Slogging on ...Sad Things...and Good Things....

    We have had a couple of episodes of moderate rain finally.     It has not been enough to really break the Winter drought, but any moisture falling from the sky is welcomed, at this point.    The blessings we have for being close to the  Tropic of Cancer and close to the mountains is a fairly dependable 50 inches of rain per year.   But, as we have stated before and as is discussed on our website,  90% of this rain is bunched into late April through early July and then again late August through the first days of November.      So, what we are receiving is about on schedule. 

      Where it has been raining a little more heavily and on an almost daily basis is the Cerro Pen~a Nevada about 30 miles to our west.    During these rainy spells there are times that the higher points of the mountain's peaks will cover up with snow during the wet Summer episodes....and it makes for an interesting conversation starter.   So far, there has not been any snow, however.

    We are picking up lots of returning birds, nesters, and all the regular gang of our feathered friends.   The hummingbirds have been especially numerous, both as individuals and in terms of the number of sub-species.   The rain has helped the flowering things and this brings more of the whole bird and butterfly thing, of course.    We have finally been picking up a good number of Monarch butterflies heading north, and using the Quinta as a generational stop and/or a fueling station.

     In the previous post, I was writing to transfer a bit of information that is kind of an open secret.     Sometimes though, while writing  I forget my point, especially when there is a knock on the door and someone needs a bit of help with an auto with a dead  battery.    So, after helping a neighbour jump his battery back to life, I forgot to return to my soliloquy's script.

      One point was that I had learned that Mexican soldiers who are planning on an extended tour of duty or a career in the military, and who want to serve in the area of infantry or special tactical forces, are being given advanced infantry and combat training by sergeants who are drawn, intentionally from the American, British, and Israeli military.   These foreign military men serve as private consultants....unattached to any government.     Supposedly they are retired from active duty, and are receiving concessions and salaries from Mexico's normal military training budget.

       Certain of those completing advanced infantry training are sent to Fort Benning and someplace in Cornwall for other training...especially that which deals with the computer technology that pervades all matters in advanced militaries to-day.    Ominous clouds gather around that fact because the original Zetas were composed of a renegade group of highly trained combat sergeants who had trained at Fort Benning in Georgia.

       Once back they served well enough in active deployments in Mexico, primarily with concerns about communist guerrillas infiltrating the lower Yucatan and working to join an axis of their area with "sub-comandante Marcos" in Chiapas.    That action was won, and the communists were badly tattered much to Rigoberta's dismay, but the abovementioned sergeants became bored apparently with garrison life .....and things they called "school crossing duty".

     Some of the sergeants resigned from the military and "went private" (into civilian life).   Others even went and volunteered into the American Army and served in the second Iraq War.   But, about 30 of them went renegade and simply deserted.    These 30 offered their services as "bodyguards" to the cabos of the Gulf Cartel which operated between Colombia, Venezuela, and northeastern Mexico.    Of the original 30 or so, all have either been killed or in some few cases imprisoned in Mexico or the United States.

      The dead and imprisoned were replaced with others who were, in turn, killed and or imprisoned in Mexico or the United States, or in some cases Europe or Colombia.  Since then, the "leaders" have become younger and younger, less and less militarized, less disciplined, less intelligent, and because of their spontaneousness and undisciplined nature, almost impossible to understand.     Many security consultants caution their clients and the American public with the "advanced firepower, communications, night-vision capacity"  and so forth.    They are compared to our Green Berets, to the Taliban, or the Al Qaeda as exemplars of military prowess.

        To me, and to what few Mexican military contacts the Old Gringo might have directly or indirectly, the younger "pseudo-zetas"  seem  more like over-armed "Pandillas" (neighbourhood gangs), fighting with other drug trafficking cells in other neighbourhoods, nearby towns, and doing little to store wealth, be cunning, or even to choose their battles with the Mexican Military.     The rule still holds.....Every time they go up against the Military, the Zetas or associates always lose and lose badly.

        The Zetas and the older Cartel groups have spent much of their energy fighting each other......much blood and many resources.     The drug trafficking has become head-scratchingly strange.    Last week, Mexican military sources informed the Texas constabulary that they had learned of three stash house locations along the border on the Texas side.    Anonymous Informants had told the Military that the houses were at such-and-such addresses.    Various State and local police agencies went and checked out the places and, lo & behold, over nine (9) tons of cannabis, all nicely packaged, was recovered for evidence rooms and incinerators.

       A couple of weeks ago, the Mexican military complained to local police agencies in Texas that their Naval Infantry helicopter pilots were being "laser beamed" by dumboes in an upper income subdivision in the far south part of Mission, Texas.    A State of Texas Department of Public Safety patrol helicopter went on standard Rio Grande back-up patrol....keeping an eye out for the Mexican Naval Infantry's information about the locale of the "phantom laser"....and, lo and behold...the helicopter FLIR'd the dumboes intentionally "shooting" the Texas DPS chopper pilots with the blinding laser beam.     It was coming from the back yard of a lower-range mansion.....which was visited in short order, and both dumboes were presented for charges and arraignment the next day.   Unfortunately, it is only a misdemeanor, but if they can be linked to something more nefarious, then the charges could be up-graded.    In that they had lawyers representing them in a misdemeanor case, it could be assumed that they are involved in something a bit heavier than "playing with toys for big boys."

      Another sad part of the deal is that these "new, modern Zetas"....the elderly ones who are 23 to 34 years of age spend their time drinking whisky, Miller-lite, smoking dope, and driving around in very expensive, very showy stolen autos....they play games like asking a subordinate to steal an Escalade and bring it over for 2,000 dollars.   The subordinate, eager to please, steals an Escalade, brings it to the "Zeta Leader" who promptly shoots the "little Zeta", while bragging to his 12 year old girlfriend....,.(sometimes they are elderly, up to 13 or 15)...."I just saved 2,000 dollars!!!"   Hahahaha!"

This child is a fifteen year old, recent graduate of secondary (which ends at 9th

grade in Mexico).    She is holding, in cash, one million pesos (80.000 dollars).

