Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Jan. 22nd through Jan. 29th

January 21, 2017 JanF Community 74

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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42 Comments

  1. This clip of T-Rump signing one of his odious orders (I think this was the XL Pipeline order) is interesting. Is he bored with the job, mildly irritated that he knows he is a trained monkey showing off his tiny signing hands for Grover Freaking Norquist or something else? Last night’s AP headline, now all over the front pages of American newspapers: “Trump dogged by insecurity over popular vote, media coverage”.

  2. Good morning, Moosekind, sunny and 44 F. now, going up to 56 F. later. I do hope Dearly Beloved will go out to cut the raspberry canes down to six inches this afternoon: if he doesn’t, we won’t get any raspberries next summer.

    We are living in Bizarro World, Meese. He’s going after sanctuary cities! Just read that Jerry Brown in CA plans to defy him. Y’know, I can just see California, with the world’s sixth biggest economy, breaking off to form its own country. The satirical novella I’m writing calls the USA the Deeply Divided States of Reagania, or DDSR, and it looks as if it’s coming true.

    Jan, re the video clip: he frequently looks bored with the business of being POTUS. Also, he apparently watches TV when he’s bored and works himself into a rage. We, as a nation, are bearing witness to the unappetizing sight of a personality with narcissistic disorder gradually disintegrating. Apparently, it doesn’t get better—it’s incurable and it gets worse.

    Busy day ahead with weight training, lunch with erstwhile Circle Sisters, then picking up Babylicious from day care. Miss Pink Cheeks will be on a Brownie outing after school today, which will consist of ice skating with her father at Reston Town Center. I’m a Brownie Grandmom and should be there too, but I simply can’t risk a fall on the ice.

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

    • This: “it’s incurable and it gets worse.”

      A person in a less visible position with NPD would likely suffer fewer injuries and could probably hold on for longer before they crashed and burned. President of the United States is one of the most visible positions in the world and one that will always be criticized – and, now, mocked – so his injuries are probably occurring on an hourly basis. The question we all have on our minds is what level of insanity will the Republican Congress tolerate. Yesterday, after the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emmanuel, criticized T-Rump, the yam tweeted out that he will send the feds in to “clean it up”. So someone insults you and you threaten the full power of the executive branch, and possibly declare martial law, in his city. Yikes! The power given to a president has always been troubling and is merely held in check (or not) by custom and tradition and respect for institutions. We have a man wielding enormous power who has no interest in anything except soothing his own fragile ego.

  3. Staying home, allergies or whatever this is, just too much. Would have been a bad idea to drive, brain not working really well. Slept in — and really slept, which is a sign something’s different. Gonna just hang on the couch. Another indication I’m tired — I can’t even hear any music in my head.

  4. Started the day at 35, 42 now and will maybe get to 45 – partly cloudy – below freezing for the overnight lows the rest of the week. We are continuing our cloudy year. My January total generation isn’t going to be anywhere near the January 2016 (same system) and quite possibly isn’t going to make what January 2015 would have been if I’d had a 4K system then. So more heat and less sun. (Global warming, what global warming?)

    Not sure what to do besides what I’m doing – postcards, phone calls, and my community needs work (which is much appreciated but not actually raising much) – but I will keep doing it unless/until I can think of something better and more effective.

    Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning, 36 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. Yesterday was a tough news day so I’m keeping a cautious distance between me and reality this morning. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ timeless music is a welcome distraction.

  6. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 32. The snow is pretty much gone and we will have mostly cloudy skies the rest of the day.

    I am extremely irritated with those who are saying that they never expected the Republican’s president to do the things he promised he would do. “Wow, I didn’t realize he would be this bad!” – JHC! And he is doing things (other than the lunatic ravings related to crowd sizes and the popular vote) that every single Republican does when they gain the levers of power – the EPA gag order, the Mexico City rule, same same. I was reading a Twitter stream last night from a German woman who said that children in Germany are taught many times during their schooling about the Third Reich. I want everyone in America to be taught about Election 2000 and what happens when a third party vote in a two party system of government gives power to a party of destroyers. The eight years of the Obama Administration lulled too many people into thinking that decency was the norm, that grace was the norm, that respect for people and traditions was the norm. It is not. The Republican Party that was an honorable partner in governing and that elected decent politicians who cared about people died in 1968 when the Southern Strategy was developed as a way to gain and hold power. That there is no one left in that party willing to stop a madman from destroying America should shock no one.

