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?
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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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Good morning, Meesefolk; a balmy 16 right now with high of 25. After yesterday’s below zero temps, I will not complain, although working in an office that was down to 30 before I could finally get the furnace working still has me irritated with my boss.
I have never, ever been an early adopter of a candidate, but Sen. Harris has brought me to the brink. I’m glad Dee is doing her early staffing review today, because that is always one of the things I look at. I’ve also seen some dustups on Twitter about whether she can rightfully claim to be an African-American, but that strikes me as an issue that means, as a white person, I should keep my mouth shut. All I know is that if she showed up in my neighborhood, none of the battle-flag-flying bigots would be making a distinction between African-American or Jamaican-American.
Good day to and for all!
Good morning DoReMI. I’m happy to hear that you are not a frozen DoReMI. 😁
I think it is easier to be an early adopter this year because we have been talking about our potential candidates – and their pluses and minuses – for quite a while (since November 2016). For politigeeks like us, there is no one who will show up where we will go, “oh, that person sounds interesting – I will have to find out who they are.” I followed a lot of tweets yesterday on Kamala Harris and was surprised to discover that she has been running for elected office for so long, I only knew of her from her Senate race. This is not her first tough campaign and she is not going to wilt under the pressure. The photo essay tweet from the San Francisco paper that I posted in the Kamala post (where I will be putting important links to the campaign as I find them) was enlightening. One petty thing struck me – the press will NOT be able to belittle her for her changing hair styles or clothing choices. She appears to have had the same hairstyle for the past 20 years and her clothing has been “corporate serious” pretty much forever.
It’s 43 with a high of 57 today, a general winter day in CA. I don’t think it will rain for a couple of days. This week is shaping up to be busy with lots of activities both work and personal to attend to.
Stayed home from work, apparently I’m not the only one out with a cold. Today is warm — in the 50s, then a cold front… the usual roller coaster of Austin winter. Not awake enough to have any thoughts about today.
Jan, I see Mideedah has a comment in pending. I can vouch for her; I know her in “real life,” and she’s one of us…a fellow politigeek definitely, and a union member, and an all-around great person. Just in case someone needed to vouch for her…
Generally, someone does need to vouch for people before I approve comments but the content of her comment told me she was “okay”. :) Does she want an account? If so, let me know and I will set one up so that her comments don’t all have to be approved. I generally go offline around 11am or so and comments sometimes stay stuck there until the next morning. If I check in via phone later in the evening, I release them but I don’t always do that.
The Moose is not interested in hosting commenters who are looking to pick fights – there are plenty of places where those folks can duke it out!
Midmorning here in Fay., AR it’s 45 feels like 38 and overcast enough we’re generating at 176 watts (at least we’re generating at all). Yesterday was cold, only made it above freezing for 2 hours midafternoon, but sunny – we generated 9.4 KWHs – highest for the month and year to date and the m-t-d is 99 hoping to inch its way over 100 today. Not gonna be a good month for electricity generation but as with everything else, we’re keepin’ on keepin’ on. Hopefully we’ll at least generate more than the 131 KWHs the 2.5K system did in 2015.
In my dreams I know but I wish we could bust up the RW-ownership of the MSM. I’d love to go back to having presidential campaigns only in presidential election years. Kamala Harris will make a wonderful president, should we pull that off considering all the forces brought against Hillary are still in place and already gunning for her. My desire to keep good Senators in the Senate is no reflection on how good a president I think she’d/she’ll be. Since she’s decided it’s her duty to do this, I will of course support her just as I did Hillary. Meanwhile, we still have almost two years of a genocidal despot and his supporters at all levels of govt to survive. Literally survive for the folks not receiving paychecks or food or both, for the folks in disaster areas left on their own. Keep on keepin’ on.
Holding my online family (and some closer kin) in my heart. Channeling Healing Energy to everybody everywhere shaped to their needs. Coffee and back to work. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 44 and cloudy in Bellingham. Like it or not I need to tend to my list today. I’ve got the laundry underway but my desk is a stack of unopened mail and the last of Christmas is looking real old. Time to get off island time and get busy!
