Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Sept. 24th through Sept. 30th

September 23, 2017 JanF Community 88

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 is here!
     
  • Page Two of Comments is here!

35 Comments

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

    Morning low of 66 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 88. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Aid is slowly rolling in for Puerto Rico which is facing a humanitarian crisis:

    In northwest Puerto Rico, people began returning to their homes after a spillway eased pressure on a dam that cracked after more than a foot of rain fell in the wake of the hurricane.

    The opening of the island’s main port in the capital allowed 11 ships to bring in 1.6 million gallons of water, 23,000 cots, dozens of generators and food. Dozens more shipments are expected in upcoming days.

    The federal aid effort is racing to stem a growing humanitarian crisis in towns left without fresh water, fuel, electricity or phone service. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is in charge of the relief effort, said they would take satellite phones to all of Puerto Rico’s towns and cities, more than half of which were cut off following Maria’s devastating crossing of Puerto Rico on Wednesday.

    I hope that the Sunday talking heads talk about more than the “crisis” of tRump dissing the sportsballers and discuss this. Congress should be passing some aid bills specifically to help Puerto Rico rebuild their power grid and to keep the greedy privatization vultures away from there.

    Yes, the shitgibbon’s racism is awful but it is hardly breaking news that he thinks black athletes – black everyones, really – should be glad for any jobs and any success they have as a gift from their white masters. The NFL issued a statement, some team owners decried the blatant racism and disrespect but the NFL owners are about 95% trumpers, donors and supporters even the Muslim owners and the Jewish owners, for crying out loud.

  3. Seahawks wide-reciever Doug Baldwin:

    THIS:

    And with as much influence as athletes have on the younger generation, this can be an opportunity for us to change the narrative of society and point to the president as a poor example of what you can become if you remain close minded, ignorant and uneducated.

    Actually, Trump is a perfect example of what you can become but the sentiment is spot on.

  4. Well said.

    “Perhaps the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment.” The lab is still processing the results but there is little evidence that it was a success.

    • Al Sharpton spent quite a bit of time on this issue this morning. T has made things so much worse, and he doesn’t even know it. Fool.

      • I am going to be grumpy about this and suggest that this will NOT be a mass turning away from trumpism. If anything, it will simply spill the divide over into sports. Until decent people vote the enablers of trumpism out of office, it is all a bunch of words. I am getting really sick of words as a substitute for action.

        Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who promotes himself as a Reasonable Republican – while voting 100% in lockstep with his party’s standardbearer – says that American soldiers “died for the flag”. No, they did not. They died to protect and defend the Constitution from nazis and the confederacy, Trump’s base! Sasse goes on to say that people should ignore Trump and not give him the attention he craves. You first – indicate you will vote for his removal from office. Until then, stuff your sanctimonious bs where the sun doesn’t shine.

  5. Some analysis from Brian Stetler at CNN:

    The Trump presidency is a test. Institutions like the courts, the news media and the business community have all been tested. Now it’s the NFL and the NBA’s turn. […]

    The president finished his NFL critique [at the Alabama rally] by saying it hurts the game “when people like yourselves turn on television and you see those people taking the knee when they’re playing our great national anthem.”

    In response, Mike Allen of Axios wrote Saturday morning, “To address a largely white crowd as ‘people like yourselves,’ and refer to protesting athletes, often African American, as ‘those people,’ does nothing to heal the wounds of Charlottesville.”

  6. Yesterday I mostly did groceries & dishes. Just didn’t have enough energy. So today, I need to make next week’s breakfast & lunch. I think that’ll be enough. Tomorrow, I’m going to post another lip-synch video. It’s U2’s 41st birthday, so fans are doing a t-shirt thing. I thought that instead of wearing an AIDS Walk shirt, I’d wear my Joshua Tree shirt & use I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, holding up a sign with “$5,000” on it. I’ve done a video like that before, but not many people saw it. Will post it early morning — no one in the office to care about playing music before 7am.

  7. David Remnick in the New Yorker:

    Every day, and in countless and unexpected ways, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, finds new ways to divide and demoralize his country and undermine the national interest. On Tuesday, he ranted from the lectern of the U.N. General Assembly about “Rocket Man” and the possibility of levelling North Korea. Now he has followed with an equally unhinged domestic performance at a rally, on Friday evening, in Huntsville, Alabama, where he set out to make African-American athletes the focus of national contempt.

    In the midst of an eighty-minute speech intended to heighten the reëlection prospects of Senator Luther Johnson Strange III, Trump turned his attention to N.F.L. players, including the former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and asked a mainly white crowd if “people like yourselves” agreed with his anger at “those people,” players who take a knee during the national anthem to protest racism.

  8. Good morning, 51 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I woke up this morning smelling gingerbread baking but alas, it was a dream. I think we have all the ingredients so it’s going to be a reality soon!

    I’ve had to keep my leg up, but RonK has been busy putting the outdoor furnishings away. I’ll do my part in the garage today and then the patio will be closed for the season. We have some fall planting and garden clean up to do and then we’ll move to indoor activities. As you all know I love being in the garden, but this year I’m ready to focus on being busy in my sewing room.

