HORROR:...And Then They Came For America...Two Hundred-Plus Years And What?...400,000 Americans Dead In World War II...58,000 Killed In 'Nam...For This?...For A Draft Dodger?...Enter Stephen King...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Perhaps it is okay that a well-known writer of horror comes forth with an apropos line. What the Hell, right? I mean, everybody's talking, so why not Stephen King, the author of some of the scariest fiction around.   

". . . Overturning Roe (vs. Wade, over abortion rights) took power from women," King wrote yesterday on social media. "Today's decision takes power from all of us."

He was referencing the now famous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Republican Donald J. Trump's claim to absolute immunity. He's not alone. Writing is spanning the sky, from all recognizable angles and from all political sides.

Joe Biden is done, they say. Democrats need to replace him as their 2024 presidential candidate. He is old at age 81 and worse than a convicted felon. America cannot withstand another four years of Joe Biden.

Conversely, the scribes have given Republican convicted felon Donald J. Trump perhaps his best, best week ever as a candidate and even as a Human Being. The U.S. Supreme Court obviously thinks Trump is okay for the nation's highest post. He's a paunchy 78 and showing it, too. But the week was about putting Biden down and normalizing the criminal.

It's the U.S.A., kids. All in on the freedom to do this and that, right? Hang the charges on the hat rack and let the voters decide in November. Even a felon can run for president. We're Number 1 and all that shit.

The fallout, however, is a battered citizenry asked to play police in all of this.

Grand and trial juries have spoken and spoken loudly about Trump's criminal activity, yet none of it has stuck. The Orange Dud has yet to suffer, other than spending a few days at his recent NY trial in that hush money case that saw him convicted of 34 fucking charges.

Trump's still out there, free and clear. Even his probation interview, a requirement after his conviction, was handled via Zoom online. No walking into an interview room to face a hard-ass bureaucrat, no drug test, no hard questions. They say it was over in 20 minutes. Tell that to your cousin who was busted for two joints and still sits in federal prison.

No, America, don't come at me with what dictators are doing to their defenseless citizens in Third World countries.

Not after this. Not after what we're seeing and hearing, seeing with our own eyes.

Writer Stephen King has been a prolific critic of felon Donald Trump, often issuing blistering assessments of the goings-on. He's been whipped by right-wing MAGA types, but he's not stopping. The plot is too good.

A bloody horror story where everybody dies in the end.

That's what we've become. Bang the drum slowly one more time...

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MIDNIGHT IN AMERICA:...It's Getting Late. Do You Know Where Your Rights Are Going?...Deeper And Deeper Into The Abyss...Supreme Court Hands Us A Dictator...Our President Is Now Immune, More Than Ever, From Prosecution...Strongman Donald Trump Is Again "Proud To Be An American"...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...There's no other way to look at it, not if you keep up with daily events. The president's speech hours after the latest Supreme Court ruling says much. Angry Republican Donald J. Trump's campaign for president has boiled over into detestation.

He wants to be a dictator. President Joe Biden calls it dangerous for the citizenry.

It's the result of yesterday's surprise ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the issue of absolute presidential immunity sought by Trump was roundly endorsed by the nation's High Court. That came in a 6-3 decision, with all Republican-appointed justices going along with the idea, but it came. The three justices appointed by Democrats dissented strongly.

Trump roundly lauded the decision, which beyond asserting his position that a president cannot do the job without full immunity, well, also continued his ceaseless effort to delay a trial in Washington, D.C. to do with Trump's involvement in the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol Building - a needed trial now so far down the road as to go beyond the November General Election.

Trump keeps winning, yes.

What's America to do? I mean, people in the city and lunch-bucket towns. What recourse do they have, if they believe in government checks & balances, as most American students are taught in school. What can anyone do?

Nothing. Except vote. That's it. Congress is not going to challenge the Supreme Court. The president can oppose or decry it, but he's not going after the partisan justices. President Biden apparently could after this ruling, but he won't. It's not his style.

Pro-Trump Americans, meanwhile, are giddy as all get-out. For them, the living room has become the bedroom. MAGA disciples were all across the Internet minutes after the ruling, insisting that all the legal problems faced by Trump are now suspect (since a president, they noted, can do anything he wants).

These are largely old White Americans in graying hair and goatees, their women with the forearms of a plumber. Noisy, mouthy Americans - the sort of individuals we used to assign to uncultured Nicaragua and Panama.

But it's a new day and anything can happen.

The election cannot come soon enough. Until then, the country is held hostage by the ridiculous words of convicted felon Donald J. Trump and actions from his band of racist bigots.

Is it a Dark Day in America, as some pundits are saying?

No, not really.

This is nothing more than rootless excitement, brought into the living room by the news of the day. We're surviving in a time of unsurpassed bleakness where the landscape of failures has opened up to reveal our dismal glamour.

We're still the United States of America, the world's however-roiled best country. You could go along with those who say we need to return to the calmer days of yesteryear. But that's just a dream still carried by our aging, dying population.

Geriatric absurdity is temporary. This too shall pass...

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MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE:...Playing Its Role, Or Mudding The Waters?...One Debate And Country Falls Apart...How Major Outlets Had It...Plus, Supreme Court Ruling Favors Trump...See Our Comments...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...There is a well-known analogy most reporters would know well, often laugh at and perhaps even say it's the damned truth - picture a row of blackbirds on a powerline flying in one by one and then, when startled by something, they all fly off one by one to go check it out.

You're seeing a bit of it now in our busy national press corps on this presidential debate story that lingers here days after the event. Never mind the war in Ukraine, the other one in Gaza or a weekend shooting with racial overtones in Nebraska.

The Big Story must be chased down.

That is what newsroom honchos are telling their top political reporters these days. It is a story with better legs than the actress Juliet Prowse, said to have once had the most gorgeous legs in Hollywood.

We reel at some of the high-energy punditry making the rounds, but we also know that we live in a time when everyone has a bullhorn at the ready. You don't have time for all the freaking, highfalutin podcasts out there. Same for a zillion blogs out to have their say.

There is, however, evidence of what we mean. A review of recent post-debate headlines reveals a somewhat known belief that the news media plays its own game, often believing influence is key in their business, at times right and at others wrong, at times well-meaning and at others simply offering the partisan company line. 

