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I take it you don't like Trump. I'm just getting that vibe. mspart

I would like to believe you. But my eyes tell me a different story. The legal system is being used to damage a political enemy. DOJ did not go after Trump for these charges. Alvin Bragg ran his campaign to get Trump no matter what. He was not willing to do this either at the beginning, nor was his predecessor. But he finally did bring this case just in time to run right into the election. I would like to believe you but my eyes tell me a different story. I would like the criminal justice system to be blind. But it is apparent it is not. That's why the vague charges. The inability for the parties to give jury instructions regarding the allegations that made any sense. https://news.syr.edu/blog/2024/04/16/pitch-legal-analysis-of-hush-money-trial-facing-former-president-donald-trump/ District Attorney Bragg’s indictment charges Trump with 34 felony counts, each of which relates to a business record disguising a payment made to Cohen as attorney fees. The indictment alleges that Trump disguised the payments with intent to cover up another crime. But the indictment does not say what that other crime is. ... I believe the District Attorney must show (1) that the payments were disguised as attorney fees to commit a fraud on someone, (2) that the underlying payments constituted an independent crime, (3) that Trump knew that the underlying payments constituted a crime, and (4) that the reason he covered up the payments was to disguise that crime. Those are going to be hard things to prove. Judge Merchan’s summary of the case for the jury glosses over all of these difficult statutory questions. After being unable to get the parties to agree on the language of a statement to be read to the jurors to describe what the case is about, Judge Merchan decided to read the following statement to the jurors to summarize the case: “The allegations reflect in substance, that Donald Trump falsified business records to conceal an agreement with others to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election. Specifically, it is alleged that Donald Trump made or caused false business records to hide the true nature of payments made to Michael Cohen, by characterizing them as payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a retainer agreement. The People allege that in fact, the payments were intended to reimburse Michael Cohen for money he paid to Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, in the weeks before the presidential election to prevent her from publicly revealing details about a past sexual encounter with Donald Trump.” Judge Juan Merchan’s statement fails to explain when it is a crime to “unlawfully influence” an election? Obviously, all politicians attempt to influence voters to vote for them. Politicians regularly misstate facts and fail to disclose facts during their campaign. The law has never allowed members of the public or the government to bring claims for fraud against politicians who make misleading or even downright false statements; indeed our laws broadly protect campaign speech under the First Amendment. The judge could not even clearly state the issue and left out very important things like when is the allegation represent a crime to unlawfully influence an election. But I don't need to justify myself to you. You won't buy it. But I would like to believe what you say about the justice system, I am just not seeing it. You have DA's like Bragg that don't prosecute crimes (we had/have that here is Seattle), and allow criminals on the street to keep stealing and assaulting. We have too many examples of this. We have examples of Hillary and Joe with similar crimes to Trump not getting prosecuted but Trump is with tampered and placed evidence which is the subject of hearing in that court right now. Selective prosecution is a thing and it is being done all over the country, but to have 4 cases against Trump during the election is manifestly political in nature. You may not see it but I do. And I don't even like him. I wanted DeSantis for President. But this is eggregious in nature. The system has been corrupted to go after political enemies and the press does not call it out even though it is plain to see. I want the justice system to be fair and impartial but that is not what I see happening. mspart

Howard Harris of Oregon State. He pinned his way through the NCAA tourney ending with a pin of Big Bruce. He was on the 1980 Olympic Team. mspart

All I can say is the wrestler in this video is a lot more merciful than I would have been. I'd have been feeding that guy a steady diet of my elbow in his face.

I think I found it: Orange man bad Check falsified Orange man bad Voucher falsified Orange man bad Check falsified Orange man bad Invoice falsified TDS Orange man bad Check falsified Orange man bad Voucher falsified ...

