| The Bohemian National Bank
(Images: King Wenceslas and the Sleeping Bohemian Knights of White Mountian. President Obama)
On October 28, 2008 I founded the Bank of the Golden Rat that caters to the Bohemian Service Industry. This bank came about when I was helping my new friend, Rick Cobian, with his Frank Street Productions which is based upon a cartoon rat named Frankie. I told Rick a rat is a hard symbol to sell, but would do my best. After a couple of meetings it dawned on me we would be well served to found our own bank. The Year of the Golden Rat ends January 24th.
“A Networking Bank
The Bank of the Golden Rat is a hands on networking bank. We are a community bank that not only lends our money, but our expertise in order to insure your enterprise will be successful.
Whether you are a baker looking to open a Bohemian coffee and pastry shop, or an artist asking for a loan to build a studio, or, open a gallery, our creative loan officers will put at your disposal a team of experts to make sure your dream is realized.”
Due to the fall of the American Economy, Rick and I believed quick action must be taken to save the Bohemian way of life. With no money, we began to invent a Trickle-up Bohemian Economy based upon the idea that Artists and Musicians often roll up their sleeves and paint walls in a new Bohemian coffee shop knowing that when it opens their art will be on the wall, and their Jazz notes will fill the room.
Yesterday, President Barack Obama rolled up his sleeves and help paint the walls at a Youth Center.
Below is one of several e-mails I exchanged with Congressman Peter Defazio and Tony Corcoran in December of 2002 on the damage Deregulation was doing to our Nation’s economy. Some Americans did see the collapse coming.
It is time for all good men and women of this land to roll up their sleeves and get to work, if it is only as a volunteer. Tomorrow I make a list of those who helped Rick and I celebrate the Inauguration of President Obama who promised he would create a Trickle-up economy. We Bohemians will meet our President halfway. I have renamed my bank The Bohemian National Bank.
On this day I found the Bohemian Knighthood of White Mountain. In 1848, my Bohemian grandfather Wensel (Wenceslas) immigrated from Czechovakia to Connecticut. Good King Wenceslas is the ‘king under the mountain’ a common folkloric narrative, often associated with the founding of a nation. The story persists that the statue of Wenceslas will awake in Prague when the Czechs are in danger and rouse his knights who sleep under Blaník mountain to save their homeland.
I bid these good knights “Arise!”
Come ye to the One World New Day Bakery, and behold the Dawn of a New Bohemian Age!
http://www.rachelcobian.com/heyObama/
John G. Presco
Copyright 2009
Jon
>John,>Thanks for the info. Isn’t Karl Rove also associated with Citizens for a>Sound Economy, the right wing front for Phillip Morris and Microsoft?..the>folks who want to abolish social security, etc? My Republican opponent,>incidentally, is part of CSE when they visited me during the session.>Thanks again,>Keep in touch, I’m forwarding your e-mail to Peter DeFazio as well.>take care,>
This was the effective nail in the coffin for the FDR-era Glass-Steagall Act, which put into place a number of banking regulations and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The purpose of the Glass-Steagall Act was to prevent a repeat of the crash of 1929.
JonScrap the stupid, old fashioned, and greedy ‘trickle down economy’-because it does not WORK! It’s disfunctional, it the dumb pipe-dreamof a senile old fart who let our electrical grid go to hell, Reaganinstead investing billions in the Star War program – that was suposedto PROTECT our infrastructure in case of a nuclear attack!It’s time Middle America be invited to the deregulation party theBush Buddies have been holding in secret, and be allowed to buy bondsin repairing the infrastructure of America and Iraq. I think onlyAmericans with incomes under $75,000 dollars a year should be allowedto buy GUARANTEED UTILITY bonds. Because of Bush’s tax give-away tothe rich, we now know who these people are. Bush’s wealthy friends took their investments and ran after the fibre-optic scam. They don’t get another shot, another chance to cheat their share holders and the American Public.
