Law Enforcement – Politics Plus

Open Thread September 4 2026

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

Sep 042026

Yesterday – do people still say things come in threes? Last week Dolly and now Gloria. I hope there won’t be a third. I was a charter subscriber to Ms (along with Mother Jones.) I know this seems kind of shallow – but there are many and steep depths behind it – the quote from Gloria I will never forget was on or around her fiftieth birthday, when someone in the press told her she looked younger. She replied, “No. I don’t. This is what fifty looks like. We’ve been lying so long we’ve forgotten.”

Both my Senators lean more corporate than I would wish. But Hickenlooper is not as corporate as Bennet. And he certainly has the right take i this newsletter.

It appears to me that one remedy for this might be for each state’s Attorney General and Sexretary of State to get together and determine exactly where and how the USPS plan violates state election law and regulation – and, if necessary, for the governor to call an emergency session of both state houses to give the regulations the force of law. Then, we would have a situayion for law enforcement to deal with. I would have no issue with seeing local MAGA postmasters behind bars for trying to overturn state law and regulation with an executive order.

I’m becoming inclined to have more confidence in federal district judges than federal appellate judges or Supreme Court Justices – because district court judges are less likely to be compromised. (Of course, if a fistrict judge is compromised, like “Loose” Cannon, they are more lidely to be breathtakingly compromised – but it’s also likely it will be glaringly obvious.) Most judges appear to be holding the line. But I have been thinking about this, and it has occurred to me – when it comes to enforcing the law, as opposed to making it – Congress has a Sergeant atArms and Contempt charges. The Courts have Court Orders and contrmpt charges. The Executive Branch has the FBI, the CIA, the TSI, the ATF, the CBP, ICE – and more (that was just off the top of my head.) Statesandmunicipalities have police forces and patrols. Counties have Sheriffs. Is it time for Congress as an entity, ir each house seperately, to have a police force? Ues, outting a reasonable, honest, and honorable person into the presidency will address our most dangerous problem – for now. But the precedents set by thecurrent regime are not going to just ride off into the sunset.

Narrated by this guy in case you’ve forgotten the story.

Open Thread June 20 2026

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

Jun 202026

Yesterday (technically the night before) Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones. I’m a veteran, but that was long before drones were even a gleam in Mars’s eye, this may be totally inaccurate – some of the drones were, or behaved as, incendiaries, while others were heat-seeking. Anyway, the result was that Moscow was on fire. WRT Iran, one of the points in the MOU was that if Bibi did anything hostile, the MOU would be null and void. Well, it’s null and void, less than 24 hours after the signing. So we are back to NACHO (not a chance Hormuz opens.) One very small point which I think is noteworthy – someone has managed to teach the Apricot Antichrist how to say “eviscerated.” That really surprised me.

OK, this is not an earthshaking story – though it may inspire people who live in areas where law enforcementis problematic. Alamosa and the San Luis Valley in which it is located were my home for 15 years, and I still get that “that’s home!” kneejerk reaction, alyhough everone I knre there is pretty much either gone or dead. And the story is not a downer.

From Press Watch, and right on the nose. There are indepenent journalists who actually do get this right – but traditional news oulets – not so much.

Expecting Bibi or anyone else in Israel to do anything because the Canteloupe Caligula told them to would be laughable if there weren’t human lives affected. And that’s not just Bibi. He has some ministers who are at least as crazy as he is.

Open Thread June 22, 2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 222023

Yesterday, I learned that the SPLC’s latest report on hate groups took the time and space to recognize Faithful America as one of the antidotes to hate. Coming after decades of Christofascists associating the word “Christian” with hatred, this is a refreshing developmen – which would not have been possible without the actions of authentic Chriatians. Thanks, SPLC, andthanks to all who have signed/written/donated to make it kappen.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Washington Post (no paywall) – FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year
Quote – In the two months since the siege, federal agents had conducted 709 searches, charged 278 rioters and identified 885 likely suspects, said Michael R. Sherwin, then-acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, ticking through a slide presentation…. But according to a copy of the briefing document, absent from Sherwin’s 11-page presentation to Garland on March 11, 2021, was any reference to Trump or his advisers — those who did not go to the Capitol riot but orchestrated events that led to it.
Click through for full article. I suppose we could argue forever about whether the “bottom-up” method was the best way to go in this case. It is having results now, but it did take a long time. Too long? Certainly too long for the gut feelings of Democrats and others who value democracy. But we are not out of time yet.

PolitiZoom – Surprise! Judge Cannon Isn’t Running The Trump Documents Trial. Jack Smith Is
Quote – Look, Smith isn’t just running circles around Trump’s defense team, he’s running them around Judge Cannon too. Trump’s defense team wants endless delays and hearings. Smith just deprived them of that oxygen by not giving them any reasons to ask foe hearings on Trump’s bail conditions. And now, Judge Cannon hasn’t even set the preliminary hearing date to open discovery, and Smith is already handing over all of his non classified material for the Trump team to go through. Which makes it harder for the Trump team, 6-8 weeks from now at the preliminary hearing, to ask for 4-6 months for discovery when they’ve already 90% of the stuff for 6-8 weeks.
Click through for article. Murfster does tend to see things others do not, and while no one s perfect, he does have a track record. He sees this trial as a three-way battle of wits in which two of the parties are unarmed. And he does make a case. I hope he’s right -and I think there’s a good chance he is.

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.