Will The Last Nicaraguan To Leave

[KeyWestPirate]

What could possibly go wrong?

https://www.westernjournal.com/plane...ust-us-border/

They probably stuffed an illegal or two into the baggage compartment behind the seat.

Pilot: "Could you guys in the back seat scrunch as far forward as possible?
I can't get this thing to level out "


I wonder how long he will have to give up his license

[Jonh]

He seems to have already had it yanked. Laws are for the law-abiding. Except the laws of physics of course.

[RGV AG]

I don't think any Turks were on the plane, just that some Turks were recently caught in the Presidio area. That is "No Country for Old Men" land out there. Terlingua and shit. Desolate GD area. People have been flying wets for years, had an old French pilot get popped down here years back, after loading up a bunch of wets at the Weslaco, I believe it was, airport right in front of the BP air arm there. They were like WTF is going on there? It was his second time popped. Wets used to fly across the river in the Del Rio area in modified crop dusters, they could get 2 to 3 on them and zip them across at scrub brush height in about 15 minutes or so. I understood that they would do about 5 to 6 crossings a night at around $500 a head. Think about the money there, ain't no crop duster ever made that before.

Hell, a guy I knew was running wets up the intercoastal on a 46' Bertram, $10K a trip., and this was like 15 or 18 years ago, from South Padre to Snoopy's in Corpus. Got dime dropped on him and did a couple of years in the hoosegow, kept his Captains license and his businesses and now owns a 72' Donzi.

[Jonh]

Thinking about why people emigrate, it sure has changed over time. Or, the official narrative has changed. People used to relocate to find work, we've been told. That's only part of it, otherwise the Western World would now be flocking to China.

And why not? We're told 19th century America was evil, wracked with the sin of slavery and the horrors of white nationalist supremacy, worse than China and its yellow supremacy and communist system is today. China is sold today as "just another big nation," by those who bash the USA and hang portraits of Mao in their living rooms. So if people were willing to come to such a horrid place as America "to find work," then, why not China today? Why aren't Detroit residents flocking to Mexico to go assemble cars there, as their ancestors fled the South and also Europe?

[el duende grande]

They come to pick the bones of a dying nation.

Mexico wouldn't have them. They have some fuzzy idea of protecting their nation and people.

[RGV AG]

Thinking about why people emigrate, it sure has changed over time. Or, the official narrative has changed. People used to relocate to find work, we've been told. That's only part of it, otherwise the Western World would now be flocking to China.

And why not? We're told 19th century America was evil, wracked with the sin of slavery and the horrors of white nationalist supremacy, worse than China and its yellow supremacy and communist system is today. China is sold today as "just another big nation," by those who bash the USA and hang portraits of Mao in their living rooms. So if people were willing to come to such a horrid place as America "to find work," then, why not China today? Why aren't Detroit residents flocking to Mexico to go assemble cars there, as their ancestors fled the South and also Europe?

I will tell you why, even with warts, ass goiters, bad flatulence, and terrible body odor the Goddam USA is the best country the world has ever seen, and in it's hey day likely the best the world will ever see. Read that in your Paul Harvey voice, save for the GD as I don't think Saint Paul would have used that.

[KeyWestPirate]

"...... Why aren't Detroit residents flocking to Mexico to go assemble cars there, as their ancestors fled the South and also Europe? "


Because there is no food stamps,, cash assistance, medicaid,, in Mexico.
And casual, blatant, drug use would probably not be tolerated by Mexican society

I suspect the prevalence of drug use in the US is way beyond what we suspect.
And I suspect drugs drive much of the crime, homelessness, unemployment we see around us.

I have an RN friend, Diane, who works at a methadone clinic in Tucson.
She's an anti-vaxxer, so her employment opportunities are limited.
But as Diane says,, it all pays the same. You need a minimum of an RN to dispense drugs.

The clinic she works at serves 200 "clients" daily, a number I found astonishing.

She "sees" her patients through a thick plexiglass partition.
Her patient interaction is limited to identifying the individual,, entering the information into the computer, and pressing "Enter"

The methadone is dispensed by a machine,, a tray extends with the dose.

"So,, Diane I wouldn't have ever thought that there were that many heroin addicts in Tucson "
"it's not heroin any more,, John,, it's fentanyl"

Yesterday I took a drug test for a CDL (have always wanted one).
I got a DOT medical certificate for two years,, amazing. What are those people thinking?
The vision of an old guy barrelling down the interstate,
clutching his chest, as his cabeza with doble semi remolke veers off in some direction.
Priceless.


I was chatting with the lady who administered the test,,
She claimed that everyone,, other than a Mom and Pop, drug tests.
It's just good business.

Much of this long term drug use probably re-wires the brain,
especially the nasty stuff like crack and methamphetamine
Hence,, mental illness and/or inability to pass a drug test = the people we see living on the streets.
With little possibility of changing the status quo.

We will be supporting these people the rest of their lives,,
as well as the cadre of social workers that interact with them.

Keep your eyes peeled for a semi that seems to have trouble staying within the lines.
Does it have a HazMat endorsement?
Might be me.

[bill_bly_ca]

Well unlike you gloomy Gus's I still think that the USA is the best country in the world (Regardless on how my opinions are read by some)

You folks still attract the best and the brightest on the earth with TROTW left with sloppy seconds.

