Oct 102023
 

Yesterday being a holiday, the courts and everything else were closed, and in any case all eyes were on the Middle East. In that connection, I would say only that, just because a person belongs to a group which has actually, historically, been victimized (as opposed to, say, MAGAts, who who do a lot of whining but are no more victims than, oh, say American police union members) does not mean a person cannot be a jerk. Well, also, that pointing out that something a person is doing is morally questionable at best is not the same thing as calling that person an unmitigated moral degenerate. Screaming insults and accusations does not a conversation make. If I knew how to say that so that a substantial majority of humans would actually hear it, I definitely would. But I don’t. I do want to mention that Pat B.’s family has sustained a loss, and I don’t know, nor does she, how long she will be MIA, but it will be a while.

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Wonkette (Substack) – NYTimes Compares Conservatives Annoyed By Unhoused People To Parents Of Trans Kids Being Denied Healthcare
Quote – It’s lovely that they are happy, that they feel safer, and that they are not annoying the good people of Portland with their bullshit. Couldn’t be happier for them! But they’re also entirely ridiculous. Troy is a rural town with a population of 15,000, while Portland is a bustling metropolis with a population of about 641,000. Obviously there would be more crime there. There would also be less crime in any town in Oregon with a population of 15,000, owing to the fact that there are just fewer people to do any crime. That’s just math. In fact, it would likely be a lot more safe, as Missouri has the ninth highest violent crime rate in the nation, while Oregon ranks 36th. Troy is an exurb of St. Louis, the city with the highest crime rate in the United States. Portland? Portland has the 62nd highest crime rate of any city in the United States, even with all them liberal policies what so frightened the Huckinses. Oh, and St. Louis only has about a third of the population of Portland.
Click through for article. Today’s FFT is from this article, and IMO summarizes it well.

Thomas Zimmer (also Substack – sorry) – Why America’s Elites Love to Decry “Polarization”
Quote – In the final third of the book, Klein himself emphasizes that we are not looking at a radicalization on both sides of the political spectrum. He emphasizes the difference between the Right, entirely focused on the interests and sensibilities of white conservatives, and a Democratic coalition that is much more diverse – ideologically, racially and ethnically, and in terms of cultural sensibilities: “Sorting has made Democrats more diverse and Republicans more homogeneous. As a result, appealing to Democrats requires appealing to a lot of different kinds of people with different interests.” (p. 230) As a matter of fact, Klein sees Democrats as extremely resistant to political extremism due to this heterogeneity of their supporters: “Democrats,” the author argues, “have an immune system of diversity and democracy.” (Why We’re Polarized, p. 229)
Click through for full argument. While I certainly feel polarized, in that I feel that MAGA lunacy is the polar opposite of my beliefs, he’s right. True polarization requires both sides to be “the same” but in opposite directions. And both sides are not the same.  Not in any way.

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Oct 092023
 

Yesterday, I saw Virgil (who returns all greetings, spoken and unspoken.) We played Scrabble, getting very liberal, even multilingual, especially the last game. But it’s all in fun. After I got home and posted my safe note, I was listening to tha radio and heard something I certainly never dreaned it was possible, and I’m not 100% positive how it was done. I heard four snare drum rolls (2 sets of 2) played by a classical guitarist, on the classical guitar. It was in an orchestral piece, transcribed for guitar, which starts with a little fanfare of two drum roll and then repeats it later. It was a piece I’m familiar with, so though they didn’t sound exactly like drum rolls, I recognized immediately what they were meant for. No transcription ever sounds exactly like the orchestral piece anyway, so I thought they were pretty darned good. My best guess is that he knocked or slapped the guitar through the open strings – but that’s quite a feat , since the parts of the strings that are directly over the sound box of the guitar are mostly over the sound hole.

I apologize for not making a graphic for Indigenoua People’s Day. The reason was that – there are so many tribes – all over the Americas – and every single one of them has rich cultural traditions and images – and every single tribe also survived over 2000 years by living sustainably. Even just in my corner of the United States there are multiple tribes with multiple traditions. And I didn’t want to leave anyone out, nor did I want to fall back on stereotypes, many of which are not even respectful. So I’ll just wish you a happy indigenous people’s day and leave it at that.

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TeenVogue – The Supreme Court Must Protect Domestic Violence Survivors By Overturning the Rahimi Decision
Quote – When I was a young girl living in South Carolina, my mother, Patricia Ann, was shot and killed by an abusive dating partner. He murdered her in front of my three younger sisters — who were 10, 11, and 12 at the time — with an sawed-off shotgun. He was a convicted felon who should never have had access to the firearm he used to take our mother away from us forever. My sisters and I are grown now, but we still feel her absence every single day…. The Fifth Circuit’s decision in Rahimi is putting domestic violence survivors living in the Fifth Circuit in danger right now. I know firsthand that this is not an abstract exercise. If the decision is not reversed, domestic violence survivors face the prospect that their abusers can arm themselves immediately. This ruling is a potential death sentence for countless women and families.
Click through for article. If you had the idea that TeenVogue was a shallow, ditsy publication all about clothes, makeup, and maybe a little sex, hold that thought – for when you are around MAGAts. For the sake of democracy, never let them find out how woke it is. It is stepping in where schools and scared parents fear to tread – has actually been doing so for some time.

Colorado Public Radio – Colorado’s Black history — and future — go on display in a new unlikely center of Black culture: Boulder
Quote – [A] new exhibit at the Museum of Boulder, called “Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History,” gives the community and the state another chance to reflect on the past, celebrate the accomplishments of those who have persevered, and create joy for the future. The exhibit opened Sept. 29, and the museum plans to have it on display for two years. It comes shortly after a documentary released in 2022 called “This Is [Not] Who We Are,” which explores “the gap between Boulder’s progressive self-image and the lived experiences of its Black citizens,” and the opening of the university’s new Center for African and African-American Studies, which is meant in part to help build community…. Adrian Miller, the lead curator of the new Museum of Boulder exhibit… is conscious of the specific cultural moment when this exhibit is opening, three years after massive protests for racial justice, and amidst a celebration of Black culture in Boulder centered around the football coach.
Click through for story and some pictures. CPR calls Boulder “unlikely” on the basis that Boulder is like 90% white and only 1% black. But the thing is, the main University of Colorado is there. And one of the things Republicans hate about education, especially higher education, is that academics tend not to shy away from research, from finding out truth, and then from sharing that truth. My only issue with this being in Boulder is hoping that fact doesn’t turn out to limit access.

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Oct 082023
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Jephtha,” by George Frideric Handel. (If you want to use the German form, that’s Georg Friedrich Händel, and the King quite possibly did, since I don’t believe he learned English, but everyone else used the English form.) Jephtha is an oratorio based on the Bible, and it was presented as one in this live recording from September 2022 by Music of the Baroque. It’s one of those old Dude-in-dire-straits offers to sacrifice the first living thing he encounters if divinity will save him, and that turns out to be his child – in this case, his daughter. Scholars differ in this case as to whether the sacrifice involved death or instead a lifetime commitment to serve the temple. There is some evidence for either. Handel went with the service one, complete with an angel to command Jephtha to resolve it that way, which isn’t in Jodges, but does recall the Genesis story of Abraham and Isaac. It’s late Handel, likely the last thing he wrote, and his compositional skills were just fine, as was his hearing, but his eyesight was going, and he had to stop writing when he could no longer see the page. I don’t know how anyone who didn’t know that could deduce it, though. The music is definitely accomplished, beautiful, and baroque.

If I wait for all the other juicy Beau videos to be posted before posting this one from yesterday, it will be too late.  It might not even get seen.  So here’s a link to the video on events in the Middle East from the dude some of his viewers are starting to call “Beaustradamus.”  Off to see Virgil now – will comment later.

