Special Note to Americas Quarterly

This opinion piece appeared in the Americas Quarterly on the 6th instant of the present month of December, 2013.

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Lima Must Deliver on Inclusive Climate Decision-Making

December 6, 2013

by Keith Madden 

A year from now, Lima, Peru will host the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP20) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  For Latin American Indigenous peoples—who make up a large proportion of the populations of Peru and neighboring Bolivia and Ecuador—COP20 is a pivotal chance to coordinate and leverage their influence on the international stage.
2010 was the last time Latin American Indigenous peoples had the opportunity air their concerns about climate and environmental inequities—albeit outside of the official process. In April of that year, the first World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The conference brought together over 30,000 activists from over 100 countries, largely as an alternative to the failures of the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.            
    Indigenous peoples fed up with the lack of results from the UN conference articulated their own vision of climate justice at the 2010 Cochabamba Conference.  The resulting People’s Agreement aimed to construct a new system based on harmony and balance between humans and Mother Earth.  They reconceived a series of rights that were overlooked during the official negotiations, drafting the landmark Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth.
What has happened to Indigenous people’s voices since then? Few Latin American Indigenous groups are able to travel to far-flung conference locations like Doha and Warsaw. Indigenous peoples continue to struggle for recognition and fair access to the closed intergovernmental negotiations.
Amazonian and Andean Indigenous groups have minimal say in critical decisions that affect their livelihoods.  For now, they are limited to non-governmental organization observer status, with restrictions that permit only a few registered conference entrants per organization. Thus, their impact on the tone and course of the central negotiating process is limited, especially in moments of tough deal-brokering.
Indigenous peoples continue attempting to influence the process from the inside. Rodolfo Machaca Yupanqui was representing Bolivia at this year’s COP19 in Warsaw as an Aymara Indigenous person and rural farmers' union leader. He identified a sad misalignment in outcomes between the Cochabamba Conference and the COPs—for example, the difficulty of inserting ideas about Mother Earth as the ultimate provider of life into the vast G77 negotiating group. However, he reiterated the consistency in principles between the Cochabamba Conference and Bolivia’s official negotiating positions.
The few Indigenous representatives at this year’s COP seemed somewhat reluctant to express views that reflect poorly on their government leadership. In a process where Indigenous peoples lack direct influence, governmental representatives often become their only link to closed decision-making sessions. Cutting off engagement could mean losing their diplomat spokespeople.
As Latin American Indigenous people work to ensure that their interests are incorporated and protected in future climate agreements, Peru must create the conditions necessary for the Lima COP to be reinvigorated with the spirit of the Cochabamba Conference.  This means allowing Indigenous voices to be heard directly—not merely through the actions of a few official delegation leaders and regional blocs, as in Warsaw.
For Indigenous people to protect their interests in Lima, the Peruvian government has a role and responsibility to facilitate an equitable process as hosts and ensure moral leadership that recognizes the broad ramifications of climate change for Indigenous and marginalized peoples worldwide.  If the answer is not another World People’s Conference, then Peru must play a very active role in setting new precedents for inclusiveness in Lima.
Domestic recognition of Indigenous people’s legal autonomy and self-governance (such as in Articles 57 and 171 in Ecuador’s Constitution) is seldom effectively enforced and protected. However, it is even more of a shame that Indigenous groups struggle with these same representation issues at the UN, by being denied the sovereignty that would give them a seat at the negotiating table.
For the world to finally witness a more inclusive COP, Peru and the UN must begin planning now to open the channels for Indigenous participation and make closed negotiations accessible to non-diplomats. The equity issues raised at the Cochabamba Conference should be at the heart of the debate. Article 6 of the UNFCCC Charter guarantees “public participation in addressing climate change…and developing adequate responses,” but Indigenous people contend that the UN process shuts them out.
The next major opportunity for Indigenous inclusion will be in Lima, where facilitation by the COP20 host could be crucial. Fortunately, Peruvian Minister of the Environment Manuel Pulgar-Vidal has shown signs that he is committed to an inclusive process by recently signing a joint commitment with WWF International to collaborate at the COP20.
Still, details about the proposed setup and participative format in Lima are only slowly emerging. Being equipped with more information will enable Indigenous groups to organize and have a voice in the proceedings. With the COP20 now less than a year away, the stakes could not be higher for Indigenous peoples.

*Keith Madden is a researcher at Brown University with the Climate and Development Lab and is working towards a degree in environmental studies and international relations.

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El Gringo Viejo, responds:                                                                                                                                                                    

 

      United Nations? Climate Change? Used to be "Global Warming"?  Used to be Industrial Colonisation and Exploitation of the Developing World?  Used to be called Nuclear Winter?  Used to be called Atomic Armageddon?  Used to be called Global Cooling?

    It has always been called the Global Shakedown by effete, impudent, narcissistic Bolshies who are out to perfect the condition of man by establishing a worldwide proletariat democracy....with Hillary and Soros and the arrogant professorial class holding the reins of power.

