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
– Page Two of Comments is HERE
Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 55 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 81. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Sunday morning Twitter scan says that we have not been nuked BUT North Korea could hit Chicago if they wanted to. Since Chicago is east of Madison, I guess we are in a nuclear strike zone now. I think that “waiting for China to make America safe again” is a bad strategy, by the way.
In Zombie AHCA/BCRA news, the orange shitgibbon is threatening to cut off employer contributions for House and Senate staff receiving insurance on the ACA exchanges. Good. If the CSRs being cancelled make my insurance premiums go up 20% because the cowardly Congress won’t rein in their out-of-control party leader, they should suffer the consequences.
I pick August 11th in the “John Kelly Quits” pool. A Friday, of course!
Good Sunday Morning Meese. 57 here in Saugerties NY going up to a sunny 81. Am preparing to gird my loins and keyboard this morning since I will more than likely get static from certain elements who will be upset by my GOS post:
‘Left,’ ‘progressive,’ and ‘working-class’ do not mean ‘white’
I was asked by a reader last week to address the issue of the white left and how it fails to listen to or understand the multiple black perspectives on issues like “race” and “class” so I took a deep breath and decided to dive into it.
Sigh – I am in for a headache today
Hope you all have a peaceful Sunday and are gathering energy for the week ahead. I’m sure the Orange asshole in the WH will have some new outrage to instigate
Hugs!
Good luck! I saw a great tweet yesterday snarkily saying “we have not won a majority of working class voters since 2016!!” It is irritating to me (and I am sure to you since you are right in the middle of it) that the left-of-the-left act as though people of color aren’t working class. I think it not-so-subtly buys into the crock of nonsense peddled by the right-wing since Reagan and his welfare queens bs. It is insulting and stupid.
I am trying to calculate how many people we really lose if we tell the berngressives that we are sick of their whiney white identity politics. My sense is that they are a pretty small part of the Democratic Party base and may not even be voters, just complainers.
tis up
In case you missed it Auntie Maxine strikes again
Yesterday set a record — 107, so today’s mere 101 will be…. still damn hot. Watching Joy Reid, got walnuts toasting. After church, will make oatmeal & dammit I’m going to the gym. Dem club party yesterday was nice — big crowd. Got another social thing this evening, but it’s the running group that I’m not planning on re-joining…
John’s wife is deteriorating badly:
I’m just so sad for them. I don’t know what to say.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – it isn’t treatable. And as long as they keep putting fluid in, it’s painful. The blood is leaking into the muscles. That’s why she’s so terribly swollen. My mother died of that. I was the one who told the doctors to stop, just set her up with a morphine drip and quit hurting her. We got as many of the family and friends as we could into the hospital to say goodbye and made the “arrangements” she wanted from her hospital room – she wasn’t responsive but she could hear. We could tell by the way the vital sign monitor readings changed depending on what we were doing. Then we took it in turns to sit with her until she left, which she did just a few minutes before the end of my “watch” 24-hours after they stopped putting in the fluids.
Healing Energy to you and the family. My Faith says she will be fine once she’s stepped out of her so-damaged body. The pain is in the hearts of those who must remain here longer and cannot contact her. More {{{HUGS}}} and lots of Healing Energy.
60 at dawn, already 78 and heading for 83 if the prognosticators have their prognostications right. Didn’t have the A/C on yesterday and hope I don’t have to today either. We shall see. Got over 21 KWHs yesterday, first time in slightly over a week. I’ll take it. :) The m-t-d is 501 at the moment. W00t! Got everything except the soup and a dinner green-bean-and-potato salad done for the week which I need to get back to as soon as the various component parts finish cooking.
