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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Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …
It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 25. Sunny this morning then partly cloudy this afternoon.
I only have time for a quick scan of the headlines this morning. That this is one of them (from Reuters, not some lefty web site) is remarkable: “Trump, Pence seek to rescue embattled Republican in Mississippi.” I don’t think that Hyde-Smith is in real trouble – Mississippi is ground zero for butthurt trumpers – but making them sweat is fun. She will only be filling the last two years of Thadd Cochran’s seat and will be up for re-election in 2020. Depending on how Espy does – turnout, turnout, turnout – it could energize Democrats to challenge her in a couple of years.
Yay, Mars landing! Of course the shitgibbon is claiming credit for a project that started under the Obama Administration in 2010 but NASA has to be pleased that they survived the Republican budget axe and allowed to do scientific research. Their work will survive the tRump years.
The Republicans want to change the partisan makeup of the Senate Judiciary Committee (to give them a two-seat cushion to avoid “rogue” Republican Senators embarrassing them) and the odd person out will be Kamala Harris. If Chuck Schumer does not fix that, he will earn even more of my enmity (he is already on my sh*tlist for not slow walking the judicial nominations from before the election). Kick Chris “I am a white guy who is friends with Republicans” Coons or Dick “What day is today?” Durbin off the panel but don’t take the microphone away from one of our rising stars and one of the few who goes right at the Republicans and their terrible judicial picks. If he lets her get removed from the panel, he will be doing the Republicans work for them: quieting another uppity woman.
I have a project with a hard deadline that I need to get off my platter today so I will put two or three stories up in tabs and hope I can get back to them. If not, they will be put in Pocket and I will catch up on Twitter.
See all y’all later!
I had some laryngitis yesterday, but I’m here today anyway. I’m sure it was either allergies or just going back to talking after 4 days of not really talking. After watching yesterday’s landing on Mars, my youtube suggestions are mostly NASA stuff, but also: Disappear by INXS.
Good morning, Meese. Quel horreur, it was bitterly cold and windy when I took Monty out at 6:30 this morning. Currently it’s 38 F. in Ashburn, going up to a frigid 41 F.
Yesterday I received some fabulous input from DoReMI and princesspat re the construction of evening gowns! I was so excited I could hardly work on the rest of Chapter 11. Only have 300 more words to finish it, then I can get going on Chapter 12.
Re the outside world, don’t know what to say. I’m absolutely sick over the idea of gassing babies and mothers, and wish deeply that awful, Mueller-instigated things will happen to Thing, Melanie, and all of Thing’s men.
It was very nice to hear from Sister Dee that Jose Andres has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! As for Mississippi, how do haters have time to go to work, procreate, and do their Christmas shopping? I always seem to be too busy to leave nasty messages for anyone.
Poor Dearly Beloved is still in pain. Now he’s trying the neck exercises the doctor prescribed. I wish there were something I could do but if heat, Tylenol, and rest aren’t working, I can’t think of anything that would help. I asked him about massage but he said it would hurt too much.
Meanwhile, there’s trouble in Austin—son-in-law wants to ship his aged Mum right back to Virginia because she constantly whines down the telephone line—and my four-year-old grandson is not feeling very well. He eventually went to preschool, but I told Younger Son to let me know if he needs me to pick up Mr. Paw Patrol and take him home.
Wishing all at the Pond a good day and hoping for encouraging news—I won’t say an actual win—from MS.
There is good news from the Mueller front – the Manafort plea deal falling apart gives Mueller the chance to put his report right into the court filings, thus avoiding the possibility that Whitaker can kill it.
From Marcy Wheeler, who often has good information but who I still don’t forgive (and won’t follow) because she was a Hamsherite, has more:
I hope she is right!
Firedoglake seems like eons ago, doesn’t it?!
I generally hold grudges against people who trash my friends for a very long time. :) Were you around when the FDLers on DK went after Dee for her anti-Hamsher rant? The rant was epic, the meltdown allowed a Great Sorting to take place – we knew who the racists were and who could be trusted.
heh. Those were the days. I hadn’t thought about it in years – went back to reread the comments. Wow.
