Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: March 20th through March 26th

March 20, 2016 JanF Community 170

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.

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61 Comments

  1. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 31 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 33. We are still in a Winter Weather Advisory as the radar shows a few purplish things on the Iowa-Wisconsin border headed this way. We got rain sleet and snow – and gloom of night!

    Yesterday I banked my votes for the April 5th primary. Because it is a secret ballot, I won’t tell you who I voted for. Ha!! By the way, a poll was released yesterday that showed Hillary Clinton winning in Wisconsin. I think it is an outlier because people here are definitely feeling the Bern. The Marquette Poll is due to be released on March 30th and that will tell us the real state of the race here. Gov. Walker will be endorsing Ted Cruz as the establishment has decided that they prefer to lose with the hateful guy who has been a Republican all his life (after he moved here from Canada!), over the hateful guy who talks about keeping Social Security and Medicare, as long as the “right” people get those benefits. And Paul Ryan is sorry that he called poor mothers “takers” and “leeches” after he found out that they might also be white!!! Screw you, Ryan, your fauxpiphany won’t save your shriveled soul. When you say “I will not vote for Donald Trump because he will be bad for the country”, then we will listen to you. Until then, they are just words from another worried Republican, who sees their party base shrink, not because you are all haters (you like that part!) but because that base found out that you have been lying to them about trickle-down economics. They finally figured out that they will never be one of those rich people who your party caters to using money from the 99.9%.

    To the surprise of no one, the independent investigation into the Flint water crisis found that State of Michigan officials are to blame.

    See all y’all later.

    • From the Stanford Daily
      http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/03/23/hillary-clinton-visits-stanford-addresses-counter-terrorism/

      A 24-hour planning period
      According to Chaney Kourouniotis, communications manager for FSI, the event came together in about 24 hours when the Clinton campaign reached out to Stanford following the bombings in Brussels.
      “The campaign contacted Stanford wanting to have the opportunity to participate here since it’s been our practice here at FSI to host a number of world leaders, U.S. leaders, former diplomats, people from all parts of the political spectrum,” Kourouniotis said.
      Because FSI has hosted high-level diplomats before, they were more accustomed to accommodating the security required for such an event. Nevertheless, Clinton’s address had an unusually short planning period.
      “This is probably one of the quickest times we’ve pulled it together for someone at this level,” Kourouniotis said.
      According to Kourouniotis, FSI felt honored to host the former Secretary of State. While none of the other current presidential candidates have spoken at Stanford during their campaign, FSI remains nonpartisan and is open to more guests.

      • I wondered how that transpired! All of a sudden, Hillary Clinton’s CSPAN page showed “Upcoming: Address on Counterterrorism”. I am glad she found a venue and one that is generally – we are looking at you, Condoleeza Rice! – filled with smart people.

        • That’s one of the reasons Hillary is the most qualified person to run for president EVER. She has so many contacts, has developed so many relationships with so many people and organizations – she can respond to practically anything at any time.

      • Of course, we are not a monolithic voting bloc but it shows the power that women have should they choose to exercise it. Democratic women have discovered that power, Republican women have ceded it to their menfolk.

        • Yes, I’m always dumbfounded that Republican women—the so-called “soccer moms” or “security moms”—vote Rethug. Do they simply ignore the antichoice, anti-contraception messages? Are they against women’s receiving equal pay for equal work? I just don’t get it.

          • Stockholm Syndrome? Or they really have bought into the notion that men are to rule the earth. Perhaps we should tell them about how matriarchal societies once flourished? That bright blue map looked happy and hopeful to me!!

  4. Super restless night last night. Woke up 3 or 4 times, then around 2am, thunderstorms. Yay. Thunder, lightning, hail…. And I was actually asleep when the alarm went off. My tea is not strong enough, because I’m not just eating the mix out of the jar. I’m so tired my brain isn’t even playing music at me.

    Watched Maddow cover the Alabama sex scandal last night. Yet another “family values” hypocrite. You’d thing people would learn that the louder one yells “family values”…… Or that the politicians/preachers, etc would learn to stfu about that stuff.

    Got word that my mortgage is going up drastically because they underestimated something or other. (I understood it yesterday when I read the letter, just no brain this morning) Calling the cable company & T-mobile to trim expenses. Glad I have a big jar of black beans & plenty of quinoa. Black beans with spinach & tomatoes with chiles is cheap, nutritious & yummy if I top it with avocado. And quinoa with vegetables & yogurt, also cheap (since I already bought the quinoa) & good. Once I get my bike from the shop, I need to start riding it to work. Both for the practice for the ride & because free transportation. Sigh.

