Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: July 9th through July 15th

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.

  • Page 2 of Comments can be found here.

41 Comments

  1. Good Tuesday morning Meese

    Celebrating my Yemaya birthday today with music, flowers and fruits of the earth
    Wishing you all the blessings of the mother goddess.

    • {{{Denise}}} – thank you for the blessing, it is returned many-fold. Thank you also for the music and flowers.

  2. Didn’t exercise yesterday, between the hip pain & I didn’t have anything for an afternoon snack, I just didn’t feel like it after work. But today I’m prepared. 67 days till the concert, I need to dump some weight so I can stand up for it.

    So, the Don Jr stuff. Turns out there is an e-mail showing sabotage/treason, etc — it’s just that it’s the Republicans who committed treason. Go figure. They were projecting. Lawrence asked last night why it looks like Don Jr is taking the fall for Jared. I said it’s because Jared is the son Trump wishes he had; he’s the actual favorite son.

    Brain is playing It’s The Little Things The Give You Away. Oh, hey — that’s funny.

    • I read a troubling story about Junior yesterday – that he was treated cruelly by his father (hey, so have we!!) and that he had an alcohol problem in college. I am sure that Jared is the favorite “son” and that his marriage to Trump’s daughter/creepy-love-interest intensifies that relationship.

      I am not sure how Junior takes the fall for Jared – the prosecutors are going to go where the evidence leads and they are both in it up to their necks. I guess we find out when Dad Trump won’t pardon Don Jr. but will pardon Jared.

      Gak! It is like a terrible soap opera instead of our government. I hope someone makes it stop soon.

      • A friend & I were talking and I said I hate to feel sympathy for someone who has done something sow awful. But the situation is so sad. Pops obviously likes Jared so much more than his own boys. She pointed out that we can acknowledge that the situation is sad & awful — and this is happing to people who are still awful.

        • The damage in the Trump family is generational – Fred and Mary Trump damaged Donald Trump and he in turn damaged his children. Only Tiffany managed to escape relatively unscathed probably because Marla Maples kept her as far away as possible from his influence. That doesn’t forgive them, a lot of people overcome bad parenting and turn into decent people. His offspring found the grifting life easier than earning a living through hard work – the choice was theirs.

  3. 72 at dawn already 80 – and while “they say” it’s only going up to 89 I don’t believe them. I have no idea what the air temp will get to, but i know the heat index will be over 100 by the time I get home and I’ll have to turn the A/C back on. (Been turning it on when i get home from work, running it in the evening/at night, then turning it off – if it hasn’t kicked on yet – and opening up/airing out for a few hours. I close up before i leave for work but leave the A/C off until i get home. When/if we reach the point the A/C kicks on between 2 and 6 am, I’ll leave it on all day. sigh) Got another 22+ KWH day yesterday. m-t-d is 180 at the moment.

    Political/national “war news” is bad as usual – we know what we need to do, we’re working on it, and we have hope for the positive outcome in future time, but the “outer” now sux. My online communities are supportive. I’m going to have to develop some closer local communities when I retire – for years, over a decade at least, I’ve used the work community to fulfill that function, if a bit distantly. 10 folks on my community fundraisers needs list. Hope I can get some of them off soon. I look for any gain to celebrate simply because we all need the morale boost. As with everything else, we’ll keep on keepin’ on until we get to the end or keel over trying. And that’s true on the political front, home front, and fundraising front. There is no “giving up window”.

    Need to check in with the Villages and then get some work done. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  4. Good morning, 62 and sunny in Bellingham. My grand kids are in my thoughts this morning…..Ryan is having gum surgery, Emma and Ava are sleeping now but will be with us later, and Sophia is excited about her summer ballet camp and her upcoming camping trip. They are all growing up fast now.

    Nancy LeTourneau, at the Wa. Monthly….

    We Have an Answer to the Question of Collusion

    I suspect that there is a lot more to this case than this evidence. I also suspect that Robert Mueller and his team know a lot more than we’re hearing via these leaks. But based on what we already know, the question about collusion has been answered and we’ll eventually learn just how substantial it was in depth.

  5. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 73 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 88 – the heat index will be 108. Right now it is storming but it is expected to clear this afternoon, bake us and steam us, then storm again in the evening. Some low lying areas are under flood watches – we are pretty safe here. At least the storm waited until 4am which is close to when I get up anyway.

    To those Republicans who thought “this is fine” to embrace a literal crime family and hand your party over to them, what the hell did you think would happen? The rats are finally abandoning the sinking ship. Yes, the rank and file who doesn’t know history, don’t read, and are dumber than a box of rocks, are fine with Russians (as evidenced by the latest Pew Polls) but establishment Republicans are realizing that with their legislative agenda in chaos, there is no upside to maintaining support of the shitgibbon. Yesterday, Douthart and Krauthammer said enough is enough and Scarborough officially said “not my party”. Of course all that could change if the ACA repeal blood money tax cut is delivered. They are a craven lot.

