Friday's video: Get out of the U.N

Get out of the U.N.: https://t.co/BWVcDXrvLt via @YouTube

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 22, 2017

Taxpayer rebellions in the blue states?

The Democrats are hysterical about the Trump tax reform. You’d probably be hysterical too if someone was about to blow up your little kingdom.     

For years, high-tax states benefited by passing the cost to the rest of the country, or allowing their residents to “write off” their state taxes on their IRS return.

In other words, the real losers of Trump tax reform are the state legislatures in California and Illinois, as we see in this article by James Piereson:

The new tax legislation approved this week by Congress and to be signed by President Trump includes a provision that will cap the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) at $10,000 per household. (Businesses will still be allowed to deduct those taxes as business expenses.)

The other provisions of the tax bill—especially the corporate tax rate cut—should encourage investment in the United States and spur faster economic growth. 

But the cap on state and local deductions may be the most significant in terms of its potential political consequences.

Correct! The “blue model” will now require its citizens to pay the real cost of government. My guess is that you will see an exodus of taxpayers and businesses — unless they change their approach to governing.

And you will see a taxpayer rebellion that we have not seen since the Boston Tea Party that sparked the colonies’ rebellion.     

This is why they are in such panic!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

We were talking about abortion when Roberts was nominated in 2005, too!

What can we say about a judge appointed by a Republican president?  He will get a lot of questions about abortion from Democrats.

Roberts, Alito and now Gorsuch got all of those questions.

Let me assume a few things about a judge being considered.

First, he or she will be confirmed unless something very dramatic comes up in the hearings..

Second, he or she will be around for a while.  Based on life expectancy, any judge nominated today will be around for 25 years.   He or she may be around for 3-4 future presidencies. (Judge Stevens was appointed by President Ford in '75 and he lasted for 30 plus years!)

Third, we don't have a clue of what he or she will do in the Court.

So let's drop the politics and just nominate good people of character and integrity.

Speaking of The Supreme Court, Bob Woodward wrote an interesting book a few years ago:

2013: Thumbs up for naming Pope Paul Francis as 'Time Man of the Year'

(My new American Thinker post)

Pope Francis is off to a great start.  After all, how often does a man became person of the year in his first year on the job? 

I like the choice for several reasons:

1) It's nice to see a religious leader, a man who represents millions around the world;

2) He has not started any wars or promised public programs that he can't deliver; and,

3) I like his frank approach to issues.  I may disagree with him here and there but I like the fact that he forces us to talk about these issues.

On abortion and same sex marriage,  Pope Francis is pro-life and believes in traditional marriage.   His comments are about our tone or the language that we use to criticize others. 

That's what I heard!

On matters of social justice, Pope Francs is not a communist or Marxist.   

I've had conversations with Latin American clergy over the years.  They've seen poverty.  Like Pope Francis, they've seen the slums of Rio and other cities.  Capitalism and free market theories look a lot different in those slums.

Our challenge as Catholics is to show the Pope that the best way to help the poor is to empower them.  Maybe he can read some of the works of Hernando de Soto the great Peruvian economist. 

Mr De Soto has called for empowering the poor in Latin America with property rights and the rule of law. He has devoted his life to that cause:   

"De Soto tells these heads of state that their poor citizens are lacking formal legal title to their property and are unable to use their assets as collateral. They cannot get bank loans to expand their businesses or improve their properties. He and his colleagues calculate the amount of "dead capital" in untitled assets held by the world's poor as "at least $9.3 trillion"-a sum that dwarfs the amount of foreign aid given to the developing world since 1945."

It's actually working well in Chile and leaders are listening in Colombia, Peru and others.  It is not working in Venezuela, Cuba & Argentina, the Pope's homeland.

Pope Francis is a great choice.  I believe that Pope Francis' heart is in the right place!

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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August 2005: The attacks on John Roberts were crazy

Back in the summer of 2005, Washington was going crazy again over John Roberts, or President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court.

How can you tell that your opponents are cracking up? Just listen to their rhetoric.

Confident people tell the truth and deal with problems head on. Losers lie, attack and take cheap shots.

Our judicial nominations are out of control, specially when the left fears that Roe v Wade could be overturned.

Iran & Israel: Not much difference between 2007 and 2017!

Back in 2007, I remember reading:  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel should be wiped off the map.

Was I surprised?  Not at all!

