Out of the Night, When the Full Moon is Bright

Please Note:

During the past several months, our circulation has continued to grow.  We receive a small but steadily increasing set of responses and questions about Mexico and about the cultural and political situation both there and in the United States and the Republic of Texas.

     Not at his request, but at mine, El Gringo Viejo will be including comments written in by a friend who is not an alter ego, but more like a co-ego.   A man who says that he has many friends is a fool.   A man might have two or three friends in a lifetime.  This is El Gringo Viejo's friend.

     El Zorro is drawn from a combination of extreme upper class and working class people.   He is a pure-bred Texan.   He has been introduced before as more Indian than certain Democrat candidates for United States Senator from Massachusetts.   He has a strong, old Episcopal catechism and yet wanders from agnostic to theist to spiritualist; he is a true free spirit and he is a true philosopher.   He is, (he never stating such) a war hero who endured the boredom of  Can Rahn Bay  and the insanity of intrusions into "non South Vietnamese adjacencies" (approved by both El Gringo Viejo and El Zorro and someone named richard) to recover personnel and equipment.  He is a person who knows and understands the technical...no matter what that happens to be.   He is extremely well-read and well-stated.  He is a college graduate, as well as a fellow graduate of El Gringo Viejo's class of 1964 from Old McHi in Texas.

     There is a certain necessary roughness to both his and my observation of the current state of affairs.  He and I almost almost always agree.  There are times when our concurrence does not resolve into a focus of agreement.   Our differences, however, are like the difference between Latin and the present day Italian language.

Cam Rahn Bay, South Viet Nam

 

      With this dabbling of an openning, we must advise that we shall receive brief, ORIGINAL FROM THE GUT ONLY, rants...thoughts....wanderings within consciousness, observations, criticisms, approvals, what-if's, and such writings.   We shall require that the writer be substantially sober.   With delusions of grandeur, perhaps we can make this a place of refuge where people can escape the absolute rule of political correctness, while certainly rejecting Klannerbilge.    One of our mottoes will be that "We are Confederates, not Klanners".   We support Negroes, Latins, Anglos, Orientals and even Irish, Mormons, and French people for any office, have done so, and will continue to do so.

    With that, and with a appeal to humour, kindness where possible, ire where necessary, we commend the site privatouring.blogspot.com to the public's readership and participation.   Perhaps we shall become the Drudge of old-fashioned home-spun, Southern-style barbershop commentary.

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COMMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO EL GRINGO'S POSTING OF 17 June 2012 CONCERNING THE PLACING OF FOUR WIVES WITH SEVERAL CHILDREN EACH ON THE LONDON WELFARE DOLE, BY ONE HUSBAND.....A COMMON PRACTICE BY MUSLIM COMMONWEALTH ENTRANTS FROM THE OLD EMPIRE.

Oddly, the El Zorro above-pictured looks
amazingly like the El Zorro who sent in this
submission to Voice from the Sierra Madre Oriental

EL ZORRO COMMENTS:

CONCERNING ISLAMIC BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

Ich bevorzuge Bier so billig war!

But… I digress.  Demography is the greatest determining factor regarding fates of the Judeo-Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, etc. and other compassionate religions.  In this point, I will include atheists and agnostics as philosophical escorts and cohorts to the world's religions worth keeping.  Or, for all practical purposes, all non-Muslim populations.

The fact is that Muslims are taking over the world demographically through birth rates and infestations everywhere geographically.  Their birth rate is estimated at about 2.2 births per Muslim woman to 1.5 for European women (Norway it is 3.1 to 1.8).  In the United States the total births per woman is 2.05 and the Muslim birth rate is 2.1; however, the Muslim population here is only about 3%.  It is growing however, especially in Obama’s stomping grounds.  Minnesota is infested as well, with their own Muslim representative Keith Ellison.  Some rates in some countries are higher as in northern Africa.  France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, and the UK are particularly at risk and pretty much in that order as far as the Eurozone is concerned and as relates to your column.

The European Countries are terrified by the Muslim populations growing in their countries because they are very invasive and do not assimilate but do intimidate the indigenous peoples.  The Ummah is their country.  The simple definition of the Ummah is “the unity of all Muslims led by a caliphate”… but you know the meanings and history.