Headlines of some major news organizations following the debate:

The New York Times: Biden Struggles as Trump Blusters in Contentious Debate

The Washington Post: Biden struggles, Trump deflects questions

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Crashed in First Clash With Trump

Politico: "Biden is toast"

Axios: Biden blunders dominate combative debate with Trump

NBC News: Biden sends Democrats into a panic; Trump unleashes bad information

CBS News: Presidential debate highlights from Trump and Biden’s first showdown of 2024

CNN: Biden’s poor showing and Trump’s repeated deflection

MSNBC: Biden stumbles; Trump caveats election results question

USA Today: Biden supporters alarmed after president’s debate struggles

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Your particular take on events is just as good as theirs. That's where we are in communications. The country has more than enough news and even more news angles. Each of the outlets listed above has its own niche in the industry - whether playing to the left, the right or the middle.

White noise is what it also used to be called.

Should we worry about it? No, not really. There are plenty of outlets simply off the grid, as they say. They gladly push hellbent lies to aid their cause, candidate or boss. That, we say, is well and good, 'cause it can be balanced by visiting other sites and reading a different story of the same news.

Once, Americans had three main news sources in ABC, CBS and NBC - the initial major networks. But that was 50-60 years ago. Cable TV followed it, and then came the world-changing Internet. Said to be in the rise is the availability of news on your cellphone.

Who knows exactly how much influence these news organizations have singularly and collectively.

All I can know is my own time. Yes, I make the rounds to stay informed.

Perhaps that's what we all should do. There are good reasons to criticize the concept of a free press. It's a jungle out there. Crazy rumors and crazier lies abound. But they do offer glimpses of current life, available all day and all night by way of your keyboard fingertips or television, a literal avalanche of good and bad news, accompanying photography included in the informational package.

This back and forth regarding last Thursday's presidential debate is hot, but it, too, will fade. Just keep watching those winging blackbirds on the powerlines...

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JOE'S NOT QUITTING:...Atlanta Newspaper Joins Chorus...President Should Quit The Race...Sub-Par Debate Performance Fuels Calls...Trump Still The Felon Trump...Biden is Old, But Political Comebacks Fill Our History Books...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's easy in our hurry-up, throwaway society to write off anything and anyone, especially in national politics. Truman-Dewey in '48 ring a bell? Bill Clinton in '92? Classic comeback stories are easy to find.

A bad debate is not the end for President Joe Biden.

He may yet leave the 2024 race, but it won't be because of his politics or age or raspy voice or phlegm-filled lungs. He's 81 years old, but fighting like Hell to stay in the race against his hated rival, convicted felon Donald J. Trump of the noisy, racist MAGA crowd.

One day after his lackluster performance at the contest's first debate, Biden was back on the campaign trail in red North Carolina, telling everyone at his rally that the Fat Lady has yet to sing. 

"Folks, I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to," Biden told the crowd. "But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth, I know right from wrong, and I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done."

"And I know, like millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up!" he concluded, with an upward thrust of his fist.

In newspapers and broadcast shows, the president was being written off right and left. The influential New York Times wants him out of the race, as does the Miami Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer. This morning, it is The Atlanta Journal-Constitution joining the call.  MSNBC's pro-Biden show "Morning Joe" called on him to leave the fight to someone younger.

It's not in the Biden family blood to simply concede, walk away like a politician unable, unwilling to fight.

Trump, meanwhile, moaned and groan as is his wont about not getting credit for "a great debate." If only!

A crap-tired America goes to the polls later this year, on November 5th, knowing exactly what it has in candidates this time around. Yes, the debate was cringe-worthy and a huge disappointment for Democrats. And Republicans had a right to be glad their legally-crippled 78-year-old horse managed to make it around the track without a major flub, although lies spat out of his mouth bit like farts after one too many avocado tacos.

Life went on the next morning, yet talk was cheap.

The nagging secondary problem for our once-proud land is that we have a literal mountain range of pundits spewing their angles and prognostications.

A robust Conversation is good, we say.

But it is still early in the game. The striking contrasts between both candidates remains and all it takes is a mini-stumble from the other side to reverse the tide, flip the tortilla or get everybody excited about the latest turn of events.

There is a good reason why the World Series, the NBA Finals and the NCAA College Football playoffs are not a one-game affair.

Joe Biden is still in it...

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SUN RECORDS:...Books And Movies Tell Us About Such Things...Never Knowing About That Prankster Real Love...We All Have One Or Two Or Three Back There...Willie: "I'll Love You Till The Day I Die"...

A VERY GOOD WEEK:...But, For Convicted Felon Trump, The End Game Is All That Matters...Biden's Poor Debate Showing Helped, But Did Not Solve His Many Problems...Even The Best Coffee Taste Fades...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McvALLEN, Texas |...It should be said again that political campaigns ebb and flow, often throwing candidates up against the wall of reality and more often dealing them news they'd rather not hear.

Donald J. Trump, flawed-as-all-Hell candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, had a very good week. Not that he contributed to it personally, but his lying ways at last Thursday's presidential debate against President Joe Biden did not hurt him.

Biden's nursing home performance overshadowed a gully wash of lies Trump managed to get in during the 90-mimute televised debate.

Who was keeping count when all eyes were on 81-year-old Biden acting like a 91-year-old?

But, as they say in professional baseball, the game's not over until it's over. In presidential campaigns, the game is 100 innings, and you get 15 outs per inning. Or, if we use boxing for the analogy, this fight is a 35-rounder in an outdoor ring, in Nevada, on a 110-degree afternoon.

We're still early in the contest. The fight continues.

Biden has a chance to recover and, well, Trump may or may not stay out of jail after his July 11th sentencing for that New York hush money trial conviction. I'm telling you. The first debate's result may end up being nothing more than a long, long foul fly ball. Or a nasty uppercut in the 21st round that becomes merely one point in the scoring card.

We're hip to the trip.

And the news will keep being weird.

A New York Times poll (yes, that liberal NY Times) has 78-year-old Trump far ahead of Biden after the debate. Whoda thunk it, eh? The New York Times?

Kids, just ride the rollercoaster and enjoy the wildness.

