Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: June 26th through July 2nd

June 26, 2016 JanF Community 150

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?

…

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.

…

58 Comments

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

    Morning low of 68 in Madison WI, on its way up to 88. Thunderstorms are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Democrats were working on the party platform over the past few days, two days spent drafting and voting and one day (and counting!) spent complaining. It looks pretty solidly progressive to me and even includes a statement about the death penalty which is an issue I hope that Hillary Clinton will eventually evolve on. It does not directly come out in opposition to the TPP trade agreement for one very simple reason: the leader of our party, President Obama, supports it. While berners like Cornell West were unhappy because their only purpose in attending was to diss the president, all of the people on the drafting committee had a say and a vote. A snippet from Senior Policy Advisor Maya Harris on Democratic Platform :

    “We are proud that the draft 2016 Democratic Platform, which the drafting committee approved yesterday, represents the most ambitious and progressive platform our party has ever seen, and reflects the issues Hillary Clinton has championed throughout this campaign, from raising wages and creating more good-paying jobs to fixing our broken immigration system, reforming our criminal justice system, and protecting women’s reproductive health and rights. As our Chairman, Congressman Elijah Cummings, directed us at the outset, our platform does not merely reflect common ground—it seeks higher ground.

    “For the first time ever, our platform calls for ending mass incarceration, shutting down the school-to-prison pipeline, and taking on the challenges of systemic racism. This year’s platform contains the most ambitious jobs plan on record, including historic investments in infrastructure, pledges to increase American manufacturing and stop companies from shipping jobs overseas, and a robust, stand-alone plank on youth jobs. It contains ambitious, progressive principles on wages, stating that working people should earn at least $15 an hour, citing New York’s minimum wage law and calling for raising and indexing the federal minimum wage. It also calls for the elimination of the ‘tipped’ wage and for the right of workers to form or join a union. And for the first time, the Democratic Party platform explicitly calls for repealing the Hyde Amendment, which restricts access to women’s reproductive rights, particularly low-income women and women of color.

    You can see why berners don’t like it – it gives voice to issues of race, injustice and reproductive rights and does not make “jail the banksters” the fix for every problem.

    This:

    “Make no mistake about it: The 2016 Democratic platform represents an ambitious, progressive agenda that all Democrats can and should be proud of.”

    • I look forward to seeing what happens with Maya Harris in the future – we know her sister Kamala will be in the Senate. I hope Maya winds up in a policy making position.

  3. Here is a Brexit article I read that has too many excellent points to blockquote them all: I want my country back

    There’s not enough tea in the entire nation to help us Keep Calm and Carry On today. Not on a day when prejudice, propaganda, naked xenophobia and callous fear-mongering have won out over the common sense we British like to pride ourselves on. Not on a day when we’re being congratulated by Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and nobody else. Well done, turkeys. […]

    So, here’s the thing. This was never a referendum on the EU. It was a referendum on the modern world, and yesterday the frightened, parochial lizard-brain of Britain voted out, out, out, and today we’ve all woken up still strapped onto this ghost-train as it hurtles off the tracks. […]

    As it stands, tens of millions are going to suffer. Real people are going to hurt. Real people are going to die. That is David Cameron’s fault, more than anyone’s. It was right for him to resign, but he will surely be replaced by any one of a rogues’ gallery of gurning ideologues who have been decrying “experts” and “elites” to people so desperate for change that they didn’t care that those elites are people their wisecracking white knights literally went to school with. […]

    This was a working-class revolt, but it is not a working-class victory. That’s the tragedy here. The collective howl of rage from depressed, deindustrialised parts of the country bled white and reckless by Thatcher, Blair and Cameron has turned into a triumph for another set of elites. […]

    This Britain is not my Britain. I want my country back. I want my scrappy, tolerant, forward-thinking, creative country, the country of David Bowie, not Paul Daniels; the country of Sadiq Khan, not Boris Johnson; the country of J K Rowling, not Enid Blyton; the country not of Nigel Farage, but Jo Cox. That country never existed, not on its own, no more than the country the Leave campaign promised to take us to in their tin-foil time machine. Britain, like everywhere else, has always had its cringing, fearful side, its cruel delusions, its racist fringe movements, its demagogues preying on the dispossessed. Those things are part of us as much as beef wellington and bad dentistry. But in happier times, those things do not overwhelm us. We do not let bad actors reading bad lines in bad faith walk us across the stage to the scaffold. We are better than this.

