MEXICO:...Southern Neighbor To Get 1st Female President...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

MATAMOROS, Mexico | Mexico cracking the political glass ceiling for women? Mexico, and not the supposedly more-advanced United States of America, the home of the brave and the land of the free? Well, yeah. Mexico's a happening place these days.

It will elect its first woman president next year.

Bank it.

That's the ruling party's (Morena) candidate in photo above. Her name is Claudia Sheinbaum.

This from politico.com: [ The former mayor of Mexico City will be the dominant ruling party’s presidential candidate, moving the country closer to electing its first female president next year.

The decision driven by polls of Morena party members means that Claudia Sheinbaum will run as the party’s candidate in the June election. Mexico’s constitution bars outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador from a second six-year term.

Morena national council president Alfonso Durazo said Sheinbaum beat former Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard by double figures in five party surveys.

Sheinbaum is a close ally of the popular López Obrador and as Morena’s candidate she will enjoy a distinct advantage in June.

". . .I’m excited," Sheinbaum said, thanking each of her competitors by name with the exception of Ebrard who was not present. "I feel very proud, very honored" to have been part of this movement since its inception.

Last week, a broad opposition coalition selected female lawmaker Xóchitl Gálvez as its candidate. ]

Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, was hit with the criticism earlier this year that she is not Mexican enough, but she fielded that deftly by saying, "I am more Mexican than menudo."

She's a do'er and a toughie.

The odds of winning the Mexican presidency are definitely in her favor, says this observer...

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BORDER:...Federal Judge Tells Abbott To Remove Buoys...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Well, they didn't stick around long. We speak of those Cheeto-colored buoys Texas Gov. Greg Abbott set up in the Rio Grande near the city of Eagle Pass to keep migrants out of the Lone Star State. A federal judge has ordered them moved away from the middle of the river.

This from The Associated Press: [ . . .A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas to move a large floating barrier to the bank of the Rio Grande after protests from the U.S. and Mexican governments over Republican Gov. Abbott’s latest tactic to stop migrants from crossing America’s southern border.

The not-all-that-surprising decision by U.S. District Judge David Ezra is a victory for President Joe Biden’s administration, which sued after Texas put the wrecking ball-sized buoys on the water in early July as part of a sprawling border security mission known as Operation Lone Star. The judge said the state must move the barrier by Sept. 15.

The barrier threatens provisions of a treaty between U.S. and Mexico, wrote Ezra, who also cast doubt on its effectiveness.

"The State of Texas did not present any credible evidence that the buoy barrier as installed has significantly curtailed illegal immigration across the Rio Grande River," Ezra wrote.

Abbott said Texas would appeal. ]

Judge Ezra said a little bit more, as quoted in a report published by the Washington Examiner: [ "Defendants and anyone working on their behalf are enjoined and hereby prohibited from building new or placing additional buoys, blockades, or structures of any kind in the Rio Grande River pending final judgment in this matter," Ezra wrote.

"Defendants shall, by September 15, reposition, at Defendants’ expense, and in coordination with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, all buoys, anchors, and other related materials composing the ... floating barrier placed by Texas in the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas to the bank of the Rio Grande on the Texas side of the river," he added. ]

Republican Border Mogul Abbott can appeal from here to Kingdom Come but those buoys will not return. There's this thing called international politics and Abbott is a loser there. The U.S. will honor Mexico's request and Abbott can lump it, is what the judge is telling him.

Boy, this was short-lived.

Those lame-ass buoys were installed only weeks ago.

It's just added proof that Abbott's Border Madness has been a miserable failure...

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SUN MOVIES:..."The Lover"...

CAMERON COUNTY:...Lose The Hats & Mustaches, Boys...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Can we lose the hats and mustaches? That would be a big improvement in law enforcement around here. Put a badge on a local dude and he thinks he's Wyatt Earp. But it doesn't work. As with expensive suits & ties, the Mexican male just can't pull it off. They look awkwardly lost, as if dressed by some assimilation warrior.

The feller you see in photo above is Cameron County sheriff's candidate Jesus Rosas Jr. (shown in photo above and at his desk at work below).

He is likely an okay guy. His law enforcement experience is notable.

But that "look" blows it. Why not simply look "professional." You know clean-cut, shaved and no dumb cowboy hat. What is this, Night of The Vato Rodeo?

We're agonizing about which candidate we may support for this job. Incumbent Sheriff Eric Garza has his flaws and problems, but nothing scandalous. We're leaning in his direction. But he, too, has that Border Vaquero image in his head. Lose the dumb hat!

This is something wildly peculiar as a Rio Grande Valley offering to area voters. Candidates do seem to want to separate themselves on issues and manner of campaigning, but they dress like slobs. Weight (an excess of pounds) tends to get in the way, we know. That and a lack of or graying hair. Hats on men look stupid in 2023. Cowboy hats even more if you're not some actual ranch hand out in West Texas, where the hat is utilitarian and not just for looks.

So far, the only Cameron County candidate not going the Pancho Pistolas route is Ronnie Saenz, but we're early in the campaigning and he may yet get over to Walmart and plunk down $15/$20 for a cheap hat.

