Revisitation: The Battle of Puebla de los Angeles, 5 Mayo 1862

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

  Somewhat stylised depiction of the
aftermath of the Battle of Puebla

  

   General Charles Ferdinand Latrille, Comte de Lorencez would probably not have liked the above illustration of the aftermath following his attack on the the two citadels outside of the city of Puebla de los Angeles.    He was commanding an expeditionary force representing the Empire of France, and Napoleon III, the nephew of the much loved and hated Napoleon Bonaparte.

"Don't Bite on me!"

Furst Otto von Bismark shown here sitting with the
 just-captured Emperor of France, following
the Battle of Sedan, in 1870.   It was that loss
 that established Germany as an Empire
 in its own right, and finished France as
 anything of importance for the next
 two centuries

Furst Otto von Bismark shown here sitting with the just-captured Emperor of France, following the Battle of Sedan, in 1870.   It was the loss that established Germany as an Empire in its own right, and finished France as anything of importance for the next two centuries.    The Franco - Prussian War's conclusion costed France Alsace and Lorraine, destroyed the Monarchy, and generally left France with an inferiority complex that it has never seemed to be able to outgrow.   Liberte', Fraternite', et Egalite' became Mediocrite', Hypocrite', et las femmes avec des jambes poilues.    But we diverge.   The issue here is the Battle of Puebla, in Mexico, eight years before these two gentlemen above-depicted had their brotherly, post-carnage conversation (they were 2nd cousins amd relatively close friends).     



      So why is all this fuss raised about the Battle of Puebla?   For one it was a splash of cold water over the reality that Mexico would be a difficult blowfish to swallow.    The French (Napoleon) assumed that if the Americans could beat the Mexicans, then anybody could.   The Americans had managed to dispatch the Mexicans in less than two years, carrying their war into the very center of the City of Mexico.   The Mexicans had avoided every advantage in that war, and even when winning, seemed to withdraw.   Very peculiar.

      The French, who were adamant about being repaid monies invested in Mexico on a loan basis.   Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had stolen much of that money and moved to New York City where he set about various swindling schemes.   Antonio stole public money and private money so he would have been very comfortable working for Corzine and Co.

      Banditry was rampant in Mexico, the Wars of the Reform had ground on for years, with grumpy, autocratic Conservatives jostling with a grumpy, self-absorbed Zapotec Indian President who hated the Roman Catholic Church that taught him how to speak Spanish and read and write, hated white people, hated wealthy people, hated foreigners, and hated most Indians as well.   That is why everybody loved him, according to present day Mexican official history

       The French decide finally to invade, after failing to convince the Spanish and the Brits to join in the invasion of Mexico to recover all debts.    A huge army is dispatched to Vera Cruz, which is Mexico's principal port and one of its main sources of income to the government by means of the levy of  tariffs and import duties.    Starting with that income, the French would then fund their army's advance to the City of Mexico where the mints, stores of gold and silver coin and bullion, and site maps of the mines of gold, silver, copper, and semi-precious stones were known to exist in an abundance impossible to comprehend.

       The esteemed Generale Charles Latrille de Lorencez leaves Vera Cruz with a large army, under good order.   Zouaves, artillery, cavalry, drummers, buglers, bands, munitions and supply trains....and almost 30,000 effective combatants and close support personnel head West and Up....from sea-level to 7,300 feet fasl.    There are several significant skirmishes, and finally one significant battle that dispatches nominal Mexican Resistance.   Gen. Charles is being opposed by a Brigadier from the Guardia Nacional who is commanding about 1,000 regulars and about 4,000 better and lesser prepared troops from various local units of the Mexican Guardia Nacional, such as it was.

      Latrille de Lorencez had dispatched this unit here and that unit there as he moved, correctly,  into the interior of this foreboding and difficult terrain.   He learned about Mexico being hot, wet, dry, cold, windy, jungle, desert, and everything at the same time.   He also knew that each cluster, village, ranch, town, and city would have to be subdued, and  all this he did well, usually with little or no loss.    The significant battle that fairly well convinces all  that the French Army's task would be blessedly simple was fought on the 28th of April, 1862 in and around the community of Alcutzingo, not far from the pass of the same name that is hubbed on the mountain known as La Malinche or Matlalcueitl (goddess of blue and green waters, also perhaps non-salty water in Nahuatl language).



Gazebo in the Main Plaza of
 Alcutzingo, Vera Cruz, life is
tough with your licuado de mango.
Nobody minds if you put a couple of
caps of aged Potosino rum from Cd, Valles
into the mix.  Many French, English, and
Southern Americans made home here and
50 kilometres radius around here.   The cemeteries
have their names mixed into the genealogies.   The
people are always excited and proud to talk about the
"big wedding" in 1876....and they have pictures!  It is
compelling.....to see the formality and dignity of it all.

 

     Now, Alcutzingo is a blessed place, to the left is its showy gazebo in the main plaza.  It is said that many French soldiers retired there after all the warring, and other family members joined them when things had settled down.   There are also curmudgeon Gringos tucked in here and there in this and other similar communities here-abouts.  Various Confederates retired, died, came and went, invested, and lived good lives there after  The Woh - Wah.  (that is how one says the word 'war' in upland-South antiquated English.)

     It was here that the French dispatched the Mexican resistance and relaxed a bit to continue to Puebla de los Angeles.   It was anticipated that the conservative, very Roman Catholic population there would be happy to see the French and that there would be a celebratory reception.  Two days' march, 8,000 crack troops with fine French howitzers, a couple of grand entrances and a ball at the Kasino de Eventos on the Main Plaza beside the Great Cathedral....such anticipation was difficult to contain.   The officers and men knew that Puebla was a place of great refinement and excellent table fare as well.

The Peak of Matlacihuatl, aka La
Malinche, northeast of Puebla

      It was two days later that the French forces prepared to assume control of the critically important city of Puebla.   But only one little nagging problem remained.   It was that same pesky Brigadier General Ignacio Zaragoza Sequin and his gaggle of rag-tags from the Mexican regular and highly irregular Army.   They were terribly outnumbered, and already fatiqued and defeated, so what is going on here?
    All of this had started downhill when   Le Generale Charles had been confounded by a call from the the French Royal authority who wanted Le Generale to return to Vera Cruz city with his army and assume total and secure possession of that city and everything within 100 leagues along the coast.    This call came shortly after French forces had secured Orizaba, another important, although smaller, city on their way to the west.   He had begun to prepare a compliance, but noticed that Mexican units had begun to demonstrate hostile postures along his flanks.   That is when Monsieur Le Generale determined to seal up the opposition and destroy its ability to resist in the future.   It was a "slight deviation" from his orders that he would regret in short order

     After a bit of preparation and reconnoitering, the French began an assault on the Fortress of Loreto and its brother on the right looking out, the Fortress of Guadalupe.    The Mexicans repulsed the first charge.   Then came the second and telling attack, during which time the French exhuasted their artillery advantage by running out of powder and munitions for the Brass Napoleon 6 pounders.    The Mexicans on the line of defence between the two citadels broke out of their lines, and were backed up by fresh and competent cavalry.    The third attack failed miserably.
      Flanking Mexican infantry, supported text-book style by cavalry,  followed a fairly disorderly retreat of the French, during which time they suffered a devasting series of counter attacks that could not be prepared for.    Heavy rains commenced and both sides quit the day.    The French forces had lost almost 500 dead, 500 captured and 600 wounded.

     Mexican irregulars continued to arrive and bolster weak spots in their ranks.   They had paid a price, with shy of 100 dead and a similar number wounded, but the French estimated that by dawn there would be 3,000 more irregulars joining the Mexican assault.  Monsieur Le Generale Charles was to be astounded that he had been essentially destroyed by an inferior army in terms of numbers, training, and supplies but when he began his orderly retreat the next morning, NOBODY CAME TO CHALLENGE HIS REAR GUARD!   He was expecting an officer's group to arrive from Zaragoza to request his fine French sword.   None came.

 

     The battle stops there.   Zaragoza has no munitions.   Food is no problem.  From here to Vera Cruz there are beans, tropical fruit, fish, goats and cows that provide meat, cheese, milk, eggs and there is abundant production of wheat, rice, and corn.   But he has no munitions, and he does not know how much punch the French have left in them. He and his older, trusted subordinate, General Silvestre Aramberri determine to put up a hostile appearing distraction on the French rear-guard, which they do for the next two weeks.   They know that  at least the French are withdrawing.    At that is how the Battle of Puebla would end.   Mexicans 1  -    French 0.

     The 31 year old Mexican Brigadier would be dead within two years.   Always sickly during his early years, and lovelorn at the loss of his betrothed in Monterrey  (cholera?) a few years before, he was a surprise graduate of the Colegio Militar.   Born in Texas, near Goliad, he was the direct nephew by blood of Juan Seguin who gave great and grand service to the Texian cause against Lopez de Santa Anna, both during the early stages of the siege of the Alamo, and later at the total destruction of Lopez de Santa Anna's Army at San Jacinto, Texas.

     Monsieur Le Generale Latrille would come down with typhus, fight in other wars, become debilitated during his advancing years, but die among his own aristocracy in Paris in 1892. There is a legend of the Ceremony of Camarone, associated with a fight to death stand by some very valiant (perhaps stupidly so) Legionaires, sometimes associated with the Battle of Puebla, but while the heroic company was at the Battle of Puebla, their other heroism was accomplished about a year later and towards the northeast in the coffee  country down a bit lower in elevation.   Of 93 officers and men, only two survived.   The captain, who perished, had a wooden forearm and hand....quite a nice piece of art....which was recovered by an Anglo-French (Franglaise) farmer in the area and returned to the French much after the Battle.   There were only two survivors, and they demanded to be given terms or they would not surrender.   As per agreement, they were escorted to French lines and delivered back to their Army.   It is said  the the Mexican Cavalry dismounted and gave the two a sword salute and 21-gun honour-salute.

     To this day, the remembrance of the loss at the Hacienda de Camarone -  Tejada is commemorated with the Legion's most somber and moving ceremony.     The officers of the unit terminate the ceremony by service of coffee to the enlisted personnel.   The Hacienda concerned was and remains, actually, a source of some of the best coffee grown.   To end, the soldiers did not die at the Battle of Puebla, but they had fought there, a year earlier.

 This is the ceremony paying honours to the
  Legionaire company commanded by
 Captaine Danjou,  His faux
forearm and hand are
 carried by the centre
 veteran behind the
  officers in this
 formation. 

 



The esthetic prosthetic forearm and
 hand of the Captaine Danjou

 

     Too much for one Gringo to digest.   But...now the OROGs know and understand the rest of the beginning of the story about the Cinco de Mayo.    Very quickly, it becomes a much deeper and wider story.   It is a compelling story, and one of the best places to start would be "The Cactus Throne", which is a definitive, dispassionate, and even-handed treatment of the rise and fall of the Second Mexican Empire.

Thanks for spending your time with us again. 

El Gringo Viejo

________________________________________

A Southerner's Explanation - Part II

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

     We carry on now with the lamentation that, by having "progressed" so much we are now hog-tied and strangled as to what can be said and by whom.  We are besieged daily with who should apologise to whom for having said whatever.    "Hillary should apologise to the families of the dead for having lied to them about the anti-Mohammed video and for saying 'What difference, at this point does it make!!?' among other indiscreet whoppers in her past, present, and for sure, future."

    Puh - leeeese.   (Sir Edmund) Hillary is a compulsive, chronic, pathological liar.   Does anyone think that if she were to apologise for anything, it would sound different from, "If anyone misunderstood what I was trying to convey, then I am very sorry they did not understand my intent and the full meaning of my statement."

    People who howl on FOX News about how the black entertainers and public figures use pejoratives when referring to Negroes and women as a matter of normal course.   These observers at times can point to the Heavens  and bemoan this horrid fact and demand that SOMEBODY apologise.   El Gringo Viejo says..."Shut up, be quiet, sit down, turn around in your school desk, and do not say anything.''

    White-trash is White-trash.  When black people act like white-trash, there are other words that are used, and perhaps we should continue to restrain and eliminate those pejoratives.    But, white-trash....no matter how dark-white the individual, is still white-trash.  The "reverend" Mr. Wright, Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, Calypso Louis the Anglican acolyte Muslim, most of the popular culture singers in rap, hip hop, and other such bilge who cannot sing one stanza without intoning 230,000 foul words,  pejoratives, and profane shrieks and utterances,  and all who cleave unto such bilge, are white-trash, no matter how light or dark they are.   Latins who listen to narco-ballads that glorify Santa Muerte, and cartel cockroaches who sequester for ransom, rape 12 year girls in front of their mothers, and shoot up neighbourhoods in senseless "turf wars"...people who listen to music inspired by such festering septic sludge, are white-trash.  They are all doomed.

   The "Negro Problem" we have now in the United States of America is the direct result of the liberal, Progressive, the socialist-leaning, the income-redistributionist, the person and persons who like to play the game of social engineering because they are so smart and the rest of us are so stupid.

    That is why:

          (1)   After years and years of listening to the Planned Parenthood ghouls tell us that we need to teach young people about birth control the black cohort of the population has 77% illegitimacy in terms of births, and 30% of all black females bearing at age 16 or lower.  In 1950, black illegitimacy was 7%, Latin was 6%, and other whites was 5%.   Things are better now, perhaps, because everyone is in double digits.  Spanish-surnamed of all races is 40% and the non-Hispanic whites is 30%.   Most of this is due to the availability of public assistance.  Paying for babies without fathers is a huge business.  It is supported by the Farm Bureau, the Grocery Store Industry, and the Banks.  And by several hundred thousand government welfare processors.

       (2)  So much for "sex education" for a group of people who will buy a quarter pounder hamburger instead of a one-third pounder hamburger because 4 is bigger than 3 and so you are getting more with the one-quarter pounder than a one-third pounder.   In other words, education...whether it be about sex, social studies, chemistry, or baseball...is worthless when there is a lessened incentive to learn and arm oneself with the ability to provide for oneself.  If the liberals and progressives have provided for all the basic needs and wants of people with little drive to excel, then it is certain that they will begin to feel more and more entitled and justified to demand more and more, as they determine that they want and/or need more and more.

     (3)   The certainty that a crime by a white man against a black man will be dealt with all the abhorrence possible, and labelled a "hate-crime" at the very least, when crimes against white people by black people are rarely covered, and if covered, there is inference that somehow the crime was justified because of some form of subliminal black rage.   El Gringo Viejo is not complaining against the black man for these facts.  He is complaining against the leftist press, the egalitarian socialists, and the social engineers who judge lightly against the black man and harshly against the white, thereby committing a form of soft bigotry based upon low expectation for the black race.   It is, after all, you see the leftist whites in the Hamptons who "understand" that the blacks are too stupid to really climb onto the wagon of opportunity and self-sufficiency, and who know that they, the enlightened liberals have to "give" the downtrodden black race that perpetual helping hand of multigenerational public assistance.

     After all, if it weren't for the bigotry of the Southern whites and the conservatives and the Republicans not funding these programmes enough, these problems (that did not exist until they were "discovered" by leftist opportunists) could have been solved.    We, the bigoted Southern whites and the conservatives and the Republicans know that the welfare pit...fuelled by both central government and State/local governments...are the emasculating quagmire...and we know because we see it infect the black folks, the Latins, and the Angloids alike.  A person can even see its effect upon the pseudo Mormons who now practice "polygamy" more openly since the greater acceptance of homosexuals "marrying" has occurred.   Why?   Because two or three dullards with nine or ten wives can rent two houses and live like kings on the AFDC, stamps, and other freebies.   THE CANCER KILLS EVERYONE, FINALLY.

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

To close, we have a few observations that bear both peripherally and directly with the questions and problems about race in America.   We should note that there is no cure, and if there is a cure, it will take at least five generations to dig out of this cultural morass.  The concept of morality as a national code is all but dead.   Morality's weaker and nearly meaningless little brother, "ethics" is sidelined as a joke.   Law has become so obtuse and opaque that it is increasingly difficult to enforce, and as we have seen with this central government's exercise, law sometimes is not enforced at all at the whim of the ideologues who administer the law.   Tick-tock, tick-tock, the first solid steps to anarchy have been taken.

     Now, concerning myths and facts.   White folks lynched Negroes in the South and elsewhere.  This is very true, and it was an evil thing caused by defective souls, alcohol, and hysterical crowd frenzy that never amounts to anything good.    But, lynchings, sometimes with a rope, sometime with eight or twenty men shooting up some poor soul with their guns, or hacking him up with sugar cane machetes....were primarily works by black "decent folks" who were venting on some hapless child molester/rapist, repetitive thief, murderer, or other type of miscreant, almost always against another black who had not been judged as of that point to be guilty of anything by the Law.

     The "crowd actions" by Negroes against another Negro were three times in number to the documented 2,500 some-odd Southern lynchings by White folks against a Negro who had not been judged guilty by the Law.   These statistics are roughly drawn during the American, post-War Between the States  period.  To our knowledge there has not been a lynching of a black or white man by a crowd of white, black, or both people in the South since 1954.  If any, they have been few and far between.


(the year is 1908 - 1923)

    El Gringo Viejo's grandparents and his mother would at times talk of the rumour going out that so-and-so was in bad trouble and the "coloured" were going to string him up to-night.  At that point, influential white folks with good connections with "coloured" friends would rush to the area (sometimes as far as nearby northern Alabama) of the offense or where the "condemned" person was being held (and usually tormented).  Negro preachers and other clerics would rush over also to try, usually successfully, to extract the pitiable object of the ire of the gathered disgruntled.   The trouble with tabulating the number of Negro lynchings of Negroes is that they were frequently done at night, and pertained to sex offenses against children or a rape....things that people did not talk about much.   Also, the deceased was usually thrown into a river for the gar and occasional gators to dispose of, and not left hanging or slumped over some log with 200 machete cuts.

(the year is 1892)

     Further, El Gringo Viejo had two great-Uncles who had an emporium and a weekly newspaper, perhaps twice-weekly, in Franklin County, Tennessee.  They editorialised against the "new" Ku Klux Klan in the early 1890s and were firebombed within a very few days.   They did rebuild and continue their editorialising, proving that the best thing to do to white-trash bullies is to push them down into the mud, and kick them.

(the year is 1920)

     My grandmother would send my mother down the street to the edge of Winchester to check on "Auntie Madalia" or some such name (it escapes me while I am writing now), and that meant, usually she would have to run over to the apothecary for Auntie and pick up some very expensive ice for her "iced drink" which was some kind of rum and a soda water...probably Coca Cola at that point from the plant in Atlanta.   Then "Auntie" would tell the two or three white chilluns and the two or three black chilluns out to the "willows" on the creek bank to "take off some new twigs".  That they would do and then return to "Aunties'' front porch...where they would grind and chew up the willow-twigs with their teeth, so they would look like miniature brooms.  Then "Auntie Madalia" would set the little brooms in the sun to dry, and later during the day while she had her iced drink she could use her "little brooms'' for dipping snuff.   That was my mother's most direct contact with what she thought was an "old angel made out of shiny black porcelain."   The old woman would beguile the children with stories about the War, and the Yankees, and when her daddy caught the 50 pound blue-cat, and about being careful with the hoop-snake, "...cause'n he can reach waaaaaay 'round and ketch up his tail and make a wheel out o' hisself...and rooooooolllll real fast and ketch up to little chilluns and EAT THEM UP!!!   So you all watch for the hoop-snake and at night for Raw Head and Bloody Bones...caus'n they both be lookin to eat up bad little chilluns dat don't do no mindin to deh parents."   "Auntie Madalia" had about 30 little white squirts and 10 or so Negroe squirts who were her "official nieces and nephews".... Winchester was not a plantation or cotton area, and had never had a large portion of the population to be black.   My grandparents, nor my mother who was born in and lived in Winchester for her first ten years could remember any racial divides or difficulty.  My mother remembered "Auntie Madalia" principally because she made everyone feel good.

We hope that these two days of observations and personal ire against the progressive social engineers has been informative.  We invite questions and comments as you know...preferably via email. 

El Gringo Viejo

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

 

A Southerner's Explanation

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

     This race thing, what with the basketball team owner and the old rancher being jumped on for having said anything or something, is really tiresome.  Each and all has and have his/her and their point of view.   Each has his notion or theorem about "the race thing" and many feel as though they have settled the issue, at least within their own reckoning.   Both of the above mentioned fellows need to do a bit of introspection and the former needs to stay away from gold-digging slugs who Delilah bigoted old men. 

    El Gringo Viejo has a mixture of facts and feelings to throw upon the woodpile and he will speak freely without constraint as did the two individuals to whom we have referred above.

Preambulation:

     First and foremost, the greatest mistake ever made by the Caucasian race during the history of humanity was to have uprooted Black Africans and then to have brought them over to the New World to toil in bondage.   In the short, medium, and long run there were and would be no winners in the arrangement.   What the black man gained in having a bit of protection from the uncertainties of life in the jungle and savannah was lost in the absence of any form of liberty, lest it be granted by another person.

     What the white man lost was a similar liberty, it being true that a good master became a slave to his slaves and a bad master became a social ogre to all, black and white, and almost always died a miserable, lonely death with few to grieve his passing.

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

     One of the main problems with the understanding of race, bondage, and the American situation...along with the Peculiar Institution...is that there is so little understanding about the issue.   It was not long ago that a history professor advised me that he had never heard of the word 'manumission'.   The word means, of course, that process by which a slave owner cancels the estate of slavery held by a person, and with his authority grants the slave his unconditional status of freeman.  While in the South, manumission could come with all kinds of social and legal appendages, it generally meant that a person was free to move around without a written or well-known publicly understood permission.   It meant that a person could buy and own land, cattle, implements, and accoutrements with no others person's permission.  It meant that he or she was free to marry whosoever he/she might deem worthy.

Voting was usually a no, and marrying outside of the race was generally legally prohibited.   States and locales generally varied on permitting a Negro to carry a firearm or significant knife (Bowie, etc.).  Home ownership of fowling and self-defence firearms were generally allowed.

     It should be remembered that at that time, there was still no direct election of United States Senators anywhere in the South, and most other States as well.   Some States had their U.S. Senators named by the governor with the approval of the State's senate or legislature, other States elected their Senators from the State's legislature.   Many white people could not vote because they were not property holders in the amount of some specified value.

     An oddity of the Peculiar Institution that is almost always overlooked is that a Negro freeman was the fourth largest holder of slaves during the period leading up to the War Between the States.    Allow us to submit an excellent summary of the issue:

In an 1856 letter to his wife Mary Custis Lee, Robert E. Lee called slavery "a moral and political evil." Yet he concluded that black slaves were immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically.  (El Gringo Viejo points out here that Robert Edward Lee, Commanding General, Army of Northern Virginia, never owned a slave.) The fact is large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves; in fact, in numbers disproportionate to their representation in society at large. In 1860 only a small minority of whites owned slaves. According to the U.S. census report for that last year before the Civil War, there were nearly 27 million whites in the country. Some eight million of them lived in the slaveholding states. The census also determined that there were fewer than 385,000 individuals who owned slaves (1). Even if all slaveholders had been white, that would amount to only 1.4 percent of whites in the country (or 4.8 percent of southern whites owning one or more slaves).      In the rare instances when the ownership of slaves by free Negroes is acknowledged in the history books, justification centers on the claim that black slave masters were simply individuals who purchased the freedom of a spouse or child from a white slaveholder and had been unable to legally manumit them. Although this did indeed happen at times, it is a misrepresentation of the majority of instances, one which is debunked by records of the period on blacks who owned slaves. These include individuals such as Justus Angel and Mistress L. Horry, of Colleton District, South Carolina, who each owned 84 slaves in 1830. In fact, in 1830 a fourth of the free Negro slave masters in South Carolina owned 10 or more slaves; eight owning 30 or more (2).      According to federal census reports, on June 1, 1860 there were nearly 4.5 million Negroes in the United States, with fewer than four million of them living in the southern slaveholding states. Of the blacks residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves. Of this number, 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country's leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city.      To return to the census figures quoted above, this 28 percent is certainly impressive when compared to less than 1.4 percent of all American whites and less than 4.8 percent of southern whites. The statistics show that, when free, blacks disproportionately became slave masters.   The majority of slaveholders, white and black, owned only one to five slaves. More often than not, and contrary to a century and a half of bullwhips-on-tortured-backs propaganda, black and white masters worked and ate alongside their charges; be it in house, field or workshop. The few individuals who owned 50 or more slaves were confined to the top one percent, and have been defined as slave magnates.      In 1860 there were at least six Negroes in Louisiana who owned 65 or more slaves The largest number, 152 slaves, were owned by the widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards, who owned a large sugar cane plantation. Another Negro slave magnate in Louisiana, with over 100 slaves, was Antoine Dubuclet, a sugar planter whose estate was valued at (in 1860 dollars) $264,000 (3). That year, the mean wealth of southern white men was $3,978 (4).      In Charleston, South Carolina in 1860 125 free Negroes owned slaves; six of them owning 10 or more. Of the $1.5 million in taxable property owned by free Negroes in Charleston, more than $300,000 represented slave holdings (5). In North Carolina 69 free Negroes were slave owners (6).      In 1860 William Ellison was South Carolina's largest Negro slaveowner. In Black Masters. A Free Family of Colour in the Old South, authors Michael P. Johnson and James L. Roak write a sympathetic account of Ellison's life. From Ellison's birth as a slave to his death at 71, the authors attempt to provide justification, based on their own speculation, as to why a former slave would become a magnate slave master.      At birth he was given the name April. A common practice among slaves of the period was to name a child after the day or month of his or her birth. Between 1800 and 1802 April was purchased by a white slave-owner named William Ellison. Apprenticed at 12, he was taught the trades of carpentry, blacksmithing and machining, as well as how to read, write, cipher and do basic bookkeeping. (El Gringo Viejo points out here that the law in South Carolina and most Slave States prohibited the instruction of Negroes in matters of reading, writing, and ciphering.  It was urged by the authorities to read scripture and teach hymns to the slaves instead.  The laws were most frequently overlooked, and some plantations even had three grades of school, with tutors.  Small holders, those with fewer than 10 charges, could teach by osmosis, and the children were known to delight in demonstrating their recitations and ciphering skills.)      On June 8, 1816, William Ellison appeared before a magistrate (with five local freeholders as supporting witnesses) to gain permission to free April, now 26 years of age. In 1800 the South Carolina legislature had set out in detail the procedures for manumission. To end the practice of freeing unruly slaves of "bad or depraved" character and those who "from age or infirmity" were incapacitated, the state required that an owner testify under oath to the good character of the slave he sought to free. Also required was evidence of the slave's "ability to gain a livelihood in an honest way."      Although lawmakers of the time could not envision the incredibly vast public welfare structures of a later age, these stipulations became law in order to prevent slaveholders from freeing individuals who would become a burden on the general public.   Interestingly, considering today's accounts of life under slavery, authors Johnson and Roak report instances where free Negroes petitioned to be allowed to become slaves; this because they were unable to support themselves.      Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (University Press of Virginia-1995) was written by Ervin L. Jordan Jr., an African-American and assistant professor and associate curator of the Special Collections Department, University of Virginia library. He wrote: "One of the more curious aspects of the free black existence in Virginia was their ownership of slaves. Black slave masters owned members of their family and freed them in their wills. Free blacks were encouraged to sell themselves into slavery and had the right to choose their owner through a lengthy court procedure."      In 1816, shortly after his manumission, April moved to Stateburg. Initially he hired slave workers from local owners. When in 1817 he built a gin for Judge Thomas Watries, he credited the judge nine dollars "for hire of carpenter George for 12 days." By 1820 he had purchased two adult males to work in his shop (7). In fewer than four years after being freed, April demonstrated that he had no problem perpetuating an institution he had been released from. He also achieved greater monetary success than most white people of the period.      On June 20, 1820, April appeared in the Sumter District courthouse in Sumterville. Described in court papers submitted by his attorney as a "freed yellow man (usually a quadroon or mulatto) of about 29 years of age," he requested a name change because it "would yet greatly advance his interest as a tradesman." A new name would also "save him and his children from degradation and contempt which the minds of some do and will attach to the name April." Because "of the kindness" of his former master and as a "Mark of gratitude and respect for him" April asked that his name be changed to William Ellison. His request was granted.      In time the black Ellison family joined the predominantly white Episcopal church. On August 6, 1824 he was allowed to put a family pew on the first floor, among those of the wealthy white families. Other blacks, free and slave, and poor whites sat in the balcony. Another wealthy Negro family would later join the first floor worshippers.      Between 1822 and the mid-1840s, Ellison gradually built a small empire, acquiring slaves in increasing numbers. He became one of South Carolina's major cotton gin manufacturers, selling his machines as far away as Mississippi. From February 1817 until the War Between the States commenced, his business advertisements appeared regularly in newspapers across the state. These included the Camden Gazette, the Sumter Southern Whig and the Black River Watchman.      Ellison was so successful, due to his utilization of cheap slave labor, that many white competitors went out of business. Such situations discredit impressions that whites dealt only with other whites. Where money was involved, it was apparent that neither Ellison's race or former status were considerations.      In his book, Ervin L. Jordan Jr. writes that, as the great conflagration of 1861-1865 approached: "Free Afro-Virginians were a nascent black middle class under siege, but several acquired property before and during the war. Approximately 169 free blacks owned 145,976 acres in the counties of Amelia, Amherst, Isle of Wight, Nansemond, Prince William and Surry, averaging 870 acres each. Twenty-nine Petersburg blacks each owned property worth $1,000 and continued to purchase more despite the war."      Jordan offers an example: "Gilbert Hunt, a Richmond ex-slave blacksmith, owned two slaves, a house valued at $1,376, and $500 in other properties at his death in 1863." Jordan wrote that "some free black residents of Hampton and Norfolk owned property of considerable value; 17 black Hamptonians possessed property worth a total of $15,000. Thirty-six black men paid taxes as heads of families in Elizabeth City County and were employed as blacksmiths, bricklayers, fishermen, oystermen and day labourers. In three Norfolk County parishes 160 blacks owned a total of $41,158 in real estate and personal property.      The general practice of the period was that plantation owners would buy seed and equipment on credit and settle their outstanding accounts when the annual cotton crop was sold. Ellison, like all free Negroes, could resort to the courts for enforcement of the terms of contract agreements. Several times Ellison successfully sued white men for money owed him.      In 1838 Ellison purchased on time 54.5 acres adjoining his original acreage from one Stephen D. Miller. He moved into a large home on the property. What made the acquisition notable was that Miller had served in the South Carolina legislature, both in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, and while a resident of Stateburg had been governor of the state. Ellison's next door neighbor was Dr. W.W. Anderson, master of "Borough House, a magnificent 18th Century mansion. Anderson's son would win fame in the War Between the States as General "Fighting Dick" Anderson.      