Sociological Indigestion - Is there no cure?

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     My fellow father-in-law chastised me recently…but only slightly…wondering why I had not published something of critical insistence from the body politic.   El Gringo Viejo pleads guilty.  It would be my preference to publish three or four brilliant broadsides per week in my on-going effort to bring redemption to the culture, but the mundane rushes in with trivial matters such as life and death, and of course, rich or broke.

     These are truly the times that try men's souls.  Women are having a bit of a tussle as well.   We are enduring at this time a profound plague that it harvesting souls from the American and the Planet's population without much discrimination.  We lament each passing.   But it should be pointed out, for instance, that your humble servant survived the hideous poliomyelitis (polio) that burdened so many during the late 1940s through the first part of the decade of the 1950s.

    During those times a sullen, somewhat frightened, population had to deal with a silent, secret epidemic that was killing  and crippling children, seemingly at every other home.   The good Doctors Salk and Sabin each developed a cure in the 1950s…both of which were effective, and those injections were provided all around the nation fairly quickly.   My records were lost somehow, so I had to have two extra shots…or what turned out to be five, total.  Yes, I did survive.

      To put things into proper perspective, it should be noted that the Spanish Flu affected approximately one-third of the population of Planet Earth during the period 1917 - 1920.   It was devastating.  The planet had approximately 1,900,000,000 souls (one billion, nine hundred thousand), and almost one of every 32 people died.   The death toll was 675,000 in the United States alone, when the United States of America's population was 106,000,000 (one hundred and six million)…or one of every 150 Americans citizens died from the Spanish flu alone, all during a little less than three years.

     The toll was greater than the combined losses of Union and Confederate soldiers during the War Between the States.  Both sides uselessly lost a total of 400,000 men at arms.

     In my cold-hearted, but quite reasonable way, it should be pointed out that, at present, we are hovering around 320,000,000 people who call the USA home.   That is three times the number of people we had among us one hundred years ago in the United States.   We are fortunate, in spite of the numerous losses, to have had a total of 220,000 (4 Dec 2020) deaths by the coronavirus contagion because the old Spanish Flu, if it were killing at the same rate as it did back in 1920…would have taken almost 700,000 casualties by this point.

     These are salient points about the realities of life.  Another salient point is the quagmire of duplicity and mendacity when the Governor of the State of New York begged for help from President Trump, citing the overload of patients in the Metropolis and the State in general.  The President allocated two ships…one an advanced United States Coast Guard rapid transfer and attack craft, and the other a United States Navy Hospital Ship…old and totally renovated, and fully outfitted.   The Navy ship docked in New York's harbour and was used somewhat sporadically, and after a few days, was essentially unused.

The good ship "COMFORT USN"
Medical and surgical…1,000 beds…top flight personnel
but almost no patients.  Gov. Cuomo decided to send 
the afflicted to Old Folks Homes…and then he just
kind of forgot about them…and blamed Trump.
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     The great medical and naval authority, Governor Cuomo, pretty much either forgot about the huge asset sitting a stone's throw away, or he decided that he did not need the ship.   And besides, he hated Donald Trump.   First things first.   And a famous, highly decorated Ship by the name of Comfort with 1,000 beds for the injured and ill marks time…because of the indifference and incompetence of the Governor and his lapdogs Mayor De Blasio and brother Chris Cuomo.

     The Governor and the Mayor are two peas in the pod who have presided over the steady collapse of the World's Greatest Metropolis.  As in many areas such as northeastern-most Illinois State, including the area known as Chicagoland a similar downgrading in "life-style amenities" has been underway for a generation.  Racial disharmony, infrastructural degradation, and general quality of life issues have set in the once beckoning jewel.

    For the working class, middle class, and lower-range of the wealthy, they know that they  are looked upon as criminals who have made money by doing nothing more than work 40 to 90 hours per week.   Chicago land has a large plurality of people who believe they deserve full-subsidy housing, free or nearly free medical services, schools that essentially serve as social / gang gathering and staging areas along with free food…after all, who needs reedin', ritin', an' rithmetic?

 A USCG Cutter
Ready for service to transport the
 injured or to attack, if need be. This
 ship, above, is stationed in San
 Diego, California.

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   Los Angeles and San Francisco…Hey!! What could go wrong, man? Texas is considering the prohibition of industrial and intellectual property being transferred to the Lone Star State because of the  tendency of incoming folks from California to say,"Everything in Texas would be even better if you people would just…blah, blah, blah …like we do in California.'

   For instance, a close friend of the family had a nephew who was born and raised in California, somewhere between Ontario and Los Angeles.  He and his wife came over to Texas to "escape" the horrid place his home area had become…puttered around here for about a year and a half, and then returned to his beloved area because Texas was too dull and conservative.

     We felt genuinely sorry to see them go, but after their departure, no one seemed to speak them again.   Texians have that characteristic of being overly talkative and open or quiet and reserved…as if studying a situation or a group of folks.  We also tend to overinflate the sights, sounds, and everything else about Texas, so one needs to become accustomed to those quirks.

     The reader should…or actually must…understand that Dallas, Austin, and Houston have fallen into the abyss of dull arrogance and pathological political correctness. Austin considers defunding the police, so as to be "with-it" with the likes of George Soros and Ocasio - Cortez.   For a long while my disposition was that, before long, a melting pot effect would finally absorb the Texian out-of-date approach to life and culture.

