Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Meltoff!

 

41 comments:

  1. Monday was one of those days when I have something to share with you all, but can't get to the computer long enough to do the deed...and my cell phone still refuses to let me post here.

    The big news of Monday morning was that Howard and Jim Dean's mother, Andree Maitland Dean, has died, age 92.
    https://m.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/obituary-andree-maitland-dean/Content?oid=32581459&fbclid=IwAR0GJBlB3aKOaf4aqwG8gnC48tpHmz8XBy11mf89sXfWhb4V2HeOqyWv0CU

    Nurse Teri told me she heard from Howard that his mom died peacefully, as she had hoped to.

    I always remember that it was Howard's mother who bought him the Whale Tie!

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  2. Sorry to hear that, but she seems to have lived a full life.

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    1. She was a force to be reckoned with, and certainly seems to have been an inspiration for her sons.

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    2. I don't think I knew she was an art curator. Imagine being able to view exquisite art and help curate, preserve and display it for others to appreciate. That would be in my top 10 of dream careers. I'd have to have been born more extraverted, though. Ha.

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  3. I never met Howard Dean, but I did meet Jim Dean. My condolences to them both and to their families.

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    1. Jim was a sweeter, more humble version of Howard, though both of them have big hearts. Howard was an excellent Governor here for 12 years before his candidacy. I don't think we've had as good a Governor since...though I will say our current Governor gets an A+ on Covid response. I met Howard a few times, including when he signed books for us and when I got a photo with him at the Dean 10 year Reunion. I have also met Jim...once rode the elevator with him up to Dean HQ, and he was so "regular folks." Then I got to have dinner with him and with Nurse Teri here in VT when she was visiting. I have also met Judy Steinberg Dean, and she's really nice too. Wouldn't mind having her for my doctor. I could, as her office is only a half hour away, in the same building as my eye doc's office. But I always felt a twinge of concern I'd be choosing her for the wrong reason.

      Yeah, my heart goes out to all of them. Now that I have a flock of grands, I always feel sad for the broken connection between the youngest and eldest in a family.

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  4. Replies
    1. I hear the NRA's response to the shooting was to tweet the text of the Second Amendment. Insensitive much?

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  5. I’d love to hear Roseanne Roseannadanna report on the CNN headline: “Vaccines will be required to fly.”

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    1. I suppose that if one were vaccinated against gravity, then flying would be no problem.

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  6. Both of these are done on your bed. If it hurts, stop.
    ONE--
    sit, non working leg foot on floor. Leg to be worked parallel to edge of bed. Stretch out hand towards toe. Hold for 20 seconds. Repeat.

    TWO--
    On bed, on back, left leg on bed, right bent at knee. Hold right leg just behind knee, raise lower leg, straight up, hold 20 seconds, repeat.

    After several days, and full comfort, repeat more, hold longer. Should feel slight tension, but NO pain in hamstring.

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    1. Thanks for this, puddle!! ✨❤️✨

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    2. "sit, non working leg foot on floor. Leg to be worked parallel to edge of bed." Sitting on the side of the bed or the foot of the bed, and facing which direction?

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    3. This was, I think, a post knee surgery one. For me, working right leg, side, near end, facing headboard. Right leg along side the edge of bed. Left foot on floor.

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  7. I'm really pissed off about how lackadaisical Congress has been about all these damm shootings. As much as I want to scream "BAN THE ASSAULT WEAPONS!!" I doubt the Senate will pass significant gun legislation because of the filibuster. We will have to wait until 2022 and get the Senate flipped a bit more to make it possible. I'm heartsick and furious that we're still waiting.

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    1. My [male] ancestors in Upper Canada were members of a well ordered militia, necessary to defend the country (from the Yankees). They had ranks (one worked up to Captain as I recall), were issued weapons from the armory and were responsible for care and return of same, and drilled regularly. There was no question that they were a military force, meant to temporarily substitute for and then in case of war to assist the regular army once it arrived. Pretty similar to our National Guard. When I was a kid we had guns, but the modern strain of gun nuts was unknown.

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  8. Heh. The Tudors, Lion in Winter, and A Man for All Seasons are due for delivery, today. Yay.

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    1. That sounds like a pretty heavy bunch!

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    2. Last two, old favorites. Tudors, cause in ass deep in the period courtesy of wolf hall, and am enjoying watching the guys in velvets and ruffles, lol!

