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!
Good morning, 52 and sunny in Bellingham. I was awake in the night so I’m late checking in this morning. I so appreciate reading all of your words, makes me feel less alone with my tRump angst.
Take care everyone.
Oh. Great Goddess.
<blockquoteclass=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”>
The President of the United States. https://t.co/r5u6rSx7eu
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 3, 2017
I had to click it to see which ghastly quote from yesterday that was. There were quite a few!
He is a 24/7 national embarrassment. I look at Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, the ultimate button-down-never-touched-a gross-thing Republicans, and I wonder how they can embrace him. I know they admire his tiny hands that can sign their legislation and put a sociopath on the Supreme Court but he is in every way imaginable the worst human being ever to become president in recent memory.
I was telling a friend that I could handle him being a shitty president or a shitty person but the combination is what is impossible.
Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 61 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 68. A little rainstorm is moving through and when it passes we will have sunny skies the rest of the day.
The House passed their 20-week abortion ban, a promise made to antis to get them to vote for them and their disgusting president. Unless Mitch McConnell chooses this as the bridge he wants to destroy the Senate on, it will never pass the 60 vote threshold. The shitgibbon said he would sign it so this is a reminder of how close we are to having a forced birth nation and one that requires women to die if they are in a pregnancy that they won’t survive. Disgusting and inhuman.
The Budget Reconciliation framework for the tax cut bill has been passed and it will allow the Republicans to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and Medicare by about $500 billion in order to give tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. I wonder how they will feel when they can’t walk from their limos to their offices without stepping over the dead bodies stacking up. Maybe they will buy a helicopter and avoid sidewalks! But the worst thing about the budget framework is that they have reached an agreement that they will NOT address DACA until the tax cut bill is passed. Which means that 800,000 young people will be deported beginning next March because a tax cut bill that balloons the deficit by $4 trillion and destroys the health care for the elderly will not pass. I despise these people.
See all y’all later!
Wednesday and I’m angry at having to watch The Orange Asshole show his ass in Puerto Rico
These are clearly not the real numbrts
I have very little faith that the many in news media will continue to bother to cover much of what is going on in PR – 3.5 million people don’t matter when they can now shift to Vegas and the futile calls for gun control from Democrats
I am not going to let the situation in PR drop.
Daniel Dale, the reporter from the Toronto Star who filed that report, is their Washington correspondent. He got blocked by Trump over the weekend because of his honest tweets and reporting. THAT is how thin-skinned the shitgibbon is.
The death toll is low because 2/3rds of the island is still incommunicado. That tRump is calling it not a “real” catastrophe because the death toll is “only” 16 is disgusting.
I am not letting up on Puerto Rico either. I saw that there is some discussion about cancelling the Puerto Rican debt to give them a fighting chance to rebuild. I am swallowing my tongue about the praise from the governor of Puerto Rico – if sucking up to Trump means getting the debt cancelled and some real investment into infrastructure, a little lost dignity is a small price to pay.
Hello, Meese. Haven’t watched a weather forecast for weeks because I already know it: clear, hot, no rain. Current temp. in NoVa is 47 F., going up to 77 F. later.
Feel completely numbed by the Las Vegas attack because I know there will be another one soon, to quote Eugene Robinson. As there is nothing I can do about random murder, I will continue to focus on Puerto Rico as well.
Had a decent night for once, slept straight through from 11 to 6:30, so can’t complain. Busy morning of errands ahead, including taking the dog for his checkup, running to the Post Office, and stopping by to deliver a box to Goodwill. We have no after-school pickup today, so we’ll focus on Finding That Picture. I’m beginning to think we won’t.
Wishing a peaceful day to all, everywhere.
“Random murder” of course can be reduced by making weapons of murder – and especially mass murder – more difficult to get. But we can’t do any more than we have done: we vote for, and sometimes elect, the right Democrats, we tell them how we feel about guns, our party goes to the floor of Congress protesting the lack of commonsense gun regulations, our leaders write letters begging for bills to be brought to the floor but the billions of dollars that the NRA pumps into Republicans coffers guarantee that our viewpoint will never be heard. Until decent Americans make it an election issue – and our votes cancel out the money – commonsense gun reform will be out of reach.
Oatmeal. Tea. Just put one foot in front of the other. Warm, humid — 1st weekend of the ACL Fest supposed to be good weather if a bit warm (but at least not 100s like a couple of years ago, when they had to put up cooling tents). Might get an actual cold front next week & want to wear actual shoes. Anyway, just trying to keep my head up. Please world — let there be something good, some beautiful thing. Our evil POTUS, storms, earthquakes, droughts, and how evil we are to each other, I just need one good thing.
{{{anotherdemocrat}}} – YOU are “one good thing” – and please don’t forget it. moar {{{HUGS}}} and also Healing Energy.
69, feels like 69 (a damp 69) with more raining moving in – we did get 1/2″ yesterday – so overcast again today. Got just under 4 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 27. Hope the rain gets here by noon and it clears off later. Not betting on it, just hoping for it.
The Evil Ones are evil – not stupid, evil. Psy-vamps – they feed on pain. Other people’s pain, of course. We will not stop them until we break up the media “monopoly” – when our gun issues are not presented as “freedom” when the 1st part of the 2nd Amendment is always included in the reporting, when America is re-taught what they once knew – that a “militia’ is well-regulated by governmental rules and training (combination of federal and state) and in fact is what is now called the National Guard, when America understands there is no provision in the constitution for arming terrorists or traitors because the media does the 4th Estate job there were guaranteed freedom to do – then and only then will we resolve not just the gun issue but many other issues Dems are stymied on because the media meme is anti- government and anti-Democratic.
My community needs list expands and contracts. I am sorrowfully in an expansion phase. I will rejoice when we get back to a contraction phase. Meanwhile I need to visit the Villages, edit my list – and oh yeah, get some of my paid-for work done. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
you’d like this:
<blockquoteclass=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”>
1. I understand the impulse. But it isn't smart.
— John Stoehr(@johnastoehr) October 4, 2017
Good argument. It’s what Louis Brandeis told FDR – government’s ability to tax is unlimited – and it’s why we started levying excise taxes on things that we couldn’t constitutionally ban (or backfired if we tried). {{{HUGS}}}
Thursday Meese and I’m wide awake and mad that PR is slipping out of the headlines – except for Donald talking “debt”
Kudos to Bethenny Frankel
I’m putting up a new PR diary at 6AM at GOS
Post up
I am sure you saw the great video of the mayor of San Juan wearing the “Nasty” t-shirt and being interviewed by Jorge Ramos. I don’t know what was said because it was in Spanish but the gist of it was “the only nasty thing here is the treatment of the Puerto Rican people”.
I haven’t been to Twitter yet but will make sure I retweet the PR stories. I was led to one yesterday about Mexico delivering 30 tons of water and insect repellent to the island and sending experts to help get the electrical grid rebuilt. Getting electricity back seems like at least the number 2 priority (after clean drinking water). So much depends on electricity – hospitals, grocery stores, communication – getting that sorted out has to be high on the list.
There are too many things to keep an eye on right now. The Republicans are holding CHIP hostage to demands that more money be cut from other federal health care dollars to pay for it. Every bill coming out of Congress is going to be trying to defacto repeal the ACA by defunding the component parts. Damn them!
Just read it, rec’d it, and shared it on FB, Denise! Thanks very much.
Who is Bethenny Frankel? Is she a celeb or a regular citizen? She has a heart of gold, either way.
I think she was on one of those reality shows. And she has a business…. drinks of some kind, I think?
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 45 degrees in Madison with a daytime high of 64. Sunny skies this morning and a chance for rain in the afternoon and evening.
The weirdest story from yesterday was word of a “suicide pact” where Tillerson, Mattis, and Mnunchin agreed that if the thin-skinned shitgibbon fired one of them, the others would quit. Puh-lease!! I could maybe see Mattis and Tillerson (Tillerson wants to leave) but Mnunchin, a Jewish man, is fine with his boss being a nazi and encouraging anti-semitism. There is no reason to believe that he would find any bridge too far. Josh at TPM found this nugget in a WaPo article about the “fking moron” comment and the growing rift between Tillerson and his boss:
This is the America you want, Republicans: glorification of your Dear Leader over every other thing.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein proposed a bill banning “bump stocks”. Of course, all the reporting on these devices that turn weapons of mass murder into weapons of massacre has caused a run on them “gotta get me one!” and now the threat of a ban means stockpiling them before the law passes. Of course it won’t pass – and any words by Republican politicians are simply words to distract us from the horror. The NRA will not allow any limits to the mayhem that unrestricted weaponry cause. In fact, the new attention on the ban on automatic weapons will probably lead to a push to repeal that ban “wut? I can’t use machine guns?!? Tyranny!!!”
See all y’all later!
Trump and his shit-eating courtiers are all cut from the same turd
Good morning. When I went outside in the dark to get the newspaper at a quarter to six, there was a full, glorious moon setting behind the treetops. I looked at it as long as I could, given that usually, when there’s a full moon in NoVa, clouds obscure it.
It’s 55 F. now, going up to 80-something today and every other day.
Have chosen not to read the saturation coverage of the latest mass murder because I’m already heartsick, and I already know that nothing will be done. Instead, I’m looking for articles about Puerto Rico. Why isn’t it a state already, blast it?
The WaPo reports that the Democratic candidate, Ralph Northam, is 13 points ahead of the Rethug, Ed Gillespie (former RNC chair). Yeah. It reported years ago that Dem. Mark Warner was 13 points ahead of Ed Gillespie (running as Rethug candidate for U.S. senator back then), but Warner squeaked by Ed in a 1- or 2-point lead on election day. I no longer believe polls.
Changing the subject, I put the file of Saving the World Through Sex together yesterday! Front matter, back matter, and everything in between. Will contact the publisher as soon as New Jersey is awake and answering the telephone.
Wishing all a good day and please, Goddess, no awful happenings in the world.
“I no longer believe polls.”
Nor do I. It is my belief that the “Hillary is 99% certain to win” media meme last November led to people staying home with a “they don’t need my vote” mentality. I remember the first online conversation I had with friends on the night of the election – one of them said “what in the actual fk is happening?” when the first results started coming in. I never want to go through that again.
Oatmeal, tea. Another 90 degree day. Though they say by the end of next week, we’ll have mornings in the 50s. Love Dee’s diary about Puerto Rico. I should do another lip synch video for the Walk…. Maybe this evening.
Good morning, 46 and sunny in Bellingham. I’ve still got my window open, but the sound of the radiators in the morning tells me it’s time to keep the heat inside. We installed an efficient gas furnace, but the hot water heating system of radiators and pipes is old. It’s lovely clean, quiet, heat and so far those pipes haven’t leaked!
Time to find some coffee. Take care everyone.
Hi Meeses – just back from the SSA – I am not now officially retired, but my application has been officially submitted and I’m good to go. Next month I need to take some forms to the benefits dept at work and deal with Medicare Part B (once I’m in official even if not effective yet status, I can get set up for a supplement). I also got my “enhanced” driver’s license as I needed to renew anyway – actually went there first as they open at 7:30 and the SSA opens at 9 – the application for an enhanced license more or less pretends you don’t have one. As in you can’t use it as identification nor for proof of address, a stupider decree I’m not sure I’ve heard of. You mean I’ve used this license that you issued for 5 years as my ID and you won’t accept it? But other than that irritant it’s been a very good morning. Only got 1.4 KWHs yesterday, already have twice that today, and the m-t-d is currently 31.8 – it will take some catching up to get back on track for a 300-KWH month but we’ve got time to do it.
I’ve run out of things to say about how evil the Evils are – and still now surprised. Appalled, of course, but not surprised. Up and down with the fundraisers but always Channeling Good Energy. Heading over to DK to read stuff and plunk the community needs comments around. Bright the day. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 55 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 68. Rain is in the forecast for this afternoon and into the evening. Highs in the low to mid 70s over the weekend then we start seeing temperatures in the 60s for the foreseeable future.
In some ways, I hope that Sarah Huckster-be keeps attacking the San Juan mayor – it keeps Mayor Cruz and Puerto Rico in the news. It has fallen off the front page, not from a lack by the AP which has a half dozen stories each day. But it is up to local papers to pick them up. FEMA removed the statistics on water and power for the island from their web site and left all the things that show how “amazing” the response is. The data is available directly from the governor’s office at http://www.status.pr/. Still only 55% with water and the north side of the island is below 20%. Tweet it often!
I don’t want to know what the reality TV show host in the White House meant by “maybe it’s the calm before the storm”. It appears to be a teaser for the next shitshow. I am so exhausted by this.
Meanwhile, HHS is set to repeal rules on requiring any employer who hates wimmins to deny birth control as a “religious objection”. They are now actively sabotaging health insurance exchanges in Iowa – how do you like all that winning, doodieheaded state who went all in on Trump? – and cutting back nearly all help for people needing to get coverage. The goal appears to be to kill it from within. Oh, and the House just voted to voucherize Medicare.
See all y’all later!
Interesting economic back story here
Samantha Bee should be required viewing
I will retweet anything I see of yours on Puerto Rico. I am not sure who I will reach that doesn’t already get your tweets but because Twitter is a stream, it might catch someone who is just logging in.
Thanks Jan
Ill keep’ tweeting.
Already see a drop-off in coverage over at Orange – sigh.
Oh, dear Goddess, Jan. We’re screwed.
I keep thinking that the Republicans will give up on repealing Medicare given that there is such forceful pushback, even from their base. But the fact that the shitgibbon is destroying the health insurance exchanges in IOWA, one of his strongholds, suggests that the party is going all in on Trumpaggedon. They know that their time in power is limited and they are determined to crush every last vestige of good government there is so that when Democrats come back into power we have to spend all of our political capitol just getting back to where we were in 2016. :(
Good Friday morn Meese
50 degrees in Saugerties NY going up to 74.
Still focused on Puerto Rico – and will be for months to come. My Sundays on DKos will be focused on PR – history, culture and future for the next month or so.
The good news is that individuals and groups are stepping up to help. Lin-Manuel Miranda dropped his “group” single to raise funds early
He’s going to be in Chris Hayes’ show tonight, so even more eyeballs for it
That’s good news – thanks!
