I haven't read this yet (I can't read), but does this have any nuggets that we haven't known for the past four years? Got to hand it to Biden, Steve is a great guess at your aid's name.

What a terribly disingenuous propagandistic argument from Vance. Guy is trash. It's obvious team Trump is able to step up deportation efforts -- but within the scope of existing law. The people expected Trump to step up deportation efforts within the scope of extant law.

Moran sycophants. Only one Republican voted no, and it wasn't one from Iowa:

A divided House on Thursday approved legislation to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, moving over the taunting objections of Democrats to codify President Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water in line with his “America First” worldview.
The 211-to-206 mostly party-line vote to pass the bill amounted to a symbolic show of Republican deference to Mr. Trump, given that Democrats are unlikely to allow the legislation to move forward in the Senate. But it put the G.O.P.-led House on the record backing the president in his effort to rewrite the rules of geography and to dare critics to defy him.
Just one Republican, Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, voted no.
The White House has barred journalists from The Associated Press from covering events in the Oval Office and flying aboard Air Force One, as punishment for the news organization’s continued use of the name Gulf of Mexico.
“The American people deserve pride in their country, and pride in the waters that we own and we protect with our military and our Coast Guard,” said Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who sponsored the bill, calling it “one of the most important things we can do this Congress.”
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Democrats dismissed the legislation as a pandering and performative waste of time when Republicans were struggling to reach agreement on legislation to fulfill the president’s domestic policy agenda — the “big, beautiful bill” that could include unpopular cuts to Medicaid.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, called it a “silly, small-minded and sycophantic piece of legislation.” He said the only silver lining of the exercise was that it underscored how Republicans were laboring to enact that domestic policy measure, which he warned would impose the largest Medicaid cut in history.
“It’s easy to mock this legislation because it’s so inane and embarrassing,” Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said during debate on the measure this week. “This may be the dumbest bill brought to the floor during the six years I’ve served in this Congress.”
Ms. Scanlon and other Democrats noted that recent polls, including one conducted by Fox News, showed that almost 70 percent of voters opposed Mr. Trump’s executive action to rename the Gulf, making it one of the least popular actions of his busy first 100 days.
Ms. Greene defended her legislation as patriotic and noted that her political opponents were happy to rename landmarks when it suited their preferences, a reference to the renaming of Confederate symbols after George Floyd’s death in 2020. And she accused Democrats of opposing the name change for the Gulf because “the cartels are their business partners.”

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Representative Bruce Westerman, Republican of Arkansas, said the legislation simply “symbolizes Republicans’ commitment to putting America first.”
Ms. Greene’s bill states that any reference “in a law, map, regulation, document, paper or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico shall be deemed to be a reference to the ‘Gulf of America.’” And it instructs the interior secretary to oversee the renaming on federal documents and maps.
Some Democrats used a portion of their debate to underscore the economic issues House Republicans were not addressing while passing legislation to codify a name change that they said voters did not ask for.
“We can focus on 40 million Americans saddled with medical debt, or we could rename the Gulf of Mexico,” Representative Julie Johnson, Democrat of Texas, said this week on the House floor. “We can address our nation’s lack of affordable housing, or we can rename the Gulf of Mexico.”
Others couldn’t contain their stupefaction at how they were being forced to use their time.
“Why not rename the entire planet ‘Planet Trump’?” Representative Jared Huffman, Democrat of California said, noting that Mr. Trump’s sons were selling “Gulf of America” hats online for $50 apiece and calling the renaming exercise part of a family grift.
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Representative Steny H. Hoyer, the patrician Democrat from Maryland, compared the House floor to a late-night comedy show. “Live from Washington, D.C., Saturday Night Live!” he said. “You can’t make this up.”
Mr. Hoyer noted that voting on the Gulf of America Act was the only legislation the House was considering all day, and for the remainder of the week.
Mr. Trump said during his inaugural address that one of his first actions in the White House would be to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The new name, he said after following through on that promise, had a “beautiful ring.”
The president also signed a proclamation declaring an official Gulf of America Day, which he signed in February aboard Air Force One while flying over the body of water en route to the Super Bowl.

Since when did we give Dumpster to free hand to grab and detain people without due process. And they lie about what they do.

And who are the americans who are the ICE and people who are doing the grabbing?? Do they not have a conscience or any shame?? Oh yes, they are magats who are right wing white supremacist racists.

Trump says Free Speech is back but then he goes after people who say stuff he doesnt like, what a weasle.

I'm not one to ask the mods for a ban, but @Igor Stravinsky10 clearly deserves one.

Home Depot won’t raise prices from tariffs​

Home Depot won’t raise prices from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, breaking with Walmart and other retailers that will pass costs related to the trade war onto consumers.

“Because of our scale, the great partnerships we have with our suppliers and productivity that we continue to drive in our business, we intend to generally maintain our current pricing levels across our portfolio,” finance chief Richard McPhail told CNBC in an interview.

McPhail said the home improvement retailer has diversified where it sources its merchandise and reduce its reliance on China. More than half of Home Depot’s products come from the United States.

What else are these prospects looking for? If that didn't convince you to come to IOWA, you are not Hawkeye material.

I was brushing up on some reading and came across this. I then googled it and there seems to be some smoke for the fire on this.

https://www.skincancer.org/blog/sunscreen-safety/

yikes, we were out there in March and I could find anything cheaper than $4.39 a gallon

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Press conferences with Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz — college football’s elder statesman — invariably turn into history lessons, and not just one about what it was like to be a head coach before Y2K.
Ferentz frequently dives deep into his Hawkeye assistant days, the 1980s, as he did this spring when discussing the team’s new quarterback, South Dakota State transfer Mark Gronowski.
“He delivered his team to victory a lot, and that’s really impressive,” Ferentz said at a March press conference about the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder who led SDSU to a 2023 FCS national title. “Underrecruited guy. We had one of those about 45 years ago in 1981. Another underrecruited guy from Chicago did pretty well here.”

