Long story short, my wife has no buying power with her credit. Her score is around 700, but since we married 14 years ago she has not been on one thing. I'm the only one on the house, cars, every bill, and she is authorized user on all my CCs.

So we got her a CC about 2 months ago and lo and behold, because we put 380 on it in chicago last weekend it dropped her score by 18 pts. "Using too much of her available credit limit". So I'm asking you financial geniuses of GIAOT for some helpful hints. TIA.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Hahahahahaha wow

Things I will never waste my money on. Donating to buy “student athletes.”

Imagine how much money we could raise for humanitarian aid if we froze and redirected Israeli assets in the US.

Kidding aside, if anyone else were killing civilians at the rate Israel is killing them in Gaza, wouldn't we impose sanctions, at the very least?

In the eyes of most, Hamas started it. Israel is entitled to defend itself. But how long does that argument justify the carnage and the US actively underwriting it and shielding it?

Forever?

Really?

Well?

Planned Parenthood. Men with saggy pants. People who tore down Confederate flags and monuments. The Rev. Al Sharpton.
Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee in one of this year’s most competitive governor’s races, has declared them all comparable to or worse than the Ku Klux Klan in social media posts that have drawn little attention. The posts are part of a long record of comments ranging from provocative to bigoted that are getting more scrutiny as the campaign heats up in North Carolina — and that some Republicans worry will be a liability in a battleground state.


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Robinson has become one of the year’s most polarizing candidates, winning enthusiastic support from the conservative base and disdain from Democrats. Campaigning to become his state’s first Black governor, he has touted his potential appeal to Democratic-leaning minority voters as a rising conservative who “looks like them” and offers “common-sense solutions to the problems that they face.”



His past comments could complicate that outreach, and they have drawn criticism from other Black leaders. Robinson has criticized the civil rights movement of the 1960s and attacked prominent Black people in harsh and offensive terms, calling Michelle Obama, for instance, a man and an “angry, anti-American, communist black lady” who speaks “ghetto” and “wookie.”

Robinson’s references to the KKK, a white-supremacist group that has terrorized Black Americans, underscore the risks Republicans have taken in nominating him — a longtime factory worker who posted a wide range of insults on Facebook before he became a viral hit on the right with a speech about gun laws in 2018. He was elected lieutenant governor of North Carolina in 2020 and won the gubernatorial primary by landslide this month with former president Donald Trump’s endorsement. At a rally, Trump praised Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
In 2014, Robinson wrote on Facebook that “an ignorant man with a sheet over his face in the country and an ignorant man with his pants hanging off his behind in the city are two sides of the same worthless wooden nickel,” adding a hashtag that suggested he was talking about people of different races: “ignoranceknowsnotcolor.”



In 2016, he likened certain Black people to those enslaved on plantations: “A ‘plantation minded’ negro hates a free thinking black person worse than ANY Klansman EVER could or EVER will.”
The next year, he wrote that he considered the KKK less reprehensible than “Black gang murderers” and Planned Parenthood, a health nonprofit whose services include abortions. “The KKK never claimed to love black folks like many of the murders in Chicago probably do, and the KKK never tried to eradicate the black race like PLANNED PARENTHOOD is,” he said, putting the KKK third in his ranking of “most evil.” Other posts took similar aim at Planned Parenthood or, as he called it, “klanparenthood.”
A spokesman for Robinson’s campaign, Michael Lonergan, said in an email that The Washington Post’s and other news outlets’ reporting shows “there is one set of rules for white liberals in the press, and another for black conservatives.”



He noted two instances of cartoonists comparing Republicans to the KKK in local news outlets. One of them depicted former Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron, who is Black, grabbing the “coattails” of a white-hooded Trump. Another, from 2021, criticized Republican members of the North Carolina education board — which includes Robinson — with an illustration of a white-hooded elephant.
Both cartoons sparked backlash at the time, including from Robinson, who held a news conference denouncing the education board’s depiction. The opinion editor of the company behind the drawing had defended it as “hyperbole and satire.”
“That you would portray a Black man, just because he’s in the GOP, as a Klansman … the hypocrisy is mind-numbing, folks,” Robinson said next to a big screen displaying the cartoon. He called it “vile.”

3 adults and 1 teenage have been arrested after a male family member was found dehydrated and malnourished, and showing physical signs of abuse. At times he was chained or handcuffed to keep him restrained.
I assume this was a physically/mentally handicapped family member. I don't get people.
https://www.kcrg.com/2024/03/19/3-adults-teen-charged-abuse-family-member/

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

He will eat his way out of football because he can’t deal with adversity.

Just finished watching STORMY on Peacock. Confirms without a doubt that she’s telling the truth.

Take Trump out of the equation

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A Delta Air Lines pilot who reported to work with a blood alcohol level well above the aviation limit was sentenced to a 10-month jail term in Scotland, according to a court statement Tuesday.
Lawrence B. Russell Jr., 63, of the U.S. state of Georgia, was scheduled to fly a Boeing 767 from Edinburgh, Scotland, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on June 16. But 80 minutes before takeoff, security personnel found two bottles of Jägermeister — one of which “was just under half full” — in Russell’s carry-on luggage. A blood test showed he had at least 49 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.


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The legal limit in Scotland is 20 milligrams for pilots and 50 milligrams for those driving cars, according to the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, which imposed the sentence. In the United States, pilots are not authorized to fly with a blood alcohol level of 0.04 or higher. Federal rules say pilots cannot have consumed alcohol within eight hours of a flight.



