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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Your weekly Samantha Bee:
Morning all – just a quick hello as I’m frantically trying to get my exams graded – 10 left to go, I just need to hunker down and do it.
But I had to share this here –
I am so ready for Sanders and all his assorted hangers on to Just Go Away. But they seem to want to do their best to blow up the Democratic Party on their way out – I hope most Bernie supporters will reject this, but who knows. Paranoia and conspiracy thinking, once it’s started, is hard to dispel.
OK, back to grading – everyone have a great day!
Just give your students all “A”s and be done with it!! When I taught, I would just throw the exams down the stairs. The one’s that made all the way down, got A’s, those that landed on the 1st to the last step got Bs, and all the rest got Cs. Just kidding!!
A photo attached to that Tweet made me laugh out loud. #AngryBern!!
The good news is that Democrats, passionately for Sanders but still big D partisan Democrats, are slowly coming around. Only the most Pissed Off Liberals, who probably aren’t Democrats anyway, will stay home or vote Jill Stein.
Good morning, meese! Hangover after primary Wednesday …
It is 37 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 67. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Hillary wins Kentucky in a squeaker, Sanders apparently wins Oregon (I haven’t seen the details).
I watched the Sanders campaign’s insult to Hillary voters and the entire Democratic Party unfold last night. We are really not very smart letting a non-Democrat, and a guy who has never shown any interest in being a Democrat except when he can use the party to gain personal power, run in our primaries. This Twittery spoke for me.
Two weeks of this will be difficult to deal with. The remaining superdelegates need to put a swift end to the Sanders campaign.
The Labor Department issued their final overtime pay rules and millions of Americans will start getting the overtime pay they deserve. And this time, the overtime pay threshold will be tied to inflation so that it does not get out of whack with reality again.
Sixty two years ago yesterday, the court ruled in Brown v Board of Education that separate cannot be equal. Last Friday, a Mississippi school district was ordered by a court to desegregate. The Samantha Bee video I posted above, about the rise of the religious right, describes how the white “horror” at integration is what led to the infusion of politics into religion, and religion into politics. They birthed the modern Republican Party and created the fertile ground for Trumpism to flourish in.
See all y’all later!
Couldn’t read the offensive Bernie statement in your comment because it’s too small and faint for my old eyes. He is such an oaf. Some of his followers sound like lethal weapons.
I usually am in too much of a hurry to watch videos, but the Samantha one sounds interesting and you know, I think she’s right.
I only saw the statement as a screencap and I won’t embed Tweets with toxic replies because I don’t want you to accidentally click on it and be exposed to the berns. :)
Here is the text:
He insulted me and every other Hillary voter.
Yes, he did! Thank you, Jan, for posting the more readable version.
Markos did a total take down of the entire B.S. statement last night on the FP at GOS, paragraph by paragraph.
Words to generate more clicks. kos used to care about conspiracy theories turning his website into a laughingstock and an embarrassment to people who use it as a publishing platform (for Facebook and Twitter). If he really cared, he would start banning the #BernieOrBust folks who are damaging the party.
There are two parties in our country. One has nominated Donald Trump and the other, instead of coming together behind our nominee, is being attacked by the Democratic-Party-hating independent Senator from Vermont. He may think that his attacks are on Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC but they are on every Democrat who has worked to rebuild the party after the Reagan years – to give us a chance to win national elections. To every Democrat who voted for the ACA and lost their seats because people gaining access to health care was more important than their own personal political career.
Beating Donald Trump is more important than Bernie Sanders’ personal political career. I am over him and sick of his angry rhetoric that is putting mine and my daughter’s future at risk.
I agree on B.S. and what we need to do but I think you’re being a little harsh on Kos. You may, of course, be right but I think he really supported B.S. as the one most aligned with what he’s working for and so Kos’s one of the ones we Hillary people needed to give a little time to. He could see the numbers and accepted the math, but he didn’t like it and was still supporting B.S. The NV thing killed it for him. In that diary last night Kos mentioned losing respect for B.S. and that’s gotta hurt. I think site cleanup will be coming soon.
We will have to agree to disagree! I think that having a site whose stated purpose is to “Elect More and Better Democrats” should allow no place at the blogging table for those who want to destroy the party. But it is not my site – or my blogging home – so it makes no difference to me personally. But I will still call out hypocrisy when I see it.
Oh I mostly agree – too much empathy I guess. I’ve never had a “hero” implode on me but I can imagine it and I think that’s what’s happening to Kos and some of my friends and they cannot deny it any longer. That’s all.
I hope you’re right, but I’ve been hearing that “cleanup coming soon” promise for over 2 months and have not seen much. It does not help that Meteor Blades himself is a Berner and apparently hasn’t seen an anti-Hillary screed there too offensive to ban.
Well said, Jan.
Mooooose!!!
And they appear to be at the Moose Pond! Yay!
Good morning, all, and happy Woden’s Day! Rinse, repeat: It’s another cool gray day in NoVa. It has rained. It is expected to rain again. Current temp. 52 F., going up to a whopping 56 F. Who’d have thought we’d be eating cold-weather meals in mid-May?
Not many thoughts in my head. I think we’ll be off-duty this morning as far as Younger Son’s family is concerned. Expecting my niece for coffee this morning as we have a lot to catch up on.
Glad Hillary won in KY, that was unexpected. Oregon Berned, apparently. The Morons on TV said, “Hillary had a setback in Oregon!” How do you define “setback”? Three million more votes than BS, and about 300 more pledged delegates?
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!
Yes, a setback which included exceeding her On Track for the Nomination target by 4 delegates. :::eyeroll::: Sanders is making me so angry I am close to losing my well-advertised cool. If he wants to stay in until the “last ballot is cast”, fine. But quit attacking the Democratic Party! We need a strong party to defeat the terrifying prospect of a Donald Trump presidency.
Yesterday, Trump announced that he would dissolve the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And on the day when it was announced that the number of uninsured in America fell below 10% for the first time ever, we can’t forget that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act and take health insurance away from 20 million people.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Isn’t that the one that was supposed to be headed by Elizabeth Warren but the Big Bizness guys screamed, so a MAN was chosen to head it?
Y’know, apparently the reason that none of his Senate colleagues have endorsed him is because “does not play well with others” has been on his report card for years.
The restaurant was really busy last night, but as far as I know, only my 2 blind friends came our if the people I invited. Of course, the predicted weather (which held off till the middle of the night) probably factored into that. Our server said it was definitely busier than a normal Tuesday. Dem club meeting tonight. Tough week for an introvert – 2 nights out.
Thunderstorms last night, and I thought lightning must have struck near my place but as I left this morning, nothing looked out of place.
For no reason I know of, my brain is playing Sara Barilles’ Brave. Lovely song, but it makes me cry – in that “heart so full it’s bursting” way.
You can be amazing
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug
You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love
Or you can start speaking up
Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do
And they settle ‘neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes a shadow wins
But I wonder what would happen if you
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down
By the enemy
Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
Innocence, your history of silence
Won’t do you any good
Did you think it would?
Let your words be anything but empty
Why don’t you tell them the truth?
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
Proud of you for going out twice in one week, another! Being an introvert myself, I know how difficult that can be. Good on yer, as our Aussie friends say.
Good morning, 58 and sunny in Richland, Wa. I’m slow and sleepy this morning, but I can read and doze for a while longer. We meet with the estate seller at 10:00 am to sign the final contract, then we’ll start the paper work for selling the house. Ron and his brothers own it and our nephew is buying it so we don’t have a realtor to guide us but we’ll figure it out. I hope we can return home tomorrow.
Among Ron’s mom’s collections we found some very interesting scrapbooks she had made, one about Vietnam, another about Nixon. She worked as a typesetter for the Tri City Herald so reading and clipping newspaper articles was always an important part of her day. She also saved newspapers, lots of them. It’s hard to throw so much history away, but they are yellowing and crumbling. The Time and Life Magazines are going to the sale.
Celebration Day – Grades are in and I’m FREEEEEE for the summer :)
Congratulations!!!!
We staff are never free for the summer. You have fun. :)
Hey, girlfriend! How much longer do you have—1 year and a few until retirement?
Make a little calendar and cross off the weeks. That’s what I did. Couldn’t wait to get out of That Place, and in 10 years I have never missed it, or the paycheck, or the people for a single nanosecond. :)
My folks are HERE.