 The Family of Ralph Yarborough in front of their
"Sears Home" newly installed in Chandler, Texas.
Ralph is the second child from the right.  He was
born in Chandler in 1903.

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      People like Ann Richards and "Beto" O'rourck had set a good example so as to lead the masses into the orbit of people of such as Nancy Pelosi, Lloyd Doggett, and other such luminaries.   Ralph Yarborough, the ancient United States Senator and a true "happy warrior" (his nickname), was tolerable in his day as a "liberal" with a really weird East Texas accent.  I had the non-unpleasant encounter with Uncle Ralph on two or three occasions, he knowing my brother's and my GOP records, but he was always extremely genteel and open.  I learned that he had been born in 1903 and his daddy had told him every day to study, study, study…and, "…well, I studied and studied, and when I was done the only thing I could do was to be a lawyer!" It was a favoured ice-breaker.  He was proud that I had just finished at Southwest Texas State University, because he was a graduate of the Sam Houston State Teacher's College and both he and I shared the knowledge that the seven Texas State regional Universities were better than either the University of Texas or Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, the two "premier Texas State universities".  As an aside I still believe that to be absolutely true.

     His words to me in the lobby of the County of Hidalgo Court House were nice, but he had to go back into the auditorium where he was going to urge the County Commissioners to vote to approve
the Children's Nutrition Programme bill that was working its way through the labyrinth of the Texas House and Senate.  His oratory was a real giggle for the Latin folks who had never heard a truly eloquent blowhard speak with a deep East Texas accent.   But, in truth, he was a great, homey elocutionist.    We leave those fond moments to the final point of this screed.

     As an erstwhile sociologist and historian, my certainty about a certain cobweb of interests has become ever more certain.  Beginning with the "Great Society" bilge that was slopped out on the American populace and continuing to this time we have borne witness to the subtle removal of sound social structure by always assuming that this or that person or family…"needs help".   It is true that almost every person and/or family at some point or another "needs help".   The point here is that the help when needed should come directly from a friend or assembly of friends, fellow churchmen, workmates, or whatever positive combination can conveniently unite and solve the given problem.

     But NO!!! shout the reformers.  The ones who truly care about the poor!! They can solve all the problems.   The first solution is food stamps.   With food stamps people can eat whatever they want and wherever they wish.   And they are free and accepted as currency in food store places. 

     Next, because of the stinginess of the people who have things, the people need low-cost housing operated by housing projects and spires of brick and mortar with thousands of little boxes inside where people who "need" can receive essentially free or extremely low rent arrangements.   Most frequently a cycle develops.   In a "neighbourhood" of 12,000 apartments in the same area, formed by 20 or more high buildings, extensive parking lots, sometimes even with a "community hall" or some rudiment of a tennis or basketball court area, we find one of the main industries of the "Great Society".

     Various of the younger women wind up without a husband (or facsimile).  The apartment is "free" because the Housing Commission or whatever pays the rent by allocations from some government funding source.   The young women frequently wind up with a pumpkin in the belly.    They go down to the emergency room with some kind of cramps in the belly and are taken in.  In a few days they're back home…in the cubicle provided by the Housing Administration.   Each girl has little money, but suddenly a big stud appears and says he heard about the new arrival.

     Comments are exchanged, and the girl asks the man if there is any way he could loan her a little money for the baby's food.  The man says everything will be all-right and that he will try to help her out a little when he can.   This is repeated over the months, and the man takes certain advantages of the girl who now has three babies…three babies in less than three years.  But she can almost make ends meet because the AFDC pays for a lot.   There's a "free kindergarten" in the Projects.  And the food stamps help, and there's other ways to make a little scratch.   She also has to pay 10% of her "public assistance" to the Nice Man who helped her in the beginning.  He turns out to be one of those types who maintains a covey of ten or twenty women who seem to have no trouble producing babies to gain the increase in allocations in Aid to Families with Dependent Children - AFDC  (titles and variable allocations are different depending upon the State and region).

     Many of us have heard of or seen the effects of this horrid socio/cultural oozing steadily into the gutter filled with drugs, violence, robbery, and death.   These projects have gangs that patrol and defend their corners.  Sometimes the gangs with elaborate codes, gestures, outlandish dress, leave their zones and invade other zones.

     Sometimes there are "manifestations" and outcries about the oppression brought on by White people who already "have theirs".   Whole blocks in noble cities are reduced to rubble, ruin, and charred remains.   The "looters" see their actions as a form of retribution and restitution, while leftist officials snicker and declare that it is all the fault of Conservatives and Republicans who want to keep people down who are poor and black…or purple…or green or whatever.

     It is truly a form of Sociological Indigestion.  It has become a situation from which there is no escape.  The suggestion that any woman who is on welfare or other form of public assistance who has birthed two children without benefit of clergy will have to consent to be spayed.   The only solution for the males, once proven by DNA analysis to the paternal partner in the birth of the baby with no father, should be neutered.

     Roars of laughter can be made as the commonly responsible people read this analysis and account of the socio / cultural disaster that is looming.   But the facts are…..the facts.  The Central Government taxes us…and gives the money to billionaires and women who produce miracle babies.    The babies grow up and in far, far, far too many cases turn into monsters with gang tats, semi-automatic firearms, and no sense of social responsibility.

Sociological Indigestion:   Is there no cure?

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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Two Arguments…one makes sense, the other does not…Almost everyone will know my position...

