Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: June 24th through June 30th

June 23, 2018 JanF Community 101

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 (dated 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!
 
 

 

23 Comments

  1. Good morning, meeses! Friday …

    It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 93 (heat index 115). Sunny skies are in the forecast. I have the window in my office open this morning to get the last bit of coolness but we will be sitting in air conditioning all day. The full(ish) moon is just moving out of sight to the east – she was like a laser beam early this morning when she was high in the sky.

    I did not get my nap yesterday and then I was too tired to sleep and tossed and turned. I think I finally fell asleep – my alarm woke me up and my body feels rested. As for my brain, I just don’t know. I am having trump fatigue and I am hoping that with the Supreme Court finished with this term’s destruction of democracy and decency – and Congress going on holiday recess – that the political news will slow down.

    The Orange Orshole was in Wisconsin breaking ground at Scott Walker’s boondoggle. Walker is using $5 billion in taxpayer money to construct a plant for Foxconn to build 39″ TV screens. Foxconn has admitted that it will shift most of the work to robots after the plant opens and someone calculated that we will be paying $200,000 for each job created. Between that and the shitgibbon’s continued attack on Harley-Davidson, Walker is going to find that the bloom is coming off the MAGA rose for Wisconsin voters – our highways are a mess and every day there is another reminder of how Trump’s trade war is hurting businesses and workers in Wisconsin.

    Another day, another angry young white man shooting up people who he blames for his terrible life choices. I knew the shooter was a white male when the early reports out of Annapolis said that he had been take alive. The panic from the right-wing that their leader had incited someone to kill journalists was evident in Hannity’s attempt to blame Maxine Waters. I don’t think a 20ish year old butthurt white guy is part of Auntie Maxine’s sekritarmy of rude people! I was sad to see that she had to cancel some events over death threats. Their side has to worry about not getting a table at a restaurant, our side has to worry about getting shot. :(

    Last working day of June – and the end of the 2nd quarter – and I need to get my projects organized and decide what I can and can’t get done.

    See all y’all later!

    • There’s a glut of televisions on the market; this boondoggle is going to cost a whole lot more than the numbers being used right now. If I were a betting person, I’d give it 2-3 years at most unless they are able to retool it for something else in the future.

      • Yes, and the “retool” will inevitably “require” more robots and fewer people.

        ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        • Has this become a strictly partisan issue, or are there folks of all persuasions pointing out what a costly mistake this is going to be?

          • It will be interesting to see how it plays out. People in rural Wisconsin are not pleased that billions of their current and future tax dollars will be sent to Racine County while their own roads are a mess and their local schools are being shuttered. They will see $0 from the Foxconn deal. The only question is whether their economic self-interest will override their tribal instinct to support Walker even if he is leading them off a cliff. The Marquette Poll, run by Charles Franklin, shows Foxconn polls terribly for Walker and for the people who voted for it. Right now it is still “all hands on deck” in the Republican legislature but I think we will see it in campaign ads which will make toeing the party line more difficult.

  2. Good morning, Meese. This is going to be a hot, sunny Freya’s day: right now the sunlight is tentative but gathering strength. The current temperature in Ashburn is 68 F., going up to 89 F. Yes to air conditioning and an early morning walk before the heat begins.

    Feeling emotionally exhausted because of the awful events of this week. An episode of mass murder? Another day in the USA! When will it ever end? We don’t want “thoughts and prayers,” blast it, we want action, in the form of banning all guns except for hunting.

    Batch has an interesting thought about Justice Kennedy’s resignation—I do urge you to go over and read it. Jan put up an excellent rant yesterday, which certainly put to rest the idea that Kennedy will leave any kind of worthwhile legacy.

    Today I’ll try to focus on personal life because if I pay too much attention to the news I’m going to be depressed. BTW, I posted a very short story that can be viewed as a metaphor for hope and change. Enjoy!

    • I saw your story, thank you!

      I hear you about the news depression. It goes deeper because our country seems to be on this mad cycle of every 8 years completely upending the government, destroying/fixing things, then repeating. It took Barack Obama 8 years to restore America’s credibility after the Bush years and – boom! – totally gone in 18 months. Can we survive so deeply divided? This is not just “I vote for Democrats – You vote for Republicans” divisiveness it is “I believe in decency and human rights – You want to destroy families and lives and democracy.” You can’t reconcile the two and there is no ebb and flow of political power, there is a lurching from one extreme to the other. Maybe that’s how it has always been but the 24 hour news channels and social media have made it more obvious?

      I am still not sure how to manage my news intake – I feel that I need to stay connected to understand what is going on and to make sure I am not blindsided by something. But putting a reality TV host in the White House has made everything about “ratings” and his driving the news cycle is tiring everyone out. I am starting to be better at recognizing which stories are time wasters and avoiding them. But it is not an easy process.

