Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: June 19th through June 25th

June 19, 2016 JanF Community 143

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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56 Comments

  1. To say I had a lousy night’s sleep makes it sound like I slept. I remember looking at my watch at 11:40, 1:15, 2-something….. and chanting inside my head “sleep 2,3,4, sleep 2,3,4” to make my brain stop chattering at me. I’m so tired, I kind of hope we’re busy so I don’t have time to drift off in my chair. Only walked 1.06 mi. My minutes/mile was a whole minute slower than yesterday.

    Glad we’re not having fires here — wish it would rain where they are.

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – I’ve had those kinds of nights. Not as often as you do, but often enough. I don’t know how old you are/whether this might be a factor, but I read a couple of months back that sleeplessness is another of those little-known effects (like brittle nails) of menopause. I’ve been exploring herbal/natural things I can do to stimulate my post-menopausal body to produce a bit more estrogen – almost finished with a 3-month trial of 500mg/day Black Cohosh (powder in a gelatin capsule). I can’t swear that it’s made a difference (and at the moment I’m pondering stopping, maintaining at the same level, or doubling the dosage), but my nails are not quite as brittle and I am sleeping better. Good luck getting through the day.

      • Some of my nighttime waking up is because I’m hot – even with the a/c set at 71. And I just can’t being myself to set it cooler than that, even 71 is extravagant. Maybe I should try the black cohosh.

        • It’s not an instant fix, but I did start seeing some improvement after a couple of weeks. I’m still trying to find an herbalist who knows anything about menopause – and until then I’d rather err on the side of caution which is why I’ve done the single-capsule 500mg per day. Good luck. Sleep deprivation sux.

      • That’s interesting, bfitz! Black Cohosh? I’ll try that next. I have tried all sorts of things to strengthen my nails but they remain soft and weak. I’ll try anything within reason.

        • The research is European – British and German – since American medical industry (wholely owned subsidiary of Big Pharma) doesn’t “believe” in botanicals, doesn’t do any research on botanicals, and then uses lack of research as the excuse for not learning enough about them to prescribe them. Naturopaths and other “natural” healers can be hit and miss. According to the European research as reported by the Mayo Clinic, Black Cohosh can be effective for dealing with symptoms of menopause for something like 90% of the women taking it – how effective and what’s the best dosage for a given woman is still under study and there are no long term (over a year) studies (that Mayo apparently knows of). So the recommendations err on the side of safety – don’t do it longer than 6 months without taking a break (skip a month). I’ve almost completed 3 months at 500 mg powder. Since I’m doing research with my own body as the guinea pig, I’ll have to decide shortly whether I’m going to skip a month, continue at the same dosage, or double up. Good luck to you, too.

  2. 75 at dawn so I opened the house and aired it out before I left for work – left early and walked in, too. The kittehs love it when I do that as the window ledges are only wide enough for them to lay on when the windows are open. (Double-paned windows are thicker than single-paned windows and I switched the original windows out over the course of 10 years. heh) This time of year I can’t see the full moon from any window in the house and it only shows up at prime mosquito time, so I give it a miss. (I can see the new moon from my bedroom window when I get up in the morning.) My friend and co-worker is out today so I’m soloing. It’s the 3rd anniversary of the day her 1st husband died so better she not be here.

    I have no idea whether or not, considering who owns the media, we will ever be able to get our base out during the elections the media deliberately treats as unimportant. I hope so. Hillary and her team (and Obama once he leaves the White House) are going to do their best. But like most folks’ attitude about clean water that “just naturally” comes from the tap, those same folks think government services “just naturally” happen and often don’t even connect the services with the government supplying them. Sigh.

