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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Tuesday morning in the blizzard.
Waiting for sun to come up to take snow photos
Hear the rumble of the plows going by – trying to keep the roadway clear.
Following the twitter storm unleashed by Shree Chauhan – Indian-American educator, born in the U.S. of immigrant parents, who taped her confrontation of Sean Spicer
Indian-American woman confronts Trump aide at Apple store
The Spicer comment “allows you to be here” made my blood boil
Here is her Medium post about it
Such a Great Country, Such Nasty Bigotry
She dealt with ugly trolls very well yesterday
The worst of the worst are really crawling out from under their rocks, Dee. They were always there – as you know – but now they are in charge of the government and being given the worlds largest megaphone to spew from.
“Such a great country that allows you to be here”.
In-freaking-credible.
Sigh. Yes – always there.
Spent the last hour thinking about how long Jim Crow was allowed to exist in this country – another form of fascism – targeting my folks.
Was reading
The White Reporter Who Pretended To Be Black During Jim Crow
Decided to write about Ray Sprigle for BKos – was familiar with John Howard Griffin’s “Black Like Me” but not this earlier reporting.
I think we read “Black Like Me” in high school.
Do you think the empowering of the white nationalists will wake people up? I still believe there are more decent people than awful people – I wish to hell they had voted! – but to the extent that some of them did not realize that the KKK was not just something in history books or a few cranks in a parade in the South maybe this is an eye opener.
Had so much to write – decided to save for Sunday – I sure hope that some folks will wake up!
Gods, how appalling.
Just finished reading Never Caught, which made me view George Washington with a more jaundiced eye than ever. Denise began the process with her resounding post, “George Washington Is Not My Great White Father!”
History certainly looks different when viewed from the perspective of the oppressed.
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 14 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 25. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Quick! Grab your tiny violins!! Bigoted former governor of North Carolina is finding that people don’t want to hire bigots!!
Maybe he can get a job on Rep. Steve KKKing (R-IA)’s staff?
I was following the rollout of the CBO scoring of the AHCA in real-time on Twitter and the thing that struck me the most was that Republicans, those who agreed that 24 million people would no longer have insurance, did not see that as a problem. How can people go their entire lives without ever once encountering a person they care about having a serious illness or accident that needed tens of thousands of dollars of health care? They lack an empathy gene or they live in GotsMoney bubbles. It is frightening to realize that our country is being governed by a bunch of sociopaths who really and truly see nothing wrong with allowing a child to die from a treatable illness because it is somehow unfair for the have-mores to pay more in taxes. I have no idea if there are enough Republicans who realize how awful this is but I hope there are. I will be right in the “hell” spot in 2018 that everyone is talking about – 64 years old.
I have had my nose to the grindstone this morning so I am not sure if the Northeast got hit by the storm they expected today. If so, stay warm!
See all y’all later!
Steve King makes me vomit – and makes me loathe all those people in Iowa’s 4th congressional district who vote him back into office each year. He’s been spewing in Congress since 1997.
Look at the demographics of his district
So not reflective of what most of the US looks like.
The “urban” is Sioux City on the west, which is about as racist a place as you have ever been. The other end is Ames which is a college town, Iowa State, and which should know better. But trends in Iowa are not good. Where youth in the rest of the country trend Democratic, in Iowa they trend Republican. I am not sure where they get all that hate from – sounds like someone planted them and covered them with manure.
And by the way, those demographics make the case for removing Iowa from the early primary/caucus states. Chasing all those white votes is a waste of time and energy and gives Iowa an outsize role in presidential politics.
One of the earliest songs I ever remember hearing was “Sioux City Sue” on the radio. It’s depressing to know how racist Sioux City is. However, I’m always being surprised. Once Dearly and I visited the friend of a friend in Ohio and found that everyone there was racist as hell! I’d always thought Yankees were liberal. It was a real shock, I can tell you, and this was fifty years ago.
I have a friend who grew up in the area after moving there from Canada. She wasn’t black or brown but was of a different ethnic origin and clearly Not From These Parts; she experienced a lot of bigotry.
One reason that KKKing probably feels safe lauding Geert Wilders is because that part of Iowa is home to a lot of people of Dutch ancestry. His anger at the non-white very likely finds fertile ground.
I have only set foot in Iowa once in my life – had to visit a PBS station there – while working for CPB in the ’80s – don’t even remember the visit.
Good point about the early primary states.
