The Sermon

(My Jewish godmother, who used to eat kosher bacon, sent this to us when I was in university.)

A new priest at his first mass was so nervous he could hardly speak. After mass he asked the monsignor how he had done.  The monsignor replied, "When I am worried about getting nervous on the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip." 

So next Sunday he took the monsignor's advice. At the beginning of the sermon, he got nervous and took a drink. He proceeded to talk up a storm.

Upon his return to his office after mass, he found the following note on the door:

 1. Leave out the olive.

2. Sip the vodka, don't gulp.

3. There are 10 commandments, not 12.

 4. There are 12 disciples, not 10.

 5. Jesus was consecrated, not constipated.

 6. Jacob wagered his donkey, he did not bet his ass.

 7. We do not refer to Jesus Christ as the late J. C.

 8. We do not refer to Jesus Christ and the disciples as J.C. and the boys.

 9. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not referred to as Big Daddy, Junior, and the Spook.

10. God tested the Israelites in the desert, he did not tease them.

11. David slew Goliath, he did not kick the shit out of him.

12. David was hit by a rock and knocked off his donkey, not stoned off his ass.

13. We do not refer to the cross as the "Big T."

14. When Jesus broke the bread at the Last Supper he said, "Take this and eat it for it is my body." He did not say "Eat me".

15. We refer to our Lord's mother as the Blessed Virgin Mary, not "Mary with the Cherry".

16. The recommended grace before a meal is not: Rub-A-Dub-Dub thanks for the grub, yeah God.

17. Next Sunday there will be a taffy-pulling contest at St. Peter's, not a peter-pulling contest at St. Taffy's.

A Brief Outline of U.S. Economic History in the 20th and 21st Centuries

“You have to distinguish between two things – the economy and the stock market.  The economy is the sum of all the goods and services that are produced in the country every day.  The stock market is something very different.  There is no economy and no production of goods and services.  There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less.  It doesn’t have a thing to do with reality or the economy.” – Stieg Larsson

As the century turned from the 19th into the 20th, America was in the so-called Progressive Era and Europe was in its Belle Epoque, both part of the Age of Imperialism that ended with the Great War known also as World War I.  This timeline goes to 2016.

1901: The new century begins with a stock market crash resulting from struggles between E.H. Harriman, Jacob Schiff, J.P. Morgan, and James Hill for control of Northern Pacific Railway, resulting in all the big rivals being gathered into the Northern Securities Company by James Stillman and William Rockefeller with Standard Oil money.

1904: The Northern Securities Company is dissolved under the provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, a law previously used primarily against labor unions.

1907: The stock market crashes in the bankers’ panic of that year, but J.P. Morgan averts even worse disaster through his personal fortune and influence.

1913: The Federal Reserve Act creates a national banking system to prevent another catastrophe like the Panic of 1907 happening again without a J.P. Morgan around to pull everyone’s arses out of the fire.

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, authorizing an income tax, is passed.  The Revenue Act establishes a rate of 7% on the top tax bracket.

1914: The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits unfair or deceptive business practices and creates the FTC.

1917-1919: American involvement in World War I.

1918:  The tax rate for the top bracket reaches a war-time high of 77%.

1920-1921: Depression.

1921: With the inauguration of William Harding as POTUS, Herbert Hoover becomes Secretary of Commerce and absolute master of all federal policy and programs, assisted by HIS choice for Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon.  Besides de-regulation of business, tax rates are lowered five times, with the top rate eventually reaching 21%.  Hoover’s tenure in the executive branch ends with him as POTUS, presiding over the decay of the American economy in the aftermath of the Roaring ‘20s.

1929-1942: The Great Depression.

1932: Congress raises the top tax rate to 63% over Hoover’s veto.

1933: Franklin Delano Roosevelt becomes POTUS and launches the New Deal.

The Banking, or Glass-Steagall, Act sponsored by Sen. Carter Glass (D-Virginia) and Rep. Henry Steagall (D-Alabama) creates the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), separates “commercial banks” focusing on consumer activities (checking, savings) from “investment banks” dealing with speculative trading and mergers, institutes rules on handling conflicts-of-interest, and bars a bank holding company from owning other financial companies.