The mustache says what?

Gillette, the maker of razor blades, says a mustache is "a great way to show a little personality via your face." Eh. The thin mustaches look like pencil art and the thick ones like those ugly big, fat caterpillars. Over the upper lip, they look like misplaced armpit hair. Adult men of the mid-1800s did it better, and that era is where mustaches should remain. In the Valley, they are as common as fat bellies. That is not necessarily a good thing. Public officials should clean up their act, it says here.

Even Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra (see photo below) fell for that hat & 'stache look.

The word in the streets and cantinas here is that Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz set the mustache in vogue here almost a decade ago. He rarely wears a cowboy hat, but that wolverine-lookalike mustache he sports is straight out of GQ Magazine.

We're not going to harp too much about this, but we will say that we're normally more impressed with public officials and politicians who are not fashion moochers, who have the inner strength to simply be themselves.

Longshot sheriff's candidate Jesus Rosas Jr looks weird in his bald head and mustache, as would most bald men out for mustaches.

That may or may not explain the cowboy hat.

But if it does, that means he has issues with himself - and voters will nose that out pronto...

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FAT CITY:...Scatterbrained Broads For Trump...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, now that it looks as if oft-indicted Donald J. Trump will be the Republican Party's saddled horse in the 2024 presidential election race, well, who's in line to serve as his dummy vice president?

Mike Pence again? Naaaaaaaaah. Too boring.

Sara Huckabee Sanders, the Republican governor of Arkansas? Nope. Too ugly.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the candidate sensation of the moment? Never. Too dark.

Then we found this at rollingstone.com: [ At some point in the near future, Trump is going to have to pick a 2024 running mate and would-be VP, and while we now know that this specific job includes responsibilities like "being okay with the boss calling you a pussy," "rolling with the punches when the boss’s supporters threaten to hang you," and "understanding that, from time to time, the boss will blame you for his insurrections," there are, somehow, still people who actually want it. Badly!

Rolling Stone magazine reports that conservative nightmares Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kari Lake are currently in a "death race" to be named Trump's 2024 VP, a job that we again must emphasize involves working for a guy who thinks nothing of siccing his blood-thirsty followers on individuals he’s mad at. 

While the women have kept it civil in public, the outlet reports, "behind the scenes, the two view one another with intense distrust and disdain, each seeing the other as direct competition for Trump’s political affections," according to several people familiar with the matter. Viewing Lake as a direct threat for the gig, Greene has reportedly "gone beyond simple attempts to raise her own profile in the ongoing Trump veepstakes," and has recently taken to “trash-talking” the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate to "to others in the MAGA elite, political circles, and conservative media, multiple." (Last spring, People magazine revealed that in an effort to win the VP nod, Lake had practically moved into Mar-a-Lago, and was spending more time there than Melania Trump, a.k.a. the ex-president’s wife.) ]

Both of these chicks are ditzy as all get-out.

We say Trump will pick some dude (like the one in the photo at left), because, well, he has shown himself to be a person so weak and lame inside that he always wants to take it out on another man. That's his powerplay. Those who know him know it.

Kari Lake is damaged goods. She lost her last election for governor last November and is said to be considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by flighty Kyrsten Sinema, the one who left the Democratic Party earlier this year and went Independent.

High-neck Congresswoman Taylor Greene is a Georgia snake. Her accomplishments in the House are exactly zero, but she has the skewed brain cells to always be able to come up with some dumbass inanity and have the entire country laugh at her. As Veep, she would drive Trump nuts, even more than he is at present.

But we would most certainly love to see these two broads in a political catfight.

Wait, no, better would be a real bitch-slapping, hair-pulling fist fight...

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS:...Proud Boys Tough Guy Gets 22 Years In Prison...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Everybody knows exactly what is wrong with our republic. But every now and then, something unfolds just right. Like yesterday, when the tough-talking leader of the January 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection got his upbraiding in court.

Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, the 39-year-old rebel shown in photo above, looked up at the federal judge to hear him say the next 22 years of his life will be spent behind bars.

Yes, he gambled on revolution and lost. As The Eagles sang, "every form of refuge has its price."

This from axios.com: [ Tarrio's sentencing caps one of the highest-profile prosecutions related to the Capitol riot, and his is the longest sentence handed down in the Jan. 6 cases. The previous highest sentencing record related to Jan. 6 was held by Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May.

Tarrio, from Miami, was found guilty in May of seditious conspiracy related to Jan. 6, alongside other Proud Boys members. Prosecutors had sought a 33-year sentence for him. Tarrio wasn't at the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot because he was arrested days earlier for vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church in D.C. in 2020.

However, prosecutors have argued that Tarrio maintained command over Proud Boys members after his arrest and cheered on the group as its members stormed the Capitol. Prosecutors also noted Tarrio took credit for the riot on behalf of the group.

"No organization put more boots on the ground at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, than the Proud Boys, and they were at the forefront of every major breach of the Capitol's defenses, leading the on-the-ground efforts to storm the seat of government," said Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, in a statement.

"The leaders of the Proud Boys and the leaders of the Oath Keepers, who conspired before, during, and after the siege of the Capitol to use force against their own government to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, have now been held accountable." ]

It was a steady string of victories in court by the dogged federal prosecutors, although the FBI is still looking for others who may not have led but who participated in the day's vandalism of the Capitol Building.

Most have begged for leniency in court, some have cried, and some have invoked children and family as reasons to stay out of prison, but judges have for the most part been tough on these outlaws.

The crazy other part of all this is that more than one who received a prison sentence has said they firmly believe Donald J. Trump will pardon them if he gets elected president next year.

Good luck with that, boys...

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MONEY:...Mexico's Humble Peso Rises...Hurts Citizens...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

MATAMOROS, Mexico | Sending money to family in Mexico? Good for you, but that dollar is not worth as much to them as it was, say, a year ago. The exchange rate today is 17.35 pesos to one dollar, and it has dropped below 17 pesos several times this summer.

The news is bad for Mexicans.

Millions of dollars make it south of the border on payday every week, as Mexicans working in the U.S. forward those remittances to Mom and the wife and kids without fail. It is part of the country's economy, amounting to billions on an annual basis.

This excerpt from the Los Angeles Times about a time (two-plus years ago) when things were better: [ But that was before the dawn of the "super-peso," as the Mexican currency has been dubbed since steadily gaining 18% on the dollar during the last 12 months.

The peso’s emergence as one of the world’s mightiest currencies has prompted boasts from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But there has been no celebration among the millions of Mexicans who rely on steady remittances. ]

A weaker dollar means fewer pesos to buy livestock, food, gasoline, home construction supplies, appliances and other necessities, or pay for celebratory quinceañeras, marriages and funerals.

It is one of those good & bad stories, for while Mexico can boast that its currency is gaining, its citizens are the ones also paying a price.

Last Spring, the exchange rate was at 20.11 pesos for every dollar. In 2021, it was 20.29 pesos for every one dollar. In 2020, it was 21.48.

The $100 you sent in 2020 got your relatives 2,148 pesos.

With today's exchange rate, those same $100 gets them only 1,735 pesos.

It may not seem like much, but it is a meaningful devaluation...

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TRIALS:...Republican A.G. Paxton Loses Round One...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It started this morning with a loss for embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He's being impeached, as pretty much all of you know. At least, you should know. The 60-year-old Paxton has not been a good boy.

His Republican pals in the Texas Legislature want him gone.

Today was Day One of his trial in the Texas Senate.

This from dailybeast.com: [ Paxton was dealt a major blow on the first day of his impeachment trial, with the state’s Republican-majority Senate refusing to throw out any of the 20 articles of impeachment brought against him.

Paxton filed a pretrial motion to have his charges thrown out before proceedings began, requiring senators to hold a vote today. Those votes gave the first indication of where senators stood ahead of trial, and the results didn’t bode well for Paxton, who’s accused of using his office to call in special favors for a big-bucks donor.

The most support a motion received was 10 out of 30 state senators - well short of the required majority vote needed, despite 19 senators being Republicans like Paxton.

The votes mean Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial will continue as scheduled. House impeachment managers, who gave their opening statements today, are trying to convince at least 21 senators that Paxton should be removed from office. ]

Present at the public whipping was Paxton's wife, Angela, a state senator, herself. She, however, was just another curious onlooker as she has been barred from voting on her husband's fate.

No comment came on the day's proceedings from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

His deafening silence on the matter has been read as indicating no support for Paxton...

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TACO TUESDAY:...Bellying Up To The Salad Bar...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | What does it take for a friend to block you on Facebook? We're hip to the roiling of the abdominal gases, but we were rather surprised when the age-old blogger Jerry McHale pushed us off his FB page after we left a smarmy comment about the dude you see in that photo above.

His name is Abel somebody, an obscure constable somewhere within the bottomless abyss of Cameron County constables. (Editor's Note: In earlier version of this post, we had him in Port Isabel and not in Brownsville; a keen-eyed reader corrected us.)

Anyway, El Jerry had posted the photo with the caption that said Abel was "seeking reelection". We amended that to say Abel should be "seeking weight reduction" and there we went, quickly shunned aside over that little nothing.

Later, in a text message, El Jerry sent us an explanation, of sorts: He said we were "undermining" his agenda.  

We deduced that Abelardo was paying For-Hire Blogger McHale to post good news and things about him, like that he'd soon be up for National Constable of The Decade. The amended caption we wrote perhaps sent Abel on some Border Tizzy of the sort only minor politicians can ever comprehend. You think?

I know. Who cares?

But it quickly became a prime candidate for Taco Tuesday, our weekly feature to do with the minutiae of "Life In This Rio Grande Valley".

We would have loved to be able to tell you who Abel's opponent is in his reelection, but we passed on wasting our time looking for that info online. We'll keep tabs on El Jerry's voltaic blog. Sooner, rather than later, he'll identify Abel's nemesis and start bashing him. Then we'll know.

Yes, the cheap drill we've known for all these Blog Years around here. Ho Hum, indeed.

