TRUMP CONTINUES MINORITY VOTER SUPRESSION UNDER THE GUISE OF "VOTER INTEGRITY"

Peter Tucker Cartoon

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

The right to vote is supposed to be exercised freely, without intimidation, pressure, or fear.
The Justice Department’s plan to deploy a large number of election monitors to heavily Democratic jurisdictions raises serious questions about how those monitors will be selected, where they will be sent, and whether their presence will protect voters — or make some voters feel watched.

Election monitoring itself is not new. Politicizing it would be something very different.

Americans should not have to wonder whether the people standing outside a polling place are there to protect the integrity of an election or to influence the people walking through the door.

Free elections depend not only on accurate vote counts, but on every eligible voter feeling safe enough to cast a ballot.

That principle should be nonpartisan.

WHAT DO CPS SAN ANTONIO AND BROWNSVILLE PUB HAVE IN COMMON? MELLIE ZAMORA LANDIN!

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
MYSA, San Antonio News

Only a handful of major Texas metros are forced to use city-owned electric providers. San Antonio, Austin and Brownsville are among them, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is now vying to take on these municipal “monopolies.”

Abbott vowed to make a legislative push next year to break up local markets and introduce private power producers to San Antonio. He expressed frustration that CPS's Energy's service area exceeds San Antonio’s city limits, yet 14 percent of the agency’s gross revenue funds nearly 30 percent of the city’s general fund budget.

In Brownsville, the Brownsville Public Utility Board transfers an average of $10 million – sometimes an additional million or two – to balance its annual municipal budget each year. Its members are appointed by the city commission. Abbot says that  – if he gains reelection in November – he will take on CPS and PUB to end their "monopoly." 

But when we looked at the CPS website, we noticed a familiar face. It was Melissa Zamora Landin, the Pleasanton native who first came to Brownsville as a reporter for the Brownsville Herald, a mentor at the Texas Southmost College newspaper the Scorpion, a city commissioner, public information officer for the Cameron County Judge's Office, a PIO for the District Attorney's Office and an ad agency executive, to name a few.

She also had a stint as the director of the City of Harlingen Convention and Visitors Bureau also served as the city’s public information officer in 2016 but left in February 2017. 

Landin was fired for “insubordination or other disrespectful conduct,” according to the city’s notice of termination. Neither the city nor her office provided details for her dismissal. 

In July 2019, Landin managed to get hired by the the Falfurrias Board of Aldermen to supervise city departments, support maintenance of the city budget and to represent the municipality vis-a-vis community groups and state and federal governments. She has been working in different places across the state, and now she is with CPS.

Now, she is identified as a business strategist, a "changemaker(?)," Scenario Planner, Inclusive Leader and People Advocate."  

It is possible that if Abbott succeeds in getting reelected and going after CPS and the BPUB, attorneys and administrators for the utilities will work together. If so, it is very possible that Landin will work in tandem with PUB reps to defend their entities. If so, the unsinkable Mellie Z. will have come full circle. 

EXCUSE ME, FOLKS! I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!

(Ed.'s Note: One of our observant readers in far-flung Edinburg sent us this photo of ECISD board candidate Sandra Avila who bears an uncanny resemblance to the well-known actor on the left. None of her supporters or advisors, apparently, noted the resemblance. But as always, someone di and there it is. Good luck to her.)  

MYTHBUSTER MONDAY: GORGAS DID NOT DISCOVER THE SOURCE, CURE FOR YELLOW FEVER

PLAQUE CREDITING GORGAS WITH "DISCOVERY" OF SOURCE OF YELLOW FEVER AT OLD POST HOSPITAL AT TECXAS SOUTHMOST COLLEGE 

(The oft-repeated local lore that Dr. William Gorgas discovered the source and cure cure for yellow fever while stationed at Ft. Brown has been cast in bronze. The plaque above is on the entrance to the Texas Southmost College president's office. For the edification of local residents and that of many others, we repost this article on the real discoverer of the cause of yellow fever.)

By Juan Montoya

"Dr. William Crawford Gorgas discovered the cure for yellow fever while he was stationed at Ft. Brown."

Sorry. Despite the weasel-wording on the large bronze plaque in front of the Arnulfo Oliveira Library (now the Student Center) at Texas Southmost College, Gorgas did not discover the cure for yellow fever here.

In fact, he was clueless that mosquitoes carried the disease and never discovered the cure at all.
This didn't stop the UTB-TSC website (now TSC) listing the historical buildings from stating that Gorgas, "is credited with proving the mosquito carried the disease and finding ways to eliminate it. His efforts virtually eliminated yellow fever."

A memorial plaque was placed on the Fort Brown hospital building (above) presented in a ceremony by the Brownsville Historical Association (BHA) and Brownsville Junior College to commemorate Gorgas in February, 1949. 

Later that same year the BHA, in conjunction with other organizations, were able to have Gorgas elected to the Hall of Fame. Gorgas Drive and the TSC’s Gorgas Science Foundation also bear the name of the doctor."

Then, of course, there's the romantic angle. According to this legend, Gorgas met his future wife Miss Marie Cook Doughty as he was staring into the open grave at the Ft. Brown National Cemetery prepared for her when he was asked by another doctor to read a burial service for his future wife-to-be. He tended to her and, of course, she survived and they lived happily ever after as a sort of yellow-fever tag team trouncing the disease around the world.

In fact, this romantic character even died on the right day, July 4, 1920.

