost a loved one to this shit disease and have seen friends pass from it, I empathize with their situation and Patrick. I hope Patrick never has a recurrence and dies an old and accomplished man. So, even if we disagree on hoops, thank you Fran and Margaret. F cancer.


Instead of donating to the swarm, or may be alongside it, consider donating to cancer research. Someday it could save your loved one or even you.

Kizner and Smiley Kaufman gave Zach Johnson

some good kidding on the 16th hole at the WM golf tournament Saturday. Kizner and Kaufman were special announcers at the rowdy stadium hole and are both Georgia grads. Kizner threw Johnson a football and Johnson promptly punted it. Kizner then said, "Johnson should know a lot about punting as he is an Iowa Hawkeye fan and no team punts more than Iowa."
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