Glad the Folks Abusing our Governments Aren't more Competent

We’d be in worse trouble if the folks misusing our governments were sharper.

Today’s good news included: the County’s failed to appear in court to prosecute Derrick Pacheco on the unconstitutional trespass charge they’d tossed him in jail for meaning, “Case dismissed;” a court slowing Measles Kennedy’s campaign to revive dead diseases; and our allies, having been given the finger by Donald Trump and appalled by his and Netanyahu’s war, declined to risk ships and lives escorting oil tankers through the strait closed because of Trump’s arrogance.

Less good is Mr. Trump’s continued pressure to pass the Save the Republicans Act. I thoroughly agree with him that making it hard for the average person to register to vote is his party’s main hope for the midterms. In his place, I might be equally obsessed with avoiding accountability for (or at least public airing of) my misconduct. What’s scary is, the bill isn’t dead yet.

The County ignored our well-established Constitutional right to talk to our local government. That means speaking up during public input. Of course, abusing that right can cause you to lose it; but depriving someone of a constitutional right requires some due process. The county gave Derrick Pacheco none. They “trespassed him” with a legally-insufficient letter. They tossed him in jail when he showed up anyway. Monday, he went to court for a hearing, as ordered. No county official showed. No one tried to defend the obvious stupidity. No one was even courteous enough to advise Derrick he needn’t go. I see no excuse for such behavior. I’ve courteously requested the County government tell me if it cam explain any of this.

Vaccinations, and insistence on those, put measles in the morgue for terrible diseases with smallpox. But Trump’s goofy HHS Secretary of Health has undermined folks’ confidence, and tried to order public health actions that would further harm public health. Fortunately, a Court just got in his way.

This Iran war might be a good idea for Israel, but sure isn’t for us.

First, the U.S. has a host of real problems, including rebuilding its industrial base and dealing with climate craziness. For too long, we have distracted ourselves too much by trying to run other countries instead of getting ours right. Mr. Trump even said so, until he realized how good it felt to blow Latin American boats out of the water.

We could spend these billions constructively, to do us good. But, even focusing just on Iran, this war is misguided, not just illegal. Iran’s regime was unpopular, but Trump just revived Iranian patriotism. Iran’s Supreme Leader thought his hard-line son shouldn’t succeed him, because Iran should have no hereditary monarchy, but the U.S. left Iran no choice. Our attacks, while they might free Israel from one threat, will likely make Iran and its people worse off than they are now. Further, we’ve destroyed a lot, but aren’t seeing the quick total surrender we needed. We’re likely in this for a while, unless Trump just declares victory. Having mocked European leaders and spurned their counsel, Trump demands they help bail him out – while he insults their war dead from helping us in Afghanistan. He even seems surprised by Iran’s obvious responses.

If we see that continuing war and insane gas prices endanger Trump’s desperate hopes for the mid-term elections, I’m pretty sure the mullahs can see that too. And they’ve got plenty of drones.

                                                         – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 22 March 2026, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website (under Local Viewpoints). A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version of this Sunday column will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/). ]

[Let me make clear that this column expresses my opinions. I try to keep it as fair and as factually accurate as possible, but these are my opinions. When folks thank me for “the article” I try to note that it’s a column. However, I try to be as fair as I can to folks accused by others (or me) of incompetence or misconduct. I invite comment and ask questions; and on numerous occasions I have written a rough draft of a column, then changed it significantly or abandoned it based on a frank, civil conversation with folks whom I had been prepared to criticize. Thanks for reading this.]

 

Trying to Explain to Grandfather

Three years after its Congressionally-mandated installation date, the Capitol plaque honoring the police who honorably bore the brunt of the January 6 mob invasion, that plaque went up.

It happened at about 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning, with no one present but the night-shift workers installing it. In the dead of night. No announcement. No press. No dedication.

That secrecy speaks eloquently.

The plaque alone will not tell later generations how strange it feels to live now.

As an exercise, think of someone dead who once nurtured or educated you. Parent, grandparent, teacher, preferably gone before 2016.

Imagine relating that a mob illegally invaded the Capitol, threatened to hang the vice-president, sent Congress scurrying to safety, injured police officers, and damaged offices, and that a sitting president had urged them on, some of his minions having conspired with invaders, and that he watched quietly on TV, resisting pleas from advisors, cabinet-members, and family that he try to stop the violence. He just kept watching. Gratified by their passion for his re-election, which the national majority had just rejected. Perhaps ignorant enough to hope that they might intimidate Congress from formally approving the vote count, avoiding the consequences of defeat?

How else could he watch silently events that would have shocked any of his predecessors, even Richard Nixon? It wasn’t a football game. He wasn’t dozing. He was watching intently. Not thinking that he had to do his laundry. Not appalled, not troubled.

