Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Dec. 13th through Dec. 19th

December 13, 2015 JanF Community 154

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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NOTE: The comments page will split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.

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51 Comments

  1. Hello. Someone in the comments section of a post complaining about the unresolved problems over at Daily Kos said they were coming over here to post, so I thought I’d see what’s happening.

    Nice to see some familiar names. :)

    It’s cool here, and partly cloudy, but I don’t think it’s going to rain today. The cats, of course, freak out when the temp drops below 85, so the boys stayed inside last night, and mama cat was really happy to come inside this morning.

    (OMG! I can edit my posts!)

    • Orinoco!!! So good to see you!!!

      Yes, you can edit your comments. There is a time limit, I think it is 2 minutes but might be 5. Also, I think if someone replies to it, the timer goes off but we are not a high volume web site so you will usually get the full time. No more typos hanging out there forever … taunting you. The main reason to block editing is when you are having a heated discussion and the Record Must Be Preserved. But we don’t have those here. ;)

      I will have the Moose admin send you the startup email. Once you log in, you can Fierce our comments.

      And you made me go find one of my favorite songs …

        • We finally got the SoapBlox databases back in October and had about 15 days to grab the data and get it imported into our own hosting service. I spent way too much time on it but it is nice to know that our words are preserved. I had to do them one month at a time and there was some manual processing involved … it brought back a lot of memories! Feel free to link to old posts you find there.

      • Jan, you just made my day AGAIN! Thanks for the video!

        I will never, ever forget the first time I heard “Orinoco Flow.” I was awestruck.
        To this day, Enya’s music is my “writing music.” When I play her songs it takes me over the bridge into that Otherworld of fiction writing.

        When Miss Pink Cheeks was two or so, I used to sit her on my knee in front of the computer and play Enya videos on YouTube. Miss PC soon began requesting “Ay-ya” songs and I was glad to comply, because they inevitably sent her off into a nap! :)

        • I always forget how much I love the music of Enya. Back when I used to do quite a bit of writing, I would put on my headphones and listen to her on a loop. That song, in particular, is so strong and powerful. I only own a handful of CDs and one of them is hers.

          Here is another one that I used to put on loop:

          One day, one night, one moment,
          my dreams could be, tomorrow.
          One step, one fall, one falter,
          east or west, over earth or by ocean.
          One way to be my journey,
          this way could be my Book of Days.

          Ó lá go lá, mo thuras,
          an bealach fada romham.
          Ó oíche go hoíche, mo thuras,
          na scéalta nach mbeidh a choích.

          No day, no night, no moment,
          can hold me back from trying.
          I’ll fly, I’ll fall, I’ll falter
          I’ll find my day may be, Far and Away.
          Far and Away.

          One day, one night, one moment,
          with a dream to believe in.
          One step, one fall, one falter,
          find a new earth across a wide ocean.
          This way became my journey,
          this day ends together, Far and Away.
          This day ends together, Far and Away.
          Far and Away.

  2. We weren’t supposed to get below freezing last night, but there was frost to be scraped this morning – going up to mid 60s today. Not supposed to do that again for another week. At least it’s sunny. Got lots of stuff to do today – more so because I’m feeling a bit puny and may take tomorrow off. (If I do, will try to log in from home to at least check in.) Was going to check for the HNV diary at GOS but something’s wrong over there – nothing loading except FP stories – can’t see much less get into anything else. So. I will get some work done and check back later here, there, and personal email. Hope everyone enjoys the “seasonal” (NOT) weather. {{{HUGS}}}

  3. Good morning, 38 and cloudy in Bellingham…..another dark wet day, but thanks to the plumber the drains are draining again so my Santa workshop is back in business. And thanks to yet another colorox scrub the basement is no longer a bio hazard zone!

    Thanks to Marco Rubio changes are occurring for many Group Health members, including our son.

    More than a name change at stake in Group Health-Kaiser deal

    A significant blow to co-ops and smaller insurers came from a little-noticed provision that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and a presidential candidate, tucked into a spending bill last year. It severely slashed funds that would have cushioned the plans if they carried too many sick people and didn’t generate enough premiums.

    The health-care reporter Robert Pear wrote in The New York Times last week that Rubio’s “plan limiting how much the government can spend to protect insurance companies against financial losses has shown the effectiveness of quiet legislative sabotage” of Obamacare.

    I keep hoping all the R’s will self destruct before the primaries are over, but given the money backing them and the voters cheering for their mean messages I’m increasingly concerned.