Good morning, Meese. It’s cloudy today. In keeping with the Washington, DC, tradition of not being able to see the full moon, we didn’t see the orange moon rising last night. Witches call it the Blood Moon, non-Witches the Harvest Moon. However, m’daughter posted a photo of an orange moon from Circle C Ranch in Austin, where she lives, so that was good.
Here in NoVa we’re still warm, still rainless.
Bfitz, just read your post from yesterday. That’s alarming about your ID! Here in Virginia they run our driver’s licenses through a machine to see whether we’re eligible to vote. Apparently the state-issued, photo-less voter ID cards are useless. Rethug legislatures do their best to make life difficult for anyone who isn’t a homophobic white male.
Feel SICK about the free contraception being taken away. “We gotta keep the wimmen down or they’ll take all our pow’r!” Just read in the WaPo that some woman named Sanchez wants Nancy Pelosi, aged 77, to step down. Huh? Why is it OK for an aged male like Ted Kennedy, John McCain, or Strom Thurmond to serve until he’s carried out feet first but not for a woman? Gods, even women are prejudiced against women. I hate patriarchy!
Well, I uploaded Saving the World Through Sex to the publisher yesterday! Soon I’ll be told the publication and distribution dates.
The last time the Moose kicked me out and I had to “clear history” to get back in, WordPress huffily informed me that I was using an “old” version of the Mac operating system, which was “incompatible” with WordPress and for me to upgrade El Soon-oh. Ab-so-lute-ly not! When my son-in-law installed Yosemite on my Mac, that was bad enough: no scroll bars, and “command-space” searched the entire universe instead of just my hard drive.
I Googled frantically until I found someone in London who was screaming about the same thing, so used those fixes and then all was as well as it ever can be with Mac software. But if I disappear one day, it won’t be because I don’t love y’all—it’ll be because of software incompatibility. Just so you know! :)
Let’s all try to have a good day.
Ha! If you disappear, I will find you on Twitter, DM you, and implore you to come back!!
I thought the moon was getting close to full and I kept forgetting to check my calendar. I would not have seen her in any event as we had clouds and rain off and on through the night. Why does DC never have a full moon – is this an “in” joke?
Booman – who is a guy named Martin Longman – thinks the doodieheads gunning for Nancy Pelosi are not very smart:
Take that, youngins’!!
Sigh – Loretta Sanchez must be still smarting from getting trounced in her Senate race against Kamala Harris
This is a ploy to get face time and attract the fringe, Berners etc.
Dumb.
My Bad – just saw it’s her sister Linda Sanchez
I think Loretta had to give up her seat to run for Senate. I was shocked to see it was Linda Sanchez but according to Booman (in that article), she was simply generalizing about “it would be nice to have them pass the baton” rather than “kick the (old) bums out!” It is the Tim Ryan ilk that wants to kick Nancy Pelosi out because he, foolishly, thinks that the right-wing is focusing on her rather than whichever Democrat is in leadership. This young white male contingent of whiners seem like delicate flowers!
Did an AIDS Walk video. Eating oatmeal & drinking tea. Found out that a friend of a friend was at Las Vegas & seriously hurt (hasn’t woken up, bleeding on the brain). I don’t know her but I feel so bad for my friend.
My check in is awaiting moderation because I embedded a tweet that has too many hashtags. Sorry! I forgot about that!
Found it! Sorry, I was distracted by work!!
The music video is up from Lin-Manuel Miranda
65 heading for 85 and trying to clear off. Got almost 10 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is now right on 39. Did actually see the full moon at 3:30 this morning, again when I finally got up at 5:45, and again when I went outside to fill the bird feeding platform at 6:15. While outside and under the Light I focused on channeling Good health-home-community Energy to everyone She was shining on.
Good folks really have a problem dealing with evil. We cannot fathom why such people would ‘vote against their own interests’ or ‘vote to hurt their own constituents’ so we are blind-sided every time they do it. Which is always. To us it’s insane and we cannot see the logic in it. But there is logic. Evil logic. They are psy-vamps. They feed off pain. Go read Mercedes Lackey’s Children of the Night – she’s got a really good description of them. if you can understand coyotes eating cute little baby rabbits, you can understand what these people are and why they are doing what they do. For them power means not having to live off the pain ordinary life brings the way hunters and gatherers live off what the environment and seasons bring. For them power is the ability to concentrate and increase food production like modern agri does – complete with CAFOs and animal ‘processing’ plants. There is a lot of logic to what they are doing but we have to understand their logic before we can consistently stop them. We can’t reason with them or count on them wanting to protect at least their own constituents. They don’t – they live off pain. So not only do we have to stop them, we have to cut off their source of pain while doing it. Which is why we need our pros like Nancy Pelosi.
Gotta get back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}