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    3. You would love the series The Crown, puddle!

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    4. I was reading about about shit disposal back in those days. Evidently the "restrooms" of the upper crust were pretty fancy--padded seats and suchlike. They also hung their velvet and ruffles there so that the ammonia fumes would (they hoped) kill the arthropod vermin they housed.

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    5. Ah, hence the double meaning of cloak room! I never did grok that before. I always learn something reading this blog.

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  9. Replies
    1. Can't get past the NYT paywall. What's the gist?

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    2. We're doing all right, we can't get everything we want at one go, but we aren't giving up and will win more. Maybe detail in your in-box.

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    3. Much thanks! Good to know Bernie still feels it's going more or less well. Of course, anything would look good after the last four years (!), but I do like what I've seen so far, for the most part.

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  10. From a fundraising e-mail from Vote Vets:

    Right-wing Congresswoman Lauren Boebert constantly posts pictures of herself posing with guns on social media, glamorizing assault weapons and making them look like toys. She even uses guns as her Zoom background. Check it out:
    Rep. Lauren Boebert displays some of her weapons like toys

    Well yesterday, there was a mass shooting in Colorado — the state Boebert represents! — which left ten people dead and a community traumatized.

    How did Boebert respond? She offered thoughts and prayers and then within TWO HOURS of the shooting sent out a fundraising email railing against common-sense gun safety measures.

    Her thoughts and prayers are complete b***s*** as long as she keeps glamorizing the very assault weapons which are being used to murder people in grocery stores. We’ve had enough. Have you? Rush a donation now to help VoteVets hold Lauren Boebert accountable for her actions →


    What kind of sick, totally perverted person would use a mass shooting as the basis of a fundraising letter? It shouldn't be a surprise though. Last night I heard Ron Brownstein on CNN stating the case more clearly than I've ever heard it stated in public. He said Republicans frame gun control as attacking their culture. It's not a matter of public safety or of personal responsibility, but of culture. When did that happen?

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    1. Culture is a euphemism for power and coercion. Culture is inherently coercive. Just ask the grape vine. Vines are trimmed of side sprouts to make them bear more fruit. Rexpublicans are into power.

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  11. From Public Citizen:

    Yesterday, a man killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, with what has been described as an AR-15-style assault rifle.

    Some things to consider as we lament yet another firearm tragedy in a country where the gun homicide rate is 25 times that of other rich countries:

    One week ago today, another man killed eight people in Atlanta, Georgia.

    Just a few days before that, a judge in Colorado struck down the city of Boulder’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

    The Atlanta shooter allegedly bought his gun the same day he killed eight human beings with it.

    That’s because Georgia is one of 40 states in this country that imposes NO waiting period for buying a gun.

    Meanwhile, Republican legislators in the Peach State are trying to force through a flagrantly anti-democratic law that would prohibit eligible voters from registering and voting on the same day.

    In fact, Republican legislators are pushing more than 250 voter-suppression bills in 43 states — including Colorado.

    Throughout much of this country, it is easier to buy a gun than to exercise your constitutional right to vote.

    And Republicans — in state houses and in Congress — are actively trying to make that absurd, discriminatory, deadly disparity even worse.

    Tell Congress:

    Make it easier to vote and harder to buy a gun. Pass the For the People Act (H.R.1/S.1), including its automatic and same-day voter registration provisions. And pass commonsense gun regulations, starting with expanded background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
    [click]

    Add your name.

    Thanks for taking action.

    For progress,

    - Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

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  12. VTcases: 17,933-17,839 = 94
    2676 active cases
    220 deaths(+1)
    Recovered 15,037(83.9%)
    Hospital:27(+2) ICU:5(0)
    Tests 348,732 (+787)

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    1. Positivity Rate up to 1.6%
      Death Rate holding at 1.2%

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  13. I have been re-evaluating my opinion of Joe Biden. Here are some editorials that have been helpful:

    The Atlantic:
    Biden Just Showed Us What He Really Values [Click] “The president drew a crucial lesson from his years in the Senate, but it wasn’t about the primacy of bipartisan cooperation.”

    Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution:
    Iraq makes most politicians look bad. Joe Biden's record is actually a bit above average. [Click]

    Mother Jones:
    Joe Biden and the Iraq War: It’s Complicated [Click]

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