National Monuments – Politics Plus

Open Thread December 24 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 1:31 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 242025

Yesterday, for a change, SCROTUS ruled against the Mango Monster 6-3 for a change in Trump v. Illinois – a case Harry Litman has been saying since it was filed would be its moment of truth. Because had it gone the other way, the Monster would have had free rein to act on any lies he could dream up. Harry Litman invited Leah Litman (mp relation) to discuss it with him on Substack Live. Both were so excited they were interrupting each other. I’ll provide the link anyway, difficult as it is to listen to (actually the video seems to be one and done, but the transcript is there), but a key factor was that one amicus brief was incredibly important. One amicus brief which was saying something no one else was saying, but which was right. So if you ever discounted the effect of amicus briefs – it’s time to rethink that.

CPR News referred me to this. Between this and a related story about Colorado losing FEMA funds which are now tied to immigration policy, I decided this one would affect a whole lot more people in a whole lot more places.

I’ve written previously about Lone Star ticks, and IIRC at that time there were already a few other ticks who carried this trait, but apparently, according to The Conversation, it’s getting worse. I don’t, thank the universe, have this particular food allergy, but I do have a couple which are almost equally crippling, such as wheat and soy, and frankly, you don’t want to have any food allergy ever, and especially when grocery prices are out of control.

I’m sure everyone is aware about how the short (for a documentary) documentary about CECOT had been scheduled to air on 60 minutes but was yanked by Bari Weiss. But she either forgot or didn’t know that 60 minutes also plays on Global TV in Canada. By the time she realized it, Canada had already seen about 13.5 minutes of it. That 13.5 (13.35 to be precise) was all over the internet. By yesterday, it had been taken down from most of those places. But it it viewable here. If you haven’t already seen it, you might want to watch it, if only because so many people worked so hard to prevent you from seeing it.

Video Thread 8/10/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:07 pm Open Thread, Politics

Aug 102023

[In lieu of the legal recap]
Talking Feds – Trump makes a RIDICULOUS REQUEST to federal judge

The Lincoln Project – NOW Conspiracy

Thom Hartmann – How Can We Ban Trump & His Cult From Public Office?

MSNBC – Biden designates new national monument near the Grand Canyon

Dog Who Couldn’t Walk Prances Around The Office Now

Beau – Let’s talk about Trump revealing his emotional state….

Open Thread for October 10, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 102021

Yesterday, the opera was “Billy Budd,” based on the novella by Herman Melville, and composed by Benjamin Britten. It goes to some dark places, and I can’t call the ending happy, though it does achieve a measure of peace. Of course the music is lovely. While it was on I organized both morning and evening meds for the next two weeks … so I am ahead of my usual accomplishment with them.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Bears Ears Inter-Tribla Coalition – “We Did It!”
Quote – The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition (BEITC), comprised of delegates from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Zuni Tribe, issued a statement today in response to President Biden’s upcoming announcement that the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument will be restored…. This statement represents the joint views of the five Tribes making up the Coalition. Each Tribe, acting as sovereign nations, may also offer independent comments.
Click through for quotes from members. I certainly needed some good news today, and assume y’all do too. You can sign a thank-you note here, courtest of the Grand Canyon Trust, if you like (And you’ll get a nice reply pretty quickly.)

Quote – Unfortunately, in a big black eye for her reputation, Beeman’s own racist comments in a University of Connecticut online forum on “critical race theory” were noticed by Hartford TV station WFSB, which reported on the comments yesterday. The station didn’t specify when the forum took place, but it had a screenshot, and Beeman was quick to insist that heavens no, she didn’t mean anything bad when she’d typed “Helping kids of color to feel they belong has a negative effect on white, Christian, or conservative kids.” Of course she didn’t! Here’s the video, cued up to the story so you don’t have to be confused by several minutes of silence at the start, yeesh, guys, you work in teevee.
Click through for clip woth quote. “Tone deaf” doesn’t even begin to describe this. The implication alone that Chrstians can’t possibly be black is nauseating.

Crooks and Liars – Maryland Man Fatally Shot His Pharmacist Brother For ‘Killing People’ With The COVID Vaccine
Quote – Burnham is being held without bond in Allegany County, where he is charged with stabbing Rebecca Reynolds, 83, to death inside her Cumberland home on Sept. 29. Police said he took her car and fled to Ellicott City, where a day later he killed Robinette, 58, and his wife Kelly Sue Robinette, 57. He faces first and second-degree murder charges in the couples’ deaths.
Click through – Apparently we are already in a shooting Civil War. “Brother against btother.” (I didn’t look for Law & Crime’s take on this but I’ll bet it’s epic.)

Food for Thought – Chyron of the Year

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.