    We sincerely regret having to subject our readership to this transmission.  It was meant for the McAllen Monitor newspaper.  The problem is that a cap of 300 words is placed upon those who wish to opine concerning various interesting topics.  We generally send a certain number of folks a first look so as to help in quality control, both in the typing and the argumentation.   My "eloquence" is wasted upon the masses, but my fellow father-in-law (he is the father-in-law of my daughter, and I am the father-in-law of his son) reminded me of the Truth, when he declared in response to his early review, "Sorry, but you never spoke 300 words on any subject, ever!!"

He apparently knows me well.

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       Two different writers arrived on the 19th of November with submission for my attention, each writing to the McAllen Monitor's opinion page. One, sent by Jake Longoria, one of my very favourite contributors...wove a lamentable but accurate account of the damage being done to the Republic.  The pointless snarking being done by the leftist Democrat Congressional bloc and continuous cascade of charges against President Trump has done them no credit.   Mr. Longoria pointed out some of many of Trump's accomplishments in spite of the bitter resistance of the leftwing Democrat element in the Lower House of Congress.

     I am puzzled by the other contributor who points out that Caucasian people came into what would become the "New World".  He also declares that Negroid people came into that area.   Most of  those arrivals came beginning in the early half of the 1600s from many places and for many purposes.   The Negro element, lamently, normally arrived  under terms of slave labour. Many of the Caucasian people came in looking for fame, fortune, or perhaps just an opportunity.

     But of those white-folks who came there were a large percentage who came in under a rule of slavery known as Bonded Indenture.   Perhaps 20% of British subjects who went to the "New World" went essentially as slaves for a period of up to seven years.   Stipulations were firm, payment for work done was retained until the end of the Indenture, and emoluments were very small...a few copper coins per month, two meals, a very common room, frequently in a barn, and rigorous punishment for attempting to flee.   This applied to male and female alike.

The inimitable
Antonio
 Orindain
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Mr. Rosales-Rosales, the writer of  "Colors missing from our media" wishes us to forget that the White Folks who came into the New World beginning in the 1500's were  "White  Folks" who essentially enslaved a majority of the native population's various nations and tribes.  While Mr. Rosales-Rosales might like to regard only the mite in his neighbour's eye, it is clear that he knoweth naught how very much of the mote might dwell in his own eye.

  True, Dr. Hector P. Garcia was a worthy friend, ally, opponent, and investor in the community…(by the way, much more, in my very humble opinion, than Cesar Chavez).   My preference among folks involved in those events and during those times was the exceedingly brilliant Antonio Orindain, a labour and community activist of the 1960s more or less up to 2016 when he died on my birthday on 12 April 2016.   I disagreed with him quite a bit, but he was a true one-of-a-kind, and he always treated me with humour and civility.

   There were many occasions when we exchanged calls for no particular purpose except to chat.  He was one of the truly organically concerned.

   But I diverge.

     The Texas Rangers of those times had to encounter extremely violent miscreants.  Rustling of cattle,  horses, and anything not tied down was a nearly continuous threat to be stolen.  During the nineteen-teens, especially when the East Texas Ranger companies were sent down, some of the companies had officers who were base, ruthless, and frankly, arrogant.  While all of this was going on, sociologically a funny thing happened.

  During the years, as the Texas Rangers gained more and more esteem and mystique  (the confrontation of "Bonnie and Clyde", whitetrash murdering robbers) a funny thing was happening.   The Rangers had Mexicanised socially  and in cultural ways, etc.   To-day, a Texas Ranger who is a Latin or a Black African of heritage…produces a big yawn, among the people waiting to pay out at McDonald's.

       We bring to mind, also the "social work" done by a Texas Ranger in Sabinal, Texas back in the early 1970s as an example.   To wit:

        Incarcerated at age 18 for a minor offense, Rodriguez was overheard singing in his cell by Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson. Impressed, Jackson told the owner of Alamo Village, Happy Shahan, about the young man’s talent.   Shahan hired Rodriguez, became his manager, and changed his name from “Juan Rodriguez” to “Johnny”.     It was under that name, performing at Alamo Village, that "Johnny Rodriguez" was discovered by Bobby Bare and Tom T. Hall.  From there it was on to Nashville. (We note as well, that Joaquin Jackson advised "Johnny" to write and sing in Spanish, but in the style of Texas and the Southwest…which he did in the most pleasing and fascinating manner.)

     And finally.   The issue of the Balli properties on Padre Island are far more complex than to simply lump it into the category land being "taken away".  There were lawsuits that endured for generations.  The issue of the King Ranch iscertainly not one of being purloined by the Gringos.  The owner sold his tracts at two cents per acre for what amounted to 180,000 acres.  This would mean around 3,600.oo American dollars, which at that time was a very considerable amount.

    Richard Henry King and his wife also managed to recruit Mexican workers for the ranch who were extremely competent in matters  of livestock breeding, horse care, farming and pasturing, etc.   Those folks became known as "Los Kinen~os" and their descendants are still found at the Ranch complex.  Some are highly placed professionals in the administration as well as in education and the business world, others are loyal to their "vaquero" abilities and traditions.   The "Kinen~os" are revered people in that area, and are considered treasures of the Southern Texas and the entirety of the Republic of Texas to this day.