    • You know, I really could not care less about what elected officials do with their weewees. But their transgressions are fair game when they are in a party that sanctimoniously claims that they are in office because their god chose them and who proceed to implement laws that put their bible over our constitution.

      I was extremely disheartened to see that North Carolina last night passed an anti-LGBT law in the name of “religious freedom”. Sigh.

    • I got so tired of my mortgage company pulling that crap on me, as soon as I could refinance I did so without the “escrow” option. I opened a separate checking account for taxes and insurance, had my direct-deposit pay split between the two, and paid them myself. Best wishes and good luck dealing with the mess.

  5. Good morning, Meese! It’s clear and lovely here in NoVa, 44 F. now, going up to 77 F. later. Yay, spring! I foresee tea on the screened porch this afternoon.

    Yesterday I pruned a couple of trees in the front and today I need to prune the backyard apple tree. We need to pull up all the dead chrysanths in the front yard too. The pansies came back and look so cheerful! I love those little things.

    After a seemingly endless round of emails exchanged with the publisher about the cover of my book, I think the issue is finally settled. Dear Goddess! Yesterday I wrote scenes 3 and 4 of the April Fiction Cafe story and did research on Granddaughter’s story, which is due April 7.

    Wow, every time I think the Rethug campaign can’t possibly sink any lower, I get a fresh surprise. Now Cruz Missal’s campaign has released a nude photo of Trump’s wife. Do you believe that? Cruz is the most vile—probably even more vile than Trump—politician on the scene today. What makes him even scarier than Paul Ryan is that Cruz wants a theocracy in this country.

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

  6. Started this Thor’s day at 40 and still there – cloudy so we may or may not make it to our predicted high of 55. Soloing at work today (why I’m late checking in – stuff and people to deal with practically as soon as I got my coffee) – but tomorrow will be off. Tomorrow will see my chiropractor which is good (messed my back up last week carrying in firewood) and then will take my older son out to dinner for his 45th birthday (actually Saturday, but his father will be in town then so I’m doing Friday).

    My night wasn’t quite as bad as anotherdemocrat’s but it wasn’t good. Rain and thunder started around 9, RazAlert (pronounced Raise Alert) and Code Red calls telling me of a tornado warning got me out of bed after 10 and the tornado sirens went off 3 times between 10:30 and 11:30. Followed that with a sinusitis attack. I think I got 4 hours of sleep after that. I think.

    Hope things clear up/clear off on all levels for everybody. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Gosh, bfitz! Hope you and anotherdemocrat can make up for your lost sleep tonight!

      We just received a fire warning in our area, owing to low humidity and high winds starting this afternoon. Rain coming in late tonight, though.

      Be safe! {{{Hugs!}}}

      • Glad you have rain coming through. We had a burn ban for several weeks in January. And probably will again later in the year. Do not like. You be safe, too.

  7. Good morning, 45 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham today. I’ve got a quiet day planned…..some time in my sewing room, some Easter errands, and a Dr. visit this afternoon.

    Some good news re cancer treatment…..

    Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is the launchpad of new cures

    Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, whom I met years ago, also knew that we must do better for patients. Against the odds, he pioneered bone-marrow transplantation at Fred Hutch as a cure for leukemia. Today, 1 million transplants have been performed worldwide.

    But even that is not enough. We can do better. And we are.

    For the first time in my career, due to the promise of immunotherapy — a treatment building on Dr. Thomas’ work harnessing the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer — I can see a tsunami of new cures for many cancers ahead.

  8. Is it a good day for bird pictures? To paraphrase Charlie Pierce, it’s always a good day for bird pictures!!

    PITTSFIELD, Vt. (CBS) – A rare and colorful sighting in Vermont has set New England bird watchers’ hearts aflutter.

    According to Kent McFarland, co-founder of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, a male Painted Bunting has been visiting feeders in Pittsfield.

    State records show there have been only six recorded sightings of the bird, which has a rainbow-colored appearance.

    The blue, green, red and yellow bird was first spotted in Pittsfield on March 16, and its sighting has bird watchers flocking to the area.

  9. Saw this on twitter
    A really great read
    Talking About Revolutions

    A snip;

    The path to revolution assumes that you can impose on a nation radical change. This radical change assumes that you have a majority of the people with you and that somehow the other side will not resist. The other side will succumb to your will because your will is the right one for your nation. Sure, revolutions have passion, fervor and zeal. But, they are short lived and divisive. When the other side resists, and it will, how will you deal with them and sustain the vision of the revolution? Revolutions are not sustainable, democracies are.

