Holy Week:  Bodies thrown out, apparently live, from Small Aircraft

Sinaloa:  A small aircraft hovering on April 11 over a small town near the capital city of Culiacan, Sinaloa, lost at least two passengers who apparently were thrown out, alive.  One landed on the roof of the local social security office and the impact rendered the head of the victim unrecognizable.  There were conflicting reports as to whether there was one or possibly two more bodies that landed on the ground nearby.  Sinaloa is the state that headquartered Chapo Guzman, lord of the Sinaloa cartel until his capture and extradition to the United States last year.

Body of 13-year of boy executed in Chilpancingo:  La Polaka

Chilpancingo:  La Polaka reports (click here) that a thirteen-year old school boy was found in two plastic bags.  One clear plastic bag contained his head and chest; a black plastic bag contained the rest of his body from the waist down to his feet.

In Acapetlahuaya, a town of about 1500 persons in the state of Guerrero, at 3 p.m. on April 9 armed gunmen barged into the home of Roller Arellano Sotelo, a former state legislator and also former mayor of Acapetlahuaya, and executed him and a city council member, Octavio Arellano Eloísa, who happened to be there at the time.

 

Body of former mayor R. Arellano Sotelo, La Polaka

Breaking News:  Legislative Council Sends Ten Vetoed Bills to the Supreme Court

The Legislative Council, a bipartisan body of 18 leaders of both chambers, voted today to send ten bills vetoed by the governor to the Supreme Court.  Unlike the federal government, the legislature under certain circumstances may ask the Supreme Court to rule expeditiously on important issues, so the request has constitutional standing.  No formal vote was taken to over-ride any of the governor's vetoes, probably because there are not enough votes to do so.  But enough Republicans joined with Democrats to challenge the governor's vetoes in court.

Right now the political winds appear to be favorable to Democrats in the legislature.  The governor's veto of the entire higher education budget has been ridiculed, particularly her own admission that she did so because the senate refused to confirm two recent appointments to the board of regents at UNM.  The veto has been overwhelmingly interpreted as petty, petulant, and vindictive.  Two excellent regents, both appointed by the Governor (Jack Fortner was appointed by Governors Johnson, Richardson, and Martinez; Brad Hosmer, a retired three-star general and Rhodes scholar who served a stint as Commandant of the Air Force Academy was appointed by Martinez in 2011 for a six-year term) are able and willing to continue acting as regents until new regents have been confirmed, so there was little urgency in getting the new regents approved.  The Santa Fe New Mexican called the veto a "hissy-fit," and various media outlets have pointedly run stories that the governor's approval rating is among the lowest of all governors in the U.S. today.  So the higher ed veto has apparently backfired, and has drowned out most everything else she might credibly say about her other vetoes.

In addition to the negative reactions to the higher education and other vetoes, the governor is now in her seventh year as governor and, as such, is relatively powerless to exert much discipline on legislators who refuse to support her.  It is no longer dangerous even for a Republican legislator to vote against the governor and, as her poll numbers slip, it might even be a positive thing to point to votes against her that "stand up" to her demands.  Some legislators, however, will remain tied to her legislative apron strings despite personal misgivings, afraid they will be "primaried" by Jay McClesky, who has shown a talent for raising money to run candidates to oppose her.  On the other hand, Democrats may call out legislators who are too chicken to stand up to an unpopular governor, so there are tangible dangers even in supporting her.  But for all practical purposes, it appears the governorship of Susana Martinez is over as a major factor in determining what happens in New Mexico during the next eighteen months.

The New Mexico Supreme Court, of course, will pay absolutely no attention to the politics of the moment and will rule strictly in adherence to the strictest letters of the laws of this enchanted land, on behalf only of the best interests of the people of the state of New Mexico.  But it will surprise no one if they rule pretty much in favor of ruling against the governor on most issues.

Santa Fe, Holy Thursday, April 13

Holy Week:  Two Versions on Holy Thursday in El Norte

Spring is breaking out all over El Norte.  The snow pack runoff may not last beyond June, but the acequias are running now and the rivers are flowing nicely.  Good time for fishing.

Speaking of fishing, this is a time of the year people remember Jesus' words, "follow me and I will make you fishers of men."  Here are two contemporary versions of actions by citizens of El Norte, in response to this call.

1.  Old Tech NM Version:  The annual pilgrimage is underway, as some faithful Catholics participate in the trek that will culminate tomorrow in Chimayo.  The Catholic Church purchased the Santuario in Chimayo in 1992, from a family that had built it in to honor Nuestra Señora de Atocha, in veneration of Nuestra Señora's son, a child said to have given bread to starving prisoners taken by Moorish conquerors in Atocha, a small village in Central Spain, during the 13th century.  There is also a Mexican follow-up version of the story, dating back to the mid-1500s in Zacatecas, for a miracle in Plateros, a mining village where an explosion had trapped minors and a child is said to have appeared to give them water and lead them to safety.  The New Mexico version, dating to the 19th century, has it that Severino Martinez, seriously ill, promised to build a chapel in honor of Our Lady, should he be cured.  The chapel became the destination of pilgrims soon after it was built.  Today, pilgrims anoint themselves with dirt from the chapel, often expressing a prayer for relief from illness.

Nuestra Señora de Atocha is venerated by Catholic pilgrims and prisoners, and miners throughout the Catholic world, hoping for relief, as well as for people hoping for help for hopeless situations.  In New Mexico many survivors of the Bataan Death March attribute their survival to the intervention of La Señora de Atocha.

(2)  NewTech Soda Pop NM Version:  From the Santa Fe New Mexican today:  An inter-faith group, on moral grounds, is backing mayor Javier Gonzales' proposal on the ballot for a two-cent tax per ounce for soda pop, to raise money to send hundreds of Santa Fe children to pre-school.  Today Charlie Clements, a human rights activist, will speak at an inter-faith forum on behalf of the tax, which he believes is a moral issue.  According to the Santa Fe New Mexican this morning Clements said, "moral issues are those actions or choices which have the potential to help or harm others or ourselves."  The Rev. Talitha Arnold, senior minister at United Church of Santa Fe, wrote on behalf of the measure, "It is both just and right to do what is needed to insure that all children have a chance to reach their God-given potential from the very beginning.  Supporting pre-K for all is one way to do that."  Opposing the measure is a political action committee, Better Way for Santa Fe & Pre-K.  David Huynh, a spokesperson for this group said, "The choice is whether we need to hit residents and small business people hard with a massive tax or instead fund pre-K with a multimillion dollar surplus from revenues that these same people created by working hard."

Links:

• Rising US Mortality Rates for Middle Aged White Men:  Interview with Angus Deaton, found in Tim Taylor's The Conversable Economist
•  Student Debt Bubble Sucks Even More Out of Economy and Ruins Lives, Yet Officials Keep Inflating It -Naked Capitalism
• Ex-Governor of Tamaulipas Arrested for Taking Bribes From Drug Traffickers:  Borderland Beat
• Juarez (37) and Chihuahua (40) Once Again on Global Top-40 Lists for Homicides:  La Polaka
• Governor Vetoes Campaign Finance Reform:  Trip Jennings, New Mexico In Depth

Open Any Door:  Evidence of System Failure 

The links above offer more troubling evidence that political systems are failing to deliver to the vast majority of citizens under their management.  While death rates for middle aged men in Europe continue a steep decline, here in the US the death rate for middle aged men has been on the rise for two decades, now twice as high as Sweden, and almost twice as high as Canada.  Evidence from other sources reveals that life expectation for Bernie's One Percent continues to rise.

After some discussion during the campaign on the D side, evidence suggests student debt still acts as a brake on access to higher education.  The price tag for a student to attend an elite school is around $72,000, dramatically up about $20,000 from just a few years ago, and the evidence suggests that higher costs have nothing to do with improved knowledge-producing capabilities to offer students at elite schools, but rather because elite universities are investing in non-academic personnel hired to raise even more money from wealthy donors in a vicious escalation of costs.

Mexico is still reeling from the war on drugs, and violence is on the rise again.  Mexico's last spike in homicides (2008-2010) coincided with the presidential election runup to 2010.  Mexico will have presidential elections in July of 2018.  Is this a coincidence?  Or is there something about presidential elections that stimulates drug-related violence?

Finally, here in New Mexico, after campaigning vigorously in 2010 against the "pay-to-play" mischief that broke out during the Richardson administration, and that could often be traced back to fundraising activities, the Governor has in 2017 vetoed a relatively mild campaign finance reform measure, co-sponsored by a moderate Republican (Jim Smith) that would simply require greater disclosure of the source of contributions.

Mexico Vs. Trump, Wednesday

Diario de Juarez reported, soberly, on Thursday (click here) that Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray, in Washington on Wednesday, revealed that he had asked Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to "repect the electoral process in Mexico." Mexico will hold presidential elections in 2018.  Videgaray made his remarks in response to a comment Senator John McCain made at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing to the effect that a leftist president in Mexico would not be good either for the US or for Mexico.

To understand the biting irony in Videgaray's remarks you need to understand two contextual issues.

(1) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known popularly as AMLO), a leftist who narrowly lost a presidential election to conservative Felipe Calderon in 2006, now leads in various recent national polls.  His popularity is widely believed to be enhanced by the feeling in Mexico that he would stand up to President Trump, in contrast to the fawning demeanor of current President Enrique Pena Nieto on two occasions, once in Washington and once in Mexico City, in Trump's presence.  The Mexican government, understandably, is concerned about its image as it deals with the President who once called Mexican immigrants "rapists."

At first glance, Videgaray's eagerness to reveal his complaint to Kelly about McCain's comment appears to be a slight over-reaction from a super-sensitive Mexican administration that lost its chance to prove, when the world was watching, that it had huevos.  But there is more

(2)  In the context of the scandal of the Trump campaign's coziness with the Russians as they were hacking into one of our presidential candidates' emails, and the widespread suspicion throughout the world, including Mexico, that there was collusion by the Trump campaign in this, there is an implicit suggestion here in Videgaray's remarks thatTrump's people might well be willing to intervene in a second presidential election:  beware, Mexico, of someone hacking into your elections next year!

Score one, on the rhetorical board, for Mexico.

Links:

• The Truth About NAFTA:  Laura Tyson, Project Syndicate
• Twenty Six Graves of murdered persons found Near Juarez so far this year:  Diario de Juarez
•  Mayor of Cuauhtemoc Complains to Governor Corral About Replacement of Municipal Police With State Police:  La Polaka
• Why O'Rourke Wants the Senate:  El Paso Inc.

  

News From the Border

The links provided above give us a glimpse of the border today.  First, as Laura Tyson notes, Mexicans are making their own calculations about what to do, now that they know they have an Ugly American in the White House who used Mexico as a convenient scapegoat during the presidential campaign--the wall, the rapists, the trade deals taking away Bubba's job.  She raises the scary possibility that it may become politically useful for politicians in Mexico to mirror the right-wing hate-filled ranting of Trump, destabilizing the subtle understandings that have developed between Mexicans and Estadounidenses over the past quarter century and that have led to an exceptionally powerful partnership between the two countries.  As long as Trump is President, a trusting relationship is highly unlikely.

Ever since the beginning of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, there has been remarkable agreement among US security strategists that the major security threat from Mexico is not the Mexican government, but political instability in Mexico.  It was instability in Mexico that led to problems during the Revolution along the lower Rio Grande in Texas, and the assault by Pancho Villa on Columbus, ending with a massive mobilization by General Pershing on the US-Mexico border just prior to World War I.  If you can imagine a black-haired, blow-dried president of Mexico flinging insults at the US to reawaken deep-seated resentments from the past for political purposes, think through some of the mischievous possibilities that might arise from such a scenario.  It is a scary proposition indeed, and one that all Americans should be concerned about, regardless of their views on NAFTA.

The war on drugs is not over in Mexico.  Violence is rising in certain areas of the country, including Chihuahua state, putting pressure on elected officials to do something about it, and underscoring the kind of instability that occurs when rival law enforcement institutions are corrupted by the money flowing from the drug trade.  The mayor of Cuauhtemoc, a city of over 150,000, is convinced the new Governor, Javier Corral, in bringing in his state police, will simply upset the delicate equilibrium that has kept the peace in his city.  After all, local police know their own territory much better than state police.

Finally, the most popular politician in El Paso, Beto O'Rourke, has announced he is running in the Democratic primary next year, hoping to secure the nomination to run against Ted Cruz.  O'Rourke speaks perfect Spanish.  He has spoken out strongly in favor of rethinking the Drug War and opening up an honest discussion about the role of government within it.  He is an adult, in spite of being only 44.  While the odds are against him, should he win the nomination he may well become a game-changer against Ted Cruz.  He has a knack for telling truths we are not allowed by political correctness to say, and with a down-to-earth common sense that disarms even the most ardent opponents:  Ted Cruz's bombastic, know-it-all style would be severely challenged.

Public Education in NM:

What the Bottom of the Barrel Looks Like

 

 Note:  The NCES does not provide data for NM for the period 1998-2002

In July 2009, after six years of the Richardson administration, LaPoliticaNewMexico looked at the bottom line in education in New Mexico, student scores in comparison with other states.  In 2009 Richardson received an award from the NEA for being the "greatest education governor."  But the evidence (click here for the post) indicated New Mexico was very near the bottom among states in student performance in math and reading, in spite of a huge increase in teacher salaries earlier in the administration.

How has public education fared under Governor Martinez?  The short answer:  poorly

Here are several recent rankings of the NM educational system by reputable national organizations:

• Kids Count:  2016 ranking shows NM at the bottom:  50/50, down from 49 during 2013-15.
• Wallet-Eye:  2015 ranking of "school system quality," NM 51/51 (with Washington DC included) on a composite of 13 weighted elements.
• Education Week: 2016 ranking shown NM "overall" at 48/50; 49/50 in "chances of success," and 36th "school finances."
• NAEP Fourth Grade reading scores:  2015 ranking shows NM at 50/50
• NAEP Fourth Grade math scores:  2015 ranking shows NM at 49/50

When confronted with the disaster of NM student achievement scores, members of the NM educational establishment (principals, superintendents, teacher unions, and too many legislators) tend to argue that New Mexico being poor, we simply don't spend enough money on education to close the gap or, worse, lapse into excuses about the high presence of "minority students" as though Natives and Hispanics, who comprise more than two out of three of our students, all have learning disabilities.  Accountability for this poor record, stretching back over more than two decades, cannot be laid solely at the feet of the governors.  As Secretary of Higher Education of New Mexico from 2011-2014 I witnessed first-hand the strong tendency of legislators to favor the entrenched interests of the educational establishment--typically they want more money and less accountability--far more than the pleas of those willing to step on entrenched toes for better system performance.  The highly partisan conflicts within the legislature and between the legislature and the governor's office also kept issues of system performance out of the public eye, in part because of the media's insistence on covering partisan conflict rather than the substance of policy reform.

How true is it that we don't spend enough money on education?

• NM ranks 36th in expenditures per pupil ($9734) but scores 50/50 in student achievement
• Arizona ranks 48th in expenditures per pupil ($7528), but scores 36th in student achievement
• Utah ranks 50the in expenditures per pupil ($6500) but scores 13th in student achievement
• NM taxpayers would save $1.1 billion per year if we spent what Utah spends per pupil
• NM taxpayers would save $746 million per year if it spent what Arizona spends per pupil

The problem is not a lack of money.  The problem is that we NM taxpayers don't get our money's worth for our education dollars.  Saying it differently, state government has not had the will to improve.  Fixing this is in our power without spending more money.

Is it possible for a state to make significant improvements in student scores in a relatively short period of time?  Consider this:

• Texas moved from a ranking of 43 to 29 between 2002 and 2008
• New Jersey jumped from 26th to 9th between 2002 and 2008
• Pennsylvania jumped from 41 to 17 between 2001 and 2008
• South Dakota jumbed from 35 to 5 from 1999 to 2008
• Virginia jumped from 27 to 11 from 1999 to 2008
• California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah are among 22 states making significant improvement in math and english scores from 2003 to 2013

The Good News:  One of the few significant accomplishments of the Martinez administration's efforts in education is the adoption of "grading" school and district performance each year.  While some object, perhaps with good reason, about the details of how this is done, at least it gives parents a way to know, with real data, not gossip, how well their schools are performing in comparison with all other schools.  Parents now have access to information they need in order to hold schools accountable.  All you have to do is click here to find a school and its current grade.  While the chart below isn't necessarily good news, since the gap is just as wide as it was a quarter century ago, at least it doesn't seem to getting wider.

Mexico Violence in the News Again

For reasons I don't fully understand, drug cartel violence is on the rise again in Mexico.  Chihuahua, our neighboring state, is feeling it.  El Norte, an excellent newspaper in Juarez, is closing down its paper edition, apparently concerned about risks to journalists who cover the drug war beat.  Kent Patterson has a fine piece about this today in NM Politics.Net.  For a long time I have placed an online link to El Norte's electronic edition on this site (bottom-right).  It will continue publishing online, so I will leave the link intact.  Two weeks ago Miroslava Breach Velducea, an investigative reporter for La Jornada, was murdered in front of her home in Chihuahua City, about to take her children to school.

