This needs to be addressed

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     We have no idea why this relatively out of order previous submission has appeared from the past.  Peculiar things have been happening within the innards of my computer arrangements, and this "re-run" seemed to wish to be here at this time.

    Please enjoy this blast from the past.   There will be no extra charge.

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     Many reasonable readers of the Old Gringo's blogging oppose, support, and do not care about his opinion of Donald John Trump.  My impressions and attitude about him are herein revealed.   They are the same impressions that El Gringo Viejo had about the fellow from the beginning of awareness that such a person,  in fact,  existed.

     He presence first gave us the impression of a film-flam man.  Our natural instinct was to withdraw from his orbit so as to not allow his contamination of the Gringo Viejo's orbit.   As our mutual orbits aged, becoming more like "mutual obits" not much about our understanding of the man had changed.

     My character and personality is somewhat similar…self-centre'd, passive when action is needed, urgent when caution is required, skeptical about everything but believer in ghosts and extraterrestrials and things that go bump in the night (or daytime).

Friederich Trump

1870 - 1919

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      El Gringo Viejo is a self-styled authority about everything except what does not interest him.   And even then, he still has a solid opinion about something that has never been considered or studied.   We could go on forever.   Trump has done his things and El Gringo Viejo has done his.  Now, my turn has come to opine and elucidate.

     Mr. Trump is a grandson of a man from Bavaria, the largest of the minor ancient Teutonic regencies, now a province in southwestern Germany.   That grandfather was quite an operator.  He truly wanted to go to North America and make his fortune, removed from the standard stodgy shackles of the aristocratic and royal autocrats and stuffed shirts.
   The original Mr. Frederich Trump as an American (or North American) phenomena came about back in the early 1870s, being close to his mother at a time such as that (birth), in a Germanic zone as the Kingdom of the Platinate, a very small Regency indeed.  To-day, Bavaria is a state within the German Republic, with the honour of being the largest such sub-division in the nation.
     The Trumps were neither wealthy nor poor.  They were involved at various levels in the business of the vintners in a very top-flight wine producing area. Freder sent to trade school to become a barber, and complied.  He came back to his home grounds of Kallstadt, to cut hair, but the town really was not big enough to make a man rich.  So he went and obtained a permit and passport to emigrate to the United States where he had blood relatives.

     He landed, passing by the newly installed Statue of Liberty, and went looking for his family.   He began cutting hair again, while also purchasing buildings, homes, and other such structures, fixing them up, and then "turning" them.   While still a young man, he set out to the American Pacific Coast and began dealing  in accommodations, restaurant service, saloon and dining hospitality, and certain other social services that the Reverend Mr.  Billy Graham and his family would not approve.   After forming a partnership and then selling his assets out at considerable gain, he and his partner went  "North, to Alaska" and  western Canada where he found a real live Gold Rush was, as rumoured, taking place.

This is the nature of a gold rush.
As usual, 20% make some or a lot of money,  and 75% make
 nothing or less.  And 5% make real money by owning and
 running hotels, saloons, hardware and necessaries stores,
 and 'entertainment' alternatives.
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     We called it "The Alaskan Gold Rush" and the Canadians called it, "I say, what is all the noise?".    The Indians around there called it "Toi pikli toi cala" which in Eskimo means, "Well, there goes the neighbourhood.".

     And Friedrich Trump set about to make the area as nice a place as a place in the middle of nowhere, with a growing season measured in hours instead months, could be.
      Mr. Trump utilised his real estate and construction experience to build a couple of saloons, supposedly one a bit more discriminating than the other, and the other a bit more comfortable for rustics and rowdies.

     There were a couple of hotels, along with a couple of facilities for public

Another view of the Goldrush
Among those thousands who crossed over Chilkoot
Pass, searching the path to Golden Reward

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women and their wiles.   Through hard work, and honest dealing, Trump kept true to his quest to return to Queens with a pot full of shekels, and marrying his intended.   After a couple of years arguing with his partner and trying to keep him sober, Trump sold out his share, raking in a considerable net profit.

     Trump returned to New York City in good order, began immediately to scheme and try to edify buildings and homesteads and apartments on that island that stands between the Atlantic Ocean and the Hudson River.   but something gnawed at his guts and his soul.   Trump still had a thought about returning to Germany and restoring his citizenship.

     His married, also a German from the same area, although well adjusted to New York City. But, not long after the wedding, she began to become homesick for her old familiar places. They took a ship to Brussels and then the train to their old haunts in Bavaria.   This suited  Friedrich because he wanted to deal with the citizenship issue.
     He visited various offices to see about having his citizenship restored, but the door was slammed in his face at each stop.   He was branded a coward for having neatly avoided the conscription and for that reason he was no longer eligible for citizenship as a true German.

