Thursday 28 May 2020

Troubled Jumble - A few grumpy observations

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     These are the times that try men's souls…and everyone else who has a soul.    Your humble observer will never understand the nature of the rolling out of the "pandemic"by so many wise ones who have magnificent credentials and total confidence in themselves, who then blotch every effort to cure a problem.
Mao Tse Tung - first communist leader of
Red China

     It lends cause to the notion that this entire matter was a collision of different forces…each of which was seeking one thing -  anarchy.    There were the groups who believed that a "mild anarchy" was necessary…while another group, known as politicians, and among the very special  group known as Democrat governors who revelled in the opportunity to play the role of Pontius Pilate.   The third group is, of course, the Red Chinese government and their millions of apparatchiks whose business it is to spread horror, death, disease, and chicanery throughout the world.   The main target, of course, is the United States of America…or what is left of it.

     (1)   There can be no reasonable doubt that the contamination that was inflicted upon various parts of the Planet by the Red Chinese government was a wilful, planned, and then executed act of
and by murderous madmen.   These madmen are composed of a like-minded, fairly close-knit group that probably numbers no more than 100,000 individuals.  They rule Red China autocratically, violently, with no concern or respect for anyone save themselves.
     These people revel in the ability to create death as well as torture.   At the end of the "Revolution of Mao", it is generally accepted that Mao and his zombie ghouls executed (murdered) as many as 30,000,000 Chinese people who had directly or indirectly, or with no affiliation at all, been involved with "counterrevolutionary acts".   Mao and his buddies laughed it all off by calling it a learning moment, or a "petrification".

     China was a different story.   China was severely damaged by the Japanese during Emperor Hirohito's drive to make all the Eastern third of the Globe a Kingdom of incomprehensible size and power.   During the prelude to World War II, the Japanese with a scant 70,000,000 people.  
Generalissimo and President
of China…then Taiwan
Chung Kai Shek
1887 - 1975

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The dissolution of the Chinese Monarchy during the first years of the 20th Century set up a an eventual contention between elements loyal to a conservative by the name of Chung Kai Shek and a blubbering communist named Mao Tse Tung.

     The two unlike-minded leaders and their followers did manage to finally blunt the occupation of China, Korea, Siam, Cambodia, Tibet, and Mongolia with the help of the Aussies, Brits, and the AmericansIt was essentially Micronesia and the previously named nations with about 900, 000, 000 (nine hundred million souls) against the 70,000,000 of the Japanese.   It was a war with nearly 10 to 1 odds against the Japanese.
     The Japanese Crown reckoned that since the Japanese had beaten the Russians back at the turn of the century (1900 - 1902) by destroying almost the entirety of the Russian Crown's fleets and taken almost the entirety of the Czar's handsomely uniformed soldiersthey could probably do it again against the totality of the "Entire Eastern World".   But it was not to be

(2)     After Kobe, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki  (combined 350,000 civilians dead) and resources totally exhausted, Japan set about trying to re-establish a nation as well as a national entity.   The Red Chinese  managed, while Japan climbed out of its ashes, to push Chung Kai Shek and his partisans off of the Chinese mainland.   The Chung group essentially invaded Taiwan and took control of that island nation.   From there, the "Free Chinese" developed a very productive manufacturing and financial bastion, while fending off constant harassment from the Red Chinese.

(3)     Now we have a situation wherein highly qualified medical professionals, surgeons, medicine gurus, and all nature of such advanced practitioners have waded into the mess caused by this mystical coronasinus contamination.  We have already pointed out in previous postings as well in the present one that there was nothing accidental about this particular outbreak of this exotic flu-like infestation.


    Airplanes loaded with Chinese people coming from China were deplaning in Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Seattle.   On the east coast of America, Chinese passengers were coming in at a high rate as well.    It was one of the reasons that Trump decided to pull the plug on Red Chinese originated people flying into the United States and Canada.

      Why are they coming?   Because almost all of them are carrying the disease of coronasinus.  There can be no conjecture or debate or even moralising howling about racism or any such distractions from the facts.  We were invaded by people carrying the illness, purposely, and they did it in Europe as well.

