TRIALS:...Texas AG Paxton Awaits Verdict...In Or Out?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas | Ken Paxton waits. The usually energetic current Texas Attorney General has spent the last two weeks worrying about expulsion from an office he has held since 2015. He's on trial in the Texas Senate for abuse of official powers.

Testimony in the impeachment trial ended at noon yesterday, with senators serving as jury considering the charges through 8:00 PM last night. They recessed without a verdict and will resume deliberations this morning.

Paxton had skipped attending the trial most of this past week, but was present yesterday. His wife Angela (see photo below), a state senator representing a constituency in McKinney, also was in the trial's courtroom. She has been barred from voting on her husband's fate.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, who has said he considered himself a good friend of Paxton, offered words of courage for the jury, urging a conviction. Leach is from North Texas.

"This will, if you're like me, be the hardest, the most difficult, the heaviest vote that you will ever cast in your time in the Legislature," Leach said, most likely talking from his own experience as one of the House members who made the case in the lower chamber to charge Paxton with offenses ranging from constitutional bribery and disregarding his official duties to firing the once-trusted aides who had warned him he was straying outside of legal bounds.

Jurors will also consider a second ruling if they vote to oust Paxton.

They may also vote to bar him from seeking other state offices. That, however, would not preclude Paxton from running for, say, Congress.

He was first elected in 2014 and later won reelection in 2018 and 2022...

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CASUAL FRIDAY:...Terrifying Fish Head Tales & Creepy Stuff Out Of Brownsville...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | She does have a life. Outside politics and the ever-grabbing world of the Cameron County Commissioner's Court - known far & wide for sitting members padding the Ol' paycheck at every turn. Is Precinct 2 County Commissioner Sofia Benavides really into it. I mean, at her age she likely does not need the extra cash.

What for - Christmas gifts?

That hardly-irascible Miss Sofie may not take to bagging sand every time a hurricane approaches the southern Texas Coast, but she will get out into the Golfo de Mejico and hook herself a fish or two (see cool photo above).

So, we'll fan a bit of wind her way and ask: Is the commissioner's court doing anything even half-spectacular? For the county, or for the county's poverty-stricken people? Over out this way, in the better neighborhood of the Rio Grande Valley, well, we have not heard of anything near-spectacular.

Still, this is CASUAL FRIDAY...and, well, Sofia Benavides knows a casual pose when she sees one. 2nd question: Has she drawn an opponent in her reelection effort? Yeah, we pictured another mustachioed Mexican dude in a cowboy hat. 

As for the fish: Lock him up!...

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We couldn't settle on a photo of the Intolerant Cool Capt. Bob Sanchez for this excerpt. The hat you see above did it for us. These hats should be distributed to the entire city of Brownsville population, so that - for one shining moment - they could walk and laugh as one.

Everyone elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley knows Brownsville as the Dysfunctional City By The Sea, or something like that. El Capitan, known far & wide in his restaurant, does his best to cheer-up the local proletariat.

That podcast of his, AKA The CBS Show, is growing by yoga leaps and bounds. Maria Muldaur Ramirez, our office receptionist, loves the show to the point of insisting on a clause in her employment contract that she will be on break whenever CBS is online.

You have to appreciate all Capt. Bob does for Brownsville, does it for nothing other than cheap publicity that only aids in magnifying his local celebrity.

But he's a clever one - His guests are always lesser dudes and gals than he is. The host must be the star! Sit up straight, Erasmo! Read the intro, loca! We're told all guests must sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) agreeing to never reveal exactly what goes into the staging of his unconquerable podcast. Trade secrets, is his mantra.

Hey, tune in and see for yourself.

Bank it: His next guest(s) will be some inferior Second Banana...

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Who be this lovely lass? Lotsa stuff swirling about town on this one. She's Deborah Bell, an apparent political newcomer out to replace the historical figure named Morgan Graham as chairman of the Cameron County Republican Party - that group of five or six always-buoyant county residents still believing the Magic Valley has room for them at the table.

Miss Bell has a shot at the Big Time.

Uh, no, not really.

We must confess to not knowing much about her, other than that she is - or has been - some sort of neighborhood political activist. But her candidacy would fit the times we're currently living, an Era Of Nincompoops who keep storming out of the rotting woodwork and rise to challenge the status quo - like brave weeds rising against a new lawnmower.

Good luck, Debbie.

And so long...

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We at The McAllen Sun have been urging former City Commissioner Ben Neece to stay away from this guy. Tony Zavaleta may look like a pleasant sort in the photo alongside his lovely wife, but he's said to be something of a mover & shaker on the Texas Southmost College's Board of Trustees.

Mover & shaker as in moving to shake up the board's makeup to his liking.

Neece, an accomplished musician, should be wary of any attention he gets from Tony Z., as he is known in social media. What God-awful plan Tony Z. may have for Neece as a replacement for current TSC Trustee J.J. DeLeon is the Big Unknown.

Play it, Ben: "Well, I started out on Burgundy, but soon hit the harder stuff. Everybody said they're right behind me when the game got rough. But the joke was on me, there was nobody to even call my bluff. I'm going back to my loft; I do believe I've had enough."...

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Wow, that didn't take long. A friend in town tells us former Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez has already been forgotten in the gossiping halls of City Hall. He just left - like earlier this year! Poor cat.

Once upon a time The Long, Lost Love of Bloggers, he was the proverbial Savior of Brownsville, especially after the hard-ass reign of one Tony Martinez, who always looked cool doing Covid-19 interviews on CNN but then did nothing to fight the virus making residents even more stupid in town.

Trey, lad, we hardly knew ye, ese.

Little Boy Blue had risen to the top elected post in town with a can-do attitude promised by his pal Adela Garza of TSC Board presidency fame.

Then..........zzzzzzzzzzzz......nothing happened.

Mendez is still in town. Perhaps you've seen him. And maybe not.

He's old news, a has-been and a man perceived as a miserable failure as a public servant. Too bad, yes.

Mendez could've been more, a lot more.

He just likely knew that he never should've been mayor. Director of City Softball Leagues, yes.

Mayor, no...

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Any sign of those new shade-pleasing bus shelters for local bus riders? What - no, you say. Well, that tells us the guy you see in the photo above is still singing himself to sleep. That's local, Pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya, defender of all things south of the border. He's playing a variety of tunes lately, but forever on the Winding Bitching Trail for anything that will keep the blistering heat off non-complaining bus riders he doesn't even know.

Whatever. It's a cause to fight for when summer rolls around and news takes a holiday.

The former reporter for The Brownsville Herald never mentions the bus shelters when the Holiday Season comes around, which is anyday now.

We may be being a bit harsh on the Ol' Jarhead, but it's true. His fight for these shelters, yeah, needed, seems to be a seasonal thing with him. No blistering heat, No shelter needed - is that it?

Could be.

But one fine day, when he least expects it, perhaps after the fabled Tenaska Scandal is resolved, Montoya will find himself walking to his favorite cantina and then....suddenly spot a new bus shelter right there in front of him at the streetcorner!

Until then, he waits.

Juan should also know that someday sometimes never comes...

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TRIALS:...Rough Going For A.G. Wife Angela Paxton...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas | She's been there every day of the trial. It's not like most wives wouldn't do the same, but there is a certain sadness to Angela Paxton's loyal presence at her husband's impeachment trial. Faces don't lie, it is said of a woman's facial features when her man's in deep trouble.

Ken Paxton is about to lose his job as Texas Attorney General.

It would be easy for Mrs. Paxton, shown in photo above, to simply flake-off and stay way. She is barred from voting on her husband's fate. And, it very well could be that she also wanted to hear firsthand information Ken may have kept from her.

Especially all that stuff about sexual trysts with a woman identified earlier as Laura Olson.

Laura Olson, 50, is 10 years younger than Ken Paxton and just as many as Angela Paxton, 60. She's tall and thin. Some might even say she would cast well as a model for a mistress in some Hollywood offering. Angela Paxton looks much more conservative and wifey.

The trial is still ongoing as we post this on Thursday afternoon. The word is that it will wrap-up later today or tomorrow, with a vote on Paxton' impeachment coming over the weekend.

For now, we offer this pictorial of Angela Paxton as the trial unfolded in the Texas Senate, where she serves as a senator representing a constituency up in McKinney, a suburb of Dallas.

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She's the picture of a trusting, supportive wife in all of these photos. Much of that is to be expected. The trial is in its second and final week, but the story of her husband's legal trouble has been around for almost 10 years.

One wonders whether the pictures tell the real story of Angela Paxton's likely agonizing faithfulness...

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INDICTMENTS:..Boys, It's A Democrat This Time...Hunter Biden...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

WASHINGTON, D.C. | He's coming up to his mid-50s and now facing serious court stuff. Hunter Biden, 53, the president's son long the target of Far Right-Wing media, finally saw the indictment come down the political fallopian tube.

That came today.

This from axios.com: [ Hunter Biden was indicted on three counts related to his alleged illegal possession of a firearm, according to a court filing on Thursday.

The indictment by special counsel David Weiss comes after plea deal negotiations fell apart last month over two tax misdemeanors and a gun felony against President Biden's son.

The indictment was largely expected, as Weiss indicated earlier this month that he was seeking an indictment against Hunter Biden by the end of September.

Driving the news: The charges in the indictment include making false statements on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018 and possession of a firearm while using a narcotic. ]

So the dogged pursuit panned out for Republicans looking to even the Indictment Race that has former Republican President Donald J. Trump in the lead, with four indictments.

Republicans should know that one of their own, ex-President George W. Bush, once thought so much of Hunter Biden that he named him to the AMTRAK Board of directors.

Yeah, go chug on your cheap cantina beer and guzzle that down...

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DO YOU KNOW ME? - ...Windblown Hair Is A Clue...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas | Name that dude. Yeah, the guy in the photo above. He's somewhat well-known in his hometown, although most Rio Grande Valley residents likely would have no idea who he is. None at all. Is he the new swim coach over at some ritzy beachfront hotel here?

