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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if you need a good laugh about the Sessions hearing
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And with that: LET'S GET IT ON. https://t.co/Yn5bMEQwrJ
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) June 13, 2017
Good morning, meese! Wednesday …
It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Chance of thunderstorms today.
Well, it turns out that you can’t diss base Democrats and people of color and then go into a state and poke your boney finger at them insisting they pick a candidate who meets your purity platform. Virginia is example number elebentybillion that you can’t nationalize a local election. Tom Pierello, to his credit, immediately announced he would campaign for Northam meaning he was not a true berner – that would require peevishly claimly a mandate that did not exist and doing everything you can to bum out your followers. When I went to bed the Republican side was still too close to call with the full-throated Trumpian Johnny Reb Republican closing in. I hope he wins – wave your bloody flag of traitors and show your true colors, Republican Party, that will go well with the 60% of Americans who disapprove of your president.
I enjoyed watching the Twitter reaction to Kamala Harris. The old white boys in the Senate should be embarrassed at how their former colleague and the man they chose to be top law enforcement officer in the country is dumber than a box of rocks.
See all y’all later!
Someone updated Sen. Harris’ Wikipedia entry:
LOL!
Some idiot made a comment “Sanders-Harris 2020”
What are these people smoking?
Sanders-Harris? JHC, they are completely clueless. Women of color don’t need the patronage of old white men to get themselves on a national ticket.
Plus Sanders will be lucky to still be in the Senate in 2020.
Plus Sanders??!!??
Gods, I’m sick of Berners!
Good Wednesday Meese
60 here – going up to 80.
Horrific fire in London – Our Peter has been providing background
Writing day for me – so gotta hit the keyboards – have a good day
That is so awful, Denise!
Rich, greedy, irresponsible landlords, always trying to extract the last ounce of profit at the expense of human suffering.
Happy Wodin’s Day, all! A fair morning again, although breezy. Supposedly we are expecting thunderstorms this afternoon. At this point I’d welcome a break from the heat: it was 95 F. in Northern Virginia yesterday. Current temp. is 68 F., going up to 91 F.
Yesterday’s heat didn’t keep Northern Virginia Democrats from voting, however! Democratic turnout in an off-year election was the highest ever, a half-million, I read. How great!
As Jan indicated above, Saint Bernard and Sister Liz did not succeed in their effort to nationalize Virginia’s election. We need a candidate with Virginia experience and that’s what we’ve got. I was very much afraid that Pierrello, with his Bernie-inspired theme song of “Pie in the sky right now,” would not be able to win against a supposedly moderate Rethug like Ay-yud Gillespie. Someone mentioned that if Ay-yud doesn’t win in November, his political career will be kaput and he’ll have to retreat to private life. He can buy an opiate farm downstate, which is very red.
Had the night from hell, waking up at 12:40 a.m. and being unable to go back to sleep until 5 a.m. I’ll pay for this! It’s to be hoped that I can make up for it after lunch as we have no little people to look after today.
Wishing a good day to all! I hate to mention whose birthday it is today, so I will pointedly refrain.
I did not realize it was tRump’s birthday until I saw the mocking wishes as people tweeted out the breaking news about Mueller’s investigation now including obstruction of justice. I think this is a sign that I don’t have terrible people in my Twitter follows!
From yesterday’s NBC First Read on the Virginia primaries:
Yay, you!!!
73 at dawn which was overcast but has now cleared off. I read my clock wrong, thought I was late, and got to work an hour early. Didn’t realize it until I logged on. sigh. But I managed to use the house fans to bring the indoor temp fairly close to the outdoor temp before closing up and blasting out of there. The kittehs probably think i’m crazy. I’ll be lucky if I don’t fall asleep at my keyboard though – once the adrenaline of thinking I was late wore off…well, I’m not going to call it adrenal exhaustion because it’s not that bad, but I bet I burned up all the carbs I had with breakfast. :) hope the sunshine means above 20 KWHs today – haven’t gotten above 19 for the last several days which is not a good sign for even coming close much less passing last years monthly total of over 580. We’re at 225 KWHs m-t-d and it’s the 14th already.
