FLORIDA:...Loud, Harsh Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Bends As Sunshine State Farmers Cry For Workers...New State Law Aimed At Providing Housing For "Foreign" Field Workers...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...And then there came the dollar side of things. Crops in the fields, few, if any, workers out to harvest them. Florida is in an agricultural crunch. Conundrum? Yes. Between a rock and a hard grapefruit. yes. Time to make some not-so-pleasant concessions?

Absolutely.

The State of Florida, a rabid, anti-immigrant state since Republican Ron DeSantis became governor, is now working on getting (get this) better housing for the estimated 52,000 workers it desperately needs and is actively recruiting.

Not from Florida itself, no.

Well, officials say they want "non-immigrant" workers eligible for those special worker visas, but we know who works those fields - undocumented workers, yes.    

"We can grow our crop, but without harvesting it we might as well not grow the crop," said David Hill, an owner of Southern Hill Farms in Clermont. "No one is going to pick the crops that we grow except for the people we’re trying to bring over, in H-2A in particular."

From WUFT, News Service of Florida: [ Florida’s agriculture industry hopes a bill that would limit local regulations on farmworker housing will bolster efforts to bring in more non-immigrant foreign workers.

The bill (SB 1082), which state lawmakers unanimously passed, would prevent cities and counties from taking steps to "inhibit" construction of housing for farmworkers on agricultural land. The bill has not been formally sent to Gov. DeSantis, who can sign, veto or allow the legislation to become law without his signature.

The industry says some growers have cut back on planting this year, and might again next year, in part because of a labor shortage related to the state’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.

The bill could help with bringing in temporary, non-immigrant foreign workers through what is known as the federal H-2A visa program. The program places housing requirements on employers. ]

As seems to happen in these stories, many Floridians do not want immigrant farmworker housing in their backyards. The new legislation mandates that growers build the housing on farmland.

It's somewhat unexpected, as everything the governor has said about immigrants to date has been negative, as in he doesn't want them and as in he will ship them to liberal folks up in Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast as fast as he can.

But the cash crops (citrus, vegetables, strawberries, potatoes, etc., etc.) must be harvested, so hardass DeSantis likely will sign the legislation in as quiet a fashion as he can muster.

I know. It's the same with post-hurricane clean-up, when the state's citizenry and politicians see a large number of migrant workers drive in for the jobs locals just will not do.

What is that they often say about these things...money talks...

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THE BORDER:...Weeks Into A Rough Hoe At The Supreme Court, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott Is Not Obeying High Court Dictates...Going To Wall The Mexican Border Whether It Needs It Or Not...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's getting to where you no longer know who the law intown is from one day to the next. Do the sheriffs of border counties have a say in local problems? The state, as in its governor? The federal government, as in designated agencies? Or, is it the U.S. Supreme Court?

It used to be the Supreme Court's rulings were firm and final.

Well, in most cases, they still are, only not in Texas Governor Greg Abbott's head. He is above the nation's highest court when it comes to say and doing what cruises his brain on things to do with the Mexican border.

In Republican Abbott's air-conditioned world, there is a relentless, unstoppable invasion of immigrants at the Lone Star State's lengthy southern border, especially over by Eagle Pass west of here. Abbott has been headstrong in his approach to walling-off an invasion that seems to be more a political watercolor than an actuality. He has stationed large numbers of state troopers and state guardsmen to make sure the world knows he is serious about halting wave after wave of immigrants he sees breeching the demarcation line.

The U.S. Border Patrol is there, as well, only Abbott sees them as part of the problem. In fact, these days, he would rather the Feds stay out of Texas on things to do with, in his word, "securing" the border, which, really, he has not yet done.

This from newsweek.com: [ Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to leave controversial buoys in the Rio Grande after the Supreme Court blocked a new state law targeting suspected illegal migrants from taking effect on Monday.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abbott said the buoys would stay in the river, the building of a wall would continue and the Texas National Guard would erect razor wire barriers along the Texas-Mexico border.

Tensions have surged between Texan and federal authorities over how to respond to a surge in irregular migration across the southern border in recent months.

On January 22 the Supreme Court ruled federal agents could remove razor wire placed along the border on Abbott's orders. This sparked a furious response from Abbott who claimed his state was being subject to an "invasion" and invoked "Texas's constitutional authority to defend and protect itself." ]

It hasn't happened.

To the governor, the Supreme Court may as well be the President Joe Biden household in Delaware. Greg Abbott is a one-man court watching the border and issuing rulings willy-nilly. He has the support of the Republican-led state legislature.

So, what should the citizenry take from the governor's recalcitrance - that laws are not for everybody, that a governor can do whatever he damn well pleases and not face consequences? Well, yeah, that seems to exactly be his take on all of this.

The Border Patrol has not moved on the razor wire fencing Abbott has installed on a rather small stretch of the Mexican Border. And he has not moved a finger to rid the Rio Grande of his orange-colored buoys, as has also ruled a court. Never mind that neighboring Mexico has lodged complaints with the Biden Administration.

It's all a dog & pony show, of course.

Greg Abbott would not be doing any of this if the federal government had a Republican at the helm.

You know it and I know...and he knows it.

Everybody knows it...

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SICK:...Republican Donald J. Trump Keeps Screaming For An Intervention...Psych Ward, Not The White House...A Bloodbath If He's Not Elected...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's way past time. This guy is sick. In fact, as we've been saying here, he's practically screaming for an intervention. Help is nowhere near the horizon, however. His family and the rest of the country are letting this sumbitch go nuts right before our eyes.

President? How about psychiatric ward!

Republican Donald J. Trump remains a candidate for the highest post in the land. He's been there once before so you can't really blame the dolt for wanting a return engagement. Even Elvis would go back to Vegas every now and then. Same for birds after shopping malls are built on tree-lined land once their home.

No, don't blame Trump for his silliness and his seriousness. He loves his McDonald's Quarterpounders as the best America can offer and his openly-displayed racism as the worst.

Over the weekend, he kept going lower and lower on the loose-soil layers of our ragged society.

