Wednesday May 31: Commotion in Austin over sanctuary cities and a few other thoughts....click to listen....... https://t.co/olyoPFRW7Z— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 31, 2017
Cartoonish depictions of Brazil’s president are so popular that his office is trying to restrict access to his pictures — so they don’t get turned into lampoons on social media.Some Brazilians joke that a bold outsider — like Tite, the coach turning around the fortunes of Brazil’s national soccer team — should run the country instead.Maybe his star player, Neymar, could become finance minister, they say.Then there’s the growing chorus of Brazilians who contend that the presidency should be abolished altogether, replaced by citizens making decisions via the instant-messaging service WhatsApp.Once again, Brazil has found itself in upheaval, with President Michel Temer engulfed in a graft scandal that is threatening his presidency.Now, amid all the hand-wringing, anger and exasperation, the crisis is bolstering Brazil’s tradition of gallows humor, fueling a mix of satire and existential resignation.
At the core of the humor is a sobering nationwide trend: a declining faith in the nation’s democracy.Even before the latest scandal exploded this month, support for democracy in Brazil plunged in 2016 to 32 percent from 54 percent the year earlier, according to Latinobarómetro, a Chilean company that surveys political views around Latin America.Only Guatemala, where President Otto Pérez Molina was forced to resign because of a fraud scandal, ranked lower, with only 30 percent there supporting democracy.
Trump trip & NATO, Leaks to media, Brazil corruption & Miantle 1956..Listen in now at https://t.co/2sxS2xymDu. #BlogTalkRadio— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 30, 2017
Tuesday May 30: President Trump back home, leaks and other thoughts....clip to listen...... https://t.co/2zfgYnSILL— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 30, 2017
On this first overseas tour, President Trump certainly made an indelible impression. In the Middle East, traditional allies will feel reassured that the United States stands with them, especially in reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.In Europe, Trump will probably never be loved, but he is increasingly acknowledged as someone who means business in aggressively advancing US interests, which include strengthening the NATO alliance.In contrast to his predecessor in the White House, President Trump showed no willingness to atone to other world leaders for his country’s actions, and seemed determined to project strength and resolve at a time when American leadership is increasingly being challenged.This was not the “leading from behind” approach of the Obama era, but a return to a more traditionally assertive US foreign policy based on clear-cut national interests.
The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda......Listen in now at https://t.co/Az2LXdMFm1. #BlogTalkRadio— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 29, 2017
The current pro-Democratic — or, more accurately, anti-Trump — environment helps on that front in two ways.It convinces top-tier Democratic recruits that 2018 might be the year for them to run for Congress. And it serves as the tipping point for Republicans teetering on the edge of retirement.Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s retirement in Florida is one example; she leaves behind an open seat race where Democrats are favored.The critical question, of course, is what the political environment looks like next November.And, as Gonzales and Cook note, that’s impossible to say today. But, as Gonzales rightly adds:“Time should not be an excuse to ignore the fact that history and the current political dynamic favors Democrats and are good reasons to watch the fight for the House.”He’s 100% right. The wave looks to be forming.Could it fizzle out before it ever comes close to swamping Republicans?Of course!But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep a very close eye on it.We should.
Montana election, Trump & NATO, John Wayne 1907 & Memorial Day weekend 2017.... Listen in now at tobtr.com/s/10042505. #BlogTalkRadio
Friday May 26: An election in Montana, NATO, Memorial Day & John Wayne 1907....click to listen.... https://t.co/OlmEXNMQP7— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 26, 2017
Besieged by protests, Brazil’s president on Wednesday deployed federal troops to restore order in the capital, Brasília, after demonstrators calling for his ouster clashed with security forces.Defense Minister Raul Jungmann went on national television on Wednesday afternoon to insist that President Michel Temer was only trying to restore calm in the capital by calling in the troops to patrol some areas. One of the city’s iconic modernist buildings, the Agriculture Ministry, was set on fire, and other government buildings were vandalized during the mayhem. Regional officials in Brasília put the number of protesters on Wednesday around 35,000.“A protest that was supposed to be peaceful deteriorated into violence, vandalism and disrespect,” Mr. Jungmann said.While supporters of the move say the capital must remain calm and functioning, the use of the armed forces in Brazil touches a nerve among critics of the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985, a period known for human rights abuses and the restriction of civil liberties.Jairo Nicolau, a professor of political science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said the move to call in the armed forces was a “mistake.”
