Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Jan. 20th through Jan. 26th

January 19, 2019 JanF Community 126

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 (usually Saturday night with a Sunday date). 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?

…

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.

…

  • Page One of Comments is HERE!
     
  • Page Two of Comments is HERE!
     
  • Page Three of Comments is HERE!
     

37 Comments

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

    Morning low of 1 degree in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 9. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

    • Actual good morning to meeses!

      The upgrade of the site to the 5.0.3 WordPress version has been completed. Because I opted to keep the Classic Editor, there are no visible changes (or I have not found them yet!). Please report any issues here or tweet at me at @JanF_Blogs if it involves not being able to open the web site.

      One thing about major releases of software is that it forces you to revisit your backup scheme. It turns out that one element of the site was not getting backed up properly. Bullet dodged!

  2. Speaker Pelosi on the tRump “offer”:

    “Democrats were hopeful that the President was finally willing to re-open government and proceed with a much-needed discussion to protect the border.

    “Unfortunately, initial reports make clear that his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives. It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter. For one thing, this proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS recipients that our country needs and supports.

    “Democrats support smart, effective border security solutions:
    – Increased infrastructure investments at our ports of entry including additional ports and roads;
    – Advanced technology to scan for drugs, weapons and contraband where the vast majority of drugs come in to our country and advanced technology to detect unauthorized crossings;
    – More customs personnel including filling the more than 3,000 customs and border patrol vacancies; and
    – More immigration judges.

    “Next week, Democrats will pass a package of six bills agreed to by House and Senate negotiators and other legislation to re-open government so that we can fully negotiate on border security proposals.

    “The President* must sign these bills to re-open government immediately and stop holding the American people hostage with this senseless shutdown. Each day he prolongs this needless crisis, Coast Guardsmen, FBI agents, border patrol officers, TSA agents, and hundreds of thousands more workers are forced to live without knowing how they can feed their families or pay their bills.

    “The President has taken pride in shutting down government. Now, he must take action to open up government

    Even Joe Manchin is in the “open government first then we will discuss immigration.” If he is any indication, the bill that Mitch McConnell will bring to the floor next week will never get 60 votes and may not even get 51. Even if it did pass, it is doubtful that such a bill would pass the House.

    • I’m with Nancy on this whole shutdown business. She knows how to make government run smoothly – put certainty in peoples’ lives, offer opportunities, and give people security via healthcare, consumer protections, etc.

      But how do you open the government when you have to deal with an immature egotist who is only interested in saving face, but not saving the lives of those who must now choose between paying rent or feeding their children? Buying life-saving medicine or putting gas in the car to drive to a job for which you are not being paid, hoping that you will at some point be compensated for the hours you have put in?

  3. Good morning, Moosekind. Drippy today with an overcast sky, although any precip is supposed to clear out by noon. The current temperature is 35 F., on its way up to 38 F. A cold front moving through after noon is expected to plunge temperatures into the single digits, which it seems that Jan is already experiencing. Ugh.

    Don’t know what to say. The WaPo has another tender, loving examination of a Trumpist’s feelings, which I refuse to read. During his national barkfest yesterday, Thing did not mention the suffering he has imposed on federal workers even once. How anyone can favor this dirtbag I do not know.

    I’m always disgusted by the so-called “March for Life,” but this year’s little fillip of racist white Catholic school boys surrounding a Native American veteran made me want to barf. Thing’s residence in the White House has encouraged the most vile expressions of racism to find their voice. Witness the Nazi invitation to a school dance in Minnesota!

    Remember in Brave New World how Aldous Huxley talked about the “feelies,” as opposed to the “movies”? You could feel everything happening on the screen as if it were happening to you. Someone should make a “feelie” about arriving at Auschwitz in a cattle car, going through the “selection” process, and so forth and force those kids to “feel” it.

    I’ll shut up now. Yes, I am disgusted with the current state of affairs and see little hope that it will end any time soon. In the meantime, Puerto Rico suffers, federal workers suffer, and the desperate people fleeing violence in Central America suffer.

    Let us each do what we can to alleviate it.

    • My temperature has gone from bad to worse – it is now 2 below on my weather widget (5 below on the thermometer that is on my back deck). My short-haired doggie is VERY unhappy.