By 1847 Ellison owned over 350 acres, and more than 900 by 1860. He raised mostly cotton, with a small acreage set aside for cultivating foodstuffs to feed his family and slaves. In 1840 he owned 30 slaves, and by 1860 he owned 63. His sons, who lived in homes on the property, owned an additional nine slaves. They were trained as gin makers by their father (8). They had spent time in Canada, where many wealthy American Negroes of the period sent their children for advanced formal education. Ellison's sons and daughters married mulattos from Charleston, bringing them to the Ellison plantation to live.      In 1860 Ellison greatly underestimated his worth to tax assessors at $65,000. Even using this falsely stated figure, this man who had been a slave 44 years earlier had achieved great financial success. His wealth outdistanced 90 percent of his white neighbors in Sumter District. In the entire state, only five percent owned as much real estate as Ellison. His wealth was 15 times greater than that of the state's average for whites. And Ellison owned more slaves than 99 percent of the South's slaveholders.            Although a successful businessman and cotton farmer, Ellison's major source of income derived from being a "slave breeder." Slave breeding was looked upon with disgust throughout the South, and the laws of most southern states forbade the sale of slaves under the age of 12. In several states it was illegal to sell inherited slaves (9). Nevertheless, in 1840 Ellison secretly began slave breeding.      While there was subsequent investment return in raising and keeping young males, females were not productive workers in his factory or his cotton fields. As a result, except for a few females he raised to become "breeders," Ellison sold the female and many of the male children born to his female slaves at an average price of $400. Ellison had a reputation as a harsh master. His slaves were said to be the district's worst fed and clothed. On his property was located a small, windowless building where he would chain his problem slaves.           As with the slaves of his white counterparts, occasionally Ellison's slaves ran away. The historians of Sumter District reported that from time to time Ellison advertised for the return of his runaways. On at least one occasion Ellison hired the services of a slave catcher. According to an account by Robert N. Andrews, a white man who had purchased a small hotel in Stateburg in the 1820s, Ellison hired him to run down "a valuable slave. Andrews caught the slave in Belleville, Virginia. He stated: "I was paid on returning home $77.50 and $74 for expenses.     William Ellison died December 5, 1861. His will stated that his estate should pass into the joint hands of his free daughter and his two surviving sons. He bequeathed $500 to the slave daughter he had sold.    Following in their father's footsteps, the Ellison family actively supported the Confederacy throughout the war. They converted nearly their entire plantation to the production of corn, fodder, bacon, corn shucks and cotton for the Confederate armies. They paid $5,000 in taxes during the war. They also invested more than $9,000 in Confederate bonds, treasury notes and certificates in addition to the Confederate currency they held. At the end, all this valuable paper became worthless.     The younger Ellisons contributed more than farm produce, labour, and money to the Confederate cause. On March 27, 1863 John Wilson Buckner, William Ellison's oldest grandson, enlisted in the 1st South Carolina Artillery. Buckner served in the company of Captains P.P. Galliard and A.H. Boykin, local white men who knew that Buckner was a Negro. Although it was illegal at the time for a Negro to formally join the Confederate forces, the Ellison family's prestige nullified the law in the minds of Buckner's comrades. Buckner was wounded in action on July 12, 1863. At his funeral in Stateburg in August, 1895 he was praised by his former Confederate officers as being a "faithful soldier."      Following the war the Ellison family fortune quickly dwindled. But many former Negro slave magnates quickly took advantage of circumstances and benefited by virtue of their race. For example Antoine Dubuclet, the previously mentioned New Orleans plantation owner who held more than 100 slaves, became Louisiana state treasurer during Reconstruction, a post he held from 1868 to 1877 (10).     A truer picture of the Old South, one never presented by the nation's mind moulders, emerges from this account. The American South had been undergoing structural evolutionary changes far, far greater than generations of Americans have been led to believe. In time, within a relatively short time, the obsolete and economically nonviable institution of slavery would have disappeared. The nation would have been spared awesome traumas from which it would never fully recover. (red-letter emphasis added by El Gringo Viejo) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~        We move on now, for the purposes of exemplification and elucidation by considering the person and actions of Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA.  He is the most commonly reviled of all Southern officers and soldiers and Southerners in general because he was such a horrid racist and brutalizer of the Negro.   However, when one leaves the New Plantation, and reaches out to reliable factual information about this man, one learns that he never said he won his battles because, "I gets there fustest wif the mostest".   Nor was he an ignorant unlettered, and un-schooled white-trash bumpkin.  That he was generally un-schooled is true.  But that he was intensely tutored is also true, and he was quite literate, and born into an aristocratic plantation family whose early poverty was due to its determination to make a new beginning in far western Tennessee.  That new beginning was generally successful and led to Forrest's being able to answer the Governor's call to for a brigade of heavy cavalry, which Forrest did at his own expense.      These excerpts are examples  which demonstrate how the truth about Forrest has been degraded by the repetition of untrue "information" rendered by leftist history professors at all the finest schools.   The fact is that Forrest was integral in the founding of the first post graduate school for Negroes in the South, a school that offered j.d. degrees that would be recognised by the Tennessee Bar.  Forrest was active on various fronts including the hiring of Negroes into high skill positions such as locomotive engineer, design engineers for rail-grading and design, and architects for major buildings for his railroad company.      Below is the treatment of the 44 slaves who joined his "Praetorian Guard", his closest command squadron at the beginning of the war.  They were thought to have been somehow magically or angelically protected because they fought from the beginning until the end of the War, served in the middle of seven major battles and two score or more major skirmishes, moved around for over 5,000 miles, went through the most hideous weather and illness epidemics, along with horrid close-in combat.    And....not one of the Black Confederate Heroes was killed or seriously wounded.   This excerpt included below indicates that one trooper deserted, although other accounts say that a nearby explosion of a cannon-launched bomb threw him from his mount, causing a serious inner ear injury from which he never recovered.  He was ''teched" and out of balance due to that ear problem...having lost his ability to balance.....the "eighth sense" as it is known.   Forrest had offered each of these 44 his manumission at the end of the War, saying ''When we win you will be freemen, and honoured as heroes.  If we lose, you will be free in any regard, and you will remain heroes among your neighbours."      When it became apparent that the War might well be lost, Forrest turned over the notarised manumissions to his men anyway and told them they were free to leave.  They had served enough.  They all stayed.       Also, the article below indicated that the 44 were dispersed in his command but had re-unified towards the end of the War.  Most of the articles El Gringo Viejo has reviewed about these men (some in university 'historical records and documents' sections), indicate that they remained all mounted, and all heavily armed, and all in the immediate Headquarters Command....a form of Praetorian Guard.  To wit:         When the Civil War began, Forrest offered freedom to 44 of his slaves if they would serve with him in the Confederate army. All 44 agreed. One later deserted; the other 43 served faithfully until the end of the war.      Though they had many chances to leave, they chose to remain loyal to the South and to Forrest. Part of General Forrest's command included his own Escort Company, his Green Berets, made up of the very best soldiers available. This unit, which varied in size from 40-90 men, was the elite of the cavalry. Eight of these picked men were black soldiers and all served gallantly and bravely throughout the war. All were armed with at least 2 pistols and a rifle. Most also carried two additional pistols in saddle holsters. At war's end, when Forrest's cavalry surrendered in May 1865, there were 65 black troopers on the muster roll. Of the soldiers who served under him, Forrest said of the black troops: Finer Confederates never fought.       When Forrest died in 1877 it is noteworthy that his funeral in Memphis was attended not only by a throng of thousands of whites but by hundreds of blacks as well. The funeral procession was over two miles long and was attended by over 10,000 area residents, including 3000 black citizens paying their respects.     The above trio of paragraphs above concerns the most maligned of all Confederate generals and personalities, especially over the affair at Fort Pillow.  He was very active in the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan, and usually the story stops there.  That is convenient for the South haters, and those who like to change the colours and tones of the history because they won the War.  But victory cannot, en fin, change the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Forrest was present during the establishment of the Klan, but he was also the most instrumental in its abolition when it had fallen off the track.   It was originally thought to be a good vehicle for the establishment of a Confederate Veterans' society, but when it fell of the tracks and became a agency for thuggery (at times at the behest of Union Reconstruction interests), Forrest was the most influential at the first de-activation of the Ku Klux Klan.

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

   The following is an account of General Forrest's brief speech to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers, a group dedicated to the advancement of integrality of black and white society and common legal treatment via the vote; thence Pole-Bearers, as a play on words for the Polls (or election processes).   It was a precursor of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.


Nathan Bedford Forrest's speech to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association July 5, 1875.


      A convention and BBQ was held by the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association at the fairgrounds of Memphis, five miles east of the city. An invitation to speak was conveyed to General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the city's most prominent citizens, and one of the foremost cavalry commanders in the late War Between the States. This was the first invitation granted to a white man to speak at this gathering. The invitation's purpose, one of the leaders said, was to extend peace, joy, and union, and following a brief welcoming address a Miss Lou Lewis, daughter of an officer of the Pole-Bearers, brought forward flowers and assurances that she conveyed them as a token of good will. After Miss Lewis handed him the flowers, General Forrest responded with a short speech that, in the contemporary pages of the Memphis Appeal, evinces Forrest's racial open-mindedness that seemed to have been growing in him.       "Ladies and Gentlemen I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God's earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. ( Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man to depress none. (Applause.) I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don't propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I'll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand. (Prolonged applause.)" 

     Whereupon N. B. Forrest again thanked Miss Lewis for the bouquet and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. Such a kiss was unheard of in the society of those days, in 1875, but it showed a token of respect and friendship between the general and the black community and did much to promote harmony among the citizens of Memphis.

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


     El Gringo Viejo has borrowed greatly from other sources, sources that are independent and academic, resulting from true studies and analysis, and not from popular understanding.   Our American popular understanding has, by-in-large, contributed to an inability to discern fact from fiction, and to think in platitudes and trite phrases that are frequently false.   At this point, most American students, for instance, cannot determine whether or not the First World War preceded the Second World War, and broad numbers would not be able to tell if we were fighting Germany or Australia, France or the Planet Zombar in either War. .


     The continuous assault on critical thinking and on the construct of historical explanation...not to mention facts...has gone a long way into the cultural destruction of the Republic.  Contradictory facts cannot be appreciated either for instruction or for ironic, only-in-America humour.  Lee never owned a slave, and Grant, through a series of situations did own a slave even during the War.   It should serve as a guide as well that no leaders of the Union forces...not the President, the Vice-President, none of the generals, not Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, Meade, none of them....and precious few if any in the Congress or among the Governors of the Union States believed in any way in the intellectual and moral equality of the Black man to the White man.  Lincoln himself saw the liberation of the Black man as an opportunity to begin thinking quickly about taking up Mexican President Benito Juarez Garcia's offer of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for the building of the "Panama Canal", because "Black men are better suited to working in the Tropics."