Her boyfriend, (aged 34) was a major player in the Zeta organization.   He

 recently aprehended and imprisoned by the Army.     Her mother contacted

 the Army shortly thereafter and said that her daughter wanted to pay for her crimes.

   She turned herself in to military authority the next day.This was the result

 of the increasing phenomena of the "anonymous  denunciation".

     Anyway,   there are more things, and more pleasant things to be talking about, which we shall. But, these things, while messy, speak to what I genuinely feel is going on.....A steadily improving civil situation....that in many ways was never as bad as what has been being reported .....and in other ways...was much worse.

Thank all of you as usual for your continued interest and especially for your questions and comments.

El Gringo

Questions Folks Ask Nowadays

Folks ask if I feel obliged to say nice things about the Mexican military and / or the newly formed national uniformed civilian police agency.    They would like to know if there is an unspoken requirement that is imposed by suggestion by one or another authority.    The answer is no.   

     The actual fact, simply stated, is that the Military in Mexico has had over the years the highest level of confidence among the general populace, holding first place over all institutions in the Republic.    All churches, all governments, all government agencies, most private companies and agencies and labour unions, rank below to well-below the Army and Navy.

      It is pointed out that the main offence of Mexican military personnel is that the enlisted tend to become a bit rough in the bars they frequent...sometimes.  It is also pointed out that when there is an offense in or by the military, a court martial is the normal outcome, and hard time is the normal punishment.

        The single biggest complaint against the military is...."Why can they not just stay here in our (colonia)(neighbourhood)(village)(wide spot in the road)(city) en force....why do they have to leave?"

         My answer to that is that there are obviously not enough Army troops or Naval Infantry to cover a country three time the size of Texas, with a geography ten times more complicated.   Besides, I remind the folks, even relatives begin to smell like dead fish after three days.   BUT, ever quick of mind, a very good helper..who works as a gasoline dispenser/mechanic's aide at a PEMEX station that I frequent, responded to me once...."Yes, but I would rather smell dead fish that live cucarachas anytime".  

       Still to this day we have not had an incident at or around our place.   We have been where things happened a few days ago, and where things happened after we went by.    But at or near our place, nothing.    I have not had an incident on the road.   The vast majority of people have had no direct impact from the disorders....and there is a feeling, away from the news media people,   that the upper hand was being gained by the "good guys" starting about 7 or 8  months ago.    That was when the Michoacan group was splintered and pretty much totally trashed by the Military.   It was since replaced by a group of survivors who named their organization "The Knights Templar"....which pretty much gives a person an idea of their intellectual ability.    They have, as one might suspect, been very poor operators of a crime syndicate, to this point.

       Also, more and more local and State authorities  have begun to take faith that there would really, really, really be serious backing from Mexico City to take on the plague.   MORE THAN ANYTHING, WHEN THE COMMON JOSE GARCIA AND MARIA GONZALEZ BEGAN TO SEE THAT '' DENUNCIA ANONIMA' (anonymous informant information) LINES WERE ACTUALLY BEING ANSWERED BY LIVE MILITARY NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS WITH AUTHORITY TO PROVOKE HEAVILY ARMED MILITARY RESPONSE.   THE FLOOD BEGAN AT THAT POINT. 

      For instance, in the past two weeks there have been, just in Reynosa, Tamaulipas the liberation of 150 kidnapped young men....mainly from Central America....some even from Red China....who were being held for ransom by cucarachas.   This was in three separate actions.   Just in Reynosa,  all from tip-line calls.

      Fire-fight, by fire-fight the problem will be solved....but it will still be at least 18 months to 2 years before we can be back to where we were in 2005.   But it will happen.....and the new product will be even better that the old one.

Thanks for your questions.....all questions, comments, and informational tid-bits are sincerely appreciated.

El Gringo Viejo 

Update - Please return to Then What Do You Propose

Esteemed OROGs:

   There has been some editting and refinement of the Manifesto for Liberty two postings down.   It is a bit more reasonable and a little easier to understand, and a bit funnier....perhaps.
Thanks
The Old Gringo....

Here we don't go again

     We were just notified by a pre-recorded telephone call that I have been dismissed from jury service requirements.    That means that all the excitement and everything around San Fernando....well, I missed it for nothing.   

      Hung around for 10 days for nothing.     But, my commitment to this issue remains, and to-morrow we shall see if this is a "final" dismissal or if it is another "indeterminate" dismissal.

More later, pardon the bother...



On line 16 is my great-aunt Rebecca...aged 7 and living with her great-aunt, and then on line 33 is my grandfather Norman aged 9...and then line 34 my great uncle Arbie who was 8 during the Census of 1870.    The three children were living
 with their mother's  (Mary Ann Bolles) parents and aunt, after the death
 of their father, Hubbard (Banty) Newton, in 1867.  This was in
 Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.
    Hubbard died, it is said, of a broken spirit, having lost two sons shortly before and after
the encounter at Gettysburg, which took place during July 1- 5 of 1863.

The Old Gringo, having been born in 1947, never had the opportunity to
have met or known any of those folks.



El Gringo Viejo 

Then what do you propose, Old Gringo? (This will go viral)

People and institutions who will not like what I am going to impose on Texas and then the United States of  America when I am correctly and finally installed as Emperor of the aforementioned political sub-divisions.

Big Business, especially most banks, grocery chains, and other institutions that depend upon the recycling of taxpayers' money through the digestive tracts and reproductive systems of  those presently "entitled" to other peoples' money and property.

Big Labour, especially the unions and union members who think that a person is "entitled" to be paid 80 dollars an hour for bolting bumpers onto motorcars, whether the company has any money or not...or has any sales or not.

Public Sector pensioners,   almost exclusively those whose pensions are not self funded  (Texas public workers' pensions are funded from the workers' salaries),....but rather are funded from the general treasury of the city, county, or State where the employees were pretending to work, usually in heavily Union controlled places in the northeastern territories and the territories on the Pacific Coast known as Calimar Ihuana.

"Immigration Rights Advocates"  will be deigned to be non-uniformed enemy combatants directing the flood of people who are purposely helped because they have been determined to be incapable of self-support, of being incorporated into a communitarian society, and who insist upon imposing their demands on their new home.     Instead of changing our homeland into a stinking sewer filled with garbage, litter, and pampers....and grocery carts, it would be much kinder to let the people go back to where, apparently, they are more comfortable.

 People who think that this or that ethnic or racial minority cannot, by definition, commit a racist or bigotted act.      Anyone who ever nodded knowingly in agreement to any such blisteringly stupid person who ever said  '' Minorities cannot commit racist acts"  will be sent to a re-education camp in downtown Detroit....at night.

      Four of the Five women who are hostettes of The View.    Since nobody who reads this screed has ever heard of "The View", do not worry about it.    We have already taken active measures to secure the person and safety of the "Fifth Person".

      Since it will be no great loss....this list might as well include the Ku Klux Klan and every White, Green, Grey, Blue, Red, Yellow, Aqua, Peppermint, and/or non-White racist group.    You all bore me....I dispise white trash no matter what colour or race they are.   My mother had to laugh at a fellow one time when he was explaining his attitudes about race.   He had said.."If'n I ain't no better than no N........, then who am I better'n than?"   Try as we could, neither she nor I could figure out exactly who'n he'd be'n
 better'n than what'n if'n he'd  done be'n better'n, no-how? knowhadaimene?

THE PLAN

ARTICLE I
Beginning on the 1st of January, 2012 the Internal Revenue System will cease to function.   Each employee of any rank will receive severance in the following manner:

       GS -3  through 7             15,000

       GS -8  through 15          20,000

       Supergrade through

       Treasury Secretary       -0-

ARTICLE II
       All citizens with any income of any kind....dividends, wages, interest payments, royalties, annuities, social security payments, winnings, gratuities, etc.   will calculate said earnings, and multiply that amount by the factor of 0.10   .     That amount for the first year of this program will be sent to the Treasury of the United States of America, unless the withholding for this last year of IRS rule is in excess of that amount.    The payer can elect to leave the balance as a payment against next year's levy or the balance can be forwarded to the payer.

ARTICLE III
     At the beginning of the year, that being the 1st of January 2012 there will immediately begin a collection of 1% on all terminal sales of anything in the Republic of Texas and the lesser States of the American Union.    No wholesale or pre-fabrication or pre-final presentation costs will bear a sales tax obligation.    The final user of the product....the one who will eat it, use it, or wear it out,  pays.

      With each subsequent year, the percentage of income tax voluntarily paid will be reduced by 1% and the sales tax will be increased by 1% and such adjustments will continue for the ensuing 9 years.

ARTICLE IV
        Payments being made to Social Security will change immediately.   All pre-geezers aged 50 and higher who are not receiving SS benefits will continue paying into the illegal ponzi scheme without fear of prosecution.   The retirement ages are moved on the 1st of January, 2012 to 64 (reduced benefit early retirement) and 70 (standard retirement).     The program will close its doors to new participants in 2033.

       All others will be given a set of seven choices for their retirement fund.   Each payer will deduct 5% of his previous year's income and forward that amount to the Private Untouchable at Pain of Perpetual Imprisonment Retirement Plan.    After the 1st of January, 2012 the individual's plan will have the title MY Real Retirement Fund Account.   The payer will be given a new number that not even Hillary Rodham can hide in plain view on top of her desk for 2 years.     There will be no demagogic "employer's share".   The account will be private, pertaining only to the payer.    Businessmen, professionals, shop keepers, and all self-employed will pay the same 5%.

      The 5% check will be paid directly to the private retirement fund  which will be overseen by the Texas Retirement System governing committee or the Texas State Teachers' Retirement System board of governors.     Eligible providers of fund repositories will be investment institutions that did not participate in TARP, TRIP, Cash for Clunkers, STD's, BARF, STEAL, LIE, HOPE, or CHANGE.

       The new retirement funds...each individually owned by each participant, will be transferable by last will and testament probate.   It will be accessible according to the terms of agreement with each investment repository, with certain limitations concerning total liquidation and age of access.   (The Old Gringo is disposed to suggest no access before age 57 years and 6 months and no withdrawals of 10% or more in any given year save for one, with a standard withdrawal not to exceed 5% for any given year.)

       All money paid into Social Security by the participants aged 49 years and 364 days or less on the 1st of January 2012 will have such funds transferred into their My Real Retirement Fund Account instantly and automatically, never again to be reviewed, acknowledged, seen, or meddled with by any government body, whether legislative, executive, or judicial.

       On any of the money withdrawn from My Real Retirement Account, no payments will be made in terms of income tax because  income tax will have totally ceased to exist by the year 2023.

THIS SIMPLY WILL REQUIRE THAT THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT'S OUTLAYS AND EXPENDITURES WILL HAVE TO CONFORM TO LIMIT OF ABOUT 2.25 TRILLION DOLLARS.    THIS WILL INCLUDE THE HIGHLY MODIFIED SOCIAL SECURITY OUTLAY, AND THE HIGHLY MODIFIED MEDICARE OUTLAY.


ARTICLE V
        All subsidies for Ethanol, any farming, silvicultural,  or ranching,    food purchases, rent, electricity, illegimate children, special programs for left-handed lesbian Eskimo vegetarians, etc. will be terminated on or before the 31st of December 2016.    Grocery stores will have to make money by charging people money in return for products instead of having a third party pay for  food for leaches and slobs....who frequently are purchasing things that "upper-income" people cannot afford....and frequently are holding three, four, or even five active Lone Star We Breed Them, You Feed Them cards.

 ARTICLE VI
       All "Revenue Sharing" programs will be immediately abolished.   This program will be transferred to the dust bin of history and labeled  "Why are we sending this money back??? Why wasn't just left where it was to begin with???".

ARTICLE VII
         Any person taking a subsidy or tax-paid public support in Texas will be removed from the voters' rolls.

       Any person who wishes to vote, hold office, or hold a position of public trust, must present proof of citizenship and legal residency in Texas ...as well as the other lesser States in the American Union.
       Anybody who tries to equivilate an anchor-baby mother on six different forms of welfare to a Mexican or other foreigner who has been honorably discharged from American military service or who has gone through the entire citizenship protocol in order to qualify for citizenship....will be flown to Zimbabwe, along with all appropriate anchors, babies, and other important possessions.    There will be no need to return the parachute.

