REPUBLICANS:...Hardliners Take Lead In House Speaker Search...Scalise and Jordan, Both MAGA...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Two well-known Republican hardliners are emerging as possible replacements for ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, one a former college wrestling coach accused of ignoring sexual harassment of his wrestlers by team doctors and the other a dude who says he is racist "David Duke without the baggage."

Meet the coach, Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio (shown at right in photo above)

And meet Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise, the David Duke fan (shown at left in photo above).

Both have surfaced as leading candidates for the thankless Speaker's post, both arriving with clear Donald J. Trump blessings, both talking tough about the Mexican border, the Joe Biden Administration, no aid for Ukraine and, among other issues, no more prosecution of the aforementioned Trump.

McCarthy was ousted in a stunning vote yesterday. He has now said he will not seek the job.

This about Scalise from a fellow Republican who requested anonymity: [Scalise’s moves are already being met with some backlash. One member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus suggested that Scalise would be no different than malleable McCarthy as speaker. "Since conservatives are concerned about the poor scheduling of appropriations bills this year, why would we elevate the person in charge of the schedule, the majority leader, to speaker?" the lawmaker asked. ]

The other candidate, 59-year-old Jordan shown in photo above, is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus made up of hard-right Republicans also known as MAGA Republicans. Jordan at present is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the one that has been investigating presidential son Hunter Biden in what Republicans say is a case of wanton lawbreaking, bribery, tax fraud and drug-use.

Jordan was first elected in 2007 as congressman from Ohio's 4th District. Earlier in his adult life, he was a college wrestler and later a wrestling coach at Ohio State University, where he faced allegations of turning a blind eye to student wrestler complaints that the team doctor was sexually harassing them. Jordan has denied knowledge of the harassment.

Scalise's claim to fame had earlier come from being shot by an assailant as he practiced with the Republican Party's softball team in Washington, D.C. That incident, involving an armed man who later told police he did it because he hated Republicans, happened on July 14, 2017. Scalise suffered a serious wound to his upper thigh and left side of his torso, enduring long months of recovery and rehabilitation in a hospital.

Hardliner Scalise is 57. He represents the 1st Congressional District of Louisiana and has been serving as the House Majority Leader prior to McCarthy's ouster. He has been in Congress since 2008. (McCarthy is shown in photo above) 

A few other Republican members of the House have been mentioned, but it is Scalise and Jordan who seem to have the inside lane...

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MEXICO:...Drug Cartels Float Banners Claiming Fentanyl Is Not Their Gig...

 

STAFF REPORT

CULIACAN, Mexico | They've been hit hard by U.S. authorities as being responsible for the loads and loads of killing Fentanyl drugs moving across the border and into American hands.

The cartels now beg to differ.

This from a recent report at mexiconewsdaily.com: [ The banners seen in Sinaloa say the production and sale of fentanyl - an opioid responsible for a spike in overdoses in the U.S. in recent years - is banned by "Los Chapitos." ]

Banned, they say.

No comment yet from U.S. officials...

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SUN MOMENTS:...The Editor At Play...Daily Life & Pleasure In The City of Palms...

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Perhaps they were right in putting love into books...Perhaps it could not live anywhere else..." - Wm. Faulkner, Light In August

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CHAOS:...Indicted Donald J. Trump As Speaker...McCarthy Hurt So Bad...A Confederacy Of Dunces...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | You cannot be serious. Oft-indicted Donald Trump as Speaker of the House of Representatives? Maybe. A Big Maybe, but maybe.

Troubled Speaker Kevin McCarthy (shown in photo below) is out, kicked out by rebellious Republicans angry just because it's free to get angry. Nutty South Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry is the interim Bozo, his first act yesterday was to tell former Speaker Nancy Pelosi she must vacate her "private" office.

Yes, Maria, we're still a country dog-paddling in a half-empty glass of bad Kool-Aid.

This from thehill.com on Trump being in the picture (is he ever out of it?): [ The Speaker of the House is not required to be a sitting member of Congress, though no Speaker has ever held the role without being a member.

Before Republicans won back the House in the 2022 midterms, Trump said he would not be interested in taking the top job. 

"No, I think that it’s not something I wanted. It’s brought up all the time," he said last March. "No, it’s not something I want to do. I want to look at what’s happening, and then we’re going to be doing something else. No, it’s not something I would be interested in."

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) also said he would back Trump for speaker.

McCarthy announced late Tuesday that he would not attempt to become Speaker again. The GOP conference will have a candidate forum next Tuesday to select their pick for the role, with Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) presiding. ]

Yeah. Bang the drum slowly, George Washington.

We're still mired in a dysfunction of national proportions, and we don't seem to have a plan for getting out of it...

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SHOCKER:...House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Ousted...Far Right-Wing Republicans Act On Their Threat...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | How long did it last? Weeks? Months? Months, yes. Today ended House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's stay as leader of the House of Representatives, as angry members of the so-called far right-wing Freedom Caucus ousted him in a stunner.

Republican McCarthy was elected Speaker only this past January!

It is the first such removal in the country's history.

This from axios.com: [ House Republicans made history on Tuesday by voting to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post, setting up another grueling speaker election without a clear successor.

This could create an unprecedented stalemate in the House. McCarthy's speaker election in January took the most ballots since before the Civil War, and Republicans have struggled to maintain a functioning majority for moving legislation.

