Posts from — February 2019

…When it comes to Congresscritters. It is hard to believe that the least embarrassing I’ve had since 1980 was the star of a local children’s TV show before entering politics.

Matt Gaetz is supposed to represent the First Congressional District of Florida, but he is only interested in sucking up to Donald Trump. He sends out e-mails, but the only local event he has held since being elected were in small communities on the Florida/Alabama border.

According to Chris Cillizza, Digby, Atrios, Nicolle Wallace & company, and others on MSNBC, Gaetz may have committed witness tampering in addition to “conduct unbecoming” a member of Congress.

Unlike the President, members of Congress can definitely be indicted for violating laws. Gaetz does seem to be able to bring people together when it comes to agreeing he is a low-life gangster wanna be.

Update: ‘Gangsta Gaetz’ sort of apologizes after “getting his knuckles rapped” by Miss Nancy and has been referred to the Florida State Bar for his conduct. Witness tempering is a no-no for attorneys even in Florida, and even if they are in Congress.

Anchorage & Campbell Airstrip
Willow
Skwentna & Yentna, Finger Lake, Rainy Pass, Rohn
McGrath & Nikolai, Takotna, Ophir
Shageluk & Iditarod
Anvik
Grayling & Eagle Island
Kaltag
Unalakleet
Shaktoolik
Koyuk
Elim
Golovin
White Mountain
Nome & Safety

It’s the southern route that includes the namesake ghost-town of Iditarod as the midpoint. The Stepping Stones, the Burn, Rainy Pass, the Glacier, all of the hazards of the first half are still part of the race, as well as the long open stretch between Ophir and the Yukon. The route that is normally taken in odd years.

The day will be about 10 and a half hours at Anchorage and the moon is waning with a new moon on March 6th. The temperature is in the 20s in Anchorage, which is a welcome change from recent years.

Things start off next Saturday, Susan Butcher Day, with the ‘parade’ from Anchorage to the airport. The actual racing starts on Sunday at Willow.

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Trump On Robert Kraft’s Prostitution Charges: ‘He’s Proclaimed His Innocence Totally’, and Trump doesn’t care about the tapes: “The investigation involved setting up surveillance cameras which took video of people inside the massage parlors, and one of those people on at least two occasions was Robert Kraft.”

If it was one visit, he didn’t realize what was going on, not a great defense, but a defense. He visited twice, so there is no doubt he knew what was going on as far as the prostitution is concerned. He should have also be able to figure out that the girls were not documented, and were probably being trafficked.

This wasn’t primarily a prostitution investigation, it was about human trafficking that Trump seems to believe is important when it comes to building Wall. Apparently it isn’t so important when it involves his friends or his golf courses.

First he incites anger against a Federal Judge and too late he apologizes on the advice of counsel. Now Roger Stone in big trouble over an Instagram post.

Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson is not known for her sense of humor, as
Paul Manafort discovered. She gave Stone somewhat lenient bail conditions so he could continue to live in Florida while awaiting trial. She may decide he needs closer supervision of the sort provided by a jail.

Stone does not seem to understand how much trouble he is in. He has gotten away with so much for decades that he seems to believe nothing bad is going to happen to him. He is wrong. Mueller happened and Roger is in very deep manure.

I had to wait 15 minutes for any US network to confirm BBC reporting that California and 15 other states have filed suit against Trump for his trumped up ’emergency’ designed to trump the will of Congress and steal money to claim he was building his trumpery Wall.

This is in addition to a suit already filed Friday by the ACLU and three Texas landowners who are in the proposed path of Wall.

The Awards Banquet was held Saturday night.

Brent Sass was the big winner as he took First place, the two ounces of gold for being first into Dawson, The Vets Award for dog care for bringing all of the puppies he started with to Fairbanks. His lead dogs, Jeep & Sluice, took the Golden Harness for their race conduct.

Hans Gatt came in second and won handmade beaver mittens from the Selkirk First Nation for being first into Pelly Crossing.

Remy Leduc won the Challenge of the North Award, beaded beaver mittens, for exemplifying the spirit of the race.

Rob Cooke won the Sportsmanship Award, a beaver lined hat, primarily for his action on Eagle Summit.

Martin Apayauq Reitan took Rookie of the Year honors, a handcrafted scrimshaw knife, for being the first rookie to finish.

Hendrik Stachnau took home the Red Lantern, presented to the race’s last official finisher.

People should remember that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have finished the Yukon Quest.

There is a short piece covering the battles to get over Eagle Summit in this race.

More Wall:

Construction of the 30-foot, 2.5-mile-long wall began in February and lasted eight months. Nielsen watched as welders affixed a sign to the wall to commemorate the event. It’s now the tallest barrier on the entire 2,000-mile-long southwest border.

“Looking at this, I would not attempt to climb it,” Nielsen said.

A plaque with President Trump’s name was welded onto the wall after the ceremony as Nielsen and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan watched.

Eight months to build 2.5 miles means 2 years 8 months to build 10 miles. Congress authorized around 50 miles which would take 13 years 4 months to build at the current rate. This was a replacement for an existing structure, so truly new construction would take longer.

Nielsen apparently missed the news that the bad guys will just tunnel under it or buy battery powered saws and cut a door.

Just put up a few billboards with Trump on them and forget Wall.

The last day of racing. The finish line has been moved because of overflow on the river.

At 10PM CST the Live Tracker isn’t updating, but I think Misha Wiljes has finished. There is a reference to Hendrik Stachnau being penalized 8 hours for something, but I can’t find out what. He was already set to be the Red Lantern, but the penalty makes it doubly so.

The Current Standings at 3:00AM CST (Midnight AKST):

Finished At Fairbanks
1 Brent Sass (3)
2 Hans Gatt (2)
3 Allen Moore (26)
4 Michelle Phillips (8)
5 Matt Hall (7)
6 Paige Drobny (23)
7 Torsten Kohnert (5)
8 Denis Tremblay (1)
9 Jessie Royer (18)
10 Nathaniel Hamlyn (11)
11 Ryne Olson (21)
12 Cody Strathe (28)
13 Brian Wilmshurst (16)
14 Martin Apayauq Reitan (10)^R
15 Dave Dalton (12)
16 Deke Naaktgeboren (25)^R
17 Jason Biasetti (27)^R
18 Andrew Pace (19)
19 Rob Cooke (30)
20 Curt Perano (29)
21 Remy Leduc (4)^R
22 Laura Allaway (24)^R
23 Isabelle Travadon (9)^R
24 Jim Lanier (13)^R
25 Chase Tingle (22)^R
26 Misha Wiljes (17)
27 Hendrik Stachnau (20)^RΦ
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Why are you being hustled by street vendors to buy sad and drooping former roses, vegetative matter that missed the cut for bouquets, or were too late to the hospital?

Blame Esther A. Howland (1828 – 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her guilt is writ large by the Greeting Card Association’s Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary. She imported the concept to the US from Britain to bolster her father’s stationery store in 1847.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the stationers had infiltrated school boards and imposed the now mandatory exchange in the classroom to push the low end product of Asian children and prisoners.
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Strange – yesterday the standings and tracker showed Misha Wiljes (17) was beyond Central, but this morning the tracker has her back at Central.

Okay, It becomes clear. There’s a storm currently over Eagle and Rosebud summits and visibility is near zero. Everyone is waiting for the storm to pass. Misha must have turned back rather that camping out in a blizzard. No one is going anywhere until the storm passes.

In addition to weather problems, Misha Wiljes had a five-year-old male dog, Joker, die yesterday. The initial necropsy determined the cause of Joker’s death to be aspiration, i.e. inhaling food, a too common problem with large breed dogs

Update: At 10:30AM CST the weather isn’t forecast to improve until Noon local time, 3PM CST. Brian, Dave, & Martin are the only teams likely to move this morning as Two Rivers and Fairbanks are not affected by the storm. Sled dogs generally refuse to move with wind in their face, and will lay down and curl up to wait out storms.

