TACO TUESDAY:...Grub At The Lonely Airport...Who is Zamir?... Melly...Little Hands Blogger Jimmy Barton...Fast Eddie Garcia...Letty Perez-Garzoria...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Okay, how many of you farmworkers know that Brownsville has an airport? Raise your skinny arms and show me your hands, even if they're Trump-like "little hands," like secondhand information specialist Blogger Jim Barton's. Come on. Come on now. What - no hands?

Geez, Louise. What if you built an airport for commercial travel and nobody came?

Well, that's Brownsville, the most populated city in the Rio Grande Valley. It counts almost 200,000 fun-starved residents. Smaller Harlingen, a few miles to the west, has the region's busiest airport. Its population is barely 77,000.

What's wrong with that picture?

Everything. El Brownsville once served major airlines like Pan Am and Braniff. Today, it has a sprinkling of daily flights, but no damned rush by anyone to get out of town, which is what every taxpaying resident of this border town ought to do. How much has the city spent on improvements? Ands still no flights to major destinations, like Cancun? Paris? Rome? Laredo?

The photo you see above is of an empty space inside the renovated Brownsville airport terminal. It is being marketed to anyone wishing to open a restaurant at the local airport. Will a major eatery amble in? Will some local entrepreneur go for it?

I mean, hey, you'd have the overweight airport employees as steady customers.

The depressing space's deal is being promoted by slack-jaw District 2 City Commissioner Linda Macias, who opens her Youtube spiel on the deal with a very long-winded, totally-Border "Ahhhhlooooo-OH" before noting the positive, possibly money-making side of the empty space. Good luck, Linda.

This latest Casa De Nylon bun crib just doesn't do anything for the appetite, honeybun.

Burning Tacos at the airport may sound like a needed novelty to the thousands here who weekly flock to their neighborhood taquerias but would maybe want a change of scenery and different accompanying noise. Eh, Vatos Locos, let's trade gunfire for take-off noise!

"Three crispy tacos de pollo," you say as engines rev-out out on the tarmac.

Que wild!

Plus, Linda Lou, why name the street leading into and out of the airport after Amelia Earhart? I mean, homely cockpit hack Amelia got lost in the South Pacific and was never found! John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California is located on "Airport Way".

Paging Linda "Raton" Macias.

You have a call from Whataburger on Line 3...

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I miss Melissa Zamora. She was the only one who could summon me to Brownsville, and I'd be there in a jiffy. Sweet Melly was no artist or even "caricaturist," but she was a city commissioner and that meant for something in our Big Fat Book about Brownsville people.

Once, likely while extremely bored, the amateur caricaturist Nenny Barton, now dead 5 years, drew a cartoon of Melly and Melly did not like it. Nenny, no Basquiat, had drawn a wilting red flower in Melly's beautiful hair.

Melly being Melly, well, she drew the one you see above of Nenny, and signed it.

Wow, that almost sounds like the intro to Wooly Bully: Melly told Nenny, about a thing she saw...

You get it.

In any case, wouldn't it be just more wunnerful if we had both Melly and Nenny back with us? Yeah, what a wonderful world it would be, as aging-and-about-dead Peter Noone might say about here.

Nenny's death was followed by weird news that her husband, Jimmy Barton, had donated her body to science, and the last we heard, the beautiful Melissa was working for a public utilities company in San Antonio.

So, you see. I have nothing currently drawing me to the border town at the Gaping Sphincter of the Rio Grande.

I remember Melly asking a string of questions when we first met in Browntown. One was about whether I was working for a newspaper.

"No, I'm in citrus now," I told her, adding I was living in The City of Palms, known for its many, many, many, many orchards.

She wriggled in the manner pretty women wriggle, with all-out romantic abandon... 

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Who, pray tell is Dr. Asim Zamir (fleshy dude in red tie above), the medical man often featured but never explained on Elderly-About-Town Blogger Jerry McHale's "A Day With Missing Pieces" blog? Zamir can be found there on the Discount Blog alongside such neighborhood luminaries as Laura E. Cisneros, Tito Mata, Erasmo Castro, Ronnie Saenz, Bob Sanchez, Abelardo Gomez and, yesterday, even dead Omar Lucio, the former sheriff.

Jerry's geriatric absurdities are, of course, well-known and even expected.

This doesn't seem that absurd, but what's the connection with Zamir, or Zamir's connection with the blog, the city and the readership? We would venture to say that this obscure doctor is not a public figure, yet there he is included amongst a veritable who's who of local yokel politicians.

To us, Zamir actually looks like what we would envision Rigo Tovar to look like today were he still alive. Yes, the sadly deceased Matamoros crooner. This guy kinda, sorta looks like Rigo. Rigo with a bad haircut.

Perhaps El Paya Jerry (shown wearing bowling shirt in photo at right) will flesh Zamir out and tell us what the roadside attraction is with this dude. If only El Paya would fall out of his motel bed, bounce his head and shake the cobwebs off his lunch-bucket brain. He's 74 next month, btw - older than most horses and cars.

At his cemetery-ready age, McHale can be excused for whimsically believing that a literal smorgasbord of widows lay before him this entire year. Surprisingly hale, a few of those wrinkled Babes had undergone spiritual tune-ups with the departure of their husbands and, according to El Paya Jerry, had become wonderful, even sexually creative company. We'll leave the imagery to your imagination.

As for Dr. Zamir, well, there has to be a story there, Paya.

Tell it, son. Is he your doctor, your ex-wife's doctor, your son's doctor. Every however-small character fills a place in any given story.

Fans in the balcony are asking: Quien es Zamir?...

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Ah, ese Eddie Garcia! The schoolboard trustee may only look like a "Loser At Love," for rumors move across town and the blogs that he has had more than his share of what we used to call "winter clothing" during our frigid Fall Semesters in college.

Eddie was postured front-center by Pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya this week on grounds that the BISD Trustee had for some damned-crazy reason men know as pussy promised a woman a job in exchange for, well, Juan didn't quiet say. A job, maybe?

But, as with all cheap-ass mystery novels, Eddie Garcia reportedly fell back on his promise and the unidentified woman first balked and them neighed. All who heard her heard the beginnings of a ribald tale of sorts. Perhaps we'll get to the finer, more-scintillating details next, eh, Juan?

Anyway, Fast Eddie Garcia is a candidate for the job of county tax assessor, only it may just be that he'll bail on that one too, if bad-shitty publicity still makes a real man reassess his political ass and seek redemption from the church.

We cannot tell you who the woman with Eddie in the photo above is, however. If fleshy, jowlsy Dairy Necks are a clue, Eddie Garcia looks happy to be with this pleasant-looking sweetheart, yes.

The long, hard history of Brownsville tells us it is dudes who have mistreated, hit, abused, lied to and in general been assholes to women that are the real fucked-up Border Bandits - Not Juan N. Cortina, a man who alternative border lore has it knew how to treat his big nalgas Babes.

Mexican-looking, high school hallway lothario Eddie "Soy De San Luis" Garcia appears to be one of those gents not exactly in the Best-of-Vatos molds, but still excellent at remorseless repartee...

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Alex Dominguez seems to be back in the political arena (...I almost wrote political enema). Why, is the question. He wants to be a state rep once again, after being one for a few years not that long ago and leaving the job for a failed run at the Texas Senate.

Get lost, Dominguez! You give politics a bad name, to paraphrase Jon Bon Jovi.

You bald quitter. Quit your quitting and quit your stupid personal games. What - being a Nobody saddened you? What did you ever do the first time you found yourself at the State Legislature in Austin? Why, some of the local bloggers were labeling you a wildly-successful rep! If only!! Oh, there were a few pieces of minor legislation you got across the line, but nothing freakin' half-ass memorable.

Go back to La Feria, lad.

You've miscalculated: This is not the Era of Rethreads.    

We need do'ers and representatives out to aid the valley and not themselves. We need loud voices and dudes able to arm tackle and horse collar the strong Republican opposition upstate. We need rough play, ese. Targeting specialists, yes.

Sorry, cowboy.

But you don't fit the prototype for today's game, Alex. And don't do the pathetic, totally expected and sign-on with the starving bloggers to push your unwanted, unnecessary campaign, for that will identify you even more as being nothing but a Barrio Patsy. We've had it with candidates who bring their campaigns personalized with the smells of chicken plates and rice & beans.

You are the sort of politician arriving in unsurpassed bleakness, at a time when the landscape of your failures seems almost to afford politics a dismal glamour...

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He's supposedly headed back to Brownsville after a time in pig-smelling Iowa. That would be one Jimmy Boy Barton, shown in photo above with wife Nenny. "Little Hands" Barton rode Texas Southmost College pretty hard all summer.

Something dark and foreboding and still unresolved about the college's welding program was at the lower colon of his blog almost daily. Joined at the hip by feller Blogger Jerry "El Paya" McHale, Barton typed away like a drug-addled woodpecker for weeks, only to see the story fizzle in the humiliating manner of an old man's premature ejaculation.

Both of them, it is said, tinkled with excitement...in the same cracked cantina urinal.

There's been not a word about the college since these two Word Pushers petered out a month ago. But, man, they were like crazed fire ants evicted from the mound. TSC, its welding program and administrators were hounded for weeks by unemployed, house husband Barton.

Then, his story went whoooooooooooosh. Neighbors heard it blast out of the proverbial outhouse like a fattened avocado sandwich fart, right through the half-moon-shaped window, never to be heard from again. Little Hands Barton (He ragged Trump about his little hands, btw) stopped typing. He'd failed at bringing down the popular little city college and again felt the old familiar pain of working the graveyard shift at that cheap motel.

Recently, Barty changed his blog's slogan from the "human nature" behind the news to "Have Nurse Wife, Will Travel." Of course, we sent him a note, changing it to its rightful place: "Have Nurse Wife, Will Eat." 

Then, Maria, the girthy, Dairy Neck Barton attempted to include dummy conscientious objectors in the honoring of veterans on our annual Veterans Day last week. Talk about a tone-deaf fucker.

We bitched back at him in several of our stories, our anger rising out of knowledge that Sad Sack Barton did not serve in the military, and we suspect he actually was a conscientious objector himself.

That misguided lunkhead won't say, but he should...

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We have been repeatedly asked about a possible worthy opponent for head-strong Republican Mayra Flores in the upcoming, much-anticipated 34th Congressional District race...and we have a name!

Letty Perez-Garzoria.

A Mayra vs. Letty knockdown/drag out would be malarious!

We all know Letty also is a pro-Trump backer, and we know of her vigorous style on the campaign trail, and we know there's an age-difference there, and we know age-differences between Mexican women always bring on some real brawling lulus.

Let's get it on! En esta esquina!!!

But we're only dreaming on this one. Mayra is pretty much holding the Republican nomination in her itching hands, and Letty is likely not even interested. What a pity.

Mayra has three opponents in the party primary, only all three of them are Losers At The Starting Blocks - raw rookie Laura E. Cisneros, The Big Nothing Greg Kunkle and Vato-at-Large Mauro Garza, all just another cover band Peter, Paul and Almond Trio.

But, hey, if any of you get word that Perez-Garzoria has entered the fray, well, do let us know and there'll be a quick $10 gift card to Taco Bell for you and your girlfriend. Posthaste, yes.

Rapido, rapido!!!...

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Taco Tuesday out...

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WAR:...Giddy Israel Now Bent On Vile Ethnic Cleansing And Genocide In Gaza...More than 11,000 Dead...No Ceasefire, No Retreat, Says Netanyahu...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Jews are giddy. Israel was attacked by terrorists last October 7 and there came the one opportunity it needed to rid itself of Palestinians once and for all. Strike back at Gaza and strike often, with the best weapons Americans can provide.

That's one image hanging on as the so-called war against Hamas terrorists continues in America's Middle East military base. That's what Israel is to planners at the Pentagon, a sand-bound aircraft carrier in the touchy, ever-antsy Middle East - hence the Ultra BIG BUCKS $3.31 billion Israel gets in foreign aid from the U.S.

Also included in that pro-Israel largesse is $100 billion more proposed recently by the Joe Biden Administration.

Without the Israelis, the U.S. would have to go BIG on soldier and weaponry deployment in a region where hate for America is strong.

So far, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's all-out assault on its neighbors. There will be no ceasefire, no withdrawal anytime soon, is what Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said over the weekend.

There remains much support in the U.S. for the Israeli military response, but reaction across the world - especially in Europe - is fast moving against the Israelis. Calls by the United Nations, of which the U.S. and Israel are members, have gone unheeded by the Jews.

It is now also being labeled genocide and ethnic cleansing.

On most other occasions (World War II, in Germany), the U.S. would be at the forefront of both criticism and anger at such action, but not this time. Most Americans are siding with Israel, ignoring the damning accusations.

And it's hard to see what the U.S. can do other than call for a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid into war-torn Gaza, to hospitals and schools especially. American President Biden has asked Israel to exert more caution in its assault of Gaza City, for example, where the civilian death count continues to spiral. As yet, to no avail, we should add.

When will it end?

When Israel believes it has killed every Palestinian in Gaza, is our learned response.

You'd have to dig through libraries and libraries of military history to find another time when the U.S. stood by while another country was bombed off the map of the world. We waited perhaps a bit too long to save Jews from the Nazis in WWII, but Ethnic cleansing took us into Kosovo during the Clinton administration of the 1990s.

It's not happening in this case.

May God have mercy on us...