    I made the mistake of watching the clip from the David Muir interview where the yam was in a spittle induced rage about the popular vote and I saw his eyes. He is a madman. Goddess save us.

    See all y’all later.

    • It has actually been a flawed democracy for some time. There were just bandaids over the festering sores making it less obvious.

    • To me—admittedly, I’m old—it looks as if Goetz is saying that Canada and Australia are authoritarian regimes, because they’re both black on the chart. What?

      • Your color might be off. The dark green is Full Democracy and a dark burgundy is Full Authoritarian (see the vertical stripe in the middle of Africa).

        Value 10 on democracy is Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Scandinavian countries.

        • Or my eyes might be off! I’m color-blind, rather oddly for a female, and can’t tell the difference between dark green, dark navy, or black socks. I buy socks for hubby that have distinguishing gold toes or cable-knit stripes down the sides for this reason.

  8. Good morning! Cloudy here in NoVa, with current temp. at 49 F., going up to 53 F.

    My left eye keeps weeping, no doubt because it doesn’t like President Thing. Leftists seldom do. The coffee date this morning with Darling Niece, to which I was so looking forward, has been postponed because of Great-Nephew’s illness. Hope he recovers quickly. The child gets something every other week!

    Imbolc is approaching, so I’m looking forward to seeing Jan’s seasonal post here. It sounds crazy, but with the returning light I can’t help feeling returning hope. The fantasy of the moment is for an enormous sinkhole that would swallow up all the Rethugs and weak-kneed Dems.

    One keeps reading that telephone calls and personal visits are absolutely the best way to contact members of Congress. If only I didn’t dread calling so much! I phone-banked for a candidate named Zack Space a long time ago and it was so unpleasant I’ve hated talking on the telephone ever since. Long ago, I phone-banked with Virginia NARAL to ask members for money (hated that) and to vote for a candidate for the state legislature. My hearing aids make it difficult to talk on the phone because they emit shrill electronic noises when I hold the phone close to my ear. Oh, well, that’s enough about my problems! Very First World, I know.

    Wishing all at the Pond a good, hopeful day.

    • {{{Diana}}} – Healing Energy for the eye (and everything else for that matter). If any of your congresscritters have local offices close enough, visit them instead of calling. (Take a friend or two – not enough to be “threatening” but enough to give each other moral support.) That’s even more impressive. And the handwritten postcards are also very effective, just because so few people actually write anything by hand any more.

      • Ron Freaking Johnson shut down his “answered by a person” phone line and replaced it with easy-to-ignore voice mail. He is too much of a chicken to have a Madison office but I am going to check to see when he might have a mobile office in the area. His main office is Oshkosh which is long drive. I agree about in-person – they need to look into the eyes of their victims!!

    • I phone banked for NARAL in Milwaukee a billion years ago (late 90s?) for a local Democratic candidate. The awfulness of the people answering the phone made me swear it off. But I sucked it up and phone banked again for OFA in 2010 and took one shift right before election day in November.

      I am going to make an effort to get my postcards out this weekend after I get my January accounting work done.

      I was just thinking about my Imbolc post this morning! Around here we hear the owls calling out to each other this time of year and it always makes me think of Imbolc. I am not sure I can get psyched for the returning light bringing good news with it but I will try. :) Right now I am focusing on the new moon tomorrow and creating sanctuary for those who will be harmed by the Republicans.

      • Grandmother Moon Heals and Hides – I focus on that frequently. As well as Daughter Moon who finds the path, Warrior Moon who defends us, and Mother Moon who nourishes and comforts. Blessed Be.

        Imbolc – The returning of the Light brings Energy. And we need that Energy to move beyond despair and do what we need to do. It also brings back the warmth that stirs the Earth to bring us Her bounty and sustain us while we do what we need to do. Blessed Be.

  9. Home again, I had fever for a lot of yesterday. We had a cold front come in, but I think I should try to walk around the block or something this afternoon. I’ll think about it. Finding a lot of new twitter accounts to follow — there are at least 2 “alt” NASA accounts. Makes me happy.

