A Disastrous Governor

What a disaster Susana Martinez has been!

Recent investigative journalism suggests that some of her apparent “pay-for-play” conduct involved law-breaking, at least by the folks who paid her to disregard our interest to serve theirs; and her Education Department has released new anti-science rules for teaching science. 

She wrongfully destroyed mental health facilities to clear the field for Arizona companies that had contributed to her campaign. 

According to The International Business Times, investment firms that gave Martinez and her supporters $1.2 million saw huge amounts of public money (in educational retirement funds and state investment funds) move from safer investments to those firms, with nice management fees. Those deals may have broken federal securities laws. State Rep. Bill McCamley has asked AG Hector Balderas to investigate whether they broke state campaign laws. Martinez chairs the State Investment Council, which oversees about $20 billion in state funds. Will those funds go the way of our mental health facilities?

Meanwhile, her Education Department wants to weaken the teaching of science by avoiding evolution, ignoring the scientific consensus that the Earth is nearly 4.6 billion years old, and hiding our heads in the sand about global warming. A national team of scientists and teachers developed a plan for science teaching; but either Susana knows better or it's politically inconvenient to teach science honestly.

Will teachers tell students that heavy things may fall toward Earth when they're dropped, because God has a heavy hand? Lion cubs may result from adult lions mating. The seas may be rising because God is blowing them up like a balloon. 

 

I'm all for healthy skepticism about scientific conclusions. Leeches and shock treatments were once standard treatments. Eggs are healthy or unhealthy, depending on the decade.

But science is right more often than it's wrong. It reaches conclusions by the method best calculated to approach Truth: the scientific method, stessing experiments and evidence, not the pronuncements of some seer, potentate, or astrologist. Test everything – then test it again.

I loathe what Susana and her minions are trying to do because I like honesty, candor, and evidence-based arguments. I dislike greedy politicians telling artists what they can create or scientists what their experiments should and shouldn't discover. I respect people's religions and ideas, and fight for their rights to express them; but I'd appreciate the same courtesy. Let our government govern, not waste time trying to protect religious beliefs. It's no coincidence that just when New Mexico is “adjusting” science to religion, Turkey's government is doing the same. No one religion or nationality has a corner on the arrogance market. There are stupid leaders everywhere.

Everyone from unemployed workers to the Chamber of Commerce says we need business development. All the experts say an educated work-force is one major quality companies look for. 

Many are tech companies, whose products are based on science.

For businesses to function in this modern world, a solid knowledge of science is essential. Imagine trying to build ships to navigate the universe if we still taught that the flat Earth was its center. If Earth is a few thousand years old, as some religious extremists say, were fossils and petroleum inserted into rocks by mischievous atheists? 

 

Republicans would offer us Steve Pearce as our next act. Someone who thinks women should obey their husbands; and whose political success depends on pretending global warming is a myth, oil and gas never pollute wells and streams, and solar energy is impractical.

Political corruption knows no party. Like science, democracy is a process. We need to be skeptical of all political candidates. Test them. And monitor results closely.

                                                        -30-

[The column above appeared this morning, Sunday, 24 September 2017, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website.  An abbreviated version will air during the week on KRWG Radio and KTAL-LP 101.5 FM.]

[Unbeknownst to me, while I was writing this column Algernon D'Amassa was writing column on the "post-truth political assault on science and liberty."]

[Meanwhile the big sports news this weekend is political: Donald Trump has dumbly involved himself in unnecessary bickering with popular athletes.  Insignificant in themselves, the recent controversies embody Trump's inability to control his mouth, his defensiveness and bullying, and his willingness to divide the country along ethnic lines.

One involves the aftermath of the Colin Kaepernick situation I wrote about a couple of months ago.  He's a qualified football quarterback without a job.  Most believe he's without a job because last season he started kneeling during the pre-game national anthem, as a protest.  People overreacted.  Trump overreacted, saying no team should hire him.  More and more players, even recently some white players, have begun emulating Kaepernick's form of protest.  A sane and sensible U.S. President would ignore this.  Theoretically he has weightier matters on his mind.  Trump has called them "sons of bitches" (to which Kaepernick's mom, though not really a fan of his protest, said "I guess that makes me a proud bitch") and said they should all be fired or suspended.  Playing to his base.  Predictably, that has increased the enthusiasm of players for the protest movement.  It's a way to protest Trump now.  A little less predictably, not only the owner of the San Francisco 49ers but several owners, such as the NY Giants' Mara, Robert Kraft (New England Patriots), and Shad Khan (Jacksonville Jaguars) have criticized Trump.  Kraft is a long-time pal of Trump's, and all three contributed money to his campaign and/or his inauguration.  The NFL contributed $100,000 to the inauguration, I think.  (Khan gave $1,000,000 to the Inauguration!)  In short, to garner a few raucous cheers from his base, Trump has further estranged himself not only to players and some of their fans, but to NFL owners.  

