Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 9th through Aug. 15th

August 9, 2015 JanF Community 147

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 now 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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61 Comments

  1. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 59 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 80. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Lots of bits of things in the news; sadly, too much to get in depth on yet. The trainee cop in Arlington TX who killed an unarmed black man was fired – the police chief also made the statement that deadly force should only be used when lives are in danger. The former officer is unlikely to be charged because the law is on his side “jury, I was skeered!” but the firing will probably hold up because I suspect that if he was in training, he could be dismissed as unsuited for police work. However, in America, I am not sure that shooting an unarmed black man is a disqualifier.

    In St. Louis County, some of the journalists who reported on the Ferguson story last year, including Wesley Lowery from WaPo, were charged with trespassing and must appear in court later this month. Chilling because I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be subject to the vagaries of “justice” in that particular venue. I hope that the Washington Post understands how important it is to win that case. If we lose our mainstream media on-the-ground reporters, we lose a big megaphone to expose the truth.

    Jeb(!) will make a foreign policy speech today where he will blame Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for “losing” the Iraq War. He will promise that if people vote for him, he will send their kids to Iraq instead of dumb old college. Please proceed, Governor.

    See all y’all later. Still experimenting with the hour later wakeup and I am not sure it is working. I don’t wake up as tired but I do wake up feeling more pressed for time.

  2. Morning Meese

    Am going back to bed – I’m exhausted – was up really late last night and feeling drained. Will be back later.

    Thanks for the news roundup Jan.

    • The news is wearying. I may have to jump off the 10 minute news cycle for a few days and regen. I go through periods like this where I can’t get enough news and then I open up the spigots and soon feel as if it is coming at me like a firehose.

      I did find what I will consider that last word on BLM, a followup post from ABL:
      #BlackLivesMatter More Than the Hurt Feelings of White Progressives™

      The last few weeks have exposed some real ugliness in the progressive movement, ugliness that has been simmering just below the surface for a long time, but which, due to Black women’s increasing recognition of our political power coupled with leadership in the #BlackLivesMatter movement and unapologetic commitment to dismantling white supremacy, has erupted into a fountain of White Progressive™ racism.[…]

      In the wake of that protest, Sanders supporters took to Twitter to condescend, patronize, and belittle Black people, talking to us as if we are stupid and don’t know what’s best for us, and therefore should listen to our White Progressive ™ betters lest we usher in a Trump presidency or a Clinton presidency or whomever is the Boogey Man du jour.

      These supporters have twisted and perverted what is a movement about the liberation of Black people and turned it into a weapon to be used against us. They threaten to withdraw their support in protesting state violence against Black people. One Twitter user frankly told me that he was sick of #BlackLivesMatter and would actually vote for people who will “put you in your place.”[…]

      It won’t be Sanders’ fault if he loses the primary. It will be the fault of his supporters.

      Despite reacting poorly to the protests when they were happening, Sanders has been doing all the right things.

      She goes on to describe all the changes that Sanders has made including a good hire and his excellent white paper on racial justice. But she says much of it happened because of the BLM protest in Phoenix.

      The #BlackLivesMatter activists are changing the political conversation. Black women are flexing our political muscles. And it is obvious that Bernie Sanders and the progressive infrastructure is listening.

      The only people who continue to stalwartly refuse to listen are his fanatical supporters. They stubbornly continue to claim that the protests are stupid and counterproductive despite clear evidence to the contrary, and they express their displeasure in rhetoric steeped in racism and misogynoir.[…]

      Ultimately, Bernie Sanders has a coalition problem. His coalition is comprised of primarily white progressives and liberals, unsurprising for a man who hails from a state that is 94 percent white. […]

      These are the same people who will swear up and down that they are your allies, right up until the protest for Black lives inconveniences them in some way or they disagree with the activists’ tactics.

      Here is a clear statement on what a white ally is … and isn’t:

      You may be inclined to point to disagreement among Black people about the tactics of the #BlackLivesMatter activists and glom on to that disagreement to voice your own disagreement.

