MAGA – Politics Plus

Open Thread May 29 2025

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

May 292025

Yesterday, Various people were still talking about Scott Pelley’s commencement speech at Wake Forest, mostly in glowing terms (although I’m sure MAGAts had other opinions.) Wonkette linked to a transcript of it, so you can judge for yourself. I think it’s worth the time. Also, the Nature Conservancy shared aome footage on the mating rituals of the greater prairie-chicken, including sound. It’s funny, because it’s kind of a little allegory of males of every species – or so it appeared to me and Trinette. You may not agree.

Yes, this from Joyce Vance is from Tuesday. She is concerned that it isn’t (or wasn’t then) getting much if any coverage, and she may still be correct about that.

John Pavlovitz would be the first to tell you that he struggles with major depression (and, yes he has sought and received treatment for it, with all that implies. If you’re not familiar with the concept of the wounded healer, you can look at him and get an idea.) So the current regime is terribly hard on him – as of course it is on us. But, as he points out, joyis not just feeling good – it is also a weapon- a defensive weapon, but still a weapon.

Not really news from the Brennan Center – at least, not to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. But not being news does not mean it isn’t still a problem, especially since we have a modern Roger Taney SCOTUS.

Open Thread January 29 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:08 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 292025

Yesterday, I watched/listened to most of a Contrarian interview with Sherrilynn Ifill. Being naturally a better reader than listener, while still listening, I scrolled down into the comments. I noticed a bunch of people complaining about no transcript. Odd, I thought, since the button (not exactly presented as a button but as a word which served the function. I finally came to one which was the last in a thread, so probably a lot of people didn’t see it, which pointed out that before you see the transcript “button” you must click on “Watch now” and it will appear. That may only be true on phones and tablets (those who are complaining who mention what hardware they are using look to all be on phones or tablets), but it’s still good to know. As an unpaid subscriber, I can’t comment, but I can recommend comments, and I recommended that one. Also, the Contrarian does pay attention to subscribers, and from now, instead of sending an email for every new post, or even just the major ones, they will send two a day, morning and evening, which will include a list with short descriptions of of the articles (mostly videos) since the previous newsletter. I hadn’t complained, but that will certainly make my life easier. Also yesterday. the stock market tanked – and Robert Reich knows why. Today, Happy Lunar New Year!

From Wonkette. You likely know about it – but no one says it quite the way Wonkette says it. And we also all knew it was coming, I expect.

These two articles from PoGo are a lot to read, I admit. And getting Congress to do what needs to be done looks darned near impossible. Those three special elections are looking more important every day. Not that they will solve everything, by any means. But every little victory helps a little. BTW if it looks like either of the two links is done, keep scrolling anyway. One had, at least for me, a huge plug for the newsletter – but there was much more after it.

Open Thread January 4 2025

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

Jan 042025

Yesterday, while looking at a petition to the Senate to reject Kash Patel as FBI director, I started thinking of why his photos, and particularly his eyes, unnerve me so much. So I looked up the body language of “wide-eyed stare” and discovered it has three possible interpretations – attraction, fascination, and intimidations. I’ll give you three guesses what his is, and the first two don’t count. Also yesterday, Mike Johnson was reelected Speaker. Form the remarks that have been released, I suspect some Republicans had to superglue their noses to vote for him – just holding the nose wasn’t enough. Not that we didn’t all know they were all mouthbreathers anyway (normally I take exception to that word because severe allergic reactions have caused me to temporarily have to breathe through my mouth or suffer possibly fatal anoxia – but for this it seemed to fit.)

Heather Cox Richardson revisits the year 2000 and the “millennium bug” fears. I lived through it and I expect y’all did too, and it’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years. I still have my “Crash: the millennium bug” stuffie which, if you throw it at something hard, like the floor, makes the sound of shattering glass.) But it’s not just nostalgia – there’s, if you will, a moral: “Crises get a lot of attention, but the quiet work of fixing them gets less. And if that work ends the crisis that got all the attention, the success itself makes people think there was never a crisis to begin with.” And also some actual news.

Robert Reich sums up what our final recourses are for just about everything. You may want to bookmark this one.

(possible rerun, but id so, it’s been a minute)

Video Thread 9/14/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:01 pm Open Thread, Politics

Sep 142023

Glenn Kirschner – Trump and his criminal associates are flooding the courts with motions seeking to avoid prosecution

Future Forward USA Action – Trevor

Ring of Fire – Appeals Court Steps In To Save MAGA Congressman From Prosecutors

Brent Terhune – Trump’s Mug Shot

Disabled cat asks for one specific thing every day

Beau – Let’s talk about Biden starting early for 2024….

