Maggie's Madness Drug War Chronicles Baja California
A continuation of events surrounding the drug war and related social issues of Baja California and Mexico. Keeping an eye on Seig Heil Trump. We are still trying to restore all blogs from 2006 which were hacked by Linton Robinson and his team, famous for supporting the Baja Trump Towers on one of his real estate sites. Highlights of Paris-Simone's favorite music !!
You have seen the pictures of the the children in the cages, torn from the arms of their parents and you have read the horrifying reports from across the nation and the denials from the White House. After shock and tears comes the anger.
There have been protests and marches throughout the United States against Trump's evil sadistic policy. It is way beyond time to actively resist:
"Stand up with us to demand better treatment for immigrant children and their families.
Endorsed
by San Diego ACLU, who will be speaking, as well as the California
Teachers Association, local border organizations, and local unions.
We will bring chalk for children and adults to draw their families and messages to leave behind at the civic center/city hall.
After
the rally, we march 3 blocks to ICE office in federal bldg - where
there will be indigenous dancers who will do a Cleansing Ceremony with
sage and dance in full ceremonial clothing.
Providing yellow bracelets to ~500 participants as well as take-home sheets with 3 calls to action."
What would Woody say? I don't figure he would mince his words much. Although "Deportee - Plane Wreck At Los Gatos" deals with another brutal aspect of immigration to the United States, I chose this version as an historical and emotional reminder that this shit this abuse of human life by the US Government and the rednecks of the United States must end. So, play it loud and put it on full screen - these kids did a great job...hope to see ya'll on Saturday at the March:
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UPDATE/EDIT 06/20/2018:
As you are probably already aware, the sadist Trump has backed down from his policy of separating families...for the time being.
I think he backed down because he was probably informed there would be massive violent riots across the nation, although this has not been mentioned in the press. Still, have to hand it to the MSM, they have been running with this story, we just hope they don't let go and we just hope they hound the bastard.
Here are some links - these have been taken from MSN:
Meanwhile, the white supremacists are at it again....so, does anyone get the feeling that this whole disgusting mess was pre-planned with Bannon calling the shots ? These assholes have got to go.
Update/edit 06/21: Late last night I wrote we were not going to attend the March in San Diego because we assumed it had been cancelled. It has not been cancelled at all we learned today while up in San Diego. I double checked their site and it was confirmed the March is a go.
Some brief updates because it is late and Bob has to go into Dr. Silva's in the morning: G7 is a bust, Trump is not participating, Trump's trade war is believed to have had an adverse affect here in Mexico already (even though they flipped him the bird and raised their own tariffs) with the gas prices going through the roof and peso inching past 20, unbelievable.
But to me, the most vile, cruel, ghastly and disgusting Trump act is his "Zero Tolerance" Border Policy. Here is Ryan Deveraux's latest report on recent events and do not miss the related articles following his report:
"Meanwhile, a high school student from Iowa was found murdered in
Mexico’s Zacatecas state in May, just three weeks after he left the
United States under threat of deportation. Manuel Antonio Cano Pacheco
was found with his throat slit, in what his family believes was a
gang-related murder. He was just 19 years old. Cano Pacheco was brought
to the U.S. when he was just 3 years old. He’d previously been granted
protected status under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program, or DACA, which President Trump has been working to phase out. After he was convicted of two minor drug charges, he lost his DACA status and chose to enter Mexico as deportation appeared likely."
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- Contamination in Rosarito Beach: (We'll come back to the crime, like the balacera at Pabillons, etc)
Just another heads up, there has been even more ocean contamination...this time in Rosarito Beach:
For more than 4 days a blackwater river flowed directly into the sea,
contaminating the sand and water of the beach that adjoins the Huahuatay
stream, due to a fault that occurred in one of the carcasses that lead
to the treatment plant that they give service to Rosarito.
This World Environment Day was celebrated on June 5, but the beaches of
Rosarito were littered with garbage of all kinds thrown into the sand,
and traces of the remains of materials used to make bonfires are
everywhere, despite the announcements they prohibit them.
