Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 14th through Aug. 20th

August 14, 2016 JanF Community 117

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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39 Comments

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

    Morning low of 64 in Madison WI, on its way up to 81. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Sunday!
    Last night we had horrific thunder, lightning storm that knocked out power across upstate NY and wreaked havoc. More people hit by lightning.

    The dogs freaked out tried to burrow under us in bed.

    Worried about one of my old neighborhoods in Queens NYC:

    Queens imam and his assistant shot to death by gunman in attack local Muslims blame on Donald Trump: ‘His drama has created Islamophobia’

    A lone gunman executed a revered Queens imam and his friend as the pair walked home from Saturday prayers, blasting each in the back of the head without a word, officials said.

    Worried about Milwaukee

    Off to get moar coffee

    • Technically, Trump has not “created” Islamaphobia; he has merely allowed people to verbalize their hatred and act upon it. Long before Trump there was Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and others who would shut down mosques and restrict Muslims because of their religion.

      Milwaukee has been a cauldron of racial tension between the police and the black community for decades. When I moved there back in the 70s the police chief was an unreconstructed bigot, Harold Breier, who would have made Bull Connor blush. He was statutory “chief for life” and not subject to any civilian oversight. When he finally retired, they changed the statute to give the mayor and common council power – the law was dubbed the Ernest Lacy Law after a young victim of police brutality. Having new chiefs over the years has not solved anything because the culture of the department is deeply rooted in the racial animus of the city and the region. It probably does not help that the Sheriff of Milwaukee County is David Clarke who regularly appears on right-wing TV and radio spewing racist bile and pitting black against white.

    • Here is more on Breier:

      Throughout much of the 20th century, Harold A. Breier, Milwaukee’s chief of police from 1964 to 1984, saw the city’s growing African-American community as a threat that needed to be contained. Under his watch, a series of African-American men died at the hands of his officers, including the high-profile cases of Clifford McKissick (1967), and Ernest Lacy (1981). The death of Lacy – who died of respiratory distress after being wrestled to the ground by white police officers (all for a rape he did not commit) – brought to light the repressive tactics that Breier and his men had been employing in Milwaukee’s increasingly segregated black neighborhoods for decades.

      Even largely non-violent protest movements – like the one that rose up in the late 1960s to call for open housing legislation in Milwaukee – have been met with intense police opposition. Police chief Breier often ordered his officers to remove their badges before patrolling such open-housing marches, making it difficult for participants to report any police misconduct. Young African-American men involved in the civil rights movement found themselves subject to around-the-clock surveillance; officers would constantly harass such activists and continually arrest them for such trivial offenses as littering and jaywalking.

      The housing marches were those led by Father James Groppi; the most famous march was across the 16th Street viaduct.

      The civil rights movement began in Milwaukee in the early 1960’s, with organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee (MUSIC) campaigning to desegregate Milwaukee’s schools and other institutions [1]. As the old housing units of Milwaukee’s inner core neighborhood were demolished, black residents began moving to other neighborhoods, but were met with resistance and discrimination, and were often unable to get people to sell or rent to them [2]. Alderwoman Vel Phillips tried several times to get a fair housing ordinance passed in the City Council, but was always the lone vote in support of it [3]. In 1966, A Catholic Priest, and civil rights activist named Father James Groppi was contacted by a black couple who had been denied housing because of their race [4]. After meetings with city official got nowhere, and tensions boiled over into a riot, the Milwaukee Youth Council of the NAACP, decided to march to white neighborhoods in protest [5].

      On August 28, 1967, a group of civil rights marchers, led by the NAACP Milwaukee Youth Council and their advisor, none other than Father James Groppi, marched from Saint Boniface Church to the 16th Street viaduct, which bridged the Menominee Valley [6]. […]

      Upon reaching the south end of the viaduct, the marchers were met by thousands of angry white residents of the neighborhood, gathered near Crazy Jim’s car lot on the corner of 16th and National [10]. The counter-protesters threw rocks, bottles, and other objects at the marchers, and waved signs and shouted racial slurs at the marchers [11]. When they reached Kosciuszko Park, counter-protesters broke through the police lines and fighting broke out [12]. The marchers returned to the church, and when the city council refused to pass a fair housing ordinance, Father Groppi vowed they would march again the next night [13].

    • I keep trying to understand why they have to kill someone running away. If the police want to apprehend someone who they think might cause harm if they were to evade capture, this seems like the perfect place to use a taser. But, sadly, I think it is because the police don’t see young black men as humans whose lives are worth preserving.

