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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania (Part Deux): Sept. 25 to Sept. 27

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Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings diaries 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.



First diary: Sunday through Wednesday

In lieu of daily check-ins, which have gone on hiatus, Welcomings diaries will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning) and then, if necessary due to a large number of comments, again on Wednesday or Thursday to close out the week. To find the diaries, 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?

…

 


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 65 Comments

65 comments

  2. JanF

    It was very good and laid out a hopeful path to a better world. Moose version is here: President Obama: “We choose hope over fear”

    Then I wandered over to my news feed to see what folks were saying and I thought I had entered an alternate universe.

    I think we have officially moved from the silly season to the demented season and I hope that everyone reads the words for themselves and comes to their own conclusions. On the one hand, we have the war mongers who think that without a commitment of troops “on the ground” we can’t “win” (psst: it is not about winning and losing, it is about making that part of the world safe for the people living there, and by extension, for us and our allies). On the other hand, we have short-attention-span-Americans who are antsy because a few weeks of bombing HAS NOT WIPED OUT ISIL!! But always … always … we have critics of the president ready to leap on everything he says or does (psst, right-wing buttheads: your god George W. Bush saluted his Marine guard using his dog, and you thought it was cute … what a difference a little melanin makes!).

    See all y’alls later! I am going to put up an “In the News” post later because there was some good news, some hopeful news and some could-be-worse news from Wisconsin last night. I want to give it time to steep, as is my habit, before I report on it.

  3. Diana in NoVa

    for 65 F. That Mediterranean Seafood Soup I’m planning for tonight’s dinner will be perfect.

    Haven’t looked at the news yet. Still feeling weary. Did get some sleep last night, thank Goddess. Have to spend this evening working on Friday’s blog.

    Very much looking forward to the weekend! Hope today will be a good one for everyone in Moosylvania!

  4. anotherdemocrat

    I got in my 30 minute walk this morning! At 6am, I was all done & ready to leave home, so I did, got here & walked up & down the garage ramps. Since I have my sneakers, I may do the same after work. The weather is still pleasant, though humidity is moving back in – 30% chance of rain tomorrow. Oh – and I got one of the matched donations yesterday! So double (or triple?) yay!

    Lousy night’s sleep. If I’d gotten up when I woke up, I could have walked for much longer, but I refused to get out of bed before 5am.

    Still have California in my head. Interesting lyrics for a song on an album titled “Songs of Innocence”: “I’ve seen for myself, there’s no end to grief. That’s why I know, and all I need to know, that there is no end to love. Yeah, there is no, no end to love”

  5. DeniseVelez

    damp and uncomfortable.

    Stayed up too late last night so am late starting this morning.

    Hope y’all have a good day!

  7. JanF

    Cops Escape Charges For Killing Walmart Shopper Holding A BB Gun Sold At The Store

    [S]pecial prosecutor Mark Piepmeier showed portions of the WalMart surveillance video that had been withheld from the general public pending the grand jury’s decision. The video shows John Crawford III holding the unwrapped BB gun he picked up in the aisle. At no point does he appear to point the gun at anyone, or even interact with anyone. Rather, he walks the aisles of the store with the BB gun, alternately holding it by his side and swinging it over his shoulder, as he talks on his cell phone and seemingly looks at items on the shelves of the store.

    “Mr Crawford did not commit a crime that day,” Piepmeier said during a press conference. “He didn’t do anything wrong.” He added, “They took the lives of someone that didn’t need to die.” Piepmeier nonetheless defended the officers’ conduct that day, citing their training on “active shooters” and several other factors that culminated to lead to Crawford’s death.

    So apparently the “new training” says that an active shooter must be taken down immediately because the worst damage is done in the first 3-5 minutes. So these cops came to the store, saw a guy with a bb gun in its packaging walking around the store, assessed it as an “active shooting incident” and killed the guy. I wonder what else about the guy made them decide it was too risky to just, you know, follow him around the store for a while, or even, speak to him about what he was doing. The cops are off the hook for criminal charges but I would hope that the family of Mr. Crawford sues the municipality that trained them. And that the Justice Department considers a civil rights lawsuit if the training included targeting people of color.

  8. bfitzinAR

    Got QC tonight.  The Drug Court judge’s 2015 budget is part of tonight’s package – and hers is up, based on us finally passing next Tuesday the re-rated position and increase in salary to go with the added duties.  I will be lucky if I get home by 8 – unless the Committee decides to table this one until after next Tuesday’s vote.  Which could happen.  Otherwise, some courts are down, most are up a little because of increases in professional dues, and we are required by law to pay 50% of the court costs so there’s not much even the LieberDem can do about that.  I will be sooooo glad when my time on the Court is up.  I love working for the County employees – trying to provide for them what they need to do the best job possible for the citizens of Washington County – but I cannot deal with the “taxes are stealing money right out of my pocket” crowd.  Bunch of deadbeats.  I know what they’d call people who don’t pay their child support – or whatever is owed to them for the services/products they provide (most folks on the Court are either small business or farmers or both – plus one lawyer who is the LieberDem, one environmental engineer who is a usually sane R, and one secretary who is me).

    Oh well, my life could be a good bit worse – and has been.  Even as bad as things are in the world at the moment, they have been worse.  That’s why we who know that, who actually have learned from history (mostly Dems with a few sane Rs) are working to keep it from getting back there.  {{{HUGS}}} to the Purple People – the sane people in an insane world.

  9. JanF

    Denver area students walk out of school in protest

    ARVADA, Colo. (AP) – Hundreds of students walked out of classrooms around suburban Denver on Tuesday in protest over a conservative-led school board proposal to focus history education on topics that promote citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority, providing a show of civil disobedience that the new standards would aim to downplay.

    The youth protest in the state’s second-largest school district follows a sick-out from teachers that shut down two high schools in the politically and economically diverse area that has become a key political battleground.

    Student participants said their demonstration was organized by word of mouth and social media. Many waived American flags and carried signs, including messages that read “There is nothing more patriotic than protest.”

    “I don’t think my education should be censored. We should be able to know what happened in our past,” said Tori Leu, a 17-year-old student who protested at Ralston Valley High School in Arvada.

    The Ayn Randification of America’s schools:

    The school board proposal that triggered the walkout calls of instructional materials that present positive aspects of the nation and its heritage. It would establish a committee to regularly review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strike or disregard of the law.”

    Free markets … respect for individual rights … no strikes.

    Charlie Pierce was impressed as well:


    … what high school students and their teachers in Colorado are doing fills me with some small degree of hope for the future. In the middle of a brawl over wages, the new conservative majority on the local school board, and Colorado conservatives who often bury the needle on wingnuttery, is trying to bring something like  the philosophy behind the concept Intelligent Design to the AP American History classes there. […]

    Luckily, the kids in Colorado’s AP History classes are smarter about history than Ms. Williams and her colleagues, who were, I hasten to add, freely elected. And that’s why you should vote, every time and in every election, no matter how apparently minor the office or how apparently insignificant the issue. You never know who’s breaking in.

  10. princesspat

    I’m finally packing my bags, but RonK is ready to go so I’d best focus and stop reading the news of the day. We’ll be back on Monday but it will be a low key visit so I’ll prolly be checking in with an Oregon weather report.

    It’s going to be fun to be with Sophie and our grand puppy tonight!

  11. JanF

    NY Times BREAKING NEWS Email

    Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will resign his post, the Justice Department said Thursday. Mr. Holder will remain in office until a successor is nominated and confirmed.

    Mr. Holder, the 82nd attorney general and the first African-American to serve in that position, had previously said he planned to leave office by the end of this year.

    Particularly in President Obama’s second term, Mr. Holder has been the most prominent liberal voice of the administration.

    The Justice Department said Mr. Holder finalized his plans to leave in an hourlong conversation with Mr. Obama at the White House over Labor Day weekend.

    The gotcha, of course, is “successor nominated and confirmed”. Good luck getting anyone confirmed who has any progressive bone fides. Maybe Obama should nominate Debo Adegbile just to watch right-wing heads asplode. 🙂

  12. JanF

    It is 54 degrees here in Madison, expected high of 77. Yesterday it was much hotter than expected which I did not like one bit.

    It will not be easy to replace Eric Holder. I hope they don’t settle for Generic Guy Able to Get Through the Senate. Attorney General is one of the most important jobs in the country. The justice department works as the people’s attorney to sue states and other governmental units who would take away our rights — our rights as citizens including the right to vote and the right to the protections afforded under the constitution and federal laws. We saw what happened when hacks were running the justice department: defense of torture, belittling of international treaties, U.S. attorneys running partisan witch hunts at the direction of the Republican party’s operatives working from the White House.  

    The attacks on Eric Holder yesterday were not unexpected but they were still awful. There are simply no filters of civility on the right-wing and their media any longer. They let their freak flag fly unfettered and it is an ugly thing to behold. In a just world, they and the racists they appeal to will drown in the juices of their own hatred. I wish there was a way to accelerate that process; I have nothing but ill will for them.

    See all y’all later.  

  13. Diana in NoVa

    Yesterday was glorious–it rained until dinner time in our little corner of the world. Made the Mediterranean Seafood Soup from memory–and forgot to put in the oregano until the last minute! It was still good, though. My poor brain is fried by baby pickup time.

    Haven’t looked at the news much, although I was interested to see they’ve identified the villainous bastard who’s been executing Western hostages. Of course they didn’t divulge his name to mere peasants like us. Charlottesville, Virginia, home of our “Ivy League” state university, appears to be so dangerous to young women that I hope my granddaughter doesn’t get accepted there in 13 years’ time.

    Other than that, looking forward to the weekend. Too tired to go apple-picking in the country, but perhaps we can summon enough energy to stop by a farm stand and buy some apples and cider.

    Portlaw, hope the Air France strike will stop soon. A good Freya’s Day to all in Moosylvania!

  14. anotherdemocrat

    Didn’t walk this morning, but I have my shoes & heart rate strap so I can after work. Finally got the actual cd of the U2 album pre-ordered (it has 4 or 5 more songs on it). The artwork is really gonna freak people out. Like, this is an example of them being in a bubble & not getting input from regular people. I read the piece about it & what it means, but 99.9% of the world isn’t going to, and…. this is just a mistake.

    So, Friday. It’ll be busy. Had another lousy night’s sleep, but I have tea; and if I have to buy a Dr. Pepper, I will. Though at this hour, the thought of all that sugar sounds awful.

    Oh, I see Fox “News” remains it’s classy self: host apologizes for “boobs on the ground” comment

  15. Portlaw

    island. Sunny and in the high sixties.

    Saw friends from Donegal last night. Hadn’t seen them in many years so it was a long night and this will be a slow morning.

    air France is still on strike. Sigh.’Off to read the news. Check in later. Hope it’s a good throughout the land. And sea.

  16. bfitzinAR

    Well, it’s Friday at last.  These weeks full of QC meetings feel 2 weeks long – it starts feeling like it should be Friday on Wednesday.  Only 2 meetings next week.  And we will actually finish Budget within the next 2 months – could finish it as early as 1 month but that would take a whole lot more acceptance of reality and a whole lot less of election-year grandstanding than is probably going to happen.  So probably 2 months unless serious grandstanding continues after the election.  The end is indeed in sight (along with the end of my “extra” income unfortunately).

    QC was about as expected last night.  We spent a good half hour harassing the Drug Court judge and gave everybody else a pass.  I’ll miss the money but I most certainly won’t miss the garbage I go through to earn it.  But again, it’s Friday – all I have to do is get through today and then I can rest and hope the sinusitis attacks are stress-related and will go away.  ðŸ™‚  {{{HUGS}}} to the Mooses.

  17. anotherdemocrat

    At our next quarterly meeting, I get a gift for 15 years of service. There’s lots of stuff to choose from, but the 3 things I’m looking at are: a glass “beer” mug with the state seal on it, another glass drinking thing – more like a coffee mug, but you can’t put it in the nuker because of the (metal) state seal on it, and a small wooden clock that I’d keep by my bathroom sink for timing myself on brushing my teeth (gotta make sure I get in 2 whole minutes). Any advice? Like I said, total frivolity.

  18. princesspat

    Good morning……the puppy is curled up beside me and Sophie is ready for school. We will meet her a lunch and spend the afternoon with her for Grandparents Day, then to her ballet lesson, then home for pizza and family movie night.

    I’m in a little cocoon….not sure I want to let the news of the day intrude! But feeling this way gives me some discouraging insight into why voters are uninformed and apathetic. Real life is busy and seems disconnected from the politics of the country. How I hope there is more public awareness than I think there is!

  19. JanF

    It is 56 degrees in Madison WI, on its way up to 79. Mostly sunny.

    Apparently the Value Voters Summit (sponsored by people who do not value voting!) is on right now. There were a lot of reports of craziness on my Twitter stream and now I understand it. Well, I don’t really understand it … but I understand where it’s coming from. The Republicans will be a minoritea party for a very long time if their platform, and their bright lights, insist on bashing non-Christian, non-white, non-straight, non-male and non-rich Americans. That appeals for some reason to some women and many non-rich white males but it is not a sustainable course.

    Busy Saturday and I will be gone for chunks of the morning. I may not be able to post the president’s address and open news thread until this afternoon.

    See all y’all later!

  20. Diana in NoVa

    Today we have lived in our house for 38 years. When I consider moving to another address I am visited by “house dreams,” in which I do move out, regret it terribly, and then try to get the original house back–only to find that I can’t.

    Portlaw, sorry to read in this morning’s WaPo that the Air France strike is still on. Could you take Air Canada over instead? Saw on the news last night that one man single-handedly brought a great deal of air traffic to a halt by burning the computers. Dear Goddess, why is the world so full of crazies?

    In good news, Younger Son passed his nationals and will receive his real estate license in about two weeks.

    Looking forward to a child-free weekend. Must run to the post office to mail a birthday present and two birthday cards. Other than that, hoping for a lovely, quiet day, doing what I want to do.

    Wishing everyone in Mooseland a good day!

  21. Portlaw

    a good day for all.

    Thanks, Diana, for the idea of another airline but all my “points” and money are tied up with this ticket so if I use another airline am out a considerable sum.  I could use this ticket next year but it’s a lot of money to tie up. I have a week or so for the strike to settle so we will see. Still buying presents for everyone hoping that I will get there and be able to give them!  Will keep you informed!

    I hope you were as pleased, Diana, as I was to see how much appreciation you got for your wonderful diaries on the orange and how much they meant to so many people. Hope Mr. Baby lets you have more time for yourself and your writing as he starts his own blog.

    Now coffee and the news. Hope everyone behaves. Will check in later to see how everyone is doing.

  23. princesspat

    Everyone is still sleeping so it’s very quiet and there’s no coffee! I could fumble around and make some but I’ll wait. Yesterday was a full day and the end of a very busy week for all of us so rest and sleep are more important.

    May we all enjoy a restful fun weekend!

  24. anotherdemocrat

    Still short sleeves & shorts weather. Did 2 miles, pushups (against a wall) situps, bridges, etc. Sleepy now – well, I was sleepy then, too. Watching MHP. Then, a shower & a nap.

  25. DeniseVelez

    I forgot to check-in this morning.  Got up early and decided to write my Sunday after tomorrow piece to give myself some free time. Got lost in the subject and just came up for air.

    Hope everyone is having a good weekend.  

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