Mythbuster:

The real discoverer that the disease was carried by mosquitoes was Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay, a Cuban, or to be more PC, an Hispanic. His discovery led researchers like Walter Reed and other leading medical investigators of the time to re-examine their thinking and consider Finlay's meticulous research.

The Philip S. Hench Yellow Fever Collection web page states that:

"For twenty years of his professional life, renowned Cuban physician and scientist Carlos J. Finlay stood at the center of a vigorously debated medical controversy. The etiology of yellow fever – its causes and origins – had puzzled medical practitioners since the earliest recorded cases of the disease in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

"Periodic epidemics of yellow fever ravaged the population of Finlay's native Cuba, particularly affecting the citizens of Havana, where he set up a medical practice in 1864. Finlay was intensely interested in epidemiology and public health, and his initial work on cholera – the result of a severe outbreak of the disease in Havana in 1867 – challenged the received wisdom of medical authorities.

"His conclusion that the disease was waterborne, though later verified, was rejected by publishers at the time. Finlay soon afterwards began research on yellow fever, publishing his first paper on it in 1872. Here the same keen observations and logical deductions which informed his analysis of cholera lead him to propose in 1881 that the Culex mosquito be "hypothetically considered as the agent of transmission of yellow fever."

(By the way, Gorgas received a medical degree from New York's Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1876 and joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 1880, years after Finlay's research had begun. He didn't get to Ft. Brown until 1882 and stayed until 1884.)

When the Walter Reed Yellow Fever Commission decided to test the mosquito theory, Finlay provided the mosquitoes, and with the Commission's first scientifically valid success, Walter Reed wrote triumphantly, "The case is a beautiful one, and will be seen by the Board of Havana Experts, today, all of whom, except Finlay, consider the theory a wild one!"

The full run of experiments at Camp Lazear vindicated Finlay's two-decade-long struggle. In the glow of that early success, Reed acknowledged that "it was Finlay's theory, and he deserves much for having suggested it."

Gorgas, who later applied the results of the experiments to a public health campaign which made possible the construction of the Panama Canal, characterized Finlay's contribution in this way: "His reasoning for selecting the Stegomyia as the bearer of yellow fever is the best piece of logical reasoning that can be found in medicine anywhere."

ABBOTT CAN'T STAND ON HIS RECORD REGARDING SCHOOLS

SECOND GAME OF MEXICO'S LLWS TEAM TODAY

Next Matchup: Mexico vs. Nicaragua, Latin America (August 23, 2026, at 10:00 A.M. CT on ESPN)

For the second time in just three years, Municipal de Tijuana, Little League little league team will represent Mexico in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.

The border city sluggers clinched the Mexican championship last month with an 8-2 blowout of historic favorites, Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

The team beat the Australia Region team 7-1 on August 21, 2026, advancing to the second round.

HERE COME THOSE COMMIES WITH THEIR DAMN LIBERAL AGENDA!

Liberals, not Democrats. Learn the difference and the history.

Good people did that, I'm sick of this political nonsense, liberals can do wise conservative things too, it's not one party against the other one, that is for the game of bridge, Us against Them, not real life, life is not a game.

Not to mention passing the G.I. Bill. How many small business loans financed Republican small businesses. We get the same thanks every Saturday at the golf club for the five day work week too.

NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU CAME FROM...NUNCA!

Special to El Run-Rrun

Mexican American graduate Jennifer Rocha honored her farmworker parents with graduation photos in the fields that shaped her journey.

Jennifer Rocha graduated from UC San Diego in 2021 and returned to the California fields where she had worked alongside her migrant farmworker parents since high school. 

She said the photos were meant to honor their sacrifices and the lessons that pushed her toward higher education. Rocha earned a sociology degree focused on law and society.


Josh Gates
The term Mexican American implies she is a natural citizen of America of Mexican decent, so, great her parents worked to put her in school, so did mine. I could have taken my graduation photos at my dads bakery, or took them washing the dishes because mom was a stay at home mom. We should all celebrate our parents who loved us, took care of us, and raised us. That is AMERICA.

Latzky Yaz

now that is very inspiring to not forget where your roots come from and respectively honoring your family and its roots good for her and that is what new generations forget or overlook.

Gloria Perales
I worked doing this for 27 years so my children didn’t have to, but they knew how hard it was because they worked weekends, too until they graduated,. Oldest joined the Marines, second works in Doctor’s office, third and fourth work at Sysco for over 20 years .

BLACKBIRD SINGING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT...

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Someone brought a coffin to Ruby Bridges’ elementary school.

Inside it was a Black doll.

Ruby was six years old.

On November 14, 1960, she arrived at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans to become its first Black student. Four federal marshals surrounded the tiny first grader as she walked toward a building that adults were determined to keep white.

Outside, segregationists screamed racial slurs and threats. White parents rushed inside to remove their children. Ruby later remembered thinking the enormous crowd looked like Mardi Gras.

Then she saw the coffin.

A woman repeatedly appeared with a Black doll displayed inside it, a grotesque death threat aimed at a child who had come to school to learn to read and write. Ruby later said the image frightened her more than the screaming and gave her nightmares. Another protester threatened to poison her, so federal marshals would only allow Ruby to eat food brought from home.

The punishment extended to her family. Her father lost his job. A grocery store refused to serve them.
Inside the school, nearly all the white children had been pulled out. Ruby spent first grade essentially as a class of one.

 Barbara Henry, a white teacher from Boston, taught her alone because other teachers refused. Ruby was kept away from the cafeteria and playground and required protection simply to use the restroom.