    Republicans will unveil their ACA repeal proposals tomorrow. Expected to be in there is the Cruz bill, the one that repeals all insurance regulations, the repeal and delay bill, and the buy-off-the-moderates bill – the same bill as before the break with a few coins tossed to Senators whose governors took the Medicaid expansion and who are feeling the heat. Two will be given what the Republicans think are “free passes” but if it passes, the bill will be hung around the necks of every Congressional Republican regardless of their individual vote. I am watching to see if the Senate will blow up the reconciliation rules and override the parliamentarian; the Cruz bill has features that should not be allowed under Senate rules. If they do that, McConnell has declared that the legislative filibuster is dead. Will that be a bridge too far? It will certainly be the act of a desperate party that knows it will pay an electoral price in 2018 and need to grab as much as it can before it is voted out of power. We shall see!

    This AARP ad is being run in 5 states: Colorado, Alaska, Nevada, Ohio, and West Virginia. We only need the votes of two of those plus Susan Collins and the bill is dead:

    It is a strong ad – tweet it and share it!

    See all y’all later!

    • Yes, I remember the bleatings about Rep. Henry Hyde (R) and his “youthful indiscretion” when he was 40. The pretzels they twist themselves into in order to protect white male privilege – and to Other the rest.

      • and the same thing with Dubya… I forget if it was cocaine use or what, but he was in his 30s or 40s, and they did that same “youthful indiscretion” thing

  6. Went to the gym after work yesterday, did 30 minutes on the elliptical. Not enough to lose weight, but I’m trying to keep in the habit while I figure out what’s wrong with my hip. Used the foam roller, and I made an appointment with a trainer for Friday after work.

    So, even this latest thing isn’t enough to turn people from Trump. I do think it’s sad that Jared is the obvious favorite son. What blows my mind is all the Republicans who think it’s fine to work with Russia as long as it means they win. Adding to my Tardis list: publish papers in the ‘70s & ‘80s about divisive politics & where it leads. Brain is still playing Little Things.

    Sometimes, I wake at four in the morning
    When all the darkness is swarming
    And it covers me in fear
    Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes
    Full of anger and grieving
    So far away from believing
    That any song will reappear
    Sometimes
    The end is not coming
    It’s not coming
    The end is here

    And on that cheerful note, happy Wednesday!

  7. Good Woden’s Day morning, Meese! Cloudy here in NoVa, with the promise of very high heat and possible thunderstorms. Current temp. is 72 F., going up to 90 F.

    It’s funny, I never saw Dee’s comment about Yemaya (lovely video and song) until just a minute ago, but I was calling on Yemaya all evening. The sky was cloudy all day but we weren’t getting any rain. Yemaya came through handsomely, for which I was very grateful.

    Horrible night—woke up at 3:30, couldn’t go back to sleep, got up a little after 5 and entertained myself with Twitter and the latest Trump outrage. Elder Son and family came to dinner last night, bringing Hubby’s pickup truck with them and picking up Son’s car, which Grandpa used instead. Miss Pink Cheeks stayed to dinner and then stayed the night. I’m about to cook breakfast and then take her to art camp.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, without too much awful news! My tummy is upset.

    • Her comment and video ended up on Page 2 of the Comments for this week’s welcomings. If you had Page 1 up in a tab to follow new comments you would have missed it!

  8. July 12th is the Day of Action to Protect Net Neutrality. I have downloaded and installed a feature that will put a banner on top of some of our posts showing a spinning wheel of slow-Internet suckitude and allowing you to click to support Net Neutrality.

    Net Neutrality is Under Attack, Again
    In May 2017, under the very misleading moniker: “Restoring Internet Freedom,” the FCC, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, proposed to repeal the popular Net Neutrality rules. Though millions of Internet users support the rules, powerful cable and Internet providers would like nothing more than to repeal them, so that they can act as paid gatekeepers of what we see online. Indeed, without Net Neutrality, the Internet would look a lot more like cable TV, where the content you see is what your cable provider is paid to put in front of you.

    We have to stop that from happening.

    Take Action to Protect Net Neutrality
    July 12 is an Internet-wide day of action in support of Net Neutrality. If you share our love of the free and open Internet and want to join the fight to preserve it, please join in!

    Please take a moment today to help by:
    (1) sending a message of support to the FCC, which you can do by visiting battleforthenet.com and
    (2) enabling the Fight for Net Neutrality Plugin on your WordPress site, to show your support and encourage others to take action, too.

    If it causes problems, let me know and I will shut it off.

    • Thanks for both the AARP ad and the link to battleforthenet – I’ve copied both to the DK Village diary.