No.

Could he be the owner of a happening bar only a Cuba Libre this side of the Laguna Madre?

No.

Is he some fishing guide able to land you a snook or two?

No.

Well, then, who the Hell is this bearded dude?

Why, Jimmy Boy, that's Patrick McNulty, the mayor of sand-eating South Padre Island and the public servant with perhaps the lowest name-recognition in the magic valley. Does SPI consider itself part of the Big Time Hispanic RGV?

Well, you could certainly wonder about that - there is not one Hispanic on its City Council, so who knows about that?

Not that most people here would care to go there. That sun & fun has a way with moods and feelings.

South Padre Island is, after all, an island.

We'll catch up with McNulty for some real news one of these days. Until then, we will keep searching for the Most Obscure Mayor in the whole, gosh-darned Valley...

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TRIALS:...No Testimony From The Babe In Paxton Scandal...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas | They never called her to the witness stand. So much for salacious stuff in that pretty-much-done impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The Republican Show Trial should be done after today, with a vote before or during the weekend.

Yeah, Texas will host the Wyoming Cowboys at Darrell K. Royal Stadium somewhat nearby on Saturday, but the score in the Texas Senate on this vote should be interesting.

Paxton, the 60-year-old Playboy AG, could be out of a job and out of any possible future candidacies for other state offices.

They say he sold the office to developer Nate Paul, a shadowy figure in the story, one who trial testimony said was cool with the AG, to the point of doing him untold (expensive) favors in exchange for using the AG's office to "investigate" his enemies. The tale calls for those dudes who produced the TV series Perry Mason to storm out of their graves and offer us a new episode.

Paxton's trial resumes this morning.

What might've been a sort of climax (at least to that point) quickly fizzled on Wednesday, when the Babe in the story did not testify. Sexy Laura Olson, shown in photo above waiting to be called) was fingered as the woman Paxton romanced and likely laid (who knows on that, really?) while still married (to State Sen. Angela Paxton, shown with purse in photo above). We say that every political scandal with a woman sorta/kinda central to the mess needs to offer-up that woman's thoughts. Laura Olson has the experience and vocabulary; she's been married and divorced four times.

I know what Rick Perry would say about that: "Bring it."

As we wrote the other day, Paxton's fate was sealed long-ago, when the Texas House voted to go zip his pants. He'll be impeached and removed from office.

We're going with Vegas in saying the Horns will whip Wyoming on the football field this weekend and the Texas Senate will undress Kenny Paxton in the people's court.

You read it here first, you ever-weary you...

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS:...Mitt Romney Calls It Quits, MAGA Rejoices...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | They might just be leaving one by one - those old-line, non-MAGA Republicans from the party of Ronald Reagan. Mitt Romney isn't leaving just yet, but he has announced plans to leave the U.S. Senate and retire after his term ends in January 2025.

His pal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, may beat him out of Washington, D.C. The 81-year-old McConnell's health has not been good lately. Two episodes of "freezing at the microphone" during news conferences point to serious physical problems for the senior senator from Kentucky.

Their other friend in the senate, John McCain of Arizona, died in 2018.

Those are only three, but brave Republicans willing to take-on MAGA foghorn Donald J. Trump are not common in current national politics. Candidates opposing him for the party's 2024 presidential nomination may rant and rave about him, but that's elections politics.

Romney, McConnell and McCain had the party at heart; Trump does not. Neither do his followers, who further separate themselves by being angry, boisterous and threatening violence.

That is not Romney and McConnell, nor was it McCain.

This excerpt from an article at thehill.com: [ Romney highlighted his age (77) as he announced his decision. "I’ve spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another. At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80s," Romney said.

"Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders," he went on. "They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in."

Whether intentional or not, those remarks drew an implicit contrast with some of Romney’s even older colleagues, including 81-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California.

Both have suffered recent public health scares that have raised concerns about whether they are able to perform their duties.

Romney was elected to the Senate in 2018, a return to elected office for the former governor of Massachusetts who mounted a failed bid to unseat then-President Barack Obama in 2012.

In Congress, Romney distinguished himself as one of Donald Trump’s few outspoken Republican critics. He was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump following his first impeachment trial in early 2020, a decision that drew a scornful response from Trump and his allies.

Romney joined six other Republican senators in 2021 who voted to convict Trump following his second impeachment for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. ]

And as could be expected, Trump, 77, tore into Romney in an all-caps social media post celebrating his decision to retire as "fantastic news for America."

You get the distinct impression that MAGA Republicans want lifelong party stalwarts like Romney and McConnell to either die or fade from the political scene.

It's a loss for civilized America, but there you are...

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IOWA:...Not All Republicans In Hawkeye State Ready To Enthrone Trump...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

DES MOINES, Iowa | What with all the noise coming out of this midwestern state, you'd think that all of Iowa's Republicans would be giddily aboard the rolling Trump train. They may ultimately select him as their party's presidential nominee in the upcoming 2024 election, only some are not quite ready to coronate him.

