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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Sunday morning after a long day of good college football on TV arrives too soon. But we've got the coffee brewing, and we've bathed in cold water this fine Ayem, so all is good. This presidential campaign remains a mystery, of course, as it should. Pundits must talk or write. Scribble, scribble, scribble, yes. We're now two short months from election day, but I know that, to many, it's been a tiring slog...
ReplyDeleteGo Horns!!!
DeleteAggies got their arse kicked by Notre Dame!!!
DeleteUSC vs. LSU later today. Big shootout!!!
DeleteLonghorns play #1 Georgia in Austin later in the season.
DeleteTrump's abortion stance is so fake. You can see it in him. Could not care less. He was president for 4 years and he's telling us that there are countries on this planet that he's never heard of. Unbelievable
ReplyDeleteHe'll say whatever he has to say to win. Lies are his weapons.
DeleteThis guy wants women to go back to the 1920's! They will not go back!! (I'm going to my church this morning, which does not believe in abortion. More and more, I ask myself, why go?)
ReplyDeleteI believe Republican JD Vance has mental health issues from his childhood. His mother got pregnant with his sister at age 13, she was a drug addict most her life and JD had a toxic childhood and in spite of all of this he thinks all women and young girls should be forced to have babies regardless of rape/incest…unwanted pregnancies only drive many females into further poverty.
DeleteI feel sorry for his Indian wife, Usha. MAGA types have thrown racist stuff at her and Vance has not defended her.
DeleteWill this man ever shut up
ReplyDeleteIt's all he has left - hot air.
DeleteI used to have a boss who would say a lot of the same things that Vance says, except at the workplace. Of course, he got fired but before HR walked him out, I figured out why he treated women so badly: Because he was intimidated by them. He would talk down to them and say really awful things to them to make his insecurities go away. It made him feel good about himself. I’m seeing the same pattern with both Vance and Trump. They are so insecure with themselves that they take it out on women. It’s a really big turnoff and it won’t earn my vote, that’s for sure.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump Cannot control his swearing At Kamala Harris or any other Women For that matter at rally speech in Pennsylvania, JD Vance attacks working women as being ‘on path to misery’ in unearthed audio, Looks to me that this un-Holly Duo of the 78 Year old Codger and Criminal Donald Trump and his VP pick have some kind of Hate for Women as in this short Campaign Period Their Cuss Words and Ridicule about Women is More than Just Shameful, it is Down Right Nasty against Women:::What's next for this Duet, Take Womens Voting Rights away???
ReplyDeleteI am a man, but with a wife, daughter and granddaughters and the country that Trump, Vance and for that matter the entire Republican Party have as their vision of the future is not anything close to an "American" country and it is definitely not a country that I want the women in my life to live in.
ReplyDeleteEcho that.
DeleteDonald Trump and JD Vance have daughters. What are they telling them? Those have got to be the most deflating conversations ever.
ReplyDeleteI can picture that, and it's sad.
DeleteI feel kind of bad for the people who have convinced themselves that Trump's disrespect is actually respect.
ReplyDeleteVote Blue across the board! Vote Blue in every State! Vote Blue no matter if it’s for a school board member, mayor, Congressman, Senator, Governor, and especially, the President! Elect Kamala Harris President, and Walz Vice President! Screw that old bastard, Trump!
ReplyDeleteThe DAY Trump is gone will be one of the greatest Celebratory DAYs in America's history. VOTE BLUE 2024
ReplyDeleteLeave it to FOX News. Really FOX?? That's all you got is that Kamala Harris once worked at a McDonald's?? Check into Trump's TAXES?? Business, Felonies?
ReplyDeleteWow!!! They looked into her McDonald’s employment. What the hell does that matter?
I am the widow of a fallen soldier. VOTING BLUE UP AND DOWN THE BALLOT!
ReplyDeleteWhite guy for Kamala here
ReplyDeleteThe problem for conservatives is their idea of morality is policing other people’s sex lives. It is never about their own criminality or doing what’s right.
ReplyDeleteAmerican women are still getting paid 82 cents on the male dollar, but they’re more likely than men to graduate from college. I’m sure there are many Republican men who resent that.
ReplyDeleteFollowing an idiot dictator down a path of doom and gloom. Unbelievable. Stop this madness. Vote!
ReplyDeleteBetter than following cackling Kamala!
DeleteI lost my beautiful, young son in Afghanistan. If you vote for Trump, you are spitting on my son's grave. Let's end this madness and do it by Voting Blue all the way down the ticket
ReplyDeleteTrump would say your son is a loser and was a sucker
DeleteI’m so done with this ridiculous GOP talking point about illegal immigrants committing crimes.. if so, and so wasn’t allowed in the country then this person would still be alive.. Let’s please shift that narrative that if GOP would take up reasonable gun-control measures.. then hundreds and hundreds of children would still be alive!
ReplyDelete19 elementary grade kids in Uvalde, plus two teachers.
DeleteAmericans are still, to this day, in the dark about the links between Trump and Egypt.
ReplyDeleteThat’s just one investigation, and one financial link, among dozens and dozens more, some of which we still know next to nothing about. But if past is precedent, that may simply be a taste of what’s to come - and what is at stake, for both dictators and democracy alike.
Donald Trump has managed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for his presidential campaign, but it doesn't appear that he's spent much of that money on actual campaigns. Two recent - and separate - analyses came out in the past week showing that Trump is either gaming the system to put millions back into his own pockets, or that the money is simply being tossed into a political "black hole" that donors aren't paying attention to.
ReplyDeleteIf he keeps insisting that abortions happen after nine months, then what would stop people from "aborting" at any age...say at like 78
ReplyDeleteClaim to be Christians but have probably never read the Bible, if they can read at all. These MAGA evangelicals are hypocrites!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy did God kill everything except Noah and his sons and animals, if God is pro-life.
DeleteGOD is not pro- or anti-life. He is just LIFE. You get one and both enjoy and suffer the lifespan. That's the biological contract.
DeleteI think our country is so sick of Trump and his lies and insults we want rid of him. How wonderful it would be to turn on the news or read a paper and never hear his name…
ReplyDeleteWhat kinda ghoulish family buries mother and 1st. wife out back of fathers 18 hole Bedminster golf course without any marker, flowers and tombstone?
DeleteCan we stop with all the poll nonsense. 330 million Americans aren’t asked for their opinion. Pundit talk is cheap!!
ReplyDeleteNever been polled and I do not know anyone else who has
DeleteThey don't poll Mexicans. fact.
Deleteshe is running against an (almost) 80-year-old convicted criminal. And she is running against a sexual assaulter (so said a jury) and a financial fraudster (so said a judge) who has three baby mommas, who crowed he could grab women by the crotch.
ReplyDeleteAnd who ordered a Georgia Republican SOS to lie and cheat for him and JUST SAY he found 11,780 votes. And who settled a FRAUD CASE in 2016 for $25 million demonstrably PROVING he is/was a fraudster.
Do we really need to go into the absolutely despicable military stuff Trump did over the last few weeks? He is the worst presidential candidate in American HISTORY!
Republicans, how the hell can you have an abortion AFTER birth?????!!! This is utterly ridiculous!!!
ReplyDeleteThey fully believe people are stupid. I mean, look at Ted Cruz's weird face.
DeleteTo make MAGA shut up, remind them that Donald Trump first met Elon Musk at Jeff Epstein's home in Manhattan
ReplyDeleteI'd say they know it but ignore it.
DeleteTrump better get all the galas and celebrating in while he can, because he won't be having any behind bars once he is finally held accountable for his crimes against our country.
ReplyDeleteThere will be a standing ovation heard around the world when Harris wins the presidency!
ReplyDeleteTwo months to go!
DeleteDonald Trump finally gets ditched by women voters and MAGA figures lose their minds over new polls proving Trump's downfall with women and young voters. Great news for Kamala Harris!