    Need to get to work. The stuff I’ve been worrying about is still in the approval chain, but in shuffling the papers on my desk I’ve found a few things that should have been done a couple of weeks ago and got buried. Ooops. Bright the long day, Meeses. {{{{HUGS}}}}

  3. Good day everyone – I’m listening to Hillary speak as I write this. I hope she saved some space in this speech to talk about Trump’s hilarious FEC filing that came out yesterday. Seriously, almost $1M on HATS? and $35K to something called DraperSterling ad agency? Srsly? Somebody in Trumpland is a big fan of Mad Men, apparently. $1M to his own family members and properties owned by him? He’s really put Palin the Snowbilly Grifter in the shade with this. Most of all, it seems to demonstrate that he’s not the rich guy he says he is – if he were really a billionaire, he could just write a check for $100M and have a real campaign. It’s a real point of vulnerability – I think a lot of his appeal, apart from the racism and xenophobia, is that he has the public persona of a super rich, successful businessman. Tear that down, and he’s just a dime a dozen bigot. I seriously wonder now if he’s going to make it all the way to the Republican convention in July.

    I had a weird day yesterday – basically couldn’t sleep Sunday night because I was so pumped after watching Game of Thrones magnificent episode. An hour of TV that was really worthy of big screen movie time – most visceral portrayal of pre-modern warfare I’ve ever seen. SO I ended up staying up all night, then slept a good part of the day. But I got a good night’s sleep last night, so hopefully back on a normal schedule. Good news is that I’m doing better on the heartburn front – I followed Diana’s lead and started taking Xantac twice a day, plus eating oatmeal in the morning, and no coffee. The latter just kills me, I hope I won’t have to permanently give it up – but it’s been a good two days, so I’m not going to risk it yet. Drinking some Bigelow’s peppermint tea (black tea for caffeine which I need to avoid headache plus spearmint leaves) seems to start the day ok for now.

    Ok, I’ll listen to as much of Hillary as I can, but have a dental appt today (just cleaning), so will have to get ready soon for that. Everyone have a great day!

    • Don’t know how you usually do coffee, but I’ve found I don’t have any tummy troubles if I don’t drink more than 2 mugs a day, have it with milk, and drink an equal amount of water “extra” (over the +/- 64 oz per day normal requirement). Hang in there.

    • Sunday’s GOT kept me awake too Geordie. Watching the series and reading various fan sites and reviews is a preoccupying experience!

    • Thanks for the link! I don’t need a messiah. I just want someone competent and steady, a serious person for serious times. See what Paul Waldmann said (below).

      Have you been following the VP vetting? The breathless press seems to think it will be Tim Kaine. That would be an absolutely TERRIBLE choice for so many reasons. It looks like Tom Perez fell off the short-list which makes me sad.

      • Ooh, I didn’t see that. Who needs yet another aging white guy? There is very little to recommend him and he’s not prochoice. Gawd, Hillary, PLEASE don’t!

        And that’s not even considering the fact that it would take one of the two—admittedly DINO—Democratic senators from Barely Purple Virginia.

        • I am not sure where all the VP stories are coming from, if they are trial balloons or if it is just the bored press. I want her to pick someone who could conceivably run in 2024 and Tim Kaine ain’t it. In my opinion, it has to be a person of color.

        • From the Clinton campaign, on that story:

          “Those who talk don’t know, and those who know don’t talk,” a senior Clinton official said.

          Here is a CSPAN interview with Julián Castro:

  5. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 64 degrees in Madison on its way up to 73. Looks like we might get some thunderstorms this afternoon.

    Hillary’s speech yesterday was excellent. I posted some commentary in the comments and this snippet from Paul Waldmann struck me as an important note:

    Clinton doesn’t have to persuade everyone to love her or be super-excited about her presidency in order to win. She can do it with a simple argument that goes like this:

    – Things are going okay, but we have problems that need fixing.
    – I’m stable and competent, and my heart’s in the right place.
    – Donald Trump is a lunatic.

    It may not be the kind of thing that will inspire you to write a song about her candidacy, but it might be all she needs.

    She will speak again today in North Carolina with more specifics on her plans.

    Steve Freaking King wants to block Harriet Tubman from the $20 bill. His reasoning? It will allow President Obama to complete his plan to destroy white male America. [badword] him. Iowa is an embarrassment.