Good morning, Meese—I think! Outside there is a sleet-rain-snow combo rattling the windowpanes this freezing gray March morning. It reminds me of that line in Keats’ “The Eve of St. Agnes”:
The frozen precip began at 6 p.m. yesterday. Where I live we didn’t get all that much snow, a mere 2.5 inches, but the icy crust that’s forming on top is not conducive to going anywhere. Of course in this area the schools close hysterically if so much as one snowflake falls, but this really is not a morning for anyone to be out. I’m pretty sure both daughters-in-law will telecommute, Elder Son does anyway, and Younger Son will not be missed since he’s only got two weeks left at his place of employment anyway.
But enough of this meteorological chitchat. Fresh horrors—now the Schuzstaffel (Customs and Border Patrol) are asking American citizens for their devices and passwords! What happened to the right against “unreasonable search and seizure”? This is fascism, folks. And Steve King is a miserable simulacrum of a human being. May he burn in hell.
Cotton-pickin’ Tom is evidently afraid of being primaried because he’s speaking against the new Trumpcare bill.
The world’s a mess this morning. Might concentrate on the Minoans, they always make me feel better. Wishing a good, or at least tolerable, day to all at the Pond!
I won’t complain about it being cold here, because compared to what the rest of the country is getting, it’s nothing. It’s even going to be nice this afternoon. I did need a scarf on my wet hair this morning, But — we ain’t getting 3 feet of snow, so I’ll shut up now.
Rachel again last night. Great Goddess. My comment on FB: “hmmmm, Preet Bharara was investigating Deutsche Bank, T owes them more than anyone else does, their former chair (who had to leave because of the corruption scandal) landed at the bank in Cyprus where Russians like to launder their money – and where our new Commerce Secretary used to be on the board” and that was just from the A block.
Brain is playing Salome. It’s a b-side from a single off Achtung Baby. The bass line…. I think Adam had fun with this one.
view from my back porch
Wow, you’re getting a lot, Denise!
Here the sleet has stopped and it’s snowing again. Hope the electricity stays on so we’ll have the “Intertubes,” as Jan calls them. If not, we’ll have to crank up the generator.
Do your dogs like to play in the snow or do they dread it?
They love the snow – are getting ready to go out in it while hubby sweeps off the generators – the blowing snow can block the exhaust vents.
My long haired doggies liked the snow but my short haired dog despises it. She is very efficient on her trips outside when it is cold and snowy.
heh – my German Shep – Chosi abandoned my husband outside and headed back to the porch
{{{Denise}}} – Whoa! I’d stay indoors if I were you. :) moar {{{HUGS}}}
I am not setting a foot outside – except to open the door to stick camera out to snap pics
Denise, I know you’re having a hell on wheels weather event at the moment – but I have to say that is a beautiful and magical view off your back porch.
It is beautiful here – even with snow!
Good morning, dear Meese.
MPLS/St Paul weather: cold
I read an interesting post on Politicususa this morning quoting intelligence analyst Eric Gardner.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/11/massive-counterintelligence-operation-madman-potus.html
One of my favorite quotes:
Hi, there, Ink, and thanks for the link!
So do I infer correctly that an investigation is going on and that the sh*t will hit the fan at some point?
I’d feel happier if Comey weren’t in charge. He’s a Trumpist and so is the FBI in his neck of the woods. Don’t trust Comey at ALL, since he kept the real president from being elected.
I get the impression that multiple investigations are active and that sh*t fan hitting will ensue.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. While it is true that Comey put tRump in office, he probably is a Republican first and would be just as happy with a Pence presidency (just no wimmins!!) I am convinced that the only way the orange shitgibbon leaves is by resignation (with a promise of a pardon) or in handcuffs. He will not be impeached and removed – too many Republicans around the county live in Trump +40 districts and their base loves him. Their base loves him more than health care, more than jobs, more than safe roads, more than retirement benefits.
Comey can be fired, you know. He has a 10 year term but he can still be fired if Bannon et al decide he is getting too close. Blowing Comey a kiss may just be a way to throw him off – tRump told Preet Bharara that he was staying on. What better way to upend the apple cart than to tell someone that their job is safe and lull him into thinking he does not need to prep an assistant to take over an ongoing investigation? The other US attorneys would have known that their time was short and would have been working on turning over cases. Watch the Fox News case closely.
Oh, noes!!! Today is Pi Day. Time to go find my Pi Post.
Make it an Old English Pear Pie. I’ve got a whole bunch of pears.
I found it – some snippets:
And your pie. But it doesn’t look like pear …
Ooh, I like that pie!
