Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: July 31st through Aug. 6th

July 31, 2016 JanF Community 108

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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49 Comments

  1. Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    Morning low of 57 in Madison WI, on its way up to 79. The forecast calls for variable cloudiness.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. For poll watchers, PPP released their post-convention poll yesterday and this is the takeaway that I am most encouraged by:

    Clinton’s net favorability improved by 9 points over the last month. She’s still not popular, with a -6 net favorability at 45/51, but it’s a good deal better than the -15 spread she had at 39/54 a month ago. The gains are particularly attributable to Democrats increasing in their enthusiasm for her, going from giving her a 76/15 rating to an 83/12 one. Trump, on the other hand, is at a -22 net favorability with 36% of voters seeing him favorably to 58% with a negative one. That’s barely changed at all from the 35/58 standing we found for him in late June.

    Tom warns that the election will NOT be a landslide because the anti-Hillary vote is very strong and many berners are still NotForHer. By the way, 74% of Trump voters think she should be in jail, 66% think she is a bigger threat than Russia. So get your tennis shoes on – it’s going to be a race!!

  3. Good morning Meese. Sunday. Pouring raining here in the Catskills.

    I see from my twitter feed Jan is awake :)

    Glad to see Trump is finally getting almost unanimous bad press and scorn for his attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan.
    Too much of his bullshit has been allowed to pass.

    • Trump will wiggle out of it because our press are cowards. They will all invoke the Tim Russert rule “I can’t be mean to people who lie and whose lies may destroy our country because I need access to them”. I want someone to ask Trump if he ever walked in Arlington Cemetery but they never will. Because they know that he will say no and make some kind of rude comment (“I like my heros alive”?) and that will horrify them so much that they will be unable to find the words to continue.

      • Not so sure he is wiggling out of this – and at the same time more of his Russia ties are coming to light.

        • Did you see the PPP poll? 66% of Trump supporters think that Hillary Clinton is a bigger threat to our country than Russia!!! They are insane.

          Maybe the Putin stuff will make a few more Republicans go past #NeverTrump to #ImWithHer, like John McCain’s granddaughter did:

          But if “Never” meant No Trump, than who would it mean? I rationalized and reasoned with myself —in spite of knowing what was coming and what was at that point inevitable — that I didn’t have to decide anything now. I could still hold out hope (live in denial) and put off any actual decision until it was absolutely necessary. I still had choices, then. […]

          For the last several months, I’ve wrestled with my options. Sitting at home and not voting, voting for a candidate whose party I’ve long opposed, or exercising a vote of conscience with either a third party candidate or a write-in.

          But I’ve realized that what matters about my vote is not whether it makes me feel good — it’s about whether it leads to the common good. And I started to realize that for some, “voting your conscience” has become a euphemism for protecting your self interest. An exercise in privilege. If I’ve heard anything from my friends who are gay, my friends who are black, my friends whose rights have been pushed against and infringed upon while mine have been neatly protected, it is this: there is a real fear that a “vote your conscience” movement could siphon #NeverTrump votes away from Hillary, and in a cruel turn of events, a nation’s conscience is sacrificed to elect a clown. […]

          I wanted to win. But now I want my party to change. I want fresh leaders, of good character, in both parties. And I want Donald Trump to be humiliated in November and driven far from the political arena for the rest of his life.

          So I’m not a Democrat — at least not yet. But this year, I’m With Her.

          • Sigh – there are still too many insane folks out there – however I think we, the sane, are pulling ahead in numbers.

  4. In case you missed seeing this, this is the movie, narrated by Meryl Streep, that had to be cut from the convention due to time constraints. I suspect it also may have had a bit too strong of a feminist/womanist statement. Can’t be braggin’ on the wimmins!!

    Dee and friends had an interesting conversation on Twitter about those who would seek to separate women by race. Most of the white women I know realize that black women did not get the vote in 1919 and were working on putting food on the table more than breaking through glass ceilings in the 70s. And we will never ever minimize the power of the vote of black women who saved our Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012 and will do so again in 2016. Our coalition is strong.

    • Thanks for joining the convo Jan and Geordie.

      Since I teach the history of black/white feminisms and schisms – I had to laugh when I saw that this history will now be used to attempt to invalidate (from the left) the idea that black women are one of Hillary’s most solid group of supporters.

      I’m fond of pointing to the 14,000 black female members of Delta Sigma Theta (the most powerful and political black sorority) were shouting “Run Hillary Run ” in 2013

      The irrelevant black “left” like Cornel West and the irrelevant white “left” like Jill Stein.and their followers will get press coverage simply because of MSM efforts to undermine Democrats – and Hillary specifically.