    To choose revolution you have to commit that your path is so right, so noble that you will defeat the others with all the means necessary — yes, I love Malcolm X. You have to assume that the legislative and judicial system will submit to your vision in unison. Revolution does not submit to small victories. Revolution needs true believers. People who will with a stern hand impose their agenda. Because, the minute you compromise, the minute you accept small victories, you will have a counter revolution from the new “truer believers” of the revolution.

    In the 2016 American Presidential election I hear talk of two revolutions, one from the left, Bernie Sanders and from the right, Donald Trump. Each of these sides has no appetite for the drudgery of democracy. They have no stomach for the compromisers. They have no patience with the small incremental changes within our existing system. They want to topple all the injustice in one election and they promise that the day after their election, the vision will transform all the injustices, all the pain and bring their vision into fruition. ( If it offends you that I put Trump and Sanders in one comparison, then I am sorry, but they both offer revolutions without compromise).

    • This: “no appetite for the drudgery of democracy”.

      It is boring and frustrating and often infuriating. But … 3 steps forward and 2 steps back is still progress and gathering together in political parties, not in the Staples Center waving signs, is how we do it. I am as liberal as the next person but sacrificing incremental change on the altar of purity is foolish and short-sighted.

  10. Nate has another map to share today, one that shows the state of the race right now:

    Pickups over the Obama 2012 win: AZ, GA
    Ones we get back, won in 2008, lost in 2012: NC
    With this map, SC is an island – a red pustule in a sea of blue.

    These are with Hillary as the nominee.

  11. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 21 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 47. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast. When I went downstairs and opened a blind, I saw the moon and realized I missed the full moon! We have not had clear skies for several days – she was full on Wednesday night and is already waning.

    I wonder if the full moon is making politicians even more unhinged. I am watching closely what Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia does. The reaction to the North Carolina anti-LGBT legislation was swift and furious – Deal has the advantage of seeing that nightmare unfold and having the opportunity to veto. Gov. Mike Pence just signed a law making it illegal to get an abortion based on discovered genetic abnormalities and declaring that fetal remains must be cremated or buried. I am sure the first is unconstitutional (nowhere in the Roe v Wade text does it say “right to 1st trimester abortion unless the pinhead governor of Indiana disapproves”) but the legal resources to fight all these battles are already stretched to the breaking point.

    Joe Biden spoke about the SCOTUS nomination and conceded that the choice was make in part to garner support from Republicans. The cracks in the wall of no-meetings no-hearings no-vote are getting wider with more Senators planning to meet and now a Republican Senator in a safe seat, Moran of Kansas, is calling for hearings. Apparently the “Do Your Job” meme is working to get under the skin of Republican deadenders – Chuck Grassley is no longer announcing where he will be running town halls more than a few hours in advance because he can’t handle the protesters. The meme works because Congress has a lower approval rating than venereal disease and people are sick of them collecting paychecks with little to show for it for the American people. I hope it means that they are also sick of the Republicans hijacking the levers of government for pure partisan political gain.

    Busy day here. See all y’all later!

  12. Dee’s check-in is here.

    Sorry, Dee, my fault for telling you to check the front page. You should go back to starting in the Welcomings link and I promise to tell you when there are new posts. :)

    • sigh – I get logged out and then have to refresh page and try a couple of times to get back on – don’t know if this is just a browser issue – am using Firefox.

      Am distracted atm National Enquirer is now trending on twitter with #CruzSexScandal and I have to watch :)

      • At least twice a week, I have to re-login. I think the problem is that WordPress cookies get overwritten and can’t find my stay-logged-in information. In the olden days, when there were only a few WordPress sites, it was less of a problem. But now lots of sites are using WordPress, and different versions, and I think that is confusing the software.

        I saw that headline and I refuse to believe that any woman would willingly have sex with Ted Cruz!! :)

      • No, Dee, the Moose is kicking me out too. I hate having to go to Safari “preferences” and remove ALL my website data. It means I have to log back in to every single website I visit and look up my passwords half the time.

        That’s why I’ve had a grudge against WordPress. It has behaved well for a surprisingly long time lately, though, and although I haven’t remarked on it here, I’ve been grateful.

  13. And it is back to cold. Had to wear real shoes and a jacket this morning. My allergies are killing me, wish I could find an allergy med that really worked.

    The top trending thing on Twitter is “Cruz sex scandal” — I really don’t want to know. Listening to my head play Everlasting Love for me, much better.

  14. Happy Freya’s Day, Moosekind! When I was Episcopalian this was called “Good Friday” (oh, the agony of kneeling for that 3-hour Good Friday service). We’re having hot cross buns for breakfast this morning. I still love the nursery rhyme:

    Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
    One a penny, two a penny
    Hot cross buns!
    If you have no daughters,
    Give them to your sons
    One a penny, two a penny
    Hot cross buns!

    Cloudy and 64 F. this morning in NoVa, although the promised rain has yet to materialize. The Night from Hell must have traveled from Austin to Fayetteville to here, because that’s what I had last night. Tossed and turned all night long, kept waking up again and again. I look like the Wrath of Goddess this morning. Tonight we’ll open the windows and see if that helps.

    Cannot BELIEVE the Cruz sex scandal! I mean, he looks like a weasel and speaks in a whine. Who’d…no, I’m not going there. I do love his burbling against Trump for the nasty tweets about Heidi Cruz—who started the whole thing by posting a nude photo of Melania Trump? Can you believe that a so-called presidential campaign has descended to this? It’s like a Berlusconi campaign!

    Should go shopping this morning but may stay home instead and work on short stories. April is looming. Wishing a good day to everyone at the Pond and Beyond!

    • I saw a picture of the National Enquirer story – there are five women. Five. And there’s a 500K check from Ted’s super pack to Fiorina’s….. this is getting really icky.

      • Just saw my first riff on “Cruz ship/ Love Boat” meme on twitter, I’m sure there will be many variations to follow.

    • A couple of amusing Tweets:

      Dana Houle ‏@DanaHoule
      Cruz prostitution scandal is much easier to believe than a Cruz consensual-sex-not-involving-exchange-of-money-or-favors scandal

      This one in reply to the “sniveling coward” Tweet made me laugh out loud!!

      pourmecoffee ‏@pourmecoffee 17h 17 hours ago
      You, sir, are a pigeon-livered muck snipe and I gainsay your indecorous twaddle.

      • Ah, pourmecoffee harks back to the days when insults had class – or at least indicated they were being made by someone with a decent vocabulary and a little imagination. :)

        Reminds me of the story about one time Lady somebody or other whose name I forget at the moment told Winston Churchill that if he were her husband she’d poison his coffee. His response was, “Madam, if I were your husband, I’d drink it.”

  15. Happy Freya’s Day Meeses. We started at 28, at 42 now and heading for 65 (maybe) with sunshine which I can use even though we can use some rain – what we got the other night was some rain but mostly wind. I think it’s the wind that messes with people’s sleep – the subconscious listening “just in case” or something.

    Home today and once it warms up I may go do some gardening. Maybe. I’ve got a chiropractic appt at 4 and my back isn’t happy with me right now so I may decide to let the yard to its own thing. Without some more rain to soften things up a bit I’m not getting the grass out of the front flower bed anyway.

    Went over to GOS and have enjoyed both of Dee’s diaries. Aretha Franklin is someone I admire for who she is and what shes done – even for what her music says – but I must admit I don’t like her music except when I’m in certain moods. As to the response to the idiots who say if Trump gets in we really will get our revolution – righteous rant and seriously appreciated. I couldn’t comment, in fact after trying to comment and then trying to refresh I couldn’t even reload it, it has so many comments in it, so I came back here to express my appreciation. (I well remember the same shit coming from the Nader supporters in 2000 and I well remember where that got us.)

    Hope everyone has a lovely day whatever that means to you. {{{HUGS}}}

    • OK – As I’ve gotten further into Dee’s diary, I take that back about only liking Aretha Franklin’s music in certain moods – She sang so much different stuff, there’s always something she did that I’m in the mood for. :)

      • She has such a breadth of styles/genres in her repertoire – and yet makes everything “hers”

        • She really did. Just for the heck of it, I listened to her “Bridge Over Troubled Water” then listed to the S&G version, then listened to the Willie Nelson version. Same song, but heavens what different meaning!

  16. Good morning, 42 and cloudy in Bellingham today. I’ve been looking for some good news to share, but alas, I can’t find any! So I’m going to the pool soon, then I’m going to retreat to my domestic bubble and hope the world sorts it’s self out without me monitoring it’s progress.

    Best Friday wishes to all.

