Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 30th through Sept. 5th

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?

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.

49 Comments

  1. Some good news from California

    Thousands of California inmates who have spent years in solitary confinement will move back into the general prison population as part of a lawsuit settlement with the state.

    The settlement, announced Tuesday, ends the class-action suit brought on behalf of thousands of inmates who had filled the Pelican Bay State Prison isolation wing for alleged gang affiliation. Confinement in windowless, soundproof cells remains a possible punishment for prisoners who commit crimes behind bars, but it’s no longer a tool for indefinitely segregating rival gang members.

    More than 500 prisoners had spent more than a decade locked in solitary at the time the lawsuit was filed in 2012, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of the groups suing the state. Seventy-eight had been in the Security Housing Unit, or SHU, for more than 20 years.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-solitary-confinement_55e5df4fe4b0aec9f354a7c9

  2. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 73 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 88. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    My Moose hiccuped after I signed up a new user and I thought I broke it! Thank goodness it eventually came back.

    The nothingburger that is the Hillary Clinton email “scandal” continues to consume the bored press. I think they are all determined to make the news Not Donald and are grasping at straws (plus, CLINTON!). Trump has promised to return white male privilege to its rightful place by changing the name of Denali back to Mt. McKinley. This should come as no shock as it appeals to his nativist know-nothing base, 61% of whom are birthers.

    The clerk in Kentucky still refuses to issue marriage licenses, setting up a confrontation tomorrow morning where the federal judge who ordered her to obey the law has asked her and her staff to appear in his court and tell him why he should not issue contempt citations. He is a George W. Bush appointee so this one has to pain him … she claims to be getting her orders from her God who is probably the same God that Bush got his orders from. Sticky wicket! The GOP gubernatorial candidate, Matt Bevins, supports the clerk and his opponent in that race is the Democratic Attorney General, Jack Conway, who has suggested that a special prosecutor might have to be assigned to charge the clerk criminally for her refusal to do her job (as “official misconduct”). Regardless, I am sure the GoFundBigotedFundies site is cranking up the H-ATM for Kim Davis and a Fox News gig or a reality show is in her future. “Real Clerks of Kentucky, Who goes to Heaven or Hell?”. Stay tuned.

    I need to go back and read yesterday’s comments and then start work.

    See all y’all later!!

  3. Good morning, Meese.
    It’s Wednesday. It’s hot. And that is all I have to say. For now.
    Hope it’s a good day for our Pond and our Planet.

    • The European crisis is very alarming. And, alas, the flood of migrants will continue. How could it not? They are desperate.Their stories are heartbreaking. And then there are the smugglers who take all that money, feeding on their despair, and can abandon them. And then there is the return of fascism. Things are not good.

      • What can be done about the migrants? It presents a humanitarian crisis, people are dying, but if you have no place for them and you can’t sent them back to the oppressive regimes they are fleeing, what can you do? Our world community is clearly not set up to handle this and that is a shortcoming that needs to be addressed.

        European nations, as seen in the Greek Euro contretemps, are increasingly xenophobic and, as Dee’s article describes, the virulent racists think they have a “solution”. :(

          • Scarce resources, the inevitable result of the plundering by the have-mores … the destruction of our habitat by careless misuse of our earth’s bounty.

            You are right … it will only get worse.

  4. Morning, Moosekind! Going to be hot again today. Awful night, as Dearly was taken ill at 4 a.m., which woke me up too, so now everyone feels bad. The dog even ate grass instead of doing his business at 5:30 this morning. I’d like to blame the cioppino we had for dinner but I ate it too and so far I’m OK.

    Wishing a good day to all!

  5. Did 1.5 miles this morning. Wonder how long it’ll take me to get to 2 miles…..that’d be 15 minute miles, which would be pretty darn good.

    Anyway, I’m sure there is stuff going on in the world…. I turned the news off last night when Chris Hayes led with Trump again.

  6. Barbara Mikulski comes out in favor of peace!!!!!

    NY Times BREAKING NEWS
    Obama secures Senate votes to ensure Iran nuclear deal

    Wednesday, September 2, 2015 10:36 AM EDT

    Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland on Wednesday came out in support of President Obama’s Iran nuclear accord, the 34th Democrat in favor. Her vote assures the deal will be implemented.

    “Some have suggested we reject this deal and impose unilateral sanctions to force Iran back to the table. But maintaining or stepping up sanctions will only work if the sanction coalition holds together. It’s unclear if the European Union, Russia, China, India and others would continue sanctions if Congress rejects this deal. At best, sanctions would be porous, or limited to unilateral sanctions by the U.S.,” wrote Ms. Mikulski, the longest serving woman senator in history.

      • Nancy Pelosi says she has enough votes to block the veto override in the House as well. The White House is not going to stop their lobbying effort: they want as many Congressmen and Senators on board for approving the agreement as possible.

