VANITY OF VANITIES SAID THE PREACHER....ED RIVERA.

By Juan Montoya
Ward Colwell used to tell us that the worse thing you can do is to get into an argument with a newsman because he was sitting on a barrel full of ink.
Colwell used to be the city desk man at the Brownsville Herald way back when in the mid 1970s and he and Don Duncan virtually ran the editorial pages on their own.
The saying comes to mind after I was shown a Facebook post written by Texas Southmost College trustee Ed Rivera where he takes us to task for being – as he alleged – hypocritical in our support of Brownsville Navigation District commissioners Tito Lopez and Ralph Cowen. Rivera is running against Lopez after he first filed to run against incumbent John Reed.
We also hear that Reed had been told that if he doesn't do what the OP 10.33 bunch wants, he will be targeted in his race four years from now. Them is fighting words in South Texas and Reed didn't take it kindle. He openly endorsed Cowen and Lopez in a letter being distributed along with the men's campaign literature.
Rivera does have a point. In the past we have been critical of Cowen, the so-called Goodwill Ambassador for the City of Brownsville. We have also been critical of Lopez as well. We are somewhat flattered that someone has taken the time to dig up a six-year-old post where we took them to task.
A lot of things change in six years, however. The criticism that we heaped upon them back them was probably well deserved. However, as they like to say at the Golden Ditch, a lot of water has gone under that bridge.
At the time that these men took office the port was struggling to regain its footing following the scandal of the missing $21 million for the Bridge to Nowhere. There was a complete lack of trust by the citizens of their port and its trustees. Cargoes were flat and the junkets that some of the board members took to far off places like China and the Netherlands seemed to us, unwarranted because of the slim pickings we got in return.
But in those six years the port had reversed the bad fortunes of the past.
Incumbents Cowen and Lopez debunked claims made by Rivera and Villanueva both men (and paid by OP 10.33 moneybags Hernandez) that the port is seriously lagging behind others on the Gulf Coast.
The claims that Rivera and Villanueva  that they "can do better" flies in the face of the fact that the port has been having a banner year.

"The Port of Brownsville's performance is mediocre when compared to other ports in the United States," they charged in newspaper ads and a barrage of mailers.
These claims have been made, say Cowen and Lopez "...even though we've had a record year in terms of movement and, and have outperformed the Ports of Houston and Corpus Christi when the national trend for ports has shown a decrease."
In fact, said one of Cowen's half-page ads, "Our port has ranked in the top 3 Foreign Zones in the nation in the past three years and ranked Number I, two of the last three."
"(They) have never even attended a single port meeting, or visited the port other than to apply for the ballot or film a campaign video."
Lopez followed suit with his quarter-page ad which shows the Port Watch magazine indicating that the Port of Brownsville has led Houston and Corpus in in crease of tonnage.
"There was at least one port that ended the year as strongly as it kicked off 2015. Specifically, the Port of Brownsville took home top honors for all Texas ports with a 19 percent annual jump after a 4.5 percent monthly rise."

Come to think of it, six years ago the port didn't accomplish the things that they've done right now. Perhaps that is one of the reasons we think they should be reelected. Did we have a change of ehart? Maybe we did.

But how about this for being hypocritical?

Rivera did a 180-degree change when it comes to the LNG plants. Sensing a popular distaste for tax abatements for LNG plants, he is now shifting course and is now pronouncing himself against tax abatement for LNG plants just weeks after he was part of the "Texas For LNG" steering committee. If we changed our tune after seeing the port rebound from six years ago, it is nowhere comparable to his shift from just a few weeks ago.

https://www.facebook.com/EdRiveraBND/posts/481086965415062:0
http://www.texansforlng.com/about-us
Someone might want to ask his girlfriend whether she knew he was going to use her address to run for the port even though he has his home in Laguna Vista outside the port district. It is said that Cindy does no much care to be included in his scheme to take over the board on behalf of the OP 10.33 group funded by millionaire Mike Hernandez III.
Obviously, River can smell the bucks along with his Harvard roommate Carlos Marin.
It is said that community organizer Joe Angel Gutierrez – of Raza Unida fame – was livid when he found out that someone had stolen the group's database (Army of V) and were using it to call people to vote in the TSC race between Ruben Herrera and Daniel Pizaña. This was after the group's public spokesman stated that OP 10.33 was not endorsing anyone for the TSC board.
Well, we've kind of gotten used to the double talk emanating from the Virtue boys.
Ask them to explain how these founts of virtue can ignore the stench emanating from the fake residency issue surrounding Rivera
 The Cameron County Appraisal District knows he doesn't live on Ebony Drive in Brownsville. In fact, so does port election administrator Debby Duke and legal counsel Dan Rentfro and port CEO Eddie Campirano. Yet, they have chosen to do nothing about this obvious fraud.
And you call us hypocrites, Ed?
That website lists his homestead exemption for a home in 22 Harbor Town in Laguna Vista. Or is that one tiny little fib that a Harvard seminary student can make as long as he is on your side? 14 Ebony Drive is the house where Ed doesn't live.