Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Sept. 6th through Sept. 12th

September 6, 2015 JanF Community 129

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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48 Comments

  1. Good morning, 84 and sunny in Kennewick, Wa. It was a long day getting here, but it’s good to be here. We’ll work on packing the apartment today, family starts arriving tomorrow, the funeral is on Thursday……a busy week.

    Ron’s mom was an enthusiastic and serious collector, and her plan for her things was for me to deal with it….no down sizing for her! So I have quite a task to complete, but this week needs to be about remembering the person she was so I don’t want dealing with all the stuff to interfere. There will be time for that later.

  2. WooHoo! I logged in from home, and got the computer to remember my password. So I won’t miss days I’m not at work any more.

  3. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 61 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 76. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ perfect weather ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Kim Davis, defiant county clerk in Kentucky, has been released from jail. The post-release rally included two presidential candidates, a confederate flag, and the obligatory reference to Christians being holocausted by teh gays. As Charlie Pierce says, “this your America, cherish it”. Her “lawyers” announced that she will defy the court order and shut down marriage licenses when she returns to work again. Meanwhile in Oregon, a county judge is refusing to marry same-sex couples and is facing an ethics charge. State law allows for judges to opt out of performing marriage ceremonies but they can’t choose who to exclude based on their sexual orientation.

    We have 42 votes to block the override of the Iranian nuclear deal, with Blumenthal (CT) and Cantwell (WA) announcing yesterday! No word yet on whether 41 of those will vote to filibuster or if the resolution will be passed and sent to the president’s desk for a veto.

    The White House trolls Dick “Dick” Cheney:

    Today, Trump and Cruz will hold a rally in Washington DC at 1pm to promote war over peace and decry the Iran nuclear agreement. This morning, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will speak at the Brookings Instutution in support of the deal. Right-wing commentators are decrying the deal as “partisan” because only Democrats will be voting to block the resolution. Just like the Affordable Care Act, which allowed millions of Americans to get health care, was “partisan” because no Republicans voted for it. It is indeed partisan: one party that cares about people and wants peace, one party that wants war and a health care system that chooses who will live and who will die based on their income and previous health issues. I am partisan too.

    See all y’all later!

  4. Good morning, Meese. It’s going to be another day in the nineties here.

    Yesterday, I had to go north, beyond Albany, and on the thruway went by the exit for Denise. I waved, of course, but had forgotten that she was THAT far up the river That whole area is just plain gorgeous.

    Very pleased about the nuclear deal. Also pleased that anotherdemocrat is fine and can log in. I, myself, am about to be very busy but will try to make the morning roundup but if I don’t, fear not.

    More coffee and a quick skim of the online news. I really rely on print editions of newspapers but they come later in the day..

    Best wishes to all in our Pond and all those Beyond!

    • We will try not to worry … no promises.

      My visits will become less frequent as well although I will take time to check-in. Now that school has started, I have to turn my attention to projects that were deferred until I had large chunks of uninterrupted time. That would be now!

    • Thank you for waving at me Sis :)

      It is gorgeous up here! I have to admit the heat is much more comfortable in the mountains

      Am headed your way on Thursday – speaking at CUNY Law School

      http://publicsquare.law.cuny.edu/events/live

      Congrats to Serena Williams for her win last night.

      Cannot believe the spectacle swirling around that ignorant bigoted woman, Kim Davis.

      Oh wait – i guess I can…sadly…she has too many people supporting her in bigotry

  5. Good morning, Meese! Another hottie here in NoVa, with promise of rain either later today or tomorrow. Yesterday I had an accident at the gym but will be OK. Damn those touchscreens! Meant to adjust the walking speed to 3.0, but it went to 8.0 instead—Yikes! Anyway, bruised and battered, I plan to go back today and concentrate on cardio.

    Still feeling slightly crushed when I think of the massive amount of work I have to get through and it doesn’t even include writing! There may not be time for that until this weekend. Will come back and say something intelligent later if time permits. A good day to all!

      • LOL, Jan! I’m getting back into exercise after a two-year hiatus. Have already lost 2 and 1/2 pounds owing to that and the horrible new eating regime, so I’m in for the count. :)

        • Weight loss to achieve better health is a worthy goal. I am trying to change some of my eating habits to see if I can shed the extra pounds I seem to have steadily accumulated over the last couple of years that have now achieved critical mass. My knees are telling me that they were not built to hold up that much weight and would like a break!

    • Sorry about the accident. Those machines have a mind of their own, a mind that I don’t share. Hope the bruises fade and people at the gym were helpful.

