DEBATES:...Long, Long Night For Animals...Nikki Haley Calls Vivek "Scum"...DeSantis Says Trump Is Yesterday...A Nation Sighs...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | As debates go, this one was a bit more excitable than the first two. Republicans can get easily angry in private, and, yes, they seem to be way better at it in public lately, but it is in rare moments when they must go for each other's throats that we see them for who and what they really are.

Debate III last night for Republican Party 2024 nomination hopefuls was the Ol' family knockdown-drag out.

It peaked with ex-South Carolina Gov. Nimarata "Nikki" Haley, but the other calico cats also chimed in with a few of their digs.

This moment from 51-year-old Haley, after a brief exchange on abortion as a political issue, from politico.com: [ "I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice," Haley said at one point. The others on the stage took their turns trying to trip her up, going after her on political, policy and even personal matters. At one point, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy attacked her for criticizing TikTok even as her daughter was once on the app.

"You’re just scum," Haley replied. ]

Ramaswamy, at 37, is the youngest and glibbest of the remaining five candidates (not counting oft-indicted Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's criminal favorite).

Haley was described as a "female Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels."

She fired back that they were 5-inch.

It went on a bit like this on matters to do with immigration, the war in Ukraine, the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the whereabouts of no-show Trump. Fighting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, polling best among these wannabes, openly said Trump "is not the guy he was in 2016 (when he won)," seeming to want to segue into saying Trump cannot win the 2024 General Election against incumbent Democrat Joe Biden.

The others - former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott - had their own moments, but both looked as if two dudes at the wrong party.

Scott's "girlfriend," a woman some pundits said may not exist, does, as news reports have it. It's a strange time we live in, so that piece of information filling out Scott's candidacy appeared to be important. Mindy Noce is the galpal's name, a lanky, hawk-nose white chick.

The "debate" was the last one of the season.

It's on to the primaries, with the Iowa Caucus next January 15 being the first test...

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REPUBLICANS:...Surprise!... Blogger Jim Barton Has Tiny Hands...Didn't He Rag Trump About His?...Yes, He Did!!!...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | He's the one forever ragging on Republican Donald J. Trump. Yeah, the dairy neck dude you see in photo above. Oh, he's also been ragging us at The McAllen Sun, but we're immune to his pedestrian attacks.

Jim Barton is his name.

He's a backbench, low-readership Brownsville blogger, the only one without a college education (no degree) and the only who has ever donated a dead wife to science.

Yesterday, the 75-year-old posted this photo alongside a lame story about the age of 75 being "the new 55." Yeah. We're still laughing. He damned sure looks a few months past 75 to us, and we're usually pretty sympathetic to the dreams of our elderly citizens.

But - damn! - we also noticed that this guy has "tiny hands." Yeah, like Trump (see photo below), the one Barton earlier mocked for having "tiny hands." How can that be? A blogger criticizing someone else's small hands when his own are also small?

It happened yesterday on Jim Barton's comatose blog, and it likely is still there, unless he deleted the silly story and weird photograph. A very insecure man, Barton tends to do that when his stories don't work out, like when he blows it and has to remove it ASAP.

It is just a stunning development to see Barton with such smallish hands. He needs to trim his nails, but maybe he doesn't so that his fingers will look longer. You think?

Yeah, what else are we supposed to think?

Look at Trump's hands in the photo and then look at Barton's hands in the photo atop this post. It is uncanny. The similarity is convicting.

We do not want to ever again hear Barton ragging on Trump's tiny hands. What a hypocrite!

And what's next - chubby Barton's weight same as Trump's? Barton's fattened neck, common in most 75-year-old men, is a freakin' rugby football! Look at Trump's neck! Yikes!!!

Unemployed House Husband Barton, formerly a motel clerk and a shrimp boat unloader at the Port of Brownsville, keeps posting and posting and posting denigrating photoshopped "art" of yours truly on his silly Laundromat Bulletin Board blog, so, okay, this could just be us balancing the competitive ledger. Heady News organizations worth their weight in salt are never friendly with the competition.  

Tiny hands...poor guy...poor wife...

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THE VOTE:...Ohio Handily Slaps Down Anti-Abortion Republicans...Virginia Hands State Senate And House To Democrats...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It was a good day for Democrats. Yesterday's votes in Ohio and in Virginia made for a nice evening with that cold beer and New York Steak.

Abortion remains a lightning rod, but Ohio told the country it is not ready to outlaw it - dealing a clear blow to rabid, anti-abortion Republicans.

In Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin saw his voters hand the State Senate to Democrats and flip the formerly Republican-led State House of Representatives.

But it is abortion that keeps getting the attention.

This from axios.com: [ Ohio voters have adopted an amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. The amendment, labeled Issue 1 on Tuesday's ballot, guarantees a person's right to an abortion and other reproductive care up until fetal viability, which is usually about 23 to 24 weeks.

The Associated Press called the race with early votes plus about 25% of Ohio's precincts reporting, with roughly 57% voting for the proposed amendment.

Abortion rights advocates overcame several obstacles in the lead-up to Tuesday's vote.

Anti-abortion rights groups tried to make it more difficult for the amendment to succeed by raising the passage threshold of constitutional amendments to 60%.

But Ohio voters rejected that proposal in the August special election with 57% opposing it, so Tuesday's ballot issue needed only a simple majority to pass. ]

Pundits are wondering about President Joe Biden's race against (...it looks like more and more) pseudo-Republican Donald J. Trump in the 2024 General Election, but maybe that's just the press wanting and needing a horse race at the polls.

Even a good Republican like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, still a candidate for the party's 2024 presidential nomination, says Republicans will go down if the party opts for Trump as its candidate against Democrat Biden.

I agree with that entirely...

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TACO TUESDAY:...Dept. Of Absurdities....We Write-Off Laura E. Cisneros...Conjoined Bloggers McHale & Barton Still Awful...Mayra Flores Is "In"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Her see-through political resume remains exceedingly thin and open to question. Not even a short stint as fighting board member of the city's handicapped-only softball league or under-assistant to the assistant of the assistant city manager. No, no, no. Dr. Laura E. Cisneros, shown in photo above, is not ready for prime time, as in a believable congressional candidate.

Last year, she ran in the Democratic Party's primary and was soundly beaten by eventual winner, Vicente Gonzalez, who took 65% of the vote to Laura's 23% - or 25,531 votes to 8,456.

What she's doing in the upcoming Republican Party primary is the question likely dancing at her ankles and happy feet. This candidate is the proverbial fish out of water. Someone hand this cute Pet Store guppy a bowl of water. She seems to need the attention more than the swim.

Cisneros has bought herself an ear with For Sale Jerry McHale, the elderly-about-town Blogger and acknowledged self-serving spouter of pieties and lies. This weekend, Cisneros was listed in McHale's blog as being ahead of better-known, better-positioned Republican Mayra Flores in a race that everybody who knows even a smidgen of Rio Grande Valley politics says has already been won by the twitchy Ms. Flores.

No contest. We agree. Elderly-about-town Blogger McHale (shown at right) is only taking her money, if she is paying him for "great, however-lying" publicity.

If ever there was a candidate around here who should be out there personally campaigning and not leaving the work to a blogger who lives with the evil he is fighting it is Laura E. Cisneros. The alliance with the blogger known for noxious effluvia puts her intelligence in question. How dumb can she be? Pretty dumb, we say. 

Exactly what is she buying from McHale - frippery?

It appears that she is. For while McHale is now posturing her as a veritable Margaret Thatcher, Laura E. Cisnero is nothing of the sort. She's green. She's a nobody. She's doomed. She's done.

Mayra Flores, it says here, will win the nomination easily.

It's a wonder to think of what McHale had to say to Madam Cisneros to get her to go along with him as daily conveyer of her ill-advised campaign. That he would simply write lies showing she was ahead of the candidate pack? That he would do it over and over and over and over, as if to convince the apparently-pliant Laura, mainly?

Well, yes.

That's the cheap, outhouse ruse here. For Laura E. Cisneros is fooling herself. Loose stool McHale is coming off the disastrous Welding Recital that saw him make wild allegations against Texas Southmost College and then, when his breathless stories went nowhere, merely slinked away as if none of it had ever happened.

That was to be expected of the blogger without serious newsroom experience.

And even with the coming mountain of pro-Cisneros postings McHale will offer, well, she will be of no historical significance. There is nothing poetical about her, unlike the intriguing rise of engrossing Mayra Flores from her early days in Burgos, Mexico to her 6-month stint as a U.S. Congresswoman in 2022.

Flores offers the immutable aspects of a divine plan, Laura E. Cisneros the phonetic apparatus of a dying cricket.

Cisneros, the good doctor of oncology, lives in brawling Brownsville, a lackluster, under-achieving border town where the imagination always roams freer. But, here, in this more-than-silly campaign, she sees herself walking through a Monet!!!!

We say she fails to understand her place in the large order of things...

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Well, it was to be expected. Once his writing mentor Jerry McHale ripped-off our Taco Tuesday concept, along came Jim "Blah, Blah" Barton - shown in recent photo above - to also steal it. McHale went all-burglar and even took our title (Taco Tuesday), but 75-year-old Barton, perhaps working with road-weary brain cells, opted to call his "Stormy Monday".

Well, that promised much.

We expected a breaking news exclusive!

But, no, Barton's initial offering in Stormy Monday this week was a lame look at (wait on it)...The Beatles. Talk about a groupie, junior high posting. The Beatles? They are about as much of a local topic as are The Mamas & Papas, although papas is a word you hear daily around here, yes.

And we don't ever expect much from Barton (shown at left). He's the only RGV blogger without a college degree, a former motel clerk, a former trailer park resident, a former shrimp boat unloader and the only dude we know who has ever donated his dead wife's body to science.

Stormy Monday. Ha ha.

Better would have been if lazy Barton had burst forth with a Stormy Daniels feature. But we fear his lack of formal education has rendered him a very linear man. Stormy Monday equals The Beatles. Huh? To house husband Barton it does.

Poor dude. He's like an annoying old coot in a nursing home forever bugging the staff about the gumball machine that took his nickel...

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 Ah, Abel Gomez. The gung-ho constable at All-You-Can-Eat Night at Wingstop. He's in a reelection fight against every angled dark shadow in Cameron County. Gomez (shown above) is just another supporting cast character in the show we know as Puro South Texas. He'd never be mistaken for a smarty, city dude.

No, he's the one who apparently got Vato-mad after we sort of amended his campaign message on Facebook: "...seeking reelection" to what we saw as the more correct one of "...seeking weight reduction".

The good, obscure constable complained to Elderly-About-Town Blogger McHale, who promptly removed our comment on his Facebook page and then blocked us.

We don't know Gomez...and with any luck we never will...

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Okay, kids, for 300 pesos...who's got the cushiest job in town? He gets $40,000 per year as mayor and he's done nothing so far in this his first year. Is that the trade-off - he gets 40 grand and the people get nothing? What a racket, as Vitas Gerulaitis would say about here.

