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

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The debate is being sponsored and broadcast by FOX News.

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

You know it...

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

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

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

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

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

Who is she?

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

Perhaps one of our readers will tell us.

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

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

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

No, is the initial answer.

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

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

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

Wardrobe up!...

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

BIG DREAM:...The Rio Grande Valley As One...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

EDINBURG, Texas | Well, it's something many have long-suggested - Rio Grande Valley political leaders bonding for the common good. They did it here. Even some tough, inhumane Republican dude in a wheelchair showed-up. Came down all the way from Austin for a photo op (see it above) he likely thought would tell people all of these mayors and county judges are with him.

Hope not.

The Rio Grande Valley is a slice of geography as unique as the Middle East's Gaza Strip, or Mexico's Yucatan. It lives and breathes on its own, far from state government, for decades ignored by Texans elsewhere, like in the Legislature.

This explainer from Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda: [ I had the honor and privilege of sharing the stage with Edinburg Mayor Ramiro Garza, Jr. in delivering the welcome at our very first-ever RGV Economic Summit. 

This historic event brought together 47 mayors representing their respective cities throughout Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy and Starr County with a common purpose - to advance inclusive and sustainable economic growth for South Texas.

This is a pivotal moment for the RGV as we come together as "One Region, One Voice!" ]

Good luck with that One Voice thing, however. Sharing, especially credit, is anathema to politicians. Still, you hope that even some progress on the unity front can come of this.

We say the Rio Grande Valley would be a state powerhouse if it ever became one monster city, or if it even effected half of what this group wishes for the region.

Free Advice: Keep Republican Gov. Greg Abbott out of it.

He's a transitory figure in the Big Scheme of our region. RGV leaders are doing for their communities and their residents.

Abbott is not from here.

Yes, he's governor, but he'll care only so long as it pushes him or his divisive agenda...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...We noticed Mayor Sepulveda did not mention Abbott's presence at this summit. Good for her!...]

That Would Be About Right...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Later this month, kids. Wait on it. It's coming for Enrique Tarrio, so-called leader of the anti-America Proud Boys. Justice, we mean. Payback for that riot at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. That's Tarrio in photo above.

Sentencing day is approaching.

He knows it. But is he ready for the judge's action, for a long prison term? Likely not. Criminals never believe such days will ever come. This one will.

From a news report at Daily Kos: [ The Justice Department is seeking 33 years in prison for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents filed Thursday.

Tarrio, who served as national chairman of the far-right extremist group, and three lieutenants were all convicted by a Washington jury in May of conspiring to block the transfer of presidential power in the hopes of keeping Republican Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election.

Prosecutors are also asking for a 33-year-sentence for one of Tarrio's co-defendants, Joseph Biggs of Ormond Beach, Florida, a self-described Proud Boys organizer.

They are asking the judge to impose a 30-year prison term for Zachary Rehl, who was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia; 27 years in prison for Ethan Nordean of Auburn, Washington, who was a Proud Boys chapter president; and 20 years for Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York.

Tarrio, of Miami, and his co-defendants will be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in a string of hearings starting later this month in Washington’s federal court. ]

It's a heartbreaker for relatives of all these yahoos. For sure.

They likely still live on bravado of being rebels and rebellious...

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Migrants Housed In NYC Jail Where Sex Pervert Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself?... Maybe...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Talk about ecotourism! Migrants bused to The Big Apple staying at the joint once home to financier/sex pervert Jeffrey Epstein, the wild and crazy guy said to have arranged sexual trysts for Prince Andrew of England, computer brain Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton?

Well, yeah.

Nothing is too good for our migrants after they get kicked up to New York City by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

This from The New York Post: [ Embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams (Black man shown in photo below) is reportedly turning to the abandoned hellhole prison where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself as a solution to housing the relentless influx of migrants being bused into the Big Apple.

The mayor has scrambled for months to find space for at least 58,000 asylum seekers who have been shuttled to the city from states such as Texas after they crossed the southern border. His latest idea is to next use Manhattan's infamous Metropolitan Correctional Center, often referred to as MCC, which was closed down in 2021 following a slew of scandals and complaints over filthy prison conditions. 

If New York Gov. Kathy Hochul approves his request, refugees mainly from South America will find themselves in a facility with a morbid history plagued by allegations of rat infestations and sewage floods. 

It remains to be seen if Adams will successfully move migrants into the cells, however, after his attempt earlier this year to shift asylum seekers to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal fell apart when the refugees refused to go. ]

It has to be a different sort of Hell to go looking for the Best in America as an asylum-seeker and then find A Movable Hell.