ARTICLE VIII
        There will be no classical labour unions.    Companies and businesses are encouraged to establish independent company employee associations who can have collective bargaining prerogatives.   Labour Union organizers and community organizers will be arrested and sentenced to  4o,000 hours of community service ....no smoking, lunch, coffee, saloon, rest-room, or any other breaks.     Our enforcement thugs will be trained gorillas with rabies.

ARTICLE IX
        School meal programs will be immediately suspended.    Any parents failing to provide an adequate meal for their children while at school will be loaded into the nearest BFI or WM truck for removal to some appropriate place for refuse.

ARTICLE X
      The Department of Energy, the Department of Education, the Department of Labour, the Department of Health and "Human" Services,  and FEMA will cease to exist on  31 December 2012.    Other Departments will be phased out as the various territories of the American Union establish their own systems to address their own local issues....preferably with private sector solutions.

ARTICLE XI
      At no particular time, but when it pleases us, all troops will be ordered out of Iraq and  Afghanistan,  If Baghdad and Kabul can't fly the kite by this point...then it's pretty obvious that they are probably best left to find their happiness in their misery, death, filth, and stupidity.    They will be advised that the American Eagle holds lightning bolts and olive branches.....each nation of the world can choose which it wishes.     After this plan goes into effect, however, there will no longer be anything known a "assymetrical warfare" or "restrained response" or "limited engagement".    Nagasaki and Hiroshima killed 400,000 Japanese and saved 10,000,000 Japanese......and an estimated 1,000,000 American servicemen.

ARTICLE XII
       The Congress of the Central Government in Washington will be allowed to go into session for three days each year and no more.    It will be illegal to pass more than 3 bills and no legislation will ever be allowed to  affect  more than 1o,000,000 Americans .    Eighty-five percent of the budget of the United States will be spent directly on the newly re-established War Department.

     No riders, no earmarks.  No Act or Bill in excess of 3 pages, legal size, double spaced......90 day waiting period between submission and committee action.  On-floor comments by any elected representative or senator will be limited to 55 seconds.    Running over the allotted time will result in a fine of the entirey of the elected member's $10,000/year salary and his 50%  discount card for Greyhound.   There will also be a cancellation of  the authority to hire the one part-time secretary/administrative aide allowed elected representatives, with an authorized salary cap of $5,000 per year. 

Thank you for having read this Manifesto for Liberty

El Gringo Viejo 

Trouble Everywhere, Problems Everywhere....But It Will All Be Better Soon

     This is not some facetious or humourous set of pointless observations.   Even while my attention has been forced to return to this matter of being recalled to federal court jury duty (after having been dismissed earlier...??) and even while this fire thing has been a plague to us both here on the border and at our beautiful little hideaway in Tamaulipas....as well as where my children and grandchildren are situated in Central Texas....the 'little grey cells' that kept Hercule Poirot in business....the ones I have....have been working.

     It is a source of some humour to note that our President....who so bitterly condemned his predecessor for not caring about "the people" when he allowed the gasoline prices to increase so much....now tells us that the problem is too difficult to be solved by "politicians rushing to the microphone with three point programs for two dollar gas(sic)."

       (1)    It behooves a person who desires the total destruction of America to hope for gasoline and deisel fuel prices to rise to the 6,7, & 8 dollar level as one finds in  Europe so as to collapse the economic engine of America.  

      (2)     It is the desire of this President to push the entire nation onto pedicabs and mass transportation.   It is also his desire and the desire of his entire marxist team to control all transportation matter from a central point, under the control of "qualified experts".     This is his and his associates' solution for every aspect of American life.    Medical systems,  industrial production, agricultural activity, education, economic policy must all be controlled by  "people who know better" ,  like Bernacke, Geitner, Soros, etc. 

      (3)      It having been known for years that there is no anthrocausative global warming....aka now  "climate change" when it became apparent that all global warming data was being willfully and arrogantly falsified in order to forward a socialist political agenda....this President continues to use the false and repudiated argument to force the building of autos people will not buy.....and implementation of transportation systems that people will not use.      THE ONLY WAY THE PEOPLE WILL USE THESE VEHICLES AND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS IS IF THEY ARE FORCED TO.

      (4)      Finally, and thank you for staying in with me on this, I will demonstrate a concrete fact of life.    Four years ago....the American Dollar would buy 13.00 Mexican pesos.    Things were relatively reasonably priced in Mexico although gasoline was an intolerable $2.45 am.cur. per gallon.    People in America were grumbling about Bush setting up a silly prescription drug program for the poor "seniors", who are, in fact, the wealthiest of any population sector in America.   People were also grumpy because after the Twin Towers disaster, Bush called Sens. Schumer and Clinton and assured them..."Anything you need, anything you want...you have a blank check".

        After Hillary had gotten over having to worry about Chelsea because she was in the middle of the disaster zone....(which of course was a lie because she knew where Chelsea had been, but said she was somewhere else).....Hillary showed her appreciation three weeks after the incident by shrieking on the Senate floor while she rattled a newspaper at the solons....She shrieked four times at the top of her leathered lungs..."BUSH KNEW!  Bush knew!  Bush knew!  Bush knew!"   It must have been true...it was a headline in a newspaper.    Bush had known all about the coming attack....Hell...he probably had ordered it....according to this reliable newspaper...(???)

        But it was true that Bush was turning a blind eye on spending in order to pump prime the economy that had been put into a free fall due to the attacks on the Twin Tower.    This was done in spite of the fact that Keynesian pump priming has never worked.....it has always failed....the best example was the ruin such measures caused by extending and deepening the Great Depression in the 1930s.

       Bush also had proposed reforms to Social Security....and was promptly laughed at with gusto by the Democrats because they knew they could buy votes with other peoples' money for at least another 30 years before it would be necessary to totally expropriate all pensions, annuities, and savings accounts in order to keep the pitchfork and ax wielding mobs away from their gated compounds in the Hamptons.

