Opinion

Opinion

Column: Don't get complacent after tough election

Matthew Reisen | November 20

I woke up on Nov. 9 not wanting to do anything. Anything at all, up to and including: go to class, eat breakfast or even put on pants. The wind was taken out of my already fluttering sails. It was something I didn’t see coming. I joked about it. I half-heartedly said “but, what if?” I didn’t fully absorb the reality until the following Sunday, when I saw a “60 Minutes” preview that read “45th President” with Donald J. Trump’s face beside it. There is a tsunami of feelings that came with that reality. I felt let down, confused, scared, worried, frantic, desperate and apathetic. One thing I wasn’t, not in the least, was hopeful.

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Opinion

Letter: The Electoral College needs to be reformed, not abolished

Daily Lobo Readers | November 20

The framers of the U.S. Constitution created the Electoral College as a result of a compromise for the presidential election process. During the debate, some delegates felt that a direct popular election would lead to the election of each state’s favorite son and none would emerge with sufficient popular majority to govern the country.  Other delegates felt that giving Congress the power to select the president would deny the people their right to choose. After all, the people voted for their representatives to the federal legislature. The compromise was to set up an Electoral College system that allowed voters to vote for electors, who would then cast their votes for candidates, a system described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution.

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Opinion

Letter: The Inconvenient Truth of Donald Trump

Daily Lobo Readers | November 16

It has become a convenient sport to display one’s democratic colors by hurling the strongest condemnations at America’s most iconic target: Donald Trump. The man himself not only invites, but calls for the criticism. His public posture consists, in a shameless transparency, of an unashamed mindset that digs deep into the muck of America’s bigoted history of racism, slavery, sexist misogyny, chauvinistic nationalism, militarism, burnt-earth capitalism and blood-drenched imperialism. Violence of hatred breeds more hatred of violence. Entrenched in the vicious cycle, Trump is one of few public figures who refuse to mince words. He exhibits his narcissism with an inadvertent honesty that pulls him into the spotlight of utter impertinence.

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Opinion

Column: The Electoral College doesn't represent a true democracy

Jon Lofquist | November 16

After 18 grueling months of election campaigning, America shocked the world and elected Donald J. Trump as its 45th president. For the fourth time in American history, and the second time in 16 years, Trump won the presidency despite receiving less votes overall than Hillary Clinton. To recap, Trump got 290 electoral votes and Clinton got 228. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly stated that the electoral system was “rigged.” In fact, I think I heard that word more often than any other throughout the campaign. It became a theme in Trump’s temper tantrums. I don’t agree or stand for anything he’s said in the campaign, but I think he has a point here.

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Opinion

Letter: ASUNM should be willing to discuss finances publicly, not behind closed doors

Daily Lobo Readers | November 13

Editor, On Nov. 11, the ASUNM president sent me a personal email regarding my recent and open critiques of ASUNM and its performance. Specifically, he invited me to schedule a private meeting with him and his staff to address my communications to the Daily Lobo. The ASUNM president's invitation to a private dialogue without an audience should come as a shock to all undergraduates, as this proposed cloak-and-dagger affair runs in the face of the transparency, openness and full disclosure that ASUNM alleges it values. This is indicative of a desire to handle ASUNM business in a manner so that is hidden from the public eye.

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Opinion

Editorial: What President Trump has said he wants to accomplish

Daily Lobo Editorial Board | November 13

Here are some of the things President-elect Donald Trump has said and promised to do once elected: Trump praised the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique now defined as torture by the U.S., adding “if it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway for what they do to us.” - Campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio. In the fight against Islamic terror groups, Trump said on Fox and Friends that when it comes to suspected terrorists, “you have to take out their families.” The purposeful killing of civilians is a war crime under the Geneva Convention, and is considered terrorism.

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Opinion

Letter: Frank condemns anti-Trump graffiti but refuses to condemn Trump's fascism

Daily Lobo Readers | November 13

Editor, UNM President Frank has condemned "highly offensive" anti-fascist Trump graffiti at UNM. Does he also condemn fascism? I imagine after the tumult of the next four years, this highly offensive grafitti is going to look pretty damn tame in 2020! Appeasement in a social or political context is a diplomatic policy of making political or material concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conflict. Frank can try his best to be fair and balanced, but fascism should never be appeased.

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News

Column: A personal account of the anti-Trump protest

Fin Martinez | November 11

I arrived on Central Ave. and First Street around 7 p.m., to a moderate crowd gathered on the street corner. They were protesting the election results and renouncing the new president elect as their leader. Not 24 hours before, our nation received a shock comparable to the Kent State massacre — The Donald was elected our new president. I remember where I was that night. I was having a drink at the campus bar watching the votes come in from each of our nation’s states, and at this point I was nervous that Clinton wouldn’t emerge victorious from this vicious campaign that pitted the American people against each other.

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Opinion

Letter: ASUNM works hard for little to provide opportunities to students

Daily Lobo Readers | November 9

In response to the article published on Monday, here are some things to know about your undergraduate student government.

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Opinion

Letter: Now is the best time to transition to renewables as a long-term solution

Daily Lobo Readers | November 9

On Wednesday of last week Robert Sanchez of the U.S. Government Accountability Office came in and talked about the potential for the United States to diversify the national energy portfolio and the hazards and obstacles that are in the way. The gist of what he was telling those of us interested in the topic was that renewable energy isn’t all that likely to be 100 percent of the energy portfolio – as it stands, fossil fuels are the cheapest available energy source and it seems that it won’t change any time soon with the onset of fracking.

