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 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 Meese
I wonder if I’ll live to see a day where cops killing young black kids isn’t such a frequent occurrence?
I can’t bear to read about that yet. It’s so heart-wrenching! Why do the police KEEP doing it? They must know they’re sadists and murderers!
I think they know the political climate of this racist country means it’s okay to kill people who are breathing, walking, and eating while black. What will it take to stop it?
The only thing that will stop it – will be when more white people, and people of color join the fight against it. Black folks are only 13% of the population of the U.S. We cannot do this alone.
{{{Denise}}} – insisting that the victims cause the abuse and demanding that they be the ones to stop it is classic abuser behavior. But we live in an abusive society. There are very few relationships in at least “white America” that are not shaped by Stockholm Syndrome.
Good Wodin’s Day, Moosekind, and a beautiful morning it is, here in NoVa. Current temp. is 72 F., going up to 84 F. It’s still a bit too breezy for my liking, but never mind.
We’re going to have a cooler week after Friday’s projected rain. Back to slow cooker food in that future!
Yesterday was exhausting. I had to be at the boys’ house before 7:30 a.m. After supervising their breakfast and letting them play baseball before school, I walked them to the elementary school and then walked back to their house again to pick up my car. After that I had to look after Mr. K, my grandson. I took him to story time at the library (got in by lying about his age—he’s nearly 3, not 2 and 1/2). Seized by a fit of shyness, he either sat on my lap or hid behind my legs the whole time and kept asking me if we could go home. After story time, we went to the children’s section so he could pick out some books.
Had to pick up the boys after school and then let them play for half an hour. Then we walked home, after which I supervised their snack and Japanese homework. By the time their father arrived home at 6 I was exhausted and deeply thankful that dinner was going to be the steak-and-ale pies that Dearly Beloved put in the oven!
Today Darling Niece is coming over, and because I am home today I will plant the tomatoes and things I bought at Mom’s Organics on Monday. Tonight we’ll watch Ep 2 of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I can’t do binge-watching, one at a time is quite enough.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Going to have to call insurance later to find out how many eye doc visits I’m allowed. My right contact (or eye) is acting up again. Lens is trying very hard to pop out, I can hardly see. Sucks for paper-shuffler work. The healthcare mess & rumored “religious freedom” Executive Order…. ugh. And Mother’s Day advertising has already started, can I please just go hide somewhere till that’s over? Playing California in my head till it’s over.
I’ve seen for myself
There’s no end to grief
That’s how I know
That’s how I know
And why I need to know
That there is no
Yeah, there is no end to love
All I know and all I need to know
Is there is no
Yeah, there is no end to love
The “overnight low” was actually after dawn – 56 at 7 am – with a high of 62 around noon then starting to drop and projected to be in the 40s by dark. Also projected to start raining again about the time I get off work. Definitely a fire tonight. Waiting to hear from the PV installer about the problem with my system – I’m hoping it’s something simple like water had gotten in somewhere it shouldn’t have and they’ve done whatever needs to be done to keep it from happening again. Especially since I’m hearing thunder and the rain projected for this afternoon may be getting here early.
The world, national, political situation is such that my response is 1) expect it to be bad but don’t look at the details, 2) call, sign, etc regarding the issue of the moment, 3) continue doing as many acts of loving kindness as possible – what doesn’t matter as long as it’s loving, kind, and supportive – given my circumstances.
Gotta get back to work. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 57 and cloudy in Bellingham. The leaves on my old maple trees grew magically last night, and the fresh green color is lovely against the soft blue/grey sky. The early rhodies are blooming, the moss is thriving, and all the trees are green again so spring is arriving despite the chill in the air.
Time for coffee and then I’ll go to the pool. Hopefully I’ll have some time in the garden later today.
Lovely description, princesspat!
Thursday morning Meese
A nippy 39 degrees here in Saugerties NY – going up to 65.