Iran has been a terrorist state since President Carter permitted them to hold US diplomats for over a year.

What should we do?

It's time to take Iran very seriously. This is an outlaw nation with lots of oil money and no interest in peace.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Australia not listening to Democrats

Australia not listening to Democrats........Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison warned about the impact of the new US tax law on his country's economy.....first Germany, now Australia......something is happening and the Dems don't have a clue...but what's new about that?....

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 22, 2017

2005: Canada approved same sex marriage

Back in 2005, Canada became the first country in our side of the world to legalize same sex marriage. Based on my reading of Canadian public opinion, same sex marriage is very popular in Quebec, tolerated in Ontario and very unpopular in the Western provinces. In hockey, that would be 1-1-1, or 3 points.

Until recently, Canada and the US were a couple of very conservative and religious countries.    Not so much anymore, as the "same sex marriage" and abortion decisions suggest.

2005 NL MVP: Andruw Jones not Albert Pujols

Remember 2005?  Looking back at my notes, I found this one about the MVP selection that season.

Albert Pujols was selected the NL MVP. 

I disagreed with the choice. I would have voted for Andruw Jones, who led the majors in HRs and plays center better than anyone else in baseball.

Again, I am not saying anything negative against Pujols. However, Jones played a key role in leading the young Braves to the division title.

The Cardinals would have been in the NL Central without Pujols. The Braves would have faded without Jones' leadership.

Baltimore like Venezuela......

This is awful: Tyler Durden reported that the murder rate in Baltimore is now exactly tied with Venezuela at 57.2 murders per 100,000 residents......of course, the local government is busy removing Confederate monuments and changing the names of schools......nothing else to do?

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 22, 2017

Recession in California?

This is a note from Tyler Durden:    

When it comes to the health of his state's economy, California Governor Jerry Brown has been walking on eggshells this year. 

Twice each year, once in January and again in May, Gov. Jerry Brown warns Californians that the economic prosperity their state has enjoyed in recent years won't last forever. Brown attaches his admonishments to the budgets he proposes to the Legislature – the initial one in January and a revised version four months later. Brown's latest, issued last May, cited uncertainty about turmoil in the national government, urged legislators to "plan for and save for tougher budget times ahead," and added: "By the time the budget is enacted in June, the economy will have finished its eighth year of expansion – only two years shorter than the longest recovery since World War II. A recession at some point is inevitable." It's certain that Brown will renew his warning next month. Implicitly, he may hope that the inevitable recession he envisions will occur once his final term as governor ends in January, 2019, because it would, his own financial advisers believe, have a devastating effect on the state budget 

Unfortunately for Governor Brown, the recession he fears may already have arrived in California.

This is a huge story because California is one of the Top 10 GDP's in the world!

P.S. Of course, one of the real problems is illegal immigration, as Dr. Victor Davis Hanson explained many years ago:

What am I missing?

What am I missing?
Doesn't Israel have the sovereign right to name its capital city?
Doesn't the US have the right to abide by Israel's wish?
Moral of the story: It's time for the US to stop funding this collection of clowns....let some other country pay 20% of the UN budget!

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 22, 2017

Merry Christmas Cole & Heidi Hamels

We've enjoyed watching Cole Hamels win a lot of games over the years.   Today, we salute Cole & Heidi Hamels for an extraordinary act of charity.    

This is from news reports:  

Cole Hamels, the Texas Rangers star pitcher, and his wife, Heidi, are donating their Missouri mansion and 100 acres of land to a charity that provided camps for children with special needs and chronic illnesses and their siblings.     The massive 32,000-square foot home, worth an estimated $10 million, would be donated to Camp Barnabas. The home, located in Table Rock Lake, was located near one of the charity’s camps.

Great stuff!