     The oversimplifications of those times cause folks lose sight of other profound facts that are now largely disregarded. Remember, there was only one Mexican American who obtained the rank of General in the Confederate Army…that person being Santos Benavides.  He and his brothers were famous for their incredible service as they passed literally tonnes and tonnes of Southern cotton around to the port at Baghdad.  They had to fight bandits as well as elements of the forces who were fighting against French allies of Emperor Maximillian von Hapsburg…Emperor of Mexico briefly during that time.

  They were also heavily decorated in the War along with over 800 of their soldiers.   Santos Benavides was a leading figure after the War Between the States. Later, when the smoke had cleared in the political realm, Benavides became Speaker of the House of Representatives of Texas, while also establishing his own businesses in the Laredo and South Texas area.

     Mr. Rosales is a vigorous supporter of his positions, but his facts are shallow.  The complexion of the people of Spanish background is essentially impossible to identify since their range is from indigenous to Mestizo (mixed blood) to Mexicans and Mexican Americans who are whiter than the British and Germanic Americans.   The Census and the Law in Texas formally identified those of Mexican / Spanish background racially as "White" from the beginning as a Republic.

    The Latin element of the Texas social makeup is steadily gaining thousands of people of  Latin American ancestry being attracted to the policies of positions  of the Republican Party, and it shows in the number and quality of our GOP's members.  A great surge that will bring much  better days for all...

Thanks for your time and interest.

David Christian Newton

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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TRAGEDY OF ERRORS - With much experience and prowess two old men solve all the problems, or whatever…

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        The time came and the time went.  Three hundred and thirty some-odd humans, all members of a club known as the United States of America, managed to put on a great show for all who cared to witness it.   One is an old mendacious fool who has played the role of being a barnacle worm for several score years.  He resides in a basement when he is not doing "nothing"…and like me…he dearly loves riding passenger trains.

     He can deliver a speech that would astound any listener or observer.   The incoherence of his speeches are usually worth the tragi-comic entertainment value put forth.  It would be more justifiable if the speaker could speak coherently and not suddenly slide into a prepositional phrase tying trade negotiations with South America to the need to provide new types of parrot food during this period of coronavirus threats.

     Enthralled, I deepen my interest when the television screen begins to reveal the reality that this candidate giving pretence to the Presidency of the United States by speaking to a crowd in some forsaken, unkempt meadow, with nine or so "reporters" standing in chalk delineated circles, easily separated by 15 feet of vacancy.   Another large pod of onlookers numbering perhaps 300 souls lent tepid applause every now and then when the visiting speaker paused to prepare another incomprehensible salvo of blabber.   This poor writer actually feels sorry for all…the presenters, the supporters, the reporters…and even myself for having wasted some of life's time on the display.

Wonder Boy, famed for
the quote,"…tell
Vladimir that after
my election I'll have
more flexibility about
the arms thing…"
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     Red Chinese entrepeneurs and politicians seem unnaturally drawn to our friend and his children for no real reason beyond just plain friendship or perhaps hobnobbing.  Of course there are those who say that our star, previously having served Barak Hussein O'bama as Vice-President of the United States, has taken advantage of certain important interrelationships with overseas despots, crooks, and cronies.   After reviewing the works of (Sir Edmund)Hillary and Barry Soetoro, our new leader, Uncle Joe, views himself as a Gift to Delaware from Planet Earth.

     He and his sons have been in a position to take advantage of foreign industrialists' desire to have quick and solid access to American manufacturing and business big-shots.   It's a good seat in the stadium when you can sit on the 49 yard line, near the action on and off the field, and hone the details of a multimillion dollar linkage between industrial strong men, while harvesting generous commissions from the industrial strong men.   Sometimes, being a Vice-President can be a pretty cool hand, Luke.

     Now that our old Vice-President is a newly elected President to be,  and he has selected a blisteringly Red, angry, oppressed victim who will have her turn at lecturing the masses  that a New Day has come to a country that will have its name freed from the title set by a white person…Amerigo Vespucci…who was the formost authority on the land mass that far to the west and who did much of the mapping about that huge territory of great interest to the scientific community in Europe.   For some reason, this writer feels that there will be considerable effort, especially on the part of Madame  Kamala  Harris,  to forward the policies of marxists, and to strike a new offensive against the  free enterprise, common law way of social and economic arrangement that has made the United States the wealthiest and most innovative nation in the world.

Amerigo Vespucci
(b. 1454 - d. 1512) 

Not a bad looking fellow and
 he was quite well to do.
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     There is much available to study about Amerigo, and he truly was a thinker and scientist perhaps even superior to my great-grand Uncle Sir Isaac of English origin. What is truly amazing is the Cristobal Colon, another Italiano did all of his floating about from the precinct of Spain to the little known reaches of what would become known as the New World…in the 1490s when Amerigo was still wearing short britches.

      One watches with incredulity while a veritable nincompoop defeats a Cecil B. DeMille size pool of candidates, each dumber than the previous one until, finally and mercifully, the Wise Ones of  Progressivity choose good ole' Uncle Joe.  And his Replacement, should he become, how does one say…incapacitated during his service…will be  that wondrous intellectual Kamamalalala.  Her Badge of Honour is that she came in 16th place during the Democrat Primary.   There were 16 registered candidate, ranging from "everything should be free" proponents to "…feed all Republicans and Conservatives into the sausage grinder and let'er rip!!" proponents.

     Really an upper drawer show.  At least we have Justin Trudeau up in Canada to help the Americans learn the art of running a nation into bankruptcy.  And Justin is just the guy because he hates America and Americans, mainly because they are not all socialists yet.   Perhaps we could train him how to say,"…if you're not socialist, you're not black, man". 

