Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: April 24th through April 30th

April 24, 2016 JanF Community 120

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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42 Comments

  1. Goof morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 40 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 55. Cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    Not much new in the news. I have been watching the Trump v Cruz primary and I am confused as to why the GOP establishment chose Cruz as their standard bearer. I understand why they are angry with Kasich (He Who Dared Take Federal Money For The Poors) but now the Cruz haters are coming out of the woodwork and the “won’t vote for Cruz” is a yoooge number. Ed Kilgore on John Boehner’s calling Cruz Satan:

    … the superior suitability of Trump is obvious. The Donald will either lose in a magnificent supernova with no impact on the long-term shape of the GOP, or win and sit down with congressional leaders to cut deals and get some guidance on how to do his job. But a Cruz nomination would represent the final victory of a particularly abrasive faction of the conservative movement that is never going away, and that if given the power of the White House would treat John Boehner’s kind of Republicans like whipped curs.

    Strong stuff.

    Nice to see Jane Sanders go on Fox News and talk up the possibility of a Hillary Clinton indictment. It is all they have left since they refuse to choose a graceful exit from the primary. I am not holding my breath waiting for that.

    See all y’all later!

  2. Good morning Meese – 42 going up to 60 here in Saugerties

    I don’t know how much more of Jane Sanders I can take – woke up and the TV was on – hubby must have tuned in to MSNBC after I went to sleep – and much to my dismay – there was a re-run of Rachel Maddow playing – talking to Jane Sanders – allowing her to talk bullshit with no challenges to the statements she was making
    I had stopped watching MSNBC some time ago.

    • I still notice people who I think should know better talking about MSNBC shows. Between them expanding Morning Joke, firing MHP, and for some reason still presenting Chris Matthews as a person anyone should listen to, there is so little to watch it would be a miracle to find anything worthy there.

      Jane started on Fox News and then went to the other cable channels, trying to get Democrats pumped up about the FBI taking Hillary away in shackles. It is the lowest of the low and any news site that gives more than a HAHAHAHAHA to her comments deserves to be ignored. When a purported progressive’s campaign devolves into using Trey Gowdy’s talking points, it stops being about the message and is about one man’s ginormous ego. Meh.

      • Her positions are culled directly from the Rove sewer. There are no words for the level of my disgust – and this is Bernie’s fault. No excuses for him are acceptable.

        • People aren’t going to change spouses when they discover they are not very good surrogates but you can ask them to not speak anymore. Neither Sanders seems to be good at weighing words before they speak them.

          • I think Bernie thinks Jane is doing a bang up job and that’s why he keeps sending her out – he AGREES with everything she’s saying, and he really doesn’t care about being destructive, because, you know, NAD. I think he probably agrees with Sarandon too – apparently he told her in NY that he thought she was doing a great job and to keep it up which Lord knows, she has. I think Bernie’s surrogates are voicing what he thinks himself but can’t risk saying himself as he needs to keep a shred of pretense up about being a Democrat. I despise him and his whole crew.

      • I admit to still watching MSNBC, partially out of habit, but I have fine tuned my listen and tune out when I need to skills. I used to watch C-Span more, but the sight of Grover Norquist and all the right wing callers drove me away.

        Rachel lets people talk, and to me they reveal themselves when they do. And I do find reading Steve Benen’s MaddowBlog interesting. He was the main writer at the Wa Monthly before Ed Kilgore so I’ve followed him around, as I’m now following Ed.

        • Yes, I was feeling crabby and unleashed my “All MSNBC sucks and how can people watch it!!” comment. Sorry. :) I used to like Rachel and she has done some really good things around important topics. I guess I wish she could be above the fray when it comes to the contested Democratic Party primary. She and Chris Hayes are so in the bag for Sen. Sanders it is painful to read about or watch a video clip.

          I often read Steve Benen articles because he has a lot of good insights into the news of the day. I never knew him at WaMo but I can see where he might have been a good fit there. WaMo has been a good “starter” for some of my favorite liberal bloggers. I guess Kevin Drum, now at Mother Jones, was also once a writer there.

  3. Got my biggest donation of the year for the Ride last night! Yay! And this morning’s weather forecast says it won’t rain tomorrow after all. Actually, the severe weather threat is during the dinner this evening. Hanging out at home today, getting my bike ready, packing my back pack, etc. And early bed tonight — it’s an hour drive out to the Ride.

  4. Good damp grey morning, Meese! It’s 46 F., going up to 56 F. later today. Last night and this morning we’ve had to turn the little electric heater on, the one that looks like a black woodstove with fake flames. Right now in my office I’ve got the portable heater on. Weird, considering that it’s nearly Beltane.

    Did some good work yesterday with the Task Rabbit I hired for the afternoon. We worked for 2 hours and solved some of my website problems. However, even she could not figure out how to do a custom Facebook feed for the site. It remains a mystery.

    The good news is, by staying off FB and other social media, I’ve had time to work on the June story and a list of 100 Tweets. I’m going to start Tweeting today, although I really don’t know how I’m supposed to behave. I figured I’d throw out one hint per day about writing and see if people would be interested in going to the site.

    And speaking of the site, the International Tarts some of you met in “Tea and Strumpets” are back! Now they’re in Death Valley, CA, getting up to their usual hijinks. You can read “All Acts of Love and Pleasure” in the Fiction Cafe at goddessfiction.wordpress.com. (Owing to some of the content, I’m not sure Jan would appreciate it my posting it here.)

    Amazed by the anti-Trump riots already! Yikes! Happened in Indiana, I believe. Last night I took a gander at GOS and found ericlewis talking about “woman cards.” I applied for one from the Clinton campaign. My button came yesterday.

    It bothers me when people don’t vote. My neighbors apparently aren’t planning to. I’m going to create a 30-second elevator speech about why Secretary Clinton is the best-qualified candidate for POTUS we’ve had in the last 51 years, and perhaps deliver it if they ask me about the Hillary yard sign I plan to get.

    Busy day ahead, so I’d better hop to it. Hope the sun is shining where you are in Moosylvania!

    • The Moose has a Facebook feed that is run by something called “Networked Blogs“. It picks up our posts (somehow!) and puts them on Facebook and then Tweets them out.

      I did not set it up, I merely changed it for the new site when we migrated to WordPress. One thing that I don’t like is that when they Tweet, the shortened link looks like it comes from Facebook (fb.blahblah) when it doesn’t. Many people don’t click on Facebook links because, well, FACEBOOK! Other than that, it seems to work seamlessly and I have no complaints.

      • H’mm. The original Task Rabbit put a post from my Facebook feed on my site and I don’t think it’s changed since then.

        Not sure why he wanted to do that as the whole point of the author page is to drive people to my site! :)

  5. The sun hasn’t exactly come up today – street lights are still on and my solar generators are still in “night mode” – 53 and raining. The lovely rumbly thunder and patter of rain that helps me sleep so well started almost exactly when I needed to get up. I do not appreciate Somebody’s timing and/or sense of humor. So. We’ve got the extra lights on in the office but I’m not sure there’s enough coffee in the world to keep me alert today.

    There’s been a bunch of speculation in the Hillary threads at GOS that Jane Sanders is actually the one running the campaign and while it wasn’t put this way that Bernie is more or less her “front man” – sort of Remington Steel-ish. That would of course explain a whole lot – including just how unproductive he’s been in office. But while it’s bad to have this kind of crap coming from what purports to be the Left, Hillary has more votes, more pledged delegates, and more superdelegates than Bernie or any R. Real Dems are already starting to come on board, if only to the extent of dropping by one of the Hillary threads and saying “I’ll be with you after the convention,” and AfBs are nasty/noisy but not only a distinct minority, many of them are either R moles or 3rd-party moles. We’ve got this. (As Hillary herself keeps saying, she can’t do this alone – not a dictator for all the Faux Noise B.S. – we all have to GOTV. So “we’ve” got this rather than “She’s” got this.)