I had strawberry/basil pie. Really good. And I bought a 2nd one, a turtle pie, that I’ll have for lunch today. The pie shop said they couldn’t keep up with demand, they were almost sold out. Pi day is a thing!
Happy Pi Day – it’s 30 here and overcast. Nothing to what Meeses points north and east are getting. Only got 7.7 KWHs yesterday and, blast DST, still on night mode at the moment. Thankfully, it didn’t get cold enough to kill stuff this morning. Hoping tomorrow’s just before dawn low is higher than forecast – I want my local fruit this year.
The insanity keeps coming. I need to check out a few things locally – ideas from Philly’s diary yesterday – otherwise I’m Resisting as best I can. The community needs stuff is pretty stuck, but we have raised $1K for bigjac since he opened the gofundme (about half due to/during my diary yesterday). Aji’s is Lowes’ cards now rather than fundraiser site. We’ll see if that works better. The others? sigh. Still trying.
Got to get to work but I’ll drop by DoReMI’s diary first. Bright the day and wind to thy wings (and please stay safe and warm), Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 49 and raining in Bellingham. A mudslide has closed the train tracks in Oregon so Ronk will either be returning via an Amtrak bus today or he will have to delay his return. I’ll call him soon and we’ll sort it out.
The new pool is smaller than the old one, and the deep end is deeper so I’ll have to adjust my routine. But it was wonderful to be able to exercise in the warm water for a whole hour! And, to my relief, my fellow pool pals who are mostly R’s carefully let me know they are not happy with tRump either. I had a “let’s please keep the pool a healing place” comment all prepared….so glad I didn’t need to use it.
Yikes – a mudslide?
Very little vegetation in some parts of the Pacific NW – if there isn’t a forest holding the soil down, for whatever reason, lots of rain means mudslides.
80s here in Folsom. Too hot too soon!!
Got my new passport (had to renew) which involved driving to SF and back. Urgh.
{{{basket}}} – driving to or in SF was a pain back in the 1980s. I’m sure it’s worse now. Glad you got your new passport with no trouble though. I’ve got to renew my driver’s license in October and they’ve decided they want to see my birth certificate this time (after over 20 years). I haven’t got clue number one where it is and am not sure how to get a replacement. But I need to figure it out soon to give me time to get it. Also have to find my social security card but at least I’ve seen that in the last couple of years so I know it’s in the house somewhere. :)
So glad you’re home. I was a little worried about you getting back into the country under the current regime. moar {{{HUGS}}
{{bfitz}}
Driving to and from SF isn’t so bad unless it’s rush hour or Saturday afternoon (plus I can use carpool lanes since I have a hybrid that qualifies for the CA Clean Air Decal), but driving and finding parking in SF… An exercise in patience :)
Good luck with your license renewal!
Parking in SF makes taking BART worthwhile. :)
bfitz, why the hail do they need to see your birth certificate now? Is this some new hateful Rethug thing? I swear, they never tire of thinking up ways to make people’s lives miserable. If you can’t find it, contact the state board of the state where you were born. (It’s too early in the morning for me to think of the name.) They’ll send you a copy. I had to do that once and the state of Tejas, believe it or not, was very obliging.
Basically, yes. It’s an “enhanced” driver’s license – needed for getting on any airplane going anywhere (which I don’t really care about as i can’t fly anyway – inner ear problems) and for going into any federal building for any reason. My problem is that I legally changed my name in 1989 so my TX birth certificate won’t work. i’ve got to find the right department in AR and figure out their arcane rules for getting one. sigh.
Oh hai, basket!
Good to have you back home.
Good morning, meese! Wednesday …
It is 16 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 30. Sunny skies are in the forecast. We should see 40s again by Friday.
Beware the Ides of March! Good day to take time to reset and ponder the state of our empire, so to speak. Maybe a world order where the President of the United States is seen as the most powerful person in the world just by virtue of his position is a bad idea. In 2000, a minority of our country “elected” a man of little brain but strong convictions whose actions led to untold misery, the destabilization of an entire region, and the largest migration of peoples in a generation. In 2016, a minority of our country voted for a man of little brain whose only interest in the presidency was to establish an unassailable international brand for his companies. That the American people have the ability to choose a leader with global authority and have failed in 3 of the last 5 elections suggests that maybe we, and the world, need to realize that the right to lead is not something a person is elected to but something that is earned by virtue of their morality, their decency, their abilities.
See all y’all later!
