Thursday, April 30, 2015

“Boys without fathers” and lousy public schools equals Baltimore

There are two parts to this Baltimore story.
The first one is an incompetent mayor who did not protect the citizens or private property.  In other words, The National Guard should have been on the streets after people were stuck at Orioles Stadium on Saturday night.
There is no room for dithering when mobs are about to torch your city.   It was obvious on Saturday night that Baltimore could burn and burn quickly.    
The mayor failed the people of the city.
The second one is a bit more complicated, or the state of young males in Baltimore and other inner cities.  
“We know what the problems are, essentially there are two problems.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said that the one rule of any society is to socialize its young males and it’s the young males who are out there rioting yesterday and there are two issues in the inner cities.
One is single parenthood and the other is the worst schools on earth.
Of the first, we have no idea how to solve that, of the second, we do.
If you can’t improve the schools, give the kids a choice to go to better schools.
The parents begged to have that opportunity but the teachers unions won’t allow it and thus the Democrats won’t. If you want to do something, let them choose their school.”  
Yes, it’s time to say “Where are the fathers”?  
It’s also time to allow parents in the inner cities to “choose” a school.   The corrupt relationship between the Democrats and the teachers’ union has been devastating for minority children.
Tags: Boys without fathers and lousy public schools equals Baltimore  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Dear Justices: Don't pull a Roe v Wade on same sex marriage

Ten years ago, David Brooks wrote a rather profound column. It was in the context of a Supreme Court nomination. This is what he wrote:
Justice Harry Blackmun did more inadvertent damage to our democracy than any other 20th-century American. When he and his Supreme Court colleagues issued the Roe v. Wade decision, they set off a cycle of political viciousness and counter-viciousness that has poisoned public life ever since, and now threatens to destroy the Senate as we know it.
When Blackmun wrote the Roe decision, it took the abortion issue out of the legislatures and put it into the courts. If it had remained in the legislatures, we would have seen a series of state-by-state compromises reflecting the views of the centrist majority that's always existed on this issue. These legislative compromises wouldn't have pleased everyone, but would have been regarded as legitimate.
Instead, Blackmun and his concurring colleagues invented a right to abortion, and imposed a solution more extreme than the policies of just about any other comparable nation.
Mr Brooks is right on.   

 Every judicial nomination is now a national debate about abortion.    

 Will you uphold Roe v Wade?  Will you overturn it?   

This is why issues like abortion, or same sex marriage, should be settled in the political arena.  Let the voters argue and force their legislators to vote up or down on the issue.If the court "creates" a right to same sex marriage, then every future nomination to the Supreme Court will turn into a debate about the definition of marriage.

By the way, the supporters of same sex marriage say that the polls are with them. So why are they afraid of a debate?  Wouldn't they win if the wind is blowing in their direction?

 I have no idea what the Supreme Court will decide.  My sense is that there are 4 "yes" votes.   My sense is that there are 3 "no" votes.   It leaves Mr Kennedy & Mr Roberts up in the air.   

 Let's hope that 5 Justices do the right thing and send it back to voters.  Let "same sex marriage" happen at the legislatures.   

 Why?  It will be more legitimate or sort of the way that you accept that the other guy won the election!

 I hope that every Justice reads Mr Brooks' column and ponders what they are about to do with same sex marriage.

P.S. You can hear my show ( CantoTalk ) or  follow me on Twitter   
Tags: Same sex marriage and Roe v Wade  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Mexico and other US Latin America stories of the week


GUESTS:  Fausta Rodriguez Wertz, editor of Fausta's Blog, joins me for our weekly review of US-Latin America stories......the latest about the discontent in Brazil, the murder of Alberto Nisman in Argentina.....
we will also hear from Barnard Thompson, editor of Mexidata.info, one of the best websites covering Mexico.....we will ask Mr Thompson about the upcoming mid-term elections in Mexico and President Pena-Nieto's standing with the public.....the US-Mexico relationship.....
Click to listen:

Check Out Politics Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

-Tags: Mexico 2015 politics, US-Latin America, Argentina, Venezuela and President Maduro, Marches and corruption 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!
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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Don’t blame Republicans…..Baltimore is another exhibit that Democrats are not helping black people

