Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: June 12th through June 18th

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.

           

34 Comments

  1. Good morning, 54 and cloudy in Bellingham today. I woke up late this morning, with just enough time to find my suit and get to the pool. So now I’m home and reading the news with an aching heart.

    Nancy Le Tourneau……

    A Time for Grief

    To be honest, I always have trouble writing immediately after a tragedy like the one that took place in Orlando this weekend. I find that my natural instinct is to pull away from the 24-hour news cycle, partly because it is rarely reliable and partly because I am consumed with feelings that seem to be out of sync with most of what I read/see reflected both in the news and on social media. This is not a time that I feel compelled to call out Donald Trump for his narcissistic nonsense. And I really don’t want to argue about guns or whether we will vanquish ISIS by merely uttering the words “radical Islam.”

    Instead, I want to gaze inward and deal with the overwhelming grief, while looking for messages of healing. I found that in stories about the mile-long line that had formed to donate blood in Orlando. And in the brief words of Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Tony Awards last night.

  2. Good morning, Moosekind! Am I the first here? It’s beautiful again in NoVa, with low humidity–67 F. now, going up to 80 F.

    Tired this morning from taking Miss Pink Cheeks to “Bridging to Brownies” last night. She and the others received their new Brownie vests last night. This morning Grandpa and I will go to her school to video her in some kind of school play.

    Feeling anxious this morning because one of my favorite people on GOS is in trouble and the community are rallying around her.

    And there’s been another terrorist attack in Paris. Dear Goddess, don’t these villains ever get tired of killing people? Wishing all a good day!

  3. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is going to be hot and stormy here in Mid America. We drive home tomorrow so I will not be fully online until Thursday.

    The president and Hillary cancelled their post-primary rally in Green Bay, scheduled for Wednesday. Fine, there is plenty of time to campaign. At this point, every time Trump speaks, it is a free informercial for Hillary for America. Banning the Washington Post? Does he think they are Fox News who need Trump for ratings? Sheesh.

    See all y’all later!

  4. Walked again today! It was 80 degrees at 6am, so I took it easy. 1.17 miles. Cooling off, eating breakfast, drinking slushy-cold tea.

    Sigh, one of the journalists I follow is getting crap about Orlando being a “false flag”. Because of course. The same cretins who say that Newtown was one.

    playing music in my head to remind myself that there is no end to love

  5. Morning all. Last Dem primary today in DC, thank goddess this primary season will be over! Let’s just hope Sanders accepts it, but somehow I doubt it – he seems determined to make noise thru the convention. I don’t mind his pushing for issues – that’s a good and healthy thing – but I’m not sure he knows how to do that in a positive way without complaining about rigging, and using the process to get back at people like Barney Frank for personal slights.

    It’s looking more and more like the Orlando killer was not linked to international terrorism beyond boasting (read on twitter:”I can pledge allegiance to the Chicago Cubs too – doesn’t make me shortstop.”), and was more likely a self-hating closeted gay man, filled with rage and resentment, and boxed into that closet by his bigoted father. It’s about the guns for me – take away that AR-15, and he could have been stopped by the security guards, very likely. I hope the tide of anger at the NRA finally gets us somewhere, but I fear that unless we can achieve a wholesale turnover in Congress in November, we’re stuck in the same loop.

    Hillary’s up in all the national polls this morning, although I don’t know if any cover yesterday when Trump disgraced himself and the nation yet again with that awful speech. Let’s hope Hillary crushes in the DC primary today, and that we can at last completely turn to the general election and work for a landslide wave election that sweeps not only Hillary into the White House, but Democrats to control of Congress (yes, I’m dreaming big, but why not dream!) and at long last sensible gun control laws.

    Have a great day everyone!

    • Mornin’ – will be interesting to see how DC votes – it is no longer the “chocolate city with vanilla suburbs” like it was when I lived there.

  6. Good morning, 51 and cloudy in Bellingham. I just realized I forgot to go to our grand daughters 8th grade tea last night……bad Grammie! I’m slowly recovering from the estate sale but I was to tired to cope last night. It’s the last day of school for the girls today so I’ll make amends.

