LA ZONA FINAL:...NFL Gets Taylor Swift...NFL Uses Taylor Swift...NFL Is Still Boring...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The Face of The National Football League? Really? Pop star Taylor Swift has been getting more ink than just about any NFL player this year. Yes, more news reports than Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott! More than (fill in the blank ________)!!!

How cool is that?

Well, we say it's not cool at all. It's the NFL giddily grabbing onto a superstar. To gain fandom, you know. Swift is the top moneymaker in music and concerts these days. And because she is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, well, Taylor's now at the ballpark wherever he is playing.

Home and on the road.

But what do you know?

Your Dallas Cowboys, at 4-2, are off this weekend. yeah, no game, not until next Sunday, when they host the Los Angeles Rams and continue their boring, up & down season. Or, as the boys like to say at the bar, their usual shittiness.

So, welcome Taylor Swift!

If only we could get Stormy Daniels to date Dak.

Oh, well...

-30-

[EDITOR'S NOTE:..."La Zona Final" is what Old School football fans call The End Zone...] 

WAR:...Writers See Things, Writers Write...Israeli Hate For Gaza May Be Political ...But It Also Is Much More...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Often, it is the artists and writers who inevitably damn war. It's happened through modern history. Not much of it has surfaced as things relate to the war in Israel, if war can be defined as battles between a superior-armed force and one with weapons of another past century.

Then I went looking at places I felt might have what I was looking for - a view of this war from writers with familiar names.

And there it was in the current issue of New York Review Of Books.

Some of America's better writers had gathered their names on a "letter" of the sort you see when consensus is being sought. These are not wild-eyed politicians or necessarily members of either bloody side's ethnicity. They are simply writers who have given the event a looksee and have no formed opinions.

An excerpt from the NYRoB's published piece: [ Israel has imposed what it calls a "complete siege" and told 1.1 million people in Gaza to evacuate within twenty-four hours. To where? After six days of bombing that have already killed 2,215 people, 724 of them children, in the fourth major aerial bombardment in the sixteenth year of closure the question — to where? — rings unanswerable around the world. When Israel’s top general refers to Palestinians as "human animals" and the US State Department deletes a statement calling for "a ceasefire," then we fear we are watching an ethnic cleansing on a scale unseen in decades.

The governments of the USA, UK, France and others are participating in this crime by ramping up military support for Israel as it wages a war that its officials have plainly stated aims to turn Gaza into a city of tents, or even worse, empty of its people. A population of over two million people, mostly from families that were made refugees in 1948, half of whom are children, have been living under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007, and to many of them, being told to leave again is not an option. On Saturday, after sixteen years of siege, Hamas militants broke out of Gaza. More than 1,300 Israelis were subsequently killed with over one hundred more taken hostage. We deplore the loss of all innocent life and now, as we write this letter, Israel is executing the largest expulsion of Palestinians since 1948 as it bombs Gazans without discrimination.

Our words feel small in this terrifying escalation. After so many years and so many deaths we must all, together, say this has to end, and that it can only end with a free Palestine. ]

A free Palestine has to date not been in any sort of war dialogue.

On the contrary, it is more a Palestine bombed into oblivion that has settled on Israeli minds. They cannot be blamed, but they can be criticized for their part in what led to this particular attack.

The U.S. is fully siding with Israel. Oh, there is talk of "reining in" the warring, blood-thirsty Israeli generals who want to - once and for all - rid themselves of all-things-Gaza.

The issue is not solely a political one. That would simplify things, but it is - again - about Human Life.

And no country - no ethnicity - has the right to say another Human Life cannot exist.

Keep writing...

-30-

TRIALS:...A Trumper Pleads Guilty...Attorney Sidney Powell Goes Down...Gets Probation ...Will Testify Against Trump...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | She'll talk. Or sing, if you're Italian and used to Mob Stories. That would be one Sidney Powell, shown in photo above. She's one of many Donald Trump lawyers who chased his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election...and now will pay the price.

They let her off easy, it says, during her appearance in court today, where she was granted probation but will likely be forced to testify against Trump in the Georgia trial.

This from politico.com: [ Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election meddling case, one day before her trial was set to start. In exchange for her plea Powell will spend six years on probation and pay a $6,000 fine, along with a further $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia. ]

Powell is the birdbrain who offered up a number of possible avenues for Trump as he sought to overturn the victory by Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say she was involved in several of the doomed actions, including the selection of fake electoral college voters, pushing allegations of voter fraud and of conspiring to commit intentional interference with the election. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors.

The 68-year-old is a native of North Carolina...

-30-

HOUSE SPEAKER:...Trash Ohio Republican Jim Jordan Keeps Failing...He Won't Be Next Speaker...Trump Will Soon Drop Him...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, he blew it? It's not happening for Jim Jordan? Appears not. The big mouth-no action Ohio Congressman since 2007 without a single successful piece of legislation is still hoping he'll be the next speaker of the House of Representatives.

But that's MAGA Republicans - obstructionist always in a hurry.

Jordan would be a horrible speaker.

This from a current report at newyorker.com: [. . . . If Jordan were to be elected Speaker, it would signal that the Republican Party on Capitol Hill had formally accepted its role as a mere appendage to an insurrectionary right-wing movement led by a self-aggrandizing megalomaniac. Jordan was a key point man in the House for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Since then, in his roles as head of the House Judiciary Committee and ga-ga chairman of the new House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, he has acted as a mouthpiece for the former President and his efforts to discredit his accusers. Earlier this year, Jordan called for defunding parts of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department. ]

But despite the rough-going that comes with losing two votes, there was some weird optimism in the Jordan Camp.

Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye said in a statement after the vote: "We're going to keep going."

Jordan himself told reporters that he was unsure when a third ballot would take place but vowed that "we'll keep talking to members, keep working on it."

Good luck with the loser hope.

There is no third vote scheduled as yet, but odds are good that 59-year-old Jordan will go for it before the weekend, like tomorrow and possibly on Saturday. It's been two weeks since his fellow MAGA Republicans ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy just because they could.

Stay tuned...the laughs will keep coming...

-30-

SUN SPOTS:...Doing The Life Impulse...You Can Never Look Back...What Time Is It?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | You can chase down every memory in your head and find a few you can bring back as if they happened yesterday. Not many; just a few - the absolute beautiful ones. You have some, I have some.

We all store some of the strangest shit in our brains.

And we still do it, even as we age into oblivion. What was your first great memory, and which one will be your last one? But, really, do not spend much time looking back.

Life is about the moment, like this moment, not the last one or the next one - this one. Many of us get hopelessly lost on the ups and downs of daily life, on the crosstown errands, the numerous text messages, the cellphone calls, the meals, the deals, the bathing, the shaving and the sleeping.

All of that garbage is only maintenance.

Do something out of the ordinary every day. One thing, two if you're lucky. So, what time is it now? Time to go for breakfast...

-30-

JEWS:...Anti-Semitism Said To Be Rising In The U.S....Oh, Boy...There Is Some, But It's Always Been There...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Wealthy Jews are withdrawing donations to elite colleges and universities in the U.S., the result of, they say, students siding with Palestine in the ongoing bitch-slapping with Israel. Keep your freakin' money, clowns!

You donate to support higher learning, not to buy influence!

Goddam, does that piss me off. Okay. Okay. We are sympathetic to the Jewish state's historical fight against the terroristic organization we've come to know as Hamas. Someday, we won't have this, but, for now, we do have it and we are taking sides. That is not good for Americans.

A day ago, it was former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, an ambassador in the Obama Administration, saying his family would no longer donate to the University of Pennsylvania (better known as simply Penn) after students signed a letter damning Israel's announced plan to invade Palestine. Yes, Hamas attacked first, and Hamas holds several high-up positions in Palestine's government.

The student angle is wacko.

Our schools have thrived in offering the best of knowledge, always challenging students to expand their minds on everything from domestic issues to foreign relations.

But the Jews are not okay with a little free-thinking.

That is wrong and shortsighted.

This from The Washington Examiner: [ The Walmart Foundation, the retail giant's philanthropic body, committed $1 million to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum amid the Israel-Hamas war and a rising wave of antisemitism.

Funding from the Walmart Foundation will serve as a response to the "increase in antisemitic speech and hate crimes," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said.

This new wave of hate emerged in the wake of Hamas's incitement of the Middle East's latest war, he said, according to a report.

The $1 million will go toward equipping outreach programs with the means necessary to educate individuals about the horrors and impact of the Holocaust as well as "the dangers of antisemitism in order to inspire people to confront hate and promote human dignity," McMillon said. ]

We're hip to the Holocaust and its place in history. America has never been able to shed its guilt on allowing it to happen for so long at the beginning of World War II. As told, some 6 million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany.

Since then, the U.S. has served as Israel's Big Brother, defending it and everything it says and stands for. We're okay with most of it, but not with simply going carte blanche on every little ache & pain Israel suffers.

Get real.

Our students will be educated, and they will think things out for themselves.

That is who WE are...

-30-

WAR:...American President Lands In Israel...A Hospital Is Bombed...Another 100 Or So Dead...Who Did It?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The American president arrived all smiles and hugs. Israel would be saved. That's the geo-political optic this fine morning here in the U.S. In Gaza City, a hospital lay in ruin, bombed into a heap of rubble and no one taking blame.

It's war, yes.

This excerpt from axios.com on President Joe Buden's visit to the war zone: [ Biden landed in Tel Aviv today to show solidarity with Israel in its war against Hamas, and to try to prevent the war from spreading. But the Middle East is already bubbling over with rage - and the war's shockwaves are increasingly tough to contain.

A deadly missile blast Tuesday at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds of Palestinians, Gaza officials said - and inspired protests throughout the Arab world. The day felt like a turning point in a war in which signs of escalation and rising tension are all around.

Hamas blamed Israel for the strike. Israel said it had evidence that another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, fired the missile.

Anger swept through the Arab world as images of those killed or wounded at the hospital hit TV and social media, complicating Biden's push for diplomacy.

Reports in Arab media that cast the explosion as a massacre by Israel drove thousands of protesters to the streets of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. ]

A planned meeting with leaders of other regional leaders fell by the wayside after the hospital bombing. This after Israel blamed Hamas for the attack on the hospital. It killed hundreds.

Biden seemed to believe the Israeli assertion that Israel was not behind the bombing.

Others were not so convinced.

