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 Friday morning Meese
Headed to “Women in Politics: Past, Present and Future” conference today – and tomorrow – and then to NY DKos Meetup on Sunday – so it’s a busy weekend for me.
Have a good one.
Have a good time! Maybe when I move to New England in a few years, I can check out one of the NY gatherings. They always look like such fun.
One more really warm day — 90 this afternoon — then a cool weekend. Unfortunately, it looks like next week will be really warm, they’re not predicting for next weekend yet, but Thursday is over 90, so…. Oh well, it won’t be that bad.
Some good news — the gerrymandering in Texas was struck down, again. I hope it stays that way but with our delightful Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, I don’t have much hope. Brain is still playing that same Coldplay song. Not even the last U2 song I was listening to in the car. Oh well, at least it’s a happy, poppy song.
The tRump “Justice” Department has no say in the gerrymandering case. The plaintiff is the ACLU – the Obama administration signed on as an additional plaintiff but you don’t need a government plaintiff (or defendant) to take a case to the Supreme Court.
The question is if Anthony Kennedy will still be a justice when the case is heard. It seems unlikely and there is no way that a Republican SCOTUS appointeee will support voting rights. It is disgraceful that one of our two major parties is intent on disenfranchising the voters of the other party – as the only way they can keep power. I hope karma has very sharp teeth when she comes back to bite them in the ass.
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 37 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 55. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
So the killing begins again: the first official act of Neil Gorsucks was to vote to kill a death-row inmate in Arkansas. I hope the pharmaceutical company makes an example of Arkansas and sues the crap out of them (sorry, bfitz). They were NOT to use that drug to kill and they did.
The orange shitgibbon is whining about the “fake” First 100 Days construct – that he used in his campaign over and over and over again. And his budget director, Mulvaney, is saying that if the Democrats don’t come around on voting for funding to build tRump’s border wall, the government will shut down – because he can’t get his own Republicans on board! Screw him. The Democrats own no piece of this government and if the Republicans want to demonstrate to people how stupid they are to give complete power to the Republicans, have at it.
Another busy day here. See all y’all later!
Suing this state government is the only thing that will get their attention. At the moment it is dominated top to bottom with RWNJ pseudo-Christian End-timers. They will, of course, cut even more of our already inadequate services to pay for defending it. But Arkansans are used to that. It’s only been in the last generation that AR wasn’t one step above MS on everything. Old-timers here still say “thank god for Mississippi” when it’s pointed out how low we rate on this, that, or something else.
This is simply awful:
Yes.
Good morning, Moosekind! At 9:30 a.m. this Friday morning it’s looking like a beautiful day in NoVa, although we woke up to soft gray skies and traces of rain. Current temp. is 62 F., going up to 80 F.
Had the night from hell last night. Turned out the light at midnight and stayed awake until 5:30 this morning! At 2 a.m. I said to hail with this, went downstairs, made a cuppa, and started reading. I’m going back to bed for a couple of hours, then will resume my daily chores. Our tenant wants to cook Shrimp Lo Mein for us tonight, which will take care of dinner. Friday is a Fish Night anyway.
There’s just too much on my mind at all times, what with the state of the country, the state of our garden (it still needs work) and whatnot. One thing I need is more exercise, so will try to get that today,.
Wishing a good day to all!
{{{Diana}}} – Healing Energy and have a good nap. Yes, more exercise will help. Getting away from the news so it isn’t chewing on your brain all night will also help. Deal with the things you can. Trust others in The Resistance to deal with the things you can’t. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Thank you, bfitz! {{{Hugs}}}
My sleep patterns changed this past week and I am not sure what is causing it. I think the low-level anxiety buzz is lessened since I came back from vacation when I had no specific time to get up except for the travel days. The last couple of days I have had a more difficult time falling asleep but once I did I slept through until my alarm went off! It had been so long since I have heard my alarm, it startled me!
I hope you get a nap.
Thank you, Jan, I did!
Good morning, 47 and partly cloudy in Bellingham today. The buds on my old maple trees are magically becoming leaves. I always wonder if I could see if happen if I could just stay awake and watch.
Rick Steves is committed to living a thoughtful life…..
