Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Fight them, without becoming them!

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

All hail the time of the bunny!

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Early Morning Open Thread: Happy May Day

Early Morning Open Thread: Happy May Day

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It’s known as International Workers’ Day in much of the world, of course. But the traditions go back into Northern European prehistory, when Beltane was celebrated as the day when the cattle (among other mammals) were released from their winter imprisonment to go seeking after fresh pastures. From the Internet Book of Shadows:

… One of the most beautiful customs associated with this festival was “bringing in the May.” The young people of the villages and towns would go out into the fields and forests at Midnight on April 30th and gather flowers with which to bedeck themselves, their families and their homes. They would process back into the villages, stopping at each home to leave flowers and to receive the best of food and drink that the home had to offer… John Williamson, in his study “The Oak King, the Holly King and the Unicorn” writes: “These revelers were messengers of the renewal of vegetation, and they assumed the right to punish the niggardly, because avarice (as opposed to generosity) was dangerous to the community’s hope for the abundance of nature. At an important time like the coming of summer, food, the substance of life, must be ritually circulated generously within the community in order that the cosmic circuit of life’s substance may be kept in motion…”

Mr. Paine was no fan of ‘institutionalized religion’, but I do believe he would’ve approved the idea of celebrating communal generosity over plutocratic avarice.

Apart from celebrating, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    At an important time like the coming of summer, food, the substance of life, must be ritually circulated generously within the community in order that the cosmic circuit of life’s substance may be kept in motion…”

    Thus we can’t celebrate the working man/woman along with the rest of the world. In America “community” is a fiction. We are the land of the Individualist who conquers all by dint of his superior intellect and willingness to put in 27 hr days. The fabled “Job Creator”. ™

  3. 3.

    xenos

    Western fiscal paradises are all shut down for the day. From Cyprus to Barbados, the worker bees for the plutonomy are sleeping in, catching up of housework, getting the barbecue operating. Our counterparts in London, NY, and other metropoles have another Thursday of commutes and kvetching.

    It is amazing how far you have to go for a reasonably secure middle-class lifestyle these days.

    Thanks to the German sockialists and anarchists who put up a fight in Chicago so many years ago! I wonder if the gilded age would ever have ended, or if we would have hope of ending this one, without them.

  5. 5.

    MikeJ

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-77ElyvRxI

    Have theater tix tonight, but of course I wasn’t thinking about black clad hoodlums when I booked them. Please people, find something better to do with your time than breaking windows so I can park my car and eat at a restaurant and see a musical based on a E.M. Forster book.

  6. 6.

    Poopyman

    @xenos: All gilded ages come to an end. The landings aren’t nearly as smooth as the last couple though, and civilizations never seem to think “it” will happen to them.

  7. 7.

    Mustang Bobby

    It may be just the first of May, but it already feels like summer here in Miami. At 4:35 a.m. it was 81 F, and with the humidity, it felt like 87 F.

    At least we didn’t get the 20 inches of rain they got up in the panhandle. I hear Russell Crowe was seen in the vicinity.

  9. 9.

    Schlemizel

    @Baud:
    Being the natural optimist I am I feel this one may be closer to the second than the first. Had our gilded age betters had the technology available to this group, with near total control of the media and infinite spy capabilities I am not sure the Hay Market would have happened. The countless lesser known events would have been even smaller or crushed before they were born. This could be a long one.

  10. 10.

    jayackroyd

    Would any NYCers be interested in a meetup on Tuesday, about 830 pm in midtown, after the Hillman Award reception? Digby said she’d drop by if I could put it together.

  14. 14.

    Suffern ACE

    Sounds like a bunch of thieving bums looking for a handout to me. I bet you they also made their host/hostages buy their candy bars and frozen pizzas because they wanted to buy band uniforms or take some boondoggle “educational” spring trip to Cancun.

  15. 15.

    jayackroyd

    @PurpleGirl: Yes

    The reception is at the Times Building on 41st. I was thinking Rudy’s–if weather’s good the outdoor cafe works well. And that is the Drinking Liberally haunt as well….

