Pesky Message from One of Them Dagnabbed Furriners

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Could this possibly be THE QUOTE OF THE CENTURY?:

 

Some possess the vocabulary to sum things up in a way we can understand.  This is a quote from the former Premier of the Czech Republic. (Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to repair the damage they've done):

 

   "The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."

 

Vaclav Klaus

 

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     One brings to mind Miss Flukie and her demand that my daughter and granddaughters pay for her "$3,000.00/year" need for birth control pills.   Candy Crowley yielding to the thuggish Obama, reminding her that he REALLY did say "terrorism" in the Rose Garden....scolding Candy because she had forgotten the template, script, and true purpose of any "debate" with a guy like Romney, who had not paid any taxes in 10 years.   It must be true because Harry Reid said so.

     

    As we stated before, El Zorro is a better gleaner than I, and this gem of his efforts is certainly appreciated.

El Gringo Viejo

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Two Disparate Points: Mexico's Official Hypocrisy and the Inconvenient Truth for the Travis County District Attorney

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     Weekends leave one to chores and chores lead to thinking inside of one's self and deciding that something more has to be done before the Sun finishes his chores for the day.   The Fox and Friends Weekend folks, all really favourites of mine and nice folks, held forth to-day on the issues of import....early, before that same Sun had begun his work for the day here on the Texas Frontier.

 

    But, in the darkness here, while feeding these cats, as I feed the others at our Quinta in the Mexican outback, I had to listen to the explanations about how another crowd of Centroamericanos would be coming up soon to cross here, at McAllen / Reynosa to wade into the fields of plenty provided by Texian charity, taxes, and others among the American population.  It was repeated that they would be coming up on the tops of trains, fleeing the poverty and disorder in Central America. 

 

    Two things...just off the top of my head.  Once again, allow me to state with more than total certainty, that 99.9% of all the folks who make it to Reynosa,  or even Laredo or Matamoros, do not arrive here on top of a freight-train's consist.   The overwhelming majority arrive by adequate to quite nice busses.   Another bunch arrives by charitable extension of a ride, or by paying someone "el combustible" from Cd. Victoria  or Tampico.  Some actually walk and hitch, hitch and walk, doing odd jobs and favours in return or for a few pesos.

 

     Next, they were coming here because this area speaks Spanish and it is a nicer place, logistically closer to places like Houston and other such points north where Centroamericanos dominate in certain barrios moreso than Mexicans and people of Mexican extraction. 

     The last, and perhaps the most important,  reason is because the Mexican stretch between northern Vera Cruz State and Tamaulipas is, as cousin Rush would say,  97.99% more secure for Central American undocumented people than it was four years ago.  So here we are again.  There is still the danger of falling into a trap of a " safe-house kidnapping" where the coyote / homeowner keeps people against their will while essentially extorting the people back home or at the ultimate destination to come up with more money than had been agreed....essentially for nothing.   Even this has diminished....still there....but it has diminished.

     The more that Obama and the Democrats and some Republicans mention the need for "immigration reform" and the more that phrase is repeated once again in Central America, the quicker the inundation of the reproductive and digestive tracts will begin their northward trudge.

 

     And they, like those before them, will be moving into barrios in Texas and other places inside the United States that are equally dangerous to the ones they have left, because in many, if not most, cases the enforcers have been there since long ago.   This is in spite of the fact that much was said three, four, six, eight years ago that "....and we will be certain that there will be no spill-over violence from Mexico".  That was the assurance of our Sheriff of Hidalgo County, Texas for instance, who is now making license plates for Texas.  He and his son....another ranking police agent...not so long ago.    The barrios had become hell-holes just like the places they had left in Honduras, El Salvador, and to a lesser extent Guatemala.

 

     Why?   Because the trees had been planted from the same seeds.  The same people were waiting to receive, abuse, and control the same people.   Sound and Fury, signifying nothing.   Imagine coming into some northern suburb of Saint Louis, Missouri and finding out that your new living place had been redesigned by the Black Panther Party and the Muslim Brotherhood, with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson being in charge of your community's interior decoration.   Or, better yet, that you were going to be sent to a nice place called central Chicago, or facsimile.   For this a person would exchange no snow and single digit daytime high temperatures....just to have a crack at AFDC and stamps?  

 

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     Finally,  about this topic, the central Mexican government has made a pronouncement that they were highly offended that Texas National Guard troops were being placed along the Rio Grande to perform what is pretty much "forward observer" duties.   This is supposed to finally be about 1,000 "forward observers" , while the Mexican central government has essentially and in fact militarised the entire neighbouring State of Tamaulipas  with 40,000 Army, Naval Infantry, Military Civil Police.

     While we understand the Mexican central government must make anti-American comments and complaints to placate its massive number of low-information, low intelligence people found especially around universities and extreme rural areas, it really would be better to just say, "We understand that the Texians (or the Americans) have the right and responsibility to defend themselves from hordes of criminals and people intent upon larding up to the American Welfare Cornucopia."

 

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     And now, for the night probably, we end with the observation that even David Axelrod does not think that it is possible to charge a governor of a political entity with any crime such as coercion or public corruption based upon that governor's veto of a line-item when such an act is authorised in that State's  Constitution.   Governor Perry is guilty of nothing that has any reference to the Travis County Grand Jury's brayings and swagger.  This is theatre lower than bad burlesque.   We wrote about it yesterday.  Our diagnosis was correct.

El Gringo Viejo

The Case of Rick Perry and the deranged Travis County District Attorney

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     A short note to all OROGs concerning the issue about Governor Perry's indictment is in order.   It will be introduced by the Youtube snippits we include herewith:

 

 

 

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     El Gringo Viejo suggests that DA Lehmberg wishes to duplicate the harassment  foisted upon Tom Delay by then DA of Travis County, Texas Ronnie Earle because she feels particularly slighted by Governor Perry.   It seems that the Governor vetoed a portion of the allocation from the State Treasury meant for her office's investigation and prosecution, if needed, of certain violations that might occur anywhere within the Republic of Texas.

     There is a peculiarity within the Constitution of Texas that grants the District Attorney of Travis County, Texas the power and prerogative to handle such cases.  The Travis County District Attorney is the only County Attorney of all the 254 counties in Texas that has that discretion.  Ostensibly it is due to Travis County being the county where the Capital of Texas....the City of Austin...is situated.

Governor Rick Perry

     While there are a lot of nice and fine people who live in Austin and Travis County, it is a Democrat Citadel, full of radical students and professors who are barnacled into the University of Texas culture.   It is also where many government "workers" are found, and it enjoys the presence of all nature of reformers, progressives, marxists, and anti-traditionalists.  Travis County is about a 65 - 35 Democrat stronghold, surrounded by counties that tend to vote 70 - 30 Republican.

 

     Governor Perry might not be my first choice for President of either Texas or the American Union, but he like DeLay, and most of the other Republicans are "my people".  I will submit that the charges of "official coercion" being levied against the Governor are specious, bogus, unfounded, and will not carry even a Travis County Trial Jury.   It took Ronnie Earl four tries before a Grand Jury to indict Delay, finally convict him, only to have all the effort go for naught when the conviction was overturned on the first appeal.  Ronnie Earle and the present District Attorney are both vindictive, small, self-consumed people, pretty much like Obama and (Sir Edmund)Hillary....and one can notice how our lady immediately resorted to threats of retaliation and special consideration because of her "importance".

 

 

Thanks for your time and patience.

El Gringo Viejo

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(Sir Edmund)Hillary Diane Rodham Elocutes

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This is a good quick read, a good laugh, and a lamentation that we have become Focus Group Phrase Nation.   This comes in from El Zorro who is a better gleaner than El Gringo Viejo.

 

 



Quote of the day, no, of the week, make that month.

Yet it probably is quote of the year ! 
No. DECADE. Wait a minute. It's the greatest quote ever ! 