NM Corruption in Perspective

Cesar Duarte, former Governor of Chihuahua (2010-2016) is living in El Paso, on the lam, wanted in Mexico for allegedly stealing massive amounts of public funds during his tenure in office.  Both Duarte and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto are said to be unusual in their pattern of kleptomania in that, allegedly, they stole most of their money in the first three years of their tenure rather than in the last three years.  The norm among governors and presidents in Mexico is to steal the money in the last year or two so that, when people catch on, the incumbent is no longer in office and the story is less newsworthy and less likely to lead to unfortunate consequences.  In the case of Pena Nieto and Duarte it is a combination of the huge scale of alleged looting and the brazen-ness of doing so up front that bothers many people who long ago accommodated themselves to the reality of official corruption among Mexico's governors and presidents.  The corruption scandals during the Richardson administration (except for his aggressive fund-raising Richardson himself was never implicated as a beneficiary of the mischief), outrageous by New Mexico standards, pale by comparison with Mexico.

Mañana:  El Estado de la Educación Pública en Nuevo Mexico
In Tomorrow's Post here:  Grading the Martinez Administration in Education

The State of the State in New Mexico:  Deja Vu

"State government is in the worst financial condition I've seen since I was first elected to the NM senate in 1988," John A. Smith, Chair, Senate Finance Committee, interviewed by Jose Garcia April 2, 2017

Contributing to the poor condition, according to Smith, is a state financial system, which relies too heavily on oil and gas revenues, creating a shortfall when the price of oil or gas goes down.  But, he said, an aggravating factor is mismanagement, characterized by a failure to respond to warnings more than a year ago that another shortfall was looming and planning for it was critical to ease the pain.

Sound familiar?  Eight years ago Bill Richardson nicknamed Smith "Dr, No" for warning the state, correctly, we could not sustain the gush of dollars flowing from state government, given the likelihood of a drop in oil prices..

But the poor condition is not only financial.  Politically, New Mexico is pretty much where we were during the last two years of the Richardson administration:  impatient for the current administration to end (Yes! Thank God the end is in sight!)  but with little public discussion about what might be done to reverse chronic governance failure.

In early 2009 the state was suffocating under the taint of outrageous corruption and despotic governance.  Our education system was treading water at the bottom of the barrel in performance, even after massive inflows of funds.  Our tax system was a mess.  Taxpayers were subsidizing the new Railrunner to the tune of $16 per passenger (today it is much higher).  Democrats refused to pass tougher ethics legislation, and party leaders uniformly followed the conventional wisdom that voters would move in lock-step to support the see-no-evil, no-idea candidacy of the Democratic Lt. Governor to continue the regime.  The outcome?  Susana Martinez, Republican, became governor.

Eight years later the state is suffocating again under the yoke of exceptionally poor leadership.  Our education system, after countless hours of photo ops of the governor reading to third graders, is still at the bottom of the national barrel.  Higher education is one of the three most expensive systems in the nation, but with dismal performance to show for it in graduation rates and declining quality in programs, to say nothing of the current UNM scandal of paying a coach $1 million for not coaching next year, and the insistence on politicizing the board of regents, possibly to find cushy jobs at UNM's Health Sciences Center for some of Susana's people, just as Richardson did eight years ago.  The tax system is still a mess.  Our bond rating was downgraded a year ago after the administration dipped too far into reserve funds.  Ethics reform is dead.  Worse, as Joe Monahan has pointed out, the best and brightest are fleeing the state and an air of hopelessness has filtered into the body politic.

Candidates for governor:  where do you stand on all of this?  Do you have any ideas? Or, as is the case at the national level, will the citizens have to intervene through town hall meetings and the ballot box to lead us out of this mess?

The Electoral College 2016

The electoral college meets today in each state to elect the President of the US.  The mainstream media treats this as a mildly embarrassing technicality, a constitutional provision written by elitist slave owners and misogynists who wanted to create an escape clause in case of a "mistake" made by the electorate in the selection of a powerful national leader.  So powerful is this bias that electors who vote their conscience are disparaged as "faithless," or "rogue" electors.  

The current US Supreme Court, usually led by justices who have made a fetish of following the "original intent," of the Constitution, as though this were a sacred obligation discernible only by the most gifted legal minds (I'm thinking Scalia here, and his surviving acolyte and rubber stamp, Clarence Thomas), have been curiously silent about clarifying what states can do to minimize this constitutional provision.  States, for example, are allowed to punish "faithless" electors, almost certainly in violation of original intent, without a peep from a Supreme Court that has no difficulty permitting the sale of modern assault rifles to certified lunatics as part of the original intent of the writers of the second amendment.

The Supreme Court's unusual neglect of the way the electoral college functions is a reflection of a wider feeling that the college is somehow less democratic than many of our other institutions, and it is difficult today to find strong support for it.

