NPR profiles Kirchner

NPR* has a quite lengthy post from yesterday on the completely unexpected level of economic recovery in Argentina under President Kirchner (...con audio para practicar tu inglés!)buenos aires yanqui mike politics hugo chavez venezuela economy south america
As a former addict of the network and it's affiliate WBEZ, I can say that long print pieces like this used to be rare on their website. So I was surprised after a couple of years abstinence to find this detailed profile.

Surprised because I slowly weaned myself from my habit when I realized that they were never going to give Bush the same treatment they gave Clinton. This article, however, paints K broadly in the Argentine center with emphasis on the Peronist enigma of being difficult to peg as left or right. Previously, saying anything good about K was considered tantamount to criticizing GWB. With Bush's polls at an unbelievable 28% or so... maybe NPR has decided to grow a pair.

I probably won't listen to the audio, tho. Tell me what you think.

*Nice Polite Republicans

Stars

You are to be forgiven if you've never seen this particular constellation... even if you've been here for a long time. My first few visits to Buenos Aires were so rushed and hurried that I barely thought about the fact that the this was the Southern Hemisphere and the very stars were different... and the fact that my first short stays here were cloudy if not rainy didn't help at all.

It's also a big city and that makes it difficult to see stars even from your rooftop.

Out in the campo it's different. Being 26K from the nearest (very small) town gives you an opportunity to see just why they call the Way milky.

I don't know why I've never before turned my trusty old DSC-s85 on her back and set the timer. But I did this time and got delighted with the above result.

There's no real "pole star" down here on the south side that's really visible with the naked eye... but we have the cross.

All four stars in the Southern Cross move during the seasons but the imaginary intersection of the two lines that your mind draws inside the kite-like object remains fairly stationary*. That gives you and gave the old marineros, the ability to navigate in these waters.

You have to use your imagination... at least a little... to get around down here.

Everyone always has.

*This post contains a factual error as to the use of the Southern Cross in celestial navigation... the part about imagination, however, still holds true.

Live Blogging from Olavarría

(Originally published 25 May 2017)
Happy locro day everybody. Today finds us still on the cattle trail but about to head out for the big town. That means our 25 de Mayo will be feted tomorrow at la casa de mi cuñado... and guess who is making the locro... yo el yanqui.

We will probably be home by noon today. That will give me just about enough time to prepare this dish... for my first time... for 10 hungry Argentines waiting for the season´s specialty dish.

If you don´t know locro you should. It´s delicious and wonderfully warming and has one of the arsenal de cuisine's most overlooked ingredients: hominy.

My first... and favorite... locro I ever ate was in Mataderos back in 2000. It was really nothing like any other locro I´ve ever seen. It was really skimpy on all the different crazy pig-parts and sausages that make up a big-time, pull out all the stops, locro as pictured above.

But that was an excellent introduction for me. It pared back the dish to it´s foundation: a grain porridge of hominy, some beans, and little bit of some other things like squash and potatoes just to keep it nice and thick and complete the emulsion with the fat.

That locro way back when reminded me of my father´s version of senate bean soup... smoky and rich... except in place of beans there was hominy. It crosses the line a little from soup to stew. Locro crosses that line a bit more but is should not be gloppy.

Today´s (tomorrow´s actually) locro will begin with a couple of kilos of the dried, cracked corn that has been treated with calcium carbonate in the old aztec fashion. It will soak for hours then simmer carefully for hours until it becomes tender and releases its starch. Then the hominy will get some company: white beans, some squash, and tiny cubes of potato to dissolve into the proper consistency.

Meanwhile, all the meat parts will be slowly, slowly braising away until about 3 hours later when they are at the point of extreme tenderness and will also allow me to remove some of their rendered fat.

Those lovely meat things are at this point already purchased (yesterday because of the holiday) from a tremendous butcher that my lovely wife found for me in this tremendous cow-town of Olavarría and are sleeping in the refrigerators of the fine Savoy Hotel: Pigs feet, pig skin (cuerito de chancho), mondongo, tripa gorda de chancho, strips of pork ribs, and a goodly amount of well smoked bacon.

