𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗦 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗢 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗣𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟 𝗙𝗢𝗘𝗦 𝗜𝗙 𝗥𝗘-𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗

 

Donald J. Trump

Just a day before the U.S. Supreme Court's reckless, poorly reasoned decision to grant presidents immunity from prosecution for "official acts" as president, Donald Trump called for a televised military tribunal for former Rep. Liz Cheney and the imprisonment of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Chuck Shumer and Nancy Pelosi.  

"ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON," was one post Trump amplified on Truth Social.

Another post Trump reposted: "RETRUTH IF YOU WANT MILITARY TRIBUNALS."

This was not the first time that Trump, convicted of 34 felony counts while facing 54 additional charges in three other cases, has called for prosecution of political opponents if elected to a second term.

𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗔 𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗬𝗦𝗧 𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗔. 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗘𝗟 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗔𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗛𝗨𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗟 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘/𝗥𝗚𝗩

Hi all,

This is from Laura Miniel, you may have met me during campaigns in the past.  I'm usually the data analyst/ data manager / polling person running phonebank or other surveys.

I'm writing to you today as a guest editor because of an important thing on all of our radars, which is Hurricane Beryl.

I've long been fascinated by numbers and relationships between measurements.  I used to participate in a gambling "game", a paid exercise where you could put bets in dollar amounts on where you thought a projected hurricane would land.  This was through weather.com or some similar website. Anyway, they would pay you if your prediction was correct, and you would lose your bet if you were wrong. I think the prediction had to be within 25 miles of the actual eyewall landing site. It no longer exists, but I used to play this game a lot during the time it did, and was able to refine my own predictions and become pretty good at it.

The most predictive factor I found, the one that tended to result in a lot of unexpected wins was using the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) heat index report. This is a model of expected heat index values for different places a few days into the future. What I found is the highest heat indexes tended to predict where the hurricanes would land.  This is because when you think about air molecules and water molecules, think about a crowd of people.  Let's say you are a person walking into a nightclub, and you're moving forward trying to get to the back wall of a room to an exit door. Let's say you've got two main groups of other people in the room.  One group is dancing and moving around with a lot of energy, and the other group surrounding them is stuck together like a wall of people shoulder to shoulder arms locked. Where would your path go to get from your starting point and through the room?

Well, it would be easier to go through the gaps of moving, sparsely-separated dancing people than through a solid wall of people standing clustered together right? Particularly if the dancing people are already in motion and moving toward the back of the room. And I think physically this is what is happening with the air molecules. It's just known that objects in motion tend to stay in motion and it's easier to push through something airy, warm and already in motion than something hard, cold and solid.  The heat index itself includes humidity and this is important also. 

I'm writing this, and I hope not to be an alarmist, but because I pulled the NOAA heat index projection for Monday and this is what it looks like. The RGV is starkly the target.

This is extremely upsetting to me because, looking at this, Brownsville is where I'd place my bets for the eyewall to land, or close nearby. One weakness of this graph is that we don't have any reporting from Mexico and there may be places with even higher intensity heat/humidity there that could be a bigger draw.

The recent tropical storm hardly touched Brownsville, and so we didn't get the cooling effect that could bring the air molecules together and ward this off. Probably why you see this purple triangle on NOAA's map. Most professional predictions seem to focus on air pressures, but I am specifically talking about heat index values here. The valley and Mexico around us got hit by Alberto worse, to the point Brownsville folks seemed kind of dismissive about how weather forecasts are overblown and exaggerated and Brownsville got nothing to worry about. Other places nearby got cooled off, their air molecules condensed, but Brownsville solely remains the hottest/wettest area, making us the biggest draw physically for a new storm system if the heat index truly is predictive of track.

Another negative factor is the extreme heat caused by climate change in general, has warmed up the ocean in the Gulf to where I personally am not confident that Beryl is going to slow as much after crossing Jamaica and Mexico. Though I hope desperately it does.

 

I hope to God I am wrong about this. I would relish that 10000x more than being right and seeing the destruction I am afraid of seeing take place here in my home, in Brownsville. I was a HEB today and everyone seemed to be shopping like normal for the 4th of July, and that was kind of freaky, like don't you realize what could be coming here?

I'm writing to Jim Barton to (hopefully not without merit) to share this warning. That our close shave with Alberto isn't something you should base your expectations for Beryl on, but see it as a missed opportunity for much-needed rain and cooling in this area. The fact we alone missed most of the rain could be drawing the next storm system directly to us to finish the job. Homeostasis operates in biological systems such as individual humans, animals and plants --and also planet-wide.So I am stepping out, even as the most amateur of amateur weather predictors, and as someone with zero (let me repeat, zero!!) training in weather or climate prediction, but just as a person who loves deep-diving into data and my own experience betting on storm paths in the past. And there is still plenty of time for the hurricane path to change, and this is very early and it may well do so, and I truly hope so.

Laura A. Miniel

𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗝𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗡𝗢𝗧 "𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗦," 𝗕𝗨𝗧 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗬 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗦

 

Like most young folk, my two precocious grandsons, Jack and Felix, learn as much or more from the internet as public school and I suspect they've already heard about our slimy Supreme Court's "F*** You!" to democracy, catering to a con man running for President, giving him substantial immunity from criminal acts.

This particular court's majority seems intent on rolling back reproductive rights, while extolling gun "rights" and turning the American President into a King.

