Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Feb. 26th through Mar. 4th

February 25, 2017 JanF Community 145

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.

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49 Comments

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

    Morning low of 16 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 34. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Sunday.
    36 here in the mountains -of NYS going up to 41.

    Just saw this video that Vyan posted at DKos

    If you haven’t noticed – this terror killing isn’t dominating US headlines.

    • Of course not! The victim was a person of color so the white killer is “mentally ill” not a terrorist. Nothing to see here.

    • tRump has “deputized” every white nationalist in America to go after people who look foreign. And the NRA has armed them.

      • Was just reading the excuses being made for the killer Adam Purinton. “He had a drinking problem…he’s not political… he was having family issues…”

        ARGH!

        • I have right-wing relatives in the KC area and their reactions are as you would expect. “Kansas should have an open carry law like Missouri and this would never happen” “It was not a hate crime, just a mentally ill guy”.

          It is interesting how all these mentally ill guys choose to display their illness in the same way: by killing people selected for their skin color or their politics.

          • So they think shooting the mentally ill is the answer? Nice relatives you got there. (Sorry you have to deal with them.) I contend that there is nothing more dangerous/deadly than “a good guy with a gun.” In the first place, everybody who has a gun thinks of himself as a good guy. Second place there’s a reason why “well-trained militia” was the first part of the 2nd Amendment – knowing when to shoot and what to shoot requires a lot of training that the “good guy with a gun” doesn’t have. Third place depending on the caliber of the weapon even in the unlikely instance that the good guy with the gun actually hits who he’s aiming at, that bullet is going to go though and hit one or more something or someone elses. There’s a reason why in the old Westerns folks were supposed to “check their guns” – as in hand them over at the Sheriff’s Office – when they came to town.

  3. Good morning, Meese! It’s sunny with white clouds scattered across a blue sky in NoVa, current temp. 33 F., going up to 47 F. later. The front came through with a vengeance yesterday afternoon, dropping the temperature 20 degrees in one hour and bringing heavy rain for a while. There was a tornado in neighboring Maryland.

    The shooting in Kansas of the Indian men and the man who tried to save them, resulting in the death of one of the Indian men, fills me with horror. My tenant is from South India, and he’s going on a long business trip starting next Wednesday. I hope he’s not going anywhere in a red state.

    Was confined to bed yesterday with illness. I feel better as long as I take meds, rest, and don’t eat much. Tomorrow I’ll be minus a car for most of the morning, so perhaps I’ll get a few things done around my office.

    Wishing all a good day. I hear our former president was spotted in New York. Wish we had him back again.

    • Hope you are feel better today Diana. I finally felt well enough to do some sewing yesterday, and fortunately I have a basket full of half finished projects so I didn’t need to think very much. My mind is still functioning best at the busy work level so just re threading my serger was a challenge!

    • The 2016 election results were a triple whammy: the realization that President Obama would soon be leaving, the “loss” by our candidate, the first woman with a real chance at the presidency, and the election of the most disgusting, unfit person nominated by a major political party in modern times. President Obama was the greatest president in my lifetime and if our country is destroyed because white America became deranged because he was black, it will be a fitting end. The country that refused to punish the slaveholding states after crushing the rebellion – leaving in place perks given to them in the constitution so that they would always have veto power over the promise of equality and the rights of citizens to to exercise the franchise – maybe should perish from this earth.

  4. Slept in, and a lazy day ahead. For breakfast next week, I just need to thaw out previously-made oatmeal. Lunch: just dish stuff into 5 containers, and I have an apple & an orange for each day. I made 3 days worth of tea yesterday. So really, today there’s very little to do, I’ll clear out the dvr. I finally made myself stop repeating Discotheque in the car yesterday, moved on to my Scottish friends’ song Alison Stewart: “surrender now my love, it’s time to fall in love, time to be what we should be.” Really lovely song.