    See all y’all later!

    • Okay, I take Waldmann’s point, but if he doesn’t think raging grannies like me are super-excited, he’s got another think coming.

      • I agree! The “everyone thinks the election of Hillary Clinton is boring” meme is very strong – and it seems to come mostly from white males. Wonder why that is??

        However, for those less enthusiastic, “I’m stable and competent and my heart is in the right place” should get them to the polls.

      • Did someone there transcribe it or find it somewhere? I can’t read in orange.

        • It’s the “transcription editors” – but they say “courtesy of HFA” so if you know where to go for that…

          • There is nothing on the campaign web site, sadly.

            Hillary’s campaign sent an email asking what they could do to keep me more connected to the campaign and I told them that they needed to provide official videos and transcripts for bloggers and news aggregators. I hope they listen to me!! I don’t want to send anyone reading the Moose to a site that has so many Hillary haters to get hard news. People are on their own for commentary but they shouldn’t see “Why I think Hillary Clinton Should Go to Jail” in the sidebar of something they are reading for information.

          • I just copied and pasted it into a diary here which I think is stuck in preview. I tried to split it using the “more” but at least in the preview it didn’t work. If you can find it, do whatever needs to be done to it to make it post correctly. (Unless this is a copyright violation in which case I guess get rid of it.)

          • Hillary’s words, no copyright violation to replicate. I copied it into my post earlier. ;)

          • It seems I published it after all. Up to you as to what to do about it. :)

  7. No walking this morning. When my eyes flew open at 4:36, I told them to shut again. I didn’t go back to sleep, but I stayed in bed till past 5. I really have to get more rest. I may walk this evening despite the heat.

    Trump questioning Hillary’s religion is just…. weird. She has written & spoken about her faith for years. What good does he think this will do?

    Playing Disappear in my head & wishing for a time machine.

    • Trump wants the evangelical vote because they are also good foot soldiers and might help with GOTV. But there are two camps: the group he met with yesterday who will follow Satan into the fires of hell to keep Hillary Clinton from becoming president – and the other group who think that Trump is an abomination and who will stay home, hopefully sinking Congressional Republicans.

        • Does he call himself an evangelical? I did not realize that. I will have to be careful with my words, then.

  8. Good morning, Moosekind, on a shining, freshly-washed Woden’s Day! We had tremendous thunderstorms last night, even a tornado in Howard County, Maryland, but now the temp. is 69 F., going up to 86 F. later.

    Want to read Hillary’s speech in a little while. The airwaves are still All Trump All the Time, I notice. So tiresome. This, from Geordie’s most recent post:

    I think a lot of his appeal, apart from the racism and xenophobia, is that he has the public persona of a super rich, successful businessman.

    Yes, and the working class has been trained to think that the selfishness and manipulation of the rich don’t matter, because they’ll all be rich too after next week’s lottery drawing. Right.

    On the home front, my trainer made me do a plank for 45 seconds yesterday. Afterwards he said, “I can’t believe how much progress you’ve made. You probably can’t see it the way I do, but when you first started this training you were so frail, and look at you now!” That made me feel good. He wants me to get up to a 60-second plank before we call it a day.

    Lots of phone calls and whatnot to make today, plus coffee with Darling Niece at 10, so must go down to breakfast. Have a good day, everyone!

    • I have not been able to find a transcript of Hillary’s speech yet. If you find one, please let me know. I watched it live and followed it on Twitter and then added commentary so a lot of her words are there but not the full speech.

      Trump will deliver a speech at 11:00am Eastern this morning “rebutting” her. Apparently it will include Benghazi and her email server. It is really all that they have. Oh and Bill Clinton’s johnson.

      I am going to watch this at 10:30am Eastern:

      Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees Report Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Acting Social Security Secretary Carolyn Colvin, and Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt release the annual Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees report.

      I think that Social Security and Medicare could be big issues that favor Democrats this year.

