By Blue Bronc, Trail Mix Contributor
“I Find It To Be An Unnecessary Freezing of Water.” — Carl Reiner
As one who is sitting in the dead center of the bulls eye of the Jonas Blizzard, I do agree with Carl Reiner. I have lived through many of the things in Colorado which gave me many important lessons. I learned early to not waste time with bread or yams, go to the liquor store and buy good stuff, for you will enjoy being a little off for thirty-six hours. You may not have electric power to even see the bread or cook the yams.
You cannot use ice or snow in a sandwich, but you can use it to cool beer or add to a touch of distilled grain. Wine. No need for a cellar, hang a bottle out the window for a few minutes. Tired of your neighbors raiding your best booze? Tell them you need them to go to the store for a bottle of orange bitters (Obviously something they would not have in their crappy little bar).
All blizzard, all day and all night. The weather prognosticators are really giddy. Many are not sleeping, for once in their lives, all the forecasts were correct. No “sort of right”. No “ the timing was wrong”. Hurricanes are notorious for being fickle on hitting anything. Northeaster’s are just as bad as their cousins the hurricanes. Daily weather? Ha. The reason weather personalities are so nice is they are the only group who have to be on air with a miserable accuracy of forecasts. You do not want to dislike them because they are so nice.
What I am enjoying more than anything. Really more than anything, including a good Manhattan. No all Trump, all the time, promotions by the talking heads. And, now no G%#^mned Palin (use your imagination about what the Palin mouth churns out) Trump every five minutes. The monotonous display of snow and reporters in snow is a pleasure compared to the insult of the media and Trump-Palin. I am waiting for the blowhard to announce the brainless wonder of Alaska is his choice of VP.
Snow. As much as I do not like it anymore. It is giving me a rare pleasure and peace which will be rare until November.
Lol, snow does have it’s advantages.. I dumped cable years ago so i never watch the talking heads , reading about Trump/Palin is bad enough :0)
Is Nominating Bernie Sanders a Worthwhile Gamble? Hillary Clinton’s supporters have yet to make a persuasive case that Sanders is too great a risk. BY BRIAN BEUTLER
Long read but some good points in this piece..
Bernie Sanders’s Big Turnout Problem: He’s Reliant on Infrequent Voters Nate Cohn
“The split between young and old in the Democratic primary dwarfs the age gap in general elections. It rivals and might even exceed the age gap from the 2008 Democratic primary, whether measured by pre-election or exit polls.
Of course, Mr. Obama ultimately won the 2008 Iowa caucuses. He succeeded in mobilizing voters, and his supporters were probably so enthusiastic that he might have earned a strong turnout even without an effective ground operation.
We won’t know whether Mr. Sanders repeats his feat until the results come in.”
Runaway jury! I wanted to post this last night, but became too involved in the town hall. I love the sanity of the dems. The creeps behind the Planned Parenthood smear video are facing 20 years. And a shout-out to the humans of Harris County who ignore their elected officials and spot a hit job. Most women just want a pap smear, not a smear on being a woman. This kind of disgusting ruse on women must stop. And we have to remember that such ginned-up talk about body parts, etc. caused a shoot-out by some crazy man murdering humans over this! It is why Trump’s gun comment, which he claims is a joke is very dangerous. He gives permission to gun owners to shoot for no reason…use your gun instead of your vote. We can’t have a prez who jokes about gun violence….especially seeing the pain of the massive shoot-outs. Yet, no one in the media questions him on this…they just let him roll it out and repeat his insane comments…retweet his messages, giggle at his stupidity. Just because the guy is not a politician…he is rich man running for POTUS. He should get more vetting.
Go home, Michael Bloomberg: If he runs, be prepared to welcome President Donald Trump Michael Bloomberg can’t win as a third party — all he can do is screw Democrats by taking votes away from them AMANDA MARCOTTE
BB…remember 1988 in Colorado? Snow and recall. Inefficient snow removal is an impeachable offense.
As for weather forecasting? I grew-up under the misconception that we would eventually control weather. Now with the intensity of climate change? The forecasters are off, many times. Computer models use old weather data (it is all they have) and the faster weather computers are used for upper massive jet stream movements. Prediction has improved, but can get much better. In my city, in October, we have a massive hail storm. Hubby and I were outside and we heard the roar over the city…we had clear glass-like hail balls which I had never seen before. We were lucky, we were on the northern edge of the storm. The sound of the hail breaking skylights, pounding the flat roofs and damaging stucco was unreal…did sound like a locomotive engine, but no tornado. We had no warning. Nothing from the weather cube, tv. Just online radar and I saw it coming from the east moving west.
The storms will continue to be huge as Mother Nature tries to balance.
1988 I was home for a week and the following week on the road, and long days.
The article fails to mention the failure of McNichols to clear any streets leading to the election of Pena. It was the end of the old powers that controlled Denver for almost a century too.
