Friday 26 August 2016

A bit about the Battle of Mier - Christmastide of 1842

David Christian Newton submitted the material below onto a Facebook screed that pertains to people who are interested in their Spanish Colonial Period ancestral roots and who seriously study and develop their genealogies. The events centre around a city named Mier, a present-day county-seat in the long, northern panhandle of Tamaulipas State of Mexico.  It has seen and felt the effects of much wild weather, military engagements, and recently the effects of the drug-trafficking and human smuggling activity plaguing the Mexico - Texas frontier.  


 It is well that this event be covered and studied deeply.

      It is of interest to some Texians that General Adrian Woll entered into the centre of the Republic of Texas in 1842 in command of a punitive expedition and also to remind the Texians that Mexico could bring serious force against the outnumbered and less productive and less powerful Texas. Both Mexico and Texas at that time were boiling over with their own internal political warring and arguing.

    Woll's army arrived in good order outside of San Antonio and promptly took control of the city in the late Summer of 1843.  His approach consisted of essentially of five major columns coming up from Laredo, Matamoros, Rio Grande (aka - San Pedro / (to-day) Miguel Aleman), and Reynosa.    The combined rosters suggest that the total force was 2,600 effectives.

   The whole event was terribly humiliating to the Texians who had been impotent in the face of overpowering and more professional military force....and then forced to pay for their own failure to prepare, to be aware, or even lift a finger in terms of maintaining a ready defense posture.  As the Mexican forces deployed near the edge of the city and then gave demonstrations  that they were going to enter, a delegation came forward to request that the application of force be avoided because many people who were innocent of any wrongdoing would be subject to injury or death.
         There was an engagement where about 150 citizens of San Antonio had taken a defensive position, in a building owned by a leading rancher and businessman, Samuel A. Maverick.   Civil Authority was brought forward, along with good numbers of the business class, and were informed that the General was imposing a Punitive Charge against the Texians and he exacted, if I recall, about 3,000 dollars and supplies, a couple of cannons, various weapons, powder, medicines, and forage enough for his retirement back to Laredo.

     A useless cavalry charge of about 67 or so Texian regulars and momentary volunteers made a rearguard harassment of Woll's main body, in spite of Woll's written notice to them to not engage, due to the fact that their lack of familiarity with warfare would lead to devastating losses, referred to at times by the Texians as the Salado Creek massacre.   There were several engagements in and around San Antonio, to the east Sequin,  Hondo to the west, each of which the Mexicans said they won, and the Texian declared themselves the victors.  Woll was a respected enemy, as had been Urrea, Castrillon, and even Perfecto de Cos, and General Filisola after a fashion during the 1836 War.   

    Woll returned in good order to Laredo with his punitive rewards and called it a day.  His Expedition was widely applauded and lauded, perhaps with considerable justification.   They had gone up in pretty fair order, and come back the same way with all their standards and minimal casualties.  Further service awaited in a matter of weeks.

  The Texian Congress demanded that an Army be equipped and sent to Laredo to punish the Mexican's embarrassment of the San Antonio population. Sam Houston was not in favour of such an action but the Congress and other powerful political figures were in favour of it. General Somerville, the actual winning general in charge at San Jacinto, was chosen to the lead the reverse punitive expedition.

     It left in earliest December with about 760 effectives along with about 300 from local militia units and some artillery. At about the time of arrival near staging places north of Laredo, messengers arrived from Washington on the Brazos with orders stating that the Act of War against Mexico and commissioning of hostilities had been withdrawn by the Congress of the Republic of Texas. This was something for which Sam Houston took credit and considerable heat both then and during later years.
    Somervell had been left on the line to dry, so to speak. He informed his Army, and then requested a parley with the Mexican military and civil authority in Laredo. There was meeting and all agreed to call it a day, let the Texians regress to their homes....according to some accounts there was quite a pachanga (barbecue and celebration) to celebrate the new Pax Texana - Mexicana.   It is noted here that Laredo in those days was entirely on the left side (north) of the Rio Grande.  All the remaining organised cities downstream in this region were established on the right side (south) of that watercourse.

     The problem was that "Colonels" Fisher and Green and their contingent of "soldiers" essentially declared that they were not gong to abide by the agreements. There were 303 who broke with the main body, and began, somewhat stupidly, to head downriver going through Palafox, San Ygnacio, Ramiren~o, Ureben~o, Revilla, Chapen~o, and Salinen~o, exacting payments, forage, and other things. The film suggests that at around Christmas-time the Texians were in Chapen~o, but my understanding is that they were in Salinen~o and they were preparing to attack Mier.  These above named hamlets were small affairs, almost all entirely located on the north side of the Rio Grande, a small but difficult distance from their controlling urban centres, like Camargo, Mier, and Reynosa.

     By that point general Ampudia and various elements of the Mexican regular army and the various Guadias Nacionales between Matamoros, San Felipe de China, Reynosa, Camrgo, and Mier itself had been made aware of the approach of this Army-without-commission.
     
