Honour, Class, and Duty

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

     Finally, we have arrived at a point where we can engage with our learned counsel and lifetime friend concerning this miserable situation in which we are enmeshed.  El Zorro and El Gringo Viejo have a tremendous amount of common traits....size, shapes, proclivities, talents, dispositions, ancestries, and the like are all right out of the Southern, White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Wasp Manual.  Of course, we are both mestizo...each having Indian ancestry, although El Zorro's is a bit greater.   And, as Protestants, that is a wobbly post along the fence-line, because most of the old Episcopalians consider themselves to be Orthodox and not Protestant....and certainly members of the the congregation of Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Churches.   But then, El Zorro is also a philosophical Theist by inclination...a believer in The Cosmic Force....while El Gringo Viejo is a dull, unthinking Traditionalist...set his groove by a family whose surname actually is Christian.   Both of us were good, serious, acolytes although we were a bit mischievous when not actively serving.  And, El Zorro is a better warrior than El Gringo Viejo.

 

 

     We have come though life this far, however, only to debate and discuss things we could never have envisioned during the previous 60 or so years.  The nation....will it survive?   Is the control group so bent on maintaining control and placing puppets into the control points of the governance, that it will kill the thing they are attempting to control?  Is there anything so ridiculous, or so obvious and urgently necessary as the re-establishment of the Republic of Texas?

 

     And, so....here we are.   Sitting around with no particular power, but yet almost perfectly free from any shackles of any control group or any individual.   El Gringo Viejo would like to throw out first that it is long past time that Barack Hussein Obama should have resigned from office.  To-day's high-handed (and running late, as usual, as is the case with all terminally narcissistic empty chairs), is a case in point.   The President of the United States is stating that he is ordering a change to a law.   Such cannot be the case in a democratic republic.  If he intends to order and enforce that order to amend in any substantial way, that is prima facie usurpation.

     Further, when speaking to the Spanish-language television network "Univision" during the 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Hussein Obama declared that he knew nothing of the program Fast and Furious until he was informed about it a couple of months previous to his appearance on said programme.   He said it was a programme that was put in place by the Bush administration and he ordered it closed down.  The bald-faced lie was so blatant that the two interviewers could not really say much, because it put them in the position of having to call Barack Hussein Obama a bald-faced liar.   They had to protect their own stupid self-interests in trying to keep the president at least on superficially positive relations because he was also saying that he was still trying to push illegal alien amnesty through the (according to the press people present) resistant, racist, anti-Mexican, United States Congress.

 

     But, that one event should have opened up a challenge to the legitimacy of the Obama presidency.  It was a clear lie on several levels.   Not a different interpretation of the truth, but a clear lie.   It was a lie that contradicted the legitimate interests of persons and institutions both foreign and domestic.

     Likewise, the silly, arrogant, and dangerous treatment of the Benghazi situation....before, during, and after the incident....definitively require the drawing of Articles of Impeachment and the subsequent Conviction of Barack Hussein Obama, as well as the indictment, conviction, and incarceration of the then Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for criminal dereliction..

     His incessant use of executive edict also calls into question his willingness to respect the division of powers.   His amending established law by the granting of waivers to certain interests, especially those private and public interests to whom he is beholden for political and financial support is a primordial transgression against the compact between governor and governed in a democratic republic.    The head of government must include and defer to processes based  upon the rules of Common Law and a Constitution that provides definite procedures and roles for each of the three Divisions of the central government.

     One danger Barack Hussein Obama fails to consider in granting these administrative gifts such as waivers and loans and government grants is that he almost certainly is violating the concept of equal protection before the law.  Further, he is doing it for the purpose of personal and political advantage.

 

 

     El Gringo Viejo is teetering and tottering between various inclinations and desperate responses to all of this.  It is almost certain that to-day, when the muumuu clad blobs come home from having their nails done, and the bankers come back from counting the money that has been deposited from the negotiation of food stamps at the various grocery stores and other outlets that participate in the national socialist "safety net"....they will be cheered up,   Why?  Because Obama has stated that he will allow the insurance companies to extend their old policies for another year", thereby demonstrating that he is decisive, and that he will protect the little people against the Republican Wehrmacht.    The terminology even boils El Gringo Viejo's blood...."Obama will allow".