Elizabeth Christ Trump
paternal grandmother of Donald

1880   -   1966

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     Having been denied, and having exhausted all possible appeals  to higher authority with both aristocratic and judicial powers, he took his new bride, hopped on the next  ship west-bound and returned to New York City…passing by the nice lady in the harbour once more.
    Mrs. Trump  settled in and raised a good family, including one who would become the father of the United States of America.
    Lamentably, Mr. Trump was not a long-life type person.  He died in 1919 at the ripe old age of 49, apparently, while overwhelmed by a galloping onset of the Spanish Flu.
     That flu epidemic was much worse than to-day's assault by the coronavirus epidemic, killing millions and million over a 32 month period which included most of 1917, the end of World War I in late 1918, and a portion of 1919.

    We have given the previous brief caption of the nature of origins of  Donald Trump's biological make-up as well as his intellectual and "drive" factors.  All of the bloodline stuff and all of the details about the personality are a bit deceptive…almost.

     It is impossible to discount the strength of The Donald's work ethic and vision.  These things are a matter of historical record.  The three marriages and the rough edged, blustering, drive to success and maintenance of success  are things that at least the majority of the literate classes have some recognition.   My effort here is to explain my thoughts and impressions about the fellow and his past, present, and future.

     Some might think that since we have voted Republican at every opportunity since 1969, and have served as an operative, campaigner helper, GOP behind-the-scenes "source", and formal candidate for elective office as well as a member of three delegations to the Texas State Republican Convention that my mind is closed to openness.  During my high school years I served as President of the McAllen Teenaged Republican Club…which was the largest such organisation in the United States at that time (1961 - 1964)

    We should also point out that my Boss-lady has also voted in the same manner and has served as an Officer of the Hidalgo County Republican Party.

She and I also were one of four parties who sponsored the Rush to Excellence Tour to McAllen, Texas in 1989…which was attended at the McAllen Civic Centre to the tune of standing room only…many thousands.

     But…the OROGs need to be aware that El Gringo Viejo is not the world's biggest fan of Donald Trump.   I am leery of the fact that he was a Democrat of Convenience, and then a Republican of Convenience.   He has the tendency to be uselessly crass and overly willing to engage in pointless contention.

     One of the things that drives this particular observer to the point of pulling his last seven hairs out of his head is Trump's compulsive need to say "I" when "We" is in order.  He has the addiction to the word "my" instead of "our".   He drones on for hours without saying much more than literary confetti and pointing out necessary weaknesses of the leftists and latter-day Bolshies He does this without making points with strength.  He should not rely on  jab lines of a burlesque comic.

Kim Jung Il (r) and sister Kim Yo Jong (l)
aka: The Kimsey Twins

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     It is all this writer can do to remain calm and comfortable in my straight-jacket they give me down at the home when Trump refers to Kim Jung Un, that paragon of human goodness, as if he is an old college chum.   Kim is a dull, murderous thug  who will probably murder his beautiful but witch-like sister just as he murdered his older brother a couple of years ago in order to seal his hold on the "reins of power.   The "fat boy" is aware that too many close relatives and generals hanging around spoil the broth…and spoil the spoils of dictatorship, as well.  This is someone that should not be given any pleasantry or latitude, especially by the President of the United States.

     And we continue, in the same vein, we have the President going out of his way to say kind things, do good and valuable favours for, and accommodate in many ways, the hideous President of Red China and that thug's minions.  Just recently, special Red Chinese thugs have entered Hong Kong and revelled in the battery and vicious beating of Hong Kong citizens.  Also, an anti-religious campaign has been renewed in Red China under the instructions of Xi Jinping, whom our President apparently regards as a human being worthy of some kind of special deference.   We have noted the brutality and violence that has been dealt to the Chinese people for celebrating Christian rites, or adhering to old and revered adherents to Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, and numerous other peoples who see matters in spiritual ways.

Chinese President Xi Jinping

recent victor in the religious war against those who

continued to practice Christianity, and / or other religions

that will not be tolerated by strict Communist rules.  Many

people have been either killed or injured, and houses, as

as churches and home chapels.

                _____________________________

    

     My reservation as it pertains to my soul and selection and preference is to never regard people like Xi and the "Kimsey Twins" as anything human.   That is one mark I bear that cannot be erased…Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Ho, Pol Pot…and I do not believe that Xi and the "Kimsey Twins" can be brought up to the rail for a "…come to Jesus moment" or any such similar purification.

