I caught this last night at an early showing, in a Dolby Cinema, before the Beyonce movie takes over all the Dolby and IMAX formats starting today.

This is the best movie of the year. It's arguably the best Godzilla movie of all time, at the very least since the original. For my money, it's the best giant monster movie since 1933's King Kong. But that's besides the point, as it is much more than a kaiju or genre movie. Everyone should see this.

I'm just about as big a film snob as anyone on here, and it's legit the finest movie I've seen this year. Better than Oppenheimer, which I liked.

It's a war movie, a melodrama, a period piece, a disaster movie, an action movie, and pretty much pitch perfect the whole way.

I can't recommend it enough.

What a weekend. While it wasn't the best for the Hawks - I still love talking to the best fans of the world's oldest and gratest! Let's run it down shall we!

Lineup:

125: Ayala
133 - Peterson/portal
141 - Portal
149 - Block
157 - Caliendo/Siebrecht
165 - PK
174 - Arnold
184 - Brands
197 - Glazier
285 - Kueter/Hill

Biggest surprise for me is Block at 149. But it looks like he'll be the man. Right now the plan is Caliendo to 157 (edited to add Siebrecht as well at 157) to get PK in the lineup. Brands medical was approved. AJ - somehow, yuck, - is still in the plans, but it sounds like he's just going to move on to MMA. Anthony is still around and is still a troublemaker. Why he's still around is absolutely absurd and when he does something worse, it's going to be on Tom.

There is no talk about changes to assistant. Like Wahlberg said - assistants are just extensions of Tom. Period. I think its short-sighted, arrogant, and at this point, just plain negligent, but hey, dems the breaks.

Sorry acuhawk - Tom's practices on a general basis are NOT 45-60 minutes. They are towards the end of the season, and certainly happen earlier than they used to, but that is not the typical practice time. But the practice time isn't really the biggest deal - it's still the intensity. Still long goes, still far more on the "dark places" track.

Now the biggie - yes. Kyven was right. The AD has plans to talk to DT. She is dead serious about WINNING chips again. She's not particularly happy with Tom at the moment. The gambling, the ferrari situation, and this performance - she's holding Tom accountable and will be looking to do what will have us beat carl. She is VERY AWARE of the legacy of Iowa wrestling and how we're falling further behind. Like I told you earlier, she shut down AJ coming in in January - she's not a fan and isn't a fan of Tom's decision to bring the circus in. She also told Tom to get a hold of Terry - it's why he's been "less" in the corners.

Now how this got out? Not sure, but it likely means there are Tom loyalists who wanted it leaked. Because the plan was to wait until after the Olympics to talk to DT. So now that its out, not sure if this will accelerate talks or stop them completely.

Then why are all the MAGA idiots, which includes Speaker Johnson, vowing revenge against the justice system and Democrats?

It’s like they think law and order applies to everyone but them.

What a bunch of ****ing degenerate cry babies. As far as I’m concerned, they’re just as demented and fragile as the pronoun wing of the Democratic Party.

God, our country is so ****ed.

What happened to them?:

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As unpopular as Biden is, he's better than most on this very West-leaning poll from early May.

Only 5 leaders with 50% approval or better. Nice to see at least 1 "good guy" among them, Australia's Albanese. I like AMLO, too, but he hasn't been as good as hoped. I say "at least" because I don't know the guy from Switzerland - and apparently neither do a lot of the Swiss.

Argentina's Milei scores shockingly well, considering the free-market libertarian is gutting social services and government programs in the economically distressed nation. It's an interesting libertarian experiment that I'm glad is happening there, not here. But if he pulls it off, it will be here soon.

Meanwhile the leaders of Germany, France and the UK are so low, I wonder how they can remain in power. Rishi probably won't (elections next month).



Here's the link but you only get 1 freebie - after which they want $150/mo. Plus, there's nothing else of interest on that page.

https://pro.morningconsult.com/trackers/global-leader-approval

Make a right decision? Trump is pro crypto. Trump has flaws but he will support the rule of law, control the border, and make better financial decisions. He does not have advanced dementia. These are facts.

