Hey Eliot
First, thanks for all the coverage and work on the singing day lead up and actually day. Appreciate all the info.

Curious where you think Iowa will put the butter for the bread from the portal? Figure out needs are QB, DB, DL and receivers never hurt. So curious on your thoughts.

Thanks again for all the hard work

It has been exactly one month since Donald Trump was elected president again, and he appears to be on the verge of something historically dubious: seeing two of his picks for marquee Cabinet posts go down in flames. This despite them needing only Republican votes.
Defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth appears to be severely endangered as Republicans, including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), have balked at him. Hegseth, a former Fox News host, faces allegations of alcohol abuse, abusing women and financial mismanagement. Hegseth has denied these allegations, and allies have cited the anonymous sources behind many of them. But the situation is such that the Trump team is considering alternatives.


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If Hegseth’s pick is withdrawn, it would mark a second high-profile loss for Trump, after his attorney general pick, former congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), lasted just eight days.
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That would be highly unusual. The emerging question is what that says about Trump’s political capital, with still a month and a half until he’s actually sworn in.
Trump came into office triumphant and claiming a huge mandate to do drastic things, and already we’re seeing his agenda thwarted by his own party in high-profile ways.
Let’s start with the precedents. Newly elected presidents have seen their Cabinet picks fail, but generally not for two marquee posts, and generally not this quickly.

President Joe Biden lost his pick to run the Office of Management and Budget in 2021, and Trump and George W. Bush lost labor secretary nominees early on. Barack Obama also saw two separate picks for commerce secretary withdrawn (one of them over political differences rather than scandal), as well as a withdrawn pick for health and human services secretary. But none of these posts are on par with attorney general or defense secretary.


To get close to what we’re witnessing today, you’d have to go all the way back to 1993, when two of Bill Clinton’s initial picks for attorney general withdrew. (Both, as it happens, withdrew over something that might seem rather quaint today: hiring undocumented workers).
And then in 1989, George H.W. Bush’s pick for defense secretary lost an actual floor vote, amid allegations eerily similar to some of those leveled against Hegseth.

Of the withdrawn nominees mentioned above, only two were out before the incoming president took office.
Which brings us to what this means. There is no doubt that having his top Cabinet picks struggle — and be resisted by his own party — is a bad sign for Trump, but the question is how bad?
Trump clearly challenged his party with unorthodox early picks, perhaps reasoning that if they didn’t work out, they could be quickly and simply replaced. He promptly substituted former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi (R) for Gaetz. Perhaps the play here is to shoot for the moon and see what he can get, and then fall back on more-confirmable picks if need be.



And perhaps he doesn’t care about the momentary bad news; Trump, after all, has bulldozed through a multitude of controversies, scandals and failures and remained his party’s dominant force. He’s also term-limited, so future campaigns aren’t part of the calculus.
But Trump also has his political capital to mind at a crucial juncture.
He’s coming off a supposedly momentous victory (which wasn’t actually as large as advertised), and some in his party have argued that means Republicans should do pretty much whatever he wants (checks and balances be darned, apparently). Trump’s plans are extensive and in some cases extreme, but the GOP’s majorities are small — especially in the House — meaning there is precious little margin for error.

That means there was and is a premium on bringing his party to heel. What’s transpired during Trump’s first big challenges to congressional Republicans has thus far has been anything but.


To this point, a sufficient number of Senate Republicans are demonstrating that they can stand up to Trump and apparently don’t fear the consequences too much. And you could forgive them for feeling emboldened to do it more going forward.
That could certainly change in the weeks to come, particularly if Trump and his allies start truly going to war against Republicans who don’t fall in line behind his picks. Senate Republicans are also often using careful, judicious and coded language to express their discontent rather than thumbing their noses at Trump.

But there is a tone being set right now. And it’s not a great one for a president-elect just a month after his triumphant rise to power.

Judge scolds President Biden for trying to 'rewrite history' in Hunter Biden pardon​

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi wrote that "nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history."​

I was making a bunch for some 3 to 9 yo kids today and was teaching the oldest ones how to do it. I started with the basic dart airplane I was taught as a kid.



Then I looked online for some designs and was blown away at all the different varieties. I decided to make this one because it looked fairly simple. It turned out pretty good.

The kids had a blast making and throwing their paper airplanes and some hopefully learned something that they won’t forget.

So what is the best or most unique paper airplane you’ve created HBOT?

US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT

Davenport ranks 43rd in US News best places to live​

• Sarah Watson
• Dec 2, 2024

Davenport ranks in the top 50 places to live in 2025 and 2026, according to the most recent list compiled by US News and World Report.

