Boiling Point - Ground Zero!

[HARDCORE]

?Minutemen v Protestors"

"Protestors v Minutemen!?

Unfortunately, the issue of illegal entry into the United States is heating up and getting closer to home! Yesterday, the two sides of this volatile issue stood head to head and toe to toe, in a nasty confrontation could have exploded into violence in but a heartbeat!

In Campo, California, like it was at the scene of that ?Shot Heard ?Round The World (19 April 1775)?, both sides of the issue of border enforcement were adamant as they recently squared off. And according to the media, the situation could have turned ugly in the blink of an eye!

Some have even claimed (?) that the local Sheriff?s Department opted not to get involved in the confrontation, but it must be duly noted that the Sheriff?s Office and the Border Patrol H.Q. are but a stone?s throw apart there in Campo. It is unfortunate, however, that the Sheriff?s office there has but minimal personnel on site, even though numerous other sub-stations are close at hand. And for the record, helicopters are also available to law enforcement in this region.

As for the border fence itself, it is naught but inter-connected sections of old military runway, standing erect, and with a continuing series of sensors and lights that are there to discourage illegal activity and little else!

Access to either side of the border, however, is relatively easy, as is evident by the mass exodus of illegals from Mexico. As a matter of fact, even the Mexican police and military have been known to exacerbate the issue with the occasional (illegal) junket across the international line! And as I said previously, Campo, at about 2600? above sea level, is situated at ?Ground Zero? of this current dispute, just to the east of San Diego proper.

This relatively small community was once even a Point of Entry into the United States from Mexico. As a matter of fact, many years ago, the train from San Diego eastward, even dipped (via a tunnel), southward into Mexico Itself. The tunnel is still there, out around the small community of Dog Patch. And that tiny bastion, along with a few working girls, use to be a watering hole and entertainment center for the servicemen stationed at Camp Lockett, or so I was told?

What does the future of the Minutemen hold, up here in the mountains just to the east of San Diego - only time will tell? But like fire and gun-powder, a flashpoint may be no further away than that paper-thin line that separates your Uncle Sam from the rugged terrain to the south of the border. ?It only takes one fool on either side of an issue, after all, to ignite the keg!?

Not all that long ago, even the high metal fence that is supposed to keep international neighbors friendly, was nothing more than a couple of strands of rusting barbed wire. As such, this fence was a deterrent in one?s mind alone! Nowadays, however, the economic strain upon our southern border is being felt, all the way from Brownsville, Texas, westward (roughly 2100 miles) to the Pacific Ocean! And as for the border fence itself, or the San Andreas Fault that dissects it out in the Imperial Valley, it is fast becoming a coin toss as to which will fracture first, in my opinion!

VERITAS

[HARDCORE]

DAY # 3 - Border Standoff?

Unless something occurred last night that I am unaware of as yet, the tense border situation that exists in our own little DMZ is still with us!

Like the epicenter of a fault zone, this problem is not just going to disappear because government on both sides of the border opts to bury their heads under a pile of sand and sage! Unlike a fault zone, however, this giant rift can errupt anyplace along that long 2100 mile or so line that acts (supposedly) as a buffer zone!

The problem, as I see it, is that the oil wealth being generated south of the border, like the hard cash that constantly filled the pockets of the likes of Marcos, Palavi, Noriega, etc. goes no further than their Swiss bank accounts. "In other words, poverty still rules supreme in Mexico!"

However, you seldom (if ever) hear about where these billions of dollars $$$$ in black gold revenue is going? I guess, as usual, as long as it is a friendly that is becoming a 21st Century Midas, it is OK and the abject misery and rampant poverty is overlooked!

VERITAS

[reconeil]

Granted Buddy, no one could seriously believe those Americans insisting that America should continue on unabatedly at becoming just another Hong Kong (West), instead of the much wiser and more sensibly Minutemen solution and course and/or worldly norm (especially during wartime) of safely securing ones sovereignty and borders,...are dealing-with-full-decks. OR,...maybe such aren't actually fools, and are on Foreign Payrolls also.

In fact, I know of no other politicos or politicians from any sovereign nation worldwide that would so naively and nationally-suicidally do so,...FOR NOTHING.

Could it be that all waters around: "The Beltway" are quite seriously contaminated with mercury? Understand that besides other nasty stuff,...mercury also scrambles brains.
Regardless, I still tend to: "Follow The Money" and/or best reason known for most politicos or politicians DOING ANYTHING.

What-a-yuh think? MERCURY or MONEY??

