Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Nov. 20th through Nov. 26th

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.

52 Comments

  1. 55 heading for 59 and cloudy. Maybe rain, Maybe just clouds. I need rain and I need sunshine – I don’t need just clouds. Got a noon appt. with the appliance repair guy. We shall see what we shall see. Still able to turn off the furnace when I leave for work and open the porch window for the kitties. Kitties appreciate that. :)

    My Austin family will be going down to San Antonio (where my ex’s family lives). My Fayetteville family has decided that Thanksgiving dinners are almost as stressful as the rest of their lives so we’re not doing one. My son and grandsons will be having a gaming day and my DIL will be snuggling up with a book. I’m baking a turkey breast just because they are available and relatively cheap this time of year – I like turkey – but will spend my time otherwise either at GOS or by the fire with a cat and probably alternating between book and word puzzles. :)

    I have no idea what the future will bring, I just know that we’re only strong together. We have long-term, mid-term, and short-term things to deal with and whoever can do whichever had best do it. I’m with Pelosi on this though – if we fight our short-term battles to save Medicare and Social Security strongly together, it will bring us good in the longer run as well. Since I can’t talk to these people without crying, I’m going to take Diana’s suggestion and send post cards. But Medicare is our first battle and we need a Shield Wall.

    Got to clear my desk as much as possible since I’m leaving before lunch to deal with the appliance guy. Depending on what he says, I may or may not be back today. (Although of course I always check in at night, whether or not I comment.) Bright the day and wind to thy wings. {{{HUGS}}}

  2. Good morning, 49 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. I ran our of steam yesterday afternoon so today will be busy with flowers and food. Hope my knees cooperate!

    RonK is digging the planting holes in the upper garden for the new trees and it’s slow crowbar and shovel work. The soil is rocky fill so the holes need to be big enough for better dirt with a planting mix, and the fill needs to be hauled away. It’s tiring work so we may have to put boards over the holes so no one will fall into them and focus on T Day cooking together.

    Needless to say, the election results continue to alarm me. I started my phone calls re the ACA yesterday and was pleased with the response from Sen Murray’s office. They are compiling stories of how the ACA helps people like our son so we agreed to give more detail and to be on record. It’s good to know her office is preparing for the battle. The R’s I called were non committal, evasive, and dismissive.

    Take care everyone. It helps to know you all share my yam revulsion.

    • Good for you, princesspat! Your descriptions of garden work are fascinating, and I’m glad you’re calling the pols. I can’t see myself doing that until Friday—oh, but of course, they take off on Friday, don’t they? Well, conceivably the people at the local offices will be working.

      Feel bad for Tim Kaine. To be so close…and to lose. And what must she be feeling? Only one person in the world can understand how she feels, and that’s Al Gore.

      Hope after a rest she thinks of something she can do to fulfill her desire to do the most good. No thanks to the goddamn MSM for bringing her down.

      P. S. I can hardly bear to say that name. I just call him “Thing.”

      • I saw this Tweet this morning and I think it sums it up for me:

        Mina Markham @MinaMarkham
        When I think about how close we came to not feeling like this every single day, I get so angry.

        I have never felt so hopeless and I don’t see any way out of it.

  3. Morning all! Low 60’s here going up to low 70’s today – will be in the high 70’s by Thanksgiving Day, which is not too uncommon, just a little warmer than usual I think. I got my T-Day dinner yesterday afternoon at the market, and everything looks yummy, except it didn’t come with the great green beans cooked w/bacon they make, so I may go back for a carton of those today. Or maybe not. They didn’t have any pumpkin pies at that market either, so I may run up to my Publix today and see if they have both those items. Or maybe not – I can probably survive without either, we’ll see.

    I knew Nancy Pelosi could be counted on in any fight over Social Security and Medicare – she is a brilliant politician and a true Democrat, unlike certain fuzzy haired old dudes from Vermont who already said he’ll work with Trump on things they agree on. Ugh. Sanders’ continual dumping on Hillary is simply nauseating – and since he is not a Democrat, I fail to see why we should listen to any views he has on the future of the party.