       Bush suggested that the re-financing practices of FmHA, FHA, etc. through the employment of something called "hedge funds" (where Chelsea was working .....as part of her concern for the poor) were injurious to the interests of lender and borrower and would cause a house of cards to begin to fall within two or three years....

        The Democrats....the great paragon of virtue Sen. Dodd and the great moral thinker....Barney Frank....and all their minions laughed at Bush and the few Republicans who still had enough testosterone to tell  a variation of the truth.

         Then came Geitner...who says that he can't do TurboTax...(I did my computer taxes this year....had my refund in mid-February).....and Bernacke who is the exception to the rule that bald guys are intelligent....and various personages who look like something out of a saloon scene from Star Wars....to assure us that we needed to do what??????     PUMP PRIME......which, of course, gave us an additional $4,000,000,000,000 in national debt.

        Mexico, in turmoil, but with a booming economy....a more or less in balance national budget and a declining debt....now has a peso that is valued at one American dollar for 11.30 pesos.    The peso has gained 1.70 pesos against the dollar since O'bama came to the helm.   THE AMERICAN DOLLAR HAS LOST 13% AGAINST THE MEXICAN PESO SINCE O'BAMA HAS BEEN IN OFFICE.!!!!

There, that was my point.   Thank you...more OROG material later.

The Old Gringo

        

Just a thought or two

     The world changes and we pass through it quickly.    I remember the ladies getting on the McAllen spur of the Texas Eagle train....to then connect in Harlingen, Texas...on to Houston, Saint Louis, and Chicago.....then to change trains for another overnight to New York City and then "SHOPPING!!!!".   Anyway, the ladies would board, with hats, heels,  and gloves in place....seams straight, usually in wool suits, and "bunkum!" to anyone who said... "The wise traveller travels light".     The ladies would frequently send an empty, large steamer trunk to the baggage car....to carry back prizes gleaned from Macy's, Tiffany's, and Bloomingdale's. 

     This picture of Mr. Ebbet's daughter throwing out the first ball at the openning of her father's new stadium speaks to a day when things were not quite as simple as we might like to think.   One is forced to notice that no one was dressed for "comfort" and everyone had his or her head covered.

      Those of the Orbit of Readers of the Old Gringo never really know what the old fool is going to tack up on his screed.    Back with more later.

El Gringo Viejo



Time to Whine

Then Gargle.com told me that they had all kinds of improvements to improve the previous improvements to my website.      So, being of low-voltage intellectually, the Old Gringo trundled down to the Old Keyboard Saloon and began to follow the instructions that would eventually up-grade my website to something like post-Appomattox Courthouse functionality.

      In mere moments everything had taken that trip we all saw in 2001 - A Space Odyssey, there was smoke coming out of every electrical device in the house, the police were knocking on the front door, and three helicopters were hovering ....flummppity flumpity flummmmpp...  I could hardly hear or think what to do next.  (the next paragraph is a little closer to the truth, please bear with me)

      Everything was lost.    Diana tells me to use the Carbonite...I inform her that Carbonite is for total system collapse...like Fukushima....or the thought processes of anyone who votes Democrat.     Later, when all is hopeless and Diana is not around, I check out the Carbonite...early this morning.   Step by step...gradually....copying and pasting....click...click....engaging the "improvements" that Gargle.com says were a "must have" to up-grade into the Harding Administration.....and (this is true) after 10 hours of whacking away at the keyboard, a glimmer of light began to appear at the end of the tunnel....AND IT WASN'T A LOCOMOTIVE  !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Hx_X84LC0

     You will know my true feelings by turning on your sound system and clicking the link above.   Our website has been up-dated and I have also done a considerable amount of reduction and editting.   It is not quite so serious a matter anymore now that O'bama is going to take care of me from now on.   It really doesn't matter anymore what the Kool-Aid tastes like as long as we have lots of Kool-aid.

      We are, in all seriousness, watching an incredible doubling down of massive force by the Mexican military....driven by re-enforcements and by the trickle of "tips" having turned into a flood....mainly due to the certainty that the military force seems to be hanging around.   President Calderon indicated that more units from the Naval Infantry and Army were to be sent into Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas States.     It was not known that the number of increased troops would be 30,000, mainly drawn from areas that have had an improvement in the "social situation".
      Where there has been success, the military is leaving the newly developed Federal Police in place....now that they have proven to be competent and trustworthy.     Yesterday the city of Cadereyta de Jimenez just to the east of the Monterrey metroplex was essentially taken over by the Federal Police, with a large escort of 6th Military Zone Army personnel, and all 40 of the local municipal police were carted off to the pokey.   It looked like a scene from an old Ronald Reagan movie.    People lining the streets and throwing tomatoes and eggs at the "police" .... Their ire was due not so much to the corruption of the police...but that most of them did nothing or "looked the other way".  
      In Villa de Garcia to the near-north of the Monterrey metroplex the much reformed local police department  has stood up to the cockroaches and driven them down thereby gaining all nature of respect and affection from the citizens and observers of this situation.    Likewise San Nicolas de los Garza, Santa Catarina, San Pedro de Garza Garcia and various other places where the police have "self-policed" and where valour and duty have finally surfaced .      Yesterday, in our Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas the Federal Police working on a "tip" swooped into a place on the south side of this important municipality of almost 1,000,000 people and captured various "evil doers" and liberated 68 people who had been kidnapped and held for ransom.    They were all out-of-towners, many were Central Americans, and they were rescued because various people dropped a dime and because there were reliable civil and military sources of order. 

THE OLD GRINGO IS IN NO WISE PREPARED TO SAY THAT WE HAVE ROUNDED THIRD BASE....THAT PEACE IS AROUND THE CORNER....THAT A NEW DAY IS DAWNING.....OR ANY OF THAT GOOP.   THIS IS A WAR THAT WILL LAST FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER TWO YEARS.    IT IS A SITUATION THAT WILL NOT BE TOTALLY ELIMINATED EVEN WITH VICTORY.
      The stain of the Serpent's temptation is forever on the soul of all men.   But, the restoration of something like predictable civil society can now be thought to be within reach.



