Dogs – Politics Plus

Open Thread April 24 2025

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

Apr 242025

Yesterday, The Mango Moron accused Volodymyr Zelensky of “sabotaging [the] U.S. peace plan for Ukraine” because of course he did. And a disagreement between Elon Musk and Scott Bessent “erupted into [a] West Wing shouting match.”

There’s a reason why Dan Froomkin calls his Substack “Press Watch” – because it’s all about, not just truth, but how truth should be presented. In other words – it should be read by journalists so that we don’t have to read it. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening. This article is a case in point.

I’ve never been a “first let’s kill all the lawyers” person. I do appreciate the jokes, and I may just tell one (with a slight twist) – but the lawyers we see on YouTube such as Glenn Kirschner, Michael Popok, and Harry Litman are honest and dedicated defenders of how the rule of law is needed to – and needs to – define and maintain democracy. This from Harry Litman I’m going to call a full disclosure post. (And may I suggest that the signers are in general also lawyers who can be trusted.) OK, joke. A man goes into a curio shop (in a place like Galveston, Atlantic City, or San Francisco – you’ll see why) and is fascinated by a brass rat. The owner advises him the rat has mysterious properties and warns him the price is non-refundable. He buys it anyway and leaves and continues walking around the city. Soon he notices he is being followed by rats, and that the number is increasing. As he continues walking the number of rats continues to grow, and he starts to run. The rats also start running, and there continue to be more and more of them. He speeds up and runs to the beach. When he gets there, he throws the brass rat as far out into the ocean as he can. All the rates follow it and drown. He then returns tot he curio shop, where the owner says, “I told you no refunds.” The man says, “I don’t want a refund. I want to know if you have any brass Trump** voters.”

Open Thread April 22 2025

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

Apr 222025

Yesterday, Pope Francis died. Besides grieving for the loss of that good man, I can’t help feeling I’ve seen this movie before, and what happens next is not good. John XXIII was succeeded by Paul VI which was not great, John Paul I died so quickly I still wonder whether his death was facilitated, and then we got John Paul II and Benedict. We badly needed Pope Francis, and we still do, but he is gone. I won’t say meeting with JD Vance killed him, but I’m sure it didn’t help. Robert Reich, on the other hand, wrote an impressive eulogy. (I am still running behind and today did not help with that BTW.)

The F* News caught my eye with this headline. But it is a valid story worth reading. It appears that republicans now hate “others” so much that they even hate their tourist dollars. They’d rather starve or become homeless than accept furrin money now.

This from The 19th is positive as far as it goes – let’s hope it goes and keeps going. I’m familiar with DoD schools, having volunteered with one as part of a folk music trio with a male officer and a male civilian teacher in the latter’s fourth grade classroom. Don’t ask me to sing today – old age does not improve one’s singing voice unless one practices regularly, which I didn’t. But it’s still a fond memory.

The price for this pay-per-view is $20.26, and I expect it to be well spent. I don’t know every name featured – but every name I do know is well worth a listen. The date is this Saturday. I hope that’s enough advance notice for everyone who wants to watch it.

Open Thread April 20 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:09 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 202025

Yesterday, the radio opera was “L’Assedio di Corinto” by Rossini. This is the first opera Beverly Sills sang at the Met – and in fact we heard a recording of that debut on April 19th of 1975, exactly fifty years earlier. Fifty years. I wasn’t there, but I had heard Ms. Sills a few years earlier, at the Kennedy Center, in recital, on the tour, which was famous at the time, when she was so ill she requested no encores, but people demanded them anyway, unable to believe that anyone could sing like that but have something wrong with her voice. It wasn’t until she asked the audience in her own speaking voice to refrain from requesting encores that she was believed and her request respected. I have this opera on vinyl with her and also with Norman Treigle, who is not in this performance (Justino Diaz is.) But that’s OK – Shirley Verrett is in this performance but was not on the vinyl. The opera is not really about Corinth (which has been through some sieges) but about Missolonghi which was under siege in 1826 by Turkey. I’m pretty sure none of the main plot (about a love triangle, a domineering father, and mistaken identity) happened at either siege. or at any siege ever), but it’s Rossini, so it’s listenable, even without the shining stars of this production. Sigh. I remember some opera opera lovers and I used occasionally to refer to Sills as “Silverly Bells” – a Spoonerism, but it intended as a tribute to that voice. Now I’m feeling old. But it was worth it. Also yesterday, Wonkette reported that Barbara Lee has won her special election to be the Mayor of Oakland, CA. I don’t believe it’s been officially announced, but the numbers are clear. I can only compare what that will be like for Oakland to South Bend, IN, who had Mayor Pete for 8 years. I certainly hope they keep her in office as long as they legally can. Now, let’s help make Kasie Porter Governor of California, and I’ll think about forgiving Adam Schiff. And one more thing – At 1:00 AM EDT yesterday, the Supreme Court issued an opinion – and it was a good one. This video from the Contrarian is almost 45 minutes. But it took me less than 10 minutes before my jaw dropped. If you already know about it, fine, but if you don’t you need to. Off to see Virgil now, will comment upon return.

