Accountability – Politics Plus

Open Thread January 29 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 292026

Yesterday, the FBI raided the Fulton County, GA election office and warehouse looking for election materials from 2020. Before the story came up in my news feed (if I can call it that – the collection of email newsletters which contain just news) I received an email from DASS (the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State – although the medical acronym probabky descibes ppretty well how they are feeling right now.) It does occur to me that, if he could raid enough states to “legitimize” his claim that he won that one, he would at the same time delegitimize his current term since the two terms that a President may serve would be over. Not that I know how that could be enforced, but it’s a thought. I also learned that the next No Kings day has been announced for March 28. That is 8 days before Easter and one day before Palm Sunday. For Eastern Orthodox, it is 15 days before Easter. It is also 4 days before the beginning of Passover, and Ramadan will have been over for 8 days. The closest Buddhist festival will have been over for 17 days, and the closest Sikh festival will be 17 days afterwards. March 28 falls comfortably between Wiccan festivals on March 20 and April 2. If I have left anyone out, I apologize – but it looks to me like the planners did a difficult job very well in picking a date at a crowded time of the year.

Well, we now have solid evidence that the Apricot Antichrist staged the assassination attempts on him. You may have read elsewhere about the incident in which Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified (it turns out to have been apple cider vinegar) yellow substance. Here’s what he said when ABC News asked for a reaction from him: “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud.” Trump continued accusing Omar of staging the whole thing. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Every accusation a confession.

Harry Litman thinks that Minnesota is in for one hell of a fight over the Murder of Alex Pretti – but he also thinks they are up to the task and that they have a – pardon me – fighting chance. He wrote a similar article about Renee Good, which I must have seen but failed to read, and the principles are pretty much the same. He also points out that absolute immunity – there’s no such thing. Harry also has a video up with Steve Vladeck specifically on federal supremacy immunity. The part which can be seen by a non-paid subscriber or a non-subscriber is 15 minutes, and there’s no resolution by then, but the criteria that should be used become quite clear.

Joyce Vance addresses the lack of professionalism (to throw some roses at it) displayed by ICE and CBP, the demotion of Bovino the cosplaying Nazi, the vulnerability of Krieti Noem, and related issues, including the ICE mooner.

Open Thread September 11 2025

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

Sep 112025

Yesterday, I learned that the (Democratic) Governor of Kentucky was on Seth Meyers the night before. I don’t hav time to watch Seth much, and when I do, it’s usually just “A Closer Look. But I looked up this segment. It’s just under 11 minutes. If the Mango Monster gets wind of it, he’ll be calling for Seth Meyers to be fired along with Colbert and Kimmel.

Well, this is discouraging. I have not yet felt the consequences of DOGE in my Social Security checks – probably no one who has been receiving it electronically for over a decade and has no changes recently or in the near future has felt it, since the cuts so far have been personnel cuts which affect people dealing with new claims or claim changes. Or people receiving paper checks might be affected. Someone in the organization with more brains than God gave lettuce has set SSA’s computer to sent electronic checks early but make them “pending” until the day they are due – mine is due the second Wednesday of each month – but I could see it Monday and Tuesday as a “pending” transaction. There are cuts in the “Big Brutal Bill” but those have been set not to take effect at least until 2026 – possibly even after the midterms – Republicans know perfectly well how unpopular cuts to vital programs, not just SS, are and don’t want to lose their majority. Think that one through. They know they are not electorially safe in 2026 but think they will be in 2028.

There’s a good point being made here. And I’m sure everyone can think of multiple historical examples. If we do not have a way to hold someone accountable for a particular action, we are saying “Go ahead and do it” even if that is the last thing we intended. And it’s not as if we didn’t realize this could happen. My Lai was 57 years ago. We have had plenty of time to figure out how to deal with this. And we didn’t even try.

There’s really no need for me to comment on this article from The Root. It says it all. (Daily Kos covered it also, but it shouldn’t be missed.)

