Vamos Nostradamus

Vamos Nostradamus

Tank Tops Flip Flops Newsletter edition no. 93

Just recently I have had 3 clients pass away, may they Rest in Peace. Two of the three did not have a Costa Rican will and are dealing with some inconvenient circumstances. I tell ALL of my clients that it is imperative that you have a Last Will and Testament, even if you just own a car as it is not a tremendous amount of money to set one up; My condolences to the families. Please talk to your attorney.

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This particular newsletter is a little bit of a negative political rant. So if you are already tired of the US election, maybe you should just put this one aside. Also, if you are of the opinion that everything is Hunky Dory and our current administration is doing a wonderful job running the world you definitely don’t want to read this; just hit delete and get on with your day. But if you are like 90% of my clients, who are embarrassed and scared by the direction we are heading then this Newsletter is just for you. Grab a cup of coffee, have a seat, buckle up and hold on; this is gonna be one heck of a ride.

In 1503 a boy was born in the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence of France. Michel de Nostredame grew up to be a French apothecary, known as a pharmacist today, and was also a reputed seer who published collections of prophecies, that have since become widely famous. He was best known for his book Les Propheties which was published in 1555 and has rarely been out of print since. Since that time he has attracted a cult like following, as the popular press has credited him with predicting many of the world’s major events. He had horrible visions of fire, death and destruction, many which seem to have come true, depending on how you view his works. Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders, droughts and battles.

A major underlying theme is the impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces from farther east and south, in the context of the supposedly imminent end of the world. Nostradamus has been credited with predicting numerous events in world history; from the Great Fire of London, and the rise of Napoleon and Hitler, to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Again, depending on how you view his prophecies, he is also believed to have predicted the French Revolution, Death of Henry II, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Japan and the assassinations of JFK and RFK. His boldest prediction was the Mayan Prophecy that the world would end in December of 2012.

“But that didn’t happen” his naysayers say. Are you sure?  Let’s see what has transpired around the world in the last 4 years and you tell me if the world is ending. Every time I turn on the news or open up my Internet, I am reminded why I live in such a beautiful place as Costa Rica and not in the rest of the world. In my opinion, the planet is a disaster, and it is only getting worse by the day.

Islamic Terrorist attacks are at an all-time high. Just so far in 2016 alone, there have been 1274 in 50 countries, with almost 12,000 people killed and another 14,000 injured. Nice, Paris, Belgium and Turkey just to name a few, and those were just the more famous ones.

There were 2865 attacks in 2015; 3001 in 2014; and 2882 in 2013, with a total death count of over 90,000 people since the end of 2012; Religion of Peace. Syria is in a total state of emergency while ISIS has complete control over much of the Middle East, burning cities, beheading and drowning people, crucifying non-believers; just a JV team though. There have been ZERO attacks in Costa Rica. NONE! NADA! NUNCA! ZIP! It seems Michel’s prediction of an influx of Muslims in Europe is coming true as well with almost 2 Million people claiming asylum in Europe this year alone, and the overall total close to 5 Million. Many European cities are currently dominated by Sharia law, and Sweden is now the rape capital of the world! Violent crime is at an all-time high, and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg with the recent attacks. It is only going to get worse. The US government is saying they too, want to take tens of thousands more and give them home in North America. You would think, after Fort Hood, Chattanooga, San Bernardino and now Orlando, just to name the big ones, we would wake up. Thank God I don’t live there anymore. The only country with enough balls to do something about this migrant crisis, England, recently left the European Union. BRAVO to BREXIT. Many countries like Germany are now changing their minds after all the violence and deporting tens of thousands of the refugees.

Last year the President of Costa Rica told reporters that Costa Ricans and Syrians do not share a common culture or religion and he doubted if the refugees would successfully integrate into our society. “I don’t want a humanitarian gesture to end up with us building ghettos in Costa Rica” Solis said. APPLAUSE. Since then, due to pressure from you know where, we have “changed” our views and have accepted 46 people who are claiming refugee status; a far cry from the Millions that are swarming into countries around the world. PURA VIDA.

Russia is imposing their domination on Ukraine, while the whole world watches, something that was laughed at during the last debate. Venezuela, the Socialist capital of the world, is in total disarray with no food or services, yet there was a sign outside the Philadelphia rally recently that said “Capitalism has outlived its usefulness. We want Socialism.” Canada is not much better either and headed for a massive recession. Unemployment is climbing as their dollar continues to drop. By the way, in December 2012 the Canadian Dollar was HIGHER than the US dollar. Today is it at 76 cents.  China is building man made islands to gain territory in Asia while North Korea is testing nuclear weapons. Iran has now been approved for its own program and we are giving them Billions of dollars to do it. The number one sponsor of terrorism in the world is being financed by the United States of America. This is the same country that held our sailors prisoner just a few short months ago. Am I the only one who finds a problem with all of this? So glad I live in Costa Rica.

Every time I go back to the USA I remind myself why I don’t live there anymore. The country is in complete shambles. I love how they quote 4.9% unemployment, yet they don’t tell you the real facts. These are just the people who are LOOKING for work and collecting an unemployment check. After 99 weeks they no longer receive these benefits and are taken out of that statistical equation. They do not count people living on welfare or those that are working part time at Wal Mart, who used to be executives in office buildings. By most experts’ predictions, over 23% of America is UN employed or UNDER employed. Just recently a statistic was in the USA Today that said 47 Million Americans are living in poverty. That is 15% of the entire population!!!! What an atrocious statistic for the so called Greatest Nation on Earth. The middle class in the United States is deteriorating rapidly. Many of my clients own their own businesses and tell me over and over, how they are unable to keep their companies afloat. Rising costs, taxes and bureaucracy make it almost impossible to do business. Many of them are just closing up shop, retiring, and heading to Pura Vida land. Not very good for those unemployment numbers either by the way. Some of the biggest companies in the USA have gone out of business or relocated to other nations. If Sports Authority can go bankrupt and close, what is the little guy going to do? Costa Rica on the other hand, has some of the highest middle class in the world, low taxes and a great environment to live and work. They have an incredibly intelligent, educated, bilingual work force who WANTS to go to work every day. No one is sitting at home, waiting for a government check to arrive in the mail. We are seeing hundreds of businesses relocate or new ones opening creating thousands of jobs and opportunities. They have their own fair share of bureaucracy, that’s for sure, but at least they smile at you while they run you through the grinder. Granted, electricity is expensive, but that is a small price to pay for paradise.

Every time I turn on the TV there is more violence in the USA and it is at an all-time high. As a matter of fact, there have been 1069 mass shooting in the USA since Sandy Hook. Remember Sandy Hook? December 2012. There have been 468 Police Officers killed in the line of duty since December 2012 and it seems to me, it is encouraged by our current administration. They send someone to attend the death of a drug dealer, but not a Police Officer. They jump to immediate conclusions that a cop acted out of malice before there is any investigation, and 95% of the time the officer is found Not Guilty. There are dozens of demonstrations where the people chant DEATH TO THE POLICE, burn down cities, riot and loot, and there are tens of thousands of innocent deaths every year; yet who is the first person they call when there is an emergency? Nobody likes a cop until they need one. Maybe Michel was correct after all. The world ended in December of 2012. Recently a Cleveland Browns football player posted a picture of a hooded man cutting the head off of a police officer. He quickly deleted it, and apologized, but the point was still made. This is how this person thinks. And what did the NFL do; NOTHING. They accepted his apology and let him continue to play. Why? MONEY. That is all that matters anymore in the USA, not morals. VOMIT. He should have been permanently banned from the NFL for the rest of his life. Have you ever been to a professional sporting event and seen how many hundreds of Police Officers are there, protecting the players and the fans? I hope he has a career ending head injury on the first play of the season. No better yet, I hope he is robbed and shot at gun point, and when he calls the Police, nobody shows up. The same goes for Beyonce.

Let me tell you about the police in Costa Rica. They are RESPECTED. They are the LAW. People say YES SIR or NO SIR and would never think of threatening them. I have personally NEVER heard of an officer getting shot. I can assure you that if there was a movement that targeted and promoted the deaths of officers, like the BLM BULLSHIT in the USA, our President would squash it IMMEDIATELY. He surely wouldn’t invite them to his home for dinner, which just recently happened in Washington DC. The Police in Costa Rica do not need probable cause to stop your car. If you even LOOK like a drug dealer, thief or overall bad dude, they will pull your car to the side of the road, make you get out and proceed to search it. It happened to me, because I had suitcases piled up in the back seat. Did I have a problem with that? NO; because they are the POLICE.

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They have these random stops, where every single car is made to come to a halt. Why; because they are the Police. They ask for your Driver’s License, registration and whatever else they desire. Why; because they are the Police. If the police are allowed to do their jobs, there would definitely be less crime. They find more criminals, drugs and stolen property this way than you can imagine. Do I have a problem with it; of course not. They are the police! Personally, I LOVE IT. I am not a thief. I have nothing to hide, “Please Mr. Officer, feel free to look anywhere you want inside my vehicle.” I have total and complete respect for the police, I always have and I always will. I have a theory; if you threaten a police officer, you deserve to get shot. If you charge a police officer, you definitely deserve to get shot; TWICE. And if you point a gun at a police officer, I will smile when you are dead; SHOT 5 TIMES; One less pile of garbage on this earth.

Do you know what else they ask for; Proof that you are allowed to be in this country. You must carry your passport at all times showing you have entered legally and have not overstayed your VISA. Costa Rica has some of the strictest Immigration and border laws in the world. If someone is here illegally, from Nicaragua let’s say, they are immediately arrested and taken back over the border.  You don’t hear anyone complaining that they are being racist. Yet the USA wants to allow our borders to continue to be open doorways for Drug Cartel, Illegal workers, human trafficking and Terrorists. Please tell me how wanting to protect what you love is RACIST? Every country in the world secures their borders but the United States of America.

So what happened at the end of 2012 that could have possibly led us down this path to total destruction? Hmmmmm, can you say Presidential re-election? Well we have another one of those right now, and watching this Gong Show just completely blows me away. They build a 4 mile fence around the Philadelphia convention to keep out unwanted people and then they also built a wall around the podium to keep the protestors away, while they bash the concept of building a wall at our border to keep the drug dealers and terrorists away. They bring the mothers of dead drug dealers up on the stage, instead of the families of slain police officers. The same individuals that were there protecting their walled in podium. They got up on the stage and shouted to the police to STOP SHOOTING PEOPLE, but never told the people to STOP SHOOTING THE POLICE. They required everyone to have an ID to get in, yet scream that it is racist to ask for an ID when you vote. I couldn’t make this stuff up. There is not one American Flag in sight; UNBELIEVABLE. We find out now the entire process was rigged, and actors and crowd noise was brought in to make it look and sound more exciting. Yet if you look at the photos, you see the upper deck of the arena is completely empty. Hell, a burned out rock band sells more tickets.

We watched just a few weeks ago, when there was a secret meeting on a tarmac in Arizona, where someone was bribed or threatened or guaranteed some cushy job later in life, and that magically led to all charges being dropped. Some say, Oh it is just a few emails! Let’s put this into perspective. If this was 1960 those emails would be in big brown envelopes with the words TOP SECRET on the outside. There would be hundreds maybe thousands of them. Now imagine if someone took those envelopes home with them, without asking permission. Then they proceeded to go to Denny’s for breakfast and open them up to read. They leave those envelopes on the table while they go to the bathroom and return to find that someone else has possibly read them or taken them. That person would be in serious trouble. They might not be charged with treason, although they SHOULD BE, but they surely wouldn’t be running for the Presidency a few months later. They ask us to trust this person with our National Security but they can’t even be trusted with emails. This person has repeatedly lied, including recently under oath, yet asks us to trust them with our nation one more time.  Her husband tells us what an honest and remarkable person she was, and how much he loves her. Yet he had dozens of affairs while he was supposed to be protecting our country. Remember, he was the ONLY modern President to be impeached for LYING UNDER OATH. They tell us they will lead our military, yet we still have memories and cannot forget Benghazi where she was Secretary of State, and all the other disasters going on in the world right now. Ask me, and the Nostradamus prediction was correct. The world is coming to an end and it started in December of 2012 with the Presidential election.

Below is a true story. I was recently talking with a young, educated Costa Rican woman. She wanted to know whom I would vote for in the election. I responded by saying, let me ask you a few questions first to see where you stand on certain issues because I have a feeling we agree on most of them.

She agreed.

Do you believe in God? Of course!

Is it OK to pray in public or school? Yes we pray every day in School and I always pray when I pass a church or a cemetery.

Would you abort a baby? I would NEVER kill a child, she said. EVER.

Would you willingly give half of your paycheck away every month? She looked at me like I was stupid. I don’t understand she said. (Me neither).

Is it OK for someone to protect their property and their family?  Yes.

Should criminals go to jail? Yes.

Should the police be allowed to enforce the law? Yes.

Should people be given money for doing nothing? Only if they are injured or sick.

Do you like paying taxes? I hate it.

Should gays be allowed to get married? This was her only hesitation. I don’t know, I have many gay friends. (Yes that is a complicated one for most of us).

Should a man be allowed to use the women’s restroom?  Only if I want him there she said with a smirk. (my kind of girl).

What is the biggest problem in Costa Rica?  The government is so stupid. They have too much control and they don’t know what they are doing. My boss would do a better job running the country. (Yes it is time for a businessman and not a politician).

Would you ever disrespect the Costa Rican flag, and step on it or burn it? She thought that was a crazy question. OF COURSE NOT. I love Costa Rica and I am proud of my country.

What are you most proud of?  My university degree.  Why? Because it was very hard to get and I had to really work for a long time to get it.

What do you like most about your country?  We are free.

What happens to the illegal Nicaraguans when they are caught? The police take them and put them back over the border. Do you agree with that? Yes.

Do you like the foreigners that are here?  Most of them if they are nice and respect my country and our way of life. I hate it though when they don’t speak Spanish, this is a Spanish country. Even though I speak English they should learn our language.

Should Costa Rica take a bunch of these Syrian refugees?  Those people scare me.

I asked her to marry me. LOL.

Costa Ricans have the same values that most of my clients have. Almost everyone believes in God and goes to Church. They say prayers in school and would never disrespect the flag or the nation. Family is the most important thing. Abortion is ILLEGAL and so are drugs. You can own a gun and have a concealed weapon permit. The police are respected and their borders are secure. Taxes are low, and there are no welfare or unemployment benefits. Oh, and by the way, there are no transgender bathrooms.

Can you imagine what a dump Europe was in the 16^th century? The Black Plague raged on and off throughout the century killing millions. There was no proper sanitation, no high standard of health, and no antibiotics or medicine. People rarely bathed and no one brushed their teeth. You would literally go to the bathroom in a bucket, and throw it out the window into the street. Trash and rats were everywhere and most people never lived past 40. Child mortality was through the roof. No wonder Michel’s cup was half empty. When you are surrounded by death and negativity every single day, I would assume you would have visions of the same, and that it would be pretty hard to be optimistic about the future of the world.

But imagine if he had lived in Costa Rica. This country was a total paradise in the 1500’s as it still is today. Really, not much has changed. Factories were not polluting the skies like in Europe, and the weather was perfect 365 days a year. No freezing cold European winters or wars raging for territory; Just bananas and pineapples, beaches and babes. I would imagine that if he lived here back then, his visions would be a much prettier movie. Costa Rica today is a picture of true bliss; PURA VIDA as they say, and they mean it. The country has no military, and is consistently voted the happiest country in the world, year in and year out. They have the highest literacy rate in the Americas and some of the best health care in the world. As my client and friend Jeff pronounces “No one hates us, and no one wants to kill us; and you never have to shovel rain.”

As the rock band Jimmy Eat World says “Sing while you can.”

Vamos Nostradamus!!!! Let’s go to Costa Rica!!!!

Come on down baby!!!

Hope to see you soon.

Michael