  10. 25 just before dawn (“felt like” 10) and cloudy but clearing off and might make 40 today. Got 9.3 KWHs yesterday, another “most for the month” – if we get that again today, the monthly total will reach the January 2015 production (2.5K system) of 131 KWHs. Still not sure we’ll get the 4K equivalent though – definitely not reaching the January 2016 total of 236. Not going to make 200 even. sigh. But it’s getting better as the month goes on.

    Everyone I talk to is just overwhelmed by the onslaught right now. I keep telling them to pick a few things to focus on and trust our friends/allies to pick theirs. Overwhelmed is what the Rs are trying to do to us. if we pick our topics and focus on them the R’s’ won’t get away with it. We aren’t going to be able to stop much – but if we can hang onto voting rights, we’ll recover. And we can try to hang onto breathable air, drinkable water, and edible food at the same time – as long as we share out who is targeting what. It’s still a “stronger together” but we’re protecting a whole castle here. Some folks gotta protect the eastern gate, some folks gotta protect the western gate. If everybody runs to where they hear the noise, we’re gonna leave some stuff unprotected.

    Need to get to work. We’ve received “reminders” from the Powers That Be to not do any political anything at work, including talk about it. That’s hard enough for folks like me. When the hell am I supposed to call offices? They have the same working hours as I do. But for the faculty in the social sciences, it’s a not very well clothed order to not do their jobs. We’ve got some upset people. To the point that one instructor who’s been putting off retiring for some time (as in she gets talked out of it every semester) just handed in her resignation/retirement letter yesterday. Between being harassed by the little trumpsters in her class and being harassed by Admin, she said “that’s it”. Don’t blame her either. If I were a little older (or had more retirement options) I’d do it myself. Anyway. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • bfitz, your office atmosphere sounds really crummy. Is it one person who’s responsible? Or is it a bunch of Upstairs People? I’ve never worked in an office where people weren’t doing personal stuff, it’s simply not possible. Some people even had their Amazon orders sent to the office because it was too problematic to have their personal orders delivered to their homes.

      You seem to do more than enough work to justify your pay, especially as you note from time to time that you’re the only person there, so they ought to leave you alone. Perhaps it’ll get better in a few weeks.

      Groan! This is only January!

      • {{{Diana}}} – I am one of two “staff” in the sociology/criminal justice department of the state university. State university means the legislature makes the rules and sets our budget (even though most of our revenue is not “taxpayer dime” it’s tuition, fees, and grants) and our current legislature is just as bloody-red as our congresscritters. Over the last several years they’ve added extra steps, each step having its own approval loop (of mostly the same people), to every procedure we do for “accountability” – which is R speak for effing everything up in the hopes of proving that public employees are incompetent. Thus far we’ve managed to foil their true goal – but it’s a serious emotional drain. People – like myself – who 10 years ago loved their jobs so much they’d have had to be carried out of here feet first are retiring as soon as they are able. Whether we’ll be able to get back the legislature any time soon I don’t know. I doubt it. But until we do, nothing is going to get better as far as education in general and the university in particular are concerned.

        And January is almost over. :)

  11. Good morning, 36 and cloudy in Bellingham. I have a quiet day planned…..hope it stays that way!

    As you all know I’ve been calling my state congressional delegation re health care, so I was pleased and surprised to receive an invitation to attend a Constituent Coffee with Sen Patty Murray tomorrow. It will be small (about 30 people) so the conversation should be interesting. Going to a 10:00 am meeting in Seattle isn’t easy for me but RonK will drive and we’ll meet our daughter for lunch so it should be an interesting and fun day. And maybe I’ll have some good news to report……even reassurance that all’s not as dire as I fear will be welcome.

    So today’s plan is to rest, keep my leg elevated, and finish cleaning up my desk mess…..my least favorite task.

  12. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 27. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast – it will be good to see the sun again.

    I keep waiting for things to settle down but the main intent of the Republican president’s administration seems to be to win the hourly news cycle. Yesterday, he fulfilled his campaign promise by creating enough headlines to make it appear that the border wall is being built based on the flourish of his tiny hands holding Grover Norquist’s penis. His low-information voters will say “this is fine” and go back to whateverthehelltheydo, probably picking their noses.

    I hope that someone steps into the breach to air ads about the ACA’s pending deadline now that the yaministration has canceled them. Hey, insurance companies and hospitals, this is your ass on the line, step up! The last 4 days of the enrollment period are when young people sign up and we need them in the health insurance pool.

    Some good news: As you may have heard, the CDC cancelled a climate related conference because the United States government no longer cares about health if it encourages thinking about the impacts of the climate (actually anything that encourages thinking is on the cutting block). Al Gore has stepped up:

    Gore announced Thursday that he’ll hold the Climate & Health Meeting in Atlanta on Feb. 16 with Howard Frumkin, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, and a host of other health and climate groups: the American Public Health Association, The Climate Reality Project, Harvard Global Health Institute and the University of Washington Center for Health and the Global Environment.

    “They tried to cancel this conference but it is going forward anyway,” Gore said in a statement announcing the meeting. “Today we face a challenging political climate, but climate shouldn’t be a political issue. Health professionals urgently need the very best science in order to protect the public, and climate science has increasingly critical implications for their day-to-day work. With more and more hot days, which exacerbate the proliferation of the Zika virus and other public health threats, we cannot afford to waste any time.”

    This government doesn’t care but the American people care and we just need people like Al Gore – and blue state Attorney Generals and the ACLU – to step into the breach and cover us until We The People can get some power back.

    See all y’all later!

    • We need more Gore! I like him and always have. Cast your mind back to 16—no, 17 years ago—and remember how the media crucified him too. They could find nothing to like about Al Gore: they tore him down and said how “smart” Dubya was, and how nice it would be to have a beer with him. Dubya, the man who in his boyhood reputedly blew up live frogs with firecrackers. I loathe him and always will.

      Anyway, hope Al Gore will lead a highly successful conference. The Blue states can ignore government edicts and do things on their own. Purple Virginia, however, won’t get anything done with the Rethug legislature we have.

      More and more I blame the media for brainwashing the American public. And why know why that is, don’t we? Merger mania has reduced the number of outlets, and those outlets are all owned by conservative Rethugs who live by one creed: “As long as I, personally, am okay, the rest of the world can go to hell in a hand basket.”

      • Your state is trying to go red!! They are poised to pass a law which will assign the electoral vote using their gerrymandered Congressional Districts – all they need is a governor to sign it and it will be impossible for Democrats to ever win Virginia again. So when you see people talking about 20-freaking-20 tell them to STHU and focus on 2017 – this year – and gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey.

        • We’ve got Democrat Terry McAuliffe until November! And then we’re going to work like hell to elect Ralph Northam. Luckily, several Rethugs want the Rethug gubernatorial nomination. Tom Pierrello wants the Dem. gubernatorial nomination too, but his antichoice rep. will kill him with very, very blue Northern Virginia—Fairfax and Arlington counties.

  13. Good morning, Moosylvania! Cloudy here in NoVa, with the current temp at 37 F., going up to 43 F. later. Yesterday the wind howled around the house as fiercely as a chorus of wolves—perhaps it was protesting Thing’s latest bizarre doings. Tree limbs came down too.

    After the double whammy of root canal and crown prep yesterday, I feel exhausted. Had plans to renew my driver’s license and visit the Costco hearing aid department today, but I think I’ll just stay home, take Motrin, and sleep. Today I simply want to retreat.

    Wishing all a good Friday, and the hope that nothing really bad will happen.

  14. At work. I’d have had to produce a doctor’s note if I stayed out any longer & I have better uses for $25 than a co-pay to be told to rest & drink more fluids. I think that even though I’m still sick, it may do me good to be here, I have more reminders to drink water than I do at home. I do wonder how long I have to stay here, though. Anyway, trying to re-engage with the world. Deliberately playing City of Blinding Lights in my head, because I definitely need the energy

  15. Good Friday morning Meese.

    I’m staying away from the puter for the rest of the day (except for twitter) – till Black Kos – I’m really pissed off at so-called progressives like Warren voting for Trump cabinet noms

    Ugh. .

      • I was talking to my daughter this morning about a WaPo article that listed all of the Republican president’s lies since the inauguration and I mentioned that it had not even been a week. She said it felt like years. I agree!! I understand that a change of administration, and especially one where the parties change, means a lot of upheaval but this change is “seasoned” with the bitter rage of a thin-skinned vulgar talking yam.

