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?
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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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30s with a windchill in the 20s. I know that doesn’t sound cold to a lot of y’all but yesterday morning I barely needed a sweater. Our high this afternoon won’t even beat yesterday’s low. Oh — and back to 70 for the weekend. The roller coaster that is Austin’s winter. This morning’s song, another Snow Patrol, Disaster Button. It’s exuberant, joyous… just lots of fun.
I hear ya on the weather rollercoaster – we’re about 10 degrees lower than you but same pattern. {{{HUGS}}} & Healing Energy.
Good Tuesday morning, Moose Kin! It’s cloudy and the woods look misty gray at this hour (half-past eight). The current temperature in Ashburn is 32 F., going up to 37 F. later. “Stormy vetter” is supposed to begin at noon, with the rain turning to snow about 2 p.m. Area schools are closing two hours early today. I hope my DIL can leave work early—she takes public transportation to and from her job in downtown DC.
I’m glad Kamala’s town hall apparently went well. I was too tired to stay up and watch it. We have got to back her 100 percent in the face of the Nasties who are already hunting in packs and baying at the moon. Howard Schultz trying to enter the race is bad enough, but now Marianne Williamson, the New Age guru, and Larry Hogan, governor of Maryland? Somehow we must make sure that being president doesn’t become an entry-level job. I feel sorry for Kamala as it is. It’s no picnic being in the White House. Eight years of it turned Obama’s hair gray.
Nothing intelligent to say this morning except that I can’t boycott Starbucks because I don’t like their coffee anyway.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond.
Great thread from Nick Hanauer on why businessman like Schultz make really bad politicians:
https://twitter.com/NickHanauer/status/1089911670837628934
Funniest thing I saw about the Marianne Williamson entry into the race: “Owning Starbucks does not qualify you for the presidency nor does buying a Starbucks coffee.” Ha!! I have no idea who she is but was startled to see that she has 3 million Twitter followers.
The Larry Hogan for President talk reminds me of how everyone jumped on the Bruce Rauner for President bandwagon because he won the governorship of a blue state (Illinois) in a low-turnout election year in 2014 (he was crushed in a high-turnout year). The only reason Hogan won in 2018 is because the Democrats ran a berner against him. Bernie Sanders and his policies are NOT popular except in the D+50 Congressional districts like the one OCA ran in. The country is still center-left more than left-of-the-left and we should not forget that.
Good trolling here.
It’s 11 and feels like 5 – but at least it is sunny. The sun came out about midafternoon yesterday so we managed to generate 4.2 KWHs and the m-t-d is 144. If the day is as sunny as it’s supposed to be we should easily get over 150 before the end of the day. Only 3 production days left (including today) so over 170 is possible (not saying how likely) but not 180.
The news is Deplorable. Nothing new there. It’s why I don’t get my news from the news as it were. And haven’t for years. I will admit I’m getting more than a little tired of the OMGHOF techniques my erstwhile trusted sources have adopted as fundraisers, but the alerts are on target. The folks I care for are keepin’ on keepin’ on – I will continue to help them as best I can. The folks I care about (everybody essentially, especially folks white society has victimized since the beginning & whose “targets” on their backs have been recently repainted by the owners of this administration) are doing the same. There are too many for me to help the way I do the folks I know, but I’m doing my best.
I need to get back to work. Coffee first. Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to their needs. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; a balmy 16 now before the temperatures do their subzero plunge. It doesn’t look like we’ll get as cold as Jan, but I’m not sure a 10 degree difference matters much when talking double digit, subzero temperatures. At least it was warm enough to get the shoveling done last night, although at some point overnight it snowed a bit more. Still, we only got 6-7″ which is really nothing, but it was certainly impressive coming down.
I missed the townhall last night, although I did catch some of the twitter comments. I wonder if the Rose Brigade will wake up and realize what a laughingstock they’ve become; their arguments to date are tired, unoriginal, and predictable.
Good day to and for all!
Good morning, 30 and sunny in Bellingham. I’m sending keep warm thoughts to all of you living in the snowy and cold part of the country!
Best wishes to all.
51 with high of 66 and cloudy. Today is going to be a long and busy day so I won’t be online much.