He said that a ditch was opened so that the water would not grow
contaminating more sand, but it goes straight to the sea without
anything has been done about it.
In this regard, Giovanna Guadarrama, coordinator of Environmental
Management of the City Council, said that the report was already made
before the Cespt, because according to a route it is presumed that the
spill comes from a strainer that is located on the scenic highway, but
said to ignore when the damage could be repaired.
A couple people asked me, "Well since you hate it so much here, why don't you just leave? Good question. Probably because the USA scares me too, we cannot afford it and it is creepy. Have any of you guys seen this yet ? Eugene Jarecki's "The King"
Pretty much how I feel about the USA. Here is one review: - From ARTFORUM ALL SHOOK UP By, Amy Taubin
I promise to be back with the stats, Tijuana YTD is well over 1,000 people executed with Tijuana ranking top most violent city of Mexico - I've ordered from Amazon "Los Carteles No Existen: Narcotrafico y Cultura en Mexico" by Oswaldo Zavala but am noticing not a great deal of coverage or discussion of his latest book locally. Take care, buy nose plugs if you live here or near Arroyo Huahuatay - I guess that is the best we can do.
Since no one else is talking about this and the weather is warming up, in case you might be thinking about going for a nice dip in the ocean out in front, maybe you better think twice.
UPDATE: Friday June 1, 2018 3:30 am:
We are about four houses south of the baranca on the North end of SADM. At approximately 3:30am on Friday morning we were awoken by the pungent smell of untreated sewage which permeated throughout the inside of our house and the outside atmosphere. Walking down to the baranca was nearly impossible - you could not breath the smell was so overwhelming. This was not a broken sewer line within SADM, this smell was coming from the baranca. This smell was coming once again from untreated or raw sewage flowing down from Tijuana, through Real Del Mar, through our baranca, on to the beach in front of us and into the ocean. Just a heads up everyone.
I almost did not want to post this, but here goes. (We just came back from a second trip since last Friday to the VCA for Paris who has been vomiting blood and also today blood in her runny stool. We think this last time with antibiotics the issue has been resolved, hopefully - but it has taken forever.
So actually we thought we were being good neighbors to the people (Alan and his wife) who owned the vacant lot next to us which they are now building on. They never came down to pick up the trash or weed eat the tall weeds on that lot, never. Or even tried to keep out parked vehicles. Mike offered years ago to do this not only for them, but to keep the neighborhood tidy, and he did it religiously. They never thanked him, and they never thanked Reuban for taking down the bogus for sale sign posted on their lot just a few months ago by some fly by night real estate agents. We should have just left it up and let them get fucked. Oh well.
Now that I think about it, WTF do they want to live here for with fecal material flowing into the ocean and a completely polluted and contaminated beach in front of them ? Too bad they were not here over the Memorial Day Weekend to smell the raw sewage, I'm serious. It stank awful. Just another reminder that raw sewage is still being dumped into the ocean in front of us.
Anyway, at first the big shot Tony wanted ( he said this to Mike) between 800-1,000 dollars from us for some construction on our house wall to inhibit rain water coming from our roof onto their property. Mike told him to give us a written estimate, which he never did. But then the story changed. No he said, we're not going to build a privacy wall, there will be a walkway in between the houses so that you will have access to your wall, eaves, etc. Great.
So that meant we thought that this elusive 17 inch space in between houses really does exist, despite the fact that none of the other houses these yahoos have built adhere to that old SADM code. Don't get your hopes up, the code does not exist anymore at all. These guys do whatever they want. Tony also told us he was going to make a drain pipe for water coming off the patio which has been there for about thirty years, but we don't believe anything Tony says anymore and you shouldn't either. Knowing full well we had a water line running next to the our house wall instead of asking us to turn off the water his crew breaks the line. We had not moved the line because Tony told us we didn't have to move it, they would just concrete over it. Absolutely no communication. This construction project can aptly be described as a Chinese Fire Drill.
To have some reassurance, Mike approached the owner Alan to verify that we would have access to our side of the house that there would be a walkway. Alan told him that we would. OK, next we make arrangements with Ephraim to finally start on the eaves on the side of the house. Ephraim is completely honest a really good guy and also does work for Reuban and put on William's roof. Our work had been postponed for months due to Alan's construction, but Alan doesn't give a shit.
Over the weekend, I finally made it outside to water my remaining plants. ( Remember, Tony told Mike we would have time to remove the plants from the side of our house but his crew piled up materials so high we couldn't get through, then they were all bulldozed and Tony LIED again to Mike saying he knocked and knocked on the door trying to get ahold of me as they were being bulldozed. Bullshit.)
What I saw just blew me out of the water. The wall they were building completely closed off our access plus it is attached to our house wall and eaves.
So, they all are liars. As far as Alan and his wife actually living here, I doubt it. It's a pinche little house with no fireplace and no closets. You can barely turn around in it. Alan even told Mike two weeks ago it would be ready in three weeks, not even close. "The inside will all be done in three weeks", he said. Could it be that Alan and his wife who don't seem to mind the contamination here or the crime and violence are really Gringo Speculators planning on renting it out? Who knows, but we know not only did Alan lie to Mike he really isn't very bright. He told Mike regarding the construction of his chicken shack, "It was soooo expensive!" How could that possibly be we both thought, unless they got soaked by a bunch of con artists? (which is probably the case)
So, here we are with no access to repair our wall (which they damaged with concrete) or fix our eaves and a piece of shit wall attached to our house, man I gotta tell ya, sure looks like Tijuana.
Oh here's another Tony lie (maybe Trump can give Tony a job): When Mike asked him who was going to take care and clean up he street, Tony said "The City will take care of it." Laugh my ass off, the City of Tijuana will take care of it ? Since fucking when ??
Here's a list just in three blocks of the people who want out of SADM:
1. Mario and Peg put their For Sale sign up (three lots, beautiful house). they've been here for about thirty years.
2. Pete and Phyllis put their For Sale up again (beautiful house right on the ocean).
3. No For Sale sign up yet, but Reuban told us a few months back they want to leave they are sick of it - at first they were going to rent it but now he is saying he is going to sell it. So add Reuban and Carmen to the list. BTW, she's going to Spain next month.
4. So I said to Mike I screamed to Mike "...those assholes all of them lied to you ! We have no access to fix the side of the house which they damaged or the eaves and there is a shitty wall attached to our house! And he said, "Who Cares.... These are the same people who promoted the Trump Baja Towers ! they Lie !" And it is true, they are like wounded beasts, vicious and really really fucking stupid, but it's all they know how to do. He hates it here completely, just like me.
Bombay Beach
Let's face it, SADM is a wasteland, it reminds me of Bombay Beach on the God forsaken and polluted Salton Sea despite the fact that Bombay Beach is now considered "cool" and "artsy" , especially to be part of the colony of fatalistic Angelinos living and creating at Bombay Beach. I'm still not clear what exactly their message is, something like, 'accept the apocolyptic future...deal with it' ?
Better yet it is exactly like Peg said to me: "How did I ever end up here?" Don't be too hard on yourself Peg, we all fell for the bullshit dream not only here, but up and down the freaking coast. Gosh, maybe Alan and his wife will become actively involved with the Mexican environmental and political groups...NAH, I seriously doubt that. DOH.
I'll be back with the stats, out of control here, we are over one thousand executed in Baja California YTD. If you didn't get a chance, read it:
I haven't been covering the Mexican Presidential race at all - the reasons being that if you are a foreigner living here, by law you cannot be involved in Mexican politics and I'm still upset that the local coverage of Bernie Sanders actually mirrored the US Corporate/ MSM's coverage of Bernie; he was basically shunned and minimized. There was a clear option to the two US dangerous predators, but down here you would never have guessed it.
That's the way the cookie crumbles. None the less, tonight at 7:30 pm the second Mexican Presidential Debate airs from UABC, Tijuana so this is just a heads up. As you are probably already aware, Marguerite Zavala is out of the picture, there are four candidates remaining. Meanwhile, things are heating up close to UABC with two demonstrations in progress. One is sponsored by the Angeles Sin Fronteras led by Sergio Tamai drawing anti-Trump/Wall attention and calling on the Mexican candidates to address "The Wall."
They used to say that Rosarito was a hotbed of political activists, however these days it looks as though Mexicali takes the title. The Comunida Mexicali Resiste is the other group demonstrating. These people are completely anti- Governor Kiko, anti-Pena, they question why it is the local Law Enforcement defends the interests of the USA and not their own, and they want the release of Leon Fierro.
It would be fair to say that both groups are obviously anti-neo-liberal. Here is an interesting report on the Mexican Presidential Election 2018, keeping in mind this was written prior to Marguerite's pull out - and more interesting reports at the end of the article:
Before we left the house yesterday morning I was able to catch the headlines of the slaughter of the Palestinians at Gaza, yet no one was talking about this at the places we stopped at in the States. I noticed yesterday evening after we came home that there so far have been no editorials in the local Mexican press reporting the audacity of Trump's big opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem (or the collapse of the Iran nuclear Deal); well, at least Mexico did not participate in the event or send representatives to participate in the event.
So, Stormy is taking a backseat for time being - we are not laughing now, we are basically in shock. Here is one of the best reports I've seen so far:
- From open Democracy: (More good ones on their sidebar)
Short and sweet and to the point: "Instead of seeking peace, Trump provokes violence. He has dementia. He is a madman, to be for the others."
end edit.
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After the 207 executions in Tijuana last month, I finally burned out and needed to take some time out. I kept wondering, how do the reporters down here do it ? Day after day, killing after killing, grinding away at the unspeakable which truly is not spoken about and never really addressed in the United States these days at all...which is just fine with the Tourist Industry, Speculators and the Real Estate Industry - who cares, right ?
So we started the third season of "The Durrells" and their lives on Corfu from 1935-1939 in all of its innocence, which reminds me so much of innocent times in Mexico when I was growing up. I'm not sure how this season will end, but the truth is I don't think it will end good for the Durrells, their little paradise eventually was ended by Hitler and the great Word War II - much the same as Mexico has been brought to her knees by the Great Failed Drug War completely supported by the US government.
A note on the Ejectometro: it will be down until after the debate.
Meanwhile in case you had not noticed, Frontera's front page has been running the latest execution stats for Tijuana with their "Ejectometro" - at this hour this month of May, we are up to 82 executions. (Zeta has a higher number) Check it out:
I just can't let this one go...and, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of coverage of the Stormy Daniels-Trump affair in the local Mexican press. Plus, we need a lot of comic relief around here, especially after last month's total of executions in Tijuana at 207...which I will return to.
Also, a quick update on Paris and Bob: we are tapering back the prednisone for Paris, she is now on one and a half pills only once a day instead of twice a day then next week she will be on one and a half pills every other day. At that point and after the last week of pills, she returns to the VCA Eye Clinic. However, we did have another emergency. Last weekend I baked a chicken for Paris and Bob. After it cooked, I took it out of the pan and put it on a plate on the counter. When my back was turned for just a two seconds, she grabbed the chicken, I screamed, too late, she had devoured a drumstick. Mike rushed out of the shower while I was screaming and slipped. He's okay. We took her into VCA for x-rays; luckily no splinters showed up. Other than that episode, she is improving. Bob left his girlfriend he says, we didn't want to pry. The painting around here is going to take until doomsday to finish.
We all know Trump is a dirty old man, besides being a lunatic and a liar. Here are some of the best links and videos regarding the latest in the Stormy Daniels affair so far:
UPDATE/edit 05/05: Hilarious SNL "Michael Cohen Wiretap Cold Open" !! (Stormy Daniels appearance freaking outstanding) I can't believe Mexico is missing the boat on this one....oh well....
end edit ! (;
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UPDATE/edit: Mexico did not miss the boat on this one (and others) at all !
