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

November 20, 2016 JanF Community 116

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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23 Comments

  1. got in 2.25 miles, 45 minutes

    so I earned my mushroom risotto & buffalo popcorn tofu

  2. Good morning, meese! Friday …

    It is 36 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. A chance of showers is in the forecast.

    Yesterday was a nice quiet day: dinner, a video movie, lounging. Now starts the season of “avoiding shopping in real life” for a month. That is not very difficult for me because I despise shopping and, really, I need nothing that can’t be purchased online. We don’t exchange gifts with anyone so that makes life easier.

    Jill Stein has come up with enough money to request the recount in Wisconsin which must be filed today. She moved the goalposts on her fundraising which gives me a queasy feeling. She is a grifter and if she grifted people to collect money that she will use for “Green” Party purposes, that will really suck. If she does, it will kill her party which will be good in the long run for America but will feel awful to those who sent her money.

    Hillary Tweeted yesterday:

    Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton

    I was greeted by this heartwarming display on the corner of my street today. Thank you to all of you who did this. Happy Thanksgiving. -H

    I cannot imagine how she is feeling given how her supporters feel. We know she is strong and has lived with a lot of disappointments in her life but this one has to be the ultimate; I hope that winning the popular vote for president by over 2 million votes is some solace. That the compromises in the U.S. Constitution made to accommodate the slave states would elevate a champion of white supremacists to the presidency is a reminder of the blemish on America’s soul. Maybe some day someone will remove those last vestiges.

    Today’s a work day. See all y’all later!

  3. Another sleep-in morning. I could get used to this. Going to walk again this afternoon. No shopping for me. Do need groceries but I’m not going near Target today, Saturday will be bad enough.

    Why is the Secret Service going to pay for the 2 floors of the Trump Tower they need to protect the family??? It’s to protect him & his family, there shouldn’t be a cost to the taxpayer. I’m going to be exhausted from outrage before he’s even inaugurated. Playing U2 very loud in my head.

  4. Good morning, Meese, it’s overcast in NoVa: 43 F. now but going up to 60 F. later today.

    We worked so hard yesterday (and thank Goddess for my younger son, who came over to cook the turkey, make the gravy and dressing, and carve everything up) that today we are going to lounge. I’ll catch up on my correspondence, read a batch of poems my friend sent by email because I’ve been off Facebook, and possibly even watch the first episode of “The Crown” on the monster telly. We had so much food yesterday that I forgot to set out the cranberry sauce. Apparently, all over the country people forgot to set out the cranberry sauce.

    This was okay, because I had the requisite cup and a half of the stuff to make cranberry muffins this morning. They are so delicious! I also have a backup jar of the sauce so perhaps I’ll make them again in a month or so. This time I used date sugar instead of brown sugar, so they weren’t quite as sweet.

    Jan, I too wonder what on earth our candidate must be feeling. Lawrence Lessig has called for the Electoral College to ditch Thing and declare her the winner. When I think of what we’re in for the next four years my heart plummets. And it’s no good hoping that Thing will pull a Palin-type departure from office after two years, because we’d get the theocrat.

    As far as I’m concerned, this was our last “normal” Thanksgiving and a month from now we’ll have our last “normal” Christmas. After that, Goddess help us.

    Wishing a nice, quiet day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

  5. Upper 30s at dawn heading for mid 50s today – started hazy but seems to be burning off. Not going to make the 2015 Nov generation but I’m over 150 KWHs which at least beats the 2.5K system’s production in Nov 2014. Probably going to end up paying for some electricity in February, darn it.

    Baked a turkey breast yesterday – nice turkey smells, no eye-burning fumes – and had it with steamed broccoli & cheese plus some carrot sticks in lieu of salad. The leftover turkey will be dinner for the next 10 days plus add protein to a batch of refried bean and Mexican rice soup that I’ll make Sunday. Spent the day online – the suxers are back on GOS of course and decided Thanksgiving was a great day to start trouble in the Hillary-supporter diaries. Did their job well enough they could report somebody to Admin for using the term “safe space” and we got a reprimand that is freaking the noobs out. The rest of us got used to it during the primaries. Yup, same techniques the White Supremists use. sigh. Did get some nice responses in my Street Prophets day to give thanks diary.

    Got a few diaries to visit and/or monitor over there, but I’m spending more of my time today sitting by the fire and keeping my feet warm. Yesterday got a bit painful and today is shaping to be the same. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Oh, bfitz, I hope your pain goes away today. It’s so awful to have pain if you can’t do much about it (like taking painkillers). At least the warmth will help.