Thanks, Jan, and to add to that I read a rumor on line that Caroline Kennedy is thinking of running for the Senate in 2018 and for POTUS in 2020. Bad idea. She hasn’t served long enough in the Democratic party to earn her stripes.
Obama was criticized for leaving the Senate after only four years as a U.S. Senator, but at least he had worked his way up through the ranks of the Illinois lege. That means something.
i doubt Caroline Kennedy is actually thinking of it. My bet is that’s more “Russian interference” to stir up our side and distract from what they’re doing.
Good Wednesday morning Meese
Waiting for the sun to come up so I can see how much snow we ended up with – it was over 2 feet last night – drifts as high as 4-5 feet – and “snow piles” from plowing of 8 – 10 feet!
Seems like we were in the eye of the storm in the Mid-Hudson Valley of NY.
A big chunk of folks here had power outages yesterday- I checked the map and it seems that thankfully almost everyone had power restored.
I was Tweeting with HappyinVT last night and she said they were getting 2 inches of snow an hour! It sounds like the storm was bigger north than it was south.
Do you have to try to get to school today?
Thankfully I don’t have classes on Wednesday – the school announced classes before 3:00PM today are cancelled – staff have to go in though.
My husband can’t get out the driveway to drive to the commuter bus stop – so he is staying home. We are waiting for our plow guy to show up – he must be swamped.
When the county road crews come by – which they did all night – the piles of snow they push off the road pile up – and block driveways.
Sun is coming up now – I can see the road from the front of the house – looks like one lane is fairly clear.
I have school tomorrow – it should be okay to drive by then.
Yikes, Denise!
Dear Goddess, that’s going to be a mess when it melts. Dig out the wellies!
Not sure when it will melt – more snow predicted for Saturday
If it gets deep enough, it may not melt til july! Be careful and stay warm.
Good morning, Meese! It’s a grayish-white morning here in NoVa, with the current temp. at 20 F., going up to 30 F. today. I’m due at the gym at 10:15 and have got hubby to promise to drive me. I hate slipping and sliding on the roads. School is starting 2 hours late but DIL is working at home today, so she can take Miss Pink Cheeks in at 10:30.
Got a lot of writing done yesterday, which pleased me greatly, and watched Rachel Maddow last night for the first time in years. I was grateful to Twitter for letting me know that she was going to reveal one of El Presidente’s tax returns. It’s kind of cool to be able to check Twitter on the new phone at intervals during the evening: it makes me feel that I’m in on things. :)
Our tenant, bless him, shoveled the snow off our driveway and sideway. He is such a nice person. He’s promised to sit with me to help me learn to meditate at some time in the future. I’m badly behind with the Minoan course I’m supposedly taking online—perhaps I’ll get a chance to work on it today.
A good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!
We’re having the weather that makes people here for SXSW want to move here. Dammit. Lunch walking group starts today. I always end up about a block behind, but I go. And it’ll be 67 & sunny, so it’s a nice day for it.
Rachel again last night. Wow. I’ve seen comments that the tax return is a distraction from Russia, but she did a good 10 minutes of Russia & money laundering before getting to the tax return. So I thought it was great.
Earworm is still Salome. This is a different mix. U2 have always done that, they tear songs apart & remake them into something completely different. That isn’t this, same song just a different mix.
I won’t watch cable TV – I am still angry about what they did during the primary and the general election.
I did watch the story unfold on Twitter and it was interesting how people reacted. Some people claimed that Rachel Tweeted about the story for HOURS to hype it. Er, no. It was about 89 minutes. Some complained that she took too long to explain the backstory of the Russia connection. Good lord!! Not everyone is following the minute by minute developments on these cases and the lead up was important for first time viewers and those not immersed in the story. Her Tweet got a lot of eyes for the important Russia story which is good news. What sealed it for me is that Chris Cillizza hated it – that tells me it was good. :)
There is some discussion about whether the White House were the ones who leaked the 2005 return to get in front of the “tax return” story (by showing it to be a nothingburger, perhaps?). They certainly were quick with the numbers, as though they expected it. If they did do that, they miscalculated because by showing that the AMT was the only thing that made tRump pay close to what his fair share of taxes would be – and that he wants to repeal the AMT – it made tax reform a whole lot more difficult. “Rich guy wants to pay no taxes on income of $150 million and will twist arms in Congress to do it.” To the extent that Republicans care any more about bad optics, that one would give a lot of folks googley eyes.
Good morning, Meese!
MPLS/St Paul weather: 12 with a high of 42.
You know that thing where it feels like 45* has been president for years, not weeks?