To wit: Speaking at a rally in support of Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno’s Senate campaign on Saturday, Trump seemed to offer an aside while speaking about the auto industry and how he would be a better president than Democrat Joe Biden when it came to dealing with trade and China: "Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country."

Get the nurse.

We're sinking daily here aboard the U.S.S. Guppy. How much longer can the psyche grant this fool any sort of space. He's the avocado fart in the room, impossible to ignore.

Bloodbath?

Newsfolk are downplaying the definition of what blowhard Trump means here. Is he talking bullet-riddled bloodbath? Thousands dying? That threatened Civil War?

Pundits are going soft on him, by believing Trump was talking about the national economy. Uh, Trump means the bloody thing. That's who he is, a 77-year-old fuck willing to blow up the country and likely the world before he dies.

Take him at his word, America.

Donald Trump could not care less about the economy.

It's payback he's after. He lost the 2020 election and is steadily losing his fortune to defamation lawsuits and uber-serious legal entanglements. Four criminal trials and upwards of 80 felony counts.

Of course, bloodbath! What's the overweight sumbitch got to live for?...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."It Gets Easier"...

ROYALS:...For Stuffy Brits, A Rolling Film About Lust And Disgust...They Can't Catch A Break...Is There Yet Another Coming Marital Split?...Ah! A Tranche Of Gossip Material At The Palace Gates...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's a wild and goofy family, a rare one without a care for lodging or money. We speak of the English Royals. My, what a crowd. Always all dolled-up and everywhere to go. Is there an equal in America? Not hardly.

These people are strange.

Lately, and this follows the abdication of the throne by the prince who fell in love with American squeeze Wallis Simpson, the jovial ascent of Queen Elizabeth, the dilly-dallying and death of Princess Diana, the interracial marriage and lingering fallout of Prince Harry.

Enter Kate Middleton, next in line for the Big Act if husband William has, indeed, kept it in his pants. She's been in the news perhaps more than she's wanted to, although one never knows about that with the publicity-hungry crown.

The ongoing mess has all to do with, not adultery on her part, but with floating a doctored photograph of family life, one seemingly innocent as all get-out, but fake, which the press simply loathes. (see it above and below, lads and lassies)

A host of mainstream news organizations led by The Associated Press, Agence France Presse and Reuters accepted the photo as being real, released it to their members and subscribers...and then stunningly issued a "kill order," meaning all were disavowing its genuineness. The shot had been photoshopped; that is, altered, and altered rather amateurishly, as it turned out.

And altered by Princess Katherine, i.e. Kate.

Weirdly, this particular P.R. mess had followed her admission into a hospital for some unknown treatment. Some wags speculated the woe rested with painful abdominal disarray. Others said she'd been in for a mastectomy or an abortion. Still others said the hospitalization had come after Kate had discovered hubby William's affair with a married woman named Hanbury, one he already had a child with, even.

Yeah, you think Henry VIII was mad at Catherine of Aragon?

Not even close. That fat Henry had his eye on Anne Boleyn, a better-looking chick, and he'd wanted the Pope to annul the marriage to the Aragon woman. The Pope said no, Henry VIII got angry, quickly bolted the Catholic Church and began the Episcopalian movement.

Will Kate go ape?

She's troubled, yes. Husband William isn't saying a word. The entire episode smacks of a British mystery nicely cloaked in secrecy, with a smattering of juicy tidbits crawling the castle walls. Is celebrated Englishman Peter Sellers in the house? The Pink Panther would be the one to get to the bottom of this.

But we shine the flashlight on poor Kate. It wasn't that long ago (last Christmas?) that she was still riding high after the bizarre Prince Harry/Meghan Markle departure from the Royal Fold. It was Kate who seemed to hold the troupe together while Harry and Meghan dropped serious allegations of racism and, well, get-along problems within the star-crossed family.

And then King Charles learned he had cancer.

Jeepers, creepers, what other veloured disaster can befall this clan?...

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SUN FLICKS:...Reporters At The Movies..."Fool For Love"...

NAZIS IN THE BARRIOS:... ......Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez Calls RGV Mexicans In Republican Fold "Jews For Hitler"...Stunningly Restrained, Ardent Opponent Mayra Flores Merely Murmurs "Shame On Vicente"...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...I mean there are plenty of Mexican Jews, so that cannot be the knock in this one. No, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, a 3-term Democrat, was going a bit farther in damning his fellow Mexicans for chasing the Donald Trump stench.

He equates them to those doomed "Jews for Hitler" of the 1930s - all actually hated by the Nazis, many to the point of gassing.

But we're into the November Election campaign and Gonzalez wants to keep his job. Losing to a Mexican Republican is not his idea of a good day at the office. His opponent, fleshy Mayra Flores hated the comparison, but we know she's heard similar characterizations before - like likely this morning.

The excitable Flores didn't even come close to beating Gonzalez in the 2022 election, losing by more than 10,000 votes. That brief taste of Washington, D.C., earned in winning a Special Election the summer of that same year, saw her spend 6 months in congress, the loftiest political status she has had as a woman.

Oddsmakers say Gonzalez will whip her silly again.      

This from a report at newrepublic.com: [ U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat from McAllen, compared Hispanic Trump supporters to "Jews for Hitler," prompting fierce backlash from Republicans as he runs for reelection in a mostly Hispanic South Texas district.

In an interview published Monday, Gonzalez warned that Democrats could soon lose support among socially conservative Hispanic voters in South Texas as Republicans increasingly invest in the area. He said Hispanic voters are largely turned off by the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the top of the Republican ticket, including Donald Trump casting Mexican immigrants as "rapists."

"If they didn’t have that racist, divisive element within their party, they would have a lot of Latinos, but they can’t seem to shake that off," Gonzalez told the magazine. "The rhetoric you hear from the Republican Party is shameful and disgraceful for Latinos. And you know, when you see 'Latinos for Trump,' to me it is like seeing 'Jews for Hitler,' almost, you know?"

Republicans are pouring money into unseating Gonzalez in the 34th congressional district, which is based in the lower Rio Grande Valley and includes Brownsville and Harlingen. Former U.S. Representative Mayra Flores (shown in photo at right) is again running for the seat.

Flores acknowledges being a vocal Trump supporter and blasted Gonzalez for comparing Latino Trump supporters to Jewish Nazis.

"Shame on Vicente Gonzalez for referring to conservative Latinos in this manner. He forgets they are his constituents, too," Flores said on social media. "We need to elect new leadership in November, and that's exactly what the Rio Grande Valley will do." ]

Mayra Flores may as well be cutie Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in this one. She's going nowhere. "Tontos," she will say, "...I've a feeling we're not in Burgos (Mexico) anymore." Or something like that. Pick your sample; she's more a cartoon than a positive candidate for public service. (BTW, Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico is her hometown)

If she were to win, well, we know she'd just be out to do Trump's bidding and to Hell with the Rio Grande Valley. It's what we're seen in her and what we keep hearing from the 38-year-old mother of three these days.

Gonzalez, sadly, has it right.

Mexicans do not belong in the Republican Party, not in Trump's ever-racist MAGA version, which is dominating the Grand Old Party (GOP).

But if this is the kick-off salvo, well, it is a more-than-clear signal that this race will, indeed, be a wild, vicious, fire and brimstone campaign for the 34th Congressional District seat - from here to Election Day come November 5th.

Vicente Gonzalez could be excused for proceeding with his dead-on denigrations, perhaps next calling Mexican Republicans idiots in their own language: Pendejos...

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LINGERIE DEPARTMENT:... That Crotchless Trump/Putin Bromance...Well, Should We Care?...So, Icky Donald Loves Murderer Vladimir...Leather And Lace On Sale...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The stocky villain Viktor Orban popped-in to chat up a breezy afternoon at Mar-a-Lago with For-Sale Republican Donald J. Trump. They had drinks and laughs. The drinks chased a dangling conversation, about the state of the world, Orban's dreams of capturing Europe and Trump's shot at the U.S. Presidency.

Burly Orban, the dude with the Spanky & Our Gang hairstyle, had some intriguing words for the press after his brief visit to ritzy Palm Beach.

From nymag.com: [ On Sunday, Orban told an interviewer that Trump explained his "quite detailed plans" to end the war Russia has waged on Ukraine. The plan is to cut off assistance to Ukraine and force it to surrender:

"He has a very clear vision that is hard to disagree with. He says the following: First, he will not give a single penny for the Russo-Ukrainian war. That’s why the war will end, because it’s obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own two feet. If the Americans don’t give money and weapons along with the Europeans, the war will end. And if the Americans don’t give money, then the Europeans won’t be able to fund this war alone. And then the war will end." ]

Trump with a "very clear vision" of anything other than his grifting is the news here.

That America would retreat from its ongoing plan to aid Ukraine is ludicrous. It won't happened under the Biden Administration, but Republicans are amok. Racism and extremism live in their heads. Donald Trump has infected the national psyche on that political front.

Can the U.S. survive his still-out-there anti-America posturing?

It energizes killers such as Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, who has just about finished Holocausting the Palestinians in Gaza.

No doubt Putin is raising and tipping a glass to the mess...

What's he wearing - a black thong?...

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BASEBALL:...Major Leagues Season Two Weeks Away... Pumped-Up L.A. Dodgers In Japanese Mode...Yankees Get Slugger Juan Soto...Players Bitch Uniforms Made With See-Through Material...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Circle the date on your calendar: March 28th, or roughly two weeks from today. That's when the 2024 Major League Baseball season begins. I know, I know. Many of you feel the game has grown boring. That's true, but the season will be played.

There may be a few plots to chase, like Japanese superstar's Shohei Ohtani's new team in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers look to be the team to beat out there. They also signed a young Japanese pitcher said to be the next Don Drysdale.

In New York across the way, it is the arrival of ass-kicker Juan Soto to the pinstripes fold that has fans all ready to, well, take the field after the P.A. guy takes the needle off the Star-Spangled Banner record and yells, "Playball!!!"

Not being up on every team (like I used to as a kid), the insights listed above have to be it.

I'll wait on football, but will check-in on the Boys of Summer every now and then. There is no great outstanding issue or controversy in Big League baseball that I could find, other than that players don't like the material used in uniforms this go-round.

See-through?

Well, that's what the players are saying and worried about.

I guess you'd have to wear one. Who'd want to see anything in ex-pitcher Bartolo Colon anyway? Just play the game.

We looked but could not find anything about who made the new uniforms or where they were made. Perhaps the "thinness" of the material came from Mexico, or maybe it was some dolled-up Babe in Paris, France offering the league some fashion panache.

Who knows?

The game remains the same...

-30-

SUN FLICKS:...Reporters At The Movies..."La Bamba"...

BLACK POWER:...In Letter, NAACP Puts Florida Colleges On Notice...All Black Athletes Told To Reconsider Playing In Sunshine State...Blame Ditzy Republican Gov. DeSantis...It's Been Coming...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Yeah, what would Alabama, Georgia and those vaunted, Power 5 schools in the acclaimed Southeast Conference be without Black athletes? Not much. They'd be Texas Lutheran, Texas-El Paso, Tarleton State, just to name a few Texas schools not quite in the same class.

It's been something of a thing to think about, what with our horrible racist politics dancing across the country - nowhere more excitable and ridiculous than in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has played strongman against all things not white or benefitting whites.

The National Association for the Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP) is fighting back.

This from a report on espn.com: [ The NAACP asked Black student-athletes to reconsider their decisions to attend public colleges and universities in the state of Florida, in response to the University of Florida and other state schools recently eliminating their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

In a letter sent to NCAA president Charlie Baker and addressed to current and prospective student-athletes Monday, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote, "This is not about politics. It's about the protection of our community, the progression of our culture, and most of all, it's about your education, and your future."

Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits the use of state funds for any DEI programs. As a result, the University of Florida announced on March 1 it had closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated 13 full-time DEI positions and 15 administrative appointments and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors.

Other schools, such as North Florida and Florida International, have also recently shuttered DEI programs.