  5. Good morning, Moosekind! Another hot one here, going up to 87 F. Read the previous comments re Trump and the poll with great interest.

    My social life is wreaking havoc with all my plans. Yesterday we had tremendous downpours and thunderstorms, but between them we managed to celebrate our Lammas-born grandson’s first birthday. He lurched around the house with his arms stuck straight out (his mother was close behind him), occasionally losing his balance and sitting down suddenly. He retained his composure quite well amid all the doting giants who surrounded him.

    This morning we’re going to watch the race, then drive to The Hunter’s Head in Upperville for lunch with a dear friend. Hope everyone will have a good day and please, Goddess, let there be no frightful happenings in the world today.

    • Ha! Excellent description of adult supervision of toddlers: “doting giants”.

      Have a great day!

    • Second your prayer “Goddess, let there be no frightful happenings in the world today.”

  6. I found anotherdemocrat in “another post“. ;)

    anotherdemocrat
    July 31, 2016 at 9:13 am

    My city has had a rough 24 hours — 16 killed in a hot air balloon accident, and then a shooting overnight on 6th St. 5 injured, 1 dead in 2 separate shootings & the suspect (they’re saying singular) at large. And the balloon crash….just so sad.

    It’s super hot, heat index will be 105, so they said “heat advisory”. I’ve got black beans simmering, will bake oatmeal later. Didn’t get to the gym yesterday. Did eat out with my friend. She doesn’t have a live-in caregiver any more, so she needed me to do a couple of things. She still doesn’t have use of her left hand & walks with a cane — but she’s still here so that’s the important thing.

  7. Good morning, 57 and cloudy in Bellingham. We’re celebrating our grand daughter’s 14th birthday this afternoon, so I have a cake to bake and a birthday bouquet to finish. Our Oregon daughter and her family will arrive today for a weeks visit so the house will be full and all three grand girls will have time together.

    Best Sunday wishes to all!

  8. Hi Meeses – finished just about everything except vacuuming (have to borrow my friend’s vacuum cleaner first) and weeding around the hazelnut twigs (the lawn guy just finished). The rain cooled things down yesterday – I turned off the A/C and opened up after it passed through – just as well since I only got 9 KWHs generated and used 1.5 crock potting the pork roast. Not sure what I’m going to do for PBJ muffins when the last of my homemade jam is gone – late frost took all my cherries this year so I’ve been using up last year’s and have about 3 oz left.

    Doonesbury Sunday strips are lambasting Trump – today’s is great, if not quite as powerful as last week’s. Check it out if you haven’t seen it. Hillary is probably going to be cheated of what should be a 50-state landslide by the evil sumbitch’s who’ve spent the last 40 years trying to make sure she didn’t get this far. But she’s going to win. I just hope she can flip the Senate while she’s at it. The most important and equally most underrated thing she can do with a Dem Senate is fill all those lower court positions, some of which have been vacant since Bill was president. SCOTUS is next of course, but if those lower courts stop the bastids before they can get to SCOTUS, that will give us time. I am so tired of the Hillary haters – she’s got to be tireder – Left, Right, Off-the-Wall in either direction, they do not accept facts and “counter” every good thing you tell them about her with another CT. And she’s going to win anyway.

    I’d best get out and do that minor bit of weeding while it’s still relatively cool. At the moment anyway the sun is shining brightly which is good for electricity production but is going to get hot very soon. Already is in the full sun. Fortunately the house is cool enough the A/C shouldn’t kick on for several hours. Bright the day and Happy Lammas Eve, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • You just reminded me of something I miss – now that I no longer read newspapers – Doonesbury Sunday strips!

    • Hi, bfitz! Do you actually have a hazelnut tree that gives you hazelnuts? If you do, have you ever made a chocolate cake with hazelnuts?

      They’re my favorite nut. Sorry you’re out of cherry jam. Can you make blueberry jam instead?

      • Hey Diana – I haven’t managed to get nuts. The big ones I planted 15 years ago on the east side of the house seem to drop empty shells a lot – I suspect the squirrels are eating them – and they are tall enough I can’t really tell. (They weren’t supposed to get over 10′ – they’re at least 20′ as they top the house and shade the solar panels in the morning at certain times of the year. Like now.) A couple of years ago the Arbor Day Foundation sent me three “whips” as part of their hazelnut project – almost 2 years later I still haven’t gotten the two surviving ones to get over 18″ – I’m just hoping they don’t die back this winter as they have the last two. If these survive, they aren’t supposed to get over 8′ tall and I might have a chance at actually getting some nuts. Big if though.

