Sunday, March 31, 2024
Saturday, March 30, 2024
FREEDOM MATTERS:...It's Been Fought For Enough...No, No Dictator Here... American Servicemen Did Not Serve, Or Die, For This...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...The artistic thinking is that sometimes words just get in the way, or that they take way too long to add up for some over-riding thought one wants to convey. A clear, thoughtful drawing often does it swiftly and succinctly.
Like the one above.
It is a sentiment I have felt and shared of late - those four years I spent in the U.S. Navy...for this?!
For enduring moron, draft-dodging Donald J. Trump?! His self-serving spiel does ring hollow, doesn't it, like a compliment so off-base that it angers. He's seeking the hallowed presidency one more time under the freedom veterans fought for and died for, an obscenity of the first order.
It's true that the November election cannot get here fast enough. This loser, a racist at that, is not who we are, or have ever been. Maybe some sectors in the South, not the collective if judged as one.
How many Americans have died in our wars? Too many. 671,000 in World War II. 58,000 in Vietnam, the conflict at issue when I served as a Corpsman, two years at Navy duty stations and two years with the U.S. Marines, back then a part of the Navy and under Navy medical care.
To think that an anti-America foghorn like Donald Trump can so easily upend this concept of freedom is unthinkable. Some say they believe in him, that his election will mean a better America.
Those Americans are fools.
A fascist dictator sees "everyone" as being beneath him, as being under his thumb, as being his loyal slaves. No room for questioning. No recourse against the heavy hand of political/government power. He will sic the goons on you.
Veterans, especially our older veterans, cannot begin to believe that they served for nothing, for this...
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Friday, March 29, 2024
MARCH MADNESS:...Idiot Republicans...Airplane Lands In Detroit...GOP Fool Watches Passengers Deplane...They're Aliens, He Posts On X...They Were A Basketball Team In Town For NCAA Play...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...It was high anxiety time in Michigan yesterday afternoon as several buses pulled up to an airport hangar for arriving passengers. Illegal aliens! Coming from the southern border!! Oh, no, not us in Detroit!!!
It happened, Maria.
Here's how the embarrassing pratfall was reported in thehill.com: [ A Republican state legislator in Michigan railed against several buses of "illegal invaders" landing at his local airport Wednesday, but he weathered harsh criticism after it was discovered the buses carried a college basketball team.
Rep. Matt Maddock (R) (shown wearing coat & tie at left in photo above) said the Gonzaga University basketball team, which was in Detroit for its March Madness Sweet 16 match-up on Friday, was a group of "illegal immigrants."
". . . . .Happening right now. Three busses just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort?" Maddock wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Maddock included photos of an Allegiant Air plane and a fleet of team buses, which appeared identical to the aircraft and buses shown in Gonzaga Basketball posts about the team landing in Detroit at about the same time Maddock made his comments.
The post circulated quickly, with dozens of users pointing out the mistake and making fun of Maddock. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) commented on the post, calling Maddock out for his assumptions.
"Hey, Einstein, your state is hosting the Sweet 16. Could it be a team bus? If it is, will you resign for your spectacular stupidity?" Swalwell wrote. ]
Maddock went dead silent.
He had been mentally castrated. Another hell-bent, anti-immigrant Republican falling from grace in flames.
They're just stupid, idiots...
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Thursday, March 28, 2024
THE SCYTHE:...Cutting The Fat In Government...Candidate Trump Bird-Dogging Social Security...And The IRS...He's Swinging The Killing Blade...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...So, is it on the Republican chopping block, or isn't it? You hear enough noise that some of the comments aimed at doing it ring true. Republican politicians can be coy, much more than Democrats. The thinking is that Republicans are comfortable, that they look down on any sort of program benefitting less-wealthy Americans.
Democrats are on record as saying Social Security benefits are off-limits to any government-trimming axe.
Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has played both sides of this card. He has said all "entitlements" are on the table and he has said that, well, Social Secuity is not. To believe him or not is the question. That's a crapshoot with Trump, as we know. He will bend at the drop of a new thought put in his brain by some crazed, far-right zealot.
This from newsweek.com: [ But as Trump gears up for his third run for the White House in November's presidential election, experts have warned that his comments on the nation's largest social insurance program could come back haunt him after he hinted in an interview this month that he could be open to cuts.
"So, first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting," Trump said on the subject of Social Security and Medicaid during a call in to CNBC's Squawk Box program on March 11. ". . . .And in terms of, also, the theft and the bad management of entitlements - tremendous bad management of entitlements - there's tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do." Trump later loosely clarified what he meant by his comments, telling conservative news website Breitbart: "I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare." ]
Of course. Too bad Trump is seen as a world-class liar, as someone who will say anything so long as it suits him in a given moment. Should Americans - aging, retired Americans - trust him?
No.
Nyet!
Trump has proven he will act impetuously. That he, he who seems to disdain all federal bureaucracies, would not look at the Social Security Administration is...dreaming. He'll cut. He'll cut like a sugar cane field-working sumbitch. You know it...and I know it. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is on notice. As is the Department of Education. Same for Housing and Urban Development (HUD), plus a few others.
He's said it. At his rallies and in interviews.
The hot-button issue surfaces every now and then as he speaks about what he will do if elected president. Candidate Trump has railed against the country's huge deficit often enough to make anyone listening believe that he could care less about some budget-sapping government programs - like, we would say, food stamps and housing assistance.
The elderly?
They're annoying fodder for a would-be dictator, dead wood for a working nation.
Social Security, a program heading into its 90th year, was begun by Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the mid-1930s, is on the chopping block for cold-hearted Republicans. To not believe it is to see it slink down the national drain.
