Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Trump bashed

In his letter to the editor on Sept. 26, Rene Castillo tells us that he prefers to be called a Nazi or a racist rather than be called an “ignorant coward” who believes Donald Trump “stoked” the insurrection on Jan. 6. OK, but just a reminder: Those who participated in the riot and got caught, tried and convicted in a court of law testified that it was Trump who invited them to the Capitol and it was Trump who egged them on. So, to surmise that Trump bears some responsibility for the attack on our Capitol is not ignorant or cowardly.

Besides, Trump has demonstrated that he’s a liar and a sore loser and that he clearly didn’t want to relinquish his power. He started by telling us that the election was stolen. Then he called Georgia’s secretary of state to magically find and hand over to him 11,780 votes. Some states even sent fake electors to the Capitol to disrupt and delay the electoral count. And he asked his vice president to not certify the results of the election, which is something Mike Pence did not have the authority to do. And lastly, when all his cynical efforts to stay in power failed, he invited his supporters to come to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and “Stop the Steal.”

And the rioters came, armed with flagpoles, baseball bats, stun guns, pepper spray, and some even carried firearms and knives. And what happened next will forever be a despicable blemish on our nation’s history. And while the ravaging destruction of the Capitol was going on, did the president lift one finger? Maybe he did, but certainly, it was not to stop the turmoil.

Rene claims that Trump took a bullet for democracy. Yes, a bullet grazed his ear, but it was not for democracy. In a democracy the majority rules. Trump, like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, prefers an autocracy, where only he can rule. He has repeatedly shown us that America’s centuries old democracy, its Constitution and the rule of law mean nothing to him. So, why do so many people still support him?

Some convicted felons are not allowed to vote in this country, but they can run for president. Hoo-boy, this is really creepy! But cheer up! In the good-old U S of A, we still have the power to end “creepy.” So, let’s use it! It will take all of us! Just Just do it! Vote blue!

Italo J. Zarate

Brownsville

News channel draws criticism

Very interesting how news channels can manipulate so many. They praise, endorse and convince listeners that their chosen politicians, regardless if they are convicted felons and fact-checking haters, are still superior to their opponents. Listeners embrace and hold their chosen ones dear to their hearts, making them their heroes and don’t mind being called all the explicit names in the book.

All this at the beginning, but afterward, these praised and endorsed politicians end up at the bottom of the most-hated pile. The once praised and now discarded ex-President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and daughter Megan, John McCain, who is deceased, Mitt Romney and Vice President Mike Pence, all extremely high-ranking Republicans, have made country a higher priority than party affiliation. Included are many high-ranking Republicans taking the same path. They have come to their senses and endorsed the more favorable and higher qualified Kamala Harris and Tim Walz team.

Panel one: “Your worst fears are true!” Panel two: “But extremely very terrified!” Panel three: “Violent crime is rampant!” Panel four: “Rampaging gangs of people of uncertain pigment!” Panel five: “Shooting, raping, robbing, assaulting!” Panel six: “Right outside your door!!!” Panel seven: “Don’t change the channel!!” Panel eight: “That’s our worst fear!”

I’m waiting a news channel to do the same next year and throw their newest candidate, convicted felon and traitor, to the bottom of the pile. This news channel is so amazed at how listeners gobble up all their misinformation that they gladly paid close to 900 million buckaroos to keep misinforming their listeners. It seems this news channel is more of a cheerleading channel than a news channel.

Juan Gonzales

Harlingen

Trump bashed

With just a month before Election Day, I hope people are beginning to pay attention to the candidates and their plans for the future. Republican activists offer “Project 2025,” a 192-page manifesto for completely destroying the government.

While Donald Trump tries to deny any knowledge of that plan, the great majority of the document was written by major players in the Trump White House staff before 2021. For example, the chapter on immigration was written by Stephen Miller, the architect of the policy under which immigrant families were separated at the border when Trump was in the White House.

Kristen Eichamer holds a Project 2025 fan in the group’s tent at the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)

Project 2025 calls for mass deportations of immigrants, and Trump promises that round-ups will begin on his first day in office.

We expect that children born in this country to immigrant parents would be deported along with their parents, despite being U.S. citizens. Or will they be separated from their parents and dumped into the foster family system?

What I expect is that Trump will actually construct dozens of “camps” where families would be imprisoned before being deported. And if he gets away with that, he will begin to think about the Final Solution created by his idol, Adolf Hitler.

“We have more than the concept of a plan.”

Just the other day, we saw what kind of person Trump has chosen as his running mate. When he was asked directly if Trump had lost the 2020 election, Vance refused to answer.

Vance has his eye on the 2028 election and will not say anything that might upset the MAGA folks. In truth his prospects might surely be better if their ticket loses on Nov. 5. Otherwise, Trump intends to name himself president for life, much like Nicolas Maduro, the dictator in Venezuela. Who knows, they may become bosom buddies.

We have a lot to think about in the coming days.

Vaughn Cox

San Antonio

Against Trump

Let me see — Mr. Drumpf, otherwise known Donald Trump, pulled strings to keep his then-girlfriend, now wife, in the country while she was illegal, working as a model on a tourist visa. She should have been sent back to Slovenia.

Whenever one of his business projects failed, he would declare bankruptcy and leave his creditors and employees hanging. He signed checks and documents involved in his company’s tax fraud in New York. Trump inflated the value of his properties to get loans and deflated their value for property taxes. For nearly two decades the only bank that would give him a loan was Deutsche Bank and he ended up suing it. He established Trump University and swindled his “students.” On top of all of this he paid no personal income tax in 10 of 15 years starting in 2000.

