What did I miss?

Carl Muecke illustration

Thanks for your patience. The novel is now completed and will be soon sent to the publisher. A few quick thoughts:

• It's astounding that the former local Fox newsreader Kari "Trump in a Dress" Lake stands a good chance of becoming Arizona's next governor. Or not. I've been skeptical of Arizona becoming a purple, much less blue state. For one thing, the GOP-controlled Legislature passed voter suppression laws, as I warned. And Hispanics are not a monolithic voting bloc. They don't want police defunded. Many are suspicious of woke Democratic virtue posturing.

• It's astounding that Republicans — the Party that Broke America with the Iraq war, Great Recession, and Trump — remain not only relevant but favored to win control of one or both houses of Congress. Trump could win the presidency again, in our last election. When Herbert Hoover and the GOP were blamed for the Great Depression (where I've been living writing the second Gene Hammons novel), the Republicans didn't win the White House for 20 years, and then under the moderate Ike. Not now.

• Similar astounding that Trump and his enablers have faced no consequences for the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Lake is an election denier.

Read on about this blog and its future:

 

My time off has given me time to wonder what the future of Rogue Columnist. Historic photo galleries are popular with readers. Otherwise, no minds are changed.

Soleri, friend of the blog, wrote me some time ago:

I understand your unique voice here regarding Arizona. At the same time, the blog feels too small now, which is ironic given how challenging life is becoming there (and, indeed, everywhere). I would like to see you enlarge your scope to take this into account. Your perspective is personally rooted and sui generis, which grants you an authority most writers don't have. Who else is "doing" Arizona? Who else is writing about the growing border crisis? Or the looming water catastrophe along with climate change? Or the yawning collapse of Arizona's political comity and legitimacy? Or the tectonic shifts in Arizona's economy? Why not write about Arizona's emerging crises as if you were a reporter covering Europe in the 1930s?

 

I think we're both a little shocked just how dark the future appears. This isn't the time to retire your blog. If anything, it's time to take a deep breath and cast an eagle's eye on what may be the penultimate chapters in Arizona's epic hubris. Go deep and wide. Arizona deserves a writer who's ready to tackle these subjects. I don't want to sound overly portentous but the fireworks are just beginning.

So, I guess I'll continue.

 

The comments section awaits you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Gene Holmerud]

The above is good advice. We need all the help we can get.

[Carl Rowe]

Glad you are back. We moved away from Arizona to North Carolina ( it’s own set of crazies) but I follow the upcoming demise of democracy in Arizona with scant hope. Please continue.

[Tyler Murphy]

Fourteen years ago, I read my first column written by you in the Seattle Times. Just a month before my High School graduation, albeit my coming age, which also coincided with the Great Recession. I've always admired your style, insight, and your ability to see the bigger picture.

I live in Washington so I have no vested interest in Arizona but your dispatches about Arizona makes me feel as though I have a connection to the place.

To dovetail Soleri, the spark was just lit on the M-80 and the world needs insights from folks like yourself. All the best.

[Cal Lash]

Welcome back Shamus.
I was getting concerned
it might be a Long Goodbye.

[Anthony]

Congratulations on completing your project and I'm glad to have you back. While overall I agree with Soleri, I hope you continue your breadth of topics, not just focusing on Trump, trumpism, and Republicans. There is already an awful lot of writing about that out there.

[Stef]

We’ve not lived in AZ for nearly 20 years but still follow your blog with interest and find your commentary valuable and insightful. Hope you know that it is much appreciated—a voice in the wilderness of a country run amok. Please do continue. We need you.

[Mike Palumbo]

I very much agree with the comments quoted in your post (and I very much commend the erudition of the writer.) I am glad you will continue to bring your unique perspective. Now, if we could only get Benson to resurrect himself!

[buckobear]

Just visited AZ last week to scatter Mom and Dad in the Granite Dells of Payson
Couldn’t believe the TV ads for lake and the senate guy.
Glad you’re back.

[Jill G.]

