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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68 and overcast at dawn – apparently going to be cloudy all day with “maybe” as the rain chance. sigh. Temps only going up to the low 80s but will probably feel hotter as the humidity is also in the 80s and likely to get higher should we get rain going around us rather than falling on us. double sigh. Yesterday got 9.2 KWHs and the monthly to-date is 208.8. Since we’re over half-way through the month it would take some solid sunshine that we apparently aren’t going to get to meet or beat September 2015’s 458.8. Since the first 1/3 of 2015 I was still on the 2.5K system, I’m still on track to equal 2015’s annual of 4.1 MWHs so that’s good.
The trash polling is so rampant right now not only are our numbers down, but it’s getting hard to know who you can trust. Lot’s of wailing and gnashing of teeth over at GOS – some of it infiltrating the Hillary appreciation diaries. But most of us are keeping an eye on the Hillary campaign team – we’ll panic when they panic, until then it’s “Keep calm and Hillary on!” And I post Aji fundraiser diary links in all of them. :)
Hope Diana is having fun. Need to get some work done. Gray days are not conducive to that. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
We can’t call it “trash polling” when it does not meet our hopes and “great polling” when it aligns with our wishes. Any poll with an A rating from Nate’s site has to be believed as a snapshot of opinion at that moment. Some of the polls are trash but not the national media polls.
The campaign is at a rough spot and it is because of a number of issues, primarily because the press is refusing to call a Trump lie a Trump lie and partly because people think that Hillary is going to win in a landslide and now feel “free” to vote for a third party candidate who they “like better”.
We need to hit those folks upside the head and tell them that too much is at stake to let their dislike of our candidate override their sense of urgency about defeating Trump.
Today, at the Black Womens Alliance, Hillary told the assembled crowd: “The next 53 days will shape the next 50 years.” No one gets to vote for anyone other than the Democratic nominee just to soothe their berned feelings.
I’m not talking about do I like the poll or not but was the poll sample large enough to be valid, sample enough demographics to be valid, that kind of thing. And I’m very well aware that how a poll question is phrased can also make a lot of difference. So how was the question phrased. I know the difference between reality and fantasy and only visit the latter as a conscious choice when I need a break.
And I still trust Hillary and her team. They aren’t panicking, although they are emphasizing the importance of this election. Determined is what they are and so am I.
Morning all! Sunny and STILL hot here, what else is new? lol
I read Reid’s comments – did Trump actually ridicule Reid in that WaPo interview? I hadn’t read that yet – what a despicable goon Trump is. I was thinking this morning, his best surrogates are members of the cable news talking heads and Bernie Sanders – he doesn’t need to buy ad time to drive Hillary’s favorable numbers down, Mark Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Mark Halperin and most of the rest do it for him day in and day out. And Bernie laid the foundation last spring – it’s so frustrating to have the facts out there on Benghazi, the e-mails, the Clinton Foundation, all of which exonerate Hillary and prove she did not and does not lie, but still people believe she does because they heard it somewhere on the news. Or Bernie told them.
I listened to an excellent interview with David Plough yesterday tho, on a podcast, in which he very calmly laid out that Hillary is doing fine, the campaign needs to get the Obama Coalition out to the polls in November, but if they do, Trump cannot win. And I believe that too – we just have to work to get people there. This is where Hillary’s superior ground game will make the difference – I know here in Gainesville, her campaign is highly organized and drawing a lot of the college population into the fight, so I hope that’s a nationwide phenomenon. Florida is going to be close, I guess – always is, but if the Latino vote turns out against Trump, she’ll win the state. And I hope that will help Murphy for Senate as well – he’s not a great candidate, but he’s boatloads better than Rubio.
Everyone have a great day!
The ground game is still how you win. It is easy to answer your phone and tell a pollster how you will vote, much more difficult to muster the energy to go to the polls to vote for someone who you don’t like too much.
Good morning, 55 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. We enjoyed a Whatcom Community College dinner at the museum last evening. The college always features faculty and students at these events so conversations are interesting. I especially enjoyed talking with a professor demonstrating 3D printing about his work developing inexpensive hand prosthesis for children injured in poor countries. He uses materials easily found at the local Joanne Fabric store to assemble them.
The students were a diverse group last night too, with many from Indonesia and Iran. It was the antithesis of a yam event!
I’ve got more tree business with another arborist this morning, including looking at our old maple trees. I hope some careful pruning will prolong their life but I’m nervous. As you all know I love those trees.
Good morning, meese! Saturday …
It is 64 degrees in Madison with an expected high of 75. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Best Tweet Ever:
I am done worrying about the latest yammering and will focus on positive political news about Hillary Clinton. Yesterday FLOTUS spoke on her behalf and reminded us to go high when they go low. As Paul Waldman said: “Today was a reminder that for 8 years Obama has met the birther issue with superhuman equanimity. Most of us would have lost our sh*t.”