This is not the actual scene, but it is a reasonable facsimili of the
Mexican Army's equipment.   The American contractors have Cobras
and Apache surplus helicopters.

        With reference to the fires in and around our magical little place at the end of the road, the story is also a bit more positive.    Rains have come to areas that were on the edge of the various conflagrations, and the active measures .....helicopters, civil defense squads....Army specialists....have managed to get the upper hand on those fires nearest to the Hacienda de La Vega and the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre.


We shall send more information and news and observations on ahead while the Old Gringo attempts to come down from his adrenaline high.    All fellow OROGs can be sure in the knowledge that the Old Gringo will take his fish oil, vitamin D, and aspirin tablet and return to "normal".

Thanks again for your continued patience and interest.
EL Grinog Viejo    

Hot Times in the Old Town.....

      During the afternoon, my neighbour from the Hacienda de La Vega wrote and informed me that it has been interesting over at our place during the last 48 hours.      There is a zone of fires between our places and the community of Miquihuana, Tamaulipas over the cordilleras of the Sierra Madre, about 35 miles (by straight line) to the west of the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre. 

      So that you all will know a bit of how we speak to one another his message, in Spanish is included in the body of this magnificent contribution to the world of literary endavour.

      Hola David amigo..!

Te has perdido de todo un espectaculo con la seca por aca, como dices los incendios a la orden del dia en TX y Tamaulipas, llevo 2 dias con un par de helicopteros ahi en la presa de santa engracia como base cargando agua y combustible para atacar un incendio arriba del chorrito, la verdad la gente no quiso ir a hidalgo y de ahi estamos armando la estrategia..     traigo un bell 412 y un courier canadiense tirando retardante y agua se han quemado ya 70 has pero calculo controlarlo para el viernes. ya sobrevole varias veces nuestras tierras y urge como dices que lloren los angels...Alvaro esta al pie del cañon y yo andare por alla todos estos dias, si necesitas algo con gusto avisame...estare al pendiente, aca todo bien.

Espero todo este en orden por tu casa y saludos a tu fam...si no llueve pa fin de mes, ora si a bailarle!!

Rafael says...  Hello! David Friend!

     You have lost a total spectacle with the drought here.  As you say the forest fires have become the order of the day in Texas and Tamaulipas.    I carry two days now with a pair of helicopters over there at the irrigation Lake of Santa Engracia ( a 4 square mile impoundment about 3/4's of a mile from our places)    We are using that as a base  for fueling and loading the water.     We are here because in reality the firefighters do not want to go into Hidalgo and because of that we are using our area here for strategic purposes.      I have a Bell 412 and a Canadian Courier throwing water and retardant.

     So far it has burned 150 acres, and I calculate that I can control it by Friday.    I have flown over our properties and , as you say it is urgent that the Angels should cry  (a phrase for rain). 

      Alvaro is standing at the foot of the cannon and I am going by daily.   If you need anything, have the pleasure to advise me.   I shall be aware and in charge  of everything here being well.

     We wish all be in order at your home and greetings to  your family. 

 

     If it doesn't rain by Friday we are going to have to dance! 

The point about flying from Santa Engracia all the way back to the place called El Chorrito is of interest.   There reason for the extra distance,  fuel, and time flying from Santa Engracia as opposed to basing activities in Hidalgo, the County Seat....is because the Mexican civil defence teams from the area do not trust the police or authorities in Hidalgo, but the authorities in and around Santa Engracia are trustworthy.    It is true that in the recent disorders our area has been substantially spared of 99.9% of the fallout.   Hidalgo has been fairly hard hit, like Padilla and Barretal.    Although things are being restored....very steadily....in those areas that have suffered through the insanity of the cartels and gang-thugs....these special crews of rustic people from the farms and pastures of the mountains prefer to hang around with us.   They are a remarkable team....rustic peasants, with their ropes, shovels, picks, grub-hoes, machetes, and rucksacks  and the American Viet Nam veterans....now youthful geezers....whirling out to the smoke.    Although the fire at El Chorrito, a very important touristic and religious site about 14 miles by staight line from our place, is very small now, it could explode very quickly with the strong winds we are experiencing thoughtout this part of the world.

      I am trying to find out if the  two C-130 are going to be thrown into the fight.     The next stage would be that and the Mexican Army paratrooper being dropped in with the old, dependable C-47s.     Many resources are being mobilized, but the problem is that there are, at this moment eleven major conflagrations all along the upper reaches of the Sierra Madre throughout Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.    Lots of desolate remote expanse and lots of small and large cities and dense rural population....Look this way and see one and look the other way and see the other.   The worst situation possible for a forest fire situation.

More Later,

The Old Gringo

Things We Cannot Talk About

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8459813/Britons-shot-in-Florida-killed-as-part-of-gang-initiation.html

       It is a bit unfair, but it is the truth.    When one hears about an American being hurt or damaged in Mexico.....I lament pointing this out.....it is normally a person who was doing something he ought not to have been doing.During recent months there have been various stories about Americans who have been killed, injured, or somehow molested by events occuring in Mexico.    Some of these stories have been told, more or less forthrightly...others have not.     The total number....with what remains a relatively strong tourism industry (mainly along the coasts and in retirement hideaways)....has been 10 or 12 individuals to this point for 2011.

       The story accessed by the link above is much more common....both for foreign visitors and for Americans.   It is the result of AFDC, Section 8, Housing and Urban Development Community Block grants and local housing authorities building instant free ghettos, food stamps, WIC, Head Start, SSI, and a hundred other public assistance programs that have united to foist the progeny of Hell upon our once-favoured Nation.

       I did a bit of checking around on the two Brits who were murdered by the sub-human scum.....and they were the quintessential "square blokes"...having a good time....accomplished....generous....civilized, etc.    A night of hobnobbing and flirting with pub girls.....a fairly normal activity for hormone driven young male tourists....was rewarded with a very peculiar welcome by the gang in the projects.    And the project where the gang was centered is somewhat famous for being a cut above....a bit better than the other Hell-Holes.

