OOPS!
(Less than half an hour after we posted about the flags, Memorial H.S. personnnel were observed lowering them, apparently in response to one of our readers calling the district's attention to the matter. Thanks BISD and God bless America!)
Friday, September 11, 2026
VETS MEMORIAL H.S. LOWERED FLAG FOR DOLLY, BUT NOT FOR 9/11, JUST CORRECTED.
TINO VILLARREAL'S DRAWN OUT PROTEST: LA MISMA GATA, PERO REVOLCADA
Special to El RRUN-RRUN
COMING TO A PODCAST NEAR YOU...
AND THE UNFORGIVING FALLOUT...
BEWARE OF CONS BEARING GIFTS: TRUMP'S AMAIZING $5,OOO DIVIDEND
Maize maze?
By Georgios Lefkakis I read something very familiar this morning.
Two nights ago, in Dallas, Trump promised a $5,000 dividend to every adult American — but only if Republicans win the November midterm elections.
He called it the “Trump Dividend.”
First, the numbers:
The total cost is estimated at more than $1 trillion. For comparison, the United States has already spent $1.27 trillion on debt interest alone this year. And the annual deficit is approaching $1.8 trillion.
Trump said it would be funded by tariffs — which brought in roughly $154.5 billion during the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026.
In other words: he is promising $1 trillion with $154 billion in revenue.
The gap?
$846 billion.
Where does that come from?
Debt.
Debt that the children of today’s voters will eventually have to carry.
And this is where the story starts to feel very familiar to anyone who remembers Greece in the 1980s.
Andreas Papandreou did not say, “Vote for me and I’ll give you $5,000.”
The mechanism was different: higher wages and benefits, expansion of public-sector employment and a state increasingly supported by borrowing.
Without a sufficiently strong productive base underneath it, the debt accumulated.
Decades later, Greece entered its sovereign-debt crisis.
Debt that the children of today’s voters will eventually have to carry.
And this is where the story starts to feel very familiar to anyone who remembers Greece in the 1980s.
Andreas Papandreou did not say, “Vote for me and I’ll give you $5,000.”
The mechanism was different: higher wages and benefits, expansion of public-sector employment and a state increasingly supported by borrowing.
Without a sufficiently strong productive base underneath it, the debt accumulated.
Decades later, Greece entered its sovereign-debt crisis.
The comparison is not exact. The countries, currencies, institutions and circumstances are very different.
But the systems lesson is worth remembering:
A government can distribute purchasing power much faster than an economy can create productive capacity.
But the systems lesson is worth remembering:
A government can distribute purchasing power much faster than an economy can create productive capacity.
The United States also has an advantage Greece never had.
The dollar is the world’s dominant reserve currency, and the U.S. operates the largest economy in the world.
That gives Washington considerably more room to borrow and finance deficits.
But it does not repeal arithmetic.
And there is another reason to be skeptical.
The dollar is the world’s dominant reserve currency, and the U.S. operates the largest economy in the world.
That gives Washington considerably more room to borrow and finance deficits.
But it does not repeal arithmetic.
And there is another reason to be skeptical.
In November 2025, Trump had already floated a $2,000 tariff dividend.
Before that came the proposed $5,000 “DOGE dividend.”
Neither became a $5,000 check sent to every American adult.
Neither became a $5,000 check sent to every American adult.
Now the number is $5,000 again — this time attached to an electoral outcome.
That is where economic policy and electoral politics become very difficult to separate.
That is where economic policy and electoral politics become very difficult to separate.
The lesson Greece learned the hard way was not that governments should never support households.
It was that promises eventually have to connect to something underneath them:
production, productivity, tax revenue, investment, or sustainable borrowing capacity.
It was that promises eventually have to connect to something underneath them:
production, productivity, tax revenue, investment, or sustainable borrowing capacity.
You can postpone that accounting.
You cannot eliminate it. he economy eventually asks where the money came from.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
GARZISTA WARS AGAINST PORFIRIATO FOMENTED IN S. TEXAS
By Juan Montoya
Pick up any history book of the area and it’s a sure bet that you won’t find any mention of Catarino Garza. In fact, until President Manuel Lopez Obrador unveiled a monument to him last year, about the only recognition given in his native Matamoros is a small meeting room in the municipal palace (City Hall) bearing his name.
Yet, it the years between the mid-1880s and 1892, the so-called “Garzista Wars” were the talk of South Texas and northern Mexico, not to mention Mexico City and Washington D.C.
According to Texas Online, Catarino Erasmo Garza was born outside of Matamoros Nov. 25, 1859 to J. Encarnación and María de Jesús Rodríguez de la Garza. He was educated at Gualahuises, Nuevo León, and San Juan College, Matamoros, and served in the National Guard at Port Plaza.
Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French at Puebla May 5, 1862, when Catarino was three. Five years later, when he was eight, the emperor Maximilian was executed in Guanajuato by the forces of Benito Juarez.
On the U.S. side, the Civil War erupted in 1861 and continued until 1865, allowing the French a free hand in Mexico; Lincoln telling his generals that he preferred to “fight one war at a time.”
Yet, it the years between the mid-1880s and 1892, the so-called “Garzista Wars” were the talk of South Texas and northern Mexico, not to mention Mexico City and Washington D.C.