Apparently sentencing is scheduled for July 11. As to his penalty, I've never dealt with NY sentencing directly, but I would guess he'll get a term of probation, but no incarceration. In Florida, I would guess most people would pay a trial tax for going to trial (not supposed to be a thing, but it is) and do some jail on the front end, but I think his political position would shield him from jail. The judge has been letting him get away with stuff that would have had most defendants in jail for contempt of court, and I think that's because of who he is. As to what I personally believe, I think we lock up too many nonviolent offenders as is, and I think probation is fine.

@VakAttack @WrestlingRasta @NM1965 You all don't realize you are arguing for my point which I have stated many times...you can't say it isn't political and then blame the R's for making it political. You are mixing up two distinct things here...my personal feelings on Trump and the validity of him being guilty if the jury finds him that way...I'll repeat, if he is guilty then he should be found guilty by the jury. There, that is one topic off the table...I am in complete agreement with you all that he should pay the price if he did the crime...as I feel anyone should. The other topic of this being political and the justice system being applied unequally...you all are in fact arguing for my point while trying to spin it in your head that I am wrong because you all think I am this huge R...I am not. Anyway, it doesn't matter if it is an R or an D...it happens on both sides...in this case it is happening to an R...a very big R (Ex President and current R candidate for the next election). I have never once made any indication of if I think Trump did it or didn't do it, I have never once reiterated what the news media spews, so all those things you try to accuse me of are nothing but ASSumptions and quite frankly weak. I'll reiterate my points again...one, if Trump did in fact break the law he should pay the prices...that point stands on its own. Point two, currently we are witnessing one of the biggest political applications of justice we have ever seen...knowing that it has and does happen on both sides. I for one am sort of okay with it really as I think justice should be applied equally...and if justice truly were to be applied equally, I have a feeling A LOT of presidents, current and past, would be in front of judges and juries.

Evidence is showing that surprise!!!!! Hamas lied about the 45 civilians being killed. It looks like it was their own weapons depot that exploded. The IDF attack was too small and far away. Even Palestininas were caught on a phone call saying the same. Too small of an explosion and after that one, there were secondary explosions in the warehouse (depot). See previous posts on this. Plus the weapons depot was in an area where there are many civilians. Hamas put these poor souls in danger by locating their depot near innnocent bystanders. But please go on saying Israel murdered 45 civilians on the word of Hamas. They are unreliable in reporting accuracy as you should well know. mspart

She probably just understands the strategic importance of bringing a terrorist organization to its knees. But that’s jut my take.

He'll be charged with assault and depriving this thug of his constitutional rights. Good thing the guy didn't die. It was the right thing to do but as in earlier cases can be misconstrued as white on black crime and racial etc etc. I hope not but in this day and age, I wouldn't doubt it at all. mspart

Earl McCready went three for three with three falls in the finals. Dick Hutton was 3X NC, 4X Finalist.

That skinny punk was a junior gold medalist in Greco and Freestyle. Set a NCAA record of 122 consecutive wins and has a win over Kurt Angle

No Haselrig? Come on man

Just give it a few years

If Nikki wants to sign a bomb as her form of protesting the atrocities of Oct 7 shouldn’t she be able to? I’m mean all she did was make a sign.

Every Palestinian death since 07 October is Hamas' responsibility. Hamas could have unconditionally surrendered at any moment between then and now. Until Hamas surrenders unconditionally the responsibility for every Palestinian death is solely theirs. Non-Hamas Palestinians can assist in exterminating Hamas. Or not.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the ILLINI Wrestling Blog & Forum & Beyond Plus, we would like to renew our pledge and commitment to very silly ideas and outrageous takes. Our dedication to clickbait will be unmatched, and our devotion to homerism and crass sales puffery will remain unrivaled. We want you, the reader, to know that there will always be a place on this dusty planet of ours for ILLINI homerism and hyperbole. Likewise, there will always be a place where you are welcome to hate Iowa and Penn State and Okie Lite and an Ohio State University and stupid Minnesota and whatever it is that Nebraska is. And Rutgers. Haha! I almost forgot about Rutgers. Geez. Wait. You were talking about @nhs67. Never mind.