As the dish nears readiness to serve, some great red sausages from the great Spanish tradition will be plopped in.

Seasoning and spices will be mild, of course, a bit of paprika, some white pepper, garlic, and very little salt... strangely for Argentina, every locro receta I have seen mentions that locro should not come to the table salty.

Then I´ll have a little fun preparing a couple of topping sauces that are the traditional accompaniment. They are always red and and skirt actual picanteness! Just for fun, I´m also bringing a pint bottle of Pain is Good® garlic hot sauce just to blow everybody´s mind.

I´ll be cooking this low and slow all afternoon and evening... so if you have locro tips, send ém in LIVE as the dish progresses.

(One particularly tremendous tip would be... advice on any supermercados open for last minute ingredients!!!)

Mil gracias a La Majaluta for some personal advice regarding the hominy!!!

Update: 17:45 BsAs. 2.5 kilos of maíz pisado blanco sin cáscara are soaking/simmering in two giant pots... with just enough water to do the job. That is probably WAY too much hominy but there will be NO time to prepare more if the quantity pulls up short. Pig parts are doing their low 'n' slow thing in another pot in the oven. The Disco is open... for a few cans of white beans (no soaking!)

Update: 22:00. 2.5 kilos of dried hominy turns into an INCREDIBLE amount of hominy... two giant pots full. Way too much. I'm going to have to dump some.

I'm in a logistic crunch... I'm out of pots. I have one big Essen® in the oven chock full of pig parts. So full, in fact, that the ordinary 3 hour low and slow is probably going to have to take 6 hours due to sheer density...we're lookin' at midnight for the meat to be done.

This is going to leave me with my biggest pot full of hominy and zapallo, the Essen full of meat, a giant wok in which I am assembling the fine smoked panceta and onions... and one pot free for assembly after the hominy dump.

The idea is to take the free pot and fill it with the proper proportions of hominy/squash, pig-parts, bacon/onion, beans, and red sausage. That should leave the biggest pot not quite so full of hominy/squash and thus able to accept its share of the rest of the ingredients in the proper proportions.

Then sleep, wake-up, go get the car, load it up, drive for an hour, and get to lo de mi cuñado at noon or so. Stand-by for updates.

Update: 00:30. It's killer. All the pig-parts practically liquefied with the rendering of their fat leaving even things that are not normally tender... extraordinarily tender. I drained about a half liter of fat off the parts to the great benefit of everyone's digestion tomorrow. Screw the beans, it doesn't need it. Goin' to bed. Chau.

Big success. Gracias a Dios. Gold medal from my brother-in-law...my mother-in-law ate so much that it frightened me. Everybody chowed and called it the best. I actually got applause for the "locroador"! What a relief.

Jack Chang files a story on K's biggest battle yet. I love K in the city... but I hate him in the campo.

who likes the li'l li'l trolies in da pond?

They're not easy to catch... and they're not like leprechauns that come with a pot of gold at the end of their embarrassing li'l rainbows... but IT SURE IS FUN when you catch one... or two... or three!

Now, it's true, that IP addresses change and banning them doesn't work. However.

When you get a string of them all from the same IP... with all the different nicknames and aliases... you at least know that it's just ONE LITTLE TROLL and not an army of concerned citizens speaking with the same voice.

El rincón del desquiciado won't stop them... nothing stops trolls.

But it might force the cute little babies out of the comfort of their frilly li'l cribs and into those nasty locutorios where they'll have to have a little of the "mutual understanding between races" that they crave so much. Hee hee! Big fun.

"SLATS" JOHNSON SPEAKS!

THE YM INTERVIEW
...with Bob Johnson

Last week I ran into Bob Johnson in the callecitas of Retiro while he was wandering down Esmeralda perusing the window displays of the hardware stores, mercerías, and tack shops.

He seemed genuinely pleased to see me and we made arrangements to meet a few days later for an afternoon beer in a local strip joint...that being the only kind of place left in town where you can smoke at the bar.