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What's the latest from New Republican Laura E, Cisneros? Anything? She threw herself whole-hog into the upcoming 34th Congressional District 2024 race and then...vanished. We have spent some time looking around for any and all info that may have come from her camp (does she even have a camp?). Nothing. Like the Big Nada.

Miss Cisneros was a Democrat only a few weeks back.

But now she's with the party out to bring a revolution to our streets, to our schools, to our border, to our colleges (watch out TSC!), to our elections, to our damned way of living. I know. It's a helluva reach for this woman, who is reportedly an oncologist (one who diagnoses and treats tumors, cancerous too)

I dunno. I look at her and I see a woman more the image of someone good at baking pies.

Politics? Never in a million years would I have guessed that Laura E. Cisneros knew much about our Congress. Quick, Laura, how many members in the House of Representatives?

Yeah.

-0-

Any news on Brownsville's Eternal Promise of building shelters for poor passengers along its many bus routes?

No.

Okay. Bus shelters, like the notorious Border Wall, remain nothing more than a political wedge issue in town, one always there to be pulled out of the hat by chortling-behind-the-scene bloggers and all those Bozos at City Hall.

Meanwhile, the sun blisters, the air-conditioned buses roll, and the poor riders perspire like Pachuco-beaten dogs...

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Former City Commissioner Ben Neece has not said one word about rumors he is about to make a trek up the local 10-foot-tall educational mountain and seek a seat on the fan-cooled Texas Southmost College Board of Trustees. To bring you facts, we checked with both the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame and the Texas Bar.

Nothing there.

There was a spark of sorts when another Brownsville blogger blogging from (get this!) cornpone Iowa posted something about TSC board power Tony Zavaleta about to "kick ass," so we surmised that Tony was moving campus earth and speed bumps to bring Ben aboard as easily and with as little effort as possible.

You know, like how he got Delia Saenz on the Board.

Yeah.

Come on, Ben. As a local celebrity, you're bigger than Tony!...

-0-

Boy, we could go on and on and on and on with Taco Tuesday material. But we're late for breakfast at my favorite restaurant, so we'll clip it here.

Tune in next Tuesday when you'll hear All-World Constable Abel rag us for bringing up that McHale Blog dust-up, which really wasn't about some miles-wide dust devil but about some Valley dude looking too chubby for a law enforcement uniform.

We're forever critical, but that's what Taco Tuesday is about here at The Sun.

Keep on chooglin'...

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DER BORDER WALL: - Mexico Installs Piece of The Berlin Wall At U.S. Border...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | A few days back, we made mention that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's next move against the influx of migrants across the Rio Grande might include buying the Berlin Wall for erection along the state's border with Mexico.

Well, Mexico did it first.

This from The Associated Press: [ As the U.S. government built its latest stretch of border wall, Mexico made a statement of its own by laying remains of the Berlin Wall a few steps away in Tijuana. The 3-ton pockmarked, gray concrete slab sits between a bullring, a lighthouse and the border wall, which extends into the Pacific Ocean.

"May this be a lesson to build a society that knocks down walls and builds bridges," reads the inscription below the towering Cold War relic, attributed to Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero and titled, "A World Without Walls."

For Caballero, like many of Tijuana’s 2 million residents, the U.S. wall is personal and political, a part of the city’s fabric and a fact of life. She considers herself a migrant, having moved from the southern Mexico city of Oaxaca when she was 2 with her mother, who fled "the vicious cycle of poverty, physical abuse and illiteracy."

The installation opened Aug. 13 at a ceremony with Caballero and Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s former foreign secretary who is now a leading presidential candidate. ]

Apparently, the fabled and hated Berlin Wall separating East from West Germany, has been sold in pieces, to collectors, business owners and foreign countries. As something to breed conversation, it is being said.

Well, that ugly fence can now be said to be part of America's Border Wall fiasco, even if it is on the Mexican side.

We keep wondering what Republican Gov. Abbott will do next, now that his buoys and razor wire fencing have been a dismal failure.

Will he place a bid for sections of the Great Wall of China?

Hey, Abbott's acting as if anything and everything is on the table to stop the massive migrant invasion that isn't even an invasion...

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DECISIONS, 2024:...Why Cascos Needed To Run...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | It gave Mayra Flores the only Republican Primary win she needed. She will be the GOP's nominee in that race against Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in November, 2024. Miss Flores will thank her God, as is her way, but she should also thank fellow Republican Carlos Cascos, who bowed out of the race late last week.

We still say all it would have taken for Cascos to beat her would have been one debate.

A battle between Cascos and Gonzalez would have been the one for the 34th Congressional District's constituency. There is, we dare say, a miles-wide difference between Cascos, a former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State, and any of the declared Republican candidates for that post.

But he decided against it.

As much as we grudgingly accepted his decision (for selfish Journalism reasons), we must say that Mr. Cascos absolutely knows he could have defeated Miss Flores. It is the Republican Party's national candidate apparatus that felled him, as he readily acknowledges that Miss Flores would be the one getting the millions in campaign funds needed to challenge for the post.

Mayra Flores became the darling of the Republican National Committee after beating Democrat Dan Sanchez for the job once held by Congressman Fil Vela in that Special Election in the Summer of 2022.

