contra Thanksgiving

If you like Thanksgiving, maybe you should bail here, bye-bye. Besides uncomfortable family interactions, and the fairy tale propaganda, Thanksgiving is a fraud, and a false holiday. It is a combination of forgotten calvinism, and ever present capitalism masquerading as a patriotic fairy tale. It is a part of the national civic religion where the figurative idealised nation is substituted for God, and God formerly remembered in the saying of grace before the meal, and now existing as an abstract guardian of approval.

Yet, it has a presence. People travel, sometimes long distances to gather for a group meal. This is rather new, families are quickly divided by geographical relocation, but they have means to travel for a day or longer and then return to their regular home. Of course a family reunion can take place anytime, but this has a co-ordinated national ethos.  We are told it is the busiest aeroport Wednesday and Sunday, with a light Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. For closer folk, there is a higher incidence of difficult relatives to endure.

I saw a state miserability index. Ohio charted easily number one overall using statistics from Centers for Disease Control, facebook, and elections.  Ohio #9 was in salmonella per capita from poultry, #12 binge drinking, #3 political disparity, #1 dietary restrictions, #14 enthusiasm for shopping, the thirteen notches above were all Republican (southern and cultural border southern) states. It is not the roasted golden bird, but the commercial golden calf that is celebrated. Yeah, vegans and Republicans will ruin your meal: imitation foods, plus questionable 'traditional' foods to disturb your palate, and insane political fantasies to thoroughly ruin digestion.

Its status as substitute religion allows those estranged from religion to participate in a 'religious' act. It allows those from not the standard religion of the US, to share in this civic religion. There are not many churches, now, that have a service on this day. This is not a Catholic holiday at all, but Catholics can have a Mass for many commemorations, and for some years they have acknowledged this civic day. For churches that have daily Mass, they just add the title for the civic holiday. And since 'thanksgiving' in Greek is 'Eucharist', it is easy to do. The 7 a.m. Mass will be shifted to 9.30 a.m., and it is co-opted.

But we have, as in all 'holidays', people not in the group. Sometimes they are drawn into this gathering of others, so they are not alone this day. So this is a formed community, and that is good if that is fulfilled, of course sometimes these folk have a choice of places to go; but sometimes not. The homeless rely on public charity for community.

The fraud is the Pilgrim-Indian legend of Plymouth. The English landed in December 1620 and were ill prepared to survive. With help of the Wampanoag, the English had a successful first harvest in 1621, which they celebrated. In 1637 Plymouth joined other English colonies in the Pequot War. The first 'Day of Thanksgiving' celebrated the Mystic River Massacre, and was called by John Winthrop governor of Massachusetts Bay. Thanksgiving was to be a sporadic, but repeated, rejoycing in Mars, a traditional American god. Taking glee in the destruction of those warred against.

Now, President Lincoln instituted the day in 1863, and as with the Emancipation Proclamation was ignored in the South, and took place only after the Yankees had gone:

“The observance of Thanksgiving Day--as a function--has become general of late years. The Thankfulness is not so general. This is natural. Two-thirds of the nation have always had hard luck and a hard time during the year, and this has a calming effect upon their enthusiasm.” — Mark Twain. Following the Equator. 1897.

Gilbert Chesterton speaks of the miserableness of the calvinists, and of the accident of people’s imaginations that a holiday refers to them. Fanciful, fictionalised and sanitised retelling of history, into a shared folklore has benefited, their legacy. The calvinist attempt, in this celebration, was to replace Christmas and its inherent catholicism. Chesterton, in his essay, 'William Penn and the Puritans' of January 24, 1931, in the Illustrated London News begins:

“The Americans have established a Thanksgiving Day to celebrate the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers reached America. The English might very well establish another Thanksgiving Day, to celebrate the happy fact that the Pilgrim Fathers left England.”