It's who we depressing Americans are these days - people out to be used and abused, while being asked to laugh and moan and groan, told to take our societal medicine when we go to bed and awaken the next day ready for some more news from that part of our civic duty ledger that has us addicted to the political winds whipping our faces silly...  

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DEBATE ONE:...Joe Biden Jolts His Audience...Even Democrats See The Problem...Donald Trump Is Still The Liar...It Was Joe's Age In Full Display...81 and Aging...Republicans Giddy This Ayem...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It was anything but riveting television. Last night's debate between presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump had all the markings of a nursing home food fight. America has never before known a cat fight where both cats were merely meowing.

I agonized for 90 full minutes.

The election is not until early November, but, folks, we're in a fight for the future of this country. To even think of banking on 81-yearold Biden, the Democrat, or 78-year-old Trump, the fake Republican, is to bank on a pair of has-beens.

Disappointment came like waves fueled by an arriving hurricane.

Joe Biden had been postured by Republicans as a debater who would arrive "all jacked-up on Mountain Dew," the so-called energy drink. Instead, it was as if he'd been given the strongest of sedatives. The man looked half-asleep; his face often frozen on the TV screen in what could also be interpreted as that horrible malady known medically as Stiff Body Syndrome.

Trump, meanwhile, was a cavalcade of weirdo facial expressions all throughout the debate, his answers to questions a mountain of lies the CNN moderators never challenged. He even had the gall to deny he ever said military veterans are "suckers and losers," even as a former U.S. Army general insisted he heard the convicted felon say it during an observance of the 1944 D-Day invasion in France.

That from Trump we expected; what Joe Biden delivered was the shocking part.

It'll be a time for a load of soul-searching for Democrats today and in the coming weeks. This was not the feisty, glib Joe Biden that dazzled Congress during his most recent State of The Union address, when he looked fresh and sharp and came across as the witty one we did not see last night.

Our assessment: Good luck, Democrats.

Corrupt, convicted, legally mired Donald Trump is not the answer to many of our social problems, but, last night, at least he looked halfway alive.

Joe Biden had his chance to put troubled Trump away, and he flubbed it.

Perhaps not because he wanted to, but because the optic of an old man in serious political discourse was too tough of a verbal obstacle course for him.

Neither candidate, we would say, lost a single supporter after this performance.

We only wonder about those finicky independent voters who forever look for that single maker-breaker event or utterance from a candidate to vote up or down...

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DOWN TO THE SUNLESS SEA:...Tonight's Debate Teases Something Or Another...America Grabs The Boring Mantle...Whatever Became Of Excellence?... Presidential Debate Inspires No One...Groan...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Where to begin with these two old guys? Debate Night is here and, well, there is so much to write about President Joe Biden and his Republican opponent in this year's election, one Donald J. Trump.

Can you just say that one, Democrat Biden, is the clean one and the other is a convicted felon?

Will America care to know the details of both campaigns? The vote is a crucial one. Biden promises a continuation of his steady approach to democracy values, while Trump is head-over-heels in love with a dictatorial style.

At first glance, the choice would seem to be a very easy one.

Today's busy Americans, however, are a troubled lot. Yes, pundits keep noting that Trump's voting base is, at best, 30% of eligible voters, adding that it alone is not enough to win a national election. Conversely, other Americans wonder if perhaps Biden's age (81) is a problem.

Who knows?

Tonight, the two aspirants will debate in Atlanta.

Age is a factor. Both men are up in the clouds, with Trump walking in at 78 years old. The advanced elderly side of both men is clearly visible in their posture and, some say, manner of thinking. It's been written many times already, but whichever of these two wins will be the oldest president ever at an inauguration.

But politically the differences are wide and getting wider.

It is Democrats against Republicans one more time, only these Republicans are not your father's Republicans. These Republicans have gladly picked up the often racist and bigoted flag to deliver a tone not seen in our politics for more than a century.

Secondary issues are abortion and immigration.

Biden is 100% for availing a woman her rights to her body on abortion and, lately, a fan of asylum restrictions for immigrants. Trump wants a national ban on abortion and a complete shutdown of the southern border, his past dealings with immigration spikes including separation of children from their parents.

Both of those topics are sure to surface at tonight's debate.

The only thing in the way of answers being important is that, at this stage, many voters have already made up their mind.

The clash is familiar; the script and manner of how these candidates got there is not...

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A DEATH IN TOWN:...Stunning News On The Death Of Brownsville's Carlos Cascos...Cardiac Arrest While Driving On South Padre Island...He Was 71...A Life Well-Spent...As Cameron County Judge And Texas Secretary Of State...

 

STAFF REPORT

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Social Media reports have it that former Cameron County Judge and Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos has died. Initial information went to Cascos apparently suffering a heart attack and crashing his vehicle while on South Padre Island.

Story-hungry bloggers in Brownsville quickly spread the news.

The 71-year-old Cascos ranks high among the best-known politicians in town, up there with former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, former State Rep. Rene Oliveira and former City Commissioner Ben R. Neece, the latter two also recently deceased.

An accessible outspoken defender of his troubled Republican Party, Cascos nonetheless talked-up his personal conservative roots, never quite defending the party's current leadership but always believing the good days of yesteryear would eventually return.

His own admirable political journey is one of ever-steady advance and accomplishment. Born in Matamoros, Mexico, Cascos came to the U.S. at a young age and proceeded to live the American Dream. After high school here, he graduated from the University of Texas-Austin with an accounting degree and owned his own accounting firm in town.

Politics had him in the Democrat Party when younger, but Cascos always said the area's dominant party never gave him the opportunities he got from the local GOP, which endorsed his run for Cameron County Judge. In 2015, he was named Texas Secretary of State by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, a post Cascos held for two years.

Of late, he had taken a rather statesmanlike posture in Brownsville, occasionally taking part in political discussions and always there for news reporters looking for a story.

His passing is only the latest in a string of deaths that has taken some of the city's longtime leaders.

A generally humble man, Carlos Cascos never talked about his legacy or played up his many accomplishments.

His was the journey of an honest man looking not for fame or riches but simply to help his fellow citizens...

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SUN RECORDS:...The King Laughing It Up In Vegas Concert...This About The Time He Found Out Wife Priscilla Was Shagging Her Karate Instructor, A Dude Named Mike Stone..."Are You Lonesome Tonight"...

