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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‘Morning, Meese! Left off the “Good” because I’m not sure whether or not it is a good morning yet. I gather that all hell is breaking loose with the current Administration. Apparently the Transition team (which includes all the current major players), the Fibbies, the intelligence agencies, and the New York Times, all knew about the orchestration of the election by Russia and said nothing. Nothing at all.
Meanwhile, the real president is walking through the woods at Chappaqua while thugs sit in the White House.
Ye gods. Will be back later but in the meantime I woke up much too early, so I’m going to get a cup of tea.
I think that is the most disheartening part of this, Diana. Even if the Russian influence can be proven down to the VP level – and the criminals driven from office – the legitimate winner of the 2016 election will never be inaugurated. Our constitution has only one check point for a botched election to be corrected and it required one House of Congress to be decent and honorable; those who would gain from a Unified Republican Government managed to block the investigation long enough to take power. So regardless of who ends up being president, it will not be a Democrat and our very existence will continue to be at risk.
We have to take back Congress in 2018. I hope we can convince the people who stayed home in 2016 that there is no do-over at the national level but there is certainly a way to improve our chances for survival. Maybe this, and a 50-state strategy put in place by the newly invigorated DNC, can finally break through the consciousness of voters – we have to vote every two years, not just every four. If we had made that case in 2014, we might have salvaged enough seats in Congress to have a firewall right now. We now have proof that democracy hangs in the balance with every election not just the exciting ones with big rallies and conventions.
Watching the Republicans’ national security train wreck is entertaining but we can’t take our eyes off what is taking place in Congress. We have to keep calling and sending cards and reminding our representatives that we care about the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security – and care about people who live on the margins and for whom the social safety net is the only thing keeping them alive.
Well said.
(Though I would say “infuriating” rather than “disheartening.”)
I am trying to be less furious these days. :) After the election, I spent days enraged and I found it not good for my mental and physical health. I refuse to accept what has happened as normal but I have accepted that it did happen. It took a long time to get there! Now we can move into the resistance phase.
People in my state, Wisconsin, had to deal with this in 2010 and then again in 2014. We did not do a very good job of resisting, did we? Now maybe with the energy of a country full of progressives with us, and help from the DNC, we can do better in 2018.
So true, Jan.
Am continually appalled at the depths of moral depravity shown by the current crop of Rethugs.
Good morning! It’s going to be 33 in Chicago today, but almost 60 next Monday. Crazy.
It is scary, but exciting thinking that hopefully we can get rid of the whole lot of them. Of course then we get smirk ryan for president. Unless he’s caught up in it too, which is possible. Who knows who we end up with.
What a horrible mess.
If it gets down to Paul Ryan assuming the presidency, their party will be in such disarray they will be unable to pass a thing PLUS his House members will be endangered and trying to save their own sorry asses. Seeing his smirking face for 3+ years will create a lot of indigestion but tRump and tupPence are no treats either.
Cold — I actually had to wear a coat. Car said it’s 40 degrees. (yes, I know — to most of y’all that isn’t cold). There’s a 30% chance of rain Sunday — but that’s in the afternoon, the race is still supposed to be fine. Waiting for the next wheel to fall off the Trump train. This thread on that really offensive picture about Betsey De Voss, y’all. And my brain is playing Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.
Good morning, Meese! It’s 35 F. under cloudy skies here in NoVa, going up to 47 F. today. Yesterday when I took Miss Pink Cheeks to the park to play after school, I observed the grass is already turning green. The weeping willows are turning that funny color they get just before they turn lime green, presaging spring. And this is mid-February!
Seems as if this Russian story has legs and will not stop. Why didn’t the media follow up on this before the election? Oh, wait, I remember—emails! They wanted to stop Hill, they did, and this is the result. (Incidentally, I am sick and tired of being told in the Other Place that we had a “weak candidate” and that we didn’t get out and talk to enough people. Really? She won 2.9 million more votes because she was “weak”?)
OK, that’s enough asperity from me for today. Weight training at the gym this morning, then grocery shopping, cleaning up spilled pickle juice in the fridge, sorting who gets which Girl Scout cookies, and so on. Must try to think what to have for dinner.