      Red Chinese disinformation was made abundant and the leftist press in Europe and in the United States soaked it up by the shipload.   "American experts" talked about "flattening the line" and "social distance" (the term sounds soooooo terribly astute and high-brow).  Folks, there is no such thing as social distancethe term is made up to make the unwashed masses believe that there are people who know more than we do.
      They still haven't come up with the method of reconciling how the Spanish Flu killed so many more people in per capita terms (the only way to compare between disparate-size masses).   Please remember that in the 1917 - 1919 period of the Spanish Flu 6.8 people died for every 1,000 people by strict, mathematic ratio.
       During this episode of the coronasinus the ratio is 0.033 for every 1,000 people (one-third of a person for every 1,000 people).   These figures are for the United States.   It proves overwhelmingly that the Spanish Flu was much more powerful than what we are suffering through right now.   Furthermore, there were other Asian Flu outbreaks in North America that were much worse in terms of morbidity than this coronosinus.

     The fortunate thing for the ignorami community is that they have no idea what a ratio is, much less a comparative ratio.  A very authoritative young woman pointed out that she knew these statistics were false, because a lot more people than 1,000 had died.  This writer will defer mention concerning the profession of that woman.   Lamentablythese people can voteand the woman in question is a legitimate, employed at high salary, degreed individual from a prominent University.   Therefore, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

     Furthering the lamentable deaths matter into the labyrinth of knowledge, we must point out that the vast majority of the people who have gone croak-o during this epidemic are geezers like me.  People over 70 years of age are very susceptible to the rigours of this disease.   They constitute 80 per cent of the deaths…actually slightly more.   Further complicating the matter, both for the geezer community and everyone else is the tendency of Americans to have problems with obesity…which is a massive contributor to the problem.

     One can extrapolate easily what the nature of per capita impact might be, when one considers that the United States of America, before the beginning of the War Between the States had a population of 31,500,000 souls.  The combined losses during that ridiculous War came to 252, 000 killed in action.

We shall return to variations of this topic during the coming weeks.
EL GRINGO VIEJO
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Monday 18 May 2020

Comparatives between then - 1918 / 1919, and now 2020

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     We are ever so tired of the chatter, discussion, and dull broad-brushing of topics captured into the American discourse…into the American parlance.   El Gringo Viejo is an old man…and he has wasted much time braying at the moon and lecturing people who had better things to do than listen to me.

     One of my fortes' has been to learn and understand the past, to the best of my ability.   Lamentably, my academics are actually the trek of a dilletante who frequently gave cursory study and/or review of a matter.  But there are times when this writer is knowledgable and can comment correctly about certain matters.

     There are those significant times that my work and study has been work that was deep, wide, and high.  There will be no great divulgence here in the body of my studies and conclusions over the years.  The facts and data that will be revealed in the following paragraphs will be solidly accurate facts and figures.
      However, in the matter of the great Pandemic of Coronavirus of 2019 - 2020 we shall vigorously and emphatically declare my case and then turn my back upon the many experts who have fogged and clouded the issue, and who have performed as insipid dolts as purposeful misinterpreters of our current "greatest plague in history".   I shall point the reader to the previous century, and interestingly a time almost precisely one hundred years before these hours in which we now live.

     My paternal grandfather and grandmother, neither of whom I ever had the pleasure of hearing or seeing in that they passed on long before my birth, went through the flu epidemic associated with the end of World War I.    People were amazed when it tallied up a peculiar total in terms of casualties.  They were living near McAllen / Weslaco area of deepest South Texas at that time.

     My other grandparents and uncles were still in Winchester,  Tennessee at that time, and that grandfather could recount the number of people who were lost during the Flu Epidemic in Eastern Tennessee…literally hundreds in one county, for instance just before 1920.

     In those times, the population had crossed over the massive number of humanity of 107,000,000 in the United States of America.  This would include all native born as well as those who had legally entered the United States with the intention to become permanent residents and citizens.
The flu was no joke.  It was as dangerous as
any bomb, grenade, or bullet, constituting
well over 40% of all American casualties
who died in World War I.

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     When World War I was over, and the carnage was totalled up, it was truly a horrible tally.   The American military suffered 115,000 dead in that war.  Oddly enough, almost one-half of those who died while at war, died of the Asian Flu, or let us say…slightly fewer than 48,000 soldiers.

     But waiting back at home and shortly after the return of the American Soldiers, the numbers in terms of killed and/or died in action or disease was dwarfed by the number of Americans who had died in the Flu Epidemic of 1918 - 1919 while remaining in the USA .