I was really thinking a well cooked pastry might rise to the top of this list but you could be correct.

https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/29/democracy-is-on-the-ballot-california-democrats-seek-to-prevent-voters-from-approving-new-taxes/#more-219445 “Democracy is on the ballot.” That mantra of President Joe Biden and other Democrats has suggested that “this may be our last election” if the Republicans win in 2024. A few of us have noted that the Democrats seem more keen on claiming the mantle of the defenders of democracy than actually practicing it. Democrats have sought to disqualify Donald Trump and dozens of Republicans from ballots; block third party candidates, censor and blacklist of those with opposing views; and weaponize the legal system against their opponents. Most recently, in California, democracy is truly on the ballot and the Democrats are on the wrong side. California has always prided itself on the ability of citizens to vote on changes in the law directly through referenda and ballot measures. That is precisely what citizens are attempting to do with a measure that would require voter approval of any tax increase, including a two-thirds vote for some local taxes. It is called the Taxpayer Protection Act and it is a duly qualified statewide ballot measure slated for the November 2024 ballot. The state Democrats are apoplectic over the prospect of citizen control over revenue and taxes. What was a quaint element of democratic empowerment is now challenging a core vehicle of Democratic power. So Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders have taken the issue to the state Supreme Court to demand that citizens be denied the right to decide the issue. In oral arguments, the attorney supporting the challenge explained to the justices that citizens are simply not equipped to deal with the complexities of taxation and should not be allowed to render such a decision. In a prior decision, Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar wrote that “Whether the context involves taxation or not, all of these cases underscore how courts preserve and liberally construe the public’s statewide and local initiative power. Indeed, we resolve doubts about the scope of the initiative power in its favor whenever possible and we narrowly construe provisions that would burden or limit the exercise of that power.” Half of the Court seemed to be inclined to deny the public the right to decide the question. The Court, however, may wait until after the election to render a decision on the limits of democracy in California. This was done after many votes in WA. The Ds didn't like an initiative passed by the voters and the Ds took it to the WA Supreme Court where they got the Initiative invalidated. Looks like what they are up to here. WA legislature is now just ignoring initiatives. There are 6 initiatives that got enough signatures to put them on the ballot. The state constitution clearly states that such an initiative to the Legislature (which all these are) must be debated in the legislature. Only 3 were. The other 3 were not. The legislature can pass the initiative, can pass something similar, or do nothing but it must be debated. So democracy is already crumbling and it is the Ds doing it. mspart

One obvious example is ...

Did you know that the commercially popular banana is known as the Cavendish banana and that it cannot produce sexually, but rather through clones? This combined with how the banana is cultivated means that it's highly susceptible to disease and other issues and potential extinction. Can you imagine a world without sweet, ripe bananas? It would be a hellscape unfit for even the lowest vermin.

While having full expectation that people answer your questions whether they are comfortable with them or not, you are at the same time making the following statement: "If the examples are worth their salt they should stand up to my scrutiny." Indicating yourself as the ultimate authority on whether or not a question/example in a dialogue is worthy. By doing this, you make it very easy to dodge questions/examples you may not be comfortable answering, all while expecting others to do just that, by simply claiming it is not worthy of your salt, which is very easy and self fulfilling to do if you don't want to put yourself in the discomfort of a particular question or example.

What proof do you have that he should stop copying you? Do you have facts that show he should is the source of those facts legitimate? is that just an opinion that he should stop? If so why? is it because you’re acknowledging that you do the same or just avoiding that you do? you taking the time to make that comment just sets everything back

I just assumed you guys thought that was my weight.

Most of Wilt Chamberlains Track & Field feats are on the record as he did them in College meets. They are not made up. Remember that he AVERAGED 50 points a game one season - with no 3 point shot. He also averaged 48.5 minutes per game for a whole season. He was an excellent athlete. He even played a season after College with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Man, I wrote a huge anecdote about a gorilla from my old HS team having to run 500 miles as punishment for a DUI. Anyway when I tried to submit I saw the forum was non working and poof, there went my humorous, extremely witty, and sexy anecdote.

