The Republican Party of New Mexico began the first night of its 2021 convention in Amarillo, Texas. The press was prohibited from covering the event dubbed “Operation Freedom/Positive Change for New Mexico.”
However, according to accounts from inside the event, the first night’s speaker, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, started the event with a bang.
In her speech, Noem is reported to have said, “I know your governor. I worked with her in congress. She was mouthy then too.”
She also is reported to have told the audience, “Republicans, get over yourselves. Work together and stop getting your feelings hurt.”
After her remarks, the New Mexico GOP posted on Twitter, “Thank you @KristiNoem for speaking at Operation Freedom tonight. Your words and leadership are inspiring to us, New Mexicans.”
Thank you @KristiNoem for speaking at Operation Freedom tonight. Your words and leadership are inspiring to us, New Mexicans. pic.twitter.com/2t6S3YxcKE
— Republican Party of New Mexico (@NewMexicoGOP) May 15, 2021
The second day of the event on Saturday is set to have an all-star lineup of Republicans, including Texas Republican Party Chairman Lt. Col. Allen West, Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson, who represents Amarillo, New Mexico’s Second District Congresswoman Yvette Herrell, and Republican nominee for the First District in the special election state Sen. Mark Moores.
Kimberly Skaggs, the Party’s executive director and the county chair for the Doña Ana GOP told the Santa Fe New Mexican “We didn’t get to make the decision; our governor made that decision for us,” referring to mass gathering restrictions under the state’s public health order.
Ronald Solomon, a pro-Trump merchandise vendor at the event told the New Mexican, “Actually, you’ll see a big cleansing in the party of all these Republicans in name only — RINOs as we call them — coming up next fall,” He added, “If these people somehow think they’re going to survive this, they’re going to be destroyed. As a matter of fact, that’s why I made my ‘It’s RINO season’ T-shirt with President Trump in a hunting outfit with his rifle.”
On Thursday, it was reported that Democrat Sen. Martin Heinrich is planning to introduce “a revenue replacement bill” next week which “would provide a predictable transition for states, counties, and tribes and give those governments time to transition their budgets to more sustainable and reliable sources of revenue,” according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
“The bill sets a baseline mineral revenue amount for each fiscal year based on a historical average of federal mineral revenue, declining by 5 percent each year,” a news release states. “If the regular mineral revenue payment to a state, county, or tribe would fall below the baseline amount for that year, an ‘energy transition payment’ would be provided to make up the difference between the actual mineral payment and the calculated baseline.”
Embattled Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who was accused and later settled with $62,500 in campaign funds for sexual assault, applauded the proposal, writing, “This legislation would establish the kind of support we need to ensure our state revenues are protected as we continue to implement the important work of diversifying and expanding New Mexico’s economy,”
She added, “I look forward to working with the senator and all of New Mexico’s delegation to get this proposal across the federal finish line.”
Far-left Democrat Rep. Javier Martínez also applauded the radical anti-energy proposal, writing, “I think what the senator is going to be proposing really provides us with a thoughtful revenue bridge, if you will, as that transition happens.” He added, “What happens to state revenues? What happens to funding for schools, funding for infrastructure? And I think that the senator’s plan really provides us with that alternative.”
“The global energy landscape is undergoing a massive transformation, and states like New Mexico need to be ready,” Heinrich told The New Mexican.
“The Schools and State Budgets Certainty Act will provide a predictable glide path for state, county, and Tribal governments to move away from their current dependence on federal fossil fuel revenues and allow a managed transition to more reliable sources of funding,” he added. “If we make the right choices now and invest in new growth opportunities, we can put New Mexico and our energy veterans who have long worked to power our country in the best possible position to thrive.”
The bill aims to move New Mexico from being “dependent” on oil and gas to be dependent on the federal government, which some critics of the radical proposal have taken issue with.
“This proposal is an admission from Senator Heinrich that the wind and solar power being forced upon New Mexicans won’t be enough to financially sustain our state. Instead of allowing the workers in our energy industry to keep their jobs, this proposal proves Senator Heinrich wants to make New Mexico even more dependent on Washington. It is pure arrogance for Senator Heinrich and Governor Lujan Grisham to artificially prop up unreliable energy sources while destroying real jobs in New Mexico and then have the audacity to call it a ‘just transition’,” said Larry Behrens of the pro-energy group Power The Future.
Lujan Grisham and Heinrich have proposed and supported proposals for a complete government takeover of health care, education, and many other sectors, while spending billions on far-out “climate change” proposals such as the Green New Deal that would bankrupt the state and the country.