He said, “When you are a star you can do anything. (You can) grab (women) by the p—-y.” On the same tape recording he said: “I moved on her (Nancy?) and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f—k her. She was married.” He committed adultery with a porn star and a Playboy centerfold and who knows how many other women. In the past and more recently he has embraced white supremacist and Holocaust deniers.

“I hate being at Trump’s ad agency…”

As president he made his Secret Service agents stay in his hotels to the tune of $1.4 million of taxpayers’ money for his company. But much more serious, he alienated our allies and became buddies with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. He was impeached for withholding $391 million from Ukraine (which had already been budgeted) in an attempt to get Ukraine to provide false information about Joe Biden. He was impeached a second time for “incitement to insurrection.” Both times his Republican friends shielded him.

Then even before the final results of the 2020 election were published, Trump started laying the grounds for the “Big Lie” though many of his staff, advisers and friends told him he lost the election. On Jan. 6, he urged his followers to “take back” their country by “stopping the count.” As we know, it resulted in an insurrection at the Capitol with millions of dollars of damage, immediate and subsequent deaths, and more importantly a blatant attack on our country’s democracy. In the Jan. 6 hearings most of those testifying were fellow Republicans and they convincingly showed that Mr. Trump knew he lost and he went ahead in motivating his supporters to attack even though he knew some had weapons.

And this is the guy you want me to vote for?

Gerard Pahl

Edinburg

Strong leaders

The American people want a strong leader who is determined to make this nation vibrant and eager to move forward and not look back at its failures that made America weaker.

America has been in the crosshairs of its enemy for decades. It is easier to bring a nation down from within without firing a single shot. Today is a good example. We are giving this nation away to our enemy by not doing anything about the disintegration of America. No one seems to care to fight to stop its downfall.

Making Americans appear to be evil only makes this great nation more divided and weaker. This coming election is about making a turnaround and stopping this trend. Like it or not the majority of Americans stand for law and order, and we need to bring it back to that level again. Today we have disorder and lawlessness. Yes, we can build more prisons to put those who do not obey our laws in prison for the rest of their lives. We do not want criminals interfering with our peaceful lives anymore. We want to peacefully enjoy a day at the park, walk safely on our sidewalks and at supermarkets without someone threatening to take our wallet or car.

The fear of breaking the law has gone away, and we need to bring it back. Accountability for our actions needs to be enforced. If we have money to waste on nonsense, we have money to build super-sized prisons for those who choose not to obey our laws. And that’s where they will remain. This coming election is 100% about that, and not about broken promises and other nonsense.

Rafael Madrigal

Pharr

School funding

How important is education to Texas and our RGV?

Currently the Texas Legislature has more than $32 billion in the Rainy Day Fund and is estimated to have an appropriated $5 billion for public education, which remains unspent because the funding is linked to vouchers. Why are universal vouchers so important to the current Texas Legislature and our governor that they are actively sabotaging and not funding the current public school system?

Arizona’s voucher experiment is being used as a “shining example” for Abbott’s plan, so let’s look at the numbers. This year, Arizona is facing a $1.4 billion budget shortfall — much as a result of voucher spending according to the Grand Canyon Institute. The last fiscal year only, Arizona’s Universal Plan (vouchers) skyrocketed from an original estimate of $65 million to $332 million.

So, Abbott’s “pie in the sky” promises of better education through funding of vouchers or ESAs do not seem to add up fiscally for taxpayers based on this “shining example” of Arizona.

Vote wisely this November and vote for local public schools and their complete and above-adequate funding by supporting these local Democratic candidates: Colin Allred for Texas senator, Michelle Vallejo for state Senate District 15 and Vicente Gonzalez for congressional District 34.

Diane Teter

Edinburg

Rattled by launch

At about 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 13 we were awakened with our windows rattling and outdoors rattling and the house shaking. It was the SpaceX launch by Boca Chica Beach. It lasted about 30 seconds. There were what sounded like small explosions afterward and about 10 minutes later another larger launching sound that did not shake the house as much.

I guess everyone else was outside looking at the billowing smoke from the launch and were inside their homes. I am sure other homes shook too.

If SpaceX is going to do regular launches, I don’t know if our house will be able to withstand it. We live in West Brownsville.

Mary Elizabeth Hollman

Brownsville

Gonzalez draws fire

I just saw Vicente Gonzalez’s new TV ad. He’s absolutely right. A person should do their research before casting a vote.

Other than that, well, let’s see. He says he kept prices down. Where? Gas, no. Food, no. Utilities, no. Property taxes, no.

I know that I talk about groceries, my go-to places, are H-E-B or Walmart. I can only imagine about where he gets his groceries.

He calls himself a “bipartisan” candidate. He’s the only one. His record speaks volumes. Ask Gov. Abbott or President Trump. He’s up on current RGV problems. Hmm, the sugar cane processing plant closed due to lack of water before he spoke up. Access to water from the Rio Grande is in serious jeopardy. It has been a problem developing for years due to Mexico’s inability or aversion to paying its debt. Only now is he addressing the problem.

More than 10 million unvetted illegal immigrants came into the country. Still, he says he’s strong on the border issue.

Actions speak louder than his words. Looking at his record proves it. When things got tough in Hidalgo County and opportunity arose, he took it to go to Cameron County. Now it appears that things are getting tough in Cameron County. Where is he going to run to now? Hmm, Mexico just got a new president.

Macedonio Lopez

Edinburg


Editor’s note: We welcome your letters and commentary. Submissions must include the writer’s full name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters of 200 words or fewer will be given preference. Submissions may be edited for length, grammar and clarity. Letters may be mailed to P.O Box 3267, McAllen, Texas 78502-3267, or emailed to [email protected].