And yet, neither Ruby nor Barbara Henry missed a single day that school year.

That may be the detail worth remembering.

Hundreds of adults tried to frighten a six-year-old out of an elementary school.

They failed.

...TAKE THESE BROKEN WINGS, AND LEARN TO FLY...

THE PORT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS THAT WORKS NOW..3 MONTHS AFTER THE ELECTION AND STEVE GUERRA COULDN'T DO THIS IN 8 YEARS?

Port of Brownsville

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The Brownsville Navigation District (BND) Board of Commissioners at a regular meeting held Wednesday, Aug. 19, unanimously approved the adoption of a resolution establishing the maximum local-option residence homestead exemption allowed under Texas law for persons age 65 or older and for disabled persons.

"The Brownsville Navigation District Board of Commissioners is proud to provide meaningful tax relief to residents in our communities," said Brownsville Navigation District Chairman Sergio Tito Lopez. "I commend my fellow commissioners as we remain united in our commitment to bring good paying jobs to the region while creating opportunities that enhance quality of life."

Under the resolution, pursuant to Section 11.13 of the Texas Property Tax Code, qualifying homeowners within the district will now receive an exemption equal to 100 percent of the appraised value of their residence homestead — the highest exemption permitted under state law. 

The exemption applies to residence homesteads owned by individuals 65 years of age or older or by persons with qualifying disabilities and will be administered by the Cameron County Appraisal District in accordance with the Texas Property Tax Code. Qualifying property owners must file the required annual exemption application to receive the benefit.

Communities within the Brownsville Navigation District include Brownsville, Rancho Viejo, Los Fresnos, Indian Lake, and Starbase.

The exemption takes effect immediately upon adoption and will apply beginning with the 2027 tax year.

Residents with questions about eligibility or the application process may contact the Cameron County Appraisal District.

PANIC IN SAN BENE: SE SALEN! REMOVING THE ALCALDE NOT SO EASY, GUYS!

By Joe Rodriguez
Special to El Run-Rrun

Two San Benito City Commissioners placed on the August 18, 2026 Regular City Commission meeting the following Executive Session agenda item:

“Executive Session Item: Pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551.071 and Section 551.074, discussion and possible action regarding City Charter Article III, Sections 3.06 and 3.07, concerning vacancies, forfeiture of office, qualifications of elected officers, and procedures for their administration and enforcement, including standards of conduct and attendance.”

It does not take a ‘legal eagle’ or attorney well-versed in municipal government laws in Texas to know that a majority of city commissioners in Texas do not have the legal authority to unilaterally vote or force an elected mayor in Texas simply for walking out of an executive session.

Under the San Benito City Charter, removing a mayor requires strict adherence to constitutional due process or a citizen led recall.

A City Commission majority does not have the explicit statutory or constitutional authority to execute such an act without it being a political move. A city commission cannot remove a mayor elected by the people because they are angry about a walkout by the mayor.

Mayor Dr. Pete Galvan holds the office of Mayor via a mandate from the city’s majority of voters. The Mayor is neither an employee or appointee of the city.

Texas Local Government Code Chapter 21 governs the removal of the mayor if a commissioner (or a local citizen) believes a Mayor’s action(s) rises to the level of official misconduct or incompetence. Any elected official has a protected property interest in their elected office via Texas law and the U.S. Constitution.

Texas Local Government Code Chapter 21 specifically states that removing an elected local official requires a formal judicial removal proceeding (district court trial for official misconduct, incompetence, or intoxication) or a local citizen-led recall election. It is also called “due process”.

The statutory judicial removal process found in Subchapter B, Chapter 21 of the Texas Local Government Code applies specifically to general-law municipalities, not home-rule cities.

The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees elected officials due process. The commission would have to issue formal written charges, provide ample notice, and hold a quasi-judicial public hearing where the mayor can defend himself with legal representation and with explicit legal grounds.

Home-rule municipalities like the City of San Benito derive their authority directly from Article XI, Section 5 of the Texas Constitution and Section 51.072 of the Texas Local Government Code, meaning the procedures and grounds for removing a city council member or mayor are controlled entirely by the city's own local charter rather than state statute.

Under the City Charter, a “forfeiture of office” generally applies to objective criteria such as moving outside the city limits or failing to maintain basic required qualifications and not political disputes or breach of meeting etiquette.

Bottom line, the real removal power belongs to the San Benito Citizens via a voter recall as dictated by the City Charter.

The City Commission majority cannot itself be appointed judge and jury. A valid and verified citizen initiated recall petition would put the onus (responsibility, duty, obligation) on the San Benito voters whether to or not to oust Mayor Dr. Pete Galvan from elected office.

Mayor Dr. Pete Galvan ran for Mayor with the slogan “Progress with Purpose”. There will obviously be roadblocks but I have confidence in him and I know Mayor Dr. Pete Galvan will deliver.

The next major test for Mayor Dr. Pete Galvan will decide whether the City Commission majority will agree with Mayor Dr. Pete Galvan and grant the city taxpayers a 2 cent reduction in property taxes.

FYI, After the last clean financial audit, the Total Fund Balance was $11.5 million. The total Unassigned Funds was $11.6 million. The City of San Benito also had $4.3 million in the 120-Day Reserve fund to meet minimum operating requirements. The city also has over $2.6 million committed for street improvements and specific city projects (equipment, grant payment, & CCRMA [Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority]). Source: City of San Benito web site.

