History – Politics Plus

Opwn Thread August 31 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:41 am Open Thread, Politics

Aug 312026

Yesterday, Trinette came by solved a bunch of stuff for mw. And Virgil has finally gotten help to find thekind of emails I can send on his tablet. I know that because I got one from him. He phoned, amd I told him how proud of him I amm that he was able to do that. (I realizehe’s going to forget steps from time to time – but now he knows he can do it.

At the time of the history recounted here, the UK had become a constitutional monarchy. Parliament was in the driverb’s seat – and had political will. If we are ever going to summon the political will for thie, Democrats and independents must do it. Republicans have pretty much become puppets. But even among Democrats and independents, there are too many puppets for Congress to do what needs to be done.

Robert Reich makes Dolly Parton an example of the best of us (up to which we have not always lived) and the jerk in the White House of the worst of us (which I probably don’t have to say is in the process of taking over.) The only thing I can come up with to succesfully fight on this level iis to remember, prove, and push the fact that it is virtually alqays lwss expensive to do the right thing. And that is going to be a hard sell – especially to MAGAts, even with mountains of evidence.

Satire! This is SATIRE! “The Duffel Blog” is the US military “The Onion. I stress this because, under the current regime it is believable (and let’s hope no one shows it to him.) So it’s OK to laugh.

Open Thread August 26 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:31 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 262026

Yesterday, Dolly Parton died, aged 80. Many people will mourn her because of her singing, and the songs she wrote. And that is understandable. She was at the top of her genre, and it’s one which tugs at heartstrings. This the New Yorker speaks toall who will miss her. I will grieve because, while she lived, no majority black high school band in Tennessee ever had to fundraise to get band uniforms.
Today I have two medical appointments -one at 9:00 am (with 8:30 checkin) and the secoand the second at 4:30pm (with 4:15 checkin.) I decided my best chance of getting to both on time and awake was to stay up all night Monday, sleep all day Tuesday, and stay up all Tuesday night. We’ll hope it works.

From Talking Points Memo. This is quite an analogy – The Orange Ogre’s drug of choice is not adderall after all, , but his fantasies about reality,which he cannot accept. At this late date, after all these years, I doubt that an intervention is going to change anything.

Archived from the Old Gray Lady because paywall. Referred by Allison Gill. This does appear to be yesterday’s biggest news. This is why so many people are discovering that not all Democrats are alike – and that we don’t want coporate ones (also known as “third way” Democrats.)

I couldn’t agree with Robert Reich more. This should be painfully obvious. (It probably won’t be, given MAGA’s Trump Derangement Syndrome – but it should be.)

Wampanoag

Cat

Open Thread August 22 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:13 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 222026

Yesterday, I got up early for me, which was not all that early, but early enough to call an institution on a 9 to 5 schedule and reach a human being. Turned out not to be necessary. It appears that if Virgil calls and I don’t answer, for whatever reason, the company that provides the phone service thinks I don’t have an account with them, and sends a recorded message to that effect. But the caller ID, instead of showing the phone company, as calls from Virgil do, but instead shows the name of the facility. I jumped to the conclusion that his case manage was trying to reach me for some reason, and that I needed to call it back during working hours. I was pleasantly surprised that that wasn’t the case.

From the Brennan Center, an analysis piece about the effects of AI on elections. There is a smorgasboard of sentence fragments and hypotheticls before you get to the actual article, so don’t give up.

Colorado Public Radio. The “Listen” does duplicate some of the written word, but with different empgasis, and has a little information not in the written part.

This is from Thursday. Malcolm is pissed. I am too. I don’t have a family history like his – although my father was in the Army during WWII as a telegrapher – and his grandfather did fight in the Civil War for the Union – that’s defnitely not unbroken. I didn’t learn about Dory Miller until long after I was out of the service – but it’s a truth I have treasured since I did learn it. Upgrading the decoration to the MOH while renaming the ship is like throwing a piece of candy after killing his or her parent. It’s not proportionate. It’s a little bit of sweet compared to an avalanche of grief. CNN has a recorded livestream here from its Laura Coates Show, in which Malcolm speaks, (about ten minutes total.) The first seven minutes are mostly with Dory’s grand-nephew, and about the last three minutes with Malcolm, who somehow manages to communicate the importance of decisions like these with no expletives – a minor miracle, according to him. I might just add he also exhibits his own dignity and with it the dignity of everyone who has ever served – and Malcolm is not a man who normally stands on dignity. But it was needed here.

Open Thread August 21 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 212026

Yesterday, I overslept, even for me. Well, that happens.

From Colorado Public Radio. Sadly, it makes sense to me. A fast burning fire would probably be at a higher temprature – and accordingly, do more damage in less time. And that’s in addition to burning more area. Knowing this would, it seems to me at first glance, give us the opportunity to do some manual re-seeding to give the area a boost to re-grow, but the article doesn’t mention that, so there may be reasons why this would not work, or worse, would make the area even more vulnerable to climate change. The people working on this are not idiots.

