Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: July 2nd through July 8th

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

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

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

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

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


– Page 1 of Comments can be found here

49 Comments

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

    Morning low of 61 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 81. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Good Sunday Morning Meese

    Today is the anniversary of LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – which is the topic of my Sunday Orange Sermon

    How it was broadcast then

    Barry Goldwater

    Just saw that the “Our Revolution” new President Nina Turner has made a statement

    Guess she has no clue about Libertarians being against the Civil Rights act ….this revolution imho is revolting

    Jan posted

    • Their revolution is definitely revolting. :) They bought the unicornism that Bernie Sanders was selling and the price we are all paying is Unified Republican Government which is bent on killing us and destroying everything we hold dear. Privileged white males – the bro sweet spot – have no skin in the game, they will thrive under either regime. It is the rest of us who suffer from their selfishness.

      My biggest beef with them is that they don’t understand the two-party system. If they want “better” Democrats, fine, have at it – run in a Democratic Party primary and make the case with the voters. But to split the liberal vote only insures that the Republican will win. At a state level, all you have to do is look at Maine – there were enough total liberal votes to elect someone other than Paul LePage but because they were split between the Democrat and the purity candidate, he was elected and re-elected. People have died because of his policies and the blood is on the hands of the purists. I have no patience for them.

  3. This is just so sad. We should be reaching out to these young people, showing them an America that is welcoming – instead we crush their dreams and create new enemies.

    U.S. rejects travel visa for Afghan teenage girl robotics team

    The United States denied travel visas for six teenage girls from Afghanistan looking to attend an international robotics competition in Washington, D.C this month.

    The all-girl team from Herat, a city in western Afghanistan, applied for a one-week travel visa to attend the FIRST Global Challenge in mid-July. To interview for their visas, they had to travel about 500 miles to the U.S. embassy in Kabul. They made that trek a second time after their first application was rejected, but they were rejected yet again.[…]

    As Forbes first reported, it’s hard for Afghan nationals to obtain visas to the United States. State Department records reveal that in April 2017, only 32 Afghan nationals received the B1/B2 business travel visas that the girls also applied for. For comparison, 1,492 nationals of neighboring Pakistan received that visa in the same month.

    Organizations need to boycott the United States and hold these competitions in Canada or France or some country that is not bat-guano crazy. It is unfair to put these young people at the mercy of the nazis who have taken over our national government.

    • This is so very shameful, but so emblematic of our country under Trump.

    • I posted this on FB & asked – as interconnected as the world is, can’t we find any Americans who are related to any of these girls?

    • The bros are afraid they can’t beat Afghani girls. And yes, the international competitions should be held outside the USA until we get sane government again. (And I’m not just talking aboutpvl45 – I do not consider it sane to use the obvious insanity of someone who never should have been elected as a smokescreen to destroy one’s own country. The elitist bastids can hold their noses at those of us who travel steerage – it’s not nice, but it’s not dangerous – but drilling holes in the bottom of the ship to get rid of us is insane.)

    • A former diplomat tweeted that the problem is not that the Afghan consulate is heartless but that there is no facility for an individual consulate member or ambassador to override policy when it is clearly a mistake.

      His tweet:

  4. Good Sunday morning, Moosekind! It’s 71 F. here in NoVa on a clear day, going up to 90 F. I’ll have to water everything after breakfast. We’re back to drought conditions after a rainy spring. The “60%” chance of rain yesterday failed to materialize. Sigh. Well, at least we had rain into the month of June, even if it stopped the last two weeks.

    Today is our son’s 47th birthday, so I’ll just reflect on that and think about how proud we are of him. Don’t know whether I mentioned he was named “salesman of the year” at his company a month or so ago.

    Took a day for myself yesterday and just lazed around reading. It was nice not to think about Thing, although I did read that his mental or emotional state is becoming dangerously unstable. Wonder when it’s all going to come down.

    Wishing everyone a good Sunday.

    • Unfortunately, dangerously unstable people can go on for a very long time especially when enabled by a craven political party – that happens to control all three branches of government. Republican leaders will ignore his increasingly embarrassing and unhinged rants in pursuit of their policy goals.

      Glad you gave yourself a day off! You have been running yourself ragged lately.

    • In Rochester, we’ve had rain, rain, and more rain. The weeds in my “wild” areas look like something from the Amazon jungle, they are growing so fast.

      Happy Birthday to your son! My sons turn 18 on Wednesday. With Trump in power, that makes me very uneasy.

    • A Happy Birthday to your son and glad to hear you are lazing :)

    • {{{Diana}}} – Happy Birthday (and congratulations) to your son! My eldest turned 46 in March. Which doesn’t say “old” to me nearly as much as his eldest who will be 20 in November. :)

      We’re still getting some rain once or twice a week. Not a lot mostly but did get .8″ last Friday so I don’t need to water my “nursery stock” and my 2 new herbs that are not yet established just yet. Mental health days are good since staying mentally healthy is good. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning! It’s a beautiful sunny morning in Rochester, after many days of rain. 66 degrees right now.

    Yesterday I saw two fawns nursing right outside my study window. It was funny to watch them stamp their feet as they nursed–I had never seen that before!

    I’ve been away from the Moosepond for awhile–I find it hard to be active on more than one site–but I’ve missed the meese! I hope to visit more often, now that I’ve reset my forgotten password.

    • I have no idea where you find time for all the helping you do – you are amazing.

      • Thank you, Denise, but I think you may be confusing me with someone else? Unfortunately, I don’t do half the helping I should–or at least wish I could. 🙁

        • Well, Bfitz is also a Barbara. I wonder if that created the confusion.

          And don’t worry about not doing as much as she does – literally no human can keep up with her! :)

          • well, thank you folks for the complement – I’m not that good. But I’ve listened to good people all my life and tried to do what I thought they’d want me to do. That’s all I’m doing now. lots of {{{HUGS}}}

        • Reply wound up under your post – was meant for BFitz – sorry for the confusion :)

  6. I crashed after going to the grocery store yesterday. I really intended to spend a lot of time at the gym, but I just… like I said, crashed. The Dr. Who marathon didn’t help but I was going to get an elliptical with wifi & figure out how to watch it there. The season finale was devastating. Christmas is so far off. Now watching Le Tour & waiting for Joy Reid. I will go to the gym after church. No, really. There’s an impeachment rally, but it’s this morning so I’m missing out.

    It’s so hot – 80 degrees at 8am, headed toward 100s. Blech.

  7. Good morning, 62 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. Emptying Ron’s study, installing the new carpet, and then putting the room back together again was a days work. The room has an angled wall and was hard to measure so I was very relieved when we unrolled the new rug and it fit. Next winter we’ll empty the room again to repair the walls and wood work paint everything. And we’ll work away at having less to move. I seem to horde books and Ron has over 40 yrs years of work related books and files so it’s a lot to edit.

    Ron’s brother and his wife arrive for a visit today so I’ve got flowers to arrange and some baking to do. We’ll meet them for dinner tonight, the family will all be here for diner on Mon, then those that can will be back for a barbecue on the 4th…..lots of food, and I hope some relaxed visiting time will happen too!

  8. 67 around dawn of a clear and sunny day that I’ve already generated over 2 KWHs on. I see some white fluffy clouds to the west but as long as they don’t get between my roof and the sun… :) well, maybe we’ll see just how much electricity my system can generate 12 days after the summer solstice. maybe. At least as long as we don’t get the usual humidity to go with our projected high of 88 I should be able to keep the A/C off for one more day. :)

    Another day ending in “y” – pvl45 said or tweeted something insane and meanwhile the Koch-owoned Rs under Kobach are trying to get everybody’s social security numbers to leak to the Russians (or get people to un-register to vote in order to keep their social security number from being leaked to the Russians) – so ignore pvl45 and work on your state’s SoS to stop that.

    Michael was sofa shopping yesterday and will be watching cricket next weekend so the British Breakfast is taking a vacation. I need to get over to DK, read Denise’s FP, and check on yesterday’s Sharing Saturday diary – Mufftootuff lives in IN where if you own the car necessary for you to find work and stay employed you are obviously too wealthy to need governmental or charitable help. Evil, evil people running the state my mother and her family “came from” (as in moved there in the 1820s). Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}

  9. Quick check in; nice and sunny today, better than the thunderstorms and power outage yesterday (thank goodness for generators). My parents should be here shortly, and we’ll socialize and have burgers and corn on the cob for dinner. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

  10. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 63 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    I had a sleepless night – beside myself over the news that Justice Kennedy will be retiring next spring and that our last hope for a block on the damage coming from a Republican government will end forever. If they destroy the last bit of voting rights, we will never regain power. The Supreme Court is really just another institution corrupted by the Republican Party and Anthony Kennedy is no different than the rest of them. That he is not disturbed that his decision in Obergefell will likely be overturned by a hard-right court – and that his legacy will then be Citizens United and Shelby – says a lot about the sort of person he is. Bush v Gore forever tainted the 21st century court and that we are have a sociopathic con man propped up by the old Confederate States choosing the direction of the court for the next 20 years is not surprising.

