Thursday 26 January 2017

Score cards, commentary, for what it is worth. Trump, Mexico, and the Anarchists

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 (I)    The fact is, we try to avoid talking about political, or even cultural matters, primarily because we want to maintain a fair and clear mind while analyzing events and their repercussions.   Believe it or not.   Why?  Because, out in the real world where people are working, milling around, trying to find a missing part for the whangdoodle machine, etc. there are other things going on.  That applies both to the great, un-washed masses of which I am a member, and to the majority of folks we encounter who can only speak in vacuous platitudes and focus group phrases.

     To begin, government intervention into the economic realm always...always...produces imbalances that are injurious to the interests of both producer and "consumer".

     Lies and dysfunction must necessarily accompany any and all manouevres that attempt to regulate the movement of money between the citizenry.  Quite readily, one can point to the notion that there is a need for poor people to be exempt from central government taxation.   It is also accepted that the well-to-do must pay a higher percentage of their income than people of more moderate means.  Mr. Trump, the "Great Tax Reformer" proposes a 0 - 12 - 25 - 35 percent bracketing of taxation.
     Such a system, we are told, ensures that the rapacious rich have to be forced to pay "their fair share".   The "zero tax group" is too poor to pay anything, so taxing them would be mean and unfair.   The ones in the middle are dolts and proles and they will pay up, no matter what, in order to avoid going to jail or paying fines.

     This package of rates immediately put disincentives into play.  For the "poor" it takes them off of the Board of Directors of USA and Company.  They have no skin in the game, save for the taking.....free food, free accommodation, free medical, and a myriad of other programmes that "help the poor".  The programmes also enslave many into a multigenerational culture of poverty that creates hell-holes of crime and indolence and hatred for the "donor class".
     The myth of the Spanish Conquistatoders.   The truly wealthy have accountants that work around the labyrinthine tax code.   The dolts in the middle area stumble through with the express form or with piles of receipts and notes in an effort to "itemize" their tax statements.  Either way....for the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy...the ones who are paying and who must render up answers to invasive questions for which there is no reasonable justification....are the ones who pay 100 % of all income tax.
   The "poor" and any slob who is not paying taxes for whatever reason belongs to the noncontributing 50%.  The ones who are paying are the 50,000 USD annual income people, and up from there, pay 100% of the central government's operational expenses....except for that last batch of deficit spending that just slipped by a 03:00 in the morning.....somehow.....

    There is certainly no justification for the central government to inquire into the otherwise presumed  innocent citizen's economic activity.  The whole system has been the classic "camel's nose in the Arab's tent".   Wilson's and the Progressive's assurances that the tax would never exceed 1% and so forth was long since thrown out with the bathwater, with the Progressives snickering with every splash.

     We remain committed to the establishment of a national sales tax, for the support of the War Department and the Postal Service as dictated by the Constitution.  All other central government operations should be discontinued in an orderly, ten-year stand-down.   The maintenance of a Department of Judicial Constabulary and Courts could possibly be considered.
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(II)    Border Wall

(David Christian Newton authored this observation, 26 January 2017 -his mother's birthday, born in Winchester, Tennessee in 1915)