Glad to seen Pierello is a real Dem and not a berner even if he did court the berners. It’s going to take all hands on deck to keep VA’s governor blue. Kamala Harris was born on my 13th birthday – heck of a present even it I didn’t know it until now. :) What is it with everybody wanting to take damn-good Senators and run them for president? Every single time one of our Senators does something good people start talking about 2020. I want Kamala Harris in the Senate. I want her in the Senate for at least the next 24 years. I want her a part of and a (a, not the) leader of a cadre of strong Dem women and allies in the Senate. I want her doing the questioning of presidential appointees no matter who is in the White House making them.
I think I’d better go put the coffee on. And check DK early as I think it’s probably going to take me longer to do everything today – at least until the coffee kicks in and the groggy goes away. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
We don’t need to keep Kamala Harris in the Senate – she is from California where the Democratic Party bench is so deep they are stacked up on each other!
We are always on the lookout for strong people who can win national elections. Barack Obama was a first term Senator when he decided to run for president. I would not have wanted him in the Senate for 24 years!
I know we can get Dems from CA just about any time right now but I still want Kamala in the Senate – I want somebody with her kind of skills asking questions, prodding where prodding is needed, and exposing the Evil Ones even when she can’t stop them from being confirmed. And crafting laws that work within the constitution to help people and further progress in this country. I’d have been happy if Hillary had spent the rest of her political life in the Senate, too. (I support Hillary doing whatever she thinks best under the circumstances – but she would have been a wonderful “Lion of the Senate”. Just as she would have been a wonderful president. sigh.)
Barack Obama has a different attitude and skillset – “Lion of the Senate” would not have been his strong point. If the timing of things had been different, I’d have preferred him to have finished his term and maybe served another before going for president, just to give him more experience working with Congress – but timing is all and he stepped up when he was needed.
We will have to disagree! Based on what I know about her, I cannot think of a better place for Kamala Harris than sitting in the Oval Office running the executive branch of our government. She is not a legislator, she is an administrator.
But we have plenty of time to sort out 2020!
Slept in, turned on the news, and I’m ready to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head. People can’t even practice for a charity ball game…… and the fire in London — residents said there were no alarms or suppression system going off. And they found a suspicious package at the IRS building here. I hate this world. Today’s plan: make baked oatmeal, go to the gym, not curl up in a ball & cry. Listening to Walk On. Beautiful, comforting, encouraging.
Good morning, 54 and raining in Bellingham. After the Sessions hearing I needed to clear my head so I spent the rest of the afternoon pruning low branches from a cedar tree and an overgrown rhodie and clearing last years fronds from the ferns growing under and around them. I’ve been trying to do that for several weeks but I just couldn’t see where to make the cuts. However it happens I had a moment of clarity yesterday , so I went to work and then I forgot to go to Ava’s school play…..bad grammie!
UW professor got it right on Trump. So why is he being ignored?
White cultural anxiety elected tRump. Period. And that problem can’t be fixed by any political movement that caters to it and encourages it – whether on the right or the left or the center (looking at you, Joe Biden!). It can only be solved by time as more and more people (or enough to become an electoral majority) realize that a diverse America is not scary but enriching, when people realize that “American” is not a race or a religion but a belief in the value of every human life.
I’ve never thought Joe Biden was so all-fired great. I remember his behavior with Anita Hill and with the credit card thing in 2005. As VP, he was okay. Hope he doesn’t have any cute ideas about running for POTUS in 2020.
Good Thursday morning Meese
56 here in the Catskills – going up to 77.
Watching the attacks on Kamala Harris… who is getting hit by crazed right wingers as well as crazed people who call themselves left.
The bogus leftists have decided to push their nut-job meme “Hillary owned slaves” – and now are saying the same about Harris.
The Rethugs are hatin’ on Harris because of her questioning of Jefferson Confederate Sessions (she is uppity and black)
Loved this tweet
They really can’t stand strong smart women and when you add her ethnicity they completely lose it. She is the perfect antidote for those of us still scarred by the 2016 election outcome; she terrifies them in a way that post-election Hillary never could: she could very well become president someday.
“Picking on” their useful idiot Sessions seems to bring out the worst in the old men of the Senate. First Elizabeth Warren, now Kamala Harris. It is beyond my ability to understand how people like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins want to be any part of the Republican Senate. If they had any self-respect they would go Independent and caucus with us.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 86. Sunny skies and a heat index in the 90s mean the air conditioning will stay on.
I had a difficult time yesterday not retweeting tweets that captured my feelings about the Republican reaction to their own people getting shot at. Welcome to Mom World where we send our children off to school or a movie theater or a mall wondering if they will be the latest victims of a country where guns rights trump common sense. And any message from the Republicans in Congress that suggests that they have a beating heart is a lie – the House voted to take health care away from 23 million people and the Senate is poised to do the same.