NFL Hall of Famer and Florida great Emmitt Smith also spoke out, voicing his disgust at UF's decision and asking minority athletes at UF to "be aware and vocal" about the decision.

In a statement, the NAACP's Johnson said, "Diversity, equity, and inclusion are paramount to ensuring equitable and effective educational outcomes. The value Black and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched. If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it's time they take their talents elsewhere." ]

The letter may be couched as not being "about politics," but it damned well is, and we're more than okay with it. What would U. of Florida (Emmitt Smith) and Florida State (Deion Sanders) and the U. of Miami (Michael Irvin) be without Black players? Good Lord, their histories on the playing field and basketball court were written by Black players. Beyond that, well, Cubans have made up more than their share of starting players on all three of those school's baseball teams. Alex Rodriguez ring a bell?

The story flashed on ESPN yesterday, but it will most certainly be picked up by the mainstream news media, like the Associated Press. Look for it, on crazy angles, of course, from Right Wing outlets.

Florida is the state where more than a few politicians recently characterized slavery as being "of great benefit" to the Black community.

This should be interesting.

We can almost hear FOX News and other far right news outlet Talking Heads damning the NAACP and Black players for being ungrateful and biting the hand that's fed them.

But it would turn college sports upside down if this ballooned and players actually looked to cleaner, greener pastures to display their talents.

Colorado looks even better after this. Right, Coach Prime?...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."SUFRE MAMÓN"...

MAGA:...And Now! - "Ladies And Gentlemen. From North Carolina, The Neeeeewwwww ...Black Trump!!!!!"... He's Out To Spout The Same Lies...He's Hot And After The Rot...He's What The Death Of MAGA Looks Like?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Well, why not a Black one? America comes in all colors, doesn't it. We've yet to see a Brown Trump, although, well, there was Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy and, of course, fellow Indian Nikki Haley.

Black Trump is here and his name is Mark Robinson. Uh, he's the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, but he's running for the state's top job, that of governor. Does he have a chance at winning? Well, Democrat Josh Stein, the opponent, says he wants 55-year-old, rotund Robinson to keep talking.

Robinson is talking MAGA tough, picking on former President Barack Obama's signature legislation, Obamacare. In Robinson's odd mind, Obamacare is nothing more than yet another manner of enslavement.

His spiel: Something about Americans not taking care of themselves and relying way too much on federal programs. Yeah, this guy's fast on the hoof when it comes to all-things-Trump. If the Mar-a-Lago maven has a darker doppelgänger, it's Mark Robinson. Same big mouth, same lies, same hate, same doughnut-fueled body.

But we read somewhere online that this is what we have to go through to rid ourselves of the cancer known far & wide as MAGA (the Make America Great Again crapola pushed by Trump for now going on nine years.

More and more, political pundits in this grass-whorled country are saying the death and end of MAGA will come in November, when national election results again tell Trump he is a loser. No White House for you! Next!!

We could dive into all the Republican Party is after, but so many others have done it and are still doing it, like these few words from Newsweek.com: "The GOP is content to restrict voting and muck with gerrymandering and the procedural rules rather than supporting a dictatorship. GOP’ers may realize that there is no such thing as a Republican Dictator. A dictator won’t need them or their party."

That "dictator" part is not one often mouthed by Republicans, even as they full-well know the definition of the word. How many times have they used it in the past, pasted it in paragraphs to do with the Russian and Chinese leaders?

That many?

It's been a serpentine tale of lust & disgust, for sure.

But we all know how this will end, don't we? Roughly eight more months of dizzying discourse before the November election. This dude Robinson, like his idol Trump, will not be celebrating the vote count.

MAGA is fast dying on the vine.

Everybody knows it...some people are just trying to make a little money off of it now...

-30-

JACK SMITH:...No-Nonsense Federal Prosecutor Creating Nightmares For Fishy Donald Trump...It May Be An Election Between Him And Joe Biden, But Smarty Smith Is The One To Fear...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Him, your honor. "He's the one making Donald J. Trump's life miserable. Get him off our back! We're getting killed here, sir. Ma, Ma, we have no answers against this guy!" What? A trial. "Your honor, we're in the middle of a national presidential campaign! Who's got time for criminal trials?"

Jack Smith.

Jack Smith has all the time in the world.

Republican Trump is traipsing across the country seeking his party's nomination for the 2024 battle at the ballot box in early November. Jack Smith is busy cementing his cases against the former Democrat from New York who's moved to Florida and become the Sunshine State's leading Republican miscreant.

Smith has Trump by the short hairs, in a case alleging insurrection at the nation's capital and one accusing the ex-pres of fleeing the office after losing in 2021 with boxes of classified documents, reportedly including serious state secrets some say Trump may sell when he finds himself in that prison vice Smith is readying for his big, fat butt.

The contest against President Joe Biden?

Desperate Trump needs help with that, but it's prosecutor Smith he fears.

 This from telegraph.com: [ As the current polls stand, the greatest impediment to Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 is not its current occupant, Joe Biden, but the clear specter of a criminal conviction. The man working to secure just that on behalf of the US government, Jack Smith, a grizzled, taciturn career prosecutor, has cut an elusive figure since he emerged from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) nondescript offices in Washington last June to announce he was indicting a former president for the first time in its history.

If the indictments - the first for allegedly mishandling US secrets, the second for attempting to overturn the 2020 election - were a political maelstrom threatening to split the country, Smith himself presents as decidedly muted.

With his stern demeanor and dark suits, the 54-year-old Smith would be indistinguishable from any other smartly dressed, but restrained, federal prosecutor were it not for his thick salt and pepper beard. ]

Yes, Maria, we're in for some action at the courthouse. You still think the OJ Simpson murder trial in L.A. was as good as it gets? Uh, hang on, doll. This one, or these ones, will be so much better, so much more interesting, so much more dramatic. Trump foil Walt Nauta, his Mar-a-Lago houseboy, plays Kato Kaelin in this one, Baby.

Yes, Jack Smith is tanned, rested and ready.

