A Few Points about the biggest espionage operation ever and the place of the Great Leap Forward

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        There are several loose ends floating around about all of this "shelter in place" business.  In my way of thinking, it seems strange that somehow or another there is a huge outcry about a terribly communicable illness that can clear the streets in less than the time it takes to snap one's finger.
     It seems strange that in a nation of 320,000,000 people, many of whom are citizens, we can quake and shake and quiver in fear, hiding in a corner or under a bed somewhere that cannot be disclosed.   This came upon us after some really bad dance-steps performed by the Red Chinese over in their favourite place to develop chemical and biological weapons.

     Of course we know that the Red Chinese all have a thorough Protestant or Catholic catechism, and are well versed in the ways of honesty and deference to humanity and civility.   Just think, during the past year, only a few million of their own "citizens" were trundled off to huge corrals where the detainees are given the opportunity to work until the either die of starvation or from brutality on the part of the "caretakers" at the human storage facilities.   Many of those who are suspected of having been "disposed of" came from the area of Wuhan…one of Red China's centres of chemical and radioactive weapons development.
     It is generally supposed that beginning late last year, a quiet exodus began from Wuhan…amounting, finally, to as many as 8,000,000 individuals.   This movement was composed of single males, as well as a significant minority of single females, and interestingly whole families were involved in this significant movement of humanity.   Most were seeking a way out to refuge in another country…or losing themselves in another part of China in order to make it to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, or even Viet Nam or Cambodia.

Old Sniffer, and one more victim upon
whom to paw
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     There was an Associated Press report that declared 400,000 Chinese persons came into the United States starting in October of last year, by air.  A smaller number landed in Canada, and a smaller number yet, landed in Mexico and/or came in by land or some kind of watercraft, via human traffickers.

     How many of these folks were coming to find their great-great-greatgrandparents who worked on the construction projects  of the transcontinental railway back in the 1860s, it's hard to say.   Joe Biden thinks there might have been an overripe eggplant on some of those planes…especially the plane with tennis courts for women who have nice smelling hair-do's.

     But Uncle Joe certainly knew that there were big problems in Wuhan, and that there was an urgency in terms of national security for the Gringos and our allies.  Trump, who supposedly is a dolt, had a good grasp on the matter in January of this year.  On the one hand, Trump declared that he and Comrade Xi were and are good buddies…that Xi is an easy guy to talk to.  On the other hand, Trump persistently and consistently challenges and continues  to challenge, the Red Chinese about their high-handedness, their continuous aggressive actions at sea, land, and air, their crooked dealings in terms of financing, electronic reconnaissance, and wire-tapping, etc.

     Their general brutality with the Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities has been impossible to cover up as the most recent years have gone by.  "Re-education Centres" which are nothing more nor less than brutalisation factories, designed to destroy the minorities, their languages, cultures, and aspirations.

     We are learning now, for instance, that the Red Chinese think that they will be able to skate around conditions and "silly financing rules".  If they continue with their "financial strip-tease" routine, Trump and his gaggle of reality sharp operators will arrange that most feared diplomatic message:   
       
      "We regret to inform you, that due to your nation's failure to abide by the commitment to previously agreed upon conditions of cash transfers, payments, and compliances The United States of America has determined that the previously agreed upon transfer of $2,000,000,000,000 USD (two trillion dollars) to the Treasury of the Peoples' Republic of China, has been cancelled, and will not be made.   This measure is final and effective immediately    These actions are taken  due to Red China's failure to comply on many outstanding financial commitments and contracts.  Thank you for your kind attention."

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     Next, instead of yielding on any point, we must wake up to the reality that there are extremely wealthy Americans and Europeans who think,  since they are so powerful,  rich, and left with nothing to do, they can set up  new empires in Red China.  The Wall Street PooBahs are certain that they can control the Red Chinese with a huge new Walmart and/or a snazzy StarBucks on every third corner in every middlesex, village, and farm…and burg, and town, and city, and metropolis.
     But sometimes the Big Boys (and Girls) back in New York forget that while they play kinda-like, more-or-less, by the rules…the Red Chinese commies have no business rules except to keep American and European and Latin American children on the shelf to serve as organ donors for the children of the Commie Princelings who live at a level similar or beyond the Queen of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The Red Chinese don't bother with letting a neighbourhood
 "run-down".  First they build the ruin, show it to a lot of
 foreigners to impress them. The children of the foreigners
 come two or three years later, and find a totally collapsed
 junk heap of scrap and broken cement, but...no people.

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     True enough, for certain investors and magnates there has been some success in placing factories and retail operations in lucrative markets in Red China.  Then, almost always, problems develop that just…suddenly…appear.  And they, the Red Chinese, begin to haggle about this, and about that until finally they have figured out the foreigners. and their "engineering attack" and "design format".
  The new Red Chinese is in the business sending ready to break junk to the Gringos and other unsuspecting victims.  They truly specialise in the building or manufacturing the same products with a slightly different colour and a slightly shorter electric cable.

Folks, this is not a joke.  Over
  one-third of the Great Wall
(the hood-ornament of China)
 has deteriorated beyond repair
 since the establishment of the
 Red Chinese government.
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     All the while, a strange little man comes by the American place or the German metal finishing factory, or the British sterling design operation and gives the foreign business their walking papers, and 48 hours to leave town.
     But don't worry about it all that much, because the Red Chinese also build complete cities…apparently about 80 of them so far that are actually rotting.  Yes, rotting, atrophying, becoming one with the nothing…nobody lives in them, no Starbucks on the corner.   It defies understanding.

Not exactly a well-presented archeological site

      
This is not capitalist propaganda designed to denigrate the common Chinese person.   The facts are that much of the construction and infra-structure of China is terribly shabby and in poor repair.
   There is a lot that is in excellent condition, of course, but that is on the main tour and in the major, significant cities.  Shang Hai is a nice enough place, according to the folks who have been there and stayed for a while, although it is said that everything has a bit of flaw or a lot.   The much vaunted rapid rail service has been plagued over and over by serious crack-ups, and tourists now report that a visit to the "Great Wall" is a little depressing because of the unsanitary odors and generally decrepit pedestrian paving and lack of wall repairs.

More later….thanks for your attention!!!
EL GRINGO VIEJO

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A Potpourri of Observations and indirect contributions...

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     It was my intention to make a few salient remarks about the mixture of air, Joe Biden, Democrat / Leftist  hubris, the arrogance of supposed grandeur and superior intellectual and pertinence held by the Leftist Cabal.

  

     My laziness and sense of not really being able to force the rudder of the ship of state to maintain a straight and forward motion, without veering of into the New Deals, the New Compacts, the New Frontiers, the Great Societies, and all the Great Plans formulated by the Internationalist Leftist Progressive "Dreamers" sometimes causes me to remember that there is little I can do to save the Planet.

    The array of Utopian Socialists wandering around, pushing candles into the darkness in order to bring light and goodness to the common people…without burden or concern of how to pay for such things without destroying a nation continues to confound.

      We seem to cleave unto false leaders, frequently, seeming disposed to erect what becomes essentially a totalitarian State, controlled by a few dunderhead dictators who wind up transferring their own personal wealth, finally, to some back alley bank in Central Europe or wherever.

     The wealth, of course, is derived from the abolition of most of the upper-middle class and the "hoi polloi".    Oddly, that term now includes the poor slobs who sweep the streets for Chairman Mao and, over the years, the slobs who feign high position and import while looking down at all the little people wearing rags who will never taste 100 year old French wine.  Perhaps democracy does have a levelling effect, after all.

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A FEW POINTS OF INTEREST:

     (1)    A Special Message to Donald John Trump, President, United States  of America - 
     
     To begin…please, oh! please! refrain from railing against the obstreperous Communist Chinese machine and then turn to the camera and say, "Premier Xi  and I have excellent relations…he's really a great guy."  Our Faithful Leader lauds another faithful leader from the other side of the world when it is patently evident that Xi Jinping (the "elected" Czar of China) wishes to use American children as organ donors for the ruling class of Commies who rather effectively are standing on the necks of 1,350,000,000 "citizens" of that massive country.

     It would be so much more pleasant to refer to the current "duly elected" tyrant and his apparatchiks as bloodthirsty, brutal, and corrupt  ghouls.   They would not mind, there would be no offence, because they perceive that such a description is a complement.

     We take this time and space to remind our the OROGs Community (Order of Readers of the Old Gringo) that Red China is not the "biggest" economy in the World.  It is thus, as published in a reputable economics and political journal -

The “trade war” has been one of the most important influencers of markets this year and will likely continue to be in 2020.

An agreement could greatly benefit both countries, but it’s not surprising a deal hasn’t been reached, as both sides want more than the other side is willing to give.

There is much at stake, as the two countries have the world’s largest economies.

“The U.S. has retained its position of being the world’s largest economy since 1871,” according to Investopedia. “The size of the U.S. economy was at $20.49 trillion in 2018 in nominal terms and is expected to reach $21.35 trillion in 2019.”

China’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) is $13.41 trillion, making it second to the United States.

     The Red Chinese Dragon's only true desire is to eat the American Great Bald Eagle for breakfast.  For many years they tried subversion, illegal invasion, flocking to American universities where they learned little beyond the same marxist bilge preached in Red Chinese "universities".  The "education" provided by American colleges and universities has been degraded after a couple of generations of obtuse marxist-oriented indoctrination…coupled with a huge dose of racial/ethnic "payback" propaganda from the lectures of America's finest professors…80 per cent of whom are dedicated marxists.

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(2)  A CITIZEN ADVISES THE POPULACE…WITH WISE WORDS:

    Almost all of the aforementioned "prestigious" collegiate and university operations are absolutely committed to graduating folks who believe in "a liberal and modern understanding" of human and collective social organisation.   A certain Roberto Luna apparently did not go to Harvard or Columbia…perhaps he went to Texas Lutheran College, or Texas State University (previously known as Southwest Texas State University as did El Gringo Viejo) or some other not-so-pretentious campus.

     Mr. Luna launches forth on the Letters to the Editor's page of the daily, McAllen Monitor;
     
     "There are many people here who protect illegals because they are married to illegals.   They probably get a share of things like food stamps.

     "It is just like the stupid man who had been deported five times in California who killed a girl.  A family man who used to work for the Border Patrol to protect us , who on his day off was killed in front of his family in Monte Alto (Texas).  One of the guys mentioned at the trial said he wanted to be famous.  He should have killed his partner and himself instead?
     
     "One officer was shot here with his own gun by an illegal he had been chasing.

    "I don't want to talk about George Washington or Columbus discovering America.  If we go into that subject, I was one year old when my dad died.  I was picking cotton at the age of 7 and we used to eat for supper jackrabbit and crow.  You don't mention about the people who are eating T-bone steaks and have their taco stands to make cash money with the food stamps.

      "There are a lot of people who have been living here for twenty or more years.  Their parents brought them here (as) illegals when they were small.  They had their chance to become American citizens and they never did apply to become legal, and now they are crying because they are being deported.
    
     "Again, let's not talk about things that were done before you and I were born.
     
    "One thing I forgot to mention.   An illegal lady on the bridge in Laredo had her baby.  There is no hate in the part of me.  I am just trying to let them know the reality.

     "One thing for sure:  They can get in line for hours for benefits, but they can't spend 10 minutes to vote.  If you want to eat…WORK!!

       "I just mentioned a  few crimes, not the thousands that illegals do.  Again, Mr. President, Donald Trump, please take the food stamps away right now!!"

Robert Luna 
Edinburg (Texas)

(El Gringo Viejo celebrates the words of a cowboy-type, using simple and complex words and phrases to formulate simple and complex thoughts and truths that are worthy of all men…and women…to be received.  dcn - 12 April 2020)

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(3)    SENSELESS PROJECTIONS - POOR DIAGNOSIS:

     We have been hanging around here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, oddly enough, playing the roll of "The Man Without a Country".   At my last return from Mexico, I was fumbling around with the radio trying to find some information about the status of the bridge lines…in order to find a quicker path to the Gringo Side of the Rio Grande.  

     It was also weighing in on other matters, especially the suspension of people coming into the United States from Mexico…the White House had invoked a suspension of people coming into the United States from the southern areas of the Western Hemisphere.  That included Mexico and Canada.   I learned that Canada had sealed the border with the United States some days before.

       Crossing over and waiting in line for two hours was fun…at least Rush was on.  The crossing guard actually had his inspector's cubicle radio…tuned really low…also on Rush's programme.

     There has been several modifications to the new rules…and we find newer new rules coming through about every day concerning how to cross the Rio Grande in either direction.   It is something we have never seen.  The assassination of John Kennedy resulted in a total shutdown for between three and four days back in November of 1963.
    We had a bit of a hoot that day because several of the more thuggish bully-boys had skipped classes at McAllen High School (aka - McHI) and gone to Reynosa to drink beer and make other people miserable.  They got to "sleep on the sidewalk" for three nights.  

     In any regard, we are now watching some of the most serious matters to have faced the American Nation, and we have watched the demagoguery and hysterical, deranged blather flushing up from the Democrat Leadership and from the oh! so professional! mainstream press.  Their well tooled, convoluted 

explanations about any issue…major or minor…was always turned into an attack on Donald John Trump.   It ranged from the hilariously ridiculous to the infuriatingly insulting.

  I was intending to write about all the errors committed by the combined outlets on the left, and our travails and misery during the almost complete stand-down of human activity (or so it seems).   We are in almost totally complete dry-dock.  We cannot drive around aimlessly, we can only enter the HEB as a single person or two at the most.
     Diana normally works…in her 40 hour workweek…about 60 to 80 hours per week.  That is about what she is putting in her at the apartment.  She had to jerry-rig a computer battery in our bedroom   (our main computer, tied in to with a lap-top from the school district, a new and independent WiFi, etc.) and from  here she handles literally tonnes of accounting and procedural matters…all very full of fine print, rules, time limits, etc.  She also has to "check on Mom", no complaint…just necessary.  The good thing is that we are about 10 blocks apart.   But, howsoever, Diana is still putting in 60 to 80 hours per week, and this should continue for the remain part of the academic year…late May.   That will mean almost two and a half months with the school district essentially shut down and the students receiving their instruction via computer…and returning their required work via computer email, etc.)
     The only people at the schools are a skeleton technical group and a cleaning crew at each school…no teachers, no coaches, no band, no debate, choir, etc. etc.  Everyone is working at home and electronically posting the appropriate entities.

    Moving into the matter at hand, it was my certain conviction that the estimates being made by the "experts" concerning how many people would succumb to the coronavirus were wildly off.

     Another point is that we shall never really know or understand who died from what.   Just during the preceding 36 hours, it began to be leaked out by the drop that Geezers were the ones who were having the worst of the count.   Problems with that group, of which I am one, there are complications such as weight, cardiac involvements, pulmonary difficulties, renal and digestive problems.         All of those things make a bit of pollen from a contaminated Communist Chinese "accidental" release of radioactive material  at Wuhan slightly more lethal…but the fact is that older people and people with serious health compromises (as mentioned above) make up 96 per cent of the body of people who have succumbed.

     Without the radioactive, strange bee pollen that made it around the world, literally, the rate of mortality would have been lower, but most of the damaged to the people is as I have described in the preceding paragraph.   There is every probability that the more virile characteristics of this episode will fall off relatively quickly, perhaps even in time to allow people to return to their normal rounds and affairs.

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     We, personally, lament the huge cascades of possible thunderstorms and even some hail but due to a Tornadic and hail-bearing storm arriving to us in the next hour, I shall have to retire from the field of battle!!    More later!!

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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Now comes the time for weeding...

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APOLOGIA

     Yesterday, pushed forward by hubris and haste, this writer committed a factual error.  Failing to find someone to blame, it became apparent that only one person was guilty for the error.  I found him in the bathroom cowering before the mirror.

     It was stated, by me, in the blog of yesterday that the Speaker of the House and her minions managed to siphon off 75,000,000 dollars in the assault against the exchequer of the United States Treasury…for something I thought was for the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts or some such thing.  I was wrong…that amount was actually only 25,000,000 dollars…urgently needed because it is rarely used for any worthwhile purpose, and much of the plumbing no longer functions.

    The 75,000,000 dollars was for the National Endowment for the Arts, which, we are informed has contributed over 800 BILLION dollars to the collective good since Father Lyndon Baines Johnson gave us the War on Poverty in 1965 and thereby made the World safe for democratic socialism for all.   We remember Lyndon well, especially his morning dips in the White House pool, swimming au natural in front of the press corps, including the female members…real class…Thank the Lord he won that war in Viet Nam for us.

     Therefore, we apologise for failing to point out to the American populous that Miss Nancy sponged up 100,000,000 dollars for something that should and must be privately funded, and not paid for by shaking out the working class and middle class Americans of their pocket change, bonus pay, investment gains, etc.  It is not your money, Miz Nancy…

     Your attention to this correction is heartily appreciated.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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SOME PREAMBULATORY REMARKS:

     One thing that is forgotten by city folks…and through no fault of their own…is that once a crop is planted and risen up to see the sky, a critical set of  manoeuvres must take place. Almost every type of vegetation that pops through the surface will have "little friends" who come along for the ride.
   Those friends are known as "weeds" and they must be carefully eliminated with a V-blade plow, or better yet, hand-hoe'd by an intelligent and deft hoe - wielder.   The photograph to the left shows the work being done correctly and deftly by experts.
     Leaving the weeds will result in the diminishment of vitality of the main plant of interest…(the one that will go to market)…and in many cases, the weeds can choke the main plant of interest to death.
    So, as they say in The South sometimes, "…there just ain't no good reason to keep weeds around 'cept to be feed'n the mules…".



     A slightly less accurate, and perhaps quicker and cheaper in the long run is the V-blade cultivator.   That device is mounted on a one,  two, or a times a three bar "tree" and dragged through the pertinent field, carefully avoiding the invasion of any given row of "growies".  It also requires very precise placement, and the maintenance of such placement for seemingly un-ending lengths of time.  The longer the row, the more the driver sweats…because just a five or ten second lapse of attention can cut out 10 to 20 feet of plant root and stalk…not a good statement about the tractor operator.  Oddly enough, before the time of tractors having enclosed cabins and/or roofs over the operator's head, my Father would drive the tractor standing up, sidewise to the row, watching back to the left and forward to the right as he went.  
     One of our Mexican workers had fashioned a rear view mirror from an old wrecked auto, and during his spare time, he welded it onto the body of the John Deere.  There were many "adaptations" in those days.  Now such things are called accessories or options.   Perhaps this piece of writing is the preamble to my coming point…which might be called…"Different good ways to do similar things".    One of the Hallmarks of the American Experience is that the parties who decide to "do things their own way" are the ones who have led America into self-sufficiency and self-reliance.
     One of the things that cause the retrocession of independence and then cause the establishment of public assistance, welfare, food-fare, and rental subsidy magic shows, along with the concept of "free" this and that…is that certain notion that if the Central Government grants money to the disadvantaged or the downtrodden or the sullen, resentful malcontents those grants will quickly become permanent entitlements.

     The cold-blooded move to transfer massive numbers of one or another ethnic or racial group by baiting said members of such groupings with public assistance and Aid to Families With Dependent Children - type (AFDC) programmes, was truly a cold-blooded manoeuvre.  It was simply the effort by people of the ilk of the Southern Poverty Law Centre types to establish hostility and isolation among the hostages of those programmes. 

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ILLOGICAL, INCOHERENT, SELF-ABSORBED:

   My mother, and many others, admonished me to "be not judgemental".  Perhaps, my mother would say, perhaps…you have the same mote in your eye that you say your neighbour has…

     To any and all of that, I plead nolo contendere'…although it is very

Please do not show this picture to
small children.

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probable that my mother and my various advisers were and are correct about this weakness as well as many others left to discretion at this point.   The problem left on the table is that I am not the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America.    That position is held by the least qualified person to have ever held the office, and there have been many imbeciles who have preceded her, but not to her level of…excellence, so to speak.
   She is the master of mendacity, but fails in the sense that she thinks her wandering from the paths of truth and reality is unseen by the "masses".  She becomes more bold as she wades deeper into the barge-loads of garbage-blab during her amazing "press conferences".   Said press sessions are almost always replete with zombies who ask dumbo set-up questions and who are all successful graduates of the Hillary University School of Frontalobatomy.

   Her Excellence notified everyone, just before the beginning of the ratification of the legislation that this would begin a frightful but wondrous journey through the maze of regulations and law relating to the funding of the Recovery.
     This past Friday, Speaker Pelosi reminded everyone present that she had managed to convert Trump's Businessmens' Subsidies and Secret Republican Siphoning Act into a Working Person's Manifesto of Liberty and Free Money!  When she waited for the applause line from her body of lackeys in the Lower Chamber, there were perhaps three or four people who air-clapping, embarrassed by the ridiculous "welcoming statement" by her majesty.

Extra  personnel is called in to control the hordes
of visitors and events-attendees at the
Kennedy Centre


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     She will have to wait until sometime down the road before she can pass the law that requires that all underaged girls will be required to attend classes at Planned Parenthood about "The Happy Wonders of Abortion"…but at least she did manage to save the economy by globbing on useless millions and millions of other peoples' money to do something for the Kennedy Skate-0-Rama and Ice Hockey Stadium…or something like that.
     And we beg the indulgence of the reader…but if anyone thinks that the Kennedy Centre was considered…it's a sham rumour…don't be silly. Even  Politico referred to the event as something akin to the harvesting of windmills!!!  The taxpayers were kneecapped to the tune of  75,000,000  Greenbacks to placate Nancy.

     It's nice for Nancy and her team had the magnanimous natural instinct to provide a place of recreation for the poor…such as the Kennedy Centre because everyone knows that it is one of the few places where people can play mid-night basketball at no charge…neither to the players nor the people in the stands (seats?).   And it's all Free because the government pays for it. (?)

      Returning to matters of seriousness,  it will reasonably seem that this writer, a completely unreconstructed rightwing budget-balancer, should be howling at the moon over this new budget manoeuvre.    In truth, I am not overjoyed, elated, or even somewhat pleased with it.   It is recognised by your humble servant, in any regard, that much of this relocation, translocation, location, and dislocation of funds and funding is actually going in a circular direction in almost all cases.
     There is considerable recovery, and much much of the "family oriented" money is going into banks, checking accounts, purchases to make up for what was neglected during the "Wuhan inconvenience".   Wealth recovery and significant long-term elaboration of things, places, and military goodies are heavily represented in this "controlled madness".  And, essentially it will possibly help put a "disc-brake of reason" in the near and next-generational layout of debt service and budgetary considerations.
     If there is a "disc-brake of reason", and I believe there will be at least a  variation of such a thing…the productive power of the American disposition to produce and produce quality will take up some of the slack caused by over-spending.   We have been doing it, recently, for the past 20 years, and for much of the previous century.

I told you I wanted two slices of cheese on my
Arafatburger…and I want it now!!!

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     That such a tawdry analysis might further be explained, please remember that there are several score…or hundred nations who are practicing Magic Deficit Accounting at a pace even more destructive than the Gringos.   Even the Japanese have painted themselves into the Deficit Closet.   The Red Chinese, truth be known, are in a terrible financial quandary, and every nation in South and Central America is nearly in ruin…. Ecuador and especially Venezuela are close to total implosion…Cuba hasn't existed as a viable entity for the past 40 years…and every time it sinks lower, things start to sink even lower.   Venezuela cannot make it to 2022 with Maduro, for instance.  He has already arranged three or four places in Europe where he

will "vacation" and where he will be able to count his money in various banks that accommodate slobs who shovel money into foreign banks in order to have a nice "retirement". 
     Imagine that slob that looked like a horse fly who murdered thousands of his own people…not the scumbag Saddam Hussein…I refer to Yasir Arafat…the man who looked for all the world like a human fly.
     Blowhards and analysts could

Just learned that Tunisia has filed charges for
fraud of her husband's stolen money…

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never agree the extent of Arafat's extortion and theft of moneys-not-his.   He did have people who would inter money with certain banks under various names.   His horribly arrogant and hideous wife flopped into Paris and lived off some of that fat for a bit…we have not heard about or from her for quite a while…perhaps she DID have something to do with the manipulation of deposits and so forth after Yasser died.   The Tunisian government, which is actually somewhat dependable in these matters, declares that the widow of Arafat was more interested in the money he left behind in multiple places, and less concerned about Yasser having a happy eternity.

 To the left we find people who like people…are the most wonderful people in the world…People, people who love people…

     OH!!! Excuse me, I was distracted for a moment.   It does seem to be a great moment in the history of the stars and the people who make things work.

    To the left one can take note of the wine-taster for Uncle Yasser, next from left to right, is fellow Oxford Alum who helps Yasser with certain difficult words and phrases and other things such as helping Yasser shave and bathe every six weeks or so (back in the day).   The harem girls to the right are happy to be at Yasser's children's Forth of July Christmas Party.

    But, returning to the serious side of things, our finances and shadow-boxing
on the theatre of international finance and fighting the Democrats on taxation imperatives they hold so dear, will all shake out in our favour.   Once the green begins to flow…to families, businesses, to financial institutions, to projects of a capital nature, like the restructuring of Boeing and the up-grading of our military…things will fall into place simply because of the positive inertia and activity for which Americans are famous.

We shall have more commentary in a bit.
EL GRINGO VIEJO

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An Assembly of Thoughts, Notions, and Matters of Interest

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An Assembly of Thoughts and Notions

     We are here because I cannot be there.  Our neighbour down in NoWhere, Mexico is there because he cannot be here.

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Matter of the  Going and Coming by Bridge:

The Reynosa - Hidalgo - McAllen
 International Bridge at normal light
operation levels
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    We can now inform people in the real world that going and coming across the United States of America and the Estados Unidos Mexicanos international boundary is no longer a zip and a clip and a chocolate chip cookie.

     And, yes Virginia, El Gringo Viejo just happened to be in McAllen when suddenly the rumours materialised into certain certainty.   As had the Canadians, just a few days before, the Mexicans and

Americans came to an accord to

 suspend discretionary border crossing,

 especially by private motorcar.

     It seemed such an impossibility after having been born, lived in, and pertained to the McAllen area for several hundred years (more or less).   Heretofore, in my recollection, this bridge, pictured herein, closed only once.   That would be the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States, 22 November 1963 - 25 November 1963.

Over four million souls reside in the
 Regiomontano, aka - The
 Mountainous Kingdom
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   There have been various, infrequent halts for a few minutes or an hour or two to address minor problems at various bridges.  Normally, however, while the process is relatively slow coming into the United States of America, we have never seen an auto with a skeleton sitting behind the steering wheel.

    One must consider that the County of Hidalgo, Texas has a population right at the 1,000,000 person mark.   Interestingly, the Municipio (County) of Reynosa also has a population very close to 1,000,o00 souls.   Of further interest would be that the lower picture is the access to the expressway to Monterrey,
Nuevo Leon which lies 140 miles to the west.

The metroplex of Monterrey and its satellite towns and cities, its industries, and other attractions, has a population of around 4,500,000 people.  The Monterrey - San Pedro de Garza Garcia people refer to the highway between McAllen and Monterrey as "…our private driveway", and in a sense it is true.  That metroplex in the heart of Nuevo Leon State has nine per cent of all the population of Mexico.

No traffic coming into the Anzalduas Bridge
 during this period of a semi-close-down of the
bridges from El Paso to Brownsville

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     Concerning production, it produces almost thirty (30) per cent of the overall industrial and commercial output of the Republic of Mexico.   One can consider how this stacks up when Guatemala, Honduras, British Honduras (Belize), El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama', with a population of slightly less than 50,000,000 souls… and, lamentably, that number of Central Americans does not produce the same value added or GNP as the 4.5 million Regiomontanos…even remotely.

     In any regard, we move along marking time while trying to figure out when criss-crossing the border will be the same old, dull and boring chore.   For right now, however, my friend down at the Hacienda de la Vega and I will have to put up with the reality of a significantly restricted use of the international bridges and crossing points.

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The Matter of the Petulant Politicians:     

Charlie is enumerating the various charges he
 will take before the judge after the deputies put
 the leg irons on - Clockwise from the top,
 Curly, Larry, and Moe

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    Moving on to more mundane things, we have been but slightly humoured by the shenanigans of the Democrat leadership (?) during the "budget battle". It is something like the folly of the stupidly executed "impeachment" of the President, but even more inept and devious.   Of course, when one finds the command group supervising a degenerate plan of falsehoods and baseless rumours, such as the trio of Pelosi and Schumer and Schiff almost any plumbing of the lower elements can be expected.

     The Democrat political party has almost perfected the art of being wholly misdirecting and self-serving, arrogant and illogical, as any political body in the four different centuries our Republic has experienced.  It is right on up there with the German National Socialist Labour Party in the sense that whatever point the Democrats are trying to make they must frame it by means of mendacity.

      The Southern Poverty Law Centre and the firm of Pelosi, Schumer, and Schiff know that their cheering section is devoid of the ability to excercise critical thought processes.   After two or three generations of producing people who think they have the right to steal, murder, destroy, and generally cause mayhem…the present-day Democrat Hierarchy is satisfied that they can lead the Army of the Illogical, those who are dependent on AFDC, selling dope, using dope, and committing mayhem upon the society and its culture.

     Somehow, according to the Pelosistas, some people just need to steal, frighten, murder, denigrate, and generally degenerate.   The threesome and their allies in the political and popular culture set will almost always draw an invisible iron circle around  The Oppressed and explain away all nature of degeneracy and self-indulgence and criminality.   Thereby, they essentially give the degenerate and criminal element a hall pass…that says "Hands Off!! Privileged Oppressed Victim!!!"

     The routine pulled off by the team of Pelosi and Schumer is something similar to the jackass who has stuck a match into the area between the sole and the top of a shoe of some poor sap.   He who then proceeds to light the match plugged into the shoe…letting it burn down to where the wearer of said shoe will experience the classic "hotfoot" and begin to howl in pain.   The delinquent thinks that he has won a great victory…perhaps even gaining a gaggle of laughs from those near the event, while he, himself will howl with glee the loudest.

      That was something like the trick of the "negotiations" between the Democrats and the Republicans during these most current interactions concerning how to proceed with adapting to America under attack by Red Chinese ambient poisoning.  The Democrat apparatchiks think that each understanding and agreement with the Republicans being sacrificed is a Great Victory.   Their secondary objective, that being forcing the Republicans to fund Planned Parenthood with public money is that shadow in the back of the room, in the dim light.

     In short, the Democrat Socialist team is a depraved, self-consumed, arrogant unit.  It stands devoid of the willingness to get out of the way and allow America to return to prosper…morally, physically, and financially.

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Of Malaria and other Pleasant Thoughts:

Not an uncommon sight in the
 Lower Rio Grande Valley
still to this day.

     We have borne witness to the comings and goings with reference to the Coronavirus problem and the variation of the French malaria medicine.    Many thousands of years ago, when my father was still a young man, heresigned a position in the Army, and set out to feed the world.
     He became a farmer  of sorts, in that his first objective was to line up scores of smallholders who had citrus orchards of three, five, and ten acres.   Over the years, he and my mother cared for 3,000 and a little more acres of these "dreamer's orchards".    They were so named because the Yankees would come to Winter and Myrtle would swoon at the beautiful groves, and the exotic Mexican caretakers, and the fruit itself, and the blossom set during the appropriate times… 

     

     They were good and noble folks…salt of the Earth in all truth and seriousness.  But, their lot was to push up wheat, corn,  and other dull products;  things that are necessary but not very "romantic".  Others were retired or veteran military, while some were bankers, retailers, and such.   We had them all during that time between Thanksgiving and the 15th of March.
     We would have to admonish them rarely, especially when one might find a "Winter Visitor couple" picking fruit while lugging a five-gallon bucket.   The workers would run and look for my father to advise him that the rustlers were active.   When our men were working sans supervision at tracts ten miles over there and six miles over here, they themselves would exact justice, by charging one or two dollars, depending on how many pounds of Valencia oranges had been "borrowed".   Very few of the "Yankees" borrowed oranges.

Once or twice a year, depending
 on conditions, the bloom
 set shows off

    My father would also plant, plow, and harvest plots ten to fifty acres, he and his workers, planting cotton, corn, and tomatoes…even okra.   Normally he would encounter a friend or acquaintance who needed an "advance" in order to plant and harvest another property, and my father would give the petitioner a sum, and then use that same person's land to plant, harvest, and market, all to his own account.   A bit old fashioned, but welcome to Texas.   My parents were very proud that neither lender nor borrower ever lost a farthing among our friends nor within our family.


     The main business was the grove care and the tonnage produced by the strikingly beautiful orchards, augmented a bit by farming cotton…planting in February and hoping for "America's First Bale" in late May or early June.
     It was all very noble.  My eldest brother, born in May of 1936, was driving tractors and "working" like a real hand by the age of 10.    I was a big help by staying out of the way, although my greatest desire was to be allowed to drive the tractors.  But a five year old did not pick up jobs like that in those times.

     Now we have the two brothers and the father.   The father, after leaving the Army (mounted cavalry), began his farming career, but after about a year he was greeted with a case of full blown Malaria.  He had the kind that would cause welts, especially around the waist and lower back.  This was in 1935, and my mother had to literally run the farm, and then also make her first run at birthing a baby…(May, 1936).

Preparing for the Harvest

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     A youngish doctor working out of his own clinic in San Juan, Texas about twelve miles east of our farmstead  came out and found a fevered, sweaty, weak man, feeling guilty because he was not out with his Mexican crew throwing sulphur under the orange trees.    The fever was 103…the sweats were profound…the aches were very pronounced.
     Compounding this was persistent abdominal cramps and vomiting and trying to stand up would result in a stiff round of vertigo so bad that my father could not stand up without support.   The youngish doctor was not alarmed, but he was concerned.  "How long has this been going on?"
       My mother and Augustin the foreman informed that it had started the day before yesterday, and become worse yesterday.   The doctor excused himself and said that he would be back in two hours.   And he left, late in the afternoon.   The destination?   Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico.  Remember that this is 1935…and the "highway" to Reynosa, nine miles away to the South, was a thump-thump, thumpity thump concrete highway, and there were no lights beyond the headlights.
     The young doctor had allowed my Father's overseer to accompany the journey across the Rio Grande…it would be a pleasant adventure.  There was a 'Farmacia'  just one door off of the main Plaza, quite a fine place…even with a ceiling fan.  The Doctor asked the Farmacista if there was any "chloroquine?".
     The farmacista declare, "Por supuesto que si!!  How many pills?"
     Our doctor thought about it, and suggested "Seis?"
     "Es algo serio?" inquired the farmacista.
     "Si…definitivamente"
      The pharmacist sorted out six pills of chloroquine and declared "Seis pesos o cincuenta centavos Americanos,"   (six pesos or fifty American cents)  "Buena surety, informame como reaccione su paciente."

A bit misleading, although effective
The actual measure is 300 mg, not 125

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     Then it was off to the house just north of McAllen, with the medicine in which the American Doctor and the Mexican Pharmacist had so much faith.  On the way back, the Mayordomo was fairly quiet, but he did screw up enough stuffing to ask the young Doctor, "Do you think something might go wrong with El Señor?"
     "I have used these pills on Black folks, Mexican folks, old folks, toddlers, rich folks, poor folks, Anglo folks…and they have all come out fine."

     After about 25 minutes, they turned down the gravel road to the east and drove the 200 feet and pulled into the rainbow shaped driveway.   With a bit of haste, the twosome went to the door and passed on to the main bedroom.  The Doctor told my mother that this medium-sized pill will solve the problem. And further, there were five more pills to be taken by 7:00 am for the next five mornings.
     My mother offered our maid's room, quite a nice room on the second floor overlooking our patio, and McAllen to the distant south.   The Young Doctor decided that would be a good idea…and so Agustin the Mayordomo, the Doctor, and my mother sitting by my father in bed, began the vigil.   The Young Doctor had confided that my Father was afflicted with a type of Malaria, but the medicine would win the fight.

This is a standard 250 dosage, but its marked 
260…It's a wonderland out there.

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     And…True enough.   In the morning the Young Doctor enjoyed his coffee after watching my father swallow Pill Number Two, noting that the dizziness seemed to be almost gone, along with the abdominal cramps.   He left the remain "magic pills" and mixing his Spanish and English between my mother and our Mayordomo, strict orders and guidances were left.   "Call if there is any change to the worse!" he called as he headed back to San Juan.
     My mother had arranged for a housekeeper from near Puebla in the centre of Mexico.   And, as if by magic, she showed up in a taxi at around 10:00, introduced herself to all, and went up to what would be her room for the next twenty years, four days per week, every week.   She also immediately took over nursing duties and every sort of domestic requirement.

     With the Chloroquine Phosphate, my father was back on the tractor in three days.    Ten years later, when my eldest brother was arriving at his tenth birthday, the same thing hit him, knocking him for a loop.  Without delay, my father went over to Reynosa and bought the 250 mg. Chloroquine from the same pharmacist.

      And while my middle brother missed the fun and games of having malaria, he did get to have measles and scarlet fever at the same time.  He had to be hospitalised…for four nights.  He was born in March of 1942…and endured a three week period of weakness and listlessness during the early summer of 1947, only a few months after my own appearance on the Planet, April, 1947.

     So as not to be left out, while the middle brother had the double whammy that was absolutely no fun, I am sure, my gift that kept on giving was my father's and eldest brother…and it hit in 1952 when I was a child of five years. And it was the Malaria…which I carried for almost 22 years…having a bout every two or three years, thinking each time would be the last time.  When I was drafted for the service, my blood draw revealed that the malaria was still wandering around in my gizzard…making me less desirable as a soldier.

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More later, perhaps to-morrow if things become more heated.

EL GRINGO VIEJO

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