FULL-THROATED HELL:...Fiery Republican Mayra Flores Labels Democrat Opponent Vicente Gonzalez A "Leftist"...If Only!!!...He's Not That...Is Lobbing Insults All She Has?...Her Campaign Wallows...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...We would have been more impressed if she had challenged Ted Cruz, the junior U.S. Senator from Texas. This race against well-entrenched Democrat Vicente Gonzalez for the 34th Congressional seat is a bad fit for Mayra Flores.

She'll lose again in November.

But, boys, she's once more being Mayra, and, well, perhaps that's all she'll ever be. Something about her story tells me she would do well in Congress - but not as a Republican. Her personal history paints the very essence of a Democrat's portrait: Born poor, born in Mexico, re-born as an American citizen.

Still, there she is. Battling ghosts no one else sees. Well, maybe her insipid followers, all displaying their silliness on her Facebook page - the majority of them from elsewhere in the country. Perhaps they do love her, much like we loved Vietnamese who fought alongside U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.

How else to explain her crazy, often-ragged politics.

But we do like her, and a primary contest against the hated Ted Cruz would likely have had a Cinderella ending. What is she going to do after another loss to Gonzalez?

This from her Facebook page: [ "Our latest polling has us in a very tight, competitive congressional race against leftist Vicente Gonzalez. Congressman Vicente Gonzalez has voted more funding to go overseas than into his own district. He also voted to allow biological males in female sports and in girls' locker rooms. He voted to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country even after they committed felonies. 

Vicente Gonzalez doesn't represent South Texas values." ]

Gonzalez is a 56-year-old graduate of Texas A&M School of Law, hardly the model for anything "leftist," although maybe it's just a throwaway word for her, or maybe a word some Republican handler from up north injected in her commentary.

Vicente Gonzalez is no leftist.

He's a middle-of-the-roader, the personification of an adept bureaucrat. He looks like the guy in the office who will fix colleague mistakes and get the job done. It's what voters want! He's that guy!!

Does Mayra, a healthcare graduate of South Texas Community College in McAllen, look at Vicente Gonzalez and see Che Guevara? Or perhaps Mario Savio, the agitator who led the 1960s student protests at UC-Berkeley? Those two definitely were leftists.

Vicente Gonzalez?

In a novel or Hollywood movie, he's the congressman who rose from middle school principal to tackle politics and clean-up Washington, D.C. Musical soundtrack by Horst Jankowski. Co-starring Eva Longoria as his wife.

Leftist?

Obscenity!!!...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...Los Bukis And The Soundtrack Of My Days Writing About Mexico..."Que Mala"...

PLAY DEEP:...In Congressional District 34, Rumor Of War...Busy Bee Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez Posts An Accomplishment, Republican Opponent Mayra Flores Digs On Him...Cue The Mariachi...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

HARLINGEN, Texas |...The Democrat was in town to announce a $4.5 million cash injection into the Rio Grande Valley economy. By way of repairs and improvements of Valley International Airport here. He, as he often does, noted the benevolence on his Facebook Page, as did Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda on hers. It wasn't long before someone threw cold water on the moment.

That would be one Mayra Flores, the Republican candidate in Vicente Gonzalez's 34th Congressional District election this next November.

This was the announcement from incumbent Gonzalez: [ "Yesterday was a monumental day as we broke ground on the new air traffic control tower at Valley International Airport in the City of Harlingen. I was proud to secure $4.5 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve air traffic safety and efficiency. Grateful for the collaboration with FAA, Mayor Sepulveda, and local leaders. This project marks a significant advancement for our community's infrastructure." #TX34 ]

So far, so good.

A local politician doing what he's sent to Washington, D.C. to do - working daily for his constituents and making sure monies doled out by Congress includes some for the district back home.

Yeah. Bang the drum one more time.

Cat-quick came Miss Flores in chiming-in, posting this on Gonzalez's Facebook page: [ Mayra Flores - Congressman Vicente Gonzalez has voted to send billions overseas then into his own district but takes credit when pennies make it. ]

We should, of course, note that Miss Flores, who served a brief six-months stint in Congress during the second half of 2022 after winning a Special Election before losing to Gonzalez in the General that same year, also brought home the bacon in this fashion.

Her share in a spending bill that year delivered $4 million, also for the Harlingen Airport. We must also note that these did not come from stand-alone legislation but were included in Bills that awarded monies to most other sectors of the country.

But we're into the campaign season, boys. And even the slightest dig has a chance of getting a vote or two, so we'll be seeing much more of these as the days, weeks and months wear on. The gung-ho Miss Flores is a regular contributor to Gonzalez's Facebook page; he does not reciprocate.

Whether that's a winning strategy for Republican Flores is anybody's guess. My feeling is that a public debate or two or three would serve the constituency much better.

We'll keep tabs on this particular race, as we're sure the current heat will eventually rival the biggest of volcano eruptions...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...From My Days Writing About Mexico, The Songs of Marco Antonio Solís..."Así Como Te Conocí."

SUNBEAMS:..."Season Of The Girls"...Lesbian Love In A Cowboy Bar...Last Taxi To Town...Why Would The Barkeep Bristle?...The Gals Didn't Care...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |....Marcy and Janet worked together for a year before they flitted out to a Boys-happy neighborhood bar, drank up a storm, danced upclose and apart before deciding they'd fallen in love.

This sorta upset the gents at the bar, as Janet was a looker.

Bartender Willie Joe Nelson bristled, but stayed quiet.

"Not many women come here with other women," he said, addressing steady customer Lloyd Hawkings, a long-haired 76-year-old widower from New Jersey with an overload of testosterone.

Marcy was the pliant wife in this story, it seems. You could tell just by looking at her, the petite body and rural haircut being big clues. No one hollered the worst of names at them inside The Lonesome Cowboy bar, but thoughts of wonderment swirled like caged damnation jailed inside a skull.

When the evening's last call came, a goodnight musical of whooping and hollering enveloped the joint, glasses and bottles were raised and Marcy and Janet stole away into the night.

Love, love, love is all you need, they sang to each other once in the car...

-30-

SUPREME COURT:......Hearings On Presidential Immunity Offer Several Clues...Don't Expect The Obvious...This Republican-Led Court Is Up To No Good...Look At Roberts, Thomas And Alito...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...What to make of the Supreme Court's hearings on Donald Trump's claim of presidential immunity in that Capitol Building riot? On its face, the ongoing hearings are a good example of Democracy at work, only, wild as it may sound, some justices are not thinking that way.

Five justices - Chief John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch - are looking in another direction, one that will help oft-indicted Trump.

The nation's high court will weigh its three options and issue a ruling soon, or much later. That has some meaning to Trump.

First, it could grant Trump his immunity, which the court will not do. Secondly, it could delay its ruling so that Trump's insurrection trial could not happen before the November General Election, one in which Trump will be the Republican Party nominee.

This from thenation.com about the third option: [ Remanding the case back to the DC Circuit. This is the option that causes maximum delay of Trump’s reckoning, allowing him to avoid it entirely if he wins the next election, while still preserving the court’s ability to say that blanket immunity is unconstitutional later down the line, should Trump lose. Remand is therefore the best possible option for the Republican justices if they want to see a Republican president elected in November — and at oral arguments, most of them signaled that’s exactly what they’re going to do. ]

It strikes me that in all possible rulings, Trump comes out ahead.

Are we okay with that? The five justices in question were all appointed by Republican presidents, two of these five by Trump, himself. That has to mean for something. I mean, isn't ideology a prerequisite?

Once not that long ago, it was generally believed that the U.S. Supreme Court was above politics, that it did its work without fealty to anyone, presidents included. Richard M. Nixon ring a bell? He didn't even think about trying to go for presidential immunity before he resigned and Gerald Ford pardoned him.

These days, more and more, the Supreme Court is an activist court.

That it grabbed for a shot at the immunity claim after an Appeals Court ruled Trump absolutely did not have immunity is a clear clue. No, Maria, this Republican-led court was going to insist on getting the last say. That is where we are as April ends and May falls on us. A ruling is not expected until summer, or maybe much later - both helping Trump delay the insurrection trial until after the election.

My take is this: Okay, go ahead and help the guy, but what of your reputation? You may be fine if he wins. If Trump loses, you'll only look like used and abused partisan hacks.

And, by the way, you're about there...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...Romance From The Soul Vault..."Can I Change My Mind"...

SOMEONE'S GOTTA WIN:...Six Short Months To Go...Entire Nation On Edge Of Seats...Down To The Sunless Sea...Joe Biden Or Donald Trump...Vicente Or Mayra...Monica Or Michelle...Bohemia, Corona Or Budweiser...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Angry talk moves like wheels falling off an aging garbage truck. Noisy and dangerous. Dogs no longer bark. They know. Cats, too. Birds have flown over to the island. Wives are stocking up on Ranch Style canned beans and soups. Men are drinking as never before.

The nasty election looms.

Grandpa used to say times and the future would be better. He's been dead since 2016. What are we to do? Is there hope for America or are we merely going full doom & gloom here. When is the last time you squashed an ant with your boot heels just because it was there?

Wearing your thoughts on your sleeve these days, there at the ready? Come at me 'cause I like Joe Biden whenever you're up to it. Digging on me 'cause I'm Brown and for Trump? Drop your guard, homeboy! This one is for malaria, the forgotten disease.

Will antsy Republican Mayra Flores climb that mountain and knock incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzales off his 34th Congressional District perch this time? She's into it hot & heavy, we hear. Sharp-as-a-nail Democrat Michelle Vallejo doing the same against Republican Single Mom Monica De la Cruz in our 15th Congressional District.

Hey, it's the bottom of the fourth inning in all of this. Who's ahead in these three contests, all being played in local, adjoining ballfields. The crowds are not roaring, not in support, no. That noise coming from the stands, the upper decks, is not applause or feet in a synchronized stomping. The wave as yet has no color.

We Americans love our sports, and politics is it right now. Anyone following the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs? No? I thought so. Boring baseball? No, again. Waiting on muddy football? Perhaps.

One thing is clear here: Someone will win.

Politics offers no ties, no sharing of the crown. Biden is up, Trump is on trial. Vicente Gonzales is plotting, Mayra Flores should have spent the last two years wring a book, autobiographical and on policy. Monica De La Cruz is still unsure of her Republican wings. She's not MAGA, so how low is she on the congressional totem pole. Opponent Michelle Vallejo is all-Valley, even owning a flea market in puro-Valley Alton.

I could give you odds on these three races.

But I'll wait until the dusty corner jukebox in this rolling cantina stops playing those scratchy records of intoxicating cumbias better suited for another day...

-30-

MADE IN THE SHADE:...Hot Temperatures Almost Here...What To Do?...Does The Brain Handle It?...Is Your Body Simply Attuned?...Climate Change And The Thermostat At War...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...How important is the state of the environment to you? Do you dress according to the day's weather forecast? Like many, do you buy clothing by the season?

Are you a rain or a sunshine person? You must know.

I know that every now and then I need a little shade in my day. It may be after a nice, long walk. Or it may be after a jog, after a morning discussing/trashing politics with the old gang at the breakfast restaurant we all like.

Handy, pretty-much-everywhere shade will do something to the brain, hence something to the body and the body's eventual, however-long outlook.

At times I look for roomy shade off a business front's overhang while on my walks. At others, it may be soft, swaying shade off a leafy tree in the park near my home. I'm glad it's there.

I need it and that it's there is a good thing. Sometimes, all you want is a respite from whatever is out to take over your time. The sun can be a bear at this time of the year, up there salivating as the long, hot summer begins.

Find your time in the shade...

-30-

AMERICAN TAPESTRY:...Life In A Gutless, Runaway Country...Politics At The End Of A Gun...No Time For Laughs...We Can All Use A Drink...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas |...Once, I used to think this world was nothing more than the universe's side-of-the-road outhouse. There were many clues someone could use to point to that. I chose to just think it and believe it.

What was it Moses said ahead of his journey to Egypt: "Lordy Lord, I'd rather be the morning DJ at WKRP."

In any case, my assessment of life on this planet dives every other day. I feel good killing a greasy cheeseburger and Scotch at my favorite bar and then I reel at the crap I must face before I can do it again. There has to be a better life after this life.

