HOT, HOT, HOT:...Extreme Temps To Be The New Normal For Rio Grande Valley Residents...Hundred-Degree Readings Way Ahead Of Last Year's Summer Scorch...May Exceed 115 Degrees This Weekend...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's damned-straight here. And all you can do is endure it. Survival, Baby. Break out the gallon lemonade pitcher and get yourself some more ice trays. Summer is here, although the calendar says it's not summer just yet.

Weatherboys are issuing warnings right and left.

This from axios.com: [ According to the NOAA Weather Prediction Center, record-breaking highs and record-setting high overnight minimum temperatures are expected, particularly in southern Texas, along the Gulf Coast, and into Florida.

"This heat could be particularly dangerous for people dealing with a loss of power in parts of Texas. Warm overnight temperatures will offer little relief and high humidity could also lead to heat index readings over 110 degrees," forecasters said in a technical forecast discussion on Tuesday morning.

The weekend will be particularly hot from South Texas through the central Gulf Coast, with overnight temperatures and potentially daily highs setting records as well.

Heat indices in South Texas, Houston, New Orleans and other areas may approach or exceed 115°F this weekend.

The cause of this particular heat wave is a powerful and sprawling area of high pressure aloft, also known as a heat dome, parked over Mexico and affecting areas from Central America to the Southern Plains. ]

Can you say Climate change?

Say it. Or learn to say it...

-30-

REPUBLICAN MAYRA FLORES BRINGS THE MAGA LIGHTWEIGHTS:...Her Campaign For District 34 Congressional Seat Is Wallowing...Not Saying Anything New...She Invites A Dude From Florida For Her Meet & Greet...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

PHARR, Texas |...Well, maybe she needed a guy whose native tongue is English to better verbalize her campaign. Here, five months before the November election, it appears Mayra Flores cannot stage a Meet & Greet with area voters by herself.

And we'd been hearing that she fully believes she has "Star Power."

Uh, no. 

Flores, who lost the 2020 election Big Time to incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez by more than 11,000 votes, has invited a far-right congressman from Florida to do her bidding. That's him in photo above, Republican Cory Mills, the 43-year-old who represents District 7 in the troubled Sunshine State.

Like many Republicans, Mills, too, has giddily come to the Mexican border to tell us it is being overrun by immigrants. Oh, and he proudly states on his website that he introduced articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden.

He's in his first term in Congress.

Why and how Mayra Flores got this guy is the mystery. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that she took a color photograph with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton up in Dallas. Did Paxton decline her invitation? He seems to have so much more going for him, this after attending the Trump Porn Star Trial in New York and being talked about as a possible attorney general if Trump wins the presidential election.

Cory Mills?

He's a lightweight, even in his own state. Was Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott unavailable? Abbott has said more about the border than God. Or how about that other loopy Floridian, Congressman Matt Gaetz?

Or, much better yet, Mayra, who tends to get huffy every now and then, could have asked excitable Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to come grace the humble Junction Cafe in Pharr, where Flores will host her meet & greet on June 1st. Breasty, fondling Lauren Boebert?

Every pachuco in the Rio Grande Valley would have shown up to get a glimpse of sexy Boebert.

Cory Mills? Who dat???

Nah, not on a Saturday, fer chrissakes. We'll stick with watching rough & tumble women's pro basketball on TV...

-30-

CARTOON OF THE DAY:...Hard To Laugh At This, But What Else Can You Do With Stupid?...Republican Cultists Show Their Colors...Something's Gotta Give...

 

TWO GIRLS SHOPPING:...Republicans Seeking Congressional Seats Don't Get It...Longshot District 34 Candidate Mayra Flores Suspends "All You Can Eat" Campaign...District 15's Monica De La Cruz Keeps Shopping...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...You'd think they might want to talk about issues or policy to do with serving this part of South Texas, like lobbying Big Business to bring better, higher-paying jobs. Or maybe offer some heady solution to the Border Problem they forever crow about.

But no, our two Republican candidates for Congress would rather shop. Eat out pretty much daily and keep shopping.

District 34 candidate Mayra Flores has spent the better part of May hitting Rio Grande Valley cafes and restaurants, insisting she is merely promoting small businesses. She, however, has now shifted to other smaller businesses. That's Flores at right in photo above at a bookstore in Weslaco, hardly the center of any sizeable vote in the November General Election.

Incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez is said to be laughing.

Perhaps Mayra will soon look elsewhere, to where the area poor actually hangout - like pawn shops, plasma donation centers, used car lots, employment offices and second-hand thrift stores. She certainly does not know the pulse of the poverty-stricken valley.

In adjacent District 15, incumbent Republican Monica De La Cruz keeps shopping.

De La Cruz, shown in color photo at right, keeps parroting the "small businesses need help" line most of this year, in numerous visits to restaurants, gun ranges and boutiques. The 50-year-old, single mom and owner of an insurance agency, has yet to speak to needs and wants from her constituents. No, not a peep on how grocery store prices have saddled local poor with tough decisions on whether to buy medicines or plums.

Both 38-year-old Flores and De La Cruz have fallen-in with the silly party line of attacking President Joe Biden and defending their leader, the defendant du jour Donald J. Trump, currently enmeshed in a hush money trial to do with his sexing of Porn Star Stormy Daniels.

Yeah. Tone deafness is in these days.

Neither of these two gals has said a word of an impending Red Wave of voters in November, as they so sang long & hard in 2022.

Congressman Gonzalez and District 15 Democrat opponent Michelle Vallejo can only hope that Flores and De La Cruz stay on the taco food tour and on celebrating women's dress shops.

There isn't much for voters to think about with these two amateurish Republicans...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...From 1976, A Moment-In-Time Song By Bob Dylan..." Romance In Durango"...

LABELED STOOGES:...Trump's Supporters Leave Job In Congress To Sit In NYC Courtroom...Blasted As Being Morons...Including Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, Who Didn't Attend Criminal Son's Recent Court Appearances...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Well, it certainly was an American first. There, in a Lower Manhattan courtroom described as being dingy and in need of remodeling, a covey of Republican congresspeople and senators sat for long hours while their leader - one Donald J. Trump - saw and listened to his alleged crooked business dealings as if watching a cheap, Italian B-movie saga.

Send in the clowns, yes.

This while news reports also had it that U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito had at times flown the American flag upside down, said to be a protest move against the 2020 election Trump lost. We are on the precipice of a coast-to-coast joke gone wrong.  

And at a hearing in the House of Representatives, a few obvious facts crashed off the hallowed halls of a very old political chamber in the Capitol Building. 

". . . . What Republicans won't show you," New York Congressman Jerry Nadler said, "is the mounting evidence that Trump is mentally incompetent to hold the office of the president."

Nadler scoffed at Trump’s inexplicable praise at a recent rally of the fictional character Hannibal Lecter from "The Silence of the Lambs."

". . . . 'The late, great Hannibal Lecter,'" Nadler quoted Trump. "I can't even begin to understand how Republicans have chosen this man as their champion. But they have. And now House Republicans are paying for it by flocking to the sidelines of his criminal trial, sacrificing their integrity to defend them against, frankly, indefensible acts."

Truer words are rarely spoken in the D.C.

But Republicans do not care. That also is a fact, cold and mineral as it is. These burning-grill MAGA people are hellbent on something they likely would eventually despise. Annoying pain sometimes turns into something more serious.

Republican Lauren Boebert of Western Colorado was one of those in attendance for Trump's latest day in court yesterday. What she may know about hush money payments to porn stars is a question we cannot answer.

But we do know that her son was arrested back in Rifle, Colorado and charged with burglary and a few other crimes associated with such things. Boebert's only comment about that was that the family was going through a litany of problems that also included her divorce from the kid's father.

Then she said getting her son a lawyer was problematic in that it was an expense she could not afford.

But there she was in New York, backing Trump. Talking loudly when addressing the press outside the courtroom, as if all was hunky-dory in her own crumbling house.

And then some dude walked up to her and handed her a Broadway bill (show's program pamphlet) for the show Beetlejuice and we saw Boebert frown and walk away. Beetlejuice, well a performance of the stage show in Denver, had brought her notoriety a few months back.

She had been caught on theater cameras groping a date's todger and being groped about her breasts while seated alongside other theater go'ers.

Her saliva-fueled anger aimed at Trump's prosecutors seemed silly, artful and fake.

Lauren Boebert?...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...From My Reporting Days In Mexico For The Houston Post...Written By Juan Gabriel...This Version By Playa Limbo..."Así Fue"...

SUN TV:...Opening Theme to COLD CASE...Series Ran From 2003 to 2010...A Howl For Life...

YA TALKIN' TO ME?:...Witness Michael Cohen Adds Nail To Trump's Criminal Coffin...Prosecution Ends Case This Week...Who & What Will Defense Offer?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...I don't know about you, but this ongoing criminal trial involving shifty Donald J. Trump is a punch to the head more riveting than any Mob movie or Mario Puzo book.

And then Trump's posse of errant legislators that included Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson walked into the courtroom yesterday.

What's next - someone taking key witness - and former Trump lawyer - Michael Cohen out on the lake and popping one in the head? Fredo Corleone as Cohen in the next scene?

You could spend your time better, we say, but the trial is needed.

This was part of the testimony offered by Cohen as he took the witness stand this week - 

From motherjones.com: "This is a disaster, a total disaster," Cohen testified Trump said to him. "This is really a disaster. Women are going to hate me, guys may think it’s cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the (2016) campaign."

Cohen said he also asked Trump how his wife, Melania, would handle the story of an affair between Trump and Porn Star Stormy Daniels. Even as he has denied making the payments, Trump has insisted that any efforts were not politically motivated but to protect his wife who had just given birth to their son Barron at the time of the affair. Cohen said Trump was dismissive of his wife.

"Don’t worry, how long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long," Cohen said Trump told him. "He wasn’t thinking about Melania, this was all about the campaign." ]

Love it.

Great dialogue is what makes a novel or movie great. You can write-up a scene of a landscape or a city or a bar, but what your characters have to say and how they say is what makes for great writing. Any monkey can do a blog, right.

So, we head into the last two days of prosecution testimony in Trump's Hush Money Trial, as today is a day-off for the Manhattan court.

I say the weekend will be Holy Hell for defense lawyers. Surely, Trump will have them assembled and he'll them read them the Riot Act. poor bastards. They are mouthing Trump's questions when they question witnesses. Never a good thing for defendants, but it's happening in this one.

There is no word as to who the defense will put on the stand next week, also said to possibly be the last week of the trial.

Will tough guy Trump take the stand?

Don't bet on it. He's a great talker of nothingness, but factual discourse is not his style or forte.

Pity...

-30-

SUN TV:...From A Well-Done Series With Music Of Its Time...COLD CASE..."Perfect Day Ending Scene"...

DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME:...Candidate Mayra Flores Rides "All You Can Eat" Campaign In Congressional District 34 Race...Alas, Nothing New In Her Effort To Unseat Democrat Vicente Gonzalez...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Perhaps we expect too much from our current politicians. And maybe they know it now. Representing others can be a drag when you're chasing something else, goes the line in Rio Grande Valley bars and cafes these days.

Take Republican candidate Mayra Flores, shown in photo above.

The 38-year-old keeps claiming the common journey of many New Americans who arrive here and instantly declare they have found the American Dream, whatever that may be these days. Born in Burgos, Mexico in the northern Mexico state of Tamaulipas, Miss Flores has done enough with her personal life to lay such a claim.

She is an American, educated in San Benito public schools and, later, at South Texas Community College in wealthier McAllen, where she studied the Respiratory Technician skills also mentioned in her resume, along with being a married mom of three and having a Border Patrol agent for a husband.

Today, she is seeking a life in politics, challenging incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzlez for the 34th Congressional District seat he has held for two terms. Miss Flores lost to Gonzalez by more than 11,000 votes in the most recent election, 2022.

We cannot tell you where or when the seed of politics entered her mind and life, but that experience most voters seek in candidates is and always is rather thin in Mayra Flores. Her background was one of work in healthcare, hardly the place for a loud, tough-talking MAGA Republican. But maybe she is a quick study; that is, she could decide to seek office, look at the landscape and glean a persona from those already in the field while crafting her new face and sound.

Her campaign style seems okay, one of mixing with the area's voting populace. All politicians do that, don't they?

We have been tickled by her recent approach of hitting Rio Grande Valley eateries to display what she says is support for small businesses. Sounds cool. But what the photos she kept posting on her Facebook page about her food tour did was reinforce a belief here that she is too intellectually shallow for the job she wants.

Can you picture Congressman Gonzalez doing the same?

No, he's damned busy doing the job, bringing home the bacon - seemingly announcing more federal monies for South Texas every week. Meanwhile, opponent Mayra Flores chomps away at quite-decent grub. The problem for her is that food does not vote, and what lingers in one's mind is that perhaps she should be doing some door-knocking.

An "All You Can Eat" campaign is a loser from the get-go. Mayra Flores appears entitled, eating out every day in a part of the state and country where most struggle to find good jobs, pay bills, get a roof over their heads and put food on the table.

Who knows, but we do hope that she has other approaches to her campaign.

We would advise her to speak to issues/policy instead of how much she enjoyed that played at Rooster's Country Restaurant in Harlingen or those BBQ ribs in Brownsville. Is she seeking endorsements? No word about that, or about voicing how this effort is different than her losing 2022 campaign.

Interestingly, her Facebook page is chock-full of support from her followers. But we do notice that a good amount of them are not from the Rio Grande Valley, or even from Texas. Most of those outsiders are clearly MAGA-types who giddily applaud her latest anti-Democrat rant.

District 34 includes the eastern portion of Hidalgo County, but we not seen Mayra Flores campaigning or eating in McAllen, where voters do turn out.

Maybe we're early with this report. She could roll into a City of Palms eatery today.

As for our early read on her chances in the November General Election, well, we would say that she has not done anything she didn't do in 2022. Nothing new, not even a faint holler or two about that Red Wave being on its way one more time.

Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, an attorney by profession, is doing the job he was elected to do.

A few days ago, we wrote that there is no reason to change horses in this race.

This morning, we still believe it...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...From The Boss, New Jersey's Bruce Springsteen, A Beer Tune Off The Corner Jukebox, For Sure..."Walk Like A Man"...

THE MAN WHO LOVED MEXICO:...McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos...This Republican Does Not Hate Mexicans, Nor Does He, We Suspect, Want to Bomb The Cartels...All About Business Relationships...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Often, you see Mayor Javier Villalobos pumping-up local eateries. He's genuine in his desire to spotlight some of the best in The City of Palms. No fake politics there, Mayra Flores.

And we should say that we endorse his every move to attract business from Mexico, our neighbor to the south. Lord knows he's been at it since assuming the job.

The photo you see above is of the mayor (third tourist from the left) and his entourage as the group took a break while visiting the beautiful city of Oaxaca - home of Prof. Jose Lopez Alaves, author of perhaps my favorite Mexican song of all time: "Cancion Mixteca". 

Prior to this, Villalobos spent some time networking in Mexico City.

On his Facebook page, he wrote: "Thank you all for the beautiful birthday wishes. I’ve spent my day in Mexico City in meetings promoting McAllen and our region as the economic powerhouse that it is. If we all work together as a region, we are a force to be reckoned with. #I❤️MCALLEN."

A grand plan and a worthy one, yes.

Now, if only other Rio Grande Valley mayors were as inspired.

Mexico is this country's Number 1 trading partner these days. Area cities like Harlingen and Brownsville should be looking south a bit more. Both, however, seem to forever look to Washington, D.C. as savior to their economies.

How yesteryear is that?...

-30-

SUN TV:...From The Vault...COLD CASE, Season 2, Episode 15 - "Wishing"...

IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES:...For Republicans, A Slow Roll To Death...Killing It Softly...Devotion To One Flawed Man...MTG Offers Death Knell Aloud...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...A good bloody, hair-pulling brawl could be had if we could get Stormy Daniels and Marjorie Taylor Green into the ring. Both are angry, ripped enough to do away with the Republican Party. Already, vibes point to a horrible night in November's general election.

Porn star Daniels has carved-up the troubled party's figurehead, one Donald J. Trump, in court, while Taylor Greene, shown in photo above, is now predicting the end of her party, a group of congressional do-nothings in total disarray.

This gravesite spiel came this week from Taylor Greene, Georgia's 14th Congressional District representative: . . . ."The future of our Republican Party is very bleak when Republicans in Congress can never follow through. When Republicans in Congress put America last and countries like Ukraine first. We aren’t going to have a future Republican Party. We’ll never win another election because we haven’t given our voters anything to vote for."

And she blasted FOX News.

That disastrous week in court for Trump? That testimony given by Stormy Daniels? It was just kicks to the head of the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee, a flawed candidate somehow still in the chase. Forty-nine-year-old Taylor Greene has long been a fan of the oft-indicted Trump.

Now, she wants to be the one to stick the agger in the party that wants so badly to throw her to the side of the road, to weaken her "power" in Congress and to lower her celebrity standing. You'd have to live in a trailer park to understand her, but she has been getting the headlines.

As for FOX, well, Marjorie believes it is not as benevolent and entity for the GOP as most Republicans might think.

FOX, she said this week, wants all Republicans to think and do what it offers via a string of daily talk shows and one-sided news reporting.

Loudmouth Marjorie's right, but when was the last time Republicans went elsewhere for news & information. They damn the mainstream press daily.

Not since the 1988-1992 era of softee George H.W. Bush, we would say...and that was a long, long time ago...

-30-

SUN TV:...Commercials...Bud Light "Real Men Of Genius" - Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor...

LOOKS LIKE HE'S IN:...Trump's Son Barron Hits The Political Campaign Trail...To Be A Delegate At Republican National Convention...Mom Melania Sheltered Him, But The Kid Is 18 Now...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Another Trump has joined the hunt for the prize. This one is Barron Trump, the youngest of the crew, and that is something of a surprise. To date, Mama Melania had kept him out of the spotlight. Critics who note a clear family stab at wide-open nepotism will pounce.

Already daughter-in-law Lara Trump is co-director of the Republican National Committee. Eldest daughter Ivanka, who served (along with husband Jared Kushner) as an advisor in Trump's term as president, is said to be re-joining troubled Dad's effort to regain the White House in the upcoming November election.

This excerpt from The Associated Press: [ Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron Trump, has been chosen to serve as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention, the state party chairman said Wednesday.

Republican Party of Florida chairman Evan Power said the 18-year-old high school senior will serve as one of 41 at-large delegates from Florida to the national gathering, where the Republican Party is set to officially nominate his father as its presidential candidate. ]

It is something of a shocker.

For months, ever-reclusive Melania Trump shielded her only son from press coverage and any sort of national limelight. She has yet to comment on the change of heart, however, although she'll likely chime-in perhaps even today.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, returns to his Hush Money Trial this morning, where he is facing 34 felony charges related to business records he allegedly manipulated in paying-off Porn Star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

It should be noted that Trump's other two sons, Eric and Don Jr, also will serve as convention delegates.

And we're pretty sure that Melania Trump is about to take on a bigger, more-visible role in her husband's campaign...

-30-

SUN TV:...From The Vault, A Primo Series...COLD CASE...Episode - "The Good-Bye Room"...

STORMY ROARS:...In Hush Money Trial, Trump Portrayal A Bummer...Porn Star Rips Him A New One...Trump Told Her Melania Slept In Separate Room...Word Of His Little Todger...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Wild day in the Lower Manhattan courtroom for Donald J. Trump. I mean, hey, the porn star was on the witness stand and she was telling it all. All, brother. Before the fall, as the song says. Stormy Danniels is her stage name and she's getting her revenge.

Trump did her at a ritzy hotel in Lake Tahoe in 2006 and she won't let him forget it.

At his ongoing trial in New York, a jury heard details that rocked Trump's boat. She laid-out the events of the shacking in graphic detail, so much so that the judge let it be known to prosecutors that perhaps it was a bit too much.  

From politico.com: [ The prosecutor said at one point Stormy inquired about his wife, Melania, to which Trump replied: "We actually don’t sleep in the same room." Daniels mouthed the word "Wow" to the jury after relaying that alleged comment.

Daniels said that when he took out a magazine cover with his picture on it, she dressed him down. "Are you always this rude?" she said she told him, before whacking him with the magazine. "I took it from him and I swatted him with it … right on the butt," she said.

As Daniels recounted that story, Trump appeared to mutter the word "bullshit" under his breath, while still not looking in Daniels’ direction, although her image was on TV screens in front of him. That earned Trump a warning from the judge during a sidebar with attorneys. ]

It continues tomorrow after a day off today, and the word is that prosecution in the trial will go on for about two more weeks.

Trump is facing 34 criminal felony charges.

Another interested tidbit Stormy threw out was that Trump had told her she reminded him of his daughter, Ivanka - a weird thing to say to a porn actress, for sure.

There has been no comment from Melania Trump, or daughter Ivanka. Son Eric was in attendance yesterday and continues to be the only family member showing up to support defendant Trump.

Commentary on TV talk shows is leaning toward a jury conviction.

Prison for the Republican candidate for president, however, is said to not be part of the verdict. Probation and a hefty fine, yes.

Will it matter this November, when voters go to the polls?

Not for Trump's rabid MAGA base.

A BIG YES for the rest of the country...

-30-

DEATH OF A DINO:...Congressman Henry Cuellar's Bribery Charge May End Career....Laredo Democrat & Wife Accused Of Taking $600,000 Bribe...But Trump Comes To His Defense...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Democrat Henry Cuellar is gone. Those bribery charges he and his wife are facing will end his long career in Congress. To use a commonly-known analogy, that's the way the crispy taco crumbles.

There has been little defense of the 68-year-old Cuellar coming from fellow Democrats.

Make a hole. Make room for Cuellar's unceremonious departure. Yes, he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but that's only a matter of time for this guy, a slick politician better known for his votes with Republicans than for upholding his party's ideology.

Too bad for his 67-year-old wife, Imelda, who has also been charged.

But as with any B-grade movie about crime, there was a sort of happy, supportive wave from a man also wearing a few indictments around his neck - one Donald J. Trump.

This from a report on axios.com: [ . . . .Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Department of Justice indicted Cuellar "because the Respected Democrat Congressman wouldn't play Crooked Joe's Open Border game."

"He was for Border Control, so they said, "Let's use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!" This is the way they operate," Trump wrote.

The Justice Department alleged that Cuellar took nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani government-controlled oil company and a Mexican bank.

In return, prosecutors allege that Cuellar agreed to "influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan" and advance the bank's interests in the U.S., per the indictment. ]

Cuellar is up for reelection in November.

He barely eked-out a win in his last one, winning by only 300 votes.

Cuellar has denied the charges.

These coddled, air-conditioned guys always do, don't they?...

-30-

BACK WHEN:...America Was Calmer And Little Dogs Were Not Being Shot Dead By Crazed Republican Governors...Cool Mexican Restaurant Gets Boost In Sales After Surprise Obama Visit...

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...A Song From My Days In Galveston..."Elusive Butterfly"...

BRIBERY AS SPORT:...Our Politicians Are Quick To Take Freebies...Too-Quick...No More Four Strikes And You're Out...Democrat Henry Cuellar Needs To Go...His Wife Also Is Accused...$600,000...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Yes, hang Congressman Henry Cuellar. The both-sides-now Democrat from Laredo's been indicted after years of being under investigation for taking bribes. No one is above the law.

Bring him to trial. Let the evidence either convict him or lack of set him free. The federal government says it has more than enough.

Cuellar, who represents the 28th Congressional District, is the last of the anti-abortion Democrats in Congress.

So long, loser.

This from axios.com: [ Minnesota Democrat Dean Phillips on Friday became the first House Democrat to call for Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) to resign over federal conspiracy and bribery charges.

Cuellar is the second sitting member of Congress currently under indictment, along with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who has faced calls for resignation from over half of his Democratic colleagues.

"While the bar for Federal indictment is high, trust in government is at an all-time low," Phillips said. "That's why I believe any elected official or candidate facing such charges should resign or end their campaign. That includes Sen. Menendez, Donald Trump, and Rep. Cuellar."

In a 54-page indictment, the Justice Department accused Cuellar, 68, and his wife Imelda of taking nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani government-controlled oil company and a Mexican bank.

In exchange for the hefty bribes, prosecutors allege, Cuellar pushed legislation and pressured government officials to benefit Azerbaijan and the bank.

Cuellar has proclaimed his innocence and said he plans to run for reelection in November. He secured the Democratic nomination in March. ]

Time to clean house, top to bottom. No more games. 

There was a time in this country when an indictment was something serious. Jerks from both parties in Congress don't seem to get it. These days, an indictment is the equal of an unwanted bad telephone call from a constituent back home - something easily blown off.

Shifty Cuellar has played both sides of the aisle, voting often with Republicans.

Vote him out.

The stench from Laredo is palpable here in the Rio Grande Valley...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...Little Bit Of Austin...Jerry Jeff..."The Heart Of Saturday Night"...

