News about Mexico and the Peso and the American Elections Impact on such matters

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  Mexico is never quite what it might seem to be.  Then, on the other hand, newcomers will frequently say, "It's a lot like America in a lot of ways."   True enough.  Gravity functions frequently.  The sun usually comes up somewhere east of here.  Logic in terms of politics and cultural movement is totally out of whack.

     We recall that the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, recently invited the two candidates with the most probability of victory in the coming election for the Presidency of the United States of America to be his and Mexico's guests.  To be clear, he invited Trump and Frumpie.  

       The handlers for Frumpie wisely decided to follow the advice of her advisors, the ex-Mrs. Wiener and the Planned Parenthood Board of Directors,  to avoid going to Mexico.   This would  avoid the necessity of exposing her to seas and oceans of funny-looking little brown people who might come close enough to her to be seen....or worse....(shudder) touched.  Would the HOA at Chappaqua even let her back into that Island of Normalcy should that have happened?

     Trump apparently overrode his advisors and decided to do AirTrump 007 to Mexico City.

Clinton Digs in Chapeau

  Amazingly he actually acquitted himself pretty well, at least for the American audience.   He had already committed the offense of saying anything, after having declared, officially, that he was going to be, officially, a Republican.  In spite of the fact that he his not a Republican, and because of  the fact that he is running as a Republican, anything he does or says will be carpet-bombed by the American Obsolete Obsolete Media and much of the Mexican and International Press.

     But, strangely enough, this is and is not about the Clintons.  Or the Trumps.  The problem begins when the people in Mexico hear and see that Donald Trump landed in Mexico, talked with the President, and left without being arrested, held for three days, and then deported as an undesirable.

     He opened a topic with extremely harsh and pointless words that were not accurate, although they had an element of truth, and Tom'd to the crowds who know nothing about our historical and present day entanglements with Mexico but who know that they don't like any of it (Mexico or Mexicans).   These are the people who gave us Trump in the primary.   These are the people who are correct about their topic but who are not correct, wholly correct, or anything near correct about said topic.

     Hillary is happy to have "them" come over from wherever and procreate so as to make more dependent people who will forever be able to elect enlighten'd people such as Shiela Jackson Lee, the Castro Brothers (the ones from San Antonio), and Harry Reid.  But to conviviate or come within touching range?   ( n-e-v-e-r )

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The OROGs and other frequent visitors will remember the MITOFSKY Poll that we posted a couple or three days back:

Driving through this gate requires

seasoned professionals.  Do

not try this at home. Or at

this home (or else).

     One can notice that there is a decidedly pro-Hillary response to the MITOFSKY Poll.  We lament to say that this is not an error of intent such as many of the polls taken during these hours in Gringolandia.   The sympathies and the wishes and the  good feelings of many Mexicans during these days lie with the the ''nice lady from the North who wants to give us things and everything.''

     On the one hand, they voted in their present President who was a mediocre, at best, as Governor of the State of Mexico during his political formative years.   He was mainly known for being a pretty boy and he had a second wife who WAS a beauty queen of antiquity....(Mon Dieu! -  plus de 40 annes!!??).  She is also a revered relic of the industry of the Mexican Telenovela (Soap Operas).
   The electorate threw over the PAN female candidate because she looked like a "cara de changa" (monkey face) or whatever.    In Republican Democracy one must trust the "will of the electorate".   The only other choice was A.M. Lopez Obrador (AMLO) whose idea of solving the problems of Mexico was to tax the rich at 90% and nationalise your great-grandmother's mustache comb.
     We learned quickly why the Mexicans prevented women from voting until 1952. At this point, we can prove by testimony under oath that not one woman voted for Pena Nieto anywhere in Mexico or the known Universe, during this or any other century.

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     So now we enter into the true meat of this matter.   Mexico has at its Central Banking helm the very best "gnomes del Banco de Mexico" and Latin America.  The board of governors of the Bank of Mexico truly are better than our "Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America".   They wait for our Dumboes to receive orders from the Wizard of Whatever in Switzerland or Yellowknife, and then they adjust to make a counter-punch.

     The number one objective is almost always to keep the value of the peso at some point of advantage in relation to the American dollar.   This is a tactic of countries with a complex tourism industry and with a major league, value-added, industrial export business.  Some countries have a trifecta, with a huge agricultural sector that also exports billions of dollars of high-quality fresh vegetables, fruit, and things like mangoes and avocados.

     In the above paragraph, of course, we have identified Mexico, tied for 10th place with Canada and Texas in terms of Gross National Product on Planet Earth.

     So here we are again.  The supposedly sophisticated and super-powerful super power-house United States entering into a quarrel....disagreement....with a neighbour about something that neither has been willing to discuss for the past 40 years.   I know, for instance, that the Tratado de Libre Commercio (NAFTA) has nothing to do with the "loss of jobs" in the United States.  We know, as citizens of Hidalgo County, Texas, that the increase of the population of McAllen, Texas from 32,000 to 140,000 from 1960 to 2015  came from the Maquiladora industries in Reynosa and other places on the nearby frontier.

     We know that for all that comes across the border from Mexico in the tractor-trailer rigs....thousands per day...from Brownsville to San Diego, California, there are a similar numbers going South.   Mexico sends Ford Escorts and various types of Volkswagens and a score of other types of vehicles north, and the Gringos send Caterpillars, Cadillacs, and other costly things.   Twice a day, huge long trains cross at Brownsville....connecting Houston with Monterrey....and they lug their mile-long cargoes for supplying the heavy industry in the industrial hub of all Northern Mexico, the Monterrey metroplex.  The engines chug up the face of the Sierra Madre Oriental towards the Saltillo metroplex and its automotive industry. Then they go back to Texas and points north beyond that, waving at the fellows driving the trains that are heading into Mexico....twice a day....both ways....every day....8 days per week, 400 days per year.  It is an amazing excercise in  industry.

     These activities in and along the Frontier, here and in Laredo, Eagle Pass, and El Paso, and elsewhere in Arizona and California, billions of dollars moved by tractor-trailer and rail to and from the United States and Mexico.  They continue moving even as these letters appear upon the screen.

     Mr. Trump has painted himself into a corner, due to his familiarity and comfortability with union labour, by castigating the productiveness of the North American Free Trade Agreement / Tratado de Libre Comercio.  The union workers want high wages and little work and protection from being harassed for pilfering tools and "grabbies" from the assembly line.   They also want to have perpetual displacement compensation as well as permanent disability payments and somebody to blame for the "dis-employment".  This is all understandable.

     The industrial and auto workers in the North who "lost" their jobs and who really wanted to work,  went South.  The others who felt that  there had to be some reward and compensation for having been a "slave" for 40 years and receiving the abuse of the bossmen, stayed in their neighbourhoods and blamed Mexico and rich people.    But, there comes a time when even General Motors has to act as if it is broke so that it, too, can receive free money from Father Obamaham.

       But no one wants to point out that paying a person 76 dollars an hour (wages, health and life insurance, SS, and other benefits) for bolting a bumper onto a GM Slothmobile or Volt cannot be sustained.   Solyndra, anyone?

     All of the posturing...and wall-building threats....and hypernationalism will yield nothing but misery for both sides. The careful, yet somewhat threatening, observations of the Gnomes of the Banco de Mexico, and certain well-placed advisories in the Mexican press aimed at the "investing community" indicate that the Banco de Mexico is willing to let the peso slide down in value, at least for the moment.   They are suggesting that their Florence Nightingale  (Hillary) is in bad health and has other "issues" and if she loses the election, Mexico might have to put up with the blustering demagogue, which is their typification of Trump.

     Their reaction is sophomoric at best.   It is a reaction to a person who is sophomoric at best.  And in the shadows lurks something worse, and the people of Mexico are self-deluded into thinking that she gives half-a-snit about Mexico or the Mexicans.....much less the Americans.

We include the analysis, built around Carlos Loret de Mola's (one of Mexico's most admired and accurate economic analysts)  thoughts and deductions concerning why the Mexican Peso has sagged so quickly during the past few weeks.   We hope that we have, in our way, cleared things up a bit.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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(sourced from Associated Press)

     The Mexican currency reached the psychological barrier of 20 pesos per dollar, and analysts and commentators cited the role of the U.S. presidential campaign.     Banamex, one of Mexico's largest banks, listed the peso at 19.96, and other banks and exchange houses listed it even higher.

     A Banco Base analysis said the strength of Republican candidate Donald Trump influenced the peso's decline.   "The possibility that Donald Trump could win the Nov. 8 elections has made financial markets nervous and that has been especially reflected in the Mexican peso," the bank said. Trump has been critical of Mexico and the trade agreements that give it access to the U.S. market. The U.S. has an outsize influence on Mexico's economy, buying about 80 percent of Mexico's exports.

     Newspaper columnist Carlos Loret de Mola said Clinton's health problems are key.  "Speculation broke out against the Mexican currency last week due to the poor health of the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton," Loret de Mola wrote in the newspaper El Universal.  Clinton had to leave a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony early, and later revealed she had pneumonia.

     Mexico's Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment on the U.S. campaign's effect on the country's currency.     Oil prices were once cited in the peso's decline, but they have risen somewhat from this year's earlier lows. Concerns about a possible interest rate hike in the United States have also been a long-term drag on the peso.

     The peso has dropped almost 17 percent in value in the last year.

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El Gringo Viejo

Ya, que se termino' el Diez y Seis de Septiembre....(Now that the 16th of September is over!)

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     Some considerable noise is made every year at this time....or a day or two earlier, pertaining to the beginning of hostilities that brought on the ten to eleven year slog from the first battle to the last rubrics being placed on something like a cessation of hostilities.   The hostilities initiated as one type of Spanish subject fighting another, and ended up with the Spanish having lost their crown for a short lived Republic and the new country, Mexico, having established a short-lived new Monarchy that would be replaced by something like a New Republic.

     This event, The Mexican Independence Revolution, was similar to it American homologue in very few ways.   For one, save for the benefit of self-rule, with a capital and government close at hand, there was little parallel in the comparison between what would become Mexico, and what would become America.

 Viva, Her Excellence, Saint Mary of
Guadalupe - the first battle banner
of the Mexican Revolution for
Independence

    The people bringing War against the Crown of Spain, were doing so because Spain was overthrowing its Crowned ruler in Madrid (a brother to Napoleon I) and attempting to put into place something much akin to a Republic  The conservative element in the New Spain (the country to be named "Mexico" a bit later, did have intelligencia, and wealthy people with capital to invest, a labouring class that was somewhat capable but having its "quirks", and an indigenous population that still in the main did not speak Spanish or understand the absurd (in the Indians' minds) system of land utilization and distribution.  It also had a proprietor and professional class, and some decent schools of mining, engineering, some liberal arts and philosophy, and medicine.   It also had massive natural resources that, still to this day, are remarkable and abundant.  In short, they wanted to install their own Monarch and rule in the old established way as had been practiced for nearly 400 years in Mexico.  It was not a proletarian revolution by any means, but a reaction to the same forces the Mexican Conservatives thought  smelled much like Voltaire, Robespierre, Guillotines, and unbridled democracy of the mob.

     All these things considered, Mexico, in 1810, began a conservative (Scottish Rite) versus liberal (York Rite) political war that would not be resolved, literally, until the year 2,000.   The provocateur? Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo-Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor, a parish priest, ultra-conservative, also known as "El Zorro" due to his quick wit and discernment ability, and also as Reverendo Padre Don Miguel Hidalgo y Castillo.   Perhaps we could say his motto could have been, "Out of many names, few".
     The intrigues and bravery of both the revolutionaries and the Spanish loyalists was remarkable, during this period.  The slaughter was immense.  It was the proverbial irresistible force meeting the immovable object.   More "revolutionaries" than Spanish loyalists, to be sure, but also much more advanced military strategists and tacticians on the side of the Spanish.   But, please remember that there have been well over 100,000 books written about almost every grain of sand on that beach.  Your story diverges here and takes the OROG in the direction of Texas and activity during the early stages of a Mexican Revolution against the Spanish Empire and how the population was dealt with by Spanish authority.

     We delve now into one of the reasons the Mexican "police action" in Texas during the period from 1835 up to and including 21 April 1836 went as well as it did.  Another man, whom we have discussed at length and at various times on this blog, Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrun, aka: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.   What in the name of Jumping' Jehosophat does Santa Anna have to do with the Revolution of 1810?   What is going on here?  

     Let us accompany a boy, born to a lower level, but aristocratic, bureaucratic administrative family  of the colonial government. Antonio's father and mother were both "criollos" (creoles), meaning white persons who were subjects of the Crown, but not born in Spain.  While as full-blooded Spaniards, they carried a high position by birth in New Spain (Mexico), they, in truth, could only reach the rung on the sociological ladder just below the top rung.   "Peninsulares" had the full swagger of the deck and the first and second tiers of government, industry, agricultural, and even the pecking order in The Church.   Criollos, as it was said, ".....agarraron las migas was grandes  de abajo de la mesa.....luego los mestizos y los indios lo demas".....The Creoles gathered the largest crumbs from under the table, and then the mixed-race and Indians the rest.

     Antonio's father did have properties near Xalapa, an administrative centre in the colonial provence named for the True Cross....known as Vera Cruz.   The mother and father wanted Antonio to move into the dependable trade and commerce that seemed to keep the axis from Vera Cruz city (the port) and the abundant hinterland, the large sub-vice regency of Vera Cruz, flush with food and money.  With its perpetual production of quality fruits and vegetables as well as fish other seafood resources, perpetual Spring and Summer growing seasons, it seemed to be a reasonable calling.
     But Antonio saw himself as something different, at least a priest in some fine cathedral...or perhaps, even a soldier.   He completed a considerable amount of studies, both in academy and by tutelage, bending ever steadily to the idea of becoming something like his father, but more powerful, like a military officer.

     By the age of 16 Antonio Lopez had finished more studies than were taken by 96 per cent of his contemporaries.   He was also in uniform as a cadet (sub-lieutenant) in the cavalry detail of an infantry regiment, the Regimento Fijo de Vera Cruz.  If he had wanted action and glory, his wait was short because the time between his "swearing in" as a soldier and the starting of the Revolution under the command of Father Hidalgo, was about four months.   Antonio was serving in the State of San Luis Potosi' which is adjacent to the State of Guanajuato where Hidalgo had pronounced the Insurrection from the belfry of his Church of Dolores....a small parish between San Miguel (de Allende) and the capital of the administrative district  of Guanajuato full of mostly upper - Tarascan Indians

     Antonio Lopez sees action in the critical and strategically important San Luis Potosi area.   He is also wounded when an arrow penetrates, through and through, his right hand.   He was at the Battle of the Calderon Bridge outside of Guadalajara, it is thought, where the forces of Father Hidalgo met their first really bad defeat.   We can find no record of him serving at the battle that sapped the will of the insurrection, the Battle of the Monte de Cruces...where highwaymen had been crucified by the Spanish authority for many years during the latter Colonial Period.   It is known, however that the Spanish general Arrevelos had Santa Anna's commanding officer,  Colonel Jose Joaquin Arredondo on his staff. 

This is Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
in a uniform of the Emperor Agustin
de Iturbide Period, 1821 - 1822

     Once the Royal Spanish Army had dispatched the heroic but futile Father Hidalgo and his gaggle of 90, 000 willing but incompetent peasant "soldiers", another menace appeared to the north.   It was in a place known as "Texas" or "Tejas" which was mystical, lightly populated, and removed far from Mexico City and even further from Madrid.

     All of this brings us to why Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was so sharp when he went into Texas, disposing of all opposition, subduing Zacatecas State and the Yucatan before that.  When he finally overplayed his hand (in 1836) and became over-extended in the area around the swamps of the near-coastal San Jacinto River, it was because there was pitifully little left to fight against.

     His strategic and tactical understanding of the job at hand was guided by his previous experience...you guessed it...in Texas during the revolt against the Crown of Spain, back in 1813, in service to his very brilliant, but very brutal General Jose Joaquin de Arredondo.
     During the summer of 1813, a large group of Americans, coming out of New Orleans and southwestern Louisiana, crossed over  the Sabine River into still-Spanish Texas on their way to attempt to subdue and occupy Texas and pronounce it a sovereign State within a Mexican Republic.  It was led by the Spanish-turned-Mexican General Jose Alvarez de Toledo y Dubois and an American agent by the name of Augustus William Magee, openly invading and supporting the Mexican revolutionary cause and purpose.

      They had considerable success in their adventure, encountering lively but shallow, Spanish resistance all the way through a winding path running from East Texas, down all the way to La Bahia - Goliad - Victoria area, and then back up and over to San Antonio de Bexar with their force of Anglo, Spanish, Caddo / Coushatta Indians, Negroes (free and slave), and even some former Royalists who had changed sides.
      Augustus Magee suffered some nature of illness, we have seen written everything from a heart attack to food poisoning to a form of galloping cholera, etc. and he died at the Spanish fort near La Bahia near the coast at the Bahia del Espiritu Santo.   General Toledo made pronouncements upon occupying San Antonio that the new State of Texas, as a sister of other free and independent Mexican States would now govern the expansive territory previously held by the Spanish.  The original surviving partner in the invasion, Gutierrez, had been dismissed during a bit of a mutiny following the death of Magee, leaving General Toledo in full charge of the situation.

     But, of course, sometimes the fly and the ointment have other ideas.  The Spanish General Joaquin de Arredondo comes up from Laredo, arriving at a point to the south-southwest of San Antonio where the Medina and Atascosa Rivers come together.   In a battle named by the Spanish victors "La Batalla de la Selva de Roble y El Rio Medina" a great conflict is commenced.   The so-named Battle of the Live Oak Forest and Medina River resulted in the total destruction of the American / Spanish rebel effort, the insurrectionist general, Toledo y Dubois, and 90% of his army of 1,400 effectives were killed or executed mercilessly.   Toledo fell for the old "follow that detail over there" trick and was lured out of his forest...where he could win....and into a "llano" (rolling, sandy, plain) and attacked simultaneously on three sides.  The battle lasted four hours.
     The Spanish Royalist General, de Arredondo went on in to an unprotected San Antonio, and promptly rounded up 300 more suspected rebels, some of the women, and after a spate of torture and abuse put the all to the sword or hanged them.   Some were then decapitated and their heads placed on cavalry lances in key places of the city so that the people would understand the cost of conspiring against the Mother Country.
     It was, and remains, the greatest loss of life in any battle ever in the history of Texas.  It was the rebels almost 1,600 effectives and some civilian authorities, and de Arredondo, Antonio Lopez's boss, losing about 55 men.   There was considerable concurrence with those figures by all sides and historians over the years.

     But, all of the above is written really with only one or two points in mind.  Santa Anna was not a stupid Mexican general who was outwitted by great and better generals in 1836.  His true failure was that he really was the best trained, the best endowed with the native military acumen, the best experienced, and even courageous to a fault.....but his arrogance caught him napping.  Underestimating an enemy is never a wise idea, no matter how many times one has beaten him.

     By the time Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna made it back to his beloved Jalapa, Vera Cruz area for a bit of rest and relaxation, he was a Capitan, on his way to Coronel.   There is considerable material available concerning this encounter of Armies, some a little light in the understanding and other that is quite well researched, complicated, and compelling.  It is certain that President Madison had active agents poking and prodding to get the Spanish at least off of the mainland of the New World.   Some say that ideas were swirling around Washington, D.C. about establishing a commonwealth territory or another "in-between nation" (Texas) between the United States and what would become a new nation (Mexico) with which the burgeoning United States of America would have to deal.  It would have been nice to have an English-speaking nation full of troublesome blowhards "over there" so as to be able to have an intermediary with Mexico, if need would be.   Strategic thinking was a bit different in those days;  European geo-political rules.

