WAR:...U.S. Now All-In...Big Cash For Bloodied Ukraine & Israel ...U.S. Marine Corps General Assigned To Israel...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The U.S. is in it. Well, in both. Wars in Ukraine and in Israel, we mean. Supplying weapons and military expertise confirms it. What the hey, eh?

The Joe Biden Administration is asking Congress for another $106 Billion to that end, only it doesn't seem to end. Missiles and tanks and drones and cluster bombs and who knows what else for Ukraine's battles against neighboring Russia.

American generals for Israel in its fight against neighboring Palestine.

This about the latter from axios.com: [ Biden recently sent a Marine three-star general and several other U.S. military officers to Israel to help advise the Israeli military's leadership in its operation in Gaza, according to two U.S. officials and two Israeli officials briefed on the issue.

The move reflects the Biden administration's deep involvement in the war in Gaza and how much visibility it has in Israel's military planning.

The Marine Corps officers sent include Lt. Gen. James Glynn, according to a senior Israeli official. Glynn previously headed the Marines' special operations and was involved in the operations against ISIS in Iraq. ]

The message is that we're helping both of these countries stave off military assaults, only, more and more, it appears the U.S. is actually doing the fighting. No wonder Russia can't bring its lesser neighbor to its knees. Not that we're for that, but autonomy is autonomy.

Israel is fighting a vastly inferior foe!

What the hell is Biden doing? What do we get in return? That's the Great Unsaid here. Israel gets the second-most amount from us in annual foreign aid, roughly $3.1 billion. Enough is enough. Bring that money home.  

Let countries handle their own messes, is what we say...

-30-

DEMOCRATS:...Moves Ahead Of 2024 Election...Let's Hype The Hispanic Vote...So That's Where Fil Vela's Been...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | I keep saying Democrats here in the Rio Grande Valley ought to be just a bit noisier. They're not. They're perhaps too comfortable and letting success in the past deal-in the future. Good luck with that anachronistic strategy.

This from axios.com: [ Three former members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus - including the current governor of New Mexico - are teaming up to create a new super PAC to get more Hispanic Democrats elected to Congress.

The battle for Congress in 2024 will run, in part, through districts with significant Hispanic populations.

The new group, BOLD America, wants to make sure incumbent Hispanics, as well as challengers, have the resources to win in tight races.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (shown in photo above), as well as former Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Filemon Vela (D-Texas, shown in photo at left) are launching their new PAC today.

"Winning the majority for Democrats starts with retaining our current membership," said Vela.

"Through BOLD America, we will be empowered to protect and expand Hispanic representation in Congress," said Grisham, who also served in Congress. "By electing Hispanic members, we celebrate diversity and strengthen the foundation of our democracy," said Roybal-Allard.

Democrats still have a clear advantage with Hispanic voters, but party strategists are worried the trend is moving towards Republicans. ]

You hear that, but I say it's hard to quantify. Scanty inquiries via polls don't do it for me. News reports of this and that politician switching from Democrat to Republican is still rare.

It's a move forward here, only we have seen this many times before.

Vela was an outspoken congressman who surprised many by resigning his post in early-2022, only to then see nouveau Republican Mayra Flores win his seat in a special election. She lost it in the ensuing General Election to Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, but she's still around and going for it again in the 2024 tussle.

It would have been good to see Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa there alongside the democrats noted in the story above.

But he's too-comfortable, is what we're hearing...

-30-

BACKPAGES:...Cold Winter of '85...Homage To My Petite Lover, Kletha...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

GALVESTON, Texas |...The above photo shows the interior of the lobby at the Galvez Hotel in Galveston. It is a neat place to scarf-up a breakfast in the dining room just off to the right of this shot.

Bernardo's is the name of the restaurant and breakfast-for-two will set you back about $55.

Anyway, it doesn't look anything like it looked when I was reporting on island doings for The Houston Post in the mid-1980s.

For one, my old friend Claude Allen is no longer there. Claude was a caricaturist who plied his craft in the lobby of the Galvez. I knew him as the husband of a woman who became my lover that cold, cold Winter.

Her name was Kletha and she was a cutie, a petite blondie with a great personality. Our affair began oddly, with Claude telling me he thought it might be a good idea if Kletha and I hooked up. She was 31 and he was twice that old.

In any case, I saw Kletha most of that frigid season and we sort of fell in as if in some great romance. We ate in the small cafes of the island's historic Strand District and we'd follow that with some naked cavorting at her apartment or at my place at the Casa Del Mar Hotel.

But as with every great tale of doomed love, I left the island to head into the newspaper's main office in Houston and soon lost track of her. She'd come over every now and then, but those 45-mile trips grew farther and farther apart.

Some years later, I got word that Kletha had died. Yesterday, I found her obit in the Galveston Daily News. She died Nov. 2, 1992 of some form of cancer. Kletha was 38.

I remember her for many moments, but I can still see her jumping on my bed like a little girl...

-30-

GOP DUMBASSES:...Trump Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, Architect Of "The Big Lie," Says He Never Believed It...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | They always seem to go weak-kneed, apologizing, crying, asking for mercy and saying they didn't do anything wrong. This guy is accused of helping to overturn the 2020 election, but now he says he never believed Donald Trump's "Big Lie".

What a pussy.

