4 US Citizens Kidnapped in Matamoros

[YGIFS 19453]

I never did see the Director's Cut.

"We're going to see Dom?"

okay cool, sounds fun.  privilege of youth and all that.

"No, the Don.  Don Eladio."

we're all going to die.

[RDCanecutter 26512]

36 minutes ago, blacklab said:

I was at a poker table one time and was the only white person, everyone else was Asian.

I bet I know how that game went.

[RollLeft 5045]

49 minutes ago, Homercles said:

…so are you Chinese or Japanese?

...dirty knees? Look at these?

[RollLeft 5045]

55 minutes ago, blacklab said:

I was at a poker table one time and was the only white person, everyone else was Asian. Someone else noticed it as well and started asking around where their families were from. I think we had Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino. The Filipino said "We are the Mexicans of Asia"

I've heard the same thing regarding the Italians being the Mexicans of Europe. 

[Deej 77003]

2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Ah yes, I saw the dinner theater performance in corpus.  the haircuts reminded me my aunt.

 

[RollLeft 5045]

58 minutes ago, blacklab said:

I was at a poker table one time and was the only white person, everyone else was Asian. Someone else noticed it as well and started asking around where their families were from. I think we had Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino. The Filipino said "We are the Mexicans of Asia"

I think most people know that the Spanish colonized the Philippines hence all the Spanish surnames Ayala, Cruz, Reyes, Garcia etc... BUT few people remember BEFORE it was TEXAS in 1821 it was...Nueva Filipinas!! 

[Js1 85651]

21 minutes ago, RollLeft said:

I've heard the same thing regarding the Italians being the Mexicans of Europe. 

I see nothing wrong about that statement 

[texasdago 7589]

5 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

A few years back there were a slew of telenovelas with side-characters who were from Italy. If they include you in telenovelas, you're family.

I mean, it's only in the US where we decided that people from where they invented Latin are not Latino. I blame all those OCD wretches in HR.

My Aunt/Uncle/Cousins lived for years in CDMX... anyway, after college my cousin and I lived together and we would often watch Mexican TV including some shows were Mexicans would play caricatures of Italians.  We would laugh our asses off because it was Mexicans speaking a kind of Spanish Italian / Spitalian and it was hilarious.  I've always had an affinity for Mexico, particularly CDMX and the whole vibe there.

BTW, the last time we were in Greece, we were commenting that Greece felt more like the Mexico of Europe.  BUT, honestly, while in Sicily on a beach vacation, we once said, "this is the Mexico of Italy".  So there you go.  

[nbmishoid 976]

Deleted

Edited March 10, 2023 by nbmishoid
Wrong thread

[Gatorubet 30330]

7 hours ago, George said:

All good. The cartel apologized. 
 

[Homercles 10206]

3 hours ago, Homercles said:

…so are you Chinese or Japanese?

 

3 hours ago, RollLeft said:

...dirty knees? Look at these?

The ocean?

 

[BamaATL 16593]

So I haven't followed this story, but is it common for the Cartel to put out a press release?  I mean, I've had to deal with some firms on Madison Ave that seem like they will do anything for a buck, but this might be pushing it.  

[TwiceHorn 31646]

7 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

Well, the first thing I should say is I appreciate the discussion. I don't agree with you, but that's okay. 

I don't think it's necessarily about physical security. I think it goes deeper than that. It's on a very instinctual level. The main thing is the difference in how we act as individuals versus how we act when we've identified with a tribe. Plenty of stories in the historical record of people who once considered themselves friends with one another became something other than that when important tribal identification required it. 

Then there's the whole gamut of personality collections embedded in our DNA. Not human DNA. Some kind of precursor that goes way back. The pleasers. The worker bees. The contrarians. The curious. They've found similar personality traits among a wide variety of animals, so it developed extremely far up the evolutionary ladder. And then you have the psychopaths, which we automatically think of in negative connotations, but has survived in our collective DNA for a reason. It's like the trial attorney you think is a complete asshole, but when he's representing you successfully in a hostile tort, he's your asshole, and you're glad to have him.

