Strategy – Politics Plus

Open Thread November 21 2025

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

Nov 212025

Yesterday, Joyce Vance and Stacey Abrams had a conversation about what individuals can do in this constitutional crisis. I know that all of us are already doing something – but I also know that I sometimes get a nagging feeling that it’s not enough, and I’m betting I am not alone in that. The video of the convo is only 31 minutes, which is definitely short for such a subject, and both women are highly respected and easy to listen to. So I’m sharing the link. Stacey mentions a website with more guidance, and I tripped over several obstacles looking for it, so here is the correct spelling: 10stepscampaign.org.

I’m not putting this from The F* News in Sunday because it’s too mixed. The video produced by members of Congress is good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t list (as the article does) any of the resources service members can rely on for support against the chain of command giving the illegal order. However, it is not nothing. (Also, the Gamboge Garbage is calling for them to be executed. Se the next article, from Common Dreams)

This from Common Dreams is so outrageous you have probably already seen it or heard about it. In fact, if you haven’t, your news sources are failing. Bur exactly because it’s so outrageous, I want a record of it here. I can’t even.

This from NBC News is good news as far as it goes. If it passes with a veto-proof majority, that will be good enough for a Sunday post. But we’re not there yet.

Guest video from Raw News And Politics

Cat

Open Thread May 6 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 062025

Yesterday, I slept even later than usual – which I really needed – sometimes the stress created by not being able to do something one had planned is even more debilitating than the work of actually doing it. That was me yesterday. I don’t think I mentioned earlier that my primary credit card company over the weekend for some reason changed every blessed cardholder’s card number (and expiration date and CVV) on the same day. I had done most of on Sunday, but I had forgotten one. After I finished changing that one, which was a struggle because the site isn’t exactly intuitive, I decided to go to Democratic Underground for a while before tackling other email. The first article I looked at had me almost in tears. So did the second one I read, although not in quite the same way. And then there was this one – I’d almost forgotten about Anonymous in all the commotion.

This from Chris Bowers at “Wolves and Sheep” Substack discusses strategies which are necessary (though not, I think sufficient) to get us through this mess. Certainly it’s a place to start.

Naomi Klein recently wrote an essay for The Guardian which Rolling Stone then interviewed her about, and then MSN passed on the interview. It starts with her credentials – which you probably know – and then goes through the whole thing. It isn’t pretty. But we need to know as much as we can. And, yes, it’s long. But not a word wasted.

Open Thread July 9 2024

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

Jul 092024

Yesterday, I learned that Mary Trump now has some merch. Only one T-shirt at this point, but a good one. If you’re not interested in that (or even if you are), you might want to read this from her – it’s encouraging. Also, I baked another batch of muffins.

Every week, Joyce Vance puts out a column called “The Week Ahead.” It generally comes in so late on Sunday that I can’t put it up Monday, and this week was no exception. But I think it’s important to post anyway. After a holiday weekend, y’all may not be expecting an eventful week, but it may be. There are things going on with unpredictable outcomes to watch for. And besides that, it’s one heck of a pep talk.

It appears to me that this is an excellent idea. Provided no one gets hurt trying it. Those (expletive deleted) are violent, and many are armed. (Of course, turning the tables on them may be so shocking that they could be immobilized.)

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.