     So,  therefore, the OROGs and perhaps some newcomers know my inner thoughts and feelings about our president.  I shall vote for him…as soon as early voting begins, because I am a geezer, and it would be really terrible if Michelle O'bamaham would gain the Presidency simply because Texas missed by one vote giving the Electoral College selection to the panel representing the Democrats.   I will not say, "Well, I voted for the lesser of two evils," or any other such rot.  Donald Trump is decidedly better than anything the Democrat  - Socialist Labour Party can drag into the fray.

We shall retire from the field of battle and return after the smoke is settled in order to more accurately pursue the enemy.
EL GRINGO VIEJO

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We continue with this horrible scenario...

We have had a series of peculiar "incidents" while trying to complete and post the previous submission and this one.  Sudden disappearances of text, words being re-misspelled, or if written in Spanish, being converted into other words of English origen.  We appreciate the attention of our readers, and as always appreciate your comments and suggestions.  I equally appreciate your willingness to put up with my lack of diagnostic ability in terms of disciplining an old computer.

We return to the battleground…

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     Those who are not in the fifth column of the marxists, frequently are members of hideously violent organised young men between the ages of 13 to 25, and who are well-trained in the art of torture, killing by knife and/or firearms, theft of both large and small scale, and especially assaults on girls and women.  With certainty they scoff at and despise everything about the peculiar institution of Americanism and the American Way.

From the 1990s, the "Ejercito Zapatista de la Liberation
Nacional (EZLN).You all will remember"Sub-comandante
 Marcos"a white Mexican from the North of Mexico,
 with two University degrees and a hatred for his
 horribly upper middle class, white Mexican family.
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     Twenty or thirty years ago, or seventy years  ago, or run it up to 100 or more years ago and then some, we did have Mexican ruffians who would come across illegally and begin or maintain a life of crime.   They were not the "noble wetback" or a legal temporary-labour person.   This first named grouping of "bad" Mexicans were something of a parallel to Bonnie and Clyde, the James and Donaldson Boys, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. is now laughably dwarfed by the several hundreds of thousands of miscreants and gang-members who have come up from certain parts of northern South America, and the Central American nations of Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.   These people are a menace to the society and the culture of the Republic.

Please be certain.  I was born on a farm north of McAllen, as we have written many times.  We have stated in our various letters, editorial comments, and in this blog that my parents employed hundreds upon hundreds of temporary agricultural workers, especially from the State of Guanajuato, followed by Michoacan, Vera Cruz, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Leon.

Rafael Sebastian Guile Vicente

aka: Sub-Comandante Marcos, who styled
 himself as a communist liberator of the
 enslaved Mayan Indians of the Mexican
 State of Chiapas.
He was active as a "marxist revolutionary"
during the 1990s.   He finally left in the
 early 2000s to Nicaragua.  He now
 circulates in whatever marxist kitchen
 will feed him.
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     Our old farmstead (it was new back then) had a good amount of acreage, a relatively huge orchard of Valencia orange, and the centre of operations, repairs, and storage for my parent's Grove Care business.   Our rambling 16 room three-piece homestead, with a really nice interior patio and elegant carpet grass and floral and forever blooming bushes were almost always present.

     But after all those years, and all those different men my father would point out that we never missed a watch, a fifty cent piece, or anything.   And our rambling house had no locks on the doors (except the bathrooms).   It is just the way it was; no PollyAnna, no false "defending the poor". It was just the way it was.
   My parents had the same men, or children and brothers of the same men, who came and went  as it was convenient for them and my parents.  In all those years, according to my parents and brothers, and as I saw the men while I was growing up mixed among them, never did I witness any dishonesty or depravity.

     As an aside, I frequently point out that our men did not want their pay to carry home.   They would leave, take a bus from Reynosa, and bounce and bump and grind all the way to Guanajuato, and from there disperse to their hamlets…where frequently there were more citizenry that spoke Purepecha (also known as Tarascan) than Spanish. My mother and  I (as  a very young child 4 or 5 years old), and at times my eldest brother and I would go to the Telegrafos y Telefonos de Mexico in downtown Reynosa with two or three thousand dollars in cash.
   There my "elder" official (brother Milton) would present the Mexican telegrapher with a stack of Mexican names and data, along with that citizen's official "numero calificado del portador" (qualified number of the bearer).   Then there were the most flourishing elegant signatures of authorisation (frequently by a retired Mexican Army General) and the telegrapher would begin sending the remittances to "Jose Garcia y/o Maria Cisneros de Garcia" et. al.
    The men preferred to send their money to the real boss of the house, thereby leaving behind the urge to liven up a cantina or play cards or dice in the back of the bus…jeopardising their hard earned lucre meant for Maria and the children.  Our men were decidedly void of impulses that would cost money uselessly.