Next to last class today – Monday is the last – then the following week is final exams – then I’m off for the summer – and perhaps forever. No word on whether we adjuncts are going to be hired back.
Teaching about Shirley Chisholm today – and Nydia Velesquez (the first Puerto Rican woman in Congress) – for my women of the Caribbean class.
Hope you all have a good day – I’ll be calling my R Congress-critter John Faso – again ( I call every day) re health care.
I can’t believe the school year is almost over! The month of May kind of snuck up on me, I think my internal calendar has been hacked by Russians.
I hope you find something new or that the college relents and hires back some of the adjuncts. They are unlikely to find anyone with your depth and breadth of knowledge in womens studies and we need people to learn – and understand – history. It must make educators cringe to hear the “president” of the United States have no understanding of the causes of the Civil War and to have that ignorance spewed on cable TV and the Internet. Someone said those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it and we do not have a good history.
Trump is the “King of Ig’nant”
His Civil War spews are red meat for his ig’nant base.
On the job front – still working on connecting with speaker’s bureaus – though I’d rather be in the classroom.
Sigh.
Good luck, Sis! If you get some speaking engagements, perhaps you could get a book contract too, about your field of study. Your lecture notes would be a great start. It’s disheartening to contemplate that young women will not be hearing your voice in the classroom. This country is totally effed.
Yes, the speaking gigs require a lot of travel and I suspect that would lose its allure over time. I used to travel quiet a bit – for both business and pleasure – and now I dread the entire process.
Good morning, Moosekind, and May the Fourth be with you! Fair here in NoVa, with a current temp. of 50 F., going up to 67 F. today.
Will probably make a banana-black walnut cake this morning and frost it with cream cheese icing. Also need to call my Congress Critter to request a “no” vote on the AHCA. There’s a lot to keep me busy until school’s out this afternoon, at which time I will be walking my little charges home and staying with them until one of their parents arrives at 6 p.m. That will wrap up my child-minding for the week.
Have started Chapter 9 of the novella. This thing is writing itself as it’s all about the current administration. It’s hard to believe we’re living through this nightmare. It’s far, far worse than Watergate! This affects us all. One political writer thinks we have a year left before this country descends into totalitarianism. Some states are even trying to pass laws against protesting!
I’m beginning to lose faith that the Russia thing will blow up and sweep them all out of office. I don’t trust Comey any farther than i could throw him—wanted to punch him in the face right through the TV screen when I saw him and heard his whiny voice.
Oh, well, that’s enough from me. Wishing everyone a good day!
I avoided the Comey story because, really, it can’t do the one thing that would fix the problem – make Hillary Clinton President of the United States. I do want the tRump administration to be hobbled by investigations and Republicans be unable to coalesce around which damaging laws to pass but the orange shitgibbon will not be impeached and will not be arrested. The only way he leaves office is to resign or die. And if he does either of those things, we have a President Pence. Watch the unveiling of the Let Churches and Churchy People Ignore All Laws executive order today and you can see what a President Pence would promote with every breath he takes.
It took 27 months for the indictments to roll out for the Watergate crimes. The FBI has only been investigating Trump-Russia for about 10 months. Smug James Comey will never pay a price for his lifelong obsession with taking down the Clintons but he owns what happens to LGBT youth, people of color, undocumented immigrants and their children, women who need abortions, and our planet.
I was thinking about Nate Silver’s article that said that the Comey letter eliminated the 2-3 point lead Hillary had in the election and likely handed tRump his electoral college win. But the bottom line is that it should have been a landslide for Hillary – a decent, smart woman versus a vulgar talking yam. It should not have come down to 70,000 voters in three states. But people stayed home, poisoned by the fingerwagging old man from Vermont, and people voted for the white man because of Clinton hate and misogyny and to punish the Democratic Party for electing a black man and insisting on protecting the rights of minorities and LGBT and women and people of color and immigrants. THAT is the terrible story of the 2016 election. Purity kills and when people who are natural Democrats stay home or vote third party they cede the election to the haters and bigots.
