Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: May 31st through June 6th

May 31, 2015 JanF Community 137

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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37 Comments

  1. Good morning, 54 and partly cloudy in Bellingham today. I’ve got to have some fasting lab work done this morning so no coffee and no food means a grumpy me! I’ll leave soon, go to the lab, then get some breakfast, and then to a hair appointment. So I won’t be back home avoiding what I don’t want to do until this afternoon. It will all be waiting for me…..

  2. 81 at not quite noon in Fay., AR and sunny again which mostly makes up for the cluster going on in the office. I just thought once I got hourly payroll out the door I could take a breath or two. End of the fiscal year is bringing up all kinds of stuff that should have been thought of/dealt with earlier – and would have been if it had been up to me. But I don’t generate this crud I just process it. And catch the flak if it isn’t done on time. sigh. Hey, at least they sort of appreciate me. I been awarded a $600 ($400 take home) thank you for my 10 years service with the University. (Won’t actually get it for a couple of weeks but it’s nice to know it’s coming.) Have a good rest of Thor’s Day. {{{HUGS}}}

  4. Good morning, meese! Friday!!!!!

    It is 62 degrees in Madison on its way up to 73. Morning clouds and afternoon sun in the forecast. Next week we get into the 90s so I need to enjoy the few days of cool weather we have left.

    One more joins the Parade of Failed Candidates, this time Rick Perry. He is running on something called the “Texas Miracle” which, sadly for him, turned out to be largely an illusion. Next up: Bobby Jindal … a guy running on his state’s miracle which was also reliant on permanent oil tax revenue and now has largely defunded his state’s educational system and shredded the safety net. And no money for volcanoes!!

    Here is a palate cleanser: City With Second-Highest Veteran Population Effectively Ends Veteran Homelessness:

    The city [of Houston] has created a system to house any homeless veteran. It’s close to its ultimate goal of being able to find housing for any veteran who falls into homelessness within an average of 30 days, Richard Cho, senior policy director at the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, said at a conference on affordable housing, and can house 100 newly homeless veterans in a given month.

    Hillary Clinton gave a bang up speech on voting rights, evoking the memory of Barbara Jordan and the 1970s civil rights activism she was part of in Texas. You see that, O’Mehley? Actually being older ties you back to a part of our history when people doing good things resulted in important changes for our democracy, a time we need to re-embrace because we have so much to do that was neglected during the years of Reaganomics. President Obama put the brakes on the worst of it (no, he is not a “failed leader”) and now we need someone to grab the baton on civil rights. I am going to put up her speech and some of the voting rights commentary that came from it. Elections are about voting … a political campaign is the perfect place to discuss saving the franchise.

    See all y’alls later!

      • Mine will be a bit late (I got sidetracked by my paying job!). What I heard as reaction to the speech (not on the GOS, but elsewhere) was very positive. My biggest concern going into 2016 was who would be able to win the Obama Coalition, the people on Twitter who call themselves “Obamacrats”. Whoever does has to address civil rights of which voter rights is a big part. They have to address equal justice and they have to address discrimination. It is not just “the economy, stupid” it is access to the economy for everyone up and down the ladder.

  5. 56 and damp here in Saugerties NY
    I have lost track of the clown car candidates – they are gonna need a Bozo Bus.

    Thanks for the heads up on the Clinton speech – will take a listen

  7. Happy Freya’s Day, Meese! Gray, damp, and 57F. here in NoVa, going up to 75F. today with some peeks of sunshine later.

    The news sucks, tired of watching it. Also tired of all the Hilary-bashing in the WaPo and the other place. Will check back later to see the transcript of her speech. (With my hearing problem, I don’t like listening to speeches, it’s easier to read them.) I liked the “SpiritSisters” post by TrueBlue on GOS yesterday—thanks for the link, Jan!

    Coming down with a cold, so plan to take it easy today. Hope it’s a good day for all!

    • The Hillary bashing is going to backfire because there are a lot of people her age and her gender who are not missing the ageism and sexism in those comments. I watched that speech yesterday and the young people in the audience at Texas Southern University really like her. You don’t have to be young to energize young people … you just have to address their issues. The WaPo seems to be particularly frothy with the anti-Hillary talk but the press in general is livid that she is not giving them the opportunity to play gotcha politics by giving more interviews and pressers. Why should she, the press has tipped their hand about what is important to them and it isn’t the same thing that is important to the American people. Meh, as they say on The Moose.

      I am following a series over at Washington Monthly about the coalitions for 2016 and it is excellent. Once the series in finished, I will try to post something here (I want to make sure it has a happy ending first!!).

  8. Back to work – and walking before. 1.3 miles again. Sleeeeepy. I couldn’t force myself out of the house yesterday, so I got the “rest” well & thoroughly accomplished. Just nothing else. Oh – I loaded & ran the dishwasher.

    For some reason, all the “loss” songs that I never listen to are filling my head: Iris, One Tree Hill, Clapton’s Tears in Heaven. So I’m deliberately playing California in my head as loud as I can, but it takes concentration to play it over the other songs.