I mean, The New York Times and other major publications noted the historical significance of her victory in what was correctly characterized as "Democrat Country". Her term was short-lived: six months in which she fell into the job and fully believed she'd have a while. It was over when the November General Election came around and Democrat Vicente Gonzalez took her seat her by more than 10,000 votes.

It's, of course, a Big Sky from which candidates reach for and grab reasons for seeking a political post. Often, it is all about money. In his case, Carlos Cascos had the name recognition and the political cache to seriously go after not just Mayra Flores but also the incumbent. We'll never know how it all would have unfolded, but, from a journalist's perspective, it would have been a wildly-contested push & shove, edge & nudge, lead & follow horse race around the oval track.

In the world of news, we always like to say that some stories have legs; that is, they stick around for longer than one or two or three news cycles. This is one of those stories. We've never been big fans of Mayra Flores and her hothead style of politicking. Her manner of public discourse is rough and elementary, cliches and platitudes being her strength. Mr. Cascos would have unmasked her in any debate, early-on even. She's zirconia-in-the-rough, a fakery-favoring public servant in tight jeans and knee-high leather boots.

The contrast between them would have been readily discernible.

We'll await the calling of the horses to the gate as the year ends. Somehow, a contest pitting candidates Flores, unknown Mauro Garza of Raymondville and even more-unknown Laura E. Cisneros of Brownsville doesn't register on the political Richter Scale. No, Virginia, the needle isn't moving.

What's left for us is to find out whether Mr. Cascos will endorse and support his party's nominee against entrenched Gonzalez.

Something tells us his answer would not surprise many...

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SUNSPOTS:...Where Do We Go Now?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Every now and then while driving, well, you come up to a point in the street or open road when something else beckons. It could be a lonely side street, an alluring alley or a time-carved dirt path off the crowded Interstate.

Yogi Berra, the always-erudite catcher for the NY Yankees of the Bronx Bombers Era, once said: "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

That's whimsical, but often fitting.

Daring to change the screen stuff on your Life's existential window does something special for the mind. For one, it throws you up against something totally new, and that is always a treat. And two, yeah, every action has a reaction, so who knows what you may find when you do change the scenery?

You're no ant; yes, go ahead and take a different route to work, to the store, to the bar or to the restaurant. That's the best day-to-day activities menu, a willing stare down of what's actually - really - available for you. Life is short, shorter than any 60 or 70 years on the planet may indicate. Live them and see for yourself.

A truism: There's no one way to anywhere, except maybe the last three or four yards to a cemetery gravesite...

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS:...Biden Dropping Out Of 2024 Race?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | He's up there, as they say in age. So, the question of whether President Joe Biden sticks to his announced plan to run for reelection next year is a legitimate question. He's 80 years old, old by any measure of human biology.

They (and this is mainly Republicans) have noted his slowed speech, his seeming momentary losses of where exactly he is, especially when onstage, his aloofness, his manner of walking and his difficulty with climbing or descending stairs.

Would Joe Biden withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, the one most see as pitting him against oft-indicted Donald J. Trump, who is only three years younger?

This from thehill.com: [ A biographer of President Biden said that while it would be a surprise, it "wouldn’t be a total shock" if the president drops out of the 2024 race by the end of the calendar year.

NBC’s Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" asked biographer Franklin Foer, whose book about Biden’s first two years in office will be released this week, how surprised he would be if Biden decided to not pursue a second term in office.

"I would say it would, it would be a surprise to me. But it wouldn’t be a total surprise," Foer said, adding that "it wouldn’t be a total shock."

"When he talks about his life, he uses this word, fate, constantly," he said. "Joe Biden is a very religious guy, and fate is a word loaded with religious meaning. And he always talks about, 'He can’t say where fate goes.' And so I always, when I hear that, to me, it’s the ellipses in the sentence when he’s talking about his own future."

Biden announced his reelection campaign earlier this year and has not signaled that he was considering dropping out of the race. Foer said his book, titled "The Last Politician," describes how Biden was "underestimated" and how he used that to his advantage. He also said it delves into Biden’s career in policymaking and what techniques he uses to get things done.

"It doesn’t take Bob Woodward to understand that Joe Biden is old, and I’m not a gerontologist and I can’t predict how the next couple of years will age Joe Biden," he said. "I think what my book does is shows that he is somebody who, for whom - he’s buried in details. He’s somebody who is very technocratic, obsessed with the intricacies of policy. He’s a very activist president in that he micromanages a lot of the dealings in the White House." ]

I say Biden would drop out if Trump is NOT the Republican Party's nominee. Biden's calmer stewardship of the country after Trump's volatile term has been to his credit, and various writers for various publications have said as much.

But, yeah, there is still a long way to go before November 2024 rolls around. This is politics, and, in that unstable world, well, so much can happen between now and then.

Anything, really...

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LAW:...Texas A.G. Ken Paxton On Trial This Tuesday...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Kenny's going to court. The Republican Texas Attorney General who's lived a charmed life in Austin will walk into his impeachment trial courtroom on Tuesday. Paxton's the name.

