At GOP Debate, Nikki Haley Offers Biting Truth...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It was a slow Wednesday night. Middle of the week blahs. All the footballs were stashed away in team lockers across the country. A mellow rain had come and gone. I was planning on a Big Date for the weekend.

And in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was a handful of Republicans on a televised stage in what was billed as a party debate but actually was nothing more than a clown show. Republicans do this to us every four years.

This one, the first of several to be held by the GOP ahead of the 2024 presidential election, had a bit of excitement. Nursing home fighting words were exchanged, but nothing wildly-insulting or anything that would either elevate a candidate or demoralize another.

Yet, there they were: Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota; Tim Scott, senator from South Carolina; Chris Christie, ex-governor of New Jersey; Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida; Nikki Haley, ex-governor of South Carolina; Mike Pence, ex-Veep; Vivek Ramaswamy, just an ordinary businessman from Ohio and some other Nobody from somewhere.

As a ratings show, it underwhelmed.

There was, however, a shining moment for truth-in-politics. It came from Miss Haley, the only woman on the stage. She set the boys right about the President Joe Biden budget they so eagerly and often criticize.

She said this, from politico.com: [ Nikki Haley tried to cast herself as the fiscal hawk on the stage, attacking her former boss, Donald Trump, and other Republican candidates, who she said are responsible for ballooning federal spending.

She tore into the bipartisan, $2.2 trillion Covid relief package, the CARES Act, which Trump signed into law.

"You have Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Mike Pence - they all voted to raise the debt," she said. "Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt. Our kids are never going to forgive us for this."

"Look at the 2024 budget, Republicans asked for $7.4 billion in earmarks. Democrats asked for $2.8 billion," she said. "So you tell me who are the big spenders. It’s time for an accountant in the White House." ]

Truer words were never spoken at any sort of Republican gathering, whether at the secret ones where they mix the Kool-Aid or, well, in a very public national debate. 

You know it and I know it.

Chalk one on the board for Nikki Haley...

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Rudy's Mug Shot...Alone In Despair...Prison Looms...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It begins. Friends and associates of Donald J. Trump walking the legal plank. How long had this been expected? The sad, bulbous face above is that of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, once a respected federal prosecutor and admired Big Apple politician.

But he fell for the charm of one of America's worst people, was used and abused and is now facing mounting legal bills Trump has declined to pay directly (he has promised to attend a fundraiser for poorer-by-the-day Rudy, however).

This from the NYdailynews.com: [ Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who made a career of prosecuting criminals before his two-term, law-and-order-focused mayoralty, surrendered to Georgia authorities Wednesday on 2020 election interference charges.

Giuliani, who faces 13 counts including violation of the Georgia RICO Act and several false statement charges, was processed at the Fulton County jail. His bail was set at $150,000 bond, according to Fulton County jail records.

At his booking, Giuliani - described in the jail records as 5-foot-11, 230 lbs. - wore a navy suit and a red, white and blue tie, a shiny American flag pin hanging from his lapel. He appeared to lean forward, grimacing slightly, in his mugshot. ]

It is one helluva fall from grace for this guy.

He earned it. Caught in the Klieg lights under which Trump lives, Giuliani went all-in on defending the former president at all turns. Rudy spared no money or time; he was there when he was asked to be there, there being anywhere Trump sent him.

But getting himself involved in Trump's desperate desire to stay in office even after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden has now brought Giuliani closer to prison.

He was called a hero after his actions following the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in Manhattan.

That now seems so long ago...

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SUN MOVIES:..."Y Tu Mamá También"...

For Veep Kamala Harris, A Lot Of Crap From Republicans...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's the bummer job for anyone who has been a take-charge person in a take-charge position. Being vice-president of the United States has its perks, but it also can be a life seemingly in the outs of frozen Siberia.

Say hell-o to Kamala Harris, the 58-year-old Veep currently being dogged by Republicans ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Incumbent Joe Biden, a Democrat, is seeking another four-year term and, presumably, keeping Harris on the ticket.

She's a target, however.

Right-wing media pundits have lumped on her for the extent of this term and now they are laying it on thicker as the GOP settles its internal brawls to select an opponent for Biden-Harris next year. Does she deserve the criticism? They say she's aloof, that she has not done the most to help Biden tackle thorny issues such as the still-ongoing abortion and border fights.

Harris, a former U.S. Senator from California, could be excused for playing the government's second-banana role to the hilt. She's been no worse than former-Veep Mike Pence, but right-wingers hand Pence a pass on most of the stuff he was and wasn't involved in during Donald J. Trump's term at the White House.

Vice presidents don't often seek the limelight. That's by the very design of the office. She is there to support Biden and to take on issues the president assigns her.

This nugget from an interview of Harris by politico.com: [ There has long been a consensus inside Harris’ inner circle that the vice president needs to get out of Washington and hit the road more. More outreach and handshaking; less time on Capitol Hill.

It’s certain to be the case through the entire 2024 election cycle.

Aides say Harris’ current, more fitting portfolio as the administration’s front person on abortion rights, gun violence, climate change and civil rights will be front and center during the campaign. They view her key constituencies as people of color, especially Black voters, young people and women.

