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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Good morning, 42 and cloudy in Bellingham. Between the time change, being tired from minding my company manners, and another unsettling wind storm I was awake when I should have been asleep and now I’m late for the pool.
Fortunately the wind was just noisy, we didn’t lose power, our trees are still standing, and I can take a nap after my pool time. Hope it’s an easy Monday for all!
A friend who lives outside of Seattle said that she lost power this morning.
Stay safe!!
Ides of March!
Primary day -My eyes are on Florida. Bye bye Rubio.
Today is also GOS’ stop the hate mandate day.
Have school. Drinking coffee , reading news.
Good morning.
The best Tweet I saw yesterday about Rubio:
I need our primary to be over, Dee. The awful things that Bernie Sanders and his supporters are planting in the brains of people cannot be washed away; they are sticky – and sticking – mainly because they grab ahold of the burned-in right-wing narrative that has been set regarding Hillary Clinton over the past 25 years. I was listening to my lefty radio station yesterday and a Berned caller went into a tirade about Clinton, calling her a liar and dishonest. The talk show hosts did nothing to correct him and that is a big deal. Bernie himself will not be able to endorse Hillary when his campaign is finally mathematically eliminated because he can’t unsay the things he has said and can’t walk back his criticism because it defines his candidacy: the politics of revolution – toss in a molotov cocktail – Bern it down – to hell with any collateral damage.
By the way, I fully expect his supporters to go to the convention and claim that they were cheated by the whoevers (“millionaires and billionaires and Wall Street!!”) and make a spectacle of themselves as the adults try to pivot to the general election. :(
Oh dear – didn’t even think about them acting out at the convention. Sigh.
I hope someone somewhere is preparing for that eventuality.
All you have to look at is the Iowa caucuses and last weekend’s Polk County delegate assignment process to see that #BernItDown is more important than #BuildItUp as far as the Democratic Party goes. JHC!! They are fighting a death match over 2 or 3 delegates!! They seem unable to let go of any perceived insult or understand the rules of delegate selection. Yes, it is arcane but it is what it is. Get over it.
Bernie will not have any power to stop his supporters from trashing the convention because his words over the past 30 years have shown his disdain for both parties and any overtures will sound hollow to his PUMA 2.0 supporters.
I am sure you saw the Politico Magazine article from earlier this month that is making the rounds again in light of Bernie Sanders’ not-stunning-at-all admission that he is only running as a Democrat because it gives him access to money and media.
Every Democrat in the Democratic Party wing of the Democratic Party needs to read that and ponder what it means to their party going forward if the nominee is someone who hates the Democratic Party and wants to bring it down (but after he sucks it dry).
From that March 1st article:
Suck it up, use your enemy, the Democratic Party establishment, to get your message out … and if you Bern it down, who cares, you hate the damn thing anyway. :(
Yeah – I saw it and it burned me up.
Opportunism – in spades.
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 43 degrees in Madison on its way up to 56. Afternoon thunderstorms are in the forecast.
Here are my predictions:
– FL, NC easy Clinton wins
– IL very close and not called until early morning
– OH, MO close but Sanders wins
– Hillary will walk away with more delegates but not as many as she hoped for. Here is the 538 chart again: Who’s On Track For The Nomination?. The number to watch is 365 … that number of delegates will keep her on track to 2025.5.
As far as the Republicans, I could not care any less. We will defeat whoever they nominate because their entire party – and every single candidate – is out of touch with ordinary Americans and the voters will “get” it. I wonder if folks realize that every time someone says the name of the front runner or vilifies him in an opinion column or calls him Nazi or hater it simply promotes him and his narrative. People need to stop and think about how their words feed his narcissism and buttresses his stump speech that “they” are out to get him, and by extension, his butthurt supporters.
Busy day here! I want to get some work done so that I can stay up late watching election returns tonight without worrying about getting up at the crack of what-used-to-be-dawn.
See all y’alls later!
Good morning. It’s 6:54 a.m. and still dark outside, ugh. It’s supposedly going to be rainy this morning but I can’t tell whether it is or not.
Will be following the primaries with interest, of course. Didn’t watch the town halls last night because I’m so fed up with the whole thing.
Yesterday was very tiring because I was taking care of Babylicious all day. I’d forgotten how one can’t get anything done when looking after a toddler. I was thrilled to learn he can say several words—apple, milk, okay, no, and uh-oh! That’s in addition to Mami and Daddy, of course. Whatever was responsible for his elevated temperature must have been gone by yesterday because he was as lively as a kitten!
Hope to get some writing done today. The foot still hurts and partly because of that I woke up at 4 a.m. Dearly also woke up so we had morning tea at 5 a.m. instead of the usual 7 a.m.! Weird. Wishing all at the Pond and Beyond a good day.
The town hall was run by Tweety! I will never willingly watch Chris Matthews and when he comes on MSNBC, I either mute (if I think someone else’s face will come on soon) or change the channel (if it looks like he is the main host). Life is too short.
Looking at Cook Report delegate targets Hillary needs 311 to stay on target (if I did the math correctly)
Not sure where the difference comes in between Silver and Cook – so will keep an eye on both numbers.
I think that Nate set those targets at the beginning of the primary season and has not given her “credits” for where she exceeded the targets – probably so he is able to track his own projections. She is currently at 113% of the total he expected her to have at this time. That gives her a little cushion but I would prefer she not use it up.
Record breaking heat again today. 94. In mid-March. Ugh.
I wrote a diary at the orange place about a voter registration app: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/15/1501524/-Voter-Registration-there-s-an-app-for-that?_=2016-03-15T05:00:07-07:00#comment_60330950
It has several links, so I don’t know if I can re-do it here. Anyway, the app sounds interesting, done by Voto Latino, to encourage people to ask others to register.
head is playing Lips Like Sugar, a song that makes me weirdly happy – it’s not a super happy song, so I don’t know why
Links transfer just fine – it is the videos and photos that need to be redone.
ok, I have just enough time before work to copy it over here
or not — I’ve tried to copy & paste, it’s ignoring me…… I can re-type it, it’s not that long, I’ll try again at lunch
If I have time, I will scrape it off the page and post a draft for you here. Check your drafts when you get back and see if it is there.
UPDATE: I put the text in and also added the photo you wanted. Ready to Publish!
thank you!!!! It looks way better in purple!
Purple is a more pleasing background. :)
thanks – shared it!
65 at dawn – today’s low is supposed to be tomorrow’s high but we get another “early summer” day before dropping back into Spring. Got 18.75 KWHs yesterday, best since last September, which helps after last week’s cloudiness – as of last night my total for the month is 155 KWHs. The buds on my cherry tree are getting ready to flower. The tree has a fungus which is slowly killing it, darn it, but it’s still trying to give me cherries every Spring. I don’t know if there will be enough for a batch of jam this year, but barring a sudden “killing” frost I’ll have my daily fruit ration from my own back yard in mid-May.
May or may not try to find a video of Hillary last night – I do love watching her interact with folks from the audience but I’ve got a bunch of stuff I really have to do today including a training session on the new car rental program in Travel. And I’m really tired of seeing her attacked by the moderators, overtly or covertly. I think she’ll widen the delegate lead tonight which is mostly what I care about. I don’t know what we’re going to even be able to do about Bernie’s supporters – but I’m not really worried about the convention floor. Berniebros are online activistists, they haven’t signed up to be delegates to the county and state conventions. Hopefully the local police can handle the folks outside without looking like they did back in 1968 (or with the Occupy movement for that matter) – not holding my breath there. Bernie himself, being a politician, I think will grudgingly endorse Hillary because he wants to keep his plush committees – but it will be grudging, he won’t do any campaigning for her, and he won’t even try to rein in his supporters. But since most of his supporters aren’t really pro-Bernie so much as Anti-Hillary I don’t think it will make that much difference. Hillary – and we – will just have to work harder.
