"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." - President Ronald Reagan
How are we going to dismantle the cartels?: We posted about the Mexico cartels during 2024. We may be posting more in 2025 after listening to President Trump talk about dismantling them. Time will tell.
We can tell you this about the state of the cartels. My friend Allan Wall posted this…
We posted about the Mexico cartels during 2024. We may be posting more in 2025 after listening to President Trump talk about dismantling them. Time will tell.
But what if criminal gangs are one of the biggest employers in the country?
A recent study has found that, taken collectively, the Mexican drug cartels are now the fifth largest employer in Mexico.
From ZME Science: “Mexican cartels now boast an estimated 175,000 members, making them the fifth largest employer in Mexico, right between the grocery chain Oxxo and telecoms company América Móvil.”
Working for a cartel means that you may be selling illegal drugs on the street, bringing someone over the border, working in one of many companies funded by laundered money and maybe others. It’s a diverse operation to say the least.
The cartels are the fifth largest employer because of the power of cash. No one knows for sure how many dollars go south because of cartel operations, but it’s billions. It’s enough to create jobs and keep a few politicians happy about their local economies.
So how are we going to dismantle the cartels? It won’t be easy and will require the full participation of the Mexican government.
Mexico receives $65 billion in remittances and the cartels are the fifth largest employer. What a strange way to run an economy.
Rick Nelson died in a plane crash in Texas in 1985. He was flying to Dallas for a concert. Nelson recorded many songs, from "Traveling man" to "Hello Mary Lou" to "Young emotions". My favorite is "Fools rush in", a tune from the 1940's that Nelson brought back in 1963. You can get his music HERE.
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How many times did you hear that abortion would doom the GOP and President Trump's return to power? It was like "our daily bread" in the liberal media. Abortion was going to drive millions of women to the ballot box to settle the score over the overturning Roe.
Well, it didn't happen. It turns out that many men and women like the idea that they can make their own decisions, thanks to Dobbs. The so-called "abortion wave" did not happen. as Politico pointed out:
After campaigns to preserve abortion rights helped halt a red wave in 2022 and won Democrats key races in 2023, many in the party headed into November confident that putting the issue directly on the ballot in nearly a dozen states would juice turnout and pull swing voters to the left -- especially after Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket and made a forceful defense of abortion rights her leading message. Clearly, that didn’t happen. Yes, abortion-rights ballot measures passed in seven more states and won majority support in Florida, though the measure failed because the state requires a 60 percent supermajority for passage. But voters in those same states, on the same ballot, voted for Republicans with a history of opposing abortion rights. Most Arizona voters, for instance, overturned a 15-week abortion ban and checked a box for Trump. Polling before and after the election showed that other issues -- including the economy and immigration -- took precedence for most voters, steering them toward GOP candidates. And many strategists and abortion-rights advocates believe the ballot measures created a “permission structure” for Republicans voters who were worried about the impact of bans on the procedure. There are a handful of states left where citizens can put an abortion-rights measure on the ballot in the future, and groups in Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota are likely to try again after initiatives there fell short or were blocked by courts this year. But the era of Democrats counting on such measures to boost their candidates’ chances is officially over.
Thank God that it's over. Maybe we can finally treat women with a little respect without assuming that all they care about is abortion.
My sense is that two other things happened.
First, voters got comfortable voting for abortion in their states. Here in Texas, we passed a "heartbeat law" and our neighbors in New Mexico voted for their own version of Roe. In the end, everybody is happy and democracy works as intended.
Second, and this may have been more important, voters did not go for the extreme position. You get the feeling that voters understood that there is something wrong with a culture that allows late-term abortions. Most voters saw that for what it was -- killing something that looks too much like a real baby.
So the critics of Roe got it right. Let the voters decide and things will work out. Abortion has finally been taken off the agenda on presidential elections. Yes, no more nominations for judges obsessed with Roe!
In other words, he was the most dominant pitcher during those six seasons. Overall, he pitched 4 no hitters including a perfect game in 1965; He won 165 games with a 2.76 ERA; No one could touch him in the 1963 and 1965 World Series; Cy Young in 1963, 1965 & 1966; and last but not least, NL MVP in 1963. Sadly, arm injuries forced him to retire after 1966 or age 32.
On a personal level, he broke my heart when he beat the Twins in game 7 of the 1965 World Series. We ran home from school to watch that game and LA beat Minnesota behind Koufax's 2-0 performance. A few years ago, I read this great book about Koufax.
Skeeter Davis was born Mary Frances Penick in Kentucky on this day in 1931. She died in 2004. According to her biography, she enjoyed success in pop and country radio.
