[mpen-dayton4] FW: "A Joke or is it Real: ..." & "The Republican Party in Black and White" & "Inside the GOP Clown Car" and more

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·         FW: A Joke or is it Real: An Open Letter to Dr. Laura Schlesinger

·         FW: 10 Things That Will Disappear..

·         FW: The Republican Party in Black and White

·         FW: Inside the GOP Clown Car

·         FW: Bernie Sanders Should Stop Ducking Foreign Policy

·         FW: The most incredibly lucid explanation, by a US Senator, of why the Iran Deal MUST be supported

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From: Allen Shaw
Subject: A Joke or is it Real: An Open Letter to Dr. Laura Schlesinger

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/03/25/850561/-An-Open-Letter-to-Dr-Laura-Schlesinger?detail=emailclassic

 

 

From: inder chandra
Subject: 10 Things That Will Disappear..

Times Are A-Changing - Get ready

Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime

This is USA oriented, but Canada & the rest will not be far behind.   Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them.  But, ready or not, here they come.

1.            THE POST OFFICE
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2.            THE CHECK
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018.  It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.  Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check.  This plays right into the death of the post office.  If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3.            THE NEWSPAPER
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man.  As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4.            THE BOOK
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5.            THE LAND LINE TELEPHONE
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore.  Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.

6.            MUSIC
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death.  Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7.            TELEVISION
Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy.  People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix. (Are theaters next?)

8.            THE "THINGS" THAT YOU OWN
Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents.  Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?"  Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9.            JOINED HANDWRITING  (CURSIVE WRITING)
Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting" because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type (pun not intended).

10.        PRIVACY
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy.  That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway... There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, on most policemen (and maybe soon everyday civilians will be wearing them) and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits... "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again and again!

A couple more that I think will disappear-Clocks… a lot of kids these days can't read one…unless it is "digital".

The phrase "your shoe laces are untied".  This will go the way of the dodo bird.  Most kids can't tie their shoes.  I used to think it was a fashion statement…but now I'm convinced they just don't know how.

 

 

From: Raynard Jackson
Subject: The Republican Party in Black and White

The Republican Party in Black and White

August 17, 2015
By Raynard Jackson, Columnist

As one who makes a living in the world of public relations (PR) and strategic planning, I am paid to see things others are blind to.  Anyone can do PR.  Anyone can do strategic planning.  But very few can do both simultaneously, thus I created the term "straticist."

A straticist not only see things others cannot see, but they also have the innate ability to connect seemingly unconnected dots into a meaningful mosaic.

This is why I don't believe in polls when it comes to politics.  I don't need a poll to tell me what the electorate is thinking, but 99.9% of political operatives live and die by polls.  This explains why Republicans are having such a difficult time trying to explain away the Trump phenomenon. 

The party is surrounded by the same old white consultants and advisors from top to bottom, thus you keep getting the same results—losses.

Sometimes in life you can win and yet lose at the same time.  For example, because of the Congressional Black Caucus' complicity in the redistricting after the 1990 census; they gained more majority minority districts in the U.S. House of Representatives, thus increasing the number of Blacks elected to the House.  But, as a direct result of this, Republicans took control of the House for the first time in over 40 years back in 1995; thus leading to the political polarization you see today.  Personal politics won, America lost.

In June I wrote a column titled, "Republican Presidential Candidates Lack Diversity."  It created quite a stir based on all the phone calls and emails I received.  I even received a couple of calls from a few of the presidential campaigns explaining to me that they want to hire Blacks, but they have been having difficulty finding people to hire.  Of course everyone knows this is total B.S. 

Where do they find white staffers and consultants to hire?  So, obviously, these campaigns have no relationships with any Blacks.  If this is the case, they don't deserve to be president of the U.S.

So, this led me to do an experiment.  There are 17 Republican candidates for president.  I went to all of their websites and to my non surprise; very few even have a photo of a Black person on their sites.  Now this might not mean much in the big scheme of things; but these little nuances can make or break a campaign or the image of a brand.

If these campaigns were aware of their lack of diversity in their campaigns and websites and just didn't give a damn, then I could accept that because at that point they made a conscious decision.  But I can't and will not accept the fact that most of these campaigns are not even cognizant of their lack of diversity.

Persuasion may change the mind of the person who doesn't care; but persuasion can't change the mind of the person who is not aware.