These migrants (men, women and children) now numbering almost 60,000 thousand thanks to a steady string of buses arriving from Texas, are struggling to make sense of the political football they have become.

They are grateful for being allowed entry, but no doubt wonder where the empathy went. 

Deport them!

As cold as it sounds, that would be more humane...

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Impeach Joe Biden? Do It, Republicans! Ha Ha Ha...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It is the story snaking across the nation's ragged capital. Some Republicans want to impeach President Joe Biden, a Democrat. No real reason, other than that they currently hold the majority in the House of Representatives.

That's House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a former yogurt shop owner back home in California, in the photo you see above. He's itching to do to Biden what Democrats did to Donald J. Trump when they were in power. Hate lasts forever in Washington, D.C.

But good luck with that.

It may just help Biden more than hurt him at the 2024 ballot box.

McCarthy is treading carefully, fully knowing that an impeachment now could end up blowing up on his pale face. There are not enough Republicans to impeach Biden, is what the learned pundits are saying openly and often.

This from The New Republic magazine: [ If you tune in to right-wing media, of course, Biden is the most corrupt person on earth. Millions of people believe this. Salivating Republicans have held hearings. They’ve produced no evidence of anything.

McCarthy knows this. On a Fox News appearance, Sean Hannity pressed him on whether Joe Biden (shown in photo at right) can be charged with bribery, not because he allegedly benefited from anything in Ukraine but because of his son. McCarthy dodged the question. He also said something that could have come out of the mouth of his namesake Joe: "I think there’s enough proof out there that this Biden family needs to come forward and show there wasn’t a pay-to-play." I see. That’s the modern version of prove you’re not a Communist.

Evidence doesn’t matter. They’ve already made up their minds. As the Queen said, “Sentence first, verdict afterwards.” I say let them do it. They will look insane to swing voters. Insane. Go, Kevin, go. Throw that punch. ]

He won't. MAGA types may scream and holler at him to pull the trigger, but McCarthy knows what's at stake. And you don't hear always bellicose Trump prodding him on this, do you?

But, sure, let's see what these do-nothings do.

House Republicans have passed NO signature legislation since taking over after the 2020 election.

 Yeah, go ahead, boys.

We dare you...

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Waiting On The Booking Mug Shot?...You're Not The Only One...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Waiting, still waiting on a police booking mugshot of Donald J. Trump? Hang on, son. You may soon get it. That ranging indictment in Georgia is your great hope. The no-nonsense sheriff of Fulton County, where Trump will present himself, says Trump will not get the favored treatment he's had to date.

This from The New Republic magazine: [. . . Donald Trump has been indicted for a fourth time in Georgia - this time for helping to lead a "criminal racketeering enterprise" in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

This case is the first indictment where we may get a mugshot of the former president. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat promised earlier this month that Trump will be treated like anyone else accused of a crime and have his mugshot taken if indicted.

"Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you," Labat said.

In earlier indictments, Trump simply had his fingerprints taken.

But in Georgia, things are expected to be different. ]

So, the magazine decided to imagine what Trump’s mugshot could look like.

That's the rendering in the graphic you see above this post.

It is the scene in the movie we've come to expect but have yet to see.

The climax, yeah.

Or one of them in a coming series anyway...

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SUN RECORDS: Newsroom Jukebox - "Trees Lounge"...

SUN STORIES:..."When She Was Good"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Last night, the end of a long, lousy Tuesday, was the first time I thought about my departure. That surprised me. Can it have something to do with Elena, or with Maria Cristina, with Nancy, something to do with all three? Sure.

Without them, I'd likely be down the road on my novel and my free-lance writing. But they are what we know as the flavorings of Life - key, key, key ingredients to reconciling with the best reasons for breathing, for getting up in the morning and for believing time has meaning.

I know the day will come when I leave. I always knew that. No surprise there.

Still, losing Elena may have been part of the eventual end, but to lose her this way simply wasn't in the plot. I suppose I feel sorry for her husband, Johnny. No man deserves what she did, although maybe there's a good reason, one she may throw at me before it's all said and done. There was some upkeep to take care of in my old hotel room before I sat down with my bottle of wine.

Re-arranging my few shirts in the closet took all of maybe 30 seconds, and the clearing of books from the room's only shelf another minute or minute and a half. The bathroom sink needed a bit more elbow grease and I did change the sheets on the bed, really only because the reliable hotel staff had delivered my clean ones.

Windy rain loomed, according to the weather people on TV. That might help. Rain has a way of covering my bad moods. Some say the opposite, but, for me, rain, especially during the hot summer months, cleanses the sort of things that you have no answers for, like romance gone bad.

I shall miss sweet-as-honey Elena. She was too beautiful for me, yet there she was, there she came and there I went. Love tends to make a man do things he wouldn't otherwise do - like think. I think I genuinely loved her. My feelings still say that, still talk to me.

I can say it with complete conviction, me knowing that I was damned lucky to have met her.

Damned lucky...

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Last Taxi To TSC...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Ben Neece, perhaps the city's true Jack-of-all-Trades, wants in on the Texas Southmost College board politics? He's a well-known downtown musician, but that school gig, we say, would be Ben as The Lost Chord - the one musicians spend a lifetime seeking.

This city of way too many badly-placed people has seen him as a steady-hand municipal judge, as a fighting city commissioner, as a travelled coffee trader, as a singing nightclub troubadour, as a...you name it!

According to Jerry McHale, the city's indefatigable "All We Are Saying" blogger, Neece (shown in photo above) is seriously considering a run against incumbent J.J. De Leon, one of the least-known TSC trustees. Why Neece would do such a thing is still unknown, as he himself has not said a word about launching or running a campaign.

As the song says, "...the kids are alright," so we do wonder what exactly Neece would bring to local junior college education. These are the first two, formative years in college. Does Neece know about the best policies required for their success, or will he merely rubber-stamp the words and desires of Old Line Trustees Tony Zavaleta and Adela Garza?

It's not as if TSC is a bastion of major secondary education. It's a small school with a small student enrollment. And it exists in the big, wide shadow of larger, four-year UT-Rio Grande Valley. It does make you wonder. Local residents pay annual property taxes and part of their dues go to TSC.

One would think that students unable to compete at UT-RGV would be a signal to the local school district that their graduates are not cutting it in the real world. Remedial classes, they call it. Get your first two years at cheaper, easier TSC and then transfer those credits to UT-RGV.

Sounds too bureaucratic, the world of higher-ed smoke & mirrors, of departmental mumbo-jumbo.

The 67-year-old Ben Neece in that world?

The guy is a world sightseer with eclectic interests and ideas! He needs TSC like he needs a six-string guitar with a crooked neck (fretboard, frets, headstock). Put that tuneless idea back in the case, Ben. It's a loser.

Times are tough for all colleges. No one person has all the answers. Thankless politics on campus are no different than thankless politics at City Hall. The clock is much slower and the call to action rare. Look at Trustee Alejandra Alderete. What has she done since being initially elected during the last election? Few know even who she is! The TSC Trustee term is for six long, often boring years.

So, they lower tuition, as is the Board's main crowing. It affects such a small group of locals that the rest of the city's population can be excused for yawning in unison.

That's not for Ben Neece...

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Down To The Sunless Sea - Valley Republicans Shrug Off Trump's Indictments...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Not a whimper. Not a defense, either. But not a sound at all. As if it never happened, as if it's not happening. Local Republicans are in a mood for sheltering-in-place. That killer legal tornado grabbing their party's leader by the jowls and ears will only dissipate.

If only!

Going full-turtle is not a good optic for area Republicans. They should say something. They should defend Donald J. Trump or issue some namby-pamby comment about how the justice system will take its course. But they're not doing either of those. They're staying quiet.

Have they now resigned themselves to the idea that the facts have driven every one of these indictments now hanging off Trump's fleshy neck? It would appear so.

Potential candidate Carlos Cascos, shown in photo above, may or may not be staring at a run at the 34th Congressional District seat. He's left Trump to fend for himself, choosing instead to today praise schoolteachers on his active Facebook page.

Lesser candidate Laura E. Cisneros also stayed on the pundit sidelines. She is warbling taxes and specifically property taxes. Nothing on Trump or his legal troubles from her mouth. She's a medical doctor with a credible brain, yet she parks it in her air-conditioned living room. Well, she was a Democrat as recently as the last election. Miss Cisneros (shown in photo below, at left) is a candidate for the 34th Congressional District seat (held currently by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez).

Of course, keeping your mouth shut is every rookie's best move.

Another candidate for that same post is similarly nouveau Republican Mauro Garza, the best-known nobody from Raymondville these days. He has made nary an inroad in the race, his campaign somewhere between sleepy and comatose. Anything on Trump, Mauro?

Nothing.

The noisiest candidate, one Mayra Flores (shown in photo above, at right), also has gone mum, although her crowing against all-things-Democrat is well-known and will soon be the violin, kazoo and washboard musical soundtrack for a minor, black & white motion picture, starring herself as the weather. The protean Miss Flores yesterday and today assailed Democrats for the actions of all of these district attorneys and federal Department of Justice prosecutors. They're to blame for Trump's indictments, not Trump.    

But perhaps we're being a bit harsh here.

Then again, maybe we're not...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...Yes, we should acknowledge that it is the MAGA Republicans, like Mayra Flores, who should be defending criminal Trump. Traditional Republicans like Carlos Cascos should get real and say something...]

Weather Service Predicts Aggressive Hurricanes...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Get ready, get smart. Get Cameron County Commissioner Sofia Benavides out there with the sandbags. They're coming. More of them this season, more and more aggressive.

No, not migrants.

Hurricanes!

This from the national weather service: [ Chances of an aggressive Atlantic hurricane landing during the summer and fall season are now about 60%, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aug. 10 forecast - twice as likely as the agency's May forecast of 30%. NOAA said the increased likelihood of worse-than-average hurricanes is largely due to record hot ocean temperatures and slower than average development of El Niño conditions (which normally help lessen Atlantic hurricane activity). The agency also increased the overall number of Atlantic hurricanes it expects this year.

In a NOAA release last week from its Climate Prediction Center, hurricane forecaster Matthew Rosencrans urged hurricane-vulnerable communities to heed this advanced warning, saying "the updated outlook calls for more activity, so we encourage everyone to prepare now for the continuing season."

NOAA's outlook - which covers the six-month hurricane season ending Nov. 30, but doesn't predict specific landfall areas - is based on the average hurricane season: 14 storms big enough to get named, seven of which usually become hurricanes, with three of those becoming "major hurricanes." ]

In the latest forecast diagrams from the agency, NOAA predicts anywhere from 14 to 21 named storms compared to its May forecast of 12 to 17 storms. It now expects six to 11 hurricanes to develop from those storms, resulting in two to five major hurricanes.

It's been a long spell since the Rio Grande Valley got walloped by a sizable hurricane.

Hurricane Beulah sliced through here and headed up the Valley on Sept. 20, 1967. There have been minor ones nipping the Lower Valley and heading up the Texas Coast. Hurricane Harvey drowned cities and towns from Corpus Christi to Houston on August 25, 2017.

We're way overdue.

Be ready...

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Farmworker Asked About Paycheck...Farmer Slapped Him Across Face...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | They put food on your table. Every day, without fail. For low pay and tough working conditions. Long hours in the hot sun, employers who don't give a damn about the God-awful housing they provide. Employers who are slow to pay.

America's farmworkers.

And often, they get abused.

This about one such incident in Utah that happened last week: [ The president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, Ron B. Gibson, will take a leave of absence after allegedly assaulting an employee at Gibson’s farm in Weber County, Utah, on Aug. 8. Gibson is also under investigation for human trafficking and fraud following the incident, according to the Weber County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed by the employee, he and other co-workers had not been given their last four paychecks. They confronted Gibson about the matter, which led to a physical altercation.

A video released by KSL News shows Gibson, 50, telling an employee to "shut up" before hitting him in the face with the back of his hand. The injury required further medical attention, according to the police statement.

Gibson’s employees told KSL about unlivable conditions on the farm, where 14 people live in a house with the smell of urine and feces due to an overflowing septic tank. One worker said they work from morning till sundown, "while Ron goes on trips and adventures and [the workers] don’t have money to eat."

Gibson was booked into the Weber County Jail on one count of assault, but has since been released.

This was followed by a statement from the Utah Farm Bureau Federation announcing Gibson’s leave of absence "following an incident involving an employee on his farm."

In that same statement, Gibson apologized, stating, "I’m disappointed in myself. I have deep respect for the men and women willing to work on farms across America, including mine. I simply could not manage the farm without their help, and we wouldn’t have the abundance we do in this country without them."

Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers, shared a statement on the incident: ". . . .This situation is disturbing and unfortunately not that uncommon. The courage of these workers is remarkable. They clearly are facing retaliation including physical violence but they’re still working to hold this man accountable. This man is the head of the Utah Farm Bureau. He is supposed to be a leader in his community - but the only ones showing leadership are the workers brave enough to stand up to him. People who abuse the workers who feed this country should face the harshest penalties possible." ]

The name of the abused farmworker was not given.

Not paid in four weeks? That's enough of a reason to go asking why not.

The employer wasn't taking questions. He told him to "shut up" and then hit him across the face.

But there will be fruits and veggies for dinner...

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SUN RECORDS: Newsroom Jukebox - "Tú Ya No Soplas"...

Another Week, Another Indictment For Donald J. Trump...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Yes, him. The familiar guy whose noggin we see from behind in photo above. One Donald J. Trump. He was indicted again yesterday, for the fourth time, this time in Georgia. Yes, it was expected. Had been expected for months now.

But now we know the particulars.

This indictment pointedly alleges Trump orchestrated a criminal enterprise, committing more than a dozen felonies, as he tried and failed to overturn his defeat in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. According to an indictment handed up Monday by a Fulton County grand jury, the filing also lodged charges against 18 of Trump’s allies. They presumably helped him spread false conspiracy theories and repeatedly strong-arm top state officials as he tried to cling to power.

The 41-count, 98-page indictment said Trump and his co-defendants refused to accept the fact that Trump lost in Georgia. But "they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose."

It marks the second time this August the former president has been indicted for interfering in the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Pundits are noting that the Georgia case is far different because it also charges a large cast of alleged accomplices – from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former state Republican Party chairman David Shafer.

Also charged: state Sen. Shawn Still; attorneys John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Bob Cheeley, Ray Smith III and Kenneth Chesebro; former assistant U.S. attorney general Jeffrey Clark; former Coffee County GOP chairwoman Cathy Latham; Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall; former Coffee County elections director Misty Hampton; GOP strategist Michael Roman; publicist Trevian Kutti; Illinois pastor Stephen Cliffguard Lee; and Harrison Floyd, who briefly ran for a suburban Atlanta U.S. House seat before serving as director of Black Voices for Trump.

These charges, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, are the culmination of a 2 1/2-year criminal investigation launched by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis shortly after Trump’s leaked Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Brad Raffensperger, during which he asked the Georgia secretary of state to “find” him 11,780 votes.

This is a biggie.

Trump has called it part of a government witch hunt, and lately has been saying it's just a way to keep him out of the 2024 presidential election. That's a farfetched accusation, but he keeps making it.

Lindsey Graham, the Republican U.S. Senator from South Carolina, yesterday went on FOX News to say the case should be dropped. "The American people should decide at the ballot box whether Donald Trump is president or not," Graham said.

Irony of irony, Lindsey.

The thing is voters decided it in 2020...and Trump refused to accept the result...

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Cruz, Abbott Out Of 2024 Presidential Race:...Good!!!...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Rafael Edward Cruz, better-known as Ted Cruz, the annoying, smarmy U.S. Senator from Texas, won't be a part of the Republican Party's 2024 presidential clown show. Not this time.

And neither will another Texan who'd sort of made an effort by acting like a Lone Star State version of Donald J. Trump - Greg Abbott, the governor.

Cruz has told the news media he's out; Abbott likely is glad he never entered the nomination process. For him, it is too late.

Earlier this year, Cruz told supporters on a call that he will be running for reelection in 2024 and will not seek the Republican nomination for president. "I'm on the ballot in 2024," he said recently, according to the Houston Chronicle. "I'm running for re-election."

Abbott, meanwhile, just won reelection last year. There are those who have been saying that much of the tough-guy posturing from him has come in anticipation of a run for president. But the 65-year-old, wheelchair-bound Republican has been mum. He's been governor since 2015 and likely likes the job.

Cruz, at age 52, has time to go for it again later on. He has not quite been the "busy legislator type," as Cruz-sponsored bills are rare and far between. More often than not, he has been a joke and punching bag for the press.

Plus, he no doubt remembers the whipping he (and his wife, Heidi) got at the hands of then-candidate Trump in the 2016 race. It was then, for one, that Cruz heard Trump call his wife ugly. There was no meaningful reply in defending her honor from the Cuban-American Cruz.

It'll be interesting if Abbott gets a looksee for vice-president, however.

But, sure, you do wonder if he'd take that thankless, second-banana job. Look at what it tends to do to those who do take it.

Just ask Mike Pence...

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Getting Older In The Rio Grande Valley:...No Respect...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Where are they? Where are the gray-haired learned leaders, the wise elders, the steady-the-ship ones who got us to this point? Who knows, but they are not being very public.

Oh, you can see a few at IHOP or Denny's at breakfast.

But they are not overly-active in local politics. Young people have taken over and are now in charge. The mayors of the Rio Grande Valley's Big 3 cities - McAllen, Harlingen and Brownsville - are relatively young leaders, all under 55 years of age.

Cameron County has a young sheriff, a Democrat who beat out an 84-year-old Democrat (now-deceased Omar Lucio) for the right to challenge a Republican for the post. He (Eric Garza) won that one, too.

About the only "older" sitting politician around here is Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, who is a far-gone 80. He's a thoughtful public servant, although he did make public comments about making a move at Disneyworld - drawing it from Florida, in other words, following strong anti-Disney efforts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to change the theme park's tax contract with the Sunshine State.

Beyond that, in smaller towns from Rio Grande City in western Starr County to Brownsville in the RGV's far east, it is the young leading the way.

Has the Valley forsaken its elders?

Perhaps the entire RGV social strata has done that. Where once, the elders were revered and enlisted for leadership, they are now forgotten, afterthoughts in a fast-moving world. 

I see it.

You likely do, as well...

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Ivana Trump's Unattended Grave:...Groundskeeper Up!!!...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Sometimes you just have to let her go. In the case of Donald J, Trump's first wife, Ivana, that includes her gravesite. The so-called billionaire buried his wife at one of his golf courses and it now appears that weeds and grass have overgrown the grave.

This from a report at themessenger.com: [ The lonely grave of Donald Trump's first of three wives at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey is showing little care or attention, recent photos attest.

Ivana Trump, mother of the former president's three eldest children, was buried in the plot just over a year ago after she was found dead following a fall down the stairs of her New York townhouse. The death was ruled accidental.

She was 73 when she died, and was Trump's wife from 1977 to 1990. She divorced him after he began an affair with better-looking Marla Maples, who would become Trump's second wife.

Ivana Trump's grave not far from the golf clubhouse and behind the first tee is the only one on the 502-acre grounds of Trump National Bedminster. ]

Trump's second and third wives - Maples and Melania - are still alive.

There has been no comment from Trump on this one...

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Ron DeDummy...Wants To Attack Mexico Now...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | All but done, is what they're saying about ditzy Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his slumping presidential campaign. And yesterday, he went looking for an issue that sounded about right for Republican residents of Midwest Iowa, where he is seeking voter support.

The issue: Attack the Mexican cartels with U.S. military force.

He's not the first one to say that, but DeSantis is struggling mightily to remain relevant in the 2024 Election stab against frontrunner - and thrice-indicted - Donald J. Trump. He recently rebooted by firing one campaign manager and hiring another.

Wife Casey had been the attention-getter of late, but now she's pretty much vanished. Perhaps Ron felt she was getting too much on the good side of the national press. Who knows? There are those who say this particular campaign is in disarray, a cool word for shambles, disastrous, chaos and a mess.

Can he recover?

Early polls show him second behind Trump and ahead of a host of lesser Republicans in the hunt for the GOP nomination. DeSantis has, however, qualified for the August 23rd candidate debate, the one Trump is saying he will not attend. Hopefully, 77-year-old Trump will be on his psychiatrist's couch, as all anger, hilarity and threats coming from him tells us he is really a dude begging, screaming and angling for an intervention.

But DeSantis is still there, as they say in songs about our national flag.

Trouble in politics, I suppose, is a matter of opinion. He is doing his best in squeezing farm-tired hands and aging, slumping rubbing backs on the Iowa corn-on-the-cob trail. Perhaps he knows he can't blow it worse than ex-Republican President Gerald Ford when being handed real Iowa grub. Ford visited San Antonio once, was handed a wrapped tamale and proceeded to munch into it cornhusk and all. Go ahead, Ron - have that offering of Iowa Scotcheroos! Yeah, eat it with your fingers! Ha ha ha.

But we're here on that stuff about attacking our neighboring ally, Mexico.

Really, Ron?

Donald J. Trump has said something similar in the past, as has Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. Yes, we know, it's a handy political issue, but, always, an empty threat. First Mexico, then Canada - is that the plan?

DeSantis would do better for himself by mentioning domestic issues, things and services Americans need and want, like a curb on inflation and what that does to pocketbook issue such as groceries and household bills, gasoline and taxes. Fix that first. Mexico and the uncooperative cartels can wait.

Plus, Ron, you haven't said a word about drug use here in the states. You know, the addicted Fentanyl user - the Americans buying the drugs you say come from the Mexican cartels? And what do you say about the opioid mess in the Appalachian region, the one decimating entire little mining towns? Haven't heard your take on that, Ron.

Illegal drugs are a major problem in the U.S., but, hey, let's lob some missiles somewhere.

That always gets the voters, great patriots that they are, energized like nothing else.