Her signature song was the sad of sad songs "The End of the World":
"Why does the sun go on shining?
Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
'Cause you don't love me anymore
Why do the birds go on singing?
Why do the stars glow above?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
It ended when I lost your love
I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything's the same as it was
I can't understand, no, I can't understand
How life goes on the way it does
Why does my heart go on beating?
Why do these eyes of mine cry?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
It ended when you said goodbye
Why does my heart go on beating?
Why do these eyes of mine cry?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
It ended when you said goodbye"
Is this the saddest song ever recorded? I think so!
"The end of the world" continues to get a lot of airplay on country and pop stations. It also shows up in movie soundtracks.
Future President Rutherford Hayes married Lucy Webb on this day in 1852. Hayes won the extremely controversial election of 1876 against Governor Samuel Tilden of New York. Hayes lost the popular vote by 300,000 out of the 8 million cast. After weeks of negotiations, Hayes won the electoral college 185-184. Historians believe that Mr Hayes' election was part of a deal to get federal troops out of the South. Hayes had problems governing, in large measure because of his disputed election. Nevertheless, First Lady Lucy was quite a charm. The wife of the president has properly been referred to as "The First Lady" ever since!
Willie, Rocky, and the Rose: It was a rough one for the diamond. We lost several baseball players in 2024 whom we grew up following, or collecting their cards.
Willie Mays topped the list. I heard about his death listening to a Rangers game on the….
Willie Mays topped the list. I heard about his death listening to a Rangers game on the radio. For my money, he was the greatest player ever, although I saw him play only in 1972, when he played with the Mets. We were in New York and heard that the Mets were in town, so we did whatever we had to do to get to Shea for one last look at Mays. He was not the guy I had watched on TV, but that number 24 looked great on his jersey. He was my favorite in everything he could do:
Few ballplayers matched the multifaceted brilliance of Mays, who ranks sixth all time with 660 home runs and won 12 Gold Glove Awards for his defense in center field — which he helped turn into the game’s most glamorous position in the 1950s, when he, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider all played for New York clubs. Mays became the first player to exceed 300 homers and 300 stolen bases in 1969, reflecting his ideal blend of power and speed.
As prodigious a hitter as Mays was — he surpassed 50 home runs 10 years apart, in 1955 and 1965, hit four home runs in a game at Milwaukee on April 30, 1961, and batted .301 lifetime — his signature moment might have been the over-the-shoulder catch he made in the 1954 World Series opener at New York’s Polo Grounds, robbing Cleveland’s Vic Wertz of a potential game-winning hit.
I remember once hearing that Ted Williams said that the All Star Game was created for Willie Mays. I don’t know if Williams actually said that for sure, but I do recall watching Willie hit a leadoff home run in the 1965 All Star Game. They played those games in the afternoon back then, and the players used their regular uniforms instead of all of this fancy colorful stuff. What a player, and one of my favorite cards to collect.
Another player who brought some memories was Rocky Colavito, from when the Indians were Indians and wore that great uniform. He was born Rocco Domenico Colavito in New York City. I assume that he grew up watching Joe DiMaggio. I loved his name in large part because my mother could pronounce Colavito, but I had to remind her that he was Italian, not Cuban. I did not see him play except on TV or reading about him in The Sporting News. He was great:
After finishing his career with 374 homers, 1,159 RBIs and an .848 OPS, Colavito spent several years as an Indians coach and broadcaster. He maintained a powerful presence. Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper, an Indians second baseman from 1974-81, recalled one Spring Training in Tucson, Ariz., when a truckers’ strike threatened to prevent transport of the ballclub’s equipment and other belongings back to Cleveland in time for Opening Day. Said Kuiper, “Rocky made one phone call. And we got our stuff.”
His 374 career home runs were majestic, or moon shots, sort of similar to Harmon Killebrew. I guess the fans in Cleveland never forgave the Indians for trading him, but that’s the business of baseball sometimes. He looked great in those Indian sleeveless uniforms.
And then let’s recall Pete Rose. I saw him play on TV a lot because the Reds were in the postseason so much. Another great baseball card, especially when he was younger and he wore that crew cut. I loved what he did and how he did it on the field:
A Cincinnati native who became a franchise icon for the Reds, Rose is the club’s all-time leader in games (2,722), plate appearances (12,344), runs (1,741), hits (3,358), singles (2,490), doubles (601) and walks (1,210). Over his 24-year career that spanned from 1963-86 and saw him also play for the Phillies and Expos, Rose collected 4,256 hits.