  9. Good morning Meese – pounding the keyboards to finish my Sunday piece.
    Hope your weather is bearable today.

  10. 80 at dawn going up to 95 with an expected heat index of about 115 – not what you’d call a nice day. Of course yesterday felt cooler (much less humid) and had a nice breeze – but I really should not have walked home. I was getting a bit sick at my tummy by the time I got there. Sure as heck not doing any walking today. (But I did get out and water the trees this morning – not much exercise, but a little.) IF I can get 20 KWHs a day for the rest of the month I’ll meet last year’s June production. We shall see what we shall see.

    I think all these names being floated for Hillary’s Veep are squirrels to keep the media busy – that and the not-quite-BoBcats trying to force Warren into the position. (One of them posted the interesting logical fallacy that Hillary had to choose E W because it had then in the media so much it would destroy the party if she didn’t. sigh.) I hope Hillary chooses a Latino/a – Perez is my choice but it’s true the chemistry between her and Castro is great – but it is totally up to her. I trust her with my country’s future, I sure as heck trust her to choose the team to make that desired future happen.

    Still can’t go forward with stuff stuck in the approval chain, but still have a few of those “dropped balls” I found Monday afternoon to deal with as well as a few more idiocies from Upstairs (no, we can’t encumber funds for a grant that ends 8/31/2017 by the end of 6/30/2016) to try an smooth out. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  11. Good morning, 57 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Looks like I forgot to check in yesterday…..I overslept, was distracted by Maggie, late for a Dr’s appointment, and then came back home to a busy day in my sewing room. My big work table (60’x96) is getting a long planned redo so all the fabric stored under it has been moved and I’ve got a sorting plan. The table has served me well, but after 28 yrs of use the canvas top needs to be replaced. And as a bonus the rough wood is being covered with finished wood. It’s going to be so nice! I feel a bit indulgent because the table is no longer earning it’s way…..it’s just for my sewing pleasure now.

    Painting the walls, installing the carpet, and hanging the new arts and crafts inspired window coverings will happen next, and then I’ll have the cozy studio of my dreams. Fortunately our son is doing the work…..makes it easier for me to take rest breaks so my knees and BCH leg don’t complain too badly. I’m going to have to be more realistic about gardening so my refurbished sewing room will be a comfortable and hopefully creative space.

    I’ll go to the pool this morning, then more fabric sorting this afternoon. Maggie’s family comes back this evening so she will be going home. I’ll miss the little muppet!

  12. Meese, are you following Twitter or C-SPAN? The great Democratic sit-in is happening now! This is the most exciting thing since the Obergefell decision!

    Love that Keith Ellison’s (D-Mich) mom had a note hand-delivered to him when he was in a meeting: “Your mom wants you on the floor now!”

    And he went.

    • I have been following it on TV and Twitter. Paul Ryan says “we will not reward your disobedience, naughty Democrats!!!” so there will be no vote. But the points are being made. And Granny Killer Ryan will get no help from Democrats in this Congress.

  13. Good morning, meese. Thursday …

    It is 68 degrees in Madison but with the misery index it feels like 79. Temperatures will drop but the humidity will make it impossible to open the windows. I am not looking forward to seeing my electric bill next month.

    #ProudtobeaDemocrat was trending. I watched the Democratic House sit-in for most of the afternoon and evening on CSPAN and followed it on Twitter. The point was probably never to actually bring a vote, our Congressional leaders know that they are in the minority, but to give our House members a chance to share their anger and grief over the epidemic of gun violence that kills over 32,000 people a year. Thank you, John Lewis, for lending your name to this cause. I hope that dozens of the Republicans who refuse to care about dead Americans are retired in November. THAT is all we have left.

    Meanwhile, Trump gave a speech that was panned as having “only passing acquaintance with reality” and laid out the Republican Party plan for the fall: feed red meat to their base and hope that Ted Cruz’s “missing white vote” shows up at the polls.

    Hillary discussed her economic plan in another speech on the economy, this time in North Carolina.