Rick Steves’ charitable investment with unexpected dividends
Thanks for this item, princesspat! My husband and I dote on Rick Steves. We watch his travelogues on PBS, we admire his packing philosophy (carry-on only), and just feel generally that he’s a good guy. If he wants to put pot in his Chicken Pot Pie, that’s okay with me. His business, not mine.
51 at dawn and not much higher now. May or may not make it to the mid 60s. Only 3-1/3 KWHs yesterday and with the rain and overcast today I’m not holding my breath for even that much today. We’re at 288 for the month at the moment. We’ve already gotten over an inch of rain today and expect it to at least drizzle and maybe flat out rain for the rest of the day. Rain chance drops to below 50% after midnight, so our satellite Science March should be OK. Not sure i can make it, but I’m going to try.
Holding the Good Thought on all the things we need to be blocking – like renewed attack on ACA – while we are also trying to push back on stuff – like removing science/facts from governmental decision-making. I can’t be everywhere or do everything and I’d just make myself sick to try. So I do what I can politically and do what I can non-politically to deal with the underlying Hate that got this R administration into power (with a lot of help from the media). And trust my allies to do the rest (while doing my best to ignore my should-be-but-not-allies unless direct action is called for).
Gotta get back to work. Will check in with the Villages first, of course. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Your Senator, Tom Cotton, seems pretty much against this newest ACA repeal. I think he may have woken up during his town hall. Not that he got a heart – that is a bridge too far – but that he realized how much an ACA repeal will cost his state and the fact that it was not that long ago that a Democrat sat in his seat. Maybe he worries that a red state Democrat would give him a run for his money in 2020 if the Republicans take the hit for literally letting people die.
Tom Cotton doesn’t have a heart but he loves power and the ability to abuse it. The townhalls told him quite loudly that his hold on that power was more tenuous than he’d thought.
Yay for that, bfitz!
Good morning! High of 52 today with low, grey clouds everywhere. I don’t suffer from SAD, but this winter/spring has been so unrelentingly overcast that I’m getting antsy for more than just occasional glimpses of the sun and blue skies.
I decided against attending the Science March, but I will probably attend this instead: http://boggscenter.org/april-22-2017-mt-clemens-break-silence-community-conversations-april-29-ferndale/
I don’t really know what it’s all about, but I trust the Boggs Center to sponsor programming that is useful, even if difficult. I don’t mind “difficult” if it’s with allies; I have a bigger problem when “difficult” comes at the hands of alleged-allies-who-really-aren’t.
You would probably love Seattle then! :P (I lived there for 7 years before moving to Folsom in 2014)
basket, we were in Seattle for one day and got high just from the ambiance. No pot needed!
Good morning! High of 75, and sunny/warm weather for the next two weeks. I miss the rain. Will be going to Walnut Creek tomorrow afternoon/evening to listen to pianist Richard Dowling perform the complete piano music of Scott Joplin in two concerts. I had heard him in NY, but this was too good to pass up!
Most of my husband’s family is in WA; I actually love it there, but I always feel oddly hemmed in by the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other (this is up in the valley by Mt. Vernon). And that, in itself, is strange because I lived for years in Scotland, with the ocean literally at my front door and a brae behind me (…and lots of rain, although Scottish rain is quite different from Midwestern rain…) without the same sensation. Go figure…
Wow, I did not know that… Just more reasons in my book why you are awesome. :D
have fun at the concert. good music is good music and a chance to ‘double dip’ should not be lost. ;) and {{{HUGS}}}
Enjoy, basket!
Traister: Will We Abandon Women’s Rights in the Name of Progressive Politics?
I would quibble with her title. “Will We Let Them Abandon Women’s Rights in the Name of Progressive Politics?” I hope to hell not.
One more thing. We are trying to win over people who don’t like the rest of our agenda either. Where do we draw the line?
Good morning, meese! Saturday …
It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 61. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Sounds like a great day for a march! Today is Earth Day, a day which has ties to Wisconsin’s progressive past – Governor, and later, Senator Gaylord Nelson was the founder. We will have a March for Science in Madison, joining people around the globe protesting the cuts to science that regressive mouth breathing Republicans are planning. I have yet to decide if I will march in person or in solidarity. I have a project to get done the morning and I am not sure how long it will take.
