I have to enjoy it later in the day and have to go. But I like to ask some of you very good and well read people here, to consider writing about this morning's section in Democracy Now, in which Amy interviews Lawrence Lessig, who said some important sentences with regards of how go about to change the "slave-owner US constitution" and introduce "equality rights", something that was touched in Joe's essay and Pluto's comment.

It's too early to have clipped videos on youtube or transcript, but I hope someone sees some good points in Lessig's ideas and plans.

I always appreciate your Open Threads. You give us something very different each week. I love the poem this week.

I just learned yesterday that I will not be attending the big dkos Asheville meetup either. I knew we were going to be entertaining company some time in September and that is the weekend that they will be arriving.

We have been having some very lovely weather here in our little bit of heaven in the Appalachians. We are heading into my favorite time of the year.

Gamblers are clogging the tubes, shrieking about money.

You call it loud
But the human crowd
Doesn't mean shit to a tree

It's on: the cats are taking the money.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2vpVskyiRU]

DOW was down over 1,000 points before recovering most of it.
It's still going to be ugly today.

The S&P 500 was halted for the first time in its history.

After suffering the worst week in four years, trading in S&P 500 index futures and Dow Jones futures hit the circuit breaker and have been halted.
The New York Stock Exchange on Monday invoked the rarely used "Rule 48" on market volatility to ease market opening.

terminally medicated goofus Uncle Ben Carson, having decided he could serve as VP on a ticket with The Hairball, is sucking up to the Master by suggesting the US should bomb Mexico.

Uncle Ben also said he once supported abortion, but then he looked through a Special Machine at the lady parts of women, and thereby determined that abortion was just like slavery, because he saw there in the lady parts the poor little feti, bound in chains, forced to pick uterine cotton all day.

Then Uncle Ben declared Obama to be an anti-semite, based on Obama's speech outlining the Iran accord, which Uncle Ben has determined was "replete with coded innuendos employing standard anti-Semitic themes."

See, Uncle Ben has a new, improved definition of anti-semitism. "Anything is anti-Semitic that is against the survival of a state that is surrounded by enemies and by people who want to destroy them, " decreed the shamelessly ignorant idjit. "And to sort of ignore that and to act like everything is normal there and that these people are paranoid, I think that’s anti-Semitic."

Yemen

Last Monday, officials from Yemen’s pro-Saudi “government-in-exile” declared the southern port city of Aden to be their temporary capital, with the plan for it to be the nation’s capital for the next five years while Saudi-led forces retake the rest of the country.
Pro-Saudi officials had been hyping the capture of Aden from the Shi’ite Houthis for weeks as a major shift in the war, but as they try to press their offensive, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) seems to be coming in through the back door, and now controls parts of Aden.

Interestingly, there was no sign the pro-Saudi forces were resisting in any serious way, and no signs of major battles inside Aden. Rather, locals said self-described al-Qaeda forces were patrolling the streets of western Aden with impunity, and had raised the AQAP flag over several government buildings, including the port complex itself.

AQAP had already benefitted materially from the Saudi war in Yemen, seizing the port of Mukalla further down the shore. Taking Aden would be a real game-changer, however, as it would be by far the biggest city in al-Qaeda’s possession anywhere in the world, giving them a PR victory akin to that ISIS enjoyed when it captured the huge Iraqi of Mosul.

Just a reminder: we are on Saudi Arabia's side here.

Small rant. As some of you may know, I have this huge Snowden facebook page that Edger and I used to run together, but when he died he left it to me. You would think that not wanting to be spied on is one issue that people, no matter what party or ideology they come from, could rally together on. Yet half the week I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall. From the people who just want to post about how Sandy Hook was a "false flag" to the spammers selling unglasses to the fanboys who want Ed for President...ugh. It wears a person down. And now we're getting into the candidate posts. Some of it's just straight up embarrassing.

Still- I can't quit. I promised Edger, and it is important. I have some really great contributors there too, who have their eye on the ball. But if the past week is any indication the election season is going to be crazy.

(again) for a lovely and enjoyable OT! I will have to mostly lurk for a while due to family matters, but always very much look forward to your OT's (especially the lovely music).

Have a good one, All!

Mollie

"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."--Author Unknown

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/24/top-democ...

My first thought was of how Bernie's challenge to Hillary is like McCarthy's to Johnson and that Biden's entry would be analogous to Bobby Kennedy jumping in which angered the McCarthy people.

But, reconsidering, it would be more like Humphrey becoming a candidate after Johnson announced he wouldn't run again.