      • Thank you, Portlaw! Already feeling much better, and the people at the gym couldn’t have been more helpful. Yesterday the manager even came over to check on me when I was getting off the treadmill and asked how I was. The new equipment is difficult to fathom, but I’ll make it out eventually. :)

    • Echo the Yikes! – I don’t use powered exercise equipment and that’s one of the reasons why. Get some arnica if you don’t have any already. Arnica knocks a couple of days off bruise healing time.

  6. Yesterday was likely our last 100 degree day. Cold front coming through – high today lower 90s, 2nd one tomorrow or Friday that will put our highs to the upper 80s. I may need long sleeves!

    Off today to do an interview for AIDS Services. And to take a day off. Lazing on the couch.

  7. Good morning, it’s 52 and sunny in Kennewick this morning, but it will be about 90 this afternoon and that’s hot.

    I have roses and snapdragons to make a big bouquet for the photo/guest book table so I hope the flowers don’t wilt in the heat. I fear I will! I’m doing my best to rest and pace myself, but between the tasks to do, the people to attend to, and the heat it’s a challenge to find time to rest.

  8. Barely 70 heading for 80 today in Fay., AR – the front moved in a 1600 yesterday, heat index went from 103 to 80 in less than 15 minutes. Rain came down like billy-o for about 20 minutes, thankfully just after I got home from work and filled the bird feeders, then settled into a steady soaking rain from about 1800 to 0200 this morning. I love autumnal weather! :)

    Hope there’s some good news out there somewhere – if nothing else that everyone here is OK, if not good (and good would be better) – and enjoying the weather. {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Good Thurs morning Meese

    Am headed to school today and then down to NYC to participate in this event at CUNY Law School
    https://publicsquare.law.cuny.edu/registration/public-square-registration-page-livestream

    Staying over to go to the Bronx museum tomorrow for a TV follow-up on the Young Lords exhibit there – then headed back home upstate Friday afternoon

    I may not be able to log in here from my cell phone.

    Looking at the news and shaking my head at the NY police assault on tennis star James Blake

    http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/ex-tennis-star-james-blake-mistakenly-tackled-white-cops-article-1.2353983

    Makes no difference who you are if your skin is the wrong color.

    There are still people making excuses for the cops in comments attached to news on this. Pisses me off.

    • And Sarah Palin wants President Obama to “call off his dogs” referring to people protesting police shootings and mistreatment of unarmed black people. Because all black people are controlled by the black president, doncha know. I guess just like all mindless buffoons are controlled by the Buffoon Queen, Palin.

      Safe travels!

  11. It is 63 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 73. Scattered thunderstorms are both in the forecast and here right now! So I can’t open the window quite yet.

    Quick run through the news this morning: I thought I had fallen into the way-back machine with the headline “Bush calls for tax cuts”. Yes, that worked so well last time, taking a multi-billion dollar surplus and turning it into a multi-TRILLION dollar deficit. Why is that guy even in the race? Latest GOP power rankings from USA Today show Trump, Carson, and new addition to the top 5, Fiorina with Bush at 4th. Walker drops to 8th!!!

    Right-wingers are desperate to find some way to derail the Iran nuclear agreement. Trump and Cruz held a rally yesterday (one news story said several hundred, one said a few hundred and one said thousands) and the signs and comments ranged from scary (“#IsraeliLivesMatter.AskGod”) to hilarious (one of the attendees asked for an “up or down vote” in the Senate with no filibuster possible – hey, where were you when Democrats wanted up or down votes on things like commonsense gun control and immigration??!?). One common theme was Obama Derangement Syndrome. The House is working on various ways to blow it up but the bottom line is that if the 41 of the 42 Senate Democrats who came out in favor of the deal block cloture, the resolution to block the deal fails and they will not get a vote.

    Arkansas managed to cobble together enough drugs to kill 8 people and have scheduled the executions. :(

    I am trying to figure out a place to put my rants about the lazy press and their “the horse race is everything” clickbait mode so it doesn’t bore people. We have serious issues facing us from income inquality to war and peace to cops treating lives as if they don’t matter to homelessness to a refugee crisis to women losing the right to control their bodies … and the press is focused on the gotcha politics of polls and personality. This is not the way to run a democracy.

    On that note, I shall bid adieu. The president and Dr. Jill Biden spoke about community colleges, an issue very near and dear to me as I hope to convince my daughter to go to community college for two years to get some cheap credits before going to a four year school for her degree. I read about the crushing debt that new graduates are living under and I don’t want that for her and I am in no position to help her financially (I can give her a place to live). Anyway, I will put up the speeches and the FACT SHEET on the community college initiative.

    See all y’alls later.

    • Oh, Jan, I do hope your daughter listens and goes to community college first. Living under a crushing burden of debt poisons lives after college. I have a friend who is permanently embittered by it. He’s trapped in a job he hates in a town he hates but there’s nothing he can do, the burden of debt is so staggering. Grants, scholarships, and perhaps working in the summer could help your daughter, but the only thing that would help him is having the debt wiped out somehow.