A guest video today – Heather Cox Richardson Longer than usual, but under ten minutes

Open Thread July 13 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Politics

Jul 132025

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Manon Lescaut” by Daniel Auber – something which I did not even know existed. I knew about “Manon” by Jules Massenet, and “Manon Lescaut” by Giacomo Puccini – which are going to be the next two operas in the radio series. All are from the same opera house in Turin, Italy, which decided to present all three in one season for comparison. You may remember I said about “The Queen of Spades” that the opera, the operetta, and the te original novella are three very different stories. Well, that’s pretty much true of Manon as well, except it’s four different stories, all three operas being adapted from the same novel. The one plot point they all have in common is that they all end with Manon being deported to Louisiana and dying there from poverty. If this strikes you as somewhat too politically appropriate, the WFMY group may have had that in mind, but the Teatre Regio probably didnt, and all three operas were recorded last October – and therefore likely scheduled some time in 2022, or even earlier. The Auber version, with a libretto by Eugene Scribe cleaned up the heroine’s morals somewhat. The other two didn’t but differ in other ways. (If you have any energy to spare, you might want to look up Eugene Scribe some time. The list of playwrights he influenced all over the western world is striking. You may never have heard of him, but you have seen plays or movies by writers he influenced.) Daniel Auber’s father and grandfather both had royal appointments, but when he was about 10, the French Revolution started and he had to find something else to make a living. What had been his hobby became his profession. So, there’s politics all over this opera. It does have spoken dialogue – the plot was not lofty enough for the Paris Opera, so it premiered at the Opera Comique, and was the first opera there with a tragic ending, preceding Bizet’s “Carmen” and probably paving the way for it – although Bizet’s librettist did not clean up the heroine’s morals, so it was still a scandal when it came along. Anyway, next week Massenet, and the following week Puccini, same story only different. The one by Auber for this week has delightful music including “bel canto.” The other two are newer, but both are also very listenable (neither of them cleaned up Manon’s morals, because by that time, Carmen had come along.) Off to see Virgil now – will check in upon return as always.

I know everyone is going to love this story, because if there’s anything we have in common besides being passionate about democracy, is being passionate about animal welfare. And I think I’m being pretty good at sticking to good news and apolitical humor for Sundays to give us a break. But if you can use more of a break, consider getting “The Smile” newsletter daily. The subscribe button is on this page.

Also referred by The Smile but either paywalled or ad-blocker-walled. From archive it’s all there.

Rocky Mountain Mike is back for a short one

Open Thread April 25 2025

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

Apr 252025

Yesterday, Andy Borowitz was “reporting straight news” again. I won’t say it made me smile, because it didn’t, but maybe it will someone. (And I can’t respond to his question. Free subscribers cannot comment at Substack unless the owner opens the comments to us, and the only one I’ve found so far that foes consistently is Wonkette. But, if I could answer, I’d say Kash Patel. Those eyes – he really looks the part.) Also yesterday, apparently DHS has posted Kilmar Abrego Garcia‘s home address in Maryland, forcing his wife and kids to go into hiding.

It took me a couple of days to get this posted. If anyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone else who is an illegally fired Federal Civil Servant, There is a nonprofit called “Work For America” which has set up a program to help them find new jobs. Since this program is new, it’s difficult to check its bona fides. I would start by checking out the list of partners on their home page, none of which I recognize – but then I haven’t been looking for work since I retired either. I grant it sounds too good to be real, and I certainly wouldn’t send them any money without knowing more, but if it is legit it could be a needed lifeline for some very deserving people.

https://19thnews.org/2025/04/supreme-court-children-books-lgbtq-censorship/
This article from the 19th is a few days old – but the issue is not going away any time soon.0

