PRICE OF EGGS AND BACON:...Yes, Groceries Are A Political Issue.....Not The Top One.....That Would Be Abortion...Hot-Button Immigration Suddenly Tamps Down...Republicans Still All-In For National Abortion Ban...Democrats Take Opposite Tack...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...All Americans love choice. It's central to being a citizen of a country where anyone can get pretty much everything they want, debt also being part of the equation. Need a car? Put $1,000 down and get one. House? It's not as easy as it used to be, but still possible, unlike life in so many other countries.

Grocery prices are said to be high, but shelves are stocked. Gasoline was $2.69 a gallon yesterday in town, less if you have a membership at Costco or Sam's Club.

Yes, Maria, life keeps on keeping on in the U.S.

Well, everywhere except in the world of politics, where our two major parties make and choose issues design to separate the masses.

Immigration remains a hot topic, although it seems to have cooled down. I know, we're an immigrant country, but some people despise all immigrants, especially all who arrive from south of the border.

But it is abortion, or the easy availability of it, that has the Republican and Democrat parties at each other's throats. Republicans want a national ban on the medical procedure, not quite citing God's preference, although some do, while Democrats insist a woman deserves control of her body.

In an election year like this one, such an issue can be the maker/breaker at the ballot box.      

The other day, far-right radio host Erick Erickson was highly critical of Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump's recent wishy-wash waffling on abortion, tweeting, "If Trump loses in November, it will be his improvisational approach to abortion that alienated the pro-life community that costs him victory."

Sounds ominous, right?

That basic right, to seek a doctor's care or make a decision on a birth, roils Republicans like little else.

They run political campaigns on it from coast to coast. They inject the word of God and how abortion is murder - even as it has been part of womanhood since time immemorial.

This election will magnify it even more.

It shouldn't, but it will.

Women are said to be primed for a massive showing in the coming vote for president.

The White House as obstacle to a woman's right seems anathema to who we are in this country, but there it is...

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AMERICAN MEDIA:...News In The Time Of Rage & Ruin...The Internet Sets The Tone...For The Masses, A Decision On What To Believe...Information In The World Of Politics Seems To Have No Reins...A Free-For-All, Yes...Consumers Find What Suits Them...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Back in the excitable 1980s, when I wrote about Mexico for The Houston Post, my traveling gear included a supply of Reporter Notebooks and a TRS-80, Radio Shack's portable computer. It was small, lightweight and reliable.

Even in the outs of Hermosillo in the hot and steamy Sonoran Desert, it did the job, even as at times I ragged on the hotel operator for help. Somehow, I managed to get my stories to Houston, from there and other out-of-the way places, where searching for a telephone hookup was also part of the job.

In Big Metro places like Mexico City, Monterrey or Mazatlan, things were easier, perhaps because I had a better choice of much better, much more modern hotels.

In any case, it all worked back then.

These days, professional journalism is a whole other world. High-tech cellphones have transformed reporting into an instantaneous gig, even for transmitting photos, the latter something, thankfully, I was not required to do.

Much is being said about the demise of newspapers, especially in small towns. Yes, thousands have closed shop in the last 20 years. A handful of majors remain, although they, too, have cut forces and accepted the Internet as a vehicle for their product.

I talk to someone in the business today and what you hear about is social algorithms, declining ad revenue, or AI-driven fakes.

Yes, the journalism business may be tanking, but the practice itself has never been more robust. As one friend told me, at what other time in history could someone have started writing and within a matter of weeks reached tens or even hundreds of thousands of readers.

But advances have trade-offs. At what price have we changed our needs for news and information?

So we ask: Is it a good idea to rely on a local news-oriented blog, even if the operator of such a website is not a trained (college degree in the field) or experienced journalist? That depends wholly on the honesty and motivation of the blogger. There is money to be made, of course, if that's what fuels the drive, although the checks & balances of serious editing are tossed by the wayside.

No blogger will ever admit to the idea that his blog would be better if edited by someone else. Blogs are all-too-often one-person, no editing operations that do and do not bring useful news. Most of them around here bring shallow reporting that leaves more questions unanswered than anything else.

I speak of smalltown blogs of the sort you see in the Rio Grande Valley.

There are better blogs in major cities, where the writing is exemplary and more than adequate. Google the subject matter and see for yourself.

I tend to agree that the Internet is both savior and damnation.

Broadcast news also falls a few notches from where it roosted back in the day. It's true: much of what a consumer gets these days is opinion, at times even partisan opinion. But the world has changed, as it tends to do from one decade to the next.

And news has changed right with it.

Still, the axion remains: You read and listen, and then decide whether you believe any of it...

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MAGA, INC.:....Deep-Pockets Contributors Fueling Presidential Campaigns....A Million Here, A Million There...Whose Vote Counts More?...Billionaires In It For Tax Cuts......Big Cheese Gets Policy......But What About The Little Guy?...Fair, Or Not Fair?...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's the one side of politics we all know about but rarely study - contributions. Yes, we get the Emails asking for donations, usually small, like $5 or $10, sometimes monthly. Those do add up. I mean, we're a big country of some 350 million people.

That's the cool "good citizen" side of participation.

Then, however, come the boys with the Big Bucks, the millions, at times $25 million or even $50 million. They get the ears of a politician. They want major action on issues of their choice, rarely anything to aid the entire country. 

This caught my eye yesterday on the Common Cause website -

Empowered by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling allowing unlimited independent financial contributions to support political campaigns, outside spending during the current election cycle has hit a record $1 billion, according to a report published Thursday by the watchdog group OpenSecrets.

". . . .Super PACs and other outside groups that can raise and spend unlimited sums of money have poured about $1.1 billion into 2024 federal elections as of August 15 - nearly twice what similar groups spent over the same period in the 2020 presidential election cycle when independent expenditures hit an all-time record," OpenSecrets reported.

"More than half of all outside spending during the 2024 cycle - about $585.8 million - has gone into the presidential election, which saw an especially expensive Republican presidential nominating contest," the group added.

"The largest spender, by far, is Donald Trump's flagship super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.," the report notes. "To date, MAGA Inc. has spent about $125.1 million boosting Trump in the presidential election..."

That's a load of cash.

All of it to influence the election.

Yes, there are many Americans who would like Big Money out of our national elections. It does tend to water-down the individual vote. And, yes, that cash does finance a campaign and, well, it's also true that few Americans would be able to self-fund a bid for the presidency.

Is it here to stay?

In our capitalist society, where money does talk, well, we say a fight against these billionaires would be noble and popular, but useless. Still, it's at the very least good to know that, at present, we sort of get some info on who is donating and to whom.

That's just a little bit better than getting nothing, of course...

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DEMOCRATS ON THE HOOF:...Campaign Surge In Recent Weeks Brings Opportunity...Should They Go For More, For All Of It...History Shows Us The Party Rarely Goes For The Jugular In Presidential Politics... Perhaps This Time...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...I'd been waiting for a few weeks, waiting for one of our commenters here to throw it out - we need a healthy two-party political system in this country. It came yesterday, allowing me to think that, yeah, there could be others out there of my frame of mind on this ever-ragged topic.

Republicans have traded in their past for a brawling, racist MAGA version now going on nine years old and, well, threatening to stick around for the immediate future.

It's not good for the country, no.

But what it also has done is given rival Democrats a chance to also blow out the stodgy old ways of campaigning and serving the loyalists. Democrats are playing at "moving day," as they say of Saturdays in four-day professional golf tournaments that wrap up on Sundays.

This is the time for the winning ideas to...win.  

Name-calling, racism and bigotry have been readily, gladly adopted by today's Republican Party. Their fight is seemingly existential, their goal to turn the nation upside down and the past be damned. It is a world we've never actually lived they seek, or, better yet, one that perhaps worked in the very early days of this country.

The "immigrant" experiment, I say, is too far down the road for anyone to wish mass deportations of anyone. We have lived and thrived with every wave of newcomers; that is fact. Fear and spite, however, dominates some far-right Republicans who actually wish to see an All-White America, or at the very least a very dominant White leadership in our state and federal governments.

So, should high-flying Democrats re-boot and power-up themselves?  

As a writer for The New Republic magazine put it this way, arguing that messaging is key: "...it means complaining about Democratic messaging: the weakness, the confusion, the inconsistency, the bajillions of opportunities missed when Republicans do something nuts, the backpedaling, the hem-hawing, the failure to state principles forthrightly - is that enough? Believe me, I could go on."

There's more to it, of course. But the starting line is at their feet and whatever gains Democrats have made since the nomination of Kamala Harris as party flag-bearer can only come by way of bold ideas and actions.

That's the promise of this election - analogous to the so-called bottom of the best cup of coffee you've ever had in the morning.

Swallow slowly, for the taste is rich, yet fleeting...

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LET TRUMP BE TRUMP:...Democrats Okay With An Ever-Weird Opponent.....Kamala Harris Running A Traditional Campaign, While Donald Trump Is Joke-A-Minute...November 5th Is Almost Here...Will One-And-Don Show Up At Sept. 10th Debate?...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...From here on out, the race for president is now well-defined. Campaigning in the traditional manner is over; Democrats know it and Republicans wish they knew it. America is already aboard, riding the Election Day roller coaster in glee and fear.

What to do for the next 72 days?

That's what is on the minds of campaign directors, party leaders and the candidates themselves.

For Republican Donald J. Trump, the answer is to stay the course, even if the course is an ever-bombed landscape and a mangrove swamp. He's cool with doing it the dumb and hard way.

As Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro put it yesterday, "I would let Trump be Trump."

Shapiro was asked about the Sept. 10th debate between the Republican and Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris on ABC-TV. It's scheduled, but whether it happens or not depends on Trump showing up.

He's a bag of cotton candy let go into the wind by a political party unable to rein him in.

"I think Kamala Harris has the opportunity to remind people about what he did and show the risk that he poses in the future," Shapiro went on. "She is a skilled debater. She will do that effectively."

As for Harris, her bent is to proceed onward with a message along the lines of what Shapiro says - label him a danger to the country.

Dark, ominous clouds seem to follow Trump, although the former Independent/Democrat continues to hold on to a loyal following that's enough to engender concern among voters. He's a 24-hour news cycle in his own right, a constant producer of social media angst and a candidate who looks tired but keeps on keeping on.

November 5th will tell the story of his future, as it will the future of this nation.

Shapiro has it right. Let Trump be Trump.

'Cause Trump seems awful good at self-destruction...

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NO GAIN:...Robert F. Kennedy, Jr Endorses Donald Trump...Talk About A Nothing Deal...Pundits Laugh It Off...Kennedy Scion Is No Help.....Trump Dangles Admin Post...Dept. Of Health & Human Services?... For This Conspiracies Weirdo???...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Is anybody logging this political endorsement in the annals of American history? pardon me, but I must ask - why would they? Conspiracy hack Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, scion of America's best-known Democrat family, has endorsed Republican loose cannon presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.

Ho-hum.

Yes, we're shaking our head at this dubious move by the son of Bobby.

He's estranged from his family, through no doing of his own. Well, the family says he disrespected his father by going against the Democratic Party and by siding by Trump. I know, I know. It's national politics and the stakes are, well, high.

RFK Jr, who is 70 years old, inquired of the possibility of a position with the Kamala Harris administration should she win the November election. Someone there told him to bug-off, so Kennedy crossed the street to pose the same question to Trump, himself.

Could be we might have something for you, he was told. Hey, perhaps Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kennedy was told, greatly exciting him, at least to the point of promising a quick endorsement.

That came last week. To date, no poll bounce for desperate Trump.

It was always quirky, we say.

This particular Kennedy is one of those Americans who always see conspiracies in everything, perhaps a personality trait born out of the idea that there was one when his father was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning for president back in June of 1968.

His beliefs on the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic take you to never, neverland. It is wacky, as is his idea that vaccinations are, well, not always for the better. They call him an "anti-vaxxer," as if the term settles it, only it doesn't.

No, Trump did not gain much with this particular endorsement. RFK Jr simply is too kooky of a dude.

Now if Taylor Swift comes along...but that ain't happening...

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UNPOPULAR AND STALE:...EGADS!!! Republican Trump Falls...Boredom Is His New Face...Americans Not Keen To His Promise Of Chaos...Trash Politics... Even Conservatives Have Tired Of The Joke...Odds Of Him Winning Tank.....Upbeat Democrat Harris Gets The Applause...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Someone hand him the news. It's over for Fake Republican Donald J. Trump. The convicted felon once a stalwart in Democratic Party politics is losing at every turn. He's played a silly and dangerous game, and Americans have been entertained, but the end is nigh.

Say goodnight, Donald.

As we read in a major news site, even the editor of a major conservative news outlet is admitting that the GOP's chances of victory in November are slim.

National Review editor Mark Wright weighed in on the disarray of the Republican ticket and Trump's careening presidential campaign. While opining that the GOP nominee isn't getting fair treatment by the mainstream press, Wright nonetheless attributed Trump's flagging 2024 operation to the fact that he is simply ". . . .very unpopular" and that Democrat opponent Kamala Harris represents a welcome departure from what was previously a stale race.

"Yes, this summer when the public was faced with the choice between the Democrats’ unpopular, probably senile, octogenarian Joe Biden and the Republicans’ unpopular, definitely nuts, septuagenarian Donald Trump, it seemed like the American people would reluctantly go with Trump," Wright wrote. "But at the same time, American voters for two years running had loudly and repeatedly told both parties, pollsters, and anyone who would listen that they preferred a different set of choices. The dominant emotion that most Americans felt about the coming election was dread. And then, in a remarkable turn of events, the Democratic Party gave Americans another option: Kamala Harris."

It's a dead-serious snapshot and only one, but you can spend a whole afternoon online and find a load of similar writings. FOX News, always the lapping dog in the troubled Trump campaign pulled away from his rally in Arizona yesterday, no doubt because it, too, is tired of and embarrassed by his lying.

Indeed, it has now become apparent to most Americans that Donald J. Trump persists with his campaign only for one reason - to stay out of prison.

He is, as everyone knows, scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18th in connection with the Hush Money Trial that ended with a unanimous verdict of guilty earlier this year. Aside from that, he still has three other criminal cases hanging around his neck.

It's a bitch, but...

Luck also loves to run out...

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THE VOTE:...Americans Have Issues...Everything From The Price Of Groceries To Immigration And Abortion...How Will They Vote?...Republicans Are Blaming Democrats For Every Societal Problem... Democrats Tasting Victory In November...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...The price of sliced bread is holding, as the price of gasoline. Eggs have settled into an affordable price. Who knows about fruits and vegetables, but Americans should be glad they at least have plenty of stuff at their favorite grocery stores.

I see no empty shelves.

I see nice discount coupons on everyday products. My favorite razor blades (Schick) had a $4 discount off the regular $9.79 price at my H-E-B store yesterday. Gasoline was under $3 at Valero, and even less at membership-driven Costco and Sam's Club.

Things are not all that bad out there.

Politicians will find an issue favorable to their campaigns. It's to be expected. It's our side and their side, so separating the masses is the game. You buy into it if you're of a political bent; you won't if you're not.

America is in another presidential year and, well, either the country's fine or its failing and falling apart.

It's neither - it's where it's always been, people working and people paying bills.

Republican Donald Trump calls us a failed country. Really? Has he been elsewhere in the world lately? Failing is not us. Hell, if it wasn't for our shitty politics, we'd be happy as larks. The price of milk and diapers is doable, say Moms from coast to coast.

Beer is readily available, although I wonder why a 6-pack is now $11 or $12, although that is still wildly cheaper than a bottle at a bar. I buy my bottles of Shiraz wine for between $9 and $30, depending on my mood and the occasion for drinking it. My hair trim was $23 the other day, but it was a nice, professional trim.

When I go to Banana Republic for my shirts, I ask for an get a free "box" of drinking water. Not a plastic bottle, but a small carton of the sort milk producers use. It's a perk for having the BR credit card, and I avail myself of it every time I shop at the store at McAllen's La Plaza Mall.

Yes, it's the little things that make a house a home, as John Denver once sang.

America remains our home.

There will be bitching, but it's our home...and it's actually a nice home offering everything we need...

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DAY OF THE JACKAL:...Donald Trump's Low Energy Drawing Theories...Oh, He's Still Blabbering, But His Style Has Slowed...He's Offering The Campaign Trail On 33 RPM...What's He Waiting For?...One Answer - Challenging The Election Results In Court...

 
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...There are theories as to why Donald J. Trump has slowed his campaign. We won't run through all of them, but we're sort of fixated on one.

Republican Outlaw Trump is now simply just waiting on Election Day, November 5th.

That's when his real campaign begins - one that has him appealing the vote to friendly federal judges and even to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he counts three appointees. It's a plan.

All indications are that Democrat opponent Kamala Harris is edging him in every poll. Some pundits are even calling her the favorite. It's out there.

But losing is never losing with MAGA Republicans and their flawed leader, Trump. They will yell it out: ". . . .The election was rigged!" Candidate Trump is saying it at every rally now. He expects it to be rigged, so it will be rigged. It's a campaign.

His supporters buy it, as do a litany of bellicose right-wing editorial writers and broadcasters.

Not that it is wholly unexpected. Trump does not play the politics game the same way all others do. That has been evident since his first 2016 campaign, which he won, not at the ballot box but in the Electoral College. That was not rigged, he told us.

What happens seems to be already set in stone - Trump will appeal, appeal, appeal.

He will scream: Results in every state he loses were rigged. Lawsuits are said to already be ready for filing. It's a fact.

Yes, Maria, America will see its first Bizarro Election. Nothing will be settled Election Night, or in the few weeks that follow. Trump will not go quietly.

It's coming...

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THE LAST ROUND:...Most Of Hell About To Break Out...Crazed Republicans Have Burned The House Down...Creeps And Weirdos Have Killed The Grand Old Party...Sale Of Blue Suits & Red Ties Plunging... Down Ballot Republicans Like Mayra Flores Now Resigned To Defeat...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The ending will be a noisy affair. Stories of long-term fights, as in wars and adultery, bring us the great conclusions. I did enjoy Hitler's last moments as much as I got a kick out of reading about Stormy Daniels and her account of that "quickie" with very-married Donald J. Trump.   

Republicans are good at whining, and, boys, look for them to elevate it to full-out disgust after the November election.

It's their badge of discourage.

Democrats are partying in Chicago this week. Their four-day national convention is going great guns. Just ask Steve Kerr, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors and our recent gold medal-winning Paris Olympics basketball squad. He was there to speak for Democrats, to energize the crowd. So was former president Barack Obama last night. He threw out a rousing a speech, one Coach Kerr might have labeled an emphatic poster dunk.

It's onto November 5th!

And Democrat Kamala Harris has the cash. Since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid last month, Harris' campaign has raised $500 million, according to CNBC News.

The news outlet reports, Harris' "political operation raised $310 million in July alone, with more than $200 million of that sum coming in after Biden’s withdrawal."

The campaign expects to see the cash haul reach a whopping $600 million by next month.

It's big money.

Most of it will go for advertising, which is why greedy newspapers and broadcast outlets play both sides of the fence in national elections.

What we're seeing and reading of late tells us Donald Trump is in trouble. Polls have saddled him with a new perception, of him struggling to stay up with the more-energetic Harris/Walz ticket. Will he keep spinning to the ground? Who knows? Maybe reclusive Melania Trump will deliver the next Big Story. He's kept her under wraps, or will it be something else - like his sentencing on Sept. 18th in that Hush Money Trial conviction?

The dogs are barking louder at Mar-a-Lago.

Yeah, they're the ones in the blue suits and red ties...

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THE POLLS:....Crunch Time....There's A New Voters Survey Almost Every Day Now...Who's Up And Who's Down...Whether To Believe Them...Apparently Good News For Hot Democrat Kamala Harris...Republicans Only Believe Polls That Have Them Winning...

 By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...No one's dancing in the end zone yet. There are still two months to go before the election. But swing state news has it that Democrat Kamala Harris is slowly stretching her lead over fake Republican Donald J. Trump.

Daily polls at this point in the campaign are crucial for campaign managers and planners.

They will react, either favorably when the news is good and not so favorably when it is bad. It's to be expected when campaigns surge or fall. It happens.

But this is what former President George W. Bush strategist Matthew Dowd wrote via X: "Brand new ABC News poll out this AM has Harris up 6 over Trump among likely voters. Independents have moved from Trump up by 4 to now Harris up by 11! Harris favorability is 45/44, net +1. Trump favorability is 35/57, net -22! He is lower today than when he lost in 2020."

Time for an aspirin, Donald?

You could get him a whole bottle. It's bad news all around for the Mar-a-Lago dude.

Democrats are partying in Chicago through Thursday at their national convention. Candidate Harris will be crowned Thursday night. If Day One, yesterday, is any indication of what's coming, well, wave those towels in the stands and wait for that end zone touchdown dance.

President Joe Biden spoke last night, and it was a laudable send-off of the Harris/Walz 2024 ticket. No sign of anger, rancor or whatever anyone expected after his unexpected departure from the presidential race in mid-July.

Biden was gracious and well-spoken.

Republicans, meanwhile, were still pretty much mum on Trump's dizzied style of campaigning. It is a rather unorthodox approach in that all he does is repeat his same lines of attack without merging into policy or issues of the day.

Trump has made it a "personality" campaign, his popularity versus Harris's, his looks versus Harris's, his crowd sized versus Harris's.

It's not working, he is being told - to no avail.

The convention will deliver a certain bump for Harris/Walz 2024.

Next up down the road is that Sept. 10th debate between Harris and Trump.

Followed by the Sept. 18th sentencing of Trump in New York for the Hush Money Trial conviction...

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OLD MAN, OLD TRICKS:...78-Year-Old Trump Has Nothing New...Fake Republican Grasping At Straws As Campaign Fizzles...Democrat Joe Biden Cut Him Down At The Knees...Rising Kamala Harris Shut Him Up...GOP Set To Lose Big Time...Mayra Flores Mum...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They'd rather sink with racism and bigotry than tell their candidate to fuck off. As we like to say in Texas about losers, Republicans are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Cowardice on parade. Bang the drum slowly.

The Democratic National Convention begins today in Chicago. Four days of Harris/Walz pomp and circumstance. The party with the young candidates is riding a state of grace. Ever-cornered Republicans can do nothing but watch the fire burn down the house and barn.

It's a good time to be a Democrat in America.

The differences in our two major political party are as clear as a baby's eyes - Demos looking forward, Repubs looking backward. Yeah, what does Vegas say about the 2024 presidential election? Odds are quirky, but it's looking real good for the those looking to the future.

This nugget from a report at newrepublic.com: [ ". . .Trump's facing a problem he's never faced. In 2016, he was running against a very known quantity whom the right had been instructing Americans to hate for 25 years. In 2020, he was running against someone who'd been around for nearly 50 years. He's spent his time since losing that 2020 race sitting around thinking about his rematch with that opponent. And now, suddenly, he's running against someone else. And to his shock, the more America sees of her, so far, the more America kinda likes her."

Well, yeah. It more than seems so.

The election comes on November 5th and, yes, the word on the streets is that the mess after the election will be the biggest turn-off. Trump plans to contest the results if he loses (Republicans never bitch about election machinations when they win) and the word is that many of the federal judges he appointed may side with him, including the Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court.

We're up for that fight. It should make for some good newswriting, is what we've been telling friends and family.

Kamala Harris will win the election.

Donald Trump will cry like a baby.

And Donald Trump will fade from American politics like an old man beaten down by time and by what the French know as ennui.

He bored us to the end, yes...

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REPUBLICANS FEAR LOSING IT ALL:...Control Of The House Of Reps In Play......Kamala Harris's Rise Has GOP Spooked...Speaker Mike Johnson Says Signs Are "Ominous"......What's That About?......Abandoned Down-Ballot Republicans, Like Local Mayra Flores, Are Not Getting Financial Help...

 
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Democrats are preparing a monster advertising blitz ahead of the November 5th election, beginning a whopping $370 million media outlay on Labor Day. It eclipses previous spending by any party in any political campaign.

Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her VEEP running mate Tim Walz open the party's national convention Monday in Chicago, buoyed by recent showings in national polls that have her ahead of troubled Republican Donald J. Trump.

And Republicans are worried. Openly.   

The energy Harris evident since President Joe Biden dropped out last month is spreading to down-ballot races.

The news website Politico reported Saturday that Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are feeling especially bullish about their chances in November thanks to the momentum Harris has been providing with her ascendancy.

While House Democrats in battleground districts were hesitant about tying their brands to Biden, they're now reportedly vying to have the opportunity to stump with her as they hit the home stretch of their own respective campaigns.

Republican Speaker of The House Mike Johnson labeled it an "ominous" development.

It's been a steady rise for the Harris/Walz ticket, while Republicans see their candidates - Trump and Ohio Junior Senator J.D. Vance - stuck as if in mud. They can't get any sort of edge on Harris/Walz lately.

It's still a dogfight, but it says something when Republicans admit a dramatic change for the worse in their Election Day fortunes.

President Joe Biden is the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention tomorrow night. The four-day gathering will also feature speeches by stalwarts such as former President Barack Obama and both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The continuing Harris/Walz surge is also expected to see a positive bump in the polls coming after the convention.

Harris/Walz listed ahead in polls taken in crucial states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona.

In a shocker, Democrats in Florida insist their state is in play...

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THE CADENCE OF POLITICS:...Democrat Kamala Harris Riding The Blue Wave's Crest...Presidential Campaign Reaping Huge Contributions...Troubled Republican Donald J. Trump Has No Answer...For Him, Debate Sept. 10th, Sentencing Sept. 18th...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They're talking nonsense now, but maybe it isn't really. Joe Biden up and resigning the presidency before the November election, allowing Democrat Kamala Harris to ascend to the office. It's just talk, yes, although the way things have been going all through this campaign, well...

It could happen.

And then what?

Then you would have Harris with all the trappings of the presidency, something that would never, ever sit well with Republicans or with their flawed-to-the-bone candidate, one Donald J. Trump. Look for the unexpected, the so-called "October Surprise" we have come to know in these campaigns.

Not that Trump is helping himself lately. He seems out of synch, has no real message for voters and is now even angering one of his biggest financial backers, the Las Vegas billionaire Miriam Adelson. Good luck with that, buddy.

But before that comes the first debate on Sept. 10th between Harris and Trump, followed, to his chagrin, by that sentencing of Trump in his Hush Money Trial conviction on Sept. 18th.

As pundit Al Sharpton put it on a Cable-TV talk show yesterday, "People don't understand that not only has he naturally lost it. The man is looking at a sentencing date."

That analysis of Trump's campaign is rampant out there. That he's lost the message is clear. Reports have it that he's not offered anything new and continues to play the racist/bigot part as if that could ever get him votes outside his rabid MAGA supporters.

Polls show it hasn't.

It could all change. That's where we are here two and a half months before the Nov. 5th vote, awaiting the vote but also the next silliness.

We hold our breath, momentarily but we hold it...

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THE WHISPERS:....Republicans Are Worried....They May Lose White House, Senate And House Of Reps... Talk Behind The Scenes, Some Griping Now Out In The Open...Walls Are Closing In On Trump...Can He Re-Boot His Awful Campaign?...Shoulder Pads?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Talk Show maven Newt Gingrich hasn't said a word in weeks. Mitch McConnell likely never will, not when it comes to Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. Where are the GOP's Big Boys these days? Have they resigned themselves to seeing Trump's campaign fold like a cheap suit?

That would appear to be the case.

Things are shaking out on the campaign trail - but mostly for Democrat Kamala Harris. She's hot, on a roll and not even looking back. Critics say her camp is being led by Barack Obama, the former president, as if that's such a bad thing. He's a leader in the party.

Her excitable VEEP nominee Tim Walz has far eclipsed expectations as a running mate. Talk about a clear difference between him and ditzy J.D. Vance, his Republican counterpart. Walz is winning over voters, Vance is fending-off photos of himself in drag.

You can spin it all day, but Republicans are in a big hurt.

Take the following, for example: Mesa, Arizona Republican mayor John Giles last week emerged into the media spotlight when he appeared on stage at 2024 Democratic nominee President Kamala Harris' and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz's rally in The Grand Canyon State.

"As you may know, I'm a lifelong Republican ... I have to tell you, I do not recognize my party," the longtime Republican told Harris-Walz supporters. ". . . .I have something to say to those of us who are in the political middle: You don’t owe a damn thing to that political party. In particular, you don’t owe anything to a party that is out of touch and hell-bent on taking us backward. And by all means, you owe no loyalty to a candidate who is morally and ethically bankrupt."

That's what, realistically, four criminal cases, a conviction on 34 felony charges and a load of bad moves will bring you.

Trump thought he could wash away his legal problems, but it's not happening.

Not even his South African apartheid pal Elon Musk could help him this week.

Both flailed away at a "conversation" billed as an interview that was roundly panned.

Trump is not well.

He's losing with every voter poll that pops up. Even his other friend, right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has abandoned him. FOX News now throws shit at him without flinching. Its viewers likely feel the same way. Stalwarts are fading fast.

Trump looks tired, distanced and, well, disinterested.

Yesterday, he was being ragged for supposedly weraring shoulder pads to make hinself look more fit than he really is. Even a fashion guide damned him for wearing the wrong ones, citing Trunp's square shoulders and growing belly as reasons he looks like a stand-up rectangle.

Wow.

And we used to think it was his weird hairdo that needed attention.

We'll go ahead and ask about the wife: Where's Melania?...

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CALLED OUT:......Conservative Wall Street Journal Calls Donald Trump A Loser...Bad Reviews Chasing Republican Candidate...A Lunatic, They Added For Effect...He's Not Doing Well On The Campaign Trail...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Nobody likes a loser. The rolling press needs one in every political horse race, and it seems even the Right-Wing news media has now hung the Loser Label on Republican Donald J. Trump. The conservative Wall Street Journal has joined the beatings.

The WSJ, btw, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's family, owner of once-Trump stooge FOX News. 

As you may know, it's been a brutal last few weeks for Trump and running mate J.D. Vance.

To add to the list of bummers suffered by the Trump camp, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Gerard Baker yesterday delivered a cold and mineral assessment of Trump's recent performances on the campaign trail headlined, "Trump is looking like a loser again."

Baker did give Trump some credit for doing a press conference last week at Mar-a-Lago while also slamming Vice President Kamala Harris for avoiding such interactions with the media. Baker, however, dove into the substance of Trump's remarks - and determined it was not good.

"By my calculation, about one-third of Mr. Trump’s remarks fell into three categories: false, obtuse or lunatic," Baker wrote. "I’m not even talking here about the usual grotesque hyperbolic assertions or baffling verbal manufactures, the finest of which last week was surely the description of 'people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon.' "

It's just the latest.

Numerous publications and cable-TV broadcast talk shows have been questioning 78-year-old Trump's low energy, his slurring speech and his decision to lay low and not hit the campaign trail.

His much-younger VEEP choice, 39-year-old Vance, has been branded a woeful amateur, his alleged strange dealings with couches and weird photos from his college days at the forefront of his coverage.

We'll see what today brings, but good news is something the Trump Campaign just can't buy these days...

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THERE SHE IS:.....No, Not Miss America.....Uh, J.D. Vance, The Current Republican Party's Nominee For Vice President...In Drag...Oh, Boy...What Will Donald J. Trump Think And Say About This?...It'll Be Good...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Well, yeah, that's him in a blonde wig and cool summer women's outfit - your Republican vice president nominee J.D. Vance.

In drag.

And so goes this weird campaign, one wild development after another.

This one, however, hits close to the home known by liars and hypocrites the world over. Republicans running a dude in drag? Say it ain't so, Nancy Reagan.

My, my.

Just when it seems that Democrats had brought normalcy to the 2024 election. Along came the photo you see above all across the Internet. You say viral, we say SuperViral!!!

Hell-o, anti-depressants for Donald Trump.

He's got to be livid at this news. Vance is the 39-year-old graduate of prestigious Yale U., a candidate who had has ragged on some of our valued culture mores, dumped on childless women and called them cat ladies.

That guy in drag?

We'll await his explanation on this one...

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THEY'LL BE BACK:...MAGA Americans Playing At Racists & Bigots...After This Next Election, They'll Wish All Is Forgotten...Go Ahead, Mavis And Hank, Be The Club...It Happened Once Before, In '92...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ

McALLEN, Texas |...You know them as your neighbors, perhaps your co-workers. They're MAGA Republicans, and that hasn't always been a bad thing, not in a country of 300 million where your choice is between two political parties. Democrat politicians are not the angry ones, not the boisterous ones, not the one who want to take American back to a place that never existed.

Who remembers the Reform Party of 1992 that attracted a load of Republicans in support of Dallas billionaire H. Ross Perot?

Yeah.

They said they were disenfranchised, left behind by George H.W. Bush's Republican Party. For months, the Reform Party newcomers roared mightily as Perot's presidential campaign surged. And then he dropped out, presumably because he got wind that some Republicans were about to release photos of his Gay daughter.

So, what happened to the masses that had gone to the Reform Party?

They went back to the Republican Party.

Count on this: the same thing will happen with MAGA Republicans. They will have nothing after Donald J. Trump loses the upcoming 2024 election. Will they be forgiven? More than likely, as no one is taking photos or names and making a list of these Americans.

MAGA will fade into the history books, leftover hats and T-shirts off to the flea market heaps.

Should other Americans call them out?

They will, but that, too, shall pass.

Americans are nothing if not faddish. MAGA served up a plate of something new in our national kitchen and there went the easily impressed and the genuine racists and bigots, the latter a bunch never as big in size as they claim.

So, bear with these errant neighbors.

They hitched their dreams to a flawed man, to a rudderless ship, to an aging, lame horse, to a broken-down Conestoga wagon of days gone by.

Welcome them back, for they have sinned against the family, much like all of those angry Americans who screamed for the Reform Party of '92.

Forgiveness too is an American character trait...

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THE PLOT THICKENS:....Buoyed Democrats Have Seen Candidate Kamala Harris Rise In Popularity... This, While Republican Donald Trump Sinks In The Polls...Sounds Good, But Devious Republicans Have A Plan-B...And It's Both Scary And Dangerous...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...She's winning. National polls have Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris inching ahead of Republican Donald J. Trump. That's been the headline all week long. And, yes, there has been some concern expressed by a few Republican leaders, although the supportive MAGA crowd shows no sign of defeat.

But defeat is in the air for Trump.

Mostly, the reports say he may or may not agree with the results should he lose in the November 5th General Election.

So, the follow-up questions these same pundits are asking themselves is: What will Republicans do if their candidate loses?

They will take to Trump-friendly courts in an effort to overturn the election.

I know, no surprise there. 

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on August 8, a writer warned that if Harris wins in November, an "entire army of Republicans" is "ready to block certification of the election at the local level."

And there was this in the same report: "Trump is no longer on track to win the election - which he has been for more than six straight months. Instead, the momentum, money, voter registration, volunteering, grassroots organizing, polling, and online engagement all favor the Democrats, and it looks now like Trump could easily lose. But that won’t happen, because Trump doesn't lose.…No need to worry about mayhem on January 6, 2025 when Congress meets in joint session; the election deniers plan to stop a result right away if it looks like Harris is winning."

Their mission is simple: "Refuse to certify anywhere - even a county that Trump won - and prevent certification in that state, which prevents certification of the presidential election. A Harris victory could become a nightmare."

In its latest edition, Rolling Stone magazine reported that "pro-Trump election conspiracists" in swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia are working as "county election officials" and plan to refuse to certify the election results if Harris wins.

Marc Elias, publisher of Democracy Docket, told the magazine, "I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election…. Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared."

So, maybe that's why you've been seeing a lazier, unenergetic Trump lately.

He's banking on all the federal judges he appointed, including the three currently on the Supreme Court.

It's a serpentine plot we follow every presidential election.

This particular sub-plot sounds damned plausible...

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QUIET QUITTING:...Is Donald Trump Already Out Of The 2024 Race?...Pundits Chiming In With, Well, Looks Like It...Press Conference At Mar-a-Lago Yet Another Disaster...MAGA Republican Looks Bored & Whipped...Younger Democrats Harris/Walz Enjoying The Ride...His Next Rally In Bright-Red Montana?...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...He's looking caged, a man with soul so dead and a candidate who may have flamed out too soon. Republican Donald J. Trump is on the ropes. The fire seems gone. Less and less rallies in his campaign, the next one a questionable one in friendly, Red Montana.

Is he quiet quitting?

It would seem so.

Trump held a rare news conference yesterday at his Mar-a-Lago resort and again threw out his tired moaning and groaning. His words said he was wanting to fight, but his look was that of a very old 78+-year-old man.

The pundits were cruel and, well, dead-on. 

Watching the press conference, conservative political strategist Mary Anna Mancuso declared, "Trump is quiet quitting his own campaign."

Hours before Trump’s Thursday presser, she wrote: "Trump is panicking."

And during the news conference, she noted Trump was "spiraling."

And later, she concluded, "Trump is not ok..."

Interesting, eh? This new assessment comes after some rather obvious wheat-stalk lashings of the bellicose Fake Republican Trump by his beloved FOX News, the Red Outlet that is, little-by-little, distancing itself from the convicted felon.

Perhaps Trump has caught-on.

He's been losing poll votes steadily to the Democrat Harris/Walz ticket.

Never the one to see himself as a loser, Trump may be almost there, however. There's been fewer rah-rah peeps from his sons and daughter in recent days, and, well, that September 18th sentencing in New York on his Hush Money Trial conviction has to be weighing on him.

Will he quit ahead of the November 5th election?

Trump hates to lose...and maybe knowing he is losing has cracked his fragile ego.

Go before the blow, that sort of response...

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NEWS FATIGUE:...An Expected Result Of Our 24-Hour Info Cycle.....Americans Have Been All-In On Hot National Politics.....First, Biden/Trump...Then, Harris/Trump...Are You Tired Of It All?...Many Of Your Fellow Voters Are...Political Games Don't Help...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...So, is your candidate winning? Have you stayed up with the desperate daily grind of one news cycle after another? Are you confident going into the election's stretch run? Can you debate the issues with friends and neighbors? While we're at it, do you know as much about abortion, immigration, Social Security, the long wars in Ukraine and Palestine as any TV talk show pundit?

Well, if you do, you may be a good candidate for political burnout.

So say a few polls.

One commissioned by the respected Medill School at Northwestern University (conducted just this May) measured news fatigue among American adults. In response to the statement ". .I’m tired of receiving and processing news about the 2024 presidential election," 48.8% of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed while 21.8% disagreed or strongly disagreed, and 28.2% responded "Neither."

That's just about half of the respondents saying they've heard too much.

We often say that the Nation is in the woes of Trump fatigue, but we would also agree that the news business has been, well, all over the place, there & back, here to stay, not going anywhere anytime soon and all that noisy rot.

I know I could use a break.

And apparently, it is the "older" Americans who seem to have tired of it all, according to the same poll. Perhaps because retirees are home all day and have news up the wazoo the entire day.

Still, there are almost three months to go and nothing about the news coverage will change.

The dollars are simply too big for these ratings-conscious broadcasters and influential newspapers with millions-reader websites, especially those with an access paywall, like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Is anyone watching the Olympics?

Yeah...

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THE RUNNING MATE:......Tim Walz Energizes The Democratic Party......He's Kamala Harris's Running Mate In The 2024 Presidential Election...Looks The Essence Of Calmness...But A Bulldog Rages On The Campaign Trail.....Republicans Are still Wondering About Their Own, One JD Vance...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

HARLINGEN, Texas |...Tim Walz, says New York Magazine, is the "Super-Normie running mate." CNN called him the ". . .do-no-harm" candidate. Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris got on the telephone yesterday to offer him the vice-presidential slot in the party's 2024 ticket...and Walz wouldn't answer his cellphone.

He has no caller ID.

Walz is a bit different from the many bellicose national politicians currently on the scene.

As the magazine put it, the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota is "part of the 55+ demographic that learned not to pick up unknown calls for fear of scams."

Welcome to a real life "calming effect."

Tim Walz is a campaign tiger quite able to dish out the killer quotes. Only, the former schoolteacher has the face of that cool dude teaching social studies while also handling football coaching duties. Looks are good in politics. As they say, "It's not how you feel; it's how you look."

Last evening's rally in Philadelphia starring Harris & Walz gave America its first glimpse of the man who could become the next vice president on Election Day, November 5th.

The country has seen the Republican offering - Ohio Sen. JD Vance, a graduate of prestigious Yale and a candidate seemingly out to make a fool of himself and his family. Missteps have chased his candidacy since being selected by troubled Republican nominee Donald J. Trump last month.

Walz has no such clouds following him around.

He is a football-Sundays, Middle America sort of dude, a farmer, ex-National Guardsman, congressman and pro-enough social issues to be the perfect running mate at a time when the country is divided on such things as the easy availability of guns, abortion bans, immigration, wars in Ukraine and Palestine....and even labor union membership.

It's a wonderful time to be a political pundit.

Tim Walz plays the doting grandpa in this movie...

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FIGHTING THE FAMILY:...Fearful Republicans Now Spitting At Each Other...Democrats Riding A State Of Grace...In Georgia, A Brawl Breaks Out At Opening Of Trump Field Office...Local Cops Called...Wild Spitting Confirmed...Evidence Found On Republican's Face... Democrat Harris Picks Tim Walz As VEEP...

 
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Well, you could say it was coming with the way things are deteriorating for Republicans these days. Follow that up by noting odds of winning the 2024 election seem to be souring for the party's presidential hopes. Certain signs indicate a rise in voter eyes for Democrat Kamala Harris, as old Republican Donald J. Trump sinks in poll after poll after poll.

Now, they are fighting each other.

This one took place in Valdosta, Georgia, a small community along its southern edge better known for good high school football. 

News reports had it a celebration at the opening of Trump's campaign office in Valdosta was marred by a physical fight between two hothead conservatives.

Police and witness reports gathered by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution following the July 29 event showed that Brandon Phillips, the top aide to U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) intervened in an argument related to election security.

Local activist Sam Carnline told police that Phillips spit in his face, prompting physical retaliation.

". . . .Brandon Phillips got in the middle of the conversation because he didn't like the questions he was asking," the police report said. "Words were exchanged between he and Brandon, because he was upset that Brandon spit in his face."

While Phillips denied spitting in Carnline's face, the police report concluded that he did.

Phillips later told the Journal-Constitution that he intervened because he did not like the questions Carnline, an activist for paper ballots, asked Republican State Rep. John LaHood.

"They say politics can be a contact sport, and sometimes it is," Phillips explained. "I certainly don't mind defending any volunteers or officials who are trying to contribute in a positive way toward a Trump victory from outside agitators with the opposite agenda."

At least one witness suggested Phillips did not start the violence.

". . . .One of the witnesses was Dennis Futch of Moultrie, a veteran Republican activist," the paper noted. "He told the AJC that he didn't see Phillips spit, but that if he did it was inadvertent because they were both shouting. He said he saw Carnline shove or hit Phillips twice."

No charges were filed. Both combatants were told to go on their merry way.

It's a small fight in a small town in the South.

But perhaps it's a sign of things to come for the desperate Republican Party.

You think?...

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THE VEEPS:...Democrat Kamala Harris Has A Deep Bench...Running Mate Candidates Abound...Which One, Then?...She's On The Clock...Decision Expected Perhaps Today...It'll Be An Experienced Pol, Not A J.D. Vance...Republicans Inhale...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's a candidate's first major decision. Selection of a presidential running mate is always a Big Story. Quick analysis of the decision fills the nation's newspaper pages and time on broadcast news. American History shows us some winners and some losers.

In 1972, Democrat Walter Mondale picked a Midwesterner by the name of Thomas Eagleton, a U.S. Senator from Missouri.

Nice, everyone said. Good choice. And then it emerged that Eagleton suffered from bouts of depression throughout his life and had received electroshock treatment.

Eighteen days after being selected, Eagleton was out.

Republican George H. W. Bush caught a lot of heat after he selected Dan Quayle as his VEEP in 1989. The Indiana senator wasn't exactly the sharpest nail in the shed, they said. In a visit to an elementary school in New Jersey, Quayle led a classroom spelling bee. When a 12-year-old student was asked to spell the word "potato" on the blackboard, he did.

But Quayle corrected it to "potatoe," which was wrong.

Quayle never lived it down.

The examples are but two.

In 2006, Republican George W. Bush's VEEP, Dick Cheney, shot a fellow quail hunter while at a Texas ranch in Riviera south of Corpus Christi. The vice president claimed the shooting was an accident. The victim, Texas attorney Harry Whittington, suffered pellet wounds to his face, neck and chest but survived the shooting,

Cheney was criticized for not reporting the shooting. It wasn't until a day later that the ranch owner called the local newspaper to report the incident.

It can be crapshoot, although most VEEP selections seem to have worked out for winning presidential candidates.

Democrat Joe Biden, who served two terms as VEEP for President Barack Obama, had no missteps that embarrassed his boss, although it has been reported that he advised Obama against killing Osama bin Laden as Seal Team 6 prepared its mission on May, 2011.

Obama proceeded to give the order, and the world had one less terrorist to worry about. 

The burning question this morning is whom will Kamala Harris select?

Harris’s campaign told reporters over the weekend that the first rally featuring Harris's running mate would take place in Philadelphia tomorrow, August 6, leading many to speculate that Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro is the pick.

Harris has not yet made a decision, though her campaign has focused specially on Shapiro and Arizona senator Mark Kelly, "with Minnesota governor Tim Walz also in contention as well as two slightly longer shots: Kentucky governor Andy Beshear and Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg."

We'll soon know.

It's not exactly the glamour job in Washington, D.C. Then Vice-President John Nance Garner, serving President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933-1941, once described the job as "not worth a bucket of warm piss."

The press later sanitized the quote by writing Garner had said "warm spit."

I don't know about you, but I predict Republican VEEP nominee J.D. Vance will deliver a whopper of a quote or misstep before this current campaign is over...

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