"Noon Protest at DNC Headquarters - 8/3/15!!!!!! – Update on "Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Give Senator Bernie Sanders a Fair Chance by Increasing Number of Sanctioned Debates". They are suggesting phone calls to DWS and your local Democratic corporate office.

My gosh you guys are up early. When I saw the OT in the list, I thought I must be dreaming. Won't be around. Have a good day everyone.

Thanks for the Poem. Ginsberg is one of my favorites. He came to give a reading at my college library in Portland back in 1980 or 81 and only a small group showed up. He read Plutonian Ode. That reading changed me inside, opened my young mind, and basically radicalized me. One poem. One wise old man in a crumpled white suit wearing giant owl like glasses.

I've been enjoying reading the conversations here. Kindred souls. I hope everybody has a great day.

Just about everything that you need to know about the United States' commitment to world peace is subsumed in the fact that the Obama-appointed chairman of the United States Institute of Peace gets six-figure paychecks from his gig as a board member of the war industry, Raytheon. If you need an irony supplement, click the link and read the whole thing.

Institute of Peace’s Hawkish Chairman Wants Ukraine to Send Russians Back in Body Bags

The United States Institute of Peace is a publicly funded national institution chartered by the U.S. government to promote international peace through nonviolent conflict resolution.

But its chairman, Stephen Hadley, is a relentless hawk whose advocacy for greater military intervention often dovetails closely with the interests of Raytheon, a major defense contractor that pays him handsomely as a member of its board of directors.

Hadley, the former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, was an advocate for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and more recently appeared in the media to call for massive airstrikes in Syria. Over the last year, he has called for escalating the conflict in Ukraine.

In a speech at Poland’s Wroclaw Global Forum in June, Hadley argued in favor of arming the Ukrainian government in part because that would “raise the cost for what Russia is doing in Ukraine.” Specifically, he said, “even President Putin is sensitive to body bags — it sounds coarse to say, but it’s true — but body bags of Russian soldiers who have been killed.” ...

Kevin Connor, director of the Public Accountability Initiative, a watchdog group that has criticized Hadley’s work for Raytheon in the past, is calling for Hadley to step aside.

“If the U.S. Institute of Peace is just an Orwellian absurdity, then Hadley is an appropriate chairman,” says Connor. “If it wants to demonstrate that it isn’t that, Hadley’s resignation or removal would be a step in the right direction.”

you are such a soul mensch for posting this OT. An antidote to all the hopelessness and fears that can get hold of ones heart and mind. Thank you.
Will leave here to continue with the business of surviving no matter how. Have all a very good day.

I don't know what to say about this.
link

A group of Western nations are planning to send ground troops into Libya to train local authorities and launch attacks against a branch of the Islamic State group, military sources have told The Times of London.

The United Kingdom, United States, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany will work together with the United Nations and European Union to “rebuild organs of the state and train security forces,” The Times reported on Friday.

The mission will be launched once a unity government is agreed by warring parties in Libya, which the unnamed military sources said will be put in place imminently...

Air strikes will be necessary in the latest military intervention, military sources said, adding that the mission will move swiftly once a unity government is in place.

“You might see movement towards the end of August,” the source told The Times. “Things will then start to move very quickly.”

have to listen to the 'Railroaders's Lament' after I conduct a bit of business this afternoon, since I got a very late start today.

Quickly, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts about FSC's campaign strategy. What is the official term for Bernie's supports, BTW? I don't read DKos enough to really know what term has been coined.

["Deaniac" was not my favorite term, though I didn't object to being called one, since I was a fervent supporter of Dean's.]

For now, I'll just post a piece below that Mr M ran across. In so many way, FSC is duplicating 'to a tee' PBO's 2008 run--and clearly going for his coalition. (Which leaves out many of us.)

FSC's Camp appears to be pushing her late Mother's biographical background, in an attempt to offset some of Bernie's progress with his truly populist agenda; and, at the same time, setting up a 'narrative' to be the focus of her Campaign.

Once it 'sets in,' and the MSM begins to parrot it, the narrative will be hard to dispel, no matter how many discrepancies, half-truths, etc., it contains. (That is 'assuming' that are some--frankly, I haven't had time to attempt to 'fact check' anything, since I've not had time to watch the video. Could be that they've been smart, and not distorted any facts. We shall see!)

[Full Disclosure: As mentioned, I'll have to watch the video later this evening. But I've read for almost a year what FSC's campaign strategy would be--use her Mother's hard scrabble background/biography as the foundation for her own biographical narrative. BTW, I'm in no way intending to disparage her Mother, or the hardships she suffered. If what is said about her is true, she did have a very difficult time, and was to be commended for overcoming many obstacles. Just so that's understood.]

After all, the ONLY way that a corporatist neoliberal candidate can win, is if he can dupe the majority of the American People regarding his agenda, his motives, and often, his/her own background.

Aside from Obama, GWB was quite successful at this--adopting the 'Good Ol' Boy' Texas Rancher persona (never mind his blue blood New England upbringing and roots), to win over the Republican Base. All one need do, is look at his life today--comfortably encounced in Houston, pursuing painting! A far cry from cutting brush, while wearing a cow boy hat and boots, I'd say.

Have a good afternoon. See you later!

Hillary Clinton set to launch $2 million ad campaign

She’s spending big in New Hampshire and Iowa before the airwaves get cluttered.
By ANNIE KARNI 8/2/15 10:18 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton will become the first top-tier candidate to hit the airwaves in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire starting Tuesday with a $2 million ad buy for five weeks of television commercials — a gambit intended to get out in front of her competitors and help boost her popularity before the airwaves are cluttered with competing messages from other candidates.

It’s also a show of force in Iowa, where recent polls show Clinton’s favorability numbers dropping and where Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has enjoyed surging popularity — the single ad buy is almost as large as Sanders’ total campaign spending of $3 million in the first quarter, and more than any top-tier Republican candidate has spent so far on ads.

The television spots, each 60 seconds, focus on Clinton’s mother, Dorothy Rodham, the person she says inspired her to fight for women and children, and whom she highlighted in her kickoff speech on Roosevelt Island in June. . . .

Postcript: Hope DKos does another money bomb for Senator Sanders, soon. He clearly doesn't need his lead to begin to lessen or weaken. I believe that it's possible for him to win Iowa and NH, or, to at at least, come in so close a second, that FSC won't be able to truly declare victory. (Until we make up our minds, we'll contribute to both him and Dr Stein, even if we don't actively campaign.)

Mollie

Daily Kos moved to Oakland

But, when did the grass roots blog I joined all those years ago become a business?