“My accomplishments as Secretary of State? Well, I'm glad you asked! 
My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride, mostly 
because of the opposition it faced early on, you know… the remnants of 
prior situations and mindsets that were too narrowly focused in a manner whereby they may have overlooked the bigger picture and we didn’t do that and I’m proud of that. Very proud. I would say that’s a major accomplishment.” 

- Hillary Clinton 11 March 2014 

Could someone please tell me what the hell she just said? 
And she is running for President?

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Slither, Dither, and Pose: Gimme my 9 iron....now!

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    Our present occupant of the White House behaved predictably during the "coming out" of the Islamic State of Iraq, Syria, and the Levant.   We are moved to point out that the formation of ISIS (or ISIL) occurred with solid, dependable intelligence being available to the White House concerning the organisation for the past three years.

     The organisation was active in more than a peripheral way during the disorders in Libya that preceded the destruction of the American diplomatic installations in Benghazi.  It is the phoenix that arose from the destruction of Al Qaeda in Iraq by the American military.  It is committed to the destruction of all dictators, royalty, sheiks, sultans, and emirs within the geographical area now being formed into a Caliphate.  They will, when all is settled, allow a few chosen to come back and serve the will of ISIS, being convenient satraps to Satan.

     The reason that the ISIS people were involved at all in the Benghazi matter was for the purpose of laying their hands on significant supplies of American military-grade small arms and ammunition.   They were also interested in any other goodies such as mortars, RPGs, and other such material.   It is known that much of this ordnance was removed by  ship to the Syrian theatre to be used in the destruction of the Bashir Assad regime.
    The success of the Obama sand-painting manoeuvre so hamstrung Assad, that Obama had poor Bashir trembling behind a MacDonald's in downtown Damascus.   Meanwhile, ISIS thugs were busy destroying the non-deranged elements of  Assad's opposition, using American war-materiel.

    The point behind this construct by this humble observer is that ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood and Obama have always been in agreement that all the strongmen and traditional aristocratic rulers needed to be taken down.  When the Egyptian military took down the Muslim Brotherhood, it seemed to deflate Obama considerably and he became almost disinterested in the whole Middle Eastern (Levant) affair.   Where are the golf clubs?

     The clock keeps running and suddenly, one fine day,  ISIS blooms forth as a force that appears powerful enough to establish a new country, occupying sixty per cent of the old Iraq and pieces of Syria.  Proof that the president of the 57 United States was either totally unprepared for the post Benghazi events or, complicit in them, can be proved by this following point:

       During the period when all order broke down in Mosul, Tikrit, much of the rest of Iraq, and ISIS began the religious and ethnic "modifications" by crucifying, burying alive, wholesale executions, and outright banishing of undesired peoples the victors made a really serious error,  through hubris and excessive exuberation.
     With their additional new toys....American tanks, personnel carriers, and other goodies....and what seemed to be an interminable supply from the  American commissary, provided extemporaneously by a cowardly Iraqi army, the ISIS people lined up on the main highway, honking, waving flags, shooting their rifles in jubilation.  Miles and miles of clusters of gloaters.
    Firm orders could have been given to pull at least one, preferably two flattops into correct position, and then low-altitude strafing and bombing of the undisciplined celebrants with unrelenting and merciless pounding.   The first casualty counts would have been devastating.   It brings to mind the scene when the Iraqi army fled Kuwait.
     In that event, American and allied forces intercepted the fleeing Iraqi Republican Guard, who had been rapacious and brutal during their occupation of Kuwait.   The head of the convoy was stopped by anti-tank mines and air power, thereby blocking the forward progress while the rear of the convoy was repeatedly bombed and strafed.   It looked like this:

 

 

     Had Obama wished to "do something" he could have done the above same operation on the murderous ISIS thugs.   Of course, by Obama, it is meant Valerie and Axelrod and Obama's minders who write his teleprompter feeds.

 

     This was probably too much to expect from the Man Who Killed Bin Laden and had al Qaeda "decimated" and "on the run", and who, of course, saved General Motors and Chrysler.  Answer the phone, Hillary...it's 03:00.  It's something about an offensive video that's making fun of Mohammed.

 

More later.

El Gringo Viejo

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We are back again

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We have returned.  There is nothing much to report from our little hideaway South of the Border.  Hot days, and blessedly cool nights, with temperatures going down to as low as 59 degrees.  We did a few projects, and dealt with the care of our plants.   Things are a bit stressed by the Canicula....the normal dry run during the mid-summer.

 

      With what rain we did have, it was good to note that our repairs and adaptations during the past months were successful and the place looks quite noble again. 

 

     We have posted some of El Zorro's observations, and to-morrow there will be some broadsides concerning the state of things.  It will take El Gringo Viejo about 12 hours to recover and straighten some thoughts out.

 

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Notes from the Other End of the Republic of Texas

Gringo,

 

In the private blog I subscribe to, consisting of confirmed Vietnam veterans, a discussion of Lurch Kerry’s “initiative” in the Middle East ensued.  To that point there was a liberal scumbo who stirred up controversy by supporting compromise with radical Islam and support of Kerry.  I cannot post his comments but I can distribute my response:

 

“Hey troops... I think we have a Baby Ruth in our punch bowl here. That notwithstanding, the situation with Israel and Hamas is just the beginning of a world war. It can end two ways. One, Israel loses and the rest of the world becomes Muslim extremist or two, Israel obliterates Hamas and the rest of radical Islam backs off. If Israel loses the U.S. and the free world will be in a fight to the death. If Israel prevails, the U.S. and Israel (and other democratic countries) have to keep the lid on the terrorists. This asymmetrical war in which the world is engaged is one that will never completely be solved with the tactics we know and use today. The only chance we have is to wipe out the radicals as completely as possible with as little collateral damage as possible. They have to be eradicated where ever they are found. There is nothing simple, easy, or nice about war. This one is particularly messy because the righteous have to fight two wars at the same time. A virtual war with the politicians and their media accomplices and the physical war with weapons. We had that in Vietnam... remember? That has not changed but we have not yet developed the tactics for fighting a non-state terrorist guerilla war. We've all considered the conundrum of the unmovable object and the irresistible force. The radical Islamists are the irresistible force. What are we? Consider the power and influence they have amassed since the 7 Day War. Israel is the only consistent resistance they have encountered. We had Iraq but lost it. We beat the Taliban but let them come back. Our peace initiatives have only led to more insurgency. There is no compromise. Obama can say the war is over but our enemies don't agree. Saying it doesn't make it so. It only aids, abets and emboldens them. John Kerry and his boss are working against us either intentionally or unconsciously. It doesn't matter which. They (and the rest of the conga line of conspirators) have to go. Maybe this is too far from the topic; however, it is a very important conversation to be had, here and everywhere.”

 

 

                    El Zorro

Loose Ends, and Loose Cannons

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    As we prepare to leave to-morrow before the dawn's early light, it becomes an urgency that El Gringo Viejo cover and re-cover some important topics.

 

 

     The first, concerning this "immigration" thing, is that it has nothing to do with immigration.  The entire tragi-comedic nightmare is a clumsy and blunt effort on the part of the Obamatrons (and the least player among the actors, Obama himself) to identify people they know to be sub-human and who will do the most damage to America by having their presence made permanent in the middle of America.

      Mind you, it is not our opinion as conservatives that the people of Central America are sub-human, but to sophisticated progressives who are content in the knowledge of their own intellectual superiority....general superiority to everyone, to be sure...they know the Central Americans (a) all look alike, and (b) are hopelessly stupid, and (c) will assist in breaking the bank of the Gringos when they latch onto the "safety net" of perpetual, multigenerational welfare.