Earlier this month, on the third anniversary of Biden selecting her as his running mate, the campaign released a detailed memo - “Why Vice President Harris Is Invaluable for 2024” - advertising her centrality in its strategy. It also aimed to serve as a tonic to help calm the nerves of some in the Democratic Party still whispering their concerns about Harris running with an octogenarian at the top of the ticket.

Republicans have tried to capitalize on those whispers, using the specter of a Harris presidency as a scare tactic.

“Kamala is a bogeyman that Republicans can use when it comes to pushing their message. A President Harris would be even worse than a President Biden because she campaigned as a progressive fighter and had to moderate herself when she became Biden’s running mate,” said one leading Republican strategist granted anonymity to speak freely.

Harris has heard those and other political attacks since the beginning of the administration.

“There are so-called leaders who aren’t focused on tackling the issues or challenges this country is facing,” she said. “Instead, they focus on me because they don’t want people to focus on what the Biden-Harris administration has delivered.”]

She also served California as its attorney general from 2011 to 2017 and before that was district attorney for San Francisco, 2004-2011.

In those roles, however, Kamala Harris was used to being front-center and calling the shots.

You don't get to do too much of that as a vice president.

The criticism will always be there...

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SUN SPORTS - ...Tommy Hearns KOs Roberto Duran...

Nothing But Dark Skies...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | You could head out into the smoke-like, charcoaled night with your vehicle lights on high beam, tell yourself there'll be no turning back and spend enough time wondering about it all that you'd be tired not of driving, but of thinking.

There was much of that going on across the ragged country.

People spent hours glued to the TV set, watching news, most of it political and damned near all of it a waste of time. Best, they were saying in psychiatrist offices, would be a retreat from that shit. Mental states looked awful.

You could stand quietly behind a painted woman in line at Starbucks and know that she was a danger to society just by what she ordered. A balding, skinny-legged guy at the grocery buying too many bananas was about to go there, it was being said.

Daytime brought the big and hot relentless sunball, one to deliver time zone headaches across the planet. It was sundown, and especially the Dead of Night, that offered a true respite. Alone and in a quiet setting, you could hear yourself, think especially.

Too bad the world was now over-populated.

There was less and less room for the individual, and more and more criticism for the ones who wanted to go at it alone.

Loners knew the score.

They also breathed easier as time and temperatures went by, comforted by the quietness they chose to have around them. If you dared ask them, they would tell you to fuck-off, your civil question left to fend for itself in your own mind, not theirs.

It was fun to be somewhere lonesome and hear a pin drop...

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McAllen Mayor Hosts Another Trade Confab, Mexico On His Mind...

 

STAFF REPORT

McALLEN, Texas | Still at it, yes. McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos loves his neighbors (well, neighboring country). He hosted a few other Texans yesterday in a session that centered on trade with Mexico.

It's nothing new for Villalobos - shown second from left in photo above.

He's been traveling thataway, as they say in old western movies.

This from the mayor about the meetings: [ Protecting the interests of our border region is of the utmost importance. McAllen hosted TBAC to discuss and inform of trade from Mexico, the United States, and Canada. We were glad to have been joined by Mayors and other officials from border cities, our Texas Secretary of State, and General Consuls from Mexico and Canada. United we are stronger! ]

Indeed, we are.

This trade effort has become the mayor's chief effort to better the city's economy, although this economy is not all that bad. Central to the mayor's drive is a desire to better the entire region; that is, primarily, the Rio Grande Valley.

It's what should be making the news, and not solely that border mess created (exacerbated?) by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has yet to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Would be nice if Abbott met with AMLO to discuss and explain his bizarre buoy border wall and that ridiculously inhumane razor wire he purchased and placed along the Rio Grande.

But this is about trade, and Mexico remains our Number 1 partner in that world...

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Ramaswamy Will Shine At GOP Debate...But...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Give him 24 hours. That's how long it'll be before Indian-American Republican Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy will dazzle debate watchers in that gathering up in Milwaukee, the one TV viewers are supposed to use as a gauge for the best GOP candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

The 38-year-old Ramaswamy is as smooth and glib as speaker as most of his opponents are not, including fat, heavy-tongued Donald J. Trump.

"Vivek," said a good friend of mine the other day, "...will remind Republicans of a guy who kicked their ass - Barack Obama."

I agree entirely.

This guy is ascending. His campaign began as a longshot of the First Order, rolled into relevancy as the weeks passed and is now poised to reap Big Time plusses at this first of several Republican National Committee debates. Trump has chosen not to be there, which is a colossal mistake, in my opinion. The optics he leaves are those of a coward unwilling to do battle with his challengers.

Not to praise Ramaswamy onto the victory circle. He does have some bad baggage.

The entrepreneur, who is smart as all get-out, as they say in historic Blanco, Texas, a Yale and Harvard graduate, believes the 9-11 attack on New York City in 2001 was "an inside job;" that is orchestrated by the U.S. Government (Republican George W. Bush was president). He also thinks the federal government was behind the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol (Republican Donald J. Trump was president).

And yesterday he said he thought the U.S. should let Russia win the war in Ukraine.

He's smart, he's dumb.

A perfect fit for the MAGA crowd. Wouldn't you think?