        I probably could make blueberry jam although I’d have to use the frozen blueberries I have set back for next winter to do it as the blueberry season is over. But I probably won’t :) Usually my friend across the street makes the jam – I provide the fruit and sugar, she provides the pectin and the work – and we split the batch. I’ll think of something. Maybe try mashed banana. My younger sister used to like peanut butter and banana sandwiches. heh.

  9. Morning all – yet another hot dry day here – we got a shower yesterday, but we’ve had no serious rain for ages. I have to try to get my sprinkler system working or my yard is just going to shrivel up and die.

    I spent most of yesterday listening to opera (it was good, not great, but good singing), and fighting on Twitter about Marxism and racism! Really the first time I’ve gotten tweets back attacking a position I’ve taken (in support of the great Propane Jane on the inadequacy of class struggle analysis in the context of racism in the United States.) Saying I’ve done graduate work in Marxist theory AND history of slavery (which I did at Penn in the 70’s) apparently stirred some who wanted to argue with me about Marxist theory, which you know is something I’m not interested in doing especially on Twitter. I had those arguments ad nauseum back in graduate school, it’s boring now. SO I had my first “block party” on twitter, it was fun!

    I’m just gobsmacked at how Trump keeps extending this story of the Khan family – they are decent, honorable, and heartbreaking to watch and hear, and he keeps showing what kind of a degenerate sociopath he is. And the interview with Stephanopolous showed how much in Putin’s pocket he is, which is truly frightening. It’s inconceivable that voters could put this man in the White House, but clearly at least 40% of the American populace would cheerfully do that. We have to work like hell to stop him.

    All right, off to get some stuff done. Have a great day everyone!

    • Yes – he keeps piling bad on top of bad.
      I am going to try to get onto Wow in a few minutes. Hope I see you (my mumble isn’t allowing me to connect – can’t figger out why)

      • Well, it’s sidetracked most people from the Putin connection. He probably didn’t figure it out but I bet his campaign manager did. Most of the nasty or stupid stuff Trump does and then doubles down on seems to divert the media’s attention from things that are very serious.

  10. I posted in the old diary, sigh

    My city has had a rough 24 hours — 16 killed in a hot air balloon accident, and then a shooting overnight on 6th St. 5 injured, 1 dead in 2 separate shootings & the suspect (they’re saying singular) at large. And the balloon crash….just so sad.

    It’s super hot, heat index will be 105, so they said “heat advisory”. I’ve got black beans simmering, will bake oatmeal later. Didn’t get to the gym yesterday. Did eat out with my friend. She doesn’t have a live-in caregiver any more, so she needed me to do a couple of things. She still doesn’t have use of her left hand & walks with a cane — but she’s still here so that’s the important thing.

    • The Overton Window has moved so far to the right that Jeb! looks sane. But he would crush everything that is good in this country without flinching. My favorite about this trending “honorable Republican” lovefest is this:

      Kaili Joy Gray ‏@KailiJoy 12h12 hours ago
      Can we please criticize Trump without the nostalgia for George “Oops no WMD under here hahaha” Bush? Thanks.

      There are no honorable Republicans. Every last one of them would sign a Ryan budget, appoint judges who would overturn Roe v Wade, and kill Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. Every last one.

  12. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 63 degrees in Madison on its way up to 82. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Happy Lammas! This holiday is one of my favorites because it always seems to sneak up on me. Flip the calendar from July to August – and there it is! I hope you will re-enjoy my annual post:

    “Give Thanks For The Blessings!”

    I am going to be reading less news now. I have finally filled up on Republicans in Disarray articles and am completely appalled by Republicans Will Still Vote for Trump articles. We have a lot of work ahead of us and my biggest fear is that people will see the awful things that Trump is doing and saying and think that it will make people not want to vote for him. No! Decent people will not want to vote for him. People who care deeply about those living on the margins, who will be devastated by any Republican presidency, do not want to vote for him. But there are a lot of angry people out there who have bought the Trumpian lies about jobs – and who to blame. We need to make sure everyone votes as if their lives depended on it … because they do.

    See all y’all later!

  13. Good morning, Moosekind, and a blessed Lammas to all! Today is of double importance to me as it’s my daughter’s birthday. We had an hour-long Facetime session on our Macs last night, filling each other in on the latest family news.