Here are two reasons we the people should reflect seriously about doing away with the electoral college.

1.  The problem is not with the electoral college, the problem is with the way it is practiced.

Do you know the names of the five electors from New Mexico?  Which one did you vote for?  Do you know that person?  Do you trust him/her to vote in a wise manner?  So prevalent is the disdain for the electoral college that the electoral machinery in most states makes it extremely difficult for voters to know who is representing the "will of the people."  If the selection of presidential electors were more public, with media face-time to explain their voting philosophy, and typically resulting in sending our best writers, esteemed former top officials, and the like in a truly competitive process, it might well provide a welcome change of pace from the usual breathless coverage of presidential elections as currently crafted in predictable news cycles and sound bites from highly self-interested parties.  Would you feel better about the electoral college if you had a serious chance to look over prospective electors in a public process?

2.  Even more important, the will of the people in a presidential election in a state is not always clear.

The elections in Ohio and Florida in 2000 (and in later elections as well) have become classic textbook cases (and there are many more) of messy elections in which the will of the people is not clear from the numerical results of the official count.  In both cases the Secretary of State was controlled by persons who proved over and over to be bent on maximizing votes in a partisan direction.  And in both cases voter suppression techniques were aimed at black voters in ways that have been documented, with credible estimates that the anomalies and outright brazen tactics had a decisive effect on the official outcome of the elections.  The "hanging chad" situation in Florida in 2000, in which voter re-counters had difficulty determining a voter's intent, also comes to mind.  Does it make sense under such circumstances, to insist that all presidential electors should vote lock-step for the "winner" of the election?  Did the founding fathers have things like this in mind when they created the electoral college? Almost certainly so.

One major proposal for change of the electoral college is to have each congressional district determine 435 of the 535 votes in the electoral college.  The other 100 votes, presumably, would be "winner take all" votes (two for each state) for the vote-count winner of each state.  I have looked in vain for the presidential vote in 2016 by congressional district, but I am told by my friend Rod Adair, an outstanding demographer who has followed these things for half a century, that almost certainly Trump won a majority of these districts due to the games people play in redistricting in most states.  And Trump clearly won 60 of these votes (Clinton only won 20 states).  So this proposal would not have changed the results of the 2016 presidential elections.  But it would have had the effect of encouraging presidential candidates to think in terms of congressional districts rather than states.  It would also put a lot of pressure on the normally outrageous gerrymandering of congressional districts every ten years.  Voters might insist, as they have in California, on getting a much more partisan-neutral system of redistricting than the highly partisan circus we normally see.
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Fidel Castro RIP

Whatever one thinks of Fidel (demon or superhero, not much in between) his impact on Cuba, Latin America, and the United States places him on the highest rung of globally influential leaders in the latter half of the twentieth century.  On the Left, only Mao can rival the profundity of social and political transformations he brought about within his own society.  In Latin America various leaders, inspired by his example and assisted by Fidel himself, tried, but fell pathetically short of his achievements:  the Sandinista's, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales.  In Africa no leader rivals Fidel's stature.  In the rest of the developing world no name is as starkly embedded in our minds as that of the simple name Fidel.

Pope John XXIII qualifies as a rival to Fidel in ambition as a global force, but his leadership ignited a reactionary movement within Christianity, largely successful, to suppress his followers, especially in Latin America, where he had his strongest influence.  So his legacy was not as lasting as Fidel's.  Similarly, Lyndon Johnson, who tried to expand the New Deal and passed the Civil Rights Act in the United States, was crippled by failure in Viet Nam, enabling a strong counter-movement on the Right that lasted for many decades.  Lech Walesa in Poland, who led the labor union-driven Solidarity movement toward democracy and greater autonomy from the Soviet jackboot in the late 1970s, must be counted high in the rankings, but once elected president of Poland, his popularity waned and he failed to be re-elected in 1995.  Except for Mao, one is hard-pressed to think of a leader with as powerful and long-lasting influence.