    They demand, "You arrogant developed countries that exploited the dark peoples and those who have not had the 'good luck' of the exploiters, must pay for your sins and abuses!"
     And the money flows into the United Nations...and the Mugabes and the Husseins, and others of their ilk laugh and slurp up 300 year old brandy and run with fat, bleached blond prostitutes in the posh hotels of New York, while their limousines remain triple-parked on 42nd Street. The best they could do was South Africa which to-day, still to this day, remains a hell-hole anthropologically...murder, violence, poverty, inter-tribal conflict,...even as we are exhorted to reverence and honour another secular "Saviour" of the human race. Sandino? the Castros? Ferandez de Kichener? Lula? Stalin? Ho? Pot? Mao? Is there any end to the thousands of greedy tin-horn dictators waiting to crunch the bones of the masses so that they can strut and demand that the productive pay them to damn the productive.
      If you want to clean up the world, do it with the despots and the people who have the words "Democratic Republic" in the formal name of their country. Do it where the kazoo-played national anthem includes lyrics about the 'struggle for economic equality'. Do in the God-forsaken nations that have white-sidewall tires on their mobile artillery pieces and armoured personnel carriers. Do it in places that have ruling parties with names like the German National Socialist Workers' Party.

     Finally, spend another billion dollars or so per week to save the "indigenous populations" of the Mountains of the Backbone of the Americans" from Chile's southern tip to the tip of Point Barrow in Alaska. The fat, bleached-blond United Nati0ns Official Committee for Diplomatic Escort Services  customer service specialists in New York City, and the cheesy restaurants with the elaborate wine lists need the business.

Thank you for your time and patience.
El Gringo Viejo

Perspectives, Objections, and Agreements

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     We enter the Uni-season now, made more efficient over the last fifty years or so by combining the depths of Winter's Solstice with the Orthodox notion and understanding of Advent, Christ's Mass or the Feast of the Nativity in my Grandmother's time, the notion of Yule-tide, Hanukkah,  and then of course the Feast of  the Epiphany.

 

     Parenthetically, we urge that the OROG wade into deep water at the Anglican Curmudgeon's address and work through the fairly easy to understand complexities that attend the uses of the terms Catholic, catholic, Christian, Orthodox.   In an astute and non-hostile manner, our cyber-Confessor explains how those things are intertwined in the framework of the Two Testaments, the Prophesies, and the manner by which the many-petalled flower that is Christianity came to look as it does to-day.   Those of us on the Conservative side of the issues affecting the Anglican Communion as well as the rest of the Catholic-traditioned part of Christianity are aware of the inclusive - exclusive dynamic our issues and arguments present.   We lament the willingness by the "Progressives" to have no interest in such a dynamic, but rather prefer to exclude totally any influence by the traditionalists.  The Anglican Curmudgeon's present treatise,  along with Barrack Hussein Obama's paralleling of his own understanding recently as akin to Pope Benedict's understanding of economic fairness have inspired this writer to pen a few notes on this issue....and at this time in the Church's Calendar.   

     The matter of income redistribution, social democracy, and how the Bishop of Rome fits into the issues of "social justice" as he defines it as opposed to how Barrack Hussein Obama defines it might be a topic that seems best left alone or at least dealt with at another time.   But, alas, this might be the best time of all to try to set a bit of the record straight.   Part of the confusion we have....as in the case of the terms "redemption" and "salvation"....comes from our own efforts to make our understanding reasonable, efficient, and compatible with our secular schedules.

     But, reason mixes poorly at times with efficiency, and understanding becomes easier if we mix  comfortable phrases with scenes of how things might have been....or perhaps how they might should have been.

    And, do not feel as if this is a scolding by some ivory-tower perfectionist, who is demanding the purity of historical and ecclesiastical facts.   El Gringo Viejo was not there, and he does not know anyone who was there.  Our inventions are nothing new, as well, so no one is going to be chastised for having yielded to some new heresy of the moment.   This is not even a matter of heresy, as it is well known that Buddhists and Christians are very malleable, most of the time, in the application, practice, and employment of the tenets and/or canons of their philosophy and/or religion.
     The wonderful image above shows what has to be a collision of the plausible and the impossible.   It is the Coyote treading air for about 10 seconds before he realises that, during his pursuit of the Roadrunner, he has run off the edge of a 5,000 foot cliff and is doomed to a massive crash on the canyon-floor below.   But the above picture is still a wonderful image.  It shows the Christ Child as a new-born, being reverenced by Three Kings (or Wise Men, or Astronomical Philosophers), and lo! and behold! there is no Black King.  In fact, they all look like Mediterranean personalities, and they are expressing their reverence for the Baby at the door of what appears to be a very Sistine / Tuscan mixed-style of a boutique bed and breakfast.  So much for the cave or corral and the manger and all that messy farm stuff.

    We seize upon the above image, however, not for what might be accused of being  incorrect but rather to move towards the consideration of another reality, a greater probability in fact, that Jesus of Nazareth  was not a child of poverty leading the poor of the world to a greater reward, because the rich  were, and are, not deserving of reward.
     Analysing the nature of the sociology of the time, and wringing out the best understanding of the events surrounding the Announcement by Gabriel to the arrival of the Magi...we notice that Yeshua is frequently in close contact with people of position.  We know that he was recognised by an old man at the Temple when he was taken for circumcision and for the delivery of the thank offering....during the baby's infancy.  We also know that both Joseph and Mary were of the House of David, a royal house, and therefore, in order to be enrolled in the Census and the Imperial Revenue Service, they were required to go to the City of David for said enrolment.
     We know that Mary, although much younger, was the cousin of Elizabeth, the wife of one of the most important rabbis in all Judea.  We know that the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth was John the Baptist, who even during the childhood of his cousin Jesus, was out exhorting the Jews to turn away from issues that were not relative to the interests of Yahweh.  John was highly placed enough to engender a huge and troubling following throughout the Holy Land.  Troubling it was, both to the Roman  government, and especially in the palatial precincts of the satrap King Herod.