21 months and 13 days – I was planning to wait until 2017 to start marking the calendar. :)
And yeah, aside from my sons and their families, my folks are Meese and Kossacks (and FB groups – I just have to join FB to get to them).
I did that – I referred to it as my “get out of prison” calendar lol.
This is a presupposing my hands last that long – but I’m managing. I’ll probably save that calendar and hand it down to my kids. :)
Hurray, Sis!
52 at what passed for dawn this Wednesday morning, supposedly going up to 67 and overcast although no rain in the forecast. If it isn’t above 65 at 6 p.m. tonight I don’t care that it’s the middle of May and I’ve already cleaned the stove “for the season” twice this Spring – I’m lighting a fire! I’ve probably burned more “natural” gas this month than I did in April. sigh. Have managed to inch above 300 KWHs for the month to date. Looks like I’m not going to get many cherries this year, darn it. The fruit is dropping – don’t know if it’s the weather or that I didn’t use fruit-tree spikes this year (used ornamental/shade tree spikes which have a very different formula), but I’ll use the right tree food next year.
Glad Hillary won Kentucky AND beat her benchmark for Oregon. It won’t stop the “berners” but the Dems for Bernie are starting to move into our camp. Actually they’re being shoved into our camp by the behavior of the “berners” and B.S. himself. I’ll be so glad when the primaries are over and I can talk to my friends at DK about politics again. Trish and I used to talk about Hillary’s campaign during our Sunday phone call and I really miss that, as well as missing her. sigh. Gotta get to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Sorry about the cherries, bfitz. We saw a glimpse of blue sky and sunshine on our way back from the garden store but now it’s clouded over again. Sigh. The raspberry canes should be chest-high by now but they’re only knee-high.
What a lousy spring. Did a volcano go off somewhere? One did in 1814 or something and in 1815 in this country people wrote about “the year without a summer.”
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 45 degrees in Madison on its way up to 70. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
The fallout from the Nevada convention continue with Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver saying that “no one had the right to feel threatened”. Excuse me? Now we have to get permission to feel threatened? The campaign has come off the rails. They signed on with Fox News for a pre-California debate with themselves (the DNC laughed out loud at the notion). Maybe they can get the other non-Democrats Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee to join Sanders in bashing the Democratic Party? Except they will call it the “Democrat Party” because that is what they do.
Time to pivot to the general election. I have a new hashtag #ImWithDemocrats to show my solidarity with the party. And a request: Please don’t bust this.
The president and Secretary of Labor Tom Perez announced the new overtime rules and sent Joe Biden to Ohio to make a speech. The rules, and the speech, are in a post I put up yesterday and I will find Joe’s transcript and include it along with Republican reaction to the “terrible” idea that people should get paid like it is 2016 instead of 1975.
See all y’all later!
There is an excellent recap of the Trending #BernieLostMe hashtag from yesterday. It includes not only Tweets but links to articles from people who are pretty much over it.
And a political cartoon that sums up #BernieOrBust:
Happy Thor’s Day, Meese! It’s gray today and every day. At least we appear to have had a dry night. Currently it’s 54 F. in NoVa, expected to crawl up to 66 F., a mere 10 degrees F. below our usual mid-May temps.
Had a horrible night, unable to get to sleep, punctuated by truly awful leg cramps at 4 a.m. Either I’m coming down with a cold or allergies are kicking in big time, because my head has that muzzy feeling.
Was saddened last night to learn of the far-too-early death of a Kossack I cherished for his weird diaries. His posts were generally short, but very funny. He was only 45 when his heart failed. Not fair!
More bad news—the crash of an Egyptian Airlines flight from Paris to Cairo. Was it terrorism? We won’t know unless they find the wreckage now at the bottom of the Med.
I think Dearly and I willl have to stop watching the news. I’m getting to where I can’t even listen to the radio, which is supposedly an all-news-traffic-weather station. It’s nonstop Rethug propaganda on ABC and the WaPo is so anti-Clinton it’s laughable.
Well, now that I’ve cheered everyone up, I hope it’s a good day for all at the Pond and Beyond!
Maybe the pull of the soon-to-be-full moon is disturbing your sleep patterns? I hope you are not coming down with something.
