Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Dec. 4th through Dec. 10th

December 3, 2016 JanF Community 103

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.

38 Comments

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

    Morning low of 28 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 34. Snow showers are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Good morning Meese

    Up early to let the dogs out.

    scanning the news while I wait to let them back in.

    Still aghast at the racist response to Mall of America hiring a person to play Santa – who is black-
    “Santa” is a myth – however Saint Nicholas was a Greek born in Turkey. “Jesus” a Palestinian Jew

    Doubt either looked Northern European.

    • The ugliness that Trumpism has unleashed is sickening. It was always there but people held back because racism and bigotry and misogyny were not okay and societal norms kept the ugliest feelings from public view. The fact that somewhere around 60% of Trump voters think that having to be polite to people is the worst problem in America tells you everything you need to know.

      I have no doubt that the backlash from full-throated Othering will be enormous and will swamp them electorally – if we can keep the right to vote – and if we don’t get discouraged.

  3. Teeing up the Medicare and ACA battles, T minus 30 – start of 115th Congress on January 3, 2017 …

    House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady:

    “Democrat tactics of ‘Mediscare’ have been around a long time. They’ve stopped working,” Brady told The Associated Press in an interview in the Capitol. “Voters have figured out Republicans want to save Medicare for the long term, and they know that those who say everything’s just fine with it aren’t leveling with them.”

    But Brady also said the GOP will move cautiously on Medicare, starting with smaller changes. And he declined to say when the party might try to pass “premium support,” the controversial approach that would, over time, remake Medicare into a voucher-like program that would force seniors to buy health insurance on the open market.

    Er, no. Medicare support has not waned and it is still a third rail:

    Medicare, in place more than a half-century, is considered the government’s flagship health insurance program. It covers about 57 million people, including 48 million seniors and 9 million disabled people. Medicare has strong public support across party lines and generations.

    Affordable Care Act repeal realities:

    “We are not going to rip health care away from Americans,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) told the New York Times on Friday. “We will have a transition period so Congress can develop the right policies and the American people can have time to look for better health care options.”[…]

    Some Republicans aren’t supportive of this emerging “repeal-and-delay” strategy. Several sources told the Hill that moderate lawmakers are “getting skittish” about the prospect of rushing to repeal Obamacare and then being left to piece the insurance industry back together ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Opponents of “repeal-and-delay” aren’t eager to leave millions of people hanging in the balance before there’s a clear next step.

    As Jon Lovett tweeted yesterday:

    @jonlovett:
    So after all these years, the plan is to push the health care system off a cliff and build a plane on the way down?

    What could possibly go wrong?

  4. Good morning, Meese. It’s overcast and 34 F. in NoVa this morning, with an expected high of 48 F.

    Can’t feel anything but depressed today. Reading the headlines was enough to achieve that. It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you know January will make The Awfulness official.

    Today’s priority, which got knocked out yesterday, is making the Christmas pudding. My sister-in-law in Australia made hers months ago. Problem with doing that here is that a lot of the ingredients are seasonal, like the mixed candied peel.

    Wishing a good day to all.

  5. I never got in my exercise yesterday. Sigh. Today I have beans cooking & this afternoon will be oatmeal with vegetables. It’s still cold & rainy. Church today will be neat: Lessons & Carols, which my church takes from King’s College at Cambridge. It’s beautiful, has music from all over the world. So, that’s my day.

  6. Here is Dee’s Sunday morning post: My ‘identity’ can get me killed

    During the last couple of weeks, following the election of an openly white supremacist-endorsing man to the highest office in our land, I’ve been listening to and reading people’s comments and responses to that election. Included in remarks from some Democrats and left/liberal pundits have been critiques of “identity politics,” and calls for us to abandon them as central to our party’s future electoral strategies.

    THIS!!:

    The pursuit of the white, working class, rust belt Trump voter argument being bandied about here and elsewhere by some people, along with the ”you Democrats are the party of the blacks, the latinos, LGBTs and feminists and that doesn’t work …” lament is dangerously flawed.