The Hawkeye State, known as The Food Capital of The World, isn't quite pleased with the political plate Trump has served its 3,193,000 residents.

Trump, they say, has come and gone as if some sad-shy Manhattan cabbie new to The Big Apple. And when he has been in Iowa, the former president, they add, has talked mostly about the 2020 election he says was rigged and not said much about what he would do for the country if elected president again.

It's a clash with what some of the mainstream reporting coming out of Iowa. There, reports have it that Donald Trump is way ahead of the fat Republican field, ahead by a massive lead over his closest rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and newcomer businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

We went looking for some of the discontent.

This from a guest column in the Des Moines Register, the state's preeminent newspaper: [ With the first Republican presidential debate in the rearview mirror, people here in Iowa have a clearer idea on where the candidates asking us to caucus for them stand on the issues that matter for our state. Nearly every Republican presidential contender attended the debate to talk about their platform and argue why they’re the best person to beat President Joe Biden in 2024 - with one major exception. 

Similar to many other times, former President Donald Trump didn’t bother to show up. In fact, Iowans haven’t seen much of the former president since he declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. He’s visited Iowa just three times as of Sept. 7, trips where he spent more time talking about personal grievances than his policy platform. 

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, that’s the key difference between the version of Donald Trump that Iowans voted to send to the White House in 2016 and the former president who’s asking for our votes again. This time, he’s not fighting for Iowans or working to deliver policy wins. Instead, he’s fighting for himself. 

And that’s not what voters here in Iowa want in our next president. ]

The writer goes on to note that Trump did accomplish much as president. He appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices and "stemmed the flow of illegal immigration across our southern border." Oh, and he goes to add that the "United States produced more energy than it consumed with the help of the ethanol industry here in Iowa." 

That, however, clashes with Trump's failure to say how he would fix problems Biden has created in his first term.

It'll be much of the same for the rest of the year (fans at a rivalry game between Iowa and Iowa State last Saturday shot Trump the finger when he waltzed into the stadium in Ames), and that will continue until January 15, 2024, when Iowa holds its version of the primary - the fabled Iowa Caucuses.

That's the important target date for his opponents, but Trump would be wise to keep planting positive seeds for the farmers and other residents, 'cause he's alienated more than a few.

It says here that he will likely win the caucus vote, only it's not as if every Iowa Republican has been all-in, all-the-time on his candidacy.

You don't hear much of that from the national news media out of Iowa...

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POLLS:...Wall Street Journal's Latest...Trump Paid For It...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Political polls have been and continue to be some sort of credible weathervane for candidate campaigns, especially in presidential races. They're always suspect, but, well, there they are. Broadcast and print news media outlets take them and run with the announced results.

But they also lie.

Take the one released this week by the Wall Street Journal (owned by FOX's Rupert Murdoch). It released poll numbers after conducting a survey that said President Joe Biden and Republican Donald J., Trump were tied when voters across the country were polled as to who they favored.

What the Wall Street Journal never said was that Trump had paid for the poll.

So much for that poll.

But it happens more often than not, and what Americans don't know is that these pollsters often survey a miniscule number of people, respondents in the low-hundreds not rare at all. That small of a looksee is really useless, but they keep doing it and the press keeps reporting results as if a huge number of voters had been asked the question.

This from newrepublic.com: [ A recent Wall Street Journal poll announced that most voters think Joe Biden is too old to be president for a second term - and a 2024 matchup between Biden and Donald Trump would be evenly split. The poll has since been covered across multiple mainstream media outlets, including MSNBC, CNN, and Fox.

There’s just one problem: The poll was conducted in part by Trump’s former campaign pollster.

The poll, which was published Monday, found that Biden and Trump are tied with 46 percent support each. It has garnered widespread media attention and outrage. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough pointed out that Trump has been indicted four times and lied many, many more times, and yet he is tied with Biden simply because the latter is just three years older.

What the Journal does not mention anywhere is that Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio also worked as the chief pollster on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. And since the start of 2023, Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has paid Fabrizio’s company more than $567,000, according to FEC filings. ]

Candidate paying for good publicity is nothing new. it happens at a much-smaller scale here in the Rio Grande Valley, especially in Brownsville, where bloggers often take sides in political contests for pay.

But the polling is part & parcel of our national politics.

Polls have been around seemingly forever in presidential races. And, yes, the results always depend on who is doing the poll and who is paying for it to be done.

Trump paying for this one is no surprise.

And he did get a nice big bang for his bucks, as pretty much every news outlet reported the favorable result he paid for...

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TACO TUESDAY:...Fear & Loathing At The Taqueria...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Would Gilberto Hinojosa, the hairy dude you see in photo above, ever know the feeling of running the football into a beefy, out-to-punish pro football defensive front at the goal line? Uh, we say no, he would not. Hinojosa is one of those comfortable cats in a late stage of his life. Worming himself into the end zone (La Zona Final in Spanish) is no longer his idea of fun.

No, it's not happening. Gilberto isn't even getting the ball.

He's on the team, calling plays and yelling at the referees, but he's not punching the pigskin in for a score. Not in that game. Oh, but you can still find him leading doomed, air-conditioned Texas Democrats to Nowhere. In the Valiumed Rio Grande Valley, those same Democrats are getting their massaged asses kicked more and more by emerging Republicans of the same skin color.

Surprise there?

No, there shouldn't be. Mexicans (okay, Mexican-Americans) in the RGV have found an easy avenue to instant political stardom - switch and go Republican.

We have in the past blamed Mr. Hinojosa for losing even one race in South Texas, where Mexicans (okay, Mexican-Americans) are the dominant population. And it's not as if we expect every resident in the region to be a Democrat, but, you know, for many, many, many years they were.

Gilberto Hinojosa better be prepared and have a winning strategy up his sleeve or 2024 will be his Waterloo.

There are Republicans coming out of the woodwork these days, many of them Democrats only a few weeks and months ago. Is that a bad thing? No. I say that because I also believe South Texas Republicans are not Alabama Republicans. They can't be. Republicans love to throw racist garbage at Blacks and Browns in The South.

Who are the Brown Republicans going to abuse around here?

The Democrats in their own house may be Mom & Dad...

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Chasing that Carlos Cascos via his Facebook page occasionally yields a new conversation vein. He seems to stay up with all news, local, state and national. And his presentation passes muster. He is in the know, as they say.

We wonder: What if Cascos, a former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State published his own column? Or hosted a podcast? Or contributed opinion articles to the area blogs?

He's bailed on taking a shot at Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in the upcoming 34th Congressional District election, so he likely has the time to chase that idea. Material he already has. After all these years in the political arena, Cascos has a wealth of information.

He should not simply stash it in the back of his mind or closet.

Heady people in Brownsville are rare. Intelligent ones even rarer.

Cascos should do it, but we keep saying it...

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She's probably a nice, kind-hearted woman, but, man, we can't get into her from the far-side-of-the-universe candidacy for Congressman Vicente Gonzalez's job. Laura E. Cisneros, an oncologist, must have an alter ego of astral proportions.

A medical doctor in Congress is like a medical doctor in the National Football League - totally out of his/her element, is what Erasmo "Skip Bayless" Castro messaged me yesterday.

But there she is, still in the race with 14 months to go before the 2024 vote is tallied and she loses bigtime. Yes, you say, give her a chance. We would if we sincerely felt that she had a chance. As a "new" Republican, first she would have to beat wrestling acrobat Mayra Flores in the party primary, which we say is a little girl's Night Before Christmas dream. Not happening, we daresay.

Cisneros against incumbent Vicente Gonzalez? Not even in Heaven.

Whatever cash she is spending leading up to the primary next March is money ill-spent. She may as well throw it away, like by paying the Brownsville bloggers to push her vanity run...

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Jesus Rosas Jr is still in the hunt for the Cameron County sheriff's gig. The hat and mustache, direct from central casting, say so. We don't have a lot of new info on his campaign, but we must say that we can't help but see Eric Garza II in this guy.

Yes, they keep telling us that he has been a ranking administrator at the sheriff's office.

Going on looks puts us at the end of the thin tree branch, but we've been there before with local politicians. Mr. Rosas simply does not fit our imagery of a professional, nor does he speak the articulate words we prefer to hear from a law enforcement type.

Perhaps his gig is that of a security guard at a flea market, which is what he looks like in the photo above. But he does act the part, although it seems as if any Juan, Jesus and Polo can do that in the RGV.

Bring us something new. Be bold and original.

Cowboy hats are always on sale somewhere in town...

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Cameron County Commissioner Sofia Benavides may be getting old (early 70s?), but it is that flavoring of Old School she brings to her post that sets her far apart from the selfish, self-aggrandizing politicians she serves with on the commissioner's court and in Brownsville.

The under-achieving county has precious few public servants who would cut the mustard on our definition of what makes for a good politician. We could name no more than three - Sofia Benavides and Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda in current service and former County Judge Carlos Cascos.

We've been hearing that the Rio Grande Valley is a veritable occupied den of vain, gimme-gimme-gimme low-brow politicians.

Miss Sofia Benavides is not among them...

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Sheriff candidate Ronnie Saenz is still hatless, as in he is not walking about wearing a cowboy hat and looking all-loco like his opponents in the upcoming law enforcement election. But the flanker back-sized Saenz ought to get rid of that hair over his upper lip.

It's 2023 and only dying nursing home dudes go for facial hair.

Someone get this guy some Gillette blades and tell him he'll actually look more professional and less like Sheriff Eric Garza's brother.

In politics, it's the little things that often make a difference.

Mustaches never do...

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So, how's that microwaved CBS show coming along? Anything new on the Dead Channel? We keep marveling at how this guy gets so much attention when he's done nothing. Nothing, as in never won an election and never grown some freaking hair.