The Democrats are up to their old tricks…..blaming everything on racism and the GOP.
Unfortunately for them, the truth does not support their latest explanations, as John Nolte explained today:
“Contrary to the emotional blackmail some leftists are attempting to peddle, Baltimore is not America’s problem or shame. That failed city is solely and completely a Democrat problem. Like many failed cities, Detroit comes to mind, and every city besieged recently by rioting, Democrats and their union pals have had carte blanche to inflict their ideas and policies on Baltimore since 1967, the last time there was a Republican Mayor.
In 2012, after four years of his own failed policies, President Obama won a whopping87.4% of the Baltimore City vote. Democrats run the city of Baltimore, the unions, the schools, and, yes, the police force. Since 1969, there have only been only been two Republican governors of the State of Maryland.”
The story of Baltimore is the failure of Democrat policies.   It’s time to hold the Democrats responsible and accountable for the despair in Baltimore.
There is no “hope and change” in Baltimore.    The “change we've been waiting for” never got to Baltimore.
Finally, President Obama approved a $ 787 billion stimulus in 2009.    Did any of those dollars go to help the city of Baltimore?
It’s time for honest talk rather than the same canard about racism!
Tags: Baltimore and Democrats  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Hillary Clinton pandering to the left by going against President Clinton’s policies?

Candidate Hillary Clinton addressed the crisis in Baltimore.   She spoke in generalities but her comments confirm that she’s really scared of a left wing challenge.
It sounded like Hillary Clinton was attacking her husband’s policies from the 1990s.   This is from The Washington Post:
“Tough-on-crime policies that emphasized arrests and convictions for relatively minor offenses have failed the country, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday, leading to overcrowded prisons and too many black men “missing” from their families and communities.
“We need to restore balance to our criminal justice system,” Clinton told an audience at Columbia University in New York.
Calling for an “end to the era of mass incarceration,” Clinton endorsed body cameras for police nationwide to record interactions between officers and potential suspects.
Making her most specific policy proposals since launching her campaign earlier this month, Clinton said it’s time for a nationwide overhaul of what she called misguided and failed policing and prison strategies.
In effect, she was saying that policies put in place when her husband Bill Clinton was president have not worked.
Clinton did not mention her husband or identify exactly which laws and sentencing policies she thought had gone wrong.
But many of those policies grew out of the crackdown on drug crimes and other nonviolent offenses that took place before and during Bill Clinton’s presidency 20 years ago.”
So is this Clinton running against Clinton?   Or is it a case of Clinton not knowing what her husband signed into law?  
My guess is that this is Hillary Clinton pandering to the left.  She is scared to death of a challenge from the left.  
As usual, Hillary Clinton did not take questions from the media.   I guess that she has concluded that “questions from the press” is for the GOP candidates.
Tags: Clinton vs Clinton, Clinton pandering to the left  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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My Memories of a Different Baltimore

(My new American Thinker post)

 In the mid-1970s, I went to college in the Baltimore area. I saw the incredible renaissance of Baltimore, from the Inner Harbor to the baseball stadium.

 It was a remarkable story made possible by responsible politicians like the late Mayor William Schaeffer, businessmen who put their money where their mouth is, and lots of citizens who came together for the common good.

Last summer, I went back to Baltimore to attend a family wedding. We walked around the downtown area and it was great. We attended a July 4th fireworks show by the water and it was a delight to see people walking around the new Baltimore.

This is why it was so sad to watch the events in Baltimore over the last couple of days.

 It was pathetic to watch the mayor say: “I wanted to give space to those who wished to destroy...”!

Are you kidding me? Her words were the green light to criminals and red light to police over matched by mobs throwing stones. I agree with Richard Manning:
When the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect the people and property of a community know that their elected boss believes that the lawbreakers are justified in creating mayhem, it destroys the resolve to provide that security.  
When the people know that the police have been told to stand down anarchy is sure to follow. Then the law-abiding will lock their doors and imprison themselves while the lawless run free. And when tourists or those who live outside a city feel that it is unsafe to enjoy the entertainment provided in that town, they stay away.
The net effect of this lawlessness is that minority-owned businesses will think twice about investing in the city. Tourists will reconsider their visit to the historic sites of Baltimore. And sadly, the criminals will get away with it, specially when charlatans like Al Sharpton drop in for their victim show.

 Again, this is sad.

It's time for President Obama to come out and assure the Baltimore multi-racial police force that he's got their back!   

P.S. You can hear my show (CantoTalk) or follow me on Twitter.
Tags: Baltimore riots 2015  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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The Democrats in 2016 with Barry Casselman, The Prairie Editor


Tags: Democrats 2016, Clinton 2016  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Clintons: Prove Schweizer wrong

Like most of you, I have not read the book.  And yes, Mr. Schweizer comes from the right.  Maybe he has an agenda.  Maybe he is on a mission to destroy Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
So here is my challenge to the Clintons: prove him wrong!  Prove that his story is wrong.
Hold a press conference, answer questions, and let your lawyers tear up the book.
I agree with Mike Lupica:
If this book is nothing more than another smear by a member of the bullhorn right, nothing more than a hatchet job by a former flunky for the George W. Bush administration — and, boy, is that some job reference — then it isn’t Bill Clinton’s job to call out the author, nor a job for members of Hillary Clinton’s staff. If this is all a lie then she is the one who has to go right at Schweizer, whether she helps sell his book for him or not.
This isn’t about the risks of dignifying a smear by addressing it. We’re way past that, because of the coverage “Clinton Cash” is getting from legitimate media. This is about correcting the record about foreign money that has flowed into the Clinton Foundation, starting with the $2.35 million donated to the foundation by some rich Canadian mining entrepreneurs at the same time they were selling a uranium company to a state-owned Russian nuclear energy company.
It was a deal, by the way, on which the federal government, which includes the State Department, had to sign off. On top of that there was no disclosure about this money from Bill Clinton’s foundation, which means the people in charge were negligent or sloppy or both, opening themselves to at least the suggestion from such as Schweizer that this was some backdoor shakedown.
So let’s get started.  The Clintons owe that to the Democrats!
My guess is that the Clintons’ game will continue.
First, they will send Lanny Davis to Fox News to say that there is nothing wrong with anything.
Second, they will send James Carville to MSNBC.  Carville will entertain the hosts, and the two people watching the network, with some Southern slang and more about “right-wing talking points.”
Third, they will try to destroy the author rather than challenge the contents of the book, as Josh Green said.
Fourth, going after the author probably won’t work this time, as Eleanor Clift wrote.
We have seen this movie or before.
The big difference is that we had 4% unemployment when they went after Monica Lewinski in 1998.  Frankly, most of the country was too busy making money to care.  And most people thought it was about inappropriate behavior with a young woman.
It’s different now, especially since Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy is a mess and there are millions of dollars going into the family pockets.
This is not going away, because the Clintons are either blatantly careless or just corrupt.
Nevertheless, I will be happy to hear the Clinton defense, especially if Mrs. Clinton decides to speak about the issue.  Let the debate start!
P.S. You can hear my show (CantoTalk) or follow me on Twitter
Tags: Clinton vs Schweizer  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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The “Guantanamo” 6 should move to Mujica’s home

Before leaving office, President Mujica of Uruguay took 6 of “Gitmo’s finest”, or some of the worst criminals and terrorists sitting in that prison.    
It started out as a little “leftist play” by the very leftist Mujica.  Like many in the left, Mr Mujica never understood why these men were sitting in prison.
My guess is that no one is laughing anymore at Mr Mujica’s move.
This is the latest as reported by The NY Times:
“Uruguay’s foreign minister said Monday that six former Guantanamo Bay detainees resettled here will be out of a house and off public assistance unless they agree to terms they have so far rejected, the latest in an increasingly public battle over who is financially responsible for the men and for how long.
Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa made the statements to reporters as four of the men kept up a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy that they began Friday, spending the nights with sleeping bags.
The agreement drawn up by a local agency that works with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees promises the men free private housing through February 2016 and a continuation of the monthly stipend of $600 (15,000 pesos) that they have been receiving since arriving.
“If they don’t sign, they won’t receive any income,” Nin Novoa said.”
I feel bad for the good people of Uruguay.   They are now stuck with 6 criminals who have no plans to adjust or conform to a Western way of life.
This is Mujica’s little mess.  I guess that Mujica never understood why these 6 men were in Guantanamo.
Hopefully, people in Uruguay will learn two important truths about the men in Guantanamo:
1) They are terrorists not victims; and,
2) This is why most countries have not taken men from the prison.   The US has been offering to relocate these men but most countries say no.   Wonder why?
Maybe Mr Mujica should have done his homework before bringing these 6 problems to Uruguay.  The US government never agreed to support or provide any assistance for the six men.   They were flown to Uruguay with no guarantees.   
What do we do now?   Let’s start by having the 6 terrorists move in with Mr Mujica!  
He should be responsible for them since he made this mess possible in the first place.
Tags: GITMO, Mujica and Uruguay  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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The latest on US-Cuba talks with Jorge Ponce


GUEST:  Jorge Ponce, Cuban American writer and contributor to Babalu Blog.....We will look at the latest in US-Cuba talks......the removal of Cuba as a terrorist nation........the impact of the Cuba decision on 2016 politics......also a quick update on an upcoming show with Professor Alfred Lopez about his new book about Jose Marti.....

 Click to listen:
Check Out Politics Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

Tags: US-Cuba issues, Cuba talks and 2016  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Monday, April 27, 2015

Should the Democrats nominate someone who skates ‘close to the line on ethics’?

(My new American Thinker post)

The ongoing Clinton scandal is just the latest. I agree completely with the Washington Post:
SERVICE AT the highest levels of the United States government demands a certain instinctive sensitivity to right and wrong when it comes to ethics. 
So much can happen belowdecks that a Cabinet member or president must set high standards and expect that subordinates will follow the example. 
This is why the latest disclosures about the Clinton Foundation’s donors raise new concerns about Hillary Clinton’s presidential quest.
Yes, the concern is simple: Can you trust them? I say “them” because both Clintons will be living in the White House if she wins.   
Are the Clintons capable of putting their desire for wealth above the nation?   
The uranium deal raises lots of questions about that, as the editorial explains:
When the Russians sought to expand their holdings to 51 percent of the company, it required approval of the U.S. government, including the State Department, when Ms. Clinton was secretary of state. The transaction was approved in 2010. More donations to the Clinton Foundation — millions of dollars — flowed from people connected to Uranium One. 
The same month the sale went through, the former president gave a talk in Moscow sponsored by an investment bank for $500,000. The investment bank was promoting stock in Uranium One. Though there is no evidence of a quid pro quo, on the merits the deal was bad for U.S. interests: Vladi­mir Putin can now boast of control of more than a fifth of U.S. uranium reserves.
The Clintons have sought to do good works with their foundation, but this is not about the works. It is about the fundraising, both for the charity and for the Clintons’ personal benefit. Besides the Uranium One money, millions more dollars have been contributed by foreign governments and interests with a stake in State Department decisions, or in a future president. 
Bill Clinton, The Post reported, has raked in close to $100 million in speaking fees between 2001 and 2013, a staggering sum that far exceeds the self-marketing of any other president.
It smells bad. It raises a simple question: Are these people honest? Are they interested in promoting themselves or the nation’s interest?
The Clintons, and the Carvilles and Begalas of the world will say that there is nothing in writing connecting the donations to public decisions.
That’s true!  At the same time, there is enough circumstantial evidence here to argue that the Clintons were looking out for themselves and not the country.
It’s up to the Democrats now. They can send their voters, and the nation, a message that they don’t like this anymore than the rest of us do. They can start by demanding that Bill and Hillary Clinton answer questions about this scandal.
Chelsea Clinton is a very nice young woman. However, she shouldn’t be the only Clinton explaining what this is all about.
P.S. You can hear my show (CantoTalk) or follow me on Twitter.    We discussed the Clinton scandals on Sunday's show:




Tags: Clinton Foundation, Clinton 2016  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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The Clinton Foundation and other stories with Bill Katz, editor of Urgent Agenda



Tags: Iran nuclear deal, The Clinton Foundation, Clinton 2016, GOP 2016  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Time for Democrats to take their party from the Clintons

