Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Aug. 13th through Aug. 19th

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 One of Comments can be found here.
Page Two of Comments can be found here.

36 Comments

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

    Morning low of 54 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 77. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. I was “watching” the Klanazi rally story via Twitter yesterday and the takes are so hot that I had to set my phone down for fear of getting scalded.

    No, the deaths resulting from white supremacy will not mark a turning point in American history. No, the shitgibbon both-sidesing the nazis and the protesters will not “destroy his support”. No, Congressional Republicans shocked and upset that “nazis” are coddled by the tRump administration will not stop confirming his white nationalist selections for cabinet and sub-cabinet posts and the federal judiciary.

    What it will do is make us more determined than ever to see the end of Republican rule and find a way to punish the Party of Hate electorally.

    By the way, best snark headline: “In Unexpected Development, Nazi March Turns Violent”. Who could have predicted that?

  3. Can we teach enough people to love so that the haters will never gain power again?

  4. Good morning, Meese! A lovely sunny day with wispy white clouds after yesterday’s rain. Current temp. in NoVa is 67 F., going up to 85 F. later. The family patriarch, who turned 87 today, has been served a royal breakfast by yrs truly; now the “fun” of tidying the house begins. How one hates housework!

    However, at least it’ll take my mind of Charlottesville for a bit. I’m stunned—first of all that the Christofascists marched in that particular town, secondly by the violence, and thirdly, the fact that The Occupant claimed the fault lay with “many sides.” Charlottesville is, or was, such a nice, sleepy little town full of historic associations. All the radio stations play country music, but the cafes and coffee shops offer the usual pretentious food.

    To get into the University of Virginia, which I learned to my shock-horror was all male as recently as the 1960s, one must have a very high standard of academic excellence. We went there a few years ago to have a look at it. It reminded me of Oxford and Cambridge, in a way.

    Well, it’s time to start getting everything ready. May it please Goddess that this is our last hosting event until Christmas! Even though I’m buying all the food and using paper plates, it’s still a heap of work. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and sympathy to those hurt in Charlottesville.

    • Hosting family events is indeed a lot of work Diana. Have you ever added up the number of family birthdays you have celebrated? It’s fun and important, but over the years it’s a whole lot of cakes!

      Best Birthday Wishes!

  5. Well, there don’t seem to be any pool noodles left in Austin stores. I may just swim laps. Today: church, housework, either the pool or maybe the bike at the gym won’t hurt my ankle. Here, listen to Peace Train.

    • anotherdem…….I use most of my pool time walking and jogging in place. And I use the noodle (or the pool rails and/or steps ) to bicycle with my legs. The support and resistance of the water allows me to move in ways I can’t on land. I can still get the benefit of weight bearing exercise but my joints and blood clot leg are better protected from impact injury. Adding some pool time to your workout schedule may be something you will enjoy too.

  6. Good morning, 61 and cloudy in Bellingham. The air is moist, a breeze is moving the leaves on the old maple trees, and the smell of smoke is finally easing. The cleansing power of nature is at work.

    So my challenge for today is to find a way to be cheerful and more positive about the world we are living in. If I stay as gloomy as I feel at the moment I’ll upset everyone and miss out on the fun of being in the moment with my grand kids. Ryan will arrive this afternoon for a week’s visit so I’d best start deep breathing asap!

  7. 66 when I got up – a little late because Cloud is not as reliable as an alarm cat when it’s raining which it’s been doing since 4 am – and I am only here purely because I cannot bear to shatter the peace of the morning with the vacuum cleaner. Especially not while the cats are asleep. Don’t have anywhere near a whole KWH this morning so far and only got 10.5 yesterday. The m-t-d is 124.8 so if I can get 10 today that will at least keep me at a 10/day average. Not good for August but what is, is. (At the 10/day average I won’t even reach the 350 KWHs I did in Aug 2014 when I was still on the 2..5K system.) At least with the A/C off, I’m staying ahead of my usage. I think.

    As to the news – Horrified, yes. Shocked or even surprised? no. Since the election the issue hasn’t been if, it’s been when. And since we aren’t assisting Hillary to restructure the Criminal Justice system, but instead doing what little we can to resist the R administration making it worse, it will happen again. The Klan and Nazis have marched over the years. They’ve been outnumbered by non-violent “counter-protesters” whenever they’ve done so. The difference is in the police response. When the police stand by and watch until it explodes you get yesterday’s results. When the police stand between the two groups and immediately arrest and remove the first ones to spit, throw something, or raise a weapon you don’t. It’s as simple as that. As long as our police departments are a covert arm of the Haters, this will happen again and get worse. This is the primary place that Hillary’s comment about you don’t change hearts and minds, you change policy and allocation of resources – after that’s in effect you might change a few hearts and minds. is the only way to bring about positive change. sigh. Holding the Good Thought and sending Healing (and Protective) Energy to Charlottesville and all other places where this has happened – and will happen.