      The building of a physical wall is an improbable venture just based upon the geography concerned. There is another problem, for instance simply due to Indian Reservation lands in certain areas. There is another problem in delta areas such as the Lower Rio Grande "Valley" (it is a delta, not a valley).
      There is another problem with the Nature Conservancy and other plant species and wildlife which bring on both reasonable and irrational considerations.
      The expense and maintenance is much more complicated than is being considered. Also, any stolen Cessna 172 that can fly, will cross over, lights out, and land in very short spaces....or rural highways...which abound in the Texas outback....especially at night. If not a Cessna, then it would be a Citabria one seater, or certain larger remote-controlled drones.
       A combination of pedestrian scouts, a mounted infantry or horse cavalry of sorts would be well employed in about 30 - 40% of the area concerned.   My father rode in the Mounted Cavalry, Ist Division, 12th Regiment in the late 1920s through 1933.   Their work was very effective in catching anarchists, Mexican and American counterfeit and real silver coinage and paper currency,  and in those days, illegal introduction of alcohol in the form of mescal, tequila, and European and Canadian liquors.
      Standard motor patrol with electronic and cyber tech equipment is indispensable, both for close patrol and combat support and for "showing the flag and willingness to enforce", along with, frankly saving those who foolishly try to trek over EXTREMELY challenging stretches of thorny, sandy, very hot, very cold, unforgiving territory.
     Open co-ordination with the Mexican Army and Naval Infantry is obviously a solution with an abundance of positive effect. There are even elements of certain Mexican Civilian Police now with whom we could co-ordinate that have evolved to required professional levels during the past four or five years.   The writer lives in, within, among, and surrounded by the Mexican Reality at his and his boss's mud hut in Nowhere, Mexico.  He knows, understands, trusts and distrusts on a reasonable basis...whether in Mexico or America or the Republic of Texas.
     The manpower and ground forces are going to be required in this situation in any case. The electronic and cyber accoutrements are going to be required with or without The Wall. So El Gringo Viejo declares himself opposed to about 90% of The Wall.
   He would prefer to make this an up-close and personal armed encounter with scum who are kidnapping, extorting, trading in 12 - 14 year old girls as sex-slaves, and the extreme abuse of illegal aliens with whom the coyote-transporting-scum are minimally complying with their agreed contract of delivery of people to desired destinations.

     (disclaimer:   The author is a multigenerational Texian.  His granddaughters are 7th generation Texians by him, and 15th generation by his wife.   He and his wife are arch-conservative Republicans essentially from birth.  His opinions are derived from the basis and point of view of a conservative sociologist, aimed at the benefits that are derived from the employment of conservative values.  His wife's opinions are derived from the processes of an overwhelmingly intelligent person whose people have been here since the 1580s, and whose parents and more recent ancestry are known and proved to be compliant, producers, and pillars of an improving society and new, traditionally-based culture.  Many of their present generations(the last of which also pertain to the genetic background of your humble servant) are highly placed, highly decorated police and military and / or proprietor / professionals.   Neither her family nor mine have ever participated in public assistance.)
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(III)     Finally, if President Trump would shut up and think, if he would just think strategically instead of twitter-silly, then he could think....'The Mexican "Credential Electoral Federal" is required of all electors in the Republic of Mexico who desires to vote.  It has about 13 vital marks and computerised tricks and blocks that detail the elector in a much, much, much more complex and foolproof manner than what we have in Texas and elsewhere in the United States of America.

     It is accepted as the best identifier of a Mexican person to the extent that when asked for ID a Mexican is more likely to show his CEF than his / her official Secretaria de Gobernacion Mexican Passport.  (!!!!!!)
     It leads to appearing on Election Day....(no absentee)...where the poll workers have a catalogue of all registered people in the polling station, including a recent photograph of the potential elector.
    The ballots are counted by at least one member of each political party that has a candidate in any of the various races under consideration."

   Mayhaps (Trump could think) we should talk to the Mexicans about how they changed the their crummy, corrupt elections into a process that is one of the best on planet Earth at this time.....especially when Trump is correct (by accident?) in assuming that several hundred thousand....probably many more....illegal ballots were casted in the last general election.   Each of the 50 sovereign States of the American Union could probably do well to use some close variation of the Mexican voter registration and voting procedure.
     That way, Trump could "buy" a bit of good will and then engage on the Guatemalan-to-Belize Wall....and the co-ordination with the American Coast Guard and the Mexican Gulf Flotilla and Pacific Flotilla......(SHEEEEESH..... if I can figure it out.....the question is "What kind of dildot do we have sitting in the oval office? It's almost as if he just hates Mexico by knee-jerk reaction.)
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     We leave this field of battle.  One last note:  Over 1,200,000 Americans and Canadians presently spend a majority of the year or more as legal Mexican Residents.   So long as we do not push or blatantly violate the agreements we made with the Secretaria de Gobernacion, we are treated very well, by civilian and military both.   I shall never turn my back nor raise my sabre against the Mexicans, unless Raul Castro, Eric Holder,  sub-Commandante Marcos or similar, has taken that country.   Vigorous enforcement by the Americans of serious illegal alien offenders should be done, without apology.....but Trump does not know how to deal with Latins such as the largest Spanish-speaking Nation on Planet Earth, with the largest GNP, who also a good Long Term partner on the North American Continent, and who has been good to excellent participant with the Texas in terms of the Tratado de Libre Commericio (NAFTA).  
More later,
El Gringo Viejo
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Friday 20 January 2017