Standard bro nastiness although we didn’t call them that back then. The rox-sux wars that drove so many people off DK. And me to hide out in Pooties diaries, emergency live blogs, and fundraisers. & yeah Wow pretty much covers it. {{{HUGS}}}
I can’t remember who Jane (?) Hamsher was.
Firedoglake – Leader of the “Kill the Bill” healthcare faction of “progressives” Virulently anti-Obama.
I was around DK then, but still more of a lurker and mostly terrified to discover so many mean people in a crowd that should have been my allies. I appreciate good snark as much as the next person, but I was seeing a lot of aggrieved-whiteness snark and I’m-leftier-than-thou snark and purity-uber-alles snark even then (which wasn’t really snark but whiney entitlement). I’m not sure its changed all that much, but over time I met some people who didn’t view online bullying as sport. I don’t remember that particular post by Dee, but after reading through the comments to which she linked, it sounded an awful lot like the primary wars of ’16.
Diana – see if DB will try alternating warm compresses with ice or at least cool compresses. If there’s swelling causing the pain, ice will reduce that. If he’s willing to try it, do a 15 minutes ice/15 minutes heat/15 minutes nothing pattern. Good luck & Healing Energy to your household. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 28 now with a grey, gloomy high of 30 today. But no snow…there’s a part of me that wishes we’d had today’s temps during yesterday’s snow, so we could have had real snowfall instead of falling unflavored Slushies.
Today is The Hubby’s birthday, and tomorrow is our anniversary (37th). We’ll just be eating leftovers for his birthday meal; it’s a good thing turkey is one of his favorites. Buying gifts is always frustrating at this point in our lives…it’s not like we need much, if anything. But I got him a new pillow (in part so he’ll quit stealing mine!), and he seems quite excited to try it out. Of course, he just worked 14 hours, so that may be a factor too. 😄
Good day to and for all.
Happy Birthday/Anniversary to your household! At this point in my life I prefer that most gifts to me be edible. 😂❤🤗
That’s what I suggested to The Kiddo for him for the holidays; it would be particularly meaningful from her, because we know she’s usually allergic to cooking. We’ll know on a few weeks if she decided to take up my suggestion.
Happy birthday and anniversary!
30 with windchill of 23 right now in Fayetteville, AR – definitely better than yesterday if not exactly balmy. The sun’s shining at the moment which is also good. Yesterday got 8.7 KWHs and the m-t-d is 155 – so we’re 25 KWHs away from the goal and 4 days to do it in. We shall see what we shall see.
With the installation of the Deplorable-in-Chief, Amerikka is showing white “people of good will” just how much of what we were taught in school was pure myth AKA lies. We are having our noses rubbed in what BIPOC have been telling us for years. Better the ones who believed them without having noses rubbed but I suppose better late than never. Both because there are some 25% or so of wypipo who still refuse to believe it and a good/bad 30% who actually approve of it. And no, those who are starting to believe and help don’t deserve “cookies” for finally getting there and doing what we should have been doing all along. (Although the occasional smile or nod to indicate we are actually, finally, doing it right and not making things worse is appreciated.) It is now up to white people of good will to support as needed and follow the lead of the folks who’ve been telling us this all along. #votelikeblackwomen isn’t just a slogan and it wraps a whole lot more into it than might first seem – #voteforblackwomen (& Indigenous women & Asian women &…) is even better. Basically we blew it and we’ve continued to blow it. We should follow the lead and support those who got it right from the beginning. And not let ourselves get sidetracked from getting the job done. There have been, are, and will be many horrible, evil things happening and if we can actually stop an individual incident OK. But otherwise it’s heads down and keep slogging.
I’m at work and so in and out. Apparently I’ll be doing this through the end of the year no matter how the hiring goes. Fortunately “end of the year” for the university is 12/21. But I’ll have time from whenever basket gets here on the 11th through the rest of the week for his visit. That was a “given” – as in I told folks up front when I came back that I was expecting company in December and if still working here would be taking that time off. Meanwhile, I am at work so I’d best get to it. (Will read DoReMi’s diary post as soon as I get a chance.) Healing Energy to everybody shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Ah, so you are basket’s travel plans! I was going to ask but am never sure if I’m just being nosey. What a wonderful winter gift!