      Who received the reprimand for using the term “safe space”? I didn’t know anything about this. I have a diary going up tonight, but after that I think I’ll go off GOS for a while. I’ve really enjoyed my “vacation” from Facebook!

      • Admin just dropped it in the diary attached to a random comment “so it was high enough to be seen” so basically we don’t know who specifically was reported – it’s more of a “you keep claiming the Village diaries are “safe spaces” and they aren’t” – which we don’t since we learned that’s a “legal” term as far as DK is concerned. But like Hillary being given a “pants on fire” rating because Comey said she lied even though she didn’t and he had to walk that back under oath, we are being reprimanded for being accused of claiming our group is a safe space. Holidays and weekends are the worst over there. The suxers are apparently off work and bored and whoever is running Admin is at least sympathetic if not one of them.

        I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I feel like I have to continue to give input to The Village simply because I’m the one who pretty much insisted we stay together after the election. I know this group has a wide range of knowledge and experience – my faith, if you can call it that, is with so much knowledge and experience brought together in a place where the holders of same can bounce ideas off each other we can come up with some solid, workable goals and plans on how to get there. I’m also sort of active in the Pootie diaries (definitely as a Peep even though not a diarist), active in Community Fundraisers, and Ojibwa asked me to take Sunday and Thursday Street Prophets until Michele’s health improves and she can take them back.

        Not much can be done about Raynaud’s except stay as warm as possible. It’s an incredibly temperature-sensitive condition – to the extent that a relatively rapid 10-degree temp drop will trigger symptoms even if it’s a drop from 90 to 80. Slow drops and I’m OK until about 60 for my feet and even 50 for my hands if I don’t stay out in it too long.

        • Raynaud’s sounds awful, bfitz. Would you be better off in Texas or Florida? Of course, you’d have to put up with tornadoes, hurricanes, pythons, and Righties, but would it be worth it not to have to feel the cold?

          • Raynaud’s isn’t a problem in the summer (usually – unless the A/C is dialed down colder than I do at home, which of course it always is at work) and I’m not really sure there is any place on earth where it wouldn’t be a problem some of the time. I’ve got RWNJs and tornadoes here – but at least no pythons (or crocodilians) or hurricanes. And I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get a house with solar panels on it in TX or FL for whatever I could sell this one – presupposing in these interesting times I could sell it at all. So I’ll keep truckin’ along until the truck dies, then I’ll think of something else. :)

  6. Good morning, 44 and partly sunny in Bellingham. We had fun yesterday, but it was a long day starting with lunch/ hor d’oeuvres for 10, then dinner for 6, and then dessert. RonK and I dozed in our chairs, and woke up later to find that everyone had gone to bed! So we turned off the lights did the same.

    Time to find some coffee and finish the clean up so we can make breakfast. I’m looking forward to being with our grandson today. He’s getting his drivers permit soon….. how did that happen!

  7. This is good stuff from Josh Marshall about why we need to get into the Louisiana Senate race … and with real money and ground game:

    Democrats are in for a long two years with close to no hold on the levers of power in Washington. They need a message of opposition. This is a chance to try one out, test it, refine it, broadcast it in Louisiana and nationwide. Donald Trump ran as a populist who would make Washington work for the average American, for the middle and working class. But he is already prepping to phase out Medicare, throwing roughly 20 million Americans off the insurance rolls immediately, supporting an ‘infrastructure bill’ which is actually a tax giveaway to wealthy developers which won’t build anything new. Whether this is Trump’s own view or whether he’s captured by the Ryan privatizer Republicans is irrelevant in political terms. Trump is prepping to unleash a series of policies that will devastate not only Democrats but they very people he purported to champion.

    This is a strong political message and it has the virtue of being what Democrats do believe in and have for decades. It is simple: Trumpism is a swindle. He said he was going to drain the swamp but he’s already partying in the swamp, prepping to phase out things like Medicare which Americans hold dear.

    I have no idea who is in charge of the party right now but they need to do this.

  8. ” It’s pretty plain that [voucherizing Medicare] would be worse for seniors than the current Medicare system. After all, if it were better, Ryan wouldn’t feel like he has to exempt current Medicare recipients. But everyone on Medicare now is keenly aware of how their benefits are affected by changes, and if they aren’t, AARP will tell them in no uncertain terms. So they’ll fight Ryan’s cuts tooth and nail.”
    …
    “This would be a huge, messy battle that would almost certainly be wildly unpopular. Medicare is probably even more beloved than Social Security, after all. A battle like this could easily up in an epic defeat, and wipe out whatever goodwill the new Congress has.”