If you ask regular folks what Democrats want to do to the economy, not many will mention growth as the goal. (This is partly due to broad anti-business rhetoric that is directed toward Wall Street or multinationals but manages to scare off entrepreneurs and small businesses too.)The Democratic economic goal is more likely to be described as about fairness, regulation, taxation or redistribution.And if you ask folks how the Democrats plan to accomplish their economic goal(s), you often get a blank look. We are wonky people and usually have a ten point plan with multiple sub-points about jobs and the economy.Complexity doesn’t communicate well and we seldom deliver an economic message that really sticks.My 23 years in state, local and federal politics have convinced me that Democrats will always lose on economic messaging unless we have a simple and compelling growth strategy. If the Republicans pitch growth and we pitch anything else, we lose.We can sometimes make it up on other issues, but why start behind on people’s key concern?
Wednesday May 24: Terror in Manchester, Trump overseas, impeachment & Bob Dylan is 76....click to listen.... https://t.co/C2tVu9PRqZ— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 24, 2017
If you think what happened in Blighty can’t happen here — 19 killed, 59 injured — you’ll have to excuse me if I say “You’re out of your bloomin’ mind.” Did you already forget 9/11/2001? Or the Boston Marathon? Or San Bernardino? Or the Orlando gay bar attack less than a year ago that killed 49?Oh, yeah. Seems so long ago, doesn’t it, even that last one? The “new normal.” We put these things out of our minds the week after to deal with the next trivial Washington scandal or go about our petty lives.Our culture lives in a self-destructive willful blindness, refusing to see the obvious even though it happens again and again across the globe.Radical Islam, Islamism, or whatever you want to call it has been at war with us since the Twin Towers came down and even well before. And they have no intention whatsoever of stopping.Nevertheless we respond in the most perfunctory manner, nattering on about how Islam is a”religion of peace,” criticizing ourselves and others for “Islamophbia,” or dismissing it all as a police matter.
Tuesday May 23: A chat with Leslie Eastman and Dawn Wildman.....click to listen.... https://t.co/wU2D5ENk79— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 23, 2017
The Trump administration gave Congress official notice on Thursday that it plans to renegotiate Nafta but provided only the vaguest of hints about modest changes President Trump would seek to an agreement that he has called “the worst trade deal ever.”In a brief letter to lawmakers, Robert Lighthizer, the newly confirmed United States trade representative, said the administration aimed to support economic growth and better-paying jobs through unspecified improvements to Nafta that would modernize the 23-year-old agreement. But the notice — a drastically scaled-back version of a draft the administration circulated this year — promised no major modifications of the sort that the president has hinted he will seek.Mr. Trump had threatened to withdraw completely from the agreement, only to relent in late April when the leaders of Canada and Mexico, the other parties to the deal, called and asked him to renegotiate instead. Sonny Perdue, his secretary of agriculture, also presented Mr. Trump with a map illustrating the potential negative consequences for American farmers if the deal were shut down.
From Montana to the suburbs of Atlanta, voters are getting a steady diet of commercials from the Democratic candidates that focus on GOP plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act without enough protections for those who have preexisting health conditions.They’re talking about tax breaks for the middle class and small businesses, blasting their opponents for helping special interests.
“Two-thirds of Americans think the Democrats are out of touch — including nearly half of Democrats themselves.”
Sunday May 21: The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda....click to listen.... https://t.co/LmuQbOJMd3— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) May 21, 2017
Outraged Hispanic police groups are boycotting the Puerto Rican Day Parade next month because the event will celebrate a pardoned terrorist linked to one of the deadliest groups ever to target New York.The NYPD Hispanic Society and the Rafael Ramos Foundation have pulled out of the June 11 Fifth Avenue march after it was announced that former FALN kingpin Oscar Lòpez Rivera will be honored as a “National Freedom Hero” at the event.Rivera, 74, had his 70-year sentence commuted by outgoing President Barack Obama in January. He had spent nearly 36 years in prison on conspiracy charges for his ties to the Puerto Rican nationalist group, which was responsible for more than 100 bombings in the 1970s and ’80s – including a 1982 blast at NYPD headquarters that left an officer maimed and a 1975 attack that killed four at Fraunces Tavern in the Financial District.
