Time for another edition of reader Vox Populi and we kick this one off with reaction to our blog about the presence of Mexican drug cartels in the state and city. An anonymous reader writes:

We were never a major cartel point of entry and distribution place to this extent, until the last decade. Before, it was on a much smaller scale. What caused the influx? Part if it is that New Mexicans are afraid to say anything because it reflects badly.

Pot is not the problem. Ir's not a gateway drug and never was. The issue today is that people who sell pot also sell heroin and potent meth. The user gets a taste of heroin and after a month, it’s too late. They also sell toot/cocaine that the yuppies snorted with abandon when it was the “fashionable” drug (and still is). It is all here because this is a distribution point. It is truly trickle-down economics. All one needs to do is talk to the kids at Rio Grande, Atrisco Heritage, Volcano Vista, Manzano, Sandia, Highland, Del Norte, La Cueva and El Dorado. They know! And talk to the teachers at any APS school, they know.

LIKES MANNY

An anonymous reader writes of Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales who has stepped up his crime-fighting efforts in the city limits and is not ruling out a 2021 run for ABQ Mayor:

Joe, I really enjoyed your story about Manny Gonzales and his potential run for mayor. It is the first time I have hope for this city in several years. I find it hard to comprehend that the state police and sheriff's office can go into an area and make arrests and fight crime while APD cannot. The Justice Department consent decree, or the way it is being followed, is hurting our city and protecting criminals. I know Keller bows at the feet of (Federal Monitor) James Ginger. It has cost our city millions and for what?Higher crime. I'm an independent, and would support Manny over Tim in a heartbeat. Maybe Tim's white/liberal privilege is about to run out? Let us hope the same for Councilors Pat Davis and Ike Benton, who do nothing for our city.

KELLER'S "ARTS"

Mayor Keller

Reader Dave writes:

Joe, Keller has already produced several "ARTS." The first was his rush to make ABQ a sanctuary city. That keeps wages low, rewards criminals by protecting them from deportation, makes financial slaves of those who come here with no skills and punishes citizens who live in a crime-ridden, trashy town. 

Other peeves include going along with the city council to give those coming across the border to ABQ  $250,000 of our tax dollars; the Mayor pushing through the council a tax increase immediately upon taking office after saying he would not and the ban on plastic straws and bags which is doing nothing to save the planet but sounds good. 

For those that don't travel to other cities, they don't realize how poorly this city compares when you visit another. I did a little traveling this summer and upon return was appalled by the roads, weeds, trash, homeless, beggars etc. I guess I'm complaining too much. When Councilor Pat Davis and MLG team up to legalize weed, all of our problems will disappear. But wait. The cartels will move in a lot more product at a cost way below the taxed dope our kids and druggies will smoke.

THE TIGHTROPE

Reader Mitchell Freedman in Rio Rancho writes of the political tightrope that southern Dem Congresswoman Xochitl Torres Small has been walking on the impeachment inquiry of President Trump:

 I think in 2020 we get a big Democratic Party turnout, larger than any higher Republican turnout. Therefore, I think Torres Small's strategy should not be to triangulate (to use the old Clintonite term) but to excite the base and increase further the Democratic Party turnout. Whether that includes supporting the impeachment inquiry is a judgment call. What is not a judgment call are the substantive policy issues she has hedged on.

Torres Small may not have to "excite" the Dems as much if she has made inroads with conservative voters as she has appeared to have done in her first year. But she can't risk turning off the Democrats, either. And there you have the political tight rope.

FAST APPROACHING

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