1934: The National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act supports the formation of labor unions, collective bargaining, and the right to strike; amendments to the Railway Labor Act of 1925 do the same for railroad and airline employees.

The National Housing Act creates the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Federal Savings and Loan Corporation (FSLIC).

1935: The Social Security Act provides Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Unemployment Insurance.  Amendments in 1965 add Medicare and Medicaid.

1936: The Commodities Exchange Act regulates all futures and commodities trading.

1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act mandates a national minimum wage, an 8-hour workday, and overtime pay for work beyond 8 hours, and outlaws child labor.

1941-1945: U.S. involvement in World War II.

1944: The G.I. Bill provides a fund for veterans to attend college and supporting funds for institutions of higher education.

1945-1971: The Golden Age of Capitalism.

1945: The Revenue Act reduced the tax rate for the top bracket from its war-time 94% to 91%, where it remained throughout most of the so-called Golden Age of Capitalism.

1947: The Labor and Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act limits the Wagner Act by allowing so-called “right-to-work” laws; prohibiting jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity strikes, political strikes, secondary boycotts, mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations to federal campaigns; and restricting union shops.  It also authorized the federal government to enact strike-breaking in the name of “national security” along with forbidding communists and socialists from joining unions.

1949-1950 - Coal miners’ general strike.  Beginning in West Virginia under leadership of the Johnson-Forrest Tendency of the SWP and at first authorized by UMWA president Lewis, it rapidly spread to all of Appalachia and then to the West.  After Lewis prematurely ordered the miners back to work, the strike became as much against him and his collaboration as against Big Coal.

1950-1953: The Korean War.

1956: The Bank Holding Company Act specifies that the Fed’s Board of Governors must approve the establishment of a bank holding company, and prohibits a holding company in one state from owning a bank headquartered in another state.

1959-1975: The Viet Nam War.

1964: The Revenue Act reduces the tax rate for the top bracket from 91% to 70%.

1968: The Truth in Lending Act requires banks to disclose loan terms & fees.

1970: The Bank Holding Company Act weakens the Glass-Steagall Act by allowing commercial banks, via holding companies, to both accept deposits and make commercial loans.

The Unsolicited Credit Card Act prohibits unsolicited credit cards.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act protects workers safety and health on the job.

1971-1978: Stagflation: massive unemployment and rising prices at the same time.

1971: Pres. Nixon disconnects the dollar from the gold standard.

1973-1974: The stock market crashed and stayed down.

1973: The Oil Crisis.

1974: The Fair Credit Billing Act attempts to protect consumers from unfair billing practices and provides a mechanism for addressing billing errors.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act encourages pension funds to get involved in risky stock speculation, which gives Mike Milliken the platform he needs to launch his massive fraud schemes as well as enabling the ruin of retirement of millions in the 2000s.

1976: The  Consumer Leasing Act  attempts to assure that meaningful and accurate disclosure of lease terms is provided to consumers before entering into a contract.

1978: SCOTUS’s decision in Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corporation allows banks to make loans in states other than where they are headquartered, causing lenders to rush to places with the weakest consumer protections.

1980-1983: Recession.

1980: The Silver Thursday stock market crash in March.

The  Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act sponsored by Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah) removes usury caps for mortgages; raises the bar for prosecuting lenders; forces all banks to obey the Federal Reserve; allows banks to merge; removes the power of the Fed’s board of directors to set savings interest rates; and allows credit unions and S&L’s to offer cheques and other banking services without regulatory safeguards.

The  Truth in Lending Simplification and Reform Act limits the information credit companies are required to disclose on their interest rates to their APR and exempts creditors from liability in several cases.

1981: The Economic Recovery Tax Act reduces the tax rate on the top bracket from 70% down to 50%.

1982-1998: The Great Commodities Crunch.

1982-1988: Real estate boom.

Leveraged buyout (LBO) boom in the same period.