    • Bloody Rubio! May karma deal with him as he deserves. Who’d have thought that a jerk who rarely bothers to show up for work could stick something so meretricious into a spending bill?

        • It is simply ideological posturing: they are terrified that the Affordable Care Act will be as popular as Social Security and Medicare and it will be one more thing that keeps people from being wage slaves.

          Karma will bite him in the ass, Diana. He will get to see the remnants of his political party swirling the drain – flushed away by those damaged by Republican policies and determined to never give him or his ilk the levers of power again.

          • Hear, hear!!! I don’t subscribe to the Times anymore, but I am heartened to see Robert Pear is still writing – he covered Social Security when I worked on the Hill, and I worked quite a lot with him. He’s a meticulous and dogged reporter – glad to see the Times still has room for that type.

            Words cannot express the degree of my contempt for Rubio and his ilk. I will certainly do my best here in Florida to induce Republican “swirling the drain”!

  4. Morning all and welcome new/returning folks! I am a relative newbie here myself, only a couple of months, but it’s a great place!

    I wish I could be more optimistic about the climate accord, but I’m just worried that we’ve passed some crucial tipping points already, on sea level rise, and that governments cannot enforce limits against the will of business. I shall try to be hopeful.

    I watched Childhood’s End last night – well done, a bit slow, but all in all good. I’m recording it as I won’t be near a TV tonight. I also watched Adele’s concert, so beautiful – she just seems like a genuine person, I think that’s a big part of her appeal.

    Ok, off to the dentist, see you all later – have a great day!

    • I am not giving up. When I told my daughter that the Paris accord had been signed, she was really happy. A few years ago, she was saddened to hear that there might not be a planet for her to live on after I told her about a Bill McKibben presentation I had just seen:

      The presentation was eye opening and the number that kept haunting me was “15 years”. In 15 years, enough of that fossil fuel will have been burned to destroy the livability of our planet. And it will not just be waking up one morning, 15 years from now, and saying “Wow, our planet is now unlivable!!”. It will be Hurricane Katrinas and Superstorm Sandys and Midwest Droughts of the Century Decade Past Week … and tornadoes, floods, unbearable heat, unbearable cold, food shortages … leading up to “our planet is now unlivable”.

      This morning over breakfast, I shared with my teenage daughter a little about the presentation and mentioned to her that at our present rate the earth would be destroyed within 15 years. She said “That’s too bad, I kind of wanted to live my life”. (To be fair, she was also doing something on her iPod and may not have been paying complete attention — curse you, Angry Birds! — so her comment was a bit understated). Yet this really struck me.

      “I kind of wanted to live my life”.

      Yeah, me too.

      Hope is better than despair and the kids really really get it.

    • Dentist was not bad – just a cleaning from my very nice dental technician who ever so nicely scolded me a bit for lackadaisacal brushing and flossing. Apparently my technique needs work! lol

    • Howdy, lurker123! It did indeed get you an account. Watch for an email from the Moose new user account with your temporary password. Check the FAQ for more information about how to use the site.

      A comment from a new user is held in a pending queue until a human being can look at it (usually the next morning) and do the following:
      1. Verify that the user’s email address is not on our list of previously banned Moose users.
      2. If the user had a previous Moose login, that the username and email address pair match our records.
      3. If the user was never in our database and has a name that matches a contributor on DK, we verify that it is the same user so that there is no confusion.

      You were a former Moose so the process was very easy! Welcome … to lurk or not!! :)

  7. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 38 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 47. Morning showers are in the forecast.

    I scanned the debate headlines and it looked like same stuff, different day so there was really no need to read deeper. I chuckled when I saw the headline quote by Ben Carson that doing surgery on children prepared him to stare down Daesh. Remember when “brain surgeons” and “rocket scientists” were considered the smartest people in the room? Ha!

    Congress has apparently agreed to a 2016 budget, announced by Paul Ryan last night. The Republicans get the oil export embargo lifted and, in exchange, Democrats get tax credits for renewable energy extended and hands off the EPA’s new clean air rules:

    Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the final sticking point Tuesday was Republicans’ demand to lift a 40-year ban on the export of U.S. crude oil. Democrats agreed to lift the ban, but only after they apparently won a five-year extension of tax credits for wind and solar energy. They also beat back Republican efforts to derail President Obama’s clean air and climate change regulations.

    “We’ve made it clear that if they want this oil export ban, there must be included in this (bill) policies to reduce our carbon emissions and encourage use of renewable energy,” Reid said Tuesday morning.

    Also included was kicking the Affordable Care Act’s Cadillac tax down the road two more years, to 2020. Unions didn’t like it and people with existing health care through their employers were not going to like it so it was set to be an unforced political error. I hope that the tradeoffs did not harm some other part of the ACA.

    And the medical devices tax, delayed for 2 years!!! I tell you, those lobbyists must have photos of congressmembers, of both parties, in compromising positions with the devil because eliminating that small tax on a small industry is like that guy in the horror films that kept coming back to life.

    Anyway, they passed a CR that is good until next Tuesday, the 22nd. The House will vote on the omnibus bill tomorrow and the Senate will vote on Friday and then send it to the president. The government will not face another shutdown threat until next year at the tail end of the election season. I hope it is an election issue for Congress because this is a really sucky way to run a government.

    See all y’all later!!

  8. Don’t miss President Obama’s remarks yesterday before a group of newly minted American citizens at the National Archives.

    President Obama: “That is what makes America great — not just the words on these founding documents, as precious and valuable as they are, but the progress that they’ve inspired.”

    From the start, Africans were brought here in chains against their will, and then toiled under the whip. They also built America. A century ago, New York City shops displayed those signs, “No Irish Need Apply.” Catholics were targeted, their loyalty questioned — so much so that as recently as the 1950s and ‘60s, when JFK had to run, he had to convince people that his allegiance wasn’t primarily to the Pope.

    Chinese immigrants faced persecution and vicious stereotypes, and were, for a time, even banned from entering America. During World War II, German and Italian residents were detained, and in one of the darkest chapters in our history, Japanese immigrants and even Japanese American citizens were forced from their homes and imprisoned in camps. We succumbed to fear. We betrayed not only our fellow Americans, but our deepest values. We betrayed these documents. It’s happened before.

    And the biggest irony of course was — is that those who betrayed these values were themselves the children of immigrants. How quickly we forget. One generation passes, two generation passes, and suddenly we don’t remember where we came from. And we suggest that somehow there is “us” and there is “them,” not remembering we used to be “them.”

    On days like today, we need to resolve never to repeat mistakes like that again. (Applause.) We must resolve to always speak out against hatred and bigotry in all of its forms — whether taunts against the child of an immigrant farmworker or threats against a Muslim shopkeeper. We are Americans. Standing up for each other is what the values enshrined in the documents in this room compels us to do -– especially when it’s hard. Especially when it’s not convenient. That’s when it counts. That’s when it matters — not when things are easy, but when things are hard.

    It’s too bad that the xenophobes are being raised in states where history is optional.

    That is what makes America great — not just the words on these founding documents, as precious and valuable as they are, but the progress that they’ve inspired. If you ever wonder whether America is big enough to hold multitudes, strong enough to withstand the forces of change, brave enough to live up to our ideals even in times of trial, then look to the generations of ordinary citizens who have proven again and again that we are worthy of that.

    • Very fine quote, Jan, thanks for reproducing it here.

      So glad not to live down South. I don’t think I could stand it. I lived for years in Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and I can tell you that I would never live there again. Of course, at the time I didn’t have much choice, as those places were where my father’s work took him, and us.

      But as soon as I could, I saved my money, took a plane, got out and stayed out. And that’s been 50 years, thank Goddess.

  9. Good Morning Meese

    Going to a luncheon for an adjunct colleague who has been “cut from the program”. Am so pissed – she has been teaching in Women’s Studies for years – and is wonderful.

    Watched both Republican “displays of ignant” (they are not “debates”) and needed a shower after listening to the enthusiastic applause for insanity.

    As an antidote – I listened this morning to Sec. Clinton’s speech in Minnesota yesterday – and was glad to hear her push back against “hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric” (which got a loud ovation)

    • Sorry to hear about your colleague. Topics of importance to women are always considered expendable. :(

      I watched neither debate and followed about 5 minutes of the undercard on Twitter. What I read today suggests that the only thing that separates the Republican candidates from each other is the number of countries they will be at war with simultaneously.

      Here is the transcript of Secretary Clinton’s speech. There were quite a few good quotes:

      … we cannot allow terrorists to intimidate us into abandoning our values and our humanitarian obligations.

      Turning away orphans, applying a religious test that discriminates against Muslims, slamming the door on every single Syrian refugee; that is not who we are. We are better than that.

      It would be a cruel irony indeed if ISIS can force families from their homes and then also prevent them from finding new ones. So after rigorous screening, we should welcome families fleeing Syria just as the Twin Cities and this state have welcomed previous generations of refugees, exiles, and immigrants.

      Right at you, NRA!

      I think it’s time to restore the ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

      I know this will drive some of our Republican friends a little crazy. You’ll probably hear it tonight. They will say that guns are a totally separate issue, nothing to do with terrorism. Well, I have news for them, terrorists use guns to kill Americans. And I think we should make it a lot harder for them from to do that ever again.

      Here is the quote you referred to:

      … we must all stand up against offensive, inflammatory, hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric. You know, not only do these comments cut against everything we stand for as Americans, they are also dangerous.

      As the Director of the FBI told Congress recently, anything that erodes trust with Muslim-Americans makes the job of law enforcement more difficult. We need every community invested in this fight, not alienated and sitting on the sidelines.

      One of the community leaders I met with told me that a lot of the children in the community are now afraid to go to school. They’re not only afraid of being perceived as a threat, they are afraid of being threatened because of who they are. This is such a open-hearted and generous community, I hope there will be even more efforts perhaps under the aegis of the university and certainly Governor Dayton and others, to bring people together to reassure members of the community, particularly children and teenagers that they are welcome, invited and valued here in this city and state.

      She saw the president’s speech:

      At a Naturalization ceremony for new citizens today in Washington, President Obama noted the tension throughout our history between welcoming or rejecting the stranger. It is, he said, about the meaning of America, what kind of country do we want to be? And it’s about the capacity of each generation to honor the creed as old as our founding, E Pluribus Unum. Out of many we are one.

      President Obama is right, and it matters. It’s no coincidence that American Muslims have long been better integrated and less susceptible to radicalization than Muslims in less welcoming countries. We can’t give in to demagogues who play on our basest instincts. We must instead rely on the principles written into our American DNA. Freedom. Equality. Opportunity.

      America is strongest when all our people believe they have a stake in our country and our future, no matter where they’re from, what they look like, how they worship, or who they love.

      The latest polls show that most Americans are welcoming towards Muslims, it is only the Republican Party base that is energized by the hate speech of the Republican candidates. They don’t have the numbers to prevail IF we all vote.

      • my brother & I were texting back & forth, watching Rachel Maddow & we agreed that this was a great, smart speech

      • Thanks for the transcript link!

        I just put up a quick post – am searching out all efforts to pushback against Republican bigotry.

  10. Once again woke up around 3:30, barely got back to sleep before 5. Ugh. And I have a 3 hour meeting this morning. Eating breakfast, drinking tea. Brain is playing more from my Christmas mix to me, today it’s Linus & Lucy (aka the Peanuts Christmas song) yes, there is the other Peanuts Christmas song, but I like this one. There are also snippets of Oi To The World & Christmas Wrapping, but mostly it’s this one. (yes, it is noisy inside my head — there’s also some bizarre fantasy world where I’m running the Boston Marathon)

    If she was old enough, I’d vote for Malala Yousafzai for President. Such a poised, smart young woman.

  11. Good morning, Meese, and happy Woden’s Day. The skies are blue with streaks of white cloud here in NoVa. It’s 36 F. right now, going up to 55 F. That will be nice for having lunch in Upperville and then walking down the streets of Middleburg, window-shopping as we go.

    Tried to watch the debate last night. It was hugely boring. Torquemada Ted makes me ill, and the rest aren’t much better. Trump epitomizes the depths to which the Rethug party has sunk. Reminder that ghastly jerk who yelled “You lie!” to our president when he gave his first State of the Union address? They have no manners, no civility, no conception even of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond!

  12. Did anyone watch the debate last night? I’m reading Matt Taibbi’s tweets & early on, Jeb! used a line from The American President??? (I’d think all Republicans would hate that movie….)

    • I saw a Tweet by Hunter saying he hated that Republicans were ruining all his favorite movies by quoting from them. I think he was referring to Princess Bride but if they were quoting from The American President that just adds insult to injury. :(

      • Did you see that Mandy Patinkin had some words for Mr. Cruz about quoting PB? It was wonderful.

        • I saw it! He thinks that Cruz misses the point of his character in the movie. Why does that not surprise me?

    • I watched – both of them.

      I was particularly interested in seeing how Cruz and Rubio would bash each other – which seems to have garnered quite a few headlines.

  13. Good morning, 35 and cloudy in Bellingham, but I see a bit of pink in the sky. Some sunshine will be most welcome. Today is a pool day so I need to finish my coffee, pull on my swim suit, scrape the frosty car windows and go exercise.