     King Huabungo deigns....and he waves the scepter made from the femur of a defeated warrior from some  insignificant tribe from over there somewhere....and thereby causes Law to happen.  Too many Tarzan movies, too much dope smoked and cocaine snorted.  Too many people telling someone who is so obviously a puppet that he is great and grand and that his raiment is the finest.    Oh! What fun it is to be, An Hugo Chavez for a while.   T0-day the medical sector, to-morrow I think I'll just order a complete shutdown of the coal industry.  Then, maybe I'll nationalise the loan industry for advanced education.

 

     This screed is and is not suited for a treatise.  You have things to do, as do I.  To list the several hundred egregious transgressions against the sensibilities of the Constitution and the truly established law of the land would take several hundred, if not thousands, of pages of enumeration and explanations.  But I truly believe that if Obama had the remotest notion of the concept of Duty, and/or if he had one drop of blood with any Class at all, or if he had the soul of a person who valued his personal Honour.....he would be gone from the office by this point.    Furthermore, he would be gone by his own hand....returning to his native Hawai'i or perhaps Kenya or Chicago, or someplace such as Jamaica.

     Perhaps he and Michelle and the girls and Michelle's mother, and Reggie Love could all move in and room-up with Uncle Omar Obama Onyango at that nice little house in the Boston suburbs for a while.

 

     The final and real question is, should all the minor-league bloggers begin to beat the drum for removal from office, or should we just sweat out the next three years and hope that we aren't sent to Fort Leavenworth for "de-briefing"?

 

El Gringo Viejo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Gentle Wind Blows Down Upon Us.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

One of our favourite OROGs, in this case my daughter's mother-in-law....or what to me in Spanish would be called "comadre"  or more formally "consuegra", has sent these noble words.   They have served to lubricate the synapses for my better three-quarters, and provide comfort food for the soul and spirit for El Gringo Viejo....

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHERE'S "OUR" RONALD REAGAN?!?

 I wish he would show up and take charge.

REMEMBER  THIS GUY?     

     

"Socialism only works

in two  places:    Heaven where they don't

need it and hell where they  already have it."

-Ronald Reagan  

'Here's my strategy on the Cold  War:  We win, they lose.'

- Ronald Reagan  

'The most terrifying  words in the English language are: I'm from the  government and I'm here to help you.'

-Ronald Reagan  

'The trouble with our  liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they  know so much that isn't so.'

-Ronald Reagan  

'Of the four wars in my  lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too  strong.

- Ronald  Reagan

'I have wondered at times  about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if  Moses had run them through the U.S.  Congress first..?

-Ronald  Reagan  

'The taxpayer: That's someone who  works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.'

- Ronald Reagan  

'Government is like a baby: An alimentary  canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of  responsibility at the other'

- Ronald Reagan

'The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government  program.'

- Ronald  Reagan  

'It has been said that  politics is the second oldest profession.

I have learned that it  bears a striking resemblance to the first'

- Ronald Reagan  

'Government's view of the economy could be  summed up in a few short phrases:  If it moves, tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize  it.' 

- Ronald Reagan  

'Politics is not a bad  profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you  disgrace yourself, you can always write a  book.'

- Ronald  Reagan  

'No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of  the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free  men and women.'

-  Ronald Reagan  

'If we ever forget that we're one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under.'

-Ronald  Reagan

 

  

IF YOU AGREE, PLEASE  FORWARD  

IF NOT, READ IT  AGAIN.



A Revisitation to an Earlier Post....an Earlier Time: SEQUESTER MONSTER and the ATTACK of the SABRE TOOTHED LOCUSTS - 8 March 2013

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Great Read

Not a lot on Fort Marcy Park, or

the Davidian Compound Massacre

or Cattle Futures Trading, or lost

supeonaed legal charges tabulation

and assignments, or corkscrewing

into Kosovo, or any of several
thousand other lies, felonies, or
self-indulgences to which any
person with real class would
never advantage herself.
But, what the heck...
"What differnce
does it make?"

     As a certifiable blowhard, El Gringo Viejo knows what another certifiable blowhard looks and sounds like.   Last night on O'Rielly we had a twopher, with both O'Reilly and Bob Beckell looking like a couple of Great Blues, swimming in an uncomfortably small swimming pool.  Poor Bob was easily tooled into a shoe box by O'Reilly, when Bob admitted that it is necessary to drag inner-city, "minority" females into the sunlight of reality concerning the issue of promiscuity, welfare dependency, birthing at 14 years of age with no high school diploma, etc.



     It all goes back to the pledge of solution by panacea.   Bob was touting how his union thug father admonished him to always vote Democrat because the Democrats cared about people, while the Republicans only cared about money.   He all but admitted that the concept of a "social safety net" has turned into a multi-generational quagmire of of dull dependency, and a self-defeating sense of automatic self-entitlement.   It has resulted in two generations, at least, of children born without souls....in such numbers so as to genuinely endanger they themselves and everyone around them for miles around.    Interestingly, it matters naught if the race or ethnic group is this, that, or the other.   The multi-generational curse of soulless children occurs among all races, all ethnic groups.

     We have to remember when the Democrat wing stood up and cheered when George W. Bush, during one of his State of the Union speeches, decried the fact that his attempt to salvage the stupid Social Security Ponzi Scheme by privatising a small portion of it had failed to gain approval in Congress.   The fact is, he was right, but would have been "righter" if he had fought for complete privatisation.   And for specific, numbered accounts where the assets within those accounts pertained only and exclusively to the holder.   And that those accounts would have an investment plan...one of four or five choices....that the account holder would be "allowed" (even El Gringo Viejo might be a closet Government meddler) to place the money on various inierest bearing instruments.   AND.....that the possession of said account would be considered part of the estate of the deceased, to be transferred according to his/her will and testament.    But, of course, the control group marxists and elitists cannot stand this notion because, who, pray tell,  would be left to make their beds?   We cannot allow too many people into the Hamptons.    We simply cannot allow any more people to move into Taos, because they disturb Shirley Maclaine's seances.  We simply  have to remember that she demanded that the entrance gate to Taos be closed after she moved into that community. 

     These people deal with their own focus groups and think that we are all stupid....all those insignificant people out there clinging to their Bibles and their guns and their outmoded, backwards ways.   Obama's conscientious effort to frighten us and menace us with the removal of HIS central government support and flood of ever-more-worthless greenback dollars, just will not work the magic of before.   El Gringo Viejo, as millions of others, would prefer to starve than to receive any unprepaid pittance from the central government.
 

    

Airports to Janet Napolitano: You're wrong about delays

Janet Napolitano
President of the University of California

 

     Officials of airports cited by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as examples of how the sequester would delay airline travelers say she's wrong — they're not delaying flights one bit.

     It left Barry Soetoro in that unenviable position of either being stupider than a broken tennis raquet, or being a Solyndra Powered mountain of mendacity.....or even more probably, both.    Barry Soetoro and his ghoulish, really strange looking cabinet full of dolts, sasquatches, dumboes, liars, and nincompoops painted very specific pictures of what was going to be happening....nay! ....what had already happened.   The Humanity!!!   Head Start children were going to be set back....perhaps permanently.....little matter that the program is used primarily by slugs who like to lounge around in muumuus all day watching telenovelas and/or going to nail salons and/or "beauty" parlours.   It serves no purpose in terms of assimilation or preparation for regular school.

 

     Long lines at the airports....lie;   no vaccines for children......lie;   no space for illegal aliens with significant criminal histories....lie;   no coverage sufficient for the air traffick control  necessary for the air travel industry....lie;   insufficient coverage for the processing of meat and sea food under quality assurance certainties....lie;   layoffs at school districts throughout America, beginning in Ohio....lie.

   

      BUT NOT JUST WRONG...PLEASE.   LIES, willfully posed and passed into the compliant Obsolete Press....lies so obvious that the new social and blog media had already exposed the mendacities to the extent that the Obsolete Media almost had to capitulate.   Various of the  elements of the Obsolete Media even had to suggest, even if timidly, that the Warning of the Three Witches, roiling their cauldron, of the coming horrors was better aimed at Obama and his own, and not MacBeth and not the Tea Party reactionaries and not the Conservatives..

     It was as if, perhaps, three witches were reciting that ancient spell of times past.....Perhaps the Bard of the Globe can tell the story best, that great storyteller of Stratford-on-Avon hath built the trew actors for this scene.....towards a cold and withdrawn Castle, but not in Scotland....this one being located at 1600 Pennsylvania.....

      (Enter the three Witches)

The Three Witches in Orson Welles's 

controversial 1948 production of

MACBETH 

1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.
3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!
1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.—
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingrediants of our caldron.
ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

 

Grab your children all.   Paint the sill with lamb's blood. These people are driven to enslave you and yours.   But don't worry.  They will make the millionaires and billionaires pay for it.

Even if the White House is closed due to the Sequester.

El Gringo Viejo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Appropriate Theme for this Miserable Poseur

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

     On the one hand, we were troubled to learn that William Jefferson Blythe felt moved to sternly counsel the other poseur that it is necessary to live up to the promises made to the American people about keeping health plans, doctors, etc.    We remember that William Jefferson Blyth began his presidential administration with a confession that he would not be able to keep his campaign promise concerning providing the "middle-class" with a much needed tax cut.

 

     He moped and almost teared up, as he bit his lower lip to tell the nation that he had never worked harder in his life...."as I have during the last two weeks", to find some way to provide that middle-class tax break.

 

     It was an ignomius beginning of an administration that brought repeated disgrace upon the office of the Presidency during the entire eight years of his incumbency.   Monica was the least of it.  Red Chinese money pouring into the Clinton campaign war-chest, the Loral Corporation providing ultra-secret military technology to the Red Chinese....while making huge contributions to the DNC, to wit:

FREE REPUBLIC (credited source provider)

Clinton's China Scandals
Accuracy In Media - Media Monitor ^ | January 22, 2003 | By Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid
Posted on Monday, January 27, 2003 10:12:59 PM by NonValueAdded
    

     One of Bill Clinton’s China scandals may finally be coming to closure. In 1998, the New York Times’ Jeff Gerth broke a story about the Clinton administration’s willingness to permit two U.S. aerospace corporations to transfer sensitive missile technology to the Chinese. The CEO of one of the corporations, Loral, had pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions into the Democratic National Committee. In return, the Clinton administration waived controls on Loral’s export of these technologies to the Chinese aerospace industry.

      Hughes Space and Communications committed similar offenses, but it was shielded from investigation by CIA Director George J. Tenet. Hughes was a key supplier of U.S. intelligence collection satellites, so when suspicions first emerged about its illicit activities, CIA employees tipped off Hughes about the impending federal investigation. Loral admitted its transgressions last year and paid $14 million in fines, but Hughes has continued to insist on its innocence. "We don’t believe we’ve done anything wrong," Hughes spokesmen told reporters.

      But internal Hughes documents show that from 1995 on, the satellite maker gave China sensitive missile technology in order to win contracts in the emerging Chinese space market. The Chinese had demanded such assistance as the price of doing business and especially after they had suffered several catastrophic launch failures. Hughes promised the Chinese "whatever data and resources are required" to improve the reliability of their space launch vehicles. This included technical analyses of launch failures and information on guidance and telemetry systems. Much of the technology and expertise the Chinese gained was also applicable to their strategic nuclear missiles.

      Now the U.S. State Department has proposed fines totaling over $60 million and bans on future exports, which could cost the company millions more in lost business. Just before Christmas, the Department charged Hughes, and its parent company Boeing Satellite Systems, with 123 violations of export control and arms transfer regulations. The charges also indicate that Hughes hired the son of a top Chinese aerospace general, who provided insider information on contract bids by one of Hughes’ major U.S. competitors.

     The announcement also represents vindication for Gerth. He got a Pulitzer for his stories, but he was harshly attacked by the Clinton administration and its allies for reporting on the export control violations. Working through sympathetic journalists at the competing Washington Post, Clinton officials sought to downplay Gerth’s revelations and dismiss their significance. One of Clinton’s favorite reporters was Walter Pincus of the Washington Post.

      His son was then the General Counsel at the Commerce Department, which had authorized the illegal transfers. Despite the obvious conflict of interest, Pincus repeatedly wrote or contributed to Post stories parroting the Clinton line. Pincus did not write the recent story about the Hughes’ fines.

     We could go on with Hillary's travel office shenanigans, her demanding and receiving FBI raw data files for bedtime reading apparently, as well as her forcing Web Hubell to do her prison time for billing fraud, or else....and the really, really peculiar death of Vince Foster who actually officed in the White House almost adjacent to both Billy Jeff and Hillary.   Not to mention the peculiar, sudden death of Ron Brown three days before he was to "go State" concerning his collusion with Hillary and Billy Jeff concerning kickbacks being paid by businessmen seeking the Investment Tour seats on Department of Commerce sponsors "Asian Investment Tours".   And, of course, the "Dollars for Pardons" programme operated by Hillary's brother at the end of the second verminous term.   There never was anybody willing to tell anybody else who hired Craig Livingstone.

     These are only a few of those wonderful moments....shim, shim, sheree..of those days of burning down kooky religious compounds and killing children for....it turns out....no chargeable offence.

     Billy Jeff could liven things up by his own indoor sports and exercise campaign, but he had his share of other foibles, and was finally stripped of his law license and fined 25,000 USD for rendering false testimony and also for giving false testimony about having given false testimony.  A really twisted Billy Jeff, especially for a guy who never inhaled his reefer madness fumes during his "I loathe the military" days.
 

     But, after all this is a guy who is not too sure about whether the meaning of is is is or if it isn't is.   The meaning of "is" might be is but there is the chance that the meaning of "is" is not "is" if it is not the true meaning of what "is"  is not.     Whew.   That is all taken from Grand Jury testimony by Billy Jeff.....when he left the Grand Jury room, six of the grand jurors were slumped over their desks in a hypnotic catatonic coma.
 

    Billy Jeff's dealings with women were frequent and left much to be desired by all parties....and he had a history of violence against women which endeared him to Gloria Alred and the National Organisation of Women, etc.  The "women's movement" women were content to put up with all nature of rape, beatings, and unforgiveable aggression against scores of women if only because Billy Jeff would protect the right of a woman to choose abortion as a first choice up to and including the first six years post-partum.   

     These are little notes that just the tip of the tip of the iceberg concerning the Clintons.   But, perhaps a few low-information people might be moved to do the merest checking into the past of Obama, his horrid wife, his Uncle Omar Onyango Obama and Auntie Zietuni Obama, and Obama's close friendships and associations with Marxist radicals and Jew-hating groups and individuals, as well as his own writings (let us say, ghost-written material that he was told to approve). 

     Marxist community organiser types and people with very active anti-American socialist agendas learned that Obama could read a good teleprompter.   They also knew that a lot of low-information whiteys would probably like Obama's variation of  the black-face act of a person assuming the role of a Southern Negro preacher at the Holy Tabernacle of Shiloh and Jericho Baptist Church....and that whitey would be moved by such eloquence.  It would be just like a real imitation of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.   Like a generic brand....a lot cheaper....but just as good, don't you know?



At least as good as (Sir Edmund) Hillary's ...."I ain't no ways tired....'' in the Black Church in the South during a friendlier time.

     But the song we include below says it all.   The performers speak to a time when the Black Man and Woman had a lot more class, discipline, and patience....and lots real, live barriers that they were overcoming without the help of northern white liberals and radicals.  And yes, El Gringo Viejo knows that the white man/woman seems to have been enjoying following the downward helix, back into the swampy tar-pits from whence we came.   Look at the lyrics as the song progresses.   It is almost as if Obama has the same psychological difficulties...but not over some bimbo that will be forgotten next week.  His lament is in the loss of his adulating crowd, his worshipping serfs and slaves, his apologists in the Hamptons and the corridors of the buildings occupied by the Obsolete Press.