   The clumsy Gutierrez - Magee Expedition needed more support, but at that time the United States was dealing with an enemy on the ground (War of 1812 with the British), and the French had their hands full in Europe on several fronts.  It was a pretty messy chessboard.
More on all of those matters at some happy time in the near future.
El Gringo Viejo

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Fuel for the Pompous - a Great Compliment to El Gringo Viejo

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     Some weeks back, there were elections throughout Mexico in various States for many and sundry positions.  Most important, of course, would be the position of Governor, although during the past twenty years all positions have become more a matter of competition and less about the old practice of political cuñadismo (brother-in-lawism) appointment.

During the period of the sometimes soft and often hard hand of governance practiced by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), it was permissible to run under the banner of a different party, but not permissible to win. Now, it is almost the opposite. Most elections start off with people who are "favoured to win" by the odds-makers, and there still is a cadre of billionaire Poobahs who can attempt to influence or force outcomes.

Campaign "Cabalgada" in a rural area quite close
to the Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre,
  Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca is
 mounted on the blond-maned mare third from the left.   
This was a brazen show of strength, a ride taken
through what was historically overwhelmingly
Partido Revolucionario Institutional territory.  

One problem for them, however, is that there are the more numerous millionaires and the huge cadres of working class and upper-middle class people who are now heavily dispersed into various parties.....left, right, centrist, useless, and pointless....who can effectively counterbalance the "Dinosauros" who used to control everything (between the years 1928 - 1998 more or less). One of the places where the winds of change finally arrived was in the State of Tamaulipas, where we have our little hideaway. For the first time ever, Tamaulipas will have a Governor who is not from the central government's ruling party or a military provisional governor.

Of the latter category, the "military governor", Tamaulipas had various after the Spanish Colonial Period. But from, let us say, 1926 or so, Tamaulipas has been governed by a person of the same party as who sat in the Presidential Throne in Mexico City up until the 2000. In this case, in one incarnation or another, that governance has come from above-named PRI. What changed at the millennia was that the centre-right party (PAN), took the Presidency for two terms (12 years), but the State of Tamaulipas stayed loyal to the PRI in almost all things local.

During the July past...I believe it was the Fourth....the sovereign State of Tamaulipas voted overwhelmingly for the handsome, smart, youngish, Texas-trained and English-speaking, ultra-conservative (in Latin-American terms), good-humoured candidate....giving him an out-right majority of the vote....in every county of the State. An outright majority is rare in Mexico due to the fact that most elections have from four to eight parties running for each office.

In any regard, and in order to avoid over-excessive bloviation ad infinitum:

We were notified yesterday that it would be "nice" if we could attend the inauguration ceremony in Ciudad Victoria on the 1st of October 2016. It is essentially a formality, since the invitation was passed from the Governor-elect and his wife to our neighbour at the Hacienda de La Vega a couple of weeks or so ago. He reminded me that "we" have that obligation to attend, so it will probably be necessary to change my garb from the usual floppies, baggy walking shorts, and holey long-sleeved white shirt that I first wore to my Grandmother Mamie's funeral in 1971.

The OROG community should know that I shall report and acquit myself with the correct dignity and deference to the occasion. You each can be certain that we are aware of the high compliment. This will be a fairly brief event, indoors, with only about 200 Tamaulipecos attending. It should also be pointed out that this "reminder" of the date and time of the inauguration follows the original notification a few weeks ago that we should keep our calendar clear for the 1st of October because we had been invited to the inauguration. Mr. Gov. Citizen (his new titles) Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca is doing this, I believe because we are not "powerful business interests" or overly economically potent AND because we are known to be Republicans of the Cruz section of the Party. Once again, Republican and PAN are essentially something like double-first-cousins. We are also associated (perhaps incorrectly) as one of the types of Gringos who live and invest in the locale and who don't moan and groan about every little contretemps.

