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What an Opening for Central America on Trade

Posted: February 27, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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There is a famous political saying that one should never let a crisis go to waste, and another not from the political world that says one man’s meat is another man poison one piece of the China Trade Wars / Virus story is the opportunity it provides for countries in Central America, land of the caravans.

As has been noted the primary driver of the refugees and caravans that had been driving policy at the US border is economic. People need work and see the US as an entry point for this. As someone who has for the last five years worked in a place where Spanish, Portuguese , Creole were more common than English and Arabic almost as common I have seen this close up.

With both the Trade wars and now the Corona virus running rampant in China there is now a great incentive for produces of products to find alternatives to China for production.

Why not Central America?

This has the potential of a win win win here, you have countries closer to the US in terms of shipping, populations looking for work, governments eager to increase their tax base and to make an even darker point criminal organizations in the area looking for legitimate ways to launder money.

Furthermore given the relative population of China vs Central America the number of jobs and industries needed to fund a boom in the region would be a relative pin-prick in the side of the Communist state.

Now there are risks, you have the randomness of the corruption of the local governments (yes you have the corruption of a communist state in China but it tends to be more ordered and predictable) you have the costs of setting up a supply chain, and you never know what revolutionary group is going to spring up and of course you have the Cartels which if they don’t invest in the ventures will “tax” them to allow them to operate.

However even with those risks you have not only an alternative supplier in case of disaster but a way to lift people out of poverty where they are so they don’t have to come in caravan to the US to make a better life.

Ash Wednesday and my Favorite Old Testament Passage

Posted: February 26, 2020 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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Today is Ash Wednesday the beginning of Lent and the reason why so many people got drunk etc yesterday because traditionally this began a period of fasting and sacrificing to bring us closer to God and while many have abandoned the fasting/prayerful reflection part they’ve kept with full force the last big debauch.

Ash Wednesday is not the most popular devotion out there, you are given ashes which is a reminder of our mortality “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust you shall return.” Although because some consider that reminder too harsh a “Repent and believe in the Gospel” is substituted in some parishes.

But what I’ve always loved about Ash Wednesday is the first reading from scripture at Mass. Every Year the first reading is always this passage from the prophet Joel

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.

Joel 2 12-18

Even now! Those are words of power and hope. Most importantly there are no qualifiers to those words

  • Even Now….unless you’ve had an abortion
  • Even now….unless you’ve cheated on your spouse
  • Even now…..unless you are a thief
  • Even now…..unless you are a drug dealier
  • Even now…..unless you are a murder
  • Even now…..unless you are a terrorist
  • Even now…..unless you are an atheist
  • Even now…..unless you promote sodomy
  • Even now…..unless you’ve sold your soul to the devil

In other words, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past or where you are, if you are willing to turn your heart to God, his outstretched hand will be there.

And note the time given is the ever present NOW, the time that every man spends their entire life in. As long as you have breath in your body, even if that breath is your last God will accept your return in that ever present now.

Does that mean that the path that follows will be painless? Nope.

Does it mean that the path will be easy? Nope.

But it means that path is available at every present moment of your life and that the time to embrace the forgiveness of God is always NOW.

Harvey Weinstein Convicted? Thank Donald Trump

Posted: February 25, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Robin Hood: My own men will escort my Lady. But before you take leave of her, it might be as well if you thanked her for saving your life.

Sir Guy: My life?

Robin Hood: Do you think you would’ve left this forest alive if it hadn’t been for her presence here?

The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938

In all of the media platitudes concerning the justice of Harvey Weinstein’s conviction yesterday there is a single name that is being left out.

That’s Donald Trump

Never forget that Harvey Weinstein was a great friend of Democrats in general and the Clintons in particular.

If Hillary Clinton had been elected in 2016 there is a zero possibility that Weinstein would have been facing a jury anytime soon. After all if the media had not considered his actions (actions they knew about) newsworthy for twenty years they certainly were not going to do so when such revelations might hurt a Clinton presidency.

It is only the election of Donald Trump and the declawing of Hillary that made any of this possible.

So if you are happy that Harvey’s reign of terror make sure you thank President Trump and the voters who sent him to the White House, because without their actions Harvey is still on the prowl (and I suspect Jeffrey Epstein with him).

Unexpectedly of course.

One other thing About Democrats/Socialism and Bernie

Posted: February 24, 2020 by datechguy in culture, elections, politics, primaries
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There is one other point I’d like to add to yesterday’s post concerning the Democrats, Socialism and Communism. I freely confess this this conjecture but based on my observations it’s correct.

For quite a while Democrats leaders have seen the direction this party had been going, particularly in the schools. They saw the moves away from discipline, the rejection of the rule of law, the moves to re-write American History to into anti-american history, the removal of values from the system, and the whole nine yards. They saw all of these things happening at the same time that the GOP began to embrace all of these things.

Moreover the Democrats were in a position on the local, state and federal level to do something about it. To make sure that American values were still taught in American schools, to make sure that American History was not re-written to favor our enemies to make sure that “enforcing the law” was not a dirty word and to make sure that the inmates were not running the asylum.

They did not.

Why? They were afraid.

They feared that unless they embraced these socialist, communist elements would become an effective 3rd party only with numbers beyond the libertarians. Moreover with the abandoning of Americanism and religion Democrats were even more a coalition party of many different groups some with vastly different cultures and priorities united only in their rejection traditional American Judeo-Christian culture. So the loss of any one of those part might put them in the minority forever.

And the loss of power, influence and cash that such a cleansing of these elements in the party even if it was only for a few years, was more than the party could bear. Much better to pay the lip service and advance some of their agenda, after all, as long as they voted the way that secured power and influence for the leadership it didn’t matter what these fringe elements thought.

This could work as long as their numbers were small, but as schools and universities moved unchecked ever farther to the secular left those numbers continued to grow to the point where Democrats are no longer saying to socialist/communists that they much embrace them if they want any chance of power, but it’s literally becoming the other way around.

The rise of Bernie puts give the democrats three unpalatable choices

  1. Embrace the whole Socialist/Communist agenda in public
  2. Walk away & concede this cycle in the hopes that the Bernie Crowd McGoverns itself away
  3. Walk away and take the structures with them and hope that enough Judeo-Christians Americans who voted GOP because there was no place else for them to go might embrace a party that embraced traditional Democrat values without rejecting American Judeo-Christian values

None of these choices are going to be fun for the left but if they had not taken the small hit years ago they would not be in this position today.

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