The United States Must Stop the flow of Drugs from Mexico

Fentanyl has been smuggled into the United States from Mexico for years. In case you thought that Mexico was an ally that the United States could rely on to combat the flow of fentanyl into the country, Mexico’s president is now outright lying about the issue.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has warned GOP lawmakers that Mexico will not allow foreign governments to intervene in its territory after some members of the party advocated for the U.S. to take military action against Mexico’s drug cartels.

GOP Representative Dan Crenshaw, who introduced legislation allowing American forces to act, responded by asking Mexican president López Obrador why he rejects U.S. aid. His response: “We are not going to permit any foreign government to intervene in our territory, much less that a government’s armed forces intervene.” Does that response make any sense?

Mexico is a country where gangs (cartels) operate with impunity. Their former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is now in the United States most secure US supermax prison after multiple escapes from Mexican prisons.

So what in the world is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador talking about? I have always believed that the Mexican government is bribed by the cartels. Obrador’s denial that drugs are made in Mexico is a joke.

I agree with Representatives Dan Crenshaw, Lindsey Graham and other senators that if is time to send American troops into Mexico to bring the cartels to an end. If that means fighting with the Mexican government to bad for them.

American lives are at stake.

If Donald Trump Becomes President of the United States

I saw the above presentation by Donald Trump on Fox News channel this morning. It is apparent that he has not backed down on any of his opinions. That is a troubling possibility for the U.S.A.

Just listen to his words!

Besides building a wall between the United States and Mexico he would impose a 35% tariff on goods manufactured in Mexico. The consequence of that would be 1) higher prices for all the consumer items bought in the United States from Mexico and 2) the United States has a positive trade balance with Mexico of $182 Billion and the million jobs created by that trade balance would be lost.

China holds $1.3 Trillion in U.S. treasury notes. A 45% tariff on those goods imported from China (his plan) would not only destroy their sales of consumer goods to America, it would create a trade war. China would most likely demand repayment of the notes. Donald Trump, who believes in bankruptcies when he doesn’t want to pay his debts, would do what? Refuse payment. That decision would cause worldwide economic panic and the destruction of the American economy.

Saudi Arabia would also demand payment on the notes it holds ($116.8 billion) and just might embargo the oil sold to American oil companies.

Japan holds $1.1 Trillion in American notes. You think they will simply pay 100% of the bill for our troops in their country?

Market Watch says on their web site that “45% of Americans pay no federal income tax” and that converts to “77.5 million households do not pay federal individual income tax.” So when Donald Trump on his web site says “If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000, you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households – over 50% – from the income tax rolls”, what is he telling you?

When Donald Trump says we will have the most powerful military in the world, what is he telling you? Well actually nothing. You see America’s military is the most powerful in the world today.

There is no drought in California. The weatherman are all wrong. Donald Trump says so. So it must be true!

Think smoke and mirrors. Think of Alice in Wonderland. Think the powerful Oz. That would be someone behind a curtain who has no power at all.

You think we have problems now. Donald Trump will destroy in just a few years what has taken over 200 years to build. The United States is the greatest country in the world today!

Mexico Needs a New Government

Best Director Oscar for “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” Alejandro G. Iñarritu

As reported in the Los Angeles Times. From the Oscars in Hollywood, to the pope in Rome, Mexico is receiving some rather unflattering attention, a reversal of the image that the government has spent millions to cultivate.

It started as a celebration of Mexicanness, with Academy Award glory being heaped on Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñarritu, who took three Oscar statuettes in Sunday night’s ceremony. It turned when he made a plea for better treatment of Mexican immigrants and took a sharp dig at President Enrique Peña Nieto.

“I want to dedicate this prize for my fellow Mexicans,” he said when his film “Birdman” was named best picture at the 87th Academy Awards in Hollywood. “I pray that we might find and build a government that we deserve.”

Peña Nieto ignored the slight and congratulated the director via his Twitter account. But many newspapers in Mexico on Monday carried a front-page photo of a jubilant Iñarritu and highlighted his remarks. And social media was aflame with reaction, a hashtag using “the government we deserve” (#ElGobiernoQueMerecemos) soaring to the top of things that trend.

When I visited Mexico City and Acapulco over 40 years ago they were exciting places where both citizens and tourists could comfortably walk down the boulevards and streets without fear of gang violence. Advertising in the Los Angeles Times Travel section was all about visiting those cities and many other places in Mexico. About the only thing you had to fear was the water. – Not any more. Water quality is the least of your worries in Mexico today.

It is sad to write that the tourist population has declined as the level of gangs and other criminal activity has grown dramatically. It is no wonder that the poor of Mexico try to sneak into the United States. The oligarchs of Mexico have no problem with today’s Mexico.

Sadly Peña Nieto is not the answer to their prayers.

Free Trade Brings Creative Destruction

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a brainchild of Barack Obama. Consider this posting I made on February 22, 2014.

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Creative destruction occurs when something new kills something older. A great example of this is personal computers. Free Trade is another example.

NAFTA was President Bill Clinton’s naive plan to increase American trade while helping our neighbors. It has not worked out as promised.