How does the person you are telling react? (Of course, telling some folks from my childhood that the U.S. ever would elect as President a Black man with a funny name would have landed you in the booby hatch.)

I will imagine telling my maternal Grandfather. (My paternal grandfather, a Jew and a teacher, whose parents had escaped pogroms, might have had a touch less trouble imagining such a thing, “but not in America!”)

Grandfather was a Republican who drove a Cadillac. He owned many of Fort Fairfield’s businesses, and much of the surrounding farmland in northern Aroostook County, Maine. In the old photo beside me, he and Grandmother are short and quite thick. He proudly holds up a fish, probably salmon, that stretches from above his waist to the ground. Even fishing, he is wearing the pants and vest of a three-piece suit. His other passions were bridge and golf.

When I visited that town in 1967, for the funeral of his son, formerly Majority Leader of the Maine State Senate, I was a bearded 21-year-old and early war resistor. I looked so sinister to those God-fearing citizens that when I walked through town and stopped at shops, they eyed me suspiciously until they recognized the dog I was walking with, and realized whom I must be visiting. When my mother and I visited an old family friend of Grandpa’s generation, she embraced my mother, wailing about how sad Perrin’s death was, then glanced at me and burst into hysterical laughter.

I imagine telling him that a sitting president behaved so. I have not yet dared to suggest that four years later we might elect such a person a second time. I imagine him saying, “Don’t talk such foolishness,” or “That’s a lot of bunk.”

He died when I was eight. If I’d said any such thing would happen, he’d likely have spanked me.

We need no kings, mad or not, George or Donald.

                                              -- 30 --

[The above column appeared Sunday, 15 March 2026, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website (under Local Viewpoints). A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version of this Sunday column will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/). ]

          

Examining Why Trump Started This War

Other than trying to maximize attendance at the March 28 “No Kings” rally, why has Donald Trump started an unlawful and unwise undeclared war against Iran?

I thoroughly agree that there’s a lot not to like about the Iranian regime. . But if I don’t like how my neighbor yells at his kids, I don’t get to lob a grenade over the fence.

The chief “why” theories, other than Benjamin Netanyahu leading Trump by the nose, are: (1) Trump’s claim that Iran was dangerously close to nuclear weaponry and (2) the obvious need to distract folks of all political complexions from Trump’s abysmal poll numbers and years as Jeffrey Epstein’s wingman. (Illegally killing foreigners is also fun and makes one feel important.)

Evidence demolishes the first theory. We had a 2015 agreement under which Iran had stopped its nuclear development. Neutral observers and experts, including extraordinarily intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, said Iran was complying with the nuclear restrictions. But (1) in 2018 Trump broke that agreement, because undoing President Obama’s work was a higher priority than forestalling Iranian nuclear development, and (2) just months ago, Trump bragged that Iran’s nuclear development facilities were “completely and totally obliterated.” (Trump also weeps for Iranian protesters, while deporting Iranian refugees back to persecution by the same government.)

Certainly his poll numbers are abysmal. Republicans fear the mid-term elections. Trump’s State of the Union broke records for length but not for persuasiveness. Most recently, only 38% approve his immigration pogroms; his tariffs are raising prices; and roughly one-quarter of us approve the Iran strikes. Some of his closest one-time allies are appalled. A Facebook post complained of the high gas prices caused by everyone’s fear of shipping oil through the Strait of Hormuz; and when someone else commented, “Still not as high as in the last administration,” a third commented, “Yeah, during the last administration a dictator started a stupid war; and in this administration another dictator started another stupid war.”

A cynic might note that Mr. Trump’s new war serves the interests of the Gulf States that have recently invested heavily with Trump’s family and given him a jet.

The war is killing many innocent people. It may ultimately improve Iran’s governance; but a disintegration of the nation, with violence between the 70% Persian majority and other ethnicities seems at least equally likely.

Let’s not forget why we’re in this. In 1953, Iran had a genuine national leader, a socialist planning to give Iran a bigger share in its oil income, so the U.S. and U.K. took care of him and installed Shah Reza Pavlevi. A dictator. More modern-thinking, but repressive. In 1979, when the nation overthrew him and installed a religious fundamentalist leader as head of state, most all Persians welcomed him. Even Persian friends who were freethinkers and enjoyed all the illicit pleasures of U.S. life welcomed a fundamentalist replacing a U.S.-installed dictator.

Talking with Kuwaiti friends deepens my sadness. I visited Kuwait before and after the Iraqi war. I heard their accounts and saw familiar places suddenly destroyed. They don’t like what’s going on now.

But I digress. Even the folks who favored Mr. Trump for President, when I did not, favored him partly because he would lower prices and keep us out of foreign wars. Well, we all get scammed now and then.

