Oligarchy – Politics Plus

Open Thread August 4 2025

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

Aug 042025

This weekend, looking for music, after finding the Rocky Mountain Mike one you saw yesterday, I came across a “Horrible History” song from the BBC. It’s very silly, and IMO not useful as a mnemonic either. But it did remind me of Charles I and his ~~billionaires~~ cavaliers and how he vexed the people so much, including levying taxes without the consent of ~~Congress~~ Parliament, that there was a Civil War – which the people won, and locked him up (they didn’t all agree on all that much, but they did agree that he needed to be locked up), then they tried him for “treason against England by using his power to pursue his personal interest rather than the good of the country,” convicted him, and beheaded him. I might note that the verdict included accountability for the deaths, mostly in the Civil War, of 300,000 people, which was a lot then, but nowhere near the numbers that dictators today can kill. Charles’s defense, incidentally, was that the trial and verdict were illegal (sound familiar?) Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

I’m sure it’s no surprise that my email inbox is getting less and less manageable by the day. I don’t subscribe to Jacobin (though I love the name), but I do subscribe to Dose of Democracy who sent me the link, and I thought it was well said.

Heather Cox Richardson got a lot of pushback on this letter – so much that she made a video to explain it.

Belle security

Dog called ugly

Open Thread January 18 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 182025

Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson mentioned, among other things, that after Preident Biden’s speech this week, Google searched for the term “oligarchy” spiked. I guess it’s good that a lot of people are learning – and I guess it’s encouraging that enough people are willing enough to learn to trigger a spike. But I guess I just don’t live in the same world as people who didn’t already know the word. I suppose that in 1962 there wewre plenty of people who didn’t grasp the implications of “military-industrial complex” too. (However, I’ll bet everyone who heard Washington’s farewell understood the term “designing men” – although it’s much harder to actually recognize one until he’s on the way out with your money and possessions in his pocket.)

If Robert Hubbell provides clarity on resisting, Robert Reich provides a pep talk to stress the necessity of resisting. That’s why I’m putting it first today. I for one needed the guidance of Hubbell to help me get out of the emotional swamp Reich built. You may not, but just in case.

Given the holiday, I need to plan ahead some, but I want to get this in before Sunday. Robert Hubbell makes the difference very clear between resisting and disengaging, particularly on social media. I don’t do any social media myself, and the closest thing I do do to social media is Democratic Underground, and I’m kind of afraid to go there since I posted this Thursday and expect a lot of pushback. The way some members there post, you’d think Merrick Garland was Roy Cohn or Roger Stone. and that just isn’t the case.

Open Thread January 14 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 142025

Yesterday, it occurred to me that the name Zuckerberg – with just a little bit of license – translates to “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” I couldn’t even begin to count the possible disrespectful jokes that could be gotten out of that. Also yesterday, the story which was yanked last week did get published, and I went to the new link, and it is working. Here it is. You can see why I jumped to the conclusion I did. It’s very frank.

The Reich on the left is right again. I, and progressives and liberals I am aware of, generally have positive impressions of universities, nonprofits, and labor unions. The media is in a different position. But allowing media, however imperfect, to be destroyed by The new administration’s lawsuits and other attacks is not the solution. And that goes multiple times for small and independent media, who are as much more likely to promote truth as they are to come under attack. I know I probably sound like an obsolete “broken record,” but go over to Substack, see the many people who are posting there, and if you find someone or some two or so whom you respect (and preferably whom I am not regularly citing, to broaden yourself,) sign up for a free subscription. That costs nothing but time – and knowledge is priceless.

(Edited just before midnight to add link to Jack Smith’s Volume #1 (Jan 6)

Robert Hubbell debunks all the lies being pushed by MAGA about the Los Angeles wildfire(s). Unfortunately, the LA Times, now MAGA-billionaire-owned, is widely spreading them anyway. Was it Mark Twain who said “a lie can get halfway around the world wile truth is still putting its pants on”? Or is he just one of the many to whom it has been mis-attributed? Also, you might appreciate, if you have any past or present connection to California, his next rant is here.

Video Thread 9/8/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Sep 082023

This might have been a good opportunity to use the word “penultimate” – or even “antepenultimate” to allow for people like Giuliani and Eastman filling the “penultimate” positions.

Glenn Kirschner – Proud Boys Tarrio sentence to 22 years, but Trump – not Tarrio – is the “leader” of the insurrection

MSNBC – ‘Voters in Fulton County, Georgia elected her to’ take on big cases like 2020 election interference

Thom Hartmann – Why Term Limits Won’t Save America From Oligarchs Like Mitch McConnell

Liberal Redneck – Freeze, Mitch! (And the Scourge of Ancient Evil)

Momma Dog Has Her Babies In A Tiny Hole In The Ground

Beau – Let’s talk about a new government website….

Video Thread 6/2/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:02 pm Open Thread, Politics

Jun 022023

Glenn Kirschner – Donald Trump caught on tape, PROVING he lied about declassifying national security documents

The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – May 30, 2023

Thom Hartmann – America’s Rich Don’t Want You To Know This Simple Way To Stop Oligarchy

Parody Project – Say It Again – MONEY SUCKS THE CONGRESS DOWN (a tad too much bothsiderism for my taste)

Rescue Dog Stayed in Her Crate For Five Days Until She Realized She Was Home

Beau – Let’s talk about Russia’s nuke promise….

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.