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Nota Bene: We Will Never Forget...By Studying

Nota Bene: We Will Never Forget...By Studying

I. I was a freshman at Las Cruces High School on 9/11/2001. The post cold war, Pax Americana had come to an end and all of our rose colored millennial lives were about to change; we couldn’t articulate it at the time but knew the dawn of a new geo-political struggle that began to ensue would be something our generation would inherit and endure for decades. 16 years later we are still fighting radical Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq, Africa and Europe, now in the Phillipines. Where’s next? Published in January 2001, Blowback by Chalmers Johnson prophetically discusses the unintended (or intended) consequences of American empire and unilateral hegemony in the post cold war era. On this solemn Patriot’s Day, I highly recommend the book for an understanding of ‘blowback’ and the current cycle of global conflict we cannot break from. Radical Islam must be opposed and unapologetically defeated but our current modus operandi isn’t working.

This is a classic from the Dodger’s great Vin Scully. Words that remain with us today, God bless America!

II. The Journal reports Albuquerque Mayoral candidate and Bernalillo County Commissioner Wayne Johnson has been accused of violating the county’s Code of Conduct by accepting $40,000 in campaign donations from restricted individuals. While the accusations are political theater employed by the Keller campaign, they do illustrate how crony capitalist Republicans often scratch the backs of their major ‘private’ sector donors with government contracts or industrial revenue bonds. These are the same Republicans who extol the virtues of small government and glory of private sector John Galts right? After reviewing who contributes to their campaigns, you’ll clearly see that their donor class can’t afford losing their corporate welfare much less a politician to protect their subsidized business interests on Council, Commission or the Legislature.

III. Early Voting for the Albuquerque Mayoral and City Council elections begins on Wednesday September 13th and ends on Friday September 29th. Early voting information can be found here. Information about the candidates can be found here.

IV. The University of New Mexico is stepping up their efforts to assist DACA Dreamers on campus as their futures here become questionable after the Trump Administration announced last week they would end the Obama era executive order giving amnesty to young adults and children who entered the USA undocumented with their parents as adolescents. According to the Daily Lobo, UNM Law School is “offering free assistance from attorneys for students looking to renew their DACA paperwork.” Student activists and staff are also working on the possibility of making UNM’s campus a ‘sanctuary’ from Immigration and Customers Enforcement policies being enforced by campus police. Since Trump is compelling Congress to work on a solution to our broken immigration system which means don’t expect any resolutions soon, it falls on the community to help those productive Dreamers find and secure their place on campus, in Albuquerque and this American land of opportunity until our representatives in Washington D.C. fix the broken system for good.

V. The long talked about Gila Diversion project, first proposed in 2004, is still being deliberated by state legislators, conservationists and bureaucrats. According to the Silver City Daily Press, It seems that legislators are growing inpatient with the proposed project and even questioning whether the project should even be sustained. At last week’s Legislative interim Water and Natural Resources Committee meeting in Silver City, Sen. Mimi Stewart remarked “five of us on this committee have been listening to this and working on it for 11 years, yet no project, no design, no demonstrated need that we even need this.” Democrats seem to be souring on support for the project, which means I won’t be surprised to see it disappear by the next Governor’s term.