Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Sept. 3rd through Sept. 9th

September 2, 2017 JanF Community 114

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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– Page One of Comments are here
– Page Two of Comments are here

43 Comments

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

    Morning low of 57 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 79. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Good Sunday Meese

    53 here in Saugerties – going up to 61 with rain.
    Waking up to N. Korea news.
    Disaster continues in TX
    Worrying about Irma – and Caribbean folks in its path
    Hubby will be driving home from Chapel Hill NC this morning.
    Need coffee

    • I slept in to try to clear my brain and start the September work month refreshed.

      Instead, I woke up worrying about race in America and wondering how Sen. Tim Scott (SC) can be a Republican. His party is now the party of full-blown racism and his president embraces the KKK and white nationalists. It must take a great deal of stubbornness to insist that cutting marginal tax rates and stripping away environmental regulations so that businesses can be unfettered overrides the fact that your party literally hates you, your ancestors, and your progeny. I keep hoping for a coalition (gang?) of Republican Senators who really don’t want our country to descend into race war and who will start doing the right thing on administration oversight and Senate confirmations. Then I think of Tim Scott and I realize that if he is “just fine” with the current Republican Party, we are going to have to just hope that there is anything worth saving when we take back power.

      • I have given up on self-hating or opportunist (or both) black people (and others of color) who embrace racists.

        They are pathetic – the only good thing about them is that they make other black folks mad – we know that they are window dressing for bigots – it may fool some white people but it doesn’t fool us.

  3. Today, going to church then taking my friend to a “science fiction party” a friend of hers in having. I don’t know what’s involved — assuming movies. But I want her to be able to go to whatever things she can. I don’t need to cook this weekend. And going to the gym can wait.

  4. Good morning, 63 and sunny in Bellingham. Thanks to garden therapy I slept well last night, but checking the news this morning makes me want to grab my pruning shears and go back outdoors!

    Time for coffee and a moment with grand puppy Heidi. Our sons are hiking so is staying with us, and was a good garden companion yesterday. She’s nearly 12 yrs old now so her joints are getting creaky too and a long hike on a hot day would be hard for her.

    So once again all is well in my small world, just wish it were in the big world around us. Take care everyone.

  5. Warming up a bit for a few days – not normal early September warm but warmer than last week. 64 was the low, 72 now and heading for 86. Mostly sunny at the moment which is good. Got 14.8 KWHs yesterday and with this morning’s 1.4 (so far) the m-t-d is 35.4. Got the baking done (molasses-spice muffins this week), the cleaning (such as I do), and the laundry is on the line. Put mosquito repellent on before going out so only 4 bites today rather than the 12 of the last time I did laundry. As much as I enjoy both the smell and feel of line-dried laundry I’m beginning to look forward to wood-stove season when I’ll be drying them in the house. Gonna have to figure where to put another cord (or two) of wood though. Since I’m retiring end of December and will be home a lot more, I’m going to need a lot more wood than I have all these years.

    As to the political news, well, we’re not dead yet so we’ll persist, resist, block, and push back. The recipe is there to see in France during WWII. White folks check out Vichy France. Folks of color check out occupied France. That’s what to expect and that’s what to work and overcome. I have no idea whether or not the community needs list folks got anything at all yesterday. Most of them don’t have a gofundme and even the ones who do are asking folks to use PayPal instead because it’s both quicker and no fees at all to the recipient (and only to the donor if using a credit card rather than direct from a bank account – I personally am willing to pay the smaller than GFM fee to PayPal and not give them access to my bank account). But that means until they tell me what they’ve gotten I haven’t a clue. Hoping for the best – I would so like to get that urgent list, well really the entire list, cleared at least for a few weeks if not for good. Aji’s asking for donations again due to that blasted septic system situation. sigh. But we’ll get there. persist counts on the community needs list, too.