Before the 1530s the English were an observant Catholic people. They followed a Catholic calendar, which meant many holidays with church attendance (Mass, celebration of the Eucharist, Thanksgiving), feasting, and days off of work. Henry VIII greatly reduced this calendar, this allowed for more work. Protestant extremists, Calvinists and similar, took this too extremes. Calvinism in its Presbyterian form took Scotland. The various strains battled eventually to war and revolution in England. Before and after, Henry's Church of England would have a traditional looking element, and an extremist wing insisting upon puritanising of all Catholic elements, or separating entirely. Calvinists looked at wealth as a confirmation of God's affirmation. Mammon is substituted. We see the remnant of this in to-day's secular society, the US is the country with the least holidays, and Scotland is second most. Thanksgiving is part of American culture, the blending of calvinism and capitalism; both frowned on holidays, those days when people feasted and didn't work.

A 'traditional' Thanksgiving began to form in the northeastern states in the years after Lincoln, and it came with college, and then high school football. It is to be remembered, Christmas was considered a working day in the US then. Catholic immigration to the US was continuing. For a time, some Protestants encouraged religiosity and celebration of Turkey Day as a contrast to the 'pagan' Catholicism of Christmas.

The Great Depression shook America, and a newer greater war was active in Europe. Franklin Roosevelt enumerated Four Freedoms in a 1941 speech. Norman Rockwell painted an image for each freedom. The 1943 painting, Freedom From Want, became iconic. Grandparents with an huge turkey. This painting entered its own existence. The painting has suggested to many a particular, traditional, waspish bounty (the glasses held no wine, for that matter no coffee).

Turkey Day is the 4ᵗʰ Thursday of November. Cold Turkey Day is the 3ʳᵈ Thursday of November. At least part of Turkey Day is consumption of food, festive food, and perhaps over abundance. The term 'cold turkey' applies to the immediate, and complete cessation of some indulgence or activity. Health organisations have sponsored, and promoted stop smoking campaigns with Cold Turkey Day. Buy Nothing Day, which has been the day after Thanksgiving since 1997 [it began September 1992 in Méjico], is an antidote to the consumerism, it is not often showcased in the media.

Thanksgiving parades were organised by department stores: Gimbles Philadelphia 1920, Macy's New York City 1924, Hudson's Detroit 1924. The day after Turkey Day (Thanksgiving) has been called by the retail, and advertising industry 'Black Friday' (and a slap to Catholics and many other Christians, 'Black Friday' is another name of the day Jesus was crucified), meaning profitable Friday. In recent years, certain retailers have opened up their stores earlier than normal on that day. Some were opening up at midnight, immediately when the day begins. Now they are open on Thanksgiving Thursday, the day of giving thanks for bounty has become another day of consumption of mercantile excess. Other dollar chases have added small store Saturday, and cyber shopping Monday to the celebration of the golden calves of Mammon. Television (and other) 'news' have story, after story, after story highlighting, intensely covering, encouraging shopping and spending. Millions of hours of free advertising posing as journalism: reporters acting as advertising shills, drummers, and whores, cheerleading unnecessary, and often conspicuous, consumption all to promote the commercialisation of american society. Some retail workers have protested this loss of the holiday. Usual US citizen responses are unsympathetic: “they are lucky to have a job”, and “they knew this when they took the job”. First having a job is not lucky. Slaves have jobs. Work is supposed to be paid and conditions are to be negotiated. Secondly, when conditions are changed unilaterally, the second statement is false.

You may have seen television in the last few days. What about Thanksgiving has the television covered? People waiting outside a store to rush the door to buy a television? For years here in Cleveland, the parish of Saint Augustine has fed the poor, the handicapped, and the homeless each day of the year. They have had satellite centers, and travelling volunteers for this fourth Thursday in November. Year after year, the local television news channels film a story about Saint Augustine. The new teevee reporter in town gets to find out. But this year, that story has been pushed back. Capitalism has won, all hail Mammon.

mottled concoction of crazy

The Sysack sign of unbottled potion of blended crazy is on display. The envelope (lower left) contains Lyndon Larouche craziness. This is on the west side of Cleveland (at least two television stations identified the adjacent street, a couple of days ago, as being in Parma; a tree toppled on Spokane).

“Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble” — the Second Witch in Macbeth  IV, i, 14-15.

Impeachment, nuclear war, Moslem bandits, undocumented Meso-American immigration, British imperialism. It looks less loony in lower case.

roses in the snow

 to-day St. Mary Cleveland

For those around here, the local television has had wall to wall SNOWMAGEDDON. We lost the huskies some time ago, what can one do? Wednesday night we heard Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan were lost. We had two days of ribands miles across dump snow created from the lake. Yet, life goes on.

Restoring America to what it once was

vote and upset republicans

And by the way, John Kasich is a fraud. He is an arrogant prick, who can now pretend on camera to be human. When he was in the House with Gingrich, he could not.

The Republican shit finders were thorough. They found every ticket and every unpaid bill a Democrat had, and then ran ominous commercials without end. Their great find was Fitzgerald's lack of a driver's license. So, the Democratic candidate was wounded, and thereby a drag on the entire ticket.

The double standard in elections is obvious to the interested neutrals. A Democrat has to win, practically, any and every point brought up as criterion. The Republicans can choose point(s) that are to be contested, and the press can make them important.

The ominous theme throughout the land has been the successful Republican processes to restrict the electorate. This is the thing for each state: Secretary of State is not a position to be trusted with Republicans, because they cheat. Attorney General is another, for powerful money interests will not be investigated often for their crimes.
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Postscriptum 8 a.m. November 6: The Fascists rolled in and won damn near everything. Only the carpetbagger nude model lost in New Hampshire. Yes, it is good he lost. He is a lying piece of excrement, but the psychotics and the vicious feasted. Governors that were embarrassing and destroying their states won, only Pennsylvania ousted their disaster. The press does not suggest how wretched the results are. The next two years the barrels of crazy will leak out of the bunghole.

voting attempts

Amendment XXIV to the United States Constitution has been law of the land since January 23, 1964. It is a simple one. Its purpose is to guarantee people the right to vote in federal elections, and to be protected in that right from government interference. All of the former confederate states had them from 1902 to 1920. In 1964, five of those states still had them. Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966) extended this to state elections through the Equal Protection Clause of Amendment XIV. The following states have never ratified the amendment: Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wyoming.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The poll tax was one of several voter suppression tactics. Others were whites only primaries, grandfather clause, literacy tests, violence and threats of violence. These became necessary to counteract Amendment XV February 3, 1870.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

These voting suppression measures were primarily used against the Negro, but some were adaptable to be used against other people who also were not proper people to be voting, such as other non-Negro poor, or foreign born, or of a race not considered 'white'. The southern white man resented the Yankee party, and resented equalisation of law benefiting the black man. These matters would allow conservative Democrats to rule the southern states with a disenfranchised underclass.

Now, when liberal Democrats finally passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a newly cemented national party shift based on race occurred. Southern and conservative white Democrats were to become rare, as were black Republicans.

All these current supposed voter fraud procedures, and voter registration restrictions are new methods to disenfranchise people. The disenfranchising party is the Republican party. Although, it is directed at black voters, it also is directed at other groups that tend to vote Democratically, especially the economically disadvantaged. Beyond the use of legal and bureaucratic fiats, there is also a public campaign to shame and discourage such people. Some miscreant came up with the figure of “47%”, whom do not make enough to pay FEDERAL INCOME TAX. This is stressed to suggest pay no taxes. And demands are made that they should pay some federal income tax. Since they do not, their voting privilege is suspect. Of course, the “47%” do not all vote Democratically, but that screen would proportionally decrease the Democratic electorate.