       A hearty thank you to the Democrats, socialists, anti-American, unrestrained immigration advocates, welfare promoting, inventors of the concept of "Baby Mother", egalitarian psychopaths.   And also to the Republican pantywaists who talk a good conservative, social responsibility game, but who wind up voting for the compromise bill that will allow some 16 year old Baby Mothers a place to put her Baby into Head Start, her WIC, her Stamps, her Section 8, her electricity "share" card, free lunch for her 3 children, and of course for her mother....who at the ripe old age of 31 has 11 grandchildren..and one of those is already pregnant.     Ah!  Baby Mothers.

       They prey on foreigners as a game.....they and the intellectual elite America haters are quickly destroying America ....quickly.    Last year alone...28,000 murders by people such as this....and not infrequently committed against people such as my people.

Pardon my bile....but my business was cross-border tourism for many, many years and these anti-Samaritan events hit me over the liver.

The Old Gringo....

Questions and Answers

     During the past few hours there have been a few questions come in and it is my duty to answer as best possible, constrained, of course, by my limited intellectual proweress.

During these times....or at any normal time....where do "gringos" tend to want to stay when they are living part-time or full time in a place like Mexico?

         The Old Gringo is going to give a subjective answer.   Later we can look up more precise data in the new Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia report.    Preliminary publication of the just-past census is being published even as this is being written.   It is considered to be the final legal word, and frankly, can be considered to be a good and complete work by most researchers.

          My impressions are pretty  good, however, and come from considerable experience.   There is a bit of deception in the 1,000,000 Gringos living in Mexico number.    Is that number static, or fluctuating?   Does it include people who have some form of dual citizenship?   Does it include criminals on the run?    Does it include full-time only, or part-time as well?

       Approximately one-fourth of all Americans (including Canadians, whether they like it or not....they just smell a little funny, eh) living in Mexico live in the Baja California Peninsula....below Ensenada and all the way down to the various Cabos at the tip of Baja California Sur.     Most of these are younger geezers aged 50 to 70.   Most live in leased accommodations, en lieu of opting for hotel, motel, on monthly rental options.    A significant number have opted for the "permanent lease"   (99 years, permanent renewal option, transferable by probated testament, total lease payment paid in full at time of lease.....essentially a purchase). 

      These lease arrangements require that a qualified bank hold the title, and pay your ad valorem taxes (a pittance), and charge the lessee a fee for such payments and services, usually paid annually.    It is less than a Neighbourhood Association dues, or other rigamarole.      ALTHOUGH.....there are such developments on the Baja that have colonias that do certainly have community owners' conventions and uniform standards requirements.

       Another large body of Americans and other funny smelling people live in and around the area that is generally identified as Guadalajara.....which includes that city (The Pearl of the West) along with the surrounding of Lake Chapala with its communities of Ajijic, Jojotepec, etc. just to the south of Guadalajara.    During these days one will hear, "Everybody's moving out because of the violence, it's just terrible,  everything's ruined!" and I am sure there have been people who have suffered some kind of contratemp there.

      However....upon arriving, everything seems to be as it was 5 years ago...there are gringos everywhere....things are laid back, dull, boring, terribly scenic, 82 degrees in the afternoon 55 degrees at the break of dawn.....cold beer, excellent food, etc. etc.   It seems as good as any place to wait around to die.

      A somewhat smaller body of gringos are found in and around the area of San Miquel de Allende and Guanajuato in the State of Guanajuato.   These folks are normally extreme upper-middle class to eccentric wealthy people who are real die-hard Mexo-freaks.   Most speak Spanish to some degree of fluency or another and seem to really prefer the colonial Spanish Mexican environment.    Emphasis on colonial.      Ideal weather,  year-round.

       Mixed in with this is a highly developed Mexican and foreign art community, the cities of Dolores Hidalgo and Marfil (adjacent to Guanajuato City), and a very stable social and political environment.   It is a place for intellectuals, psuedo-intellectuals, and anti-intellectuals.   Conservative to very conservative locals and foreigners....although foreign pinkoes have their episodes.  
     Cold Beer, excellent margaritas and variations thereupon, and a cornocopia of excellent grub....much of it identifiable....ranging in price from very cheap to the lower range of almost expensive.

       My estimate is that probably five percent of the American community in Mexico lives in and along the San Miguel de Allende -  Guanajuato axis.    It is where my mother would have chosen to spend half her time had she decided to stay in this world a bit longer.   There is a nice Episcopal Church in San Miquel....named....Saint Michael's...imagine that!

      Next....and none of the above or what follows  is in any particular order....is Oaxaca City and surrounding areas and Oaxaca -  Chiapas States  in general.     Oaxaca City and the surrounding areas are idyllic.  Oaxaca City is, like a lot of larger colonial cities...very clean.    It, like Guanajuato and  Guadalajara, is a State capital.    It has a really and truly commie undercurrent.....fueled mainly by communist professors at the university in downtown.....and by a native prolotariat revolutionary rural and Indian assembly of people with too much time on their hands and too much beer and mescal to drink.

      Oddly, however, it doesn't really seem to take away much from this charming and overwhelmingly interesting land of the Zapotec  and Mixtec Indian Nations...still extant...and still speaking their native languages.   Stunning colonial architecture, great and noble archaeological sites of importance (as well as some barely excavated, if at all) are all-enveloping.    The food is amazing and, of course, the climate is perfect.    Earthquakes are an added source of excitement.....although everything that can come down pretty much has been shaken down by 7's ,  8's , and 9's that have hit all around the southern fourth of Mexico since the arrival of the Spanish (early 1520's).

       You all know, with my rightwing bent, that if I speak highly of a place that has a hot-pink bent....then it has to be something special.     The foreign community is composed of quite a churn of tourists....most are not at all offensive.    Probably three percent of the  full and part-time foreign residents in Mexico live in and around Oaxaca City .... within a egg-shaped perimeter with the Capital at the top of the egg and the city and archaeological site of Mitla at the lower end of the egg about 35 miles to the south.

       Because of the pinko-ness of Oaxaca, there is a goodly number of Euro-commies, youth hostel types, back-packers, We'll-bathe-after-we-get-back-to-France folks, a real live Reds who come to "express solidarity" with the oppressed native peoples of the New World.