The much-ballyhooed all-out military assault on Gaza has yet to unfold. Pundits are saying Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been corralled a bit by the U.S.,,,

-30-

TACO TUESDAY:...Guns & Rosas...Ronnie Counts The Elderly...Unruly Welding Recital Bloggers Muzzled ...Kunkle Just Goofin'...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Even if he launched a new "Guns & Rosas" campaign, wimpish sheriff candidate Jesus Rosas, Jr would have a tough time holstering that position. He's simply not the guy, not this time. Rosas, shown oddly wearing a cowboy hat in photo above under darkening skies, is polling badly.

That's what our insider's crystal ball is telling us as the Languid Law Latino keeps on keeping on, celebratory dreams of the sheriff's shiny badge perhaps keeping him awake at night.

We're saying incumbent sheriff Eric Garza wins the Democratic Party primary and then segues into an all-out mano-a-mano against - you guessed it - boring rethread John Chambers, the Blogger Juan Montoya-backed Republican Garza thwacked in the last election four, long years ago.

Chambers at least has the better cowboy hat. Rosas, we fear, bought his at Walgreens. On sale.

But Rosas may be paying Zany Blogger El Jerry McHale to push his doomed campaign. If he is, and if he's paying more than $20, he's blowing good Valley money. Save that cash, Jesus. Save $20 a week for a year and then have enough to get a better cowboy hat.

As things stand, poll-dormant Rosas may as well be singing dirges to the bone people at the city cemetery.

Jesus Christ, Jesus!

Say something half-interesting or semi-controversial, dude.

Your other opponent, Ronnie Saenz, already has the Deaf Vote...

-0-

Upstart Pol Greg Kunkle, shown at left in photo above with an unidentified Brownsville resident, wants to be a congressman. He's never even been a school Patrol Boy, but the kid has Nancy Pelosi dreams. Yeah, he pangs for the 34th Congressional District seat currently held by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, a real politician.

Kunkle has nothing. Take our word for it. He won't even answer the easiest of questions, like "Are you a veteran?" We asked him that one and a few others and are still awaiting answers from this amateurish, unaccomplished greenhorn whose last name is likely a misspelling of the word "knuckle" - as in "knuckle down, lad!".

He's a nouveau Republican who would have to get past hellish firebrand Mayra Flores in the primary before even thinking of being swamped by smarter Gonzalez.

Get past Mayra? Ha ha ha. She would apply a headlock on this kid so tight that his hair would turn not a scaredy-cat salt & pepper, but the color of pain - black & blue. Picture a profanity-spewing Mexican chick on a sheltered, squirrel-face punk and you have the optic of a Mayra-Kunkle evening at the fan-noisy Arena Coliseo in Matamoros on Ladies Night Wrestling.

No, Kunkle is not being serious. Either that or he thinks district voters are idiots. No free-thinking resident of District 34 will back this local joker. Yeah, gag me, says our receptionist Veronica "Ronnie" Salgado.

The only way Kunkle will get a vote is if he enters into an agreement with the other going-nowhere candidate for his post, Laura E. Cisneros, in a "I'll vote for you if you vote for me" deal...

You know it...

-0-

Word has it that sheriff's candidate Ronnie Saenz has been out mining The Elderly Vote. That's Ron (that's the more-adult version of his name) in the photo above, at right.

Saenz is a distant last in the latest looksee at Cameron County Sheriff's Race candidates, there behind eternal Dreamer Jesus Rosas Jr and way, way, way, way, way behind incumbent Sheriff Eric Garza. We're not even hearing that laid-back Ron has told anyone he expects to win. Huh? He isn't saying he may win? I said, "Huh???"

Well, if he isn't then he's being real. Ron Saenz will NOT be your next county sheriff.

Sorry, but that's the line on his candidacy.

The only way he is differentiating himself from the other candidates is in not wearing a corny cowboy hat. His last name is proving to be a surprising hindrance.

The district attorney is also a dude named Saenz. We further fear that voters will not hand over the sheriff's office to another Saenz. That may sound dumb, but county voters are dumb, so...

-0-

It now looks as if Texas Southmost College Chair Adela Garza has survived the dastardly, weak-kneed Welding Recital attack from two of the city's non-Journalism-trained bloggers.

The lady is still at her post.

And the aging bloggers, 73-year-old Jerry McHale and 75-year-old Jimmy Barton, have of late retreated to the comfort of their ass-warm couches, dabs of Ben-Gay and moments of what might've been. The Anglo Shit hit the fan as if by projectile diarrhea when these rudderless bloggers launched an all-out "Ay voy!!!" assault roughly a month ago, spent days throwing cheap gasoline on the nothingness and then gathered their stones and slingshots for the long walk back home to Mama.

Stoop-shouldered bloggers, Maria. There they go down the cracked-concrete sidewalk, Baby. Wait. Don't inhale! That smell of rubbing alcohol steaming of their backs.

To her great and learned credit, Ms. Garza actually said nothing during the excitable Resaca Storm that fizzled lamely.

Neither McHale nor Barton has revisited the TSC welding program they insisted was rotten. It was too calm a give-up for the noise they created, at least deep inside in their own balding heads.

Adela Garza likely will seek reelection one of these days.

Rubbish Bloggers McHale and Barton will keep lying...

-0-

For some weird reason, Joe Elizarde woke up one day and decided to take on perhaps the most-entrenched politician in the county - Justice of The Peace Linda Salazar. Yes, the same Linda Salazar who's been at the job for almost 20 years!

What got into Elizarde?

Is his ridiculous candidacy nothing more than a dare, one perhaps voiced one fine morning by his wife, who wanted him out of the house?

Could be. Now, if only the Welding Recital bloggers would go after this guy. Then, and only then, would Elizarde get any sort of campaign publicity. He's the Absolute Zero this Election Season.

Elizarde should be hooked onto a polygraph machine. We are dying to hear him tell us exactly why he's in this contest. I mean, Linda Salazar is a pro. Her son, Ruben, once won an election by 29,000 votes! It's in the family to run roughshod over an opponent.

Joe, you cannot be serious!

If the battle was in a wrestling ring, Linda would be the fabled Tonina Jackson and Joe would be Tiny Tim. At seeing the bloody mauling, the entire population of Cameron County would raise its voice and shout, no, scream: "Stop the fight! Stop the fight!!!"

You know it...

-0-

They may just need another jolt. Democrats here are doing little to prevent that dreaded, much-feared Red Wave in 2024. That moment of sheer fear in last November's elections is said to have delivered some gut-wrenching pain for the party.

They thought their ass was grass, to use the vernacular of the RGV.

That's Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa in photo above, second from left, with County Judge Eddie Trevino to his left. Mustachioed Hinojosa is said to have shat bricks that night, when it appeared that spirited Republican Mayra Flores was about to retire Demo favorite son Vicente Gonzalez for that coveted 34th Congressional District seat.

Mayra Flores came close if losing by 10,000 votes is close in a congressional race. The Red Wave ebbed far out in the gulf and Gonzalez retained the seat. She's back one more time for the 2024 contest, and we're not hearing much from Hinojosa or Valley Democrats.

I know. There's still plenty of time.

So, for now, comfortable Demos seem to be saying, "Let's just gather for a photo and everybody smile."

Heh heh...

-0-

Brownsville is losing its superintendent - the overly-qualified one named 2023 Regional Superintendent of The Year. As if it can afford to lose him. But luckless Browntown is an Insistent Loser. His name is Dr. Rene Gutierrez and the McAllen Independent School District - the best in the Rio Grande Valley - has just about signed him.

Gutierrez is a 1983 graduate of McAllen High School.

Brownsville will go on another dizzied search and that'll be that. It does this so often that education here is seen as being no different than that offering at the Hiway 77 Flea Market known as the just another informational kiosk... 

-0-

Ever-lovely actress Salma Hayek scarfing down a taco back when she lived in Mexico City some years ago.

She's still a hottie in her 50s. I love the smell of salsa in the morning...

-30-

WAR:...President Joe Biden In Israel Tomorrow...Tamping Down Thoughts Of Destroying Palestine...OK Aid for Gaza...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | This was coming, although we didn't think it would be this soon. The U.S. is likely trying to tamp down any urges Israel may have of obliterating Palestine. The American president is on his way to Israel tomorrow.

It's symbolic, but also meant to make a point.

This from axios.com: [ President Joe Biden will visit Tel Aviv on Wednesday in a show of support as Israel prepares for a ground offensive in Gaza, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said on Monday.

The unprecedented visit, the first by a U.S. president while Israel is actively at war, will also be aimed at discouraging Iran and Hezbollah from joining the fighting.

Biden while in Israel will "reaffirm U.S. solidarity to Israel and commitment to its security," assess the country's needs amid the ongoing war against Hamas, and "underscore our clear message" that no actor should "try to take advantage of this crisis to attack Israel," Blinken said.

Biden will also receive a comprehensive brief on Israel's war aims and strategy, Blinken said from Tel Aviv after more than seven hours of talks with Israeli leaders on Monday.

Blinken said that Israel and the U.S. have agreed to develop a plan to "enable international aid to reach civilians in Gaza and them alone including creating areas in Gaza that will enable civilians not to be harmed."

"It is critical that aid starts flowing to Gaza as soon as possible," Blinken said.

"We share Israel's concern that Hamas will take control of the aid that enters Gaza," Blinken added, warning that if the group tries to block or seize aid, the U.S. will be the first to condemn it and prevent it from happening again.

Biden will also travel to Jordan to meet King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. ]

Let's hope President Biden can grab a piece of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's tussled brain while there. Bibi has been talking up an all-out invasion of Gaza by "air, land and sea."

Clearly, Biden does not want the rage to spark a regional war...

-30-

WAR:...Disgusting Action By Israel To Keep Humanitarian Aid Out Of Palestine...Gaza Is Being Strangled...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's a disgusting turn of events. Humanitarian aid being denied for people of the Gaza Strip? Denied by angered Israel?

Well, yes.

We're okay with some sort of revenge...against the men of Hamas. But we're NOT okay with women, children and the elderly being denied food, water and medical aid, especially after Israel's promised all-out Assault. We're not savages. Not yet.

And the U.S. needs to stand up and tell Israel to back off its Nazi-like approach. We say this as Israeli forces prepare to attack Gaza by land, air and sea, according to Jewish leaders themselves. The time has come to deal with peace, deal with it once and for all.

Too often in the past, Israel has played the "Whip Gaza" card for the west, for the U.S. mainly, as it postures its horrific actions as a fight against terrorists. Fine, but killing children especially is damned abhorrent to us. Children played NO part in the stupid, ill-advised attacks on Jewish settlers.

Humanitarian aid needs to get through.

Wanton killing - murder - will only hang heavy on all Jews after it happens. The images and videos will not lie.

Republicans seem all-Gung Ho, as could be expected.

This from thenation.com: [ But while a smattering of national lawmakers have issued meaningful demands for a stop to Israel’s bombings, most Democrats are resorting to vague hand-wringing about "unnecessary harm to civilians" and "international humanitarian law," calls for more humanitarian aid, and declarations that they are "deeply concerned."

This is all fine enough, but absent are calls to stop what is actually causing the crisis: Israel’s bombing and siege of Gaza. ]

Don't lose the high ground, Israel.

That would be our free advice for wild-eyed Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu...

-30-

THE HOUSE:...Rock-Jaw Jim Jordan As Speaker? ...Trashy Republican'll Try Again This Week...No, He's Not The Best Candidate, But...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It looks like Trump palace cat Jim Jordan will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. At least today anyway. Two weeks without a speaker has the house in a pickle, a bitter-tasting one at that.

Two weeks ago, Republicans got rid of the guy they elected to the post earlier this year, soon after Republicans took control of the house. That was California yogurt shop mogul Kevin McCarthy. Then came Steve Scalise, the KKK dude from Louisiana.

Petulant Jordan, from Ohio's 4th Congressional District, is the new "it" Republican.

Party boys and girls in the House (along with Demos, yes) will try to elect someone again this week. Jordan has postured himself as the perhaps candidate, even as he has some lousy baggage to overcome. He was a strong supporter of pro-Capitol Riot Donald Trump and he remains a huge backer of the indicted former pres.

The 59-year-old Jordan, he of the throwback face shown in white shirt in photo above, is not a go-along-get-along guy. He fancies himself a battler, but really has no signature legislation. At present, he serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the one that's been investigating presidential son Hunter Biden's reason for living and every morsel of mysterious dust in the Oval Office.

Not all Republicans like him, as the upcoming speaker's vote will indicate.

Jordan has been accused of ignoring repeated complaints of sexual harassment filed by student wrestlers at Ohio State University, when Jordan was employed as an assistant coach. He has denied knowing about the charges, but the matter has not been fully investigated is what the students keep saying.

The vote will be close, and there is no certainty that rock-jaw Jordan will win.

Short of that, well, the House may go with interim Speaker Patrick McHenry of South Carolina, the bowtie wearing congressman known to the D.C. press corps as a "rude" mofo.

Do stay tuned...

-30-  

SUN SPOTS:...It Was A Warped & Wormy Night...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

EDINBURG, Texas | ...There on the witness stand, Salvador Mata was talking a bit too much. In circles, said the defense attorney who tried to halt Salvador's testimony.

Answering a question about his recollection of the poor McAllen housewife's bloody murder, Mata inhaled deeply and said, "It was the day Peter Piper picked that peck of pickled peppers, counselor." A member of the jury could not stop exploding laughter and the judge again slammed his gavel.

The brief outburst quickly faded into the expensive walnut walls, bits of it shiny and other bits dusty as all get-out. Solicitor Jose Maria Puente pressed onward.

"Mr. Mata, would you tell the court and jury exactly what day you are referring to, sir?" the thin, high-neck defense lawyer asked next. Smarty pants Salvador did not hesitate in answering:

"It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day. I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay."

He'd said it with a straight face not seen since the day Queen Isabella was shocked to learn that Christopher Columbus was telling the press that she, and not the planet, was flat.

"Let the record show that the witness has invoked a country song by Dolly Parton," the defense lawyer threw out next.

"Objection!" roared the prosecutor. "It most certainly was not Dolly Parton!!!"...

-30-

WAR:...For Palestine, A Calm Before The Wanton Slaughter ...It's Revenge...It's The End Of A Nation...It's Been Coming For Decades...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The so-called Big Military Push is coming to the Gaza Strip. Angry Israelis are in an Africanized Honey Bee state of mind, ready to sting and keep stinging the Palestinians and their Hamas population.

Already, scenes of utter destruction (see photo above) can be readily had on the Internet, from a wide variety of websites to do with news, mainstream and otherwise.

What to make of what's coming?

You can make a case that Israel will go all-out to destroy everything we have come to know as Palestine in the Gaza Strip. It is said to already have amassed as many as 300,000 soldiers on the border with the Gaza, north and southern ends, ahead of an invasion.

As lemonde.fr reported in one of its Sunday articles: [ "...the outlook leaves a bitter taste. Under blockade since 2007 and bombed regularly, the Palestinian territory became a volcano. At dawn on October 7, it erupted. Covered by salvoes of rockets, more than a thousand armed men from Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement that has ruled the territory since 2006, broke through the fortified fence that separates it from Israel.

The infiltrators poured into neighboring Jewish villages in pick-up trucks, motorcycles and even paragliders, wreaking havoc as they went. At least 1,300 people were killed, the vast majority civilians, and at least 120 others were kidnapped, according to the Israeli army. It's the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. ]

That last sentence is enough to fuel an overwhelming run of support for the Jewish state. Americans have responded, some in Congress wasting no words in condemning the attack.

The president, as could be expected, focused on Hamas and its terroristic ways, saying the U.S. would side by Israel. To what extent we do not as yet know. Two powerful carrier task forces are now in the neighboring Mediterranean Sea, presumably there to support Israel and also to dissuade any would-be action by other countries sympathetic to Palestine, like by Iran, for one.

It's a horrible bad omen for the civilians of Palestine who quickly saw Israel shut down its food, water and fuel supplies. A deadline was given for evacuation, only the Palestinians really had no place to go. A once-open crossing into Egypt was bombed by the Israelis, even as the Egyptians were saying they could not take refugees.

That all-out assault by the Israelis is said to coming this week.

The fight is really an uneven one, as Israel has pretty much every advanced weapon and smaller, poorer Palestine hardly any.

Towns and cities will be bombed into oblivion and, well, who knows what the eventual casualty number will be? It's war. War is Hell. How will Israel decide which Palestinian lives, and which one dies? Could the Israelis live with the total extermination of Gaza's population?

We know this: Hell is coming to Palestine.

The idea that Israel could ever rid itself of Palestine in one fell swoop was not part of any discussion anywhere two weeks ago. There had even been reports that Saudi Arabia wished to broker a lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

No one talked of a full-fledged war. 

Today, right or wrong, that seems to be what's coming...

-30-

SUN RECORDS: Newsroom Jukebox..."Is Anybody Going To San Antone?"...

ELECTIONS 2024:...Political Termites Chase Republican Mayra Flores...She'll Easily Win Party Primary...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Well, it's the familiar run for the roses and a forced march to 2024. Not so good political candidates are coming out of the woodwork again, some from fast-rotting pieces of South Texas dead wood.

Ann Marie Torres, shown in photo above, is the latest to seek the Republican Party's 34th Congressional District nomination for that challenge to well-heeled incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez's seat.

Ms. Torres has little experience, although perhaps some other pundit would raise the value of serving on the - ahem - dusty Kingsville City Commission. Kingsville, yeah.

Oh, well. She knows she's not alone, not with fellow newbie Mauro Garza and even greener Greg Kunkle also seeking to beat toughie Mayra Flores in the party's March Primary. Good luck with that, kids.

Ms. Flores, it says, will win the nomination, and win it convincingly - thanks to all-out support from the Republican National Committee. 

We at The McAllen Sun have ignored Kunkle (shown in photo below) because we feel he's going nowhere in this contest.

But this is an excerpt from a report on Ms. Torres published by The McAllen Monitor: [ In her campaign announcement, Torres says she has "a strong background as an Army Retired veteran who served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom." She said she aims to bring "true representation" to the district and become the first woman who is a veteran to run in the March primary.

Torres was born and raised in Kingsville and she said she has a "deep-rooted connection" to the community and a "sharp vision for its future."

The campaign announcement does not elaborate on her vision.

"With her extensive military experience, she brings a unique perspective and commitment to serving the people of District 34 at the national level," the campaign announcement states. "Torres passionately believes that now is the time for change and that the district deserves a strong voice in the nation’s capital."

She doesn't explain what kind of change she believes is necessary. ]

We tire of hearing or reading blah, blah, blah platitudes of this sorts. Ms. Torres is likely a well-mannered and contributing resident of sleepy Kingsville, but, to us, she is woefully unprepared for what she would face in today's Washington, D.C., which brings us full-circle to Mayra Flores.

She's more than ready for the current craziness in the nation's capital.

She's mastered the art of raising your voice and letting go punches and counterpunches when in debates or speaking to the press. You don't throw stuff at Mayra Flores and see it bounce off her shoes. She'll fire right back; it's her style and personality.

In this vein, Kunkle is zero and Ann Marie Torres is less than zero.

The third aspirant, Mauro Garza, is unimpressive. His is the look of a gas station attendant of the 1960s, a South Texas Mexican-American who simply acts and talks like too many regional slackers of his ethnic group.

Mayra Flores would chew him up and spit him out, with extreme prejudice.

You kinda know at this point that wild dogs would not fare well against Mayra Flores.

Political termites even worse...

-30-

EDUCATION:...Republican Gov. Greg Abbott Schemes To Defund Texas Public Schools ...Dude's A Vouchers Fan...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas | He's not exactly the poster boy for "Give Up," so Republican Gov. Greg Abbott messing with public schools yet again is no surprise. What's with this Texan anyway? Oh, he wants "vouchers" to help parents grab their kids out of public schools and enroll them in private ones.

Again, we see it as a "White Thang."

He's been at it a few years, forever inching closer to his dream of perhaps seeing All-White school districts, too. Once, they tried all-boys and all-girls schools. Back when they saw too much interracial dating between Black boys and white girls. That came and went, but they tried it.

If we 're wrong, we're wrong, but we think not.

This excerpt from rollingstone.com: [ The Texas Senate passed a controversial bill earlier this week that would give state money to parents to spend on private schools, supporting Governor Greg Abbott's long-held pledge to push for "school choice" for Texan families.

For months now, the Republican governor has been rallying to pass a measure that would allow parents to decide "which education option is best" for their kids by giving them enough money to take the children out of public school.

While the kind of measure Abbott has been pushing for has been criticized by many, including teachers, who accused him of trying to defund public schools and run them to the ground, the Republican governor said, "nothing could be further from the truth."

"It's just factually incorrect," he said without laughing, as reported by Fox 26 Houston in April. "Per-student funding for public schools is at an all-time high and this session we are going to add even more money for public education, as well as teacher pay rises." ]

Parents and educators beg to differ with the governor who seems to look for - and find - every divisive issue available these days.

Is he saying our public schools have failed? Under his watch?

Abbott rarely takes responsibility for the odd things that come out of his policies. We expect no retreat from this Texan.