If you have two tribes competing for limited resources, but your psychopath is more clever, resourceful, and ruthless than their psychopath, you're glad to be on his team. Which is part of why so many CEOs are psychopaths. 

Well, people who crave power and the extra freedom that comes with it and who are really good at obtaining it know instinctually in many cases how to exploit that identification with "the other" to grab power, maintain it, and extend it. That's why we're never getting rid of racism completely. It's part of the programming, and the programming has a new chance to be exposed with every new generation. It's also why it's so important to be aware of when the veneer of civilization is being broken down, from what quarter it's coming from.

For decades I've had people tell me that children don't know anything about racism. It's taught to them by their parents. And while I wouldn't say that's completely wrong, if you're around children enough you know how good they are at identifying an other, or others. May not be along racial lines, but it will be something. Could be someone perceived to be a weak link in the herd. Could be a rival. Regardless, it happens ubiquitously. And the most successful way I've seen to combat it is when the people identified as others form their own tribe as basically a fuck you to the people who discriminated in the first place. But of course then you have inherent friction and conflict. 

And so it goes. 

My only point is that in modern society, there is less (really no) need to fear and ostracize others than there was in primitive societies, where it was related to survival, and as societies became more complex, to relative prosperity, or some other increasingly fictive cultural reason, your "tribal" reasons.

People indulge their primitive instinct to discriminate for other reasons now.  One of the more common reasons is because they need someone to look down on.

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[SL Xpress 7518]

1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

My only point is that in modern society, there is less (really no) need to fear and ostracize others than there was in primitive societies, where it was related to survival, and as societies became more complex, to relative prosperity, or some other increasingly fictive cultural reason, your "tribal" reasons.

People indulge their primitive instinct to discriminate for other reasons now.  One of the more common reasons is because they need someone to look down on.

 

When you say there's no need, I'm saying it's on an instinctual basis. 

I'd argue the need is rooted in our compulsion to connect. Whether rightly or wrongly, one of the most powerful connecting mechanisms is to define an other for whatever collective we're a part of. This is utilized and exploited by leaders to maintain control and power. You're arguing civilization answers the physical security need adequately by itself. My argument is that it doesn't matter. Whoever is out of power is going to try to gain power. The concept of freedom is relative, oftentimes defined by how high up the hierarchal pyramid we are. Cultivating the sense of other to band our tribe together in order to gain greater power is fundamental to our existence. That's never going away, I don't care how modern society gets. 

[CooterBrown 18038]

I was at a poker table one time and was the only white person

You’re like the Rachel Dolezal of labs and only identify as a black lab.

[Baboontyme 2831]

I wonder if people in Windsor talk like this about Detroit. 

[Bevo 13609]

42 minutes ago, Baboontyme said:

I wonder if people in Windsor talk like this about Detroit. 

Windsor is a POS town full of whores and strippers - Windsor looking down on Detroit is like Afghanis looking down on Tajikistanis. So, yes.

[ztejas 43605]

4 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

My only point is that in modern society, there is less (really no) need to fear and ostracize others than there was in primitive societies, where it was related to survival, and as societies became more complex, to relative prosperity, or some other increasingly fictive cultural reason, your "tribal" reasons.

People indulge their primitive instinct to discriminate for other reasons now.  One of the more common reasons is because they need someone to look down on.

 

I don't know where you're coming from with this but I'd definitely like to see some sources. 

If this is just your opinion then I disagree pretty plainly. 

[ztejas 43605]

4 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

When you say there's no need, I'm saying it's on an instinctual basis. 

I'd argue the need is rooted in our compulsion to connect. Whether rightly or wrongly, one of the most powerful connecting mechanisms is to define an other for whatever collective we're a part of. This is utilized and exploited by leaders to maintain control and power. You're arguing civilization answers the physical security need adequately by itself. My argument is that it doesn't matter. Whoever is out of power is going to try to gain power. The concept of freedom is relative, oftentimes defined by how high up the hierarchal pyramid we are. Cultivating the sense of other to band our tribe together in order to gain greater power is fundamental to our existence. That's never going away, I don't care how modern society gets. 

Also this is brilliant. I like you permanently now.