     We might be able to say that John was a "social issues" Tea-party type, and his cousin, the Son of God, was likewise much more concerned with the condition of peoples' souls than with the availability of government provided balanced diets for the poor of the Empire.  We also note that most of the popular "quotes" from the Bible about rich people are misinterpreted or totally misquoted.  Along with that correct statement we add another true observation that property owners, vineyard owners,  tillers, farmers, stockmen,  tradesmen, soldiers merchants, and even lawyers are advised to practice good stewardship over their possessions and professions as well as to develop their talents (monies and wealth).   In the Parable of the Talents it is pointed out that the slothful servant was scorned for not having invested his single talent, while the other two servants went and doubled their money during the master's absence.

     We also know that throughout the Nazarene's life, he dealt closely with the wealthy, often being received in homes of the influential.  We know  that his step-father Joseph was a talented man with a trade/profession who could plight his trough for the hand of Mary, who was as stated before, highly placed in the social structure of the Jews.  We could continue to point out things like the water to wine incident and the fact that Jesus had to admonish the Apostles to allow "the little children" (perhaps of the hoi polloi) to come close to Jesus.  The Apostles' understanding was reasonable in that they were trying to keep the "Important Person" removed from mundane and troublesome over-energised children.

     Other more nuanced points about discrimination, racism, ethnic "apartness", and the like were made by the Nazarene when he pointed out that even Jews could learn from a (ycccchh) Samaritan, when a rich Samaritan would risk his wealth and health to aid a Jew who had been victimised of highway robbers.  While other Jews would not stop....because of their pride, fear, and lack of willingness to spend the shekels and talents for the restoration of the fallen "fellow Jew", the Samaritan did.  The story about the incident actually reads like a police report, and one has the feeling that it was an incident that most certainly actually happened.

    To summarise, it can be demonstrated that the Son of God came to this Planet on a mission to restore souls to the favour and pleasurable service of the Creator.   He came and dwelled among the rich.  He had, if anything, an extreme upper-middle class background, with overtones of aristocracy and even royalty.  He was literate and well-studied.  Even with his comforts he lectured all to do good unto others in the same way one might wish to have the well and good done to ones self.   He was comfortable with the common people, and even the lepers and the wayward.  In his own anguish, He could make a friend of the malefactor suffering the same fate during His crucifixion.
    He asked us to care for the poor, the bereaved, the sick, the naked, the homeless, and  the prisoners and downtrodden.   He did not ask us to turn the task over to the government.   Or to a government.

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      It would appear that the Argentine Pope, after years of fighting, in his way, against the liberation theologists of that poor-in-spirit country, is searching for a third or fourth path for the Roman Communion and perhaps even for the entirety of Christianity as a social, worldly force.  His first months have seemed to be full of new messages that are hard to interpret from any perspective.
    We must have faith, however, that there be no resolution into a common focus about the present Bishop of Rome's view of economic fairness and the marxist predilections of Obama.  

 

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    As an aside, El Gringo Viejo was raised on a farm, under rules of austerity, because both parents had been through the Depression and two world wars, the Spanish Flu, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the polio epidemics.  Although I was last born and terribly spoiled to no good end, there was no great splurging even during those times when my parents thought that we were in a strong economic position.

    We did splurge on a Christmas tree, however, and we did share a few gifts on Christmas Eve, saving for the morning such that might have been left behind by Santa Claus.   The tree was put up normally during the last week of Advent to commemorate the journey to Bethlehem, and then the tree would remain for the entire Twelve Days of Christmas, to be taken down on the night of the 6th of January, the first day of Epiphany.  That was to commemorate the arrival of the Three Kings and their delivery of fine and expensive gifts from afar.  My parents would normally have some relatively expensive or what could be styled as "the best"  gift reserved for that day, and only for the children.

 

     Perhaps in moving towards a second childhood, we have tried to prohibit and/or preclude gifts for the last few years from any source,  to us.  We will give small things to our children, but most if not all  of the gift-giving we do is to the grandchildren.   I would prefer to give them their things on the 6th of January,   but that is a difficult matter when they live 360 miles away.  So we take it up during Christmas Tide, because it just doesn't make sense to send a half of a cup-cake, a strange looking rock, two jelly beans, and a quarter by FED EX to each granddaughter for 30 dollars.  So we drive it up instead.

Unavoidable Conclusions

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     Once so much evidence makes itself....shall we say...evident, one must certainly be that willing juror who can readily say that the fellow in the dock is either guilty or innocent.

 

 

      It becomes quite certain, and one can state without fear of contradiction, that the leader of this Band of Bolshies....at least the temporal, honorary leader....is a nincompoop.  The interview with The Tingler,  offered up as evidence just recently, proved definitively that both the Tingler and the Boshshie Nincompoop were, are, and forever shall be incompetent, presupposing, elitist commie snots.

     The notion that Barack Obama can say with a straight face that the reason his free medical project had a bit of a problem is because the central government's bureaucracy is bulky, ineffective, and out-of-date will provide solace as well as inspiration to comedy writers for months if not years.