    I read an article yesterday that you might enjoy: Now Is the Time to Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About. Among other things it digs through and then peels back some of the bs about “identity politics”:

    Now is the time to recalibrate the default assumptions of American political discourse. Identity politics is not the sole preserve of minority voters. This election is a reminder that identity politics in America is a white invention: it was the basis of segregation. The denial of civil rights to black Americans had at its core the idea that a black American should not be allowed to vote because that black American was not white. The endless questioning, before the election of Obama, about America’s “readiness” for a black President was a reaction to white identity politics. Yet “identity politics” has come to be associated with minorities, and often with a patronizing undercurrent, as though to refer to nonwhite people motivated by an irrational herd instinct. White Americans have practiced identity politics since the inception of America, but it is now laid bare, impossible to evade.

    This one hit home:

    Now is the time to frame the questions differently. If everything remained the same, and Hillary Clinton were a man, would she still engender an overheated, outsized hostility? Would a woman who behaved exactly like Trump be elected? Now is the time to stop suggesting that sexism was absent in the election because white women did not overwhelmingly vote for Clinton. Misogyny is not the sole preserve of men.

    The case for women is not that they are inherently better or more moral. It is that they are half of humanity and should have the same opportunities—and be judged according to the same standards—as the other half. Clinton was expected to be perfect, according to contradictory standards, in an election that became a referendum on her likability.

    • And then if you want to get depressed, Shannon Moore’s piece about sexism:

      I knew a year ago Hillary Clinton couldn’t beat anyone the Republicans put up against her, including President-elect-Pumpkin-Spice- —– Grabber. Why? I mean, we’d come so far having a black president for eight years, right? Wrong. America is way more sexist than it is racist. Read that part again. It’s true.

      Black men got the right to vote in America 50 years before white women. Not all races are racist against others, but everyone of them are sexist. Think about it. Almost every religion has written into their code a sexism they don’t question. Why aren’t women allowed to be elders, deacons, preachers or priests in the majority of Christian churches? Because their interpretation of God doesn’t see women as spiritually fit or as able as men. They have that in common with Sharia law. […]

      Sexism is part of our base fabric and what makes way for violence against women and is now called “rape culture.” If women don’t have a right to make decisions over their own bodies when it comes to birth control or abortion — and they are vilified for those choices, then why should they have a right to say they don’t want to have sex with a man.

      I am not sure if you can (or want to) quantify “more racist” versus “more sexist” – Shannon Moore would never have experience racism personally so she cannot really make that assertion and Oppression Olympics is stupid and self-defeating. But I believe sexism played a huge role in this election. There were tens of thousands of ballots in Michigan that carefully checked every single Democrat up and down the ballot (ignoring the party line vote oval) just so they could skip voting for Hillary Clinton. That wasn’t emails, that was something much deeper.

  8. low 40s heading for maybe 50 overcast and precipitation is falling so lightly it can’t be called drizzle. Didn’t get quite 2 KWHs yesterday and probably won’t today. The clouds are supposed to clear off after dark and give us a Monday like Jan’s Sunday. Got some/most of my “chores” done and too damned depressed to give a rat’s patootie about the rest. Peanutbutter-cocoa muffins this week. At least those came out well. (I just had one with my 2nd cup of coffee.) Did my holiday cards this morning. Normally that’s a very cheering thing for me. Not this year. I can’t think of much good to say about 2016, although there is good (I just have to look for it), and I really can’t think of anything hopeful to say about 2017 which is bad enough. But there are too damned many names on my list I can’t send cards to. Even USPS can’t deliver to the other side of The Rainbow Bridge.

    For her sake, I didn’t really want Hillary to run. But it was her call and I supported her to the best of my ability. I knew she’d get trashed as badly as she did and I knew that electing a woman right after electing a Black man was in the really slim category of chances. She knew that, too. Her call. My only hope was that since she is quite literally the most experienced, prepared, and qualified person to ever run for president, we might be able to eke it out. And really, 2.5+ million more votes? She did. Just not enough in a couple of states we “should” have won to give her the EC win/path to the White House. But yeah, depressed. Trying not to be scared because that just impairs the functionality I’ll need to get through – and help others get through – the coming tsunami.

    Heading over to GOS – need to read Dee’s diary and get my community fundraiser comments out where appropriate. And see if there’s an update on PDNC. Gonna go outside and hug and oak tree in a bit. I need to channel some Earth Mother/Sky Father Energy. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Hillary chose to run and I will never be sorry that she was our nominee. It was a way to connect our past with our present and to remind us of what we must not forget as we look warily to the future. She helped articulate what Democratic Party values are and won nearly 65 million votes and came within a whisker in the states she would have needed to win the electoral college: the differences were 10,000 votes in Michigan, 27, 000 votes in Wisconsin and 49,000 votes in Pennsylvania. In a less polarized America, in an America that did not have so much terrible anger, she would have won.