THE DIM & DIRTY ROAD:...A Rudderless Campaign To Nowhere...Hispanic Republican Mayra Flores Has No Second Or Third Gear...For Her, It's Still 2022...A Distinctive Smell Of Defeat In The Air...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

HARLINGEN, Texas |...Everybody knows exactly what is wrong with our republic. You can sit down at a bar and quickly hear the moaning and groaning. Same for most breakfast eateries. The words ring thick and vicious, sentences no longer interested in getting along.

I've been wondering about our politics for weeks now, always ready and willing to see a turn for the better but always turned away at the door. The price of admission is too high - your brain.

Here locally, it is the latest run for Congress being fashioned by a sort of tragic figure we all know as Republican candidate Mayra Flores, shown in photo above. What can you say about a 38-year-old woman so lost in the political landscape that to call her a dreamer is to believe that every dream is now a nightmare.

Miss Flores is going nowhere in her current campaign for the 34th Congressional District seat presently held by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, a rather entrenched politician uninterested in losing to a woman born in Burgos, Mexico and educated at a city college in McAllen.

He's an attorney and she's a respiratory technician. His education is wide-ranging; Mayra's is lacking in government, economics, world history, finances and the sciences.

It is the easiest call we've had this year. Gonzalez will defeat her once more in the November General Election, in what are characterizing as another beating by more than 11,000 votes. That would be the same margin of victory Gonzalez celebrated two years ago.

The disappointment will be bitter, as most of us - and Miss Flores - remember she served a brief 6-month stint in Congress between the summer and end of 2022, after winning a Special Election following the retirement of then-Congressman Filemon Vela.

She likely remembers it as the shining highlight of her life. It was the equivalent of an actress coming off a job at a soda fountain counter to win an Academy Award. The thrill was nothing short of spectacular exhilaration, rivaling perhaps a much-awaited marriage proposal.

But then she lost that November day.

The interim has been a slog of sorts for Mayra Flores. She is a sought-after interview on Right-Wing media channels and has posed for photos alongside some Republican heavyweights, like Texas AG Ken Paxton.

Back home, the campaign has not been as exciting from one day to the next. She staged a daily visit to Rio Grande Valley eateries most of last month, visiting the restaurants in what she said was support of small businesses. The payoff of meeting crowds of potential voters was not there, however. Still, she has photos with the business owners for her Facebook page.

That ended and we next saw her inviting Right-Wing Congressman Cory Mills of Florida to join her for a rally at the economic Junction Cafe in Pharr, where the turnout was more than disappointing. She beat on against the current, as the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald might say about here. Looking for the green light and hoping for a spark of sorts.

We have not seen it.

Instead, it is a wallowing we discern in her effort. Perhaps she has seen the writing on the voting booth wall, or maybe she, like us, knows most challenger candidates do not make up an 11,000-vote defeat. Indeed, we have not seen anything that would tell us she has been moving within the district's geography, which includes roughly half of the valley but also a chunk of the Texas Coast all the way to Corpus Christi and a little beyond.

Meanwhile, Congressman Gonzalez (shown in photo below) has been busy announcing federal money approved for his district pretty much weekly, from a little over a million dollars for dredging at the Port of Brownsville to almost $5 million for a new control tower at Valley International Airport here in Harlingen.

And Gonzalez has seen to it that he gets the press coverage.

Mayra Flores? It's as if this is her first rodeo.

There is no excitement chasing her campaign and the loud voice she used in 2022 seems to have mellowed. Still, she is a ground-floor fan of Donald J. Trump and that she will always let you know.

Perhaps she'll surprise us in the coming weeks. Maybe she has a rabbit in her hat she's yet to pull. Or, she has simply realized that there is no path to victory. South Texas is a unique political land. Running for office on the dirtied coattails of a flawed and selfish New Yorker likely is a problem away from the partisan rah-rah sessions.

Once, we admired her cheek and boldness.

There was a belief that we needed a loud voice in Congress, someone to get the attention of leaders and allow the Rio Grande Valley to grab its place on the national stage. Mayra Flores seemed to be auditioning for that part with every bit of harsh criticism she aimed at her opponent.

That annoying, fighting, grating Mayra Flores has not been around on this campaign.

This much is true: The daily desperate grind of an underdog political campaign eventually drains even the most-inspired candidates. Mayra Flores may be out of gas, the desire of a once-beckoning political career perhaps gone.

Pity...

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SUN MEMORIES:...Those Halcyon Days In My Life...Reporting From Mexico For The Houston Post...."Love in Mexico"...What A Time It Was...

HIGH NOON:...Presidential Debate In Atlanta...For President Joe Biden, A Showdown With A Convicted Felon...For Republican Donald Trump, Yet Another Chance For Redemption...On The Latter, Don't Bet On It...Abortion & Immigration Front Center...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Welcome to the World Series of Darkness, as the saying goes on matters such as this one. It'll be a presidential debate but stash the usual reverence. Biden vs. Trump is new territory. A night of "firsts" awaits interested Americans here a bit more than four months before the November General Election.

Never, ever, in the grand, 64-year history of these televised events has any political party ever postured a convicted felon like Republican Donald J. Trump, a candidate arriving two weeks before sentencing following his recent conviction in a New York courtroom of financial irregularities.

And that's just the 78-year-old's recently acquired baggage. He's still on the hook for three other trials, one in Washington, D.C. (the January 6th insurrection mess), one in Florida (the classified documents he took when leaving office) and one in Georgia (2020 election interference).

Democrat Joe Biden, meanwhile, again will see television viewers noting his every move and word. He's 81 and some say he's too old for the job.

Abortion and immigration will be key issues expected to be hashed about in Thursday night's presidential debate.

President Biden no doubt will pounce on Trump's backing of a national ban on abortion, while Trump will paint an oversized canvas of that so-called "massive invasion" of immigrants at the southern border. Both issues are on the minds of voters, with most women said to be anxious to dim Trump's bright bulb on that issue, as will be those Americans who want not one more immigrant admitted into the country.

It may not be being billed as an election for or against Fascism, but, for many, that is what the vote in November will be - Democracy itself on trial. Trump is seen as the dictator wannabe, a candidate who has said he would be a dictator but only for Day One if elected. That he even went there is enough for his supporters and his detractors. No candidate for this office has ever uttered those words.