    We are leaving the two above paragraphs as a vignette to illustrate to our readers the nature of things back then.   Now we have almost constant war,  constant invasion, and constant concern about who will be the next among us…we ourselves…our readers…our relatives…our workaday associates…the folks in general…to be involved as victims of violent crime?
     I am old and unnecessary, but the civilisation needs its onward march of people being born,  training themselves up, producing, and birthing out and raising their progeny, so that they continue the march into the future.   

     What sincerely concerns me is that we have a return to catechism…a re-establishment of a standard code of predictable conduct…a willingness to require compliance and concurrence with realistic social values and codes of financial and cultural interaction.   As spoiled and soiled as I was as a pre-adult, it would be certain that much, very much, of the conduct we see in public to-day would never have passed muster by any reasonable person's standard during those times.

Irene Garza

1936  -  1960

May she forever rest in peace
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     And yes, times back then and before were never perfect…those times were made by human personalities as well.   We had a Roman Catholic priest in our McAllen community had trouble with women, back in the "sainted 1950s and early 1960s.  Finally, one night, at services commonly offered and attended by a large congregation of a highly respected and admired parish…by almost everyone in the City and County.   Confessions were also heard during the late afternoon until around 8:00 pm at  that particular large and well run Church.

     A young, very attractive and very accomplished and well-known member of the community went to mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church one evening, and even with 200 parishioners clanking beads, clicking out in high heels after the service, calling some over to others about going out for a bite, etc…one of the most accomplished and attractive single young women in South Texas…just did not come home that night.  She had been seen, she had spoken with several of the parishioners.   It was a distance of four blocks, twixt Church and Home.
     Lamentably, several days later, her body was recovered, bobbing in the large irrigation canal known as the Second Street Main.   There was a grate over the undertake running under Highway 83, McAllen's central east-west thoroughfare, and that had stopped her northward drift from where she had been discarded about five blocks to the South on 2nd Street.
      To shorten the story, the entire City of McAllen all but stopped.   Parents who could kept their children home or near did so.   Police from all over converged, including Department of Public Safety from Austin, along with the Texas Rangers…and, of course, lawyers and ranking diocesan ecclesiastics from the Diocese…to assure everyone that the priest at mass that night had nothing to do with nuttin'.

Just a nice picture of our place down in
NoWhere, Mexico where we have a little
adobe hut at a very nice setting.

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    He, unfortunately, had had a bit of an episode because of manhandling another young woman over in nearly adjacent Edinburg (the County Seat), where this particular priest also was on staff.   That episode was an afternoon matter, and was quickly swept under all available rugs.   Before two days had gone by the entire southern third of South Texas new all about the matter (there are no real secrets in the 'Magic Valley').  It preceded the previously mentioned incident by about two months.

     For everyone who was alive and there, anyone over the age of 10 or so, they have never forgotten that episode in their lives.   McAllen had about 30,000 people…a busy place…and growing.  Hidalgo County had about 165,000 folks, and a lively business and farming member of the 254 county membership of the Republic of Texas.   Back then it was the 9th largest in population in the State.   Now, approaching 1,000,000 people it ranks sixth with that count. 
     During these times, the main newspaper of record, the McAllen Monitor, will report from 25 to 40 homicides, attempted homicides, armed robberies, and felony assaults per week for the County of Hidalgo.  That means, being generous, our home county will have had over 1,500 serious felonies committed…not including burglary, embezzlements, and other non-violent crimes.   For the four county "Lower Rio Grande Valley" community…we are looking at almost 3,000 per year now.
     In 1960, there might have been three or 150 such "serious violent crimes", with one fifth the population.   That means a per capita increase in violent crime of twenty times the rate per capita now from sixty years ago.  Twenty times more violent crimes per capita than before.  And mind well, this does not include the weekly publication of some great embezzlement by some major entity and/or personality.

    Things are not "just like they always were".

While this photo was taken in 1916 in Rio Grande City's Fort
Ringgold, it was also a principal place of service by my father
from 1929 to just before 1934.  And, yes Virginia, this photo
was colourised.  I'm sorry.