US News selected and ranked what it considered the top 150 cities in the U.S. based on cities' job market, value, quality of life and desirability.

Davenport came in at No. 43 on the list, the only Iowa city to crack the top 50. The area scored points for low cost of living, notching an 8 of 10 on value. The list noted the Quad-Cities had lower average home prices than the Iowa, Illinois or national averages. US News lists the average home price in Davenport at $170,262 and the median monthly rent at $1,036.

Davenport's quality of life scored 6.3 out of 10 for an overall score of 6.4 out of 10.

Davenport was also ranked No. 43 in the 2024-2025 best places to live, a list released in May.
US News gave a favorable rating to the Quad-Cities job market, scoring it with a 6.2 out of 10 and stating the market is healthier than other similarly sized metro areas.

The largest employers in the Quad-Cities are John Deere and the Rock Island Arsenal. Other major employers in the area that US News highlighted were MercyOne Genesis, UnityPoint Health, Hy-Vee and HNI Corporation.

According to US News, the median household income in Davenport is about $67,000 and the area had a 5% unemployment rate in 2023, lower than the national average of 5.3%.
The article took note of theater in the Quad-Cities, giving a nod to the Black Box Theatre in Moline, the Adler Theatre in Davenport, Vibrant Arena in Moline and The Rust Belt in East Moline.

US News also noted a number of other Quad-Cities' attractions — Ballet Quad Cities, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, the Figge Art Museum and the Putnam Museum and Science Center.

Also, US News acknowledged events during the summer that draw in visitors from around the country, such as the John Deere Classic PGA Tour event and the Quad-City Times Bix 7 race along local music events and festivals. And it noted the local sports scene, minor league hockey's Quad City Storm, minor league baseball team the Quad Cities River Bandits and indoor football team the Quad City Steamwheelers.

Davenport, however, scored lower than other similarly sized areas for its public schools. US News considered just Davenport public schools, which it ranked a 4.4 out of 10 on its "College Readiness Index." US News used data from its Best High Schools rankings.
The city also had a higher-than-average crime rate in 2022, calculated by US News based on data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports.

US News also ranked Davenport No. 63 in its list of best places to retire.

ReliaQuest Bowl (Dec. 31): Iowa vs. South Carolina and PepsiCock will be head coach! Jk… that wouldn’t be too bad of a game to head to but if Iowa drops one more they should boycott the bowl games in general as will probably be missing 8/9 players that start because of the draft…. I just don’t see much upside as the ticket sales will probably be as low as you can go with this flop of a season we have had

Next week, Cassidy Hutchinson will turn 28. The New Jersey native graduated from Christopher Newport University in Virginia five years ago. She interned briefly on Capitol Hill before taking a job at the White House, earning a write-up in the college newspaper. She worked in the Trump administration for a little over two years.


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This, according to Kash Patel, earns Hutchinson a spot as one of 60 “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.” Should he be confirmed to run the FBI, as President-elect Donald Trump desires, Hutchinson and those 59 others could find that their stints as government employees, however brief, earned them federal criminal investigations. Not because they compromised the public trust, but because they ran afoul of Trump — or Patel.
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Patel’s list was delineated in his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters,” a screed that mirrors Patel’s children’s book series “The Plot Against the King” (the eponymous king being Trump) in casting anti-Trump and anti-Patel forces as wrong or evil or both. Trump gave “Gangsters” his blessing, calling it a “brilliant roadmap highlighting every corrupt actor” that would be used to “help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.”



Hutchinson, of course, no longer works in government. She served under Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as Trump’s first term in office concluded. She eventually offered public testimony about what she observed as Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. That is the reason she’s on the list: not because she is a member of the “deep state” — her tenure barely qualifies as inch-deep — but because she had the temerity to speak truth to Trump’s power.
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Several other people on the list fit the same pattern. Nina Jankowicz worked for the government for a bit over a month in 2022, selected by President Joe Biden to run a government board targeting misinformation. The right, building on the coronavirus pandemic by casting Biden and the left as dangerously censorious, attacked the board and Jankowicz, leading to the organization’s dissolution. She became an enemy of Trumpworld and, therefore, an element of the anti-Trump deep state.
Melania Trump’s former chief of staff and later Trump administration press secretary Stephanie Grisham made the list because she eventually spoke out against her former boss. So did Alyssa Farah, who worked for the government only as a member of the Trump administration, but became part of the “deep state” when she offered negative information about Trump publicly.