      • Right now she is on board but we are two years away from when her friends start picking the 4-year colleges they will be going to and the inevitable comparisons. I went to community college, got an associate degree in computery things then went to a 4-year college and got a business degree. Back then, though, they did not have the college credits programs they have now where they guarantee that your community college credits will transfer and I lost quite a few of them.

        College debt is a big problem and the next president will have to address it or deal with an economy where college-educated people can’t afford to buy homes, one of the biggest engines of the economy. I am a bit peeved that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is working on standardized testing initiatives when he should be putting his department to work on plans to get people out from under student loan debt especially at for-profit rip-off colleges that go out of business and leave the students without a degree. To pay for that is not fair.

    • Seriously hope your daughter listens. CCs usually have much smaller classes and more personal attention should she want it. CCs also tend to be the places where new things are tried (I got to do a couple of totally self-paced but in a classroom with a teacher “mentoring” classes in an area I already had some knowledge that allowed me to earn a year’s worth of credit in one semester). Yes, they are also less expensive but they are a value in themselves. And it never hurts to pick up an A.A. degree – not only does it look good on your resume/vita but it jumps you in line for transfers into the 4-year school.

    • About Trump – yesterday this happened:

      David Corn ‏@DavidCornDC
      .@m_millsey So when Donald Trump came to stage at anti-Iran deal they played “End of the World as We Know it.” What say you?

      Mike Mills retweeted
      JannaDeRupo ‏@Janna9
      @DavidCornDC @m_millsey They should have played something by Simple Minds

      Mike Mills ‏@m_millsey
      R.E.M. will issue an official statement shortly.

      Mike Mills ‏@m_millsey
      Personally, I think the Orange Clown will do anything for attention. I hate giving it to him.

      and then this happened:

      R.E.M.
      9 mins ·
      “While we do not authorize or condone the use of our music at this political event, and do ask that these candidates cease and desist from doing so, let us remember that there are things of greater importance at stake here. The media and the American voter should focus on the bigger picture, and not allow grandstanding politicians to distract us from the pressing issues of the day and of the current Presidential campaign.”
      -R.E.M.

      which was a very smart, balanced statement — don’t use our music, but people should ficus on real issues….. and then Michael Stipe (who I’ve had a crush on for about as lond as my U2 crush) said this:

      Mike Mills ‏@m_millsey
      Upcoming is Michael’s statement about Trump using our song at the rally. His opinions are HIS, please do not tweet angry responses at me

      Mike Mills ‏@m_millsey
      "Go fuck yourselves, the lot of you--you sad, attention grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign."--Michael Stipe

      Which totally made me lol. It is such a Stipe thing to say. Mike Mills had to relay is because Stipe does not do social anything. He barely does “social”. Now that he’s retired, he doesn’t do interviews, he hasn’t done any other music projects…. Mills & Peter Buck both have multiple projects, as far as I know, Stipe is just enjoying retirement.

  14. Good morning, Moosekind. The big news here is that it RAINED! Seriously. And then it rained some more during the night, and when the cold front arrives at noon we’ll have thunderstorms.

    Will be walking Miss Pink Cheeks to school today and picking her up. This evening we have Daisies from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Dearly Beloved and I miss Babylicious lurching around the house, getting into things. He used to stagger over to the little fridge in the dining room, extract a bottle of beer, and take it straight to Grandpa, even if it was 10 a.m. We finally had to tie a ribbon round the fridge so he couldn’t open it.

    The news is the same as always—terrible, with the added fillip of floods in Japan. Wish the USA would do something to help the Syrian refugees. Hungary and the Czech Republic are behaving in appalling fashion.

    Thought I’d have more time to write—hah! Spending whole days on the computer trying to sell stuff on Craig’s list and donate stuff on Freecycle. Arggh! Hope it’ll be a good day for all!

  15. Walked 1.4 miles — it is still muggy as anything, 77 & I’m gonna say 90% humidity. Supposedly it will be cooler today, and then on the weekend, we’re supposed to get lows in the 60s. I’ll believe it when I’m wearing long sleeves.

    Sunday morning I’m skipping my workout group to do a brain cancer walk with my friend. This time last year, she couldn’t walk at all, and they didn’t think she’d have a 50th birthday. Well, we had her party last March & Sunday she & her friends & family are doing a 1 mile walk. So – not much exercise, but totally worth it.

    Incredibly lousy night’s sleep last night. I kept waking up hot. Sigh.

  16. 68 heading for 85 today in Fay., AR. Walked in but probably won’t be doing it much longer – not that it’s too cold yet or anything like it, but we’re already at the “sun isn’t all the way above the horizon” point when I have to leave to walk in. I’m not walking to work in the dark since I don’t have to – the only streets that have sidewalk all the way are too busy to feel safe. Will be leaving at noon and walking home – going to see my former DIL’s goats eat the brush along my fence :)

    One note of local good news – the LBGT Civil Rights rule passed in Tuesday’s election. Doesn’t make up for the evil the Rs are doing here in AR, but it’s a spot of hope. (And of course the Rs are already contesting the legality of it.) Sending White Light to the Moose Pond and the denizens there ’round – Enjoy the Thursday. {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Good morning, Meeses! Friday …

    It is 55 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 64. Partly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Is it okay to say that 9/11, the date, makes me nervous? I always worry about some butthead wanting to “commemorate” the attack. :(

    The Iran vote was blocked by cloture. I put up a post to memorialize the floor vote and added the CSPAN video of Mitch McConnell’s and Harry Reid’s soliloquys after the vote. Harry Reid was on fire!! I am still looking for the video of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) tearing into his Senate colleagues and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) whining about his “friend” Tim Kaine being mean to him. It was comedy gold.

    In 2016 election news, some GOP candidates insulted each other, Joe Biden is still not ready to declare, and Charlie Pierce goes after emailghazi. Excerpt:

    HRC gets badgered for an apology for a big honking nothing and then, when she gives one, God knoweth why and to whom, it not only is insufficient but a betrayal of her “most ardent supporters,” none of whom, I would note, are quoted as having felt they were betrayed in any way. […]

    … the “e-mail scandal” remains a nothingburger until someone can tell me clearly what the real scandal is. The fact that it has been used as a hobby-horse for bored journalists and professional Clinton-haters is no surprise. If the apology is prima facie evidence of whatever the scandal is, then we’ve crossed onto the Great McCarthy Sink on our way to the borders of Kafkaland. The only “error” I see the “Hillary loyalists” as having committed is in underestimating the appetite for nothingburgers at various news outlets, especially The New York Times …

    The Oath Keepers are planning to go to Rowan County Kentucky to “protect” county clerk Kim Davis from the U.S. Marshalls if they come to arrest her again. The federal government should never have let Cliven Bundy get away with his defiance of the rule of law. Now, we have armed vigilantes “protecting” others from court orders. This will not end well.

    See all y’alls later!

    • I well remember watching the second plane hit and also seeing the towers come down and then hearing about the plane in Pennsylvania. Am still in a state of shock. I still can’t go near that block. And I well remember the horror I felt when we went into Iraq which had absolutely nothing to do with it and our reprehensible hateful lawmakers who called french fries freedom fries in their glee to go to war. They dishonored the dead. They dishonored the flag they were waving.

      • I can’t imagine actually being there, Portlaw. Just watching it from my living room was terrifying enough.

        I am sure you saw the polls from 2013 that show that about 28% of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. In 2003, it was 73%, in 2006 it was 43% and as late as 2011 it was still at 38%! That is the core of ignoramuses that the GOP builds its base on.

        • I was astonished way back in 2003 so many believed it. That still some do is incomprehensible. The Military Industrial Complex is still influential.

  19. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 62 F. here in NoVa on another beautiful morning, going up to 84 F. today. Yesterday we had blessed, blessed rain. More is promised for Saturday.

    Pictures of the Pentagon have been showing up on the morning news on this sad anniversary. When it happened I had banned morning TV in our house, so knew nothing about it until I arrived at work. My husband only found out about it from our woodcutter, who’d heard it on his truck radio when he was driving in.

    Another fearfully busy day today of running to the post office, the gym, and a couple of grocery stores. This afternoon we’ll have to go apple-knocking in the backyard. The apples on the higher branches are very red, and it’s really high time we brought them down. For reasons best known to itself, the backyard apple tree is giving us superb apples this year. Part of my weekend will be spent peeling, slicing, and freezing them for winter use.

    Glad about the Iran vote in Congress, still worried that the government is Cruzing to another shutdown. The last time the Rethugs shut down the government they got away with it. They get away with everything, including depriving women of our rights.

    Hope everyone at the Pond will have a good day!

  20. Slept in — it was nice to turn over & go back to sleep every time I woke up. Going to take my Walk — and Ride shirts to the AIDS Services office so they can take a picture. And that is the extent of my plans for the day.

    Got more rain overnight & they keep saying it’ll cool off but when I moved my plants around, it was muggy, so….. But the overnight Sat/Sun says 62 degrees — brrrr.

    • Glad you got some good sleep. I got a solid 4-hour chunk of good sleep until the rain moved in and then another 3-hours where I was asleep but light enough to be conscious of the rain – woke feeling well and thinking of you, wishing/hoping that you’d gotten as good a night as I did. – And our overnights Sat/Sun is in the 40s :)

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