Joanne Dixon

Open Thread January 17 2025

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

Jan 172026

Yesterday, I added a comment to yesterday’s open thread because by now it’s already late to register for Saturday. There’s still time for Sunday as this goes up. I was drowning in emails and was full when saw the one from Axios that said “Iran’s exiled crown prince implores Trump to strike regime.” Royals may stick together, but since he’s not a real royal (and never will be – a dictator maybe, a royal never), who knows what he’ll do. Also, a little more snow melted in the back yard. The Conversation newsletter had a story about a drunken raccoon.

I could not agree more with Mary Trump if I tried with both hands for a week. Spending $30 billion on ICE is like spending $30 Billion to till every veterans’ cemetery in the US – it’s not just a waste, it’s a violent attack on something which once made us great. And, no, veterans are not perfect, and neither are immigrants. But we certainly don’t become great by trashing either. We now live in the Incredible Shrinking USA.

Asha Rangappa analyzes seven critical actions by the shooter of Renee Good which reveal whether or not he was in fact in fear for his life or those of his colleagues. This analysis so impressed Harry Litman (of Talking Feds) that he made a Substack video with her to go through it. It’s 33 minutes, so I won’t link to it, but if you read this article, there’s a link on the home page.

This has been a bastard of a week, which made it possible to fill multiple Open Threads in advance – but also had me hoping some short takes – like this one from Common Dreams – would not be obsolete by the time they were posted, because the worst had happened.

Cat

Open Thread January 16 2025

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

Jan 162026

Yesterday, the snow in my back yard didn’t all disappear, though it did disappear on the northern half. The southern half showed patches of the growth underneath the snow, but they amounted to less than half of the area, Joyce Vance did a Substack video with Mark Elias, and she highly recommended his Substack “Democracy Docket,” so I’m giving it a try. He is involved in a lot of anti-regime litigation and therefore someone we should know exists, which does not necessarily mean we should read everything he writes. I’ll follow this up. Also, I learned that Malcolm Nance is going to Greenland to work with NATO training exercises with military from NATO countries. And Robert Reich informed me that the Saffron Sauron threatens to invoke the insurrection act in Minneapolis. And the frosting on the cake is that Maria Machado gave her Nobel Prize to the Apricot Antichrist (I assume just the medal, not the money.) And then there’s this. Theater of War productions are known for using well known actors to perform – at least they are well known if you watch cable – which I don’t. But I know these people – who are not professional actors, but are lot more interesting than actors IMO. Take a look. It doesn’t say whether it will be Zoomed or otherwise digitally broadcast. Generally their events are Zoomed live (which would be at 5:00 here, 6:00 Central) and one also needs to register in advance ,with Zoom. I’ll follow up and share what I find, if anything.

I’m not sure I’d call what Common Dreams calls “mockery,” mockery. I’m more inclined to call it pure evil.

The saddest thing about this is that Robert Reich believes (rightly) that there are people who need to be told it because they can’t figure it out themselves. Perhaps our species needs renaming – “sapiens” just doesn’t seem to fit any more (if indeed it ever did). Having checked Google translate, may I suggest “homo stolidus”?

Once again, I am reminded by this article from The Root of Igor Stravinsky in Germany witnessing the brutal beating of a Jew by Gestapo going to a court to report it, only to be told by the Judge “In Germany today, such things happen every minute.”

Granted, I’m late with this video. But at least it’s still January – and we may need reminding now more than we did on the first or second.

Photos from the ICE Out No Kings Protests

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:03 pm Personal, Politics

Jan 152026

These are some of the photos from the protests which took place on January 10 and 11. Robert Hubbell invited his readers to submit photos, and they came in from all over the country. These are only a selection. Some of the senders wanted to stress how many people there were. I selected photos which contained signs (which included T-shirts when applicable.) Not all the signs seen were original, but most of them were made on very short notice. The date was not announced until January 9. My personal favorite is the one which starts “ICE OUT FOR GOOD,” I’m always up for a clever double entendre. Some of the photos are pretty small, but they are clear enough to blow up nicely, or to be reaf with a screen magnifier without blurring. small, but

Open Thread January 15 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:05 am Blog News, Personal, Religion

Jan 152026

Yesterday, the remaining snow got down to under an inch where it remained, but my back yard still looked blanketed. Today is supposed to be the warmest day of the week and sunny, and I really wasn’t expecting it to be gone before today anyway. I can’t keep my fingers crossed because it’s too hard to type that way, but I’m hoping. Also, I apologize to Dr. Keith Knight for including only the last third of his cartoon. But I do feel it stands alone just fine. Finally, I have managed to find a poem by Renee Nicole Good which won a prize. Here’s the link.

