Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Nov. 22nd through Nov. 28th

November 22, 2015 JanF Community 125

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?

…

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.

49 Comments

  1. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 34 F. here on a cloud-streaked morning, going up to 53 F. today. Busy day ahead tidying the house in advance of Daughter and fiance coming over for tea.

    Awful news today with the news of five people shot at a BlackLivesMatter rally in Minneapolis. The culprits, as usual, are white males. It’s white males who terrify me, not anyone Syrian-looking. Then Turkey shot a Russian warplane out of the sky. Violence everywhere and death, death, death. Why do these things happen? Is it testosterone or the male ego or what?

    Going to spend some of the Christmas money on birthing kits for women in Africa and education for girls. The maternal mortality rate in Mali and Sierra Leone is shocking.

    Denise, the story is finished, and I can send it to you either before Thanksgiving or on Friday, using the email address you gave me previously. Jan, after the story is ready to publish, I’m going to ask your help in posting it here. Having an awful time trying to find an illustration for it, though! Never mind, I’ll keep looking.

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

    • Just ping me when you are ready and I will help. I can either scrape it off the DK5 page for you (just need a link) or you can copy/paste what you have into a Moose post and I can help you fine tune it.

      You are not alone in worrying about white males. The mayor of Dallas!!

      [Mayor Mike] Rawlings previously told The Dallas Morning News that he would welcome Syrian refugees to the city. He said becoming xenophobic about refugees would “fall into the trap” of what ISIS is seeking.

      The mayor reiterated that point to MSNBC and said “ISIS is no more Islamic than Nazi senior staff was Christian.” He added that he’s more concerned about mass shootings than risk of violence from refugees.

      “I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue,” Rawlings said.

  2. A bit nippy today, but not freezing. And it’ll be in the 70s on Thursday. Our phones were ringing off the wall yesterday, hope things calm down some. And of course, I did my usual waking up at midnight-ish, 2-something, 3:40…… just really annoying. Eating breakfast & drinking tea. Head is still playing INXS.

  3. Hello, again! Just saw an excerpt from a terrific post by Sady Doyle in Global Comment in Lysis’ diary on GOS. It’s absolutely stellar. I’d post it here if I weren’t afraid of violating fair use, but rather than get into trouble I’ll just reproduce one paragraph, the ending one:

    And whether or not you like Hillary Clinton, that has a massive impact. This is how little girls learn to doubt their own competence, to play down their ambition or intelligence. This is how little boys learn to treat little girls with contempt. It is how a new generation of young left-wing men is learning that they can leverage sexism to get their way, and that they can deal with women’s criticism — no matter how accomplished those women may be as progressive voices — by condemning those women for “playing the victim,” or calling them insufficiently leftist. It may be how young left-wing women learn that, if they see or experience sexism from the men in their lives, their only safe option is to be quiet and look the other way. And it’s why some white men are able to claim that they care more about marginalized groups than those women do, while also saying that if Hillary gets the nomination, they will attempt to split the Democratic vote and bring on a Republican administration that would be unmitigatedly disastrous and oppressive for immigrants, people of color, the poor, GLBT people, and (oh, yeah) women.

  4. 34 at sunrise, currently 46 heading for 60 this more-or-less sunny Tuesday in Fay, AR. Still possible to break 200 KWHs for the month but the rain forecast for Thanksgiving and Friday aren’t going to help. Got a bunch of stuff to get done before the holiday break – most of which is tracking down approvers so I can go on with the next step in those multi-step, approval-needed-at-each-step (thank you RWNJs in the AR legislature) processes I could otherwise have finished last week. sigh. Oh well. It’s a pretty day s far, so I will be thankful. {{{HUGS}}}

  5. Good morning, 39, cloudy and windy in Bellingham today. So overnight my phone battery goes down and my list grows longer…..how does that happen? I need a list charger :)

    I was muttering yesterday. Cleaning the desk so it looks like responsible adults live here, a painful dental appointment, and then cutting and prepping hydrangeas in the cold rain left me less than cheery. Oh well…..I could/should have cut them on a sunny day!

    Today should be more fun as flowers and food will be the focus. My son will help me cut the rest of the greens ( he has some wonderful rose hips in his garden) and RonK will do the grocery shopping and cook with me. So if I stop muttering and start doing our T Day will start coming together.

    I’m glad to see this editorial in the NYT today……

    Mr. Trump’s Applause Lies

    In the Republican field, Mr. Trump has distinguished himself as fastest to dive to the bottom. If it’s a lie too vile to utter aloud, count on Mr. Trump to say it, often. It wins him airtime, and retweets through the roof.

