Soft Power – Politics Plus

Open Thread March 31 2025

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

Mar 312025

Yesterday, Trinette came by to help get my trash and recyclables out for Thursday pickup. It had been a while, so I had a fair amount. I told her about that mail piece I had received from “Pure Talk,” and she could only shake her head. Otherwise, not a lot happening here. Which is a pretty good thing. I don’t need any more excitement than I get from the news (and that mostly negative.) I did manage to at least skim Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” before the week actually started, for a change

The F* News has a point. I’d be even more worried than I am if DoD were headed by someone with Hegseth’s ideas and principles but more competent. And if he’s getting negative attention from MAGA – well, that’s just a bonus.

I missed seeing this Wonkette story elsewhere. Not that it contains any surprises, unless taking revenge he said he was going to take is close enough to telling the truth to be a surprise – that certainly could happen.

Open Thread February 20 2025

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

Feb 202025

Yesterday, again acting on advice from a Democratic Underground member, I went to the Social Security website and downloaded or printed my essential information – lifetime record os earnings, verification of benefits letter, and my Social Decurity statement. They are not on my hard drive, but on my portable hard drive; I have two of those, so I’ll be copying the information to the other one. Paranoid, sure. Except that we have something to be paranoid about. If Dork Vader’s random comments and the antics of his crew don’t make you even a little bit nervous, maybe you should check your pulse. Also, Andy Borowitz was getting serious.

I don’t know what the answer is to something which bugs me about this otherwise excellent Pro Publica article, which is well researched and factual. It’s the tone. It sounds so surprised that a Mange Menace appointee appointed a deputy who is an obvious criminal. Because, of course he did. That’s what this administration does. I don’t want to normalize this behavior, but I also don’t want, for myself or anyone on my side, to sound like an idiot surprised that the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west daily. There has to be some kind of middle way to address these predictable but horrible events.

I’ve added a “sarcasm” tag to this from the F* News, not because every word is sarcastic, but because the author is affecting naivete, requiring the reader to pay more than normal attention to determine what’s being said. But the fact remains, whoever or whatever is driving this administrations policies and actions, the fact remains that all the policies are gawdawful

BIG Mouth Awards

Every 1,000th Comment
20 – Infidel – 7/6/2011
21 – SoINeedAName – 7/25/2011
22 – SoINeedAName – 8/17/2011
23 – Maria – 9/7/2011
24 – Phyllis – 9/29/2011
25 – Tom – 10/22/2011
26 – Lynn Squance – 11/25/2011
27 – Deborah – 12/29/2011
28 – Patty – 1/19/2012
29 – Lynn Squance – 2/8/2012
30 – Jolly Roger – 3/8/2012
31 – Patty – 5/4/2012
32 – Marva Dasef – 6/8/2012
33 – Patty – 7/8//2012
34 – Edith Belcher – 8/12//2012
35 – Patty – 9/17/2012
36 – Tasunka – 10/12/2012
37 – Lynn Squance – 11/6/2012
38 – SoINeedAName – 11/29/2012
39 – Lynn Squance – 1/11/2013
40 – Lynn Squance – 2/17/2013
41 – Patty – 3/23/2013
42 – Edith Belcher – 5/29/2013
43 – Jim Phillips – 6/29/2013
44 – Patty – 7/27/2013
45- Lynn Squance – 8/21/2013
46 – Rixar13 – 9/12/2013
47 – Rixar13 – 10/4/2013
48- Lynn Squance – 10/25/2013
49 – Patty – 11/27/2013
50 – Lynn Squance – 1/13/2014
51 – Patty – 3/7/2014
52 – Yvonne White – 4/16/2014
53 – Edie – 5/20/2014
54 – Jerry Critter – 6/23/2014
55 – Lynn Squance – 7/29/2014
56 – Joanne D – 9/5/2014
57 – Patty – 10/19/2014
58 – Arielle – 11/16/2014
59 – Pat A – 12/26/2014
60 – SoINeedAName – 1/24/2015
61 – Lynn Squance – 2/18/2015
62 – Joanne D – 3/21/2015
63 – Vivian B – 4/23/2015
64 – Joanne D – 5/23/2015
65 – Yvonne White – 6/22/2015
66 – SoINeedAName – 7/16/2015
67 – Lona Goudswaard – 8/6/2015
68 – Mamabear – 8/25/2015
72 – Judi Angell – 11/27/2015
74 – Judi Angell – 1/18/2016
75 – Jerry Critter – 1/2/2016
76 – Lona Goudswaard – 3/11/2016
77 – Lona Goudswaard – 4/4/2016
78 – Pat B – 5/5/2016
79 – Mitch D – 6/5/2016
80 – Joanne D – 7/3/2016
81 – Lona Goudswaard – 7/30/2016
82 – Mitch D – 9/2/2016
83 – Joanne D – 10/6/2016
84 – Pat A – 11/10/2016
85 – Pat B – 12/11/2016
86 – Pat A – 1/14/2017
87 – Lynn Squance – 2/18/2017
88 – Vivian Birdwell – 4/5/2017
89 – Vivian Birdwell – 5/16/2017
90 – Lona Goudswaard – 6/23/2017
91 – SoINeedAName – 7/30/2017
92 – Joanne D – 9/4/2017
93 – Pat B – 10/12/2017
94 – SoINeedAName – 11/20/2017
95 – Jerry Critter – 12/31/2017
96 – Joanne D – 2/12/2018
97 – Pat B – 3/27/2018
98 – Richard A – 5/5/2018
99 – Lynn Squance – 6/12/2018
100 – Mitch D – 7/20/2018
101 – Pat B – 8/30/2018
102 – Pat B – 10/5/2018
103 – Joanne D – 11/9/2018
104 – Animae – 12/18/2018
105 – Animae – 1/25/2019
106 – Colleen – 3/2/2019
107 – Joanne D – 4/11/2019
108 – Animae – 6/1/2019
109 – Pat B – 8/9/2019
110- Angelflowers – 09/20/2019
111 – Colleen – 11/5/2019
112 – Pat B – 12/25/2019
113 – None – My Bad
114 – Pat B – 3/24/2020
115 – Freya – 5/24/2020
116 – JL – 7/4/2020
117 – Colleen – 8/13/2020