Very much a wonderful winter gift (I’m not all of his travel plans but I’m almost a week’s worth of them) and I am so very much looking forward to seeing him again. I need to make more stock and stick some cooked pork in the freezer so I can make my Mexican rice/refried black bean soup for him. And decide whether I’ll make lemon or molasses spice muffins for breakfast. Actually I’ll probably do both so just need to decide which one to do first. 😁😁😁
Good morning, 52 and raining in Bellingham. To my relief my “easy” Christmas sewing plans are actually getting done. I had planned to machine quilt the table runners, but that takes concentration, which makes my TMJ unhappy, so no quilting for me this year. Interlining with flannel gives enough body to help the trim settle into place and it’s much easier :)
So far so good with my sister’s house/pet sitting arrangement. She will be in town today so we’ll have some time together this afternoon.
Best wishes to all.
Good afternoon meese. Just a quick checkin from work, where it’s 55 with a high of 57 and raining. All good.
Time to tackle work with the assistance of coffee.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 19 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 28. Sunny this morning, then clouding up and a chance of light snow in the evening.
A racist won in Mississippi – not shocking. A racist is about to get a lifetime seat on a federal court with the help of a black Senator – not shocking. A football team that sports a racial slur as its name has decided that a serial domestic abuser is a good fit for their team – not shocking. Republicans deny climate change as they watch the west burn and the east flood – not shocking.
People are buzzing about Stacey Abrams’ federal lawsuit suing Georgia for their purposefully discriminatory election system. The voting laws guru, Richard Hasen, looked at it and said “this is good”. If it can get fair treatment in the federal courts it will likely end with Georgia being put back under Section 2 of the VRA (preclearance) for 10 years. Let’s hope it does because it is the only way we will get fair elections there in a trending-blue state.
Today is the day that the Democratic caucus elects their leadership in the House. If they had any sense, they would commit to voting for Speaker of the House based on their caucus vote and shut Republicans out of the process. We won’t know until next January if they have that sense but today’s vote is step one. Nancy Pelosi is running unopposed for Speaker.
See all y’all later!
Thanks for that link to the Hasen piece – tweeted
Hasen took a lot of incoming last week over his claim that calling the Georgia election “stolen” played into the Republicans hands. Many, me included, asked him what it should be called when tens of thousands of people are denied the right to vote by the Secretary of State who was running for governor. I think his privilege was showing a bit – if his vote was denied he might have allowed for the harsher description. That he sees this lawsuit as smart is good news – now we just have to hope there are enough smart judges left in the federal courts who also see it that way.
Wednesday Meese.
38 here in the Catskills going up to 41 and then we get snow. Weird.
Mississippi
Warmer today — 40s & I didn’t need gloves. Maybe I’m getting used to cold weather. Leaving work early for a follow up at the dermatologist. I don’t remember waking up a lot last night, but I’m tired, so I’ll use energetic Empress to help.
Thanks, bfitz! I’ll ask him if he wants to try that. The doctor now has him on prednisone and mentioned therapy. I wish I could get CBD, having read an article by someone who tried it and is now pain-free. Problem is, it’s illegal.
Hi Diana…..hemp based CBD products are legal, and I buy CBD capsules at my local community food coop. They carefully vet everything, so I feel like I can trust what they sell and fwiw my Dr. recommended I try using it to reduce inflammation.
Here’s another mail order source a friend uses https://greenmountaincbd.myshopify.com
Hope your hubby feels better soon.
Good morning, Moosekind! Blowy and cold here, with a partly cloudy sky. Currently the temp. is 32 F., going up to 38 F.
Yesterday was busy with three separate crises—m’daughter in Austin, my husband right here, and my four-year-old grandson—but the situation was reasonably calm by evening.
Disappointed in the Mississippi results, of course, but I really didn’t expect anything different. I’m glad about the seat pickups in California, though.
Yesterday it looked like the beginning of the end for Thing. Today, people seem less sure. Am I imagining it, or is the MSM starting to push back against Thing a tiny bit? They should have done it all along, but they were so enraptured with him they never did.
