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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– Page One of Comments is HERE
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Good morning, meeses! Saturday …
It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 75. Chance of thunderstorms. Yesterday’s coolness came with light rain in the morning but the storms stayed away. The next week looks pretty nice.
I am not even going to check the news to see if we have been nuked! I feel un-nuked and that is good enough.
Yesterday the Pharma Bro was convicted on three counts of securities fraud and faces a sentence of up to 20 years. Famous blogger Bill in Portland Maine suggested that Shkreli could spend up to 730 Scaramuccis in prison. When I read that, I realized that Scaramucci had only been fired on MONDAY!! That is how quickly the news is moving and explains why so many of us are exhausted. Last night I slept fine – Congress is gone, the orange dungheap is golfing for 17 days and is NOT in the Oval Office, the Internets were filled with nice photos of Barack Obama, and Bob Mueller empaneled a special Grand Jury specifically for the Russia investigation.
I just went and checked and the Weekly Democratic Party address is by my own Senator Tammy Baldwin. There is no video or transcript because Senate Democrats are not very organized (Leader Nancy Pelosi’s web site is a joy to work with) and national Democrats, the DNC, has no useful information at all. CSPAN will have the video at 5pm and unless I can find it elsewhere, I will wait until then to post Fighting Back.
Speaking of fighting back, I had not realized (or I missed) that Howard Dean is the co-founder of Hillary Clinton’s new PAC “Onward Together”. They are going to focus on state races and his insights will be extremely valuable. I am glad to see “establishment” Democrats getting involved and being unwilling to cede the party to the berners. I am extremely disappointed in Tom Perez for not reining in the excesses of the white identity wing of the party. Two pieces I just read (links coming) should make people worry like hell that Democrats are going to blow it. The barbarians came through the gate and are sacking our country and our planet. Meanwhile, Sandersnistas are joining the chorus of “Democrats suck”. It is dangerous and destructive.
See all y’all later!
Charlie Pierce: The Democratic Self-Sabotage Continues
Rebecca Schoenkopf at Wonkette: Sure Guys, It Is Awesome That We Are Shitting On Kamala Harris
Brilliant and full of win.
Thanks – I read both of those – only problem I have with Pierce’s piece is that from my pov most of the saboteurs are not Democrats
The hordes of Bernie faithfuls and naive youth who embrace “Revolution” aren’t Democrats and many of the older folk are Greens, left-Libertarians, Socialists….and the worst of the bunch are burn-it-down anarchists.
Charlie has a bit of a blind spot for Saint Bernard and wants to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not personally trying to destroy the Democratic Party even though he is Not A Democrat and his most rabid fans are Not Democrats but third-party promoters who DO want to destroy the party. I always take his “behave yourselves” posts with a grain of salt. The problem is not from the left or center-left but from the left-of-the-left who want to bern it down. Sanders has provided the perfect kindling and the pushback has to come from him – or from the cowardly DNC who keep elevating him to positions of power and influence.
The Wonkette article does a better job of identifying the perpetrators.
I am hoping things sort themselves out soon. If the berners actively go after candidates selected by Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean, we will lose winnable seats.
Al Giordano is warning the Dude Bros that this time we are not going to hide in our Facebook groups and quietly “take it” like we did in 2015 and 2016. I believe he is saying “bring it!”:
I slept in as long as I could. Today, I just need to defrost next week’s breakfast & lunch, buy groceries & go to the gym. Will get started after Joy Reid’s show. If her twitter feed is any indication, it should be good.
Started the day at 62 currently 75 and heading for mid 80s. Overcast with rain supposedly moving in overnight (already the forecast has backed off how much and how long from yesterday’s forecast). PV system still down – so lost the production of the last sunny day expected for over a week. sigh. Thank Bridget (or Whoever) it’s been cool enough I haven’t had to run the A/C for several days. Talked to the technician last night – I was the one item on his worklist he didn’t manage to get to. He said he had to pick up some parts/materials and would be here by 10 am. We shall see.
Glad the Rs are out of DC for a bit. Yeah, need to get back to calling their local offices, but still a relief they can’t pull anything on us right now. As much energy as it takes – and since we’re busily trying to Resist and Block the Rs we really don’t have it to waste on this – we need to do exactly what we did at the Convention last year. Out-shout the berners. Diminish or hide their signs with ours. Prove to everybody – especially other Dems – just how much the majority we are. Our candidate and her platform got almost 3 million more votes than pvl45 – and at least 2 million more than jsfv did. Hillary and Howard Dean are working pretty much below the radar as far as the berners are concerned – state and local – and they are working with people who know it’s work and do the work. So I think the 2018 races are going to be a lot more influenced by the progressive wing of the Dem party and much less influenced by the noisy not-dems who spend their time trashing Dems but not doing anything to actually win elections.
Because DK was borked last evening I need to go write some diaries that I would have written last night if it hadn’t been borked. The fundraisers are depressing at the moment. Too many needs and not enough folks able/willing to meet them. And I’ve pretty much given my all. Now I’m down to $15 here, $20 there, at the beginning of the month and that’s it. Which hurts my heart – I cannot give what I do not have, but the needs are so great. Still, I can get the word out and hope that if enough people see it the needs will be met. Every link in the chain between need and help is as important as every other link. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Hi, bfitz! Hope the guy comes to fix your PV.
How was DK borked? Guess I missed it.
{{{Diana}}} – well, he’s not here yet. I got a call from the office saying he’d be here around 2. So I’m about to go get my hair cut. (I’d planned to do that after he left. I am really grateful that these folks let me know what’s going on so I can plan my day.)
I’m assuming some update or other backfired on them at DK. You could get to the site and open/read diaries. You could rec the diary. But you couldn’t comment or rec comments. It started about 4 central (about the time Black Kos posted or a little after – I couldn’t comment in there) and lasted until after 8 central (which was the last time I checked before giving up). It seems to be fine now. At least as far as technical issues are concerned.
I can’t even give that much. I buy most of my groceries at Target, because that card still has room on it. When it fills up….. I have 95% home made food – oatmeal, black beans, quinoa with frozen vegetables…. couldn’t live much cheaper & yet I can’t get ahead. And when that huge special assessment from the HOA falls on my head, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m going to go have my huge splurge of a veggie wrap. Haven’t eaten out in about 2 weeks & my lunch quinoa is still frozen.
I won’t be able to come January when I’m on Social Security. But I am blessed/lucky on several fronts. Thanks to help from friends/family, the kindness of strangers, and the small 2nd income I got while I was holding the part-time elected office, my house is paid off and I only have 1 credit card with any on-going debt (zero interest as long as I have it paid off by next March). I also live in a very low tax state (not that they believe it) so as long as I can put by $200 a month, my property taxes and insurance on my home and car are covered.
Enjoy your treat. Holding the Good Thought for “right outcome” regarding your HOA – and everything else. also Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meese, and a lovely day it is here in NoVa. Current temp. is 71 F., going up to 78 F. Blue skies with wispy white clouds sailing across, but very windy. That’s why I’m not out there weeding. Just don’t feel up to it.
Yesterday I had Mr. Preschooler for 12 mortal hours. He was okay until his nap in the late afternoon. He then woke up crosser than two sticks and wept and wailed all through dinner. His father put him in a timeout in the spare bedroom. Goodness, how exhausting! I was so tired after dinner that I did nothing but catch up on reading.
Nor will the weekend be child-free…sigh. Miss Pink Cheeks, who has been in NYC with Mommy all week, claims to be tired of eating out and wants to come to tea with us this afternoon. She and Mommy will be home about 1 p.m. from the Big Apple. Tomorrow we’re going to Elder Son’s house for lunch because we need his sig. on a document, and also to spend time with Mr. Toddler. Elder Son lambasted me on the telephone yesterday for not spending enough time with him. Dear Goddess. Is there another planet I could move to?
So today, with Dearly down with my cold (which I’m getting over, thankfully), I’m just going to take it easy. I’ll finish cleaning out the linen closet, do some laundry, and perhaps even catch up with correspondence. I bought baby cupcakes for tea, so I don’t have to make anything, although I might make applesauce from the early apples and freeze it.
Alors, the day marches. Glad to be alive, still. Glad the Rethugs are out of town. Sister Dee, hope you’re having a great time at your yearly women’s festival! Think I’ll go back and reread the story I wrote about it a year or two ago.
Everyone have a great Saturday!
Good morning, 71 and hazey skies in Bellingham. The fire on Chuckanut Mt is controlled but the BC fires are filling the air with smoke.
Erica and her family leave today and from the looks of the house it’s going to take some time for them to pack! It’s been a fun but very busy visit.