The final count was 216 to 210, with the motion to vacate requiring a majority vote. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a close McCarthy ally, will serve as acting speaker until a new one is elected.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced the motion to vacate on Monday, with eight Republicans joining all House Democrats on the final vote to remove McCarthy.

Ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said it was "now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War."

Gaetz, who has long had a contentious relationship with McCarthy, threatened to introduce the motion for weeks if the California Republican allowed a continuing resolution to stop a government shutdown to come to the floor. ]

There is, as of this report, no named alternative to replace McCarthy.

Gaetz, shown in photo above, at right, called McCarthy a "creature of the swamp," referring to those in Congress contributing to its current dysfunction.

The move was just a threat a few days ago, before the passage of the government's new spending bill late last Saturday.

Members of the Freedom Caucus, including Gaetz and fiery Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, acted on that threat today...

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TACO TUESDAY:...Welding Recital Wanes?..."El Rambo" Incommunicado?...Neece Is A No Go?...Questions Abound...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Fess-up now. For a split second, you thought you were seeing TSC Trustee Tony Zavaleta-Reid dragging nauseating blogger Jerry McHale under that fence. You know you did. It's okay. You can be excused. El Jerry has earned the disgust he is now feeling from everyone in town. Tony Zavaleta has not forgiven him, and El Jerry has upped the ante by assigning the incongruous nickname of "Zit" to his once-close friend.

You can now picture them inside a small boxing ring, El Jerry and his glass jaw in one corner and bullish Tony in the other. Don't look away; this fight will not last long. Dancing, feigning El Jerry, shown with odd mustache in photo below, will be caught with a vicious overhand right and it'll be his wrinkling face on the canvas in the opening seconds of the first round. Yeah, we were there, Jerry!

The word "Friendship" generally has a meaning in most places. Not in Brownsville, however.

Here, a friend is a day-to-day thing. Ask ex-Mayor Pat Ahumada about his on & off friendship with pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya. Ask former Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez and the same Montoya. Ask McHale and the same, again, Montoya. Ha ha ha. There's a clear pattern there.

And we're not even mentioning the local women. Maria, it's a moving hair-pulling Armageddon up and down the streets of Brownsville, Baby.

It'll be a few cold beers before Tony Zavaleta forgives loose-wheel McHale, a blogger without class or borders, one known far and wide in town as a blogger who would burn the mother of his children at the drop of a $300 grocery store tab.

But we're coming up on the festive Holiday Season, so anything is possible. The ever-hating McHale could stumble into his beloved Cobbleheads eatery and see taller, stockier, stronger Tony sitting there. Uh, don't do it, Jerry.

Not if you like your remaining teeth...

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Ben Neece, perhaps the Valley's last answer to guitarist Carlos Santana, apparently is not biting on that hard push looking to see him run for an unpaid seat on the Texas Southmost College Board of Trustees. The happy-go-lucky Neece has not said a word or taken any action indicating he's interested.

No surprise there.

What does Neece, an accomplished musician and former city commissioner, want with - or from - the local junior college - blog infamy?

We're pretty sure he's heard of the emergency somersaults his pal Tony Zavaleta is having to endure thanks to their blog friend (former, in the case of Tony) El Jerry McHale, he of the "Hate is my best friend" lifestyle. Can you imagine a slam job by the sloppy blogger on Neece?

Holy Moley on that one.

I mean, Ben is the one who gave El Jerry the itsy-bitsy of credence he has a downtown troubadour with that cien pesos Mercado de Matamoros acoustic guitar of his. El Jerry is no Peter Tork of The Monkees! No, not even. They may sort of resemble each other from a distance, but no, no - El Jerry is a musical poser, a desperate wannabe, yes.

No question about it. Has anyone heard his guitar strings plunking?

Man, someone get him some plastic strings before he strums like a crazed culero and kills himself.

As for Ben, well, suffice it to say that we hear he's into his retirement years as things relate to politics and local blogging. It's a guess, yes, but an educated guess.

Plus, we'll go on a limb and add that, like Tony Zavaleta, the non-nonsense Neece will not be seen at El Jerry's funeral. But do look for fawning blogging foil Jimmy Barton to be there.

He'll be asked to sing something fake befitting El Jerry's lying, always-bitching blog, like a bad, bad rendition of "Wooly Bully."

Yeah, Matty told Hatty...

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Speaking of Jimmy Barton (that's the aging 75-year-old Washington transplant taking a shower outdoors in photo above), he seems to have quickly faded from that excitable story he backed into to do with the welding program over at the aforementioned Texas Southmost College.

What - no story today?!

No, he's into immigration now. As with his typing, Barton is once again all over the place. He has no formal training in news journalism, so it's to be expected. He has no college degree, so maybe he can't even tell himself that. But he's likely making plans to wrap up the stinging tale of corruption at TSC, waiting and being there next year, the following year, the next five to ten years.

Corny grows you, Jimmy Boy. 

He doesn't know it, but Barton is a walking glue stick. So long as he stays close to other Brownsville bloggers, well, he thinks he's one of them. They do talk about him (we have been on the receiving end of some interesting calls) and it's not something Barton would wish to know. Poor guy. He sooooooo-oh wants to belong, to join-in on the general garrulity, but, as for reporting ability, the lad simply does not have the scopious knowledge learned only through real newsroom experience.

All these two yoyos (Barton and McHale) are selling is a bankrupt carnival.

His main pal - fellow Anglo El Jerry - praises him to no end, as is El Jerry's wont with everybody whose stories/copy he uses for his photos, depression & jokes blog.

