No Kings – Page 2 – Politics Plus

Open Thread October 21 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 10:23 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 202025

Yesterday, I was exhausted so slept in. But here’s what I know about the projection project:

This link goes to an Act Blue page with a couple of pix of physical posters. I haven’t yet found pix of any projections..

And here’s what I know about No Kings Day: the initial total participation nationwide was estimated at over 7 million. On the spot estimates are kind of rough, so that may change. I did the math, and to meet the three and a half percent rulr, we would need just under 12 million nationwide. Some events did over perform. Theres a little town in Colorado with 500 population which brought out 150 people. That’s 30%, and impressive.

As for the No Kings Day signs – they were many unique, all creative, and some surprising. Meidas Touch complied a Top 40 List, which needs four links because Substack can only post up to 10 images in one article. I found a couple at Steve Schmidt’s The Warning that made me smile – one said “There will be hell toupée” and the other “They’re eating the Checks, They’re eating the balances.

Here’s Meidas Touch, in reverse order because it was presented as a countdown.
Meidas 31-40
Meidas 21-30
Meidas 11-20
Meidas 1-10\

And here’s Steve Schmidt’s

If you think you have to be brave to go out and protest when you are white – think for a minute about how brave you have to be to go out and protest when you are Black. Or LatinX. The Root shared a list of Black celebrities who took part (not all were physically present, and I get that – but f the regime decides it wants to find them, it will.) I expect Jasmine Crockett will surprise no one.

I enjoy Jeff Tiedrich quotes when I run into them, but generally don’t go to his site. This time I did for his massive, mostly pictorial report on No Kings – and I don’t think I’ll need to tell you which publication referred me.

This is not a “No Kings” report. Harry Litman thinks it might be possible for the State of New York to overturn the commutation of George Santos’s sentence, and I see his point. Unfrotunately, that does not nexesssarily mean it would be easy.

There is less than usual in this about The Week Ahead, and more about last week. But the section on Abrego Garcia caught my eye – and hopefully it will illuminate not just this week but also future court cases – depending on how it is decided, which of course reflects and depends on judicial ethics.

One piece of last-minute good news which shouldn’t have to wait for Sunday.

I clicked the arong button and posted this last night, but am leaving it – it’s long and took more time than usual to put together.

Open Thread October 15 2025

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

Oct 152025

Yesterday (I am going to be silly here) Huff Post responded to the Pentagon’s new press rules by saying that they had left their response with Helen Waite. So, if Hegseth wants their response, he’ll have to go to Helen Waite. (Told you it would be silly. Sometimes silly is necessary)

I expect everyone here who plans to participate in No Kings this Saturday has signs. But just in case, here’s an article followed by a lot of possible suggestions. I probably should add that Liza Donnelly will authorize you to put one of her cartoons on your sign, provided you follow her simple and reasonable rules – don’t change anything, include her signature, and use for protest sign only.

“In It To Win It” at Democratic Underground found this at Raw Story probably got it elsewhere (they usually do). It would be good news if anyone on the Court would pay attention to it (anyone other than the three who already know it, of course I mean.)

This Wonkette article is not a piece of analysis, but a collection of short factual anecdotes. Read as much or as little as you wish, but the one I am posting it for is the last one, “You Say You’re a Citizen?” I am constantly – multiple times daily – being reminded of the anecdote I’ve quoted here more than once told by Igor Stravinsky of his time in Germany, where he witnessed an atrocity, and when he tried to report it, was told by a magistrate judge, “In Germany today, such things happen every minute.” Well, dammit, in America today such things happen every minute. If we blow them off for that reason, because it isn’t us they are happening to, then we are the Nazis, and not just in the eyes of the world, but for real.

This is a guest video from More Perfect Union. It’s probably of most interest to people who have kids and grandkids. Although I don’t, and still found it very informative.

Open Thread September 3 2025

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

Sep 032025

Yesterday, Indivisible announced its next “No Kings” Day will be October 18. They expect to have maps up with events starting next week, but there is already a link to just “RSVP” (i.e. just say you’ll be there -somewhere.)

This is mostly a video with a reading from Robert Reich’s new book. It’s NSFW because Robert’s father did not mince words. It’s about 36 minutes, but doesn’t seem that long – but that may be partly because, being a book reading, it doesn’t need to be watched, and someone like me can knit while listening.

Margaret Atwood reports that The Handmaid’s Tale” is being banned in Edmonton, Alberta, and all the world and its canary wants her to comment – but she hasn’t been able to reach anyone in Edmonton who will tell her the basis on which it is being banned there. She still has a lot of general comments on book banning, though. And some other issues.

This Davis Mortuary thing has been a continuing scandal in the state for some time, but this is the first I have heard of a co-owner having a side gig as the Pueblo County Coroner. So now it’s political – and personal. The County Coroner in most places I know about is one of the least visible public officials, and, in many places, there is no legal requirement for him or her to meet any particuar qualificatons, other then getting elected. I do not know this, and could not prove it if I did, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a real life example of American exceptionalism – I doubt that other, smarter countries handle deaths quite as crudely as we do.

Open Thread June 14 2025

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

Jun 142025

Earlier this week, I mentioned that Pete Buttigieg now has a Substack. A couple of days later, Heather Cox Richardson invited him to a video conversation which was broadcast as recorded. The recording is now available, probably on both Substacks, but I watched it on Pete’s. If you have a spare three quarters of an hour or so, and you’d like to spend it in the company of two people who are intelligent, knowledgeable, sane, and just good people, this may be for you.

As Wonkette does not say (but I do), families are not a certain predictor of a person’s principles. Some apples fall a county, or a state, or a country away from the tree. These people coming up with these conspiracy theories, particularly the ones including trafficking children- I mean, for that to even occur to them doesn’t say much for their own morals.

This opinion piece (I say opinion, but it’s the truth) by Rebecca Solnit got her banned from Facebook. But Wonkette’s “TABs” linked to it. If you are here before going out to a “No Kings Day” event, this is probably the one to read now and the rest later.

I threw in this from Wonkette because I didn’t want it to wait. I also didn’t want it to get buried. Foreign policy is not an area which gets much attention (unless there’s a war – and that goes double for the current isolationist atmosphere) and I thought this important.

Newer Entries

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.