You’ve got your troubles, they’ve got theirs

Life is just a bowl of cherries.
Don't take it serious; it's too mysterious.
You work, you save, you worry so,
But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go.

So keep repeating it's the berries,
The strongest oak must fall,

The sweet things in life, to you were just loaned
So how can you lose what you've never owned?

Life is just a bowl of cherries,
So live and laugh at it all.

"Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries," lyrics by Lew Brown, music by Ray Henderson (1931)

************

Oh, yes we're in the money, you bet we're in the money,
We've got a lot of what it takes to get along!
Let's go, we're in the money, Look up, the skies are sunny,
Old Man Depression you are through, you done us wrong.

We never see a headline about breadlines today.
And when we see the landlord we can look that guy right in the eye

We're in the money, come on, my honey,
Let's lend it, spend it, send it rolling along!

"We're in the Money," lyrics by Al Dubin, music by Harry Warren (from the film Gold Diggers of 1933, 1933)

****************************

The 'suicide/murders reports' are starting to come in. It would be worthy of a sociological dissertation to learn whether death attributable to 'Wall Street Ruin' differs in any way between this generation and the one in the 30's.

This post is aimed at those of you who were living your lives, oblivious to the carnage about to happen, and found yourself, just as you did, during the dot com bust, with only a fraction of the wealth you had before. This time, however, the value of your house is ALSO a fraction of what it was once worth. For some, this means that your refinancing plans–to get out of credit card debt, or send your kids to another year of college–are trashed. That idea you had of selling the homestead and moving to someplace smaller and warmer, (or cooler) has vanished, and your thoughts have turned to wondering how much money you'd have to PAY, if you wanted to get out from under your mortgage. It's called being "upside down" on your mortgage, something I spoke about two years ago.

That was when it all looked rosy.

If you run a small business, you might find it impossible to expand, or your bank, because of its own financial trouble, might "call in your loan." Yes, they can do that, even if you haven't done anything wrong. They can decide, after a closed-door meeting, that they need to "call in your loan," and if you owe them $10,000 or $50,000 or $100,000, that you've been paying back, faithfully each month, they can send you a little piece of paper saying: "Pay it all now." And yes, it will bankrupt you. And, yes, they know it will.

[ ... ]

Meanwhile, if you have trouble sleeping, have lost your appetite, feel hopeless, helpless, depressed, or even suicidal, find a knowledgeable person to talk to. You need perspective. If you are clinically depressed, your thinking is foggy, and you'll need that broader perspective. You'll need strategies to help you sleep through the night, manage your anxiety, talk through your worries, and do the essentials that need to be done, day by day.

For those who are not clinically depressed, but just worried and upset, it may be time to watch a few great flicks from the Great Depression. These were "escapist" films that people would go to great lengths to find the nickel to go see. They lifted the spirits for a few hours, and took away the cares of a depression that no one believed would end in their lifetimes.

~ more... ~

 

Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin at JBS 50th celebration

On Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4, Presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin and Texas Congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul, respectively addressed the sold-out crowd at the celebration of the John Birch Society's 50th Anniversary.

Congressman Paul and Rev. Baldwin addressed the group at the celebration held in Neenah, Wisconsin, near JBS headquarters. Paul and Baldwin headlined a line up of 40 speakers that also included Rev. Steven Craft and Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson as well as William F. Jasper, senior editor of The New American magazine, and Professor Steve Bonta, a leading expert linguist and historian.

The assembled members of the Society heard portions of speeches given in the 1970s by JBS founder Robert Welch. The group also heard from Robert Welch's son, Mr. Hillard "Hid" Welch, a member of the JBS National Council.

Congressman Paul was introduced to the gathering by JBS President John F. McManus. In his speech, Dr. Paul said he was "delighted to help celebrate" the Society's birthday because he "considers it very important."

Also during that speech, Congressman Paul gave credit to former JBS president and Congressman from Georgia, Larry McDonald. Dr. Paul recalled that Congressman McDonald helped him decide to run for Congress in the 1970s. He also recalled when, during a large press conference after being sworn into office for the first time, he was asked by a reporter from Texas if he was a member of The John Birch Society. To that question Dr. Paul recalls replying: "No, I'm not a member, but to tell you the truth, the members of The John Birch Society have been very good friends of mine."

Rev. Baldwin also congratulated the JBS on its 50th anniversary and recalled the role the organization played in his life when, as a boy, he attended a chapter meeting with his father. In a rousing speech, he outlined what he would do if elected President, including saying, "John McCain will not secure the borders and Barack Obama will not secure the borders, but I guarantee that Chuck Baldwin will secure the borders. You can count on that!" He also pointed out that he disagrees with the major party candidates on international trade deals saying that while John McCain supports NAFTA, he wants to get rid of NAFTA.

"These so-called free trade deals are killing our country," Baldwin said, noting that in Detroit an auto factory where he once worked is today, like many others, torn down. That, he said, would change if he were elected. "When Chuck Baldwin becomes president," he promised,"We're going to bring our jobs back to America."

 

~ The John Birch Society ~

 

Revolting peasants

From the film 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'

ARTHUR and PATSY riding. They stop and look. We see a castle in the
distance, and before it a PEASANT is working away on his knees trying
to dig up the earth with his bare hands and a twig. ARTHUR and
PATSY ride up, and stop before the PEASANT

ARTHUR
Old woman!

DENNIS
Man!

ARTHUR
Man. I'm sorry. Old man, What knight live in that castle
over there?

DENNIS
I'm thirty-seven.

ARTHUR
What?

DENNIS:
I'm thirty-seven ... I'm not old.

ARTHUR:
Well - I can't just say: "Hey, Man!'

DENNIS
Well you could say: "Dennis"

ARTHUR
I didn't know you were called Dennis.

DENNIS
You didn't bother to find out, did you?

ARTHUR
I've said I'm sorry about the old woman, but from the behind
you looked ...

DENNIS
What I object to is that you automatically treat me like
an inferior ...

ARTHUR
Well ... I AM king.

DENNIS
Oh, very nice. King, eh! I expect you've got a palace and fine
clothes and courtiers and plenty of food. And how d'you get that?
By exploiting the workers! By hanging on to outdated imperialist
dogma which perpetuates the social and economic differences in our
society! If there's EVER going to be any progress ...

An OLD WOMAN appears.

OLD WOMAN
Dennis! There's some lovely filth down here ... Oh!
how d'you do?

ARTHUR
How d'you do, good lady ... I am Arthur, King of the Britons ...
can you tell me who lives in that castle?

OLD WOMAN
King of the WHO?

ARTHUR
The Britons.

OLD WOMAN
Who are the Britons?

ARTHUR
All of us are ... we are all Britons.

DENNIS winks at the OLD WOMAN.

... and I am your king ....

OLD WOMAN
Ooooh! I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were
an autonomous collective ...

DENNIS
You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship,
A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes ...

OLD WOMAN
There you are, bringing class into it again ...

DENNIS
That's what it's all about ... If only -

ARTHUR
Please, please good people. I am in haste. What knight lives in
that castle?

OLD WOMAN
No one live there.

ARTHUR
Well, who is your lord?

OLD WOMAN
We don't have a lord.

ARTHUR
What?
DENNIS
I told you, We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune, we take
it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.

ARTHUR
Yes.

DENNIS
... But all the decision of that officer ...

ARTHUR
Yes, I see.

DENNIS
... must be approved at a bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority
in the case of purely internal affairs.

ARTHUR
Be quiet!

DENNIS
... but a two-thirds majority ...

ARTHUR
Be quiet! I order you to shut up.

OLD WOMAN
Order, eh -- who does he think he is?

ARTHUR
I am your king!

OLD WOMAN
Well, I didn't vote for you.

ARTHUR
You don't vote for kings.

OLD WOMAN
Well, how did you become king, then?

ARTHUR
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite,
held Excalibur aloft from the bosom of the water to signify by
Divine Providence ... that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur ...
That is why I am your king!

DENNIS
Look, strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out
swords ... that's no basis for a system of government. Supreme
executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from
some farcical aquatic ceremony.

ARTHUR
Be quiet!

DENNIS
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power
just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

ARTHUR
Shut up!

DENNIS
I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some
moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, people would
put me away!

ARTHUR
(Grabbing him by the collar)
Shut up, will you. Shut up!

DENNIS
Ah! NOW ... we see the violence inherent in the system.

ARTHUR
Shut up!

PEOPLE (i.e. other PEASANTS) are appearing and watching.

DENNIS
(calling)
Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!

ARTHUR
(aware that people are now coming out and watching)
Bloody peasant!
(pushes DENNIS over into mud and prepares to ride off)

DENNIS
Oh, Did you hear that! What a give-away.

ARTHUR
Come on, patsy.

They ride off.

DENNIS
(in the background as we PULL OUT)
did you see him repressing me, then? That's what I've
been on about ...

~ Spunk Library ~

Maoist film critic digs 'The Matrix"

From the Maoist Internationalist Movement:

 

Larry and Andy Wachowski have directed a Hollywood film of tremendous value -- a great gift to the revolutionary movement on par with that of  Reds  politically and done artistically as well as can be with special effects. This is not a "B" grade indoctrination and it touches on many important areas of revolutionary thought.

[ ... ]

The moment of truth comes when Neo finally understands that he is a battery in a farm controlled by a computer program. When he learns this he moves to attack Morpheus, the messenger that told him no, Neo was never in control as an individual. Neo gets unplugged from the computer program where he learned the truth and we get the sense that he would have killed everyone in that unit of the resistance if he hadn't fallen unconscious first.

MIM recognized this moment. Unfortunately, more often than not MIM is unsuccessful at that moment. Most imperialist country people refuse to accept science, the notion of materialism and the idea that the individual is not free. They violently and irrationally attack the messenger and cling to pre-political lifestyle moralism.

Morpheus's resistance is better than MIM's, because once the recruit accepts the pursuit of truth, Morpheus can show people mechanically how their brains work. It becomes a matter more like learning to drive a car than one of years of study.

Not only is there military hierarchy in the resistance, but a traitor arises within the resistance who blames Morpheus for teaching him the truth and who says he's still not free because he only follows Morpheus's orders. The anarchist-individualist sells out to the Matrix for steak, wine and a future computer program where he is famous and wealthy. Thus after achieving a relatively high level of scientific
consciousness, the traitor says he is "tired" and actually kills his one-time compatriots before being killed before he could be re-absorbed by the Matrix.

Drawbacks

There are a few drawbacks to this film. It has the mandatory Hollywood minimum of violence. The violence is righteous, but of course even the perfect film will be misconstrued in the current capitalist context. The choreographing of violence to music makes it more akin to dance.

Morpheus is Black and the "Oracle" who predicts the future is a Black womyn, but there is a slight incongruity in speaking of an "Oracle" and "fate" when it is clear that science has advanced so far. Fate should not be used as a metaphor for forces beyond individualontrol.

Romance is kept down to a minimum, but the film ends with a classic (and borrowed) heterosexual charge. The last fight scene is as a result the most trippy of all, but we do not believe the romance or the superpowers involved in the last fight will overshadow the step-by-step progression in science that people went through in the movie up to that point. If there is a sequel, we may learn even more about what happened, so that the viewers are left with no mystical residues.

Our attention needs be elsewhere

US elections: a waste of your time and energy

It's a very effective game. It is not necessary that anyone actually like their own candidates, it is only necessary that they fear and hate the other candidate. There is no necessity for either candidate to express any kind of vision or comprehensive program, because people are mainly concerned that their candidate score debating points against the hated opponent. To the extent either candidate has anything positive to say, that is limited to stroking the egos of their supporters, spouting meaningless rhetoric that appeals to their constituency's psychological profile. The sign of a good con man is that he appears to be trustworthy and honest to his mark (constituency). As Walter Cronkite put it, when asked what makes for a good news anchor, "the ability to lie convincingly". - Richard Moore

Richard Moore
World Prout Assembly
10 Oct. 2008

I am amazed at how many of you have been sending me messages about the elections, most of them telling me how bad McCain is, and the rest campaigning for Obama as if he was the second coming. I've been trying to figure out why this is. Neither candidate is proposing to end our policy of military aggression, both support the financial bailout / sell-out, neither talks about the Patriot Acts and the destruction of the Constitution, neither has any kind of recovery plan in the manner of an FDR, and neither talks about any substantial issues in their campaigns. Obama's main advisor is Zbigniew Brzezinski, the architect of modern US aggressive imperialism. The Democrats have totally supported Bush at every step, and it was the Democrats, more than the Republicans who pushed through the bailout fiasco. I'm not arguing for McCain or the Republicans, not at all, but I have a very hard time understanding why people think a Democrat President will make any kind of real difference in how the country is run.

I do have a theory, however, about where all this energy comes from, this irrational support for Obama on the one side, or McCain on the other. The game works this way... The Republicans field a President-Vice-President team that liberals will hate, and the Democrats field a team that conservatives will hate. That's the reason for Palin. She has nothing at all to offer other than the fact that she's totally abhorrent to anyone with any kind of liberal sensibilities. Fear and loathing are strong motivators, and I think this explains why people allow themselves to be captured by the pointless electoral circus.

It's a very effective game. It is not necessary that anyone actually like their own candidates, it is only necessary that they fear and hate the other candidate. There is no necessity for either candidate to express any kind of vision or comprehensive program, because people are mainly concerned that their candidate score debating points against the hated opponent. To the extent either candidate has anything positive to say, that is limited to stroking the egos of their supporters, spouting meaningless rhetoric that appeals to their constituency's psychological profile. The sign of a good con man is that he appears to be trustworthy and honest to his mark (constituency). As Walter Cronkite put it, when asked what makes for a good news anchor, "the ability to lie convincingly".

It is important to understand what the actual job description of the Presidency is, post-JFK. It has nothing to do with running the country or making decisions. That is all handled by the Cabinet and other advisors, people who are selected by the ruling elite and are not elected. These advisors are typically on loan from the major corporations, law firms, and financial institutions, and their loyalties remain with their 'real' employer, and with the elite agendas laid down for them. Cheney is a perfect example of this, on loan from Halliburton, and using his position to assign extremely lucrative government contracts to that company - while at the same time pursuing the agendas of the banking elite. Everyone in Washington knows that Cheney has been the real CEO of the 'Bush' regime, up until this recent bailout coup.

Henry Paulson (King Henry I) is an even better example, being part of the elite financial community. His loyalties are entirely with Wall Street, and the bailout bill gives him, as Secretary of the Treasury, essentially dictatorial powers over the US economy. 1913 is the year the banking elite achieved behind-the-scenes control over America, and 2008 is the year they achieved direct control. Paulson's new role is comparable to that of Herr Krupp in the Third Reich, who was made OberFührer of all industry in Germany and the occupied territories. This kind of direct dictatorial control is a clear sign of fascism. If you haven't seen Naomi Wolf's recent videos, I recommend watching them ASAP, while we still have YouTube and the Internet. As she says, we are now in the 1933 Nazi scenario, just prior to the Storm Troopers dissolving by force the democratically elected parliament (Reichstag).

The End of America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9PulYpjGs
Give me Liberty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI

As for the Presidency, that is actually a PR job, an advertising job. Both as a candidate and as a President, the job description is to make speeches and to present US policy with an appropriate spin. That's one of the reasons we sometimes have actors like Reagan or Schwartzneger for politicians - actors are experts at playing roles, learning lines, and projecting personas on cue. In Bush's case, it is intentional that he talk like a fool, because then people assume his personal idiocy is responsible for disastrous policy. Anything to keep you from looking behind the curtain, to see who's really at the controls. Anything to make you think the next election offers hope.

If Obama wins, he'll put a liberal spin on policy, just as Clinton did. Interventions will be 'humanitarian', and policies will be to 'help the little people'. If McCain wins, he'll put a conservative spin on policy, like a Bush or Reagan would do. Interventions will be a show of 'US strength', and policies will be to 'make America strong'. The underlying policies themselves will be decided for other reasons and by other people. A change of Presidents is like a change of advertising campaigns for a soft drink; the product itself still tastes the same, but it now has a new 'image'.

Elections are one example of a media circus. The OJ Simpson Trial was another example, as was the Monica Lewinsky affair, neither of which was an event of any real significance or interest. There's usually one useless media circus or another underway at any given time, designed to capture the public imagination and attention, while the real business of empire and politics goes on outside the circus tent. Television is our version of the Roman Colosseum.

At this particular time, on the verge of economic collapse and martial law, we cannot afford to be distracted by this or any other circus. Naomi Wolf expresses the urgency of the moment very eloquently. She's the Paul Revere of our day, sounding the alarm (first video), and she also has useful ideas about popular rebellion (second video). The title of her new book is, Give Me Liberty, A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. Among other things, she talks about how we need to begin dialoging with one another in our communities, overcoming left-right divisions.

To paraphrase a saying I recall from childhood, Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country. The elections are nothing but a distraction, and that's what they are designed to be. Our attention needs be elsewhere.

~ World Prout Assembly ~