My former girlfriend Laura has been drinking again. I mean, really drinking. Where once she would happily buy six-packs of fruited yogurt (banana, black cherry), she now buys her beer in quarts. I do admire her for that, as most women for some reason disdain beer bottles of such an imposing size.

Laura chugs it while watching Judge Judy on TV in the afternoon.

She laughs and offers biting commentary during the show, always anti-defendant. When I first met her some eight years ago, she was a fine woman, or as most Texas men would say, "A right-nice piece of ass."

Today, she is an alcoholic. No meetings for her. She likes being a lush. I admire her for that, too. Laura knows, she damned-straight knows she also lives in this ragged, God-abandoned planet.

At popular Kelly's Lounge tonight, I'll spring for a few rounds, sit back and talk some memorable romance with her and watch Laura fall into the Greatest of Abysses.

The deep as all-get-out Mariana Trench over in the Pacific has nothing on alcoholic depths...

-30- 

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...More Cool Memories Of The Road..."Please Come To Boston"...

AND WE WILL ALL GO DOWN TOGETHER:......... Trials(s) Of Donald Trump A Drag On America...Ship This Entire Embarrassment To El Salvador...Citizens Scared To Serve On Jury?...Hang Fire!...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...We keep telling ourselves we're not gonna take it anymore. Trump crapola, we mean. Trial's arrival is good, only how much longer do we have to carry this barf bag around? There are few answers we like. this, we're told, will go on for months.

Are you into it?

Some of my friends say they have bailed-out on the day-to-day news coverage, now waiting simply on the trial's verdict. As one put it, "We know all the damned facts, so judge his ass!"

I suspect that many of my fellow Americans agree with that exhaled sentiment.

Defendant Donald J. Trump has taken the air out of the room. He's a hero and a villain to the grass-whorled population. Wyoming went all in on incredibly-flawed Trump's presidential aspirations yesterday, its Republican contingent collaring a state convention to say it's Trump or Bust.

We'll see. Hey, Summer isn't even here yet and already even the local humidity feels good. Anything to shake the citizen doldrums, to make one believe there is more to this dragging movie. Is criminal Trump all we are anymore? Seems so, Maria.

Seems so.

I'll gather my thoughts as I head into our weekly discussion meeting at the restaurant tomorrow, only it does get tiring to round up all-things-Trump. It's like trying to pick up a carton of cracked eggs, the one the H-E-B delivery lady dropped on my front step.

You do it.

I have grown used to using that sentence - You do it! - out of, I say to myself, self-defense. We all grow old and, as Willie Nelson likes to say, "It gets easier - to say, not today."

So, excuse me while I take a break here, while I go shave and look for that one shirt that always makes me feel good about myself. Shake my hair in place, step into my faded jeans and harness boots. The day's supposed to clear up by 9:00 A.M., the time of day I like to stroll into my restaurant to a round of, not applause, but what the French call "ennui." It shakes out, too, as soon as the rabble-rousers in the group show up to act out their idea of Life.

We'll throw out some stuff on Trump and then segue into something else, often the local.

Now, if only we could vote to move all of Trump's trials down to Central America, where they are used to such attacks on humanity. Donald J. Trump would be a great president of El Salvador! There, he could abscond with the millions in foreign aid El Salvador gets from the U.S.

And no one would care.

Excuse me, my Uber ride is here...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...A Wagonload Of Memories..."Just To See Her"...

BURNING MAN:...He Blamed Politicians For Much Of What Ails America...Conspiracies All Over The Place...Max Azzarello Decided To Flame-Out In A Park Near Courthouse Where Trump Is On Trial...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Opening statements hit the floor this morning in the Hush Money Trial of one Donald J. Trump, although, well, there are a few other events that could also fall into that category. Opening statement. Now, there's a cool phrase. It portends so much.

Was news of Trump's indictments also an opening statement, of sorts? His arraignment and mugshot in the Georgia case? That beatdown by the New York Appeals Court on Trump's wild claim of absolute immunity? Or maybe the real one will come after Thursday's gathering of the U.S. Supreme Court at which that "immunity" thing will be resolved once and for all?

Or maybe it was that bizarre (maybe not so bizarre) self-immolation last Friday by that 37-year-old Florida man at a New York City park near the courthouse where Trump is on trial. See photo above.

For dramatic effect, the sight of a dude setting himself on fire has to be up there as an opening statement, to perhaps the entire grass-whorled country being on trial. 

From NYmag.com: [ The man who set himself on fire across the street from the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial has died. Max Azzarello, 37, was pronounced dead at a city hospital early Saturday, according to police. The act of self-immolation was not directly related to the trial: He wrote in paranoid manifesto that he took his own life to bring attention to a set of conspiratorial beliefs.

Azzarello’s life began to unravel after the death of his mother.

According to the New York Times, people who know Azzarello say he seemed to have succumbed to paranoid thoughts in recent years, particularly after losing his mother to an illness in 2022:

A closer look at the path the man had traveled to this moment of self-destruction revealed a recent spiral into volatility, one marked by a worldview that had become increasingly confusing and disjointed - and appeared to be unattached to any political party. His social media postings and arrest records suggest the immolation stemmed instead from a place of conspiracy theories and paranoia.

At the park on Thursday, Azzarello had held up various signs and at one point shouted toward a group of reporters gathered there: "Biggest scoop of your life or your money back!" One of his signs claimed that Trump and President Biden were "about to fascist coup us."

In a rambling street interview that day, he said his critical views of the American government were shaped by his research into Peter Thiel, the technology billionaire and political provocateur who is a major campaign donor, and into cryptocurrency.

"Donald Trump’s in on it," Azzarello said on Thursday. "It’s a secret kleptocracy, and it can only lead to an apocalyptic fascist coup."

Some of the pamphlets Azzarello threw in the air before setting himself ablaze on Friday referred to New York University as a "mob front" and also mentioned former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Al Gore and the lawyer David Boies, who represented Mr. Gore in the 2000 presidential election recount. Another of his pamphlets contained anti-government conspiracy theories, though they did not point in a discernible political direction.

NYPD said Azzarello entered the small park at 100 Centre Street surrounded by police barricades at 1:30 p.m. He was then observed rustling through a backpack, grabbing several pamphlets, and scattering them throughout the park. Then he reached for a canister containing some form of alcohol-based accelerant, poured it over himself, and lit himself on fire. ]

Opening statements?

Perhaps the entire country is on trial this week. This man opted to torch himself in as painful a death as there is. So public. So dramatic. So stinky and final.

Maybe that's where we're at as a nation these days...Something tells me there is no sadness for the death of Democracy, either...

-30-

MONICA'S VERBIAGE:...District 15 Congresswoman Ditzes-Out Explanation...She Voted Against Aiding Ukraine, But Says She Strongly Supports Its Right To Defend Itself...Fix My Border, She Crows...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Politicians have their own English language. Definition of terminology, we mean. You can watch and listen, believe you hear familiar words...and then it's been altered, changed, watered-down, used and abused.

Take District 15 Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, the 50-year-old incumbent Republican. We fully believe she knows the language her constituents speak, both Spanish and English. Indeed, she has the look of an elementary school teacher. That's Monica chatting with two of her backers in the photo above.

We sort of support much of what she has said about the border, but we again reel at her acrobatic act when explaining her votes. This is the same congressperson who voted for a bill decrying the "Horrors of Socialism," even in the face of - how many? - Boeing and farmer bailouts.

Oh, well. Perhaps she's not as smart as we thought she was.

This from Monica De La Cruz after the House of Representatives approved a $60 billion aid package for war-torn Ukraine, currently under assault from neighboring Russia, the MAGA Republican's latest foreign ally: [ "I strongly support Ukraine’s right to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s aggression. However, given the pressing issues we face - from the border crisis to urgent domestic needs, all amid escalating national debt - I could not in good conscience vote for the significant increase in spending proposed by this act without guarantees of bolstering our own border security." ]

No financial aid for Ukraine?

How else would you wish to help them, Monica? Send over a planeload of Delia's Tamales?

Get real.

Even House Speaker Mike Johnson voted for the Ukraine Aid!

We're disappointed. Ukraine is an ally and, as with good friends, well, when asked for help you have to help as much as you can. Sixty million is peanuts for the USA! Yes, we have a deficit, a growing one at that. But we've had it since Republican George W. Bush took our last budget surplus left by Democrat Bill Clinton and spent it like a drunk sumbitch...it has only grown since then.

We have not seen any proposed legislation from Miss De La Cruz, a single Mom, addressing that ballooning deficit. Well? Throw some jumbled English at me, girl!

And while we're at it, Monica, from what we have seen, has only barked like a cute Pomeranian about the Mexican border. I say she should gather her thoughts - in English - and offer a solution to what her fellow Republican Greg Abbott, the governor, insists is still an "invasion" of immigrants.

Monica De La Cruz, bless her heart, has no answers.

She's the proverbial go-along, a reliable Party Girl...

-30-

LIFE IN THESE UNITED STATES:...From Banking Comes A Lifeline For That DEI Concept...Chase Bank, The Largest In The Entire World, Takes The Lead On Backing It...Republicans Want It Gone...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The other day, some right-wing nutcase blamed Boeing's ongoing problems with its commercial airliners on the concept of DEI, the sort of old acronym for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, that stuff that makes this grass-whorled immigrant nation go round and round.

A Republican congressman threw out his thoughts that perhaps DEI need not be used in the higher echelons of our military's leadership.

Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is all-in on eliminating DEI considerations on all state government hirings, as is, we should note, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. It's a baffler, yes. When did that become a problem?

It isn't.

It's part & parcel a move by far-right Republicans to keep jobs and jobholders from one sector of our population. Need I say it. I should, but let's keep thinking we're intelligent people around here, citizens who can read and make the accurate deductions. Man, that Texas Legislature leadership is just too damned White. Over at the University of Texas-Austin, administrators are rushing to comply with the governor's DEI directive.

True shit, as John Wayne would say about here.

But it is the business world that may not fall-in as readily as angling politicians eager to do this and that to stay alongside the extremists in our midst.

Like Chase Bank CEO Jamie Dimon.     

This from axios.com: [ In his shareholder letter last week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon actually talked about his bank's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, though he didn't use the now-reviled DEI abbreviation.

Dimon's words stand out at a time when most CEOs have gone silent - or openly hostile - on these programs, amid widespread backlash.

In his surprising, unexpected letter, Dimon touted a range of programs - from resource groups for employees who are Black, LGBTQ+, or have disabilities to a fund aimed at helping needed entrepreneurs of color, investments in rural communities, and recruiting efforts at historically Black colleges and universities.

He also said that the $30 billion racial equity commitment the bank made in 2020 was "nearly completed" and would become a permanent part of the business.

"We're thoughtfully continuing our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts," he wrote, adding that they'll work to ensure programs conform as the laws evolve around these issues.

In his letter, Dimon says these diversity efforts are good for business. ]

Uh, there it is. Ultimately, as always, all of our crazed pussyfooting political foreplay ends up being held accountable by the all-mighty dollar. We hate that Hispanic-owned used car lot flying the Mexican flag over on the highway in town, but we'll take the sales tax, baby!

Dimon knows corporate America may not altogether be on his side.

But he's fully aware of the all-important bottom line...A greenback is a greenback no matter who presents it to the teller, whether a White, a Black, a Brown, or a dog trained to do it by its whimsical master...

-30-

SUN SHORTS:...Quotes From The Dusty Campaign Trail...In District 34, Republican Mayra Flores Sticks To Handy Border Issue...Wonders Why Democrats Would Back A Democrat Like Mayorkas...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Positions in partisan politics are easily adopted, their public utterances always predictable. Mostly, it is that familiar knee-jerk reflex. Rarely does it move the needle on who's winning and who's losing. It is simply just a few more words.

Take Republican District 34 candidate Mayra Flores. She's tanned, rested and ready for whatever moves across the news wires. This past week, the U.S. Senate passed on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas - as was always expected, seeing that Mayorkas is a Democrat and the senate currently controlled by the Democrats.

Still, Flores chirped-out her sidelines analysis with this: "The Biden Administration and Texas Congressman Vicente Gonzalez are not serious about protecting our borders or the American people. They are all against the impeachment of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas."

Yeah. Pinch me out of this slumber.

I suppose it's fine for candidates to birddog what opponents and the other party are doing, but blurting out criticism needs to be a bit headier. The Mexican border as it relates to Texas has apparently been under an "invasion" only Republicans see.

There for a few months, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was dropping the word into all of his sentences. Where are we with that today? Abbott has been somewhat silent and the Republican hordes he drew to tiny Eagle Pass for quick review have stopped, well, being drawn to tiny Eagle Pass.

We would say to Miss Flores that perhaps a more-intelligent response would make her assessment actually meaningful, like, yes, noting it, but also acknowledging that her 34th Congressional District opponent - incumbent Vicente Gonzalez - is just a congressman, one of many, who really can do nothing on his own.

What's the poor Democrat going to do, Mayra - go against his party? So naive.

Parroting is for parrots...

-30-

[EDITOR'S NOTE:...We are not all that for Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, as our feeling is that he apparently has no fight in him, not for the Rio Grande Valley anyway. Rarely, does Gonzalez exhibit that "homeboy" attitude we need in Congress. Say something controversial, Vicente!!! Mayra Flores has the fight, but our feeling there is that she's in the wrong political party...]  

WE, THE JURY:...Prosecutors/Defense Almost There With Selection...Interesting Mix So Far...MAGA Says Defendant Trump Cannot Get A Fair Trial In New York City...No-Nonsense Judge Pressing Onward...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The case is underway and as happens even in B-Grade Hollywood legal thrillers, the defendant has his fans and he has his boo birds. Donald J. Trump is no exception. Trump's on trial for alleged illegal business accounting related to his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

So far, he's hanging in there, like a doomed nutcase but hanging in there just the same.

We're watching, tuning in to the goings-on during the daytime, blowing it off at nighttime. This, we say, is not the O.J. Simpson trial until Stormy Daniels takes the stand. No one has been murdered here, unless you count the truth. Stormy is not the new Nicole Simpson, although she's just as attractive.

There is no Kato Kaelin in this spoof, unless former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen suits you in that goofy role. And, of course, Judge Juan Merchan is likely an improved version of Judge Lance Ito in the Simpson case.

It should be noted that Simpson died last week; Donald Trump is still very much alive.

We do not willy-nilly compare these two notorious dudes as equals in their problems, but we scribes in America like to rethread our history at every opportunity. There is, for example, no "white Ford Bronco" in the Trump hush money trial. Does Trump even have a driver's license? We're pretty sure he owns black gloves. In fact, he was wearing them on the day he gave a speech to his supporters before they staged that wild, destructive riot at the National Capitol Building.

Are we saying that Trump, like O.J., will be found not guilty?

No, we're not. Not yet anyway.

This posting was supposed to be about jury selection for his trial, so...  

From axios.com: [ Eleven more people - five jurors and six alternates - still need to be picked in the case. Dozens have already been dismissed because they said they couldn't be impartial, a sign of the complexity and unique nature of the case.

Here's what we know about who's been selected so far:

1.) The foreman, who works in sales, lives in Harlem but is originally from Ireland.

2.) A native New Yorker who's an oncology nurse.

3.) A corporate lawyer originally from Oregon.

4.) A self-employed IT consultant who lives on the Lower East Side but grew up in Puerto Rico.

5.) A teacher and lifelong New Yorker. She was the only juror in the box who said they didn't know Trump was charged in three other cases.

6.) A software engineer who works for Disney.

7.) A lawyer who lives on the Upper East Side.

What's next: Jury selection is set to resume today. Judge Juan Merchan is moving things right along: He said opening statements could start Monday morning. ]

We'll tune-in again later today to see what else has come down the prosecution pike. Trump will address the press as he steps into the courthouse, damn it all as a fake trial and proceed to walk into his political degüello.

That's a clue as to where we sit on the eventual jury verdict, yes...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...We Do Remember Puerto Vallarta..."La Chula" - MANA...

DISTRICT 34:...Bad News For Republican Mayra Flores...FOX News Lists Congressional Democratic Seats In Peril...Vicente's Is Not One...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...They're subjective, yes, but looksees at who's in trouble come Election Day and who isn't always bring some possibilities. Congressional seats, those won for two-year terms at a time, are fair game when listing the good representatives and the bad.

FOX News, no attraction for Albert Einstein or the Mensa crowd, this past week listed six Democrats who may not be there in the next 2025 Congress.

District 34's Vicente Gonzalez was not on the list.

That may be a bad sign for his familiar opponent, Republican Mayra Flores. He beat her by 11,432 votes in 2022, but she's back on the warpath, tearing him apart at every political opportunity.

The six Democrats fingered by FOX News were: Jared Golden (Maine), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Matt Cartwright (Pennsylvania), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington state), Mary Peltola (Alaska) and Elissa Slotkin (Michigan). See photo at right below.

Noise from this campaign has been rather minimal. You can catch up with the Flores Camp on Facebook, where she posts regularly. There's nothing glaring in the way of a singular make-or-break issue she identifies as one that will whip Gonzalez in November.

Gonzalez is being Gonzalez, the calm politician who holds his tongue until he can't. He's the dude who labeled Mayra's supporters as being the equal of "Jews For Hitler" during the Nazi heyday. Is he worried this time around? You'd never know it by looking at his all-RGV face. Vicente Gonzalez knows being and acting cool is a clash for the feisty style offered by Mayra Flores - a Trump MAGA Republican, if her postings are any indication of which way the winds blow for her.

Flores lost the noisy 2022 fight against two-term Gonzalez rather convincingly, the final tally being 70,896 votes for him (52.7%) to 59,464 for her (44.2%). That's a hill-and-a-half to climb. Could Mayra do Mt. Kilimanjaro? Mt. St. Helens? This one is Everest for her.

But she remembers that race against Democrat Dan Sanchez in the summer of 2022, when she whipped him silly in that Special Election to fill what was then resigning Congressman Filemon Vela's seat. She took down and pinned the hardly energized Sanchez, 14,799 votes (50.9%) to 12,606 for Sanchez (43.4%).

Then Mayra (shown at left) was felled by Gonzalez in that year's mid-term elections.

Area pundits are giving steadfast Gonzalez the race once again, although I suspect that younger Flores has some newfangled angle to get at voters. The district is largely a Coastal Texas one, encompassing Eastern Hidalgo County, all of Cameron County and points due north from there.

With any luck, district voters will get a debate or two from these two...

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DISTRICT 15:...Republican Incumbent Monica De la Cruz Again Facing Dangerous Democrat Buzzsaw Michelle Vallejo...This Shaky GOP Seat Could Easily Flip...Vallejo Hits Monica On Social Security...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's still early in the Western Hidalgo County campaign, but comfy Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz's reelection effort is already dealing with the same feisty Democrat who challenged her last go round and is challenging her again.

Democrat Michelle Vallejo may make it this time.

De la Cruz, 49, has a however-slim record to shoot at this time around, one that, frankly, is shallow as she's only been in office since winning election in 2022. There is no signature piece of legislation bearing her name, three of the votes she offered went for "Denouncing the horrors of Socialism," installing Mike Johnson as Speaker of The House and in favor of the expulsion of fellow Republican George Santos from his congressional seat.

Not much for South Texans there, no.

Noise from both of these camps is barely audible at this point. But things will shake out soon.

The 32-year-old Vallejo, owner of a popular flea market in Alton, is using her Facebook page to engage followers almost daily, often with looksees at her district's needs, but also with harsh criticism of De La Cruz, an insurance agent by profession shown in photo above.

Neither comes across as a wild-eyed candidate. You'd have to likely pose a pointed question to De La Cruz to get her to say anything about her party's troubled leader, one Donald J. Trump. Perhaps Trump is a non-factor in largely rural District 15.

Miss Vallejo, meanwhile, is going for the cultural jugular.

From Vallejo, via her Facebook page: [ "Our abuelitos have worked hard and paid into social security their entire lives so they can retire with dignity.

Instead of fighting for our #TX15 families, @RepMonicaDLC has, once again, placed Social Security on the chopping block. She cannot be trusted in congress." ]

But we know that politicians are always looking over their shoulders, so it was no surprise that De La Cruz quickly joined the Social Security defense, chasing Vallejo by posting this on her Facebook page: "It is an honor to have the support of so many senior citizens and abuelitos. I will NEVER stop fighting for your hard-earned benefits! Protecting Social Security and Medicare will ALWAYS be one of my TOP PRIORITIES!" 

Vallejo also damns De La Cruz for siding with her party's leadership in clipping the so-called Internet affordability program, which helps poor Americans cover a portion of the cost of access.

What's apparent in Vallejo's postings is a certain insistent drive any opponent would respect. She's front-center daily and on-topic regarding issues affecting District 15 constituents, a voter makeup consisting of hardworking, hardly wealthy people.

Still, Vallejo will have to overcome a convincing defeat she suffered against De La Cruz in 2022, when she lost by some 12,000 votes - 80,978 (53.3%) to 68,097 (44.8%). As drawn up, the colon-shaped 15th Congressional District (see map above) is a narrow strip of South Texas running from western Hidalgo County here in the Rio Grande Valley northwards to eastern Guadalupe County, to the east of San Antonio. The district includes all of Brooks, Jim Wells, Live Oak, Karnes, and Wilson counties.

That's a strange carving of South Texas voters, but that, too, is political.

The much-younger Michelle Vallejo deals with poor people often as operator of her flea market. Monica De la Cruz, from Edinburg, is a single Mom. There's something uniquely valley there, in both. Vallejo will get financial support from the Democratic Party. De La Cruz must wait on pocket change after Donald Trump gets the lion's share from the Republican Party.

Hard to think of either one of them as undeserving of this seat.

Michelle Vallejo is the proverbial model for the Democratic Party as it has played out historically in South Texas. It's also hard to believe that Monica De La Cruz is seeking to be full-hog MAGA...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...As we noted, it is early in this campaign. We will keep monitoring both of these camps and publish when an issue or controversy of interest surfaces...]

DONALD TRUMP ON TRIAL:...First One Up Today In New York...Falsifying Business Records...The Hush Money Case...He Paid A Porn Star To Hang Low...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...As John Lennon once sang, "'I Dig a Pygmy,'" by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids...Phase one, in which Doris gets her oats!" Well, the soothing/grating sounds of legal music will surely sail across the fruited plains. It's Donald J. Trump on trial this fine, mid-April morning, and the whole country is in the house.

How long has this been going on, as another song would add about here.

Too long.

But we're at the starting gate. It's Popcorn Time in America, lads. Hit the couch heavily and settle in for some riveting testimony. The fan is on high, yes. The fiddler is in the room, his bill in hand. Time to pay up. Is he guilty or not guilty?

Inquiring minds - and a shitload of bloggers - want to know.

As per The Associated Press: [ . . . .Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charge carries up to four years in prison, though whether he will spend time behind bars if convicted would ultimately be up to the judge.

The counts are linked to a series of checks written to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse him for his role in paying off porn star Stormy Daniels. Those payments, made over 12 months, were recorded as legal expenses in various internal company records.

To win on the felony charge, prosecutors must show that Trump not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely - which would be a misdemeanor - but that he did so with intent to commit or conceal a second crime. ]

Of course, 77-year-old Trump has denied all allegations. Yet, say non-believers, why would he hand over $130,000 to a sexy Babe? He also paid off lovely Playboy foldout Karen McDougal, allege the confidant prosecutors.

So, in today will walk presidential candidate Trump, the first former president to face a criminal trial in the whole hog history of these United States. Hey, not even Tricky Dick Nixon, Baby. This is a genuine "first ever."

This isn't his worst potential pitfall. Trump has three other cases on his hefty back, the insurrection one also in NY, the lection meddling case in Georgia and the classified documents charges in Florida. Excuse me, while I kiss the sky, yeah.

I dunno, I dunno how I feel about all of this legal wrangling.

My bet these days is that Trump will never see a prison cell. He's a former president and, to many, convicting and sending his big butt to jail would be too-South America. Plus, he's a white dude, and we all know about rich, white guys and the always-there Get-Out-Of-Going-To-Jail card. It's just a fact of multi-tiered American life, see.

 So, do enjoy it as dramatic TV.

It won't be televised, but you can bet the networks and some peripherals will gush-in with updates all day long. Trump's the punching bag, and news outlets will unload on his over-sized political carcass.

And I'll know it's true, 'cause I'll see it on TV (sorry, John Fogerty)...