    [Voucherizing Medicare Is a Death Ride for Republicans | Mother Jones]
    http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/11/voucherizing-medicare-death-ride-republicans

  10. Good morning, meese! Saturday …

    It is 37 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 45. Partly cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    More Democrats are jumping aboard the “Hands Off Medicare” bandwagon as the incoming Unified Government continues with its plans to destroy it. It took George W. Bush until re-election to touch the 3rd rail and blow up his presidency and it looks like pent-up Ryanism may make this happen sooner rather than later in the Yam’s administration. Between contentious confirmation hearings, shoes dropping all over the world from the The Trump Organization influence peddling, we stand a good chance of mitigating the damage. Of course the optics will require massive amounts of eye bleach.

    The “Green” Party filed for a recount in Wisconsin. I am selfishly hoping that they find enough votes to make my state purple again. And I still don’t understand the argument against a recount. What does it hurt?

    I was glad to see that white supremacy is not a mental defect that allows a killer to avoid responsibility for his actions and that the Charleston killer will go to trial. I hope that those reporting on the trial take time to point out that the hate that inspired the murderer and the hate that inspires Trumpism are one and that same. An article in my local paper last Sunday (that must have snuck past the right-wing scrubbers) called the alt-right a “white nationalist movement”. The Charleston killer is their poster boy.

    Fidel Castro died, probably satisfied now that he has seen his nemesis, the United States, destroy its moral authority and reduce its standing in the world to just a notch above tin-pot dictatorship.

    See all y’all later!

  11. Up for ungodly hour walking. Ugh. 5.5 miles & I am going to regret not getting off the couch yesterday.

  12. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s 40 F. under stormy-looking but dry skies, going up to 54 F. today. Think we’ll put up our tiny tree and hang the outdoor Christmas wreath.

    I’m slowly catching up on my correspondence, but still off FB for the most part.

    For some reason I feel slightly better about things this morning. It’s chiefly because someone said the Electoral College should vote against Thing because he refuses to divest and put his assets in a blind trust. The thought of not having Thing in the White House would really cheer me up, but then, there’s Pence. Ugh.

    Thanks for the Josh Marshall and Chuck Schumer quotes, Jan! Hope it’s a good day for everyone at the Pond and Beyond.

    • I am trying to find hopeful signs that our time out of power will be short. Looking at the yam’s choices so far, the only thing I can see clearly is that he is rewarding the donor class and seems poised to renege on pretty much all the promises he made. Whether or not that translates into an erosion of his power is another thing. There are things that Ryan wants and things that McConnell wants (not always the same thing) and he will have to balance that with the promises that got him elected. But the bottom line is that he will always fulfill the most important promise: that he is a white male Republican. That is what got him elected and it will take a lot for the power from that to erode.

  13. Good Morning Meese.
    38 and rain here in the Catskills.

    Am feeling sluggish from being stuffed two days in a row.
    Scanning my news feeds – found this

    Mixed feelings about Fidel and Cuba.

    Glad to see Democrats raising the hue and cry about Medicare.
    Have a good day peeps

  14. They said 28 this morning but the bird water on the back step wasn’t frozen, so maybe not. Supposed to go up to mid 50s today (which is the current temp in my bedroom). Very foggy this morning but at least it thinned out enough half an hour ago that I could go get milk for my coffee. :) And I am generating a little electricity. Probably less than I’m using just being online and definitely less than the normal pull of refrigerator and router – the only other things I know of that are “on” right now – but something. Hopefully it will clear off as the sun gets higher.

    I try not to even think of recounts or EC decisions changing the situation – it feels too much like being a butterfly stuck on a pin struggling to get free. I can’t say I “accept” the situation, but I am resigned to it and am trying to aid the strategies to deal with it. If this does change, we’ll have a different very difficult situation to deal with, one I’d rather deal with to be sure, but I’ll leave that under the “major miracle” category.

    Candle focus still isn’t focused enough, but getting there. Protecting people. Like the analogy I keep using – the coming tsunami – we know it’s coming, but we have a little time. First get everybody possible out of the way with as many supplies as possible for survival. Once the waves recede, we’ll deal with what we find. Which brings me back to focusing on protecting people.

    Heading over to GOS for a bit, but will probably spend most of my day in the rocking chair by the fire unless something unexpected comes up. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  15. Good morning, 56 and raining in Bellingham. I have emerged from my T Day induced stupor, but a quick read of the news has triggered my election angst. The yams choices for who will “govern” are horrifying.

    So yesterday Lisa (oldest daughter) took some interesting pictures of our garden. My photos are more literal, as I try to capture what I see, but she looks for the essence of what she is seeing. It was fun to see the garden through her eyes.

    Time for some coffee, and then I’ll sort out my day.

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