The Cross of Gold: text link from DNC 1896

We may be tempted to think that today's current money crisis is somehow new or unprecedented in America or in the wider world.

Yet William Jennings Bryan, in his address to the Democratic National Convention of 1896, covered many issues which may resound to our current issues such as: "gold Republicans" vs "silver Democrats" and the coining and issuing of money by private individuals (such as the Fed.)

Siding with Thomas Jefferson on the coining and issuing of money being a function of government, Bryan stated that, "banks ought to go out of the governing business."

If the Bush-Cheney-Bernanke-Paulson scheme passes, banks will BE the governing business.

And you know what that adds up to: corporatism + state = fascism. Simple formula, a long time coming.

When he delivered his address, 'Cross of Gold' which denounced the gold standard, Bryan was a young Nebraska congressman who had been chosen as the Democratic party's presidential nominee. His speech mesmerized the convention and Bryan thereafter became a spokesman and devotee of silver. Not all Democrats agreed on the issue, but that's a post for another day.

Yet Bryan and his party members were defeated at least partially due to their silver promotion and the economic crisis of their day. Then, as now, it was the economy, stupid.

Between a major economic depression and the rise of Populism, William McKinley and the gold Republicans were able to carry the 1896 election; Republican control of the White House and both houses of Congress in 1897 serve in hindsight to mark the end of the *Gilded Age, even as the descendants of "the idle holders of idle wealth" whom Bryan railed against so eloquently in 1896 continue to play the trickle-down card upon the working masses to our present-day detriment.

Cross of Gold by William Jennings Bryan, 1896.


*Gilded Age is what is usually referred to on this blog as the Generation of Materialism, marked astrologically by the Great Conjunction Neptune and Pluto, 1892.

You may wish to read Senator Bernie Sanders' statement on the vicious class warfare being waged upon America's middle class (compliments of Pluto-Chiron plutocracy) which is included in a post of mine from January 13, 2008, Plutocrats: Middle Class Warfare going dandily, for the effects of their viciousness have become, with current market meltdowns, socializing of private debts, and naked power grabbing, impossible to hide or ignore.

~:~

W. J. Bryan details from: 'America Interpreted Vol II: since 1865' by R.Woods and W. Gatewood.

my year of blogging dangerously

Blogging in 2007 has brought everything from electronic tagging to frisky hackers to a few of my favorite posts. Not favorites because of my writing or lack thereof, but because of the subjects themselves blended with Astrology's ability to look under the hood.

In no particular order, here's my Top Seven List ranging from Political Astrology to a snarlyrhyme about a certain politician whose deeds bring cries for Impeachment upon his bald pate:

Spotlight on Mercury: John Edwards (has link to Spotlight on Mercury: Barack Obama--hope to add candidates to this Mercury series in the next week or so, schedule willing.)

Sept 11 2007 Solar Eclipse chart with details--special for its date and Sun's degree from 9/11.

Eugene Debs still speaks convincingly (Debs' life and times remind me of the old film on TV yesterday, Meet John Doe (1941) where Gary Cooper's character begins as the pawn of the Hearst-esque robber baron media and ends by giving them what-for. Yay. Now where's my 2007 John Doe Club?)

America's Winter Solstice 2007 (this post-with-chart is good until Dec 2008--a year's shelf life--and has the Winter Solstice 2006 chart along with a link to Dec 11's Great Conjunction of Jupiter conjunct Pluto post.)

America's 2007 Solar Return (details and comments with link to chart's image published on one of my Gather Pages.)

Using the Moon in Electional Astrology (published at Jude's Threshold--not about political elections but about choosing propitious times to begin things.)


And then-n-n? a few snarlyrhymes were written this year and my fave might have to be Ode to Cheney for its impeachy flavor.


News, whatever that means: my favorite info sources in 2007--again in no particular order--continue to be:

NPR, The August Review, and Huffington Post, with fave political blog: George Washington's Blog for quite obvious reasons (contains much 9/11 info.)

So as 2007 closes up its tattered suitcase, my hope for 2008 is that people like Mike Gravel, with his refreshing honesty, will find themselves ruling the roost in Washington. I know...fat chance, as the pocket lining of Capitol Hill's fatcats continues apace, America's commerical and residential real estate goes to the highest foreign bidder, and the imperialist empire's military industrial complex bankrupts America down to her last penny.

Well, thanks for moseying down memory lane with me, Lone Reader, and wishing a Happy New Year to waylaid America and to the rest of the disappointed World


This blog written, as always, in honor of and hope for:

Plutocrats: Generation of Materialism

Although the Great Conjunction of Neptune and Pluto (oil, gas, water, mining) marks the beginning of the Golden Age of the Robber Baron Class of the 1890s, Pluto and Chiron were hanging out together back in the day when the robber barons, crime barons--the pirate class--cemented and studied cementing their hold on natural resources, political power, and so on.

And the world banking system is implicated, natch. Wall Street gentry, as Eugene Debs termed them so appropriately.

Plus, the Uranus/Chiron (the system busters) midpoint is conjunct this Ascendant 5Leo38, which is less than 2 degrees from GWB's natal Ascendant. And he's a real system-buster and boundary-ignorer, as we've observed.

>>2006 - 1881 = 125, so add 125 degrees to NN 18Sag43, and it's Solar Arc NN conj natal Mercury at the top of the chart. Merc/NN = common or joint plans; meetings; communicating with the public.

So the Merc/NN Sabian Symbol, "19 Ari" is: "The magic carpet"> PANORAMA:

pos: full realization of the broad endowment which every man may make his own;

neg/unconscious/shadow side: detachment from ordinary living and a scorn for its responsibilities.

(And scorn for the ordinary folk who play by the rules, I assume...we're the pigeons and chumps.)

The midpoint between Plu/Chir in late degrees of Taurus is very near the Great Jupiter/Saturn conj of May 28, 2000, and only a whistle away from Fixed Star, Caput Algol...nasty.

Algol's keywords: decapitation; losing one's head; sickness; violence; criminality; murder; horror. (Horary Astrology, Anthony Louis.)

Diana Rosenberg reports that Caput Algol is the fixed star most often active in charts of harmful fires.

Wish I could say more now, esp since I've spread such joy all about...have the Secondary Progr'd Chart, etc, right here, but it is growing late. (In too many ways, my friends.)

And as to the common swill being passed around, we don't have time to be forced back onto belly-button-gazing mode yet again.

Committees proliferate more committees while making certain people look busy--and they help cover shiny patooties the world over...esp in varmint-infested Washington.