 

                                                                         

 

 

FINALLY:



J.J. Goulds depiction of Amos and Andy
 



(l to r) Moe, Curly, and Larry

      If ever there were an example of Kettles and Pots calling each other black, this must be the best of the bunch.   It even works a bit into the double entendre of both of the principals, Billy Jeff Blythe and Father Obamaham being the first black Presidents of the United States of America.  Perhaps we should say President Kettle and President Pot.   One could be....following the double entendre....a stinking kettle of fish, while the other could be a pot smoking dullard who really did inhale and deal the weed on campus, according to his own words (written by someone else).  If someone wrote this up as a sit-com, nobody would believe it.   Perhaps we could do a bit of cutting and pasting and re-working with the script and make a pilot called "Curley, Larry, and Moe meet Amos, Andy, and Lightning".

    We shall have more as the developments reveal that Cruz, Lee, and Company were the Knights Valiant.   Those with the wobbly knees were not the ones  who had been given the power to take the Sword from the Stone.  We should extend our hand to them, our weaker brethren, but only if they swear upon their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour (to the extent that any is left) to expend all effort in this quest to save the American Republic from the slavery for which the ruling elites and the parasitic class has been preparing us.

 

El Gringo Viejo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neglected Duties - The Cemetery Events of Francisco I. Madero Ejido for All Saints'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

    During our last episode down at the Quinta we went through that period of the celebration of All Souls and All Saints.   Normally, at this time, throughout Mexico there is considerable activity centring around the cemeteries.   Especially on the nights that unite the 1st of November with the 2nd and the 2nd of November with the third one might find established cemeteries crowded almost shoulder to shoulder with the descendants, direct and collateral, who are among the Quick, visiting with their forbearers who are among  the Dead.

 

     While urban cemeteries are frequently continuously tended at some level or another, and can be quite elaborate, the rural cemeteries are cared for on a quarterly basis by a committee of the ejido or, in the case of an incorporated small town, a local department that oversees the "Panteon Municipal".    During the period about a fortnight before All Saints, the official and semi-official authorities will deploy "fatigas" to clean out the cemeteries of litter, overgrowth of weeds and grass, bottles, cans, and any other insults to the aesthetics of the "Campo Santo" (Holy Ground). 

 

     Families are also involved.   They will go an tend to graves, repainting, cleaning, straightening, and generally returning everything to as "new" an appearance as possible.   Those who live in the community are charged a share of the community "fatiga" whether they have anybody living in the cemetery or not.  In other words, all adults and/or family units pay, and in the case El Gringo Viejo, this time it was just the standard 75 pesos / quarter that normally pertains to the matter.

 

     During the two overnight periods, and during the daylight periods as well, there might be two or three thousand people come an visit where there are 200 crypts and single graves.   The leaving of a "corona" artificial flower remembrance is very common, although other artificial flower arrangements are also numerous.  Even a common cemetery such as ours will be all but covered up with these gifts to the departed.   Normally large groupings of descendants and friends of the dead fellow living in the cemetery will be seen huddling, hovering, and standing around...perhaps even sitting on the grave covering "lapida" (long, rectangular, stone).....where beer, tequila, brandy,  various foods and fruits favoured by the departed, pictures of other departed relatives of the departed, votive candles, and perhaps even a few fresh flowers (not in water bearing vases).
     Vases or water bearing vessels of any kind are prohibited because of the long standing laws, rules, and prohibitions in force against the spread of Dengue Fever, a brother of Malaria.

