A Reply To A Newspaper Begging For Money

Albuquerque Journal Executive Editor Jay Newton-Small's letter to her self on soliciting money from its readers to hire investigative reporters struck me as bizarre. First of all, asking for money from its readers should have come from Publisher William P. Lang. He shows no leadership and a great deal of cowardice when he appoints underlings to do his job.

Nevertheless, Ms. Newton-Small's plea begins with a foreboding entry that today's newspapers are under attack. To which I ask, by whom? You've attacked yourself, quite frankly, by choosing to push newspapers into the bias and discontent of progressive politics. You chased off Republican and conservative readers who got fed up reading the same old drivel you get on the nightly TV news for free.

Years ago when I took Journalism at the university, I was taught that we should try to get both sides of a story. Nowadays I rarely see both sides examined especially when it comes to local and state government machinations where most stories are little more than reworked government press releases.

And you have not made yourself welcome with the 11-year Hate Trump War you've waged against him. Back in 2018 when Trump was first elected, newspapers, including the Journal, banded together one Sunday to inform us that he was going to destroy Democracy. Yet here we are in 2025. We still have Democracy, we still have Freedom of Speech, and we still have Freedom of the Press. And I'd say we have more freedom these days thanks to DOGE. Paring our bloated federal government would certainly have been appreciated by Thomas Jefferson who believed smaller government was the best of all.

Returning, though, to the Albuquerque Journal's need for more money, it must be quite acute as you don't even have the funds to put out a pet calendar this year. And it seems laughable to be asked for donations when we're told they will be matched. If you have the money to match donations, why aren't you using those funds to hire reporters to begin with?

Sorry Journal, if you want my money, put out an unbiased product that educates and informs instead of promotes blind propaganda. I think we've had enough of one-sided newspapers claiming to look after our interests.

            © Clyde James Aragon. All rights reserved

10 Signs Your Country Is A Banana Republic

        10 Signs Your Country Is A Banana Republic

  1) People defecating on the sidewalk

  2) Police afraid to aid unarmed citizens

  3) Homeless and illegal aliens with more rights than citizens

  4) Colleges graduating people who can't do simple math in their head

  5) Politicians laugh in your face

  6) Calling government spending 'investment' 

  7) Turning their back on the unborn

  8) Growing poverty is ignored

  9) Corruption is found acceptable and shrugged off

10) No one can afford bananas

        by © Clyde James Aragon  - All Rights Reserved

The Great Government Shutdown of 2025

During this Great Government Shutdown we see some government workers sent home to await their eventual paychecks while others are considered essential personnel and are still hard at work.

Seems mighty unfair that at the end of the shutdown, the non-essential will get full back pay while those who worked will get the same and little acknowledgement for their loyalty and effort.

If I might make a suggestion to the powers that be, after the shutdown ends, those who were considered essential personnel and actually worked during the shutdown should get a 15 percent bonus while those who stayed at home should get a 15 percent reduction. Also, those who were working and called in sick or took time out should also have those particular pay hours reduced by 15 percent so as to give them a reason to not abuse sick leave or vacation time at a moment when they are really needed.

Let’s get a little fairness here for the working class.

            by © Clyde James Aragon  - All Rights Reserved

Vote In New Mexico? What For?

Early voting has begun in New Mexico for municipal elections, culminating on November 4, Election Day. Now we will hear our Democrat propaganda media here tell us about the importance of voting and how every vote counts and on and on and on.

Well whoop-de-do.

In this state, all they need us Republicans, conservatives, and independents for is to legitimize the Democrat dictatorship we live under. In the recent special session called by the governor, the Democrat majority in the legislature could have just as easily peed in the face of every elected Republican as ignore them. It was an embarrassment to watch as pre-written laws were easily ratified but I think the Republicans in the Legislature showed they have very little pride left in themselves. Not that they could do anything about it.

But the Democrats have used our tax money for the past 90 years to bribe themselves into perpetual office with welfare dollars and programs that do the work and thinking for the average New Mexican. You can’t fight that kind of cotton candy. The people of New Mexico were born with their hand out and, by God, they’re going to die with their hand out.

