Mexican elections - July 5 - Controversial, important & barely covered here

This is the current president of Mexico. He is a right winger. Think he's worried?

Translation: "It is necessary that the citizens not be seated behind a political class which, from the citizen’s point of view, clearly has failed," said the President of the Republic. (President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon El Universal, June 25, 2009

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5961075&mesg_id=5961075

Michael,

What we did not translate there, was the phrase "no ha respondido...":

"The political class, which has not responded..."

Andres Manuel Lopex-Obrador(ALMO), PRD candidate for president and
probable winner, at one of the million person assemblies protesting
the 2006 election results, likely stolen. There were three gatherings
proclaiming Obrador the winner of the election.

Also see this from Obrador's official web page (in English):
http://electionfraudnews.com/Articles/ObradorSite.htm

they are not on something, the war on drugs has released interesting forces in Mexico

I personally do not think it could reach the 1910 fever... but I am not discounting it either

Piece of trivia, demonstrations down Reforma have been a matter of every day city life for at least 25 years, so something might finally jell

and expect to see them in two weeks when I head back to DF.

In regards to 1910, as a historian, I don't like to make predictions. There was a surge of stuff across a wide spectrum that helped bring about the Revolution. Maybe those things are in place now-it's really hard to say. But the bloody violence of the Revolution is a public memory, so I'd imagine people do not want to take it there.

away from

Something I'd hazard to say Americans do, on any war

Oh and demonstrations are part of the traffic report... and regular part of city life, I remember hearing them when first learning how to drive in Mexico City oh 25 years ago, and longer when mom took us around

The Olympics massacre was an exception. Mexico was steadfast in not signing up as the "coalition
of the willing." The response to the (dare I mention" flu outbreak was remarkable for the
signs of total cooperation. Common courtesies are valued.

This is not Iran so the people have a chance and they deserve it.

and every anniversary people talk about it. We should do that for Kent State

The difference is that Kent State did not open a Guerra Sucia that lasted for several years. The nicest and shortest period would be the Echeverria Alvarez Presidency that spanned the 1970s, early parts. Worst all the way to the Portillo administration.

It spanned mostly the State of Guerrero and south (If this sounds familiar to the revolt in 1993 there is a reason for that, Guerrero has been a refuge for all kinds of revolutionary movements oh since 1810, it is the geography stupid. The mountains are extremely rugged)

People honest to goodness went missing in October of 1968. Yes the army will play when it is convenient, and even though there is this history, right now the Army is the most trusted institution of Mexico... things one learns readying the Mexican press.

As a child we went to Acapulco every year for the december holidays... by land not air. We went through retenes militares (military checkpoints) every year until the De La Madrid administration. They were ostensibly agricultural checkpoints due to agricultural pests, and while there was some truth to that... it was mostly due to the guerrilla in the mountains.

Now if you turned to the Televisa or even government TV, nothing. We used to joke that you had to read the NYT to find out what was happening in Mexico, and there was a smidgen of truth to that. How times have changed. One thing Fox did is that he actually opened the press.. these days I have to read the Mexican Press to find out what is happening here. They had a hell of an expose for the 2004 fraud...

Now to the flu... there are many in Mexico who think it was a government plot to keep people off the streets, first hand account, yes I heard that, and so has my mother. But most folks realize it was for real and it was serious. Not only that, once it was linked to Smithfield and the US... well the vecinos distantes and damn gringos kicked in.

:-)

Oh and 1968 saw ambulances shot at, and the ever so popular NO SIR, we will not load YOUR ARMED troops on board my NEUTRAL AMBULANCE, no SIR< with all due respect, see this convention this country signed?. I took after those folks when I told a Colonel where to shove it, (where the sun don't shine) when the war started in '93 and he came with a mobilization order... By the way if you take a look at the Mexican Red Cross Paramedic uniform, it IS a uniform for a combat or conflict zone.