    • Sadly – the racists and xenophobes in this case are not the fringe in GB – they are a majority who voted to die economically in the fires of their hate.

      I have to admit I only feel sorry for those, who voted to remain, who now have to suffer as a result.

      • I found it instructive that the millennials, who voted overwhelming Remain, simply did not show up to vote. From Kevin Drum:

        … here’s the fundamental reason that Brexit won:

        The younger the voter, the more strongly they voted to remain in the EU. The older the voter, the more likely they were to actually get out and vote.

        I think that maybe the youngs are not quite ready to have the baton passed to them. In our country they come out in force in 2008, took a pass on 2012 and were completely missing in 2010 and 2014 – with a devastating result. Do you think that “engaging the youth vote” is a lost cause and we simply have to wait until they gain the experience to realize that “purity” is not a policy and that the hard work of governing is boring?

        • Young people (and to me millennials are young people) often don’t show up to vote – for a host of reasons. I think we need to work to engage it – but not depend upon it being there.

      • By the way, here is a nice summary of the racist vs not-racist argument from NPR. One part:

        James Bloodworth, writing for International Business Times, says the issue can’t be explained in purely economic terms. Even as the number of migrants arriving in the U.K. rose to a record 333,000 in May of this year, immigrants have been an overall boon to the British economy. Bloodworth explains:

        “Hostility to immigration — and by extension hostility to Europe — is driven by cultural concerns as much as by economic worries. That’s certainly what the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory has been saying in recent years. It has pointed out on a number of occasions that cultural concerns better explain negative attitudes towards migration than a person’s economic position. In essence it is about whether England feels like England.”

        “Make England White Again”

        • I have been interested in the communities of color in GB for some time – and the racial tensions.
          Wrote about some of it in “The fire this time” for Black Kos.

          Some of the British may want England White Again – however the irony is that England as an imperialist nation built an empire on the backs of people of color around the world.

    • Heh—does anyone else get the “country of J K Rowling, not Enid Blyton” reference?

      I read all of Enid Blyton’s books as a child in Colonial Singapore and even wrote to her a couple of times. I have a letter in my possession, written by my late mother, in which she complains of the snobbery and jingoism in those books, but I was reading with the uncritical mind of a nine-year-old. To me the series, “The Secret Seven,” “The Famous Five,” and so on were about kids having adventures.

  4. I slept in again. I didn’t get in a workout yesterday — maybe today, but it’s gonna be 95, so maybe not. Watching my wonderful representative on local news, talking about the sit in, and Brexit. He really is the best.

    Today: church, cooking for next week, maybe a walk — I have a cool tie & arm coolers, so with them & a hat & water maybe I’ll be ok.

  5. Good morning, Moosekind! Partly cloudy here in NoVa this morning, 71 F. now, going up to 84 F. later.

    This will be a drive-by post as I need to get ready to take Darling Niece and my long-time British friend to tea at one o’clock. Why can’t Americans accept that tea is at bloody 4 p.m., not 1 p.m.? Still, we must go with the flow. After waddling home I will continue looking after Dearly Beloved, currently laid up on the family room sofa with pillows, the dog at his feet, the TV remote and library book handy. He injured his knee yesterday when the 12-inch concrete block he was holding slipped and landed on his knee. The pain caused him to have a video conference at 3 a.m. with our HMO. He’s icing it for 20 minutes on and off, taking pain pills, and staying off it.

    Oh, dear me—and here we are planning to go to the beach on Thursday morning. Elder son and family are there already. Everyone have a good day!

  6. Good morning, 58 and sunny in Bellingham. A busy family day ahead…..our grandson arrives for a weeks visit, our oldest grand girl has a ballet recital this afternoon, and our sons will be here this evening so we can watch the season ending GOT together. They are requesting a GOT supper, but I’ll leave that to Ron. My contribution will be slices of gluten free lemon cake from the co-op bakery. ( h/t Sansa)

    My daughter’s Etsy site is doing well, but selling the PFC scarves and nursing shawls means we have to make some more, so that will happen today as well. My sewing table is still under construction so we’ll have to improvise a work space. Hmmmm…….it’s a lovely day so moving the machine to the patio table might be fun.

    Obama breezes through Seattle for key Democratic fundraisers

    Calling the 2016 election a choice between divisiveness or unity, President Obama swept through Seattle on Friday to raise money for Gov. Jay Inslee and congressional Democrats.

    Speaking to a crowd of thousands at the Washington State Convention Center, Obama blasted Republicans for blocking progress on issues including gun control and immigration reform.

    He said voters must choose between “dividing ourselves up, looking for scapegoats, ignoring the evidence, or realizing that we are all stronger together.”

    • Here is the transcript of President Obama’s speech at the fundraiser. This cracked me up:

      AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. President, use your authority to ban oil trains now!
      THE PRESIDENT: To ban what?
      AUDIENCE: Oil trains.
      THE PRESIDENT: Oil trains. I see, okay. All right, I got you. I heard you. I said I heard you. I think now let’s — I’m making a note of it. You made your point. Can I go on now? (Applause.) Okay, all right. Thank you. Thank you. It’s all right. This is what I love about the Democratic Party. (Laughter.) It doesn’t matter how much I do, I’ve always got a bigger “to do” list. (Laughter and applause.)

  7. Too hot to open up this morning and getting hotter by the minute. At least sunny at this point so generating electricity to cover the dishwasher and A/C that are drawing down at the moment. Soloing all next week so had to “down-size” my peanut butter muffin batch – they came out a little denser and sweeter than I like, but not bad. Made soup for lunches. Also did green bean salad and potato salad again – not as large batches as last week since the cukes are now at the market and I needed to make room for them. :) Bought cooked chicken again this week. The 2 hours of cooking this morning were all I can deal with until this heat wave breaks. I’ve got peaches and blueberries for dessert.

    Think I’ve got a home for the little black kitty – definitely a he, about 8 months old, healthy, and “intact”. I’ll still have to pay the vet bill, but a neighbor would like to have him. He won’t get the care I’d give him if I kept him, but I really am too tired to try and integrate a new cat into my household before NN. If they change their minds after I get back in a couple of weeks, I’ll try then.

    Hope the Brits get a 2nd shot at Brexit. If for no other reason than to see just what a 2nd change would look like. Would the “protest vote” people and the “didn’t vote because it was going to pass anyway” people actually put their votes where their mouths currently are? Meanwhile we have to keep “steady as she goes” as far as the economic impact so we don’t end up in the same place with no possibility of a 2nd chance. But between them I think Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have got this. A belief that isn’t going to change what I do about getting her elected – work headquarters, register voters, and vote – but does keep my tummy from keeping me up at night.

    Heading over to GOS to see what’s what. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{Hugs}}}}

  8. Morning all! Got a decent night’s sleep last night to make up for Friday night when I went to sleep very late and was awakened by some robo call at 8AM grrrrr. No coffee again this morning – I’m going to stop at Starbucks before I hit the grocery store in a bit, to see how a latte goes down.

    What a great idea for a GOT get together – lemon cakes, Sansa’s favorite! I am looking forward to yet dreading the season finale – all I’ve heard is ‘people will die’, which is of course about the safest prediction you can make for a GOT episode. On AMJoy this morning on MSNBC, Joy Reid, also a huge GOT fan, answered my personal most worrisome question about Brexit – the producers put out a statement saying Brexit would not endanger filming the last two seasons in Northern Ireland. Whew!

    I’m so fed up with Sanders I could scream – he’s still campaigning against Hillary, to all intents and purposes, still demanding even more from the platform (which doesn’t matter at all). He simply can’t accept being defeated by a woman, imo. I talked yesterday to an old friend who to my dismay voted for Bernie in his primary, although he will vote for and support Hillary – almost got angry with him, but decided it wasn’t worth damaging a friendship over. We did agree Warren would be a bad VP pick – he knows her and has worked with her, and said “she’d be a terrible President”. Amen.

    Ok, off to get dog food – I can get by with what’s in the house, but dog food must be had! Have a great day everyone!

  9. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 73 degrees in Madison with an expected high of 77 degrees. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Today is a big day at the Supreme Court. The court will issue opinions (or announce no decisions) on the three remaining cases. The one we are watching most closely is Whole Woman’s Health, where we are hoping the court strikes down Texas’ TRAP law which seeks to close all but 9 abortion clinics in the state and set precedent to allow other states to implement similar restrictions. The SCOTUS Watch post will launch at 9am Eastern with orders at 9:30 and opinions at 10:00.

    Hillary is up by double digits in the new ABC/WaPo poll released yesterday. The number of Sanders voters vowing to vote for Trump dropped from 20% to 8% but that fact that 85% of Democrats support Hillary Clinton suggest that the remaining 8% may not be Democrats. I laughed out loud at the report on the NBC/WSJ poll, one that showed a steady lead of 5%, when it said it was “after a rough three-week stretch for Trump’s campaign”. Last week it was a “rough two-week stretch”. Trump’s campaign cannot possibly have anything but “rough stretches” because the candidate is the most clearly unsuited presidential candidate in the past 52 years.

    Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren will be speaking at a campaign event in Ohio later this morning (CSPAN link) and yesterday she spoke at the U.S. Conference of Mayors and then made a surprise visit to the NYC Pride Parade. Here is that speech:

    See all y’all later!

    • Thanks Jan
      That poll made me chuckle -true to my bent I looked at the poc voting – the numbers for black voters for Hillary have gone up!

      The Latino numbers seem to be wonky (too low for Hillary) – again. I went to see what Latino Decisions had to say – when I saw their tweet

      • If we can get our coalition to the polls in November, the landslide will rival the 1964 Goldwater thumping. I hope that Democrats don’t leave the voting to others as the British “Remain”ers did.

        I was watching some people on Twitter positing that Trump will be embarrassed by his polling position and bad press and drop out of the race, allowing a more traditional Republican to run in November. They have not been paying much attention to Trump’s biography. He will never drop out. His ginormous ego would not allow it – that same ego serves as an effective shield against any self-reflection. He is in it to the bitter end. He is so funny!! Yesterday he said that Cruz and Kasich will not get speaking spots at the convention until they issue full throated endorsements. He pointed to 2012 where he said “some speakers spoke for 45 minute and never once mentioned Romney!” as the scene he wants to avoid. Do you remember who that was? Trump manservant Chris Christie!! HAHAHAHA!! No self-reflection whatsoever.

        • Agree – I don’t think he’s going anywhere – and the press coverage good or bad – for him is free advertising for his enterprises.

          I don’t think many Democratic voters will sit this out – first – because it is historic (like the vote for Pres. Obama first time ) secondly because Trump has enraged so many constituencies – women, pocs, religious groups, immigrants, Latinos, LBGTs …

          I am hoping that a big turnout will flip the Senate and put major dents in the House.

          • We have to keep our eye on Pennsylvania which moved into “Toss Up” territory in the last set of polls. We can probably afford to lose it electorally because of shifts elsewhere but that is one of the states we need in order to flip the Senate – Toomey out, Strickland in. Plus Florida, with Rubio back in, is a problem. Will Florida voters punish him for his Senate no-shows or reflexively vote for the incumbent?

          • I hope you are right about PA! It isn’t Strickland, btw, he is Ohio. It is a woman, the former AG, maybe?, against Toomey.