  5. Good morning, 33 and a mix of snow and rain in Bellingham. After reading the morning news I’ve retreated to YouTube and am listening to Elvis sing gospel songs. I’m desperate for relief from tRump worries!

    Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media

    This is a deeply alarming article re the pervasive use of propaganda, fueled by ideology and lots of money….

    There are two things, potentially, going on simultaneously: the manipulation of information on a mass level, and the manipulation of information at a very individual level. Both based on the latest understandings in science about how people work, and enabled by technological platforms built to bring us together.

    Are we living in a new era of propaganda, I ask Emma Briant? One we can’t see, and that is working on us in ways we can’t understand? Where we can only react, emotionally, to its messages? “Definitely. The way that surveillance through technology is so pervasive, the collection and use of our data is so much more sophisticated. It’s totally covert. And people don’t realise what is going on.”

    • at the end of my church’s Easter service – which we do up big & formal, with an 8-piece band, horns & trombones & stuff — they play a rag, a sweet playful song — I can see the musicians have fun with it. The past couple of years it has been the Pineapple Rag, which is really fun, and a good counterpoint to the formality of the service.

  7. Good morning. Going up to 45 in Chicago. I looked in my yard yesterday, and I have daffodils coming up. Too early.

    It was crazy on twitter yesterday, with the bernouts having fits that Keith didn’t win. They will never give it up. PITA.

  8. Not exactly warm but above freezing in Fay., AR – and fog-bound. Yesterday was cold but the clearest, sunniest day we’ve had all month and longer – got just over 15 KWHs, first time since last September – today I’ll be doing good to get 5 if it doesn’t clear off. sigh.

    My back is better – at the “stitch in side” level of discomfort and limitation of motion although it’s very low back (about an inch to the right of my spine, whatever muscle that is) rather than side. Can sit for half an hour now before I have to get up and walk. Managed to – slowly – get all my Sunday chores done except soup for next week. Even the vacuuming. Because I’m stubborn and am tired of breathing cat fluff. Need to get over to DK to deal with community fundraiser stuff but will be back to read Michael’s British Breakfast shortly (I hope).

    Healing Energy to everybody – at whatever level and for whatever issue is best for you. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Monday morning Meese
    27 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 55.
    I was going to watch the Oscars – something I don’t do often – but fell asleep – woke up in the middle of the night and found out they had announced the wrong winner of best film – yikes.

    Glad Moonlight won

  10. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 43. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    I watched Oscar Twitter for a short time last night and did not understand most of it (I don’t watch movies and don’t follow celebrities). I did enjoy that apparently Jimmy Kimmel identified tRump’s Tweets as something he does during his “5am bowel movement”. Someone should buy Twitter and rename it “Trump’s Bowel Movements”.

    I quickly scanned the news and put a few things up in tabs to read later. I have to catch up on projects that were put on hold last week and try to get them out while the calendar still reads “February”. I feel cheated by Pope Gregory because in a normal month, I would have had at least 2 more days to procrastinate get things done.

    By the way, someone needs to tell Bernie Freaking Sanders that until he joins the Democratic Party, and subjects himself to the same primarying that he wants done to actual Democrats, he should just STHU about what the party should do. He is no better than the orange shitgibbon, slandering the good people who built the Democratic Party while he was trashing our president and our shared history. The Democratic Party is the party of civil rights and womens rights and our losses in 2010 and 2014 and 2016 are a direct result of us refusing to back down from people who said “don’t upset the white christianist patriarchy”.

    See all y’all later!

    • I am singularly unhappy with Sanders and his acolytes – which isn’t anything new. I’m hoping that cadre doesn’t undermine efforts we are making to get rid of Rs in office across the states.

      • A lot will depend on how strongly Keith Ellison pushes back against Sanders. If he allows him to continue to speak for Democrats – from his I-VT seat in the Senate – it will be difficult to move forward. Democrats need to decide where we want our party to go, not some guy whose success is measured in Post Office namings. It isn’t just Sanders, he is simply a willing vessel for the angry white men who found themselves needing a champion because the Democratic Party cares about people of color and women’s rights and realize that berning the damn thing down incinerates millions. From their perch, protected by their privilege, they can afford their purity – the rest of us can’t.

        I am very grumpy about this, as you can tell. I hope that the DNC pivots quickly into rebuilding the state parties and successfully ignores the mewling of the permanently butthurt. The state senate win in Delaware was huge! More of that. We have special elections all over the country this year – get into every single one of them.

  11. Good morning, Moosylvania! Gray here in NoVa this morning, with the current temp. 29 F., going up to 56 F. later. Dearly Beloved has to take my car in this morning for a couple of inspections, so I’ll stay at home, tend my cold, and get some things done.

    Glad I didn’t watch the Oscars. Like our BlogGoddess Jan, I don’t go to movies or follow celebs. Can’t stand to watch awards shows because everyone is so in love with themselves.

    Got on the Indivisible call again last night. It’s so interesting to listen to the stories of what people did to resist Thing during the past week. I’m still so occupied with family that I have very little time to engage. Yesterday was the day of the Brownies’ Dance Workshop, then Miss Pink Cheeks’ family came for tea, and she stayed for dinner.

    After I get past my obligations (leading a troop meeting in March, Political Granddaughter’s birthday story right after that), I may be able to start doing things. Right now my head feels foggy with this cold, so I want today to be quiet.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and a bad, really sad day for the thugs in the White House.

    • Get some rest and heal! Colds are miserable things – not sick enough to stop everything but not well enough to do much of anything.

  12. Monday again — how’d that happen so fast? Tea, oatmeal. My big accomplishment over the weekend — 3 mile walk Saturday, and getting caught up on TV shows that are now on break either till April (Agents of Shield) or next fall (HTGAWM). I brought my gym bag — it’s going to be 80 this afternoon, so nice day for a walk. Brain is still playing last song that was on in the car — U2’s Spanish Eyes.

  13. Good morning, Meese.

    MPLS/ST Paul weather: 24 now, 44 later with pretty sunshine thrown in for good measure.

  14. Started the day at 33, already 41, and heading for mid 60s in Fay., AR. it’s sunny again – i hope that holds. Got 15 KWHs Saturday (most since last September) but only 5 yesterday – monthly total to date is 246. Don’t watch TV or movies, haven’t for decades, so wouldn’t know anything about the movies or the people at the Oscars anyway – but if the Meeses are happy with the results, I’m happy with the results.

    I am coming to the conclusion that “bernie” supporters are actually 3rd-party trolls trying to take over our Party because they aren’t capable of building a successful one of their own. (For one thing, they want to start at the top – with President – instead of do the precinct-level grassroots work.) All the more reason to ignore them. If they knew how to build a party, they’d have done it rather than try to take over ours.

    Gonna try to get a chiro appt today – I seem to re-twist my back trying to sleep so I’ll be doing better throughout the day, but the next morning is not good. Meanwhile I gotta get to work. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good morning, Meeses. Here on the doorstep to Michigan MilitiaLand, it’s 32 with an expected high of 47. Still too warm for February and for the plants and animals, but I seem to be the only one I know complaining about our too-warm February. Admittedly, I had the doors and windows thrown open like everyone else, but we have so many orchards in this area that I have been obsessively checking to see if the buds are breaking on the apple trees in my own yard. (So far, so good…)

    I have a very busy week coming up, so I’ll be on a resisting time-out for a few days. It’s probably as well, since at the moment I’m as upset with the Busters as I am with my own R rep. Several of my friends, who were starting to show signs of coming out from under the Bernie spell, are right back in their trances. My FB feed exploded with (self-) righteous and grossly inaccurate rants about the DNC and rigging and whatever else Our Revolution was feeding them. I don’t know if it will ever be possible to bring them to a more reasonable place; these are generally good people who clearly want a Strong Leader. They think Sanders is it, although beyond yelling and finger-wagging, I’m not sure what leadership he actually provides. Since I’m more of a coalition and organizing type, we may just speak different languages. I don’t quite know how to bridge that gap…or if I even want to.

