SUN BEAMS:..."Christmas In New Mexico"...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

SANTA FE, New Mexico |...Monique had finished stringing the new Christmas lights full-across the fence by the time Patrick came home from feeding the cows in the Back-40 pasture.

"Nice," he'd said to her as they stood in their small kitchen, both looking out the small window toward the property's aging back fence.

And then she'd let out a whoop and a holler when she plugged the extension cord into an electrical outlet and the lights had burst forth as if some collection of energized lightning bugs. This would be their first Christmas together after a tumultuous romance that had seen Monique split for Texas and stay there for almost a year.

Patrick had gone after her and even survived a weird crash on a Texas highway, but their reunion had gone badly and he'd come home to New Mexico by himself. Monique had left her mother's house west of Fort Worth and taken a waitress job at a Dallas country & western honky tonk bar.

The moon had worked wonders and she'd one day up-and-driven herself back to his place.

Here, they busied themselves at being nice and warmy to each other, Patrick loving her as much as he'd ever loved her and Monique working him over with her kind of love, the best kind, is what she would have said about it.

"Christmas concert in town tomorrow night," he was telling her as she began to tidy-up the kitchen ahead of supper.

"We should go," she replied, nodding.

Patrick no longer wondered about his coming weeks and months. His feeling was he'd been alone long enough, and Monique coming back was some sort of strong signal that by his side is where she belonged.

"By the way, what's for dinner?" he asked, not really caring about what she might be serving.

"Check out the crock pot," she told him. Pot roast was his favorite supper during the winter months.

"And for dessert?" he asked, getting only a sexy wink, which told him everything he needed to know, about her and about her love for him...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...This one from a pile of short stories written when I was in lovely New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment...] 

REPUBLICANS:...State Party Refuses To Ban Neo-Nazism And Antisemite Language... Local GOP Chair Disagrees With Odd Take On Clearly Racist Lingo...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas|...The socio-political detritus known as Nick Fuentes is doing just fine spreading Neo-Nazism and antisemitism as if no one will ever contest him and his diseased ilk. He's got the full ear of the Texas Republican Party, it appears.

The statewide political organization recently opted not to bar the racist language being spread willy-nilly by Fuentes (shown at center in photo above) and his supporters.

Morgan Cisneros Graham, chair of the Cameron County Republican Party and a member of the statewide committee, disagreed.

This excerpt from a report by texastribune.org: [ Other committee members questioned how their colleagues could find words like "antisemitism" too vague, despite frequently lobbing it and other terms at their political opponents.

"I just don’t understand how people who routinely refer to others as leftists, liberals, communists, socialists and RINOs ('Republicans in Name Only') don’t have the discernment to define what a Nazi is," committee member Morgan Cisneros Graham (shown in photo at right) told the Tribune after the vote. ]

Language is a useful tool for those who can craft it for their own definitions and use. Fuentes is an expert at wording racism and bigotry, and now the Texas Republican Party has essentially endorsed his manner of fashioning hate.

It's a wonderment, yes.

But it won't stop until someone either gets hurt or a political body has the organizational balls to put a stop to it. Fuentes speaks the lingo of today's GOP, its so-called MAGA wing at least. This is the same Fuentes who has even dined with Republican Fuhrer Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, fer chrissakes.

That Ms. Cisneros Graham voiced incontrovertible opposition is a Big Plus for mainstream, Traditional Republicans, that however-smaller, more-reserved wing of the GOP.

There is no indication that Trump and his many followers want any sort of other conversation. Social Division is selling within the party and its vision of America.

We do heartily applaud Morgan, yes...

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SUN BEAMS:..."Riding The Open Range"...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

FORT SUMNER, New Mexico |...There were a good 25 or 30 miles to go before we'd hit the next town of any size, one we'd not seen on the map. It was a tiny speck of a rural community, home to perhaps two dozen hardscrabble people, most of them working for the region's big rancher.

But it did have a roadside gas station and small general store, and, well, that's all we needed for the moment.

Some good hotel was much farther up the highway, and we'd stay there. Stopping by an old store had its charm, and so I spent a long hour just hanging out and talking to the couple behind the counter.

There were lonely aisles of the old kind running across the store's dusty wooden floor, with droopy shelves full of old oil cans from another era and dog food and bags of peanut brittle and sunflower seeds.

My girlfriend Clara found some once-bright, now totally faded orange plastic-framed sunglasses she wore out of the store, while I grabbed a few bags of chips and a bottle of water.

Outside, I filled the truck's gas tank and was about to get in to drive away. Something led me back inside the old store, however. And when I again stood in front of the aging counter, I mentioned to the friendly couple that it sure had to be a great thing, something special, to live with such peacefulness.

"It must be really quiet at night," I went on.

The old man nodded and said it had been just that for his last 45-50 years in town. I said that was wild and the old lady said she'd likely go crazy after one hour in the city.

I smiled and then all three of us laughed aloud...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...There is a longer version of this short story, with imagery of rolling, miles-long conversation and rural radio playing in the background, that sort of reading stuff...]

NCAA:...Horns in College Football Playoffs!...To Face Undefeated Washington In Semis...Alabama Takes On Michigan In Other Game...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas |...Horns in, Horns in!!! A nod from the NCAA's College Football Playoff (CFP) selection committee has the Texas Longhorns playing for the National Championship. They now join Michigan, Washington and Alabama in the four-team two-game tournament.

The news came Sunday.

Out are season-long #1 Georgia and undefeated Florida State. Both had been earmarked for the football Final Four. Georgia's loss - its only one of the season - to Alabama on Saturday was enough to see them lose out on the big-money payout.

Florida State, it says here, suffered from what is commonly known as "strength of schedule;" that is, it played lesser foes than the Longhorns and Alabama.

This from espn.com: [ Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama have been selected by the College Football Playoff committee to vie for the national championship.