FRIDAY WRAP:...News In Pictorial...It Was A Busy Workweek...We Can Work It Out...From Bumbling Trump Attorney Todd Blanche To Peripatetic Food Tourist Mayra Flores...And Beyond!!!...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

WESLACO, Texas |...What a week? It just won't stop, Ma. News on a crazed journey across ragged, tired brains from coast to coast. Someone pass me the salt. I can't seem to keep it off my wounds.

We arrive with our new weekly feature: Friday Wrap.

Not quite the tasty lettuce wraps I get at PF Chang's, but this is about horrible reports coming across my old desk. We get to everything sooner or later, yes.

Here, then, a few photos:

The first one is shown above, a cool shot of Donald J. Trump and his lawyer Todd Blanche as they mosey in or out of the courthouse in New York City, where Trump is on trial for cheating on his business records. Yes, porn star Stormy Daniels is also fighting for the center of the story, but it's about Donald misleading the tax office on that $130,000 payment to the stacked Porn babe.

Trump's face is morphing into that of, it seems, a giant Orange Muffin of the sort you get at Corner Bakery. Blanche throws out a face only a mother could love. He is the portrait of defeat in this one.

". . .It was your client who went down to that holding area and stood in front of the press and started to speak." Judge Juan Merchan told Trump attorney Blanche. "He went to the press. He didn't need to go in that direction."

"I agree with that," Blanche responded, drawing what The New York Times described as a "large laugh in the overflow room."

That exchange royally pissed off Trump, a dude who rarely concedes anything and who also hates it when people concede things for him.

Oh, well, Blanche's once stellar legal career is at the bottom of that outhouse hole...

-0-

Interesting photo. Students at Columbia University in Lower Harlem cooking it on their laptops. Hey, where'd all those photos of raging students attacking each other and taking over buildings? The agitators?

This is a photo we didn't see during the student protests of the 1960s.

Perhaps some of them were students and these were simply working on course assignments. Ah, that news media. It only wants to give you the dramatic, the sick and the cop beatings.

Study on, Kids! The future is all yours...

-0-

Yes, the Kennedy scion is still in the 2024 presidential race. The question on the minds of pretty much everybody who believes in vaccinations is....why?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr has nothing else to do.

He has no job, no first wife (she killed herself), no chance and no family member behind him. Anyone remember the comedian Pat Paulsen and his useless runs for president?

Yeah...

-0-

Michael Cohen may get maybe not the last laugh but a few there at the end of Donald Trump's Hush Money Trial. He's been to the cesspool and back, his legal career over and that memory of having served as Trump's so-called "fixer" for some 12 years.

They say he went to the lowest-regarded Law School in the country. Ho hum. He still managed to do well in the Big Apple, the City That Never Sleeps, where he still made his cash and even wrote a few books.

Cohen's testimony against Trump is, as they say in Stephen King thrillers, "riveting."

Well, sure. I guess. He was there and, as Vietnam veterans like to say, you had to be there to understand.

-0-

The semi-attractive South Dakota Republican governor, Kristi Noem, decided to have a book written about her and, well, she insisted that a certain incident in her life be included - the one where she kills her dog, "Cricket."

The explanation is somewhat believable: Out in the country, when your dog kills a neighbor's chicken, you shoot it dead. Never mind that her family may have like "Cricket," or that "Cricket" may have barked like Hell to keep from being murdered.

Noem shot him and "Cricket" died.

As did Noem's shot at being picked as Trump's running mate. Oh, well, to Republicans gunfire is Christmas music...

-0-

We have been monitoring this campaign for the 34th Congressional District, pitting Republican Mayra Flores against incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

It's still boring, as neither candidate has taken out their Chicano knives. But we're told things will liven-up in the next few weeks.

All we have to date is Vicente Gonzalez bringing home the federal bacon and Flores traipsing across the Rio Grande Valley's eateries.

Her Facebook page is a literal cubby hole of photos showing Flores eating here and there. Yes, she mentions the name of the cafe and says she supports local business, blah, blah, blah.

Pro boxers often train like crazy, get down to weight and then scarf up grub like mad to get ready for fight night.

Mayra is looking rather full these days.

Let's get ready to rumble!!! 15 rounds of boxing.