      During the time of the end of the War, there was a movement throughout Europe and it included the United States, with its pitifully physically spent and intellectually exhausted President Woodrow Wilson, to establish a League of Nations to resolve arguments and disagreements between nations.   Like most everything that Thomas Woodrow Wilson did, he flubbed up that effort, and returned back to Washington, D.C. and the White House.  It is said that
President Wilson with wife Edith.  She became known
 during the last year of Wilson's term as "the first
 First Lady lady President".  According to some,
 she had mastered  Wilson's style of writing.

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Wilson had been in a 
mental decline, and that a bout with the Flu epidemic had truly reduced his mental acumen and physical stamina.

     It was said that Mrs.  Wilson would meet visitors calling on Mr. Wilson at the White House and deflect them from the private quarters.   She would also write announcements and press releases and sign the President's name to such transmissions.   There were those who snickered that she had become the first woman President of the United States.

     In any regard, with all the analysis, all the hullaballoo, all the opining and debating, we come before the reader to state clearly and unequivocally that the Pandemic of 2020, while serious, to be sure, is not the once in a millennium, Angels' Trumpets announcing Blood in the River Nile, and the Earthquakes that Destroy the Moon and whose pieces will shred the Planet Earth.   The near, to at times total, hysteria about this flu business is truly disheartening.

     The strutting and bluster of mainly liberal political leaders, and certainly the leadership of the Democrat Party during these moments is another "climb down to a deeper cellar" in terms of hysterical posturing and outright mendacity concerning this particular epidemic.   It has been made immensely worse by having nincompoop political leaders who hold high offices in large cities, and major States, demanding to send flu-afflicted older people to nursing homes…among the many terrible decisions.

     The nearly forced imprisonment-by-homestay and the ordering of closure of almost anything that has a door was the stroke of stupidity that will live for the ages.   The willingness to position conjecture and pontification for an understated, steady realistic yet positive posture would have been so much better than what the leftist gurus and pompous authoritative bilge-bearers puked out into the public's attention.   To think that the governor of New York State and the Mayor of the City of New York would clog the lines of communication with dimwitted orders, pointless admonitions, incoherent demands, and cascades of blame on the President is stunning.
     New York State and New York Cityso very advancedordered up a congestion and set of threats against the population that they finally won the first prize in having the greatest avalanche of dead people during this entire event.   The two entities can lay claim to almost 40 per cent of all deaths associated with the flu in the United States since it began last January.  And the more they bossed people around and pontificated with great surety and authority, the worse it became.
     Their solution, of course was to tell the media to announce to the public that it was all Donald John Trump's fault.   In my opinion, Trump's biggest failing in the whole matter was his trying to work amicably with the various political leaders and medical authorities.   Many of these personalities bore a personal animus against Trump and regarded him as something superfluous.

     In my opinion, the political leaders of the Democrat order, and the medical people who had so much swagger and distaste for Trump's presence, performed very poorlysomething like the police officers' pursuit of Charlie Chaplain in the old movies.


Finally:

     At this juncture, it being the afternoon of the 18th of May, 2020 here in deep South Texas we are noticing that in the Flu Epidemic of 1918 - 1919 over 670,000 people died when the total population of the United States of America was lightly less than 107,000,000.  At this point, with the number of new deaths still not over 100,000 and when the total population of the United States of America is 330,000,000.

     We can make a fairly quick comparison then by using these two comparatives:

1918 -1919 Flu     Mortality 675,000       Total USA Population     107,000,000

                                  RATIO:                    6.8  / 1,100
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      2020 Flu         Mortality  96,000       Total USA Population    330,000,000

                                 RATIO:                        1 / 3,300


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    Now…I retire from the field of battle, leaving to the OROGs to guard the precincts and keep the horses saddled and readied with rifle and shell.

  The hysteria, blather, speculation, and useless recriminations against Donald Trump are offensive and pointless actions and I feel that the man should be supported.   He and his cadre have done an A- job in my opinion…and while we are not cheerleaders for the President…we are reasonable in judging the man.   And an A- during these times is pretty darn good.

We do now retire from the field of battle to return to-morrow or shortly thereafter.

EL GRINGO VIEJO
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Friday 15 May 2020

My Consuegro Finally Solved My Problems…and everyone elses'

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     This morning we awoke with that hangover the minor league philosopher always has…that dull sadness that no dream occurred to lead the philosopher to the True and Final Truth of Perpetuity.  The fact is, however, that the problem was solved overnight by my closest associate and political relative, the father-in-law of my daughter.   His axiom is presented thusly:
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Nancy, the new leader of the United States has done it again !!   I am proud to tell you that Lady Nancy, the leader of the New Democrats, is giving the poor and downtrodden THREE TRILLION DOLLARS
 of Free Money!