        I am not sure I am as hopeful as Propane Jane that there will ever be a price to pay for Republicans. We have been waiting since 1968 for the chickens to come home to roost for the Southern Strategy, the Philadelphia Mississippi dog whistle, Lee Freaking Atwater, and George W. Bush’s 9/11 and Iraq War. The chickens never seem to find their way home.

    • I read her explanation but I still don’t know why she had to vote FOR the nomination. If you can’t vote against because of some deluded sense of “The President Can Pick His Cabinet” thing, totally ignoring that his presidency is illegitimate, at least vote Present or something. Voting FOR means you own that person’s awfulness. I had a snail mail argument with Russ Feingold in 2001 when he voted for John Ashcroft as Attorney General because of his sense of Senate “comity”. I am waiting for someone to claim that for Sessions. Fk comity!! That died when Mitch McConnell stole a Supreme Court nomination from President Barack Obama.

    • Indeed, Dee! Wazzup with her? Her rationale was that if we don’t get sleepy Ben, it’ll be someone worse. That p.o.’d me too.

      Hope no one asks me to rally around Liz if she ever does run for POTUS. Can’t get past the fact that she was once a Rethug, just as Jim Webb was once a Rethug. I think they’re always secretly Rethug.

  16. 23 at dawn, 32 now, and heading for mid 40s. It’s sunny again – got 10 KWHs yesterday! Most since mid-October 2016 – and we’re at 132 for the month to date (so just passed January 2015 with the 2.5K system total). More sunshine means more clean electricity and less CO2 in the atmosphere. I know it’s not much – not enough to make a difference by any stretch of anybody’s imagination – but I’m doing something.

    I’m not particularly hopeful in the short run. People who think this administration is going to implode are fooling themselves. Just like they fooled themselves into believing that the Deplorable in Chief couldn’t win so it would be OK to trash Hillary and “protest vote” for somebody not Hillary. I am confident that we will survive and even thrive in the long run, but people will die first. I may be one of them. Definitely people I know personally will be. So I will do my best to Resist in the hopes of keeping that number lower.

    Work to do. Although I always respond to emails and do what doesn’t need approvals or tracking down information before I get here. So now to some tracking down information. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Morning, meese. Saturday …

    It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    Well, this America certainly doesn’t feel great to me. And when people say “Trump did this”, push back fiercely. Republicans did this – Trump is simply the latest face of a Republican Party that embraces the most hateful elements of America in order to get their votes. They can’t win on their policies alone because they are unattractive to the majority of Americans. Power trumps morality.

    I am still looking for a regular Saturday morning speaker, or set of speakers, to post – someone who can promote Democratic Party values and give us hope that the institutions are strong enough to withstand the pummeling we are taking and will take. I think I will settle on Nancy Pelosi for today.

    See all y’all later!

  18. Up for ungodly hour workout. Today is supposed to be 10 miles, which there’s no chance of me doing. But I’ll show up for the beginning & ask coach what I should do. Be back later.

  19. Good morning, Meese! Gray and cold here, 33 F. now, 44 F. later. The Washington metro area has had 16 days in a row in which the temperature did not dip as low as 32 F. Global warming! I can just see Edgar Cayce’s prophecies of 100 years ago coming true: the East Coast, including Florida, under water. What kind of world will our grandchildren live in?

    Wrote scene 1 of chapter 3 last night. It’s a bit dull, but necessary. The really good stuff will come later, when Caramel Tart succeeds in attracting El Presidente’s attention. Then the fireworks will begin!

    I have to make a Yogurt Cake to take over to Elder Son’s house for tea this afternoon. He and DIL do not like rich cakes, so instead of frosting it I’ll just take a melange of fruit to serve with it. I also have weight training at 12:30 p.m., so I’d better get a move on.

    The Resistance is beginning to be noticed. We’ve got to keep on doing it!

    Hope all at the Pond and Beyond will have a good day.

  20. Coach & I decided tomorrow afternoon will be a better time to try the 10 miles. Home watching AM Joy. Which is freaking amazing. Bill Nye, y’all!

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