IMHO, there are plenty of funds available to cover a 2 cent property tax reduction.

SIN PELOS EN LA LENGUA: BEING A SUPER POWER CARRIES RESPONSIBILITIES

THE STRAIT AND SKINNY...

IRAN...

AND UKRAINE

 

TGIF! IT'S TIME TO ROCK OUT AT THE ELKS/VFW!

UNANIMOUS PORT OF B'VILLE BOARD VOTES TO ELIMINATE PORT TAX FOR 65+ HOMEOWNERS EFFECTIVE FY 2027

Port of Brownsville

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The Brownsville Navigation District (BND) Board of Commissioners at a regular meeting held Wednesday, Aug. 19, unanimously approved the adoption of a resolution establishing the maximum local-option residence homestead exemption allowed under Texas law for persons age 65 or older and for disabled persons.

"The Brownsville Navigation District Board of Commissioners is proud to provide meaningful tax relief to residents in our communities," said Brownsville Navigation District Chairman Sergio Tito Lopez. "I commend my fellow commissioners as we remain united in our commitment to bring good paying jobs to the region while creating opportunities that enhance quality of life."

Under the resolution, pursuant to Section 11.13 of the Texas Property Tax Code, qualifying homeowners within the district will now receive an exemption equal to 100 percent of the appraised value of their residence homestead — the highest exemption permitted under state law. 

The exemption applies to residence homesteads owned by individuals 65 years of age or older or by persons with qualifying disabilities and will be administered by the Cameron County Appraisal District in accordance with the Texas Property Tax Code. Qualifying property owners must file the required annual exemption application to receive the benefit.

Communities within the Brownsville Navigation District include Brownsville, Rancho Viejo, Los Fresnos, Indian Lake, and Starbase.

The exemption takes effect immediately upon adoption and will apply beginning with the 2027 tax year.

Residents with questions about eligibility or the application process may contact the Cameron County Appraisal District.

WITH SAUCEDA STEPPING DOWN AS P.D. CHIEF, B'TOWN HAS TWO DEPUTY C.M.s

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Brownsville – once again – has a caretaker government.

Yesterday, the City of Brownsville announced the search for a new chief of police after the city commission – a few months ago – promoted Brownsville police Chief Felix Sauceda to co-deputy city manager, joining Doroteo Garcia Jr. 

The current city manager, Alan Gard, has made it known that he will gladly step aside to tend to his ailing wife when and if his replacement can be found. 

Sauceda, meanwhile, will remain police chief while the search is ongoing. Once the police chief position is filled, he will serve as full-time co-deputy city manager, along with Garcia Jr.

According to the job listing, the salary range is $168,000 to $214,000 annually, depending on qualifications. The application deadline is Monday, Aug. 31.

Sauceda and Garcia have openly sought the CM position, but the city commission now requires certification, something that Gard – after some four decades in city management – has recently acquired. Both Garcia ad Sauceda have traveled to various cities and undergoing training to get it.

Former CM Helen Ramirez was hired by the City in March of 2019 and earned her designation from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).designation July 2024, five years later.

How long it will take Sauceda and Garcia to get it is anybody's guess. Until then, any new city manager candidate will have to have it, so it may mean that as a result of the certification requirement we will have a city manager from outside the city - lacking any border experience - for years to come.

Waiting in the wings are Deputy City managers Doroteo Garcia and Felix Sauceda

A MILLION HERE, A MILLION THERE ADDS UP TO REAL MONEY...

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Reports and watchdog estimates suggest that Donald Trump’s golf trips have cost U.S. taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, with some estimates exceeding $70 million during certain periods.

Much of the cost comes from Secret Service protection, Air Force One flights, local law enforcement, and securing private golf properties.

Critics argue that this is excessive public spending on presidential leisure, while supporters say similar security costs apply to any sitting president.

The debate raises a simple question: How much should taxpayers pay for presidential golf trips?

GUEST EDITORIAL: BROWNSVILLE IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS THAT MATTER

By Dr. Laura E. Cisneros
Candidate, Texas State Rep., D-38

Brownsville deserves more than promises. It deserves solutions.

For more than three decades, I practiced medicine. As a physician, I learned very early that before you can treat a problem, you first have to understand what is causing it. If a patient wasn't getting better, I

couldn't simply repeat the same treatment and hope for a different result. I had to ask questions, review the evidence, consult when necessary, and sometimes reconsider the original diagnosis.

I believe government should approach problems with that same seriousness.

Brownsville faces challenges that affect families every day: flooding that repeatedly threatens homes and businesses; young people struggling to find a pathway from the classroom to a good-paying career; rising property taxes; healthcare access; aging infrastructure; and the long-term security of our water supply. 

These problems didn't develop overnight, and they won't be solved with slogans.

Over the coming weeks, I want to use this column to examine the issues that matter to Brownsville families and to ask some basic questions: 

*What is actually causing the problem? 

*What has already been tried? 

*What worked? 

*What didn't? 

*Who is responsible? 

*And, most importantly, what can we do differently?

Take flooding.

Brownsville residents have watched familiar streets flood after heavy rainfall. We repair roads, reconstruct intersections and build new projects, but families understandably want to know whether the underlying drainage problems are being solved.

Flooding remains one of the most persistent concerns facing Brownsville families and businesses. 

We need to look beyond temporary fixes and ask whether our road, drainage and infrastructure investments are addressing the underlying problem – and what additional resources and coordination are needed from Austin.

Education

The same approach should apply to education.