    Transcript here.

    Today at 10:00am Eastern, the Supreme Court will issue opinions. There are still 8 cases to be decided, including the DAPA/DACA case, the Texas abortion clinic shutdown case, and the Fisher affirmative action case. The Moose News Network will cover it starting at 9:30 when SCOTUSblog begins its liveblog. Tea leaf readers think that Kagan will write the majority for Whole Woman’s Health, the abortion clinic case (which would be very good news for us) and that Roberts will write U.S. v Texas, the DAPA/DACA case, which could mean just about anything.

    See all y’all later.

  14. Good morning Meese – I’m sleepy from staying up way late to watch the Democrats sit-in the house.

    Irony in all of this is that the fauxgressives threw these folks – starting with John Lewis – under the bus months ago.

    Am proud to be a Democrat – and thrilled to see them getting such support for taking this action.

    • I was beyond disgusted to see the berners claiming that THEIR movement showed Democrats how to protest. JHC on a cracker!!! John Lewis, that “establishment” Shillary supporter, was protesting injustice 30 years before most of those kids were even born. Their god showed up late, waved to the cameras and then left to go complain about the unfairness of the Democratic Party. He will be giving another speech today, in New York City, telling Hillary what she must do to get the last burnt-enders on board. Meh.

  15. Good Thor’s Day morning, Moosekind! Thor started throwing his thunderbolts at 5 a.m. this morning and it’s still raining hard. I’ll have to drive the little girl next door to school in 20 minutes or so. This is the last day of school, so I’ll have to pick her and Miss Pink Cheeks up at 1:30. It’s a humid 70 F. today, going up to 83 F., with more thunderstorms later this afternoon. And despite the rain, they’re still calling it a “Code Yellow” day!

    Have been riveted by the goings-on inside the House and by the people gathered outside it. Paul “Grannykiller” Ryan makes me sneer: Dems are ignoring “the rules”? Stupido, who staged the publicity stunt of trying to repeal the ACA 60 times? Who yelled out “You lie” at our president when he gave his first SOTU speech? Who refuses to pass any decent legislation, who instituted the Benghazi thing to bring down Hillary, as one guy admitted?

    I despise Republicans. They stand for selfishness, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and Goddess knows what else in addition to a love of wanton, random murder. We, the living, have a right not to have our lives ended randomly by ugly men who can’t get a date and so are driven to take out their lethal frustration on the rest of us.

    Toxic masculinity must be killed, as Carol Christ wrote in a blog recently.

    (Getting off the soapbox now.) Wishing everyone a good day in spite of the news and weather!

  16. Well, so much for trying to italicize the word “not” in addition to bolding it. I didn’t mean the rest of the italics and I couldn’t preview Comment after I tried to fix it in the Comment Editor. Yikes!

  17. Slept in — past 5am! — this morning because I was up as late as I could force my eyes open last night, watching the sit-in. The legislation is far from perfect (the no-fly list, ugh) but standing up to the NRA even in a flawed way… I’m here for that. And I have heard people talking about how if the no-fly list is broken, let’s fix that, too. My real Congressman, Lloyd Doggett, made such a great speech, I’m so proud: Lloyd’s speech. (my gerrymandered dude was probably on the phone with Wayne LaPierre, asking what he can do to help the NRA) And others brought me to tears — there was one who said that he know there’s nothing we can do that’ll stop all the violence, but doing nothing is unacceptable. And Luis Gutierrez — why is he not on the short list for VP? — wow, such a speech! And Jim Himes made me cry. Such a day.

    • The two speakers who moved me the most were Elijah Cummings and Keith Ellison. But I did not see them all.