The men's team has 12 currently on scholarship with 1 scholarship remaining.


Current 2024-2025 Roster:

Freshmen: 2 players

6'7" F Cooper Koch
6'8" PF Chris Tadjo

Sophomores: 5 players

6'10" C Owen Freeman
6'0" PG Brock Harding
6'7" F Pryce Sandfort
6'8" PF Ladji Dembele
6’7” PF Seydou Traore

Juniors : 2 players

6'5" SG Josh Dix
6'11" C Riley Mulvey

Seniors: 3 players

6'7" F Payton Sandfort
6'9" F/C Even Brauns
6’3” PG Drew Thelwell


4 Notable Walk on players:

Freshmen: 1 player

Trey Buchanan—6’1, 175, combo guard; a preferred walk-on. Trey is the son of Indiana Pacers GM Chad Buchanan.

Sophomores: 1 player

Spencer Hutchison-- 6'4 guard; a walk on.

Juniors: 1 player

Carter Kingsbury-- 6'5", 230 lb shooting guard; a preferred walk on.

Seniors: 1 player

Luc Laketa--6'6" wing/forward; a preferred walk on.

.....................................................

Here is a look at the schedule so far:

Conference games:

• Home only: Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Washington
• Away only: Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Rutgers, UCLA, USC
• Home and away: Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin

Game dates, times, and television information will be announced at a later time.

Here is a look at some of the non-conference games on Iowa's schedule:

• Rider University on Nov. 19, 2024 (Carver-Hawkeye Arena).
• Iowa State on Dec. 12, 2024 (Carver-Hawkeye Arena).
• University of New Orleans on Dec. 15, 2024 (Carver-Hawkeye Arena).
• University of Utah on Dec. 21, 2024 (Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota).
• University of New Hampshire on Dec. 30, 2024 (Carver-Hawkeye Arena).

That phantom interference call in the Iowa/Illinois baseball game ranks right up there with the fair catch fiasco in the Iowa/Minnesota football game and both were reviewed and upheld. Me thinks somebody has some
"splain" to do in the Big Ten office!

What a sad shadow of his former self Chuck has become:

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday the criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump amount to “political lynching” of the former president.

“I think you're seeing that whatever the Democrats were trying to accomplish by prosecuting in four different ways, former President Trump, that it's kind of backfiring on them,” Grassley told reporters on a weekly press call. “And I think I see it as a political lynching.”

Grassley noted that he was taking the phrase from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who described his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings as “a high-tech lynching” after he was accused of sexually harassing Anita Hill.

Grassley said he has not been paying close attention to Trump’s criminal hush money trial, which is continuing in New York City this week.


Unlike other Republican politicians who have attended the trial to voice their support of the former president, including Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, Grassley said he is too busy to make an appearance.

“My life is pretty much Washington, D.C., or Iowa — representing Iowa,” he said. “It's a full-time job.”

Youtube's algorithm put this in my suggested videos yesterday. This guy is knocking on doors, selling solar, about a mile from my house. I've dialed the phone cold thousands of times, not recently, but never knocked on any doors. I respect anyone who even attempts to do this.


2 DOORS 2 DEALS SAYING it's SOLAR - SOLAR SALES FOOTAGE in FLORIDA


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“It was dope,” White said. “Obviously I watched her on TV, but it’s a lot different seeing her in person. She’s crazy good. She’s talented, super skilled. For her to hit the logo 3 to break the record, that was a dope moment.”

Clark only needed to score eight points against Michigan to break Kelsey Plum’s record of 3,527 career points. She devoured the challenge, sinking the opening three baskets of the game for Iowa — and firing off a shot from the logo to officially break the record.


After playing against the best guards in the NBA, White had an immediate player comparison for Clark upon watching her in person: Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić.