And then who can forget that crash with Ray Fosse running home in the 1970 All Star Game? What about that fight that he started in the 1973 NLCS against the Mets? I was in my car, and the two big stories of the moment were that V.P. Agnew had resigned and that Rose had crashed into the shortstop. His baseball story did not end well, but that’s another story.
There were others, like Luis Tiant, who was born in Cuba and became a Major League star the year our family came to the U.S. My father told me stories of his father, Luis Sr., who played in the old Negro Leagues.
There was Rico Carty and the big debate over the 1964 Rookie of the Year between Rico and Dick Allen.
There was Fernando Valenzuela and that great game that he pitched against the Yankees and Expos in the 1981 postseason.
And there was Rickey Henderson, who always played for the other team, but I admire his talents.
Great players, all of them. And a reminder of when kids collected baseball cards and I played Strat-o-Matic wth my brother.
We remember Marianne Faithfull who was born in London on this day in 1946 and died in January 2025.
She was Mick Jagger's girlfriend many years ago. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones wrote "As tears go by". It became Marianne's biggest hit a year before the band had their own hit.
The eccentric but very good lefty Bill Lee was born in Burbank, CA, on this day in 1946. As a pitcher, he was a rare left hander who could pitch in Fenway Park. He pitched most of his career with Boston and finished with Montreal: 119 wins, 3.72 ERA and 72 complete games. Lee's pitching style was to kill you with a variety of "junk pitches" that had hitters speaking to themselves on the way back to the dugouts. Off the field, Lee was also "The Spaceman" because of all his famous quotes. He wasn't Yogi Berra but he had a few:
"I would change policy, bring back natural grass and nickel beer. Baseball is the belly-button of our society. Straighten out baseball, and you straighten out the rest of the world."
My biggest memory is game 7 of the 1975 World Series. He threw one of those junk pitches to Tony Perez and it was the 3-run HR that put Cincinnati back in the game. He was fun to watch on and off the field. A baseball character when it was just fun to be a character.
We remember Mary Tyler Moore who was born on this day in 1936. She died in 2017. We remember her as the wonderful Laura Petrie in "The Dick Van Dyke" then Mary Richards in her own show and finally in the drama "Ordinary lives". She was great and a big part of our lives.
On this day in 1845, Texas became the 28th state to enter the Union. Texas came in as a "slave state" and eventually fought with the South in The Civil War.
Over time, Texas became the second largest economy in the US and a huge political factor as well. Years ago, James Michener wrote a good novel about Texas.
We will look at the big stories of 2024: Trump wins poplar vote and most of the counties; The Democrats and the male vote; The role of the border chaos and general dissatisfaction with the Biden presidency plus we lost several of my favorite major leagues from Willie Mays, Rocky Colavito, Pete Rose, Rickey Henderson, Luis Tiant and others who grew up following.
No Cuban coffee with a little ‘azucar’: Many years ago, I used to walk with my father in Cuba after dinner. We would walk to the street corner shop, he'd buy a Cuban cigar and order a little….
Many years ago, I used to walk with my father in Cuba after dinner. We would walk to the street corner shop, he’d buy a Cuban cigar and order a little “cafecito” with “un poquito de azucar.” I tried it years later, cigar included, and I learned quickly why my father loved that coffee and cigar.
We left Cuba many years ago but my mother kept brewing my father that little cup of coffee with a drop of sugar. I can’t tell you the number of Sunday afternoon sporting events that my father, my brother, and me watched over that Cuban coffee that my mother made for us.
As you probably know, my parents are now gone but that entire Cuban section up in heaven must be screaming over the news that Cuba has to import sugar. Here is the news:
The Cuban government acknowledged that it is “shameful” for the island, traditionally one of the leading sugar producers in Latin America, to be forced to import this product.
Despite efforts to revive the sugar industry, the sector continues to face serious challenges, including failures in the last harvest.
During the session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz recalled when Raúl Castro remarked that “it would be an embarrassment to have to import sugar.” He then stated, “and well, we are experiencing that embarrassment because we are importing sugar.”
He emphasized that the crisis in the sector is such that the country has also stopped exporting sugar, which was a key component of the economy.
“Key component of the economy?” How about the leading export since the Spanish ran the island in the 19th century. Cuba without sugar to export? That’s like the Dominican Republic saying that there are no more shortstops to play in the major leagues.
The explanation for this collapse is simple. It’s another example of how socialism kills countries with slogans and the expropriation of private industry.
Before communism, Cuban sugar mills, known popularly as “centrales” were run efficiently for the investors and workers:
By 1958 there were 160 sugar mills with the predominance of Cuban capital. The yearly sugar crop (zafra) represented an average of 99 days of work, producing a total of more than five million five hundred thousand long tons of sugar. The Cuban Sugar Stabilization Board kept active watch on the needs of the sugar industry and took measures of undeniable value.