See all y’all later!
I was thinking about the irony of the fact that the Capitol police who saved so many lives – Crystal Griner & David Bailey – are black – the target of so much hate from Republicans
I am feeling petty about this whole “let’s heal” thing. It seems like when we say it, it is being “politically correct” but when the Republicans say it, it is “statesmanlike” and deserving of attention. The healing starts with actions not words from a man whose entire life has been dedicated to harming those who are not lucky enough to be born as Paul Ryan. The poor, the elderly, the sick, the homeless – people of color – these are all targets of Ryan’s Republican Party. And now we are asked to feel sympathy for Steve Scalise, a man who has dedicated his political career to promoting the agenda of the KKK. I feel sympathy for any victim of gun violence but I have nothing for specific person Steve Scalise.
Forgot to add that Crystal Griner – is married – to a woman.
These Republican assholes have voted to prevent that.
Don’t miss RonK’s post A Hike Through Our 100 Aker Wood.
It is a leafy balm for our shattererd nerves.
Back to work. And full weeks for the next 2. Hoping Rep. Scalise pulls through. I disagree with everything he’s ever done, but this is awful. I made oatmeal yesterday, it’s really the only thing I did. I planned to go to the gym, but after lunch I… didn’t fall asleep exactly, but was just in a sort of daze. Gym bag is in the trunk, will get in at least a round on the elliptical today.
love this addition to the defiant girl on Wall St:
My check in comment says it’s awaiting moderation. What’d I do? It has 1 embed in it, a tweet of the Wall Street girl.
That tweet had 7 links in it which the site was worrying about! Released …
thanks! I was confused.
Mid 70s at dawn – ran the fans until it was mid 70s in the house, then closed up (sort of) for the day. Still managing without the A/C but I’m pushing it. If it were sunny to go with the hot I might not (but i might – heh) be so resistant to turning it on. But I haven’t gotten even 19 KWHs in a day for the last several and my m-t-d is sitting at 244 at the moment – clouded up too, so not generating diddly right now. Only 15% chance of rain but I’m hearing thunder in the distance. We could use the water, but still…
News is war news – note it, then make some phone calls or write some letters, donate to a “good cause” be it a candidate or the ACLU or an individual (like Aji) in need of some help – money, “gently-used” clothes or books or toys, blood. If we knew we were going to be blown up tomorrow it would be OK to defer the dishes tonight. Since we don’t know and won’t know until it happens (if then), keep on keepin’ on – eat and drink for your health even if you can’t do it for pleasure, take care of house and family, go to whatever your work is. We’re at war. We’ll survive it just like we did WWII.
Speaking of work, I need to check in with the Village then get back to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 58 and raining in Bellingham today. The combination of news overload, generalized worry about everything, and being overtired from gardening and the pool lead me to my nap sofa yesterday. I don’t know how today will be but I’ve got another plant to prune just in case!
This article by Eriza Klein, at Vox gives me some hope re health care…..
Republicans are about to make Medicare-for-all much more likely
Oh dear, Ezra is a bit “pie in the sky when you die” with this one. I don’t think Mitch McTurtle is a friend to anyone or anything, least of all his fellow citizens.
That Republican overreach will eventually lead to more liberal policies, I do not doubt. That the dismantling of Senate norms – creating legislation in secret without hearings – will mean that the next Democratic president with a Democratic Congress will simply do whatever they want, I do not doubt.
Taking away people’s health care completely instead of fixing the problems with the ACA will create a vacuum that could very will be filled by Medicare For All (or Medicaid For All, like Nevada). The insurance companies, in my mind, are shooting themselves in the foot by allowing the Republicans to destroy the ACA. It is an industry friendly government program – they won’t like it when they are cut out of the market completely.
Wow, the Moose is acting up today! Finally logged out and logged back in. It’s just past noon on Thor’s Day, which has turned out to have nothing to do with Thor at all. Last night I was sitting here writing to a friend after dinner and looking out the window at the sky, which was rapidly turning black with fat rain clouds. Heard some thunder. After all that, absolutely NOTHING happened.
I will never again believe the lying liars on the weather forecast. From now on I’ll be out there in my ugliest outfit, watering all my plants, front and back, first thing in the morning.
