Intelligence – Politics Plus

Open Thread October 14 2026

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

Oct 142026

On Monday, I was thinking about what would be better if the Orange Julius dropped dead, or if he were impeached, or Article 25ed. Y’all know by now I’m worried about this – fearing we would be jumping out ofthe frying pan into the fire. After listening to Malcolm (and co-hosts) today, I’m thinking we would be better off if Putin were to be taken out – somehow. Andyes, I know he would be replaced. But whoever replaced him would not have a years-long relationship with Donald, or be immediately worshiped by him. Building a harness like that takes at least some time, during which he would be figuratively in free fall, and we might be able to accomplish something. Also on Monday, DHS raided the home of Ilhan Omar. And- besides that, Ukraine has taken out some (I think the number is 2 out of 6 total.) IF and when they finish that job, the direction of news coverage is going to change world wide.
(28 minutes well spent, filled with details the American press won’t tell you.)

I’ll bet y’all will easily guess how this story makes me feel. But I promise not to take it out on any of you. (1500 years older than Stonehenge, and 4,000 years older than the Nazca Lines. Grrrrr.)

I don’t know – I doubt anyone knows, least of all the Apricot Antichrist himself, whether he made this up out of thein air, saw it in a dream (Virgil is 3 years older, and from time to time dreams something and then believes it really happened), or whether it’s a post-hypnotic suggestion from Putin. It’s definitely not fact based. But if Zelenskyy caan get something out of it that’s worth getting, he likely will. On the other hand, hose Russian data centers are the hardware Russia has been using to interfere with elections (not just ours) for years – maybe decades – and I’d love to see them eliminated.

[alternate link] This almost – but not quite – makes up for the bad news. One point which kind of frosts the cake is that Fresno is the partof California which Devin Nunes represented when he was in Congress. Trespassing, at least two counts of assault and one of battery – I’m guessing they can hold him for a while.

2fer

Open Thread December 15 2025

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

Dec 152025

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. There were a couple of double double runs of three (or “two double runs of three” as some call it), and a greater than usual amount of two pairs, where the cards of one pair made 15 with the cards of the second pair, even one “full house (if I may borrow a term from poker) where the cards of the triplet made 15 with the cards of the pair. But also a lot of dud hands. Not that any of that matters – we don’t keep a running score, just count each hand separately. In the afternoon, we discovered that the outer soles of my shoes were coming off. Neither of my feet touched the ground, because the inner sole is strong, and it’s nothing I can’t fix with Shoe Goo, but it was a bit annoying. I got home a little before 4:00 pm, and it took me about 20-25 minutes to get to PP and discover that despite the fact that I had done all the work on the Sunday post, I had failed to schedule it, so I then posted it immediately. If you missed it because I was late, check it out. There’s a new Randy Rainbow.

Yes, I’m a sucker for stories about veterans. Yes, I know many of us are MAGA, Christian Nationalist, or both. But they are not the best of us.

This from Heather Cox Richardson is from last week – Tuesday, to be precise. But it’s not news. It’s more like an investigation, or a research project, and that makes the timing less relevant. What is important about this is what is tells us about cable news outlets.

From Huff Post. Discussion of the Senate filibuster of extending ACA tax subsidies.

Open Thread July 10 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 102025

Yesterday, I had blood drawn again. I get it – my PCP is still trying to strike the right balance between enough thyroid to give me the energy to get up each day (and notice that I don’t say “morning”) and too much for my osteoporosis, while also trying to pamper my kidneys. (I really miss aspirin – acetaminophen is pretty much just a sugar pill for me. The TENS helps but not for the forehead. Fortunately, I still have a nearly empty tin and a new, unopened tin of a “sore muscle rub” containing menthol, which has been discontinued, but of which a little goes a long way, which does work on the forehead. I don’t know how much is the menthol, how much is the massage, and how much is the combination, but it does work. And, as I say, it goes a log way – I don’t expect to outlive the new tin.) Also, the blood draws are fast and painless. This one was so fast and so painless i didn’t have time to think of my favorite vampire joke until I had left. I hope I can remember it for next time. In case you’re wondering:

Three vampires walk into a bar. Bartender says, “What’ll you have?” First vampire says, “I’ll have a glass of blood, please.” Second vampire says, “Same for me, thanks.” Third vampire says, “I think I’ll just have a glass of plasma today.” Bartender says, “Right. Two bloods and a blood lite.”

Having ICE raid MacArthur Park and terrify children was bad enough. Let’s not use it as an excuse to crucify Karen Bass. So says the Editrix of Wonkette, and I heartily agree. I can’t put into words how tired I am of misogyny in general and the singling out of black women in particular.

Damn, this from the Contrarian is scary. And it kind of random that we have access to the information at all. Although had we not allowed the Mango Menace to be elected, we might not have as much need to know it as we now do.

Robert Reich did not email this as a print article from his Substack, but as a video from Move On. It does have CC, so there’s a transcript (which might need some proofreading). But this is so important – and, sadly, so many people (not here, but almost certainly someone you know) are duped into believing regulation is bad.

Open Thread October 15, 2022

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 152022

Yesterday, my BFF had a colonoscopy, which I know because she needed me to give her a ride home, which I gladly did. She had hoped to be able to drive herself home, but anyone who has either had a coloscopy ot sat beside a loved one having one, knows that’s a no-go. Her son will help her get her car back home later. She’ll hear more detailed results Monday and I may be in as much suspense as she is. She mentioned “an endometri-something” and I said,”If you do have an endometriome, wherever it is, don’t wait until it is over 9 pounds like I did.” In other news, I confirmed that the Social Security COLA for 2023 wioll be 8.7%, and the Part B Medicare premiums will go down. Very cool.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

HuffPost – ‘2000 Mules’ Has Radicalized The 2022 Midterm Elections
Quote – By June 2, the right-wing polling outfit Rasmussen said 15% of survey respondents had seen the film. Multiple Republican candidates, including two secretary of state nominees in pivotal swing states, have praised the film publicly, a HuffPost review found. And the movie has inspired groups across the country to hold stakeouts at drop boxes and to mobilize again around Donald Trump’s lie that, as the then-president said in August 2020, “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”
Click through for story. Just what we needed – NOT.

The New Yorker – Has the C.I.A. Done More Harm Than Good?
Quote – It can be hard to sort out which agencies do what; players in the espionage business aren’t always good with boundaries. Both the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. make use of satellite resources, including commercial ones, but there is a separate agency in charge of a spy-satellite fleet, the National Reconnaissance Office—not to be confused with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which deals with both space-based and ground-level imaging, or with Space Delta 18, the nation’s newest intelligence agency, which is attached to the Space Force. Abolishing the C.I.A. might do nothing more than reconfigure the turf wars.
Click through for details. I honestly don’t have a problem with there being 18 agencies, provided they’re not all incompetent i the same ways at the same time (And also provided that whatever part of the Executive Branch they report to both reuires accuracy and also takes the reports seriously when they come in.) Obviously, the Secret Service and the FBI are weak on one or both of those points.

Food For Thought

Video Thread 9/5/22

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:19 pm Open Thread, Politics

Sep 052022

Glenn Kirschner – FBI found 43 EMPTY classified documents folders in Donald Trump’s office at Mar-a-Lago

Meidas Touch – Navy Vet who held Top Secret clearance SICKENED by Trump’s stolen documents

Lincoln Project – Cry More

Robert Reich – The Republican War On Teachers

Turtle Lake Wisconsin Does Something Government Almost Never Does

Beau – Let’s talk about Ted Cruz, education, slackers, and risk….

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.