Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Jan. 14th through Jan. 20th

January 13, 2018 JanF Community 98

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!
 

41 Comments

  2. -2 feels like -13 but sunny might get up to 15 maybe doubt seriously the wind chill will make it above freezing. I’m only going out to feed birds (which I’m doing several times over the day – the birds need the calories to make it in this weather) and to bring in firewood. It was overcast all day yesterday. I only got 2.1 KWHs and the m-t-d is currently 93.7 – but as sunny as today is looking to be, we should crest 100 by mid afternoon.

    Evil ones being evil – nothing new under the sun. People are dying of it – nothing new under the sun. We will work to stop them – nothing new under the sun. But damn it’s depressing. But as James Baldwin said – I have to be an optimist, I’m alive. And if there’s one thing my daddy taught me it’s that if you really don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be. So I will keep on keepin’ on and trying to do whatever good I can for as long as I can. It’s overwhelming and at the moment I seem to have forgotten how to jump the waves, but I’ll remember again.

    Need to go find some coffee and finish my tour of the internet. Bright the day, meeses.

  3. Good morning, 51 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I must need to sleep because I just woke up. Oh well, it’s still morning in the PNW :::yawn:::

    Time to find some coffee and see what the rest of the day brings my way.

  4. Wednesday Morning Meese
    29 degrees and snow has been falling all night – and will continue through the day here in Saugerties NY.

    Waiting for the sun to come up to see how much has come down – I hear the sound of plows on the road near us.

    This was good news to wake up to

    • Patty Schachtner was well-qualified and personable and was running in an area that could be but never was blue. It includes Hudson which is sort of a Wisconsin-side suburb of the Twin Cities and also includes a college town, River Falls, where UW-River Falls is home to some very liberal people. The former state senator, Sheila Harsdorf, regularly won her elections by 20 to 30 points – her closest was the 2012 recall election where her rural roots shielded her from the angry electorate – she still won by 15%. Harsdorf resigned to become Scott Walker’s Agriculture Secretary which is kind of surprising to me – that is a position that may only last a year if Walker gets the boot. Maybe she hopes to direct some graft to her farming buddies as everything not locked down will be stolen this year by Republicans in the state government.

      Our friend Julie Gulden used to live in Hudson. She would have been pleased about this election.

      By the way, I am not sure this is a harbinger of a blue wave like we saw in Virginia. Wisconsin Democrats have a long way to go before they gain anything even remotely resembling power. We are down 4 seats in the Senate and about 50 in the Assembly. If the Supreme Court makes them redo districts because of the Gill case, we probably don’t pick up more than a handful in the Assembly and one or two in the Senate, the Democratic Party atrophy is that bad. There are 17 Democrats running for governor and most of them are the same-old-same-old and/or people who probably cannot win a statewide election but who could win the primary because of the people who voted for Jill Stein or wrote in Bernie Sanders – and gave Wisconsin to Trump. We shall see.

      • Thanks for the background Jan – whether or not we get a blue wave in WI – and I take your predictions of “not” – seriously, I hope each of these small steps forward help erode Republican’s smug superiority

        • YES on helping to erode Republican’s “smug superiority”! The thought that they might feel even the slightest bit of sweat from this makes me smile. Our local paper always includes nasty quotes from the Wisconsin Republican Party on every article where Democrats express modest hopes. I am sick of always losing.

      • Holding the Good Thought for the redistricting issue – that’s the first step to breaking a supermajority in the legislature. We’re trying/hoping to do that here in AR. Right now we have no leverage at all but if we can gain some seats and break that supermajority we’ll be able to do some damage control. {{{HUGS}}}

        • We don’t have any supermajority rules like some states do (where they can bypass certain legislative requirements) and the Republicans will govern scorched earth and in lockstep even if their Assembly majority is 50 to 49 so gaining just a few seats is more symbolic than anything. But if it encourages more people to run it is positive – so many of our legislators run unopposed and never have to present their case for re-election to the voters. Some day the voters up north will get sick of how their lives are under Republican mis-rule.

          • Most Southern state constitutions are reactions to “Reconstruction” with very weak governors and at least some protection for minority status in the legislature. But yeah, the Rs claim 50% + 1 = a mandate.

  5. Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …

    It is 1 degree in Madison with an expected daytime high of 23. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. The wind chill will be in the negatives this morning and the single digits above zero this afternoon so it won’t feel like 23. We will get above freezing tomorrow and through the weekend.