Bald dudes get their aging brains fried faster by the blistering sun, is what the boys at the bar keep saying when asked about those damned cowboy hats you see all across the horse-less Rio Grande Valley.

Capt. Bob Sanchez, the ever-smiling, ever-chirping dude in the photo, keeps on keeping on.

We say that El Capitan should take his "show" on the road and do it from every peso-fueled dumphole in Brownsville.

We can already hear Don Pardo say, no scream: "Frooooooommmmm Downtown!!! It's...Caaaaaaaptain....Bobbbbbbbbb!!!"

Eh. Whatever...

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS: GOP Okays Biden Impeachment Inquiry...Why?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

WASHINGTON, D.C. | Well, it's no big surprise. Nor is it a big deal. It's just partisan politics, both gung-ho and naive. We speak of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's announcement today that he will seek an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Ho hum.

We are all for keeping our politicians in stir, but this one smacks of cheapness through and through. Have at it, though. Lord knows MAGA Republicans have been clamoring for this for long months, since they took control of the House of Reps after last November elections.

Will it go anywhere. I say no.

But theatrics is our political stage's current middle name, so...

This from USATODAY.com: [ McCarthy, R-Calif., announced the House will open a formal impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, escalating a Republican investigation that started in January when the GOP took majority control of the lower chamber.

The House Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees will lead the inquiry after months of investigating Biden, who Republicans allege benefited from his son Hunter Biden's business dealings.

"Today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden," McCarthy said at a press conference Tuesday. "This logical next stop will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public."

McCarthy's announcement means the House will move forward on an impeachment inquiry into Biden without a formal vote on the House floor. Moderate GOP lawmakers have balked at rushing into the process, and Republicans control the House with just a four-seat majority. It was unclear whether an inquiry vote would pass with the necessary 218 votes in the lower chamber.

Not all Republicans are onboard with this.

"I wholeheartedly embrace investigating and seeing if there was wrongdoing and there sure is a lot of smoke. I just don’t know if there’s a lot of fire when it comes to Joe Biden himself," Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told USA TODAY in an interview in August. ]

If you ask me, this is definitely something Donald J. Trump likely ordered. McCarthy, a former yogurt shop owner in his native California, has been soft on the idea for weeks. He's been goaded by Far Right-Wing Republicans such as Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

We believe this to be wildly naive.

The GOP committee headed by Congressman Jim Comer of Missouri has been investigating Hunter Biden and Hunter Biden's alleged crooked business dealings for months. President Joe Biden's name had cropped up repeatedly, yes.

But they really came away without much of an answer to their many questions on a Biden Family corruption tale they sold to themselves.

But, yes, keep digging.

We would say that the truth shall set you free, but we also know that the truth is something MAGA Republicans do not recognize...

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REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Volume VIII, Book 6...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

GALVESTON, Texas | Back three years ago, on a weekend outing to Galveston with a good friend, I went looking for my old office from my days as the Island Bureau Chief for The Houston Post.

It was a neat, white stucco building on 45th Street kinda in the geographic center of the popular island.

I remembered there was a doctor's office in there down the hall, as was the local office for The American Red Cross and a busy enterprise doing business in the diet industry.

My marriage was on the rocks at the time, so, when my now ex-wife left me to return to her hometown of Fort Worth, I took up with the gal running the Red Cross office, not the same day, but soon after.

I was living at the Casa Del Mar hotel on the beach and working my ass off to forget about my marital failings. At the time, the Galvez Hotel had a "happening" lounge that is no longer there serving as social headquarters for the nurses at the UT-Medical Branch and a slew of other local professionals.

That was the place to be after deadline, me there to drown my sorrows and meet women. Well, the year I was there, before the newspaper transferred me to its offices in Houston and before they assigned me writing duties on the State Desk, which flung me all over the place, including Mexico, it was warm and comfy Galveston that held me that winter of my discontent.

Anyway, the newspaper shut down the island office a few years later. When I was there this last time, it was being renovated for future occupants. It can still, I say, tell a few good stories of my days as one of the occupants.

What a time it was...

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[Editor's Note:...Photo of yours truly above taken by my friend, Margaret...]

SUN SPORTS:...Jets Fly By Buffalo Bills, 22-16...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So what if QB Aaron Rodgers went down four plays into the game? It's a big stage in The Big Apple for the New York Jets. There then came the electrifying walk-off touchdown and the Jets were 1-0. Those high-flying Buffalo Bills, pretenders to the National Football League crown for the past three/four years, yeah, jetted home losers.

This from nydailynews.com: [ Monday was the night all Jets fans waited for, Aaron Rodgers playing his first game with the Green and White. While all that air quickly went out of the balloon after the Jets’ newest star went down early in the first quarter, Gang Green and Bills fans were treated to an exciting game.

The Jets (1-0) snuck by the Bills (0-1), 22-16, in overtime in front of a sellout crowd on Monday Night Football at MetLife Stadium. ]

To recap: Overtime came and Buffalo received the ball. three and out. Oh, well. But then! Then, rookie wide receiver Xavier Gipson returned a punt 65 yards for a game-winning walk-off touchdown.