I am not holding my breath that the “when people see how awful it is, they will come to our side” delusion will play out. It did not work in Wisconsin after Walker, it did not work in Michigan after Snyder, it did not work in Maine after LePage, it did not work in Florida after Scott, it did not work in Ohio after Kasich – all those men were re-elected even after people saw with their own eyes how their awful policies were making their lives worse.
We need to hold together the Obama coalition and find and promote candidates all the way up and down the ballot. We need to focus on saving our voting rights, taking back the states, and the Congress and trying to keep people from suffering.
Well said, Jan! OMG, is this the case?
I didn’t know about the lifelong obsession! And yes, “smug” is exactly the right description of that anal aperture of a man.
Yes, he was part of the Whitewater witchhunt:
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 59. The forecast calls for cloudy skies with glimpses of sunshine possible in the afternoon.
So today the House votes on the ACA repeal. It should shock no one that the Republicans staged an elaborate kabuki dance where Sad Fred Upton tearfully declared that he could not vote to harm his constituents who had pre-existing conditions, magically pulled a sh*tty amendment out of his ass then declared all is well. Of course, all is not well, but it played well enough on cable TV to give a fig leaf to Republicans who desperately want to take health care away from 24 million Americans so that they can fulfill their one obligation – tax cuts for the wealthy. Wisconsin had high-risk pools for the uninsurable – I was in one – and the premiums kept going up until people dropped out and then it went bankrupt. The $8 billion set-aside will not make a dent in the $200 billion it will cost over 10 years to cover those with pre-existing conditions and has not been scored – more people will become uninsurable when they don’t have regular health care as they do now. The Republicans in the House are caught between a rock and a hard place – vote to let their constituents die and hope they can beat back the 2018 Democratic wave … or vote down this immoral bill and face a primary from the right. A decent human being would choose the latter. I guess we find out today.
See all y’all later!
Cold front came in last night — had to wear long sleeves today. High only in the 70s. So much awfulness going on. Trumpdon’tcare, the religious discrimination EO, and so many illnesses. I don’t know if my friend has found out why she can’t walk, but there’s no way that’s a good sign. My eye doc wanted to give me steroid eye drops, but I listened to the side effects and we’re going to try daily lenses for 3 months. More expensive, but 0 side effects. Good thoughts to my friend’s family that just found out the wife has acute myloid leukemia, and to Bill. Brain is still playing Where Did It All Go Wrong. My subconscious has a sense of irony.
45 this morning but with a really nippy wind. The PV guy said the problem the inverter people told me about wasn’t the problem. Sigh. Dueling experts. I hate that. But at least it seems to be fixed, whatever the problem was. I just hope it wasn’t water getting from the hard rains we had last week drying up and the guy not seeing the real problem. Won’t know that until the next hard rain of course. He did find some minor-to-fix problems and I authorized him to fix them. Meanwhile I’ve got my chimney guys who also do roofs coming out next week to see if they can find where the leak in the den got in – and whether or not it’s something that can actually be fixed. If it was a combination of high winds and heavy rain blowing through the attic vents, well, I need attic vents so…
Things are coming at us as thick and fast as TIE-fighters in a Star Wars movie. Well, I remember Luke saying “they’re coming in too fast” – but he didn’t bail, stayed at his post, kept fighting/firing, didn’t let his team down, depended on Han to have his back (and Leia and Chewy to keep the Millennium Falcon ‘flying”). And “our” team fought them off anyway. We can and will do this.
Gotta get back to work. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 57 and foggy in Bellingham. Our internet connection is slow today. I’ve unplugged and restarted everything so I’ll see how long it lasts this time. Given the awfulness happening in congress maybe it’s just as well I’m disconnected.
I have a lab visit and a bone density exam today, and then I will finish the file cleanup I started yesterday. One of the new tub faucets has a broken part but the plumbing file was lost. I finally found it so hopefully I can order what is needed without too much hassle.
