” Murders – Politics Plus

Open Thread December 16 2025

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

Dec 162025

Yesterday, as usual on Monday, I slept late. I still managed to take in and put away a large grocery order, though. And even do a little knitting (while waiting for the delivery.)

I learned about this Sunday evening. All the sane people on the ‘net are reminding all of us that we have very few confirmed facts yet, and that we harm ourselves more than any one else if we speculate – especially out loud – and I 100% agree. So why does the headline read like a confession to me? Also, Mary Trump responded to the Orange Ogre’s garbage – she is clearly angry but accurate. John Pavlovitz responded “Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Real. He and His Supporters Have It.” which I have also been thinking for some time. Joyce Vance also had words – and also provided the meme I have placed below the videos – quite a contrast.

Yes, this is a Colorado story. And I hope and pray it stays that way. Because if it makes it to our current SCROTUS, there will to pay throughout the nation.

There’s no link for this story – it was an email from Tim Walz’s reelection campaign. It made me laugh. It’s short, so I’ll just quote the text in full (without the donate page):
“Normally, when someone is going through a fast-food drive-thru, they’re eagerly awaiting a delicious burger and some crispy french fries. Not Mike Lindell though. When he’s going through a drive-thru, he’s getting his phone seized by the FBI.
“You read that right.
“Mike Lindell’s conspiracy theories caught up to him in 2022 in a Mankato Hardee’s drive-thru, when his phone was seized in relation to a federal investigation into his acts to undermine the 2020 election.
“We can say this for sure: Governor Walz has not had his phone seized by the FBI in a Hardee’s drive-thru. Have you?
If you’re with Tim, and haven’t been surrounded by FBI agents in a fast food drive-thru because you’re being federally investigated — chip in $5 to keep someone who has from becoming governor of Minnesota.”

Open Thread December 2 2025

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

Dec 022025

Yesterday, Fair Fight Colorado announced that a ballot measure has been announced in Colorado to join the redistrict fight. Colorado has officially declined to transfer Tina Peters into federal custody. And CPR also told the state that we lost a (D) state Senator last week, in a 5-car crash on I-70.

In one way it could be called good news that there is yet another prominent Reagan-appointed judge who cannot abide Metamucillini, but it’s not good news that he has therefore resigned. I do get it, and he articulates it very well, and of course he couldn’t stay – but that’s also one less judge who can be trusted at a time when he admits trust in the government, and particularly the DOJ, is at an all-time low – and for good reason.

At least I am getting to “The Week Ahead” on Tuesday this week. She apologizes for it being long, and also says it’s incomplete. So fasten your metaphorical seat belts. Here we go.

Politizoom is the only place I saw this story, and it didn’t arrive until a bit after 8 pm (7 pm Pacific), so it’s as hot a story as you are ever likely to see here. My uncle lived in Stockton until I was about 12 or 13, so that caught my eye, but it was “Child’s birthday party” that really hit me. Four dead, three of them children, and ten injured.

Open Thread November 11 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:55 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 112025

Yesterday, I see that the Senate appears to have caved on the shutdown. (Jeffries says he has not and will not, but we’ll see.) The calls to kick Chuck Schumer out range from statements to screams – although he was NOT one of the eight who caved. (And two out of those 47 are actually Independents, and at least one of those two was among the eight.) You can find the list and photos here (Belle also lists them.) It seems a bit unfair to me to blame all Democrats for what only 17% of them did. But on the bright side, SCROTUS has declined to hear a challenge to Obergefell. (And I’m pretty confident that if they won’t hear that, they won’t hear Loving either.) So, hopefully, one less thing to worry about. But we still have to worry about trans people, especially trans kids. Someone at Democratic Underground remarked that the Orange Oligarch will for sure end in prison, because dementia ia a form of prison – prison in one’s own body. Well, if that’s true, and in a way it is, what about being trans? Isn’t it prison to be a girl in a boy’s body, or vice versa? And to be fully aware of the discrepancy? I was born in 1945, and in the 1950s Christine Jorgensen was in the news a lot, and my mother told me that sometimes the soul of a girl is born into the body of a boy. Whether you think in terms of a soul, or a personality, or essence, or whatever it is that makes us who we are non-tangibly, can you think of a worse prison to be locked up in? For a person who has done nothing to deserve prison, yet it’s a prison from which the only escape is major medical intervention. Otherwise, there is no release, no probation, no parole, no escape but death. And the older one gets, the more invasive the surgery becomes. And Republicans would sentence these innocent prisoners to stay in prison from birth to adulthood (and longer, with the cost of health care going through the roof, only the wealthy can afford it.) At the very least transgender kids should be allowed puberty blockers. It’s no bloody wonder that the suicide rate among transgendered people is so high.

The F* News is experimenting with a weekly newsletter in addition to their dailies, wanting to go into a little more depth than they can trying to keep up with the daily chaos. This one includes more than one topic, and all are interesting, but the first one, regarding Elon Musk’s personal body count, may be the most shocking.

Some judges appointed by the Orange Oligarch are actually making judgments based on the law and the Constitution, without fear or favor, such as Karin Immergut. Others not so much. People for the American Way addresses 14 rulings from this fall so far which are, to say the least, troubling. Or I should say that it lists them and links to fuller analysis, so you can choose which one or ones to dive into.

Speaking of judges, Steve Schmidt starts this article with a powerful quote from one (a Reagan appointee, no less).

Dog

Open Thread November 6 2025

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

Nov 062025

Yesterday, Andy Borowitz had Adam Kinzinger on his show (not for the first time. The full show is only for paid subscribers, but Andy did reveal that Adam has been working on a documentary (with Meidas Touch) called “The Last Republican”, and it’s available now to stream on Apple TV, Amazon, Googleplay and YouTube, and others. I foresee more knitting in my future. Also yesterday, my inbox was very full, and so many of the emaiis were on the giddy side, that I had a bit of difficulty finding takes that were distinct. But that’s OK. We need and deserve a little giddy time.

This is about a half hour video with Joyce Vance and Steve Vladek concerning the murders being carried out by our military in the Caribbean and the Pacific (so far.) Both feel that this is a situation we should be hearing more about, and specifically more pushback from Congress on, even just for legal reasons without analyzing the moral issues. And yes, I realize that when people in their district are starving, that should be Congressfolks first priority. On the other hand, when the only Congressional voice pushing back belongs to Rand Paul, maybe not other Congressfolks’ only priority.

If you can’t spare a half an hour for Joyce Vance, you can read this instead. It’s an analysis of the case of the fellow who threw a sandwich at a Border Control agent (who are separate from ICE.) This is so unimportant that the fact of it going to trial at all is disproportionately important, which sounds like an oxymoron, but isn’t.

Huff Post discusses a concept which explains a lot about how Republicans can live with their cruelty. And I truly do think it can ensnare anyone. I have never told anyone before about this, and I won’t provide details, but I caught myself doing this once when I was about 11 or 12 – and it shamed me so tha I vowed never to do it again. But of course narcissists and Republicans have no shame – and no introspective ability -so it’s not surprising they can and do keep using it. It’s called “violent innocence.” I don’t know how or even if knowing about it can help to combat it in others, although it’s probably useful to combat the tendency in oneself, although at our ages we have probably already done that.

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.