Joanne Dixon

Open Thread October 8 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Politics
Oct 082025
 

Yesterday, I was checking my yahoo email account and started with spam. I saw an email whose sender name started with “Department of G” – that was as much as I could see and I needed the magnifier to read it – which is why I went to tutamail in the first place. That turned out to be “Department of Government Efficiency” – but a hover showed it was actually from a gmail address. As if we didn’t have enough government reality to be suspicious of – now we need to watch for scams masquerading as official scams. In other news, you may remember that, of all people, MTG is on our side on releasing the Epstein files. Well, now she is also on our side about the shutdown. I don’t know if my brain can handle it. Also, there was a lot of news about MAGA freaking out about Bad Bunny being booked for the Super Bowl halftime show (Bad Bunny is an American citizen by birthright).

Several topics here, at The F*News: the first is on Judge Immergut (you gotta love her name – “Always good” in German), but then it goes into Social Security cuts (mine for this month is in my account as “pending.” On Wednesday, the “pending” will disappear and my balance will reflect it) and two more. Along the way, Jonathan does a little bragging, which I certainly would too for the achievements he cites.

This week the Supreme Court’s term begins, and they will start hearing arguments again. Joyce Vance has posted the full calendar, through June, of which days are argument days, and the first two weeks of which cases when. And there’s more. Also, from a different site which included Joyce Vance in a video, the Supreme Court heard arguments on but did not decide one case last term – Louisiana v. Callais – and will be hearing arguments again on Wednesday, October 15. Meanwhile, the Election Assistance Commission has a comment period open on this case. Why is this important? Because all we have left of the Voting Rights Act is Section 2 (the Court previously overturned Section 5). This case could overturn Section 2. The link for comments is here. I have put up a separate post with suggestions for comments, because I have no link to it. The to-and-fro directions below the comments section should direct you to it. Although arguments are October 15, you have till October 20 to comment.

Dan Froomkin has put a lot of thought into his premise here. I don’t think he is seeing ghosts. Robert Reich has similar, though not identical, thoughts as this map he drew suggests.

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Open Thread October 7 2025

 Posted by at 7:04 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 072025
 

Yesterday, I heard from Carrie after her visit to Barry. I’m quoting much of it because we are all so used to brain strokes and how to tell if you or a loved one may be having or have had one, and none of that will work for a brain stem stroke. “I was able to speak to him and he was aware I was there. That is the saddest thing about this type of stroke. His brain functions well, but everything the brain stem controls is gone. Because brain stem strokes are so rare, they are easily missed. That’s why he was not correctly diagnosed when he first arrived in the ER. His doctors had only had one other such stroke victim in the past four years. Barry will be transferred to Warm Springs, Georgia to a hospital / rehab facility. After 2 to 4 weeks, they should be able to give us a prognosis.” In other news, our Supreme Court is corrupt – but not corrupt enough to consider Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal (Axios). Also, I can at least say that I have one Senator who has a clue how to message.

I agree with Robert Reich that this needs to be discussed – or at least thought about – by everyone. I personally am absolutely unqualified to talk about it with people who voted for it, but no doubt there are people who are. Will those voters be willng to listen to or even talk to such qualified people? Anyway, for us – therapy animals can help. for those lucky enough to own one or be near a professional one.

Harry Litman with a this-is-how-it’s-done article on a judicial opinion. As he points out, All judges have occasions on which they need to defer, but they should never to lies. Other courts should take this message to heart – immediately. (Incidentally, this judge was appointed by the Mango Moron. How she got past the Heritage Foundation, I can’t even guess.)

This may brighten your day and maybe even look into the book. There is a Little Professor bookstore in Athens, Ohio, and another in Owatonna, Minnesota, but Joyce lives in Alabama, so this has to be in Birmingham or its suburb Homewood. Although cities are more liberal than rural areas, that’s still a lot of books for Alabama (I wonder how much her signature changed from the first one to the last one.)

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Open Thread October 6 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 062025
 

Yesterday, I went to see Virgil. As usual we played cribbage. Most of our hands were mediocre to dire, but what the heck. We play to pass the time in each other’s company, not to win. Before I left to go see him, I received an update from Carrie on Barry. It’s not as good as I had hoped, but it’s also not as bad as my worst fears. It’s short, so I’ll quote it in full: …

I wanted to let you know Barry will be transferred to a long term acute care facility sometime next week. He had a tracheotomy last week so they could get the tube out of his mouth. Since he is still on a ventilator, the tube goes through the tracheostomy. They have turned the ventilator off from time to time, but he is only able to breathe on his own for about 30 minutes. At least he is no longer under heavy sedation. At present he is completely paralyzed. I will be seeing him tomorrow for the first time since he had the tracheotomy. He cannot speak, but is still answering simple yes or no questions by blinking. Please keep praying for him.*

*Or as always, however you communicate with the universe.

Late breaking news

It’s easy to criticize the media, and the MSM in general is indeed doing a terrible job of getting out the truth about this regime. But maybe at least some of the problem is that, being unaccustomed to government lies and fraud on this scale, they really don’t know how to report it. And I have to agree that the method proposed here is simple, but by no means obvious.

From Robert Reich‘s keyboard to God’s monitor or iPhone, whatever he’s using these days.