    This phenomenon is in fact nothing new. Politicians targeting minorities, foreigners or women have always existed in the culture. And every generation or so, at least one demagogue surfaces to fan those flames

    ~snip~

    This isn’t about shutting off Mr. Trump’s bullhorn. His right to spew nonsense is protected by the Constitution, but the public doesn’t need to swallow it. History teaches that failing to hold a demagogue to account is a dangerous act. It’s no easy task for journalists to interrupt Mr. Trump with the facts, but it’s an important one.

    • I will not hold my breath waiting for journalists to interrupt any candidate with the facts. First, there are too few journalists nowadays and the stenographers in the captive press will not interrupt their meal ticket. Trump=Click, Click=Cash.

      I did take solace in this article by Nate Silver that I read last night:

      Right now, he has 25 to 30 percent of the vote in polls among the roughly 25 percent of Americans who identify as Republican. (That’s something like 6 to 8 percent of the electorate overall, or about the same share of people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.) As the rest of the field consolidates around him, Trump will need to gain additional support to win the nomination. That might not be easy, since some Trump actions that appeal to a faction of the Republican electorate may alienate the rest of it. Trump’s favorability ratings are middling among Republicans (and awful among the broader electorate).

      So 6 to 8 % of the electorate are for Trump. Assuming that the 25% who identify as Republican would vote for any Republican you still don’t have enough to win a general election. Will independents vote for him? That is the number I will be watching.

  6. Morning all. Chilly this morning, but it will warm up later.

    I went and read the entire Sady Doyle piece – thanks for the excerpt! The comments are terrible though – just proving her point. I don’t agree with Clinton on everything, and I’m worried about her willingness to compromise on Social Security. But guess what, I had the same issues with Pres. Obama, and it turned out ok. To call Hillary Clinton a “neo-con” as someone in those comments did, is just asinine.

    So. great, now white supremacists are opening fire on black people peacefully demonstrating – I am just fed up to my eyeballs with this stuff now, and I completely blame Fox News and the Rethuglicans like Trump, Carson, Rubio and the rest, for whipping up resentments and essentially giving permission for violence. It’s got to stop, somehow, but I don’t know how it will. Gah!

    Well, everyone have a great day, despite it all!

    • Well, I will tell you one thing. Foreign policy is going to be a big deal next year, there is no avoiding it. And I would rather have someone with experience as Secretary of State than someone who suggests that maybe Russian should be added to NATO. Considering the Turkey-Russia dispute this morning, that shows a naivete that is simply dangerous. It is not just “The Economy, Stupid”. It is defining America’s role in the world community both at the peace table and on the battlefield.

      If stating a tough policy against bad actors in the world community makes one a neo-con, so be it. Secretary Clinton has been called worse.

  7. Sorry to be among the missing this morning – happy Tuesday.
    I was bogged down in trying to meet a deadline shift – Sunday features for orange were due today, not Thursday so I had to do that – and then also found I couldn’t get into Black Kos because of some type of glitch – so have no idea if it will get fixed in time for me to add my commentary.

    I will post it here later.

    Gotta go see if I can get some tech help.

    Bye!

    • Thanks for checking in!

      I have been following some of the technical diaries related to DK5 so that I can help peeps who need to crosspost. I noticed one that suggested that there is a rights issue related to publishing to groups and that the original author is the only one who can edit a diary put in the group queue. Supposedly it was fixed but maybe it has not been. I think they were suggesting that only some groups were affected but perhaps it is more widespread.

      I hope you get it sorted out. The collaborative diary series are an important part of the activism and the community of the site.

      • Black Kos doesn’t have to do a collaborative diary – since we have a separate account that is Black Kos. Seems like the problem is affecting log-ins – and getting booted when you switch to a different page. I am clueless – I tried over and over and gave up . I’ll wait till the site stops burping :)

        I was trying to get in to change the topic to what has gone down with the shooting of the black protesters in Minneapolis – it will keep.

        I’ll post Tuesday’s Chile commentary now – and go back to trying to get onto orange – since it is now logging me (my account) out too.

  8. Good morning, meeses! Wednesdayish …

    It is 35 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 42. Some drizzle expected this afternoon. Tomorrow it will be 50 and raining.

