Open Thread August 7 2026

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

Aug 072026

Yesterday, I found a taxi service that would and could get me to the clinic and home. To the clinic went great. From was a bit tougher – I didn’t get home until five – but I did get home safe and sound. It’s called “Go Go Grandparent” and it requirea minimum technology – no apps. And it costs very litle more than the last taxi I used before there was Uber. (In fact, if I remembered what year it was I last used a taxi and adjusted that cost for inflation, GGG might turn out to be less.

This from All Rise News is interesting – not least because of the reason the Apricot Antichrist wanted Hearn’s charges to be dismissed without prejudice. I’m not inside his head – but I think it’s because he needs enemies (or believes he does) to get what’s left of his base fired up and voting.
– all three topics. There’s a photo from above of the Zorro Ranch (and you thought Trump** had bad taste!)

I don’t really need to comment on this Morning Memo story from TPM. The title alone pretty much says it all. And, as always, it’s not the only story.)

Even in fraud, Democrats are morally superior to Republicans. We used the carrot, they used the stick. (JK.) As long as I have been working elections, this could not have happened, so at least we as a state did something about it.

2fer

Open Thread July 30 2026

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

Jul 302026

Yesterday, I didn’t do much other than wade through email. Virgil called, which was nice. I did get some knitting done. Today’s pet video is another spliced one – which I will be calling a 2-fer.

From ProPublica. You can talk about unintended consequences – and I am pretty sure this was not intended – but the Mango Moron and the desoicable Russell Voght probably both see it as a feature, not a bug.

From Adam Klasfeld. This pisses me off royally. Yrd, every profession, including medicine, contains people who, though highly educates, are dumber than rocks. (And no amount of intelligence guarantees courage comes with it.) Anthony Fauci is not merely an intelligent MD; he is also a fighter and a hero. And he’s older than I am – and under this stress is beginning to look it. This persecution needs to end – yesterday.

Talking Points Memo: James Comey is far from perfect – but he doesn’t deserve this. The detail that made me curse out loud was that,on a trip with his wife, they made a stop at the grave of their son who dies when still an infant. Thhey were under (illegal) surveillance the entire time. The in-person surveillance lost track of him, but the electronic surveillance picked it up and went there after the Comeys left – and took a photo of the flowers they left at the grave.

Open Thread–3/29/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:38 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 292020

I’m in a hurry, as WWWendy will be here in a few minutes. This is my only article today, and I may have to finish it later. Tomorrow I have my oncologist appointment, so please expect only a short Personal Update. Have a fine Sunday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:04). To do it, click here. Bow did you do?

Cartoon:

Even though he’s a crispy critter, SCROTUS is still as bad or worse.

Trump* Virus Update:

0329TrumpVirus

Cases: 123,828
Deaths: 2,229
Recovered: 3,238

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Dr. Anthony Fauci spent several hours on Saturday gently explaining to Donald J. Trump why it would be “a bad idea” to hold a giant parade to celebrate the great job the President is doing to combat covid-19, Dr. Fauci has confirmed.

Trump first raised the idea of a massive parade early Saturday morning, arguing that it would address the “biggest problem” created by the pandemic thus far: the lack of appreciation for his own efforts regarding it.

“A parade would put Jay Inslee and that woman in Michigan in their place,” Trump bitterly insisted.

As Trump began drawing up plans for a parade, a panicked Dr. Fauci interceded and tried to explain that such a celebration would be “much nicer” if held after the pandemic is over.

“Would I still be able to have tanks?” a crestfallen

Trump asked.

“Yes, you could have tanks,” Fauci replied.

Andy must be on a straight news kick. I’d be amazed, if this did not really happen. RESIST!!

From NY Times: At a White House briefing on the coronavirus on March 20, President Trump called the State Department the “Deep State Department.” Behind him, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, dropped his head and rubbed his forehead.

Some thought Dr. Fauci was slighting the president, leading to a vitriolic online reaction. On Twitter and Facebook, a post that falsely claimed he was part of a secret cabal who opposed Mr. Trump was soon shared thousands of times, reaching roughly 1.5 million people.

A week later, Dr. Fauci — the administration’s most outspoken advocate of emergency measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak — has become the target of an online conspiracy theory that he is mobilizing to undermine the president.

I’m shocked that Fauci has lasted this long. For our sake, I hope he is mobilizing to undermine criminal Fuhrer Trump, the Resident, NOT the President! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): White Bird- It’s A Beautiful Day –1968

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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.