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Robert Reich (Substack) – Capital vs. labor under Biden
Quote – Today, this struggle takes the form of giant corporations that have monopolized their markets and workers who are trying to organize labor unions. This is why you’re hearing so much about the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department going after Amazon and Google, respectively. (They’re also going after Ticketmaster and Live Nation, Kroger and Albertsons, and a wide range of other giant corporations and proposed mergers.) And why you’re also hearing so much about strikes — the UAW, writers and actors, nurses, workers at Kaiser Permanente, Starbucks baristas, and others. And about attempts to organize Amazon and other anti-union companies.
Click through (to Substack) for full article. Yes, you are hearing about Biden supporting labor. But you are getting it piecemeal rather than as an overarching theme, and you are not hearing about the basis of the struggle, nor about the meaning of the struggle. This is a good, solid look at all of that. You might even want to bookmark it.

Democratic Underground (sheshe2) – Joe Biden: According to a new book
Quote – According to a new book by Franklin Foer, Joe Biden isn’t just the president of the United States, he is the West’s father figure, whom foreign leaders call for advice and look to for assurance. Foer writes: “It was his calming presence and his strategic clarity that helped lead the alliance to such an aggressive stance, which stymied authoritarianism on its front lines. He was a man for his age.”
Click through for DU article. Ordinarily I wouldn’t run just a book review, or if I did I would at least cite the original source for the review. But I don’t have and haven’t seen the book, and the original source is Xitter, and I just thought the DU article had good news.

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Oct 072023
 

Yesterday, now that we’re a week into October, Wonkette posted a link to the 20 Most Haunted Places in the World (not a Substack site.) Many of them, maybe most, are quite beautiful – if I were a ghost there, I’d likely stay too. Also, here’s a link about an incident from World War II which demonstrates just how dangerous classified informmation can be in the wrong hands (and mouths.) Finally, I received an email from Eric Swalwell advertising a closeout price on a Kevin McCarthy Catnip Toy: “While Kevin’s on his way to the litter box to try and salvage the mess he’s made of the GOP, our team’s throwing Kevin the celebration he deserves: A clearance sale. Our Kevin McCatnip toys are now marked down to just $15, so you can watch your cat bat Kevin around the living room the way you’d like to!”  Tomorrow, I’ll be seeing Virgil, and will post when I get home as always.

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Grist – How does climate change threaten your neighborhood? A new map has the details.
Quote – If you’ve been wondering what climate change means for your neighborhood, you’re in luck. The most detailed interactive map yet of the United States’ vulnerability to dangers such as fire, flooding, and pollution was released on Monday by the Environmental Defense Fund and Texas A&M University. The fine-grained analysis spans more than 70,000 census tracts, which roughly resemble neighborhoods, mapping out environmental risks alongside factors that make it harder for people to deal with hazards. Clicking on a report for a census tract yields details on heat, wildfire smoke, and drought, in addition to what drives vulnerability to extreme weather, such as income levels and access to health care and transportation.
Click through for article and map. I see the South is expecting below-freezing temperatures this weekend, except for Florida’s peninsula, whereas I’m expecting some warming. Go figure. I actually seem to have made a pretty good choice of where to live in view of climate change – not that anywhere is perfect, of course. Literally the entire world is endangered.

Wonkette – Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panels And The Mellow Allman Brothers Climate Paradise That Could’ve Been (OK, some of that headline may not be scrupulously fact-checked.)
Quote – Reagan reversed the clean energy initiatives Carter had put in place, a far more concrete rejection of renewable energy than the symbolic removal of the panels. Solar panels would return to the White House eventually. In 2002, the National Park Service installed solar electricity and water heating systems elsewhere on the White House grounds, although the George W. Bush administration chose not to publicize that. In 2014, Barack Obama installed a photovoltaic system on the White House roof. And in 2017, Jimmy Carter installed a solar farm on 10 acres of his peanut farm; it provides about half the electricity for Plains. Carter, who’s now in hospice care at home, celebrated his birthday quietly at home with Rosalyn, his wife of 77 years, and with his children and grandchildren. I’ll assume the party was lit by solar, too.
Click through for full article. In 1976 none of us who weren’t scientists were all that accurate on what the answers were – and what they weren’t – and the scientists weren’t telling – or at least, not the truth. Jimmy was trying. Ronny rejected it all. I’ll go to my grave beliebing that the 1980 Presidential election was a catastrophe and a creator of more catastrophes – and I think I”ll be correct. I’ll for sure be in good company.