That is, Chuck Long, Heisman runner up in 1985 and college football hall of famer. Iowa’s never had a better signal caller. If Gronowski were all that, well, the Hawkeyes should make reservations for the College Football Playoff.

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Iowa hasn’t had a guy half that good since Nate Stanley last slung it around in 2019.

Since then, Hawkeye quarterbacks have thrown 49 touchdowns and 42 interceptions, ranked no higher than 10th in the Big Ten in yards per attempt, and generally looked a fright on the field.
“It’s been a challenge for us,” Ferentz said. “I think everybody knows that.”

Yet Ferentz, set to turn 70 Aug. 1, won 68% of his games over the last five seasons and played for two Big Ten titles with an alchemy of defense and special teams, particularly against Nebraska, against whom Iowa won 13-10 in 2023 and 2024 in stunningly similar ways.

The Hawkeyes produced a turnover on Nebraska’s final drive of the game, then made a field goal at the gun. Last year’s win, in frigid temps, was hard to conceive. The Huskers ran 35 more plays and more than doubled the yardage total of Iowa, which gained 72 of its 164 yards on a single screen pass to running back Kaleb Johnson, who wove through Nebraska’s defense.

NU fans have perhaps become so accustomed to this kind of loss that more focus was placed on postgame handshakes and Iowa state troopers guarding the midfield logo hours before kickoff. Huskers-Hawkeyes has become a genuine rivalry built on, at this point, post-Thanksgiving physicality, blown kisses, tricky claps and mutual dislike.

But because of Nebraska’s underachieving, and the CFP’s four-team model 2014-2023, the Black Friday game has rarely had national implications.


Maybe that changes in 2025, although, to look at their schedules, you might almost suggest that Nebraska, not Iowa, heads into Nov. 28 with a better chance at the CFP.
The Hawkeyes drew a tough slate. They travel to Iowa State, USC, Rutgers, Wisconsin and NU, and they host Oregon and Penn State, among others. Kinnick Stadium is tough venue for opposing teams, but the Ducks and Nittany Lions figure to be top-five teams.

And there’s this: Even though Iowa averaged nine wins per season since 2021, it has a 5-13 record against teams that finished with eight or more wins. The Hawkeyes excel in beating bad or mediocre teams; they generally lose to the good ones.
So perhaps Gronowski, an accurate passer and big-bodied, capable runner, arrives just in time.

He appears to have, in Jacob Gill, Reece Vander Zee and others, a solid receiving corps; Iowa has lacked that. The offensive line, anchored by sixth-year senior and Council Bluffs Lewis Central graduate Logan Jones, should have four “old guy” starters and above-average depth — when the Hawkeyes’ o-line can mash, good things happen.

Iowa’s defense, coordinated by Phil Parker ($1.9 million per year salary), should have one of the Big Ten’s best defensive lines, full of seniors like Ethan Hurkett and Max Llewellyn, whose strip sack of NU quarterback Dylan Raiola set up Iowa’s dramatic win. The secondary? Equally as good.

The Hawkeyes’ special teams, featuring Jet Award winner Kaden Wetjen and kicker Drew Stevens, ranked second, 16th, fourth and sixth in the last four season of ESPN’s FPI efficiency ratings. Iowa is Iowa — perpetually good enough to snatch victory from Nebraska while lacking the offense to beat the best teams.

That’s where Gronowski comes in. He told reporters in April that the attention he received from FBS teams was so significant he had 100 missed calls and texts. He considered Washington State — where SDSU’s coaching staff went after the 2024 season — before picking Iowa.
He delayed enter the NFL Draft for one more year and underwent offseason shoulder surgery — and thus didn’t take physical reps in spring camp — but he has a mechanical engineering degree from SDSU already in hand. He’ll be tasked with taking tweaks from offensive coordinator Tim Lester and elevating the offense to new heights.


“He has a lot of multiplicity to the offense,” Gronowski said. “You can do so many different things and run one play so many different ways. It’s a lot of fun and it makes gameplanning fun as well.”

Iowa has tried the portal before at quarterback. Michigan transfer Cade McNamara never seemed fully healthy and Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan left after one season for Tulane. Gronowski is not a lock to work, but he appears better than what Iowa has rolled out at the position.
Given that schedule, he’ll need to be. Iowa hasn’t lost at Nebraska since 2011, but, if the offense doesn’t kick into gear, Iowa might lose six games before Black Friday 2025 rolls around.
If Gronowski finally unlocks the mystery of Iowa’s offense, all the other pieces will be in place, and the Hawkeyes will be knocking on CFP’s door.

He can’t create a show the way he always has. This isn’t good. Trump’s scaring the media.

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On BBC News just now.

Why Lithuania? Anybody know?

His argument is that the US and EU must greatly step up support to Ukraine, without delay, or not only will Russia take more of Ukraine but may move on Lithuania next.

WTF? Who can defend this? Who can argue that we can afford tax cuts when what we actually need is more revenue? Waste, fraud and abuse, yes, by all means attack it...but that 1% or less is not going to get the job done. I pray that they come to their senses in D.C. and stop this silly talk of tax cuts and began instead to speak of tax increases to pay down what we have already spent.

Ezra Klein is pretty spot on here…

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