We learned that Common Cause is calling for an audit of the Clinton Foundation:
The financial issues plaguing Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign have become too much even for liberal groups, and now Common Cause is calling for an independent audit of donations to the Clinton Foundation.
Amid suggestions that foreign governments donated to the foundation in hopes of getting special treatment from President Obama’s State Department when Clinton was his top diplomat, the group on Friday said a “thorough review” is needed.
“Six years ago, at Mrs. Clinton’s confirmation hearing for her appointment as secretary of state, then-Sen. Dick Lugar observed that ‘that foreign governments and entities may perceive the Clinton Foundation as a means to gain favor with the secretary of state.’ He was right, and his remarks remain relevant today as Mrs. Clinton seeks the presidency,” said Common Cause President Miles Rapoport.
It’s about time.
The Clintons’ reckless behavior has been consequential:
First, our national security, including President Obama’s schedule and other very serious information, was potentially compromised because Hillary Clinton is obsessed with secrecy.
Second, a deal with the Russians regarding uranium was completed, and it stinks.
Amy Davidson of the New Yorker has a good post about this deal.  It asks five important questions, including this one:
Did the Clintons personally profit? In most stories about dubious foundation donors, the retort from Clinton supporters is that the only beneficiaries have been the world’s poorest people. This ignores the way vanity and influence are their own currencies—but it is an argument, and the foundation does some truly great work. In this case, though, Bill Clinton also accepted a five-hundred-thousand-dollar speaking fee for an event in Moscow, paid for by a Russian investment bank that had ties to the Kremlin. That was in June, 2010, the Times reports, “the same month Rosatom struck its deal for a majority stake in Uranium One”—a deal that the Russian bank was promoting and thus could profit from. Did Bill Clinton do anything to help after taking their money? The Times doesn’t know. But there is a bigger question: Why was Bill Clinton taking any money from a bank linked to the Kremlin while his wife was Secretary of State? In a separate story, breaking down some of the hundred million dollars in speaking fees that Bill Clinton has collected, theWashington Post notes, “The multiple avenues through which the Clintons and their causes have accepted financial support have provided a variety of ways for wealthy interests in the United States and abroad to build friendly relations with a potential future president.”
This deal, and everything else about this Foundation, stinks!
By the way, where was President Obama during all of this?  Did anybody tell him what was going on?
Glad to see that Common Cause and some in liberal media circles are asking questions.
Yes, liberals need to demand more from a presidential candidate than full devotion to Roe v. Wade, an evolution on same-sex marriage, or “we need a woman in the Oval Office.”
We also need an honest person, and the Clintons are not honest people, no matter how many millions went to help little children in Haiti!
P.S. You can hear my show (CantoTalk) or follow me on Twitter.
Tags: Clinton Foundation, Clinton corruption  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Conflicts of interests. the Clintons and other stuff with Jim Yardley



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Saturday, April 25, 2015

A chat with Richard Baehr of American Thinker


GUEST:  Richard Baehr, Chief Political Correspondent of American Thinker, joins me for a discussion of the Clinton Foundation story.....how damaging are the allegations or the upcoming book will be.....what are the possibilities of a challenge to Secretary Clinton....the mess in the Middle East and how it may impact Mrs Clinton's 2016 campaign....PLUS a quick look at the 2016 GOP race............

 Click to hear:
Check Out Politics Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio
Tags: Iran, Iraq, ISIS, The Clinton Foundation  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Friday, April 24, 2015

Cuba and Russia 2015



Tags: Putin and Castro, Russia and Cuba  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Hillary Clinton conveniently evolving

We are all familiar with then-Senator Obama defending traditional marriage in 2008. Mr. Obama used Christianity and God to justify his position.
We learned later from Mr. Axelrod that the whole thing may have been just a little “lie” to appeal to black Americans. In other words, he was always for same-sex marriage but did not have the courage to share that with voters in 2008.
The latest discovery is Hillary Clinton in 2004, or back in the days when she was a hawk on Iraq and defending traditional marriage.
This is what Mrs Clinton said in 2004:
…the fundamental bedrock principle that exists between a man and a woman, going back into the mists of history as one of the founding, foundational institutions of history and humanity and civilization, and that its primary, principal role during those millennia has been the raising and socializing of children for the society into which they are to become adults.
My guess is that many in the left will conveniently file this under “evolution” or people discovering that they are on the wrong side of history.
Yes, people change and that’s OK. We remember that President Nixon went to China after being anti-communist # 1 for years. President Bush changed on taxes and accepted increases as part of a 1990 deal with Congress.  
However, is Mrs Clinton’s change an honest reappraisal or just cynical pandering to the left? We do remember how she “positioned” herself and opposed the 2007 for purely political reasons.    
I think that she is pandering on the issue of marriage. She just does not have the courage to keep her former position on marriage.
Profile in courage? More like profiles in poll reading.
Question:  What other issues will we learn that she has evolved on?   
P.S. You can hear my show (CantoTalk) or follow me on Twitter.
Tags: Hillary Clinton evolving on same sex marriage  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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The Middle East & other national security issues with Barry Jacobsen


GUEST:  Barry Jacobsen, blogger and military historian.....we will look at the Middle East crisis.....ISIS in Iraq and Syria.....the implosion in Yemen.....Israel in the middle of the regional crisis...........Saudi Arabia.....US ships heading to Yemen.....an update on the war on terror.........Jordan and other friends in the region....Russia selling missiles to Iran....the Iran nuclear deal..........

 Click to listen:
Check Out Politics Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio
Tags: Iran in Iraq, Yemen, Middle East  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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