     One must, at times,  accept that hubris, stupidity, arrogance, insolence, ignorance, and conceit can conspire to assure a fool that he can say anything and it will be accepted as having appeared magically upon the wall, or been engraved on tablets on some high mountain by a Great Cosmic Force.

     The successes mount up....Solyndra Slug, the Fister Flop, The Shovel-ready Shuffle, the Cash-for-Clunker Junker, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, one budget charade-disaster after another, the disasterous exit processes with Iraq and Afghanistan, the laughable (if it weren't so sad) Syrian and Egyptian issues, the stabbing in the back of Israel, the sudden shift in Iranian policy....all symptoms of the Emperor's Fine Raiment Syndrome.  It is very much like Church's Fried Chicken.

Like the lady said in the Church's Fried Chicken
advertisement, "You gotta love it!"

 

More later.   It is very cold in our sub-tropical paradise on the Rio Grande in deepest South Texas, now in the mid-30s.  El Zorro wrote to assure us that on the other side of the Republic of Texas, quite close to the Red River, his temperature was around 9 degrees, with all kinds of frozen precipitation, but that he has several hundred pounds of propane, a fireplace with over 2 years of continual pruning and reserving of mesquite stored up, and a larder that will run out a little after Gabriel blows his trumpet.

El Gringo Viejo

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As we move deeper into Advent....It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

A BIT OF A FUN NOTE FROM EL ZORRO'S MATES AT CAM RANH BAY and MACDILL AFB DURING A DIFFERENT ETERNITY NOT SO LONG AGO.   ALL OROGs WILL AGREE THAT THIS IS WHAT A FLASH MOB SHOULD BE LIKE -  El Gringo Viejo

 

 

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We have no problems… I can’t think of anything else to describe this:

 

USAF Band Does Holiday Flash Mob | Military.com

 

“Joy to the World”

 

Sent from my Air Force buddies who were at McDill AFB and Cam Ranh Bay in the 12^th Tactical Fighter Wing with me.

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To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Air Force Flash Mob

 

To: 12TFW Association and their friends

 

This was forwarded to us by our good friend Bill McWilliams, 12 TFW MacDill & CRAB.

You need to view this until the end as the “Flash Mob” continues to grow in size, at the Air and Space Museum Mall.

 

I found their performance to be very moving. Please share with others who might appreciate this video.

Merry Christmas to all,

 

From Bill;

”The Air Force band does a magnificent piece of Christmas music, and we can’t think of a better way to wish one and all a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.”

Our fond good wishes to each and every one,

 

Bill and Ronnie McWilliams

 

USAF Band

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Hello Again. Cold, Earthquakes, Flowers, Repairs, Pearl Harbour, and Republic of Texas....Let Us Begin.

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We made it in yesterday, after a bit of a wait at the McAllen - Reynosa Bridge, and then proceeded to recuperate.   Then it was on to reposition clothes, shoes, boots, hats, and all this stuff that always seems to surround us and demand more attention and care than a herd of cats and children.   But, it is my life that I have imposed upon myself.

 

     The last couple of weeks at our place on the skirts of the isolated  Sierra Madre Oriental has suffered through a bit of a chilly period.  Two or three mornings  found the thermometer registering 30 to 31 degrees F, at the dawning hour.   The rest of the time the mornings arrived with the temperatures in the upper thirties or low forties.   The high temperatures struggled to get out of the sixties, and all in all it was a pretty chilly paso de estancia.

    

      This has been the coldest overall Autumn since the keeping of records for the Victoria, Tamaulipas area.  No high or low records have been set, but the generally and steadily low temperatures have led to this particular weather/climate factoid.

 

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     During the early morning hours of the date 25 November, 2013 there was an earthquake reaching the level of 4.1  -  4.5 Richter, being centred near the community of San Felipe de China, Nuevo Leon which is about 60 miles east of  the Monterrey metroplex.

     There is a significant, complex flood-control, irrigation, and hydro-electric production dam, named "El Cuchillo" on the watercourse of the Rio San Juan very nearby the epicentre.  To this point the complete review of that facility has not been completed. A major water transfer pipeline runs from the lake formed by the dam  to the metroplex of Monterrey, quite a project actually.   That pipeline, along with many others....a huge twin-six foot natural gas transmission line, for instance....all have to be analysed and evaluated.

      There were several reporters, of course, who suggested that frakking and/or global warming had caused the fairly rare earthquake.   And, of course, those two phenomena had also intensified the temblor beyond the levels of the other rare quakes (not true).

 

     At our little mud hideaway we had only a fairly sharp thudding bump (yes, in the night) just sharp enough to make all the dogs the Francisco I Madero Ejido bark, and cause our three cats to run into the parlour with their eyes wide as serving plates.

 

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     We are called upon to remember the events of 72 years ago, to-morrow.  Moving such a huge attack fleet...so very far across the Pacific Ocean and the launching of essentially naval "light cavalry" with such a devastating effect is a remarkable event.   That we slept through the possibility and did so little to anticipate and be ready for such a blow was, is, and should forever be a reminder of the validity of the ancient adage....."If a nation truly desires peace, that nation should always be prepared for war."

 

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    Our little hideaway is famous for producing an almost unending profusion of florid things, with something...or more frequently....lots of things flowering all year around.  On the right, the OROG can see Alvaro trying to show El Gringo Viejo how to study the Virginia Vine, (picture taken yesterday).