Hoping it’s a good (and even more revelatory) day for all at the Pond and Beyond!
Great – funny & smart – thread by one of the science fiction writers I follow
https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/831855133529104384
32 just before sunrise, frost on my solar panels when I left for work, heading for 50 and sunny. Hope to make up for yesterday – only got 1.4 KWHs yesterday – with another 11 or maybe even 12 today. We shall see. At least the sunshine helps alleviate depression.
Soloing at work so really hit and miss about being around the internet as I’m being interrupted so much I can’t even finish a cup of coffee! Got my Street Prophets diary today – that’s my Resistance activity right now, build community/help those in the community. I can’t do much of anything else. But I know there will still be things to do a year from now when I’m retired and can do stuff during business hours. No, our real president will not be in office moving us towards that more perfect union of all our citizens. So the Resistance will be needed. Also a whole lot GOTV. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 55, cloudy and windy in Bellingham. Between the wind and worrying about the tRump mess we are in I didn’t sleep well at all last night so my brain is foggy this morning. I’m going to try to let busy work keep me occupied today. Fortunately I have hours of fabric sorting to do!
Good afternoon fellow Meeses! I’ve been busy at work. It’s a lovely 68 degrees and sunny here in Costa Mesa, CA.
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
Puzder out – get ready for His Pettiness to nominate someone worse. This is not a guy who takes losses well.
While everyone is focusing on the Russia connection – entertainment only, any meaningful investigation will be stonewalled by Republican Congressional leaders and/or their handpicked cover-upper-in-chief Jeff Sessions – they just released the first batch of rules guaranteed to destroy the ACA insurance exchanges. We won’t need repeal, it will crash on its own as the supports are removed. The IRS won’t enforce the mandate, HHS will allow junk policies back on the market, the sign-up period is shortened – fewer exceptions, smaller grace periods means loss of coverage and more uncovered illnesses. This is how you kill a program from the executive branch. So much of what was good about the Obama Administration was in their enforcement, their interpretation of the legislation, their wanting to make thing work for people. Gone. Poof. Today I don’t like people.
See all y’all later!
Good Thursday Morning Meese
29 degrees here in Saugerties NY. Have school today.
On Sessions:
On Trump’s taxes
The Orange Imposter
other news (yes there is still a world out there) that concerns me as a medical anthropologist
Thanks for the roundup! Don’t miss that Kamala Harris has a new Twitter handle – the one for her Senate office. @SenKamalaHarris
Sessions won’t recuse and no Republicans will demand that he do. The Unified Republican Government has no interest in preserving democracy or the rule of law.
Re scurvy: two millennials sharing an apartment invited their parents over for a meal and during it, confided that their teeth were loose and seemed likely to fall out. The parents quickly diagnosed scurvy because their stupid brats hated vegetables and fruit and ate only meat.
This new fad for low-carb diets probably contributes to a lot of scurvy. I read that one woman on the Atkins Diet said she didn’t eat any fruit at all for a year. M’daughter’s nutrition coach informed Daughter that she occasionally eats a small dish of berries but other than that eats no fruit.
Speaking for myself, I’d rather be overweight than do without fruit and vegetables.
wow!
As if we don’t have enough problems teaching our children – this:
Fer gawd’s sake, a lot of women have to work for a living. They can’t stay home and teach their children. Rethugs are all on drugs and therefore hallucinating.
I was never a fan of Jake Tapper. He is however – currently practicing journalism
People forget that he used to be a reliable liberal – he was one of the original writers at Salon. I followed him on Twitter at the urging of FlojaRoja and have not regretted it. He sometimes acts all hurt when people remind him of CNNs tongue bath of tRump in the primaries and the general election but overall he seems decent.
The orange sh*tgibbon hates @CNN so it would follow that they would become the lead cable network pushing back. Shut out of the inner circle? Fine, you have better reporting without the puff pieces you have to do to maintain access. Take one look at Robert Costa at WaPo for an example of that. He has totally lost credibility.