So much for nothing going on on Mondays.

This one was as good as it gets. The Jets may have lost celebrated Rodgers for a few games and maybe even for the entire season, but who cares?! You play for the Jets and you're playing for The Big Apple!...

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TRIALS:...In A.G. Paxton's Impeachment, Word Of A Woman Not His Wife...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

AUSTIN, Texas | Is it really a truism that there is no literature without sex? The slow unfolding of suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's tale of legal woe and secret apartment sex with a woman not his wife is staying up with that saying.

He's on trial, about to be impeached and removed from an office he has held since 2014.

As the second week of his ongoing trial began on Monday, it was that on & off sexual affair with a woman identified as Laura Olson, a four-times divorcee, that became the day's prime testimony.

This from apnews.com: [ One of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's former staffers testified Monday that the Republican’s extramarital affair took a toll on employees who had to work long and odd hours because of the secret relationship that is now a factor in his impeachment trial.

"I told General Paxton quite bluntly it wasn’t my business who he was sleeping with, but when things bleed over into the office and into the state work, it becomes my business," said Katherine Cary, the former chief of staff in Paxton’s office.

The affair is part of the abuse of power and bribery charges that Texas House Republicans have made against Paxton after years of alleged scandal and corruption. If convicted, he could be banned from holding office again in Texas. His fate is in the hands of the Republican-controlled Texas Senate, where a verdict could happen as soon as this week.

Paxton's wife, Angela, is a senator but is barred from voting in the proceedings. She sat at her desk on the chamber floor while Cary described how she warned Paxton that his affair carried legal and political risks.

Paxton had the affair with a woman (Miss Olson) who worked for local developer Nate Paul, whose relationship with one of Texas’ most powerful figures is central to the impeachment trial. Through five days of testimony, five of Paxton’s former aides have testified how Paxton allegedly pressured them in various ways to help Paul, who was under FBI investigation and once gave Paxton a $25,000 campaign contribution.

Tony Buzbee, Paxton’s attorney, challenged Cary on cross examination about the importance an affair should have in an impeachment trial.

"Imagine if we impeached everyone in Austin who had an affair," Buzbee said. "We’d be impeaching people for the next 100 years." ]

That sounded like an admission, of sorts.

The trial continues tomorrow. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (real last name of Goeb) is presiding over the trial. He has said it could end by Thursday, at which time a vote to impeach would follow.

For 60-year-old Paxton, a vote to impeach would likely end his political career. He is being tried at a time when his fellow Republicans are in full control of Texas government, something that we believe has not been lost on him.

We've not heard anything about his paramour (shown in photo above, at right) possibly taking the witness stand.

That would be a needed scene in a novel or a movie...

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ELECTION 2024:...Writing Off Republican Mayra Flores? Think Twice...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | It's one of those lateral associative sorts of things. You see dirt lobbed at a politician you don't like and then you do it. Not that it hurts or even really bothers you, but you have a writing platform and, well, write you must.

Republican candidate Mayra Flores has her fans. That is not up for discussion, as her history tells you quite readily that she came out of nowhere to actually win a congressional seat in the summer of 2022. Today, she looms as a serious existential threat to 34th Congressional District incumbent Vicente Gonzalez.

 Go ahead and go stupid. Lay it on her thick, bro. Make her the butt of your jokes all you want.

She'll be there, still be there when Election Day rolls around.

We at The Sun are not big fans of her at all. What we do believe in is honesty and fairness. To us, a member of Congress is an upstanding, admired citizen out to do good, knowing, first of all, the difference between good and bad. Miss Flores has been bad and does not seem to be learning on the ever-winding campaign trail.

Is that enough to roast her at every turn?

No. Far from it. She's a worthy opponent at the ballot box and we're pretty sure Vicente Gonzalez knows that. Merely exhibiting agog fascination with nicknames and dirt to throw at her is not going to derail her campaign, which, we're told, will be well-funded by the Republican National Committee, a deep-pockets outfit.

Democrat Gonzalez will bring his growing list of accomplishments and, we expect, a similarly fat bank account to the fray. Miss Flores cannot be devalued or run out of town by mere words, however silly those words may be. They do draw attention, but it's always in a humorous, no-account manner.

True, the written word - or uttered orotundities - carries some clout. You throw them out often enough - as does, for example, Donald J. Trump - and some people are going to buy into them. That's human nature at work and at play.

But this criticism of Miss Flores has now boiled over into detestation.

We would say that is not needed, childish and useless at the end of the day. Have your fun with trying to tear her down. You may even wish to believe you're being successful, but that's a self-created mirage. Seeing yourself as someone who's brought himself excruciatingly up to speed on national affairs convicts you. Anyone can lob cold tortillas from the stadium's upper deck, as they do in Los Angeles quite nicely.

This, too, is clear: Some people simply do not have a sense of humor as much as they have a sense of ridicule. 