    Jan, I’m with you—I find myself reading the newspaper less and less. Can’t stand the way they’re always desperately searching for ways to bring down Hillary.

    Will order a Hillary yard sign in a couple of weeks but will not put it up until mid-September. Yard signs touting Democrats have been known to disappear on this street.

    Finally finished writing “Jolyon, Part III” last night and will post it later, when time permits.

    It’s time to attend to morning chores, so will be back later. Stay cool!

    • I wondered about a Hillary yard sign (I saw them on her web site when I went there to steal images for my Clinton-Kaine post). I think I will put one up after Labor Day. It would be unlikely to get stolen or harmed in my neighborhood (we are pretty blue here) but I don’t want to rush the season. I think after this bruising primary, August should be to rest and repair.

  14. 69 degrees here in the mountains on a damp Monday. – I’m feeling very lazy.
    I see the BernieBros who have decamped to Stein are now pushing opportunist Nina Turner. Ugh.

    • I wish we could ignore the berniebabies here in Wisconsin but we can’t. I am pretty sure that Stein is on the ballot here and we need all Democratic hands on deck to defeat Trump. The Wisconsin Republicans will hold their noses and vote for Trump and anyone who thinks that “vote your conscience” from Republicans means anything other than “party over country” they are deluded. DO NOT believe polls that say Republicans will stay home demoralized or will fill in the oval for Hillary. We will win because Democrats outnumber Republicans, period, not because of some phantom “conscience vote” from Cruzian/Bushian Republicans.

    • Eeek! I forgot that it was your birthday.

      Happy Lammas Birthday, Dee! Hope you had a pleasant day!!

      • Had a very quiet and peaceful day – then spent hours saying thanks to well-wishers in Ono’s diary on Dkos.
        Still responding this mornin :)

        • That’s what reminded me! I saw the diary promoted on Twitter.

          When I used to do a daily diary on DK, I had all the Very Important Birthdays in a list that I would check so that I could do a shoutout. Now, as a semi-retired poster, it is hit or miss.

        • Belated Happy Birthday Dee!!!!! Glad you had a nice day and have many more to follow! Esp with Hillary in the White House come January!

  15. It is 10 million degrees here. Ok, slight exaggeration. But only slight. Of course, August is our hottest month so that’s to be expected. Gym bag is in the trunk of my cat, will do 45 minutes on the elliptical in air conditioning this evening. Cooking yesterday wore me out. But I have yummy food for the week.

  16. Morning all. Still hot and dry here, and my sprinkler guy hasn’t been able to get here to fix the sprinkler system yet, so I hope our “30% chance of thunderstorms” expands to 100% at least a couple days this week, otherwise I’m going to lose some plants.

    I think not reading the news for a while is a great idea – I never watch the news any more and I don’t get a newspaper, so my real source of news is the internet, and now I basically just read twitter. I have other stuff I need to get done this week, and next week new content starts showing up in my game (Demon Hunters, Dee!), so I will try to stay away from newsy stuff. I am concerned that the Khans are now getting attacked by the right, that consummate smear artist Roger Stone trying to say they somehow have radical ties, even trying to smear their dead son, and it just makes me sick to my stomach. But they seem very strong, I hope they are getting support where they live – and I know some other Gold Star families are speaking up in support of them now.

    Ok, off to finish catching up on twitter, then to the grocery store for dog food! Have a great day and Happy Lammas!

  17. Good morning, 61 and sunny in Bellingham. My house is full of sleeping family so I’m quietly leaving for the pool.

    Emma and I will take care of Penelope ( the visiting grand puppy) and sew today while everyone else will go to Vancouver, BC. When the kids were young we enjoyed exploring Vancouver with them, so Erica wants to revisit the city with her daughter. Crossing the border with young children isn’t so easy now, but I think we have all the necessary papers…..passports, enhanced drivers license, copies of birth certificates, written permission from Ava’s parents, etc. It was easier when we just piled into the VW Bus and drove up the freeway, but Homeland Security has changed all that.

  18. Happy Lammas, Meeses. 76 just after dawn – opened up and aired out before I left for work. Heading for mid-90s with heat index in the 110s and sunny. At least so far it’s a good start to the month for energy production. July 2016 finished at 489.9 KWHs, considerably less than the 561 of July 2015. Oh well, it was slightly more than this year’s May total of 487.5.