According to Texas Online, Catarino Erasmo Garza was born outside of Matamoros Nov. 25, 1859 to J. Encarnación and María de Jesús Rodríguez de la Garza. He was educated at Gualahuises, Nuevo León, and San Juan College, Matamoros, and served in the National Guard at Port Plaza.
Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French at Puebla May 5, 1862, when Catarino was three. Five years later, when he was eight, the emperor Maximilian was executed in Guanajuato by the forces of Benito Juarez.
On the U.S. side, the Civil War erupted in 1861 and continued until 1865, allowing the French a free hand in Mexico; Lincoln telling his generals that he preferred to “fight one war at a time.”
During the period from 1859 to 1870, before Garza was in his teens, the U.S. and South Texas authorities were besieged by Juan Nepomuceno "Cheno" Cortina in retaliation for abuses against Mexican-Americans by Texas Anglos in 
the Brownsville area.
In 1876, Porfirio Diaz had overthrown Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, the constitutional president of Mexico. Lerdo de Tejada had succeeded Juarez after his death and later won the election. When Diaz revolted, Lerdo de Tejada went into exile in New York and never returned to Mexico.
On June 19, 1880, Garza married a Brownsville woman whom he later divorced in 1889. In 1890 Garza married Concepción González, the daughter of a Duval County rancher, with whom he had a daughter. Between 1877 and 1886 he lived in Brownsville, Laredo, and San Antonio and visited Mexico City.
Elliot Young, in his book "Catarino Garza's Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border,"said Garza also lived in St. Louis, Mo. where around 1885 he was appointed Mexican consul, a post he held for a short time. In St. Louis he worked on La Revista Mexicana. While in St. Louis, he was angered by an Anglo lawyer who said that “One white life is worth 10 Mexicans.”
He promoted Sociedades Mutualistas and helped found two of them in Brownsville (Hidalgo and Juarez), Laredo, and others in Corpus Christi in 1880, 1884, and 1888, respectively. Up until the late 1960s, these buildings still stood in Brownsville.
Over the next 30 years after Diaz took office in 1867, he ruled Mexico as president or as the power behind the presidential seat. It was after the generally recognized fraudulent re-elections of Diaz that Garza started calling for revolution against the regime. However, while in the United States, he also witnessed racism against Mexican-Americans and condemned racist Anglo Texans and Mexican police alike.
He was the target of two assassination plots because of his articles on “El Libre Pensador” against Coahuila Gov. Garza Galan. He “antagonized all sides by criticizing everyone,” wrote Young. For his part, Garza wrote that Diaz and his collaborators “are not the country, nor the laws, nor the people; but are truly only servants.”
In 1877, he said that when Mexico came under Diaz was: “The moment when the sun disappeared and oppression reigned.” He also said in his autobiography La Logica de los Hechos: “Mi pluma no sabe pintar, pero si reproducir, fotografiar y estampar verdades (My pen does not know how to paint, but knows how to reproduce, photograph, and imprint truths).”
Also in 1877, he served 31 days in Maverick County Jail on a charge of libel. That year, he was in Corpus Christi to found the club Politico Mutualista and newspaper El Comercio Mexicano.
In 1890, Francisco Diaz Sandoval, a Chilean citizen fomenting revolution in Mexico and an exile in Laredo, invited Catarino Garza, Ignacio Martinez, and border journalist Paulino Martinez, to launch an invasion of northern Mexico.
The force entered Mexico at Guerrero, Tamps., on June 24. Mexican forces confronted them and sent them back across the Rio Grande, where the U.S. government, under pressure from the Diaz regime, charged them with violating neutrality laws.
During a trial in San Antonio, evidence indicated that Diaz had paid Laredo police chief Gen. Bernardo Reyes $2,000 to kidnap witnesses, plant evidence, and to provide false testimony and payoffs to witnesses. During the trial, no proof was introduced that they had taken guns to Mexico, and showed that the group had been infiltrated by spies.
Descendants of some of these men still remember vividly that as a result of their participation in the invasion, many of them lost their families, ranches and suffered imprisonment on the U.S. side.
In July, 1890, Dr. Ignacio Martinez met Catarino Garza at Palito Blanco, Tx., near San Diego. Martinez was a medical doctor who lived in Brownsville and operated an anti-Diaz newspaper. A few months later, on February, 1891, Martinez was gunned down on the streets of Laredo.
Garza continued his collaborations in northern Mexico and South Texas, and by 1891 he and his associates planned an invasion to overthrow of the Díaz regime. They crossed the border in an attack and issued a manifesto in September 1891 near Río Bravo in Tamaulipas.
While his revolution was directed against Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, much of his work forming mutualistas and writing for Spanish-language newspapers was aimed at defending the interests of Mexicans in Texas.
Conflict with Mexican, United States, and Texas authorities ensued in the Garza War, which Garzistas continued after Garza left Texas. What made it difficult for the authorities on both sides was the fact that the Garzistas enjoyed popular support from residents and some authorities on both sides of the border.
