Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Dec. 6th through Dec. 12th

December 6, 2015 JanF Community 124

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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60 Comments

  1. Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    It is 32 degrees in Madison WI, on its way up to 43. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Statement by the White House Press Secretary:

    On Sunday, December 6th at 8:00PM EST, President Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office about the steps our government is taking to fulfill his highest priority: keeping the American people safe. The President will provide an update on the ongoing investigation into the tragic attack in San Bernardino. The President will also discuss the broader threat of terrorism, including the nature of the threat, how it has evolved, and how we will defeat it.

    I think that he is going to announce that he is coming for everyone’s guns!! ;)

    Seriously, I would not be surprised if they found some sort of executive actions that the administration can take to tighten up restrictions on people acquiring weapons of war. For those worried about the election, that will not cost us a single vote. The number of gun owners has actually declined since 1970, while the number of guns in the hands of civilians has skyrocketed:

    Today only approximately 3 in 10 households have a firearm, compared to nearly half of households a few decades ago. But sales of firearms have skyrocketed upwards. About 36 million households in America have approximately 340 million guns, which means that a large of number gun owners are stockpiling arsenals and massive collections.

    Fortunately, guns don’t vote, people do. Also, 85% of voters wanted the post-Sandy Hook gun restrictions, filibustered in the Senate in 2013, passed.

    Beyond that, I would expect to see them tighten up visa scrutiny to keep those who might want to recruit for Daesh out of our country where it is too easy to acquire weapons of war (even when states have restrictions). For what it is worth, restrictions on assault weapons might have averted the San Bernardino massacre – visa restrictions and limiting refugee resettlement definitely would not have. The killers were an American citizen and his wife who was in the country on a fiance visa. That is not to say that we are not a big huge target for foreign terrorists … a target put there by politicians more scared of the NRA than they are of Daesh.

    Here is a Storify on the Assault Weapon Ban: The New York Times’ historic front-page editorial pushed for ending civilian ownership of assault weapons and certain kinds of ammunition. How many lives would that save?

    And don’t miss RonK’s piece on Mental Illness and Violence. The right-wing wants to make gun violence all about mental illness when it most emphatically is not.

    • I wish he would – but if he did the armed-wing nuts would revolt. I will be looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

      • I am not sure how much more angry the armed wing nuts could get. They are already shooting at copies of the New York Times!! Oh, the humanity already-dead trees!!! ;)

        Here is more from DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson:

        The United States should beef up airline security by increasing agents in overseas airports, bolster standards for visa waiver programs, and improve communications between officials and Muslim communities to help locate threats, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told the Times.

        “We have moved to an entirely new phase in the global terrorist threat and in our homeland security efforts,” Johnson told the newspaper in an interview. Terrorists have “in effect outsourced attempts to attack our homeland. We’ve seen this not just here but in other places. This requires a whole new approach, in my view.”

        I am looking forward to hearing what the president has to say. He has only used the Oval Office three times in the past. I wonder if Fox will bother covering it.

  3. Good morning Meese – feeling really lucky this morning – since we missed this: “Massive power outage affects approximately 60000 in Hudson Valley”

    MIDDLETOWN, New York (WABC) —
    Up to 60,000 customers were without power in counties north of New York City.

    52,000 customers in Orange and Sullivan Counties as well as Pike County in Pennsylvania were without power after an equipment failure at the Shoemaker Substation in Middletown.

    Crews were working on restoring the power throughout the night, and expected lights to be back on anywhere between 1 a.m. – 3 a.m.

    Governor Andrew Cuomo said a reactor was shut down at Indian Point due to a power loss on Saturday evening, but officials do not believe this is related to the outages.
    fiasco.

    The outages were south of me.

    This is why we have a back-up generator.

  4. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 27 F. on a lovely, very frosty morning here in NoVa. Frost is even on the grass and all over the trees. It’s going up to 53 F. today.

    No major cooking for me today as I am on a jello and chicken broth regime for the next two days (ugh). Dearly will have a steak-and-ale pie from Trader Joe’s for dinner.

    As I won’t be able to eat, I hope to get some writing done today. Will check back later to see what the President has to say. I am far more afraid of my fellow gun nut Americans than I am of Muslim terrorists. Incidentally, I wish newscasters would start using the word “terrorism,” a tactic, rather than “terror,” an emotion. Just because Dubya was illiterate, there’s no reason for us to copy him. He’s been out of the White House for 7 years, in case the media hasn’t noticed.

    • Ha!! “Just because Dubya was illiterate, there’s no reason for us to copy him”. Indeed. The dumbing down of America: Bush to Palin to Trump.

  5. Good morning, 50 and cloudy in Bellingham…and still dark. We got our Christmas tree yesterday, in the pouring rain, so it’s in the garage drying of. A local garden shop has a Christmas Tree fundraiser for the Boys and Girls club so I try to support that when buying a tree. It may be time to consider an artificial one though. Big trees are hard to maneuver and I’ve got the crawling under it with a watering can duty. It’s not a graceful sight!

    Two interesting articles in The Seattle Times this morning. The “fusion of computer technology and biology” is a fascinating development. The analysis of Trump’s delusions of grandeur is alarming, but given his unwelcome presence on the national political stage I’m reluctantly paying more attention. Apparently his DNA is very special.

    UW, Microsoft studies new place to keep your data — DNA

    Computer data have been depicted as microscopic magnetic smudges, electric charges and even Lilliputian patterns of dots that reflect laser beams. Data may ultimately move into the fabric of life itself — encoded in the organic molecules that are strung together like pearls to form strands of DNA.

    In two recent experiments, a team of computer scientists at the University of Washington and Microsoft, and a separate group at the University of Illinois, have shown that DNA molecules can be the basis for an archival storage system potentially capable of storing all of the world’s digital information in roughly 9 liters of solution, about the amount of liquid in a case of wine.


    Explaining what Donald Trump is thinking: He’s the king

    For months the political press has been grappling with the greased-pig problem that is Donald Trump, trying to pin down the Republican front-runner as he defies establishment expectations and rejects basic standards of decorum. Much of the time I devoted to my Trump biography was consumed with the same activity: I spent countless hours fact-checking the torrent of slippery claims he made during our interviews. Even more difficult was divining the source of his sense of entitlement.

    As campaign reporters are now coming to realize, Trump is not concerned with anyone’s dignity, even his own, and will readily deploy lies and distortions when they serve as applause lines…..

    ~snip~

    The racehorse theory of human development explains Trump’s belief in his suitability for political leadership, despite the fact that he has never held office. He’s absolutely convinced that America’s problems will be solved by his God-given management skills, bankruptcies notwithstanding. You are either born with superior qualities — the right DNA — or you are not. And people get what they deserve. In his case, that includes the White House.

    • Thanks for that Trump link! DNA rules sounds suspiciously like the monarchies of old and we, supposedly, decided that particular issue back in 1776.

      We got our tree last Sunday and let it get accustomed to its temporary home so we could see how the branches would present themselves. After deciding which side was best for viewing as people walked in the door versus people who were already in the house (us!) we put the lights and bulbs on yesterday. It looks pretty nice for a relatively inexpensive tree. Last year we had no tree because we were planning on traveling over the holidays and so it is nice to see a tree again. I think the effort required for a fake tree is not much different so when I don’t feel like doing real trees any longer, I will settle for an altar and a tree bough with a single string of lights.

      • A tree bough with a single string of lights would be perfect for me this year, but I bought a reel with 450 lights yesterday because the multiple strands of half lighted lights has to be retired. Once I get the Christmas muddle in place I enjoy the winter cheer but getting there seems hard this year.

        Time for some Pink Martini Christmas inspiration……

  6. Good day all! Not so much morning any more here, I got up late and I’m moving slow. I have a nice artificial tree, but most years I don’t bother putting it up any more, since it’s just me and the dogs to see it, and somehow they don’t really appreciate the effort!

    I look forward to the President’s speech tonight, but I am sure whatever he says will be greeted with derision and scorn by the right wing. I keep wondering what it will take for people to rise up on the gun control issue – I guess we’ll see next year at the polls.

    I’m going to listen to some Bach Christmas Oratorio today to get in a festive mood – and also, you just can’t go wrong with Bach. Thanks for all the links – RonK’s piece is as wonderfully apt now as it was when he published it after Sandy Hook.

    Have a great day everyone!

  7. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 35 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 44. Cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    I put up a post of the president’s speech:

    President Obama – “Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values, or giving into fear” .

    I did not stay up long to catch much of the reaction. Apparently, the Republicans had Marco Rubio deliver the “rebuttal” because, heck!, we always need to rebut anything this president says. Can you imagine the outcry if a Democrat had done a rebuttal to George W. Bush’s Oval Office speeches about going to war? I guess when you give speeches about NOT having war, it demands an immediate warmongering reaction from the GOP.

    There were some good Tweets that I will post later. First I need to fetch my coffee.

    See all y’all later!

  8. Good Monday morning, Moosylvania! It’s 27 F. on another frosty morning with the sun rising over the roofs and treetops, going up to 56 F. today.

    Will probably take a break from the news as I’ll be spending a great deal time in the Throne Room, getting ready for the ordeal tomorrow.

    Denise, I downloaded YTD—many thanks for the link—but I don’t know how to use it to capture the videos that you and Jan provided the other day. Have you any hints?

    Hope everyone in Mooseland will have a good day!

    • I hope you survive!

      You have a Mac, right? I wonder if the YAK software works on Apple … usually when you download a program and install it, it provides instructions.

      Personally, I get a little nervous about downloading programs to my computer (even when they are recommended by trusted friends). I wonder if there is an online service that does the same thing … you give it the YouTube link and it downloads in a format you can listen to on your computer.

  9. Yes, Jan, I have a Mac and I did inadvertently download something that wants me to “upgrade” my cloud storage. Not going to do it. When I’m feeling better I’ll find a way to get rid of that unwanted program. Apple already has cloud storage, I’ve just never taken advantage of it.

    • I never use Apple (or Android or Windows) cloud storage because it is either off or on. No, thank you, Google Apple Microsoft Empires … I do NOT want you to take everything stored my computer and put it on your cloud for “safekeeping”. Sheesh. I do use DropBox which has a web-only interface that lets me move documents and files around from device to device but I would never want that to “take over” my computer or device.

      I am researching some web-only YouTube rippers (from one of my quarantined computers) and will let you know if I find anything.

      • Thanks! I’ve been hesitant to use the cloud because goodness knows what the NSA will do, not to mention Google and all the other nosy busybodies. However, I also feel uneasy not having my stuff stored off site somewhere—in the novella I’m writing, someone just burned down the protagonist’s house. As a consultant, he works out of his home, so if he hadn’t stored his stuff in the cloud, he’d be up the proverbial creek.

        • Offline backup services are different and many of those companies store encrypted disk images (nearly unusable by anyone else) rather than all of your files just lying around waiting for some nosy person to poke around in them. I worry more about Russian hackers than the NSA although the NSA did hire a contractor who famously turned a bunch of documents over to the press, so there is that.

          This company iDrive has a package priced at $0 for 3gb. That is a great price! They have business options that include overnight delivery of a hard disk with your data on it in the case of a total catastrophic failure. I have a project on my to-do list to order that service for some clients.

          That said, if you are good about remembering to copy files, you should just get a free DropBox account (1 gig) and put your files there. Just don’t choose the option that lets it scrape everything off your computer.

          • Thank you, Jan! I’ll investigate iDrive. I am not good at remembering to copy things. I’d like something that I can plug in (or whatever) and it just copies everything to Somewhere in Iceland while I’m asleep.

          • Speaking of Iceland, some Icelanders are pushing back against government support of religion:

            Icelanders angry about government support of religion have come up with a way of making their unhappiness heard: They’ve formed their own religion, based on ancient Sumerian texts, and are promising to pass on any public funds they receive to their “congregation.”

            The group is a means of protesting Iceland’s “parish tax,” which goes to support organized religions, of which the largest by far is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland. […]

            Icelanders over the age of 16 pay an annual “parish tax” of about 40 euros, even atheists and agnostics.

            “There is no opt-out. Those who are unaffiliated or belong to unregistered religions effectively just pay higher taxes,” Zuist spokesman Sveinn Thorhallsson told The Guardian.

            What is it with churches and governments? If their ideas are sound, they will gain adherents and will survive financially. If they aren’t, why does the government need to prop them up? If I were in charge, they would not be tax exempt here in the United States because I seriously cannot tell where organized religions end and the Republican Party begins.

  10. Morning all! Cool and clear here, in the 60’s, will rise to the low 70’s today and for the next week or so – pretty nice, I have to say. Good weather for my yard guy to come and install my new mailbox, as I hope he will today – my neighbors are no doubt a bit tired of the “propped up by pavers” look of my old mailbox!

    I watched the President’s speech and thought it was wonderful – hit all the right notes, strongly and clearly. I didn’t go looking for “analysis”, though, couldn’t really take it. I look forward to any good tweets Jan finds later! I did read, over at GOS, a diary on MTP yesterday where a wonderful young Muslim woman scholar was a guest and made some terrific remarks about terrorists masquerading as devout Muslims when in fact the research shows Muslims who attend mosque regularly are much less likely to go the radical ISIL type route. She said the couple in San Bernadino hadn’t been to mosque in a couple of years, and that they targeted a Muslim woman who was at the party and who was a regular attender at the mosque they had gone to – they shot her 4 times. SO horrible, but I’m glad MTP had her on to counter the vile stuff coming from the right and the Repug candidates.

    Ok, time to go get some stuff done – I need to get my Emeritus faculty parking permit since I’ll be at school one day a week next semester teaching as an adjunct. I would really rather not teach, and the money is pretty paltry for adjuncts, but I promised them I would do it as no one else wants to teach what I do (Deferred Compensation – pensions and executive compensation, basically). Have a great day everyone!

    • That is what I thought about the president’s speech also: “hit all the right notes, strongly and clearly.” It is what I expect from him and I was not disappointed.

      I posted the Tweets and some commentary I found on the Internets, as well as my own 2 cents (well, more like 30 cents but this is an opinion blog, you know!)

      Good luck with your new mailbox installation!

  11. Good morning, 50 and cloudy in Bellingham. It’s a pool morning for me, and then I’ll make another attempt to get Christmas in place. Right now all the pieces are stacked on the dining room table…..looking more alarming than charming.

    We did get the outdoor lights in place and we even managed to have a shorter version of the annual “do the lights my way” discussion…..some holiday traditions are getting real old!

  12. Tried to check in earlier this morning and the Moose ate my post, darn it. It’s was 28 at dawn, 50 at the moment heading for 60 or so and sunny in Fay., AR. Yesterday was lovely – the kind of “everybody doing something” dinner prep, little kids running around in the yard, big kids playing silly card games, and people just hanging out together enjoying each other’s company time that says “holiday” to me. The food was wonderful. There was too much of it and it was too rich for my tummy (which is still a bit queasy) – but wonderful. (If my own cooking uses the least amount of fat for palatability, all my DILs go for the most. And the guys aren’t far behind in being “fat friendly”. heh) Hope you all had a lovely Sunday and are having a good Monday. {{{HUGS}}}

    • bfitz, I also monitor the amount of fat I used in cooking. Don’t want to use too much. I’ve found you can cut the amount by 1/2 to 3/4 of what the recipe calls for. Sometimes I just add olive oil to the butter to get the butter taste but not all the fat.

      • My 16-muffins recipe has 2T butter to 2C GF flour (also 2T brown sugar or molasses, depending) – the other fat sources are the 2 eggs, the 6-oz carton of 2% yogurt, and the 1/4C chopped nuts. Sometimes I use 5T of nut butter instead of the butter AND chopped nuts. But when you divide that basic recipe out, you get 1/8 T butter per muffin.

  13. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 37 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 46. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    A reminder from the President:

    Today the Supreme Court hears the Evenwel v Abbott “One Person, One Vote” case. This is the case ginned up by white rights activist Edward Blum who wants to change how state districts are drawn. Currently they are divvied up by population based on US Census data; the proposal is to replace that with a plan to draw the districts based on number of eligible voters. So a district that has, for example, lots of children and/or lots of undocumented immigrants (:::cough::: south Texas :::cough:::), will lose representation because kids don’t vote and of course undocumented immigrants only vote in the fever dreams of right-wingers. Legislative power would shift to rural and exurban areas, which is exactly what Blum wants.

    Rick Hasen is pretty confident that the court will not rule in favor of Evenwel and his analysis is worth a read.

    Tomorrow the court hears another Blum case, the Fisher “reverse-discrimination” case which is making its second appearance in a court trying desperately to find a case that will allow for removing any opportunity universities have to improve the diversity of their campuses (which the feel benefits everyone). We need a Court that will stop taking these craptastic cases over and over and over again (I call them the Clarence Thomas Kicking the Ladder Over After You Get Yours cases). It takes four votes to hear a case; the chief could end this reign of terror by Blum.

    See all y’alls later!!

  14. Good morning Meese.

    I am beyond angry this morning.

    Donald Trump has made himself the top US recruiter for Daesh.

    I am taking this very personally – since many of my friends, loved ones and family members are American Muslims.

    I decided to change my Black Kos post today to address this.

    I’ll be back later.

    • When I saw the Trump “announcement” come across on Twitter, I was certain it was from The Onion. Sadly, it was from the front-runner of one of the only two political parties we are allowed to have. Even more sadly, he is appealing to the Republican base which LOVES this idea! The sub-tweets to the news stories were alarming. Remember, 51% of Republicans think that mosques should be closed to combat terrorism … his demagoguery has found fertile ground.

      I will watch for your post. Will it be crossposted here, also?

      • It’s up – grrrr – none of the links transferred over from DKos

        I hope I got them all put in correctly.

        • Thank you for persevering! I gave it a quick Fierce, will promote it on Social Media and then go back to read after lunch.

  15. Good morning, 52, wind and rain in Bellingham. The wind is blowing the rain against my bedroom windows so I’m awake early (for me) today. And unfortunately I’ve been reading Trump news so I’ve already got a headache. The sight of people cheering his ignorant dangerous rhetoric is frightening.

    Listening to Anonymous 4 is soothing.

  16. Seem to be having “Indian” Summer this week in Fay., AR – highs in the mid to upper 60s, lows in the 40s. Great for getting out of the house in the morning (no ice scraping, one less layer on, hands don’t hurt as much), lousy for getting rid of the fleas and so forth.

    Saw the Trump thing on my NYT headline news email (free service – I don’t pay those guys for anything) and thought pretty much what Jan said above. Trump’s appointed himself Chief Recruiter for Daesh. Wish one of those “give us enough money and we’ve give you – evidence – for whatever you want to prove” media groups would come out with “Trump in league of Daesh” – but they won’t because he’s white. And he’s saying what that “side” wants said. Sigh.

    Looking for good things to focus on – and that mostly means pootie diaries and community diaries (which may not have an “upbeat” cause, but has a whole lot of love and upbeat responses). Holding the good thought for everybody – and White Light protection for the Islamic community. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Apparently HuffPo is taking off the gloves. They had previously said that they would only cover the Trump candidacy in their entertainment sections.

      From Ariana Huffington: A Note on Trump: We Are No Longer Entertained

      Back in July, we announced our decision to put our coverage of Trump’s presidential campaign in our Entertainment section instead of our Politics section. “Our reason is simple,” wrote Ryan Grim and Danny Shea. “Trump’s campaign is a sideshow.”

      Since then Trump’s campaign has certainly lived up to that billing. But as today’s vicious pronouncement makes abundantly clear, it’s also morphed into something else: an ugly and dangerous force in American politics. So we will no longer be covering his campaign in Entertainment. But that’s not to say we’ll be treating it as if it were a normal campaign. […]

      We believe that the way we cover the campaign should reflect this shift. And part of that involves never failing to remind our audience who Trump is and what his campaign really represents. […]

      So if Trump’s words and actions are racist, we’ll call them racist. If they’re sexist, we’ll call them sexist. We won’t shrink from the truth or be distracted by the showmanship. Of course, Trump isn’t the only candidate out there spouting extreme and irresponsible messages, but he’s in a unique position in the wall-to-wall coverage, from Meet the Press to SNL, that he elicits. By not calling out Trump’s campaign for what it is, many in the media, addicted to the ratings buzz he continues to deliver, have been legitimizing his ugly views. […]

      As we’ve seen in the Republican race so far, Trump’s worst comments don’t occur in a vacuum — or land without repercussions. They affect the tenor of the conversation, frequently moving the line between what’s considered mainstream and what’s considered unabashedly extreme and unacceptable.

      So we’ll not only be covering the ways Trump’s campaign is unique in recent American politics, but also the disastrous impact it continues to have on his fellow candidates — and the national conversation.

      Good for them.

      • Ye gods, this is so on point, JanF! On GMA, George Step-in-Awfulness only wants to interview Trump, every day, not anyone else. Of course, Trump won’t let Georgy-Porgy get a word in edgewise, ever, so “it seems a hopeless business,” as Mr. Bennett would have said.

  17. Morning all – crisp and clear here, lovely day. My new mailbox was put in yesterday – I love my yard guy, he is so reliable and helpful – and it looks very nice except for the piece of paper with ink marker numbers I taped onto the spot where the address numbers are supposed to be. I thought they would be in the box, but they weren’t, so I ordered them separately and they’ll get here tomorrow, when I will attempt to put on my big girl pants and affix them to the mailbox myself!

    Jimmy Kimmel had two great things on the Trump insanity last night – first he said he’s beginning to think Trump is desperate to get out of the race, and keeps saying more and more outrageous things to get people to reject him: “It’s like it’s “The Producers” – the Trump campaign IS his “Springtime for Hitler”!” The other thing was a clip of an insane Trump supporter asking a “question” at a rally yesterday – this woman made that woman who told McCain Obama was a Muslim back in 2008 look like Dorothy Parker. She kept going on about these strapping young male Syrian refugees, probably terrorists, coming into the US and, apparently by implication, endangering white American womanhood. Or something. Even Trump didn’t want to touch that one, despite the fact that THIS IS YOUR BASE, DONALD! Kimmel said, after showing the clip, ‘I’m not sure but it sounds to me like she wants to have sex with a terrorist, amirite?”

    It would be funny if Trump didn’t have some measurable percentage of the US electorate eating this stuff up and egging him on. The fact that he’s defending his “ban on Muslims” crap by comparing it to FDR interning Japanese-Americans in WWII, one of the most shameful moments in our national history and a huge black mark on FDR’s legacy, is simply appalling. But then, I’m running out of similes to “appalling” to apply to this man and his words.

    Ugh. I just don’t know where all this will end. But we know it WILL end, to some extent, at least a year from now, and hope to Hecate that Hillary or Bernie will be in the White House returning political dialogue to something resembling reasonableness.

    Have a good day everyone, despite all this.

    • One thing that this latest Trumplosion is causing is it is making people more aware of our awful past. I was discussing the Trump news (which was all over the TV) with my daughter and it gave me a chance to talk about FDR putting the Japanese-Americans into camps. She was aghast! So when today’s youth learns some of the history – and reacts with appropriate horror – that is a good thing.

      • Trump said that FDR rounded up “Germans, Italians, and Japanese” to put them in camps.

        No, he did NOT! Germans and Italians weren’t rounded up because they were white. Only the people who looked a little different got rounded up, despite the fact that many of them had lived in the USA for generations.

        • Exactly! It is easy to round up people who look different … and very popular because they make White Anglo-Saxons nervous to begin with.

          I posted something about the Korematsu court decision in a comment in Dee’s post. There was one justice in the dissent who “got it”:

          [to force a citizen into an internment camp] based on his ancestry, and solely because of his ancestry, without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty and good disposition towards the United States. … I need hardly labor the conclusion that Constitutional rights have been violated.

          I am sure that Americans of German and Italian descent were watched closely but it was probably based on their words and actions in support of Germany rather than how they looked … and certainly not their religion.

          The latest thing is to point out that President Carter banned Iranians from traveling to the US while they were holding American citizens hostage. Huh? Iran is a country and a country that was illegally holding Americans. How is that like banning a religion?

    • Yeah, we got the same B.S. back in 2000 – when “they” said W winning would make things so bad we’d have a Liberal/Progressive landslide in 2004. How many people are dead now because of that little meme? Not a majority or even near but a scary percentage of Americans are effen fascists and always have been. They WANT/LIKE what we see as “really bad”. Hitler never had nor needed over 35% of the vote.

    • Rude Pundit went at that guy with some Tweets Sunday and Ed Kilgore at NYMag tore into him yesterday morning.

      I think some frustrati must have left the GOS and found writing gigs at Salon. Utter bullshite. There was a companion piece back at the end of November that Rude did a Storify on.

      I will dig up the links when I am on my computer.

      • When I still cared to try to persuade the unpersuadable, I set up a group called “I Vote For Democrats” to help promote President Obama’s reelection. The group was needed to call out the “burn it down and rebuild it” faction of the Democratic Party – although I suspect that they were not really Democrats but stealth third-partiers, maybe Naderites who weren’t satisfied that they got George W. Bush elected and wanted to try again to promote the lie that both parties are the same.

        I had a thing or two to say about the nihilists: Why I Vote For Democrats: To Win Elections

        The strangely popular attitude that sitting out an election “will show the Democrats a thing or two” is foolhardy at best and malicious at its worst. The overwhelming evidence is that a low turnout 2010 showed “the Democrats” nothing of the sort and showed only how awful Republicans are … something we really did not need proof of after 8 years of George W. Bush. Plus “the Democrats” happens to be me and others like me, not some monolithic “them”.

        I live in Wisconsin and I saw the results of voter apathy first hand. We lost a U.S. Senator, two House Representatives, the governorship and both houses of the state legislature. It was more than a shellacking, it was an unmitigated disaster and it will take years for those harmed by that to become whole again … if they ever do. How do you undo losing a home or an education or your good health?

        I also called out those who thought that President Obama did not deserve our support and that he was “on his own”:

        President Obama does not need to earn my vote. He has it because he is the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency and I Vote For Democrats. Democratic party candidates who do not pass liberal purity tests but who run in purple or red districts against Republicans don’t need to earn my vote either. They have it because they will give us majorities in the 113th Congress and because I Vote For Democrats.

        Those who willfully ignore that small d democracy needs us so that we can have big D Democratic majorities do damage to our country as surely as those who choose to vote Republican.

        Ha! It was a great rant, probably my best ever.

          • The link takes you to the full post on my personal blog where I moved my werds for safekeeping. Plus, there it does not have any of the comments that underscored the premise of my rant.

            It is sad that the same things we were pushing back against in 2012 we will be pushing back against in 2016.

  19. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 41 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 46. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    So while Congress has been fiddling with show votes to ban refugees, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and defund Planned Parenthood, the clock has ticked down on the deadline to pass appropriations bills or face a government shutdown.

    Now, to exactly no ones surprise, Paul Ryan (what’s with the beard, dude? makes you look like the PP killer. ah, I get it! solidarity with the GOP Base) announced that Congress will not have time to finish. The president said he will not sign another continuing resolution other than for a few days to finish the process. So unless the Republicans get serious about getting the poison pills out of the omnibus (Ryan does not have the votes to pass the bill without Democrats), we are heading to shutdown. Sigh.

    See all y’all later!

  20. Good morning, Meese! It’s 35 F. on a gray, misty, moisty morning in NoVa. What are the weather people on, pot or LSD? They said it was going to be clear and sunny today. To my untutored eye, the fog and gray skies indicate that it’s going to rain any minute now.

    Well, the ordeal is OVER. It happened yesterday morning. (BTW, it was the Unseemly, Unmentionable-in-Polite-Society procedure.) When Dearly Beloved delivered me here afterwards I was dehydrated, exhausted (from no sleep), and starving. To make up for this, I ate and drank like Henry VIII, then crawled into bed for a nap. Am about to have high-fiber multigrain pancakes with soy marge, raspberry jam, and actual raspberries plus coffee with half-and-half.

    “They” found nothing wrong with me. Sheesh, I coulda told them that before they even gave me the IV! This morning I will write to my doctor and tell him Never Again.

    Enough of this personal chitchat. Lots to do after days of being out of action with the prep before the procedure, so must catch up with absolutely everything. Will be back later!

    • Glad you survived and returned safely to the Pond! We missed you yesterday but understand the need for a nap.

      When my doctors tell me I need a test which I know will be useless, I tell them I can’t afford it. Then they go away. I suppose when I am on Medicare I will not be able to pull that off but I am safe from their poking and prodding for a while.

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