Video Thread 1/8/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:01 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jan 082023

Glenn Kirschner – Special Counsel Jack Smith puts together aggressive & experienced Trump prosecution team

The Lincoln Project – MAGA vs. MAGA (The Project is rapidly making up for the long holiday break.)

Thom Hartmann – Shocking Reason These Republicans Hate McCarthy

Ring of Fire – Kari Lake Is TERRIFIED About Becoming Irrelevant

Watch This Scruffy Feral Cat Turn Into A Blue-Eyed Beauty

Beau – Let’s talk about what McCarthy knows that you should too….

BIG Mouth Awards

Every 1,000th Comment
20 – Infidel – 7/6/2011
21 – SoINeedAName – 7/25/2011
22 – SoINeedAName – 8/17/2011
23 – Maria – 9/7/2011
24 – Phyllis – 9/29/2011
25 – Tom – 10/22/2011
26 – Lynn Squance – 11/25/2011
27 – Deborah – 12/29/2011
28 – Patty – 1/19/2012
29 – Lynn Squance – 2/8/2012
30 – Jolly Roger – 3/8/2012
31 – Patty – 5/4/2012
32 – Marva Dasef – 6/8/2012
33 – Patty – 7/8//2012
34 – Edith Belcher – 8/12//2012
35 – Patty – 9/17/2012
36 – Tasunka – 10/12/2012
37 – Lynn Squance – 11/6/2012
38 – SoINeedAName – 11/29/2012
39 – Lynn Squance – 1/11/2013
40 – Lynn Squance – 2/17/2013
41 – Patty – 3/23/2013
42 – Edith Belcher – 5/29/2013
43 – Jim Phillips – 6/29/2013
44 – Patty – 7/27/2013
45- Lynn Squance – 8/21/2013
46 – Rixar13 – 9/12/2013
47 – Rixar13 – 10/4/2013
48- Lynn Squance – 10/25/2013
49 – Patty – 11/27/2013
50 – Lynn Squance – 1/13/2014
51 – Patty – 3/7/2014
52 – Yvonne White – 4/16/2014
53 – Edie – 5/20/2014
54 – Jerry Critter – 6/23/2014
55 – Lynn Squance – 7/29/2014
56 – Joanne D – 9/5/2014
57 – Patty – 10/19/2014
58 – Arielle – 11/16/2014
59 – Pat A – 12/26/2014
60 – SoINeedAName – 1/24/2015
61 – Lynn Squance – 2/18/2015
62 – Joanne D – 3/21/2015
63 – Vivian B – 4/23/2015
64 – Joanne D – 5/23/2015
65 – Yvonne White – 6/22/2015
66 – SoINeedAName – 7/16/2015
67 – Lona Goudswaard – 8/6/2015
68 – Mamabear – 8/25/2015
72 – Judi Angell – 11/27/2015
74 – Judi Angell – 1/18/2016
75 – Jerry Critter – 1/2/2016
76 – Lona Goudswaard – 3/11/2016
77 – Lona Goudswaard – 4/4/2016
78 – Pat B – 5/5/2016
79 – Mitch D – 6/5/2016
80 – Joanne D – 7/3/2016
81 – Lona Goudswaard – 7/30/2016
82 – Mitch D – 9/2/2016
83 – Joanne D – 10/6/2016
84 – Pat A – 11/10/2016
85 – Pat B – 12/11/2016
86 – Pat A – 1/14/2017
87 – Lynn Squance – 2/18/2017
88 – Vivian Birdwell – 4/5/2017
89 – Vivian Birdwell – 5/16/2017
90 – Lona Goudswaard – 6/23/2017
91 – SoINeedAName – 7/30/2017
92 – Joanne D – 9/4/2017
93 – Pat B – 10/12/2017
94 – SoINeedAName – 11/20/2017
95 – Jerry Critter – 12/31/2017
96 – Joanne D – 2/12/2018
97 – Pat B – 3/27/2018
98 – Richard A – 5/5/2018
99 – Lynn Squance – 6/12/2018
100 – Mitch D – 7/20/2018
101 – Pat B – 8/30/2018
102 – Pat B – 10/5/2018
103 – Joanne D – 11/9/2018
104 – Animae – 12/18/2018
105 – Animae – 1/25/2019
106 – Colleen – 3/2/2019
107 – Joanne D – 4/11/2019
108 – Animae – 6/1/2019
109 – Pat B – 8/9/2019
110- Angelflowers – 09/20/2019
111 – Colleen – 11/5/2019
112 – Pat B – 12/25/2019
113 – None – My Bad
114 – Pat B – 3/24/2020
115 – Freya – 5/24/2020
116 – JL – 7/4/2020
117 – Colleen – 8/13/2020