Joanne Dixon

Open Thread May 30 2026

 Posted by at 6:10 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 302026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm used the title Milli-Vanilli-cast for his presentation. There are multiple reasons for this, one of which is that he credits Milli Vanilli for inventing alternate reality. I won’t go into other reasons, but I will recommend you avoid the National Mall between June 25th and July 10th this year. But all the information is in the first 17 minutes of the cast, so if you are curious, here’s the link. Also yesterday, a DC circuit judge ruled that the Saffron Sauron’s name must be removed from the Kennedy Center immediately. And another judge ruled that no money can be paid out from his slush fund until, and if, it is determined that it is even legal.

 

I have to share this story, although it took a while to ger it posted – it’s just too good. Wednesday night Bruce Springsteen gave a live concert attended by, among other, Joyce Vance and Mary Trump, who went together. There was a large sign on the building with a short anti-Trump** message – they ran up to it (and probably took selfies) and said – “WE are the Trump/Vance team you need!” And, you know, they are absolutely right.

Robert Reich on wealth tax. He considers it so important he is willing to vote for Tom Steyer – a billionaire – over Katie Porter because Steyer claims to support a wealth tax. I also want wealth taxes – in every state – but I don’t believe a word a billionaire says at any time, least of all when he is running for office.

From Civil Discourse. My first question was – why Chicago? Wasn’t the defamation case tried in New York? Doesn’t she live in New York? Reading farther, Joyce has the same question. (being a lawyer, however, she asked legal procedural questions first.)

I find it very difficult to accept that a sane person, or a sane party, would choose not to be part of the solution. I’s clear that the present Republican party is not part of the solution, and also that it is insane. It’s not as clear to me that the Democratic party is part of the problem – we are kind of dysfunctional just now, but that seems always to happen to a minority party. We do need to form clear goals and get a lot better at communicating listening. If we can’t listen, we won’t be able to communicate at all.

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Open Thread May 29 2026

 Posted by at 6:14 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 292026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm Nance reported that Israel wants to take away from Jordan of the Dome of the Rock and the the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and hold custody jointly with the United States. If this happens, there will be “holy war” across the entire middle east, with terrorism which will make Isis look like kid stuff. (his co-host Wajeeh Lion shared some of the stories/history which underlie Muslim theology.)

This from Robert Reich is admittedly a distraction. Bbut it’s kind of a sweet one.

From Talking Points Memo. One of the things that happened in the Abrego Garcia case was that the well-publicisied actions of the regime from the very beginning caused the judge to make a presumption of vindictive prosecution, which in turn put the burden of proof on the regime to prove that the prosecution was not vindictive nor selective (which of course they could not do, because it was as vindictive as hell.) I don’t know that the regime’s vindictiveness has been quite that egregious against Smartmatic or the SPLC (although anyne with two eyes and a brain jnows it exists), but I hope the respective judges will see it. James Comey has a better chance, I suspect, because the Evil Emperor has been shooting his mouth off about Comey for years – all the way back to 2017. But, as the article points out, the more defendants are successful with this approach, the more likely the courts are to seriously consider it. So I wish them all success.

From Talking Feds. Nothing about how the Saffron Sauron’s mind works is really news, nor will he ever learn his lesson.He just won’t. But its good to hear he is at least getting one.

250 to 250. There are a number of these videos already posted here, narrated by many different people for this project of Heather Cox Richardson’s. I am obviously not going to get to them all, but I’ll be leaning heavily on them. If you want more, they can be found at her YouTube channel here.

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Open Thread May 28 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 282026
 

Yesterday, I pretty well caught up on sleep. We’ll see how long that lasts. I am going to see Virgil again this weeken, buth to make up to him (and to me) for the pne I missed, and to get back on schedule.
And last week, Action Network introduced a new FAFO campaign – not what you’re thinking. This time, it stands for Fight Amazon, Fight Oligarchs.

I could have posted just tRobery Reich‘s video – especially since the message is something we all know. But his suggested responses are well worth reading – particularly the last one.

This is from Vote Vetes. The highest rank of General is four star (short of being the General of the Army) and that is what the title of the series alludes to punningly. I realize a lot of veterans are Republicans. But those who are not – like the Vindmans, Jason Crow, Mark Kelly, Tammy Duckworth, Mikie Sherrill,and others, really do make good legislators and governors – because they take their oath seriously.

Belle Jim Crow 2.0

Cat

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Open Thread May 27 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 272026
 

Last weekend, it happened again. In case you missed it, starting around Easter, the announced on Saturday that peace talks were going well and peace was imminent. The oil futures market responded – the price per barrel dropped. On Monday (or Tuesday if Monday was a day the market was closed) the same went all hawkish and threatened to bomb Iran to Kingdom Come. The price of oil futures went up. American oligarchs who had bought low (who can affords to buy futures th the hundreds of millions of barrels) then sold high. This has happened every weekend for eight weekends. Every weekend for those eight weekends, ‘s personal friends who could afford to buy oil futures in the millions of barrels made millions of dollars. And don’t think it’s over. It will go on as long as they can get away with it. Malcolm dtill called his show the “confuion-cast” yesterday, but said he may soon go to “dementia-cast.”

You don’t have to go to X to watch the graphic. It plays fine right in the article. I personally think the final still at the end is every bit as jawdropping as the video.

Robert Reich is talking about the political compass here – and so on point that I expect he is aware of it. This is not the first time I have heard someone advise that a third axis is needed, and I beieve that person suggested good and evil – which is fine with me. It would have to be in and out, since that’s the only dimension left in our three-dimensional world, and it would be a challenge to draw in two dimensions, but I think probably worth the effort.

There’s a lot in Mornng Memo, and it’s all valuabe. But the first section is what first caught my eye.

Better a couple of days late then never (IMO)

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Open Thread May 25 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Holiday, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 252026
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. It was a brand new deck – no tears, no peeling, no sticking. Hands with a wide range of values (zero to 21.) It’s always cold in the visiting room – but it was extra cold today – and quite warm outside – too warm for comfort, actually – but at this time of year the sun is not in my eyes, for which I was grateful.

And on Saturday, I received a Memorial Day email from Major General Eaton (retired) of Vote Vets. He wrote about the wars in Iraq And Afghanistan, and included a statistic which was new to me. In those two wares combined we lost almost 7,000 military in combat – and more than 22,000 to suicide after they came home. More than three times as many to suicide as to combat.

Snarl at me if you like. Because I’m not postinng this from JoJo from Jerz for news value. I’m posting it because of the sheer beauty of the righteous rant. The pure vitriol of the analogies, metaphors, and needle-sharp points made. I’m in awe. I can come up with the occasional zinger, but I could never come up with a string of them like this.

We’re all familiar with the term “kleptocracy” – Maybe too familiar. The term “corruptonomics,” coined by Robert Reich, may help us look more closely at it. As he also says – “Please send to any candidates you care about.”

From Press Watch. The saying goes that a competent prosecutor could get a true bill from a grand jury on a ham sandwich. That’s an exaggeration for a competent prosecutor – but for a crooked prosecutor – maybe not so much.

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Open Thread May 24 2026

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 242026
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Puccini’s “Turandot.” It was his last opera – and it’s not a pretty story. It has a happy ebding, in that the tenor and the lead soprano end up in love against all odds. But the road to that ending is covered with blood, and I have trouble with that. The big aria, which all tenors love, and which is often associated with Pavarotti (although every tenor who has ever recorded anything has recorded it – even Sarah Brightman recorded it, replacing “la principessa” with “il principe”) is “Nessun dorma” – None shall sleep – which makes sense in context, though out of context, not so much. Also – I can answer Randy’s quesiion. Congress is completely dominated by Republicans who are so terrified of the Saffron Sauron that they wouldn’t vote their conscience (those who have one) even if the sky fell. Let’s put a Democratic majority into the House and Senate and see what happens. We have a lot of people running who are real fighters, not DINOs, but many still need to win their primaries.

This from ABC news (ours) is on loop, but you will likely  need to unmute it. It’s still a work in progress, but, even so far, it’s pretty amazing.

From the Associated Press – This is good news for two states. Now we need the same for 48 more, two territories, and one district.

I assume Lona is well aware of this (from Good News Network), but thought the rest of us might also like to hear about it.

Also from our ABC News, Malcolm Nance often says “Coincidence takes a lot of planning.” (He calls that “Nance’s Law.”) And so do surprises.

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Open Thread May 23 2026

 Posted by at 12:27 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 232026
 

Yesterday, Malcolm was in Greenland – He went a couple of days ago for the opening of a “new” (meaning newly purchased or leased) building for the American Consulate. Jeff Landry was there (the governor of Louisiana, who is a “Special Envoy” to Greenland), making not just a fool of himself – not that that is unusual -but also acting creepy, offering children chocolate chip cookies) but left early after Greenlanders tactfully asked him not to act like a pedophile. There was a protest on site – including baseball caps reading “Make America Go Away,” “Already Great” [with the Greenland flag] and “Nu det NUUK” [Danish for “That’s enough” but punning on the name of Greenland’s capital – “Nuuk”]. One of the Protest signs read “Yes NATO, No Pedo.” I could go on a lot longer about how much Greenland wants nothing to do with the US under the Canteloupe Catastrophe, but I’ll spare you. Also, Tulsi Gabbard quit. Good riddance – but likely to be replaced by someone even worse. (Flynn? Lindell?) One good thing – Abrego Garcia’s federal case was dismissed with prejudice. Also yesterday – everybody was slush fund talking.

From The Root. I’m old enough to have memories of what it looked like, even though I didn’t grow up in the South. And good enough vision to know it when I see it – which is pretty much all over the place now, and also to see how it jumped back into broad daylight when Barack Obama was electrd President (and yet – misogyny is even stronger.) There are still many glass ceilings above which it is difficult – if not impossible – to rise if you are not a white male. And there is no such thing as modern humans belonging to different races. Neanderthals and Denisovans may be races different from homo sapiens (or not – many of us today carry bits of DNA from one or the other.)

From Pro Publica. Maricopa County – it figures. Joe Arpaio’s county. Did someone day “fraud, waste, and abuse”?

Harry Litman on the slush fund scandal. Of course I thought of Teapot Dome (no, I’m not old enough to have lived through it, but I am old enough to have heard of it in history classes.) But, as Harry points out, the government at least got some oil through it, whereas this criminal enterprise is all take, no give to taxpayers. And those to whom it is giving are the worst of the worst.

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Open Thread May 22 2026

 Posted by at 6:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 222026
 

Yesterday, for the third day in a row, I had to go to the clinic – this time because something I should have dropped off yesterday. No one to blame but myself for that. Still, it’s frustrating.

This is a video post, but there is a transcript. Scroll down below the screen, and about the middle between left and right, directly above the orange block labeled “Get the app,” click on “Transcript.” Besides the three topics mentioned in the title, including the Arc de Trompe, the San Diego Mosque shooting and its back story, and a prosecution of a prosecutor who has displeased the regime’s DOJ. And I may even be forgetting one or two.

Colorado Public Radio IMO has done an excellent job of reporting on this. Some of the quotes will give you a good sense of why I didn’t know Colorado’s elected Democrats had it in them (but I’m sure glad they did.)

It’s no surpeise, I’m sure, that trolling can be used for good as well as for evil ourposes. Here is a sample from Allison Gill (who identifies herself thoroughly so I don’t have to.

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