I've always liked Bob. Like me, he's originally from Chicago, he has a great old Chicago nickname: "Slats", and now makes Buenos Aires his home with his Argentine wife, Chiche. But other than that we're not much alike.

Bob moved here right after the crash and soon had put together a string of successful locutorios. About 3 years ago, he sold them all and bought two big blueberry farms somewhere way out in the province.

We met just as scheduled on that crispy autumn afternoon and ducked inside the friendly confines of the bar. We had the place all to ourselves except for a couple of very bored looking girls in fishnet stockings and bowties who brightened up considerably until we passed them on our way to the big hardwood slab with the stools and big ceramic ashtrays.

It was dark inside compared to the bright fall skies and we felt warm and cozy ensconced in the smoke and dim light. Forty pesos brought forth two ice cold cans of Isenbeck and we drank to each other's very good health.

....."So how's the blog thing coming along?", he asked me. I was sort of startled that he remembered my mentioning my blog to him about a year ago.

I told him it was doing just fine and couldn't help but remark that I didn't think he'd ever really look at it. He just didn't seem to be the blog reading type...whatever type that is.

..... "Well, you know, the blueberry thing doesn't actually run itself but it doesn't take up my time like the old days. Not to even mention the 10-hour days on top of a 2-hour commute back in the old country!" We both laughed, clinked our aluminum cans together and knocked back the last swigs. I called for two more.

My curiosity having been piqued, I asked him what he thought about the redesigned yanquimike punto com punto ar.

..... "Disturbing."

That wasn't the sort of reaction I was expecting...and he could tell by the look on my face.

..... "No, no! Not your redesign! That's fine. A little wacky at first but I got the hang of it after a while.

"What really got to me was a couple of the blogs I found. Both of them written by American guys."

I'm aware, of course, that there are a few blogs run by yanquis that are pretty offensive when they're not being flat-out arrogant and rude to Argentines. I made a few guesses as to what blogs he was refering to.

..... "Nah, none of those guys. You kinda know what to expect from that bunch so I avoid them. What I'm talkin' about is two guys that I've actually met and they're really nice fellas! Friendly, interesting company, intelligent guys. And some of the nicest things I ever read about BA, I read on their blogs. They're nothing like some of them that you find at baexpats.com"

Our third round of beers had just arrived and I was starting to wonder if the suds was already affecting our higher processes.

What could be disturbing about two yanqs, good guys, saying great things about our new hometown?

..... "One of the posts was about residential real estate by a young guy and the other was a nostalgic look at a bunch of little things about Buenos Aires."

I took another slurp out of my can and realized I'd seen both of those blogs. I asked him if those were the posts he was talking about.

..... "Yeah! Those ones! One time I just had to shut my browser down. Me hacía sentir tanto vergüenza ajena", he said in his hilariously accented Castellano.

I was pretty sure that I remembered the posts but I certainly didn't recall anything out of the ordinary and I told him so.

..... "You gotta be kiddin' me. Are you sure you read them? Here. Lemme refresh your memory a little bit.

"The young guy starts off talkin' about how apartments here are different from the States then ends up writin' about how Argentineans discriminate against people because of class and race. The other guy is tryin' to tell people about how a lot of things here remind him of when he was a kid in the 1960's but comes off like he thinks that Buenos Aires is 50 years behind the times!"

Maybe Bob had a point but I reminded him that everybody that lives here knows for a fact that rich porteños don't hang out with poor porteños and if you have dark skin here people are going to occasionally mistake you for the busboy or the portero even if you have a PhD.

....."A course! Any modern industrial society has got class distinctions and whiter, European types always have the best seats at the top. Everybody knows that!"

Now he had me even more confused. So I decided to ask him about the post about old-fashioned stuff about Baires.

....."Hey, I know what the guy was gettin' at. Any American who loves this place has got a couple two tree favorite things that he misses from his childhood that everybody still does here.

"But you gotta be careful! I'm talkin' about being careful not to make it sound like this is Havana or somethin'.

"And another thing! You gotta keep your facts straight if you're gonna do that.