In documents seized by U.S. and Mexican authorities, it was revealed that not only did Garza have the support of
officers high in the Mexican military, but enjoyed material and moral support from influential ranchers in U.S. and northern Mexico and elected officials and state and federal law enforcement authorities on the Mexico and Texas side.
Afraid for his safety, Garza and his brother Encarnacion left the state in 1892 and from there he traveled to various places, including Nassau, Jamaica, and Cuba. He met with Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti, but Marti was attempting to get Diaz's support for his liberation movement in Cuba, and they did not collaborate.
(Marti, by the way, has a monument erected in his honor in Washington Park in Brownsville.)
By March 28, 1893, he moved to Matina, near Limón, Costa Rica, and a San José press published his pamphlet indicting the Díaz regime, La Era de Tuxtepec en México o Sea Rusia en América. Garza participated in a revolutionary uprising in Colombia. Official sources report that he was killed in storming the jail at Bocas del Toro, Colombia (now in Panama), on March 8, 1895.
He was never able to return to South Texas, and it wasn't until three years later – in 1898 – that Cuba threw off the Spanish yoke only to be colonized by the United States.
Diaz was overthrown in by the Revolution of 1910, 15 years after Garza's death.
He was, by any measure, a man ahead of his time.
the Brownsville area.In 1876, Porfirio Diaz had overthrown Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, the constitutional president of Mexico. Lerdo de Tejada had succeeded Juarez after his death and later won the election. When Diaz revolted, Lerdo de Tejada went into exile in New York and never returned to Mexico.
On June 19, 1880, Garza married a Brownsville woman whom he later divorced in 1889. In 1890 Garza married Concepción González, the daughter of a Duval County rancher, with whom he had a daughter. Between 1877 and 1886 he lived in Brownsville, Laredo, and San Antonio and visited Mexico City.
Elliot Young, in his book "Catarino Garza's Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border,"said Garza also lived in St. Louis, Mo. where around 1885 he was appointed Mexican consul, a post he held for a short time. In St. Louis he worked on La Revista Mexicana. While in St. Louis, he was angered by an Anglo lawyer who said that “One white life is worth 10 Mexicans.”
He promoted Sociedades Mutualistas and helped found two of them in Brownsville (Hidalgo and Juarez), Laredo, and others in Corpus Christi in 1880, 1884, and 1888, respectively. Up until the late 1960s, these buildings still stood in Brownsville.
Over the next 30 years after Diaz took office in 1867, he ruled Mexico as president or as the power behind the presidential seat. It was after the generally recognized fraudulent re-elections of Diaz that Garza started calling for revolution against the regime. However, while in the United States, he also witnessed racism against Mexican-Americans and condemned racist Anglo Texans and Mexican police alike.
He was the target of two assassination plots because of his articles on “El Libre Pensador” against Coahuila Gov. Garza Galan. He “antagonized all sides by criticizing everyone,” wrote Young. For his part, Garza wrote that Diaz and his collaborators “are not the country, nor the laws, nor the people; but are truly only servants.”
In 1877, he said that when Mexico came under Diaz was: “The moment when the sun disappeared and oppression reigned.” He also said in his autobiography La Logica de los Hechos: “Mi pluma no sabe pintar, pero si reproducir, fotografiar y estampar verdades (My pen does not know how to paint, but knows how to reproduce, photograph, and imprint truths).”
Also in 1877, he served 31 days in Maverick County Jail on a charge of libel. That year, he was in Corpus Christi to found the club Politico Mutualista and newspaper El Comercio Mexicano.
In 1890, Francisco Diaz Sandoval, a Chilean citizen fomenting revolution in Mexico and an exile in Laredo, invited Catarino Garza, Ignacio Martinez, and border journalist Paulino Martinez, to launch an invasion of northern Mexico.The force entered Mexico at Guerrero, Tamps., on June 24. Mexican forces confronted them and sent them back across the Rio Grande, where the U.S. government, under pressure from the Diaz regime, charged them with violating neutrality laws.
During a trial in San Antonio, evidence indicated that Diaz had paid Laredo police chief Gen. Bernardo Reyes $2,000 to kidnap witnesses, plant evidence, and to provide false testimony and payoffs to witnesses. During the trial, no proof was introduced that they had taken guns to Mexico, and showed that the group had been infiltrated by spies.
Descendants of some of these men still remember vividly that as a result of their participation in the invasion, many of them lost their families, ranches and suffered imprisonment on the U.S. side.
In July, 1890, Dr. Ignacio Martinez met Catarino Garza at Palito Blanco, Tx., near San Diego. Martinez was a medical doctor who lived in Brownsville and operated an anti-Diaz newspaper. A few months later, on February, 1891, Martinez was gunned down on the streets of Laredo.
Garza continued his collaborations in northern Mexico and South Texas, and by 1891 he and his associates planned an invasion to overthrow of the Díaz regime. They crossed the border in an attack and issued a manifesto in September 1891 near Río Bravo in Tamaulipas.
While his revolution was directed against Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, much of his work forming mutualistas and writing for Spanish-language newspapers was aimed at defending the interests of Mexicans in Texas.
Conflict with Mexican, United States, and Texas authorities ensued in the Garza War, which Garzistas continued after Garza left Texas. What made it difficult for the authorities on both sides was the fact that the Garzistas enjoyed popular support from residents and some authorities on both sides of the border.