Out west snow is taken very seriously. It is water, it fills the reservoirs, it makes the snow pack and it brings in billions of tourist dollars. Best in the mountains, but it can be okay of the prairie too. Just not too much of it.
As a former Bostonian, who now lives in northern Maine, I am acquainted with snow.
Snow is not a problem. That’s why God invented the snow blower and 4-wheel drive.
The problem is ICE, especially the type called “black ice.” This is what you get when the temperature rises above freezing during the day, and drops below freezing at night. During the day, snow melts, and runs in broad ribbons to the nearest storm drain. At night they freeze.
In the morning, you will find many mirror smooth (and invisible) ribbons of ice on the black asphalt of parking lots.
It is waiting there for you to emerge from the store with a bag full of groceries, or from the coffee shop with an el grande mochachino and a blueberry bagel.
One memorable winter day I fell on my face in the parking lot when arrived at work, and then I fell on my ass when I was leaving at the end of the day.
For young people, falling down is a source of amusement; for old people it often means forming a close personal relationship with a physical therapist.
Children dream of “snow days” when they don’t have to go to school and can go out and play. The elderly dream of getting a condo in Key West where the only ice they have to deal with is in a drink at a bar.
Something with a lot of fruit and a little umbrella.
Nash
I would be more comfortable in the political judgment of young people if civics were still a required element of k-12 education. Even in second grade, we had mock general elections. We were curious about such things. Can you imagine, that when the current cohort of middle school students come of age, become parents, then take their children on that so-important trip to view Washington’s treasures in the National Archives. Mommy, Daddy, what does it say, pointing to the Declaration of Independence staring them in the face. I don’t know children, we never learned how to read or write cursive in school. I think it has something to do with Genghis Khan.
BB
I love the ritual of just the right amount of snow. The kind of snow that one starts preparing for by chopping their own firewood from the trees on their own land that are ready to change their role in the scheme of things. The kind of snow that you don’t need the weather person to tell you it’s coming–it’s in the air.
Waking up in the middle of the night, a person can hear the salt trucks dust distant bridges and interchanges; validation that snow is upon us. Not too much, just the right amount.
As a native New Englander, I love snow…. at least I did until last year. That was just tooooo much. Even Rick started screaming… “enough already… there’s plenty to keep us skiing until mid-May!”
I’m with Nash… the bad word in weather is ice. Having the power go out for a day or two is an inconvenience. But going out for 11-12 days as it did here in 2008…. really sucks! You can still look in the woods today and see the affect that storm had on our trees.
from comedy central’s key and peele
While I had visited snow in the mountains with a required car trip to get there, I had never seen it fall until I was 40 in DC. This was a very pleasant. Not sure I would have enjoyed it quite so much if it had piled up and stuck around for more than a day or two.
Really nice Hillary article Love and Kindness
patd…love Key&Peele. Nash…so good to see you in cyber print.
I just returned from the dentist as I am in the process of getting all of my metal fillings removed (just the back teeth). It might be too late for I am already ‘mad as a hatter.’ I assume the extraction process also creates mercury vapors, so more to my madness. I have one quadrant left. I still have all of my teeth and have been blessed with good gums. But, that penny candy I ate as a child? I still miss some of the candies of the past. What crap I ate…little colorful dots of sugar off of register receipt type paper rolls. My favorite used to be the licorice rolled into a record shape with a red sugar candy in the middle. Mary Jane candies also added to the decay. I still remember the candy store…old style door in the corner of the building…like so many former stores of the old northeast USA. Ode to sugar and decay…it was a great time!
Of course, with all of these storms…the gov who ate NJ still does not believe in climate change. He does believe in campaigning so his resume will secure a spot in the repug WH or a slot on Faux News…thereby completing the cycle of Faux News pundit to candidate to pundit back to candidate again, like so many including Huckabee, Carson, Palin, Kasich, etc.
Before the dem town hall, I switched to Faux News and watched the girls. Megyn Kelly is sporting a new ‘medusa’ hair style…more worm-like than snake. It was ‘what’ the girls said…’all Democrats portray us as stupid and evil.’ I love comedy!
“in the process of getting all of my metal fillings removed”
oh no! now how are you going to communicate with the martians, bw? can’t go back to tin foil hats. they are sooo yesterday…. analog not digital. no converter boxes available and can’t find any decent rabbit ears nowadays.
aack aack aack?
bye bye, aqua Buddha:
The mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, announced Tuesday he will challenge Rand Paul for the Senate, giving Democrats their best shot yet at defeating the Republican incumbent.
“As your Senator I won’t just talk, I’ll listen. I’ll offer common sense solutions. And I’ll work to restore the American dream for every family in Kentucky,” the wealthy Jim Gray, who had been courted by the party to run, said in a statement.