  18. 80 at dawn and very muggy – partly cloudy at the moment with a possibility of showers this afternoon. I’ve gotten just over 21 KWHs the last 2 days. We shall see if we match that today. Air temps are supposed to be slightly lower than yesterday but the heat index is supposed to be worse. sigh. Got over to the Farmers’ Market as they were setting up this morning and bought 11 gallons of blueberries (he gives me the “farm” price if I buy at least 10 gallons) – 6-1/2 gallons went into the freezer for winter and 1/2 gallon into the fridge for eating fresh. My friend got 2 gallons and 2 of my professors a gallon each.

    Definitely proud to be a Dem even though I was unable to watch any of it – the afternoon and evening Hillary diaries kept posting “updates” but it wasn’t actually live blogged so I didn’t get to hear any of the actual speeches. There was more than a little ranting when the birdies tried to take credit – jeebus cluny frog! That’s John Lewis. The guy who really marched with King and got his head busted for it. sigh. I’ve basically given up on those guys. We’re just going to have to win without them. double sigh. Hillary is looking so good, sounding so good. Another Dem who makes me proud.

    Hoping I can get at least one more of my new hires in place today. I hope. And get some more stuff done on the wrapping up the fiscal year. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{HUGS}}}}

  19. Morning all – I too am barely awake having stayed up until 3:30 to cheer on the sit in! I may try to write a diary with some thoughts when I wake up enough (oh to be able to drink some coffee!), but as I said on Twitter last night, I was on the House floor many many times as a Ways and Means staffer in the 80’s, and never have I been prouder of that association with the House than last night. The sit-in came from the rank and file – Congresswoman Clark of MA(?), who went to John Lewis with the idea, and they ran with it. My main thought is that the Republicans over the course of their majority since the mid-90’s, with some breaks for Dem control under Nancy Pelosi (another moment I was so proud of, when she became speaker), have deliberately broken the legislative process, so that finally the minority had to take extraordinary measures just to be heard. Politically, I think a huge win for the Democrats – now they need to capitalize on it, mobilize the public back in their districts to maybe echo the sit ins/demonstrations at Republican member offices, etc. It was a great night!

    All right, everyone have a great day!

    • I hope you have time to write something from your perspective! I was irritated by the people on Twitter saying that the sit-in was in service of a crappy bill. That was not the point, the point was that the people who represent us had a chance to speak on behalf of us.

      If nothing else comes of it, I hope we bury forever the fig leaf of “Moments of Silence”. One of the speakers pointed out that 91 days of every session would be taken with moments of silence for all the gun victims. That would be a much better use of their time than repealing the Affordable Care Act 60 times or trying to override the veto the president made to the Steal Granny’s Money Act that the House and Senate passed last month via reconciliation.

      If you post something, use the News and Opinion category and I will Feature it when I see it.

  20. Good morning, 60 and raining in Bellingham. Maggie is home with her family so our house is quiet this morning. An accident closed the freeway so they arrived about 11:00 pm. Maggie and I were both so sleepy, but she was excited to see them.

    The house sit in was so interesting to watch. But had the R’s been doing the same, for a cause I could not support, I would have been livid. So hope the sit in is a step towards passing gun safety laws based on morally correct decisions, and it eases the political divide in Congress. It was so good to see and hear our Democratic leaders in action!

    • Not every speaker was eloquent but they all spoke from the heart. I was proud of each and every one of them. I was also glad to see that their Senate colleagues showed up.

      I hope that Tammy Duckworth wins a Senate seat in November. She would be an excellent addition to our caucus. One of my favorite Tweets from last night:

      Zanti Misfit ‏@ZantiMisft 13h 13 hours ago

      TAMMY DUCKWORTH IS BADASS #NoBillNoBreak

      • Martin Longman……..

        The Time for Silence is Over

        That is what this is actually about. The time for patience is long gone. We must find a way from no way. It is time to dramatize the need for action. There comes a time when you have to make a little noise. The time for silence is over.

        So, what we’ve just witnessed is an act of determined and strategic organizing. It is about making the impossible possible. It’s about breaking the grip of the NRA on our Congress and getting some movement on an issue that the American people want to see addressed.

        Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. But to nitpick the effort is to miss the point and to dismiss the urgency.

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