John Cowen is his name, and he remains the Mayor of Brownsville, needy, dirt-poor, with all kinds of freakin' needs Brownsville! Bus shelters, John? Potholes, Cowen? Flooding, son? Utilities rate reductions, lad? Do something!!!

No, John Cowen apparently isn't up to it.

He's just glad to be mayor. Everything else can wait. He's young and there are many years ahead. Plus, no one is pushing his ass to do anything. The usually quick-to-anger bloggers aren't looking his way. They're staring down mirage welding controversies at the local college.

John Cowen can see he's getting a free pass.

Other RGV mayors are going gangbusters promoting their cities and drawing new businesses. John Cowen is glad Whataburger hasn't left town.

What a loser...

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The Elderly-About-Town Blogger Jerry McHale stole our slogan. What is this meandering moron without our blog? 

Our masthead carries the slogan "Our Only Loyalty Is To The Story," meaning we don't kowtow to anyone, politicians especially - like he often does, without apology.

Gangly, balding, woefully out of shape McHale, shown when in better shape in photo above, took it and used it as "My Only Loyalty Is To The Story." The loser strikes again. We say, and say aloud: May God damn him. Forced to come up with something original, 74-year-old (next month) McHale would likely drop to his knees, beg for another assignment and cry like a fattened, cleft-lipped baby on his first day at the daycare center.

Forever claiming to be a "writer," McHale all-too-often steals material from other writers. He's no writer we would praise without laughing, as does his student blogger Jim "Blah, Blah" Barton. The two bookend toilets rub each other's backs as often as they can, mainly because no one else will do it. McHale is a nothing, an unaccomplished dolt wrinkled not only of skin but in thought.

Even a mid-level editor at a Big City newspaper would rip him to shreds on Day One.

He knows it.

McHale is Brownsville's Official Wannabe.

Writer? Ha ha. His blog is a moving toilet paper roll of pestilential vapors...

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The mostly-hairless gent you see in photo above is Tad Hasse (his last name means "Rabbit" in German), said to soon be a candidate for the post of Chairman of the Cameron County Republican Party. The job is currently held by Morgan Graham. We've heard nothing about her giving up the post, but Hasse's name has been tossed around by some as if farmworkers peeing in a circle.

Hasse would be the figurehead leader of the GOP in the county, which is odd and ridiculous.

He lost his last race as a candidate for the State Board of Education (SBOE) four years ago by 29,000 votes to incumbent Ruben Cortez.

29,000 votes!

What does he know about politics? And we're not even mentioning the other elections he lost, or the fact that he switched parties more than twice. Once, he was even a Libertarian.

Something tells us that one of these days, Hasse, a prolific pro-Trump, pro-MAGA poster on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, will finally discover who he really is and isn't.

It may save him, or it may kill him.

That's the fate of those who mess with politics from all angles, forever wishing to win, to belong...

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At this point, what we're hearing - and hearing often - from Not-Quite-Grassroots Republican Mayra Flores and her campaign people is that they want a Wall between her and her opponents in the upcoming Republican Party primary. You know which primary - the one for that nomination that will then give entry to the 2024 General Election against well-heeled, better-educated Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Mayra's been a little too quiet of late, but we think she's still busy with that Instant Anglo Immersion class the whitey GOP has forced her to take.

I mean, she has a coterie of Whites pushing, framing, spearheading, disseminating her much-anticipated campaign!

The girl is already 3/4 White!!!

Well, perhaps we jest. But where there's a little bit of truth, there's the rest of the truth, is what we would say about those who would oppose our words here.

Impassioned Mayra Flores is well, well-ahead of opponents Mauro "Gag Me" Garza, Greg "Knucklehead" Kunkle and Laura E. "La Chafa" Cisneros, a woefully insecure candidate who throws money away at the drop of a compliment (re: her alliance with For Hire Blogger McHale).

When you have the backing of the Republican National Committee, you have it all.

Mayra Flores has that backing...

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Pro-Mexicans Blogger Juan Montoya isn't doing much these days. His best offering is the constancy of sentient comments arriving on his Bracero blog.

Juan is merely posting cartoons, posters and better-written stories he lifts from other news sites. Is he well?

Once, he set the tone for burning alternative news in Brownsville. Today, and of late, he has been more a ditzy BISD secretary than a Busy Bee reporter.

Eh, Juan - Que pasa? Deja la botella, ese.

We were concerned when he never surfaced to fend-off Culo Bloggers McHale and Barton on that Welding Recital scandal that turned out to be no scandal at all. Everyone in town knows of Juan's undying affinity for Texas Southmost College, target of the welding rumormongering.

He just let pussies McHale and Barton type and type and type away, the aging duo slamming TSC almost daily and leading to a Hell's Bells confrontation at the eatery Cobbleheads between gangly McHale and TSC Chair Adela Garza and TSC Trustee Tony Zavaleta.

Montoya (shown in photo with guitar) sat back and simply watched the stinking avalanche bounce off his old defenseless alma mater like lakes of Bad Shit sewage coming off broken city sewer pipes. Monty fired back only after the initial anti-TSC salvo and never wrote another word after that.

Yeah, quien sabe?

Commenters on his Caldo Del Cielo blog, however, went to town, many of them damning menso McHale and sonso Barton as being two dudes with blogs but without a clue.

We did enjoy reading most of them, yes.

 Juan is a history buff, so maybe he'll tell the not-so-thrilling, not-so-true TSC welding recital tale one of these days...

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Taco Tuesday out!!!