    Senator Cory Booker speaks the outrage we all feel. He was a great addition to the Judiciary Committee, an eloquent voice passionate about justice! I laughed when I read the report that the Secretary of Homeland Security, in charge of keeping our “homeland” safe, does not know if Norway is a majority white country. Good lord, they must think we are stupid! But people need to stop focusing on the vulgarity, and focus on the words. If Trump had said “those countries” instead of “shithole countries” it would have been just as obscene. The “shithole” or “shithouse” is not the problem – it is that immigrants from majority black – or majority Muslim – countries are not welcome and that we need more white immigrants. I hope that after yesterday’s hearing (where nothing was pinned down except that HHS is being run by a woman whose only focus is on protecting Trump) people start honing their arguments over this issue.

    House Republicans are trying to cobble together a Continuing Resolution that their members will pass – Nancy Pelosi has no interest in another short term resolution. I hope it fails there because there are not enough Democrats in the Senate willing to shut down the government over the 700,000 DREAMers who will lose protection in about 6 weeks. There will be no time to fix DACA before the deadline if nothing is done now. From what I understand, a new bipartisan immigration proposal will be presented today.

    See all y’all later!

  6. Good Woden’s Day morning, Meese! Some snow has fallen but it has evidently stopped now. The schools are on a two-hour delay, which, I hope, means I will only have to pick up my little charges from school at 3:30 rather than staying with them most of the day.

    Woke up to the good news about Patty Schactner and Bannon apparently willing to Tell All to a grand jury.

    We are STILL trying to get our tenant to leave. My husband simply disconnected the printer last night and put the cable away. The tenant has been using it far too much. Today I’m going to lock the freezer, which our tenant has stuffed with his own massive boxes of frozen food. It really is past a joke. Yesterday was supposed to be his last day. Now he’s parked his car in front of mine in the driveway.

    If we have to change the lock on the door, we’ll do it. We’ll never rent our downstairs to anyone again.

    Well, that’s enough from me. Many more important things are happening in the world, and it’s time to feed the dog and make the early morning tea. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.

    • {{{Diana}}} your renter sounds worse than my lodger was. She at least had her own freezer – she just kept putting stuff in my freezer “for convenience” since mine is in the kitchen and hers was in the carport closet. Sounds like change the locks is going to have to be it. That sux. moar {{{HUGS}}}

  7. We’re on a 2 hour delay, but I don’t know that I’m going in. I started coughing yesterday, and I just feel totally miserable this morning. I took some cough syrup & my stomach hated it. I also don’t think I’ve been drinking enough water, I have a headache like dehydration. So once it warms up some — supposed to get up to 40 today — I’ll go to the pharmacy & see if there’s such a thing as cough medicine my stomach won’t hate.

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} – Healing Energy. You know my “drill” – support your immune system with 500 mg vitamin C every couple of hours and garlic soup. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy.

      • I can just barely eat crackers, and I’m drinking water. I wish I could eat enough to take a Tylenol for my headache. I think I’m going to take a nap then head to the pharmacy & ask about cough medicine my stomach won’t hate. Coughing either squeezes my head or brings on a wave of nausea.

    • Sorry you are sick…..this flue is miserable! Coughing is no fun but it does remove the yucky mucous and may prevent pneumonia. Drinking ice water and using a menthol throat lozenge was helpful for me.

      Hope you feel better real soon.

  8. 3 at the moment and at least the wind has died so 3 is also the windchill. (I was right about yesterday – windchill never got above zero.) Looks to be as sunny today as yesterday which is good. Got 9.4 KWHs yesterday which brought the m-t-d to 103. If we can keep getting these 8 & 9 KWH-days we can still reach the 200 for the month goal – maybe even beat it.

    Haven’t heard how all the special elections went yesterday, but the 2 I have heard about we won. This is good. Step by step we do this. Meanwhile the Evil Ones are still being evil and we must do what we can however we can to block as much as we can until we get back enough power to actually replace the evil with good, caring, life-supporting programs.

    So. Need to get coffee and go wander the internet for a bit. See if there is anything good I can do. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Good morning, 52 and cloudy in Bellingham. I am recovering from the dreadful flue but recovery is slow. I had another coughing and sneezing until I felt faint episode yesterday but that seems to be how the last of the congestion is being evacuated, yuck! I had hoped to return to my pool routine today but I should be there now and I’m just waking up so I’ll try again next week.

    Take care everyone.

    • I hope you are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is terrible to be sick for even a few days, this has been going on for weeks for you!

  10. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 32. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    I was thinking about the firehose of news lately and George Lakoff’s warning that we risk missing the important news if we get distracted by the side issues. It is easy to get sucked into Trump Mockery because he is such a gross and disgusting person inside and out. I am not sure what a good balance is – the Trump mockery is a break from the awfulness of the news. Maybe I will partake but in moderation..

    Today House Republicans will vote on a new Continuing Resolution that will keep the government open until February 16th. It funds CHIP but has no DACA relief. From what I understand, no Democrats will vote for it because it is a PR ploy, a vehicle to allow Republicans to say Democrats are choosing “illegals” over American children’s health care (it also includes a poison pill related to the zombie Medical Device Tax repeal which shows up every few months). So unless the Freedom Caca buys in like they did with the budget busting tax bill, it will fail. If it does pass, it will fail in the Senate. We seem to be close to the magic number of Democratic Senators who won’t vote for a CR. Will the government shut down? Congressional leaders are saying no but I think they are whistling in the dark. In this climate, it is possible that the government will shut down for months because the president* is a man who enjoys the power of his office to harm, to destroy, to make people miserable.

    See all y’all later!

  11. Here’s some more on the Wisconsin Senate District 10 upset.

    A friend got an email from Kathleen Vinehout, a state senator in a rural district like SD10, with this message to Wisconsin Democrats and potential candidates:

    Last night we saw a glimmer of a new day in Wisconsin. Patty Schachtner won big in Senate District 10 with 55% of the vote!

    To win big, we had the right candidate. Patty is already a dedicated public servant with deep roots in St. Croix County. She’s genuine and enthusiastic.

    She had awesome ground support from hundreds of volunteers all over western Wisconsin who went out in bone chilling weather to spread the news about Patty and the special election.

    Organizing beat big dollars. The GOP and friends poured over $100,000 into slimy mail and radio ads. But the people saw through the muck. Folks said, ‘That’s not the Patty I know.’ They didn’t let big money influence their vote.

    People are fed up with out-of-state big donors trying to buy their vote. And they went out in the cold and showed they were willing to fight back. When we run a good neighbor to neighbor campaign, we win.

    This is exactly how Democrats won in Virginia. They did not run on national agendas or with big pots of national money but with grass roots campaigning, door to door, neighbor to neighbor.

    I found out (while reading all the glowing reports) that one of the supporters of Patty’s campaign was the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. Something about that triggered a memory and sure enough, it is the organization put together by Eric Holder and Barack Obama to get power back in the states to undo the terrible effects of gerrymandering. About NDRC:

    The system is rigged. The fight to fix it is now.

    There’s no other way to put it. Since 2011, Republicans gerrymandered the country more aggressively than at any time in our history. The result? Your vote might not count the way you think it does.

    It’s wrong—and we’re here to fix it.

    How did we get here?

    In 2010, Republicans rode a midterm wave into power, winning state legislative and gubernatorial elections around the country. That gave them disproportional control over the nation’s redistricting process—where state leaders redraw congressional and state legislative lines following the nation’s Census to make sure districts include roughly the same number of people.

    In state after state, Republican legislatures and governors used this power over the process to ensure permanent Republican majorities and diminish the voting impact of Democrats and minorities.

    The result was immediate: in 2012, 1.4 million more Americans voted for Democrats for Congress, but Republicans won a 33-seat majority in Congress. And the problem hasn’t gotten better. In 2016, despite winning fewer than half of all votes for Congress, Republicans again won a 33-seat majority. In battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan and Virginia, the make-up of state legislatures are wildly different than the voting population.

    These gerrymandered districts have had disastrous policy consequences, leading to some of the most right-wing legislation in decades both in Congress and at the state level, including assaults on women’s health, suppressing the vote for people of color, failing to address climate change, and refusing to stand up to the epidemic of gun violence. These policies don’t reflect the majority of voters, but because Republicans have rigged the system in their favor, voters are limited in their ability to do anything about it.

    Here’s what we’re doing about it

    The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, chaired by the 82nd Attorney General of the United States Eric H. Holder, Jr., is the first-ever strategic hub for a comprehensive redistricting strategy. With the support of former President Barack Obama, as well as key leaders around the country, the NDRC is attacking this problem from every angle to ensure the next round of redistricting is fair and that maps reflect the will of the voters. Together, we will rebuild a democracy where voters pick their politicians—not the other way around.

