Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Wednesday's's show: A chat with Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection & Dr. Martin Fricke, author


Wednesday's show:   
A chat with Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection and Dr. Martin Fricke, author.





Tags: A chat with Leslie Eastman To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Wednesday's video: A word about the midterms

Image result for ballot box images

Tuesday's video:   
A word about the midterms









Tags: A word about the midterms To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

We need the ‘birthright’ debate

Related image

President Trump may or may not have the legal authority to issue an executive order about “birthright citizenship”.  Nevertheless, we need the debate in the U.S.  We need an honest discussion about “birthrights” and women who come here to have a baby.
The numbers are big.  According to a 2015 report by Numbers USA,  4.5 million babies now living in the US were born to illegal immigrants.  The cost is $ 2.4 billion, according to another report.
As a legal immigrant, with naturalized U.S. citizenship, I believe that this “birthright” issue is being abused.    
So let’s have a debate and please don’t call me “racista” for saying so.  Let’s ask these questions:
1) Does “birthright” promote illegal immigration?  Has the word gone out to go north, have your baby and then get citizenship?  Yes, it promotes illegal, not legal immigration.
2)  Can states and communities afford the health care costs?  My guess is no.  My second guess is that many voters would like to vote on this rather than have judges issue opinions one way or another.
3) What about the 14th Amendment?  I don’t believe that it is correct to use this amendment to support the birth of a baby born to a woman, often unmarried, who is in the country illegally.  So let’s have a debate and let the Supreme Court clarify the issue.
Again, President Trump may not have the authority to end “birthright” by executive order.  We need the debate.  We need for members of the U.S. Congress to vote “yes or no” on this issue.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Tags: Birthright and citizenship To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Tuesday's show: A chat about "Sears" with Frank Burke, author & businessman

Image result for sears images

Tuesday's show:  
A chat about "Sears" with Frank Burke, author & businessman




Tags: Sears and retail business To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Tuesday's video: Yes, let's have a debate about "birthright citizenship"

Related image

Tuesday's video:  
Yes, let's have a debate about "birthright citizenship"







Tags: Birthright citizenship  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Two earthquakes in South America

Image result for bolsonaro images
Late Sunday night. I was online looking for vote results in Brazil.  I also learned that there was a real 6.3 – scale earthquake down in Argentina.
In reality, the Brazil earthquake, the large victory by Jair Bolsonaro, got more attention.  His numbers were huge in a huge country:   55.54% of the popular vote!
The response was predictable.  The left is calling him a right-winger, and some even fascist:  Far-right congressman Bolsonaro wins presidential election in Brazil!
An hour ago, I shared that headline by phone with a friend in Sao Paulo.  He laughed and said something like, we’re all fascists today!  And then he laughed some more.
My reaction is simple.  What planet have the people at the Atlantic been living in?  Has anybody there walked in a Rio or Sao Paulo street?  Have any of them spoken to a small businessman in Brazil?  A small businessman struggling to understand the government regulations created to benefit the crony capitalist trio of big government, big labor, and big companies.   A mother who is afraid to send her children to school.  
Let me be honest.  Lula and the left did not create corruption.  Nevertheless, they were really good at it, especially in buying votes in the poor areas promising stuff that the country can’t afford.
So here we are.  Brazil has a new president and he has serious challenges ahead of him,  the underperforming economy in particular.
I would recommend the following the president-elect:
1) Go hard against the criminal elements.  They are a threat to everyone, especially the poor who can’t put gates around their homes or hire bodyguards.  If necessary, occupy these districts and impose martial law.  My friends tell me that the troops will be greeted as liberators.
2) Take the lead and call on the OAS to do something about Venezuela.   At the moment, the Brazil-Venezuela border is a problem.  Do what no other leader of Latin America has the courage to do.  Identify Maduro as a threat to all.
We wish the president-elect well.  However, the left does not go away easily, as we’ve seen in Argentina.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Tags: Two earthquakes in South America To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Monday, October 29, 2018

Monday's show: Bolsonaro won and a few other thoughts


Monday's show:  
Bolsonaro won and a few other thoughts





Tags: Bolsonaro and other stories of the day To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Monday's video: Some suggestions for President-elect Bolsonaro

Image result for bolsonaro images

Monday's video:  
Some suggestions for President-elect Bolsonaro






Tags: Bolsonaro Brazil 2018  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The Cuban version of capitalism is not working

Image result for diaz canel raul castro images
The Cuban regime needs dollars or other froms of hard currency desperately.  At the same time, they are not making it possible for Cubans to participate in foreign investment ventures.  Therefore, the money comes in and leaves the island. 
As we saw in the Miami Herald :   
The Havana Consulting Group, based in Miami, has estimated that in 2017 more than 48,000 Cubans made an average of 11.5 trips abroad to buy merchandise. The value of that activity far surpasses the foreign investments that the Cuban government has managed to attract to the Mariel special development zone — barely $265 million in 2017.
Havana Consulting has estimated more than $2 billion may leave the country with the Cuban shoppers, about the same amount that the Cuban government estimates it needs in foreign investment per year.
The Cuban government “is not taking advantage… of the large amount of hard currency that these businesspeople generate, compared to the drought of hard currency faced by state companies and the central government administration, which has forced the government to drastically reduce the purchase of raw materials abroad and led to its failure to pay many providers,” Havana Consulting President Emilio Morales wrote in a report.
The $2.39 billion that Morales estimates leaves the country winds up abroad with airlines, hotels, drivers, shop owners and the companies that ship packages to Cuba.
Many Cuban business owners also have managed to obtain residence in the United States, Spain and other countries, which allows them to buy properties and obtain loans and credits that they use to finance businesses on the island…
But the government allows all that money to seep out of Cuba because of its ambivalent attitude toward the private sector, experts say.
I am not sure that it’s ambivalence about the private sector.   The real answer is that they are scared to death that all of these joint ventures will make Cubans prosperous, independent of government, and suddenly turn them into capitalists.  Also, Cubans will start having meetings with foreigners about their business ventures and government will not be around to know what’s going on.
Cuba is ambivalent about the private sector because it is ambivalent about freedom.
The story is still the same.  You can bury Fidel and talk about reforms.  However, you can’t reform a communist state, as Gorbachev learned in the late 1980’s.  
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.


Tags: Cuba and capitalism  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Sunday's show: The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda


Sunday's show:  
The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda





Tags: The week in review To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Sunday's video: The O'Rourke newspapers endorsements make no sense

Image result for texas vote images

Sunday's video:   
The O'Rourke newspapers endorsements make no sense




Tags:  O'Rourke endorsement in Texas To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Don’t forget what voters care most about going into the midterms!

Image result for us economy images

From talking about dangerous packages to a shooting in Pittsburgh to Nate Silver’s predictions to an 18-inning World Series game, the U.S. economy put up some good numbers again.  The U.S. economy is cruising high, as we see in this report:
The second quarter might have been the peak quarterly growth rate of this business cycle because it was when the biggest impact of the Trump tax cuts hit the economy. But growth remains at a solid clip.  The third quarter is the second-fastest pace in four years, after the previous quarter’s torrid pace.
And economists are forecasting close to a 3% growth rate for the fourth quarter.  The outlook for 2019 is less certain.
Yes, the outlook for 2019 will be clearer after the midterms.
What does this all mean to voters about to cast a ballot?  It means that most voters will feel good about the U.S. economy when they cast their vote early or on election day.
In other words, the answer to the “are you better off” question should be a loud yes.  That’s good news for the GOP.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Tags: The US economy and the midterms To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Saturday's show: Bolsonaro poised to win in Brazil, the blame game and strong GDP


Saturday's show:  
Bolsonaro poised to win in Brazil, the blame game and strong GDP





Tags: Brazil elections, GDP growth To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Saturday's video: Beirut, Grenada and President Reagan this week in 1983

Image result for reagan 1983 grenada images

Saturday's video:  
Beirut, Grenada and President Reagan this week in 1983





Tags: President Reagan and this week in 1983 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The media are a problem, too

Image result for media and fake news images
Over the last two years, I’ve been critical of President Trump when he is over the line with his tweets or words. The Democrats have a lot of explaining to do as well, from Representative Waters to Senator Booker.  In other words, both sides would do us all a big favor by lowering the volume.
The media are a big problem, too.  We’ve seen reports over the last two years of negative coverage of the Trump administration.  This is from Investors:
For its report, the Media Research Center did a lot of visual spadework.  It viewed some 1,007 evening news stories about the Trump White House on ABC, CBS and NBC from June 1 to Sept. 30. 
That’s the equivalent of about 32.7 hours of coverage, by TV standards an eternity of news time.
What they found was, as Trump himself might say, sad: “Over the summer, the broadcast networks have continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a president in TV news history – 92% negative, vs. just 8% positive.”
President Trump has a right to be angry.  His achievements are not covered.  His negatives are blown out of proportion.
A few days ago, Rasmussen Reports published a poll that should make everyone in the media think twice about his job:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 45% of all Likely U.S. Voters think that when most reporters write about a congressional race, they are trying to help the Democratic candidate. 
Just 11% think they’re trying to help the Republican instead. 
Only 35% think most reporters are just trying to report the news in an unbiased manner.
That’s bad news for reporters trying to do a good job.
Yes, the media have to admit they’ve contributed to the bad feelings in our politics.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Tags: The media has a problem, too To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Friday, October 26, 2018

Friday's show: A look at the midterms with Barry Casselman, The Prairie Editor

Image result for 2018 elections images

Friday's show:  
A look at the midterms with Barry Casselman, The Prairie Editor





Tags: The 2018 midterms To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Friday's video: The media needs to do better, too


Friday's video:   
The media needs to do better, too



Tags: Media and the tone of our politics To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

A pompous endorsement for Beto from the Dallas Morning News

Image result for beto cartoons
Not a surprise, but the same Dallas Morning News that endorsed Hillary Clinton for President in 2016 is now endorsing Beto O’Rourke for the U.S. Senate.
Again, not a shock.  I told several friends last weekend that I expected this endorsement.  All you have to do is read their editorials.  I don’t exaggerate when I say that a lot of people in the area have canceled their subscriptions over the newspaper’s leftist tilt.
This is not your father’s Dallas Morning News.  This is something else, and less relevant than ever, based on their recommendations and the actual results.
On Thursday morning, The DMN started their endorsement of O’Rourke this way:  
When, in the course of human events, a people become so divided among themselves that they can no longer engage in meaningful political discourse or even remain civil to one another, it is time to take bold steps forward.
Then they go on reminding us how Ted Cruz has contributed to the divisions in the country.
The endorsement reminds us that President Ronald Reagan and Speaker Tip O’Neill used to talk to each other. Indeed they did!  It happened because the late Speaker O’Neill was not a socialist, left-leaning Democrat intoxicated with some derangement syndrome.
Then they tell us that they love Beto’s tone. They really love Beto, don’t they?  
In fact, O’Rourke has contributed little to uniting the country, from frantic calls to impeach President Trump or voting to keep abortion legal after 20 weeks to taking positions out of step with Texas.
But they love Beto, don’t they?   Like President Obama, Beto is the change we’ve been waiting for.   
Then the Dallas Morning News really gets silly:   
O’Rourke is no conservative Democrat.  
His positions on taxes, immigration, the judiciary, federal regulations and health care are further to the left than many statewide voters would like.  
But he is shattering expectations in a state where Democrats haven’t won a statewide race in decades. 
The dollars he has raised and the number of supporters he has garnered are evidence of an embedded hunger in this state and country for a campaign that’s based on unifying communities.
In the divisive times in which we live, we believe that tone and leadership are the top issues with which to judge these candidates’ tenures in office.  
So we’re placing a bet on Beto.
Yes, Beto is shattering expectations because he is the darling of San Francisco and raising money from left-wing corners.  Beto’s phony message of unity hides his voting record, a heck of a lot closer to Nancy Pelosi than our last Democrat Senator Lloyd Bentsen.   
My good guess is that Texas is not ready to place a bet on Beto.    
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.




Tags: The Dallas Morning News for Beto To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Red state Democrats screaming



Tags: Red state Democrats screaming To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Thursday's show: The packages and selective indignation plus other stories of the day


Thursday's show:  
The packages and selective indignation plus other stories of the day





Tags: Selective indignation and the packages To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Thursday's video: The bombs and too much selective indignation


Thursday's video:  
The bombs and too much selective indignation




Tags: Selective indignation and the bombs To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The Democrats cannot avoid the caravan

Image result for the mexico caravan images
Like the Mexican flags that killed immigration reform in 2007, the caravan is doing more to promote the construction of a fence than any speech by President Trump.
The Democrats want to talk health care but the front-page stories will not let them.  In fact, their silence is putting them at odds with more and more voters who see this as a national security problem.   
More troubling, their silence may communicate a certain “consent” or disregard for U.S. borders, as John Kaas wrote:   
Democratic leaders want their members to stay silent.
And there’s one thing about silence.
“Chi tace acconsente,” says my barber, Raffaele Raia. “He who is silent says ‘yes’. The silence is the consent.”
And so, whatever you call this, it may just be the event that finally compels Americans to think long and hard about why a sovereign nation would even bother to have borders at all.
But calling the mass of people moving through Central America a caravan is just a bit too precious, isn’t it?
Depending on your politics, you’ve probably already called it something. 
Or, you may have followed the example of Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer, who’ve found a nice pile of warm sand and stuck their heads in there.
That’s correct.  Silence is consent.  
The Democrats have only themselves to blame for this political mess.  They’ve promoted a position about border security and illegal immigration that makes no sense.  
Yesterday, I was talking to a good Mexican friend who has lived in North Texas for much of his life.  He is not anti-Trump but does not love the Democrats either.  He told me something critical:  he said that it’s okay to do something about DACA or create work visas to legalize people who’ve been here for a long time.   Then he added that this is different.  This is a humanitarian time bomb.  What happens when these people march down Mexico’s roads and face hundreds of buses and truck drivers on deadlines.  What happens if they have to cross a river?  How many drown?  
Finally, this is really a nightmare for Mexico.  This is why I continue to say that Mexico will eventually stop the caravan.
Speaking of politics, I’d like to meet the expert who thought that a caravan two weeks before the election would hurt President Trump?  I’d love to chat with that guy. 
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Tags: The Democrats can not avoid the caravan To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The New York Times and your selective indignation story of the day


Related image


The news media, and of course The New York Times, is in full outrage mode about those bombs sent to President Obama, Secretary Clinton, VP Biden and others.
For the record, let me say that I oppose sending anyone anything that may or may not be a bomb.  I trust that the FBI will discover the source of the packages and arrest the person.  In other words, there is no need for that in our politics.
On the day after the “bombs”, The New York Times decided to publish a fiction story about the assassination of President Trump.   Here is a bit of the story:
One of the short stories on the Times’ online Book Review page – to be published in Sunday’s print edition – is titled, “How it Ends,” by Zoe Sharp – a chilling story about a drunken Russian’s plot to murder the president with a Makarov pistol. Sharp’s particular story doesn’t mention Trump by name, but it’s no secret as the collection of stories is headlined, “Five novelists imagine Trump’s next chapter.”
Talk about bad taste and bad timing.
We love fiction but this is not a good time to publish stories about the assassination of a president and the Mueller probe.  It reminds me of that despicable movie about the assassination of President Bush years ago.
The New York Times needs to clean up its act before lecturing anyone about civility.

Tags: Indignation and civility To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Wednesday's show: The Texas elections and the caravans in the midterms with George Rodriguez


Wednesday's show:  
The Texas elections and the caravans in the midterms with George Rodriguez





Tags: Texas elections, the caravan and the midterms To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Wednesday's video: The Democrats and the caravan

Image result for extreme democrats cartoons

Wednesday's video:   
The Democrats and the caravan







Tags: The Democrats and the caravan To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Bolsonaro looking like a winner in Brazil

Image result for bolsonaro images

You can’t make this up.  A candidate for president is stabbed and nearly bleeds to death waiting for the ambulance.  He recovers and almost wins in the first round from a hospital bed.  His campaign is about killing criminals, putting troops on the border, and privatizing state enterprises.
We are talking about Jair Bolsonaro, who looks more and more like the next president of Brazil.
His latest remarks are rather amazing, but it’s the Bolsanaro that we’ve grown accustomed to:   
The frontrunner in Brazil’s presidential election — far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro — gave a fiery and confrontational speech to supporters on Sunday in which he said he would purge the country of left-wing “criminals”.
“We are the majority. We are the real Brazil. Together, we will build a new nation,” he said. “These red criminals will be banished from our homeland.”
The speech pleased supporters but sent a chilling message to political rivals and raised further concerns about how Bolsonaro would rule in Brazil.
“Bolsonaro is doubling down on his campaign strategy,” said Matias Spektor, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo. 
“This is an election about change and anger.”
How is this man winning?  The election is about change and anger.
I have spoken to several Brazilians in our area.  
One of them said that this is the Brazilian Trump, the man who is going to shake things up.  
Another admits that Bolsonaro often speaks too sharply but they are voting to save the country from corruption and crony capitalism.  
Another told me about the out-of-control violence. She told me that Brazilian mothers are scared to send their kids to school, especially the young men who are being recruited for gangs.
I asked another about Bolsonaro’s disparaging remarks about women, LGBT values, homosexuals and others.  His response was rather remarkable: “Brazil is a very conservative country.  Bolsonaro is taking about moral decay.”
So here we are.  It looks like a former military man who wants to put the army in the streets to stop criminals will be the next president of Brazil.   
Based on the polls, Brazil is ready to make him president. He leads 57-43% — what we could call a landslide in the U.S.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Tags: Bolsonaro in Brazil To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The Democrats want to talk health care but the caravan spoiled that plan........



Tags: The Democrats and the caravan  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Tuesday's show: Trump in Texas, Bolsonaro in Brazil, the caravan and other stories


Tuesday's show:   
Trump in Texas, Bolsonaro in Brazil, the caravan and other stories





Tags: The caravan to the US, Trump in Texas, Brazil and Bolsonaro To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Tuesday's video: It looks like Bolsonaro will win in Brazil

Image result for bolsonaro images

Tuesday's video:  
It looks like Bolsonaro will win in Brazil








Tags: Brazil 2018 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Search This Blog