1982: The Depository Institutions Act sponsored by Sen. Jake Garn (R-Utah) and Rep. Fernand St. Germain (D-Rhode Island) deregulates the savings and loan industry and credit unions.

The Alternative Mortgage Transactions Parity Act allows adjustable rate mortgages (ARM), balloon-payment mortgages, interest-only mortgages, and option-ARM.

1986-1991: The Savings & Loan Crisis.

1986: The Tax Reform Act reduces the tax rate for the top bracket from 50% to 38.5% in 1987 and to 28% in 1988, yet RAISES the LOWEST tax rate from 11% to 15%.

1987: Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. creates “collateralized debt obligations” (CDOs), securities made up of myriad loans and bonds with different risk levels.

The stock market crashes on 19 October.

1988: The Fair Credit and Charge Card Disclosure Act mandates that companies provide consumers with details of their fees.

The Home Equity Loan Consumer Protection Act requires disclosure by creditors of terms, rates, and conditions, miscellaneous charges, payment terms, and variable rates.

1989: The FSLIC is declared insolvent.

The stock market crashes 13 October.

1990-1991: Recession.

1990: The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act raises the top tax rate to 31%.

1991: The Gulf War.

1993: The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act raises the top tax rate to 39.6%.

With support from the Republican Party, Bill Clinton pushes the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) through Congress.

1994: The  Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act attempts to limit abuses in the home equity lending market.

The Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act abolishes the Bank Holding Company Act prohibition against a bank holding company in one state acquiring a bank headquartered in another state.

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, initiated by the Clinton administration, written by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), and sponsored by Rep. Joe Brooks (R-TX), passed Congress and is signed into law.  The bill includes provisions of mandatory sentences, increases the opportunities for the death penalty, eliminates higher education for inmates, increases money for new prisons, and supports the private prison industry, and allows for states to pass three-strikes laws.

1995-2000: The Dot-Com Boom.

1995: The Truth in Lending Class Action Relief Act sponsored by Rep. Bill McCollum (D-Fla.) eases regulations on creditors and makes it more difficult to sue for securities fraud.

1996: The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act loosens supervisory regulations over financial institutions and lessened creditor liability.

The Office of Thrift Supervision issues a rule preempting all state laws regulating S&L credit activities.

Congress passed the Clinton administration-sponsored Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act placed a lifetime limit on welfare benefits, devolved responsibility for welfare to the states, and instituted a workfare-for-welfare program requirement, which ends the sixty year old New Deal.

1997: The stock market crashes on 27 October.

1999: The Financial Services Modernization Act sponsored by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) repeals the remaining provisions of Glass-Steagall which distinguish between investment banks and commercial banks, setting off a wave of megamergers among banks and insurance and securities companies.

2000-2003: Recession

2000: The Commodity Futures Modernization Act deregulates OTC derivatives trading, gives rise to the Enron debacle, and opens the door to an explosion in new, unregulated securities, including the credit default swap.

The American Homeownership and Economic Opportunity Act makes it harder for consumers to get out of lender-required insurance.

Commodities prices start rising steadily.

2001: The 9/11 attacks.

2001-present: The Afghan War.

2002-2007: Booms in housing, LBOs, CDOs and debt-repackaging.

2003-2011: The Iraq War. 

2003: The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act reduces the top tax rate to 35%.

2004: The Federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issues final rule to preempt states from applying most of their credit laws to national banks and their subsidiaries.

The American Jobs Creation Act does little for workers but provides numerous tax credits for agribusiness and other commercial institutions.

2005: The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act sponsored by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) makes it far harder for consumers (but not businesses) to discharge debts through declaration of bankruptcy.

In the case of Susette Kelo, et al. v. City of New London, Connecticut, et al., the “liberal” majority of SCOTUS rules that public government may seize personal property under eminent domain for profit of private corporations under the moniker “economic development”.

2007-present: The Great Recession.

2007: Stock markets worldwide crash in February.  In the U.S.A., the subprime market crashes soon after.