    It’s heartbreaking to see Hillary’s vote count go up as they continue counting California – it’s unprecedented, the margin of her popular vote victory (probably 2 million in the end) coupled with an electoral college loss. She lost Florida by 115,000 votes – half the number of votes Jill Stein got – I could scream. And she has to watch this short-fingered vulgarian, as the phrase is, already show himself to be the most corrupt president in US history and he hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. AND the guy continues to tweet – in one last night, he basically dared people to come after him for the conflict of interests his businesses are going to pose. I did love the reports of the “meeting” with cable news folks – yelling at NBC about the picture of him they use. Good god, can you imagine any past or current president doing anything like this? Well, US president – I can imagine leaders of North Korea doing it. It’s going to be a long 4 years.

    I just checked on what my Social Security benefit would be if I applied next month, when I turn 66, and was pleasantly surprised, although I think their figure is a bit high because they based the estimate on the assumption I would make in 2016 what I made in 2015, which was not the case. Still, I plan to wait until 67 to start drawing benefits – the 8%/yr delayed retirement credit will make up for some years of lower earnings, and since it’s the only guaranteed monthly income I will have, I want to maximize it to the extent I can afford to wait.

    Well, I’m determined to enjoy my holiday as best I can and hope all of you will as well! Have a good day everyone!

    • The TV “news” shows getting trashed after agreeing to an off-the-record meeting – at Trump Tower! – gave me a great deal of Schadenfreude. I am not thrilled with the NY Times but at least they maintained some journalistic integrity by not agreeing to be off the record and making him go to them. The media deserves all the abuse they will get heaped on them over the next 4 years – they let down our country in a big way.

      Here is a Tweet to ponder:

      Schooley ‏@Rschooley
      What is the magic number of laws broken by our President elect before all of the media treats it as an email server level problem?

      Sadly, it won’t matter. The time to report honestly is before an unqualified person is elected to run our country for 4 years.

      Geordie, I hope that the delayed retirement bonus is not one of the things that ends up cut from Social Security. Government promises are, sadly, not worth the paper they are printed on when Republicans come into power. In fact, I could see them phasing out early retirement – the age has not changed from 62 even as the full retirement age has increased over the years. We are going to have to fight tooth and nail to keep our earned benefits from being pulled out from under us.

      • I took my Social Security at age 62, partly because I was afraid the Rethugs would kill it, and partly because I just hated my job and wanted time to write.

        I hope the Rethugs in power now won’t be able to kill it, but by my reckoning I’ll have had 11 good years of retirement before I have to go back to work doing something—working in the school cafeteria, or light housekeeping for someone, or whatever. My computer skills are rusty and I have no interest in updating them: no one’s going to hire an old witch when there are plenty of younger, more energetic people to choose from.

      • I suppose its possible but highly unlikely that they could eliminate a promised benefit to people already eligible for it, as every age 62 and older is. Even Ryan has tried to promise his Medicare changes would not apply to anyone 55 and older – he knows that if you start cutting benefits to people that are counting on them in the very near future, there will be hell to pay with your voters. I’ve been working on Social Security policy and legislation for 40 years, and I’ve never seen a Congress able to do that. Remember what I said about 1981-82 – one of Reagan’s proposals was to eliminate early retirement beginning the next year and it was rejected in a sense of the Senate resolution 99-0. I’m not an optimist about the next 4 years, but I honestly think they simply couldn’t pull off draconian cuts that take effect immediately.

        • The “promised” part of promised benefits will be watched very closely. But any oldster who thinks that once the under 55 changes are in that they won’t be next in the sights of the Republicans, they are delusional.

  4. I’m kind of embarrassed but there’s nothing wrong with my stove. Igniter is fine, the burner is fine, no CO leaks even. But there is something my eyesight is too poor to see – a layer of dust and cat hair on the floor of the oven and especially in the broiler (which I never use). Apparently when I use the oven, the dust and cat hair heat up just enough to emit fumes but not enough to burn off. Of course the answer is to clean the oven and broiler – of something I can’t see and all the way back to areas I can’t reach. The Peeps have made lots of suggestions that I need to try/make work before I put the turkey breast in to cook on Thursday. LOL. At least the repair guy didn’t laugh at me or make snide remarks about my housecleaning which my ex-husband most certainly would have. (I did say ex-husband.) And the repair guy charged me for a maintenance check up which is $10 less than a trouble call (still $82.00) so that was nice of him. Nicest of all is I don’t have to get a new stove!