    • Yup. Glad you posted it – is one of the things I’m using in next Sunday’s post on race, racism and the Olympics or sport – haven’t decided on title.

  5. Good morning, Moosekind! Another beautiful day here with blue skies, sunshine, and a mackerel sky. It’s 77 F. now in NoVa, going up to 94 F. later. Denise, I wish we had some of your rain. Stepping outside nowadays is like stepping out into a hot, suffocating blanket. I feel that it will never rain again. Never…again. The grass is turning brown and my vegetables have given up, poor things.

    Horribly busy day ahead, getting ready for the family celebration at 4. Have to make pasta salad, defrost the hamburgers, frost the birthday cake we made yesterday. Oh, and fruit salad—have to put that together as well. I sweartagoddess, after today I shall do NOTHING, except go to the gym and look after children.

    Have barely peeped at the news but the latest happenings in Milwaukee and New York are disquieting in terms of their implications, as well as tragic. I hope there won’t be trumpster riots at the polls in November.

    Wishing a good day to all!

    • The Trump meltdown continues apace and it is difficult to believe that he will make it to November 8th as the party’s nominee. Now we have to add concern about who the Republicans would put in his place if they pulled the plug on him or he walked away. Would they just elevate Pence as the standard bearer or would they choose one of the runners-up to the nomination like Cruz or Kasich? Would they ask Paul Ryan to save their party? The amount of Hillary Clinton/Democratic Party support that is baked into the polls (as opposed to anti-Trump votes which are soft support) is probably enough to beat whatever Republican runs but it would certainly require re-allocating resources as battleground states would re-emerge. I hope Robby Mook has done same game planning with different candidates so he is ready.

    • Best wishes for your birthday celebration Diana. Sounds like a busy fun time together!

  6. Did my mile yesterday. And I re-joined my group. It’ll be stressful, but I love the people in the group. Now: watching the women’s marathon, got beans cooking, going to bake oatmeal after church. We got rain yesterday! And more today — and our high is only supposed to be around 90. This is unheard-of cool for August. I’m thinking of wearing sleeves (jk).

    Funny — yesterday when we started walking, my brain just started playing the first song in my walking playlist: People Have the Power.

  7. Good morning, 63 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Ryan will be going home today so we’ll have lunch on the patio when his parents come to get him. I’ve really enjoyed his company this summer.

    Guess I’d best think about a menu for lunch. Best wishes to all for a relaxing Sunday.

  8. A balanced start to the week – 68 just after 6 am, lots of clouds, a couple of hours of soft rain, and the high for the day is supposed to be the current 70 :) – but clouds mean very low electricity production, just over 1 KWH at 11 am CDT :( – I’ve already used more than that even though the A/C isn’t on (refrigerator, crock pot, coffee maker, lights, and the router – and there better not be anything else as that would be a “phantom load” I don’t know about and thus can’t determine whether or not I can get rid of it).

    Haters gonna hate – but having somebody very publicly running for Hater-in-Chief means not only do they have permission to hate, they have permission to act on that hate. We need to stomp the hell out of them at the polls and make them crawl back into their toxic hiding places – and at least get a running start on Hillary’s plan to replace the current Criminal Justice system top to bottom with fair laws, fair enforcement of laws, and community policing. And it really doesn’t matter if Trump drops out – although the later the better if he does – in many states he’ll be on the ballot because he won the primary and the closer we get to the election the more states will be in that category. But Hillary’s team had plans in place for whoever of the original 17 or so klowns in the klown kar won – and in fact was tying Trump to them back when nobody believed Trump would actually win. (Her quip was that all the Rs were just like Trump “without the pizzazz – or the hair.”) If there is a deity out there for whom this planet is more than just a rock circling a star, Blue Wave, please.

    Got my baking done – peanutbutter and peach jam muffins which turned out very well (just had one with my mid-morning coffee break) – and I’ve got chicken thighs in the crock pot (not local but humanely raised) seasoned with 1/4 c low-fat Italian salad dressing. All the weekly cleaning is done except the daily sweeping of cat litter (and putting it back in the litter box – heh). Heading over to GOS to check out Dee’s diary and the HNVs of the day. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 64 degrees in Madison on its way up to 82. The forecast calls for variable cloudiness.

    Epic flooding in Louisiana, record heat across New England, wildfires out west. And the most divisive issue in America, more polarizing than abortion, is climate change. We really need to find a way to win this election and a big chunk of Congress. Sam Wang said that a presidential win of 7-8%, assuming that people vote for Democratic candidates downticket, will get us pretty close to flipping the House. So when you talk to voters, remind them to vote D all the way down to dogcatcher!! The Senate looks increasingly good as we have several ways to get the 4 we need: Trump at the top of the ticket has just put Missouri into play for their R Senate seat.