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Open Thread October 5 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 052025
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte”, which at least for me is a good opera to not watch. Yes, it has some very funny sight gags, and depending on what time frame the director decides to stage it is, it may also have great visual appeal, such as costumes. I dressed a production once, and while I don’t claim it was great – there’s only one of me and I can only execute so much – but it was pretty. And of course it is Mozart. The only sour notes he ever wrote in his life were deliberate jokes, and there are none in this opera. But it is so terribly sexist, the premise is grossly unethical, and the antics are unbearably cruel. More and more directors are learning how difficult it is to handle the ending. And I don’t know what else you’d expect from an opera whose title can be translated several ways, one of which is “Women are all alike”, but all of which are slanderous. And I noticed today there is also a subtler message in it, with which I must also disagree: “Never trust your employee(s); they do not have your best interests at heart.”  Although Ana Maria Martinez, as the bribed maid, was clearly having the time of her life disguising her voice to go with her visual disguises. It’s not hard to hear why audiences love her. The new speaker works fine, and while it was a nuisance changing the old one out, it wasn’t as hard as I expected (I haven’t installed the second one yet.) I ordered them from “Wish,” which like “Temu” is based in China, but both have outlets all over the US, so one never knows where one’s order is shipping from. When I looked at the return address, it said it was from Ontario. Well, that’s one way to avoid or alleviate tariffs. I had to smile. Now I’m off to see Virgil. Of course I’ll check in upon return.

I did not see any follow-up on the Fat Bear contest, but Lona did, from an Australian media source. It was won by 32Chunk, and they think (and I agree) some of those votes were probably sympathy votes, because since last year, his jaw was broken, which made eating harder. But he also did get very fat. There are photos.

I’m posting this on Sunday because it is serious good news. News Outlets changing ownership is not generally good news, but this acquisition of The Root has the approval and support of one of the two original founders – Henry Louis Gates Jr. If he considers it good news, I say it’s good news.

It is amazing the things that the human body can do to itself – but also, perhaps even more so, amazing how good people can help individuals cope with and compensate for autoimmune conditions. I have one myself, and mine is annoying, and unsightly (but concealable), but at least not painful, or debilitating, or restrictive.

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Open Thread October 4 2025

 Posted by at 6:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 042025
 

Yesterday, I awoke with the joint where my right thumb meets my right hand just throbbing. I rubbed some cold formula sore muscle rub on it, which helped, and I put on an arthritis glove, which also helped. But I haven’t had full use of it all day – so of course this was the day that FIVE packages came, and one was very heavy. I managed to get them all into the house but not all opened. One of them was my new speakers about which I’ll say more when I can type better (and have tried them out.) I forwarded an email to a few of you – not all, because I don’t have my mailing list complete, and I didn’t send it to anyone outside the US. It was an email warning that ICE is now actively looking for immigrant children. Here’s the link that Daily Dose of Democracy provided for more information. If you have children, or grandchildren, or great-grandchildren down to age 10, you need to see it. If you know anyone who does, you will probably want to share it. Also, Don Froomkin of Press Watch says the Chicago apartment raid needs more attention. Here’s the link to his analysis, and here’s another to Heather Cox Richardson. I haven’t read both through as I type, but but the time you see this, I may have managed to read through both. But maybe not.  Tomorrow I’ll be going to see Virgil.

This from The Root is directed to the Black community. I don’t want anyone to panic, but it appears to me that everyone should be aware of this, not just people of color and in other underserved groups.

Some of that silence was just protocol. Generals don’t applaud (or at least, not when in uniform. See the Hatch Act.) But the further they got into the meeting, and especially with the two jerks soliciting applause, the louder a statement it became.

When the ACA was passed, I had coverage from prior employment as a retiree, and soon after that from Medicare. As y’all probably know, Medicare is complicated enough, and I wasn’t working in insurance (I never actually worked with life or health insurance anyway), so I depend on journalists to give me a sense of who qualifies for what and why. Wonkette is not the obvious journal to go to for that, but I think Robyn has done an impressive job of clarifying this.

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Open Thread October 3 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 032025
 

Yesterday, the details of an ICE raid on an apartment building in Chicago were published, including by Wonkette. It appears they simply broke down every door in the building, detained everyone, then after some hours released those they had been able to confirm were citizens. If you don’t want to read about it, I don’t blame you but here’s the link anyway.

This from The Conversation goes along with the article earlier this week about learning to be defiant. If a serious, dedicated scholar can be as far off about what the Third Reich looked like from inside, the rest of us need to take notice now.

Wow. Just Wow. Wonkette – well, it isn’t actually Wonkette which nails it – it’s District Judge Young, but Wonkette serves it up. And it inspired me to use a cartoon I have been holding, because it makes it so clear that it isn’t words, and certainly not words alone, which make terrorists.

This HuffPost article sheds some light on the Federal shutdown. And also on the messaging. Our messaging is pretty clear, and self explanatory, if anyone who needs to hear it will ever hear it (and believe it – they are so accustomed to believing six impossible things before breakfast that getting their belief is not exactly guaranteed.)

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Open Thread October 2 2025

 Posted by at 6:00 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Oct 022025
 

Yesterday, we learned that Jane Goodall has died. She was 91. Such a loss. I’m struck by the difference between her research, which was with primates in their natural habitat acting normally, as opposed the the “research” on wolves which studied only wolves in captivity, who do not act the same way or even close in their natural habitat. If someone did a study on humans but did it inside a prison using the prison population as subjects, we would instantly reject it. But if it’s on wolves – we just swallow it whole.

Obviously I am not about to be able to go do the kind of stuff Robert Reich describes here. But it does point to ways that younger, stronger, and more phone-literate people can conceivably get involved.

Press Watch on Trump’s occupation of Portland. Dan says his question “raises questions about his mental competence.” To me, it actually suggests he may have some. Can you imagine any Fox-Sinclair-OAN watching cult-brain-frozen MAGA asking this? They seem pretty unquestioning to me. But I may be missing something.

A guest video from Robert Reich. I can’t embed it because it’s in the “Shorts” format (More analysis on the shutdown tomorrow.)

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