As to the nation’s nightmare, well, France was under Vichy for over 4 years – I hope we can “beat their time” but I’m not expecting an early wakening. The BCrap zombie is the zombie I expected it to be. I’ll be back on the phones starting tomorrow. We did get a good win and we are right to have celebrated it. But it ain’t over til it’s over, so back to work. I do have some fundraiser celebrations. I did a “throw together” diary for my 3 most urgent community needs folks last night – irony, it got more recs and stayed on the rec list longer than any diary I’ve done except Tricia’s farewell – and those 3 are now at least off the urgent list and one of them should be off the list altogether as her Social Security will start next month before her September rent is due. I’ll call that a serious win – and such a relief.
Need to check on my cooking. I’ll get to the British Breakfast here and Denise’s diary at DK when I finish. Blessings on everybody’s heads. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 67 and sunny in Bellingham. Erica and her family arrive today, everyone will be here for dinner tonight, and then those of us who are fully committed will watch GOT. Ron’s bbqueing the hamburgers and making the potato salad. I’ll make dessert, ice the beverages, and set the tables. When I can do my part well ahead of time the evening is more fun so I’ll start cooking soon.
The grand kids have requested less political talk so if we can do so the evening will be even more fun. Keeping tRump worries at bay is a 24 hr challenge!
Ha! Less political talk is a request I got a while back and I relented (I can “political talk” with my online friends!). You and I see the awfulness of tRump and have years of experience seeing the damage that terrible people in charge of the government can do and are very alarmed. Young people just came off 8 years of a wonderful presidency (and two years before that where the awful Republican was firewalled by a Democratic Congress). They have no knowledge, except from history books, of the Southern Strategy, the anti-Civil Rights movement, the right-wing ascendancy in the Reagan years, and the “win at all costs” Republicanism that came out of that time and led to the embrace of Ryanism and McConnellism and Trumpism. Kids have enough to worry about with school and the pressures of choosing and getting into the college they want and deciding on a major. The schools nowaday start the drumbeat of “don’t fail at anything!” as early as middle-school and it becomes overwhelming by high school.
Now, when I do talk about politics, I try to be positive – “I am glad young people are so smart and engaged – when they can vote, we will win some elections and fix the things that the Republicans are wrecking.” The best thing we can do for the next generation of voters is to get them excited about voting as a way to bring about change. The power of one vote doesn’t sound like much but when it is combined with the votes of other like-minded people it can transform.
Yes – that’s why my slogan is a little longer than Hillary’s was – Only Strong Together But Very Strong Together – just like my community fundraisers. Dollars or votes, we can’t do much individually but we can do a lot together.
Monday Meeseday
67 here in the Catskills going up to 87
Goddess I am so sick of these mofo’s
Am very disgruntled by the “left” getting upset because black folks are protesting the HBO series Confederates
Just what we need in the age of Trump – a series in an alternate universe where the Confederacy won
I feel like I’m in that universe right now
Was reading the comments about this over at GOS and have a headache
One of the arguments is that two of the shows writers are black –
My answer – so what?
A black woman write the travesty of a book about George Washington’s happy slave baking him a birthday cake that Scholastic pulled from the shelves
If we must revisit slavery via Science Fiction – would rather see Octavia Butler’s Kindred on the tube.
Glad to see twitter respond with #NoConfederate
Added my 2 cents to the twitter stream:
Off to get some coffee.
Of course, it wasn’t just black folks on the #NoConfederacy hashtag – but in the bros eyes, only black people would dare elevate civil rights over the “injustice” of Wall Street billionaires having millions of dollars in take-home pay.
The Confederacy was short-lived but it rose out of racial animus and its ending did nothing to erase that from people’s hearts. To consider it just an “interesting story” if the South had won and were allowed to own people based on their skin color ignores the fact that in 21st century America there are people who long for those days and who gained political power appealing to those who wanted to Make America White Again. For every “wow, that was awful” there will be three “looks good to me”s. How about a sci-fi about a slave rebellion that resulted in putting black people in charge and enslaving white people? That might be more instructive, if “helping people understand the horrors of slavery” is the goal. Which it isn’t – it is about people getting their, er, flags raised over the idea of white supremacy winning.
