Cosplay – Politics Plus

Open Thread October 19 2025

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

Oct 192025

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Louise” by by Gustave Charpentier. He didn’t call it an opera, but rather a “musical novel,” the “verismo” school was getting started at that time, and composers and librettists wanted to flag their work as different. I had heard of it for many years, but never actually heard it before. Placido Domingo recorded it in 1976 and Beverly Sills in 1977 and I missed both. Not a lot actually happens in it – just parents who want to prevent their daughter marrying the man who loves her (and she him) so they can keep her at home. But the music is pretty. Off to see Virgil now and will check in when I get home.

I’m always particularly happy to see a good news story which involves a veteran – there are so many of us who are living through various kinds of bad news. This guy is even a Texan.

This is sweet – such a small thing – wearing costumes to work – can provide so much joy to so many children. (This was actually a week ago Thursday.)

Matthew was in very critical condition and was not 100% expected to get out of the hospital alive – let alone this fast.

Call me sentimental. I’m guilty as charged.

Open Thread December 13 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 132024

Yesterday, I got the few Christmas cards I still mail ready to go, and am mailing them today. Also, I learned Larry Krasner is running for reelection for DA in Philadelphia, and is requesting contribution. Larry was the first and is still the most prominent progressive DA in the country, which means Democrats everywhere are looking to him, and Republicans everywhere are gunning for him. If there’s any room on your Christmas list, you might want to consider him. And, yes, today is Friday the 13th. Many people say TGIF every Friday, and the number 13 should have only a positive significance for the nation founded by 13 colonies which became 13 states (and to this day we keep 13 stripes in our flag to remember that.)

Dan Froomkin at Press Watch points out the obvious – we are all furious with mainstream media because they don’t do their job – but actually it has become a job whixh is impossible to do. And in the long run, it’s we who need to keep working to change the conditions. (And, yes, it feels impossible.)

I don’t cite Crooks and Liars often any more, because they have becone difficult to read unless you pay them. Bur this article, particularly the Bluesky at the end, is worth it.

Video Thread 8/26/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:48 am Open Thread, Politics

Aug 262022

Glenn Kirschner – Donald Trump’s personal handling of stolen classified documents increases odds he will be prosecuted

Meidas Touch – Former Navy Pilot HUMILIATES Ron DeSantis for Cringey ‘Top Gun’ Ad

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party, August 23, 2022

MSNBC – Lawrence O-Donnell – Trump Love Letters (continues with Uvalde school Board, but mostly about documents)

“Mrs F” – everyone has big feelings sometimes (Nameless – the entire soundtrack is a toddler having a meltdown I’m sure you have heard enough of those to imagine it.)

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump begging McConnell for help….

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.