    Don’t think anything’s moved on my community needs list fundraisers – unfortunately the first reaction to these terrible things happening of most people at DK (at least the ones who have anything to give) doesn’t seem to be to find somebody in need and help them. It seems to be “why are you bothering me when all this important stuff is going on” – as if making sure somebody on chemo gets their car fixed so they can keep making their appointments isn’t important. Some people’s priorities are a little skewed. But then, that’s how we ended up with this administration in the first place. (Not that we couldn’t have had a different result if we’d managed to prevent the voter suppression, but with the voter suppression we needed those purist votes. sigh.)

    Gonna go check on Denise’s diary and then read Michael’s breakfast. I’ve got a sort of candidate diary going up over at DK at noon central – the Fairfax County VA school board election on the 29th – so I’d best finish my housework before then. heh. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 57 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 75. Showers this morning and thunderstorms this afternoon.

    The Klanazis are unhappy that their unhooded faces are all over social media and at least one of them was fired. Some people are upset because one of them was found in a photo op with Senator Dean “Kill the Poors” Heller and how could he know the guy was a nazi – he was meeting with College Republicans! Guess what? Lee Atwater was a College Republican, Karl Freaking Rove was a College Republican. And of course your party’s youth groups are attracting nazis – your party is a party of hatred and intolerance and your president is their Grand Wizard. I don’t expect anything to come of all the Congressional harrumphing – the shitgibbon owes his presidency to his commitment to protecting white European culture and will say nothing and quietly deliver on his promise of a race war backed with the full strength and force of the United States government.

    Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III will have a pro forma announcement today vowing to look into how the protesters got their faces in the way of the Klanazis jackboots and dared to cross a street in front of an economically anxious young man, a “troubled” young man, of course. And the country will continue to be a dangerous place for people of color – made more dangerous because the federal government is refusing to enforce the laws that were passed to protect their civil rights.

    See all y’all later!

  9. Monday and finally made it home about a half hour ago from Atlanta and Netroots after leaving at 2 in the afternoon – nightmare trip with cancellations of planes – and total confusion including a passenger revolt. Wound up taking a Lyft ride with two other fellow travelers and headed upstate from Newark – where we were loaded onto a plane in the middle of the night that the pilot refused to fly – it was overloaded with baggage.
    Lots to share about NN after I get some sleep

    • Travel nightmares seem to be the norm lately. I am glad to hear you finally made it home!

      I am anxious to hear about NN and your take on the events over the weekend.

      • I really enjoyed some of the events – and absolutely hated others/
        Will pull my thoughts together after I get some sleep

  10. Just saw this in Chitown Kev’s diary

    As a person who has been on the net since bulletin boards – this was a stunner

    • Yes, the guy who invented Godwin’s Law says to go ahead and compare these guys to Nazis:

      “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1, that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or his deeds”

  11. Ah, Monday. I brought workout stuff — gonna see how my ankle feels about the stationary bike at the gym. Nazis are planning a rally at Tx A&M, on Sept. 11. Wait, it gets worse —

    The planned site for Wiginton’s rally is a fountain named after famous Aggie Gen. James Earl Rudder, who led a group of Army Rangers up 100-foot cliffs to topple Nazi gun barracks during the D-Day invasion.

    For a long time, I mis-heard the lyrics of Pride as saying “one more, in the name of love” — as in asking for one more like King to be sent to humanity. I think my mis-hearing is better, because we could certainly use one more.

  12. Sorry for the Moose outage, peeps. I lost the site for about 30 minutes.

    The hosting firm had this to say:

    Unplanned Maintenance
    Our System Administration team has identified issues requiring unplanned maintenance on our shared servers. Customers with accounts housed on these servers may experience temporary connectivity issues to their website and email while the maintenance is performed. No ETA is currently available but updates will be provided here.

    I hope Daily Stormer wasn’t trying to move to our shared server and crashed it!!

  13. Here is a nice list of all the “thoughts and prayers” statements from Senate Republicans. Some decry violence without being specific, some go after generic “hatred” without saying “which side” is doing the hating, a few go after white supremacists and nazis specifically. I laughed out loud at Young Tom Cotton – Man With No Mirror:

    “I’m currently traveling in the Balkans, where the long, violent history of ethnic supremacism still stalks the land and is a reminder of how unique America is. White supremacists who claim to ‘take America back’ only betray their own ignorance of what makes America so special: our country’s founding recognition of the natural rights of all mankind and commitment to the defense of the rights of all Americans. These contemptible little men do not speak for what is just, noble, and best about America. They ought to face what they would deny their fellow citizens: the full extent of the law.”