In documents seized by U.S. and Mexican authorities, it was revealed that not only did Garza have the support of
officers high in the Mexican military, but enjoyed material and moral support from influential ranchers in U.S. and northern Mexico and elected officials and state and federal law enforcement authorities on the Mexico and Texas side.Afraid for his safety, Garza and his brother Encarnacion left the state in 1892 and from there he traveled to various places, including Nassau, Jamaica, and Cuba. He met with Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti, but Marti was attempting to get Diaz's support for his liberation movement in Cuba, and they did not collaborate.
(Marti, by the way, has a monument erected in his honor in Washington Park in Brownsville.)
By March 28, 1893, he moved to Matina, near Limón, Costa Rica, and a San José press published his pamphlet indicting the Díaz regime, La Era de Tuxtepec en México o Sea Rusia en América. Garza participated in a revolutionary uprising in Colombia. Official sources report that he was killed in storming the jail at Bocas del Toro, Colombia (now in Panama), on March 8, 1895.
He was never able to return to South Texas, and it wasn't until three years later – in 1898 – that Cuba threw off the Spanish yoke only to be colonized by the United States.
Diaz was overthrown in by the Revolution of 1910, 15 years after Garza's death.
TRUMP'S BRIBE TO REPUBLICANS: $5,000 IF THEY KEEP CONGRESS RED
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
During the RNC midterm convention, President Donald Trump gave voters a financial incentive to vote for Republicans in the midterms.
About an hour into his speech, Trump said that if Republicans win the House and the Senate he'll issue a $5,000 dividend check to millions of Americans because of the economic prosperity the country will experience.
Trump said America was making "so much money" that he was able to promise Americans thousands of dollars in the future.Trump is promising every adult American a $5,000 “dividend” if Republicans win the midterms. Estimated price tag: about $1.35 TRILLION. Tiny problem: presidents don’t control the federal checkbook. Congress does. Also, where is that money coming from for this election bribe?
"Because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000," Trump said. "Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders."
Trump added that the dividend must be spent in the United States of America, saying he doesn't want people going to Canada, China or Germany to spend the money. It's unclear how the government would monitor the spending of the dividends.
"If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump dividend," Trump said.
About an hour into his speech, Trump said that if Republicans win the House and the Senate he'll issue a $5,000 dividend check to millions of Americans because of the economic prosperity the country will experience.
Trump said America was making "so much money" that he was able to promise Americans thousands of dollars in the future.Trump is promising every adult American a $5,000 “dividend” if Republicans win the midterms. Estimated price tag: about $1.35 TRILLION. Tiny problem: presidents don’t control the federal checkbook. Congress does. Also, where is that money coming from for this election bribe?
"Because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000," Trump said. "Very much like a successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders."
Trump added that the dividend must be spent in the United States of America, saying he doesn't want people going to Canada, China or Germany to spend the money. It's unclear how the government would monitor the spending of the dividends.
"If the Republicans win, you win with us, and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump dividend," Trump said.
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
THE MEDAL OF HONOR, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, WINNING...
BREAKING: a photo has emerged bolstering President Trump's claim that he was at 'ground zero' on 9/11.
A CENTURY OF NURTURING EDUCATION IN OUR COMMUNITY
100 years. Generations of Scorpions. Join us September 14 for TSC Generations Day!
GUS DE LEON: I (ALMOST) GOT AWAY WITH IT! BUT I'M A NICE GUY!
AND THEN, AFTER THE ASPHALT-MILLINGS SETTLEMENT PLOT, THE 445-ACRE SPACEX GIVEAWAY, THE BOGUS ASSASSINATION PLOT BEHIND A RANDOM DRIVE-BY SHOOTING, COMES THE "NICE GUY" NARRATIVE
By Victoria Sanchez
As can be seen in this video he posted, the car was speeding away from the camera and toward a low-cost apartment complex near the intersection of Boca Chica and Palm Blvds.
By Victoria Sanchez
(AKA) Dorothy Lee Sanchez
This situation has deeply affected Commissioner Gustavo De León… and because I truly care about him and his family… it hurts me to see what they are going through…
He stated that he will be laying low for a little while… but he will be back!!! We need Commissioner De León in office… we need leaders who listen to the people and treat the community with dignity and respect…
He has been the only commissioner who continued communicating with me after the elections… He didn’t have to do that… but he did… It was also reported that he met with Yolanda, aka Yoli Speece, and with the city attorney…Did you know that??? Well, now you know.
We will soon be holding a town hall meeting with Commissioner Gustavo De León… He wants to hear directly from the community about the needs and concerns of District 3… but everyone in Brownsville will be welcome…
His responsibility may be District 3… but his willingness to listen goes beyond district lines… because the decisions made at City Hall affect all of Brownsville…
This town hall is about transparency… community input… public safety… and giving the people a voice…
Commissioner Gustavo De León… take the time you need… Brownsville will be waiting for you… stronger than ever!!
HEY, THIS TRICK STILL WORKS IN BROWNSVLLE 400 YEARS LATER
By Maria
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
In the September, 23, 1626, American folklore tells us the Indians sold Manhattan to Dutch colonists for $24 of beads and trinkets. In the early 21st century, August 2026, to be exact – almost 400 years ago to the day – history repeats itself in Brownsville.
On the table for the City Commission was $220 million for water projects. All SpaceX wanted was a 444-acre piece of Brownsville's city limits transferred into the jurisdiction of its company town, the City of Starbase. But the deal had to be done fast - take it or leave it.
The City Commission, in all its naivete, believed SpaceX's deal to be of enormous value. And its deadline to be real.
They told the public, "We have no money and no water. Now we will."
They told the public, "They would have gotten jurisdiction anyway through a lawsuit."
They told the public, "We have no leverage, but we got a deal of a lifetime."
The Indians of Manhattan probably thought the same.
But like the Indians, Brownsville's leaders did not realize how much leverage they had.
It was time.
SpaceX wanted jurisdiction over the 444 acres. And they wanted it **now**.
They dangled $220 million. Not to be spent as the City Commission saw fit. Just for water.
Why? Because water is a critical input to their operations. No water, no growth.
What if the City Commission could just sleep on it? Make the case to the public?
Sorry, SpaceX Vice President Sheila McCorkle, Starship Legal and Regulatory said, "then no deal."
As soon as the deal closed, SpaceX began construction in earnest. Who knows what they're doing. But it's clear: time mattered.
So what if the City Commission had let the deadline pass? Is it believable SpaceX would have taken water off the table?
More likely, they would have come back - and upped the ante.
To SpaceX and the world's richest man, $220 million is pocket change. What could the city have **really** gotten from SpaceX, besides this "pretend" gift?
Whatever you may think about Musk's intelligence and how that's contributed to his success, it is his boldness that stands out.
He makes bets. He tests limits. He pushes until somebody pushes back.
The City Commission didn't push back.
Brownsville still waits for bold leaders.
In the meantime, the current ones will keep collecting beads and trinkets.
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
THE GUS DE LEON ASPHALT-MILLINGS "DUMPING" SAGA CONTINUES
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
The principals involved in the controversy surrounding the police complaint filed by Commissioner Gus de Leon against the City of Brownsville for allegedly "dumping" tons of asphalt millings to repair a private road belonging to his family's trust for which he was trying to negotiate a $1.2 million "settlement" is not dead yet.
"There are still some people asking questions about it," said a city administrator. "We're not done with this yet."
Critics were outraged that a sitting city commissioner would threaten to sue the city he represented, that he was personally involved in negotiating a settlement for unimproved property valued at $250,000 by the Cameron County Appraisal District – with two city employees he could hire or fire – and which had been in the real estate listings offered for $850,000 since 2018 without any takers.
An item in the commissioners' July 7 executive session agenda read:
8) Closed session pursuant to Tex. Gov't. Code Section 551.071 (Consultation with Attorney, including Contemplated or Pending Litigation and/or Settlement Offer) related to CCAD Property ID 30393. (Office of the City Attorney/ City Manager's Office)
The notice and the possible "settlement" drew wide public attention and no action was taken that day. But what the public did not realize was that the item had been in consideration during regular city commission meetings before July 7 and as far back as the June 16 city commission meeting. After it became public knowledge, the item never appeared on the city commission agendas again. And the threat of the De Leon family filing suit against the city never materialized after the public furor that erupted.
City residents learned that:
City crews had been allowed to enter the property and make road repairs based on an informal agreement between his late father – and also a former city commissioner – Ernesto de Leon Sr. and the Border Patrol dating back from his election in 2003 until his death in June 2022.
“This road leads to the backside of the property, all the way back. The only people who have permission to use this property are the U.S. Border Patrol, and that permission was given to them by my late father,” De Leon said. De Leon says he discovered city crews working on the property on May 4, 2026. He says he immediately contacted the city attorney.
"When we came out here together, we came out here several times. I would say it was about four different times we walked the property; we were in awe. Very surprised this happened," De Leon said.
De Leon then filed a police report and sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding the work stop.
"That went unanswered for three days until they finished this road. So work kept going for three days, and the dumping kept on for three days," De Leon said. De Leon says more than 17,000 square feet of materials were left on the more than 10-acre piece of land.
"This is probably .94 acres, almost one acre of millings that were thrown on here and about five inches deep," De Leon said.
A local contractor's estimate of road improvements on the De Leon family property. Photos and construction materials amounts were provided to local media by commissioner De Leon.
Had filed a complaint with the Brownsville Police Department May 4, but that the crews continued to make improvements on a private road inside the family's 10.5 acre property for three days after he had reported the alleged trespass.
A city employee said that based on the informal agreement, the Border Patrol would call Public Works and crews would go out there and make the repairs to the road that they needed.
That is why the city was taken by surprise when De Leon threatened to sue for alleged "damages" and "illegal dumping" and entered into negotiations with the city starting at $1.2 million and scaling it down to $700,000 to $900,000 before it became public knowledge that the settlement would be discussed July 7.
Later, on July 16, the public learned that the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security took possession of the property under a lease with the De Leon family and heavy equipment and cement trucks were seen entering and exiting through the improved entrance and the road leading to the construction of the Border Wall.
Interestingly, the asphalt millings were spread (dumped, according to de Leon), at the entrance, and along the road and ended near the section where the wall is being constructed. Did the lease with the DHS require guaranteed access and improvements to the road?
De Leon also told KRGV News 5 representatives July 14 that he was the executor of the De Leon Vera family's property, only to have trust executrix Nora Ramirez De Leon attend the city commission meeting and telling the commission otherwise. Did De Leon misrepresent himself as the property's executor and negotiate with the city for a settlement without legal authority? Did he see an opportunity to pocket a few city bucks and tried to take it?
Like the city administrator said above: "We're not done with this yet."
OH, OH, GUNFIRE!: HIDE THE CITY COMMISSIONERS! DO ANY OF THEM LIVE NEARBY?
Monday, September 7, 2026
"HAY QUE TRABAJAR PARA VIVIR, Y VIVIR PARA TRABAJAR! SALUDOS!
Happy Labor Day.
Labor Day is about the people who make Texas run — the teachers, the nurses working doubles, the line cooks, the construction workers, the people up before sunrise for a job that still doesn't cover the rent.
That's who I'm running for.
We can deliver a Texas that works for the people who actually do the work.
Where a family doesn't lose everything to one medical bill, and where the people keeping this state going aren't the ones getting left behind.
But we can’t do it on our own.
But we can’t do it on our own.
Greg Abbott has $67 million to spend to keep things exactly as they are: with our government catering to corrupt special interests instead of regular Texans. The only way we beat that is together.
Every grassroots donation helps us reach voters, run ads, and make the case that Texas can do better.
Make a donation of any amount today to help build the Texas every worker deserves.
Every grassroots donation helps us reach voters, run ads, and make the case that Texas can do better.
Make a donation of any amount today to help build the Texas every worker deserves.
ON LABOR DAY, YOUR GOLFER-IN-CHIEF CONTINUES TO WASTE YOUR $$$$
o
The folks who barely work at all - except to flame the culture wars – complain about being underpaid, get healthcare for life... Wow. Even WE didn't see this one coming.
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
Independent trackers estimate that the taxpayer cost of Donald Trump golf-related travel and security has climbed to nearly $115 million.
The figure has also revived comparisons with former President Barack Obama, whom Trump spent years criticizing for playing golf while in office.
He repeatedly promised voters he would break the pattern if elected. "I'm going to be working for you," Trump said at a 2016 campaign stop. "I'm not going to have time to play golf."
An independent tracker estimates that Trump's golf-related travel and security costs have reached nearly $115 million during his second term. Is Trump Golfing Today?, which tracks the president's public schedule using flight data and White House pool reports, puts the total at $114.97 million as of August 3.
The nearly $115 million estimate builds on previous reporting about the cost of Trump's golf trips. HuffPost calculated Trump's golf-related travel and security costs at $101.2 million as of late March, when he had golfed 110 days in just over 14 months in office.
The figure has also revived comparisons with former President Barack Obama, whom Trump spent years criticizing for playing golf while in office.
He repeatedly promised voters he would break the pattern if elected. "I'm going to be working for you," Trump said at a 2016 campaign stop. "I'm not going to have time to play golf."
An independent tracker estimates that Trump's golf-related travel and security costs have reached nearly $115 million during his second term. Is Trump Golfing Today?, which tracks the president's public schedule using flight data and White House pool reports, puts the total at $114.97 million as of August 3.
The nearly $115 million estimate builds on previous reporting about the cost of Trump's golf trips. HuffPost calculated Trump's golf-related travel and security costs at $101.2 million as of late March, when he had golfed 110 days in just over 14 months in office.
Based on that pace, the outlet estimated Trump could spend about $300 million on golf-related costs by the end of his second term.
Beyond the cost, watchdog groups have also tracked how frequently Trump has visited his own properties since returning to office.
Beyond the cost, watchdog groups have also tracked how frequently Trump has visited his own properties since returning to office.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that, as of mid-June, Trump had made 259 total visits to his properties, including 148 to golf courses, and had spent time at a property he owns on 191 days, or 37 percent of his first 512 days in office. Mar-a-Lago was his most-visited property, with 102 trips.
Sunday, September 6, 2026
GUNFIRE BY COMMISSIONER GUS DE LEON'S HOME WAS INCIDENTAL TO TEENAGE DRIVE-BY SHOOTING; NOT FAKE POLITICAL RETALIATION
Special to El Run-Rrun
They say the suspect is a 16- year-old, a minor under state law. Officials would not confirm. Initial reports do not point to any retribution against de Leon for any official acts.
Tellingly, the mayor's statement that "political intimidation and violence" have no place in local politics may distract from the real motive behind the apparent drive-by shooting. The most controversial vote that De Leon – and the rest of the city commission have made lately – was their total cowardly abject submission to Elon Musk's coercion and their abandonment of municipal authority over 445 acres near the Port of Brownsville to his SpaceX.
By that measure, all of them should be cowering from the outrage of Brownsville citizens. The random drive-by shooting and Gus De Leon's response reminds us of the biblical Proverbs that say: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth," or more plainly "They panic and hide, even when no one is chasing, blaming, or accusing them."
Nobody is saying a shooting should be ignored. Gunfire on a public thoroughfare or outside anyone’s home is serious, and whoever did it should be found and held accountable.
But that still does not give politicians the right to call it political when police have not said that.
Brownsville Police has not publicly identified a suspect, announced a motive, or said the shooting was politically motivated. Yet, Cowen was already talking about “political intimidation and violence,” and Villarreal used the shooting as a reason to cancel his town hall on the SpaceX and BPUB agreement.
That looks less like caution and more like City Hall trying to gain sympathy while changing the subject.
For weeks, people have been questioning the decisions coming out of City Hall. The rushed disannexation. The SpaceX water agreement. The questions surrounding Commissioner Gustavo De Leon’s family property. The money involved. The way these decisions have been handled.
Now suddenly the conversation is about elected officials being threatened.
That is convenient.
Instead of answering for their own decisions, they get to stand in front of the public as victims. Instead of people asking hard questions, people are supposed to feel sorry for them.
Maybe police will later come out and say the shooting was political. If they do, then there should be evidence to support it.
But until then, the political narrative is coming from the politicians, not from police.
And people should pay attention to that.
A shooting does not erase the bad decisions City Hall has already made. There is widespread opinion that the city may have prevailed against SpaceX in a court of law.
Tellingly, the mayor's statement that "political intimidation and violence" have no place in local politics may distract from the real motive behind the apparent drive-by shooting. The most controversial vote that De Leon – and the rest of the city commission have made lately – was their total cowardly abject submission to Elon Musk's coercion and their abandonment of municipal authority over 445 acres near the Port of Brownsville to his SpaceX.
By that measure, all of them should be cowering from the outrage of Brownsville citizens. The random drive-by shooting and Gus De Leon's response reminds us of the biblical Proverbs that say: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth," or more plainly "They panic and hide, even when no one is chasing, blaming, or accusing them."
Nobody is saying a shooting should be ignored. Gunfire on a public thoroughfare or outside anyone’s home is serious, and whoever did it should be found and held accountable.
But that still does not give politicians the right to call it political when police have not said that.
Brownsville Police has not publicly identified a suspect, announced a motive, or said the shooting was politically motivated. Yet, Cowen was already talking about “political intimidation and violence,” and Villarreal used the shooting as a reason to cancel his town hall on the SpaceX and BPUB agreement.
That looks less like caution and more like City Hall trying to gain sympathy while changing the subject.
For weeks, people have been questioning the decisions coming out of City Hall. The rushed disannexation. The SpaceX water agreement. The questions surrounding Commissioner Gustavo De Leon’s family property. The money involved. The way these decisions have been handled.
Now suddenly the conversation is about elected officials being threatened.
That is convenient.
Instead of answering for their own decisions, they get to stand in front of the public as victims. Instead of people asking hard questions, people are supposed to feel sorry for them.
Maybe police will later come out and say the shooting was political. If they do, then there should be evidence to support it.
But until then, the political narrative is coming from the politicians, not from police.
And people should pay attention to that.
A shooting does not erase the bad decisions City Hall has already made. There is widespread opinion that the city may have prevailed against SpaceX in a court of law.
The fabricated political targeting does not erase the unanswered questions. And it should not be used to shut down criticism or make the public feel guilty for demanding answers.
FIVE-TIME DRAFT DODGER – GEN. BONESPUR – WANTS MEDAL OF HONOR
Willing to bet no MAGA supporter is going to criticize this piece of shit for the total disrespect to veterans and the military.
Saturday, September 5, 2026
GUNFIRE BY COMMISSIONER GUS DE LEON'S HOME WAS INCIDENTAL. RUMORED SUSPECT IN CUSTODY SAID TO BE 16 YEARS OLD.
Rumors abound as to the suspected gun person(s) and that they were already in custody. Mayor John Cowen confirmed that it happened early today. Unofficial reports indicate that at least nine rounds were fired.
And sources heretofore reliable say that the fact that it happened in the vicinity of commissioner Gus de Leon's home was incidental.
They say the suspect in custody is 16 years old, a minor under state law. Officials would not confirm. Initial reports do not point to any retribution against de Leon for any official acts.
Tellingly, the mayor's statement that "political intimidation and violence" have no place in local politics may distract from the real motive behind the apparent drive-by shooting.
IN THE EVENT THAT YOU SEE YOURSELF LOSING THE MIDTERMS, RIG THE VOTE
By Amy Howe
SCOTUSblog
The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon, asking the justices to temporarily pause an order by a federal judge in Boston that blocks the government from implementing parts of a U.S. Postal Service rule on mail-in ballots.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that the order by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani “partially nullifies the Postal Service’s efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud – a particularly pernicious species of fraud that dilutes the votes of lawful voters, prevents election results from reflecting the will of the American people, and undermines ‘public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.’”
Thursday’s filing was the second time in less than six weeks that the Trump administration came to the Supreme Court seeking to clear the way to implement restrictions on mail-in voting.
The second provision tells the U.S. attorney general to “prioritize the investigation and, as appropriate, the prosecution of State and local officials … who issue Federal ballots to individuals not eligible to vote in a Federal election.”
And the third provision requires states to give the U.S. Postal Service a list of voters to whom the states intend to send mail ballots, and it prohibits the USPS from mailing ballots to voters who are not on the lists of “enrolled” voters that the USPS will create.
A group of 23 states, led by California, and the District of Columbia went to federal court in Massachusetts to challenge the government’s implementation of the order. They argued that the executive order conflicts with provisions in the Constitution that give states the power to determine voter eligibility and to set the “Times, Places, and Manner” of holding congressional elections.
To read the rest of Howe's excellent article, click on link: https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/09/trump-administration-asks-supreme-court-to-clear-the-way-for-it-to-implement-new-mail-in-voting-/
A LABOR DAY 52 YEARS AGO, MEMORIES OF THE GOOD OLD DAYS
By Alan Schaefer
Center for Texas Music History at Texas State University
Juan Montoya
In the waning days of the summer of 1974, several of us who were attending summer classes at Texas Southmost College heard about the megaconcert being planned at Texas Stadium in Austin.
Coach Royal didn’t believe Leff’s claim that perhaps 10 or 20,000 would show up. But the stadium filled to capacity and then some. The BBQ ran out, and then it seemed like potable water might, too, which was a bit of an issue on a sunny Labor Day weekend in Texas.
Cocker was loaded when he sang his set, but no one could tell the difference. And of course, ZZ Top sizzled to close the show past 10 p.m.
In the waning days of the summer of 1974, several of us who were attending summer classes at Texas Southmost College heard about the megaconcert being planned at Texas Stadium in Austin.
ZZ Top would be there, as would be Santana, Bad Company and Joe Cocker. Three of us were at TSC were in our early 20s, and we took a friend, a longhair named John Bassett, the son of a missionary to Mexico who shared our love for the hippie lifestyle, and who was a fluent bilingual who spoke Spanish better than we did having grown up in the ranchos and ejidos of Tamaulipas around Victoria.
The event was billed as “ZZ Top’s First Annual Texas-Sized Rompin’ Stompin’ Barndance and Bar B.Q.” The price of admission was $10 at the stadium gate. Even though we had no car, we were undaunted and we each stuffed a backpack with an extra set of clothes and a toothbrush, a snack, and we stuck out our thumb on the expressway. Two rides and seven hours later, we were in Austin.
We didn't know it at the time, but approximately 80,000 other hard rock fans filled the stadium and its newl-placed Astroturf under a mighty Texas sun for the first and only "ZZTop Barndance.” Later we learned that other kids from Brownsville were also there, including Emilio Crixell, who would later form the Connectors with Joey Tamayo, Albert Besteiro, and Freddie Longoria who started their musical careers in humble venues like Brownsville's Amber Pub or Joe Schull's' New Rising Sun across Central Blvd.
According to writer Shaefer, the seeds of the concert were planted in 1973 when UT student government was facing budget cuts. He wrote that student government financial director Barry Leff devised a plan to throw a fundraising concert, and he set his sights on the mighty Memorial Stadium.
According to writer Shaefer, the seeds of the concert were planted in 1973 when UT student government was facing budget cuts. He wrote that student government financial director Barry Leff devised a plan to throw a fundraising concert, and he set his sights on the mighty Memorial Stadium.
But first, there was one man who had to approve of its use: University of Texas football coach and winner of multiple national championships Darrell K Royal. An already legendary figure on the Forty Acres, Coach Royal approved the plan thinking it would never actually come to fruition. Further, UT itself had to contend with Bill Ham, ZZ Top’s tough-as-nails manager.
The upstart Leff, who eventually pursued a lengthy concert promotion career, assembled the heavyweight lineup, anchored by ZZ Top riding high off the success of the album Tres Hombres. Bill Narum, the Houston-born artist and countercultural bon vivant, who would go on to serve as ZZ Top’s art director, designed the concert poster.
At any given time, a lit joint would appear after being passed from either side of of where we were seating. You puffed and passed it down the road. Things were different in those days.
The show went off into the late hours, with the fans treated to an onstage appearance of legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page joining Bad Company to the pleasure of the crowd. Santana kept us waiting in the sweltering heat until just the right moment when the sun was setting in the west and Carlos Santana came on with his trademark lead of Black Magic Woman guitar intro echoing through the dying rays of the sun.
Just when we thought things couldn't get better, we walked over to a theater on Sixth Street to catch a movie and found ourselves in line to watch Andy Warhol's Frankenstein in 3D. We thought the 3D was a dud until it started to snow all around us in the dark theater. A collective gasp went up from the audience as the bizarre cult movie wowed everyone.
Blood spurts and gushes from the neck stump as huge scissors cut someone's head. A fish glides then stops suspended in midair (water?), turns around and faces you and puckers its lips as you look through an aquarium in the middle of Frankenstein's laboratory watching the doctor and his guests go down a stairway on the other side. Cool, dude!
Later we learned that some damage to the hallowed ground for Longhorn football had occurred to the Astroturf during the concert, mainly burns from marihuana roaches dropped by fans who were on the field. Still, the university would never open the stadium gates wide for rockers again, and this first annual Barndance and BBQ was also the last.
The ZZ Top album Fandango! commemorated the epic day with a photo insert of the full stadium, captioned: “Austin Summer ’74 with 80,000 friends.”
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