Bits and Pieces, Observations, and Clarifications.....

_________________________

For no particular reason, we show all concerned
the bacon / egg / lettuce / tomato on whole
wheat the Old Gringo made for himself
during his stay this time down.
____________

Alvaro was surprised at these variations
of tropical gladiolas.    These and others
are being planted around the Quinta's
garden areas

     As one might note, we are returned from the Mexican interior, after spending some time at our little hideaway in the middle and muddle of Nowhere, State of Tamaulipas, Mexico.   Some considerable rain, very cool nights (low 50s several nights and early morning in a row), lots of birds (mainly old, but some new), and still a little bit of business percolating.   We would like to cover some points of interest, both for the OROG community and for those visiting our sites for the first time.   They are as follows:

A typical view from the Quinta, including the
 colours of the season....Flamboyan red,
 and Esperanza yellow, and Plumeria
in Hawaiian pastels

(1)     Clarification:   Our last posting had a title of "Should Ted Cruz lose the  primary..." etc.    This might have been interpreted reasonably as an interrogative, but please note that no question-mark ends the title.   The word "should" was used in the conditional and declarative sense.  

     We were certainly not suggesting a question.  And, alas, Senator Cruz was vanquished after considerable collusion between FOXNews including almost the entire staff and Mssrs. Ayles and Murdoch,  along with every organ of the Obsolete Press.  The group we have chosen to style as "The Appropriate Outsiders" who are found on the Right side of the political theatre decided that our chosen one was too loose a cannon.....an ideologue.....a man of narrow appeal, incapable of beating the likes of (Sir Edmund) Hillary Corksrew.

This is the first "summer bloom" of our
 daughter's haleconia,  This plant is

essentially the original banana .

     We remain convinced that Senator Cruz was and is, by far and away, the best candidate to field for these times.   Likewise, we are convinced that Donald Trump is woefully unqualified person for the position of the presidency of the government of the United States of America.   His personal history, his temperament, his depth of knowledge and understanding, and his irrational explosions speak to this conclusion on my part.

This is Alvaro showing relative size
 comparison
with the Flamboyan tree.
   They bloomed about a month early
 throughout the region this year.
  Lots of rain, chilly nights, hot
 days were the secret medicine

     Among his most troubling characteristics is the ridiculous repeating of phrases and words as he speaks, as if picking up things from the ground that he has dropped as he trundles through his Garden of Undeveloped Thoughts.  These things, along with his tendency to employ mendacity as a debate weapon have always troubled us.   His businesses and political inclinations are as muddled a his thought processes.

      In our opinion, Trump was the worst of all the alternatives.   Save for the exception of Governor Christi, we in this household would probably been able to vote, finally, for any of the other of the Cast of Thousands who postulated their candidacy.

       Finally, about this point, the title "Should Ted Cruz lose the Primary...." should have better read, "We are leaving for our Hideaway in Nowhere,  Tamaulipas, Mexico, and Should Ted Cruz Lose the Primary, It could well signal the end of the Republic....But We Shall Return".

________________________

(2)    Bits and Pieces - Part A:
     
     We had clients fairly recently who drove all the way from coastal North Carolina down to our place in Mexico, and then on all the way to the border between Mexico and Guatemala.   They travelled in a large vehicle, known as a ''conversion van".   They are pleasant folks, disassociated from "the herd" in a way, very convivial.  They were very much the kind of people who fit perfectly at the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre both as clients and guests.

      Among other things they kept a nice dairy about their Odyssey throughout much of eastern and southern Mexico.   All of the photography ranges from very good to high-level professional work.   The commentary has a bit of dry wit and considerable valuable observations.   It tends to be a bit lengthy due to the numerous very excellent bird and other photographs, but it is a pleasant, very worthwhile investment of time for any of our readers.   The OROG will appreciate the visits to famous as well as out of the way and off the beaten trail stops during their 40 day passage, all on the ground, save for a bit of boating.

            

     We place this web-page linkage for the OROG's use in accessing the commentary and imaging of these valued clients.

  http://lookingforchorty.blogspot.com/

_______________________

     Part B:    In the matter of (Sir Edmund) Hillary Corkscrew vs. the Mean Old Server 

     This is a case composed of  all the worst parts of a bad Broadway theatre offering.   It would be a dark and perverse tragi-comedy, with MacBethian themes and plots.    But, it would also be far too improbable to be considered plausable even as a farce.

    One thing is for certain however.  Were El Gringo Viejo to have done what Miss (Sir Edmund) has been demonstrated to have done AT THIS POINT in the "FBI investigation", he or almost any other person would have been in prison already.   The sentence would have been at least three years.

     The waste of time known as the supposed "FBI investigation" has already involved the "suspected perpetrator" in the need to "walk-back" numerous "explanations" which were made try her to bend facts into pretzel-like, out-and-out lies.   Sworn depositions have already been made by a person...the installer of the computer server(s) of interest...who testified with the guarantee of immunity.  The facts have been clear for months.

      General Petraeus, for a matter of much smaller import, was witheringly shamed, demoted, and variously punished for having committed an absurdly stupid crime.  Although his transgressions were far fewer in number and of much lesser scope, his punishments were relatively swiftly processed and enforced.   There was considerable leakage of information about the case and  considerable official commentary before, during and after the scandal and associated legal processes.

     (Sir Edmund) Hillary Corkscrew however, will not.....and we repeat...will not be processed, charged, interrogated in any serious way, placed before a Grand Jury to testify, or other exigency.    We request that the readers remember that she escaped charges over the holding over 1,000 FBI raw data personnel files.   Charles Colson, Special Assistant to President Nixon spent three years in prison for having had one (1) raw data file in his desk, still under seal and un-openned.
     She escaped charges in the illegal firing of the employees of the White House Travel Office during the first days of the Clinton presidency.   She escaped charges for having order the Defense Department to release Linda Tripp's raw data personnel tile.
     She escaped charges for any number of serious criminal acts during the time of the construction of "HillaryCare" (the forerunner of ObamaCare), she escaped charges for having ordered her staff to empty out Vince Foster's White House Office of any and all records and documents after Foster's "suicide", and she escaped charges....numerous charges....in the horrid and death ridden Whitewater and Rose Law Firm Billing Frauds.    This is the short list.   Her dishonourable acts and lies surrounding the Benghazi matter and other of her many debacles during her  time at the State Department remain an Open Book of Shame.
     So, please remember that the FBI has a long record of measuring the above named miscreant with toy microscopes and kid gloves. Even her peripheral involvement, along with "Attorney General" Janet Reno in the Mt. Carmel disaster  where scores of men, women, and children were immolated escaped perusal by the FBI (or any other press or police group).

     After re-reading the above material it seems truly astounding to this writer that this woman has not been either housed in a psychiatric facility or a prison as an Habitual.   Just the matter about the "corkscrewing into Kosovo while under sniper fire would have been enough, had Reagan said such a thing, to have his bones dug up and burned.   It is truly saddening.

__________________

(3)     Observations:

     In the matter of Trump and the Mexican people and government, there are many, many observations that we could make.  For one, Trump's fat mouth and badly wired brain with an abundance of burned out synapses managed to bring on a useless conflict with a Mexican populace and body politic just itching for a topic they can demagogue with glee.

     Next, the building of a wall, after all the environmental, imminent domain, ACLU defense "free association and family separation" issues, etc. would tie up the actual building for years.  Such is the nature of things in these times.   The environmental freaks and frauds would be throwing themselves in front of bulldozers in order to save the Gila Monsters.   Little matter that the government has raised the "acceptable level" of bald eagles to be killed by the blades of the "eco-friendly" electricity-generating windmills to over 4,000 per annum.  But, the point is that there are scores, even hundreds, of detours and delays and obstacles that even a bully like Trump cannot, could not, avoid.

     Next, the saw about Free Trade concepts causing job losses is quite weak.   In Texas, we have essentially a free trade operation going on and employment, along with business development has been explosive for over a generation now.   The solution to predatory abandonment of Terra Firma Americana by businesses could and should be the prohibition of any form of "corporate income tax" or even direct taxation of any form of business.