Inside Cuba:  in 1960 Cuba ranked 43rd among nations in life expectancy, at 64.2 years.  The US ranked 16th that year at 69.8.  In 1980, after two decades of Fidel's rule, Cuba ranked above the U.S., at 15th (73.8 years), three places above the US (73.7years).  And in 2015 Cuba ranked 32 in the world in life expectancy, just behind the U.S., which ranked 31.  How did Cuba do this, without the world class medical infrastructure available to more developed countries?  By taking the best and brightest, putting them into medical schools, and emphasizing bread-and-butter no-cost preventive health care for everyone.  In 2016 infant mortality in Cuba placed it eleven places better than the US in global rankings (44 compared to 55).  In literacy, Cuba ranks 15th in the world, the US ranks 50th.  New Mexico, if a country, would rank 94th, lower than the global average among countries (yes, New Mexico ranks below the world average in literacy rate for adults!).  How did Cuba achieve high literacy?  In 1961 Fidel initiated a literacy campaign that reduced illiteracy dramatically, in an extremely short period of time, down from 25-40% to just 4% by sending a cadre of some 300,000 throughout the country to teach people to read.  Cuba has ranked among the most literate countries in the world ever since.  And while some might not like to live in a country in which there are only minimal salary differences between people, (top salaries are less than double the lowest), despite the economic embargo that has thwarted Cuban economic development, Cuba manages to rank 67th in the UN Human Development Index, well above Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and all Latin American countries except for Uruguay and Panama.  (The US ranks 5th on this index).

Outside Cuba:  Fidel's example inspired thousands of young persons to seek change through revolution.  In nearly every country in Latin America guerrilla movements modeled after Fidel's sprung up during the 1960s and 1970s and into the 1980s.  Books analyzing the Fidelista movement sold millions of copies worldwide.  Fidel's willingness to fall within the orbit of Soviet influence broke tacit rules of the game among dependent countries, causing the U.S. to adopt strategies specifically aimed at preventing  "another Cuba," including beefed up counterinsurgency strategies, heightened intelligence activity, and patterns of foreign assistance to small countries.  Fidel's successful defiance of the U.S., in the face of punitive economic policies, served as a constant source of encouragement and inspiration for nationalists in dozens of countries who were worried about the impact of U.S. global hegemony on their home countries as the U.S. expanded its global reach.
  
On the down side, the Cuban state under Fidel was not tolerant of dissent, and few people would like to have lived under his authoritarian rule.  Fidel did not hesitate to punish and, when expedient, to kill. This is as much a  part of his legacy as his most positive achievements.  And in a moment in which people in many developed countries seem to be turning toward authoritarian, intolerant, solutions, and when many leaders help themselves in the name of state security, with little dissent, to more and more arbitrary and unchecked executive power, it might be wise to take a sober look at the underbelly of Fidel's security apparatus, which has been well documented, and take heed.

Perhaps the most attractive and inspiring thing about Fidel is that he became a symbol, for millions of persons around the world, of what a single person can accomplish.  You don't have to wait for more favorable political conditions to arise or for huge financial support to come your way to compete for power.  Dramatic improvements in literacy can be made in a year or two; health care for an entire society can be elevated to world-class levels on a minimal budget.  You can, if you have the guts to do so and are willing to pay the price, maintain a nation's dignity, today, in the face of hostility from the most powerful country in the world. And here in New Mexico, where daily we are reminded of worsening levels of educational attainment, increasing rates of poverty, and growing public corruption, we should not be so proud as to think that nothing Cuba accomplished under Fidel is worthy of our attention.  No soy fidelista, pero adios, Fidel:  you kicked up a world class storm!

Santa Fe Dems Meet:  

Bernie-Hillary Supporters Not Yet Quite Chilled Out

Between 115-120 people, mainly Anglos and mainly middle-aged or older, showed up at what amounted to a post-election venting session at Democratic Party headquarters in Santa Fe last night (Wednesday).  One man, who expressed deep resentment over the insider mischief by Debbie Wasserman against the Bernie campaign, left the podium after someone shouted repeatedly he didn't want to "hear about that."  Several people then repeated their similar dismay about the wiki-leaks scandal, while several others spoke of their passionate support for Hillary.

But mostly people offered suggestions about what to do next or else ask for guidance on whether to focus on the local scene or the national scene.  Paul Gibson, who ran the Bernie campaign, announced a town hall meeting to be held on Sunday afternoon, November 20, for a new organization called "take back the roundhouse."  He said one effort will be to have people in place for every committee meeting at the legislature, to hold legislators accountable for their actions.

One man suggested creating a foundation like the Libertarian Rio Grande Foundation, to focus attention on statewide issues.  A woman wanted to see an effort to pass the industrial use for hemp products, vetoed by the Governor.  Several educators brought up education issues.  One man thought Democrats needed a liberal version of Rush Limbaugh.  Several expressed a need to listen to the young people who voted for Trump.