      I was glad to see that the white supremacists from Kentucky (Kentucky SHOCKED – NOT SHOCKED) flying their anti-choice racist Kavanaugh flags were exposed. Some idiot pundit from the Wall Street Journal (Wall Street Journal SHOCKED – NOT SHOCKED) was bemoaning that “boys can’t be boys because someone might have a camera!” JHC, I hope everyone has freaking cameras then because if that is acceptable behaviour for white males, we need to shut them out of power until we figure out what is going on. :)

  4. Sunday Meese
    Overslept because I was up half the night – checking on our pipes – and watching for the plow guys to come.

    We got less snow than I expected – only about a foot – but it is still snowing mixed with freezing rain and road conditions are horrid.

  6. Still feeling bad, working on eating enough to take my vitamins & cold medicine. Have a blueberry scone from yesterday. Had a really restless night, but I don’t have a fever. It turns out it did freeze overnight, so I’m bummed I didn’t cover my plants yesterday, but that wasn’t going to happen.

    • {{{ad}}} – more Healing Energy and do what you can to take care of yourself. Can you keep soup down? That tends to be more digestible than anything else and lends to healing faster. moar {{{HUGS}}} & Healing Energy.

      • I went to Wheatsville, none of the soups in the deli were anything I could eat – African Peanut, Beer Broccoli, Garlic, and something else. None appropriate for an upset stomach. So I got some steamed vegetables & rice. I’m actually hungry! Eating that & drinking the ginger soother I bought yesterday. Going to eat enough to take the 2nd dose of cold med. I think I can see normal from here. Don’t worry, I won’t push too hard, I’ve already told people I won’t be at the MLK Day celebration tomorrow. No chance I could walk from a parking place to the statue.

        • Hungry says you’re doing better! (Steamed veggies and rice can become soup with the addition of stock. 😁) Very good about taking care of yourself – because yes, I worry. moar {{{HUGS}}} and Healing Energy.

  7. It’s 16 feels like 8 but the sun is shining which is a W00T! after yesterday. Although the wind did blow enough of the snow away I got a 2/3 KWH for the day. sigh. The m-t-d is 81.8 so it’s possible that we’ll reach 90 today if this sunshine keeps up. I’ve been pouring boiling water over the dish outside the cats and birds both use to thaw the ice in it. When the temps are in the teens or lower, I have to do that every hour or so. A balancing act – I’ve got to get enough hot water in there to keep it liquid for long enough that cats and birds will actually drink from it – the steam freaks them all out. So far the cats watch the birds but haven’t caught any. They have managed to take 2 squirrels & 1 probably young possum over the last month. At least they’re wild enough to eat what they catch most of the time. Nature is what it is though we who’ve been “disneyfied” tend to be shocked and horrified about it. I say to cats (not that they pay attention) the same as I say to humans – if you eat what you kill, good hunting. If not, no hunting.

    Worried about a bunch of folks. No news there. Sending Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to their needs. And sometimes a little cash if that can help and I have it. So far the shutdown hasn’t stopped Social Security benefits from being deposited and of course the fed being shutdown doesn’t do anything to the state’s regular business. If I had to I could survive (no giving anything to anybody for any reason plus no vet visits and not setting aside anything for taxes) on just the part-time hours I’m working at the University. For as long as I am working those hours. I know I’ve got it a lot better than a whole lot of people. Like the 800K families of public employees who have no income right now. The question I have for the Universe is not “why do bad things happen to good people?” because I know the answer – because bad people choose to do bad things. My question for the Universe is “why do bad people get away with doing bad things to good people for so long?” Meanwhile I will do whatever I can find to do to ameliorate that. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, 36 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. We can see Orcas Island from our porch, but it takes 5 or 6 hours to get there! It was good to be away, and I hope I can keep my island mindset now that I’m home. Layers of focused worry have eased and I can feel the difference.

    Best wishes to all.

  9. Good morning, meeses! Monday …

    It is -13 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 16. Sunny this morning, clouding up this afternoon. A winter storm is expected tomorrow, dumping 6-8 inches of snow on the area.

    I was able to watch the Lunar eclipse last night. My indoor viewing point only let me watch until the moon was about 3/4 covered in the earth’s shadow. With the temperatures already below zero I had no interest in bundling up to stand outside to see the rest.