[….]
“In Washington, Senator Paul has put his own ambition ahead of Kentuckians and is behind policies that would hurt Kentucky families,” Gray said. “He voted for a plan that would double healthcare costs for our seniors and supports privatizing Social Security. He supported massive cuts of over $160 billion to our military, and Senator Paul signed a pledge to protect tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.” [….]
Democrats in both Washington and Kentucky have wanted to take advantage of Paul’s struggles in the GOP presidential contest to try to knock him out of his Senate seat. They hope Gray will be able to put some of his own money into his campaign.
and more on his honor mayor gray:
Gray, the wealthy former CEO of a construction company, made history in 2010 when he was elected Kentucky’s first openly gay mayor. Since then, he has wrangled the city’s pension funds and signed an ordinance raising the local minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
“The American dream is slipping away. Unfortunately, Washington is part of the problem,” Gray said after filing his paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office. “We spend a whole lot more time in Washington fighting than they do fixing things. And I want to change that.”
I posted something like this on the last thread, but then realized there was a new one. My wife is happy to have a Bama man who can handle snow. (Thanks NH for 6 years of training.) Like last night when I had to go get her car out of the ditch down at the bottom of our hill. For some reason she believes that even though we had 22 inches of snow, she could take the back road (unplowed and untreated) by the river to get home last night. It’s an ongoing battle between me and her, & I hope that the little incident last night will at last disabuse her of that erroneous notion.
BlueinDallas – Thanks for that photo of Craig’s mother and Dennis Kucinich. I remember that night at the Lebanese Embassy. Rep. Kucinich came with his attractive wife – they kind of had a Dudley Moore-Susan Anton thing going (taller woman)…
Pogo,
Your wife has optimism. Glass half full.
Hi Nash, been thinking about you.
daveb, Love the Dudley Moore mention, though I’m a Peter Cook person. Also like Alan Bennett 😉
Sj, it might appear that way, but, no. She’s just stubborn.
bw, you’ll like this
When Will Carly Fiorina Apologize to Planned Parenthood?
article includes vid where “Trevor Noah did a segment highlighting how Carly used young children as props to attack Planned Parenthood and the bogus videos.”
And now Abe Vigoda has passed away at 94
2016 is not being kind. At least he had a good long run.
Pogo to the rescue and I know your wife ‘digs’ you!
patd…we have a woman’s clinic that has a permanent protest every weekday in front of the clinic. Although I appreciate their right to protest, I am always concerned about the children they bring to the protests. I think it is child abuse. And although we cannot hide abortion from younger children (I learned about them from my Mom at young age), they should not be allowed to protest. When my Mom explained abortion to me? It was not with outrage for she was a wise woman. This same group would let a living child starve and an ill child go without medical care, but only care about a fetus? Again, I really think these humans think conception begins at erection. They are not part of the natural world, for sure. I have seen birds knock eggs out of nests while keeping one….just nature. Instead, once again we see the ‘mythunderstandings’ promoted by the dark side — repugs, Fiorina, teavangelicals.
My sister called after I returned home…she confirmed she has thyroid cancer. I was planning a March birthday party and reunion for her and my brother’s 70th birthday — Celebrating 140 years, the twins turn 70!! Now we may have to postpone or not….just the first day knowing of the surgery. When I saw her in November I told her I did not like the hoarseness in her voice. But, other than that, she had no symptoms or blood work issues. I know of a few people who have had their thyroid removed. And chemo on the thyroid is easier because it is the only gland that absorbs iodine. Making radioactive iodine easy to take. Just have to stay away from humans for a couple of days.
BW Sorry to hear about your sister. Hope it turns out to be treatable without too many problems.
bw, have the party by all means and let her in on the decisions/prep as much as possible. the mind (yours and hers) has a wonderful way of coping with present sadness when tasked with planning creative fun future events. might even act as a placedo. dosage: take one party plan 2 times a day and get plenty of rest.
Party on
As a Midwesterner, I’ve seen my share of snow. Grandpa’s boss had access to a snowplow via his son-in-law’s construction company. We had to scoop walks, but the path between our house and work was cleared long before the gov’t got around to it. Nope, they were busy plowing roads for the school buses to get the country kids. Rarely did we get a snow day.
Wherever we set the fish camp, let’s make sure it’s always warm.
untrusTED is now losing the Evangelical vote Trump. Whaaa???
Bloomberg would definitely change things up, but I don’t envision either side flocking to him. Definitely more Dems & Indies than GOoPers, but it would definitely be a really late election night.
BW – I’ll send good thoughts your way for your sister’s health. Have that party if she’s up to it.
daveB – I recall singing to you in Hebrew and thinking it must be my voice, you looked so appalled. Then I realized where we were. Oops. (Dennis’ wife is in the full pic, but I cropped it; they seemed very happy together.). Still looking for Vegas pics.