If a young person repeatedly struggles to pass a college-readiness examination, our first response shouldn't simply be, "Take it again."

We should ask why. 

*Is the student academically unprepared? 

*Was there an unidentified learning disability? 

*Does the student need a different instructional approach? 

*Are we unintentionally creating barriers between capable young people and careers in which they could excel?

Those are questions worth asking.

Economic Development

Economic development deserves the same scrutiny. When we celebrate millions – or billions – of dollars in new investment coming to our region, we should also ask:

* How many Brownsville residents are being trained and hired for those jobs

*What those jobs pay, and 

*Whether that investment is improving the lives of families who already call this community home.

* And up front, what's the environmental trade-off required

Answers, not the "blame" game

This isn't about finding someone to blame.
It's about finding what works.

As your State Representative, that is the approach I would take to Austin: listen first, gather the facts, bring the appropriate people to the table, identify solutions, fight for the necessary resources, and then measure whether those solutions actually worked.

In the coming weeks, I will discuss some of the challenges affecting our community and the practical role state government can play in addressing them. I won't pretend that every problem has an easy answer. But I do believe every problem deserves serious attention. 

And when something isn't working, we shouldn't be afraid to ask why – or to find a better way. Brownsville's future deserves that kind of effort.

YUP. IT IS PEDRO CARDENAS' OLD LADY'S CADDY, MERCEDES AT RIGHT

(Ed.'s Note: After we posted the parking woes story yesterday, a lively debate ensued of whether we had correctly identified the Cadillac Escalade belonging to City Commissioner's (ex?) old lady that is parked in front of their business at The Sip Society in the old Coca Cola building using parking spaces exclusively meant for Da Mayor and the city commissioners across from City Hall in the old federal building at the corner of Elizabeth and 10th streets. OK, according to our debaters, it is a Caddy on the left and a Mercedes on the right, both belonging to the Cardenases and used to carry on business downtown without facing the parking hurdles that we mere mortals have to endure. The commissioner's parking space is used at all times during the business day, whether there is a commissioners' meeting or not. Must be nice being a public servant. The perks of public service, or regal arrogance?)

  

"That is definitely not a "Caddy" in your top photo. Ford!!!. Shit, if you can't even get that right..." Commenter Kok

Hey KOK, you may have had one or two many “deposits” in your eyes… but on the top photo that is clearly an Escalade, which is not made by Ford, idiot!! Response to Commenter above

10:40 It is a Caddy. Get your glasses or enlarge the screen. Another response to Kok

WHAT, WE WORRY? ACTUALLY, WE SHOULD HAVE WAY BACK IN '91!

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

This newly resurfaced comic from Mad Magazine’s January 1991 issue shows that public perception of certain figures has a incredibly long paper trail. 

The classic satirical illustration swaps a traditional fairytale setting for a biting critique of Donald Trump's public persona from over three decades ago. Parodying The Wizard of Oz, the cartoon depicts a caricature of Trump approaching Dorothy, offering her a penthouse, a limousine, and "ten grand a week" to be his "steady bimbo" once she "fills out."

 Dorothy’s response delivers the ultimate satirical punchline, calling out the words of a "sexist oaf who only considers women to be property" before ironically accepting the offer anyway.

​Looking back at this archive, it is striking how consistent the public commentary surrounding his rhetoric and attitude toward women has been. Long before his entry into formal politics, pop culture was already openly lampooning the exact same traits that would define his later media coverage.

For many online observers, the 1991 comic serves as a fascinating time capsule proving that these characterizations aren't a recent political development—they were mainstream satire 35 years ago. It highlights the enduring power of political cartoons to capture the cultural zeitgeist and leave a permanent, unchangeable record of how public figures were viewed in their own time.

BLANCHE PLEDGES TO REMAIN INDEPENDENT OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

La Cebolla

WASHINGTON—Assuring the American people he would not let the legal system sway his judgment in any decision he makes, recently sworn-in Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed at a press conference Monday to remain fully independent of the law. 

“The autonomy of the Office of the Attorney General is paramount, and I will defend it against any act, statute, ordinance, or even basic common-law principle,” said Blanche, emphasizing that no federal law or constitutional restriction would have any influence whatsoever upon his investigations, prosecutions, or other official actions. 

“For far too long, the Department of Justice has displayed a prominent pro-law bias, but under my tenure that will be rectified immediately. As of this morning, I have shelved all cases against those accused of crimes and launched inquiries into several people toward whom the president has expressed a slight personal distaste.” 

Blanche added that he would wholeheartedly defend President Donald Trump from any attempt to restrain his actions using the U.S. Constitution.

IT'S WEDNESDAY! NOCHE DE KARAOKE, BAILONGO EN EL ELKS

DOE-SI-DOE AND THEN SEE-SAW, DJT IS TURKEY IN THE STRAW

 

PARKING WOES DOWNTOWN COMPOUNDED BY CITY AND OFFICIALS' PERKS

No problem parking for this shop owner who owns that white Caddy on the right. Notice that the entire block on the west side along 10th Street between Elizabeth and Washington is reserved for the mayor and city commissioners while attending meetings or conducting city business. Unless, of course, you are married to a city commissioner like the owner of The Sip Society in the old Coca Cola building who is married – despite the faux divorce to obtain BCIC grants – to commissioner Pedro Cardenas. What would happen to you if you get caught parking on those spaces? So why hasn't the Caddy – which is seen parked in that spot daily, if she is not using their other ride, the Mercedes – gotten a parking ticket? Have the city parking meter personnel been told to ignore the infraction because it belongs to an influyente?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Commenter 1:

"I had a yen for a plate of camarones con nopalitos en chile rojo recently, and since this dish was usually associated with Easter, had to look high and low for a restaurant that served it during the rest of the year.