The Republican Party continues to look like a Norman Rockwell painting.  How is that possible in a country where we are nearly a majority minority country? 

I have repeatedly told all those in the party who will listen that Blacks are looking for a reason to vote Republican; but they can't vote for that which they can't see. 

One of the basic tenets of advertising is that the consumer "must" be able to realistically see themselves using the product or service.

If we are not part of the campaign team, not on the website, or not in their advertisement, then the message gets overridden by the visual.
How can Blacks vote for a party that they are not represented in?  In PR, optics is just as important as message.  All of the most successful media campaigns in business or politics have had both great optics and great messaging simultaneously.

So is it any wonder that JEB Bush was found totally unprepared last week when he was accosted by Black Lives Matter members at one of his campaign events in Nevada?  I have been warning for months that race was going to be a top issue during this presidential election cycle. 

How in the hell can these campaigns navigate issues of race with an all-white staff and advisors?  I am mortified that Republicans have white staffers writing speeches that candidates have to give before a Black audience.  I can't remember the last time I have heard a Republican give a speech to a Black audience that made any sense.  I am not aware of one Black speechwriter in the Republican Party.

Republicans can't afford to wait until our nominee is chosen to begin to deal with the issues of race.  Race is going to force some of these Republicans to drop out during the primary.  It's just a matter of time before one of these Republican candidates say something stupid or inappropriate relative to race and will be forced to exit the race.

I can guarantee you that none of these candidates have been briefed by any Black Republicans who can help them navigate these tricky waters of race. 

Republicans have ceded various media platforms to Black liberal Democrats.  You have absolutely no Black Republican surrogates in the media pushing back on the foolishness perpetuated by the other side. 

When it comes to Blacks in the Republican Party, Republicans are truly colorblind or just blind to people of color.

Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC is an internationally recognized political consulting, government affairs, and PR firm based in Washington, DC.  Jackson is an internationally recognized radio talk show host and TV commentator.  He has coined the phrase "straticist."  As a straticist, he has merged strategic planning with public relations.  Visit is website at:  www.raynardjackson.com.

P.S.  Click on the link below for another interesting article about the Black vote.. Now that a white person is saying the same thing as me, MAYBE the party will FINALLY listen to me:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/what-nixon-can-teach-the-gop-about-courting-black-voters-121392.html?hp=m1#.VdFwgPlViko

 

Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC is an internationally recognized political consulting, government affairs, and PR firm based in Washington, DC.  Jackson is an internationally recognized radio talk show host and TV commentator.  He has coined the phrase "straticist."  As a straticist, he has merged strategic planning with public relations.  Call RJA to discuss how they can get you to the next level of your career.

 

 

From: Eric Kramer
Subject: FW: Inside the GOP Clown Car

The first, and most brutal casting call of the new American reality show:

Inside the GOP Clown Car

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-gop-clown-car-20150812

 

 

From: James Lucas
Subject: Fwd: Bernie Sanders Should Stop Ducking Foreign Policy

Bernie Sanders Should Stop Ducking Foreign Policy

Norman Solomon; August 5, 2015; Al Jazeera

The progressive favorite has views on foreign affairs but has avoided articulating them to voters.



Huffington Post,

Senator Bernie Sanders has sparked a strong grassroots response in his run for the Democratic presidential nomination on social and economic issues. At the same time, he has given short shrift to foreign policy, military spending and war. That approach should change.

I'm among millions of supporters who are enthusiastic about the clarity of his positions in taking on Wall Street, corporate power and economic inequality. But we also need Sanders to be clear about what he would do as commander in chief of the world's leading military power.

A snapshot of avoidance can be found on the Sanders campaign's official website. Under the headline "On the Issues," Sanders makes no mention of foreign policy, war or any other military topic. The same omissions were on display at an Iowa Democratic Party annual dinner on July 17, when Sanders gave a compelling speech but made no reference to foreign affairs. Hearing him talk, you wouldn't have a clue that the United States is in its 14th year of continuous warfare. Nor would you have the foggiest inkling that a vast military budget is badly limiting options for the expanded public investment in college education, infrastructure, clean energy and jobs that Sanders is advocating.

Such omissions have become typical of Sanders' campaign. After hearing the candidate address a rally with 8,000 people in Portland, Maine, in early July, longtime activist Bruce Gagnon was glum. An Air Force veteran who coordinates a group opposing weapons in space, Gagnon wrote: "Nothing was said about the metastasizing Pentagon budget nor a mumbling word was spoken about foreign policy."

Perhaps Sanders prefers to bypass such issues because addressing them in any depth might split his growing base of supporters, who have been drawn to his fervent economic populism. But ongoing war and huge military spending continue to be deeply enmeshed with ills of the domestic U.S. economy and many dire social problems. About 54 percent of the U.S. government's discretionary spending now goes to military purposes, hemming in more productive expenditures. 

While unavailable on his campaign website and barely mentioned on the stump, the broad outlines of Sanders' opinions about foreign policy and war can be gleaned from interviews and Q&A portions of town hall appearances. For the most part, on those subjects, his outlook appears to be in line with the views of many Democrats on Capitol Hill.

After a question about "the military establishment" and "perpetual war" from a man who identified himself as a veteran for peace at a recent town hall gathering in Iowa City, Sanders' reply was tepid Democratic boilerplate. He blamed Republican hawks for getting the U.S. into Iraq. He called for progress against waste and cost overruns at the Pentagon. And he said that in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the U.S. government should act jointly with regional allies such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey. ("Those countries are going to have to get their hands dirty, it cannot just be the United States alone.")

When pressed for details on military intervention, Sanders has indicated that his differences with the Barack Obama administration are quite minor. Like many Democrats, he supports U.S. air strikes in the Middle East, while asserting that only countries in the region should deploy ground forces there. Sanders shares the widespread view among members of Congress who don't want boots on the ground but do want U.S. air power to keep dropping bombs and firing missiles.

On foreign policy, Sanders cannot rely simply on his 2002 congressional vote against the invasion of Iraq to set himself apart.

Sanders has also urged confronting Russian leader Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. ("You totally isolate him politically, you totally isolate him economically," Sanders said on Fox News last year.) Closer to home, the Vermont senator has championed the $1.4 trillion half-century program for Lockheed Martin's F-35 beleaguered fighter jets. The Air Force is planning to base F-35s at the commercial airport in Burlington, his state's largest city.

One of Sanders' great strengths as the longest-serving independent member of Congress in U.S. history is that he has been all about big issues – not personalities. Now that he's running for president, he should address all of the big issues.  

On July 27, Sanders put out a 2,300-word statement on "why I am running" that devoted only a few sentences to U.S. foreign and military policies. "The United States spends more on the military than the next nine biggest-spending countries combined," the statement noted. Sanders also decried Pentagon cost overruns. But in sharp contrast to his in-depth denunciations of corporate power and "oligarchy," the statement did little to challenge the status quo of militarism.

"We must be vigorous in combating terrorism, but we can't do it alone," Sanders said. "We must be part of an international coalition that includes Muslim nations which not only defeats ISIS but which works hard to create conditions for lasting peace. I will vigorously oppose an endless war in the Middle East."

Such pronouncements are scarcely different than President Obama's current stance (which includes rhetoric against "perpetual war") and hardly distinguish him from his rivals for the nomination.

As a genuine economic populist who thrives on fighting for the interests of working people while challenging Wall Street and big banks, Sanders differs significantly from Hillary Clinton. But on foreign policy, he cannot rely simply on his 2002 congressional vote against the invasion of Iraq to set himself apart. (Clinton's vote in favor was a contributing factor to her loss to Obama in the 2008 presidential race.) Now, Sanders should make clear how he currently differs — or agrees — with Clinton on key aspects of war policies, foreign affairs and the military-industrial complex.

For starters, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders might want to draw on the wisdom to be found on the official Senate website of … Senator Bernie Sanders. He could find useful guidance from this statement: "Any serious discussion of how to reduce the national debt and control spending must begin with defense spending." As a major contender for the presidency, Sanders should initiate that serious discussion.

Norman Solomon is the author of "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." He is the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and co-founder of RootsAction.org, which has launched a petition titled "Bernie Sanders, Speak Up: Militarism and Corporate Power Are Fueling Each Other."'

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it.

 

 

From: krameres@msn.com
Subject: The most incredibly lucid explanation, by a US Senator, of why the Iran Deal MUST be supported

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/18/1412996/-The-most-incredibly-lucid-explanation-by-a-US-Senator-of-why-the-Iran-Deal-MUST-be-supported?detail=facebook

 

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