    The only question left about the Laquan McDonald murder is why on earth did it take over a year to charge the police officer with murder? And what the heck is wrong with policing practices if lipping off to a cop or disobeying them results in being killed rather than subdued by some other means? Scared and/or angry cops, like the one who killed Michael Brown and now Laquan McDonald, need to be identified and separated from the force before they kill. The video put a lie to the police and police union story and, in my opinion, all of those people should be fired. They broke the public trust and should not be allowed to carry a badge and a gun.

    In happier news, outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky restored voting rights to 140,000 ex-felons:

    Outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear (D) signed an executive order on Tuesday to restore voting rights for many of the 180,000 Kentuckians who have been served a felony sentence but remain disenfranchised.

    The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that Beshear’s executive order will immediately allow 140,000 Kentuckians to restore their voting rights, and an additional 30,000 will be eligible down the road. The organization praised Beshear’s order as “an incredible breakthrough in the movement to end criminal disenfranchisement policies nationwide.” […]

    “The right to vote and the right to hold office are fundamental foundations of our democracy,” Beshear said in a press conference, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. “Yet in Kentucky, it is estimated that we deny those rights to over 180,000 thousand adults. Why? Simply because at some point in their lives they’ve been in trouble with the law. We ignore the fact that they have paid for their crimes.”

    Permanent felon disenfranchisement needs to end. It is unfair and it disconnects people from their communities by denying them a say in who will govern them.

    Busy day here as I try to wrap up the week’s projects this morning so that I can go hunting and gathering this afternoon for a Thanksgiving day meal.

    See all y’alls later!

    • Here is some more on the McDonald killing from NPR:

      WBEZ adds that Van Dyke, 37, who was put on administrative duty after the shooting, had not received voluntary crisis intervention training, which focuses on options other than force to resolve conflicts.

      So why is that “voluntary”?

      Again, the city’s taxpayers, paying out a $5 million settlement, are left holding the bag and more kids die needlessly. How about we make training in crisis intervention mandatory and if you flunk the final exam, you are taken off the streets until you get it right?

        • Hate does trump finances!! Our red state just spent millions to defend their unconstitutional abortion restrictions law and will spend more appealing the 7th Circuit ruling. They are about to spend millions to defend drug testing for food stamps and unemployment and requiring a photo id on SNAP cards. Yes, there is fraud but studies have shown that more money is wasted trying to prove non-existent fraud than the fraud itself!

          I saw in my news feed that Fullerton CA had to pay a $4.9 million settlement because their cops beat up a homeless man.

          Republicans are “fiscally conservative”, my ass. They just have different spending priorities.

  9. Good Wednesday morning Meese

    Hubby decided not to go to work today – commuter bus travel is jammed today – so I will have a potato peeling helper with my cooking.

    Trying to get most of the cooking out of the way today so I can relax at dinner tomorrow. Not having many people over – but I look forward to eating my own fixin’s

    Have a good bird-day all.

    • Happy cooking, Sis, and here’s hoping for a relaxed Thanksgiving chez Denise!

      Will send you the short story in .pdf format on Friday to the email address you gave me earlier. It’s 1,775 words (7 double-spaced typewritten pages), which is not too long, I hope. I’ll need to incorporate your revisions on Sunday, the 29th, so I can get the file to my Web guy on 30 November. It usually takes him a day to upload it.

      Thanks for agreeing to look at it!

  10. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 34 F. on a sunny morning in NoVa, going up to 53 F. today.

    Younger Son and family are supposedly on the road to North Carolina this morning. We’ll be going to Elder Son’s house tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Daughter-from-Austin is in town—she and her Sig Other came to tea yesterday, so Daughter could spend time with her niece and later, her nephew. Then she and I took them home so she could say hello to her sister-in-law.

    Our realtors stopped by yesterday with a pecan pie and a 2016 calendar. Wasn’t that nice of them? Must get a thank-you note in the mail pronto. Hope everyone will have a good day, and please, universe, let there be peace instead of violence the rest of the week!

    • Enjoy the family gathering Lady D.

      There will be prayers for peace in this house too.

  11. Back to sandals & capris weather, till Friday anyway. Very sleepy — woke up 3 or 4 times last night. I should probably warn my friend that I’ll be traveling with about that. And once again, I hope that things calm down at work today. Probably in vain. I’m going to stop by the tiny pie store on the way home, though, and get a couple of single serving chocolate pecan pies. Because “chocolate pecan pie”. And on the subject of deliciousness, I’m happy with my current earworm because my brain also plays the video, and Michael Hutchence was seriously gorgeous (reminds me of Jim Morrison) Disappear

  12. Yah know, I’d be a lot happier with this site if it didn’t periodically log me out in mid-comment writing making me close the window, log back in, and try to remember what the heck I’d already written so I can re-create the comment. Which just happened. sigh. Anyway, I think it was something like – 53 to 59 for today’s range, rain moving in sometime tomorrow afternoon although my joints are already protesting, finding my thankful things to be “close to home” and sending out energy for safety, peace, and an elegant sufficiency for everyone everywhere. And {{{HUGS}}} of course.