      • It’s as corrected as it’s going to get. I’ve been wearing glassed since I was 12. My eyesight has of course changed over time and now there isn’t a single Rx that can give me optimal short-range, mid-range, long-range, AND visual acuity. So my doctor gives me the best he can for general purposes (and has offered “special” Rx for limited “special” purposes that I don’t take him up on).

        I did figure out how to pull out the bottom of the oven last night – that didn’t even need soap, just warm water and a sponge took care of it. (It does have some small rust patches that I could see in a good light after I washed it down.) The plate protecting the burner that’s just underneath the oven floor had dust bunnies on it! That may have been the problem right there. But I’m going to tackle the broiler tonight when I get home from work. (Or tomorrow before I start baking but I’d rather have it done tonight if I can.) The Al foil I’ve been putting on the bottom is worse than useless for my kind of baking (no grease spills to worry about) because the dust and cat hair get under it. Who knew you needed to dust an oven?

  5. Good morning, meese! Wednesday …

    It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Light rain is in the forecast.

    I am beyond angry to see Certain People saying that the answer to Trump’s plans on this or that or the other thing is to have “millions stand up”. Millions standing up in a way that matters is standing up and going to the voting booth and voting for the things we want!!! You can protest until you are blue in the face but complaining that a terrible person, who everyone knew was a terrible person, got voted into power because you told your followers FOR MONTHS that his opponent was dishonest, is the ultimate hypocrisy. We just had an opportunity to “stand up” – now we have to live with the results.

    By the way, I hope that Hillary’s campaign takes the advice of election data experts and asks for vote audits in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. It is unlikely to change the final electoral college tally but it is a source of pride to not become a red state on the map of Election 2016. Michigan is within 9,000 votes.

    Busy day here! I will try to get some accounting work done and then I will hunt and gather for tomorrow’s meal.

    See all y’all later!

  6. Good morning Meese
    31 going up to 44 here in the mountains
    We have some snow in the forecast for tomorrow

    Cooking day today – getting ready to put the ham in the stove – turkey will get cooked later along with candied yams, mac and cheese and collard greens.

    Trying to keep my temper – not happy with being an “identity” thrown under the bus – double – by a section of “the left”

    • Folks are not very impressed with the Tweets coming out of the @SenSanders account these days. Sherrilyn Ifill is someone I follow* (she is also Gwen Ifill’s cousin):

      Sherrilyn Ifill @Sifill_LDF

      I reject the false choice implied here.

      Bernie Sanders @SenSanders

      Yes, we need more candidates of diversity, but we also need candidates   to be fighters for the working class.

      The “but” is an insult to every progressive and especially to those who are not straight white men from an all white state.

      *President & Director-Counsel of LDF (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization. naacpldf.org

  7. Good Woden’s Day, Moosekind! Sunny here in NoVa, 25 F. now, going up to 51 F. later. Feel as if I should simply say, “Rinse, repeat.”

    Feel discouraged for the same reasons that Denise and Jan cited: did she really lose the election, and is racism worse than ever in this country? I live in a place that is so multicultural that no one seems to give race a second thought. As I’ve mentioned before, my granddaughter’s school looks like the United Nations. Someone remarked a long time ago that the lowest white man on the totem pole knows he’s higher than a black man or a woman. I feel sick, because at least on TV things have changed: black people and white people are married, interracial friendships and romantic relationships are common, as far as I can tell. I don’t watch commercial TV but I do see trailers.

    Darling Niece is coming over to help me clean out my closet, after which we will set the tables for tomorrow, so I’ve got to get on with things. Dearly Beloved put the brownie badges on Miss Pink Cheeks’ Brownie vest yesterday, a task I have dreaded and put off for lo, many seasons. This morning I have to polish the silver and rummage through the packed things in the garage to in search of the silver coffee pot we packed away 13 months ago, thinking we were going to move.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

    • this is what I mean about the Animated Mango’s cabinet

      Kurt Eichenwald ‏@kurteichenwald
      How sad is it ppl giving muted praise to Haley as UN Ambas, despite lack of foreign affairs background, based on “at least she’s not nuts.”

