Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Feb. 19th through Feb. 25th

February 18, 2017 JanF Community 221

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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73 Comments

  1. Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    Morning low of 34 degrees in Madison WI with an expected daytime high of 59. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Oh hai, JanF and fellow Meese!

    MPLS/St Paul weather forecast: High of 59. (Coming to the Moose Pond marks the first time in my life that I’ve made a point of checking the weather forecast. Until now, I’ve just been surprised each day.)

    • Ha! Weather reports have been a part of my daily online life for years; it is a safe conversation starter – we all have weather! Until recently it has been pretty non-controversial, you could even talk about the weather with a right-winger. Of course now they take it personally when we tell them it is “unseasonably warm” or “our freaking earth is melting!” because they know that their denial is exacerbating the problem. I was pondering over the past few days, with the confirmation of Pruitt for EPA and the dismantling of the STREAMS rules and the likely repeal of the Clean Power Act, that it would be more surprising if a Republican did believe that burning fossil fuels is leading to global warming and rising sea levels. They are beholden to the fossil fuel interests and are elected to promote the extraction and burning of every last bit of it. Their heads would surely explode if they tried to fit those two competing concepts in their brains at the same time.

      • What I find most irritating about the climate deniers I work with:

        Every time it’s cold (this does happen in Minnesota) they toss out a snarky comment about global warming. I’ve given up up trying to discuss it with them.

  3. Good Sunday Morning Meese
    36 here in the Catskills – going up to 54 today – yay.
    My Sunday morning session coming up at Orange will be another black history month offering:
    “Ona Judge Staines: The black woman who escaped from and outwitted George and Martha Washington”

    News:
    As a member of the Joy Ann cheering squad:

    From a Moose Founder:

    I like following Miles on twitter since he collects great cartoons

    • Good morning, Denise.

      I’m heading over to DK to learn about Ona Judge Staines. Thank you!

    • Thanks for the heads up on Miles … I will go check out his feed. That comic with tRump biting the arm of the media includes the (intentional?) image of the media continuing to hold up their microphone to his rants. THAT is the problem. He calls things “fake news” and the focus is on that instead of the news itself! An NPR article that interviewed both George Lakoff (a messaging guy from the left) and Frank Luntz (a messaging guy from the right) says that construct is incredibly dangerous:

      The phrase “fake news” originally telegraphed a sense of danger about nefarious types intentionally sowing lies to influence the election. When Trump calls an unfavorable poll “fake news,” he’s borrowing some of the phrase’s original power, even as he dilutes that power by reusing the phrase.

      The result is a dizzying dichotomy, as Lakoff pointed out in an interview with NPR: “real fake news” (stories about “pizzagate” and a made-up endorsement from the pope) and “fake fake news” (claims that legitimate stories are made up).

      But the speed with which Trump’s messaging ricochets around the Internet worries Luntz, who fears that there is no accountability; technology helps unfiltered (and unchecked) ideas to spread quickly. That means that a phrase can be redefined in an entirely new way “within a matter of weeks,” he said.

      “In the case of fake news, the problem is that we are actually undermining the core principles of a democracy,” he added, echoing Lakoff.

      The press needs to find a way to inform about what tRump is doing without giving power to him to make it about the media, instead of about the actions and words.

      And this should chill anyone: Grover Freaking Norquist loves this focus on chaos in the White House!

      Tom Stewart, a member of Trump’s national security advisory council during the campaign, said that the president was “cunningly” manipulating the media, so that “his strong cabinet will have a chance to make some meaningful reforms.”

      Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said Republicans are making good progress on their conservative agenda. “The press and a lot of observers in Washington DC like to stop and look at a car accident and they miss that the traffic is continuing to drive past at 50mph,” he said. “Things are moving forward, largely on track.”

      We need to push back against the media narrative that the media is the victim – the American people are the victims.

      • Grover Freaking Norquist is the best way to call his name – the slime miasma swirling around Trump is choking.