Well, we have met the enemy, and us or not, who else but "us" is here to pull us out of this. Congratulations on the book! And a grateful welcome back to the fray and the honorable battle. Link arms! ¡Adelante!

[Mike Orrock]

This column has been essential to me in learning to understand the people here, and love the land here. I have been reading since the beginning. Thank you for your great writing.

[Gary O’Brien]

You’re the only writer out there who helps me make sense of what’s happened to Arizona. I hope you can find it within yourself to continue to pursue the column as you see fit.
I so appreciate what you have done, and what you continue to do.

[Scott Schoneman]

Keep it up! I appreciate your grounded, pragmatic view of AZ - and Washington - topics. We, too, have been split between Seattle and AZ for the last 6+ years after 23 years in Phoenix (the last several of which we shared a condo building with you). The contrast has been interesting, to say the least. I look forward to your Seattle times articles as well as these Rogue Columnist musings.

[Jon7190]

Welcome back! Hope the book is all you want it to be.

As usual, I agree with Soleri in part, but not necessarily for the same reasons (just like old times!). You do have a unique voice and perspective that is well worth putting out there. I hope you will keep writing here for a long time to come.

It is amazing that a candidate for Arizona governor is allowed to still oversee the statewide election process. That seems like quite a conflict of interest. Just business as usual for Arizona, I suppose, and hopefully not to become the basis for further lack of confidence in Arizona's elections.

[TD]

Regarding the suggested content:

Who else is writing about the growing border crisis?

Like it or not, all of this material has been exhaustively chronicled by those opposed to open borders (the means by which migrant caravans are organized and sponsored, what happens in Mexico, the "remain in Mexico" fraud, the role of the cartels, the NGOs and Catholic Charities, what happens when they cross, the abuse of asylum claims, the catch-release-transport to the interior that is occurring to the tune of 2.5M annually now, and the corporations that benefit and actually direct transport to the door of their facilities) and by the anti-imperialist right and left (in terms of why they are coming). Paige Willey has done a half dozen podcasts in the past six months about all of these issues, just to name one source. This is nonpartisan at this point, the facts of how the law is being evaded and who is aiding and abetting are what they are.

Or the looming water catastrophe along with climate change?

It's been looming since I have been alive. Nothing changes. The numbers are all well-known to the major interests and calculable. The engineers will tell us when people have to be cut off, and then they will be, lawsuits notwithstanding, and reality will prevail. But we have been told that reality will assert itself for decades now. Undoubtedly it one day will. But barring an Act of Congress amending existing laws, no doomer reporting on it is going to move the needle.

Or the yawning collapse of Arizona's political comity and legitimacy?

Yawn is right. Pray tell, how is this anything but cultural? And let's see: Everyone came to AZ from somewhere else in the first half of the 20th Century, but they all at least shared a common culture and some basic citizenship education about their own American political system. Fast forward to today, most of your school-age imports have parents who weren't even born in this country, and your schools care more about trans-ing kids for pharmaceutical company profits than in teaching the history and structure of the republic. Hmmm, and comity and legitimacy are on the decline? Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own (in)actions! The culture that had comity and legitimacy was denigrated as "---ist" and destroyed by design. No complaining now that the effects intrude on the privileges of the supposedly educated classes that failed to defend that culture.

Or the tectonic shifts in Arizona's economy?

This is the issue I would recommend covering, as few things are more satisfying that watching an exile lay the truth at the feet of the malefactors that cast him out because they refused to change. As the basis of their wealth is the basis for their myopia, a true exile historian cannot but help chronicle supervening and superseding economic forces.

[History Buff]

TD,

I've forwarded your scribblings to the AZ Cattleman's Association. The way you shovel cow manure, I'm sure they will be in touch concerning an honorary membership.

[Cal Lash]

No need to report anymore bad news in the Americas as it all began in the 1400's with the arrivals of filthy diseased White people seeking riches in the name of their invented god.
Not much has changed.
"stand by"

[eclecticdog]

Welcome back Rogue, looking forward to the columns and the comments (nice one History Buff).