    Nothing irritates me more than to see people who make their living selling hate on right-wing radio bemoaning their part in creating Trump. Apparently Charlie Sykes now haz a sad that he and his fellow conservatives helped nominate Trump and that Trump is destroying their party. Their party NEEDS to be destroyed but not because of Trump, because of the Southern Strategy and Philadelphia MS and Lee Atwater and all those that turned the Republican Party into a white nationalist party. For a guy who fancies himself pretty smart, he certainly is clueless. “Who could have predicted that?” – the Republican excuse for everything from the 9/11 attack to Iraq falling into chaos to the Party of Southern Grievance nominating a man supported by racists.

    See all y’all later!

    • Good morning, Dee! Reports are that the situation in Milwaukee is less acute. Still acute is the terrible racial disparity of that city and the long simmering anger at discrimination and bad policing. The good news is that the Milwaukee Police Department will not be investigating the shooting themselves because we have a state law that requires an independent investigation of all police involved shootings, something that every state should have.

      A young man from South Africa broke a world record in the 400 meter last night. His mother couldn’t run because of Apartheid. My favorite Tweet on that race:

      Joy Reid ‏@JoyAnnReid
      Wow Van Niekerk wins, sets a record, puts respect on lane 8 and gives a generational middle finger to Apartheid? Gotta love sports! #Rio2016

  12. Good morning, Meese! It’s another hot, gorgeous, steambath of a day here in NoVa. It’s 70 F. right now, going up to 92 F. We may get thunderstorms this evening. Then again, we may not.

    The party yesterday was a disaster. Younger Son and DIL were so busy moving to the new house they never showed until Younger Son came in at 9:15 to pick up Babylicious, who was wearing one of Grandpa’s old T-shirts. Earlier in the evening, when he saw his sister having a bubble bath, he promptly got into the tub with her, and I didn’t have pajamas for him afterwards.

    Mr. Newbaby, who seems destined to climb Mount Everest, started climbing up the staircase, fell backward, and got an ostrich-egg size lump on his forehead. His mother was home, ill, his father was cooking, and the rest of us were running around trying to get things ready, so we hadn’t kept an eye on him. Then we ran out of gas for the grill, which necessitated broiling the burgers and hot dogs in the oven. I think next year we’ll go out for Grandpa’s birthday.

    Miss PC will be with us for the whole week as the new house is in such terrible, smelly shape. This morning I’m going to the doctor, then to pick up a political sign (if I can find the house). This afternoon I’m off to take care of Mr. Newbaby as his mom can’t touch him until tomorrow (she came down with shingles right before the most important job interview of her life), the nanny is off this afternoon, and Elder Son has to go out of town for business.

    Hope things will calm down and hope it’ll be a good day for all at the Pond and Beyond!

    • Holding the good thought/sending White Light/Healing Energy for yesterday, your today and this week. There’s only one “holiday” I insist on having at home and my home at that – that’s the December “decorate the Tree at Grandma’s” – anything thing else is free-form. Moar {{{HUGS}}}

  13. We’re getting more rain! I wish the rain from Louisiana would just spread out & not be so concentrated. Anyway, we haven’t had any for about a month & now we’re supposed to get rain for a week. And highs are out of the 100s, it’s almost cool. Ok, that’s an exaggeration — but 90s actually feels good.

    So, can the Paul Manafort news finally be the end for Trump? Please?

    • It will be interesting to see if this has any impact – I mean, really, the boat is sinking, does having it capsize change the narrative? Makes you wonder if Trump’s Twitter-rage yesterday against the press was a way to inoculate him from the damage that he knew was coming. The “dishonest press” reporting something negative about his campaign should be ignored!!

  15. It was about 66 just after 6 am CDT, expected high mid-70s, overcast again – basically looks to be a reprise of yesterday – cool and possibly a little rain in the morning, sunny afternoon (I’ve gotten just under 14 KWHs the last 2 days – not great but decent), clouding up again enough after dark that the temps drop back into the 60s. I’d like more sunshine but cool enough to not run the A/C and to leave some of the windows open for the kitties is good.

    As to the national (and world) news, well, YEA! for our team at the Olympics (and seriously Van Neikerk of South Africa), and Healing Energy for everything else. Hillary’s got coordinated campaigns every place people will coordinate (AR is not good at that, unfortunately) so we will win the White House, we will win the Senate, we will win some of the state-level offices, and we may win the House. The bigger the win, the more that “all” in “all the good you can” will be done – maybe even enough to get out team out in 2018 so we can keep doing it. White Light for that, too.