  17. 17.

    gene108

    Day 4 of trying to get in shape.

    Did not make enough food over the weekend for the week and ate out yesterday. Did not eat smart, so I am trying to make sure I eat smarter today.

    Doing the Power 90 work out from Beach Body. The advantage for me is I do not have to think about what to do. I just push play, in the morning, and do not have to think about what exercise to do. I just follow the DVD.

    On the positive side I am exercising everyday so far this week.

    Baby steps. Baby steps.

  18. 18.

    Jado

    I do believe he would’ve approved the idea of celebrating communal generosity over plutocratic avarice.

    COMMIE!!!!

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    My high schooler made it home last night from a school club event in the FL Panhandle. We thought we might have to hitch up a boat and go rescue her. 20 inches of rain in 24 hours!

  21. 21.

    Schlemizel

    @Betty Cracker:
    Was it that bad around your place? Man I remember some rains in FLA where it would come down so hard you could not see a foot ahead of you & it would do that for an hour or two sometimes. But an inch an hour for a whole day is a new level of gully washer!

  23. 23.

    gene108

    @Cassidy:

    The Beach Body workouts are good. Any of them will do what you need it to do.

    Most of them are too advanced. P90 seems more geared for beginners / fatties, who cannot keep up with the other workouts.

  26. 26.

    Sherparick

    Happy May Day! Remember Haymarket martyrs! It is one of the ironies of history that the Second International (formed in 1889) chose 1 May as International Workers Day as a commemoration of the American Workers striking for the 8-hour day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair#May_Day_parade_and_strikes and 8 anarchists who were convicted in a show trial following the explosion and riot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_International Despite, or perhaps because of its American origins, when the Gilded Age ruling class under the Grover Cleveland administration decided to create the first Monday in September as the U.S. Labor Day holiday so as to domesticate the labor movement from growing radicalism o the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day

    Also remember John Peter Altgeld, a true liberal and exemplar of moral courage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peter_Altgeld

  27. 27.

    PurpleGirl

    @Betty Cracker:

    I remember driving with a friend to Key Largo and driving through the afternoon thunderstorm.

    Glad to hear your daughter made it home okay.

    It’s foggy and rainy here in NYC. I hope it clears up a bit before I have to go out this afternoon.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @Schlemizel: Nothing out of the ordinary this far south yet, though I think we’re supposed to get some storms over the weekend. Hopefully nothing like what the Panhandle experienced!

  31. 31.

    gene108

    @satby:

    gene108, I find the P90 workouts pretty strenuous too. Do they have remedial ones?

    P90X is hard.

    I am doing Power 90 (P90), which starts with a beginners series (Sculpt 1-2 and Sweat 1-2), which I can do most of with a few modifications, like push up on my knees because I am too fat to do regular push ups until I lose weight.

    I drop weight on some of the Sculpt 1-2 routines or use the resistance bands, and keep the tension loose, because some muscles are just stronger than others right now and I do not have the proper form at heavier levels.

    Some of the Sweat 1-2 stuff I just move a bit, because I cannot keep my heart rate up that long My biggest criticism of Sweat 1-2 is it starts off with a Power Yoga routine, but does not give an alternative for Upward Dog. It took over a year of doing yoga for my back to be loose enough to do Upward Dog. I can see that be hard for a lot of people.

  32. 32.

    Paul in KY

    @gene108: P90X is generally not for people post 45 or so. It is a brutal workout. I think you have a good idea of what you can stand right now. You just need to do it at least 6 days out of 7. If your body starts breaking down though, you have to lay off it until you feel ready to go again.

  33. 33.

    Thunderbird

    I’ve been pondering a trim of my FB friends lately. Between baby pictures, recipes, and the stupid political shit, it’s getting to be a bit much.

    Any rules of thumb to go by?

  38. 38.

    Wag

    Lat Sunday I had a bike crash with a subsequent concussion. Slowly recovering from the headaches and weakness, and the double vision is slowly resolving. I haven’t slept this much since I was a baby. Follow up with my PCP this afternoon, and with the neurosurgeon Tuesday. Hopefully back to work part time by mid next week.

    This sucks, but does give a fresh view of what’s important in life.

  39. 39.

    shelly

    forests at Midnight on

    Jeez, did they have to go out at midnight? They couldn’t have waited till a more civilized hour when you could actually see the flowers?
    If I’d tried going out last night ‘A-Maying’, I would have been washed away.
    **********
    Glad to have read the good Holly up-date in Cole’s earlier post.

  43. 43.

    negative 1

    Any of you looking for internet fun today are invited to read the following from the Rhode Island Labor History Society

    http://www.rilaborhistory.org/rilh/Labor_Day_Speech_2011.html

    The speech centers around the Saylesville massacre up here in The Biggest Little State in 1934.
    Also, please try and remember us as we head to court to fight for the pensions they stole from our brothers and sisters! Even if you don’t care, if they win in this state it’s coming to yours.

  45. 45.

    Chris

    @Thunderbird:

    Any rules of thumb to go by?

    I use a sliding scale depending on how well I actually know them. There are people I’ve unfriended for as little as seeing them show up in my minifeed, wondering “who are you again and how do I know you?” and not being able to answer. At the other end of the spectrum are friends and family close enough that I probably wouldn’t unfriend them even if they were convicted ax murderers.

    “I’m tired of reading your political shit in my minifeed” remains the # 1 reason for my unfriends, however.

  46. 46.

    ranchandsyrup

    Santa Ana winds and high temps were driving us nuts so we did a spur of the moment staycation as we have no A/C but we do have a great hookup at the hotel. Going to hang out by the pool and get some work done/swim with the girls.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Thus we can’t celebrate the working man/woman along with the rest of the world. In America “community” is a fiction.

    You’re on to something. Reader comment in NYTimes yesterday (story on Canada still has a flourishing middle class):

    comment to effect: Canada is a community. The United States is a market.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    @Wag: Good lord! Hope you recover fully!

    @raven: Hahaha! I’ve seen squirrels and Sandhill cranes interrupt softball games, but never a glove-stealing dog!

  52. 52.

    J R in WV

    Happy MayDay, everyone! “I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night! Alive as you and me!”

    Mrs J R wants to demonstrate outside the local R Congresswoman’s office with signs about legal theft!

    I voted for running naked around next door neighbor’s house!!

    Tie vote, no winner, going to drink bubbly for dinnertime tonight.

    Spring happened here a week ago when the faries started flying in the deep woods. Fireflies also too.

  53. 53.

    Rex Everything

    Today seems like an appropriate time to ask: what happened to Kay, by the way?

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Rex Everything: Nothing. She has been active in the comments sections of a number of threads; I think general busyness has kept her from putting anything on the front page recently.

  56. 56.

    LanceThruster

    “Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others’ welfare.

    This world is not a vale of sorrows if you will recognize discriminatingly what is truly excellent in it; and if you will avail yourself of it for mutual happiness and well-being. Therefore, let us explain as often as possible, and particularly at the departure of life, that we base our faith on firm foundations, on Truth for putting into action our ideas which do not depend on fables and ideas which Science has long ago proven to be false.”

    ― Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

  58. 58.

    jefft452

    @Schlemizel:

    “It suits today the weak and base,
    Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
    To cringe before the rich man’s frown,
    And haul the sacred emblem down.

    With heads uncovered swear we all
    To bear it onward till we fall;
    Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
    This song shall be our parting hymn.”

    We aint going to just give up and go away, you know

  59. 59.

    PhilbertDesanex

    May 1st:
    Maypole Mayday
    International Communist Day
    What airplanes yell when they crash
    Hottest May 1 ever here in Seattle
    Mt St Helens is rising
    and
    My birthday:
    Wisky in the glass & chicken on the barbie!
    JoCo: wish it were

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