Neil

[Seascamp]

Just a thought that may be relevant and part of the mix. I have never been able to figure out why Mexico has just simply passed over the opportunity to become a leading force in offshore light manufacturing. Most certainly other countries have grabbed on, began small and basic and have gone on to be exporters and very competitive in multiple technologies in the global market. Would it surprise anyone to find out that Singapore now has a per capata income that is well ahead of the US and I could name others that are well on the way. After WWII Japan was famous for click frog toys and ball point pens and by the 1970?s was a dominant force in about any industrial or commodity technology that can be named. So what gives with Mexico? I don?t think their people are any less able or willing to acquire new skills and use them. But if there is no investment in infrastructure and desire to bust out of the status quo or if there is too much corruption to be able to bust out, maybe they never will and maybe it?s just more convenient to leach off the poor souls that are forced to run the northern gauntlet.

Scamp

[Arrow]

Pretty sad to see the abject povertystill to this day as was seen by these eyes when I took my little adventure south of the border to La Paz Boliviaforty two years ago.

Arrow>>>>>

[BLUEHAWK]

Originally posted by Seascamp Just a thought that may be relevant and part of the mix. I have never been able to figure out why Mexico has just simply passed over the opportunity to become a leading force in offshore light manufacturing. Most certainly other countries have grabbed on, began small and basic and have gone on to be exporters and very competitive in multiple technologies in the global market. Would it surprise anyone to find out that Singapore now has a per capata income that is well ahead of the US and I could name others that are well on the way. After WWII Japan was famous for click frog toys and ball point pens and by the 1970?s was a dominant force in about any industrial or commodity technology that can be named. So what gives with Mexico? I don?t think their people are any less able or willing to acquire new skills and use them. But if there is no investment in infrastructure and desire to bust out of the status quo or if there is too much corruption to be able to bust out, maybe they never will and maybe it?s just more convenient to leach off the poor souls that are forced to run the northern gauntlet.

Scamp

I know what you (and Arrow) mean here... it's a puzzler.

There has got to be some very obvious reason for this situation.

[Seascamp]

I think it has a lot to do with the historic, chronic, bi polar culture where there are those who eat well and those who hardly get to eat. The revolution in Cuba was supposed to cure those ills but all that really happened was the names were changed on the boss hog door plaques and the same old situation was institutionalized and enforced. But everyone is happy there, just ask Hollywood.
I have been told by some people in the Philippines that the Spanish enforced this bi polar culture and everywhere they went it?s the same deal. There is some probable truth in that concept, but come on, how long does it take to get over a handicap like that? Four hundred years of Spanish domination, exploitation and forced institutions is a tough nut to crack and simply renaming the institutions and cosmetic changes to bobbles, bangles and beads isn?t going to get it. Building a middle class and prosperity generating infrastructure would go a long way to curing ills, but this means the ?eat well? side of the culture would have to let go of the corruption and corruption enforcement machinery and that isn?t going to happen anytime soon. Mexico has little excuse, they have what they need to infrastructure build on an increasing scale, but that would upset the way of things so it?s not likely to even be considered.

Scamp

[HARDCORE]

?As I see it, not much has really changed in Mexico in the past six decades!? There are still the two bit shops that cater to tourists, prostitution is a mainstay, corruption runs rampant through the entire gambit (from street urchin to pandering politico), and if the nation of Mexico were to discover tomorrow that their entire country was built upon a core of pure platinum, the mindset and way of life there would still remain the same! (opinion)

Granted, those who are politically connected would become even more affluent, and the wealthy would become super wealthy, but the ?Third World Mentality? of Mexico and points south, will always be a part of this region (in my opinion), as a way of life is as much a mindset as it is a tragic reality!

With that said, it is still my opinion that all one gets from attempting to pull some stoic countries out of the gutter, are boots that are eternally caked in blood & excrement. And unless one is very careful, he might find that he has quickly changed places with the objects of his intended charity? It is nearly impossible, after all, to benefit the downtrodden when the people attempting to undertake this ?Good Samaritan Routine?, are themselves trapped within the bottomless maelstrom!

Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only fronts in this current conflict, and some whom we now call friends would feed off of our lifeless carcasses just as surely and readily, as would any outright enemy of the past! For many want what we have (or is that had), but they want it quickly and painlessly! And they will do anything they can, with whatever weapons they have, to bleed us dry! ?Beware the man (or nation) with the eternal smile, for their agenda just might be the death of you!??

In my opinion - ?The United States is to Internationalism, what the fly is to an arachnid!? This campaign to place everyone upon the planet on a financial and social par is foolhardy, unachievable, and maybe even fatal? There will always be those (there always has been) who will not be satisfied with an equal share of anything, including responsibility! And as such, I fear that we are signing our own death warrants by pursuing our current "Let's Save The Entire World Crusade!? It never has worked in the past, and it won't work now in my humble opinion!!

