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!
Another hot, sticky morning — rain is coming tomorrow & at least that day will be cool. They’ve already issued a heat advisory for the weekend. Between the mid-90s temps & the humidity from the rain, it’ll feel like 105. Yay. The Trump family continues to be a horror show. That Jared interview…. wow. And what was that Trump was wearing? A manufacturing error from Men’s Warehouse? Anyway, I hope something good happens today. Here’s Wild Horses:
What are you holding back?
I know you’ve wild horses enough, inside of you
Now’s not the time to learn,
Serenity, it’s gone to red from blue
and the line, in the 2nd verse (because it’s always the 2nd verse) that I hold onto so tightly: “It hasn’t finished you, it’s only that it feels that way”
Daily Kamala up
Good morning, Moosekind! Getting a very late start today. Dearly brought my early morning tea at 6:30 but I didn’t get up until 8, because I was still groggy from the cold pills. Had a decent night’s rest and this morning I can breathe through my nose, which is reassuring.
Can’t believe the awfulness of the Thing crime family overseas. Agree with Jan that Mayo “Entitled White Male” Pete needs to go home and take his white male privilege with him. “Running as a non-woman”? FFS! For 243 years we have had nothing but males, only one of color, and he’s complaining because women are running? He’s a pipsqueak who, to me, resembles a not-very-pleasant cat. Enough about him.
It’s a lovely blue-and-gold June morning in Ashburn, with a current temperature of 56 F., going up to 76 F. Yesterday I lied to the treadmill program, telling it that I was 10 years younger than I actually am, and girl, am I paying for it! Feel like a limp dishrag. Actually had to take some Advil last night. Still, it was good to get off my lazy bohunkus and do some exercise.
Poor old Dearly woke up at 3:30 this morning. He deserves a long, lovely rest. True confession: I bought the Kindle version of Siege, by that big bad Wolff. I just love reading awful stuff about the Thing in the White House!
Wishing a nice, quiet day with no bad news to all at the Pond.
It’s 70 heading for mid 80s and overcast in Fayetteville, AR at the moment. Looking at rain this afternoon and basically at some point or another daily for the rest of the week. Only got 13.85 KWHs yesterday – the m-t-d is 56. The month’s young yet. We shall see what we shall see.
Twitler is always an embarrassment when he’s not being evil. And sometimes when he is. He’ll never learn anything because he believes everything he does is right simply because he’s the one doing it – up to the clothes he wears and behavior with other heads of state. Evil and ignorant are a rather dangerous combination.
I’m gonna miss having basket in the house. Face to face rather than tweets or even emails is just so much better. But contact is contact and I’m thankful we do have the modern technology that allows us to have it. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 57 now and going up to 75 or so later in the day. I’m not sure how that’s going to happen since the sky is a solid bank of clouds, but mine is not to reason why.
I had Rachel on last night but was only half-listening until Karine Jean-Pierre came on. She was electrifying to me in a more-of-this-please kind of way. Lawrence made the observation during their change-over that he could have listened to her for quite awhile longer. I felt the same way. It occurred to me that I would much rather tune into a townhall of smart, accomplished women, whether candidates or not, than I would to the upcoming debates. I know these sorts of formats happen frequently at colleges or with sponsoring organizations, but I’d love to tune into a major news network and watch something similar.
Good day to and for all!
Karine Jean-Pierre is deserving of all the attention she is getting from the viral video after the MoveOn event over the weekend. We have so many smart people on our side, it is difficult to imagine us not prevailing!
I thought this article might interest you: it was in one of the newspapers I subscribe to, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a couple of days ago. I think JSOnline.com allows you some free articles, if not, let me know and I will blockquote more of it.