Best wishes to all.
Hello Meeses. I went home sick on Tuesday and took until about Monday till I felt pretty good. I had a lot of congrestion and coughing. I’m asthmatic so the coughing isn’t good. I ended up using the nebulizer twice during the time I was out. I’m finally back at work in Costa Mesa. It’s clear but windy with a temperature of 68 right now.
Glad you’re feeling better, Mvgal! Take care. That asthma is tricky.
Sending you some more Healing Energy. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Moosekind, where is Jan? (Peering under the eiderdown) Oh, she might have taken the dog out. I just did and it’s bitterly cold and windy again. It’s still dark in Ashburn at 7 a.m., with a current temperature of 32 F. on its way up to 51 F.
The government is still shut down. Will we have scenes comparable to the Great Depression, with people starving in the streets? I believe McConnell struck a deal with Thing to go along with anything Thing does in exchange for allowing McTurtle’s wife to keep on being Secretary of Transportation. That way, she can keep people from searching the ships owned by her old man.
Can’t believe the awful mess this country is in, can’t believe how the MSM aids and abets racism and Rethugs, and now I hear that a lone Rethug female legislator in the Virginia lege is holding up Virginia’s passage of the ERA. May karma deal with her as she deserves.
Clearly I’m not in a good mood this morning, so I’ll just wish everyone at the Pond a good day and send good vibes to those who need them.
Ha! I have been composing my welcome-to-the-day comment for about the last hour because I have been distracted by other things going on here – Inbox messages, being forced to upgrade some software, waiting for my morning ePaper to become available, trying to assemble a to-do list – and it got done in pieces. I hope it is coherent!
Someone I know was saying that she was worried about a trip she would be taking in early May if the shutdown was still on. If the government is still shut down in early May, we will all be dead! I guess that is one way for the .1% to have more votes – kill off the rest of us and they will become a majority. Did you see that Lara Trump said that government workers don’t mind starving because it is for “the greater good”? People who have never been hungry really don’t get it.
Well, I mean-tweeted that Lara’s children aren’t going hungry! May karma punish her as she deserves.
Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 18 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 21. The snow is still coming down and it is projected to end by mid-day. We got only a couple inches up until midnight but it must have accelerated overnight because Madison public schools are closed – and they almost never close because it is a huge hardship when they do.
A “deal” has been cut in the Senate to allow two bills to be voted on. One is for the border wall money, a bill loaded with anti-immigrant poison pills that I hope no Democrat votes for. The other is a Continuing Resolution to open the government until February 8th. I have not seen anything suggesting that Individual 1 will sign the CR and I am fairly certain that the first bill, if it were to clear the Senate with 60 votes, would be DOA in the House. So it is unlikely to result in the government reopening but we will finally have recorded Republican Senator’s votes against the government reopening; people will know who to blame. It will be interesting if the CR passes with over 66 votes because that would mean the votes – but not the will, probably – to override a veto are there.
I was reading that many of the 46,000 IRS employees called back to work for no pay have declined citing “economic hardship” so the gambit to make sure the IRS is staffed in order to process refunds may not work. The TSA no-shows are now up to 10% of the workforce and growing. The contracts to run the some of the FAA services will expire soon and those companies will not work without payment. FBI agents will lose their supplemental health insurance as of 1/25 because the payment for it is not being taken out of their $0 pay. The federal courts sent a letter saying that they will close on 1/31 because they will be out of money (Individual 1 will LOVE that!) I still think that push comes to shove when the planes stop flying and that the group with the most leverage – and probably the most savings to live on while they wait it out – are airline pilots. They need to say they it is unsafe to fly and stop working.
People who watch CNN need to just fking stop. They sucked up to the right-wing over the Covington Kavanaughs and they are now promoting Kamala Birther stories. They can be Fox News Lite but decent people should NOT give them clicks or eyeballs.
A bunch of crises arrived in my Inbox yesterday afternoon and I need to get to them.
See all y’all later!
On the federal courts – Rachel last night had a segment where the ones in New York have dusted off the plans from back during the bird flu scare. They drew up a way to keep functioning when people couldn’t come in. They’re using plans for a pandemic to keep the courts open.
Good morning Meese – from the cold Catskills of NY.
Was very happy that there was a good response to yesterday’s Black Kos
Birther bullshit
Puerto Rico
We expect the birthers on the right but for CNN to pick up the ball and run with it is ghastly. Apparently Cuomo deleted his “this is a serious thing and we should look into it” comment but the damage to his reputation was done. People need to shun him and turn off his show and all CNN. Jake Tapper was no better with his “leave the Covington Kavanaughs alooooone!” campaign. JHC, our media really sucks. No wonder our democracy is teetering on the brink.
Thanks for the BKos link – the diary is now up in a tab to read later. I am sure no rude people came into the comments, right?
we got two rude people – who were ignored. All the other newcomers behaved :)
Well, I’m here. Don’t know that I’ll stay the whole day, but I’m here now. There are reports of snowflakes & sleet pellets around, but it is above freezing in town so they’re just in the air. Anyway, I’m eating my oats & drinking my nicely chilled tea. Been thinking about Michael Hutchence since his birthday would have been yesterday (no, I’m not that obsessive — the INXS FB page I belong to had memorial stuff). Anyway, here’s Shine Like It Does, a pretty, happy song.
another, every time you talk about your cold tea I have to laugh because up here, we spend all our time boiling kettles for hot tea! We also put a tea cosy over the pot to keep the tea hot while it steeps. Just shows you the difference in climate! If I lived in a hot place like Texas I’d drink cold tea too.
I stick mine in the freezer because I will not put ice in my tea. I make it really strong — and then put water in it???? Heck no. But if I put it in the freezer for an hour, it gets this nice frosty-ness.
and this is our sleet/snow (they had to go to a northern suburb to film it):
{{{ad}}} – stay safe, please. Most Texans don’t know how to drive on this. At least they didn’t back in the ’70s when I lived there. (Hope my kid & his family are OK – they live just outside Austin city limits between Austin and Round Rock.) moar {{{HUGS}}} & also Healing Energy.
it’s not sticking, ground is too warm – I just thought y’all would get a kick out of how excited we get over a couple of ice pellets
Glad it’s not sticking. Back in my day any precipitation coming down meant the ambulances started cruising I-35 so they’d already be on the way when, not if, the accidents happened.
I am amused. ;D
It’s 20 feels like 5 in Fay., AR – and cloudy. Again. sigh. We did get 2 KWHs yesterday which brought the m-t-d to 101 – and we are actually generating today. Sort of. I hope to heaven it will clear off and we’ll get some decent electrical production. And a certain amount of mood lifting. Need the sunshine for that, too.
National news sux. Of course. It’s been bad and getting worse since 11/9/16. People have died and more will – and that’s a feature not a bug with Deplorable govt and the Deplorables who installed it. And yes, I’m looking at the MSM – owned by 5 RW corporations acting in consortium and doing what they’re paid for by that consortium. Closer to home Aji’s scanning results aren’t good. At least 2 organs involved (not heart or lungs). She’s got an appt Friday mostly to set up more testing to figure out how bad and what can be done. This should have been done over a year ago! The AMA, as far as women, BIPOC, and especially women BIPOC are concerned stands for American Murderers Association. No wonder Deplorable govt thinks it’s OK – even revenue producing – to ignore folks in disaster areas & let them rot. The AMA has been making boodles out of it since they came into existence.
I’m soloing at work – my friend, the actual staff person, has family medical issues. Her mother has the benefit of 4 children “advocating” for her, all of whom have at least some medical knowledge. And still has had some eff-ups. There’s a reason why I trust doctors as far as I can throw a Clydesdale. But anyway, I need to get back to work. Healing Energy from The Primal-Will-to-Good to everybody everywhere shaped to their needs. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
{{{{HUGS}}}}
Good morning meese, 41 going up to 59 today. I checked the week’s forecast and we might even have a few days in the upper 60s! That will be great for getting outside.
Hope everyone has a good day!
{{{basket}}} – upper 60s and sunshine is great “getting outside” weather! Hope you get it. moar {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, Meesefolk; 34 when I got up, with messy, rainy, sleety high of 41 expected. Our snow is mostly slush now, and my weather app is kindly telling me that the next expected sunny day is Wednesday, the 30th. Ugh.
I haven’t had even a second to check on what I missed this morning re Savannah Guthrie’s pandering to white supremacists, but I suspect I didn’t miss a thing. And I noticed the Pete Buttigieg is doing the exploratory thing; as much as I like him, someone should tell him not to bother (the voters will eventually). I just don’t see a man, any man, making much headway with Democrats this cycle, but I suppose there’s a reason that political prognostication is not my niche. Still, I hope I’m right, and I hope I’m typical in not accepting the premise that we need a white male at the top of the ticket.
Back to work…good day to and for all!
Good morning, 41 and cloudy in Bellingham. I slept for hours last night and I’m slowly waking up so I may not do much more than visit the primroses blooming in the garden today. Seems like I’ve needed a lot of sleep this week.
Danny Westneat, at the Seattle Times……
Could the humble TSA agent save democracy? Increasingly they’re being asked to try
The Association of Flight Attendants union president Sara Nelson, at an MLK Day event, urged her members to discuss a general strike with their locals:
There is a video of her address at the link. By the way, the teachers in Los Angeles won.
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 1 degree in Madison with an expected daytime high of 18. Tomorrow the high will be 0 and the low will be 17 below. Yikes! This is typical Wisconsin – our worst winter weather is usually mid-January to mid-February and if you can make it to the end of February, there are bits of spring emerging in March to sustain you. Next week is Imbolc already! The wheel is turning.
It appears as though there may be a breakthrough with the shutdown. Nancy Pelosi schooled Individual 1 on the Constitution, something leaders in his own party have consistently refused to do. He wants the State of the Union badly because he knows it is an opportunity to lie to millions. I hope that people are becoming immune to it by now and that fact-checkers are in abundance. As is my tradition, I will not watch it and will not read it (I will read hot takes). In return for opening the government, Democrats will give DHS $5.7 billion for enhanced border security – but no wall. It has never been about the money, it has been about spending the money on ineffective measures in order to fulfill a racist campaign promise that started out as a memory device. I hope that is enough and that the Senate votes for the measure to re-open the government today. There has been so much pain. If Republicans want to crow that we caved (we didn’t) I have no problem ceding the 24 hour news cycle in return for relief for the people harmed by this Republican temper tantrum. Personally, I hope the government opens because I found out I am getting a fairly hefty tax refund because of the way ACA Silver plans were priced and paid for. Thanks, Obama!
Kamala Harris was on Rachel Maddow’s show last night and I have the video up in a tab. I won’t watch cable news channels because I think they make people stupid. There is NOT 24 hours worth of news and the only way you fill that time is to put stupid people and stupid things on the TV. No one benefits from that. And MSNBC, despite having some hosts who lean left, employ some of the worst people in the world, people who actively undermine and want to destroy our democracy. Anyway, here’s Kamala
See all y’all later!
Thursday Meese
Raining and 43 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 51, which will hopefully wash away the piles of snow and ice we have here. We are however under a flash flood watch.
Stayed awake to watch Kamala Harris on Rachel Maddow last night. Thumbs up!
Puerto Rico
Thumbs up for Liz Warren!
I saw that Elizabeth Warren was in Puerto Rico! It is great that the treatment of the island will get attention from our 2020s and that plans to change policy are in people’s campaign platforms.
Another almost-freezing morning. Weather guy said we’ve had 7 freezes this winter, unusual for us — and even so, it’s trending warmer because climate change is real. Had to leave work early yesterday, I thought the stomach stuff was over and tried to go back to totally normal food yesterday. Also, having to basically shout on the phone because of the cold symptoms. Today, I brought Amy’s mushroom risotto for lunch. Nice & mild. Today’s music, both energetic & soothing: Head Full of Dreams.
Best Tweet Ever. From Angry Mouse: