Dysfunctional Government

Yoo-hoo!

Dysfunctional Government

Surge

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            June has been … June.

            The great spring has kept the cow herd in good shape, and even young pairs are generally doing okay, but conditions are now worsening. Things are getting tense. It isn’t a repeat of 2019 in any shape or form, but it will be great relief when this month is finally over. Even if the monsoon is delayed the release of being under the throes of our historically toughest month will be welcome.

            A review of the diary for the month will be reflected in history as mundane because day after day will be the tedium of words about water. The problems were multiple. It started when the pump in our big, main well was replaced. As it turned out, the reduction of production wasn’t the pump itself but the effects of a beehive that was discovered when we pulled the seal at the well head. The swarm erupted as it was lifted and then quickly set back in place.

            The entry was the threaded hole where the well can be sounded (or chlorine injected). The nylon plug was missing, and the bees were coming and going in singles and pairs. By the time I got back from the barn to get some material to deal with the hive, the problem went from bad to worse by the comb being knocked loose and dropping into the hole.

            Bees wax and pump impellers simply don’t mix!

It will plug pumps. One thing is certain, though. Everybody needs to deal with this problem at least once in your life! It was a nightmare before a tentative and conditional resolution was achieved.

            Onward and forward, little disruptions became big disruptions as the days went by. When cattle move off one water and overload another everything suffers, and it becomes increasingly hard to get back to any balance. Fixes were invented and a lot of line pressure was applied to the system. Water was plumbed in from different directions, and, as of yesterday afternoon, the storages were again full.

            Glory be, but ... June will not be missed.

            Yoo-Hoo

            The month has been no picnic in Mexico, either.

            Watching the daily shootouts, earthquakes, and ongoing drama through the reporting of Mexico New Daily has become the intellectually preferred news as compared to the American alternative. There are certainly things that go on there that would not be accepted in our land of chaos. Take for example, the relatively recent day capture of some cattle rustlers. The owners of the cattle stripped the three banditos and prodded them through downtown in the buff for all to see.

            Can you only imagine how that would have gone over in an American city?

            Then, there has been the increasing drought problems. The most discussed problem has been the diminished outlook for current year bean crop. What makes this so critical is not just the demand for normal use, but the call by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) for the masses to refrain from eating COVID-19 diminished processed foods and go back to eating beans.

            A true deep thinker that fellow seems to be. More beans (and more hugs) is what he is posturing his administration to pursue!

            Can you only imagine the universal outrage toward President Trump if he called for the masses to start eating more beans?

There would be calamity in the streets. The crossfires would be intense. There would be outcry from the global warming adherents with science-based predictions of increased greenhouse gas levels. Then, the BLM would be swept into the recesses of the backwater tides as the MLM proponents would find their wings and start to cry foul. Books on bean nutrition would spring up overnight as the vegan cult-of-czars would jockey for sound bites over the criticism of the president’s insinuation of using lima beans as the example but knowing he was really talking about frijoles in his heart.

The press would be frothing at the mouth.

The haters would use the opportunity to bring up AMLO’s original suggestion that the poor of Mexico would not be victims of COVID-19 anyway. It was the wealthy and the elite that needed real protections. That whole thing would be pinned on Trump on the basis of some telephone conversation a deep state operator overheard where the original suggestion was actually made by our president to his ever-obedient counterpart south of the border.

Surge

The turmoil brewing in Mexico isn’t just the run to beans, though.

The economic downturn is as real there as anywhere on earth. It all started with Mexico falling out of the top 25 countries for preferential foreign investments. In April, it got worse when the economic index declined a whopping 20%. It was the largest single month on month drop in history. Another amazing statistic is the claim that flight plans into and out of Mexico City’s Benito Juarez Airport dropped an astounding 93.7%.

COVID-19 is taking the brunt of the blame.

With more than 6,000 cases on Thursday, that nation’s total cases are now pegged at 202,000. As to the social status of the victims, all bets are now silent as to whether it is the paisanos or the gente ricas that are being targeted. It seems for once the class baiters are silent on the issue.

What is developing as a corollary, however, is the uptick in cases on the American border. El Paso is a best example.

What is being discussed in neighbor to neighbor and social media is the irony that few folks know a victim. That is stunningly different from the Walmart shooting where it didn’t take long for somebody to come up with names. Are these latter day COVID victims phantoms, or is there something else? In that regard, more and more El Pasoans are suggesting that the uptick is cross border contact and arrivals.

Is dysfunctional government spelled correctly?

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.