Schism over United Methodist Church’s LGBTQ stance reflected during confirmation in Wisconsin church
She had a more elaborate statement she had wanted to make and the pastor chickened out and wouldn’t let her. Her father was livid:
:(
Wow. Just stunning. I totally get that a pastor is going to be concerned about how a congregation is going to react and has to be prepared to deal with that. BUT THAT’S THEIR JOB. Their job is to help a confirmand along the path of discernment. Their job is to make space for a confirmand to affirm a decision, whether it’s confirmation-yes or confirmation-no. Their job isn’t to stifle the true and authentic voice of a confirmand. And their job most certainly is NOT to tell a confirmand, “This has the potential to cause a lot of difficulty for me as pastor, so here’s how YOU are going to make things easier for ME.” The DS really needs to step up and provide some counseling and guidance for this pastor, because he’s lost sight of something really fundamental and central to a life of faithfulness.
When we voted on our statement against the General Conference outcome, we had the biggest crowd join our church I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been going there since 1988. Our confirmation classes write their own statement together, and I forget all the words to this year’s but it was about inclusivity. I’m sad for people who don’t have a church that welcomes everyone, it’s what drew me to mine. When we do communion, every pastor for those 30 (omg, I’m old) years has said something along the lines of: “this is God’s table and everyone who hears this is welcome here”; I still get teary when I hear that.
Batavia Wisconsin is rural and in the middle of Trump country, just outside the WOW (Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington) counties that surround Milwaukee and choke off all diversity. The hatred of The Other in the community should be no surprise but to find it in a church, which should be a sanctuary from the politics of toxic straight whiteness, is depressing. It is no shock that young people are opting out of organized religion and rejecting the teachings that they know in their hearts are not right.
At some point, I really need to sit down and write the post about the IRD which has been percolating since our recent special General Conference. They really are insidious and destructive; they targeted all of the mainstream denominations over the years. The United Methodist Church was their last and slowest-to-fall target, but they have succeeded. When our schism happens–and it will happen sooner rather than later–what remains under the name “United Methodist” will neither be united nor Methodist.
All of that should be immaterial to the pastor’s actions, which were borne of a misguided sense of being conciliatory. But it did probably cause him to lean that way, because it’s the path a lot of Methodist churches are taking right now as they struggle to avoid schism. I think it’s healthier to realize that it’s inevitable, but that’s just me. Anotherdem’s church sounds pretty typical of the larger, more urban/suburban- churches, but rural churches like mine are just ducking for cover and hoping to survive any possible way they can.
Good morning, 55 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. I just couldn’t wake up yesterday so I napped the day away. Today seems better so hope I can plant the rest of the flowers I’ve purchased because they need to get out of the small pots and into the dirt.
Twitter is merciless re our national joke/nightmare so called president and it does help to laugh, so I am!
Best wishes to all.
It is sad that the purpose of that trip is to honor the sacrifices made on D-Day to crush the aspirations of an autocratic ruler and that it will be attended by a man who thinks nazis are “fine people” and who embraces and encourages anti-Semitism. That he is personally a disgusting human being and that he and his ill-bred entourage is embarrassing us on the world stage just adds salt to the wounds. The Twitter mockery is fun but I just want him and his demon spawn off my Internets. :(
Wednesday Meese
59 and cloudy here in Saugerties NY going up to 80 with rain
Puerto Rico
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 64 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 82. Sunny this morning but storms possible this afternoon. A line of storms came through close to midnight, disturbing my sleep and upsetting my dog! I sense a nap in my future.
Nancy Pelosi’s House passed the Dream and Promise Act, a bill that protects the DACA kids. It will not even get a vote in the Senate where Mitch McConnell is desperate to confirm as many terrible judges as possible before his party loses the presidency and has scheduled no votes on legislation. Fine. Republicans can run on the ugly faces of hate they have given lifetime appointments to and we will run on the promise of passing popular bills to be signed by the Democratic president.
See all y’all later!
Woke up waaaaay too early, and with a headache. Trying to eat enough breakfast to take some ibuprofen. We got rain overnight, more expected this afternoon. Weather people are already telling people to stay indoors this weekend, with the humidity and temps in the upper 90s, it’ll be dangerous even for us Texans. Brain is playing Hozier, but I want something soothing, so here’s U2’s Song For Someone.