      • Transcript: Fusion: Here’s the full transcript of Jesse Williams’ amazing BET Awards Speech

        What we’ve been doing is looking at the data. And we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people every day. So what’s gonna happen is we’re going to have equal rights and justice in our country, or we will restructure their function, and ours.

        Now I got more, y’all. Yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice‘s 14th birthday. So I don’t want to hear any more about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive by on a 12-year-old playing alone in a park in broad daylight, killing him on television and going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt.

    • The stabbings at the Nazi rally in California, while unfortunate, underscores that with knives you have “many injured” – with guns you have “many killed”.

      Brexit may not. Trending now is “#Regrexit” and there is some question about whether Scotland’s parliament has veto power over any exit from the EU, whether the EU will even discuss exit terms before Article 50 is invoked (which cannot be until the new government is in place in October), and the “do-over” petition that has drawn 2.5 million signers. I am not sure that a do-over would end in anything different. In Wisconsin, we had a do-over on Walker’s 2010 election, the same battle lines were drawn and he won again. It would likely just be even more acrimonious the second time. Do they think that the newspapers would suddenly start printing the truth?? Split, be done with it, and move on.

      Oh, by the way, this is “economic anxiety”:

      The first Muslim woman to serve in the British cabinet says that her country’s vote to leave the European Union triggered a spike in racist abuse.

      “I’ve spent most of the weekend talking to organisations, individuals and activists who work in the area of race hate crime, who monitor hate crime,” says Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a former co-chair of the Conservative Party who served as Senior Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2012 until 2014. “They have shown some really disturbing early results from people being stopped in the street and saying look, we voted Leave, it’s time for you to leave.”

      Baroness Warsi added that “they are saying this to individuals and families who have been here for three, four, five generations.”

  11. Wearing orange today, and I have my Stand With Texas Women to put on after work & wear to a gathering at Scholz’s after work. I saw an interview with Wendy Davis where she pointed out that of the Justices who have yet to write an opinion, most are favorable to us. 9am (here) will be a tense time.

    Yesterday’s “bumper sticker theology” was one that I really, really hate — what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Ugh. When I was unemployed & hungry & depressed & my mentor had committed suicide….. none of that was making me stronger. The pastor gave a really good dismantling of that bs. And the songs that came into my head (because of course they did) were U2’s Stuck In A Moment— which Bono says is the argument he wishes he had had with Michael Hutchence; and REM’s Everybody Hurts, which Michael Stipe wrote after losing his grandfather & good friend Kurt Cobain within 6 months of each other. Links are to lyrics, because that’s what I was thinking of.

    • anotherdemocrat, did not realize you’ve had hard times in the past. Glad things are better now! You know we Moose have your back.

      Rock on, Sis!

      • the only plus I will say about that time is that I will jump down the throat of anyone who tries to spew that Nietzschean bullshit at anyone else. Sometimes things suck. And when they do, fer cryin’ out loud, offer help. Not ridiculous slogans. That’s what I love about Stipe’s words, they’re comforting. Wish I had had them at the time. Bono’s are tougher, but still comforting.

    • The SCOTUS opinions are generally evenly divided and as of today Breyer and Kagan, and Chief Justice Roberts, are “short”.

      We are hoping for Breyer on Whole Woman’s Health because that would be a good sign. There is no doubt that it will either be a win for us or a 4-4 tie – the four liberal justices all expressed their dismay at Texas’ ridiculous defense of their law. But since a split is a loss, that would be devastating.

      • I have fingers crossed on SCOTUS – of course the real solution will be when we elect Hillary and start to get SCOTUS fixed

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – unfortunately, unless you can get some help and sometimes even then, what doesn’t kill you immediately kills you slowly later. I am glad you are no longer in that space – I’ve been close but not that bad – and hope the healing is processing well.

  12. Good ‘ot, ‘umid, and ‘orrible morning, Meese! Hot today, thunderstorms tomorrow.

    Well, what a difference a day makes. On the home front, I had to drive Dearly to Urgent Care at Kaiser yesterday because he was in such pain from his knee. He spent the night on the sofa again, very uncomfortably. It might take weeks to heal.

    I’m going to drop off Miss Pink Cheeks at her aunt’s house so she can play with her cousin, drive Dearly to the orthopedist, and then go to my training. Yikes! Not to mention such everyday chores as walking the dog, emptying the dishwasher, and getting the garbage out. Have to do grocery shopping as well because Dearly doesn’t feel like eating anything except soup and he doesn’t like the kind I’ve bought for myself.

    So, no beach for us this weekend! :( I was so looking forward to spending time with Mr. Newbaby, but that’s life.

    Will hear the SCOTUS news on the radio as I’m driving about, most likely. Will try to pop by later to see how the rest of Moose country is faring. A good day to all!

    • That is a day filled will a lot of not-fun things. :( I hope things get better in NoVa land!!

    • Hugs and healing wishes Diana……knee injuries are so painful. And yes, the normal flow of life is disrupted and that’s hard for the most able kneeded person! Take good care of yourself as well.

  13. 72 at dawn so opened up and aired out the house – got 1/3″ rain just before daybreak which is helpful – but otherwise forecast pretty much the same as all last week, namely might rain, might not, but will get into the 90s with a heat index in the 100s. Sigh. If things go as planned, I’ll pick up the little black kitty from the vet after work and deliver him to my neighbor. I hope the almost 20-y.o. granddaughter – who spends half her time living with her mother and the other half living with her grandmother (my neighbor) – decides to take him to her mother’s. If so, he will be an indoor kitty as that isn’t a safe place for outdoor kitties (too much traffic). But it will be what it will be. At least they’re willing to keep him inside for a couple of days until he’s fully recovered from his operation.

    Hillary walking in the Pride Parade looked so happy – and so did the people walking with/around her. Those of us seeing the pictures hoped to heaven those 4 blocks had been checked so thoroughly a rat with a pea shooter couldn’t get within range. The NYT sux – anti-Hillary to the end of their days – but she keeps trucking on. Hope sanity prevails regarding UK-EU – so many people just do not accept, never mind understand, how much trade agreements impact everybody. Which is why we need people like Hillary to make sure they’re FAIR trade agreements and not Free-for-All-Corporations trade agreements. But we still need trade agreements.

    Soloing today and have a mess of stuff to deal with. And that’s just work stuff. Got a bunch of personal stuff too – need to talk to a lawyer about my house, get the kitty, get milk, check to see if insurance payment’s gone through… Oh well. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{Hugs}}}}

  16. Good morning, 66 and sunny in Bellingham. I’ve got a full but thankfully quiet house today as three of our grand kids are still sleeping. Ron and I are drinking coffee, reading the news, and getting ready for the gym (Ron) and the pool (me).

    The kids will continue the Monopoly game they started last night. We’ll go to the park and to the bookstore this afternoon, and this evening we’ll all to to a Mars Rover event at the Mt. Baker Theatre.

    Mars Invasion! The Future of NASA’s Exploration at the Red Planet & After Party

    Have you ever wondered about Mars? Its ancient history of flowing water and calm seas? Or if humans will set foot on the Red Planet in your lifetime? What would they find? How do we know what’s out there?

    In this special, all-ages event some of the world’s top Mars scientists and engineers will gather in Bellingham to share the revolution in scientific understanding of the Red Planet and preview NASA’s future Mars exploration missions at the Mt. Baker Theatre on Monday, June 27th at 7:30pm.

    Interesting neighbors is part of the appeal of living in Bellingham…….Dr Rice lives across the street from us.

  17. Good day all! I was so jazzed by the GOT finale last night, I stayed up and watched it again, then surfed the net about discussions on it. Finally got to bed about 4:30 AM, got up at 9:30 and then today have been so wonderfully surprised by the incredibly strong SCOTUS decision on abortion clinic access. The Notorious RBG just put the wood to states daring to think they can put these kind of restrictions on clinics in the future in her concurring opinion – she is just a legal badass, no doubt about it! And a great decision on gun control as well – a super SCOTUS day!