ReplyDeleteCalling him a Convicted Felon is not an attack, it's a fact.
ReplyDeleteI am a retired lawyer, and I have never seen anyone abuse the legal system like Trump. If a regular person filed frivolous motions, they would be sanctioned.
ReplyDeleteWe're busy, busy today, so unless we free up some time, this post hangs over one more day...
ReplyDeleteHis last rally in Michigan was in a town with a population of like 3000 people, Trump knows the days of 25000 people rallies are long gone and so now it's more important for him to a have a full smaller venue than a larger less full one, it's not about running for president for him anymore, it's about optics, crowd sizes and ego preservation, this is his way of saying "I know I'm going to lose"
ReplyDeleteThings getting from bad to worse for the convicted felon!
ReplyDeleteI am a republican that has voted democrat for the last 2 elections and I will continue to vote democrat until the GOP stops acting like psychos.
ReplyDeleteHe was president for 4 yrs, and is now running for president & he doesn't know the rules and regulations regarding Arlington Cemetery? He really is stupid!!
ReplyDeleteIs he kidding? ….Trump called Pence the “P” word. Pence was treated horribly by Trump.
ReplyDeleteI feel trump and his entourage should be BANNED FOR LIFE from Arlington National Cemetery. As a Vietnam vet, I am outraged.
ReplyDeleteWhite House says Biden and Harris were not invited to Arlington Cemetery by families of service members killed during Afghanistan withdrawal. (Trump and Republicans lied)
ReplyDeleteUpdate: A bill that would allow California undocumented migrants to apply for home mortgage aid is heading towards Gov. Newsom's desk despite Republicans' opposition.
ReplyDeleteBeen reading about this. Sounds like a good idea to me.
DeleteHarry Dunn, former Capitol police officer, warns that Trump is once again "planting the seeds" for another attack like Jan. 6 to happen.
ReplyDeleteTrump stalls every move in the courts for years. Democrats hit the ground running after a problem. Says a lot about capabilities of each party.
ReplyDeleteLet's win before we brag... remember 2016
ReplyDeleteI’m positive special counsel Jack Smith caught wind of trump’s TWO latest comments that trump admitted he knows full well he lost the 2020 election.
ReplyDeleteHe even grifts on Labor Day. That’s dedication to fleecing his cult members.
ReplyDeletePEOPLE ARE FINALLY GETTING WOKE!. People slacked on 2016 because NOBODY expected that tangerine to win and become president so now everybody is starting to show tf up this time around.
ReplyDeleteTim Walz knows what he's talking about. And he knows where the journey should go. Respect. This man has his heart in the right place and a brain that knows how to think properly.
ReplyDeleteHow can any girl dads support him knowing all of the revolting, demeaning, things he's said about women? How?
ReplyDeleteAmerica is looking for a human being to be our President...VP Harris you are the one to fill those shoes, HURRAY!
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for all the MAGA people who aren’t white and think they’re accepted. White lady tells Ramaswamy you wouldn’t get my vote because you’re Indian even though I like you. Ramaswamy takes it like a champ and continues to hope one day he’ll be white. May the Force be with these idiots.
ReplyDeleteHow could anyone want a twice-impeached convicted felon as their president? I left the Republican party after 41
ReplyDeleteyears in 2016.
UH-OH: Trump suggests he might DUMP JD VANCE for RFK JR!
ReplyDeleteTrump has and will always be a racist! Vote blue down the ballot! We need to give VP Harris the house and senate for things to get done and hopefully impeach the corrupt Supreme Court Justices!
ReplyDeleteCombat vet here. Was never really into politics. I do remember on base at the chow hall we only had Fox News on. Even during deployment in Iraq, our chow hall had Fox News all day long also. But I thought it was because we had Bush son as president. It should be illegal to play any propaganda channels in any government or military building.
ReplyDeleteI always saw Trump for what he was. He has been the only president that I never had respect for, mainly because he disrespected the office in the first place.