By the way the accounts of The Noche de Taltelolco, the best are by Maria Poniatowska... and every year she still goes on the TV. I heard some from the actual medics who responded. They still remember the EMTs (using the current term) that were shot by the army, with everybody else. Unofficially over 1000 people went ahem missing that day... and to this day there are rumors that they were shot at the Campo Militar #1... how much truth to that there is.. . who knows. Oh and the Mexican Supreme Court did open the way for a Trial for Crimes Against Humanity and a slew of other crimes against Echeverria, so perhaps we will see BushCO face the court in a couple decades. And during those years, we all watched, yes even us kids, what we said, and watched our Ps and Qs... it never got to THAT point here with BushCo, but I went back to those habits, to a point.

Oh and who was the enemy? Them commies, does it ever change?

A little history and some of it, my own childhood. By the way after Echeverria pulled some of his crap, my dad and mom started the paperwork maze that landed me and my sister in the States twenty years later. ..

As a survivor of the Holocaust he saw some really scary patterns... and it did not help when Echeverrial pulled sone particular bad crap at the UN General Assembly in 1973 that gave flight to the local anti-Semites, yes, it thrives, and who should be surprised the PAN are the descendants of.... the Brown Shirts in Mexico back in the 1930s. Too much inside baseball?

:-)

I don't know about the swine flu, as demonstrated recently;) but I do now that the compliance of the Mexican people, immediate and efficient, showe what they can do as one if they choose. What a demonstration of civic responsibility and respect for others. I was moved and I have not seen anything out there with that angle (if there is, link please).

Thanks for the history.

are kept off press. They are truly told at the market by the marchantes to my mother. She told me and I went... 9.11 gungeon worthy...

As to the civic spirit, it is ingrained in kids from very early on, as well as a civic responsibly and service to others and the country, all the corruption notwithstanding..

Hell, Mexico has a 60% + participation in off years, and close to 90% in Presidential elections. The IFE has been holding a get involved in the elections campaign that I wish we saw in the US.

Granted, one of the adds was insulting, but most of them are very good and make the point. You want change, it is up to you to show up and vote.

And in Mexico there is another thing people remember to this day... Chapultepec and the war of 1848. Piece of trivia, the USMC the red line in the pants, the dress pants, that comes from the battle at Chapultepec, which was VERY bloody. The bloodiest day for the USMC until that point.

The two Mexican Military Cadets were buried with military honors by the Americans, as they jumped off the high point to protect the Mexican Flag, they impressed the US Commander, General Scott. The Mexicans buried the members of the Irish battalion that were executed for high treason by the americans after the war.

Imagine, most Americans don't know either of these stories... and I was wondering, as I watched Marine One fly over Chapultepec to Los Pinos. does Obama know that history? Yes they closed the damn Polanco Zone down while Obama was there, as well as the hotel zone.


One of those stories that most likely will never make it to a history book, unless it does as a footnote, During the explosion at San Juanico, a Pemex Facility that went off in 1983 a year before the quake, we had lines at the blood bank going around the block. We needed blood, industrial quantities of it. The PRI at the time was in charge, We had a bus, with the PRI insignia on the side, bring donors, We ran out of ambulances... well we were using anything, the metro, busses, what have you, with military pole stretchers. I remember going up that buss, and telling the driver to get off, as it was joining the emergency convoy... orders from upstairs This is a PARTY bus,,, you do not tell the party what to do. He started to give me lip, the Policia Preventivo walked up and politely told him. We put red crosses on it, with magnetic or just tied to it, don't remember and it went after we loaded it with pole stretchers. I spent the rest of the day directing traffic or using my POV with improvised red crosses to drive medical gear from one hospital to the next. I went through three gas tanks that day... from my allowance... it was gone.

LOL

When the explosion happened my mom tried to keep the TV off, I saw it, I put a uniform on and like everybody else, reported for duty. I was late to go to the actual rescue scene, but that was life.

I got to go two days later, horrific scene, like what nightmares were made off. Well we were in the middle of doing body recovery, been doing this for hours, when the locals, many of whom lost family and friends, walked over with bottles of soda, and tortas and tacos, which they could barely afford. After all, we had to eat... and they gladly shared that with us. Never mind that we ended up giving them rations a couple days later. That is the kind of spirit in the city... and across the country.

It was that disaster and the quake a year later that led to massive changes to the civil defense system, which also incorporated the same troops that were present in Texas after Katrina. Those are specially trained civil affairs troops under the DN-III-E, the same that were distributing masks. Memories of a people that deserve much better than they get to be honest, and I hope someday they will get it

But something held back the PAN people/the Army, not quite sure.