This article at Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse contains a video which was originally on the other guy’s site – which is why it sounds like Joyce is the guest – because she is. It’s not quite 40 minutes. I found it very listenable. There is stuff in it about their respective religious traditions, and it occurred to me I don’t think I have done this rant here before because I never thought it was needed, and it may not be needed here. So I’ll make it as brief as I can. At many liberal sites, especially those which encourage commenting, I see people all the time pontificating that “religion is the problem.” But, just as alcohol is not the problem in alcoholism, it is not religion which is the problem. It is the abuse and/or misuse of religion which is the problem. (For some specialists in allergy and intolerance, alcoholism has been described as an “addictive allergy,” but I won’t push that metaphor now.) If you can tolerate them discussing what is good in their respective religious traditions, there’s a lot of good advice in the discussion. If not, there’s a short article to read.

And this, also from Joyce Vance, is bad news which we cannot afford to ignore. I’m not saying thet the Civil Rights Division eliminated the stacking of the deck against the most vulnerable, because that would have been impossible. But over the years it has done a great deal to alleviate that deck-stacking, and without it we will be in big trouble.

Open Thread October 14, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 142023

Yesterday, I got to thinking that a House of Representatives with no Speaker, at a time when we have no budget, and have our foreign policy focused on the Middle East shooting war, is pretty damned convenient for Russia. Ukraine is holding strong so far, but there’s going to come a point when it will need resources badly. Is anyone investigating, or contemplating investigating, Matt Gaetz for being a Russian agent? Yes, I know he’s a pedophile and is himself intellectually and emotionally an adolescent (and will probably never grow up.) But that doesn’t mean he can’t be useful to Russia. Au contraire. See the Food for Thought below.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Root – What In The Actual Hell: CVS Abortion Med Mixup Led To Black Woman’s IVF Termination
Quote – [Timika] Thomas and her husband had trouble getting pregnant and after two ectopic pregnancies, Thomas had to have her fallopian tubes removed. Even though their insurance didn’t cover IVF, they decided to do it and pay out of pocket anyway. Thomas’ doctor prescribed a vaginal suppository to replace the injections required to jumpstart her hormones. After taking two of her required doses, she immediately knew something was wrong…. “They just killed my baby. Both my babies, because I transferred two embryos,” [Thomas said.]
Click through for story. This would be unacceptable, no matter how the pregnancy occurred, but for an IVF pregnancy it’s exponentially worse. IVF is expensive, so expensive that it’s a last resort among fertility treatmernts. It often doesn’t “take” for multiple attempts. The best analogy I can come up with is – one is like you studued and worked hard, took the SAT or whateve they are using, sweat blood over your essay, and got turned down. the other is like you decided when you were five you wanted to go to a particular college and started saving monet from your allowance and odd jobs. You applied in your seniot year of high school and wewre turned down. You alloied in the first year after graduation and were turned down again. the second and third year after graduation you applied again and were turned down both times. Finally, in the fourth year after graduation, you applied and were accepted. Two days before freshman orientation the college burned down.

PolitiZoom – Anti-WOKE: Even Your Name Can Get Book Banned
Quote – Imagine if you will having had a successful career as a children’s book author. Your work has been widely acclaimed, published in a dozen languages and you’ve won lots of awards. Your work includes several series including a pair of them about siblings – one from the perspective of a little girl named Stella and the other from her little brother named Sam. The Stella series which ran from 1999 to the last book about Stella and Sam building a doghouse was published in 2013. including one about the adventures of a little girl named Stella and her brother…. Does the book delve into topics that might, only might mind you raise “content” questions about whether topics like human sexuality or race relations or religion are “age appropriate?” Nope, as I’ve stated it’s about a pair of siblings building a dog house. So by now you’re wondering why the hell this book wound up on a “we’ve got to BAN these books from the library” list in the first place. The author’s name is Mary-Louise GAY.
Click through for article. Yes, compared to the first short take, this is small potatoes indeed. But it still hurts people. And the people most harmed are among the most vulnerable.