    My 83-y.o. aunt keeps getting anti-Hillary screeds (from her church members – Church of God) and I keep debunking them. I hope she’s sending my debunks back out to the list serv but I doubt it. Her meds mean she’s very manipulable, but she was a Social Studies teacher in small(er)-town TX for 30 years and then a high school counselor for another 10 before she retired. She actually knows what the constitution says – and what SCHIP is. So her response to my debunking anti-Hillary crap is to say, “why doesn’t everybody know this?” rather than saying some version of “lies and propaganda” as I get off the left-over 1960s revolutionary Busters on the Square. sigh. We are going to win this. It’s just going to be an effen-lot closer than it should be.

    The Chair finally gave me the Spring classes to enter and a kid wants reimbursement for mileage he undertook as part of a class last semester (which means last fiscal year) so I’d best get to what I should be doing instead of reading stuff here. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  19. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 68 degrees in Madison on its way up to 82. Possible showers this morning and this evening.

    I laughed out loud at two things that happened yesterday: Trump came out in support of Paul Ryan’s opponent in next Tuesday’s primary (loyalty only goes one way in Trumpville, grannykiller Ryan!) and – hahaha! – the author of the 2013 Republican Party “autopsy” has left the Republican Party! I guess she finally realized that the party was not on live support, it was actually a rotting corpse waiting to be buried.

    Hillary got her convention bounce and the visual on it is awesome.

    Something about this reminded me of Donald’s small … hands.

    President Obama spoke yesterday at the Disabled Veterans of America convention and touted his administration’s work to help veterans including a 47% cut in homelessness and reductions in VA wait lines. He took a couple of digs at the Republicans who don’t mind dishonoring our military when it costs money – or when the veteran is a Democrat (Kerry) or Muslim (Khan). As someone said yesterday, the events of the past few days are the jumping off point for Republican enablers of Trump. If you don’t unendorse now, when you have been given this opportunity to take a moral stand, unendorsing later (after he does the next even more awful thing) will be seen as a craven political act.

    See all y’all later!

    • Jan, there’s a school of thought that thinks he’ll bow out before the election, leaving Pence to carry the ball or perhaps they’ll draft Romney. Again.

      • I have been following that line for a while. If he drops out, I don’t think it will fall to Pence, I think it will be Ryan (the party committee can pick whoever they want). They would lose either way (the Trumpers will never accept Ryan and Trump will not endorse him on his way out) but the money guys want the Republican Party to be returned to them. Ryan represents that “return”.

        I can’t imagine a scenario where he quits before the election. I do think it will be an epic rant when he loses. He is already setting the stage for “the election is rigged”. To that end, we need to make sure it is a landslide so that there is no doubt. Florida 2000 with a Trump presidency in the balance could become violent.

  20. Good morning Meese.

    Glad to see this news

    Hillary Clinton to Address 2016 NABJ-NAHJ Convention

    Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will go to Washington, D.C., to address the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists at the largest joint convention of black and Latino journalists since 2008, as reported by BuzzFeed News.

    The convention will be held at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park.

    “It is notable that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has recognized the 2016 NABJ-NAHJ Convention as a vital gathering to discuss her platform and the issues impacting black and Latino communities,” said NABJ President Sarah Glover, as reported at NABJ’s website.

    The Khizr Khan story is still going. And Warren Buffett is campaigning with Hillary.

    • Trump can’t let go. Someone insulted him and he won’t rest until that person is crushed and everyone in the entire world agrees with him. A Tweet:

      Bob Schooley @Rschooley
      Trump could have pulled that splinter out but he chose to cut off his arm instead.

      Warren Buffet – an actual billionaire – tells everyone what they already know: the only reason to not release your tax returns is if you have something to hide. I would like to see Congress pass a law requiring financial disclosures for presidential candidates that include tax returns. If Trump were a politician, we would have financial disclosures mandated by law from their time in office, but for Trump, the American people are being asked to go into an election knowing nothing about how a potential president earned his money and spent his money and/or dodged his taxes.

      I saw that NABJ/NAHJ report tweeted out and it took me 4 clicks to find that it will be August 5th. I wonder if there will be video coverage. Here is an important reminder:

      Greg Sargent ‏@ThePlumLineGS 14h14 hours ago
      BTW:

      While we tweet about polls, and Trump tweets about Khans, Clinton campaign is building an organization and contacting voters.

      Thank goodness for that!

      • I think that Trump may actually be ill, not just a tremendous jerk or narcissist, but actually suffering from a form of dementia. He lies about something he said in the pervious sentence. He lies about things that he should know are on tape. And he’s actually indignant about it. I think beyond there being something wrong with him, there’s something actually wrong with him.

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