    Best Sunday wishes to all.

  9. 64 was the overnight low, 86 is the predicted high – got 12.7 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d with this morning’s driblet added in is 342.8, still on track to surpass the Sept 2016 total. I’ve been having trouble with my eyes since that contact dermatitis on my face (which is almost gone – just a few rough patches left) and I’ve set up an eye appt which won’t happen for 6 weeks because my doctor is very good and very popular, in case I actually need a new Rx for my glasses – but the thought has occurred to me that it might also be allergies – when I saw the raggweed pollen count this morning in fact. Not sure what to do about that. Meanwhile I’m trying to stay off the computer as much as I can to give my eyes a rest. I’ve finished my baking (cocoa muffins) and housework for the week, soup’s on so thought I’d check in.

    Everything about mad king donald and the media’s response is Deplorable and appalling – but not surprising. We knew who mad king donald was and if the media had behaved as the 4th Estate rather than the RW-owned lapdogs they are he wouldn’t be in office and we wouldn’t be having these issues. I’m reading Hillary’s book. Slowly. As in I read a bit, cry or get sick to my stomach, put it down for a bit, rinse/repeat.

    Very little movement on the community needs list – I’m down to about 3 who can and do give amounts in the 3 digit range and they are getting tapped out. We’re dealing with urgent-urgent only – but I’m still carrying the “important” like the link for the AIDS Austin Walk donation page and Aji’s gift cards (and about 10 others) as well as the link to ShelterBox, And seriously trying to get myself out of the way so I can focus on opening and clearing the Channel of Good to flow to all those in need, filling all those needs both spiritual and material.

    Need to get back to my soup. Then I’ll read Denise’s FP and Michael’s British Breakfast. I’m covering the Street Prophets Coffee Hour until michelewln’s surgery (they removed a cancerous growth) on her face heals. And of course need to get the community needs stuff out. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  10. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is 64 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 88. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. We set records for high temperatures yesterday and Saturday at 89 and 91 – normal highs are around 69. Tomorrow will be hot again through midday but then a front will move through to cool us down for at least the next 5 days.

    Angela Merkel was re-elected but because of the gains by Germany’s white nationalist party (what could go wrong with that?), she is going to have a difficult time putting together a governing coalition. The Bush years spawned endless war and created a Middle East tinderbox, displacing millions of people – and a global financial meltdown that made so many have nots – that the rise of white identity and anti-immigration parties worldwide was almost inevitable. It is discouraging.

    And holy mackeral, Mother Earth is ticked off! Now we have a volcano in Bali to add to the rolling earthquakes and serial killer hurricanes. I think I am going to close all my news feed tabs, peek at Twitter and then hunker down to get some projects done. September ends on Saturday and I am still not done with August projects.

    See all y’all later!

    • Thanks Jan – am back from NC – tired as hell – could not crash yesterday till I posted on Puerto Rico – am going to be cranking out diaries for the forseeable future – this tells the tale

      • I saw that Media Matters report! Disgraceful. I understand that the NFL protest was an important current event and that the ACA repeal is critically important and that the new tax bill rolling out needs to be watched but we should be able to figure out the priorities without too much trouble. Puerto Rico needs help now (actually 5 days ago), the ACA pressure can happen on Tuesday and Wednesday and the tax bill can wait until next week after the repeal is beaten back until January.

        People are dying.

      • {{{Denise}}} – same ol’ same ol’ – just like media reporting of the election, mad king donald and the twitter wars 24/7 – Flint Water crisis and Hillary’s policies, huh? Core problem is now and will be until we find a way to break it up – a consortium of 6 RW corporations own 90% of the media and influence the other 10%. And they don’t care if people – poor people, brown people – are dying.

        Cranking out diaries and RTing tweets that call for help and carrying forward links is the best we can do – but it’s also what we can do, so we will do it. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy to everyone everywhere in harm’s way.

        • Getting the word out is key – and allowing the news to languish has to be stopped
          Look at how the media has ignored Flint.

          • All comes back to “who owns the media?” – we’ve got to find a way to circumvent the media until we can get enough power to break up that consortium.

  13. Good morning, Meese. Another beautiful, hot day in store when what we need is gray skies, cool temperatures, and rain. I know everyone here gets tired of hearing me gripe about the weather, but we are once again in drought mode with no sign of relief in the near future. Current temp. in NoVa is 65 F., going up to 87 F.

    Busy week ahead with no child-minding activities beyond the usual, as far as I know now. Yesterday Younger Son came over with the saw and cut off the dead limb on the apple tree. He then sawed it into fireplace-type lengths. I’m told nothing smells as good as an applewood fire. It was one of our storms that tore the branch almost off the tree some time ago.

    I’m still trying to fight my way through the junk in the garage to get to our photo albums. Elder Son is looking for photos of our wedding day 50 years ago. If only Dearly Beloved were recovered! We need to make a run to the dump with the stuff Goodwill refuses to take. That would create some room.

    Will call my senators this morning re Puerto Rico. Wishing all a good day.

