Renee Nicole Good – Politics Plus

Open Thread January 12 2025

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

Jan 122026

Yesterday, I visited with Virgil, and we played cribbage. He fot the hand of the day – two double runs of three (16 points) over cards containing numbers adding to 15 (8 more points.) It was early in the day, but IIRC, it was in the crib, which is miraculous. The drive down wasn’t bad, considering the snow. It wasn’t snowing yesterday, not the day before, but on Friday we got what Weather Underground claimed was 7 inches of it. I would sear the on the front hood of my car alone there was still 12 inches, and I didn’t get it all off – just enough to see. When I came out from seeing Virgil. however, all of it was gone. I can’t prove this – I did park at an ange so the afternoon sun could do as much as possible – but I strongly suspect that one of the staff, going rounds in the parking lot as they do, knocked it all off. The staff there comprises the kind of people who would do that. In any case, the drive home was even easier than the drive down – the only rough part was getting into the driveway, and tha worst of that was walking of the remaining snow, now partly thawed and re-frozen twice, to get to my front door. But (obviously) I made it without injury or even slipping. If anyone was able to participate in a “No Kings” sponsored demonstration either Saturday or yesterday, I hope it went well. I received some photos in emails, but am too tired to work anything up tonight. I’ll get a post up this week.

This and the HCR video are connected. Both are related to the second World War. This is more about what we didn’t do this time but should have. The video is more about something we did right, but boy, was it ever touch and go. )And the video is quite short.)

“JoJo from Jerz” now has a Substack, If you have ever seen any of her memes posted on line, you know the is truthful and witty, and doesn’t mince words. I watched a video of her talking with Andy Kim, who is now one of her Senators – you may remember him as the Congressman (he was in the House then) who stayed behind after the Jan 5 insurrection to work on cleaning the Rotunda. I’m not linking to that video, since it’s longish, but to an essay she published on fascism and Orwell.

Archived from HuffPost. I don’t like it, but it’s factual, and I believe itls better for us all to be aware of the obstacles sooner than later, so we won’t hurt ourselves and ethical prosecutors complaining after the fact that it took too long or it isn’t good enough.

HCR Bulge

Bonus video – in between the political one and the animal one because it’s a political animal. It’s repetitive (after all, feline vocabulary is limited), but it’s also short, do watch it to the end. Oh, and it’s definitely NSFW.

Dog

Open Thread January 10 2025

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

Jan 102026

Yesterday, I put this into a comment on yesterday’s OT. But there were already two comments so I’m not sure it will be seen. Since there’s a second day of it tomorrow, I’ll repeat the information here:
People For the American Way is partnering with our allies to mobilize communities nationwide for the “ICE Out For Good” Weekend of Action on Saturday, January 10, and Sunday, January 11. These actions are a direct response to violence and abuse of power, and a demand that federal immigration enforcement be held accountable for the harm it causes.
These events are community led, nonviolent, and lawful, and they are a direct demand for accountability in the face of ongoing federal violence. They make visible the real human cost of unchecked enforcement and apply public pressure where oversight has failed. Showing up together is a way to insist that lives cannot be treated as collateral damage.

On Thursday, you probably know that the Senate passed a War Powers bill to stop the God-Emperor from destroying Venezuela any more than he already has, and five Republicans joined Democrats to pass it. Which five may surprise you. From Heather Cox Richardson, here are the names: Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Todd Young of Indiana.

It would seem to me that, since Congress (or at least the Senate) has to ratify treaties fir them to be in force, that Congress, or at least the Senate, would have to authorize pulling out of them. Common Dreams implies that but doesn’t say it outright.

The Root is calling this an opinion piece – but, sadly, it’s a fact. I realize on the surface it appears incompatible with misogyny, but it really is part of misogyny – like the old saying that men put women on a pedestal – so they can’t move without hurting themselves. It isn’t women as human beings which are so “precious” – it’s women as objects.

Archived from The Hill, referred by The Smile. I’m not putting it on Sunday because Yosemite Sam Barbie* has “testified before Congress before, and she doesn’t answer questions, she just babbles. IIRC, the last time she was there she sneaked out. A Congressman from IIRC Indiana has announced he is working on articles to impeach her – but it’s a long way from announcing to introducing, and introducing doesn’t guarantee impeaching, and impeachment doesn’t guarantee convicting and removing.
*(stolen from Malcolm Nance)

There’s always a lot in The Morning Memo, but I’m focusing on the “cover up.” I put that in quotes because there is so much photographic evidence before the the public already, video and still, that they won’t be able to cover up what happened. Spin it, yes. Change the narrative, that they can do. Protect the killer – almost certainly. Cover it up – not so much. We even know the ICEhole’s name.

SpyKat posted yesterday that ICE also shot 2 people in Portland. I hadn’t seen it – but found it in the New York Times, whose paywall is fierce, so I went to archive – it had already been archived, so that was fast.

In lieu of a political video today, I want to share this letter to the Minneapolis area newspaper from Renee Good’s widow Becca, Because it is really to all of us who care.

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.