This investment will create good will between the two Democratic peoples of Iraq and America who will also be allowed to buy bonds in their infrastructure. This is the American way, where free enterpriseis practiced by all. Write Tony Cocoran and ask for an investigationinto the theft of our utitlites and get this Bond issue on the ballot.
Jon Presco> Write your Senator and demand public shares and bonds be made> available to the public so they can invest in repairing Iraq’s> infrastructure – and our own! Do not let Bush and his close buddies> hold a private and closed poker game with our tax money.>> Jon
http://www.census.gov/econ/www/servmenu.html
Bank of the Golden Rat
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:47 AM
From:
“John Ambrose”
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To:
“Rick Cobian” rick@cobiancontracting.com
Bank of the Golden Rat
With the bailout of world banks by common taxpayers, there arises a need to redefine banking as we have known it. Foreclosure signs growing like weeds in neighborhoods across America, are a blight on the common man’s dream. Discussions are taking place amongst our politicians as to how the banking industry can pay back the collective generosity of the American People. Barack Obama, who may be the next President of the United States, is talking about rebuilding the American economy from the ground up, a trickle-up system, as opposed to the trickle-down economy that favored the wealthy, but now lie in ruin, all but rendered useless for us all.
There is talk about a revised Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps agency that President Franklin D. Roosevelt established during the Great Depression that put Americans back to work. These agencies were funded by the tax dollars, the same tax dollars that are being used to help banks get back on their feet. It can be said the people of the United States are un-willing partners with the banks in what some are calling Socialism. Indeed, the Free Enterprise system has experienced a massive failure, and may not survive as we know it – if it survives! Will banks become extinct?
I believe some important aspects of banking can continue to exist if they take steps to become a integral partner and member of certain communities that are identified as being havens to artists, musicians, and other creative people seeking alternative solutions and lifestyles. Bankers, city managers, redevelopers, and private entrepreneurs have been looking at Bohemians as key to recovering blighted neighborhoods from urban decay that will be accelerated if we have a lasting recession or depression.
Some banks have a honorable history of supporting the arts, and making loans to civic minded people who want to sustain a Bohemian lifestyle that has given much flavor to metropolitan areas across America. These areas were often founded by artists looking for studio space and places of residence they can afford as they develop their craft.
Some Politicians have looked to the artists as a Trojan Horse, they at the vanguard of downtown developments. Bohemian activities have attracted banking institutions and wealthy investors, some who are looking to take advantage of these creative endeavors, they desirous to move in wealthy Bohemians wanna-bes in order to realize fantastic profits via high rents as soon as the real artists are moved out.The solution is for Artists and Bohemians to be The Bank, and employ the institution of banking to their advantage. The traditional banker role as a middleman can be reinvented, replaced by Hands on Banking that takes on new responsibilities such as maintaining acceptable levels of employment during hard times. These new banks must be willing and able to put employment and job creation before profits, because citizens with no money do not take part in what civilization has to offer. Depressions and Dark Ages go hand in hand.
Bankers and city planners have looked to Bohemian to create a public draw to cultural events, music cafes, boutiques, and art galleries. Without this draw there is no capital.
A study is needed to see how much capital Bohemians manage to raise, and from what sources. How many people are employed in their projects? What about the materials they purchase from other retail businesses? Do they have elaborate networks and a deep labor pools that tap into a wide range of skills?Experience tells me Bohemians are vital to the economy of many cities. How much more vital would they be if they had a bank that was a real partner, a real friend who helped supply capital to the epicenter of these enterprises and activities that attract participation on many levels. What would these Bohemian neighborhoods look like without this participation?
The Bank of the Golden Rat is not looking to transform Bohemianville, but to preserve it, forever seeking to keep it an integral sanctuary for its citizens. Many Banks have thrown their integrity and reputation out the window – along with billions of dollars that was entrusted to them.