      • I wonder what that is all about. I know that Haley has often been mentioned as a potential POTUS but this hardly seems to be a career advancement. She may get some foreign policy experience, I suppose. But to be the mouthpiece of the vulgar talking yam and a guy intent on destroying our foreign relations seems an odd way to go about getting it.

  8. Our high today was 57 somewhere just after midnight and we’ll be drifting steadily, if slowly until after dark, downwards all day. Very cloudy at the moment but hoping it will clear off. The cell that gave us our very needed .25″ rain we’ve gotten in the last 24 hours has passed through. I’m glad the stove issue is settled, at least for the time being. As I mentioned to Diana above, who knew you needed to dust your oven/broiler?

    The Deplorables (with some very irritating but minor help of a certain Independent Senator and the Alt Left) have got us pretty much in a lose-lose situation. By accepted rule of law, they have won the election, even though our team is ahead by over 1.7 million votes. If President Obama or Hillary do anything except foster the peaceful transition of power we will become the evil despots destroying America. Once they’re in of course they will become the evil despots destroying America that we’ve warned about for months but that is their goal and always has been so they don’t have a problem with that. The immediate future for Good or Evil rests with the non-existent patriotism and consciousnesses of the corporatist Rs of the Electoral College. We will have short-term violence in the streets if the EC chooses Hillary. We will have long-term violence and threats to the entire world if they don’t. Germany, Italy, and Japan were not strong enough against the rest of the world to ultimately win in WWII. The U.S., Russia, and China are (worst possible scenario here). So. We do what we can. Phone calls and post cards are unfortunately pretty much my limit of overt activity. Crafts people the world over will be needed to raise Energy as the Witches of The New Forest did to prevent that worst case scenario. I am not strong alone, but I am strong together with you and will add my part.

    I’m the only one here today. It’s quiet sort of – I’m getting emails from folks who are working from home with students to enroll and tests to print for Monday. Need to get to it. Bright the day and wind to thy wings. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good morning, 44 and cloudy in Bellingham. After a night of pouring rain it seems very quiet this morning. I was a distracted cook yesterday so the roasted veggies and turkey parts were well browned……hope the stock makes a tasty gravy because I’m using it anyway!

    Another day of T Day prep…..it will be an easy day for the family tomorrow but it’s been a busy few days for us. Oh well, listening to music and staying busy is easing my election angst. We won’t be serving yams this year though :(

    • Princesspat, we are having at least three sweet potato dishes this year! That’s what happens when you have a potluck and people change their minds and bring what they feel like bringing instead of what you asked. :(

  10. Morning all – warm again here, it will be 80 degrees on Thanksgiving Day, and not a rain cloud in sight, hasn’t been for a couple of weeks. We’re in full drought mode and will be all winter I think.

    I’m in agreement with bfitz on Hillary’s predicament re the recount options – and it would be difficult for her to govern for 4 years with a fired up Republican opposition. It would probably also guarantee we’d lose more ground in 2018. On the other hand, the Supreme Court – but the Repugs would filibuster any nomination she came up with, just as they have Garland. So I see no good way out of where we’re at – that may be what the White House is thinking as well, as it’s been made known that Obama’s people are against pursuing a recount. We need to get rid of the Electoral College for a permanent solution, but I don’t see that happening any time soon either.

    I started looking at my Twitter feed, and there is no good news to be had on Bannon (I mean, it all SAYS it’s Trump’s plans, but we know he’s not capable of actually formulating policy, so I say its Bannon) plans for government, so I just can’t bring myself to keep up with more than the ACA/Medicare/Social Security front. I posted above my belief that we can keep the worst things happening to at least Medicare and Social Security (Diana, they would NEVER just terminate the program for people already receiving benefits, please do not worry about that), but only if we’re vigilant as citizens, and I know everyone here will be. At a certain point, when you’ve done all you can, you simply have to live your life, so I hope we can all do that.

    Ok, I have to decide whether I want pumpkin pie and green beans enough to put on shoes and go up to the grocery store this morning – gotta go within the hour before it gets totally nuts there, if I do. But I may not – I have some frozen brussels sprouts and another kind of pie, so I think I may just go with that for tomorrow.

