Manifest Destiny - the Most Racist Doctrine the World Has Ever Seen

Manifest Destiny or the divine right of the settlers to take and populate the entire country is thought to be something that represented America but that, as often happens, is complete bullshit.  For example, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant and most of the Whigs rejected it.  If you look today to who works the hardest and believes the most that elimination of Islam is required for world survival, you will see just how Manifest Destiny works today and who was responsible for its inception.  (WIKI:  Manifest Destiny)

Note:  in reviewing 19th Century history, keep well in mind that party names don't mean much as the platforms swing widely over the centuries.


The Third Reich had nothing on Manifest Destiny and that's based on the number of people killed by it.  If anything, Manifest Destiny was worse and that based on the number of cultures destroyed or nearly so.  The reason I loathe Andrew Jackson is he was one of the worst Indian killers America ever knew.  He was not only a worthless President as he was also a worthless human being and understanding the times does nothing toward justifying relentless murder.  That, even today, there is no accountability for what was done to the Indian Nation shows all the more the maxim, 'those who don't learn the history are condemned to repeat it.'  Take it away, Shock and Awe.

Ever since Shock and Awe (i.e. blitzkrieg), it's been a rampage of Middle East chaos in which America claims to be helping someone ... to do something ... but no-one is clear on whomever will be helped nor on what that someone is trying to do.  Of one thing we can be precisely clear, that something has nothing to do with decisions they would make if they were free of American occupation.  When you are free to bomb anywhere in the Middle East without compunction, that's occupied regardless of whether there are American soldiers stationed there.

Sometimes American soldiers are called 'boots' but that shows another singular lack of knowledge of American history (or it doesn't ... unknown).  'Boot' was also slang for 'nigger' and is just as vile in meaning.  When Washington says it will put 'boots on the ground,' they say considerably more than simply making a statement about moving forces.  That black politicians use the same word means nothing as, just in case you didn't get it yet, color means nothing for a politician; neither does anything else, for that matter ... except in the very rare ones.  FDR believed in everyone.  As did Eisenhower.  There's reason they are remembered as great Presidents as they were possibly the least partisan of any of whom I've read.

Cadillac Man is exceptionally well-studied in American history and specifically that aspect of history as it was his focus in university and has remained a passion in his life.  If I recall, his specific focus at that time was The Reconstruction after the Civil War and the time of the most manic obsession with Manifest Destiny was before that.  Nevertheless, he may have something to add.  In some ways both of us were historians as anthropology and archaeology are longer views of the same thing.

Clio is Cadillac Man's Muse and he knows better than any of my friends that she will tell you stories all night long and they're much better ones than come in the news.  (WIKI:  Clio)

You may wish to pursue this even if only for narcissistic interests as the more you know of history the more you know of yourself and the less likely you are to repeat the mistakes of the past.  More accurately, the less likely you are to allow yourself to be a victim of those who are determined to repeat the mistakes of the past ... and that conveniently brings us back to Manifest Destiny and the solemn mission to wipe out Muslims.  They say that's not what they want when it's official but ask when it's not being recorded.  It's been said multiple times to me that the only salvation for the world is to eliminate Islam.  Ever hear this kind of talk before?  PEGIDA, UKIP, Aryan Nation, etc do it publicly and with no reservations about it ... but that's not the only time we have heard this kind of talk.


Note:  this article was motivated by a current special presented by The History Channel, "Texas Uprising," about the battle with Santa Anna of Mexico for Texas.  They say 'Remember the Alamo' all the time but what they don't remember is the Alamo was on Mexico's land.  It's called a shrine but really it's just another relic of Manifest Destiny.

The History Channel version of what happened is said to be heavily-slanted toward the general conservative position that the only good Indian is a dead Indian and the only good Mexican is a dead Mexican.  Conservatives complain mightily that Mexican immigrants, legal or otherwise, are taking over Texas but the State of Texas wasn't in the United States at the time of the Alamo and migrant Americans are exactly the ones who took it from Mexico.  Screw the Alamo as it isn't a symbol of freedom but rather one of bare-faced theft.  This in no way justifies the brutality of what Santa Anna did but, the fact remains, he was on Mexico's land.  (WIKI:  Battle of the Alamo)

Yah, and screw The History Channel for presenting such a gross distortion of history.  All they give us is the Fox News version and there isn't one of Fox News journos who remembers what he or she had for breakfast, much less anything of significance from the real history of America.