 We will now make the US a level playing field by taxing  the rich.
 As her Uncle Joe said " to each according to their needs. 
VOTE DEMOCRATIC,  I want free money!



Long live the Queen!!
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     While we can recognise the above pronouncement by Her Majesty as a form of political melodramatic humour, or even a mildly sarcastic lamentation pertaining to a horribly deranged woman whose head has served as a bat belfry for several hundred years, more or less.   My only regret is that my Consuegro seems to always put well into few words what I can put poorly into many words.

caption un-needed
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      But the fact is is glaringly correct.  This woman organised a Grand Impeachment Lynching, using the Duke of Mendacity as a quarterback, and then strutted around after the collapse of that issue as if they had just built the Great Wall of the Sahara.   Representative Schiff, using his cadre as the trained dogs they seem to be,  loaded the "press" up with lard, his House committee mates with absolutely no ammunition, and made a giant jackass of himself in two weeks.  Even the lib - "reporters" were puzzled by Schiff's evaporation from the scene.  It was like, "What if they gave a hanging and nobody brought the rope?"

         Schiff managed to play a game of one-ball billiards (while in the dark) for two years.  His greatest claim to fame is the all-time record for mendacity and administrative clunkiness.  In that sense he did well.   And, of course, Her Majesty Nancy I, did something as well, or perhaps nothing at all, or whatever.  Her most famous quote was, "I am not calling Congress back into session or anything like that until I call Congress back into session."  Daring words for a Queen.

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     While the Democrat Socialist Party continues with its Ocasio - Pelosi Snake-Pit novel, Trump (who is not my cup of green tea) has slogged and in his bull-in-the-china-shoppe way, steadily down a fairly decent pathway to prosperity. His willingness to push for re-establishment of business…industry, retail, services, investment, innovations…is the only way to slash our way out of the mess made by the Red Chinese Act of War against all nations.

     Everyone who can think in a reasonable geopolitical manner already knows that the Chinese Plague that was launched upon the World recently was a notice to the heads of state, Kings and Queens of all sorts.  People in Singapore, Australia, Costa Rica, etc. and et.al., have been served notice that Peiping wants absolute control of the entire Earth, and they will force absolute compliance with the demands of the Red Chinese Control Group that guides Red Chinese "democracy".
      If we fail to recognise that the Red Chinese Poobahs see the entire populace of Planet Earth as potential organ donors for the children and grandchildren and all the Highest Placed Red Chinese apparatchiks,  then we will have deluded ourselves into the perpetual gulag.

     Allow me please to expound on a minor matter that, when explained, will give the OROG and the normal observer who is endowed with reasonable intelligence a true understanding of the nature of the Red Chinese.   As many OROGs already know, your humble servant and author of these missives has considerable genealogical, academic, and real-life experience in living, doing business, and enjoying the complexities of Mexico.
     During the time Mexico decided to join the ranks of the World (around the Mexico Olympics - 1968) a new dynamic developed in terms of social, cultural, and economic activity.  One day Mexico was literally into a fairly rich third-world country with a lot of noblesse and also a lot of oblige, into a huge industrial and commercial and touristic bastion…with all kinds of problems that sprouted up in the "new prosperity".
     Among these "sprouting" were maquiladora plants (consignment fabrication factories).  These factories proliferated starting in the 1980s and flooded Mexico, not only along the Frontier with Texas and other "close to America" sites, but to hither and yon anywhere in Mexico.  This event…or movement…or cultural economic change has had it bad points and good points.   But there was one constant.
     The Mexican populace, and the professional administrative class, performed from an A- to an A+ in most respects.  Furthermore, the Mexican workers, blue collar and white, adapted well to the foreigners way of producing.   A fusion of the differing hourly considerations and other customs worked out well 99.9% of the time.
     Everything hummed, and still does even during these choppy times (prompted by the Chinese-dispersed Coronavirus Plague).   But during these times of brisk to intense factory production in Mexico, there was one group the Mexican workers and administrators came to abhor…Americans? Germans? French? Canadian?  Japanese?  English?..almost everyone knows the answer.