Let’s not lose our sh*t … let’s get out there and register people and get them to vote. Early voting starts next week in Minnesota (23rd) and a week from Monday in Wisconsin (26th).
See all y’all later!
This evening, President Obama and Hillary Clinton will speak at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner at 7:30pm Eastern:
I have a transcript (courtesy of the White House) of Michelle Obama’s speech yesterday and I will put it in a separate post … because FLOTUS!!
Yay! Her speech was on the money. (as always)
Thanks for the heads up on the dinner – will tweet it.
Here is the link:
I am feeling this need to reset and get off the “Trump Sucks” train and onto the “Our Side Rocks” train. Yesterday, after Trump said that he believed the president was born in America – but refused to apologize and then blamed Hillary for starting the birther movement, I realized we will never win by pulling Trump down (he is already so low) but only by building our candidate up. Trump will have the press’ attention because he is a showman, not a serious candidate for the highest elected office in the land. And trying to grab the spotlight from him will fail.
So instead, we grab a fistful of policies that matter to people, we talk about the kind of country we want to be and we use these positive things to promote our candidate and our party.
Michelle’s speech was great – a reminder to anyone who needs one of “the best that’s in us” and to keep going high no matter how low the other side gets.
Thanks for the link – now I know where to go to see it tonight. :)
Don’t watch it on cable news or you will get a small box in the corner with whatever nonsense Trump is spouting at that moment. Plus talking heads and dishonest chyrons!!
I click the link on my Kindle Fire and plug in the headphones. Bliss!!
Oh, OK. Actually last night I found Michelle’s speech by googling “C-span Michelle Obama 9-16-16” so I’ll try the same thing tonight.
Up for ungodly hour workout, if my stomach lets me. Back later.
If only American journalists had roundtables like this one
I have no idea what the temp is, just that it’s damp, chilly, and overcast. I got totally soaked in an unexpected downpour yesterday upon leaving work (actually we hung out around the door for half an hour hoping it would let up) and I’m not entirely sure my “work shoes” will be dry by Monday as I was walking through a 3″ to 6″ deep stream the 2 blocks from my building to the car. Used the light wool blanket (as well as the flannel sheets) for the first time this season. I’d say “winter is a’ comin’ in” even if slowly and in fits and starts. Got just over 9 KWHs yesterday. The sun’s going to have to actually come out today before I even get 1 today.
Yesterday was a much better day politically speaking than Thursday – the HOF folks at GOS shut up for a bit and we who keep saying “go high” and “power it through” got in a few innings. It’s going to come down to what it always comes down to – GOTV. Hillary’s got a ground game that’s even better than President Obama’s. I trust her team. I’ll be staffing Dem HQ again this afternoon (including registering any folks who come in asking). I’ve been reminding everyone I talk to to at least double check and make sure they are registered. I’ll be registering on the Square next Saturday morning (not that I got many last week – one right there and 5 who took the forms) before heading for Dem HQ. That’s what I can do, so that’s what I am doing. As long as we all do what we can, well, that’s “powering it through” and we will win. (And of course I didn’t have to say that to anyone on this site. )
Need some coffee and check in over at GOS – put the link to kishik’s diary about progress on Aji’s home into a few community diaries and stuff like that. Then make my lunch and head out. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 56 and raining in Bellingham. Good tree news……the arborist who was here yesterday thinks he can do a life prolonging pruning for my old maple trees, yay!!! I’m so relieved. He will also do some work asap on the fir trees so the city should cooperate when I talk to them on Mon. After the initial work is done we will work out a long term plan to minimize the ivy in the biggest fir tree. We can work away at the ivy while protecting the health of the trees, but we can’t do it within the 30 days requirement the city has given us.
The sound of the rain is restful this morning, and it’s so nice to look at the changing leaves in my old trees knowing that we may have a few more years to do so.
Glad things are looking good for your trees. I can’t get an arborist to actually show up and discuss my trees. I’ve got several that weren’t supposed to get as big as they did. If they’d topped out at the size expected things would be fine, but the branches are way too close to my roof since they didn’t. sigh. If this one (3rd called) doesn’t show up soon, I’ll try to find another one. double sigh. But lovely that you’ll have your maples for another couple of years anyway, maybe more. Maples are lovely in the fall.
I did 1.8 miles — and 10 running breaks, 1 of which was 45 seconds! Staying awake long enough to eat lunch, then a nap. Find Joy Reid’s show online if you didn’t watch it, it was brilliant. Toure & Dean Obeidallah were both totally right on.