Ken Paxton.

You've seen all the TV news reporting and the newspaper write-ups about the royal mess 60-year-old Paxton created to find himself a vote from being removed.

This from the Associated Press: [ Billionaires, burner phones, alleged bribes: The impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is going to test the will of Republican senators to oust not only one of their own, but a firebrand who has helped drive the state’s hard turn to the right for years.

The historic proceedings set to start in the state Senate Tuesday are the most serious threat yet to one of Texas’ most powerful figures after nine years engulfed by criminal charges, scandal and accusations of corruption. If convicted, Paxton - just the third official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to be impeached - could be removed from office.

Witnesses called to testify could include Paxton and a woman with whom he has acknowledged having an extramarital affair. Members of the public hoping to watch from the gallery will have to line up for passes. And conservative activists have already bought up TV airtime and billboards, pressuring senators to acquit one of Donald Trump’s biggest defenders.

"It’s a very serious event but it’s a big-time show," said Bill Miller, a longtime Austin lobbyist and a friend of Paxton. "Any way you cut it, it’s going to have the attention of anyone and everyone."

The build-up to the trial has widened divisions among Texas Republicans that reflect the wider fissures roiling the party nationally heading into the 2024 election. ]

In the courtroom's gallery will likely be Paxton's wife, Angela. She is a state senator representing a district just north of Dallas. Angela Paxton, shown in photo above, has been barred from voting in the yes or no ouster of her husband.

The trial has drawn interest from the major networks and the country's largest, more-influential newspapers.

It should be a wild one, as Paxton has said he will defend himself vigorously.

Does that mean he'll dish dirt on his high-ranking GOP pals?

This is what he said about the upcoming trial during a speech just yesterday: [ "I can talk about something that I think has become maybe the leading issue that we need to deal with as a county, and the state needs to deal with it, and that is something known as the Texas House of Representatives and the leadership in the Texas House of Representatives," Paxton told the audience at a Collin County GOP picnic.

"We all know the name (Texas House Speaker) Dade Phelan, we saw the videos of what happened, and we see his leadership," Paxton said, referring to a video of Phelan slurring his words on the House floor the evening before the House announced its investigation into Paxton. Some Phelan critics suggested Phelan was drunk. ]

Paxton followed that by saying, "Let's clean house."

Since the House voted to impeach him, Paxton has been suspended without pay.

He could get his old job back if he is cleared of the allegations. A conviction would strip Paxton of his title. However, he could run for another term as attorney general in the future. The Texas Senate would have to conduct a second vote if it wished to block him from seeking office in the state again.

Yeah, let's clean house. Well, first the trial...

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FORT WORTH:...Colorado Shocks TCU, 45-42...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Can we say, "They're baaaaaaaaack!" Those once-reliable patsies Colorado Buffaloes used to being whipped by more than four touchdowns per game last season actually came to Fort Worth, Texas and whipped the favored Horned Frogs, 45-42.

Favored! Like by 20.5 points, according to Vegas bookies.

It is the electric story moving across college football like no other in recent years. Colorado has its history of winning, but not lately. No, this year's squad was taking the field after last year's team went 1-11. One and eleven. How do you get motivated to play when you're losing every weekend?

The University of Colorado hired itself one helluva motivator - NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, old # 21 for the Dallas Cowboys. The pre-season talk was of Sanders being in the coaching hotseat, about how he had walked into a loser's den, about how it would be tough to win a mere three games.

Uh, those naysayers were the game's loudest voices after Saturday's game. ESPN, the big boombox of college football, devoted so much time to the Colorado win that scores from other games literally got little coverage. Prime Time was on TV all over the place, including his post-game press conference, which ESPN featured prominently.

Coach Prime has now served noticed that he has banded a tough squad to be reckoned with. Next week, the high-scoring Buffaloes host once-mighty Nebraska, now an also-ran. The Huskers lost their first game to Minnesota this week. It'll be one hot time along restaurant and bar-heavy Pearl Street in Boulder, a favorite haunt of mine when I worked for The Associated Press in Denver.

Those were the good years, when Coach Bill "Wings" McCartney fielded a team in 1994 that went 11-1 behind the running of back Rashaan Salaam, who would win the coveted Heisman Trophy that year. Some of you may remember the name of that team's quarterback - one Kordell Stewart, who went on to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Buffaloes beat Texas that year (34-31), losing only to eventual NCAA champion Nebraska by a score of 24-7.

In that year's Fiesta Bowl, the Buffaloes routed Notre Dame, 41-24.

It is that mood that likely has already captured fans in the entire state. The Denver Post had several nice write-ups about Coach Prime's first victory, gushing that TCU was ranked and hosting the young and untested Buffaloes on its home field.

45-42.

A shootout, yes, but one the Buffaloes handled well. It was Colorado that broke into the scoring column first, that held the lead at halftime and that weathered a surge from the Horned Frogs to eventually grab the win.

Standout players: Colorado's QB Shedeur Sanders, son of Coach Prime and shown in photo above, passed for 510 yards - a school record. That's impressive. Yeah, he had similar numbers at Jackson State, when he and his dad played and coached for the Tigers, but he wasn't facing Big Time teams there. TCU was ranked #17 going into its game against the Buffaloes. Freshman running back Dylan Edwards scored four touchdowns! And four different Buffaloes had at least 100 yards receiving, another school record.

This was not mere showing up to play a game; this was coming out to win. Colorado's players were clearly ready. Much more than were the TCU players. That prediction by sportswriters that the best Colorado would do this season was win three games?

They won't be writing that anymore...

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SUN STORIES:..."The Pico De Gallo Murder"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas | Everyone knew her as Connie. Connie, the snitch. What did she know about this, Detective Luis Perez asked himself as he drove to her place. A former bartender now too jaded to ply that gig, Connie Cavazos still cut a wild path across the Mexican border nightlife scene.

It was said that if anyone had dated every man in town, well, it had to be Connie.

Her name and physical attributes were talked about in bars across the county. Gossip and facts came to her like steel balls to a magnet. Yes, her record at Rio Grande City PeeDee was a rather long one, but this was the Mexican border, home to the most creative criminals on the planet.

More creative than the best of drug traffickers. For sure.

Bodies were being seen floating over in the Rio Grande and a local reporter had been stabbed to death here recently. Connie had known the latter's name before the cops and the press had it. How she made her living was nobody's business, Connie would say, although any of her nosey neighbors would have told you that cars pulled up to her place at all hours of the night and rhythmic moaning & groaning was the music they always heard coming from her aging ranch house.

Perez knew at least seven cops who had been, shall we say, overly friendly with Connie.

Once she had been attractive, but that was years back, when Elvis was still alive. Detective Perez also knew she had some wild wits about her.

"Gotta stay a step ahead of her, Luis," he said aloud as he pulled up to her house...

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AUSTIN:...Horns vs. Cupcake Rice In Season Opener...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas | Just a bit past noon today. That's the starting time for the Texas Longhorns and this much-awaited 2023 college football season. The Big 12 Conference squad takes on lowly Rice University at Darrell K. Royal Stadium coming off an 8-5 season last year.

Much more is expected from this year's team.

Back behind center is Quarterback Quinn Ewers, the 6'2", 194 pounds signal-caller who transferred in after a brief stint with the Ohio State Buckeyes. Ewers played high school football at powerhouse Southlake Carroll near Dallas.

Rice was 5-8 last year, finishing 7th in Conference USA.

Ranked 11th in the preseason AP Top 25, Texas has a decent shot at winning the Big 12 title before they depart for the stronger Southeastern Conference (SEC) next season. Last time they faced Rice was in 2021, when the Longhorns won handily 58-0. The last time the Owls got a win vs. Texas was back in 1994, when they squeaked out a 19-17 win.

It'll get interesting if Texas runs up the score and fans get to see backup Arch Manning in action. Manning is the grandson of Ole Miss and New Orleans Saints QB Archie Manning and the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, both National Football League starters at QB.

The game will be broadcast by FOX Sports.

Time: 2:30 p.m. CST...

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FASHION:...Men Who Can No Longer Wear Jeans...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | So, you're in your mid-to-late 70s and life is getting tougher by the day. Those body aches and pains have you grouchy, feeling left out and envious. Look at yourself in the mirror and then ask the magic question:

Can I still wear blue jeans in public?

If you no longer can wear jeans, you're no longer with the hip crowd, no longer one to be admired, no longer seen as being alive.

There are plenty of those men in the Rio Grande Valley, from here to Starr County to the west. It is easily visible. There is no need to start jogging or going to the gym. Your body is your body and if you find it's physically-eccentric, well, that's where you are.

Do you know any elderly dude out there who you never see in blue jeans? They're always in loose-fitting slacks, their bulging gut unable to hide even under that flowing shirt. I see them. I know some.

I'm sure you do, too. And we're not simply being mean here; we're just reporting on what we observe out there. Indeed, it is a sad sight, for it then becomes another clue that you're no longer part of the in-shape crowd.

You're 73, 74 or 75?

What are you wearing? Those same loose-fitting gray or black slacks you wore at age 68 and on and on and on until you hit your present advanced age?

Well, yes, he said.

And we're not even talking about the bulbous face or balding head in this one. When you're there, you're there, and, of course, we all know that our hurry-up/throwaway society has no time for the elderly. Not in this country, not in this Rio Grande Valley. They will laugh and point at you at the grocery store, at the restaurant and when you're merely hanging out with your friends at a local bar.

We all should from time to time stop and observe ourselves.

There are certain losses we don't share, but which are there just the same. I know, I know. Old men rarely care about their appearance, whether goofin' at home or out in public. But this is Texas, and -

What male wants to say he can no longer wear blue jeans?...

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NATIONAL:...Mike Pence Blows It, Next To Drop Out...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's late in the summer and much of the politicking in Iowa has slowed down markedly, almost to a crawl. Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, left the state to tend to the merciless whipping his Sunshine State was about to get from Hurricane Idalia.

