WORTHLESS:...Two Pathetic Brownsville Bloggers Don't Innovate; They Imitate...And Then Claim...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | A little more than a month ago, The McAllen Sun began publishing its weekly Taco Tuesday feature in which we take a biting looksee at local celebrities and politicians. We actually got better-than-expected response from our growing readership.

Now comes perhaps the Rio Grande Valley's lamest blogger - Jerry McHale, shown in photo above - to steal that same premise and claim it as his own. Not that we're surprised as he has NOT ONE creative bone in his lifeless, 73-year-old physically-eccentric body. He is shown in photo above. 

There it was on his dying blog: "Taco Tuesday"...and Throwback Thursday, as the obligatory repetitive slice of nothingness he believes is something special. His blog has no style, so his style is to steal from others.

But he did type this pitiful description to accompany his ripped-off offering: "McHale likes to be in the vanguard as part of his evolutionary presentation in the blogosphere." Big Lie. He'd stolen the idea from us.

Oft-loser in marriage and capitalism, McHale wants everyone to see him as some sort of avant garde writer, only if he's not writing the same plot over & over & over in his so-called Internet books, he's ripping off ideas off other bloggers. When he saw his old buddy Bob Rivard's blog (The Rivard Report) in San Antonio, McHale re-named his blog, The McHale Report.

He does it without laughing, which is the funny part of all of this. Stealing is so much a part of his writing life that to stop and review his work would be reviewing the same thing over & over & over. As one of our mutual friends once told us, "Jerry has written the same book 20 times. It's always about vatos, broads, booze, the border and some Spanish."

We've never actually read any of his so-called novels. Once, when we asked him to send us a copy of one of his efforts, he promised to do it but never did.

Why he would look our way for ideas is another mystery. We had a falling-out a few weeks back after I criticized one of his advertisers, a well-known politician who apparently complained. Whatever. His friendship is - like Trump - is always one-way, as his former pal Tony Zavaleta recently found out. He and McHale had been good friends for 47 years, but McHale burned him without giving it a second thought.

He did the same thing to fellow Blogger Juan Montoya, who was kinda pissed-off when McHale called him the "third-best writer" in local blogging, presumably behind him and forlorn, non-college-educated Jimmy Barton.

We never needed McHale, and we never used even one of his stories. Twice - on two different blogs - we asked him to stop using our stories on his blog, once because we thought his presentation was woeful and this latest time after he blocked us on Facebook for criticizing the politician he was promoting.

In that way, he mimics a horrendously desperate loser.

To date, his only friend appears to be third-tier, 75-year-old blogger Barton, who praises McHale with vigor, as if afraid that McHale will drop his ass, too.

Barton was also the one who copied our bold face/italics style in the text of our stories. He did it and still does it. Innovation is not their strength. Both of their blogs look like they looked 5-10 years ago.

We'll keep them on their toes. It's rather easy, since both McHale and Barton are NOT REAL NEWSWRITERS, but whole hog wannabes. Often, we can spot the many holes in their stories, as we did during their recent apoplectic Welding Recital they quickly abandoned without comment.

Barton is a Big Zero as a newsman. He, however, is not even a college graduate, nor does he have any published work at all. McHale worked one year as a sportswriter at lowly The Brownsville Herald and then went on to work 35 years as an ESL teacher with the local school district - not exactly something to denote you as a writer.

Unaccomplished McHale will keep praising his own hollow stabs at writing novels. He's never had an editor, and he likely would never want one, as it would then show his typing to be just that - dumbass typing, and nothing more.  

Perhaps he'll hit the Big Time when Barnes & Noble opens an aisle for "Dumbass Writing" at present not worthy of a place on its shelves.

Until then, he'll keep stealing innovations from The McAllen Sun, like our writing student Jimmy Boy Barton...

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KEEP THE CHANGE:...How Blogger Jerry McHale Dusted-Off 47 Years Of Good Vibes With Tony Zavaleta...Ended It Over A Misguided Blog Story...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | How do you measure true friendship? It isn't what it used to be, that's for sure. Friends come and go in our hurry-up, throwaway society. Once, friends were for life. I still have a few from my high school days in McAllen, the City of Palms. We hang out at bars and restaurants somewhat often. My trusted pals in college and the military stay in touch.

Then there's the weird, inexplicable ending to Dr. Tony Zavaleta's 47-year-long friendship with local Blogger Jerry McHale. It ended roughly two weeks ago.

"He burned me for no good reason," Zavaleta told The McAllen Sun on Wednesday. "We have been friends for 40 years. I will never talk to him again. Never."

Asked if he remembered the first time they met, Zavaleta recalled it was sometime in 1976, when McHale was covering local sports for The Brownsville Herald and Jerry's then-wife Leticia was a student in one of Zavaleta's classes at Texas Southmost College.

At the heart of the stunning demise was sloppy reporting by McHale (shown in photo at left) and spare wheel blogger Jimmy Barton (shown in photo below) to do with disgruntled students and the TSC welding program. Zavaleta is a TSC trustee.

For days on end during a two-week period, McHale posted blaring stories about the college's ITEC stewardship, or lack of it, hanging stories on former Director Tom Tynan, who labeled a senior TSC administrator as being a "crook," has since left the college. In all, the two hellbent bloggers did nothing more than chase a rumor, feed off of it like starving, retarded sharks and settle nothing.