    A good workout will chase the R’s away!

  14. Morning all! Still very warm here in north Florida, but we’ll have a bit cooler weather by the weekend, so perhaps it will feel a bit more like the holiday season.

    I hate watching debates generally, and certainly can’t stomach the Republican ones, so a big salute to those of you with stronger stomachs than I have! The wonderful speeches by Pres. Obama and Sec. Clinton are a great antidote to news from the “debate”, I must say. And has anyone here seen this truly bizarre campaign ad from Carly Fiorina? It’s truly odd and terrible, not to mention a bad political move, I think –

    http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/15/carly-fiorina-just-ate-dog-food-in-new-promo-and-thats-not-even-the-weirdest-part-video/

    I can’t believe the jury in the first trial of Baltimore officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death is deadlocked on manslaughter charges – good god. It doesn’t bode well for the outcome, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for justice here.

    Have a good day everyone!

  15. Good Morning Meese

    Heading into the final stretch – last exam day – then papers to grade then done!
    Scanning the news

    BUSTED: Feds arrest unhinged Fox News fan who spewed death threats against liberals and Obama

    A Washington state man with a history using Fox News’ website to call for the murder of liberals – including President Barack Obama – has been taken into custody by U.S. Marshals, according to the Sacramento Bee.

    Scott Anthony Orton, 57, of Puyallup, admitted to federal investigators that he is the man behind the online name “Joseywhales” who made the violent threats. Orton reportedly told authorities his intent was to “wake people up” by painting ” a mental picture with words. I’m a wordsmith. That’s what I do.”

    Orton, who claims he is a copywriter, recently posted threats against the staff and executives at StemExpress, a company that supplies medical researchers with blood and tissue. StemExpress was one of the targets in the Planned Parenthood videos created by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress that has already been linked to the shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood.

    FoxSpews – clearly warps brains.

    Only in Amurrica :

    Wheaton College professor’s remarks in effort to support Muslims lead to suspension

    A private Evangelical Christian college in Illinois has placed a tenured professor on leave, taking issue with her statement that followers of Islam and Christians worship the same god.

    Officials with Wheaton College suspended political science professor Larycia Hawkins through the spring semester because of her statements on social media, reports the Chicago Tribune.

    Hawkins said she was trying to show solidarity with Muslims, which includes wearing a headscarf until Christmas.

    “I stand in human solidarity with my Muslim neighbor because we are formed of the same primordial clay, descendants of the same cradle of humankind,” Hawkins wrote in a Facebook post on Dec. 10. “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”

    I hope an intelligent college will hire her ASAP.

    • Wheaton College is one of the schools on the fainting couch over having to check a box opting out of directly providing contraceptives to their employees (in Zubik v Burwell, this year’s SCOTUS case pitting the RFRA against the Affordable Care Act) so it is not surprising that they would go after any decent thing an employee would want to do. Apparently they are upset at the ecumenical reachout … the suggestion that other religions are valid. Hey, Wheaton! If your religion is not appealing to people and you worry about them rejecting your teachings, maybe you should look within and question teaching about exclusion and othering and instead do your own reaching out.

    • The “private Evangelical Christian college” sorts don’t believe Jesus was a Jew. But good for Professor Hawkins. I join you in your hope that a real institute of higher learning will hire her ASAP.

    • Dee, I know you are following Cruz and Rubio closely as their candidacy relates to Latinos. Here is a story from the NY Times about the two men: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz Diverge in Approach to Their Hispanic Identity. It sounds like Rubio is the more authentic of the two, having actually been raised around Spanish-speaking people. But, really, that makes his turning his back on other immigrants even more disturbing. Cruz, it appears, never liked being Hispanic and probably would have changed his last name as well as his first name if he could have.

      No love from Latinos for either candidate but possibly some interest in Rubio.

      • Here is a thoughtful article from Paul Waldman – “Marco Rubio’s Gordian Knot”

        From the beginning, Rubio has characterized himself as the candidate of a new generation, ready to move the GOP into the 21st century. But while that might have some resonance against Hillary Clinton, it isn’t necessarily what the Republican electorate wants. Obama succeeded with Democrats by offering hope and change, a faith in the country’s progress and forward movement. But Republican voters are different. As I’ve written elsewhere, current Republican worries about immigration, terrorism, same-sex marriage, and many other issues are essentially all manifestations of one feeling, the sense of being profoundly unsettled by the direction the country and the world is moving. For voters who feel like their country is slipping away from them and slipping out of control, change may be the last thing they want to believe in, unless it’s change that simply turns back the clock to a simpler time. […]

        In so many ways he’s the perfect candidate for Republicans — or at least the best they’ve got — but he’s exactly wrong for where the Republican electorate is right now.