That means Florida State (No. 5) and Georgia (No. 6), two teams with compelling arguments for playoff inclusion, are instead on the outside looking in.

The Wolverines and Huskies as undefeated conference champions were considered virtual shoo-ins to make the CFP. Michigan is in the playoff for the third straight year. Washington, on the other hand, has been in the CFP only once before, losing in the semifinals in the 2016 season. ]

Howls will come from Tallahassee as early as this afternoon. Georgia had it all in its hands, and lost it in one game, its season-ending SEC championship loss to Alabama.

For Texas, it is a return to the Big Time after almost 12 years of mediocrity. It will face the undefeated Washington Huskies in the semi-finals, with Bama taking on undefeated Michigan.

It'll be Party Time in Austin today...

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BUOYS SAGA:...Federal Court Orders ASAP Removal Of Rio Grande Buoys Seen By Abbott As Great Deterrent To Border Migrants...Ha Ha...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The thing looked like a long floating baked Cheeto. There it was in the very middle of the passive Rio Grande, helping, it was said daily at the governor's office, stem the influx of immigrants coming to the southern border.

It cost $850,000.

And who knows if it helped stop the "invasion" Texas Gov. Greg Abbott feared like a sumbitch.

But the 1,000 or so feet of orange-colored buoys must now go.

This from texastribune.org: [ The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Texas on Friday to remove the floating barrier it deployed in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass this summer, affirming a lower court’s ruling.

In a 2-1 decision, the court found that the river is navigable where the barrier was placed and that it is "an obstruction," meaning that Texas needed to receive permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - which regulates activities in waterways and wetlands under federal law - before deploying it.

Judge Don Willett, a Trump appointee, was the dissenting vote in the ruling, arguing that the Rio Grande cannot accommodate commercial boat traffic and is therefore not navigable.

Texas argued that the barrier was also meant to save lives and force migrants to cross the border at ports of entry, but Willet said Texas hasn’t proved that’s the case. ]

The silly buoys, lined-up in the middle of the river, have been there since early last summer. They even led to a protest by neighboring Mexico and a time or two floated over to the Mexican half of the Rio Grande.

Saw-like blades in the buoy construction also drew protest and condemnation.

Abbott has made immigration - and really immigration at the border - his signature project. Often, he decries (in a steady whine) inaction by the federal government, even as he knows the U.S. Border Patrol is on-station 365 days of the year...

Buoys, it says here, always were a silly, cockamamie idea...

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SUN BEAMS:..."Birds Of The American West"...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

TAOS, New Mexico |...Well, yeah, how else to see it? They were out in force and surely up to something, Dell Flamingo told himself as he watched the steady flocks of birds arrive on the powerlines running full-across the front of his property, arrive, hang in for some chirpy chatting and then it was off to somewhere else.

"We humans are too-damned settled in our ways," he said aloud, to himself really.

Then, as if needing an accompanying human sound, he cleared his stuffed nostrils in the day's rare high humidity and set his aging rifle down. Shooting a line of happy birds was not the morning's drill. These wingsters doing nothing wrong.

His best friend, and neighbor, a hard-headed man named Clement Hopkins, loved to come out of his ranch home a-firing at them. Old Man Hopkins equated all farm birds with Nazis, or so he had said one wind-blown afternoon when ambling Dell had ventured up the road and spotted him in his good-looking front yard that included the only hedge fencing in town.

Dell had only a few minutes.

Hopkins was fast-planting fresh flowers alongside what looked like a dying tree. That dead-or-alive juxtaposition lived out west, was Dell's feeling. Invariably you saw the wife's new, automatic-transmission SUV parked alongside Dad's rusted old pickup. The family dog aged as a cat had kittens. The sun popped-in and then popped-out, perhaps feeling unwelcome in this, what was flannel country.

Back home, Dell's wife, Candy, asked him how the day was going.

"Oh, I don't suppose you'd ever believe it, dear, but I had the whirlies while checking-out the birds on the lines," he said, to which Candy, a former non-headlining topless dancer, replied, "Killing harmless birds on a daily basis is certainly a ticket straight to Hell, Dell."

Yeah, he went on, he'd stop shooting them, at least until after the Christmas holidays.

"Should venture that same sentence to Hopkins, I suppose," he added, reaching for the bottle of Mylanta...

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[Editor's Note:...Once more, from the stack of short stories gathering dust at my feet...]

LONGHORNS:...Texas Awaits College Football Playoffs (CFP) Selection...In The Hunt, But Still Iffy...Georgia Losing To Alabama May Help...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas |...It's been an anvil around their necks since that afternoon in October, when the Texas Longhorns lost the Red River Rivalry to the Oklahoma Sooners - keeping the Horns from going undefeated this season.

But 12-1 may just be enough to make the College Football Playoffs (CFP).

Texas won't know until about noon today, when the CFP committee announces the four finalists. The Horns have an outside chance of getting one spot. Three of them, we say, are taken by undefeated Michigan, Washington and Florida State.

In the hunt for the last spot are Texas, Alabama and Georgia.

This was all set in motion after Alabama beat Georgia yesterday, dealing the Bulldogs their first loss of the season. Texas, as college football fans know, knocked off Alabama 34-24 earlier in the season, a victory Horns Coach Steve Sarkisian sees as the biggest win of college football.

He exaggerates, but that's okay.

Texas took care of business Saturday afternoon, when the Horms easily beat Oklahoma State 48-21 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington to win the Big 12 Championship.

Now, it's hurry up and wait...

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A FOURTH QUARTER FOR THE AGES:...Down 21-0 In 2nd Half, Brownsville Veterans Memorial Roars Back To Beat Corpus Christi Miller, 35-28...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Never in the history of Rio Grande Valley football has there ever been a comeback like this one. High school football here this time of the year is about 66-0, 72-7 defeats to bigger, faster upstate schools.