"Garbage disposals were illegal in New York until 10 years ago, the 60's were the gaddam heyday of the automatic transmission and YOU, Mikey, sure as shit, gotta remember back in 1995 when 600 people dropped dead from the heat in Chicago that summer!

"Why'd they drop dead? 'Cause nobody within half a mile from the lake ever had AC as standard equipment!

"They were pulling rich old blue-haired ladies out of their fancy apartments for months."

I like Bob but this was getting out of hand.

He had, however, already ordered another round. The bartender looked at us like he had never seen two guys drink 4 beers each.

I thought I'd try agreeing with him on a couple of points...just to calm him down if nothing else. I conceded that some of the facts were wrong.

..... "Si, Juan. What's the real estate kid's excuse? Like it or not, you and I both know we come from one of the most divided countries on earth and the most famous one when it comes to racism. What'd the kid think: nobody here knows that?

"Anyway, Mike, that isn't the point and you know it. What were these guys tryin' to say, for chrissakes? And why were they havin' such a hard time sayin' it?"

I had no answer. Bob knew these guys, not me. I pointed out that not everybody can write.

..... "Not these guys", he said. "the real estate kid is the son of of a famous Philadelphia author and the old guy is a tenured professor from some Ivy League university. If anybody can write it oughta be these two."

I didn't know what to say.

..... "Ya see, these are some of our best. The United States has its share of assholes like every other country you've ever been in.

"But these guys are buen tipos. Bot' of 'em prolly voted Democrat!

"It almost feels like people don't feel any responsibility. My dear ol' uncle, not Mom's side of the family, the other one, god rest his soul, used to talk about going overseas back in the old days. He always said that his family and friends would tell him to represent his country well. He always said it felt like being an ambassador or something. Right now, 21% of Americans have a passport. And that's a record!

"Maybe moving to a foreign country doesn't feel like such a big deal anymore with the internet and satelite communcation and whatnot. But Christ! Who are these guys writing for? Both of 'em gotta know that when you put something out on the internet, EVERYBODY can see it. Don't they think Argies ever speak English, don't they think that one of their friends might translate it for 'em even if they don't?

"When you talk about somebody's hometown you have to be sensible, I like that word. Sensible. It doesn't mean exactly the same thing in Spanish, maybe it's even better.

"It's like talkin' about somebody's mother or their sister. If somebody started talkin' about how your mother drinks a little too much or how many guys your sister has slept with, well, Mikey, you know, he'd better be pretty careful in his choice of words! If da guy's an idiot, you might cut him some slack. But if the guy doesn't have any psychological excuses and raises his voice a little, he's gotta expect a swing at his nose. Doesn't he, Mike? Doesn't he?

"Aaaah, ¿que se yo?. ¿Que te parece? ¿Querés una más para el camino?"

I consented to the beer, since Bob was buying, and because it looked like we would talk about something more pleasant. I asked him how his blueberry farms were doing.

....."Byooootiful. I've made a pile o' dough and I think it's time to get out while the gettin' is good."

A third business for Bob since 2000? I asked what his plans were.

..... "It's time to move south, Mikeyboy! Did you know that in Patagonia you can buy a hectare of land for the same price as a cup of coffee in Madrid?!? Watch me! I'm gonna make another killin'!

It was good to hear that Bob was doing well. Bob paid the bartender and we headed for the door.

The sun outside was blinding and the air was chilly. I fumbled for my wayfarers® and my scarf as we said goodbye.

..... "Hey, Mike," he called back to me as we walked away from each other. "Did you take my advice on those soybeans?"

I nodded and waived.

..... "Good move!"

The Buck Doesn't Stop in Argentina

If you moved to Argentina to protect the strength of your USD, you made a good move. Currency traders have come to the conclusion that the Kirchner administration will not allow the dollar to buy much less than 3.10 pesos, according to today's Ambito Financiero.

They go on to mention how this helps Argentine competitiveness in the world markets in that the world would rather buy exports from here considering the going rate and that allows La República to pick-off customers from other countries. At the same time this keeps we locals from buying many imports... thus stimulating local producers to create Argentine "replacements" for the foreign stuff we would otherwise shell-out for.

Of course, this means lots of good hard foreign currencies flowing into the country and not as many pesos going out into the world. That combination makes for the inflation you may have been feeling... and also gives K some serious dough to experiment with price controls aimed at keeping inflation down and stimulate certain parts of the economy that he would like to see grow. Let's wish him better luck than Dick Nixon had.

That inflation (relatively minor, truth be told) means that your dollar doesn't actually feel as good in your pocket as the papers all say it does but there's no denying that we are living in an island of protection for the greenback.

Take a look at Brazil: it wasn't too very long ago that the dollar bought 3.00 Brazilian Reals... today $1 will get you 1.98 reals and nobody thinks that is going to reverse itself.

The Euro today came within 1¢ of its all time high against the US currency. If you and your bucks were living in that zone right now... well... let's not even think about it.

Life in England and Japan, with their pounds and yen, haven't been a good deal for we Yanqs for a while but right now I can't imagine how fast your wallet would empty trying to keep house there.

But that's not all. The Canadian Dollar is closing in on a 29 year high. That old yanqui quip, "How much is that in REAL money?" isn't as funny for americanos around Toronto as it used to be.

So enjoy it while it lasts... and it looks like it's gonna last for a while... in Argentina, at least.

Cattle producers could get a break. Volume and prices up at Liniers but overall calf production is not sufficient to keep you in beefy goodness.

From La Nacion: Argentina among the top in region for pirate software. If you "know a guy" it's 10 pesos per disk...no matter what title.

From the Clarin: some 2yr leases have a hike after a year. Wages not keeping pace, renters bailing out.

NEWS FLASH! "Buenos Aires Expatriates Group" FINALLY gets some moderation... just not in the way you'd expect.

Mercedes is on a roll again: this time about the dep in c/dep... comments en castellano only, please.

Raise Less Beef...More Hell!

From el Clarin:
MEATPACKERS SUSPEND SLAUGHTER DUE TO LACK OF CATTLE
Tough Rancher Strike Continues
Matías Longoni
mlongoni@clarin.com

We're just back from the campo and the big news around town is the lack of beef for sale here in the center of the beef-eating universe.

The Clarin, among others, is reporting that the government is agreeing to price increases negociated by meatpackers and cattle brokers... but the ranchers are still refusing in large numbers to sell their cattle.

I know that this is the case with us. It is simply too painful to sell the magnificent animals that are the result of this year's continuing splendid weather... for even lower prices than we got last year.

The same weather that worked in favor of producing tremendous cattle is also working in the rancher's favor: this autumn is filled with grass. It looks like spring in the pastures right now and we are "wintering" our cattle for the first time in maybe a century... something we usually don't have enough grass for. I don't wonder that we are the only ones.

Let's hope the nasty feedlots can keep up with the demand for greasy, mushy, bacteria/hormone/antibiotic laden steaks.

That's my boy!

I know, I know. I told you that I am become death... I mean farmer. But there's still a few hectares left for some good ol' ranchin'! Or, more accurately, some hi-tech ranching.

Parenthetically, I'd like to share something with you: I'm an old man... and it's been a good life. Hey, I'm not dyin' or anything! But it's just that... even though you are aware, in advance, that life is unpredictable, the road is long with many a winding turn... BLAH, BLAH, BLAH... even when you know that goin' in... and you may have had a few big surprises before... and a few hairpin turns and an alien abduction or two along your path... I just want to whisper something to you; I hope it may help you... just as you are thinking that life can't possibly get any weirder: "¡YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW WEIRD IT CAN GET!"

I just spent over two hours with a salesman and his full-size, glossy, 4-color... bull semen catalog. He even gave me a copy on CD-ROM. And you can even see it here on the intertubies.

Never in my life did I ever think that event would/could/should ever happen. But it did. So it goes.

And it was actually very cool. We're looking to introduce some new blood into the herd and this was like the amazon.com or netflix of prize Argentine Aberdeen-Angus bull flesh, second to maybe only the home counties of Scotland as the best in the world (actually, when the Scottish needed to revitalize their national herd they looked to Argentina as the source of the only specimens suitable for the job.)

I'm positively mad about Max (above) but his spooey, if you will, is way too expensive to do all of our sweet young virgins. But I'll be springin' for a half dozen pops for the comeliest of our hacienda... then watching closely over the next 9 months and beyond.

You might recognize the name of the stud farm (or however it is you say cabaña in English!), Las Lilas.

I had a chance to visit one of YESba's monthly gatherings on Thursday and I was pleasantly surprised! Big turn out at a definitely un-stodgy cocktail party event at Udaondo Resto-Bar Avenida Del Libertador 6800. Good location. Easy to get to. A very fun atmosphere in a very comfortable place. Very nice people; check 'em out.

The Lexington Incident Part 4

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

George Washington Slacum apparently was a real ass.

By virtually every account, the man was overly ambitious, insubordinate, spiteful and self-aggrandizing. Not that all that much is known about him. He was the son of the mayor of Alexandria, DC (now Virginia) and had an ambitious brother who made his way from being a ship's purser to US Special Diplomatic Agent to Mexico.

G.W. Slacum was appointed US Consul to Buenos Aires in 1824 and this is the best description on the web of his personality:

The events of the controversy were handled by George W. Slacum, the American Consul. Slacum was a man of enormous ambitions and slight discretion whose character is revealed in his relationships with his fellow citizens.


Political liaison was Mr. Forbes's job.


Commercial enterprises, the welfare of American merchant seamen, and the state of trade in general were Mr. Slacum's normal and proper area of responsibility.


In 1825, the American merchant schooner La Meroupe was stranded on the coast of Patagonia, and it was discovered that a part of its valuable cargo of wax was salvable. Slacum sent his trusted clerk and confidant, John Duffy, to take charge of the salvage and protect the owners' rights.

Apparently, Slacum's clerk may have cut himself in on a piece of the deal while salvaging the stranded cargo in Patagonia (or MAYBE... cut Slacum OUT of the deal!)

Rather than handle the matter "diplomatically", Slacum threw the guy into the street and called the local Buenos Aires police on him; a strange and extreme action between two members of the diplomatic corps and one that caused Slacum's boss, John Murray Forbes, to write to him expressing concern... and maybe suspicion... at Slacum's treatment of a man that appeared to be a friend as well as a co-worker:

"...it make on part of my present purpose to consider...whether its recovery...was or was not the most probable result of the steps you took...the placing of Mr. Duffy's person at the disposition of the Police...was a precipitate assumption of authority not warranted by the nature and functions of your consular office..."


"Duffy was the companion of your labors and your leisures...In a moment of doubt, you break to the bitterest enmity, and Mr. Duffy is cast to the fangs of the Police as a criminal. I thank God Sir, that my heart is not a moral kaleidoscope where the feelings...can be changed with that quickness of lightning...(3)"

Slacum got defensive, as anybody would.

However, he then upped the ante considerably.

He seemed to take a page right out of today's neo-con/fox-news playbook and changed the subject to possible corruption by his boss and accused Forbes of orchestrating the whole salvage shakedown with Forbes' buddy, the German consul to Buenos Aires.

This was the final insult for the chargé, who refused to accept any but official communications from the consul and urged that Slacum "...state your greifs (sic) and even to present yourself a reasonable latitude of personality that your rancour...may be presented to the judgement of our masters, the President and Secretary of State...(4)"

Here the unhappy affair stood. In January, 1827, writing to Secretary of State Henry Clay from Annapolis, Slacum denounced the "continued oppression" of his superior, lamenting that he had been "...the object of personal jealousy of Mr. Forbes and the victim of official and private slander...(5)"

To be fair, Forbes himself was provoked to making some undiplomatic statements. But by then old Forbes was sick, close to death, and undoubtedly maddened by the accusations of his subordinate.

Slacum's own personal physician wrote the US Secretary of State:

"...Slacum...is capable of making use of dishonorable means against an opponent and considers every man his enemy who does not think it proper to hold opinions similar to his own...you must know that he is an exceedingly vain person, loves his own person exceedingly well...(6)

That was the situation Forbes faced when he died... just months before the US destruction of the Argentine settlement in the Malvinas.

Forbes' death left Buenos Aires without a chargé d'affaires and left Consul Slacum, at least temporarily, the highest ranking US diplomat in Argentina.

Although Slacum's status hadn't really changed at all, he considered himself automatically promoted to Forbes' old job.

His letter to Secretary of State Van Buren is a curious mixture of bold self-assurance and humility: "...from the good understanding subsisting between the governments of the United States and Buenos Ayres, as well as from my intimate...personal acquaintance, I shall find no difficulty in proctecting the honor and interests of my country...until the Government shall be pleased to send some other representative more competent than myself...(7)

Washington DC probably considered him harmless. But with the seizure of a US merchant ship only a few months later, Slacum would show his ass to the world... and the US would be forced to cover it.

"Commander Silas Duncan and
the Falkland Islands Affair"
by Lt. Comm. Alexander G. Monroe, USN Reserve

Max... are you out there?

If you are anywhere in cyberspace... if you can get to an email... please write and tell us what happened to your blog... and maybe then we can get these BAEG Forum trolls of my back (and everyone else's)... and make an Argentina that our children can be proud of.

Thanks and Best Wishes,
Mike

p.s. Max is former law enforcement... not the kind of guy that is generally silenced by fear.

Yes Anonymous and Diva i can report that Mad Max has discontinued his blog because of threats made to him by Yanqui Mike.

He was a great person and spoke the truth and because of this he has been silenced out of fear.

Is this the new Argentina that we want for our children . One born out of fear to express the truth . One where figures are changed to give Politicians false figures to lie to us with.

This is a sad day in our history

Peter Winter (Yanqui Mike note: This is a link thru Google cache...get it while you can.)


Anonymous dijo...

Hi matt

i am very concerned that a blogger called Mad Max has has had his blog removed from here.

Is this because of that guy Yanqui Mike? He has been causing tremendous problems in Buenos Aires in regards to freedom to express .

Please investigate this 6:13 PM


mattyboy dijo...

Investigate? I'll get my detectives right on to it...

I don't think I've ever delisted any blog. If the blog was no longer being updated I'd move it to the "Inactive blogs" section. As for Mad Maxx's blog, what was his blog called? Are you sure it's been deleted? Tell me the address of his blog and I'll add it again if that's the case.

-Matt 12:45 AM


Anonymous dijo...

He had a blog called Comments from Argentina by far the best blog in Argentina and now it is defunct .

EWveryone in Buenos Aires is saying that Yanqui Mike has threatened him and now we see that he is gone.

Please Help Matt 10:36 AM


mattyboy dijo...

The "comments on argentina" blog is still in my list, in the section "Expats outside Buenos Aires". So I did not delete the blog from my list.

But you are right, the blog now no longer exists. But neither yanqui mike nor me nor anyone else has the power to delete a blog. The only person who can delete a blog is the owner of the blog - and that would be Mad Maxx. So Mad Maxx has deleted it because he wants to, so you should write to him not to me.

Unfortunately, writing to him will be difficult, since his blog now doesn't exist. I found his profile page for you here
but that doesn't have any contact information either. 7:25 PM


j dijo...

anon, I suggest you learn how blogger or blogspot works before you accuse someone of banishing an account. Or before you open your web browser again why don't you learn a little about the Internet.

When you see a 404 error on a blogspot account it is usually because the user decided to delete their blog. It is very very very hard for someone else to get another person's blog deleted unless they post something against Google's terms of service.

Either Max posted content against Google's terms or he deleted his blog himself.

I don't know this Yanqui Mike personally but it makes me laugh how he gets blamed for everything. Like he can just snap his fingers and delete a blog, haha see you later baby.

You've been schooled son. Stay away from the web if you don't know how it works. 12:02 AM