Owning a good reputation was once vital to the banking business. Rebuilding this reputation from the ground up will entail gaining the trust of a group of people who traditionally don’t trust institutions, and often seek an alternative to just about every institution known to man.
The BGR will be an alternative bank and a real pioneer forever seeking to invest in the visions of creative people who have a long and illustrious history of survivability. If traditional banks could live and prosper as long.
A Networking Bank
The Bank of the Golden Rat is a hands on networking bank. We are a community bank that not only lends our money, but our expertise in order to insure your enterprise will be successful.
Whether you are a baker looking to open a Bohemian coffee and pastry shop, or an artist asking for a loan to build a studio, or, open a gallery, our creative loan officers will put at your disposal a team of experts to make sure your dream is realized.
The BGR will bring private entrepreneurs and investors together with a network of artist and craftspeople in order to sustain and invest in alternative manufacturing and the Craft Culture. Restaurants and coffee houses play a big role in the Bohemian scene. The food services industry is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, providing 12.5 million jobs. With many of America’s manufacturing jobs being outsourced in order to exploit cheap labor overseas, it is vital that banks and investors provide capital to those who believe in Made in America and are willing to pay higher prices for quality goods.
Our Bank will issue a Golden Rat debit card that will give a %10 percent discount to the holder at all Frank Street Enterprises which is a network of creative crafts people, artists, and musicians. The Golden Rat card is designed to keep and circulate money within the network and thus sustain creative souls that should to be considered our National Treasures.
Americans need to be educated on the benefits of supporting homegrown cottage industries, rather then the plastic cut-rate products made overseas that fill our garages, and leave us in credit card debt for a decade. The Bank of the Golden Rat intends to lead the way in establishing a New American Pertinence, a New Renaissance if you will that casts off our title of Mindless Mass Consumer, and bid us to live our lives within our means – with dignity. This New Dignity should begin at the bottom, amongst the least and the disenfranchised, for I believe they will inherit the earth.
What I am suggesting is that Welles Fargo and Bank of America divest itself of twenty five million dollars apiece in order to launch this visionary bank that they will ultimately meet and shake hands within this new visionary community, that will help found a new Middleclass.
The Bank of the Golden Rat was founded by two native Californians who consider themselves Bohemians. This is the year of the Golden Rat. In ancient times the rat was welcomed as the protector and bringer of material prosperity. The rat is energetic and versatile, and can find their way through obstacles.
Monetary obstacles like the world has never seen have been thrown in our path. The Golden Rat will find a way, for he is forever the pioneer, forever liken to Orpheus who bids the sun to rise every morning with resonating notes from his lyre.
There is no time for our collective dismay. It is time to be truly inspired!
John G. Presco
Co-founder of the Bank of the Golden Rat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianismhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khQ9BaXZAjMFool’s Gold Card
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 8:26 PM
From:
“John Ambrose”
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To:
director@emeraldartcenter.netDear Cheryl;I hope your roof is up, and keeping the rain out.This is John, who is still awaiting his appointment to a board. But, until that blessed day, may I introduce you to the ‘The Fool’s Gold Card’? I will invite all members of the Emerald Art Center to become members once we get off the ground – step off the cliff – in this case!
John Presco
The Fool’s Gold Card
The Fool’s Gold Card is a debit card that caters exclusively to those who support and contribute to the Bohemian Alternative life style. Citizens who are fond of Artists. Writers, Musicians, Crafts People, and others Creative Souls will be the privileged bearers of these cards that will be honored in select Bohemian establishments such as Coffee Houses, Craft Shops, Restaurants, Health Food Stores, Galleries, Fairs, Concerts, Music Stores, ect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism
In what can be described as Reverse Elitism, it is time we Bohemians take care of one another! I the founder of the FGC, am deeply concerned about the fate of the Bohemian Capitalistic Lifestyle, that has a long history of Survivability, but may not weather the current economic downturn that is hitting the Service Industry hard. Below Main Street , at the bottom rung of the Service Industry, are what can be described as Bohemian, even Hippie establishments,. that have survived outside the mainstream capitalist institutions with very little, or no backing from the Banks. – that are now failing! What kind of fools are they?
This survivability has been made possible by a pulling together of community resources and like-minded people who give their support. in a variety of ways. Quite often Musicians and Artists become carpenters and laborers with the understanding once a new coffee house is open for business, their artwork will hang on the wall, and patrons will enjoy a fresh cup of Java accompanied by some Jazz tunes.
It is this Community Spirit that is needed in these hard times. This creative community service should be rewarded and supported by all its members, and their family and friends. The Fool’s Gold debit card will do just that, for every time it is used, the holder will be treated to many rewards and discounts. There will be a %10 percent discount at every place of business where you see The Fool and his white dog, in the window. I am looking into holographic technology to make my card a real standout. I want to see the little dog dance with joy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)
For every $10.00 dollars spent at select places, a dollar in theory goes into your account. You can setup so a $25.00 minimum can to transferred into your FGC account. If you do not use this card, but come Christmas time, you will find a fair near you that specializes in Made in America craft items, and original art!
For too long, Artists and other so-called Leftists and Elitists, have been attacked by the Right-wing. With the election of Barack Obama we have seen how the computer can bring people together to contribute to our Democratic process. There is a Change coming, and you can keep it energized by backing and patronizing those who have worked hard for alternative solutions and change. There will be a Fool’s Gold Card website that will feature a cyber map of your town showing were those who honor the Fools card can be found. By clicking on the building, the doors will open and pertinent information will be revealed to you. This site will be titled ‘The Fool’s Journey’, a journey on Main Street .
Each week, four establishments will be featured on this site. One can view a short video, meet the owner, and hear the history of how this place came to be. We will list workshops that will be held at some restaurants on Monday night. We have plans for live broadcasts. During hard times, the tendency is to isolate and wait for the axe to fall. But history has shown that in past Depressions, people have survived by coming together and pooling their resources – along with their Hope!. It is this Unity of Purpose that has made this Country Great. – and enjoyable – in the best of times, and in the worst of times! As my late friend Denny Dent said;
“We are taking our world back!”
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17468007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzJ5m-O3Jmg
Yours Truly
John Presco
President: The Fool’s Gold Card & Royal Rosamond Press Co.
The Fool indicates a fresh start, new beginning, or change of direction. The Fool possesses the imagination, and creativity. He trusts his instincts.
You start a new project, embark on an adventure. Travel is involved. Your enthusiasm infects everyone around you and benefits you professionally.
Finances — New financial opportunities appear in your life. Expect increase.
The Fool Tarot card meaning deals with that youthful exuberance we feel when starting out on a new adventure or taking a journey of faith. We feel anticipation, butterflies flutter in our stomach, and our skin prickles with excitement…our journey is underway – we’re unstoppable!
However, along with this passion comes impetuousness. The Fool makes no plans, or gives no thought to possible complications along the way. Happy to be doing something different, the Fool blindly sets out where all else may fear to tread.
When contemplating the Fool Tarot card meaning, I think of Joseph Campbell’s landslide statement: “Follow your bliss.” We can see this attitude in this card, which is wonderful. But, we must also note the lack of care about consequences – blind faith is the Fool’s only guide.
http://www.hologramtechnology.net/Holographic_pouch.htmhttp://www.peopleschurch.net/meijer.html
http://www.meijer.com/rewards
Gleaners Club Card
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 10:12 AM
From:
“John Ambrose”
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To:
“Rick Cobian”
Gleaners Club Card
Good morning Comrades. Bless this dawning of our Glorious Revolution.
glean (gl n)
v. gleaned, glean·ing, gleans
v.intr.
To gather grain left behind by reapers.
v.tr.