 

   

The OROG can judge for him/herself if El Gringo Viejo learned how to approach this task.   The Virginia is located at the very entrance to the Quinta.  We need to point out that our dating on the photos is not correct because we cannot figure out how to dependably access the adjustment area in the camera's brain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Why Texas Nationalist?

James Rollins          

 

Recently I was invited to like The Convention of States Project on FB. This caused me to consider again why I am a Texas Nationalist. It boils down to one simple question for me:

"Can a constitutional republican form of government, respectful of our Rights and Liberty, be restored in Washington DC?"

I don't think it can be. It's nice to talk about an Article Five Convention or repealing the 17th Amendment or restoring constitutional national government but in my opinion it is all impossible in reality.

 

The history of our country since the formation of our government under the Constitution is extremely complex in detail but simple in theme. People are born with unalienable Rights. Government is created by People to secure and protect their Rights. When their government becomes abusive of their Rights, People have the Right to change their government to better secure and protect their Rights. The Constitution of the United States was a plan to have a national government powerful enough to solve certain national problems affecting all the States but weak enough to not be a threat to the Rights and Liberties of the People in the States. In retrospect, this has not worked out in actual practice.

Our country was most free when the Constitution was first ratified. Since then, ambitious politicians in our national government have used almost every international and domestic crisis and problem to seize more power for the government at the expense of the sovereignty of the States and the Liberty of the People. In my opinion, after more than 200 years, the great American experiment in self government has failed to secure our lasting peace and prosperity. Most importantly, our great experiment has failed to secure and preserve our Rights and our Liberty. This has resulted in our national state of affairs today.

In my opinion, the federal government is not going to be reformed. Politicians essentially do what their constituents demand. For generations, activists in this country have demanded the role of our national government change from securing and protecting the Rights and Liberty of All the People to providing social services, regulating almost all economic activity and seeking to achieve the nebulous goals of social justice and fairness in life. It is now considered proper and right for government to take substance from some people to give to other people at home and abroad. All of this has been encouraged by ambitious politicians aided by the disinterest of the general public. The vast majority of people in the great urban areas of this country don't want constitutional government. Instead they want government to provide for their needs. Big business interests, especially the military industrial complex, receive special treatment from the government in exchange for donations at election time. People and businesses that want something from government are who our government listens to and acts for. Those of us who desire that government should leave us alone to live our lives as best we can and as we wish, are regarded as a little bit strange and even crazy. We've even been called traitors by some in Congress for holding fast to the ideas of Liberty, personal responsibility and self determination.

Some people and politicians in this country have forgotten a simple fact. If the Liberty of some people is increased by decreasing the Liberty of other people, then no one really has Liberty at all. What we have is tyranny with the government playing favorites.

When our founding generation found their rights and liberties as British citizens being disregarded by Parliament and the King, they did not seek to reform the British system of government. Instead they sought and fought for Independence and the right to govern themselves. As a Texas Nationalist I am saying that I am willing to do the same for Texas so that we may be free of the national tyranny in Washington DC.

The government in Washington, regardless of which party is in charge, is bankrupting the country, ruining the economy, encouraging class warfare based on sex, religion, race and income, and destroying our reputation internationally with a reckless foreign policy. Our government of the people, by the people and for the people operates with an absolute disregard for the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of Texas and our Rights and Liberty. If I thought the United States and our freedom could be saved by reforming the national government, I would support efforts like the Convention of States Project. However, I do not think the United States government can be changed or reformed in any substantial way. Therefore I choose to devote my efforts to achieving Independence for Texas.

Independence is the only possible way to insure an opportunity for a better future for my grandchildren. Some say that Independence is a dream. But Texans have always been different from the rest of the country. Texas is a state of mind and a way of life, recognized nationally and internationally. Today more people are thinking about what it means to be Texan and free. More Texans are thinking that they don't want to be dictated to by an overbearing intrusive national government. More Texans are realizing that the federal government is broken and can't be fixed. More Texans are realizing they don't need the federal government at all.

In my opinion, our liberty as Texans is being assaulted every day by the federal government. The future of our children and grandchildren is being threatened. Independence is the only way to stop the assault on our Rights and Liberty. Independence is the only way to end the threat to our heirs.

I believe the federal government has become the greatest enemy of our own Liberty that this country has ever seen. Recent revelations about the NSA spying on the general public and the IRS targeting certain political groups show us again that we do not control and cannot trust our national government. We cannot change the federal government nor can we change the mindset of the rest of the country. Therefore I believe Texas must be a free and independent nation. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

Go to http://texnat.org for more information.

Respectfully, James Rollins, La Grange, TX

 

 

    This calls into question the sound reasoning behind a State initiative, based upon the authority specified in and by Amendment V of the Bill of Rights.   Such is an alternative for attacking the excesses of the central government that is favoured by El Zorro and Mark Levin and numerous other straight thinkers.    We are including these writings of another similar...but slightly different...take on the problems present by the appearance on the scene of committed totalitarians.   These opinions are, as noted, Mr. James Rollins who is a member of the Texas Nationalist Movement. 

 

    We leave the issue open.   If we are to remain Americans, in a federated union of sovereign States, the Fifth Amendment approach could work.   In a more cumbersome procedure we abolished liquor and alcohol from America's pantries, and later restored the Devil's brews and distillates, once again by the same cumbersome procedure   (So much for the term  "settled law").

