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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Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 64 in Madison WI with an expected high of 75. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
President Obama’s speech last night at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Award Dinner was simply amazing. I put up a post with the transcript so that I can view it and read the words. I can say this – it definitely needs to be viewed, at least once:
Good Sunday mornin’ Meese
I was elated to get up and see Jan (thank you m’am) had posted POTUS’ and Hills’ speeches at CBC Gala.
Have also been following updates, reactions to the explosion in Chelsea.
I hope that the injuries are not life threatening. Some of the Tweets were dark humor (“Look, a literal dumpster fire!”) but if anyone can’t see how dangerous Trump’s reaction is – and how he wants bad things to happen to puff himself up – they need to be smacked upside the head.
I hope people have seen enough of him and are ready to give him, and the Republican Party, the boot:
Dee, we need to make sure to tie Donald Trump like an albatross around the Republican Party’s neck. We can’t let people think that he is an outlier, a one-off – he embodies the Republican Party agenda and shows what it looks like when the dog whistles turn to bullhorns. I see too many people calling for Trump to get the boot but we will just be dealing with the next Trump, someone like Earnest Tom Cotton, if we don’t boot the Republican Party as well. We cannot let a party that chose this dangerous man as their standard bearer, and whose leaders refuse to unendorse him, Etch-A-Sketch the Trump candidacy away in 2018 or 2020 or 2040 – ever.
Great cartoon Jan……a most satisfying image!
Took a long nap yesterday — and still went to bed before 10 last night. Got beans cooking, breakfast & lunch for next week are already done. Going to Dem club meeting after church — endorsements for City Council & other local races.
Good morning, 54 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. We’re looking forward to Sunday dinner with the family tonight. The grand girls are old enough to take care of themselves after school this year so we don’t have a regular time on the calendar to see them. So its time for Sunday meals together to happen more often. I may bake an old favorite apple torte……or I may go to the bakery for lemon cake. And I’ve a feeling my knees will decide!
I’m continuing to pull our domestic bubble tight around us, hoping a focus on normal everyday life will counter the election blues. I’m so weary of the hateful R’s message. I don’t want to be uninformed but it’s getting harder and harder to read the news. So I check in with PEC everyday for a reality check. I’m listening to an interesting discussion between Sam Wang, Rebecca Traister, and Julian Zelizer now.
I really like Rebecca Traister. I “found” her when she wrote a Hillary article earlier this year during the time when finding positive articles was difficult. She writes for NYMag now and always has insights that I find valuable.
Morning started chilly and overcast, went to rain, and is now apparently trying to get hot enough to steam off – without clearing so the sun can do it right. sigh. Yesterday did get almost 14 KWHs as the sun came out just as I was heading out to Dem HQ. Not looking like it’s going to do the same today, darn it.
Thanks again for the transcripts of last night’s CBC Foundation Awards. I saw Hillary’s speech, but C-span timed out on me very shortly into President Obama’s speech – and wouldn’t let me back in. There are some folks over at GOS who’ve decided it’s time to try again on writing positive Hillary diaries (one’s entitled something along the lines of “Why I support Hillary – I like to Breathe” and Ono did a lovely one last night based on that tweet Denise put in the HNV diary yesterday). We caught a few trolls, but nothing like what we’d have gotten 6 months ago, or even 2 months ago. Time to take the Obamas’ advice – go high and vote!
Anyway, heading over to GOS for the British Breakfast and Denise’s diary. (And whoa, the sun just broke through the clouds – maybe I’ll get some electricity production after all – but I’m not trusting it enough to take my clothes off the racks and hang them outside.) Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
The White House will release a YouTube video at some point also but they are a little slower on weekends. When one shows up, I will post it for you. The CSPAN feeds are tricky – I have to be careful not to touch anything else on my Kindle when I am watching live.
Someone at GOS posted the video in a comment. Not sure what to copy, so did the “embed code”:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StM9eMHjIJM&w=673&h=373%5D
That is not the White House video. Here is the link to the White House YouTube account: The White House – Videos.
The Saturday night video is still not posted but, like I said, they are probably not working on the weekend. The CHCI video is there so I am fairly certain the CBCF video will as well. I don’t need it for my post, the CSPAN video works for me, but I will probably replace it with the better quality WH video when it is available.
Here is Dee’s diary.
Good morning, meese! Monday …
It is 66 degrees in Madison with an expected high of 81. Sunny skies in the morning and a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening.
A week from tonight will be the presidential debate. I will go to the City Clerk’s office and vote that morning, a right fought for and won this summer in the federal courts, the last line of defense against Republican state governments desperate to cling to power. I Will Vote.
Today the UN General Assembly will be meeting to discuss the refugee crisis and on Tuesday there will be a summit to discuss humanitarian aid. The president will speak to the UNGA in Tuesday morning’s session (the schedule says 9am Eastern).