I don’t like him either, Denise. It seems he eventually got around to deciding that Thing was worse than…Hillary! Awful, terrible Hillary with her dreadful record of lifelong public service and emailghazi!
The only thing we can do now – is encourage him to continue on this path – even though imho he was a media contributor to Hillary loss.
My eyes just filled with tears
Canada. Every day they show us what decency is.
Canada has freedom and Justin.
hold Justin in your thoughts – Canada’s Alt Left is trying to bring him down.
I’m going to share this with my students
This is an initiative led by former Bernie staffers – and should be appealing to many of my students
Good morning. Going up to 37 and partly cloudy in Chicago today.
Another day, another worry about what the idiots will do. If it’s not “it”, it’s smirk ryan, or turtle face. Destroy, destroy, that’s all they know how to do. I did see on twitter yesterday that the intel agencies are about to go commando on “it”, and it said he will die in jail. I want all of them to die in jail. Please.
I’ll have to go see if the russian ships have stolen our submarines yet. It’s probably just a matter of time.
I miss waking up time when BHO was in the WH.
Now it’s log on with dread time – daily.
Cold this morning but it’ll be 70 this afternoon & in the 80s on Saturday. We had 2 new people at my Democratic club meeting last night. Had a presentation y some people making a documentary about “what works” — they say history is mostly told about how things went wrong & they’ve been studying where things are going right. Like, there’s a co-op business in Spain that’s been going for decades and is highly, highly successful. It’s “What Works”. Sounds interesting. I’m going to find them on Facebook after I’ve had my tea. Earworm: Disappear
I lke that – though I think we need both – what wonks and what does not.
Good morning, Meese! Here in NoVa we have tentative blue skies covered with a veil of white cloud. The temp. is 32 F. now, going up to 39 F. later.
Today is Miss Pink Cheeks’ eighth birthday. I’ll be picking her up after school and bringing her home to open birthday presents. One of them is a stationery set so she can write to her pen pals in Korea and Alabama.
Got to fly around getting things ready for some friends who are coming to tea tomorrow afternoon. Now that our basement flat is rented, Dearly Beloved can’t go downstairs to hide from feminine chitchat, so I’m sending him off to do some shopping.
Very disheartened by what’s happening to ACA. What a world! It’s getting to where one is afraid to wake up in the morning.
Hoping everyone will have a good day in their personal lives, at least.
Happy Birthday to Miss Pink Cheeks!
Thank you, Sis!
She is so beautiful, brilliant, and funny.
(This is the gospel according to Grandma.)
{{{Diana}}} – Happy Birthday to Miss Pink Cheeks – I vaguely remember getting a “Snow White” watch for my 8th birthday. :)
this is hilarious, y’all — and will really piss off the Orange Shitgibbon:
https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/831923451627704321
LOL!
Good morning, Meese! It’s 55-ish and raining in Folsom. Yes, RAINING. How I love the rain. :)
I finally got my plates / registration yesterday in the mail. The CA DMV had a two-day glitch last October (I bought my car at the end of September) and they had to recreate the submissions by hand, or something like that. Anyway, now I can drive around and get things done that need a license plate number.
Will be gone next weekend to Santa Cruz for a music festival and after that to Singapore for two weeks. I hope that there’s still a US to come back to…
Singapore, basket? Oh, lucky, lucky you!
Spent three blissful years of my childhood there in the 1950s. Visited it in March 2012.
Say hello to Orchard Road for me, and Kallang, and Bukit Timah; not forgetting the Padang, the Botanic Gardens, Raffles Hotel, the Mer-Lion, my former home at No. 8 Cotswold Close in Braddell Heights, and—and—
Wish I were going with you. Sniff.
I will try! Although I suspect a lot of things have changed, even since the last time I was there two years ago.
Good morning, 48 and raining in Bellingham. Being busy is better for my mental health but it appears my body needs another day of rest. Managing my arthritis without the pool is becoming increasingly difficult so I hope the long overdue “part” will soon be delivered and installed so I can get back to a regular exercise routine. I can go to the municipal pool, but the cold water and turbulence from the lap swimming lanes is hard to manage as well.
Best wishes to all for a pleasant day.