From the When It Rains It Pours Department

The kit was powered-up a minute ago and the looper can't quite do it.  The device isn't completely dead as I tried starting it up a second time and it managed part of the display.  It could play the loop correctly but it couldn't display anything about it.  This isn't a device that can be fixed and it's six hundred dollars to replace it.

This isn't a plea for money as everything just now is a Tarot card and I have to read them correctly.  Things fall apart and such is the fundamental nature of everything ... but not at the same time.  Then it becomes a cosmic message.  My corpus isn't doing that well either so now it's a race for what explodes first ... it's all a Cosmic Message ... unknown.  (Blog:  Going Down to the Crossroads)

The looper is a crushing blow.  It's been wobbling for quite a while but that's electronic weirdness and you roll with it.


Hold it....hold it.  The display just came up.  That means it is still usable but it also means it has a finite number of start-ups left in it.  I've been shutting the stuff down as I don't want to waste the life of the power supplies any more quickly than necessary and I also don't want any undue risk from lightning strikes as they can easily destroy just about everything in the room.  It looks like the answer for this device is to leave it running until it dies as shutting it down is a problem if it can't restart or not easily.


The looper is fundamental to what I do as I'm one of the egocentric no-talent narcissists I mentioned in a previous article.  It's still the only way to do what I do, tho, as it will take a massive leap in human evolution before anyone can play more than one instrument at once.

We already did the story on depression so that means jump start at the point of that story's conclusion:  shut up and play.


This isn't blues as they come from when yer dog dies or yer woman says she has outgrown you intellectually.  What happens here in the Rockhouse is just a pain in the ass and, if there were blues in that, Washington would be a blues symphony (larfs).

"Love With the Proper Stranger" - Family Planning, GOP Style

"Love With the Proper Stranger" was originally foreseen with Paul Newman playing the lead opposite Natalie Wood.  For some reason Steve McQueen was cast instead and this gave the best portrait I've ever seen of what it means when abortion is illegal.  All of these things really happened and back-room chop shops were common.  (IMDB:  Love With the Proper Stranger)

The GOP and the Tea Party have said emphatically this is what they want so the only remaining question is just why would you let them do this to women.


Yes, I'm aware McQueen sent his girlfriend, unknown which one, to London three times to get abortions (note: this was before the Pill).  In real life, she had that choice and had the money to pay for it.  If she did not have the money then life plays out the way it does in the movie.  Take your pick. This is what you want for America?  Back-room chop shops for women?  This is no libtard horror story as chop shops were everywhere and "Love With the Proper Stranger" tells the story.


Another first-rate morality play came in "The Man With the Golden Arm" and it starred Frank Sinatra as the junkie.  This one deals with heroin and it may have been the best or at least the most important role he ever played.  This, in large part, kept me away from heroin long after the question set in:  why is Miles Davis a junkie.  I've chased that question all my life and the best answer I found is that he was brilliant in spite of being a junkie, not because of it.

That one I owe to my ol' Dad as he put me onto it.  Hat tip, ol' Dad.  That was a very good one and the only thing that could make the lesson better is if he could know how much it accomplished and how much I appreciate it.

My ol' Dad also put me onto "Love With the Proper Stranger" and I was always absolutely meticulous about protection.  I also never asked a woman to get an abortion.  Another hat tip, ol' Dad.

He didn't teach lessons, you just watch.  Sometimes the conclusion was 'no way in hell I will do that in my life' and no-one would understand that better than he.  Yep, I miss him.  I'll bail before nostalgia kicks into it as that stuff is so nauseating to see.  It feels ok to do, tho.  Just don't tell anyone when you do it.

And a Quiet Night Was Had ... by Some

Despite talk of depression, which is highly-justified under the circumstances, the only thought on hitting the sack (i.e. tired ol' couch) was, man, you have got to play whatever that was again.  That's your objective ... turn depression into musical lust.  Do this, young bluesman, and you will always be free.

So sure I crashed and was pleased to do it.  It was a quiet night for me as I was dead to the world ... but not for Yevette as I wished her good night as I tottered off to sleep ... and wished her good morning when I woke or at least when I woke for real.  She was still up and that's how it usually goes as she will crash before too much longer.  She says it's ok if I play when she sleeps as she likes it ... but that ain't socialism if I do it ... that's taking advantage of a really good friend.

Things look much better this morning, maybe not so much for my computer but the Galaxy Guitar don't need no stinkin' computer.  It never did.  I was the one who came up with the dumb ass idea to get computers involved in my music.  That was somewhere between '85 and '90 and it was based on the original classic Mac (i.e. never trust a computer you can't hold in your hand).  Anyone remember that??  It's when Mac was born and I use one to this day ... at least when it works.

We also don't need no stinkin' history lessons, we just want to play.

(Ed:  why do you use 'we' a lot when it's only you?)

It's very bad journo form to use the first person as that attempts to make the news about you rather than about what really happened.  That form is abused widely but there's a valid reason for the standard modern journos violate.  Bill O'Reilly may be the worst for this as he relentlessly tells you what he thinks about news but his thoughts are irrelevant to the content of the news itself.  Show me what happened, shut the hell up, and I'll make up my own mind about what happened.

And, yes, I studied journalism in college which, I imagine, separates me from the vast majority of modern broadcast journos.

Time to Go Down to the Crossroads (movie)

"Crossroads" has probably been seen by every electric guitarist who ever lived, every kind of bluesman, ... it's the ultimate rock fairy tale.  Ralph Macchio takes his guitar to do battle with the Devil ... and wins.

Ry Cooder and Steve Vai are some of the best not-so-well-known guitarists as the Age of Pop descended and it doesn't need musicians much.  My purpose isn't so much to trawl the past but rather keep it alive as sooner or later people will realize again music is not some egocentric no-talent narcissist but is actually a band.  It will take a while but it will come.

Meanwhile, I'll go down the crossroads.


Blues ain't nothin' but a good man feeling bad
about the women he once was with - Ralph Seneca (Blind Dog Fulton)


You've got to take the music somewhere else
past where you found it - Blind Dog Fulton (Ralph Seneca)


Don't be getting yer panties in a bunch, Second Life.  You're not who I mean.  As time goes by, Second Life becomes a good option when it's difficult or impossible to put a band together.  A very few and I won't name them don't need a band as what they do isn't egocentrism but exploration of new musical techniques.


This is some holy shit everything is destroyed depression and it really is ... but Crossroads moves that in a good direction as nothin' is ever as good as you want it be, bluesman. You know that - Scratch nee Legba.  But I never signed any contract and there are no hellhounds.  I'm also not a bluesman (larfs).  For huge depression, this needs the full treatment:  "Purple Rain" ... with huge loud.


And that only goes one place, the all-time, A number one, only one that works, cure for depression:  shut up and play.

I'm sorry I didn't record it as I didn't have any plan for playing anything.  I would pick up the guitar and see what happens.  It's trippin', musical impressionism, call it what you like.  Musical impressionism is exactly why I never cared about learning songs, even my own.  But then the demons come and say you're old, you can't do it anymore.  There's only one answer:  do it or sit down and listen to them chewing your skull.

I wasn't even thinking about touching the piano but it looked like it needed some love and this is no kinda time to be refusing that.  What do you know, you give love and you get love.  Ain't that a shocker.

It felt very good and, yep, I can still do it.  I apologize, Cat.  I was so bummed that I thought playing would just be therapeutic.  I should have recorded it as I didn't realize how therapeutic it would be.

Love, light and music, the only things that last forever.

So Fookin' Sick of Computers

You don't want to hear about them and I don't want to talk about them.  After working so much with mainframes, the specific reason for Apple was they don't require the constant pain in the ass maintenance and Windows systems weren't much different from the mainframe in that regard, not in power but rather in failures.

Hardware guys have a strong tendency to start swapping cards to see what happens.  I'm deeply afraid I'm in a situation they can't fix because they don't know or can't find what causes it.