Usually, at these events, the semi-official and official guests receive little souvenirs....an honour to the receiver....and should such befall me, it will be pictured here at some early date. We shall also take a few pictures. Our neighbour is on a very first name basis with the new Governor, so perhaps I shall have a chance to offer the the Guv a couple of courtesy nights to see our birds and point out a couple of very small paving jobs that might be nice to complete during this century.

More Later!!

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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"I thought you should know"

      This is a pretty old story.  It is also a true story.  The final remarks made by Hillary Rodham Clinton demonstrate exactly what she means when she speaks of "fighting for women's and children's issues".

      We remember during the Obama - Romney election, when Romney was accused of displacing a worker and causing him to lose his insurance.   That led to the man's wife being thrown out of the hospital and left to die, which she did.  It was intimated that Romney conspired to do this, simply to save money for his own financial interest.   It was a classic, Queen-for-a-day story that, of course, turned out to be totally false.

     The Democrats also pointed out that when the Romneys went on some kind of a vacation, they put their dog, in a pet carrier, on top of the roof of their station wagon. This was revealed as though it were some kind of capital crime.   Of course, one can note how dogs slobberingly hang their faces out of the window of a vehicle and revel in the smells and sights as they travel.  I really suspect that the Romneys were not dedicated to the neglect or mistreatment of their vacationing dog.

     But, one can listen to Hillary's sneeringly contemptuous account of how she "beat the charges" for her "client" (....she was working as a public defender at the time, but that is another tawdry story of corruption) and realise exactly what kind of a slug this woman is.  When she speaks about  fighting for women, we must remember that this is the woman who carpet-bombed any and all women who suggested, charged, said anything, about Billy Jeff's interlopings and violent, unwanted episodes.

     She never can find documents that are being called for by investigative authority, but it took her only 36 hours to find Kathleen Willy's letter requesting to be converted from volunteer to paid White Staff, after Willy let it be known that Billy Jeff had essentially sexually assaulted her.   Documents in other cases....many other cases....were readily available when it suited her, and non-existent when she had something to hide.   She was even able to find falsified papers and documentation, such as in the framing of the White House Travel Office employees.

Hideous woman....hideous black cavern of poison where other people have souls. 

El Gringo Viejo

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Apatzingan - Belly of the Beast

The area of Apatzingan, and the zone of heavily jungled mountains to the south and west of that city in western Michoacan State of Mexico, continues to be a problematic stretch of territory for the counter-trafficking forces in Mexico.   Several tiers of police and military organisations are operating there at any given time.  The Army, Naval Infantry, the Federal Civil Police, the State Police, and the famous rural militia that was legalised by the Mexican Defense Secretariat about two years ago, are all involved in the counter-drug and human trafficking efforts.

     As is typical, Mexican and International rights and protection groups almost continuously harass and defame the efforts of these military and police entities.  At times they are correct about authority overstepping its correct prerogatives and responsibilities.....remember that it is Latin America and Italian and Spanish rules of process still are followed.

     But.....Mexican processes have also taken on various and sundry common law procedure characteristics.....right to counsel, right to avoid self-incrimination, right to certain knowledge of the charges and dates of the accused offense(s).  It is similar in many ways to the American / Canadian / British, mixed with French and Japanese process.

     This evolution of the Mexican legal system has led to an increasingly compliance by the Mexican legal system in the service of extradition requests and warrants from the United States.   It is as different as daylight from dark, now.  But along with this has come an amplified, re-fortified, and shrill yellow press, at times accurate, and at other times absolutely lunatic and mendacious.   It is very similar now to the United States in many ways.

