AN OBSERVATION FROM EL ZORRO, combat veteran. USAF

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As all of you on this distribution know, I am compulsive and one of my most recent indulgences is the Middle Eastern (Arab) philosophies and the differences between East and West cultures, politics and religions.

One of the most pertinent differences it that Muslims by belief and religion according to the Qur’an can only be “brothers” to other Muslims… never ever will it be otherwise.  The greeting between Muslims of “Assalam O Alaikum” per the Hadith is reserved for Muslims only.  Literally, it means “Peace be upon you” but culturally it is much more meaningful between Muslims.  Like a secret handshake or similar special meaning between special groups.  It means for you as a brother shall you have peace and the protection of Allah from evil and infidels.  Other cultures and religions and Kafirs may use the greeting but it only has a literal meaning for them.

Below is a very special way of understanding the Islamic view of Kafirs (non-Muslims).  They will always consider any non-Muslim the infidel no matter the ethnicity, politics, religion, agnosticism, atheism or other differentiation.  That is one thing we absolutely have to know in order to understand their monolithic theology and the duality of Islam.

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GOOD INFORMATION TO CONSIDER BY THOSE WHO RELY ON NEGOTIATING WITH ARAB MUSLIMS and ESPECIALLY THE IRANIANS (Persian) MUSLIMS!

"East is East and West is West"

By Major General Jerry Curry, USA, Ret

The great British newsman and poet Rudyard Kipling, understanding today's situation in Afghanistan better than our State Department wrote:

"I have eaten your bread and salt.

I have drunk your water and wine. The deaths ye died I’ve watched beside and the lives ye led were mine."

There are two points the President and the Secretaries of State and Defense may want to keep in mind as they evaluate future problems in the Mid-East and how to successfully address them. Both are easiest illustrated by real life happenings.

Point 1

Many years ago I attended the Infantry officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. Probably ten percent of the students attending that ten month course of instruction were from foreign countries.

For about half of the course my tablemate was an Arab. We studied together, completed homework assignments together, got to know each other's families and generally enjoyed each other's company. Part of that time we students were immersed in reading about, researching and discussing wars and problems of the Middle East. By this time my Arab classmate and I had, I thought, become close friends.

A question popped into my mind and without evaluating it I said, "I have a question to ask you, but you may find it a little impertinent, or perhaps, offensive."

"That's quite alright", he replied. "We know each other well enough to be honest with each other. So go ahead and ask your question."

"Well," I began, "Each time you Arabs start a war with Israel, they beat your socks off. Why don't you learn your lesson and quit making war on them?"

The words hadn't passed my lips before I felt that I shouldn't have asked that particular question. But I was wrong. My Arab officer friend didn't get angry.

He didn't even think before replying. "My dear friend," he said in his British accent, "You are absolutely right. Each time we attack the Israelis they whip us. But have you noticed that with each loss we get better. We get whipped not as badly as in the war before."

Then he got a faraway look in his eyes, pounded on the table and said, "Sometime in the next thousand years, we will win!"

Up until then I’d never thought in terms of a thousand years, and I don't think I'm very good at it today. But for those formulating foreign and defense policy for the nation, it is worth making the effort. For it’s difficult to think in terms of the immediate future while negotiating with a nation whose leaders are thinking in terms of hundreds or thousands of years.

Point 2.

During the 1st Gulf War, US and Arab forces fought side by side and some of the officers became close friends. When the war ended in victory there was a celebration in the Officer's Club with congratulations all around. A lot of handshaking and hugging was going on. It was a time of displaying real brotherly love.

Seeing this, one of the senior Arab generals felt the need to set the record straight. 

"Look," he said to a small cluster of American generals. "We’ve fought together and some of us have died together. I know you feel that makes us brothers. But that’s not the way it is in my world."  

He looked around the circle making eye contact with all of them.

"I don't want to see you hurt, so I need to share this with you. There will be no tomorrow for us jointly. No matter how much you have helped my country and you came and helped us when we desperately needed your help and no matter how friendly you feel toward us, we are still Muslims and you are still Christians. That means that in our eyes, we can never be brothers. I'm sorry, but to us, you will always be Infidels!"

Yes, we Infidels have liberated Iraq and Afghanistan, but we’ve not made their countries, nor their people, depositories of freedom and liberty.

No matter how hard we work to rebuild their govts, infrastructure, educational and medical institutions, and no matter how desperately they need our help, as the Arab general noted, we can never be brothers to each other.

Also, I learned what Kipling meant when he wrote: "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet". He was pointing out to the western world that to Muslims, we Christians will always be Infidels!

Jamies Summertime, Summertime

COUNTING CHICKS BEFORE THE EGGS BE LAIN

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     TO BEGIN,  there is now an idea that we have somehow won the war because one of the chief ghouls of Planned Parenthood declared, somewhat indiscreetly, that smashing aborted babies is a pro-forma activity for Planned Parenthood.  The process, long known to be an oft denied activity by Planned Parenthood, of being careful not to damage certain vital and valuable organs  for fun and profit, can be a pretty cool hand, dude.

     A few million Americans who had been ignorant of this practice by Planned Parenthood learned of the activity during the past 48 hours or so.   Most were revolted.  But did we see Planned Parenthood and Progressive acolytes and officers rending their robes, sitting in the ashes, and bewailing their manifold sins and wickedness?   No.

     They were snarly.   First they said it was all untrue....a lie.   And when the lie about it being a lie unravelled, in true Hillary and Progressive fashion, they said it was all the fault of the surreptitious nature of the recorders of the famous meal in the video where the Sacrifices to Baal were discussed with gusto over low-grade, gourmet wine and victuals.   The doctorette was obviously proud of her contribution to the human condition.
   The old lie about the need to have embryonic stem cells from human embryos was bumping around in various dark closets of the House of Lies of Christmases Past.  The Democrats who voted down the Lord God Yahweh in their last National Convention, were more than glad to show a very artificial film clip of Superman being restored from his paralysis by embryonic stem cell research in an earlier National Convention of the Mendacious.    Another hideous, ghoulish lie aimed at the stupid, the voluntarily uniformed, and the elitist progressives snips who think my granddaughters should pay for their Sandra Fluke's contraceptives.
       We remember when the professors were caught red-handed (is that a pun?), at the University of East Anglia, forging and outright inventing numbers that would show that the Planet was going to turn into a fireball in three weeks if George Bush was not evicerated, drawn, and quartered within the next 24 hours.
     When their lie was exposed and all their data proven to be a total lie, the Global Coolingwarmingclimatechange Movement People....the smart ones...said that it was the fault of the people who gained unauthorized access to the data and published it.  Those were the guilty ones, the ones telling the Truth....it was their fault, and they should be made to pay.

     So, before we count the chicks, remember that in reality the eggs have not been put.   Nothing has changed.  Vince Foster is just as dead.   (Sir Edmund) Hillary's brother is still being the criminal he was born to be, but now as an erstwhile gold miner in Haiti.   His mine ownership status was assured by the backing of the Clinton Criminal Co-ordination Programme (CCCP), also known as the "Clinton Foundation".

     Everybody knows about it, so that's why they have to keep it secret.  So, once again....so long as the Obsolete Press is reading the news to dolts, no eggs have been put.   Everything remains the same.

More Later,
El Gringo Viejo

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Trump and the absurdity of it all

     It is disheartening to watch people respond to the absurd remarks and commentary made by Mr. Trump.   People, regular folks, who call themselves conservatives backing up a man whose philosophical compass seems to be attached to Molly Cyrus's mood machine.

     A message to the dolts in attendance at the rallye in Phoenix from a friendly, Old Gringo curmudgeon:   You all managed to serve as cannon fodder for a core-base liberal billionaire (Soros, Buffett, et al) to rant before a microphone one of the greatest assemblies of illogical phrases, contradictive sentences, and outright incorrect reasoning that it approximated the standard teleprompter bilge of Obama and (Sir Edmund) Hillary.

     Trump, even during his early Monday morning regular appearances on Fox and Friends every week, falls off the comfortable conservative talking points he tries to use while on that show.   A lot of Fox's audience may not be aware that Trump appears as a regular guest on PMSNBC, ABC, and all the pinko channels morning and afternoon  programmes.  While there, he melds into the comfort-zone of those estimable information vehicles.

       Every time he declares on FOX and/or during his "conquerer's rants" on the road that the Mexican Government is sending the unwanted of Mexico's population to the United States, this writer has to snicker.   Mr. Trump does not know or understand anything about the legal and/or illegal movement of people from Mexico into the United States or from the United States into Mexico.   The Mexican government knows only slightly more.

      A few true facts about movement of such people are listed below in no particular order:

     (1)     Consider this - In 2004, there was an average of 660,000 passenger crossings per day across 35 points of entry (POEs) on the 1,952-mile border between the United States and Mexico. Crossings by personal vehicles rose 43 percent between 1995 and 1999 and then fell 21 percent (to 191 million) by 2004. Almost 20 percent of passenger crossings into the United States from Mexico in 2004 were made on foot, while bus crossings only constituted 1.4 percent (3.4 million) of crossings from Mexico. In 2004 there were over 20 million pedestrian crossings in Texas alone. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics).
     These figures are derived from Immigration and Naturalisation Service data of the period.   To-day the number of daily entries and departures have doubled.   It should be of interest that 99.99% of these folks cross in the morning and return in the early evening on a daily basis.   Their crime stats are almost identical to what might  be considered "normal" in terms of a general population mass in Texas. People crossing legally into Texas have complicated, biometric "laser-visas" and/or green cards authorising them to work or conduct other lucrative business activity.   These documents are obtained at American Consular and Embassy facilities at considerable cost in time and money.  Prince and pauper pay the same, and the documents are not cheap.

     (2)          Almost all the criminal element that arrives in Texas and the United States crosses illegally at impromptu crossing places...not at bridges with customs and immigration procedures and requirements.   These illegal crossers, including those with criminal intent, we can assume, probably one of every ten is a career criminal.  The others are not criminal but they are subject to abuse by recruiters who may or may not be involved in organised crime mainly found in the larger cities in the United States.  
     This does not sound so bad, but it represents a massive demographic and actuarial change from a period, let us say, back in the 1945 - 1965 period.   During those times, even the illegal alien element in the Mexican cohort in the Texas population had a similar criminal pattern as might have been found in the general universe of population in Texas at that time.
     We are only slightly humoured, for instance, to learn of the frenzy in response to the murder of that nice girl in San Francisco by some sub-human illegal alien, essentially according to the assailant, because he had nothing better to do at the moment.   Why?   Because in Hidalgo County of Texas we go through this from 4 to 10 times a week now.   We have manslaughter and murder cases piling up like cord-wood due to illegal aliens killing people while DWI....no license, insurance, completely blotto...too blotto to run from the scene as they normally do.   We have one or two retribution murders between local gangs and residual animaloid slime-balls who kill one another because of failure to deliver marijuana, meth, cocaine, or heroin....or who decide to kill someone in a stash house for trying to escape or refusing to have sex.  Some of the killings have a bit of justification, "I had to kill him because he killed my buddy.   My buddy had killed his buddy last year, because he had killed somebody one time."   You know....perfectly understandable.   And here it is an avalanche.   And Hidalgo County is not a "sanctuary city" nor is there any community within the county or any neighbouring county that is a "sanctuary city".  
     Here, illegal aliens killing citizens, legal aliens, illegal aliens, bashing the brains out of the infants of their whores and live-ins....is daily fare.   Not kidding.  Just the facts, ma'am.  Daily.

     Trump hasn't the least notion of the scope of the problem.  The notion of blaming this on the Mexican government is simplistic to beyond an extreme.  It is not even good jingoism.   The FOX News coverage and the Obsolete Media's lack of coverage are both useless.   The problem is much more severe than even FOX News comprehends.

     (3)     Trump announces now that Governor Perry was a terrible governor,  that Bush was a terrible governor....and then goes on to pat himself on the back as the only person who has shown the light upon the problem of illegal aliens among us.    Such as assertion is knowingly incorrect to the point of being an out-and-out Clintonesque-level lie.  Plenty of smarter people than he have pointed out, called to action, and acted in positive measure about the issue.   Ann Coulter to Perry to scores of other commentators and activists have been sounding alarms....up to and including Sheriff Arpaio, the State of Arizona and others.
     Governor Perry pushed the issue to beyond the edge, actually, when he took and assumed the authority of commander-in-chief of the Texas National Guard, mobilised it, and sent over 1,000 effectives to the lower Rio Grande near McAllen to intercept the Obama-invited "refugees" and the MS-13s hiding behind the skirts of the "refugees" and the "children" hoarding by the scores of thousands into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  Along with the military effectives, he ordered combat river-craft, mounted with .50's, Game Wardens (several score) with intimate knowledge of riverine paths, nooks, and crannies, Texas Rangers, Texas DPS Troopers co-ordinated with numerous Constables and other personnel. 
     Perry essentially took on the role of President of Texas....asked for and received almost one billion dollars worth of un-anticipated emergency appropriations and deployed force with considerable impact against the criminal elements buried into the mass of Obama - invited (make no mistake) pseudo-refugees.    There is still a large DPS and special police force that his being maintained by Governor Abbott.    Both of these men have taken power when the central government in Washington D.C. abrogated its responsibilities and Texas had to assume its correct role as the Republic of Texas and take the initiative.   Trump does not know this happened and could not understand the complexities and intestinal fortitude that was required to do it.
     And remember that this is said, not by a supporter of Perry so much, because the OROGs know that El Gringo Viejo is a Cruz-backer.   Perry has his share of scars, warts, and callouses.   But in this and many other affairs he has governed with a soft hand when needed and with a very strong hand when required.   He was certainly Presidential as he should have been during that time last Summer. 
     Sorry Mr. Trump.....but you do not make sense about 74 per cent of the time you speak.    You cannot carry me with your focus group phrases that lack reason.

El Gringo Viejo

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El Chapo, the Volcan de Colima, and the days and nights of the Quinta

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     We are back in town after a couple of weeks of hanging around at the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre.  The drive down and back were uneventful as usual, as was the stay.   With the heat and recent rains, one can imagine the rampage of foliage surrounding our place.   The "land down under" has become impenetrable, literally covered by the thorny tenaza trees that grow in dense grouping up to about 30 feet high.   The huge anaqua tree, with its huge twisted limbs rises above its thorny neighbours.  This part of the property is home to many of my tiny "jellybean shaped" warblers and other birds, as well as the groupings of green jays and occasional flocks of parrots, all depending upon the season.   Sometimes I think that there is some dependence upon the day of the week as well (meaning that predictability is very predictable except when it is unpredictable). 

Green and florid frenzy

     The "high ground" where the manor house of our Duchy is situation is literally canopied by various types of trees and large bushes.   The census includes a large duranta, many shrimp plants of various colours, powderpuff bushes, bouganvillas of six different colours, ebony trees, flamboyant trees, copper and paint-splatter crotons, a two tonne pencil cactus, numerous esperanzas that have changed from bushes to medium sized, ever blooming trees, splashed  with yellow trumpet-form blossom clusters. We throw in a few plumarias that produce the very sedative Hawaiian leigh flowers to the mix, an avacado, several lime and orange trees, and a really nice guayaba, several hennequin maguey (century-type) plants, and we have quite a plant zoo.  

     It has proven to be all very pleasant, impressive, just-what-we-were-

Foreground Plumaria, behind are the maguey
and behind them, the guayaba

working-for, and enjoyable.   The locals and people visiting the area from Ciudad Victoria and other urban places will stop and admire our jumble of green mixed with the spectrum of colours that could tax a crystal prism.  They especially admire the yards and yards of wax-leaf vine that began to produce the peculiar hanging ball of multi-florette blossoms....by the hundreds.

     My daughter's haliconia began blooming prolifically during these past days, and we are publishing a picture of that event.   She bought the plant at a vivero (nursery) about 50 miles to the south of the Quinta seven or eight years ago, and it has had its spurts and fits in terms of blooming, but never quite so much as this.  Efforts to post this picture are continuing.