      One time, the crystal of my grandfather's watch cracked and I took it to the jeweler in downtown Oaxaca.   It was an unlikely looking place....clean, ancient, with neat boxes of parts, tools, and various shop-like things in a small shop.   I asked the owner if he could solve the problem with the crystal, and he asked me to come back in three hours.   We joked about how I would not be able to know three hours had transpired...I told him it really was my grandfather's watch and was very important because I had never known him...he died long before I was born.    Oddly, he said, "Yes, I know"....

      Three hours later I came back.   He showed me my newly crystalled and polished watch...running perfectly....and he charged me the equivalent of  three dollars.    It still runs perfectly.

      The food in Oaxaca is unbelievable.    It has the best hole-in-the-wall places in the world. The weekly Indian markets....different days of the week for different communities...are never dull in spite of the repetition of products....each community has different specialties and seasonality also breaks the monotony.    Careful with the mescal...some of it is 130 proof..or even higher....but you can eat the crickets...really...I always do.

      An addenda is Chiapas State.    While Oaxaca City's weather is perfect, most of Chiapas is not.   It is hot, wet, and almost unsurvivable.    Where the gringoes hang around is in San Cristobal de las Casas.....another Indian wonderland....but Mayan at this point.   It is adjacent to Guatemala.    It is also adjacent to another universe and lives in a different time dimension.  There is a bridge over an unremarkable watercourse that runs through the middle of San Cristobal.    On a corner-post of the unremarkable bridge that crosses the unremarkable watercourse is the inscription, "A la Mexicanidad de Chiapas".    The bridge had been built in the early 1960's, and was carefully dedicated "To the Mexicanality of Chiapas".    My immediate thought was "If you have to say it, then it cannot be totally true".    But it is certain that Chiapas thinks of itself as a separate country.....more like one of the Central American duchies.  

       While the bulk of Chiapas is hot, wet, and foreboding....the area around San Cristobal is very cold, wet, and foreboding.    COLD.     It  is also a State where six different Indian nations set about hacking up their neighbours at various times and stages of the moon.   There is also the now nearly elderly "youthful and energetic marxist redeemer of the oppressed Native Americans, Sub-comandante Marcos...."   .    It makes me want to run out and buy another "Che" pull-over shirt and shout anti-American slogans.    Of course, Sub-comandante Marcos is a white Mexican from the lower ranges of the upper-class from Tampico.....but he likes to wear ski-masks .... and he likes 13 year old Indian girls.   After all, saving Indians from American imperialism is hard work....and Mrs. Mitterand only sends him a couple of hundred thousand Euros a month to keep up his War Against Capitalist Imperialism.     With luck he will be able to establish a Castro Cuba style nirvana with complete proletariat perfection sometime within the next 90 days.    After twenty years,  thirty percent of the people under his control have migrated out of their compounds and living conditions have become even worse for the remainder, even after massive infusions by various pro-communist groups, Universities, and marxist intellectuals world-wide.

        In spite of all of this....there are quite a few Gringoes who live in the San Cristobal area....as well as in and around the archaeological sites associated with Palenque which is nearer to the Gulf of Mexico and touching the tropical lowlands.    I know of three or four couples who have homes outside of San Cristobal or in the very middle of said city, and they would never leave.

       The Yucatan Peninsula is another area where there are large numbers of permanent and semi-permanent Americans.     All along the beaches....the ugly ones on the east and north coasts with the flamingos....and lots and lots of folks on the Caribbean side.    There are many living in Merida, the "White City" , the capital of the State of Yucatan....and it is a delightful place.    VERY HOT in the summer....but with hundreds and hundreds of bars, restaurants, outdoor eateries, and shady places in the center of the city....it is summarily pleasant.     Many, many gringoes live in the outback of the Peninsula.    It is covered with dense low tropical forest with numerous Mayan villages and towns interspersed throughout.     Finding adequate lodging is an issue.....but in no wise impossible.

       Once again, food is really good....and relatively cheap.   Like a lot of places in Mexico, there are respectable saloons that serve incredible botanas for next to nothing for their regular elbow-benders.....sometimes I wonder how they stay in business.    These places actually are found pretty much throughout Mexico and are almost always very civilized and sedate hidey-holes.

       I would estimate that the Playa del Carmen crowd, the interior Peninsula bunch, the Merida-Campeche-Progresso group would total another ten percent of the resident American population....perhaps more.

      One cannot forget significant permanent and semi-permanent people living on the coast of Oaxaca in and around the two small port cities of Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido.....lots of surfer-types, right-wing libertarian hippy types....VERY laid back, I'm okay, you're okay.....All along the Pacific Coast one will run into slightly eccentric Gringos who have found their favourite bar, their best little cheap restaurant, and their elegant deluxe Restaurant Le Self-Indulgence for once a week or so.   Don't discount, for instance, Mazatlan.

     It is my best estimate that about forty percent of the American permanent and semi-permanent presence in Mexico is like The Old Gringo.      Eccentric curmudgeons who are grumpy and semi-hermit-like who are just trying to get along and stay out of the way.  Almost all are retired or semi-retired, self-employed and active, sometimes "computer commuting" in writing, editing, and other pursuits frequently based out of the United States.    These types tend to live inside the general Mexican population and removed from "appropriate" or "safe" areas.    Most are fluent in Spanish.    They can be found along the Vera Cruz coast, in the highlands like in Zacatecas and environs, or in the Bajio....Irapuato, Celaya, Salamanca, and Leon. 

      The final batch live and work in industrial centers like Monterrey and even Mexico City.   Both of those places have their extremely good points, but I could only tolerate living in Mexico City for a week or two.   

I would recommend the book, "Emissaries to a Revolution" which details life during the interesting days from 1910 through 1920.    It was published in the 1980's, written by Larry D. Hill who took two degrees from Texas A & M University and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.   The author was a friend of my brother's.

More later.    Thanks for your patience.    I shall fill in various and many holes of the above general outline in coming days.    As always everyone's attention, questions, and comments are truly appreciated.

El Gringo Viejo