Yes, I know our brave military heroes fought for our vote, fought for our freedom but when you live in a one-party state, whose populace seeks only their own comfort, you wonder if it was worth it. So I say let this election be 100 percent for Democrats or whatever their computers are programmed to give them.

Pardon my cynicism but I've earned it. Voting in New Mexico is a waste of gas, a waste of time, and a waste of concern.

            © Clyde James Aragon

Jimmy Kimmel vs. Alex Jones

The big uproar over Jimmy Kimmel and the TV show suspension he received after falsely claiming the Charlie Kirk murderer was a MAGA supporter reminds me of what happened to Alex Jones.

Jones, whom I might remind you, was the creator of Infowars, a website built on vitamin supplements and conspiracy theories. Well, in the aftermath of the Sandy Hooks Elementary School shooting in Connecticut back on December 14, 2012 in which 20 people were massacred by a madman, Jones, on his radio show, claimed that this massacre had been made up, that it was completely false.

The parents of those children and adults killed that day got pretty damned angry with his statements. So angry that they sued him for defamation and won $4.2 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages. A separate case netted a near million dollar judgement for the Sandy Hooks families. Infowars and Alex Jones went on to bankruptcy.

Looking back at the Jones’ case, Jimmy Kimmel’s reckless lie about assassin Tyler Robinson being a MAGA supporter seems to have left Kimmel and his employer, ABC News, open to the same kind of defamation lawsuit by Charlie Kirk’s widow. And not only Kimmel, but many prominent people from news media pundits to celebrities with a microphone could feel her wrath.

Whether she does sue or lets it go will be up to her but there seems to be some interesting similarities in the two events.

            © Clyde James Aragon

Planned Parenthood As A Cost-Cutting Measure

As reported earlier in this blog, the really-really great State of New Mexico has had second thoughts over the cost of their upcoming Free Universal Childcare giveaway program. Fearing it might break the bank and take funds away from important state projects like wasting money on Hollywood movie tax credits or paying to bring in out-of-state jobs with taxpayer money, a brilliant scheme was hatched to make everyone happy while not doing a darn thing for New Mexico.

As the Republicans in Congress had finally grown enough spinal vertebrae to stop funding Planned Parenthood and were no longer going to pay to keep their marvelous abortion clinics going, the Democrats in New Mexico, under the ever-spending Governor Michell Lujan Grisham, decided to make up the loss of this federal largesse and keep the butcher stables open with state money.

So brilliantly, New Mexico can now give free childcare while reducing the number of children.

Yet another win-win idea brought to you by the Democrats of New Mexico.

            © Clyde James Aragon

Socialist New Mexico

Forget Socialist Zohran Mamdani the mayoral candidate in New York, Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democrat governor of New Mexico, has decided to one up Communist Mamdani by creating yet another welfare program for NM. This time Universal Childcare beginning November 1^st. Through the power of Democrat magic, the program will deliver what parents seem unable to provide for their progeny - babysitting. But it’s free and buys Democrat votes, so who cares.

Making sure there’s plenty of money all around, the building block of Communism will dictate, er encourage, employers to pay their employees $18 an hour. Why the state couldn’t just pay parents the $18 an hour and cut out the middle man, who knows. But it’s free and buys Democrat votes, so who cares.

But, my God, the local TV stations here have drives to give school kids shoes, coats, clothing, and toys. The Public Schools feed them breakfast and lunch. They give them laptops. They give them musical instruments if they want to take band. What, really, do parents do anymore? And most importantly, how can a kid have any respect for a mom and dad who can't even fry them an egg for breakfast or take them down to Walmart to buy them a pair of cheap sneakers? Parents have become no more that disinterested bystanders who somehow know how to fill out government forms. But it’s free and buys Democrat votes, so who cares.

Parents should be embarrassed with themselves but since they've made their 90 years of Democrat-run moocherism an acceptable way of life here in the Land of Enchantment, it means nothing to them any more. But it’s free and buys Democrat votes, so who cares.

We need to change the Zia symbol on our state flag to the outstretched hand. But it’s free and buys Democrat votes, so who cares.

            © Clyde James Aragon.