Daily Kamala up – from Onomastic
Low 70s in Fayetteville, AR heading for mid 80s – very humid right now which I hope dials back because 85 & dry is fine but 85 & humid is not. Since we have a 40% chance of rain this afternoon it’ll probably stay humid. sigh. We got a little rain and a lot of overcast yesterday. Generated just over 14 KWHs and the m-t-d is 70.6 – early days still but we need to get a bunch of 20+ days to make it to 500 at all much less the 568 target. But it’s sunny at the moment so that’s good.
I’m still recovering from the trip – but at least I did get the house vacuumed yesterday. LOL. basket should be flying home today. He’s a lot younger than I am. But he’s still probably gonna need a vacation to recover from his vacation. I very much enjoyed having his company for a whole week! I’m starting to get back to my routine – & waiting to hear from Dem Party about the data entry. (& waiting to hear from the roofer & his buddy the handyman as to what agreement they’ve come to on my roof – the water stain on the den ceiling is spreading.) So. Tour the internets & see if the neighbor who said he’d trim the elm tree (I can’t get to the backyard via the back door without running into branches) shows up. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning meese, it’s 77 with a high of 88 in Clarksville, TN. I spent an evening and night with a friend of mine and her friend (and date) and just dropped her off at her mom’s work an hour ago so that she could get home. Checking out of the motel at 11, and then meeting some friends in Nashville before I fly back home. The next few days are mostly going to be going through all the piles of work email that have been piling up!
{{{basket}}} sounds like you had a nice visit. Safe travels. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good afternoon, Meesefolk; 63 when I got up this morning with a high of 75. I got the pups out and back in just before a thunderstorm rolled through this morning. We managed to go a whole 28 hours or so without rain. It’s definitely beginning to look like our corn will be knee high by the 4th of…August. Somehow that doesn’t have the same ring, and I bet the farmers don’t like it much either. I’m not liking it much because this ongoing roller coaster of weather means I have a sinus headache more often than not. My kingdom for a few days of NOT being a walking, talking barometer…
I am still buried at work, so back to it. Good day to and for all!
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 59 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 77. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast. Yesterday it got to 90 degrees on my deck!
I have no problem with Democratic leaders having a discussion about proceeding to an impeachment inquiry. It is a big step for our party because we believe in the Constitution and don’t want to use it as a political bludgeon. Republicans treat impeachment as pro forma when a Democratic president comes to power – Steve Benen of MSNBC wrote that House Republicans in 2016 were already planning impeachment proceedings against what they expected to be a President Hillary Clinton. Future historians will respect that the slow and deliberate process of the Democratic House was definitely not a rush to judgement. That Donald Trump is unfit and should not be president is not a question; did he abuse his presidential power to cover up his crimes is the question the impeachment inquiry will answer. I agree with Nancy Pelosi – I would like to see him (and his demon spawn) in prison. What we need to do is make sure that nothing we do stops that from happening – New York State probably has a better chance to exact the punishment he deserves from his pre-presidential crimes; I don’t see future Democratic presidents pursuing any indictments after he leaves office.
The 2020s are started to show their teeth with Joe Biden attempting to thread the needle on abortion rights to try to win fundies: he is getting no love from the other candidates. He supports the right to an abortion for rich women but not poor women whose only health care is through government programs. We see you, Joe. I hope he is not the only path to defeating Trump because it will suck to have to vote for him.
See all y’all later!
Too right, Jan! I think he’ll knock himself out of the race. Women are tired of having their rights put on hold to placate patriarchs.
I thought I’d try coming in to work this morning. I had to leave yesterday. Headache, stomach issues, and then I started feeling cold. (ironically, when I got home, it seemed hot & I cranked the a/c down to 72) I had an almond butter sandwich for lunch, took some tylenol, and slept till 4. The Warren town hall was really good. Straight talk, lots of plans. She said Biden’s support for the Hyde Amendment was wrong, gave an impassioned argument about women’s freedom. I am well & truly undecided who to support, so glad I don’t have to decide till next March.