Yes – there are a lot of great ideas that could be explored flipping slavery – the Bros are screaming “censorship” and “Freedom of Speech” yadda yadda
I’m so tired of DudeBros
Reversal never works – it just re-enforces the fear that if we ever have the power what they have done to others will be done to them. They are ruled by fear-engendered hate. The fear is because at some unacknowledged level they know quite well that what they are doing is wrong. We will never reach them no matter how much we show them they are wrong because it’s their own “closet monster” they are fearing and not reality.
{{{Denise}}} – in a sense the Confederacy did win. At least it won the 2018 election (with a lot of help). We are fighting Civil War II – and currently we are living in either Confederate-controlled or Confederate-occupied territory depending on the state. Resist, block, and push back – and that includes the Extreme Left whose actions and words show them as allied with the Extreme Right as Vichy was with Nazi Germany.
Yes – that’s exactly what it is
Good morning, meese! Monday …
It is 63 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. The forecast calls for variable cloudiness. Yesterday this same forecast gave us beautiful windows-open weather at least until mid-day. I hope we can do that today as well. The outside air smells and feels wonderful!
I am not too concerned about Zombie AHCA/BCRAp coming back as Graham-Cassidy in the Senate. John McCain did his eye-poking and is gone and there is nothing in the new bill to suggest that they have fixed what concerns Collins and Murkowski to get to 51 (if there is no tie, Pence can’t vote). I will keep one eye on it and make sure there is no bait and switch but I think McConnell is ready to move on. The House of Representatives has gone home and the Senate will be in town for a couple more weeks, confirming Federalist Society judges who will do their best to destroy our rule of law. Then they will leave and both will be gone until after Labor Day. When they return they will need to pass a bill to raise the debt ceiling and they have to pass either a budget or a continuing resolution to use last years budget so that the government does not shut down on October 1st. I have my money on “government shutting down on October 1st” so if you have anything you need the federal government for, get it done now.
Today is “John Kelly Day”, pivot number elebenty-billion for tRump. It will be no more successful than the other pivots and resets as far as making the White House run well – the problem is the personality of its leader. If it means that Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is moved out of the Attorney General’s position into DHS, that would be good. It is really NOT okay to have the KKK running the Justice Department. I won’t say that literally anyone would be better but at this point it is difficult to imagine who in the currently confirmed cabinet and sub-cabinet posts could be worse.
See all y’all later!
I’m exhausted and the week has just started. If Confederate Sessions gets moved – I’m glad too.
N. Korea makes me nervous.
Trumps response to them makes me even more nervous.
Trying to keep an eye on Venezuela.
Good morning, Meese. Current temp. in NoVa is 58 F., going up to 84 F., on a sunny, blue-skied morning. There are wisps of white against the blue, in such odd patterns it looks as if the clouds are spelling out “C S Y.” What does it all mean? Nothing, probably.
Yesterday’s weather, on a scale of 1 to 10, was an 11. Took a day off from worrying about the world because we were so busy trying to get the house ready for the birthday party, starting at 11 a.m. The birthday boy appeared pleased by his cake, ballooons, and presents! Luckily my son and DIL supplied all the food, decorations, paper plates, and labor, so all we had to do was make sure everyone had something to drink. It was fun but exhausting, especially as I have a cold.
I have Mr. Preschooler today and my trainer switched my training to this morning which does not please me, feeling the way I do. I’m freaked out about North Korea in addition to everything else, but don’t know what to do about it. I wonder why what happened to poor Mama Cass in that hotel room in London doesn’t happen to Kim Wrong ‘Un in BongBang.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!
1.84 miles, 80 freaking degrees. I ran the down ramps in the parking garage. They keep saying it’s going to cool off.
Keep my friend John & his wife Beth in your prayers today — and their family & her friends. I can’t imaging making the decision he has to. Damn cancer.
62 at dawn – 80 and clear at the moment – got my 2nd highest day of production for the month yesterday at 21.2 KWHs – the m-t-d at the moment is 523 and if today is as good as yesterday should reach 540 by the end of the day (and month). Better than july 2016, not as good as july 2015 – but gaining back some of the “credit” I lost being down 8 days last month.
Taking a breather on both politics and fundraising for the day. We did good over the weekend – hoping I’ve gotten the urgents totally taken care of for a bit so I can put some energy into the “just” importants like BFSkinner and pale cold. As soon as the Rs move on deathcare again, I’ll start calling again. As soon as I hear back from Maureen, I’ll start fundraising again. But for now – I’ll send Healing Energy out to the Universe for those who need it and go on about my personal business.
Been interruption city since I logged on (obviously considering what time I’m checking in) and need to get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
John just posted on FB, she has passed on.
I hope her passage to the Otherworld was peaceful and free of pain. Blessed be.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} Healing Energy to you and your friend John and his family. He’s right, she is fine now. She’s free of pain and no long trapped in that so-damaged body. She’s probably also hanging around to keep an eye on her beloved family because Love is Love is Love. I know my momma did (and still checks in periodically). moar {{{HUGS}}} moar Healing Energy to all.
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 63 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Today is Lammas, the First Harvest, as well as our own Dee’s birthday.
Happy Birthday, Dee, and Blessed Lammas to everyone!
Don’t forget to “Give Thanks for the Blessings” .
I am up early working on a server issue and can’t stay. I think the news is pretty much the same as yesterday – it is good to have “Republicans Trying to Vote Away Our Healthcare” off the schedule.
This made me smile …
Doing the right thing should be rewarded!
See all y’all later!
Tuesday Meese
It’s 67 here in Saugerties NY going up to 86.
Today is my 70th birthday.
Not doing anything special – have to write Black Kos for today. Will simply enjoy being alive and reasonably healthy another day
Will celebrate this weekend at my annual women’s gathering.
Happy birthday, dear Denise! You Leo ladies rock!
Hope you will enjoy your special day to the max. :)
Thank you Sis – writing about one of my favorite Leo ladies today for BKos – Maxine Waters
Happy birthday! Long-distance hugs!
Thanks Sis!
{{{Denise}}} – Happy Birthday! Hope your day goes well. You’ve done a lot of good in your 7 decades. Simple pleasures – like being alive, reasonably healthy, and having a loving community to belong to – are the best gifts the Universe can give us.
Friday, although the content will just be all those “Resistance Toolkit” things I post when I do the Village diaries, the picture up top will be Maxine Waters with one of her very Resistance-y quotes (I’ll probably repeat her picture for the following Friday, since that will be her birthday).
Happy Birthday Denise! Many thanks for all you bring to me every day. I’m finding being in my 70’s a bit of an adjustment, and it helps to be sharing the experience with wise women.
May you enjoy your day :)
Good morning, Meese, and a blessed Lammas to all. On this beautiful but soon-to-be-hot day in NoVa, we have blue skies and sunlight. Current temp. is 64 F., going up to 86 F. Today is the birthday not only of our own Sister Dee, but also that of m’daughter in Austin. I’m hoping to have a long, long chat on FaceTime with her tonight.
Yesterday was an exhausting 12-hour day with Mr. Preschooler, who refused to take a nap and did nothing but snack on fruit juice, yogurt drink, and fruit chips all day. Because he didn’t take a nap, that meant I couldn’t either. Younger Son, his father, is a bachelor dad this week because Miss Pink Cheeks is having a holiday in New York with her mother, visiting friends. By the time he came for dinner, we’d finished, so he ate the leftovers.
Planning a delightful day of cleaning out the garage so we can get a car in it by the end of the month. County Dump, here we come!
My head is still spinning from all the changes at the White House, but I gather ACA repeal is dead. I hate the way the lazy, slavish MSM refers to it as “Obamacare.” I have zero respect for the MSM.
Off to visit Jan’s Lammas post. Wishing all a good day!
The ACA repeal is not dead but is definitely on life support. The 2017 fiscal year reconciliation bill (the one that allows something fiscal to pass with a simple majority) is still available until September 30th. But Murkowski and Collins are not going to vote for anything that looks like the three bills that failed and John McCain is not coming back until after Labor Day. It’s rather amusing because he came back into town to vote on ACA and to also work on the Defense Authorization bill but Rand Paul did one of those Senatorial refusals not allowing it to come to the floor and so McCain left. The disarray in the Senate Republican caucus may be the best firewall we have. Stay petty, Rand! Yesterday I noticed that the HELP committee will be holding hearings to come up with a bipartisan ACA fix bill.
I agree with you, Diana, and only use “Obamacare” in quotes when I have to use it at all. The Affordable Care Act deserves to be called by its proper name, not a pejorative.
1.9 miles, and — brrr! it was only 77 degrees. We might not reach 100 today. Keep up the fight.
forgot to brag that for the 2nd day in a row I ran down all the down ramps in the parking garage part of my walk
67 at dawn, 68 now, overcast and drizzly. While not a great way to start the month as far as electricity production is concerned, I’m happy with the coolth. Haven’t had the A/C on since Friday. Closed out July with 541.8 KWHs – if I hadn’t lost those 2 days, I’d have beat July 2015’s 561 for a “best so far” – oh well. I’m at 2.58 MWHs for the year, not great but more than double what my 2.5K system generated in the 8 months it was online in 2014.
Not gonna take my eye off ACA Repeal just yet, but yeah we can move on to trying to block other evil crap coming out of this Congress – and keep working on what needs to be done to take back Congress in next year’s elections. That includes the truly “lesser of two really bad evils” of helping pro-choice blue dogs win in bloody-red states to give us the majority. Eyes on the Prize, Team Blue – first step is get the gavel back in Nancy Pelosi’s hands (if she runs again, of course – Dem hands anyway). Worry about “purging” the party after we’ve saved ourselves from the fascists. Even able to feel more relaxed on the fundraisers – everybody’s rent/mortgage is covered, now working on working vehicles for a) jobs and b) dr. visits required for pain meds. Very important, but not will-be-evicted urgent.
Gotta get back to work. Will check in on the Village diaries first but need to move a pile of stuff off my desk today. Happy Lammas and Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 67 and sunny in Bellingham. I slept late yesterday and then had to face the reality of being to tired to do what I had planned with Erica and Sophie….so I forgot to check in! I’m not as tired today so I hope I’ll be able to keep up with all the family activity.
Erica and Wil cooked dinner last night, Ron is making chicken enchiladas with peppers and tomatillos from the vegi garden and I’m making the salsa for dinner tonight. When we can all cook together the patio dinners are more fun and easier on my knees.
In between visiting with family I’m reading the news and counting the days, hoping our national tRump nightmare will soon be over.
Wednesday Meese
Awake and grumpy. 65 here in Saugerties NY going up to 86 with rain. Grumpy because hot water heater has conked out again – I will probably have to finally get a new one.
Looking at the news – it seems everywhere we turn there is another assault on gains we have made in the past – this DOJ crap about affirmative action has me really pissed off.
I need coffee.
Incredible. Here is a tweet I saw that pretty much sums it up:
If you get a chance – this is a must read. Kudos to Greg for putting it into storify
{{{Denise}}} – I’ve never been that stupid. Even my R relatives have never been that stupid. But the same crap is believed about Native Americans. Over at DK Sandy1 – who lives in NM – derailed 4 of my community needs comments on Aji’s home by saying that Native Americans get free HUD housing or grants to build from HUD (also free healthcare) – “politely” asking why Aji and Wings didn’t use the resources the government gave them. After she’d been corrected 3 times, the 4th time I told her that her information was incorrect, that she’d been corrected 3 times already, and that now she was just being insulting. Her nopology was she didn’t mean to insult anybody – but at least she hasn’t said it since.