Today’s Weekly Address is about the disastrous start to the orange shitgibbon’s presidency. If you need any more evidence that the American people did not want this awful person as president, just look at his first 91 days – not even his own party wants to pass his bills, his approval rating is at historic lows, every one of his initiatives is either hung up in court or being protested or being set aside as not feasible, he and his foreign policy team are laughingstocks. He and his family are gross, his Attorney General is a racist pig, and, no, Mulvaney, Democrats will not make common cause with him or any Republican. As you so nicely put it you can “pound sand up your ass”.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Moosekind! Here in NoVa it’s exactly the kind of weekend morning I love: cool, grey, and damp, with loud birdsong. Currently it’s 58 F., working its way up to 65 F. Yesterday it was 85 F.!
Feeling much better after finally getting a night’s sleep. Had very high hopes that someone would chasten Jason right out of Congress yesterday but no such luck—yet.
Will spend the morning doing household chores. We still have to put away all the stuff we used for Easter dinner! Tell you what, this week I’ve been moving mighty slowly.
Yesterday our tenant cooked a really nice, spicy Indian dinner of noodles and shrimp, plus a kind of frittata with vegetables. I didn’t have the latter because I’m not keen on eggs. I contributed fresh mango chunks with mango sorbet to finish off.
Plans for today include housework, computer chores, and resting. Dearly Beloved and I are trying to figure out how to disable AdBlocker on his PC.
It’s raining gently again. Good. Wishing a pleasant day to all at the Pond and Beyond!
One wonders if Jason Chaffetz leaving early has something to do with this – he certainly would have no interest in “oversight” of a Republican president (and it would destroy his political career) but at some point you can’t ignore the elephant(!) in the room:
Tee-hee, Jan! There were all sorts of fascinating theories on dk yesterday about Jason’s departure, as in “What’s chasin’ Jason out of office?”
Haven’t been on Twitter yet today but will get on later.
He said unequivocally that there was no “scandal” and it would be pretty hard to later say “oh, that scandal!” so I think that is likely true.
He wants to be important and when he could not be the chief thorn in the side of President Hillary Clinton, he decided go home and cash in while he still could. I was laughing that he thinks he could be a TV personality (hint: it requires a “personality”) or that some corporate board wants him. Maybe he can try again to get a job with the Secret Service – they are looking for people willing to take a bullet for Donald J. Trump. Oh, wait. He already declined to do that. :)
Nice, restful night. It is great to roll over & go back to sleep till after the sun is up. Probably going to the rally/march for science. Maybe. I have one of my NASA t-shirts out to wear. I took Monday off from work, so I don’t have to get all my errands done. But I feel lazy, hence the doubt. Brain is playing REM.
49 and gonna stay that way all day. Good thing I still have fire wood. The rain seems to have passed through but the sky is still so dark that driving is iffy for me. So I’ve been working on my Street Prophets Sharing Saturday diary – taking a break to check in – instead of doing my grocery shopping. Hope the clouds clear off so I can pick up my shoes from the repair shop – they close at noon. Grocery shopping could hold until tomorrow if it had to.
We’ve got a March in Fayetteville at 10 but I seem to have picked up an icky bug (or got some gluten contamination yesterday) that suggests I shouldn’t get that far from a bathroom. sigh. I figure my combination of having been a science teacher in public schools and having the PV system gives me “cred” even if I can’t physically march in either the Science or the People’s Climate marches. It’s Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse’s birthday – appropriate considering she was an environmental lawyer as well as the premier driver of environmental blogathons at DK – and folks are missing her a lot. Wish I’d known her better – and I miss her anyway, even as little as I did know her.
Basically I’m likely to be online more than usual for a Saturday considering weather and bug seem to be preventing me from doing much else. Unless I decide to go back to bed LOL. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 58 and partly cloudy in Bellingham today. I’ve got a project in my sewing room planned, and RonK will be going to the local science march. He’s invited the grand girls to go with him but between soccer,ballet, and swimming lessons the schedules aren’t meshing. Plus Ron has to pick up and deliver donated desserts for a community college benefit tonight…..busy day!
Best Saturday wishes to all.