BLACK POWER:...In Letter, NAACP Puts Florida Colleges On Notice...All Black Athletes Told To Reconsider Playing In Sunshine State...Blame Ditzy Republican Gov. DeSantis...It's Been Coming...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Yeah, what would Alabama, Georgia and those vaunted, Power 5 schools in the acclaimed Southeast Conference be without Black athletes? Not much. They'd be Texas Lutheran, Texas-El Paso, Tarleton State, just to name a few Texas schools not quite in the same class.

It's been something of a thing to think about, what with our horrible racist politics dancing across the country - nowhere more excitable and ridiculous than in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has played strongman against all things not white or benefitting whites.

The National Association for the Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP) is fighting back.

This from a report on espn.com: [ The NAACP asked Black student-athletes to reconsider their decisions to attend public colleges and universities in the state of Florida, in response to the University of Florida and other state schools recently eliminating their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

In a letter sent to NCAA president Charlie Baker and addressed to current and prospective student-athletes Monday, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote, "This is not about politics. It's about the protection of our community, the progression of our culture, and most of all, it's about your education, and your future."

Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits the use of state funds for any DEI programs. As a result, the University of Florida announced on March 1 it had closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated 13 full-time DEI positions and 15 administrative appointments and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors.

Other schools, such as North Florida and Florida International, have also recently shuttered DEI programs.

NFL Hall of Famer and Florida great Emmitt Smith also spoke out, voicing his disgust at UF's decision and asking minority athletes at UF to "be aware and vocal" about the decision.

In a statement, the NAACP's Johnson said, "Diversity, equity, and inclusion are paramount to ensuring equitable and effective educational outcomes. The value Black and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched. If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it's time they take their talents elsewhere." ]

The letter may be couched as not being "about politics," but it damned well is, and we're more than okay with it. What would U. of Florida (Emmitt Smith) and Florida State (Deion Sanders) and the U. of Miami (Michael Irvin) be without Black players? Good Lord, their histories on the playing field and basketball court were written by Black players. Beyond that, well, Cubans have made up more than their share of starting players on all three of those school's baseball teams. Alex Rodriguez ring a bell?

The story flashed on ESPN yesterday, but it will most certainly be picked up by the mainstream news media, like the Associated Press. Look for it, on crazy angles, of course, from Right Wing outlets.

Florida is the state where more than a few politicians recently characterized slavery as being "of great benefit" to the Black community.

This should be interesting.

We can almost hear FOX News and other far right news outlet Talking Heads damning the NAACP and Black players for being ungrateful and biting the hand that's fed them.

But it would turn college sports upside down if this ballooned and players actually looked to cleaner, greener pastures to display their talents.

Colorado looks even better after this. Right, Coach Prime?...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."SUFRE MAMÓN"...

MAGA:...And Now! - "Ladies And Gentlemen. From North Carolina, The Neeeeewwwww ...Black Trump!!!!!"... He's Out To Spout The Same Lies...He's Hot And After The Rot...He's What The Death Of MAGA Looks Like?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Well, why not a Black one? America comes in all colors, doesn't it. We've yet to see a Brown Trump, although, well, there was Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy and, of course, fellow Indian Nikki Haley.

Black Trump is here and his name is Mark Robinson. Uh, he's the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, but he's running for the state's top job, that of governor. Does he have a chance at winning? Well, Democrat Josh Stein, the opponent, says he wants 55-year-old, rotund Robinson to keep talking.

Robinson is talking MAGA tough, picking on former President Barack Obama's signature legislation, Obamacare. In Robinson's odd mind, Obamacare is nothing more than yet another manner of enslavement.

His spiel: Something about Americans not taking care of themselves and relying way too much on federal programs. Yeah, this guy's fast on the hoof when it comes to all-things-Trump. If the Mar-a-Lago maven has a darker doppelgänger, it's Mark Robinson. Same big mouth, same lies, same hate, same doughnut-fueled body.

But we read somewhere online that this is what we have to go through to rid ourselves of the cancer known far & wide as MAGA (the Make America Great Again crapola pushed by Trump for now going on nine years.

More and more, political pundits in this grass-whorled country are saying the death and end of MAGA will come in November, when national election results again tell Trump he is a loser. No White House for you! Next!!

We could dive into all the Republican Party is after, but so many others have done it and are still doing it, like these few words from Newsweek.com: "The GOP is content to restrict voting and muck with gerrymandering and the procedural rules rather than supporting a dictatorship. GOP’ers may realize that there is no such thing as a Republican Dictator. A dictator won’t need them or their party."

That "dictator" part is not one often mouthed by Republicans, even as they full-well know the definition of the word. How many times have they used it in the past, pasted it in paragraphs to do with the Russian and Chinese leaders?

That many?

It's been a serpentine tale of lust & disgust, for sure.

But we all know how this will end, don't we? Roughly eight more months of dizzying discourse before the November election. This dude Robinson, like his idol Trump, will not be celebrating the vote count.

MAGA is fast dying on the vine.

Everybody knows it...some people are just trying to make a little money off of it now...

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JACK SMITH:...No-Nonsense Federal Prosecutor Creating Nightmares For Fishy Donald Trump...It May Be An Election Between Him And Joe Biden, But Smarty Smith Is The One To Fear...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Him, your honor. "He's the one making Donald J. Trump's life miserable. Get him off our back! We're getting killed here, sir. Ma, Ma, we have no answers against this guy!" What? A trial. "Your honor, we're in the middle of a national presidential campaign! Who's got time for criminal trials?"

Jack Smith.

Jack Smith has all the time in the world.

Republican Trump is traipsing across the country seeking his party's nomination for the 2024 battle at the ballot box in early November. Jack Smith is busy cementing his cases against the former Democrat from New York who's moved to Florida and become the Sunshine State's leading Republican miscreant.

Smith has Trump by the short hairs, in a case alleging insurrection at the nation's capital and one accusing the ex-pres of fleeing the office after losing in 2021 with boxes of classified documents, reportedly including serious state secrets some say Trump may sell when he finds himself in that prison vice Smith is readying for his big, fat butt.

The contest against President Joe Biden?

Desperate Trump needs help with that, but it's prosecutor Smith he fears.

 This from telegraph.com: [ As the current polls stand, the greatest impediment to Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 is not its current occupant, Joe Biden, but the clear specter of a criminal conviction. The man working to secure just that on behalf of the US government, Jack Smith, a grizzled, taciturn career prosecutor, has cut an elusive figure since he emerged from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) nondescript offices in Washington last June to announce he was indicting a former president for the first time in its history.

If the indictments - the first for allegedly mishandling US secrets, the second for attempting to overturn the 2020 election - were a political maelstrom threatening to split the country, Smith himself presents as decidedly muted.

With his stern demeanor and dark suits, the 54-year-old Smith would be indistinguishable from any other smartly dressed, but restrained, federal prosecutor were it not for his thick salt and pepper beard. ]

Yes, Maria, we're in for some action at the courthouse. You still think the OJ Simpson murder trial in L.A. was as good as it gets? Uh, hang on, doll. This one, or these ones, will be so much better, so much more interesting, so much more dramatic. Trump foil Walt Nauta, his Mar-a-Lago houseboy, plays Kato Kaelin in this one, Baby.

Yes, Jack Smith is tanned, rested and ready.

You can almost hear him, "If you listen to the prick, you must convict."

Bailiff, close the door. Send in the jury.

The defendant will rise...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Her Strut"...

AGE IN POLITICS:...Joe Biden And Donald Trump Both Old Geezers...Is 81 Too Old?...Is 78 As Old As 81?...Americans To Vote On Favored Coot...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It wasn't all that long ago, like 20 years ago, that societal scuttlebutt had age 50 being the new 40. Well, they're still saying it, only now it's 70 being the new 50. America has been a hurry-up, throwaway society since the 1960s, when black & white TV went to die in Vietnam, Hippies brought "Free Love" and the electric guitar raised the nation's noise level a few good decibels.

John F. Kennedy was president then at the young age of 42.

The Beatles and Rolling Stones appearing with aging Ed Sullivan as they cruised into their early-20s. John Wayne and Frank Sinatra, last of the Hollywood dinosaurs, fading and then dying. The color gray was leaving town.

Now comes the resurgence? We ask, as presidential politics has us back on the clock.

President Joe Biden is 81, finishing his first term in office and looking for another four years. He's seen as getting up there in age, as they say in civil conversation. His opponent, Donald J. Trump, has legal collars around his fleshy neck, will be 78 this June. Are they too-old for the most important job in the splintered country, in the fractured world?

Yes, they are.

By about 15 to 20 years, we would say. And it's not that the crap being bandied about the immigrant surge along the nation's southern border is anywhere near the crisis that was the Cuban missile threats of the early-60s. Not even close. That Israeli War on Palestine in the Gaza Strip is NOT the mess that was our involvement in South Vietnam, where some 58,000 of our soldiers died staving off the so-called spread of communism. Yeah.

That however-nasty fight in Ukraine is not North Korea versus South Korea of the 1950s. Our Korean veterans would slap you silly if you dared to make that connection. Those cries of Inner City crime and police misbehavior is not the same of the sort we saw earlier in Los Angeles and, a bit earlier than Compton and Watts, in the Selmas of the American South.

We could parallel other moments in this country's worst moments, but you get the drift.

What America needs is a young president, whether male or female - someone who would speak to tomorrow, to the future. I like Biden over Trump for all the reasons under the sun and in the Bible, but his time has come and largely gone. Trump is just a mess individually and who wants the neighborhood loser as head of the street watch committee?

The number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050 (a 47% increase), and the 65-and-older age group's share of the total population is projected to rise from 17% to 23%. So says the U.S. Census Bureau. America's population is older today than it has ever been.

No, Maria, we're not out of the woods anytime soon. We're old and getting older. The woods may never the same, in fact.

From time.com: [ With the oldest presidential matchup in American history upon us, issues of health and competency are likely to come up again and again over the next nine months. And both campaigns will be working to make their opponent seem doddy, senile, and infirm, and their own guy the picture of vim and vigor. ]

That's out & out cheap political posturing. I guess we deserve it. It is, apparently, Biden vs. Trump in the November General Election. 81 or 78 - pick your horse at the Kentucky Derby's Senior Citizen Horse Race. Makes one wonder about age. Time, that constant in human life. You can't walk up to the standup clock and turn the sucker back, or off.

That time feature in your cellphone is what you live by, right?

Sure.

The job of American president will be filled. Citizen voters from coast to coast will have their say. Old will win...

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REPUBLICANS:...In State Of The Union Response, A High School Performance...Alabama Junior Sen. Katie Britt Latest GOP Sacrifice...She Gomered It...Whiney, Whispered Little Nothings...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Ah, Republicans. They'll always bring you the funny stuff. Cheetos-fattened lies, yes, but also down-home, often-corny, sort-of goofy comedy. I mean, Matt Gaetz? Marjorie Trailer Greene? Lauren Boebert? And, well, we thought Little Marco Rubio was the bottom of the barrel.

Heck, you pine for glib Bobby Jindal and even the masculine Sarah Huckabee Sanders at times like this.

Well, at times like last night.

High-neck, 42-year-old Katie Britt, shown in color photo above, is the emerging GOP comedian-of-the-hour. She killed it in her burbled post-Biden State of The Union address. Killed it as in perhaps killed-off any future opposition party rebuttals to the President's speech before Congress.

The wife of 6'8", 320-lb. former New England Patriots lineman Wesley Britt tried to tackle Joe Biden with the most ridiculous rebuttal ever - ever! Picture a whiney wife dressed to the nines offering words of how much the American wife and household is suffering under the Biden Administration, and you get one view. Britt's performance, however, lasted more than 17 long, long, long minutes, most of it worthy, said the pundits of a Saturday Night Live skit by a poor actress.

That, it was.

Her points were Donald J. Trump's points. Someone wrote that Britt, a birdlike-woman with the perfect whiney, backwater voice heard only in her native. low-energy Alabama, had emailed her speech to Trump for his approval and editing.

So much for it being a Katie Britt address.

We laughed and cringed at hearing her voice and watching her silly facial expressions (youtube.com has several videos this morning). We know it's all for "effect," but Britt was, as they used to say about Donkey Shows in Mexican border bordellos, over-the-top, as in an actress doing her damndest at an audition, her first.

From www.axios.com: [ The speech from the freshman senator is a stark example of how Republicans continue to make immigration and border security their top election year issue. Britt also took aim at Biden's economic record, hitting the president on inflation after he trumpeted wins on the economy in his speech.

Britt criticized Biden's foreign policy even as he led his State of the Union with pushing Republicans to pass aid to Ukraine. ]

Yeah, blah, blah, blah all over again from these ornery, always-the-naysayers-in-the-crowd.

Republicans have serious members of Congress who could have given a better, perhaps even sorta-believable rebuttal. Names are all across my brain. Sen. John Thune who is seeking to replace retiring Mitch McConnell as U.S. Senate Majority Leader. Maybe Steve Garvey, the former Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman in the running to replace Democrat Dianne Feinstein in California. Or even Greg Abbott, the pro-Border Everything governor of Texas!

Katie Britt? She's the junior, freshman senator from Alabama, fer chrissakes! That wide, wide, wide, wide gap between Joe Biden's experience and Britt's inexperience was glaring. You felt sorry for the dame in this one. Katie Britt's jarring performance may portend an end to her political career. 

Amateurish Britt's all you've got, GOP?

Looks like it.

President Biden won the night... 

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TEXAS RANCHING:...Fires in Panhandle Counties Has Cattle Ranchers Requesting Financial Help...Republican Gov. Abbott Declares It A True Disaster But Can't Bring Himself To Call Biden White House For Help...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Texas ranchers decimated by raging wildfires in the Panhandle want financial help from Uncle Sam. Some 1.3 million acres of range land have been scorched in the past week and officials estimate as many as 500 buildings have been destroyed.

And, as yet, no request from Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for help from the Biden White House.

From FOXnews.com: [ More than 100 people packed a room at the Hemphill County Exhibition Center on Tuesday afternoon looking for answers about what government assistance they can tap to help them recover from staggering financial losses caused by the fires. The economic toll from the wildfires, which include the largest in the state’s history, hasn’t been officially tallied. But Panhandle ranchers have likely lost thousands of cattle in the wildfires, according to some preliminary estimates. ]

Abbott has declared this a Texas disaster, and some federal agencies are on the scene, but it's a quirky thing for the governor to perhaps ask for the Democrat's help during an election year.

Would Donald J. Trump slam Abbott if the latter bowed to Biden for aid in the wildfires recovery?

No freakin' doubt.

Only, just how long Abbott can hold out is the question, as ranchers and property owners feel the pain of loss and clean-up. It costs a pretty penny to have someone pull up and haul away hundreds of cattle carcasses.

The fires on the open range also spread into neighboring Oklahoma, but its Republican governor has yet to declare any sort of emergency much less join Texas in seeking federal assistance.

Inevitably, ranchers and farmers and victims of this sort of disaster get help from the federal government. That's what antsy Panhandle residents seem to want; politics set aside for the moment.

Abbott, his mind framed on the supposed immigrant surge at the Mexican border hundreds of miles to the south of the wildfires, has not been to the scenes of the disaster...

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SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS: ...Mayra Flores Crushes Lame Opponents...Fellow Republican Monica De La Cruz Takes Her Dist. 15 Race...Hasse Weathers Beating, But Loses Again...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Boys, this was like a Mayra Flores cartoon in which she wallops The Three Little Pigs. Oink, oink, Baby. Elections used to be close contests for the most part, but Miss Flores, a mouthy marquee Republican, tends to shoo her opponents aside rather easily.

Bring on Democrat Vicente Gonzalez!

Yesterday's Super Tuesday vote had more than a handful of "expected" results, sure. But Mayra Flores took a whopping 83% of the vote! In a four-candidate race!! As crooner David Allan Coe might sing about here: "If that ain't country, I'll kiss your arse."

Lost in the fog of the dusty avalanche were fake Republicans Laura E. Cisneros and Mauro Garza. Together, they got almost 10% of the vote. Also-ran Gregory Kunkle played the part of the "Who dat?"

Yes, sometimes it's almost too-easy to pick winners in politics. Trump won big in Texas, as did Ted Cruz. It was, to be honest, not a real election, in that these contests pitted partisans against each other for the right to meet opposing party candidates in the November General Election.

Mayra Flores is still steaming from her loss to the same Gonzalez in 2022. You could see it in her face and hear it in her words all through this particular campaign. Flores had no time for family fights. She wants Gonzalez in the worst of ways. 35 rounds of boxing or 7 out of 12 falls in wrestling.

"Today’s overwhelming victory clearly shows that we have the support, momentum, and message to defeat Vicente Gonzalez and bring home a resounding victory in November," Flores said, via her Facebook page.

That's the 34th Congressional District main event in the Fall. District 15 will see a repeat of their all-out 2022 brawl after both incumbent Republican Monica De La Cruz and Democrat Michelle Vallejo won their party races. Ironically, Gonzalez held that particular seat until he was gerrymandered out and the next thing you knew he had bolted for neighboring district 34. Good luck, Vincent, but I could have told you this world was never meant for anyone as boring as you. Starry, starry night, Baby!

In ever-mourning Brownsville, the insistent lad Tad Hasse (shown in photo below) lost his latest bid for office. Hasse, a city employee, was beaten by newcomer Deborah Bell in the race for Cameron County Republican Party Chairman - a lofty, yet not really lofty political post. Bell grabbed 61% of the vote, whipping Hasse 8,062 to 4,994 in the vote count.

Bell pummeled Hasse with early-count body blows and a late-in-the-fight string of crippling uppercuts, taking the race easily.

You may or may not recall that this same Hasse lost his previous campaign for a seat on the State Board of Education by an astonishing 29,000 votes.

