This Gang of the Rich
Our country is frozen in the filthy rich pit of a cultish Republicanism, a bunch of sick coyotes yakking the same chorus, “Kill to Win,” “Pray God for Stagnation.” “We’ll drown you in our own filth of hatred for the poor, the down trodden, the impotent, the sick, the helpless children and stressed families, the out of work, the over-burdened, the unserved, the abandoned class of the dwindling mainstream, screw you!”...
A Fresh Face: District Two Update
Guess who’s been rubbing elbows with David Koch at the lil ‘ol Country Club? And guess who got the royal nod from the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP): the Commerical Real Estate Development Association? The lengthy name alone shows just how important these folks really are! For instance, the New Mexico branch is currently headed up by Bruce Beebe, Wells Fargo VP for regional business banking.
Mercury readers, on Nov. 29 last year then pres. of the New Mexico NAIOP, Dale Dekker, wrote a letter endorsing this mystery person to run for city council in District 2 as a pro-business candidate. If you guessed this mystery person is good ol’ Uberprogressive, District 2 candidate Rox Meyers, you were right! ...
Montagues and Capulets
As our country goes into its second day of partial government shutdown, many foreigners ready to spend their money at our national parks and other points of interest are being told their destination is closed. They don’t understand how a standoff between two modern political parties in a democracy constantly advertised as worthy of emulation can paralyze a nation, furlough federal workers, and stop important services. This couldn’t happen at home, they say...
The New Deal Revisited in Symposium and Exhibit (This Saturday)
The New Deal lasted only a decade. But in that decade thousands of bridges in the country were refurbished or built new; thousands of miles of roads were built, hundreds of post offices, schools and community centers were built or festooned with New Deal art provided by unemployed artists, many products of the nation’s best art institutions.
Some of our national icons were completed during the period like the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam. Three million young men worked in Civilian Conservation Camps, many living outside their communities for the first time...
Countdown to Health Reform III
The New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange opened October 1, and it is clear there are some hiccups as an enterprise as massive as this one moves into action. But they will get over these growing pains and will get it together. Individuals without coverage or those wanting to change their coverage will have six months (October 1, 2013 – March 31, 2014) to enroll through the Exchange. Anyone can enroll now, but the policies will not be effective until January 1, 2014. So you have time to learn about using the Exchange.
Below are a few suggestions for those who want to purchase coverage...
The New Normal
Because of our elected officials’ extreme polarization, important sectors of our nation closed down this morning. Government services not deemed to be essential have been forced to shut their doors. National parks and monuments have lines of cars stopped at their gates (many carrying visitors coming from halfway around the globe). Even some workers whose expertise guards our safety, such as a percentage of air traffic controllers, are off the job. More than 800,000 government workers have been furloughed without pay, with thousands more required to continue laboring, also without pay...
Counter-Ad to Diesel’s Affront to Muslim Women
Media Literacy Project was disturbed by Diesel’s ad featuring a white woman in a niqab with much of her body exposed and tattooed, reading, “I am not what I appear to be.” Yes, the ad affirmed that women in niqabs are diverse and interesting, but it also was an affront to Muslim women’s modesty and cast their bodies as exotic. It enticed people to look at Muslim women and wonder what’s beneath the clothes, which is the antithesis of what this everyday piece of clothing is intended to do. It took the power away from Muslim women and put the emphasis on their appearance...
Climate Whacks Mexico’s Economy
The twin blows of Hurricane Ingrid and Tropical Storm Manuel are jolting the Mexican economy. According to the federal Budget and Taxation Secretariat (SHCP), the storms will shave Mexico’s estimated 2013 growth rate from 1.8 percent to 1.7 percent. Federal officials expect growth to pick up pace during the fourth quarter of the year, but the latest downward indicators followed a series of previously announced reductions in the year’s projected economic growth rate, which plunged from 3.5 percent to 3.1 percent even before reaching a new low in the aftermath of September’s storms...
She Shoulda Said It Better
In her gold necklace, and $3000 red dress, the neatly coiffed New Mexico Secretary of Human Services, Sidonie Squier knows a thing or two about hunger and poverty. Obviously, from her getup, we know Squier knows the feeling when the growling stomach bumps up against the spine, the hands tremble uncontrollably and thinking is a dull haze. Obviously, Squier knows the dread of staring into your own child’s eyes and seeking an apology, some remorse, some explanation because there is nothing to eat in the house..
With All Our Sun and Wind, Why Isn’t New Mexico Number One?
The extent to which the fossil fuel industry’s powerful lobbies have New Mexico’s vision of its future in their thrall can best be seen in a head-shaking omission. New Mexico is not competing to be the solar and wind power capital of the world. And we all can guess why.
It’s not about the price of technologies, not about batteries, not about the “intermittency” of wind and solar sources. These matters are handily dismissed by money, incentives, legislative will, and executive vision. It’s all about who will lose money from transitioning to renewable energy and who won’t...