  9. 76 at dawn and muggy – but I still opened up and aired out the house. House closed up but A/C off until this evening – because house closed up except for the window onto the enclosed porch so the kittehs can go in and out. If I lived in a dryer climate so that the temps would drop right after sundown, I’d be able to pretty much do without A/C – open at night and close in the day. But I don’t. The temps hit their lowest about 10 minutes after dawn – and don’t get low enough to keep the A/C from kicking on until after midnight. sigh. Oh well, got another 22-KWH day yesterday and the m-t-d is 202 at the moment.

    That’s a good AARP ad. Hope we can manage to block the killer bill – it is very deplorable that it’s even at bill. It it much more deplorable that it’s iffy as to whether or not we can peel off 3 R Senators to block it. The Rs crave power. They don’t care how they get it. They are way too short-sighted (and illogical) to understand the price demanded by the Devil when they make a deal with him. A character in a mystery series I read years ago said basically all bad stuff was a result of “cupidity and stupidity” – that pegs the Rs right down to the ground. Meanwhile, on the community needs front, still have an urgent although if things work out the way we hope she’s almost off the urgent list – but everybody else is important, too. heard from pale cold and fineena yesterday, neither with good news (and neither has received any funding this month). pale cold said the house sale may fall through as the proposed buyer was denied financing (gonna try to find a cosigner). fineena’s almost 15-y.o. dog Sam died last Friday which is always hard to deal with. She hopes Airedale Rescue is going to deal with the final expenses and will let me know. (Healing Energy to them all. And us all.)

    Gotta check the Villages then get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Good morning, 60 and sunny in Bellingham. My BCH leg is complaining about my increased activity so I’ve got to make elevating it a priority for a few days. It’s boring to stay so quiet, and reading too much news is anxiety provoking so I downloaded the new Microsoft Word Game collection. I’m playing Jumble now and will move on to the crosswords puzzles next.

    Time for coffee. Hope it’s a decent day for all!

  11. Good Thursday Meese

    Yesterday the weather was horrid here – drenching rains, winds, thunder and lightning plus flooding in low areas. We are in for more of the same today. I’ve lived up here in the Catskill mountains since 1998 – and have never seen a summer with so many tornado warning events.

    I’m scheduled to meet with a group of young Environmental Justice activists this evening – I hope it is not rained out

    Some Black History for today

    Voter suppression is one of my top issues:

    This was a good read at WaPo

    Rev. Barber’s call-out of “Christian” hypocrites

    • The event depicted in that photo should have been an embarrassment to everyone of faith. What the hell kind of prayer did they say? “Lord, give this man the strength to kick millions off health care, give him the strength to separate families leaving children without parents, give him the strength to destroy the dreams of our young people and the planet they need to live on”???!

      I feel as though we will never be able to cleanse the White House after this presidency. We had just come full-circle – the descendants of slaves were the residents of a house built by slaves. Now the destroyers of decency are there filling every room with their grossness. Arghhh!

      • Yeah. They pray for us to die so they can continue to enjoy their kingdom here on earth.
        Sick fucks.

      • Comes under the heading of “Many will cry ‘Lord, Lord’ but I do not know them” – and also “by their fruits ye shall know them” – there’s a whole lot in that book about hypocrites and these bastids are textbook and “good book” cases.

  12. Good morning, meesers! Thursday …

    It is 72 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 79. Mostly sunny skies expected. The heat index will still be high but for once there is no rain in the forecast.

    Restless night – there is a disturbance in the force and I can’t decide if it is within me or Out There. Probably some of both. After reading the stories about the latest version of the BCRAp bill that the Senate will be rolling out today – and realizing that they are using it as a vehicle to repeal Medicaid – I am having a difficult time dealing with the presence of Republicanism on this earthly plane. That 63 million people voted to give Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell the tiny fingers they need to sign legislation that will roll back the Great Society, the New Deal, and 20th Century good government is depressing. I move between anger and sadness and helplessness and determination. I know I have to let go of the anger and that is the hardest because on a daily basis the illegitimacy of the Trump Administration – they should not be in the White House – is front and center. And the damage they can do before we can get back any power is immense.

    I think I am going to go back to curating my news reading to avoid news of planned attacks on good government, the rule of law, and the vulnerable. There is too much.

    See all y’all later!

    • I’m not letting go of anger – letting it flow through me to push me forward.

      The number of people who will gleefully send other Americans to their deaths is something I’m not forgiving or forgetting.

      Those who embrace this shit can burn in the hell they believe in. Reserving a special place there for the so-called left snowflakes who contributed to this.

      • {{{Denise}}} – anger is energy and can be channeled to do good work. It’s depression we have to watch out for – that saps and drains us, curtailing the good work we could do. (And yeah, on the snowflakes.)