It’s so good to see so many familiar folks here, again.
Ms Wino,
I think a party would be a great idea.
It’ll be the kinda party the twins would only be able to celebrate once in 140 years.
Then they’d have 5 entire years to rest up for the 150th.
You just can’t beat a deal like that.
– X. Mark de Spott
BW
I hope your sister does well.. I had a friend in Michigan that had thyroid Cancer , he had it removed, radioactive iodine and he came out fine..
Lawsuits Claim Disney Colluded to Replace U.S. Workers With Immigrants By JULIA PRESTONJAN
Latest Apple Earnings Prove The iPhone Is Starting To Struggle Apple’s cash cow sold fewer units than expected last quarter. Analysts are worried.
MSNBC And New Hampshire Union Leader Plan Rogue Democratic Debate But so far only O’Malley’s definitely coming.
O’malley is in.. Come on Bernie and Hillary.. Hillary’s spokesperson says she will be there if the other 2 canidates are.. Oh poor Debbie with egg on her face..
Polls here in Minnesota show Clinton up on Sanders by roughly 2 – 1. We Minnesotans caucus, and typically do so in small numbers. Occasionally an avalanche of newcomers will swamp the caucuses, such as happened in 1968 and 2008. If there is a contest and avalanche of new-ish participants, the perennial mossback caucussoids can sometimes out-maneuver, or out-manure, the infrequent populistic caucussoids. I figure that most old timers this year are Clintonians, just as they were way back in ’08. I can’t imagine Sanders exciting people and herding them to the caucuses as successfully as Obama did in 2008. Therefore, I calculate that Clinton will do well here on Caucus Day. Even if the Sandersim show up in droves on Caucus Day, Clinton should still do well here.
Please note that the usual caveats of dead girl/live boy (or vice versa) apply as much here in Minnesota, at the top end of the Mississippi River, as they do at the bottom end in Louisiana.
In the interest of fairness and glasnost, I confess that I am leaning toward Sanders on issues of war and peace, but believe Clinton’s experience is both impressive and desirable.
My apology to you all for my excessive bandwidth.
Has Ms Cracker been seen along this here trail ? Howzabout Bethyboo ?
What about that Solar cretin ? Champ ? Purple ?
Not a fan of snow. The blizzard of 1993, when Knobite Corner got two feet in something like fourteen hours, was enough to last me a lifetime. 🙂
X
Thanks for your Minnesota update.. Def Bernie and Hillary have their merits..
O’Malley wouldn’t have to beg for time to speak. They could just do q & a instead of a debate. I’ve actually liked what I have heard from O’Malley.
Question.
Why wouldn’t Chris Christi take a mop and go down there?
After all last time we heard from him he was “working the cones”
Just checked the weather for next Monday in Des Moines. Snow! In keeping with this thread, I hope some folks love it enough that it won’t keep them home.
If Bernie really does have the younger demographic behind him, does that mean his turnout will be greater, because they are the more energetic group? Or, are they more likely to be easily deterred and stay home? I haven’t lived in the Midwest for a long time, so I am a snow-wuss.
jace – ?
Extra-Crispy’s comment about mopping was pretty cavalier, considering how some of the people in his state are suffering.
He is probably just hoping to make a showing that will be good enough to get him in the veep seat. (Yeah, that’s not gonna happen for him, either.) He must realize he lost his shot when he let Romney push him out, before we really got to know him. It sounds like the duties of his current office are just an annoyance right now.
Around here it is still “The Blizzard of ’78” that still gets press and TV time. Man, that was something alright. I have no current snow stories as the storms have only been clipping a slice off the bottom of Ohio and I live in Michindo. That’s what we call the corner where Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan meet .
About fifteen months ago I posted how I finally signed into the VA healthcare system. It was Craig’s post about the excellent care his dad Bill received in a Florida VA facility that finally got me over to Toledo’s shiny new outpatient clinic. Since then I have received great care, regular doctor’s checkups, complete blood labs as needed, even an MRI, X-Rays, and a colonoscopy. In April I was sent to Battle Creek for a complete two-day exam to determine if I had compensation due me for my tour of duty during the Vietnam War, and I was awarded a 50% disability with some back-pay, plus my medicine co-pays are 100% waved…all my prescriptions and inhalers cost me zero dollars and zero cents. I am posting this only to alert any military veterans of the care they may be missing out on because, like me, they figure they have nothing coming. Things have changed.
http://thehoopla.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/muppets-in-text.jpg
Jamie- thanks for that article about Hill. Am thinking there’s a Love & Kindness bar in the making. Contacted the woman i’ve written about that has the foundation for women in politics, my Hillary contact- she had just read the article too and found it important- Will keep you posted.
Bw- I have a friend who also had thyroid cancer, she had the operation and some form of chemo but it was short and without all the usual side effects, then she was fine.
xr
solar, champ, mqw and bethyboo are still among the missing but read back and you’ll meet up with the whole gang…. well, almost whole.
dexter, same thing happened to my brother. same surprise at the great care at bay pines vet hosp. and then the plus of getting benefits he long ago had given up on.
in case you missed this ghost from crisis past
cnn on Why ‘Jerks’ Get Ahead
A “rogue debate” in New Hampshire. I recommend watching West Wing, for many reason, but the irony of coincidences. In the season with Santos running and not getting traction in New Hampshire, he created his rogue debate, which forced the other Dem candidates to attend.
One of my personal activities and a collateral duty to my daily job, is to work with veterans. Get them to sign up for the VA system and VA medical. The hard part is convincing them that the VA is not like being on active duty. Sadly a few never do understand the importance of the medical system. My father being one. The only thing he did that involved the VA was after he was dead, I was able to get a flag. He probably would not have wanted that to happen.
Happily, other vets get the medical care they need, including mental. I know all the horror stories, it is part of my job. But, I also know the many other good stories and it is those I want to keep on happening.
My feelings almost exactly…..
I have had it with naive bernie sanders idealists
http://www.salon.com/2016/01/26/i_have_had_it_with_naive_bernie_sanders_idealists/
hey tony! liked the vanity fair article you posted, very much, thanks. xox
BlondeW… best wishes for your sister… sending love and light. And let me be an echo… yes do the party.
Xrep… Ms Cracker posted on this thread. Purple posted quite a bit in the last thread. The others you mentioned…. not a peep. It’d be good to hear from them though.
Hi Katheleen
Nice to see you and read you again :0)… Yes, that Vanity Fair piece was good…
I Get Sanders’ Appeal. But He’s Not a Credible President. Democrats have a choice between a symbolic candidacy and a real one. They should choose the real one. By Paul Starr Read more:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-2016-213560
Fox News accuses Trump campaign of threatening Megyn Kelly By Neetzan Zimmerman
In Monday’s town hall on CNN Hillary nailed it, IMO. She stated that over 50% of what a president does involves foreign countries. She said a president most of the time doesn’t get to choose the subject of his/her workday… the subject finds them. Because of Hillary’s experience as Secretary of State and the fact she understands the above is the main reason she’s my choice.
Bernie… I like Bernie… but he’s basically a one subject pitbull… income inequality. It’s a laudable subject…. and IMO, he can address it much more effectively from the Senate.
re oregon shootout
Everyone obeyed orders to surrender except two people: LaVoy Finicum and Bundy’s brother, Ryan Bundy, the official told CNN.
Shots were fired, but it’s unclear who fired first, the source said. Ryan Bundy was wounded, and Finicum died. [….]
Finicum was one of the most outspoken occupiers who took over the refuge near Burns on January 2 to protest federal land policies.
Earlier this month, the father of 11 told CNN he doesn’t want to die — but would never go behind bars.
“I’m just not going to prison,” Finicum said. “Look at the stars. There’s no way I’m going to sit in a concrete cell where I can’t see the stars and roll out my bedroll on the ground. That’s just not going to happen. I want to be able to get up in the morning and throw my saddle on my horse and go check on my cows. It’s OK. I’ve lived a good life. God’s been gracious to me.”
Hillary Clinton Terrifies Republicans With A Presidential Performance At CNN Town Hall By: Jason Easleymore from Jason Easley
Finally got the Dem townhall watched, amazing substance.. Hillary of course still amazes me.. The brilliance of her mind and heart….
Renee
Great comment above on why you support Hillary and exactly how i feel. Bernie and Warren in the Senate a dynamo in tackling Bernie’s issue..
e.j. dionne on
The Challenge of Being Hillary
When Substance Gets Swept Aside
Fox News Slams Trump Campaign’s ‘Terrorizations’ Against Megyn Kelly “We can’t give into terrorizations toward any of our employees.”
Fox so-called News and Republican’s created these monsters running for President on their side, can anyone say “the chickens have come home to roost”.
GOP burns to the ground: Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and the self-immolation of the Republican establishment They’re against Trump now, but conservative elites have been kindling this wildfire for the better part of a decade ERIC BOEHLERT, MEDIA MATTERS
One more Democratic primary debate? …Maybe
Rachel Maddow explains the the confusing circumstances behind a possible unsanctioned Democratic primary debate before the New Hampshire primary. … here’s the link
Dexter: glad to know you are receiving great medical care through the VA. You and millions of other vets deserve it.