        There is still hope that they can get enough votes in the Senate to block cloture (they would need 7 more). Some are saying that it is important to block the bill from having to be vetoed by the president. I am not sure that using an arcane parliamentary move to block voting on the matter means much. Most Americans, and fewer foreigners, don’t even understand the Senate Filibuster.

        By the way, the right-wing is crowing that now Democrats own Iran. Er, no. The deal is not to make Iran an ally or grant them favored nation status. It is to stop them from building a nuclear weapon. I don’t mind the Democrats owning that. Despite the bleatings of Dick “Dick” Cheney and his demon spawn, wars of choice in the middle east are still not popular – running on a platform to avoid war is just fine with me.

        • You can just imagine what the other nations who signed on to this are thinking. Let alone what the Iranians think. Our record with Iran is nothing to be proud of.

  7. Hot and humid in Fay, AR this 2nd day of September – A/C kicked on at 1730 yesterday for the 1st time in 10 days. I still haven’t gotten a chance to read/hear the Obama AK speech – will try to get there today.

    Anything headline that includes the word “trump” I give a miss. Don’t bother with the emailghazi stuff either. It’s a given that the fascist/corporatist-controlled media is going to go after the Dem front-runner AND president just like they did Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Bill unfortunately was trappable. (Not legally but his private life was made pretty public and served as an excuse since INOKIYADem.) Barack was not and Hillary is not. But the noise will keep going as long as we have a corporatist media monopoly.

    Voted yesterday – local election – civil rights to be extended to LBGT folks – 3rd time’s the charm I hope. We’ve passed this twice already and had it revoked in the next election. An unfortunately large number of people think “freedom” means their privilege to discriminate/oppress people who aren’t them.And it’s really scary how hard – and how nastily – those privileged folks will defend their privileges. I, of course, am a traitor since I’m of that class – have those privileges by accident of birth – and keep campaigning and voting for “freedom and justice for ALL” instead.

    Wish I had time to just go look at pictures of Denali and listen to ocean waves or something but just way too much stuff going on right now. Will check back when/if I can. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. I read an interesting piece on redstate yesterday about trump, media coverage, and money=speech. Percent of media coverage focused on a candidate and poll number for the candidate are highly correlated… it’s almost the y=x line. Here is a link for the intrepid since I can’t seem to put an image in a comment:

    Trump has spent almost nothing campaign… the press and twitter seem to be all he needs. Ad buys are for losers.

    • Sorry about the image thing, bubba. WordPress has “roles” and they are not very nuanced … you are an author, a pretty trusted person, but unless you are an editor, you can’t post images. I have a fix for that sitting on a stack of fixes on my desk … which I will get to some day I am sure.

      Fixed.

    • The thing is that no one person will be able to out-buy Jeb! or whoever wins the Koch and Adelson primaries. No one is donating (monetarily) to The Donald so the free press is yooooge.

      The bad news is that the press generates more press and Trump, being a colorful guy, will have no trouble saying something outrageous enough to get himself a big headline and lots of ink. Huffington Post declared at the beginning of the primary election cycle that they would cover Trump as entertainment news and not put his campaign in the politics section. I have not looked recently but my guess is that they had to back off of that. He isn’t going away.

  9. Good morning, Meese! Thursday … how did it get to be THURSDAY??

    It is 73 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 87. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    The last Japanese soldier from World War II sitting in a coconut tree on a deserted Pacific Island Kentucky clerk refusing to issue marriage licenses – and her entire staff – will appear in federal court today to tell the judge why she should not be charged with contempt. Some people are saying that the judge throwing her in jail will simply make a martyr out of her but others point out that any fines levied against her will simply be paid by her fans and that going to jail will make the point about ignoring the law more emphatically. I agree: no one wants to spend time in jail.

    The one fun thing that came from this is that someone created a parody account for the woman who is shown sitting next to Kim Davis as she talks to the news cameras. It is hilarious (warning: bad language). Here is one of “her” captioned photos:

    In other news, NO, #BlackLivesMatter protesting the shooting of unarmed black people is NOT causing violence against police. Ta-Nehisi Coates: There is no “Ferguson Effect”. But there is lazy “journalism”.

    President Obama visited Dillingham Alaska yesterday.

    TheObamaDiary.com @TheObamaDiary

    President Obama performs a traditional Yup’ik dance at a school in Dillingham, Alaska

    There is a video where he discusses climate change at this Tweet.

    Yikes! It’s already 5:45!! See all y’all later!

  10. Good morning, Meese. I just lost my greeting and hope I can remember what I said.

    It’s warm here and thunderstorms are thinking of making an appearance.

    The migrant crisis is not abating and the stories and photos are wrenching.

    Am off for coffee and the papers. Will check in later to see how everyone is.

