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Welcome To Vilcabamba
"The Sacred Valley of Longevity"


This Is A Privately Circulated Blog, scribbled exclusively for Friends & Familiars, that peers into and pontificates about Expat life in the hinterlands of South America. If your eyesight is less than optimal (like mine), then just click the type size up a notch on your browser..


Here you will find a series of curmudgeonly commentaries that I've posted from atop my rickety old soapbox for the past few years. And yes, there are indeed political rantings, so place your seats in the upright position and fasten your seat belts .... it may be a bumpy ride.






6/3/17

The "War On Terror"


NOTE: This is an opinion rant written on my 88th birthday.

The Security Entreprenuers. These are the folks who have been bombarding us with increasingly heavy gobs of terror since 9/11. Those who make up the security apparatus of our government have colluded in making us afraid of “those who are different from us”.

These continual references to a “War On Terror” has stimulated a culture of fear. And fear intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to steer the public on behalf of policies they want to pursue. The wars of choice in Iraq would have never gotten congressional support it got without the psychological linkage between the shock of 9/11 and the falsely reported existence of “Iraqi weapons of mass destruction”.

And it got worse! The Obama administration plunged us into a continuing series of conflicts spanning Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and potentially Iran. Now nearly the entire Mid-East is engulfed in the flames of warfare.

This is the result of some 15 years of almost continuous national brainwashing on this subject of terror, this fear-mongering reinforced by the security entrepreneurs and the mass media. The latest result, this time from the Trump administration, was revealed in the social discrimination toward Muslims seeking access to the U.S. through immigration (which is still unresolved in the courts).

The question is: where is there a U.S. opinion leader who will say, “Enough of this hysteria, we must cease this national paranoia and curtail the self-serving efforts of the Security Entreprenuers.”

6/1/17

Our Tweeter-In-Chief



It would appear that none of President Trump's handlers can effectively curtail his addictive habit of tweeting at the drop of a hat. He simply doesn't seem to be able to keep from mistakingly inserting his foot into an always open mouth.

The fact of the matter is that Mr. Trump feels that his political base looks forward avidly to seeing them, and so they have become important quivers in his arsenal of interaction with his voters. As for the rest of us, well we simply must endure the antics and try not to wince.