     We have posted a picture which depicts a crashed Mexican Army or Federal Police forward observation helicopter that was being used to help elements of the Guardia Rural.   Approximately 100 members of this (essentially) national  guard unit had tracked down and (essentially) trapped about 20 members of a gang affiliated with the now almost totally debilitated "Caballeros Templares" (Knights Templar).   There are about 20 pandillas (gangs) roughly coalesced into another "cartel" named "Generacion Joven".   The State and central government all agree that the helicopter was shot down and all causes were being considered, the take down was probably from from a 50 calibre Barrett rifle.   There have been reports that the weapon was a shoulder-fired missile.   That is an area of dispute.

     Later that day, several of the "pandilla" were finally flushed from their hideout, and captured, leaving a total of 9 "Generacion Joven" members dead,  9 wounded,  and two or three "missing".  It is the nature of the fight against the extortionists, traffickers, and generally criminally anti-social elements with which Mexico is afflicted during these times.  The cartels have been substantially gutted and crippled.  Lower level "officers" now conduct affairs, and normally they do not perform with the efficiency nor effectiveness of the leaders from four or five years ago.

     Russian arms and Eastern European ammunition shipped through Cuba, then Venezuela, then Nicaragua, and finally into Mexico is becoming scarcer and of even lower quality than before.   Much of that is due to the fraying ability and/or willingness of the Cuban mafia / military to participate in the chain of Death.  Then the situation in Venezuela during these days and hours is essentially one of anarchy, and the organised criminal element has taken to fratricidal warfare so as to determine who will be "last man standing" when and if order is every restored.  In other words, their attention is diverted to more important stuff...at home.
    Nicaragua also has its problems, with its military shipping guns to different criminal and nutcase groups even as far away as the Indonesia - Malaysia - Philippines theatre of low-level, but continual, Muslim and criminal violence.   Then a fellow has to deal with the American Coast Guard, patrolling in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the Mexican Navy, the Mexican Naval Infantry, the Mexican Army, and then various civilian authority.
      The Mexican Military continues to serve and serve well.  We should have continued our inter-laced co-ordination with them that existed during the Bush administration, but it was one of the first things that Obama / Jarrett administration snipped.   Hence, Fast and Furious, which was nothing more nor less than an attempt to do a frame job on American firearms sales businesses.  It also managed to get a lot of Mexican civilians killed and wounded, along with several people in the United States.  Even though the intellectual authors and the actors who implemented and oversaw the operation are known, none have ever been prosecuted by the Obama administration.   Most were promoted and transferred to duty closer to the promised land, Washington, D. C.

    We place this simple article here for the attention of the OROG who just might have failed to hear or see about this event from the Obsolete Media or FOX & Trump Network.
El Gringo Viejo

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Our Daughter-in-Law.....Never ceases to amaze

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THIS IS SOMETHING THAT COMES OUT OF THE MIND OF OUR DAUGHTER-IN-LAW.  SHE MADE IT TO CELEBRATE THE FIRST BIRTHDAY OF OUR GRANDDAUGHTER, SCARLETT -

Interestingly enough the mother and the daughter are within four days

on the calendar in terms of sharing birthdays.

The next morning, after a well-attended birthday party the day before, we

met our children and Scarlett at a preferred Mexican restaurant in the South

part of the People's Republik of Austin.

A couple came in and sat adjacent to us.  They were bedecked with Notre Dame paraphernalia,

obviously prepared for the big game against the University of Texas playing something 

known as Plantation Football.

They had a girl-child a little bigger than Scarlett, and the two little ones made eye contact

and gestured that they wanted to "get together"....and all the parents agreed without

much if any hesitation.  They looked very similar....enough to be mistaken for sisters.

They did well, touching hands and smiling...laughing a little.  The restaurant, crowded and

noisy, did not distract them.  The other mother indicated that her baby had "....just turned

two, yesterday."   And of course we advised  them that our baby had had a birthday

celebration yesterday as well.  We all laughed and celebrated that coincidence.  

You all can only imagine how stunned we all were when it was also divined during further

conversation that both of the mothers were born on the same day...about four days

earlier than their babies.

Figure the Odds.

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