Joe Biden will likely focus his debate language on his accomplishments in office, efforts that include low unemployment and high job numbers. His appeal to young voters will no doubt include his cancellation of college student loans and his steady progress on improving the nation's infrastructure. Biden may also play up his stoic defense of Ukraine in its war with Russia and his general support of Israel against the terrorist organization Hamas.

Somewhere in there, Biden will also address his executive order on the asylum issue as it relates to the border and immigration. His recent policy adjustment, damned by Republicans, has led to sizeable drops in apprehension of undocumented immigrants in recent weeks, according to officials with the U.S. Border Patrol.

For Trump, the debate task also includes an ability to speak to the issues, his candidacy and what it means for the country - beyond his usual histrionics, something independent voters have found to be tiring of late, to the point that, more and more, attendance at his rallies keeps dwindling.

Swimming under the current will be the question: "Is this America, or what?"

Trump's creation of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) has injected national politics with a loud and proud following seemingly not interested in anything but Trump and what Trump has to say. MAGA disdains and discounts pretty much any and all of criticism aimed at their candidate - charges, trials and jury verdicts included.

It is an odd time in America, but people in most other countries also will be tuning in. Many Europeans remember Trump's term as president (2016-2021) as a time of great anxiety. His open support of Russia's Vladimir Putin never sat well with leaders of other countries, as also did his interest in withdrawing the U.S. from the NATO alliance.

Trump's fondness for the Russian leader remains as strong as ever and his position on NATO has likely not changed. In fact, he has said the war in Ukraine would end the day he assumed the presidency. Biden has labeled that pure folly and further denigrated the friendship with the leader of a nation out to destroy America.

Just how deeply discussion of the issues will go on the Cable News Network (CNN) debate is anybody's guess. Moderating the event will be Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, two veteran journalists who have taken Trump to task in their reporting.

For President Biden, it will be another opportunity to shine, as he did in the State of The Union earlier this year.

Viewers will note that the debate forum will not include a live audience. Both Biden and Trump also will see their microphones turned off when not speaking, both novel to this occasion. That should rid the debate of what became constant interruptions by Trump during the 2020 debate.

Projections and pundit analysis have it that it will be viewed by perhaps the largest television audience ever.

We're way far down the road from the first JFK/Nixon televised debate on October 21, 1960.

Biden fits the traditional political mold of those two candidates; Trump, sadly, is still the wild card...

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SUN RECORDS:...The Heart & Soul Of My Beloved Mexico...All Those Bus And Train And Airplane Rides Back In The Day...Here, The Great Marco Antonio Solís..."Cuando Te Acuerdes De Mi"...

SATURDAY SHORTS:...Trump's Veep, A Collection Of Troubled Kids...Salivating Dudes Willing And A Load Of Hungry Broads Auditioning...But, Uh, What Became Of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Chances?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Knowing Donald J. Trump as we do by now, it will not be a Black. He keeps ragging on President Joe Biden's Veep and she's Black, so there you go. Blacks Tim Scott, Ben Carson, Byron Donalds and Vivek Ramaswamy are out.

Place your big bet in Vegas on that one. It'll win.

No, Trump is not looking for a virile male, either. He fully believes he is that and much more.

So, count out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Doug Burgum. (Oh, Aaron Rodgers, too)

A woman? Perhaps, but not wild Amazon Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's too spastic and not the model for formal education Trump so admires. He keeps saying he's smart because an uncle was a prof at prestigious M.I.T. The Arizona flash Kari Lake? Uh, no. She blew it by spending all her free time at Mar-a-Lago and we know how Trump feels about the same broad just hanging around.

New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik? She's too damned plain for Trump's glitzy tastes. The man-like Sarah Huckabee Sanders of plain-dumb Arkansas? A drawn-out maybe, but she, too, is too rural. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii? Don't think so. A Democrat not all that long ago, but a loudmouth, so...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem? The coulda-been here. But she shot and killed her little dog. FOX News has-been Tucker Carlson? I'd venture to say that Trump likely hates anyone who fades like this Bozo.

That leaves Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance from his talked-about list. Is he the one? There is not much Mike Pence is this late-comer, but he has sucked-up to Trump like a crazed sumbitch.

They're all cold-blooded MAGA types, yes. Any of the above-mentioned names could get the finger and they would all say, "Thank you."

But I do wonder why Texas Gov. Greg Abbott never made the list.

Geez, Louise, there for a while, Abbott was singing Trump's praises like Cher used to sing Sonny's. Que paso, Greg? It's a question we would ask both Abbott and Trump, although....we also know that Trump disdains any sort of physical disability in people he likes and keeps around hm.

Too bad for our governor, but, man, that "invasion at the border" song Abbott sang for long weeks earlier this year sure pleased Trump...

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SUNBEAMS:...A Plain Valley Woman Moves West ...Looking For Love...Men At Large...A Day At The Grocery Store...Every Pear You Take...

 

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ / Fiction Editor

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Mona loved to see wild water in motion, whether in her glass-enclosed bathtub or at the lake or at the ocean. For her, every arriving wave was the essence of a potential boyfriend.

That last fat one here at the beach had to be the manager at work, a lecherous sort who'd just been dumped by his wife in a spectacular tale that was making its way into the local newspaper.

Picky, forty-year-old Mona was intrigued.

The indifferent Pacific never failed her. Day after day after wave after wave; she lapped it all up, at times with a tonguing of her lips, in the same manner that she ate convenience store popsicles and hard candy.

"I've got much to offer a man!" she would say aloud into the ocean headwinds. "Look at me, man! ...I'm the best game in town."

And, yes, she was. Mona Lisa De Leon, daughter of Brownsville, Texas, had left her scorching, humid bordertown for the beaches of California now going on 13 years ago.

One boyfriend in all that time, a fireman in Modesto. Mona Lisa thought highly of herself, of her chaste ways especially. Never an easy date even by California standards, she always let it be known that giving it up before the 10th date was a street harlot's move.

Then one day in April, she met Dan Pine at the corner grocery store, in the produce aisle, where she handled apples prior to tossing a few into her grocery cart. Dan strolled up and said go with pears.