    I’m soloing today as the day-long “back to school” departmental faculty meeting (and team-building retreat) is going on off campus. I wish I didn’t have to show up for lunch, but the Chair has arranged for a grad assistant to cover the phones so I can, so I guess I have to. And basically I do understand – she is re-enforcing to the faculty that the staff are part of the team, not just peons or droids – but I still don’t like to go off campus once I’ve started my day. Oh well. I’ve still got 3 HR things in the approval chain that should have gone through last Friday. I’m going to get another cup of coffee then start bird-dogging. I’ve got a few more things to do with these folks and I can’t until this step is completed. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Morning all! I too wish LA’s rain would spread out to get to us – we’ve had a bit, but still not really enough.

    The Manafort-Putin stuff is just amazing and alarming – and would sink any other campaign manager, but this guy? Probably Trump will just shrug and Manafort will go on trying to manipulate the US election process as Putin directs. As I just saw on Twitter – “why isn’t Congress investigating all this? Because it’s not in Hillary’s e-mails”. Apparently Jake Tapper of CNN just admitted on TV this morning “there is a deep well of anti-Clinton sentiment in the press”. Ya think? Good to know at least one of them can admit it. But seriously – the Trump-Putin ties would, if it was Hillary doing it, have driven the Republicans in Congress to come back from vacation to do hearings and investigations – Trump and Manafort will probably get away with it no matter what the press says. Meanwhile, Trump’s daughter Ivanka is on a highly publicized vacation with Murdoch’s ex-wife who is now dating Putin! If this were all in a movie script, nobody would buy it, it’s too outlandish!

    Glad I had the Olympics to distract me – I’m not normally a big track and field person, but the 400M race and of course Usain Bolt in the 100M were pretty compelling viewing. Today, though, must get some stuff done – have a great day everyone! And Diana, sounds like your family is running you ragged, get some rest lady!

    • The press is angry because Hillary refuses to be browbeaten by them. What is wrong with That Woman??!!?

      I thought this captured the email distraction perfectly. Yes, let’s pay attention to that sink!

  17. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 66 degrees in Madison on its way up to 82. Sunny this morning, cloudy this afternoon, and a chance of thunderstorms this evening.

    The on-again off-again Hillary Clinton rally in Scranton PA with Joe Biden finally happened. It fell off my radar and I found out about it at the last minute and was able to watch it live. Uncle Joe is outraged by the notion of Trump as president! Here is the video of the event:

    No transcript but here is a decent news account with some quotes: CBS News.

    North Carolina filed a petition to the Supreme Court to allow them to reinstate parts of their voting laws struck down by the 4th Circuit. Same day registration and out-of-precinct voting were not challenged (so those stay) but they want to keep their voter id and the shortening of the time to early vote. Voting law experts think they have an uphill climb to convince 5 Supreme Court justices to issue the stay especially since they waited 17 days to file their petition: hardly an “emergency”. Plus the brief actually bemoans that the 4th Circuit “guts” the Shelby County ruling. Ha!! Like that would appeal to the four liberals on the court? (p.s. it doesn’t gut Shelby … Shelby County removed preclearance, it did not strike down the entire VRA). I hope SCOTUS denies this quickly so that people can start planning for the election in November where McCrory and Burr are retired and North Carolina adds their electoral votes to the landslide.

    Speaking of landslides, President Obama yesterday:

    What I do want to emphasize is needing a sense of urgency and finishing the job of getting her elected. And you notice I haven’t said much about her opponent. (Laughter.) Frankly, I’m tired of talking about her opponent. I don’t have to make the case against her opponent because every time he talks he makes the case against his own candidacy.

    But what I do know is that this has been an unpredictable election season, but — not only because of anxieties and concerns that the American people have, but also because of the changing nature of the media and voting patterns. There’s still a lot of uncertainty out there. And if we are not running scared until the day after the election, we are going to be making a grave mistake.

    I am going to tune out Trump for my sanity but turn up the volume on “Polls don’t vote, people do. Don’t be complacent. Don’t stay home admiring the FiveThirtyEight charts, get to the polls and make it happen. ”

    The charts are pretty, but prettier would be seeing in print “President-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton” and Senator-elects Feingold, Ross, Strickland, Hassan, Duckworth, Bayh, Kirkpatrick, McGinty, Kandor, Judge, and Murphy. And Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi.

    See all y’all later!

    • Thanks for the Joe Hill rally video Jan

      I missed it.