I do realize how next to imposssible it is to get people who live in fantasy worlds to see reality. But we are able to know reality when we see it – and there’s some reality in this letter which we should all be aware of.

This from Drop Site News may well tell you more about what some call the Boatiac Murders than you ever wanted to know. Yes, apparently they are no longer happening around Venezuela, but around Ecuador. But still being done in our name with our money.

Oh, goody. Just what we needed – NOT. Where’s the international association to teach the our people how to spread democracy? Yes, it takes capital to start a news outlet – nut there are some patriotic millionaires – there’s even a group called that.

Cat

Open Thread August 14 2026

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

Aug 142026

Yesterday, the CPR newsletter headline must have been written by Captain Obvious. It read “Drought dries up rivers.” I’m not complaining – I’m well aware how quickly the obvious can get lost, especially when people have strong feelings. As I do about this. A sweet little mountain town whixh leans heavily on tourism is being destroyed. And it doesn’t stop there. The river in question formerly continued on and fed into the Huerfano River, which in turn (I think still, but less) feeds into the Arkansas River, which provides water for the eastern half of the state, where the agriculture is.

From Colorado Public Radio. Weld County is roughly in the northeast corner of Colorado. It is at least ruby red – possibly garnet red. The corporation involved in this venture has no permits – and doesn’t appear to give a f*ck. The parts of Colorado east of I25 don’t get wildfires like the western part, I think mostly because they are low on trees, but they are by no means immune to drought. I think I wrote about the time – which must be more that six years ago, when I had to drive across half the state to see Virgil, I saw a nominal river (more like a creek really) actually burn up before my eyes. Seeing a creek in flames is an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. And as far as I know, the creek died in the fire. I never saw water come back to it.None of Colorado’s rivers is as healthy as it was when I came tp the state in 1976, and I’m pretty sure they were already unhealthy then – because our history reports memorable floods before that year, and I know of none afterwards. The last thing Weld County – or any county in Colorado – needs is a data center.

Referred by VoteVets, specifically General Eaton. He sends a daily “Four Star” which includes 4 links to short summaries of news articles regarding the armed forcea. This one has Kegsbreath’s fingerprints all over it.

All I need to say about this article by Robert Reich is “AMEN!”

The cruelty really is the point.

Open Thread August 12 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:47 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 122026

Yesterday, I signed this. It’s not a petition. It’s a get well (or at least feel better) card. I’m not trying to pressure anyone to sign it – only to make it available in case anyone wants to. And then there was this (archived from WaPo. Someone’s been reading too many Tom Clancy novels. Amd, after that, there was this. Not surprising, I’m sure.

This is what I’ve been thinking – now is not the time.

(From the Atlanta Black Star) I would expect something like this to happen in Louisiana or Mississippi – not in California – nor even in Los Angeles (where I might expect no action ay all.) Ihave no woeds (that are printable.

There’s a lot in and around this Brennan Center newsletterContains several topics. The main one titled “Americans Can Vote Without Fear” I though might be encourahing, being reality based (although that might depend to some degree on who your Xecretary of State is.)

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 8 2026

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

Jul 082026

Yesterday, I heard something very disheartening from Malcolm Nance’s warcast – and all three agreed – that the MSM in Europe is parroting Russian talking points as much as ours are. The latest is that Russia is claiming their current strikes are retaliatory (when they’ve been doing the same thing since 2022 – or maybe even 2014.) What’s going on with global oil prices is also not pretty. It is currently artificially low (so keep your tank filled – maybe even some full containers on hand). But we are closer and closer to a real worldwide shortage, and the pricing won’t matter much when there isn’t any to be had. Oh, and in case you were wondering why the Orange Ogre is whining about Greenland again – it could be because, after he bribed or threatened FIFA into lifting a suspension they had imposed on the biggest bully on our team, Belgium beat us anyway – and Denmark was rooting for Belgium.

This is a Substack video – in which Glenn Kirschner is PISSED to the point of 37 minutes and “legal terms” such as “shitshow,” “assclowns”, “grabass” as well as addressing Todd Blanche as “sport.” I don’t really expect anyone to watch it, but, being Substack, there is a transcipt.

I doubt this will surprise anyone here. And it appears to me that most of this increase is initiated by the Papaya Palatine personally. (My apologize to papayas, which alleviate nausea rather than initiating it.)

To me this undersells the contributions of African Americans to the American Republic. IIRC, the first American killed in the Revolution was Crispus Attucks – a Black man, Many more Black men fought for the Union in the Civil War – and in World Wars I and II – and since. And Black women too – if not allowed to fight with arms, by caring for the wounded, gathering intelligence, dealing with mail, breaking codes, and more than I can think of. But I get it – the authors here are more interested in putting together an effecive playbook for a better future than in remembering the past. And they are right. An effective playbook is needed. And so is the will to use it – in people of all colors.

Just as there are decent and kind people in red states – there are monsters in blue states. Washington may be blue – but it still has monsters like these. I’m inclined to hope they are all in debt for the rest of their sorry lives paying for the $17 million they owe – plus interest. Including the school employees.

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