Never mind that Social Security is a program funded primarily by way of payroll deductions, money these same monthly-check recipients contributed without fail throughout their working years.
The 70-some million Americans on Social Security are only claiming and receiving what is theirs...
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Wednesday, March 27, 2024
THIRD PARTY:.....Kennedy Scion Picks Google-Founder's Ex-Wife As Running Mate... She's 38 and Loaded... Another Longshot Independent Stab At The White House...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Nicole Shanahan is her name. National politics is her game. Not quite the known figure in any political setting, the 38-year-old is nonetheless buying the ticket and taking the ride. As of this morning, she's on the campaign trail.
You'll see her as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate as he rides the cheap carnival ride known as a longshot candidacy for eventually hanging it at The White House. The odds? Long. Damned long.
But he's a Kennedy, son of the former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, and, we should add, a headstrong Kennedy, at that. Yesterday, he made his first meaningful decision.
From newrepublic.com: [ Kennedy on Tuesday announced that he’s chosen a running mate for his third-party presidential run: Nicole Shanahan, an investor, Silicon Valley lawyer, and Democratic donor who was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
This might seem like a strange choice. Shanahan has no political experience or national name recognition. Her image as a wealthy dilettantish sort has no obvious appeal to the disaffected voters that Kennedy hopes to lure from President Biden and Donald Trump.
But if you want to understand this decision - and why Democrats believe it poses a potential problem for them - follow the money. To get on the ballot in numerous states, Kennedy will need to fund a large operation. Shanahan has already proven willing to bankroll Kennedy’s efforts, shelling out $4 million to fund that 1960s nostalgia-themed ad about the Kennedy family during the Super Bowl, which the other Kennedys sharply criticized.
Kennedy does have other reasons to choose Shanahan. She appears to be at least partly ideologically aligned with him: While she told The New York Times that she isn’t an anti-vaxxer, as Kennedy is, she seemed to agree with theories that link vaccines for kids to things like autism. She also proclaimed herself moved by "pockets of silent support" for Kennedy’s bid, meaning she’s imbibed a gallon of Kennedy Kool-Aid about the country supposedly hungering for his third-party challenge. ]
I'd want to say that this is an intriguing choice, but, well, what isn't any more in our national political landscape? Still to pick his second banana is Republican Donald Trump. Incumbent President Joe Biden, the Democrat, has Kamala Harris, also an attorney, as his running mate.
Kennedy is 70 and maybe age is again at pay here, and why he would want a younger running partner. We all know that picking the Veep is always a crapshoot. Mike Pence? In 2008, Republican John McCain picked photogenic Alaskan Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential hopeful, only we all know how that went and where - nowhere.
The suspicion here on Ms. Shanahan is that her all-in, strong support for Kennedy is enough to get her huffing and puffing on the campaign trail. She has zero experience. That may or may not matter. It'll be all about how she speaks to the masses and how the masses react to her words and actions.
Here, however, you have a Massachusetts liberal joining hands with one from across the country in California.
The thing is both of those states likely will go - and were always going to go - with the Democrat.
November will come soon enough...but not before we suffer our Summer of Political Discontent...
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Tuesday, March 26, 2024
STORMY SEAS:...For Trump, A Salacious Court Date With A Porn Star Hush Payment... $130,000...Violated Campaign Funds Reporting Laws...In Her World, Melania Mum...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...The guy is in a laundromat washer's mid-cycle, his days full of legal angst, money woes and a political campaign that just won't get him there. Americans are being entertained as never before in the history of national politics. I mean, Donald Trump's the first former president up on criminal charges...and the trial unfolds in three weeks.
Welcome to Deep Doo-Doo, the sequel starring the aforementioned Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels.
A few years back, like a dozen or so, Trump laid Ms. Daniels soon after the birth of his son, Barron, and the poke cost him $130,000. He paid it so that Ms. Daniels would lay low and stay quiet about the quickie affair. His then-fixer attorney, Michael Cohen, was the vessel for funneling the cash to her.
Well, the details are somewhat well-known already, but they will now color the gossiper's trial of this century.
This from axios.com: [ The judge overseeing Trump's New York hush money case said Monday that jury selection in the case will begin on April 15. The date cements that the case will be the first of Trump's four criminal indictments to go to trial, meaning the former president will face criminal prosecution as he campaigns for another term.
Trump, who has repeatedly sought to delay his legal troubles for as long as possible, requested that his New York criminal trial be delayed at least 90 days or dismissed completely.
During a news conference on Monday, he criticized the judge's decision to keep the hearing on track for a mid-April start, saying "I don't know how you can have the trial that's going on right in the middle of an election."
"It's not fair," he said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last week urged Merchan to not delay the case any further, calling Trump's request a "strategic delay."
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in the case, which stems from a 2016 payment he allegedly made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the charges. ]
What is it that they say about the weaker sex: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Stormy Daniels is about to get her primo acting role of her lifetime. On the witness stand. She'll tell it all, brother. Before the fall. And much of what she says will be corroborated by ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who has already testified about how the payment deal went down.
It should be a hoot for trial watchers, yes.
For Trump, and likely for wife Melania, it will be an undressing...
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Monday, March 25, 2024
SPECIAL TREATMENT:.... Trump's $464 Million Fraud Judgment Reduced To $175 Million...Now Has 10 Extra Days To Post Bond...While He Appeals...Still Stands To Lose And Pay The Half-Billion...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...He's shrinking. Don't let the self-promoting polls fool you. There are more than big money and legal problems in the Donald J. Trump campaign. He's hemorrhaging - votes and needed campaign cash.
Today's action in New York related to that $464 million fraud conviction is only the first step down the so-called short pier for the 77-year-old faux Republican.