And this in, of all places, Tennessee. And Dolly Parton wasn’t even there.

Colorado Public Radio published this on Good Friday, so I can share it on actual Easter. Nice not to be late, for once.

Wonkette doesn’t mention this, but I would like to point out, if you made phone calls or sent postcards or did anything at all to help keep the Supreme Court election in Wisconsin fair and prevent Republicans from getting the vote overturned in favor of the Republican candidate, give yourself a big pat on the back (just don’t break your arm.) Because you did this. Your work helped make it possible for the cOurt to rule this way. And this is an example of why I try to bring attention to special elections, recall elections, or any disputed or might-be-disputed, no matter where.

Founders

Dog

Open Thread April 18 2025

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

Apr 182025

Today I am expecting snow in the afternoon and overnight. This is not the latest in the spring we have had snow. I remember one year in the late 90’s when we had snow during the third week of May. It wasn’t that much, but it was enough to ice the roads as I drove home from work. When I got home, I called the announcer of my local radio station and requested “Come un bel di di Maggio” (Like a lovely day in May) and she played that and also “Die Wunderschöne Monat Mai” (The amazingly beautiful month of May.) And we are not the only ones expecting un-spring-like weather. Hail is predicted over an area of the plains from roughly Iowa to Oklahoma city. They are not predicting but cannot rule out tornadoes there also. Sorry about the missed post – I did put it up when I realized it thanks to Nameless because there was so much in it, including a Borowitz. If you’ve been reading what I have put up, you’ll know I am being gut-punched by the news😢. It must not be stopping me from signing petitions, though. Yesterday I got 5 responses from my Congressman within the space of a minute, and I’m sure they are all responses to petitions and/or group sponsored letters.

This is about as straight talk as it gets. I’m going to be flippant for a moment and say, “Gee, there sure must have been a lot of people in Nazi Germany bitching about the price of eggs.” But it’s really no time for flippancy. I just get that way when I feel helpless. It’s good to know we still have some judges who are not corrupt – and I’m confident there are many more we are not hearing about because they haven’t been assigned a case like these – yet.

Personally, I don’t have anything against lawyers in general. I’ve been fortunate enough to know some really good ones – good people besides being good lawyers – and on principle I tend to assume a person is a decent human being until proved otherwise. But Joyce’s point that many Americans would have no sympathy for lawyers is probably sound (and for that matter, not just for Americans, but for just about every group since before Shakespeare’s time.) Most layers do not deserve to be treated like this. Sadly, some with firms that capitulate now are likely soon to do something that does deserve negative consequences.

More pretty much straight news from Andy (I don’t believe in the poll, but I do believe if there were one, this would be the result.)

Rachel Maddow interviews Senator Van Hollen

Open Thread April 16 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:44 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 172025

Posted late because I filed to schedule it. Ooopsie.

Yesterday, Robert Reich announced two awards – a Joseph Welch award for Harvard, and a Neville Chamberlain award for all law firms capitulating to the regime. Joseph Welch, you may remember for saying “Have you no decency?” to Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy – the beginning of the end of McCarthyism. The Chamberlain awards speak for themselves. But the cool thing, the reason why I’m featuring this, is that shortly after the column came out he received a lovely thank you note from Welch’s granddaughter. Sometimes humanity is hereditary, despite many counter-examples.

I really used to like Jon Stewart. I have been really disappointed in him since he returned to the airwaves (and I don’t even watch – it’s the quotes in my news sources which have me cringing.) Wonkette explains this better than I could.

TomCat used to like to say, when Andy Boro witz came up with a particularly pointed satire, that he was reporting straight news (again.) But this time he really is doing that – it’s not satire. The closest it comes to satire is the title. Past that, it literally is straight news.

Belle has been covering the economy very thoroughly lately, from Tariffs and inflation/deflation/stagflation to chances of a recession or even a new Great Depression, and I think I get it. She’s probably overwhelmed with questions about money from a huge chunk of her audience. But it means she’s not covering the currently happening coup. So today I’m going to substitute this highly righteous rant by Lawrence O’Donnell on Harvard. Yes, it’s long, about 20 minutes. I didn’t notice an excess word in any part of it. If you do, feel free to cut it short.