      Now we have to dust ourselves off and prepare to fight for the things we hold dear: the 115th Congress will come into session in 30 days and every single House member will be up for re-election in 2018. They should #ExpectUs to be in their grills.

      • I’m not sorry she did – you’re absolutely correct that she articulated the core Dem Party values (which the Alt Left is trying to go back on) – it was just that she’s such a good person and I hated knowing even before it started the amount of abuse she was going to get. If it were popular vote she would have won. If the Courts had stopped – or not enabled in the first place – voter suppression she would have won. If the media had done its constitutional duty she would have won. If the Evangelical women’s church activity email lists had been full of Hillary the Methodist Do-Gooder instead of 30+ years of Hillary the Killer CT she would have won. If Comey hadn’t put partisan politics above his job (or Obama had never named him FBI Director in the first place) she would have won. If, if, if – she was sandbagged. They threw enough at her that she couldn’t deflect them all. America’s “terrible anger” – and racism and sexism and xenophobia and… HATE even combined is not the majority of the voters, much less if you include the people who were not permitted to vote.

        But yes, they should #ExpectUs because we “won’t stay throwed” – too many of us are targets, some of multiple groups, to allow us to stay throwed.

  9. Good morning, 40 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Thanks to west coast time and my off kilter sleep patterns I’m always at the tail end of our morning discussions. I want you all to know how much I appreciate reading your thoughts and following your links. I am often acutely aware of how little I know in comparison, and that makes me even more grateful for all I am learning.

    I also appreciate knowing you all are cooking tasty food, enjoying music, loving your critters, supporting your families, working in your communities, and just generally going about the daily tasks of living meaningful lives.

    I’ll spend most of today doing the Christmas prep I didn’t do yesterday. Then tonight we’ll enjoy a family dinner (with the dogs) at our son’s house. We are working together to “elf” a friend whose wife died (brain cancer), leaving him to raise their two young boys alone. He’s doing well, but has little time to even think of his own comfort so we’re going to surprise him with cozy new bedding. Sometimes small moments of giving are all we can do.

    Best Sunday wishes to all. And again, my sincere thank you for being here, sharing your wisdom and your lives.

    • Glad to see you, princesspat! I also enjoy your links which add a west coast perspective I don’t often get here in flyover country.

      Have a wonderful day!

    • Always love your comments, princesspat. They’re one of the reasons I keep checking back through the day. What you tell us is interesting, I love your gardening plans and floral arrangements, and for all the ups and downs and scary health issues you and your family sound normal which my world seems a little short of. :)

      Little things are not always such little things – your friend will probably tell you so when the “elves” finish their work. Healing Energy to all concerned.

      • One of the most enjoyable aspects of my life is reading everyone’s comments every day. We are all doing different things, but many of us focus on making home pleasant when we’re not thinking about politics.

        Still gray, still cold here. Going to put the kettle on for tea and have a cranberry muffin.

        Later!

      • Thank you bfitz……I sometimes worry that my domestic chatter is just frivolous, but it’s what I do. And yes, at this moment in time my family is blessedly “normal” and I’m very grateful!

        • Thank you. I find it blessedly peaceful and calming. I do know the difference between a house and a home although I’ve seldom lived in a home. You have created a loving home. It’s not the only version of the American Dream, but it is one version of it and I very much enjoy reading about yours.

  11. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 36. Mostly sunny skies this morning with clouds coming in later in the day.

    We had snow! About 4 inches landed yesterday and probably snarled traffic somewhere but since I was sitting home next to my fireplace it did not bother me one bit.

    Good news on the Dakota pipeline. I hope that it cannot be immediately undone by a Trump administration. Gawd, I wish the purists had voted for Hillary. So much damage is going to be done so that they can “live with themselves”.

    Republicans are whistling past the graveyard with their “Trump understands the constitution” and “his Tweets don’t bother me”. Their ideology has burned away any common sense they may have once had.

    Busy morning … see all y’all later!

    • Misogyny using purity as an excuse for not voting for a woman – no matter how qualified – can always live with itself.