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TRIALS:...Alina Habba, Dumb Assyrian Lawyer Defending Sleazy Donald Trump, Calls Prosecutor Letitia James A "Black Bitch"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Donald J. Trump had himself a barrel of laughs while testifying yesterday at his $250 million fraud trial in New York. The fat dude was uncontrollable. Brash and loud, Trump took on Judge Arthur Engoron as if kicking doofus son Eric's behind.

Not that Engoron simply took it. He yelled back at the pompous Republican and admonished him more than once.

So, where the Hell were his lawyers?

Acting up, that's where. Trump has two relatively unknown lawyers at his side, Christopher Kise and Alina Habba. It is Habba, shown in photo above, who has taken Trump's boisterous style to heart. The 39-year-old Chaldean (Assyrian, from Iraq) went straight to the press microphones after the day's court session and also berated Judge Ergoron.

We fear for her law license in New York.

Her roiling abdominal spiel offered to the attending press came after Engoron told her to "Sit down!" after she interrupted the judge's questioning of the moron Trump, a man who stands to lose millions as well as his ability to do business in the State of New York. You'd think he'd want to be nice as he testified.

But nooooooooooo-oh. Loudmouth Trump hemmed and hawed, rolled his eyes, made faces and in general played the 9-year-old in an adult court.

We knew nothing about attorney Habba, but there is much online about her.

Apparently, she met Trump when she sought membership at his Bedminster Golf Club and soon formed a sort of friendship.

Her legal record is slim. She's been practicing since 2010, which is relatively brief for such a high-profile case. But maybe she works cheaply, so.

In any case, there is something of a connection to the main players in this trial, namely NY Attorney General Letitia James, the one who brought the fraud case against Deadbeat Trump.

Like this, from Wikipedia: [ On July 19, 2022, Habba was sued by a former employee Na'Syia Drayton who claimed Habba repeatedly sang inappropriate gangster rap and hip hop music in the office while using the N word, made racist comments, and referred to New York's attorney general Letitia James as "that Black bitch." The lawsuit was settled out of court in September 2022. Habba had called James a "sick person" in January of the same year. ]

It's a head-spinner, for sure.

That's who Trump picked for legal advice?

Well, we questioned that at first, but then decided Habba fits Trump's idea of a LOSER, so...

The trial continues this morning...

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DEBATES:...3rd And Final One For Republicans Set For This Wednesday...Chicken Donald Trump Will Not Be There...Nor Mike Pence...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It'll be the third and final Republican debate of this wacky political season. That comes this Wednesday in Miami. And not all of the usual suspects will be there, especially not the self-anointed, oft-indicted GOP God, Donald J. Trump.

Missing this go-round will be former Veep Mike Pence. He dropped out last week, citing a lack of campaign cash and woeful polling. Pence has not endorsed anyone yet.

Expected to be onstage are ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

And maybe North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum if he can muster a more positive polling result between today and late-tomorrow, when the official lineup will be announced by the sponsoring Republican National Committee.

Self-aggrandizing, Cheeto-colored Trump has not participated in any of the party's debates, leaving Americans to imagine how he would have fared against better speakers and candidates more-attuned to the needs of the nation. Trump Cult followers have not sneezed a word about his absence.

The party primaries begin with the Iowa Caucus, scheduled to be held January 15, 2024 - MLK Day.

We suspect that several more Republicans pretenders will drop out between now and the Iowa Caucus, probably for the same reasons Pence bailed out.

The debate will be hosted by NBC News, with moderators Lester Holt, Kristen Welker and conservative-leaning commentator Hugh Hewitt.

The two-hour debate begins at 8:00 PM...

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SUN SPOTS:..."Morning In The Sticks," A Sort Of Love Story...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas |...You've been to a lonely outpost of the sort you see in the photograph above, some dusty, isolated little dot on a map between medium-sized towns out west. Not a fast-food joint for miles. No nifty, 24-hour Holiday Inn, no competing gas stations, no choice in restaurants.

It forces me to stop, to stop and check things out, talk to the locals, ask them about their lifestyle, their needs and wants and dreams. The rough unadorned lands, are a harsh taskmaster, is what they will tell you.

It's there and it's free, allowing for endless back-breaking work, for goofing-off and for a moment of true peace. No fast-charging 18-wheeler to break the afternoon tranquility, perhaps a high-flying, Paris-bound jetliner throwing a neat white line across a light-blue sky, the contrail looking like some low-leg, life-affirming capillary way up there.

You tell me you once had a shot at moving out, moving away to the big city. But the soldier never came home. You waited and then it was simply too late.

You invite me in for a cup of coffee and let loose a raging river of words that tell your story. I drink from my cup slowly, taking in every sentence, every scene being painted.

The young soldier was killed in South Vietnam.

Not much information about how, but confirmation that he died bravely, or as bravely as one can take an unseen bullet. Then you show me a stack of faded, old photographs of when you and the soldier were kids, playing in the hillsides and the ravines, chasing coyotes after annoying the chickens, laughing ahead of what you believe will be a great life. You pull out a much-newer, framed photo of your wedding day and tell me this one is a good man, still providing.

I inhale deeply.

She's the bravest woman I've ever known. At the front door, she graciously thanks me for stopping by and talking. From the aging porch, she waves goodbye, does it with true, all-out sincerity.

It's four-five miles down the road before I can breathe easy...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE: This short story is from a collection stacked at my feet alongside my working desk. Perhaps I'll tell myself I'm finished with it one of these days and float it all to some publisher. Sometimes, I like most of my stories and at others I tell myself I've yet to find perfection, which is my goal. You'd have to be me to understand that one...]