We expect to see seemingly forever-bored Hasse in the next election, running for something or another.

Peripatetic Republican Ted Cruz will face Democrat - former NFL linebacker - Colin Alred in November. This may be the only contested election in the Lone Star State, as we project victories for most incumbents - the annoying Cruz not being one of them, however.

The voter turnout could have been better, yes.

But, well, we live in the worst of times, don't we?...You know we do...

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POLITICS:...Super Tuesday Movie...The Candidate - "What Do We Do Now?"...

WHILE TEXAS BURNED:... Republican Governor Abbott Absent From Raging Wildfires Upstate......He's Been Hanging With Trump On The Mexican Border...Democrat Pres. Biden Promises Federal Aid...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...A week into the uphill battle up in the Texas panhandle, ragged, rural firefighters are back trying to tamp down a stubborn blaze that has left two dead, a monstrous amount of acreage seared and piles of bloated dead cattle on toasted range land. As of this windy morning on the fire front, there is no request for federal aid from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire rages on.

It's an annoying, unwanted headache for Abbott, who spent a portion of last week along the Mexican border damning immigrant crossings with Donald J. Trump while a large chunk of far North Texas burned to the ground. Photos are as excitable as a glass bowl of potato salad falling off a refrigerator shelf.

Look out, Texas.

 From Time.com: [ The wildfires led to Abbott issuing a state of disaster declaration in 60 counties and have resulted in forced evacuations in a number of towns. The state’s fire preparedness level was raised to three amid concerns that wildfire activity will continue to increase.

The fires have been dubbed the second largest wildfires in U.S. history, and the worst wildfires to have ever hit Texas. The 140 blazes have collectively burned through 1,260,725 acres of land, with at least 12 fires breaking out in neighboring Oklahoma. 

The largest fire - which broke out last week at Smokehouse Creek, north of Amarillo - is only 5% contained. While authorities remain unsure about the cause of the fires, its ferocity has been aided by strong winds and dry grass paired with warm temperatures. Abbott called on the Texas Division of Emergency Management to bring forward additional emergency response efforts to support local firefighters on Tuesday. The efforts continue.

He called on Texans to "to limit activities that could create sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe." 

The blaze also led to the shutdown of a nuclear weapons facility at Pantex last Tuesday night, before resuming "normal day shift operations" on Wednesday morning, according to Pantex’s post on X (formerly Twitter). ]

Proud Abbott, however, always at odds with the federal government, could not bring himself to ask the government for help. Ranchers say they have lost millions, homes and barns included. Area firemen, most coming from volunteer departments, say they are in need of quick aid. Nothing has come from Abbott, who did declare the fires a "Texas disaster" and allowed state agencies to do their best. 

Addressing the fires while in Brownville last Thursday, President Joe Biden said, "When disasters strike, there is no red state or blue state where I come from. There are just communities and families looking for help. (Texas has received $13 billion in relief funding throughout his presidency).

It'll be interesting if Abbott chooses to either go it all alone on the fires, or to finally ask the Biden White House for aid.

That would be a sort of not-quite-Abbott bow to the president, a Democrat...

-30-

A ST. STEPHEN MOMENT: .....Expect Republican Mayra Flores To Win Big On Super Tuesday...November Is Up In The Air...Doesn't Look Like Democrat Vicente Gonzalez Wants It Badly Enough...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Her bared-teeth detractors forever carp on the fakery. They say Republican Mayra Flores is not really a Republican, that the excitable commentary she lays out for voters is a pack of lies - surely material no one born in Mexico would throw out for voters.

Her boisterous backers say she's dead-on. On target, they mean. God-Family-Country, her constant campaign refrain may annoy, but it also resonates. As always, it's where you sit in the political arena.

At the risk of coming at you like a modern-day St. Stephen ("Wherever he goes, the people all complain."), I shall venture the inconvenient news that Mayra Flores may win on Tuesday's party primary...and in the November General Election.

If ever a Rio Grande Valley candidate arrived as if aboard a lost taxi, it is the 38-year-old Miss Flores. What is she doing in town, may be a question they asked initially, only that has fallen by the wayside as her political profile has exceeded that of local, Old-Line politicians.

Mayra Flores has the hottest name in South Texas. Not bad for a candidate born just a few miles south of the Rio Grande.

She's formidable in a loud way and proud of it. Style, they will tell you, is what you need in today's national politics. Loud Mayra Flores has been to the mountaintop (a brief, six-month stint as a congresswoman in 2022, after winning a special election). Then, she lost big to Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, who beat her by some 10,000 votes to keep his 34th Congressional District seat in the last go-round.

Her Republican opponents in Super Tuesday's vote are, as she would likely put it, "not at my level," and she's right. Backbench candidate Laura E. Cisneros was a Democrat as recently as the last election, a fact serious Republicans know and keep in mind. Wealthy candidate Mauro Garza has a shot, at least a better one than Cisneros, only he's lost the last two races for this same post, in 2020 and in 2022. Third aspirant is one Gregory Kunkle, a political cypher also a loser in 2022.

It'll be Mayra Flores taking home the bacon on Tuesday.

That may rest as an inconvenient truth for Flores haters, but party fights rarely move away from the favorite. I mean, Miss Flores was endorsed by Republican God Donald J. Trump in 2022. He applauded her special election victory and said he expected great things from the South Texan.

That died in November of that same year, but Flores never said she was quitting the sport.

She's still here.

Still a force of some sort.

Still hungry as all get-out. The desire for a fight and victory seems to be swimming her veins. They hate her lies, her false posturing, her big mouth, her ever-brawling style. You could say all of that - or any one of that - would have quickly eliminated her 10-20 years ago.

Fortunately for her, the current political climate almost demands a certain stubbornness and disdain.

Democrat incumbent Gonzalez isn't quite beating the campaign drum these days, at least not yet. Without party opposition, he's set for the November fight and maybe believes he has time to wait on Tuesday's Republican results before placing Flores in his crosshairs. 