 

     All socialists and progressive know that the barnacles and parasites who glob onto the public assistance programmes provided by the central government of the United States and various of the 57 States that compose the federation produce 90% of the social and medical problems in the country.  The more there are, the better for the purposes of the socialists and progressives.  It allows for the continued making of proposals that are aimed to cure the problems created by the last programme that was meant to cure the problems.  The more absurd the proposal, and the more expensive, the better.   How about one billion dollars to have a National Midnight Basketball League?   That way, three years later, we can have a National Grief Counsellor and Violence Intervention Department exclusively dedicated to the out-break of shootings at late night and early morning basketball games.   After all, because of racism on the part of the Republicans this long-standing problem has never received the funding needed in order to be effective.

 

    Actual solution to the problem?   Have children who are disciplined by a father, and who are instilled with a catechism, be it Orthodox, Protestant, or Hebrew....and enforce the rules of that catechism by the hand of the father.  No father?  Treyvon.   Paint Treyvon as a victim in the "demagogue community" and produce more Treyvons.

 

     Purpose?  To cure problems and make things better?  No, the purpose is to always keep a wedge issue to resuscitate in order to drive the low-information and low-intelligence voters to the polls.   Reproductive Rights!!  Equal Pay for Equal Work!!  War on Women!!!   And of course propose remedies that will aggravate the problem so as to have something even worse to blame on the Republicans.

 

    We remember when George W. Bush declared in his fourth State of the Union address that he wanted to partially privatised the Social Security System.  He suggested that the Democrats had opposed the move in spite of the fact that it would enhance retirement options.  When he referred to that setback, the Democrat side of the audience went crazy with cheering and applause....and the only thing they could possibly have been cheering was the fact that they had kept the people in bondage to a Ponzi Scheme.   Were the Social Security System to be operated out of a barber shop on the edge of the Pasadena - Houston city limits, everybody working at the barber shop would  be making license plates before the end of the year, somewhere near the TDC complex in Huntsville, Texas.

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     Please review this, sent from the Arctic portions of the Republic of Texas by El Zorro:

Press Release:

Monday, July 28, 2014
For Immediate Release

LaVenia J. LaVelle, Press Officerpress.office@ssa.gov

News Release SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Board of Trustees: No Change in Projected Year of
Trust Fund Reserve Depletion

Print Version

The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the long-term financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds are projected to become depleted in 2033, unchanged from last year, with 77 per cent of benefits still payable at that time. The DI Trust Fund will become depleted in 2016, also unchanged from last year's estimate, with 81 per cent of benefits still payable.
In the 2014 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees announced:

• The combined trust fund reserves are still growing and will continue to do so through 2019. Beginning with 2020, the cost of the program is projected to exceed income.

• The projected point at which the combined trust fund reserves will become depleted, if Congress does not act before then, comes in 2033 – the same as projected last year. At that time, there will be sufficient income coming in to pay 77 per cent of scheduled benefits.

• The projected actuarial deficit over the 75-year long-range period is 2.88 per cent of taxable payroll -- 0.16 percentage point larger than in last year's report.

"The projected depletion dates of the Social Security Trust Funds have not changed, and three-fourths of benefits would still be payable after depletion.  But the fact remains that Congress can ensure the long-term solvency of this vital program by taking action," said Carolyn W. Colvin, Acting Commissioner of Social Security.  "The Disability Insurance Trust Fund's projected depletion year remains 2016, and legislative action is needed as soon as possible to address this financial imbalance."
Other highlights of the Trustees Report include:

• Income including interest to the combined OASDI Trust Funds amounted to $855 billion in 2013. ($726 billion in net contributions, $21 billion from taxation of benefits, $103 billion in interest, and $5 billion in reimbursements from the General Fund of the Treasury—almost exclusively resulting from the 2012 payroll tax legislation)

• Total expenditures from the combined OASDI Trust Funds amounted to $823 billion in 2013. 

• Non-interest income fell below program costs in 2010 for the first time since 1983. Program costs are projected to exceed non-interest income throughout the remainder of the 75-year period.

• The asset reserves of the combined OASDI Trust Funds increased by $32 billion in 2013 to a total of $2.76 trillion.

• During 2013, an estimated 163 million people had earnings covered by Social Security and paid payroll taxes.

• Social Security paid benefits of $812 billion in calendar year 2013. There were about 58 million beneficiaries at the end of the calendar year. 

• The cost of $6.2 billion to administer the program in 2013 was a very low 0.7 per cent of total expenditures.

• The combined Trust Fund asset reserves earned interest at an effective annual rate of 3.8 per cent in 2013.

The Board of Trustees is comprised of six members. Four serve by virtue of their positions with the federal government: Jacob J. Lew, Secretary of the Treasury and Managing Trustee; Carolyn W. Colvin, Acting Commissioner of Social Security; Sylvia M. Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services; and Thomas E. Perez, Secretary of Labour. The two public trustees are Charles P. Blahous III and Robert D. Reischauer.
The 2014 Trustees Report will be posted at www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TR/2014/ on Monday.

# # #

-30-

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And then, we have more.  And it's FREE!

     We propose that the Social Security Administration be essentially turned into an operation similar or identical to the Texas State Teachers' Retirement System...and the Texas State Employees' Retirement System.  This system essentially has a process by which the employees actually own their accounts.  The member dies, the account remains in his/her estate, and is distributed according to standard probate, and according to certain relatively simple conditions, and according to previously arranged covenants between the  Texas Retirement Sytems and the participants.
    Yes.  We mean to turn the retirement set-asides that the employees pay into and own in their own name.....into a truly self-owned system like Texas has.  We would urge a programme by which people could choose a bit of an expanded investment system...a little more adventurous that what is presently used, by permitting ultra-conservative, moderately conservative, to standard conservative investment alternative for the money left in the system by the citizen.
     Should Texas wind up being able to re-establish itself as a free-standing Republic, it would be interesting to try to recover some of the money that was put into the supposedly sacrosanct Social Security Trust Fund, contributed by Texans.  That is one of the differences between the Texas System and the Central Government System in Washington, D.C.   The money in the Texas Retirement System cannot be mingled in any way with the general fund.  The entire amount is literally owned by each individual participant.

El Zorro opines thusly, concerning the Fifth Amendment and the need to make bold statements and proposals to truly and radically return the American Republic to the Old Regimen.  To think, that when the 19th Century changed into the 20th Century, the United States central government would borrow money from wealthy individuals for the purpose of short-term financing of the central government's activities during a pinch.
     Now, in these days, the extremely wealthy serve only to fund the Democrat Party and for those who do not fund the American National Socialist Democratic Workers' Party....the wealthy serve as whipping boys/girls to denigrate and ridicule as uncaring Scrooges.

Many of us are meaning what we say when we talk about taking the useless spending part of the central government to the Sanitary Landfill.  El Zorro suggests, something moderate by my standards, but certainly radical and necessary.
To Wit:

The Fifth Amendment is huge and the more information made simple (“Fifth Amendment for Dummies”) is one of the most important issues to keep fresh.

 

I am not sure what you are saying about the SSA.  What I picked out was a newsletter I get, a sub-topic of other VA issues I subscribe to.  It is what we know it to be… that it will be broke and fixing or replacing should be a high priority to a conservative administration.

 

The platform that will win includes:

 

1.) Rebuilding of US Armed forces to higher than previous highest levels

2.) Complete repeal of the ACA

3.) Abolishment of the IRS

4.) Privatization of the VA

5.) Abolishment of Dept. of HHS

6.) Abolishment of Dept. of Homeland Security

7.) Abolishment of EPA

8.) Abolishment of NLRB

9.) Close the Border

10.) Fifth Amendment

 

These are somewhat in order of priority in consideration of level of effort, time to complete, and hierarchy of process.

 

Other issues can be considered but the more issues the less attention each gets.

 

Que tengas buen viaje.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JH

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Time to make supper, the boss just arrived!

One Picture - One million words....failure, dejection, rejection, harvest from the planting of lies and dysfunctional political and moral thought

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Secretary of State John Kerry Returns from Paris and the Holy Land

after scoring six straight failures in three days.  One picture really

might be worth all the words in the book.

 

At least we abandoned the Embassy in Tripoli.   Perhaps that was

one of those moments of tranquillity the Administration can tout.

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Heading South on Tuesday

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    On Tuesday morning, we shall be heading down to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre for an extended stay, probably three weeks or so.  We have numerous projects, all very small, and thankfully not needing material or extra "maestros" to assist.   Alvaro will take advantage of this to go down to Xicotencatl, Tamaulipas to tend to his properties and his "retirement home".  He will usually go down there, saying he is coming back when I leave to go back to Texas, but normally after 10 or 12 days, he will call and ask if everything is alright.

 

     El Gringo Viejo learned that instead of saying "Si, si, esta' bien todo.", it was better to say, "I have a problem with the toilet tank lever, and I cannot find the special tijeras jardineras  (garden scissors).  Of course, a bit of "Your dog, Bebe just lays there all day by the gate waiting to see if you are going to come back".  



 El Gringo Viejo consoles Bebe who is
 dejected because El Sargento Mayor
 (Alvaro) has not returned.



    Alvaro will immediately say, "Don't worry, I'll be there to-morrow, in the early afternoon."   And, actually it is better, because we seem to accomplish an immense amount of "proyectos" in terms of doctoring scratches in the walls, loose sockets, washing throw rugs, re-arranging closets, airing and sunning sheets and other bedding, waxing tile floors, dusting the cane ceiling (a real chore, but worth it), doctoring the animals for ear mites...the dogs for fleas and ticks.   For some reason, the three cats never have any trouble with the fleas.

 

    Alvaro is immensely patient with El Gringo Viejo.  He is only 5'5" and 130 pounds at the most, but, quite frankly, although we are the same age, he can pick up more weight and carry it further than I can....at 6' 2" and 180 pounds.  He also does not wear glasses, but can read all but the skinniest, tiny print.  In the beginning Diana took offense because he had this fixation about rubbing everything down with red oil, and mopping the floors with diesel oil.  We still use diesel oil, mixed with Fabuloso on the floor, but Alvaro no longer puts red oil on the toilet seat, or television, or on the light bulbs.

 

     The other strong suit about Alvaro Huerta Balboa is that he keeps very accurate accounts.  He also prohibits that I contribute to anything.  He says he will do the contributing because he knows if the contribution will wind up in the proper cause.   For quite a while now, the Ejido Water Commission has not come to ask for "financing" some major repair or reworking of a water line.  To have a pump rebuilt can run a couple of thousand pesos, and it injures our operations when the "Comisario" comes to ask if I can front the money so that the west people or the east people on the line can have water to-morrow.

    We have always dug up the cash, but it leave us in the place where we have to go to Victoria in order to buy anything, and buying means always having to use the credit card.   Everything in the Ejido Francisco I. Madero is cash, and the smaller the bills and coins the better.  There is very little change.

     We should point out as well that every advance of repair and/or replacement money we have "proffered" has always been paid back within a week to a month.   At times water people will even mark our water bill (40 pesos/month - about 3.2o USD) paid for a quarter, as a courtesy.  There was another person a Latin lady, an American,  whose mother was very elderly, around 100 years old, who built a house near the Hacienda de Santa Engracia, and she would help out with public utility repairs, being somewhat well-to-do.   But, with the disorders from about three years ago, she stopped coming down, and her mother passed on a while back.  The lady had moved her mother down to the Santa Engracia area and build quite a nice two-story house there because as she pointed out, it was cheaper than a nursing home, and the rustics in the area thought nothing about diving in and taking care of the old girl, as if she were a grandmother of their own.   Many of the women in the ejido have "basic-plus" nursing skills from having attended public health seminars during the vaccination times when the Health Department comes out to do the shot batteries.

     Anyway, Alvaro is a blessing...even if sometime I have to grind my teeth and bite my tongue....and we would have been much worse off without him.

 

In any regard, Tuesday we shall leave.  I shall continue to try to find a chat room with a faster connection, and thereby maintain some reasonable contact with my people on OROGlandia. 

El Gringo Viejo

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