Did the State of New York act on the threat to take his properties for non-payment? Check your favorite online news website. (Update: A New York appeals court on Monday gave former President Trump 10 more days to post a $175 million bond and satisfy the judgment in his New York civil fraud case, a much smaller total than the $454 million initially required.). There was the outside chance that Trump would find the money, either from American billionaires or a few dictators abroad. It's the DeadBeat Hour in the Big Apple.
As for the weird campaign, Trump still faces trials that would melt the average American. That hush money case is on hold, but cutie porn star Stormy Daniels (shown in photo below) likely knows she will win it, as does the New York district attorney.
Florida is on hold, what with Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon holding up things on the classified documents charges. That one seems to be about Cannon kissing her benefactor's wide ass, her rulings seemingly always favoring the presidential candidate now known as Don Poorleone. Pundits say that trial may not happen until early 2025, after the election in November, yes.
Trump's January 6 insurrection trial is also on hold, as he works that silly "immunity" claim all the way to the Supreme Court. It's a strong case, and Trump knows he. As commenters forever throw out on this and other websites, an innocent man would not claim immunity and would insist on a speedy trial. Not Trump. Court is the last place he wants to be.
In Georgia, the wheels of justice also have slowed. RICO charges are tough to defend. Trump wants nothing to do with it. His side of things sicced off-the-field amorous charges against District Attorney Fani Willis, but she beat them back. An affair with a staff attorney had who knows what to do with the cases against the Republican, a case said to be strong.
That case (election meddling) may see action before the year's out, although Trump is.....fighting it.
He's got a cage full of problems to overcome before facing incumbent Democrat Joe Biden in the election later this year. Trump, however, has nothing else to do but live the falling experience. Little outside his bubble is going his way, no matter what he says about sales to do with his golden sneakers.
This telling bit from dailykos.com: [ Trump’s poll numbers are a mirage. In 2016, conservative voters did not want to admit they had a thing for the corpulent crybaby. In 2024, the MAGAs do not dare say that the affair is over. In 2016, the base picked the forbidden fruit. In 2024, they are spitting out the seeds.
I am not blind. I see the rallies. The cultists show up in their Trump regalia, full of righteous piss and vinegar, prostrate on the altar. But that is the lunatic fringe. They are the people who would still vote for Trump if they saw a video of Putin giving him a golden shower. But to win, a presidential candidate has to do two things. Get the base to polls. And win the majority of the middle.
Polls that favor Trump cannot say how likely the respondents are to vote. The hardcore will always show up. But for many, that decision is made far closer to the election. And I sense (which is proof of nothing) that Trump’s polling is buoyed by support from people who say they will vote — but won’t. ]
DailyKos.com leans left, so much of this is partisan. But that's okay, 'cause right-wing media throws out the exact opposite. It's on, the fight is on.
May the American candidate win...
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Sunday, March 24, 2024
DAY OF RECKONING:...Big Cash Due In Donald Trump's Massive Fraud Case......$464 million...He's Appealing, But Must Post Full Amount...NY Will Take His Buildings...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Tomorrow is the day, boys. New York wants its cash and one Donald J. Trump either pays the $464 million court judgment or the state will confiscate and sell his property. That's the headline today.
Fraud rarely pays.
And New Yorkers have a certain way of telling you things and status costs money. White House candidate DJT has said the has the money to pay the pay...and then he has said that he has it, but doesn't want to use it to pay The Big Apple. Bar tabs tend to balloon before you stop guzzling down that alcohol.
Will he walk up to the courthouse clerk's office on Monday and hand over a certified check for the full amount? Or, will he again balk and see the consequences (confiscation of his prized buildings and other real estate possessions) flash before his eyes?
Headstrong New York Attorney General Letitia James will go either way, although one gets the impression that she'd like nothing better than to grab Trump's well-known Manhattan buildings, like Trump Tower. It's been coming for weeks.
In the civil and criminal cases against Trump, this one will see resolution, Baby.
Climax time in the city. Like running full-speed down a subway entry way and actually catching the train headed for Lower Manhattan on the first day of the workweek. Getouttamyway! Dammit, dude, you got pizza on my coat! Ah, but lookit the pretty dame seated there across me. Pepperoni will wash, won't it? Cheese on my cotton, Banana Republic tie? Bastard.
But I'm on the train!
Trump will make a big show out of paying the fine, if he does that.
Word all last week was that he didn't have it. Appealing the ruling meant he still had to post the entire amount, so that NY would not get stiffed. Then came news that his lawyer, the Iraqi Alina Habba, would not say he wasn't getting the cash from a foreign government, like Russia or the 9/11 Saudi Arabians. Trump actually went in another direction, saying he was taking Truth Social, his media flea, public and that he stood to make as much as $3 billion off it.
Then came word that whatever shared he had, well, there was the itchy stipulation that he wait six months before being able to sell them.
I know, it's a terminally boring tale of Trump and disgust. We tire of it, yes.
At least, one Day Of Reckoning is here for The Great Appealer.
Appeal all you want, dude. Just know that time always runs out on most things involving humas. In the massive fraud case we saw unfold last month, where the law said you lied to get loans and then you lied again to not pay taxes, well, time has run out.
Bang the drum slowly, Maria...
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Saturday, March 23, 2024
Friday, March 22, 2024
HAITI:...Bloody Gang Warfare Unabated...Island Country In Disarray...U.S. Offers Millions To Kenyan Police Force As One Answer...No U.S. Troops Being Sent...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Kenya does and doesn't want to go. The U.S. is pressuring the United Nations to authorize and field a multinational force. Life and gang warfare in Haiti are on fire. Political unrest has seen thousands split for other lands, many escaping Haitians sailing off to Mexico with hopes of then making it to the northern Mexican border for a shot at entering the U.S.
It is the boiling pot of the Caribbean, an open sore that won't heal.
From harpers.org: [ In Haiti, Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced he would step down once a transitional council was in place, and an ex-police officer and current gangster known as Barbecue threatened politicians who were planning to take part in the council. ]
The U.S., however, is not interested in sending its troops to quell the lawlessness. Instead, it has offered the African country of Kenya $300 million to arm and dispatch a sizable police force to the ragged island country. Many in Kenya are opposed, saying they do not want to see their police officers (not the Kenyan Army) return home in body bags.
Kenyan President William Ruto favors the offer, but he does not yet have the okay from the national congress.
This all comes after three years of unease following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July, 2021.
Since then, wanton gangs have taken over the streets of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, in effect become the authority in Haiti.
The unrest is in marked contrast to life in the Dominican Republic, the other country on the island, where no such gang warfare exists. From a report at cnn.com: [ Ruthless gangs have a stranglehold on the city, preying on the population, carving neighborhoods into warring criminal fiefdoms, and cutting Haiti’s international port off from the rest of the country. ]
U.S. Embassy officials and staff departed Haiti earlier this week.
It was more than just going home to safety; the departure was symbolic of a frustration...
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Thursday, March 21, 2024
THAT LATINO VOTE:...Well, OK, The Mexican Vote...Otra Vez Under The Microscope... White Vote Up!...Are Muslims Voting?...Italians?...Germans?...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Yes, Mexicans are for abortion. Yes, Mexicans are for Uncle Sam. Yes, Mexicans are Americans and those people south of the border are merely more Mexican. And, yes, Mexicans (aka Latinos) will vote in the November General Election.
Their guy is Democrat Joe Biden, although there are some Mexicans (Latinos) who fully believe that voting for Republican Donald J. Trump makes them "Anglos." I know, what rot.
These, we all know, are tough times all across the land.
And no one knows more about demographics than politicians and political blowhards cat-quick to place our many ethnic groups in certain places along that long and winding shelf. People will vote.
All Americans will hope. That's the plan. Do your civic duty and go vote.
The press loves to head for the ghetto or the barrio and come back with an answer as to how Blacks and Browns will vote. You rarely see a story about how Whites will vote. Occasionally, you'll see a blurb about the Asian vote, never one about the Muslim or interracial vote.
Mexicans (Latinos)?
Well, there was this paragraph in a column published by the Los Angeles Times: [ Of particular importance this cycle is the coveted Latino vote, a cryptid that, if captured, will grant either party its deepest desire, like "Texas going blue" or "the collapse of the state of California." Determining how Latinos will move this year is key to predicting which way our country will swing, be it "hell, but slightly nicer to gay people” or "Turbo Hell 5000 (Homophobia Deluxe)." ]
Capturing the Mexican vote will make Texas blue or the collapse of California?
Balderdash! But that one line has been written how many times in the past 20-30 years? Maybe with a different word here and there, but it's been out there like the flu pretty much every national election. Look it up. The Latino Vote, baby!
Just go vote.
Leave the histrionics to those who labor in the Desperate Grind, also known as the news business. It is one of those stories that comes with the moment. If we're voting, let's see what the crazy Latinos are up to! They're not up to anything special or different or telling. Latinos are busy at home and at work and at play. You want to send me a survey? Why?
In the passive Rio Grande Valley, a Latino stronghold if only by way of population, haughty and loose-khaki Mexicans will indeed show up to cast their vote. The voting booth does not clang when its door is closed. If that's a drape you cut through, well, it's not a post-surgery ward.
Just vote.
If you're a Latino (Mexican here), do it and be done with it.
No one will be eyeballing White people as they mosey in to cast their vote, so why should you care how anyone with a fancy pen or lighted computer keyboard categorizes you? Don't. No, not in these inelegant days. The hefty maid has left our fast-crumbling palace, and it's still hours before sundown. Someone jabbed a knife into the Naugahyde couch, and it's been ruined. The mangy, neglected dog has bolted the doghouse, and he knows something.
Just vote...
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Wednesday, March 20, 2024
FLORIDA:...Loud, Harsh Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Bends As Sunshine State Farmers Cry For Workers...New State Law Aimed At Providing Housing For "Foreign" Field Workers...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...And then there came the dollar side of things. Crops in the fields, few, if any, workers out to harvest them. Florida is in an agricultural crunch. Conundrum? Yes. Between a rock and a hard grapefruit. yes. Time to make some not-so-pleasant concessions?
Absolutely.
The State of Florida, a rabid, anti-immigrant state since Republican Ron DeSantis became governor, is now working on getting (get this) better housing for the estimated 52,000 workers it desperately needs and is actively recruiting.
Not from Florida itself, no.
Well, officials say they want "non-immigrant" workers eligible for those special worker visas, but we know who works those fields - undocumented workers, yes.
"We can grow our crop, but without harvesting it we might as well not grow the crop," said David Hill, an owner of Southern Hill Farms in Clermont. "No one is going to pick the crops that we grow except for the people we’re trying to bring over, in H-2A in particular."
From WUFT, News Service of Florida: [ Florida’s agriculture industry hopes a bill that would limit local regulations on farmworker housing will bolster efforts to bring in more non-immigrant foreign workers.
The bill (SB 1082), which state lawmakers unanimously passed, would prevent cities and counties from taking steps to "inhibit" construction of housing for farmworkers on agricultural land. The bill has not been formally sent to Gov. DeSantis, who can sign, veto or allow the legislation to become law without his signature.
The industry says some growers have cut back on planting this year, and might again next year, in part because of a labor shortage related to the state’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.
The bill could help with bringing in temporary, non-immigrant foreign workers through what is known as the federal H-2A visa program. The program places housing requirements on employers. ]
As seems to happen in these stories, many Floridians do not want immigrant farmworker housing in their backyards. The new legislation mandates that growers build the housing on farmland.
It's somewhat unexpected, as everything the governor has said about immigrants to date has been negative, as in he doesn't want them and as in he will ship them to liberal folks up in Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast as fast as he can.
But the cash crops (citrus, vegetables, strawberries, potatoes, etc., etc.) must be harvested, so hardass DeSantis likely will sign the legislation in as quiet a fashion as he can muster.
I know. It's the same with post-hurricane clean-up, when the state's citizenry and politicians see a large number of migrant workers drive in for the jobs locals just will not do.
What is that they often say about these things...money talks...
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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
THE BORDER:...Weeks Into A Rough Hoe At The Supreme Court, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott Is Not Obeying High Court Dictates...Going To Wall The Mexican Border Whether It Needs It Or Not...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...It's getting to where you no longer know who the law intown is from one day to the next. Do the sheriffs of border counties have a say in local problems? The state, as in its governor? The federal government, as in designated agencies? Or, is it the U.S. Supreme Court?
It used to be the Supreme Court's rulings were firm and final.
Well, in most cases, they still are, only not in Texas Governor Greg Abbott's head. He is above the nation's highest court when it comes to say and doing what cruises his brain on things to do with the Mexican border.
In Republican Abbott's air-conditioned world, there is a relentless, unstoppable invasion of immigrants at the Lone Star State's lengthy southern border, especially over by Eagle Pass west of here. Abbott has been headstrong in his approach to walling-off an invasion that seems to be more a political watercolor than an actuality. He has stationed large numbers of state troopers and state guardsmen to make sure the world knows he is serious about halting wave after wave of immigrants he sees breeching the demarcation line.
The U.S. Border Patrol is there, as well, only Abbott sees them as part of the problem. In fact, these days, he would rather the Feds stay out of Texas on things to do with, in his word, "securing" the border, which, really, he has not yet done.
This from newsweek.com: [ Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to leave controversial buoys in the Rio Grande after the Supreme Court blocked a new state law targeting suspected illegal migrants from taking effect on Monday.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abbott said the buoys would stay in the river, the building of a wall would continue and the Texas National Guard would erect razor wire barriers along the Texas-Mexico border.
Tensions have surged between Texan and federal authorities over how to respond to a surge in irregular migration across the southern border in recent months.
On January 22 the Supreme Court ruled federal agents could remove razor wire placed along the border on Abbott's orders. This sparked a furious response from Abbott who claimed his state was being subject to an "invasion" and invoked "Texas's constitutional authority to defend and protect itself." ]
It hasn't happened.
To the governor, the Supreme Court may as well be the President Joe Biden household in Delaware. Greg Abbott is a one-man court watching the border and issuing rulings willy-nilly. He has the support of the Republican-led state legislature.
So, what should the citizenry take from the governor's recalcitrance - that laws are not for everybody, that a governor can do whatever he damn well pleases and not face consequences? Well, yeah, that seems to exactly be his take on all of this.
The Border Patrol has not moved on the razor wire fencing Abbott has installed on a rather small stretch of the Mexican Border. And he has not moved a finger to rid the Rio Grande of his orange-colored buoys, as has also ruled a court. Never mind that neighboring Mexico has lodged complaints with the Biden Administration.
It's all a dog & pony show, of course.
Greg Abbott would not be doing any of this if the federal government had a Republican at the helm.
You know it and I know...and he knows it.
Everybody knows it...
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Monday, March 18, 2024
SICK:...Republican Donald J. Trump Keeps Screaming For An Intervention...Psych Ward, Not The White House...A Bloodbath If He's Not Elected...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...It's way past time. This guy is sick. In fact, as we've been saying here, he's practically screaming for an intervention. Help is nowhere near the horizon, however. His family and the rest of the country are letting this sumbitch go nuts right before our eyes.
President? How about psychiatric ward!
Republican Donald J. Trump remains a candidate for the highest post in the land. He's been there once before so you can't really blame the dolt for wanting a return engagement. Even Elvis would go back to Vegas every now and then. Same for birds after shopping malls are built on tree-lined land once their home.
No, don't blame Trump for his silliness and his seriousness. He loves his McDonald's Quarterpounders as the best America can offer and his openly-displayed racism as the worst.
Over the weekend, he kept going lower and lower on the loose-soil layers of our ragged society.
To wit: Speaking at a rally in support of Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno’s Senate campaign on Saturday, Trump seemed to offer an aside while speaking about the auto industry and how he would be a better president than Democrat Joe Biden when it came to dealing with trade and China: "Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country."
Get the nurse.
We're sinking daily here aboard the U.S.S. Guppy. How much longer can the psyche grant this fool any sort of space. He's the avocado fart in the room, impossible to ignore.
Bloodbath?
Newsfolk are downplaying the definition of what blowhard Trump means here. Is he talking bullet-riddled bloodbath? Thousands dying? That threatened Civil War?
Pundits are going soft on him, by believing Trump was talking about the national economy. Uh, Trump means the bloody thing. That's who he is, a 77-year-old fuck willing to blow up the country and likely the world before he dies.
Take him at his word, America.
Donald Trump could not care less about the economy.
It's payback he's after. He lost the 2020 election and is steadily losing his fortune to defamation lawsuits and uber-serious legal entanglements. Four criminal trials and upwards of 80 felony counts.
Of course, bloodbath! What's the overweight sumbitch got to live for?...
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Sunday, March 17, 2024
ROYALS:...For Stuffy Brits, A Rolling Film About Lust And Disgust...They Can't Catch A Break...Is There Yet Another Coming Marital Split?...Ah! A Tranche Of Gossip Material At The Palace Gates...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...It's a wild and goofy family, a rare one without a care for lodging or money. We speak of the English Royals. My, what a crowd. Always all dolled-up and everywhere to go. Is there an equal in America? Not hardly.
These people are strange.
Lately, and this follows the abdication of the throne by the prince who fell in love with American squeeze Wallis Simpson, the jovial ascent of Queen Elizabeth, the dilly-dallying and death of Princess Diana, the interracial marriage and lingering fallout of Prince Harry.
Enter Kate Middleton, next in line for the Big Act if husband William has, indeed, kept it in his pants. She's been in the news perhaps more than she's wanted to, although one never knows about that with the publicity-hungry crown.
The ongoing mess has all to do with, not adultery on her part, but with floating a doctored photograph of family life, one seemingly innocent as all get-out, but fake, which the press simply loathes. (see it above and below, lads and lassies)
A host of mainstream news organizations led by The Associated Press, Agence France Presse and Reuters accepted the photo as being real, released it to their members and subscribers...and then stunningly issued a "kill order," meaning all were disavowing its genuineness. The shot had been photoshopped; that is, altered, and altered rather amateurishly, as it turned out.
And altered by Princess Katherine, i.e. Kate.
Weirdly, this particular P.R. mess had followed her admission into a hospital for some unknown treatment. Some wags speculated the woe rested with painful abdominal disarray. Others said she'd been in for a mastectomy or an abortion. Still others said the hospitalization had come after Kate had discovered hubby William's affair with a married woman named Hanbury, one he already had a child with, even.
Yeah, you think Henry VIII was mad at Catherine of Aragon?
Not even close. That fat Henry had his eye on Anne Boleyn, a better-looking chick, and he'd wanted the Pope to annul the marriage to the Aragon woman. The Pope said no, Henry VIII got angry, quickly bolted the Catholic Church and began the Episcopalian movement.
Will Kate go ape?
She's troubled, yes. Husband William isn't saying a word. The entire episode smacks of a British mystery nicely cloaked in secrecy, with a smattering of juicy tidbits crawling the castle walls. Is celebrated Englishman Peter Sellers in the house? The Pink Panther would be the one to get to the bottom of this.
But we shine the flashlight on poor Kate. It wasn't that long ago (last Christmas?) that she was still riding high after the bizarre Prince Harry/Meghan Markle departure from the Royal Fold. It was Kate who seemed to hold the troupe together while Harry and Meghan dropped serious allegations of racism and, well, get-along problems within the star-crossed family.
And then King Charles learned he had cancer.
Jeepers, creepers, what other veloured disaster can befall this clan?...
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Saturday, March 16, 2024
Friday, March 15, 2024
NAZIS IN THE BARRIOS:... ......Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez Calls RGV Mexicans In Republican Fold "Jews For Hitler"...Stunningly Restrained, Ardent Opponent Mayra Flores Merely Murmurs "Shame On Vicente"...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...I mean there are plenty of Mexican Jews, so that cannot be the knock in this one. No, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, a 3-term Democrat, was going a bit farther in damning his fellow Mexicans for chasing the Donald Trump stench.
He equates them to those doomed "Jews for Hitler" of the 1930s - all actually hated by the Nazis, many to the point of gassing.
But we're into the November Election campaign and Gonzalez wants to keep his job. Losing to a Mexican Republican is not his idea of a good day at the office. His opponent, fleshy Mayra Flores hated the comparison, but we know she's heard similar characterizations before - like likely this morning.
The excitable Flores didn't even come close to beating Gonzalez in the 2022 election, losing by more than 10,000 votes. That brief taste of Washington, D.C., earned in winning a Special Election the summer of that same year, saw her spend 6 months in congress, the loftiest political status she has had as a woman.
Oddsmakers say Gonzalez will whip her silly again.
This from a report at newrepublic.com: [ U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat from McAllen, compared Hispanic Trump supporters to "Jews for Hitler," prompting fierce backlash from Republicans as he runs for reelection in a mostly Hispanic South Texas district.
In an interview published Monday, Gonzalez warned that Democrats could soon lose support among socially conservative Hispanic voters in South Texas as Republicans increasingly invest in the area. He said Hispanic voters are largely turned off by the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the top of the Republican ticket, including Donald Trump casting Mexican immigrants as "rapists."
"If they didn’t have that racist, divisive element within their party, they would have a lot of Latinos, but they can’t seem to shake that off," Gonzalez told the magazine. "The rhetoric you hear from the Republican Party is shameful and disgraceful for Latinos. And you know, when you see 'Latinos for Trump,' to me it is like seeing 'Jews for Hitler,' almost, you know?"
Republicans are pouring money into unseating Gonzalez in the 34th congressional district, which is based in the lower Rio Grande Valley and includes Brownsville and Harlingen. Former U.S. Representative Mayra Flores (shown in photo at right) is again running for the seat.
Flores acknowledges being a vocal Trump supporter and blasted Gonzalez for comparing Latino Trump supporters to Jewish Nazis.
"Shame on Vicente Gonzalez for referring to conservative Latinos in this manner. He forgets they are his constituents, too," Flores said on social media. "We need to elect new leadership in November, and that's exactly what the Rio Grande Valley will do." ]
Mayra Flores may as well be cutie Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in this one. She's going nowhere. "Tontos," she will say, "...I've a feeling we're not in Burgos (Mexico) anymore." Or something like that. Pick your sample; she's more a cartoon than a positive candidate for public service. (BTW, Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico is her hometown)
If she were to win, well, we know she'd just be out to do Trump's bidding and to Hell with the Rio Grande Valley. It's what we're seen in her and what we keep hearing from the 38-year-old mother of three these days.
Gonzalez, sadly, has it right.
Mexicans do not belong in the Republican Party, not in Trump's ever-racist MAGA version, which is dominating the Grand Old Party (GOP).
But if this is the kick-off salvo, well, it is a more-than-clear signal that this race will, indeed, be a wild, vicious, fire and brimstone campaign for the 34th Congressional District seat - from here to Election Day come November 5th.
Vicente Gonzalez could be excused for proceeding with his dead-on denigrations, perhaps next calling Mexican Republicans idiots in their own language: Pendejos...
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Thursday, March 14, 2024
LINGERIE DEPARTMENT:... That Crotchless Trump/Putin Bromance...Well, Should We Care?...So, Icky Donald Loves Murderer Vladimir...Leather And Lace On Sale...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...The stocky villain Viktor Orban popped-in to chat up a breezy afternoon at Mar-a-Lago with For-Sale Republican Donald J. Trump. They had drinks and laughs. The drinks chased a dangling conversation, about the state of the world, Orban's dreams of capturing Europe and Trump's shot at the U.S. Presidency.
Burly Orban, the dude with the Spanky & Our Gang hairstyle, had some intriguing words for the press after his brief visit to ritzy Palm Beach.
From nymag.com: [ On Sunday, Orban told an interviewer that Trump explained his "quite detailed plans" to end the war Russia has waged on Ukraine. The plan is to cut off assistance to Ukraine and force it to surrender:
"He has a very clear vision that is hard to disagree with. He says the following: First, he will not give a single penny for the Russo-Ukrainian war. That’s why the war will end, because it’s obvious that Ukraine cannot stand on its own two feet. If the Americans don’t give money and weapons along with the Europeans, the war will end. And if the Americans don’t give money, then the Europeans won’t be able to fund this war alone. And then the war will end." ]
Trump with a "very clear vision" of anything other than his grifting is the news here.
That America would retreat from its ongoing plan to aid Ukraine is ludicrous. It won't happened under the Biden Administration, but Republicans are amok. Racism and extremism live in their heads. Donald Trump has infected the national psyche on that political front.
Can the U.S. survive his still-out-there anti-America posturing?
It energizes killers such as Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, who has just about finished Holocausting the Palestinians in Gaza.
No doubt Putin is raising and tipping a glass to the mess...
What's he wearing - a black thong?...
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Wednesday, March 13, 2024
BASEBALL:...Major Leagues Season Two Weeks Away... Pumped-Up L.A. Dodgers In Japanese Mode...Yankees Get Slugger Juan Soto...Players Bitch Uniforms Made With See-Through Material...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Circle the date on your calendar: March 28th, or roughly two weeks from today. That's when the 2024 Major League Baseball season begins. I know, I know. Many of you feel the game has grown boring. That's true, but the season will be played.
There may be a few plots to chase, like Japanese superstar's Shohei Ohtani's new team in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers look to be the team to beat out there. They also signed a young Japanese pitcher said to be the next Don Drysdale.
In New York across the way, it is the arrival of ass-kicker Juan Soto to the pinstripes fold that has fans all ready to, well, take the field after the P.A. guy takes the needle off the Star-Spangled Banner record and yells, "Playball!!!"
Not being up on every team (like I used to as a kid), the insights listed above have to be it.
I'll wait on football, but will check-in on the Boys of Summer every now and then. There is no great outstanding issue or controversy in Big League baseball that I could find, other than that players don't like the material used in uniforms this go-round.
See-through?
Well, that's what the players are saying and worried about.
I guess you'd have to wear one. Who'd want to see anything in ex-pitcher Bartolo Colon anyway? Just play the game.
We looked but could not find anything about who made the new uniforms or where they were made. Perhaps the "thinness" of the material came from Mexico, or maybe it was some dolled-up Babe in Paris, France offering the league some fashion panache.
Who knows?
The game remains the same...
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Tuesday, March 12, 2024
BLACK POWER:...In Letter, NAACP Puts Florida Colleges On Notice...All Black Athletes Told To Reconsider Playing In Sunshine State...Blame Ditzy Republican Gov. DeSantis...It's Been Coming...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Yeah, what would Alabama, Georgia and those vaunted, Power 5 schools in the acclaimed Southeast Conference be without Black athletes? Not much. They'd be Texas Lutheran, Texas-El Paso, Tarleton State, just to name a few Texas schools not quite in the same class.
It's been something of a thing to think about, what with our horrible racist politics dancing across the country - nowhere more excitable and ridiculous than in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has played strongman against all things not white or benefitting whites.
The National Association for the Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP) is fighting back.
This from a report on espn.com: [ The NAACP asked Black student-athletes to reconsider their decisions to attend public colleges and universities in the state of Florida, in response to the University of Florida and other state schools recently eliminating their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In a letter sent to NCAA president Charlie Baker and addressed to current and prospective student-athletes Monday, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote, "This is not about politics. It's about the protection of our community, the progression of our culture, and most of all, it's about your education, and your future."
Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits the use of state funds for any DEI programs. As a result, the University of Florida announced on March 1 it had closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated 13 full-time DEI positions and 15 administrative appointments and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors.
Other schools, such as North Florida and Florida International, have also recently shuttered DEI programs.
NFL Hall of Famer and Florida great Emmitt Smith also spoke out, voicing his disgust at UF's decision and asking minority athletes at UF to "be aware and vocal" about the decision.