Expect Ron DeSantis to shift to another excitable issue later today. And to another tomorrow. And so on and on and on. 

He's got nothing...

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THE SUNRISER:...A Sunday Feature...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McAllen, Texas | Keep him out of politics. Yes, him, the Almighty. God. He's not a Democrat; he's not a Republican. He's God. The highest paygrade, yes. The Eternal Father.

It's Sunday and we've had our fill of religion, at least for one more week.

Discussions continue across our grass-whorled country, especially about our ongoing presidential political season. It seems endless already, doesn't it. Where's Moses?

The Evangelical Right desperately wants religion in our national politics. They pay for certain politicians and they want things angled their way. Abortion is a no-no for them. Same for adultery and gambling and coveting the best friend's wife.

Unfortunately, human beings are a very flawed biology. They will cheat, gamble and abort, if it suits the family. They may say they don't do openly it, but they do it. You know it and I know it. What's our divorce rate again - 63%? Ho hum, sure. How much has Las Vegas grown in the last 20 years? Too much. Is abortion on the verge of extinction? Ha ha ha ha ha. No.

Abortion will be back, kids. Politics is cyclical. The swing of the Pendulum ring a bell?

Noise chasing a presidential campaign always follows the attention-grabbing schtick. You say abortion and the other guy will say anti-abortion. It's a cheap, low-rent game, I know. How else to forge a candidacy, though? Can you simply go out there, say you're a Republican and go on about every American being equal and having the same brain? No. Not these days.

You have to talk wedge issues. Rednecks in currently hot Iowa want to hear candidates differentiate Americans in the manner that they do. Blacks? We don't have too many Blacks in Iowa. Hispanics? Even less of those cockroaches. Tell me about how great we are, Ron. Tell me about how we built this great country, Donald. Tell me we're America, not that New Mexico.

And tell me you're a God-fearing religious man.

Tell me you have and read the Bible. You and the Little Woman at bedtime. You read it together, at times with your kids. It's the Great Difference-Maker. It's what tells us you're one of us, and not one for them, too.

I love my God. And I hate how he's being used and abused by these shallow, flawed mortals. They don't really care about God's teachings. They want to erase history, the same history we offer God as our years on his planet. What slavery, they say aloud. Slaves benefitted from slavery. God heard that, and he wasn't happy.

But they keep at it. They stay with the blatant lies and with the racism and the bigotry. Stay with it openly! You'd think that, as good and practicing Christians, they'd know who's watching them. I know. They don't care. They don't care because they fully believe that their God agrees with everything they're saying and doing.

Do an "origin" search on the last name of DeSantis and have one last laugh... 

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Fires In Maui...Idyllic Lahaina In Ash Gray...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | We've stayed up with the news coming out of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands, but have waited for additional and better info that is coming, but is coming slowly. As of today, officials at the scene say 93 residents of the tiny island have died in those hellish runaway fires.

The lovely tourist town of Lahaina, popularized in "The Last Resort" by The Eagles, is no more. Photos of the coastal town show a cremated landscape in ash gray.

Maui is the island located between Oahu (Honolulu) and the larger island of Hawaii.

According to 2020 statistical data on Wikipedia, Maui's population was 165,386. Like many islands, it lives by way of tourism, its population ballooning during the summer vacation months. Indeed, many of those believed dead are people being reported as missing or unaccounted-for by relatives in the U.S. Mainland.

The fires began early last week in the hillsides overlooking Maui, the spread coming steadily and slowly toward the populated area. Large acreage of trees and brush overgrowth fueled the unabated spread. Police officials reported finding charred bodies inside burned-out vehicles along the road leading into and out of Lahaina.

The mayor of Lahaina was quoted as saying the death toll given to the press is of people found outside local buildings. Evidence of bodies burned to a crisp (cremated, really) is expected to be found once experts can enter the still smoldering area.

The disaster is being described as the worst in decades.

President Joe Biden today said the full force of disaster aid for Hawaii is forthcoming. He has not said whether he will go to the island anytime soon, although it may be too early in the recovery process. News reports had it TV star Oprah Winfrey was in Maui to help with financial aid. She is said to own property on the island. Actor Jason Momoa also was on the scene.

Amazon zillionaire Jeff Bezos has pledged $100 million to aid in the rebuilding.

Meanwhile, search and recovery teams are using cadaver dogs to help find those missing and the increasing possibility of more deceased victims.

So far, crews have not searched inside buildings, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said Friday. The deaths in Lahaina confirmed as of Friday afternoon likely happened outdoors as people were trying to escape flames, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told reporters.

"Without a doubt, there will be more fatalities. We do not know, ultimately, how many will have occurred," said Green, noting that officials should have a better idea of that within days. An early estimate of the cost for rebuilding is being given as $5.52 billion.

We looked for but could find no words for Lahaina or Maui from any of the Republican Party's candidates for president.

Life is for the living, is what they'd probably say...

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Talk Of The Town:...Evander Holyfield In Harlingen...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

HARLINGEN, Texas | Who can forget heavyweight boxer Evander Holyfield's toughest fights? He left the sport in June 2014, leaving with a record of 44-10-2. But that bloody fight against Iron Mike Tyson - Wow! Tyson even bit off a piece of Holyfield's ear.

That one came June 28, 1997. Tyson was disqualified.

Well, ringside fans, guess who arrived in Harlingen the other day: Evander Holyfield!

This from Mayor Norma Sepulveda's Facebook page (she is shown in photos with Holyfield, up top and at right): [ It was truly an honor and privilege to welcome Evander Holyfield, the “Real Deal” to the City of Harlingen! 

Evander is the only professional fighter to win the heavyweight championship four times, surpassing Muhammad Ali’s three times! He will be our special guest this evening at the RGV Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony being held at the Harlingen Convention Center! ]

We join in welcoming the champ to the fights-loving Rio Grande Valley.

But, to us and to most true boxing fans, Ali is still The Greatest.

You know it...

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RATS!!!: Abbott's Busing Of Migrants Is Working...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Just when you thought you were dog-tired of using damning words against heartless Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, along comes word that his kinda-devious plan of sending migrants to New York and California is...working.

And now, Paul Revere's Massachusetts has joined the howling chorus asking President Joe Biden to, well, do something about the southern border.

Oddly, as Abbott and fellow GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continue chartering overland buses to hustle migrants off to Democratic Party-governed cities and states, the number of apprehended migrants keeps dropping, according to officials with the U.S. Border Patrol. How to reconcile that?

It's a flawed plan Abbott and DeSantis spin sillily in that, well, we're not either alleviating or ridding ourselves of the problem when we shuffle it to one of our own other 50 states. 

But as an effective political wedge issue, the darned thing is doing what Abbott and DeSantis want it to do - pressure Democrats. The president, a Democrat, hasn't taken the bait, however.

Yesterday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat (shown in photo at right), did implore Biden to come to the aid of the cities being forced to absorb the thousands of arriving migrants. She joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams, another Democrat but one who has of late taken a harsher approach to the situation in The Big Apple, more and more mouthing Republican platitudes about the southern border.

This excerpt from politico.com: [ "Democratic governors and mayors, mayors in Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, here in New York, El Paso, Brownsville, all of the mayors have been saying that this is a national problem, and we need national leadership," Adams said at a press conference in Manhattan.

"We all should be talking about this in a very real way. And there was a moment that I felt, as though, was I the only one that was seeing this? ... I was asking myself, are we the only ones that are seeing what’s happening to human beings?"

Gov. Healey and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have made private entreaties and public pleas to Biden administration officials for faster work authorization. Massachusetts’ all-Democratic federal delegation sent a letter to top Biden immigration officials last week urging them to expedite processing employment authorization documents for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

In New York City, where asylum-seekers are sleeping on sidewalks outside a makeshift intake center, Adams is again blaming the White House for not sending enough federal aid to the city that’s seen more than 93,000 newcomers since last spring.

So far, the Biden administration has barely budged on the politically thorny issue, saying the national immigration problem requires a congressional solution. ]

It may, although there has to be a way other than strapping ourselves with cheap, hardly-eclectic gamesmanship of the sort Abbott and DeSantis offer.

Immigration is and always has been a responsibility of the federal government. Southern Border states run by Republicans such as Texas and Arizona (California and New Mexico governed by Democrats not so much) are now using the issue for political gain. Fair or honest or not, the game is being played. Americans have come to care, is our feeling at this point.

And crafty Republicans are making points with the overall citizenry. No question about that. Shallow, often-wrong issues tend to do that with an otherwise-busy population. Buses not branded Greyhound rolling down the highway draw attention, as they do when they pull into a city's downtown sidewalk and unload poor-looking passengers.

The issue needs to be resolved.

Showman Abbott likes to crow endlessly about "Biden's Open Border" policy, but he governs Texas and, so far, Texas itself has failed to stop the flow of however-fewer number of immigrants still coming...

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