TWO PRESIDENTS WALKED HERE, BORDER SHAPED LINCOLN

  "The Mexican War did two things though. We got a lot of Western land, damned near doubled our size, and besides that it was a training ground for generals, so when the sad self-murder (U.S. Civil War) settled on us, the leaders knew the techniques for making it properly horrible."

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

By Juan Montoya

George Washington never made it to Brownsville. 

For that matter, neither did Abraham Lincoln. In fact, when Old Abe first served in the U.S. Congress representing Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1847 there was no Brownsville.

And while it's true that we have no cherry trees that young George could have cut down along the Rio Grande,  the events that happened along it's banks 178 years ago May 8 made a definite impact on the budding political career of Lincoln and his subsequent nightmare to keep the Union intact.

And two future presidents, Zachary Taylor and Ulysses S. Grant, fought the Mexican Army on the grassy lowlands just north of FM 511 where the Palo Alto National Battlefield center stands today. 

The closest Robert E. Lee - the general of the Confederacy - got to Brownsville was on a ship off Brazos Island in 1846 awaiting the arrival of forces campaigning in the interior of northern Mexico with Taylor to invade Veracruz and march to force the capitulation of Mexico City with Gen. Winfield Scott. Lee later returned to Brownsville prior to the Civil War as a Union officer to assist with the "bandit" wars to search, unsuccessfully, for Juan Nepumecno "Cheno" Cortina on March 1860.

As Steinbeck correctly concludes, the U.S. soldiers who fought here in 1846 and who were stationed on the fort that Taylor built on the banks of the Rio Grande went on to lead the ranks of the northern and southern armies in the Civil War that was to come less that two decades later.

No less than 37 future generals fought the Mexican army at Palo Alto (23 Union and 14 Confederate).

Another 15 future generals (six Union, nine Confederate) were present during the siege of Ft. Brown across from Matamoros, next to the golf course at what is now Texas Southmost College.

It can be safely said that the seeds of the Civil War were planted at Palo Alto and at Resaca de la Guerra the next day, although the field was watered with U.S. and Mexican blood and not exclusively American as it was during the Civil War.

Although Lincoln, never set foot on South Texas soil, the events that unfolded here linked his life inextricably to our area. Lincoln’s biographers say that the first utterances Lincoln gave concerning South Texas came some three weeks after Mexican and U.S. forces clashed May 7, 1846, at Palo Alto and ignited the war that ended with more than half of Mexico in possession of the United States.

At that time he is said to have been given a “warm, thrilling, and effective” speech at a public meeting that he gave to encourage volunteering. However, he was of like mind with most young white males of the day in that he considered most Mexicans ”greasers,” according to historian Mark E. Neely in a paper he presented in 1981.

When he got to Washington as a newly-elected congressman in 1847, he thought that whether one agreed with President James K. Polk on the Mexican War, “should...as good citizens and patriots, remain silent...at least till the war should be ended.”

But all that changed when Lincoln, the Whig congressman, arrived in Congress. By that time the fighting was substantially over. In his annual message of December, 1847, Polk asked Congress for additional funds to bring the war to a close, claiming the vast territories of New Mexico and California as partial indemnity. In that address, he repeated the claim that Mexico had initiated the war by “invading the territory of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil.”

Shortly thereafter, on December 22, Lincoln introduced a series of resolutions requiring that Polk provide the House with “all the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot of soil on which the blood of our citizens was so shed, was, or was not, our own soil.”

Had that spot, Lincoln queried, ever been a part of Texas and whether its inhabitants had ever submitted themselves to the government or laws of Texas...by consent, or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying taxes, or serving on juries, or...in any other way?”

Lincoln even joined 85 other Whigs led by Massachusetts representative George Ashmun who introduced a resolution declaring that the war had been “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally began by the President of the United States.”

Lincoln’s anti-Polk tirades in the House eventually earned him the wrath of the Democratic press, who chided the new congressman by calling him “Spotty” Lincoln, in reference to his insistence that Polk name the spot where hostilities had begun. His two predecessors in the congressional district – John H. Hardin and E. D. Baker – had both volunteered to serve in the Army when the war broke out.

This apparent contradiction didn’t go unnoticed by Missouri representative John Jameson who professed astonishment that the successor of Hardin – killed at Buena Vista – and Baker, a hero of the battle Cerro Gordo, should utter such unpatriotic speeches.

The reaction in the press was partisan as it was pointed. Precious few Whigs came to Lincoln’s defense, but pro-Democratic newspapers took umbrage with his views in no uncertain terms. The Illinois State Register warned that Lincoln  would have “a fearful account to settle” with the veterans when they returned from Mexico.

Likewise, the Peoria Press denounced Lincoln as the “Miserable man of spots” and pilloried him for his “traitorous course in Congress.”

In public meetings, Democratic speakers chastised Lincoln for “base, dastardly, and treasonable assault upon President Polk” and prophesied that “henceforth will this Benedict Arnold of our district be known here only as the Spotty Ranchero of one term.”

Lincoln only served one term, in large part as a result of his stand on the Mexican War and his attack on Polk. But before he left office, he became the driving force who pushed for Taylor – victorious at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Guerra – to be drafted as the Whig candidate for president.

“Our only chance is with Taylor,” he cautioned voters on the presidential campaign trail.

After he left office, Lincoln could not have known that the men who had served with Taylor in Texas and Northern Mexico would play large roles in his future and that Taylor and later Grant would go on to become presidents themselves.

Grant would become Lincoln’s leading general in the Civil War, providing the Union with victories when things looked darkest. Besides Grant, other future Union generals who would later serve under Lincoln that were present at Palo Alto included Gen. Benjamin Alford, Gen. Christopher Augur, Joseph K. Barnes, William Brooks, Robert Buchanan, and Don Carlos Buell, among others.

