India – Politics Plus

Open Thread July 29 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 292026

I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing I can do witr Paint software (and probably any other non-Wordpress or non-Bluehost software) to keep the inages from overflowing, even if I reduced them to 100 pixels (roughly the size of a postage stamp.) Instead, I don’t even know whether I need to make them 800 pixels or smaller,ut I do, then put them into the draft, preview it and watch them spred out beyond reason, then go into our library and scale them there. After which, I need to “refresh” the draft and preview again and see them fill (but not overflow) the space. At least it appears to work. Please, anyone and everyone, let me know it it’s not working for you.

This is Dropsite News from Saturday. It came only to the old email. I didn’t delete it but also didn’t read it then. Monday I read it and decided that in a time when I know there are many in the US feeling like nothing they can do makes a difference, we needed to see it. Though it would not work with every insult, I admired the power of embracing the opponent’s insult.

This is what VoteVets thinks of our “strategy” in the Middle East. Yeah. A second thing the Mango Moron and Kegsbreath have in common (besides both being playground bullies in adult bodies) is thet neither can read the room – or in this case the Theater – with the reuly that they are completely unable to construct – or even imagine – an actual strategy ( or even to recognize one when they see it. And Iran clearly has one. Or more.) Veterans with combat experience, particularly in the Middle East and pretty much regardless of rank, are all saying the same things about this war – just with different framing.

IANAL, but I think I can safely say Jim Jordan is out of his ever-hating mind if he thinks he has a case here. Of course, heANAL either – Harry Litman makes that painfully obvious.

Open Thread for September 26, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 262021

Yesterday, the opera was Pelleas et Melisande by Debussy. The libretto is symbolists, so Debussy was a good choice to complse it. I decided to make one last stab for this year at a cotton knitting project, and started on it. I may end up postponing finishing it until next year, but I hope I can finish the fron panel at least, which is based on the idea of a “Log Cabin” quilt block. The back, collar, cuffs, and hem are plain.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – Executive privilege fight poses hurdles for Trump
Quote – “For example a former president’s privilege claim is deemed much stronger if the current president supports it,” she added. “We’ve never been in a situation where there was a prior claim that was not supported by the incumbent, because presidents, when it comes to their turn to be the former president, they want to be able to do that same thing.”
Click through. To be pellucidly clear, he can claim executive privilege for any douments prio to noon on Jan. 20 But it isn’t a matter of claim and have. Some things are not subject to executive privilege. Like crimes. Someone other than he must look at the documents and determine whether they are subject to executive privilege or not (and most, if not all, won’t be.) And, of course, for anything after noon January 20, executive privilege cannot even be claimed. And President Biden has publicly stated he will not claim or support executive privilege for Trump**. Snicker.

Reuters – Germans vote in close election to decide Merkel successor
Quote – After a domestic-focused election campaign, Berlin’s allies in Europe and beyond may have to wait for months before they can see whether the new German government is ready to engage on foreign issues to the extent they would like. The splintered political landscape means a three-way coalition is likely. Final opinion polls gave the Social Democrats a narrow lead, but the conservatives have reduced the gap in recent days and many voters were still undecided.
Click through for details. We knew she was retiring – and now it’s here. She helped us survive Trump** as much as anyone outside could. I wish her the best in her retirement, as well as a worthy successor.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-india-mumbai-narendra-modi-da976c8f8aa7ca02c2193b56c3408a08
AP News – Mystery solved: Biden gets proof of family ties to India
Quote – “And although we never admitted it … I’ve found out that there was a Capt. George Biden who was a captain in the East India Tea Company in India,” Biden said. He appeared to be referring to the British East India Company, a commercial power for centuries that controlled trade in colonized India and parts of southeast Asia. Biden, who frequently talks of his Irish ancestry, quipped that the British connection was “hard for an Irishman to admit.” Biden, who has told versions of the anecdote to Indian audiences before, said Capt. Biden “apparently stayed and married an Indian woman” but he’d never been able to nail down further details.
Click through for story (though not complete genealogy.) Nikke Haley and Bobby Jindal, eat your hearts out.

Food for Thought –

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.