    The Senate’s new BCRAp was sent to the CBO for scoring. This is the one that removes the ban on pre-existing conditions and lifetime limits and culls the herd of people too sick for a Republican government to be bothered with. It will win over the Lee/Cruz/Johnson/Paul holdouts – it is what they have been clamoring for. The only question is whether or not it loses more “moderates”. My initial reaction is that they will be fine with it because, really, all that they want is a fig leaf “Look, I voted for repeal!” The people who die from their actions are unimportant – Frank Luntz will just find some pretty words for them to use to cover up the murder.

    Busy morning as I have to get to stacked up accounting work from the end of the quarter.

    See all y’all later!

    • Good morning! It’s beautiful, sunny and 67 degrees here in Rochester.

      I hadn’t heard about Kennedy. That’s truly terrifying news.

      • Stuck in a paragraph in an NPR report on the Gorsucks court:

        It is unlikely that Kennedy will remain on the court for the full four years of the Trump presidency. While he long ago hired his law clerks for the coming term, he has not done so for the following term (beginning Oct. 2018), and has let applicants for those positions know he is considering retirement.

        I suppose there is some ambiguity there (Twitter didn’t think so!). I would hope that he is persuaded by less partisan people that if your only legacy is two decisions that have destroyed honest elections in America that you might want to hang on until some of the damage from those decisions can be undone. If he retires in June 2018, the Republicans have a campaign issue to run on in the Senate midterms – putting that last piece in place for a permanent hard-right majority on the court. The court “vacancy” helped them win in 2016, I have no doubt that those same people will come to the polls in 2018 to finish the job.

  11. Good Monday morning Meese
    61 here in the Hudson Valley going up to 96. Fingers crossed we will not have thunderstorms and tornado cells today

    Was elated to see this ad running on my local TV

    Droga5 Brings Together Descendants of America’s Founders for Its First Ancestry.com Ad
    Fourth of July spot shows how the country has changed

    Everyone in the spot, which is the first work for the brand from Droga5 New York, is a descendant of the one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Droga5 was officially named Ancestry.com’s lead creative agency earlier this month.

    “Declaration Descendants,” which will run in 60- and 30-second versions, makes its broadcast debut today. The campaign, which will be supported by digital, social media, out-of-home and cinema components, as well as media collaborations and PR initiatives (via PR agency Weber Shandwick), will run through July 13.

    Droga5 pitched the concept in response to its first brief and began working on the idea in early May.

    “Fourth of July is a time of great national pride, and our new campaign is a portrait of how America has evolved. Diversity isn’t just something we value as Americans; it’s quite literally part of who we are,” Ancestry chief marketing officer Vineet Mehra said in a statement provided to Adweek.

    “We are living in a time when many people feel disconnected from one another, and one of the most powerful things we can do is to show how connected we really are,” he added. “The ‘Declaration Descendants’ campaign highlights how our individual and collective history is an important part of our country’s complex DNA and that we are all universally connected, sometimes in unexpected ways.”

  12. Good Moon Day morning, Moosekind! It’s beautiful here in NoVa, current temp. 70 F., going up to 90 F.

    This will be a largely child-free week (except for dinner tomorrow night), so I hope to get a lot done. This morning will be spent planting what we bought yesterday, except for the barberry. I’ll have to call someone to plant that. In the afternoon I want to tidy the house, which is full of evidence of little ones.

    Last night barbarians in our neighborhood were letting off fireworks until 11 p.m. I wish them every sort of ill. I don’t think the police would have done anything or I would have called them. There are people who work for a living, who go to sleep early, and do not need their sleep disturbed on a night that is not July Fourth!

    Didn’t know that about Kennedy retiring next spring. Bummer! I’m losing hope for this country.

    Hope everyone will have as good a day as possible.

    • That was the other reason for my sleep being disturbed; I had to sleep with the a/c on because I couldn’t open the windows due to some knotheads shooting off fireworks deep into the night. :(

      Some people are working today. I hope my clients have no crises because I really need some uninterrupted time with my accounting projects.

  13. Slept in (how come I can sleep in the morning but not at night??), watching the local news. Hitting mute on national stories. Hot — 78 this morning, 100 degree high. Watched Serenity last night, so the theme is stuck in my head. I especially love the beginning — that sweet, deep cello (or viola?), it’s like water I didn’t know I was thirsty for.

  14. 67 at more or less dawn – overcast so far today – and heading for mid to upper 80s (which is what they said yesterday but we hit 92 with a heat index of 103) – still have the A/C off. Got 17 KWHs yesterday (right at 33 m-t-d at the moment). Takes an average of 18 KWHs/day to cover running the A/C so long may I manage to keep it off.