Russell’s flight was canceled and he lost his job, according to the court.
“He showed a reckless disregard for the safety of his passengers and crew. The pilot of a commercial aircraft holds the lives of hundreds in his hands,” Scottish prosecutor Lynne Barrie said in a separate statement.

Russell has at least two previously recorded instances of driving under the influence, according to the court.
His 10-month sentence was reduced from “a headline sentence of 15 months,” Sheriff Alison Stirling said. She said she took into account Russell’s “personal mitigation” and his decision to plead “guilty at the earliest opportunity.”
After the incident, Russell “successfully completed” a recovery program at a rehabilitation center. He was diagnosed with severe alcohol use disorder but is now in remission, Stirling added, noting that Russell had expressed remorse and had the support of his family.



“Once you have completed your sentence you will apply for a new Aviation Medical Certificate. You expect that will be granted, and that if it is granted you expect to be reinstated to your former position,” she said.
In the United States, pilots cannot apply for a Federal Aviation Administration certificate or license for up to one year after a final conviction.
Delta, which did not comment on whether it would rehire Russell, said in an emailed statement that it had “removed the pilot from service while conducting a thorough investigation in coordination with Scottish authorities.” It added that Russell is not “currently employed by Delta.”
Russell and his lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

WHO: Kansas State (19-14, 8-10 Big XII)
WHEN: 8:00 PM CT (Tuesday, March 19, 2024)
WHERE: Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Iowa City, IA)
TV: ESPN
RADIO: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Bob Hansen)
MOBILE: foxsports.com/mobile espn.com/w
ONLINE: foxsports.com/live espn.com/
FOLLOW: @IowaAwesome | @IowaHoops | @IowaonBTN
LINE: Iowa -5.5
KENPOM SPREAD: Iowa -5 (Iowa 82, Kansas State 77; Iowa 66% chance of winning)

It's fair to say that 2023-24 was a step back for head coach Jerome Tang and Kansas State. After going 26-10 and advancing to the Elite 8 (a run that included wins over NCAA Tournament blue bloods like Kentucky and Michigan State), the Wildcats have come back to earth this season, going just 19-14 overall and 8-10 in league play.

Kansas State went 10-3 in non-conference action this season, although the Wildcats' resume lacked notable wins outside of Villanova and Providence. That non-conference record also included an improbable three straight wins in overtime in late November and early December. In fact, Iowa would be wise to finish its business with KSU in regulation; the Wildcats played a stunning seven overtime games this season -- and won them all.

The Wildcats' hopes of returning the NCAA Tournament largely went out the window with a stretch of seven losses in late January and early February. They did rebound to win three of their final five games, including the regular season finale at home against Iowa State. The Cyclones avenged that loss by knocking KSU out of the Big XII Tournament a week later, though.

MORE HERE:

1. They suck, but we all know that.
2. I made it to the point where you select seats very soon after sales opened. When I went to confirm the site just churned. I waited and waited. Ended up getting out and starting over again. This is where it gets interesting. When I first got in, all floor sections said Tickets $399+... Nope, wasn't going to do that for this show (Jeff Lynne's ELO). So I picked seats on the lower level (not floor) side and it said Tickets $269+. Okay, still ridiculous but I'll bite. These prices were before fees, BTW. Got the the point to confirm and same thing... site just churned. So, got out and back in again... PRICES NOW ARE $240 FOR FLOOR... pretty much all sections. $159 per ticket cheaper. So, grabbed 2 aisle seats and was able to checkout. The side section I originally chose was also down to $240 / Ticket.
3. Ticket master sucks... $240 ticket becomes $330 ticket after fees.

/CSB

Jared Kushner says Gaza’s ‘waterfront property could be very valuable’​

Donald Trump’s son-in-law also says Israel should bulldoze an area of the Negev desert and move Palestinians there

[excerpts]

Jared Kushner has praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the strip.

He said that if he were in charge of Israel his number one priority would be getting civilians out of the southern city of Rafah, and that “with diplomacy” it could be possible to get them into Egypt.

“But in addition to that, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,” he said. “I think that’s a better option, so you can go in and finish the job.”

“It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner said.

His remarks at Harvard gave a hint of the kind of Middle East policy that could be pursued in the event that Trump returns to the White House....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/jared-kushner-gaza-waterfront-property-israel-negev

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev

Adam, Ross and I sat down and discussed the whole situation at hand. This says more about Proctor than about Iowa, what's next for him, the NCAA has some real issues to figure out, and more.

This whole thing is just brutal.

PODCAST:

Just got back from watching Land of Bad and the USAF Staff Sergeant (wearing USAF name tapes) was wearing a US Army Staff Sgt OCP insignia. AND her pants weren't bloused...straight all the way to the ankles.


Vs



And while I love Monarch: Legacy of Monsters if Capt Shaw salutes with his hand over his eyebrow one more time...

I’ve seen a couple of similar stories lately about this and I don’t truly understand why someone gets arrested for it.

First off I will say it’s very sad that someone wants to sell a child most likely for drug money but hear me out.

Someone can “donate” eggs or sperm and get paid decently to do so. You can also donate embryo’s which they don’t get paid for but some medical costs can be cover by the people getting the embryo’s (this is by far the cheapest route for someone wanting children).
A parent can give a child up for adoption, I know they don’t get paid to do so but the parents adopting the child have to pay a lot to do so and cover all medical expenses along the way.

So, my question would be. Is it only illegal because the government isn’t making any money off of this sale and it’s making it too easy for someone that wants to have children?
Wouldn’t it be better that these children are with someone that actually wants them and not some parents willing to sell them?

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!