"I hit upon one, Cafe 911, where the old Lucio's Cafe on Washington Street used to be. But even after having found the place, I had to go two or three times around the two-block square area trying to find a parking place. No luck. The city public parking lot at the corner of 10th and Washington was full, as were the spaces along the downtown streets. With the clock ticking, I had to settle for driving to a Whataburger on International and forget about trying to eat downtown. I didn't get my desired meal, and the restaurant lost a customer."

Commenter 2:

"I had to go to try to get some fabric at El Conquistador on Washington between 12th and 13th streets for my wife and tried to get as close as I could to park. After circling the block two or three times, I gave up and ended up going to a craft shop on Morrison Road next to the Target store. No parking problems, and was in and out in minutes. Forget downtown!"  

Multiply the experience of these two would-be downtown shoppers by 100 or more daily and the lack of accessible parking downtown emerges as one of the biggest obstacles to conduct commerce for businesses there. Throw in preferential parking for some city officials and their relatives, handicapped spaces, and broken parking kiosks, and the problems become glaringly obvious.

Parking downtown has been a headache for city officials and residents forever. But it's not just the crush of shoppers that creates the problem. It has been compounded by some factors that were self created by city officials.

Take, for example, the 375-plus free parking tags for selected city employees that allow them to use a parking space in the downtown area to attend to their employment and duties. Two years ago, former City Manager Helen Ramirez said the city had issued that many. Has that number increased since then?

With that many spaces taken from general use, the number of parking spaces available to the public is greatly reduced. Throw in the employees of downtown businesses who scurry out every few hours to renew their parking spaces and it also reduces the available parking spaces for the general public. Then, a number of parking lots is also reserved for city office workers and first responders and administrators in critical spaces in the downtown area.

And if you are lucky enough to find a space, be careful not to overextend your shopping because it will cost you a $10 parking ticket. And if you have friends in City Hall and happen to be an E-Bridge member or customer, you can get your ticket "validated" and park for free. 

But it isn’t the same problem for everybody. City employees park free. City customers have free parking available. If you work for a small business downtown, you pay to park or find somewhere farther away.
If you’re a customer trying to spend money at a downtown business, you pay.
And when you look at how many government employees, buildings and customers are concentrated within just a few downtown blocks, the difference becomes hard to ignore.

More City-owned buildings and publicly supported facilities are now being used downtown, bringing more employees, customers and visitors into the same limited parking area. And according to information provided by Ramirez then,  former employees aren’t required to return their parking tags and expired tags can remain outstanding.

So how many tags are actually out there today? Or, more importantly: How many convenient parking spaces does that leave for everyone else?

LOOK AT WHAT IS CONCENTRATED WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE

Start around City Hall and Market Square:

City Hall — 1001 E. Elizabeth

City Plaza — 1034 E. Levee

Market Square / City Market

Cameron County Levee Annex / Tax Office — 835 E. Levee

Dancy Courthouse — 1100 E. Monroe

Constantino Building — 1006 E. Monroe

Judicial Courthouse — 974 E. Harrison

District Attorney’s Office — 964 E. Harrison

Veterans Building — 1124 E. Madison

Elections Building — 1050 E. Madison

Detention Center No. 1 — 1145 E. Harrison

And just beyond that immediate cluster:

eBridge / BCIC / UTRGV — 1304 E. Adams

Visitor Center / Convention & Visitors Bureau — E. Adams

Brownsville Police Headquarters — 600 E. Jackson

City Engineering — 404 E. Washington

Brownsville Metro / downtown transit operations

Capitol Theatre — E. Levee

If you put those addresses on a map (above), a huge amount of government activity is concentrated within walking distance. A City employee can drive downtown, park free, leave the vehicle there and walk between nearby City and County buildings for meetings. That’s convenient. But the car doesn’t move.

No problem for city commissioner Gus de Leon finding a parking space close to the door of City Plaza either. Elected office carries its perks, among them the right to ignore the handicapped parking space designation. Those pampered handicapped can walk around him if they want to access City Plaza.  

One City employee can occupy a parking space for most of the workday. On the other hand, a restaurant needs that space to turn over. So does a coffee shop, retailer, barber or professional office. One free employee parking space may serve one vehicle for eight hours. That same space could serve customer after customer at surrounding businesses.

And those customers are spending money downtown. That’s why parking turnover matters. Every parking space occupied for free by a City employee is a space that could otherwise generate parking revenue or serve paying customers throughout the day. Someone is giving up the value of that space.

Multiply that by the 375+ free City employee parking tags reported by the City Manager two years ago, and suddenly “free parking” has a real economic value. And we still don’t know how many additional tags have been issued since then.

On top of hundreds of free City employee parking tags and free parking available to City customers, look at the sign at eBridge: “PARKING TICKET VALIDATION ONLY FOR eBRIDGE MEMBERS.”

Government-owned and publicly supported operations clearly understand that free and convenient parking has value. It helps employees. It attracts customers. It removes a cost and makes a location more convenient. So what about the privately owned business next door?

Parking ticket fines are now $10. Even though the color of the tickets change periodically, if you manage to be lucky enough to find one, make sure you came back in time or you'll find one of these tags on your windshield. Unless, of course, you are a favored city employee, elected official, or eBridge member or client.

