A Word from #BernieSanders About Importance of a Strong Move #FeelTheBern #Bernie2016

Today is one of the most important days of our campaign: the final FEC fundraising deadline of the Democratic primary.

The last six states vote in one week, including California — the contest with the most delegates at stake in this race. And what today’s deadline will tell us is whether or not working people coming together and contributing small amounts of money can compete and win to the end against the millionaires and billionaires who have bankrolled Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her largest super PACs.

Our mission now is to go into the Democratic convention with as many votes, delegates and states as possible. From there, superdelegates will have to consider who is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump. That’s why I have to ask:

Adding one more $36 contribution before tonight’s midnight deadline will ensure we have the resources we need to win in California and make our strongest case possible at the Democratic convention.

Let me be very honest. Our path to victory is very narrow. It would take us defying every single expectation next Tuesday and making a very convincing case at the convention. But we have been fighting uphill from day one, and I believe we owe it to ourselves to try. That’s why your contribution before tonight’s deadline, the last of the primary, is so important.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

CONTRIBUTE

The Need for a Universal Income in America

Multiple headlines have been issued in recent weeks regarding The Robots Are Coming and the content of the articles related how Foxconn in China will replace sixty thousand workers out of an unknown total.  Their replacements will be some type of robot.

The CEO of McDonald's has said it may be cheaper to replace some unknown percentage of workers with robots.  Other similar headlines have been issued as well for plants or processes in which human workers will be or are now being replaced by robot analogs.


The Robots Are Coming is the frantic cry but, in fact, they are and complaining is pointless since the jobs they take suck anyway.  I'm sure it's your dream to assemble bits for an iPhone all day long only to look back with such a satisfied smile at how many times you did the same thing over and over and over.

The jobs will be replaced and the number of people displaced by it without comparable employment opportunities elsewhere will progressively rise.  The trend is clear so the question is what will you do about it when a substantial percentage of the working population is unemployed and has no chance for rehiring because the jobs don't exist anymore.


There are problems in the increasing disparity between rich and not rich and problem as has been reviewed in studies of increased social dysfunction as one specific consequence.  It therefore behooves a society which chooses to remain healthy over a long term to find some equalizing mechanism which is agreeable foremost to the health of the society and is as equitable as possible in its management.  Right now it is not at all healthy and the situation will inevitably increase and exacerbate due to predictable robotic displacement of human workers.

You don't believe it?

Consider use of Artificial Intelligence in call centers with all the miles of cubicles with humans tucked inside in their Telephone Matrix.  They deal with callers with any number of bizarre considerations but the ability of computers to understand speech and process it has increased enormously as it's not a difficult thing to imagine the existing push button dialogs with call centers to continue evolving to absorb even the ones staffed by humans.  That alone is a huge work force and what will do they do to continue since the corporation can't absorb them, too expensive.


Like it or no, it's coming.  We believe the most equitable way to resolve the situation when there's truly nothing for these people to do is to create a universal income and for a number of reasons.

- It keeps the peace because a more equitable distribution of wealth mitigates social dysfunction

- It's productive because we spend every dime we get and the economy loves us for it

- A healthy economy needs consumers and we buy the consumer crap the super rich people don't even need or probably even want ... but we do and if we have the jingle jack then we buy it

- It's karmic goodness in a world which is in sore need of it


Those are general things but all of them are true in total nevertheless.  The bigger question from all these displaced people is not so much providing a universal income since there really won't be a choice or risk them getting feisty and tearing down the whole shooting match.  The bigger question is what will they do when they're reasonably pleased with life and all know if they believe you have what it takes to go to University then go for it but we will expect them to attend school in any case to learn about Life, the Universe, and Everything or at least some minimal preparation for what it means to be an adult.


After that, then what.  For the ones who do not go on to University or to be Master Craftsman of some nature, Artists or Wizards, or any such specialty, what will they do.  Some may think they will languish, blowing reefer and watching The Three Stooges all day but it's rubbish.  I'm stoned all the time and the only thing holding me back from anything is physical.  Even so, some or many will choose not to smoke the ganja so what will they do.

Sports could get even more gigantic than now but that carries the risk of "Rollerball" and carnivorous sport because perhaps life means less for a great many people when there isn't the traditional future of working a boring job from a house in the suburbs or some such.


Anything beyond a five-year plan is usually dismissed as sci-fi but there's strong need for such thinking and beyond "Ex Machina" when it asks if humans can fall in love with robots.  We don't fookin' care as what we really want to see is humans falling in love with each other.

See above about karmic goodness in a world which is in sore need of it.


Peace

One Week Until #BernieSanders Day in California #Bernie2016 #FeelTheBern

What state knows #FeelTheBern better than California or has traditionally been one of the strongest proponents of free thinking and freedom in general, two of the things Bernie Sanders represents before anything else.

Bernie Sanders has no mantra, no status quo, and no need for defensiveness since his record hasn't changed in over thirty years.  He has never supported killing anyone nor has he endorsed selling weapons to others so they can do it on his behalf.  His record is immaculate throughout his entire career and, amazingly enough, the only one with even a hint of an ability to say the same thing is Donald Trump.

While Trump has any number of questionable business deals and practices on his record, he doesn't have the fishy flip-flop record of Hillary Clinton, the artificial smugness of the normal run of nouveau riche GOP, nor does he have any record of payoffs from Super PAC dollars.  We do not endorse him in any way and wouldn't vote for him to build a pup tent, much less a Great Wall of Mexico, but, relative to all but Sanders, Blondie Boy is the Virgin Mary.


There is authentic High Drama for the poll of the Democrats in California and it has the perennial refrain of 'the Fate of the Free World depends on it' with the always popular refrain, 'Now More than Ever.'  Despite the Kate Smith lyrics, the truth of the situation remains.

We need a whole lot of California Millennials to get extremely damn serious about whether you want to spend your futures paying off yet more aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines when America already has so many or will you take the future for all of America and not just the privileged few who profit from military expansion.

We have seen military expansion increasing at feverish rates ever since Ronald Reagan with scarcely a critic in any quarter whereas social programs have been vilified in every possible way short of blaming them for Ebola and close calls with passing asteroids.

The Navy's testing of a rail gun is a classic example of the Military Emperor's New Clothes since it's fantastically-expensive and probably serves little more purpose than sixteen-inch barrels in an actual WWII-style bombardment.  For anything else, more than likely the Air Force will bomb the target because they can get there faster and drop bigger bombs.


At question more than anything else is reason since America has been doing a great many things out of no more than force of habit.  You're the Millennials so will you take old bad habits or work toward new and better ones with Bernie Sanders.

Next Tuesday in California.  Make it happen.

Michelle Gregg Says 'God is the Real Parent' and She is Not Responsible #CincinnatiZoo #Harambe

The boy who fell into the Gorilla World enclosure in the Cincinnati Zoo was the son of Michelle Gregg, Mother of the Year and Religious Freakshow Extraordinaire.  Her only comment regarding her spectacular incompetence as a parent was 'accidents happen' plus some other defensive crap and not one word about Harambe, the seventeen-year-old Lowland Gorilla who was shot because of her parental neglect.  (RT:  ‘Accidents happen,’ says mother of child who fell into Cincinnati Zoo gorilla enclosure)

As to how the four-year-old boy survived in Cincinnati Zoo's gorilla enclosure, she said God took care of him.  She does not mention what God was doing while her neglectful ass let him fall in there in the first place.  The Bible may teach of compassion but she must have missed that part; she definitely got the part about making excuses, however.

(Ed:  where was Father of the Year?)

Impossible to tell since he has had nothing to say and it hasn't really been clear whether he was even in attendance at the Zoo that day.


We have seen the video and saw no evidence of violence toward the boy from Harambe, if anything he was trying to protect the kid.  He treated the kid roughly in dragging him through the water but expecting him to behave like Betty Crocker is only more absurdity.  He could have crushed the kid like a bug any time he felt like it but he didn't and why?

Gorillas are fookin' vegetarians and they will never hurt us unless we provoke them, they only want to eat leaves and plants.  They will sit around being happy gorillas all day so long as we don't screw with these magnificent creatures.

The biggest heartbreaker is for whomever had to make the decision to shoot Harambe and whomever was tasked with doing it, most likely the keeper who loved him the most.  The decision was correct because the terror from the crowd was affecting Harambe and getting him rattled.  Just as with any other creature, his actions become unpredictable at that point and they made the command decision to put him down.  I admire their strength and also their love because my first thought would be to shoot Mother of the Year so she doesn't drop any more kids in there.  Note:  she has three others.


Using God as a cover for abdication of responsibility is on the rampage in America and this is just one more example of it.  Seems to we of the Rockhouse, her actual confession should have been, "I'm sorry, God, for failing as a parent so badly you needed to intervene for my son and Harambe had to die but I will learn and work toward becoming a better parent."

That wasn't what we heard, however.

Note:  that is not my prayer and I don't make any prayers but I see no evidence of humility in her response, only complaisance and complacence, the hallmarks of American Christianity at its lowest levels.

See for yourself:

Did you see a word about Harambe or any kind of sorrow whatsoever?

Right.  Me either.  Stupid bitch doesn't even spell 'awesome' correctly but she sure gets those letters capitalized to show her (cough) respect.

What's Hot on the Blog 5/30

Entry	Pageviews
Proof God Hates White People May 30, 2016	38
Johnny Depp, You Better ... Watch Your Speed May 30, 2016	38
What's Hot on the Blog 5/29 May 30, 2016	35
Jesus in My Computer Monitor May 30, 2016	30
One More of a Pair of Discus with Young (video) May 30, 2016	29
Memorial Day May 30, 2016	23
Two Women and Jeff Beck Play It So Cool with "Wome... May 30, 2016	22
Pundits Being Sued By Old Retired People for Steal... May 30, 2016	17
Watching Discus has Nothing to Do with Olympic Spo... May 29, 2016	14
Bathing Soon then Video May 29, 2016	13

Proof - once again science gives us the answer

Johnny Depp - Casey Jones, you better ... watch your speed

What's Hot

Jesus - when he's only on monitor, I can't even post an ad on eBay

One More - another example of Discus breeding behavior w/video

Memorial Day - there's one real way to show respect for America's war dead

Two Women - doing outstanding jobs with Jeff Beck on-stage

Pundits - pithy and pointlessly profound platitudes have been in the exclusive province of the past-prime but now pundits with expensive haircuts play these pointless platitudes to great public acclaim, if little actual information

Watching - the original in the Discus breeding behavior segment, appeared yesterday

Bathing - ready to shed my skin but not quite possible yet

Johnny Depp, You Better ... Watch Your Speed

Holy shit!  Johnny Depp done hit the rocks, matey, mates.

Casey Jones you better ... watch your speed

That line is from Grateful Dead and it comes after:

Ridin' that train,
high on cocaine
Casey Jones you better
watch your speed

If this is not coked-out, smoked-out, and ready for a headline in a tabloid, what is.  His personal life just splashed into the toilet so maybe that will wise him up enough to avoid getting dead behind this.  Right now he's heading straight for it with afterburners lit.

Don't get dead, Pirate Man.  The world needs you far beyond some sad story in a tabloid.

Musicos know this shit as you watch your speed or you get dead.  We want risk and we love it, so do you when you play, but you've got to stay cool or there's no chance you will make it.  It's the same as trippin' on Orange Sunshine in 1967, you've got to maintain, man.

Picture was shot at a concert in L.A. over the Memorial Day weekend

Jesus in My Computer Monitor

Ordinarily, the monitor screen shows Stonehenge because I like how the Ravens hang about being wise with the rocks.

However, with all the windows active for the applications I most often use, most of Stonehenge is obscured with only this part still visible.

The situation wasn't contrived to make a point since that's actually the situation when the windows are open and maybe I'm talking to Cat via Skype so the windows don't see much activity.  Should I look at them for an update, this icon awaits me every time.  The question is whether it's going to piss me off enough to replace the entire picture.  In the detail pictures of Mars, the micro hounds find evidence of advanced civilizations.  Here at the Rockhouse, we get this.  Pfft.

Proof God Hates White People

Oh, you think that's exaggeration?

Skin Cancer
Incidence Rates* by Race and Ethnicity, U.S., 1999–2012

Guess again, Sun God!

The chart illustrates the incidence of melanoma (i.e. the lethal type of skin cancer) by race and we see it's almost non-existent for black people whereas the incidence for white people is vastly higher than for any other races.  We don't see any hyperbole in that when the incidence is four times higher than for any other race while people with black skin show four times less incidence than the lowest for other races.

Therefore, we rest the case; God hates white people.

This idea white people are the Chosen Ones must make the Lord laugh uproariously.  Are you fucking serious?  I made them last because I ran out of all the interesting colors.  Fuhgedaboudit!

Note:  I'm still not croaked by skin cancer even when lots of it since there's no indication of melanoma thus far.  I have become somewhat inured to hearing 'malignant' because the next question is, well, how malignant is it.  In my cases, not so much so lots of chopping but not much invading deep.

(Ed:  you will go to Hell if you don't love God!)

Yah, sure, the sense of that is easy to see.  God makes a Universe and who knows what else while I get stoned and piddle around with the Galaxy Guitar.  What in that situation leads you to believe he needs me to be his penpal?

Dawkins is such a petty amateur since nitpicking the Bible is only his lofty pose of being something more than a Grammar NAZI and it ignores the fact theology is a considerably bigger subject since the Bible would not exist if God had not existed already, there would have been no reason to write it.  Whether any God ever existed in any corporeal sense is your faith but the concept pre-existed any written text or, again, there would be no reason to write the text.

We have tremendous reverence for creating a Universe but we have relatively little for the literature on the matter.  I know already this thinking does not conflict with most or all of the religious people I know.  My own spirituality runs deep and I'm quite seriously fucked at this time but my spiritual values aren't conflicted at all.  I don't expect I can pray to make skin cancer go away so it's not a concern that I might.

The situation sucks and sooner or later it sucks for everybody so the only answer, as often, happens, comes from lefty Unplugged:

He does not know
He does not grow
Until he learns ...
to let it roll ...


Note:  check out that cool stage Cat made behind him

Memorial Day

Honoring America's war dead doesn't have anything to do with waving flags or tooting trumpets but rather the sincerity of it is shown when you don't ask more to die, particularly when there is not any kind of a good reason for it.

Fabricating reasons to get American soldiers killed has been happening with agonizing regularity ever since the sixties and is exemplified by the hoax under LBJ of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.  That led to the pointless deaths of fifty-five thousand Americans.  Those losses will be lamented today while simultaneously sending more troops to walk someone else's battlefields in the Middle East where, once again, they get killed for nothing.

The shooters instantly rise up screaming they're saving the world from ISIS and, yeah, yeah, they were saving the world from the Soviets in the sixties but that was bullshit too.  What we learned from that is Domino Theories are a dime a dozen and the only ones which really do anything come from the bankers and the CEOs who profited so enormously from all of this.  The rich boys never go to war, they know already they're not real except for the mothers burying their children so their only resolve is not to be one of them.


Everything was different in WWII but there was no military / industrial complex back then or the Allies probably would have lost that too.  Ever since then it's been one catastrophic fail for the military after the other.  The only consistent things from the Pentagon have been incompetence and regular appearances in gossip columns and scandal sheets either for moral turpitude or outright corruption.

Ich Möchte Zwitschgendatschi (English article)

When I pronounced 'Zwitschgendatschi' correctly the first time I tried, Cat was obviously tickled by it and I was pleased with myself because she had made a point of saying people never say it correctly.  So now I try to drill it into my head so I'm sure I remember how to spell it.   Knowing this one might even impress Trixie of "Don't Fear the Rabbit" (and we still have no idea which Rabbit or why anyone would fear it except Jimmy Carter).

Note:  in case you don't remember Jimmy Carter and the Killer Rabbit (WIKI:  Jimmy Carter rabbit incident)

The key to it is the plums so it looks like some kind of pastry base then plums and some type of sweet crumbly stuff to top it.  The sweet crumbly stuff looks like it's optional with some bakers.

Who needs Apple Strudel as I would love to try some of this.  Only in Bavaria, I gather.  In other words, go to Munich to start looking for it.

Two Women and Jeff Beck Play It So Cool with "Women of Ireland" (video)

Jeff Beck takes the stage with Tal Wilkenfield on bass to one side of him and Lizzie Ball on violin to his other side.  I did look but could not verify either of these ladies is from Ireland but you can hear the sincerity in their play so I take it like the Women of Bellydancing in which it's a sisterhood around the world.

There won't be any question of Jeff Beck being a gentleman since he doesn't try to grandstand anything.   Tal Wilkenfield shows her own confidence as well since she isn't playing in some demanding way of look at me, look at me, even when there are obvious reasons to look.  Lizzie Ball plays some exquisite moves as the feature but then rejoins the three and that's about as perfectly musical as it gets.

Beautiful and touching work:




You can discover more about Lizzie Ball on her Web Site (luxy and well made) or Facebook and the same with Tal Wilkenfield on her Web Site (also highly cool) or Facebook.

One More of a Pair of Discus with Young (video)

Yesterday was another article on Discus behavior but a friend found a video showing how the young like to cluster about their parents and these are cold-blooded fish, right.  Usually they just lay the eggs and forget them ... or so it seems.   (Blog:  Watching Discus has Nothing to Do with Olympic Sport)

But take a look at this.



It was this kind of behavior which endeared these creatures to the Mystery Lady and I.  Humans love to anthropomorphize things but we don't need to bring much of that for this case since it's tough to call this anything but real parenting.  At this stage they are starting to grow away from their parents but this is quite some time after they were nearly microscopic hatchlings, absolutely dependent on their parents.


Wild Discus come from the Amazon and their original colors are intriguing but there's been quite a bit of hybridizing from the wild stock and one of the most famous people doing it was Wattley since he produced the first strain of Turquoise Discus which would breed true.  In effect, he raised 'thoroughbreds' and they were quite greatly prized at that time.  Since that time, techniques for breeding Discus have improved substantially and there are many different varieties of them.  Relative to other strains of Discus bred in home aquaria, the Wild Discus is a wallflower.


Here is a Turquoise Discus

It's possible the photographer over-saturated the colors but there's not strong evidence of that in the greens.  That doesn't make it a lock that the pic was not modified but we can tell you we have seen Discus like this and the ones we were raising were not so much different, albeit with more red which I liked quite a bit.

Pundits Being Sued By Old Retired People for Stealing Our Jobs

The realm of pithy and profound pointlessness is traditionally that of old, retired people since we have, essentially, nothing better to do.  Actually, we do have better things to do but we're also lazy so we use pithy and pointless profundity as a fall back.

However ...

Along came Wolf Blitzer with about a billion endlessly-chatty wanker woofies following him, all filled with the pointless and profound pointless of the Plasticine Prophets ... and the viewing audience fell to its knees in adoration.

All of television is now hopelessly banal music shows featuring high-talent, low-depth material, endless cop shows all seemingly featuring the same cops, and the rest is yakkity yak yak yak on every channel at the same time.  They can't get enough yakkity yak from one so they get five of them yakking around a table and then all of them can yak at once.  It's ok as it's unintelligible regardless of how they present it but they only have to drop a recognizable name once in a while and the audience stays tight with them.




We of the Old and Useless but Still Pointlessly Profound Contingent protest as a mightily as our somewhat weakened frames will permit.  The following grounds present our justification:

- The OUSP2C has been traditionally willing to issue pointless profundity for free but now the pundit posers are paid handsomely for it.

- The OUSP2C still says things the pundit posers won't say and that's because they are paid by the word and we are not paid for anything.

- The OUSP2C needs support because we (sob) die off whereas pundit posers multiply at the extraordinary speeds only possible when one lives under a refrigerator and only comes out in the dark.


Therefore, we of the Doubtful but Nevertheless Doughty OUSP2C will continue with our quest for profundity and pointlessness and we will continue to do it for free because there's one thing you know from that:

All together now ... it may be crazy but at least it ain't stooge bullshit.

What's Hot on the Blog 5/29

Entry	Pageviews
A Review of the Payoffs to Hillary "Arms Broker" C... May 29, 2016	73
Bathing Soon then Video May 29, 2016	51
Watching Discus has Nothing to Do with Olympic Spo... May 29, 2016	51
Special on Hillary for Prison T-Shirts (Not Sold H... May 29, 2016	48
Arguing to Purpose or to Points May 29, 2016	29
The Savaging of the Clover Patch Destined to Be th... May 29, 2016	25
What's Hot on the Blog 5/28 May 28, 2016	23
We're surging in California. Help push us over th... May 28, 2016	11
Investigation of Spider Eggs in NABISCO OREO Cooki... May 27, 2016	10
Paris Cloyd Then CellShader Industrialize Cat's Mu... May 28, 2016	8

Review - it's taken almost thirty years for Crooked Hillary to make her bones and her fervent denials now do nothing to obviate the fact of them

Bathing - this isn't the bitchin' about the itchin' but it does mention that subject

Watching - one of the most extraordinary creatures I have ever seen and the Mystery Lady and I raised them for a while

Special - you can't go wrong on a bundle of these shirts as Clinton will end up in prison regardless of whether she gets elected.  Safe bet even more of her staff will end up under indictment than even Reagan's crooked crew managed and they were openly trafficking in dope.

Arguing - there's creative discussion and then there's social network arguing, the latter of which has turned up with disappointing frequency in comments

The Savaging - the Clover Tragedy was not such a tragedy after all and the Bee Zone will yet thrive since the roots weren't harmed

What's Hot

We're Surging - things keep building for Bernie in California

Investigation - the deliberate introduction of spider eggs into OREO cookies made in Mexico is the subject of an ongoing investigation

Paris Cloyd / CellShader - two-day run for these blokes and a grand show it was