Barton believes it, falls for it, forgetting that the other local bloggers are players from way, way, way back - from a time when Barton was bagging stuff at Glen's Grocery Store on Boca Chica Blvd. and, later working a motel desk while also unloading shrimp boats at the Port of Brownsville.

That he thinks he's their equal is all in his head.

You would've had to be there at Blanca White's in Matamoros, the Resaca Club at Fort Brown or Studio 5 near Amigoland Mall, picking up women after deadline. No, Barton was not there with El Jerry or third blogger Juan Montoya.

He was cashiering at the grocery store...

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Has this guy said anything to do with the Welding Recital gifted to the city by Bloggers El Jerry McHale and Jimmy Boy Barton? We haven't seen anything resembling affirmation or denial of the overly-excitable allegations made by the non-journalist bloggers.

What sayeth Kenneth "Rambo" Tynan, shown in photo above.    

Geez, Maria, this is the Texas Southmost College dude (director of the department offering the welding classes in question) both bloggers banked on for their overland drive, and he has not risen to either substantiate their unconfirmed reporting or denied it.

Rambo ain't takin'.

Too bad for the amateur bloggers, as they are left holding the proverbial 73 and 75-year-old scrotum bag. We would have told them to chase this guy down, to pin him down for an interview in which he answered to the many allegations. I mean, the bloggers were writing about "crooked" administrators (the school pres!) and about guns being holstered while on campus.

Rambo said nuthin'.

Still, they typed and typed and typed and typed.

For nothing, it seems...

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We have been surprised by how quiet blogger Juan Montoya (shown above) has been in the wake of all the tepid, over-seasoned menudo thrown by his fellow bloggers at his old school - Texas Southmost College. For some reason, we were pretty sure Montoya would fire back at plebe bloggers El Jerry McHale and Jimmy Boy Barton.

Apparently, we were wrong.

Montoya has written not one word beyond a non-bylined defense that appeared on his blog soon after the first anti-TSC salvo hit Brownsville. We do know that Montoya has a soft spot for TSC and for TSC Board Chair Adela Garza.

But, no, nothing.

What could be behind the decision to stonewall the issue, to act as if the allegations are not out there swimming every gravesite-sized pothole and brackish-water resaca in town. It's a mind number. As in numbing, we mean.

Oh, well. Perhaps Juan is onboard with the idea that his blogging mates will tire of not nailing the story and move on to something else, like the upcoming Charro Days Festival. It's a political move we know, so, yeah, maybe that's it.

It's too bad, we say.

So many buckets of mud lobbed at the attractive Ms. Garza and at respected TSC board member Tony Zavaleta and at school President Dr. Jesus Rodriguez and no return fire or fire extinguisher spray.

Is it like it never happened for TSC?

The ever-crusading Montoya is cool with that?

Yeah...

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She's still the one to beat. Information may be slithering across town saying her opponents are gaining on her, but that's wishful thinking. Republican Mayra Flores is on schedule to win the Republican party's primary ahead of an anticipated second showdown with Democrat Vicente Gonzalez for his 34th Congressional District seat.

Bet on it. Bank it.

Believing that opponents Laura E. Cisneros, Mauro Garza, Gregory Kunkle and anyone else has the gunpowder to waylay Flores is to believe in welding scandals a bit more than they would deserve.

Vicente Gonzales is smartly planning on battling Mayra Flores, not some unknown or "New Republican" candidate who voted Democrat in the most recent election. Only a novice pundit would denigrate Flores.

She is backed by the well-funded Republican National Committee!

(BTW, Allen West is not chairman of the Texas Republican Party, as sloppy Blogger El Jerry McHale noted in a story knocking Mayra Flores on Monday; Matt Rinaldi is.)

Not any of the other hopeful dolts, no. Not that we back her, but Mayra Flores has the lungs to raise Hell from here until, well, Hell Freezes Over. You know it and I know it.

Wishing for a horse race in the primaries is a blogger's dream, yes.

But healthy brains will rid you of any sort of desire for a close race or an upset. It says here that Mayra Flores will be the Republican nominee in November 2024. Don't believe it?

Ask Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott...

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These culinary delicacies in the photo above are the absolutely delicious Birria Tacos, known far and wide as the National Food of Mexico's provincias... 

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CRIME:...South Texas Cong. Henry Cuellar Carjacked...He's Fine...Car Found...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

LAREDO, Texas | The odds of Henry Cuellar being carjacked in his hometown are likely astronomical, like a jillion to one. He is that well-known and, well, carjackings are not all that common in this border town.

But Washington, D.C. - yeah, he gets carjacked there. Yesterday!

This from axios.com: [ Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was carjacked on Monday night outside an apartment building that houses dozens of fellow House members, according to his office.

D.C. Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Hugh Carew confirmed a "report of an armed carjacking" in D.C.'s Navy Yard neighborhood, near Capitol Hill. Cuellar's chief of staff Jacob Hochberg said in a statement that Cuellar was unharmed in the incident.

"As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle," Hochberg said.

"Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement." ]

They say all's well that ends well. Not much else to say.

Many of the comments that came after this story surfaced went to Cuellar being a Democrat and suffering the crime because of his party's so-called liberal crimefighting policies.

He represents the 28th Congressional District.

The knock against 68-year-old Cuellar is that he has voted with Republicans perhaps more than some of the younger GOPers in the House of Representatives...

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REPUBLICANS:...Trump In Court Today...New York On Him...Adios Trump Org....

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It begins today. Former real estate dabber Donald J. Trump is in court this morning, fighting off fraud charges just this side of his entire organization going down in flames. Look for an early Christmas present in the form of this dude headed for total ruination.

Are you ready?

I mean, are you ready!

This from politico.com: [ So, here’s a preview of coming attractions. Trump: The Lawsuits debuts this week. Today, in fact, in the Manhattan civil courtroom of Judge Arthur Engoron, judge of the Supreme Court 1st Judicial District in New York. This is the first of seven - count ’em, seven - trials Donald Trump is scheduled to face between now and Election Day. Let’s take stock of all the litigation to come.

Liberals are wired to see disaster in everything. We’re not supposed to discuss matters like this in the tone I’m about to use. But I submit that in this case, a little optimism is warranted, because I think it’s quite possible that by next November 5, Trump could not only be a damaged candidate because of these cases, but his careers (political and business), and indeed his life, could be in tatters. ]

Far-fetched, you say? Yeah, you, you local Republicans - you the ever-forgiving louts so eager to belong to something that does not want you.

Pick up that bottle of Mylanta. You'll need it by midweek.

Trump and his two ill-bred sons will be in court today, although he has said he won't hang out for all of it. But he knows what's at stake. "You betcha!" as one Sarah Palin might say about here.

Follow the proceedings.

It'll be a hoot...

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DEMOCRATS:...One Of Them Activated An Alarm In Capitol Building...Ninny Republicans Pounce...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Yes, he did it. A Democrat activated a fire alarm in the Capitol Building just before the House of Representatives voted on the federal spending bill last Saturday night.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman (shown doing it in photo above) said it was an accident.

Republicans say he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, as were the January 6 rioters.

This excerpt from nymag.com: [ Representative Bowman of New York was accused of deliberately pulling a fire alarm in a House office building on Saturday in the chaotic hours before a vote to fund the government and avert a shutdown.

In a statement posted on X/Twitter, Bryan Steil, the chair of the House Administration Committee said "Bowman pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning. An investigation into why it was pulled is underway."

A spokesperson for the progressive Democrat later said that "Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote. The Congressman regrets any confusion."

U.S. Capitol Police confirmed in a late-afternoon statement that "a fire alarm was activated on the 2nd floor of the Cannon Office Building" at 12:05 p.m., and the building was evacuated while officers made sure there was no threat. The USCP also said it was still investigating what happened.

Speaking with reporters after the House voted to pass a stopgap spending bill on Saturday afternoon, Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters "This is serious" and that the House Ethics Committee should investigate Bowman. The California Republican added that he would talk to Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries about the situation, and insisted that "this should not go without punishment."

Republican McCarthy even went so far as to compare Bowman’s actions to those undertaken by rioters on January 6, 2021. ]

It's just some more silliness.

Only Bowman knows the truth. He's saying it was accidental. Is that possible? Well, yeah. But what was he doing even messing with the alarm? Obviously, the photo (atop this post) shows him standing in front of it.

Not a biggie. It is to Republicans, however, but we all know about their numerous foibles.

We say: The truth is always best...

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SUN VIDEOS:...Teddy K. On Republicans And Minimum Wage...2007...Watch To End...

CONGRESS:...Govt. Shutdown Averted...Games By Silly GOP Rebels In The House...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Well, that was thisclose. Wild, needless infighting by rebellious Republicans in the House of Reps. brought the federal government to within hours of a shutdown. Midnight Saturday was to be the Golden Hour, or, more correctly, the Witching Hour, as a final vote approving the spending bill came late.

The Senate fell in once it had something to work with, and then President Joe Biden signed the required paperwork to avert the disaster.

This from politico.com: [ The legislation effectively punts the deadline for Congress' various spending fights to Nov. 17. It passed the upper chamber by a wide margin, 88-9.

"It's been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief. There will be no government shutdown," Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said shortly after passage.

The package is a departure from Senate leaders' original ambitions to include Ukraine aid in the short-term funding bill. The final version of the bill - which overwhelmingly passed the House with bipartisan support Saturday afternoon - only includes disaster relief alongside regular government funding. Senate Democrats now say they’ll be seeking a supplemental bill to continue assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia.

"Most Senate Republicans remain committed to helping our friends on the front lines," said Republican and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. ]

It never had to be this way, but that's our troubled Washington, D.C. these days.

With any luck, Congress will complete the work in November...

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NEW BARS:...Toloa Rooftop In North McAllen...Take The Babe Out On The Town...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The City of Palms keeps me well-entertained. I mean, I have my sweet, always-there Babes, but we never tire of hitting a new bar, of which there have been more than a few lately. Not that long ago, it was Harvey's On 10th, a small, but noisy joint we still enjoy, especially on Sunday afternoons.

But this latest one is a gas.

Toloa Rooftop way on the far-northern side of N. 10th Street is the latest entry into the high-dollar dine and drink market. Its uniqueness is being talked about in town as if the first of an emerging trend: Primo bars and nightclubs.

The mayor was over there the other day. Without hesitation, he labeled it a winner. Mayor Javier Villalobos even had someone photograph him inside the bar.

It is the neat, airy rooftop that grabbed at us, even as our late-September Friday evening date still felt the remains of the day's heat. But come cooler weather, Toloa Rooftop may have to limit the number of patrons it allows into the bar.

Many of the customers seemed to be enjoying the expansive (and expensive) menu, some out in the rooftop patio awaiting tables. It's not like the skyscraper bars of New York that held my attention back when I was writing for the New York Post, but Toloa offers a different view of North McAllen.

The week had been a long one for both of us (me with a new cleaning lady for my apartment and Laura messing with the Fiat dealer for her car), the exhaustion perhaps something to blame on the Summer's scorching weather. A cooldown is coming next weekend, however, and, well, we'll likely hang out at Toloa one more time.

Hey, new is new, and we like the new.

Oh, do enjoy the great DJ music at Toloa. It's worth the price, that being whatever you get on your tab when you cash-out at evening's end. Toloa Rooftop is located at 1200 Auburn Avenue.

The Rio Grande Valley is coming up in the world.

Well, at least the western end of it...

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SUN SPORTS:...Jayhawks In Town To Tangle With Horns...

 

STAFF REPORT

AUSTIN, Texas | The undefeated Kansas Jayhawks fly into Darrell K. Royal Stadium today to take on the also-undefeated #3 ranked Texas Longhorns. Both teams are 4-0.

This may be the last time these two Big 12 teams face off during the regular season, as Texas moves to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) next season.

Kansas is ranked #24 going into the game. 

Game time is 2:30 P.M. Central Standard Time.

You can catch the game on ABC-TV...

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MIGRANTS:...Stopping Them In Panama...U.S. To Spend $10 Million In New Effort...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's a good idea and something of a new approach to the ongoing migrant problem. Stop them way before they hit the U.S. - Mexico border. The plan by the Biden Administration just may work.

Or, at the very least, help.

This from axios.com: [ The unprecedented pilot program has been blocked by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) for months, but that has ended now that Menendez has ceded the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted on bribery charges.

The rapid action on a controversial plan is another indication of the administration's desperation to slow the number of people arriving at the border.

The Biden administration plans to notify Congress that it intends to spend up to $10 million in foreign aid on a pilot program to help Panama deport more migrants who do not qualify for protections, sources directly familiar tell Axios. Most of the immigrants cross into Panama by way of the Darian Gap in jungle country that connects Colombia and Panama. 

It would be a six-month pilot program, involving the State Department and Department of Homeland Security. The funds would initially be used to target single, adult males.

The pilot could launch as early as mid-October.

Panama has been asking the U.S. for this kind of help, according to internal planning documents viewed by Axios. ]

Mid-October is two weeks away. But something tells us the U.S. will begin to see results as early as the first week of November.

Mexico earlier had halted train operations that saw migrants climb aboard and hitch rides all the way to the country's northern border.

We'll follow this story and see how it goes...

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CASUAL FRIDAY:...The Book Of Life...The Resaca Of Fire ...Wretched Bloggers Lament...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Still no resolution to the city's silly Soap Opera quickly getting crazy attention from many in this luckless Border Town. Attacking bloggers currently roiling Texas Southmost College know it as "As The Welders Turn," while to the TSC crowd, it is known as "The Old & The Restless."

For bloggers, every unhappy, disgruntled student in the school's welding program is gold. For the TSC administration and board of trustees, those old and restless bloggers are nothing but annoying gnats to be fumigated.

Stay tuned.

It's been a little more than a week since excitable Bloggers El Jerry McHale and his typing shadow, Jimmy Barton, launched a half-baked attack on TSC Chair Adela Garza and school President Dr. Jesus Rodriguez. The two would-be detectives nailed nothing, but they got some attention as the cheesy innuendo quickly gained some traction, like that of a '58 Oldsmobile needing a tune-up but still clunking down a muddy downtown alley.

Perhaps next week, eh Boys?

McHale posted a photo of popular Justice of the Peace Linda Salazar yesterday, asking if maybe she would be a better TSC chair than Ms. Garza. I know, I know. El Jerry is Irish and the Irish are great at flashing their stubbornness. But that flaming ego of his - man, he can be vicious in defending himself even when wrong from the get-go.

Older Barton is a lesser evil, if only because he exhibits the brain of an eternal follower. His bent is to be El Jerry's Tonto, there to praise El Jerry daily and chime-in with a two-bear mambo laugh or two.

Barton's "Laundromat Bulletin Board" blog had fallen off the TSC story, the non-college graduate fixated on the arrest of a woman at SpaceX's property on Boca Chica. That's where he belongs, writing stories with hardly a spark, one no other media chases as tongue-heavy as he does. It's the thinning hair, dude! The jelly belly! The fat your son talked about when you told him you wanted to buy a scooter!

Then he got out of bed, perhaps combed his thinning hair and wrote another episode to the Welding Recital, this one about some "cancer inhibiting" move at TSC he explained badly. Writing does not come easily for vocabulary-addled Barton, although that can likely be traced back to his employment as a grocery store cashier/bagman, a motel clerk and a shrimp boat unloader. Never the professional, no.

Still, ever the chippy, beakless woodpecker, Barton let out a weird posting this morning in which he wrote: Many in Brownsville know that currently jailed Sylvia Atkinson and TSC Board Trustee Adela Garza are "as thick as thieves."

Huh? I think he means "friends," but that "thieves" thing could be interpreted differently. 

Lawyer-up, son!

But then, after we messaged him, Barton deleted the entire post! Ha ha ha. Amateur!

The hell-bent McHale kicked in the unlocked door. Now, let's see if he can nail someone - anyone! - responsible for the wrongdoing he cries about daily. On Friday, the balding blogger wondered if TSC boardmember Zavaleta was providing cover for the welding program director.

If there is something to all of this, good. Perhaps it's just a case of a good story being in the hands of inexperienced reporters.

Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day for this Lethargic Duo...

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What crazy stuff moves down Brownsville's mangled streets? Look at the downtown street in photo above. That's something to be proud of, Browntown? Fer Chrissakes, do something about it. Embarrassing is too kind a word to use about here. Pitiful? Pathetic?

Well, yes.

But perhaps folks at City Hall want their downtown streets to look like their downtown buildings. You can see the resemblance in the photo, as well. Man, this is 2023, not 1973.

Or maybe they're hoping some Hollywood type wants to come to town to film a western set in, say, 1955. Actor Kevin Costner as the Texas rancher chasing Border hero Juan N. Cortina through downtown streets. That scene aided by 100 horses galloping after Cortina, whooping and hollering all over the place.

Whoa, Howdy! Camera 1, pan in on Cortina's face. Get me that look of wild, perspiring desperation! ACTION!!!! Cameras 2 and 3 get ready as Cortina gets set to jump across the Rio Grande. Helicopter camera, you're on!!! Great, that's a wrap. Catering!!!

You'd love that, wouldn't you?

Those downtown streets are ready for Hollywood. Heh, heh...

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Just last week, the dude in photo you see above was persona non grata for blogger El Jerry McHale. His name is J.J. DeLeon and the mercurial McHale spent several articles on his blog encouraging Texas Southmost College boardmember Tony Zavaleta to enlist their friend Ben Neece as a quick replacement for the DeLeon, a trustee known for the most part in his home.

That idea has now flowed down the city's sewer lines, as McHale has angered and lost Zavaleta's friendship. McHale, seemingly an expert in mischievous sophistry, now wants DeLeon to challenge TSC Chair Adela Garza for her job.

It's a dizzying life McHale leads, boys. One day he's your best pal and the next he's your worst enemy, which is funny because he used to accuse former Blogger Robert Wightman of the same thing. Yes, Maria, he perhaps is cheered by the sight of herds and resaca flocks.

Could we say that he is enfeebled with age? McHale is 73, but we cannot say that, as we're not shrinks.

Going offstage is his recent act, however. I mean, who woulda thunk it to believe that he would unfriend Tony Zavaleta so viciously, a dude McHale praised and fawned-over for years! That blog of his is a weapon, and he uses it.

There must be some special pleasure he gets from flying to his pen for relief.

I don't know, but this, too, shall pass.

This ridiculous assault on TSC has to be some transit gust of enthusiasm for the cumbia-dancing McHale. The hilarity and good feeling will end.

Brownsville blogging is that predictable...

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Lost in local conversation during the TSC Soap Opera has been the whereabouts of mouthy Republican Mayra Flores, once the main target of local bloggers. She's still around, still harping on her road-weary issues of God, America and Legal Immigration.

Is she worried about her Republican opponents in the party primary?

You'd never know it, but opponents Mauro Garza of Raymondville and Laura Cisneros of Brownsville are not doing anything, either. Nothing. Both are "new" Republicans, with Cisneros ripping off and trashing her Democrat cape after last election. 

If this is a contest, well, someone should tell rookies Garza and Cisneros to start gunning their engines. Flores would want them to play toesies with each other as long as they wish, although we all know Mayra would be the flyswatter in any sort of pre-election brawl.

Garza seems the excitable one; Cisneros, as we have written a time or two, more the Happy Homemaker.

We'll see if there's fire in those Oppo eyes...

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Is there a coming defense here, we ask. Pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya, shown at right in photo above, has been - and probably will always be - the Great Defender of Texas Southmost College. That's TSC Chair Adela Garza in pink, btw.

Montoya attended TSC back in the day. The two Anglo bloggers currently rolling the school did not. Heavy-shoulders blogger Jerry McHale, aging as fast as Mylanta goes down the throat pipe after a night of bad rice (he wanted to eat 2,000 of something), claims to have graduated from Sacramento State in California (we're checking with the school on that one), while milquetoast Blogger Jimmy Barton never made it to college after high school, or was it after the GED stuff?

So, we're wondering why Montoya hasn't set these boys straight. I mean, once and for all. They keep spewing a story as if defecating "peas off a diseased pod." Trickling water is a Chinese torture drill. Here, McHale and Barton do it, only as if two elderly dudes (McHale will be 74 in December; Barton is an older-looking 75) unable to piss in a stream, but agonizing over painful drips.

Both wish to get out of this TSC Welding Recital they have fashioned for now going on two weeks.

The original issue they posed as if laughing teens was one that went to alleged wrongdoing or bad administration at the college's welding program. The latest angle is a desire to rid TSC of its chair, Ms. Adela Garza.

It's called dog-paddling like sumbitches in the face of a tiring, relentless head current.

Bloggers McHale and Barton scream for help, as if wanting off the story in the worst of ways. It would be so easy for Montoya to "woodshed" these happy-feet boys.

We know Mickey Mantle would upbraid Roger Maris and Yogi Berra, so...

Will he do it for his alma mater?...

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Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda is still on the go. For her city, we mean. The new mayor (one year in office) keeps promoting Harlingen like gangbusters. If it's not a local business she's spotlighting, it's a city employee.

Stuff-shirt former Mayor Chris Boswell never did any of that.

It's good public relations, we say.

And even when Mayor Norma and her husband bought a new Ford Bronco recently, she lapped all sorts of praise on the car dealership. Leadership skill, she has. An attorney by profession, Mayor Sepulveda knows the value of good P.R.