     The standard amendment procedure has been used, and that means that there is more than a little validity to the Fifth Amendment alternative as well.

 

     I, personally, actually do think that withdrawal from the present Union might be easier and would not even necessarily be all that bad for the rest of the States left behind.    We'll commend this all to the attention of folks who think in terms much grander than trite, meaningless  focus-group belchings.

 

El Gringo Viejo

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The Kennedy Issue

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    For El Gringo Viejo, he was sitting in Mr.  Jerry Lofton's fourth-period Civics and Economics, Major Work class.   I was just one of the preppies in Bostonians with no socks (fad of the moment), Levi's with cuffs rolled to the inside, never outside by that point.  We were engaged in a bit of discussion with Mr. Lofton, the few Democrats in the class, and the body of people, while he also prepared to pass out our "weekly", which was half essay and half multiple choice and /or true-false.  It was easy and hard....if a person had done the readings and remotely listened / participated in the class discussion / arguments, then he/she could almost always score 90 or better.

 

     The P-A System that connected every classroom, nook, and cranny of the McAllen High School campus with the front office suddenly began to crackle a bit....the usual sign that an announcement was impending.   Then there was some hard-to-discern conversation...just voices...we could recognise who was speaking but not what was being said.   Jane Martin said, "I hope they have more problems with the jet engine, and they have to let us go after this class."  The McAllen High School physical plant started life with a T- 38 jet engine that was converted into a system to generate electricity.   It failed during its first year of operation so frequently that students were officially advised to carry a flashlight in order to make it around in the windowless building.   Man, did we ever want to go back to our old, familiar run down building in the centre of town.

     Then, Mr.  Marion Sell, a first-class jerk, principal of the  9th biggest high school in the Republic of Texas, came on, clearing his throat several times, and finally ominously intoning, "This announcement is to inform everybody that the President of the United States has been shot in Dallas, and is apparently dead.   We shall make another announcement fairly shortly concerning the remaining class schedule for to-day."  It was 12:42....only 22 years after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

      We were stunned.   The class was 60% Republican, 10% Democrat, the rest dedicated whatevers.   Jane Martin declared, "Well, at least we're going to be let out early."

      Mr. Lofton, who was a dedicated theoretical conservative...leaning Republican....and most of us believed he was a poofy....said, "Jane?" immediately causing Jane to say, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way." to which Mr. Lofton said, "Let us pray for the President and his family and the Republic....and he offered something to this effect, "Almighty Father, guide us in the troubled hours to come.  Help the Kennedy family, who has already lost so much.  Watch over Caroline and John John, and this we pray in your Son's name, Amen."   The Romans and Episcopalians crossed themselves and we all sat back down for what seemed to be forever....three...perhaps five minutes.

      There was another announcement by Mr. Sell, saying that the bus students would leave two hours early (13:20), and the remainder of the students could leave the campus at the end-of-period bell, which would ring in about 12 minutes.   The bell rang, we went homeward, mostly through the other homes of friends.   It was a long weekend.   I served the early Mass at Saint John's, which started a 07:00 on Sunday morning.  That service was typically a no sermon, no music, only Eucharistic candles lit, only one acolyte to attend to the priest.   Usually there would be 50 or so communicants,  but on this day there were about 190, if I recall correctly.   And being an Episcopal Church, these people were, at a minimum, 90% of them GOP adherents.

 This is Oswald, perhaps one/ fifth of a
second after being shot.  Being shot at
that anatomical place, the knees buckle
and the pain is so severe that almost
anyone falls unconscious and enters
into profound shock. Recovery is
almost always impossible. 

     We had a television in 1958...the same one we had in 1963....a big, bulky Packard Bell...probably the best television ever built.  I changed into the Levi-official uniform...white, sleeveless t-shirt...turned the television on and in a few short minutes was treated to some loon blowing Lee Harvey's guts to shreds with a well-place navel shot....perfectly placed to silence the object of your pistol's affection.   This note:   If you ever need to kill someone and make certain that he does not talk, and you don't want to try a head-shot because of the chance of too much collateral damage to innocents, the place to hit is that area just below the belly-button.   That is because it becomes impossible for a person to speak...he bleeds out before the surgeons can intervene and sew him up, and all is well....all secrets are kept.  It's almost like Ruby knew where to aim.

      It's almost like he also just happened to use a .38 Special hollow-point bullet, the kind of bullet that attempts to disintegrate as the lead and copper jacketing shred through all nature of flesh and tissue.   No bullet was recovered from the body of Lee Harvey Oswald....

 

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VARIOUS AND SUNDRIED POINTS:

 

 

   To begin, Texas was not a hot-bed of Republican and/or rightwing activity at that time.   We had the Birchers, but they were intellectual and not bomb-throwers in any wise.   While Dallas was a "stronghold" of the GOP in Texas, it should be remembered that there entire delegation to the American Congress, two senators, about 19 congressmen, all State-wide office-holders, all county judges, all judicial judges, all county commissioners, all justices of the peace, constables, and sheriffs....in short...anyone elected in an election requiring party affiliation...were Democrats.   The exception was one fellow, Bruce Alger who was elected in a fractured argument situation between Democrat Conservatives and liberals in Dallas, in 1954.   Alger was re-elected several times before being replaced by fellow Republican Jim Collins in 1964.   These people were not snipers and assassins, however....they were very country-club, gentlemanly, and kind people.    I am not being sarcastic.
     However....up to and until around 1965....99% of all elected offices in Texas had their office-holders settled, not in the general election in November, but rather in the Democrat Primary in May, with the run-offs in June.   Such is still the case in the lower 1/6th of Texas to-day....although the number of GOP Latins as a percentage of the population continues to inch up, daily.