“They both take control of the game so well and get to their spots,” White said. “She gets to any spot she wants to. She manipulates pick-and-rolls. She knows how to change her pace. She’s not really fast but she’s so deceptive with the ball that she can get past any defender.”

Click to expand...

We've seen Clark compared to a lot of players, but Doncic hasn't been a common comp that I've seen -- it makes a lot of sense, though, given their play styles and their triple double threat in practically every game.

Scary

As part of what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is calling “Freedom Summer,” his Transportation Department has told cities across the state that if they want to light up their bridges at night, they can only use the colors red, white and blue.

The order — which was shared by Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue on social media recently — means that bridges across the state that normally illuminate in colorful arrays of light to mark holidays or awareness events won’t be able to use any other colors from May 27 through Sept. 2.

“As Floridians prepare for Freedom Summer, Florida’s bridges will follow suit, illuminating in red, white, and blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day!” Perdue wrote on X. “Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation.”



A number of bridges across the state prominently display rainbow colors in honor of Pride Month in June, among other celebrations throughout the year. Many see the order to display only red, white and blue as another move against the LGBTQ+ community, which has been targeted by a number of DeSantis-backed laws in recent years.
“The bridge lights were about celebrating diversity and inclusion, which will continue to happen in our communities,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, Equality Florida’s senior policy adviser. “LGBTQ Floridians will proudly raise our flags even higher and our lights will only shine brighter in the darkness they’ve created.”
The Ringling Causeway Bridge over Sarasota Bay usually lights up in rainbow colors for a week in June, and also marks other causes during the summer, such as orange for National Gun Awareness Month and yellow for Women’s Equality Day.



Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert said the city typically gives the state Department of Transportation, which operates the bridge, a list of colors that it would like to display for various events at the beginning of the year “and they generally do it.”
“It’s very popular,” Alpert said about the different colors illuminating the 2.6-mile-long span. “But the state has control of the bridge, so we don’t control the lights.”
Perdue’s office and DeSantis’s communications office did not return requests for comment.
DeSantis originally declared July to be a “Freedom Month Sales Tax Holiday” for Floridians to save money on outdoor recreation equipment and also on entrance fees to state parks and museums. At the time, the governor’s office said nothing about bridge lighting.

But after Manatee County Commissioner Mike Rahn, whose county borders part of Tampa Bay, objected to a rainbow display on the iconic Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Perdue issued the order for only red, white and blue lights on bridges statewide.


Rahn declined to address the controversy, saying only in an email in response to questions from The Washington Post that “the Governor and the Secretary of Transportation have made the decision that all bridges in Florida will be lighted Red, White and Blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day.”
Most of Florida’s 12,881 bridges don’t have sophisticated color lighting systems, but residents in communities that do enjoy the displays, city leaders say.

“People are disappointed,” Alpert said.

In Jacksonville, the colorful illuminations on the Acosta Bridge, one of the city’s seven bridges across the St. Johns River, are regarded by many residents as a form of public art. The Jacksonville Transportation Authority uses its “dynamic LED lighting system” on the span throughout the year to mark dozens of holidays and awareness campaigns.


Among those are 10 different lighting combinations in the summer, including rainbow colors for Pride Month; red, black and green for Juneteenth; and pink, blue and red to celebrate the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the city’s minor league baseball team.
“Whichever bridge you’re on, you can see those colors, shining bright from that bridge. And it really is a beautiful sight,” said Kimberly Allen, the CEO of 904Ward, an advocacy group in the city that promotes diversity and inclusion. “When we acknowledge things like Juneteenth, or our local sports team, that’s part of what adds to the vibrancy of the city.”
Having officials in Tallahassee order them to use only three colors of the state’s choosing does a disservice to local communities, she said, especially when that decision cancels other displays city leaders approved, such as for Pride Month and Juneteenth.
“I think the undertones of this are what’s haunting,” Allen said. “Why at this moment, in this month, why is that happening now?”

