Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Feb. 28th through Mar. 5th

February 28, 2016 JanF Community 135

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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48 Comments

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

    It is 46 degrees in Madison WI on its way up to 53. Afternoon showers are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

    • Thanks! I was offline at a job site most of the day yesterday and am just catching up on the news and analysis. I heard the speech was great.

      Have fun at the meetup! Sending greetings from the Meese!!

        • I built a CSPAN clip of the “Five Mothers” part of the speech: HRC – 5 mothers.

          This part, from the transcript:

          … tonight I want to pay tribute to five extraordinary women who criss-crossed this state with me and for me. Five mothers, brought together by tragedy.
          Sabrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, shot and killed in Florida just for walking down the street.
          Lucy Mcbath, mother of Jordan Davis, shot and killed by someone who thought he was playing his music too loud in his car.
          Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre, shot and killed by police in Milwaukee.
          Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, choked to death after being stopped for selling loose cigarettes on the street.
          And Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, who died in police custody in Texas.
          They all lost children, which is almost unimaginable. Yet they have not been broken or embittered. Instead, they have channeled their sorrow into a strategy and their mourning into a movement. And they are reminding us of something deep and powerful in the American spirit.
          By now, we all know the story of Flint, Michigan. How a city’s children were poisoned by toxic water because their governor wanted to save a little money. But there’s another side to the story in Flint. It’s a story of a community that’s been knocked down but refused to be knocked out. It’s hundreds of union plumbers coming from across the country to help install new water fixtures. It’s students raising funds for water deliveries and showing up in Flint to distribute supplies. It’s the United Auto Workers and General Motors donating millions of dollars.
          We know there are many other Flints out there. Communities that have been left out and left behind. But for every problem we face anywhere in America, someone somewhere is working to solve it. Our country was built by people who had each other’s backs; who understood we all have to do our part, and that at our best we all rise together.
          Imagine what we can all build together, when each and every American has the chance to live up to his or her potential.
          Imagine a tomorrow where no child grows up in the shadow of discrimination or under the specter of deportation.
          Imagine a tomorrow where every parent can find a good job, and every grandparent can enjoy a secure retirement.
          Imagine a tomorrow where hard work is honored, where families are supported, and where communities are strong; when we trust and respect each other despite all that divides us.

          It sounds like “Imagine What We Can Build Together” is going to be a new theme.

  3. Instant analysis:

    President Obama’s Job Approval Among Democrats:

    Pollster Trend

    Approve 80.6%
    Disapprove 16.4%

    You can’t run against the policies of a popular sitting president of “your” party. Period.

      • One of the things that struck me was the size of the women’s vote. We know that historically, women vote in large numbers and that was the case in South Carolina.

        If Hillary continues to focus on issues that resonate with women, she will do well in the fall.

        • Agree.
          The meme of all younger women are “not” for her is also clearly not true – if you look at 30 down.

          Hard to believe Super Tuesday is almost here – the polling averages are very interesting

          • The only demographic that Sanders clearly won is white men who called themselves “independent”. Wonder why? (just kidding, I don’t wonder why).

            The libertarian white male vote feels a big berning hatred for women and civil rights laws. The Paulistas found a champion.

  4. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 36 F. here on a blue-skied, sunny morning in NoVa, going up to 61 F. this afternoon.

    Wow, what a difference a day makes! Our candidate did splendidly, as we hoped she would. As the trad. media can’t trot out their usual tired line of “Secretary Clinton narrowly edges Sanders in South Carolina,” they’re huffily focusing on the Toddler Triumvirate. One does hope this spells the end of the Rethug party, and good riddance to bad rubbish.

    A friendly rabbit came over yesterday and helped me start a new, much better-looking Web site. I uploaded the January and February stories to the “Recent posts” section and get this—even though the site hasn’t gone live yet, a couple of people read the stories and decided to “follow” my blog! Weird. We are using WordPress, the rabbit having successfully overcome my objections to it. He left me with lots of homework to do in advance of our meeting Wednesday morning.

    [Thought: It looks so simple, now that he’s explained things. It was the thought of doing it in the first place that was so intimidating. Like all clueless oldsters, I suffer from the “Press one wrong button and the thing will blow up” syndrome.]

    • Ha!! I am glad you went with WordPress. You will be SO happy to be on a platform that has millions of users and lots and lots of people who know how to create and manage web sites using their tools. You will no longer be at the mercy of those who know the arcane web coding techniques that your previous two sites employed.

      PLUS you are already familiar with it from moosing. Win win.