    And back to normal June weather – worked up quite a sweat in my 30 minute walk, even pre-sunrise. 90s for the next week, no rain.

  9. Hi, another, can’t imagine its being so hot in Austin–feel as if we’ll never be hot again. It’s like England here, four days in a row of grayness, damp, and rainmist.

  10. 77 and climbing in Fay., AR and no rain if not exactly sunny. If your determination as to which season it is can be based on what shows up at the Farmers’ Market (last week green beans and “summer” squash), what’s blooming (magnolias and day lillies), and overnight lows (70) then it’s summer time here. We don’t have melons or tomatoes yet and I haven’t turned on my A/C (’cause I’m pigheaded) so not “high” summer, but still summer. Yesterday’s crazy still has some wrap up for today but not as urgent. Well, just as urgent but nobody standing over me in panic mode while I try to do it. :) If I get any free time at all, I’ll drop back and read the Hillary piece. I’ve got an old letter from 2008 regarding Hillary hate that I might see if I can update (really didn’t pay enough attention to her accomplishments as SoS as I was busy with my own elected position at the time – just pretty much noted she’d reversed the “Ugly American” image of the Bush Administration fairly quickly so I might need help with the update). Of course posting it at GOS would be painting a target on my back so I may not. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. {{{HUGS}}}

    • The primary wars are often disruptive at the GOS. I was not involved in the comment threads until 2009 (I had been reading the front page since 2004 and signed up in 2005) so I missed the 2008 screamfest. Apparently it is from that vitriol, at another lefty site, that the Motley Moose was born. People haz opinions! And people with no filters offer their unfiltered opinions!! Shock, not. It is like “Clinton” or “Sanders” or “O’Mehley” and now “Chafee” in a diary title is permission to visit and scream about the blemishes of each candidate. A reasoned discussion about political differences is one thing but the personal attacks are unnecessary: they are a big turnoff to intelligent voters. Will the Democrats have as lively a debate as they did in 2008? Probably not. Is it necessary? I’m not sure. There is not really a lot of daylight between the positions of the Democratic candidates, from what I can tell they all support the core of the Democratic Party values (that may change when Jim Webb gets in as his social justice policy positions are more Republican than Democratic). I have a litmus test for who I will support and in the general election, there is only one choice: the Democrat. Some years ago, I read an excellent diary on progressive values and the overlaps of the hot button issues for coalitions. Let me see if I can find it. It is worth remembering that in the end, while our focuses may be on different positions, we all want one thing: a country that cares about and for its people.

    • Here you go, bfitz. The article was written for the GOS but became part of the BPICampus website. Morning Feature: Divided By Our Common Issues

      … we progressives and the Democratic Party are a coalition rather than a unified bloc. We are divided by our common issues, and when we refuse to admit that our discussions can and do get very ugly.

      NCrissieB provides this chart to show the differences but also the overlap, a chart she called the Six Progressive Issues:


      Each of these issues is a constellation of several specific political questions, and while most progressives generally agree on most of those specific questions, we often disagree on priorities within each of the constellations. For example, we tend to be more sensitive to indices of privilege that work against our own identities, so while I may empathize and care about others’ privilege issues, other privilege issues may not be as salient for me. Conversely, privilege issues that are paramount for me might not be as salient for others.

      We may also disagree on the priorities of the constellations themselves. Glenn Greenwald and others have suggested that corporatism is (or should be) progressives’ top priority, but others can reasonably argue that our first priority should be privilege, education, civil liberties, or war, and some would argue that with potentially catastrophic climate change possible within this century, making anything else our first priority is analogous to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

      The important thing to note is where all of our issues overlap: “Republicans’ Policies are Bad” and to remember that whatever our disagreements, we need to come together on whichever candidates will push back against those policies.

  11. Good morning, 51 and sunny in Bellingham today. My plan is to go to the pool and be in the garden. Reality may have plans of it’s own however!

    Jan, I’m really enjoying the new Moose. I keep finding new features, like the “home” link at the bottom of the page. And the news links there are interesting to follow as well.

    • The footer menu was part of the new theme, Magazine Premium, that we switched to near the end of May (it seems like forever ago but that was just a few weeks, wasn’t it?). Sometimes it is easier to scroll to the bottom than it is to scroll to the top to navigate. I should put it on my list to add more of the categories as menu items there. There is not enough room horizontally for the main menubar to expand but the list of menu items has room to grow.

      I am looking for one more news site to pull feed from. I added McClatchy last week because I found a good story there and remembered that they often have news that is a nice alternative to AP. Do you have any ideas?

  12. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 49 degrees in Madison on its way up to 75. Partly cloudy skies in the forecast.

    Today at 10:30 a.m. Eastern, President Obama will deliver the eulogy at Beau Biden’s funeral service. The White House will carry the feed live: President Obama Delivers a Eulogy in Honor of Beau Biden, Wilmington, Delaware. Yesterday, the Biden family took part in a memorial service for Beau and the photos are heart-rending. You don’t realize how young 46 is until you see how little the children left behind are.