See all y’all later!
Good Monday morning Meese
I’m relaxing today – because tomorrow I make the long plane trek out to St. Paul MN to speak on a panel and will turn around and head back to NY Wednesday morning.
The good news is I get to see Nancy LeTourneau as a bonus to the trip .
Am ignoring the news – don’t have the energy for it.
Have a good one.
Have you met Nancy in person? I imagine she was at NN11 in Minneapolis since she had been blogging at DK before she became a celebrity, now at Washington Monthly and all over my librul Internets. :)
Ignoring the news is a good idea. I scanned it and once you skip the stories about the Trump surrogates spinning the latest lie, there is not much there. The Bridgegate co-conspirators go on trial today in federal court in New Jersey. That should make things uncomfortable for Chris Christie but he appears to be living on a different planet, one where facts are magically erased by repeating “no, he didn’t” over and over on cable “news” shows. Bizarre.
Have a safe trip!
{{{Denise}}} Safe travels. Ignoring the news is my standard M.O. – I catch pretty much all I’m interested at the Moose pond or in the HNV at GOS and emails from my county Dem Party Central Committee. Enjoy your trip – and your panel. :)
Going to be in the upper 90s most of the week. It’ll “cool down” to merely 92-ish by the weekend. Ugh. Not even gonna think about walking this evening. Might get up ungodly early tomorrow & walk before work. Brain is playing Everlasting Love
Hillary Clinton will be speaking today at Temple University to try to convince millennials that there really are differences between her and Donald Trump:
From WaPo:
I lay this at the feet of Bernie Sanders. He is going to Nader the 2016 election with his lies about Hillary. You can’t undo lies.
Totally agree – and all the campaigning now from him won’t change their minds, it’s too late. I truly despise that man.
Did you see the Sam Wang piece from 2008 that I retweeted out yesterday? “Source amnesia” – people hear the lie and if they believe it at the time, it goes into a part of the brain called “True Stuff”. However, the source of the True Thing gets lost so when you need to undo it, you can’t – it is there and true and if you say “Thing is not true!” it simply reinforces the Thing, lie or not.
We need to overlay those lies with new truths. So when Bernie Sanders said “Hillary is in the pockets of corporate interests and will never block their earth destroying ways!!” we need to counter with not “that’s a lie” but “Look at this wonderful plan Hillary has for protecting the environment through a beefed up EPA and new executive orders!! Did you know that Trump and the Republicans want to dissolve the EPA and roll back all regulations?” New Truths.
Low 60s at daybreak and finally clear enough that I could see the moon this morning. Heading into a week of mostly clear topping around 90 but overnight lows in the low 60s. Got 12.5 KWHs yesterday (sun did finally break through around lunch time) and will definitely crest 250, maybe even 260 KWHs for the month by the end of the day.
I just posted this in this morning’s HNV at GOS: We’re going to do this. It will be closer than it should be, but why anybody every thought electing the first woman president would be easy I’ll never know. Yes, Hillary is the most qualified candidate in probably forever. Did anyone think a woman who wasn’t the most qualified ever would get even this far? There is nothing right, honorable, or fair about the attacks on Hillary. There never has been. So what else is new? But she’s been the first woman a lot of things, and usually the only while she was in the position. She’s used to this shit. Not saying she likes it or even just ignores is, but she’s used to it. And she succeeds. She will again as long as we GOTV. It’s that simple. This is what I hang onto when people start with the OMGHOF the polls are bad crap. It was never going to be easy and the idea that it should be is another media meme generated solely for the purpose of negatively comparing Hillary’s performance against it.
Meanwhile, I’ve got to find a couple of students who aren’t going to get paid on the next payroll (which runs this evening) if they don’t get me their hours. Among other things. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
You nailed it here – electing a woman was NEVER going to be easy, no matter who that woman was. But if we vote, we win, simple as that.
The president spoke to some supporters at a fund raiser on Sunday and suggested that there is quite a bit of sexism.
In the year of the Racist, the Sexist may be getting largely ignored. We need to be aware of it when we talk to people – and simply work harder to overcome it!
Morning all – still hot here, although a bit less humid. I don’t think we’ll see a break in our heat for another month.
Not much to report today – Dee, have a good trip out West, hope it’s not too tiring for you. I think ignoring the news is usually a sound plan these days!
Everyone have a great day!
You east coasters!! St. Paul MN is not “out West” … it is “up North”! ;)
And the PNW is waaaay west :)
Actually MN is the western-most part of what was the Northwest until about the Civil War, later referred to as the Old Northwest :) My 3xs great grandfather “emigrated” with his wife’s family from the Carolinas to the “northwest” in 1833 – when the “Night f the Falling Stars” happened, actually 3 nights and if it had lasted one more night they would have turned back. (That’s the only family history I know.)