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Opinion

Letter: ASUNM provides for themselves rather than the students they serve

Daily Lobo Readers | November 9

The front page article of the Nov. 7 paper should come as a shock to all students. The crux of the matter is that the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico appears to be doing little more than funding itself and its own extravagances rather than appropriating funds to the students that it claims to be serving. The majority of the money, which comes directly from student fees, does not make it back to the students, who are being milked like cash cows. It would almost be comical to chalk this up as negligence on behalf of ASUNM, but the truth is that they know exactly where this money goes and how little there is to show for it.

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Opinion

Column: Social media - a force for good or evil in the election?

Nichole Harwood | November 7

Social media plays a large part in the daily life of many individuals across the globe and has affected almost every avenue of life including, just recently, our political life. This election, regardless of the outcome, will make history, whether it’s because we will have our first female president or our first billionaire president. Even if Election Day were to provide a twist and a third-party candidate were elected, whoever wins will have been impacted heavily by their role and influence on social media.

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Opinion

Letter: Higher learning today displays anti-Christian bias

Daily Lobo Readers | November 6

Hello. Writing to all you out in academia about the election from the viewpoint of a Christian. I was raised in my family as a liberal Democrat back when that was a good thing. What I mean by that is the liberal Democrats have now come to stand for things I no longer support. We used to be for integration and proper hours and wages for workers. Honestly, I agree with both parties on certain issues so I am what is called an independent.

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Opinion

Letter: Election drama won't end on Tuesday

Daily Lobo Readers | November 6

An American spring, a renewed and reset Constitutional Republic. What very few people know, understand or want to acknowledge is that behind the scenes of all this election drama, a second American revolution is currently underway. Actually, more correctly, a counter-revolution to turn back the forces of tyranny and criminality, and the stakes could not be higher.

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Opinion

Letter: ASUNM candidates meeting fell short

Daily Lobo Readers | November 3

Good evening ASUNM Elections Commission, The meeting on Tuesday evening seemed to fall short of its own standards. While the information covered was pertinent to us as candidates, the efforts of the Elections Commission seemed to be wanting. There was a major disconnect in the message being put out, i.e., the importance of the ASUNM Senate, and the preparations of the Elections Commission. 

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Opinion

Letter: The University shows intellectual rot by running Macuahuitl's screeds

Daily Lobo Readers | November 3

Editor, The intellectual rot and apathy on the campus of the University of New Mexico breaks the god damn heart. I’ve been sitting back to see if anyone would respond to L.X. Macuahuitl’s screeds. No one has, so here goes. On Sept. 8, the Daily Lobo published my letter, "Rational and Educated Americans should vote for Hillary Clinton," which was mostly about the book, "Tyrants - 2,500 Years of Absolute Power And Corruption." The majority the letter was about the history of tyranny through human history. It ended with short shout out for the centrism of the Clintons and Obama. This letter seemed to trigger Daily Lobo reader L.X. Macuhutl. He replied on Sept. 15 with "Hillary Clinton is the face of Political Corruption." Macuhutl charges the Clintons are guilty of “High Crimes and Treason” over the last 30 years, and that Hillary has brain damage from head injuries and increasingly displays the signs and symptoms of illness, and that the rigged liberal media is covering up these crimes and sickness.

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Opinion

Letter: Hiring freeze could result in exploitation of staff

Daily Lobo Readers | November 3

Dear Editor, In regard to last week’s University budget town hall, I would like to address an issue that came up. It’s a pity that President Frank completely missed the point that an employee made about the fact that individuals are being asked to do more for less. It wasn’t surprising, though. I find the administration has a difficult time taking staff concerns into serious consideration, even though that is the purpose of the town hall meeting. The employee was making a statement about the fact that when programs lose staff, they are not being given approval to hire a replacement. Instead, the work is being unloaded onto staff that are in completely different departments.

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Opinion

Letter: Hillary's egregious misdeeds disqualify her for office

Daily Lobo Readers | October 30

Editor, Yes, if Hillary is elected, then the nation will have voted itself into ruin.

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Opinion

Op-Ed: Dakota Access vs. the American Way

Thomas Knapp | October 30

CNN reports that protesters from around the world continue to congregate in North Dakota in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux and their struggle to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through (or placed so as to negatively affect) tribal lands. The issues and the divide between sides seem to be fairly conventional: Promises of jobs and economic growth motivate the pipeline's supporters. Its opponents cite environmental concerns (especially the prospective damage to tribal lands) and allege violations of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 in Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners' wheedling of land use permissions out of federal and state governments.

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Opinion

Column: We let Trump, and ART, slip through the cracks

Matthew Reisen | October 26

As I navigate the city streets, bogged down with Albuquerque Rapid Transit construction, I can’t help but think: How can I stop this? ART has been a long time coming, and now that we’re here and it’s real, many of us are asking what more we could’ve done to possibly prevent it, and are looking for a time machine. Sound familiar? If it does it’s because the presidential “anti-candidate” that is Donald Trump, has come upon us in similar fashion. Trump grabbed America by the you-know-what, in such a way that America didn’t even realize what had happened until he was already bragging about it across the room. Just like ART, Trump is messy, inconvenient, bold in all the wrong ways, costly and most importantly: he is here and it is now. While ART has already broken ground and set off the road rage of a thousand suns, we still have three weeks until we find out if Trump will be another inescapable reality that somehow slipped through the cracks, and if his party — and the country he helped divide — will be able to recover.