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REPUBLICANS:...Scott Bows Out Of GOP 2024 Presidential Run...Campaign Flailed For Months...He's Not Endorsing Anyone Else Yet...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | In the bitter end, he discovered there was no ground to win. Tim Scott dropped out of the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination race yesterday. The U.S. Senator from South Carolina managed barely enough votes to make the GOP's first three debates, but the bad writing was on the wall, as they say in political graffiti.

There was an early surge and some talk that the 58-year-old Scott was finding a footing in the contest. That, however, faded as the year came to an end.

This from axios.com: [ Scott announced Sunday that he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. His surprise announcement comes after he spent aggressively during his campaign, but struggled to rise in the polls in the crowded 2024 primary.

"When I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. I am suspending my campaign," he said in an interview on Fox News.

"I think the voters, who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they're telling me: not now," Scott said. ]

Scott held short on any endorsement of the remaining candidates.

His campaign, like that of the other pretenders, was sort of stalled by recognition of Donald J. Trump's frontrunner standing with Republican voters and the party.

Left in the debate fray are former South Carolina Gov. Nimarata "Nikki" Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Their next debate is schedule for next month in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Trump has not participated in any of the events so far, and odds are good that he will skip the next - and last- one before the Iowa Caucus in mid-January.

National polls show Trump well ahead of the pack...

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SUNDAY SERMON:...Radical Catholic Bishop Joe Strickland Ousted...Pope Francis Forcibly Removes Him...Cites Ceaseless Criticism Of The Vatican...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It was a rare public put-down from The Vatican, but Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, shown in photo above, is out of a job. Angered Pope Francis forcibly removed him yesterday, citing Strickland's proactive politics.

A social media priest, especially an ultra-conservative like this one who had been critical of the Pope's positions on a variety of issues, was not going to stand.

This from The Associated Press: [ Pope Francis on Saturday ordered the removal of the bishop of Tyler, Texas, a conservative prelate active on social media who has been a fierce critic of the pontiff and has come to symbolize the polarization within the U.S. Catholic hierarchy.

A one-line statement from the Vatican said Francis had "relieved" Bishop Strickland of the pastoral governance of Tyler and appointed the bishop of Austin as the temporary administrator.

Strickland, 65, has emerged as a leading critic of Francis, accusing him in a tweet earlier this year of "undermining the deposit of faith." He has been particularly critical of Francis’ recent meeting on the future of the Catholic Church during which hot-button issues were discussed, including ways to better welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics.

Earlier this year, the Vatican sent in investigators to look into his governance of the diocese, amid reports that priests and laypeople in Tyler had complained and that he was making unorthodox claims.]

Strickland was asked to resign last November, but he refused.

Removal of Catholic Bishops is extremely rare.

The vocal Strickland had repeatedly pushed against the Pope on a number of social issues, usually taking the conservative approach frowned upon by the church. Indeed, much of what Bishop Strickland was writing on social media mirrored positions currently taken by right-wingers in the Republican Party.

On his removal, the unrepentant Strickland said: "I really can't look to any reason except I've threatened some of the powers that be with the truth of the gospel."

Strickland's very public removal has drawn support from former ever-battling Congressman Louie Gohmert, the far, far, far right-wing politician. Gohmert posted this on his X account: "Unfortunately, this seems to indicate the Pope is staunchly AGAINST a Bishop who follows Jesus example by saying "go & sin no more," & is FOR eliminating what the Bible says is sin. Does this prove no one’s perfect?"

More blowback is expected from the region's conservative population.

Perhaps an outbound march by some in the Tyler flock...

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VETERANS DAY:...Today Is For Thanking Veterans...Not For Praising Conscientious Objectors...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | He didn't serve and won't say why not. Cowardly, we know. Again, we speak badly of elderly Blogger Jim Barton, who yesterday "observed" Veterans Day by equating military service to his apparently beloved Conscientious Objectors, who did NOT serve.

The 75-year-old largely uneducated Barton, shown in photo above, even cavalierly posted a photo of acclaimed boxer Muhammad Ali (see it below) to make his point. Ali was a Conscientious Objector during the Vietnam Conflict. That had much to do at the time with Ali - formerly Cassius Clay - aligning with Nation of Islam bullshitter Louis Farrakhan, who also never served.

"In essence, they may be doing almost the same thing as the soldier on the battlefield, just choosing a different battlefield," wrote the pitiful Barton, without laughing.

If the Conscientious Objectors had a "battlefield," it was in their crying, "Mama, I don't want to go!" brains. They were around during the Vietnam draft, but never at the draft board or at the enlistment centers for the respective branches of the U.S. military. Never in uniform, however.

They cried it loudly, "We object to the war!" And then they said it was a "religious" opposition. Those trudging off to serve could only shake their heads and frown at the losers. I remember.

And then they ran off to Canada or sat down to file paperwork tying their refusal to serve to handy religious outs.

Barton did not serve. He was definitely of draft age in the 1960s, but he didn't serve.

He's been asked repeatedly by us to explain why not, but he declines at every turn. This posting on the Conscientious Objectors perhaps is the clue - he was one?

We say, "Just say it, dude."

If you fully believe that it was fine to be a Conscientious Objector, then stand by it like a man, not some wishy-washy hangdog-eye loser who is still ashamed of having not served. Interestingly, his ex-wife Nenny did serve. She died in April of 2018, but she went off having served in the U.S. Army.

On his comatose blog, Slothy Barton is very often critical of do'ers - public servants, politicians and anyone who may himself or herself in the news. With no military service or college education to his name, he really should just shut the fuck up. Looking inward may resolve his issues, it says here.

Today is officially Veterans Day.

Flags will fly and festivities will honor those who served.

There is NONE of that for Conscientious Objectors.

They objected, after all - objected to serving the same country so many others served. You would think that it would be clear to him that someone has to serve.

For some damned stupid reason, House Husband Blogger Barton grants Conscientious Objectors too great a standing.

And he does it by lowering the value of the service veterans willingly provided to their country - the same one he so readily enjoyed for those seven freakin' decades of Mickey D burgers & fries. Apologize, lad. You're so wrong.

Look at him in the photo atop this posting. That's the face of a clown who will diss veterans.

How brave...

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VETERANS DAY:...The Country Shows Its Proper Appreciation...Not Every American Serves...Honor Those Who Did...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

HARLINGEN, Texas | It's a small community gesture, but one aimed at the right place. This mid-valley city yesterday unveiled signage noting special parking spots for its many veterans. Mayor Norma Sepulveda seems to be behind many of her city's improvements and tributes.

And it's in keeping with today being the day we observe Veterans Day in this country, even as your calendar says tomorrow is the official day to honor those who served the U.S. military.

We're sure other Valley cities will also join in the celebratory festivities, if we can ever use that word in the same sentence with anything military.

But, sure, serving the country isn't necessarily only about loading weaponry and going to battle and war, to kill and be in harm's way. Many, many veterans serve far from those dangers.

We honor those who fought, but also those who served.

I know, I know. Veterans here could park their vehicles pretty much anywhere they wished, but it's always nice to bring special attention to those who have volunteered to aid the country. There are many, many Americans who do not serve, for a variety of reasons, some good and some disgusting.

Veterans did, and, for their service, they should be singled out for praise and attention on this one particular day.

It's the least a grateful nation can do...

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[ADDED NOTE:...The Editor of this blog is a U.S. Navy veteran, having served four years as a Corpsman (Medic), two of those years with the U.S. Marines...]

SUN CHRISTMAS:...A Video For "Peace On Earth"...

THE AMERICAN HOUSE: ...Where Exactly Are We At Present...As Bad Off And As Fast-Fading, As Politicians Say?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | To hear the loud, constant word coming daily from the political ballpark, local, state and national, is to be told the story of a country going to Hell. Everything is wrong with the U.S., and everything is getting worse.

Do you believe it?

Do you believe it just because it comes out of the mouth of a well-known politician?

Is our southern border as open as they say it is? Is abortion the total ruination of our society? Is Ukraine right and Russia wrong? Is the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza okay with you? Is that all about revenge, or so you know a bit more about the historical angle to that Middle East strife? All that is important, yet do you cede your brain to politicians when framing a position?

Americans are all over the place on these current issues. All of them are hot & heavy as we head into the 2024 General election.

Where a politician stands on the issue-of-the-day drives the news media. The news media reports what it wants to report to please their audience, but you're left to decide which media outlet to trust - not just trust for today, but trust for the long run.

Occasionally, I find myself in serious discussions on all of the above. At my breakfast restaurant here in town, the gents and ladies I hang out with love to talk the talk, as they say. I get (and give) opinions, as well. That's what discussion groups do.

But I also meddle in some friendly Facebook pages, especially if they engage their friends in topics of interest. One of those is former Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, who also served Texas as Secretary of State some eight years ago.

Yesterday, Mr. Cascos (shown in photo below) offered this: [ After watching the nationwide election results last night, Democrats had a good night. Abortion rights were strengthened in several states, the Virginia statehouse flipped from R to D, Kentucky (a Red state) the Democrat Governor retained his seat in spite of Trump's endorsement of his opponent. If this is any indication leading into 2024, Republicans better have a better plan, platform & strategy & this applies to local Republican races as well.

If we do not stop with the meaningless catchy phrases, polarizing rhetoric, & negative campaigning, there will be difficulty winning any races. A candidate bashing the opposition or other political party, without providing a viable, sustainable & pragmatic campaign will fail. Kitchen table politics....jobs, infrastructure, health care, education, public safety, border security should be the key issues, at least here in the Valley. Just my thoughts. ]

One of the smarter gents in my Wednesday morning Discussion Group has come around. As recently as a year ago, he was a devoted Republican. "The legal mess he fell into finally turned me off," he said. "Donald Trump is not the answer to the country's needs; he is now the problem we must overcome."

I hear some of that same sentiment elsewhere, and have been reading much about it in news reports, but I'm not yet convinced Trump is losing sleep over those who flee him. His so-called base is roughly 30% of the voting public, not enough to win a national election.

He lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden by some 7 million votes. This before he staged his noisy coup de Etat that was labeled a protest and then an insurrection in January 2021 ahead of Biden's inauguration.

We'll see where we go from here.

I'm buoyed by what some of our thoughtful conservative news pundits are writing these days. It's a surprise to read about Trump as a problem in The Wall Street Journal, but there they are every so often. Same for The New York Post and The Washington Examiner.

I'm not so sure Trump has a path to the White House, no.

Americans are easy to manipulate by politicians, especially the back home ones who promise, promise and promise. Of course, we all like to think that the country is one to be protected, and that our national politicians will do just that.

They haven't lately.

But that's the premise of nationality...

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DEBATES:...Long, Long Night For Animals...Nikki Haley Calls Vivek "Scum"...DeSantis Says Trump Is Yesterday...A Nation Sighs...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | As debates go, this one was a bit more excitable than the first two. Republicans can get easily angry in private, and, yes, they seem to be way better at it in public lately, but it is in rare moments when they must go for each other's throats that we see them for who and what they really are.

Debate III last night for Republican Party 2024 nomination hopefuls was the Ol' family knockdown-drag out.

It peaked with ex-South Carolina Gov. Nimarata "Nikki" Haley, but the other calico cats also chimed in with a few of their digs.

This moment from 51-year-old Haley, after a brief exchange on abortion as a political issue, from politico.com: [ "I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice," Haley said at one point. The others on the stage took their turns trying to trip her up, going after her on political, policy and even personal matters. At one point, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy attacked her for criticizing TikTok even as her daughter was once on the app.

"You’re just scum," Haley replied. ]

Ramaswamy, at 37, is the youngest and glibbest of the remaining five candidates (not counting oft-indicted Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's criminal favorite).

Haley was described as a "female Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels."

She fired back that they were 5-inch.

It went on a bit like this on matters to do with immigration, the war in Ukraine, the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the whereabouts of no-show Trump. Fighting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, polling best among these wannabes, openly said Trump "is not the guy he was in 2016 (when he won)," seeming to want to segue into saying Trump cannot win the 2024 General Election against incumbent Democrat Joe Biden.

The others - former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott - had their own moments, but both looked as if two dudes at the wrong party.

Scott's "girlfriend," a woman some pundits said may not exist, does, as news reports have it. It's a strange time we live in, so that piece of information filling out Scott's candidacy appeared to be important. Mindy Noce is the galpal's name, a lanky, hawk-nose white chick.

The "debate" was the last one of the season.

It's on to the primaries, with the Iowa Caucus next January 15 being the first test...

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REPUBLICANS:...Surprise!... Blogger Jim Barton Has Tiny Hands...Didn't He Rag Trump About His?...Yes, He Did!!!...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | He's the one forever ragging on Republican Donald J. Trump. Yeah, the dairy neck dude you see in photo above. Oh, he's also been ragging us at The McAllen Sun, but we're immune to his pedestrian attacks.

Jim Barton is his name.

He's a backbench, low-readership Brownsville blogger, the only one without a college education (no degree) and the only who has ever donated a dead wife to science.

Yesterday, the 75-year-old posted this photo alongside a lame story about the age of 75 being "the new 55." Yeah. We're still laughing. He damned sure looks a few months past 75 to us, and we're usually pretty sympathetic to the dreams of our elderly citizens.

But - damn! - we also noticed that this guy has "tiny hands." Yeah, like Trump (see photo below), the one Barton earlier mocked for having "tiny hands." How can that be? A blogger criticizing someone else's small hands when his own are also small?

It happened yesterday on Jim Barton's comatose blog, and it likely is still there, unless he deleted the silly story and weird photograph. A very insecure man, Barton tends to do that when his stories don't work out, like when he blows it and has to remove it ASAP.

It is just a stunning development to see Barton with such smallish hands. He needs to trim his nails, but maybe he doesn't so that his fingers will look longer. You think?

Yeah, what else are we supposed to think?

Look at Trump's hands in the photo and then look at Barton's hands in the photo atop this post. It is uncanny. The similarity is convicting.

We do not want to ever again hear Barton ragging on Trump's tiny hands. What a hypocrite!

And what's next - chubby Barton's weight same as Trump's? Barton's fattened neck, common in most 75-year-old men, is a freakin' rugby football! Look at Trump's neck! Yikes!!!

Unemployed House Husband Barton, formerly a motel clerk and a shrimp boat unloader at the Port of Brownsville, keeps posting and posting and posting denigrating photoshopped "art" of yours truly on his silly Laundromat Bulletin Board blog, so, okay, this could just be us balancing the competitive ledger. Heady News organizations worth their weight in salt are never friendly with the competition.  

Tiny hands...poor guy...poor wife...

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THE VOTE:...Ohio Handily Slaps Down Anti-Abortion Republicans...Virginia Hands State Senate And House To Democrats...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It was a good day for Democrats. Yesterday's votes in Ohio and in Virginia made for a nice evening with that cold beer and New York Steak.

Abortion remains a lightning rod, but Ohio told the country it is not ready to outlaw it - dealing a clear blow to rabid, anti-abortion Republicans.

In Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin saw his voters hand the State Senate to Democrats and flip the formerly Republican-led State House of Representatives.

But it is abortion that keeps getting the attention.

This from axios.com: [ Ohio voters have adopted an amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. The amendment, labeled Issue 1 on Tuesday's ballot, guarantees a person's right to an abortion and other reproductive care up until fetal viability, which is usually about 23 to 24 weeks.

The Associated Press called the race with early votes plus about 25% of Ohio's precincts reporting, with roughly 57% voting for the proposed amendment.

Abortion rights advocates overcame several obstacles in the lead-up to Tuesday's vote.

Anti-abortion rights groups tried to make it more difficult for the amendment to succeed by raising the passage threshold of constitutional amendments to 60%.

But Ohio voters rejected that proposal in the August special election with 57% opposing it, so Tuesday's ballot issue needed only a simple majority to pass. ]

Pundits are wondering about President Joe Biden's race against (...it looks like more and more) pseudo-Republican Donald J. Trump in the 2024 General Election, but maybe that's just the press wanting and needing a horse race at the polls.

Even a good Republican like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, still a candidate for the party's 2024 presidential nomination, says Republicans will go down if the party opts for Trump as its candidate against Democrat Biden.

I agree with that entirely...

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TACO TUESDAY:...Dept. Of Absurdities....We Write-Off Laura E. Cisneros...Conjoined Bloggers McHale & Barton Still Awful...Mayra Flores Is "In"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Her see-through political resume remains exceedingly thin and open to question. Not even a short stint as fighting board member of the city's handicapped-only softball league or under-assistant to the assistant of the assistant city manager. No, no, no. Dr. Laura E. Cisneros, shown in photo above, is not ready for prime time, as in a believable congressional candidate.

Last year, she ran in the Democratic Party's primary and was soundly beaten by eventual winner, Vicente Gonzalez, who took 65% of the vote to Laura's 23% - or 25,531 votes to 8,456.

What she's doing in the upcoming Republican Party primary is the question likely dancing at her ankles and happy feet. This candidate is the proverbial fish out of water. Someone hand this cute Pet Store guppy a bowl of water. She seems to need the attention more than the swim.

Cisneros has bought herself an ear with For Sale Jerry McHale, the elderly-about-town Blogger and acknowledged self-serving spouter of pieties and lies. This weekend, Cisneros was listed in McHale's blog as being ahead of better-known, better-positioned Republican Mayra Flores in a race that everybody who knows even a smidgen of Rio Grande Valley politics says has already been won by the twitchy Ms. Flores.

No contest. We agree. Elderly-about-town Blogger McHale (shown at right) is only taking her money, if she is paying him for "great, however-lying" publicity.

If ever there was a candidate around here who should be out there personally campaigning and not leaving the work to a blogger who lives with the evil he is fighting it is Laura E. Cisneros. The alliance with the blogger known for noxious effluvia puts her intelligence in question. How dumb can she be? Pretty dumb, we say. 

Exactly what is she buying from McHale - frippery?

It appears that she is. For while McHale is now posturing her as a veritable Margaret Thatcher, Laura E. Cisnero is nothing of the sort. She's green. She's a nobody. She's doomed. She's done.

Mayra Flores, it says here, will win the nomination easily.

It's a wonder to think of what McHale had to say to Madam Cisneros to get her to go along with him as daily conveyer of her ill-advised campaign. That he would simply write lies showing she was ahead of the candidate pack? That he would do it over and over and over and over, as if to convince the apparently-pliant Laura, mainly?

Well, yes.

That's the cheap, outhouse ruse here. For Laura E. Cisneros is fooling herself. Loose stool McHale is coming off the disastrous Welding Recital that saw him make wild allegations against Texas Southmost College and then, when his breathless stories went nowhere, merely slinked away as if none of it had ever happened.

That was to be expected of the blogger without serious newsroom experience.

And even with the coming mountain of pro-Cisneros postings McHale will offer, well, she will be of no historical significance. There is nothing poetical about her, unlike the intriguing rise of engrossing Mayra Flores from her early days in Burgos, Mexico to her 6-month stint as a U.S. Congresswoman in 2022.

Flores offers the immutable aspects of a divine plan, Laura E. Cisneros the phonetic apparatus of a dying cricket.

Cisneros, the good doctor of oncology, lives in brawling Brownsville, a lackluster, under-achieving border town where the imagination always roams freer. But, here, in this more-than-silly campaign, she sees herself walking through a Monet!!!!

We say she fails to understand her place in the large order of things...

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Well, it was to be expected. Once his writing mentor Jerry McHale ripped-off our Taco Tuesday concept, along came Jim "Blah, Blah" Barton - shown in recent photo above - to also steal it. McHale went all-burglar and even took our title (Taco Tuesday), but 75-year-old Barton, perhaps working with road-weary brain cells, opted to call his "Stormy Monday".

Well, that promised much.

We expected a breaking news exclusive!

But, no, Barton's initial offering in Stormy Monday this week was a lame look at (wait on it)...The Beatles. Talk about a groupie, junior high posting. The Beatles? They are about as much of a local topic as are The Mamas & Papas, although papas is a word you hear daily around here, yes.

And we don't ever expect much from Barton (shown at left). He's the only RGV blogger without a college degree, a former motel clerk, a former trailer park resident, a former shrimp boat unloader and the only dude we know who has ever donated his dead wife's body to science.