I’ll have another question for DoReMI and princesspat today. This time, thankfully, it will be less complicated, merely involving workmanship on a garment.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
I think that there is some pushback starting on Thing – I suspect because he is less someone to fear now that he is shown to be vulnerable, having lost the mid-terms in a thumping. I caught bits of his interview with WaPo and I stopped reading because it frightened me! This:
Working our way through a warming trend – it’s currently 38 with windchill of 31 (although I did have to pour boiling water over the ice in the bird/cat/possum water dish so the mostly feral BC I’ve been feeding could get a drink) and we’re heading for a high of 55 today and in the 60s for the next two. The sun is shining which is nice. We got 8.4 KWHs yesterday and the m-t-d is 163 so to reach our 180 goal for the month we need 17 more with 3 days to do it in. Holding the Good Thought.
Holding the Good Thought for lots of stuff. Health and well being of my family – blood kin, friends, & online – & their families. Communities online and off from the small one that is the Moose Pond to the slight larger one that is Sociology-Criminology Dept through my various other online and off enclaves & neighborhoods – all the way out to global and the Earth Herself. That the state whose most recent lynching was last February to elect someone who approves of lynching is not surprising – nor is the fact that she approves of the voter suppression/election fraud that elected her. But the fact that it was close enough to go to a runoff in the first place says progress is being made. In politics, in education, in addressing environmental changes – we are making progress. Will it be enough soon enough to prevent massive dead and destruction? Dunno. But we are making progress and we will keep making progress. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s good morning:
Good morning, Meesefolk; 27 this morning with an expected high of 32. I’m back to wondering when we’ll see the sun again; no precipitation in the forecast until Saturday’s expected rain, but grey and cloudy for the foreseeable future.
The MS Senate race results were not unexpected, but I take some encouragement from the 10% gain by Dems over the 2016 election. The rural/suburban-urban divide continues; I think our ongoing challenge will be to keep those suburban whites voting for Team D. That’s going to be harder than it looks, particularly if any Rs mount a primary challenge against Donnie Duncecap and win. If a R candidate proves to be the least bit “reasonable***”, those suburban voters are going to scurry back to Team R, because voting for the white supremacy party IS voting their interests.
In the meantime, I keep seeing Beto2020 talk popping up on Twitter; what is it about Dems that so many latch on to the latest shiny object? And frankly, if we’re going to be talking about candidates who lost their races as possible 2020 contenders, why aren’t Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum getting the same attention? I have nothing against Beto per se; I really don’t know enough about him to have much of an opinion. But I do have real concerns about this bandwagon tendency amongst so many Dem voters. At least Avenatti has faded into the background (for now).
***Things in the electoral mirror are less reasonable than they appear
The drive for a (preferably white male) savior is the result of 40 years of RW-controlled propaganda combined with RW school boards getting rid of civics classes as requirements to graduate. And it wasn’t that hard. With a single person savior who magically makes everything be what we’re being pushed to think is what we want we don’t have to work. Or think. It’s so much easier to be told what to do – and to be able to blame others when things don’t happen the way they were “spozed” to.
Democrats feel that their leaders have to be inspirational and the bro faction would like that inspiration to come from the person’s facial “shinyness”! I have no doubt that the 2020 primary wars will be just as nasty as the 2016 ones were – it was nice in 2012 to have a nominee built in, one who was only threatened with a primary by a cranky old man from Vermont! :)
My concern about 2020 is that Democrats will say that we must not do anything to upset the white supremacy crowd, pick a safe white male with nice teeth who can go toe to toe with Trump in rural Pennsylvania. Pardon my French, but that is taureaucaca! Our strength is diversity and while holding the suburbs and exurbs will be tough, it is not impossible like winning rural West Virginia and Kentucky and Mississippi are. The key is the youth vote – young people everywhere are turning away from Republicans and the suburbs and exurbs are full of young people who are excited to vote after what happened this year. The gerrymanders don’t work as the hatred and fear ages out and the college-educated white voters and their children make common cause with their urban counterparts. It could be a permanent shift – we should help it along when we can.
Good morning meese, 54 with high of 59 here and cloudy with some breezy winds. Yesterday and last night was a state of mild panic at work. Here’s hoping today will be smoother.