    Need to get some coffee then head over to DK – read Denise’s FP, monitor the “not-a-British-Breakfast” Village diary (hope Michael is feeling well enough to check in – folks are leaving good wishes and messages for him) and see if I can get my brain together enough to put together another back-up pootie diary and Thursday’s Street Prophets photo & music diary. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • It took me a while (I wish there were better search tools for my Twitter feed) but I finally found this tweet thread that put the “working class” v “identity politics” into perspective:

      Nicole Hemmer‏ @pastpunditry
      I had a realization about Lilla-esque identity politics nonsense while reading this smart @LaneWindham piece. /1
      (The media still gets the working class wrong — but not in the way you think.)
      Some people confuse class politics for identity politics bc they don’t realize the working class is primarily female and non-white. /2
      I suspect they look at that photo of an SEIU rally & see identity politics at work, when in fact the image is more male than it should be./3
      Any time a story on class politics —esp when it’s class vs identity—has a photo of white men in hard hats: that photo is an anachronism. /4
      An anachronism AND a political argument about what a virtuous — and defensible — working class should look like. /5
      #MAGA in a photo, basically. Journalists & politicians need to do much, much better on this topic. 6/6

      People need to get this sorted out. I suspect some of them don’t want to – black working mothers are not “virtuous and defensible” because it runs afoul of their white male identity politics. :(

      Here is the photo she was referring to in /3:

      • Black working mothers are not allowable in their ads or politics because it is contrary to the meme of black “welfare queens” squirting out babies to steal tax dollars from their pockets.

    • Posted the video (sort of – it doesn’t play in the diary, but it links to the video where it does play) in today’s Village diary over at DK.

  7. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 70 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 73. Chance of thunderstorms this morning but clearing into afternoon.

    Happy Labor Day! I have been reading and retweeting a lot of things that remind us of how important labor protections are. They have been whittled away for decades and we are poised to lose them in big chunks under the current Republican administration. People tend to overlook that the Obama Administration had to first rebuild lost protections from the Bush years and then try to put more in place. Because we lost Congress in the low turnout 2010 election, a lot of the protections were by way of rule changes and executive orders. Those are being rolled back now and will be mostly gone by the time we can gain the pieces of power we need to effect change. This is a stupid way to run a country, by the way. Every 8 years we scrap all the progress and then have to restart when we get back in power. Maybe this idea of “shaking things up in Washington” because things are not happening fast enough is not so wise.

    I was reminded on Twitter this morning (while I was waiting for my coffee to finish dripping) that the DREAM Act passed the House and had a majority in the Senate – just not enough to break the filibuster. What a terrible thing ceding veto power to the former slave states is! I am for killing the legislative filibuster and taking our chances that we will keep one House of Congress or the presidency because that filibuster is what got us to this awful place right now with DACA.

    Kicking Congressional action on DACA down the road 6 months would be insane, btw. We need to fix this now to give those 800,000 people certainty. Add the BRIDGE Act to the Continuing Resolution or, better yet, the Hurricane Harvey relief. We can’t let DACA repeal happen.

    See all y’all later!

  8. I’m sitting here worrying about Irma – which looks more likely to hit PR
    Given the orange idiots bogus photo op only response to Harvey – I wonder if he even knows (or cares) that Puerto Ricans and US Virgin Islands residents are citizens,

    • {{{Denise}}} – he doesn’t know and he doesn’t care. They’re brown. Not all of them speak English and the English they speak is “funny” – and a certain number of his deplorable base would be totally delighted, would believe it a sign from their god, if the islands of brown non-fundie Xtians were wiped clean .

      But you and I and most of America cares. Healing and Protective Energy to them.

  9. Good morning, Meese! It’s the unofficial end of summer—where does the time go? Currently it’s 56 F. in my little part of NoVa, going up to 81 F. today.

    We came back from the beach yesterday rather than today because my poor husband is in a very bad way. He’s on crutches. As he finds it unbelievably painful to walk, he spends most of the day laid up on the sofa. We thought, this being the case, that he’s much better off at home. Saturday it poured in Ocean City; Sunday was quite nice. It was refreshing to get away, even if only for a couple of days.

    The news is awful this morning. Michael Morell, ex-CIA director, whom I rather like for his commonsense pronouncements, said on “CBS This Morning” most wars start through mistakes, rather than through intent. The consequences of starting a war are too awful to contemplate. With the horrible events in this country—fire in the west, floods in Texas—we have enough to deal with. Who’d have thought that one day we’d be pleased merely to wake up in the morning and realize we’re still alive and the electricity still works?

    A local news channel has published a copy of the letter President Obama left on the Resolution desk for Thing in the Oval Office. I’ll put the link in a new comment. I thought it would be nice to publish it somewhere on this site but wasn’t sure of the legal implications and so forth.

    Wishing everyone a good Labor Day, with thoughts of the brave women and men who struggled so hard for the eight-hour day and the two-day weekend. People used to work on Saturdays. Then it was half a day on Saturdays. We take our weekends so much for granted!

    • I am sorry to hear that your husband is not healing the way he would like to. I hope that rest will help!

    • Healing Energy to your husband – and the rest of your household at need. {{{Diana}}}

    • We all knew it would be terrible. I suspect that few were prepared for just how terrible it would be. The presidency of the short-fingered vulgarian coupled with a Republican Congress unwilling to rein in his worst impulses and bent on finding ways to consolidate their power for a generation – via voter suppression and filling the courts with sociopaths like Gorsuch – have created a perfect shitstorm.

      I don’t think that there are implications to linking to the letter – when the shitgibbon released it, it became part of the public domain. Rick Santorum thought it was rude that President Obama did not congratulate Trump on his win but simply on “the race”. I suspect he is not convinced that Trump won fair and square and would prefer to not acknowledge anything beyond that he is president by virtue of the electoral college voting him into office.

    • Here is the full text:

      Dear Mr. President –

      Congratulations on a remarkable run. Millions have placed their hopes in you, and all of us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure.

      This is a unique office, without a clear blueprint for success, so I don’t know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful. Still, let me offer a few reflections from the past 8 years.

      First, we’ve both been blessed, in different ways, with great good fortune. Not everyone is so lucky. It’s up to us to do everything we can (to) build more ladders of success for every child and family that’s willing to work hard.

      Second, American leadership in this world really is indispensable. It’s up to us, through action and example, to sustain the international order that’s expanded steadily since the end of the Cold War, and upon which our own wealth and safety depend.

      Third, we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions — like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties — that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.

      And finally, take time, in the rush of events and responsibilities, for friends and family. They’ll get you through the inevitable rough patches.

      Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best as you embark on this great adventure, and know that we stand ready to help in any ways which we can.

      Good luck and Godspeed,
      BO

        • He has no plans to remain silent about the DACA kids, by the way. He said so at his last news conference:

          He has spoken about his plans more recently:

          Former President Barack Obama plans to speak out if President Donald Trump declares his intention to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to a person close to Obama.[…]

          Obama’s current plan is to post a statement on Facebook and link to it on Twitter, where the former president has more than 94 million followers.

  11. Cool day — only 92, which is weird for us; and temps only in the 80s later this week. Today: gym, and visit my friend (when I called yesterday, her back was hurting & she didn’t feel like going). And get the workweek’s food together, take out trash & recycling. Nothing I can do about our heartless POTUS. Keeping in mind my boys’ new song, part of the chorus: “When the lights go out, don’t you ever doubt the light that we can really be”

  12. Happy Labor Day, y’all. In a sense today is the last visit of summer – considering how fall-like the weather’s been since mid-July I can’t even call it the last day of summer. And it’s not really summer, just more like it. 69 when I got up this morning, 72 now and heading for 90. Sunny but a bit hazy at the moment. Got 17.9 KWHs yesterday with a m-t-d of 52 – a nice start to the month. Front’s supposed to move in this evening with temps dropping like rocks into the upper 40s – maybe but not likely some rain. We shall see what we shall see.

    I wonder if it is possible, given human nature, to appreciate what we’ve got when we aren’t in danger of losing it? Diana’s comment about being pleased to wake up knowing we’re still alive and the electricity is working – well, yes it would be nice if we had a lot more to be pleased about but that’s always something to be pleased about. Mad king donald is certainly reminding us to be grateful for the basics – but I’m not going to thank him for it. There are other and better ways to do it. Accidents can cause wars. Tweets cannot. If I wake up one morning to find we are at war, I will do whatever I can at the time. Until then I’ll worry more about calling congresscritters starting tomorrow about keeping their g.d hands off my Social Security. And my sons’ Social Security. And my grandsons’ Social Security.