Wednesday Meese. Snow, snow, snow here in Saugerties NY. Can’t see how much yet, sun is not up, but the plow guy came twice last night. 26 here atm (feels like -5)
Re: Puerto Rico, I’d like to see people pay more attention to congress people who are actually doing something for PR. The point person is Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who gets very little media attention. The media focus is all on Ocasio-Cortez, who hasn’t done anything to raise funds – or highlight legislation.
The Clinton Foundation continues to actually do something
Clinton Foundation
Kamala Harris
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 24 degrees below zero – feels like 53 below – in Madison with an expected daytime high of 15 below – feeling like 36 below. Tonight will be more of the same and things are pretty much shut down here – all schools in the area are closed today and tomorrow, the state government is closed today, postal service is canceled for areas to the north and west of here. Goddess help those who have to work outside or who do not have a warm place to be.
I was delighted to see that Stacey Abrams was selected to give the State of the Union response! This demonstrates to me that our party’s elected leaders understand where the future of our party is – no stale white guys but dynamic women of color. I can think of no one better to give the response to what is likely to be the meanest nastiest most divisive address ever read off a teleprompter in the People’s House. I hope Nancy smudges after Individual 1 leaves!
I am still processing the Kamala Harris “Medicare for All, No More Private Insurance” stories. I see it as more aspirational than anything. She has said that she believes that health care is a human right – and so has President Obama. Is there anyone who thinks that private for-profit insurance companies should have such power over who lives or dies? How we finally get to universal coverage is not set and is likely to be incremental. I see a strong push for the public option that was killed by the Lieberdem Party of One and Kamala has sponsored a bill to add one as well as sponsoring the M4A. The Overton Window is going to get a giant shove left and those who aren’t ready will probably experience some vertigo.
It was exciting watching the tweets covering the first round of Democratic House committee hearings especially H.R.1, the For The People bill that will be addressing issues with our elections including voting rights and money in politics. It sure got Mitch McConnell all riled up! He wrote an op-ed about it a week or so ago and yesterday he took to the floor twice to decry Democrats wanting to curtail the right of rich people to control elections. He must be getting nervous – giant piles of money is the only way his party stays in power, voters despise Republican policies and Republicans. Election Day 2020 is saying to Election Day 2018 “hold my beverage.”
See all y’all later!
Had to laugh when I saw this response to the Abrams annoucement
Failin’ Palin
The losing loser half-term governor of Alaska has an opinion about politics?
I thought it was supposed to freeze last night, but it didn’t — clouds rolled in & like a blanket, kept it “warm” as in non-freezing. Ok, compared to most of the country, it is actually warm, but in the 30s I still need gloves, and my hair is still wet so the hood on my purple hoodie was up. Overnight oats & nicely chilled tea. More goofy, giddy happy music from Snow Patrol: Just Say Yes.
And Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman are having a hilarious — can’t call it a fight — on Twitter about socks. They’re adorable.
Good Woden’s Day morning, Meese! The sun is gilding the snow-frosted woods outside, the two-inch blanket of snow is still in place on the ground, and the current temp. in Ashburn is 12 F. at 8:30. Our high today will be 30 F., and I’ll believe in the forecasted “snow shower” when I see it.
Not much to say this morning except that I’m glad to see people pushing back on Twitter and delighted to see that Clintons and Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as Chef Jose, have been in Puerto Rico. If we can just get the Senate and White House back, we’d have a good chance of getting the proper resource allocation for PR.
Imbolc approaches…time to light candles to chase away the darkness and welcome the returning Light. Just been reading an article to the effect that Mueller gets one shot at taking down the Russian assets, because he won’t get any more after that, and this is his last job. That makes me feel a bit better. He’s past 65, anyway. (Wonder why he’s a Rethuglican, but it’s none of my business. I simply have a hard time reconciling the concept of “integrity” with membership in that particular political party.)
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!
Good morning, Meesefolk; morning thought:
The wind was just starting to pick up on my drive into work, so I won’t be thinking about “street cred” as the day progresses. Once the wind kicks in, with wind chill we’re looking at -55. That’s a bit brisk…
I have crazy clients waiting for me already (WHY AREN’T THEY STAYING HOME?!!!), so it’s time to earn my pay. Good day to and for all!
Try to keep warm! At this point wind chill is just bragging – 27 below is already dangerously cold.
Speaking of Midwestern cold, “So cold Chicago set fire to their commuter rail tracks” is not one I had heard before!