Hope everyone has a lovely Ides of March {{{HUGS}}}
Don’t go looking for the videos! It is not worth having to see Chris Matthews’ punchable face. People I know who watched it said he was completely disrespectful as one would expect from a guy who was George W. Bush’s main cheerleader.
Good point about the BernieBros – they prefer fighting their battles on Twitter where there are no rules about civility or truth or any of those other “quaint” notions. They would not even know how to wage a floor fight or a credentials battle. But I do expect many of them to pout aggressively. :)
Good morning, 42 and raining in Bellingham. I’l be in medical land for most of the next two days as it’s time for the follow up tests for the kidney cancer/surgery I had last year. I don’t expect any problems but I’ll be glad when the tests are all over.
And then there’s the primary tonight. I’ve got plenty of laundry to do so that will settle my nerves. I’ll probably even get the ironing done!
Morning all! Beautiful here today – sunny but not too warm, a cool breeze blowing. So no weather excuse for anyone who hasn’t voted yet.
I did watch the Hillary portion of the town halls last night, and while Matthews was annoying, Hillary was great – it’s worth watching just to see her correct him on the results of the Iowa caucus lol. In a way he gave her a chance to swat down a lot of Berner memes that have been following her around – she didn’t give an inch on the Iraq vote/Syria questions, and at the end of the exchange, Matthews said “Wow, I have to say, you’re ready to be commander in chief”. It was fine and worth watching. Certainly nothing as cringe worthy as some of Bernie’s moments, which I did not watch, but have read about – the “I’m only a Democrat for the press exposure” moment for example. As you say Jan we all knew this already, but it might have come as a bit of a shock to people paying less attention. He also assumed a questioner from the audience was Muslim and the young man had to correct him and say no, Sikh – now, I didn’t watch it but I don’t think the man was wearing a turban, so it might not have been easy to tell. What would have been easy would be to ask the young man where his family was from or other questions to determine his religion and ethnicity – Bernie’s just not too good at that.
What I’m really boiling about is Jane Sanders’ visit with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you know, the racist birther conspiracy dude in Arizona? Twitter exploded about it last night, but in the news? Nary a peep. Here’s what I wrote on the Hillary thread lsat night about it.
I broke down and sent a contribution to Al Giordano’s journalism efforts and got his comprehensive projections for today – he’s saying big wins in Florida and NC and narrower win in Ohio for Hillary, Sanders probable win in Missouri, and Illinois too close to call mostly because of the unpredictability of Sanders’ shrewd campaign against Rahm Emanuel in Chicago. He is interestingly focused on the Jewish vote in Florida and Ohio in particular – he thinks those voters will go big for Hillary. He’s projecting Hillary will net at least 49 more delegates than Sanders even if Sanders wins Illinois and narrows the gap in Ohio – she’d be up by over 290 delegates over Sanders. His final delegate projection has Hillary finishing today with a 316 delegate lead over Sanders, 1167 or so total pledged for her. He’s been right in every race except Michigan so far, and his newsletter goes into his adjustments in light of Michigan, so I’m hoping he’s got this one covered!
Ok everyone, big day and night – everyone have a great one!
Thank you for sharing a bit of Al’s forecast! A win in Ohio would do a lot to tamp down the anti-Hillary momentum that seems to be building up in the media. A splash of cold water would do everyone good. I hope that the March 15th results are enough to turn your orange experience a little more pleasant. It sounded like the site owner was willing to rethink his deadline if results were not definitive.
I am very sad about what is happening in Illinois. It is the worst sort of lie to tie Hillary to Rahm – not much different than the right-wing tying Barack Obama to Bill Ayers. The president was at a fund raiser in Texas and said that he will be campaigning for the Democratic nominee later in the year: I wish he could have endorsed Hillary so that his home state would vote for the Democrat, not the opportunist.
Thanks for getting Al – I wish I could afford it – I used to send money to The Field
People who used to love him at orange are trashing him because he has been attacking the racism and sexism – and does not tolerate the b-Bros. Al is actually farther left than all of them – and has the record and cred to prove it.
Getting ready to settle in for an evening of election returns. First up will be Ohio and NC at 7:30 Eastern, then Florida, Illinois and Missouri at 8pm Eastern (Florida had 10 counties in the Central Time Zone).
I hope we can gather here in the a.m. in celebration!!
Great speech as Hillary pivots to the general election.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?406676-1/hillary-clinton-primary-night-speech
I won’t be in early because I’m still up at 1:45am savoring FIVE FOR FIVE FOR HILLARY!!!! What a great night! Talk to you guys later today lol
I stayed up until 9pm and thought that Hillary would win Illinois and lose Missouri. I simply cannot believe 5 for 5. Holy mackeral!!
I fell asleep before MO came in – am now going to celebrate a bit – but avoid the CT folks who are coming up with a host of specious reasons to explain Sanders inability to even pull off one impressive win.
The math-challenged can keep on spending their money to support BS – it would be nice if they would throw that money to our Senate races – but that would be asking for people to think logically.
I’m just going to try to put them all on a mental “ignore”
Grinning here :)
Brief happy dance.
We still got a lot of work to do.
We have a ton of work to do. Now the stakes are sky high as it looks like we will be facing Donald Trump in the general election. He cannot be allowed to win.
Thankfully, there are few places where I am likely to run into people who will still be pushing the narrative that Sanders has a path to victory. I will be able to ignore them until they get past the denial stage of grief. Then we have to speak positively about our candidate and try to get them to understand how vital it is that everyone vote – there are 16 states with voter id requirements that did not have them in 2012 so we cannot count on 2012 turnout.
Well – the Tad Devine “win over the super delegates” is certainly an interestingly bizarre new wrinkle …
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
The guy who hates the Democratic Party is expecting to scoop up the endorsements of actual Democrats and has that as pathway to victory?? My oh my.
Good morning, meese! Wednesday …
It is 46 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 49. Morning rain will give way to afternoon wind with a high wind warning in effect. Sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts up to 50. Last night we had three waves of storms and so I probably got about 3 total hours of sleep. :(
Last night’s (and this morning’s!) results were better than expected. I can’t wait to read the commentary.
I created a CSPAN clip of what I thought was the strongest part of Hillary’s speech last night as she pivots to the general election, the reminder to wavering independent voters and those Republicans who are tempted to once again put party above country:
Rumor has it that the president will announce his Supreme Court pick today. That makes sense – SCOTUS is not in session so it would not politicize their work and the Senate is about to adjourn and they will head home to face the voters who are angry that they won’t even give a hearing to the president’s choice. Harry Reid will be giving a speech at the Center for American Progress today reported as “Harry Reid To Take A Blowtorch To GOP Leadership Over Donald Trump”. Ha! I heart Harry Reid.
I will post and liveblog the president if he makes the announcement today. They are down to three choices, any of whom would be an improvement over Antonin Scalia.
See all y’all later!!
Had to laugh at all the twitter pushback @Brit Hume Faux News for this:
“Hillary having a big night in the primaries. So she’s shouting angrily in her victory speech. Supporters loving it. What’s she mad at?”
They are so disrespectful. The media is going to help turn out the women’s vote with their full-throated misogyny.
Looking forward to more 11th Dimensional chess from POTUS on SCOTUS :)
We really have to make the R blockade a major issue
It will be a major issue. I understand that Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the DC Circuit may be offered as a compromise candidate. He is 63 so he is not likely to change the court for a generation (although our RBG turned 83 yesterday and shows no signs of slowing down!). Judge Garland was appointed by Bill Clinton and worked in the Clinton I Justice Department.
The announcement will come at 11am Eastern.
I hope it’s mentioned in every Democratic commercial!
My diary is up. I will do a purple version later today, as soon as my brain engages. I barely slept a wink last night. No particular reason, just couldn’t make my brain shut up. And it was all inane things, or stories…. I keep trying to tell my brain it can tell me stories while I sleep, they’re called “dreams”, but it insists on waking me up. Anyway, happy Wednesday. (it is Wednesday, right?)
Good Woden’s Day morning, Moosekind! It’s 44 F. now on a sunny day, going up to 73 F. later.
Happy day! I never expected Missouri, had to go to bed because we were both falling asleep in our chairs. So, so delirious! Hillary’s campaign asks me for money 18 times a day (despite the fact that $10 is taken from my account every month and I give at odd times as well), so perhaps I’ll give something. Today is payday for me.
Waking up at 5 a.m. yesterday ruined my whole day. Got nothing done except a little research. Today I have to do errands, so I’m not sure how much writing will happen.
Wishing a good day to all!
I have given up on trying to get anything done and will putter around all morning.
5 for 5! W00t! When I went to bed it was still too close to call IL and MO. But in El Mito’s 5th or 6th live blog we got a couple of nice Bernie people. One congratulated us and the other actually joined us. Said he/she’d voted for Bernie but Hillary was now the candidate. We welcomed both – even offered our sympathy as most of us know the feeling when our candidate loses. I think GOS will be safe to visit once Kos gets rid of the “bros”. I think.
38 this morning at dawn (and still) but the sun is up and that’s good. We’re looking at a potential freeze this weekend, hope it’s a light frost as my cherry tree is starting to bloom and one of my professors says her peach tree is in full bloom. Light frost for a few hours is no problem, but a hard freeze could wipe the entire tree fruit crop. Hold the good thought. Got a bunch of stuff done yesterday, but still have more to do. Need to track down a couple of receipts, 3 students still haven’t shown up to pick up interview packets for their diversity class, and I’ve got to get the new rental car information out to the faculty. Job security, right? Anyway, I will check back re: the SCOTUS appointment but need to get going.
Enjoy this lovely, hopeful, promising Woden’s Day. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 39, cloudy and very dark in Bellingham. I join everyone in feeling relieved and sleepy this morning. I’m longing for a cup of coffee but I’ve got a no food or water prior CT scan later this morning.
It’s fun to celebrate HRC’s success last night, but this endless primary isn’t over yet. Thinking about a Trump campaign, or of the R’s drafting Paul Ryan to run, and worrying about how Bernie will respond now kept me awake last night.
Nancy leTourneau, at the Wa Monthly…….
Another Super Tuesday
Yes, Paul Ryan “not ruling out a run” if the convention is deadlocked. Gak, that would be a disaster! We can beat Trump but Slickster Ryan lies with a smile and, in facts-are-for-chumps America, that is truly dangerous.
Those screams you hear in the middle of the night are coming from ME, having nightmares about Paul (“I look like a vampire”) Ryan’s becoming president.
Comfort me with tranquilizers. Or something.
I can’t help you … I have those same fears!!!
Thanks – just tweeted Nancy’s piece
Morning all! watching the President introduce Merrick Garland as his Supreme Court nomineee. Garland was a young partner at Arnold &Porter when I went there as an asssociate in 1987 – I wouldn’t say I knew him really, but I believe he was the partner in the section I was in (A&P usually put a young partner’s office in the neighborhood of young associates, I guess as kind of a hall monitor). I don’t know anything more than that about him other than what’s in the public record – I’ve seen him described as “not a liberal”, but without looking at his judicial record, I couldn’t say. At any rate, I’m afraid what he’s signed on for here is an exercise in frustration as I can’t believe the Republicans will allow ANY Obama nominee through. We’ll see. What’s he done in picking Garland is to set up an exemplary judge who moreover LOOKS JUST LIKE THE REPUBLICAN SENATE, who’s not too young so the Republicans can’t charge Obama with the “generational control” thing. Not that it will matter, they don’t care about being reasonable.
Last night was just wonderful – hanging in Twitter and in the Hillary diaries at DKOS, sharing updates, etc. It was great! But oh man, the sexism of the press response to Hillary is just a taste of what we’re going to see for the next at least 4 years – I don’t think it’s sunk in yet that we are going to have our first woman President. It’s Huuuuuuge!
I talked to a couple of guildies last night after our raid, which I came to late, who are big Sanders fans – I tried to be gentle, and they mostly accepted that it’s over, and they will vote for Hillary. But one of them kind of gave me an argument, and I didn’t exactly lose it, but I did say you see one side of Bernie Sanders, and I see another. I see an opportunist who has spit on the Democratic Party his entire political career but now is cynically using it for his own political ends. I was surprised at my own strong emotional reaction as I spoke – and I’m wondering if a lot of Democrats heard or read about Sanders finally admitting at that town hall that he only joined the Party for the money and the press exposure, and had the same emotional reaction as I did, even if they liked him. He’s going to keep going, of course – I’m sure Tad Devine and Jeff Weaver want their paychecks to keep coming, and they’ll keep milking gullible donors as long as they can. They none of them care about damage to the Party or to chances of defeating Trump (or Cruz or “shudder” Ryan) in the fall.
well, prep day for class tomorrow – doing it with a lighter heart today for sure. I’m With HER!
This: “I’m sure Tad Devine and Jeff Weaver want their paychecks to keep coming, and they’ll keep milking gullible donors as long as they can”. Grifters United. I wonder how long the Bernie supporters will keep pumping cash into the campaign.
Some very liberal people I know are unhappy with the Merrick Garland nomination. He seems like a decent man (he has a mother!!) and any justice will be an upgrade over Scalia … I trust the president on this. I doubt that he will be confirmed (I left some commentary in the Moose Front Page post) but he will certainly be a billboard for Republican obstructionism. When they diss him, that will leave the opening for Hillary Clinton to nominate a liberal justice in the Ruth Bader Ginsberg mold.
well. Here’s an expanded version of what I think about Merrick Garland and this nomination – I posted this at GOS too.
Well said! I understand that people wanted RBG’s ideological twin but that will not happen until we take back the Senate.
One of my friends is making the same point: Judge Garland is NOT a conservative and he is a good pick. That he is willing to be a sacrificial lamb says a lot about his belief in the institutions of government, that he will get an up or down vote … because that is how it is supposed to work. In a less toxic political environment, he would be confirmed in 10 days.
Good morning Meese
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Hmmm – half of my comment disappeared :)
Oh well.
In the not major news of the day I see that:
Cyndi Lauper Endorses Hillary Clinton for President
not that I care about celebrity endorsements – but it reminded me of one of my all time favorite duets
Also – today is Nat King Cole’s birthday
I blame leprechauns!!! They are notorious comment eaters!!!
My favorite leprechaun was in Finnian’s Rainbow :)
I wonder if any young people know about that show – which was very radical for it’s time.
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 39 degrees in Madison on its way up to 49. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast and it is still windy but not nearly as bad as yesterday when we had wind gusts into the 50s.
Today the House Committee to Find Fault With the EPA will be grilling EPA director Gina McCarthy and slathering warm wet kisses on Gov. Rick Snyder in a hearing on the Flint Water Crisis scheduled for 9am Eastern. It will be on C-SPAN and I may listen to it for a while.
I will fill in the front page post with more information about the Merrick Garland SCOTUS nomination along with updated video and transcripts. I am somewhat discouraged today that simple governance in teabag America is no longer possible: the Senate won’t even talk to the president’s nominee and the House won’t even read the president’s budget, or pass a reasonable one of their own. In the meantime, the vulgar talking yam is getting billions of dollars in free ads for being vulgar – and talking – and now that we have settled on a nominee the sexism is getting ramped up to a level that is drowning out civil discourse. I don’t know what the fix is or if there is a fix but it is getting difficult to live with.
p.s. #StillSanders? Really? Sigh.
See all y’alls later!