Some cities and towns in the Rio Grande Valley can't buy a good word...

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We would advise him to stay out of it. Him is the gent shown in photo above, Capt. Bob Sanchez of Brownsville podcast/street gab and eatery fame.

The trendsetting El Capitan reportedly hosted - or is hosting rampaging Blogger Jerry McHale for the purposes of airing out that welding nothingness at Texas Southmost College. Don't do it, or don't do it again, Bob.

Sanchez, at last check a Republican, knows that TSC Chair Adela Garza also is a Republican.

Is he joining the wanton word-stabbing of his political compatriot?

Oh, boy. Talk about lasting loyalty.

Bob, Old Sport, the Tale Of Dust And Disgust your bud McHale and his less-educated bud, Jimmy Boy Barton, are spewing is still a Big Maybe. Why risk your own rep, dude?

I know, I know. One must keep appearances.

Capt. Bob is the same cat who once, angered to the Max by McHale for something or another, one fine day grabbed at the bad blogger's backpack as he entered the captain's restaurant and flung it across the dining room. 

But it may just be as they say elsewhere about Brownsville - You can never trust its people. One day, they love you, the next day they want to kill you.

Metaphorically, we mean...

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OBITUARIES:...Sen. Dianne Feinstein Dead At 90...

 

STAFF REPORT

McALLEN, Texas | It had been coming. Her health was the talk of Washington, D.C., with some even in her own party asking her to resign and go home to family.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the oldest serving member of the U.S. Senate and longest serving female senator, died on Friday at age 90, a source told Axios.

Feinstein's death, first reported by Punchbowl News and confirmed by several other outlets, including the New York Times and AP, marks the end of a distinguished senatorial career.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who worked closely with Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said they had a "wonderful working relationship" and that she "did an outstanding job" representing her constituents.

"She's a true public servant," Grassley wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I'll miss her."

The six-term senator announced in February that she would not seek re-election in 2024 amid deteriorating health...

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SUN VIDEOS:...Trump Sings "I Fought The Law"...

SHABBY BLOGS:...In Brownsville, Rumors & Damnations...The Lady Doesn't Protest Enough...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Adela Garza has been around the political block enough to know that bad music will play until you grab the aging radio and bounce it off the nearest wall. A politician, she has been for many years. A dumped-on one not so much.

Until recently, that is.

This city's two Anglo bloggers have had a field day ragging on Ms. Garza and the Texas Southmost College (TSC) Board of Trustees she presently chairs. The issue is a semi-serious one, going to the school's welding program. It has been, so far, a minor tale of what seems to be a few disgruntled students and an administrator way out of his professional element (read "questionable" into that).

For days, bloggers El Jerry McHale and, to a lesser degree, Iowan Jimmy Barton have been going hot & heavy against the college, demanding answers to exaggerated scenarios only they could ever understand. Fairness in reporting has not been part of their junior high approach to news.

They have essentially been writing for themselves and not the audience they would wish to inform. Basic tenets known to real, educated journalists have gone by the wayside, in the case of no-college Barton because he does not know them. McHale simply hates these days. His bent is to perhaps leave the world on a bad note, age presently being his chief enemy.

McHale (shown in photo below) is about to turn 74; Barton (shown at left) is 75.

What they have sown with the welding recital is a bad crop of weeds. They have some facts, but, we would say, not enough to convict and hang Ms. Garza. They may eventually, although blog stories come and go here as if plates of crispy chicken tacos. Neither of these loose-wheeled bloggers should feel good about what they are doing, not when their stories arrive with so many holes that the reader ultimately nods and says, "Oh. Uh, okay..."

We do say that Ms. Garza should take the challenge and sit these boys down for an interview. They are both retired and have nothing else to do, so their blogs will keep pushing the mess until someone sets them straight. Ms. Garza - or boardmember Tony Zavaleta - is the one to do it, once and for all.

To simply take it day after day after day is no good.

We have not always been fans of the TSC, but, taken singularly, this silliness can be quickly resolved. The school has enough support in town to weather bad news. In fact, these same two bloggers have praised it in the past. The blame here goes mainly to McHale. Older Barton has been his so-called Second Banana for years, always lapping up to stories McHale offers by way of his own often-skewed or simplistic spin.

Barton can be excused for failing at this. He is not a college graduate, nor does he have any Real Journalism experience. Zero.

Perhaps the erudite Ms. Garza will consider our suggestion, although we also know that she does not suffer fools well. Indeed, she and the college have been somewhat defended by blogger Juan Montoya, a big fan of Ms. Garza and Mr. Zavaleta. It is Montoya who has shot back at these bloggers, but he could do more.

The welding program is not the principal candle on TSC's cake; it is just another program offered to students. That TSC would let this mini-brushfire interfere with its mission is, of course, laughable.

Just charge out of the conference room and nip it in the bud.

Brain wise, these goofin' bloggers are no match for Ms. Garza and Mr. Zavaleta, it says here...

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REPUBLICAN DEBATE: ...2024 Candidates Trot Out One More Time...No Stud In The Lot...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Debate II is in the books for Republican candidates seeking the party's 2024 presidential nomination. It happened last night at the Reagan Library in lovely Simi Valley, California.

Hopefuls Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, and Doug Burgum arrived to take and answer questions.

The winner?

Democrat Joe Biden.

President Biden obviously was not there, so, really, the other name that pops up as benefitting from a rather high-schoolish performance by the aforementioned candidates is that of Donald J. Trump, the four-times indicted leader in polls commissioned by the party.