Healing Energy shaped to the need/situation. And calm is good. {{{HUGS}}}
52 and cloudy and still morning in the PNW, but looks like a wintery day outside my window. It’s time to put up the outdoor lights and bring in seasonal cheer to counter the darkness. We’ll get a Christmas tree this weekend.
I’m tired and slow today so I don’t have much planned. Hope it’s a good day for all.
Hi Meeses – I just realized I’ll be offline tomorrow until around 2:30 or 3 so sort of checking in now. LOL. It’s supposed to not get under 40 overnight and give us a high in the 60s tomorrow. We got 7 KWHs today and the m-t-d is 170 so only 10 more to make the 180 goal and 2 days to do it in.
Aji got wonderful news today that just shoves all the pain and ugliness under their rocks for now. Her friend who lived in Paradise and was feared dead contacted her today. Alive, well, and safe! That’s hope and promise on “dragonwing” as far as I’m concerned. Carry that joy with you. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to the need. Bright the day, Meeses. 💞💞💞
That is so good! It turns out that I know someone from Paradise – Paul Carrozza, who had the RunTex stores maybe when you lived here? He’s from there, is planning on doing something here to raise money for them.
I vaguely remember the name. Very vaguely – it’s been over 35 years since I lived in Austin. 😁 But good. Those folks need all the help they can get. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 25 degrees in Madison, on this penultimate day of November, with an expected daytime high of 32. The forecast calls for cloudy with sunny breaks and some flurries overnight.
Today the Thomas Farr confirmation comes up for a vote. The Republicans needed Mike Pence to break the 50-50 tie to advance the nomination to a vote – Jeff Flake, showing integrity for the first time in his Senate career – made good on his promise to not vote for nominees until he got his vote on the Mueller protection bill. I am glad I was sitting down when I read that! Tim Scott voted to enable a racist to decide the constitutionality of the laws in North Carolina, a place that is ground zero for racial gerrymandering. There was a glimmer of hope in that it took 45 minutes of haranguing in the Senate cloakroom to get him to cast a yes vote and when asked if he would also vote for confirmation, he said he was not sure, he wanted to look into the allegations related to Farr’s connection with Jesse Helms’ election ratfking. To block Farr – and to block him with the vote of a black Senator who has a line he won’t allow to be crossed – is a good sign. Thom Tillis voted to further damage the reputation of his state as a racist hotbed and he will have to defend that vote in 2020.
Yesterday I got sidetracked by research I was doing on Medicare Advantage options and my hard-deadline project did not get finished. Today I have to get it done – the cushion is gone – so I will ignore the news except to stick my head up at 11am CST to see if they are voting on Farr.
See all y’all later!
Good morning, Meese, and a good Thor’s Day to you! At 6:20 a.m. it’s dark and cold in Ashburn, with a temp. of 30 F., going up to 42 F. later. Checking in early today because in an hour I have to drive down the road to take care of poor little Mr. Paw Patrol, who is still under the weather.
Haven’t looked at the news much so far, but I’m still wondering why Thing left the Christmas tree lighting so precipitately yesterday evening. He didn’t take the press pool with him. Did he receive bad news? Hope so.
Managed to get halfway through Chapter 12 last night before I was overcome with fatigue. I’ve accumulated 19,500 words. Considering that I started with roughly 2,000 words at the beginning of November, I’m very pleased to have made so much progress.
Dearly Beloved’s pain is much better because of the prednisone. Princesspat, thanks for your suggestion yesterday—checked the site and will order if the problem persists.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and beyond, but stopping abruptly at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Ha!! “Did he receive bad news? Hope so.” May he continue to receive the worst news ever until he finally decides to leave office with a Mike Pence pardon in hand. By the way, after January 3, 2019, any replacement Vice President chosen by a President Pence would have to get past the Democratic House of Representatives. That means that the worst of the worst (John Bolton? Sean Hannity? Ivanka Trump?) would be blockable leaving Nancy Pelosi next in line for when Pence’s time in the barrel threatens his presidency. Madame President? :)
Thursday Meese.
38 and cloudy here in Saugerties NY going up to 44.
Pounding the keyboards this morning to meet my Sunday Orange noon deadline.
Just finished reading this UN report
:(