Friday 12 July 2013

Brief Stay....now heading north

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     After a really brief rest-up and a little housekeeping, El Gringo Viejo and his better three/quarters are going to Central Texas on a pilgrimage to the American Atheist Centre in Austin to light a candle for the continued success of Janet Napolitano as she assumes the crown and right to reign as Chief Bozo of the California University System.   She will announce during her ordination and beatification that there will be a new degree that will replace all other degree programmes within the system.
 
    That degree will be a Really Super Doctorate in Relevancy and Reverse Recycling and Equivalency.   Only two minors will be offered;  Castration and How to Use Public Transportation.   One elective will be offered system-wide under the title "Whatever".   The students whose surnames begin with A - C will come by to get their food stamps and contraceptives and pro-Obama placard, stickers, and campaign material for the third term on Tuesday.   Wednesday will cease being a name because it is day named after a man who was a god.   ycccchhhh!  How tacky.   Therefore, all schools in California will be on a six-day week.   Further instructions will be passed out advising everything that must be thought and said, and what must not be thought and said.   Please bring your own ergonomically and environmentally correct wheelbarrow to carry off your rules, because of the need to print all the rules in the basic 316 languages required by Californication Supreme Law, each required copy weighs 10,144 pounds....we mean 4,201 kilograms.
 
    Remember!  Think globally and act like a deranged fool locally.  It becomes you.  And you become it.
 
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We are so sorry.
   Our hacking service got inside the last draft of Miss Napolitano's acceptance speech.    We are certain she will do as good a job of turning her main office area into a romper room for her "friends" and "assistants" as she did in her Central Government office digs.
 
     Now then, we shall be visiting the family and checking into a few things for the next few days in the Austin area.   The Central Texas family will then be coming down to this area for a few days to visit friends and show off their incredibly beautiful and accomplished daughters to friends and more relatives.  It should be a pleasant few days.
 
We shall remain in contact.
El Gringo Viejo
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Mexican Elections

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     The Mexican by-elections for several thousand positions including a few Congressional seats, several hundred Municipal Presidencies (a cross between Mayor and County Judge in Texas, depending on the community and whether or not the County Seat is overwhelming the predominant community in the County), and State Congress representatives.    Thirteen of the 31 States were holding these elections.
      We shall concern ourselves with Tamaulipas, which is a border State with the Republic of Texas.  It is also an ethnically complicated and complex State, with a wide range of geographic and historical characteristics.  Furthermore it is the place wherein one might encounter a little mud hut with the name of Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre.
       During the last presidential elections in Mexico, last year, it was this writer's certain opinion that my favoured candidate from the Partido de Accion Nacional was very probably going to win the national election.  Surrounded as we were by people who have ALWAYS voted Partido Revolucionario Institucional in presidential processes....it was amazing to note that the scuttlebutt was overwhelmingly in support of the female PAN candidate....and amazingly she carried the State convincingly.  My failure had been in projecting what was surrounding me onto the rest of the nation.
 
      This time around, once again, it seemed to El Gringo Viejo that the PAN was poised to do "pretty well" in these more localised elections, and they did.  They actually carried the major cities/counties of Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros, barely missing the premio gordo (first prise) in the biggest city, Reynosa, and the Capital, Victoria)....but then carrying 6 other counties.   These last named six counties are real rural....hillbillies, rustics, small farmers, traditionalists....but historically pr0-PRI.   Attitudinal studies place these people almost totally within the Tea Party - Fundamentalist  American equivalent grouping.
     So, there was some surprise, but then an acceptance, that we may have seen a final, radical rupture between this heretofore dependable PRI voting bloc from these counties into the more conservative PAN.   Call it the revenge of the Reagan Democrats a la Mexicana.   Oddly, of these six, five had names that began with the letter "M"....Miquihuana, Morelos (Antiguo), Miquel Aleman, Mier, and Mainero....and one with an "X" which is Xicotencatl.   That was interesting, but there is always "....rest of the story".  (Xicotencatl is Alvaro's home area, by the way.)
 
