A Waste Land

Five people dead, around ten seriously injured and ten others hurt - but we should all utter a sigh of relief. It was not a terror attack, even though the driver who wanted his car to crash into the royal parade did it as an action against the royal family.
But he was an autochtonous Dutchman. That makes it alright, more or less. He has a Christian name, and when I say Christian I mean Christian. Not Mohammed or Idris or Kemal. He is from Huissen, rather biblebeltish, and his given name is Karst. Very much Christian. So it was not terror.
That is supposed to be a consolation to the family of the five deceased and the wounded.

Koninginnedag is very much a party for and of the people (the dictionary says I must translate volksfeest as street party, it does not sound fitting - a national street party perhaps).
The original reason to have spontaneous street festivities on this day was that for a time the day was a good opportunity to rise in anger against monarchy and capitalism and the police. When especially children are admonished to have a garage or attic sale on the streets it is difficult to start a street party of the burning barricade kind.
It was a celebration of the Free Market for quite some time. It was even the name for the street party, vrijmarkt - the one day in the year NL really was a free market society.
Of course it could not last. Shop owners were complaining about competition and so Regulation was introduced, which meant the end of the free market in effect.

Still, Koninginnedag is a day you go out into the streets because Something Is Supposed To Be Happening. Whatever. Police still cannot do very much about children selling stuff, or even adults who do not own a shop doing this. Too much crowd on the streets, wearing orange coloured clothing (The House of Orange, after the principality nowadays part of France, the birthplace of the dynasty). And the crowd is loaded, usually very early in the day - generally as of midnight.

Koninginnedag is usually translated as Queen's day - especially by those organising gay parties on the day - but actually it cannot be properly given a name in another language. It used to be the birthday of the reigning queen, but she abdicated in 1980 and died in 2004. It is best to call it a spring festival with the royal family as an excuse to party. And admittedly, the royal family accepts this role wholeheartedly. Perhaps this will change now, because - well, the attack was not considered as a terror attack, but to any normal person at least five people being killed does not sound fun.
Even the burning barricades might be preferred to this.

*

April is the cruellest month, it is also the month laden with most memories - at least, to me it is.
And the 30th of April - "Queen's Day" - more or less marks the end of this month of personal remembrance - with more memories. Of finds, usually interesting 45s, which effectively have disappeared from the car boot sales since people still having them probably do not want to get rid of them - so only seventies bulk like ABBA and even worse (incredibly, there are even worse things to be found) still hits the street.
And organising parties yourself, or walking hand in hand through the crowd with the Special Person. Like New Year's Eve, Koninginnedag is a day of thinking back to other days - at least it is for me.
Still special, but alas not very special any more. No interesting stuff any more and too many drunken people you must slalom your way around.
And then there was this attack which they dare call - with a sigh of relief - not a terror attack.
Being an anarchist means at least being in favour of a republic as against a monarchy. NL oddly moved against history, starting as a republic, even being called THE Republic when there were no other republics in Western Europe.
But I frankly am abhorred by the idea - what if this deed of non-terror really had succeeded in wiping out the royal family?

*

I was looking for a video of the veejay you can admire below - he did a stunning version of the national anthem and a paean for the late queen Juliana. I have not found them on the net.
A special feature of his show was the cupboard filled with files falling down, perhaps hitting some lip-sync-ing artist. It is hard to explain what is so special about the performance of the veejay - understanding Dutch certainly is not enough.
I was looking at a website dedicated to him when I heard a crash on the telly behind my back. "That was the usual cupboard", was my first thought. It was not.
But then again, it was not a terror attack.
"I want to get out of this B-movie," someone interviewed at the scene of the non-terror-attack said.
The ruling order nowadays is neither ruling nor orderly. It has run its time and the cupboard with files may descend upon it any moment.

Policing the crisis

"We will not pay for their crisis" has been called a bad slogan, because it is not anyone's fault in particular that the system is grinding to a halt. That is right - but it stil is their crisis since every form of (re-)producing dominant ideology has been selling the system as the best, nay the only possible world. And they are still trying to sell it that way.

This being said, let us have a look at the policing indeed. How convenient that the highly dangerous terrorists of Pakistani descent have been released on the day the UK budget was getting all the attention. They were not charged of anything.
Apart from being Pakistani apparently, and to be thrown out of the UK because of that.

And of course the officer that beat Ian Tomlinson to death, or Nicola Fisher to the ground, or the officer who was looking forward to beating up long-haired "hippys" (!) at the G20-demonstration of April 1st are all just bad apples in a very sound - erm - orchard.

Let the poster speak for itself. Click on it for a good viewing.

Prayer I58

My understanding is that the Christian direct action group are planning to meet up in Birmingham this weekend. I don't know more than that but they have a website where you can find out more about them.

http://www.i58.org.uk/contact

Jesus and Bakunin on authority

This image is taken from a Canadian Magazine called The Diggers that published in the 1980s. I don't know if the magazine is still around.

Smashing war heads

Tony is bovvered

Pinch me (no need to use salt).
Am I still asleep and having nightmares due to kidneybeans in chili sauce?
Is this a real foundation?

The Geography of voting

What has geography got to do with it? Daniel Hannan complains that 85% of our laws are passed in Brussels by unelected officials. But what of the other 15% so they are made by first-past-the-post (unelected) officials in Westminster.

For those who live in Dumfries or Derrygonnelly what does it matter whether it's Brussels or Westminster. It's decisions by uncaring foreigners about the lives of people they will never meet.

The Liberal Democrats have always been in favour of EU unity and expansion but forget the real socialist spirit of such a unity: the Internationale of workers not the conglomeration of business and political interests.

Oh yes Virginia, you look like an anarchist

The other night there was an item on Newsnight about kettling, locking people up collectively in open air - as done by the police force in London on April 1st during the demonstrations against the G-20 meeting. Open camp would be a more appropriate (and comprehensible) word for the practice.
An indignant girl was filmed, Newsnight did not give her a name so I chose one for her. She went to take a look from the office and found she was locked up in the street for more than two hours. "Do I look like an anarchist?"
She had short painted hair. I have known lots of anarchist girls with short painted hair. What kind of idea about anarchism and what an anarchist is supposed to look like would she have? An idea developed and groomed by the kind of media she was on, presumably, if not worse...

Does he look like one? Jacques Ellul, theologian and sociologist. Probably Virginia can better identify with women.




Simone Weil? Severe glasses - actually without them she looks stunningly lovely, but I am not supposed to think or say that. Anyway, she looks like a decent office girl, does not she?





Clara Meijer-Wichmann? You don't have to pretend you know her, because obviously you do not know any of these people, Virginia....





Starhawk? A woman that might have been present at the G-20 demonstration.





Dorothy Day? Does she look like an anarchist? Perhaps she is the best known female anarchist of the past century, although you would not know thanks to mainstream media.




A Dutch protestant newspaper took the trouble to review a journal on Christian anarchism I had edited, A.D. 1991. Those were the days such subjects were still taken seriously by mainstream media. Not long ago, and yet so long ago...
The reviewing editor was convinced that I considered Christ Himself to be an anarchist. Actually, I would never go that far. But I know of at least one Christian anarchist who did - he called Jesus the Loving Anarchist at the Cross. I am not going to argue about it.
We do not know what Jesus looked like, we can be sure that most if not all iconic representations cannot be right. I think the representation in this video for Good Friday is symbolically very well chosen. Virginia, here is an Anarchist for you.

Police involved in death of innocent bystander

The Guardian has revealed footage of police at the G20 protests bringing a man to the floor as he walked away from them with his hands in his pockets.

They then stood over him but offered no help as he sat dazed on the floor.

Minutes later Mr Tomlinson collapsed and then died.

People say we are lucky not to live in an oppressive regime. It's true that we live with relative freedom but is only relative and it is never inert. We are always either gaining or losing our corporate freedom to the Other.

See for yourself: here. It looks like whoever did the post-mortem and gave a verdict of "natural causes" may need investigating too.

Bartley: Easter and Anarchy

In comment is free today Jonathan Bartley tries - as ever - to draw Christian attention away from the protectionism of Christendom religion toward a more radically political understanding of faith.

Easter, he claims, in its pre-Christendom forms was anarchic, subversive, intended to challenge the Roman violence-based empire.

