Uncertainty – Politics Plus

Open Thread March 27 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:08 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 272026

Yesterday, Malcolm Nance speculated (and this is pure speculation, but it is history based – Malcolm’s life is packed with history) that, since the US tends to attack between midnight and 4 am local time, and because Friday is the Muslim Sabbath, that the strike which will put boots on the ground is likely to land in that (local) time frame this Saturday because our “leaders” will think no one is awake or active. But those like Hegseth and possibly Miller are ignorant of jihad tradition, in which Muslims literally anywhere in the world can be assigned to respond – in which case the surprise would be on us. In war, as in any other endeavor, ignorance is a sure way to get into trouble (and not good trouble.) And the treasured and cultivated ignorance of white supremacists may well be the most dangerous kind of all. I can almost guarantee that, if this is not the time that gets proven, nevertheless, that time is coming. Also, JoJo from Jerz (with “Brooklyn Dad Defiant”) started this weekly conversation by showing maps of No Kings events confirmed for Saturday – including events in Mexico and Europe. It will take less than 3 minutes of your time to see those maps here. And finally, the US Treasury declared that the United States is currently insolvent. Multiple sources, including Fortune magazine and Yahoo news.

On Tuesday, Heather Cox Richardson had a conversation with Timothy Snyder, mostly about his latest book, “On Freedom.” Something went wrong (Facebook failed), so Heather posted the video which gets made on to You Tube. It is 41 minutes exactly (at full speed), which is a lot less time than it would take you to read the book or listen to the Audiobook, though both are good ideas.) They did allude to his earlier book, “On Tyranny,” near the end, and I would guess that the two books would make good companions.

From Talking Feds. Not, certainly, the least bit surprising. But what it lacks in surprise, it more than makes up for in disgust.

As obvious as this from Robert Reich – and he is far from the only one, including people you would never expect to get financial advice from – one still isn’t going to see it unless one is looking at it. Let’s take a look.

Open Thread December 26 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:05 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 262024

Yesterday, I continued knitting, finishing a couple of small things. I also tried a cup of coffee flavored with Torani’s white chocolate flavor syrup. The flavor of white chocolate seems to me such an unobtrusive, mild flavor that I wasn’t expecting much, but they nailed it ) Earlier this month they sent me an email announcing it was their 100th anniversary. I’ve dealt with them before – they’ve always made more flavors than you’ll ever see in the stores, but I wasn’t prepared for just how many they do make. I splurged on a sampler pack of flavors designed to go with coffee, and the white chocolate was one of those. Also, I stepped away from the computer for a while because the mouse I am now using is one that you never have to change the battery, but you do have to charge it periodically, and it ran out of charge. It’s charged now obviously, since this post is up. I hope y’all had as peaceful a day as mine, whatever, if anything, you celebrate.

This, by Marc Elias, was recommended by Joyce Vance a few days ago, and I put it aside until after Christmas. Maybe I should have put it aside until after New Year’s Day, hoping we would all gather more strength by then to grasp it and act on it. But here it is. I have to hope that he is at least correct in not expecting us to have a full-blown fascist government. I am not so confident.

Heather Cox Richardson on the history of polarization in the United States, starting with Nixon. To my mind she omits the one thing Gingrich did which had the most dire consequences, although there is plenty of evidence without it. (He removed the requirement for Congressfolk to maintain a residence in DC. Yes, that could be reinstated, but it would take far longer to build trust back again than it required to deteriorate it.)

Open Thread December 13 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 132024

Yesterday, I got the few Christmas cards I still mail ready to go, and am mailing them today. Also, I learned Larry Krasner is running for reelection for DA in Philadelphia, and is requesting contribution. Larry was the first and is still the most prominent progressive DA in the country, which means Democrats everywhere are looking to him, and Republicans everywhere are gunning for him. If there’s any room on your Christmas list, you might want to consider him. And, yes, today is Friday the 13th. Many people say TGIF every Friday, and the number 13 should have only a positive significance for the nation founded by 13 colonies which became 13 states (and to this day we keep 13 stripes in our flag to remember that.)

Dan Froomkin at Press Watch points out the obvious – we are all furious with mainstream media because they don’t do their job – but actually it has become a job whixh is impossible to do. And in the long run, it’s we who need to keep working to change the conditions. (And, yes, it feels impossible.)

I don’t cite Crooks and Liars often any more, because they have becone difficult to read unless you pay them. Bur this article, particularly the Bluesky at the end, is worth it.

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.