He should know that Candidate Mayra Flores is not happy...except when she wins...

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SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Gone"...

BORDER WALL:...Hollywood Film Director John Sayles Has His Say...Well, It's One Man's, Uh, Physical Response To The Mess...Urinate On It?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...That danged border wall. It sure engenders all sorts of thoughts and ideas. Build it now. Stop illegal migration. Fund it at whatever cost. Erect the sumbitch. Do it once and for all, or, son, shut the Hell up.

Movie director John Sayles, shown in phot above, says all that, and then he tells you he walked up to a piece of it and...pissed on it.

Well, these are his words, according to the Chron.com: ". . .I don’t think we’ve made any progress on border issues since the movie was made. Back then, it didn’t have the same tension. The border patrol would just say no me hagas correr to illegal immigrants – don’t make me run – and deport them. I don’t think a wall is the answer: it’s like a Christo installation that has cost billions of dollars. I recently visited it with a friend and we urinated on it."

Well, yeah.

John Sayles knows the border. His acclaimed 1996 movie - Lone Star - depicted life along the southern one, a flick labeled a "racial drama," although it was pretty western. Brownsville's own Kris Kristofferson plays a racist sheriff, Charlie Wade, who could easily be played by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott if pro-wall Abbott would lose his handicap.

Who knows where this all will end?

The luckless Mexican Border is today's over-inflated football in American politics. Both of our major parties - Democrats and Republicans - use it to push their dogma onward with voters. This is an election year, so the talk, never mind the action, is magnified.

Lone Star is still available on Netflix and, sure, you can go urinate on the existing Border Wall if you can find a spot not being watched by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Perhaps movie dude Sayles has the perfect way to rid yourself of any angst or anger associated with the state of Texas border politics.

Drink up a few beers and let the kidneys do their thing, yeah...

-30-

MAURO RISING:...Republican Dreams Of Congress. Seat Held By Democrat Vicente Gonzalez ...Glib Garza Lost Same Race In 2020 And 2022...Will Super Tuesday Vote Change That?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...We'd written him off months ago, thinking this Raymondville guy was just another South Texas Mexican out for a few laughs. No one is laughing at Republican Mauro Garza as he campaigns for the 34th Congressional District seat held currently by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Some partisan wags in area blogging are trying to brand glib Garza, shown cowboying in photo above, as a meaningless twig on a dying tree. They point to his two previous losses in candidacies for the House of Representatives. Well, that's true. So far, 60-year-old Mauro Garza is a loser.

Things are happening in his race, however.

Still atop the party's South Texas heap is former Congresswoman Mayra Flores (shown in photo below), one of four candidates for the party's nomination. All are staring at the upcoming March 5th, Super Tuesday vote as if at a seven-layer chocolate cake at PF Chang's.

Garza is still ranking behind Flores, but he is ahead of lesser candidates Laura E. Cisneros and over-matched Gregory Kunkle. The winner of next week's vote will face Gonzalez in the November General Election.

An educated man, Garza's business interests include raising cattle, commercial real estate, consumer product vending machines, and a restaurant/bar. He is said to be the wealthiest of the candidates in this race.

U.S. Congressional District 34 encompasses the totality of Kingsville, Raymondville, Weslaco, Harlingen, San Benito, Brownsville, and the Laguna Madre. Garza's strength is in the counties outside (north) of the Rio Grande Valley, where Flores is the overwhelming favorite.

March 5th is next Tuesday.

Look for Mauro Garza to surprise the pundits...

-30-

BIDEN IN TOWN:...President Drops In On Old Brownsville... Damns Republicans...Trump Upriver In Eagle Pass..."Photo Op" Time...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...The falling local newspaper offered the obligatory write-up, as did Rio Grande Valley TV stations. Bloggers were no shows. One threw a bit about little league baseball back in the day, the other one offered a lame, softball interview of an elderly candidate for the Cameron County Commissioner's Court.

I know. Par for the course.

McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos, a Republican, was among a few valley notables to welcome President Joe Biden to this city (see photo above), one that likes to think of itself as all-politics-all-the-time.

If only.

"Immigration continues to be a national concern," Villalobos wrote on his Facebook page. "Yesterday members of the South Texas Mayors Alliance joined President Biden on this subject.  We will continue to champion the issues that affect our region."

Well, yeah. Keep working. It's what's expected of you public servants. Nowhere in the photos we saw, however, were local Mayor John Cowen (a Republican?) and Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda. Too bad. Surely, Cowen was there to welcome the president. Sepulveda, a gung ho supporter of downtown shopping, was probably at some coffee shop sipping her latte.

Upriver, Republican Donald J. Trump spent morning with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a surprisingly large contingent of the U.S. military. What was that about, a show of political force? That Abbott. Always the punk.

Biden arrived to speak about the recent disaster in Congress that saw a Senate-proposed Border Bill addressing the issue die on the vine after the Republican-controlled House of Reps. booted the easy grounder.

And the word was that the House acted on orders from oft-indicted Trump that they not help the Biden reelection campaign by easing things along the country's southern border.

Well, okay. Always good to keep things on the front burner.

In the end, however, the visits by Democrat Biden and Republican Trump served only their "photo op" purposes. Too bad.

One of these days, the U.S. will stop bitching amongst itself and resolve the problem, only, well, it's really not that big of a problem.

What you see is a magnified issue, one made to seemingly be worse than it really is...

-30-           

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Dear Father"...

SUN FLICKS:...Reporters At The Movies..."Man On The Moon"...

ELECTIONS:......Republicans Blow Shot At Keeping George Santos Seat...New Yorkers Not Buying MAGA...Trump Moans And Groans...Like A Jerk...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Maybe it was the weirdness that brought out the voters in Long Island, New York. This was a race for a congressional seat once held by the Republican grifter/loser George Santos and, well, people wanted to see who would replace the lying sonofabitch.

It'll be Democrat Tom Suozzi, the guy who held the same seat earlier, before leaving it for an unsuccessful run for governor of New York.

Beaten back was Republican Mazi Melessa Pilip, a Nassau County legislator said to not quite be ready for prime time. The 47-year-old native of Ethiopia lost. Suozzi took 53.9% of the vote to Pilip's 46.1%

Republicans had fully believed they'd retain the seat, even as Santos had pretty much stained the Holy Hell out of it.

The loss surprised Republicans, leading one - Donald J. Trump - to rage at the defeat. Pilip is shown in photo below, at right.

"Republicans just don't learn, but maybe she was still a Democrat?" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I have an almost 99% Endorsement Success Rate in Primaries, and a very good number in the General Elections, as well, but just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn't endorse me and tried to 'straddle the fence,' when she would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America."

Yeah. That's blowboy Trump lipping the battered trumpet.

Suozzi saw it differently.

He said the voters were sick of partisan bickering as he took a shot at Trump and his allies in Congress.

"Let’s send a message to our friends running Congress these days: stop running around for Trump and start running the country," Suozzi said. "It’s time to find common ground and start delivering for the people of the United States of America."

The win came in a Special Election. The 61-year-old Suozzi will draw another Republican in the November General Election.

Loser Santos, currently under FBI investigation for fraud and lying to federal officials, had brazenly said he'd never resign and promised to seek reelection.

Those also were lies.

Democrats hailed the victory, as it drew them closer to overcoming the slim majority held by Republicans in the do-nothing House of Representatives.

Is this a foretelling of what Republicans face in the Fall? Could be.

They're running scared...talking tough, but talking about defeats...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Song..."The Time Of Times"...

LARA:...Donald Trump's Loud, Mouthy Daughter-In-Law In Line For Cushy Job...Co-Chair Of RNC...Son-In-Law Jared Kushner For Secretary Of State If Donald Wins?...Heh, Heh..

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Rumors swirl that icky Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, would be up for the Secretary of State post in a second Trump presidency. Could be, eh? Kushner is married to Trump's darling daughter Ivanka and, well, did quite-well for himself as a senior White House advisor in Trump's first term.

Indeed, Kushner banked a cool $2 billion in money he received for unknown services from Saudi Arabia in the days before Trump left office in January, 2021.

Would that be expected? I mean, a Trump family member getting a cushy post.

Well, sure. Then there is Lara Trump, his high-necked daughter-in-law. She's the long-face wife of son Eric, said to be a TV producer, and now being openly postured as co-chair of the Republican National Committee by Trump, the ragged, racist party's 2024 presidential frontrunner.

The chairman would actually be Michael Whatley, current chair of the GOP in North Carolina. He is shown in photo below alongside Trump.

Both would replace Ronna McDaniel, a chairwoman not favored by Trump. She is 50 years old and perhaps not attractive enough for the lecherous Trump. But her worse trait is that Ronna is the niece of Trump-hater Mitt Romney, the Republican U.S. Senator from Utah.

There isn't much criticism for this plan out there, as it is being seen as business-as-usual for the ever-angling Trump. Well, maybe a little.

This from politico.com: [ Trump’s endorsement carries substantial weight among the 168 Republican National Committee members, who elect a new chair and co-chair.

Candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign responded to the endorsements Monday night, saying that Trump "is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

"Under Donald Trump and current RNC leadership, Republicans lost elections in 2018, 2020, and 2022, and now the RNC is effectively bankrupt," Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney said in a statement, adding that Haley would push for everyone at the RNC to be fired. ]

Yeah, well, it's a wonderment historians of the future will explain in words often used in horror novels. The Republican Party has gone underground, as in now little more than off-white cockroaches doing their best to survive a coming ballot box Armageddon.

If the pundits are right, a monstrous Blue Wave in the upcoming November General Election will drown out much of the once-proud GOP, Trump's bloated carcass rising to ground level, to forever leave the playing field.

He could be in jail by then, or soon after.

Politics has been good to him...and to his immediate family. Lara Trump made waves a few months ago, when she threatened to seek a U.S. Senator's post in North Carolina. It is unclear which of the state's two Republican senators she was going to challenge - the mollusk Thom Tillis or the boring Ted Budd.

What she and Whatley portend is crystal clear. They will willingly and energetically do Trump's bidding. Oddly, current RNC Chair McDaniel had been doing that.

But impetuous Trump is that sort of Homo Sapien, the sort of dude with nothing to do but throw gas on roaring fires.

Still left for the crystal ball readers is the question of whether mouthy son Don Jr will find his way into a White House post this time around, if Trump wins the election. Same for second son Eric, husband of Lara Trump.

Hey, we're just throwing things out now.

Most of it is muddy and sticking to the walls, however...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Music..."I'd Rather Be Sorry"...

WAR:...Well-Armed Jews Still Killing Palestinians...October, 2023 Attack On Jewish Settlers Has Led To 28,000 Palestinians Dead...Americans Still Funding Israelis...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Only the death toll changes in the ongoing Israeli invasion of Palestine. Jewish troops continue to rake the Gaza Strip unabated, overhead bombings destroying homes and buildings almost non-stop.

28,500 Palestinians have been killed so far.

This from a morning report at Le Monde, the French newspaper: [ Dozens of wounded people flocked to the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah, the crossing point from Gaza to Egypt, in the early hours of Monday, February 12. Most of them were unconscious, bloodied and in shock after some of the heaviest bombings to hit this area since the war began on October 7, 2023. ]

Israel has waved-off concerns of genocide from the United Nations and the United States.

It began with the killing of Jewish settlers by Hamas rebels, a stunning surprise attack that merited a response, although many now wonder about Israel's continued assault. According to the U.N., most of the dead have been women and children.

The bad publicity has not bothered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has said the war will continue, even as he gets advice from American President Joe Biden to pull back. Netanyahu counters Hamas terrorists are still killing Israelis.

Should Israel halt its assault and stop the wanton killing?

That's the question on the minds of many Americans, President Biden included. Biden has counseled Israel on matters to do with war strategy and selective bombing. Instead, Israeli forces have swept into Gaza largely uncontested, assaults on cities undertaken as if by a monster lawnmower. Schools and hospitals have been bombed to the ground.

The paradox in power has been glaring, as Israel continues to use weaponry supplied by the United States. This, against lesser armament used by Palestinians.

The prospect of a ceasefire has again been mentioned, but Israel has not used the term, nor does it seem to have the desire to halt military operations.

It's a burr in the Biden Administration's saddle. Middle East unrest is something Biden does not need in the months ahead of the November General Election.

To that end, the American president plans a trip to Israel...

-30-

SUN FLICKS:...Reporters At The Movies..."The Big Chill"...

DISQUALIFIED:...Not Yet, But Perhaps Likely...Smart Money Is On The U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Donald Trump Out Of The Presidential Race...But...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...How much damage has Donald J. Trump done to America? Surely, you've read, seen and heard about most of it. A lawless president, an angry candidate, an indicted man wearing 91 felonies and four criminal cases like a horse collar around his neck.

Plus, there's much more.

We could write a 5,000-word article here and sort of cover it all, but we won't. No use trying, for now. There are still too many unanswered questions and legal action before we - or anyone else - goes there in a definitive way. It'll all come, gathered by some journalist writing for a major newspaper or a national magazine. Noted historians are taking copious notes.

Until then, we are left with yet another rather shallow report on action at the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices this week will consider that appeal (Republican Trump has until Monday to file it, however) of a ruling by that federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. that almost two weeks ago told Trump he was "not immune" from prosecution.

Hang on to your gasps. It could get silly. The High Court could rule in favor of Trump, is what the learned scholars and conservative pundits are writing in publications and saying on Cable-TV.

The facts surrounding Trump's political world are so well-known that a cursory listing tells the story. He was president from 2016 to January, 2021. He sought reelection in 2020 and lost to Democrat Joe Biden in November of that same year. While awaiting the transfer of power, Trump engaged in some wild wheeling & dealing in hopes of changing the results. He conspired to change the results in several states and even did it personally in a strange telephone call with the elections overseer in Georgia, where he asked the Georgia elections official to find him "11,800" votes so that he would overcome the defeat to Biden and claim the state's Electoral College votes.

For that, he was indicted in Georgia, where he presented himself for arraignment and where he still faces a trial. In New York, a judge is presently working on a sentence to do with massive business fraud. That rendering is expected soon. And that came after Trump saw another judge hand an $83 million judgment against him in a defamation trial connected to his rape conviction tied to an assault of magazine writer E. Jean Carroll some three decades ago at a Manhattan department store.

Still on the stove's burner, as well, is the government's case against him to do with his taking classified government documents after leaving the White House and haphazardly stashing them at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Trump has denied all charges and scoffed at court rulings.

A huge case rests on what Trump did and did not do during the U.S. Capitol riot of January 6, 2021 - the very day the U.S. Senate was certifying the vote results. That day, Trump treated the rioters to a hell-raising speech prosecutors say fueled the riot. If indeed the court accepts that the riot fits the definition of an "insurrection," then Trump is in deep doo-doo.

Trump has said he never ordered anyone to go vandalize the Capitol.

Maybe not.

But there are far too-many fat, cumulus clouds of smoke across the fruited plains for Americans to ignore. You could wonder about one or two or three things to do with his legal problems, but, well, again, there is just too much evidence. The government seems convinced of his guilt; his rabid MAGA followers fully-alive, but in total disbelief.

So, it will be up to the Supreme Court - six judges appointed by Republicans, three by Democrats.

As we noted, there is much writing about all of this out there.

From the current issue of the New York Review of Books: [ . . . The conservative majority of the Supreme Court have reached a point of no return. The law, no matter the diversions and claptrap of Trump's lawyers and the pundits, is crystal clear, on incontestable historical as well as originalist grounds. So are the facts of the case, which in any event the Supreme Court is powerless to review. The conservatives face a choice between disqualifying Trump or shredding the foundation of their judicial methodology.

But the choice is far more profound than the Court’s consistency. In 2000 it disgraced itself by manipulating the Fourteenth Amendment to produce Bush v. Gore, a ruling that changed the course of history and was later described by Justice Antonin Scalia, who concurred in it, this way: "As we say in Brooklyn, a piece of shit."

Now the Court must decide whether it will honor the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and disqualify Donald Trump. If it does so, it may redeem in part the terrible judicial malpractice of 2000. If it does not, it will then trash the constitutional defense of democracy designed following slavery’s abolition; it will guarantee, at a minimum, political chaos no matter what the voters decide in November; and it will quite possibly pave the way for a man who has vowed that he will, if necessary, rescind the Constitution in order to impose a dictatorship of revenge. ]

The article is a wide-ranging one, covering a lot of the current goings-on with the Supreme Court and exactly where the 14th Amendment came in the wake of the American Civil War.

With all that's happened, is Donald J. Trump qualified to seek the presidency?

There's a lot of bad baggage there, much of which the public simply can't grasp and some which some voters may not care about.

The cases are before courts.

The battle away from there is between political parties. Trump's Republicans want him, and that's all there is to it. The federal government and the State of Georgia say he is still to be tried and answer for his deeds. Democrats say Trump is unqualified and a clear & present danger to our republic.

Yes, voters will likely have the last word in November. Ambitious legal acrobatics seem to be the norm these days. What looks clearcut isn't and that which offers a loophole is generally discovered by heady lawyers.

It's been more than 20 years since the infamous Bush/Gore ruling by the Supreme Court, one now seen as horrible reading of the law that handed Bush the presidency. Will the High Court get it right this time? It depends on your political leanings.

Trump has until tomorrow to file his longshot appeal of that "absolute immunity" contention he lost.

I hope he files.

Trump's histrionics has gone on too long...and it all needs to be resolved...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."Desnuda"...

REPUBLICANS:...They're Out To Play "The Big Lie" Card... Coup, Baby, Coup...Will Not Accept Defeat In 2024...Elise Stefanik Is Sick Party's Poster Child...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They tried in 2020 and they'll take it one step farther in 2024. Dry runs take on a certain look and that insurrection at the U.S. Capitol serves as a ready model for what's to come. The election will take place, only Republicans will not accept a defeat. Not in the presidential race.

America is staring at a wilder coup attempt.

We all keep reading about it, and it appears the message is settling-in. Nicely, I'd say. Perhaps that's what it means to always be ready to fight for our freedoms. Military veterans know of those occasional, ever-gnawing setbacks; this one will have to be dealt with accordingly.

When a Republican is being looked-at as a potential vice-president, well, we expect smart and useful dialogue, not talk of coups and political disarray. There's New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, for example. She's said to be at - or near - the top of reptilian Republican Donald J. Trump's second-banana list.

Is she up to the job? Maybe politically, but certainly not civilly.

This from newrepublic.com: [ Elise Stefanik (shown at left) is ready and willing to put Donald Trump before country and state. On Thursday, the MAGA lawmaker all but admitted she would definitely have done a coup and not certified the 2020 presidential election results on January 6 if she were in former Vice President Mike Pence’s shoes.

"Had you been vice president on January 6, 2021, what would you have done?" asked CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.

"I would not have done what Mike Pence did, I don’t think that was the right approach. I specifically stand by what I said on the House floor, and I stand by my statement, which was that there was unconstitutional overreach, there was unconstitutional overreach in states like Pennsylvania," Stefanik responded.

"I think it’s very important that we continue to stand up for the Constitution and have legal and secure elections, which we did not have in 2020, and tens of millions of Americans agree with me," she added. ]

As noted in the write-up, Stefanik's throwaway line of claiming to stand for the protection of the U.S. Constitution contradicts Pence’s own defense of his decision to certify the votes, effectively making Joe Biden the next president.

As Pence put it in an interview with the Des Moines Register, "By God’s grace, I did my duty that day. I had no right to overturn the election. And the American people deserve to know that the president asked me to choose him over keeping my oath to the Constitution, but I chose the Constitution. And I always will."

And it's not just Stefanik. Dozens of other Republicans - most all in Congress - have lined-up behind Trump's current campaign for the White House - even as he lugs four criminal cases and 91 felonies on his hefty back.

It's no longer an idle political threat.

Republicans are the lesser grouping in our national political contests. They know it. And they have little else to fight with at the ballot box. Noise and bellicose posturing is their game.

Fatty Stefanik, an unaccomplished, run-of-the-mill congressional hag up until now, has seen her profile grow in stature.

Putting out wild shit will do that in our stormy political climate...

-30-

SUN FLICKS:...Reporters At The Movies..."The Lover"...

THE DEFENDANT:...Donald Trump And The U.S. Supreme Court..."Absolute Immunity?" ...A Legitimate Candidate?... Next Monday Will Tell...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...One up and it appears one down for Donald J. Trump at the U.S. Supreme Court. He seems to have won his fight to stay on the ballot in Colorado. Yesterday's wrangling at the nation's high court went mostly his way. The Supremes sort of sided with him.

There is no final ruling on that yet, but it's political peristalsis - the crap forcing itself down the country's intestines.

Next Monday brings something else for the 77-year-old Republican presidential candidate weathering storm after storm after storm. That's the deadline for any appeal Trump may lodge with the same court on that "absolute immunity" request he insists on but that was shot down by the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. last week. Shot down unanimously.

That ruling would seemingly clear the way for his insurrection trial, but would hold if the Supreme Court accepts the case. Word is it won't.

But, as all of us know, these are not normal times, and the court of last resort has been a bit squirrelly of late. This give & take with lawyers and those of the government this week on Colorado's desire to keep Trump off its ballot in the General Election has been anything but predictable.

The court hemmed & hawed, took commentary and posed questions. According to legal scholars and our best political pundits, Trump took the day. And, well, he thought so, too, issuing end-of-the-day comments that went to full victory. He'll stay on the Colorado ballot.

Those same learned observers aren't as sure about the immunity thing. Trumps insists on it; most say he's dreaming or hallucinating.

This from newsweek.com: [The next step is for Trump to seek review at the Court of Appeals ruling. The DC Circuit delayed the date when the case is official - the “mandate” - to Monday, February 12, giving Trump a chance to ask the Supreme Court to step in and put the DC Circuit’s opinion on hold.

The Supreme Court should decline the invitation and instead allow the trial to proceed. The country needs to know whether Trump is convicted of these crimes before the November election. ]

It's a bad helicopter ride to the bottom of the Grand Canyon for the nation when its high-government legal matters drag on. Most law-abiding Americans might recall the pardon former President Gerald Ford gifted Richard M. Nixon following that Watergate break-in mess that saw him resign the presidency. Ford said he did it to put an end the country's "nightmare." It also kept Nixon out of jail.

Political games are one thing. Dances in our highest courts are quite something else. The nation cannot look away when our leaders are afforded either special treatment or seemingly liberal commentary and results. Trump is having his days in court. It's a slower-than-usual clock at the court of appeals and at the Supreme Court. Rulings take time.

And most Americans are largely okay with that, except in the case of Donald Trump. Or, we should say, in the many cases of Donald Trump.

Is the guy with four criminal cases and 91 felonies on his back eligible to seek the presidency or is he not. That's the simple question.

Answer based on constitutional law and be done with it.

This is the U.S. Supreme Court, not some lower court where rulings can and often go challenged and at times overturned. Deal with it. Americans can handle it if rulings arrive armed with standing and are explained, for the most part, to the general public's satisfaction.

Colorado took a stand against Trump, saying he was unworthy of seeking the presidency. Supreme Court justices, even the liberal ones, seem to believe otherwise. Fine.

That "absolute immunity" case brings something else altogether.

"Absolute immunity?"

Obscenity, we say.

No one is above the law. The charges against Trump are just that, charges. Get him to trial and let's resolve this mess. If a court or jury finds him not guilty, well, we'll handle that. If not, he should pay the price.

Drum the intro and cue the choir: "...No one is above the law."

Only, so far Trump is at arm's length of the law. The U.S. Supreme Court needs to sing the refrain...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox..."I Saw You First"...