Iowa is headed back to NYC for another premiere non-conference game as part of the Women's Champions Classic at Barclays Center in NYC on 12/20/25.

This season, Iowa played Tennessee in that event (and lost 78-68).

The same teams that competed in last year's tournament -- Iowa, Tennessee, UConn, and Louisville -- will be competing in the event again this year.

Login to view embedded media

Along with football and basketball.

Login to view embedded media

The season is still young, but it’s clear that the White Sox’ only entertainment value lies in how low they can go.
So let’s not beat around the bush league:
If they’re going to be awful, why not be the worst ever?



With an 8-26 record, the Sox have a chance to be historically bad. The major-league record for most losses in a season in the post-1901 Modern Era is 120, set by the 1962 Mets, an expansion team. The Sox are on pace for 124 losses. The worst winning percentage in history is .235, set by the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics. That’s the Sox’ winning percentage after 34 games.
Let’s do this, Chicago. Let’s revel in a team with an opportunity to become the worst ballclub in modern history.
My recommendation to Sox fans is to sit back and chortle, the way you might delight in a terrifically bad community theater production or in a church choir that sounds like horse stables on fire. If you can’t find humor in this dreadful rendition of the sport of baseball, if you can’t laugh at the ineptness on display, you’re going to burst a vein.
This Sox team has it all – the stock-character evil owner, the hapless manager and the cast of very marginal players worthy of a franchise apparently trying to lose on purpose, which is what rebuilds are. The team’s best players keep getting injured, to the point where something nefarious seems to be at work. A dark lord?

Related

• Memo to Jerry Reinsdorf: There’s ‘next to no appetite’ in Springfield to fund new stadium

Team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has been a target of disgruntled Sox fans for decades, and now that their discontent is at record levels, the arrows are sharper than ever. Thanks to the losing, Reinsdorf’s pursuit of taxpayer money for a new ballpark and his unspoken threat of moving the team, what little love there might have been for him has crossed state lines.
The best revenge on the chairman is to laugh at the product, to bear hug the losing and to continue to boycott Guaranteed Rate Field. But mostly to laugh.
No one involved set out in pursuit of being the worst team ever, and I’m guessing very few Sox fans are taking pleasure in seeing their team bounce along the bottom of the ocean. But bounce it does and bounce it will. Nothing and no one is coming to the rescue.
It’s one of life’s inexplicable truths that sometimes feeling bad feels good. And sometimes it’s better to be remembered than forgotten. Outside of some Tigers fans with an unnatural attachment to misery, no one remembers the 2003 Detroit team that went 43-119. But people still talk about Casey Stengel’s 120-loss Mets team, the highwater mark for terrible. In terms of lasting significance, historically bad beats almost-historically bad every time. Let’s keep our eye on the prize, folks.


Related

• White Sox’ Gavin Sheets enjoying benefits of playing every day

The Sox have won two games in a row and five of their last nine, to which I say: Stop that.
Their run differential is minus-82, putting them on pace to break the 1932 Red Sox’ record of minus-345. They’ve been shut out nine times in 34 games, a remarkable thing. Not scoring a run every fourth game or so, well, you can’t make it up.
Sox general manager Chris Getz told the Sun-Times’ Daryl Van Schouwen on Saturday that more trades are possible this season, which means that more young players and more losing could be on the way.
‘‘Similar to the message from last fall and all offseason, we will be open-minded on anything to further set us up for future success,’’ Getz said.

That’s music to the ears of people like me who say, if it’s broke, break it some more. It’s probably a dirge to the people who are already taking the season hard, but I’m suggesting an attitude adjustment. I’m suggesting humor as a means of self-preservation. Don’t accept the prodigious losing as a necessary means to building a winner. That doesn’t always work out, as the Sox’ most-recent failed rebuild proves. Accept the prodigious losing as a means of getting in the Guinness Book of World Records.
New Sox TV play-by-play announcer John Schriffen was roundly criticized for celebrating a victory the other day by whooping, “Say it with me, say it proud — for all the haters — South Side, staaaaaand up!”

I don’t see haters when I hear people laughing at the 2024 White Sox. I see discerning baseball fans. I don’t see haters when I listen to angry Sox fans. I see people who care a lot, perhaps to excess. For those tortured souls, one final exhortation: The only way to get through this season is to let go of it. Remove the typical life-or-death importance you place on a Sox season and learn to find meaning in failure. Look at this exercise as sociology, not sports.
If you decide to embrace the losing, know that there could be some challenging times ahead. The Rockies are 8-26, too, and their run differential is an impressively hideous minus-77.

I don't know who goes there anyway, we try every few years and it's aways terrible. Over-priced burgers and awful sides.

I always that the bottomless fries was a cool idea, until I figured out they give you about a dozen fries to start out with and then good luck getting your server back. By the time you get the second basket everyone is done eating.

Login to view embedded media

The U.S. Agency for International Development ordered employees to destroy internal documents Tuesday, according to an agency directive, raising new questions about how sensitive records are being handled in the Trump administration’s drive to curtail America’s assistance activities overseas.

Sign up for Fact Checker, our weekly review of what's true, false or in-between in politics.

According to an email obtained by The Washington Post, a senior USAID official ordered employees to shred or burn documents at the organization’s Washington headquarters, including those related to agency personnel and those stored in safes used for classified material.

The efforts triggered immediate alarm on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers took steps to remind the administration of its obligation to comply with laws prohibiting the destruction of government information.