2008: The Mortgage Disclosure and Improvement Act adds to the requirements for early disclosures of terms and conditions.

The Congress and Pres. Bush authorize the $475,000,000,000 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Meanwhile, Chairman Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Board of Directors secretly loan American and foreign banks and financial institutions $7,700,000,000,000 ($7.7 TRILLION) at no interest, which it then borrows back at interest, under the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility.  The TABSLF supports issuance of ABS collateralized by student, auto, credit card, and SBA loans.

In September, the stock market drops to its lowest since 1987.

2009: The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act attempts to limit how credit card companies can charge consumers, but without price controls, rate caps, or fee schedules.  In other words, it’s toothless.

The  Helping Families Save Their Homes Act requires that homeowners be notified of the sale or transfer of their mortgages.

The Congress and Pres. Obama pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for $787,000,000,000.

COTUS and POTUS bailout the auto industry for $130,000,000,000.

2010: The stock market crashes in May.

The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act introduces changes to regulations governing capital investment, hedge funds, and private equity funds, increases reporting requirements, and attempts to ensure fair access to credit.  The legislation does not, however, restore the protections of the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933.

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, SCOTUS rules that since corporations are people, money is speech, and any attempt to limit spending on political campaigns violates the corporations’ freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

2011: The stock market crashes several times in August.

2012:  Congress passes and Pres. Obama signs the deliberately misleadingly-named Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, the purpose of which is not jobs creation but further de-regulation of venture capitalism.

The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee approves the “Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting Act” (KPOFCA), to allow federal contractors to spend and lobby without having to disclose their influence peddling, in other words, to firmly entrench politics in federal contracting.

2016: Over the objections of most of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama signs the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

2020: Due largely to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock market crashes more than once and unemployments levels rise to ones not seen since the Great Depression.  The U.S. Congress and Pres. Trump respond by providing a $4 trillion bailout package for corporations, including for lobbyists, while granting working Americans a one-time payment of $1200 and adding $600 a month to unemployment benefits.

Cherokee clans

The Cherokee clans are traditional social organizations of Cherokee society.  They are hereditary and matrilineal.

Customs and functions

The Cherokee society was historically a matrilineal society; meaning children belong to the mother's clan, and hereditary leadership and property were passed through the maternal line.  Traditionally, women were considered the head of household among the Cherokee, with the home and children belonging to her should she separate from a husband, and maternal uncles were considered more important than fathers.   Property was inherited and bequeathed through the clan and held in common by it. In addition, Cherokee society tended to be matrilocal, meaning that once married a couple moved in with or near the bride's family.

Cherokee clans held the only coercive power within traditional Cherokee society.  It was forbidden to marry within one's clan or to someone in the clan of one's father.  Such marriage was considered incest and punishable by death at the hands of the offender's own clan and by no other. 

The clan was also responsible for balancing the death of one of its members at the hands of the member of another clan, whether deliberate, impulsive, or accidental.  The one to pay the penalty did not have to be the person responsible; it could be any member of his or her clan.  Indeed, if the intentional or unintentional killer escaped or found sanctuary in one of the towns so designated, such as Chota, Kituwa, or Tugaloo, the fugitive's clan was expected to deliver up another of its members. The purpose of this was not retaliation but equalization.

Cherokee born outside of a clan or outsiders who were taken into the tribe in ancient times had to be adopted into a clan by a clan mother. If the person was a woman who had borne a Cherokee child and was married to a Cherokee man, she could be taken into a new clan.  Her husband was required to leave his clan and live with her in her new clan. Men who were not Cherokee and married into a Cherokee household had to be adopted into a clan by a clan mother; he could not take his wife’s clan.

In The Cherokee Editor on 18 February 1829, Elias Boudinot wrote the following regarding Cherokee Clan marriage customs:  “This simple division of the Cherokees formed the grand work by which marriages were regulated, and murder punished. A Cherokee could marry into any of the clans except two, that to which his father belongs, for all of that clan are his fathers and aunts and that to which his mother belongs, for all of that clan are his brothers and sisters, a child invariably inheriting the clan of his mother.”