Were there cute lines thrown out for laughs and applause, as tends to happen at these dog & pony shows? Yes. A few.

Christie lobbed a new nickname at Trump, labeling him "Donald Duck Trump," which was not really about the winged cartoon character but more about Trump's decision to "duck" the debates. Kinda cute, but not a killer dig.

And from Haley, directed at Ramaswamy: "Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber." Ouch.

But, oh, well, there's still another one before the Iowa Caucus in early January. The third in the damned-boring series comes November 8th, set to take place in Miami.

There was a time when these debates meant something. They tended to differentiate candidates. Not anymore.

These days, these GOP debates do nothing but take up TV time.

I mean, Ramaswamy up there?...

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BROWN REPUBLICANS:... Why You're Lost, And Always Will Be In Donald J. Trump's Republican Party...

 

. . . .Trumpism is a way for them to engage in the fantasy and ideation of violence as a way of getting and keeping power and "getting even" with their "enemies", those Black and brown people, gays and lesbians, transgendered people, "liberals", "the left", "political correctness", "Black Lives Matter", "Woke", "Critical Race Theory", "illegal immigrants", criminals, "intellectuals", "socialists", "feminists", "Muslims", or whoever in their minds has somehow "oppressed" real Americans like them by not staying in their place as second class citizens who are to be subservient and obedient to White "Christian" Americans. - From an article posted today at Salon.com

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Just a sweet reminder for my Brown Republican friends. It's great that you find pleasure in joining a national political movement, but it's not what you think it is.

The people you wish to support do NOT have YOU in mind for their future...

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DREADFUL BLOGGERS: ...Word, Words, Words...And A Very Public Dust-Up...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | And so out went the friendship that had lasted some 40 years, all because of sloppy news reporting by spiteful blogger El Jerry McHale. He is shown at left in photo above with that old friend, Tony Zavaleta, the Texas Southmost College trustee.

Much has happened in the last 24 hours in that just-can't-be-nailed-down tale of alleged wrongdoing in the college's welding program. McHale keeps typing and Zavaleta keeps saying he's dumb and dumber. Joining the fray somewhat is TSC Board Chair Adela Garza.

It seems walkabout McHale happened on Zavaleta and Garza at a popular eatery. What happened next has been interpreted in two ways: McHale angered by the diss he received from his friends, and another that said Zavaleta simply wanted no chat with the blogger he has known for all these years.

They asked him to get the Hell away, in so many more-sociable words.

The 73-year-old McHale did, however-stunned, leave. But then he took to his laptop computer and painted a blog story that had him as victim of cruel, unexplained disrespect. He full-well knew why Zavaleta and Garza (shown in photo at right) wanted no part of a social meeting. They were dining; McHale was reportedly out for a drink.

Ho hum. I know. It's a sad day in Brownsville again - the millionth one, at that.

Why McHale (shown goofin' in photo below) can't nail down the story he sees as a complete slam on the school's administration is the mystery. He has typed, well, a good 2,000 words on it and shared enough photos of the welding cast to, yeah, have his own scrapbook for those days of looking back at memories at the nursing home he always says are coming.

We don't blame heady Zavaleta or the conservative Garza for shunning McHale. He never called them for comment, never sought a sit-down interview. Not that we expect wire service journalism from him, but he had a taste of it during his one year of writing about local "sports" for The Brownsville Herald way back in the late-1970s.

Sadly, it is a common thing when the elderly purposely start losing friends, and perhaps that's what fast-aging McHale is doing here. He has nothing else to do but pump that laptop computer keyboard.

An intervention is in order.

Maybe that's what his former friend, Blogger Juan Montoya, is doing with his ever-biting counterattacks in defense of the little college...

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TRUMP FRAUD:...N.Y. Judge Rules He Did It...Trump Says He Didn't...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | How much is your property worth when you submit that financial form for a bank loan? How much is the same property worth when you file your taxes?

Donald J. Trump has a problem with that.

The State of New York has him by the Cheetos in a major case alleging Big Time fraud. Trump routinely inflated values of his properties in business dealings and deflated them when filing his taxes. The graphic above is one example of how he over-valued properties that actually are not as valuable as he likes to believe.

Yesterday, a judge sided with New York.

This from cnn.com: [ A New York judge has found Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud and canceled the Trump Organization’s business certification, saying the Trumps provided false financial statements for roughly a decade.

Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling came days before the civil case involving the New York attorney general’s office and the former president was set to go to trial.

Engoron granted Attorney General Letitia James’ motion for summary judgment, finding Trump, his sons, and others "to be liable as a matter of law for persistent violations" of New York state law. He found the financial statements the Trumps provided to lenders and insurers for about a decade to be false and said they repeatedly engaged in fraud.

The decision is a blow to Trump and a complete rejection of his arguments that he didn’t inflate the values of his golf courses, hotels, homes at Mar-a-Lago and Seven Springs on financial statements that were repeatedly used in business.

"Today, a judge ruled in our favor and found that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in years of financial fraud," James said in a statement Tuesday night. "We look forward to presenting the rest of our case at trial." ] 

Trump earlier had said that the people (banks) he was dealing with had all the information they needed to either approve or deny a loan. Trump explained he's always included a "disclaimer" saying the numbers could not necessarily be relied-upon.

Yeah.

Typical of the guy who's made a mockery of tax laws everywhere he's lived or done business in. But this case looks strong against him, it says here.

Still, Trump raged on social media that, again, he was being picked-on...

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