 

    We now face the reality of 1984…the book.   George Orwell, it is certain was a person disposed to ridicule the American concept, with all of the hypocrisy, pointless religious bilge, and other flotsam and jetsam of the Scientific Culture thrown in.  Or was George simply trying to display the pointlessness of socialism of any kind?   The arguments in the Student Union over  of cups of coffee…with other upper level students…with the professorial class and so forth, Saints preserve us! I thought, during the middle 1960s.  This even before the full flowering of the idiot hippies, nihilists,  the "movement people"if the reader can imagine.     

    My time at Southwest Texas State University was truly wondrous.  It became the 2nd largest public university in Texas, and its Graduate Record Examination score was higher than any Bachelor Degree'd Ivy League or prestige "pay for your grade" school.  It was the time when George Bush the Son was flying interceptors after graduating from his Daddy's Ivy League University, and all the while ALGore was managing to master the in's and out's of Global Warming during the Global Kooling epoch.

  Not long afterwards, he dumped his wife…it is said because he felt like she was kinda dumpy.   We add that George the Son did not make the highest grades at the two universities he attended but he did graduate, unlike Gore's spotty record.

__________________________

    

Eric Arthur Blair
aka / George Orwell
(b. 1903 - d. 1950) 

 Amerigo Vespucci was more
 handsome, and was more
 wealthy than George, but
George was a "cool hand
 Luke".
And he made a lot of money
  with his typewriter and reams
of paper. 
__________________

   George Orwell, pictured left, was a short-lived event unto itself.  He wrote considerably about the true socialism.  He spoke about it.  His moral and academic impulse was to use the word "socialism" in the correct way and not as a mindless War Against Rich and Heavy Industry-type people.

     To which I respond, "But, really George…stop and think.  Step back and look at what most socialists think socialism is." Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels used the word "socialism" as a "hand sanitiser" very frequently.  They actually were very committed to violent Revolution by the Common Man.   Forced equality was much better than the "hope for a miracle" equality.   Truth be known, 1984 and Animal Farm were books that revealed a man very similar to Thomas Jefferson in terms of the construct of his thought, beliefs, and aspirations.

     Conservatives, who were unsuspecting, and thinking that being British and all, Eric Arthur would enjoy his intelligence and comfortable social position, and all actually stemmed from a politically conservative viewpoint.  Truth be known, your humble servant, back at University did, in fact, actually read a couple, perhaps three, of George Orwell's books, and assumed that Orwell had begun to develop a more conservative philosophy.   Sometimes I wonder about that matter even up into these times.    And that is why this brief set of impressions, experiences, and thoughts is being put down for the keeping.

      We have been through a political campaign that certainly has raised more questions than answers or solutions.   I withdraw from the this rambling because of serious problems concerning a health issue of a very close family member, and my task now is to be at least a non-negative factor in what is required during these days.   But I shall think quite a bit about a guy who thought he was a socialist, when he was defending (Homage to Catalonia) the Soviet backed communist ranks who were fighting Franco's forces backed by the Germans and the Italians back in the mid-1930s.

     George Orwell's beat-up old Mauser rifle served little purpose where there was so little ammunition to start with.   He was also blithely ignorant of the fact that the duplicitous Russian communists were trying to arrange for an "accidental" incident wherein the Russians would slaughter a bunch of foreign lefties because they thought the lefties were actually trying to mislead the Russians who were in the area of Catalonia and the Basque country.  Truly…what a mess.   One of Orwell's books, of course is the war story named "Homage to Catalonia". 

We withdraw for a while.  Back when the smoke clears and we take a new look at life.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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A Wistful Look at the Past…and a bit of humour (31 October 2020)

A gentle word to our readers:      

    This very simple message is made due to the recent dust up concerning a collusion involving the Girl Scouts of America, an entity known as Planned Parenthood, and the presence of a newly named woman onto the impressive position of Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.  In the mode of the day, Planned Parenthood people…names…who cares?…apparently messaged the Girl Scouts of America that it was not appropriate for the new, improved Girl Scout organisation to send congratulations to a woman who gained her appointment to that High Bench by the act of a man.  Planned Parenthood deigned that this newly appointed woman was dangerous to the rights of women to "choose".   The Girl Scouts of America's administration immediately retracted their congratulations to Amy Coney Barrett because they had failed to remember that Justice is and apparently has always been an anathema…a reprobate…a backwards step in the effort to finally achieve a Brave New World for the good people who know that abortion is a fundamental right.   According to them all civilisation should stop and celebrate and defend that belief.  These people, of course, have either knowingly or through ignorance chosen a path of attempting to control civilisations, societies, and cultures so as to become a form of Regency…an assembly of intellectuals, marxists, and compulsive destroyers of any order that does not please them…or which does not serve their need or whim.  Jane Fonda, Barbara Streisand, and Cher…and Michael Moore of course, really are not the best barometers for guiding a civilisation, society, or culture.

David Christian Newton, Sr. 

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From a long time ago, back in 1960, your humble servant was tasked with the duty of travelling with a pack of senior Girl Scouts from a club in Mission, Texas, drawn from the High School where my father was a professor. There were fourteen girls, all senior high level. Six of them were Latinoid and eight were Angloid, and they all looked the same. Especially in uniform. A Mrs. Val Verde, (an Angloid married to a Latinoid) a sacred cow do-gooderoid in Mission (her husband was a med-tech, highly regarded) was the "Head Brownie". She had asked the girls who else should accompany the troop for their two-week Summer excursion to the International Encampment of the Girl Scouts, International in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. To a person they jumped up and down, demanding that it be "Mr. Newton!! Mr. Newton!!" (that, according to Mrs. Val Verde.) 