    Lots of work to do – HR stuff, end of month leave stuff, and starting to get things together for End of Academic Year AND End of Fiscal Year. At least the End of AY stuff will be out of the way in 2 weeks because I’ll be head down, plow through from that point until the 1st week of July. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, 50 and cloudy in Bellingham today. My plans for sorting and donating fabric changed yesterday wen I found mold growing on the walls in a deep cupboard under the front porch stairs. So I’ve now got a very clean sewing room with a vinegary smell and as a bonus a good nights sleep from all the clean up work! I’ll take it easy at the pool this morning in hopes I can do more with fabric sorting this afternoon.

    It’s a quiet news day in the PNW…..

    Five myths about the Pacific Rim

    Our relentless imagination, coupled with our compulsion to spot patterns in the noise, makes us poor statisticians of combinations of widely separated earthquakes. A century of observing large quakes tells us that the biggest events trigger, at most, a tiny number of earthquakes beyond 620 miles away. A bad day in Ecuador does not mean a dangerous day in Japan, and vice versa.

    It may be frustrating that our estimates of earthquake danger change little from day to day and year to year, except for the temporary threat of aftershocks. Personally, I consider it reassuring. There really is almost nothing to foreshadow big quakes, although we continue to prospect for silver bullets. Relax, build a long-term shaking- and tsunami-resilient society, and play it as it lies.

  7. Good morning all! I guess we’re at Def Con Summer here in north Florida now – in the 80’s up to 90’s for the weekend and beyond. Sigh, spring was nice while it lasted.

    I’m beyond fed up with the Sanders campaign, and especially with Jane Sanders – I completely believe she’s the one running the campaign’s rhetoric, at least, and I have long suspected Bernie is more of a prop than candidate. And to the extent he is in control, he clearly agrees with all the crap all his surrogates are spouting – because he doesn’t care if he destroys the Dem Party, that has always been part of his mission. Because revolution! It’s just sickening. So my response last night was to give more money to Hillary (I’m getting my Woman Card so excited!) and set up a regular monthly contribution – I can’t give a lot, but I figure every bit helps.

    The mysogyny over the next 6 months is going to be hard to take – I saw at Shakesville a description of a horrible Newsweek article that will be the new norm in attacking Hillary just because she is a woman, under the pretense of ‘profile”. Ugh.

    OK, got to go to the Post Office, get envelopes and stamps and get my homeowners’ association dues notices out today or tomorrow – everyone have a great day!

    • I am thinking that if everyone has a Woman Card, and we focus on it when the woman bashing gets ratcheted up, that it will be a powerful source of energy (or magick, if you will). As I am holding my card, I will picture millions of women holding theirs and it will remind us that together, we are strong.

      This Tweet from the other night, part of a Twitter conversation, I thought was excellent:

      Hillary Clinton ‏@HillaryClinton Apr 27
      They might make flashy headlines, but Trump’s comments aren’t a joke. Hillary can handle these attacks. Millions of women shouldn’t have to.

      She has our back, we need to have hers.

  8. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 42 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 52. Afternoon rain in the forecast.

    The president opened the White House International Jazz Day Concert with a speech.

    The full concert will be on tonight at 8pm Eastern on ABC. Performers included Aretha Franklin, Buddy Guy, Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau, Diana Krall, Dianne Reeves.

    Charlie Pierce: A country that remembers, a country with an empowered memory that acts as a check on the dangerous excesses of power itself, does not produce a Donald Trump.

    Adele Stan thinks that Donald Trump winning the nomination could be his worst nightmare.

    The ancient Greek philosophers saw misogyny as evidence of fear of women. Whatever the original roots of the showman’s misogyny, the polls would indicate he has good reason to fear women in November—those, at least, who turn up at the voting booth. […]

    As Clinton’s nomination became all but sealed on Tuesday night, the pundits barely seemed to register the historic nature of it. For the first time, a woman was almost certain to be the standard-bearer of one of the two major political parties in a presidential election. But Donald Trump surely noticed.

    With his male challengers falling away, Trump is now faced with two outcomes he likely once deemed improbable, if not impossible: that he could win the nomination of the Party of Lincoln, and that he could lose the biggest game of his life—to a woman.