[SL Xpress 7518]

4 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Also this is brilliant. I like you permanently now.

Don't say that. I'm going to write a novella, you're going to click open a thread and there's going to be this huge wall of text with me acting like I'm coming down from Mt. Sinai with stone tablets in my hands, and you're going to go, "this guy!" 

But thank you for the sentiment. 

[Goredho 17455]

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I lived 5 minutes from the border.  Life moved freely across that imaginary line on the map back then.  I remember the curios shops, the restaurants and the dove hunts where you might bag 100 birds and have to nurse a severely bruised shoulder the next day.  I remember when my slightly-older best friend got his drivers license, and how it was put to use taking us all across on Friday and Saturday nights where we were fast-forwarded to an age of 21.  We young Gringos had such a grand, fucked up time.

We didn’t know it then, but it was the end of an era.  Within a few years, the value of the peso collapsed, 71 years of PRI rule had ended, the Colombian cartels had fallen, the Mexican drug cartels were asserting their power and the War on Drugs had begun.

When I was a senior, the eldest son of a prominent Mexican political family from our sister city was kidnapped and subsequently murdered.  There was no news of it in the US, just chatter in the community that had its roots in both countries.  He was bludgeoned to death with a hammer.  I played football with his younger brother, and I remember expressing my condolences to him in the weight room in an awkward display of sympathy:  I’m sorry your brother was murdered with a hammer.  Gracias.

I left for UT a few months later.  My parents soon moved away, and my ties to the border dissipated.  The last time I went to the border town I grew up in was in the mid 90s.  Hardly anyone was going to Mexico anymore.  Too dangerous.  Too violent.  Not worth the risk.

I mourn the Mexico I remember.

[ztejas 43605]

2 minutes ago, Goredho said:

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I lived 5 minutes from the border.  Life moved freely across that imaginary line on the map back then.  I remember the curios shops, the restaurants and the dove hunts where you might bag 100 birds and have to nurse a severely bruised shoulder the next day.  I remember when my slightly-older best friend got his drivers license, and how it was put to use taking us all across on Friday and Saturday nights where we were fast-forwarded to an age of 21.  We young Gringos had such a grand, fucked up time.

We didn’t know it then, but it was the end of an era.  Within a few years, the value of the peso collapsed, 71 years of PRI rule had ended, the Colombian cartels had fallen, the Mexican drug cartels were asserting their power and the War on Drugs had begun.

When I was a senior, the eldest son of a prominent Mexican political family from our sister city was kidnapped and subsequently murdered.  There was no news of it in the US, just chatter in the community that had its roots in both countries.  He was bludgeoned to death with a hammer.  I played football with his younger brother, and I remember expressing my condolences to him in the weight room in an awkward display of sympathy:  I’m sorry your brother was murdered with a hammer.  Gracias.

I left for UT a few months later.  My parents soon moved away, and my ties to the border dissipated.  The last time I went to the border town I grew up in was in the mid 90s.  Hardly anyone was going to Mexico anymore.  Too dangerous.  Too violent.  Not worth the risk.

I mourn the Mexico I remember.

What the hell is this?

[Goredho 17455]

A rumination.

[ztejas 43605]

2 minutes ago, Goredho said:

A rumination.

Whose rumination?

That looks like unedited Spanish to English translation. 

[4th and 5 4924]

On 3/6/2023 at 6:04 PM, tejas60 said:

you should go to Boquillas. it's cool as shit with a great restaurant. but you have to pay THEM to row you across:

I took some hongos, hiked Ernst Tinaja, crossed at Boquillas, rode a donkey into town and had chips, salsa and Carta Blancas. And lived to tell! Die another day! Viva Mexico!

[BabaYaga 15332]

5 hours ago, Goredho said:

I mourn the Mexico I remember.

Mescal is free at Amanda's saloon for the boys from the old broken O
Saturday nights in the town of Sonora are the best in all Mexico
They've got guitars and trumpets and sweet senoritas who won't want to let you go
You'd never believe such a gay happy time on the street called Sonora's death row

[chainsaw 9891]

11 hours ago, Homercles said:

 

The ocean?

 

So....are you Jamaican or African?