On Saturday, three New Mexico cities will participate in worldwide freedom rallies against stringent lockdowns due to the pandemic. The rallies will be held in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Silver City. Freedom rallies are taking place globally, including Canada, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Denmark, Australia, Lithuania, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Norway, according to the organizers.
Sarah Smith of Free People of the Southwest, who is organizing the Las Cruces rally, said, “New Mexico is still under some of the harshest lockdown measures in the country. We have the 5th highest unemployment rate, and our businesses are still failing under unnecessarily strict mandates. The lockdown isn’t working, as evidenced by the fact that New Mexico has a worse COVID death rate than 36 states, including states that are wide open such as Florida and Texas. It is time for New Mexico to end the 14-month lockdown.”
A lawsuit to end the lockdown filed against embattled Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham by New Mexico Stands Up! is currently in process in federal court. Ana Garner, the lead lawyer on the case, said, “The lockdown and other mandates in New Mexico are causing vast harm, are ineffective, and are medically unnecessary. We have overwhelming evidence and testimony to prove it. It also violates the U.S. Constitution, the New Mexico Constitution and all precedent of human rights and civil liberties. We call upon our elected representatives and justices to end this crime against New Mexico now.”
Organizer of the Albuquerque rally, Karen Larré said, “There is no good reason for New Mexico to continue to be as locked down as it is. States around us are all more open than we are, and the numbers just don’t justify it. It’s time to fully reopen New Mexico!”
The rallies will take place at 10:00 a.m. and participants are encouraged to bring “General freedom signs, vax, lockdowns, etc.,” according to the New Mexico Freedoms Alliance. In Albuquerque, participants will meet at San Mateo and Central, in Las Cruces, participants will meet at Main and Picacho, and in Silver City, participants will meet at Swan and 180.
The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) updated guidelines on Thursday said it is permissible to “resume activities without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart” if one is “fully vaccinated except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”
That might be well and good for states that trust their citizens with freedoms to make choices about their health (such as wearing masks) by themselves, but not in the Land of Enchantment. Despite what the CDC says, according to the state’s latest emergency health orders, per Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Health Secretary Dr. Tracie Collins, New Mexicans are warned to not leave their homes and to continue wearing masks.
It remains the core purpose of this Order to emphasize that all New Mexicans should be staying in their homes for all but the most essential activities and services. When New Mexicans are not in their homes, they must strictly adhere to social distancing protocols and wear face coverings to minimize risks. These sacrifices are the best contribution that each of us can individually make to protect the health and wellbeing of our fellow citizens and the State as a whole. In accordance with these purposes, this Order and its exceptions should be narrowly construed to encourage New Mexicans to stay in their homes for all but the most essential activities.
So despite what the CDC says, New Mexicans are still locked down and encouraged by overlords in Santa Fe to wear masks indoors for now. However, the Governor has adopted the CDC guidelines for fully vaccinated New Mexicans not to wear masks outdoors.
A spokesperson for the Governor’s office previously told KOB 4, “The New Mexico mask mandate remains in place for the protection of the health and safety of all New Mexicans – any new data or recommendations will be reviewed and evaluated by the state, and we’ll keep you informed of any updates.” The Governor’s State Police are still harassing New Mexican businesses in alleged non-compliance with the mask mandates.
On Thursday, the Associated Press first reported that Brian Colón, a perennial candidate for just about every office in New Mexico, announced he would be running for New Mexico attorney general after serving one term in elected office as the state auditor.
According to the AP, “Colón sees the campaign as an opportunity to ‘take the next step,’ saying his motivation is rooted in his experience growing up in New Mexico and his desire to serve his community. He recalled the struggle of being poor and having to take on the role of caring for his mother and siblings when his father died at a young age.”
Colón would be following in the career path of the current attorney general and his former law firm colleague, Hector Balderas, who mysteriously passed up the opportunity to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, which he was expected to do. Balderas was the state auditor before becoming attorney general.
After a stint as Democrat Party of New Mexico chair, Colón ran a failed campaign for lieutenant governor in 2010, then ran a failed campaign for Albuquerque mayor, being beat by then-state auditor Tim Keller.
In the state’s history, the auditor’s office has been used as less of a regulatory agency for accountability than for boosting politicians’ political careers. In recent history, the auditor’s office has been known for corruption, notably with then-auditor Robert E. Vigil (D) and the state treasurer being indicted on 28 counts of extortion, money laundering, and racketeering by a federal jury.