If free parking is important enough for an eBridge member, why isn’t it important for the customer trying to spend money at the restaurant, coffee shop, retailer or professional office next door?

And taxpayers should also know: Who pays for those eBridge parking validations? Does eBridge pay?
Does BCIC pay? Does the City waive the charge? How much does it cost each year? Because once again: Free parking isn’t really free.

Remember, that number doesn’t include County employees. It doesn’t include University employees. It doesn’t include other publicly supported operations downtown.

Taxpayers deserve to know the value of the parking being provided free. How much potential parking revenue is being given up? How much is being spent or waived on parking validation?

How much business is being lost because customers can’t find convenient parking? Someone who needs to visit City Hall will probably keep looking for a space. Someone deciding where to eat lunch, shop, buy coffee or get a haircut doesn’t have to. They can take their money somewhere else. The parking meter doesn’t measure that loss. The small-business owner feels it at the cash register.

If you account for free city employee parking, free city customer parking, reserved government parking, County and University demand, and eBridge parking validation, then tell downtown businesses what’s actually left. Brownsville wants private businesses downtown. Those businesses pay rent, payroll, utilities, insurance and taxes. They invest their own money and take the financial risk every day they open their doors.

The City already understands that free and convenient parking helps attract customers and retain employees.

That’s why it provides it. eBridge understands the value, too. That’s why it validates parking for members. And downtown Brownsville’s small businesses are paying the biggest price.

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! THY LIPS ARE PALE AND STILL...(WITH) NO PULSE OR WILL

 

STEALING BIDEN'S THUNDER: NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T

Trump and the White House show off Photo of "Prescription Drug Prices Record Sharpest Drop in More Than 60 Years" headline – but article credits Joe Biden policies 

The Other 98 %

Donald Trump waved a printout at reporters on Friday to prove he lowered drug prices. The article credits Joe Biden, not him.

The headline was real. Prescription drug prices posted their sharpest drop in more than sixty years, the largest annual decline since March 1963. Trump read it aloud to the cameras, held the page out wide like he'd pulled a rabbit from a hat, and asked, "What else do I have to say?"

Here's what he could have said. 

The reporters who wrote that story called up economists to find out what was actually moving the numbers, and the economists pointed at a law he had nothing to do with.

That law is the Inflation Reduction Act. Biden signed it in 2022, and it did something no president had pulled off before: it gave Medicare the power to sit across the table from the drug companies and negotiate prices instead of paying whatever the sticker said.

The first ten negotiated prices took effect on January 1 of this year. Those ten are drugs millions of seniors actually take, which is exactly why they show up in the numbers Trump was crowing about.

Richard Frank, a Harvard health economist, told the Washington Post that if he were betting on what mattered most, it would be the Biden law. Trump's own efforts, he said, "wouldn't be where I'd place my money." A Vanderbilt professor told the paper the same thing.

Not a single Republican voted for that law. Not one, in either chamber. And the moment it passed, they started filing bills to repeal the exact negotiation power that is now driving prices down. The policy blueprint written for his second term called for gutting it.

So the man mugging for the cameras Friday was taking a bow for a result his party voted against, tried to kill, and would kill tomorrow if the polling ever let them.

This is the whole trick, and once you see it you can't unsee it. Someone else does the work, fights the fight, eats the political cost. Then the guy who stood in the doorway the entire time walks up afterward, lifts the trophy off the shelf, and holds it over his head.

The receipt was the printout in his hand. He brought it himself. He stood in front of the press pool and read out loud the proof that it wasn't him, then grinned and asked if everybody got the shot.

Everybody got the shot.

OUR I.C.E. GOONS IN ACTION! WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING WARRANT

 

These ICE agents, by the way, are the same team that arrested a bakery owner and his wife at a Los Fresnos panaderia.

AND NOW, A WORD FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT COMPLIANT

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Dear Porkchop,

You miserable fucking apostle of human misery.

We thought we’d reached the bottom of your particular moral septic tank somewhere between family separation, CECOT, Alligator Alcatraz, mass detention, deportation raids, threats against sanctuary cities, and your remarkable insistence that physical appearance can enter the “totality of the circumstances” when immigration agents develop reasonable suspicion.

And now?
Electric-shock gloves.

It’s been widely reported that ICE intends to spend as much as $20 million putting electric-shock gloves directly onto immigration officers’ hands, and naturally your furious oversized head emerged from the federal enforcement machine to defend the idea. 

Because somewhere in America, Porkchop, there apparently remains a human being insufficiently terrified of ICE, and you simply cannot fucking have that.

You explained that the devices provide officers another option short of deadly force. Then you opened your mouth and reminded everybody exactly who we’re dealing with: “It’s another device to help someone get compliant when they are not.”

Compliant.
There it fucking is.

That word could be carved into the monument eventually erected to this obscene chapter of American history because compliance is the gravitational center of the Tom Homan universe.

Government commands, human complies.

Government grabs, human complies.

Government detains, human complies.

Government separates parent from child, human complies.

Government puts you on an airplane, locks you in a concentration camp, or removes you to foreign 

confinement while lawyers race desperately through American courts trying to determine what remedies remain available, and human fucking complies.

Now ICE wants electricity available literally at its agents’ fingertips.

That’s your magic trick. You take human suffering and run it through the bureaucratic meat grinder until it comes out sounding administrative.

A terrified father becomes an alien.

A crying child becomes a dependent.