Beyond that, the Republican party outright steals elections (2000, 2004 presidential) and go to extreme delay measures to prevent complete vote counts (US Senate Minnesota 2008). Recently Chris Christie* has publicly admitted that his party needs to win governorships to control the 2016 presidential election. Most states the chief election officer is the Secretary of State. When a Republican holds this office as is seen in Florida, Ohio, Kansas and elsewhere this is the most politically corrupt individual. They would all prove Josef Stalin correct, “You know, comrades, that I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”
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* “Would you rather have Rick Scott in Florida overseeing the voting mechanism, or Charlie Crist? Would you rather have Scott Walker in Wisconsin overseeing the voting mechanism, or would you rather have Mary Burke? Who would you rather have in Ohio, John Kasich or Ed FitzGerald?” --  October 21, 2014.

postscriptum 11.48 a.m. October 30: or even easier, as in Georgia, do not process voter registration forms at all, and then get a Republican judge to rule there is no problem.

Is Francis politically acceptable in the US?

This is the the week before elections in the United States. Campaigns have propagandised their candidates in whatever ways they can, but they often play to, and re-inforce attitudes and beliefs that already exist in the populace. Our Pope, Francis, speaks words of Christian simplicity and elegance. These words are not welcome to certain people. I contend, one particular American political party, and many of its adherents, find these words troublesome, and contentious, if not revolting.

October 23: “all Christians and people of goodwill … to fight not only for the abolition of the death penalty be it legal or illegal, in all of its forms.”

“A life sentence is a death sentence which is concealed.”  Francis went on to denounce torture wherever it is used, something that was official American policy after the 2000 election, and before the 2008 election.  Not only in detention centers, and camps, “but also in prisons, in rehabilitation centers for minors, in psychiatric hospitals, in police stations and in other institutions for detention or punishment.”

Now, compare this also to the judges (and others) that are running commercials bragging on their toughness, and execution of “the letter of the law”.

October 27: “When we read in Genesis the account of Creation, we risk imagining God as a magician, with a wand able to make everything. But it is not so. He created beings and allowed them to develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one, so that they were able to develop and to arrive and their fullness of being. He gave autonomy to the beings of the universe at the same time at which he assured them of his continuous presence, giving being to every reality. And so creation continued for centuries and centuries, millennia and millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely because God is not a demiurge or a magician, but the creator who gives being to all things.”

“The Big Bang, which nowadays is posited as the origin of the world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it. The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of creation, as evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.”

This pope, as did others, does not have a problem with science and its discoveries. How many Americans do? and how many run for school boards?

October 28:  “If I talk about this, some will think that the pope is communist. They don't understand that love for the poor is at the center of the Gospel. Demanding this isn't unusual, it's the social doctrine of the church.” That certainly would roil the worshipers of mammon. The United States worships mammon, and hates the poor.

Now, we have many Catholics (with collar and without) resisting the leadership of Francis. Some of the bourgeois commentariat are openly encouraging dissent, while others take his words as an exercise of verbal contortion and gymnastics.

Now, years ago, Albert Camus gave a speech to the Dominicans of the University of Paris. He acknowledged that the Catholic Church was against fascism during the Second World War, but he scolded and challenged the intensity and clarity of the opposition.

“What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear, and that they should voice their condemnation in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man. That they should get away from the abstraction and confront the blood-stained face history has taken on today.” — Albert Camus *1913, 1960†

Francis would satisfy Albert. Francis preaches the Gospel.

a week from election

                                  Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader. October 28, 2014.


I have gotten phone calls from pollsters, and often became upset with the drift of the questions. Often the questions were leading, pushing fictions. Sometimes the questions were not neutral, but were the so called 'issues' projected from a Republican perspective. This cartoon is honest and transparent.

Geauga County

rainy day dog

This friendly creature saw me with a camera, and saw my attention was elsewhere, posed saw i had taken shot and gave me a friendly jump up. Lakewood had a costume dog (Spooky Pooch) parade, and rain fell. Last year the rain was far greater. The animals were easier to see in the park (a different one from last year) beforehand, and they were active. Few came to pose, they were more interested in sniffing other dogs.