   At times…a long time ago…things really were worse than in the 1950s and early 1960s.   Cross border banditry from the 1912 - 1926 period was like a plague.   Inter-ethnic friction led to various types of regrets as well as loss of life and/or property.  But things kept improving, in spite of the foibles and weaknesses of the soul of various personalities.   Below the reader can take in a "muster" of heavy cavalry at Fort Ringgold in 1916 moving out to feign a dash at the nearby border (the Rio Grande is only about 1/2 mile from the muster) before making a flanking to the right (upstream) to cut off a group of Mexican bandits who were primarily deserters from Venustiano Carranza's exhausted army, mixed with Gringo rustler/gunslinger types.

     Long, long, long interethnic business friendships, intermarriage entanglements forged a "race" of people…primarily Spanish, Hebraic Spanish, Anglo, and Germanic people formed up what was the backbone of what was good about the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  Goodly numbers of Jewish merchants and Czech and Polish farmers blended into the mix as well.
   But people of lesser degree tormented the area off and on, for a long time.  Some were bandits, others were "businessmen" of shallow commitment to the "win - win" code of commerce, and there were always the drifters and shysters.  

     El Gringo Viejo does not see our situation here improving, and much is because of the lack of catechism, of Sunday School attendance, of pursuits involving self-improvement, and of family bonding.   With the much larger population, certainly we have numerous folks who "live the old-fashioned way".   But with the "immigration reform" of the late 1980s and the near open-borders we had during the 1990s through President Bush and then the ghastly record of the O'bama years, we were literally inundated with scores of thousands of people unprepared to meet the complexities of life in Texas and / or the United States of America.
     The main theme of a broad majority of people who came up were, in fact, of Mexican origin and were about 50 / 50 in their orientation towards being self-sufficient.   Currently slightly less than all juveniles in Hidalgo County are supported by food stamps…and slightly more than 40% of all families are in those ranks.  Years ago, there was a thing called the surplus commodities distribution programme.  The percentage of the population taking advantage of that programme, from 1961 and before, was around 7.5%…mainly older people or handicapped in some manner.

     The biggest problem we have now…and now we circle back to the previous issue, the previous posting…is the fact that this area as well a scores, and scores of neighbourhoods, smalls towns, cities of all sizes, and even rural areas have become the stomping grounds of the Mara Salvatrucha  13 (MS - 13) of Honduras and the Callejon 18 based in Guatemala.   To a lesser extent, fellow Central American countries and neighbours El Salvador and Nicaragua are very involved with the trafficking of people to the United States, essentially to birth babies and obtain AFDC, stamps, etc. as they settle into incomprehensible quarters and pay the "tax" to the gang-member for the "stamps and apartment" his group provided.
     One need only to think about every dark alley, every dingy overcrowded, noisy, dangerous place in some backwater corner of some run-down city that has more people on welfare than on the productive workers' payrolls.

We shall take a bit of a breather and resume to-morrow, trying to make a little sense and to explain things the way I have come to understand them.   Keep the emails and comments coming in, we always respond…sometimes slowly…but we respond.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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So that all will understand…Why am I here? Or there? I am so confused…

Please forgive:   This submission has been assaulted by unknown
computer responses and unpredictable computer actions.
We shall have it corrected by this time to-morrow.
______________________________

S0 THAT ALL WILL UNDERSTAND….

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     The past few weeks have been…shall we say…interesting.  Being set in my ways, and having a large cadre of people who seem to take pleasure in waiting on me and tolerating my uselessness,  I had been balancing an international theatre of performance for the past twenty years or so.   My main business, one could say, has been directly or indirectly related to doing things in and around the Republic of Mexico for nearly the past fifty years…or so.

     Travelling around in Mexico actually began, for me, when I was about five years ago, when my mother and father went looking for men to work in our grove care business…back in 1952.  That is a whole 'nuther trip into Fantasyland…one as good or better than Mr. Disney had.  But here, and at this moment our attention is turned to some of the various experiences and contributions I enjoyed during those times past.

     The times continue, on a constant thread, and on similar topics, more or less…mostly more…but sometimes less.  Presently, for instance, we are mired in a great War that has drug ten or twelve more or less democratic and liberal (in the broadest of definitions) nations facing an assembly of decrepit  and very totalitarian nations.   The theatre of this world-wide confrontation is mainly passive, depending upon the manoeuvres made by our side and their side, and depending upon who thinks whom can control the industry and a commerce in such a way so as to determine who will set the clocks and who will establish the rules of order as well as the rules of engagement.

     The abovementioned situation is one reality.