I have not noticed that the WaPo is particularly anti-Hillary but I don’t click on every link. Most of the news sites hate her so it just blends in. They are definitely anti-Trump – just yesterday there was an op-ed calling out the Republicans for letting fascism infect their party:
Mobocracy is a good word.
Yes!
We have a 100% chance of rain until mid-day then they say it’ll clear out. Watching the storms in the Methodist Church’s quadrennial mess of a conference……I’m just glad I’m not there. It looks like maybe progress but maybe not.
And I’ve had to switch to IE on my work computer, Facebook was literally not working on Firefox. I brought my iPad & I could just use it for all my personal stuff, but the desktop is easier & screen doesn’t go dark. Continually unlocking the screen gets old.
Brain is playing California. “I’ve seen for myself, there’s no end to grief. That’s why I know & why I need to know that there is no end to love”
Elated to see google doodle honoring Yuri Kochiyama. She was an amazing woman – and was our movement mom.
Google is catching hell from wingnuts for doing it.
Oh, Sis, now I’ve got to go look!
Thanks for the tip! Here is her Wiki: Yuri Kochiyama
Saw it and it is totally cool.
46 at dawn – really dawn, I could read my bedside clock without using my bedside flashlight :) – going up to 70 (did I just type 70? in May?) – “they” say more clouds and rain moving in. Hope it will wait until after dark. Staff “picnic” today in the stadium which is way the heck and gone on the other side of campus. Besides, I need to generate some KWHs to try and catch up with last year. heh.
I don’t know what’s going on in the Kosmic cycles but we’ve lost another relatively young (only 45) Kossack. We seem to have not cleared winter in that way, either. On the “life goes on” side, my eldest grandson graduates from high school Saturday. “The road goes ever, ever, on…”
So glad the overtime rules have been updated. I think it’s going to make a difference to my elder son who is currently working 50-60 hours a week managing a pizza store (local chain) with no O.T. Either they’re going to have to pay the O.T. now or else they’re going to have to allow him to hire more staff. (And the difference between Hillary’s response and the R’s – well, that’s why we’re Democrats, right?) Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 58 and sunny in Richland, Wa. After we made the decisions and started the house sale paperwork yesterday I took a long nap. I’ve got a few phone calls to make today re selling a brass model T, and then we’ll leave for home, yay!
We’re both needing some time in the garden.
Safe travels! Slow and steady progress – very pragmatic! ;)
Morning Meese! I missed posting yesterday because I was finishing up my grading process – I finished actually grading the last exam in the wee hours of Tuesday AM, then got up, filled out the blind grade sheet, scanned that into my computer and e-mailed it to my secretary, who then did the same with the final grade sheet with students’ names on it which she e-mailed to me, so I could make adjustments based on class participation. Had a couple of problem students I had to talk to the head of the tax program about, but then done just in time for the noon deadline. I was so tired from 2 nights of less than 5 hours sleep, I took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon just to get through to the evening! But I’m DONE! And can feel fully retired until I teach again in January!
I am beyond outraged now at the shenanigans of the Sanders campaign – enough! We get it, you’re not Democrats, you don’t care if you pull down the Democratic Party in a kamikaze finish to your sad campaign, but you keep saying you want to defeat Trump. This is not how it works, Bernie, not how any of it works – you can’t keep attacking our nominee and not expect that to have an effect in the fall. I now completely detest the man – Josh Marshall at TPM wrote yesterday, or Tuesday night, that talking to the Sanders people has convinced him that this vitriolic, bitter, last stand, blow up the process crap is coming straight from Bernie himself, so we can’t blame it on Weaver or Devine or Jane Sanders. Al Giordano over the weekend on Twitter, as the events in Nevada unfolded, jokingly (I think) said if Sanders didn’t get his people under control by the Dem Convention in Philly, he, Al, would move to Vermont and challenge him for the Senate seat in 2018. Well, he may have been joking, but people have jumped on it and I personally would definitely support Al in this effort. I actually was hoping Howard Dean would do it – SOMEBODY needs to get Sanders OUT of public office and 2018 is really not even soon enough although it may be the best we can do.
What really upsets me about all of this is that it continues to give cover to the anti-Hillary press, which is all of them really, and instead of celebrating that we are about to nominate a woman for President, the first one with a real shot, in fact likely shot at winning the office, we are having to defend our very process against this lunatic from Vermont. Ugh.