     In the vein of "unintended consequences" , we noticed that the ability to go outside and watch the lightning bug show, enjoy the bracing 58 degree chill at 02:00 in the early morning, and actually see a perfect full moon, or a moonless night sky with  billions of stars is now very restricted.   One must move to the middle of our little trail to see all of the splendor of the night sky.
     These past several nights, for instance. were essentially moonless.   The Milky Way was extremely impressive and gave that "close enough to touch" impression.   A every-now-and-then meteor would lend a little interest,  but there were no really extra-normal manifestations.   Such "extra-normal" events are actually a normality throughout the domain of the Sierra Madre Oriental.   Special difficult to impossible explain events are seen in this area every seven to twelve days, generally, after ruling out outright fibbing and obvious misinterpretation or poor observation skills by viewers.
     It is a strange pleasure to be able to go out in the depths of the night and enjoy the temperatures and the sounds of the wild when all the world is otherwise quiet and at slumber.  The owls, the giggling snickers of the fox coven running down by the river, the howling perhaps at the lack of a moon by the coyote pack in the back section of the Hacienda de La Vega, all under a bowl filled and lined with a billion pearls is a good description, perhaps.

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      With reference to the debacle produced by the "escape" by Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman Loera, there is not a lot that is good that can be said.  Suffice to say that the Partido the Accion Nacional (PAN) was better at its worst than the Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) at its best.   One thing that is very probable is that various rumours about the combined commandancy of the Mexican Army and Navy requesting that President Enrique Pena Nieto and his cabinet step down.   The people would be willing to accept three years of military control, leaving the Congress and Supreme Court intact.

     Make no mistake.  The disorganisation of the main structures of the various Cartels has been very significant.  The successes of the previous administration of Felipe Calderon Hinojosa were under-reported and little understood by the American and other foreign observers.  The effects were real, and still remain.   The citizenry desperately wants continued engagement by the military, along with the successful search and destroy methods by the military on all fronts.

     The broad mass of the populace has also tired of the incessant demonstrations, occupations, and low-grade violence heaped upon the face of Mexico by the national teachers' union.  Their never-ending lists of "demands" and "threats" has cheapened the title of "maestra" and/or "profesora" etc.   They have become pretty much something below the clowns and "flame-blowers" at the intersections of major thoroughfares in Mexico City.  "ya! basta!"

      Finally, it has been little reported....perhaps not reported at all in many quarters...but the Volcano of Colima (aka - Volcan del Fuego) has been right at the point of full eruption for several weeks.  For all practical purposes, it is erupting right now, with significant and visible lava flows.   The rivers of molten fire can be seen especially at night, pouring down certain channels from the crater.   With the southwesterly upper flow kicking in every now and then, we could "enjoy" the blow-off of the considerable smoking, hellish emissions all the way to our little place for a few hours on two occasions.  
     Back where it is belching and blowing, one can locate the very active volcano.  It has erupted over 50 times since the arrival of the Spanish in the 1520s.  The peak is situated more in the westernmost part of the State of Jalisco (home to Guadalajara) and a little less in the State of Colima (home to Manzanillo on the Pacific Coast).  It was named for Colima, however, because the volcano began its career entirely in Colima, a long time ago.
     There are slight but significant chances for the smoke and ash material to make it into the American Southwest and/or the Texas area at any time during the next couple of months.

More later.  We appreciate the OROGs' interest and attention.   There will be more reporting and observations to-morrow.
El Gringo Viejo

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Salient Thoughts - Roberts proves shredders were made for Constitutions

Supposedly 16 million people who did not have health care before now have it under Obama/SCOTUS care.  How many people, who did have healthcare before, do not have it now?  John Roberts incorrectly thinks his job is to justify Congress’ intentions, not what the Constitution says.  My friends we are in serious trouble.  The real justices on the SC are time and again overruled by the socialist judges.

What is it with the Chief Justice that he is compelled to keep the ACA regardless of the constitutionality of it?  The Supreme Court needs serious changes, especially in regard to the lifetime appointments.  It is apparent that the Congress will never, through the amendment process, set term limits for justices.  The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is available to the people and should be one of the foremost issues in the 2016 Presidential campaign.  “The Liberty Amendments” should be read by every concerned American.

When a President makes a mistake or intentionally appoints a subversive to the Court, there has to be a method of recall.  Term limits might be the most reasonable change that would be acceptable to the process of the Fifth Amendment.  That, in addition to a method of removal for cause or abuse are essential to the functioning of the legal system in the U.S.

The Supreme Court has twice kept the ACA alive in contradiction to the law itself.  By bench legislation, John Roberts has blatantly violated his duty to interpret the law’s validity under the Constitution.

The Congress, Republicans notwithstanding, the Supreme Court, and the President are all destructive to the rights of the people and the intent of our fundamental law.

El Zorro

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