Mexico becoming a driving force in auto production

Honda Fit rolls off the assembly line at a new $800 million factory near Celaya, Mexico

Mexico, with its low labor costs, has been the beneficiary of the free trade agreement. More products have entered the United States from Mexico than ever before. In 2013, according to our census bureau, $226 Million in products were exported and $280 Million were imported. That number is on a path to increase dramatically over the next few years. The reason is that Mexico has become the assembly floor for many products made in other countries. The Los Angeles Times article titled “Mexico becoming a driving force in auto production” tells of the average hourly labor cost in their assembly plants of $8 versus an average hourly rate in the United States of $37. These are the kinds of pay rates that drove American manufacturers to southern states in the USA.

What is the United States doing about this financial advantage? Nothing! Rather, the president of the United States, the Prime Minister of Canada, and the President of Mexico have just had meetings in Mexico at a town named Toluca (home of the Fiat 500 assembly plant), near Mexico City, discussing ways to further the NAFTA agreement.

Barack Obama claims to be concerned about the poorest in our nation and enhancing middle class opportunities. How are more free trade agreements bringing jobs to the non-tech workers that assemble cars, refrigerators, and televisions? They are not. It’s creative destruction at work.

Mexico – Becoming the Failed State

Pancho Villa was responsible for a raid on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916, which was the first attack on U.S. soil since 1812. The U.S. sent several thousand soldiers across the border to hunt for Pancho Villa. Though they spent over a year searching, they never caught him. Villa retired from revolutionary life in 1920 but had only a short retirement for he was gunned down in his car on July 20, 1923.

The story of Villa was not well reported in the United States. Once again our news media has failed to provide adequate reporting about happenings in our neighbouring country.

Infamous drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero walked free Friday after 28 years in prison when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Caro Quintero helped establish a powerful cartel based in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa that later split into some of Mexico’s largest cartels, including the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.

Defense attorneys believe freedom is imminent for a second member of the trio of Mexican drug kingpins, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, responsible for the murder.

So here we have a nation next door to the United States where corruption is rampant and drug cartels have the money to bribe and the power to threaten, releasing drug king pins from prison on technicalities that were obviously concocted.

This was reported in the Texarkana Gazette, Los Angeles Daily News and the Herald Times of Bloomington, Indiana. Anything in the Los Angeles Times? No. In the Washington Post? Yes, but not on the front page. In the New York Times? Nope.

Little or nothing from the White House because they do not want to alienate Mexico. They are concerned about the Hispanic vote.

The media? Where are they?

In Mexicali, a haven for broken lives

An article in the Los Angeles Times titled “A Heaven for broken lives” is really meant to stir my sympathy for people who have broken our immigration laws. The article details stories of deported Mexicans who entered the United States illegally and subsequently committed crimes. The article was extended for an additional two pages and the print version included supporting photography.

The laws may be flawed but they are in place because a majority in the congress voted them into practice. The current administration has even tried to show empathy by not fully enforcing the law and only deporting those who commit crimes.

The error in our law enforcement is that employers of illegal aliens are rarely punished. Rigorous enforcement of current laws would end this tragic situation. “Bleeding hearts” in America will use this article as proof of our misguided legal system.

I don’t blame those who try to sneak into the country. I would do the same thing if I was living in a poor Latin American country. I blame our government for not enforcing the law.

7.4 earthquake hits Mexico

News reports this evening are about the major earthquake in Mexico. It occurred in a favorite tourist area. CNN had a report on their web site. Mexico is part of the “Ring of Fire” that I commented about on March 11, 2011.

Gunned Down In Acapulco

: Acapuclo Deaths

The above photo was scanned from today’s Los Angeles Times. That is the reason for the blurriness of the picture.

Two bodies lie covered near a crowded beach in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco. Gunmen reportedly killed the victims while children and other beachgoers were watching a show featuring sea lions. Previous news items about killings in Acapulco contended that the killing in that city was not in areas where tourists visited.

A Rise in Mexican Poverty

Poverty grew in Mexico to nearly half the population

This summary is based upon a report in the Los Angeles Times dated July 30, 2011.

Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, an autonomous but federally financed agency has conducted the most comprehensive study of poverty to date for that nation. Following are the results.

The number of Mexicans living in poverty grew to 52 million in 2010, up by more than 3 million people from two years earlier, the report says. That means 46.2% of the population lives in poverty. Within that group, 11.7 million people live in extreme poverty, a figure that held steady over the same period.

“This government like no other has sought to give opportunity to the poor,” President Felipe Calderon said in response to the report. Heriberto Felix Guerra, who as minister of social development is in charge of poverty-reduction programs, also defended the government’s efforts, saying the administration took steps to contain the damage from the global financial meltdown of 2008-09, which started in the United States, Mexico’s most important economic partner.

The council defines poverty as a monthly earning in urban zones of less than 2,114 pesos, or about $180. Extreme poverty is less than 978 pesos, or about $83.

Is it any wonder that Mexicans are willing to risk their lives to enter the United States illegally?