      Yup

      “The charts are pretty, but prettier would be seeing in print “President-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton” and Senator-elects Feingold, Ross, Strickland, Hassan, Duckworth, Bayh, Kirkpatrick, McGinty, Kandor, Judge, and Murphy. And Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi.”

      Am re-tweeting from #BlueWave2016 – which is what we have to do –

      • We have a once in a generation chance to change the electoral map with the implosion of the Republican Party. Young people are disgusted by Trump and will forever see Republican Party=Trump. College-educated white people are realizing that the Republican Party does not reflect their values and are rejecting the candidate being foisted on them and, quite possibly, will permanently reject the party that is telling them that Trump is acceptable.

        You may not recognize all the names in the list of new Senators: I had to go look up the Democrat running in Missouri, Jason Kander, because all of a sudden Roy Blunt’s seat is a toss-up. And look – I misspelled his name! See, not even on my radar!!

        I rarely follow hashtags because they get toxic pretty quickly but I will check out #BlueWave2016. I get all your retweets. :)

        • I’m just trying to stay alert for news about senate and local races – i try to tweet all of them I can find. When school starts I’ll be back hammering women’s studies students about the need to vote and not just for the top of the ticket. –

  19. So yesterday was the most Monday-ish Monday ever. It was my day to sort e-mail, and we got sent a special picture. Yay. There was much uproar. You know how I love uproar. And it also brought up memories of something from when I was a kid — a man exposed himself to me, I ran away, and nothing happened, but it was scary. And did I mention that I hate uproar?

    Then, my computer tried to go into sleep mode twice, while I was using it. Saving grace — there’s this little Irish company, run by a teenager, called Positivity Pack. They send out… packages of positivity for lack of a better term. Stickers, candy, bubble wrap, positive messages & playlists. I ordered one a couple of weeks ago & yesterday was the day it arrived. Just totally adorable.

    This morning we have a meeting with the new assistant director. So we had to dress up. Wearing pants instead of capris feels so heavy. And shoes. Ugh. At least I get to leave at 4 & go to the gym. And even earlier tomorrow, though that’s for a dermatologist appointment, and I think this one will hurt. There’s a visible red spot on my temple, something on my forehead feels wrong though I can’t see anything & there’s 2 spots on top of my head that I obviously can’t see but something’s wrong.

    Pulling out the big guns today & playing both City of Blinding Lights & Hozier’s Someone New in my head. ‘Cause I need them. The Hozier song is adorable & bouncy — and the video I linked to is a sweet, fan-made video for his 25th birthday. I highly recommend listening to it.

    • PPP teased that they will have a new poll out today or tomorrow that will include Texas. They said that Democrats will be pleased – about a 6 or 7 on a scale of 10 pleased.

      Propane Jane has been on fire about turning Texas blue this year not in 2020 and has some numbers to back her up. But they depend on GOTV – Texas and Texas Democrats in particular don’t vote in very high numbers. If the Republicans lose Texas, they will never win another national election so the stakes in the bluing of Texas could not be higher.

      Ted Cruz is in a virtual tie with Joaquin Castro in a potential match-up in 2018. After we hold the White House, take back the Senate and make huge inroads in the House, we have to focus on finding a way to make people care about 2018. Maybe Ted Cruz’s face will scare folks enough to get out and vote?

  20. Morning – not saying good, even though it was 63 at 6 a.m. heavy fog, supposed to clear off and give us some sunshine today which I can use (only just over 6 KWHs yesterday). Sinusitis attack last night which drastically curtailed my sleep. Not as bad as anotherdemocrat’s but not good. More coffee and some Ibuprofen may help. I hope. Last night we started a serious fundraiser/crowdsource/get out the word diary for Aji and Wings. I know most folks can’t actually donate much less buy any of Wings incredible jewelry but I’m hoping you can get the word out to folks who don’t do GOS (and aren’t already on social media with Aji LOL). Here’s the link:

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/16/1560115/-A-Home-for-Wings-and-Aji

    I know a lot of people are of the “run like you’re 10 points down” (Dale Bumpers used to say, “run scared or run unopposed”) and that’s good advice for a normal election. This one isn’t normal. Nobody is going to be complacent about it whether for the good reason of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first woman president of the U.S or the not so good reason of OMG Trump. Just not gonna happen. For this election it’s work our butts off, of course, but with the energy boost that only confidence – in our candidate and in our country – can give.

    Gotta get to work – still got stuff that should have been done last week but is still hung up in the approval chain. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

      • Wonderful – the more eyes on it the better. I’ve plunked it in HNV this morning and will put it in the Pootie diary this afternoon.

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