Empty Chair.....

Should we shame Governor Susana Martinez for her lack of leadership skills?  Yes, we should. Did she ever try to hammer out some compromises amongst the partisans in the Legislature, which ended with no capital outlay bills?

This is on her as much as the leadership in the houses. She reigns over chaos. Watch your highways, bridges and infrastructure fall apart. No wonder we are now number 2 in poverty rates. When even government fails to provide jobs, then there is something wrong with the leadership.  I suspect the guys who run the cleaning crews in the Capitol are showing more leadership that her by just making sure there is toilet paper available.

Did the Governor ever visit the chambers and gather together the Dems and GOP and say, “Lets try and meet each other half way on getting some bills passed?  No, from what I hear she didn’t.  Probably because she and her rightwing handlers never feel they need to meet someone halfway either.  Maybe they will go for 15%, but halfway…nah. 

Damn, how did the Land of Enchantment turn into the Land of the Hopeless.  We really don't deserve this.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Weep

Wages of Humanity

Download this little gem of a short novella by Cixin Liu, an incredible Chinese SCIFI author.  It will give you one spin on the evils of the division of wealth we are suffering.  Think evolution.

Left Early

Our friend Maragete Bagshaw, daughter of Helen Hardin and Cradoc Bashaw died today a the age of 50.  The well known painter lived eight years longer that her acclaimed mother Helen, who died of breast cancer at 42.  They were so talented it is hard to describe.

Helen's paintings adorn our walls. She was a high school classmate whose mother Pablita Velarde is world famous for her art.

This talent runs in the family for sure.  You can read Kate Nelson's remembrance of Magarete here.

End of Days

As the End of Days approaches for the NM State Legislative session, things always get silly and ridiculous but usually work themselves out as the grownups take over.  For instance, Democrat Senator Munoz of Gallup who asked a UNM Regent candidate to fire the UNM President and CFO in return for his confirmation vote will now wonder if using his phone to text this message to the candidate during the hearing was a wise thing.  And the candidate who made all of this public  showed his naivety by going public to that GOP reporter at Channel 4.  This story would not have been done if it were a republican senator that did the deed.  It is all silly but typical.  Meanwhile, most folks in the media ignore the real issues because it would take actual work to report on them.

And the hundred of bills that are awaiting action with just two days left in the session will be winnowed down to a few that might squeak through.  Mostly they will be ones that have the best lobbyists behind them.  Most of the bills will die, and that is usually a good thing.  This is the way it all works.

At least our lawmakers aren't allowing concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses like they are doing in Texas.  You really have to wonder if there is some serious natural selection occurring on our neighbor to the east in which the leadership pass laws that are dangerous and deadly to themselves and their constituents.  Those legislators in Austin are just batshit crazy.

Misc.

Albuquerque Mayor Berry has come up with $2 million dollars to throw at six nonprofit organizations to help deal with homeless problems.  The NGOs are there with their hands out and will probably put the money to good but scatter shot use.  But the fact of the matter is that this is only a kind gesture that will have little or no impact on homelessness.  This problem will not be solved until the division of wealth in this country is fixed through fair taxation of the very rich.  This $2 million dollars could leak away from a one percenter and they probably wouldn't even notice.

The Albuquerque Journal is certainly going the way of local TV News.  Two major doggie stories today.  One is a syrupy front pager and another is a nice photo of dog cuddling at UNM covering a major space on the Metro page.  Pretty soon the paper will devote as much to lost doggie stories as Facebook does to cat videos.  Arghhhhhh!

Can you imagine a presidential candidate in the USA warning voters that they better get to the polls because there are a lot of black people voting?  That is what essentially happened for Israel when that racist warmonger Netanyahu urged right-wingers to the polls yesterday because there were to many Arabs voting.  How can this country support that nation any longer?  His reelection may spell a real dissolution for Israel.

One wonders if the folks at  UNM are celebrating the loss of former UNM Regent Jaime Koch.  I am betting there are a few toasts being offered behind closed doors.  But what happens now, with two vacancies on that board?

Gasp

Damn the Juniper Pollen!

A friend said he once shot a wild turkey that had been eating Juniper berries.  When they cooked it they couldn't eat it because it tasted like rancid Gin.  When they offered some to the dog, it sniffed it and walked away.  This is not to say I hate all things Juniper.  Tanqueray is fine stuff with lime and tonic after a round of golf!  But the pollen, the damn pollen.

That UNM Regent Thing

What are the qualifications for a prospective University Regent in New Mexico?  So far as I can tell the only qualification is that you are a money funnel for the current sitting governor's campaigns.  And I mean any sitting governor, and not just Susana Martinez.

The current chaos around Matt Chandler, who's confirmation was denied by the New Mexico Senate, and the subsequent resignation of that go either way political fund raising Regent Jaime Koch is intriguing.  Why exactly did Koch feel he should resign?  Was there some deal that he would garner support for the governor's good buddy and rightwing fundraiser Chandler?  And when he failed he was told to resign?  Well, we will never know.  What a silly mess on everyone's part! And, what a peculiar system.

But the fact of the matter is that some serious thought and debate should be put into writing up qualifications for prospective Regents of all our higher ed institutions.  Like maybe a few of them could have some experience dealing with faculties, students, research, and such?  Not all regents, but at least half, maybe? Since the legislature has sent only one bill to the Governor since convening 53 days ago, the chance for any reform is about zero.  Oh, the bill that was sent was to fund the work of the legislature.

ABQ Journal vs. Solar

The Saturday edition of the Albuquerque Journal has once again enabled the fossil fuel funded whack jobs to say that Solar renewable energy is a bad thing.  Quotes from the Rio Grande Foundation and an Oped from the so called 'Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy' have cast doubt on the idea of solar rooftop installations and strong renewable requirements aimed at Utilities.  The Alliance is run by Marita Noon, poster girl for the "Merchants of Doubt."

They are fighting a losing battle at this point.  Yesterday I played golf at Santa Ana Golf Club.  I hadn't been there since the first of the year.  I arrived to find the large parking lot covered with 269 Kilowatts of Solar panels placed atop new shade structures, similar to this photo.  The construction guys  there said it would totally cover needs of the facility which includes two restaurants.

It is interesting to watch the old coal, oil and generating model unraveling.  It can't happen soon enough.

Misc.

Apparently the stupidity  of right wing male political leaders isn't just confined to the good ole USA.  The Canadian Prime Minister is now suffering from a backlash from women in Canada for saying face veils are not liked by Canadians.  Read about it here.  It is funny.  And this is right up there with our own Senate Republicans lousing up a bill to strengthen laws against human trafficking by adding anti choice measures for women.  I am beginning to think that the human species is self selecting for extinction by continually electing male  morons to lead us.

Which leads me to Hillary Clinton.  Why are so many pundits saying she is the only one Democrats are thinking about as a Presidential candidate?  I certainly would pick her over anyone from the bush family, but frankly I am just tired of the Clinton/bush oligarchy.  Let's find some new blood and fast.  I say look to Senator Kirstin Gillibrand for a female candidate, or some young male Senator like a Martin Heinrich.  Let's go for someone at least 25 years younger that that war loving John McCain.  And I say this as a guy who is almost seventy.

Speaking of which, looks like I might make it to 80 after completing my prostate cancer radiation treatments today.  I got 45 sessions with a sophisticated machine.  I have been somewhat trapped for the last nine weeks as I went through this regime.  I put almost 900 miles on my car going back and forth every morning.  It was like going to work before I retired.  But now I can go back to a decent diet and I can do my early morning walks with no fatigue.  Thanks to the science, Doctors and radiation therapists at the New Mexico Cancer Center for being so professional and efficient.

Misc.

One wonders who controls the New Mexico State Legislature.  My opinion is that the one percenters and the religious fundamentalists get to decide how much time is frittered away in committees and on the floors of the State Senate and House.  Going right along with that is the media who thinks these issues are what is important.  I am talking about so called 'right to work' and anti abortion bills.  Every year these waste time and every year they go down to defeat.  But these greedy and holy folks just don't seem to care that other more important issues, like job creation and infrastructure rebuilding, just get shoved aside in order to engage in culture wars.  This will never end.

Those High School Seniors have backed down on having a theme of "Prom...unism" for their Prom after the right wing was aroused by Channel 13's new bid to become the National Enquirer of New Mexico.  One can only wonder if the Station manager, news director, producers and reporters are all on the payrolls of those two groups I mentioned above.  Everything they do is aimed at reporting more geared to the 1950's rather than a new millennium.  So far as I know, Larry Barker might be the only journalist left there and he is marginalized towards mostly attacking government in his reports.

ISMs

I can't begin to fathom the paranoia that a High School Senior Class has caused by naming the theme for their prom.....Prom..unism.  The right wing thinks they have turned into a bunch of commies and the fringe are reacting like McCarthyites.

That 'ism' is scary to them.  How about Catholicism, Presbyterianism, republicanism, egoism and several hundred other isms in this list?

And if it does represent communism I am overjoyed because I had been under the impression that most high school seniors would not know what it is.  I remember our Sophmore year at St Pius X HS in Albuquerque when Father Alan Cushing taught a civics class.  The first semester he indoctrinated us into being commies.  We would wear armbands with the hammer and sickle.  Then in the second semester he would demolish that form of government as American Catholic priests were required to do.  I can't imagine this course could ever be presented today because of our current right wing tea party crazies marching on the school boards.

And of course the media loves a story about this kind of thing.  They should get as upset with the term racism.  Which is exactly what the President of Oklahoma University has done by throwing off of campus the SAE fraternity for singing a song in which they stated a 'nigger' would never be a member of the SAE. Read the statement here.

You have to see the SAE  video of it to believe it.   Those guys would all qualify as members of Mitch McConnell's Senate Majority who are willing to destroy our nation by obstructing at every turn a black President's effort to govern.

Misc.

The new State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn is making a lot of amateurish blunders as he tries to grease the skids for friends and family.  He gave a lucrative contract to a Otero County Commissioner, Ronnie Rardin, who in turn attempted to give Aubrey Dunn's son more work representing Otero County by trying to fire the County Attorney.  This Commissioner Rardin, a Christian Pastor and sagebrush rebellion rancher wing nut has an interesting past.  Just google him.  Like the time he tried to walk into the courthouse with a fully loaded semiautomatic pistol.

Commissioner Dunn's son doesn't like me much after I criticized their campaign for putting up blatant lies on TV in order to oust incumbent Commissioner Ray Powell, who just sat there and did nothing to counter it and thus lost the race.  Here is what this good Christian man had to say about me last November.

And Otero County wants him representing them?  Well, I guess not because the other Commissioners
said no.

State Auditor Tim Keller put out a release on his investigation into unused funds sitting around the state treasury.  Most of them are restricted in that they must be used for certain purposes.  But it might be time to look at freeing up some of the other funds to put together a pot of money for economic development.  Or maybe the cities and counties could get some relief on their infrastructure needs.  One wonders if there can be any sort of imaginative thinking in the Governor's office or Legislature to make this kind of thing happen!

Southwest

There were six peanuts in the bag! Smaller seat space, so smaller snacks.

Sent from my iPhone

Misc.

Score another loss for the Governor and Mayor as the Arabian Horse Show leaves New Mexico and heads for Oklahoma.  That  is the state that Senator Inhofe represents and embarrasses.  He recently took a snowball onto the Senate floor to prove climate change is a hoax.  But since they have invested in their facilities and infrastructure they won the lucrative horse show.  Something we just ignore in this era of GOP leadership in the Land of Enchantment.  Life is too short!

I plan on watching the new TV series "Dig" which was produced in Albuquerque.  One reason I am interested in it is that it is supposedly a 10 part miniseries.  It has a beginning and an end, hopefully.  Some of these other shows seem to go on forever with no end in sight.  Kind of like Downton Abbey which has celebrated the shallow lives of the Crawley family for so many years.  But, damn, I watch them all.

I am off to see our grand daughters in Fort Collins and then drive Bobbi home.  She has been camping out there helping to take care of the twins since October.  Noelle and her husband have found really  good in home daycare for Kate and Alex so Bobbi gets liberated!  She went up there the day after she retired from the US Forest Service.

Cowardice

This is the statement released on Congresswoman Michelle Grisham Lujan's facebook page tonight after she attended Netanyahu's speech in which he pretty much said we should trust him and not our own elected President.

"Today, I attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress. The Prime Minister has been consistent on his approach to Iran and today he brought his case directly to Congress and the American people. It is clear there is agreement on the threat that a nuclear Iran would pose to Israel and the world. However, while he was clear about the threat, the Prime Minister did not articulate an alternative path that prevents a nuclear Iran. His pessimism toward any negotiated deal with Iran is understandable. Even so, all options should remain on the negotiating table as we pursue our shared goal of keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran’s leaders."

This is without a doubt the biggest bullshit statement I have ever....ever seen come out of a Congressional member who pretends to be a democrat but shows no inclination to act like one.  Never will I support her again.  Lujan is pandering for donations from pro Israeli PACs, the defense industry, and anti peace operatives.  It is nauseating.  

Channel 13 Gets Suckered

Have the religious fundamentalists got an in with the KRQE NEWS dept?  One might think so after the story on a cancellation of a Charles Darwin historical series at the NM Museum of Natural History.  Except there wasn't any thing scheduled.  I asked for some illumination on this issue from a person in the know, and this is what he sent to me.  A couple of 'Intelligent Design' engineers who believe in the power of fairy dust conned the station into running this item.

This whole thing was driven by News 13 being conned into running the "story" by the local "Intelligent Design" (ID) crowd. Briefly, the museum had a Darwin Day event in 2014 (OVER A YEAR AGO). There was a brief error of attribution of an New Mexico Science and Reason event as co-sponsored by the museum in a flyer, but this was corrected LAST YEAR, BEFORE the event even took place. The museum tried to explain things to the ID folk (this is the Feb. 7, 2014 letter shown on News 13), but by that time the ID people were committed to pushing the false claim that "the museum is sponsoring anti-religion talks, so it should sponsor ID talks too." They made a huge stink about it last year, but then, the local news people knew better than to run a non-story. Cut to this year, the museum has a new director, and there wasn't any effort to do another big Darwin Day like the one of 2014. The group didn't even do Darwin Day this year.

Here's what the ID people really want: to have the museum sponsor their pseudoscience. That's why they are saying the museum "cancelled" Darwin Day. But it's not an annual event. We did have a few Darwin Days before, during, and after 2009 (bicentennial of Origin of Species), but our Feb 2010 NMSR meeting was about patent law. Why didn't News 13 run a story on why we "cancelled" Darwin Day in 2010? Our Feb. 2011 meeting was on early American anthropology. Where was the outrage then? Our Feb. 2012 meeting was on science for the public (w/ Sandra Blakeslee of the NYT). Where were the protests that year? In 2013 we did Lake Monsters. Again, no ID protests, no News 13 "Story."

If you want to complain, please don't bother the museum. Tell that News 13 sorry excuse for a reporter, Tina Jensen, and the anchor Dean Staley, that they were CONNED into running a non-story that makes it look like the ID folks are being "discriminated against." THAT is the story here.(IMHO)

And in fairness, the Governor's Office was apparently not responsible for their being no Darwin Day. But they do believe fairy dust will ultimately fix New Mexico's economy.

Tripping

The Journal did a good recap of Governor Martinez's political fund raising travel.  She has been out of state for an astounding 272 days since she was elected Governor.  It is a lot more than I would have suspected.  And once again I ask the question, how many days was she out of state on economic development trips?  If she did take some of those trips she isn't saying so because it would probably show her as being highly ineffective at attracting desperately need jobs.  I actually don't  get real upset about her fund raising absences, but I go get pretty worked up about her total cluelessness on the state of our economy.  What the hell does she do all day?

This story was was the result of legal actions by the Santa Fe Reporter, a solid weekly newspaper in the Capitol.  They Governor's spokesman Enrique Knell could only respond that the Reporter was, " a left wing weekly tabloid."  It is one thing for a blogger to say such things, but a state paid employee of our highest elected official will have that quote follow him for the rest of his career.  It is typical for this republican administration where they always attack the messenger instead of responding to the issue.

On another item, I am very proud of Senator Martin Heinrich's decision to not attend Netanyahu's address to congress.  This severe disruption of diplomacy by Speaker Boehner is very damaging.  Now, one can only wonder why Senator Udall, Congresswoman Michelle Grisham Lujan, and Congressman Ben Ray Lujan are attending.  Gee, do  you think it has something to do with pro Israeli PACs?  Shame on them.

Say It Isn't So!

We New Mexicans are so screwed(Click here).

And did the governor's office ask that this be done?  This could turn into a very interesting story.  I hope it gets legs.

Catching Hell

I have caught all sorts of hell from County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins for my criticism of the Commission's passage of a super regressive tax to fund mental health services and general county operations.  But his has been done and it will stick, for a while anyway.

Now we all need to keep a sharp eye on how this money will be spent.  Which nonprofit organizations will be lining up the get the mental health money to provide services?  Because I can only assume that is where that money will go.  Since there was no plan formulated on how this money was to be spent, it will be a free for all as the money gets doled out.  At the very least this Commission needs to come up with some measurable outcomes for the use of this money.  How do we know it will be used effectively?

Maggie pretty much said in some emails to me she didn't care about her political career, that this was the right thing to do.  I never argued that providing services was bad.  It was the funding mechanism and lack of planning I was criticizing.  And on top of it the Commission raised taxes to cover up their total mismanagement of the overall budget for operations.  And they raised it many times the amount needed to correct the problem.

Meanwhile, the heavy load of these taxes is put on the poor and middle class.