Several lesser-known members of Trump’s first term in office are also on the list. There are two members of his legal team, for example: Pat Cipollone and Pat Philbin, who defended Trump during his first impeachment trial. Perhaps because Cipollone rejected Trump’s efforts to retain power after losing in 2020, he was placed on Patel’s “deep state” list. His tenure as a state actor extends no further than his work for Trump. Cipollone and Philbin testified to the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot.
Patel’s list also includes Nellie Ohr, whom his book identifies as a “Former CIA Employee and Independent Contract [sic] for Fusion GPS.” Ohr, according to earlier Washington Post reporting, worked for a firm that contracted with the CIA. She’s on the list not because of her purported work for the government but because of that latter job, her work with Fusion GPS.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli..._magnet-trump-presidency_inline_collection_15

That firm was responsible for hiring a former British intelligence officer who compiled a set of documents alleging close ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian actors. This dossier became a central element of the narrative about Russian interference and a key component of the right’s effort to dismiss the federal government’s interference probe as politically biased against Trump.



This is the primary through-line to Patel’s list. Most of those included were involved, however tangentially, in investigating Russian interference, Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results or Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine — or in rejecting Patel’s efforts to defend Trump in each of those instances.
Why is former FBI official Stephen Boyd on the list? Well, probably because he issued a public warning about a memo, primarily written by Patel, that attempted to undermine the validity of a tangential element of the Russia investigation.
Why is former State Department official Elizabeth Dibble on it? Probably because she was the one who was informed by an Australian diplomat that a Trump campaign adviser had told him in 2016 that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

And Charles Kupperman? Patel no doubt takes issue with the former deputy national security adviser for having recommended against having Patel vet White House staffers for loyalty to Trump as the Ukraine probe unfolded. The text of the book lashes out at Patel’s and Trump’s overlapping (perceived) oppressors; the list is just a summary of that grievance.


It includes a parade of names that popped up in derogatory Fox News lower-thirds over the past decade: Peter Strzok, Michael Sussmann, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Some of the people on the list have, in fact, been in government service for decades. Others are part of the “deep state” only to the extent that “deep state” is used synonymously with “person who declined to put Trump’s needs first.”
Until the past few days, none of this mattered. Patel wrote a book in which he disparages government officials as “gangsters” and lists out the ones he views with particular malice. But now Trump wants to put him in charge of the federal government’s premier law enforcement agency, where (Trump hopes) he would report to another Trump loyalist, Pam Bondi. Patel has spoken about his interest in prosecuting Trump’s enemies. Trump wants to give him the power to do so, just as he said in his book blurb.

Critically, this is precisely why Trump selected Patel. No one pretends that he is experienced at managing large organizations or has any particular insights into law enforcement and the application of blind justice. It is understood that he wants to effect justice for Trump, the former and future president who had to endure valid but unpleasant investigations into his actions. Patel’s job would be to exact the retribution Trump promised his supporters.
There’s no reason to think that the list doesn’t show how that might happen.

In the ic/cr area or willing to relocate.
Looking for one salesperson with experience in science or medical device sales.
Looking for one scientist who has experience in the production of biologics or is a quick learner.
DM me if you know. Thanks.

First off, here is the late, dirty hit from the Texans' Azeez Al-Shaair that knocked Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence out of the game.

Lawrence, when down on his back, was seen with his arms in what appeared to be the fencing posture (sign of a concussion).


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KF reiterated at the presser today that he plans to coach at Iowa next season. No retirement coming.

Football team playing for conference title (say what you will about the competition), MBB just beat a top 5 team by double digits. I'll take what Iowa has going on in WBB, but ISU is still solid there as well.
Csb

LOL... there was a tsunami warning issued around 1:00-1:30 Central time for a part of the California coast.

The Weather Channel canceled the warning a half hour ago and yet Fox "News" and Fox Business still have coverage issuing warnings and interviews trying to frighten viewers.

These clowns are so out of touch or actually believe their numpties think they are "in the know".

Edit: Sorry about the Pepsi. Just saw other thread.

...how do you excuse away the violent daily moves of 6-7%. Is that how a reserve currency acts?

IF Ohio State fires Ryan Day, guess what name has been trending the most to replace him? I’ll give you a hint… his first name is Matt, and his last name is Campbell. 😜 Would make sense given his Ohio roots. Link below…

Campbell to Ohio State?

Thanks, dems!! >

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The Hawkeyes easily could have folded when NW had that 6-point lead with a minute and a half to go, but they hung in there and, like the football team, pulled a victory from deep out of the jaws of defeat. Fabulous way to start the BIG season. And although we all tend to look at the negatives of everything, which is fine up to a point, this was a tremendous win. Whether it will mean anything by March is anyone's guess, but for now the sun is shining on the Hawkeyes.