  12. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s overcast and damp this morning in NoVa, with a current temp. of 40 F., going up to 54 F. later today. The streets are wet with drizzle.

    It’s horrible about the Oakland fire. As I’ve been avoiding the news, I don’t know much about it. Was glad to hear about the Standing Rock decision.

    This morning I’m going to the gym but this time I will not overdo things, and after that epic bout of cooking yesterday, I’ll get a break today. There are sufficient leftovers that Dearly will be able to reheat them for dinner while Miss Pink Cheeks and I are enjoying spaghetti at the Brownie Service Project meeting tonight.

    Need to get my office organized so I can get back to writing. Isn’t it weird how sitting in a mess can prevent one from thinking!

    Wishing a good day to all in Moosylvania.

  13. Good morning Meese.
    Have papers to grade today – and winding down to the end of the semester – last class on the 9th Final exams on Dec 20th and then have to get grades in.

    Then I’m FREE till Jan 20 2017.
    Whoopie!

    Moose is wacky today – took me a half hour to log in.

    • I loved your diary yesterday. Didn’t have a chance to log in & say so – was weirdly exhausted by cooking. Just plopped on the couch with Mythbusters on in the background & read. But it was great.

    • I was rearranging the front pages (Election 2016 is over) and that may have caused problems. Sorry!! Thanks for persisting.

      • Thanks for refreshing the front page Jan…..it looks inviting and interesting. I’m really struggling with election acceptance and reading here at the moose is helping me cope.

  14. Cold! (ok, chilly enough for a sweatshirt — probably not technically cold) I felt completely done in after my cooking yesterday, still woke up at least 3 times last night. Not sure my tea is strong enough. Since I didn’t get any exercise all weekend, I really need to leave early &/or just take a day and get in some serious walking. Playing U2 Christmas songs in my head.

  15. 29 at daybreak heading for 50 today – supposed to be clear once the frozen fog burns off. Wore my boots in – very late start on the season of “keep a pair of shoes in the office, wear boots outside” but it’s here now.

    Hurrah for the Standing Rock decision. Goddess, this is where having PDNC healthy and charged up would be helpful (from a political/environmental standpoint – from a personal standpoint it would always be good to have her healthy and charged up) – she’d have the legal skinny on this. But I don’t think the decision is easily undoable. Meanwhile, we take our victories where we find them – and celebrate.

    Need to get to work. Something didn’t scan right (only 1st page, not supportive information) and I didn’t notice so I have to redo a submittal. Sigh. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Good morning, 37 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. We enjoyed our family dinner last night, a welcome antidote to this trumpian world we now find ourselves living in. Apparently I need to get used to government by stunt, especially now that Cheney’s henchmen have crawled out from under the rocks. The decision to provoke China in the way they are is bewildering and frightening.


    Trade outlook foggy with TPP undone

    Carrying out Trump’s promises (or threats) risks a trade war with the world’s second-largest economy and Washington state’s largest trading partner. China has warned as much. Beijing, which was never invited to join TPP, is also moving forward with its own version of the agreement. TPP always had as much geostrategic importance — assuring American allies and friendly nations of U.S. commitment — as it did trade value.

    Even using such threats as a starting gambit in “deal making” is dangerous, with big potential collateral damage here. According to the Washington Council on International Trade, 40 percent of jobs in the state are linked to trade. Washington is the third largest merchandise exporter among the states.

    Interestingly, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana and Pennsylvania were top 10 merchandise export states last year, according to the Census Bureau. All voted for Donald Trump and his leap into the unknown.

    How did we get here, toes over the edge into darkness?

    • China and Germany are going to be leading the way on trade and climate. I cannot understand why Republicans are willing to cede America’s place in the world for a few extra coins in every billionaire’s pocket and for Paul Ryan to get his jollies from watching the poors suffer and die.

      • Short-sighted greed – always been the problem with them. For them a dollar now is more valuable than $100 in a year. Also a definition of wealth as being how much more you have than anybody else – it doesn’t matter if you only have a two-story wood frame corrugated-iron roofed house as long as your neighbors are in thatched huts with dirt floors. Which is another way of saying short-sighted greed.

  17. Healthcare in America Watch – T minus 45 – Kevin McCarthy’s big middle finger to his constituents …

    When McCarthy returns later this month to his congressional district, a mostly agricultural region in California’s Central Valley including the city of Bakersfield and Edwards Air Force Base, he is likely to face quite a few confused and frustrated constituents.