Meanwhile it looked likely the Golden State Warriors would decline an invitation to the White House to honor the NBA Championship they won earlier this year.  Star Steph Curry said he'd vote "No!"  Coach Steve Kerr, whose father was killed by terrorists in Beirut and who sees that Trump's conduct and policies exacerbate ethnic divisions and potential terrorism, was not personally in favor of going to the White House, but would let the players decide.  Trump took the decision out of their hands by rescinding the invitation.  Too thin-skinned to bear their likely rejection of him, he called more attention to it.  As Curry said, this is beneath Trump -- or beneath his current position -- and "isn't what a leader does."

Obama would likely have said that while he didn't agree with a lot of Kaepernick's views, our democracy depends on our tolerance, diversity, and freedom of expression.   The Warriors would have visited him, as they did two years ago, so that problem wouldn't exist.

A sensible Republican president with a sense of our country's values - John McCain , say -- would have ignored the football business, demonstrating he had more important concerns.  Such a Republican president would likely host the Warriors without incident, since he wouldn't have engaged in Trump's hateful rhetoric about minorities and immigrants; but if a team had talked about ducking a White House visit, he'd ignore it, express polite regret, or maybe -- given Kaepernick's having played with the 49ers -- just made some joke about California sports teams and California's governor being a little odd.  

All trivial.  Except that a fatal flaw in Mr. Trump is that in every situation, the highest priority is to look good.  Not to accomplish a goal that serves the national interest.  To look good.  Given a chance to forego looking like the star but get some concession that would help the country, Obama or McCain or Reagan would have been secure enough to forego for a moment appearing to be the smartest man in the room, if it would help some negotiation succeed.  Not the Donald.

An example of the reaction Trump inspired, from a story on The Hill.com by Brandon Carter: 

Former NFL head coach Rex Ryan blasted President Trump for his criticism of NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, saying on Sunday that he is “appalled” at Trump’s comments.

“I’m pissed off, I’ll be honest with you,” Ryan said on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown.” “I supported Donald Trump. When he asked me to introduce him at a rally in Buffalo, I did that. But I’m reading these comments and it’s appalling to me and I’m sure it’s appalling to any citizen in our country.”

“Calling our players SOBs and all that kind of stuff? That’s not the men that I know,” Ryan, who's  now an analyst, continued. “The men I know in the locker room, I’m proud of, I’m proud to be associated with those people.”

Now even surmising that owners and commentators (as Ryan now is) have some motive not to become anathema to players, these are strong.]

[Later in the day, I red this Dan Wetzel story]on how unifying and inspiring it was that Khan, in the NFL's first game this season in London, showed such support for his players against Trump's insults that he linked arms with them at the start of the game.   It's worth a read, even to a non-football-fan.  Too, the Jaguars did go out and wax Baltimore 44-7.]

[Still later, it was clear that the issue was widespread.  About 24 players from the two teams playing in the Wembley Stadium Game took a knee; the Jaguars who didn't mostly or all locked arms to show their solidarity, and the team's owner joined them.  With one exception, a player who'd served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, the Pittsburgh Steelers all avoided the divisive decision by staying in the locker room until the anthem was over. 
Meanwhile, basketball players criticized Trump's conduct toward the Golden State Warriors.  Perhaps one of the best statements I ran across was from Steve Kerr, the Warriors' coach, as quoted on-line:

Kerr still has a message for the commander in chief.

"I’ve been fortunate enough to meet President Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, and Obama," Kerr told The Crossover's Chris Ballard. "I didn’t agree with all of them, but it was easy to set politics aside because each possessed an inherent respect for the office, as well as the humility that comes with being a public servant in an incredible position of power, representing 300 million people.

"And that’s the problem now. In his tweet to Steph [Curry], Trump talked about honoring the White House but, really, isn’t it you who must honor the White House, Mr. President? And the way to do that is through compassion and dignity and being above the fray. Not causing the fray."  ]

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