Thursday 19 January 2017

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans - Happy Trails 'til Then


    Thankfully, the nightmare ends, at least briefly.  Perhaps we can change from the nightmare of marxist narcissism and meld into just a bad dream of bluster restrained by intelligence and a modicum of patriotism.

    We pray that the new President can avoid the addiction of jumping behind the 30 calibre, water-cooled, belt-fed machine-twitter and blasting away against any dolt who makes ridiculous, scurrilous, and offensive statements.  An adult...who is President....should be strong enough to count to ten and say to himself, "My mother told me to count to ten and consider the source."   Responding to Lewis when you are having meeting with "mediocre Negroes" like Martin Luther King III, Jim Brown, etc.? Please, Donald!  Lewis has been a mendacious, senile, crooked race-baiting slug for the past 30 years.  He is irrelevant.
  
     The studied eloquence of Martin Luther King, III (who is very much like his name-sake grandfather...a true hero) stands in stark contrast to the race-racketeers such as Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and Lewis, and Waters, and Jackson - Lee.


    We leave with a vintage photograph of the first 30 calibre, water-cooled, belt-fed, machine twitter so that the OROGs can have an idea of what a nearly 50 pound armament might look like.


El Gringo Viejo's father trained on one of these during his service in the United States Army, 1st Cavalry (Mounted), 12th Regiment, Headquarters Squadron - 1929 through 1933.

Thanks for your attention!
El Gringo Viejo
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Wednesday 18 January 2017

Gene Pitney - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (stereo 16:9)


Most people are unaware that this movie was inspired by the fact that Osama bin Valence was taken down by Barack O'bamaham in his secret ninja moments.  Father Obamaham is writing his memoirs now, and some say he will detail how he refused to "spike the ball in the end zone" more than  about three million, two hundred thousand times.....but never on the golf course.

Monday 16 January 2017

Trump and his etherial cure for Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative (OSMI)

    Our betters and the Wise Ones come again upon us. They simply want to save us from ourselves.  So "hope and change" becomes "make America great again" and the dull and those who care not to ask, "What specifically do you mean when you say 'hope America and change great again?" are thrusted back into their frustrations.   Or is it 'petards'?

     And, once again, we have chosen neither the low road not the high road.  We, the most advanced nation on Planet Earth,  have slid into shortstop in the great American game of political baseball.

    It reminded El Gringo Viejo of that little game that was sold in airports and bus stations around the nation.  It is pictured to the left here.  I bought one in San Antonio while on a boring trip full of boring nothing to do, surrounded by old boring people.  The game was really boring too.  So I was happy for the luxury of being perfectly miserable and totally consumed with both self-loathing and the joy of thinking that perhaps I was making the old boring people miserable.   Those were the fun times, right?
Johnathon Gruber -
 Was glad that Americans were too
 stupid to understand the Obama
 Socialised Medicine Initiative

     So, here we are.  Father Obamaham could not put together Gruber's Grand Plan for the Stupid well enough to convince the American populace to essentially commit slow suicide and pay through the nose for it.  And now comes SuperDon to show everyone how it's done.  "The Donald", whom I am sure has the best of intentions unlike his predecessor, is going to try to saw the lady in the box in two.  He's never done the trick before, but he did assure the pretty girl that "everything is going to be fine, don't worry about a thing".  After all he had seen Maxwell Smart do it on television during an episode of "Get Smart".  Or was it the Smothers Brothers?