Any and all "New World Orders" inevitably end up being naught but failed pipe dreams! The idea behind these grandiose plans may be noble indeed, but human nature is akin to ?RESORPTION? - the intent of the good and caring is usually eaten away by the object of one's own charity!

Is this way of thinking fatalistic, pessimistic, and possibly even callous perhaps? Maybe it is, but at least there will still be an America and a free people around to debate the issue at length in future times, and not a New World Order that strangely resembles France in the year 1789 or the Eastern Europe of the 1950s and 1960s!!

Like Communism, this concept of "Economic World Equality" for all - is doomed to failure! And he who preaches it, really means equality in poverty and despair for all save but for himself and his few well-positioned cronies! For in my opinion, and like it or not, such intentions (even noble sounding ones) are naught but a gun with a different type of bullet. Our power after all, emanates from our being different, unique, economically aggressive, courageous and a step ahead of the rest! And not from our willingness to go down with a decaying world ship!!

"Freedom and prosperity resides in leading the way and not from becoming part of the problem, or entangled within in the eternal webs of others!"

Internationalism can often result in one becoming just another half-digested ort of rotting matter, decaying in some gaseous corner of an ogre?s over-active intestine! We became a great nation because of the efforts of our own people, and not because we adhered to the dictates of failed world societies!

"These are, of course, but my own personal opinions!"

VERITAS (MAYBE?)

[BLUEHAWK]

A lot of good stuff in those posts, HC & Scamp...

[HARDCORE]

REACHING FOR STRAWS!

The situation here along the border (Campo, California) is still sizzling! For the record, however, it must be noted that a "Border Watch" (aka- Border Riders) has been with us here in the San Diego Back Country since long before the inception of the Border Patrol!

This border has always been a flash point, long before in fact, Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico, away back in 1916, I believe! As a matter of fact, right here in Campo, California in 1875, Mexican Border Bandits attacked and robbed the Gaskill Store (one of many such attacks), shooting one of the brothers who owned the place! Several of the raiders were, however, captured, and later that night, local cowboys busted them out and hung them high (Historical fact)!

If the main fear of those protesting the Minutemen's Patrols is violence, I ask them: "What is the alternative - an open border perhaps?" Do these people really believe, even for a moment, that all who traverse this border illegally come here merely to gain freedom and employment?

Granted, many of the poor of Mexico do make the hazardous journey across the Badlands of the border seeking a better life, as the government of Mexico apparently shares very little of it's oil wealth with it's own people! But a great deal of the activity that floods across our borders is illegal and would make old Al Capone's booze empire look like a second-stringer! Activities, I might add, that ends up in your school yards and in your neighborhoods - need I say more?

There is also an old saying that goes: "Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see! And propaganda is a quintessential tool in any war, as you know!"

I firmly believe that some of the people who are protesting the presence of the Minutemen have their hearts and ideals in the right place. However, I sometimes suspect that a great deal of this anger over securing our sovereign borders is flowing right out of Mexico City, and is being funneled though Washington D.C.? After all, if the "Big Hombre" in Inca Central (Mexico City) can flood our nation with the people whom he does not want to support, or bare responsibility for, that is more bread ($$$$) in his pockets, and less chance of yet another economically-spawned uprising in Mexico! (There have been many in the past!)

Of course, "The Old Accusation Mill" has been put into action, and the protesters are screaming that many of these Minutemen are armed and dangerous! I suppose to one extent, this is possible, but again, is this not akin to protecting one's own homeland from foreign invaders?

And if this "Pistolero (gun) Mentality" is wrong (and I believe that it is to an extent), it must also be remembered that border busting is also a crime, leaching off of another nation's resources is wrong, forcefully inserting one's dregs into another man's home is unconscionable, exporting crime is an act of social war, and ignoring the sovereignty of a neighboring nation is damned irresponsible!

The bottom line here, and this considering both sides of the issue, is: "Do we have the right to protect our borders, our homes, our families, and our economy - "YOU BET YOUR ALL AMERICAN ASS WE DO!!"

The problem is that our government, the government of the People of The United States, and not the government of Mexico, is ignoring the problem in the hopes that it will just go away, and this it will not!

A suggestion has been offered up time and time again - "Have the National Guard patrol our borders!"

No one can deny our right and responsibility to do just that! Or will the bleeding hearts and vested entities from both sides of the border protest this too?

If Mexico and it's domestic sympathizers feel that we do not have the right and responsibility to protect our own interests, then this sends an unmistakable message to the entire world, does it not? That message being that: "Anyone who seeks to further weaken our economy, destroy our sovereignty, flood our nation with their castoffs and cheap products (manufactured by near slave labor), destroy our safety nets, and eventually - take us over (socially) from within, are being welcome with open arms by those who have forgotten their mandate and responsibility to serve and protect the people of the United States first!"

Can't happen says you - think again says I!

VERITAS