Well, going to try to enjoy my first day of freedom anyway! Have a great day everyone!
I have not completely bought into the idea of a Democrat running against Bernie in Vermont. It depends on who else is running. If a split makes the seat go to the Republican, it is better to have a guy who will caucus with the Democrats even if he is unreliable. For majority – and committee assignments – it is simply a head count.
TBogg had a scary assessment of what could happen in Philly and how it could play into Trump’s hands. He is right, these guys are straight from the Occupy movement and, just like in Ferguson MO, they will find any place to spread anarchy in the hopes of taking down the “establishment” to hell with the those of us who rely on the government and welcome regulations that even the playing field and help people in need:
Frightening images from 1968 in there and how Richard Nixon harnessed that fear and rode it into the presidency. :(
One of my twitter friends may or may not be contemplating running (it’s hard to tell on twitter): https://twitter.com/AlGiordano
yes, he is, that’s who I was talking about in my post above. Probably still half joking and waiting for someone else already in Vt to step up and do it though – I can’t imagine he’d really want to leave Mexico’s sunshine and beaches for the snows of Vt lol.
Oh, Geordie, completely agree! I am really bummed out about the “Democrats in disarray” stories that are resurfacing and, as you say, the media are completely anti-Hillary anyway.
Bummer.
Speaking of cleaning up the GOS, here’s an example of a diarist who continues to post vile conspiracy theory crap about Clinton and get away with it every time. I’m so sick of it over there.
Yes, I wonder how he and the others get away with it. And we Hill people were told “not to gloat” when she won New York!
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 44 degrees in Madison on its way up to 73. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is now the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. For me, end of story.
Here is something that deserves our attention. Oklahoma just passed a law making performing an abortion – at any point in a pregnancy – a felony:
It is surely unconstitutional. But … you need to have a Supreme Court that will declare it so and this comes right on the heels of Trump announcing his list of Supreme Court picks. The next president will likely pick 2 and maybe 3 Supreme Court justices. If those picks are Donald Trump’s, really any Republican’s, Roe v Wade will be overturned, no ifs ands or buts.
See all y’all later!
Good morning Meese
44 here going up to 78
Was reading the same news on abortion in the NY Times
Oklahoma Passes Bill That Would Subject Abortion Doctors to Felony Charges
It would be nice if “progressives” would focus their abundant energy on getting rid of Rs in state houses
As long as we have a firewall at the Supreme Court, we have time to flip the states. But bad laws are only declared unconstitutional when you have a majority on the Supreme Court who believes that the constitution protects your rights. You don’t have to look far to see Supreme Courts allowing mass incarceration of Japanese Americans and upholding the right of people to own other people. To the right-wing, the Supreme Court is just another political tool to be used to push back against the gains of minorities, women, and working people.
The Trump SCOTUS list is intended to reassure the fundies who are nervous about a Trump presidency. The Oklahoma law will remind them that it could all be theirs if they will just hold their noses and vote for the thrice-married vulgarian. And I have no doubt that they will.
And isn’t The Trumpet the one to be pointing a finger at Big Dog for his record with women! Big Dog, after his life-threatening encounter with heart failure, very likely concentrates on his vegan way of life and his exercise routine, and besides, he’s getting old (as are we all).
Someone should point the finger at the Trumpet! Not our candidate, she’s above that, but she could sic her PAC on him.
They are taking the right tack – ignore it and move on. You can’t win a mud slinging contest because in the end you both look the same … coated in mud!!
I hope they do not send Ed Rendall after him again. Good lord, how any of these guys got elected is beyond me. Maybe they were saying stupid things all along and it was never reported but “there are more ugly women than beautiful women so they will not like Trump”. Sigh.
As I read on Twitter, someone needs to come collect Ed Rendell. He’s an awful surrogate, and Hillary should really retire him from speaking on her behalf. Not helping, Ed!
Why do we have to refight the same battles over and over again? Men hate women, no two ways about it. Not all men, of course. The ones in our own lives are wonderful. I have made more male Kossack friends than I ever thought I’d have and I’m really fond of them all.
But patriarchs—ugh! I wish there were a term that would specifically refer to the woman-hating males and leave the woman-loving males alone.