Bronc: our readers need to know that not all vets are eligible for VA services, although that is the common understanding. In 2003, the Bush administration placed a number of eligibility criteria for participating in the VA. One criteria was “boot on the ground” in Vietnam. Thus, today, thousands of sailors who patrolled off the Vietnamese shores are ineligible. There is a bill in Congress, called “blue water” eligibility correcting that situations. The last criterion deals with income eligibility, making it an anti- poverty program, for those who make less than $24,000. And, so-called peace time vets are not eligible either. I served four years in the Navy from 1957-1961. My ship, the USS Essex, was sent to cover the Lebanon landing in July 1958. Three months later we were sent through the Suez Canal to Formosa, now Taiwan, to thwart the Chinese from shelling Formosan islands. I was more than happy to doing my small part as a seagoing sailor that saw the world, literally. Fortunately, I have a decent retirement income from 34 years of college teaching, so I don’t qualify on income criteria, either. However, to be told by the VA that you aren’t even recognized and ineligible for services is belittling and infuriating. Tens of thousands of vets fall into this category.
Sorry about the long screed. Dexter, get all you can from the VA. You deserve it.
I’m happy for Dex as well.
It has been a long time since I have been to the VA. I have a 40-% rating. But, the cash I am awarded for that rating is subtracted dollar-for-dollar from my military retired pay. The net result is a slight decrease in my income tax liability because the amount subtracted is no longer taxable as income. It would be in my interest to return to the VA and have my rating increased.
eP2, it is certainly in your interest returning to the VA to have a proper rating assigned; you simply don’t know what awaits around the corner. Why don’t you and I both go. And we’ll take all those closet vets with us. Is it a deal?
Flatus
Of course, Flatus, it is a deal. I’ve been three times with my dd214 but to no avail. I have contacted my US Rep to no avail. A vet told me I should go with some kind of disability, the easiest being ringing in the ear. Knock on wood, I am really healthy and don’t have any sort of service related injuries at 75. All I ever wanted from the VA was acknowledgement and the safety net should I need it. My mistake was waiting until I was 65 and trying to enroll at the VA and Medicare and social security all at the same time. Now, I tell family members who are in the military sign up the day you are discharged. Don’t wait thinking VA enrollment is a retirement issue.
South Carolina or Arizona, Flatus?
Let’s try a multi-state approach. I’m going to have to pull together documentation for things since my last visit, etc. I would be most surprised if you don’t have tinnitus exacerbated by your days aboard ship. And balance issues as well. And a sore back from those bunks. (I was top of my stack on my troop ship–that was the place to be)
Okay, let’s each go at his own pace and I’ll let you know as I achieve milestones.
OR protester murdered by gov’t. No film at 11, cuz they’ll want to keep this under wraps. By/for/of the people? Not so much.
Bernie is not one-note. If you all of the wealth is at the top, the tree is top-heavy & the roots will get no water. Eventually, the whole tree will die. The whole tree will be stronger if you water the roots. That encompasses health care, education, income equality, and human/civil rights issues.
blueid, reposting some from my 8:28 am comment (where you can see previous statement of guy killed)
re oregon shootout
Everyone obeyed orders to surrender except two people: LaVoy Finicum and Bundy’s brother, Ryan Bundy, the official told CNN.
Shots were fired, but it’s unclear who fired first, the source said. Ryan Bundy was wounded, and Finicum died. [….]
and this from nytimes Witness to Oregon Shooting Says Slain Man Charged at Police
eprof2 is correct…a vet reporting to VA for medical care will be scrutinized heavily. My local county rep gave me a hard time when I first went to talk to him because I lacked some piece of paper confirming my boots-on-the-ground qualification. He was prickly about it for a week…my DD214 and medal recognition paperwork did not satisfy him. A week later I came back, hoping for some advice in this matter. He was then all smiles and said “I took care of it with Scott in Toledo…you’re in…let’s get started!” And so it went…civilian hospital hearing test just to get something going, then five months later my number came up to get up to Battle Creek for the big physical, the compensation physical. That is the one that took two days. I burn a trail to Toledo frequently, but…they pay for my gasoline, too.
You can tell I am a grateful old veteran, even if it took me nearly 44 years to begin getting care…when I went to VA a couple times in the year after I got back from active duty, I was shooed out quickly with my hat in my hand.
Also, our leader Craig is a modest man…I wrote him thanking him for that column about his dad and the VA, which got me off my duff and into VA healthcare. Craig wouldn’t take any credit for any of it, but he expressed that he was glad a few words on the ‘nets helped someone. And that’s what “our little corner of the ‘nets” is all about.
I had a short break in service when I returned from Vietnam–I was at the end of my second enlistment, I was really disillusioned by the officer leadership, with a couple notable exceptions, that I saw in the Army in Vietnam, so I needed to think about things for a while. Ended up shifting to the Air Force which was a good decision for me. And I also took the time, it was over the Christmas holidays at the end of ’66, to go down to the VA and get my stuff documented. In hindsight, I would have added things like injuries received in E&E training.