Mona looked up to see the most rugged man she'd ever laid eyes on. No man back home looked like this. His heavy, bushy beard was like a pair on gray briefs all rolled up into a ball.

And so, she went ahead and bagged a half-dozen Bartlett pears, agreed to go out with Dan and then proceeded to live happily ever after with him.

When he died in a car crash 35 years later, Mona planted a young pear tree in her backyard and the tree is yielding the sweetest pears you'd want to taste...

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SUN FLICKS:...From the 1996 Movie "Trees Lounge," Starring The Goofy Steve Buscemi...This tune by the band Hayden...Cool, Neighborhood Bar...

THE WEDNESDAY CLUB:...Writing This Week Is Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito...He's Pumped...And Thinking About Losing His Grouchy Wife...He's Got His Eye On Sexy Lauren Boebert, The Fondling Republican...

 

By SAMUEL ALITO/ Special To The Sun

PORT ISABEL, Texas |...Well, Martha-Ann just wanted to get away from it all. Washington, D.C. and our home in neighboring Virginia just weren't the places for love anymore. Too many people bitching up that way. They jumped all over my wife over the manner in which she flies flags outside our home. Runs'em up upside down.

What can I tell you that you don't already know?

But we're here and here we'll stay a few days. At the Port Isabel Yacht Club, although I've not seen a single yacht. Maybe they'll come for the July Fourth Regatta.

In any case, I suppose I should tell you that the wife is troubled. She keeps asking me if I still love her. The press has been especially hard on her. She looks like heck. Her moptop gray hair has turned whitish, and with that roundish face, well, she could easily be mistaken down here for a big, fat seagull.

We've been married a long time. From those days before I joined the Supreme Court and became a bigot, someone out to offer political dogma and not interpretation of our beloved Constitution. Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.

And now I feel like sinning again.

My wife bores me. Hopefully, the news media won't grab that and run with it. I mean, we've been on the cover of Rolling Stone and even some lowly bloggers have given us heck. I'm Italian and I want to fight back, put my fist down a reporter's throat and boot up his or her ass. That's how we'd do it in Mafia-run Sicily, where my family tree was first planted and grew like a sumbitch.

It was that story out of Denver that drew me to her, I can now say. Who exactly is "her," you might ask. Well, as the Beach Boys like to say at the beginning of their songs, it's Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. She loops me, and I don't know what to do.

I was mesmerized by that episode of Lauren (Gosh, I want so much to say her name, all day long) at that showing of Beetlejuice where she was caught fondling her male date and being fondled. It was like a soft-porn scene from an Erich Segal novel (Love Story), with me playing Ryan O'Neil and sweet Lauren being Ali McGraw. You know, I had a dream in which, well, there we were. Lauren even called me "preppie." I woke up smiling.

So, who knows where this will go?

I'm due back at my seat on the High Court in a few days, but I'm not rushed. My colleague Clarence Thomas turned me onto this Texas zillionaire by the name of Crow and, well, we can get up there in no time at all aboard his private jet.

Tonight, here at the P.I. Yacht Club, I will fess it all up to Martha-Ann.

My wife is not good at taking horrible news, but what the heck, right?

I'm a Supreme Court bad ass these days...

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[EDITOR'S NOTE:...This is the inaugural installment of a weekly feature in which we publish writing by noted politicians and other celebrities...always in a satirical vein, of course...]

REPUBLICAN WOMEN:...Bold, Hostile And Out There...Anywhere But The Kitchen...Power-Hungry And Saying It Out Loud...Yes, Add Our Own Mayra Flores And Monica De La Cruz To That Parade...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's an interesting study in our women, yes, but both of the ones in this topic are dead-set on joining their Republican Party brethren come hell or high water in the kitchen. They do not want to cook, or even shop for comestibles.

These women want political action, underhanded games and absolute power.

Forget Sarah Palin. She'd cower before today's GOP women.

All you have to do is take even a side-glance at ever-aggrieved Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene ("Bleach blonde, bad build, butch body") and see the clear growth in boldness. Greene demands attention. So does her troubled Colorado sweetheart, Lauren Boebert, a mother who disdained her son's appearance in court for burglary but attended Donald J. Trump's "Hush Money" trial in New York.

Nancy Mace, the South Carolina GOP congresswoman has been loud and more visible lately, even after her entire office staff resigned citing a "toxic" environment - whatever and all that may mean. Her counterpart in upstate New York, Elise Stefanik, has transformed from a genial and quiet representative to a Trump-approved hellcat now apparently on The Donald's short Veep list.

Then there is Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law now a co-leader of the Republican National Committee and her bellicose ways. She's the one who said any and all monies gathered by the RNC would go to Trump's presidential campaign and legal fund.

They grab the microphone, the interview occasion and they let it rip. Damn that crap about a women's place being in the home, kitchen and bedroom. There is something to be admired about that, only, in the case of these brazen political operatives, it at times can get annoying.

Enter 34th Congressional District candidate Mayra Flores, the darling of right-wing media for a brief shining moment back in 2022, when she actually won the seat in a Special Election and served it for six months, before being routed by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in that year's November election - swamped, as in by more than 11,000 votes.

Flores bellowed, shrieked and filled her political days with excitement heretofore unseen in the Rio Grande Valley. She seems to have quieted down a bit in her current campaign, but it's still early in the journey. It has to be a tough gig if all you have at hand is words of /praise for Trump and not yourself.

The same goes for District 15 Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, the picture-perfect image of a smiling 50-year-old divorcee who just looks out of place in national politics. Does Monica cook? We ask that in jest, but it's something to wonder about, especially after Flores was caught taking cook-out photos off the Internet and claiming them for herself.

Not to be so down on women in politics, but there is such a thing as class.

Yes, today's campaigns for office are nothing short of a barroom brawl, but one wonders: How much has Trump's lawless ways influenced his party's females? You answer that.

And who knows about the New Republican Women and the upcoming election. Storms never last, as they say in weather and song. We'll see. There is simply too much contradiction. You can pick an issue and ask about why Republican women don't scream against their own party.

The abortion issue, for one. Republican Party bigwigs want to outlaw them from coast to coast. But, really, when is the last time you heard any Republican woman defend that women's right. I mean, if we believe in freedoms, of course - your body being your body.

Not a peep. Let Donald speak his mind and we'll follow. Sheeple in cute sundresses (Monica De La Cruz, shown in photo above, at left), some in tight jeans and cowgirl boots (Mayra Flores). Yeah, never mind the pain. I suspect both of these politicians cry themselves to sleep.

The Republican Party is out to oppress women. How can Flores, shown with hefty load of BBQ in photo at right, and De La Cruz even dream of leading such a party? They cannot.

It is a sick joke to be sure.

Perhaps that's why we rarely see a Republican woman smiling congenially in photos or on TV, or even laughing sincerely.

The image-of-choice they have chosen is one of tireless bitterness and a flowing disgust that has to take a toll on the brain.

Male Republican candidates are extremists these days, and the women aboard that rolling Conestoga wagon sit alongside, rifle in hand, anger at the ready...

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VOTING FOR PAIN:...Latinos For Trump Asking For It...Oh, But They So Want To Belong...Republicans Mayra Flores and Monica De La Cruz Ride Aboard Trump Train...That's Them Smiling As They Board...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...There is no rhyme or reason, from what I can see. Support for convicted felon Donald J, Trump is understandable from certain quarters, but from Latinos? Uh, no. They know not what they do, Lord.

The man hates them, won't sit with them, won't eat with them.

Yet, there they are, fawning over the racist candidate for president, asking to be among the first he would go after, damage and deport. Citizenship is not a given under fascism. They can only hope.

Surveys may indicate that Latinos are rallying behind the flawed Republican, but I also suspect that those numbers are skewed. A certain sector of insecure Hispanics is aboard his campaign, like local District 15 Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz and District 34 candidate Mayra Flores.

Would both give an arm and leg to help do Trump's ugly bidding?

But they are not alone in the ever-fad-happy Rio Grande Valley, a shank of land so far from Washington, D.C. and so much closer to Mexico City that it is neighboring country's culture that brings what we call life for locals.

Pass the salsa and keep the Grey Poupon.

Flores and De la Cruz, shown above, at right posing with Trump, have nothing in common with Trump and his crowd. What - claim to a party allegiance? Puh-leeeese. The Republican Party's use of non-White voters is a strategy for winning the most votes. Inclusion? Obscenity!

Trump never looks to Latinos for any sort of leadership standing. He had none - not one - in his Cabinet while in The White House. There was no such thing as the highest-ranking Hispanic in his administration. Even that other weird Republican, George W. Bush, had one - Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

Trump makes it very plain to see, yet Latinos do fawn over him. In Congress, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio support Trump wholeheartedly these days. They've come around. Once, Trump said Cruz's wife, Heidi, was ugly, and he labeled Rubio "Little Marco."

No, the myriads of clues are there, and it is more than just a foot-tall mound.

Flores, shown in photo at left, and De La Cruz, I say, exhibit nothing that tells me they are intelligent enough to see beyond the glitz of an inclusion that is simply a fake, one-way relationship. Meat on the hoof to be used and discarded after the election.

Latinos are a recognized force in our elections these days.

That political power is something that can benefit our people, our role in this ever-segmented country.

Smiling for Trump only makes Latinos look dumb, weak, futile and lost...

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SUNBEAMS:...A Short Story Of Some Sort Of Crazy Love...But Not All Is Ever As It Seems In Wheelhouse Romance...You Can Go All-In On Romance...Happy Endings Were Back In Vogue...

 

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ/ Fiction Editor

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Funky Jake Ramirez had tolerated what he called Emilia's crap for long months. The relationship had been up and down and around the world, as they said in police reports across the grass-whorled country. Here, however, it had died, was just about over.

Emilia was a keeper by all measures of womanhood.

She had the brains, and she had the ass, is what Jake would tell friends.

"What she doesn't have is a Life under control," he'd go on. "The woman has 20 freakin' credit cards and they are all maxed-out!" That, and a few other personality peccadillos, like that she still wore bellbottoms and tie-dyed halter tops, as if a refugee from the bygone Summer of Love.

So when Jake decided to cut the cord with her, he told Emilia as much in a brief sermon that went to his dislike of her ways to the fact - as he put it, fact - that he hoped she would find what she was looking for.

Emilia coughed out a mini-surprise emotion and then said, "Cool."

In a jiffy sandwich, Jake felt out of her grasp. He kissed her on the cheek and said his goodbye; she moved her face toward his for the last peck and nodded in full agreement.

Sometimes, it's okay to go your own way, to get off the mare and live abroad, as they say in Texas.

Jake went on to date Emilia's socially aware sister Petula and Emilia started seeing an old Hippie who ran a motorcycle repair shop in town.

There was big trouble all across the map, but Happy Endings were back in vogue...

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SUN RECORDS:...For All Playful Women Out For Good Fun...Ay, Mujer, Que Facil Eres...Maná & Alejandro Fernández... "Mariposa Traicionera"...

HOPELESS LAMENT:...Republican Freefall Now A Show Of Desperation...Local GOP Candidates In Full Disarray...Figurehead Reptilian Trump Still All About Trump...None Of It A Good Sign For November...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Across the board, Republicans these days are more a gang of scooting field rats than any leaders the country could ever vote for or follow. It's now a crowded boat sinking in slow-motion. Desperation grips the party like never before. Local GOP candidates gasp for air. They know.

They know something's up and it's not good.

Recent national polling has angry figurehead leader Donald J. Trump slowly dropping in favorable ratings. His recent conviction in New York is now a clear mark of shame and disgust. The mess is rolling downhill and now affecting Republican down-ballot candidates.

They have no message, other than "Support Trump."

It's not enough to win The White House. At risk are a load of other congressional seats, both in the House and the Senate. We'll say it: Make no mistake, this is a political party in the latter stages of killer cancer. They know it and that's why they go nuts in speeches and media talk shows.

That meeting with Republicans in Washington, D.C. called by Trump yesterday was another sign of impending disaster. Like unsociable mice, Republicans did their best to look united, but the farce failed, as their leader let them know why he was there and what the game plan will be.

From axios.com: [ Lawmakers billed the meetings with the ex-president as part of an effort to boost GOP ranks in Congress and help Trump get a jump on his policy agenda should he win back the White House in November.

