Joanne Dixon

Open Thread August 8 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 082025

Yesterday, my inbox was even crazier than usual. I don’t know why. Federal News appeared to me to be the usual BS. I suppose there might be people who are just now catching on – but yu’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to be running even the tiniest news outlet and just now be catching on after more than six months of pure hell. in any case, I decided to go with a couple of off the wall stories, neither of which features the Orange Oligarch directly, though both are related to his policies (if you can call them policies and not fantasies – I think the jury is still out on that), along with one terrifying legal analysis, which includes guesswork, but some things are not that hard to guess. Also yesterday, this link was forwarded to me. I guess it’s no weirder that Scalia/Ginsburg = except that I would not be interested in an opera about it.

From The Conversation. Many of my sources from time to time refer to history as a help in understanding the present. This article appears to me to be particularly pertinent. And it happened within the lifetime of many of us, including me. The First Amendment is easy to approve, but not easy to discuss, and figuring out where to draw lines can be very touchy indeed. But I do believe the Warren Court got it right.

Certainly I knew that J. B. Pritzker was a Democratic governor who was working with other Democratic governors to protect citizens and residents from the Marigold Maelstrom. But that was all. this situation in Texas is getting coverage for more of his personality and Wonkette is there for it.

Well, this is scary. It’s not as if we weren’t anticipating it, of course, but I for one hoped it would take a little (or a lot) longer to get to it. But no – it’s here.

Open Thread August 7 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:05 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 072025

Yesterday, my exterminator came by. There’s slow progress – but it is progress.

I don’t suppose anyone here doesn’t know this is happening. (‘m glad Howard from Aurora was there – a reminder people can live in war zones and still be decent people.

Action Network is declaring the week of August 21-27 ” People vs Billionaires Week of Action”, and has plans, and is making more plans. And also looking for more ideas. At least I can provide more notice time for this one.

Talking Feds Harry Litman is well aware about how dangerous and serious all the crap from this administration is. But this seems to me more of a sounding the alarm than his usual style. You won’t be able to see the whole thing, but there’s plenty in what we can see

Open Thread August 6 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:49 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 062025

Yesterday, The Conversation featured this article. I think Aristotle was on to something. Among other things, it would explain why MAGA (and all “conservatives”) are such whiny bags. Also, Care2, AKA the Petition Site, has a petition up to the Mango Moron which includes straight up telling him he sucks. If you haven’t seen it, I thought you might enjoy it.

In case you missed it – putting Bove onto a Court of Appeals puts him into a category from which be Supreme Court justices are selected, without needing to acquire the experience which is normally expected of a justice. Sure, the Mango Monster has been stacking the lower courts too – but this is something new.

The Brennan Center is a trustworthy watchdog – yet not a paranoid one. So this needs to be taken seriously (but you know that.) The link is to the home page, and in case another article has taken the to place, the title of the article is “The Trump Administration’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election.”

Open Thread August 5 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 052025

Yesterday, Trinette and I went to the VA and got me registered as eligible for whatever services they can provide to those of us who didn’t stay long enough to retire and have no service-connected disability. Yeah, I have some, but all mine are age related or something else related which has nothing to do with my service. The booklet I will need to read to find out what is available is not as long as Reich’s book, but is also probably a lot more boring. It’ll be about ten days before I get my ID card, so I don’t need to know until then, and if I can finish it in ten days I’ll be pleased with myself. Anyway, afterwards, Trinette ans I went to a Mexican restaurant we used to love but had not been to since before the pandemic. The prices were up, but the food was as good as ever. They had even expanded the menu quite a bit. All in all, we accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.

Robert Reich reads from his new book, whose official publication date is today. I am just about 11 months older than he, so I lived through the same period. And I knew about some of what he writes about – but not all, not when it was happening. But then, he lived in New York, so much of what he recounts which turns out to have been relevant nationally all along, was merely local news at the time. He’s going to be on Colbert this week to talk about it.

Common Dreams has the story. It’s very sad that it has come to this. But kudos to those who recognize that it has, and have the guts to act on it.

Open Thread August 4 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 042025

This weekend, looking for music, after finding the Rocky Mountain Mike one you saw yesterday, I came across a “Horrible History” song from the BBC. It’s very silly, and IMO not useful as a mnemonic either. But it did remind me of Charles I and his ~~billionaires~~ cavaliers and how he vexed the people so much, including levying taxes without the consent of ~~Congress~~ Parliament, that there was a Civil War – which the people won, and locked him up (they didn’t all agree on all that much, but they did agree that he needed to be locked up), then they tried him for “treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country,” convicted him, and beheaded him. I might note that the verdict included accountability for the deaths, mostly in the Civil War, of 300,000 people, which was a lot then, but nowhere near the numbers that dictators today can kill. Charles’s defense, incidentally, was that the trial and verdict were illegal (sound familiar?) Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

I’m sure it’s no surprise that my email inbox is getting less and less manageable by the day. I don’t subscribe to Jacobin (though I love the name), but I do subscribe to Dose of Democracy who sent me the link, and I thought it was well said.

