[The_Toecutter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'M')exico is already a failed state. It's been that way for some time. Our sole policy towards Mexico should be containment, otherwise the border region will become Mad Max central.

[Newfie]

Unfortunately there are many areas where there is, to us at least, a rational action to be taken. Legalization is one, there are others in other arenas.

The problem is that no matter how good these ideas are, no matter how surely they will be effective, it is not in the herds will, so they will not happen.

Our challenge is to figure out how to survive if not thrive in the deteriorating environment.

"It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to grips with stupidity and make it work for you."
Something pretty close to what Frank Zappa said.

[Mesuge]

Yep, recalling some 80s talk show, where Zappa was smiling, when being asked in somewhat loaded style, that he has become a skilled "capitalist" with portfolio of several millions.

PS relatively solid pile of monies at that point of time..

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'U')nfortunately there are many areas where there is, to us at least, a rational action to be taken. Legalization is one, there are others in other arenas.

The problem is that no matter how good these ideas are, no matter how surely they will be effective, it is not in the herds will, so they will not happen.

Our challenge is to figure out how to survive if not thrive in the deteriorating environment.

"It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to grips with stupidity and make it work for you."
Something pretty close to what Frank Zappa said.

[rangerone314]

Drug War Forces Residents To Flee Mexican Town
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/15/131337118/drug-war-forces-residents-to-flee-mexican-town
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')arring Mexican drug cartels have claimed a new victim along the U.S. Southern border: the town of Ciudad Mier. Constant gunfights and spiraling violence between rival drug gangsters have forced the evacuation of the Mexican town.

A shelter for fleeing residents of Mier has been set up in the Lions Club in the nearby town of Miguel Aleman, and it has become, in the words of Mexico's Proceso magazine, the first refugee camp of the Mexican cartel war.

[Newfie]

Just saw this chart on Cantrell.

Cantarell Finally Slips Below 500 kbpd

http://gregor.us/oil/cantarell-finally- ... -500-kbpd/

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I')'ll keep my eyes open for Mexican Zombies.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_jLHHC ... re=related

[anador]

CEEEEEEERRRRRRREEEEEBROOOOOOOOOOSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

[Newfie]

Just bumping the thread.

Anything new to report South of the border?

Something got me thinking that Mexico is not doing to well. I was thinking that Mexico falling would be very good sign that the end is near for the US.

We hear a lot about the PIGS. Anyone know how Mexico stands up to that crowd?

[pup55]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')exico released figures this week showing that 30,196 people have been killed in drug-related violence over the past four years, with a record 12,456 killed from January through November, compared to 9,600 deaths in 2009 and 5,400 in 2008.

[Revi]

Most of the violence happens in northern Mexico. It's not safe there any more, but southern Mexico may still be okay for a visit. I have a friend who goes to the Yucatan and reports that it's still mellow down there. I think we may suffer just as badly as the Mexicans. We owe all sorts of money, drive big cars and still are trying to keep a big lifestyle going. The average Mexican is living a much simpler life, so they may not have as far to fall.

On the other hand I have heard that the middle class is fleeing the northern cities such as Juarez and Monterrey to get to a safer place in the US. That can't be good for the stability of the place. The cartels recently tried to extort the teachers to get their Christmas bonuses. They threatened to blow up the schools and the kids unless it was given to them. That is a symptom of a society where the criminals are way out of control.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/12/1 ... ns-to.html

[Ludi]

Still no Mexican Zombies.....

[Revi]

Mexicans seem like pretty mellow people to me. I lived in Guatemala for a couple of years, and got to know Latin Americans. They are stuck in a dystopia that is progressively worse every year.

[Oneaboveall]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'M')exicans seem like pretty mellow people to me. I lived in Guatemala for a couple of years, and got to know Latin Americans. They are stuck in a dystopia that is progressively worse every year.

[rangerone314]

Mexico needs a dictatorship that rounds up all the drug lords, all their friends, associates & family members and sends them off to nice little camps, where they go in but they don't come out.

Scratch that... send HALF of them there.

Hang the other HALF from street and traffic lights like Christmas ornaments. Even if it doesn't deter them, it would eventually eliminate all of them.

Mexico is proof-positive that plutocracy masquerading as "democracy" is a corrupt, ineffective, weak, and self-destructive system. Something other in-name-only "democracies" will soon learn.

[KingM]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oneaboveall', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'M')exicans seem like pretty mellow people to me. I lived in Guatemala for a couple of years, and got to know Latin Americans. They are stuck in a dystopia that is progressively worse every year.

[KingM]

That chart is a joke. The type of unrest you're likely to see in France is nothing like what you'd see in India or Saudi Arabia if those countries went off, yet they're all in the same category. And do you really think that Scotland and England face higher risks of social unrest than Cambodia?

Look at Latin America today, then compare it to the revolutions, dictatorships, wars, coups, etc., that have plagued it for the last two centuries. Even Mexico, relatively peaceful compared to its neighbors, is nothing like it was. Where is the high inflation, the fixed elections. the murder of dissidents, the country lurching from one crisis to the next? How can you possibly look south of the border and not say that things are better, more peaceful in Latin America than they have been since 1492*?

Mexico is not on the verge of collapse and anyone who says so has either never been outside a few troubled border regions, if they've ever spent much time in the country at all.

(*Leaving aside the fact that before 1492 was even more violent, but that the actors were different.)

ETA: I mistyped China for Cambodia and looking closer, I think that's actually Laos, but still, the point holds.

[KingM]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')e have run from these problems for decades. They will not be fixed because we don't have the will, the future, or the cheap resources, especially petroleum anymore