Other than generalities about promoting “prosperous” and “safe” communities, it is unknown what platform Colón plans on running on. Another candidate, Albuquerque-area district attorney Raúl Torrez is also a possible contender for the position.
According to the New Mexico Secretary of State, Colón has $366,738.19 cash on hand, which gives him a leg up in fundraising over other candidates. Republicans have held the attorney general’s office three times in the state’s history. Still, if the GOP fields a viable candidate in 2022, the race could very well swing to the Republican column due to it being a midterm with a Democrat sitting in the White House.
On Saturday, May 15, Antisemitic pro-Palestinian groups are holding rallies against Israel across the country, including in Albuquerque where a “Nakba (catastrophe): Emergency March and Rally” is being held. The rally comes after Hamas terrorists in Palestine shot thousands of rockets at Israel over the past few days. Most of them have been intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system dubbed the “Iron Dome.”
38 hours 1050+ rockets across central and southern Israel
The group apparently organizing the Antisemitic event is the “ANSWERS Coalition,” which has defended Hamas, the Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group in the past.
The march and rally are supposed to take place at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday with a car caravan starting at Walgreens on Central and San Mateo to the main event, which is being held at Tiguex Park, according to the Facebook event organized by “Southwest Coalition for Palestine.”
In one advertisement for the event by one organizer who proudly has “#AbolishThePolice” in his Twitter biography, the individual is asking people to bring Palestinian flags and wear “keffiyeh” scarves, which according to the Jerusalem Post, a pro-Israel publication, “stirs the same emotions in today’s Jews that the swastika must have done to those in Hitler’s Europe.
In the Facebook event, the organizers dub Jewish people as “illegal terrorist settlers” and allege that the Israel Defense Forces have targeted “Palestinian homes.” The group aims to force Congress to pass Rep. Bett McCollum’s (D-NM) bill to cripple aid to Israel based on supposed abuses against the Palestinian regime.
Previously, Antisemitic pro-Palestinian supporters have rallied in Albuquerque, notably in July 2020 with an event co-sponsored by the anti-Hispanic hate group “The Red Nation” and “Al-Awda,” whose founder compares Jews with Nazis and is a supporter of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.
At the 2020 rally, a handful of people in the caravan of cars held anti-Israel signs, with some shouting out of their cars things such as, “Look at the Nazis! F**k you!”
The event happening on Saturday in Albuquerque is using phraseology such as “imperialism” and “Zionist extremism” to characterize Israel, which is a longtime close ally of the United States important to America’s Judeo-Christian foundations.
The news of the event comes just days after a University of New Mexico student was allegedly attacked for speaking Hebrew and left with a black eye and apparent other abrasions on his face.
On a Tuesday virtual call with American governors, Joe Biden repeatedly called New Mexico just “Mexico” while addressing the vaccination efforts across the country. According to Breibart News, the governors involved were Janet Mills (D-ME), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Spencer Cox (R-UT), Tim Walz (D-MN), Charlie Baker (R-MA), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM).
Biden asked embattled Gov. Lujan Grisham how the weather was in “Mexico.”
Throughout the call, he repeatedly referred to New Mexico as just “Mexico,” but finally corrected himself while addressing Lujan Grisham at the end of the call.
During a CNN interview last week, Alisyn Camerota mistakenly said Lujan Grisham was the governor of “New York,” but she did not correct her.
It was reported late on Monday by Dov Hikind, a former New York state assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism that an unnamed student at the University of New Mexico was viciously attacked by four to five men after hearing the student speak in Hebrew.
“A student at [the] University of New Mexico was out with friends this past weekend in Albuquerque. After hearing him speak Hebrew, some 4-5 men (a few were identified as Arab) began viciously attacking him while shouting antisemitic slurs,” wrote Hikind.
In the photographs shared of the student, it appears the incident left him with a black eye, bruises around the base of his nose, among possibly other unknown injuries at this time.
Hikind noted that “The hate criminals remain at large.”
A student at University of New Mexico was out with friends this past weekend in Albuquerque. After hearing him speak Hebrew, some 4-5 men (a few were identified as Arab) began viciously attacking him while shouting antisemitic slurs.
The Piñon Post is investigating for more information on the matter and this report will be updated with any further developments. Requests for comment have been made to the UNM Police through the school.
According to the details of the incident, it may have been an incident that happened at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 8th, where an unspecified “aggravated battery” occurred at the Cornell Parking Structure.
