Sheesh!
It would be better if FOX News would re-organise their schedule, with Greta first, and the other two hyper-interrupters taking the later time slots. Perhaps Hannity and O'Reilly could share a two-hour slot and just interrupt each other with repetitive platitudes, shouting over one another, and waving each other off until they both collapse in a heap of interruptive exhaustion. El Gringo Viejo simply cannot understand a conversation when there are two, three, or four people all shouting at the same time....Perhaps they could just set up a barbershop quartet and sing (or sign) "Just a Minute! Just a Minute!" for the length of a standard segment and be done with it.
O'Reilly did yeoman's service by braying like a drunken donkey about the case of the boy who was detained with the .410 shotgun some months back in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He has probably been made aware by many more people than your humble servant alone, that his bully-boy, swaggering and posturing about what he would "do" to Mexico if the boy were not released by such and such a moment was very injurious to the boy's interests. O'Reilly looked upon the event as one he could use to gin up his image as a tough guy who would stand up to thugs and crooks and all forms of corruption. Just not Hillary or Bill, and certainly not with the Kennedys.
He was a bit more demure concerning the recent case in Sonora, which involved the detention by the Army of an American citizen. That citizen was detained after the determination had been made that she was sitting atop a bus seat, under which there was a packet of neatly wrapped 15 pounds of high-grade marijuana. She and her husband were not sitting side by side, but rather they were travelling 2 X 3....a process whereby a couple might buy three passages for the two of them, so as to have some stretching out room.
As an aside, Mexican 1st class and deluxe busses are commonly used, even by the wealthy, in Mexico. There are 4,000,000 carried, medium to long distances, daily. Americans and foreigners being on-board is not comment worthy, it is common. Frequent departures, comfortable seating, many semi-direct and express operators, two-driver teams, even recliner/slumber seating on the deluxe overnighters with restrooms for men on the left and women on the right...etc. etc. The bus being used by the Maldanados was a standard first class express. It was running a route that could cover the entire run to the border in a comfortable six hours, including a couple of rest stops. There is no smoking any longer on the 1st class and deluxe units. So, having three seats for two people....obviously costs more....but it makes the ride more comfortable, and there is a seat to put all the junk, purses, munchies, magazines, and the like.
O'Reilly made a big point about how, in Mexico, everybody is always corrupt all the time, and the Army was just trying to shake down the Maldanados. He was about 30 hours behind the story, and I particularly enjoyed watching him walk into the door-corner. Sorry, I just did.
We had followed the case somewhat closely. Sonora is a peculiar State where common law has been sputtering as if to start for a couple of generations, with increasing success. There is considerable American agricultural and industrial investment there, and it is a very rich State in terms of fishing, citrus, grapes and wines, and automotives. There is a six to eight generation American/British bloodline interlaced in the genealogy of the State, and there is a significant Mormon presence.
While Mr. Bill was being more reserved, if only a little, about his braying, he still assured everybody that everything in Mexico is bad and....by inference, everything in the United States is perfect. This information is sandwiched by his own articles about the putrid rot of vile filth of immoral corruption than oozes out every window and door of the White House and the central government bureaucracy in these days....and during the days of the Clintons' Administration. I remember one time when he slightly broached the topic of the possible problem Hillary might have in running for the United States Senate seat from New York, considering the persistent suggestions about her possible involvement with the "suicide' of Vince Foster. That, and/or the next-day clearing out of his office of all papers and momentos by Maggie Thompson and Bernie Nausbaum, under orders from Hillary would certainly have to present SOME kind of obstacle to Hillary's advance to the Presidential Palace.......SOMETHING happened......shortly after that, because the topic has never been raised again.
O'Reilly was doing that interview with some poobah, and suggested the matter, and the poobah blanched and declared that it was absolutely proven that there was no evidence of any kind to support that "theory" and "nobody" takes it seriously anymore. O'Reilly persisted a bit, saying '.....I have sources who have been pretty definite about that...." , when his talk-mate vigorously disagreed, and said that it was a settled issue...no evidence of any kind to support the charge.
Just the notion that Kathleen Willy's husband committed suicide the same day and somewhat before Bill Clinton assaulted her in the White House....and then her second husband had a one-vehicle "accident" three years later, while driving some information pertaining to Hillary and Bill and their Whitewater days over to an investigator of some sort...should ring a few bells. Repeat such co-incidences several score times, and we have Macbeth meets the Beverly Hillbillies and the Ma Barker gang in Chappaqua.
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| A scene from a typical city's centre, in this case Cd. Alvaro Obregon, in the southern part of Sonora, |
But back to the case in Sonora. The soldiers did what they had to do. They searched the bus. They found the packets. The detained the passenger sitting over the package. Their commanding officer delivered the detained party the nearest Federal Prosecutorial facility. Further evidence was gathered. The detained party protested vigorously that she was innocent, "I'm LDS!" she declared.
Representations were made by an attorney who requested a writ of amparo (to suspend legal processes due to the weakness or absence of evidence), and the magistrate took the matter under advisement. On the next Wednesday, the two young soldiers....regular Army, combat veterans, involved in the very successful pressuring of El Chapo Guzman's organisation in Sonora (including the recent arrest and incarceration of his father-in-law), did not appear for evidentiary hearings. An officer from the adjutant's office appeared instead, and said that the Army itself was doing recovery of evidence and at that point there was nothing to support what had appeared, at one time, to be obvious.
In a stunning release, the Army revealed certain security camera footage that clearly showed the Maldanados entering the Bus Terminal with their accoutrements....folded blankets, water six-pack, reading stuff, purse, just the regular stuff people bring along for a moderate distance bus ride. There was no pair of bulky, wrapped, and re-wrapped packages of pot. There was film of their boarding...getting off before departure...buying a couple of bags of munchies...(no Coca-Cola or coffee, you know, they are LDS)....and just obviously dumboes like the rest of us...me included.....getting ready to roll home after a funeral. And El Gringo Viejo knew that that night, Bill O'Reilly would walk into the door-corner....and El Gringo, perhaps lamentably but certainly unapologetically, was happy.
Mrs. Maldanado was understandably put-out, angry, distressed, forlorn, and a score of other things due to and during her detention. She is human. She is well-spoken, well-presented. I would have been VERY GRUMPY if the same thing had happened to me....and it has....but in the United States. But the truth worked through the peculiar labyrinth of Mexican legal procedure, and even Geraldo was caught off-guard, even though the news about the issue was readily reviewable, all but live and in colour, on very reliable Mexican news reports. Then...Mrs. Maldanado, in a mix of high reason and somewhat female expression of some kind of justification for the crummy situation that has brought us to these extremes and measures declares that everyone was wonderful....she expressed gratitude and appreciation to the girls (officials) who took care of her during her detention, understanding towards the Army (who stood behind the truth), and of course her family. The mark of a Lady. A lady who calmed herself in extremely trying times and then befriended all and made things pleasant. The mark of a Lady.
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| This excellent picture, taken by the photographer Bruno Girin, famous for many studies of Mexican scenes is of Tulum, archaeological site in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico. |
For the interest of the OROGs who might reasonably be concerned, the soldiers were not admonished or punished for their work, in that, in reality they had done their duty. So, the very best of a bad situation was had by all.
Except Mr. O'Reilly.
We recommend that Mr. O'Reilly take the offer of his friend who lives on the Riviera Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula, and visit for a couple of weeks. Do a show from there for a week. Tell not just the truth, but the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth....just once about Mexico.
El Gringo Viejo