​

The document-destruction order, signed by the agency’s acting executive secretary, Erica Y. Carr, follows a rapid-fire series of actions by President Donald Trump and his top aides to dismantle USAID over the past two months, including the cancellation of the vast majority of the agency’s contracts, the termination of more than 1,600 positions and the decision to put almost all of its workforce of roughly 10,000 on administrative leave.
Advertisement

ADVERTISING


The campaign against USAID, championed by Trump adviser Elon Musk, has set off an outcry among supporters of America’s decades-old tradition of funding nutrition, medical, democracy and other assistance programs overseas, who argue it extends U.S. global influence and supports stability worldwide. Musk, the world’s richest man, and other administration officials have described USAID as a “criminal organization” that must be sidelined or scrapped, though they have failed to provide details of any alleged widespread criminal activity.
🏛️
Follow Politics
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who supported U.S. assistance during his years as a U.S. senator, this week touted the cancellation of programs he said failed to advance or contradicted American interests.

USAID and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/12/sarah-mcbride-keith-self-house-misgendering/

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (New York), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the administration did not appear to be complying with the Federal Records Act, which governs the handling of government documents and other material.
“Haphazardly shredding and burning USAID documents and personnel files seems like a great way to get rid of evidence of wrongdoing when you’re illegally dismantling the agency,” Meeks said in a statement.
An aide with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said members of the committee’s Democratic staff had contacted the State Department and USAID for details about “compliance with records laws.”

So here. Here it is. Great goddamned show. Binge season 1 now. Go. I have opinions!

After watching it again it is giving me heavy “metaphor for slavery” vibes. Do it!

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts expects President Donald Trump will seek to compensate Nebraska’s farmers if they suffer economic damages due to a brewing trade war over Trump’s tariffs.
Trump addressed his trade policy and farmers in his speech before a joint session of Congress Tuesday, asking farmers to “bear with me again” as he seeks to use tariffs to reset trade relations with nations around the world.
“He said, ‘Hey, look, there’s going to be an adjustment period here, but I love our farmers,’ and he’s going to look out for them,” the Nebraska Republican said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday. “And if you look at what he did his first term, that’s exactly what he did.”


Indeed, Trump offered billions of direct aid payments to U.S. farmers during his first term after his tariff policies toward China drew retaliatory tariffs on American agricultural products.

​

The Nebraska Farm Bureau in 2019 had estimated the tariff dispute had cost Nebraska producers $1 billion. It’s unclear whether aid payments covered all such losses in the end.

I’m too tired to come up with a peen joke but hopefully one of you can:

And I’m caked in sweat. wtf how do people live in this weather?!

It’s the first time ever that a Gallup survey showed a majority of members of a main US political party had a negative opinion of the Jewish state, with the question being asked since 1989.

Full article:

This guy is just killing it on Twitter:

Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media

March 3 (Reuters) - The United States is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as President Donald Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine, a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The White House has asked the State and Treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for U.S. officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration's broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said.

'Record' payout for world's longest-serving death row inmate​

Hakamata, 89, was found guilty in 1968 of killing his boss, his boss's wife and their two children, but was acquitted last year after a retrial [Getty Images]

A Japanese man who spent nearly 50 years on death row before he was acquitted of murder will be compensated 217 million yen ($1.45m), in what his lawyers say is the country's largest-ever payout in a criminal case.

Iwao Hakamata, 89, was found guilty in 1968 of killing his boss, his boss's wife and their two children, but was acquitted last year after a retrial.

Mr Hakamata's lawyers had sought the highest compensation possible, arguing that the 47 years in detention - which made him the world's longest-serving death row inmate - took a toll on his mental health.

Judge Kunii Koshi, who granted the request on Monday, agreed that he had suffered "extremely severe" mental and physical pain.
The Japanese government will pay Mr Hakamata's financial compensation, in what local media is widely reporting as the biggest payout for a criminal case in the country's history.

Mr Hakamata's case is one of Japan's longest and most famous legal sagas.

He was granted a rare retrial and released from prison in 2014, amid suspicions that investigators may have planted evidence that led to his conviction.

Last September, hundreds of people gathered at a court in Shizuoka, a city on Japan's south coast, where a judge handed down the acquittal - to loud cheers of "banzai", or "hurray" in Japanese.

Mr Hakamata, however, was unfit to attend the hearing. He was exempted from all prior hearings because of his deteriorated mental state.

He had lived under the care of his 91-year-old sister Hideko since being granted a retrial and released from prison in 2014. Hideko had fought for decades to clear her brother's name.

Mr Hakamata was working at a miso processing plant in 1966 when the bodies of his boss, his boss' wife and their two children were recovered from a fire at their home in Shizuoka, west of Tokyo. All four had been stabbed to death.

Authorities accused Mr Hakamata of murdering the family, setting fire to their home and stealing 200,000 yen in cash.

Mr Hakamata initially denied doing so, but later gave what he came to describe as a coerced confession, following beatings and interrogations that lasted up to 12 hours a day.

In 1968 he was sentenced to death.

For years, Mr Hakamata's lawyers had argued that DNA recovered from the victims' clothes did not match his, and alleged that the evidence was planted.

Although he was granted a retrial in 2014, prolonged legal proceedings meant it took until last October for the retrial to begin.

The case has raised questions about Japan's justice system, including the time taken for a retrial and the allegations of forced confessions.