     Our problem, it must be confessed, on this particular episode of the celebration of the "Dia de los Muertos" was that there was a dank, cold drizzle both nights.   The temperature was in the mid-forties, it was foggy, sloppy, and miserable,    (Sorry AlGore).  So, each time El Gringo Viejo arrived at the Panteon del Ejido, it was totally dark, no votives, no flash lights, no hurricane lanterns, no subdued, somewhat happy crowds of people bearing gifts to their departed.   It really was just miserable, especially for a people accustomed to living on the Tropic of Cancer.  Early November is just far too early to take the children and the women out into such elements.
     El Gringo Viejo was grumpy about the meteorological turn of events and hardened his heart against reporting about the traditional celebration, but after visiting on the morning of the 3rd of November, it was noticed that considerable effort had been made to at least make the people who live in the cemetery happy that their people came and expended said effort on behalf of their ancestors.  So, these pictures were made on that bright and cheerful morning.   Please note that the "Coronas" are the generally circular, artificial arrangements that are wrapped in a very heavy cellophane covering.  They are expensive, ranging from 200 to 500 pesos each (15 - 40 USD plus or minus).  

     Please forgive my lack of compliance and tardiness in the reporting of this significant event in the calendar of the Mexican experience.
El Gringo Viejo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

A Small Tribute We Held Back to and for a Special Veteran

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     And a final tribute, based on yesterday's salute to friends and family who are veterans, is this one to the grandfather-in-law of El Gringo Viejo's daughter. 1st Lieutenant Ted, United States Army Air Corp, pilot of the B-17, (retired) who saw considerable action, and was fortunate enough to have served into those moments when it became very apparent that the Wehrmacht and its madman commander-in-chief were done.    Ted and his wife are still spry and living well in Central Texas.  

 

     We include some notes about what his experience might have included. 

 

 

 

 

The plane that the  "Veteran Emeritus"  we saved back for a separate recognition flew is this one.  The animation pictured above is shallow tribute to the ardours of the B-17 Flying Fortress crews that flew into Germany during the last half of World War II.   The B-17 Flying Fortress and various other American and British sister ships bombed and bombed and bombed almost incessantly.   The Germans were resilient, resourceful, and effective in their resistance.  Whether Nazi or not, when these huge flights of bombers came over, the German was fighting for his/her homeland, family, and the big church in the village, and the 400 year brewery over there four miles to the south, not to be captured by the Russian, to save what could be saved.  Most knew by the middle of 1944 that the War was lost.

 

Our boys....an old man would have been 25 or so....there were many, many 18 year old tail-gunners, flew at 20,000 to 30,000 fasl, with on-board temperatures at times around -20 F and noise that damaged almost all their hearing permanently for the rest of their lives....and that was if they were lucky.

 

Early in the bombing runs, they had a bit of fighter protection.   Later, there was little or no fighter escort as the lumbering bombers, majestic but slow at 150 -170 mph outdistanced their lighter cousins and had to face Hans and his Messerschmitt.   It would be fairly late in the War when German attrition, in pilots, mechanics, petrol, and airplanes would make the flights a little more tolerable....except for the flak that would blacken the sky until almost the very end.   Escort in the form of the magnificent P-51 fighter, the finest ever built gave the bombers further cover by a plane that could outfly anything and then return to England, strafing trains and troop convoys as he went.

 

Luckily, very late in the War, the Germans turned out a two-engine jet fighter that could stand up to the P-51, except for a couple of things.   Very few qualified pilots and no kerosene for the engines.  German production of petrol had been converted almost entirely to diesel and gasoline.  Col. Chuck Yeager in remembrances after the War recalled finding a Me-262 apparently limping back to his home field, nursing his fuel.    Yeager went up on top with his P-51 and "put the 262 out of its misery".   Later he lamented having picked on the cripple, so to speak, as well as for not having taken note of the landing spot and/or  devising a plan to capture the plane and the pilot.

 

Another American encounter that resulted in victory over the Me-262 that was not crippled-up is chronicled in this clip:

 

 

 

Finally, it is well to consider that almost 60,000 Americans were lost in these bombing raids.   This does not count the Americans who had the good fortune to have been captured, after bailing out, by elements of the regular German Army and not the Gestapo or SS groups.   Civilian Guard people were usually rough, but not brutal....so almost 12,000 fly-boys (Brit and Yank) wound up in prisoner of war camps for the duration.   But, more were KIA than in the entire Viet Nam War, and their universe of actives was much, much smaller.   The casualty count for these men was approximately 25% KIA, WIA, MIA, or POW.

 

Salute to all once again.

El Gringo Viejo