      You can blow up a WordPress web site with one button, by the way. I did it once and it was the worse feeling. Fortunately, I had kept good notes on my customizations and was able to recreate it. I think that most themes have the button better hidden now. ;)

  5. Not watching MSNBC on weekend mornings is really throwing off my timing. Today, I have church, then I’ll make lunch for next week — a salad with beets, kale, black beans & quinoa. And laundry & taking out the recycling (how can one person accumulate so much recycling??)

    • Are you boycotting? I was reading about the dustup and it appears that MSNBC is claiming that MHP was “insubordinate”. I think that translates to “uppity” … when one of the “brown bobble-heads” doesn’t say “yes, massa”.

      • Well, without the joy & nerdiness of the MHP show, there’s no point. I doubt MSNBC would even know if I’m not watching, but it’s just too depressing. I actually had a twitter exchange with the (sympathetic) host of one of the CNN shows yesterday & I’ll be tuning in to his show this morning.

        You’re on Twitter, right? Check out the #nerdland stream – lots of people talking about how mad/sad we are & what to do next.

  6. Morning all! Great night last night! Hillary just crushed Bernie, and so naturally I expected to see her in the morning news talk lineup, but no, of course, it’s Sanders on MTP. faugh.

    I was following GOS and Twitter last night, so I saw almost as soon as he said it Sanders’ incredibly tone deaf remark in Minnesota, in his speech there to supporters: “There’s no way we’re going to lose Minnesota. I can see that. You’re just too smart.” Are you kidding me?!!!! Ok, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and not call this racist – but these were ALL Democrats voting overwhelmingly for Hillary, and they were apparently just dumb? Because they were, I don’t know, women? Southerners? I was completely amazed at the tone deafness of this – and if Hillary had said something like that, the media would be ALL OVER her for 24 hours. I’ve not seen ONE WORD about it in the news this morning. The double standard continues.

    I think it will all be over if not by this Wednesday, certainly after the March 15 races. The question then is who will she be running against? Trump this morning apparently refused to reject the support of the KKK, saying “I know nothing about white supremacists.” Really, the Donald? You are an adult in America and you claim you don’t know anything about David Duke or white supremacy? What an unremitting liar this joker is. Rubio, of course, is at his core not any better, but he’s prettier and can be managed by handlers a bit better, so I might be more worried about him. Still, I think Hillary can take either one of them.

    Everyone have a great day!

    • The Bernie comment was quite outrageous … I suspect it simply leaked out of his thought bubble. I don’t think it is racist as much as regionist; Northern liberals have a nasty habit of trashing the South – which may contribute to their disdain for us, don’t ya think? I know some people who tell me that they are treated differently because of their Southern accent. Right before the 2012 election, there were some front page posts at the GOS talking up the idea of letting the South secede because they were so useless to our country and our party. Sigh.

      What happened last night is Democrats rejected Bernie Sanders, not “dumb Southerners”.

      • I’m one of those people who tell you I was treated differently – in Madison, WI – because of my not-really-strong Southern accent. It was automatically assumed that I was: 1) dumb and 2) racist. Too bad for Bernie. I vote.

  7. Good morning, 53 and raining in Bellingham today. When I add up the hours I slept a lot last night, but the tossing and turning in between has me feeling tired and sleepy this morning. So I’ll ease into the day……maybe another nap will help.

    Neil Gaiman gave this lecture in 2013, but I enjoyed reading it this morning…..

    Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

    It’s important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased. A declaration of members’ interests, of a sort. So, I am going to be talking to you about reading. I’m going to tell you that libraries are important. I’m going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I’m going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things.

    I was planning to finish the Malazan book, Reapers Gale last night, but several characters are in mortal danger and Erickson’s writing makes the stories all to real. So I need to read during daylight hours where it’s safer, lol!

    • Hi, princesspat! Thanks for the quote from Neil Gaiman, particularly this:

      I’m going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do.

      You betcha! Also, too, look for my new story, “Temps in the Eighties,” here on the Moose, coming soon.

      Enjoy your reading of Reapers Gale in broad daylight—I know the feeling of not wanting to read certain things just before bedtime. :)

  8. A very good day-after-the-SC-primaries to you! :) I was asking for 20%+ but the Lady knows what’s in our hearts, doesn’t She? Started the day at 56 and sunny, it is now 59 and so overcast I brought the clothes back in – still damp so they’re on racks in front of the fire after all. But hey, I hit 16.1 KWHs total for yesterday, highest since last September, and it only took a couple of KWHs to push me over 300 for the month, with Leap Day left to go.

    Thanks for the video Jan – with everybody else I want to read the words, but with Hillary I want to hear her voice. I am proud of her, I am in awe of her. Even with a cloudy day, it’s a great way to start the week. {{{HUGS}}} to everybody in Moosylvania.

    • You know, I am very much one who wants to read the words but usually for someone who I already know how she or he speaks (I imagine their voice in my mind when I read – is that possible?). I am not familiar enough with how Hillary emotes so I need to watch and listen, at least for now. Also, some of her speeches show great passion … the 5 mothers portion of her speech you could see moved her. The words are great, too, because I like to report on what I see and hear!

      • I also “hear” the voice if I know what the voice sounds like (not good if it’s somebody like W) but prefer to read the words. But with Hillary, she’s finally letting the person I’ve always known her to be stand up and be heard and I want to hear that. Last time she let Bill’s team guide her campaign but what works for Bill does not work for Hillary. Now she’s made her own choices and is putting out for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear the loving care and concern for just about everybody that has guided her career since she went as a law student to MWE and asked for an internship (which she found the funding for herself as CDF didn’t have it). I want to hear that.

  9. Good morning Meese
    Had a very nice meetup in NYC yesterday. Will be doing some chores today – and paper grading.
    46 degrees here, going up to 53 – yay

    Did not watch Oscar’s.
    Time to go make coffee.

  10. Good morning, meese! Leap Day Monday …

    It is 32 degrees in Madison on its way up to 43. Tonight a winter storm warning is in effect – our temperatures will plummet into the 20s and 4-6 inches of snow are expected by Tuesday morning.

    I’m too busy to stay long but watching the implosion of the Republican Party over the Trump nomination is like watching a slow motion train wreck … one that started with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, moved to Reagan’s embrace of the religious right, then the Atwatering of our political discourse and eventually the tea party. Now the party is the home of angry white people, racists, homophobes, nativists and cranks. Who could have predicted that a billionaire entertainer with no moral compass would mesmerize the base and, like a Pied Piper, get the rats to follow him blindly. I hope they follow him off the cliff.

    For every Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and David Duke that Donald Trump brings into the fold, there is a Senator Ben Sasse (R?-NE) saying he won’t vote for Trump. I personally think he is lying because when push comes to shove, if there is anything we know about the modern GOP it is always party over country.

    See all y’all later!!

  11. Happy Moon Day, Moosylvania! ‘Tis a balmy 50 F. here in NoVa, going up to 59 F. today. Feeling pumped by the voting results in SC, looking forward to Super Tuesday tomorrow.

    The dreadful little dog who lives in our house stole an entire, unopened loaf of bread off the counter yesterday, scratched through the plastic, and ate most of the loaf. He has been suffering from carbo overload ever since.

    Lots of work to do today, including a visit to Apple to help me with my storage problem. I hate to start paying for storage every month—after all, I’m on a fixed income. There must be something I can do to rearrange stuff, so we’ll see. On the home front, need to work on the Web site and the usual stories-in-waiting.

    Wishing a good day to all!

  12. No sweater this morning. Sandals & short sleeves. Way too early for this weather. Eating oatmeal & drinking tea. Looking forward to lunch. There’s a kale/beet salad that my grocery store has that I love. I decided to try & re-create it, and make it into a meal. So I cooked some quinoa, put some beets in the food processor, tore up 2 bunches of kale & mixed that all together with some black beans. Sauce is tahini, Bragg’s, vinegar & beet juice. It seemed good yesterday, hope the flavors all blended well overnight.

    Had a U2 earworm till I opened up a tab for youtube & it had Disappear sitting right there. Gee, you’d think the site knows me or something.

  13. Morning all! Dee, glad you had a good time in NYC yesterday! I didn’t watch the Oscars either, although I had my Twitter feed up so it was alerting me to the big wins anyway. Sounds like Chris Rock did a good job skewering Hollywood racism in casting, directing and production.

    I don’t really believe this “Republican Party tearing itself apart” narrative either, Jan – I agree with you that when push comes to shove, the establishment Republicans will vote for Trump believing they can keep him line. There may be some Republican women out there who can’t stomach voting for him, but I think they are few and far between. Trump IS the Republican ID, he’s just a more vulgar version of Rubio, Cruz and the rest of them. And I don’t think he’s going to be a pushover in the fall, either – Democratic turnout has GOT to be higher than it has been in the primaries, or we’re in trouble. I do think more people will turn out to vote in the general – although I see no signs of a Feel The Bern young people’s crusade out there so far. We’ll see what the numbers look like the rest of the spring.

    Speaking of which, it’s my spring break this week, but I have work to do, recording makeup lectures – fortunately, as I am a gamer like Dee, I have a headset so I can just record right here on my computer and upload it to my class website for my students. Easy peasy!

    Everyone have a great day!

    • I wouldn’t read too much into the low primary turnout. It is likely that people assumed that Hillary Clinton was the nominee and were a bit surprised that there was a competitive primary happening. They did not stay home in South Carolina.

      There are enough theoretical Democratic votes to put Hillary over the top in the fall but we have no idea what impact the negative campaign run by Sanders will have on voter enthusiasm and turnout (did you see that his supporters are badgering the Super Delegates? Sheesh.) We need more people willing to crawl over broken glass to get to the polls on 11/8 and I am not sure yet that will happen in large enough numbers. But time heals all wounds and there should be a lot of motivation to vote if Trump is the nominee. All the GOP candidates are bad but he is a special flavor of bad.

  14. Happy Leap Day to the Meeses. 34 at dawn heading for 70 and sunny this 5th and last Monday in February. Yesterday’s mostly cloudy still got enough electricity to put my month’s total over 300. We shall see what another day of sunshine does for us. :)

    I agree that Trump will be hard to beat (although I bet Hillary can do it) but the person to watch for will be his veep pick. Trump is lazy. Running for president is fun. Being president is work. Should he, goddess forbid, win in November I’m betting he’s going leave running the country to the veep and the Rs know it. If he chooses somebody they can deal with, they’ll all line up like the good little soldiers they are and vote the straight R ticket. If he chooses somebody they can’t deal with, they’ll either stay home or vote for Hillary.

    I’m having serious trouble with my home computer. I can’t open anything – trying to causes a run-time error that automatically reboots the computer. (I can’t even get a screen shot of the error – it locks everything.) I’ve been able to get places by clicking the icon/link on the bar at the bottom of the screen but that’s it. It also happens randomly at least once every couple of times I log on (so much more frequently now I’m logging on daily while Trish is sick). I may have to give up and get something new a year or so ahead of my plans. Especially since I want to get somebody to teach me how to do Pootie Diaries while I’m at NN. I’m afraid I’ve lost all my saved LTEs I was hoping to dust off and update for future use. There’s not much else on my hard drive – some old radio shows in MP3 format I’ve still got the discs for and some pictures of my Austin grandsons I still have the thumbdrive for – but those letters are probably gone. Anyway, once the emergency with Trish is over and we start fundraising, I’ll know what my finances will be for getting something. I’m thinking of a laptop (but I hate mousepads) – any advice would be great appreciated. Thanks and {{{HUGS}}}

    • Hi, bfitz! Sorry to hear about your computer. Well, a laptop uses a lot less energy, which is something that may interest you, so that’s one thing.

      I also hate whatever-it-is that laptops use for a mouse. I have my MacBook Air set up like a desktop. I type 100 words a minute, so I don’t want to be banging away at a slippery little laptop keyboard. For serious work, I use a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse. My laptop sits on a little stand. If I knew how to put a photo in a comment, I’d attach a picture.

      Of course, if I travel, I’ll use my laptop as Apple intended, but at home I’ve got the setup I need. :) Hope this helps.

      • Am I going to have to change to Apple if I get a laptop? I’ve never used Apple products and the fact that I use a Dell desktop for work (and I confuse easy when it comes to computer stuff) was part of the reason I was hoping I could wait until I retire. sigh.

    • Have you tried going back to an old restore point? I sounds like an update may have altered something on your system.

      While you are at work, google: “Go back to restore point on Windows” and you should find a step by step guide that you can print out and follow when you get home.

      • I’m not sure how far to take it back. It’s been going on for a long time – like months at least because I know I meant to ask my Austin son to look at it when they were up here last December 5th-6th but we never had time. I’ve just put up with it since I usually only log in once or twice to check email on weekends, but it’s just been getting worse. To the point I really don’t know if it will reconnect itself to the internet when I log in tonight. But I will at least look up the restore and take the notes home.

        I am going to want your advice on what to get when I get that laptop. You know what kind of system I’ll need to be able to do pootie diaries and while the IT guys here would probably know they won’t know what a pootie diary is :) As a university employee I can get a discount at the University Computer Store but I’ll also check around to see if it’s worth it. heh. Thanks, bf

  15. Good morning, 43 and sunny in Bellingham. We have a busy morning with the pool for me and the unpleasant but necessary bi annual colonoscopy for Ron. The care and keeping of our 70+ yr old bodies is what we do now.

    I finished my book yesterday, and now I’m trying to find my way back to real life. I need to check the guest room though because in my dreams I tucked a favorite character into bed for safe keeping….it all seemed very real, lol!

    • LOL, princesspat! I’ve had that happen to me—the characters in the book seemed so real that I wanted to rush over to first-century Palestine and start partying with them!

      I love it when fiction carries one away, don’t you? But yes, coming back down to earth is hard. Have a good day. Poor Ron—I had one of those late last year and hated every single second of the whole thing, the wretched Before, and the During.

  16. Dave Zirin (can you believe I follow a sports writer???) wrote this great piece about the MHP debacle at MSNBC:

    https://twitter.com/EdgeofSports/status/704361515374276608

    favorite bit:

    <

    blockquote>A nameless exec, speaking to the Washington Post called her a “challenging and unpredictable personality.” It is certainly true that Melissa fought for her vision of what she wanted the show to be but it is difficult to imagine that a white, male host would be attacked so personally and called “challenging and unpredictable” for exhibiting similar behavior.

      • how long did they put up with actually bad behavior from Keith Olbermann? (I had a huge crush on KO, but reading about his behavior, it seems he’s a bit of a jerk)

  18. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It it 22 degrees in Madison on its way up to 25. Morning snow showers are lingering. It looks like the main snow band went north and south – we just have a dusting.

    It is not just Tuesday but Super Tuesday!

    All eyes will be, quite frankly, all over the place! Democrats and Republicans will both caucus and primary, Southern states, Northern states – 12 states in all. Can Cruz resurrect his campaign? Can Rubio show the GOP elite that he is their boy? Will Democrats from the Democratic Party Wing of the Democratic Party come out in force again, like they did in South Carolina, and deliver delegates to Hillary Clinton so that she can pivot more of her time and resources to the general election? A lot will be answered in about 16 hours.

    Lots going on – and not going on – at the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas spoke for the first time in 10 years, complaining that Maine won’t let domestic abusers have their guns. I am not sure what I find more offensive, that people still think that “domestic violence” should be treated differently from any other sort of violence against persons … or that the NRA is pushing these gun rights cases to the degree that they think it is okay for men who abuse their wives to have access to weapons despite statistics showing that women are 15 times likely to be killed with a gun after an incident of abuse.

    And the 8 person court just refused to hear an appeal that was blocking cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay:

    The court’s decision not to take up the case, brought by the American Farm Bureau Federation and other agriculture and business interests, means that a lower court’s decision last July, which found that the effort is legal, stands. The cleanup effort, called the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint sets a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for how much nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution can enter the bay. Under the TMDL, these forms of pollution would be cut by 20 to 25 percent.

    Attorneys General from all over the country had joined the lawsuit in anticipation of a sympathetic hearing on the right to poison the water. I am beginning to suspect divine intervention in the current makeup of the court as cases are being settled and rejected that are resulting in big wins for the people. I will let you know for sure after tomorrow’s hearing on the Texas TRAP laws. The president will be meeting with Senate leaders today about the impending SCOTUS nomination.

    See all y’all later!!

    • Thanks Jan.
      I wonder if some Republicans are regretting the optics (and how that will translate into votes) of blocking the POTUS from a nominee hearing for SCOTUS?

      We shall see.

      • We shall indeed. It is possible that the wins we are racking up with an 8 person court are reminders of the importance of that deciding vote and will make the Republicans dig in their heels. This is such a desperation move, though, because SCOTUS will be a big campaign issue and there are at least 5 races with endangered Republican Senators. We only need net 4 to flip the Senate assuming we win the presidency (and if we don’t, it won’t matter as far as SCOTUS nominations go). So they are putting all their eggs in the retaining the Senate and winning the presidency basket.

  19. Good Morning Meese.

    Today kicks off the start of Women’s History Month.
    Of course it is also Super Tuesday – I am going to need body armor and some tranquilizing tea to make it through the online responses later this evening.
    The reactions from certain segments of the left to the SC win – are probably going to get worse.
    Sigh.

    • Women’s History Month!! Thanks for the reminder.

      It is sad to think that so much racial animus still exists – in our own party! How do we end up with white versus black on progressive blogs? That is so 2011!! ;)

      I noticed that Elizabeth Warren is being BernieBro’ed. There was a very realistic mock-up of a NY Times newspaper page that showed her endorsing Bernie Sanders and when it was exposed as a fake, I guess it must have led to a psychotic break – someone reported that she got thousands of death threats on her Facebook page. Sigh.

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