    Harvey has sucked just about all the fundraising energy out of DK. Not helpful to the DK people who need the help. And the pool of funds I set aside for “paying forward” dried up months ago. (I meant them all for Aji’s home but she kept telling me to give them to other folks more in need – so I did.) So I personally can’t do more than maybe a sack of groceries each – and won’t be able to do that after I retire. sigh. But the Good is out there. More than just Oceans of Good, there’s at least one Universe of Good. Just need to focus on opening the Channel of Good so it flows to those who need it. And really focus on the Limitless Substance – if I focus on who specifically has been giving, well, they are going to (many already have) reach the limits they can give. So don’t focus on specifically who – or even how – on the Source of Good. Just know it is there and work on getting it from where it is to where it’s needed.

    Need to get to the Villages. And write a few diaries I haven’t had time for during Open Enrollment and the first week of classes. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  13. Good morning, 64 and hazey in Bellingham. The fires in BC are still burning so the air is smokey again. After the busy summer I’ve needed some quiet time, but now I’m bored. Another day of light gardening and laundry just isn’t very interesting!

    Time for coffee. Take care everyone.

  14. Tuesday Morning Meese
    Was up almost all night trying to watch Irma coverage – and I’m pissed

    Put a quick diary up – even though I have to go to school later

    • Retweeted! In this political climate, I have no doubt that Puerto Rico would get the neglected. I wish “we” hadn’t allowed this to happen to our government.

      • Thanks Jan
        Since Gov of PR is a Democrat – as are the non-voting Reps from PR and USVI – Trump isn’t going to be helpful

        • Plus “brown people”. I despise Republicans.

          I think we should put on our “drain the swamp” list (after we take back power) to make Puerto Rico a state. Those Americans need a say in how the country is run and deserve two Senators as much as Wy-freaking-oming does.

          I am reminding people in the various online places I visit that we need to watch Irma – and not just because she may hit Florida but because she may hit the island people.

    • Denise, the MSM are totally ignorant. Remember when po-faced Cokie Roberts snidely remarked that President Obama was vacationing in “a foreign country”?

      The foreign country in question was HAWAII! Did no one tell Po-Co that Hawaii is our 50th state? Honestagoddess, these people behave as if we have no means of fact-checking at our fingertips.

      May they all have indigestion.

  15. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 52 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 63. Sunny this morning with a chance of isolated showers in the afternoon. Today is the first day of school for K-12 and the university so there will be a lot of moving around. I hope people do it safely.

    I have yet to see an effective response to the DACA crisis. There will be lawsuits filed by blue states (New York and Washington State) but I am not sure what legal theory they will use. I suppose they could take a page from the Republicans: make stuff up, find a friendly judge (in a friendly Circuit) willing to issue a nationwide injunction and file it with him or her – then delay it in the courts until Democrats can take power and deal with it properly. I don’t see a Republican Congress passing a clean DACA unrepeal bill, it would surely be loaded with all sorts of poison pills. If the poison pill is money for a wall, that is one I can swallow – I really don’t care about the wall, it will be a symbol of ignorance and racism, nothing more. I do care if they link it to women’s reproductive rights, to ACA repeal, to cuts in the social safety net, to things that hurt people.

    Off to read the news! See all y’all later!

    • I have DACA students.
      All of this anti-poc crap from Republicans makes me really mad – I have no idea what we can do except keep protesting

      • Protest, we will! I am going to watch closely what bills are floated to deal with the crisis and see that my doodieheaded Republican Senator knows my opinion on them. I have not heard anything from him or his office but I think some members of Congress are waiting for the actual announcement – which will not come from Trump but from Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III! The shitgibbon thinks that by not having his face associated with a fancy bill signing he can duck responsibility. Good luck with that.

