Luke Elzinga

hell yes duck parade

Moderate to heavy rainfall (0.5” to 1.5”+) ramps up this afternoon through tonight. Localized small stream flooding is possible, along with a few gusty storms and small hail in southern Iowa. Rain tapers off Friday morning, #IAwx

If you need any more evidence that the Iowa House and Senate can't agree on anything. The chambers use different portraits of Trump: scowling in the House, smiling in the Senate.

Oh, this is unbelievable. The edit history on this tweet shows that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif originally copied and pasted everything he was sent, including: "*Draft - Pakistan's PM Message on X*" Now, obviously, Sharif's own staff don't call him "Pakistan's PM," they would just call him prime minister. The U.S. and Israel, of course, would call him "Pakistan's PM." Would be funny if the fate of the world wasn't hanging in the balance.

Rep. @ZachNunn introduced a bill to expand CSFP to more seniors in rural parts of Iowa. I wonder how he feels about Trump's proposal to eliminate the program?

Congratulations to my fellow Luke Elzinga!

Israeli authorities confess they are singling out the Shi'ite Lebanese population for destruction. This is textbook ethnic cleansing, described as "Israel's message" by the @nytimes.

@factpostnews @VazquezSonne4 Said within a day of each other. We live in the stupidest of times.

who ever could have possibly foreseen this

🎸 Tuareg Blues, often referred to as Desert Blues, is a hypnotic and deeply evocative genre of music that originates from the Imazighen people of the Sahara Desert, spanning Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya, Burkina Faso and many other countries. Rooted in centuries-old Imazighen traditions, it merges the haunting melodies of North African Imazighen music with the raw energy of American blues and rock. The Imazighen, have long used music as a means of storytelling, resistance, and cultural preservation. Traditional Imazighen music was played on instruments like the teherdent (a type of lute) and the imzad (a one-stringed violin, traditionally played by women). However, in the late 20th century, as Imazighen communities faced displacement, political struggles, and exile, many young musicians turned to the electric guitar, inspired by the revolutionary sounds of Western blues, rock, and reggae. This fusion created a distinct style-characterized by pentatonic scales, hypnotic rhythms, call-and-response vocals, and the steady, trance-like repetition reminiscent of both Saharan folk chants and Mississippi Delta blues. The influence of artists like Ali Farka Touré, whose Malian blues style bridged African and American blues traditions, also helped shape the genre. The music features driving guitar rhythms, often with reverb-heavy electric guitars that produce a shimmering, almost psychedelic effect. Call-and-response vocals reflect lmazighen oral traditions and communal storytelling. The lyrics are poetic and political, speaking of exile, freedom, rebellion, and the vast beauty of the desert. The hypnotic, repetitive structure of the music creates a trance-like atmosphere, deeply connected to the rhythms of nomadic life and the endless expanse of the Sahara. by Houssaine Ousbouh

We must keep this away from Mark Z Danielewski at all costs

NEW: CNN photojournalist put in a chokehold by Israeli soldiers before the entire CNN crew was detained in the West Bank. CNN says the crew was detained for two hours. The Israeli military has released the following statement to CNN: “The actions and behavior of the soldiers in the incident are incompatible with what is expected of IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers operating in the Judea and Samaria area.” They also noted that the incident would be “thoroughly reviewed.” Source: @JDiamond1

🚨 Iran’s attack on Prince Sultan Air Base destroyed a U.S. command aircraft that will cost $1B+ to replace — and possibly destroyed three Stratotankers costing $80 million each New images show a destroyed Boeing E-3 Sentry at the base in Saudi Arabia, with the fuselage torn open and burned out—damage likely consistent with a total loss. ➡️ The E-3 is an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System)- a flying radar and airborne command center that tracks threats and directs U.S. air operations across entire regions. The U.S. has only about 16 remaining, making each loss critical. ➡️ The E-3 fleet is strained, with only about half the aircraft available for missions at any given time, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. Replacing its capability now costs over $1B per aircraft, based on current replacement programs. ➡️ The strike also hit refueling assets. Up to six KC-135 Stratotankers were reportedly at the base, with claims that three were destroyed and others damaged, though this information remains unconfirmed. ➡️ The impact: “There are going to be coverage gaps,” says Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. Without AWACS, the U.S. risks degraded tracking, slower targeting cycles, and weaker coordination across the battlespace.

notice how the “tent is big” until it has to include the left wing of the party

SNAP enrollment in Iowa has fallen by 19,000 people from July to February - a 7% drop. Now at an 18-year low. The biggest impacts from HR1 are yet to come. Republicans are exploring ways to create even more barriers to access SNAP. Food pantries continue to break records.

New USDA data show 2.5 million fewer people participated in SNAP in December compared to July, when the Republican megabill (H.R. 1) enacted the deepest SNAP cuts in history. This is only the beginning — even more people will lose SNAP as the full brunt of these cuts take effect.

SCOOP: The U.S. military has fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of war with Iran, burning through the precision weapons at a rate that has alarmed some Pentagon officials and prompted internal discussions about how to make more available.

BREAKING: Trump's signature will appear on U.S. dollar bills, a first for a sitting president, Treasury announces. nbcnews.com/politics/donal…

Ms. Rachel is fighting to close an ICE facility in Texas that's detaining children. She wants to "make sure that kids and their parents are back in their communities where they belong." "I am political. It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal, and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border," she told NBC News. Ms. Rachel recently had a video call with nine-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez, who is detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. The boy told her he "wants to leave and go to the spelling bee." "It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail. It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life," she told the news outlet. "We’re trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee. I just never thought those words would go together." variety.com/2026/tv/news/m…

The highest-ranking uniformed officer at the NYPD until about five months ago: