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Massachusetts cavalry to the rescue in DC

Sen. Warren with a Massachusetts snow plow

Sen. Warren posted this photo last night:

There's a huge piece of equipment here in DC clearing the snow and shooting it into 18-wheelers to be hauled off – and it has Massachusetts plates! I don’t know if this snow-eating monster was your doing, Marty Walsh, but thanks!

Could be. Last we heard, our giant snow blowers were helping out in Baltimore.

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Comments

Is she sporting a wig?

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In the sexism olympics.

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You do know men wear wigs too; they're call toupees!

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How so?

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You were actually interested, focusing comments about female politicians on their physical appearance is a problem others have also noticed. You could google it, but I'll save your fingers the trouble. Here are a few:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/0...

http://www.brownpoliticalreview.org/2014/10/female...

http://jezebel.com/how-to-write-about-female-polit...

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Because people don't comment on the ridiculous appearance of some of our male politicians. (It takes about 30 seconds to Google what people used to say about John Kerry's hair, and now Trump's, as just two obvious examples.)

And so what you're doing is actually expecting special treatment for women politicians - a criticism that can be and is leveled at both genders is now considered an untouchable topic for women. As usual, this is sexism masquerading as the opposite.

But you're obviously someone who's just looking for something to be upset about, so why am I bothering pointing this out?

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Because it made fun of a female politician in the exact same way people make fun of male politicians (for example, Trump's toupee).

See, sexism nowadays is not giving special treatment and privileges to women.

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He wasn't asking about her sportin' a merkin, pal.

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Who cares what she does/doesn't have on her head. She bothered to go to work!

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So she gets a cookie?

Wow, she made it to work, anyone else or just Warren?

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No, I was going to edit my comment but I'll leave it just there for anyone to have at it.

I checked your link and read that only the women reported to work?

I'm impressed and am eating crow.

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Not great at linking things, but MassDOT was sending equipment to DC to help. Via MassDOT retweet: https://twitter.com/JeffSaperstone/status/692337215016407040

Some state agencies offer up lending hands in these types of situations. I remember either the City of Buffalo or Erie County NY talking with District 5 at MassDOT last season when Buffalo got slammed with one of its early storms. Why they were talking to the folks who serve south of Boston, the Cape & Islands rather than Districts 1 and 2 in the Berkshires and Western MA is beyond me.

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The Berkshires might be less able or willing to give up equipment seeing as how they get more snow than Eastern MA.

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It's certainly possible. I think was still pretty early in the season before we started seeing considerable snow across the state. I was consulting with the DOT at the time. Never got around to asking any of the folks down at D5.

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There are no large cities with fancy equipment like that in the Berkshires. Mostly it's small towns with conventional plows. Remember, in he Berkshires, there's really no need to remove snow in that way, because there are plenty of places to push it out of the way.

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Sen. Warren's post appears to show a giant snow blower that blows snow from the street into a big truck. We know from Adam's earlier post that the city bought 2 of these after last winter. Does MassDOT own any of these giant snow blowers? They certainly didn't last winter. The video in your tweet shows a front end loader and a snow melter being sent down.

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You could be right. Some of the equipment is likely different for operating within a municipality compared to the Highway Department's equipment. On the other hand, I know that the DOT, DCR, and CoB all work together (at least to some extent) for Snow and Ice ops.

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Boston can not clear the snow off their own streets, do you think they are going to clear DC streets? The State, including the DCR, knows how to remove snow.

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No ad hominem attacks on Warren? Must be breakfast time at the home.

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Clearly this is the work of that atheist islamic Obama. He had the NSA and FAA create the storm with the hope of supporting his evil liberal global warming lies PLUS when the government was shut he was to forcing people to give up their rights to the IRS and take our lands.

I can't wait for Trump to be elected so that there will never be snow again except for the ski mountains which will have endless glorious white powder like never before. USA!

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But since they're all posting as anons, I'm just using the delete button as God intended.

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Michael Flaherty should run for US Senate and replace her.

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You're funny.

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1. Walsh (or maybe Baker) said last week they'd send these over to help.
2. She should really run for POTUS..

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If she runs for president you can be assured that she will up your taxes!

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I can't connect your comment about her running and taxes, but yes it is a crazy idea.

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the current front runners?

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idiot.

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Some people think Trump is electable too. Oh, the fun we have with them

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Boston snow crew shows D.C. how it’s done — with a little scoffing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/boston-snow-crew-shows-...

At daybreak Sunday, as officials in D.C. had only begun to assess the damage, a convoy of 50 contractors and 35 backhoes, front loaders and Bobcats were on their way from North Billerica, Mass. They made it to D.C. nine hours later and haven’t stopped plowing since.

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Boston equipment sent at Marty Walsh's behest was on its way when the snow was just starting. More worrisome is the fact that our SENIOR Senator and her office weren't on the same page about it. If she's going to take credit for the sun coming up, at least consult the Boston papers.

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1. She didn't "take credit". She noted the event and gave credit where credit was due.
2. If you find it "worrisome" that a US senator wouldn't know about a local decision of no particular consequence back in the district, you're probably too apprehensive to leave your house on days ending in a "y".
3. On the other hand, there's a remote chance that you're not even slightly worried, but are instead gleeful at any perceived opportunity to take a swipe at Warren. Ya think?

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Why can't Washington, DC and Baltimore buy their own snow-removal equipment? They should, imho.

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You could have said the same thing about Boston last year, since we didn't have these then. And perhaps you forgot how New York lent us a couple of snow melters.

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Get snowstorms of this size. Do you have hurricane shutters on your house?

Boston average annual snowfall: 111.3 in
vs.
DC average annual snowfall: 36.8 in.

https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Massachusetts/Places/boston-snowf...

https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/washington-dc-snowfall-totals-...

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great links

the numbers you cite are centimeters, not inches, however

I'd like to think that an average annual snowfall of 111" would finally eliminate our space savers, but maybe we'd only have more parking rage & shootings?

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111 inches would be something like Syracuse, NY. And you won't have space savers because you would have odd/even alternate-side parking ---- one side of the street would be off-limit for parking every 24 hours in winter (switching off at 6pm) --- to make it open for plowing.

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Boston average annual snowfall: 43.8 inches (111.3 cm)
vs
DC average annual snowfall: 14.5 inches (36.8 cm)

(And even that average snowfall for DC seems high for me, maybe just because of the way they panic for a couple of inches)

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Boston = 44"
DC = 15"

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This isn't Alaska. You don't buy equipment you might use once in ten years. You buy for the average snowfall. And when you get a bad storm, you use what you have and work around the clock.

Mel Bakersfeld - Airport

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We don't even buy all our own equipment. Boston has some approved contractors who help plow. My neighbor is one of them. So it's like we're being DC's contractor. Seems good to me. DC can rent our equipment instead of buying something they would rarely ever use, and we get some money instead of leaving the trucks idle in a garage somewhere.

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I think it's great that these mutual aid agreements exist and it makes so much more sense that other cities can use the equipment when it's not needed. Is the cost for transporting and operating the equipment paid for by the receiving city?

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Where's the pic of Liz in a helmet driving the thing? Shades of Duke.

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