      Don’t.

      There is certainly disagreement within the movement about tactics, but that’s a conversation to be had by and among Black people about the liberation of Black people. It’s simply not your place.

      That is not to say that we as Black people do not welcome white allies. Of course we do. But that allyship cannot be conditioned upon respectability politics or upon Black people acting in a way that makes you comfortable or else. That’s not allyship. That’s a threat.

      If you intend to fight with us for our lives, you cannot wield your allyship as a Sword of Damocles to be dropped on our heads as soon as #BlackLivesMatter activists protest, in your view, the wrong candidate, at the wrong time, in the wrong space. […]

      The bottom line is this: #BlackLivesMatter activists simply do not have time to deal with white fragility. It may sound harsh, but Black lives matter more than white feelings. We are dying in the street. 314 of us so far since the killing of Mike Brown on August 9, 2014. Our community is in crisis.

      Read the whole thing!

      • Van Jones has also spoken out

        Disrupting Bernie Sanders and the Democrats: 5 lessons

        5) Beyond emotions — here is the hard math

        The challenge for all Democrats now is not raw emotion — but hard math.

        For Democrats to win the White House in 2016, African-Americans must give 90-95% of our votes to that party’s nominee.

        Not 50+1% of our vote.

        Not even 75%.

        To put another Democrat in the White House, black folks must be practically UNANIMOUS in our support for a Democrat.

        AND then we will have to overcome hundreds of racist obstacles just to get to the poll: being unlawfully purged from voter rolls, getting targeted for voter ID harassment, being forced to stand in understaffed voting lines for hours and hours and more.

        AND after all that, we still must turn out in record numbers.

        Or the Democrats will lose. Period.

        Given that fact, younger African-Americans rightfully expect each and every Democratic candidate to explicitly, loudly and enthusiastically address the pain and needs of black lives — to THEIR satisfaction.

        That’s fair — since those very candidates will expect those same young activists to turn out millions of voters for them in just a few months. And in pursuit of this goal, I think that most (if not all) of Black Lives Matters’ tactics — including and especially the iconic protest at Netroots Nation — are laudable, praiseworthy and inspired.

        Perhaps this generation of young black folks will be the last one the Democrats (and economic populists, generally) can simply presume to take for granted.

        If Black Lives Matter succeeds in that and nothing else, it will have built one of the most meaningful political movements of the 21st century.

  3. Good morning, Meese.

    Did not get much sleep and am now running or rather limping late. Will check back later. As for the news…

    Hoping for a good day for all in the Pond and Beyond!

  4. I found some good news!!!

    It has been one full year since polio was detected anywhere in Africa, a significant milestone in global health that has left health experts around the world quietly celebrating.

    The goal had seemed tantalizingly close in recent years, but polio always managed to roar back, particularly in Nigeria. Then officials embraced a vigorous new approach to vaccination and surveillance in that country, hiring thousands of community “mobilizers” to track down the unvaccinated, opening operations centers nationwide to monitor progress and seeking out support from clerics and tribal chiefs.

    The result has been remarkable.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/health/a-milestone-in-africa-one-year-without-a-case-of-polio.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0

  5. Good morning, Meese! It’s a glorious morning in NoVa, the kind of summer morning one dreams about—67 F. now, going to 83 F. later, with low humidity, blue skies, sparkling air, the lot. We’re having the second splash party of the season over here this afternoon for Miss Pink Cheeks and her cousin. We might try to lure Babylicious into his own little pool, although he doesn’t really seem to like water.

    Sorry to you didn’t sleep well, Jan, Portlaw, and Denise. Hope you’ll be able to recover. A bad night is the worst possible start to the day, says One Who Knows. Perhaps a 20-minute nap after lunch will help?

    Yes, thanks for the news roundup, Jan! It’s hard to believe that in this 21st century a white cop can kill an unarmed black man and get away with it. Yet it happens a dozen times a day! If only we could get rid of Fox News and a certain segment of Protestant churches, the problem might go away. Younger people, at least on the coasts, don’t seem to be as deeply racist as their grandparents.

    So they found two Top Secret emails on Hillary’s server. May I say how completely underwhelmed I am by this horrifying news? People, I worked for the State Department for a year and saw the kind of thing it considers “Top Secret.” Once the political officer on the Japan desk called me into his office and gave me an hour of Top Secret dictation. I duly transcribed it, typed it, and handed it back to him. The next morning there it all was on the front page of The Washington Post. “Did you see that article by….(whatever his name was)?” I asked the officer when I arrived at work. “Yes,” he said, and shrugged. “These reporters!”

    Half a century ago, reporters really were journalists who ferreted out information, pieced a story together, and reported it. Nowadays we’re treated to “news” items about the international custody battles of TV stars.

    The Department of State, then as now, had a distinct tendency to overclassify things. It’ll take more than this to put me off Mrs. Clinton as a presidential candidate.

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

    • I don’t really care about this email “News” and think it’s ridiculous from what little I know.. Am not even sure what a server is let alone any other geek stuff.. Must say, though, that I am totally flummoxed by the fact, if it’s true, that she mixed both business and personal stuff on one email account. I don’t know anyone, including myself. who does that. I have two separate accounts with different email names and different things that follow after the “@” (you can see how much tech lingo I know) as does everyone I know. Heck, I even go into Starbucks for a quick coffee and see people charging their two phones. I would never mix the two. Never. Nor would anyone I know. It seems strange to me that her techies suggested it. It seems careless and weird but not a scandal in any way. Must say my mind was boggled that she handled her daughter’s wedding and state business on the same email account, if that is a true story. Who knows with the quality of reporting these days. She could have two different email accounts on whatever a server is and I may not have understood the lingo. Must say that it’s not a story that I really follow.. Again, I don’t think it’s a scandal, nor worth all the stories about it, just seems weird and sloppy but then we are all weird and sloppy in some ways..

      • What the press and the anti-Hillary crowd keeps conveniently forgetting about Hillary’s emails is that the server they are on is a very secure one set up by the Secret Service for President Bill Clinton when he left office. Not nearly as weird and sloppy as the haters would like everyone to believe. And I’m not very geeky myself so I may have terms wrong but I’m pretty sure Hillary had more than one email account but since they were on the same server they became fair game for “mailgazi”.

        • It is difficult to know what exactly she was thinking. There are a lot of reasons to manage your email in-house and have control over it. Maybe she started the email account in 2000 when she started her Senate campaign, maybe it includes emails from her time in office and her 2008 presidential run then from her stint as Secretary of State and then leading up to the presidential run this year. Maybe she thought she was done with public life and that it didn’t matter where she kept her private emails related to Chelsea’s wedding … or she didn’t feel like changing her email address.

          But whatever the reason or reasons, it is now a BHD only because people want to find something to use against her. There are dozens of non-nefarious reasons to have a private email server and the folks who are looking for an email that says “let’s do everything possible to see that four of our foreign office staff are killed in an attack on the embassy” will be sorely disappointed. Especially since the FBI is not looking for that particular mythical email but simply want to make sure that none of the mail left there needs to be moved to a secure server.

          It is a giant Meh.

          • All of what you say is true – my point is that the server is already secure and was from the moment she started using it so if the FBI is worried about security then leaving it right where it is would be fine. And they will always be subject to FOIA no matter where they’re kept.

          • Well, technically a server is never completely secure. But it is probably no less secure than the one at the State Department.

            She said she never sent or received top secret documents via email or at least documents that were classified that way at the time they were sent.

            USA Today has a Q&A where they suggest that some of the emails were indeed classified at the time they were sent:

            How much classified information is in these emails? When was it classified, before or after she got it?

            Investigators have discovered at least four emails that contained classified information. And McClatchy News Service reported Tuesday that two of those contained “top secret” information, according to the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s office.

            But the number could be much higher. The four emails were discovered as part of a sample of just 40 emails of the 30,000 Clinton has returned to the State Department. And those 30,490 emails represent only about half the 62,320 emails sent and received by Clinton during her tenure as secretary of State. Clinton says the other half are personal.

            Clinton maintains she did nothing wrong. “I am confident that I never sent or received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received,” she said last month.

            In an email to supporters Wednesday, the Clinton campaign explained further: “It’s common for information previously considered unclassified to be upgraded to classified before being publicly released. Some emails that weren’t secret at the time she sent or received them might be secret now,” communications director Jennifer Palmieri said.

            Federal investigators have suggested that’s not the case here. The inspectors general have said the emails “contained classified information when they were generated,” and “that information remains classified today.”

            I guess I am not sure why “federal investigators” are talking to the press about this but the investigation needs to finish. If they find emails that are classified and were classified at the time they were sent then I guess it is game over! People shrink in horror that Hillary Clinton did not understand completely how her email system worked and that she made statements based on information that turned out to be incorrect. She loses the election and President Trump is sworn in on January 20, 2017. Or they ignore it, as they should, and look at the policies and positions of the candidates.

    • I happened to walk by my TV this morning when the news had on Mark Halperin (the guy who thought that the global financial meltdown in 2008 was “good news for John McCain”), who intoned meaningfully that the server turnover was “very significant”. What a crock! First, if Hillary had anything to hide, she would not turn it over to forensic specialists at the FBI. She would fight the turnover tooth and nail … or “accidentally” drop the server from a 50 story building and then accidentally drive over it with a steam roller. It is very similar to the Barack Obama birth certificate brouhaha. He finally authorized the Hawaiian authorities to release it because he was sick to death of hearing about it. And this won’t be the end of it; if you recall, when Obama did release the birth certificate, the right-wing demanded the LONG-FORM! There will be no pleasing the people who see this as a smoking gun and there is no more to it than Vince Foster’s “murder”.

      The good news is that the steady drip-drip-drip will stop for a short time. I personally don’t blame Secretary Clinton for not wanting to give in to the pack of jackals who have been after her since 1993. I do hope this eases the minds of people who have had real concerns about this issue.

  6. Walked 1.3 miles again. Taking tomorrow off, because I have a morning meeting offsite. No real thoughts in my head. Wish I could sleep. Playing nice loud Miracle (of Joey Ramone) in my head to keep me awake.

  7. 60 at 0600 – was able to open the house up just before I went to bed last night. The kitties were very happy. ‘Spozed to hit the mid 80s so I closed up the house before I left but did leave the one window to the screened porch open so the boys could go in and out. I’ll see whether or not I need to turn the A/C back on when I get home this evening. Hope not.

    Got stung by 3 wasps yesterday evening, all on my right hand. My thumb is almost back to normal but just at the point where my little finger joins my hand I got hit by 2 and that’s still really swollen, painful, and hard to move. Played merry hell with my sleep last night. I know, join the club. Sigh. Have the annual property accounting stuff to do (go into every office we have and scan the computers, printers, etc. to prove that they’re where they’re supposed to be). Hope I can get to it today. Finally, as of 30 minutes ago, got the last approval on moving the graduated kid out of the GA position and into a research asst position (been working on it for 9 weeks now) and entered the in-coming student into the GA position – which has to go through 6 approvals before I can enter her tuition waiver – which also has to go through another 6 approvals since she’s being paid from a grant. Sigh.

    Hope everyone has a good day, finds something sweet or lovely or at least promising to raise the spirits – and we all get a better night’s sleep tonight! {{{HUGS}}}

      • Yeah. Temporarily made me sorry I “catch and release” wasps in the house rather than killing them. But I got over it. :)

    • bfitz, so sorry to hear about the wasp sting! Hope there’s something you can do to alleviate the pain and get some sleep tonight. Your workload seems to be going full blast even before the academic year begins! Hope you can take some time off just to relax.

      • Actually my workload will calm down some – not a lot but some – once the academic year gets going. Staff deals with a whole lot of prep work for the AY!

      • Thanks for the reminder. I’ll see if there’s still any plantain in my back yard. Meanwhile, having been reminded of botanical solutions, I just put some aloe vera on it since I have an aloe plant in the office :)

  8. Good morning, 59 and sunny in Bellingham today. I’m feeling overwhelmed this morning…..the grand girls just arrived, my sister’s car saga still needs attention, I haven’t had the concentration I need for my desk mess, and the damn deer munched plants from my flower pots by the back door…..the final straw!

    Oh well, such is life. I’ll go to the pool soon, and then face the rest of the day as best I can.

    This article adds a perspective to life in the PNW……

    Fats Domino was famously “walking to New Orleans.” No one knows where the people who left footprints on British Columbia’s Calvert Island were walking. They may have been on their way from what is now Alaska to what is now Washington or points south. They may have stopped there during a journey by boat. Wherever and however they were going, at least three of them, possibly a large adult, a small adult and a child, left footprints of different sizes in the sand of the island, which lies west of Bella Coola and north of Vancouver Island, perhaps 13,000 years ago. If the date is confirmed, they have left the oldest human footprints in North America.

    http://crosscut.com/2015/08/footprints-in-the-nw-sand-perhaps-13000-years-old/

    • That is very very exciting news about the footprints! Hope the rest of your day was better.

    • Wow…13,000 years ago. Mom, her teenaged daughter, and her little one, walking to another settlement. Hope they arrived at their destination safely.

      And hope you have a less fraught day on Thor’s Day, princesspat!

  9. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 66 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 87. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    My news feeds are filled with stories of “Scott Walker dropping in the polls” “Walker losing in Iowa” “Walker losing in NH” “Walker biggest loser in debate”. This is good news for America because he is one of the scariest politicians running, a pathological liar whose vision for America includes shrinking peoples hopes and dreams until they are small enough to drown in a bathtub. I had an LTE prepared for my right-wing rag telling them to shut-up-already about Walker (he is on every page) but I can save it now. Even the right-wing is going after him because he gave a $250 million gift of my money to millionaire basketball players and their billionaire bosses, one of whom is conveniently a major Walker donor. Turns out that there is still a teaparty element in the Republican Party, including the Koch backed AFP, who think that giving taxpayer money to bail out private business is wrong. Stick a fork in him … he’s done.

    Good luck to former President Jimmy Carter in his battle with cancer. Being 90 years old and facing chemo and/or radiation is a daunting prospect. He has had an amazing post-presidential career and accomplished much good in his life.

    See all y’alls later!!

    • so glad to hear about Walker – I was afraid he was going to look deceptively “reasonable” to people who have not been following WI politics closely

      • It looks like Kasich got all his support in New Hampshire. Walker blew it by betting all his chips on electability in a blue state. Kasich won by 60 points in Ohio, not by-the-skin-of-his-teeth like Walker did (and which required lying to enough people to sway the election, which plunged his post-election favorables into the low 40s after they found out he was a liar).

        In Iowa, his support was based on one speech in February where he exceeded expectations by not drooling on himself (since then he dropped from 25% to 9%). He will probably stay in the race because he has about $60 million in SuperPAC money that he is enjoying blowing through. He is up to his eyeballs in personal debt and the meals on the road may be the only ones he and his family can afford for the next year.

        • No kidding! Meals on the road…”Please, sir, may I have a doggy bag to take home to my starving fam—I mean, my hungry dogs?”

          SO glad to hear this news about Walker. May he and his cold, dead eyes meet the contumely they so richly deserve.

  10. Good morning, Meese. How did it get to be Thursday?

    Stiff focusing on votes needed to support the Iran Deal. Am sure money is pouring into the undecided Dem’s campaign chests from all sides. Received seven identical emails from Schumer responding to my seven not identical ones to him. Will vote for anyone who challenges him.

    Hope it’s a good day for all in the Pond and all our fellow creatures on this Earth and any other Earth.

    • The latest rumors I hear are that we have the votes to stop a veto override but it may come in the House, not in the Senate. I was reading a distressing story a couple of days ago with the Democratic Senators all saying that Schumer’s vote against the president (sure to be followed by a vote defying his veto) does NOT disqualify him for leadership of the Democratic Party caucus in the Senate. Well, then what on earth would? Sponsoring a “President Obama is Not An American” bill??? I hope we can persuade them that he is not suited for the post. I saw a lot of people Tweeting angry responses to DSCC fundraising emails telling them that they won’t give a penny to them until Schumer is bumped from leadership. He was wrong on the ACA (“not worth the political capital”, he said) and is wrong on the Iran anti-nuke deal.

      Apparently Schumer is a prodigious fundraiser for Senate Democrats and his colleagues do not want to give up the money. Bought and paid for. Blood money, in my mind.

      • Blood money is what it is. And, the fact that President Obama would even have to veto this diplomatic triumph is unbelievable. It does not look good to the rest of the world. How could it?

  11. Good Thor’s Day, Moosekind! Another spectacular day, more like a late September morning than mid-August. It’s 63 F. on a flawless summer morning, going up to 83 F. later.

    I hope this server business fades from the public consciousness soon. It’s a Trumped-up bit of nonsense by the vast, right-wing conspiracy, I feel. I can’t believe the actual Trump is still on top of the polls. The Village must be writhing in mental agony.

    A rotten thing happened on Monday. Someone withdrew $500 from my checking account. There wasn’t $500 in it, so the bank yanked out my savings to cover it and charged me for an overdraft. The mistake was entirely the bank’s fault as I’ve subsequently discovered. I spent an hour on the phone Tuesday and an hour in person yesterday trying to straighten this out. Despite their lavish apologies they STILL haven’t restored my bank account to its original state. I may have to open an account with a different bank that knows what it’s doing. It’s not fraud: the person who withdrew the amount actually does have an account with that bank. His or her debit card has numbers that are close to mine or something. Whatever happened was the bank software system’s fault.

    Wishing everyone a good day AND a good night! I recommend 5 mill. melatonin tablets for getting a decent night’s rest. Since I switched from the 3 mill. version, have been enjoying the sleep of the just.

    • What a banking nightmare. And, since you are just you SHOULD enjoy the sleep you deserve.

    • How awful for your bank to be so incompetent! That must have been shocking and I am glad you found out about it quickly enough to get it straightened out. They should send you a Visa gift card for your trouble. Tell them I said so!

      I switched back to my previous wakeup schedule and this morning I still woke up tired but I did not feel pressed for time like I did the last two days. I have a lot of things that need to get done before my clients start work and I really can’t shorten that time slice. I think the problem is that I have a lot of things going on that I have to keep track of and that is keeping my brain too active to fall asleep. So today, I am going to clean up the big stack of notes next to my keyboard and check a few things off my to-do list.

    • Hope the bank gets its act together – like immediately. I’ve had that happen to me but I deal with a small, local bank and it was resolved very quickly. I’ve had friends who bank with the “big boys” (BofA and the like) and they never got it totally settled – they got their money back but the “black mark” overdraft stayed on their banking records until they changed banks.

    • Sadly, even 9 mil of melatonin, plus valerian, doesn’t keep me asleep

      I hope your bank straightens stuff out soon!

  12. 59 at 0600 this morning and never had to turn the A/C on yesterday. This is weather I can deal with. :) Hand’s swollen up again and itches like mad. Will try plantain tonight if I can find any. Got more stuff – start of AY forms to all the faculty AND staff, property accounting scanning (outdated equipment – once I start I have to do the whole thing at one time, so I haven’t started yet), stuff like that. And a meeting I need to head out for in about 3 minutes. Will check back when I can. Hope everyone is having a good Thursday. {{{HUGS}}}

  13. Good morning, 74 and sunny in Bellingham. So today is car shopping day and I’m already nervous. We have been looking on line but today we’ll go to the dealers see if any of the possibilities can become real. She had a Prius so we’ll start with trying to find another one. Shopping the used car market is not an easy task for me!

    I am however looking forward to getting back to the garden and planting more of my favorite fall flowers. My neighbor has a wonderful crocosima planting and is willing to share. So I need to finish preparing the planting space, dig up and divide some plants for him, and then see if they will grow in my garden. They seem to be happy in his.

    GARDENS BEGIN to flag this time of year, and by the dog days of summer most are looking past their prime. But not if you’ve planted plenty of spiky, bright-flowered crocosmia to perk up the scene.

    http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/is-your-garden-withering-crocomia-to-the-rescue/

    • Yay!

      I am shocked that they still had it, quite frankly. CT not as blue as it should be.

  15. Charles Blow, a writer I like very much, has an article in the Times that should be read in full./ Here is just a snippet .It should be read in its entirety but copyrights and all that make me just give this glimpse.

    State violence, as epitomized in these cases by what people view as police abuses, conversely, has produced a specific feeling of terror, one that is inescapable and unavoidable.

    The difference in people’s reactions to these different kinds of killings isn’t about an exaltation — or exploitation — of some deaths above others for political purposes, but rather a collective outrage that the people charged with protecting your life could become a threat to it. It is a reaction to the puncturing of an illusion, the implosion of an idea. How can I be safe in America if I can’t be safe in my body? It is a confrontation with a most discomforting concept: that there is no amount of righteous behavior, no neighborhood right enough, to produce sufficient security.

    It produces a particular kind of terror, a feeling of nakedness and vulnerability, a fear that makes people furious at the very idea of having to be afraid.

    The reaction to police killings is to my mind not completely dissimilar to people’s reaction to other forms of terrorism.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/opinion/police-abuse-is-a-form-of-terror.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0

    • It is terrorism … terrorism sanctioned by those in power, which makes it even more egregious.

      This: “a collective outrage that the people charged with protecting your life could become a threat to it” I suspect is not new to 2015 … or 2014. It is something that goes back hundreds of years. I am not sure how it gets fixed because it is entrenched in our institutions.

      • “fixed” is probably not completely possible – it gets better with changes of policy. And that happens with exactly what’s going on – groups like BLM make enough noise that the people with the power to change policy have to “show their colors” – either evil racist bastards who like and get some kind of benefit from the current policy and will not just continue it but defend it to their dying day (may they rot in Hell) or good-hearted people who didn’t realize (or didn’t realize the extent of) what’s going on and will do their best to change policy any way they can, from any position they get elected to.

  16. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 71 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 93. Afternoon storms are in the forecast and will bring cooler air.

    Two more Senators announced support of the anti-nuclear Iran pact, Jon Tester and Al Franken, bringing the total to 19. Even if we turn out to not need Schumer’s vote, I still think his position disqualifies him from a leadership role. I will be watching closely when the time comes to choose a new Senate Democratic leader.

    Jeb! just doesn’t get it, does he? No one likes the Iraq War except the Bush family; he is obviously living in an echo chamber. Maybe his advisers told him that he needs to confront it Head On because he will be called to task later. How about this? “The Iraq War was a huge mistake from the beginning, from the trumped up and shifting rationale for starting it, to the craptastic Bremmer government, to the purge of the Sunni moderates, to the failure to provide body armor for our troops, to the ill advised surges feeding our military men and women into the unrelenting maw of war. Spending trillions of dollars, wasting our blood and treasure, doing irreparable damage to our country’s moral standing … I am really really sorry … and I vow to never again take our country into war.”

    There, fixed.

    See all y’all later!

  17. Good morning, Meese. Gorgeous day ahead but heat and humidity are both on their way.

    As for the Iraq War, thousands dead and maimed, widowed and orphaned and Iraq destroyed. And we knew there were no WMDs. You are right, we have little moral standing., We don’t deserve it. Of course I think that all politicians, not just Jeb. who supported that war should retire to an anonymous private life and volunteer in Vet hospitals or go to Iraq and work hands on with the maimed there. Alas, penitence is not big with the political class.

    Will look for some good news. Speaking of good news, hope that all who are ailing or worried or exhausted are better this morning. Hope it is a good day for the Pond and Beyond.

  18. Am glad we are finally, after all these years of the destructive, cruel and meaningless embargo, behaving like a good neighbor and not a bully. Good for President Obama.

  19. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s another gorgeous morning here…rinse, repeat. Humidity will not return until tomorrow.

    Awful news everywhere, especially in China after those big explosions and the bombing of the market in Baghdad by ISIL. However, there’s a bit of good news in the renewal of diplomatic relations with Cuba. It’s about time!

    Had a great time last night at the GOS meetup in Reston at the Silver Diner. Met Navajo, and she’s amazing. However, one of my friends confessed that she feels beleaguered at Orange and would like to join the Moose. All she has to do is come to the site and create a username and password, right? I can contact her about that later today.

    Felt bad about leaving Dearly on his 85th birthday to go to the meetup, but luckily a friend invited him to dinner so he got home after I did! Today will be spent preparing for a birthday dinner with the family on Saturday. Was invited to appear in a photo shoot on Sunday for a political campaign but all I want to do is rest this weekend.

    Thanks for all the good wishes about the bank screw-up! I think it’s going to be resolved today. What happened was entirely the fault of the bank software system. After my husband made a deposit to my bank account, the next transaction on the system was this huge withdrawal by the person standing in line behind him. The system still had my account number in its memory or something. Grrr! I’d change banks if it weren’t so inconvenient to do so. I did it a few years ago and prefer not to go through that again.

    Wishing a good day for all at the Pond and Beyond, including a healed hand for bfitz, a happy car-buying experience for princesspat, and blissful sleep for anotherdemocrat!

    • I don’t blame you for not wanting to do anything this weekend … just listening to your day wore me out! I got a shock yesterday afternoon when I discovered that it was not Friday but THURSDAY!! I had been going about my day assuming I was tying off loose ends to wrap up for the weekend and realized there was another work day to the week!!!

      The protocol for joining the Moose is as follows:
      1. Find the most recent Moose check-in.
      2. Post a comment saying hello and saying you would like to be a Moose user (people can post with just an email address … they don’t need a username) and which username you would like.
      3. Wait for me to notice that there is a comment in the Pending queue so I can release it (I monitor the site most of the day so it usually doesn’t take long).
      4. Watch for an email from wordpress at motleymoose dot net with your username and temporary password.
      5. Voila, you are a Moose!

      I saw a lot of chatter on Twitter yesterday about some diaries that were being posted at the GOS. Many Twitteristas are former DK posters, driven off by the same people who are now infusing racism into the Democratic primary contest. Many of my friends who are supporting Bernie Sanders are aghast and feel helpless as they are being tarred with the same brush. There is nothing they can do; the racists at DK were coated with Teflon in 2011 and every few years they pretend that it is politics and spew their bilious hatred in the name of “political discourse”. Meh, as they say on the Moose, life is too short to spend time trying to fix the unfixable. As one of my blogging buddies says, that site is like a 500# blob of jello … you push your fist in, the jello appears to move … you pull your arm out and, voila, back to the way it was, except now you have slimey jello all over your arm.

  20. At work, eating breakfast, drinking tea. Had very disturbed sleep, with weird dreams that I actually remember…. I was working in some gigantic workplace (think of the movie Brazil) & I went to run an errand at lunch & I got lost in the office coming back & was hours late. I couldn’t find an elevator, though I was walking toward the center, where they should be. (like, how if you want the escalator in a store, walk toward the middle & go around & you should run into it) Very strange.

    Very glad that the Mac at home is working, but I hated using Safari last night. Could not make it use the full screen. I guess I’ll keep trying.

    Earworm is Miracle of Joey Ramone

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