You can almost hear him, "If you listen to the prick, you must convict."

Bailiff, close the door. Send in the jury.

The defendant will rise...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Her Strut"...

AGE IN POLITICS:...Joe Biden And Donald Trump Both Old Geezers...Is 81 Too Old?...Is 78 As Old As 81?...Americans To Vote On Favored Coot...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It wasn't all that long ago, like 20 years ago, that societal scuttlebutt had age 50 being the new 40. Well, they're still saying it, only now it's 70 being the new 50. America has been a hurry-up, throwaway society since the 1960s, when black & white TV went to die in Vietnam, Hippies brought "Free Love" and the electric guitar raised the nation's noise level a few good decibels.

John F. Kennedy was president then at the young age of 42.

The Beatles and Rolling Stones appearing with aging Ed Sullivan as they cruised into their early-20s. John Wayne and Frank Sinatra, last of the Hollywood dinosaurs, fading and then dying. The color gray was leaving town.

Now comes the resurgence? We ask, as presidential politics has us back on the clock.

President Joe Biden is 81, finishing his first term in office and looking for another four years. He's seen as getting up there in age, as they say in civil conversation. His opponent, Donald J. Trump, has legal collars around his fleshy neck, will be 78 this June. Are they too-old for the most important job in the splintered country, in the fractured world?

Yes, they are.

By about 15 to 20 years, we would say. And it's not that the crap being bandied about the immigrant surge along the nation's southern border is anywhere near the crisis that was the Cuban missile threats of the early-60s. Not even close. That Israeli War on Palestine in the Gaza Strip is NOT the mess that was our involvement in South Vietnam, where some 58,000 of our soldiers died staving off the so-called spread of communism. Yeah.

That however-nasty fight in Ukraine is not North Korea versus South Korea of the 1950s. Our Korean veterans would slap you silly if you dared to make that connection. Those cries of Inner City crime and police misbehavior is not the same of the sort we saw earlier in Los Angeles and, a bit earlier than Compton and Watts, in the Selmas of the American South.

We could parallel other moments in this country's worst moments, but you get the drift.

What America needs is a young president, whether male or female - someone who would speak to tomorrow, to the future. I like Biden over Trump for all the reasons under the sun and in the Bible, but his time has come and largely gone. Trump is just a mess individually and who wants the neighborhood loser as head of the street watch committee?

The number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050 (a 47% increase), and the 65-and-older age group's share of the total population is projected to rise from 17% to 23%. So says the U.S. Census Bureau. America's population is older today than it has ever been.

No, Maria, we're not out of the woods anytime soon. We're old and getting older. The woods may never the same, in fact.

From time.com: [ With the oldest presidential matchup in American history upon us, issues of health and competency are likely to come up again and again over the next nine months. And both campaigns will be working to make their opponent seem doddy, senile, and infirm, and their own guy the picture of vim and vigor. ]

That's out & out cheap political posturing. I guess we deserve it. It is, apparently, Biden vs. Trump in the November General Election. 81 or 78 - pick your horse at the Kentucky Derby's Senior Citizen Horse Race. Makes one wonder about age. Time, that constant in human life. You can't walk up to the standup clock and turn the sucker back, or off.

That time feature in your cellphone is what you live by, right?

Sure.

The job of American president will be filled. Citizen voters from coast to coast will have their say. Old will win...

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REPUBLICANS:...In State Of The Union Response, A High School Performance...Alabama Junior Sen. Katie Britt Latest GOP Sacrifice...She Gomered It...Whiney, Whispered Little Nothings...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Ah, Republicans. They'll always bring you the funny stuff. Cheetos-fattened lies, yes, but also down-home, often-corny, sort-of goofy comedy. I mean, Matt Gaetz? Marjorie Trailer Greene? Lauren Boebert? And, well, we thought Little Marco Rubio was the bottom of the barrel.

Heck, you pine for glib Bobby Jindal and even the masculine Sarah Huckabee Sanders at times like this.

Well, at times like last night.

High-neck, 42-year-old Katie Britt, shown in color photo above, is the emerging GOP comedian-of-the-hour. She killed it in her burbled post-Biden State of The Union address. Killed it as in perhaps killed-off any future opposition party rebuttals to the President's speech before Congress.

The wife of 6'8", 320-lb. former New England Patriots lineman Wesley Britt tried to tackle Joe Biden with the most ridiculous rebuttal ever - ever! Picture a whiney wife dressed to the nines offering words of how much the American wife and household is suffering under the Biden Administration, and you get one view. Britt's performance, however, lasted more than 17 long, long, long minutes, most of it worthy, said the pundits of a Saturday Night Live skit by a poor actress.

That, it was.

Her points were Donald J. Trump's points. Someone wrote that Britt, a birdlike-woman with the perfect whiney, backwater voice heard only in her native. low-energy Alabama, had emailed her speech to Trump for his approval and editing.

So much for it being a Katie Britt address.

We laughed and cringed at hearing her voice and watching her silly facial expressions (youtube.com has several videos this morning). We know it's all for "effect," but Britt was, as they used to say about Donkey Shows in Mexican border bordellos, over-the-top, as in an actress doing her damndest at an audition, her first.

From www.axios.com: [ The speech from the freshman senator is a stark example of how Republicans continue to make immigration and border security their top election year issue. Britt also took aim at Biden's economic record, hitting the president on inflation after he trumpeted wins on the economy in his speech.

Britt criticized Biden's foreign policy even as he led his State of the Union with pushing Republicans to pass aid to Ukraine. ]

Yeah, blah, blah, blah all over again from these ornery, always-the-naysayers-in-the-crowd.

Republicans have serious members of Congress who could have given a better, perhaps even sorta-believable rebuttal. Names are all across my brain. Sen. John Thune who is seeking to replace retiring Mitch McConnell as U.S. Senate Majority Leader. Maybe Steve Garvey, the former Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman in the running to replace Democrat Dianne Feinstein in California. Or even Greg Abbott, the pro-Border Everything governor of Texas!