Last month, the Piñon Postreported how far-left groups have begun to focus on Georgia O’Keefe as their next target to “cancel.” The fringe group, “Three Sisters Collective,” blasted a New Mexico Tourism Department advertisement featuring O’Keeffe as “romantic settler voyeurism” and “erasure” of Native American culture. Here is the advertisement:
Even the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum itself, a supposed institution meant to honor the late artist who came to New Mexico, blasted her, writing the following in a statement:
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum does not support the use of Georgia O’Keeffe quotes describing the New Mexico landscape as ‘her country’ or claiming ‘that was mine.’ While these quotes are from the artist, it is now clear that this is the language of possession, colonization, and erasure. Such language is offensive, insulting and insensitive. We strongly discourage the use of these problematic phrases, as well as ‘O’Keeffe Country’ to promote tourism or represent Northern New Mexico.
But the attacks on O’Keeffe’s legacy are nothing new. An August 2020 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum-sponsored virtual event called “Discussion: This is Not O’Keeffe Country” brought together radicals to assail O’Keeffe’s legacy and demean New Mexico culture in general.
In opening up the discussion, Cody Hartley, the director of the museum, claimed the Abiquiú area where the artist lived was “mistakenly” called “O’Keeffe Country” and instead said that he was “recognizing that the region we are discussing tonight is Tewa Country.” He then claimed the use of land in Santa Fe was “settler colonialism.”
Alicia Inez Guzman led the discussion, which invoked the term “colonialism” repeatedly in the description of O’Keeffe’s journey to New Mexico. Guzman described the artist’s worldview as “cosmopolitan.” She then asked the panelists about what she dubbed “unintended consequences.”
Christina M. Castro responded saying, “But with regard to unintended consequences, I would argue that the consequence, you know, they might not be as unintended, as we may think they are. The more I learned about the legacy of O’Keeffe and the era of her time, and the folks that were coming out from the East coast to, you know, ‘find themselves in a vast undiscovered landscape,’ the more I learned, you know, these elites were very calculated in their movements. And so, I’m trying to look at the legacy.”
Castro added, “These were elites who came out here as a part of an artistic settler colonial project. So, I’m interested in that because I don’t think that the consequences are necessarily unintentional.”
Guzman responded, “I think that’s a good point, Christina, because if you’re really entitled, and you’re really privileged, you may not think they’re intended. But intention doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with outcome…. We’re entering into the cash economy, where we’re seeing some environmental racism and that the, you know, the first movements in that direction.”
Jason Garcia of Santa Clara Pueblo chimed in, invoking the term “erasure” multiple times, then saying, “I found it interesting that [O’Keeffe] said, in reference to [Cerro] Pedernal (mountain)… Tsi’pin, She said, ‘It’s my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it.’ So, just the fact that she’s saying, ‘If I paint this picture a thousand times, two thousand times, it’s mine, I have ownership.’ So, it’s just interesting of how that intended erasure and it was–I mean, you fall in love with a place, but once you call it yours, it’s a whole different ball game and things like that.”
Guzman agreed, saying, “There’s this phrase that says that amnesia is the algorithm of colonization. And so, I think that that’s absolutely appropriate in this context.”
On the topic of feminism, Guzman added, “We think of the feminism that O’Keeffe came out of, that she really originated out of, it’s very different contexts and she was breaking glass ceilings in the art world but does that really square with how we see women in our place here in New Mexico.”
Castro said, “White women have benefited a lot from feminism on the backs of women and people of color.”
Then the converstiaon went down a turn where they spoke down toward the Spanish who came to New Mexico, claiming they used Native Americans as slaves. Guzman called it “white supremacy” when speaking about people of mixed race.
She said, “And then, there were a lot of terms for like mixed race people as well, because the Spanish were really like obsessed with making sense of like, mixtures. This is white supremacy, right? I mean, here’s the word we should be using. Speaking of not using words, we should be using white supremacy.”
Castro added, “ The hierarchy of white supremacy and Hispanic white supremacy.”
Once the conversation turned back into talking about O’Keefe, Guzman asked, “Is it fair to lump O’Keeffe in with those who did abuse the land and claimed it by manifest destiny?” Castro answered, “Yes.”