    A Comprehensive Approach

    With a four-part strategy focused on advancing legal action, mobilizing grassroots energy, supporting reforms, and winning targeted elections, we’re tackling the problem from every side. As each piece comes together, our comprehensive approach to redistricting will ensure that we can achieve a fairer process and fairer maps.

    Follow at @DemRedistrict.

    • So good that this is finally being addressed. And of course President Obama and Eric Holder would be the ones to put together a plan to address it.

  12. Good Thor’s Day morning, Moosekind. Apparently we’ll have clear skies today in NoVa before the warm-up begins tomorrow. Currently it’s 18 F., going up to 40 F. later today.

    Woke up at 3, couldn’t go back to sleep so got up at 4:30, then tried again at 6:30. No success. It’s a bummer, as I have weight training this morning and a meeting from 1 to 3 in the afternoon. I’ll probably leave earlier than 3, though.

    Can’t think of a thing to say about the current situation except that I am super-pissed off that Thing is getting away with stuff that HRC would have been crucified for! Not that she’d have had affairs with porn stars. Really, right now I feel so disgusted that I’d like to Rip-Van-Winkle sleep in the Catskills for the next 20 years. Or at least the next two.

    We are still trying to get rid of the tenant. Disabling the printer gave him the hint. He’s the kind of man that does not like to take advice from women. When I asked him to stop putting things in the garage freezer he went and STUFFED it yesterday! We are going to ask him for the key back today.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.

    • The tenant situation sounds like a nightmare. It is very difficult to get rid of people who do not want to leave – I have not personally had to deal with that but I have friends who have. I hope you have the locksmith on speed dial!

  13. Coming up for air – pounding keyboards for my writing deadline – I’m behind schedule – Hi Meese – bye Meese :)

  14. Restless night, can’t tell if I’m hot or cold. Had a fever of 100.3 yesterday, haven’t checked this morning. Trying to keep drinking water, I think my headache is somewhat better for it. I ate 2 crackers, going to try to eat a little more before I take this morning’s Dayquil. Every time I woke up last night, my brain was playing music, nice to be serenaded when I feel bad

  15. 20 but “feels like” 7 at the moment. Heading for 40 as best I can tell. I had to clear history and cookies last night to get my Yahoo mail out of read-only secure mode. Now I’m having trouble finding stuff because it also cleared google’s memory of where I usually go. So far have tracked down my PV system monitor & Moose of course. Found a weather site for my location but it only gives current conditions. I know I can find DK and that will let me get to Aji’s twitter site. My twitter is on the bar at the google homepage but I don’t know how to put something on that bar from within the site itself. sigh. At least it saved my passwords. Which is seriously good as I can’t remember the one for my PV data site. Got 8.8 KWHs yesterday bringing the m-t-d to 111.9 – looks to be sunny today so hope to reach 120 by sunset.

    I don’t want the government to shut down for a host of reasons – but if that’s what it takes to get SCHIP and a DREAM act and aid for Puerto Rico, then so be it. At least I’ve got enough money in the bank to carry me for a while. Evil Ones being evil. The only specifics I pay attention to are ones to call my congresscritters on. Of course sex abusers and harassers should quit. They won’t and some of them smirk happily at the attention they are getting. They also should be fired – some of them should have been a couple of decades ago. They won’t be – the corporate media owners hired them for that as well as whatever else they are supposed to do (which is mostly push whatever meme the corporate media owners want pushed) So I mostly send Healing Energy to those who’ve been victimized and go on to something I might be able to do something about. As to mad king donald – him I try to ignore as much as possible. He doesn’t shock me because I already knew who he was and expected that behavior. I’m not going to join in mocking him because what goes around comes around multiplied and also I don’t want to give him that much attention. So I look about for what I can do – little at the moment but something – do that, worry about my friends, and plan for survival. Once it warms up I’ll get with the Washington Country Dem Central Committee about what next.

    Gonna go track down more of the sites I normally visit. Healing Energy to those who need it, shaped to their need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Good morning, 45 and partly sunny in Bellingham. I’m still sleeping a lot but I can feel some energy returning so that’s welcome progress. And my new computer glasses have given me a less squinty outlook on life :)

    I dug into my unfinished project basket yesterday and today I’ll finish sewing a new dog bed cover for Heide’s feather bed. The owner of the drapery workroom I used to work with always had her dog(s) at work with her so she made the feather dog beds and covered them with left over drapery fabric, but Heide’s new cover is made of denim and fleece. She is 12 yrs old now and loves her comfy bed.