     There was one fire-brand sort, Maj. Gen. Edmund Walker, USArmy who was admonished by Ike as President for referring to Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman as "pinkoes" .  Walker resigned from his commission, but Ike refused his resignation and ordered him to the command of the 49th Infantry Division in the NATO command in Germany.  Walker had an impeccable WWII and Korean War record.   During his stay in Germany, Walker got in trouble again by directing his troops to think and vote the right way for the sake of America.   He edged over the line in his animation and this time was "resigned" by President Kennedy.  There was no real anger with Kennedy, the biggest disagreement being Kennedy's "Interdependence Speech" on July 4th of 1962...I believe...in which Kennedy pointed out that America was now an "Interdependent Nation" being necessarily allied with many democracies in the effort to confront and destroy communist imperialism.   Walker was disturbed that "interdependence" should not be celebrated on the day of "independence".   I remember well the "Independence Rally" at Archer Park. (4 July 1963) in the centre of downtown McAllen  (US 83 and Main) with the Birchers, part of the McHigh School band, and about 2,000 people.  They were all talkers...like Tea Party people....talkers and voters....but no assassins.   They were all good, dull, solid people.   I was there with the Teenaged Republican stand, raising money, passing out propaganda that was designed, I guess, to preach to the choir.   At that time El Gringo Viejo was in his last few months of being the President of the largest Teenaged Republican Club in the United States.....we had 344 paid members...in Democrat dominated Texas! ?
     Walker, interestingly enough, was the object of an assassination attempt in April of 1963.   It was determined by "someone" that Lee Harvey Oswald was probably involved in that attempt that sent a bullet into the living room window of the Walker residence one night in Dallas, Texas.

Maj. Gen. Edmund Walker

     Walker ran third in the Democrat primary in 1964 in the election for Governor.  He was quite popular....but no revolutionary.   He had gone to Oxford, Mississippi during the time of the integration of the University of Mississippi by James Meredith.   The press said that he had gone to cause trouble and resist the effort...the opposite was true, however.   He had gone as a proven military leader of white men and black men to counsel restraint, brotherhood, and calm.   Bobby Kennedy who knew a little but not much about Southerners and Texans, over-reacted and had the FBI arrest Walker, over J. Edgar Hoover's objection, and placed into an insane asylum for ninety days (shades of CCCP politics).   A psychiatrist evaluated Walker and ordered him released on the fifth day, declaring that he would not participate in a sham commitment.    The doctor was some kind of European, no Klanner or anything...and Bobby came off looking like the jerk that he could be, sometimes.
     These things were going on in Texas at that time.

 

 

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My mother and God-mother were poobahs in the Hidalgo County Democrat Party, they had been delegates to the formal State Convention.   Please remember that Hidalgo County was and continues to be the 6th largest of Texas's 254 Counties.    They were also despisers of Lloyd Bentsen, Jr. the local boy who was everybody's favourite liberal/conservative/moderate United States Representative from the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  They also hated Lyndon and Lady Bird because of their totally, thoroughly corrupt nature.
   It is said that people who worked at the station always felt that Lady Bird emptied the retirement accounts of the people at Channel 5 - KRGV radio and television in Weslaco, Texas when they sold the station in the early 1960s.  It was just one tale more, accurate or not,  of scores and scores of peculiar and illegal and immoral actions that made people marvel at the Johnsons' brilliant business acumen.  Anhydrous Ammonia tanks and Billie Sol Estes has a nice ring to it....for some of the Old Timers.

     It would take the arrival of the Clintons before we ever saw casualty counts stack up faster than they did with Lyndon's organisation.
 

 

 

 

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 For a fair, and even understated understanding of the utter worthlessness of Mr. and Mrs. LBJ and their  hypocritical political and social posturing....a person needs to thumb through the book "A Texan Looks at Lyndon" by J. Evetts Haley.   Please consider the words of a liberal, but excellent modern political history writer and analyst:

 

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia

Joachim Joesten argued in his book, The Dark Side of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1968) that Haley's book, A Texan Looks at Lyndon is an important source of information on Lyndon B. Johnson: "Haley's book may not be a masterpiece in the strictly scholarly sense, and it is certainly not a bible of my political creed, but as source material it is invaluable. For the author is not only a fellow-countryman of Lyndon B. Johnson, but an insider of Texas politics and an old political pro in his own right... That this biography of Lyndon B. Johnson is coloured to a considerable extent by bitterness at his own failure in the political game, as well as by an ingrained dislike of the Rooseveltian tradition (which, alas, also produced LBJ) and a generally ultra-conservative stance, I do not doubt. Still, even after making generous allowance for possible exaggeration due to these factors, there remains in his book so much well-documented fact that it cannot possibly be bypassed by anyone seeking enlightenment about the dark recesses of the Johnson story."

     El Gringo Viejo vigorously urges the OROG to dig up the excellent, although slightly (and reasonably) tainted by personal invective, book that chronicles the morally useless and corrupt Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.   She was, like Hillary, such a nice lady.   She liked Texas wildflowers....isn't that just amazing?   Can you imagine that she was the first one who liked Texas wildflowers?  Some of her best friends were meskins..."I even have bluebonnet pictures by...what's the name of that nice Spanish boy?   Poor Fear  E  O....right Poor Fear E O  Sal E Nas.    He's such a nice person and so talented."  (Am I feeling nauseated?)

     My Godmother and my mother, after making all the jokes about Kennedy having to change the currency from "In God We Trust" to "In the Pope We Hope" and how he would have to go over to the Vatican to consult on legislation and to "kiss the Pope's big toe". settled back to see who was going to be ordained as the Vice-Presidential Candidate for the Democrats.   It had to be Symington because Kennedy was a conservative and he needed a liberal to balance the ticket.   Maybe it would be Humphrey...probably too young.  The hours went by and suddenly Marvin Kalb comes out, looking a lot younger back then for some reason, and says..."We have it on good authority that John Kennedy has asked Lyndon B. Johnson, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate and the second place finisher in the delegate count at this convention, to be his campaign partner and candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States."

     My mother and my Godmother, at eactly the same time turned to each other and said,  "If he wins, Lyndon will kill him.''    It is my opinion that 10% of all Texans said exactly the same thing upon first hearing of Kennedy's choice.   Before the OROG or visitor snickers, please read the most heavily footnoted parts of Mr. Haley's book, published in 1967.

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     Finally, the  issue of the overwhelming popularity of Kennedy, it is a joke.  Kennedy / Johnson won Texas by less than 30,000 votes in 1960, with a Texan on the ballot....he was the least esteemed State-wide officeholder in Texas at the time.   In Washington D.C. he was admired for making things happen, in Texas, it was said, he was admired for not being in Texas.

Consider this:

    The polling of Texas showed a different trend. In the Houston Chronicle, published Nov. 22, 1963 and headlined, "Chronicle Poll Sees Goldwater Over Kennedy; Conservatism Would Carry Republican in Critical Texas Areas" the article claimed, "Sen. Barry Goldwater's conservatism would carry him to a victory over President John F. Kennedy if the presidential election were held today in Texas. If a predictable 2.5 million votes were cast, Goldwater would roll up about 1.3 million to Kennedy's 1.2 million. That would mean a margin of 52 percent for Goldwater to 48 percent for Kennedy, a statewide survey by the Chronicle indicated Thursday. The decisive manner in which Goldwater apparently would take Texas is indicated by comparing his anticipated vote with the presidential vote of 1960, when Kennedy downed Republican Richard Nixon by 46,000 votes for a 51-49 percent margin. General "disenchantment" with the Kennedy administration and an adverse reaction to his civil rights program are the two most frequently mentioned reasons for the President's decline in popularity in Texas. The picture could brighten for Kennedy by voting time next November..." Sadly, the day of this article's publication would be the end of days voters would have a choice to vote again for President Kennedy
 

     When Kennedy landed in Texas, the Gallup organisation, and others, had noted the old phenomena of "likeable, but....".   The US News and World Report published in October of 1963 that Barry Goldwater had opened a lead over Kennedy in the nationwide polling.....in spite of the President's likability and popularity.   Texas was one of those States that seemed to be approaching a point of no return, with either Goldwater or Nixon being preferred over Kennedy.   Johnson was being rumoured to be the soon to be ex-Vice President because of certain....should we say.....pressing personal legal matters.

 

     My parents had a grudging "like-him" factor.   My father lectured me after the 1960 election, saying that there is nothing wrong with this outcome.  It is not the one we wanted, Nixon is the better man.   But Kennedy was a friend of Joe McCarthy and a supporter, like his brother, he is an anti-communist, he's a Christian, and he is a believer in business solutions.   After that I was at rest. Better Nixon, but....Kennedy was no Roosevelt or Wilson.   And be aware, my parents never voted anything but Republican for President during their voting lifetimes.  My mother 15 votes and my father 14 votes...because his first vote, as he stated,...."....was casted by an damned fool. (Roosevelt - 1932)"

 

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Mrs. Brown was so pleased that I
really had done the project well.
I am sure the thought that I had
not just left the assignment on
 my mother's company car seat.

Kennedy and Goldwater on the
cover of the Semester Project.
The caption of the picture was.
"You're a nice guy, Barry, and
I like you, but your politics.."
and one can see Kennedy
 holding his nose.  

Oh! Gringo Viejo, you dream. There is no way you people and you especially at your age could ever have been so involved in such goings-on.
    To respond to that fair observation,  we include a major class assignment that had to be hand-written (in cursive,
of course)  during my Junior Year.  American History, major work, Mrs. Dorothea Brown.
    El Zorro and El Gringo Viejo and quite a cadre of McAllen's spoiled and finest were dedicated militant Republican conservatives.  To my knowledge, only Mary Ann Wycoff (a little older than I ) drifted off into the ne'erland of socialism after attending the University of Texas.

 

 

   We have to run. Much writing to do.  The various Zorros and Curmudgeons who are sharing the battlefield have found new Windmills to challenge.  Thanks to all for staying with us.   I am surrounded by associates who are smarter and more well organised.
     Engage and ally with your partners in the war being waged by the marxists against the American Republic and normalcy.

El Gringo Viejo

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