2006 anticipated Iran 2009 but it was ignored here. It won't be this time, I suspect.

there are many reasons, but the Mexican military is actually the only one in LA that is closer to the people and from the people.

Perhaps the fact that the officer corp is highly distrustful of the US and until oh last year there have never been joint exercises?

Beyond WW II when the US equiped the Escuadron 201 and sent them to the S. Pacific the Mexican Military has tried to stay away from uncle Sam's tit.

And no, the Mexican Military has not sent officers to the School of the Americas, and rumors abound that the Fuerzas Especiales were trained there, but no. The relationship is far closer to the Tzayeret Ma'atkal on the other side of the world or the Bundeswerh, than the US. The latter is a long tradition.

That is why

As to the PAN, it is internally splitting

And the people... AMLO didn't have the people behind him either, I was there during that whole mess, and the bases populares that you'd think would have been around him, didn't, as they distrusted him.

a la izquierda,

Thank you as well for the comments. I would appreciate anything you could relate of your experiences of the protests, and especially, the opinions and views of the people.

In regards to 1910 and such, prediction is indeed difficult, and the forces and factors in 1910 were, in many ways quite different. The economy was at its height; the repression of the press, and freedoms of expression, seem to have been quite more severe; and the players were very different. This past, however, continues to structure the current conflict.

There is, of course, a good deal of violence being employed, from the State level to many local groups. And I hear quite a bit of calls that sound like disturbingly like bloodlust, for the death of individuals such as Marti., without a sober and deep look into the situation.

Michael and I hope to outline the broad strokes and factors influencing this situation in the next days, as the situation plays through.

I hope you'll stick around and add your comments and thoughts.

KT

Mostly I'll be in the Yucatan, which for those of you who don't know Mexico, kind of marches to the beat of its own drummmer. But I'll be in DF for a few days and Veracruz for a few days as well.

and to most in Mexico the Casta war is not something they have even heard off

"Nadin,"

Thanks for your comments.

It is difficult to quickly compare the current situation with 1910, much less to judge the consequences of the "war on drugs on the people's, or any other party's, will to change the situation.

An anecdote from the days before the 1910 Revolution comes to mind-- told quickly, Madero, who would be elected President, visited Porfirio Diaz, who was both dictator and president, to demand that free and open elections occur, and that Diaz not be eligible for re-election. Diaz conceded to these demands.

Madero then asked for concrete assurances that the elections process would be fair. Diaz, in response, said, "well, if you encounter problems, you can turn to the Supreme Court."

Madero, realizing that this was a trap, laughed in Diaz's face and left. There was no choice but the Revolution, if one hoped for elections which were not fraud.

In 1988 and again in 2006, of course, we learned again that the Supreme Court would not act in the face of evidence, or rather, that they would act to preserve a flawed system.

As regard the "drug war," despite the problems on the ground, we have an attempt to use military force to maintain "order." This means not just "general order" against crime, but "the order of things" and the current regime and the party system it relies upon.

Yet things are not that simple.

KT

Why the revolt in Chiapas was such a shot across the bow... no pun.

It was done by really old school marxists... and if done oh 20 years before it MIGHT have had more of a following

These days the right is splintering, the left has splintered and people are looking at ... the PRI

It is all but amusing to be specific.

But the army, you must remember, is the most trusted institution. I was surprised it actually went ahead of the Church... that shocked me

Now politicians, they are down to the 15% trust... yep, murican politicos, have it better, even Chenney

Personally I foresee change, dramatic change, coming, and probably it will not be violent.

Yes, barely discussed but we'll see if that changes in the next couple of weeks.

ihavenobias,

As with everyone, thanks for your comment.

In 2006, I tried very hard to get greater coverage for this in the US and elsewhere via the MSM, a story to be told at another time.

As I see it, there are two factors.

First, the majority of US-Americans are remarkably dismissive and "prejudicial" towards Mexico and Mexicans. A week ago, I mentioned this situation to an official in the TNDP; he responded "oh, it's Mexico, of course it's corrupt." (In effect: "so what?") End of discussion.