This, we also say, may be Mayra's "All You Can Eat" Campaign...

-0-

  

 -0-

-0-

Well, that about covers it for this week, kids.

Oh, one more...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...Boz Scaggs, From Urban Cowboy, 1980..."Look What You've Done To Me"...

CAMPUS LIFE:...Back To Noisy Student Protest...Our Quite-American Tradition...Universities Are More Than Just Books And Football...Studying Everything Under The Universe...The Young Also Think About Their World...Let Them...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...All sorts of student arrests. Voices raised to the highest decibels. We're here and we're not moving. America's largest and best-known universities are under siege. Well, that's too military a word. Schools are being tasked with offering explanations, and that is a good thing.

But cops on campus?

No college or university wants that.

The genesis? That bloody war Israel has waged against Palestine, a rather one-sided assault, the U.S. backing Israel with weapons and money. Pro-Palestine students and supporters want the schools to divest of investments backing Israel.

Countering students argue defending Israel on campus is also to be expected.

What to do?

University presidents have been summoned to congressional hearings. Some had been forced to resign when the protests went heavy. Others are still wondering about solutions. City politicians - and some in Congress - have taken the strong-policing approach.

It's a flashback of Kent State in 1970, UC-Berkeley in 1964.

We're okay with student protest. It is our constitutional right in this republic still messing with Democracy. Free thought on campus. That was the old rallying cry back when student protests on campuses centered on the Vietnam Conflict.

Here, in this latest go-round, the imagery is wilder, perhaps even worse. Maybe it's the prevalence of cellphone cameras, the cat-quick response of the international press. Seeing military-attired local police storming a campus building to evict students is a bad photo-op.

The cops and the city officials want the coverage. They want the public to know that they are acting on a problem, responding, keeping it from escalating, from some opportunistic clown arriving with an automatic weapon and...yeah.

It's not a problem if it's only students protesting. Face it: These are tomorrow's leaders, and they perhaps even care about their future and their world.

It is if outside agitators are leading the charge...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...Newsroom Jukebox...New Don Henley Album Due Out..."Take A Picture Of This"...

WHEN WINNING IS LOSING:...Liberal American Politics...Again, We Tease Disaster...Veterans Lining Up Against Trump...He's All About The No-Good...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Anyone remember George Wallace? Lyndon LaRouche? They were Trump before Trump became Trump. All three delivered crazed political campaigns out to draw gasps and damnation. Wallace was shot on the campaign trail. LaRouche was simply a wild man before his time.

They preached the White Story, one that has White people building this country and then not wishing to share it. History has so much more to add to this too-brief equation. But they didn't care. The time had come for White people to stand up and fight for their country.

Now it seems that was the precursor to what we have seen - and are seeing - in Republican presidential candidate Trump.

Time magazine is about to bring you a lengthy interview with Trump in which he bemoans the stet of White America.

Excerpts from the magazine, via axios.com: [ On "anti-white racism" protections: "I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country, and that can't be allowed."

On disbanding the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, established under President Biden: "I think I would. ... I think it sounds good politically, but I think it's a very expensive solution."

Time, in the cover story going on sale May 17, calls Trump's responses "the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world."

Asked by the magazine about his statement on Fox News in December that he'd be a dictator just for Day 1 of his presidency, Trump said: "I think a lot of people like it." ]

I know. I know a lot of us have heard this before.

What I have not heard - or seen in reporting - is any credible threat to White America. Really? Where? No news reports saying a group of Whites were shot dead while dining on pot roast at Cracker Barrel. No news report of Whites voicing fear and loathing.

No news reports of any ethnic group ganging up on Whites.

What's Donald Trump talking about here? Well, "talk" is what it is. Fearmongering for votes. Saying the craziest of shit just to get noticed. It would be hard to not notice an orange-faced man, but Trump does it every day. Is it vanity, or is it insecurity?

He definitely has a need for attention.

If he wins, as Time magazine asks on its front cover, well, he wins.

This country may be in a world of bad breadth these days, but I say it would survive Trump, like it did between 2016 and 2020.

The United States will not be sunk by one man. Yes, he has his legion of weirdoes, but another power rules behind the scenes: money. Make of that what you will, but I'm sure you get my drift...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...An Old Song From The Old West....Michael Murphy..."Geronimo's Cadillac"...