I’m feeling very out of sorts today, so I’m whining about the tRump reality show that is now failing to govern our country. I’ll make some more health care calls regardless :::sigh:::
Good morning, meese! Friday ..
It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 61. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
I was up at 1:30am thinking about a project I am working on today and could not go back to sleep. So I got up and started working on the project!
I cannot describe the sense of frustration I feel when I see what has happened because people could not be bothered to vote. And the outcome is exactly what was predicted: a party that will do anything in the service of the wealthiest Americans – and Grover Norquist – has decided to sacrifice the health and well-being of those who they were elected to represent. And there will be no price to pay because those harmed by the ACA repeal will be told to blame someone else and like sheep they will do that. There is literally no way to get the truth to them.
As a tweet so succinctly put it a few days ago, there will be two options:
1. People will die
2. People will go bankrupt – then they will die
See all y’all later!
Friday morning Meese
47 and raining here in Saugerties NY
Kick em out. Kick em out. Kick em out.
They will try to make us forget how they voted to kill people.
Have to keep the pressure going.
Good Friday morning, Meese! As I write the wind is blowing heavy rain across the landscape. I’m the only one up this dark morning: even the dog refused to get up, so he, hubby, and both tenants are fast asleep. It’s that kind of day. It might stop raining later this afternoon and inch its way up to 72 F. Right now it’s 59 F.
Well, what can one say, except blast their measly souls to hell. M’daughter, before she left for vacation, urged me to try to understand Trump voters. No doubt she’s surrounded by them in Austin. I told her I refuse to “understand” or sympathize with people who hate people of color, women, and the LGBTI community.
Wait until autumn. We’re going to get the vote out in Virginia!
Felt really weird yesterday—foggy-brained, as if I were about to pass out. Googled the symptoms and found they’re caused by anxiety. Yes, I was anxious yesterday but today my obligations are largely over. Going for a mani and pedi this morning, then shopping at Trader Joe’s and getting my hair done this afternoon.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
I understand Trump voters – they are bigots.
Pretty simple, really. Expressing their hatred of the black president and the black president’s party, and the woman who represented that party, was more important for them than their own lives.
The real losers are red state people because California and New York are not going to opt out of the Essential Benefits that cover pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps. But my state and Texas and the reddest red states that voted knowing that they would lose their healthcare will suffer.
R voters don’t believe than any of the evil their reps do applies to them. Even more than they believe that faith in jeebus will erase all their sins they believe that anything that is good for minorities is bad for them and anything bad for minorities is good for them. That’s why they vote R. They are evil and stupid.
Their reps are even more evil – they do not regard anyone who is not in their elitist class (white, male, xtian-puritan by whatever name, and in at least the top 10% if not top 1%) to even be people. They know perfectly well their stupid supporters support them for stupid reason, they know perfectly well that their actions will harm those stupid supporters. But even their supporters are not human to them. The reps are 7th-level of hell evil.
The most evil are the CEOs of the 6 corporations who own 90% of the media and influence the rest. They willfully and with malice aforethought brought about this situation that gave the 7th-level of hell evil ones the power to do their evil (instead of just blathering about it). They are the heart of evil and we will never have a long-term much less anything mortals can call permanent solution to the 7th-level of hell evil ones until we deal with them.
Friday! And we have our quarterly all-agency meeting so there will be treats, Cinco de Mayo themed. The good thing about yesterday’s disgusting frat party celebration is that created a lot of our opposition commercials. Grown men having a kegger in the Rose Garden. Playing happy bouncy Adventure of a Lifetime, because:
Turn your magic on, to me she’d say
Everything you want’s a dream away
Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds taking shape
We are diamonds taking shape
45 at dawn and a lovely dawn – all sunshine and clear – going up to 70. May or may not have a fire this evening, depending on when the temps start dropping. got 21 KWHs yesterday – hope for at least that much today as we’ve got a bunch of catching up to do. It’s the 5th (Happy Cinco de Mayo!) and our month to date last night was only 28 or averaging 7 per day. To meet or beat the last 2 years’ production we need to be averaging over 15 per day.