    • I don’t get this “need a Daddy” thing happening in the Democratic Party. All through the run-up to the DNC Chair vote, it was “we need a leader to set our agenda!!” Er, no. We have a wonderful progressive platform developed with the input of DNC members around the country during the convention. And for the next 2 years EVERYTHING will be happening in the states. We don’t need a “leader” telling people in Wisconsin that what they need is the same as what they need in Arizona or Texas or Michigan. We need a DNC that provides monetary and technical support for the state parties as they identify races and find candidates to run in them who reflect Democratic Party values and who understand the unique issues in their state and their counties. I don’t want to even think about 2020 or finding a standardbearer – we have so much work to do in the here and now.

      • I think the important part from that quote is “we need a leader to set our agenda”.

        Because they know their agenda is not one that is supported by the Democratic Party wing of the Democratic party or by the base.

        • even though they were taking credit for it after the primaries were over. The problem with their agenda is it’s either totally unworkable/mythology or they want what everybody else wants but they want it to magically appear whole and complete in the form they’ve determined is best – and none of this messy “incremental progress” to get there.

      • Yup – but the Alt Left and the Alt Right are mirror images of each other in many ways and being authoritarian (needing a “strong leader” and insisting that everyone follow him) is one of those ways. (Of course discounting the life-threatening issues of women and POC is another.)

    • Oh, that’s funny. He’s not really anything as useful as a weasel, but it’s still funny. :)

  17. Good morning, 35 and light snow in Bellingham. Thanks to my foggy brain and pesky computers demanding I remember too many passwords I’ve got a few messes to clean up later. Fortunately I remembered my back up info stash so I could sign into the moose. I’m trying to use the Edge browser because I can c/p from the New York Times with it and can’t with Chrome. But all my saved passwords are on Chrome and switching back and forth has confused my machine as well as me.

    Paul Krugman…….The Uses of Outrage

    Are you angry about the white nationalist takeover of the U.S. government? If so, you are definitely not alone. The first few weeks of the Trump administration have been marked by huge protests, furious crowds at congressional town halls, customer boycotts of businesses seen as Trump allies. And Democrats, responding to their base, have taken a hard line against cooperation with the new regime.
    But is all this wise? Inevitably, one hears some voices urging everyone to cool it — to wait and see, to try to be constructive, to reach out to Trump supporters, to seek ground for compromise.
    Just say no.
    Outrage at what’s happening to America isn’t just justified, it’s essential. In fact, it may be our last chance of saving democracy.

  18. It’s a wet and cold 57 degrees here in Costa Mesa, CA. And I see Trump stil has no idea how health care actually operates in this country.

  19. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 43 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 54. Rain turning to mixed snow this evening.

    Good lord, they really are clueless! Today’s headlines “Trump seeks to redefine himself in speech”. No, a tiger cannot change his stripes, a shitgibbon can’t be anything but a shitgibbon. I won’t watch the speech or even monitor it via Twitter. To me, after 8 years of President Barack Obama, everything the Republican’s president does defiles the office, the White House, and our country.

    And people who thought that “both parties are the same”, [redacted] you! The “Justice” Department announced that it will not defend the lower court ruling in Texas’ voter id law that found discriminatory intent. The voting rights law is dead – kept alive, after Shelby v Holder, for 3 years by the sheer determination of the Obama Justice Department. When we lose the vote, we lose the ability to fix the results of bad election outcomes. But “Wall Street!”.

    See all y’all later.

  20. Yes, HBCUs were created for Choice. Because black families needed a choice between “college” and “not going to college”. Do you think these people really don’t know or are just pretending they don’t know???

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