Back when I went down to the VA, there were Great War vets in the same line as I was standing in; standing there waiting to put in their initial claims.
from wapo “FBI blockades Oregon wildlife refuge, urges remaining occupiers to leave”
…there have been criticisms of how long it has stretched on, with Gov. Kate Brown (D) writing a letter urging federal officials to bring a “swift resolution” to the situation, as well as others questioning whether occupiers would have been treated with patience if they were black.
[….]
All of the people arrested on the Oregon highway surrendered to authorities except for one man, later identified as LaVoy Finicum, a spokesman for the group who had previously said he would rather die than go to jail. Another official familiar with the encounter said Finicum refused to surrender and was fatally shot; authorities said Wednesday they were investigating the shooting.
“I’m disappointed that a traffic stop yesterday that was supposed to bring peaceful resolution to this ended badly,” Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said at the news conference. He added: “It didn’t have to happen. We all make choices in life. Sometimes our choices go bad.”
blueInDallas,
“The whole tree will be stronger if you water the roots.”
Well said, it does encompass everything. The younger Voters are responding to this, which is a positive for our Country. How the Democratic hierarchy reacts to this could translate into encompassing a major force or sowing an unfortunate rift. The times they are a-changin’.
Jesus Alou, the only thing missing is the Sons of the Pioneers singing in the background. Of course he is using a spreading of cow smanure or shovel fulls of horse apples to spin his illegal activities. Oh please remember Roy Rogers, he cries. No. He is trying to usurp our government. President Washington sent the troops to take care of a rebellion. These men (and I think a woman (I do hope she is not a camp follower)) need to take heed of their “leaders” arrest and failure to survive holes in the body, to decide to pack up their bs and move on to somewhere like North Korea where protests like theirs are appreciated.
VA claims. Work with the DAV or NABVETS or other veterans organization to get started. These organizations know what to do.
I am associated with an organization which works to change discharge status for LGBT people.
Other Veterans organizations work to change less than honorable discharges too.
The issue of the peace time rather than war time is beyond us. That will require Congressional and Presidential action. It is hard to tell a veteran that she or he served in peace time (for veterans this is always hard – ask someone sitting in Korea in 1959 and being shot at by the North Koreans or in 1976).
For the first time in many a year, all south of us are having a MUCH heavier snow winter than we are. Everything is magically going north and south of us and we are sitting pretty in fairly mild (for January) and snow-free conditions. And now that I’ve typed all this I’m sure we’ll have a HUGE blizzard tomorrow just so the snow-gods can laugh at me.
Hope everyone has dug themselves out successfully.
The dead militant guy was a suicide bomber. He got no one but himself.
The Flint disaster is Rick Snyder’s fault Dana Milbank
Fox News Statement Taunting Trump Was ‘100 Percent’ Roger Ailes By Gabriel Sherman
I’m glad to see that the vets in this trail are getting good care from the VA. Lord knows you earned it.
Received a card to confirm my address for voter registration. Not my card, an info confirmation request. They must be doing it differently this year.
Funny thing, yesterday I mailed in a request because they hadn’t sent my card this year. So, they’ve crossed in the mail and now I hope this doesn’t trigger something weird on the election rolls. If I had just waited one more day.
GOP Still Investigating Planned Parenthood, Even After Sting Videos Backfire Samantha Lochma
The Bernie Sanders Health Plan Is Too Good To Be True, Analyst Says The Democratic hopeful could be wildly underestimating how much it would cost.
Jonathan Cohn
The Rachel Maddow town hall in Flint Michigan was quite good.
It was a public relations disaster for governor Snyder.
Never pass up the chance to tell your side of the story. Text book republican governance. More often than not it is a complete disaster. Thanks for the reminder Rick.
Flint residents face horrible dilemmas as the state certainly won’t relocate them to other communities and the master plumber who said he could get a thousand plumbers , a thousand laborers, and any other needed skilled trades people in there within a month, well, Snyder will never pay for that. Each of the approximately 22,000 single-family homes is going to require about 10,000 dollars to fix the pipe problem if they have lead pipes leading into and inside their homes. I only could watch half the Maddow Town Hall because the dogs needed their midnight bedtime walk…now it’s back to the dvr to watch the last half. From the thirty minutes I did see already, this may be Rachel’s best work.
mayo clinic’s description of
The signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in children may include:
Developmental delay
Learning difficulties……
[….]Although children are primarily at risk, lead poisoning is also dangerous for adults. Signs and symptoms in adults may include:
……
Declines in mental functioning
Memory loss
Mood disorders
not surprised conditions above happened during the reign of a goper gov.
sounds pretty much like what they’ve been doing to their party as a whole…. just look at the current candidate list.
from raw story
Trevor Noah: Trump’s stab for attention by ditching debate worked — but he’s still an ‘a*shole’
“From one perspective, Trump dropping out seems like the act of a petulant child,” he observed. “But I think, honestly, he’s a complete genius. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump has won the only fight that matters to him — the fight for attention.”
