TACO TUESDAY:...Hopelessly Awful Blogger Disses Ex-Wife Nenny...We Bank On Mayra!!! ...Death At County Jail...Cascos As Elder Statesman...Roisterer Ben Neece Dead...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...So, okay, how do you judge True Love? Is it serious dating that leads to marriage? Ten years of marriage leading to 30 or to 50? Or is it just who the Hell is with you at the moment you turn 75 with a new love and have long-since forgotten the first wife - the one whose dead body you handed over to science?

Ask Blogger Jim Barton.

He's there in that scene we describe to begin this post. (Dairy Neck Jim is shown in photo above with first wife, Nenny, who died April 9, 2018)

Anniversaries are quirky things, but humans like them. There is one for first kiss, first sex, first child, first year of marriage, the 25th and the Golden Anniversary of 50 years, the one Jimmy Boy celebrated with Nenny, or almost did.

Well, who really, other than Jimmy Boy, knows about the Barton marriage? He only talks about his latest one, to the Filipina Ana, The New American.

This is what he wrote about the Manila Mama yesterday, when noting some absence from each other, as she works somewhere in Nevada, and he ages in Brownsville, since he does not work: "The 4+ years with Ana have easily been the happiest of my life despite our dissimilar personalities."

So much for you, Nenny!

Those 50 years? Huh? What 50 years?

You have to hand it to unaccomplished, uneducated Barton. He spent his working life doing hourly, minimum-wage jobs here, in North Texas and in Arkansas. He won't say much about his jobs, but who can blame him when all he has is prolonged grocery store work, motel clerking and that unloading of shrimp boats at the Port of Brownsville.

Pobre guy. He won't even say if he graduated from high school! He never went to or graduated from college; his adult life spent largely dependent on Nenny Barton's jobs. She was a veteran; Jimmy Boy never served. There has to be a story there, but when we've asked Jimmy Boy why he never served his country, he clams up.

Oh, he's a huge fan of conscientious objectors, those American boys who told the Draft Board they could not fight because it was against their religion and against their desire to keep living. Yeah. Is that why his family moved from Washington in the far northwest to lowly Brownsville by the Mexican border?

Barton's not talking. We've asked. And we'll go on a low limb and say he'll never talk, because it is likely something he is now ashamed of, as are all who went the conscientious objector route to stay out of Vietnam.

Tell it, Jimmy Boy.

Nenny knew the whole story, we're sure. Tell it, Jimmy Boy.

So that Sweet Ana can sleep better...

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WELL, YEAH, we can say it: We at The McAllen Sun like reputed hothead Mayra Flores. She's an eye-gouging mud-wrestler and a get-the-fuck-outta-my-way trailblazer all rolled into one. To see her in Congress, up in pretty-much, all-White Washington, D.C. politics, would be nice.

Nothing against most White people, but the Hispanic representation of my people in Congress is pathetic. Six Hispanics are in the 50-member U.S. Senate? Ted Cruz of Texas is half-Cuban, but he'll never say it. Marco Rubio of Florida is all-Cuban. The others are indicted Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and Alex Padilla of California.

Of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, only 52 are Hispanics. That's roughly 11% of the membership. Hispanics account for 19.1% of the population in the U.S. today. I do believe our population merits more than 52 representatives. Thirty more would be about right, percentagewise.

Mayra Flores wouldn't really add to it, as she will go against Hispanic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez in 2024, and, well, one or the other will win, so...

But it's good to throw that out every so often, especially in today's Texas, where Whites are now the "minority" population.

Let's go, Mayra.

Give'em Hell!...

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No, that's not the latest Cameron County Sheriff candidate in the law enforcement mood photo above. True that all it takes these days is a cowboy hat and a less-than-Hollywood-worthy face to run for the post, but who knows who that lonesome alcoholic in the photo is, or may be?

One thing we'll say is that incumbent Sheriff Eric Garza isn't getting out enough as he seeks reelection next year. Already, a pack of hungry lone wolves have up an announced they plan to challenge Sheriff Eric. They have hats and even mustaches, so...