Guzman previously wrote an article in 2020 claiming the racist, anti-Hispanic narrative that the Hispanic identity was fiction. This racist theory has previously been spun by The Red Nation hate group’s Nick Estes. Here’s what Guzman wrote:
The Americanization of the Plaza ran parallel to other efforts that sought to whitewash the city’s mixed Indo-Hispanic population — racist campaigns that Swentzell refers to as a “rehabilitation of Mexicans into Spaniards.” New Mexic… was “too Mexican” to be admitted to the Union as a state. So white tourism boosters, anthropologists and legislators (many of them slave owners) began a massive rebranding to cast residents as Spanish-American, an identity that was “closer to white.” The founding of Spanish-American schools and Spanish Colonial societies and the celebration of Spanish Fiestas was just another means of performing whiteness, Swentzell said. To claim pure Spanish ancestry was a way to identify with your oppressor so that you could eat scraps at the table he took from you.
The panelists then claimed O’Keeffe was a product of displacing Native American people throughout her entire life since she was born in Sun Prarie, Wisconsin in 1887, which Garcia said was a Native American “ancestral village.”
“Of where you’re saying George O’Keeffe wasn’t, she didn’t choose this, but she was actually a product of displacement of native peoples,” he added.
The panel shifted once again to bashing the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum for how much it charged for admission and a criticism of museums in general.
Corrine Sanchez of “Tewa Women United” said, “So, I would also like, consider the deconstruction of museums. Like we build this fortune, or we build this maintenance around museums and these structures, and we created a culture around it where people go visit and learn. If we deconstructed all of that money and put that into our educational system in some way, for our young people and had, you know, maybe then traveling. You know, traveling displays or things that everyone could access. This is the same conversation we need to have around the structures and the monuments. We go to D.C. because they have these big old monuments.”
The panel agreed that it was a place of “radicalism” needed to change the museum’s framework. Guzman said, “And part of it is like reflecting on your own privilege…. And this is the thing that everybody in Santa Fe should really be thinking about is like, how do you instrumentalize your privilege so that it’s going towards or weaponized your privilege?”
As self-identified radicals claim is based on colonization and supposed white supremacy, the war on Georgia O’Keeffe is still trying to damage the late artist’s legacy and contribution to New Mexico’s identity. The war on O’Keeffe, however, is by no means a contained event in general, as New Mexicans are seeing monuments and other historically and culturally significant places and artifacts ripped down and erased by radical “Indigenous” individuals.
On Saturday, scores of customers came to Backstreet Grill in Albuquerque’s Old Town to support it as it refused to close down following Yelp reviews and a KRQE 13 report alleging that employees were not wearing masks while working outside.
The massive support for Backstreet Grill came as embattled Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s State Police delivered a cease and desist order to the business, which was supposed to shut it down. But the restaurant owner refused to stay shuttered.
Along with multiple State Police officers came Lujan Grisham’s well-paid Environment Department Secretary James Kenney, who spoke with some supporters of Backstreet Grill, including Audrey Trujillo, a conservative activist in New Mexico. Kenny said, “We oversee the OSHA program. Just to make sure the employees are safe. And the lack of employees wearing masks as they’re performing their duties puts them at risk.”
Another health official, Christopher Hutchinson of the City of Albuquerque Environmental Health Department, was short with Trujillo and others, refusing to give them his name despite being present in an official capacity and merely telling them he was there because of a “lack of compliance” from the business.
“When is this going to end? When are you going to let these people run their businesses?” asked Trujillo to Kenney. “New Mexico is staying in this because they’re getting money. They are getting federal money,” she added.
“Look, I appreciate the conversation we’re having…. We’re so close. We’re getting very close to being over that edge” of being out of the pandemic, Kenney said. He did not elaborate on when or how that would happen. Shortly afterward, Kenney, Hutchinson, and the Stae Police officers left.
Chris, the owner of the business, said, “We were looking at a potential arrest. We were asked to shut it down even though it’s unconstitutional. The judge has issued a temporary order to shut us down pending even talking to her, which is very unacceptable considering the damage that would do to an already damaged business. On top of that, I just never saw that this would be something that would be an outcome.”
He added, “I tried to be polite and professional with the sergeant I realized was in command. He was waiting for orders. He was just following orders. They let him use his own decision-making in the field and he said that upon my request to leave, that he would honor that request and he would let us continue doing business.”
When asked if the massive public turnout to support the grill helped, he said, “Absolutely. Everything helps. Everything matters. Everything helps, and the support that I’ve gotten today is something I never even dreamed of. I feel like I’ve been fighting this fight alone for the longest time. And finally, now, I’m seeing the people come out and step up to the plate and actually stand on-scene and make their presence known.