    Women vote at a higher rate than men and there are more of us. Obviously, not all women will vote for Hillary Clinton but you wonder, with Trump sporting a 70% unfavorability, how many Republican women will choose to not vote if their only option is Trump. The Trump effect is already putting North Carolina governor Pat McCrory and Senator Richard Burr at risk. Hillary is beating Trump there 45 to 39.

    The president’s weekly address is about the Senate hearing and vote for Chief Judge Garland. He will not get a hearing. The Republicans are making obstruction their Alamo and to give in now would anger their base. Better to die screaming “Pry this gavel out of my cold dead hands!” … we shall accommodate their desire for martyrdom.

    See all y’all later!

    • Here is the raw video from the live feed. If you drag the counter to 43:00, you will be treated to a preview of the concert: an appearance by Aretha Franklin:

  9. Woke up at 3:40 again. Made myself stay in bed till 4:30. Watching thunderstorms go through — they’re moving fast & are already east of where the Ride will be so all is well. I ate enough to be able to take my vitamins, but my stomach is saying “no” to the almond butter sandwich I planned on. I’ll check back in when I get home this afternoon.

    • I woke up at 3:40 also … there must be a disturbance in the force!! I hope the weather behaves for your ride – stay safe.

    • Glad the weather is clearing out for your ride, anotherdemocrat! Hope you do 50 miles!

      And thank you so much for reading “All Acts of Love and Pleasure” and following me on Twitter. I’m following you too!

  10. Good morning Meese

    Looks like it will rain here today. April showers :)
    Going to school today to see one of my students get awarded a scholarship – I really love seeing young women who are from the first generation in their family to attend college – succeed.

    Just tweeted this article:
    Latinos will save America from Trump

    There is little question following the April 26 primary elections in Pennsylvania and four other states that Trump will be the Republican candidate for November’s presidential elections. And if he is defeated by Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, it will be largely thanks to the Latino vote.

    Consider a new poll by Latino Decisions, a nationwide survey of 2,200 registered Latino voters: It shows that a whopping 87 percent of Hispanics have an unfavorable opinion of Trump. Just in case you are wondering, the poll has a margin of error of 2.1 percent.

    Here’s the poll

    I’ve been waiting to see new polling from Latino Decisions. They are the best group to follow to get good polling data on the diverse Latino groups in the U.S.

    • The Latino vote will be key to victory in November. Not only the numbers but the intensity. There is strong motivation for people of color and women to come out and vote in force. Even for those who are lukewarm about the Democratic Party’s candidate, there is no doubt about what Donald Trump has in mind for us.

      The GOP seems to be working through the steps of grief and are now at this point starting to look to the future, after they have their asses handed to them in November. THEN they will repair their image with Latinos. Good luck with that – the damage was done before Trump and Latino voters will not be able to “unsee” the full-throated endorsement from most of the 2016 GOP presidential field for mass deportations, elimination of birthright citizenship, and sanctioning violence and hatred against them.

      • Latinos have always had a low turn-out – but I think this time around it will be different. Lots and lots of Latinos who had not bothered to become citizens have been lining up to do so – so they can vote.

        Trump has been an excellent motivator – he has certainly moved forces to vote against him and Republicans.

        I hope this will help us flip the Senate.

    • I just hope there are enough Latino and black voters in swing states to do exactly that.

    • Just hope they will vote in large numbers not only this November with the Trump stimulus, but also in 2018. It’s totally up to the combined efforts of all the marginalized groups to right the Ship of State and patch the holes the angry white males keep drilling in it.

  11. Good morning, Meese, and a merry Beltane to all! It’s 52 on a dampish grey morning here in NoVa, going up to 62 F. later today. Glad I’m too old to cavort stark nekkid in the woods tonight—may Goddess preserve those who do from rheumatism.

    Oh, do not tell the priests of our art
    For they would call it sin
    For we shall be in the woods all night
    A-conjuring summer in.

    Busy day ahead, cooking another ghastly meat-and-egg breakfast for Dearly and moi, running to the gym for weights and cardio, then doing errands. The Grapefruit Diet ends tomorrow, for which I am deeply thankful.