        • There are a handful of politicians with the middle name Freaking because I simply cannot type their names without that leaking out of my thought bubble. Grover Freaking Norquist and his pledge have outright killed people and has made the lives of nearly everyone in America worse. We are about to discover here in Wisconsin what happens when the state government won’t raise taxes to fix roads – roads that are costing people the hidden tax of millions in unnecessary car repairs. When the federal government funds dry up, there won’t be any money.

          • That’s what happened to education in CA for a while. When Reagan was governor he cut the funding (saying the feds should pay for it). When he was president he cut funding (saying the states should pay for it). No money…

  4. Good Sunday morning, Meese! Outside my window the sky is clearing. We had a little shower in the early morning hours. It’s 55 whopping degrees F. in NoVa this morning, going up to a high of near 70. Dearly Beloved is eager to cook out tonight, so that’s what we’ll do.

    Hoping to have a writing day today—no child care requests or anything like that. Opened my dentist’s bill for this latest crown thing and nearly fainted. My insurance paid only a little over one-fourth of it. No holidays for us this year.

    In the meantime, things are going from bad to worse. How do we get rid of this guy? When I think of the hay the Rethugs would be making if Hillary had been accused of cozying up to Putie, I feel sick.

    I keep thinking back to other successful revolutions—the French started by pulling down the Bastille, the Russians shot all the aristocrats, the Allies gave the Nazis a miserable time in northern France although I don’t know for sure that their activities slowed the German war machine, the Americans had Colonel Marion, the Swamp Fox and George Washington at Valley Forge. How do we get rid of the Rethugs? Yes, there will be an election in 2018. But will people turn out to vote against the Rethugs? A lot of people voted for Hillary this year, more than voted for Thing, but it didn’t do any good in the end.

    • Good questions – and I am not sure anyone has the answer – the only thing we can do is to work hard as hell to get folks registered and out to vote in 2018.
      the rest is in the hands of FBI and Intel factions and Republicans

      • It was irritating to see people proclaim John McCain as the Reasonable Republican who would save us from the orange sh*tgibbon. There is no honor in waiting until your party gains power – probably with the help of a global adversary – and then saying “This Shall Not Stand!”

    • I was thinking of you when I was flipping through my Twitter feed last night following the latest tRump word assassination: he must have realized that calling his Florida golf club the “Winter White House” might be a problem when it isn’t winter any longer! Now he has taken to calling it the Southern White House. Ha! As if Northern Virginia is not “Southern”!!

      • Um…Jan, we Northern Virginians don’t think of ourselves as Southern. Rather, we think of ourselves as metropolitan. We refer to any location outside of Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties as “down state,” and everyone knows that “down state” means racist and ignorant.

        Remember this: Hillary Clinton won Virginia because Arlington, Fairfax, and a good bit of Loudoun voted for her. (Loudoun County includes rich people with horse farms and wineries, so they’re apt to vote Rethug). If our three counties vote Democratic, we carry the state! We have an international airport (2 miles from where I live), a hugely diverse population (I’ve remarked on Miss Pink Cheeks’ elementary school, which resembles the United Nations), and many college-educated people who work for government agencies.

        So, nominally Southern, but less so every year.

        • I guess I think of Robert E. Lee’s home as “South”. But I’m a Yankee, what do I know!! :)

          And, yes, we are grateful for a purple Virginia and hope that it becomes True Blue.

  5. Good morning. 70 degrees yesterday in Chicago, 49 today, and 50’s the rest of the week. Hopefully it won’t snow in July.

    I listed to Joy and the dimwit congresscritter. I can’t stand listening to “them”. uggg. Evil.

    Going to go see what’s happening on twitter.

    • That is why I can’t watch any cable TV, even the so-called progressive hosts. They have icky people on and I am a delicate flower! I guess earlier in the week berner Chris Hayes had Susan Freaking Sarandon on his show. No, thank you, life is too short.

      I do follow Joy on Twitter. She often has links to articles that are though provoking.

