Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: April 10th through April 16th

April 10, 2016 JanF Community 91

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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34 Comments

  1. Good morning, 48 and cloudy in Bellingham. I feel like I’m retreating deeper into a domestic bubble……doing laundry is more appealing than reading about this endless primary! So today’s tasks include more sewing room sorting, some time at my desk, working on my MIL’s estate sale, and if I can more ivy clipping. Keeping my small world orderly is my counter to the chaotic big picture.

    Nancy LeTourneau asks an interesting question……

    Is Uncertainty a Liberal Value?

    …….. In addressing liberal bloggers at Daily Kos, the President himself once wrote:

    …to the degree that we brook no dissent within the Democratic Party, and demand fealty to the one, “true” progressive vision for the country, we risk the very thoughtfulness and openness to new ideas that are required to move this country forward. When we lash out at those who share our fundamental values because they have not met the criteria of every single item on our progressive “checklist,” then we are essentially preventing them from thinking in new ways about problems. We are tying them up in a straightjacket and forcing them into a conversation only with the converted.

    I think about all that these days as I watch the political discussions taking place during this presidential primary. Of course, a competition like the one between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tends to crowd out questions and uncertainty. As a result, no one is really listening and any discussion that happens merely leads to defensiveness and digging in to established positions.

    I’ve come to believe that listening requires a suspension of certainty – at least long enough to hear what the other person is saying and attempt to empathize with where they are coming from. It also requires some curiosity about perspectives different from our own. It is in that spirit that I ask the question: Are things like uncertainty, listening, curiosity and empathy liberal values?

    • Listening, true listening, and empathizing with the other is the essential liberal bedrock value. First thing Hillary does – ever, no matter what issue she’s looking at – is a listening tour, then creates plans to deal with the issues thus brought up. You don’t get more liberal than Hillary.

    • Princesspat, you are doing the right thing. “The world is too much with us, late and soon.” We need a rest. Glad you’re taking care of your own piece of the mosaic. I think I’ll do the same.

  2. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 38 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 55. Morning snow is in the forecast. We will see 60s tomorrow and 70s on the weekend. Spring?

    Paul Ryan says he is not running for president, so PLEASE quit talking that way! Of course, he also said that under no circumstances would he be Speaker of the House. I find it unlikely that the GOP has given up on the 2016 presidential election (“Oh, well. I guess we stay out of power for another 4-8 years!”). More likely is that they wanted to plant the seed for those who hadn’t thought about it, a briar patch sort of strategy. I guess we will know in a few months.

    The New York Daily News endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination in an editorial that was as much building the case for Secretary Clinton as it was ripping apart Senator Sanders:

    Subjected to meaningful scrutiny for the first time, the senator from Vermont proved utterly unprepared for the Oval Office while confirming that the central thrusts of his campaign are politically impossible.

    Which, paradoxically, is good news, because some of the most prominent Sanderisms would likely wreak epic economic damage.

    THAT is going to leave a mark.

    The 7th Circuit ruled in favor of the Wisconsin plaintiffs who say they cannot obtain an id card. The case is now sent back to Federal District Judge Lynn Adelman, for further proceedings. Here is the what Appeals Judge Frank Easterbrook said:

    “The right to vote is personal and is not defeated by the fact that 99% of other people can secure the necessary credentials easily,”

    The 3-judge panel, which included two Republicans both of whom ruled in favor of the state approving the voter id regulations originally, ruled unanimously. This is a huge win for the ACLU and I hope this can be expedited to put the affidavit system in place for the fall election. I am going to dig into this more and I hope to have time to post something on it.

    See all y’all later!!

  4. Good morning and happy Woden’s Day! It’s glorious here in NoVa, if a bit on the cool side—40 F. now, going up to 58 F. later.

    Found out my gym is doing a free assessment and half-hour training session for members this month, so going to get that done at 10:30 today. On the domestic front, I’m still catching up with laundry, STILL have not put the patches on Miss Pink Cheeks’ Daisy vest (I dread doing that), and still owe my sister-in-law an email. Note to self: must make better use of my time.