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Oct 062023
 

Yesterday, Colorado Public Radio reported that it’s mating season for tarantulas in southeastern Colorado – way southeastern – a good hundred miles from where I live. In and around La Junta, which is holding a Tarantula Festival. Before they started moving Virgil around last year, I used to drive through La Junta to see him, but I never saw a tarantula. Don’t click the link if you don’t like spiders, but if you can tolerate them, it’s kind of cute. I wonder whether they feature tarantella bands. Nah, probably not. Also, I received a grocery order.

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Lauren Wilson – The Immigration Situation – It’s Nuts!
Quote – Before September 21st, an asylum seeker could not get a work visa for 6 months. In my mind, that has to be the dumbest law imaginable. These people want to work. They want to find homes, become a part of society, take care of their families. They are not happy to live in tents and shelters in NYC when it is about to get cold. Although this is the law and only Congress can change it, Biden has circumvented the law to allow the Venezuelan asylum seekers to immediately apply for work visas. It is hoped that this will address the problem in New York City. But it does nothing for the Cubans, Nicaraguans, or Haitians. To say that immigration is going to be a major platform issue in the 2024 presidential election is an understatement. Republicans are already pressuring Biden to \”Close the Border\” and there are Democrats who agree. But those of us who are humanitarians want to find other solutions. Immigrants are people, not problems. If the policies are problems, let’s figure out how to fix them.
Click through for article. Lauren is a DU’er who is looking to expand her personal blog’s readership. With articles like this, she should be able to, if people just know where to look. It’s clear she is a competent researcher of both history and current events.

National Public Radio – The growing racial gap in U.S. census results is raising an expert panel’s concerns
Quote – “There’s always going to be error in a census,” says Teresa Sullivan, a sociology professor and former president of the University of Virginia, who chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine panel that was commissioned by the Census Bureau. Still, the panel’s report, released Tuesday, urged the bureau to take steps to learn from the shortfalls of the 2020 census and improve on the next constitutionally required count. Those statistics are set to be used to determine each state’s share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, as well as redraw voting districts for every level of government and guide more than $2.8 trillion a year in federal money for public services across the country.
Click through for details. Yes, there is always going to be honest error in the census. But, though it may be possible to avoid some dishonest error, some of thet is also going to creep in. I do beieve we can cut down on it, but not without having some kind of ethics qualification for Census workers – specifically the ones who only work as temps for one Census. Don’t get me started on my own experience as one.

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Oct 052023
 

Yesterday, Kamala Harris swore Laphonza Butler in to the Senate. Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and James Comer announced themselves to be candidates for the Speakership. The Daily Beast published an article purporting to be about the opera “Dead Man Walking” which is really about Sister Helen Prejean, her experiences, her mission, her passion. It’s long necause there is so much in it. Here’s a link in case anyne wants to follow up on the status of the death penalty in America.

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Civil Discourse – About Merrick Garland
Quote – Asked about his objective as Attorney General, Garland said it was to “pass our democracy on, in working order, to the next generation.” That would have been mere pleasantry from any of his predecessors. For Garland, it’s serious business, and it’s important to hear him say it out loud. Joe Biden’s Attorney General was always going to be in a tight spot, no matter who he chose for the job. The weightiest of choices, whether to indict a former president, was always going to rest on their shoulders. And that decision was going to be made in the context of a Justice Department that had lost much of its credibility with the public despite the diligence of its employees, due in no small part to the deliberate efforts of Donald Trump to undermine the country’s confidence in the Department. Merrick Garland has been the subject of more criticism and outright disapproval by members of the party that appointed him than any other attorney general, at least since Watergate. And of course, he’s been the subject of criticism and abusive and sometimes dog-whistling antisemitic commentary from the other side.
Click through for article. Joyce Vance is a former DOJ prosecutor who raises silky chickens (and a few other breeds) and knits. How could I not like her? In this case I think that her point = that there is a whole lot that we don’t know, much of which we will likely never know, and the bottom line is we can’t know enough to make character judgments from the little we do know. Of course we can have opinions. But presenting our opinions as fact is as disingenuous as – well, as a Republican.