      • Yep, for me also. “That is why I can’t watch any cable TV, even the so-called progressive hosts. They have icky people on and I am a delicate flower! ”

        It doesn’t really matter how well the progressive host debunks a troll’s argument. The troll is still on the TV machine spewing.

      • find this morning’s AM Joy on line – no trolls, really good stuff, especially the opening segment with Dean Obeidallah. Then a really scary one on North Korea with Malcolm Nance.

  6. It feels weird not doing the race. But I know I made the right decision. Head & stomach are both still unhappy. 5 hours of superhuman effort with that going on, that would have been bad. I’m going to help out my team later today at the dinner. Anyway, a normal Sunday — eating breakfast & biding time till AM Joy. Yesterday’s show was just amazing — the segment with Malcolm Nance, Gary Kasparov & Nayyera Haq was informative & terrifying. still have Ordinary Love playing in my head. (your heart is on my sleeve – did you put it there with a magic marker? For years I would believe, that the world wouldn’t wash it away)

    • {{{another}}} – Healing Energy to you. You probably feel something like I did the first Quorum Court meeting after I got off the Court. Really, really strange to not be there. But you are still supporting your team. I basically don’t have a team to support in County government any longer. (2 very good Dems and 2 turncoat Dems on a Court of 15.) Feel better soon.

  7. Started the day seriously foggy and in the low 50s but it’s cleared off mostly (a few clouds and some haze) and it heading for the low 70s in Fay., AR. (So laundry on the line.) Vanilla-cinnamon muffins for next week. Also pork-potato- veggie soup for dinners next week. Still have some Mexican-leftover bean-rice soup and some leftover curry chicken veggie pasta soup to alternate for lunches at work. Carrots sticks with lunch and oatmeal cookies and frozen blueberries for dessert and I’m set. :)

    Holding onto my WW2 analogies because, believe it or not, they’re comforting. Sad day when a war that ranged the entire world to one extent or other and killed something like 50 million people is comforting. Too Ameri-centered I guess – I find the Civil War less comforting although it’s more apt. More Americans killed but really it’s the brother-against-brother thing that depresses me – even as it really is more applicable to our current situation. Either way, we were slammed at the beginning and it took both serious Resistance gearing up for an offense able to push them back and just getting through life day by day.

    Going to check kosmail at DK and read Denise’s FP, but will be reading the British Breakfast here. Got some good suggestions about revamping my community needs stuff I need to think about. With the Village at DK largely dismantled, I’m going to have to start treating it the way I do the Pootie diaries, KTK, and Ojibwa’s diaries – but I need to revamp those too. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

  8. Good morning, Meeses. Voila!!

    (Did I do it right?)

    It’s in the 50-ish here in Folsom, and sunny at the moment, but NWS Sacramento is issuing warnings for a huge storm coming in tonight and lasting until Tuesday that could result in more flooding and evacuations. Some cities up north (Maxwell, CA) were completely flooded.

  9. hey, y’all – Ari Melber will be interviewing one of our favorite Republicans, Roger Stone, this evening (I know he’s no Steven Miller, but still) and he’s taking suggestions for questions:
    @ARIMELBER

  10. at 4 central, they are going to re-air the 2nd hour of AM Joy — tune in, it was great

  11. Good morning, Meese! At nearly 4:30 a.m. this Moon Day morning, it’s 50 degrees and dark as pitch. Woke up at 3, could not go back to sleep. Will make a cup of tea and read for a while.

    After reading Dee’s post yesterday I bought the Kindle version of Never Caught, so will have a peep at that.

    Sleep on, perchance to dream! See you all later.

    • I woke up at 2am – which is your 3am. There must have been a disturbance in the force!! I tried to go back to sleep but finally gave up at 2:30. So I will leave my morning greetings below and get a headstart with work.

      • I woke up at 2am (Diana in NoVa’s 3am) also! There is indeed a disturbance in the force.

        • i’m the exception – I woke at 3;15 central which is Diana’s 4:15 – but I did manage to get back to sleep by 4 and nab almost 2 hours before the kittehs started the Song of Their People (also known as “Get Up and Feed Me!”)