TRIALS:...Trump Testifies Today...NY Court Will Then Decide How Much He Will Pay For Defrauding The State Of New York...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | He's up next, like this morning. That would be one Donald J. Trump walking up to the witness stand in his $250 million fraud trial.

It comes as the trial is winding down, but it's just him and daughter Ivanka left off the diseased family tree. Sons Donald Jr and Eric testified last week, offering curt, well-rehearsed answers to questions about who within the Trump organization was responsible for inflating the value of assets when meeting with bankers for loans and deflating them when filing taxes.

It's been a television news comedy without good joke writers, unless you believe the Trumps' testimony has been laughable.

This excerpt from newrepublic.com: [ New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has had enough, apparently. The gag order silencing Donald Trump in the $250 million bank fraud trial is now extended to Trump’s entire legal team, according to a judge’s order issued Friday.

In his written order, Engoron banned Trump’s attorneys from commenting on his courtroom staff.

"Since the commencement of this bench trial, my chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages. The First Amendment right of defendants and their attorneys to comment on my staff is far and away outweighed by the need to protect them from threats and physical harm," Engoron wrote in the supplemental gag order, noting that he has an "unfettered right" to consult with his staff throughout the trial.

Violating the new order would come with "serious sanctions," he warned. ]

So, knowing Fast Donald's penchant for addressing the press on the steps of the courthouse at every opportunity, one wonders whether he will be able to restrain himself today.

He'll testify. And he'll likely say what his sons told the court, that it is his accountants who are to blame for the massive fraud.

The thing is Engoron has already found the Trump Organization GUILTY of fraud.

This testimony is solely for the purpose of allowing Engoron to feel good about his final decision on just how much Trump will have to pay the State of New York for defrauding it.

Good luck, Don...

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BLOGGER JIM BARTON: ...He Takes Stuff From Our Response To His Silliness, But Here It Is In Its Entirety...Son, Real News Is Hell...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | We've always been competitive. That's the nature of the news business in the Big Time. Here locally, not so much, but we do have our critics and haters - like ever-boring, milquetoast Brownsville Blogger Jim Barton of motel clerk and dockworker fame.

He is shown in photo above, at center.

Earlier, he had posted a rather lame story about how I waste my writing talent, seeming somewhat eager to show me that he appreciated my skill and wished I didn't "destroy" other bloggers.

Then later in morning, he posted his usual attack on me, with dumb photoshopped photos of yours truly, as if that hurts me. I've had critics all my writing life, from actual news reporters too-jealous to be believed to writers of letters-to-the-editor who wished me death and unemployment.

Barton? He's a harmless, spineless minnow.

But here in its entirety is the letter we sent him, just to set things straight since he took only some from it for his attack post:

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. . . "Well, It's Sunday morning, so I'll be kind. First of all, (HA!) I don't see you or Lying Jerry as competitors in even the barest definition of the word. Both you and McHale are largely unaccomplished "pseudo, psychobabble journalists," and Montoya's mostly-Brownsville Herald experience pales against mine. You know it and we all know it.

My anger at you is that you believe yourself to be a newsman, when you're nothing of the sort.

You're a motel/dock worker quick to steal "position," wear homemade PRESS badges and, now, feature ideas off my Blog.

Most of my readers are from McAllen. My use of Brownsville is simply because it lucked out and found itself in the Rio Grande Valley. There is a difference between my hometown of McAllen and Brownsville - a big difference. I just note it occasionally and you go all-Moron.

You're not a reporter, not an educated one, at least. You are the Journalism equivalent of the clowns accused of "Stolen Valor" when posturing themselves as military veterans when they never, like you, served!

And the biggest laugh is that you believe I care what you and El Lying Jerry think of me.

I was written about in The Village Voice and the New York Daily News when I worked in the Big Apple. You think words from you, a Literal Nobody, affect me? Get real, fool!

And I never said shit about your wife in a sexual manner. If I did, it was after you threw that stuff about my "plump" lady friend from Kyle, Texas. She wasn't plump and had great teeth, plus she was a millionaire. All I said was that you should get Ana some dental care. That overbite looks awful.

Finally, I come here (to Jimmy's Laundromat Bulletin Board blog) looking for material for my weekly TACO TUESDAY feature. You (and Lying, Elderly-About-Town Jerry) never disappoint me.

And thanks for the compliments. I've heard that for years, and that's not bragging. You should ask ex-Herald Reporter Rey Guevara-Vasquez about my work for The Houston Post. I got him a job there in the 1980s. He and I even covered the Great Earthquake of 1985 in Mexico City. Rey won't lie, 'cause he's been there in the Big City newsroom. Don't publish this; just paste it on your expansive forehead.

Paz out..."

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There, that's what riled-up Jimmy Boy.

He's an accomplishment loser from way back. Tell us about why your family moved from Washington to the Valley when you were of draft age (and never served). What about your formal education? Did you attend Brownsville High, or did you get a handy GED?

What other jobs have you had? List a few. We all know that your lovely, deserved-better ex-wife Nenny (shown in photo at right), the one whose body you donated to science, worked all her life to help support you, as is doing your current wife, the Filipina Ana.

Go ahead, Tell it all, brother. Impress us with the truth.

It'll free you from that heavy load you carry in your head and on your shoulders, making you look like an elderly, physically-eccentric slob.

The weird "who knows?" word is you're a societal loser and an unaccomplished, balding Old Man. The one you think is your best friend used to call me often and the things he said about you and Ana's "Southmost" appearance would no doubt piss you off.

I say, "Own it all..."

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...I am a proud U.S. Navy veteran, having served four years of active duty as a Corpsman (medic) - two years with the U.S. Marines, at Camp Pendleton in California and at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina...]   

DEMOCRATS:...Law Says Mayra Flores Can Certainly Pay Herself $60,000 From Campaign Contributions ...Democrats Blinded By Partisan Hate...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | ...There was the star-crossed Blogger Juan A. Montoya, a lifelong Democrat, ragging on Republican Mayra Flores for having the audacity to pay herself a $5,000-per-month salary off her hefty campaign contributions.

It's all cool. It is not illegal, but Democrats always go nuts pointing things out. The salary over a year's period would be $60,000.

In 2002, the Federal Election Commission voted to allow candidates running for Congress or president to use their campaign contributions to pay themselves salaries.

The move was intended to make it easier for people who are not wealthy to quit their jobs and run for office. Without a campaign salary, they are at a disadvantage against incumbents, who collect taxpayer-paid salaries as they seek re-election.

We're okay with this. It is, after all, campaign contributions and NOT taxpayer funds. You contribute to a candidate and, well, that candidate is free to use that cash as it best fits his or her campaign. Some candidates use contributions to pay for legal expenses, as we have seen with grubby Republican Donald J. Trump.

But then we ran into a lively give & take on the Facebook page availed by well-known Republican (and former Democrat) Carlos Cascos. We were and weren't surprised by his argument.

He had this to say: "It is self-serving for elected officials or candidates to utilize campaign funds to pay themselves 5 or 6 figure salaries in addition to paying for meals, groceries & incidentals to subsidize their lifestyle or livelihood for themselves and/or family members. For those that do it should be asked to explain the rationale.....it just doesn't look right to me, regardless of position or political affiliation. Period."

Well, okay.

Sure, it doesn't look good. But as we noted, it is NOT illegal. And working with the premise that if something is not illegal...it is legal, then what Mayra Flores is doing is just fine.

It is.

Looks and appearances is what Mr. Cascos, a former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State, is saying. We would wish all politicians to take his position, but they don't. We all know they don't, so...

As always, the people who ultimately count on all political arguments are the voters.

Voters will decide Mayra's fate in the party primary next Spring. Will this "Pay Myself" move mean much by then? No. Mayra remains the overwhelming favorite to win her primary contest and then tackle Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in the November,2024 General Election. 

By the way, Democrat Beto O'Rourke left his defeat to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott with a large amount of cash (a few million) still in his campaign coffers.

What's he doing with it? Democrats aren't asking.

Using it as best he sees fit, likely also taking a few bucks for himself.

Don't rag on party favorite Mayra Flores for the legal things she's doing; look for anything she may be doing that is illegal. I mean, if you hate her that much, like Blogger Montoya...

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SUN SPOTS:...The Wild With A View...About That Romantic Moon And Moonlit Nights...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas |...There was a big, fat moon out last night, rising cold and mineral, moving as it always does around our celestial sphere, Earth. You can stare at it, or you can ignore it.

It's too far to claim, although we do, 'cause, like a loyal wife, it revolves around our world.

They say our moon was born from violence, that something else hit Earth and out went a large amount of dirt that eventually framed itself into what is now that symbol of romance, the moon.

Moonlight is being blamed for many a fling, adultery included. But the moon has no light of its own. It is merely reflecting sunlight, so in those private moments when you feel it was that silly moon that set your love life in motion, well, if it was moonlight you credit then you should really give thanks to the sun.

I know. I know.

Silly Humans are hopeless believers, ingrained with that herd mentality that says we owe so much to the stars and the Heavens. Perhaps we do, but... And I wonder if the dinosaur thought as much, that when they would die they would go to a better place.

We're supposed to be sorta formed in the physical image of God. The dinosaurs, it says here, likely had their own. They got wiped out by something that came from way up there in the sky. Not much was left for their biography.

It is Man who has unearthed facts about their time on Earth. You should know that when the end comes for Man, well, I doubt the surviving cockroach will have time to write books or school papers about our brief time in the universe.

Enjoy the view out your window today, whatever it is and wherever you are...

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TIME:...It's Fall...So Set Your Watch And Clock Back One Hour...See You Next March 10 For The Spring Forward...

 

STAFF REPORT

McALLEN, Texas | Well, we're back here. Yeah, that time of the year. Time change, Baby. Set your watch and clock back an hour at 2:00 AM tomorrow morning. You know the drill: Spring Forward; Fall Back.

We're into Fall, so fall back.

This from www.axios.com [ The biannual changing of the clocks takes place this Sunday as we "fall back" to standard time after nearly eight months in daylight saving time.

The twice-yearly clock changes likely won't stop anytime soon with efforts in Congress to make daylight saving time permanent stalled since March.

Health experts and lawmakers agree that switching the clock back and forth should end but haven't reached a consensus on whether permanent daylight saving time or year-round standard time is best.

In the 1970s, the last time Congress made daylight saving time permanent, the decision was reversed in less than a year after the early morning darkness proved dangerous for school children and public sentiment changed.]

So, enjoy the extra hour of sleep.

And see you March 10th for the next change...

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WAR:...Israel Out To Kill All Palestinians...No Distinction Made Between Terrorists and Civilians...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, what's Israel going to do once it bombs Palestine off the face of the Earth. We ask: Does it have a grand plan for the land? It's been almost a month since the latest Israeli-Hamas entanglement went for the weaponry of death.

Now, some 10,000 Palestinians are dead, thousands of buildings downed and no end in sight for the killing invasion by the Israelis.

Can we even want to see the end? Is there something new for both warring countries on the horizon. The quarreling has been going on for long decades. Is this just another ballgame, one with fancier bombs, more victims and an Israeli bent on making it the final countdown?

We draw on a bit of telling history in the following paragraphs. 

This excerpt from lemonde.fr.com: [ "This whole operation is different from previous ones. We are not hitting only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas government and all its wings. We are hitting government buildings, production factories, security wings and more. We are demanding governmental responsibility from Hamas and are not making distinctions between the various wings. After this latest operation, there will not be one Hamas building left standing in Gaza and we plan to change the rules of the game."

This statement above is by a deputy chief of General Staff of the Israeli army is not recent. It dates back to December 27, 2008. Dan Harel made it on the third day of the war in Gaza, which pitted Israel against Hamas, who ruled over the narrow strip of land ever since the forced ousting of the Palestinian Authority one year earlier.

Fifteen years and three other offensives against Hamas later, the Israeli authorities have once again set themselves the lofty goal of eradicating the entire organization responsible for the massacres of Israeli civilians perpetrated on October 7. With the Palestinian question reduced to a security challenge, Israel's response is strictly military. ]

There is no talk yet about what would come next, after victory.

Revenge has been the motivation, although Israeli forces have killed an untold number of civilians in their ongoing invasion, children included.

The fight at present, although somewhat justified, is not a fair fight.

Israel has the latest weaponry supplied by the United States. The U.S. is not aiding Palestinians.

And it's true that terror-bent Hamas uses Palestinians to shield it from attack. Whether the world believes that to be enough to wholly side by Israel is another matter altogether. Huge demonstrations in Europe have taken the Israelis to task for its al-out assault on Gaza, civilians be damned.

President Joe Biden has apparently told Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to exert cautiousness in the face of mounting criticism from other countries.

Netanyahu has said nothing in response.

Israel, it says here, makes a big mistake in deflecting calls for a "cease fire" and continuing the wanton killing of civilians...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...Bottom photo - I'm not a big fan of McDonald's grub. My lovely friend Laura wanted to stop by yesterday afternoon, so we did for a quick bite. This is the photo I took from inside the popular fast-food joint on N. 10th Street...]

CULTURE WARS:...One Rich American Is Spending Loads Of Cash To Foment Unrest ...Yeah, Bring Your "Culture War" Project...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | How badly do some people want to change society? Wildly bad. Buzz words like "culture wars" are in our daily lexicon now, and there are a growing number of Americans wholly bent on seeing those changes become, well, our life.

Rich guy Chris Rufo, shown in photo above, is one willing to spend a load of his cash to bring and make those changes.

This excerpt from newrepublic.com: [ A conservative activist has unveiled a fellowship that aims to help "conservative journalists, activists, and opinion leaders" foment a culture war.

Christopher Rufo, an ally of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has become a leading figure in conservative education policy. He first gained national attention by instigating the explosive debate of critical race theory, which has now become a rightwing buzzword for diversity of thought.

Rufo unveiled the "Manhattan Institute Logos Fellowship" this week.

"Fellows will bring a specific ‘culture war’ project to the program, which our team will help nurture over the course of the year," he wrote in the announcement. The goal is to help move these independent projects from conception to execution, so that they begin to shape the discourse and change public policy. Some topics that we hope to address are critical race theory, gender ideology, higher education reform, crime and policing, and civil rights law."

One benefit of the program is that fellows will be able to network with "cable news bookers, policy makers, and aligned organizations to promote the dissemination of ideas and policy proposals." ]

Civil rights law? You know what that means - ridding the country of laws protecting the unfortunate, keeping them from voting and the granting of equal standing under the law. 

Is anyone fighting this, or are we seeing the early fingers of our very different future?

No, and yes.

It is always interesting to see what our monied population is up to, especially in the political world. Rufo seems bent on this and some in the country are looking for such moves.

Is it good or bad.

That depends on your particular point of view, although change always has been part of our national politics.

We'll see...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...A new business has opened along N. 10th Street in McAllen. Taqueria 501 arrived on the scene recently. Taquerias are rare in North McAllen. Most of them are on South 10th Street and over on 23rd Street. This one is kinda cool...]    

REPUBLICANS:...Boots-Lover Ron DeSantis Loses Another One...Florida Sen. Rick Scott Endorses Trump...Everybody Hates DeSantis...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Drowning Ron DeSantis loses another one. The Republican governor of Florida seems to be going under water fast in his bid for the party's 2024 presidential nomination. Could it be the altered cowboy boots that are supposed to make him look taller?

Could be.

It also could be that Republicans just don't like him.

This from axios.com: [ Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R, shown in photo above) on Thursday endorsed former President Trump for president in 2024 in a blow to his home state governor, Ron DeSantis.

Scott held off on any endorsement during the 2016 Republican primary until Florida held its contest. He endorsed Trump after he won a decisive victory in the state.

Scott, a longtime Trump ally, also ran a pro-Trump super PAC in 2016.

Scott, who reportedly considered a presidential bid for himself, has had a tension with DeSantis. He told NBC News that DeSantis "has never talked to me about an endorsement."

"It's time for the Republican Party to come together, behind one candidate, and declare with one voice that we are united in our efforts to defeat Joe Biden and rescue America," Scott wrote in an opinion piece published by Newsweek. ]

We earlier wrote that DeSantis is going nowhere in this contest and is likely only pinning his chances on, say, the possible death of frontrunner Donald J. Trump between now and the Republican Primary in the spring.

He's wallowing, and that's putting it kindly.

DeSantis has never caught-on with the wild MAGA types and the traditional Republicans disdain his attempt to be another Trump.

How many more endorsements from his home state can he lose?

Eventually, all of them, it says here...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...Photo at bottom of post - A new Hong Kong Asian Supermarket has opened along busy N. 10th Street in McAllen. It's an expansive store with some really weird stuff you'd never find at your local H-E-B. When we cruised by, the store was busy-busy...This, btw, is a new wrinkle to our posting - including something local in a state or national story...]

SEASONS:...What A Great Concept?...Cool And Then Warmer...Cold And Then Hotter...Life Is So Daily...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...There is, of course, the wondrous side of things here. Why four seasons? Hot & cool and mild & cold - perhaps God's idea of a neat joke.

Well, maybe not a joke.

More like a lesson in change, which is what Life actually is for most humans. My God is one special character in this novel I have been living. He throws me here and there, always with me being ever-attentive to his commandments, although, like many in his flock, at times flailing and failing.

What a great ride! We're into Fall, although the part of the country where I live has but two seasons: the long, hot summer of May-November and the cooldown from November to April.

Still, to know that other points on the map do enjoy four distinct seasons is enough for the road-tired brain. That it's there is more than enough for me. I have enjoyed them all, in various sectors of this great land.

On the lip of our dawning Holiday Season, I am shopping for a new thin sweater. No thick ones need here in this sub-tropical region I currently call home. Maybe next year I'll move to a part of the country where I'll need an actual "jacket". LL Bean no doubt tires of sending me promotional material on its spectacular winterwear.

I'm up for it, yes...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."This One"...

REPUBLICANS:...Short Isn't Selling? Ron DeSantis Tries Elevator Boots...Not A Cool Look, But...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's the halting walk, that awkward step and odd bounce of the sort you see in men wearing outsized, ill-fitting cowboy boots. Graceless Ron DeSantis, still a candidate for president, can't seem to pull it off. The wearing of "elevated" boots, we mean.

He claims to be 5'11" in height, but that is being questioned, even as he flails hopelessly in his ongoing quest for the Republican Party's 2024 nomination.

Those who have seen him in person say he's closer to 5'8" tall.

DeSantis, governor of Florida, won't say how tall he is or whether the new boots he's wearing have been altered to make him appear taller.

This excerpt from vanityfair.com: [ DeSantis has said and done a lot of uniquely awful things over the past several years that should preclude him from ever becoming president of the United States. From championing Florida’s bigoted "Don’t Say Gay" law to signing a six-week abortion ban to declaring that he’d "start slitting throats [in the federal workforce] on day one," the list is long, varied, and terrifying.

Should appearing to wear height-enhancing lifts in his boots for a couple extra inches and refusing to cop to such measures also be on that list?

Not really, no. But it’s a strange thing that definitely doesn’t help! Especially since, according to a deeply reported new story, the governor is almost certainly trying to pull a fast one re: his stature. ]

Yeah, who cares? He's so flawed in so many other areas of his political life that his height rests somewhere low on his problems. But he is thinking otherwise. Wearing those "customized" cowboy boots make him look like a damaged skeleton as he walks across, say, a stage ahead of a speech.

But he's not answering the question.

Elevated cowboy boots is a strange combination of words. We'll go ahead and ask: What cowboy would do that to his boots, much less wear them?

High heels next, Ron?...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...About the other photo in this posting - we noticed this morning that the price of Bolillos at H-E-B has risen from 25 cents to 42 cents apiece. That's a hefty raise...] 

TRIALS:...Troubled Trumps To Testify In (Egads!!!) $250 Million Fraud Case...1st Up Is Son Don Jr...Then Eric And Ivanka...Donald Takes Stand On Monday...

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's legal high-wire time for the troubled Donald Trump family. Court trials are never a good place for siblings to trade testimony, but it begins today in Trump's $250 million fraud trial in New York.

First up on the stand is Donald, Jr.

That is to be followed tomorrow by brother Eric. Daughter Ivanka had been scheduled for this Friday but will now testify next week. She is shown in photo above.

Dad will take the stand on Monday.

At issue in the case before no-nonsense Judge Arthur Engoron is how much Trump will have to pay the Empire State for his crooked dealings. The Trump Organization was found guilty of defrauding New York earlier by the same judge. This is the penalty phase.

From newsweek.com: [ New York Attorney General Letitia James will be searching for any inconsistencies in evidence between the Trump children in the $250 million fraud case being taken against the Trump Organization, a federal attorney has said.

The lawsuit accuses the former president and other defendants, including his companies and his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, of fraudulently inflating the value of assets to obtain favorable loans and insurance deals. Trump and his children have denied any wrongdoing in the case.

Donald Trump Jr. will be the first of the Trump siblings to give evidence on Wednesday, followed by Eric Trump on Thursday, Donald Trump on Monday and Ivanka Trump on the following Wednesday.

This collectively places the Trump Organization in a dangerous place, federal attorney Colleen Kerwick told Newsweek. ]

Pundits are at odds over how the Trump siblings will come across, some saying there will be plenty of "I do not recall(s)" in the testimony. Daddy Trump has criticized the subpoenas, claiming the entire mess is a continuation of the "witch hunt" he associates with everything the government throws at him.

We'll see.

Trial testimony tends to go smoothly or off the rails.

All three - Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric - Trumps worked high-level positions for the company, all had access to its doings, and all benefitted from its business dealings.

Penalty amounts listed in recent news reports have it that the Trump Organization could be fined some $250 million, although that amount is subject to being increased by Judge Engoron...

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