Mainstream Media – Politics Plus

Open Thread March 17 2026

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

Mar 172026

Yesterday, I got an email from Johns Hopkins University, which just receives an Oscar for its (Netflix) documentary “All the Emppty Rooms,” which refers to the bedrooms of children who after school shootings did not come home. That documentary will be screened in DC on March 25 at their Bloomberg Theater on W Penn Ave. I sent an email to Indivisib;e Colorado and said that we have nine days to get Coloradans to either sign a petition or send individual emails to our Congressional delegation, and particularly to the Republican House members, to pressure them to go watch it. We’ll see if anything comes of that. I don’t have cable, but I assume if any of my readers is a Netflix subscriber, you can see it that way. Also, Glenn Kirschner did a (40 minute) video with Adam Klasfeld on the Halkbank case. I have mentioned it, but it has been pretty much under the radar – a $20 Billion money laundering case involving a bank in Turkey which is somehow tied to US sanctions on Iran and also to the Apricot Antichrist’s “bromance” with Erdogan. Glenn summed it up by saying, “I keep saying it is inexplicable because i look at it, as I do everything, through my justice glasses. But – if I take them off – of course it is perfectly explicable.” So you all probably don’t need to watch, but I’ll give the link anyway. Also – the Prime Minister of Denmark stated that the US is no longer Denmark’s most important ally. Denmark’s most important allies are the Scandinavian nations, the European Unon, and Canada. (I might add that there is an election in Denmark in a week. And that Denmark has always shown up for us in every conflict since WWII.) I got that last tidbit from Jacob Kaarsbo who works with Malcolm Nance (and who is Danish) on the daily war report. That whole report today made me want to repeatedly beat a wall with my head, so I’m not giving that link, but if you want it, say so in a comment and I will put it in a reply, or in an email if I have yours.

An update from Joyce Vance in the Fulton County election records seizure case. I don’t know about anyone else, but the moment the DOJ put their hands on those records I wrote this off on the basis that those records had already been corrupted and would no longer be valid for any purpose whatsoever. But apparently Fulton County thought it was worth taking to court.

A respected reporter writing about an FCC chair who royally disrespect reporters and the media they rode in on. And a couple more stories. Feel free to keep scrolling.

This from Axios was very brief when I collected it yesterday – but sometimes these alerts get fleshed out over time. It concerns me because – although in this regime there are NO adults in the room, she appears to be the closest thing to one that there is. Think about Miller getting promoted into that position. That truly scares me.

Dog

Did anyone watch the Oscars? I didn’t – I think the last time I did was the year Halle Berry won Best Actress. and thst’s been d minute. But Liza Donnelly (a New Yorker cartoonist who is involved in politics as a citizen) did, and linked to what she says is “the one speech from the Oscars that you actually need to listen to.” And I would bet she is right. Here’s that link.

Open Thread July 11 2025

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

Jul 112025

Yesterday, the ACLU announced in an email that it had quickly refiled to block the executive order against birthright citizenship as a class action, allowing a federal judge to block it nation wide. Also, I got my blood test results and none of my meds is changing this time – a welcome first. Also, the 19th advised me that the first Barbie doll to have Type 1 diabetes is here. This is what she looks like. If it seems weird to you to se something so comparatively “normal” in the news, you are not alone.

This from the F* News is brilliantly framed and might possibly even suck MAGA into reading it, though they might not get the point.

Press Watch with Dan Froomkin – who does know what journalism is, and also what it isn’t. If you claim to be a journalist, and have “a strong belief and passion” in anything other than truth and accuracy – you are nor a journalist. Period. (And the New York Times is just as bad and getting worse by the day.)

It’s hardly news that Republicans lie. Some of us who have been saying they lie like Democrats breath are now starting to re-evaluate that, because they lie so much more than Democrats breathe. It should be no surprise that Heather Cox Richardson has their number.

Open Thread July 8 2025

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

Jul 082025

Yesterday, I got up late, having had a somewhat difficult night, but somehow I got everything done that I needed tp do and a tad extra. Of course I would have liked to do more and have a little cushion, but at least I’m no farther behind than I was.

Wonkette covers most of the reasons why the Times story is BS. Mamdani was a teenager at the time, There was probably no box on the application that fit him, so he checked the closest. Then, to clarify it, he wrote “Ugandan” on the application. Incidentally, he was not accepted, so he gained nothing from anything on that application. Never forget that the New York Times is no longer “The paper of record.” There is no longer an American “paper of record.” The closest think I can think of is The Guardian, and it can only retain accuracy because it is not American.

In “The Week Ahead,” Joyce Vance includes addressing Social Security and the extremely misleading letter sent by the Social Security Administration regarding taxation on Social Security income. It’s all twitter-pated about ending taxation on Social Security income. Let me provide a little insight here from a Social Security recipient. My monthly check is not large, but it’s enough for me to live on if I am careful (and by “live on,” I mean to pay my mortgage and utilities, including trash and recycling pickup, electricity and gas, water and sewer, landline phone and internet.) For the last ten years or more I have been using a company in the IRS’s FreeFile program (not the same as direct file, which appears to be going away before it even gets started, but similar – Federal is free, but they can charge to file in your state.)I receive the data on my Social Security earnings on a 1098 form, and I put it in, and the program puts it on my return but does not count it as taxable income. I have never paid a penny in taxes on Social Security. I grant that I might not be able to live on it if I didn’t have an HRA – but I do. Still, anyone getting federal tax relief on Social Security from this bill must be getting payments in between what I get and what billionaires get.

After several years of not getting newsletters from Daily Kos, despite regularly checking that I have been signed up for them, I am now receiving them again, and this one included a story on something which has been bothering me – Abrego Garcia, his wife, and their legal issues have been getting substantial coverage – and they should be – but what about all the other innocent people?

Open Thread May 23 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 232025

Yesterday, I got an email from Faithful America that SCOTUS deadlocked on the OK charter school case so the lower court ruling that giving the charter school government dollars in unconstitutional will stand. For now. (I’m not sure whether this is the same case where there were four recusals so they didn’t have a quorum, or whether that was a different case. Sorry, I’m finding it difficult to keep track.)

Jen Rubin of The Contrarian has been travelling in Europe, and is sharing some historical insight from there, specifically from Spain.

This from Wonkette may be relatively minor, compared to, say, the deaths that will result from gutting Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP. However it pisses me off (all racism does), and goes along with the next post.

Press Watch has what might be good news if it only went far enough. I suppose it’s a start.

Open Thread May 21 2025

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

May 212025

Yesterday, As I was going through my emails looking for news, my radio station began to play Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony. And it put into my mind another comparison between Jesus and the Mango Monarch. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection.” Trump**(*) said, “I am your retribution.” It might make a decent meme, but I don’t think I could stand the process of looking for the right pictures – of either of them actually – Christian art can be (not always , but you’re bound to trip over it) so saccharine I’d worry about getting diabetes.

This by Dan Froomkin is also from last week. It’s from Substack, but if you look at the URL, you will see it’s a bit different from the usual Substack URL. I don’t know whether Froomkin or Substack made that decision, but I concur with it.

Also from last week, this one from the F* News. You may know about the MRFF (Military Religious Freedom Foundation) – I did – or not, but you may not know about The Orders Project – I did not – and both are doing excellent and important work. Also, there were very few comments when I read it, but 50% of them expressed relief to learn they exist – and we all need some relief – not complacency, I don’t mean that, but we don’t need to feel like everything depends on us alone either, when in fact there are other people doing work, and in many cases work which is critical but for which we may not be suited.

Open Thread January 10 2025

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

Jan 102025

Yesterday, I learned Ben Meiselas (and of course his family) had to be evacuated from Los Angeles. He posted a roughly 16 minute rant about how right wing lies interfere with the capability of first responders to respond – in addition to all the other results of lies, none of which are good. Barbara Lee sent an email that she is opofficially running to be mayor of Oakland, CA. Robyn Pennachia at Wonkette ranted about a white man who claimed that on 1983 he could not get a job as a firefighter because he was white. She debunks that, but doesn’t address the fact that when he graduated at 19 his GPS was 1.7. Even on a 4-iscale, that is underwater (below “C” level.) But also, when I graduated from high school at 16 California high schools were using a 5 point scale, on which a 1.7 would be under a D average. I wouldn’t have hired him for anything, ever. Also, it was cold in my house. Overnight, high winds managed to blow open my back door. Even without wind I have to stuff something between the door and the jamb to keep it shut, and the wind had blown away the felt I had in there. I had to use some cardboard instead, and it’s thick enough to leave a crack between the door and the jamb, but it has warmed up some anyway.

Also yesterday, the Supreme Court denied Trump** a stay of his sentencing. As you read this, he will likely have been sentenced already.

The F* News complains (with reason) that the MSM is not giving us the background information and implications of Trump**’s greed to annex other nations (allied nations). So this article goes deeper into what his ideas could result in. Y’all are intelligent and could probably work it out, but this may at least save some time. And there are a few additional topics as well.

I’m reusing an older cartoon because it just fits with this Wonkette story. I have no Constitutional problem with people wanting to send their children to private schools (I do have a problem with how that affects our national security, but freedom of choice is also important.) Just not on my dime. If I have to pay for their children’s learning (and failurses therof), where’s my freedom? Where’s my choice?

Open Thread October 7 2024

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

Oct 072024

Yesterday, I went to visit Virgil. I managed to stack the deck correctly before he came in to give him the perfect hand (I had tried twice before, once when he was still at Bent, and had not succeeded, but I finally did.) this time. His face didn’t give it away, but he was impressed – I can tell because he kept mentioning it when he got a hand that was not so good. I couldn’t have asked for a better result. I also learned something from Heather Cox Richardson which surprised me – and that is that the Washington Post has an investigative journalist on their staff. His name is Glenn Kessler, and it’s a pity that more people don’t know it, or anything about his work. Here’s a link to Rchardson’s post, parts of which will likely make you angry, but hopefully Kessler’s findings will help some.

This is not a time sensitive article, but an essay on the death penalty by Mary Trump. She is very articulate on the subject, which should not be a surprise since she is a professional psychologist. Even if she doesn’t say anything new, I expect her to have new ways to say what she does.

Well, at least this (from Wonkette) is more plausible than most of their guanopsychotic panics over what children read. It is possible to choose to be a Democrat, or a Republican, for that matter, whereas it’s not possible to choose to be straight, gay, trans, or whatever – you are as you were born, although that may not show up until puberty (except for trans people – that shows up early enough for affirmative care to be helpful, if it can just be allowed.) I could wish the book had gone into the entire Political Compas instead of pretty much just left and right issues, but everyone here knows I strongly believe that. Last week, over at Democratic Underground, where a few were trashing Jeff Flake (who has endorsed Kamala), I left a comment to the effect that this election is not about left and right, it’s about autocracy and egalitarianism, and at least he’s on the right (excuse me, the correct side) of that, and another DUer was kind enough to respond with this: “If all Americans understood this as well as you do we wouldn’t be in this mess.” That made my day.

Open Thread June 18 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:09 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 182024

Yesterday, when I had the time and energy to finish reading my emails from Sunday, I came across Joe Biden’s Father’s Day Proclamation (courtesy of Steve Smith), read it, and am sharing the link. That’s the world that I want to live in. It’s not a perfect world – there is no perfect world – but it’s a world in which at least the Federal goverment is run with ethics, honesty, kindness, and consideration, in order to make life easier for the maximum number of people. I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I’m going to anyway: we willl never get there by electing people at any levels who just want power – and who get elected by promising their voters power through them. Also, Robert Reich’s caption contest, which asked readers to submit suggestions for whar “MAGA” really stands for, ad too many good answers to list here. I can’t enter, being a free subscriber, but had I been ale and done so, I would have suggested “Malice And Greed Always.”

Moving to actual news (or at least actual analysis of actual news – there’s some of both), Robert Hubbell goes into detail about how and why the Washington Post is so worng in their election coverage, even though they still do well in other areas (some of this ofcourse also apples to the New York Times, and other formerly competent mainstream outlets.) If he is accurate on their strategy (and I suspect he is), it’s easy to see why he wonders whether the Post can survive. It’s a no-brainer.

In Sunday’s Open Thread, Beau spoke about Ukraine, including commenting that Ukraine might be operating in the skies a little more – which, with the loan he also spoke about – they have been doing. Now, the Daily Beast confirms that Ukraine is hitting hard, and it is working. We can but hope Putin is runninng out of things up his sleeve.

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