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 morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. Partly cloudy skies.
Welcome, Returning Light! Happy Solstice to everyone!! This is my favorite of all the holidays as it is the most hopeful – you can’t quite see the returning light (it won’t become an actual minute until the end of next week) but you can feel it! We – the global we – need the hopefulness right now. We – the JanF family – will celebrate the holiday tomorrow because “out there” today is just another Friday.
Other than the shock of realizing that there is essentially no one left in the Oval Office who has a long view of history and respect for government institutions, I will shed no tears over Jim Mattis, enabler of the worst president in the history of our nation, stepping down. As someone pointed out, if this was about integrity, he would have stepped down when his soldiers were used as political props to try to sway an election. My initial thought, as I saw the tweets coming in, was the maybe the Syria (and now the Afghanistan) pullout would be the Bridge Too Far for Senate Republicans. But it won’t be – Lindsey Graham already signaled that his response to Syria will be “pushback tweets.” You can’t make this stuff up.
The short-handed House found the votes to pass the February 8th Continuing Resolution with the $5 billion for the wall plus $7.8 billion for disaster relief. Senators were called back into town to vote on the House bill which will probably pass after some grumbling. Poor Brian Schatz flew to Hawaii then flew back to Washington DC! There will be some debate and some harumphing but they will get the 60 votes because in the end it is the right thing to do – we are the party that believes that the government has an important role in people’s lives, not the party that shuts the government down. It is a reminder that we can’t fight bad legislation as a minority party. We will take power in the House in 13 days and we need to spend the 304 days after that working our asses off to expand our majority, win a Senate majority and take back the White House.
See all y’all later!
Thanks, Jan. Does this mean the stupid wall is going to be built after all?
I am hoping that actual work on the wall is delayed even if the money is allocated. There is so much wrong with the wall plan; there are pending lawsuits related to where it is going from environmental groups and landowners. Maybe we can slow-walk it.
I could also be completely wrong and the Senate will reject the changes the House made and send it back to them. I don’t see that happening – Trump knows he looks really weak right now and would dig in his heels. I will be so glad when the Freedumb Cacas are no longer in a position to control our legislation.
Friday Meese.
49 and raining here in NYS going up to 54.
PR
Gorgeous photos, thanks for sharing! I am pretty sure I won’t be around in 2094 so I will pay special attention to the full moon. The forecast for tonight calls for “cloudy periods” so there is a possibility the moon will shine through. She won’t be full here but will be at her nighttime fullest (full moon will be at 12:39pm tomorrow).
Apparently “25th Amendment” was trending on Twitter for a while. I don’t think that’s enough, because Pence would be equally bad. Ok — so glad I refreshed twitter because here is a story that will restore your faith in humanity. And I’ll post The Rebel Jesus, even though I’ve done that one already, because I love the message.
I did some research on the 25th Amendment last night while I was watching the first round of “This Shall Not Stand!” tweets. There are 15 cabinet-level principal officers, two of them are Acting so I think (but don’t know) that they don’t get a vote. So that means that at least 7 and maybe 8 have to vote to declare Trump incompetent. Here is the list: Mike Pompeo, Steve Mnuchin, Ben Carson, Elaine Chao, Rick Perry, Wilbur Ross, Alex Azar, Jim Mattis, Kirstjen Nielson, Sonny Perdue, Alex Acosta, Betsy DeVos, Robert Wilkie. If you add the acting: Matt Whitaker at Justice and David Bernhardt at Interior. I don’t see 7 people who would see the Mattis resignation as a bridge too far – I don’t even see one, really. The only way to get him removed is via the Senate finding 67 votes to remove him. Are there enough angry defense hawks willing to risk their careers by upsetting the Republican Party base? Doubtful. They can’t even criticize him without the 30-percenters coming for them.
No need to count votes in the Senate because McConnell would never even let it be brought up. I really wish there was a way to his the re-set button on the past few years.
The good news is that if Articles of Impeachment are forwarded from the House, McConnell has no say in whether or not it is taken up. It is a constitutional directive that the Senate will hold a trial presided over by the Chief Justice to decide on removal. The bad news, of course, is that we won’t have 67 votes. I hope that the House remembers that before they vote on impeachment. Investigate, gather facts, make sure that the media covers the investigative hearings to make the case to the American people – but don’t give Republicans red meat to run on. If it were to take a year to pull everything together in order to make a case, it would be dumb to waste political capital to end tRump’s presidency only a year short and give his party a cudgel. If we focus on ousting him via the 2020 election, we can use his entire record against him, not just his high crimes and misdemeanors.
Seriously with you on this. Don’t waste time, energy, or money on impeachment. Investigate to a fare-thee-well – but boot him/them out in the 2020 elections. Once they are out of office, turn the evidence over to the Courts and let them do their good work in the world. We’ve got way too much to do in whatever window the MSM allows us. (Which would be true if we held Congress & the White House for 20 years. Which we won’t.)
Good morning, Meese. Cloudy this morning, and Dearly Beloved, who was out with the dog earlier, reports that it’s still raining a bit. We had a lot of rain yesterday, beginning at lunchtime. It’s 58 F. in Ashburn right now, going up to 62 F.
Had a long, long visit with my friends yesterday. After lunch at the Great Oak clubhouse, we sat in Great Oak’s public living room where the fake fire was burning merrily, and chatted. By the time they left and I came back to our flat, I was really tired. Unwelcome news was waiting in the form of a Christmas card from someone I’d never heard of, in Washington state. It turned out to be news of my friend’s passing. Long ago in Little Rock I used to look after her and her sister when their parents went out for an evening, and in during these sessions I read them the Narnia books. They were so charmed that when they moved to Seattle they told everyone they met about them. Anyway, apparently she died unexpectedly in March of a brain tumor. Her nephew wrote to me. It makes me feel really sad, not only for her own sake, but because another link with my younger days has gone.
Planning on a quiet morning to do some things around here, and this afternoon I’ll pick up Miss Pink Cheeks for a sleepover. She can help me deliver Christmas bags up and down the hall before we go to dinner. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!
{{{Diana}}} I’m sorry about your friend. Damn cancer.
Thank you, another democrat. I hate cancer.
{{{Diana}}} – cancer sux. The worst part about getting older, at least as far as I’m concerned, is the shorter and shorter list of folks I send Holiday/Holy Day cards to. Hope the string of holy days we’re in the middle of bring you Joy – or at least quiet contentment if that’s your preference. Healing Energy. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Thank you, bfitz. Yes, cancer sucks. It took my mother. I wish it didn’t exist.
28 & “feels like” 20 in Fayetteville, AR. Mostly sunny at the moment though. Since I’m safely indoors, I’ll take the cold & sun over less cold and no sun. Happy Yule! and whatever holy days you might be celebrating this time of year. Every culture has sacred time at or around the solstice – as they should (& why Cromwell outlawed celebrating Christmas) – so May Your Winter Holy Days Bring You Joy! – Meanwhile we got only 3.6 KWHs yesterday but that was enough to take us over 100 – 101.7 KWHs to be precise. And counting today we’ve 11 days to finish out the month’s production.
There are good signs out there. Some of them mere candles flickering in the dark, some of them blazing high enough to be seen the world around. The Light is coming back into the world. Time is not a Wheel, it’s a Spiral – we are where we were last year at Yule except we’re not. This year we have started the way back up into The Light. Blessed Be.
I’m at work until 2 when the office closes until 1/2/2019. Then library, dairy store, and home to build a fire that is as always the symbol of The Light. And the warmth so needed always but definitely this time of year. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 37 when I got up this morning, with a rainy high of 39. From the looks of the forecast, I should just save the above sentence as a macro on a function key, because it looks like we’re settled in for the same for days to come.
Hubby surprised me last night by asking if we could go out to breakfast together this morning. Eating breakfast out is one of my favorite simple pleasures, but he’s usually the one that doesn’t want to move in the morning. I guess having several days off has made him a bit antsy to get out, so we were at our village diner bright and early. I’d like to report that we spent the time engaging in scintillating and erudite conversation, but c’mon…it was 7 in the morning. Once the coffee kicked in, we moved beyond grunts and yawns, so that was progress!
I’ll be trying to watch the Senate today in between clients; Dems really need a Nancy in the Senate to guide their strategy. If they allow the wall funding, the Lefty McLeftists will be calling for primaries; if they stick with the shutdown, it will become #DemShutdown rather than #TrumpShutdown. I wonder if they’ll instead consider leveraging the moment by adding Dem priorities to the CR, so that while the steel-slat funding happens, so does a lot of other stuff that Dems want? (It’s probably all going on while I type this, so I might be pondering what is, by now, old news.)
Busy day; we’re open a half-day on the 24th, but most of our clients will be coming in today to finish their business for the year. Good day to and for all!
Good morning, 38 and the sky looks like winter outside my window. It’s calm and quiet with no wind though, a welcome relief from yesterday’s unnerving wind gusts.
I have two projects to finish, a set of 12 linen napkins and 2 pillow covers, but I’m actually looking forward to a quiet day in my sewing room. If I turn the music on and the news off I may even have a moment of Christmas cheer!
Best wishes to all.
Fkety fk fk fk.
If tRump picks a third Supreme Court justice, there will be nothing left to even build on in 2021.
Morning, meese. Saturday …
It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. Sunny skies this morning giving way to clouds later in the afternoon – chance for flurries in the evening.
I am sending every bit of healing energy I can muster towards the recovery of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her continued good health. As if to underscore the fragility of the rule of law in America right now, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to require the Trump Administration to continue to follow the clear statutes on the rules for seeking asylum. We needed Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Ginsburg’s vote as she was headed into surgery to block the far-right coalition on the court. There is no doubt that a 3rd Trump appointee would enable the worst impulses of the white nationalist government that is currently in place. And to those who are saying that we should have forced RBG to retire in 2013 when President Obama could have nominated a solid liberal to take her place, you are delusional. In 2013, the Democrats were true believers in the 60 vote threshold for Supreme Court confirmations (chumps!) and we never would have gotten anyone with even a tenth of her liberal chops confirmed. Plus fk them for not letting her manage her own life – it is not our place to say when she should retire!
The government is shut down and nearly a million federal workers will be without paychecks until the peevish putz in the White House is given a border wall binky. Paul Ryan will leave Congress with the government entrusted to him and his party shuttered – I have no doubt whatsoever that he is proud of that! Thank goodness we drove him out of power before he could kill the grannies and the poors he has had in his sights since he was a College Republican. I hope our elected officials can find something that they can give tRump that will make him think he has a wall so he can go back to playing golf and destroying the world order. It would not be wise to begin the new Congress having to start over with a new Continuing Resolution from scratch given that the new Senate will be more Republican. We want H.R.1 to be our Democratic House shot across the bow, not cleaning up the mess of Ryan Republicanism. This needs to get done now.
I think I am going to skip the Fighting Back post this week. The Weekly Democratic Party Address is by Chuck Schumer blustering about the border wall and Nancy Pelosi’s presser (the other set piece in Fighting Back) was from before the House vote on the CR that included the $5 billion so it was full of the false hope that the Republicans would not have the votes to pass it. They had the votes because the Freedumb Caca’s were willing, once again, to vote against their stated principles of anti-deficits in order to deliver a victory to their party’s leader. Not really too much of a reach since their “principles” of anti-government spring from their white male privilege and their hatred of those who need government help to survive. The yeas were 217 votes, not even a majority of the House but a majority of those present since many members had already left town.
I have some projects to clear off my desk this morning – most of my clients’ offices are closed until next Wednesday so I have a nice four day weekend to catch up. I tend to wait until the last day of these and then try to do everything in a flurry on the last day but I am going to try to resist my own worst instincts! We will be celebrating Solstice later today with gifts and our holiday meal.
See all y’all later!
I decided to put up the post so I would have a place to save off #TrumpShutdown tweets.
Saturday Meese
49 degrees here in NYS – all day, with rain.
Had to smile when I saw this
Amen
PR
Good Saturn’s Day morning, Moosekind! At 20 minutes to 8 we have a partly cloudy sky here in Ashburn, with blue peeping out from scattered clouds. This morning at 6:30 it was furiously windy when I took the dog out. The current temp. is 45 F., going up to 47 F.
Last night a Yule miracle occurred with a clear sky between the bands of rain passing through. I was able to see the Winter Solstice full moon for several minutes. Went out at 11 to see if I could still see it, but the clouds had obscured it by then.
Miss Pink Cheeks is with us this morning. I have to cook breakfast, then we’ll put the Christmas bags together to deliver to the neighbors. With the government shutdown I suppose she’ll be home with her mother next week rather than here with me. Bummer. Have errands to do at Target and other places.
Can’t even think about the national situation, it’s just too much right now. Wishing a peaceful Saturday to all at the Pond.
Slept in, watching Up. Very little to do this weekend. A friend is in from out of town, but she’s staying with her brother a couple of hours away; we’re going to figure out how to get together while she’s here. Here’s Foo Fighters with one of their songs that goes into a medley of Christmas songs.
Low 40s (which depends on which widget you check) and heading for upper 50s. Sunny at the moment which is very nice. Yesterday we got 7.6 KWHs bringing the m-t-d to 109. Be nice if we do it again today. I’m trying to think of something to bake as the house is a little chilly and I am trying to conserve my seasoned wood. I’ve got over a rick of wood that was cut at or just before Thanksgiving but it’s hard to start, hard to keep going, and doesn’t burn as hot as seasoned wood. I’ve only got 4 cu. ft. of seasoned left so I’m using it to start the greener stuff. And keep it going. With this sunshine there should be some solar gain on the front porch by noon and I’ll open the front door to let the heat in the house then.
Govt shutdown is so incredibly stupid. Harmful of course but that’s a feature not a bug – the stupidity is what’s so very jaw-dropping. Not in #45, it’s to be expected, but in a majority of Rs in Congress. So we will hope govt reopens before everybody’s January rent is due. And utility bills. And hope to heaven the folks who’ve gone gangbusters on the “traditional” excesses of the holiday meal know how to stretch that food for a week or two. (& seriously hope to Heaven that earicicle will get more time to find a new Section 8 space in Long Beach, get the paperwork done & approved, & moved in – she hasn’t found the place to live yet and the LA Housing Authority has been giving her the runaround. The last thing she and folks in her situation needed was a govt shutdown.) Only thing I need is some frozen veggies and canned catfood. I got my Social Security last Wednesday plus I’m still working part time so I got a small check yesterday and will get another one on Jan. 10th. We shall see what we shall see. Meanwhile I need coffee. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 36 and raining in Bellingham. Thanks to tRump chaos my sewing room wasn’t quiet yesterday, but I was productive and hope to be today as well. I should finish today, then I can literally wrap it all up!
Best wishes to all.