The evil ones are being evil. We knew they would. It’s still hurts when they land that hard a blow. Maybe the Senate will stop them. Maybe it won’t. We will definitely have to peel off several Rs to do it. We cannot count on the filibuster – turtle will be happy to get rid of it for legislation too in the short-sighted belief that they can rig the elections from here on out and stay permanently in the majority. So whether we try to find Rs of some sort of conscience (good luck) or more likely Rs who don’t want to blow up the debt and deficit, we need to get a few to stand with us – or at least try. But our calls, faxes, visits, town halls, and protests are at least slowing them down. It took multiple tries and over 3 months to do what they said they’d do on day one – and it still hasn’t passed the Senate so not a done deal. persist, resist, block, push back – take back Congress.
Got to get a new fundraiser diary up at DK – Fineena’s landlord sold the house and she’s got to move ASAP as well as car and health issues she’d been ignoring (mostly due to Depression). Got a bunch of work to do but will drop by the Village post before I go. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 56 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’m relieved to finally have the house vote on the ACA over. The threat of the R’s doing something awful re health care is now a reality, and I hope they will indeed pay a price.
Cook Report Moves 20 House Seats In Dems’ Favor After O’Care Repeal Vote
Time for the pool……or to work in my sewing room. Gotta chose in 5 mins!
Have a good day everyone.
Excellent news from the Cook report, princesspat!
This:
I saw that every single Californian Republican voted to repeal the ACA. They could do so, of course, because they know that the California state government won’t opt into the repeal of protections for pre-existing conditions or lifting the lifetime caps. So they have a Democratic Party safety net for their craven vote. I know that a lot of those members are in rural districts but in Wisconsin family farmers and small town businesses were helped by the ACA. Four of those CA districts moved on the Cook report. I hope that we have some good candidates with a strong message ready in those districts.
great thread from NK Jemisin
https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/860191528840572928
Saturday morning, 58 and raining here in Saugerties NY
Bill Moyers site has this piece from Rev. Barber
Nice coverage of his book! North Carolina is a success story – taking back the state after a super-majority Republican legislature and unprincipled governor tilted the playing field against Democrats. In the courts, at the ballot box – North Carolina is moving in the right direction. Election 2016 was a backlash and North Carolina still managed to get a Democratic governor so there is hope. We can’t win when we can’t vote and North Carolina shows how you can successfully defend that right.
Here is someone speaking to the morality also, Dee.
Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 57. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Wow, what a busy week. I am still digesting the fact that the House Republicans voted for a bill that simply puts a big neon sign on their foreheads and has zero chance of passing in the Senate. I know that they fear being primaried from the right but, really, is there anyone further to the right of some of these folks who isn’t wearing jackboots and swastikas? Many of these members do not remember the 2006 election – the last time the House Republicans hitched their wagon to an extremely unpopular president with an unpopular plan for a social safety net program (Social Security) – and the loss of their majority. This is not the Democratic Party of 2010 or 2014 and they are going to find that playing defense, when your policies will literally kill, is much tougher.
The Weekly Democratic Party Address is by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and because Nancy Pelosi’s House is so organized I had the video and transcript with one click and will have the Fighting Back post up shortly. If the Democratic Party is looking for a leader, they really don’t have to look any further than Nancy Pelosi; she leads the largest group of elected Democrats in the country and applies Democratic Party principles, and pragmatism, every day. I am a Pelosi Democrat – liberal, pragmatic, determined, focused on winning elections to make life better for average Americans.
I am still catching up from two work travel days this week and a lengthy to-do list that has only been added to and not subtracted from so I have not even scanned the news. I saw briefly that hackers released some Macron emails. The good news is that there is a mandated press blackout on campaign news 48 hours prior to an election and the election is Sunday. Vive la France!
See all y’all later!