  16. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 29 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 33. Morning clouds will give way to afternoon sun as the cold front settles in. Yesterday afternoon into evening the sustained winds were 20 mph and it was quite disconcerting.

    The Fed raised their short term interest rate for the first time in 7 years. I have been reading what I can about it and I can’t help but think that it is something that benefits the Masters of the Universe more than the Wage Slaves of America. People are saying that it will increase home mortgage rates and I can’t see how that is good for the economy or ordinary working people who have been saving to buy a home. Not enough people who want jobs have found jobs and many of the jobs out there are not family supporting. The economy is not recovered unless you are sitting in a cushy Wall Street office … or maybe the rarefied air of the Federal Reserve. The NY Times had an explainer of sorts that I found helpful. The bottom line is that it appears that Janet Yellen has managed the increase carefully and that a bad economy will not be an issue in 2016 except in the minds of Republicans.

    See all y’all later!

    • Karma has sharp teeth …

      BREAKING NEWS
      Martin Shkreli, a drug company chief criticized for price gouging, has been arrested in a securities fraud case

      Thursday, December 17, 2015 8:34 AM EST

      Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former hedge fund manager who has been widely criticized for drug price gouging, was arrested Thursday morning by the federal authorities.

      The investigation, in which Mr. Shkreli has been charged with securities fraud, is related to his time as a hedge fund manager and running the biopharmaceutical company Retrophin — not the price-gouging controversy that has swirled around him.

      Mr. Shkreli, 32, is now chief executive and founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which has drawn scrutiny for acquiring a decades-old drug and raising the price of it overnight to $750 a pill, from $13.50.

      • I can’t stop laughing. Couldn’t happen to a more worthy person. It’s like someone re-wrote the end of It’s a Wonderful Life & Mr. Potter gets arrested for theft, as he should have been.

        and here’s a link to Instant Karma, in case anyone doesn’t have a jukebox in their head that just plays them music all the time

    • Here’s another affluent ahole who might find his freedom curtailed:

      Ethan Couch, the wealthy Tarrant County teen who received probation for killing four people while driving drunk in 2013, is missing — and authorities fear he may have skipped the country.

      Two years ago, the public anger that welled up when Couch’s attorneys blamed his crimes on “affluenza” boiled into outrage when a Fort Worth judge didn’t sentence him to jail.

      Now Couch, who is 18 but is still a juvenile under the Texas legal system, is wanted on suspicion of missing a check-in with his probation officer. Such a failure would be a probation violation. […]

      Authorities say they don’t plan to go easy on Couch.

      “Any mess-ups from now on, he’s going to be over with us,” said Terry Grisham, spokesman for the Tarrant County sheriff’s office. “He’s going to see what the big-boy jail is like.”

  18. Another crappy night’s sleep. But I feel so much better with the Pharma Bro news. And my earworm has switched from Christmas music to Instant Karma…. And tomorrow I see Star Wars! It has cooled off, actually needed a jacket & gloves this morning. But next week, it’ll be in the 70s. But today is already a good day & tomorrow will be even better. And I’m wearing a Santa shirt & socks. Yay!

  19. Good morning, Meese, and happy Thor’s Day! No evidence of The Hammer this morning but it’s raining hard.

    We had a wonderful lunch by the fireplace in the Hunter’s Head Inn dining room yesterday. It was so cosy sitting by an open fire that I felt as if someone had plunked us right down into a Regency novel! After lunch we strolled up and down the main street in Middleburg, VA, but didn’t linger as half the streets were being torn up—for what purpose, I do not know.

    This is a good day to stay in and finish Christmas cards. Will try to think of happy thoughts today as I’m starting to buckle under Bad News Overload. Wishing a good day to all!

  20. 22 at dawn 36 right now and headed for 47 this sunny Thursday in Fay., AR. Taking the day off didn’t make much difference, which is mainly why I seldom do it. Oh well. Need to process Payroll as soon as the people who need to get me information actually do it. Have some procurement stuff to clear off my desk, again as son as people who need to get me information actually do it. Until then I’ll check the front page here and DK (Molly Ivins moment on C&J & HNV). And start making phone calls if I don’t have my information by the time I finish that! :) Everybody have a lovely and comfortable – or at least productive – day. {{{HUGS}}}

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