Ramaswamy will shine at today's debate. In the long run, however, it won't matter. Republicans will not (ever) elect a Republican Barack Obama.

Bet on it...

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Cascos:...We the Purple...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | It came in a conversation a few days ago. We heard him say it and we left it for another day. The topic then was the 2024 election and candidates for the 34th Congressional District seat held at present by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Throwing out the characterization was well-known politician Carlos Cascos (shown in photo above).

It was his opinion that the district - and in particular Cameron County - was turning "purple;" that is neither red as in rabid Republican nor blue as in die-hard Democrat. Yes, purple is the color you get when you mix red & blue.

But is it so?

Is the belief grounded in anything substantive. We couldn't find it, other than in thinking it could be happening. And we base that on visible pro-Republican actions such as the Trump trains and the recent victories at the polls by Republican candidates. Yes, you had a few of those.

He's not a candidate yet, although Cascos admits he's considering a run against well-funded (and much younger) Gonzalez.

Cascos has said he'll make an announcement on Labor Day, which comes around this year on Sept. 4th - in less than two weeks, btw.

It's likely true that there are more residents here who would label themselves Republicans. The recent Brownsville City Commission election had candidate Susan Rubalcava, a pro-Trump resident who made no bones about her allegiance to the indicted former president. She lost, but she made plenty of noise.

Is that what is buoying Cascos, a former Cameron County Judge and Texas Secretary of State? Does he feel it, it being a sense that he may actually have a shot in the heavily-Democrat district Gonzalez won last year by some 10,000 votes over beet-red candidate Mayra Flores (shown in photo above alongside Congressman Vicente Gonzalez)?

He's not saying.

What Cascos is doing is staying in the public eye, commenting often on local blogs as well as making appearances on podcasts, opining on their topics when not actually a guest.

Who knows about the "purple" assignation?

One thing is evident: more candidates flying the Republican banner are coming out of the tool shed woodwork, eternal hopefuls such as Brownsville's Laura E. Cisneros and Raymondville's Mauro Garza - both political greenhorns.

Still, what the ever-astute Cascos is saying may be true.

It also could be false...

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Anile Trump Turning Himself In On Thursday...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | He's doing it the day after his challengers for the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination debate in Milwaukee. Donald J. Trump, wanted in four courts, plans to turn himself in on Thursday. An arraignment of a scofflaw following a debate by law-abiding fellow GOPers, yes.

Police officials in Georgia's Fulton County (Atlanta) say they are ready for the chump's arrival.

Trump and 18 other lawless Republicans are facing the violin music for their collective effort in trying to overturn the Georgia vote in the 2020 presidential election that went to Democrat Joe Biden.

You remember that fateful phone call from the White House, in which desperate Trump asked Georgia officials to find him "11,800" votes - one more than Joe Biden received.

This from a morning news report at usatoday.com: [ Donald Trump plans to turn himself in early Thursday afternoon for booking at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

The date was set as part of the terms negotiated over his consent bond and release conditions.

Trump confirmed Monday on his Truth Social platform that he’s going to Atlanta on Thursday to face law enforcement officials. In the post, he accused Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Department of Justice officials of seeking to target his 2024 reelection campaign without evidence. ]

It's a ratings war out there for wildly flagellating Republicans. What to do has become the marching mantra for these guys. Stake out your vision or go along with Trump. That's the option, boys.

And it's also a nice picture for what the party has become - splintered.

But Americans will be watching both events, mainly because that's who we are - totally bored, undecided pikers waiting on pro football, yes, but also needing to get through this particular week. Such, kids, is freedom these days, a cheap existence thanks to our self-serving national politicians and our own failings.

I do wonder who will play Trump in the movies.

Brian Dennehy is dead....

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Trump Bond Set At $200,000 In Georgia Case...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Well, it's not much, but it's something. And perhaps all it is is just another step on the way to the legal gallows for Donald J. Trump. Bond has been set in his racketeering case up in Atlanta, the one that has him charged with vigorously seeking to overturn the voting preferences of Georgians for his benefit in the 2020 election.

The bond is $200,000.

Yes, of course he can back it. Financially, anyway. And we just do not believe he is any sort of flight risk, 'cause Trump's stage is the U.S. This is where his tired act continues to play. Day after day after day.

This from politico.com: [ Donald Trump’s attorneys have signed an order setting his bond on racketeering charges in Georgia at $200,000 and binding Trump to a set of rules that explicitly limit his ability to use social media to attack witnesses or co-defendants in the case.

The three-page order, signed by Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, sets the conditions of Trump’s pretrial release in the case, which stems from his effort to subvert the 2020 election.

Trump’s order included a more explicit order on witness intimidation, explicitly referencing the former president’s ability to use his social media platform to level attacks related to the case.

“The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” according to the order, which is also signed by Trump’s attorneys Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little.

That restriction also includes a prohibition on any “direct or indirect threat of any nature against the community or to any property in the community.”

“The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media,” the order reads.

Trump has spent months assailing prosecutors in the case, though the order does not explicitly reference his commentary on District Attorney Fani Willis or her team. But Trump has also commented on witnesses likely to be called or discussed in the matter, including Ruby Freeman, a Georgia election worker who became the subject of baseless conspiracy theories amplified by Trump and his allies about manipulation of votes in Georgia. ] 

According to various news reports, 77-year-old Trump will report this week to the Fulton County Jail for booking.

It should be another wild moment to be enjoyed by many Americans seeking justice for the freewheeling Trump.

And, of course, publicity hound Trump will enjoy it, as well...

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Let's Play Two...

 

STAFF REPORT

LOS ANGELES, Calif. | It rained and rained and rained in Southern California. Albert Hammond (singer of "It Never Rains In Southern California") was nowhere to be seen, but a sea of water moved in stuck around a bit.

The photo above is of the stadium well-known to Los Angeles Dodgers fans.

You could say that the field looks dry enough for a doubleheader, but getting there would be the problem, as water from Hurricane Hilary enveloped the stadium at Chavez Ravine. This is the same ballfield where lefty Fernando Valenzuela once thrilled the city's baseball fans, where the Penguin patrolled third base and where Steve Garvey would always take his first base position as excited as a kid.

This from the nypost.com: [ The Los Angeles Dodgers have faced a powerful new rival - Hilary. Wild images show the area around Dodgers Stadium completely flooded by the historic storm that has unleashed chaotic conditions not seen in the region in 84 years.

The sports arena effectively became an island after more than an average year’s worth of rain was dumped on the Golden State in one night. ]

The storm was petering out late Monday, but floodwaters ran deep.

Yes, you do sort of wonder what fabled game announcer Vin Scully would have said at seeing his beloved Dodgers Stadium surrounded by so much water...

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Travel Story:..."Brownsville Is Not New Orleans"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Once there was a way, as the song says, to get back homeward. We hate to rip off such a well-known song lyric, but, well, it applies to this story. Homeward, in this case, being a place from yesteryear. Or someone's recollections of a better time here along the passive Rio Grande.

We say passive because that's what this history-filled waterway is today, although it wasn't always as resigned to a lamblike sort of quiet.

To hear some local people, Brownsville used to be the First New Orleans, a scrappy, noisy, excitable, wild-and-hairy-adventures-by-the-day kind of place where men were men and women were for men.

Today's Brownsville is nothing like that.

It is a struggling hometown to some 200,000, or so, luckless, under-achievers who really have done little to bridge this city into the 1980s. Any semblance to the Real New Orleans is nowhere to be found. A few cheap Mexican-themed cantinas does nothing for the city's modern image except tie-in to neighboring Mexico and not the Cajun Country a bit to the north and east of here.

You can walk into a local cantina and smell Mexico, not, say, etouffee or crawfish pie. 

Here, it's the grating, wailing, often-repetitive, push-button accordion sounds of Ramon Ayala on falling 14th Street and not those of Doug Kershaw whipping out Diggy Diggy Lo on Mardi Gras in the lovely French Quarter. Or even some weekend troubadours offering a lame version of All Along The Watchtower and not Fogerty throwing out Jambalaya.

No, don't come here looking for the past.

Proud locals will tell you this is a most historic town, but we say they should go to the Texas Hill Country for that. A line of old, abandoned buildings vacated decades ago is not exactly cherished history. Old theaters where once the movies of Gary Cooper and Elvis regaled the dominant Mexican population are hardly worth keeping if they're not going to show Top Gun or Oppenheimer.

Why not raze the sonsabitches and build a new commercial attraction?

History? As hometown celebrity Kris Kristofferson might say about here, "History's just another word for nothing left to lose."

Brownsville is not a very clean community. Even its residents bemoan the state of their streets and the trash in downtown alleys and neighborhoods such as Southmost and Las Prietas. Would New Orleans icon Fats Domino play in Brownsville? Well, maybe if he hadn't died in 2017, although we believe he largely stuck around NOLA, as New Orleans is best-known, in his later years.

No, lads, you have to pinch your nose when out and about in Brownsville - the Harlem of The Valley.

Is anyone at City Hall doing anything to move things around, to somehow improve life in town? You drive in and you see a load of people scurrying about, always bound for a nearby taqueria or discount store. You get out of your vehicle downtown and it's a sight for newcomer Honduran eyes, at best.

There should be a plan for change, major change.

People working city government get paid extremely well, perhaps much better than they should be. But all the citizenry is getting is daily lip service and the status quo - the status quo being maintaining what Donald J. Trump would quickly call "a shithole".

And it's not as if anyone would come here and then go back home to write a "slam job," but there really is no major attraction here. An annual celebration of the Mexican Charro is it, Baby. And even that gets a few more boos every year. It's become boring because it's the same predictable roll-out that once worked-up emotions but now hardly excites anyone.

Horses? You've seen one horse and you've seen them all. Charro garb? Looks good in thin women, never on portly, mustachioed Mexican males.  

Innovation is what that festival needs, which fits in with what we'd say also applies to the city as a whole. Everyone knows few people from Harlingen and McAllen on the western end of the Rio Grande Valley ever look to hardscrabble Brownsville for shopping, dining or fun. They'd rather stay home, Brownsville's history as uninteresting as fog.

The old city remains an unsolved riddle.

And that's the tragedy of the Town That Time Forgot...

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Hurricane Hilary Targets California & The West...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It was - what? - only a few months ago that the water level of Lake Mead over Hoover Dam was dangerously low, the Colorado River barely a picture of its old bountiful self and the American West said to be dying of thirst.

Welcome Hurricane Hilary.

Rains, rains, and more rains are on tap for Southern California, Arizona and Nevada as it makes landfall after storming in over Baja California in neighboring Mexico.

This from axios.cm: [ Tropical Storm Hilary is bringing the likelihood of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" to California, while prompting unprecedented tropical storm warnings for Los Angeles and San Diego.

Threat level: The storm is dumping two years or more worth of rain in California's desert areas. It is also bringing tropical rainfall rates, which can be torrential, to areas that have rarely, if ever, experienced them.

California is now under a state of emergency, and evacuations away from the most vulnerable areas to mudslides, debris flows and other hazards are expected today in southern California especially.

In its 5pm ET advisory, the National Hurricane Center said tropical storm-force winds are now being felt in Southern California, and a Weather Service bulletin reported wind gusts as high as 78 mph in mountain areas.

The Weather Prediction Center has painted a large zone in southern California and Southwestern Nevada as facing a "high risk" of excessive rainfall and flash flooding on Sunday, including San Bernardino National Forecast, Death Valley, Barstow, Indio, and Palmdale, Calif. ]

In Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas), a State of Emergency was declared at midday Sunday. Heavy rains were expected overnight.

It is night & day out there. One month you can't get a raindrop, the next the sky is falling on you.

These are strange days, what with Hawaii still dealing with the huge wildfire that destroyed Maui's lovely tourist town of Lahaina just last week.

Sheeeeeeesh.

What region is next on the Disaster List?...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...Some news outlets are calling it a Tropical Storm. The Los Angeles Times and the Arizona Republic are calling it a hurricane, as we have decided...]

SUN STORIES:..."This One Was Not The Jealous Type"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Jerry McLain went for it. Love had taken a nasty turn and he'd been alone for now going on six long years. Wife Valeria had passed on and three younger girlfriends that followed had only wanted his money.

What the Hell to do?

A friend at work turned him to a glossy Asian magazine featuring Ads for sophisticated rubber dolls. Jerry was intrigued by how realistic they looked and was further spurred by the manner in which they were portrayed in numerous sexy photographs. He had the ready cash.

The online Ad offered various models, some skinny, some full-bodied, ranging in price from $499 to a bit over a grand-five. He had liked the one set in the alluring sleeping-alongside-me pose.

South Texas nights once full of partying and laughter had grown lonelier, depressing and unrelenting in their awful mood. One day, after watching a football game between Notre Dame and Sacramento State on TV, he went online and quickly ordered the Sleeper Babe for almost $950, with a hefty overseas shipping fee.

He'd never been with non-white women and was suddenly entranced by the natural beauty of the Japanese women. Such calmed daintiness about them, their silky white legs and breasts as tantalizing as a generous slice of pineapple upside down cake on a cold, winter's night.

That first night after he'd unboxed the doll, anxious Jerry went to bed early. First, he wanted to know if things would change. A full year of being celibate was wearing thin.

Shortly after midnight as a wicked thunderstorm roared through town, he found himself reaching for her in a very marital way...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:..."Sun Stories" is a feature we generally offer only on weekends...]

Brownsville Went For It And Lost Big Time...Good!!!...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | So, a lot of people in Brownsville are down in the dumps after news reports arrived here detailing no gain from its love affair with billionaire Elon Musk and his SpaceX venture.

Why?

Yes, there were dreams that went to a collective enrichment, what with new companies and more people coming to town. It didn't pan out. Not yet, anyway. And there are no signs that it will, but you never know.

Rockets have left the launching pad in nearby Boca Chica, pleasing Musk.

According to multiple news reports, The City of Brownsville has lost cash kinda bankrolling some of these businesses that promised to help in the effort to piggyback with SpaceX's success. Was it all for naught? Is it a lose-lose eventuality.

Not really.

But Brownsville is a town full of Big Dreamers. Some want this scrappy bordertown at the end of the Rio Grande to be another partying New Orleans (not happening), while still others say the future here is in a tiny junior college (Texas Southmost College). A few more say the best is yet to come. They cite a largely-useless international airport and what it could mean if it ever gets off the runway.

Let the space industry critics howl all they want. It was good for Brownsville to seek improvement and especially in its business model. Selling used clothing (Ropa Usada!!!) downtown has not meant for much. What's the sales tax revenue on a pair of ragged blue jeans, on weathered shoes or a stained coat?

Nothing much.

Dare to go on with life, Brownsville!

Defeat, you know. All you have left is the decision to keep going, to never look in the rear-view mirror of the old Buick, to keep stepping into the ring. Every loss improves your odds for winning the next one.

No money in SpaceX-related businesses?

It was - and still is - a shocking development, but why cry about it at this point. The local critics will hang you by your fingernails and the bloggers will blame the mayor and his friendship with Musk and his effort to himself draw from the city's business-supporting entities. Well, let them.

Let them keep blaming you, keep yelling at you from the sidewalk as you make it up the streets.

Losing is not losing until you give up, until you shut it down and never again take the field. The Rio Grande Valley is so down because it simply will not take chances in the business world. McAllen does better than the other RGV cities, but it, too, could do more.

My friend Carlos Cascos, the former county judge and Texas Secretary of State, noted on his Facebook page that this (Brownsville's painful acknowledgement that SpaceX has not benefitted it) is what happens when you don't properly vet vendors and companies in these sorts of efforts.

The thing is Brownsville, like many in the RGV, was giddy at having Elon Musk and his space company in town. Vetting? Ha ha ha. Why Maria, we're going sky-high with SpaceX! We're along for the ride. How high will we fly?

As high as SpaceX, for sure!

It didn't happen. Big bucks were misused, thrown away essentially. That's never a good thing and never in a winning business plan. Do hand out the blame. There is quite a bit, enough for more individuals other than Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez, however. The former mayor is shown in photo atop this story.

But be glad you could go for it.

You know every other city and town in the Rio Grande Valley would have done the same...

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Dream City:...Brownsville Waiting On Nothing...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | So, where are we in the excitable Space Race, Brownsville? Steady launches, a manned mission to Mars planned from SpaceX's Boca Chica launching pad? Tremendous, unbridled growth in town related to the out-of-this-world venture?

Uh, no.

Nothing like that. Actually, nothing at all.

Up-with-the-latest-news Resident Carlos Cascos, a former county judge here, posted a revealing article prepared by Texas Public Radio reporter Gaige Davila, dated August 18 on his busy Facebook page. It is not a pretty picture the report paints of what's come out of the city's effort to become a one-industry town.

It begins ominously, of course.

[During the height of SpaceX fever in Brownsville, city officials rephrased the city's motto, “On the border, by the sea,” by adding, “and beyond.”

Brownsville claimed it was on its way to becoming the new “Silicon Valley of Space.” Officials publicized the arrival of space industry startups and venture capital funds. However, a recent compliance audit conducted by the city suggested that few of the companies publicized by officials remain today.

The audit, which describes a partnership between the city's economic development corporation and 9Point8 Capital, a venture capital firm, found that some of the businesses that promised to set up shop in Brownsville may have never established themselves after their publicized arrivals. ]

But it wasn't solely 9Point8. There were a handful of other companies arriving here, drawn by visions of quick, easy money from City Hall. They got it and...never produced.

The TPR report runs through the various efforts undertaken by the City of Brownsville to welcome the progress. It never came.

The in-depth article at TPR.org is well-worth the time it takes to read through the serpentine mess that's still unfurling. SpaceX has said it has now scheduled its next launch, but did not give a date. It seems to be where it wants to be in relation to its local mission.

Brownsville?

Not so much...

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Sun Stories:..."Blood, Baby"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | What had Amelia ever done, to you or anyone else? Nothing was the definitive word that always came back, in small talk and long conversation. At 39, she was still a good-looking woman. Married for a little more than 18 years. Two kids, one a teenager.

When her neighbors talked about her it was always as if describing a loving sibling. Amelia herself would often say life was simply too precious to ruin. Life in poor Brownsville had depressed her in the beginning, after moving here with her new husband from McAllen 60 miles to the west. She toughed it out, however, as she helped husband Felipe Torres fashion his career.

In church, she led the mixed choir. At her job at the bank, she'd been named "Employee of The Month" 11 times. Men and moms at the Little League games she attended to watch her son pitch, all said they admired her conviction, her visible desire to make sure youngest son Harvey never missed a practice or a game.

Not that anyone in her circle had ever looked deeply into her life.

Everybody figured things were more than fine inside her sprawling, two-story home in the city's best neighborhood. So, it was a true-blue shock when a news report on local TV had it that her banker husband, Felipe, had been viciously beaten to death in his bed while he slept.

Felipe ran the most successful branch bank in town, an operation much larger than that offered by the smaller regional bank that employed Amelia. In the days that followed, additional news reports unfurled the sordid story of an affair between Amelia and the male head of her bank, how she'd fallen in love with him and how Amelia had spiked Felipe's dinner cocktail one night and later pummeled him to death in their bed.

Police said a crotchless black panty had been stuffed in his mouth, offering a clue to something else that may have soiled the marriage...

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SUN RECORDS: Staff Jukebox - "Tennessee Flat Top Box"...

For Candidate Ron DeSantis, A Fork In The Road...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Next Wednesday's debate will tell the tale of Ron DeSantis and his presidential bid. It's that tenuous, 50-50. He'll either score enough points to salvage a collapsed campaign, or he'll go full-bust and ship the travel luggage home.

It's where this guy is today.

As many as nine 2024 presidential candidates may make the August 23rd debate in Milwaukee. Ron DeSantis hopes to star that night, especially if indictments-saddled Donald J. Trump is a no-show, as he has threatened.

This about that from politico.com: [ Thanks to his stunning 20-point reelection as governor of Florida, cementing the formerly purple state as a Republican stronghold, Ron DeSantis entered the presidential primary as the prospective preeminent challenger to Donald Trump. Just three months into his frankly disappointing campaign, however, DeSantis axed a slew of terminally online staffers and embraced the adversarial media that made him a rising star in the first place, promising his donors a proper pivot into a campaign capable of beating the incumbent, Democrat Joe Biden.

Hence, a leaked memo from pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down is frankly baffling.

"There are four basic must-dos," the memo says. "1. Attack Joe Biden and the media 3-5 times. 2. State [DeSantis's] positive vision 2-3 times. 3. Hammer Vivek Ramaswamy in a response. 4. Defend Donald Trump in absentia in response to a Chris Christie attack."

What the hell? ]

Lost in the strategy outlined in the memo is the Ron DeSantis who rose to prominence in Florida, the brawler quick to engage corporate biggies such as Disney and entrenched state educators he deemed too-Liberal. Fighting Ron DeSantis disappeared once he began rolling-out his campaign for president.

Defend Donald J. Trump? What will that get him? Nothing. He'll just be seen as another Republican low-flyer kowtowing to Trump. Ass-kissing, in other words.

The memo has been roundly laughed-at by pundits and Republican operatives who saw it as a losing proposition. Following that, did DeSantis say anything about the memo.

No. He didn't even acknowledge it, which was probably wise.

DeSantis needs a strong debate night.

He needs to show he is more than a bagful of emotions. That has led to characterizations of his being a bully and a hothead. Both are no-nos.

Is he - or has he been - presidential?

No.

Big NO...

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SUN STORIES: "How Gina Learned To Bathe Alone"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Gregorio Lopez was gone. Seven months and he was smoke. Didn't say much, except that he was tired, of what, he did not say, and that there had to be a better town down the road. His mother always said Gregorio was a man of few words when angry.

Gina Salinas was broken-hearted. No more accompanied meals, no more warm bedtime companion. She would miss that, but she would miss more the times she and Gregorio had showered together. There was something all-too-human in bathing with your mate, cleansing each other with favored soap, Gina her perfumed and Gregorio his Hai Karate soap-on-a-rope.

Gregorio had insisted on it early-on, back in initial dating, when he had been mesmerized by her naked body. Time and access had cooled that to almost zero. He'd not had an ounce of romantic interest in Gina by the time he decided to split for San Antonio, where his kid brother owned a motorcycle repair shop. He'd land a job there.

What kinda chunky Gina did not quite know just then was that her untethered happiness always had been headed towards this sort of ending. Men simply cannot love the same thing forever, is what Gregorio had said in a cursive-written note he'd left folded inside a glass on her kitchen table. She had found it while changing the Bed, Bath & Beyond tablecloth, sat down to read it and placed it on her chest in a moment of genuine sadness.

At nightfall, she walked into the quiet bathroom and reached for the shower's glass door, opened it and stepped-in to cool water splashing as happily as ever, and then she stood languidly under the waterfall for long minutes before releasing a miles-long sigh.

Gina reached for the loofah and felt comforted in knowing that it was still there...

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Generation Of Swine:...Trump Pigging Out...No Jail, Not Yet...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, okay legal eagles, what if Donald J. Trump gets the Republican Party's nomination and wins the 2024 national election? Can he pardon himself? Can he beat the 91 charges against him, both federal and state charges and, effectively, stay out of prison? Maybe.

Good chance on one, yes.

Not so much on the other.

Lawyers and those in the know will tell you Trump would be able to rid himself of the federal (Department of Justice) charges, but not the State of Georgia ones, not as easily anyway. 

This about that from politico.com: [ Though the Fulton County, Georgia case against Trump may be "pardon-proof," the Supreme Court could potentially intervene if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

Trump would not be able to issue pardons because it is a state matter and Georgia's constitution prevents the state's governor from issuing pardons in the case. Only a state pardon board can issue pardons, and requests can only be made five years after a sentence is served.

But while the case is pardon-proof, the Supreme Court "may well hold a sitting president is immune from trial" or a conviction if he wins the election, New York University Law Prof. Ryan Goodman wrote on X, formerly Twitter. The result would be "18 co-defendants left holding the bag" while Trump would be immune for four years if he is elected, he wrote.

"Another reason for co-defendants to flip," Goodman added. ]

Wild, eh? But that's our legal system, always the mangrove swamp and nothing ever as clear-cut as it seems. Donald J. Trump has played the offensive and defensive legal games for decades, for most of his adult years. He is now 77 years old. His track record with courts is something to behold - always about stiffing vendors (a piano vendor who delivered a load of pianos to his casino in Atlantic City, for one, never paid) and, when sued himself, delaying, delaying, delaying the court resolution. He's mastered being a court's annoying, deep-pockets defendant.

But the law has allowed it.

So, he now has those 90-some charges related to the 2020 election he tried to overturn and that one case of business fraud in New York. What of it? Is he any closer to jail, which is what a good chunk of America wants?

No, not really.

It could be years before the cases he faces wind their way through the courts (he loves to appeal).

Best would be if he lost the 2024 election, at which point, we say, his entire MAGA cult would fold and drop him, leaving the faithful to scramble for another racist/bigot ahead of the next election.

User and abuser, that's what Trump is and has been...all his life...

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Donald Trump Says He Won't Debate...Wimps Out...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's a bad move, but, then again, what does a guy with the Midas Touch in Reverse do? Donald J. Trump will not be at the Republican Party's first presidential nomination debate next week.