     At this point he has figured out that paying for the dolts, bums, street people, slugs, gang shooting victims, miracle babies, miracle anchor-babies, elderly orphans who have been put on the iceberg by their offspring, etc. is going to be expensive and the productive class will have to pay for it...in spades....and through the nose.   It is because he insists upon putting together a national programme.  He cannot help himself.  He, like all liberal, pseudo-Republicans, is a statist.  He believes that he and the Grubers on his team can make a "national health care system" at least as good as the one in Cuba.

     Of course, Mr. Superman is like O'bama because he knows that none of this affects him personally since he and his families are....you know....necessary....important to the greater good.  He and they will have whatever they need or want which is how what should be should be.   He, like Obama, and all the Progressives who are building Utopia on Planeta Tierra can keep pushing the little numbers until they all line up correctly.

     And when they are done, all they will have is a bunch of little numbers who all lined up correctly.   Boring.  But it only cost a silver quarter.

El Gringo Viejo
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Sunday 15 January 2017

Catching Up on Mexico and other topics


     We had a little under a couple of week's stay down at our little mud hut on the edge of civilisation and at the face of the Sierra Madre Oriental.   It was a remarkably arduous period with a prolonged periods (for the area) of temperatures hovering from 32 to 39 degrees....day and night, for four days calendar days and three nights.
(Left to Right) Cleopatra, Calico,
 and Smokey working as heaters
each for the other.

     El Gringo Viejo held out for a couple of days, but finally, as the temperature plunged even in the normally exempt interior of the adobe abode it was obvious that we would have to start burning the precious firewood.   The rule that we should not burn the firewood because there might be a greater need for it later had lost its lustre.  If not now, then when?....and if not here, then where? became the new general orders.
     There were a couple of the distant, really high peaks to our west and northwest that had snow, especially the Pen~a Nevada at 13,000 fasl and the Cerro Potosi that is just shy of 11,000 fasl .   Such were the conditions  this before departure, but the area was already beginning to show signs of entering into an early Spring episode as we departed early yesterday, Saturday, at 06:50, nearing daybreak.

     These are nice little collateral tales, but during these times Mexico really had a seizure that overshadowed even the misery of enduring Winter for this Old Gringo.  To wit:

GASOLINAZO!!!

    To the right one can see a blockade of a PEMEX station between Cd. Juarez and Chihuahua, Chihuahua.   This scene was repeated in several score places across the Republic during the period from 3 January to around the 10th of this month.
      The Palacio de Gobierno (State Capitol Building) in Monterrey was badly damaged by rioting vandals.  They destroyed many of the impressive stained glass portraits of venerable 
personages of the State of Nuevo Leon during the centuries.   Public and private property damages throughout the Republic totaled "easily over a billion dollars" according to one reliable analyst.
     If there was any positive information to come out of this matter it was that the police, private security guards, and military stood up to and into the anarchists and looters.  There were several thousand arrests in scores and hundreds of sites.  Particularly hurt were middle and high end commercial properties and several capital buildings and county main buildings in major provincial cities.  Even our capital city of Ciudad Victoria there were significant albeit brief disorders.  Thankfully, things calmed down as quickly as they had ignited.

     The aftermath will be slow to heal.  There is considerable bitterness at all levels against the present administration; i.e.- President Ernesto Pen~a Nieto et al, and "The Oligarchy of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. 
     The arbitrary raising of prices on gasoline and diesel was a shock foisted on people who, as with most Americans, have no idea of what government control and market forces can do to foul up natural law.   Mexico, since the expropriation in 1938, has used the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos as a monopolistic foil that slays many of the Left's ogres as well as working to enslave people to a certain customary dependence upon The Government.
     As I went down and back this last time, it was necessary to consider that many PEMEX stations were being shut down, blockaded, and /or sabotaged.   Many had been unable to off-load combustibles, be they high-test Supreme gasoline (half of which is supplied by EXXON - MOBIL), regular Green Pump, or diesel fuel, and therefore had had to literally shut down, save for personnel to at least throw the pump switches off in case of fire or whatever.
     The price of fuel had been increased a little more than 20% overnight, bringing the Supreme to around 3.90 or thereabouts in American dollars per gallon.  The regular fuel and diesel rose up to 3.45 plus or minus while other basic commodities and price controlled things were rising at or near the same rate or a little less.   It was a classic backwards step by statist economists who are attempting to "provide for those who have less" through anti-market price controls and labyrinth-like regulations.