    The Rs will stay in power as long as the 6 RW corporation consortium who owns the media wants them to. (Unless we manage to circumvent and/or break up that consortium.) And if we don’t manage to protect the Courts until we can at least get a bare majority in Congress, that will be when the economy is so trashed that they are in danger of going down. The media coverage of Rs and Dems will flip and we’ll get power long enough to clean up the mess and get them sucking in money again. And no longer if we do not address the ownership of the media issue. A lot of people will die in the interim. Some of violence, some of preventable medical issues, some of starvation and neglect. Ultimately we will win back power. I hope we win back enough to break up that consortium while we’re cleaning up the devastating mess we will be in once we do.

    I’ve got work to do – yes, I’m at work (got tomorrow off, though) – so I’d best get to it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good morning, 61 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Between the carpet caper on Sat, and company arriving prep yesterday I’m weary this morning. The family will all be here for dinner tonight so I hope to have some quiet time before everyone arrives for the day.

    Ron decided go for a walk instead of the gym yesterday morning, and to his surprise witnessed the birth of a baby seal . He had his camera so I’m sure he will write a photo essay. The board walk at Boulevard Park is over the water so mama and baby were on the rocky beach below, safe from humans.

  16. Fourth of July Meese

    Listening to Frederick Douglass

    Posting Martin Luther King’s 4th of July speech at DKos this morning at 9 AM “The American Dream”

    • David Remnick wrote a piece in the New Yorker, published this past week, that opened and closed with parts from Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July Speech.

      “American Dignity on the Fourth of July”Reading Frederick Douglass’s Independence Day address from 1852 may ease the despair caused by listening to the President.

      More than three-quarters of a century after the delegates of the Second Continental Congress voted to quit the Kingdom of Great Britain and declared that “all men are created equal,” Frederick Douglass stepped up to the lectern at Corinthian Hall, in Rochester, New York, and, in an Independence Day address to the Ladies of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing Society, made manifest the darkest ironies embedded in American history and in the national self-regard. “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” Douglass asked:

      I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

      The dissection of American reality, in all its complexity, is essential to political progress, and yet it rarely goes unpunished. One reason that the Republican right and its attendant media loathed Barack Obama is that his public rhetoric, while far more buoyant with post-civil-rights-era uplift than Douglass’s, was also an affront to reactionary pieties. Even as Obama tried to win votes, he did not paper over the duality of the American condition: its idealism and its injustices; its heroism in the fight against Fascism and its bloody misadventures before and after. His idea of a patriotic song was “America the Beautiful”—not in its sentimental ballpark versions but the way that Ray Charles sang it, as a blues, capturing the “fullness of the American experience, the view from the bottom as well as the top.” […]

      Frederick Douglass ended his Independence Day jeremiad in Rochester with steadfast optimism (“I do not despair of this country”). Read his closing lines, and what despair you might feel when listening to a President who abets ignorance, isolation, and cynicism is eased, at least somewhat. The “mental darkness” of earlier times is done, Douglass reminded his audience. “Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe.” There is yet hope for the “great principles” of the Declaration of Independence and “the genius of American Institutions.” There was reason for optimism then, as there is now. Donald Trump is not forever. Sometimes it just seems that way.

      “Donald Trump is not forever” And it is up to us to make sure that modern Republicanism, not the “free the slave” kind of old-fashioned Republicanism, is never again in a position of power over us.

      • Well, Thing thinks very highly of Frederick Douglass and would like to invite him to the White House. Never mind that this great figure of American history has been dead for some years.

        Being here at the Moose has given me the education I never received in my school days down South. Deeply grateful to Dee and Jan! So glad to know you and everyone else here.

    • An AP article pulled together thoughts from 2017: For People Of Color, Fourth Of July Holiday Brings Mixed Feelings

      As many in the United States celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, some minorities have mixed feelings about the revelry of fireworks and parades in an atmosphere of tension on several fronts.

      How do you celebrate during what some people of color consider troubling times?

      Blacks, Latinos and immigrant rights advocates say the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, recent non-convictions of police officers charged in the shootings of black men, and the stepped-up detentions of immigrants and refugees for deportation have them questioning equality and the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the United States.

      • Thank you for that link. I have very mixed feelings – since many people still don’t think of us as “citizens” and founders.

        • Someone pointed out yesterday on Twitter that the only people GUARANTEED citizenship, and the right to vote, in the Constitution are white male landowners. The rest of us have had to have the privilege granted to us. I am certain that a majority of Republicans believe that the franchise should never have been extended.