Sure, I'll confess to some depression and that seems reasonable to me.  If you think of having two dogs and one dies in horrible agony ... but you and the other dog still have each other ... but he gets so excited he forgets himself ... and runs out into the street where he's hit by a car.  Yep, that ought to about summarize it.

There's only one answer to that kind of depression:  suicide?  Nah, even suicide is hackneyed in America.  The answer is to smoke a joint and watch a movie.

What if a Wiseguy Wants to Start Swapping Parts

Maybe the response from the Apple Store is, well, we think it needs a logic board.  My response to that is don't tell me it's a logic board until you know it.

That will be refused and there's no recovery beyond that.  Install Mavericks on it and walk away. Until I see clear proof there is a hardware problem, no-one is swapping anything and the next move will be to contact an attorney and sue.

(Ed:  serious?)

Absolutely.  My music and video are destroyed as there is no way to get to the data.  Unless Apple comes up with a rock-solid explanation for why the system fails when there's nothing but Apple on it, the next stop is to sue and to include damages as that data represents over forty years of my life and it's screwed to the walls.

There was zero warning of the potential impact from the release so you bet it would go to court for egregious negligence.  I'll turn Republican hooker killer bitch who cares about nothing but money if that's how they do me.  Wow, man, we just don't know what's wrong.  Want an iWatch?

Why wouldn't I be pissed.  This has gone on for a month.


There's one left-field solution:  it ran fine with Yosemite 10.10.2.  If they can install that and also Final Cut 10.2, that should work.  Unknown why Yosemite 10.2 should require Yosemite 10.10.3.


I failed to sue twice before when I should have done it (Liberty Mutual when they cut off medical after the shoulder surgery, and Charles Beale of American Bankers Insurance Company when they ripped me off for ten grand) but I thought I lived in a different America and I didn't.  I will not fail to do it this time.

Best Way to Conserve Animals is With a Picture

It doesn't conserve anything if you shoot them for sport.  Can't you hear her ask why people do it?

The Great Flood - American Style - Updated

There has been mention from time to time of an enormous flood in the northwest that wreaked havoc all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  That's usually met with disbelief but perhaps with the offering as a consolation prize that every culture has a Flood Story.

Maybe so but this one is real.  So is the flooding of the Mediterranean, for that matter.  Glacial Lake Missoula was the source of the floods and I wanted to get more detail on the story.  What I found was there wasn't just one devastating flood but many of them and they were all due to the advance and retreat of glacial ice.  The most recent was roughly fifteen thousand years ago and the intrigue for me is the Indians must have been aware of it as they were definitely here at that time.  (Ice Age Floods Institute: About the Ice Age Floods)

The hypothesis about this extreme level of flooding was first proposed in 1923 and was met with derision from the scientific community but research continued and there's enormous evidence it's true.  For all the detail you'll need to read the article but what I wonder the most is what stories are there in Indian culture about it.  They were coming to America thirty-five thousand years so they were definitely there to see it when the floods came and no doubt a great many were killed by them.  Surely they would have come to regard the Pacific Northwest as the Land of Dangerous Water and kept that story alive so future tribes would know not to go there because of the risk.

This is not conspiracy as the article shows plenty of geologic evidence to confirm the hypothesis.  Imagine, if you will, a fifty-foot wall of water bearing down on Seattle at some incredible rate of speed.  Glacial Lake Missoula doesn't exist anymore so that won't happen ... but at one time it did and it is said to have held more water than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined or an estimated five hundred cubic miles of water which they speculate may have emptied in as little as two to three days. By anyone's measure, that's a Great Flood.