    For the last five or six election cycles, it is never quite over until it is over.  Before, everything was better because everything stunk.   The people were allowed to vote....even urged and forced to vote in some cases.   But there was little point behind the effort because the victor was already known, even before he had been named as a candidate.   It would be a member of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.   That day is gone.
     We tire of the already written story (before every election) about how these by-elections and even the Presidential and Gubernatorial elections do not engender any real interest. The Mexicans are apathetic, according to the Obsolete Press, regarding all candidates as corrupt...and most Mexicans do not even bother to register, much less vote.   Knowing looks by the Euro-reporters and their American counterparts are exchanged along the bar at the 3rd best saloon in Mexico City....(safely removed from the real wealthy, middle, and working class neighbourhoods known as reality)....safe in their notion about the Mexican attitude and action.   "I know it is true because a Mexican professor told me all about it.   And he teaches at the National Autonomous University, he is the deputy dean of the College of Sociology."  This is a statement that should read, "I know it is true because I'm a pinko and the professor is a pinko and we agree with each other".
     There is only one problem.   The Mexicans have a much higher registration and participation in their elections of the same or similar level than do the Americans.   And the Mexican Credencial Federal Electoral is the most zealously guarded personal document held by a Mexican.   And it is all but un-duplicatable.   We have written about this matter before, even if before an incredulous audience.  In my son's lifetime, Mexican elections have gone from laughable exercises including the hauling around county employees in dump trucks to vote at various sites.....to what is now perhaps the best procedure in the world.   Our procedures in the Republic of Texas pale...pale to bright white, compared to the Mexican process.
 
     So, there is at least one last event in the panoplia de comicios of the last procesos electorales en Tamaulipas.    That event is the rejection of the first count of the votes from last Sunday which showed the PRI candidate defeating the PAN candidate very, very narrowly in the city and county of Tula.   El Gringo Viejo's team, the PAN, stewed for a few hours and then "hit the road" so to speak.   They opted to resort to the common recourse used by communists and other leftists in the southern half of Mexico especially;   the closure of highways and byways by the strewing of hundreds or even thousands of irregularly space large rocks and small boulders across the entire highway right-of-way and pavement.
     So, on the same highway we used to go and come between Victoria and Mexico City a couple of weeks ago, at the exit for the town of Tula, Tamaulipas the passage to and from was closed.   It was closed for two days. Four hundred first-class and deluxe busses were trapped.   Three hundred departures both ways were cancelled, six hundred total.   Nine-thousand transport trucks and almost five thousand private vehicles were trapped.
     In these events one must think, "Should I wait here or turn around and find a comfortable place to wait?"  There is no way to know.  There is no news, only rumour.   Even when the police and/or Army arrives to clear the area, there might still be several hours of negotiation.   It is an abuse of third parties who have absolutely nothing to do about the issue.
 
This is the scene just before the Federal Civilian
Police, the State Police, and the Army came to an
accord with the protestors and moved out
 the "highway invaders".  It helps a little
 to know that the candidate concerned
came into the mess early on
 and urged his supporters
 to desist and move on.


 

 
    In 99.9% of the cases when this tactic is employed (thankfully less and less as days go by) it is truly done by extreme leftists who are proud of their willingness to cause misery to the "rich" who can afford to travel or profit from roads built to "exploit the poor".   This time it is my guys.  And this time, my guys are wrong....even if their complaint is justified.  There is a reasonable arbiter for the resolution of this matter, with the State Election Commission.   It has been used in the past and has functioned reasonably.
 
   So, shame on my team.  Technical foul.
 
El Gringo Viejo
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Thursday 11 July 2013

Keeping Our Eyes on the Ball

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   The issues simply seem to evaporate.   Our attention is redirected on an hourly basis from Benghazi to the NSA.....to "What difference does it make?" and then Internal Revenue Service violations and corruption....which crowds out the daily mendaciousness of the entire Administration.....that long ago buried from view the issues presented by "Fast and Furious".
 
Alexis de Tocqueville

BenFranklinDuplessis.jpg 
Benjamin Franklin
     Much of the above is specific material, referring to one issue or series of issues that unfold as might a really bad five-act play that is about 9 hours too long.   Such has been the nature of these past five miserable years.   But, baseball taught us all to "keep our eyes on the ball".    Fielders, batters, people in the stands, fellows in the coaches' boxes, runners, staff and players in the dugouts and bullpens.....all those places are subject to being shelled at any given second by a 108 stitch,  5 ounce cannonball travelling 150 miles per hour.
 
      Our attention must be maintained over the public organisms that have delivered us to the point of our perdition.   As in the sacred Anglican admonition concerning the Decalogue .... the American civil catechism requires the knowledge of the First and Greatest Commandment, which is Franklin's declaration to the enquiring citizen..."We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it!".   And the second Commandment is like unto it, that being the warning from the brilliant Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville who feared that the Americans would lose their marvellous Republic at that point when some grouping of parasites, forming a majority learned that, through democracy, they could invade the Public Treasury to destruction driven by the "Let them eat cake" vote buyers.

 
 
 


   The Central Government, through its labyrinth of secretariats, agencies, bureaus, and commissions has become the Nouveaux Simon Legree, directing our birth and all other of our private and public affairs, up to and including the price our exit payment.   We have become the slaves we were designed to become....clamouring at each calamity for the intervention of Simon to bring money and further bondage so as to abate our misery.
     To enjoy Marse Simon's largesse, we must sacrifice our daughters and dignity at times.  At other times we must face and endure the whip and cane, so as to placate Marse Simon's desire to inflict a little pleasurable pain upon his chattel.
 