Look it up.

Last night, that humiliating, road-tired script was rewritten, and written to include last second drama of the sort that only unfolds in Hollywood. Friday Night Lights? This was a true, blue supernova explosion in 20 seconds, one that left a packed Sams Stadium crowd gasping for air.

The scrappy Brownsville Veterans Memorial High kids raised their late-blooming record to 12-2, whipping favored - and undefeated - Corpus Christi Miller, 35-28, in a comeback for the ages.

Down 21-0 at one point, the BVM Chargers mustered the best of guts to claw back, draw even and then scoot ahead in the final seconds. Again, we ask: Can you say Chargermania!!!

It's onto the state semifinals against a tough Smithson Valley (Comal County) squad (13-1), but, then, the Chargers have walloped two ranked, undefeated teams in the last two weeks. Is there life after a stunning fourth quarter victory. Perhaps there is for the older fans who remember every defeat this city's - and the Valley's - schools took at the hands of northern squads.

Is Desi Najera up off the floor yet?

He was the last Great Hope back in the old Brownsville High days, the scrambling QB's lasting impression being a loss to the faster, tougher Seguin Matadors at hallowed Sams Stadium back in the late 1960s - a game that still lives in infamy around here.

This time, this night, things would be and end differently.

Credit Chargers QB Storm Montoya with four touchdowns. Give a whoop and a holler to scatback Gilbert Trillo for his dazzling 20-yard run with seconds remaining for the win. You could not have written a better ending sitting at a Starbucks with a cup of steaming-hot Black coffee and a sexy dame at your side.

The Chargers, as sportswriters like to write, took it to Corpus Christi.

Hail, Chargers!!

This from the coaches, as reported by the Caller-Times:

Miller head coach Justen Evans on the loss: "We have to finish the fourth quarter. We’re up by 21 in the fourth quarter and we throw an interception. Fumble the ball. We gave them short fields and turned over the ball. That was the difference. We have to convert on those extra possessions. Shutting them out in the first half, we should have had more than 14 points. That is on me. I’ve got to be better. This one stings. Now we have to learn how to win in the fourth round."

From Veterans Memorial coach JC Ramirez on the comeback win: "Quarterback Storm Montoya was phenomenal. He has always been a great player but he grew up tonight. He’s not just a great player, he showed he is a great leader."

Yes, Maria, dreams do come true.

The entire, oft-whipped Rio Grande Valley is watching the never-say-die kids from Brownsville.

Shock & awe, Baby...

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CONGRESS:...Lying, Grifting George Santos Finally Expelled From Congress...Democratic Governor Of NY To Schedule Replacement Election...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The lying grifter is out. Republican Congressman George Santos was expelled from Congress early today. The move was not unexpected, although some said the Republican leadership did not want to lose his vote.

So long, George.

You were always over-matched, Bub.

This from washingtonexaminer.com: [ In a historic vote, the House of Representatives voted to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY) from Congress, making him just the sixth member of the House to face that punishment. In order to expel Santos, the House required a two-thirds majority, and the effort succeeded despite House GOP leadership voting against the resolution, citing concerns about future precedent. The expulsion passed with 311 voting for it, including 105 Republicans, 114 voting against it, and two voting present.

The vote ends an era in Congress in which, from the beginning, the embattled New York Republican continually made news for his antics, legal woes, lies, and flamboyant interactions with the media.

New York Republicans who have sought Santos's removal for months took a victory lap after the House adjourned on Friday, expressing confidence they can replace the former freshman with "a good conservative Republican."

"It's a sad day," said Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY), one of the New York Republicans who led the charge for Santos's ouster. "We wish we never had to be here. But now the focus on is on doing the work of the American people."

"We didn't want to spend the first 11 months talking about George Santos, and I hope today is the beginning of not having to talk about him," he added.

Other lawmakers echoed similar sentiments that his removal was not a cause for celebration but rather had to be done to uphold the standards of Congress. Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), the chairman of the Ethics Committee that released the damning report, defended the panel's work, arguing his removal followed due process.

"The Constitution does not require a conviction. The Constitution just requires a two-thirds vote by the body," Guest said. "I'm not concerned that this sets some future precedent that members will be willy-nilly removed from Congress because of a behavior that people do not accept. I believe this is the exception to the rule, and I believe that probably within the last several decades that this is by far the worst corruption that we've seen."

His expulsion will now trigger a special election to carry out the rest of his term, with state law dictating Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) to schedule an election date within the next 10 days. The race is expected to draw a lot of attention as Democrats eye flipping the seat and further narrowing the GOP's already-slim majority. ]

Oddly enough, Santos, as a former congressman, can still walk about the House of Reps and treat himself to the congressional cafeteria and gym. 

The seat will in all likelihood be won by a Democrat this next go-round.

And, already, more than two dozen candidates have surfaced...

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BORDER WALLS:...Federal Judge Deals Texas A Blow On Razor Fencing. Rules Feds Can Remove It...Clippers Out...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Yeah, who's in charge - our state troopers or the U.S. Border Patrol? Who calls the shots? The Republican governor seems to think he can do it, a judge is not so sure.

Well, no, she is sure.

This from axios.com: [ Texas lawmakers' effort to block the Biden administration from removing razor wire fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border was blocked by a federal judge on Thursday.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has been battling with the administration over keeping razor wires and buoy barriers with blades - near Eagle Pass - along the Southern border as the state reports a surge in the number of migrants attempting to enter the country amid a wider global humanitarian crisis.

U.S. District Judge Alia Moses had previously granted Texas officials a temporary restraining order in the case, but on Thursday denied the state's request due to insufficient evidence that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents cutting the wire had violated the law.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday he'd appeal the ruling.

In her ruling, Moses left open for Texas the chance to prove its case in the future and criticized the way the Biden administration had carried out its immigration policies.

"The immigration system at the heart of it all, dysfunctional and flawed as it is, would work if properly implemented," wrote the George W. Bush appointee. "What follows here is but another chapter in this unfolding tragedy. The law may be on the side of the Defendants and compel a resolution in their favor today, but it does not excuse their culpable and duplicitous conduct."

Texas installed miles of barriers using barbed wire and buoys in the river near Eagle Pass, a section of the border that has seen the second highest number of migrant crossings this fiscal year. ]

And so it goes.

One of these days, the issue will be resolve - or resolve itself - and then what for these cheap politicians? Texas Gov. Abbott seems to have banked his entire time in office on the half-assed border walls he dreams up every now and then.

We hesitate to think what possibly could come next.

We do...

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REPUBLICANS:...Primary In New Hampshire Will Tell The Tale Of Trump's Presidential Campaign...Nikki Haley Has A Shot...Ron DeSantis Doesn't...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...We say no, Donald J. Trump cannot be stopped. He will be the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominee. Bank it. The Republican boat is a small boat, and Trump has his little hands on the steering wheel.

Well, okay, maybe his legal troubles and the courts will stop him, but that's a longshot.

Indicted four times and facing 91 felonies, the Mar-a-Lago marvel still commands a better-than-nice lead in the ongoing campaign for the nomination. He is comfortably ahead, in fact.

There is a fourth candidates debate scheduled for Dec. 8, but it'll go the nothingburger way of the previous three. Trump will not be in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to gab with opponents Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie or Vivek Ramaswamy - The Four Losers.

This from newrepublic.com: [ New Hampshire may again be in the crosshairs of history on the night of January 23, as the returns rush in from the first-in-the-nation Republican primary. The Granite State will provide an answer to one of the most pivotal questions ever facing American democracy: Can Donald Trump be stopped in his drive for his third GOP nomination?

If Trump sweeps the January 15 Iowa caucuses and then romps in the New Hampshire primary eight days later (the date is still unofficial), the GOP race would be effectively over. With the Republican primary calendar filled with winner-take-all states in March and beyond, the dwindling chances of derailing the Mar-a-Lago megalomaniac would depend on either the legal system or divine intervention palsying the hands of Trump supporters as they fill out their ballots.

The importance of this year’s New Hampshire GOP primary transcends symbolism and history. The reason: The verdict from the Granite State will dominate media storylines for a full month, given the long pause between its primary and South Carolina’s the following month.

With its GOP primary open to independent voters, New Hampshire is the last best hope of Never Trump Republicans. This is Horatius at the bridge. In fact, New Hampshire is Horatius and the bridge all rolled into one. ]

New Hampshire is teasing the country with occasional reports showing Haley making inroads on Trump's base. Ron DeSantis may actually see his campaign come to a screeching halt if he places third behind Trump and Haley. Fourth candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has seen his fortunes drop like a lead balloon. He is not expected to do well in New Hampshire and likely will be the next to drop out.

There isn't much news about strategy coming from the DeSantis camp. Haley, meanwhile, has been all across the state, grabbing voters as she moves in and out of various cities. Donald Trump has made brief appearances, but the word is that he is not concerned about the prospect of losing.

It could be telling, or it could be evidence of The End for Trump's opponents...

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DARK MONEY:...The Home Depot Is All-In Bankrolling Donald Trump In 2024...No Matter What...Even If He's Campaigning From Prison...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Go to Lowe's. You'll likely feel better. Home Depot? It's openly neck-deep in Republican Party politics these days. Its owner has said he'll bankroll oft-indicted Donald J. Trump even if the Mar-a-Lago marvel is in jail.

Home Depot? The place for home repair materials and workshop gadgetry?

Yeah, that place. There's one in pretty much every town.

This from newsweek.com: [ The Home Depot is facing fresh calls for a boycott following a report that the home-improvement company donated $1 million to Republicans who deny that Trump legitimately lost the 2020 presidential election.

Noted watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) yesterday released an updated list of alleged corporate donors to the so-called "Sedition Caucus" - the group's term for Republican lawmakers or committees supporting lawmakers who refused to certify President Joe Biden's win on January 6, 2021.

The Home Depot was third on the list, trailing Boeing and top donor Koch Industries, the company headed by influential conservative donor Charles Koch. Other corporations that feature prominently on the list include AT&T, United Parcel Service (UPS), Lockheed Martin, Comcast and General Motors.

"Congratulations to @HomeDepot, which has officially donated $1,000,000 to support the members of Congress who voted not to certify the results of the 2020 election," CREW posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning. "Bankrolling the Sedition Caucus is a choice, and Home Depot has doubled down!" ]

Hey, do you know what McDonald's is doing with its Quarterpounder earnings? That ultra-conservative (We're never open on Sundays) Chick-fil-A? The new Chicago-based bigwigs at Whataburger?

You could very well be surprised, and we don't mean mildly.

Bernard Marcus, the founder and retired CEO of Home Depot shown in photo above at right alongside photo of Trump, has made no bones about backing Trump. The 94-year-old Marcus may have dropped his company's well-known orange apron and stepped out of the day-to-day operation, but he's still active in national politics.

We have no argument with his contributions; it's his money.

But what we do say is: Go to your neighborhood Lowe's for that metal ladder or track lighting...

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POLITICS:...Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban Thinking Senate, White House Run ?...He's Not Talking...Others Are...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

DALLAS, Texas |...Smooth Mark Cuban challenging oafish Ted Cruz? Or someone else, maybe for the White House. There's talk. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks is said to be seriously considering sale of the NBA franchise, perhaps to seek political office.

It's not a done deal, nor has he announced anything.

But talk swirls in Big D.

This from axios.com: [ Mark Cuban is upending the world of pro sports team deals, reportedly agreeing to sell the Mavericks without relinquishing operational control. This could spark speculation about Cuban's political ambitions.

Cuban, who bought the NBA club for $285 million in 2000, would sell a majority stake to casino magnate Miriam Adelson and her family at a $3.5 billion valuation.

The Mavericks won't relocate west, despite the NBA's desire to put a team in Vegas. Instead, the Adelsons - who control Las Vegas Sands Corp. - would be charged with developing a new sports entertainment complex in Dallas.

Cuban, an active startup company investor, would retain a minority stake while continuing to run the show. It's a unique arrangement, and one that's certain to pique the interest of other owners who might want to cash in without losing their proximity to NBA power.

Per usual, all of this would be subject to league approval.

Cuban has long toyed with the idea of running for office, and this sale news comes just after he announced that the next season of "Shark Tank" will be his last.

Maybe that means a presidential run. Or a Senate bid, where Texas' Ted Cruz is up for re-election next fall and John Cornyn comes due in 2026.

He could be a very strong candidate. Cuban's got the billionaire businessman and TV personality background that helped Trump, without the baggage. His ideology is more pragmatic than partisan, which could appeal to independents, and he's spent the past several years working to lower prescription drug prices (via a strategy that big insurers like Cigna are now copying).

He also would be flush with cash, plus business partners with an Adelson family that's known as a GOP mega-donor.

But, but, but: It would be a mistake to presume the Mavs sale and TV retirement are de facto leaps into politics.

The bottom line: The Mavs sale structure is a reminder that, when it comes to Mark Cuban, it's best to expect the unexpected... ]

The Mavs are having a good season so far this year, although it's early.

Our all-in political times are such that some interesting Americans see opportunity. Mark Cuban has been talked about as a political figure for years. His popularity in Dallas is unrivaled, and his TV show doesn't hurt his reputation.

What the country as a whole would think of a Cuban candidacy is the mystery...

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SUN BEAMS:...From The Short Stories Collection... ..."Staying In The Truck"...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

FORT SUMNER, New Mexico |...Perhaps it was cold enough, or maybe he'd just wanted to wear his old black, snap-button cowboy shirt over his even-older cotton sweater. There were much-bigger questions to deal with, more than a dozen swirling around like skinny flies starving for attention.

Paul Cruz had left his wife and house and mother and father and friends behind. You had to do that after you signed divorce papers, was his rolling-along feeling. Ten years of marriage gone. Life as a collection of episodes, this one one of thousands, the final one a dagger.

It was Paul's opinion that a new start was a new start, dammit.

Change followed change, also an opinion. Lovely Gina, dark-haired and forever about as friendly as a lost puppy, had strayed on him and that simply was unpardonable. Here, he rolled toward the west in a used pickup he had bought back home in Dallas.

His watch told Paul it was almost noon.

A catsup-stained paper bag carrying three Whataburgers and fries rested at arm's length, there where sweet Gina might have been had she kept up with her wedding vows. A hawk surprised him a mile west of Lubbock and it wasn't until he drove past passive Clovis that he saw it stop following him.

It had flown off toward down and out Pueblo, Colorado to the north, according to the sight out of his passenger-side window. Hawks didn't have his problem. They mated and often mated until death, and it was hard to visualize a hawk committing adultery. Divorce was a bummer, but not a crippler.

Paul thought he likely would be in the mood for new romance by the time the sun set somewhere west of Albuquerque...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...Once more, a contribution from the short story collection...] 

TACO TUESDAY:..The Lies Of Dairy Neck Blogger Jim Barton...Go BVM Chargers!!! ...Rassmo Meets TSC Abuser Jerry McHale...Rosas Not for Sheriff...So Long, Kunk...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...That Nebbish Blogger Jim "Little Hands" Barton, shown above in the unsightly Dairy Neck, called me a liar the other day. Something about the reader comments on this blog. The 76-year-old lifelong minimum-wage laborer forgets that it was he who claimed to be a direct descendant of American Red Cross founder Clara Barton.

He wasn't.

Homely Clara never married or had children. In fact, she shacked up all her adult life with some dude. "Little Hands" Barton (he ragged on Donald Trump about his smallish hands) claimed that lineage? Well, yes, he did. On his soporose blog. Then we showed him the Bio info on Clara, and he quickly deleted the post making the lying claim. It's who he is - a lying loser eager to claim any sort of success story. Next, being originally from the northwest, he'll perhaps say he's from the Sacajawea side of the family.

House husband Barton, on wife support, has no college degree, did not serve in the military and spent many years in Brownsville working at a grocery store, at a motel and taking day jobs at the Port of Brownsville unloading shrimp boats.

He has some diseased nerve criticizing anything I do. I graduated from college, served in the U.S. Navy and worked my profession for almost 30 years with some of the biggest news organizations in this country. Lying, heavyset Barton likes to write that my jobs were temporary in nature, but all he has to do is ask himself if primo outfits such as The Associated Press, The Houston Post, The Boston Globe and The New York Post would have hired me after my being fired or seeing bad reviews of my writing?

Uneducated Barton does not know the news business from a layer of fat-heavy flesh covering his expansive, belly-like neck.

Poor dude. He never accomplished much, leaving a bit of the carrying to his late wife, Nenny - the one who died in 2018 and whose body he donated to science. Who knows where Nenny went! How does he sleep at night?

In any case, we keep monitoring his comatose blog, looking for a spark of sorts to tell us that he's worth our looksee. Mostly, as we have said before, his blog is a Laundromat Bulletin Board. Nothing heady, but with a lot of misspellings and bad grammar, the result of his lack of formal education.

His current wife, an immigration-lucky Filipina, is currently in the outs of Nevada while he languishes along the Texas-Mexico border, perhaps wondering what exactly it is that she may be doing all by her lonesome out west. Elderly, 75-year-old Barton seems to have a mind quick to wander. Mostly, from what we have seen, it goes awry even when engaged in basic, ordinary thought process. He could get some bad ideas that she's up to no good, sure.

Anything is possible with this seemingly useless, women-dependent lout.  

Oh, well. We don't have the time to save his pedestrian life.

Have Nurse Wife, Will Travel reads the masthead of his low-altitude blog. 

Well, his wife is a nurse or sorts, and she is travelling. He isn't. He's festering in Olde Brownsville.    

This past week, the pipsqueak floated a number of darts at us. I say floated because they didn't quite zoom, like when a real man fires those suckers. Indeed, I see him as one fatso acting as if the Four Horsemen of Calumny - Fear, Ignorance, Dumbness and Smear.

Then came his defense of the indefensible. Slothy Barton is not a veteran, as we have noted, and he likes to equate veterans with conscientious objectors, his ilk. We keep asking him why he did not serve his country and he never answers. We even labeled him a draft dodger and his reply was: "I dodged nothing..." Yeah, cowardly, isn't it?

At best, Jimmy Boy Barton, a colorless figure from way back, is a Twisted Intellectual Poser, twisted being the more important word there.

Wretched burlesque is his shit-stained calling card...

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Can you say Chargermania? It's here ahead of Friday's historic Fourth Round, State Playoffs clash against mighty, undefeated Corpus Christi Miller at magnetic Sams Stadium. Are you ready for some football?! You'd better be.

This is the deepest playoff ball for any Brownsville high school football team. Ever.

How 'bout Dem Brownsville Veterans Memorial High Chargers?!!!

They go into the Big Game with a misleading record of 11-2, having lost two early-season games to San Benito (28-21) and to the lowly PSJA Bears (31-21). Lately, however, they have played like the Bart Starr-led Green Bay Packers of Super Bowl I - tough, steady and on-assignment, as coaches like to say at halftime.

Big plays. Rough, punishing defense.

Miller comes in undefeated at 13-0 after walloping most of their season's opposition. They are a high-scoring team, and it sort of leads us to say this will be either a game in the 40s for both teams or a tight sumbitch all the way to the last seconds of the game - maybe even overtime.

The Chargers may have two early-season losses, but it says here that was a whole other squad. As even the rubes say in sports bars coast-to-coast, these guys learned to win together. Boys, that shellacking of undefeated, 7th-ranked PSJA North last weekend was no fluke. The Chargers performed like a well-oiled, tortilla-conveying machine.

Let's see if the entire town supports them.

Brownsville lives a fatalistic existence in which everything to do with life is supposed to end up in defeat. These kids should be kept away from their fathers and uncles, or anyone in their immediate social circle who can only remember losing at everything.

We're pulling for the exciting Chargers, as we would pull for any other Valley team still playing this deep into the state championship playoffs. So many area teams have taken it up the wazoo from bigger, faster upstate teams that, well, we tire of seeing and reading about it.

Come on, Browntown. Show a little appreciation. Get wild going into - and during - the game!!!

That 1961 Donna High Redskins team that won the only State Title ever won by a Rio Grande Valley football team was not supposed to win those games, and especially not against Quanah High in the Finals.

It can happen...

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Into photography or quaint, character-building apartments? Come to laid-back Brownsville. It is the only city in the Rio Grande Valley able to draw on a documentable wild history of love and pain. The most famous border savior/bandit - one Juan Nepu Cortina - loved his Brownsville.

Juan could not have made his name as a defender of all-things-Mexican while living in, say, Harlingen or McAllen. No, not quite the same thing, is it?

The building you see in the photo above was taken this week by an anonymous photographer (walkabout Jim Barton), and we're driven to ask why it's still standing. Raze the sumbitch before it falls on some bus riders looking for shelter from the heat or cold! It's a tragedy waiting to happen, Maria.

Look at it.

Sheesh. Where are the goons from Code Enforcement? Or, well, is it owned by some local bigwig with major influence at City Hall? The strolling photographer didn't bother to wonder or to ask. We could name the photographer, but why shame the ashamed? (again, kids: Jimmy Boy Barton)

Anyway, dare to walk the older streets of Brownsville for that "Living Tour of Yesteryear"...

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TACO TUESDAY laid-off goofy sheriff's candidate Jesus Rosas Jr last week. He's got more than enough on his campaign paper plate to deal with, is what we told ourselves. Things are not going well for the mustachioed rookie candidate.

Opponent Ronnie Saenz has leaped ahead of him in the South Texas Imbecile Journalists Association's (STIJA) latest poll. Worse yet, that places cowboy-hatted Rosas, shown in color photo above, even farther behind incumbent Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza.

Rosas, we see, is exhibiting a bit of the same Dairy Neck we see in local blogger Jimmy Boy Barton.

How will that play on Election Night?

It could get weird, especially if Ronnie or Eric make that neck an issue. We've heard of runners winning by an outstretched neck, but losing by a Dairy Neck?

We'll see...

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Civilization in Brownsville still depends largely on a relatively small number of people. It is the few who shoulder the hard work necessary to keep the city moving. A whole boatload of others just laugh things off, snickering at local fuckups and failures.

Two of the local gents who laugh way too much are shown in photo above.

On the left is perennial political candidate Erasmo Castro, a man of God, it would seem. At his warm abrazo side is Elderly-About-Town blogger Jerry McHale, who looks as if he just keeps aging and aging and aging into a fleshy face we - and perhaps others - no longer recognize. It could just be his advancing age, yes, so sorry for the microscoping of his chipmunk cheeks and expanding jowls. He has no upper lip?...

Gabby podcaster-cum-preacher Castro will laugh through anything, hurricanes included. McHale needs a good laugh after that reporting debacle that had him wanting to sink Texas Southmost College by way of two disgruntled students of the school's welding program.

The 74-year-old McHale (in two weeks or so) and third-tier blogger Jimmy Boy Barton did their best to destroy TSC, arguing in postings week after week after week that the students had been wronged when their welding certificate did not pass American Welding Society muster.

The blogging losers could have seen the problem of their angles by simply knowing that even completion of U.T Law School gives you nothing. You still have to pass the bar.

McHale slinked away without apology; Barton simply did not have the smarts to ever figure it out.

The entire malodorous mess is now well-hidden under shag carpeting at Barton's apartment, we're told by laughing McHale...

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He's still dead last in the Republican Party's stable of unstable candidates for the 34th Congressional District seat. Greg Kunkle is the lad's name.

We wanted to feature the party's favorite - Miss Mayra Flores - but we could not get a recent photo of her. Kunkle posts photos of himself every day on his Facebook page.

Anyway, The Kunk did nothing this week to separate himself from fog or ennui.

He's not going away, but he is definitely losing when his party's faithful show up to vote in the make-or-break March 5, 2024 Primary. The Kunk will be beaten like a chump local wrestler again, as he was during the last election. If only he would say something we could believe came from his own brain and not that of the Talking Heads on FOX News.

Brain farts seem to follow him around.

A local seafood eatery would say this to him: "Sorry, Kunk. We only take the best tuna"...

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TACO TUESDAY out...

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STATE BUSINESS:.......Diving With Greg Abbott...No, Not In The Rio Grande To Halt That Migrant Surge...To Goof Off...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

SAN MARCOS, Texas |...Well, we half-expected him to be diving, yes. No, no skydiving, but diving into Rio Grande waters to single-handedly stop that surge of migrants coming in from the south.

There was Republican Gov. Greg Abbott above the skies of Central Texas, however. Yeah, no wheelchair, baby. Falling from the high, clouded sky accompanied by a 106-year-old veteran.

Why not go solo, Abbie?

This from texastribune.org: [ Abbott on Monday visited the San Marcos area to go skydiving with Al Blaschke, a World War II veteran who has already broken records for his own aerial feats.

The dive was a success, according to video tweeted by former state Rep. Jon Cyrier, R-Lockhart. The video showed Abbott and Blaschke landing in separate tandem parachutes, attached to another person.

"Nice landing" for Abbott and Blaschke, tweeted Cyrier, who is a pilot himself.

Blaschke has made headlines for his previous skydives. He went skydiving for the first time on his 100th birthday in 2017, and when he did it again in 2020, he broke the world record for the oldest man to do a tandem parachute jump.

Abbott had promised to skydive with Blaschke when he first met him a year ago.

Abbott, 66, uses a wheelchair to get around after an oak tree fell on him while he was jogging in 1984. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Monday’s dive took place at Skydive Spaceland San Marcos, which is about 15 miles outside San Marcos in Fentress. ]

Well, maybe it being Monday had a lot to do with it.

I hardly think that Abbott's political motivation was wanting to be seen as a Rambo-crazed, mobile dude. He's pretty much accepted his crippling physical handicap, according to those who know him well.

NEXT:...mud wrestling with Stormy Daniels at Billy Bob's Texas Honky Tonk in Fort Worth?...

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MEXICO:...Sing The National Anthem...And Sing It In The Right Key...Or Go Directly To Jail...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

MEXICO CITY, Mexico | Okay, who even knows the words? What key? Yeah. Mexico has had it with singers blowing the much-revered national anthem (El Himno Nacional) and now it may soon fine or jail you if you do it in public.

Really.

This from mexiconewsdaily.com: [ Anyone who puts their own spin on the Mexican national anthem or sings it incorrectly could be imprisoned for up to four years, according to a new proposal from a Morena party member of the Chamber of Deputies.

Deputy Ana Elizabeth Ayala from the state of Sinaloa, has proposed harsher penalties for people who misinterpret the national anthem or misuse the national flag.

Published Wednesday in the parliamentary gazette, Ayala’s proposal aims to reform the Federal Penal Code and a law already on the books. The senator feels that current legislation is ineffective in preventing misuse.

"There are established singers who, in mass events, do not know the verses of the national anthem or sing it poorly," wrote Ayala, 47, in naming "guilty" performers such as Pablo Montero, Jorge "Coque" Muñiz, Ana Bárbara, María León and Ángela Aguilar.

Last month, Mexican singer Danna Paola drew criticism after singing the national anthem prior to a Canelo Álvarez boxing match in the wrong key.

The Mexico City native (shown in photo at right) sang in A-flat major, despite the Law on the National Shield, Flag and Anthem stating it must be sung in C major.

"It is strictly prohibited to alter the words or music of the national anthem and perform it in whole or in part with compositions or arrangements," states Article 39. "Likewise, singing or performing the national anthem for profit is prohibited."

Based on the current law, Paola could have been reprimanded, arrested for up to 36 hours, fined up to 900,000 pesos (US $52,358) and imprisoned for up to one year. 

Ayala’s legislation would increase the arrest time maximum to 72 hours, allow for much higher fines and add a prison sentence of up to four years. The legislation as proposed could have resulted in a fine of up to 2.74 million pesos (US $159,395) for Paola.

Mexico’s national anthem dates back to 1854. ]

It's a good law, I say. We tend to be all over the lyrics map on our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Who hasn't heard it mangled, mumbled and outright changed? Even at The Super Bowl!

Mexico is onto something, and this one is not government over-reach...

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THE CITY OF PALMS:... ...Mayor Villalobos Out & About...He's Not Talking Congress...Yet...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Early Sunday mornings at Starbucks on N. 10th Street means seeing some long-lost friend or a local celebrity. This morning, we ran into McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos, perhaps the busiest public servant in the Rio Grande Valley.

In his first term in office, Mr. Villalobos is getting around the city and promoting both local business and international connections with neighboring Mexico. He's everywhere, as they say.

We asked him about plans for his political future, but, well, it is too-early to talk reelection.