    Hope it is a good day in the Pond and for all those on our planet who are looking for a safe home,

    • I am sorry you lost your greeting! My Internets always seem to be hinky this time of morning so I have started saving my comments in the paste buffer (right-click, select-all, copy) before I post or preview. Some of my comments are mini-posts and I would not want to have to remember all of the things I wrote!

      Some images from the migrant crisis have shown up in my Twitter stream and they are heartbreaking. It is all President Obama’s fault, you know, for starting a war of choice in the Middle-East that upset the political balance and gave rise to extremist groups. Oh, wait! That was a different president. But the right-wing won’t let facts get in their way. I saw a Tweet this morning from a right-wing pundit (who I follow for insight) saying “Maybe Obama should ask his new friends in Iran to stop funding the Syrians”. Hey, right-wing jerkface, maybe YOUR presidents should not have picked winners and losers in the Middle East … making lifelong enemies for us. Grrr!!

  11. Good morning, Meese! Another day of the same kind in NoVa. So boring. We had a rumble of thunder and dark clouds yesterday afternoon but I knew better than to get my hopes up.

    Well, yesterday was my last day of Baby care. Tuesday morning he will take his place in the day care preschool his sister attended for three years. The headmistress has become a friend of our family, we know her so well. Took Babylicious to visit my niece and her little son to have tea yesterday, and bring her some apples from our tree. While we were there the other three of us distinctly heard Baby say “Okay.”

    So Babylicious, Miss Pink Cheeks, and their parents are on their way to the beach, and I’m on my way to a new life of writing, exercising, and being able to spend more time reading other people’s posts! Hope it’s a good day for all in the Pond and Beyond. Portlaw, I’m trying not to think about the refugees, I get so upset. Those poor people!

  12. Good morning Meese
    68 headed to 88 in the mountains – not sure if we are getting thunderstorms – heading off to school in a bit…trying to read headlines and find some good news ….

    Be back later this afternoon

  13. I was so very gonna call in to work today. Yet here I sit. What is wrong with me? Though as sleepy as I am, I might leave early & take a nap.

    Meanwhile, I did 1.6 miles. Eating breakfast, drinking tea. And that’s all my brain can do right now.

  14. Already up to 80 at 0914 CDT – goddess only knows how high the heat index will go today. The humidity is only 77%. We’re getting just enough overcast in the evening to keep the temps from dropping overnight. sigh. Could use some rain. The ground is hard enough driving over it doesn’t leave a mark. My former DIL’s herd of goats is going to visit my yard a couple of days next week and do a thorough job of dealing with the wild honeysuckle that’s coming through the fence and trying to take over. I may take a little time off so I can watch them do it. :) Good thing I get the “family rate” as it would run about $175 if I were paying their normal 5 cents a square foot. They’re just getting started in this business and so right now they’re doing just about any job that comes along, whether it pays or not, so they can add the pictures to their website and sometimes get media coverage.

    I wish there was some way to isolate the evils ones – instead they seem to get elected over and over again. If the reasonably well-off and even the just-getting-by governments of this world would jointly do the WPA/CCC type programs on a WWII-mobilization scale not only might we possibly roll back Global Warming/nasty Climate Change, we would definitely generate enough wealth in the hands of the 99% to resolve most of the world’s problems. A very large – not totally, I will never say that – but large chunk of the bottom 50% racism, jingoism, sexism, and every other “us v. them” ism is the fear of not having enough – and having what little they do have taken from them by “them”. Total manipulation by the .01% of course, but we can’t stop the manipulators or at least marginalize the manipulators as long as so many people are not thinking, just being afraid. That’s what’s going on here on many levels. That’s part of what’s behind the refugee crisis in Europe.

    Life is not a “zero sum” situation. When you plant a seed, you haven’t lost a seed, you’ve invested in a considerably greater volume of future food. Here’s to investing in all aspects of life. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good morning, 49 and cloudy in Bellingham today. The rain has been intense, so even though it is needed in the PNW I hope today just brings showers. We had even more water in the basement to clean up yesterday but our son helped us clean the clogged gutters so the water should stay outdoors now.

    Yesterday morning we received the not unexpected but still sad news that RonK’s mother passed, so it was a long day of talking, arranging and remembering. She was 97 and as you all know had been failing but death still brings a finality. We are still coordinating with everyone re her funeral service but I we will be expect in eastern Wa. next week.

    • My condolences to you and RonK, princesspat. While not unexpected, it is always sad to lose a loved one. I remember sobbing uncontrollably for days when my grandmother passed away at 96. It was always going to be too soon.

    • Am so sorry to read this. It’s always heartbreaking to lose someone you love no matter their age. I hope good memories will help everyone in these grieving days. My condolences to all. This has been a hard year for your family. Hoping that better days are just around the corner.

