Glibertarians.com 2019 Archive

Author: mexican sharpshooter

  • Glibertarian Survey Results

    I promised we would all get to see the results of the Glibertarian survey from last week, to answer a question that one member of the editing staff posed.

    Lets just say, somebody owes somebody else $1.  Now the results, based off 309 total respondents:

    Question #1:  Are you libertarian?

    95% of  respondents answered in the affirmative.  Which given a certain statistic (98%) by a certain individual, whom we will call “Michael Hihn”, suggests there are at least 14,308 libertarians out there that reject the label.  Are the respondents really libertarian?  Is there a way we can determine this?  Yes.  With this purity test…

    Question #2:  If yes [to question #1], choose the statement you most agree with.

    An overwhelming 85% of respondents chose the two statements that most closely align with the “correct” libertarian position on regulating Google.  Correct, from a purely doctrinal standpoint.  One’s opinion on this topic in particular might vary to some degree, which is the reason behind a second correct answer.  One of the responses cited a specific tenet of libertarian philosophy:  private property rights.  The other took a basic NAP approach but perhaps left a possibility for one to be a “realist”  but does not imply direct action taken against Google.  The difference between the two in the quantitative sense is not very large (5%); in the qualitative sense however, it can be argued this makes a world of difference.  Perhaps more can be said on that later.

    As for the 13 respondents that use Google to get their jollies…now Google knows you like ginger trannies…

    Question #3:  Do you intend to vote in the 2020 election?

    The data suggests at least 2/3 of respondents are going to.   Not many ways to split this one.

    Question #4:  Who do you believe will win the Republican nomination?

    Like Question #3, this one is also straightforward.  One thing to add here is there is a single respondent that believes Bill Weld will win.  It stands to reason that only Bill himself, thinks he has a chance to primary Trump.  Which means Bill is watching—let’s give Governor Weld a nice, warm, Glibertarian welcome…

    Question #5:  Who do you believe will win the Democrat nomination?

    The results here are filtered for responses greater than zero, given the number of choices available at the time the survey went live.  The respondents have Joe Biden up 10 percentage points on the next highest candidate, Kamala Harris.  Followed by Elizabeth Warren, who likely has a plan to correct these responses.  Which brings us to…

    Question #6:  Who do you prefer to win the Democrat nomination?

    Tulsi Gabbard received 25%, 5 points more than the next highest response being “other”.  It is somewhat troubling Marianne Williamson was third on the list, which can only be explained by promises of taxpayer funded crystal meth.

    Question #7:  Will you entertain a third party option?

    About half of the respondents are willing to throw their vote away…

    Question #8:  Are you retarded?

    Trick question.  Everyone compared to Mr. Lizard, is retarded.

    Question #9:  Should Justin Amash run for president, will you entertain the idea of voting for him?

    It appears 44% of respondents will…with one caveat—

    Question #10:  Which of the following notable libertarians do you like for the Libertarian party candidate or as an independent?

    Amash does not poll well when compared to other well-known libertarians.  He barely gets 1% above the throw away response,”None of these cucks are worthy of my vote.”  The respondents’ preference is Rand Paul, who at 28% is 10 points higher than the next highest choice, the lovable TV host Mike Rowe.

    Where it gets interesting, is when the responses are cross-referenced.  When filtering among respondents choosing the purity question (#2) response suggesting “realism”, the support for Amash drops by 3 points in Question #9.  Support for Paul in Question #10 rises by 7%.

    The reverse of this results in a rise of support to 51.88% for Amash in Question #9, and slight drop to 26.87% for Paul in Question #10, respectively.

    Why does this disparity exist?  Feel free to discuss.

  • Can You Dig It?

    This entire time I thought this scene was from American Graffiti.  Totally wrong, and it took me a bit of searching to figure out it is actually from The Warriors.  Perhaps it would help if I watched either movie.

    Then I find out American Graffiti  is a George Lucas film?  That can’t be right either, he hasn’t tried to ruin it by remaking it…

    This is my review of Lic Beer Project SAMO IPA (H/T:  Iobot)

    You can probably deduce where I am going to go from looking at the can.  Graffiti is a word derived from the plural Italian word graffito, which means “to scratch.”   This makes perfect sense because even if this site wants to credit a bunch of handprints in Argentina for being first, the word itself was coined from evidence of vandalism carved into Greco-Roman monuments.  One of the earliest examples is from a walkway in the city of Ephesus, giving directions to the city’s largest brothel…

    Nowadays it is thought of as part of urban blight in some circles, but in others it has become an art form unto itself:

    …the modern form of street art and graffiti writing was undoubtedly born during themed to late 1960’s. Darryl McCray, better known as Cornbread, is the man who is often credited with being the first graffiti writer, tagging his name all over North Philadelphia. The story goes that he started graffiti writing because of a girl he had a crush on, Cynthia Custuss, which led to him writing ‘Cornbread Loves Cynthia’ all over the area, then continuing with his own tag. Cool Earl was best friend to Cornbread and also became known for his tagging exploits, the pair gaining media attention. Another Philadelphia tagger, Top Cat 126, moved to New York in 1967 and helped to spark the graffiti trend there. Watch Cornbread and Taki 183 in action in this MOCA 2011 video.

    […]

    The world of street art and graffiti has changed dramatically since the days of Cornbread, who incidentally, now works with The Mural Arts Program that helps to prevent illegal tagging, with the two movements becoming accepted in the wider art market. Edward Seymour could have had no idea just how much his paint in a spray can invention would change the face of our urban landscapes It is the ultimate guide to the world’s most remarkable pieces of graffiti and street art. This book is the definitive survey of the international movement, focusing on the world’s most influential urban artists and artworks. Since the lives and works of urban artists are inextricably linked to specific locations and places, this beautifully illustrated volume features specially commissioned “city artworks” that provide an intimate understanding of these metropolitan landscapes. Organized geographically by country and city, more than 100 of today’s most important artists—including Espo in New York, Shepard Fairey in Los Angeles, Os Gêmeos in Brazil, and Anthony Lister in Australia—are profiled alongside key examples of their work.

    It is a sentiment I am inclined to believe, given what might have been running through the artist’s mind while this was painted on the Belfast “Peace Wall”.  I pondered whether Swiss Servator’s series on the Catalan Separatist movement was the main driver; I pondered it enough to take a photo while at a red light on my way out of Belfast.  While some look at it as the harbinger for urban decay and avoid such neighborhoods at all costs, it seems that it only harms the owner of the structure–assuming he or she has a problem with graffiti.  A problem easily solved by setting up a couple cameras, or at the very least a big dog wandering around.

    I will admit this wasn’t too bad for an IPA.  It has a blend of four hops, which are common by themselves but not always together.  It is unfiltered and has plenty of body.  It results in something pleasant in texture, bitter upfront, and fruity in the back.  Overall, its a solid build and I can dig it. Lic Beer Project SAMO IPA:  3.5/5

     

  • Glibertarian Survey

    A question was posed to the editing staff here at Glibertarians.com.  Unfortunately it resulted in a few, um …heated discussions and disagreements as to the possible answers.  Things escalated.

    First something aggravated the Old Man

     

    Which got Brett upset.

     

    Then somebody threatened to call the cops

     

    …so we decided we were going to simply ask you.  Yes YOU, the garden variety Glibertarian to settle the disagreement.

    It got out of hand.  The problem is we only seem to be able to obtain data from the commenters.  So we took it upon ourselves to create a short survey.  This is our first attempt to create a poll of millennials Glibertarians.  Unlike previous polls this one is an attempt to allow for greater participation:  from people that read but don’t comment.  No offense to the commenters here, but we have a sneaking suspicion there are others watching and thought it might be possible the quiet part of the audience might have something to say.

    At the below link, is a short survey of 10 questions.  Why 10 and not 20?  Your time is valuable and quite frankly the good guys at Survey Monkey will only give me ten questions for free.  This should take about a 2 minutes to complete.  We will not indulge upon the one question we were fighting about, however in one week’s time we — let’s be real — I will compile the results and allow you to view it for yourselves.  By view, I mean I will give you screenshots and percentages…..

    THE LINK

  • Lights Out

    A recent event in New York made me think of one of those times I played tourist in New York.

    This is my review of Barrier Brewing Riprap Baltic Porter (H/T Iobot)

    Why was I wandering around Manhattan when I was 19?  To be honest it was a family vacation and we were passing through.  It was one of those things we sort of decided on the fly because we were on our way to Maine.  Lower Manhattan experienced a small outage that particular day which prompted us to leave and seek refuge in Connecticut.  But about a year later….

    Fifteen years ago today, at about 4:10 p.m., New York City was suddenly powerless, as all electricity disappeared when an overgrown tree branch hit a power line in Cleveland (and a utility company’s alarm system failed). Eight northeast states, plus Ontario—in total more than 50 million people—were plunged into darkness.

    While they had to endure about 30 hours without electricity, New Yorkers turned the blackout into a moment of urban solidarity: Citizens started to direct traffic since traffic lights were out; they helped each other out of trapped subway cars; welcomed in stranded colleagues who couldn’t get home; restaurants held impromptu cookouts, sharing their food and beer with neighbors.

    It wasn’t all fun: 413 subway trains and 400,000 passengers were stopped and all needed to be evacuated. That process took almost three hours, and a federal report noted, “Unfortunately, the passengers flowing into the streets from underground met a massive amount of congestion in the streets and on the sidewalks due to the volume of vehicles and pedestrians.”

    Now high voltage troubleshooting is similar to troubleshooting any circuit.  You start at the affected point, test for voltage to phase to phase, phase to ground, phase to neutral, and neutral to ground.  Each test has an “normal” reading, the actual reading provides a clue to the problem.  The hart part is accessing the circuit since its suspended on poles or underground.  Thankfully the circuit is big and easy to see, especially if it is overhead.

    So why did this outage last for as long as it did?  According to the Electrical Schoolhouse at the 366 Training Squadron, Sheppard AFB, TX:  this was a “really, really, really big circuit.”  One of the civilian instructors had this satellite photo made into a poster.

    The Department of Energy had this to say:

    Transmission lines are designed with the expectation that they will sag lower when they become hotter. The transmission line gets hotter with heavier line loading and under higher ambient temperatures, so towers and conductors are designed to be tall enough and conductors pulled tightly enough to accommodate expected sagging and still meet safety requirements. On a summer day, conductor temperatures can rise from 60°C on mornings with average wind to 100°C with hot air temperatures and low wind conditions.

    A short-circuit occurred on the Harding-Chamberlin 345-kV line due to a contact between the line conductor and a tree. This line failed with power flow at only 44% of its normal and emergency line rating. Incremental line current and temperature increases, escalated by the loss of Harding-Chamberlin, caused more sag on the Hanna-Juniper line, which contacted a tree and failed with power flow at 88% of its normal and emergency line rating. Star-South Canton contacted a tree three times between 14:27:15 EDT and 15:41:33 EDT, opening and reclosing each time before finally locking out while loaded at 93% of its emergency rating at 15:41:35 EDT. Each of these three lines tripped not because of excessive sag due to overloading or high conductor temperature, but because it hit an overgrown, untrimmed tree.22

    Pole mounted recloser

    A recloser is a device, as the name implies, designed to immediately close the circuit in the presence of a temporary fault, within the device’s safe capacity.  Ever notice the lights flicker once, twice, three times, and then go out?  That is a recloser in action.  Phase to phase voltage on a standard 7,200v circuit should read around 12,470v; as a idea of what the fault voltage could theoretically be.  The immediate fault voltage should be high enough to either burn the branch shorting it, or at least bump it off, and continue providing uninterrupted distribution.

    This was 345,000v line.  Next time you are around one of the towers, consider how tall the towers is, how low the lines sag, and how tall that tree had to be.  Then consider why there are never any birds on that wire (induction).

    The massive recloser in Ohio worked as designed, it closed three times and locked open.  This caused a voltage drop on that circuit, and every other circuit it was back feeding.  Affecting distribution in the most densely populated part of North America, on a warm summer afternoon.  That had to suck.

    What does not suck is this beer; it is a Baltic Porter.  It has a high abv of around 10%.  It is somewhat heavy in body but unlike a stout it is not an overwhelming coffee or chocolate, the high alcohol content certainly drowns a lot of spices and flavors out.  Definitely not one to chug, especially on summer day.  Nice call Iobot.  Barrier Brewing Riprap Baltic Porter:  4.3/5

     

     

     

     

  • ¿Martes en la mañana? Enlaces Mexicanos!

    Good morning!  Its a lovely Tuesday to be alive, and kicking it with everyone on such a fantastic summer day!

    Okay fine I’ll stop.  It’s only funny because OMWC keeps begging the gods for rain but doesn’t realize this place is hell on earth once the storms pass over, drop nothing in town, and the jungle rot sets in….

    Okay, so now for the links!

    Narrative intersectionality!  Worlds colliding!  With a Guatemalan migrant accusing the Iowa couple that smuggled her of sexual assault.

    Venezuela:  so poor they can no longer afford beer.   Now they drink some kind of tequila like, agave based hooch.

    “We never used to drink this. We drank beer,” said Jonathan Yepez, a car mechanic in the western Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto, as he stood in line at a bodega to buy cocuy. “Cocuy was for old people and grandparents. … But now everyone — from adolescents to adults — drinks cocuy.”

    Que terriblé…Speaking of Venezuela.  Maduro and the opposition will  meet in an elaborate attempt to seize power hold negotiations in Barbados.

    Mexico’s finance minister takes to Twatter and resigns over differences with El Presidenté, AMLO.

    Peruvians don’t like jobs.  Who knew?  Seriously, I didn’t.

    A surprisingly optimistic take on Trump’s chances with brown people.

    It is a prominent tendency among Democrats in the U.S. Another democratic presidential candidate, the former mayor of New York Bill de Blasio encouraged airport workers to strike by citing Che Guevara’s slogan, “Hasta la Victoria Siempre!” “Ever on to victory.”

    He was immediately repudiated, and the party had to apologize as Blasio uttered these words in Miami. The city is the capital of Cubans in exile. Thousands of citizens from the island who escaped the firing squads commanded by Guevara and the Castro brothers live in Miami.

    The candidate was there alongside nine other presidential hopefuls, seeking to win the Latin American vote, even speaking in Spanish to win over the right-wing crowd.

    When Trump assumed the U.S. presidency, he had the support of 31% of Latin Americans. While there are still skeptical sections, at the national level Trump has the support of 50% of Latin Americans as indicated through polls conducted by McLaughlin and Associates and surveys by NPR (National Public Radio) and PBS (Public Broadcasting System) with data from the analytics platform, Marista.

     

    I’ll end it with this.  Grab Tuesday by the juevos, and kick it!

  • A Better Tribute to Urophilliacs than the Gender Fluid…and That’s OK

    This is all part of one big conspiracy to turn men into women and women into men.

    This is my review of Boulder Beer Company Gender Fluid Lager.

    No…not really.  At least according to this article, this one, and this one, was made in recognition of Pride Month…or at least drag queen bingo.  What is truly interesting about it, when I looked it up on Beer Advocate I found it had an average score of 0/5 due to there being absolutely zero reviews for it.  Odd given the number of links telling the wild and wacky world of beer drinking it exists.

    With regards to Pride Month, why does this need to be controversial?  What difference does it make that people want to march because they are gay?  Certainly, it provides an opportunity for trolls to provide a practical example of why somebody might want to participate in a gay pride parade.  Which seems to demonstrate a lack of self-awareness given the reaction the trolls are intent on receiving.  I can’t necessarily say there is no reason for Pride Parades, even if the number of countries legalizing gay marriages are becoming the norm.  After all, Black History month is still celebrated and last I checked the Civil Rights Act was signed into law 55 years ago, and the 14th Amendment became law 151 years ago and neither was immediately accepted either.  A victory is a victory, so celebrate it.  Hell, World War 1 ended a century ago, and we still celebrate that (we just call it Veteran’s Day).  It’s harmless, just know what streets to avoid if you’re driving and let them be.

    As for gender fluid people and their potential choice in beer:  it tastes like Heineken.

    This may be more appropriate than I previously anticipated.  I can sit here and morally justify my opinions on this beer’s flavor profile, its magnificent can, and assume that because my opinions on beer, the can, gender-fluidty, and the Venn Diagram of communities this beer hopes to encompasses will ultimately have no impact on my life.  I can say that because I am a cis-heteronormative male married to a cis-heteronormative female, living in a world seemingly built around such normativities.  Upon reflection, it seems my frame of reference caused me to miss the point entirely.  Gender identity and yellow lagers are two prominent constructs that go hand in hand and one that I casually dismissed. Yet for others this is not so simple.  If one lives in say, the Netherlands–or as pointed out to me, Thailand–one does not always have the option to display such privilege in beer preference because one’s experience in gender does not line up in a way to conform to biologically or socially accepted gender roles–and this beer reflects that.

    To which I say, BRAVO.  For identifying the disparity and putting it on display for those that are most likely to recognize this disparity for what it is, and subjecting it to their subtle mockery.  In this light, mimicking the flavor profile of Heineken makes perfect sense.  I therefore will leave the reader with this selection of ladies for perusal as penance for my word salad, as well as some music for which to celebrate while they do.  Boulder Beer Company Gender Fluid Lager 1.5/5

  • Hot Stuff

    “Big ass knife”. Were you expecting a poop knife?

    I received my BIF package a couple weeks back, and this was certainly a good one.  (H/T to that magnificent bastard:  IoBot).  Extra props for the packing, I had to get the “big ass” knife out to get these out of the packaging.  I will eventually go through all but wanted to focus on one in particular.

    This is my review of Rockaway Brewing Company “Bungalow Nights” Habanero Imperial Stout.

    This shoudn’t go together, should it?  Maybe.

    Chilies are believed to be first cultivated in Mexico or Central America and were eventually cultivated and incorporated into various cuisines around the world due to the Columbian Exchange.  The Columbian Exchange in this case is not drug related, other than perhaps tobacco or if you happen to be one of those freaks that eats chillies to polish their rocks.

    These people do exist, and there are a variety of reasons for doing it:  people get pleasure out of pain which results in an endorphin rush, they might simply like the taste, the health benefit, or just for the challenge between friends.  In my case it was typically for bragging rights between me and several cousins as to who could drink the most hot sauce.  A custom recently alluded with regard to a certain fake Mexican.  Unfortunately, that tended to leave us devoid of hot sauce and left the adults in a precarious position. Due to my grandmother’s  allergy to chillies (it closes her airway) if anybody wanted a hot taco at a family gathering it could only come in the form of hot sauce added after the fact.

    There are two ways to determine how hot a chilli pepper can be.  The first are Scoville units, which is an objective measurement of the amount of capsicum in the pepper.  The other?  Eat it and find out if one is hotter than another.  For reference, the common jalapeño is around 3500 Scoville units, while a bell pepper is 0–an habanero is a rather intimidating 100,000…

    Classic.

    On that scale we find this pepper isn’t the highest or even particularly high.  That honor goes to the Carolina Reaper, which is a hybrid of the ghost pepper and the Red Habanero.  While it may sound like weapons grade pepper spray at 1-2 million Scoville units, the cops spray people with 5 million.

    While I have reviewed a chilli beer before, this one is quite a bit different.  Unlike the Sriracha beer, this one has a heavier stout to back it, and much as I found out when I experimented with habaneros in salsa, a little bit goes a long way.  The imperial stout is heavily roasted with a lot of chocolate and and notes of dark fruit.  The peppers give it an interesting mouthfeel with a tingling sensation on the tongue followed an overwhelming stout.  Even though it may not be my first choice, I might even go so far as to say I enjoyed drinking it but beware—this is not for everyone. Rockaway Brewing Company “Bungalow Nights” Habanero Imperial Stout:  3.5/5.

  • So crypto, much Coin, how Money, WOW!

    Recently, I noticed something about my Robinhood account–I had $54 that wasn’t being invested!  Its like the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry intentionally loses $20, only to find a $20 in his jacket from last spring.

    This is my review of Erdinger Heffeweizen.

    Not my kitchen

    Some of you may not know what Robinhood is–its a stock trading app that lets you trade certain stocks, options, and cryptocurrency on their platform.  They cannot trade everything, and unless you have an account valued over $25,000 they will not allow you to day trade, but they let the user make trades for free.  Its popular with Millennials that want to ruin everything.  The app makes money by putting the user’s un-invested balance towards their own securities the proceeds of which they will collect, a common practice among low cost trading platforms.  I have a few investments that is money I didn’t spend that I would rather accrue value instead of sitting in a checking account.  It serves mostly as a form of entertainment; my retirement is handled by paid professional, cigar chomping assholes.  Since I began investing about 18 months ago I have a 19%ROI but that may level off at some point.

    Speculating on Bitcoin is very much out of the price range of many but there are others to look at.  Quite frankly I am no expert but other Glibs such as Richard and SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr did the deep dive here, here, and here.

    “Paid Professionals”

    Recently, Facebook got in on the action by creating their own version of cryptocurrency, Libra, meant to assist people in countries that have difficulty accessing banks.  This strikes me as odd, because if somebody lives in a country so poor that finding a bank to store money and process transactions for personal business is problematic, how is it that person has access to the internet with strong enough signal to process such a transaction?  Then there is this….

    While true public blockchains are much more decentralized than permissioned blockchains, they also tend to have lower transactions volumes. Bitcoin processes about seven transactions per second, compared to the 1,000 transactions Libra expects to need for its users. Which leads to another difference between Libra and more traditional public blockchains: It has to accommodate Facebook’s 2.7 billion users, as well as the users of the other 27 association members.

    Among the public blockchain features being designed into Libra, the transactions won’t have names but will instead rely on a string of numbers and letters that will be visible to the general public. Which means that while the identities of the transactions might be known to the manufacturers of some wallets in which users store their libra coins, the public can see only the public key— or address—owned by each transaction counterparty.

    While Facebook’s new cryptocurrency wallet subsidiary, Calibra, will require users to go through an intensive anti-money-laundering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC) process, and will be reporting suspicious activity to the authorities, other wallet providers are not required to do so. Given concerns about how Facebook monetizes its users personal data, the company promises not to mingle transaction data collected by Calibra with Facebook’s user data.

    I totally believe that last little bit.

    There’s also the part where a ‘Facebook Sanctioned” currency sounds an awful lot like mining companies that once paid their employees in tokens that can be used at the company store… Then there is the part where Facebook is the central authority in the use of this currency.  I thought the point of cryptocurrency was a decentralized currency with value derived from Adam Smith’s invisible hand, rather than a cabal at a central bank.

    I decided to keep it modest.  I will simply dabble in speculating with speculating cryptocurrencies while I check out patters on one that might actually be worth investing in.  So for now, I own 12,195 Dogecoin.  No I am not joking, but the currency began from what is essentially a joke.

    Erdinger like every other beer made in Germany is fully compliant with the Reinheitsgebot.  This is the beer purity law that has been in effect since the 1500s. It might be the only practical argument for a successful attempt at centralized control  of industry, but I’m not about to entertain that given that I can make perfectly safe beer in my closet.  This is made in the traditional German style with the slight citrus bite, and heavy dose of banana.  Highly recommended at the German place in my neighborhood that has it on tap.  Erdinger Hefeweizen 3.2/5

  • ¡Sí! ¡Enlaces mexicanos el jueves por la tarde!

    We’re doing it again, Mexican Links!  Let’s get this little guy out of the way…

    Now that I have likely made the links page NSFW, lets get to the links!

    While on his way to the G-20 summit, a member of Brazillian Trump’s entourage was detained in Spain for transporting 39 Kilos of cocaine–that’s 86 pounds for those of you with no conception of a kilo.  No, Brett has nothing to do with this.

    Brett is involved with this.  An Italian Mafia boss escaped from a Uruguayan prison.

    This is the “other” photo from the border igniting the latest round of outrage:

    Note the uniforms, They’re lucky they weren’t shot.

    What did surprise me?  There is such a thing as (((cemeteries))) in Cuba.

    Members of the Islamic State were arrested in Nicaragua.  They just apprehended them due to a DHS warning sent to their immigration agency.

    There’s a saying regarding swimming with sharks, isn’t there?  An idiom, or colloquialism of sorts?

    In an effort to show how stupid ideas are an international phenomenon; fashion designer Carolina Hererra is being accused of cultural appropriation in Mexico.   Mexico, as in the Mexican government, not just randos on the Mexican Internet.  Yes, they have the internet there.

     

    Here are some tunes…have a good afternoon.

  • ¡Buenos días! Enlaces mexicanos para el martes por la mañana!

    Banjos is busy.  Since I know you are too, I’ll get right too it.

    The death toll of American touristas in the Dominican Republic is now eight.

    WAPO:  $600 Million in aid to Puerto Rico is being delayed until September.  As a reminder for everyone that likely is already aware but we’ll say it anyways in case somebody else at CNN wants to reminds us all again…Puerto Ricans are technically American citizens.

    The next time I travel to Mexico I guess I will have to pass through militarized checkpoints on both sides.

    If the Chilean dictator threw your parents out of a helicopter, why would you go back to Chile, and demand some sort of recognition from the Chilean government?  I would assume somebody like that would just stay in Argentina.  Lets be real, if one’s parent’s are dumb…chances are…

    An expose on the southern border—of Mexico.

    But most of the smuggling of migrants into Mexico actually happens through the jungle and back roads to avoid the immigration checkpoints. It is a multibillion-dollar business, as each person pays between $3,500 and $7,000 for the dangerous journey.

    As a result of the new migrant deal, officials estimate that smugglers lost $3,6m last weekend alone, when the National Guard found 791 migrants being transported in trucks.

    South of Comitán, 12 heavily armed soldiers patrol the border town of Carmen Xhán in two vehicles. “The first 30 minutes [of an operation] are the most important ones,” says the sub-lieutenant in charge, “that’s when we have the best chance to catch the smugglers driving through”. After that, their location becomes known and smugglers find ways to avoid them.

    The commando moves from one area to the next throughout the night. Even so, their presence does not go unnoticed by smugglers and, across the border in Guatemala, migrants turn back, unable to cross.

    This was the second frustrated attempt for 24-year-old Denis Perez and his son, Denis Joshua, from the Guatemalan town of Petén. In their first time, they were detained in the Mexican city of Monterrey, near the US border. To pay for this trip, he says he mortgaged his land, and will now have to return and tell her wife and other child that they could not make it.

    For him, like most others, more desperation waits when he gets back home.

    In real estate news, 27 of a Mexican Drug Lord’s properties were seized and auctioned off.  9 sold for a total of USD $3 million.

    A single Russian warship dropped anchor in Havana.

    Here’s some tunes.  I’m feeling mellow today.