It was during the rackety, barnyard heyday of the junior high mess - characterized as the off-off-Broadway "Welding Recital" by The Sun - that an inquisitive McHale stumbled into Zavaleta at the popular bar/eatery Cobbleheads. When McHale attempted to join his old friend and TSC Chair Adela Garza for what he later wrote was a chance at an interview of the two, Zavaleta told him to get lost.

"I aggressively asked him to leave us alone," Zavaleta said. "We were discussing TSC business. I probably overdid it. All I said was, 'Largate, Jerry!' "

Zavaleta said he was further "hurt" when McHale wrote about the encounter as if someone had attacked him. Zavaleta added that McHale also kept making fun of his disabilities.

Not much new has come down the Blogger Pike about the issue magnified ridiculously by McHale and his ever-fawning shadow, house husband Barton.

Zavaleta says he wants peace in his life, even at one point asking that we not make things worse for him, this perhaps because he knows how cruel McHale can be when posting to his blog. It's a shame, 'cause these two were ascloseasthis for almost 5 decades!

Not that it is anything new for McHale.

The 73-year-old blogger also burned ex-drinking pal Juan Montoya, another blogger. For some unknown reason, McHale wrote that Montoya was the third-best writer in local blogging, placing him, presumably, behind himself and the non-college-educated, non-journalist Barton.

As could be expected, Montoya quickly distanced himself from McHale, demanding that Jerry no longer use his stories for his blog - something The McAllen Sun also did earlier this summer. McHale and Montoya once socialized like crazy, but that was then. When we would ask about Juan during our phone conversations with untrustworthy McHale, all he would say is that it had been long months since the two had had a beer.

Who knows how McHale has digested all of this? He writes about living a solo life as if a homeless dude. His dying blog seems to be the heart of his breathing, that including selling ridiculous advertising dreams to uninitiated political candidates in need of some publicity.

Not quite the accomplished journalist (he never challenged himself in larger markets), McHale full-well knows the stories on the welding debacle he imagined were just as major a debacle for him personally. He - and the 75-year-old vocabulary-deficient Barton - never, ever bothered to contact any of the particulars - not TSC Chair Garza, not Zavaleta and not even Tynan. Like gossipers more than journalists, they simply went with what they were being told by a few disgruntled students.

But, like we said, neither McHale or Barton ever worked for a newspaper, McHale's sportswriting for The Herald was not in a serious, investigative news vein. Here is where McHale and lesser blogger Barton might've used a meeting with Blogger Montoya, who does have extensive newswriting experience.

But McHale burned him, too.

It'll be interesting to see if McHale approaches Zavaleta with a full apology. He should.

McHale was wrong, and we say he likely knows it...

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SUN OBIT:..."Shaft" Actor Richard Roundtree Dead At 81...

WAR:...19th Day Of Wanton Killing...Palestine Still Under The Gun...More Than 5,000 Palestinians Killed...So Far...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It continues. Like a TV drama series, Day 19 in the Israeli war with Palestine brings a certain halt in the story. It is a temporary halt, as some aid is allowed into Gaza and while the world awaits the threatened all-out invasion by the Israelis following that horrendous attack by Hamas terrorists on its settlers.

Images from the scene tell a sad and disgusting story of wanton killing.

This from axios.com: [ Palestinians in Gaza tell Axios they are not certain they will survive this war as Israel intensifies its air raids and prepares for a ground invasion.

More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israel-Palestine war began, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health of the Hamas-run government. The besieged enclave has been under heavy bombardment in the two weeks since Hamas militants killed 1,400 Israelis in the worst attack against Israel in decades.

U.S.-backed Israel has also imposed a "complete siege" of Gaza, cutting electricity and largely blocking food, fuel and other supplies from entering the enclave, which is home to more than 2.2 million Palestinians.

Three convoys of trucks carrying assistance have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt since Saturday, but aid groups say this is only a small fraction of what Gaza needs. The assistance also doesn't include fuel, which hospitals in Gaza say they desperately need in order to keep their backup generators running.

The border crossing remains closed to Palestinians who may wish to leave. Even before the latest fighting, Palestinians had to get special permission from Israel or Egypt to leave the enclave, which was often difficult to receive.

About 1.4 million people have been displaced in the 140-square-mile Palestinian territory, which is about the size of Detroit. ]

There is no one official number as to how many children have been killed, numbers in the world press ranging from 1,500 to 4,000 - most of them in Palestine. The United Nations is condemning the ever-blooming war. Israel has said its invasion will not be deterred.

And it isn't all Israel as the aggressor. It has a right to avenge the murder of its citizens, but that is coming at a price. In the Jerusalem Post, it was reported that there has been a 400% increase in antisemitic attacks in the United States alone.

In these things, well, nobody wins...

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TACO TUESDAY:...Quem é Quem In Politics...Kid Kunkle Down...Dr. Laura's Old, Old Photo...Rosas Jr's Roosting ...Ronnie Chooglin'...Shitty Welding Recital Bloggers...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | We've always ragged our local politicians for using 20-year-old photos of themselves in campaign posters and literature. It's dishonest and wrong. Be yourself, we say. Even 84-year-old Omar Lucio (now dead) used a photo of himself that surely had to be 35 years old!

I know: They all do it.

The lady seen in photo above is Dr. Laura E. Cisneros, a thousand-to-one candidate for the 34th Congressional District seat now held by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez. Ms. Cisneros is a NEW REPUBLICAN (less than 1 year!); that is, a cheap opportunist apparently dying to belong. She'll go nowhere with this campaign, and we would further suggest that she stop paying those $20 to a local blogger selling her dreams.

Republican spitfire Mayra Flores is still the one to beat and we don't see anyone doing it in the party's upcoming primary. Comfortable Laura E. Cisneros isn't even the one we're picking for a second-place finish in the intraparty brawl. Not third place, either in the four-person race.

A four-cycle engine has four features: intake, compression, power and exhaust.

Laura E. Cisneros has intake and that's all.

But, yeah, buena suerte.

Whatever. There ought to be a Winnowing Day for weak/lame political candidates going nowhere...

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Annoying novice Greg Kunkel is still around, ladies and gentlemen. Why? Yeah, that's the question for the male version candidacy of the Laura E. Cisneros effort. Kunkle is a young man with perhaps precious little knowledge of American politics. He's not done much in that vein.

His political experience is a Big Fat Zero. He is El Peor-Es-Nada!

But there he is, campaigning as if he's more than the obvious, speaking here and there, his speeches nothing more than road-tired platitudes. He's going to "Save America," bring families back together and gift Washington, D.C. with his words and actions. Big promises from an empty toilet tank, we know.

He, too, is a Republican. And he, too, will be destroyed at the polls by fellow GOPer Mayra Flores, who has a way with words and with her opponents. Reports in the mainstream press have it that fiery Mayra shouted sheltered Kunkle down at a public appearance, yelling, no, screaming at him that he was "not at my level!"

Well, she's right. We were left with the image of Kunkle throating a knot of full hatred and the pale ocher eyes of a sick Weimaraner. Believe it, kids.

If anything, Kunkle should be running for city commissioner or somesuch position. His entry into congressional politics is pure silliness. The campaign trail is still long ahead of him, crunch time coming next Spring, but, already, we see dogged Kunkle ending his days by heading for the Milk of Magnesia...

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So, the Welding Recital guy quit or left or resigned his job at Texas Southmost College. It is something of a follow-up to the pitiful Trail of Tears "reporting" not-quite-interested residents of Brownsville got from non-Journalism-trained Blogger Jerry McHale and Jimmy Barton.

Tom Tynan is the dude's name (photo above).

If he's gone, as the Breathless Welding Recital Bloggers now say, well, the college hasn't said a word about it. And the lazy, unqualified bloggers again have disdained either going by the school or taking officialdom comment by way of the phone. It is the town's lingering crotch irritation.

Not much else has been reported by these pair of rudderless bloggers, Turkey Lurkey and Henny Penny to the laughing masses.

The shallow Tynan-is-gone story with more holes than Swiss Cheese was posted by unemployed, house husband Barton and then taken by retired elderly-about town McHale for his blog. But then that's their M.O. - post something - anything! - about someone in town and let the chips fall where they may, getting to the bottom of a controversy the least of their worries. It is minor league writing, if that.

But neither Barton nor McHale (shown in photo at left) has any serious newsroom/newswriting experience. They just have a blog.

McHale, 73, cites credits in several "publications," but never names them. From what we know, his one year as a sportswriter at the lowly Brownsville Herald is it for him. Barton, 75, does not have a college degree, hence, he couldn't possibly have even one news story in any RGV newspaper, much less in the Journalism Big Time.

We'll keep watching these two zero-sum-game writing flakes.

Theirs is more comedy than news reporting. Laughter is what I get with each and every offering I see from them. 

Oh, but they also praise each other!

Because no one else does it, of course. 

McHale dares to call balding Barton (shown in photo at right) a "journalist" without drinking and Barton's quick response is to post a fawning, ass-kissing piece on McHale's value to - wait on it! - local history (seems he deleted it overnight, perhaps because it read "too-Gay"). McHale says it full-well knowing that Barton always has been an hourly-wage employee, at least if he tells the truth in saying he worked many years for a local grocery store, for a motel and for shrimp boat captains looking for unloaders.

Barton's also the Stolen Valor Journalist who would wear a homemade PRESS badge strung around his neck at Brownsville political pachangas.

We got a message saying this: "Barton is on wife support."

I said, "You mean, Life support?"

"No," the caller went on. "His wife is a breadwinner in the household. Jim does not work."

Let's not take our eyes off the Applause Meter, people!

They do prove that there is synergy even in failure. Next will come - for sure! - the "tally me banana" part. Psychobabble is their game. Physically-eccentric Barton has won the toss and elected to be kicked in the ass.

Emotional hegira; that's what it is.

Both of these boys arrive unarmed, is what we used to say about interns in the Big City newsroom...

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Ronnie Saenz is still in it. Rumors that he'd dropped out of the race for Cameron County Sheriff were short-lived and lies. He's in the dressing room, getting a massage and waiting for the call from Bruce Buffer inside the ring.

Does he have the punching power to knock out his opponents, either 4-round chump Jesus Rosas Jr or incumbent Sheriff Eric Garza?

No, of course not.

Saenz has nothing. Well, other than a lying blogger who may have convinced him to pay for a little useless publicity. You know, like well-fed Abel Gomez, the Unknown Constable seeking reelection? Yeah, poor Ronnie. He's being taken for a dud by a blogger with something of a losing record. He's the blogger who worked that now-forgotten Sergio Zarate campaign. Yeah, Ronnie, do get your wallet back in your pocket.

You have no chance.

We hear that everywhere we go: "Ronnie has no chance...Ronnie has no chance...Ronnie has no chance."

Plus, Taco Tuesday is getting tired of you.

We need new and more-qualified faces, yes...