I also wonder how Donald will explain this to the Nobel folks?

                                                   - 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 8 March 2026, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website (under Local Viewpoints). A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version of this Sunday column will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/). ]

[Writing columns about fast-moving events can be challenging. The Iran picture is almost as murky as it was, though. Trump and his minions have offered a bunch of sometimes contradictory explanations. Iran seems to be digging in. The choice of the younger Khamanei as the new Supreme Leader symbolizes that, and also amounts to a selection who can hit the ground running, since he’s been a big part of running the country for a long time. Interestingly, Trump may have sealed his appointment. His father had told others for the last couple of years that although his son was great and beloved, choosing him as his father’s successor would be too much like the hereditary monarchy the U.S. and U.K. installed in Iran, which the revolutionaries had pledged never to copy. While I understand the conventional wisdom that a war helps a U.S. President retain power, I think the Iranians, not being stupid, can well understand that if they can persevere, Trump will want to get this over with, lest it further dampen his party’s prospects in November. Higher oil prices, caskets coming home from an undeclared war most people didn’t support, and more money wasted on battle when folks are jobless or without health care . . . doesn’t sound like a wonderful prescription for victory. Trump’s only hope – as he seems to know – is a draconian and maybe unconstitutional election law that would keep many, including me, from being able to vote. So he’s pushing that insanely hard.]

[I shouldn't give such short shrift to the most simple explanation: Mr. Trump has discovered recently that it's fun to kill people and blow stuff up, and one really feels important while doing so.  If you have no conscience and no compassion, why not?]

Here's a Big Mess We Can Avoid!

It’s truly frightening that our Public Regulatory Commission might approve acquisition of a Public Service Company of New Mexico, despite clear statutory language requiring such an acquisition to be in the public interest.

Consistently increasing energy costs to increase distant shareholders’ profits is inequitable; and many, many New Mexicans are especially vulnerable. There’s a lot of poverty here. Higher electricity costs could harm kids’ health and nutrition, as parents make hard choices. Can we heat the home this winter? Can we keep lights on as long as kids need to study? Which food items can we cut this week to pay Blackstone. That’s frightening, and our governor should help protect citizens.

It’s also about our future. Voters here care about the environment and the threat of climate craziness. Our Energy Transition Act mandates a major switch to renewable energy; but Blackstone, has major investments in fossil fuel companies. Blackstone would have a motive to deal with companies it owns, as it has elsewhere. Why not? Maximizing investor profit is its duty to shareholders. Blackstone already has a long rap sheet.

Nor could the PRC police that. A committee of non-experts overseeing many areas – is way overmatched by Blackstone. Compare PRC’s $29.3 million 2026 annual budget with Blackstone’s overall annual take of #13.2 billion. That’s 683 times the PRC annual budget. That gives it huge and undesirable influence on decision-makers – and Project Jupiter has just reminded us how unappetizing and powerful such influence can be. Blackstone’s size means both that we’ll need a far bigger enforcement staff and that the staff would be handicapped by Blackstone’s ability to fight forever in court or buy officials who’ll wink at enforcement or even change laws. As we’re seeing with Jupiter.

A huge company slyly gouging us by dealing with its own partners just ain’t in New Mexico’s interest.

Further, none of this is necessary.

PNM’s claim that it needs Blackstone’s capital is nonsense. PNM wants the enhanced price per share Blackstone will pay to acquire PNM. Logic tells you the only reason for paying such premium is to make it back, and more, in profits – from electricity bills paid by New Mexicans. PNM could obtain capital by the usual means of loans, bonds, and other maneuvers companies routinely use.

If PNM must be obtained by someone, why not by New Mexico? (New Mexico’s State Investment Council already invests with Blackstone.) We could buy PNM for a small fraction of what we have in New Mexico’s Permanent Fund . Advantages are obvious. Profits from the New Mexico utility would go to New Mexico; and the utility could honestly consider the public interest in its decision-making. New Mexico doesn’t operate myriad other private enterprises that could make higher profits through sweetheart deals with the electric utility. Further, if there are problems, and required investigations, our transparency laws would make those routine, whereas Blackstone’s extreme secrecy would make investigations nearly impossible.

By law, the PRC must decide based on whether or not the acquisition is in the public interest. To say it is would require a pretty absurd lie. If our Governor’s employees adopt that lie, I hope she has no future political plans this side of Greenland.

Blackstone claims its wealth means long-term financial security for PNM. But a regulated utility is already secure, guaranteed a nearly ten per cent return on investments.

In May, the PRC should decide this. Before then, speak up!

                                                    – 30 -- 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 1 March 2026, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website and on KRWG’s website (under Local Viewpoints). A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version of this Sunday column will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/). ]