Oh, well.

Midweek Wednesday nights are not exactly prime time evenings for busy Americans. Hump Day takes on a new meaning here with the Trumpster bailing on hanging with the other GOP candidates, pleasant types like former Veep Mike Pence and impromptu rapper Vivek Ramaswamy, for example.

This from nytimes.com: [ Donald Trump plans to skip the first GOP debate next Wednesday in Milwaukee and will instead do an online interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Sources close to the former president told The Times he has told those close to him he will skip the debate and do the sit down with the former top-rated Fox News host.

The news comes less than 24 hours after Trump wrote on Truth Social that he is polling well ahead of the other candidates, adding, "Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?"

The Trump campaign refused to confirm or deny the report. 

"Tucker Carlson has been the plan for some time. But Georgia might change that. Don’t be surprised if he shows up in Atlanta on debate night," said a Trump adviser who recently spoke with him about the options of his debate night whereabouts. ]

We say it's a bad move by legally-cornered Trump. It makes him look afraid, unwilling to engage his punching opponents. Where once he would insist on debating for quick political gain, Trump now fully sees himself as the nomination's heir apparent and to Hell with the dumb contenders.

The thing is Americans want to see their presidential candidates debate. It's not that Trump isn't a favorite; it's just that this uppity, entitled move might rankle a few voters. Will he also decline to debate President Joe Biden before the 2024 election?

Trump is too much of a child to be taken seriously.

If he gets a hair up his ass and feels like he's being portrayed as a wimp by the news media, he'll show up at this debate, is what we would say...

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Dull Mike Pence Going After Trump In First Debate?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Always-dark Mike Pence says he is looking forward to debating Donald J. Trump at next Wednesday's first Republican Party presidential nomination debate in Milwaukee. Yeah, we know. Mike Pence, the White House doorstop when he was vice-president under the same Trump. Quick question: can anyone get a rise out of this dude?

But he now says he's itching to tangle with his old boss.

Trump is undecided about attending the debate, arguing he is the frontrunner and frontrunners don't need the national spotlight. There is some truth in that, although 65-year-old Pence counters he would go after Trump like, well, Trump went after Stormy Daniels.

There's this from thehill.com: [ Pence and Trump broke over the events surrounding the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, which interrupted the certification process for the 2020 presidential election after Trump lost to President Joe Biden. Pence has rebuked Trump’s suggestion that the vice president had the ability to overturn the election results. 

"Sometimes people ask me, 'How do you envision debating Donald Trump?' I say, "I’ve debated Donald Trump 1,000 times, just not with the cameras on,' " Pence said today.

The former vice president backed into it by saying he’ll "always be proud of the record of the Trump-Pence administration" and touted the pair’s accomplishments - including action on border security and the appointment of three Supreme Court justices "who sent Roe vs. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs."

But he said he disagrees with Trump and other Republicans "wanting to pull back from American leadership" on the global stage, and he knocked Trump for a position on the national debt that’s "identical to Joe Biden’s." ]

Pence, however, (and this is key) has never been a dynamic, in-your-face speaker. Trump's bad-mama brawling style brings the opposite. He'd no doubt throw some silly, though insulting nickname at him at the first opportunity. Pence would only frown and shake his head, like some eternal second banana.

The debate is being sponsored and broadcast by FOX News.

You know they'd side by Trump over the dour-face Pence and hand him the debate questions in advance, as they always do. 

You know it...

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SUN RECORDS: Newsroom Jukebox - "LA CHULA"...

Woman Wears Strange Taco Salad Dress...Who Is She?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | I know, I know. Fashion in the Rio Grande Valley has no father or mother, it's all a loose-knit family of 12 with different fathers. Shake the plastic mannequins at the mall? Well, you can, but always - always - expect Valleyites in clothing that will absolutely blind you.

Like the woman above, who mistook Whataburger Wednesday for Taco Tuesday.

Who is she?

And why would she wear that out in public? We're led to believe that she is a public official down here, but you could put a slingshot to our head, ask us if we know who she is, and we'd fold.

Perhaps one of our readers will tell us.

We're okay with our female politicians wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots. That's Texas. At times, with the right female, it is even sexy. But that dress in the photo above - my, my! Made in 1955 Matamoros?

And me being a Grubhub dude, well, my order at Taco Palenque is already in for today's lunch. Local visuals, the scenery, we mean, do influence us more often than not when looking to dine somewhere. my friend Laura told me she saw a VW Beetle in harvest-brown color and decided on a double-meat at Burger King for her lunch.

Is there rhyme or reason here, to what people opt to wear on any given day?

No, is the initial answer.

Maybe, would say a shrink or two. Mood does the choosing when a woman stands in her expansive closet. What to pick does not necessarily hinge on a looksee out the window.

We have no way of knowing why the woman in the Taco salad dress decided to buy it, or, worse yet, to wear it! And there's a very good chance we'll never have answers for those questions, my friends. Perhaps a Brownsville blog will chase that story.

The Taco salad dress, we're told, was worn to an official public service function.

Wardrobe up!...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...Some days, we're a bit snarkier than on others. Know this - It all evens out...]