Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Nov. 13th through Nov. 19th

November 12, 2016 JanF Community 104

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.

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20 Comments

  1. It’s supposed to cool off today, but it’s 71 this morning……. I wore long pants & brought a sweater in case this alleged cold front actually happens. My training group is meeting at a park about an hour away tomorrow, I’m not going . So: 1. I get to sleep in tomorrow. 2. I have to do my training myself — I really have to do it, remember how hard it was when I missed a week. Brain is playing my Scottish friends’ lovely song:

    Surrender now my love it’s
    Time to fall in love it’s
    Time to be what we should be

    Surrender now my dream is
    That we would say what this is
    It’s time to be what we both need

  2. My brother said the best thing yesterday: DJT is going to drain the swamp, but 1st he’ll give all the swamp creatures White House jobs.

    • In Trump’s America being a racist is not disqualifying like it was in the 80’s when Sessions was up for a federal court appointment.

      This will be a real test for Senate Republicans: are they going to rubberstamp every deplorable that Trump sends to them or are they going to think about what happens to their party in 2018 and beyond?

      • The TPs think they’ve taken permanent control of government. Of course they may be right, goddess help us, but they probably are not. Older Senators like, goddess help us, Orin Hatch remember being tossed out of power way too many times to want to court it again. Talk about the irony. Our main hope right now is that the jackels and the hyenas fight so much over who is going to eat what part of us now they’ve taken us down, we might be able to slip to cover while they do it.

  4. 65 was the high for the day, 52 now, should be about 48 when I get off work. Hazy but at least enough sun to generate some power.

    I described the current situation to a friend as being like having been hit with a massive undersea earthquake miles out so not much damage from the quake itself, but knowing the tsunami is coming. We don’t have enough information yet to know how bad and where the worst of it is going to hit. There’s a massive sense of dread and a bunch of arguing about whose fault for lack of warning. Some folks are trying to figure out how best to get the most threatened out of the way and get sandbags up to protect really important stuff that can’t be moved but we just don’t have enough information yet.

    I also am back to 4 hours or less sleep – the massive sense of dread combined with immediate worry about Aji and Wings – but I still have work to do. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  6. Good morning, 42 and cloudy in Bellingham. I finally slept through the night, but waking up to the reality of president elect yam will always be a nightmare. Makes me want to pull the covers over my head.

    The New Yorker interview with President Obama is a poignant read. It’s good to know he will continue to work for the social change our country so desperately needs.

  7. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 34 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 34. My weather widget says it is snowing but my eyeballs say that it is not. It is windy as all get out with 34 mph sustained winds and gusts in the 40s. I think the snow in the forecast is going north of here.

    As the Trumpocalypse takes shape, it is difficult to know where to put my energy. It can’t go everywhere – it will wear me out. A lot of the cabinet posts are keeping the trains running and will suck but won’t kill us, the Attorney General pick will not only kill us but destroy any chance we have for a comeback. I don’t care who the Secretary of State is or who heads Commerce or Education but after what happened under Bush, the idea of an Attorney General who is a white nationalist, still angry with Lincoln because an ancestor died in Antietam, is horrifying. I hope that something disqualifying comes out in the confirmation hearing that makes the panel reach the same conclusion that the Republican Senate in 1986 did – that racism and justice cannot mix.

    I am still avoiding the news and just scanning current events on Twitter. Last night’s white nation butthurt was that Mike Pence was booed at a Broadway play. JHC, what does he think, that he can embrace white nationalists and install a real KKK member in as the Attorney General and the people of New York City will just glad hand him! He must think he is in the Senate where you can kill someone’s granny and Chuck Schumer will still smile and shake hands with you. Well, toughen up, Republicans. The president told us to vote, not boo. Well, we voted, the candidate with the most votes lost, and now we will boo. We will not normalize racism, we will not normalize hate, we will not accept bullying.

    See all y’all later!

  8. “Hamilton” actor Brandon Victor Dixon:

    “We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.”

  9. Good morning, Meese! Sunny and 37 F. right now, going up to 67 F. before the weather front sweeps in this afternoon and sends temperatures plummeting.

    Still coughing all night, still look as if I’d lost a fight with a black bear.

    It’s too dreadful to think what is going to happen after the Inaug, so I’m preparing for what I consider to be our last “normal” Thanksgiving (thankful that our family members are healthy and employed), and our last “normal” Christmas.

    Jan, I agree with you that the media are trying to “normalize” Thing and that it shouldn’t happen.

    I’m a pessimist by nature, so I don’t have any great hopes. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

    • The normalization is what we can all push back against, and must. It is frightening to think about moving the Overton Window to the right enough that white nationalism is just a valid opinion like “I like banana bread”. Bannon, by the way, calls himself just a “nationalist” because, I presume, the “white” part goes without saying – we are a white christian nation in his world view, with no room for anyone else.

  10. Slept in since my group is meeting at a park outside town. Must get in long walk by myself today. It is chilly — high only in the 50s, I think. Considering that yesterday was another sandals & capris day, that’s chilly.

  12. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on HOW WE RESIST TRUMP AND HIS EXTREME AGENDA:

    We must do everything we can to stop Trump and his extreme agenda now. We do this by:

    – Holding him accountable for the tenor and tactics of his campaign, as well as his past and ongoing deplorable personal, professional and political conduct;
    – Waging fierce battles against every regressive action he takes—from personnel appointments to his legislative program—in order to thwart or at least slow them down;
    – Exposing his Republican enablers in Congress, and voting them out of office in 2018, with the goal of taking back either the House or the Senate for Democratic control.