    And I had best update my calendar!

    • Yikes, princesspat, I know the feeling! I was out for three hours last night for “Bridging to Brownies” with Miss Pink Cheeks. I went an hour early to help set up. This morning I was so tired I could barely drag myself to the gym.

      Going to have an easy evening, believe me! :) Hope you will as well.

  7. Good afternoon Meeses. Something weird with MM this morning – I couldn’t get in. As in the front page would come up but I wasn’t logged in and I couldn’t log in, it just kept “buffering”. Hot and humid outside, A/C on too high inside. sigh. I’ve at least gotten a few things off my desk. Gonna go play in the pootie diary and the Hillary diaries for a bit – hoping somebody’s talked to gc since last night – and waiting for the last of the primaries to finish out. Bright the day, Meeses. And a whole lot of {{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}

  8. Good Wednesday morning Meese.
    50 degrees here in the Catskills going up to 86.

    Elated that the primary season is over! Thanks DC voters.

    Now to move ahead and win those Senate races we need.

    Saw this tweet – hadn’t heard about the story

  9. Good morning, Meese! We’ve had a little shower this morning but the streets appear to be drying now. Current temp. in NoVa is 63 F., going up to 83 F. I could get used to these temps.

    Glad Hillary won DC! Now the real work begins. As for me, I have shopping to do today. My neck is one big red patch from whatever it is I’m allergic to outdoors. Thank goodness I have a gym to go to.

    Wishing all a good day!

  10. Walked again — 1.4 miles. 80 degrees at 6am is somewhat depressing. Loved Obama’s speech yesterday — and loved that Chris Hayes played the whole thing. I’m ready to win in November!

  11. Quick check-in from Middle America!

    Travel day. I have not had a chance to read or watch the president’s presser but I caught some of the commentary. I recommend Charlie Pierce’s take on it. Good for the president, mocking Trump; he will hate mockery. I will put the video and transcript on the front page when I get on a real computer tonight.

    See all y’all later!!

  12. 80 at dawn and a steam bath – never cooled down enough last night for me to turn the A/C off. I don’t sleep well in A/C, just better than when I’m lying in a puddle of sweat. sigh. Although the temps are topping out in the 90s we’re already getting heat index readings in the 100s. double sigh. All I can say is, beat’s Houston – I didn’t turn my A/C on at all until June 11th and was able to turn it off at bedtime for another couple of days. In Houston the A/C would have been on since about April.

    Finally the primary is over – yeah, the conventions haven’t happened, but we know who the candidates are and can put out attention on the General. Most of the Bernie people will come on board and while I’d love for them to come to appreciate Hillary, a grudging vote counts as much as a joyful one. The diary series “31 Nights of ‘Hillary’s Platform is Amazing'” over at GOS may help now that the Bernie supporters know Bernie has unequivocally lost – they may be willing to take another look at Hillary.

    I’ve got stuff to do but much of it is on hold until folks higher up do what needs to be done to allow me to do it. No blame to the folks higher up – they’re stuck with new rules forced on them by the RWNJ Legislature. Goddess, it would be nice to get some sanity back in government at the various legislative levels – From Congress at the federal level to the Quorum Court at the county level! Anyway, need to go see what’s where and how much I can actually do today. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{HUGS}}}}

  13. Good morning, 54 and cloudy in Bellingham. I’m just back from the pool and pleased to see the internet is working again. We’ve had on and off connections this week. I have a dentist appointment next, and then I hope to be in the garden. We’ve got the basic spring clean up done so it’s finally time to plant some flowers!

  14. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 68 in Madison on its way up to 74. Morning showers are in the forecast. A cooling front moved through the area last night that brought storms to the north and east of us but we did not get hit.