_________________

     Then we have the situation wherein we established, somewhat as an extension of our days in the "Grand Touring" company that we owned and successfully operated for many years.   My compulsiveness brought us to the point of building a little adobe cottage in the middle of NoWhere Mexico.   The setting was idyllic and we had a thin layer of "friends" who had been ever-willing to assist me during various times back in the Excursion days.

     The geography and climate and closeness to Gringolandia seemed to justify the effort to build, maintain, and finally employ our little adobe place.   Spates of sometimes violent confrontations between this group and that group, or this snow storm or that thunder and lightning storm seemed to steadily wind down.   We advanced two steps forward and one step back, even as the agricultural operations of our zone began to really launch into full scale citrus (and certain other seasonal crops) on first-world quality and terms.  The citrus production of the Santa Engracia area most highly regarded by the market.

     Now, we are dealing with a Presidential term whose last two years of Pena-Nieto's term and the first year and a half of Lopez Obrador's term that have steadily moved into a quagmire…for want of a better word.   While Mexico has…finally…gained prestige among the Top Fifteen economic powerhouses in the world, the people (and yes I shall place this a the feet of the citizen populace) have slid back into the notion that 'The Government' can provide free this and that, lots of money, and generally defective direction from the Presidency, especially at these moments.

     Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) gathered around himself a peculiar cadre of National Action Party (PAN - Mexico's 'conservative' party), some mossbacks from the old Revolutionary Institutional (centrist) party, the PRI.   He won the nation-wide General Elections by a majority of the vote…a first Mexico for several elections…six or seven.  He heads the "Partido Movemiento de la Renovacion Nacional" also known as MORENA ).
    Almost all the nuts and bolts of the party is ultra-leftist, unapologetically.   At the beginning of his term "AMLO" had about twenty non-MORENA high-power, well-positioned political leaders from several parties, including the conservative PAN party (the largest contingent)…and all thought that Mexico was going to continue its maturation as a first-world nation.

     Before six months were out however, the Ship of State had hit a fairly large iceberg.   People were muttering about how AMLO spoke like a mentally retarded drunk (he really does have a halting and at time seemingly incoherent assembly of his words and phrases).   The old-timers remember that after the Revolucion de 1910 - 1917 Mexico essentially ran its government as a one-party state. It was corrupt and cumbersome, but the successions were, in great majority…in the great totality…in such a position in power that from the end of the "Revolucion" to the ascension to the Presidency by a non-government candidate, over 70 years elapsed.   It was quite a run for the old Partido de la Revolucion Institutional.

     But now, after two relatively successful terms by the conservative PAN, a ''Pretty boy" Pena-Nieto brought the presidential trophy back to the nominally centrist PRI.   After that lacklustre episode,  "The People" clamoured for "change" and actually voted AMLO into the presidency, late in 2018 for his six year term.   Now they are saying, "Who voted for that guy anyway? ...certainly not me."

     There is some jolly talk about how Mr. AMLO and "Uncle Joe" Biden took their declamation training from the same instructor.  Both would give the impression to any reasonable observer that they were either sharing a table at the Cantina Tres Botellas or suffering from nuerological speech disorder (or both).
   In any regard, while the situation where we have our little adobe house has become quite pacified during the past two or three years, we can point to various areas in Mexico that have much better social environments than most folks from the United States might ever imagine.  Such is our little jidey-hole.
    I always pointed out to potential clients who wanted a bird-watching, do-nothing respite along with an excellent scenery and setting, that our place made and continues to make a positive impression.   All who have come…either for a day in the country…or several days and nights with the nearby mountains, forests, noble crops, and the air of a century past (really good grub, too) have been ebullient in their praise for our little adobe place and its setting.

     Normally, during these past many months, we entertain and have "parrilladas" (outdoor grilling among friends and friends of friends).   Then suddenly, we began to hear that the United States was going to have to consider closing down the border bridge crossings either totally or substantially "in the near future".  

     Please be assured that we were aware that the border was being violated terribly by people coming up,  especially from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala.   The present President of the United States has committed to controlling the border in a realistic way, although some people think there will be an aesthetic cost. There are others who choose to present themselves as though they are pure and therefore superior to "everyone else" because they think people should be allowed to come into the United States with or without permits and other compliance requirements.

   These people of supposed higher values oppose such permits and permissions they "feel" it is "racist" and unfair.   They are mainly pseudo - religious members and groups who are quite active in the business of "legitimising" people who arrive "indocumentado" (without papers or permits).   Almost all are semi-skilled at best or unskilled in much beyond human propagation and mediocre day labour,  which is normally far below the quality of work done by Mexicans and Texians.

     The objective of at very least 85% of those who arrive at the Texas frontier is to whelp a baby on American soil…because our laws still suggest that a baby born on American soil is an American baby, and so the mother gets to stay with the baby and pick up the AFDC, housing, free medical, etc. etc.   It has gone on for years…especially worsening again in the early 1990's up until the present time.

     But we digress.   We do in fact have a "multi-cultural swirl" here in South Texas.   The demographic swirl, mix, conditions, and complexity is easy to explain if a person wants to listen to a three hour lecture on the "History of Settlement of Nuevo Santander and the Lands Associated with Coahuila and Texas".   It can be done in two or three weeks.   That there is sanity and insanity associated with any and/or all of it is certain.   The Spanish failed here and there, but in the main their works were marvels not only of surviving but also establishing estates and business ventures of great import and success.
     But now, because of the White House's idea that the border must be under some kind of reasonable control, we are being subjected to a new reality.   That reality is that the international crossings and immigration normalisation papers for Americans trying to go to Mexico, and for those same Americans attempting to return to the United States has become fraught with unantici-patable scenarios.
     For a Texian who is a native of Texas, the passing from Texas into interior of Mexico has been and still remains a fairly innocuous event…twenty minutes…a huge deposit for secure return of one's auto back to Texas (always refunded in full), a valid passport, and evidence of a valid Certificate of Title of the motorcar being taken to Mexico.   The papers are en force for 6 months, and the Gringo must turn in those papers (the temporary vehicular entry permit and tourist / proprietor entry permit) on or before the date indicated.

     The Mexican goes through quite a bit more, and the cost is higher, and he has to show liability insurance for his auto, but the Mexican with his papers drawn on the American Embassy or one of the many places now where there is a functional Mexican Consular facility.   One plus, however,  the term of validity is longer for the Mexican.   Similar rules, with variations, apply to Central Americans.

     But starting about 6 weeks ago, steadily and then more quickly, the White House declared a closure to all terrestrial crossing points in Texas with Mexico…with certain provisos for certain people.   My problem, for instance, would be to try to come back into the United States.   Normally we have had to wait in line for 30 minutes on up to two hours, mired in lines that would total 250 or so on up to a total of 2,500 in various wait lines.   Now, there are little or no lines…crossing can require as little as though we were in a small town with one traffic light.

     There are twelve crossings including:

                   Laredo / Nuevo Laredo (3 bridges)

                  Falcon Dam / Presa Falcon

                   Roma / Miguel Aleman,

                  Rio Grande City / Camargo,

                  Los Ebanos Ferry / Feria de Gustavo Diaz Ordaz

                  Anzalduas / Reynosa (west), 

                  McAllen-Hidalgo / Reynosa (central),

                  Pharr International / Reynosa (east),

                  Donna International / Rio Bravo
Weslaco / Progresso

                  Los Indios International / Valle Hermosa

                 Gateway Brownsville / Gateway Matamoros

                 Brownsville / Matamoros

These folks are not, in their broad, broad majority,
"immigrants" looking for  opportunity in America.
Usually 30 to 40 percent of the males are fleeing
judicial process or are members of cartels. 

   It is the human variation of a locust invasion.
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    These bridge connections have had literally thousands of autos going both ways and scores of thousands each day as pedestrians who have their "documents" in order, etc.  This is both ways.  I, for instance, guard my Mexican promissory papers zealously, as do the Mexicans with their American promissory paperwork.

     During the past two weeks, the only bridge declaring crossing time in excess of 15 minutes was Gateway Brownsville.   The remainder were crossing mainly after waiting for five (5) minutes up to (10) minutes.   It is the nature of things on the Frontier at this time.   I have never dealt with such a phenomena going and/or coming twixt Mexico and Texas…or Arizona and Mexico…etc.   We have just learned that…during these moments…that an extension to the border crossing closure (with certain exceptions) between Canada and the United States has been put in place, for another 30 days.   It is almost dead level certain that Mexico and the United States will put another extension in place as well…wishin the next few hours or days.

     It is all a miserable mess.   We have worked fairly well with the Mexicans over the past century, not perfectly, but fairly well, both ways…South to north, and north to South.   We warn anyone who is "kinder and gentler" to please research this matter carefully.  The "caravanas" that come up to the American frontier are sham-shows…organised carefully by communist agitators with considerable training in Cuba, Venezuela, and certain places in Europe.   Pseudo religious persons, lamentably posing as Roman Catholic nuns and priests and assistants of such persons help in the charade, but make no mistake, they are wild-eyed marxist 5th Column types.