    Have a good day everyone!

    • I don’t know what the big worry is about a recount. We need to insure the integrity of our voting system and, as I said, it is unlikely to change anything. People should want to know that the vote totals are accurate. I don’t often say this but the White House needs to stay out of this – it is none of their business. They made some choices in 2010 that led to some of these messes and their instincts are not flawless.

      The electoral college is another thing, though, and the people trying to get the EC to change their votes need to stop. Even if they did, we could not govern that way – there would literally be blood running in the streets. No, we won’t get to add a 9th justice but we are unlikely to get worse than Scalia who was a reliable vote against improving the lives of people. If he or she is truly awful, we can block cloture and hope McConnell doesn’t nuke the filibuster.

      At this point, we all need to resign ourselves to a Trump presidency and hope to make huge gains in 2018 after the inevitable Republican overreach in the 115th Congress. Trump will be coming in with no mandate and the lowest approval rating of any president in the history of approval polls. You still need the Consent of the Governed in order to govern and he will not have it – nor will Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell.

      As to Bannon, as much as Trump wants to keep him he is going to have to cut him loose. The Republican Party got Trump elected by touting him as a “regular” Republican to their life-long R voters. If those voters are tarred with the same brush as the white nationalist Trump voters, they are not going to go along with it. I know some of those people and they voted for Trump as the Republican candidate, not because he supports Making America White Again. They will not allow themselves to be coated in the stench of the neo-nazis.

      • Chris Vance, former head of the R’s in Wa State……..

        Vance: Trumpism could leave moderate Republicans ‘politically homeless’

        I am not old enough to remember Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy and King assassinations. But I do remember the start of the Gulf War and 9/11. The election of Donald Trump has produced an outpouring of emotion akin to those events. And believe me, it’s not just among Democrats. People I have worked with in the Republican Party for years — Reagan Republicans who, like me, did not support Trump — are just as shocked.

        In the wake of the election, I fear becoming politically homeless. If Trump governs as he campaigned and attempts to implement the policies he ran on, and the Republican Congress supports him, I am going to have to decide whether or not I can remain in the GOP. That is hardly something I imagined was possible 14 months ago when I announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

    • The Rs won’t dare touch Medicare and Social Security for current recipients – but I just got off the phone with Womack’s office and they are seriously pursuing the idea that we who are either on or about to be on them are OK with said Rs ditching them for our kids. Staffer said no changes for anybody over 55. And politely said “good day, ma’am” and hung up when I said “you think I’m willing to let you fuck up my 45-year-old son?” (Shouldn’t have said “fuck up” – gave him the excuse to hang up. sigh.

      • Yes, we do have to be polite. :)

        I am using the “voice breaking as if ready to cry” tactic because I think that it will evoke more sympathy from those who are answering the phone. Little old ladies calling in and crying could become little old ladies on the news crying and that is bad optics. People calling and screaming at them may not even be passed on.

        • Unfortunately for our kids – and us in just a slightly longer run – the R staffers are sympathetically reassuring the voice breaking ready to cry little old ladies that no changes will effect anybody over 55. It’s their answer to our crying and concern.

          • The “voice breaking” will work for our kids sake, too. Little old ladies are a desired demographic.

  11. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    Happy Day of Thanks to you all! My hunting and gathering yielded a veritable feast and we will thank the goddess that we are alive and relatively healthy and have a house over our heads and steady income.

    Apparently Jill Stein has collected over $2 million for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The recount request is due tomorrow for Wisconsin, 11/28 for Michigan and 11/30 for Pennsylvania. The stated goal is to insure election integrity which is a goal for many of us. I am still scratching my head over this effort. Some folks on Twitter are calling it a scam but if the money goes to the recount as promised, I am not sure how that is a scam – maybe I am missing something. I have no problem with this. If nothing else, it will highlight the damage that third-partyism does to our electoral process. The Green Party vote was the margin of victory in both Wisconsin and Michigan leading to the ironic result that a party named “Green” may be responsible for the destruction of our planet as the Trump administration rolls back environmental regulations and cancels climate change mitigation agreements.