Newt Gingrich: "Trump's revolution in national security and foreign policy"

This is a very good post from Newt Gingrich about President Trump's national security speech:   

The speech by President Trump on Monday highlighting the National Security Strategy was the culmination of eight months of hard work by National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell and Deputy Assistant to the President Nadia Schadlow.This strategy paper is especially necessary because President Trump campaigned on, and is now executing, a revolution in how America interacts with the world.The elite consensus since 1990 has been that the United States is helping develop a New World Order. This new world order was to come from lawyers and diplomats engaging in endless multilateral conferences and reaching agreements that limited sovereignty and had nations reporting and answering to the international bureaucracy. It was a dream world for elitist academics who saw themselves as the all-knowing international bureaucrats, whose careers would be spent "taming" sovereignty with the higher moral order of globalism.Candidate Trump won the Republican nomination over 16 other candidates by understanding and giving voice to a growing consensus that globalism subordinated America to foreign bureaucrats, that multilateral trade deals hurt America, and that other countries were using American lives and American money to achieve their own goals.The bipartisan elites in foreign policy and national security were appalled and enraged that some billionaire businessman would have the audacity to challenge their 26-year-old consensus. They were shocked to watch him actually implement his commitment to refocusing national security and foreign policy around American interests.While the bipartisan elites had wanted to put globalism first and make the American economy and the values and interests of the American people secondary to this larger multinational system, President Trump began transforming his campaign rhetoric into official government policy.If you had said in December 2015 that in two years we would be in the early stages of a revolution in national security and foreign policy, the elites would have thought you were completely out of touch with reality.Yet consider the first year of the Trump presidency:· The new president pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation on trade.· While having dinner with President Xi Jinping of China, President Trump excused himself to announce an airstrike on Syria by 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles in response to Syria using chemical weapons. Contrast this decisive action by President Trump with President Obama's supposed red line in Syria, which carried no action or consequences when the line was crossed.· President Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement, arguing it undermines American jobs.· President Trump refused to certify that Iran was keeping its side of the nuclear arms agreement.· Unlike his two predecessors, who had campaigned in favor of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but then broke their word and refused to move the U.S. embassy, President Trump kept his word – despite overwhelming global pressure against him.· President Trump has dramatically increased the pressure on North Korea and is clearly preparing military options, if needed.· Even this week, the president instructed the secretary of Defense and secretary of the Interior to develop a strategy to break the Chinese and Russian efforts to control rare minerals that are needed for modern technology.President Trump’s much more assertive presidency is having an impact.· The Chinese have greatly increased their pressure on North Korea.· Leaders from more than 50 Arab and Muslim nations came to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the Arab Islamic American Summit to create a counterterrorism center and ally with the United States.· Because the Saudis trust President Trump (while having deeply distrusted President Obama for eight years), the crown prince has launched a revolutionary effort to modernize and open Saudi society.· President Trump's reliance on Defense Secretary James Mattis and the professional military has led to the destruction of ISIS as a territorial power, at a remarkably low cost to America. This has been almost completely ignored by the elite media.· After complaining and grumbling, the members of NATO have begun to increase their financial commitment to defense – something Presidents George W. Bush and Obama were unable to achieve.Beyond immediate actions, it is clear the Trump administration is going to make economic growth and technological development key parts of its approach to national security.The efforts to develop maximum American energy resources also has a national security component. The opening of Alaskan oil resources this week fits perfectly with the National Security Strategy report.The new commitment to American leadership in space is another significant part of that National Security Strategy.President Trump has consistently articulated the shift away from globalism in favor of American interests during his campaign. He did this in his Inaugural address, in his speeches in Warsaw and at the United Nations – and this week at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The National Security Strategy report puts the president's actions into a larger context of planned change from the recent past.It is well worth reading and studying.

It was a good speech! 

Speaking of Mr. Gingrich, he just published a new novel:

Bad day for the impeach Trump crowd

Bad day for the impeach Trump crowd: Fed district court Daniels dismissed lawsuit that Trump violated the Constitution..."Emoluments Clause"...maybe the hysterical anti-Trumpistas will finally admit that they want to impeach Trump because he defeated Clinton...revenge not law!

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 22, 2017

Trump leads and the Democrats just say no!

Over at the nation's capital, it's President Trump leading and the Democrats just saying "NO".    

The tax cut is a good example:   What exactly is the Democrat alternative?   They don't have one, or at least they never proposed to put their plan for debate or a vote.

Sorry but one guy leads and the opposition just screams.

For more updates and political talk, check our podcasts:

Cheer up Jorge Ramos

We just read that Jorge Ramos is "Now Having the ‘Worst Time’ of His Life in U.S."....really Jorge?...consider the alternative......if the Democrats were running things then you'd be writing op-eds that they never keep their promises to Hispanos......Feliz Navidad Jorge.....

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 22, 2017

The life & times of Vaclav Havel with Jorge Ponce

Guest: Jorge Ponce, who recently wrote a post about Vaclav Havel.