School Vouchers – Politics Plus

Open Thread June 15 2026

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

Jun 152026

Yesterday, Virgil and I played cribbage as usual. He loved the new outfit. I think I said I barely finished it in time, but I didn’t mention I didn’t even have time to sew the ends of the elastic in the waitline of the pnats, so I gambled on usinf a small safety pin, and it did not set off the metal detector. That’s good to know for sure. I told him about the Googlr doodle story and he was just as impressed as everyone else. The drive was pretty easy both ways. On the way down I stopped to drop off my primary ballot in a drop box. I figured that even if we win the mail-in ballots war, it’s still time for me to learn about drop boxes, so I read up on where they are, and there are two on the stretch of old-fashoned highway I use to get to the Interstate when I see him. The first one is on the right side of the road going, and the second is on the right side of the road when I return. I stopped at the first one, and the box was obvious, and the parking was good, so I just used that one, and probably will in the future if it doesn’t change. But I am still glad to know about the second one.

I personally favor “Scrap the Cap.” And, even if that’s not actually passable, enough people supporting it could make Reich’s suggestion easier to pass.

Knowing Senator Whitehouse as I do – not personally, but through following his work in the Senate and his thinking through various media, I’m confident that the reassurance he is asking for is something that he wants only if it is true – and tha if it is not, he wants the truth. I say this because I don’t feel the article makes that clear. He and Senator Merkley are two Senators I just named as people whose nomination for President I would vote for – and added that that were others, but didn’t name them. Yes, he is pushing 70, and Merkley is pushing 69 (their dates of birth are one year minus 4 days apart.) And no, One doesn’t need to be that old to know what one is doing and how things work – but both do.I’m not averse to someone younger, but I would like someone who gives me the quiet confidence which they do.

Does ths reporting from ITPI surprise anyone? It certainly doesn’t surprise me – it just depresses me.

Sam Adams

Dog &Duck

I confess that when I filled up yesterday on the way home, it cost only a little over half what it had cost the last time. I wasn’t completely out either time, and he amounts were comparable. I doubt that’s widespread – I suspect I just got lucky.

Open Thread February 23 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:52 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 232026

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. As usual, we had a mixture of hands. He was having more difficulty counting his hands than he had been lately. (Also, this week he had another of those vivid dreams in which his first wife phoned him and was reading him the riot act about something, and he had completely forgotten that this cannot happens. The only phones he is allowed to use do not have incoming numbers – they can only be used to call out. Prior to this week he had been remembering that. But either the dream scared the memory out of him – or he just forgot it and that enabled the dream to form. But we had a good time and enjoyed each others’/ company. I was able to stay until visitation ended today, since subset was not until 5:45. The drive was easy both ways this trip. The meme at bottom was created by Joyce Vance, who gives permission to anyone to share it widely with no alteration.

In The Public Interest addresses school vouchers. Y’all already know what I think about vouchers – they are like saying “I don’t like the city parks. I want my kids to play at the Country Club, so they won’t have to play with those people. So I want the city to pay my club dues.”

So the Ginger Grifter’s tariffs are illegal and, per SCOTUS, must stop. So the Ginger Grifter has announced he is increasing tariffs to 15%. Shades of Worcester v. Georgia.

Certainly Neil Gorsuch is a far, far, far right jurist. But every once in a while he has the right idea and does the right thing. We all know it’s “damn seldom.” But he is fairly consistently respectful of Native Americans, and of the (broken) treaties the US government has made with them. Sometimes even more respectful than liberal justices. That is why, although I really, really want a strong liberal majority on the Court, I would not mind if he were to be one member of a minority of 2 or 3 – or maybe even 4. Certainly his views on pretty much everything else terrify me.

Open Thread October 14 2024

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

Oct 142024

Yesterday, Trinette came over and moved a bunch of stuff for recyclables, trash, and sharity, so that I have “traffic lanes” again. And she brought in all the mail, which included my ballot, which arrived Saturday (I thought it might, though it was just sent Friday.) She also showed me some pictures from her trip to Portugal last year and of her family. Her mother is as beautiful as she is (and she is names after her mother, Trina – Trinette means “little Trina,” which is ironic considering how tall she is.)

I’m not quite sure exactly what the author means by “the political set.” It could mean politicians and their staffs. It could mean people who are outside of politics, but read about it and discuss it because they darned well want to know what they are voting for – or against. It could also mean that segment of the media which concentrates on politics. Or any combination of those three. If there’s one group there which really should be listening to “ordinary people,” though, it’s the politicians. Politicians represent ordinary people, and therefore should always be listening to them.

The entire newsletter from In The Public Interest is in this newsletter, but I’m sharing for just the first article (feel free to read on.) There is a great meme on this topic which I’ll share as today’s cartoon.

Open Thread April 13, 2024

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

Apr 132024

Yesterday, Robert Reich’s column was about the Manhattan criminal charges against Donald Trump**. He explains in detail exactly why it is wrong to call it a “hush money” case. I umderstand, and I’m sure he also does, the temptation to find a way to distinguish it from all his other legal woes, so that people know instantly which case one is talking about. But it also plays into his hands. “New York election interference case” or “Manhattan election interference case” are two ways we can call a spade a spade and still make it clear what case is being alluded to.

This is a “Colorado leads the Way” story. I’m sad that it took this long. But I’m bursting with pride that it’s being done now.

Not to suggest there is such a thing as a good Republican today – but, you know, the House could have done a lot worse than Mike Johnson.

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.