Big one in Virginia and Ohio.

Eating 🥑

It is super annoying.

Make me realize why slavery was viable. What a bunch of lunatics.

The youtube feed popped up and I decided to watch it. I thought at the time of the game that Cade played pretty well. Watching it today he had an above avg day passing. His official stats were 12 of 22 for 135 yards but there were basically 3 pass interference penalties where the ball was on target and the penalty yardage and catches would have made Cade 15 of 25 for 185 yards.

There was also the total bad no call where the ISU defender grabbed Nico by the collar and pulled him down. That should have been about a 30-40 yard PI.

Even many of his incompletions were thrown to be catchable. So I liked the accuracy.

I am pretty positive thinking he can have a very good season.

Agreement reached in lawsuit for immediate eligibility for multiple-transfer athletes

And not only the above, but NCAA will grant an extra year of eligibility - going back to the 2019-20 sport season - for those ruled ineligible for an immediate active roster spot at the time of transfer.


The NCAA is now quite literally officially just the minor leagues for their pro equivalents.

The Supreme Court disclosed Thursday that it cannot identify the person who leaked a draft of DObbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade.
A report from the court said “it is not possible to determine the identity of any individual who may have disclosed the document or how the draft opinion ended up with Politico. No one confessed to publicly disclosing the document and none of the available forensic and other evidence provided a basis for identifying any individual as the source of the document.”


“While investigators and the Court’s IT experts cannot absolutely rule out a hack, the evidence to date reveals no suggestion of improper outside access.” the report said.

The legal and political worlds have been anxiously awaiting the results of the Supreme Court’s internal investigation since May, after Politico published a draft of the court’s opinion. The draft was essentially the same as the decision the court issued weeks later. Five conservative justices used the case to overturn Roe, while Roberts said he would have upheld the restrictive Mississippi abortion law at issue. The court’s three liberals combined on an angry dissent.






The leak of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s draft opinion was an extraordinary breach of the decorum and practice at a place that prides itself on keeping internal deliberations of the justices secret. It has been condemned as a harmful disruption by those members who have discussed it publicly.
Alito said this fall that the leak was a “grave betrayal of trust by somebody, and it was a shock” that led to a “changed” atmosphere at the court and made his colleagues in the majority “targets for assassination.” The threat to the justices, he added, was not theoretical because it “gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.”

Roberts took the extraordinary step of confirming the authenticity of the draft opinion the day after it was published. He also announced an internal investigation into how the draft became public.


“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” Roberts said. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”
He has been silent about the leak since then, even as other justices mentioned the investigation was ongoing and talked about what they said were damaging implications of the leak on the court’s deliberations and trust among individual justices.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said in September it was “terribly important” to identify the source of the leak.
“Improper efforts to influence judicial decision-making, from whatever side, from whomever, are a threat to the judicial decision-making process and inhibit our capacity to communicate with one another,” Gorsuch said at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit’s semiannual Bench & Bar Conference in Colorado.


But little is known about the investigation, except for a few reports that have surfaced about disagreements among justices and their clerks over attempts to examine cellphone records.
Conservatives have been increasingly vocal about finding the source of the leak. Meanwhile, abortion-rights protesters have regularly gather outside the homes of Roberts and other justices since May.

A California man is facing attempted assassination charges after being arrested outside the suburban Maryland home of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh with weapons and a plan to break into the justice’s house.
The leak turned the Supreme Court into a place “where you look over your shoulder,” and may have irreparably sundered trust at the institution, Justice Clarence Thomas said at a conference weeks after the leak.
“What happened at the court was tremendously bad,” Thomas said. “I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them. And then I wonder, when they’re gone or destabilized, what we’re going to have as a country.”
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan likewise condemned the leak. “The court depends upon confidentiality in its deliberations in order to reach decisions,” she said in an appearance last fall, “and you can’t do that if you know that you might wake up tomorrow morning and there is a decision and it is on the front page of newspapers.”

**** cancer!