 Above is the massive Catedral Metropolitano

said to be the heaviest building compound in 

the world.   Around the "Zocalo" (Central Plaza)

there is a daily circulation of 300,000 autos and

other such conveyance.

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     As things developed it was also determined that Mrs. Newton and their son David should come along as well, as "indirect chaperones". Your humble servant, at that point in the life line, had just turned 14, heading to be a sophomore in September, and full of reasons why he had better things to do than to wander around in Mexico with a gaggle of Green Brownies. But my Father solved that problem by giving me the famous "one-choice choice". My mother was somewhat reluctant…but we had travelled elsewhere in Mexico and it had always resulted something positive. The three of us tagalong people were also fluent in Spanish, and that would help on the way down. So, the time arrived. Departing from Brownsville on a Transportes del Norte bus (quite a nice ride, actually) with it two drivers and impeccable appointments, we considered ourselves ordained with the proper luxuries due a fine group such as ours.

      Our fourteen day journey reached Valles, San Luis Potosi in the tropical lowlands for the first day's drive. Beautiful tropical settings for a hotel, great grub. Then the next morning we were off to Mexico City…another long drive…a change in elevation from near sea-level to 7,200 fasl, and a conglomeration of people, history, cars, busses, trolleys, trains, presenting an intensity that this farm boy had never seen, for real. Monterrey was big, Houston and San Antonio were big, we had been around a bit…but Mexico City was BIG. We were dropped off in the very centermost part of the city at the Hotel Regis…a very nice place, adjacent essentially to the Grand Central Plaza. One could not help but to be impressed. We were going to be in "downtown" Mexico City for three nights, with a touring service that would take us to the major sites. It was arduous but worth it.

         My restoration of sense of self was improved a bit when I went for a walk in the that "Centro" that teemed with humanity of every possible sort, it seemed. I passed through the magnificent "Central Park" and continued to the Great Plaza that marked the political centre of Mexico City. One side the huge and majestic Palace of Government brooded over its bureaucrats, workers, and  children. And to the right, exiting that building, the "heaviest Cathedral in Christendom", with "more altars than the Pope's Basilica" and so forth, it was truly amazing. That building on the Great Plaza brooded over its children, as well.   Most of the time they were all the same children.

   But my adventure started with my ambling about with my fancy boots, and slacks like a civilised gorilla, matching jacket…all very 1960ish…along with my 5X Stetson to ward off the quickly penetrating Solar menace that could sizzle the skin, no matter the ambient temperature (7,200 fasl will do that to a white-skinned Saxon).

Perhaps there is a 
resemblance…what
do you all think?
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       Then suddenly I heard giggling and shriek-like sounds coming up from behind me. Turning, it was quickly noticed that there were about 10 or 12 female Mexican "rich kids" all in their school uniforms, and looking very impressive (and rich). It dawned on me that they were rushing at me of all ridiculous things.  One girl asked "Es Ud. relacionado con el Señor John Wayne", "Usted puede hablar el Castillano?" "Ay, Señor, un foto, un foto!!"…it was all absurd. Firstly because I was in no wise a "Señor"…such a title in Mexican Spanish was/is reserved for people of at least 24 or so years…especially then, and of course I was not related to John Wayne, and photographs were going to be few, because of a coming menace...

      In the near distance, walking briskly, came a grim faced, grumpy looking, 'Penguina' (a term reserved by Mexican children for "nun"). She was vigorously tapping the sidewalk with her dowel rod and upon reaching the girls, she began whacking them, a little more than gently on their calves, shouting, "Sin verguenzas!!! Voy a informar a la Madre Superior!!! Formanse!!! Haz fila!!! (girls without shame!! I'm going to tell Mother Superior!!! Group up!! Make a line!!).

      The girls largely complied, some handling the hat briefly so as to see the gold lettering "David Christian Newton" inside…before they would run off joining the ranks, in step, with the sister-in-charge banging her dowel rod as if she were trying to break up the concrete. I wound up with a picture or two (one with her Reverence the Sister, and the girls filled up their fancy little cameras, but whatever for?). And, of course, my parents had caught it all…giving me stern looks as they came closer. 

     Some relief came from the store workers and owners who were still laughing, some coming out to shake hands with me. One of the older men advised me, laughingly, …"Be careful with the shepherdess, she is very jealous about her little sheep!!" My mother glowered at me a bit, and advised,"We'll have to talk at supper."

     This event was followed a bit, the next day, when one of our uniformed Girl Scouts somehow got stopped at the intersection, a traffic officer pointing the girl back to the curb. She looked like a model in her uniform etc, but we were over on this side of a huge, wide Paseo de la Reforma (10 lanes) and, of course, the girl was on the other. My mother demanded and ordered me, "David, bring that silly girl over here, now!" and I began to follow orders, when suddenly a soldier, a lieutenant, took the arm of our Girl Scout and literally walked her formally across the boulevard detaining massive flows of traffic, but only briefly. Once again, the "audience" cheered and applauded, but this time for the Mexican officer. Some of our girls had pictures of him.

     There were thousands of incidents, encounters, pleasantries, that could fill a thick book just on this one excursion. But this time, the story is about and for the Girl Scouts of America, especially from Mission, Texas who gathered the greatest number of awards and citations of the encampment of several thousand attendees.    And that was the way it was, 18 August 1960, in a place called Mexico.

Thanks for the attention…and look both ways before crossing  the street!

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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However…..

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HOWEVER…

     You all know what it is when a television or radio commentator, or worse, a programme guest, begins the next paragraph by repeating most of the previous paragraph, all the while waving her hands in the faces of the listeners as if she were the return of Kong King to the Harper Valley Skyscraper.

       The men are better.  Especially on the left side of the political spectrum…men very frequently attempt to charm the audience with suave assurances concerning the niceness,  and caringness, and thoughtfulness, and forwardlookingness, and desire to give your daughter a Ph.d when she finishes an advanced degree at Molehill Primary after three rigorous years of study in Funzi Wunzi Primary, minoring in Whatever and majoring in Eye Forgot.   Everything FREE!!!, of course.

     The women are worse, perhaps because they try to outdo the men.   Now after offending everyone as equally as possible.    This particular set of commentaries and recounting will be a bit haphazard, but will deal with a of yesterdays, and how those yesterdays stayed with me…stayed with the Times and how both I and the Times have done for ourselves.

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     We begin with the tale of the arrival of the President of Mexico to help formalise the beginning of operations of the fabled Falcon Reservoir.  This was the first establishment of a dam, especially of this size, to have been established on the Rio Grande…or Rio Bravo y Grande del  Norte.   It was something my Godfather roared with laughter about at each telling, and I was present at the events to be described below.

     Suffice to say that the construction of Falcon and its placement into service, and to have served well, is a testament to the power, ability, and precision that Mexicans can perform, and Americans can perform, simultaneously and effectively.   We return to 1953, a dusty day on the Border…very windy and temperatures over 100 degrees…(and yes, Virginia, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, sometimes October brings us 100 degree days).

This speaks to the Inauguration of the Falcon International Dam

     On the 19th of October of 1953, while the authorities and neighbour of Mier, Tamaulipas were making themselves ready to receive the President of the United States of Mexico,  Adolfo Ruiz Cortines in the airport especially constructed along the edges of the Rio Bravo, with the purpose of the holding the ceremony of the inauguration of the International Falcon Dam;  the Presidential Committee, when they arrived, surprised everyone by ground travel down a road that had not been paved, all the way from the airport in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, (100 miles distant).

     The first to have knowledge of this matter were Mr. Gorgonio Lopez and his wife Conchita being surprised by the President's arrival in this manner.  While there the group solicited water to drink, and after satisfying elementary necessity, they all transferred over to the Presidencia Municipal (County Office) where they met up with one or two policemen, depending upon with whom one spoke.

       After spending a good bit of time in the centre of the municipal site, it being reasonable that the vehicles and the people needed a good wash down considering the dusty trip and arrival from the unpaved "highway".

     The Official Committee continued on then to their destination in their vehicle where they learned that only the section from the new airport to the new community of New Guerrero (which would replaced the old colonial city of Guerrero that was soon to be inundated and committed the depths of Falcon Lake), was paved.   The transit from Mier to Nuevo Guerrero was still unpaved, but the only connection already paved was finally encountered en Nuevo Guerrero.  There, the President arrived in a luxurious auto with the front end completely covered by a huge Mexican flag.  It is there that they encountered huge crowds of Mexicans full of anxiety and excitement, from many nearby parts.

     The first stop in the town was the where the Presidente and his committee stopped to give honours  to the new statue of don Benito Juarez Garcia the first (and apparently last) Indian to serve as President of Mexico…but the hot south winds were very strong (dry, dusty gusts up as high as 40 miles per hour).   The wind never stopped for the length of the ceremonies.

     With great enthusiasm that the people present were extremely enthusiastic in front of their new Presidencia Municipal, where President (and General) Dwight David Eisenhower, with a large group of Mexican soldiers presenting arms, with the military band, with a salute according to protocol of both Presidents went up the steps to the balcony of the Ayuntamiento (city government)…and from there they watched the Mexican Academy of Dance, especially the regionally popular Huapango, who without doubt had to have had pertinence from Nellie Campobello (she had just established what is now considered the greatest National folkloric presentation in the world) and was accompanied by an orquestra of the Palace of Fine Arts from Mexico City.

Immediately following it was left to present honors and honorifics to the President of the United States, saying "goodbye" to New Guerrero City the formal group drove on the top of the dam (paved) transferring to another very similar reception, after first stopping to see the huge hydroelectric generators and the huge gates of Falcon Dam.

    At the American encampment on the edge of the lake Mr. (sic) Eisenhower responded with the hospitality of an excellent American military band, a huge array of food selections, like any good reception, and toasts all around.

    At the dividing line between the two Nations one can encounter the commemorative monuments, with their appropriate national formal emblems, and it was precisely at that point where the final and most official acts were done…fancy signatures…hundreds of photos…etc.

AND THIS TIME, THE MEXICAN PRESIDENT RETURNED LATE THAT AFTERNOON, BACK TO MEXICO CITY…..THIS TIME…YES…BY AIR. 

INAGURACION DE LA PRESA INTERNACIONAL FALCON

El 19 de octubre de 1953, mientras las autoridades y vecinos de Mier se habían dispuesto a recibir al Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines en la aeropista construida exprofeso en las márgenes del Río Bravo, con motivo de la ceremonia de inauguración de la Presa Internacional Falcón; la comitiva presidencial sorprende a la población al arribar vía terrestre por un camino sin pavimentar procedente de Monterrey, N. L.

Los primeros en tener conocimiento del hecho fueron el Sr. Gorgonio López y su esposa Conchita al ser sorprendidos por la plana mayor presidencial a las puertas de su casa solicitándoles agua para beber, que tras satisfacer tan elemental necesidad se trasladaron a la presidencia municipal en donde solo había uno o dos policías, dependiendo de quién lo cuente. Permaneciendo un buen rato en dicha sede municipal, suponiéndose que coches y viajeros necesitaban y urgían de algún acicalamiento ante tan relevante acontecimiento y después de sufrir los estragos de la terracería y el polvo del camino.

La comitiva continuó su camino que solo estaba pavimentado el tramo correspondiente de la aeropista a Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, a donde llego el Sr. Presidente en un lujoso auto con el frente cubierto por la bandera nacional en donde era esperado con ansia y gran algarabía por los asistentes al evento.

El primer acto consistió en la develación de la monumental estatua del Benemérito de las Américas don Benito Juárez García con una gran molestia ocasionada por el persistente viento del sur que se dejó sentir ese día.

Con gran entusiasmo de los asistentes se recibió frente al palacio municipal al presidente de los Estados Unidos de América Dwight D. Eisenhower, con una valla de soldados presentando armas, una orquesta y una banda de guerra, con el saludo protocolar de ambos presidentes subieron al balcón del Ayuntamiento en donde miraron a la Academia Mexicana de Danza ejecutar un cuadro bailable titulado Huapango, que sin duda debe de haber pertenecido a la escuela dancística de Nellie Campobello, acompañando en los acordes una orquesta procedente de la ciudad de México.

En seguida tocaba hacer los honores al presidente de los Estados Unidos, diciendo adiós a Nueva Ciudad Guerrero se trasladaron por el bordo de la presa, en donde se observaba ya almacenamiento de agua y del otro lado de la cortina las plantas hidroeléctricas.

En el campamento americano a orillas de la presa el Sr. Eisenhower correspondió a Ruiz Cortines y su comitiva con una banda de música, banquete y brindis de honor.

En la línea divisoria se encuentran los monumentos conmemorativos en los escudos y las placas alusivas de ambos países y fue allí precisamente donde se llevó a cabo el acto formal de inauguración con asistencia de invitados de honor y discursos de ambos presidentes.

Al atardecer el presidente Ruiz Cortines regresa a la Ciudad de México, ahora si, vía area.

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Falcon Day just before its completion. The dam itself

has a length of over five miles. From the dam to the point

of entry into the Lake at San Ygnacio, Texas, some 44 miles

from the Dam.

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Return of the Times That Try Men's Souls and Women's Patience

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         There is so much about which we could comment, and an equal amount that would just as well be forgotten, but it has been a while and there is a need to keep this screed at least on the radar.    There is so much depravity and duplicity pervading the culture now that one wonders if there is any reason to fight the culture wars.

     One can take a look a our deprived (or is it depraved?) Speaker of the House of Representatives who has been fixated for the past 2,000 days or so, worrying about Donald John Trump.   One wonders;

     (1)    Anorexia Nervosa?   The shaking of hands, especially the right hand and

pointing to unknown targets while attempting to make her half-witted points…eyes darting in all directions…are things that would allow a half-sober psychologist to reasonably conclude that the woman is suffering from psychopathic, pan-hysterical, xerecktious, bongo brain disorder.

   (2)     Thankfully, it is not transmittable.  For those who have graduated recently from some kind of a prestigious college or university that means "you kant ketchup".    Has the Republic become so rotted out…so dead in the soul…so devoid of things such as ''…the common good", that we have to put up with mediocrity in almost all public performance?     Must we pay people for having babies, to allow people to smash, burn, and destroy property that belongs to others, and then serve the will of "public servants" by deciding what a good number of ruffians per capita should be.

     This idea that a metropolis or large city should "cut back on constabulary" while allowing the criminal elements something that could be called "…an acceptable level of depravity and anti-social destruction…''.  In each effort to establish a "Peoples' Centre" in some unfortunate urb with a downtown that still has stores and bars and restaurants, the "New Citizens for the Re-awakening of America Cause'n Black Lives Matter" usually can put together three to seven  weeks before the effort implodes.  A few hundred million dollars and any number of wounded and/or murdered cops and/or proprietors or other innocents are normally involved, as well.

     (3)     Mentally and psychiatrically impaired ignoramuses (or ignorami, as you wish {my preference}) with titles such as "Mayor" or "Supervisor" now abound in various strongholds of Democrat and "Progressive" landscape of insanity.   One listens to their nonsensical rants…much like the tantrum of a child mixed with blather of a moderately psychotic, drunk, or addicted individual and wonders how their cranial unit was wired

     We understand the mob-masters who have been trained by Soros disciples in the art of obnoxiousness.  Those are the ones who storm into restaurants and bars and begin chanting and getting into the faces of humans shouting and cursing and begging for a fight.   We have all seen the events…with 100 to 500 evil hatred clowns who swarm a place and turn over chairs, steal food and drink from tables, and generally attempt to cause discord and disorder.   We can say, "Forgive them, Father for they know not what they do." but the problem is obviously that they do know precisely what they do

More later…

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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