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

     We shall continue this to-morrow, working quickly to the present, to demonstrate that there is no longer any true understanding about how the Black Race has been tooled by the Progressives for the purpose of being re-enslaved political robotrons.   It is so evident that in sociological terms one could say, "It's hiding in plain sight."

Thanks for working through this Part I of why we have the Basketball and Range Race Wars.
El Gringo Viejo

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

Childishness, narcissism, and unwarranted aloofness.

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

     We have been treated in recent days to the scene of back-benchers and the inimitable Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, making innocuous, illogical,  and impertinent remarks about almost anything, living or dead, moving or un-moving.   We are treated  with the revelation that requested material from well over a year ago, considered by the White House is deigned to have been "already delivered" albeit totally redacted.  Such letters and memorandum, requested by House Committees frequently arrive in the following format:

The White House

Office of the President of All Fifty-seven of the United States

Commander of the Marine Corpse

In Hope and Change and Spread the Wealth We Trust

Dear Chairperson of a Committee:

     Included in this transmission is the requested communique sent by                                                                                                                                                 until recently stating that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and because of such situation it would be xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and any hope of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx casualties.

      Beware of Repubxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and other troglodytes.    Because of a miniscule four supposed casualties they think they have to the right to embarrass xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the  entirexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  and if they think they can get away with it, we can get ahold of the IRxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and take care care of those racistxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx teabaggers and they can go xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxtheir mothers.

     Furthermore, Hillary left strict orders that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxPOTUS.    She said that she might be snockxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxby 21:00 hours, and not to bothexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxor any of her girlxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.   Rememberxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxabout some

body named Mohamxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,  We'll tell everybody on Sunday that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx maker in jail for the video.

     Remember that all of this has to be plausibly xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for POTUS.   First push the blame off on Busxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxand OX News, and immediately bring up Limbaugh's War on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx children's hunger and minorities.   Remember to denxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxrerything   And don't say anything about the SoS pukixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxbathroom floor, and the three day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx   the hangover.   It's best to say that she was preparing to travel to a conference on LGBTCRHKD Issues in Kuala Lampur.  We are notifying the people at the sanetorxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx important VIP's in California about Hillxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxflu and "concussion".

  Do not show this to anyxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, and especially Michxxxxxxxxxxxx or xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxrret.

Rahm

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

     The most amazing thing is to have Democrats, caught in the headlights, waddling up to any available microphone to declare that the issue of Benghazi is dead, nobody cares, and we need to worry about the miserable economy the Republicans have caused, as well as the minimum wage solution to income inequality and the equalisation of wages of women with all the other types of people in the workplace and having my daughter and granddaughters pay for Miss Flukie's birth control regimen.

     They ridicule the notion that there is any purpose or valid reason to "dig around" in the "what difference at this point could it possibly make" issue of Benghazi.  The two most responsible for essentially hanging out the Embassy and Annex staff to die are left to vacation, deflect, and talk about issues that are trusted old shibboleths and demagoguery barricades.

     The morally and intellectually devoid seem to be willing to do and/or say anything in order to protect the totally morally and intellectually devoid Barry Soetoro and Hillary Rodham.

     Just think how proud everyone on the left side must be because of Barry's and Kerry's great diplomatic success concerning the Ukrainian - Russian issue.   Yesterday, only 40 people were killed in open combat in the eastern part of the Ukraine.   Thank the Lucky Stars of Bizaboodle that we did not deploy any anti-missile batteries to the Czech Republic or Poland....they might have  scared the Russians....and we certainly do not want them to become bellicose or to start menacing their neighbours, with whom they have such a noble history of friendship.

     Such a great mountain of accomplishments in the new world, made more comfortable in their dealings with the previously brutal, imperialistic Gringos.   Syria, "Palestine", Libya, Tunisia, the Pakistani Doctor who helped us is still in prison, Israel, all of Europe, the trade deals with Japan and South Korea falling through, the Russian reset, North Korea, Egypt turning her back on us....every reasonable nation in the world dazed and confused and every possibly hostile and/or cantankerous nation in the world emboldened.  Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan....excellent examples of winning wars and losing the peace.   We're looking at two gutter balls multiplied by 10 frames:   Why, after eight full years of presidenting ....Barry will have a perfect record.

     And while George W. Bush was and is vehemently accused of "lying" about the justification for war in Iraq....the simple fact is that he was not even mistaken.  There was no lie.  The most serious thing that went wrong with Iraq was the notion that we had to remake the country in some form or image of ourselves.   It would have been much better to simply have removed Saddam Hussein al Tikriti and his 1,000 closest friends and relatives, and then left.   El Gringo Viejo does lament nor does he apologise for the belief that there are peoples who are disposed either culturally, biologically, or both to be in perpetual, self-defeating turmoil.   Their fight is not my fight.   If they have A-bombs, or poisoned gas bombs that can hit Tel Aviv or Peoria or Ottawa, and a number of other such places, then we should take them out and leave when the dust has settled enough to find the exit.

       For the Man who Shot Liberty Osama Valance bin Laden, and his posse that he apparently rounded up in one of the saloon scenes from Galactic Trek Wars, methinks that there might be a chance that the class warfare card might not work this time.  Fifteen Dollar  Minimum Wage movements, pay equivalence for women, "free medical" Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative (OSMI) just don't seem to flash in the sunlight as before.  Perhaps Boehner's seeming willingness to "talk moderate and act rightwing crazy" is a sign that, after some posturing, the Republicans might well rescind the entire  OSMI.  His wisdom in having appointed Trey Goudy to lead the Select Committee concerning Benghazi, and perhaps even the IRS and Fast and Furious inquiry give us some encouragement.

There shall be a bit more, on Basketball, Ranchers, Race, and reality some thing early this evening.   Thank you all for sharing your time, and especially for having been checking into our advertisers...both the strange ones that I do not like and the ones I approve.

El Gringo Viejo

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