     In these times, however, almost any larger business is going to try to re-establish itself to some degree or another in foreign countries in order to gain market share.   Hence, the large Toyota plant in San Antonio.   No State Corporate Income Tax, no labour union sorrows, large local markets, and huge regional markets.....bingo.

     Protectionism of, for, and by labour and businesses is what caused the world-wide economic collapse during the late 1920s through the early 1940s.   The only thing that extracted America and certain other protectionist countries as they moved deeper into the decade of the 1940s is World War II,   Every one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his cadre of socialist economic "shovel ready" planners and economic experts' plans failed.   It is a sad joke when people knowingly repeat the horribly fallacious saw that "Roosevelt's New Deal save America from starvation!"

     But, it feels good to say "America First".   The problem is, when that is said, it places America in a the position in which it steadily loses the ability to compete in the world marketplace.   Where we should be putting the collective American foot down is in the highly specific markets and populations that practice extreme and illegal predatory industrial and commercial espionage and sabotage.   That is fairly easy to do....starting with Red China, the world's most criminal and dangerous economic predator and destructor.
    And Red China is in not the most major trading partner of the United States, in various ways.  To wit:

Rank	Country	Exports	Imports	Total Trade	Trade Balance
-	World	1,620,532	2,347,685	3,968,217	-727,153
-	European Union	276,142	418,201	694,343	-142,059
1	Canada	312,421	347,798	660,219	-35,377
2	China	123,676	466,754	590,430	-343,078
3	Mexico	240,249	294,074	534,323	-53,825
4	Japan	66,827	134,004	200,831	-67,177
5	Germany	49,363	123,260	172,623	-73,897
6	South Korea	44,471	69,518	113,989	-25,047
7	United Kingdom	53,823	54,392	108,215	-569
8	France	31,301	46,874	78,175	-15,573
9	Brazil	42,429	30,537	72,966	+11,892
10	Taiwan	26,670	40,581	67,251	-13,911

     The above chart shows almost up-to-date rankings of America's import and export partners.   These figures make up about 90 per cent of all international trade affecting the United States directly.  All the importing from Red China that we do, and all the exporting to Red China as well, could be redistributed to other, more agreement-abiding trading partners.

     We like to point out that Canada, Japan, and Mexico have a combined population of less than 230,000,000, and yet their activity with the United States substantially exceeds Red China's.    Another interesting, perhaps even astounding fact is that those three countries' combined GNPs exceed by 35% the GNP of Red China which has six times the combined population of Canada, Japan, and Mexico.      Another interesting point is that each day about 1,000,000 Mexicans and Canadians enter the United States.   Also each day, about 1,000,000 Mexicans and Canadians leave.  Most Mexicans enter on a permanent (10 year) nationwide visa, while a large minority have the convenient 72 hour pass which I believe is now issued for three years.   The figures concerning how much Mexicans buy, for instance, during their visits along the frontier, or during other shopping excursion, beach stays, etc. is unknown.  What is known is that McAllen, Texas reasonably estimates that Mexican commercial tourism from Monterrey and other places in Mexico amounts to 3,000,000,000 USD per year in McAllen (pop. 130,000) alone.
   The problem we have with illegal immigration is easily solved simply by (1)   eliminating all public welfare assistance for everybody and (2)   enforcing our immigration laws as they now stand, and (3) abolishing any notion that a baby born atop American soil is an American citizen, and by vigorously prosecuting, punishing, and deporting illegal and legal aliens who have been convicted of felonious activity.     Any political entity (township,town, county, city, parish, State, Commonwealth, or Indian lands) would be prohibited from granting any form of Sanctuary, especially for convicted or wanted criminal aliens, in the United States legally or illegally. 
     America needs, desperately to take the control away from the ethnic and racial demagogues and the Democrats and "Progressives" by reforming public assistance into a purely private, Salvation Army style social service operation.   Government operated systems invariably turn into active and/or passive vote-buying schemes.

We depart now for a night of watching the weather radar, and getting some sleep.  More to-morrow!
El Gringo Viejo

______________________