Katie Britt? She's the junior, freshman senator from Alabama, fer chrissakes! That wide, wide, wide, wide gap between Joe Biden's experience and Britt's inexperience was glaring. You felt sorry for the dame in this one. Katie Britt's jarring performance may portend an end to her political career. 

Amateurish Britt's all you've got, GOP?

Looks like it.

President Biden won the night... 

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TEXAS RANCHING:...Fires in Panhandle Counties Has Cattle Ranchers Requesting Financial Help...Republican Gov. Abbott Declares It A True Disaster But Can't Bring Himself To Call Biden White House For Help...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Texas ranchers decimated by raging wildfires in the Panhandle want financial help from Uncle Sam. Some 1.3 million acres of range land have been scorched in the past week and officials estimate as many as 500 buildings have been destroyed.

And, as yet, no request from Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for help from the Biden White House.

From FOXnews.com: [ More than 100 people packed a room at the Hemphill County Exhibition Center on Tuesday afternoon looking for answers about what government assistance they can tap to help them recover from staggering financial losses caused by the fires. The economic toll from the wildfires, which include the largest in the state’s history, hasn’t been officially tallied. But Panhandle ranchers have likely lost thousands of cattle in the wildfires, according to some preliminary estimates. ]

Abbott has declared this a Texas disaster, and some federal agencies are on the scene, but it's a quirky thing for the governor to perhaps ask for the Democrat's help during an election year.

Would Donald J. Trump slam Abbott if the latter bowed to Biden for aid in the wildfires recovery?

No freakin' doubt.

Only, just how long Abbott can hold out is the question, as ranchers and property owners feel the pain of loss and clean-up. It costs a pretty penny to have someone pull up and haul away hundreds of cattle carcasses.

The fires on the open range also spread into neighboring Oklahoma, but its Republican governor has yet to declare any sort of emergency much less join Texas in seeking federal assistance.

Inevitably, ranchers and farmers and victims of this sort of disaster get help from the federal government. That's what antsy Panhandle residents seem to want; politics set aside for the moment.

Abbott, his mind framed on the supposed immigrant surge at the Mexican border hundreds of miles to the south of the wildfires, has not been to the scenes of the disaster...

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SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS: ...Mayra Flores Crushes Lame Opponents...Fellow Republican Monica De La Cruz Takes Her Dist. 15 Race...Hasse Weathers Beating, But Loses Again...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Boys, this was like a Mayra Flores cartoon in which she wallops The Three Little Pigs. Oink, oink, Baby. Elections used to be close contests for the most part, but Miss Flores, a mouthy marquee Republican, tends to shoo her opponents aside rather easily.

Bring on Democrat Vicente Gonzalez!

Yesterday's Super Tuesday vote had more than a handful of "expected" results, sure. But Mayra Flores took a whopping 83% of the vote! In a four-candidate race!! As crooner David Allan Coe might sing about here: "If that ain't country, I'll kiss your arse."

Lost in the fog of the dusty avalanche were fake Republicans Laura E. Cisneros and Mauro Garza. Together, they got almost 10% of the vote. Also-ran Gregory Kunkle played the part of the "Who dat?"

Yes, sometimes it's almost too-easy to pick winners in politics. Trump won big in Texas, as did Ted Cruz. It was, to be honest, not a real election, in that these contests pitted partisans against each other for the right to meet opposing party candidates in the November General Election.

Mayra Flores is still steaming from her loss to the same Gonzalez in 2022. You could see it in her face and hear it in her words all through this particular campaign. Flores had no time for family fights. She wants Gonzalez in the worst of ways. 35 rounds of boxing or 7 out of 12 falls in wrestling.

"Today’s overwhelming victory clearly shows that we have the support, momentum, and message to defeat Vicente Gonzalez and bring home a resounding victory in November," Flores said, via her Facebook page.

That's the 34th Congressional District main event in the Fall. District 15 will see a repeat of their all-out 2022 brawl after both incumbent Republican Monica De La Cruz and Democrat Michelle Vallejo won their party races. Ironically, Gonzalez held that particular seat until he was gerrymandered out and the next thing you knew he had bolted for neighboring district 34. Good luck, Vincent, but I could have told you this world was never meant for anyone as boring as you. Starry, starry night, Baby!

In ever-mourning Brownsville, the insistent lad Tad Hasse (shown in photo below) lost his latest bid for office. Hasse, a city employee, was beaten by newcomer Deborah Bell in the race for Cameron County Republican Party Chairman - a lofty, yet not really lofty political post. Bell grabbed 61% of the vote, whipping Hasse 8,062 to 4,994 in the vote count.

Bell pummeled Hasse with early-count body blows and a late-in-the-fight string of crippling uppercuts, taking the race easily.

You may or may not recall that this same Hasse lost his previous campaign for a seat on the State Board of Education by an astonishing 29,000 votes.

We expect to see seemingly forever-bored Hasse in the next election, running for something or another.

Peripatetic Republican Ted Cruz will face Democrat - former NFL linebacker - Colin Alred in November. This may be the only contested election in the Lone Star State, as we project victories for most incumbents - the annoying Cruz not being one of them, however.

The voter turnout could have been better, yes.

But, well, we live in the worst of times, don't we?...You know we do...

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POLITICS:...Super Tuesday Movie...The Candidate - "What Do We Do Now?"...

WHILE TEXAS BURNED:... Republican Governor Abbott Absent From Raging Wildfires Upstate......He's Been Hanging With Trump On The Mexican Border...Democrat Pres. Biden Promises Federal Aid...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...A week into the uphill battle up in the Texas panhandle, ragged, rural firefighters are back trying to tamp down a stubborn blaze that has left two dead, a monstrous amount of acreage seared and piles of bloated dead cattle on toasted range land. As of this windy morning on the fire front, there is no request for federal aid from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire rages on.

It's an annoying, unwanted headache for Abbott, who spent a portion of last week along the Mexican border damning immigrant crossings with Donald J. Trump while a large chunk of far North Texas burned to the ground. Photos are as excitable as a glass bowl of potato salad falling off a refrigerator shelf.

Look out, Texas.