Second, there are some real barriers of naked interest here. The US "corporate media" are owned by... well, I'll ask you, who (what individual) hold the largest stake in the NYT? This makes close coverage an uphill battle. Equally-- what's going on in the Mexican economy and the Bank is a part of geopolitics and certainly "Enron-style" accounting. It's not so much that the editors don't want "a great story," but the standards of proof are a lot harder, and there are a lot more barriers.

Finally, as with everyone, I hope you will stick around, adding your input, thoughts and questions as we work to lay out this story.

KT

Of course, I knew that answer because you told me.

It explains the lack of insight form the Times and it's followers.

BUSINESS WEEK
Jan 18, 2009

Will Carlos Slim Save The New York Times?
The Mexican mogul is reported to be talking about a substantial investment
in the newspaper's struggling parent, in return for special preferred shares

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2009/db20090118_331081.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

By Jon Fine


So much for the native New Yorker fantasy that The New York Times' white knight might be billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Carlos Slim, owner of Mexican communications company Telmex (TMX) and one of the world's richest men, is in talks with he New York Times Co. (NYT) to take a substantial investment in the company. One scenario under discussion, according to the Journal, would be for Slim to inject hundreds of millions into the cash-strapped company in exchange for preferred shares, which would pay Mr. Slim a special dividend.

In September of last year, Slim disclosed he had taken a 6.4% stake in the Times Co.'s common stock. At that time, a Slim spokesman told the Financial Times that Slim's interest came about solely because "it's a great company, the price is cheap, and it gives a good dividend." But in November, the Times Co. cut its dividend from 23¢ per share to 6¢ per share.

he is looking for a way out of things should really get bad

Soon, the oligarchs will have nowhere to run.

Dear formercia,

Thank you as well for your comment.

I lived through the 2006 election at rather close range-- and I didn't intend that pun. I don't think anything happens here, unless we "the People" find a way to act.

With great respect to you, I do not believe that oligarchy, (dictatorship and the rule of elities) are going to fall in Mexico all of a sudden. Whatever happens-- there are billions of dollars, various organizations and forces-- businesses and nations-- lined up on the other side. They will react. Democracy isn't easy; it requires an active, vigilant and involved citizenry-- from all nations.

That said-- your title made me worry, that you were going to present me with the argument that Mexico was about to fall as a domino in a "tide of leftism" reaching from South America to "our border."

In the past days, we've heard this terrible and deceptive explanation pulled out in relation to Zelaya in Honduras-- and we have another communist dictator, about to fill in the chain of dominoes that threatens to spill across the Rio Grande.

This story is simply wrong. In 2006, it was distributed by the PAN's propaganda apparatus to confuse the situation, raise fears in the US and buttress their position.

In 1963/4-- this story took the United States into Vietnam. Robert McNamara, who took and executed the order for the US to begin bombing a nation that had never attacked the US-- in his unvarnished confession, admits that "we" were wrong-- the US believed the story that it was facing the expansion of Communism on every side, and Vietnam would be one domino in the chain.

Vietnam had been fighting the Chinese for a thousand years and was willing to fight to its last man or woman for its independence. "Liberty or Death," meant something to the Vietnamese.

OK-- I've talked to much. But the US is still playing a role here.

I welcome any comments or thoughts you may add.

KT

I've seen the disparity in wealth in Mexico first hand. It's nothing new. This has been the social structure there since colonial times.
I think you are quite right in stating that it will be a long time before the elites give up their wealth and power. You would think the Revolution would have ended the oppression, but getting rid of foreign masters allowed the Haciendas to be re-populated with crony 'elites' and wealthy individuals.
Land Reform gave the poor the least productive areas while the best land went to cronies and the highest bidder.
How do you create a just society, when the 'system' is based on La mordida?

I threw in the domino comment because I knew it would raise hackles.The reactionaries have used the fear factor to stay in power but the dominoes were of their own creation. When you polarize society, something has to give.

Just my humble opinion. I'm not an expert on Mexico by a long shot.

Thank you.

Thanks!!!

So this could be interesting. Wonder where the Catholic Church will stand

There has been a history of violence against the people. http://www.google.com/search?q=olympic+massacre+mexico&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">The Tlatelolco Massacre at the Olympics was huge but the Army and politicians
are not at all like the Ayatollahs and their thugs. There are limits.