The only comment from the peanut gallery is that you were a bastion of freedom with a healthy helping of freedom - Now you folks are unabashed capitalist's (at any cost) with a side order of freedom (fries?)

[Jonh]

"...casual, blatant, drug use would probably not be tolerated by Mexican society..."

The home of drug cartels? I don't know about Mexico, but in Nicaragua it's certainly tolerated socially. Glue sniffing, pot, pharmaceuticals, and alcohol of course.

[RGV AG]

Because there is no food stamps,, cash assistance, medicaid,, in Mexico.
And casual, blatant, drug use would probably not be tolerated by Mexican society

Used to not be, you would have been correct. Now there are so many other problems and issues in Mexican society that drug use has become tolerated, at the least. One really never saw drugs, unless it was some indios smoking some skunk weed, out and about in Mex other than the occasional sales flaunt to gringo tourists and such. But starting about 2002 or so they started showing up in the lower classes, at least from where I sat. Dope peddlers were handing out, or selling at very low cost, crack and other blow derivatives. In many cases they would finance uber stepped on coke and such to the poor and they took to using it. We would have small time dealing in the plants in Mex by 2003 and 2004.

A lot of the "cartel" guys are harshly addicted to meth and blow and that drives their train of thought. So as far as dope being tied to crime, yep you are spot on, and it isn't only in the US.

[KeyWestPirate]

Today is a day of Happy Endings.
Dania, Darya, and Monserat made it "home".

They were out of quarantine the day before yesterday.
I got a message from her sister asking me how to buy tickets online.

I found a flight from Phoenix, a short bus ride, then to Hartford early the next morning, for $155.
But, after forty days on the road and in quarantine,, they were having none of it.
There is small airport in El Centro,, so they flew from El Centro to LAX to JFK and the father drove down to get them.


The tickets were $400 each but somethings just don't have a price.
I have a video of the two little girls running into the arms of their father,, yelling Papí,,papí

Franita is still stuck in San Luis Rio Colorado, but she has a job and a roof over head.


Sebastian is six years old tomorrow.
We are celebrating his birthday with his classmates today.
Ariana and I are shopping for cupcakes and birthday favors this morning.

I suspect that tomorrow they will take him to Mt Limon to play in the snow.

A short walk down memory lane reminds me of how rich and fortunate my life has been:

[KeyWestPirate]

https://www.eastafricanewspost.com/n...cnu-directors/


This should get some people thinking .. . if it's acurate

Shades of East Germany.

Maybe a Chinese border wall to keep those pesky Hondurans and Ticos out ?
That was the official line of East Germany:
Keep those West Germans from flocking to the communist paradise

That was the only border that has ever made me turn my pockets inside out.

[Little Corn Tom]

I went through a couple of East German border checkpoints on a motorcycle on my honeymoon.....Kids in uniforms with rifles, German Shepard's, barbed wire in rolls, tank suppressors, and illiterate guards that could not believe our motorcycles were made in Sweden. Shitty food, lousy wine, no lights at night, cold rooms,......otherwise it was a delightful country in 1968. :-)

[KeyWestPirate]

I went through a couple of East German border checkpoints on a motorcycle on my honeymoon.....Kids in uniforms with rifles, German Shepard's, barbed wire in rolls, tank suppressors, and illiterate guards that could not believe our motorcycles were made in Sweden. Shitty food, lousy wine, no lights at night, cold rooms,......otherwise it was a delightful country in 1968. :-)

I was there in 1964. Rode the Russian train from Frankfurt. Served tea from a silver samovar.
Gave the conductor a carton of Marlboros that I bought for a buck. Spoke a little Russian with him.

Met a sweet girl in East Berlin whose husband was serving with the Warsaw Pact forces
We drank a lot of quite decent beer, had something to eat (probably wurst and sauerkraut)
and went back to her apartment.
I remember very cold water in the morning.

The turn out the pockets thing came about because my accounting of my west German Marks and east German Marks didn't add up.
We got 4 marks to the dollar, the west German mark traded officially 1 to 1 to the East German mark.
And you were supposed to exchange officially
You tell them what you have going in, and it's supposed to add up coming out.

But in east Germany you got 30 east German Marks for 1 West German mark. As Brandon says,, Come on, Man!
I think we drank all night and ate for >>> $1.86


They] guards gave me a ration of shit,, much like what I get at the Nicaragua border, but cut me loose after an hour or so.
I had a camera too,, which I lost somewhere, and the guards were very unhappy about as well.
I had to leave early before the people in her building got up.
I was a little disoriented, had no idea where I was other than somewhere in East Berlin


Germany was still divided into (I think three,,, British, US, Russian) sectors in those days.

[KeyWestPirate]

I went through a couple of East German border checkpoints on a motorcycle on my honeymoon.....Kids in uniforms with rifles, German Shepard's, barbed wire in rolls, tank suppressors, and illiterate guards that could not believe our motorcycles were made in Sweden. Shitty food, lousy wine, no lights at night, cold rooms,......otherwise it was a delightful country in 1968. :-)

Tell us a little about your trip,, that was the stuff of high adventure


But , wow, the difference between West Berlin and East Berlin,, even then
Berlin was full of night life, lights, colors, streets full of people,,
Every young German that I had met in my time there wanted to live in Berlin.

East Berlin: gray,, no lights, bombed out, drab clothing, no cars on the streets.