Abraham Lincoln – Politics Plus

Open Thread July 4 2026

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

Jul 042026

Yesterday, Adam Klasfeld sent a link to his live reading of Justice Brown-Jackson’s concurrence in the birthright citizenship case, which is now scheduled for today at 12:30 pm Eastern. Generally Substack videos are recorded and available after the livestream ends. I certainly hope this one will be, because the opera will be on, and it doesn’t record. Here’s the link:
https://open.substack.com/live-stream/264623

[Update: It did go live but there was no sound. It did record, and still no sound as of 45 minutes after start. It onlt took 4 minutes 20 seconds so if (and I suspect he will) gets the sound fixed I’ll repost]

Update #2: I got several emails, but the last one, which came up at 12:44 my time (2:44 Eastern) and it is a recording. It is longer than the aborted one – it clocks at 33 minutes 21 seconds Link

By all means laugh at the headline – and laugh more at the subhead about how Robert Reich manages to make it valid.

Not trying to make a hero of John Brennan. But it’s pretty obvious he is not the only innocent (at least of what he’s being slammed with) person in the US who will benefit from the precedent this suit if it is victorious, as it certainly ought to be.

The Root here focuses on black communities, which is fine, because it is a black publication. But poor people of any color are affected pretty much equally, and may be even more invisible. This is why our real fight is not so much a political one as an economic one.

I don’t often post Andy Borowitz, because his articles for unpaid subscribers are usually just one-liners. Consider this a bonus post.

Open Thread January 31 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:03 am Blog News, Personal, Religion

Jan 312026

Yesterday, I observed that ICE (and/or CBP) is heading to Ohio (Springfield) on or about February 3. Also, Don Lemon has been arrested – I would assume (unconstitutional) charges have been filed, but who knows`. A number of smart people have been warning us it will get worse before it gets better. And, at least some businesses and schools in Denver (though probably not here) closed for the General Strike today. And, The Nation has nominated the City of Minneapolis for a Nobel Peace Prize, whilw Senate Democrats succeeded in splitting off DHS funding from other funding, thus avoiding a shutdown of the rest of the regime.

We have heard this from The Conversation before, and don’t think it would be out of line to say that we know it, and are aware of it – we who come here. But there are still lots of people out there who don’t. So please feel free to share.

Harry Litman takes a break from the law to address history and music, specifically Philip Glass’s Symphony #15, “Lincoln.” He quotes several points from Lincoln’s “Lyceum” speech, which is featured in the symphony, and is eerily prophetic. I’ll say up front that Glass is a personal friend of Harry’s, since he doesn’t reveal that until close to the end, and I think it colors his understanding.

I have another extended quote from an email to share today – no link, it only exists in the email. It’s from retired Major General Paul Eaton, who is kind of the voice of VoteVets.

After months of unjustified and outrageous escalations from Trump’s paramilitary forces, I’ve got a story for you.
It’s a small town outside of Fallujah, at the height of the Iraq War. A rifle battalion commander and his men are outfitted in battle dress. A crowd of Iraqis approaches these men, very upset, with a whole lot of riot potential. An exceptionally dangerous situation.
That battalion commander did not square up for a fight. He directed his men to take a knee, put the barrels of their rifles in the dirt, and smile. His men thought he was crazy, but they followed orders. And in one fell swoop, everything de-escalated. The Iraqis didn’t riot, no one was shot, and everybody went home.
A rifle battalion commander, surrounded by young men, in a combat zone, acted with restraint. What we’ve seen these last several weeks on American streets has been anything but restrained.
I don’t tell you this to advocate pitting American Troops against American citizens, but to further illustrate the vast divide between our Military and the ICE and CBP agents deployed by Trump to stir up trouble.
They’re out looking for a fight, and it’s important to understand why. He had Pam Bondi demand access to the Minnesota voter rolls in exchange for a drawdown. The FBI just raided an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.
Trump knows the country hates what he’s doing. He knows he’s going to get taken to the woodshed this November. And he’s trying to figure out any way he can to hold on to power — even if he loses. We’ve already seen it on January 6th, 2021. We see it every day in the lies, provocations, and threats Trump makes. This is an incredibly serious situation, and we can’t wait to act against it.

PHP is a programming language used to build websites. We have it at all through our hosting partner, BlueHost. In order to update it, we have to go through Bluehost. During his life, TomCat was the only one who had access to our account there. I (JD) am now the only one. I have been to BlueHost and investigated updating our PHP to 8.3 or even to 8.1. I found instructions to do so - in fact, I found two conflicting sets of instructions. I went through one set of the steps and got the message that Our site could not handle 8.3, but that it had successfully updated to 8.1. I then went back here to see what it looked like. But I couldn't get in - either as an administrator or as a reader. It was just gone. I had to reach BlueHost by phone. It was determined that Politics Plus is in fact not compatible with any version of PHP newer than the one we have. BlueHost therefore uninstalled it for me, and the site came back to normal. Of course, like everyone else, I care about security. But I also am aware that TomCat elected to use different providers for several of the services that BlueHost provides, for instance backups. We are backed up daily - but not by BlueHost. However, out PHP is through Bluehost. I feel that if they are not worried about the older version, I am not going to worry about it. I believe that our security here is all or mostly through WordFence, whom I trust.