[austingirl 2192]

19 hours ago, George said:

All good. The cartel apologized. 
 

 

They "turned them over to authorities"?

[TwiceHorn 31646]

11 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

When you say there's no need, I'm saying it's on an instinctual basis. 

I'd argue the need is rooted in our compulsion to connect. Whether rightly or wrongly, one of the most powerful connecting mechanisms is to define an other for whatever collective we're a part of. This is utilized and exploited by leaders to maintain control and power. You're arguing civilization answers the physical security need adequately by itself. My argument is that it doesn't matter. Whoever is out of power is going to try to gain power. The concept of freedom is relative, oftentimes defined by how high up the hierarchal pyramid we are. Cultivating the sense of other to band our tribe together in order to gain greater power is fundamental to our existence. That's never going away, I don't care how modern society gets. 

I'm not denying an instinctual basis.  At its most basic level, that instinctual basis is fear and security:  "other" poses a threat.

I think we both agree that higher-order thinking can and often does and more often should override that instinctual basis.

I'm saying that one reason it doesn't in modern society, is to give an out group another out group to look down upon.  Which is, as you phrase it, a form of accruing power, albeit a pretty ineffective one in the grand scheme.  Until those with real power start to exploit it.

I also agree that racism/discrimination is not going to ever go away.  But those with actual power have no moral excuse for indulging it as a basis for accruing more power.  And that justifies the existence of anti-discrimination laws.

[SquishMitten 10451]

19 minutes ago, austingirl said:

They "turned them over to authorities"?

Bad translation. They flipped them inside out

[956 Worldwide 34868]

Dear U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Defense:

Please accept our deepest apologies for our unacceptable behavior recently. We are terribly embarrassed but we have learned a lot and promise not to do it again. As a token of our sincere regret, please accept this gift basket of our finest zip-tied cholos.

Sincerely yours,

The Gulf Cartel

[MissingInAction 25239]

Them offering up the perps is the exact thing they would do with a rival cartel to maintain the peace.

In their minds shit is settled. Guess they haven't dealt with Merica before.

[Nueces River Rat 5566]

3 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

Them offering up the perps is the exact thing they would do with a rival cartel to maintain the peace.

In their minds shit is settled. Guess they haven't dealt with Merica before.

Avatar checks out.....

[Brisketexan 105478]

7 hours ago, Goredho said:

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I lived 5 minutes from the border.  Life moved freely across that imaginary line on the map back then.  I remember the curios shops, the restaurants and the dove hunts where you might bag 100 birds and have to nurse a severely bruised shoulder the next day.  I remember when my slightly-older best friend got his drivers license, and how it was put to use taking us all across on Friday and Saturday nights where we were fast-forwarded to an age of 21.  We young Gringos had such a grand, fucked up time.

We didn’t know it then, but it was the end of an era.  Within a few years, the value of the peso collapsed, 71 years of PRI rule had ended, the Colombian cartels had fallen, the Mexican drug cartels were asserting their power and the War on Drugs had begun.

When I was a senior, the eldest son of a prominent Mexican political family from our sister city was kidnapped and subsequently murdered.  There was no news of it in the US, just chatter in the community that had its roots in both countries.  He was bludgeoned to death with a hammer.  I played football with his younger brother, and I remember expressing my condolences to him in the weight room in an awkward display of sympathy:  I’m sorry your brother was murdered with a hammer.  Gracias.

I left for UT a few months later.  My parents soon moved away, and my ties to the border dissipated.  The last time I went to the border town I grew up in was in the mid 90s.  Hardly anyone was going to Mexico anymore.  Too dangerous.  Too violent.  Not worth the risk.

I mourn the Mexico I remember.

Yep.  My family has been on both sides of the border for damn near 200 years.  Back and forth, treating the Rio Grande the way Austin treats "north or south of the river."  My parents met and married on the border, and lived out their youth having a great time in the Mexico bar and nightclub scene, back when it was something Rat-Pack-ish glamorous even.  I even got to experience it.

My kids never have, and probably never will.  200 years of family history moving back and forth there, and it's over now.  It fucking sucks.

[mbtex 683]

 

[Helobious 9477]

1 hour ago, austingirl said:

They "turned them over to authorities"?

Yep. It’s 5 street soldiers. It’s nothing for the operation if they get arrested or killed. Dime a dozen. Just a PR move. 

[ConferenceRoom 6147]

10 hours ago, ztejas said:

Whose rumination?

That looks like unedited Spanish to English translation. 

???

[RDCanecutter 26512]

19 hours ago, texasdago said:

My Aunt/Uncle/Cousins lived for years in CDMX... anyway, after college my cousin and I lived together and we would often watch Mexican TV including some shows were Mexicans would play caricatures of Italians.  We would laugh our asses off because it was Mexicans speaking a kind of Spanish Italian / Spitalian and it was hilarious.  I've always had an affinity for Mexico, particularly CDMX and the whole vibe there.

BTW, the last time we were in Greece, we were commenting that Greece felt more like the Mexico of Europe.  BUT, honestly, while in Sicily on a beach vacation, we once said, "this is the Mexico of Italy".  So there you go.  

I always thought I'd get along fine in Sicily.

For Italian dialects you may in enjoy this video by a Sicilian guy who posts as "Metatron." I think his dad is from somewhere in the semi-Germanic north, and he imitates various regions in between. The intro is annoying so I skipped it for you. The video backs up the saying that Italian is the most common foreign language in Italy.

 

[Zepol87 9198]

3 hours ago, Helobious said:

Yep. It’s 5 street soldiers. It’s nothing for the operation if they get arrested or killed. Dime a dozen. Just a PR move. 

Yep just a couple aguilas

[RDCanecutter 26512]

11 hours ago, ztejas said:

Whose rumination?

That looks like unedited Spanish to English translation. 

Didn't mix up the she's and he's enough. Unedited Spanish translation always mixes up the she's and he's.

Por ejemplo:

yo vi a tu hermana. se cagó en mi cama

Google thinks that's "I saw your sister. he shit on my bed." But I don't do like that anymore.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13530]

4 hours ago, mbtex said:

 

Funny cause there is truth in it. Always crazy how some bigots/racists are able to correctly identify someone's race. they must have website bookmarked to teach them about characteristics of some races or nationalities.

[YGIFS 19453]

Also funny because so many White people in Texas can't shut the fuck up about their ancestral roots in Europe.  "I am 9th cousins with such-and-such Duke/Barron/Earl from England/Germany/Scotland/Sweden/etc."  But when pressed, "European?  Nah man, that ain't me, them's socialist queers..."  

Will blow me away until the day I die, how the thing people had the least to do with, is their biggest badge of honor.  

"5th Generation Texan from Germany. dammit!"  

If you've been here that long and you haven't started a foundation to help other Texans, you're doing life wrong.  

Edited March 10, 2023 by YGIFS

[locodos 5418]

7 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Will blow me away until the day I die, how the thing people had the least to do with, is their biggest badge of honor.  

"5th Generation Texan from Germany. dammit!"  

What really blows me away is if they are 5th generation (very unlikely) then they're "5th Generation Mexicans from Germany. Dios mio!"

[Frank Drebin 5670]

23 hours ago, jdhorn92 said:

In all this Mexican (no racist) road trip madness, surprised we haven't had a Fandango reference.  Maybe the board has gone young on me.  Us olds will remember the B movie breakout for Kevin Costner and Judd Nelson as graduating Texas Fijis making one last hurrah for ol' Mexico just after UT graduation and before the Vietnam war draft.  IIRC they are in search of buried treasure of tequila. 

It's been a minute, but they don't cross the border, do they?

May have to fire that movie up tonight.

[YGIFS 19453]

buried treasure of tequila?  Yeah, that famous french tequila, Don Patrignon.  

but to the legit question, I don't think they cross the border during t hose two scenes.  They obviously get close and look upon the river.  Maybe it's implied they hiked across (with drunk dude over the shoulder), but it's not really a big plot point when they dig up the bottle which side they are on.  As many of you know, you can stand on certain places on the river and 'appear' to be south or north depending on which way the bend goes.  However, it is heavily implied that Costner's character is looking back over the town from across the border and we can only assume he fades deeper in country the next morning.  

For all my family ties to South Texas, I never really knew Austin until one day a cousin showed me two UT-based films on Betamax.  And they were made 10 years apart.  "Fandango" and "Deadly Tower".  Man, that fucked with my head.  

[dcar00 14438]

"Yeah, so, uh, Gringos,..we are very sorry we kilt 2 innocent people.  We humbly apologize if our actions offended anyone.  We promise to do better in the future."

signed MMTDG(Murdering Mexican Thug Drug Cartel)

[texasdago 7589]

1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

Also funny because so many White people in Texas can't shut the fuck up about their ancestral roots in Europe.  "I am 9th cousins with such-and-such Duke/Barron/Earl from England/Germany/Scotland/Sweden/etc."  But when pressed, "European?  Nah man, that ain't me, them's socialist queers..."  

Will blow me away until the day I die, how the thing people had the least to do with, is their biggest badge of honor.  

"5th Generation Texan from Germany. dammit!"  

If you've been here that long and you haven't started a foundation to help other Texans, you're doing life wrong.  

...and what's particularly funny about all the Italian-Americans in places like Jersey who's grandparents or great grandparents or great great whatever came from Italy... when they say they are Italian, Italians say "so, American".   

[YGIFS 19453]

^

Yep, happened all the time growing up in Chicago with so many Italians.  You don't really meet that many here in Texas, so it's not really a thing.  But I never, ever heard one person, ever growing up say "I'm a 3rd generation Illinoisan" but I can't go ten fucking minutes without "I'm a 4th generation Texan."  Okay, cool.  Glad you're here, glad to meet you.  What in the ever-living-fuck did you do to get born here?  Your dad fucked your mom in Dallas and she pushed you out of her vagina in Houston and now we're at a fundraiser having this awkward conversation.  Cool.  

Anyway, back to Matamoros.  I think about these back-to-back business trips I had in Ciudad Juarez years ago.  One trip, I was in El Paso on business and got overserved and of course wandered over the border to get more fucked up.  I speak fluent Spanish, having a mother from Mexico.  I was wise enough to take off my tie and jacket, dropped my Madrid accent, but go so fucked up---I lost my wallet (not even robbed, just lost it).  Had to trade my watch to a woman crossing to front me enough to cross and get a cab to the hotel back by the airport, but never felt a target.  Few years later, I'm traveling there under the protection of the SRE.  Armored Suburbans with masked security from one secure location to another.  And I was fucking terrified the whole time, and deadly sober because I didn't want to drop my wits---if I ever had any.  Occurred to me months later that I was trying to appear more sophisticated on the second trip so I spoke more arrogantly in Spanish, dressed better, held my head higher, etc.  Even though I was under extreme protection of the SRE, I stood out because I was trying to be a good guest.  When I was a shitfaced lowkey guy speaking Spanish like Mom taught me growing up from the Valley, even at 3am, with my dark hair and drunken Spanish, I blended in.  I was probably safer but I didn't appreciate it at the time.  

 I have spent tens of thousands of hours on the rough sides of South & West Chicago, Central America, West Africa, New York, California, and the Rio Grande Valley-Texas & Mexico.  And I have never, ever been more in fear for my life than I was in Columbus, Ohio in September of 2005.  my phone was dead so my buddy and I took turns using his.  I called my then fiance, she and I had just gotten engaged days before.  And then he called his wife and two young daughters.  We basically said, "We're going to get beat and beat badly.  We are trying to get outta here but there are no cabs or buses.  We took off all our UT gear and threw it away and are trying to make it back to the hotel but it's miles away."  Told her I loved her, listened to him tell his girls he loved them and that we were resigned to the fact that we weren't gonna die, but were probably gonna be beat within an inch of our lives.  

tl;dr----------I'll take Mexicans in  Matamoros over italians in Ohio any day of the week.

[texasdago 7589]

16 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

 

tl;dr----------I'll take Mexicans in  Matamoros over italians in Ohio any day of the week.

Ahem, Italian Americans

[Chopper 17318]

All good. We can just track what the cartels are up to through their twitter accounts.