 From Time.com: [ The wildfires led to Abbott issuing a state of disaster declaration in 60 counties and have resulted in forced evacuations in a number of towns. The state’s fire preparedness level was raised to three amid concerns that wildfire activity will continue to increase.

The fires have been dubbed the second largest wildfires in U.S. history, and the worst wildfires to have ever hit Texas. The 140 blazes have collectively burned through 1,260,725 acres of land, with at least 12 fires breaking out in neighboring Oklahoma. 

The largest fire - which broke out last week at Smokehouse Creek, north of Amarillo - is only 5% contained. While authorities remain unsure about the cause of the fires, its ferocity has been aided by strong winds and dry grass paired with warm temperatures. Abbott called on the Texas Division of Emergency Management to bring forward additional emergency response efforts to support local firefighters on Tuesday. The efforts continue.

He called on Texans to "to limit activities that could create sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe." 

The blaze also led to the shutdown of a nuclear weapons facility at Pantex last Tuesday night, before resuming "normal day shift operations" on Wednesday morning, according to Pantex’s post on X (formerly Twitter). ]

Proud Abbott, however, always at odds with the federal government, could not bring himself to ask the government for help. Ranchers say they have lost millions, homes and barns included. Area firemen, most coming from volunteer departments, say they are in need of quick aid. Nothing has come from Abbott, who did declare the fires a "Texas disaster" and allowed state agencies to do their best. 

Addressing the fires while in Brownville last Thursday, President Joe Biden said, "When disasters strike, there is no red state or blue state where I come from. There are just communities and families looking for help. (Texas has received $13 billion in relief funding throughout his presidency).

It'll be interesting if Abbott chooses to either go it all alone on the fires, or to finally ask the Biden White House for aid.

That would be a sort of not-quite-Abbott bow to the president, a Democrat...

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A ST. STEPHEN MOMENT: .....Expect Republican Mayra Flores To Win Big On Super Tuesday...November Is Up In The Air...Doesn't Look Like Democrat Vicente Gonzalez Wants It Badly Enough...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Her bared-teeth detractors forever carp on the fakery. They say Republican Mayra Flores is not really a Republican, that the excitable commentary she lays out for voters is a pack of lies - surely material no one born in Mexico would throw out for voters.

Her boisterous backers say she's dead-on. On target, they mean. God-Family-Country, her constant campaign refrain may annoy, but it also resonates. As always, it's where you sit in the political arena.

At the risk of coming at you like a modern-day St. Stephen ("Wherever he goes, the people all complain."), I shall venture the inconvenient news that Mayra Flores may win on Tuesday's party primary...and in the November General Election.

If ever a Rio Grande Valley candidate arrived as if aboard a lost taxi, it is the 38-year-old Miss Flores. What is she doing in town, may be a question they asked initially, only that has fallen by the wayside as her political profile has exceeded that of local, Old-Line politicians.

Mayra Flores has the hottest name in South Texas. Not bad for a candidate born just a few miles south of the Rio Grande.

She's formidable in a loud way and proud of it. Style, they will tell you, is what you need in today's national politics. Loud Mayra Flores has been to the mountaintop (a brief, six-month stint as a congresswoman in 2022, after winning a special election). Then, she lost big to Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, who beat her by some 10,000 votes to keep his 34th Congressional District seat in the last go-round.

Her Republican opponents in Super Tuesday's vote are, as she would likely put it, "not at my level," and she's right. Backbench candidate Laura E. Cisneros was a Democrat as recently as the last election, a fact serious Republicans know and keep in mind. Wealthy candidate Mauro Garza has a shot, at least a better one than Cisneros, only he's lost the last two races for this same post, in 2020 and in 2022. Third aspirant is one Gregory Kunkle, a political cypher also a loser in 2022.

It'll be Mayra Flores taking home the bacon on Tuesday.

That may rest as an inconvenient truth for Flores haters, but party fights rarely move away from the favorite. I mean, Miss Flores was endorsed by Republican God Donald J. Trump in 2022. He applauded her special election victory and said he expected great things from the South Texan.

That died in November of that same year, but Flores never said she was quitting the sport.

She's still here.

Still a force of some sort.

Still hungry as all get-out. The desire for a fight and victory seems to be swimming her veins. They hate her lies, her false posturing, her big mouth, her ever-brawling style. You could say all of that - or any one of that - would have quickly eliminated her 10-20 years ago.

Fortunately for her, the current political climate almost demands a certain stubbornness and disdain.

Democrat incumbent Gonzalez isn't quite beating the campaign drum these days, at least not yet. Without party opposition, he's set for the November fight and maybe believes he has time to wait on Tuesday's Republican results before placing Flores in his crosshairs. 

He should know that Candidate Mayra Flores is not happy...except when she wins...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Gone"...

BORDER WALL:...Hollywood Film Director John Sayles Has His Say...Well, It's One Man's, Uh, Physical Response To The Mess...Urinate On It?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...That danged border wall. It sure engenders all sorts of thoughts and ideas. Build it now. Stop illegal migration. Fund it at whatever cost. Erect the sumbitch. Do it once and for all, or, son, shut the Hell up.

Movie director John Sayles, shown in phot above, says all that, and then he tells you he walked up to a piece of it and...pissed on it.

Well, these are his words, according to the Chron.com: ". . .I don’t think we’ve made any progress on border issues since the movie was made. Back then, it didn’t have the same tension. The border patrol would just say no me hagas correr to illegal immigrants – don’t make me run – and deport them. I don’t think a wall is the answer: it’s like a Christo installation that has cost billions of dollars. I recently visited it with a friend and we urinated on it."

Well, yeah.

John Sayles knows the border. His acclaimed 1996 movie - Lone Star - depicted life along the southern one, a flick labeled a "racial drama," although it was pretty western. Brownsville's own Kris Kristofferson plays a racist sheriff, Charlie Wade, who could easily be played by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott if pro-wall Abbott would lose his handicap.

Who knows where this all will end?

The luckless Mexican Border is today's over-inflated football in American politics. Both of our major parties - Democrats and Republicans - use it to push their dogma onward with voters. This is an election year, so the talk, never mind the action, is magnified.