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WORLD AT WAR:...Iran's Wild Drone And Missile Attack On Israel Fails...It's Only The Beginning...U.S. Helps With Anti-Missile Batteries...Joe Biden Warns Bibi Netanyahu Against Counterattack...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It had been coming for days following Israel's earlier bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria. A missile attack, is what U.S. intelligence was saying.

It came yesterday - some 200 or so drones and missiles.

According to reports, Israel fended off almost entirely, the number 99% being tossed around liberally in news stories. Credit the so-called "Iron Dome" anti-missile batteries availed to Israel by the U.S.

But don't expect the U.S. to stay in the fray. 

This from axios.com: [ President Joe Biden told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call on Saturday that the U.S. won't support any Israeli counterattack against Iran. Biden and his senior advisers are highly concerned an Israeli response to Iran's attack on Israel would lead to a regional war with catastrophic consequences, U.S. officials said.

Iran launched attack drones and missiles against Israel on Saturday night local time in retaliation for an airstrike in Syria that killed a top Iranian general.

"More than 200 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles were fired from Iran," IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said. Most of the threats were intercepted outside of Israeli airspace, he said.

A U.S. defense official earlier said U.S. forces in the region shot down Iranian-launched drones targeting Israel. Biden told Netanyahu the joint defensive efforts by Israel, the U.S. and other countries in the region led to the failure of the Iranian attack, according to a White House official.

"You got a win. Take the win," Biden told Netanyahu, according to the official.

The official said that when Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in any offensive operations against Iran and will not support such operations, Netanyahu said he understood. ]

This, of course, is tangentially connected to the ongoing Israel/Palestinian brawl in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis fully believe that Iran funds Hamas terrorists in the region, often also arming then with weapons.

It'll be interesting to see where else this goes.

The U.S. does not want a fast-spreading wildfire in the Middle East...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."I Thought About You"...

LATINOS NOT QUITE FOR TRUMP:...Republican Touts Newfound Support, But It's Not There...Pew Research Indicates No Rise In Latinos For GOP...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Oh, how they wish for a Red Wave in November. Republicans want the whole world to arrive at their door, all hungry for Trump fascism, all eager to vote for him. It's not happening, folks, as Democrat Joe Biden might say about here.

That Red Wave may hit certain beaches on the east coast (the Carolinas and Florida), but too much long-winded racism and bigotry will keep it over that way.

Latinos are not flocking to those beaches. Neither are Blacks.

You'll get the insecure, ethnicity-denying Hispanics and the whimsical Blacks, but not the majority.

This from Pew Research: [ The Pew Research Center released polling this week that casts serious doubt on recent surveys showing Donald Trump making significant gains among Black and Latino voters.

The Pew survey suggested majorities of Latino, Black, and Asian voters continue to largely favor the Democratic Party. The results show very little change among Black and Latino Americans since the early 1990s, while white voters remain almost exactly as aligned with the Republican Party as they were in the early ‘90s.

". . .Not much 'racial realignment' in these Pew numbers," Vanderbilt political science professor John Sides tweeted, attaching a series of Pew graphs tracking party alignment over three decades. ]

It is significant, credible material this research outfit puts out every now and then. Yes, the fight at the ballot box continues, as it should, but any reports that Trump has collared a large number of Latinos is fake news. You'll see that only on far-right news outlets, like the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and the conservative English tabloids across the Atlantic.

Trump's campaign is in more than just financial trouble. He's in court on Monday for that Stormy Daniels hush money trial, a criminal prosecution that requires him to be in court and not out on the campaign trail.

The smiles and gushing optimism will still be there on the face of the once-proud Democrat from Manhattan, but legal experts say he's in deep doo-doo on this case. He is alleged to have paid the strikingly-Catholic Miss Daniels $130,000 for something.

Trump denies the affair and the payment, a transaction for which his previous attorney - Michael Cohen - has already been imprisoned. He may or may not testify; Stormy and Cohen will.

And who knows how the Latino voter angle will play out in down-ballot races.

There are two of those here in the Rio Grande Valley, with 15th Congressional District Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz seeking reelection and Mayra Flores again pitting herself against Democrat incumbent Vicente Gonzalez in neighboring District 34.

De La Cruz won a tough fight in 2022, while Flores lost to Gonzalez by some 10,000 votes.

No Red Wave has as yet been ballyhooed this time around, much less spotted...

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TIME, TIME, TIME:...Polls Show Democrat Biden Rolling Up To 2024 Victory...Others Have Trump Inching Ahead...They're Shallow Voter-Sentiment Samplings...Often Wrong...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's still a crapshoot. Drama on Election Night, an American staple. We're almost there for the 2024 presidential shootout pitting trusted democracy against wild dictatorship. It's one or the other. Do Americans get the importance? No, not yet, and perhaps they never will. Americans are comfortable, air-conditioned softies who, well, believe everything will always be alright.

Send in the clowns.

We have no way of looking into the future and coming back to tell you which candidate will win, whether incumbent Democrat Joe Biden, the 81-year-old, or terribly-flawed Donald Trump, the oft-indicted New Yorker on trial as of Next Monday for violating campaign finance laws while paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to shut up.

Stormy will testify, so she is not shutting up, and Americans seem to have splintered off and taken sides, taken them with the vigor of a young and new porn star out to make a mint satisfying the longest amongst us dudes.

Do polls matter? I say no. I say they are too shallow, one so-called respectable national poll admitting it only surveyed 833 Americans to deduce that Biden would win easily. Trump has paid for enough fake Wall Street Journal polls to keep that print journalism operation in business.

But, hey, watch out for the Latino vote!

Who knows about that one? It's a minor vote (10%, if that?). Still, it's a measuring stick. The turbulent political winds blow up and down in the Hispanic community, say the pollsters who likely never set foot on such locales. The Black vote! Oh, bro, keep your eye on the Black voters. It could mean victory or defeat in the South!

Yeah.

The Italian vote is about to convict Trump in that New York City trial. What about that vote, Maria? Are you hip to the spaghetti & meatball jury verdict. Oh, yeah, there could be a Jew or two on the jury. What about the Jewish vote? Poll me a few Germans. They may go with fellow German Donald J. Trump just because he's German.

Hey, poll this!

Ah, well, it's all part of our national politics schtick, central to the game. It's still early, is what we're saying at our weekly discussion meeting over at the restaurant. Most seem to agree. Hanging on us like a cool, colorful lei on the flight home from Honolulu is the prospect of violence after the vote is counted, not if Biden wins reelection but if Trump and his people wish to take their disappointment out into the streets.

Yeah, riot at the malls this time. Burn the mother down, as The Trampps might say about here.

Richard J. Daley, once the Trump-like blowhard mayor of Chicago, liked to put it this way: "The only poll that truly counts, is the poll the voters take in the voting booths on election day."

Of course...

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THE MAN WHO LIED:...Donald Trump's Words On Abortion Ring Hollow...No One Believes He Would Leave It To The States...A Panderer, He Will Do What Benefits Him...Always...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Came the statement somewhat late if late is a few weeks, a few months. What was drama queen Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump's wishy-washy position on the hit-button issue of abortion? Would the adulterer say he'd ban it nationally, as his rabid supporters insist, or would he melt-in with the effect as it would affect his campaign?

Trump went with latter. He thinks talk of abortion is the worst conversation for Republicans.

This in a country where, analysts say, up to 2 million abortions occur annually. 878,000 in the first 10 months of last year, 2023. The statistical data is clear - Americans are into abortion as a medical treatment.

Politicians, well, Republicans, don't get it. They lean on abortion as some sort of God-divined no-no, when reality (life) shows it to be a necessity, at times a life-saving necessity. Yes, the abortion numbers went down in states (South Carolina, Indiana, North Carolina) that outlawed it, but that was not about need as much as it was about political power.

As the 2024 General Election gears up for its usual late-inning drama, Democrats are using the Republican anti-abortion position to win votes. And, as has happened in states where abortion is placed on the ballot, they know it is a winning issue up and down the ballot.

President Joe Biden is playing it up, as is the Democratic National Committee (DNC); Republicans not so much.

Indeed, Republicans are harping on Trump's new (fake) position. They know it is a loser in November.

From newrepublic.com: [ . . . .In a rambling video statement posted to Truth Social on Monday, Donald Trump claimed that if he is - egads! - reelected, abortion "will" be left to the states. "The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land," he said. "Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will [be] more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people."

Trump’s statement is notable in part for what he left out. By declining to support a federal, week-specific ban on abortion, he angered Marjorie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life, a powerful anti-abortion group. "We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position," she said. "Saying the issue is 'back to the states' cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy." ]

For me, this is not an issue worthy of a national referendum. The Border Wall, yes. Abortion, no.

Medicine is a patient's issue. Government does not belong in that world. Doctors are not trained to sway with arriving political issues. An abortion is a treatment for the woman, for the woman and her husband, for the woman and her family, for the woman and her doctor, for the woman and her faith.

Republicans often wish to rule with a heavy hand.

Mostly, it is Republican men.

They should play with their own bodies. What do they call it - pocket pool?...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Un Six-Pack De Cerveza"...Grupo Tolerados, 2020

CASH CRUNCH:...Republican All-Out Support For Donald J. Trump Taking Cash From Down-Ballot GOP Candidates...Does RGV's Mayra Flores Have Enough In The Bank To Oust Gonzalez?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Word in the corporate hallways has it that the troubled Republican Party is funneling all of its money to presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, every single buck and penny taken from contributions to the Republican National Committee (RNC).

What that will mean to down-ballot candidates such as Mayra Flores, the GOP's horse in the 34th Congressional District race is anybody's guess, although when the news comes from the RNC itself that Donald gets all the money, well...

How this may be affecting the Flores campaign we do not exactly know. She's been quieter than usual heading into the summer months, a time when political campaigns with national implications get rolling.

So far, nothing.

Flores may be huddling with Big Scheme handlers, and maybe we're premature in saying her campaign is jogging. But news also has it that Democrats are raking in the money like never before. President Joe Biden's campaign has been ballyhooing big hauls they say has left Trump and the RNC in the dust.

That is good news for District 34 incumbent Vicente Gonzalez, who likely will not have a cash problem as he rolls out his reelection bid. The November General Election likely cannot get here soon enough for him.

We have no access to Mayra Flores, as she has blocked us on her Facebook page.

It would be rather interesting to ask her about the current state of her campaign's financial standing. At last report, back a few months, she reportedly had almost $1 million in her war chest. To date, however, we have seen nothing of her advertising, although that could be soon coming.

She has a hard row to hoe, a tall mountain to climb.

Gonzalez is a dog at campaign time, and he wants to keep his job. And has tasted victory against her once already, by some 10,000 votes in the most recent 2022 election.

What sayeth thou, Mayra Flores?...

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SUN FLICKS:...Reporters At The Movies...The Pink Panther..."Does Your Dog Bite?"...

TRUMP ON ABORTION:...He's For The National Ban...That Denial He Issued Monday Was A Lie ...His Latest...Don't Fall For It...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They all say he's lying again. Who? Donald J. Trump, Republican candidate for president. About what? His stance on abortion. Really? Yeah.

Big surprise.

The 77-year-old Trump yesterday took to the airwaves to say he is not all that interested in proffering a national ban on abortion as president; he will let the issue be decided by the states. Democrats are not buying it. Neither, likely, are American women who are strongly against any anti-abortion legislation.

But, as could expected, right-wing news media began painting Trump as a "moderate" on abortion, the stab at ridding him and his party of the one issue that will doom them in the November General Election.

This from newrepublic.com: [ . . .It’s a mirror image of how the right works. Usually, they love Trump because he takes hard-right positions and sticks it to the libs. The Muslim ban, the border talk, the "vermin" rhetoric, and so on. Fox News and other right-wing outlets promote and echo this extremism constantly.

But on Fox News this week, they’re going to be saluting Trump for doing the opposite. By the end of the week, I bet Fox hosts will have called Trump a brave "compromiser" and "moderate" and "conciliator" a couple hundred times. Can’t you just hear it? "This is real leadership. Donald Trump understands that there are competing strongly held views on this topic across the country, and he has selflessly put aside his own strongly held personal views to try to find a compromise position all Americans can live with. That is presidential leadership, my friends." ]

Hogwash.

Once a liberal Democrat in his home state of New York, Trump has morphed into a racist pro-right zealot of the first order. To believe him on anything is to believe in lies as a human virtue.

Donald J. Trump may not personally be against abortion, but he will play one to win The White House.

More lies on aisle 45...

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