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Eddie Garcia, another of the lackluster candidates (shown at left in photo above) being sold down the river by a city blogger offering mediocre publicity for cash. Garcia, a Brownsville Independent School District trustee and former city cop, wants the job of tax assessor. He's about as qualified for it as some of the kids in the blogger-damaged Texas Southmost College welding program. A striver he is, your honor.

Garcia is a veteran, his only plus as a candidate.

Well, why he wants to be the local taxman is the mystery. His smirking supportive blogger isn't asking, and Eddie Garcia is not telling.

It's a good-paying job, so we say that's it. Yes, he follows in the footsteps of another former BISD trustee who hopscotched from that job to one with the county. That would be one Laura Perez Reyes, who is now the well-paid District Clerk.

It says here that Eddie Garcia's devious political ambition is showing.

What's next - a run against Republican Mayra Flores? Just to show that he can be a tough guy, too.

Mayra would horse-collar this chubby guy and wouldn't let-go until he said, "Mama."

You know it...

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A woman was found dead at the county jail over the weekend and another along the 600 block of West Fifth Street in town. Guess which one the blogs covered? Yeah, you get a dozen Lopez tamales if you guessed the inmate. Pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya never lets bad news for the sheriff's office go unreported.

Updated today by Montoya, the dead woman was identified. And facts-lax Montoya went ahead and blamed Mexico for the alleged drugs the woman may have taken while a prisoner.

Silly Montoya (shown in photo at left) didn't quite slam Sheriff Eric Garza, but he posted the story even as it lacked a load of facts. In his follow-up story, Montoya had no confirmation but hoped that the Texas Rangers would investigate the death. He's been starving for something he can pin on the sheriff for now going on four years, yes.  

The unidentified female found dead in the middle of the city street?

Who knows about her?

Valleycentral.com noted it, but it was almost as if in passing. A day later, it had not updated the story.

Kids, facts make the tale in news. Repeat after me: Facts make the tale...

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There he is in the unMacho photo above, at right. Dayum! We'd almost forgotten the candidate from Da Barrio - sheriff aspirant Jesus Rosas Jr. He's not backing down, not dropping his ill-fated campaign. He has $20 to blow weekly on useless Blogger publicity.

So, what the hey, eh?

Rosas, no relation to Untouchable Elliot Ness, is up against another green candidate - the aforementioned Ronnie Saenz. But he'd like to go mano-a-mano, cumbia-a-cumbia, taco-a-taco with incumbent Sheriff Eric Garza.

It says here that Rosas is gone, as they say in tourists falling at the Grand Canyon. He can't and won't win. But it'll be fun & games and maybe that's all bored Rosas is after.

I mean, when you don't even know where to advertise your campaign, well you deserve to lose.

Rosas Jr will lose big.

Like that one election for the Texas State Board of Education, when incumbent Ruben Cortez routed candidate Tad Hasse by 29,000 votes. Ouch!

The cowboy hat seems more a crutch for Rosas Jr than a symbol of rugged individualism...

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Wildly-popular Delia's Tamales is in legal trouble. You thought I was going to say something about its bean tamales, right? Well, no. My bent is pork, but bean tamales are just as yummy, I'm told.

Anyway, the Valley's premier tamales retailer is in court after allegations from former employees surfaced to throw the eatery's reputation into the streets. They say Delia's management obtained fake social security numbers for some their employees, paid the SSN portion off their paychecks and then saw any possibility of employee claims go down the drain - the money then returned to Delia's.

Geez, Louise. It's getting to where everything's a racket.

The story in the McAllen Monitor did not say how many employees are party to the lawsuit, but it did say that the employees claimed it went back many, many years.

We are really indifferent to this, but we know tamales are big for fat people all across the Rio Grande Valley. When he posted a link to this story on his Facebook page, former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos opined that he preferred "Lopez tamales," a delicacy we have yet to taste for our own culinary assessment.

Whatever.

We'll await the court proceedings and will dutifully report the testimony/findings here when that happens. Until then, go with the red salsa.

I always do...

-0-

Happy Halloween, all!

Weather forecast calls for a cold front sweeping the RGV, with the possibility of scattered thunderstorms. I mean, scary weather would be fitting, right?

Right...

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SUN VIDEOS:..."A DAY IN THE LIFE"...

SUN SPOTS:..."Taco Salad Perfume"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...You could waste away just like an old package of popsicles left in the fridge for more than eight years. Melissa had read that fact in the packaging, although no else had done that to confirm.

Groceries were known for fake expiration dates, like milk and sliced bread. To Melissa all that was just color in an otherwise black & gray life.

Her decision to become a Happy Hour addict after being dumped by a mediocre club musician had come hard, yet expected. Twenty-nine-year-old Melissa Hernandez's existence these days was wrapped up in bad scenes and ever-diminishing hopes. Any possibility of marriage now seemed so distant as to be, well, damned non-existent.

Her still-hot mother, super sexy uptop Juana Robledo, never did find marital happiness, even after meeting, dating and marrying five men, all as different as five distinct M&Ms.

In the bars, Melissa made no quick moves, yet she liked to think that no other woman on Earth could play erotically with a drink, the glass of a highball taking on another imagery every time she slowly lifted it up to her painted mouth.

Men would come. They always did...

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WAR:...U.S. Now All-In...Big Cash For Bloodied Ukraine & Israel ...U.S. Marine Corps General Assigned To Israel...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The U.S. is in it. Well, in both. Wars in Ukraine and in Israel, we mean. Supplying weapons and military expertise confirms it. What the hey, eh?

The Joe Biden Administration is asking Congress for another $106 Billion to that end, only it doesn't seem to end. Missiles and tanks and drones and cluster bombs and who knows what else for Ukraine's battles against neighboring Russia.

American generals for Israel in its fight against neighboring Palestine.

This about the latter from axios.com: [ Biden recently sent a Marine three-star general and several other U.S. military officers to Israel to help advise the Israeli military's leadership in its operation in Gaza, according to two U.S. officials and two Israeli officials briefed on the issue.

The move reflects the Biden administration's deep involvement in the war in Gaza and how much visibility it has in Israel's military planning.

The Marine Corps officers sent include Lt. Gen. James Glynn, according to a senior Israeli official. Glynn previously headed the Marines' special operations and was involved in the operations against ISIS in Iraq. ]

The message is that we're helping both of these countries stave off military assaults, only, more and more, it appears the U.S. is actually doing the fighting. No wonder Russia can't bring its lesser neighbor to its knees. Not that we're for that, but autonomy is autonomy.

Israel is fighting a vastly inferior foe!

What the hell is Biden doing? What do we get in return? That's the Great Unsaid here. Israel gets the second-most amount from us in annual foreign aid, roughly $3.1 billion. Enough is enough. Bring that money home.  

Let countries handle their own messes, is what we say...

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DEMOCRATS:...Moves Ahead Of 2024 Election...Let's Hype The Hispanic Vote...So That's Where Fil Vela's Been...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | I keep saying Democrats here in the Rio Grande Valley ought to be just a bit noisier. They're not. They're perhaps too comfortable and letting success in the past deal-in the future. Good luck with that anachronistic strategy.

This from axios.com: [ Three former members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus - including the current governor of New Mexico - are teaming up to create a new super PAC to get more Hispanic Democrats elected to Congress.

The battle for Congress in 2024 will run, in part, through districts with significant Hispanic populations.

The new group, BOLD America, wants to make sure incumbent Hispanics, as well as challengers, have the resources to win in tight races.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (shown in photo above), as well as former Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Filemon Vela (D-Texas, shown in photo at left) are launching their new PAC today.

"Winning the majority for Democrats starts with retaining our current membership," said Vela.

"Through BOLD America, we will be empowered to protect and expand Hispanic representation in Congress," said Grisham, who also served in Congress. "By electing Hispanic members, we celebrate diversity and strengthen the foundation of our democracy," said Roybal-Allard.

Democrats still have a clear advantage with Hispanic voters, but party strategists are worried the trend is moving towards Republicans. ]

You hear that, but I say it's hard to quantify. Scanty inquiries via polls don't do it for me. News reports of this and that politician switching from Democrat to Republican is still rare.

It's a move forward here, only we have seen this many times before.

Vela was an outspoken congressman who surprised many by resigning his post in early-2022, only to then see nouveau Republican Mayra Flores win his seat in a special election. She lost it in the ensuing General Election to Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, but she's still around and going for it again in the 2024 tussle.

It would have been good to see Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa there alongside the democrats noted in the story above.

But he's too-comfortable, is what we're hearing...

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BACKPAGES:...Cold Winter of '85...Homage To My Petite Lover, Kletha...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

GALVESTON, Texas |...The above photo shows the interior of the lobby at the Galvez Hotel in Galveston. It is a neat place to scarf-up a breakfast in the dining room just off to the right of this shot.

Bernardo's is the name of the restaurant and breakfast-for-two will set you back about $55.

Anyway, it doesn't look anything like it looked when I was reporting on island doings for The Houston Post in the mid-1980s.

For one, my old friend Claude Allen is no longer there. Claude was a caricaturist who plied his craft in the lobby of the Galvez. I knew him as the husband of a woman who became my lover that cold, cold Winter.

Her name was Kletha and she was a cutie, a petite blondie with a great personality. Our affair began oddly, with Claude telling me he thought it might be a good idea if Kletha and I hooked up. She was 31 and he was twice that old.

In any case, I saw Kletha most of that frigid season and we sort of fell in as if in some great romance. We ate in the small cafes of the island's historic Strand District and we'd follow that with some naked cavorting at her apartment or at my place at the Casa Del Mar Hotel.

But as with every great tale of doomed love, I left the island to head into the newspaper's main office in Houston and soon lost track of her. She'd come over every now and then, but those 45-mile trips grew farther and farther apart.

Some years later, I got word that Kletha had died. Yesterday, I found her obit in the Galveston Daily News. She died Nov. 2, 1992 of some form of cancer. Kletha was 38.

I remember her for many moments, but I can still see her jumping on my bed like a little girl...

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GOP DUMBASSES:...Trump Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, Architect Of "The Big Lie," Says He Never Believed It...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | They always seem to go weak-kneed, apologizing, crying, asking for mercy and saying they didn't do anything wrong. This guy is accused of helping to overturn the 2020 election, but now he says he never believed Donald Trump's "Big Lie".

What a pussy.

We speak of attorney Kenneth Chesebro, shown in photo above, the latest one to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the RICO case currently before a court in Georgia that also has Trump by the balls.   

This from yahoonews.com: [ Chesebro, one of former President Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the George election fraud case, didn’t truly believe the 2020 election was stolen, according to his attorney.

"First of all, Mr. Chesebro never believed in ‘The Big Lie,’" attorney Scott Grubmann said Saturday in an interview on MSNBC. "If you ask Mr. Chesebro today who won the 2020 presidential election, he would say Joe Biden."

Chesebro became the second of Trump’s former lawyers to accept a plea agreement in the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to file false documents relating to his attempts to set up a regime of fake electoral college votes in Georgia. His trial was scheduled to start Monday.

Prosecutors claimed the former lawyer wrote legal memos on behalf of the Trump campaign creating a false legal backing for the fake elector scheme.

As part of the plea, the former lawyer agreed to testify in future cases if called upon. That would include Trump's trial scheduled for early next year. ]

Chesebro was neck-deep in the scheme to find a way for Republican Trump to win the 2020 election. That he lamely wimps out here is no surprise. All of the people around Trump facing legal trouble suddenly find that approach.

They never broke the law, but, hey, they are pleading guilty.

Yeah. Really smart people going dumbass...

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SUN SPOTS:..."Thelma's Totally Best Day"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The day Bob Torres left her for another woman, wife Thelma Lou immediately cancelled her Facebook account after telling every woman on her page to go find a man and get laid.

"I am free, damn free, at last," she went on after detailing that last argument with her husband of four years, an explanation that included her own confessional.

"My dear, I have been continually unfaithful with the maid," Bob had said before she told him she'd been with his bowling buddy, Homero Garcia, for almost three years, the sordid affair, she noted, having begun after a PTA meeting that ran a tad short.

"I knew it!" he'd screamed while she laughed. And then, as if now electrified, he had grabbed his Houston Astros ballcap from the hat rack near the front door and turned back to look at her before saying, "Anyone else? I mean, that I know?"

Thelma Lou smiled and mouthed a name, fully knowing that Bob was a crackerjack lip-reader.

"Sheeeeeeee-it!" was all he said about that one.

Smiling Thelma Lou watched him scoot out of the house, angle toward his two-tone El Camino and then watched as he backed out into the street and roar-off like a spurned teenager.

Upstairs in the master bedroom, she undressed and grabbed her sexiest silver & black negligee, readying for bed. The walk to the corner and back had been refreshing; corny Bob leaving had been expected...

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THE HOUSE:...First African-American As Speaker?...Well, One Is Going For It...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, who's next? That chase for a new Speaker of the House of Representatives isn't quite running out of candidates, but it has seen three dolts fall by the wayside. Republicans are adrift.

Now comes a greenhorn representative by the name of Byron Donalds to say he is the one to lead.

Well, he can say it till he turns white, but African-American Donalds is only dreaming. He's only been there since 2021, barely two years! Well, he was a state rep in the Sunshine State prior to that, only who cares what a state rep does in Florida?

This from floridapolitics.com [ After U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan lost three votes for Speaker, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is running to be the Republican conference nominee.

Aides for the 44-year-old Naples Republican confirmed to Florida Politics he will seek the support in a closed-door GOP conference vote. He will face Majority Whip Tom Emmer and U.S. Reps. Austin Scott of Georgia, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Mark Green of Tennessee.

A vote could take place as soon as Monday. ]

Donalds is a full-blown supporter of Donald Trump, and now Trump has endorsed his bid for speaker.

That right there will sink his campaign.

The two previous candidates - Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan - were also huge Trump supporters. The third one - Kevin McCarthy - was ousted by the right-wingers in the House.

Republicans in essence rejected all of them... 

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SUN SHORTS:..."The Home Office Doorknob"...Life As A Big, Fat Paragraph...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Joe Ramirez had been the one to install the doorknob to his designated home office.

He'd been the one to drive to the hardware store, the one to walk up and down the aisles until he found the one stashing door-repair stuff, the one who'd walked it to the store's cash register, the one who'd paid for it, the one who'd asked that it be bagged, the one who'd driven it home, the one who'd carried it into the house, the one who'd up and announced to the family his intention to install it, the one who'd done that quickly, the one who'd have the only key, the one who'd straight-up, tersely told everyone, the dog too, that the office was his private space, the one who'd walk in and lock himself in for hours, the one who'd not done any work in there, the one who'd merely plunk himself down and sit in his executive high back chair and sleep...

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THE HOUSE:...What's This? ..."Moderate" Republicans Sink Trumper Jordan In Third Bid For House Speaker Gig...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | What - moderates? In the Republican Party? It's been years since we've heard those words in the same sentence. Lately, and by that we mean since about 2015, it's been about Republicans as racists and bigots and government obstructionists.

And Trumpers, of course.

But this ongoing, seemingly endless  knockdown/drag out in the House of Representatives fronted to Americans as just another selection of just another Speaker is becoming quite the eye-opener.

News reports have it that Republican "moderates" are beating back the latest charge by Trumper Jim Jordan as he comes off three vote defeats but won't concede.

This from politico.com: [ Over the years, we’ve all heard a lot about Republican members of Congress bucking their party. For example, when Rep. Matt Gaetz and a handful of far-right Republicans succeeded in deposing then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy two-and-half weeks ago, creating a mess that has paralyzed the House of Representatives.

This week, there was another revolt: one against Jim Jordan, the House GOP’s latest speaker-designate. Jordan is shown in photo below, at right.

But what’s unique about this revolt was who led it: people like Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) He is shown in photo atop this posting.

Lawler represents a Biden district just north of New York City. Other Members who joined him in the emerging "NeverJordan" faction are from similar districts, or they're committee chairs and cardinals and institutionalists who finally became fed up with the far-right faction that thrust the House of Representatives into this mess in the first place. ]

Jordan, 59, from Ohio, wanted another vote this morning. He lost the previous two.

Hopefully, it will be scheduled. It was, and he lost the third strike.

And, with any luck, the milquetoast Congressman Patrick McHenry from South Carolina who has been the interim Speaker for three weeks now will ascend to the permanent spot.

We're not fans of this move, as the House Speaker is third in line for the presidency in the event of a catastrophe and this guy is an "appointed" speaker, not an elected one.

But that, too, could come around...if & when the Republicans get their duckies in order...

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LA ZONA FINAL:...NFL Gets Taylor Swift...NFL Uses Taylor Swift...NFL Is Still Boring...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The Face of The National Football League? Really? Pop star Taylor Swift has been getting more ink than just about any NFL player this year. Yes, more news reports than Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott! More than (fill in the blank ________)!!!

How cool is that?

Well, we say it's not cool at all. It's the NFL giddily grabbing onto a superstar. To gain fandom, you know. Swift is the top moneymaker in music and concerts these days. And because she is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, well, Taylor's now at the ballpark wherever he is playing.

Home and on the road.

But what do you know?

Your Dallas Cowboys, at 4-2, are off this weekend. yeah, no game, not until next Sunday, when they host the Los Angeles Rams and continue their boring, up & down season. Or, as the boys like to say at the bar, their usual shittiness.

So, welcome Taylor Swift!

If only we could get Stormy Daniels to date Dak.

Oh, well...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:..."La Zona Final" is what Old School football fans call The End Zone...] 

WAR:...Writers See Things, Writers Write...Israeli Hate For Gaza May Be Political ...But It Also Is Much More...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Often, it is the artists and writers who inevitably damn war. It's happened through modern history. Not much of it has surfaced as things relate to the war in Israel, if war can be defined as battles between a superior-armed force and one with weapons of another past century.

Then I went looking at places I felt might have what I was looking for - a view of this war from writers with familiar names.

And there it was in the current issue of New York Review Of Books.

Some of America's better writers had gathered their names on a "letter" of the sort you see when consensus is being sought. These are not wild-eyed politicians or necessarily members of either bloody side's ethnicity. They are simply writers who have given the event a looksee and have no formed opinions.

An excerpt from the NYRoB's published piece: [ Israel has imposed what it calls a "complete siege" and told 1.1 million people in Gaza to evacuate within twenty-four hours. To where? After six days of bombing that have already killed 2,215 people, 724 of them children, in the fourth major aerial bombardment in the sixteenth year of closure the question — to where? — rings unanswerable around the world. When Israel’s top general refers to Palestinians as "human animals" and the US State Department deletes a statement calling for "a ceasefire," then we fear we are watching an ethnic cleansing on a scale unseen in decades.

The governments of the USA, UK, France and others are participating in this crime by ramping up military support for Israel as it wages a war that its officials have plainly stated aims to turn Gaza into a city of tents, or even worse, empty of its people. A population of over two million people, mostly from families that were made refugees in 1948, half of whom are children, have been living under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007, and to many of them, being told to leave again is not an option. On Saturday, after sixteen years of siege, Hamas militants broke out of Gaza. More than 1,300 Israelis were subsequently killed with over one hundred more taken hostage. We deplore the loss of all innocent life and now, as we write this letter, Israel is executing the largest expulsion of Palestinians since 1948 as it bombs Gazans without discrimination.

Our words feel small in this terrifying escalation. After so many years and so many deaths we must all, together, say this has to end, and that it can only end with a free Palestine. ]

A free Palestine has to date not been in any sort of war dialogue.

On the contrary, it is more a Palestine bombed into oblivion that has settled on Israeli minds. They cannot be blamed, but they can be criticized for their part in what led to this particular attack.

The U.S. is fully siding with Israel. Oh, there is talk of "reining in" the warring, blood-thirsty Israeli generals who want to - once and for all - rid themselves of all-things-Gaza.

The issue is not solely a political one. That would simplify things, but it is - again - about Human Life.

And no country - no ethnicity - has the right to say another Human Life cannot exist.

Keep writing...

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TRIALS:...A Trumper Pleads Guilty...Attorney Sidney Powell Goes Down...Gets Probation ...Will Testify Against Trump...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | She'll talk. Or sing, if you're Italian and used to Mob Stories. That would be one Sidney Powell, shown in photo above. She's one of many Donald Trump lawyers who chased his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election...and now will pay the price.

They let her off easy, it says, during her appearance in court today, where she was granted probation but will likely be forced to testify against Trump in the Georgia trial.

This from politico.com: [ Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election meddling case, one day before her trial was set to start. In exchange for her plea Powell will spend six years on probation and pay a $6,000 fine, along with a further $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia. ]

Powell is the birdbrain who offered up a number of possible avenues for Trump as he sought to overturn the victory by Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say she was involved in several of the doomed actions, including the selection of fake electoral college voters, pushing allegations of voter fraud and of conspiring to commit intentional interference with the election. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors.

The 68-year-old is a native of North Carolina...

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HOUSE SPEAKER:...Trash Ohio Republican Jim Jordan Keeps Failing...He Won't Be Next Speaker...Trump Will Soon Drop Him...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, he blew it? It's not happening for Jim Jordan? Appears not. The big mouth-no action Ohio Congressman since 2007 without a single successful piece of legislation is still hoping he'll be the next speaker of the House of Representatives.

But that's MAGA Republicans - obstructionist always in a hurry.

Jordan would be a horrible speaker.

This from a current report at newyorker.com: [. . . . If Jordan were to be elected Speaker, it would signal that the Republican Party on Capitol Hill had formally accepted its role as a mere appendage to an insurrectionary right-wing movement led by a self-aggrandizing megalomaniac. Jordan was a key point man in the House for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Since then, in his roles as head of the House Judiciary Committee and ga-ga chairman of the new House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, he has acted as a mouthpiece for the former President and his efforts to discredit his accusers. Earlier this year, Jordan called for defunding parts of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department. ]

But despite the rough-going that comes with losing two votes, there was some weird optimism in the Jordan Camp.

Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye said in a statement after the vote: "We're going to keep going."

Jordan himself told reporters that he was unsure when a third ballot would take place but vowed that "we'll keep talking to members, keep working on it."

Good luck with the loser hope.

There is no third vote scheduled as yet, but odds are good that 59-year-old Jordan will go for it before the weekend, like tomorrow and possibly on Saturday. It's been two weeks since his fellow MAGA Republicans ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy just because they could.

Stay tuned...the laughs will keep coming...

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SUN SPOTS:...Doing The Life Impulse...You Can Never Look Back...What Time Is It?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | You can chase down every memory in your head and find a few you can bring back as if they happened yesterday. Not many; just a few - the absolute beautiful ones. You have some, I have some.

We all store some of the strangest shit in our brains.

And we still do it, even as we age into oblivion. What was your first great memory, and which one will be your last one? But, really, do not spend much time looking back.

Life is about the moment, like this moment, not the last one or the next one - this one. Many of us get hopelessly lost on the ups and downs of daily life, on the crosstown errands, the numerous text messages, the cellphone calls, the meals, the deals, the bathing, the shaving and the sleeping.

All of that garbage is only maintenance.

Do something out of the ordinary every day. One thing, two if you're lucky. So, what time is it now? Time to go for breakfast...

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JEWS:...Anti-Semitism Said To Be Rising In The U.S....Oh, Boy...There Is Some, But It's Always Been There...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Wealthy Jews are withdrawing donations to elite colleges and universities in the U.S., the result of, they say, students siding with Palestine in the ongoing bitch-slapping with Israel. Keep your freakin' money, clowns!

You donate to support higher learning, not to buy influence!

Goddam, does that piss me off. Okay. Okay. We are sympathetic to the Jewish state's historical fight against the terroristic organization we've come to know as Hamas. Someday, we won't have this, but, for now, we do have it and we are taking sides. That is not good for Americans.

A day ago, it was former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, an ambassador in the Obama Administration, saying his family would no longer donate to the University of Pennsylvania (better known as simply Penn) after students signed a letter damning Israel's announced plan to invade Palestine. Yes, Hamas attacked first, and Hamas holds several high-up positions in Palestine's government.

The student angle is wacko.

Our schools have thrived in offering the best of knowledge, always challenging students to expand their minds on everything from domestic issues to foreign relations.

But the Jews are not okay with a little free-thinking.

That is wrong and shortsighted.

This from The Washington Examiner: [ The Walmart Foundation, the retail giant's philanthropic body, committed $1 million to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum amid the Israel-Hamas war and a rising wave of antisemitism.

Funding from the Walmart Foundation will serve as a response to the "increase in antisemitic speech and hate crimes," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said.

This new wave of hate emerged in the wake of Hamas's incitement of the Middle East's latest war, he said, according to a report.

The $1 million will go toward equipping outreach programs with the means necessary to educate individuals about the horrors and impact of the Holocaust as well as "the dangers of antisemitism in order to inspire people to confront hate and promote human dignity," McMillon said. ]

We're hip to the Holocaust and its place in history. America has never been able to shed its guilt on allowing it to happen for so long at the beginning of World War II. As told, some 6 million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany.

Since then, the U.S. has served as Israel's Big Brother, defending it and everything it says and stands for. We're okay with most of it, but not with simply going carte blanche on every little ache & pain Israel suffers.

Get real.

Our students will be educated, and they will think things out for themselves.

That is who WE are...

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WAR:...American President Lands In Israel...A Hospital Is Bombed...Another 100 Or So Dead...Who Did It?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The American president arrived all smiles and hugs. Israel would be saved. That's the geo-political optic this fine morning here in the U.S. In Gaza City, a hospital lay in ruin, bombed into a heap of rubble and no one taking blame.

It's war, yes.

This excerpt from axios.com on President Joe Buden's visit to the war zone: [ Biden landed in Tel Aviv today to show solidarity with Israel in its war against Hamas, and to try to prevent the war from spreading. But the Middle East is already bubbling over with rage - and the war's shockwaves are increasingly tough to contain.

A deadly missile blast Tuesday at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds of Palestinians, Gaza officials said - and inspired protests throughout the Arab world. The day felt like a turning point in a war in which signs of escalation and rising tension are all around.

Hamas blamed Israel for the strike. Israel said it had evidence that another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, fired the missile.

Anger swept through the Arab world as images of those killed or wounded at the hospital hit TV and social media, complicating Biden's push for diplomacy.

Reports in Arab media that cast the explosion as a massacre by Israel drove thousands of protesters to the streets of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. ]

A planned meeting with leaders of other regional leaders fell by the wayside after the hospital bombing. This after Israel blamed Hamas for the attack on the hospital. It killed hundreds.

Biden seemed to believe the Israeli assertion that Israel was not behind the bombing.

Others were not so convinced.

The much-ballyhooed all-out military assault on Gaza has yet to unfold. Pundits are saying Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been corralled a bit by the U.S.,,,

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