Iowa brought the ball up on that last possession with 5.8 seconds to play, and whatever was drawn up fell apart immediately. Had Payton Sandfort not gotten the timeout, it looked like Iowa wasn't even going to get a shot off. But the kid was smart enough to call the TO, and when that play broke down, one guy stepped up and saved the day. Steph Curry, Caitlin Clark, Michael Jordan . . . no one could have turned that L into a W any better than Dix did. A long fade-away that hit nothing but net.

After blowing a 17-point lead, the Hawkeyes start the BIG season 1-0 for the first time in four years. Gotta enjoy that one.

BTW: I don't know what the actual attendance was . . . maybe 7,500 or so . . . but it was a much more active, vocal crowd than usual for the men's games. So congrats to all of you who were there and who saw a fantastic finish.

OK, so the STEM lab was unexpected.



Backers of a planned Cedar Crossing Casino in Cedar Rapids this week foretold of the exciting extras we’ll get if the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission grants a casino license. One feature is a STEM lab Linn County students can access for free/


So, a casino STEM Lab. It must be the first ever.




The lab will have a totally separate entrance, of course. No kids will smell like Marlboros and desperation when they get home from casino school.


The lab also will feature an Arts and Cultural Center, partnering with the National Geographic Society, and will serve as an instructional resource for kids. Maybe tomorrow’s math whizzes will learn how astronomically low your chance of winning in a gambling joint truly is. And never visit a casino again.


They’re hanging shiny ornaments all over this $250 million casino plan.


There’s the Clubhouse by Zach Johnson, a steak joint, and a smokehouse that will serve the Iowa Titan Tenderloin. Tempting? There would be a 1,500-seat entertainment venue. And, of course, there will be 700 slots and 22 table games.





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But the main event was the release of local casino investors’ own market study. It’s a preemptive strike ahead of two market studies commissioned by the Racing and Gaming Commission due in December. They will play a big role in Cedar Crossing’s chances.


According to the investors’ study, conducted by Convergence Strategy Group, Cedar Crossing would increase overall state gambling revenue by $80 million and draw more than 1.1 million customers each year.


Those big picture benefits, they argue, should outweigh worries about revenues a new casino would cannibalize from existing nearby facilities. The study says the Riverside Casino would lose 11.6% of its annual revenue to Cedar Crossing. The losses from Waterloo and Dubuque are in the single digits. The study used cellphone data to track customer ZIP codes.


New Nebraska casinos are cutting into Iowa revenues. The commission, they argue, should consider the whole pie, or tenderloin.


Studies by license applicants rarely move the commission. But the studies it pays for can make or break the best laid plans. Instead of statewide revenues, the commission has made shielding existing casinos from competition its priority.


One of its two studies will come from Minneapolis-based Marquette Advisors. This will be the third time Marquette has evaluated a Cedar Crossing application. Both previous efforts failed.


In 2014, Marquette estimated Cedar Crossing would get 73% of its revenue through cannibalization, mostly coming from Riverside. In 2017, Marquette estimated another Cedar Crossing plan on the river would get 45%, $38 million of its revenue, through cannibalization, including $22 million from Riverside.


Marquette concedes it’s been wrong in its cannibalization estimates. For example, its estimate on how much Wild Rose Casino in Greene County would take was too high.


Maybe Marquette’s cannibalization estimate will shrink again. And maybe math whizzes studying the casino market will have a soft spot for STEM.


(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

Opinion: Will state casino regulators order up a Titan Tenderloin in Cedar Rapids?

A STEM lab for kids is included in the facility

www.thegazette.com

@SolarHawk

I have a south facing roof so it’s perfect. Spoke to a person on this and basically he said that there is $0 down and we just get a loan through the company and pay them on the loan over 25 years at a rate of 6.99%. Essentially it would be the same amount we are paying now (according to him, haven’t seen the actual numbers) energy wise for the loan but the big kicker is that these panels supposedly add 4-12% value to your home.

Still waiting on the breakdown of the numbers and break even point but wanted to get your thoughts on what I’m being sold. You think it would be worth it with this minimal info I gave you?

49.9%
So less than half of all voters cast their ballot for this vile human. Barely.

One of my favs. Like a fine wine…





https://www.reddit.com/r/bestofinternet/s/fbicSecHdm

State health officials said Sunday that bird flu virus was detected in a retail sample of raw milk from the Fresno-based Raw Farm dairy.

The sample was collected by officials with the Santa Clara County public health office, who have been testing raw milk products from retail stores "as a second line of consumer protection."

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Did @torbee write this banger? I will say it's better than the Ames water song

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