In light of my still wondering if I’m actually better from yesterday, I give you Heal Me. It’s actually love/gratitude for an acupuncturist friend of his who helped him with his illness & alcoholism. It’s a fun, bouncy song — he says he’s not in love but:
Oh this is love like wildness
Coursing through you like a drug
And this is hurt like kindness
Breakin’ you with gentle hands
Also the bridge, at about 2:40, it feels like that precipice just before you fall in love, that happy anticipation where you see what’s coming before you jump off.
:) I remember that feeling, anotherdemocrat!
Hope you’ll start feeling better. I think there must be a gastric thing going around. Not pleasant!
Good Thor’s Day morning, Meese! Wish Thor really were here—although we get cloudy skies and four and a half raindrops on our car windshields, the rain goes right around Ashburn. Other jurisdictions get pummeled! The grass here at the Home for the Aged is beginning to look brown, which is not a good sign. Although it was cloudy when I blearily opened my eyes at seven, we’re now getting weak sunlight and veils of white gauzy cloud over pale blue skies. Currently the temperature is 68 F., going up to 85 F.
Never made it here yesterday morning because I had to get ready to drive the 31 miles to visit my friend at Greenspring. She is very frail and was feeling depressed because Tuesday was the anniversary of her best friend and roommate’s death from Alzheimer’s. There is more I could say but will refrain.
Speaking of anniversaries, today is the 75th anniversary of “that great and awful morning,” as one writer put it, when the sky was filled with planes and the sea was filled with ships as far as the eye could see. The memory of the slaughter on those beaches is what keeps me voting even when I have to hold my nose to do so. The dead in Normandy would have liked to go on living, to hold barbecues on July Fourth, to celebrate Christmas, to go to the polls. It’s because of them that we are speaking English rather than German, and that—so far—we can say what we like without fear of being denounced by the local Nazi youth.
So I’ll remember. In a few minutes I’ll be going over to Orange to tend my Kamala diary. It took one hour to write the thing and THREE hours to copy, paste, and curse the boilerplate, which kept wanting to spring to the top of the post instead of quietly accepting that it was supposed to go to the bottom. If I write another one, I’m not putting all that stuff in. Superlong diaries put me off, anyway.
Here’s hoping we have a nice, peaceful day and that wailing banshees make off with the entire Thing crime family while they’re in Ireland!
Great Daily Kamala Diana
Sorry to get here and there late – having puter issues
Thank you for the linky, Dee! Hope the computer gremlins go away. That’s SO annoying!
It’s 65 and misting in Fayetteville, AR. We’re heading to the mid 70s and more rain according to the widget. Cool enough to bake, which I did (molasses spice muffins). I can switch to commercial GF cookies in the warmer weather but there’s not decent GF breakfast/coffee break bread to switch to. I either bake or have toast. Or skip it of course but that’s a rather bad idea if I don’t want a nausea-inducing headache. Which I don’t. It didn’t start clouding up until around 4 pm yesterday so we generated 17.5 KWHs. The m-t-d is 88 so if it clears off enough for us to get even 12 today we’ll crest 100. That’s not on track for 500+ but it’s not bad. Especially since so far I’m not using the A/C.
If I were Nancy Pelosi – which thank goddess I’m not – I’d have multiple investigations going every which way for the next 15 months. Then hand Mitch the Articles of Impeachment along about 11/11/20. At that point Mitch can call a farce of a trial to acquit twitler or not – but an acquittal won’t be able to be used as campaign ads because the election will be over. And all the evidence the investigations bring up can be handed over to state AGs to use against the evil bastid and his traitorous crime syndicate. There is unfortunately a fairly good chance – barring a recession – that twitler will be re-elected. That is an evil fact. That is also what the “magic impeachment” people believe – they’ve argued that we have to get rid of him and that with the election fraud the Rs (republicans & Russians) are perpetrating we can’t vote him out. They totally refuse to accept that while the election has a less than 50-50 chance to get rid of him it is the only way we can. The House impeaches. The Senate tries – and decides whether or not to remove. By a 2/3s majority. (Which is why, although I was totally pissed off about the actual kangaroo court/witchhunt impeachment of Bill Clinton I was never worried about him being removed from office. The Rs had the majority which is how they could get as far as they did – but they didn’t have enough of a majority to remove from office even through they did find him guilty of two of the trumped-up charges.)
I’m still recovering from my vacation. Heaven knows how long it will take basket. 😁😁😁 It was a lovely visit – even the kitties miss him. (Well, most of the kitties – Freddie was just getting to the point where he didn’t run off and hide when basket came into a room. But the other boys have been taking turns napping on the spare bed.) Anyway I need to get some coffee and do my tour of the internet. Hopefully I’ll hear back from the roofer today. The stain on my den ceiling is spreading and we need a consensus on where the water is coming from before anybody can start to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Hope you will hear from the roofer, bfitz!
I can smell those molasses spice muffins from up here. Hold on, I’m coming down.
Good morning meese. It’s currently 65 degrees in Folsom, CA with a predicted high of 84 today and a low of 52. Hot weather starts later this week as we reach a high of 100 on Sunday followed by a high of 106 on Monday, with temps in the mid-90s next week. Fortunately it’s a dry heat.
I got home around 1 am and Belle told me what she thought of me for leaving. :P However she seems to be back to her usual self today. Noname/Bentley/Charlie still doesn’t seem to have figured out which name (if any) he would like to be addressed by.
Need to go feed the cats and then go to work. (Yes, the dreaded work.) Have a good day meeses!
Good morning, Meesefolk; 55 when I got up and a high of 72 today. The morning started with rain, although my widget is claiming that there is 0% chance of rain today. It may be time for a new widget…
I got a fundraising plea from Sen. Gary Peters this morning, and I’ll be readjusting my budget so I can kick something more his way. He doesn’t have an announced opponent yet, but the name that is being kicked around the most is John James. WELP, SCRATCH THAT LAST BIT; JAMES JUST ANNOUNCED ABOUT TWO HOURS AGO. James is a vet and a solid fundraiser, and if the conversations I heard when he ran against Sen. Stabenow in 2018 are any indication, he gives cover to Republican white folk to claim that they’re not racist (James is African-American). (I mean this literally; the conversations overheard at my local diner were of the “If I vote for James, my vote for tRump can be overlooked and even forgiven” variety.) Peters is not my favorite senator ever; he does have a “corporate shill” side that bothers me, but when push comes to shove, he’s a solid Dem vote, especially on social justice issues. He also keeps a very low profile, and it’s an intentional part of his persona…the I’m-just-a-solid-hard-working-guy-doing-my-best-for-Michiganders-Guy. I hope that doesn’t work against him, because James is anything but low profile. James is Hollywood-handsome and aggressively pitches his military service first, his business experience second; as a result, the early polling, when he was a hypothetical candidate, put him within 1% of Peters. There are ways to punch big holes into that pitch, and Peters may be low profile, but he’s far from stupid. I’m sure he’s prepared. Throwing some money into his kitty can only help.
Good day to and for all!
Good morning, 56 and partly sunny in Bellingham. Life interfered yesterday and I forgot to check in, and thanks to scheduling family summer visits I’m late this morning. Looks like I’ll have some busy weeks with dogs and people, but hopefully I’ve planned enough rest breaks in between.
I’ve also got a mold problem to clean up. Our house has the original wood double hung windows with heavy wood storm windows, and the storms are hinged so we can open the windows in the summer. But something happened during the cold weather this winter and one window has an alarming mold growth that is spreading to the shingles on the second story dormer. I did what I can from the inside yesterday but our son, with his tall ladder, will have to do the rest. Old house no fun!
Best wishes to all.