Future Confederate generals at the battle included Bernard Bee, Braxton Bragg, Samuel Gibbs French, Robert Selden Garnett, Bushrod Johnson, Edwin Kirby Smith, and James Longstreet. 

Joseph K. Barnes, Taylor's medic, went on to become the U.S. Surgeon General and was serving in the position when Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater. He was one of the physicians who tended to the fatally wounded president before he died. Ironically, he was also one of the physicians who performed te autopsy on John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin.

In fact, on April 14, 1865, Barnes attended the death bed of Lincoln and ministered to the successful restoration of Secretary of State William H. Seward. In 1881, during the long struggle of President James A. Garfield to live following the assassin's attack, Barnes was one of the surgeons who for weeks served in the chamber of the dying president.

However, as it relates to Lincoln's ties to our area, while president, he and his cabinet grappled with the blockade of southern ports, including shipping from South Texas. Considerable fortunes (such as those of Charles Stillman and Richard King's) were made running the blockade to deliver cotton to British mills. As the Union tried to stem the flow of cotton from the South and arms from abroad, they found themselves helpless to stop the flow of Confederate cotton from Puerto Bagdad, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

David Herbert Donald tells of the Peterhoff incident just off the coast of Brownsville in his Lincoln biography. Union forces captured the ship suspecting that it carried contraband intended for the Confederacy. Secretary of War Gideon Welles defended the Navy and urged Lincoln to open the mails so that proof of the ship’s intentions could be verified.

The British protested claiming the inviolability of the mails under international law and demanding that the Peterhoff be released.

Secretary of State William Seward backed the British position and things were at a stalemate until Lincoln interceded and laid the issue to rest. Telling his cabinet members that the US. could fight only “One war at a time,” he ordered the blockade-runner released.

Lincoln never visited South Texas, or Texas for that matter, but his presence looms large over this area. His contention that an unjust war and the inclusion of Texas as a slave state would further the divide that would lead to the Civil War was justified, and his relationship to those who fought here make him an important figure in this area’s history.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: HAMBURGERS ARE HAZARDOUS TO COWS

 

La Cebolla

Study: Red Meat Takes Years Off Of Cow's Life

WASHINGTON—Confirming years of speculation, a new study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Health Monitoring System has found that red meat significantly increases the risk of premature death in cows. 

“Our research suggests that by having red meat, a cow’s life can be shortened by as many as 10 years, sometimes more,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollin – appropriately a Texan – and confirmed that the serving of red meat can hurt a cow’s chances of surviving past the earliest stage of life. 

On a more positive note, researchers found that other high-protein foods like milk, cheese, and butter only decrease a cow’s life by 7 to 9 years.

TURNING THE IDEA OF RACE AS A SUSPECT CLASS ON ITS HEAD...

KIRK'S DEATH DISTRACTS US AS REPUBLICANS BURY THE EPSTEIN FILES

By Monnie Bagby

Quora

I really find it unbelievable, how Republicans are behaving now. The outrage, the blaming of democrats about the Charlie Kirk shooting. 

I agree fully that it was a terrible thing, I agree that Charlie should not have been assassinated, and I agree whoever shot him (now identified as Tyler Robinson) has to be sent away for life, but this pearl clutching by republicans, as though there was no other political violence, mainly incited by Donald Trump himself is getting to me big time. 

Robinson is described as a “squeaky clean” and “considerate” kid who grew up in a Republican family that celebrated his academic wins and time together in their suburban Utah community. He was not, as Trump has claimed, a left-wing terrorist egged on by the Democrats. He just disagreed with Kirk over his extreme supremacist views.

The flying of flags at half staff, the claiming of Trump that Charlie was his brother, as though a great American Hero had been murdered by terrorists is so disingenuous as to be nauseating.

Where was this wailing and weeping when a congresswoman and her husband, democrats, were murdered? It was was Melissa Hortman and her husband. Where was the outrage at the shooting of senator Hoffman and his wife? 

Where was the blame game when a Republican tried to assassinate Trump but killed an innocent man instead? Where were the shocked comments when Paul Pelosi was beaten half to death?

There are many more such instances. Trump's reactions to those not on his “team” being terrorized or killed seems to be more or less, that its too bad, they probably deserved it.

How many political opponents has Trump now stripped of their security detail, hoping that they may be attacked? Who constantly threatens retribution towards Governors, mayors and party members who will not bow to him?

And when Ashleigh Babbit was shot by Capitol security when she tried to storm the House in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power Jan. 6 and keep Trump in office, he had her buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery and the DOJ agreed to pay her family $5 million to settle a lawsuit.

Who, in fact, has created a world in which it’s ok to attack people for speaking their mind? It’s only ok to speak your mind if you speak for Trump, otherwise you are a traitor.

What would his reaction have been, I wonder, had Charlie been a Democrat, if his great debates had been left, not right. Would he still have mourned the loss of an intelligent young activist, well liked by his followers, just speaking his mind? 

Of course not. He would have called Charlie a Terrorist and a traitor. Even now, does he actually care about Charlie Kirk? I doubt it. He just cares about the opportunity for political theatre this has created. When Trump found out that Robinson wasn't a liberal Democrat, be promptly got over Kirk's death and asked a reporter if he had seen the trucks arriving to start building a new White House ballroom. He vets over those things quick.

And whilst Charlie Kirk’s death flooded the news…Senate Republicans quietly voted to table an amendment that would instruct the DOJ to release the Epstein Files. 