    It will take me a while to get caught up on the news. Thank goodness the primaries are over but I understand that Sen. Sanders is still not willing to help our nominee win the November election. Pardon my French but fk him. If the entire goal of his campaign was to put “Getting Debbie Wasserman Schultz fired” on the top of his list of demands, he has exposed himself as the mean petty man that he is. President Obama will reach out to the young people that progressive policies appeal to, Hillary hired his director of college outreach, real Democrats will support our nominee and Sanders can go back to jabbing his finger in the air and yelling about the unfairness of his treatment by a political party that he hates and whose last nerve he has stepped on … repeatedly. He made himself irrelevant to the party by holding out, deluding his followers about a pathway to the nomination, sucking in $27es to spend on trips to Rome and ads trying to damage our nominee. He has no role in the convention except as a cautionary tale: our party needs to change the rules so that non-Democrats cannot run in our primaries. Become a Democrat or start a third party. And DO NOT take away the power of the party to restrict the nominating contest to Democratic voters.

    I am listening to the president’s statement to the press on Tuesday and will post it when I finish.

    See all y’all later!

    • Welcome back, Jan!

      Wow, why don’t you tell us how you really feel about Bernie! (laughing)

      Agree with every word, although I’d never dare to do so outside of Moose country.

      I’m sick of that guy.

      • I have been mostly patient about letting the process play out. But he has overstayed his welcome and I have lost interest in placating him. Elizabeth Warren is willing to help us defeat Trumpism and those who have been raptured into the Cult of Bernie can either find their way on their own or live with the permanent blemish that will be on their soul by preferring a Trump presidency rather than vote for the Democratic Party’s nominee.

      • I followed some of it. Interesting to see a couple of Republicans join in. Sasse is no surprise, he is persona non grata in the GOP right now. But Toomey (R-PA) is an endangered Republican willing to incur the wrath of the NRA. I am not sure it will help him with moderates and it will put a big target(!) on his back from the right-wing.

        Let’s see if we get any meaningful reform. Paul Ryan seemed determined to see it as an assault on the 2nd Amendment so it will likely die in the House even if it passes in the Senate.

  15. Walked again — 1.41 miles. Blech, it is definitely summer.

    The filibuster yesterday made me so proud. Lawrence O’Donnell had one of the 2 Republicans who supported it on — and he sounded like a reasonable human being. Perhaps the beginning of something good?

  16. G’morning, Moose peeps! It’s cloudy and misty here in NoVa, and we’re expecting rain on and off all day. Great, I don’t have to water. This is a lousy year for strawberries—the few we’ve picked have been tiny and sour. Last year’s harvest was so wonderful that I took a photo of Miss Pink Cheeks holding a bowlful.

    Current temp is 71 F., going up to 85 F. Dearly has put the a.c. on. He and I were both ill yesterday with what we suspect is food poisoning from a prepared salmon dish on Tuesday night. Yikes, I’ll never buy that again. Too bad, because the grilled salmon with a tomato salsa on top was quite tasty.

    Irritated by the TV media’s insistence that “58 percent of Americans don’t like Hillary.” If she’s so disliked, why did people vote for her? She’s the nominee, you barbaric yawps. Honestly, I feel as if I need to order Brain Bleach from Amazon after the misogynistic remarks!

    I want to make a misanthropic remark: I hope Hillary isn’t going to pick a so-so aging white male for her veep. Haven’t we had enough? Couldn’t we have a HIspanic veep or a woman veep? That would turn the so-called media into howling hyenas but it certainly would be interesting!

    Off to read Jan’s new post now—hope everyone will have a good day!

    • Diana, your comment about misanthropy reminded me of a link that was forwarded to me. It is a Facebook link to a post by Michael Arnovitz and I am not sure if it is public or private (I can never tell with FB). Hillary Clinton and Misogyny. It begins with a quote:

      “In the course of a single conversation, I have been assured that Hillary is cunning and manipulative but also crass, clueless, and stunningly impolitic; that she is a hopelessly woolly-headed do-gooder and, at heart, a hardball litigator; that she is a base opportunist and a zealot convinced that God is on her side. What emerges is a cultural inventory of villainy rather than a plausible depiction of an actual person.”
      —Henry Louis Gates

      The quote above comes from a fascinating article called “Hating Hillary”, written by Gates for the New Yorker in 1996. Even now, 20 years after it was first published, it’s a fascinating and impressive piece, and if you have a few spare moments I strongly recommend it to you. (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/02/26/hating-hillary)

      There are too many excellent points to blockquote and, while it is long, it is worth the read. When you are done, you will have a pretty good idea what we are up against – a lot of it we already are keenly aware of.

      If you can’t read it, let me know and I will put his words into a post with proper attribution. I looked for it in a more traditional online space and couldn’t find it.

      Update: I found it on Medium.

  17. Supposed to have been 70 at dawn – nope, 78. It’s 83 now, heat index 93, and we’ve got a heat advisory. I walked in because I’m sure as heck not gonna try walking home any time soon. But at least I got my walk. All this humidity is causing heat haze that’s cutting into my electricity production. Only getting around 20 KWHs a day with a to-date monthly total of 270.13, darn it. We’re going to be lucky if I meet, much less beat last year’s June production of 563.8 KWH – will need a bunch of clear, sunny days to do it and I don’t think that’s going to happen. More A/C use and less solar electricity production does not make me happy. Oh well – I’ve got something like 400 KWHs “banked” so hopefully will come out even to good.

    I’m doing my best to celebrate Hillary and ignore Bernie (and the Haters) – not always easy but I’m still trying. I totally trust Hillary to choose the right person for Veep. Since her stated primary criteria is someone who could step into the job with no warning, it may be an old white man but it won’t be Bernie. Will read/listen to President Obama’s speech when I get a chance today. Kudos to those who filibustered yesterday. Keep this in the news. Weapons of war have no place on our streets. And only traitors who want to use them against our people or our government think they have.

    Welcome back, Jan. Gotta find more stuff I can actually get done today. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{Hugs}}}}

      • Since I don’t know what her other criteria are, I haven’t a clue who’s on her short list but I doubt she’ll go with either (even if they’d be interested which they probably aren’t). My bet is that even if it’s a white guy, it won’t be an old white guy. She’s trying to deepen our bench and you do that by bringing in younger people. It kind of depends on whether she’s thinking to “groom” the next Dem presidential candidate.

        • I agree. She will make a pick for the future, someone who can run in 2024 and keep, and build on, the Obama coalition.

          It won’t be Tim Freaking Kaine, btw.

  18. This pretty well sums up what Sanders is doing wrong. Why won’t he take “yes” for an answer? Mark Murray from NBC News:

    … after the final primary results and after Clinton became the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Sanders still marches on. He hasn’t conceded to Clinton or endorsed her. And on Tuesday, Sanders made a series of demands, including:

    – New leadership inside the Democratic National Committee (presumably replacing DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz);
    – The most progressive Democratic platform in history;
    – More open primaries;
    – And eliminating superdelegates in the Democratic nominating system.

    But the demands on DNC leadership, open primaries and superdelegates seem small. Why call for reforms to processes that you and your supporters deem unfair (rightly or wrongly), while not touching other processes (the caucuses) that benefited you?

    Not conceding to Clinton appears even smaller, especially after she became the first female to become the presumptive presidential nominee of a major political party.

    And the leverage he has seems even smaller still, given that Clinton won eight of the last 11 Democratic contests; that President Barack Obama and Sen. Elizabeth Warren already endorsed Clinton; and that polls show Clinton expanding her lead over Donald Trump – all suggesting that Clinton might not need Sanders’ blessing to win the White House.

    Small is the perfect word. He has exposed the puniness of his vision – it is Sandersism, barely distinguishable from Trumpism in that it relies on a cult of personality to sustain. Well, we have seen into his heart and it is not pretty.

    And no, Hillary does not need him now. The president will reach out to the new voters (they still think he is cool even though Sanders has tried his best to diss the Obama Administration), Elizabeth Warren will remind them of the actual issues – and the ones we can accomplish, and Hillary Clinton and her resume will seal the deal.

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