    “Contemptible little men” pretty much defines the modern Republican Party.

    • At least he said it. I’ll call and thank him. Maybe it will convince him to pay more attention when I call and say I don’t like something he did/is planning to do if I remember to thank him for something he did right. (And there’s a slim and only effecting white males difference between the white supremacy of the KKK and the white supremacy of Nazis – the former are “just” after people of color, non-cis, and non-protestant/fundie Christians – the latter is after everybody, including other white men, who aren’t one of them. We may actually get some rather dangerous and very temporary allies from the former in dealing with the latter. And divide and conquer works as well against them as it works against us.)

      • We can welcome the words but the words need to be followed by deeds. The Republican Party needs to stop its assault on voting rights. Period. They need to full-throatedly declare the value of all citizens by advancing the notion that everyone deserves the right to choose their leaders.

        I am not sure who will lash out against who. The list shows quite a few unhappy about the neo-nazi part, a few unhappy about the white supremacist part – and lots of them unhappy about generic “violence”.

        Twitter is having a good discussion about it. I am not getting much done today!

        • Oh yeah, I want deeds to follow the words. And don’t trust him as far as I can throw a Clydesdale – but at least he did say it which is more than most of the Rs. And he said it very strongly and very specifically. So I called and left a message thanking him. And for that matter, my words won’t be followed by deeds. I’m not going to donate money to his campaign or vote for him. Unless he switches parties. And even then it won’t be in a primary.

  14. Damp and relatively chilly at 71 – got just barely 5 KWHs yesterday so the m-t-d is a hair under averaging 10/day at 129. Hope we can get the 10+ today to at least get that good.

    I’m tired. Adrenal exhaustion I think – too much stuff going on at too many levels and as much as I try to stay centered and balanced, it’s taking energy to do so. I’ll get over it. We outnumber them. We will win. We’ll clean up the mess, rebuild, do our best to heal the wounded – and mourn the dead. We will.

    Faculty back, open registration started, public school started, and traffic is back to “normal” – a normal that most folks on this site would laugh about. :) But it’s still noisier and more nervous-making than what we have when school’s out. Need to get to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good morning, 60 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Our grandson is here now so we’ll have a fun afternoon together. I’m going to the pool this morning and he is sleeping as long as he wants to. Between sleep and food his growing body keeps him focused on what he needs to do!

    Time to find my swim gear. Hope it’s a good day for all.

    • I have that story up in a tab to read later. I am not sure I want to know that just waiting until the old people die off won’t be enough. :(

    • {{{Denise}}} – the 2% Evil and the 78% manipulable are stats that don’t change from generation to generation. Part of our job as the 20% actively good and caring is to keep as many as possible of those manipulable from being manipulated by the Evil ones. If we don’t teach them to care and love, the Evil ones will teach them to fear and hate. Assuming that they’ll be caring by default – which is our default – is where we’ve been losing them. One way or another they “have to be carefully taught’ – and we have to start “before it’s too late, before they are 6 or 7 or 8” – or they really will learn to “hate all the people their relatives hate” or their neighbors hate, or the folks at their church hate. We have to teach them love and teach them young.

  16. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 63 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and the heat index will be 88 so the air conditioning will go on.

    Not much to say. I am glad to see the Confederate monuments coming down but I hope that no one is hurt taking matters into their own hands. Related to that, there was some discussion yesterday about what should replace the statues and this thread had some strong images:

    Apparently North Korea will allow themselves to be “talked out of” launching a nuclear missile at Guam. But they won this round. They exposed the thin skin of the Angry Apricot and showed the world how easy it is to get him to play petty tyrant. Each new day that Donald J. Trump is still sitting in the Oval Office diminishes America’s standing in the world even further.

    New low in Gallup – 34% approval for the job the shitgibbon is doing. I have been watching that particular poll since January 20th. It has an interesting bounce that happened on weekends, possibly because the sample changes to a different mix of people (those who are at home) or because people shove the news out of their heads. But this past weekend, there was no bounce, making me think that the normal decline would give us a new low. And it did! When it gets below 30%, we will see even more distancing from him and his administration than we saw over the weekend and on Monday. The Founding Fathers said that you cannot govern without the consent of the governed and we the people are withholding that. I hope we can stay focused on blocking the policy agenda of the Republican Party because they still control Congress and the presidency and can do enormous damage to people and our planet.

    See all y’all later!

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