    Hoping that nothing too awful will happen in the world today and that each of us has a happy time in our own patch.

  5. I’m going back over my taxes after the caffeine kicks in. And maybe look at medical expenses, to see if I can enter them & maybe get more than $50 back from the IRS. And I’ve been googling to see if there’s some known thing out there, like health insurance or something. But I did really get a lot done yesterday – errands & taking out the trash & recycling. And put some of my plants out from the porch to get some free water from the sky overnight. Oh yeah – it rained! Yay! We needed it, and it should rain more this week. I think my basol plant is done for, though. I neglected it too long. If it doesn’t perk up from last night’s rain, I’ll give up.

    Meanwhile, my head is kindly playing U2 to keep me awake – Blow Your House Down.

    • It has been a while since I looked, but I think that medical expenses are not deductible unless they are over 10% of your salary. You should verify that.

  6. 40 at dawn supposedly heading for 65 but overcast and a cell of rain is showing up due west of us (although we’re on the northern end of it and it may go down the river valley south of us – as usual). Hope we get the rain as we can still use it. We got less than 1/2″ Monday. But I want my sunshine back! :)

    I will be so glad when the primaries are over. I’ll admit to enjoying the “village under the bus” Hillary safe space camaraderie at GOS, but I hate that it’s needed. We have so much work needing to be done and we’re only going to get any of it done if we work together. Well, demanding patience now has never worked, so here we go – step-by-step to the convention, then step-by-step to the GE, then step-by-step getting done whatever can be done considering whatever circumstances we find ourselves in as of January 20, 2017.

    Bright the day and wind to thy wings. {{{HUGS}}}

  7. Good morning, 46 and cloudy in Bellingham. I want to go to the pool this morning but if I do can I do the other tasks on my list. A dilemma……and I’ve got 20 mins to decide! Time for more coffee.

  8. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 35 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 63. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    While North Carolina and Mississippi continue to suffer the ill effects of their full-throated anti-LGBT laws and Tennessee is considering jumping on the hate bandwagon, this just in from Not-Crazy-Anymore Louisiana:

    Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an executive order Wednesday barring state discrimination against gay Louisianans.

    The order by Edwards, a Democrat, overturns an executive order advanced by his predecessor, Republican Bobby Jindal, protecting employers and agencies that wouldn’t serve members of the LGBT community.

    Edwards called that rule “bad for business, tourism and the Louisiana economy” and said it did “nothing but divide our state … to serve a narrow political agenda.”

    Republicans are still in disarray, Democratic Party debate tonight from Brooklyn on CNN and NY1.

    See all y’all later!

  9. Good frosty morning from NoVa, Moosekind! It’s 37 F. now on a sunny, blue-skied day, going up to 63 F. later, and the frost is gradually melting from the tops of the vehicles outside.

    Busy day ahead—the evaluation at the gym was yesterday (I am in poor condition), and the free training session is today. I think I’ll sign up for the very expensive 20-session series so as to get in shape and jolt my metabolism. I’ve really let myself go downhill since Elder Son’s wedding three years ago—have gained 18 pounds since then!

    Got so enthralled by the book I was reading yesterday that I got nothing done in the afternoon. Bad me.

    I think there’s going to be violence at the Rethug convention in July, barring a miracle. The WaPo carried an article about Trump supporters on the front page and I am amazed at their simple-minded view of life. Also, I do wish the Russians hadn’t behaved in such a threatening way yesterday, flying over one of our ships in international waters 30 times despite being asked to stop in English and Russian. It’s events of that kind that make people vote Rethug: Republicans are So Much Stronger Than Dems. Yeah, and so much less responsible.

    Got to make a very small batch of chocolate chip cookies for the girls’ tea today after school. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond! Where’s Sister Denise, these days?

  10. Pea soup fog. So glad I drive in when there’s no traffic. Eating breakfast, drinking tea. I think I’m going to go ahead & just file my tax form today. If I figure out where things went wrong, I can file an amended thing later. Better to be done. Anyway, no thoughts in my head, and same earworm as yesterday.

  11. Morning all, quick post before I head off for my last class till next January – oh man am I looking forward to the semester being over so I can go back to full time retirement. My oldest brother had a health scare on Monday, was down in West Palm Beach in a croquet tournament (he’s 71, this is apparently his retirement sport now), started talking nonsense so they popped him into the hospital fearing a stroke. Turns out it was dehydration – very relieved.

    I was so appalled last night to read about the Sanders rally in NYC, where one speaker, after invoking Sec Clinton’s name immediately said “we need to stop electing corporate Democratic whores”, and where Rosario Dawson called Hillary a murderer. It’s just out of control now, Sanders I don’t think has any control over his campaign, and is not really paying any attention. I hope she crushes him by 15 points next Tuesday.

    OK off to school, have a great day everyone!

      • Yes, they’re demented and it depends on who you ask as to who she’s supposed to have murdered. Supposedly she’s responsible for every dead person in Iraq and Libya (including our people who died in the Benghazi raid) and Syria. She’s also responsible for everybody’s death that can vaguely be traced back to the Crime Bill Bernie voted for. And hell, there’s probably somebody out there still swearing she killed Vince Foster.

        Oh, and I just saw your question about scan’s site as I was logging out of DK – did pacifist get you the correct link? If not, I’ll get it to you tomorrow. Take care, bf

  12. Sorry to be late – had writing deadline today – and hadn’t finished my Sunday piece.
    I was caught up in responses to my Bernie billboard tweet – which got a lot of responses.

    Did not get my taxes done either. Sigh.

  13. 51 at dawn and 55 now – supposed to get to mid 70s but if the clouds don’t clear off it’s going to stay in the 50s just like it did yesterday. I’m back to complaining about just about everything including the weather – I’m extremist here – rain OR shine, just cloud cover doesn’t hack it :)

    I got a warning at GOS for uprating a flagged not too nice quip that was in response to a blatant insult. So at this point Hillary supporters are supposed to stay away from Bernie diaries and accept insults if we venture in – if not, we will get the warnings, TOs, Bojos. Now I do stay away from Bernie diaries – except when I go uprate a flag-abuse situation. At least it’s flag abuse by the old rules. Apparently it’s only flag abuse by the new rules if a Hillary supporter says something a Bernie supporter objects to, not if a Bernie supporter insults a Hillary supporter. And it seems that I am in danger of losing my commenting privileges if I do it again. Well, this could get interesting, right?

    Work is being almost as bad right now. Two very good-hearted and well-meaning people (the Chair and Vice-Chair – both female) just basically ordered me to put juniors into classes where I was saving seats for graduating seniors so we aren’t upsetting or “blocking” the juniors. My 11 years of experience enrolling students notwithstanding, my warnings that there are seniors who cannot enroll during priority registration notwithstanding. They will “take care of” any graduating senior who can’t get into a full class. Somehow they seem to think telling a junior to take it in the summer or wait a semester is better than telling a graduating senior to take a special made-up independent study class that will then be substituted for the required class. Maybe I ought to think about retiring early after all.

    Bright the day. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Ireland is having a lot of trouble putting a government together. Current PM rejected again: 52 for 77 against. ouch, that’s gotta hurt

  15. Good morning, 47 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. My nights seem to be a series of naps lately. When I add up the hours I’m sleeping enough, but the times in between are long and make me feel like I’m not.

    Another day, another list. Between family concerns and political worries I’ve been too pre occupied to read my Malazan books so today I hope to start reading Toll The Hounds. I set it aside about a month ago, so I’ll have to re read the first few chapters.

    http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2008/07/toll-hounds-by-steven-erikson-toll-v.html

  16. Good (early) morning, meese! Friday …

    I was unable to sleep and so here I am!! It is 44 degrees in Madison on its way up to 68. Sunny skies and a nap are in the forecast.