But Trump made clear in his remarks Thursday that securing his own re-election was at the forefront of his mind. ]

Again, he said. Trump cares only about his race and winning it. Every other Republican is on his or her own. Yeah, go tell Henny Penny to go tell Turkey Lurkey that Trump is in town. Falling, but in town.

Local Republican candidates Mayra Flores (34th Congressional District aspirant shown in photo at right) and first term, ever-shopping incumbent Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (neighboring 15th District) have stopped mentioning Trump in speeches and on social media.

Suddenly for both, the contests in November are all about helping the valley's "abuelitos" with their needs and social security. They have decided to bring the election home, to do for and talk about issues affecting and befuddling South Texans.

It's too little, too late...

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ABORTION:...Their Tone-Deaf Positions Will Doom Hispanic Republicans Mayra Flores And Monica De La Cruz...It Is Still The Hot Button Issue...Pro-Choice Keeps Winning At The Polls...Women Vs. Women?...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They don't dare talk about it. We speak of area Republicans in the world of elections and abortion. They simply wish to see such talk go away. It won't. South Texas may still be seen as a Catholic stronghold, but it's never been that in the abortion front.

Mexico being so close always helped.

For years, Abortion clinics lined the Mexican side of the Rio Grande all the way from Matamoros to Ciudad Juarez. These days, Mexico is as liberal as liberal can get on the idea of women availing themselves to the medical procedure and, as we know, Mexico is as Catholic as The Vatican.

So, should we expect to see Hispanic Republican candidate Mayra Flores and GOP Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (shown in photo above) addressing the topic that roils America from coast to coast these days?

Uh, don't hold your breath.

Not a peep has come from these two, not to date. Both are mothers, although 50-year-old De La Cruz is a single one.

Should they make their positions known? It's a losing proposition for Republicans these days, but the voters do deserve to know. Neither Flores, 38, nor De La Cruz has fielded questions on abortion. Republican-led Texas is whole hog against it, so perhaps we do know.

From NYMag.com: [ Since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade about two years ago, voters in seven states (Kansas, Kentucky, California, Michigan, Vermont, Montana, and Ohio) have been given an opportunity to weigh in on abortion policy. Pro-choice forces have won all seven. With Republican-controlled state legislatures imposing forced-birth regimes in large swaths of the country and Democrats envisioning a blue wave of voters seeking to restore abortion rights, efforts to secure November 2024 ballot measures have multiplied. And while it’s unclear at this juncture exactly how many states will hold votes on abortion policy, the odds of a continued pro-choice winning streak remain pretty good, according to the available polling. ]

Yeah, that All-Quiet-On-The-Abortion-Front you see is a strategy.

But we suspect that the Democrats in both races involving Flores (34th Congressional District) and De La Cruz (neighboring 15th) will soon bring it up. Flores badly trails incumbent Vicente Gonzalez, while De la Cruz has candidate Michelle Vallejo hot on her heels.

More and more, the Rio Grande Valley is not immune to issues roiling the rest of the country. Many here like to think they are up with the times, the current times being a smorgasbord of issues once only the purview of more-in-the-know hot shots in Austin or Washington, D.C. 

It was the Ol' Go Along to Get Along attitude.

Goodbye to that.

Today's Valleyites know the score. You can dance around issues all day long, but sundown brings the headier daily tally. Flores, shown in photo at left, and De La Cruz continue to play the old game, one that had our congressional candidates head over heels above the locals on most topics.

But those who know know that Monica De La Cruz is no Kika De La Garza. And, try as she might, Mayra Flores is no Vicente Gonzalez and, really, not even the second coming of any third-rate politician we've seen around here.

Abortion will sink many down-ballot Republicans in the November General Election. That Republican presidential candidate - Donald J. Trump - knows a woman's right-to-choose is one issue he won't touch. He'll blabber all day around it, saying the states should deal with it, but Democrats are going to hang a pair of speculums around his neck just to remind him.

Women know what speculums are and what they are used for...

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HERE IT COMES:...November Is Looking Good For RGV Democrats...Dog Republican Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz In Heap Of Trouble...Candidate Mayra Flores Stuck In 2022...Yeah, LAND HO!!!!...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...About this time a year ago, Hispanic Republican candidate Mayra Flores was giddily yapping away about a coming Red Wave of her party faithful that would overwhelm voting booths from here to the Heavens.

God did not answer.

The dream-weaver Flores lost by more than 11,000 votes. There is no such colorful talk this time around as South Texas voters ready their minds ahead of the November General Election.

Also in the water is Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, she of the homeless dog fetish. The District 15 representative is not making any waves, setting her campaign skiff's motor on automatic and apparently believing she has already beaten up & coming Democrat Michelle Vallejo.

What to think of all this?

Are Democrats now poised to sail on to victory at every level? They're not talking about any sort of Blue Wave, although their constituents are doing it online and during conversations in bars and restaurants.

It's what we're hearing, and our ears are on the ground. Daily, we take the measure of the discussion. There is NO WAY District 34 candidate Mayra Flores will make up her 11,000 vote defeat and NO WAY she will defeat incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Take it to the beach and to the bank.

The sentiment comes from what we're hearing about the national campaign in play for both of our major political parties. Republicans continue to cry themselves to sleep nightly over flawed, convicted felon candidate Donald J. Trump and the recent polls have shown it is in a freefall.

Down-ballot candidates such as De La Cruz, shown in photo above, at right, and Flores, shown below, will pay the price.

The 50-year-old De La Cruz, a former insurance agent and single mom, has decided hanging out at women's boutiques and splashing talk about saving area small businesses is the ticket to a nice swim all the way to the election.

The peripatetic Flores, meanwhile, has centered her campaign on a sort of similar bent, choosing to visit eateries across the Lower Valley as a way to spotlight her own support of small businesses. It is a weird strategy for both Hispanic Republicans.

Democrats Gonzalez and Vallejo are taking another route. Gonzalez has kept announcing federal dollars coming to the area, while 33-year-old Vallejo has spotlighted her local roots - a winner for hometown- proud RGV voters, we would say.

Yes, it's still a long five months before the election.

Waves are a natural at sea. Giant ones rise and crest when they want to, washing in to cleanse and cool.

This time, it is a big, Blue wave that's coming...

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