WIKI refers to native American flood myths but we can see from the geology they were not myths so perhaps that which is dismissed as myth has not been sufficiently analyzed.  (WIKI:  Hopi Myths, Saanich people, K'Omoks)

The Saanich people (not much detail but additional links in the article) and the K'Omoks (same detail level as Saanich) lived around the Pacific Northwest.  The Hopi explored a lot and it was part of their culture to do it so their knowledge of the flooding makes sense even though they are in Arizona.  The Hopi article has the most detail of floods and there is an international summary of flood myths in the primary article.  (WIKI:  Flood Myths)

UK Cops Justify Most Outrageous Personal Invasion of All

The NSA looks at your private information ... but pretends it doesn't.  Brit cops claim the right to it because 'it's in these private thoughts that the seeds germinate.'  Verbatim quote.  (RT:  Invading young Muslims’ ‘private space’ is justified, UK’s top Muslim cop says)

"Minority Report" is coming to life before your eyes and people are being investigated for pre-crime constantly.  The cop claims it's important to know the thoughts of five-year-olds.  This kind of shamelessness is without peer in human history.

The most twisted aspect of all is the cops use this guy as the figurehead because he's a Muslim.  This makes some difference in justifying illegal invasions of privacy?

Memorial Day Without a Major War Says Obama

Apparently Obama means America but it's not clear why he says it as every other day they're screaming it's a war with terrorism and he's bombing people from here to Timbuktu.  So, Bucko, what's the story on this inane speech.  (The Guardian:  President Obama marks first Memorial Day in 14 years without major US war)

The answer is simple.  It's pointless listening to them.

(infer long-winded rant on disingenuous political bullshit)


In a war ... that isn't happening ... the Defense Secretary hammers Iraqi forces because they do not have the will to fight.  I figure, what the hell, it's their country and they bring whatever will they like to it.  One thing I am sure will motivate them to fight is to drop the Defense Secretary in the desert over there.  I positively ga-ron-tee he will see fighting as they chase his chicken ass back out of there.  (RT:  ‘No will’ to fight ISIS? US Defense Sec blasts Iraqi troops)


Check out how cops deal with bikers when the riders are black.  Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest has been a tradition for years but this year cops clamped down all over it.  Land of the Free ... unless you're black.  It's not even a gang as it's black guys on bikes.  It's coming up to Summer time and they have come out for a party.  The horror of it all.  (The Guardian:  'Black Bike Week' riders cry foul over security increase at annual gathering)

So, Officer Flatfoot, did you notice any Bandidos colors in this gang or is this just more racist bullshit.

(infer long-winded rant on rampaging racism in America and rampaging disingenuous excuses for it)


Philip Zimmerman, author of PGP (Pretty Good Protection, an email encryption tool the government hates), has left the US and taken up residence in Switzerland because of relentless surveillance in America.  As Zimmerman notes, 'every dystopian society has excessive surveillance' ... so he left.  (The Guardian:  Philip Zimmermann: king of encryption reveals his fears for privacy)

Zimmerman has been a god in programming circles because he could write code the government couldn't crack.  It was largely based on Zimmerman that it was made illegal to make encryption keys longer than government resources could break.  In other words, the Fed made it legal for them to be able to read every single thing you do no matter what you do to restrict that.  The Feds hate Apple for that reason now and try to force them to decrypt the content on iPhones.  That's reasonable, of course, because people who own iPhones are the biggest shoplifters, terrorists, master criminals of all, yes?

So long as you are aware you are a stinking criminal, everything the Fed does makes sense.

Find America ... in the Barns

One of my favorite laments is disappearing Americana and it's one shared by many.  This has nothing to do with Luddism as I relish the future ... but not at the expense of the past and barn painting isn't uniquely American but I suspect the advertisings are.  Even though it's bare-faced hucksterism, there's a charm to it.


Practically everyone on the Ontario to Florida I-75 pipeline has seen an advertising for Rock City somewhere in their travels.

Who knows what Doctor Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery was but you can safely bet it had a lot of alcohol in it.

Lots of people make a big deal of recycling but farmers have always known and they will use a barn until the timbers collapse.  This one has a bit of Leaning Tower aspect to it but the barn is still serviceable so it keeps its ground.

Will you tell this farmer about recycling, something he doesn't already know, I mean.

Mail Pouch advertisements on old barns are ubiquitous in America but, regrettably, you can see how they will fade away.

Note:  you will very little of this if you stay on Interstate highways.  They're effective for function as you know from your different countries ... but there's hardly anything interesting to see no matter which country.



Every picture tells a story, story