PolitiZoom – He’s a Hoochie Coochie Man – Secretary of State Anthony Blinken Rocks the State Department
Quote – As the ever enraging Orangeutan addressed fake Union Auto workers in Michigan and the also-rans for the Republican Nomination insulted ea[ch] other, First Lady Jill Biden and President Johnson’s Great Society from the Reagan Library in California, [Secretary of] State Anthony Blinken pulled out his Stratocaster and launched the Global Music Diplomacy with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters in attendance. Blinken will not be opening for The Rolling Stones anytime soon, but it was a laudable amateur effort:
Click through for details. I confess that, not that I had any doubts about Blinken, it makes me feel even safer to know that he has this side.

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Oct 042023
 

Yesterday, Trump** exhausted the patience of Judge Arthur Engoron by doxing his clerk, getting her name right, but calling her “Chuck Schumer’s girfriend,” which was and is a lie. Unfortunately, the gag order Engoron issued appears to only apply to mmembers of the judge’s staff. But it is something. Also, from Beau of the Fifth Column (I won’t post the video), if you have a second phone or any phone for your personal safety which other members of your family, or people who live with you, do not and must not know about, the Emergency Alert System today is runing a test which is likely to reveal it unless you turn it off – not on silent, but completely powered off. The test will be run in the time frame of 2:20-2:50 pm Eastern (11:20-11:50 am Pacific). Noone else (except perhaps someone who has such a phone for illegal reasons) needs to worry. If you need to know more, here’s the link. Also, McCarthy was ousted as Speaker – and says he will not run for that position again. I never quite know what to do when most people are breaking out the popcorn – I guess knitting would be the closest thing for me. But I’ll have to do it. This is going to be – interesting.

Cartoon – 04 new OrientX

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Civil Discourse – Looking Ahead: The Supreme Court
Quote – While the Court has come a long way from its earlier incarnations, with women and people of color now among its ranks, this is going to be a challenging term. It starts off with a bang, in a case called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association that will be argued on Tuesday, October 3. You may recall Elizabeth Warren’s tireless work before she became a senator to create a federal agency that would protect consumers from powerful financial interests that were unregulated and under-regulated. That’s the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency that protects students, military families, people doing business with payday lenders, and so much more. The CFPB has been in existence for just over 12 years and has done profoundly impactful work in that time to make sure Americans are treated fairly by banks, lenders and other financial institutions. But now, powerful forces who encouraged Republican senators to deny Warren the opportunity to lead the agency she worked so hard to create—she was nominated but the Senate refused to confirm her—are trying to put an end to the CFPB altogether. The legal issue is a technical one about whether the funding mechanism used for the CFPB, which is somewhat different from the usual path than for most federal agencies, is unconstitutional.
Click through for column. Yes, it came Sunday, and this is Wednesday, but they are hardly even getting into their stride yet. I think it’s pretty current – and some of it is future anyway.