I wonder what Bakunin would have made of this? Is Easter the new carnival of the masses aimed to offer a vision of a world turned up side down, if just for a moment.

I prefer this to Theo Hobson's (Ekklesia associate) vision "Easter Rising" which he unveiled a in 2005 at Greenbelt.

"Easter ought to be a massive public event. It ought to be the biggest event in British culture. It ought to be like every carnival and festival and demonstration rolled into one."

When I challenged him as to the venue for this event suggesting that Parliament Square would be better than Hyde Park would be appropriate because it would challenge the SOCPA laws thus brining us into the Christ-tradition of challenging the centre of power at Easter.... well, he wasn't keen to say the least.

There are all kinds of ways we can make Easter the carnival it could be, with a little imagination. Returning to a pre-Christendom hermeneutic on the gospels but a post-Christendom take on politics and society.

For example, John Hull mentioned a couple of weeks ago the idea of Churches using the issue of asylum (I think it was!) for the Palm Sunday walk through town. Worshippers would be holding up placards associating Jesus with the those on the margins of society today, those crucified by the present ideologies of empire.

I sometimes wonder what Jesus riding on a donkey toward Jerusalem would look like in the hear and now: scores of white vans, factory workers, prostitutes, with crowns on their heads as we make a red carpet for them all the way to Buckingham Palace and demand access to the many rooms.

Yes: with a little thought and fun easter is a very different fish.

Image: Guardian comment is free. Jonathan Bartley, co-director of the think tank Ekklesia

Obama: 5 Challenges that he and his friends face together

Friendship, ties, tributes, deep respect. These are the things that bring Turkey and the USA to fight their common enemies.

This is how stately speeches work: there is a cordial introduction and then a rounding on the "Other". If states exist only by perpetuating violence then alliances between states exist to bring violent thoughts and actions together across the world.

So what and who are Obama's enemies? Well, according to his speech in Ankara, Turkey today they are the following:

An economic crisis that recognizes no borders.

1. Extremism that leads to the killing of innocent men, women and children.
2. Strains on our energy supply.
3. A changing climate (Change we can believe in).
4. The proliferation of the world’s deadliest weapons.
5. The persistence of tragic conflict.

It is encouraging to hear a world ruler speak frankly of the "strains on our energy supply". When do politicians ever even hint at Peak Oil let alone to do so as a key theme for his or her future agenda? Yet his solutions, none are given, instead he focuses on bailing out the banks and hunting down the terrorists. So no CHANGE there then. And HOPE has an even bigger carbon footprint than the WAR ON TERROR.

Obama quotes a Turkish proverb, how cute of him: “You cannot put out fire with flames.” I don't know why. It has nothing to do with the content of his speech perhpas he just wants us to look the other way a moment while he gets on with the important work of government.

Obama is marching into Jerusalem on the back of a Beast of his own

Obama is marching into Jerusalem on the back of a Beast of his own

“They say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them” (St Paul 1 Thessalonians 5:3).

In 1894, in his book “Christianity and Patriotism”, Leo Tolstoy noted that among the Russian and French political and military leaders there was much celebrating of renewed relations and present and future peace. Generals from both sides dined together at international meetings, public embraces were exchanged.

Tolstoy has great fun satirising the propaganda of these two great states and their new found affection for one another: quoting the presses eager interest in the menus and bar tabs of the soldiers and statesmen.

“With each menu a description was also given of the drinks swallowed by the festive party, some sort of 'vudka', some sort of Bourgogne vieux, Grand Moet and so on. In an English newspaper all the intoxicating drinks consumed during these fetes were enumerated, the quantity of it being so enormous that all the drunkards in Russia and in France could hardly have swallowed it in such short a time.”1

Little has changed in media obsession. It takes a second or two to discover that the G20 leaders at the London summit in April had Bakewell tart and custard for pudding coutesy of celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver.2 How much booze was involved we may never know.

In his early months as USA President, Barak Obama has made diplomatic and deliberate recourses to better relations with the Russians than Bush. And not just Russia – a video link to Iranian T.V., a change of course in Iraq and Afghanistan. It all looks pretty good. The prince of HOPE is doing the job he was elected to do.

But then again.

“It is true that in all the speeches and toasts uttered during those festivities, and in all the articles about them, it was constantly proclaimed that the object of what was happening was to secure peace. [However,...] this constant repetition of the sentence: 'We don't want war, we want peace!” and the silence about what is in everyone's mind, is a most menacing symptom.”3 Tolstoy was offering an educated and insightful guess but things were more complicated: Germany initial saw itself as having to capitulate diplomatically to Russia as Britain lost influence along the Mediterranean but the threat of Russia's greater alliance with France lead indirectly to the Schleiffen Plan and a greater alliance between German and Austria against Russia as a means of self-defense. So the Franco-Russian talk of peace was really another of the many examples of one nation posturing militarily alongside another to threaten the neighbours.

In 1894 the peace between Russia and France only made a strong alliance for war with Germany. St Paul, wise to the ways of empire, warned the Thessalonian Christians of those political leaders who made much talk of peace and held out his own hope that they would be subject to God's judgment (1 Thess. 5:3).

That is why we should take note of Obama's words in Turkey on Palm Sunday this year. He does not ride into Europe on a donkey but in “The Beast”, his armoured gas-guzzler. And like the Sanhedrin, he is looking for the next scapegoat to save a whole nation.

"All nations must come together to build a stronger, global regime. And that's why we must stand shoulder to shoulder to pressure the North Koreans to change course."
(Obama in Prague 5 April 2009)

So what does Obama mean when he calls for unity, peace, hope, and an end to the proliferation of nuclear weapons as president of a country developing “usable” nuclear weapons as we sleep and eat? He means what we must listen for in the silence.

Imprisoned radical intellectual seeks help for his case

A report from the US Gulag:

Coyote Sheff is a self-styled anarchist. This according to him means that “what I do as an anarchist defines what anarchism means to me.” He became aware of anarchism while in prison. Coyote is an intellectual and a writer. Coyote has published three Zines up to now with the help of South Chicago ABC (Anarchist Black Cross), and he has started his own prison chapter of ABC, educating other prisoners around him.

Coyote shares stories of abuses and injustices inside Ely State Prison with the world, through his Zines and articles published on the net and in the SF Bay View, and this has caught the attention of the administration of this prison, notorious for not giving medical care to inmates held there, and being a prison on permanent lockdown.

Since writing an article about a fellow inmate in Ely State Prison, who is suffering from potential kidney failure without the prison authorities doing anything, the state of Coyote´s confinement has been hightened to “High Risk Potential” (HRP), which means he is shackled in hands to his belly, and his feet, everywhere he goes during the one hour a day break; his cell was raided every day during three weeks, and they are now trying to bring new criminal charges on him for alleged weapons in his cell, a charge thought up to try and get his prison sentence prolonged, even though Coyote is nearly at the end of his prison sentence. In Coyote´s own words: “I´m kind of close to being released, but these people here are trying to make it so I never get out! Because that is what happens when you are a radical, in here they either kill you with medical neglect if you have a lot of time to do in prison, and if you do not have a lot of time to do in here, then they will try to set you upon new charges, giving you more time.”

The prison administration is cracking down on all of Coyote´s mail, not allowing any literature to be sent in to him from his friends who support him in his struggle to express himself (denying him his constitutional rights). He is being denied a due process hearing about the HRP status too.

“All of this is due to my political activism within these walls; because of my efforts in politicizing prisoners in Nevada as well as prisoners in other states. And especially because of my connections to political and radical activists on the outs. They are trying to crush me with the pressure of their boot on my neck.”

For his case in fighting the false charges brought against him, Coyote seeks funding for his attorney. He himself has already been successful in gathering donations while in his cell, but he still needs a little more to make the total sum of 2500 US dollars complete. That is why we ask you to please consider donating an amount however small towards helping this unselfish, lively brother who is doing so much for us in the form of writing and motivating others.

If you want to read more by Coyote, please visit this website where his writings are being gathered:
Nevadaprisonwatch (see the sidebar with “Coyote Calling”)

Please also visit Coyote´s Myspace page: myspace.com/abcnevada

We have a chip over there through which you can donate by clicking on it. The money will be sent to Coyote´s family to pay for his attorney.

Coyote´s address for support:

Coyote Sheff, #55671
P.O. Box 1989,
Ely, NV 89301 – 1989
USA

Catholic Worker report from the City

Spotted on Indymedia UK and also to be found on Ciaron O'Reily's own weblog. Not being Roman Catholic admittedly I had to look up what he means with "sorrowful mysteries". Please find out yourself if you do not understand it.

G20-Circled & Shaken Down During the 2nd Sorrowful Mystery

Sometime during the second decade of the sorrowful mysteries, I had a sense we were not alone. Martin, Katrina and I were sat alone in a small East London park facing the Excel Centre where the G20 of the most powerful government leaders were gathered to rearrange deckchairs on their sinking ship. Thousands of police had been deployed around the Excel Centre keeping the few hundreds of protesters who gathered a quarter of a mile from the site. A case of overcatering evidently.
We had somehow managed to get through to this small park for a face off with the building. We were praying seated at a park table when this big guy leaned over me, I looked up to see an automatic rifle in his hands and a pistol strapped to his knee. He told me to stand up slowly. As I did I went to place a paper in my pocket he said “Keep your hands visible”. This guy was serious, I extended my arms away from my body for a frisking and looked around to see 4 other guys and a gal in paramilitary uniforms circling our table all similarly armed with rifles and pistols. 6 of them with 12 weapons, 3 of us with a bible, rosary beads and liturgy sheet. I like these odds.

As Martin stood up he kept reciting the rosary, didn’t break stride. My copy of the Guardian began to flutter in the breeze under the park table I thought I should step out and stand on it so it wouldn’t blow away. I then thought, I really like my left kneecap, stayed stationery, refused to give my name and was detained under anti-terrorist legislation, 5th time in the past year in 3 jurisdictions!

The cops paced around methodically as they checked Katrina and Martin’s bags….these folks were the real deal, the last card in the cop deck. After the 4 million CCTV’s, the fluorescent jacket guys, the riot squads with shields and batons, come these folks I guess.

Our visitors seemed satisfied that our liturgy sheet was not indeed a map of the Excel Centre as reported by their Intel. After we were released from the mystical anti-terror detention and the super cops departed, we returned to prayer and further reflection on these dark times we’re in and what small human response we could muster.

Outnumbered, outresourced, outflanked, but not out of the game - Katrina produced a rainbow PEACE banner and Martin drew up a placard with a quote from Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day “Our Problems Stem from our Acceptance of this Filthy Rotten System!” and made our way toward the G20 gathering.

Across the city others were being raided, arrested, recovering from wounds and long hours of detention/kettling from the previous day’s scene outside the Bank of England. A lot more good folks, following weeks of media hype and scaremongering, were internally migrating away from expressing dissent in this historic moment wherein the climate and the economy crash. Where this filthy rotten system based on production for production's sake rather than meeting human needs, that operates in the denial that the environment does not have limits to exploitation.

The only way out of this atomised fear and off this sinking ship is nonviolent resistance and solidarity.

http://www.londoncatholicworker.org

Confirmation of death demonstrator April 1st

Rumours abound at mass demonstrations which are attacked by the police.
Mainstream media reported earlier on this than the instant news medium Indymedia. But it has become an unavoidable piece of news, and we should not expect more honest reporting about it than about the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. We are not even informed about the name of the victim. [Update below]

In response to the death of a protestor during the demonstrations against the G20 in the City of London on the 1st April 2009, a solidarity demonstration will assemble at Bank at 1pm, today April 2d.

The aim of the assembly is to:

* mark the death of the protestor,
* call for an independent police inquiry
* show solidarity against the enormous police repression that happened against protestors outside the Bank, the Climate Exchange and elsewhere in the City of London.

Any witnesses to this event or any other act of police violence against demonstrators is advised to write a full statement as soon as they possibly can, sign and date it, and give a copy it to a trusted other party. These statements should be sent to
Email: g20witnesses [at] gmail.com

UPDATE

The Guardian states the deceased, 47 year old Ian Tomlinson, lived in the City and was on the way home from his Newsagents shop, no information if he was caught up in the demo or whether he took part.

Jasper Jackson, 23, from London, who photographed Mr Tomlinson's collapse, said he had been standing in front of a line of police dog handlers minutes before he fell over. "The picture I have of him is of him stumbling in front of the protesters and in front of the police dogs looking dazed," he said. "He had a glazed look on his face. Then it was drawn to my attention that somebody shouted to the police with a loud hailer that there was a casualty and said, 'Can we get a medic?' "

The officers were white as sheets," said Andy Bowman, a 24-year-old PhD student. "The blood had drained from their faces. They were giving us conflicting stories about what had happened; some of the officers were saying he had a blow to the head and some were saying he'd collapsed of a heart attack.

Normally I am against the prison system...

Even more breaking news: Karl Rove himself was arrested in Washington DC late yesterday afternoon. [Updated]

The Christian Radical reports:

BREAKING NEWS
I don't usually do this but I got this last night and it was too important to wait until tonight to post it here.

-CR

Former U.S. Official Arrested in Italy

Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:58 pm EDT http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUNSEO17955925090401

By P.V. Maro

ROME (Reuters) - John C. Yoo, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States, was arrested on Tuesday in Milan, Italy, and is being held for possible extradition to Spain, where he and five other retired officials who served under former President George W. Bush are expected to be indicted by a Spanish court for violations of the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Yoo, 41, is a visiting professor of Law at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, California, on leave from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. He served in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003. Yoo authored memos permitting the use of torture. Torture is banned by both U.S. law and international conventions.

Milan prosecutor Andrea Spolini released a statement indicating that Yoo can be held for up to 90 days awaiting an indictment in Spain under the international standard of "Rompi Testiculo."

(Edited by Antonio Gramsci)

© Chompson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Check out this arrest photo: http://tinyurl.com/dypg7u

The late great Gramsci himself was resurrected from the grave to report this victory of the working class.
Watched the calendar, good friends at the other side of the planet?
Or are you trying to pull our leg?
;-)

UPDATE - Christian Radical reports April 2d:

Originally I wasn't going to post the fake Reuters story about John Yoo being arrested but I couldn't help myself. Also I think it makes a good point. I'm probably preaching to the converted here sometimes, if you are a regular reader of this site it's a good bet you'd love to see Bush and his gang testify in front of the ICC. And until that happens we all have to do our part no matter how small to ensure that one day they answer for their crimes. So this April write a letter, sign a petition, take to the streets or occupy a government office. For our sakes and for the sakes of our children. If these men are allowed to go unpunished we run the risk of turning the precedents set up after World War 2 into hollow victor's justice applicable only to those who are our enemies.

Let's not be fooled any longer!

CR

Comment: With Milosevic having died in Scheveningen prison, Saddam Hussein hung and Bashir indicted we do not have to bother to think about what is expressed in CR's last sentences. Do not expect George W. Bush or Ehud Olmert in the dock in The Hague any time. And Tony Blair was welcomed by the pope himself as a new member of the Roman Catholic Church instead of being refused.

Favourite picture of today

Prof. Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group, if I'm not mistaken.

Dressed as an undertaker or vampire or summink.

Can we the working class have our church back please?

A cutting comment for those of us safely in the middle class Christendom Church of fads and fashions from previous APoS contributor Paul Thomson.

Click here. Must add this to the blog list.

Justice not Crisis

I've just visited a newly squatted hotel on the Bristol Road. It has been reopened by the group who had / still have squatted four houses owned by the Warwickshire County Cricket Club nearby.

The hotel has 22 rooms a couple of large dining rooms a bar etc but most impressively beautiful trees, a stocked fishing lake, and a couple of (vicious) geese and ducks.

The new occupants were previously homeless and some of recently in the vulnerable position of sleeping rough. Their intention is to clean up the hotel, start paying the bills, and open it up to guests.

More here.

Earlier blog on this here.

Please hinder the children

A story from Last Hours which at first I wanted to copy in full as it is a bad read technically, but Indymedia London did it so you can read it there.

The main idea, especially spread by London's local rag, is that anarchists and foreigners (which means I am repeating myself) are out to get your innocent children to use them as human shields in their unscrupulous striving for a revolution which will bring the banks down and will cause a lot of trouble for bankers who even have to dress down to escape the militias. Which consist of lazy drunkards who will however be shooting their way through Oxford Street for a good bit of plundering.
No
kidding.
Do you see that woman calling for a May Day party? Looks trustworthy and innocent, you think? You really are a fool. A May Day fool.