A raid becomes an enforcement operation.

A cage becomes detention capacity.

A deportation becomes a removal.

A foreign prison becomes a destination.

The Fourth Amendment isn’t particularly useful when every officer is correct.

These protections exist precisely because governments make mistakes, abuse power, become frightened, become angry, lie, and often become populated by men so absolutely convinced of their righteousness that they begin mistaking obedience for justice.

And no amount of yelling can make us forget it.

Sincerely,
The people you haven’t managed to make compliant.

AIRPORTS? HOW ABOUT SCHOOLS? ABBOTT'S HYPOCRISY KNOWS NO BOUNDS

The airport has offered two ablution stations on the post-security side of Terminal D since 2019, when it relocated and expanded its interfaith chapel near Gate D40. Common Locations: Places of Worship: Found in mosques and Islamic community centers. Public Hubs: Installed in multi-faith prayer rooms at international airports, universities, and large hospitals

By Ahmed Humble

The Chron

(After Herr Abbott's furor over the stations), the VFW Airport confirmed it has scrapped the project proposal. A spokesperson shared the following statement with Chron:

"Like all proposed projects, the airport ultimately considers the operational benefits, customer service impacts, operational risks and costs before approving them," the statement read. "While that evaluation was planned, the airport accelerated its review due to elevated public interest this week and has determined not to proceed with the project as it would not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits."

Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott escalated the issue by directing a review of state grants awarded to entities that operate Texas airports, including DFW and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, over what his office described as possible religious discrimination.

In a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Abbott also asked the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration to review religious facilities and accommodations at both airports, including a previously installed ablution facility and prayer room at IAH, despite both having been around for years.

"These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal," Abbott said in a statement. "Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others."

(Really, Greg? How about the state-mandated posting of the Judeo-Christian 10 Commandments in government-owned schools? So is you're a Jewish, Native American, Muslim, atheist, or a Jehovah's Witness Texa and don't agree with this, tough luck because Abbott and his MAGA Legislature have apparently chosen to extend this special treatment that favors one religious view over all others.)

TRUMP BOMBS OUT IN DESPERATE SEARCH FOR MISSING MUNITIONS

La Cebolla

WASHINGTON—Surrounded on all sides by overturned furniture, ripped-out desk drawers, and dozens of loose items flung wildly from their shelves, President Donald Trump reportedly tore up the White House on Thursday in a frantic search for more munitions. 

“Come on, come on, there’s gotta be one of those interceptor things around here somewhere,” said Trump, desperately hoping that the large Oval Office portrait of Andrew Jackson he heaved onto the splintered Resolute desk concealed a missile storage tube built into the wall. 

“Gimmie one tank shell, a machine gun, a couple of bullets, anything. Okay, I already cut through the mattress in the Lincoln Bedroom, slashed all the upholstery in the Red Room, and pried up the floorboards in the Cabinet Room. Nothing. And I don’t know where armaments could be hiding in the East Wing, since it’s pretty much just a giant pit right now. I mean, I guess I could punch a few more holes in the ceiling of the State Dining Room but—goddammit, Donald, think. Think!” 

At press time, sources confirmed a crazed Trump was about to swing a sledgehammer at a grid of monitors in the Situation Room when he suddenly recalled with an embarrassed chuckle that he had access to 5,000 nukes.

WITH THE START OF SCHOOL, AN UNERASABLE MEMORY

By Juan Montoya

Years ago, when we still had one kid – our youngest girl – at Hudson Elementary when Dr. Rita Hernandez was principal there, it fell on my lot to go shopping for school supplies a day before the school year began (This 2026, it would have been Sunday}.

This was always an unpleasant task and I always left it for the last  minute because you would invariably find yourself pawing through piles of left over pencils, composition books, rulers, folders, dividers, etc. to try to get everything on the list the teachers ask parents to get for their students.

That was bad enough.

But when you consider that you are trying to do this against other desperate parents (especially pushy moms) who procrastinated just like you and find themselves trying to scratch off every last item from their list, it becomes a pitched battle on the school supply pile at stores like Walmart, Kmart when there was one, the Family Dollars, Target, etc. by parents with their back against the clock and a fast-approaching deadline.

The moms were the worse. They weren't above edging past you in the line and pushing you aside as they grabbed for that missing three-hole binder (had to be black), or the safety scissors they needed for their list.

To make the long story short, as 10 p.m. approached, things were getting desperate. Still unscratched on the list were two combination blue-and-red erasers. Everywhere I went, they had an eraser of one color, or some other types, some of them with a small brush at one end, and instead of the lead, it was an eraser point like a pencil.

I gave up after the stores started closing and the elusive erasers were nowhere to be found. I had failed.

This had never happened before and I arrived at the house with my different bags from the different stores bulging over with supplies. But no double-color gum erasers.

The little one was at the living room coffee table drawing something on a paper with a crayon when I arrived. She looked up and saw the supplies looking at me expectantly as she filled in her drawing with the crayon. There was no way out. I fessed up, a bit defensive, even as I tried to hide my exasperation.

"Nana, It took me half the night and I got everything on the list except for one thing, those erasers with the two colors, you know, the red and the blue. I went to the four Walmarts and everything is gone. Then I went to the Target, the Family Dollars, all of them. There are no two-sided erasers left in the city. I'm sorry."

God made little girls different.

She eyed me somewhat distractedly, looked up from her creation and said: "Erasers? Oh, don't worry about that Dad. I won't need them. I'm not going to make any mistakes."