Surprising Vivek Ramaswamy went on the talk show circuit, as did Nikki Haley. Tim Scott just moseyed about Iowa and then returned to his home state of South Carolina. Who knows where Asa Hutchinson went, but he's from Arkansas, so look for him there. Also gone was Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, who isn't doing well. Ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sat down for a myriad of TV interviews and chats.

Former Veep Mike Pence?

He stuck around and held "Meet The Candidate" gatherings, but got few attendees. His goose is cooked. Boring never sells on any campaign's trail.

We're going out on a very thick limb here by saying that Hutchinson, Burgum and Pence are the next Republican presidential candidates to drop out of the race for the party's 2024 nomination.

Donald J. Trump, it says here, has that sewn-up.

Pence's fall has been steady and rather intriguing. He wavered between supporting Trump in his current legal travails and blasting hm for instigating the Jan.6, 2021 riot in the nation's capital. Pence seemed to strike a nerve with his attacks on his old boss, but he never took it another step farther.

Attendance at his speeches across the state have not gotten him the roaring crowd he wanted. The photo atop this posting is a prime example of that. He literally spoke to less than eight people at this particular stop.

And that's a damned shame, as Mike Pence, more than any other Republican candidate, had the goods on the former president to set himself apart from his opponents. He was the "I've-Been-There" candidate, and he kept that in his back pocket. He never used it.

Pence placed all his marbles in the anti-abortion basket and fully believed that would be enough.

Not when every other candidate also says they also are against abortion...

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COLORADO:...Buffaloes Hanging With Deion...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It is perhaps the most intriguing part of the coming college football season. How will NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders work out as head coach of the University of Colorado?

The Buffalos were 1-11 last year.

Sanders, the greatest Dallas Cowboys defensive back ever, is starting his first year in Boulder, Colorado - a spectacularly-cool city at the front-range base of the Rocky Mountains. To say that an entire state's expectations are sky-high is to downplay the mood in bars, living rooms and fan clubs.

Deion can beat 1-11, goes the conversation line. Easily.

This from espn.com: [ The Buffs weren't just one of the worst teams in college football last season, they were one of the worst teams in recent memory. Coach Karl Dorrell was fired after an 0-5 start in just his third season, and the team finished 1-11. Colorado lost games by an average margin of 29.1 points last year, the worst in the country and the fourth-worst among Power 5 programs in the past 30 years.

When the Buffaloes take the field in Fort Worth, Texas, against No. 17 TCU on Saturday (noon, Fox), the only resemblance to last year's team will be the uniforms. Only 10 scholarship players from the 2022 roster remain with the team. The team's 86 new players come from all over - from high school to junior college to the SEC - including nine who followed Sanders from Jackson State, led by Shedeur Sanders, Deion's son and CU's starting QB, and Travis Hunter, the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2022 class. According to ESPN Stats & Information data, it's the most incoming players to an FBS roster since the inception of the transfer portal in 2018.

"I know it's a huge overhaul," Sanders said. "But it had to be done." ]

TCU will not be an easy game. The Horned Frogs made it to the NCAA championship game, where, yeah, they were blown out by Number 1 Georgia.

All of Deion's ways are under a microscope. Will the team get off to a good start or a bad one, and how will the players and fans react to either of those possibilities?

Colorado is a slacker state where few issues ever really rile-up the population. I mean, the Buffs were 1-11 last year! Plus, this year the pro team in town - Denver Broncos - also have a new coach and new dreams under Sean Payton, the former field guru of the New Orleans Saints.

When I wrote for the Associated Press in Denver, the football season opened and closed with the Broncos. This year, with Prime Time Deion in town, it's the Colorado Buffalos drawing attention like little else.

Beat #14 TCU on its home field, always a tough task for any team, and the sky's the limit for Coach Sanders. Up after TCU for the Buffs is Nebraska, which lost its opener yesterday to the Minnesota Gophers.

The two other ranked teams on Colorado's 2023 schedule are #18 Oregon State on Nov. 4 and #14 Utah on Nov. 25.

Deion is not used to losing. But lose a few for the Boulder faithful and it's back to the drawing board.

That, too, is Big Time college ball...

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BROWNSVILLE:...Cascos Out Of 34th Cong. District Brawl...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | It's a "No go" for Carlos Cascos in that much-anticipated down-to-the-mat brawl with fellow Republican Mayra Flores. The former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State has decided this fight's not for him.

In a note to The McAllen Sun, Mr. Cascos said this: "I've decided to sit this one out. Thank you to those with words of encouragement. I will be supporting those candidates that I believe will best represent our community while providing viable & sustainable platforms focusing on sound public policy. Stay well all."

It was not that big of a surprise.

This far out from the 2024 election, well, you'd really have to have wanted it.

It's a disappointment for us, because we feel Mayra Flores would have been put to a test she has not faced before in in-house competition.

Looks like incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez vs. Mayra Flores in that 34th Congressional District contest one more time...

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Our reply to Mr. Cascos: . . .I really believe you would have tested Mayra's mettle. That would have been good for voters. Her behavior in any sort of give & take with you would have been key. Against Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, she will be the usual hothead Mayra Flores - a repeat of that cheap 2022 act that raised eyebrows but never threatened Vicente... 

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