Wonkette – NC Classical Station Scandalized By Operas About Anti-Death Penalty Nuns, Gay People, Malcolm X
Quote – A classical music station in North Carolina, WCPE, has announced that it will not be airing several of the Met’s productions this season, citing violence, adult themes (largely code for “gay people” or “racism, but not the kind of racism that is usual for the genre”) and, in one case, being “non-Biblical.” The stations general manager, Deborah S. Proctor sent out a letter explaining this to its patrons in late August…. Champion (which I look forward to seeing this year at the Lyric), is Terence Blanchard’s “opera in jazz,” telling the true life story of bisexual welterweight boxer Emile Griffith, who notably killed his rival Benny Paret in the ring, after the homophobic boxer had taunted him with anti-gay slurs. It’s an incredible composition — and it would be one thing if it were just an issue with the language, with not wanting to broadcast swear words on their classical music station, but Proctor’s suggestion that it’s an “unsuitable theme”? It’s pretty clear what that’s about…. Um. This woman runs a classical music station. Has she not heard of Tosca? I mean, I love Tosca, but there’s a whole lot of rape, murder and torture in that one as well. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, which the station did decide to broadcast this year, is literally a comedy about a woman and her fiancé trying to trick her boss into not raping her before she gets married…. Dead Man Walking is, actually, the story of Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and anti-death penalty activist. The story of a Catholic nun is just too racy for Deborah.
Click through – I just had to share this. I like to say that opera is all about sex (including rape, adultery, and incest), death (including murder, both with and without torture, and suicide), treachery and betrayal – what is there about it not to like? (And I might add child endangerment, as in Hänsel und Gretel, for instance.) What they don’t like is pretty much everything that has me excited about the season. Sigh. I would love to publicize all over North Carolina that you don’t need a local radio station to listen to the Met’s Saturday Matinees for free. You can do it on the Internet.

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Oct 032023
 

Yesterday, Laphonza Butler, the president of Emily’s List, was revealed to be Governor Gavin Newsom’s choice to fill the remainder of Dianne Feinstein’s term in the U.S. Senate. It was not yet official (nothing is official without paperwrok), but it was carried by virtually every news outlet and was not contradicted. Ms. Butler originally entered politics as a labor leader, and is now being described as a “power player.” Of cpurse thre have been complants from the usual suspectssince Newsom announced that he would choose a black woman should there be a vacancy – the term used was “limiting himself.” Yeah. right. What would be really limiting oneself would be looking for a white male, all of whom who are any good are already in ppsotons of power (as are many who areno good at all.) Any minority group will have a good-sixed pool of people who far surpass available white malesbut have never been given a chance to prove it – or have made their own chances with blood, sweat, and tears against all odds. And, of course, that is what white supremacists cannot stand. I’m confident she’ll be fine.

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[SPLC] SPLC Launches Hate Crimes Awareness Month to Highlight Epidemic of Bias Incidents
Quote – The nation has seen this kind of attack against communities of color and LGBTQ+ people many times in recent years. The Jacksonville murders, in fact, came just weeks after the fourth anniversary of the white supremacist attack in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed in a bias-motivated hate crime. As in numerous other cases, the El Paso gunman was inspired to kill by racist rhetoric based on the false “great replacement” conspiracy theory and what he claimed was a “Hispanic invasion” of the U.S. – harmful extremist ideas that are frequently echoed by mainstream politicians and right-wing media figures…. The FBI’s most recent hate crime report – one that counts only a small fraction of the real number – identified 10,840 hate crime incidents in 2021, the most since the agency began collecting the data in 1991. More than 60% of those were carried out because of hatred toward the victim’s race.
Click through for details. We are living in the 2020s, but for all the hate crimes, we might as well be living in the 1920s. So SPLC has selected October to be Hate Crimes Awareness Month, and plans to mount a campaign every year to raise our knowledge of what is happening. Good.

New Mexico Political Report – Trump supporter shoots someone attending peaceful rally
Quote – One young man continued his efforts to enter the area, and it quickly escalated into a scuffle. One of the people protecting the altar [an empty pedestal which had held a statue of a war criminal] seemingly backed the young man against a wall to prevent him from moving forward…. That’s when the shooter pulled a gun out of his waistband, and shot the person blocking him from moving toward the slab. The man, who identified himself as Ryan Martinez to the Albuquerque Journal, ran immediately after, according to sources at the scene. He was later taken into custody, the Rio Arriba Sheriff’s County Office confirmed.
Click through for story. This did not happen in Albuquerque, or even Santa Fe. This happened in a small town (pop. 10,495 in 2010) in a blue state. New Mexico, like Colorado, has had features named to memorialize war criminals. Both states are trying to clean that up. Not everyone is on board

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