    In political news, I am finding it difficult to care as the clown limousine fills up. Ted Cruz is not getting the love from Latinos (well, duh!), Ben Carson’s book tour campaign is in disarray, former Texas Senator Tom Coburn dishes on the GOP field and says he likes Rubio and thinks Huckabee has a chance to get votes from both Democrats and Republicans. (psst, Tom, you might want to Google Huckabee+Duggar before you jump on that bandwagon!). I did like that Coburn pointed out the truth about the Scott Walker “win” in the 2012 recall: the victory was directly attributable to the flood of (probably illegal) money into the state from outside Wisconsin, not any love for the governor.

    See all y’all later!

  13. Good morning, Meese! It’s 61 F. here in NoVa under fair skies—what a change from the rain, chill, and gloom of the previous four days—going up to 79 F. today. Woke up much too early (5 a.m.) because I went to bed early. Planning to take some more cold pills in a minute.

    I liked Hillary’s speech very much, and hope she keeps calling out the Rethugs on their obstructiveness and complete lack of interest in governance. I am not going to engage in political diaries at GOS other than to say I like Bernie Sanders. Still plan to vote for Hillary, though.

    Wishing everyone at the Pond and beyond a good day!

  14. Good morning, Meese. It’s 65 heading ten degrees higher. Am somewhat distracted so will just wish everyone in the Pond and beyond the best! Might return later to see how everyone is.

  15. Up early for Saturday class. Got to eat something, don’t really want to. Will look back in later.

    weather — mid-60s heading to low 90s

  16. Morning Meese

    63, cloudy and damp here in the Catskills.

    Checking out the news…I see Jay Smooth has a new piece (can’t figger out how to embed)
    What not to do when covering a woman running for President

    Hillary struck a nerve with Repubs with her voting rights speech – they are falling out of the Bozo Bus to lash back – heh.

    Republican Candidates Assail Hillary Clinton on Voting Rights

    Good – Democrats all need to ramp up the volume on this.

    • Well, their position is indefensible “let’s restrict voting to old white males”. Sheesh. Chris Christie sounded particularly ridiculous, claiming that universal registration was so that Hillary could get more fraudulent voters to the polls.

      • Scott Walker is a class A asshole too:

        Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said in a statement: “Hillary Clinton’s rejection of efforts to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat not only defies logic, but the will of the majority of Americans. Once again, Hillary Clinton’s extreme views are far outside the mainstream.”

        • Of course, that Walker comment makes no sense but one cannot expect sense from the senseless. I am not sure where he gets that his policies made it “easier to vote”. He cut back days of early voting, shortened the hours of voting, restricted the types of id and the ability to get the id. And the only instances of in-person voter fraud in Wisconsin over the past decade was when one of Walker’s supporters voted 3 or 4 times in the recall election in 2012.

          The “ideas outside the mainstream” argument, by the way is based on cherry picked polling data. Much of that comes from polls where people were asked about voters needing id and overwhelmingly people feel that they should . However, when they are asked what kind of id is required and whether voters should have to pay for it and what kind of documentation they should have to show to get an id, is it much less overwhelming. And when people hear stories about veterans being unable to use their VA id cards and students not being able to use student ids, the support is not as solid.

          Then of course we have yet to find anyone who can explain away the bump in people wanting voter id when they are shown a black person voting on the questionnaire versus a white person:

          Sixty-seven percent of white Americans support voter ID laws, according to a new University of Delaware study of 1,436 U.S. adults. But when the voter ID question was accompanied by a photo of black people using a voting machine, white support for voter ID laws jumped to 73 percent.

          Planted there by the dog-whistle politics of the modern GOP.

          • Just paste the embed code. On the Preview, it won’t show properly (shows it inside some brackets) but when you post, it works.

            You should make the width 420, though, otherwise it displays outside the comment box.

            (I can’t watch the video yet … I am watching the Biden funeral mass and waiting for President Obama to speak … there he is!)

          • Me too. It is a beautiful speech and a wonderful tribute. I will look for the transcript later.

            Watching Beau’s sister Ashley made me cry too.

      • princesspat, I love this part of the Fusion video, from Samhita Mukhopadhyay (@TheSamhita)

        “When a woman cries, that is not actually newsworthy. There’s lots of people who display lots of emotions … and they should! They’re our politicians and they should care about our lives.

        :)

  17. Good morning, it’s 58 and sunny in Bellingham today.

    Richard Sherman spoke at the Lummi Nation high school graduation ceremony. I like this simple but powerful thought……

    Seahawks’ Sherman tells Lummi grads to chase success

    Sherman’s main message during the graduation ceremony was to “be someone that makes others look forward to tomorrow.”

  18. 4.4 miles I’ve walked further, but today was really hard. Maybe it was too big a leap from where I was — last Sunday’s hilly 3.8 was also super hard. Drinking tea, going to pick up the packet for the tri I’m not doing tomorrow. (There is no chance I could even do the beginning of the bike course, much less the 3 evil hills). Must stay awake this afternoon so I can sleep tonight.

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