  3. 78 degrees pre-dawn. 100s for the next several days. For the protest tomorrow, I’m filling my camelback with cold water — may put it in the freezer for an hour or so before I leave. I have a white longsleeve shirt made from tech fabric, I may both put on sunscreen & wear it. ( really wanted to wear my pretty Love Is Bigger t-shirt, but it’s too hot for cotton, gonna be 102 tomorrow) And a cap. It’ll be hot, but great. Today’s song is American Soul.

    <blockquote>There’s a promise at the heart of every good dream
It’s a call to action not to fantasy
The end of the dream
The start of what’s real
Let it be unity
Let it be community
For refugees like you and me
A country to receive us
Will you be my sanctuary
Refujesus</blockquote>

    • here’s a picture of the shirt, tweet is from a conversation with people I watch All In with most nights:

  4. Good morning meese. 64 with a high of 96 today. My sister just messaged me that she’s on the light rail back home after her Amtrak pulled in this morning. Looking forward to seeing her before I leave for work. We’ll be off to NYC and upstate tonight!

    • {{{basket}}} – Have fun and safe travels. Hope you get to meet up with a bunch of various Village folks while you’re there. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  5. 78 inside and out so I just closed up the house. 80% humidity. ‘spozed to go to 91 and Goddess knows what the heat index will be. I’m doing the “protest” today at noon – made my sign and everything – but I’m thinking with the heat it’s kind of dangerous to continue this particular “make white folks feel good while accomplishing nothing” activity. If it were actually accomplishing something, I’d find an umbrella/parasol for the shareable shade and keep it up but… it’s right up there with what Aji calls hashtag hactivism. Anyway, got 21.5 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 511 – we’ve got today and tomorrow to see if we can get it over 550 for June.

    I said shortly after the 2016 election that twitler gishgalloped his way to the White House and he was going to gishgallop his agenda through. I really would have like to have been wrong. sigh. But it’s why I pay as little attention as possible to the news. I am currently pretty much focused on the stolen kids and Puerto Rico although I RT a bunch of stuff of varying purposes when I actually do check my TL. I think of it as being a guard on the castle walls. I need to focus on my section of the wall and trust my friends/comrades/allies to focus on their sections. We aren’t just “stronger together” – we are ONLY strong together. That’s why the Genocidal Old Paty/Deplorable govt works so hard (via their propaganda arm AKA the media) to split us up. And why we can’t let them. Anybody willing to be “split” needs to be booted out of the castle to fend for themselves while we close up ranks to cover the territory they should have been. (yes, I’m looking at you, berners) – And we white folks need to seriously take our lead from POC, especially WOC. They’ve been here before. They’ve been where Deplorable govt/Genocidal Old Party is trying to take us before. They know what works and what doesn’t (hint: petitions and calls to the abusers’ “better nature” doesn’t work). So I’m trying to do my part – and not waste my energy, time, or money on the “white folks feel good” activities.

    Need to get a few things done and find my hat before I need to leave for the “protest” – it’s an old beat up hat that looks like it came off a mule except for the lack of ear holes, but it helps keep the sun off my head. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, 59 and cloudy in Bellingham. Another night of tRump angst and another sleepy morning :::sigh::: This isn’t a healthy pattern so when/if he ever goes away I hope I can learn to sleep through the night again.

    Time to find some coffee and get to a PT appointment. Best wishes to all.

  7. Saturday Meese
    63 going up to 95 here in Saugerties NY
    We are under a heat advisory for the next week.

  8. Good morning, Moosekind! Sunny today, gathering strength again for a whopping 93 F. or more today. Right now it’s 68 F. in Ashburn. I’m going to go for my walk at 7 a.m., before it gets too hot.

    Will be checking in from time to time on all the marches across the country. Thanks for marching, all of you who are doing it today! I’ve a problem that prevents me from going on long marches now although I went in the past.

    The thing that gives me hope is the fact that even though the Nazis were in power and executed 10 French people for every one that killed a Nazi official through a bomb, the Resistance operated anyway. They never gave up, and on the day Paris was liberated all the women wore red, white, and blue, the colors of the national flag, to signify that France was once again under control of the French.

    If we resist, we can get through this.

    Hope everyone will have a good Saturday!

  9. Good morning, meeses! Saturday …

    It is 81 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 93 (heat index 113). Sunny skies are in the forecast. The #FamiliesBelongTogether rally is at 3pm at the State Capitol when it will be at its hottest. I will probably pass on going – the closest parking garage is about a 5 block walk and the combination of heat and crowds will make attending difficult. I will send energy.