    • It happens to me as well and I have learned a new trick. I do a right-click “Select All” of the text in my brilliant comment, right-click “Copy” and then do my preview. If it says I am not logged in or my comment will go to Anonymous, I log in, go back to where I was and paste the comment text back in. I am not 100% sure why it does that but it happens to me at least twice a week. WordPress is a free, open source program so unfortunately there is no one to complain to … except each other!!

      Have a wonderful Turkey Day, bfitz!

      • What’s it’s done the last several times won’t let me do that. Basically I don’t know I’ve been logged out until I hit preview, then it snaps me to a gray screen with nothing on it except the words “cannot post without login and password” – the only choice I have is close that tab – then either start over or give up for the day.

  13. Good morning, 31 lightly cloudy and very windy in Bellingham. My old trees continue to shelter me but the branches look very tall as they fill the sky and move with the wind. It’s a north wind so the air is chilly.

    Another day of T Day prep. Our daughter and her family arrive on Thursday and she has organized a cookie baking and pie baking time for the grand girls on Friday so my kitchen will be busy. I’ve been trying to get as much cooking prep done ahead as I can before the commotion/fun begins. We’ll have our family T day on Saturday, 14 of us. I may be getting to old for this :::sigh::: I always enjoy the flower fun but the cold wind is a challenge and my creaky knees are even creakier this year.

    And yesterday’s unexpected snafu’s are still annoying. A credit card company still can’t access my payments because my bank has increased security. So despite multiple phone calls and a clear record of payments made and confirmation numbers given my account is “in arrears” and therefore the interest rate is sky high. It will all get sorted out but it takes time and it’s very frustrating when computers won’t communicate and the humans get lost in the shuffle!

    And my car is in the garage, but I should have it back today with new tires, a new starter, and hopefully not much else. Getting errands done without a car is a cooperation challenge :)

    Lots to be thankful for, and apparently lots to gripe about as well!

    • You probably do not want the computers chattering among themselves to decide how to “fix” your account. :) One of the first things we learn in computer school is “To Err is Human; To Really Foul Things Up Requires a Computer”.

      I think the new chip technology has done some things to security – some good, some bad. I hope you get it sorted out soon.

      Have a great day, princesspat!

  14. o.m.g. — this is huge

    Independent.ie ‏@Independent_ie 5s6 seconds ago

    #Breaking – Enda Kenny has promised Fine Gael TDs and senators a free vote on any future changes to abortion laws after the General Election

  16. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 47 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 52. It is raining now and expecting to rain all day.

    Happy Thanksgiving! I posted a video of the president’s pardon of the Thanksgiving turkey and the First Family’s visit to serve food to homeless veterans.

    From the White House: Giving Thanks and Giving Back .

    Last year, the press criticized the First Daughters for their clothing choices and their eye rolling at their father’s jokes. There was no eye-rolling yesterday (there was even a compliment on one of the jokes!) but I am sure that they will be criticized for something – possibly as Black People Living in the White House, something that has bothered the press for about 7 years.

    Today, I will spend the morning catching up on projects that are difficult to do when I am helpdesking and then this afternoon I will probably watch some football and eat a meal.

    Thank you all for being here at the Moose … may your Thanksgiving be filled with family, friends, food, and fun.

    See all y’alls later!

    • That sneaky White House press office decided to have the Weekly Address posted today instead of the normal Saturday.

      So meese will have both the turkey pardon and the president’s weekly address in their stream today.

      Weekly Address: President Obama – This Thanksgiving, Recognizing the Greatness of American Generosity

      Nearly four centuries after the Mayflower set sail, the world is still full of pilgrims — men and women who want nothing more than the chance for a safer, better future for themselves and their families. What makes America America is that we offer that chance. We turn Lady Liberty’s light to the world, and widen our circle of concern to say that all God’s children are worthy of our compassion and care. That’s part of what makes this the greatest country on Earth.

      I fervently hope that there are enough Americans who understand this and will not turn Lady Liberty’s light off. :(

  17. Good Thor’s Day morning, all, and happy Thanksgiving! Gorgeous day here, going up to 61 F. Feel in the mood to make Cranberry Muffins for breakfast, so I’d better hop to it: it’s already ten to eight.