  16. A great tweet:

  17. Back to work. Oatmeal, tea. Today I’m leaving early because I have to pick up my contacts & my eye doc is way far up north. I 35 in Austin is avoid-at-all-costs driving, and I doubt the sanity of people who use it during rush hour. Yesterday all I did was house stuff: cleaned out the fridge, took out garbage & recycling, put breakfast & lunch together for the week, and portioned up the lentil & artichoke soup I have for dinner. Bought some rosemary sourdough bread to have with it. And my allergies are acting up — I saw on the news that fall elm is back, that’s probably it. “When the lights go out, don’t you ever doubt, the light that we can really be”

  18. Good morning, Meese, we’re partly sunny here in NoVa, with a current temp. of 66 F., going up to 84 F. later.

    As usual I’m very behind on work because of having to take care of Dearly Beloved, who is still laid up with sore, swollen legs. Took him to the doctor yesterday. He waited an hour to see her; she strolled in, prescribed a pain pill, and that was that. His prescription cost 99 cents. (Thank you, LBJ and Medicare!)

    Very busy because today I have to rush around making pasta salad for tonight’s dinner before I go to the gym. This afternoon I’m minding the two little boys again. Their mother has directed me to make guacamole for “Taco Tuesday.” She’s flying out of town today. Whyinell doesn’t she buy her guacamole like normal people? Now I’ll have to Google the recipe. Tomorrow evening they’ll get pizza but I have to make a small salad for the dad.

    Whine, complain. Last night had severe stomach cramps from the bad meat I bought for dinner. Threw the rest of it out. Off to do chores, and I hope everyone has a good day! Denise, hope you receive good news about your friends and relatives in the Caribbean. Between Irma and Kim Wrong ‘Un I don’t know which to worry about more.

    • This! “Whyinell doesn’t she buy her guacamole like normal people?”

      I made guacamole from scratch once and swore never again. Now I either make it from a mix (add fresh avocados) or buy it pre-made when one of the brands I like is on sale. I have a taste for guacamole every once in a while but with the price of avocados I can’t afford to buy them fresh and then throw them away if I never get in a guac mood; the pre-made stuff stays good for a couple of weeks.

      I hope your day is smooth. I feel lazy in comparison – now that my daughter is safely at school (she survived the harrowing First Day of School in the High School Parking Lot) I will just sort email and organize projects for the rest of the week.

  19. Front didn’t move in as soon as expected but it also only got to 87 yesterday – 69 this morning when I got up only heading for 75 with the drop coming after sundown. Overcast but not dark. Got 17.5 KWHs yesterday with a m-t-d of 69.6 – if we get double digits at all today I’ll be happy (although of course I’d be happier if it’s upper teens) – back to my grump of either rain or shine, stop this nonsense of no rain but no sun!

    once I’ve gotten my work emails cleared (which I’m so behind on thanks to the monday holiday that I’m just taking a break for MM and Village stuff) I’ll start making phone calls. Rs are evil. just no 2 ways about it. At least the elected ones are. (have to keep reminding myself of the Harvey response – credit where credit is due.) And we’ve got a lot of people to protect as best we can until we can get back enough power to actually fix the problem. Meanwhile my urgent needs list is growing and the fundraiser response is shrinking. The Good is there. I can’t see it so I’m having trouble focusing on it – but it’s there so I must focus on opening and clearing the Channel of Good so it can flow to where it’s needed.

    Meanwhile, I need to check in on the Villages and then get back to my work emails. Bright the day, meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  20. Good morning, all. Woke up to 54 and rain; it looks like that has passed, although we may get another round late this afternoon. High of 70 today which is right where I like it.

    Watching Irma is terrifying; I can’t imagine what it must be like to be in its path. My cousin’s daughter is married to a Haitian man, and as a family, we’ve kind of adopted the village where his family lives. It’s only been a few months since we got word that the village was fully back on its feet after the last brush with a hurricane (not even a full year ago), and the village now has a supply of chain saws and fuel stored. (Last year, the only road in and out of their village was blocked for weeks, which meant their access to additional food was also blocked. We enabled them to get a supply of chain saws, so that if it happens again, they can clear the road faster.) I’m so financially tapped out at this point that I don’t know where I would come up with anything more to give, so I’m selfishly hoping Haiti does not get a direct hit.

    That doesn’t help the folks in PR, of course, but I already have funds committed to relief through UMCOR; it’s the extra that’s tough to find. I recognize this is the very definition of first world problems, but I’m finding myself torn to bits by the man-made ugly of this world. There are so many with needs, and I guess I need to give myself permission to say to myself, “not this time.”

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