We speak of attorney Kenneth Chesebro, shown in photo above, the latest one to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the RICO case currently before a court in Georgia that also has Trump by the balls.   

This from yahoonews.com: [ Chesebro, one of former President Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the George election fraud case, didn’t truly believe the 2020 election was stolen, according to his attorney.

"First of all, Mr. Chesebro never believed in ‘The Big Lie,’" attorney Scott Grubmann said Saturday in an interview on MSNBC. "If you ask Mr. Chesebro today who won the 2020 presidential election, he would say Joe Biden."

Chesebro became the second of Trump’s former lawyers to accept a plea agreement in the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to file false documents relating to his attempts to set up a regime of fake electoral college votes in Georgia. His trial was scheduled to start Monday.

Prosecutors claimed the former lawyer wrote legal memos on behalf of the Trump campaign creating a false legal backing for the fake elector scheme.

As part of the plea, the former lawyer agreed to testify in future cases if called upon. That would include Trump's trial scheduled for early next year. ]

Chesebro was neck-deep in the scheme to find a way for Republican Trump to win the 2020 election. That he lamely wimps out here is no surprise. All of the people around Trump facing legal trouble suddenly find that approach.

They never broke the law, but, hey, they are pleading guilty.

Yeah. Really smart people going dumbass...

-30- 

SUN SPOTS:..."Thelma's Totally Best Day"...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The day Bob Torres left her for another woman, wife Thelma Lou immediately cancelled her Facebook account after telling every woman on her page to go find a man and get laid.

"I am free, damn free, at last," she went on after detailing that last argument with her husband of four years, an explanation that included her own confessional.

"My dear, I have been continually unfaithful with the maid," Bob had said before she told him she'd been with his bowling buddy, Homero Garcia, for almost three years, the sordid affair, she noted, having begun after a PTA meeting that ran a tad short.

"I knew it!" he'd screamed while she laughed. And then, as if now electrified, he had grabbed his Houston Astros ballcap from the hat rack near the front door and turned back to look at her before saying, "Anyone else? I mean, that I know?"

Thelma Lou smiled and mouthed a name, fully knowing that Bob was a crackerjack lip-reader.

"Sheeeeeeee-it!" was all he said about that one.

Smiling Thelma Lou watched him scoot out of the house, angle toward his two-tone El Camino and then watched as he backed out into the street and roar-off like a spurned teenager.

Upstairs in the master bedroom, she undressed and grabbed her sexiest silver & black negligee, readying for bed. The walk to the corner and back had been refreshing; corny Bob leaving had been expected...

-30-

THE HOUSE:...First African-American As Speaker?...Well, One Is Going For It...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, who's next? That chase for a new Speaker of the House of Representatives isn't quite running out of candidates, but it has seen three dolts fall by the wayside. Republicans are adrift.

Now comes a greenhorn representative by the name of Byron Donalds to say he is the one to lead.

Well, he can say it till he turns white, but African-American Donalds is only dreaming. He's only been there since 2021, barely two years! Well, he was a state rep in the Sunshine State prior to that, only who cares what a state rep does in Florida?

This from floridapolitics.com [ After U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan lost three votes for Speaker, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is running to be the Republican conference nominee.

Aides for the 44-year-old Naples Republican confirmed to Florida Politics he will seek the support in a closed-door GOP conference vote. He will face Majority Whip Tom Emmer and U.S. Reps. Austin Scott of Georgia, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Mark Green of Tennessee.

A vote could take place as soon as Monday. ]

Donalds is a full-blown supporter of Donald Trump, and now Trump has endorsed his bid for speaker.

That right there will sink his campaign.

The two previous candidates - Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan - were also huge Trump supporters. The third one - Kevin McCarthy - was ousted by the right-wingers in the House.

Republicans in essence rejected all of them... 

-30-

SUN SHORTS:..."The Home Office Doorknob"...Life As A Big, Fat Paragraph...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Joe Ramirez had been the one to install the doorknob to his designated home office.

He'd been the one to drive to the hardware store, the one to walk up and down the aisles until he found the one stashing door-repair stuff, the one who'd walked it to the store's cash register, the one who'd paid for it, the one who'd asked that it be bagged, the one who'd driven it home, the one who'd carried it into the house, the one who'd up and announced to the family his intention to install it, the one who'd done that quickly, the one who'd have the only key, the one who'd straight-up, tersely told everyone, the dog too, that the office was his private space, the one who'd walk in and lock himself in for hours, the one who'd not done any work in there, the one who'd merely plunk himself down and sit in his executive high back chair and sleep...

-30-

THE HOUSE:...What's This? ..."Moderate" Republicans Sink Trumper Jordan In Third Bid For House Speaker Gig...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | What - moderates? In the Republican Party? It's been years since we've heard those words in the same sentence. Lately, and by that we mean since about 2015, it's been about Republicans as racists and bigots and government obstructionists.

And Trumpers, of course.

But this ongoing, seemingly endless  knockdown/drag out in the House of Representatives fronted to Americans as just another selection of just another Speaker is becoming quite the eye-opener.

News reports have it that Republican "moderates" are beating back the latest charge by Trumper Jim Jordan as he comes off three vote defeats but won't concede.

This from politico.com: [ Over the years, we’ve all heard a lot about Republican members of Congress bucking their party. For example, when Rep. Matt Gaetz and a handful of far-right Republicans succeeded in deposing then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy two-and-half weeks ago, creating a mess that has paralyzed the House of Representatives.

This week, there was another revolt: one against Jim Jordan, the House GOP’s latest speaker-designate. Jordan is shown in photo below, at right.

But what’s unique about this revolt was who led it: people like Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) He is shown in photo atop this posting.

Lawler represents a Biden district just north of New York City. Other Members who joined him in the emerging "NeverJordan" faction are from similar districts, or they're committee chairs and cardinals and institutionalists who finally became fed up with the far-right faction that thrust the House of Representatives into this mess in the first place. ]

Jordan, 59, from Ohio, wanted another vote this morning. He lost the previous two.

Hopefully, it will be scheduled. It was, and he lost the third strike.

And, with any luck, the milquetoast Congressman Patrick McHenry from South Carolina who has been the interim Speaker for three weeks now will ascend to the permanent spot.

We're not fans of this move, as the House Speaker is third in line for the presidency in the event of a catastrophe and this guy is an "appointed" speaker, not an elected one.

But that, too, could come around...if & when the Republicans get their duckies in order...

-30-

LA ZONA FINAL:...NFL Gets Taylor Swift...NFL Uses Taylor Swift...NFL Is Still Boring...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The Face of The National Football League? Really? Pop star Taylor Swift has been getting more ink than just about any NFL player this year. Yes, more news reports than Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott! More than (fill in the blank ________)!!!

How cool is that?

Well, we say it's not cool at all. It's the NFL giddily grabbing onto a superstar. To gain fandom, you know. Swift is the top moneymaker in music and concerts these days. And because she is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, well, Taylor's now at the ballpark wherever he is playing.

Home and on the road.

But what do you know?

Your Dallas Cowboys, at 4-2, are off this weekend. yeah, no game, not until next Sunday, when they host the Los Angeles Rams and continue their boring, up & down season. Or, as the boys like to say at the bar, their usual shittiness.

So, welcome Taylor Swift!

If only we could get Stormy Daniels to date Dak.

Oh, well...

-30-

[EDITOR'S NOTE:..."La Zona Final" is what Old School football fans call The End Zone...] 

WAR:...Writers See Things, Writers Write...Israeli Hate For Gaza May Be Political ...But It Also Is Much More...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Often, it is the artists and writers who inevitably damn war. It's happened through modern history. Not much of it has surfaced as things relate to the war in Israel, if war can be defined as battles between a superior-armed force and one with weapons of another past century.

Then I went looking at places I felt might have what I was looking for - a view of this war from writers with familiar names.

And there it was in the current issue of New York Review Of Books.

Some of America's better writers had gathered their names on a "letter" of the sort you see when consensus is being sought. These are not wild-eyed politicians or necessarily members of either bloody side's ethnicity. They are simply writers who have given the event a looksee and have no formed opinions.

An excerpt from the NYRoB's published piece: [ Israel has imposed what it calls a "complete siege" and told 1.1 million people in Gaza to evacuate within twenty-four hours. To where? After six days of bombing that have already killed 2,215 people, 724 of them children, in the fourth major aerial bombardment in the sixteenth year of closure the question — to where? — rings unanswerable around the world. When Israel’s top general refers to Palestinians as "human animals" and the US State Department deletes a statement calling for "a ceasefire," then we fear we are watching an ethnic cleansing on a scale unseen in decades.

The governments of the USA, UK, France and others are participating in this crime by ramping up military support for Israel as it wages a war that its officials have plainly stated aims to turn Gaza into a city of tents, or even worse, empty of its people. A population of over two million people, mostly from families that were made refugees in 1948, half of whom are children, have been living under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007, and to many of them, being told to leave again is not an option. On Saturday, after sixteen years of siege, Hamas militants broke out of Gaza. More than 1,300 Israelis were subsequently killed with over one hundred more taken hostage. We deplore the loss of all innocent life and now, as we write this letter, Israel is executing the largest expulsion of Palestinians since 1948 as it bombs Gazans without discrimination.

Our words feel small in this terrifying escalation. After so many years and so many deaths we must all, together, say this has to end, and that it can only end with a free Palestine. ]

A free Palestine has to date not been in any sort of war dialogue.

On the contrary, it is more a Palestine bombed into oblivion that has settled on Israeli minds. They cannot be blamed, but they can be criticized for their part in what led to this particular attack.

The U.S. is fully siding with Israel. Oh, there is talk of "reining in" the warring, blood-thirsty Israeli generals who want to - once and for all - rid themselves of all-things-Gaza.

The issue is not solely a political one. That would simplify things, but it is - again - about Human Life.

And no country - no ethnicity - has the right to say another Human Life cannot exist.

Keep writing...

-30-

TRIALS:...A Trumper Pleads Guilty...Attorney Sidney Powell Goes Down...Gets Probation ...Will Testify Against Trump...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | She'll talk. Or sing, if you're Italian and used to Mob Stories. That would be one Sidney Powell, shown in photo above. She's one of many Donald Trump lawyers who chased his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election...and now will pay the price.

They let her off easy, it says, during her appearance in court today, where she was granted probation but will likely be forced to testify against Trump in the Georgia trial.

This from politico.com: [ Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election meddling case, one day before her trial was set to start. In exchange for her plea Powell will spend six years on probation and pay a $6,000 fine, along with a further $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia. ]

Powell is the birdbrain who offered up a number of possible avenues for Trump as he sought to overturn the victory by Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say she was involved in several of the doomed actions, including the selection of fake electoral college voters, pushing allegations of voter fraud and of conspiring to commit intentional interference with the election. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors.

The 68-year-old is a native of North Carolina...

-30-

HOUSE SPEAKER:...Trash Ohio Republican Jim Jordan Keeps Failing...He Won't Be Next Speaker...Trump Will Soon Drop Him...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | So, he blew it? It's not happening for Jim Jordan? Appears not. The big mouth-no action Ohio Congressman since 2007 without a single successful piece of legislation is still hoping he'll be the next speaker of the House of Representatives.

But that's MAGA Republicans - obstructionist always in a hurry.

Jordan would be a horrible speaker.

This from a current report at newyorker.com: [. . . . If Jordan were to be elected Speaker, it would signal that the Republican Party on Capitol Hill had formally accepted its role as a mere appendage to an insurrectionary right-wing movement led by a self-aggrandizing megalomaniac. Jordan was a key point man in the House for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Since then, in his roles as head of the House Judiciary Committee and ga-ga chairman of the new House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, he has acted as a mouthpiece for the former President and his efforts to discredit his accusers. Earlier this year, Jordan called for defunding parts of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department. ]

But despite the rough-going that comes with losing two votes, there was some weird optimism in the Jordan Camp.

Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye said in a statement after the vote: "We're going to keep going."

Jordan himself told reporters that he was unsure when a third ballot would take place but vowed that "we'll keep talking to members, keep working on it."

Good luck with the loser hope.

There is no third vote scheduled as yet, but odds are good that 59-year-old Jordan will go for it before the weekend, like tomorrow and possibly on Saturday. It's been two weeks since his fellow MAGA Republicans ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy just because they could.

Stay tuned...the laughs will keep coming...

-30-

SUN SPOTS:...Doing The Life Impulse...You Can Never Look Back...What Time Is It?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | You can chase down every memory in your head and find a few you can bring back as if they happened yesterday. Not many; just a few - the absolute beautiful ones. You have some, I have some.

We all store some of the strangest shit in our brains.

And we still do it, even as we age into oblivion. What was your first great memory, and which one will be your last one? But, really, do not spend much time looking back.

Life is about the moment, like this moment, not the last one or the next one - this one. Many of us get hopelessly lost on the ups and downs of daily life, on the crosstown errands, the numerous text messages, the cellphone calls, the meals, the deals, the bathing, the shaving and the sleeping.

All of that garbage is only maintenance.

Do something out of the ordinary every day. One thing, two if you're lucky. So, what time is it now? Time to go for breakfast...

-30-

JEWS:...Anti-Semitism Said To Be Rising In The U.S....Oh, Boy...There Is Some, But It's Always Been There...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Wealthy Jews are withdrawing donations to elite colleges and universities in the U.S., the result of, they say, students siding with Palestine in the ongoing bitch-slapping with Israel. Keep your freakin' money, clowns!

You donate to support higher learning, not to buy influence!

Goddam, does that piss me off. Okay. Okay. We are sympathetic to the Jewish state's historical fight against the terroristic organization we've come to know as Hamas. Someday, we won't have this, but, for now, we do have it and we are taking sides. That is not good for Americans.

A day ago, it was former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, an ambassador in the Obama Administration, saying his family would no longer donate to the University of Pennsylvania (better known as simply Penn) after students signed a letter damning Israel's announced plan to invade Palestine. Yes, Hamas attacked first, and Hamas holds several high-up positions in Palestine's government.

The student angle is wacko.

Our schools have thrived in offering the best of knowledge, always challenging students to expand their minds on everything from domestic issues to foreign relations.

But the Jews are not okay with a little free-thinking.

That is wrong and shortsighted.

This from The Washington Examiner: [ The Walmart Foundation, the retail giant's philanthropic body, committed $1 million to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum amid the Israel-Hamas war and a rising wave of antisemitism.

Funding from the Walmart Foundation will serve as a response to the "increase in antisemitic speech and hate crimes," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said.

This new wave of hate emerged in the wake of Hamas's incitement of the Middle East's latest war, he said, according to a report.

The $1 million will go toward equipping outreach programs with the means necessary to educate individuals about the horrors and impact of the Holocaust as well as "the dangers of antisemitism in order to inspire people to confront hate and promote human dignity," McMillon said. ]

We're hip to the Holocaust and its place in history. America has never been able to shed its guilt on allowing it to happen for so long at the beginning of World War II. As told, some 6 million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany.

Since then, the U.S. has served as Israel's Big Brother, defending it and everything it says and stands for. We're okay with most of it, but not with simply going carte blanche on every little ache & pain Israel suffers.

Get real.

Our students will be educated, and they will think things out for themselves.

That is who WE are...

-30-

WAR:...American President Lands In Israel...A Hospital Is Bombed...Another 100 Or So Dead...Who Did It?...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The American president arrived all smiles and hugs. Israel would be saved. That's the geo-political optic this fine morning here in the U.S. In Gaza City, a hospital lay in ruin, bombed into a heap of rubble and no one taking blame.

It's war, yes.

This excerpt from axios.com on President Joe Buden's visit to the war zone: [ Biden landed in Tel Aviv today to show solidarity with Israel in its war against Hamas, and to try to prevent the war from spreading. But the Middle East is already bubbling over with rage - and the war's shockwaves are increasingly tough to contain.

A deadly missile blast Tuesday at a hospital in Gaza killed hundreds of Palestinians, Gaza officials said - and inspired protests throughout the Arab world. The day felt like a turning point in a war in which signs of escalation and rising tension are all around.

Hamas blamed Israel for the strike. Israel said it had evidence that another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, fired the missile.

Anger swept through the Arab world as images of those killed or wounded at the hospital hit TV and social media, complicating Biden's push for diplomacy.

Reports in Arab media that cast the explosion as a massacre by Israel drove thousands of protesters to the streets of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. ]

A planned meeting with leaders of other regional leaders fell by the wayside after the hospital bombing. This after Israel blamed Hamas for the attack on the hospital. It killed hundreds.

Biden seemed to believe the Israeli assertion that Israel was not behind the bombing.

Others were not so convinced.

The much-ballyhooed all-out military assault on Gaza has yet to unfold. Pundits are saying Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been corralled a bit by the U.S.,,,

-30-

TACO TUESDAY:...Guns & Rosas...Ronnie Counts The Elderly...Unruly Welding Recital Bloggers Muzzled ...Kunkle Just Goofin'...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Even if he launched a new "Guns & Rosas" campaign, wimpish sheriff candidate Jesus Rosas, Jr would have a tough time holstering that position. He's simply not the guy, not this time. Rosas, shown oddly wearing a cowboy hat in photo above under darkening skies, is polling badly.

That's what our insider's crystal ball is telling us as the Languid Law Latino keeps on keeping on, celebratory dreams of the sheriff's shiny badge perhaps keeping him awake at night.

We're saying incumbent sheriff Eric Garza wins the Democratic Party primary and then segues into an all-out mano-a-mano against - you guessed it - boring rethread John Chambers, the Blogger Juan Montoya-backed Republican Garza thwacked in the last election four, long years ago.

Chambers at least has the better cowboy hat. Rosas, we fear, bought his at Walgreens. On sale.

But Rosas may be paying Zany Blogger El Jerry McHale to push his doomed campaign. If he is, and if he's paying more than $20, he's blowing good Valley money. Save that cash, Jesus. Save $20 a week for a year and then have enough to get a better cowboy hat.

As things stand, poll-dormant Rosas may as well be singing dirges to the bone people at the city cemetery.

Jesus Christ, Jesus!

Say something half-interesting or semi-controversial, dude.

Your other opponent, Ronnie Saenz, already has the Deaf Vote...

-0-

Upstart Pol Greg Kunkle, shown at left in photo above with an unidentified Brownsville resident, wants to be a congressman. He's never even been a school Patrol Boy, but the kid has Nancy Pelosi dreams. Yeah, he pangs for the 34th Congressional District seat currently held by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, a real politician.

Kunkle has nothing. Take our word for it. He won't even answer the easiest of questions, like "Are you a veteran?" We asked him that one and a few others and are still awaiting answers from this amateurish, unaccomplished greenhorn whose last name is likely a misspelling of the word "knuckle" - as in "knuckle down, lad!".

He's a nouveau Republican who would have to get past hellish firebrand Mayra Flores in the primary before even thinking of being swamped by smarter Gonzalez.

Get past Mayra? Ha ha ha. She would apply a headlock on this kid so tight that his hair would turn not a scaredy-cat salt & pepper, but the color of pain - black & blue. Picture a profanity-spewing Mexican chick on a sheltered, squirrel-face punk and you have the optic of a Mayra-Kunkle evening at the fan-noisy Arena Coliseo in Matamoros on Ladies Night Wrestling.

No, Kunkle is not being serious. Either that or he thinks district voters are idiots. No free-thinking resident of District 34 will back this local joker. Yeah, gag me, says our receptionist Veronica "Ronnie" Salgado.

The only way Kunkle will get a vote is if he enters into an agreement with the other going-nowhere candidate for his post, Laura E. Cisneros, in a "I'll vote for you if you vote for me" deal...

You know it...

-0-

Word has it that sheriff's candidate Ronnie Saenz has been out mining The Elderly Vote. That's Ron (that's the more-adult version of his name) in the photo above, at right.

Saenz is a distant last in the latest looksee at Cameron County Sheriff's Race candidates, there behind eternal Dreamer Jesus Rosas Jr and way, way, way, way, way behind incumbent Sheriff Eric Garza. We're not even hearing that laid-back Ron has told anyone he expects to win. Huh? He isn't saying he may win? I said, "Huh???"

Well, if he isn't then he's being real. Ron Saenz will NOT be your next county sheriff.

Sorry, but that's the line on his candidacy.

The only way he is differentiating himself from the other candidates is in not wearing a corny cowboy hat. His last name is proving to be a surprising hindrance.

The district attorney is also a dude named Saenz. We further fear that voters will not hand over the sheriff's office to another Saenz. That may sound dumb, but county voters are dumb, so...

-0-

It now looks as if Texas Southmost College Chair Adela Garza has survived the dastardly, weak-kneed Welding Recital attack from two of the city's non-Journalism-trained bloggers.