Raw sugar as well as the refined product gave admirable results. And concerning sugar derivatives such as molasses and alcohol, the 1937 Law for the Coordination of Sugar was a step forward in social justice and economic welfare. Besides the highest rate of production the Cuban sugar industry had the most efficient equipment and most modern machinery in the world and the most productive era in its history. The United States was the best buyer paying for Cuban sugar as no other country ever did.
Prosperity brought about by sugar, benefitting all Cuba may be judged from the fact that in 1958 more than 90% of the land growing cane was brought into cultivation under tractors and 80% of the cane was transported by rail and truck. Salaries were high, the “sugar differential” favored the sugar worker as never before, and no sugar worker was interested in changing his type of work.
In fact, working in the sugar industry was so appealing that “guest workers” would come to Cuba from Jamaica and other places. The mills had a lot to do with developing the railroad lines in the island and were a source of pride. They ran baseball teams and some future major leaguers played in those leagues before a scout signed him up.
So the collapse of the Cuban sugar industry is just another example of the failure of socialism. It’s not the embargo or anything external. It was the confiscation of successful businesses that brought this about.
Let me close by sharing a joke. The Castro regime also brought a shortage of seafood in Cuba. How does an island surrounded by water have a seafood shortage? Well, the fish left for Florida waters.
Cuba has great lands to grow sugar cane and tobacco. We just need people who know what they are doing when they run these businesses.
Edgar Winter was born in Beaumont, Texas, on this day in 1946.
According to his official site, Edgar brought together Dan Hartman, Ronnie Montrose and Chuck Ruff to form The Edgar Winter Group in 1972. The band had hits like: "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride"
President Woodrow Wilson was born on this day in 1856 in Virginia. He was the 28th president of the US (1913-21). He died in 1824.
Before The White House, Mr. Wilson was a college professor, university president and governor of New Jersey.
Mr. Wilson got 42% of the popular vote in 1912 but carried most of the states in a 3-way race. His reelection in 1916 was very close: 277-254. A few months ago, I watched the movie "Wilson" released in 1944. It is a very favorable movie of Mr. Wilson and his presidency. We also leaned a lot about Mrs. Wilson, who died during his first term, and the second Mrs. Wilson, who was a rather controversial figure. Overall, a good movie that takes you back to a time when men wore hats and ladies dressed rather elegantly.
"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "literary investigation" of the police-state system in the Soviet Union, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956, is published in the original Russian in Paris. The book was the first of the three-volume work. The brutal and uncompromising description of political repression and terror was quickly translated into many languages and was published in the United States just a few months later."
It is a very difficult book to read but worth the effort. The USSR collapsed at the end of 1991 but we can not forget what was done in the name of communism.
Truman served as president for two terms from 1945 to 1953, when he and his wife Bess happily retired to Independence, Missouri, where he referred to himself jokingly as “Mr. Citizen.” He was hospitalized on December 4, 1972, with lung congestion, heart irregularity, kidney blockages and failure of the digestive system. He died on December 26. A very subdued and private funeral, fitting for the down-to-earth Truman, was held in Independence according to his and his family’s wishes.
I remember the day that he died. I recall the news flash on the radio. It was not a surprise since Mr. Truman had been very ill for days.
President Ford died in 2006 very late in the day in California. Most of his obituaries were actually published on December 27. Like me, most people I did not hear about it until the next day:
Thrust by Mr. Nixon’s resignation into an office he had never sought, Mr. Ford occupied the White House for just 896 days.
But they were pivotal days of national introspection, involving America’s first definitive failure in a war and the first resignation of a president.
It was Mr. Ford’s uncommon virtue to have presided with a common touch.
Mr. Ford had been out of the public view for a long time. I do remember him at the 2000 GOP convention. In 2004, President Bush paid him a visit during the campaign.
As we mentioned above, VP Truman became president when President FDR died in 1945. He was not well known and it must have been quite a task to follow a political giant of the 20th century.
VP Ford became president when President Nixon resigned in 1974. He is the only man never elected to the office.
In 1976, Governor Carter ran as the outsider in "a change election". We must point out that Mr. Ford made quite a comeback that year and it ended up a lot closer than anyone predicted that summer during the conventions.
President Ford served about 30 months but did much to restore confidence in the presidency after Watergate.
His pardon of Nixon was vindicated over time, a profile in courage! It was the right thing to do as he always said when asked about it.
They were both Midwestern men, of great integrity and character.
They also did not aspire to be president but rather took over and performed to the best of their abilities.
And I say often, I was very proud to cast my first vote for president for President Ford in 1976.
Trump is talking China, not Panama: As usual, President Trump has a way of talking about things and walking a few steps ahead of us. Enter Panama and all the talk about Canada. In this case, the issue is China in Panama is a problem, to say the least, given the commercial….
As usual, President Trump has a way of talking about things and walking a few steps ahead of us. Enter Panama and all the talk about Canada. In this case, the issue is China in Panama is a problem, to say the least, given the commercial and military traffic that goes through there.
Honestly, it’s about time that we start pushing back on the role of China. According to Cristina Guevara, a Latin America policy analyst and writer, the time is now. This is how she put it:
Chinese investments, such as the $3.5 billion Chancay Port project, address concrete needs in Latin American countries, offering solutions that the U.S. has not matched. Its control over key infrastructure, like ports surrounding the Panama Canal, not only enhances trade logistics and fosters economic growth in the region, but also may pose threats for the U.S., amplifying concerns about Chinese military influence in Latin America.
The Chinese economic model, heavily reliant on state subsidies and underpricing, currently makes Chinese goods and investments attractive. Regardless of ideology, governments across Latin America, like Argentina under Milei, have engaged Beijing for trade and investment. The U.S. lacks similar state-backed enterprises but could leverage tools like the Development Finance Corporation, or DFC, more effectively.
The Chinese economic model may be unsustainable due to over-reliance on state subsidies, rising debt and an aging population. Internal challenges like slowing growth, unemployment, inequality and dissent could further hinder China’s global ambitions.
It’s true that the model is unsustainable but giving away loans and building infrastructure is a good way of spreading China’s influence.
So the Trump/Rubio team must be assertive in pushing the idea that it pays to work with the U.S. rather than China. I agree that more trade is the answer but reminding local governments that we’ve been neighbors longer than China is important too. My guess is that most Latin Americans trust us more and still have serious questions about their new friends the Chinese.
Good to see that Trump is looking south and seeing too much China.
The backlash over Biden's commutations continues to grow; Trump is really talking about China when he talks Panama Canal; what happened to all of the cable news viewers and where did they go plus we remember the end of the USSR on this day in 1991.
Biden is King Midas in reverse: President Biden will be going home to Delaware soon and it can't happen soon enough. Sadly, he will be remembered as King Midas in reverse, the opposite of the old king who turned everything into gold. He turned the border into….
President Biden will be going home to Delaware soon and it can't happen soon enough. Sadly, he will be remembered as King Midas in reverse, the opposite of the old king who turned everything into gold. He turned the border into a national security nightmare and humanitarian crisis. He turned Afghanistan into a disaster that did not have to happen. Add the economy and you know what I mean. And then to top it off he has turned pardoning and commutations into a joke.
President Biden, or whoever is running the White House, has grotesquely abused the pardon power, yet again.
Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 of the prisoners on federal death row in response to the lobbying of opponents of the death penalty, keeping intact his nearly unbroken record of bending to left-wing pressure groups while in office.
Biden… put out a statement averring that the president has long been committed to “ensuring a fair and effective justice system.”
Even if true, this is a non-sequitur, since there’s nothing to suggest the handling of these cases was unfair.
Biden decided a few years ago that he opposed the death penalty after long being an unsparing supporter (when he said in the 1990s that his crime bill did “everything but hang people for jaywalking,” he meant it as a compliment).
That’s fine. Anyone with such a long (and undistinguished) career is going to shift on issues over time.
Still, that shouldn’t give Biden… the prerogative to impose his will over and above that of the American people as expressed through Congress.
And that's the point.
Maybe President Biden had a "come to Jesus" moment over the death penalty. He is the not the first or last person to have one of those moments. It can happen. It's a bit strange given all those speeches on YouTube about Biden the crime fighter over the years. Still, he is entitled to change, but it would have been nice if the change of heart had come with a little press conference.
He could have told us why he did it and explain to the families why he did it now. Furthermore, why did this moment of principle happen now and not during the campaign? Once again, we were left in the dark with a little White House statement that he may or may not have written.
So the pardon powers, a very important presidential prerogative, has now been messed up too. Unlike President Ford, who addressed the nation, took questions and even went before a congressional committee to defend the Nixon pardon, all we have from Biden is more of the same silence about everything, from commuting sentences to firing missiles in Syria.
It's up to the next president to restore the creditability of the pardon power. Once again, everything that Biden touched as president is worse than it was before.
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We remember Mary Tyler Moore who was born on this day in 1936. She died in 2017.
