By antispin, April 6 at 11:07 pm #

Barry Obama may or may not be a fictional character, but he’s come into a lot of what the banks call “fictional assets.”  The accouterments of power but a mandate (somehow?) to do what the oligarchs want because…they have all those fictional assets?
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What’s the difference between a broke oligarch and a bum? The banks are all broke. At this point they are just empty office buildings. So where’s the money? Is it anywhere, or has it all been spent? Where do these oligarchs keep their money, if they still have any? Swiss bank accounts? Gold bullion? I’m confused.

It seems to me that banks are like utilities and should be treated as such, one that transmits economic energy as capital investment into the economy. The model of a well-regulated utility would be a good one to adopt for banks.

Bob Dylan is the greatest poet this country has ever produced. There is nothing and no one we should be prouder of as Americans than Bob Dylan. Obama has a long way to go before I could say he does us that proud. 

Yes, Bob Dylan himself, like Obama, is something like a fictional character, somehow less material, more etherial than we ordinary mortals. Perhaps this is true of the greatest artists. I had always felt this way about Dylan so I was very interested to hear him say he noticed it about Obama, whom I also supported from very early on.

As to Dylan’s politics, it can’t be reduced to a few slogans. But politics is one of his most frequent themes. Personally, I have been singing “Masters of War” lately. There isn’t anything unclear about that statement. It came out in 1963, just before the Kennedy assassination. Then as now, we are in the grip of the military-industrial complex; the masters of war of which he sang continue to rule.

Bob Dylan is a figment of someone’s imagination. Always has been. It’s always unclear what he says and his politics are unobservable. He’s a failed seer and listening to what he says is a waste of time. Your better off following “Mr. Natural,” R. Crumb’s comic hero. It’s a mistake tracking him on this site—leave him to the mystics.

re: Amon Drool

Thanks for the insights. As Bob himself has said: “their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.” Like the actor Cary Grant, anyone who reinvents their self to become their own brand is bound to come out somewhat strange. It is a natural tendency in the USA to make your heroes into your own conception, childish yes, but there it is. Dylan, like Neil Young, are, despite the warmth received on the liberal spectrum,  just revenue sucking instruments of the popular music industry. But I do take comfort in something Van Morrison said recently: “All I care about is the music, all the rest is nothing but pure shit.”
Thanks again for your comments.

True; and the fact that he wouldn’t have it is one of his virtues.

But why not a thinker and philosopher as President?

Were Dylan President, odds are that the media structure and system would be one of the first things on his “CHANGE!” agenda.

By Sepharad, April 8 at 6:48 pm

Because he probably wouldn’t have the job. It’s one thing to be a thinker and philospher and another to be a politician. This thing the US has that is called a government is damn well broken and it will take, most likely, a total rebuilding to even try to get close to what the people who created it in the 18th century built. And again the ‘new’ age of technology and the addiction to convenience will render what it is to day by negating that most important of aspects of maintaining a democracy, eternal vigilance.
Besides, absolute restructuring of the media system is of paramount importance.

Why can’t we have Bob Dylan for President? He’s smarter, more of a philosopher, more clear-seeing than any pol we’ve ever had, creative, curious, imaginative and unlike most celebrities of all varieties is not hung up on his personal greatness. He’s also able to predict our future apparently .... remember his line “The cat’s in the well and the wolf’s lookin’ down.”  That was at least 10 years ago, if not longer, and here we are.

more iron range memories:

my mother worked in a drugstore during the 50’s and 60’s.  the store would hire after-school clerk help outa the local high school.  one of these high school clerks developed an interest in a delivery guy from hibbing.  they eventually married and when bob’s mother moved to st. paul—i think in the 70’s—this couple bought the zimmerman house in hibbing.  i think sometime in the 80’s they noticed a black limousine parked near their house for a couple hours.  the limo left and then some months (or maybe a few yrs) later returned.  the couple worked up the nerve to approach the limo and, sure enuf, there was bobby zimm.  they invited him into the house and showed him around.  bob was gracious and signed their son’s dylan albums.  i guess the guy really does believe in soaking up the spirits of an area.

re: beerdoc

the point of my post was to get eileen fleming, who’s done fine work in keeping us informed of the plight of the palestinians, to “flesh out” her image of dylan.  dylan sang neighbour bully like he meant it…he just wasn’t spinning out a yarn.

btw, i grew up 5 miles from bobby z. in a town called chisholm.  my older sister remembers him as being a bit of a greaser!! (don’t know if u recall 50’s hairstyles)  he used to drive from hibbing to clang away on the piano at chisholm’s youth recreation center.

re: Amon Drool

Concerning Mr. Zimmerman: (to quote Van Morrison) He’s a song writer. He does it for a living. He can spin you a yarn as long as your arm. He’s a song writer.
I think it is unwise to attribute too much to Bobby’s songs. That is his job. He has been on the wrong side of more than one issue. Like Shakespeare, he too must tow the Tudor line. (Did I not tell you about this earlier?)

eileen…your posts during the gaza invasion inspired me to send a contribution to the US campaign to end the israeli occupation fund, even tho i was unemployed at the time.  i suggest u google the lyrics to robert’s song “neighbourhood bully” to flesh out your image of the guy.

“Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed”
ahhh yeah.

Back 2 U antispin,

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

How many times must the cannon balls fly before they’re forever banned?

How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?

How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?

How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?

Eileen,

That’s good.  I thought of Desolation Row:

“Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row”

Robert Zimmerman pointing out the incongruous aspects of the Obama biography, also points to aspects of previous presidents’ backgrounds that are downright strange. Carter: from peanut farmer to atomic submarine commander wannabe. Clinton: someone who schemed his entire life to be president, always worried about his political viability. Johnson: the master of the Senate, who saw that all the peckers he had in his back pocket (as he said) were useless against the unstoppable force of the military industrial complex. Nixon: the little dog who became a big dog that unfortunately destroyed himself chasing his own tail, falsely believing it was going to bite him.
With all that in mind, you can’t help but marvel somewhat at the walking contradiction we know as Barry Obama.

Barry Obama may or may not be a fictional character, but he’s come into a lot of what the banks call “fictional assets.”  The accouterments of power but a mandate (somehow?) to do what the oligarchs want because…they have all those fictional assets?

buy instead of bey

of you got dylan’s music you can buy right there—->

that’s gets me to thinking that this news story is a just a advertimement to get people to bey something

Your special art of pointing to certain concepts and philosophies is most valuable. Too bad the world doesn’t take heed and learn and live it. But such is the way of the world.