    Today is the federal holiday celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is a strange moment as “federal government offices are closed today” is a reminder that federal offices have been closed for over a month. I have given up trying to predict how the shutdown will end and “January 20, 2021 when the Democratic president is sworn in and re-opens the government” seems as likely as anything. A Republican Senate uprising against Mitch McConnell, the man who gave them a majority, upended norms to block a Supreme Court appointment, turned a blind eye to Russian intervention in our election in order to insure a Republican president (giving them two seats on the Supreme Court, a trillion dollar tax cut, and an end to government regulation) seems unlikely. tRump rejecting the demands of his right-wing talk radio masters seems unlikely, Mueller deciding he can indict a sitting president seems unlikely. The only good news is that the number of days left in the Trump presidency is now less than the number of days we have already survived it.

    See all y’all later!

  10. MLK Day Monday Meese

    It is zero here in NYS. Wind chill 15 below.

    Some interesting news:

    • Great news about Hawaii! It was amazing to me that there were no challengers to Gabbard’s embarrassing representation of Hawaii despite her radical right-wing positions on so many things.

  11. Good freezing Moon Day morning, Moosekind! It’s a thoroughly unpleasant 14 F. here in Ashburn, going up to 21 F. later. It was just 12 F. when I took the dog out to the courtyard in a bitter wind. He didn’t stay out any longer than it took to conduct his necessary business meeting—we both scuttled thankfully back inside.

    In a moment I’ll make the early morning tea for Dearly Beloved. Woke up far too early this morning, so got out of bed at 5:15, unable to get back to sleep. Nap time later!

    Hoping to get some writing done today before we go to Elder Son’s house for dinner. I can’t think of anything at all to say about the national situation, so will refrain.

    Wishing a nice quiet holiday to all, with respect to the memory of Martin Luther King, who led the civil rights movement starting in 1955. We owe him a great deal.

  13. Woot! Kamala announces

    • I just read a 538 report on Kamala’s chances and there is a reason she is bypassing Iowa and going right to South Carolina:

      I am not sure about her prospects in Iowa and New Hampshire but the order of the states is set up well for Harris after that. The third contest is in Nevada, a state that borders California, so voters there may more familiar with Harris than other candidates. South Carolina is next, and African-Americans will likely constitute a majority of voters there.

      After those four early contests, nine states are currently scheduled to vote on March 3, and that could be a great day for Harris. Those nine primaries and caucuses include California — Harris’ home state, which also has a large Asian-American population — as well as four states in which the Democratic electorate will likely be more than a quarter black

  14. So glad I have today off. Wish I felt up to going to the MLK celebration, but that’s just not going to happen. I think I have a bad cold, and the first medication I took (a cold & sore throat thing) just violently disagreed with my stomach. That’s the theory I want, so I’ll stick with that. So, I’m resting and hoping to eat enough to take some cold med. Stomach doesn’t mind Dayquil/Nyquil.

    And you know there’s only one song I could post today: Pride (In The Name Of Love)

    • More Healing Energy. Sounds like a reasonable theory – there’s very little I can take that doesn’t upset my tummy, that’s for sure. More Healing Energy and {{{HUGS}}}

  15. It’s 25 feels like 15 and the sun is out again. Not as sunny as it was this early yesterday but it’s still definitely welcome. We got 8 KWHs yesterday and are currently a hair under 90 for the month. With this as everything else what is, is – and we’ll keep on keepin’ on. Just got muffins out of the oven – I never got around to baking them yesterday – and the house smells great. That’s a really nice thing about muffins (or any other baking) during the winter. It not only helps warm the house but it takes care of that musty smell of being closed up too many days in a row.

    So Kamala Harris has declared. There’s now a different but just as welcoming Her to be with. #ImWithHer works again. She’s of course not as experienced as Hillary. How could she be? But she got her own experiences and she obvious learns from the Elders as well as from experience. I think she can make it if we can manage to block the Rs’ voter suppression/election fraud. The MSM has managed to manipulate our country into having non-stop presidential campaigns (2 years of titter-titter about who might run, 2 years of actual campaigning) so this is starting a full year earlier than they did even as recently as the 2000 cycle which is tiring as well as tiresome. We are always fighting against the odds and will be unless/until the 5-RW corporate consortium that owns 90% of the MSM and influences the rest gets broken up. (That’s true of any battle we’re fighting – be it to keep sex abusers off SCOTUS or object to white-privileged little snots insulting Native Elders – the MSM lets us “run” for just long enough to turn our work into ebil fill-in-the-blank attacks on good men.) So we have to fight harder, we have to overwhelm them with our numbers. sigh. Now we get to work.

    Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to their need. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  16. Good morning, 35 and partly cloudy in Bellingham. My morning view of the moon shining on the water and outlining the branches of the old maple trees is lovely to see. So big and so bright, feels like a gift from nature to wake up and find my part of the world illuminated by moonlight.

    Village Books has a read-in for children on Martin Luther King Day, and Rep Rick Larsen will be reading. I’ve been going with my grand girls since they were in strollers, but now Emma can drive so they can meet me there. How has this happened!

    Best Wishes to all.

  17. 37 with a high of 54. Slept a lot over the weekend but I’m still tired and having two cats snuggled against me is very tempting to sleep. However I have things to do today…

  18. Tuesday Meese
    3 degrees here in frozen Saugerties NY. I have gloves on to type,in my drafty farmhouse office.

    Sitting here working on Black Kos today – it will be about Kamala Harris – and a look at her early staffing – like I did for Hillary. Included will be some looks from a black perspective on some of the attacks she is facing on social media

    Puerto Rico

    • One of the most popular Moose posts was your crosspost of a BlackKos diary about the people of color in Hillary Clinton’s campaign (from July 2015). It was my introduction to her sister, Maya Harris, who will be a senior advisor on Kamala’s campaign, as one would expect: Behind the scenes. A look at the people of color in the Hillary Clinton campaign.

      While scanning the archives, I came across this old post in the Moose Archives from 2011: Congratulations to Kamala Harris congratulating her on being sworn in as the first African-American Asian-American Attorney General of California. Your comment:

      DeniseVelez January 5, 2011 at 1:58 pm

      about her political future. Some have suggested a run for the Senate. Some other thoughts have included AG of the US, a spot in the future on the Supreme Court, and even some speculation about a Presidential bid.

      But that is at this point just dreamin’.

      Nice to dream though.

      What time does BlackKos post? I will watch for a tweet.

  19. Good morning, meeses! Tuesday …

    It is 14 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 25. We are under a Winter Storm Warning with snow starting later this morning and continuing into tomorrow. Expected accumulation of 6 to 9 inches.

    I was following the Kamala news yesterday and I must have a well curated Twitter feed because I did not see anything negative about her except for the “she’s a cop” stuff (tweeted in from elsewhere) which is old enough and unhinged enough to ignore. If that is the best they can come up with, it is going to be difficult to land a blow. I was glad to see that Joe Biden is discovering that he will need a train for all of his baggage – I hope he quickly realizes that a mindset that bought into 1990s Senate Comity and the White Male Privilege Protection society can’t ever be rehabilitated. It is burned in. We want a new generation of leaders for whom gender equity and racial equality and justice are not “learned” but lived.

    Today the Senate will reconvene and take up the “offer” to trade temporary protections for DACA and TPS – which the courts already have on hold – for border wall money. For Democrats, it is a non-starter: they are insisting on a clean bill to reopen the government before they discuss any immigration issues. I wonder at what point TSA workers just stop showing up because they have to quit and get a paying job or their families will starve. The shutdown will end when air travel is hampered because it will finally inconvenience Republicans. I have never seen such a disconnect from reality as that shown by the millionaires in the Senate; they must never talk to real humans.

    Busy morning here.

    See all y’all later!

  20. Good morning, Moosekind! Lovely, cool, and clear here in Ashburn. The temperature at 8:30 is 14 F., going up to a balmy 32 F. later. We actually had two blankets on top of the bedspread last night. Slept a long, lovely, drugged sleep (cold pills) and feel much better.

    Did you all hear that half an hour after Kamala announced she had sign-ups from all 50 states? As someone remarked, 8 a.m. EST is 3 a.m. in Hawaii! I call that impressive. I’ve been aboard the Kamala bus for months, so I’m looking forward to her campaign.

    Hoping to come back after breakfast and catch up with all the posts I’ve missed owing to “busy-ness,” and to catch Dee’s post on Black Kos after that.

    Wishing all a good day at the Pond. Princesspat’s view sounds wonderful!

    • I am waiting to find where their news releases are going to be hosted and may ping their national press secretary (who I found on Twitter) if I can’t find it on my own. Their web site is useless for news – I need videos and transcripts!! And I don’t want to have to go to Facebook to find them – you can’t embed video from Facebook.

Comments are closed.