    In the above picture, the reader can see people, especially very young males trooping northward…by my estimation...in the above photo, 70 percent are males ages 13 to 20.  The females are about the same age and frequently have two or three babies and/or a two to six year old child to lug along.
     It was, and it remains, common for these women to present children to authorities with two or three different colourations, who speak in different accents, and who have been "loaned" to those heading north to be traded out, or perhaps even delivered to a waiting Mexican or even American who is buying little ones to sell elsewhere.  Very, very few have "papers" of any kind.

Immediately after the posting of this amended and updated and repaired submission, we shall be finishing the "brother" of this one.    We fully intend to have the "brother" posted before sunrise to-morrow.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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Watching It Happen, and no way to intervene...

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    During the past weekend and a bit more, we had to worry about my daughter and her two children and her husband…my son who has a wife and three girls and the wife, and my fellow Father-in-Law (consuegro in Spanish) and his wife (consuegra) were essentially broadsided by a large, complex thunderstorm line.   It covered the area that includes the area that I refer to as Austin - Round Rock - Dripping Springs and Oatmeal.
      There was considerable lightning, episodes of heavy to moderate bands of driving  rain, and dime-sized to orange-sized hail stones.   There were four lengthy tornado warnings and our peoples' neighbourhoods managed, miraculously, to make it through with limited damage only.

     Yesterday we learned from all that everything was good.  My son declared that he did not have much damage at all, except maybe for the big limb in the middle of the street.   That was apparently his main contribution to the mess.

     Shortly after my peoples' storms, I noticed that the squall line was truly complex and very lively, if anything, gainly a peculiar resilience and intensity as it moved essentially to the due east…sometimes slower…sometimes faster.   But it went…Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, Alabama and Eastern Tennessee, then the Appalachian Chain after escaping Georgia, and finally a bit of a northward jog, along with re-instensification over South Carolina, North Carolina, and eastern Virginia.
     It was a meteorological event for the records.  Over 1,300 miles, heavy rain, grapefruit-sized hail, tornadoes too numerous to tally, and finally the analyses begins with first 12 then 14, and a little later 19 lives lost, including a combat veteran who threw himself over his wife just short seconds before the house collapsed and killed him…the wife survived with minimal physical injury.

     The oddity of sorts was that the intense part of this very vigorous and powerful storm system was that the Austin - Round Rock - Dripping Springs - Oatmeal area was the serious beginning the well developed squall line, and it left and went northeast up the Atlantic coast, only after going over the top of the Appalachians and then lighting up the east-facing wall of that beautiful and fabled area removed from the coasts of the Carolinas and nestled in the hills and mountains of the western parts of South Carolina.

     Thence, the following missive from a life-friend since our families crossed paths not long ago:

We are fine here.  Thankful that our grounds and homes are safe and yards refurbished after wee small limbs offered themselves as chores for wee tots.  The tots being close to the ground, could grab the small limbs and place them in a wagon.

They became part of the familial team when storms call for as much.  All chipped in.  All that was left was my running over the mass of leaf clumps to be mulched with the mower. 

Homes were destroyed to the left of us three miles distance where the line of storms when done there crossed the Cooper River and did its dirty deeds to more homes, mostly trailers, on the other side.

One elderly man of 85 had his room sink in on him, but he will be okay.  

My sister and brother in law caught the virus and are over it.  It was serious enough to where my father was inconsolable with tears for fear of their well being.  If they hadn't had Hydrochlorinique to fight it with, they may have perished.

The Leftist media and DNC must be disbanded and a start from scratch is called for.  They are, most assuredly America's enemy.  

God's peace to all in your homes.  Thank you for thinking of us.

I am yours, in Christ

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     Please note that Hydrochlorinique was involved in the matter of the coronavirus that was going around a week or a bit more before the storm came.   I took the same stuff back in the 1950s with my malaria, as did my eldest brother and my father.   Some years later accidental encounters in the lab demonstrated that the Hydrochlorinique seemed to beat back against the pneumonia.

     Note, the value of Hydrochlorinique is very well understood, and can be demanded by a patient for intervention against pneumonia, especially that kind that is associated with coronavirus.

     The images are from last weekend…the tree, a strong one, was snapped at the base, while the trucker with the box…well…he kind of lost the box on his trailer, about two minutes before this picture was taken.

We lament the loss of life and the injuries and loss of value of cherished possession of so many.   We were gladdened to learn that our friends and the family of said friends had small losses but nothing catastrophic.

EL GRINGO VIEJO
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