Update: At 1PM CST the teams at Mile 101 and Central decided to move as groups to get everyone over the mountains. Rob Cooke and the Siberians are leading out of Mile 101 to tackle Rosebud, while Hendrik Stachnau with the Malamutes and Greenland dogs will break trail to Eagle Summit.

Martin Apayauq Reitan is on his way to Fairbanks and first place among the rookies. His brother, Vebjørn Aishana Reitan, was last year’s Rookie of the Year.

Update: At 3:20PM CST the teams from Central are at the top of Eagle Summit.

Because of everything going on, I’m moving all of the updates to a separate post.

Update: Everyone is moving again at 1PM CST. The order is from Live Tracking as the Standings are woefully behind.

The Current Standings at 9:00PM CST (6:00PM AKST):

Finished At Fairbanks
1 Brent Sass (3)
2 Hans Gatt (2)
3 Allen Moore (26)
4 Michelle Phillips (8)
5 Matt Hall (7)
6 Paige Drobny (23)8
7 Torsten Kohnert (5)
8 Denis Tremblay (1)
9 Jessie Royer (18)
10 Nathaniel Hamlyn (11)
11 Ryne Olson (21)
12 Cody Strathe (28)
13 Brian Wilmshurst (16)
Beyond Two Rivers
14 Martin Apayauq Reitan (10)^R
15 Dave Dalton (12)
At Two Rivers
16 Deke Naaktgeboren (25)^R
17 Jason Biasetti (27)^R
18 Rob Cooke (30)
19 Andrew Pace (19)
20 Curt Perano (29)
Beyond Mile 101
21 Remy Leduc (4)^R
22 Laura Allaway (24)^R
23 Chase Tingle (22)^R
At Mile 101
24 Isabelle Travadon (9)^R
25 Jim Lanier (13)^R
26 Misha Wiljes (17)
27 Hendrik Stachnau (20)^R
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Definition from the OED:

Noun archaic:

1 Attractive articles of little value or use.
‘None of your woollen drapery, nor linen drapery, nor any of your frippery or trumpery. I hate ostentation’

1.1 Practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real value or worth.
‘he exposed their ideals as trumpery’
‘theatrical trumpery’
as modifier ‘that trumpery hope which lets us dupe ourselves’

Adjective archaic:

1 Showy but worthless.
‘trumpery jewellery’

1.1 Delusive or shallow.
‘that trumpery hope which lets us dupe ourselves’

Origin:

Late Middle English (denoting trickery): from Old French tromperie, from tromper ‘deceive’.

Pronunciation: trumpery/ˈtrʌmp(ə)ri/

The Current Standings at 8:00PM CST (5:00PM AKST):

Finished At Fairbanks
1 Brent Sass (3)
2 Hans Gatt (2)
3 Allen Moore (26)
4 Michelle Phillips (8)
5 Matt Hall (7)
6 Paige Drobny (23)
7 Torsten Kohnert (5)
8 Denis Tremblay (1)
9 Jessie Royer (18)
Beyond Two Rivers
10 Nathaniel Hamlyn (11)
11 Ryne Olson (21)
12 Cody Strathe (28)
At Two Rivers
13 Brian Wilmshurst (16)
Beyond Mile 101
14 Dave Dalton (12)
15 Martin Apayauq Reitan (10)^R
At Mile 101
16 Curt Perano (29)
17 Deke Naaktgeboren (25)^R
18 Jason Biasetti (27)^R
19 Andrew Pace (19)
20 Rob Cooke (30)
Beyond Central
21 Misha Wiljes (17)
At Central
22 Jim Lanier (13)^R
23 Chase Tingle (22)^R
24 Isabelle Travadon (9)^R
25 Remy Leduc (4)^R
26 Laura Allaway (24)^R
27 Hendrik Stachnau (20)^R
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