Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion

Adagio

Meanwhile back at the Ranch

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            The slow burn New Mexico displays in formulating and managing its perpetual state of governmental mediocrity is a work of continued incredulity.

            Perhaps it should be characterized as a form of amateur fine art. No crescendo of high expectation or glowing success for its inhabitants is the rule. Rather, the perpetual stance of seeking last place in line is the accepted standard. Apparently, that is the safer place to be. It allows a governor to place among the six least favored executive rulers in the nation, but still expects a full boat load of support for reelection. It also blesses its junior senator for adherence to the stance of giving away many things including New Mexico waters for his pledge of Environment Only.

            The latter is particularly repugnant when it was noted that the city of Clovis, California contracted with Fresno Irrigation District for 5,000 acre-feet of water annually (and up to 7,000 acre-feet) for $5,000 per acre foot. If the term reaches 25 years, that’s a chunk of change.

            Over here, the senator is intent on surrendering, without recourse, to Arizona, New Mexico’s 14,000 acre feet of conflict resolution water in order to adhere to the Agenda. Who knows? Since he doesn’t trust his constituents with their water, we may never know if Phoenix would pay that price sooner than later. As it is, they are waiting to get it by running the clock out. From every angle, it is miscalculated.

            Let’s see. That is $70M annually on a straight up multiplication. Over 25 years, that adds up to a whopping figure of $1.75B.

            Slow burn, ladies and gentlemen … Adagio per sempre!

            Extinction Rebellion

            Scotland Yard has come up with the name that must be elevated into general use to describe the stable managers of the senator’s agenda.

            Rather than trying to isolate the issue surrounding but not limited to climate change, open borders, NGO oppression, pedophile clubs, race baiters, endangered species, ever increasing restrictive land designations, the Bernie crew, fluid mineral haters (keep it in the ground hordes), the acronym for Beelzebub scribes, the  KKK 2.0, or even their ever growing target groups, the collective description should be reformatted.

            The Extinction Rebellion is what we are experiencing.

            The operators are, in truth and in fact, masked anarchists. They are what the rest of us who must stick to our business aren’t. We must hold our world together while they chant and exchange ideas of demonstration to accelerate division.

            The author of the report setting forth this revelation also insists passive tolerance to the nonsense can no longer be condoned. It is just not acceptable. The demands of the Extinction Rebellion cannot possibly be met anyway.

            Where one is elevated into mindless discussion, mockery, and character assassination, another is revealed. It is a circular discourse of nonsense that is filling the pockets of the few and emptying the pockets of the rest.

            Meanwhile back at the ranch

            It was Jefferson who most forcefully sought a dominant agrarian society for the new United States of America.

            He acknowledged that a citizenry who owned its own land and pursued such a rural life was more likely to avoid destructive conflict. He was right then, and he is right today.

            The problem is there are just too few of us. Less than one percent of the population lives on farms and ranches. We are woefully outnumbered and the bridge back to any meaningful connection with the land on a firsthand basis seems insurmountable. The outcome is an adulterated relationship.

            The ideas still linger, though.

            I can’t fix the world. I can’t fix my county nor my state government, either. The only thing that I could materially change is what I can touch. What, then, would I change that alters my pasture boundaries to fit my most inner vision?

            To start with, the three coequal branches of government must fix the border. Our ranch cannot operate without fences and the United States can’t either. Our operation in singular and our industry in plural offers the best possible international relationship from a human perspective. Cowboys in Mexico now make about 5,000 pesos per month. That converts to about $300 US per month. We could easily triple that and provide reasonable housing accommodations for Mexican cowboys that want to work (minimum wage is one of the many factors that has all but destroyed economic equivalents for American counterparts). The outcome would be hugely beneficial for both sides of the relationship and both sides of the border.

            We need a relationship with the federal land agencies in the same context of our relationship with the state of New Mexico Land Office. In fact, we would advocate tasking the state to fill the role as manager of all forms of government lands.

The core issue is that we are regulated to death.

            The system itself suffocates innovation and opportunities to enhance improvements. Jefferson wouldn’t agree but we would continue to pay homage to the great white father in Washington if he would allow substantive improvements based on individual operations rather than landscape scale, one size fits all management tomfoolery.

            Take away every federal handout.

            In my career in agriculture, the most money was always made where we depended on nobody but ourselves. Of course, there is risk in that, but that should be what America is all about. What the Extinction Rebellion leadership doesn’t understand is that, left to our own devices, the fools are eliminated. The stewards tend to survive and learn from mistakes and successes alike.

            That’s what we really want.

           

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Those of us who understand what is actually going on know the best managed and most productive ranches in America are private property ranches. There is good reason why Jefferson sought the same opportunity for all of America’s citizenry … not just the haves among the unequal states.”