    I did not watch the debate but I have a half-dozen pages up in tabs to read about what transpired. I was glad to see that Hillary called out the moderators for not asking about reproductive rights. I wondered how she might get the topic inserted into the debate because she had been Tweeting about it (asking for a question) all day. She had to insert it into the answer to another question:

    (And this clip, by the the way, was about 1 minute and 58 seconds more of Bernie Sanders than I wanted to see, wagging and poking)

    Speaking of wagging and poking, I want someone to explain to me how doing this to our general election candidate helps Democrats? He hasn’t helped himself, either … just berning down anything in his way.

    PLEASE, New York … put an end to this insanity!

    See all y’all later!

  17. Good morning Meese
    35 here in NY going up to 63

    Tried to watch debate – fell asleep towards the end – what a mess. Thanks for that clip Jan – that was the only thing that stuck with me

  18. Happy Freya’s Day, Moosekind! It is, thank Goddess, the day after the debate. Currently it’s 35 F. on a blue-and-gold morning here in NoVa, going up to 63 F. today.

    Not much went well yesterday, at least in my little world. We Daisies couldn’t get into the school for the troop meeting, so it was held on the grassy plot in front of the school. After that the girls went to the playground.

    The debate was terrible. We started watching it late, because as usual Dearly wanted to finish watching some British detective thingy, so we joined the debate about 10 minutes in. I was so desperately tired I couldn’t stay awake, although I saw and heard enough to become even more disgusted with St. Bernard and the Berners. Yuck-a-doodle-do! I understand from reading El Mito’s thread that she wiped the floor with him. Why can’t the media stop whining about “transcripts”? And why is she the only one required to furnish them? Why don’t they bug The Saint about his tax returns?

    My phone lit up in the middle of the night, flooding the room with light, which was annoying. I’m going to start putting it face-down. I don’t know why it lights up like that. Anyway, feel a bit sleepy and cross now. Probably the coffee Dearly Beloved is making will cheer me up.

    Hope everyone has a great Friday and that New York ENDS Bernie’s campaign. I’m getting to where I can’t watch TV: the bobbleheads on GMA threw up a poll result that said Hillary is only 2 points ahead of Bernie nationally. They all appear to have IQs of minus thirty.

      • It better!! We need to start organizing for November and that is very difficult to do when we are not speaking to each other! :)

    • Your phone was probably doing an update of some sort. Mine wakes up to do that and the screen goes bright. That is why I shut it off and put it in my office with the door closed at night. I don’t need wrong numbers or Android updates waking me up. I have enough trouble with my busy brain waking me up at 2am.

      The national polls are annoying. We do not elect people “nationally” … if we did, President Al Gore would have presided over 8 years of peace and prosperity and we would be looking forward to our 25th-28th straight year of Democratic presidential administrations.

  19. I skipped the debate, ignored tweets about it — I’m so done with this primary. And I filed my taxes. I’ll use my big $30 refund for…. yeah. Oh and the Texas Agriculture Commissioner and the Attorney General are both under investigation. An Assistant AG has been on salaried “emergency leave” while working for a Ted Cruz PAC — and in those 3 months has already made way more than my yearly salary. On my dime.

    Ok, so I an definitely listening to me some U2 this morning. And Imma need some chocolate.

  20. TCCIF Meeses – 48 at dawn 60 now heading for 70 – started the day sunny, but has now clouded up. I hope it gets over that in a couple of hours. My “power generating” this time of year is from 1100 CDT to 1600 CDT with some “December-equivalent” generation for a couple of hours after that.

    Today seems to be a better day. At least haven’t gotten another nastygram from the DK “moderators” and my Chair listened to and acknowledged the validity of my concerns regarding emergency exceptions/substitutions for required classes and basically dismissing seniors – especially graduating seniors – who cannot enroll until Open Registration by favoring juniors who get Priority Registration. Not that it’s going to change what she wants us to do, but at least she’s thinking about it.

    Bright the day whatever you’re doing. {{{HUGS}}}

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