Lone Star is still available on Netflix and, sure, you can go urinate on the existing Border Wall if you can find a spot not being watched by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Perhaps movie dude Sayles has the perfect way to rid yourself of any angst or anger associated with the state of Texas border politics.

Drink up a few beers and let the kidneys do their thing, yeah...

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MAURO RISING:...Republican Dreams Of Congress. Seat Held By Democrat Vicente Gonzalez ...Glib Garza Lost Same Race In 2020 And 2022...Will Super Tuesday Vote Change That?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...We'd written him off months ago, thinking this Raymondville guy was just another South Texas Mexican out for a few laughs. No one is laughing at Republican Mauro Garza as he campaigns for the 34th Congressional District seat held currently by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Some partisan wags in area blogging are trying to brand glib Garza, shown cowboying in photo above, as a meaningless twig on a dying tree. They point to his two previous losses in candidacies for the House of Representatives. Well, that's true. So far, 60-year-old Mauro Garza is a loser.

Things are happening in his race, however.

Still atop the party's South Texas heap is former Congresswoman Mayra Flores (shown in photo below), one of four candidates for the party's nomination. All are staring at the upcoming March 5th, Super Tuesday vote as if at a seven-layer chocolate cake at PF Chang's.

Garza is still ranking behind Flores, but he is ahead of lesser candidates Laura E. Cisneros and over-matched Gregory Kunkle. The winner of next week's vote will face Gonzalez in the November General Election.

An educated man, Garza's business interests include raising cattle, commercial real estate, consumer product vending machines, and a restaurant/bar. He is said to be the wealthiest of the candidates in this race.

U.S. Congressional District 34 encompasses the totality of Kingsville, Raymondville, Weslaco, Harlingen, San Benito, Brownsville, and the Laguna Madre. Garza's strength is in the counties outside (north) of the Rio Grande Valley, where Flores is the overwhelming favorite.

March 5th is next Tuesday.

Look for Mauro Garza to surprise the pundits...

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BIDEN IN TOWN:...President Drops In On Old Brownsville... Damns Republicans...Trump Upriver In Eagle Pass..."Photo Op" Time...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...The falling local newspaper offered the obligatory write-up, as did Rio Grande Valley TV stations. Bloggers were no shows. One threw a bit about little league baseball back in the day, the other one offered a lame, softball interview of an elderly candidate for the Cameron County Commissioner's Court.

I know. Par for the course.

McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos, a Republican, was among a few valley notables to welcome President Joe Biden to this city (see photo above), one that likes to think of itself as all-politics-all-the-time.

If only.

"Immigration continues to be a national concern," Villalobos wrote on his Facebook page. "Yesterday members of the South Texas Mayors Alliance joined President Biden on this subject.  We will continue to champion the issues that affect our region."

Well, yeah. Keep working. It's what's expected of you public servants. Nowhere in the photos we saw, however, were local Mayor John Cowen (a Republican?) and Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda. Too bad. Surely, Cowen was there to welcome the president. Sepulveda, a gung ho supporter of downtown shopping, was probably at some coffee shop sipping her latte.

Upriver, Republican Donald J. Trump spent morning with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a surprisingly large contingent of the U.S. military. What was that about, a show of political force? That Abbott. Always the punk.

Biden arrived to speak about the recent disaster in Congress that saw a Senate-proposed Border Bill addressing the issue die on the vine after the Republican-controlled House of Reps. booted the easy grounder.

And the word was that the House acted on orders from oft-indicted Trump that they not help the Biden reelection campaign by easing things along the country's southern border.

Well, okay. Always good to keep things on the front burner.

In the end, however, the visits by Democrat Biden and Republican Trump served only their "photo op" purposes. Too bad.

One of these days, the U.S. will stop bitching amongst itself and resolve the problem, only, well, it's really not that big of a problem.

What you see is a magnified issue, one made to seemingly be worse than it really is...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Dear Father"...

SUN FLICKS:...Reporters At The Movies..."Man On The Moon"...

ELECTIONS:......Republicans Blow Shot At Keeping George Santos Seat...New Yorkers Not Buying MAGA...Trump Moans And Groans...Like A Jerk...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Maybe it was the weirdness that brought out the voters in Long Island, New York. This was a race for a congressional seat once held by the Republican grifter/loser George Santos and, well, people wanted to see who would replace the lying sonofabitch.

It'll be Democrat Tom Suozzi, the guy who held the same seat earlier, before leaving it for an unsuccessful run for governor of New York.

Beaten back was Republican Mazi Melessa Pilip, a Nassau County legislator said to not quite be ready for prime time. The 47-year-old native of Ethiopia lost. Suozzi took 53.9% of the vote to Pilip's 46.1%

Republicans had fully believed they'd retain the seat, even as Santos had pretty much stained the Holy Hell out of it.

The loss surprised Republicans, leading one - Donald J. Trump - to rage at the defeat. Pilip is shown in photo below, at right.

"Republicans just don't learn, but maybe she was still a Democrat?" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I have an almost 99% Endorsement Success Rate in Primaries, and a very good number in the General Elections, as well, but just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn't endorse me and tried to 'straddle the fence,' when she would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America."

Yeah. That's blowboy Trump lipping the battered trumpet.

Suozzi saw it differently.

He said the voters were sick of partisan bickering as he took a shot at Trump and his allies in Congress.

"Let’s send a message to our friends running Congress these days: stop running around for Trump and start running the country," Suozzi said. "It’s time to find common ground and start delivering for the people of the United States of America."

The win came in a Special Election. The 61-year-old Suozzi will draw another Republican in the November General Election.

Loser Santos, currently under FBI investigation for fraud and lying to federal officials, had brazenly said he'd never resign and promised to seek reelection.

Those also were lies.

Democrats hailed the victory, as it drew them closer to overcoming the slim majority held by Republicans in the do-nothing House of Representatives.

Is this a foretelling of what Republicans face in the Fall? Could be.

They're running scared...talking tough, but talking about defeats...

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