    Save me from those who wish to help me when I have not called for help.
 
El Gringo Viejo
 
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Tuesday 9 July 2013

After Good Rains, Hot Days, and Very Cool Nights and Early Mornings

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    This small collection of photos is included so that folks can see what happens with 91 degree afternoons, 56 degree overnights, and about 14 inches of rain over a three week period. In our nearby mountains, four or five miles to the west, there have been the typical prodigious rains....one hears that as much as 30 inches have fallen at the middle and upper elevations during the same period.   Nothing too phenomenal....rather normal....but normal is good.
 
 
 
    It is rather a pleasant matter to deal with the tonnes of butterflies and birds that advantage themselves of the proliferation of flowering things, the new minerals that are found at the edge of numerous puddles, and just the generally pleasant ambience.
 
We catch Alvaro working on the land down
under, surrounded by near jungle-like scenery
 


This and the picture below, essentially gives
 the OROG anunderstanding of how wooly, green,
 and "filled-in" things have become during this wet,
 hot, and cool mixture of ambient influences came
 to us, sent by a happy choir
of angels.



This is a carnivorous cactus flower, a bug eater.  Not exactly
the fragrance to build a perfume company on, but an inter-
esting plant to be sure.   The locals call it "starfish cactus" or
"paper flower" cactus.
This is how Flamboyan tree blossoms appear, up
close and personal.   This is a late bloom, due to
the late arriving, but bountiful, rains.

 

Once again, just a few pleasant scenes so that you all will know that we are not completely stewed in battery acid and No-Doze.    We shall have a bit more commentary in the next few days.   By-elections in Mexico deserve some comment, as well as the activity around our little mud hut.   Thanks for the interest.
El Gringo Viejo
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Voting Rights Act, and Other Pertinent Odds and Ends

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The Voting Rights Act, which mandated Federal preclearance of the states before changing election laws, was in effect struck down by the Supreme Court.  Essentially, the Court said the Act was unconstitutional as pertains to section 4 which singled out several states and other municipalities for application.  Section 5 of the Act set the requirement for preclearance.  Without the scope of the Act set in section 4, section 5 becomes meaningless.

The scope of the Act in section 4 was set at the discretion of the Attorney General based on arbitrary civil rights records.  On June 25, Eric Holder announced he was “deeply disappointed” in the Court’s 5 to 4 decision.  Obama also expressed he was deeply disappointed.
 
Being from one of the states hog tied by the Act, Texas immediately responded that it would put into effect the Voter Identification law requiring photo ID.  Greg Abbot, Texas’ Attorney General, said that the redistricting maps would not need Federal approval and would also be immediately be recognized as law.
 
This ruling by the Supreme Court does not invalidate the discrimination sections of the Act.
 
This is good news for Texas as well as those states and political entities where voter corruption is a problem.  In addition this is a baby step toward stabilization of the “immigration problem”… at least as far as Texas is concerned.  Texas Senator Ted Cruz who supported strong opposition to the Voting Rights Act, actively supports insertion of a national voter ID in any immigration bill.
 
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Speaking of Senator Cruz we are in agreement with El Gringo Viejo’s observation (see Daily Journal 07/09/2013) regarding the “sucker punching of Marco Rubio” and we also have not lost faith in Senator Rubio; however, we are concerned that he has now become somewhat damaged goods as concerns a run for the Presidency in 2016.  He was number one prior to his fall from grace with the immigration bill and has been supplanted by Senator Cruz by most Tea Party conservatives.  Marco is still a remarkable Senator but the perception usually becomes reality.  The Democratic Party has done what it does best by casting doubt on our most promising hopes for the future.  Marco may be able to redeem himself because we have three and a half years until the next election.  But, Ted Cruz is not a runner-up.  He is the real deal and does not earn a favorite status by default.
 
The Democrats and faux Republicans will not quit beating on Marco but should soon turn the machine on Ted Cruz.  If there is a lesson to be learned we hope Senator Cruz has vicariously learned a very important one.  There is no “reaching across the aisle” with these people.  There is no compromise.  Conservative values cannot be altered.
 
A change of subject suggests a surreal idea.  This is the machination of an over active-imagination:  Rick Perry has announced he will not run for another term as Texas’ Governor.  How about Ted Cruz for Texas Governor, (errr, - uh... “President” of Texas)?  Let the idea take you where it will.  Crazy, huh?
 
Z
 
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Monday 8 July 2013

The Sucker-Punching of Maro Rubio

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    We have witnessed a fairly effective sucker-punching of the junior senator from Florida, the Hon. Marco Rubio. While Mr. Rubio is an effective politician, well experienced in the art and science of political manoeuvring and combat, he was possibly un-prepared to deal with the kinds of  treachery practiced by the Democrats of the United States Senate.  Those individuals, when teamed with the Alinsky-trained community organisers in the White House and SEIU activists and rabble rousers, can be formidable .

     It is very probable that Marco Rubio wished nothing more than to take an ill-defined problem and come up with a reasonable and well-defined solution.   As a freshman on the floor, he might have been unconvinced of the of the all-but-total corrupt nature of the Democrat Party and its convened presence in the United States Senate.
     The first and foremost issue before those Democrat Senators who formed part of the "Gang of Eight" was never to  help out a hapless bunch of poor, picked upon, discriminated-against, exploited illegal aliens.   Their mission was to destroy Marco Rubio and his standing with the movement conservatives in the GOP and those people generally typified as Tea Party activists.    People like Senator Schumer should and must be measured closely.   What they say is almost never what they mean. Their number one goal is to maintain the greatest number of people on the dole as possible, so as to ensure their own place in the Hamptons and in the Senate restaurant.
    This is done first by convincing the folks who "feel" rather than "think" that the Schumers of the world are genuinely concerned about feeding the children, "women's issues", and the heartbreak of psoriasis among lesbian water buffaloes in Bangladesh.....and of course, bullying.   The proof of this is simple to demonstrate.   Every program they propose and then put into action almost always results in cost overruns and a worsening of the original "problem" that did not really exist in the first place.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, official portrait, 112th Congress.jpg
Debbie Wasserman
52nd Chairman
Democrat National Committee
     Student loan guarantees for college students....only fair and reasonable.   Everyone could do with a little help from Uncle Sam in order to pick up a college education.    Everybody wins....right?   Wrong, of course. More debt, ever rising tuition charges due to the availability of more money being flooded into the food chain....free money that doesn't cost anybody anything is the inevitable result.  It all feels great until the hangover hits.   Like Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security.....all broke....breaking the nation....never solved anything.... but it does give the Democrats the perpetual stick to drag out and beat the Republicans every two years,"....and the Republicans want to cut your Social Security and Medicare!   Roll Grandma to the cliff and throw her and her wheelchair into the chasm of Republican Greed....Just like Romney making that poor old lady die of cancer by closing down the company where her husband had worked all his life!!!"




     Such is the nature of the beast.   So, Marco Rubio forgets the rules.   He knows how they operate in Florida.   Just think of Debbie Wasserman's wild and wooly Whopper-rama during the last couple of years.   Think of the demonic glint in the eye of Barack Hussein Obama when he exhorted his crowd of low information and intelligence followers..."Get your revenge by voting.  Get your revenge!!"
   But, just for an instant,  Marco decides to be kinder and gentler....reaching across the aisle.  What could be wrong with a bit of bi-partisan co-operation and reasonability?    And, the answer as usual, is "Just about everything".


     El Gringo Viejo feels...or knows....that the Democrats simply set up Marco Rubio.   They knew that any efforts on Marco's part to "work across the aisle" would diminish him with the  hard-core rightwingers such as El Gringo Viejo and about 30,000,000 other of Marco's supporters, thereby injuring Marco's chances to destroy the Democrats in 2014 and 2016 with his good looks and conservative message to Americans of all ethnic and racial stripes.  Marco was invited into the  "Hispanic Outreach" and "immigration reform" racket, and he made the mistake of walking into the mess and staining himself.   It is a set-up that the Democrats prepared for him.   It is called, in boxing, the "sucker punch".
 
    We still support and defend him, and see his errors in these matters as being caused by unjustified optimism and goodness of spirit.   We are certain that the immigration reform efforts are undertaken, not to improve any situation, but rather to make the situation worse.   Nothing that has been proposed has anything to do with the problems we face here on the border, nor in the hinterland with people who have little or no interest in self-improvement and good citizenship.   We know very well that it can only serve to  invalidate that Latin group that has been here long and/or legally.
 
     Public assistance, provided by government workers who are usually unionised, has brought upon us a plaque that will finally ruin the republic.  The body count in Chicago and Detroit serves as a demonstration of this fact.  The last amnesty unleashed an inundation of unfathered gang members throughout the Borderlands and the border States that could not have  been  comprehended by those of us who are native here and who can remember life here in the 1950s.
 
     El Gringo Viejo retires from the page with the hope that another bill is not passed through the Congress that we have to read after it is approved to find out what civic horrors we have approved while sleepwalking.
 
El Gringo Viejo
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