new mexico Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

News Roundup

* You knew this would happen. Two men opened fire on troops who were involved in the Jade Helm 15 War Games exercise. These two men are still at large.

Special Forces Afghanistan

From MaddowBlog:

* Momentum is on diplomacy’s side: “Today, three Democratic Senators came out for the Iran deal: Tim Kaine of Virginia, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Barbara Boxer of California. The math now looks increasingly difficult for the deal’s opponents.”

* TPP isn’t dead yet: “Days after negotiators failed to wrap up an Asia trade agreement, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed confidence on Tuesday that the pact would be completed, calling it vital for the economic well-being of the region.”

* Bland family: “The family of Sandra Bland — the 28-year-old black woman found dead in her jail cell last month — is suing the Texas state trooper who arrested her in what started as a routine traffic stop, but took a tragic turn.”

* California:” Firefighters were working aggressively to regain control after a raging Northern California fire jumped a highway that had served as a containment line for the massive blaze — one of 20 wildfires burning in California.”

* Good thinking: “As Islamic State militants set out to destroy Iraq’s history and culture, including irreplaceable books and manuscripts kept in the militant-held city of Mosul, a major preservation and digitization project is underway in the capital to safeguard a millennium worth of history.”

* The investigation in New Mexico is ongoing: “Back-to-back explosions rattled two churches in a New Mexico town Sunday morning, police said. No one was injured in either explosion, and damage to each church was ‘relatively minor,’ according to a statement from the Las Cruces Police Department.”

By ecthompsonmd|2015-08-04T22:07:11-04:00August 4th, 2015|Iran, Military|Comments Off

This Presidential Race Is Not over

I would like for everyone to hold on just a second and understand that this presidential race is not over. For months, I’ve talked about this presidential race as being close. It is close. If we didn’t have the electoral college then I think things would be different. But we do have the electoral college. Therefore, states like Texas, California, New York and Illinois are basically meaningless. These states are reliably Democratic or Republican and therefore the candidates will spend very little time in any of them. It is the battleground states which will decide this election. Ohio, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Nevada will decide this election. Recent reports have suggested that the Romney campaign has given up in New Mexico and Romney’s home state of Michigan.

I mentioned several weeks ago that Romney’s strategy was ~~all man~~, all white man, all the time. Mitt Romney and the Republicans have basically decided that they are not gonna go after minorities. Deciding not to pick Senator Rubio from Florida, they have basically written off the Latino vote (though it is my opinion that choosing Senator Rubio would not have been all that helpful with the Latino vote either). Mitt Romney has done nothing specific to try to court women. Remember, this is after multiple legislatures throughout the country, led by Republicans, basically attacked women’s reproductive rights. Mitt Romney did nothing to try to smooth this over. Basically, he has blown off the woman vote (Ann Romney’s whole speech at the RNC was geared towards courting women, but I think that it fell flat). So, if you’re going to blow off minorities and you’re going to blow off women, the only thing that is left is men; specifically, white men. Now, the latest polling shows that Romney’s lead with white men in this presidential race has vanished. I should also mention that part of the Romney strategy was to limit the vote. It was critically important for Romney to limit the vote, specifically in battleground states. Passing voter ID laws in places like Pennsylvania and Florida would limit Democratic turnout and therefore help Mitt Romney. If he could somehow boost the turnout of white men, specifically in these battleground states, he could piece himself together a victory. When Mitt Romney, several weeks ago, made that “joke” about everybody knowing where he was born, that was a signal to white men. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it worked. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2012-09-16T19:18:31-04:00September 15th, 2012|Elections, Party Politics|5 Comments

Why Trayvon Matters

There are folks in our society who are scratching their heads and asking themselves, “Whats’ the big deal? Why are we seeing this huge uproar over Trayvon Martin?” These folks do have sympathy for Trayvon and his family, but they just don’t understand. Trayvon was about what happened in Sanford, Florida when a young, unarmed Black man was shot by another young man who was part of some sort of neighborhood watch program. Now, it has changed into more than simply the facts of this case. It is about the Black/minority community in America. Many Americans feel like America isn’t about them. They work hard and continually get beaten down by life. Many of us believe that America just needs Blacks and minorities for cheap labor. If we get shot and die, that’s okay just as long as the work gets done and there is no interruption in services.

A young Hispanic man, Alan Gomez, was shot out in New Mexico by police. The official investigation clears the officer. (The young man was unarmed.) The police officer was given $500 for grief counseling. The family believes it was a bounty. I don’t know what it was. All I know is that young minorities in our society get shot at an alarmingly high rate and there seems to be no consequence. I know that justice doesn’t seem to be as color-blind or fair when she is dealing with minorities in our country.

I/ve spent a great deal of time over the last two weeks talking about race. I dug thru data and polished up my Excel graphing skills to show that minorities continue to be left behind. It isn’t because we aren’t working hard. We are. It because the system just doesn’t seem to work for us.

Charles Blow, one of my favorite writers, interviewed Trayvon’s mother and grandmother over the weekend. He reports a few things that the MSM has overlooked. Trayvon seemed to be doing everything right. (One of my commenters asked about Trayvon being afiliated with the Bloods. Nope. He was not. I think that these kind of questions just get us off track, and then the fingerpointing, chest bumping and shouting begins. We need to stay on track. We need to stay focused on this tragedy. It is about a young Black man who was doing nothing wrong and was killed by someone who thought he was Kojak.) He was working hard in and out of school. He was staying out of trouble. He had put his life on the right path, only to be gunned down for no good reason. This is the tragedy of Trayvon. In spite of trying to do the “right” thing and playing by the rules, he ended up shot dead. Trayvon truly represents the frustration of a community that isn’t getting ahead and isn’t enjoying even a small piece of the American pie.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-03-26T13:12:52-04:00March 26th, 2012|Legal, Race|1 Comment