1. To gather (grain) left behind by reapers.
2. To collect bit by bit: “records from which historians glean their knowledge” Kemp Malone. See Synonyms at reap.
I was just watching Nancy Pelosi on T.V. talk about the monies that will be going to un-employment insurance and those who are hungry.
Here is the Faith-Based Inititative pushed upon The People by Dick Armey in order to empower the Christian-right. However, it was ruled most any group can apply.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/
I am a wealth of Biblical information, forisintance, I alone figured out why Jesus cursed the fig tree, what he wrote in the dust, and that he was a Nationalist bent on restoring the Jubilee in order to SAVE his Nation and its people. This revelation makes Jesus a political animal – too! I have him in my back pocket! This gentleman almost got it right.
http://www.cynet.com/Jesus/Prophecy/jubilee.htm
I suggest we found a Gleaner’s Club and apply for a grant in order to feed the people. We will do this with a Gleaner’s Club Debit Card. Our Bohemian Agents of Mercy will go into Bohemian Alternative Neighborhoods across America looking for restaurants that cater to poor folks, people who are living in the slow alternative lane. We will register these restaurants and give poor folk a debit card like the Oregon Trail card, that will allot so much funds a month so they can remain patrons of these qualified restaurants that employ people living on the edge of poverty. This is killing two birds with one stone, and is more then a giveaway program. This is a means to subsidize small restaurant owners who have a history of relieving the hunger of their poor patrons.
The Gleaner’s Club Card is the spiritual base of our Bank. After I sent you idea of our bank, the Stock Market had its second highest gain in its history. Was this a – sign?
LOL!
Jon Presco
Copyright 2008
http://www.gcfb.org/site/PageServer
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/grants-catalog-document.html
Surely Jesus must have consorted with Zealots, and defended Israel from Roman tyranny. Why was there no attempt by the Son of God to throw off the yoke of Roman slavery? Eighteen years later, I found the answer to so many riddles -hanging in a barren fig tree.
“And on the morrow, when they had come out of Bethany , he [Jesus]hungered. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season of figs. And he answered and said unto it, `No man [will] eat fruit from you from now on – for ever.’ And his disciples heard it . . .And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, `Rabbi, behold, the fig tree that you cursed is withered away'” (Mk. 11:12-14; 20-21).
This is perhaps the most mysterious passage in the New Testament. One wonders at this curse, whether it was magical. Did Jesus touch the fig tree, and thus it withered and died? Surely this is sorcery. But, what is really at work here is sorcery with a quill and ink that has born naughty fruit, lies upon lies.
Allow me to remove only one of these lies, and the false kingdom and Pentecost the liars made wither to its roots, and the capstone they raised up, come crashing down upon their heads.When Jesus came down from the Mount of Olives IT WAS THE SEASON OF FIGS, for this was the day of Shavuot, the Jewish Pentecost that takes place in the month of Elul, the month of gleaning, where the Jews will take nothing for themselves, and leave the last fruit to the aliens living amongst them. This is why Jesus is displeased, and why he curses those who have planted the fig tree, thus those at its root, the very sewers of the seed; for they have broken a covenant of God.
24:18 But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt , and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing. 24:19 When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.24:20 When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.24:21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.24:22 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.”
Jesus is telling the multitude that have gathered at the foot of the Mount of Olives that the wealthy Jews who make profit with the Roman slave masters, that the Jews were once gleaners of the fields of the Egyptians, and thus, even God was a gleaner, for He was taken captive with His people, and had no home, no roots. But he had made a Covenant with His Children, and he gave unto them His Word, His Torah on the Shavuot, the original Pentecost, and thus these “aliens” in a strange land were always rooted deeply in the Laws of God. To forsake these laws by not honoring the alien sojourners and gleaners, was to uproot the BRANCH that was rooted in the Promised Land.
RAT
Monday, October 13, 2008 4:07 PM
From:
“John Ambrose”
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To:
rick@cobiancontracting.com
Dear Rick;
After our meeting I went and hand lunch at the Farr Man Chinese restaurant. Here is what my fortune said;
“True ideas possess greater ultimate power then physical might.”
We are not talking about Big Ideas, but True Ideas.
Here is an article on the hijacking of digital television. They stole the tele, but can never own the vision.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=736&Itemid=1.
Getting back our Public Vision that was once as Free as air, IS the next True Revolution!
Barack Obama has instigated a Trickle-up Economy. McCain just mimicked his idea, but, it is a Big Idea from the same old Top that Bankrupt our Nation and Western Civilization!
However, from the ashes of our apocalyptic despair, a survivor makes his way to a mountain top, and like Orpheus plays his stringed instrument to make the sun rise again. There will always be hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4niFk-Iv-o
Frankie the Rat is an Archetype Survivor who has accompanied Mankind in his long journey to be Civilized. For thousands of years he was scorned, shut-out from the society of Man. But after the fall, when Man has lost all hope, Frankie takes up the slack, and becomes a GUIDE that leads all Humankind out of it latest Dark Age. He is a Pied Piper that leads humanity from the City of Ruin to the City of Hope .
Most people with computers don’t know how to get started. What they are looking for is a Guide, a Aladdin. Frankie the Rat is a Guide. He is not The Destination. There is no center to the City of Hope , there are just the Citizens of Hope. Frankie helps the New Wayfarer connect the dots. Other Guides will be found along the Orpheus Network that is a Quest, a Journey in search of Grail of True Ideas.
The Orpheus Network will bring U-tube and Google to high definition television. People can surf from their couch. A remote could take notes and url addresses, that can be transferred to the Internet. If one wants to get more detail on a Musician, Artist, Craftsman, they can go to their computer. Orpheus Television is a tool of Inspiration! It is the Three Muses. Orpheus’s son was Musaeus, “he of the Muses”.
The Sons and Daughters of the Muses!
Jon Presco
An archetype (pronounced: /ˈɑːkɪtaɪp/ (Brit.) or /ˈɑrkɪtaɪp/ (Amer.)) is an original model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior. This article is about personality as described in literature analysis and the study of the psyche.
In the analysis of personality, the term archetype is often broadly used to refer to
a stereotype—personality type observed multiple times, especially an oversimplification of such a type; or
an epitome—personality type exemplified, especially the “greatest” such example.
a literary term to express details.
However, in a strict linguistic sense, an archetype is merely a defining example of a personality type. The accepted use of archetype is to refer to a generic version of a personality. In this sense “mother figure” can be considered an archetype and instances can be found in various female characters with distinct (non-generic) personalities.
Archetypes have been present in folklore and literature for thousands of years and appear to be present in prehistoric artwork. The use of archetypes to analyze personality was advanced by Carl Jung early in the 20th century. The value in using archetypal characters in fiction derives from the fact that a large group of people are able to unconsciously recognize the archetype, and thus the motivations, behind the character’s behavior.
Archetypes can be seen in every movie made today. If the movie is good then you will see a well defined layout of a character going through the different archetypes. The hero in a movie will go through different stages. Carol S. Pearson wrote a book that is used in most english classes today. “The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By.” Starting with the Orphan. Then the Wanderer. Next will be the Warrior, and finishing with the Lover.
RAT
Revolutionary Arts Television
RAT T.V. will be a new digital television station that will bring new, revolutionary art forms and media to the public.
RAT will broadcast musical videos submitted by amateur and professional musicians.
On Friday and Saturday night RAT will air select bands live, along with MC
The Orpheus Media Network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus
http://www.mp3lyrics.org/k/kim-carnes/he/
His son was Musaeus, “he of the Muses”.
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Rosamond Press 
Reblogged this on Rosamond Press and commented:
In 2008 I invented The Bank of the Golden Rat and The Fool’s Gold Card which I copyright.
John Presco
Copyright 2008