    Two counties represented by the Republican leader are among the most heavily dependent on Medi-Cal in the state. Roughly half of the residents are covered by Medi-Cal, which added about 212,000 enrollees after Obamacare took effect.

    Nearly 29,000 residents have purchased health plans through Covered California, the state’s insurance exchange, with coverage heavily subsidized by the federal government.

    Some of those who favor the law, or rely on it, see a conflict between McCarthy’s stated goals as a national leader and the needs of so many of his constituents.

    “Repeal and Crap on Your Voters” seems short sighted. But maybe they are self-loathing like Paul Ryan’s constituents who re-elect him year after year from a district whose economy had been decimated by Republican policies.

    The friction between what people want and what they need are in these words: “those who favor the law, or rely on it”. Many repealers who don’t like it because of ideology still rely on it. And if there is no replacement, they will lose coverage. I cannot imagine how they rationalize voting for their own family to suffer and die needlessly.

  18. Pat McCrory conceded defeat in North Carolina, the first governor of that state to lose re-election. His demise gives us a template for pushing back against the Republican Congress as it relates to healthcare.

    PPP has a post explaining how we can take heart from McCrory’s fall … he stepped in the same pile of poo that Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy are poised to leap into.

    What happened in the summer of 2013 to make McCrory so permanently unpopular? He allowed himself to be associated with a bunch of unpopular legislation, and progressives hit back HARD, in a way that really caught voters’ attention and resonated with them.
    Medicaid Expansion? 56% of voters wanted it to move forward, only 26% wanted it blocked.
    Sneaking in abortion legislation by putting it in a bill about motorcycle safety? 8% of voters supported that, 80% opposed it.
    Guns in bars? 17% in support, 73% opposed. Guns in parks? 29% in support, 65% opposed. Guns on college campuses? 25% in support, 69% opposed.
    Eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit? Only 30% of voters wanted to do that, 42% thought it should be kept.
    Cut unemployment benefits? Only 29% of voters agreed with changes in the law, 55% were opposed.
    Reduce the early voting period in North Carolina by a week? Just 33% of voters wanted to do that, 59% were against it.
    Straight party ticket voting? 68% of voters wanted it continued, only 21% wanted it eliminated.
    McCrory spearheaded or went along with all of this. And he might have gotten away with it without much impact on his image. Most voters don’t pay close attention to state government.
    But the Moral Monday movement pushed back hard. Its constant visibility forced all of these issues to stay in the headlines. Its efforts ensured that voters in the state were educated about what was going on in Raleigh, and as voters became aware of what was going on, they got mad. All those people who had seen McCrory as a moderate, as a different kind of Republican, had those views quickly changed. By July McCrory had a negative approval rating- 40% of voters approving of him to 49% who disapproved. By September it was all the way down to 35/53, and he never did fully recover from the damage the rest of his term.

    http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/12/why-pat-mccrory-lost-and-what-it-means-in-trumps-america.html

  19. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 30 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 32. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    McCrory conceding is a big deal – North Carolina is just a few honest election cycles away from going blue. County election commissions will now be in the hands of Democrats and if the Supreme Court rules as expected, districts are going to be rearranged to eliminate the racial bias. Big credit is being given to Rev. Barber and his Moral Monday movement (see links above). How can we turn that into a national movement – not just one man’s voice but many voices shouting out that caring about each other, that decency, is right and just? THAT is how we win state and national elections again. The backlash against common decency that is embodied in Trumpism can be met with resistance by embracing diversity and respect for everyone.

    I am going to start a category with a series of posts with Healthcare Watch links so that I can keep them all in one place with a timeline. The latest: Ryan says “no one will be harmed” by the ACA repeal. What he means is that no one he cares about will be harmed. If the House passes ACA repeal without a replacement it will be an act of gross negligence. I hope that we can peel off three Republican Senators unwilling to sign on to that reckless action.

    See all y’all later!

  20. Cold again &getting colder. It is supposed to freeze even in town later this week. That is just nuts. This evening, instead of walking, I’m going to “winterize” my plants — move them all into 2 close-together clumps, so I can easily cover them when I need to.

    Listened to Oi To The World on the way in — “oi to the world & everybody wins!”

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