The Mexican people have shown that they'll stand and fight for their rights, as in 2006 so lets
see what happens.

Lots of pressure on the pols and it's deserved.

Crazy world we got here.

... from where I live, geographically and philosophically.

From Santa Fe, the Mexican border is just down the road, and it is a line in the sand that marks the grave differences in lifestyle between Us and Them.

It is heartening to see throngs of people in the street, simply asking for ("Demanding" coming soon?) what is just -- the ability to eat, sleep, and conduct their lives in peace. Wouldn't it be something if the anger over unfair elections should spill across the border in the dead of night, like those *illegal aliens* we keep hearing about!?!

We have our own stolen elections -- no two ways about it. And nothing happens. Attempts to demonstrate and seek redress of grievances are covered over with ridicule and sarcasm by our mainstream "journalists."

Thanks for the information, Michael Collins, and I'll be watching for the next two installments!

You can always depend on me as long as I'm awake and my'puter is functional and it's currently marginally so,

talk soon.

smooches.

Felipe Calderon, FECAL to his friends, is laughing all the way to the bank. Mexico has a one term and you're out system as a way of spreading the wealth by limiting the amount one person can loot in a single term. The next guy in line gets El Dedazo, an ironic term indicating the hand of Gawd reaching out a finger to the annointed one, but also the finger in the faces of the electorate and other candidates.

recommended, but buzz refuses to flash me. as usual. i'm just fecal to the buzzers. oh well, so it goes.

mvs

Thanks! Quite a deal down there. It's like the key players in PAN in the last election (theft) are running scared with all their crypto Marxist rhetoric. Which "class" does Calderon think he belongs to? And why hasn't he done anything about it.

Maybe he plans too, just like Ike did something about the military industrial complex. He's like the dolphins abandoning planet earth in that strange movie: It's been great, thanks for the fish!

Of course, Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) is a well designed election authority. You can actually complain about biased coverage. Obrador did that in 2006 and it was acknowledged. That didn't undo the damage but what the heck. On paper it looks good and apparently was for a while but that's history.

Our elections are probably as bad as Mexico's but we lack any vehicles to pursue complaints, unless, of course, you are smilin' Norm Coleman and you keep your state unrepresented for six months.

PS. How about that de la Madrid. Nothing done about that. I suppose Bush will admit that he started Iraq based on lies and then say he was just trying to boost sales for his autobiography.

Oh lard, I'm safe, just looked it up. Don't use that word much and had a thought,
what if it means "mates like a bunny" (which was not my intended meaning).

Very nice review! Book hits close to home.

http://labloga.blogspot.com/2009/06/review-world-in-half.html

here are a couple of photos for you typical of Mexico's political history.

After his term, FECAL may take it on the lam, as ex-prickident Salinas de Gortari did after his term:

The wanted poster says, "Wanted.For treason. Bring Salinas to Account. "The newspaper says, "I've got the goods on baldy!"

A few years later, AMLO was about to be putsched. Popular support for the vato was everywhere, such as this AMLO demonstration in Chapultepec Parque. Check out the pig in the Miami shit. Shirt.

Those will be downloaded in honor of the people who tell "the man" to shove it and also to thank Pirate Bay for their efforts. Obrador lives on to fight another day but it's RIP for the pirates.

That Salinas is a bad egg and he looks like one.

Hope you got my lucha libre Mistico statement. It's high art, or art they did high;)

Viva Mexico!!!!!

PRI: corrupt, formerly leftist but neo-liberal, authoritarian, rigs elections..Has base of sham unions and military

PAN: right-wing, ultra-catholic wackos

PRD: Social democrats who split from PRI

right now in Mexico

Some has been translated to English, but he has made the point, as I will... that the undercurrent of events in Mexico goes back a long time. Things are not as simple as just saying lo pasado es passado. the past is the past. In Mexico truly el pasado es presente y es futuro.

One of the undercurrents that has never been fully solved, even at the hight of the positivistic era is the conflict between the church and the state. Notwithstanding that there is a true separation of church and state, the church still has quite a bit of control. Not only that, but the undercurrent of the Church of Liberation, left wing, was suppressed by the hierarchy which is very much ladino dominated, and right wing.