      One thing that most Texians....and Mexicans...as well as descendants of the Spanish settlers in the area of Mier.....are not aware of is that the man put in command of significant elements of Mexican cavalry at the Battle of Mier was Juan Sequin, one of the great Texian heroes of the Battle of San Jacinto. The outcome of that Battle is pretty well known.   Sequin's story after that 1836 engagement is complex, and he did return to his homeland in later live to resume ownership of lands his family had, and he died in Texas.

     It was a pointless military function and the slaughter was immense. It is probable that about 120 men died on both sides.   Each side badly overestimated the size of its opposition.  General  Ampudia was certain that there were almost 1,000 Texian effectives.  Texians at first thought Mier would be a cake walk like the tiny hamlets through which they had passed during preceding days.  Only after engagement did it become clear that they were dealing with real military resistance.  Their estimates of 1,600 Mexican  Army soldiers was also inflated, there having been about 760 or so.   Another quirky thing was the proclivity for the Mexican formal military reports to refer to Green, and Fisher, and a couple of other ranking Texians as "Generales" which was probably less a courtesy than an attempt to imply that the Texian force was larger than than it truly was.

 It should also be pointed out that the people of Mier treated the Texian prisoners with considerable kindness.  Ampudia arranged with the remaining officers to allow for their repatriation with the agreement to not bear arms against Mexico again, but that agreement was rescinded personally by a messenger bearing orders from Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, declaring the prisoners to be war criminals.

     They were to be interned in deep into the interior of Mexico. Another small correction to the presentation might be that the escape of prisoners did not include all of them. But a significant number ran off into horribly unsupportable territory. There was even some dispute that the "Black Bean" matter was overplayed because few if any of the Texans who returned (at the demand of Lopez de Santa Anna's wife's deathbed request) mentioned the event in their writings.

    Bigfoot Wallace was one of the few who talked about it. It was one heck of a Christmas. There are many, many others stories related to the Battle of Mier, but there is neither time nor space here to delve into it. One last thing, the Texians did comment on the incredible and elegant and massive buildings of Mier in writings.

Thanks for the time.  There should be more commentary about this and other related matters of Texian History and how that relates to Mexico of yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow.
EL GRINGO VIEJO
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Thursday 25 August 2016

We lose our dog, Bibi....and other lamentations and observations

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     News was received to-day, after our return from our little hideaway in rural Mexico, that our main dog, Bibi the Labrador, had died after a brief illness.  He was about six years old, and had been active until recently.  Our majordomo advised us this morning as I had dialed down some business orders and objectives.
     This came as a bit of a surprise due to the fact that he had seemed to improve over the past two or three days.

     He was an exceptionally good canine.   He will be missed

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     We move on to the issues of the day.   There is an election on the horizon;   certainly several of our readers have noticed that.   It has become something like choosing between having an extreme attack of nausea and vomiting or a migraine  headache.

      Both of the major party candidates speak and act as if, once elected, they would be autocratic dictators.....deigning, ordering, mandating, and implementing policy and....essentially....law.

     One will order a wall to be built (maybe) and another says there will be free college and amplified Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative (OSMI) at all public universities.

      In each of the examples the acts would normally require considerable Congressional and State participation, funding, approval, and modification.  But neither of these two seem to have much use for these apparently outdated institutional imperatives.
     Each appears to be disposed to rule by Executive Order.   It sounds good to the bulk of the electorate who think in two dimensions, or in hopes of receiving special favors, or who can say things like, ".....but we need change."


     It is difficult for this observer to understand the reasoning of pundits and people who want more and greater change, ostensibly because of how bad things have become, even though during the last election cycle almost all of them voted for "Hope and Change".

     It makes indelibly clear, however, that the "Progressive Movement" and all its ghoulish acolytes never wish for solutions to the social and economic problems....even international relations problems...because people of that movement rely on the short memories of the hoi polloi.  And the "Progressives" propose more programmes to solve the problems that were caused by the programmes that have brought us the nightmares of hundreds and hundreds of medium-sized and large urban areas in the United States of America.

We shall try to speak to other issues to-morrow.   There are observations about Mexico and Texas of interest, and other matters.
El Gringo Viejo
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Wednesday 10 August 2016

How many people are necessary to push up how many daisies?

With new dead bodies volunteering showing up almost every other day now to support (Sir Edmund) Hillary Corkscrew's coronation as Perpetual Queen of All Universes, we thought a little stroll down Herman Munster's Memory Lane, 1313 Mockingbird Road, might be in order.

Before people roll their eyes and say, "Oh! My God!   This conspiracy stuff is sooooo boring!!! Nobody could possibly believe that any of this ever happened much less that the Clinton's had anything to do with it.   There would be no way to cover it up.

Yet, we see a weak-knee'd FBI Director whimp out just the other day, declining to move to ahead with judicial process against Hillary Rodham Clinton in spite of many and various egregious violations of the law and normal order in terms of her email deceptions.   We now learn that it is overwhelmingly probable that  people have lost their lives due to her arrogance, lack of concern for others, hubris, incompetence, and conceit.
     