There’s no such thing as good honest conversation with you. You answer a question with 20 questions and claim the info given to you isn’t correct or honest. Believe me you get what you deserve in the responses people give you. It’s not just one person that feels this way about you as there’s 5-6 that tell you the same things and you ignore them all as if it’s everyone else’s fault. Oh and I’d sure love to see where you apologized to me for calling me names as you’ve used most of them in the book on me. Keep telling yourself it has nothing to do with you all while you’re the common denominator.

Heeg to Northern Colorado was very fast.

Doubtful unless they have no other option , Casale has dedication and being the life of the party problems, he has wrestled 1 D1 match and 4 total matches in 2 full years at Rutgers..there is a reason he couldn’t find another school to take him . I’d say there is a better chance he’s off the roster then replacing Slav in a year

Biden’s general approach to difficult issues has been to be cryptic and commit only so far out of fear of alienating some voting block. He gives mixed messaging, confusing those that are either for/against and leaving them unsure of where he really stands. If he committed one way or the other he would certainly alienate some voters, but there would be clarity. People want to see our leaders lead with strength and a clear message. I think he is trying to “manage” this conflict through the election and ironically it’s pissing everyone off. He’s probably going to lose and one of the reasons is his inability to pick a horse and stick with it. I’m no fan of Trump, but intuitively, he understands that about politics. After 40 plus years in DC politics, Biden doesn’t seem to get it.

I agree. But it is the Ds that are yelling about it, the Rs are not. The D's are doing what they can to limit our ability to vote for initiatives we want, presidential candidates we want, etc. Yet they are the ones yelling that the Rs are trying to take away democracy. It is projection on their part. While doing it, they point the finger at someone else. And the media complies. mspart

I don't know if this is 4.38 speed, but man he has some wheels on him. Just ran past a lot of people who thought they had an angle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urjayGmL94Y

Only when I rinse out my beer cans before I trash em.

Meh, I usually just click "Bob Dole" if I agree with a post or think it's content is interesting. Bananas are for other primates.

Hahah - ok man, you must be someone special to receive your very own icon! I’ll vote ionel if a ballet comes my way! What do I got to lose!

Now you know. mspart

Any point you make above is pure projection and is an example of what you constantly do. You just want to play games and in doing so try to sound reasonable in your unreasonbleness. mspart

Yeah, but he couldn't beat Conan the Destroyer on his home court.

Wilt Chamberlain: High jumped 6'6" Ran the 440 in 49 secs Ran the 880 in 1:58 Shot put 53'4" Long jumped 22' We all know about is basketball prowess International Volleyball Association HOF Reportedly could bench 500 lbs

You should be behind a mic - ya funny bastard!

Dave Winfield. Drafted in football, basketball and baseball where he became a Hall of famer. Bo Jackson? Dion Sanders?

Again, it's me right?

It's me, right? I win this one?

I mean if each university independently decided to set up an internal pay scale for coach/AD/admin positions it would be fine. If they got together and did this on a conference/division/NCAA level this would violate antitrust law no question. Coaches and ADs know what each other make (or at least those as public universities) due to disclosure laws, so all it really takes is for a few to care about winning in a few sports for them to have to adjust the scale to market rate to get the person they want in the position they are trying to fill. One school decides they really want to win and pays up to get a coach, that fact becomes widely known, and any school that want to compete must do the same. Some students get more out of college than others, whether athletes or not, and some colleges take education more seriously than others, but by and large they provide student athletes with an education. Not doing this has always been against the rules and would remain against the rules after this settlement. Where pay-for-play helps is that in the past when a school didn't take their educational mission as seriously as they should the athlete's only compensation was a shitty education, now that the athlete can be financially compensated too. This makes the deal more fair for the player. Paying student-athletes was never illegal. NCAA rules are not laws. There should be a good reason for something to be "illegal" or even just institutional rules against it. We are talking about paying someone for doing something that generates revenue for the university that shouldn't be illegal. But that's what you described. And this has already happened and has been litigated. Back in the 1980s the NCAA used to sell the football TV rights as a package and distribute money to school. Some schools sued the NCAA for the right to sell the rights to their own games believing they could do better. They won the lawsuit with the NCAA found to have violated antitrust law. A group of schools got together and packaged their football TV rights for sale and swiftly found out they were getting less than what it was worth under the NCAA's deal. In my opinion the NCAA's reputation suffered more attempting to prevent paying the athletes than by this settlement. The settlement itself is tacit acknowledgment that the NCAA behaved unlawfully for years depriving NCAA athletes money that was rightfully theirs. The settlement goes to righting those wrongs. If players become employees like coaches transfers could go down. Professional athletes typically sign multi-year contracts. If Colorado is able to pay their players they might be able to sign a top recruit to a multi year deal and keep them around longer. What makes you think this will happen? How many D1 wrestling programs do you reckon will be around in 5 years?

Dang. I've been a frog in boiling water about this. There have only been 7 D1 team champions over the last 50 years, and it's not even close outside of Iowa and PSU: Okie State won 7, Minny 3, ISU 2, ASU & tOSU 1 apiece. I guess we focus so much on individual titles that there's an illusion of parity that isn't really there.

That level of parity has never really existed in wrestling. In past 36 years only 5 teams have won team titles. One of those 5, Ohio State, won only a single title. The championship team failed to repeat only 4 times (OSU 1994, Minnesota 2007, Ohio State 2015, and Iowa 2021) during that period. It could have been even fewer if not for probation for things that are no longer against the rules (OSU), eligibility loss due to transfer which is no longer a thing (2007), and COVID (2021). Whilst a certain level of parity is both necessary and desirable, parity can also produce less compelling storylines. The year with perhaps the most parity, when the traditional power house programs were down, was 2015. The title was up for grabs with traditional powers PSU, OSU, and Minnesota outside the top 5 and Edinboro was as much a title contender as Iowa. It was cool, but was it as compelling as 2018 when two all time great teams battled it out for the title?

Once they have to start paying taxes and paying tuition some of these new employees are going to wish they weren't.

I try to but I find that you have to pull with your feet really well to make it work, and thats obviously good wrestling but you have to be in such good shape to do it for very long and i'm just not in that good of shape. I'm sure there are feel guys, more russian types who don't have to work that hard from there but the PSU guys are usually just doing it till the guys position breaks and then taking whatever is on offer.

...and now wrestles for Team Mexico. He made his choice. Let the Mexicans or the NLWC cough up the pesos for family to go to Paris.

I wish we could have kept Bobby Douglas in the coaching ranks for longer after he handed the head coaching baton at Iowa State to his protégé Cael. Previously Arizona State's rise to the 1988 NCAA D1 championship (which he led) was historic. It's the ONLY time any college wrestling team west of the Rockies has won it all at the NCAA D1 level. https://thesundevils.com/news/2020/1/9/-asuwrestling-to-honor-hall-of-fame-coach-bobby-douglas-at-sun-devil-duals.aspx Cal. State Bakersfield admittedly did well at the (I guess D2) level out there, decades ago. However, Coach Douglas showed it could be done at the D1 level in that underserved region, too. Coach Davis went on to recruit Cael Sanderson from the West (Utah) and help produce that history-maker at Iowa State. Perhaps Coach Douglas had another run left in him upon handing the Cyclone head coaching baton to Cael. I'd like to think he'd have focused on frontier-opening endeavors, post-Iowa State, but I don't know what those might have been. Any thoughts? Restoring Cal. State Bakersfield to greatness would have been hard to do without Sunkist-level funds. Rescuing Cal. State Fullerton's program from discontinuation just under two decades ago would have been, too. As for UC: Davis: I don't know either. Maybe he could have gotten the U. of Arizona's program in Tucson reinstated?