    Keeping an eye on politics, of course, but also have preparations to make. Younger son and DIL are coming for dinner tonight, and bringing Miss Pink Cheeks and Babylicious. We might go see the house they want to buy this afternoon, if my son can get permission.

    The Trump riots currently happening in California, Moosekind, are a foretaste of what I expect to happen at the Rethug convention. Wishing a great Saturday to all at the Pond and Beyond!

    • Beltane is not for the infirm! One year, a friend took a tumble while trying to leap a fire and ended up with a leg injury that took quite a while to heal. The goddess does not mind if you merely imagine yourself leaping – as long as you hold good thoughts for “the celebration of life, the land, the union of mankind with the mother earth and the purification and rebirth of all things.” :)

      I am of two minds about the “Trump riots”. I understand the need to speak out forcefully about his inhumane policy positions but he is lapping this attention up. A better use of the protester’s time would be voter registration and education drives. Our revolution needs to be at the ballot box.

  12. Morning all! steamy and hot outside here, good day to stay inside and listen to the opera this afternoon – Elektra by Richard Strauss. I love Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier is one of my top 5 favorite operas – but Elektra is a sterner test. However, the incomparable Nina Stemme is singing the title role, so I can’t miss that. Didn’t make it to the post office yesterday, and I’m not going on Saturday morning, the line is long usually, so mailing my notices out will wait till Monday I guess.

    Jan thanks so much for the Jazz Day live feed link – Aretha Franklin is simply a marvel at 75 – and her speaking voice, which I have not often heard, is so lovely too!

    I sincerely hope never to see Jane Sanders on TV again – apparently she was doing the circuit of MSNBC shows again last night, and getting nuthin but love from the enthralled Rachel Maddow, who I also will never watch again. So disgusting. The great Al Giordano, who I am so happy Denise turned me on to following on Twitter, has been kiddingly urged by some who follow him to go challenge Bernie for the Senate seat up in 2018 – when told he’d have to move to Vermont to do it, he said “I thought I’d follow tradition and establish my VT residence in MSNBC’s green room” lolol. JANE WHERE ARE THE TAX RETURNS!

    I’m almost caught up on The Walking Dead – I had to actually buy the first part of Season Six at Amazon, AMC is only streaming the last half of the season for free, and only for another month, so I am watching one or two episodes at a time so I can be all caught up and wait for the next season to start in October with everyone else. I really have been captured by it – it’s very thoughtful, interspersed with zombie killing of course.

    Have a great day everyone!

    • Back when I listened to opera I knew Der Rosendavalier so well I could tell where we were in it after listening to a couple of bars of music – even instrumental parts. :) I don’t know what happened to my hearing, but I can’t deal with operatic voices any longer. In fact, Johnny Mathis for males and Judy Garland for females is just about all I can handle – so mostly I listen to instrumental stuff. Enjoy your opera.

  13. Just saw this in my Twitter feed and thought I would pass it along here – some hopeful signs from Iowa.

    1. Live from this morning's Iowa district caucus: Source who is there says Sanders surrogate spoke, urged "party unity & platform changes."— AlGiordano (@AlGiordano) April 30, 2016

    @AlGiordano 2. Sanders' Iowa field staffers are attending but indicate today is their last day of work. The tone has changed considerably.— AlGiordano (@AlGiordano) April 30, 2016

    @AlGiordano 3. So far none of the polarizing antics that previously dominated these events, no shouting down of women speaking for Clinton.— AlGiordano (@AlGiordano) April 30, 2016

    This is a really hopeful sign to me.

  14. Hi Meeses – started the day a damp 60. Supposedly the sun is coming out and we’re going to get to mid-70s today but I haven’t seen any sign of it. At least it’s not as dark as yesterday morning – the streetlights aren’t on and I am generating a little bit of power. Doing my end-of-the-month household finances so thought I’d drop by and say “hai” :) Hope everyone has a lovely day, whatever the weather. Bright the day and {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good morning, 50 and mostly sunny in Bellingham today. I’m slower and sleepier this morning than usual, so I hope a second cup of coffee will wake me up! When I do it looks like a good day to be in the garden.

    Best Saturday wishes to all!

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