    Best wishes to all.

    • {{{princesspat}}} – glad you are feeling better enough to do that. moar Healing Energy. also moar {{{HUGS}}}

  17. Health update: I ate food! Actual real food. The rest of yesterday’s rice & beans. Didn’t need anti-nausea pills. Still moving very carefully as coughing fits do bring on a headache, but progress is progress.

    • {{{anotherdemocrat}}} YAY!!! hope you got a decent night’s sleep (yeah, I know – that’s relatively speaking) and are doing better this morning. Healing Energy and moar {{{HUGS}}}

  18. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 27 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Sunny until midday then it will start clouding up. Tomorrow we are expected to see the 40s – for a day.

    The House passed the Continuing Resolution that authorizes CHIP for 6 years but repeals one of the taxes that helps pay for the ACA and does not address DACA. The deal cut with the House Freedumb Caca was that Ryan promises to never bring up a clean DREAMer bill so at least they have shown their asses. I am not sure how long the Senate can hold out with them being put into the blame chair for the shutdown and for CHIP. The last I heard before I went to bed is that Schumer wants to add an amendment for the DACA fix and send it back to the House (along with a 5 day clean CR). It sounds like Paul Ryan would not let them vote on that because it would probably pass and he would lose the cacacabezas. Everyone needs to brace themselves because if we do manage to get DACA protections into the bill, I am sure the compromises that will need to be made will be extremely distasteful. But stopping the deportation of those 700,000 people who trusted the federal government and came out of the shadows has to be top priority however it is done. Gawd, I despise Republicans.

    See all y’all later!

  19. Good Friday Meese

    11 degrees here in Saugerties NY. going up to 25. Will hit 40 this weekend – which is good for those in the area going to local women’s marches.
    I’m elated that Chris Reeves from DKos is headed to Puerto Rico with Kelly Macias and they will be hooking up with Chef Bobby when they get there
    They will be broadcasting a counter SOTU

    Grrrrrrrrrr

    • I will be marking the 1 year anniversary of the Women’s Marches rather than the 1 year anniversary of the Orange Orshole’s inauguration.

      I was pleased to see that the theme for this years rallies is “Power to the Polls“:

      Last year’s march was definitively in protest of President Trump, coming just a day after his inauguration. A year on, the organizers of that national march are marking the anniversary with a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday as more than 300 towns and cities organize their own anniversary marches and rallies through the weekend.

      With midterm elections approaching, the theme this year is less outrage and more organizing, dubbed “Power to the Polls.” National and local organizers say they chose Las Vegas because it is an example of successful grassroots progressive organizing. In 2017, Nevadans elected the country’s first Latina senator, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.[…]

      Emily’s List, an organization that coaches Democratic and abortion-rights supporting women on running for office, says they’ve trained more than 26,000 women to run for local, state and national office. Their motto: “You marched. Now run.”

      “You marched. Now run” is an excellent motto. I am looking forward to following the marches this weekend.

  20. Good Freya’s Day morning, Moosekind! Still dark here at 6:50 a.m., current temp. in NoVa 21 F., going up to 48 F. Balmy!

    Felt cheered to read at the Other Place that I needn’t feel guilty at not marching tomorrow (or last year). In the 1970s I marched for the ERA, in the 1990s I defended women’s clinics on freezing January mornings for the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Marched against the Iraq war in the early 2000s. It’s time to pass the torch to younger people.

    An unexpected telephone call came in yesterday for a child-tending job this afternoon from 3:30 to 6. Going to go ahead and do it. Need all the money I can get since the Virginia Educational Savings Trust lost its head and hit my checking account twice instead of once. It would be more trouble than it’s worth to call them up and whine about it, so I’ll just replace the money by accepting every gig that comes my way.

    It makes me feel good that I’m enabling this young mother to work. Not everyone can do what she does, which is translating from Japanese to English and back again for people at meetings. One day last week she was at the Pentagon in the morning and at the Executive Office Building with Mikey Pence in the afternoon.

    I think we’re FINALLY rid of the tenant! My husband told him to buy a freezer for the townhouse he’s renting and to get his stuff out of our freezer. I actually gave him the standalone microwave that was in our downstairs flat, just to get rid of him. Now we can get on with the Swedish Death Cleaning.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond, and a fast recovery to anotherdemocrat and princesspat.

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