     There was one article published by I believe a major Brit newspaper....perhaps The Guardian, that pointed out that the Mexicans were used to have the National Patrimony (oil) used as a way to "give the people" cheap energy, and "the people" resented having their "patrimony taken from them".   The reporter / observer was and probably remains a willing fool, and probably is making similar banal and inane statemenst in articles being dispatched even as your humble servant clatters away here in his cave.
     Diesel was used for about 50 years by the government as a tool to pacify the industrial and transportation "oligarchs".   For instance  even into the 1980s, a good quality diesel fuel was provided for the price of about 18 American cents per gallon.   And as for the notion that the Mexicans participated in some kind of "patrimonial subsidization" at all levels was and is silly to the point of being preposterous.  Mexican fuel prices, save for the "diesel deal" had always been from 60 to at times 100 per cent higher than American fuel at the retail level.
     Much of the difference in the cost was passed along to the Secretaria de Hacienda (Mexican Federal Treasury Secretariat) essentially as a tax levied on the automobile driving middle and upper economic classes.   That practice has continued up to the present, and as of the 3rd day of  January, 2017 it was re-accentuated.  So, as the OROG can clearly see, the GASOLINAZO has been alive and well for a long, long, long time.

    Fortunately for me, my fuel purchases were limited to two stops, one going down and one going back up at the same place, just to have enough....just in case.  I spent 400 pesos (about 20 USD), all told, for the Supreme fuel, which actually renders my old hoss about a 15% mileage increase as opposed to the regular.
     Also, people where we were took everything in stride, and a general calm has been restored.  The national demagogue-in-chief Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the Left's perpetual candidate for the presidency  every six years for the past quarter century, it seems, has been a little less than strident and hysterical while trying to stake out every left-of-centre vote that exists in Mexico before the next campaign begins in a couple of years.  Mon Diux!!  Seulement deux ans!!

More later,
El Gringo Viejo
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Sunday 1 January 2017

A View of the Recently Completed Planting of a Lime Orchard


     Next to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre one encounters the Hacienda de La Vega, a nearly 300 acre stretch along the El Coralillo section of the Rio Corona.  The entire surface of the La Vega spread, save for ten or twelve acres, was re-cleared of the old, worn out, repeatedly freeze damage Valencia oranges and prepared for the planting of a very special sour-sweet lime that has become heavily sought by purveyors in places like Mexico City, Europe, Japan, and especially in the United States of America.

     Our neighbour, the owner of what you see before you has put a considerable pretty penny in the re-clearing, research, sapling purchase, and planting of this new venture.   There is nothing haphazard about the layout or preparations.  Buyers are have already been circulating around this prime growing area, looking for those who have already decided to go the route of the fancy limes.

     One thing that the Santa Engracia area has going for it is its unique mix of very wet, very dry, very hot, to pretty darned chilly climate.   Being right on the Tropic of Cancer, near the coastal lowlands, and adjacent to mountains ranging from 5,000 to 13,000 feet bring upon the citrus, and especially these limes, certain very positive responses.   Freezes are very rare, and even at that, these particular limes are very recuperative.   Limes usually do better than oranges and grapefruit with cold stress, and these particular ones, to restate, are even more resilient than the norm.

     In keeping with the way business runs and must run during these times in Mexico, the family prefers to remain a bit hermitic concerning various of the fine points and other administrative matters about this investment.  For my part, I am glad to see my friend go into the venture while still young enough to enjoy the fruits of his and his wife's labours. (Is that a pun?)

More later,
El Gringo Viejo