Slush Fund – Politics Plus

Open Thread June 1 2026

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

Jun 012026

Yesterday, I saw Virgil, and we played cribbage.He complained of being hungry, and I offered to stasrt arriving a half hour later so he could have lunch, but he said he’d rather see me than eat, so of course I’ll keep going from 10:30 to 3 when visiting closes. I am back n the calendar schedule, so I’ll now be going every two weeks unless something weird happens again. Or unless our strategic oil reserves run out, which they certainly might, particularly if the Mango Moron keeps selling them off to other countries, in which case there won’t be any gas at any price.

Stasight from The Root. So, a bunch of “pro-Israel” (which does not necessarily mean pro-genocide, but, given their behavior, I think it probably does for them) gathered around Gracie Mamsion to yell at Mamdani – because of course they did. He appears to have responded with notable grace.

Robert Reich on the judge who is doing her best to reopen the Saffron Sauron’s “lawsuit” against the IRS in order for it to be investigated and proven to be fraudulent. That of course is not how she worded it – no judge would prejudge guilt like that – but the rest of out here all know that is the case.

Dan Froomkin with Press Watch on the Delany Hall concentration camp in Newark, New Jersey, which has been maing headlines for all the wrong reasons – such as pepper sprayine Senator Andy Kim.

Open Thread May 23 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:27 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 232026

Yesterday, Malcolm was in Greenland – He went a couple of days ago for the opening of a “new” (meaning newly purchased or leased) building for the American Consulate. Jeff Landry was there (the governor of Louisiana, who is a “Special Envoy” to Greenland), making not just a fool of himself – not that that is unusual -but also acting creepy, offering children chocolate chip cookies) but left early after Greenlanders tactfully asked him not to act like a pedophile. There was a protest on site – including baseball caps reading “Make America Go Away,” “Already Great” [with the Greenland flag] and “Nu det NUUK” [Danish for “That’s enough” but punning on the name of Greenland’s capital – “Nuuk”]. One of the Protest signs read “Yes NATO, No Pedo.” I could go on a lot longer about how much Greenland wants nothing to do with the US under the Canteloupe Catastrophe, but I’ll spare you. Also, Tulsi Gabbard quit. Good riddance – but likely to be replaced by someone even worse. (Flynn? Lindell?) One good thing – Abrego Garcia’s federal case was dismissed with prejudice. Also yesterday – everybody was slush fund talking.

From The Root. I’m old enough to have memories of what it looked like, even though I didn’t grow up in the South. And good enough vision to know it when I see it – which is pretty much all over the place now, and also to see how it jumped back into broad daylight when Barack Obama was electrd President (and yet – misogyny is even stronger.) There are still many glass ceilings above which it is difficult – if not impossible – to rise if you are not a white male. And there is no such thing as modern humans belonging to different races. Neanderthals and Denisovans may be races different from homo sapiens (or not – many of us today carry bits of DNA from one or the other.)

From Pro Publica. Maricopa County – it figures. Joe Arpaio’s county. Did someone day “fraud, waste, and abuse”?

Harry Litman on the slush fund scandal. Of course I thought of Teapot Dome (no, I’m not old enough to have lived through it, but I am old enough to have heard of it in history classes.) But, as Harry points out, the government at least got some oil through it, whereas this criminal enterprise is all take, no give to taxpayers. And those to whom it is giving are the worst of the worst.

Open Thread May 22 2026

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

May 222026

Yesterday, for the third day in a row, I had to go to the clinic – this time because something I should have dropped off yesterday. No one to blame but myself for that. Still, it’s frustrating.

This is a video post, but there is a transcript. Scroll down below the screen, and about the middle between left and right, directly above the orange block labeled “Get the app,” click on “Transcript.” Besides the three topics mentioned in the title, including the Arc de Trompe, the San Diego Mosque shooting and its back story, and a prosecution of a prosecutor who has displeased the regime’s DOJ. And I may even be forgetting one or two.

Colorado Public Radio IMO has done an excellent job of reporting on this. Some of the quotes will give you a good sense of why I didn’t know Colorado’s elected Democrats had it in them (but I’m sure glad they did.)

It’s no surpeise, I’m sure, that trolling can be used for good as well as for evil ourposes. Here is a sample from Allison Gill (who identifies herself thoroughly so I don’t have to.

Open Thread May 20 2026

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

May 202026

Some people are talking (writing) about the Canteloupe Catastrophe’s proposed slush fund for seditionists being #1.8 billion, while others are saying $1.7 billion. Both are wrong. It’s not just grand theft, it’s also a slap in the face. The actual figure is $1.776 billion. Adding insult to injury.

The PCCC is collecting signatures for a thank you “card” to Stephen Colbert. Eben if you don’t want to sign it, you might like to look at the page to see what others are saying and doing.

The Brennan Center referred me to this. There is no direct link to the content of their email, but this was a main source. It doesn’t go into his market manipulation, but I think that’s because it is not he personally who is making the profits from that, but instead, his family and friends

Y’all can probably answer the question in the title before reading it in full. But it’s also nice to have good, solid evidence.

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.