    I am kind of depressed though, at the reaction to the Clinton-Warren joint appearance in Ohio – I’ve seen clips, they were both great, of course, but various folks are now saying Clinton has raised expectations and has ‘no choice’ but to pick Warren for her VP. Ugh. I will of course support whoever Hillary decides on, but I just can’t get past what I know and have heard about Warren – I think she might be great for the ticket, albeit she’d pull it even more left which I personally am fine with but which would diminish chances of pulling in Republicans who hate Trump, but I still think Warren would cause big problems once on the job. Too big an ego, too much of her own agenda to pursue, not long enough in public life to be ready to give up that agenda and subordinate it to the President’s agenda. But I know Hillary is looking at all these same factors, and I have to trust her judgment.

    Still refusing to look at my investment portfolio – as I write, the market is down more than 200 more points after the sell off on Friday, so we may be looking at 1000 point drop. And the UK is still fumbling to figure out what to do about all this – there might be a way to stop it, but there’s no clear path or plan. And we think OUR politicians are dysfunctional and incompetent!

    Ok, off to take a nap to make up for last night. Everyone have a great day!

    • I’ve got a GOT hangover today too Geordie. It was a fascinating episode, and like you I had trouble winding down. I’ve read most of the commentary, but I want to find time to watch again. I especially want to look at the library where Sam will be studying. The visuals of the kingdom display has me intrigued!

    • I don’t think it locks in Warren as VP.

      If anything, it demonstrated that they are very similar in their personal demographic history: white women of a certain age with working class and middle class roots. It would do nothing to expand the coalition or embrace the Obama coalition.

      It does, however, make Sanders a useless appendage. Warren brings in the gettable Sanders votes. The rest were voting for the anarchy part of his platform.

      • I agree – what I think it shows is that they are a great team. And I think what it means is that Hillary is more or less saying that Elizabeth Warren is going to be driving their agenda in the Senate, not whoever white guy the next Senate Majority Leader might be. If it starts looking like we might pull off a friggin’ miracle and take back the House as well, I expect we’ll see the same kind of event with Nancy Pelosi. (Sanders? Sanders who? LOL)

        • I think that becoming a strong Senate leader is what is best for Warren and the Senate. After all, she is in the Teddy Kennedy seat – the Senate will need a moral compass and a progressive conscience if the new leader will be Chuck Schumer.

          • That’s what I think Hillary is doing – letting Chuck Schumer know who’s going to be driving Hillary’s agenda in the Senate without any confrontation or “Dems in disarray” crap.

  18. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 57 degrees in Madison on its way up to 70. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Yay! Windows open again!

    I am suffering from a SCOTUS news hangover! Two important decisions, one striking down the Texas HB2 TRAP law and the other ruling that domestic violence is domestic violence – whether a state declares it a misdemeanor or a felony is irrelevant, you lose your right to purchase and own weapons. I will put some comments in the Front Page SCOTUS post with links to commentary that I found. It is difficult not to gloat about HB2 because the antis pushed and pushed and pushed and finally stomped on the last nerve of Justice Kennedy. They lost a reliable anti-abortion voter on the court – sucks to be them.

    House Democrats released their own Benghazi report to get ahead of the news cycle. Nothing new – just like the last 4 investigations into the attack on the embassy it was a fishing expedition and a fund raiser for House Republicans.

    The Zika bill will die in the Senate because the House “funded” the bill by taking money from Affordable Care Act funds and removed all help for birth control assistance. Who is going to pay to care for the babies born with microcephaly? Penny wise and pound foolish thy name is Republicans. I am glad the Senate will take a pass on it because then the president won’t have to veto it.

    See all y’all later!

  19. Good Morning Meese

    Have not looked at headlines yet, other than to notice Republicans are doing their Benghazi dance again. It won’t work.

    Making coffee and then off to check twitter .

    • There must be a disturbance in the force! I woke up at 2:30am and could not fall back asleep. I finally gave up at 3am.

Comments are closed.