    As the cabinetful of deporables is assembled, I was reminded that we have been here before and survived. With William “abort black babies to end crime” Bennett as the gold standard of Republican Education Secretaries, Betsy DeVos is well within the parameters for Republican administrations. I worry more about who they put in charge of the Justice Department where real power is wielded, not just the administration of existing statutes. That will be the battle we need to pull out all stops for.

    This morning, I will catch up on long delayed accounting work and then ease into the holiday. See all y’all later!

    • Gonna miss them. sigh. Wouldn’t have missed them as much (always would have missed them) if things had turned out otherwise. double sigh.

  12. Good Morning Meese – Thanksgiving

    Hope everyone is home or at journey’s end safe and sound.

    Got up early to start cooking my turkey – hubby had put it in our refrig in the barn. Sadly he bought a frozen one – not fresh like I asked – lol – it is still frozen solid after several days

    Waited for him to get up and sent him out in search of a fresh one – fingers crossed he’ll find an open store and one that still has fresh turkeys – if not we will have as strange birdless dinner :)

    • Yikes!! People don’t realize how long it takes to unthaw a ginormous turkey that has been frozen solid for weeks. I hope your gathering does not mind a birdless dinner. We prefer chicken, rotisserie – to avoid having to cook, so we will not be birdless.

      • We will not be birdless – he found one – unfrozen – so 4 hours from now there will be bird :)

  13. Good morning, Meese, just a drive-by before I get started on my numerous chores. It’s overcast and 40 F. right now in NoVa, going up to 54 F. today. We were supposed to get rain during the night. We did not. Still in drought.

    Face-timed with Daughter-in-Austin last night, who said that Thing has already started to walk back some of the things he said during the campaign, and that he won’t be that bad—we’ll have to wait and see. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve already seen, and what we’ve seen is horrifying. People didn’t want to believe that Adolf would make good on his promises to deport the Jews, take over their businesses, forbid them the use of public facilities, etc., but it happened.

    Geordie, appreciate that you know a great deal about Social Security, but there’s never been a prez-dint like this one is going to be, backed up by a totally Rethug Congress. They will do whatever they want and their supporters will sieg heil them all the way. Neither of my sons thinks Social will be there for them, so one is busily amassing cash and the other is investing in real properties. Highly leveraged, of course, so we’ll just have to hope Thing doesn’t fire the entire federal workforce. My DIL works for the government.

    Oh, well, now that I’ve cheered everyone up, hope we’ll all have a nice day and forget what’s happened, for a while.

    • One thing is certain – no one knows what Trump will do because there has never been a person like Trump elected president.

      “Some say” that Congress will rein him in but that is unlikely given how he has pretty much owned Congressional leaders. If they defy him, they will get primaried by his rabid fans. “Some say” that he will be sobered by the high office he holds and will govern along normal Republican lines but that defies what we have seen with our own two eyes (plus hahahaha). I have finally gotten caught up with my post-election reading and this quite excellent analysis by Dahlia Lithwick spells it out:

      America has elected a man who is likely uncheckable as a matter of personality and ensured that he is also uncheckable as a matter of constitutional democracy, by giving him control of the House, the Senate, and the federal judicial branch.

      The entire piece is worth a read but this part really struck me – that we, meaning sensible people, were going to lose either way:

      Trump was either going to win or he was going to dispute his loss and cash in. Clinton, for her part, was always going either to win and to be unable to govern or to lose and concede graciously.

      I think that Trump steps down after he locks in the “President Trump” brand and maximizes the leverage that the Oval Office can bring – and before he is presented with the difficult part of governing, the things that would crater his approval and his “place in history”. He cuts a deal with Mike Pence to lay off his business dealings (past and future) and goes back to what he knows best: conning people to enrich himself. We would be, of course, left with one of the worst possible presidents but one who likely would be more ordinary in his foreign policy decisions and thus less likely to get us killed until we can take back Congress.

