Road crews have done an amazing job clearing the highways and secondary roads - although my street has only seen the benefit of local residents putting their plows to use to clear the street as best they can.  I managed to get up the hill, and I'm sure I will get down in the morning, but re-freezing and any blowing/drifting will make things challenging!  

Office was closed today - though why they had to wait until 8 last night to make that call, I have no idea - but I suspect we will be going in tomorrow.

What the HELL.

After her in Hannibal and him in Californication it seemed half homage half SNL skit.   The patented concerned looks and well worn roles of acceptance and denial.

The New York Times: Obama Bans Solitary Confinement of Juveniles in Federal Prisons

Where Obama succeeded in changing the fundamental makeup of the electorate, many candidates have failed after making similar promises, including Howard Dean in 2004 and Bill Bradley in 2000. Young people and first-time caucus-goers are just harder to turn out, and many observers believe Sanders' biggest challenge will be getting his supporters to actually show up.

As difficult a challenge as that is, Sanders' bigger difficulty may be geography

SNIP

Just like how the electoral college system makes it so extra Democrats votes are worth less in Vermont than in Ohio, the caucus process makes it so extra supporters in a heavily Sanders precinct are worth less than if they were in a battleground precinct.

Obama won in 2008 by flooding caucuses with young people and first-time caucus-goers -- that was icing on the cake of a statewide caucus operation that focused on more traditional caucus-goers.

For Sanders, "the icing came first for them and they're trying to build cake underneath it," said Jeff Link, the longtime strategist to former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.

Take the university towns: More than a quarter -- 27 percent -- of Sanders supporters come from just three counties of Iowa's 99, according to theRegister poll, each home to one of the state's largest universities. But those three counties award only 12 percent of the total 1401 delegates at stake statewide.

SNIP

Clinton's team, which includes many of the people who engineered Obama's 2008 win, has been on the ground in more places longer than Sanders'. And organizers say there's no way to make up the lost time when it comes to volunteer training and relationship building.

Sterzenbach expects Sanders' enthusiasm-driven machine to dominate in the 15-20 counties with larger cities or universities -- but for Clinton's blood, sweat, and time machine to pay dividends in the 50-60 more rural counties.

SNIP

In 2008, the caucuses were held on Jan. 3, when most college students were home on winter break. That meant that Obama's army of young supporters could caucus at their parents' homes all over the state, and not waste their support in Johnson or Story counties, home to the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, respectively.

The Sanders campaign is working to encourage college students to return home to caucus, and helping to arrange travel. But it's a big organizational lift and asking a lot of a demographic that has historically already been reluctant to turn out. The caucuses are on a Monday night, so students will have classes on the day of the caucuses and the next morning.

His shenanigans make good copy and ratings. There's not much more to it than that.

If anything, the media would prefer that he acted out more, not less.

That S had me all torn up, it's pretty funny from the outside, but to see the players/coaches talking about was hard.  It's one of the better 30 for 30's.

What is kind of funny is that there only real triumph was when they came from being behind by 25 points to beat Houston in the ' 93 AFC championship.

People had left, a lot of them, and they said there was a mad rush to get back to the stadium and back into the building once the Bills started coming back.  Thousands came back.

Senator Sanders was first, followed by Governor O'Malley, and finished by Secretary Clinton.  Two stools were provided, one for Cuomo the other for the candidate, although, each of them preferred to stand.

 Senator Sanders was very good. All of his plans are tied to his fundamental argument of economic inequality and the need to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans. His definition of democratic socialist, he says, is that of the programs he espouses. He is nothing if not disciplined to stay on message, stay on message, stay on message.  It is quite effective, with his only faltering the defensiveness that came with questions on "taking on" the establishment of PP and Human Rights.

 The last question, intended as a soft ball for the wind up,  was played well: it was about his parents and how proud they would be of him, immigrants from Poland at age 17 struggling in the new country without a nickel to their name.  It added a welcomed human touch to the all serious business persona.

Martin O'Malley, peeled down to shirt sleeves from business suit. Apparently, that brings him closer to the millennials. While sometimes resorting to a series of political cliches, he did bring to the fore for the younger crowd the importance of climate change and the need to encourage young people to enter farming--in response to a question from a young female farmer. To applause, including mine, he called out Trump for his "fascist rhetoric."

 Cuomo asked about the Des Moines Register editorial (that endorsed Mrs. Clinton) that said he would be better as a cabinet officer in a Clinton Administration. He said he is in it to win.

Despite being dogged with questions about her ties to Wall Street, Hillary Clinton will take a detour from the campaign trail in Iowa to do back-to-back finance industry fundraisers in other states later this week.

Clinton will appear in Philadelphia at a "gala" fund-raiser hosted by executives at Franklin Square Capital Partners, a $17 billion investment fund. Rocker Bon Jovi will reportedly play an acoustic set for "friends" who pledge $1,000 and hosts who bundle up to $27,000.

[snip]

Clinton will then head to New York City, where she will speak at a lunchtime "Conversations With Hillary" fund-raiser. This one is co-hosted by Matt Mallow, a senior managing director and general counsel at BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm. As we've reported before, having a conversation with Hillary is not cheap.

BlackRock's ties to Clinton go particularly deep: Cheryl Mills, one of Clinton's closest advisors at the State Department, sits on BlackRock's board, and perhaps not surprisingly, Clinton's plans for the industry align with the company's financial strategy.

But to aficionados of classic cinema, Vigoda is best known for his role in "The Godfather" as Tessio, one of Vito Corleone's trusted senior lieutenants who attempted to betray son Michael following the old man's death, and delivered one of the most memorable lines in U.S. movie history. In an award-winning film full of high-powered talent, the then-unknown Vigoda more than held his own and Hollywood quickly came beckoning.

After having twice been mistakenly reported by the media as deceased in 1982 and 1994, stories of Vigoda's demise have become a running gag, with Vigoda himself often in on the joke.

The state of Kentucky must give millions of dollars in tax subsidies to a Noah's Ark theme park owned by a creationist ministry, even though that ministry refuses to comply with the state's request not to engage in hiring discrimination, according to an opinion by a George W. Bush appointee to the federal bench. Under Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove's opinion, the creationist group Answers in Genesis (AiG) stands to gain up to $18 million.

Though Kentucky officials were initially enthusiastic about providing these subsidies to help fund the Ark Encounter, they later reversed course citing fears that the state constitution does not permit tax incentives to be used to "advance religion," as well as concerns that AiG "intends to discriminate in hiring its employees based on religion." AiG sued, alleging various First Amendment theories.

S M T W T F S

pill things.   Because a couple of time recently I just wasn't sure if I took the damn things or not.

Concepcion Picciotto, the protester who maintained a peace vigil outside the White House for more than three decades, a demonstration widely considered to be the longest-running act of political protest in U.S. history, died Jan. 25 at a housing facility operated by N Street Village, a nonprofit that supports homeless women in Washington. She was believed to be 80.

That brings us to the dangerous genius of the Donald.

He understands that any publicity is good publicity.

But they won't.  I know that.  I know you know that.  And most importantly, Donald knows that.

ADAPT is what we must do.  Can "we" do that?  I sure the f@ck hope we can.

I do to, but after the B Clinton flap from Trump, I don't think HRC is anywhere near being ready for a someone with no boundaries.

Come on, someone can frame this in a way that Trump can't not reply.

Please tell me this is a joke.

Mike Huckabee For President.

If you enjoyed this parody, learn more at hvvp://MikeHuckabee.com