Good morning, 56 and raining in Bellingham. We had a change of plans yesterday because son #2 and his family couldn’t join us. But we cooked dinner anyway, and son #1 and I enjoyed time together in his garden and Heide smiled and scored lots of treats from RonK, the barbecue guy.
Monday is a pool morning for me, then I hope to get a final resolution from the city re our trees. We are also trying to finish painting the porch floors. Per usual with this old house, one project leads to another and painting the new screen door meant repainting both entrance doors, and then the trim, and now the floors. I’ll be glad to have it all put back together again!
Hillary’s speech was quite beautiful:
Her plan for millennials: If you were born between 1980 and 2002, here’s how Hillary Clinton’s plans will help you.
She is using this music now:
(I’ll bet she got permission!!)
Lyrics:
Thanks Jan…..listening now and loving the moment.
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected high of 79. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday afternoon a line of storms moved through the area. The west side of town got hit with golf ball size hail; I saw some of the hail on Twitter and I cannot imagine what it would have felt like driving through that! We just got intense rain.
Yesterday’s speech by Hillary Clinton at Temple University was, I think, an excellent way to introduce herself to the millennial voters. I wish the campaign would release transcripts!! Sigh. Tomorrow, Hillary will be speaking in Orlando FL
The topics for the September 26th debate have been announced by the CPD:
Someone said that the topics sounded like the names of SuperPACs. Ha! I think this will be an important debate because it will be the only presidential debate. Trump will go into this thinking he will win, like he did when there were 16 other people on the stage, but he can’t win one on one. When it is over, his team will spin it as a win, the press will dutifully report it as such but those watching the debate will know the truth … and Trump will find all sorts of excuses to not do the other two debates. Already he is telling Fox News that Lester Holt is a Democrat in order to lower the bar or to set the stage for “the process is rigged” and withdrawal. I have mixed feelings about watching the debate live but I probably will. I do not find the yam entertaining and after yesterdays freak show over immigration and terrorism, I find it more and more difficult to even read the news because it is filled with his lies.
This morning the president will address the U.N. General Assembly on the subject of the resettlement of the world’s refugees. CSPAN has it on their schedule for 9am Eastern but no video link. No link on the White House web site either but here is the link to live events: WhiteHouse.gov/Live. It will eventually show up there.
See all y’all later!
Good morning Meese – up and waiting for my taxi to go to the airport – will be back from MN tomorrow evening.
I see Wrigley (Skittles) responded to Trump Jr’s use of their candy to ramp up fear of immigrants
I agree with this tweet
see Guardian article
Donald Trump Jr compares refugees to poisoned Skittles
Donald Trump Jr has used a Twitter post to liken Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles and suggest that America should not accept any.
Yikes! I totally missed the Trayvon Martin linkage. I did notice that the meme has been used for quite some time: Mike “God Loves All the WHITE CHRISTIAN Children” Huckabee did the same thing with peanuts.
It is disgusting and I was glad to see the pushback to this crap.
From @darth:
I tweeted at the Skittles people & told them that even though I don’t eat candy, I’m buying some. I’ll find a food bank donation barrel to put them in.
So I didn’t wake up at 4:30 to walk before work. I’m scheduled to do at least 30 minutes today, which means after work. Which means either in 99 degrees or finding the money to continue my gym membership. Hmmmm. Anyway, today should just be a normal day. Yes, my brain is playing U2 songs at me.
speaking of… Bono has some words about Trump
“Look, America is like the best idea the world ever came up with. But Donald Trump is potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America, potentially,” Bono said. “It could destroy it, because of what we’re saying, because America’s not just a country. Ireland is a nice country. Great Britain is a great country — all the rest of it. It’s not an idea. America is an idea, and that idea is bound up in justice and equality for all — equality and justice for all, you know? I think he’s hijacked the party, and I think he’s trying to hijack the idea of America. And I think it’s bigger than all of us. I think it’s — this is really dangerous.”
Bono is right.
this interview is apparently going to be on PBS tonight
The president will be speaking at 10am Eastern. Here is the White House YouTube (you will probably have to fast forward to the president’s speech if you catch up later).
Mid-60s at daybreak, clear enough I actually saw the moon for a change when I opened my curtains, heading for lower 90s (s/b hottest for the next 10 days, and off and on cloudy. Got over 12 KWHs yesterday, monthly total to date is 257, so not gonna meet much less beat Sept 2015, but could definitely be worse.
I won’t watch the debate. I didn’t watch the primary debates – just videos of Hillary’s comments and town hall-type things – and Bernie isn’t a pimple on Trump’s butt for being someone I don’t want to listen to. I could of course easily be wrong, but I think this election is going to have a lot in common with 1932. Each state will be damned close, but the overall EC numbers will look like a “mandate” – thanks to our mostly winner take all system.
I need to get some work done. Having a half-hour meeting when I walk in the door, as I did today, always throws me off. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}