    I was sorting through the news this morning and will be following the Supreme Court nomination but not very closely. There is literally nothing Democrats can do to block the nomination – it is in the hands of Republican Senators because our people thought that voting in the midterms was “too hard” and because the purity people opted out of the choice between the two major party candidates in 2016. Yes, it is spilt milk and we can’t change the past but I am going to hold onto this grudge and tuck it away with the grudge I continue to hold against Nader voters in 2000. Apparently, Putin’s Puppet has decided to put in play adding a right-wing woman to the court who will give cover to Collins and Murkowski and – as a bonus – deliver the death blow to women’s reproductive rights, giving woodies to every right-wing pundit in America. I am with ABL on this – I can’t bear to watch it.

    Meanwhile, Democrats will be offering legislation to fix the awful rulings from the court last week because we can still gain control of Congress. We do that by running on our vision for America and reminding people that Congress – and a Democratic president – can repair a lot of the problems the Trump Court creates. The Democratic Party Weekly Address is on the fix to the Janus ruling unveiled this past week by Congressional Democrats (no one expected the court to preserve unions). I will post it later this morning. Here is something Nancy Pelosi said that puts it in perspective:

    With this decision announced yesterday, the Supreme Court became the Supreme Corp. They are handmaidens of corporate America. They are there to undermine workers in our country.

    They did so in trying to supplicate the voices giving corporations unlimited access to dark, special interest money in the Citizens United decision. And, now, yesterday they did violence to our democracy by trying to diminish the voices of working people.

    Their decision does violence to the First Amendment, cheapening it and using it, stretching it as a rationale for this decision. It does violence to stare decisis, abandoning a decision [Abood]. And that endangers so many decisions that have already taken place in the court.

    Democratic Congresses relying on stare decisis have led us to this place and they need to stop doing it. If nothing else, this should put us all on notice that the court is not our friend, there are no precedents that will be respected and we need to legislate to enshrine the rights of women and working people into law.

    See all y’all later!

  10. I’d say 77 inside and out except it’s 82 in the kitchen (why yes, refrigerator motors do generate heat) so just closed up the house. Fans only. We’ll see if I can make it through another day without A/C. ???????????????????????? “My” orchardist managed to save most of his peaches from that late freeze so I have peaches starting this week until the apples come in. YAY! I’ve got a bunch of end of month/beginning of month stuff to do which is distracting if nothing else.

    I used to teach history. Just the very shallow, white-washed, public school version but still history. So I know that we can, we will, survive this evil. Nothing new under the sun. We’ve been here before. We got through it and made things better. The pathway to “better” has already been created. We’ll recover the lost ground more quickly this time. Once we’ve lived through the bad times that are pushing us back. So I do what I can, focus on my few issues while trusting my friends, comrades, and allies to cover theirs – and together we defend all of them. Only Strong Together, VERY Strong Together.

    Our protest is just that – a protest. At Town Center (indoors and air conditioned) from 6 to 8 this evening. I probably won’t go – 8 is still daylight but not enough daylight for me to be safely driving – but if I catch a ride with a friend I might. I view these things as being pretty much to energize the base and keep them energized enough to register and vote – but they are also excellent opportunities to make contacts with like-minded people and to learn the latest on how to get people registered and to the polls.

    Anyway, I need to get my household stuff done. Including deboning the smoked chicken my grandson brought me late (latish – 8 or so) last night. Messy, but I’ll have protein for another 2 weeks without having to cook it myself. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Well, that was exciting. My upstairs neighbor was doing laundry, and — you guessed it — water started leaking into my dining room & kitchen. There was a lot, but it’s not continuing. Glad I still have those buckets from before, one got pretty much full. And I threw some sheets & towels on the floor to mop up. I doubt we’ll even bother to contact the property management, they’ll say what they did last time, it’s somehow not their fault. Leaks between floors…… Ok, whatever. Since it isn’t still leaking, I’ll probably still go to the rally. I had planned to post Empress today. Still gonna. Like this one, seeing the nearly 7 ft tall singer bopping around. I really think this is about the Womens March, what else could these lyrics be?

    <blockquote>You're angry but you don't know how to be that yet

It seems too much went wrong and all at once

Resistance seems impossible from down this low

And surely no one else can feel like this

But on the streets

You can see them gathering

And in your heart

You know they feel like you do

Sound and pulse and volume

Hands just reaching out for hands

This is almost overload

I said almost overload

Friends and foes and princes

Are all just human in the end

This is so damn simple, yeah

It's so damn simple

So standing in the steady throng of restless hope

You don't feel like an outcast anymore

And something deep inside of you has wakened up

And you know that nothing's gonna be the same again

And on the streets

You can see for what seems miles

Because in your heart

You know they feel like you do

chorus</blockquote>

  12. Good morning, 59, cloudy in Bellingham. A cool breeze is blowing in my window and my sensitive joints can feel the temperature change. Amazing how arthritis can respond to such small changes. Needless to say I won’t be marching today but my thoughts are with those who are.

    Best wishes to all.

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