Stormy Monday. Ha ha.

Better would have been if lazy Barton had burst forth with a Stormy Daniels feature. But we fear his lack of formal education has rendered him a very linear man. Stormy Monday equals The Beatles. Huh? To house husband Barton it does.

Poor dude. He's like an annoying old coot in a nursing home forever bugging the staff about the gumball machine that took his nickel...

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 Ah, Abel Gomez. The gung-ho constable at All-You-Can-Eat Night at Wingstop. He's in a reelection fight against every angled dark shadow in Cameron County. Gomez (shown above) is just another supporting cast character in the show we know as Puro South Texas. He'd never be mistaken for a smarty, city dude.

No, he's the one who apparently got Vato-mad after we sort of amended his campaign message on Facebook: "...seeking reelection" to what we saw as the more correct one of "...seeking weight reduction".

The good, obscure constable complained to Elderly-About-Town Blogger McHale, who promptly removed our comment on his Facebook page and then blocked us.

We don't know Gomez...and with any luck we never will...

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Okay, kids, for 300 pesos...who's got the cushiest job in town? He gets $40,000 per year as mayor and he's done nothing so far in this his first year. Is that the trade-off - he gets 40 grand and the people get nothing? What a racket, as Vitas Gerulaitis would say about here.

John Cowen is his name, and he remains the Mayor of Brownsville, needy, dirt-poor, with all kinds of freakin' needs Brownsville! Bus shelters, John? Potholes, Cowen? Flooding, son? Utilities rate reductions, lad? Do something!!!

No, John Cowen apparently isn't up to it.

He's just glad to be mayor. Everything else can wait. He's young and there are many years ahead. Plus, no one is pushing his ass to do anything. The usually quick-to-anger bloggers aren't looking his way. They're staring down mirage welding controversies at the local college.

John Cowen can see he's getting a free pass.

Other RGV mayors are going gangbusters promoting their cities and drawing new businesses. John Cowen is glad Whataburger hasn't left town.

What a loser...

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The Elderly-About-Town Blogger Jerry McHale stole our slogan. What is this meandering moron without our blog? 

Our masthead carries the slogan "Our Only Loyalty Is To The Story," meaning we don't kowtow to anyone, politicians especially - like he often does, without apology.

Gangly, balding, woefully out of shape McHale, shown when in better shape in photo above, took it and used it as "My Only Loyalty Is To The Story." The loser strikes again. We say, and say aloud: May God damn him. Forced to come up with something original, 74-year-old (next month) McHale would likely drop to his knees, beg for another assignment and cry like a fattened, cleft-lipped baby on his first day at the daycare center.

Forever claiming to be a "writer," McHale all-too-often steals material from other writers. He's no writer we would praise without laughing, as does his student blogger Jim "Blah, Blah" Barton. The two bookend toilets rub each other's backs as often as they can, mainly because no one else will do it. McHale is a nothing, an unaccomplished dolt wrinkled not only of skin but in thought.

Even a mid-level editor at a Big City newspaper would rip him to shreds on Day One.

He knows it.

McHale is Brownsville's Official Wannabe.

Writer? Ha ha. His blog is a moving toilet paper roll of pestilential vapors...

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The mostly-hairless gent you see in photo above is Tad Hasse (his last name means "Rabbit" in German), said to soon be a candidate for the post of Chairman of the Cameron County Republican Party. The job is currently held by Morgan Graham. We've heard nothing about her giving up the post, but Hasse's name has been tossed around by some as if farmworkers peeing in a circle.

Hasse would be the figurehead leader of the GOP in the county, which is odd and ridiculous.

He lost his last race as a candidate for the State Board of Education (SBOE) four years ago by 29,000 votes to incumbent Ruben Cortez.

29,000 votes!

What does he know about politics? And we're not even mentioning the other elections he lost, or the fact that he switched parties more than twice. Once, he was even a Libertarian.

Something tells us that one of these days, Hasse, a prolific pro-Trump, pro-MAGA poster on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, will finally discover who he really is and isn't.

It may save him, or it may kill him.

That's the fate of those who mess with politics from all angles, forever wishing to win, to belong...

-0- 

At this point, what we're hearing - and hearing often - from Not-Quite-Grassroots Republican Mayra Flores and her campaign people is that they want a Wall between her and her opponents in the upcoming Republican Party primary. You know which primary - the one for that nomination that will then give entry to the 2024 General Election against well-heeled, better-educated Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Mayra's been a little too quiet of late, but we think she's still busy with that Instant Anglo Immersion class the whitey GOP has forced her to take.

I mean, she has a coterie of Whites pushing, framing, spearheading, disseminating her much-anticipated campaign!

The girl is already 3/4 White!!!

Well, perhaps we jest. But where there's a little bit of truth, there's the rest of the truth, is what we would say about those who would oppose our words here.

Impassioned Mayra Flores is well, well-ahead of opponents Mauro "Gag Me" Garza, Greg "Knucklehead" Kunkle and Laura E. "La Chafa" Cisneros, a woefully insecure candidate who throws money away at the drop of a compliment (re: her alliance with For Hire Blogger McHale).

When you have the backing of the Republican National Committee, you have it all.

Mayra Flores has that backing...

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Pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya isn't doing much these days. His best offering is the constancy of sentient comments arriving on his Bracero blog.

Juan is merely posting cartoons, posters and better-written stories he lifts from other news sites. Is he well?

Once, he set the tone for burning alternative news in Brownsville. Today, and of late, he has been more a ditzy BISD secretary than a Busy Bee reporter.

Eh, Juan - Que pasa? Deja la botella, ese.

We were concerned when he never surfaced to fend-off Culo Bloggers McHale and Barton on that Welding Recital scandal that turned out to be no scandal at all. Everyone in town knows of Juan's undying affinity for Texas Southmost College, target of the welding rumormongering.

He just let pussies McHale and Barton type and type and type away, the aging duo slamming TSC almost daily and leading to a Hell's Bells confrontation at the eatery Cobbleheads between gangly McHale and TSC Chair Adela Garza and TSC Trustee Tony Zavaleta.

Montoya (shown in photo with guitar) sat back and simply watched the stinking avalanche bounce off his old defenseless alma mater like lakes of Bad Shit sewage coming off broken city sewer pipes. Monty fired back only after the initial anti-TSC salvo and never wrote another word after that.

Yeah, quien sabe?

Commenters on his Caldo Del Cielo blog, however, went to town, many of them damning menso McHale and sonso Barton as being two dudes with blogs but without a clue.

We did enjoy reading most of them, yes.

 Juan is a history buff, so maybe he'll tell the not-so-thrilling, not-so-true TSC welding recital tale one of these days...

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Taco Tuesday out!!!

-30-

TRIALS:...Alina Habba, Dumb Assyrian Lawyer Defending Sleazy Donald Trump, Calls Prosecutor Letitia James A "Black Bitch"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Donald J. Trump had himself a barrel of laughs while testifying yesterday at his $250 million fraud trial in New York. The fat dude was uncontrollable. Brash and loud, Trump took on Judge Arthur Engoron as if kicking doofus son Eric's behind.

Not that Engoron simply took it. He yelled back at the pompous Republican and admonished him more than once.

So, where the Hell were his lawyers?

Acting up, that's where. Trump has two relatively unknown lawyers at his side, Christopher Kise and Alina Habba. It is Habba, shown in photo above, who has taken Trump's boisterous style to heart. The 39-year-old Chaldean (Assyrian, from Iraq) went straight to the press microphones after the day's court session and also berated Judge Ergoron.

We fear for her law license in New York.

Her roiling abdominal spiel offered to the attending press came after Engoron told her to "Sit down!" after she interrupted the judge's questioning of the moron Trump, a man who stands to lose millions as well as his ability to do business in the State of New York. You'd think he'd want to be nice as he testified.

But nooooooooooo-oh. Loudmouth Trump hemmed and hawed, rolled his eyes, made faces and in general played the 9-year-old in an adult court.

We knew nothing about attorney Habba, but there is much online about her.

Apparently, she met Trump when she sought membership at his Bedminster Golf Club and soon formed a sort of friendship.

Her legal record is slim. She's been practicing since 2010, which is relatively brief for such a high-profile case. But maybe she works cheaply, so.

In any case, there is something of a connection to the main players in this trial, namely NY Attorney General Letitia James, the one who brought the fraud case against Deadbeat Trump.

Like this, from Wikipedia: [ On July 19, 2022, Habba was sued by a former employee Na'Syia Drayton who claimed Habba repeatedly sang inappropriate gangster rap and hip hop music in the office while using the N word, made racist comments, and referred to New York's attorney general Letitia James as "that Black bitch." The lawsuit was settled out of court in September 2022. Habba had called James a "sick person" in January of the same year. ]

It's a head-spinner, for sure.

That's who Trump picked for legal advice?

Well, we questioned that at first, but then decided Habba fits Trump's idea of a LOSER, so...

The trial continues this morning...

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DEBATES:...3rd And Final One For Republicans Set For This Wednesday...Chicken Donald Trump Will Not Be There...Nor Mike Pence...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It'll be the third and final Republican debate of this wacky political season. That comes this Wednesday in Miami. And not all of the usual suspects will be there, especially not the self-anointed, oft-indicted GOP God, Donald J. Trump.

Missing this go-round will be former Veep Mike Pence. He dropped out last week, citing a lack of campaign cash and woeful polling. Pence has not endorsed anyone yet.

Expected to be onstage are ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

And maybe North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum if he can muster a more positive polling result between today and late-tomorrow, when the official lineup will be announced by the sponsoring Republican National Committee.

Self-aggrandizing, Cheeto-colored Trump has not participated in any of the party's debates, leaving Americans to imagine how he would have fared against better speakers and candidates more-attuned to the needs of the nation. Trump Cult followers have not sneezed a word about his absence.

The party primaries begin with the Iowa Caucus, scheduled to be held January 15, 2024 - MLK Day.

We suspect that several more Republicans pretenders will drop out between now and the Iowa Caucus, probably for the same reasons Pence bailed out.

The debate will be hosted by NBC News, with moderators Lester Holt, Kristen Welker and conservative-leaning commentator Hugh Hewitt.

The two-hour debate begins at 8:00 PM...

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SUN SPOTS:..."Morning In The Sticks," A Sort Of Love Story...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas |...You've been to a lonely outpost of the sort you see in the photograph above, some dusty, isolated little dot on a map between medium-sized towns out west. Not a fast-food joint for miles. No nifty, 24-hour Holiday Inn, no competing gas stations, no choice in restaurants.

It forces me to stop, to stop and check things out, talk to the locals, ask them about their lifestyle, their needs and wants and dreams. The rough unadorned lands, are a harsh taskmaster, is what they will tell you.

It's there and it's free, allowing for endless back-breaking work, for goofing-off and for a moment of true peace. No fast-charging 18-wheeler to break the afternoon tranquility, perhaps a high-flying, Paris-bound jetliner throwing a neat white line across a light-blue sky, the contrail looking like some low-leg, life-affirming capillary way up there.

You tell me you once had a shot at moving out, moving away to the big city. But the soldier never came home. You waited and then it was simply too late.

You invite me in for a cup of coffee and let loose a raging river of words that tell your story. I drink from my cup slowly, taking in every sentence, every scene being painted.

The young soldier was killed in South Vietnam.

Not much information about how, but confirmation that he died bravely, or as bravely as one can take an unseen bullet. Then you show me a stack of faded, old photographs of when you and the soldier were kids, playing in the hillsides and the ravines, chasing coyotes after annoying the chickens, laughing ahead of what you believe will be a great life. You pull out a much-newer, framed photo of your wedding day and tell me this one is a good man, still providing.

I inhale deeply.

She's the bravest woman I've ever known. At the front door, she graciously thanks me for stopping by and talking. From the aging porch, she waves goodbye, does it with true, all-out sincerity.

It's four-five miles down the road before I can breathe easy...

-30-

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This short story is from a collection stacked at my feet alongside my working desk. Perhaps I'll tell myself I'm finished with it one of these days and float it all to some publisher. Sometimes, I like most of my stories and at others I tell myself I've yet to find perfection, which is my goal. You'd have to be me to understand that one...]

TRIALS:...Trump Testifies Today...NY Court Will Then Decide How Much He Will Pay For Defrauding The State Of New York...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | He's up next, like this morning. That would be one Donald J. Trump walking up to the witness stand in his $250 million fraud trial.

It comes as the trial is winding down, but it's just him and daughter Ivanka left off the diseased family tree. Sons Donald Jr and Eric testified last week, offering curt, well-rehearsed answers to questions about who within the Trump organization was responsible for inflating the value of assets when meeting with bankers for loans and deflating them when filing taxes.

It's been a television news comedy without good joke writers, unless you believe the Trumps' testimony has been laughable.

This excerpt from newrepublic.com: [ New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has had enough, apparently. The gag order silencing Donald Trump in the $250 million bank fraud trial is now extended to Trump’s entire legal team, according to a judge’s order issued Friday.

In his written order, Engoron banned Trump’s attorneys from commenting on his courtroom staff.

"Since the commencement of this bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages. The First Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical harm," Engoron wrote in the supplemental gag order, noting that he has an "unfettered right" to consult with his staff throughout the trial.

Violating the new order would come with "serious sanctions," he warned. ]

So, knowing Fast Donald's penchant for addressing the press on the steps of the courthouse at every opportunity, one wonders whether he will be able to restrain himself today.

He'll testify. And he'll likely say what his sons told the court, that it is his accountants who are to blame for the massive fraud.

The thing is Engoron has already found the Trump Organization GUILTY of fraud.

This testimony is solely for the purpose of allowing Engoron to feel good about his final decision on just how much Trump will have to pay the State of New York for defrauding it.

Good luck, Don...

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BLOGGER JIM BARTON: ...He Takes Stuff From Our Response To His Silliness, But Here It Is In Its Entirety...Son, Real News Is Hell...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | We've always been competitive. That's the nature of the news business in the Big Time. Here locally, not so much, but we do have our critics and haters - like ever-boring, milquetoast Brownsville Blogger Jim Barton of motel clerk and dockworker fame.

He is shown in photo above, at center.

Earlier, he had posted a rather lame story about how I waste my writing talent, seeming somewhat eager to show me that he appreciated my skill and wished I didn't "destroy" other bloggers.

Then later in morning, he posted his usual attack on me, with dumb photoshopped photos of yours truly, as if that hurts me. I've had critics all my writing life, from actual news reporters too-jealous to be believed to writers of letters-to-the-editor who wished me death and unemployment.

Barton? He's a harmless, spineless minnow.

But here in its entirety is the letter we sent him, just to set things straight since he took only some from it for his attack post:

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. . . "Well, It's Sunday morning, so I'll be kind. First of all, (HA!) I don't see you or Lying Jerry as competitors in even the barest definition of the word. Both you and McHale are largely unaccomplished "pseudo, psychobabble journalists," and Montoya's mostly-Brownsville Herald experience pales against mine. You know it and we all know it.

My anger at you is that you believe yourself to be a newsman, when you're nothing of the sort.

You're a motel/dock worker quick to steal "position," wear homemade PRESS badges and, now, feature ideas off my Blog.

Most of my readers are from McAllen. My use of Brownsville is simply because it lucked out and found itself in the Rio Grande Valley. There is a difference between my hometown of McAllen and Brownsville - a big difference. I just note it occasionally and you go all-Moron.

You're not a reporter, not an educated one, at least. You are the Journalism equivalent of the clowns accused of "Stolen Valor" when posturing themselves as military veterans when they never, like you, served!

And the biggest laugh is that you believe I care what you and El Lying Jerry think of me.

I was written about in The Village Voice and the New York Daily News when I worked in the Big Apple. You think words from you, a Literal Nobody, affect me? Get real, fool!

And I never said shit about your wife in a sexual manner. If I did, it was after you threw that stuff about my "plump" lady friend from Kyle, Texas. She wasn't plump and had great teeth, plus she was a millionaire. All I said was that you should get Ana some dental care. That overbite looks awful.

Finally, I come here (to Jimmy's Laundromat Bulletin Board blog) looking for material for my weekly TACO TUESDAY feature. You (and Lying, Elderly-About-Town Jerry) never disappoint me.

And thanks for the compliments. I've heard that for years, and that's not bragging. You should ask ex-Herald Reporter Rey Guevara-Vasquez about my work for The Houston Post. I got him a job there in the 1980s. He and I even covered the Great Earthquake of 1985 in Mexico City. Rey won't lie, 'cause he's been there in the Big City newsroom. Don't publish this; just paste it on your expansive forehead.

Paz out..."

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There, that's what riled-up Jimmy Boy.

He's an accomplishment loser from way back. Tell us about why your family moved from Washington to the Valley when you were of draft age (and never served). What about your formal education? Did you attend Brownsville High, or did you get a handy GED?

What other jobs have you had? List a few. We all know that your lovely, deserved-better ex-wife Nenny (shown in photo at right), the one whose body you donated to science, worked all her life to help support you, as is doing your current wife, the Filipina Ana.

Go ahead, Tell it all, brother. Impress us with the truth.

It'll free you from that heavy load you carry in your head and on your shoulders, making you look like an elderly, physically-eccentric slob.

The weird "who knows?" word is you're a societal loser and an unaccomplished, balding Old Man. The one you think is your best friend used to call me often and the things he said about you and Ana's "Southmost" appearance would no doubt piss you off.

I say, "Own it all..."

-30-

[EDITOR'S NOTE:...I am a proud U.S. Navy veteran, having served four years of active duty as a Corpsman (medic) - two years with the U.S. Marines, at Camp Pendleton in California and at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina...]   

DEMOCRATS:...Law Says Mayra Flores Can Certainly Pay Herself $60,000 From Campaign Contributions ...Democrats Blinded By Partisan Hate...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | ...There was the star-crossed Blogger Juan A. Montoya, a lifelong Democrat, ragging on Republican Mayra Flores for having the audacity to pay herself a $5,000-per-month salary off her hefty campaign contributions.

It's all cool. It is not illegal, but Democrats always go nuts pointing things out. The salary over a year's period would be $60,000.

In 2002, the Federal Election Commission voted to allow candidates running for Congress or president to use their campaign contributions to pay themselves salaries.

The move was intended to make it easier for people who are not wealthy to quit their jobs and run for office. Without a campaign salary, they are at a disadvantage against incumbents, who collect taxpayer-paid salaries as they seek re-election.

We're okay with this. It is, after all, campaign contributions and NOT taxpayer funds. You contribute to a candidate and, well, that candidate is free to use that cash as it best fits his or her campaign. Some candidates use contributions to pay for legal expenses, as we have seen with grubby Republican Donald J. Trump.

But then we ran into a lively give & take on the Facebook page availed by well-known Republican (and former Democrat) Carlos Cascos. We were and weren't surprised by his argument.

He had this to say: "It is self-serving for elected officials or candidates to utilize campaign funds to pay themselves 5 or 6 figure salaries in addition to paying for meals, groceries & incidentals to subsidize their lifestyle or livelihood for themselves and/or family members. For those that do it should be asked to explain the rationale.....it just doesn't look right to me, regardless of position or political affiliation. Period."

Well, okay.

Sure, it doesn't look good. But as we noted, it is NOT illegal. And working with the premise that if something is not illegal...it is legal, then what Mayra Flores is doing is just fine.

It is.

Looks and appearances is what Mr. Cascos, a former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State, is saying. We would wish all politicians to take his position, but they don't. We all know they don't, so...

As always, the people who ultimately count on all political arguments are the voters.

Voters will decide Mayra's fate in the party primary next Spring. Will this "Pay Myself" move mean much by then? No. Mayra remains the overwhelming favorite to win her primary contest and then tackle Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in the November,2024 General Election. 

By the way, Democrat Beto O'Rourke left his defeat to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott with a large amount of cash (a few million) still in his campaign coffers.

What's he doing with it? Democrats aren't asking.

Using it as best he sees fit, likely also taking a few bucks for himself.

Don't rag on party favorite Mayra Flores for the legal things she's doing; look for anything she may be doing that is illegal. I mean, if you hate her that much, like Blogger Montoya...

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