Garza has been whipped mercilessly by local pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya for the past three years. Shutdown Corner Juan can keep doing it for the next one, too.

Sheriff Eric acting as if some gentleman aesthete won't cut it. He's being chased by circumambient wannabes, fer chrissakes...

The race is being contested primarily in Open Bar Brownsville.

That costumed cowboy look worn by Eric needs to get around and be seen. Shit, longshot candidate Ronnie Saenz is practically the local Ringo Starr now. Stat quality, baby. That's what you need to plug into to make headway in a multi-candidate race.

Political primitive Jesus Rosas Jr?

He's started to think he has a real shot at winning! There is no penumbra of doubt in his walk.

Plus, Rosas is from that peculiar Brownsville species known as the political peddlers. He could win big standing under the international bridge here on the Mexican side asking for votes, not coins...

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There was another death at the Cameron County jail recently. We're not going to bother you with names or accusations, but it had something to do with drug use. Fentanyl, to be exact.

Or that's what the sheriff's office told the community.

Who knows what an independent autopsy would yield? We're always troubled by these cold and mineral administrative rulings on deaths behind bars. She was a young woman, mother of two very young kids. Somewhat attractive in the photo posted by law-badgering Blogger Juan Montoya. There also was a soulful comment from her mother, who for some reason believed her daughter would be safer behind bars.

Too bad.

Life is for the living. Bodies in jail never make for a good story. Yes, you kinda want one in this case, perhaps because most people feel a little more for the attractive than for the unattractive. Still, it'll be a statistic in the sheriff's office annual ledger...and nothing more.

There was no mention of a Dad for the kids.

Montoya took the easy palliative angle to the sad tale. That's to be expected.

Bloggers aren't there to offer lasting solutions, are they? Not here.

Not in Brownsville, Texas, Cradle of The Two-Tortilla Taco...

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This auburn-haired one didn't give a rat's ass about tacos. Pasta, Baby. Sucking on that long, long noodle. Taco Tuesday could go to Hell, she was telling the waiter, a lanky Mexican with a high neck and three days of beard growth.

"Are you Italian?" she was asked by another customer of the cafe.

"Why would you ask that?" she posed in return.

"Your hairy armpits," the Mexican told her, pointing.

It was Tuesday, only it could have been Wednesday or Thursday or Friday. People were eating all across town, in taquerias and burger joints ands steak restaurants and pizzerias.

"Do you want these pepperonis you've set aside on your box or can I retrieve them for the trash as well?" the waiter went on.

"Bag them for me," she said, tersely. "I'm taking them home."

That was something, she wanted to say, you never heard at a taco joint. Tacos were to be scarfed down fast & furious, not a one left on the plate at snack or dinner's end.

That was the freakin' culinary beauty of tacos, the controversial anthropologist Margaret Mead might've said.

Margaret was the one who first noted the similarities in appearance between the taco and a woman's privates - God's choicest morsel...

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He's walked into the role of Elder Statesman. We speak of Carlos Cascos, the former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State. How visible he may be in Brownsville, well, we couldn't tell you.

We normally catch up with him on his busy Facebook page, where he tends to bring to light timely news and info of the day. We do chime-in from time to time. It's mostly a collection of his fans and well-wishers who show up to applaud his postings, rarely anything heady from any of them.

We're being factual, not mean.

Mr. Cascos tends to be the proverbial middle-of-the-roader these days. He's a Republican, but not necessarily a Trump MAGA Republican. Why he just doesn't hop back to his old Democrat Party is my mystery. I'd venture to say that Mr. Cascos is likely repulsed by Donald J. Trump and his ways. Just a guess there, but we're good at reading people after almost 30 years of doing it as a reporter.

Perhaps a bit of courting and a very damned public round of apologies from starchy Gilberto Hinojosa and the anachronistic Rio Grande Valley Democratic Party would help, although...

Well, sometimes you go down the road far enough and you just can't come back.

A statesman is allowed backward glances. His thoughts on the future of his party, Texas and the country would be welcomed, as well. I could tell you a story or two about his days as Secretary of State, but we were off-the-record in that lengthy conversation here not that long ago.

Maybe when the political winds are blowing just right...

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Friends and editors I have worked with know where I've been in Real Journalism. Fools who don't know me or believe this blog is all I am generally call me a "faker" or a bully or worse. One of those is Brownsville Blogger Jim Barton.

He's a layman, is what I would say. In news, I mean.

Barton has never worked in a newsroom, not even in a small one like that of The Brownsville Herald. I have done the daily job for The Associated Press in Denver, The Houston Post, The Boston Globe and The New York Post - all major, highly-competitive newsrooms serving a large number of readers in major markets.

Unaccomplished Barton likes to write I was there only "for a cup of coffee," meaning a short time, I take it. I guess almost 30 years of news reporting is a cup of coffee these days.

Nonsense. But what's he going to say to me when he has NOT ONE published article, no college degree, no degree in Journalism and no work with any professional editor? I feel sorry for the old guy, actually, but he's a hard-headed dude, so I occasionally do stomp on his ego.

I am a U.S. Navy veteran (Corpsman/Medic) and have a degree in Journalism - a requisite, by the way, when seeking jobs with major publications. Barton did not serve even though he was of draft age during the Vietnam Conflict. He has said his family moved to Brownsville from Washington state at about that time. That's a rare cross-country move, but he refuses to answer our questions about why. He does write about conscientious objectors from time to time, like when others are writing about or celebrating Memorial and Veterans Day.

This week, he posted a photo that included me and disgraced Republican Congressman George Santos, with lying Barton (shown bathing alfresco in photo at right) including text about "fakers" and alerting readers to such people.

I say fatso Jimmy Boy was only projecting.

He looks more like chubby George Santos than I do and, of course, we all know about Jim's fakery as a newsman in town. He even wore a homemade PRESS badge to a few pachangas during the last election.

Once, he wrote about being a "direct descendant" of American Red Cross founder Clara Barton. We looked into it and found out Clara never married and never had children, shacking up with some dude her entire adult life.

Barton next deleted the claim.

He's 75 years old, almost 76, and he's obviously not happy with the way he lived his life, one that had him employed by grocery stores, motels and shrimp boat unloading outfits at the Port of Brownsville. His insecurities include this: Barton lists himself as a "professional" on his Linkedin page.

Under a heading on the page where he was asked to list his interests, Barton posted a thumbnail photo of Kroger's logo.

Kroger's is a major grocery store upstate.

I've stopped visiting his blog for a variety of reasons. I know his usual lies about me. He's no writer in my book, and he has no concept of what makes for a good, useful news story. Barton simply does not know how to convey the elements, the basic 5Ws - the Who, What, Where, When & Why.

Not having any experience working with an editor hurts him, as it hurts his blogging pal, Jerry McHale. But McHale is just "goofin" at this point in is 74-year-old life.

Uneducated Barton actually thinks he's a writer and a newsman.

I hate to be the one to say it, but all he is...is a clown, a clown with a Blog...

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Reports tell us local Bon Vivant Ben Neece has died. At the gym, according to a posting on Pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya's blog. It's a sad, three-beer day in Browntown.

Neece apparently was working out at a local gym when a heart attack ended his life. A troubadour to the very meaning of the word, Neece tasted a bit of everything, goes the line on him from Downtown antros.

A skilled musician, legal mind and politician, Neece lived out loud before out loud was "in".

That one episode in which he was kidnapped in Africa serves as one of many scripted climaxes his adventurer's life delivered on his ass. Neece was not above or below any of it. He traveled across Europe and deep into Mexico to get his natural mortal highs and lows. Eclipses thrilled him like Big Ones thrill most hetero men in local topless bars.

Once, he sat through a female fistfight at a local bar. 

We would say that he will be missed, but little ever is missed in hard-edged Brownsville.

Bang the drum slowly...    

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TACO TUESDAY out...

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