As always, it's about who's in power at the State Legislators, and for now it is the Republicans who seem to endorse all Abbott says and does.

This isn't about the children; it's about raw politics.

You have to wonder why teachers and school administrators are against Abbott's plan...

-30-

WAR:...Untold Number Of Americans Held Hostage In Gaza Strip...U.S. In Early Measured State...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | We never leave our own behind. How many times was that drummed into my head during my days in the military. Well, not quite every day, but every day we were told about duty in South Vietnam. Americans go back for their own. It may not be quickly, but we go back for them.

Not yet for our civilians in Gaza, however.

The war Israel declared against Hamas terrorists in Palestine came after a brutal mass-killing charge a week ago against its people in the Israeli provinces. To date, reports have it that more than 2,500 Jewish settlers have been killed by Hamas and another 2,000 by Israel in Palestine.

The U.S. is in it, not just because it fully supports Israel but because an untold number of Americans are among the many hostages Hamas captured and still has.

This from politico.com: [ The U.S. does not yet know where the hostages are held, the officials said. Gaza is notoriously dense, with a warren of tunnels, and officials believe that hostages - whether American or Israeli - would be spread out and likely not held together, housed in separate underground areas and with innocent civilians in an effort to make any rescue operation that much more difficult. Additionally, U.S. officials believe the quality of Israeli intelligence in the area has slipped - as evidenced by the stunning success of last weekend’s Hamas sneak attacks - and there has been a paucity of reliable information from the area.

Further complicating the situation, U.S. officials said, is that Hamas consists of numerous and often competing subgroups and militias that all operate in Gaza. Before the U.S. can put together a plan to recover hostages, officials first have to figure out which of those Hamas subgroups may be holding them.

And so, for now, the U.S. is deferring to the Israeli special forces, who have far greater experience in Gaza. A team of American military specialists has arrived in the region and is consulting with their Israeli counterparts about possible plans of action. Among other elements, U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command have offered to provide hostage rescue planning and intelligence support to the Israelis.

But, as principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said Thursday on MSNBC, "We are not contemplating U.S. boots on the ground for any sort of rescue mission." ]

The early-going is measured, as could be expected.

Action will come when the hostages and their location are known. Hamas has the leverage at present.

It won't for much longer...

-30-

PICKING SIDES:...Jews Have It Over Palestinians In This Country...Both Should Exist...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | I guess we're for Israel. I mean, I'm all anti-terrorist here, but it would piss me off to see children murdered at will if and when that Israeli invasion leaves Palestine in absolute ruins. Kill the terrorists, all of them. Leave the children alone.

Taking sides is the American Way, isn't it?

The well-known people you see in the photo posted above have all signed a letter in support of Israel. Well, good. I'd sign it, too.

But that support for Life also goes to innocent Palestinians who have weathered a motherlode of crap from the Israelis for almost seven decades. Yes, Hamas uses Palestine in the Gaza as its base of hostile operations toward the Jews next door. They should all be killed. No mercy for Hamas, not here.

And while we're at it, why do pro-Israel Americans get a fuckin' break in the protest aisle? There are some good people in Palestine. What about them? Who will say a word for them in this country?

When students at Harvard University signed a letter condemning Israel not for being angry but for keeping electricity, food and fuel out of Palestine, a truck bearing their names and faces and calling them antisemites barreled into town. Some major CEO further asked other major CEOs to record the names of the students. I suppose that went to future job prospects for them.

Right-wing news media also went after the students, forcing the university to pad security.

It's not a balanced response we offer. Favoring one or the other, however, is also who we are, and have always been. Our conflict in Vietnam brought forth support and damnation. World War II against Germany, Italy and Japan, saw the U.S. place Japanese-Americans in camps. Italian-Americans and German-Americans were not, for some reason. Okay.

Like I said, we pick sides.

It's never a pretty sight, forever the microscope putting our prejudices in full public display.

American Jews don't care. They're going to side by the Motherland no matter what, and that's fine. But Palestinians in this country and elsewhere in the world also have the right to stand up for their side.

Bombs and bullets will unfortunately settle this.

Bombs and bullets don't pick sides...don't distinguish between adults and children...

-30-

SUN SHORTS:...Mayhem At The Black Swallow Motel... ...Last Bucket Of Ice...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

SAN BENITO, Texas |...The Beatles had ended their short segment on The Ed Sullivan Show when slacker motel clerk Pedro Montoya got up from the office couch to turn the TV off.

A loud sound halted his four-step amble to the black & white set.

"Gunshot!" he said aloud, turning away from the TV and walking from behind the counter to the office's front door. Something told him to not step out, like two-three shots that next broke the cold, dark night's quiet.

"Shit, man!" he let-out to the door's dusty, interior venetian blinds.

Louder shots followed, these as if from a rifle. And all Hell broke loose, and it was easy to believe a firefight was underway in the motel's gravel parking lot. The gunshots kept coming.

Chubby Pedro thought it had to be more than two people, as the sound of bullets screaming across the property seemed to be coming from all directions. Caught with his emotions at the ends of his fingers, Pedro lifted his right arm and began fast-slapping himself on the face.

Behind him, he heard TV show host Ed Sullivan bidding the audience goodnight from New York. Call the cops, a little voice told him, but the shooting had ended. Spooked Pedro peeked through the blind's slats. Too dark to see anything. Then he heard the sound of someone running from the other end of the parking lot.