    • Thanks for the reminder about Senators! It gave me a chance to contact my Democratic Senator to let her know that Puerto Rico is important to me. I won’t bother calling Ron Freaking Johnson because he thinks sick people should be born into wealthy families if they want to have healthcare so he obviously has neither a heart or a brain.

  14. NW AR is going to be pretty much like Madison today and for the next few days. Got 13 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 353 so definitely on track to beat last year’s 384 and might even reach 400. That’s about it for good news. We’re back in drought, the creek bed is dusty-dry for most of it’s length with water in the occasional deep pool. My eyes are still bothering me and I’m more than ever thinking it’s a combination of needing new glasses and the off-the-chart ragweed pollen we’re currently dealing with.

    Back to calling evil senators and congresscritters trying to find a way to convince them not to perpetrate whatever specific evil I’m calling about. Then back to worrying about my community needs list folks. Persist, persist, persist. Keep walking, we’ll get there eventually.

    Gonna check in with the Village (and carry over the community needs stuff) then get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy to everybody everywhere.

  15. Good morning, 58 and cloudy in Bellingham. Just another Monday for me, with the pool this morning and a procrastination list to address this afternoon. Not very interesting but such is life.

    Take care everyone!

  16. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 64 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 81. Chance of rain and thunderstorms all day with temperatures dropping after the front moves through.

    Susan Collins is a NO on repealing the ACA and joins John McCain as a solid NO. We need one more – no, I don’t trust Rand Paul – and I hope Lisa Murkowski decides that the price she pays with her soul is not worth the Alaska Purchase that they are enticing her with. I did not watch the CNN healthcare debate but from what little I saw on Twitter, it did not go well for Graham and Dr. Death.

    I am trying to stay hyperfocused on Puerto Rico and will follow up my emails with phone calls to my Senator and my congresscritter this morning. The Republican Congress says it is not important and that they will “get around to disaster relief” in a few weeks. By the way, I did not think I could despise the shitgibbon any more than I already did. But his deplorable tweets last night, victim blaming Puerto Rico for being a poor country with a bad infrastructure – due primarily to America’s neglect of its colony more than anything – made my dislike of him go to a 20 on a scale of 1-10.

    See all y’all later!

  17. Good morning, Meese. It’s 68 F. here in NoVa, going up to 82 F. later today, under a pale blue sky. I have to go out in a few minutes to weed and water the wretched garden and plant the chrysanthemums we bought yesterday.

    The WaPo has finally got round to covering the depth and awfulness of what Russia did to this country (with considerable help from our own media), as well as finally covering the Puerto Rico crisis. Not that they bothered mentioning “Puerto Rico” on the front page—the headline is about “Maria.” The excuses offered by the U.S. military for not steaming full speed ahead to Puerto Rico are ridiculous and immoral.

    Thing may have gone a little too far with his criticism of NFL players, which of course has dominated the news far more than Puerto Rico’s crisis and North K’s threat to shoot down our planes. And Jared has his own email server! But of course it’s okay if you’re a Rethug and anyway, he apparently has a penis.

    Well, that’s enough from me this morning. Wishing all a good day.

    • Starting a war with the NFL seems like a reach. But then again, the shitgibbon got Republicans to increase their favorable view of Russian by about 50 points and got right-wing evangelicals to vote for a serial adulterer, daughter ogling, sex abuser so maybe he can get red state America to hate football.

  18. Had a nice talk with the guy from the paper last night. Will post a link when the story comes out. Eating oatmeal, drinking tea. Looks like we’re going to get rain this week. Should probably contact the insurance company about getting the car fixed. Watching the activists get arrested yesterday — and the senators…… what is wrong with people? And 60% of the people in Puerto Rico don’t have drinking water? Chris Hayes talked to (mayor or governor, I forget which) and had him repeat, because he couldn’t believe. Ok, I need to distract myself or I’ll curl up in a ball on the floor. Here’s an interesting version of Little Things, with sound from the soundboard, it’s like listening to a director’s instructions. But maybe I should find a happier song to listen to:
    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

  19. Weather in NW AR is paralleling Madison again today but no rain in sight. I watered yesterday after work. Got a hair under 12 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 365.6 so at even 10 a day we should get above 400 by the end of the month. meanwhile, the lack of A/C running means that I’m still accruing power in the energy bank with SWEPCO to cover the darker months ahead. This is good. It may be the only good thing in the world right now, but it is still good.

    I used to be surprised by the Rs’ evil and I have been appalled by it for years. I’m getting more and more appalled but less and less surprised by their evil. (NASCAR just lost a 40-year fan Sunday and yesterday by ccotenj’s rant at Squirrel last night. mad king donald’s base is making more enemies.) More people on my community needs list. Moar urgent stuff with fewer resources. And that doesn’t even count the absolute immediately life-threatening emergency of the Caribbean where people are already dying. (Of course I’m carrying links for that, too, over at DK.) Persist, persist, persist.

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

  20. Tuesday Meese
    Sorry to get here so late – had to finish Black Kos for today before I head to school.
    I am stunned and grateful to note – that my diary on Puerto Rico

    which I posted on Sunday – is still on the rec list at DKos – and has gotten as of a few minutes ago 314,574 facebook shares. I hope that translates into calls to Congress to demand aid for PR

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