  17. Hey all – bit late for good morning, I got up late and have been cruising twitter and GOS for a bit. My favorite thing so far is from the Jimmy Kimmel show last night – he “mansplained mansplaining” to Hillary, and it is so accurate it’s almost not funny. But it is great, and she’s great in the clip –



    It’s going to be a rough ride over at GOS for the next couple of weeks, at least until Hillary cleans up in NY – I commented on Dee’s diary yesterday about people threatening to vote for Trump if Bernie doesn’t get the nomination, because I was literally shaking with rage at the one commenter I responded to. Reading the rest of the nonsense responses she got almost made me ill. And this was all from people are nominally on the same general side as us on the issues! Sanders just more and more disgusts me every day – and you simply cannot talk to his supporters about how duplicitous, entitled and arrogant he is, they just won’t hear it.

    Well, I’m going to try to get some work done today, including getting a start on my taxes and other things – getting too wrapped up in primary politics nastiness is not good for my soul. Have a great day everyone!

    • This: “getting too wrapped up in primary politics nastiness is not good for my soul.”

      Mine, either. Between Republican governors doing awful things and BS from the BS campaign (he thinks that people changing their position on policy issues “should not be allowed” … yes, Mr. Purity Bern It All Down Rather Than Compromise, excellent plan!!), I am finding myself angry all the time.

      It is difficult to pull myself from the train wreck that is the Republican Primary but I have accounting work to do and, like you, I need to get my taxes done. April 15th has a way of sneaking up and it is better to get them done and in the mail (no electronic filing for me) before the last minute.

      • I don’t know about how good or bad it is for my soul, but it’s lousy for my tummy and doesn’t help my sleep either.

  18. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 33 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 54. Mostly cloudy skies is the forecast.

    Today voters caucus in Washington State, Alaska and Hawaii. Bernie Sanders is expected to gain 81 delegates and Hillary Clinton is expected to pick up 61. This is the first time caucusing for Washington State and might yield some surprises.

    In a not surprising development, Bernie Sanders’ campaign has decided to channel the right-wing and demonize Hollywood Democrats, going so far as to use the movie role of one of them to take whacks as Secretary Clinton. In case you missed it (which would be impossible if you are on Hillary’s mailing list), George Clooney will be hosting a fund raiser for Hillary and downticket Democrats. The tickets are pretty expensive but this is hardly millionaires and billionaires destroying our economy – more like millionaires and billionaires helping to elect Democrats nationally. I guess it is not surprising that Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would hate that idea.

    The president’s address is about defeating ISIL and I will post it when the transcript is released.

    See all y’all later!

  20. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s beautiful Saturday here in NoVa, 39 F. now, going up to 62 F. later. This afternoon Dearly and I are attending a memorial service and wake. We never met the deceased while he was alive, but he was my son-in-law’s father, so we will go. Daughter-in-Austin flew up here on Wednesday to support her husband but I haven’t seen her yet. There is so much to do when someone departs this life, as many of us here already know.

    Started on Political Granddaughter’s birthday story yesterday. Naturally, politics will come into it. I just have to figure out the time travel aspect: will she touch something that’s a portal to the Otherworld, or slip into a wormhole, or what? Might have to pray to Her Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken for inspiration.

    Will be interested to see what transpires from the latest contreTrumps from the Rethug campaign. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

    • Sadly, the latest GOP madness has touched Wisconsin. Ted Cruz is wandering around ruining the optics – a few days ago he wrecked the movie The American President for me by quoting a line from it. He has already ruined Princess Bride by doing awful impressions of the characters. Now he is up in Green Bay sitting at former Packers Coach Vince Lombardi’s old desk. Lombardi would have hated Cruz: he was a Democrat and also a guy who stuck his neck out for his players, refusing to play exhibition games in places where his white players and black players could not stay in the same hotel together because of segregation. Go away, Ted!! Stick to Waukesha County where people will vote to destroy our country rather than let a Democrat get elected.

        • Thanks!! I worry about getting swarmed by right-wing haters if I were to Tweet something like that (you know how delicate I am!). I suspect you have already figured out how to deal with them.

          I am anxious for the primary to be over because I have been circumspect about Tweeting out pro-Hillary tweets because there is such anger surrounding her candidacy – from our side!! When we gear up for the general election, I will become a more active Tweeter – there are a lot of excellent articles that need more eyes and the best place to promote them is via the little birdie.

        • By the way former Packer KGB, the guy who gave Cruz his photo-op, is an LGBT hater in the mold of former Packer Reggie White. I don’t understand why some black men are so anxious to crush the civil rights of gay people – their religion has obviously blinded them to how civil rights for everyone is a very Christian value.

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