  13. Good Thor’s Day morning, Meese! It’s already 80 F. here in NoVa, on its way up to 100 F. with possible thunderstorms at 4 p.m. Not a good day at all.

    As Jan and Dee have already said, there is so much depressing news it’s hard not to be depressed. In addition to everything else, an iceberg the size of Delaware is on the loose. When it melts, will New York City be under water?

    Have weight training scheduled after I take Miss Pink Cheeks to art camp. I still ache fiercely from the weight training on Tuesday! Oh, well, it’ll keep me off the streets and out of the pool halls for half an hour.

    From what I hear the Senate bill to destroy Americans’ health care hasn’t enough votes to pass. Wonder what Parisians will make of The Trumpet? Will they demonstrate bigly?

    Wishing as good a day as possible to all.

    • According to my local science expert – the melted iceberg won’t increase sea levels – but the inland water that the icesheet holds back – could.

    • The reports are that there are 7 Senators who are noes. But at least 4 of them are hard-right and they will fall in line to get any sort of repeal. The other three are the keys: Susan Collins has pretty much committed no and Dean Heller and Lisa Murkowski make lip movements suggesting no but who could easily fold. I hate that our future is in the hands of these morally bankrupt people.

    • That iceberg will only cause sea-level rise if it calved off a land glacier – but it must have caused a bit of a tsunami when it hit the water. Have fun at weight training. And long may the Senate not have the votes to pass the killer bill. {{{Diana}}}

  14. Did a video for the AIDS Walk. Took 4 tries to get it under 40 mg — the biggest file the site would load.

    And a prayers/well wishes for my friend at the orange place – John’s wife has been battling leukemia & had to have emergency surgery to have part of her colon removed. She is still on a ventilator & there’s an issue with her blood pressure. He’s a good guy, and so sad & worried. Please pray for them both.

  15. Hi Folks – online early to post the DK Village diary – heading out the door to work. It’s hot and sticky here but at least I’m generating enough electricity to cover running the A/C. The news sux – and it’s really nothing but details of what Hillary warned us about last year. Resisting and persisting until we can get the power to repair damage is what we can to, so that’s what we will do. And community gives us the strength to keep doing it. {{{HUGS}}} to all – and Bright the day, Meeses.

  16. Good morning, 60 and cloudy in Bellingham. Much to my relief my leg is responding to rest and elevation, but I’ve got to stay down for a few more days. Amazing how hard it is to just stay still!

    Time for coffee. Hope all’s as well as can be today for those gathered around the moose pond.

  17. Good Friday Meese
    More thunderstorms on the way for us here in the Catskills today – had to cancel my session with young environmentalists yesterday due to the storms – my dogs were freaked out – couldn’t leave them.

    Was glad to see this – the stupidity of the ban excluding what any sane person – worldwide would call “family” had to be challenged.

    • I am glad they finally convinced the judge to wade in. He had been hesitant – he felt the ball had been tossed into SCOTUS’s court and wanted to be done with it. Grandparents not being allowed visas was pretty stupid. The Twitter campaign against it was quite well done.

    • I was glad to see it too, Dee! For goodness’ sake, in our family I have been a VIP, considering the first thing Younger Son’s children say when they wake up in the morning is, “I want to see Grandma!”

      Grandparents look after little ones so the parents can work.

  18. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 61 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 73. Mainly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Today I will take a hike, literally! I will be going to my nearest National Park to purchase my Senior Lifetime Park Pass. The NPS is increasing the cost of the Lifetime Pass from $10 to $80 on August 28th (thank you, Twitter, for keeping me informed!) and I want to beat the rush.

    The shitgibbon is embarrassing us in France as he does in every country, every day, in every way. Yesterday he tried to yank the arm off the First Lady of France then he complimented her on being beautiful. I am sure he believed that the best compliment he could give to Macron was to admire the beauty of his wife and leer at her. Pig.

    The BCRAp bill revision was released and Susan Collins and Rand Paul are still NOs. We need two more because Rand Paul is only a NO because the bill is not cruel enough and he will flip when fellow Kentuckian Mitch McConnell tells him to. Murkowski was bought off and her Planned Parenthood principled stand was apparently just for show. Our best bet is Capito (West Virginia) and Heller (Nevada). Capito’s constituents will be harmed immediately by the Medicaid repeal and Heller’s vote is, in theory, tied to his governor’s position and Sandoval is still a NO. Still too damn close – if these guys were smart they would vote against it in a block of 7-10 Senators so that no one of them will be targeted. The Senate is in recess and the first votes will be next Tuesday. The CBO will come out on Monday but Senate leadership indicated that they will ignore it even though the reconciliation rules call for it to be a part of the process. Rules are for Fools, say Senate Republicans!

    See all y’all later!

    • I have to admit – I’m not feeling very hopeful about this.
      I think our only hope will be in taking back the house.

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