The Root newsletter was really hot yesterday. I bumped one until tomorrow. This one is most remarkable for the amount of truth revealed to Pastor Callaghan (who has the kind of courage every decent person should have.) This is far more revealing than their constant, and utterly transparent, lies. It probably won’t get the attention it deserves because no blood was spilled – but everyone in the US should know it.

Robert Reich is not in Minneapolis, but he quotes in full a letter from a former student who is. Don’t write Minneapolis off. There are too many people there who have “miles and miles and miles of heart” (quote from the musical Damn Yankees.)

I might refer to adding insult to injury – but this – from The New Republic – is bigger than that. It’s more like “We might not be able to take your life, but we can definitely ruin it.”

Granted that this is 17 minutes long. But it should be seen by every American over the age of 18 – and maybe younger (And there are more where this came from.)

Open Thread January 14 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 1:56 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 142026

Yesterday, Adam Klasfeld along with Vicki Ward did a live broadcast and saved it as a video which can be seen here. I’m not telling you to watch it, because it’s a full hour, and I know not everyone can. But it covers everything. They start with the Mangione cases (did you know there were two, a federal one and a state one in Pennsylvania? I didn’t), and also discuss the Maduro case and the murder in Minnesota, and Lindsey Halligan (whose deadline to explain to the judge is today) and Jerome Powell, and Judge Hellerstein, and I’m probably leaving something out. That is a lot to cover in an hour. (P.S. Here‘s the follow-up on Halligan)

Archived from the Washington Post, referred by Talking points Memo, here is an overview of all the ways the Saffron Sauron is looking to ratfuck the midterms. I have no idea how this got past Bezos, but apparently, it did. And I’m citing it – all of it (and it has chapters, sort of.) Perhaps every state (and territory, if applicable) should assign their own National Guard right now to monitor elections in November. I would suggest calling in UN observers, but ICE would probably deport them.

Mary Trump discusses how to navigate the floods of discouraging and increasing overreach from the Executive Branch and how to avoid giving them what they want

Matt Kerbel (who, along with Chris Bowers, comprises Bowers News Network) discusses “Consent of the Governed.” and why, despite havin won the election (by a sliver) this “President” doesn’t have it.

Dogs

Open Thread January 13 2025

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

Jan 132026

Yesterday, after putting everything together, I thought I’d better designate the day as “Outrage Tuesday.” I’ll try to lighten up a little tomorrow, but in the present state of the union, I can’t promise that. Also yesterday, the sun did more work melting snow than it has in days. Not everything is clear and some of the spots on the northern sides of buildings will not likely fully melt until June. But the heaviest parts appear to all be below seven inches now. The warmest day this week is expected to be Thursday, and I’m crossing my fingers we’ll be able to see ground again.

As Virgil’s wife, I get that I need to schedule my visits to him. Even though very few people visit on Sundays (most prefer Friday and Saturday), that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t get overflow on Friday and Saturday (and it’s much kinder to tell people before they get there after what may be a long drive that there’s no room). The visiting room only has 16 visitor tables after all. But I am not there to do oversight. Requiring advance scheduling to do oversight removes all its teeth. Which, of course, is what they want. They have everything to hide. The exception to scheduled oversight taking away the teeth of oversight would be to have a full-time ombudsman – maybe more than one – in every concentration camp. (Colorado does that in its few privately owned prisons, so they have full time on-site oversight.) Maybe we should put that in Yosemite Sam Barbie’s pipe and make her smoke it. Also, there is a lot of information in Adam’s newsletter. He is trusted by the attorneys whom I trust (Glenn Kirschner, Joyce Vance, Harry Litman, and Muchael Popok, to name just four) so I also trust his reporting.

This is from Malcolm Nance, and I’m sorry, I just have no words – not that I need more than he provides. (the included video is very short and no second of it is wasted.)

Steve, like all of us I suppose, is outraged by the the callous disregard for everything good, no matter how big or how small. I can’t argue with that.

Chapter 2 of a series on the Ardennes Counter-Offensive (Chapter 1 was the Battle of the Bulge, shared last week)

Open Thread January 12 2025

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

Jan 122026

Yesterday, I visited with Virgil, and we played cribbage. He fot the hand of the day – two double runs of three (16 points) over cards containing numbers adding to 15 (8 more points.) It was early in the day, but IIRC, it was in the crib, which is miraculous. The drive down wasn’t bad, considering the snow. It wasn’t snowing yesterday, not the day before, but on Friday we got what Weather Underground claimed was 7 inches of it. I would sear the on the front hood of my car alone there was still 12 inches, and I didn’t get it all off – just enough to see. When I came out from seeing Virgil. however, all of it was gone. I can’t prove this – I did park at an ange so the afternoon sun could do as much as possible – but I strongly suspect that one of the staff, going rounds in the parking lot as they do, knocked it all off. The staff there comprises the kind of people who would do that. In any case, the drive home was even easier than the drive down – the only rough part was getting into the driveway, and tha worst of that was walking of the remaining snow, now partly thawed and re-frozen twice, to get to my front door. But (obviously) I made it without injury or even slipping. If anyone was able to participate in a “No Kings” sponsored demonstration either Saturday or yesterday, I hope it went well. I received some photos in emails, but am too tired to work anything up tonight. I’ll get a post up this week.

This and the HCR video are connected. Both are related to the second World War. This is more about what we didn’t do this time but should have. The video is more about something we did right, but boy, was it ever touch and go. )And the video is quite short.)

“JoJo from Jerz” now has a Substack, If you have ever seen any of her memes posted on line, you know the is truthful and witty, and doesn’t mince words. I watched a video of her talking with Andy Kim, who is now one of her Senators – you may remember him as the Congressman (he was in the House then) who stayed behind after the Jan 5 insurrection to work on cleaning the Rotunda. I’m not linking to that video, since it’s longish, but to an essay she published on fascism and Orwell.

Archived from HuffPost. I don’t like it, but it’s factual, and I believe itls better for us all to be aware of the obstacles sooner than later, so we won’t hurt ourselves and ethical prosecutors complaining after the fact that it took too long or it isn’t good enough.

HCR Bulge

Bonus video – in between the political one and the animal one because it’s a political animal. It’s repetitive (after all, feline vocabulary is limited), but it’s also short, do watch it to the end. Oh, and it’s definitely NSFW.

Dog

Open Thread January 11 2025

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

Jan 112026

Yesterday, the radio opera was I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini, AKA “The Swan of Catania” (where he was born.) You might say this opera was his “swan song,” as he died the same year it premiered, at the age of 33. I missed most of the first act – I set my alarm but forgot to activate it – but at least I didn’t miss the big mad scene, and even caught the first use of the melody from it. Elvira is very fragile – but if I were being pushed to marry a MAGA who was stalking me I might go a little crazy myself. Not that the Cavaliers were perfect – the British Civil War was between the Bad Guys and the Not Quite As Bad Guys. At least the Cavaliers were not killjoys. The Puritans, when they won, actually outlawed Christmas. But the I Puritani mad scene is IMO the most beautiful mad scene in all of opera – and there is a lot of competition. also, it was Queen Victoria’s favorite opera – for what that’s worth. On the positive side, at least the blog’s scheduling feature appears to be working again – at least it worked for yesterday. off to see Virgil now. Will check in upon return.

Yes, I’m still a sucker for news about veterans. Especially good news.

And I’m also a sucker for good news about young people shouldering responsibility for community.

This is not new and may not be current. If not – well, it was good while it lasted.

This is a “short”, and I don’t seem to be able to embed it without using the block editor, so you’ll have to use the link” https://youtube.com/shorts/DfwZqx05FaQ

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