Have Mr. Preschooler over here. Oh, man, just trying to keep up with him! He does not want to eat anything but snacks. Of course, the snacks I have are healthful, but they’re not the same as actual food. I’ve made oatmeal-walnut cookies for tea and carved tiny cantaloupe and honeydew balls for lunch (after the other stuff, of course).
Have been up since 6 a.m.—did get a decent night’s sleep for once—am so tired I could fall down. Hope Granny’s Precious will consent to have a nap after lunch so I can!
Oh, I forgot. It’s cloudy here in NoVa this morning, 78 F. now, going up to 84 F. later.
Sorry to hear that the site was rude to you!
This weekend I might actually have time to do some maintenance on it. I have been too busy again (still?) and am very disorganized right now.
There are definitely some gremlins in the WordPress pipeline today. I can’t look at it until the morning.
Sorry, peeps!
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 84. The heat index will be 95 and there is a chance of thunderstorms all day. It looks like a front will move through late Saturday and finally bring some relief from the heat (and air-conditioning bills!).
The Republicans appear to be poised to pass a blank piece of paper that they fill in with werds at the last minute – completing the destruction of the second branch of the federal government. I am pretty sure that the guys who wrote the Constitution did not include the phrase “and if one party gains both Congress and the Executive Branch they can suspend the normal rules of both branches and do whatever the hell they want”. Although maybe I missed it. Each day brings news of more ways that the 2016 election will bring lasting damage to our democracy. Goddess help us.
See all y’alls later!
The site gremlins appear to have settled down. I had been getting “mysql” errors when I tried to post comments suggesting that the database was having problems. I suspect there was an issue with our hosting firm and I am hoping it has been corrected. I did run an optimization this morning to make sure the database is solid and it encountered no errors.
Onward – Together!
Thanks for the maintenance work, Jan!
omg, it’s hot and it’s only 6:30. Weather people have been adding heat indexes to the forecast for a couple of weeks, and there’s an advisory just to our west. Did we actually manage a day yesterday with no new horrors, or were they so busy reporting on the old ones that they missed some? I’m just going to turn up the U2 song playing in my head.
A Twitter peep from Texas posted a weather map with heat indexes (indices?) on them and it looks brutal. I remember once visiting Houston in the summertime and seeing it was already over 90 (with 90% humidity!) at 6am. I could not live there – I melt in high heat and humidity.
I remember back in the days of VHS, a friend sent a recording of a TV show to family up north. It included the beginning of a newscast, and you know how they have the temperature in the bottom of the screen. It was 90something at 10pm – his family thought it was a mistake. Sigh.
In Arizona, that is typical summer nighttime temperatures. I was surprised when I was there vacationing some years ago because I thought that when the sun went down it would cool down. It does – eventually – but it is not usually “cool” until 4 or 5 in the morning. I would get up and sip coffee on the deck in the early mornings to take advantage of the only time a living human could stand to be outside.
but in Arizona, it’s dry – here, we’re covered with a hot wet blanket, it doesn’t cool off till Halloween. Air conditioners are necessary.
Good morning, Meese, and happy Freya’s Day! Was delighted to get up this morning and notice there was a shower during the night. That means I don’t have to water anything this morning. “They” say there will be rush-hour showers tonight. We shall see. The new plantings done by professionals look very happy and appear to be growing. The lavenders I planted constantly look as if they’re about to pop their clogs. I’m keeping a wary eye on them.
Current temp. is 69 F., going up to 80 F. We have a social engagement this morning, so I hope to just potter about quietly before and after. I might even be able to get some writing done tonight.
Whoo-hoo, it looks as if Mueller is getting all his ducks in a row, ready to start bringing them down. Hope this results in the downfall of The Occupant and his minions. However, the thought of a President Hatch makes me feel nauseated too. Perhaps he’s too old and tired to do much damage.
Oh, old Oral Hatch still has plenty of hate left in him. I saw him make an ugly comment just last week.
The WaPo article a couple of days ago that discussed for the first time that obstruction of justice was being investigated said that the investigation actually began the day after the orange vomit-sack made his comments on national TV that he fired Comey to block the Russia investigation. From the sounds of it, Mueller simply took over that investigation and merged it into his portfolio. That is why Rosenstein told the Senate panel that he might be a witness in part of the Mueller investigation. That charge may very well be the one that even Congress can’t overlook. The question is whether or not it will require the firing of Mueller to get them to finally put Constitution over Party.