The moral turpitude of this court has been on open display with one of the longer-tenured, Clarence Thomas, openly and unabashedly taking bribe after bribe with no consequence and another sleezeball, Samuel Alito, flying the American flag upside down at his residence in an obvious insurrectionist stance. (The cowardly Alito blames his wife for the unpatriotic display.)

There are no actual "conservatives" today in politics, men and women believing in the rule of law; no Barry Goldwaters, no John Rhodes, no Howard Bakers, just Trump cultists, who follow the dear leader like "Moonies" followed the Reverend Sung Myung Moon and six of them are voting on the Supreme Court.

𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗗 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗭𝗔𝗕𝗘𝗧𝗛 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗧 𝗡𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗪𝗔𝗬 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗗𝗚𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝟭𝟴𝟵𝟮

 submitted by Rene Torres

𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗢𝗦 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗦

The Honorable Carlos H. Cascos

BROWNSVILLE, TX. – The Honorable Carlos Humberto Cascos, 71, of Brownsville, Texas died on Wednesday, the 26th of June 2024. Carlos was born to Gloria and Hector Cascos in Mexico and became a United States citizen at the age of 12. After graduating from Brownsville High School in 1970, he attended The University of Texas at Austin where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Government. There he met the love of his life, Candi, whom he married in 1977. They had two daughters, Casandra and Andrea. 

After graduating from college, he became a certified public accountant, enjoying an almost fifty-year career in accounting that culminated with owning his own firm, Cascos & Associates, PC. In addition to his professional career as a CPA, he was passionate about public service to his community, serving at the local level as Cameron County Commissioner and Cameron County Judge; and, at the State level as Commissioner for the Texas Public Safety Commission, presiding officer of the Texas Border Security Council, and as the 110th Texas Secretary of State. 

Always true to his beliefs, he advocated for all people, and for issues and causes close to his heart. Carlos inspired many with his straight-from-the-heart public speeches and had the ability to authentically connect with anyone he encountered. With his gift for words and clarity of thought, Carlos was forever ready to give advice (even if unsolicited sometimes), and he enjoyed conversations with both strangers and friends alike. He impacted the lives of many people through his devotion to public service and volunteer leadership.

For those that knew him by his professional career or in public service, recognized Carlos as a man of remarkable integrity and compassion; he also exemplified those values in his family and personal life. Carlos loved spending time at the beach with his family, playing cards every Tuesday night with cherished friends, and driving his vintage cherry red Mustang. He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather (“Papa”), attending every recital and sports activity his daughters pursued and regularly traveled to attend his grandchildren’s life milestones and school events. He had a soft spot for animals, especially horses, dogs, and although he’d deny it, cats. He made his presence known at home with his jovial whistling and the sound of classic television reruns. 

Ultimately, Carlos did not waste a day of his life, living every day fulfilling a purpose.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Gloria Garcia Cascos; his father, Hector Cascos; and his two brothers, Hector Cascos and Jaime Cascos.

He is survived by his loving wife, Aurora Candida “Candi” Cascos; his daughters, Casandra Cascos Ortiz (Daniel) and Andrea Cascos; his sister, Gloria “Cachita” Rico (Gilberto); his grandchildren, Joaquin Ortiz and Ana Ortiz; and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, colleagues, and friends. 

Visiting hours will be held on Sunday, the 7th of July 2024 between the hours of five o’clock in the afternoon and nine o'clock at night, with the recitation of the holy rosary to begin at seven o'clock Sunday evening within the East Chapel of Darling-Mouser Funeral Home. 

The Funeral Mass will be celebrated at ten o’clock in the morning on Monday, the 8th of July 2024 at Mary, Mother of the Church, 1914 Barnard Road, Brownsville. All services will conclude at the church. 

Honored to serve as his pallbearers are Horacio “Lato” Barrera, Albino Carrasco, Hugo Cascos, Andrew Puckett, Gilberto Rico, and Antonio “Tony” Tobin. 

Honorary pallbearers are Carlos Gonzalez, Eduardo “Bibi” Gonzalez, Daniel Ortiz, Joaquin Ortiz, Xavier Ramirez, Arnold Aguilar, Cookie Covarrubias, Mauro Garza, Bill Haugeberg, Jimmy John, Carl Oakley, John Patriarca, Zeke Silva, Ernie Tijerina, Cris Valadez, Art Rendon, and numerous nephews and his colleagues at Cascos & Associates.

In lieu of floral arrangements and customary remembrances, the family requests contributions in his memory be made to Sunshine Haven, Inc., (956) 350-8400, 7105 West Lakeside Boulevard, Olmito, Texas 78575 (sunshinehaveninc.org), Sea Turtle, Inc., (956) 761-4511, P.O. Box 3987, South Padre Island, Texas 78597 (seaturtleinc.org), and the Children’s Museum of Brownsville, (956) 548-9300, 501 E. Ringgold Street #5 Dean Porter Park, Brownsville, Texas 78520 (cmofbrownsville.org).

Memories of The Honorable Carlos Humberto Cascos may be shared at www.darlingmouser.com. 

Personalized funeral arrangements directed by Steven R. Hieu Bailey and Staff have been entrusted to the care of Darling-Mouser Funeral Home at 945 Palm Boulevard in Brownsville, Texas 78520, (956) 546-7111.

𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗨𝗣𝗧 𝗗𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗧 𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗧 "𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗜𝗠𝗠𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗬"