The planes, trains and automobiles thread made think this had to happen. When do you go to this one? Is this weekend too soon?

Fresh off hip replacement surgery, Nancy Pelosi, 84, secured another victory. House Democrats on Tuesday afternoon decided that 74-year-old Gerry Connolly—who announced his throat cancer diagnosis in November—will serve as ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, besting 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a closed-door caucus vote. "Gerry's a young 74, cancer notwithstanding," said Virginia Democrat Don Beyer, a Connolly ally. Pelosi had opposed the 35-year-old's run for the role, "approaching colleagues urging them to back Connolly over Ocasio-Cortez," Axios reported last week.

Connolly will join fellow septuagenarians in top committee spots next year. Richard Neal, 75, will lead Democrats on Ways and Means while Frank Pallone, 73, will be the party's top representative on Energy and Commerce. Eighty-six-year-old Maxine Waters will be the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee, and Rose DeLauro, 81, will helm the Democrats' presence in Appropriations.

The elderly are not too old to govern. But they may, in this case, be too attached to a failed way of doing things. The job of the Oversight Committee, for instance, is to "ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies," including the Pentagon. Connolly this past cycle accepted $118,500 from political action committees linked to the defense sector. Ways and Means is the House's top tax-writing committee, with jurisdiction over the revenue-related aspects of Social Security and Medicare, among other programs. Neal is a top recipient of donations from the insurance industry, having accepted $412,000 from insurance industry PACs during the 2024 campaign cycle, plus generous six-figure donations from HMOs and pharmaceutical companies. Frank Pallone has gotten more than $1 million from electric utilities since joining Congress in 1998.

In other democracies, the leaderships of parties that have endured humiliating defeats like the one Democrats saw in November—or even just regular defeats—resign. That kicks off a process by which members determine a new, ideally more successful direction, represented by different people. But the Democratic Party isn't really a "party" of the sort that exists in other democracies, with memberships and official constituencies, like unions, who have some say over how it's governed. Members mostly make decisions based on their own interests rather than to drive some shared, democratically decided agenda forward.

But the Groundhog Day of it all adds a special layer of dread: Once again, Pelosi and AOC are fighting a proxy battle over the future of the Democratic Party. In 2020, Pelosi squashed AOC's bid to join Energy and Commerce over a perceived lack of loyalty. Now Pelosi has gotten her way again.

Here's the 29 MINUTE replay of the KF Press Conference:

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Friday that the House would vote on a new spending plan without President-elect Donald Trump’s demand to suspend the debt limit. Emerging from a two-hour GOP meeting, Johnson said he was finalizing the details. “I’ve got one more little detail to work out, but we should be having a vote here soon.” he said, adding, “We will not have a government shutdown.” The bill would require the support of Democrats and it was unclear whether they were in agreement. The legislation would extend current fiscal levels until mid-March, provide $110 billion relief bill to help natural disaster survivors and aid farmers and grant an extension for the farm bill which must be reauthorized. At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lashed out at Republicans who had agreed to a bipartisan deal and then abandoned it. “This is a mess that Speaker [Mike] Johnson created, that is his mess to fix,” she told reporters at the daily briefing, adding that there was “still time” for Republicans to “do the right thing.” The Office of Management and Budget alerted federal agencies Friday morning to prepare for an imminent government shutdown.

I doubt that all of those laid-off D voter government workers who go without a paycheck during the holidays will be happy.

Might as well add another daily game into my routine.

Connections
Puzzle #71
🟨🟪🟨🟦
🟨🟪🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦

This is a hefty one. As @RossWB called it, meaty.

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"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:

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Caitlin Clark at 0:58 mark.

Surprised Google even put some Trump victory moments in there. They know who can butter their bread with this upcoming anti-trust trial.

I think my favorite was the nixing of $110,000,000 for tampons for trannys; no doubt a salute to timm AWOLz!

There are endless stories about things like this. What the **** is the answer?!

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The Monkees weren’t exactly the poster children of the anti-Vietnam War movement in the late 1960s, but the pop-rock band was still the subject of an FBI file. In it, an agent reported seeing “subliminal messages” on a screen at one of their concerts, depicting racial-equality protests and “anti-U.S. messages on the war in Vietnam.”


That heavily redacted file from 1967 was declassified about a decade ago. But now, the last surviving member of the American rock group, Micky Dolenz, wants to know more. On Tuesday, Dolenz, 77, sued the Justice Department to release information the FBI gathered on the band and its members from that time period.
“If the documents still exist, I fully expect that we will learn more about what prompted the FBI to target the Monkees or those around them,” attorney Mark Zaid, who is representing Dolenz, told The Washington Post.






The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post about Dolenz’s lawsuit, which was first reported by Rolling Stone.
The Monkees were put together in 1966 by television producers for a sitcom that ran for two seasons. Their style largely mimicked British-invasion bands likes the Beatles, and the Monkees put out numerous hits, including “I’m a Believer” and “Last Train to Clarksville.” The band broke up in 1970.
In the 1960s, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI infamously surveilled and harassed civil rights and counterculture figures, as The Post and other news outlets revealed at the time. That surveillance sometimes centered on pop-culture icons who spoke out against the Vietnam War, like John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix.

The Monkees were also caught up in the government’s surveillance. In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Dolenz said that his band’s 1966 hit “Last Train to Clarksville” was an antiwar song about a man going to an Army base and not knowing when he’d return to his girlfriend. But exactly what caught the FBI’s attention about the band — aside from what the agent called “left-wing” images during the 1967 concert — is unclear.










Much of the seven-page memo released by the agency is redacted, though Zaid told The Post it’s possible other files exist based on what’s shown on the declassified document.
“It’s pretty obvious that there are other linked files,” he said. “Now, it may not be directly on the Monkees — it could be peripheral — but these files are connected to other files.”

It was Zaid who suggested that Dolenz, whom he met through a mutual friend in April, demand more information about his band’s FBI’s files, he told The Post. The Washington-based attorney has represented government whistleblowers, including the one who filed the complaint that ultimately set off President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.
But the 55-year-old lawyer has a personal interest in the Monkees case. When he was a kid, his babysitter from across the street gave him all of her Monkees albums, and when the band went on its reunion tour in 1986, Zaid was there. He saw them live about eight more times, he told The Post.










“I mean, literally, this is fun for me,” Zaid, who is working on the case pro bono, said of filing the lawsuit for the FBI files.

With Zaid’s help, Dolenz filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the documents with the FBI in June. He requested the agency review the redacted document and provide other possible files relating to the band and its members, according to the lawsuit.
The government has 20 business days to respond to FOIA requests, barring “unusual circumstances.” Dolenz has so far only received acknowledgments of his requests, the lawsuit says.
“Any window into what the FBI was up to can lead to the opening of another window,” Zaid said. “That’s the beauty of gaining access to these types of files — because there are little nuggets and pieces within them that can lead to a bigger picture in understanding what was going on within the FBI at the time.”

This is overdue, but in an effort to make recruiting information easier to find I'm starting a separate thread for the class of 2026. Here are some of Iowa's top targets in the class:

Maddyn Greenway
Basic Information: 5'8" point guard from Plymouth, Minnesota
Ranking: #17 in ESPN's Class of 2026
Notable Offer List: Iowa, UCLA, Stanford, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Michigan, Iowa State, Minnesota, Creighton, TCU
Iowa Visits: Many, including Iowa's recent game against Ohio State

Jenica Lewis
Basic Information: 5'10" guard from Johnston, Iowa
Ranking: #23 in ESPN's Class of 2026
Notable Offer List: Iowa, UCLA, USC, Texas, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Indiana, Louisville, Maryland, Tennessee, Iowa State, Miami, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Ole Miss, Michigan, Michigan State, Kansas, TCU, Kansas State, Baylor, Nebraska
Iowa Visits: Several, including the Crossover at Kinnick and Iowa's game against Ohio State

Addison Bjorn
Basic Information: 6'2" guard/forward from Kansas City, Missouri
Ranking: #8 in ESPN's Class of 2026
Notable Offer List: Iowa, UConn, Stanford, Notre Dame, Texas, Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA, Indiana, Virginia Tech, Baylor, Oregon, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Michigan, Iowa State, Arizona, North Carolina, Colorado, TCU, Kansas State, Oklahoma
Iowa Visits: At least three, including vs. Ohio State

Trinity Jones
Basic Information: 6'2' guard/forward from Bolingbrook, Illinois
Ranking: #7 in ESPN's Class of 2026
Notable Offer List: Iowa, South Carolina, LSU, UCLA, Louisville, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Baylor, TCU, Illinois, Michigan State, Tennessee, North Carolina, Michigan
Iowa Visits: October 21, 2023

Other Targets

Ava Miles
Basic Information: 6'0' guard from Kansas City, Missouri
Ranking: Not Ranked in ESPN's Top 25 for the Class of 2026
Notable Offer List: Iowa, Colorado, Kansas State, Nebraska, Creighton, Oklahoma State, Kansas, West Virginia, Auburn, Pittsburgh
Iowa Visits: Multiple, last known February 27, 2023

Ashlyn Koupal (no Iowa offer Yet)
Basic Information: 6'3" guard/forward from Wagner, South Dakota
Ranking: Not ranked amongst ESPN's Top 25 in the Class of 2026
Notable Offer List: Indiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa State, Creighton
Iowa Visits: March 3, 2024 -- Iowa's game vs. Ohio State

Natalie Kussow
Basic Information: 5'11' guard from Wisconsin
Ranking: Ranked #22 by ESPN
Iowa Visits: October 2022
Info: Kussow keeps her recruitment quieter than most top recruits. I haven't seen info of her taking a more recent visit than October 2022.

Top Targets With Offers But No Visits (Rankings are from ESPN)

Olivia Vukosa (New York)- #2
Brihanna Crittendon (Colorado)- #10
Sanai Green (Virginia)- #15
Amari Byles (Texas)- #16

Got some great stuff from Jaidyn, his mom and his head coach yesterday.

One of the top prospects in Iowa, Coon is looking for a family when he commits. In that respect, Fran McCaffery and the Hawkeyes have gotten off to a solid start.

STORY:

If you're tired of being wrong, stupid and in general a bad person, then maybe give some of these well educated, well intended and highly knowledgable people a listen.

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Stephen Crowder and Ben Shapiro are fighting over Crowder's new 50 million dollar contract. Yes, being a soulless right wing propagandist pays very well.


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Thread about news and other topics from the most bizarre place in the most bizarre state


Currently no gas

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Does anyone remember Iowa recruiting this kid? Iowa was his only division one scholarship offer out of high school but he turned it down to play lacrosse at Notre Dame.

Well, he’s the current starting WR at Notre Dame as a Sophomore.

Crazy. Tyler Barnes really does know what he’s doing.

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