     From one day to the next, the last shift would go home, usually from one of the little maquiladoras in the rural areasbut near enough to good highways and reliable airports.  Then, in the morning the girls would arrive on time to punch in…except for one problem.  "No esta' nadie.  No esta' nadien" the girls would call the administrator in a panic.   No Chinese administrator, no nothing, no electricity, no primary material to initiate the next product run.  No nothing.    This scene has been seen directly by my eyes, and heard from the mouths of very reliable veterans of Chinese maquiladora actions at least 50 times.   And El Gringo Viejo is being conservative in that estimate.
This Donald Trump in his early days
as a stage entertainer.
(not really)

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     My point is…Donald John Trump had little or nothing to do with the recent Coronavirus Plague.   The culpable party is Red China…doing something that they did not understand, or doing something with premeditated intent, or some combination of the two.
   His handling of this matter as it has affected the United States, Texas, Mexico and Canada, and our "friends" over in Europe, and our friends over in the "Far East" has been about as good as any President can handle in my estimation.

   He job has been like the entertainer on the Ed Sullivan Show who occasionally presented his "twirling plates" routine.   Quite an accomplishment, to be sure.


More Laterand thank you Queen Nancy I for inspiring both my Consuegro and meand making the morning so much better.
EL GRINGO VIEJO
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Tuesday 12 May 2020

A Better Grasp on the Matter of Coming and Going

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Suena bien pero...

Qué tal David !  Me da mucho gusto saber de ti. Bastante valentía pero si queremos seguir morando este mundo debemos reactivar ya la economía que ha quedado destrozada en solo 3 meses.
Tú ya puedes pasar la frontera con las limitantes que tu País disponga , aquí esto apenas empieza el gobierno embustero de amlo dice que van 3600 muertitos pero el número que da el logaritmo rebasa los 10000 ; de todos modos es el 10% de los caídos en USA, veremos cómo se comporta el virus de aquí a esa fecha.
Los números de placa que no circulan son; lunes terminación 0 y 1 , martes 2y 3, miércoles 4 y 5 jueves 6 y 7 y viernes 8 y 9
Al entrar a Santa Engracia te piden origen, te checan la temp corporal y es obligatorio portar cubre bocas . No hay cerveza en todo el noreste porque cerraron las plantas de producción y quizás para junio se pueda conseguir. 
Yo te escribo en 10 días más y te platico cómo va todo.
Suerte y saludos!

RSDL 

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(The above insertion, in black type, is a communique' from our buddy and close neighbour and friend down at our little mud hut in NoWhere, Mexico.   This is how we are communicating at times, back and forth from the McAllen area to the Ciudad Victoria / Santa Engracia area.   We are providing a translation below.  We just wanted you all to see it and also to understand what is being said…and what decisions have to be made.)

Sounds good, but…

     How's it going !?   It gives me much pleasure to hear from you.   We have to be brave if we wish to continue dwelling in this world.  We need to reactivate now our Nation's Economy that has managed to be destroyed in only three months.

     Right now, you can pass the frontier from the USA and Texas as your country disposes.   Here we have AMLO (Andres Manuel Lopez Moreno) the liar, saying that we are going on 3,600 dead from this plaque, but the number that the logarithms indicates more like 10,000;   in any regard, it is 10% of those who have fallen (died) in the USA…We shall see how the virus deports itself around here at those times we are considering your return.

     The numbers of the license plates that cannot circulate have the following assignments:  Monday, 0 and 1…Tuesday, 2 and 3…Wednesday, 4 and 5…Thursday, 6 and 7, and Friday, 8 and 9.


     Upon entering the Santa Engracia area they (medical, military, and constabulary) will ask your place of origen…they will check your temperature, and it will be obligatory to have a facial/bucal mask.   There is no beer in the entirety of the Northeastern part of Mexico, because the all brewery plants have all been prohibited to produce beer.  I shall write to you in 10 days more, and platicate  (talk at length) how everything is going.
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    This has been our method of communicating unless there is a flat-out emergency…and then we use the telephone.   It is convenient, however, to have the orders and needs ready to print out for the workers and for me to NOT FORGET ANYTHING that the Hacienda de la Vega might require…we work well…like hand in glove and the staff of the sizeable plantation is, frankly, very sharp.

     One problem that I see on the horizon is that, should it be necessary, I shall have to use my little station-wagon which is a dream actually…comfortable and roomy (although it looks like a small runabout).   None of that is a problem, but the fact that it is a "semi-antique" might be.   At the beginning of the next new year, it will be too old to drive into Mexico.   The year 2008 is the cutoff. My understanding is that the authorities do not want anyone to just "walk-off-and-leave-it".    But, as I always told my children, "…we'll burn that bridge when we get to it".

     Now, all OROGs (Order of Readers of the Old Gringo) have a little better insight into the push and pull, the bending to reality, and the general nature of dealing with a place that tells time by the Seasons, and not by the hour or minute.   Things are doing well down there.  And, although there are a lot of hurdles to jump on a daily basis, things are pretty much under control here in Texas for the Boss and me.   Later to-day, we shall write a few observations concerning social, cultural, and political currents.


EL GRINGO VIEJO
12 MAY 2020
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Monday 11 May 2020

Grumpy child…Very Grumpy Old Man

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     One of the Hallmarks of a spoiled child is that he / she may have been last born.   Frequently, the eldest child becomes an aunt / uncle-in-law because they "are older and more reliable" than the younger children who need more supervision and are, frankly, ignorant and self-involved.   The youngest can, if not correctly directed, be waited upon, hand over foot, and pampered to the extreme.   These last born children are, without a doubt, almost always demanding, petulant, and accustomed to pampered treatment and deference.

     This writer has done extensive study and analysis concerning this Cosmic phenomena and the rule of: "Those who are last will demand preferential treatment from birth until the end of Eternity".  We have drawn many observations and reliable conclusions about this phenomena over the years.  These conclusions have been developed into what  is now known in the Hebraic, Islamic, and Christian writings as the "Rule of Joseph", and is translated from the Bungumbi language of the Trans-oceanic races of the East as "What have you done for me lately?"

     We vigorously reject any notion that this writer has a predilection or a prejudice for his own race or social position or sibling position.  After all, it is no fault of mine that I was last born.   It was necessary to be close to my parents at a time such as that.

    During my trek through life various things have come to my attention and require either abolition or considerable reconstruction.  For instance:

    (1)   While enduring televised material, there are advertisements that include the informative parenthetical, "…and your in-room manure-spreader can be yours for the low, low price of  $239.99 if your order now…this is a never before offered discount of over 50%!!!    AND if you call with the next 1,600 seconds, we'll throw in another in-home manure spreader ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!  THAT'S RIGHT, ABSOLUTELY FREE, (just pay extra fee)."

Yes, Virginia those on top are
nearing graduation at a major
Ivy League University.  The
frame below is the last
 graduating class.
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    Putting this is the most delicate terms possible, whomsoever falls for that spiel…a spiel that is frequently broadcast apparently to college and high school educated Zombis...is essentially aimed at dolts who are certifiably non compos mentis.  The vendor could much more easily propose the purchase of one indoor dung slinger for 239.99 or two for 449.99…a good discount and a relief of storage problem for the vendor.   No lies, no trickster tricks, just a good deal for the buyer and the seller.

     Of course, when El Gringo Viejo is put in charge of everything, out of respect for free speech and artistic license, I shall imprison anyone who buys anything that is presented as free and then advised that "the following extra fees are required".

     All those who are arrested will be placed in zoos where they will be put in charge of "display sanitation", cleaning the cages and precincts of major mammals.   They will learn and love the anthem from Chairman Mao, "Oh! How I Love to Carry Dung to the Dung Heap for Chairman Mao" (that was an actual song for children in primary to start the morning).

     For our superior Dung Carriers, we shall provide professional improvement programmes including travelling to Russia, where the participants will learn on their familiarisation walk that..."It's a Long Way to Vladivostok, When It's Forty Below."


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(2)     CROSS OVER THE BRIDGE:

     Many folks might wonder why we have not brought forward pictures and/or news of our place down in NoWhere, Mexico and so forth.   Oddly enough, we continue in the same bucket of bureaucratic mud that leaves us in a position of not being able to go down because there is no reasonable assurance that I can return without impediment.
     After about two or three weeks of traffic over the bridges on the Texas - Mexican Frontier with a count of 100 or 200 per crossing-point PER DAY…just to-day there were official reports of "wait-time" (a common service by especially AM Radio stations on the Border) back up to the one to two hours for a majority of the international crossing points.   That would mean, for instance, at the McAllen - Hidalgo - Reynosa bridge two or three thousand or four thousand vehicles would be crossing back and forth, and the lines were long again, and the time consumed to cross was interminable.

     Were I to cross over from Mexico to Texas, the federal officers are required to ask about my immunity papers with reference to the new coronavirus problem, especially knowing that I had been to the interior of Mexico.  The officers at the crossing point can tell because my vehicle's windshield will have a Mexican sticker in the upper centre of the windshield that declares the vehicle a Texas vehicle, and it is a legally introduced and operated vehicle in Mexico.  Mexico has a similar procedure.
     So, then the officer will ask, "Do you have your immunity certificate?"   One runs the risk both ways of being an un-dotted "i" or a misspelled word.   The Mexican officers are a little more lax or indulgent, although if the wife was horsey and complaining at supper last night, the inspection officer might be a bit grumpy and picky.
     One can run, for instance, the chance of being interned and quarantined for two weeks,   where, in Texas, I do not know.  It is an American federal officer's decision.   I might be turned backrelegated to a hotel in downtown Reynosa which is pleasant enough, but a lot of wasted time and money for no good reason.
    Over the years, I have been over and across the border literally thousands of times.   Our excursion company had, besides my humble self, various employees who served as tour escorts or guides, and we carried to the interior of Mexico and back many thousands of clientsall with an incredibly minuscule amount of molestation or incompetence on the part of the authorities.

     So, there we are.  Having been totally familiar with this, and that, and the other in terms of crossing over, and crossing back, and visiting, or living in, or being a business counsellor,  or owning property and a home that we built in Mexicosuddenly I am leery of my new landscapeon both sides of the Rio Grande (aka: Rio Bravo del Norte).   On the other hand, the Methuselah  Effect might save me"Look at that old Geezer.   He's been coming and going here since my grandfather was a Customs OfficerI'll bet the Old Geezer has a little Gold Mine down there the Mexican outback."
     It has all become terribly confusing.


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We shall more, very quickly if at all possible.
EL GRINGO VIEJO
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Sunday 3 May 2020

I come to identify and describe Nancy, not to praise her

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   Our previous submission to the attention of the OROG community and the world in general concerned a bit of background on the Trump - line of continuum from Germany to America. We also dabbled a bit in foreign affairs of these moments as well my estimate of the incumbent President.  My Consuegro (in Spanish - He, the father-in-law of my daughter and I, the father-in-law of his son) after reviewing my quick-clic summary about things Trump, suggested in his own inimitable way that I had not done anything about the Hon. Nancy Pelosi, 2nd pretender to the Presidency and titular known as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America.
Nancy Patricia A'lesandro Pelosi 
Speaker of the House of Representatives and 
second in line to the Presidency of the United States

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     She is a troubled work in progress, regress, and distress it seems at all times.   She recently has managed to undergo some kind of new facial intervention that has placed her eyebrows about eight inches above her eyes.  That kind of work has to be admired.   We include a less recent image of Madame Speaker so that folks might be able to recall what she used to look like when her eyebrows were only five inches above her pupils.   

     The Honourable Speaker is one of those classic Democrats who weeps before the crowds and cameras when the plight of the poor and the neglected people are overlooked.  But, when showing her modest home in Oakland, she seems to have stone ear-drums, babbling without taking a breathe for several minutes (seemingly) about her 12,000 dollar ice-cream maintainer and her scores and scores of pints and quarts of 10 to 20 dollar per container, imported and mainly French (apparently) product.   She seemed to take on the fervour of a very young child speaking over the visiting reporter's questions and turning her back frequently while the cameraman was trying to make "worthwhile" images of one of the most powerful people in the American government.
 
Even the leftwing, late night people could not resist
 a bit of fun at the Speaker's expense.
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  We have a "cleaned-up" version of Speaker Nancy's presentation of the inner workings of her refrigerator - freezer.  This is because we do not wish to diminish the fact that her generosity in exposing the inner workings of her home and the secrets of her inner-most desires in terms of food choices.

     It amazes us that Madam Speaker can make ends meet in terms of keeping her nice but understated home in Oakland, California.    Her Speaker's salary is presently $223,500 and certain expenses.  Of course, some of this salary, being far from adequate for a person of such importance is buffered a bit by her net worth totalling near $240,000,000 United States Dollars including Nancy's and her husband's net worth is something in excess of that, I am given to understand.  The recent jiggle in the economic situation may have had some negative impact on
Paul and Nancy Pelosi
2019 


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the Pelosi's estate, but I am relatively certain that they will not have to chew on leather in order to abate their hunger.