Not only did Kirk’s death provide another opportunity for Donald Trump to target “radical leftist lunatics” with his rhetoric, and pave the way for further authoritarian overreach, but he also managed to push his party into quietly burying the Epstein controversy – knowing fully well that the outrage over Kirk’s assassination would distract the attention of MAGA Republicans away from an issue that had otherwise been generating considerable public attention.

KIRK'S FOLLOWERS SHOW THEIR REAL SUPREMACIST COLORS

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Drawing on information from his show, social media, and interviews, here are some of the reported statements made by Charlie Kirk on topics related to Black people, immigrants, and DEI.

On Black people and race

Targeting of white people: On a May 19, 2023, episode of his show, Kirk stated, "prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that's a fact. It's happening more and more".

Qualifications and affirmative action: In a January 23, 2024, episode, Kirk said that if he sees a Black pilot, he's going to wonder if they are qualified. He said on January 3, 2024, that if he is dealing with a "moronic Black woman" in customer service, he wonders if she is there because of affirmative action rather than excellence.

Critical of the Civil Rights Movement: Kirk reportedly criticized the Civil Rights Movement, referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a "huge mistake" and calling Martin Luther King Jr. "overrated".

Kamala Harris: When she was chosen as Joe Biden's running mate, Kirk asserted that Kamala Harris was a "DEI candidate" picked because she is a Black woman. 

Targeting Black individuals: Kirk often criticized prominent Black figures, including Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, suggesting they were "affirmative action picks." In 2023, he claimed that without affirmative action, some Black women do not "have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously".

On immigration"Great Replacement" theory: On March 1, 2024, Kirk promoted the racist "Great Replacement" theory, claiming that there is a strategy "to replace white rural America with something different" by encouraging migration across the southern border.

Immigration from India: In a September 11, 2025, article, The Guardian reported that Kirk said the U.S. does not need more visas for people from India, stating, "We're full. Let's finally put our own people first".

Immigration moratorium: On August 22, 2025, Kirk claimed the U.S. was at its "peak" when immigration was halted for 40 years.

HOW SOON WE FORGET THE LESSONS OF OUR RECENT PAST

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

When the gates of Mauthausen were opened in May 1945 – a mere 80 years ago – prisoners staggered into the open air like shadows reborn. Among them was a boy no older than 14, his striped uniform hanging from him like rags. He looked up at the American soldiers with a mixture of fear and disbelief, too weak to speak. (Bottom left)

One soldier, shaken to see a child in such a place, opened his pack and pulled out a piece of bread. He knelt down, offering it carefully. The boy reached for it, but stopped hesitant, as though expecting a blow for daring to take food. The soldier pressed it gently into his hands, whispering: “It’s yours now. Eat.”

The boy bit into it, crumbs falling from trembling fingers. Tears filled his eyes, not only for the bread, but for the human kindness he thought the world had forgotten.

That crust of bread was more than food – it was proof of life returning, proof that compassion could survive even in the ashes of cruelty.

And yet, now that the shoe is on the other foot, we see the Israeli-induced famine leading the people of Gaza to starvation among the population, with the most vulnerable being children the same age as the young Jewish boy in the Nazi death camp. A hungry child is the same as a hungry child any where.

Even more shameful are the documented instances of Israelis settlers destroying food donated by the world and meant to feed the starving Palestinians. The weaponization of food by Netanyahu's war administration has ben condemned by the nations of the world. Yet, the practice continues as if no one remembers the lessons of the past.

DHS SECRETARY NOEM: A "MINOR" CHANGE IN CITIZENSHIP TEST

 

La Cebolla

WASHINGTON—Stating that the country’s naturalization process was “highly outdated,” White House officials announced Thursday that the U.S. citizenship test would now include a four-year imprisonment section. 

“Starting this month, all prospective citizens must complete a portion of the exam in which they will be forcibly detained, denied a fair trial, and locked in a cell,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, adding that applicants would be required to report to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office to be handcuffed and thrown into the back of an unmarked van, which would then take them to a remote detention facility where they would be held until at least 2028. 

“While we still value the civics and language portions of our exam, we believe U.S. citizens should also have a deep understanding of the carceral state. Being approached by a masked man, whisked off the street, and disappeared for years is part of being an American. If they somehow get out of prison alive, they’ll prove they’ve earned it.” 

Reached for further comment, Noem said that anyone looking to bypass the imprisonment section of the citizenship test could self-deport at any time.

WHO IS THE FASCIST IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD? IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD...

 

SUDDENLY, OUR NEW 9/11 TWENTY-FOUR YEARS LATER

CHENTE CHARGES LIES GATHER AGAINST HIM, GUERRA, CARDENAS

(Ed.'s Note: For weeks rumors swirled around the meeting between U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, BND chair Steve Guerra and COB commissioner Pedro Cardenas with Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz after which they were supposed to announce that they would switch parties and run as Republicans. Chente – the rumor went – would run for for Congress in his gerrymandered US. D-34 district, Guerra for county judge and Cardenas against Joey Lopez for Cameron County commissioner. When this reached Gonzalez's ears in Washington, he wasted no time in blasting the rumors as unfounded and calling them dastardly lies and swore his allegiance to the Democratic party. So there you have it. Malarky, he said.)

TEETER-TOTTER OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER. OVER THE TOP? OR SPOT ON?

 

THE N.Y. TIMES EDITOR WHO CORRECTED ALBERT EINSTEIN

Ohio University

Carr Van Anda was born in Georgetown, Ohio, in 1864. 

His interest in newspapers began at age six when he shared with his family a "newspaper" collection of clippings he had gathered. As a teenager, Van Anda bought his own printing press and produced The Boys' Gazette in Wapakoneta after his family moved there. 

(Those Ohio boys are something else. Guess who also lived and grew up in Wapakoneta, Ohio? Would you believe Neil Armstrong, the first man who walked on the moon in 1969, almost 100 years later?)

Van Anda was a student at Ohio University for two years where he studied mathematics and physics. He worked in printing and reporting at newspapers in Wapakoneta, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Baltimore. At age 24, he arrived in New York to work for Charles A. Dana, editor at The Sun. 

In 1904, Adolph S. Ochs hired Van Anda as managing editor for The New York Times, where Van Anda spent the remainder of his career. His abilities and work ethic turned The Times into an international newspaper of record with its reporting on the sinking of the Titanic, World War I and the technological developments that occurred after the Industrial Revolution. 

Van Anda embraced science and technology; The Times became the first American newspaper to use telegraph reports from Europe and to cover science, exploration and discoveries on a regular basis. 

He decoded Egyptian hieroglyphics after the discovery of King Tut's tomb and found a mathematical error that Albert Einstein made while giving a lecture at Princeton University on his Theory of Relativity. 

After being made aware of the error, Einstein responded: "Yes, Mr. Van Anda is right. I made a slip in transcribing the equation on the board." 

During Van Anda's tenure, The Times received in 1918 the first of its 153 Pulitzer Prizes. The 1918 award was for Public Service for coverage of World War I. Van Anda was described by his Times colleagues this way: 

"A master in the gathering and presentation of news, he stood in the front rank of the working newspaper men of his time. His abilities found full scope in carrying out The Times' avowed purpose to gather and publish 'All the News That's Fit to Print' — a purpose declared by Adolph S. Ochs when he became publisher of this newspaper in 1896." 

 Biographical information is courtesy of The New York Times.

TEXAS SHOOTS DOWN GUN SALES BAN TO PSYCHIATRIC WARDS

La Cebolla

AUSTIN, TX—Touting the party-line vote as a major victory for the Second Amendment, the Texas House of Representatives successfully blocked a bill last week that would have prevented gun stores from operating inside of hospital psychiatric wards.

“The government has no place infringing on the rights of honest business owners trying to sell semiautomatic handguns and rifles to people experiencing symptoms of acute mental illness, nor should it prevent the mentally unstable from acquiring those weapons,” said Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, gesturing to his pocket Constitution to explain that the United States was founded on the principle that violent, psychotic, and paranoid citizens should never be denied their basic right to bear arms.

“Whether voluntarily admitted or involuntarily committed to a psych ward out of a fear they might hurtthemselves or others, these patients have the same right to access legal firearms as any other American. If this plainly unconstitutional law had been passed, it would have left entire unhinged communities without the weapons they need to defend themselves against the cabal of powerful people they believe are disguising themselves as their friends, family, and grocery store baggers. 

"In fact, these people often have a greater immediate need for firearms than most, as they are convinced they must take vengeance upon whomever the voices in their heads are telling them to shoot.” 

At press time, Burrows introduced a new bill that would permit gun stores to operate inside state forensic psychiatric institutions for those ruled criminally insane.

HUACHICOL ARRESTS EXTEND TO MATAMOROS, REYNOSA, LAREDO

This past March 31 the oil tanker Challenge Procyon, sailing under a Singapore flag, was seized carrying 10 million liters of illegal fuel in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Its captain, Abraham Jeremías Pérez Ramírez, reportedly committed suicide Monday, September 8. Courtesy Photo

By Antonio Lopez Cuz

El Universal

Mexico's National Customs Agency and the Attorney General's Office (FGR) have filed for more than 200 arrest warrant requests against customs agents, administrators, deputy administrators, and operational staff at various customs offices across the country for their alleged involvement in the crime of huachicol (illegal fuel) fiscal (tax huachicol), which has allowed fuel smuggling from various parts of the world into Mexico for several years.

The customs employees who will be prosecuted are not only civilians but also military personnel, as well as businesspeople, including the former governor of Baja California and member of the National Action Party (PAN), Ernesto Ruffo Appel.

According to federal sources close to EL UNIVERSAL, the arrest warrants began being filed on August 1, 2025, through the Attorney General's Office (FGR) and local prosecutors' offices before judges across the country.

Some of the requests have already been issued, and others will be granted by judges in the coming months, although due to the confidentiality of the investigation, not all will be announced publicly.

This past July 7, local and federal authorities seized 15 million liters of illegal fuel in Coahuila. Courtesy Photo

On August 14, El Gran Diario de México reported on the progress of this mega-operation to combat fuel theft at the highest level, detailing that, to date, personnel at the customs offices of Ciudad Juárez, Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Tampico, and Ensenada had been dismissed from their duties, in addition to the suspension of two customs agents for alleged collusion in gasoline smuggling.

Also, this Sunday, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, announced the arrest of 14 people linked to fuel smuggling following the massive seizure of 20 million liters of diesel in Tampico, Tamaulipas, last March.

At a press conference, the federal official confirmed the arrest of three businessmen, five active and one retired marine, as well as five former customs officials.

According to information obtained by El Gran Diario de México, warrants will be issued next week against legal entities also involved in fuel theft.

Of particular note is an arrest warrant against the former governor of Baja California and PAN member, Ernesto Guillermo Ruffo Appel, who serves as the majority shareholder of the company Ingemar, S.A. de C.V., involved in the massive seizure of 15 million liters of fuel theft in Coahuila on July 7.

To read the rest of the article (Spanish), click on link:   https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/solicitan-200-ordenes-de-aprehension-por-huachicol-van-por-agentes-aduanales-y-militares/

UNLIKE THE ELEPHANT PARTY MASCOT, REPUBLICANS HAVE SHORT MEMORIES

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouts 'liar' during the State of the Union. Images via CNN Newsource.

"Republicans have always been respectful of US Presidents. They did not scream at President Obama. They never were rude to the First Lady. Republicans have never supported violence nor evil deeds. Now Republicans are in power and there is peace, harmony and gratitude in all our hearts. Long live the Republicans." Anonymous Commenter to El Rrun-Rrun

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME: THE TRUMP-EPSTEIN SCANDAL

This image shared by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee shows the birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Donald Trump's name. Trump has repeatedly denied writing the letter. (Oversight Dems/X)

By Aaron Blake
CNN

Among the many weird things Donald Trump and his administration have said and done vis-a-vis Jeffrey Epstein in recent weeks is the president’s curious denial of writing the disgraced financier a lewd birthday letter two decades ago.

We knew Trump and Epstein were friends around this time. We also know Trump has said plenty of lewd things.

But Trump not only denied writing the letter, he also sued the Wall Street Journal over  initial report about it. He suggested someone else could’ve written it and signed his name.

That denial suffered another significant blow on Monday.

The House Oversight Committee received a copy of the “birthday book” containing the letter in question, and it matches the Journal’s description of the letter. It’s a page long and features a silhouette of a woman’s body with an apparently imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein inside the drawing. Below it is a signature line that feature’s Trump’s name and a cursive “Donald” in an area made to look like a woman’s pubic area.

The key fact here is that this comes from Epstein’s estate. In other words, for this letter to have been fake, someone would have had to plant it in Epstein’s possessions a long time ago, somehow.

Trump has called the letter a “FAKE” and flatly denied authoring it. And plenty of allies lined up behind that denial. Vice President JD Vance called the Journal’s report “complete and utter bullshit.”

But even at the time, Trump’s denials were quickly called into question.
Part of Trump’s denial rested on the idea that it wasn’t in his character to draw a picture like the one in the letter.

“I never wrote a picture in my life,” Trump said at one point. “I don’t draw pictures,” he added at another.

But it wasn’t hard to find doodles Trump had drawn around the same time. In fact, Trump donated an autographed doodle every year a charity.  A charity director also told CNN that Trump provided two signed drawings in 2004. That would have been the year after the 2003 birthday letter.

And there's more: 

A photo of an inscription in a copy of Donald Trump's book "Trump: The Art of the Comeback" that belonged to Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump's name appeared on a contributor list for a book celebrating the 50th birthday of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, evidence that he participated in the collection even as he denied that he signed a sexually suggestive note and drawing. 

(Alessandra Montalto

/The New York Times/Redux)

To read full article, click on link: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/08/politics/trump-epstein-letter-signature

TIMETABLE NEARS FOR COFFEE PORT ROAD RECONSTRUCTION

Source: City of Brownsville D-2 Commissioner Linda Macias

THE LATE BETTY WHITE WAS FRIEND TO GLADYS PORTER, ZOO FOUNDER

By Dina Arrevalo
South Texas Reporter
MySA

Betty White is perhaps best known for playing the charmingly clueless and slightly spacey Rose Nylund on the hit 1980s TV show, The Golden Girls. When she died at 99 years old on New Year's Eve in 2021, numerous tributes poured in celebrating the life she spent not just bringing joy to others but as a staunch animal advocate.

Like White, Gladys Porter was an animal lover. Porter was the daughter of the late Earl C. Sams, cofounder, president and longtime chairman of the board of the J.C. Penny Company. Sams’ success as a businessman afforded his daughter – a businesswoman in her own right – the ability to become philanthropists. 

And that commitment to serving the public good would one day lead Betty White to Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of the Rio Grande Valley. 

Porter grew up in New York but eventually moved to the Valley after meeting and falling in love with Valley native Dean Porter, according to Brownsville District 2 City Commissioner Linda C. Macias, who earlier this year posted a video on Facebook recounting the zoo’s founding.

“While vacationing in Florida, Gladys met Dean Porter, from Olmito, Texas, whose father was a developer,” Macias says in the video.

Porter’s interest in animal conservation was first sparked during wildlife excursions to Africa during the 1960s, according to archives maintained by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Ultimately, that passion drove Porter to found the Brownsville zoo that would go on to bear her name. Porter and her husband began building the zoo in 1968. The zoo opened in 1971. And just a few years later, Porter’s good friend, Betty White, began paying visits to the Valley to help fundraise for the zoo.

In 2018, zoo officials posted a throwback to those early days on the Gladys Porter Zoo Facebook page. The post features a black and white photograph of Porter, White and her husband, game show host Allen Ludden, grinning ear to ear while standing next to an ostrich. The bird is so tall that its head and feet extend past the frame of the photograph.

“TBT to when Betty White attended one of our earliest fundraisers, the ‘Zoo Ball,’ in 1975,” the post reads.

Zoo officials recognized White again on the day she died.

“The world lost an incredible human being. Betty White… was an advocate for conservation and the good work that zoos do. She was a longtime friend of Gladys Porter and great supporter of this zoo and many others,” reads a December 3, 2021 post on the zoo’s Facebook page.

EVEN MAGA NUTS GOTTA AGREE: THIS IS NOT NORMAL

 

SCARED OF BROWSVILLE GENTRIFICATION? WATCH MEXICO CITY

BISD BONDS WILL DEPEND ON WHAT VOTERS DECIDE NOV. 4

Advocates of the bond issue say the repairs to the schools and new improvements are necessary to maintain safe, learning-inducing environments for current students and the next generations of classes of Brownsville Independent School District to come. And they say the new performing arts center will place the district on an even level with neighboring districts. If your home is appraised below $140,00, you will not pay additional taxes. However, if it is appraised above $140,000 it will result in additional taxes depending on how high it is appraised.

Opponents say the local property tax burden is already too high and that the district should target top administrators who they say are grossly overpaid. They say the district should address waste and mismanagement of district assets before burdening the taxpayer with even more debt. They say the district should become more competitive to stop the hemorrhaging of students to local charter schools which costs the district in attendance payments from the state. Additionally, they say that the Cameron County Appraisal District continues to over value district properties making the $140,000 exemption meaningless.

By the numbers:

To borrow $450 Million
At 6 percent for 30 years

Monthly payment
$ 2,697,997.33

Total interest
$ 521,271,850.75

Total to be paid thru 2056
$ 971,271,851.00

The decision on whether to encumber local taxpayers with this 30-year obligation will be decided by district voters in the November 4 election.

FACTOID OF THE DAY: LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT S.O.S. RUBIO

UNAWARE OF SCIENCE: TARANTULAS VERSUS CHUPAHUESOS

By Juan Montoya

Rainy days sometimes take me back to when I was a boy attending Cromack Elementary in the Southmost barrio.

We used to live literally on the other side of the railroad tracks (now gone) north of the old Lopez Supermarket where the new Melrose shopping center is now. 

Today, there's a police substation across from Southmost Road from the spot I'm remembering.

In those days (1964?), there was no Lopez, no police substation. Nor was there the water tower that was torn down to make room for the satellite Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector office. In fact, there was only the old Ruenes Drive-In across 30th Street from Cromack, and an overgrown empty lot across Southmost that stretched out to the railroad (now abandoned), where the numbered streets (28th, 29th, 30th) continued after the interruption by the empty lot and railway grade.

We used to walk from our house on the north side of the railroad, through paths across the large empty lot, cross Southmost, and to Cromack. The subdivision where we lived was noteworthy because all the roofing was blue, so they were called las casas azules.

Joe Hinojosa (hey, coach!) used to live there as did the Walkers (Zambranos) , the Zamarripas (Betin), Raul Salinas (ROTC), and Tony Rocha (La Peca's son). When it rained, we would sometimes come across large tarantulas that crawled out of their flooded holes and onto the path. They were terrifying, some black, huge, usually with their front legs poised for attack, some with orange tints, others almost yellow. We would, of course, throw stones or dirt clods at them to kill them or scare them away.

But soon, we noticed that large bluish, almost black wasps with opaque, rust colored wings would sometimes tangle with the tarantulas and were marveled that such a small wasp could take on and dominate the large scary spiders. We called them chupahuesos to indicate their lethal power.

Soon, as kids are wont to do, we developed a game to make them fight.

One of us (I don't remember who) got a clear glass container with a lid and used a branch to knock down one of the fearsome wasps and trapped it in the jar. 

Then we looked for a tarantula hole, opened the jar and turned it upside down to let the wasp crawl out and go into the hole. It didn't take long for the confrontation inside the hole to occur. Within minutes, the wasp would emerge dragging the comatose tarantula with it. We, of course, were thrilled and did it over and over until we grew tired of the game and went on to other things.

What we didn't know at the time was that the wasp going after the spider in the hole was as natural as mosquitoes biting you in the South Texas evenings. Much, much later, while browsing through some book I got from a thrift store, I came upon an article that described the relationship between the wasp (called a tarantula hawk wasp, not a chupahuesos) and tarantulas.

Alexander Petrunkevitch wrote in 1952 in an article called "The Spider and the Wasp" exactly why it was that these particular wasps hunted these particular tarantulas. Petrunkevitch in his article describes the natural relationship between these two insects. The digger wasp that Petrunkevitch was talking about seeks only a particular species of tarantula (not all wasps seek the same species of tarantula) when it is time for her to lay her eggs (it is only female wasps that do this).

According to the author, the wasps he described seek the specific tarantula, go into its hole and after inspecting it thoroughly make sure it's the right kind of spider, digs a hole (grave) while the spider stands nearby watching, and then seeks the soft spot where her leg joins her abdomen to pierce it with its stinger. Once it succeeds and the poison renders it immobile, the digger wasp drags it to the grave hole, lays one of her eggs and attaches it to the spider with a sticky secretion and then covers it up and tramples the ground to keep out prowlers. Other species – like our tarantula hawk wasps – only seek the spiders to eat them.

The digger wasp's eggs hatch, the larvae live off the spider (which is not dead, but immobile) until all that remains is the skeletal remains, and the wasp's descendant gets safely started in life.

As kids, we had no idea of the natural relationship between the chupahuesos and tarantulas or what tarantula species they were. We though it was great sport to watch the little wasp go against the big spider. In our ignorance, we made them fight, unaware that we were merely mimicking a relationship going back into the mists of millenia.

(Ed.'s Note: After this story first appeared, we were told by people who know that "The gorgeous wasp on the picture is not a "digger wasp", it is a "tarantula hawk wasp", the difference being is that Diggers are yellow and black, wings transparent and stout legs (for an insect) while Tarantula Hawks are amber winged, black/blue and strong spindly legs that can pull the bigger tarantulas alive into their grave." Thanks for the lesson, guys.)

NO MORE "WOKE" PIECES OF ART AT THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

                                        Vance: The Joke of Man

WASHINGTON – Denouncing the Smithsonian Institution's art collection for being "toxically woke", Donald J. Trump announced today that he is replacing it with newly commissioned works depicting himself and members o his inner circle: Melania Trump, Pam Bondi, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, and Kristi Noem.

GET YOUR BRAKES FIXED, OIL CHANGED, AND NEVER LEAVE HOME!

1934 E. 13th Street, Brownsville, TX 78521, (956) 435-9577

 

(BONUS: TELL MARTIN YOU SAW IT ON EL RRUN-RRUN AND GET ADDITIONAL DISCOUNT!) 

THIS IS THE GUY IN CHARGE OF U.S. PUBLIC HEALTH?

By Travis Loller
Associated Press

PBS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a personal story of his own heroin addiction, spiritual awakening and recovery at a conference on drug addiction Thursday and emphasized that young people need a sense of purpose in their lives to prevent them from turning to drugs.

Kennedy called addiction “a source of misery, but also a symptom of misery.” In a speech that mentioned God more than 20 times, he pointed to his own experience feeling as though he had been born with a hole inside of himself that he needed to fill.

“Every addict feels that way in one way or another — that they have to fix what’s wrong with them, and the only thing that works are drugs. And so threats that you might die, that you’re going to ruin your life are completely meaningless,” he said.

Speaking to about 3,000 people at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, Kennedy did not address recent budget and personnel cuts or agency reorganizations that many experts believe could jeopardize public health, including recent progress on overdose deaths.

Kennedy drew cheers when he said that we need to do “practical things” to help people with addictions, like providing them with Suboxone and methadone. He also said there should be rehabilitation facilities available for anyone who is ready to seek help. But he focused on the idea of prevention, signaling his view of addiction as a problem fueled by deteriorating family, community and spiritual life.

“We have this whole generation of kids who’ve lost hope in their future,” he said. “They’ve lost their ties to the community.”

Kennedy said policy changes could help reestablish both of those things. Though Kennedy offered few concrete ideas, he recommended educating parents on the value of having meals without cellphones and providing opportunities for service for their children.

The best way to overcome depression and hopelessness, he said, is to wake up each morning and pray “please make me useful to another human being today. ”

He suggested that cellphones are a pernicious influence on young people and that banning them in schools could help decrease drug addiction. He cited a recent visit to a Virginia school that had banned cellphones, saying that grades were up, violence was down and kids were talking to one another in the cafeteria.

Kennedy told attendees that he was addicted to heroin for 14 years, beginning when he was a teenager. During those years, he was constantly making promises to quit, both to himself and to his family.

To read the whole story, click on link: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/recounting-heroin-addiction-and-spiritual-awakening-rfk-jr-urges-focus-on-prevention-and-community

HEADS WILL ROLL (AGAIN) IF JOBS NUMBERS AREN'T "IMPROVED"

By Occupy Democrats

BREAKING: Donald Trump gets nightmare news as the jobs report reveals that a measly 22,000 jobs were added last month instead of the predicted 76,500 – despite him scapegoating and firing the labor statistics chief last month.

Erika McEntarfer is having the last laugh now...

"The Great American jobs machine has stalled,” stated Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FwdBonds.

“The jobs market is cracking,” Saira Malik, the chief investment officer of Nuveen said on CNBC.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment spiked from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent last month. The annual growth rate for average hourly wages dropped from 3.9 percent to 3.7 percent.

The Bureau also revised the June jobs report to show that the economy actually lost 13,000 jobs that month, marking the first negative employment month since December 2020.

July's jobs were revised from 73,000 to 79,000, an insignificant bump in the broader picture of stagnation.

“The addition of just 22,000 jobs in August, along with net downward revisions of previous months, shows an economy straining under the immense economic uncertainty and significant policy changes of 2025,” stated Laura Ullrich, Indeed’s director of economic research for North America.

This economic downturn is a direct result of Donald Trump's disastrous policies. His tariffs are driving up inflation and injecting widespread uncertainty into the markets. Companies are unable to plan long term because they can't be sure if new tariffs will be added or removed thanks to Trump's erratic decision-making process.

“They don’t know where things are going, whether it’s through tariffs or other dynamics – interest rates still aren’t coming down – so I think a lot of companies are just saying, ‘not now,’" Ron Hetrick, the senior labor economist at Lightcast, told CNN. “I think there’s somebody probably out there who’d like to hire, but not in this environment. They’re waiting for more certainty to occur."

Last month, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a shockingly bad jobs report. That report revealed that the economy added a paltry 73,00 jobs in June (now revised to 79,000). Unemployment rose to 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent. Additionally, the monthly totals for both May and June were revised down by 258,000 jobs in total.

Trump accused her of being a partisan operative and dismissed the numbers as a "sham." With this month's report, that narrative has completely collapsed. There is no one left to blame at this point. America's failing economy can only be laid at the feet of Donald J. Trump.

ANATOMY OF A TOW TRUCK IN ACTION IN A DOWNTOWN PARKING LOT...

(Ed.'s Note: The scenes below happen every day in downtown Brownsville, where property owners strike a deal with tow truck operators who roam the city looking for motorists who are unaware that they are parking their cars in restricted areas. In this case, the signs warning: TOWING ENFORCED 24/7 are facing the alley and listing a telephone number where the victims can recover their vehicles if they are towed while they are away. In the top photo, a tow truck operator eyes a white SUV which is not listed as having paid for the parking and circles his prey.

In the second photo, the tow truck driver backs up to snag the truck 

But then, the driver of the offending SUV comes upon the scene and calls someone on his cell phone, trying to find out who can help him to keep his vehicle from being towed. Had he used the city street parking, it would have cost $1 an hour and pay a $10 ticket if he did not pay at the parking kiosk. However, if you do not read English or know where they are located, it is easy to violate the parking statutes. There is no notice (Spanish-English) that lets motorists know their location.

Below, negotiations begin. Many times, the driver might take a smaller fee than the $150 for not towing, or if the car is towed to impound, a fee of $150 for towing, and an impoundment lot fee. The total could go as high as $300. Since the property is private and the tow truck owner has a contract with the property owner, most drivers have to fork over some cash to the tow truck driver to keep them from towing the car. Unless you know the tow company owner, some money has to change hands before the tow truck leaves the car in your possession.

Sobre aviso no hay engaño! Motorists beware.

(We thank El Rrun-Rrun's roving reporter for the sequence of photos.)

RUNYON'S COLLECTIONS OF LOCAL HISTORY, FLORA, NEED TO COME HOME

(Ed.'s Note: I ran into a recent arrival to our city who is a biology major and he asked me about some of the unique aspects of local history and botany. I recalled that one of our former mayors was also a botanist and photographer. He was Robert Runyon and we publish this post to enlighten visitors to our city on the unique history to be found here.) 

By Juan Montoya

In one of my former lifetimes when I was a newspaper reporter for the Brownsville Herald we used to have something called a "Lifestyle" page assignment.

The Lifestyle page was basically a long feature with a handful of photos by one of our photographers and could run the gamut of topics as it pleased the writer or photographer.

This was in the 1980s, before newspapers started cutting back on such frivolities. Now we don't have a daily and the Herald publishes only twice a week.

It was then that I ran into Delbert Runyon and did a Lifestyle feature on his dad, Robert Runyon, the photographer, botanist and former mayor of the City of Brownsville. I was reminded of him when I saw Delbert's obituary in the local daily.

When I visited the old homestead at 808 E. St. Charles, glass photographic plates were strewn about the dirt floor in a wooden utility shed that had seen its better days. Some of the plates and post cards lying around the ramshackle building showed some damage from leaks in the rotting shingle roof. 

On the alley side of the house, a tall tree stood behind the house. Delbert Runyon said it was a tree that his dad had been given credit for discovering as a new species of the citrus family.
Time has since past and now we know that the Runyon family donated the entire collection now called the Robert Runyon Photograph Collection of the South Texas Border Area and made up of the a collection of over 8,000 items.

It is designated as "a unique visual resource documenting the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the early 1900s"

The Runyons donated the collection to the Center for American History in 1986 and it includes glass negatives, lantern slides, nitrate negatives, prints, and postcards, representing Robert Runyon's life's work. 

The photographs document the history and development of South Texas and the border, including the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. military presence at Fort Brown and along the border prior to and during World War I, and the growth and development of the Rio Grande Valley.

The UT-Austin page says that some 350 unique images in the Runyon Collection document one chapter of the revolution which Runyon witnessed in Matamoros, Monterrey, Ciudad Victoria, and the Texas border area and surrounding area.

"As various political and social factions within Mexico fought to topple a 30-year dictatorship to establish a constitutional republic, the struggle quickly spread to the northern border with the United States," the narrative continues. "In the north, rebel leaders such as Pancho Villa mobilized armies and began to raid the Federal government garrisons of then dictator Porfirio Díaz to aid in the cause of the 'constitutionalists'. Nervous U.S. officials along the border stood by and watched the conflict take shape."

In Matamoros, Runyon photographed the Constitutionalist armies as well as the major military figures of the campaign. 

On June 4, 1913, the day after General Lucio Blanco and his rebel forces captured the Federal garrison at Matamoros, Runyon moved throughout the city photographing the victorious soldiers, Federal casualties, and political executions.

Later reports indicate that the Runyon Collection at the Center for American History at the University of Texas was selected by the Library of Congress as one of 10 collections in the United States to become a part of the American Memory project. This means that it will be digitized, and is available on the Internet.

Runyon was also known as an avid botanist, and some of his work has preserved the knowledge of Lower Rio Grande Valley flora.

He is credited with discovering several cacti, but the crowning achievement would have to be the plant named Esenbeckia runyonii, a species of flowering tree in the citrus family, the same that is growing by the alley on St Charles.

The plant is native to northeastern Mexico, with a small, distinct population in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in the United States. Common names include Limoncillo and Runyon's Esenbeckia.
The specific epithet honors Runyon who collected the type specimen from a stand of four trees discovered by Harvey Stiles on the banks of the Resaca del Rancho Viejo, Texas, in 1929.

Conrad Vernon Morton of the Smithsonian Institution received the plant material and formally described the species in 1930.

An entry under the name in Wikipedia states that "the fruit is a thick-skinned, woody capsule roughly 1 in (2.5 cm) in length that has five carpels. When mature, carpels dehisce (break apart) to eject black, up to 1⁄3 in (0.85 cm) long seeds. Green capsules are distinctively orange scented, while leaves smell like lemons."

In 1994, a Brownsville Herald report stated that "fewer than 10 of the trees survive in the wild in Texas, all along a resaca bank near Los Fresnos. Others were planted by Runyon in Brownsville."
(We went to look for the tree in preparing this post, but we could no longer find it. Does anyone know whether it was cut down?)

After Alton Gloor and other developers razed the vegetation along the resacas to build subdivisions, that part of our culture no longer exists. Runyon's work is about the only thing that can take us back to the days when the region was still "green" and the convulsions in northern Mexico – as they are now again – spilled over to the U.S. side. 

Alas, there is now nothing locally that can give our local students and visitors a hands-on example of that glorious past.

In fact, his entire collection of botany pamphlets, books and specimen samples was also donated to the Runyon Botany Collection gift to Jernigan Library Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, in Austin.

Ever since I wrote the feature for the Herald in the early 1980s, I've wondered why a home in Brownsville couldn't be found for the two collections, even if they could be reproductions of the stuff the have in Austin.

They are, after all, crucial records of our area's historical and botanical story. And now that the  UT System is voicing its commitment to the area's education, could it be possible that they could bring some of Runyon's work back home where it belongs?