News Density Time Frame Distortion
http://www.ericgarland.co/2017/03/10/new-forms-cognitive-bias-2017-edition/
It is incredible, inkaudlay, to look back at the time frame and realize how short it has been. I think that part of it is because we have been living this since last summer when the orange shitgibbon won the nomination. The campaign rhetoric was “holy, shit, what if Donald Trump becomes president??!!?” The actual presidency has only been 50 or so days but the what ifs were happening last summer and then ratcheted up after the election.
I am 100% certain that we will not survive at this pace unless we can find some stress reducers. My preference as stress reducers would be for a few solid wins – the Ryan bill failing, the Gorsuch nomination being rejected, court victories that settle things rather than just put them on hold, a few congressional wins – KS, GA. Something to give us hope that the resistance is working and that the universe will be righted. I tried snacks and discovered that it only increases the stress as it expands my girth. :)
I agree, JanF, “the Ryan bill failing, the Gorsuch nomination being rejected, court victories that settle things rather than just put them on hold, a few congressional wins – KS, GA” would be excellent stress reducers. :) I do think we will start winning some battles soon.
interesting thread about why the tax return matters
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/841833971700899841
27 just before dawn – I’m still groggy from the time change – and inching up to 48 which is considerably warmer than yesterday even though not warm. Sunny at the moment and I hope all day. Time change is bad enough. Time change and cloudy means I’m barely functional and not particularly efficient. Still averaging just over 11 KWHs per day for the month which isn’t as good as the 13.5 we got March 2016, but not bad.
The current situation is why I keep going back to WWII analogies – we’ve got bad things coming at us just as fast so we’re experiencing the same kind of time compression we did then. And our response has to be pretty much the same. Continue our day-to-day lives as best we can while supporting the Resistance any way we can think of. (Irony that in America and Britain at least, health and nutrition improved in WWII as sugar and white flour were rationed. And our kids in the military were getting enough protein, some of them for the first time in their young lives.)
Got a pile of papers on my desk to deal with. Got my Street Prophets diary to work on. Will drop in on the Village diary before I get back to it. Need more coffee. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 47 and cloudy in Bellingham. But the PNW rain is easier for me to negotiate than snow, so I’ll grumble quietly and send my best wishes to all of you who are shoveling the white stuff.
RonK finally made it home late last night. The combination of buses, trains, and heavy rain made for a long travel day though. I was so sleepy waiting I finally drove to the Amtrak station and parked where he could see the car. That way I could doze and not worry about him being stranded!
Danny Westneat, at the Seattle Times……
GOP’s strange new politics: Going after seniors
You would think that after 2005, the Republicans would be more reluctant to go after the olds. I suspect that it is like the 2004 election – they won by disparaging John Kerry and by claiming that a wartime president (even for a war of choice) couldn’t be replaced – and then claimed a mandate for themselves. They think they have a mandate to destroy the social safety net – “we ran on it and the people spoke” – and are determined to see it through. The thing is that we vote for a congressional representative, and a president, on a number of different issues. For the Republican Congress to see the 2016 election as a mandate for repealing the Affordable Care Act is not very smart. I hope it blows up in their faces.
It’s a sunny 62 degrees out here in Costa Mesa, CA.
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 16 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 37. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. Tonight freezing rain and ice pellets – I hope the temperatures stay above freezing because I have an evening school event to attend. :(
Good news out of Hawaii – Muslim Ban 2.0 was sussed out as being a Muslim ban. The judge did not mince words rebuking the orange shitgibbon and his gang of haters and stayed the implementation of the order. And the Dutch people shrank in horror from the embarrassment of Geert Wilders, probably helped along by the reaction that decent people had to his BFF Steve King. I wish that the American people had been more horrified by our own embarrassment – we may never recover from the damage done to our reputation. The world had nearly forgiven us for George W. Bush … now they remember how unreliable we are when selecting our governments.
A Fox News Poll says that tRump supporters are angry about the Republicans taking away their health care. Sorry, chumps. You voted for a party that ran on repealing health care for millions. It is a package deal in our representative democracy. If you like the anti-Muslim policies so much that you can ignore the anti-YOUROWNFREAKINGSELF,YOUIDIOTS maybe you will learn a bit about how government works. Today the Republican budget will be unveiled and it includes zeroing out programs like Meals on Wheels. So they will kick granny out of the nursing home, starve her, and take away her healthcare – her death is on your blighted souls. p. freaking. s. the coal jobs are NOT coming back.
See all y’all later!