I thought I was going to have to resort to something similar trying to get out of my driveway this morning. My car started right up, but it took a few moments to break free from the clutches of the snow. Not in the “oh look, I’m stuck in the snow” sense, but in a “oh look, the cold has welded my tires to the ground” sense. Even after I was on the road, it took awhile before my tires started feeling like tires and not like Fred Flintstone’s car tire-rocks. Not at all unexpected, of course; when the snow groans underfoot, you know it’s bitter cold.
Even at our little bitty cold I’m having trouble getting my car door open. The locks freeze. Stay safe please. {{{HUGS}}}
44 with high of 64 and cloudy. A weak weather system is expected to bring a bit of rain today, with more forecast starting Friday. I’ll have to be careful to make sure I don’t get sick yet again now that I’m finally recovering…
{{{basket}}} – lots more Healing Energy – & vitamin C + garlic soup are immune system boosters. They work even better at keeping you from getting sick than they do getting you well after you’ve gotten sick. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 32 and mostly clear in Bellingham. Just reading about the winter weather you all are enduring makes me shiver. It’s often dark and wet in the PNW but that’s just an attitude challenge not a life threatening reality. Stay safe and warm!
The Schultz presidential campaign isn’t getting much support from his home town. Danny Westneat, at The Seattle Times……
Howard Schultz is above the political fray — so high above he often doesn’t vote
People running for public office who don’t think that voting is important are the worst. “Vote for me, someone who is disinterested in who my own representatives are!” is not a great slogan.
The only people who like Schultz running are the guys who he hired to fluff him up: Steve Schmidt, who was lionized by liberals for saying mean things about Trump but who essentially became a Republican because he liked the cut of Lee Atwater’s jib back in the late 80s and the craven ahole Bill Burton who just spent all his goodwill from working for Barack Obama by being willing to work for a guy who has announced he wants to use his candidacy to re-elect Trump because he liked the billionaire tax cuts. I hope Burton is being paid enough to be able to retire because no Democrat will touch him with a ten-foot pole now.
We were at 14-feels-like-4 when I left for work this morning (yeah I know – heat wave 😁😁😁) and are actually getting up to 30 today. Today is the coldest of it for us on this front/system. The sunshine is great though! Yesterday got another 1st for the year – 10.6 KWHs! and the m-t-d is now 155.7 with the most productive stretch of today still to go, plus tomorrow. So over 170 for the month is a definite possibility.
Deplorables being deplorable. Including Lefty Deplorables. I’m so glad I learned how to block on twitter. And that I don’t get my news from MSM. Kamala Harris is breaking records – just like Hillary did. And making sure she isn’t the last as well as the first – just like Hillary is doing. Other than that M4A mess – she’s not stupid so I’m guessing it’s a calculated gamble to use the bernie-associated phrase but she’s gonna have to clear that up relatively soon. And in a way that doesn’t lose whatever she gained by using that phrase. I can’t think of a quicker way to trash the economy – even faster than #45’s shutdowns – than to switch directly to Medicare from our current system. Millions of people would be out of work just for starters. Aside from which, Medicare as it stands is not comprehensive. Switching to & making it the only health insurance for Medicare as it stands would mean there would be NO women’s reproductive health care, NO dental care, NO vision care, NO pediatric care… But I’m willing to trust her, that she knows what she’s doing, and wait to see her policy paper on it. Meanwhile there are a bunch of folks I’m concerned about (& sending bits of grocery money to) who are in the financial trouble they’re in because of the health/medical trouble they’re in. And a few folks very dear to me, including my mother, who are dead because of the effed-up medical industry – not only is it the corporate model of “more money for fewer services” (& more work for less pay) but the care itself, even the services out there, is totally substandard. So we need to work on the pay part but we also need to work on the care part.
I’m at work so I need to get back to it. As soon as I get more coffee. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Someone suggested that a better construct would be “Medicaid for All” because that program covers much more and does not require supplemental insurance – Medicare has pretty high out of pocket and a person with modest savings could easily empty it with a serious illness. The plan in New Mexico that just got introduced is Medicaid-Buy-In which would essentially be a public option.
The “easy shorthand” of M4A meaning universal coverage leaves an opening for your enemies to attack. Of course, there will not be a switch flipped where everyone on private insurance gets covered by a government program. Jonathan Cohn, who writes for HuffPo called it a series of steps. But the notion that healthcare is a human right should not be sacrificed – the only question is how we achieve it.