The seven clans

According to James Mooney, the seven clans of the Cherokee are the result of consolidation of as many as fourteen separate clans originally.  The “missing” clans became subdivisions of the clans they were merged into.

Ani-gatagewi

Ani-gatagewi is known as the Wild Potato Clan.  The Ani-gatagewi’s only subdivision was Blind Savannah.  Members of this clan were ‘keepers of the land’, and gatherers.

Ani-gilahi

This is the Long Hair Clan.  The Ani-gilahi’s subdivisions were Twister, Wind, and Strangers. Members of this clan were peacemakers. 

Prisoners of war, orphans of other tribes, and others with no Cherokee clan were often adopted into the Ani-gilahi.

Ani-kawi

This is the Deer Clan. The Ani-kawi were runners and hunters.

Ani-sahoni

This is the Blue Paint Clan. The Ani-sahoni’s subdivisions were Panther and Bear.  Members of his clan produced special medicines for the children.

Ani-tsiskwa

This is the Bird Clan.  The Ani-tsiskwa’s subdivisions were Raven, Turtledove, and Eagle.  Members of the Ani-tsiskwa were messengers.

Ani-waya

This is the Wolf Clan. The Ani-waya was always the largest clan. Members of this clan were mostly warriors.

Ani-wodi

This is the Red Paint Clan. The Ani-wodi were shamans and healers.

Historical evolution of the clan system in the 19th century

Although traditionalists still observe clan customs regarding marriage and certain social event, the customs and mores of the Cherokee regarding clans and the clan system have evolved considerably since ancient times, especially beginning with the 19th century. 

A large reason for this was the turmoil of the Cherokee-American wars (1776-1794) and the resulting displacement of vast numbers of Cherokee removed westward, both voluntarily and involuntarily, from their more easterly ancient homes.  Also, European traders in the Southeast—mostly Scottish, but also English, Irish, German, even French—had married Cherokee women (as well as those of other tribes) for several decades.  Their children belonged to the mother and her clan and were considered Cherokee. 

The first change legislated by the National Council actually took place a few years before the beginning of the 19th century, when in 1797 it ruled that clans no longer had to redress deaths that were judged to be accidental, and also abolished the practice of substituting one clan member for another to answer for the death of a person from another clan if the person so culpable could not be obtained. The Ridge, who had joined the Council as the representative from Pine Log town, the previous year, initiated these changes.

The Ridge also helped bring about the second major revision change to the Cherokee Blood Law, which was provoked largely by the assassination of Doublehead at Hiwassee Garrison near the Cherokee Agency (Calhoun, Tennessee) in August 1807.  The stated reason was Doublehead's involvement in making private deals to sell off Cherokee land.  The killers were he and Alexander Sanders, the two of them having to stand in for James Vann, who was too drunk to accomplish the task.

Much more wide-sweeping changes came with the first printed law in the Cherokee Nation, passed by the National Council 11 September 1808.  A major reform designed and pushed forward by the young chiefs’ “Cherokee Triumvirate” (James Vann, Charles R. Hicks, and The Ridge), its primary prescriptive feature was setting up a Light Horse Guard of several teams over the whole Nation to act as regulating parties, and also provided for a system of patrilineal inheritance alongside the matrilineal inheritance system of the clans. The Ridge served as the first commander of the Light Horse Guard. Proscriptively, it further restricted clan retaliation.

In the Act of Oblivion on 18 April 1810, the National Council completely eradicated clan retaliation from Cherokee law, repudiated matrilineal inheritance, and referred to husbands and fathers in the Nation as the heads of household.

In 1825 the Cherokee Council passed a law admitting to the tribe children of mixed marriages in which the father was Cherokee and the mother white on the same basis as if their mother were Cherokee.

Today, few Cherokee even know their clan and none of the clan system’s “official” functions remain.  Traditionalists are, however, striving to revive the clan system as a means of bolstering Cherokee identity.

See also:

The Power of Cherokee Women

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/the-power-of-cherokee-women/