I wrote sort of a reply to Blue Bronc’s earlier critique of Oregon revolutionaries that quoted a wiki article on Shays Revolution in which Gen Washington was called in to put the darned thing down. It’s worth reading about.
In any case CRAIG it was instantly put into awaiting moderation. I can see no reeason for that based on its content so it must be some sort of glitch. Wait, there were five footnotes in it ;( — I’ve removed two of them.
Ratings are votes! In Sarah Palin speak, the cows have come home to roost. Why am I enjoying this repug party implosion so much???
patd…thanks for always making me laugh and I still have a cap in my mouth for emergency transmissions.
shades of watergate break-in?
A suspect or suspects apparently forced in a back door at the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign headquarters on Bridge Street in Manchester. The burglary occurred sometime between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday during closing hours.
flatus, your comment awaiting moderation probably had more than 3 links embedded in it.
bill: “to understand hillary look to her faith”
“In the Methodist church, the founder John Wesley, said we live under a simple obligation to do all the good we can, in whatever ways we can, to all the people we can, for as long as we can,” said the former president while stumping for his wife. “She lived by that.”
[….] Hillary Clinton’s faith is a deeply personal but rarely discussed area of the candidate’s life. Clinton’s friends and confidants describe the former first lady as a devout Methodist whose faith guides much of what she does. But that side of her is rarely on public display.
Clinton discussed her faith on Tuesday in Iowa after a mother of three asked Clinton how she squares some of her political beliefs — namely on abortion — with her faith.
“It is very important to me. I am a person of faith. I am Christian. I am a Methodist,” Clinton said, adding later that she believes “there are many different ways of exercising your faith, but I do believe that in many areas judgment should be left to God.”
Pat, I refuse to utter the selfish bastard’s name, nor to listen to teevee content about him. I will not vote in his primary being quite content to vote for Hillary or Michael as the case may be.
Michael A. Cohen What happens in Iowa . . . doesn’t matter
BB
From the Shay’s Rebellion wiki:
“…Four thousand people signed confessions acknowledging participation in the events of the rebellion (in exchange for amnesty); several hundred participants were eventually indicted on charges relating to the rebellion. Most of these were pardoned under a general amnesty that only excluded a few ringleaders. Eighteen men were convicted and sentenced to death, but most of these were either overturned on appeal, pardoned, or had their sentences commuted. Two of the condemned men, John Bly and Charles Rose, were hanged on December 6, 1787.[52] Shays himself was pardoned in 1788 and he returned to Massachusetts from hiding in the Vermont woods.[53] He was, however, vilified by the Boston press, who painted him as an archetypal anarchist opposed to the government.[54] He later moved to the Conesus, New York area, where he lived until he died poor and obscure in 1825…”
Obama Hosts Sanders, But Hints Hillary’s His Pick By Alexis Simendinger January 28, 2016
Pat, that was exactly the problem–embedded footnotes, Removing two of them solved the problem, me.
I heard that there is a draft dodger who is going to hold a one person show to benefit veterans. If it is the dodger of whom I am thinking, he has never done a single thing out of the kindness of his heart. Beware, there is a snake in the room.
I recall an article in the National Geographic from decades ago that described the plight of Spanish lead miners who were hopelessly compromised by lead poisoning. One of the photographs showed miners being subjected to very high heat in an effort to leach the lead from their bodies. Grim.
I just sent this to the White House for whatever good it will do with this President.
Dear President Obama;
In the “Readout of the President’s Meeting on Zika Virus” on White House dot gov the following statement was made:
“The President emphasized the need to accelerate research efforts to make available better diagnostic tests, to develop vaccines and therapeutics, and to ensure that all Americans have information about the Zika virus and steps they can take to better protect themselves from infection.”
I believe that it is disingenuous of you and your administration, especially the Department of Health and Human Services, for emphasizing the need “to develop vaccines” for the Zika virus. I think that you and your administration owe apologies to at least the 243 families of persons that died in 2012 from West Nile Virus.
There were at least 243 West Nile Virus (WNV) deaths, of the total 5,387 cases, in the 2012 outbreak because it is not profitable enough for the big drug companies to develop a licensed vaccine for treating or preventing WNV in humans. There is a licensed WNV vaccine for Horses but none for humans!
Where were you during the 2012 West Nile Virus outbreak?
Flatus,
Annnnddd… now Fiorina, Cruz are offering big bucks to Veteran’s groups if The Draft Dodger will join the Debate.
Sure gives me confidence in their abilities to serve as Commander in Chief. Jeez.
A two issues, Gun Control and big sodas, candidate like Michael Bloomberg would produce the same result as Ralph Nader did in 2000 Florida. A Republican Win.
New Thread, by Jamie