  16. Corey Booker and Mark Warner support the Iranian nuclear deal.

    35 and 36.

    We probably don’t have the votes to block cloture (41) but it is good to see that the final tally to not allow the president’s veto to be overridden will not be a squeaker.

    • Taniel on Twitter:

      Iran deal on a roll: Heitkamp becomes 37th backer. Obama now needs 4 of following 7: Bennet Blumenthal Cantwell Cardin Manchin Peters Wyden

      Manchin is a definite no, Wyden a probable no. But Heitkamp was one that surprises me.

      • Let’s hope for more good surprises then. Surely at least some of them will actually read the thing instead of listening to the Rs hyperventilate.

  17. Hi there,

    I managed to “disappear” for awhile. One car crash, two unrelated funerals, a ton of school work, two exploding jobs, and life just sucked out of me more energy than I had to do anything other than tweet or retweet in my “spare” time.

    School is out this week, it is already Thursday, and I’ve gotten done a fifth of what I’d hope to get done. Took five hours over two days to get my “new” car. On the bright side, I have 2011 Jetta, Geoffrey III, (well me and the bank) and next week is a short week work-wise although I am in Poultney, VT for school. (Yeah, I hadn’t heard of it either.)

    Now I am off to read the rest of the comments.

    • Hi, Happy! Glad to see you, sorry to hear about car wrecks and funerals.

      I am sitting here in stunned disbelief that there could possibly be a town in Vermont that you have not heard of! Here you go, wiki is your friend:

      Poultney is a town in Rutland County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Vermont. New York state is on its western border. Castleton, Vermont, is on its northern border. Poultney is home to Green Mountain College, a private liberal arts college with about 600 students. The Village of Poultney is entirely within the town. The town population was 3,432 at the 2010 census. […]

      As of the census of 2000, there were 3,633 people, 1,287 households, and 845 families residing in the town. The population density was 82.7 people per square mile (31.9/km2). There were 1,673 housing units at an average density of 38.1 per square mile (14.7/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 97.16% White, 0.69% Black or African American, 0.47% Native American, 0.88% Asian, 0.25% from other races, and 0.55% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.58% of the population.

      No indication of their Happy-ness although their newspaper back in the 1800s, where Horace Greeley worked for a time, the Northern Spectator was owned by a man named Amos Bliss.

      Circle closed!!

  18. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 70 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 84. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    The question of the day is whether deputy clerks in Rowan County Kentucky will start issuing marriage licenses now that the clerk is in the hoosegow, thrown in jail in defiance of court orders. They say that they will but there is some question about whether or not the licenses will be valid if the licenses aren’t signed by the clerk. I was reading Tweets and articles and it appears that only the chief county judge can perform the duties of the county clerk if he or she is incapacitated. Stay tuned!

    Of course, all the presidential candidates weighed in and most on the GOP side have called for a religious war, claiming that the same bible that George Wallace brandished in his speeches, and using many of his words, allows them to defy the laws of the land. States rights and “God’s rights” seem to go hand in hand in the theocracy of the Republican Party. And Mike Huckabee claiming that Kim Davis is the first Christian woman to have to go to jail over her convictions must have skipped the part of history that included Rosa Parks.

    The Iranian nuclear deal has 37 votes now and is 4 shy of being filibustered. I go back and forth on whether a filibuster is a noble goal. I despise it and how it has been used. But I also think that it would be an embarrassment for the president to need a veto to stop the warmongers from getting their way. So, whatever happens, happens. I am just glad we appear to be able to stop the blocking of the nuclear agreement. Oh, and GOP presidential candidates have weighed in on that too, one going so far as to claim that it means that if Israel is ever attacked by Iran, we must take Iran’s side. WTH! It means no such thing. But the dupid American people who vote for Republicans cannot be troubled to learn the facts or to even stop and ponder the ridiculousness of that notion.

    See all y’all later!

    • Am sure Kim Davis will become a “martyr” and will be looked after for as long as she is useful.

      • There are people angry at the judge for “creating” this martyr. But she was already a martyr and fining her would have created the same martyrdom but would have been less effective in getting her out of the clerks office so that marriage licenses could be issued.

        There is a “Son of Sam” statute in Kentucky that says she can’t profit from any crime she commits. I don’t know if this would fall under that but if the money from her book deal is held up by lawsuits it will at least delay her cashing in.

    • Forgot to add that I read somewhere that the ambassadors of the other nations involved met with Congress undecideds and made it clear that there was NO going back to the negotiating table for them. This was the best deal. Period.

      • Good for them! That seems to be the premise of Scott “Me Too!!” Walker’s Iranian position: he will rip up the deal on his first day in office and then “bring the other countries back to the bargaining table”.

        Of course he can’t! One of those bargainers is the Russians and they probably regretted agreeing to the sanctions. They will not go back to any table.

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