          • Which key/style were they singing in today? I’ve heard it in classical sonata-Rondo form in A major, a tempestuous fugue in a minor key, a rock ballad, heavy metal, …

          • I’m afraid my kittehs must listen to old Country Western music when I’m not home. It’s always a twangy variation on a “Somebody Done Somebody Wrong” song. The somebody in question being me for not getting up and feeding them before they have to remind me. :)

          • Ha! I can hear them now, {{bfitz}}.

            Our Gabby seems to have learned a form of Tibetan Throat Singing recently. She only uses it for important occasions though. (Feed me NOW! Where have you been? Sit down so that I can make a nest on your lap.)

    • I had to know the rest of the Never Caught story also. As with you, Kindle is my friend. Prior to Denise’s post yesterdy, I’d never heard of Ona Judge Staines. What a courageous woman.

      • I have 3 Kindle’s – can’t remember what life was like without them ;)
        My vision issues make reading small print impossible – so my Kindle’s go with me everywhere.

        Glad you got the book.

        • Thank Goddess for Kindle, eh? Gave Miss Pink Cheeks a Kindle Fire for Christmas. She’s now read her third Harry Potter book on it, so I have to buy “Clever Girl” chocolates for her today.

          I read my Kindle at night before bed. It’s supposed to be easier on the eyes because of the lack of “blue light.”

  12. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 45 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 59. Clouds this morning giving way to rain this afternoon and into the evening. We have a few days of 60 degree weather in store and then we head back into the deep freeze – 27 degrees on Saturday!

    The NY Times “think” piece about how sad tRump voters are that liberals are mean to them for, you know, voting for a sexist racist pig elicited a lot of responses. I found this Twitter thread this morning: (conversation here). Here are some highlights:

    Charles Clymer ‏@cmclymer
    1/ I’ve been out all day. Just got home + read that “Are Liberals Helping Trump?” @nytimes piece. Fucking hell, I have thoughts… (thread)
    2/ For those who haven’t yet read it, it basically posits that liberals are being too “mean” to unsure Trump supporters.
    3/ Let me repeat that: @nytimes published a piece saying that LIBERALS are being “mean” to Trump supporters. You read that right.
    …
    22/ For the love of all that is good, stop asking hateful people to explain why they’re hateful. I don’t care that you read an article…
    23/ …with some anecdotal evidence of some garden variety racist who changed their mind after years of having a black friend.

    24/ WE DO NOT HAVE YEARS. This is now. It is immediate. As we speak, they’re raiding homes and deporting entire families. DO YOU GET IT?!

    25/ We tried being nice. Fucking hell, we’ve tried it for decades. Is anyone else tired of losing? Is no one else tired of this bullshit?
    26/ Because mark my words: a strategy of appeasing Trump voters and trying to convince them with reason WILL ENSURE WE LOSE. GUARANTEED.
    27/ We will win by getting out the vote. We will win by building progressive coalitions. We will win by rallying moderates.
    …
    30/ We need to get their face and ABSOLUTELY FUCKING PUBLICLY SHAME THEM FOR BEING INTELLECTUALLY LAZY, RACIST, SEXIST ASSHOLES.
    31/ We are not going to win by exchanging ideas w/ Trump people. We will win by standing up and BEING PROUD OF OUR LIBERAL VALUES.
    32/ You are a liberal. You believe in equality and inclusion. You believe that no one gets left behind, even Trump folks. BE PROUD OF THAT.
    33/ You are a liberal. You will not stand for white supremacy or patriarchy in any form. You will beat it the fuck down. BE PROUD OF THAT.
    34/ You are a liberal. You believe in the American Dream and that it should be accessible to all and should exploit no one. BE PROUD OF THAT
    35/ You are a liberal. You believe in science, even if you’re a person of faith. You believe REASON always comes first. BE PROUD OF THAT.
    …
    39/ For the love of all that is good, if you start being proud of being a liberal, I promise you–PROMISE–victory will follow. /thread

    See all y’all later!

    • Good morning, Meese!

      MPLS/St Paul weather: Currently 51 and feels like 51!

      JanF, thanks for sharing the most excellent ‘being nice to tRump supporters post. My favorite bit is:

      30/ We need to get their face and ABSOLUTELY FUCKING PUBLICLY SHAME THEM FOR BEING INTELLECTUALLY LAZY, RACIST, SEXIST ASSHOLES.

      Nothing else, nothing less will work.

    • I’m danged proud of being a Liberal. I’m even prouder of being a progressive who likes to get those liberal goals done. Even when the progress is in baby steps, as long as it’s progress I’ll take it. Cheers to Charles Clymer!

  13. Good Monday morning Meese
    36 degrees here in the Catskills of NYS.

    Looking at pics from yesterdays “I Am a Muslim too” rally in NYC

    Looking forward to today’s protests

    Now is the time to turn protesters into voters!

    • So heartening to see the Resistance is taking root and going strong!

      Thursday night my wife and I will be attending an open house for Erik Paulsen, our D3 Republican rep. He’s been hiding from constituents for literally years. He hasn’t accepted the invitation, but no matter. It’s getting attention, local media will most likely will be there to cover it. (A where in the heck are you Erik protest last month had all the local stations covering it). I’m expecting a very large and vocal crowd.

  14. Good morning. It’s going up to 59 today in Chicago. Nah, there’s no climate change.

    Happy to see both Shep Smith and Chris Matthews of faux news have come out against “it” for his comments saying the media is the enemy of the people. Doesn’t happen often, but it’s good when it does.

    Off to get coffee and read.

    • Thanks – I missed hearing about Chris Matthews who I don’t watch. I saw the Shep Smith comments on twitter.

  15. We had severe storms over night — possible tornado. Roofs torn off all over, trees & power lines down. Pretty incredible. Went to my team’s celebration — we raised over $39,000! For fewer than 25 people, that’s incredible! Plan for today — get breakfast & lunch together for the week and go handle one last thing about my mom’s estate. For now, breakfast & tea.

  16. 62 this morning and raining (gently) – not sure how long – temps should be steady until sundown, the rain may pass through by noon. Hope so – would like it to clear off this afternoon so I can get some electricity generation – dark enough to still be on night mode right now.

    Can’t say “Happy” president’s day under the circumstances, but we’ve had some good presidents and we’ll have more. At least good for the good stuff they did. All of them had flaws (since we were supposed to use that word every time we mentioned Hillary – sauce for the goose is needed in gallons for the ganders) and some of those flaws were pretty nasty, even for the “good” ones. (See Denise’s FP diary at DK yesterday.) So we do our best to block the worst and bring out the best in the good. Resistance Time right now – rebuild time later.

    I am running out the door to a meeting. I’ll be back to read everybody’s stuff as soon as I can. Bright the day and wind to thy wings, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

    • I guess I need to learn how to do a Village “hangout” diary for days like today when nobody’s scheduled. hesitant to do it as I don’t have anything to offer except a hangout – can’t bring tweets or stuff like that to it. Oh well.

  17. Watching the report of the Orange Shitgibbon working on his new ban & getting so steamed. Yesterday at church, they announced that we have gotten a refugee family to sponsor, and the whole congregation cheered. They’re supposed to arrive at the end of the month. From Iraq. Imagine what these people have gone through. And the overgrown 5 year old in the Oval Office is talking about something that may prevent them from coming here.

  18. Good morning, 42 and mostly cloudy in Bellingham. February is a big birthday month for our family, ending with mine which is thankfully over. Dinner with our sons, the grand girls and the grand dogs was fun and simple, suiting my reflective mood. I’ve now lived longer than many of the women in my family, and for some reason I find that very sobering.


    Presidents Day trivia: Surprising facts about each U.S. president

    Did you know three U.S. presidents died on the 4th of July? Who knew that President Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States but only the 44th man to hold the position? Presidents Day weekend is the perfect time to test your knowledge on America’s presidents. Here are some surprising facts about each one:

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