    To achieve this, we must keep our eyes on two important goals: depressing Trump’s public support and dividing the Congressional GOP from him and from each other. […]

    Our main job as the Minority in the House will be to develop the best arguments possible against a given terrible Trump proposal, most usefully if such arguments divide the Republicans, show Trump as a fraud or self-dealer, and/or create situations where individual Republican members fear for their own seats. These kinds of “wedge” issues prepare the ground for opposition in the Senate. […]

    The Senate Minority has a far greater ability to stop things than we do in the House. The Senate is an institution designed to give each individual member more influence and efficacy. Senators of both parties have great affection for this tradition. Senator Chuck Schumer, the incoming Minority Leader, has for the moment, the single strongest procedural tool to stymie Trump and the Republicans – the “filibuster.” The filibuster allows any Senator to block any vote, unless and until there is “cloture” – a vote of at least 60 Senators voting to end the filibuster. The filibuster has a long history in the Senate, although, there is always the possibility that the Republicans will limit its application or even eliminate it.

    So, in sum, while we Democrats in Congress have a few tools, we don’t have a lot. To make matters even more disconcerting, Trump will be able to enact a good deal of his agenda through Executive Orders and through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process.

    Two key things that We The People must do:

    The first order of business must be to refuse to allow the normalization of Trump.

    Whether or not he himself feels these hateful things almost doesn’t matter, as he exploited them to come to power, and, in doing so empowered the most wicked tendencies in American society.

    Become as invested in the Midterm Elections as you were in the Presidential, as if your life depended on it.

  13. 30 just after sunrise heading for 45 today. At least it’s sunny again and the cold may convince the trees to finally drop their leaves. Need all the power generation I can get as I’m going to start drawing more. Not only are the lights on longer and stuff like that, but the bathroom heat is electric. Although I have in my lifetime bathed in a bucket in front of a fire, I’d rather not.

    Aside from always remembering – and reminding people – that Hillary won the popular vote by 1.4 million and still counting so our platform is the most popular and doesn’t need changing. That means the winner of the EC’s platform isn’t popular much less does he have a mandate. An interesting challange is to find a way to remind people our fathers and grandfathers found against the Nazis in WWII, so having them in the administration is not normal (or right). Right now we need to pull all the corporatist Rs into blocking Medicare voucherization (which Yam promised not to do so that really shouldn’t be as hard we some folks think). And saving the filibuster. These are the immediate issues. Plan for what’s next, but work on these now.

    I’m heading out to look at stoves. I’d rather replace this one while it’s giving problems and not actually busted. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  14. Good morning, 49 and cloudy in Bellingham. I had a long talk with my daughter last night re her need to do something meaningful in response to this election. As with all busy professionals and mothers her time and resources are limited so the Pantsuit Nation level of activism is starting to overwhelm her. I suggested she focus on making calls to her congressional delegation in support of Medicare, the ACA, and Social Security and that she find a local organization supporting Hispanic families living in her community. I also suggested she join and support the ACLU.

    I am encouraged to see increased activism and awareness among women my daughters age……just hope they will stay active because as we all know elections do have consequences.

    I need to follow my own advice and find my focus as well, because even in blue Wa State there is no room for complacency……

    Rare red tide on the coast for Republicans — how will Democrats respond?

    John Hughes has lived in the most reliably Democratic county in Washington for seven decades and could sense this election year was different.

    “I felt it coming. I could feel it in the tips of my toes,” said Hughes.

    Hughes’ consistently blue county may surprise you. It’s not King County, where the majority of voters cast ballots for a Republican governor as recently as 1980 and voted for President Reagan in 1984.

    Grays Harbor County hasn’t voted GOP for president since 1928. The Pacific Coast county last went for a Republican governor in 1924. And Democrats have represented Aberdeen in the state Legislature all but once since 1949.

    This year, voters flipped at all three levels to Republicans. In fact, seven of the nine Democrats up for a statewide office lost in Grays Harbor County.

  15. Morning all. Warm still here but will get chilly tonight and tomorrow – its actually pretty common for us to have temps in the 70’s for Thanksgiving.

    I think focusing our efforts on saving ACA and Medicare is good idea – as I’ve said before, I think public pressure can be effective and may be the only way to stop Ryan’s plans. It will also put pressure on Republican unity in both the House and Senate, particularly for those Senators up in 2018. There are going to be so many scandals from this outfit – I hesitate to even call it an administration since it’s clear they are going to grab and grift, not administer a damned thing – that could help obscure what Ryan is up to. Shine a light on his plans. Call and protest them, and call again.

    Trump’s tweet reaction to Pence being booed last night at Hamilton is a taste of what we’re in for – I just hope his repressive instincts are limited to Twitter. The comedian Louis CK, on the Conan O’Brien show before the election, talked about how he supported Hillary, and how he wasn’t sure we could survive 4 years of Trump’s thin skinnedness (is that a word?) – i keep thinking of how he described Trump’s reaction to being criticized “Everything around him STOPS. And then everybody pays.”

    Ugh, well, I will listen to my opera this afternoon, a rarely performend 18th century work by Rameau, “Les Indes Galantes” a sort of fantasy about exotic isles and their natives. Hopefully it will be pleasant listening, I’m not up for anything really challenging today.

    Everyone have a good day.

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