That the FBI Director was also complicit back in the year 2000 in co-ordinating various "pay-for-pardon" actions with Eric Holder seems to be enough to keep the Director's hand from the helm in terms of guiding the Ship of Justice.   What is also known is that various persons of considerable ''influence and position" have gone to prison to do hard time for offenses that are much, much, much less significant.   Dinesh D'Sousa, Martha Stewart, Charles Colson, Scooter Libby, and so forth.....there are many.

We shan't even mention the several million people who were directly or indirectly punished without case or cause by the Internal Revenue Service and their goon squads of harassers.  Among those who worked in concert with said harassment was the esteemed Federal Bureau of Investigation.   None of the harassers have faced any punishment or negative effect in spite of the fact that they violated scores of laws and regulations.  Nay!  Some of them were promoted because of their excellent harassment. 

As you all, reasonable and intelligent OROGs, independent of my ranting and ravings,should reserve judgement about these fantastic and ridiculously improbable deaths and problems, you  should also keep the door slightly ajar to the light in the hallway.   We publish this summary, which is only a partial listing of the Rodham / Blythe Felony Factory activities.

There is nothing here about Hillary being appointed to the board of directors of WALMART or being placed on the board of directors of Tyson Poultry; can you give me a break?   The woman cannot even encounter a normal, pro-Hillary news conference without having the questions pre-screened and selected.  She is the proverbial Empress, strolling along stark naked,  while her sycophants marvel at the beauty of her especially designed and woven raiment.

We have covered in this blog the six most recent murders that have had more than casual relativity to the person of Hillary Rodham Clinton and to the institutions she fronts in order to do shake-down contributions to her retirement account.  Billy Jeff's high-jet cavorting expeditions and the career development of that stunning intellectual personality du jour, Chelsea Hubble also need extra funding, since they left the White House in 2001 stone-broke. 


Review, please, this relatively careful analysis...with wheat separated from chaff.



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How many people are necessary to push up how many daisies?

With new dead bodies volunteering showing up almost every other day now to support (Sir Edmund) Hillary Corkscrew's coronation as Perpetual Queen of All Universes, we thought a little stroll down Herman Munster's Memory Lane, 1313 Mockingbird Road, might be in order.

Before people roll their eyes and say, "Oh! My God!   This conspiracy stuff is sooooo boring!!! Nobody could possibly believe that any of this ever happened much less that the Clinton's had anything to do with it.   There would be no way to cover it up.

Yet, we see a weak-knee'd FBI Director whimp out just the other day, declining to move to ahead with judicial process against Hillary Rodham Clinton in spite of many and various egregious violations of the law and normal order in terms of her email deceptions.   We now learn that it is overwhelmingly probable that  people have lost their lives due to her arrogance, lack of concern for others, hubris, incompetence, and conceit.

That the FBI Director was also complicit back in the year 2000 in co-ordinating various "pay-for-pardon" actions with Eric Holder seems to be enough to keep the Director's hand from the helm in terms of guiding the Ship of Justice.   What is also known is that various persons of considerable ''influence and position" have gone to prison to do hard time for offenses that are much, much, much less significant.   Dinesh D'Sousa, Martha Stewart, Charles Colson, Scooter Libby, and so forth.....there are many.

We shan't even mention the several million people who were directly or indirectly punished without case or cause by the Internal Revenue Service and their goon squads of harassers.  Among those who worked in concert with said harassment was the esteemed Federal Bureau of Investigation.   None of the harassers have faced any punishment or negative effect in spite of the fact that they violated scores of laws and regulations.  Nay!  Some of them were promoted because of their excellent harassment. 

As you all, reasonable and intelligent OROGs, independent of my ranting and ravings,should reserve judgement about these fantastic and ridiculously improbable deaths and problems, you  should also keep the door slightly ajar to the light in the hallway.   We publish this summary, which is only a partial listing of the Rodham / Blythe Felony Factory activities.

There is nothing here about Hillary being appointed to the board of directors of WALMART or being placed on the board of directors of Tyson Poultry; can you give me a break?   The woman cannot even encounter a normal, pro-Hillary news conference without having the questions pre-screened and selected.  She is the proverbial Empress, strolling along stark naked,  while her sycophants marvel at the beauty of her especially designed and woven raiment.

We have covered in this blog the six most recent murders that have had more than casual relativity to the person of Hillary Rodham Clinton and to the institutions she fronts in order to do shake-down contributions to her retirement account.  Billy Jeff's high-jet cavorting expeditions and the career development of that stunning intellectual personality du jour, Chelsea Hubble also need extra funding, since they left the White House in 2001 stone-broke. 

Review, please, this relatively careful analysis...with wheat separated from chaff.


