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."

FOR WHOM THE POLLS TOLL; THEY TOLL FOR FOR YOU, GREG

Team Gina

Nine weeks ago, this same poll had us trailing Greg Abbott by 6 points. Now, that gap is down to 1.

This is a completely separate survey than the Fox News poll that broke recently — Texas Pulse, conducted by Texas A&M’s Bush School for Government — and it found the exact same thing: Abbott 46 percent, me at 45 percent.

Three different pollsters showing identical results in the same week is not a fluke. It’s a trend.

 
Here's what’s changed since the June poll showing us down 6: Texans are getting to know me. In June, more than half of voters didn’t know enough about me to have an opinion. Now it’s less than a third. And the more they learn, the more they like what they see. My favorability has climbed from a net +13 to a net +18 in just two months.

Meanwhile, Abbott’s numbers are going the other way. His approval rating is underwater, 47-51 percent. His favorability is underwater, 46-50 percent. Twelve years as governor, and Texans are done.

I don’t need to tell you why. You’re living it. Rising grocery bills, rising premiums, rising property taxes. Data centers flooding our state. And a governor who’s spent over a decade protecting the people at the top instead of the Texans footing the bill.

We have momentum. We do not have the resources to match it — not yet, not without your help. Abbott’s campaign has nearly $70 million sitting in the bank, and they are going to spend every dollar of it trying to make sure Texans who are ready for change don’t show up in November.

Chip in right now to help us take the lead in this race.

TRUMP'S DEFLECTING..ERR, REFLECTING POOL LIES REVEAL SHALLOW MAN

 

LOOKING FOR DONA ESTEFANA ALONG MILITARY HIGHWAY

 

By Juan Montoya

As children living in San Pedro, west of Brownsville, we used to go picking wild raspberries from several bushes growing near an old cotton gin that used to stand across a ditch west of where Riverside Golf Resort is today.

Off in the distance in the cotton fields adjacent to the gin we could see several headstones from an old, abandoned rural cemetery, one of many dotting the side of the road historically used by the U.S. Army to shuttle between Ft. Brown in Brownsville and the Ringgold Barracks in Rio Grande City.

Whoever used that cemetery were long gone, and after a few decades after the berry bushes and the gin were also gone, the river levee was moved, the Border Wall built, and the cemetery disappeared under next year's cotton crop.

It wasn't until much later – in 2007 – that I was told by the late Praxedis G. "PG" Cavazos, that the State of Texas' Historical Commission was erecting a marker along Military Highway near the ancient cemetery which had belonged to Estefena Goseascochea de Cavazos y de Cortina, the descendant of   Salvador De la Garza, the original recipient of the "El Potrero  del Espiritu Santo" by King Charles III of Spain on September 26, 1781. 

It encompassed fifty-nine and one-half leagues (263,369.9 acres) including almost all of what today is Cameron County, Texas. 

The marker was placed along Military because just about all traces of her original ranch was gone, as was the cemetery which she established on that land and where she was buried upon her death in 1867 as per her wishes.

Her request was that she was buried in "El Campo Santo que yo tengo en este rancho de mi propiedad" (cemetery that I have on this ranch of my property), near where her home once stood. Her funeral was largely attended.

Before she died, however, she had built a substantial home on the property near Santa Rita, the first seat of Cameron County. She had also built a church so ranch hands and neighbors could attend. 

P.G. was the family genealogist and a member of the Cameron County Historical Commission and the driving force to get the marker near his ancestor's ranch site and cemetery.

I remember when he – before his death in 2014 – took me to see it after its erection along Military in 2007.

"The original ranch and its church and cemetery stood behind the Border Wall and the levee toward the river," he told me pointing toward the site of the old gin where we picked raspberries as kids. "That's all gone, too."

Fast forward to 2026, when author/researcher Dr. Marie Theresa Hernández, a professor at the University of Houston's World Cultures & Literatures Program Department of Modern & Classical Languages, who is doing research on a book of her son Juan Cortina, that the subject of the El Carmen ranch and cemetery came up an we decided to go look for any trace of either.

This past Tuesday, we went up and across the levee entry where the gin had stood and were able to drive along the cotton field looking for any sign of the cemetery or buildings. 

Everything was gone, but as we passed a spot near where the rural cemeteries register indicated the campo santo should be we spotted a bare spot not visible from Military or the levee with a lone marble tombstone surrounded by the cotton. It wasn't Doña Estefana's, but of another ranchito dweller who had been buried there in 1929, decades after she had been buried there in 1867.

To the ranchers' credit, they have respected the only small patch of dirt in the field that indicated a cemetery had been there and have farmed around it. That is the only thing left of her ranch, the cemetery, and the El Carmen Ranch House.

The Espiritu Santo grant no longer exists, having been broken up and lost by Doña Estefana's descendants in the years after her death. The process of dispossession involved lawyers, the courts, land-hungry speculators, the murderous Texas Rangers, and other newly-arrived Anglo adventurers.

Dr. Walter Prescott Webb in his book, "The Texas Rangers", published in 1935 wrote: "Not only were the Mexicans bamboozled by the political factions, but they were victimized by the law. 

"One law applied to them and another, far less rigorous, to the political leaders and the prominent Americans. The Mexicans suffered not only in their persons but in their properties. The landholding Mexican families found their titles in jeopardy and if they did not lose in the courts, they lost to the American lawyers."

Such was the case of Doña Estéfana, members of her family, and their grant. In 1852, Charles Stillman, after taking over a valuable portion which included the 1,500 acres in the present city of Brownsville and Fort Brown, from the Espíritu Santo Grant, continued his assault on the grant, leading to the Cortina Wars, the worst border disturbances in Texas history.

Her son Juan N. "Cheno" Cortina is one of the most disputed figures in border history. Because Doña Estéfana’s son would not submit to intolerance and had the courage to stand against tyranny and oppression, he was branded a bandit (especially by his enemies) and by others a Latin Robin Hood. 

A military figure, he once captured Brownsville (September 28, 1859) and held it for 13 hours when he became incensed at American treatment of Mexicans whose lives were being destroyed by the post-Mexican War occupation. 

Today, Doña Estefana and "Cheno" are gone, but her legacy as Cameron County's largest land owner and pioneer settler remains on the same ground where she rests today.

IT'S MOVING DAY AT MAR-A-LARCENY...

1ST GAME OF TEXANS PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL, BOTANA, AT ELKS TONIGHT!

 

COMING TO A TELEVISION SCREEN NEAR YOU THIS SATURDAY!

 

BREAKING FOOTBALL NEWS:

The DALLAS COWBOYS practice was

SUSPENDED  for two hours yesterday

after a PLAYER discovered a 

Mysterious WHITE POWDER on

the FIELD

The TEAM immediately SUSPENDED

PRACTICE and called POLICE and FBI.

After a thorough investigation, experts

identified the unfamiliar substance  as

THE GOAL LINE

Practice RESUMED once authorities

 assured the COWBOYS they were UNLIKELY 

to ENCOUNTER it AGAIN for the

REST OF THE SEASON!

TEXAS GOES REEFER MAD: DALES UN CHURRO PA' K SE ALIVIANEN

FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS; MAURO GARZA FOR A BETTER FUTURE...

 

OH, YES IT'S LADIES' NIGHT AT ELKS! OH WHAT A NIGHT!

WHEN TACOS AND SPANISH WERE RIDICULED IN LOCAL SCHOOLS

El Taco

By Juan Montoya

Every time Andres passes by the old mesquite tree next to Olmito Elementary by Old Highway 77, he smiles.

He can still remember the small group of boys sitting in its shade under the scalding South Texas sun munching on their school lunch. The fence of the school yard ran next to the tree, and the railroad was a little further away.

The boys had made it a habit to gather under the tree each day at noon to have their lunch. They could well have gone to the cafeteria, but preferred to gather under the tree and chatter. This suited Andres just fine, since he could not have joined in the conversation inside the cafeteria, where teachers and their favorites were always on the watch for anyone speaking Spanish, which at that time was not allowed on school grounds.

Andres had just come to Olmito with his family from nearby northern Mexico. Although his father had been born in central Texas, his parents had taken him to rural San Pedro, Coahuila, where the Mexican government had allotted them farm land in its huge irrigation project in the Laguna region. His father Jose had grown up a Mexican, never realizing his true citizenship. He had met Andres’s future mother, Socorro, whose family from Veracruz was also drawn by the government’s enticement of land and work in Mexico’s cotton belt, and they married there.

For a few years, until Andres was six, both families had prospered in the harsh desert climate. During the day, the searing hot sun would cover the little town in a stifling blanket of heat. At night, the cold winds from the nearby hills would chill him and his brother as they huddled under the blankets to keep warm.

After a few years, the desert started to reclaim the land, and the huge cotton yields started to grow smaller, until both extended families – grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins – left to seek their fortunes in northern Tamaulipas.

Eventually, his father had joined other men to go work in the cotton fields of South Texas, where the pay was in dollars, and where there was always a need for good cotton pickers and farm workers. Pickers from the Laguna area were specially prized as workers, each one picking three rows at a time and singing in the distance in front of the others.

After a time, his father had moved the family to a Mexican border town. He discovered he was a U.S. citizen when he was stopped by a Border Patrol agent when he was caught swimming across the river as he and the other workers had done so often.

“Why are you swimming the river when you’e a citizen and could just as well have walked across the bridge?,” the agent had asked him.
“I never knew I was,” his father had replied. After that, it was just a matter of time before his father’s mother produced the birth certificate from among her stash of family documents.

“You were born near Victoria, Texas, Jose,” she had told his dad. “But it was so long ago, we never really thought about it. You are a citizen of the United States. So are two of your sisters and one brother. The rest were born in Coahuila.”

And so his father had continued working in the cotton farm in Olmito, eventually becoming one of the permanent workers there. With steady work, he undertook the task of bringing his family north. His employer told him that if he was able to cross them over, his citizenship would prevent the law from deporting them.

And so it was that during Charro Days – a bi-national holiday celebrated by the both cities during February – Andres’s mother bundled him and his brothers and sisters, now five in all, to walk across the bridge.

“Mom, why are we putting on three pairs of pants and shirts?,” he had asked.
“You never mind and don’t go around telling anyone,” she had told him firmly. “Just hold on to your little brother’s hand and don’t let go.”

It had been a long-standing tradition fostered by the local chamber of commerce to allow Mexican

residents of the nearby town to cross into the United States to join the celebration. They called it “paso libre” and the Mexican nationals were warned not to go further north than the city limits. However, his father had enlisted the aid of his employer to use his pickup truck with a shell and it was an easy matter to travel through the back country roads to their new home in Olmito.

Life on the cotton farm was an exciting change for Andres and his family. Each morning, truckloads of laborers would arrive at dawn to work in the cotton fields. Many of them were old and bent with age as they got off the back of the truck, where 20 or 30 more of their fellows were crowded together for the trip from the border town to the ranch.

In those days, the Border Patrol turned a blind eye to the daily coming and going of these workers. If they could cross the river – whether with a permit through the bridge or swimming through the treacherous currents of the water – they could go unbothered about their labor on the nearby farms.

In fact, there were recognized places downtown where workers by the hundreds would gather waiting to be picked up by the trucks that would take them to the nearby farms. The Border Patrol would make sure the process went smoothly, assuring the local farmers of a steady supply of labor.

The adults would tease the kids on the farm – many of them there illegally like Andres and his brothers – when the familiar green and white trucks of the Border Patrol would approach on the road.

“Run! Run! Here comes the migra!,” they would shout as the kids ran and hid under the tractors and other implements in the open sheds. The agents shared in the fun as they passed by smiling at the children hiding behind the machinery and the large metal disks attached to the tractors.

When the cotton plants were two to three inches tall, the workers would arrive early in the morning, some carrying worn leather knee pads, to thin the crop. After having some hot coffee, they would be dispatched to their respective fields and set about to thin the rows, spacing the plants uniformly by pulling the shoots with their hands. In the evenings when they clambered aboard the trucks, they would haul their weary bodies onto the bed. Their callused hands were stained a dark green from the day-long pulling of the plants.

Eventually, school started and Andres and his brothers and sisters were enrolled in Olmito Elementary. A bus would pick them up each morning and deliver them home after school. Since he didn’t know a word of English even though he was seven, Andres was placed in the second-grade class. His teacher, an elderly lady perhaps 70 years old, didn’t know a word of Spanish. Since Spanish was prohibited on school grounds, there was very little to be done to teach Andres how to read or understand his lessons.

And he had seen kids punished for speaking Spanish pressing a penny against the wall with their nose and had refrained from speaking to anyone inside the classroom.

Unable to place him in any of her three reading groups – A, B, or C – Mrs. Stroman had him sit behind each group as she gave the children their daily lessons. All Andres did during the day was to sit in the back of the groups and try to follow the lessons by glancing at their books and following along on the pages.
After a few days, his two older sisters complained to their parents that the Anglo students and some of the others would make fun of them when they took out their lunch in the cafeteria.

“They tease us because we have tacos,” they told their mother. “All the other kids have baloney sandwiches and we have tacos. They’re mean.”

Bowing to the pressure, his parents soon sent all of them to school with baloney sandwiches in their brown paper lunch sacks. Even though they never ate sandwiches at home, they dutifully bought them for the kids so they would not be teased anymore. On the bus on the way to school, Andres soon made a few friends who asked him his name and what grade he was in.

Although some of the kids were in third grade, they soon became buddies. The driver did not enforce the English-only rule on the bus. Andres soon found out that his family wasn’t the only one in Olmito who didn’t eat cold sandwiches. In fact, he became a minor celebrity because he took sandwiches for lunch while the rest of the kids took tacos.
“What did your mother make you for lunch?,” he asked his friend Paco.
“Papas con bacon,” Paco replied. “You want to trade?”
“Sure,” Andres said.

He couldn’t get over his good fortune. Paco’s mother – whoever she was – was a master at making flour tortillas. They were soft and fluffy and shaped themselves snugly around the food. The potatoes were diced and soft and the bacon pieces gave the tacos a delicious taste.

Since he didn’t want his sisters to tell his parents – or to get teased in the cafeteria – he convinced Paco to have their lunch under the mesquite tree.

When lunch time came around, he and Paco were joined by another four or five boys and made their way to the tree. There, he asked them about some of the lessons he didn’t understand as they shared their lunch, or rather, they took turns munching on the baloney sandwich he had traded with Paco.

“Where do you guys go when you tell the teacher ‘maybescuze’?,” Andres asked them once.
“To the bathroom, al baño,” Paco said. “You can go in there and speak Spanish and everything.”

When he returned to his class, he decided to try it on Mrs. Stroman.
Walking up to the elderly lady, he stood before her as she glanced up from the reading lesson she was giving the B group.
“Maybescuze?,” he asked.

The old lady stared at him incredulously and merely pointed down the hallway to the bathroom.
Sure enough, inside were four or five other students laughing and joking among themselves in Spanish.
“Como lo hiciste? (How did you do it?,”) they asked Andres.

“Domas le dije ‘maybescuze’  y me dejo venir  (I just said and maybescuze and she let me come,” he replied.

Years later, Andres got a small satisfaction when he passed by a Taco Bell franchise and saw it was full of non-Hispanics craving what they thought was traditional Mexican food. Personally, the brittle taco shells filled with minced meat never appealed to him. 

He still remembered the fried potato-and-bacon drippings tacos Paco’s mother had prepared and which he traded for his baloney sandwiches some six decades before.
“Now that was real food,” he thought.

Every time he drives past that old mesquite tree, Andres smiles.

FOOD STAMP CUTS: WE CAN TAKE THEIR CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO

Texas: 

April 2015 = 3,480,30

April 2026 = 2,971,767

Down 14.6 percent 

By Mark Richardson

FOX Local

The backstory:

The work requirements are part of the Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBB) which was signed into law on July 4, 2025, adding more requirements for many adult SNAP recipients to work, volunteer or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. 

If they don’t, they’re limited to three months of benefits in a three-year period.

Previously, work requirements were applied to adults ages 18–54 who are physically and mentally able to work and don’t have dependents under age 18. The new law expands those requirements to those ages 55–64 and to parents without children younger than 14.

It also takes away work exemptions for homeless people, veterans and young adults aging out of foster care. And it limits the ability of states to waive work requirements in areas lacking jobs.

To se how each state fares under the new requirements, click on link below and seek your state:

https://www.livenowfox.com/news/snap-fewer-recipients-after-new-rules-implemented?link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=6a79e77c7c8f10000171b243&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

I.C.E.'S WOULD-BE TARGETS ARE HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

The Other 98 Percent

 

ANTONIA HERNANDEZ: ESAS SON VIEJAS...NO QUALQUIER COSA

By The Mexican-American Story
Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Antonia Hernández was born in 1948 in Torreón, Mexico, into a family with a complicated relationship to the United States — her own father, born in Texas, had been forced out during the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s despite being a U.S. citizen. 

Hernández immigrated to East Los Angeles at age eight, attended Garfield High School, and went on to earn both her undergraduate and law degrees from UCLA.

Early in her legal career, Hernández represented women in Madrigal v. Quilligan, a landmark case exposing the involuntary sterilization of Mexican-descent women at Los Angeles County Hospital without their informed consent. Though the case itself was not won in court, the public attention it generated led directly to statewide reforms protecting patients' reproductive rights.

In 1979, Hernández became the first Latina to serve as counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, a significant milestone in an institution that had rarely included voices like hers.

From 1985 to 2004, Hernández served as President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, leading major voting rights litigation across multiple states and helping defend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during a critical period for civil rights enforcement nationwide.

Hernández has said she went to law school for one specific reason: to use the law as a vehicle for social change. Her career is a direct record of that mission carried out.

Had you heard of Antonia Hernández or her work with MALDEF before today?

NEW WRINKLE TO "ILLEGAL DUMPING" IN CITY COMISSIONER'S EXPLANATION

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Public confidence in local government depends on one fundamental principle: elected officials must safeguard taxpayer resources and demand accountability whenever questions arise about the use of public funds.The recent public reports involving Brownsville City Commissioner Gustavo De Leon illustrate why that principle matters.

According to published news reports, Commissioner De Leon stated that the City of Brownsville constructed a road on property owned by his family without his permission. If that statement is accurate, it immediately raises a series of legitimate questions that deserve independent answers—not political talking points.

How did city employees, equipment, and taxpayer-funded resources allegedly end up constructing a road on private property? Who requested the work? Who authorized it? Was there a public purpose? Was the expenditure lawful? How much did it cost the taxpayers of Brownsville?

(Commissioner De Leon took these photos and posted them on his FB page. He said they did not stop "dumping" until three days later, after the asphalt millings had been spread and compressed by city crews.)

(Then, as if to add insult to injury, the commissioner posted a constituent's comment purporting to express gratitude to De Leon for quickly resolving four cases of alleged "illegal dumping" from one day to the next. The meme at top showed up in social media and questions how he could resolve those cases when in his case it took him contacting the city attorney, issuing a cease and desist letter, and filing a complaint with the police department –  and it still  took a week for him to remove the city workers and to stop the asphalt millings being spread on his private road.)

These are not accusations. They are the questions every responsible City Commissioner should already be demanding answers to.

Unfortunately, Brownsville taxpayers appear to be no closer to the truth today than when the story first became public.

The responsibility of a City Commissioner is not simply to attend meetings and cast votes. Commissioners serve as fiduciaries for the public. They are entrusted with protecting taxpayer dollars, ensuring government operates transparently, and insisting that every expenditure serves a lawful public purpose.

When credible questions arise regarding the use of public resources, commissioners should welcome an independent investigation. Transparency protects innocent public servants just as much as it exposes wrongdoing. An impartial investigation benefits everyone by replacing speculation with facts.

The questions are straightforward:

• Where was the road constructed?
• Who owned the property at the time?
• Who authorized the work?
• Which city employees and equipment were involved?
• What public funds were spent?
• Did the project serve a legitimate public purpose?
• Were all applicable city policies and Texas laws followed?

These are questions of accountability, not politics.The citizens of Brownsville should not be forced to rely on rumors, social media debates, or competing narratives. They deserve documented facts supported by work orders, purchase records, employee time sheets, equipment logs, and any other records that explain exactly what occurred.

This is why a request for an independent investigation is appropriate. Such an investigation would not presume anyone committed a crime. Instead, it would establish the facts, preserve public records, and determine whether the actions taken complied with Texas law and municipal policy.

Good government has nothing to fear from transparency.

If no wrongdoing occurred, an independent investigation will restore public confidence. If mistakes were made, taxpayers deserve to know what happened and what corrective measures will prevent it from happening again.

Ultimately, this issue is larger than one commissioner or one road. It is about whether Brownsville’s elected officials will fulfill their obligation to protect the public treasury with the same diligence they would expect if the money were their own.

Until those questions are answered through an independent and transparent process, Brownsville taxpayers remain no closer to the truth—and that should concern every citizen, regardless of political affiliation.

BLANCHE CONFIRMED AS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE LAPDOG

 

CAN YOU PLAY TURKEY IN THE STRAIT?

 

ARE YOU THINKING THE SAME THING? IF THE INMATE RAN, WOULD THE DEPUTY CATCH HIM BEFORE HE REACHES THE RIVER?

(Ed.'s Note: No body shaming here, just a thought. What if he ran? Of course, he is wearing leg irons, but even then, we have our doubts. What do you think?) 

 

PINCHE TRUMP. 'TA BIEN QUEMADO EL BATO!

CAN'T BEAT $2 BREWS DURING 1ST FRIDAY BOOTS ON THE BLOCK EN EL SPORTSMAN

First Friday in Downtown Brownsville takes place today, August 7, 2026, with the country-themed "Boots on the Block." Head to Market Square (8th Street, 9th, 10th Elizabeth & Washington) for free live music, karaoke, local vendors, dancing, botana, and birongas.. Nightlife continues until 2  AM. Quien te quiere, Papa?

DATA CENTERS DOUBLE DOWN ON NOISE, WATER, ELECTRIC USE

La Cebolla

SAN FRANCISCO—Hailing rapid developments in the infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Tuesday that technological advancements were now allowing data centers to run on even more electricity. 

“People said we were using an unacceptable amount of power, and with these upgraded facilities that require so much more of it, we’ve shown that we took those criticisms to heart,” said Altman, adding that while the newer data centers did not perform any better than their predecessors, they consumed five times as much electricity and were proving exceptional at straining power grids to the point of collapse. 

“These improvements are revolutionizing the way data centers are exhausting not only energy, but also water, with the latest servers requiring 50 percent more of it to keep cool. And of course, the brisk acceleration in data center electricity consumption means even louder continuous noise in surrounding communities—no doubt a relief to residents upset that they can still manage to sleep once or twice a week over the unceasing whirring.” 

Altman went on to say he was optimistic that innovations would soon enable data centers to run on enough electricity to plunge the rest of the nation into permanent darkness.

IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS – INCLUDING RUSSIANS – PAY TRUMP CASH: AND HE MOVES TO HIDE HIS FINANCES FROM BBC

By Ashleigh Fields
The Hill

 President Trump's attorney filed an emergency motion Wednesday seeking to block the BBC from obtaining financial records linked to his trust.

The British broadcaster received approval from a judge late last month to probe the president’s financial documents after Trump claimed he experienced losses due to an episode of the company’s “Panorama” series titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”

In the footage, the BBC strung together three separate portions of a speech from Trump to make it look as if he encouraged a violent attack on the Capitol.

“The BBC’s improperly broad subpoena demands the Trust’s confidential tax, ownership, and financial records for approximately 400 entities,” Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito wrote in the legal filing.

“Once the Trust were to begin handing those records over to the BBC, that disclosure could not be undone, and the Trust’s pending objections could not restore what the BBC will already have seen,” Brito added.

If the emergency motion is not approved, the BBC would be granted insight on Trump’s crypto and stock profit, as well as business transactions from at least 400 entities and companies tied to his personal assets managed by family.

Last month, Judge Enjoliqué Aytch Lett granted the BBC’s subpoena to review documents from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust dating to Jan. 1, 2023.

Her approval requires that the trust start producing documents by Thursday.

“Against the Trust’s irreversible injury, the BBC cannot point to any injury, only to brief delay, which does not constitute harm. Fact discovery remains open for months, and the BBC has never explained why it needed a non-party’s complete financial records within ten days or how a short stay would impair its defense,” Brito wrote.

The BBC has apologized for the documentary edit but has strongly rebuked Trump’s push for a payout and attempted to dismiss the lawsuit against the company, arguing U.S. courts hold no legal jurisdiction over the foreign corporation.

The president has refused to back down and recently requested that District Judge Roy Altman allow him to alter the lawsuit in a manner that would shield his financial documents from being reviewed by the British broadcaster.

SOUTHWINDS THURSDAY TARDEADA: NFL HALL OF FAME, BREWSKIES, GOOD SOUNDS

U.S. SENATE WORD OF THE DAY: GELDINGS, AS IN RAND PAUL, "EL CAPADO"

(A gelding is a horse who has been castrated in order to make him easier to train.)

By Charley Seagraves

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

The would-be inquisition of Dr. Anthony Fauci last week by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and his cabal of the crass and the crude, did not go as planned. 

One of the inquisitors dropped an F-bomb as if that were par for the course in the U.S. Senate, that once dignified forum of ideas and debate. Dr. Fauci took the high road and pled the 5th, denying the shameless the opportunity they so desperately wanted.

I, on the other hand, have chosen the low road and decided to tell the spineless exactly what I think, and maybe what Dr. Fauci might have been thinking:

“First, I refuse to dignify your idiotic questions with an answer, any answer. And as for you Rand Paul, you pompous, curly-haired, cockwomble, I know now why your neighbor beat the crap out of you. You’re one of those lowlifes who will do anything to try to distract from your own incompetence in order to create chaos and avoid the real issues.

You claim to be “libertarian-ish” like your mentor and namesake Ayn. But like her, you’re nothing but a selfish, self-absorbed prick.

You created your own ophthalmology board, declaring yourself president and thereby becoming both the examiner and the examined. That’s the equivalent of masturbating and calling it sexual relations.

And as for the rest of you—Hawley and Johnson and Lankford and especially you Moreno—you’re worthless, contemptible, despicable, two-bit ne’er-do-wells. You bow down to an immoral narcissist who reminds me of an unsupervised 14-year-old who stays up half the night posting idiotic fantasies and ridiculous threats and AI generated images imagining himself a hero. You’re nothing but pawns in his game.

You’re geldings who prance around the track like studs, but we all know you have no cojones. And when he’s gone, you’ll be on your own. So, no, I will not dignify any of your questions with an answer. Now go have a bowl of that famous Senate Bean Soup and pass your gas elsewhere.”

MATAMOROS PEPSI CO. VICTIM OF CARTEL EXTORTION ARSON

Federal Investigation International

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Firefighters did not respond to the attack on @pepsi and @Papas_Sabritas in #Matamoros. 

Three lots of vehicles, separated by about 50 meters, were set ablaze. A total of 50 vehicles were burned. Sources indicated that the company threatened to leave.

More than 40 Sabritas delivery trucks were consumed in a massive fire at a @PepsiCo warehouse in #Matamoros, #mexico 

Local reports point to a possible case of extortion by organized crime. Last week, a company driver was kidnapped. According to local media reports, the incident may be linked to extortion payments demanded by the Gulf Cartel.

Authorities say that the recent fire there follows a pattern that has been implemented by CDG extortionists, fueling fears that multinational companies will move out of the city and result in loss of jobs and tax revenue.

WITH A DEAD HEAT IN THE GOV'S RACE, SAY NO TO ELECTION RIGGING

Team Gina
Today marks the one year anniversary of when my Texas House colleagues and I broke quorum to stop Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans from forcing through rigged mid-decade redistricting.

I wasn’t going to sit back and just let that happen. My colleagues and I got up and fought back.

We put a national spotlight on what Republicans were doing. And we showed the country what it looks like to stand up when democracy is on the line.

Despite the Supreme Court clearing the way for Republicans’ rigged maps, we haven’t given up this fight. Because Abbott and his allies aren’t done. They’ve promised to come back next year and rig the maps all over again. And they’re already eyeing when Texas gains 4-5 more seats by the end of this decade.

And A new poll just dropped from Fox News, and we’re only ONE POINT behind Greg Abbott.

This is the tightest margin of Abbott’s entire political life.

Rigging elections is exactly how Republicans try to hold onto power when they know voters are turning on them. They redraw the lines, causing chaos in the midst of important elections.

But we can still fight back, and we will fight back — because no matter how hard he tries, Greg Abbott cannot gerrymander the governor’s election. The question is whether we have the resources to seize this moment and win.

Will you please chip in $5 to help us have the resources to stay on offense against Abbott, organize statewide, and continue fighting for working Texans?

Donate $5 »

BROWNSVILLE ELKS LODGE #2876 FETES THE LADIES TONIGHT!

UNDER PRESSURE FROM HINOJOSA, STATE WILL AUDIT DATA CENTERS AND STOPS ALL CONSTRUCTION ACROSS THE STATE, INLCUDING ANY PROPOSED FOR BROWNSVILLE

An exercise in redundancy?: The Brownsville City Commission is hosting a Data Centers Workshop on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. at City Hall to discuss local infrastructure impacts, resource consumption, and potential land-use regulations. 

By Michael Garcia

KETK.com

AUSTIN, Texas (KETK) – On Monday – faced calls from his governor’s race opponent, Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, to put a moratorium on all data center construction in the state – Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit all data center projects that are connecting to the state’s grid.

The PUCT and have been tasked with doing a comprehensive “verification and audit” of any data centers in the state that are working through ERCOT’s grid interconnection process.

According to the state, no data center projects are allowed to move forward with construction until this audit is completed. The governor’s office noted that any data center project that fails to comply with the PUCT and ERCOT will not be allowed to connect to the state’s power grid.

“Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the PUCT and ERCOT, and by state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid, " read a statement from the governor's office. 

As recently as last week, Gov. Greg Abbott faced calls from his governor’s race opponent, Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, to put a moratorium on all data center construction in the state.

The nonprofit group Save Cedar Creek Lake said Abbott’s audit and the pause on construction falls short of being a “real” moratorium in their view.

“We are not asking the Governor to cancel the audit. We are asking him to widen it into a real moratorium before the scope hardens,” the group said in a press release Monday. “If a data center cannot get a power connection during your audit, it should not be able to get a water contract, an air permit, or a tax abatement either. Pause all of it, publish what you find, and tell us when the pause ends.”

In total, ERCOT is reportedly considering over 474 gigawatts worth of requests from facilities looking to connect to the state power grid and around 90 percent of those requests are from proposed data centers.

To put that into perspective, the Department of Interior lists 1 gigawatt of power as enough to power between 225,000 to 300,000 average homes for a year. By those numbers, the amount of requests ERCOT is currently reviewing could power between 106,650,000 and 142,200,000 average homes for a year.

PUCT and ERCOT will collect the following information from each data center project that they audit:

* “Information detailing the extent to which data centers are paying their own way or depending on the state for financial assistance. That would include all state and local tax incentives, grants, abatements, or other public financial assistance received or expected to be received.”

* “The extent to which data centers are providing their own power or depending on the ERCOT grid for that power. Details should include projected annual and peak electricity consumption; and any effort and progress to construct or procure on-site electric generation including generation type, or other measures to reduce demand on the ERCOT grid.”

* “The extent to which data centers are bringing their own water and reusing their own water as opposed to using water needed by local communities. The details should include projected annual and peak water consumption and anticipated sources of water supply. You must also obtain information about the cooling technology that will be utilized, including whether the facility will employ air-cooled, closed-loop, or another water-efficient cooling system.”

* “The extent to which data centers are using measures to reduce impacts on neighboring property owners and communities, including noise mitigation, light controls, setbacks, traffic improvements, emergency response coordination, and other community protection measures, understanding that each community is unique.”

* “Information detailing the ownership and controlling interests in the project.”

SO IT'S OK FOR CITY MATERIALS, MACHINERY AND LABOR TO BE USED ON PRIVATE PROPERTY TO BENEFIT A CITY COMMISSIONER? ASK THE D.A. AND TEXAS RANGERS

REQUEST FOR AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

Date: ___________________

To: The Honorable Luis V. Saenz

District Attorney

Cameron County District Attorney's Office

964 E. Harrison Street, 4th Floor

Brownsville, TX 78520

Phone: (956) 544-0849

Public Information Email: dapir@co.cameron.tx.us

RE: Request for Independent Investigation into the Publicly Reported Construction of a Road on Property Owned by the Family of Brownsville City Commissioner Gustavo De Leon

Dear District Attorney Saenz,

I am submitting this request as a concerned citizen asking for an independent investigation into a matter that has been publicly reported involving Brownsville City Commissioner Gustavo De Leon.

According to public news reports, Commissioner De Leon stated that the City of Brownsville constructed a road on property owned by his family without his permission.

This matter has raised serious public questions regarding the use of taxpayer-funded labor, equipment, materials, and other public resources on private property.

This request is not asking your office to assume that any crime was committed. Rather, I respectfully request that your office determine the facts through an independent investigation and apply the law based on the evidence.

 I respectfully request that investigators determine:

 The exact location of the property where the road construction occurred.

 The ownership of that property at the time the work was performed.

 The dates the work was performed.

 Whether City of Brownsville employees performed the work.

 What city equipment, labor, fuel, and materials were used.

 Who requested and who authorized the work.

 Whether work orders, purchase orders, or other authorization documents exist.

 The total cost to taxpayers.

 Whether the work served a lawful public purpose or primarily benefited private property.

 Whether any city policies or Texas laws were violated.

I also respectfully request that all relevant records be preserved, including work orders, equipment logs, GPS records, employee time sheets, material tickets, purchase records, emails, text messages, photographs, inspection reports, and any communications relating to this project.

If your office determines that another agency should conduct the investigation due to a potential conflict of interest, I respectfully request that the matter be referred to the appropriate independent law enforcement agency.

Respectfully,

__________________________

Name

Address

Telephone

Email

FORM COMPLAINT TO TEXAS RANGERS

REQUEST FOR AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

Date: ___________________

To: Major Jeffrey Wolf

Texas Rangers – Company D

2525 N. International Blvd.

Weslaco, TX 78599

Phone: (956) 565-7651

RE: Request for Independent Investigation into the Publicly Reported Construction of a Road on Property Owned by the Family of Brownsville City Commissioner Gustavo De Leon

Dear Major Wolf,

I respectfully request that the Texas Rangers conduct an independent review of a publicly reported incident involving Brownsville City Commissioner Gustavo De Leon, his family's private property, and the reported use of City of Brownsville personnel, equipment, materials, and other public resources.

This request arises from public statements made by Commissioner Gustavo De Leon and news reports concerning the construction of a road on property owned by his family.

According to those public reports, Commissioner De Leon stated that the City of Brownsville constructed the road on his family's private property without his permission.

I am not asking the Texas Rangers to assume that a crime occurred. I respectfully request an independent investigation to determine the facts surrounding this specific incident and whether any Texas laws, city policies, or other legal requirements were violated.

 I respectfully request that investigators determine:

 The exact location of the property where the road construction occurred.

 The ownership of that property at the time the work was performed.

 The dates the work was performed.

 Whether City of Brownsville employees performed the work.

 What city equipment, labor, fuel, and materials were used.

 Who requested and who authorized the work.

 Whether work orders, purchase orders, or other authorization documents exist.

 The total cost to taxpayers.

 Whether the work served a lawful public purpose or primarily benefited private property.

 Whether any city policies or Texas laws were violated.

Please identify and preserve all relevant records, including work orders, equipment logs,

GPS records, employee time sheets, material tickets, invoices, emails, text messages, photographs, inspection reports, and any communications relating to the planning, authorization, or completion of this project.

If your agency determines another agency has primary jurisdiction, I respectfully request that this matter be forwarded to the appropriate authority or that I be advised of the proper agency to contact.

Respectfully,

__________________________

Name

Address

Telephone

Email