    Wishing a good day to all!

    • I love Cranberry Muffins! Please send some westward …

      I did not set my alarm clock but my busy brain woke me up at 3am. I tried to go back to sleep but gave up at about 3:30. I think my busy brain also knows that it very much enjoys quiet mornings with no pressure to get anything done while my clients offices are closed and many won’t reopen for another 5 days. I get done what I get done and what doesn’t get done gets done tomorrow.

      • The full moon was shining in my window at about 3:00 am so I enjoyed it’s presence and then went back to sleep. It was a nice moment of solitude and fortunately my brain wasn’t busy because I needed more rest.

  18. Slept in (the usual interruptedness — just went back to sleep more times than usual), It is really warm today — high in the mid 70s. Rain tomorrow, but they say the heaviest should stay north, so hopefully no flooding.

    Today’s plan: clear out the dvr, go for a long walk. Dinner will be an Amy’s mushroom risotto (my favorite) with leftover tofurkey. Didn’t wake up with music in my head for once.

  19. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! and a belated HI to Portlaw! I didn’t check in yesterday, and I’ve spent the last half hour catching up on all the great posts and videos! I love watching this President pardon the turkeys for Thanksgiving – the girls are growing up and are so lovely and poised, it’s wonderful to see them too. The President has great comic timing and delivery – always fun. And that turkey, TOTUS Abe is a beautiful bird!

    I have made what is now my tradition for Thanksgiving…..reservations!!! hahaha I kill myself. My good friend Amy and I, joined some years by one or two other friends, have been going out to eat for Thanksgiving for the last 3 or 4 years, as cooking for just one or two people doesn’t appeal to either of us. We have gone to the local Hilton the last few years, which does an amazingly booming business in a Thanksgiving buffet, which has always been delicious and not all that expensive. This year we’re trying a different restaurant, a nice local place that serves northern Italian cuisine normally – I have no idea what we’ll be getting for Thanksgiving dinner, but I’m sure it will be tasty. However, to insure I have my traditional allotment of turkey sandwiches after the holiday, I bought a turkey breast at our local Fresh Market (and their scrumptious cranberry salad), and I will brine that tonight and roast it tomorrow – the cooked meat freezes pretty well, at least for my purposes, and I’ll have sandwich and casserole makings for several meals.

    I made a happy discovery on Tuesday – I bought Adele’s album at Amazon, and since I’m a Prime member, they told me I’d get a free mp3 version along with the cd. So I checked out Amazon Prime Music, which I’d not previously looked at, and lo and behold, there for me to listen to on my computer was not just Adele’s album, but all the music I’ve bought from them for the last 10 years on CD! Such a wonderful surprise – the CD player on this computer is broken so I can’t play cds or DVDs on it, and my player with speakers is in another room, so I was thrilled to have easy access now to all my music from them. It inspired me to go ahead and update Itunes on this computer – I was afraid it would take up a lot of space on my hard drive, but it seems to be ok, I’ve got about 20% of the space left on the SSD, which should last me until I get a new computer in the spring. I’m listening right now to The Nutcracker Suite, which a good friend of mine in college used to play every year in our dorm on the day or two before Thanksgiving break – it’s a holiday tradition for me now too!

    Too many wonderful comments to respond to – just again, I’m thankful to have this wonderful site to come to and wonderful people to share my random musings and our mutual indignation at the world’s indignities with! Love you all!

    • I am glad you found us, Geordie, you add a lot to our daily conversation.

      I think any Thanksgiving tradition that includes “someone else cooking” is the best. :) I purchase a pre-cooked chicken at the grocery store, bake some potatoes and make my famous (in my own mind) squash. Voila! Which is French for “Yay! Easy meal!!”

      Have a most splendid day!

    • I also like the “radio” on Amazon Prime – they have an REM station that I like & Sufjan Stevens & some others. And another thing I discovered — you can borrow books. I wanted to start re-reading the Harry Potter books without having to carry the actual paper books around, the library’s e-books were all checked out, so I looked at Amazon — and it said I could borrow it! Very nice.

  20. Good morning, 29 and nearly sunny in Bellingham. Our car is repaired, the credit card snafu is fixed, the yucky mildew I found in the basement is cleaned up, and last night’s unpleasant surprise of water leaking from the refrig onto the wood floor isn’t happening again this morning. RonK finished the grocery shopping and our Oregon daughter and her family are on their way. So today has the possibility of being a fun day of family, food and flowers.

    Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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