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The People President Clinton Didn’t Have to Pardon.
Because They’re All Dead
Truth! and Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:   This a list of people associated with Bill Clinton…all of whom have died, some of them under mysterious circumstances.  Note:  Our research on some of this story is still continuing, but because of the number of requests, we are posting what we have.  Check back for updates.
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The Truth:
This has also become known as “Clinton’s Body Count.”  We’ll go through the entire list and evaluate each one, but it is true that some of them had some connection with Bill Clinton, or with someone who was in Clinton’s sphere, and that many of them died violently or by suicide.  That raises the question of whether their deaths were related and whether any of the deaths can be linked in any way to Bill Clinton.
There is no credible evidence that any of the deaths is related or can be attributed to Bill Clinton.  Some of the descriptions of the deaths are not accurate.
According to a May 5, 2000 article in the Arkansas Times, the “Body Count” list originated on an Internet site in 1994 run by an Indianapolis lawyer named Linda Thompson of the American Justice Federation.  It has been circulating ever since.  The list came up in sworn testimony that White House employee Linda Tripp gave to Judicial Watch chairman Larry Klayman in December, 1998.  Trip testified that a hand-written list of people who were involved with Clinton and who had suffered mysterious deaths ended up on her office chair in the White House.  This was just before the sex scandal between White House Intern Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton became known publicly.  Tripp said that the list was accompanied by a note that said, “Linda, just thought you’d find this of interest.”
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Let’s go through the names one-by-one.  Please note that the Truth! or Fiction! designations refer only to whether the stories are factual and have nothing to do with any criminal connection to Bill Clinton.
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eRumor  James Mcdougall – Clinton’s convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr’s investigation.

The Truth:
James McDougal died on Sunday, March 8, 1998 in John Petersmith Hospital in Ft. Worth, Texas.  He had been serving a federal prison sentence for fraud in connection with the Whitewater land deal.  At first, he claimed to be innocent, but after being convicted of 18 felony counts, he cooperated with Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s investigation of the Clintons.  He was scheduled to give damaging testimony against the Clintons, although critics of the investigation say his testimony had previously been inconsistent and that nothing new was expected to be revealed.  A prison spokesman said McDougal died of a heart attack and had been suffering from heart disease and blocked arteries.
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eRumor:  Mary Mahoney – A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown. The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House.
The Truth:
Mary Caitrin Mahoney was murdered over the July 4th weekend in 1997 at the Georgetown Starbucks near Washington D.C.  She was the assistant manager and, according to published reports, she and two other employees were working late at night after the coffee bar had closed.  All three were found shot to death.  No money was taken and there was no sign of forced entry.  In 1999, Carl Derick Cooper was charged with the murders, six armed robberies, and other shootings.   Mahoney had interned for the White House official responsible for contact with the Asian-American community.  TruthOrFiction.com has not found any documentation that she was about to “go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House” or that her death was anything beyond that of a murder associated with the robbery.  A report in The Washington Weekly explains that journalist Mike Isikoff had written that “a former White House staffer” with the initial “M” in her name was going to go public with a sexual harassment story and people speculated he meant Mary Mahoney and that was why she was killed.  Later, it turned out that he was referring to Monica Lewinsky.
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eRumor  Vince Foster – Former white House councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock’s Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide.
The Truth: Vince Foster was Deputy White House Counsel and the Clinton’s lawyer.  He was found dead in Fort Marcy Park on July 20, 1993. Three investigations into Foster’s death, including one by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, have concluded that the death was a suicide.  Critics of the investigations say Foster’s death does not fit the facts of a suicide and that there are a lot of unanswered questions about his death, some of the activities at the White House after his body was found, and the investigations themselves.  Although there are numerous theories about what may have happened to Foster and why, none of them has been proven.
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eRumor  Ron Brown – Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown’s skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors.

The Truth:  Brown and 34 others died on April 3, 1996 when the Air Force jet carrying crashed into a mountainside in Croatia. The Air Force, in a 22-volume report issued in June of 1996, confirmed its initial judgment that the crash resulted from pilot errors and faulty navigation equipment.  Subsequent controversy erupted, however, over autopsy photos.  There is a hole in Ron Brown’s skull which investigators say is consistent with a puncture that could have been caused by debris during the crash.  Investigative reporter Christopher Ruddy came forward with an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in which he quoted Air Force pathologist, Lt. Col. Steve Cogswell as saying that the hole was perfectly round shape of a 45 caliber bullet.  Cogswell had not actually examined the body.  Later, another pathologist, Army Lt. Col. David Hause, said he had been working nearby the Ron Brown autopsy, overheard discussion about the round hole, walked over and looked at it and said it seemed like a bullet hole to him.  Air Force Col. William Gormley, the pathologist who actually did the Ron Brown autopsy, said, however, that it is more of an indentation than a hole and that if there had been a bullet, there would have been either an exit wound or a bullet found in the body, and there were not.  The Justice Department had opened an investigation into Brown’s financial dealings.

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      eRumor  C. Victor Raiser II, and Montgomery Raiser, major players in the Clinton fundraising               organization, died in a private plane crash in July1992.

The Truth:
On July 30, 1992, Victor and Montgomery Raiser were killed in a plane crash while on a fishing trip in Alaska.  He was a Washington lawyer and described as a “major player” in the Clinton organization.  Investigation of the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that it was the result of pilot error.  Some “body count” lists have removed the Raiser’s names because there is not any evidence that their death was the result of foul play.
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eRumor  Paul Tulley – Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock, September 1992. Described by Clinton as a “Dear friend and trusted advisor”.

The Truth:  His name was spelled “Tully” and he was a top strategist for the Democrats and working with the Clinton campaign.  He died of massive heart failure in a Little Rock motel room.  There has been no controversy over his death that we could find.
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eRumor   Ed Willey – Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.
The Truth:
According to published reports, Ed Willey was an attorney who owed the IRS $400,000 and had embezzled nearly $270,000 from one of his clients.  The Willey’s financial woes were a source of stress between Ed Willey and Kathleen Willey and she finally demanded a plan that would bring it to an end.  There was a stormy family meeting about it on the night of November 28, 1993 and Ed Willey moved out of the house.  The next day is when Kathleen Willey went to the White House to see Bill Clinton about a job.  She says the president assaulted her during that visit.  It was later discovered that Ed Willey had driven into the woods on the same day.  His body was found by hunters on November 30, 1993.  Authorities ruled his death a suicide by shotgun.  There was a suicide note apologizing for the financial problems.
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      eRumor  Jerry Parks – Head of Clinton’s gubernatorial security team in Little Rock.
      Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock.  Park’s son said
       his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this        
      After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.

The Truth:  Jerry Luther Parks was the head of security for the Clinton-Gore Little Rock headquarters in 1992.  On September 26, 1996, he was murdered down while driving through a Little Rock intersection.  A lone gunman fired seven shots at him.  This was two months after Vince Foster’s death.  Both Parks’ wife and son have said that they believe Parks was murdered and that he feared for his life.  His murder has never been solved.  According to Gary Parks, Jerry Parks’ son, the files were on the sexual escapades of Bill Clinton.  They were not removed from Parks’ house after his death.  According to investigative reporter Christopher Ruddy, the files that Parks had been keeping on Clinton were taken during a burglary several weeks before Parks’ death.  Clyde Steelman, the homicide sergeant investigating the murders for the Little Rock Police told New York Times Magazine writer Philip Weiss that he didn’t believe the theories of Parks’ son and wife and that he’d found no evidence of the alleged files.

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eRumor  James Bunch – Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a “Black Book” of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas. 
The Truth:
We have yet to find the details on this person.
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eRumor   James Wilson – Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide.  He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.
The Truth:
He was known as John Wilson, a popular leader and political figure in the Washington D.C. area and Chairman of the District of Columbia Council.  He was found dead on May 19,1993.  Authorities ruled Wilson’s death a suicide by hanging.  According to numerous articles in the Washington Post, Wilson had long suffered from depression and had twice before attempted suicide.  TruthOrFiction.com has found no evidence that he had any information about the Clintons or any ties to Whitewater.
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eRumor  Kathy Ferguson, ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.
The Truth:
Kathy Ferguson was found dead on May 11, 1994, five days after Paula Jones filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton.  She died of a gunshot wound to the head and a suicide note was found.  Her ex-husband was Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, one of those named in the so-called “Troopergate” cases involving those who had been a part of then Governor Clinton’s security detail.  He was named in Paula Jones’ suit.  According to an Associated Press article on May 14, 1993, she was found not in her living room, however, but in the apartment of her boyfriend, Sherwood police officer Bill Shelton.  The suicide note said, “I can’t stay here any longer. Things will never be the same for us. I can’t take that.”
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eRumor  Bill Shelton – Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson.Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancee. 
The Truth:
Thirty-one year old Bill Shelton was police officer in Sherwood, Arkansas, and engaged to Kathy Ferguson.  It was in his apartment that she was found dead.  He was one of many of her friends who felt that Ferguson did not commit suicide and that the coroner’s report was not accurate about her wound being self-inflicted.  He was found a month later sprawled over her grave with a gunshot wound to his head that was similar to what the coroner had described as Ferguson’s wound.
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 eRumor Gandy Baugh – Attorney for Clinton’s friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor. 
The Truth:
Gandy Baugh jumped out of a window of a multi-story building and died on January 8, 1994.  Published reports say he was defending a man named Dan Lassater in a financial misconduct case.  Lassater was an associate of Bill Clinton’s who was convicted of cocaine distribution.
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eRumor  Florence Martin – Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal Mena Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.
The Truth:
This is an interesting one.  Many of the “Body Count” lists say Florence Martin was killed in Mabelle, Texas in 1994.  That Florence Martin, however, was a 69 year old employee of a nearby convenience store and a spokesperson for the Baylor County, Texas District Attorney’s office says she had nothing to do with Bobby Seal, Mena, Arkansas, or the CIA.  We’re still working on it.
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eRumor  Suzanne Coleman – Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death. 
The Truth:
Still working on this one.
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eRumor  Paula Grober – Clinton’s speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.
The Truth:
 No evidence that there was anything criminal about her death.
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eRumor  Danny Casolaro – Investigative reporter. Investigating Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.
The Truth:
Forty-four year old Danny Casolaro was found dead in the Sheraton hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia on August 10, 1991.  His wrists had been slashed.  According to an October 14, 1991 People Magazine story on his death, he had warned friends and family that his life was in danger.  He said it was because of what he called “the story of the century” but it was not about Bill Clinton.  It was about the Regan-Bush administration and an alleged effort to delay the freeing of the hostages being held at the time by Iran in order to do damage to President Jimmy Carter’s reelection bid.  Casolaro was told that as a part of the effort, drugs and weapons were being flown into and out of the airport at Mena, Arkansas.  Bill Clinton was governor at the time and there have been numerous questions about whether Clinton was in any way involved in any of the activities connected with Mena or protected those who were involved.
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eRumor  Paul Wilcher – Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 “October Surprise” was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death.
The Truth:
In his report to Attorney General Reno, Wilcher said that he was in grave danger and that if the information he had for the Attorney General fell into the wrong hands, there could be people “silenced in the very near future.”
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eRumor  Barbara Wise – Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce. 
The Truth:
According to a report on WRC-TV in the Washington area, Wise’s body was found in a locked office and was partly nude and bruised.  The crime has never been solved.  There has not been any evidence that her death was related to any of the Ron Brown or John Huang events.
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eRumor   Charles Meissner – Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash. 
The Truth:
Charles Meissner was not killed in a small plane crash but was among those killed along with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown in the crash of an Air Force plane in Croatia in 1996.
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eRumor  Dr. Stanley Heard – Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton’s advisory council personally treated Clinton’s mother, stepfather and brother.
The Truth:
According to the National Transportation and Safety Board, the crash was due to “AN INADEQUATE ANNUAL INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE AND NON-COMPLIANCE WITH AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVES BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL.”   The NTSB says the airplane caught fire in the air and crashed while the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing.  There is no evidence that we can find that links the crash or Dr. Stanley heard to any criminal.
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eRumor  Barry Seal – Drug running pilot out of Mena Arkansas, death was no accident Johnny Lawhorn Jr. – Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.
The Truth:
Several books could be written about Barry Seal.  He was a danger-loving pilot who was regarded as the best known cocaine smuggler of the 1980’s.  He did not die in a car accident.  He was murdered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1986 by three men with machine guns and who were later arrested and convicted.  They were Colombians and authorities say they were connected with the Medellin drug cartel.  The Attorney General of Louisiana told U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese in 1986 that Seal smuggled $3 to $5 billion worth of drugs into the U.S.  In 1981, Seal began running his smuggling operation out of a highly guarded and, for a while, secret airport in Mena, Arkansas.  That airport and Seal’s activities were to become a part of the investigation into the Iran-Contra controversy from the Reagan administration.   There have been questions of whether Bill Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas at the time, may have looked the other way if he knew about the drug smuggling operation, but there has not been proof of that. 
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eRumor  Stanley Huggins – Investigated Madison Guarantee. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released. Hershell Friday – Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1, 1994 when his plane exploded.
The Truth:
Saying that his plane exploded is misleading. According to the NTSB, it crashed, but without any explosion prior to the crash or causing the crash.
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eRumor
  Kevin Ives and Don Henry – Known as “The boys on the track” case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.
The Truth:
This is one of the stories out of Arkansas that has a lot of people asking very tough questions.  It is a story that is often told, however, as though it has something to do with Bill Clinton, but no Clinton connection has been established, especially with the boy’s deaths.  The most notable aspect of the event was that the authorities originally treated the boy’s death as an accident, but it was later clear that they had been killed and their bodies placed on the tracks.  Some have said the boys innocently found the secret Mena drug trafficking activities and were killed to keep them silenced.  Others have said that the boys discovered a local cocaine dealing operation and were killed by drug dealers.
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eRumor
  THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE: Keith Coney – Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, 7/88.  Keith McMaskle – Died stabbed 113 times, Nov, 1988 Gregory Collins – Died from a gunshot wound January 1989. Jeff Rhodes – He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989. James Milan – Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to “natural causes”.  Jordan Kettleson – Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.  Richard Winters – A suspect in the Ives / Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.
The Truth:
We haven’t confirmed all of these, but as stated above, there isn’t any evidence the Henry and Ives case is connected to Bill Clinton.
Update: A rumor that John Ashe died days before he was scheduled to testify against a Clinton Foundation donor went viral in June 2016. Click here for our investigation into that rumor.


THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD:
Major William S. Barkley Jr.
Captain Scott J. Reynolds
Sgt. Brian Hanley
Sgt. Tim Sabel Major
General William Robertson
Col. William Densberger
Col. Robert Kelly Spec.
Gary Rhodes
Steve Willis
Robert Williams
Conway LeBleu
Todd McKeehan
More later,
El Gringo Viejo



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Monday 8 August 2016

Talent abounds in the Family....I wish some had come my way, at times.

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     This is our daughter-in-law's Pegasus without wings, rising pridefully from the mind of the artist.   She has had a goodly bit of success in the field of art and commercial art, and enjoyment art.  She is given to the notion that life should be something fun and rewarding and involved with pleasing people, children, and the eye that needs refreshment.
    She has ideas and expressions of eye, mind, and hand that stop old men, children, non-relatives, and yes...the proverbial heterochromatic-eyed, left-handed Eskimos in their tracks. She has notions now of how Carousels, and real-live non-unicorn Horses, such as the one above, can be composed into a story that she, herself, can illustrate and write in her own way.

     El Gringo Viejo remembers quite vividly the time when we encountered her in the drive-way of our son-in-law and daughter's place near the centre of Extreme Central Texas.   There were several children of different ages, perhaps seven or so, all making a mess of the drive-up with sidewalk chalk.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
are astounded by our son's wife's
talent!!
 
      Your humble servant was mortified and wished to close down this errant activity before Santa Claus took note and made notes.....of who had been naughty or nice.   My better three- quarters took me aside in a nick of time and advised me that the chalk would not hurt the feelings or skin of even a hypersensitive university "student" needing a 'zone of safety" or a grief counselor because he/she/it had a panic attack because he/it/she had nothing about which  to complain.     When I inquired about the poor soul of the concrete slab and the possible semi-automatic fossils that might have been ground up and turned into cement, and she reassured me that, "Every detail has been addressed.  There is no problem.  Just keep on getting a little fresh air and the nice men will be here in a minute with your special jacket and the nice car with the flashing lights." Later, at "the home", my better three-quarters said that it would be nice to watch if our daughter-in-law could put together something that had over-the-top elegant horses, Carousels, and children. And perhaps, just perhaps, a mystery to be solved.   Or an adventure to be lived.  Or even a person to be saved from imminent peril.
    Children are only children  for a little while, and we lament when they become older, wiser, and a little (or a lot) jaded.  But, more children will come, and Dragons, and Faeries, and Santa's Elves, and Angels, and such things become real again.   And it dawned on me, that we are all a little childlike; and we should be.  The Dragons, and Faeries, and Santa's Elves, and such things are seen to be Things that are with us "always ", as it is written the The Book.
     
     The Golden Rule....the Beatitudes....The Commandments.....and the circle, being complete, is never ended, and it never began.  So we shall leave it there.   So, let us stand and observe if this thing is to happen with our daughter-in-law.

We shall keep folks and OROGS posted.
El Gringo Viejo
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Sunday 7 August 2016

Dinesh D'Souza....Right about 99% of the time


This is the Confederate battle flag of the Choctaw - Chickasaw Nations.   Leftists can
pooh-pooh can say what they might; the Indians broke and ran after battle or that
they defected, etc.  But try this fact on for size.



Some of the Indians of the Cherokee Nation and the Choctaw Nation who allied with the Confederacy and fought, both integrated and as individual soldiers and military personnel
frequently doing incredibly dangerous assignments as volunteers.   Some 50,000 Indians
were involved with the Confederate effort.  The Union had none who fought as Indians of
official and organised tribes / nations.  These fellows were photographed during a reunion
forty years after the end of the War.    


Stand Watle, one of several brigadiers who were feared by the Union military.  Chief Stand
was a tribal / national leader of the Cherokee Nation.   Look him up, before the Red Chinese and
the people who do not believe in reality but who love (Sir Edmund) Hillary and the people who
think their job is to strike down monuments and accoutrement of the Confederacy have finally
destroyed everything about the epoch.    Ask yourself: Why did these noble Indian Nations decide
to ally with the Confederacy?   Search for the answers....they will sober those who think organically.



     We lament that there is also substantial re-writing of history, once the Left found out that there was "lingering truth" in the smoke of the cannons of battle.  Negroes who "stood in", Indians who "stood in",  Mexican/Spanish who "stood in'' for the Confederacy are all carefully buried in the dustbins of History.
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     The fact that, while Dinesh D'Sousa is a fellow traveller of the anti-Clinton and anti-O'bama grouping of the Conservative cohort of the political spectrum, his movie about Barry Soetoro fell flat in many ways.   Firstly, the nut-cases such as I who despise Hillary and Barry of the Foreign Passport were disappointed at the first movie which was pretty much a re-mastication of things we already knew about Barry long before his election to the Presidency.
     Secondly, there were many other condemnations of Barry and his ilk that could have been made more easily such as his lies about not being really familiar with fellow Communists auntie and uncle, Auntie Zietuni and Uncle Omar Onyango Obama.....who lived as illegal aliens, large and on the dime of the taxpayers for a total of over 3,000,000 USD during their very free and very arrogant combined forty year Grand Tour of Gringolandia.  
     Because of that, we shan't be buying tickets to his second movie, because apparently we know more than he about the slime, crud, sewerage, bubonic plaque contaminated conditions, and general depravity that surround and compose the persons of Barry, Michelle, Valerie, (Sir Edmund) Hillary, Billy Jeff, the siblings of the aforementioned, Soros, the Annenberg Foundation, and the Obsolete Media.

     We still admire D'Sousa because he served hard time for doing nothing near what (Sir Edmund) Hillary has done.  He was railroaded for a 20,000 USD mistake in a political donation that he apparently thought was going to a PAC when in fact it went to a specific candidate's PAC.  We awarded him the Golden Tar-Baby Award for smiling through the same National Socialist FBI / DOJ prosecutions of  Scooter Libby / Martha Stewart / Chuck Colson / Tom DeLay and others who have tasted justice of the Left and the Obsolete Media.
     Billy Jeff and his loving and devoted wifey-poo have rolled over millions of dollars of very questionable transactions without any repercussions.

      Finally we wish to point out that Dinesh D'Souza involved the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest in his condemnation of the Democrat Party as a Slaver Party and as a horrid Confederate example of evil.   Forrest established the Ku Klux Klan as a Confederate Veterans' Organisation.  The personalities associated with the Reconstruction....mainly scalawags and carpetbaggers, (all Republicans) sought out the lower elements of the Ku Klux Klan to keep the "lower elements of the Confederate sympathisers during Reconstruction, in line.    Inconvenient Truth.

     General (retired) Nathan Bedford Forrest had a Pretorian Guard of some 40, plus or minus, Negroes who were slaves involved in his plantation and businesses.   He offered each man, as hostilities began to appear unavoidable, the opportunity to accompany him into Battle for the Southern Cause.  He told them that they would be Confederate Cavalry, close to and/or attached to his (General Forrest's command) person and command.  He also advised them that he had their manumissions already drawn up and in his greatcoat's interior pocket, and that upon the Victory of Southern Forces and the capitulation of the Union to the demands of the South, he would deliver these Acts of Manumission to each man, declaring them Freemen and Citizens, worthy of all men to be received.
     Later, during times that it seemed clear that the South would not prevail, Nathan Bedford Forrest gave each man his manumission.  None left the service.  All remained.  Incredibly, none died nor was seriously wounded in battle.  This, is spite of the fact that they were in many major battles, and many, many significant skirmishes.   Only one, who suffered an ear injury that destroy his balance, after a close-exploded cannon bomb struck near his horse, did not finish the War with his group.  All were manumitted.

     As we begin to close, allow us to state Nathan Bedford Forrest established by his hand and his bank-drafts, the first Negro School of Law in the South.....duly recognised by the Sovereign State of Tennessee....and later incorporated into the public system of post-secondary education in that State.   It is said by the histories that he was an illiterate, son of a sharecropper;  such is not the case.  Frontiersman, yes, but more in the pattern of people such as Crockett and Houston, especially Houston.   Forrest's antecedents had Plantation Culture in their background.
     He was the first true commander of what was supposed to be a Confederate Veterans' association, but he did not "found" the Ku Klux Klan.  When the Klan's lesser elements began to harass Negroes or even Union occupation troops, the fact is that Nathan Bedford Forrest (Major General - CSA retired), ordered the Klan to stand down, turn in their robes, and desist from further acts of violence or gestures of violence against Negroes and/or other otherwise law-abiding people.
     The northern newspapers and magazines love to point out that Forrest was not very forthcoming during the time he was testifying as to his sins, transgressions, and excesses during the War.  The fact is that he did answer questions carefully, and he would not bear any witness against  his subordinates nor superiors.   At the time of his testimony, the stark, raving mad Radical Republican Senators were still desirous of rendering every commissioned officer and elected public official of the Secessionist Traitors a one-way ticket to the nearest firing post or gallows.
    He was questioned very closely about the famous Fort Pillow matter, but he held his peace.  Union forces were also suspected of wholesale executions and/or abuse of Negro "combat engineers" (trench and battlement diggers), and other combat support and comfort personnel to the Confederate cause who happen'd to be of Black African ancestry.  The tales are many, and we listened to several when my brother was doing research on his dissertation for his doctorate, where the Black Folks who had been involved with the Confederate effort had suffered at the hands of dazed and confused Reconstruction officials.
     Several showed us pictures of their great-granddaddies and uncles, some in Confederate garb, and discharge papers from this or that unit, and manumission papers, and their Confederate pension approval for older survivors.   Those pensions for white and black veterans were awarded beginning in the 1890s by most States of the Confederacy.

     In short, things in the South were and are a lot more complicated than they look then and now.  High-handed thinkers and people of ill-motive love to forget the Irish children who were thrown into the streets after losing too many fingers working around the gears and spindles of the textile machines in Manhattan.....and the race wars that found the Irish and other dealing brutally with Negroes who thought that they would be better received by fleeing their position and condition in the South.   Hundreds died in these riots, in New York, Boston, and other places in States of the Northern persuasion  during the War Between the States.
     Dinesh perhaps should expand his two-dimensional view of the situation then as opposed to now.  As my Tennessee grandma would say, "He ought'n to measure things with a broken ruler."

We point out these things.  Only one person of Mexican/Spanish descent, Santos Benavides of Texas, served in line of command with the rank of General during the War....of all people of Mexican / Spanish descent who fought in the military during the War, only one side had over 85 per cent of the total of that grouping.....Only one side in the War had a person who served as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State who was a Jew....Only one side during the War had over 1,000 heads of local government who were Jews -  while the other side had fewer than 10.....only one side had three Indian Nations as formal allies, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw to formally declare War....only one side had more Roman Catholic brigade level or higher commanders than the other, by a wide margin.....Only one side in that horrid, terrible War had Robert E. Lee.   The other side had George Armstrong Custer. 

We thank you for your kind attention and patience.
El Gringo Viejo 
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