Yes, Medicaid for All is a much better meme for all those reasons. And a buy-in, especially a subsidized buy-in, would allow us to make those series of steps to get from “you can’t afford it” to healthcare is a right. Still doesn’t deal with the quality of care – the listening to people (especially women, doubly especially WOC) and actually paying enough attention to do the testing, the appropriate testing, to find out what the problem is. For the last 30 years that I personally know of women are ignored and blown off. If “doctor god” deigns to believe there’s a problem at all and not just “in her head” they decide what the problem is without the appropriate testing, set up treatment based on what they decided the problem is, and reject any feedback from the woman that might indicate “doctor god” is wrong. Until that changes no matter who and how it’s paid women like my mother and Tricia and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse and maureenmower and swampyankee and…are going to die years, possibly decades, before their time.
There are at least two other proposals out there; one by CAP that they call Medicare Extra for All (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/reports/2018/02/22/447095/medicare-extra-for-all/) and another one that is escaping me at the moment. But the M4A folks have sucked all of the oxygen out of the room, so these other proposals, both of which are quite detailed, have not received the attention and discussion they deserve. That’s the problem with cheap sloganeering: it’s quick; it’s catchy; and it avoids tough discussions. But that seems to be a feature, rather than a bug, for a certain segment of the Left.
Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out when I have a minute. Yeah, cheep sloganeering that fits on a bumper sticker or on a tweet is all the depth the Deplorables – Left or Right – can process. They attack anyone who tells them to think like rabid hamsters. {{{HUGS}}}
The other one I was thinking of is actual proposed legislation from Jan Schakowsky and a rep from CT. Charles wrote about Medicare for America here: http://acasignups.net/19/01/29/updated-lets-dive-reps-delauro-schakowskys-medicare-america
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is -24 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of -4. The temperature is still dropping and is expected to reach -27 before it starts rising. The forecast had called for windchills of 40 to 50 below but it appears as though the wind has tapered off some – right now there is no windchill. This afternoon a clipper will race through dumping 1 to 2 inches of snow on the region. I have to travel this morning but should be back before the snow hits.
I only have time for a scan of the news and it turns out that there is not much new going on. Everyone is waiting to see what the House-Senate conference committee will come up with and hoping it is enough to avert a second shutdown. The Fed did not increase interest rates, perhaps realizing that the economy is damaged enough by the Tantrump that killing borrowing is probably ill-advised. Pundits are looking for things to say to induce clicks and right now the clickee-du-jour is Howard Schultz, Clueless Billionaire.
In local news, Foxconn admits that they duped Scott Walker and the Republican legislature and that the building going up in Racine County – that forced people out of their longtime family homes, did untold environmental damage and mortgaged Wisconsin’s future through 2045 – is not going to provide manufacturing jobs. Oops, as they say. Of course the Republicans are saying that the election of “job killing” Governor Evers caused Foxconn to change their mind but this is a bald-faced lie – everyone writing about Foxconn over the past year pointed out that the product they intended to build there was no longer in demand. What a steaming mess. The silver lining is that it probably puts the kibosh on a Scott Walker political comeback and may jeopardize his plan of supporting himself with paid speaking gigs around the state; he may have to go back to his last non-government job – start practicing “would you like fries with that, sir?”
See all y’all later!
Dear Goddess. When will people learn not to believe Rethugs?
Sorry about the hideous temperatures. Climate change is HERE.
H.R. 1, the For The People Act being discussed in House committees right now, really has Mitch McConnell apoplectic. He is right, it won’t pass the Senate – or even be taken up in the Senate, probably – but it will serve to remind people of what Republicanism is all about: shrinking the electorate so small that it only includes wealthy Republicans.
Good Thursday Morning Meese
Had to stay in my bed and tweet from my phone till it warmed up in my office – it is minus 8 degrees here.
Kudos to Rep. Karen Bass for taking on voter suppression
Puerto Rico
Congressional action
40s & light rain, supposed to be “gloomy” for the next few days. But it isn’t cold — if we had this & freezing temperatures, that would be unpleasant. Sleepy this morning, gonna use City of Blinding Lights to wake me up — I’ve never seen this video of it before.