          • You’re right about the Rs – even the “landowner” part isn’t a bar because those who don’t own land think that they would if only women and minorities didn’t/couldn’t. sigh.

      • This is absolutely horrific! Being a white police officer is a license to kill in this country, a license to kill people who are alive while black.

        If we EVER get the reins of government again, reeducation for the police must be a priority! And if it doesn’t “take,” then they can either get fired or go to some island somewhere.

  17. Good morning, meese! Tuesday that feels like Saturday …

    It is 54 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Sunny skies with a few clouds this afternoon. The heat index will be 91 so I am going to enjoy having windows open for as long as I can before the house gets shut down again.

    I have no holiday plans other than to “not have any plans”. As I get older, that seems to be my favorite. :) I do have a few accounting projects that I still need to finish up and maintenance on my clients networks that has to be done when they are not working that I may do today rather than wait for the weekend. But right now sipping coffee and reading stories on the Internet seems the right speed.

    I noticed that North Korea launched a missile and the NY Times lede was “experts say that this type of missile could reach Alaska.” Sigh. That is really all the provocation that President “I can fix everything” needs. He was convinced that he cut a deal with China (“I make the best deals”) and he will be angry to find out that he is not the boss of the world – power is shared globally now and the biggest source of power is not military but moral, the ability to gather allies to our causes by persuasion and example. He has systematically destroyed all the good feelings from the Obama years and replaced them with petty grievance and the prospect of being mooned by our staunchest ally, Great Britain. Sign again!

    See all y’all later!

  18. Slept in, watching Le Tour & local news. Some of the bikes have cameras & they show clips of what it’s like, which is wild. Got in 2 workouts yesterday, and made healthy lunch for probably 3 weeks. (did an elliptical session, shopped & cooked then while I let it sit & the flavors blend, went back & did a weight workout) Planning on getting in a walk today, maybe. It’s a wee bit warm, but not so bad it’s dangerous. And I need to get stuff together for back to work tomorrow.

  19. Good morning, Meese, it’s cloudy in NoVa. Will we have a thunderstorm? Don’t stay tuned, I’m sure we won’t. It’s 75 F. right now, going up to 90 F.

    Got to run to Trader Joe’s, then weed the patio and water the gardens, front and back. I was wondering why the petunias in the front porch pots are so luxuriant and the ones on the screened porch so straggly until I remembered that Mr. Preschooler emptied a whole cup of liquid fertilizer into the front porch pots!

    Our on-again, off-again gardener Jose came yesterday and planted the barberry in the front mulch bed. I like its bright red color. Think it’ll look nice.

    Must tidy the house this afternoon and make a blueberry cake. Younger Son and family are coming over at 5 p.m., with Younger Son supplying and cooking the burgers. We’ll supply everything else.

    Wishing all a good Fourth. I can’t ever think of the Founding Fathers again without remembering most of them owned other human beings and had the power of life and death over them. That definitely tempers my enthusiasm for the country’s “birthday.”

  20. 68 at a cloudy, off and on drizzly, dawn. Doubt I’m going to generate much today unless this passes through. Considering the projected high is 75 I kind of doubt it. It’s dribbling production in the low 3-digit watts at the moment but the m-t-d is 50 at the moment and as long as I can avoid running the A/C I’m fine.

    Independence Day always brings, always will bring, mixed feelings to anyone paying attention to our history (and not mythology). The point I tend to bring up is not just “OK, this is where we started but see how far we’ve come” – but that this was a declaration of intent. At the time it was made we’d been more-than-less at war with Britain for a year and skirmishing for longer than that. It was 6 more years before we managed to win that war with the help of allies (mostly enemy of our enemy is our friend allies but some “hey! I like that idea!” allies). And it took another war a generation later to “make it stick” and get the U.S.A recognized by the other nations of the world. So it took time, hard work, and lives to get to the point where we could even think of moving forward on that intent. And work was already starting on that intent by the time we were recognized. There were already abolitionists at work. There were already feminists at work. We’re a work in progress. Sliding back now, but we’ve been here before and we’ll get out of here quicker this time. And make more progress.

    Having today “off” means I can work on my unpaid-unofficial job with the community needs stuff at DK without hiding it from my boss. LOL. The work PC is easier to use than my laptop, but it works. I wish I had a spare $15K – I’d get some of those folks permanently off the needs list. (Like MaureenMower – she can’t get a job until she gets a car. We keep covering her rent & stuff but… without the car she keeps having to come back for the next month’s rent & stuff.) Oh well – the same patience needed politically is also needed for the fundraisers. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

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