In a statement, the NAACP's Johnson said, "Diversity, equity, and inclusion are paramount to ensuring equitable and effective educational outcomes. The value Black and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched. If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it's time they take their talents elsewhere." ]
The letter may be couched as not being "about politics," but it damned well is, and we're more than okay with it. What would U. of Florida (Emmitt Smith) and Florida State (Deion Sanders) and the U. of Miami (Michael Irvin) be without Black players? Good Lord, their histories on the playing field and basketball court were written by Black players. Beyond that, well, Cubans have made up more than their share of starting players on all three of those school's baseball teams. Alex Rodriguez ring a bell?
The story flashed on ESPN yesterday, but it will most certainly be picked up by the mainstream news media, like the Associated Press. Look for it, on crazy angles, of course, from Right Wing outlets.
Florida is the state where more than a few politicians recently characterized slavery as being "of great benefit" to the Black community.
This should be interesting.
We can almost hear FOX News and other far right news outlet Talking Heads damning the NAACP and Black players for being ungrateful and biting the hand that's fed them.
But it would turn college sports upside down if this ballooned and players actually looked to cleaner, greener pastures to display their talents.
Colorado looks even better after this. Right, Coach Prime?...
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Monday, March 11, 2024
MAGA:...And Now! - "Ladies And Gentlemen. From North Carolina, The Neeeeewwwww ...Black Trump!!!!!"... He's Out To Spout The Same Lies...He's Hot And After The Rot...He's What The Death Of MAGA Looks Like?...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Well, why not a Black one? America comes in all colors, doesn't it. We've yet to see a Brown Trump, although, well, there was Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy and, of course, fellow Indian Nikki Haley.
Black Trump is here and his name is Mark Robinson. Uh, he's the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, but he's running for the state's top job, that of governor. Does he have a chance at winning? Well, Democrat Josh Stein, the opponent, says he wants 55-year-old, rotund Robinson to keep talking.
Robinson is talking MAGA tough, picking on former President Barack Obama's signature legislation, Obamacare. In Robinson's odd mind, Obamacare is nothing more than yet another manner of enslavement.
His spiel: Something about Americans not taking care of themselves and relying way too much on federal programs. Yeah, this guy's fast on the hoof when it comes to all-things-Trump. If the Mar-a-Lago maven has a darker doppelgänger, it's Mark Robinson. Same big mouth, same lies, same hate, same doughnut-fueled body.
But we read somewhere online that this is what we have to go through to rid ourselves of the cancer known far & wide as MAGA (the Make America Great Again crapola pushed by Trump for now going on nine years.
More and more, political pundits in this grass-whorled country are saying the death and end of MAGA will come in November, when national election results again tell Trump he is a loser. No White House for you! Next!!
We could dive into all the Republican Party is after, but so many others have done it and are still doing it, like these few words from Newsweek.com: "The GOP is content to restrict voting and muck with gerrymandering and the procedural rules rather than supporting a dictatorship. GOP’ers may realize that there is no such thing as a Republican Dictator. A dictator won’t need them or their party."
That "dictator" part is not one often mouthed by Republicans, even as they full-well know the definition of the word. How many times have they used it in the past, pasted it in paragraphs to do with the Russian and Chinese leaders?
That many?
It's been a serpentine tale of lust & disgust, for sure.
But we all know how this will end, don't we? Roughly eight more months of dizzying discourse before the November election. This dude Robinson, like his idol Trump, will not be celebrating the vote count.
MAGA is fast dying on the vine.
Everybody knows it...some people are just trying to make a little money off of it now...
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Sunday, March 10, 2024
JACK SMITH:...No-Nonsense Federal Prosecutor Creating Nightmares For Fishy Donald Trump...It May Be An Election Between Him And Joe Biden, But Smarty Smith Is The One To Fear...
By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...Him, your honor. "He's the one making Donald J. Trump's life miserable. Get him off our back! We're getting killed here, sir. Ma, Ma, we have no answers against this guy!" What? A trial. "Your honor, we're in the middle of a national presidential campaign! Who's got time for criminal trials?"
Jack Smith.
Jack Smith has all the time in the world.
Republican Trump is traipsing across the country seeking his party's nomination for the 2024 battle at the ballot box in early November. Jack Smith is busy cementing his cases against the former Democrat from New York who's moved to Florida and become the Sunshine State's leading Republican miscreant.
Smith has Trump by the short hairs, in a case alleging insurrection at the nation's capital and one accusing the ex-pres of fleeing the office after losing in 2021 with boxes of classified documents, reportedly including serious state secrets some say Trump may sell when he finds himself in that prison vice Smith is readying for his big, fat butt.
The contest against President Joe Biden?
Desperate Trump needs help with that, but it's prosecutor Smith he fears.
If the indictments - the first for allegedly mishandling US secrets, the second for attempting to overturn the 2020 election - were a political maelstrom threatening to split the country, Smith himself presents as decidedly muted.
With his stern demeanor and dark suits, the 54-year-old Smith would be indistinguishable from any other smartly dressed, but restrained, federal prosecutor were it not for his thick salt and pepper beard. ]
Yes, Maria, we're in for some action at the courthouse. You still think the OJ Simpson murder trial in L.A. was as good as it gets? Uh, hang on, doll. This one, or these ones, will be so much better, so much more interesting, so much more dramatic. Trump foil Walt Nauta, his Mar-a-Lago houseboy, plays Kato Kaelin in this one, Baby.
Yes, Jack Smith is tanned, rested and ready.
You can almost hear him, "If you listen to the prick, you must convict."
Bailiff, close the door. Send in the jury.
The defendant will rise...
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