Food For Thought

Open Thread October 18, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:13 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 182022

Yesterday, I got the email that my ballot is in the mail to me. So I dropped what I was doing and reviewed the last three (out of 11) measures I hadn’t already revieed, and marked my cheat sheet Then I started on the county and local measures, and discovered part of the flyer was missing (it hadn’t been stapled.) I don’t live inside any city limits, but I do live in a school district (obviously) and two special districts – water/sewer and fire. I think the rest of the flyer may be in the car, and I will check when I get a chance, but in the meantime I was able to find a sample ballot on the web for my county, and none of those districts have any measures on the ballot. So I think I’m ready.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Bulwark – The Munich Model for Trump’s National Security Extortion
Quote – And even if these documents fail to work as a get out of jail free card, Trump has another card to play. He could call on his waiting army of supporters to threaten more violence on the public order. He has done this—and carried out such a threat—before. And he has already said, plainly, that he might do so again. Those in charge of prosecuting the former president should keep in mind history’s clearest example of everything wrong with appeasing a narcissist: the calamity of Munich.
Click through for full op-ed. I am beginning to think that, or at least to wonder whether, the delay in indicting is due in whole or part to exactly this – and wanting to gat defense mechanisms in place in advance to miniize the destruction. And that the presebce of MAGAts in police forces, national guards and other agencies complicates the effort, in part by making secrecy dauntingly difficult. It’s not as if we have’t see agencie formed for our protection include individuals bent on destruction.

Letters fron an American – October 15, 2022
Quote – Kinzinger’s point was that Trump clearly knew he was leaving office because he was deliberately trying to create chaos for his successor. When he abruptly pulled the U.S. out of northern Syria in October 2019, he abandoned our Kurdish allies, forcing more than 160,000 Syrians from their homes and making them victims of extraordinary violence. The Pentagon considered Trump’s November 11 instructions “a rogue order,” since they had not gone through any of the appropriate channels, and disregarded them.
Click through for full letter. There is a great deal more analysis. I picked this quote to demonstrate that complete and total obedience in the military is neither desirable nor expected. This example demonstrates how not obeying an order which is not lawful is supposed to work – and does work more often than you might think.

Food For Thought

Open Thread October 17, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:17 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 172022

Yesterday, I managed to get in a grocery order. It came within the first ten minutes of the two-hour window, and I had it all put away before that window was half over. No substitutions, and only two things missing – one I had ordered as an afterthought just because the website had it (they so often don’t), and the other was one flavor of something I had ordered nine flavors of. Eight out of nine is even better than two out of three. So that’s all good. I think I’ll throw in Robert Reich’s latest caption contest above the TC cartoon, because the winner, Harry Sanderford, must have worked so hard to get it just right.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – Donald Trump, January 6th, and the Elusive Search for Accountability
Quote – So did any of the committee’s work matter? When the January 6th hearings began, on June 9th, Trump’s average approval rating in the polls was 41.9 per cent, and his average disapproval rating was 53.5 per cent, according to FiveThirtyEight. As the hearings ended, Trump’s average approval rating stood at 40.4 per cent. All that damning evidence, and the polls were basically unchanged. The straight line in the former President’s approval rating is the literal representation of the crisis in American democracy. There is an essentially immovable forty per cent of the country whose loyalty to Donald Trump cannot be shaken by anything.
Click through for article. Not for the Committee, but for our Deomcratic Republic – vote like your life depends on it.

ProPublica – A User’s Guide to Democracy
Quote – Sign up for a series of personalized emails in which our journalists will help you answer questions like:
What are my current representatives doing about the issues I care about?
Who’s running for office in my district?
How can I hold my representatives accountable?
How does Congress even work, exactly?
How can I safely vote during this pandemic?
Click through for details. This is less an article than a signup for a newsletter. And you likely do not need it. But you may know someone who does. I was unable to put in my address (I tried two browsers), but of course, I know my district.

Food For Thought