"Any plans for a post beyond the city?" I asked him.

"Congress is too-divided," he said, putting that prospect aside.

He agrees that both major political parties - Republicans and Democrats - want those so-called "wedge issues" to maintain the societal divisions and ensure partisanship. It's a loser proposition, but that's the politics of our current era.

"Abortion, immigration, Ukraine," the popular mayor noted.

Those are three of the issues Democrats and Republicans keep in certain pockets for their own interpretation and use.

McAllen is moving along swimmingly. It is the RGV's best-managed and maintained city. No one along this section of the border argues that.

Mayor Villalobos can only hope that things stay on an even keel, or keep getting better, if and when he decides on another run for mayor...or for some other post...

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TEXAS HILL COUNTRY: ...Once, My Playground...It Remains A Dear Friend...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

WIMBERLEY, Texas |...It lives too-peacefully almost in the dang-near geographic center of Texas, just a bit west of San Marcos and south of Austin. You can absolutely breathe clean air here, drink a beer as cold as the bottle can get without cracking. Visit with the amiable, tourist-minded locals, that scene.

The name of the picturesque cafe in the photo above, a favorite, is Ino'Z (pronounced eye-nose) and it does sit above a tree-lined creek that runs across the center of town in lovely Wimberley.

Not fancy fancy, just neat.

You can get yourself something basic, like a basket fish & chips, or you can go beef with a tasty rib-eye steak. With the appropriate drink, of course. Service is exceptional, prices within reason.

The Christmas Holiday Season sees all the little towns (Blanco is another cool stop) up and down Texas Ranch Road 12 spruced-up in traditional lights and wreaths and Nativity scenes and all we know as Christmas decorations.

Need to head back up there during this, the cold season around here...

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SUN BEAMS:...Short Stories Collection...Paragraphs On "The Four Seasons"...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...We're into the nicer more-forgiving cooler months of the year now, sweet November actually almost, almost done.

Mornings, we sit quietly and sip our coffee, putter around the house chasing plot twists and dialogue for the working story, pit stop at the fridge for a bottle of water, a Coca-Cola or a ripened pear, something to keep the mind working.

There are no rituals, but this next stuff is as close as we get to one:

I was driving home from the coffee shop the other day and I couldn't get this old song out of my head. I needed to clear things up there, but it clung tough. Where had I heard it. I could not remember.

These few lines, especially: "We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. But the wine and the song like the seasons have all gone..."

Sounds like a long goodbye to something. To me, anyway.

A forgotten guy named Terry Jacks sang it back in - what? - the Oldies Seventies? Anyway, there it was, on me as I cut through busy intersections on my way home...there like a piece of globby, drying-out carnival cotton candy hanging tough to the tips of my fingers.

I hummed it and then I sang it, but it wasn't until noon that I finally lost it.

I like the song, although it's not a real favorite.

But I'm sure there are songs you know and can easily grab when the best of moods hit you, or when an insistent song takes a hike down the uncharted canyons of your brain just because it can...

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THE MAGIC VALLEY:........... Stormy Football...Brownsville Veterans Memorial Beats PSJA North...A Destined Team Finds Its Footing...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

PHARR, Texas | They came to play. It's an adage known to anyone even semi-interested in sports. That sideline saying came to life here Friday afternoon, when the unranked and underdog Brownsville Veterans Memorial High Chargers manhandled #7-ranked (in the state) Pharr-San-Juan-Alamo North, 45-28.

And it was a real "storm" (QB Storm Montoya) leading the upset, not some nebbish local blogger promising Stormy Mondays and then sucking at it.

No, sir. These Chargers are hellbent on avenging last season, when PSJA North knocked them out of the same high school playoffs 35-15 on their homefield in Brownsville.

The afternoon tiff began as if to eventually become a whatever-team-scores-last-wins contest.

But there was QB Montoya roiling the script that had PSJA favored by two touchdowns, his running and passing (along with a stout-when-it-had-to-be-stout defense) as the team rolled to eventual victory of the sort it (and the whole hometown) had never experienced. Shades of Brownsville High vs. Seguin that fateful night in the late 1960s.

No, this one was for the team and the community.

PSJA North had arrived undefeated to its homefield game, the stands packed to the rafters. They were favored and they had mowed down 12 opponents along the way. Twelve in a row, Baby. No one here gets out unbruised, unhurt, unbridled.

But the Chargers have been a special team two years running, this one seeming to want to finish the job last year's graduating squad started.

Winning one is winning two,.,and then three, four, is what the coaches sing in the dressing room. The season is long, but losing makes it feel longer. The Chargers lost two games this year. They've set that aside and moved on, moved on to win - which makes a huge difference and separates them from the many, many, many give-ups we have seen in the RGV over the years.

Corpus Christi Miller is next.

Don't bet against another storm...

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SPORTS:...Horns Rout Texas Tech 57-7...It's Onto Big 12 Championship Game...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas | There's nothing like a sea of orange at Darrell K. Royal Stadium when the Horns are going well, like while whipping Texas Tech 57-7 on a cool November day.

The win Friday afternoon takes Texas to the Big 12 championship game and perhaps beyond.

In many ways, it was a hard-earned, yet easy victory in front of a packed stadium that included Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys and a few other luminaries.

Texas broke early and never looked back, fast-erasing memory of a defeat in Lubbock last season. It was the most lopsided win for the Horns this season and kept alive a drive to the league title that began after beating Alabama 34-24 in the season's second game.

At Alabama, we might add.

We'll see where the Horns go from here. A bitter defeat to Big 12 rival Oklahoma in this year's Red Rivalry Shootout in Dallas may be enough to keep Texas out of the coveted College Football Playoffs (CFP), however.

Still, a loss by one of the majors - Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia or Washington - may get Texas in the biggies for the national title. The Horns are 11-1 for the season and 8-1 in the conference...

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