     Mr. Pelosi, while surely a likeable fellow has established an interesting record of dabbling in almost everything from being a vintner to a Triple A baseball magnate, and a Triple A football magnate and just generally being around at the right time and at the right place to make a buck or two.

    Please understand that my wife and I are in what might be "comfortable condition" economically (primarily due to to the Boss,  not me).  We do not sneer with jealousy nor resentment at those who have much.   We do look down on those who have benefitted politically from their wealth, and then simultaneously have benefitted in terms of wealth due to their political positioning.
     This is the somewhat convoluted manner of thinking by an Old Confederate type who believes in some variation of natural social assignment.  As well, I am democratic enough to applaud people of lesser resources who legally and morally work and invest to the extent that they become "comfortable" and financially well endowed.

     Frankly, while it is recognised that manoeuvring politically in order to gain the best results for one's party during Congressional combat, it seems that Madame Speaker is disposed to bring writs of impeachment against a President for the high crimes and misdemeanours such as (a) being President, and (b) having been elected President, and (c) having orange hair.
     She is also disposed to keep the Lower House of Congress somewhere outside of Washington, D.C. when there are important matter to discuss, debate, and prosecute, especially when there is significant urgency attached to the need to decide and move said Acts and Legislative processes to their necessary conclusions.    We Republicans to do those things, she would set up a howl that would raise the dead in the middle of the Sahara.  However, when she does it, it is something like Joe Biden trying to explain himself.  The Speaker makes so many hand, fingers, and arm thrashings it is if she is being attacked by a million invisible hornets.   I have often wondered, if there were a face-to-face between Old Auntie Nancy and Old Uncle Joe which one would land the first and final accidental knock-out punch.

     Finally, I present the evidence against this Speaker of the House concerning hubris.  She was brought up in grand style, her daddy I believe was Mayor of Baltimore at one time, and she attended the finest Roman Catholic schools one could possibly hope for;  truly excellent institutions.   One would consider that, once obtaining an audience with the Bishop of Rome (as he is known to us of the Anglican order) she went in to the Papal precincts and had her tete-a-tete with the Holy Father,  she apparently got her blows in, according to her accounting upon departure from the papal inner sanctum.  When asked about her impressions about meeting up with one of the most intelligent students of the Roman Catholic religion and several score other denominations and other religious institutions around the world, she gave answers that were tepid and pointless. Towards the end of her "holding court" at the gates that give entrance to the Basilica of SaintPeter, she declared that she had advised the Pope that his views concerning abortion were not something or another and a woman's right to choose was things that sometimes can be other things but everybody's rights must be protected because of the things that can be one way here and upside down, maybe over there…sometimes.
    We beg the indulgence of the readers because it must be understood that I tried my best to try to understand what in that name of Beelzebub the poor bat-crazy woman was trying to say but it was genuinely not understandable.   She had just had a meeting with the Pontiff and apparently, according to her, told him how the cow ate the Latin Bible.   She then addressed the group of pinko reporters and essentially advised them that she had advised the Pope that abortion is a woman's right, and religion has nothing to do with her choice.  So there.
It has been said that the above depiction is of a
a nation that is the smallest on Earth and perhaps the
most powerful…It is Vatican City.
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     There I shall rest my case and my points.   The contention is not resolvable.   If a Roman Catholic wishes to approve of abortion on demand for women, then I cannot resolve the dichotomy of the issue.   It is required that that Roman Catholic depart the church and find a new religious home.   Or a bunch of people who want to call themselves "Roman Catholics Who Favour Abortions" must charge into the Vatican's precincts and go hand to hand against the Swiss Guards, grasp the Pope, and drag him to the Adriatic Sea and throw him to the sharks.
     Then Mrs. Pelosi could be made Popess by Divine Acclamation and Planned Parenthood could establish a "sensible and accessible" women's needs clinic on the campus of Vatican City and have  the various governments in the world pay taxes into the operation so that all abortions can be free.   It is very improbable that any of the above solutions could be put into effect with any reasonable outcome.

After trying to re-assemble the Holy Roman Empire, it was decided best
for all to allow the Swiss Guards to put Humpty back together again.
I am certainly not the person indicated to re-establish Earthly Order.
We appreciate the attention of all, and we shall be back in the saddle
 to-morrow, trying our best to stamp out Socialism, whatever stripe
 it might be wearing at that time.

As usual, there will be more later.
Good Order, Gentlemen…stand at ease!

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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