The lady is still at her post.

And the aging bloggers, 73-year-old Jerry McHale and 75-year-old Jimmy Barton, have of late retreated to the comfort of their ass-warm couches, dabs of Ben-Gay and moments of what might've been. The Anglo Shit hit the fan as if by projectile diarrhea when these rudderless bloggers launched an all-out "Ay voy!!!" assault roughly a month ago, spent days throwing cheap gasoline on the nothingness and then gathered their stones and slingshots for the long walk back home to Mama.

Stoop-shouldered bloggers, Maria. There they go down the cracked-concrete sidewalk, Baby. Wait. Don't inhale! That smell of rubbing alcohol steaming of their backs.

To her great and learned credit, Ms. Garza actually said nothing during the excitable Resaca Storm that fizzled lamely.

Neither McHale nor Barton has revisited the TSC welding program they insisted was rotten. It was too calm a give-up for the noise they created, at least deep inside in their own balding heads.

Adela Garza likely will seek reelection one of these days.

Rubbish Bloggers McHale and Barton will keep lying...

-0-

For some weird reason, Joe Elizarde woke up one day and decided to take on perhaps the most-entrenched politician in the county - Justice of The Peace Linda Salazar. Yes, the same Linda Salazar who's been at the job for almost 20 years!

What got into Elizarde?

Is his ridiculous candidacy nothing more than a dare, one perhaps voiced one fine morning by his wife, who wanted him out of the house?

Could be. Now, if only the Welding Recital bloggers would go after this guy. Then, and only then, would Elizarde get any sort of campaign publicity. He's the Absolute Zero this Election Season.

Elizarde should be hooked onto a polygraph machine. We are dying to hear him tell us exactly why he's in this contest. I mean, Linda Salazar is a pro. Her son, Ruben, once won an election by 29,000 votes! It's in the family to run roughshod over an opponent.

Joe, you cannot be serious!

If the battle was in a wrestling ring, Linda would be the fabled Tonina Jackson and Joe would be Tiny Tim. At seeing the bloody mauling, the entire population of Cameron County would raise its voice and shout, no, scream: "Stop the fight! Stop the fight!!!"

You know it...

-0-

They may just need another jolt. Democrats here are doing little to prevent that dreaded, much-feared Red Wave in 2024. That moment of sheer fear in last November's elections is said to have delivered some gut-wrenching pain for the party.

They thought their ass was grass, to use the vernacular of the RGV.

That's Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa in photo above, second from left, with County Judge Eddie Trevino to his left. Mustachioed Hinojosa is said to have shat bricks that night, when it appeared that spirited Republican Mayra Flores was about to retire Demo favorite son Vicente Gonzalez for that coveted 34th Congressional District seat.

Mayra Flores came close if losing by 10,000 votes is close in a congressional race. The Red Wave ebbed far out in the gulf and Gonzalez retained the seat. She's back one more time for the 2024 contest, and we're not hearing much from Hinojosa or Valley Democrats.

I know. There's still plenty of time.

So, for now, comfortable Demos seem to be saying, "Let's just gather for a photo and everybody smile."

Heh heh...

-0-

Brownsville is losing its superintendent - the overly-qualified one named 2023 Regional Superintendent of The Year. As if it can afford to lose him. But luckless Browntown is an Insistent Loser. His name is Dr. Rene Gutierrez and the McAllen Independent School District - the best in the Rio Grande Valley - has just about signed him.

Gutierrez is a 1983 graduate of McAllen High School.

Brownsville will go on another dizzied search and that'll be that. It does this so often that education here is seen as being no different than that offering at the Hiway 77 Flea Market known as the just another informational kiosk... 

-0-

Ever-lovely actress Salma Hayek scarfing down a taco back when she lived in Mexico City some years ago.

She's still a hottie in her 50s. I love the smell of salsa in the morning...

-30-

WAR:...President Joe Biden In Israel Tomorrow...Tamping Down Thoughts Of Destroying Palestine...OK Aid for Gaza...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | This was coming, although we didn't think it would be this soon. The U.S. is likely trying to tamp down any urges Israel may have of obliterating Palestine. The American president is on his way to Israel tomorrow.

It's symbolic, but also meant to make a point.

This from axios.com: [ President Joe Biden will visit Tel Aviv on Wednesday in a show of support as Israel prepares for a ground offensive in Gaza, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said on Monday.

The unprecedented visit, the first by a U.S. president while Israel is actively at war, will also be aimed at discouraging Iran and Hezbollah from joining the fighting.

Biden while in Israel will "reaffirm U.S. solidarity to Israel and commitment to its security," assess the country's needs amid the ongoing war against Hamas, and "underscore our clear message" that no actor should "try to take advantage of this crisis to attack Israel," Blinken said.

Biden will also receive a comprehensive brief on Israel's war aims and strategy, Blinken said from Tel Aviv after more than seven hours of talks with Israeli leaders on Monday.

Blinken said that Israel and the U.S. have agreed to develop a plan to "enable international aid to reach civilians in Gaza and them alone including creating areas in Gaza that will enable civilians not to be harmed."

"It is critical that aid starts flowing to Gaza as soon as possible," Blinken said.

"We share Israel's concern that Hamas will take control of the aid that enters Gaza," Blinken added, warning that if the group tries to block or seize aid, the U.S. will be the first to condemn it and prevent it from happening again.

Biden will also travel to Jordan to meet King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. ]

Let's hope President Biden can grab a piece of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's tussled brain while there. Bibi has been talking up an all-out invasion of Gaza by "air, land and sea."

Clearly, Biden does not want the rage to spark a regional war...

-30-

WAR:...Disgusting Action By Israel To Keep Humanitarian Aid Out Of Palestine...Gaza Is Being Strangled...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It's a disgusting turn of events. Humanitarian aid being denied for people of the Gaza Strip? Denied by angered Israel?

Well, yes.

We're okay with some sort of revenge...against the men of Hamas. But we're NOT okay with women, children and the elderly being denied food, water and medical aid, especially after Israel's promised all-out Assault. We're not savages. Not yet.

And the U.S. needs to stand up and tell Israel to back off its Nazi-like approach. We say this as Israeli forces prepare to attack Gaza by land, air and sea, according to Jewish leaders themselves. The time has come to deal with peace, deal with it once and for all.

Too often in the past, Israel has played the "Whip Gaza" card for the west, for the U.S. mainly, as it postures its horrific actions as a fight against terrorists. Fine, but killing children especially is damned abhorrent to us. Children played NO part in the stupid, ill-advised attacks on Jewish settlers.

Humanitarian aid needs to get through.

Wanton killing - murder - will only hang heavy on all Jews after it happens. The images and videos will not lie.

Republicans seem all-Gung Ho, as could be expected.

This from thenation.com: [ But while a smattering of national lawmakers have issued meaningful demands for a stop to Israel’s bombings, most Democrats are resorting to vague hand-wringing about "unnecessary harm to civilians" and "international humanitarian law," calls for more humanitarian aid, and declarations that they are "deeply concerned."

This is all fine enough, but absent are calls to stop what is actually causing the crisis: Israel’s bombing and siege of Gaza. ]

Don't lose the high ground, Israel.

That would be our free advice for wild-eyed Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu...

-30-

THE HOUSE:...Rock-Jaw Jim Jordan As Speaker? ...Trashy Republican'll Try Again This Week...No, He's Not The Best Candidate, But...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | It looks like Trump palace cat Jim Jordan will be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. At least today anyway. Two weeks without a speaker has the house in a pickle, a bitter-tasting one at that.

Two weeks ago, Republicans got rid of the guy they elected to the post earlier this year, soon after Republicans took control of the house. That was California yogurt shop mogul Kevin McCarthy. Then came Steve Scalise, the KKK dude from Louisiana.

Petulant Jordan, from Ohio's 4th Congressional District, is the new "it" Republican.

Party boys and girls in the House (along with Demos, yes) will try to elect someone again this week. Jordan has postured himself as the perhaps candidate, even as he has some lousy baggage to overcome. He was a strong supporter of pro-Capitol Riot Donald Trump and he remains a huge backer of the indicted former pres.

The 59-year-old Jordan, he of the throwback face shown in white shirt in photo above, is not a go-along-get-along guy. He fancies himself a battler, but really has no signature legislation. At present, he serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the one that's been investigating presidential son Hunter Biden's reason for living and every morsel of mysterious dust in the Oval Office.

Not all Republicans like him, as the upcoming speaker's vote will indicate.

Jordan has been accused of ignoring repeated complaints of sexual harassment filed by student wrestlers at Ohio State University, when Jordan was employed as an assistant coach. He has denied knowing about the charges, but the matter has not been fully investigated is what the students keep saying.

The vote will be close, and there is no certainty that rock-jaw Jordan will win.

Short of that, well, the House may go with interim Speaker Patrick McHenry of South Carolina, the bowtie wearing congressman known to the D.C. press corps as a "rude" mofo.

Do stay tuned...

-30-  

SUN SPOTS:...It Was A Warped & Wormy Night...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

EDINBURG, Texas | ...There on the witness stand, Salvador Mata was talking a bit too much. In circles, said the defense attorney who tried to halt Salvador's testimony.

Answering a question about his recollection of the poor McAllen housewife's bloody murder, Mata inhaled deeply and said, "It was the day Peter Piper picked that peck of pickled peppers, counselor." A member of the jury could not stop exploding laughter and the judge again slammed his gavel.

The brief outburst quickly faded into the expensive walnut walls, bits of it shiny and other bits dusty as all get-out. Solicitor Jose Maria Puente pressed onward.

"Mr. Mata, would you tell the court and jury exactly what day you are referring to, sir?" the thin, high-neck defense lawyer asked next. Smarty pants Salvador did not hesitate in answering:

"It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day. I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay."

He'd said it with a straight face not seen since the day Queen Isabella was shocked to learn that Christopher Columbus was telling the press that she, and not the planet, was flat.

"Let the record show that the witness has invoked a country song by Dolly Parton," the defense lawyer threw out next.

"Objection!" roared the prosecutor. "It most certainly was not Dolly Parton!!!"...

-30-

WAR:...For Palestine, A Calm Before The Wanton Slaughter ...It's Revenge...It's The End Of A Nation...It's Been Coming For Decades...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | The so-called Big Military Push is coming to the Gaza Strip. Angry Israelis are in an Africanized Honey Bee state of mind, ready to sting and keep stinging the Palestinians and their Hamas population.

Already, scenes of utter destruction (see photo above) can be readily had on the Internet, from a wide variety of websites to do with news, mainstream and otherwise.

What to make of what's coming?

You can make a case that Israel will go all-out to destroy everything we have come to know as Palestine in the Gaza Strip. It is said to already have amassed as many as 300,000 soldiers on the border with the Gaza, north and southern ends, ahead of an invasion.

As lemonde.fr reported in one of its Sunday articles: [ "...the outlook leaves a bitter taste. Under blockade since 2007 and bombed regularly, the Palestinian territory became a volcano. At dawn on October 7, it erupted. Covered by salvoes of rockets, more than a thousand armed men from Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement that has ruled the territory since 2006, broke through the fortified fence that separates it from Israel.

The infiltrators poured into neighboring Jewish villages in pick-up trucks, motorcycles and even paragliders, wreaking havoc as they went. At least 1,300 people were killed, the vast majority civilians, and at least 120 others were kidnapped, according to the Israeli army. It's the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. ]

That last sentence is enough to fuel an overwhelming run of support for the Jewish state. Americans have responded, some in Congress wasting no words in condemning the attack.

The president, as could be expected, focused on Hamas and its terroristic ways, saying the U.S. would side by Israel. To what extent we do not as yet know. Two powerful carrier task forces are now in the neighboring Mediterranean Sea, presumably there to support Israel and also to dissuade any would-be action by other countries sympathetic to Palestine, like by Iran, for one.

It's a horrible bad omen for the civilians of Palestine who quickly saw Israel shut down its food, water and fuel supplies. A deadline was given for evacuation, only the Palestinians really had no place to go. A once-open crossing into Egypt was bombed by the Israelis, even as the Egyptians were saying they could not take refugees.

That all-out assault by the Israelis is said to coming this week.

The fight is really an uneven one, as Israel has pretty much every advanced weapon and smaller, poorer Palestine hardly any.

Towns and cities will be bombed into oblivion and, well, who knows what the eventual casualty number will be? It's war. War is Hell. How will Israel decide which Palestinian lives, and which one dies? Could the Israelis live with the total extermination of Gaza's population?

We know this: Hell is coming to Palestine.

The idea that Israel could ever rid itself of Palestine in one fell swoop was not part of any discussion anywhere two weeks ago. There had even been reports that Saudi Arabia wished to broker a lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

No one talked of a full-fledged war. 

Today, right or wrong, that seems to be what's coming...

-30-

SUN RECORDS: Newsroom Jukebox..."Is Anybody Going To San Antone?"...

ELECTIONS 2024:...Political Termites Chase Republican Mayra Flores...She'll Easily Win Party Primary...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Well, it's the familiar run for the roses and a forced march to 2024. Not so good political candidates are coming out of the woodwork again, some from fast-rotting pieces of South Texas dead wood.

Ann Marie Torres, shown in photo above, is the latest to seek the Republican Party's 34th Congressional District nomination for that challenge to well-heeled incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez's seat.

Ms. Torres has little experience, although perhaps some other pundit would raise the value of serving on the - ahem - dusty Kingsville City Commission. Kingsville, yeah.

Oh, well. She knows she's not alone, not with fellow newbie Mauro Garza and even greener Greg Kunkle also seeking to beat toughie Mayra Flores in the party's March Primary. Good luck with that, kids.

Ms. Flores, it says, will win the nomination, and win it convincingly - thanks to all-out support from the Republican National Committee. 

We at The McAllen Sun have ignored Kunkle (shown in photo below) because we feel he's going nowhere in this contest.

But this is an excerpt from a report on Ms. Torres published by The McAllen Monitor: [ In her campaign announcement, Torres says she has "a strong background as an Army Retired veteran who served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom." She said she aims to bring "true representation" to the district and become the first woman who is a veteran to run in the March primary.

Torres was born and raised in Kingsville and she said she has a "deep-rooted connection" to the community and a "sharp vision for its future."

The campaign announcement does not elaborate on her vision.

"With her extensive military experience, she brings a unique perspective and commitment to serving the people of District 34 at the national level," the campaign announcement states. "Torres passionately believes that now is the time for change and that the district deserves a strong voice in the nation’s capital."

She doesn't explain what kind of change she believes is necessary. ]

We tire of hearing or reading blah, blah, blah platitudes of this sorts. Ms. Torres is likely a well-mannered and contributing resident of sleepy Kingsville, but, to us, she is woefully unprepared for what she would face in today's Washington, D.C., which brings us full-circle to Mayra Flores.

She's more than ready for the current craziness in the nation's capital.

She's mastered the art of raising your voice and letting go punches and counterpunches when in debates or speaking to the press. You don't throw stuff at Mayra Flores and see it bounce off her shoes. She'll fire right back; it's her style and personality.

In this vein, Kunkle is zero and Ann Marie Torres is less than zero.

The third aspirant, Mauro Garza, is unimpressive. His is the look of a gas station attendant of the 1960s, a South Texas Mexican-American who simply acts and talks like too many regional slackers of his ethnic group.

Mayra Flores would chew him up and spit him out, with extreme prejudice.

You kinda know at this point that wild dogs would not fare well against Mayra Flores.

Political termites even worse...

-30-