The birth rates are dynamic.  The trend is scary.  Muslimism (Islam) is a total life system that replaces and/or fuses religion, government, and all other ideologies.  A Muslim who does not commit to Islam is an apostate.  Apostates are treated as non-Muslims but may be imprisoned instead of being put to death if the hadith affirms the individual does not work against Islam or can be reformed.  That is rare.  The non-Muslims are considered either Satanic or friends of Satan depending on the hierarchy of religions established in the Quran.  In all cases non-Muslims including heretics, infidels, and apostates are at risk of death.

This tirade was inspired by El Gringo Viejo's last paragraph from the entry of 17 June 2012.  It is a large part of the reason for the decline of the Eurozone and collapse of world financial systems.  Islam is influencing all the financial structures by infiltration of the political systems and putting unsustainable stress on the public assistance structures.

The Muslim ideology was an inspiration to the third Reich and der fuhrer.  Hitler affirmed a belief in Christianity but instilled in it the purge of Jews and  the Nazi philosophy ( Please review Mein Kampf).  He had training in the religion and attended monastery but privately had negative views of Christianity.  He stated at times that Christianity was just another form of Judaism.  (back to topic) The persecution of the Jews and degradation of Christianity during that epoch is not dissimilar to Muslim practice since the 7th century until now.

Islam will take over the world either quietly or by violence unless it is neutralized or eliminated.  We are not "safe"….therefore we must be brave.

CONCERNING GEORGE ZIMMERMAN

Last:    Good analysis on George Zimmerman.   If you will allow me this addition observation;  He did not kill the kid for fun.  He had a license to carry.  The requirements are very rigid.  I know because my wife and I have ours.  FBI background checks and great formal instruction as to how and when to use are sufficient to initially know he was well trained.  The FBI check guarantees he is a good citizen… at least as of 2009 when he and his wife acquired theirs.

The issue of funds available whether true or not should be a non-issue.  The amount of bail or whether it is to be granted or not should not be connected to what he can afford but rather to fit the flight risk.  I submit that the CHL is a testament that he would not bolt.  This is a witch hunt.  I give him a 90% righteous rating and no bail requirement.  Then investigate the issue before prosecution.

El  Z

Questions About the Zimmerman Case

The jailing of George Zimmerman for misleading the court concerning the amount of money on hand for posting bail seems more than just a bit strange.    The court stated that bail was being revoked because the defendant had stated that he did not have great resources to pay for a high bond.   What the defendant said was true at the time that he said it.

     The wife has since been charged with perjury in the 3rd degree (a felony) because she also, supposedly, misled the court concerning the availability of resources to the Zimmermans.  This charge carries a possible sentence of five years and/or a 25,000 dollar fine.

     The entire matter is strange.   The prosecutor seems to be on a vendetta to punish George Zimmerman and anyone associated to the first degree of relation with him.   The judge also seems to be at least somewhat complicit.   It was known that considerable money had been contributed to the Zimmerman defense account, solicited publicly on the internet even before the judge established the 150,000 dollar bond requirement.   Nothing was being done secretly.
    The money was being raised, ostensibly to meet bail bond requirements and to defray legal expenses for a trial that may well never take place.   Mrs. Zimmerman could not have given a precise amount in the account because the contributions of five, ten, and twenty dollars were coming in fairly rapidly.  It is known that they were not poor, but also that they did not have massive resources.

    The prosecution is also making a case about the mendacity of Mrs. Zimmerman due to the fact that a "second passport" was discovered in a safe deposit box.   Mr. Zimmerman's passport in force was surrendered, and it is stated in the passport that it is a replacement passport for a lost or stolen passport.   El Gringo Viejo has experience with such an event.  Once a replacement passport is issued, the previous passport becomes void.  If that lost or stolen passport is somehow recovered, it remains the property of the holder, although it cannot be used.   At any airport or entry point into the United States it will be shown to be invalid.   It should be noted, for instance, that the Zimmermans had put the old dead passport into a safe deposit box, and did not even have the document at their home.
     We still have, for instance, my brother's passport, which was recovered at the time of his death.  We still have the Gringo Viejo's voided passport that served to replace another passport that was stolen fifteen years ago.  It was returned, punched out, at the time the State Department sent my renewal (not replacement) passport some time back.

     The entire issue bespeaks of something out of Keystone Kops, and could be construed as a form of a sop to the professional race-baiters.   The charges could not withstand analysis by testimony and evidence in a court any more than the charge of 2nd degree murder in the Martin boy's shooting.   We would recommend sending some more money to the defense account, but given the nature of the bench in Florida, it might be possible that the court would move to confiscate the account.

Just some thoughts while texting in my brain.
El Gringo Viejo  

Greece has Voted! All Is Well.

The solution has been accomplished. All is well. The Europeans, who are very
sophisticated and intelligent, have figured out one more time how to kick the can a little further down the road. The Greeks, who established democracy and columns and other great things, voted and established a "way forward" in the solution of their problems with indebtedness.

Greeks at work in Athens.

     Less than twenty four hours have passed, and the Greeks have notified their backers in the European Union that it will be impossible for Athens to comply with the austerity requirements stipulated by the last (final) agreement.   It pertains to the fact that the tax collector says there will be a 40,000,000,000 euro shortfall in the collections of the required taxes that would allow for running the Greek government and addressing the Greek debt.

     There is also considerable resistance on the part of taxi drivers and hairdressers in Greece to accede to the demand that they not retire on full pension at the age of 50 because they are working in "hazardous occupations".   The newly-elected "conservative" leader of the parliament, and the man who will be prime minister of this fine country is already notifying his brethren in Europe that the Greek people will probably need another two or three hundred billion euros to tide things over.    This for a country of fewer than 12,000,000 people.

     Our stock markets and financial industry waited around and talked about this election just past with great anticipation....with a sense of hope of resolution.    These are the smart people....the Bernackes and the Gietners....the IMF....the World Bank....so all should be well.  But, of course, it was not to be.   Before the first businesses opened in Madrid, there were signs that the the Spanish bond situation was nearing free-fall.   The Spanish are miffed and distressed because it appears the European Community will give the Greeks the money to buy the can that they have to kick, and build them the road to kick the can down.   The Spanish think that will take away from their share of the the dole, and cut down on the size of the can they get to kick.    Only the Lord knows what kind of can the Italians will want, and no one can fathom what the rebuild of the ancient Roman Empire stone road will cost to rebuild.

Spaniards at work in Seville

It would only be right to rebuild those roads so that the Italians could have a road befitting the grandeur of their nation down which to kick the can.  
     Somehow, all this brings the proto-marxist Dickens to mind.  He prided himself by making fun of the rich and the well-placed while beatifying the poor because of the moral superiority of their poverty.   "A Christmas Carol" is as good example as any.   But, were El Gringo Viejo to write the sequel, it would include the Angel of Death taking the American Republic on a tour of these European countries who have practised income redistribution, two-years of maternity leave, free medical care, 24 hour work-weeks, perpetual deficit spending, and the moral decay that is produced by being a perpetual ward of the state.

     The violation of the first....basic....primary....most simple notion that neither a nation nor an individual can long spend more than what comes into the treasury....comes to mind.   Violate that rule....especially for a long, long time and everything must necessarily fall down.   The pyramids around the world, for instance, are not built on a point and then expanded in width as they increase in elevation.    Obviously, the pyramids around the world are set upon a broader base and built to a point of some kind or another.   It has something to do with something called "natural law".

Romans at work in Rome

None of this makes the Italians, the Spaniards, or the Greeks bad people.   Heck, everyone liked Zorba, no?  My son was treated very well in Spain....arrogant Spain...and felt the pride in his veins of being part of those people through his ancestry.   But he could note that there seemed to be an understanding that greatness was, and dullness is.  Fad is fashion.   Aspiration is comatose.   Soon, the can will be much too heavy to kick, the foot much too small, and the road strictly up-hill.    It is rather much like the scene presented by watching a two-year old girl trying to kick an elephant up Pike's Peak. 
      We are being told by Barak that if we would only tax the rich for once, then we could have the Brave New World that is found in the Eurozone.    But, as good as it sounds, the Brave New World almost always results in some kind of downtown Detroit.....or in the scenes of the hopelessly incompetent Katrinazombies in central New Orleans.
     The Eurozombies are now certain that they have found a Little Red Hen who has the obligation to plant the seed, raise the crop, harvest the grain, grind the wheat, sift the flour, make the dough, chop the wood for the iron stove, bake the bread, serve the bread, butter, and jelly and the wash the dishes.    They can just use the Krauts...."and while you are up anyway, bring us some beer....Heineken's!

German at play

     But,   Entschuldigen Sie bitte, Heiniken ist Danen.   We don't care!  We want it and we want it now.  So the Germans and a few other deputy hens in Finland or Sweden, labouring under their own socialist hobbles, are expected to pitch in to support the southern countries and their politicians so that the Mediterraneans can continue to live in the style to which they have become accustomed.
     This money will never be paid back.   It is impossible.   Mexico and Canada have a greater gross national product than Italy, Spain, and Greece combined.   Both countries have taken steps in recent years to reduce deficits and to cut back on the idea of cradle to grave intervention by their central governments.   The productive cannot pay for themselves and for the unproductive for any extended length of time.   This is especially true when the unproductive become a larger and larger percentage of the population.  Consider that among adult men who are Muslim in London, they have from one to four wives on the dole....in 60 percent of the cases.   Dickens will have so many  Tiny Tims to write about in his next re-incarnation.

Just a few grumpy observations.   Thanks for the time and the attention.
El Gringo Viejo

Around the Quinta and the Area...a few bits of news

    The issues surrounding the Quinta....our little mud hut situated up against the front of the Sierra Madre Oriental....continue to be quite mundane.   Repairs, cleaning, refreshing, and feeding the beasts take up a lot of time, especially for someone as lazy as the Gringo Viejo.   A little new news is that the HEB-Plus Grocery Store that had been scheduled for opening on the 1st of June of this year, actually opened on the 1st of June.   This created a lot of confusion in Cd. Victoria, because folks were getting ready, perhaps, to do a bit of "back to school" shopping at the ribbon cutting.    That is not actually true, because private works especially and even government projects frequently finish at or around the scheducled time.
      The opening was, however, not without the normal monster-flood of traffic and congestion.   HEB stores are very popular.    Another thing that is nice about the ones in Mexico.....Nobody pays with food stamps....all cash, credit card, and debit card.   Imagine.

     Most OROGs are not Texans, we have following in places that are still not part of the Imperium Texanus.   The HEB chain of grocery stores was founded by Herbert E. Butt in the San Antonio - Corpus Christi - McAllen area.   It wasn't all that long ago, back in the middle of the previous century.   During the past 20 years, HEB stores have held on to their Mayberry RFD places and improved them, while penetrating the up-scale market with phenomenal success.   Part of the expansion included going into Mexico where they would face stiff competition with a rapidly improving "supermercado" situation, primarily presented by the Soriana chain, and of course, WalMart.   Other local and neighbourhood type operators have also stepped up in terms of quality and presentation, so the business picture is challenging.
      My store is the Gran-D (grande) which is quite pleasant, clean, and very professional.   There are three of these locally branded stores in Victoria.   The Soriana is only about a mile on into the centre of town, and there is a huge WalMart out to the west end of the in-town area.   All-in-all, Cd. Victoria is well-equipped to sell good grub and grocery product to a smallish, but fairly well-to-do universe of customers.

      Of further interest is that El Gringo Viejo is constantly asked about security issues in Mexico and most people are comfortable with the idea that he is insane for even looking on a 180 degree vector, much less driving back and forth between the Texas - Mexico frontier, and much lesser yet having a sizable lot and mud hut situated in the middle of nowhere in Mexico.   El Gringo Viejo points out that sometimes it is not a good idea to visit Fort Hood, Texas when a Muslim nutter decides to do the bidding of Allah and slaughters twenty or thirty people.   He also points out that, if one remains outside of the the drug-trafficking industry, the actuarials for hanging around in Mexico are something like living in a small town in Texas....in terms of mortality rates.   Not Detroit, or reasonable facsimili, but like Lamapasas....or reasonable facsimile, for instance.
     The twenty or thirty HEB-Plus stores later, especially those recently openned in Monterrey, Victoria, and Reynosa speak to the issue.   They say...El Gringo Viejo wins the issue.    I will only add that it is prudent to be prudent.   Actuarials are actuarials, and prudence is prudence.

      At the Quinta, our growies have been putting on quite a show.    For the first time in my adult life, I am finally proud of my land this year.   One morning, a bit less than a week ago, El Gringo Viejo walked out in that first pre-dawn light and was greeted with a remarkable roaring buzz.   It seemed at first to be coming from an old ear problem that almost always winds up being a 36 hours dizzy spell.    So, grumpiness set in, but.....no dizziness.  A few seconds later, a huge horse fly shot past the field of view, quite close.   Then...with lightning like mental ability....it began to dawn on me that there was no dizziness, the horse fly was actually a bee, and that there were lots and lots of bees.   Looking up, one could readily see that the ebony trees had finished a full-tree blossoming during the night and that there were literally hundreds upon thousands of honey bees (somewhat Africanised) having a flash-mob party in the Ebony Saloon.  In any regard, the buzzing sound was the loudest ever heard by this set of ears.  Both of our "upper" ebonies were totally covered by blossoms and bees.
     The bees have always been very tolerant of El Gringo Viejo.   Wasps, not so much.   But, around the Quinta, almost all of the stinging beasts, especially the bees and a certain type of small hornet have been very passive with my presence.   It has been possible to work inside of flowering plants, pruning or tying them up or whatever, and not be bothered by them.   This time as well, although the bees were being very aggressive towards the birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and moths, they exhibited aggression towards El Gringo Viejo.  It should be pointed out that in recent weeks the return of the American hives has taken place.   That is something that has been taking place for several score years, but that stopped about three years ago, and now is beginning again.   Several thousand have appeared in the various meadows, forest areas, and citrus orchards.   Many are owned by companies like Duncan Hines and Pillsbury.
     Then, we had the return of Bob White quail, and quite a number of them.    Also, a "pijuey" (pi - whey, named for their call) came down while I was filling the large water tray.   He seemed nonplussed by my interference with his bath and watering.   Pijueys are called ani's in English....they look like a black combination of a parakeet and a parrot in a way.   There is a smooth billed sub-specie and a groove billed sub-specie, both found in our area (Sometimes I think they are just an individual variant).

     Our flamboyan trees (Royal Poincianas) have really begun to set up for a real show, but they will not be in full bloom until August, it appears.   That is late, but nowhere near out of order.   The avocado tree at the the south end of the "long, west-facing corridor" surprised us a bit because it seems to have a setting finally of about 225 avocados, about half-way on their journey to the guacamole factory in our kitchen.    It was nip and tuck last week when a couple of thunderstorms produced strong winds, perhaps as much as 60 mph, for a brief period on two different days, but there was no ill effect upon the avocados or much of anything else.   Another pleasant thing was that there were no power failures with the storms, winds, or heavy on-call power production/delivery during this very hot and stormy time.

     As far as cooling, we did use the air conditioner one night.  But the rest of the time it was pleasant at night, with the temperature heading down into the 58 to 62 degree area for the early morning hours.   We  have learnt to use the fans during the day by pointing them out, thereby exhausting the house, while keeping everything except for the aperture being used for the fan, closed, and the curtains drawn closed.   This keeps the house around 80 degrees inside, while the temperature outside is hovering right at 100 degrees F.   Visitors are astounded, sometimes, to learn that we are not running air conditioning.   Because the practise of exhausting the house with the small fans, there is a concurrent effect of reducing the humidity inside the house, as well as removing atmospheric particulate that might normally be found.  Frankly, sometimes, during the daily "wipe-down" of furnishings and fixtures, the dust rags and even dampish paper towels show no dust or settling on the surfaces.   Cats even seem not to shed as much.   These are things that we have learnt over the years which have enhanced further the advantage of having an adobe home.

     This note:    During the nighttime hours, we run the fans pointing into the house so as to conduct the "cold" air from outside to inside.   This reduces the interior temperature into the low to mid 70s normally, which is very pleasant for a place not far from the Tropic of Cancer. 
The main reason for most of this monologue is to demonstrate that we really can avoid monster electricity bills....ours being something in the neighbourhood of 60 dollars every two months.   Remember though, we have a medium sized refrigerator, a television, a radio, a water pump, a few fans, and a few lights and a couple of electric clocks....all of which are used judiciously, (very judiciously).

     The animals continue to be problems and pleasant company.   The cats somehow manage to always be both predictable and unpredictable, as cats must be.   They are clean, quiet, and like to "check into things", which is good for the house.   The dogs are stinky, beset with ticks right after the rain, and lazy although they remain alert at night.   All of them like to eat.   Bibi, the Labrador, has made good friends with the Rhodesian Lion Hounds, a mother, daughter, and two sons who live at the next-door Hacienda de La Vega.   There is a pleasant, almost childish back and forth between them all whenever El Gringo Viejo goes over to exchange visits or deliver messages.   When our neighbour comes over, his dogs actually do not cause much if any damage in spite of their huge size and clumsiness.   Bibi, and his other friend Payaso (clown, because of his colouration), delight in going down to the river.   Bibi in particular needs only hear the word "river" or "Rio", and he is at the gate, with his tail wagging to the breaking point.   His favourite thing is to run full-speed and jump into the river with his version of a belly flop.   He also has taken to standing over the sprinkler and "flossing" his teeth with the pressure streams and generally getting thoroughly drenched.

  More stories from the Quinta later.  Thanks for your time and interest.
El Gringo Viejo

      

Mexican Presidential Election Update and Analysis

A bit of prologue is in order.   The reporting in the United States has been dismally poor concerning the topic of the elections in Mexico.   Reporting in the United States about almost everything is in a fairly dismal condition.   This bit of information is given as an update to our previous analysis about the issue, along with a bit of self-critique.

     To begin, our assessment has been pretty much dead on.   The biggest surprise is that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has managed to lag behind, then surge, and now slide back, showing a peculiar "wave action" among the electorate for and against this somewhat deranged, narcissistic Trotskyite.  It always sounds good to say that the poor people need help and that there should be more "income redistribution", but after the sun comes up the next day, and everyone comes back to their senses, most people really, really know that "income redistribution" is not a workable socio-political solution for anything.

     We were also somewhat surprised at the viciousness of the intellectual left in Mexico and internationally against the National Action Party's (PAN) candidate, Josefina Vasquez Mota.   Joining in the piling on has been the old Dinosaur capitalists of the old official party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI);  these would be people associated closely with the  Televisa entertainment group, and people of the type, resources, and connections of someone like Carlos Slim.    Intense, prolonged, and concentrated efforts have been made to denigrate the woman at every turn.

     The candidacy of the old official party's nominee, Ernesto Pen~a Nieto, the ex-governor of the State of Mexico, has wobbled and stumbled.   It has been propped up by glossy, pablum television ads, and marked by pointless, rambling speeches built of platitudes.  It has been suddenly and severely damaged by relentless news stories about massive corruption having been committed by PRI governors in Coahuila and Tamaulipas States, including collusion with cartels, with some connection being laid at Pen~a Nieto's feet.   He and the now disgraced previous governor (and his  chief subordinates) of Coahuila were closely allied in recent years during internal PRI politicking.

Lopez-Obrador (left), Quadri, Pena Nieto, and Vasquez Mota

 

     The PAN candidate has had a few contretemps, especially in the earlier part of the campaign, but has hit her stride in recent days.   In spite of what is written in FOX News - Latino, she was overwhelmingly seen as having won the debates that were held in Guadalajara a few nights ago.    This was a unanimous decision of the entire press and among polling groups.  Newspapers such as La Reforma, Excelsior, ABC,. Milenio, and even the television commentators pointed out that she had "taken it to them", leaving the "boys" standing sheepishly as she lashed out at their preposterous statements and records as well as some of their associates.

     The fourth-ranking candidate, perhaps appropriately named Quadri, did not make much head-way in the last debate when he resorted to asking his opponents for help about what some of the points of his platform had been.    Shades of Governor Perry.   Quadri is a likeable sort, not the fire-brand radical one might expect as the head of a confederation of leftist parties.   He will not receive more than four percent of the vote, in all probability, and many of those will be in the vein of votes casted for "none of the above".

Latest rankings:

                                              Pen~a Nieto                                 36 - 39%

                                              Vasquez Mota                             31 - 33%

                                              Lopez Obrador                            27 - 29%

                                              Quadri                                            3 -    4%

     

     We have been surprised that the normally very reliable Mitofsky poll has stubbornly insisted upon showing Pen~a Nieto with up to 45%, and is considered an outlier.    Other historically reliable polling groups have been agreeing with the assessment that the most fervent voters....those most likely to vote...are the Vasquez Mota supporters, and this portends a close outcome, unless some of the less dedicated Lopez Obrador voters change sides again and go to Vasquez Mota.    All agree that Pen~a Mota has steadily lost backing during the past three weeks especially, and that his voters are the least ardent.    So, we may be treated to a perfect storm on the 1st of July, next.

Thanks for your time and attention.  More later.
El Gringo Viejo

From the Left Coast

     The son-in-law of El Gringo Viejo sent some pictures from a couple of spots folks hear about but do not have a lot of chance to see.    One is from a really magnificent ocean-side golf course near the Monterey area, and another is from a stretch of the famous Pacific Coast Highway.

The fog lends to the scene more than it takes.

 Just an amazing piece of geography

A respite from the "important" topics, politics, and so forth.   All very enjoyable.

El Gringo Viejo