Contrapuntal snivel will never either define or derail a political campaign. Remorseles repartee is cute and makes one laugh, but that's all it does. It is fleeting and worthless. You may draw some response. That, we know, will only make you laugh and spur you on down the same potholed road.

We say Mayra Flores will get her day in the court of public opinion on Election Day, 2024.

Until then, everything you read and hear will come adorned with either high praise or low-down dirt.

In politics, rootless excitement is free...

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SUN SPORTS:...Cowboys Bludgeon NY Giants, 40-0...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

DALLAS, Texas | No contest. Forty to nothing, or, numerically, 40-0. That was the final score in yesterday's Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants rainy tussle at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Need more football? Yes, but closer, more competitive games would help.

The wimpy Giants had nothing. Whipped on the field of play. Booed and cursed at home.

Rain wasn't the only thing that poured on the Giants Sunday night.

Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard jogged into the endzone on a one-yard touchdown run. Jogged. The scoreboard ballooned to 33-0 in the third quarter at MetLife Stadium.

26-0 at the half.

It ended 40-0.

New York just had no answer offensively, which gave Dallas a perfect platform to capitalize with easy points that increased the gap.

The win keeps Dallas alongside other division winners Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders, all 1-0. New York is the bottom-feeder at 0-1.

It's a very early read, but it says here that Philadelphia is the team to beat for Da Boys this season. The Eagles have the best QB in the division (Jalen Hurts), although that secondary we saw from Dallas last night may be a formidable opponent for the talented Mr. Hurts.

The Giants will spend the rest of the season playing 2nd fiddle in the Big Apple to the New York Jets.

Anachronistic Hippie Aaron Rodgers is their QB...

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MEXICO:...New Album From Juan Gabriel...Died in 2016...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | He remains one of a handful of Mexico's most celebrated singers, there along with Vicente Fernandez, Marco Antonio Solis and Jose Jose. We speak of Juan Gabriel, the most prolific Mexican songwriter of his time.

Who can hang with a new girlfriend and not get wobbly at hearing Querida? Been to a funeral and not heard his Amor Eterno, or to Ciudad Juarez and not sat down for a beer with El Noa Noa storming out of the dusty, corner jukebox?

Gabriel died a few years back, but his music is still around.

Well, now comes a new album of his songs, said to have been released by his estate.

This from latimes.com: [ Thursday night saw the streaming release of "Méxxico es Todo," a love song to Gabriel’s native country released a week before its Independence Day (Sept. 16th). The track is the first single from Gabriel’s upcoming posthumously released album, his second following 2022’s "Los Dúo, Vol. 3." As Billboard reports, the new record will feature original unpublished songs.

The accompanying music video is heavy with red, white and green pride - Gabriel’s vocals play over a montage heavy on Mexican landmarks and imagery like Basilica of Guadalupe, the Aztec sun stone, mariachis and folkloric dancers.

Gabriel captivated generations of Latinos over his four-decade career thanks to his larger-than-life personality. Over time, "Amor Eterno," a song about love and loss written by Gabriel in 1984 and popularized by singer Rocío Dúrcal, has become a staple at funerals and memorials in Mexico and the United States.

The artist died of natural causes in 2016 at his home in Santa Monica. Gabriel, who was 66, had been battling health problems. ] 

Mexican music like that offered by Gabriel and others such as Ana Gabriel (no relation), Jose Luis Peralez and Manuel Mijares was new to me when I began writing about Mexico in the mid-1980s for The Houston Post. Julio Iglesias was also in there, although he is a Spaniard.

Juan Gabriel, whose real name was Alberto Aguilera Valadez, spread his singing talent to pretty much all genres, from rancheras, to ballads, to mariachi, to pop music. He was born January 7, 1950, in the state of Michoacan.

He died August, 28, 2016, at his home in Santa Monica, California.

The cause of death was a heart attack...

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ANNIVERSARIES:..."The Falling Man" On 9/11...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

NEW YORK, N.Y. | Stories abounded today, the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York. But one that has lately found an audience is the story of "The Falling Man," a previously unidentified victim of the airliner crash into the North Tower.

His name was Jonathan Eric Briley. He is shown in photo above, taken shortly after 9:00 Ayem that fateful morning. Briley was a sound technician at the Window of The World restaurant at the top of the tower.

Says Wikipedia about him: "The Falling Man" is also the title of an article about the photograph by Tom Junod that appeared in the September 2003 issue of Esquire magazine. Briley worked on the 106th floor of the tower.

It was there, in the restaurant, that he either fell accidentally while searching for fresh air and safety or decided to jump. He was an asthmatic and would have known he was in danger when smoke began to pour into the restaurant."

The jumper had initially been identified as Norberto Hernandez, a chef at the restaurant, but Junod's investigation revealed it really had been Briley.

I love the story behind the story. Incidentally, most news organizations ignored the "jumper" story, even as bodies landed on the sidewalks below, clearly visible to shocked onlookers.

Editors believed such reporting would further hurt grieving family members...

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