In Las Cruces after the Kerry campaign in 2004, which attracted many Anglo Democrats in the county, a group of Kerry supporters formed what they called the Progressive Voters Alliance, which began fielding candidates for local offices, with impressive victories in city elections.  Nathan Small was elected to the city council through this group, and last week he beat Andy Nunez (who has run as a Democrat, Independent, and Republican) for state rep.  But the group has been less than fully imaginative or ambitious about their project, focusing mainly on getting liberals into local elected positions, and spending time on local environmental issues of importance to some of the leadership.  Retake the Roundhouse (https://retaketheroundhouse.org/) has far stronger leadership, ambition, and ganas, than  the PVC.  At the moment that's where the most dynamic energy lies among Democratic voters in New Mexico.

Cd Juarez After Trump

Zotoluco working with the bull yesterday evening

Buying pesos at an exchange cubicle on Juarez Avenue yesterday afternoon on my way to the bullfights I saw a note taped on the window:  "15 peso surcharge to pay for the wall."  It was just the kind of sardonic humor you would expect in Juarez, whose inhabitants have observed our electoral process with a mixture of amazement, disbelief, and, sometimes, deep dismay.  There have been calls to impeach President Pena Nieto for the toadying up to Trump during and after the campaign.  Some say his fawning over Trump will lead to the election of Lopez Obrador, a Bernie-like leftist, two years from now.

Eulalio Lopez, alias El Zotoluco, was making a farewell appearance in Juarez after a long and distinguished career as a matador.  He was fighting with two other outstanding matadors, Diego Silveti and the Spaniard Miguel Angel Perera, who fight regularly in the best rings in Spain and who maintain solid rankings.  Together they cut 8 ears (only 4 of them well deserved) in a memorable evening with the arena about 60% full.  It was the best afternoon of bullfights I've seen in Juarez since 16-year old novice El Juli astonished the crowd in 1998.  Good bulls, only one with serious weaknesses, and an obvious effort by the matadors to bid Zotoluco a fond farewell

The fans were grateful for the afternoon and honored the performance by carrying the matados on their shoulders after the event was over.  I didn't see any American tourists at the bullring, something unusual, but the lines at the Santa Fe bridge heading north were full (about an hour's wait time), so I was grateful I have my express lane card, and there was absolutely no traffic except for me on that lane.

Zotoluco cut an ear for his first bull

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez in Las Cruces

Sen. Finance Chair Smith says state finances under the Martinez Administration have been handled "more irresponsibly" than any Governorship since he was first elected in 1988

Sen. John Smith, Sen. Mary Kay Papen, Sen. Michael Sanchez in Mesilla on Nov. 2

NM Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez appeared at a fundraiser luncheon in his honor this afternoon (Wed. Nov 2) at Salud! de Mesilla.  He gave an energetic and rousing defense of the relatively civil boundary lines that, he said, once characterized New Mexico politics prior to the take-no-prisoners hardball that began with the McClesky-Martinez partnership in the governor's office in 2011.  Sanchez has once again been targeted for defeat by McClesky, as he was four years ago, in what has been characterized as a $2 million smear campaign to beat him.  Sanchez survived the attack four years ago, but Sen. Tim Jennings, President Pro Tem of the Senate, did not.

At the event, Sen. John A. Smith expressed concern to me in private (but on the record) that the recent downgrading of the NM bond rating my Moody's may get worse before it gets better.  The question for the immediate financial future of the state, he said, is "how do we build up our reserves to a healthy level again" in the middle of an economic downturn?  In addition to labeling Governor Martinez's financial management of the state as the "most irresponsible" of any governor" he has known, Smith added that her record in job-creation is equally dismal.  "We (Democrats) should have been more forceful in labeling the mess that happened in mental health a few years ago for what it was--an exercise in needless job destruction," he said.

Seeing the three most powerful senators in the state--Papen, Sanchez, and Smith--mingling with guests at the event and with each other reminded me that Southern New Mexico at the moment is blessed with an abundance of political clout.  This raises the question:

Is Belen, home of Sen. Sanchez, in Southern NM or in the North?  Where does the North begin?  Nature, at least, tends to create its own boundary lines, shifting in response to environmental change..  Just as predicted by global warming science, the flora characteristic of the Chihuahua desert, has been moving northward for at least the last two decades and is expected eventually to engulf a good deal of Colorado.   Right now, at least along the freeway, the vegetation boundary area appears to be in a zone somewhere between Socorro and Los Lunas.