It was Gomer Gamez, the Black Swallow Motel's maintenance man. Pedro opened the door as Gomer neared.

"Some guys drove up in a pickup and shot the Hell out of our four ice machines!!!" he said breathlessly, turning around to quickly shut the door's blinds. "They may be back to finish off our laundry room, man!"

Motel night clerk Montoya played with his scraggly hair, as if caught between fear and anger, and then made an "Oh, wow!" face...

-30-

FOURTH ESTATE:...The Press And Precisely Where We Are - And Aren't - With "News" In America...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Wow! What a difference 10-15-20 years make in news reporting. I'm lost in the evolving reasons, for there are so many. Advances in technology is one. News moving at the speed of light. Nothing for the morning report these days. It's "up to the minute" in everything from fires, disasters, politics, sports and, well, school shootings.

The afternoon newspaper? It would never work today.

Now, the phrase is "news media" or "social media" for the emergence of even the tiniest of news. You can "Google" some small town in old Wyoming to see about that bank hold-up you heard about at the bar. You can see photos of "Deep Space" from wildly-expensive, but damned capable space telescopes. You can get the score of your favorite football team's game on your cellphone. Just ask "Google" to give it to you, at halftime or at game's end.

That's progress for you.

For the "old school" news business of network TV and morning newspapers, it's been just about the end of the road. When CBS icon Walter Cronkite signed off on March 6, 1981, who would've had an inkling that the day would come when an entire TV newsroom would also sign off. It's happened in small markets across the country.

The change has been a dizzying one.

Cable television news and talk shows have largely eclipse the network (ABC, NBC, CBS) news. Who watches the six o'clock news on TV anymore? It's Cable News Network (CNN), FOX News, MSNBC and a whole load of talk shows also availed by Sirius on your vehicle's dash radio, even. And, well, I'm not even mentioning the fringe ones, like OAN, Breitbart and Newsmax - all at the edge of the pier, all of those spewing material that does not in any way resemble "news" to be relied upon.

My trusted outlet is APNEWS.com, the website for The Associated Press, which is not owned by any one person or corporation, but by the membership collective; that is, the newspapers, radio and television stations that subscribe to its reporting service.

So, where are we with a stanchion of our government said to be necessary for the continued life of our Democracy, i.e., that "Republic" for which we stand?

It's bleak out there, is what I would say. Not quite resignedly, but almost. Get this: More than 360 newspapers have shut down since just before the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, according to the New York Times. For the past "few" decades, the number from coast to coast nears 2,000 closures. Or, to use another statistic, about 2,500, a quarter of the country's overall total, since 2005. And that's not counting the newspapers that shut down their presses and went exclusively online.

It's an eye-opener.

When I started writing news in the early 1980s, at The Brownsville Herald, we were still using typewriters in the newsroom and not computers, which are ever-present these days. There, we had less than 10 reporters. When I worked for The Boston Globe, we had 200 reporters in the newsroom and The Globe also counted on correspondents in most of the world's major capitals.

Times have, indeed, changed.

Now, every aging stiff with a computer can be a "newsman," as if. What's lost is trust. So much misinformation and so many amateur reporters will lead to that, for sure.

Online websites, often one-person operations, stake their claim to knowing what is and isn't news. Most of them are untrained news journalists who merely mimic the Big Boys or go about copying & pasting material they cavalierly rip off other more-established organizations.

In a way, they do join the news noise immediately. Often, it is the average Joe & Jane who fall-in with a certain new "newsman," who then goes about ballyhooing the site's "growth," as if that's any sort of measure of his work.

Yeah, who knows what old Walter Cronkite would say about today's news business. Not much, I'd say. Not much that would be an appreciation or endorsement.

So, we beat on against the current, as writer F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a long time ago.

I bank on the following blurb to substantiate the value of a free press, regardless of the many, many amateurs now practicing the craft: In the book "On Heroes and Hero Worship," Thomas Carlyle attributes to Edmund Burke the following statement, "There were Three Estates in Parliament; but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all."

That all-important Fourth Estate is our beloved press...

-30-

CONGRESS:..."David Duke Without The Baggage" Gets Speaker's Nod In House Of Representatives....

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The guy who once described himself as KKK Grand Wizard "David Duke without the baggage" is now in line to become speaker of the House of Representatives. That would be one Steve Scalise, shown in photo above.

The congressman from Louisiana got the early vote, but he's not in yet as the replacement for ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

This from politico.com: [ House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has won the GOP’s nod to become the next speaker, completing a decade-long climb up the ranks of Republican leadership.

But it remains unclear whether he can muster the votes needed to win the speakership on the floor, given the Republicans' tiny margin of control and the deep rifts in the GOP conference.

The shifty Louisianan defeated Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a secret-ballot vote on Wednesday, winning 113 to 99, according to multiple people briefed on the results.

The GOP’s half-day election, though, does little to answer the question on the mind of virtually every Republican in the room: how to unite a highly fractured party - and quickly.

He must now win near-unanimous support on the House floor to win the gavel. That means losing no more than four of his own Republican members - a difficult task when several ardent Jordan supporters, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Max Miller (R-Ohio), are already vowing to back the Ohioan on the floor and not Scalise. ]

Today may bring us closer to a decision.

The House is essentially down without a figurehead leader...

-30-