Open Thread April 13 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 132025

Yesterday, the radio opera was Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” – or I should say “Die Zauberflöte,” since it was the full opera and in German – except for a few interpolated jokes by Papageno. Such as, in the second act when he and Tamino were supposed to be refraining from food, drink, and even speech, he whistled and then sang a snippet from “New York, New York,” quoting “These little=town blues,” to be exact. I think Emanuel Schickaneder, who wrote the libretto and was the first to play Papageno, would have loved it (he was quite the card himself, and an improviser.) Today’s audience certainly did. Also yesterday, ProPublica reported that both Leonard Leo and Charles Koch are among plaintiffs (both as parts of groups) suing the the Mango Monster over tariffs. Did you ever expect to be grateful to either of those two for anything – anything at all? I certainly didn’t. Also, I chose the video I did because virtually everyone is riffing on “Who Shot The Sheriff” – besides Don Caron, the Riccardis, Founders Sing and Patrick Fitzgerald have all covered it – with slightly different lyrics, but the same issue – tariffs.

I’d call this very good news indeed. Colorado appears to contain some very courageous people – and, more importantly, have at least some of them in positions where it is needed.

I don’t want to post a single-source open thread, so I’ll need a third one. But this one even CPR marks as good news – which they can’t do on political stories very well.

Here’s some good climate news from Wonkette. “Doktor Zoom” is the writer there who is most into climate change news, though all are to some degree.

Open Thread April 9 2025

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

Apr 092025

Yesterday, a Federal judge reinstated AP to the White House Press Corps. Of course the Regime will appeal. You can find the full opinion at Axios (and probably elsewhere.)

This is Harry Litman‘s detailed discussion of the Supremes vacating Judge Boasberg’s order to get Mr. Garcia back from El Salvador yesterday (actually I believe it was two days ago now, but I’m referencing he expression “I want this done yesterday.”) It was a 5-4 verdict, and it caught my eye that it was a men against women split. And there were some caustic remarks in the dissenting opinions, as there should be when a literal group of dicks does something this despicable.

Pro Publica is also up in arms about civil right and DHS abuses thereof – as it should be. I mean, yes, I’m worried from month to month whether I will receive my Social Security funds, but I’m far more worried about people losing their civil rights – which could happen to anyone, any time, and while there may be recourse, recourse is always time consuming. People can and do die waiting.

Steve Schmidt referred his subscribers to this open letter from a Canadian to Americans (of good will – because that’s the only kind who can read it without their heads exploding [which actually reminds me of an old Burma Shave sign verse – yes, I’m that old.) It’s hardly flaming news, but it is something I don’t think most readers here would see without being pointed to it. And I found it inspiring. Elbows up!

Belle Elon

Dog

Open Thread April 7 2025

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

Apr 072025

Yesterday, I saw Virgil, found a deck of cards, and we played cribbage. We had a range of hands from awful to unusually good. Today I have an appointment to have blood work done again. My original appointment was cancelled and rescheduled twice – after the second time, instead of changing the day, I went back to the original day and changed the location. My original appointment was at the lab closest to me, but they have just undergone major repairs, and are struggling to pass all the inspections. The location I changed to is the one I got lost finding last time – now that I’ve been there once, that won’t happen again. I know exactly where it is and how to get there now.

In case anyone who participated in “Hands Off” didn’t get pictures, here are some samples. It must have been quite a day. There are so many and they are all so good I’m just going to give a string of links. There must have been close to a million, maybe more than a million, in the US. Andy Borowitz says there were half a million just on Fifth Avenue in NYC. And these links are just a sample.
Some here. More here. Also here. And here. Several states here. Several states here too.

I think Robyn (from Wonkette) may be on to something here. The only small town I have ever lived in was Alamosa, and it was a college town (now a university town.) The presence of liberal arts higher education tones down the Parochiality. As, may I add, does the presence of citizen neighbors in large numbers who speak a different language but have nonetheless been there for a lot longer than you have (and many of whom have PhDs.) So I didn’t find it a bad experience. But I’m sure small town exactly like what she describes are more the rule than the exception, and that their primary export may well be Karens.

John Pavlovitz, who always IMO has something to say worth thinking about, makes a confession here which will probably be no surprise to any reader – I think we’ve probably all said much the same at one time or another. But knowing it is not the same as actually feeling the full scope of it. This post and today’s other post are in different ways describing the same thing.

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