  14. Slept in, fitfully but still….. Watching the kickoff of the Turkey Trot. I’ve got an Amy’s mushroom risotto for later (it’s my favorite). Current plan is to watch my recorded Walking Dead episodes & take a good long walk. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

  15. Morning all.

    Yes, I know a lot about Social Security, but it’s partly BECAUSE I know something about politics that I’ve been saying what I’ve been saying. I worked on and with Capitol Hill for decades, and I know it’s a scary time – much damage can and will be done via these awful appointed people and executive orders, But I also know that while public pressure is the ONLY tool we have at our disposal to preserve these programs, it is also a potent one. Also, let’s face it, Trump is not really going to be carrying out Presidential duties – Pence is going to be doing that, so what Trump said or didn’t say during the campaign is really only about optics. He’s a very unpopular new President, so really what we have to focus on is Congress, and that’s where popular pressure can play a role.

    But, fine, don’t believe me. I just don’t see the point in panicking, when it’s work that is needed.

    Have a good day.

    • Thanks for sharing your insight Geordie. I know RonK and I will muddle along but I am so worried for my kids who are all in their mid forties now. So I will be calling Congress, even those I can’t vote for, with the hope the message will somehow filter through.

    • I won’t panic! It wasn’t that long ago that Bush had won a second term and we thought our lives would suck forever. Then he touched the third rail with Social Security and we won Congress in 2006 then the presidency, and bigger Congressional majorities, in 2008. It is a cycle: Republicans gain power because our constitution tilts towards the old slave states, they trash as much as they can until they get drunk on power and then we come roaring back. One of these times, we will have enough of a majority – or enough young people who understand history – to stop that cycle and put together more than one presidency in a row.

    • I totally believe you as far as the entire Congress is concerned. I’m just depressed/dejected over the ones I have to deal with. Boozman I think will help us. Womack and Cotton most certainly will not. I always do my best not to panic. I have enough tummy troubles as it is. Happy Thanksgiving.

    • Oh, dear, I’m sorry, Geordie, I didn’t mean to imply your information was inaccurate. It’s just that there’s never been anyone like Thing before, and I can all too clearly visualize his whacking Social Security and Medicare to the screeching delight of the House and Senate. I can also visualize his appointing another Scalia or two, who will overturn Roe, Eisenstadt, and Griswold.

      I’m sorry if my tone was offensive, and I ask your pardon.

  16. Good morning, 47 and raining in Bellingham. My day started with spilling coffee on my clean sheets so I should be doing some laundry, but oh well. I know dinner will be cooked and served today but my plans for being totally ready have met the reality of a distracted mind and creaky knees.

    I did have some flower fun yesterday, but then I had to rest.

    Thanksgiving, 2016

    Best Thanksgiving wishes to all!

  17. 40 at dawn and heading for 65 – sunny again after two days of cloudy gloom. The house is full of the good smell of roasting turkey with nary an eye-burning fume! And mostly it was warm water and a sponge, didn’t even need soap, to “clean” the oven and broiler. For all my worries, it comes down to “who knew you needed to dust your oven?” I guess most people do the kind of cooking that requires cleaning the oven on a regular basis so it never comes up. One more thing to be thankful for. Since the election I have been seriously looking for things to be thankful for and as long as I stay with the basics I have a lot.

    I wish I could get a better focus on how to purpose my candles. There is so much wrong and potentially wrong, it’s hard to do. The Witches of The New Forest had a single purpose – stop the invasion. There was a whole island full of bad stuff happening, but they concluded invasion was what would pull the lynchpin of their community and nation, so stopping it was the most important. I haven’t been able to figure out what is the lynchpin of our society, much less how to protect it. With the EC election of Him, our firewall is down. Where’s the next level of firewall?

    Happy Thanksgiving to the Meeses. I am very seriously thankful for you. Bright the day and wind to thy wings. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Where to put our psychic energy is a very good question. It feels like the entire edifice is tumbling down and the best we can do is cover our heads, and the heads of our loved ones, and wait for it to finish raining bricks on us. Maybe we need for the debris to settle before we can decide where to focus our energy.

      We still have President Obama for just shy of two months and we need to remember that. I don’t doubt that he is putting in place as many things as he legally can to block or delay the damage the yam can do. Perhaps sending him energy would be the best thing.

      For now, I am putting my blogging energy into making sure people understand that what happened could have been avoided if folks had not selfishly chosen purity over pragmatism. We have a lot of teaching to do.

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