Heather Cox Richardson got a lot of pushback on this letter – so much that she made a video to explain it.

Belle security

Dog called ugly

Open Thread August 3 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 032025

Yesterday, the radio opera was a double bill of Leonard Bernstein – “Trouble in Tahiti,” which I have heard of and heard excerpts from but was not clear on the plot, and “A Quiet Place,” the sequel, which I didn’t know existed. Both are about stages in the life a dysfunctional marriage/family. (And this is the kind of dysfunctional relationships – marriage and family as practiced in the 1950’s – that Republicans want to take us back to.) Also yesterday, I got an email from Adam Kinzinger. He is raising funds for the reelection of Zoe Lofgren. As far as I know he is still registered Republican, but I could be wrong (there have been so many registration changes I cannot keep up). Anyway, after serving with her a=on the Jan 6 committee, he says this about her: “Zoe Lofgren will always put the American people first.” And Lonnie Griffith Bunch III received Robert Reich’s Joseph Welch award (the Senator who stood up to McCarthy) for restoring the full impeachment exhibit to the Smithsonian (he isn’t finished yet … but says it will be done this week.)

My experience is that animals definitely respond to music – and also that they have distinct preferences. My little Princess Fukutsu (a Japanese word that means several things depending on how it’s pronounced – and one of those things is “indomitable courage”) was addicted to the Mills Brothers. Gray Mouser, the cat who took to Virgil and tried to kill me preferred Glazunov and Shostakovich. And Sugar Bear – he wasn’t picky on the type, but he had perfect pitch – and if my violin student’s intonation was off, even too little for me to hear, he’d demand to be allowed out.

So far just signs … although enough of them for two columns is impressive … but it has to start somehow. This is one of them – it doesn’t stop anything but it does slow things down some.

Rocky Mountain Mike

Open Thread August 2 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 022025

Yesterday, I spent some time getting organized for Trinette to come over Sunday. I have trash and I have recyclables, and they need to be in bags so they’re easy to carry out. Also, since Trinette has now nagged me enough, we are going to he VA Monday to see what they can do for me. I haven’t been there since 1976, and I hear they will now assist with MedicAlerts – if the Persimmon Palpatine hasn’t destroyed that already. And I want to have all my paperwork together. Otherwise, it was just a day. I gat a card in the mail from an old Marine Corps friend,, and one of my second cousins in California called to wish me a happy day. i also got emails from Trinette and Carrie B (“NannyCarrie” from Care2).

Thursday, Andy Borowitz, who generally keeps his videos for paid subscribers only, posted a (roughly 31 minute) video with W.Kamau Bell open to everyone. Like every other Substack video I have watched, it needs to be unmuted, but otherwise it was very smooth. But if you just want to skip close to the end and learn what charity Bell donated his Jeopardy winnings to, I think you may be surprised.

This from ProPublica I fear needs a trigger warning – or at least a tissue alert. But one of the men in it says that getting home and realizing that he hadn’t been forgotten was the best gift he could have received. Let’s not forget them.

A couple of other outlets had this story, so I may be sorry I chose it, but it’s definitely personal to me. I live on Social Security. My life depends on it.

Open Thread July 31 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 312025

Tuesday, I forgot to schedule the post I had prepared, and it ended up getting used yesterday. Sorry. Yesterday, I got an email from Lona that she was concerned about the notice that PHP is out of date, and unless I misunderstood her, she was able to see that on the blog itself, not just on the dashboard. I went to BlueHost, where I found conflicting sets of instructions on how to update it. After a lot of searching, I was able to find how to execute one set, which I did. I went back to PP and got only a critical error message, both on the dashboard and on the blog. I had to call in, which took several tries, but finally got in and got a live person who checked my work and checked the blog and determined that the updated version is not compatible with our blog, So she reversed the update and now it is working again. In case anyone attempted to see it while the error message was up – that was the problem. However, all this means that we are stuck with the old PHP. If you ever see anything about it, please be aware that our beloved TC was not always satisfied with software offered through BlueHost and sometimes found a different plugin to do the same job better. For instance, I observed that at BlueHost it says the site does not have backups enabled. But what BlueHost doesn’t know is that TC arranged for backups through another provider – Updraft Plus – and we are getting backed up every day without fail – I get a daily email notification of it. So if the new PHP is not compatible, and BlueHost is not worried about it, I am not either. TC will have arranged another plugin for the same function. And all our plugins are set to automatically update. When I can, I’ll put up either a new page or a new block on the Home Page to explain this, so in case anyone else is seeing a PHP warning on the blog itself, the information will be there.

Steve Schmidt is not himself a trained psychologist. But sometimes an untrained person can stumble upon a realization which is profound. I think Steve is on to something here.

Leaving MAGA is a group founded by Rich Logis, and it is also a book (at the home site you can get an ebook for free if you wish.) It is also a petition from the action network to major media requesting that they cover the stories of people who have left MAGA. That would not reach all of them – but it could reach a significant segment. At the very least they might be able to hear something outside their bubbles.

Robert Reich republishes (with permission and translated) an article from Haaretz.

Older Entries Newer Entries