My reply to an op-ed by New Mexico Legislator Marianna Anaya which appeared in the June 27th Albuquerque Journal:

     It was most entertaining to read New Mexico Democrat Representative Marianna Anaya’s column over New Mexico Republicans not sending out words of condolence over the murder of two Minnesota legislators their silence, of which, would have shocked her Republican grandmother. While some might view this article as a disguised tirade against the Republican Party, I am thrilled at the glimpse we’ve been given into the mind of a New Mexico Democrat lawmaker.

     While it may have been heartless and inconsiderate of Republicans, I didn’t see a great outpouring of sympathy from Democrats and Progressives in New Mexico when Steve Scalise was shot and wounded by a left-wing extremist during a Republican Congressional Baseball Game practice session. Nor have I seen the flowers sent by Ms. Anaya and her Democrat friends to the funerals of Kayla Hamilton, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, or Laken Riley- all killed by the illegal aliens the autopen regime allowed into this country.

     But I don’t understand why anyone would expect words of sympathy from the nearly-extinct New Mexico Republican Party. Nearly-extinct because New Mexicans are literally bathed in Democrat propaganda from the media here. Nearly-extinct because most jobs here are Democrat-controlled sinecures. Nearly-extinct because who is listened to when half the population walks around with nose rings fashioned from Welfare dollars.

     I know Trump has a few billionaire friends like Elon Musk, a man who worked for free doing Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan’s job trying to weed out wasteful spending and reaped nothing but opprobrium and burned Tesla dealerships for his trouble. But Democrats also have billionaire friends like Mark Zuckerberg who pumped Zuckerbucks into our elections to try and buy votes, New York’s Michael Bloomberg who tried to tax sugary sodas, or anti-American George Soros whose Leftist spending would turn us into the envy of Venezuela. They did a lot of pocket padding themselves.

     What a nonsensical statement she makes that ‘people’ are dying from being unable to access abortion care. Aren’t these ‘people’ actually women? And what about the dead unborn child? We had over a million abortions in this country last year according to the Guttmacher Institute yet Anaya writes as though unborn children are no more than day-old hamburger placed in the cooler clearance section of the grocery store. I don’t think her grandmother would have admired unfettered infanticide. Not if she was a real Republican.

     Ms. Anaya easily makes the statement that the cruel Republicans are gutting Medicaid without providing proof. What I’ve read and heard of the Republican plan is that they want to limit it to American citizens. Maybe I missed the memo but which foreign countries are currently giving us Americans free medical care? Or free housing? Or free anything?

     Of course, when she blames Republicans for not wanting to work together, that only means one thing - they are not doing what she wants them to do. Given how Democrats have full control of the Legislature, bipartisanship is a meaningless word there although if you can add a few yes votes from Republicans, you can share the blame if anything goes wrong.

     But what I despise most from any politician is them using my culture, our culture, to try to sell bad ideas. Ms. Anaya tries to make her views palatable by railing against Republican values but I think she should spend some time examining her own. Her grandmother would like that.

       © Clyde James Aragon

Recently on an ocean cruise I got to feeling a tad paranoid about my fellow travelers. More than likely it was unnecessary but I couldn’t help thinking that maybe we need a day set aside to ponder this paranoia, a day called ‘Thank A Muslim Day’. And here is a short list of things we should be thanking them for.

- If the TSA guy just confiscated that bottle of blueberry syrup you bought for your Aunt Mary that you absent-mindedly put in your carry-on bag - thank a Muslim.

- If you worry about getting to your destination in that flight over New York - thank a Muslim.

- If you’re suddenly concerned whenever you see a woman in a hajib in the grocery line in front of you - thank a Muslim.

- If you panic at the thought of being shot leaving through the front door of the church you worship at - thank a Muslim.

- If you shudder at the sound of a roaring truck engine coming up behind you as you visit an amusement park - thank a Muslim.

- If you start sweating when you overhear a couple of swarthy individuals speaking an unknown tongue nearby - thank a Muslim.

- If you consider a fatwa being aimed at you for writing a piece like this - thank a Muslim.

              © Clyde James Aragon

In watching the riots going on in Los Angeles over the weekend over ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) personnel trying to remove illegal aliens from the city I was struck by how useless California government leaders are in stopping the damage being done by these ‘protesters’. It got me thinking of what other things California is lousy at doing. I thought I’d compile a short list.

       What California can’t do:

- put out forest fires

- stop riots

- build high-speed trains

- end homelessness

- control crime

- enforce immigration laws

- provide affordable housing

- treat law enforcement with respect

- build dams

- spend tax money wisely

       © Clyde James Aragon

   The decision by the University of New Mexico Board of Regents to increase student fees in order to ‘invest’ in Lobo Athletics stinks to high heaven of greed and incompetence. May I point out that UNM currently has over half a BILLION dollars in their endowment. No New Mexico student should even be paying for tuition with that kind of money lying around.

   And let’s not forget the land recently sold to In-N-Out Burger to build a burger joint on UNM’s South Campus. I’ve read of sale prices on this from one to two million dollars.

   Since the Regents and UNM President Garnett Stokes are calling this an ‘investment’, what is the rate of return? Or is it just a money grab spending project funded through the pockets of students and parents alike?

   UNM seems to spend endowment money buying property and legislators. It’s about time land sales and gifted money be used to help students and not used to run semi-pro sports teams and paying off their accompanying legal problems.

     © Clyde James Aragon

     While watching TV the other night, I learned that there was a plot in Congress to eliminate the penny. A Congressional bill was introduced bipartisanly by Lisa McClain (R-Michigan) and Robert Garcia (D-California) two upstarts who evilly titled it the Common Cents Act. It calls for the end of minting pennies and requires cash transactions to be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.

     All of this because last year the U.S. Mint said it lost $85.3 million on the over three billion pennies they minted (as it cost over three cents to print each one). Really? $85.3 million? The Navy just lost $60 million when one of their jets fell off a ship. And Senator Rand Paul reports that the Department of the Interior recently provided a $12 million grant for a 30-court pickleball complex in Las Vegas. Our government wastes money left and right and yet no one says that maybe we should be spending more on rails for Navy ships or maybe people ought to just take up jogging for exercise. $85.3 million? Besides, why should government get all the fun. Sure it’s waste but it’s OUR waste. It’s something we can touch, caress, and appreciate. I say those are pennies well spent.

     Well, ladies and gentlemen, I want the penny. It is the basis of the dollar. One hundred of them make up a dollar. Without the penny what will make up the dollar? One hundred dandelions? One hundred bumblebees? One hundred tarradiddles? A dollar without a base would be no dollar at all.

     The penny, or the ‘cent’ as some have decided to call it, is a historical device and was the first coin to be minted and circulated in the new country of the United States. This Fugio cent which came out in 1787 was purportedly designed by Benjamin Franklin and why wouldn’t it be as he designed a stove, bifocal glasses, swimming fins, and the lightning rod.

     Later on, in 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt put Abraham Lincoln’s visage on the front of the penny so that we might admire his full and robust beard. No longer did our coinage need be ashamed of facial hair.

     The noble penny has served us well. When we needed a coin to decide the outcome of a tied bet it was there, when we needed a quick replacement for a blown electrical fuse it was there. It has not ever complained of its lowly spot in the numismatic lineage and it proudly did its patriotic duty during World War II by allowing itself to be cast in smelly steel.

     Let us not forget that the penny is ever so useful when you’re pumping gasoline into your vehicle and you just barely, barely, go over the price you were aiming for. A quick check of your pockets and there is a penny or two in there waiting to make up the difference. Otherwise you’d have to leave the gas station while receiving a hard look from the attendant and feeling the searing shame of a person who’s defrauded Big Oil. Could one really live with that?

      This Common Cents Act is bad news. We need to keep our pennies. They are the most overlooked and useful of our coins. They have been with us since the founding of the Republic. They are our very history.

         © Clyde James Aragon

     I feel so much safer in Albuquerque these days now that our Governor,  Michelle Lujan Grisham, has sent the National Guard to help put down a virtual insurrection of crime throughout this city. Wow, the National Guard, a group so fearsome and lethal, she dared not send them to southern New Mexico to defend our border.

     While I’m not one to be manipulated by politically-inspired fearmongering, I see why it is so necessary that outside protection be brought in to keep us safe. We need to ensure that for every homeless vagabond who passes out on a sidewalk, three Albuquerque police officers can still be dispatched to watch his sleeping carcass. Any less would be a crime in and of itself.

     Though I had my trepidations when I heard of her plan, I was soon assuaged of my fears that an out-of-control militia would soon be roaming the streets upending garbage cans, firing semi-automatic weapons into the air, and drunkenly harassing old people on the way to the mall. But our intrepid Mayor Tim Keller stepped up to the microphone to calm our jittery nerves by telling us in no uncertain terms that our National Guard members would be wearing polo shirts and would NOT be driving around in large military vehicles. I breathed easier.

     For a moment there I thought we’d become Gotham City and badly needed Batman to come in and straighten things out.

     But as a worried citizen, may I make some suggestions to aid this show of force in a city which has defunded the police, elected bushels of liberal judges, and simultaneously become a sanctuary city/county/state/etc.?

     I think I express the obvious when I say polo shirts are a no-go when confronting criminals. If you’re going to propagate the fear and respect that has bald-headed felons hiding under their bed, you need muscle shirts. Black muscle shirts preferably with a pack of hard pack Marlboros rolled into their right sleeve. That means business in my book. Polo shirts? Are we trying to scare people on the golf course?

     Since the Mayor has said no large and menacing military vehicles would be used by our National Guard may I suggest they get around in the joyous Mini Cooper or the less formidable Smart car. Either one projects an aura of calm yet with a no-nonsense approach to law enforcement and global environmentalism.

     In all, I am glad our good Governor has taken pity on our plight and forcefully decided to do something about it. Albuquerque has so many hardened criminals these days, we’re almost a cement factory of evil.

     Finally, we can rest easy at night.

      © Clyde James Aragon

     New Mexico Republicans would be wise to walk away from the semi-open election primaries the majority legislative Democrats have shoved down their throat in this state. The Democrat Party excels at dirty tricks and you couldn’t get much dirtier than using this new technique to mess around with the election of their rivals.

     As an independent myself, I am not at all offended by not being allowed in either party’s primary. I chose that status and I can live with that. But as probably one of the few conservative independents in North Valley Albuquerque, and after having talked to many people here, I’d bet very good money that most independents in this city and state are liberal. It is so chic and modern to pretend you are above the fray when in reality you are as partisan as a poodle in a cat fight.

     No, next year the Republicans would be better off holding a nominating convention somewhere in the state or using mail-in ballots or Internet votes to decide who runs under the party’s banner. Let Republicans pick Republicans and Democrats pick Democrats.

     Having independents helping to choose Republican candidates would be like PETA driving by to select your dinner at a steak house. You'd be lucky if you got chocolate mousse for desert.

       © Clyde James Aragon

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