Steve Schmidt – Politics Plus

Open Thread July 15 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 152026

Monday, another killing by ICE. More on it and last week’s tomorrow. Also on Monday, Lindsey Graham’s sister was appointed to finish out his term. I don’t think I’ll hold my breath waiting for another Margaret Chase Smith. I expect to remain fully behind Dr. Annie Andrews. And yesterday – while I often use my new day up for catching up on personl stuff – I managed to strem I Puritani from the Met. It only became available on Sunday, and it will only be available until the 29th, so I knew I had to find time or miss it. I’m so glad I didn’t miss it! Yes, I had heard it on the raio when it was live. But there’s nothing like seeing it.

https://thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/lindsey-graham-noted-country-ruiner
Andy Borowitz’s take on this is amusing, but I think Jonathan Larsen is more level headed. Graham was only 71. I’m in spitting distance of 81, and I think I look younger than he did (although he could move better.) Robert Reich is kinder than either of the others.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/lindsey-graham-rip

https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/the-greatest-roosevelt-youve-never
Steve Schmidt knows what he wants to say, and he generally says it well. In this article, he wants to compare and contrast (but mostly contrast) two sets of brothers whose families have something out unusual in common.

https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/breaking-exclusive-fbi-admits-it
For anyone deeply invested, intellectually or emotionally, in the Epstein files, here is this. I hve not watched it as I type, but also have not deleted it, and may well watch it before you see this post. The woman in the screenshot is not Allison – Allison is blonde and has tattoos on both shoulders and both upper arms. She has filed a civil lawsuit against the DOJ on the release (failure to release) the Epstein files, citing professional harm as an independent journalist, and has the go-ahead from a district court that she has standing to sue, so she has a lawyer – apparently a good one. And – od course – there’s a transcript.

Open Thread December 18 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:59 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 182024

Yesterday, I managed to bake a batch of cookies and also a batch of muffins. I used half and half spelt and potato flour for both. I also used more liquid than I use with spelt flour alone, and it really still wasn’t enough. But I’ll do better next time. At least the cookies taste fine (I haven’t tasted the muffins yet.) I added “Craisins” (dried cranberries) to both, and at least in the cookies, those worked out well. Speaking of food, the star animal in today’s video is a porcupine. Years ago there was a a rescue porcupine which the family named “Teddy Bear” who went viral. There was even – may still be – a short mp3 file available to download as a ringtone of the sound he made enjoying a pumpkin. I would never have expected a porcupine to sound cute, but Teddy Bear did. I use the sound on my desktop 3rd party software for pop-up reminders – I’ve assigned it to grocery delivery reminders, since it’s food-related.

From Steve Schmidt, a new “Schmidt Storm.” This link is from the subscribers’ email, but it also contains its own link to he transcript (one of three buttons just below the audio-only and just above the title.)

This is from the New England Journal of Medicine, translated into lay language by Democratic Underground member “Doctoris Extincti.” Every one of us who went through the CoViD-19 pandemic – and that is every one of us – will immediately recognize the protocol and will remember that viruses can travel with humans into every corner of the world. Don’t panic – but maybe have a plan.

I’m not going to do this all the time, but I just found a new Randy Rainbow and am using it as today’s cartoon. I cut all but a second of the ad off the front for us.

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.

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