Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Rubio vs The NY Times again


In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I have not committed to any candidate in 2016.  In other words, I want to watch them over the next few months and select the one that is most electable and better suited to navigate through some very choppy waters ahead.

Senator Rubio is in my short list, along with Governor Walker of Wisconsin, Governor Bush of Florida, Governor Perry of Texas and Governor Kasich of Ohio.     As you can see, I like governors.   Senator Rubio is on my list because he has two important qualities:  A Reagan-esque ability to communicate conservative principles and a sound foreign policy.
"Mr. Rubio has acknowledged missteps: using personal credit cards to pay for his campaigns (a bad idea, he said); appointing his wife, Jeanette, as a treasurer of a political action committee (ill advised, he said); and using the party money for the reunion trip (an accident, he said). Mr. Rubio, in his 2012 memoir, “An American Son,” confessed a “lack of bookkeeping skills” and an “imperfect accounting system.”
In private conversations, Mr. Rubio has told friends that he learned how to manage money through trial and error. His poor, immigrant parents — his father a bartender, his mother a hotel maid — had little money to manage, he told them.
In a statement to The New York Times, Mr. Rubio said, “Like most Americans, I know what it’s like for money to be a limited resource and to have to manage it accordingly.”
He added: “Our primary financial motivation over the last 15 years has not been to become wealthy. It has been to provide for our children a happy upbringing and the chance at a great future.”"
OK so Marco Rubio had to raise a family and pay his bills?  Sounds pretty normal to me, at least those of us who did not inherit wealth.
The New York Times' sudden obsession with the Rubio's finances is silly, specially when we get daily reports about the Clintons and their money.
Last, but not least, the financial expert quoted in The NY Times story made a financial contribution to the Obama campaign.    The NY Times did not mention that in the article.    I guess that they couldn't find a financial expert without ties to Obama or any other candidate.
Like most of us, the Rubios could have made better financial decisions or choices over the years.   I will certainly plead guilty to making financial mistakes over my lifetime.
My suggestion to The New York Times is that they should take their curiosity over money over to The Clinton Foundation.   In other words, a former US president, married to a current Secretary of State, accepted a lot of money over there.
Maybe the NY Times should knock on The Clinton Foundation's doors and do a little digging!  They will find a lot more consequential information at that place.   
P. S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.   
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Still undecided.......but I like Governor Scott Walker a lot




Tags: Governor Walker 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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Romania 25 years later

(My new American Thinker post)


Over the last few weeks, I've been reading reports from Dr. Ileana Johnson, author and economist, about her recent trip to Romania.     

 She left communist Romania in 1978 as a young woman.  She and I have different backgrounds but share our experience with communism, although she lived under it longer than I did.

Romania is a small central European nation that borders Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, and Moldova.  They speak Romanian, a language that has a historic connection to the romance languages like Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese.

 After World War II, Romania was taken over by the USSR and turned into a satellite state, a member of the Warsaw Pact. 

 It broke from communism shortly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

 Today, Romania has one of the top 50 GDPs in the world, or $264 billion:    
In 2011, U.S.-Romania trade in goods and services totaled $2,347 million. U.S. agricultural machinery and equipment, energy, environmental technologies, healthcare, information technology, packaging equipment and waste recycling, and chemicals are particularly attractive to Romanian importers. Principal Romanian exports to the United States are fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides, industrial machinery and equipment, metals and metal products, textiles and footwear, and civilian aircraft engines.
Dr. Johnson has traveled before to Romania.  However, this trip had emotional, value given that it was the 25th anniversary of the collapse of communism.
First, she recalled "the rally" that brought down communism:  
On a beautiful sunny morning, May 21, 2015 when the Orthodox celebrated Ascension Day and Sf. Elena, we walked in the beautiful park downtown Brasov set at the foot of Timpa Peak, where a crowd had gathered in front of a large cross and several tombs of the young men and women killed on December 22-26, 1989, during the Revolution that toppled Ceausescu’s brutal communist regime. Some of them came to a rally and some were simply walking through the park. 
Ceaușescu was overthrown and eventually executed.  He was a corrupt dictator, who preached communism and socialism but lived in huge palaces without regard for his countrymen.
Twenty-five years later, Dr. Johnson saw how her homeland had changed.   
She came back with a warning for the US, her adopted homeland:  
There is a saying that goes, “Our country is so beautiful, it is sad that it is inhabited.”   We have so many simple and uneducated people who are easily manipulated by the mass-media, they are voting for the wrong people who control, lie, cheat, and steal. In exchange for a vote, bribes of 5, 10, 15 euros are paid and accepted. And schools are no longer teaching healthy values and morality.    Democracy and freedom are understood as a lack of morals, honesty, personal responsibility, and as a culture of welfare dependency somewhat different from the communist culture of dependency where at least one had to pretend to work.    “We are losing our national identity and it is deplorable.”      Days after the interview I was mulling over the similarities between the fate of our countries in terms of purposeful destruction, curricular indoctrination, moral bankruptcy, banking corruption, crony capitalism, disinformation of the voting populace, and the endemic corruption of the ruling elites.
Romania and the U.S. are obviously different countries.  Nevertheless, the lesson of Romania is that politicians will exploit the dependency that socialism creates.  And it's hard to break that dependency once people realize their vote will keep it going.
P.S. You can hear my chat with Dr. Ileana Johnson here or follow me on Twitter.   



Tags: Romania 1989 vs 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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A look at Romania today with Dr Ileana Johnson


Guest:  Dr Ileana Johnson, author and economist, will join us for a chat about her trip to Romania.........she came to the US from Romania in 1978 and has been a couple of times.....we will discuss the state of Romania 25 years after the communist dictator was toppled......the economy.......concerns about Russia.......perceptions about the US and President Obama......plus some lessons that we may learn about life in her homeland.....

 Click to listen:


Tags: Romania 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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