It actually makes the brazilian church look mild.

The conflict goes back to Fray Servando Teresa the Mier, and his conflict with the Inquisition and the rise of the Enlightenment. By the way, if you look deeply for that, intellectual history is not done down there, for a good reason, and US Historiography is skinny at best, After all admitting that some of those folks could think, like oh Jefferson and the rest of the gang...

Well that's my rant for the night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR1Hg3WtJWs">n honor of theater of the absurd.

Just buught the book. Gradias.

Perhaps I imagined those bullets whizzing by oh back in 1983.

As to legalizing the crap.. I'm all for it, here there, everywhere. It hasn't worked

And that is funny. They are using the true symbols of Mexican bases populares to try to keep the power. Color me surprised.

They did the same, to a point, back in Baja California and it has been effective. In fact, the GOP better not learn this little cute trick

Nadin,

Krauze is most explicit about this in "The Presence of the Past," a formulation which we might compare to Hannah Arendt's "Between Past and Future." The underlying idea-- that the presence and future is a complex matrix of factors from the past, passing through the active moment of the present, creating the future-- is of course "classical."

In "Mexico: Biography of Power"-- which swings between the "great men" version of history available in Krauze's other books, and a theory of political history-- Krauze begins in the far past, with the native cultures and the encounter with European powers and the Church-- detailing some of the forces and the complexity. (At many times, the Church defended the natives). And, of course, he outlines the moments of rebellion and insurrection against unjust power.

In Madero, in Zapata, we see the 'repetition' of these acts of rebellion, as it were. As Krauze depicts things, one moment is the defense of land rights, taken over by the ursurpers, as it were-- (by the haciendas, etc) -- defended, by learning Nahautil and translating the deeds.

Much in this strikes me as too much of a fairy tale. Zapata becomes a great scholar of law and local historian and counselor and warrior-- all in a few years, where he is also a great lover (of many,) a rancher and master of the bullring and in the army (and so forth). The portait is unrealistic.

Krauze's historical narrative breaks oddly when he begins to explain the events of 1968. Instead of using actual historical figures, he makes up the figure of "the leftist student" who becomes involved in the demonstrations-- a student who 'suddenly,' unlike past generations, abandons his connection with the authority of past generations-- this is also the place where Krauze attempts to deal with the theories of Arendt and Marcuse (explicity) and phenomenology (in general) and the left (even more generally) and with de la Paz-- who will become Krauze's friend.

Enough for now.

weaves the great men theories with the individual, but 1968 and Arendt, here is the explanation. He is the son of a Jewish immigrant and 1968 opened many wounds for the Jewish community, which is small, but very much tied to the customs of the Shtetl. I could write a book on that alone.

Strange, my dad knew his dad.. my dad knows everybody... and Krauze, is a strange thing because 1968 he tries to do things with it that I actually took objections to. Mostly I knew some of the folks involved, and heard first hand stories. I rather use Poniatowska.

Too much inside baseball,

While doing my research for my thesis though I read plenty of a younger Krauze as well as a whole slew of European historians, and La Paz and a few others, trying to figure out why the hell nobody tried to do the intellectual exercise. To this day I rack my mind on that, but intellectual history is still frowned upon and partly because it is rigorous, partly it will challenge the great man theory... yes you needed Hidalgo (for the revolt of 1810) but you also needed the men of ideas, like Fray Servando

the same happened with the revolution and the same will happen now.

You need the leaders, the great men, but behind them are the men of ideas (and women) that create the foundations for the movements. The reason Marcos has gone nowhere is because he lacks the ideas behind him. That is a problem with mexican historiography and one that I don;t feel like correcting anymore.

The voters votes don't count anymore. The winners will be SELECTED, by those who know what's good for you...that is all.

"Deer, that's not the headlights, that's the "thousand points of light"

I am not entirely convinced about the validity of the election of Calderon either.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the Fox biography to hear the confession on Calderon's will. At there is an instance of admitting theft started by de la Madrid. Nobody admits it here and the discussion of fraud is simply off the table, even by the victims.

But the people of Mexico are a great people and they deserve a government as decent and intelligent as they are..

:kick:

:hi:

Wait, that doesn't apply here.

Thanks for the kick.

:hi: