Jimmy Kimmel – Politics Plus

Open Thread September 27 2025

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

Sep 272025

Yesterday, with the announcement of, among other things, a 100% tariff on pharmaceuticals, I think it’s time for me to share this article and the website it cites. I don’t use it myself because I don’t need to, on account of my HRA, which is tied to my keeping a Part D with a specific carrier, and which pays the premiums for it. An HRA is essentially free money, so I can’t really complain if they claw a little back – I still have a bundle left to use. But I’m sure most people don’t have HRAs. But I digress. I don’t use this but besides the original post (and I don’t think Mark Cuban is an idiot or a grifter), there are plenty of comments from people who do, and since I belong to DU and know how it works, I know these are all real people, real Democrats, just sharing what they know with like-minded people. Also, Tim Walz emailed that Mike Lindell (the pillow guy) is “taking steps” to run for governor of Minnesota. And Sinclair will be broadcasting Jimmy Kimmel again starting Friday.

I think I would have said “mobsters” before Gestapo myself. But really, is there even an English word for this level of evil?

I don’t really know what to say about this from Robert Reich. Except maybe, he’s right, you know. I’m actually less worried for myself than for those who go to and from work, shopping, or whatever. The danger appear to me mostly of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Much of the killing appears to be based on whims of the moment.

Heather Cox Richardson kind of sums up the week. If you get too depressed reading it, don’t stop, but do skip to the last couple of paragraphs. Hopefully, that should help.

Open Thread September 24 2025

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

Sep 242025

Yesterday, another quiet day – which is wonderful, Heck, any one day under the current regime is more excitement than I need for the rest of my life.

Apparently Jimmy Kimmel was back on TV last night (as Wonkette and others expected). But that doesn’t matter in connection with what Robert Reich has to say about the whole kerfuffle, both here and in his video for Inequality Media (below).

Dan Froomkin from Press Watch thinks the Old Gray Lady may be reverting to actual journalism. I think the key words are “may be,” but he does have some examples to share. I note that this does NOT apply to the Washington Post.

This from the Talking Feds Substack is, of course, an opinion, but I have seen a fair amount about this, and thought about it. I would never support shutting down a government which is working well. But this one isn’t. It is in fact actively harmful. And I think Talking Feds is on to something. To shut down the Government and make it count, we need to make it about fascism. I think we can, and I think we should.

A guest video today from Robert Reich – not just OK but encouraged to share.

Open Thread September 22 2025

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

Sep 222025

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and as usual we played cribbage. I may have said before that we count each hand, but we don’t keep a running total. We did when he was at other facilities, and i was careful to make sure he won at least half of the games we played. This can be done with making less-than-ideal discards to the crib. And anyone’s who’s ever played knows that near the end of the game, who wins it can depend simply on who counts first. The way we do it now is a bit easier since I don’t have to constantly watch the board (or the notepad – it can be done on a notepad if one tallies in groups of 5 and is consistent how many groups fit in a row, one can see at a glance who’s ahead). But as I say, just counting each hand without keeping a total, that’s not an issue. Also, if my “tags” look really gossipy today, yes, I took a break from thinking up impersonal issues to call them.

As with Lisa Cook, so with Tish James. Neither attempted t claim that two homes were both primary residences, and both have the receipts. Will that stop MAGA Ed Martin? Of course not.

I didn’t squeeze this into Sunday because it was already full, and also because, though this is a lovely gesture, the circumstances inspiring it are so grim.

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.