"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
John Lennon released "Double Fantasy" on this day in 1980. It turned out to be his last LP because John was killed a few weeks later. I guess that I must be getting old because I remember the new LP and the night he was killed like it was yesterday.
On Wednesday, we went to see Darkest Hour, a movie about Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the U.K. in 1940. I assume that the movie will soon be available online, but we went the old-fashioned way: a big box of popcorn and a large screen.
Within days of Churchill taking office, all of what is now the European Union either would be in Hitler’s hands or could be considered pro-Nazi “neutral.”
“Darkest Hour” gets its title from the understandable depression that had spread throughout the British government. Members of Churchill’s new War Cabinet wanted to sue for peace. Chamberlain and senior conservative politician Edward Wood both considered Churchill unhinged for believing [that] Britain could survive.
Both appeasers dreamed that thuggish Italian dictator Benito Mussolini might be persuaded to beg Hitler to call off his planned invasion of Great Britain. They dreamed [that] Mussolini could save a shred of English dignity through an arranged British surrender.
Not Churchill.
The movie does have a bit of fantasy: the subway ride, when P.M. Churchill meets constituents who are in no mood to surrender or cut deals with Hitler. While it did not happen that way, the British willingness to fight and defend their homeland was no fantasy. It became clear when P.M. Churchill spoke to the Parliament.
Let me leave you with a few other impressions.
First, you will love Mrs. Churchill.
Second, I was reminded of recent examples of presidential leadership, from President Bush going against conventional wisdom and doing the surge in Iraq in 2007 to President Reagan overruling his diplomats and calling on “Mr. Gorbachev” to “tear down this wall.”
Third, do you think the modern U.K. would recognize the fighting spirit of its great grandparents in 1940? I don’t think so. That may be the most depressing part of the story.
(My American Thinker post) It was a remarkable speech. PM Netanyahu spoke clearly, forcefully, and eloquently about the nuclear deal. This is one of those "must-watch speeches" that comes along once a generation. It reminded us of another statesman who came to the U.S. many years ago. It was on March 5, 1946 that the then former PM Winston Churchill of the UK spoke to the American people about the Soviet threat. Mr. Churchill did not speak to a joint session but the impact was awesome:
"Churchill, who had been defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945, was invited to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he gave this speech. President Harry S. Truman joined Churchill on the platform and listened intently to his speech. Churchill began by praising the United States, which he declared stood “at the pinnacle of world power.” It soon became clear that a primary purpose of his talk was to argue for an even closer “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain -- the great powers of the “English-speaking world” -- in organizing and policing the postwar world. In particular, he warned against the expansionistic policies of the Soviet Union. In addition to the “iron curtain” that had descended across Eastern Europe, Churchill spoke of “communist fifth columns” that were operating throughout western and southern Europe. Drawing parallels with the disastrous appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II, Churchill advised that in dealing with the Soviets there was “nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness.”
Like Mr. Churchill, the prime minister of Israel praised the alliance between the two countries, thanked the U.S. for its sacrifices in World War II, and explained the threat in exquisite detail. Of course, President Obama was not there and VP Biden was down in Uruguay at a presidential inauguration. There were several Democrats missing, a rather silly display of political pique. It once again makes you wonder about President Obama's instincts or the people that he listens to.
What if President Obama had taken advantage of this opportunity to make his case for the nuclear deal?What if President Obama had embraced the visit? What if he did a joint press conference with the prime minister and assured this deal was good for all, especially Israel?
Instead, President Obama looks small and petty. He looks like a man who was avoiding the debate or hiding the truth of the deal with Iran. My guess is that the nuclear deal is dead. You can delete another "legacy item" from President Obama's accomplishments. P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
We remember Winston Churchill was born on this day in 1874. He passed away in 1965 at age 90.
Churchill loved Cuban cigars. We know now that he met his first Cuban cigar during a visit to the island circa 1895. My late father once told me that the Cuban embassy in London would often deliver Mr. Churchill a complimentary box of cigars. Furthermore, those long cigars came to be known as “Churchill”.
He was there on loan from the British army to observe colonial Spain’s defense against independence fighters, as Klepak said in an interview:
History previously recorded that Churchill saw combat in Cuba and discovered the siesta, which would later help him keep long hours as British prime minister during World War Two.
But Klepak, a former Canadian military officer, argues previous works overlooked how influential the Cuban venture was, including the months of maneuvering Churchill needed to land his assignment.
With his Cuba experience he became a war correspondent, political analyst, strategist and liaison with a foreign army, all for the first time. His writings start to show legendary humor. He discovers rum and Cuban cigars’ breadth and quality.
Inspired by observations from local historian Lourdes Mendez, Klepak believes he became the first to scrutinize and cross-check the Cuban, British and Spanish archives, discovering for example that Churchill was fired upon by no less than Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez, two of Cuba’s greatest independence leaders.
“Very quickly when I looked at it from a historical perspective it was pretty obvious that this was an amazing story which for some reason had never been told,” Klepak said.
Neat story. This is also a book that you may want to pick up when you need a break from Speaker Pelosi. It is another chapter in the amazing life of one of the most important figures of the 20th century.
It is a wonderful collection of stories about Cubans, like you & me, who settled in the US and made something out of ourselves:
"In this new book the reader will discover how in 1930 a Havana bandleader traveled to New York City, recorded a million-copy hit that kicked-started a Cuban music craze throughout the United States. Science fiction lovers will learn that a Cuban-American was the writer, producer, and story editor of many Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes. An author born in 1865 in Brooklyn, New York of Cuban origin began his career at age 12, becoming a prolific boys’ fiction writer earning the nickname the American Jules Verne. History buffs will enjoy reading about three sisters who became Confederate spies during the Civil War, and thanks to their bravery, a Union warship was captured. New Yorkers and those who visit the Big Apple will read of the work of a structural engineer, born in Havana of immigrant Lithuanian Jews, who was known as “Mr. New York” for his engineering of the city’s skyscrapers, including the 70-story Trump World Tower. Read about a surgeon who in 2012 led a team of 150 doctors, nurses, and others in Maryland in the most extensive face transplant surgery ever performed in the world. The book also profiles those who serve the less fortunate, including the co-founder of Florida’s largest free clinic serving migrant workers, the working poor, the sick, and families who fall between the cracks of America’s social system. This is a book that transcends ethnic, national, racial, gender and religious barriers and bears witness to what Cubans, both political refugees and immigrants, have accomplished in a country where liberty and freedom abound. This is the story of the Cuban-Americans, and the footprints they have left on their path across the United States."
What's the best part of the book? They are all real CUBANS! Everyone of these stories is about a CUBANO who beat the odds in the US.
This is a fun book. It is inspirational. Some stories will make you laugh, like "las cubanitas" in the US Civil War, and others will touch your heart.
Here is an idea: Give this book to your kids or grandchildren if you have any. Tell them that this is what Cuban heritage is all about. Last, but not least, Fernando has quite a story too. He was one of the 14,000 Pedro Pan children who came to the US in the early 1960's.
Guest: Barry Jacobsen, military historian and blogger.......we will remember the Allied and Axis commanders: Ike, MacArthur, Nimitz, Monty, Zukov; and on the Axis side, Von Manstein, Guderian, Rommel, Kesselring, Adm. Yamamoto, General Yamashita.......and other stories of the war......
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
Guest: Barry Jacobsen, military historian and blogger.............we will continue our series of World War II episodes... Today we will look back at the winter of 1942-43, Manstein's Miracle in Russia, and the Rise of Patton ....plus other stories from the front pages such as North Korea and Afghanistan.........and 'Light my fire' was the # 1 song in the country this week in 1967..................
Time flies and we celebrate another anniversary of the Cuban-American experience. The picture above shows parents saying goodbye to their children and putting them in a plane headed to Miami.
We remember another anniversary this week:
"It hardly seems possible, but it’s been 50 years since Operation Pedro Pan began the airlift that eventually that brought 14,000 unaccompanied children from Cuba to this country." (Babalu Blog)
We remember the late Father Walsh and all of the wonderful nuns who cared for the children. It was indeed a work of love!
How do you say "thank you" or "gracias" to so many people? I think that you say "thank you" by standing up for freedom and remembering the sacrifice that our parents made for us.
P.S. In a previous show, we spoke with Carlos Eire, the wonderful Cuban American author, who was one of these kids. Carlos discussed his book "Learning to die in Miami":
We learned in 2016 that H. Wayne Huizenga passed away. He was 80 and a very accomplished businessman. At one time, he owned every professional team in the Miami area: Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers and Florida Marlins! Huizenga was born in the Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park on this day in 1937. His businesses included "Blockbuster" and "Auto Nation". He was a very successful businessman:
The Making of a Blockbuster: How Wayne Huizenga Built a Sports and Entertainment......... https://t.co/hJKYQAVvlF via @amazon
Back in 2000, we spent 30 days arguing about the election until VP Al Gore finally accepted that George W. Bush had won Florida. In other words, the election night Florida call stood but most of his supporters still think that Mr. Bush stole election. That’s what nasty recounts do! Results don’t usually change and bad feelings just get worse.
It won’t take 30 days in 2016, but the hard feelings will continue.
Our good friend Richard Baehr believes this is all about making Mr. Trump illegitimate, especially in the minds of liberals who just can’t believe how the movie ended at 2 A.M. when Pennsylvania spoiled it. After all, some of them were apparently popping champagne on their way to the Clinton headquarters.
The real problem with recounts is that they don’t change results or explain the sorry state of the Democrat Party. In short, the Democrats are on the verge of irrelevancy, unless you live in a minority district that they win without opposition.
The party is probably going to be in the minority for a while, as Amber Phillips points out in the Washington Post:
November was a tough election cycle for Senate Republicans, who were defending 24 of the 34 seats up for grabs, many in states that Obama won twice.
It will basically be the reverse in 2018. Democrats are defending 10 seats in states that Trump won, sometimes by double-digit margins. Midterms are normally kind to the party not in power, but this map shows serious head winds for Democrats.
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Jon Tester (Mont.) are running for reelection in states that voted for Trump over Clinton by 19 points or more. (In West Virginia, Trump won by 42 points.) If these Democratic-held seats and a few others fall to Republicans in 2018, it’s possible the GOP’s 52-seat majority becomes a 60-seat supermajority.
At the very least, it looks likely Republicans will pick up a few seats.
More bad news for Democrats: Some political analysts think that if Republicans turn seats in red or red-leaning states, such as West Virginia, Indiana and Missouri, those seats could stay Republican for a long time. Especially if 2016’s presidential election is any indication.
My colleague Philip Bump calculated there were 27 counties that had supported the Democratic candidate consistently for at least 40 years that switched to Trump in this year’s election. Those counties were clustered in states such as Indiana and Michigan, where Democrats will be defending Senate seats.
We don’t like writing party obituaries because parties have many lives. After all, have we not been reading for 20 years that demographics would doom the GOP?
Nevertheless, Democrats have problems. They seem to be talking over the heads of most Americans who don’t live in San Francisco or the East coast.
They’ve focused too much on defending abortion rather saving jobs from moving overseas. They would rather fight for same-sex marriage than accept a Nativity scene during the holidays. They would rather say “I don’t want to offend anyone” than Merry Christmas.
They are so invested in political correctness that they speak a foreign language that most Americans can’t understand.
So go ahead and recount. It won’t change the results.
My first advice to the Democrats is to come to terms with reality. Simply put, most Americans would rather talk about jobs than climate change.
My second bit of advice is to remember VP Nixon from 1960. In a mature democracy, the loser should concede and put the nation first. Of course, it starts with the candidate who must tell his or her supporters that the election is over and we have a president-elect.
Tags:Recounts don't change results but do make people very bitterTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
And who is that saint named Givin?: Back in 1941, President Roosevelt made it official:
Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving...
Back in 1941, President Roosevelt made it official:
Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga.
In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Tuesday, as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution.
However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November, that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally.
With a few deviations, Lincoln’s precedent was followed annually by every subsequent president — until 1939. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving Day. Considerable controversy surrounded this deviation, and some Americans refused to honor Roosevelt’s declaration.
For the next two years, Roosevelt repeated the unpopular proclamation, but on November 26, 1941, he admitted his mistake and signed a bill into law officially making the fourth Thursday in November the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day.
Down in Cuba, we had no idea of Thanksgiving. The closest thing was cartoons about Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck celebrating a special day or Pluto stealing a turkey leg. So my brother, sister and I started school and noticing that the kids were posting drawings of turkeys and Puritans praying. Finally, Miss Jones, that wonderful 6th-grade teacher I was blessed with, sat me down and explained the story, from the ship crossing the ocean, to the landing at Plymouth Rock, to the terrible first winter and eventually a day to say thanks for everything.
So I went home and explained the whole thing to my mother who thought that it was a nice story. She had that look of “what a country” or said something in Spanish like “wow these people pray and say thanks once a year. Why didn’t we do that Cuba? Maybe we wouldn’t have a communist dictator if we had prayed more?”
It did not take long for me to get into the Thanksgiving mood.
Today, it’s my favorite American holiday for two reasons:
1) It demonstrates the role of faith in the early days of what would become the United States.
2) It confirms that this land was settled by self-reliant people who faced adversity and grew stronger. Last, but not least, my parents could not pronounce Thanksgiving. So the Cubans of their generation started to say something like San Givin. It went on for a couple of years until my aunt finally said: “Who is that Saint Giving anyway.” Nobody told us about that in Catholic schools.
Anyway, “Feliz San Givin” is now a Cuban tradition that we all laugh about. There was no Saint Givin but that’s what happens when your mother can’t pronounce Thanksgiving.
So Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Thanks for the comments and reading the posts. Enjoy your family and see you soon.
Who should have won the 1941 AL MVP? Joe DiMaggio had a 56-game hitting streak and played for the AL champ Yankees who also won The World Series. Ted Williams hit .406 but played for a Boston squad that did not compete for the AL pennant. The MVP vote went to DiMaggio: 291-254 over Williams!
China rising in our backyard: South of the border is a lot more than Mexico. For me, it's Mexico and everything else down to Argentina. Unfortunately, we've let China grow their influence and it's time to do something about it.
An article by Michael Scott…..
South of the border is a lot more than Mexico. For me, it’s Mexico and everything else down to Argentina. Unfortunately, we’ve let China grow their influence and it’s time to do something about it.
An article by Michael Scott really caught my attention. I guess it did because I’m talking to a lot of friends in Latin America who think that there is too much China and not enough USA. This is what Scott wrote:
The superpower contest matters because the resources at stake are vast. Latin America has 57 per cent of global lithium reserves, 37 per cent of the copper, nearly a fifth of the oil and almost a third of the world’s fresh water and primary forest.
Keenly aware of the region’s importance, Xi added a state visit to his schedule in Peru last week, heading a delegation of several hundred Chinese business people and inaugurating the first phase of what will be a $3.5bn giant port intended to revolutionise shipping from Latin America’s Pacific coast to China.
Biden, by contrast, announced nine Black Hawk helicopters for a $65mn anti-drug programme and a donation of second-hand trains from California for the Lima metro system.
It gets worse on a country-by-country basis, as the article points out.
You see a huge Chinese mega-port project in Peru, a country full of resources and on the Pacific coast. What a nice place for the growing Chinese Navy to visit?
In Brazil, one of top 10 GDPs in the world, President Biden was talking climate change in the Amazon, but the Chinese are busy with multibillion-dollar investments. Here is the bottom line. Conservation is a big deal for the climate change crowd in the U.S. but creating jobs with huge plants is more important for Brazilians.
In the last 20 years, Chinese investments have gone from $12 billion to $450 billion. I’m not good in math but that’s a big jump, to say the least.
What’s funny is that most of my Latin friends say that they’d rather do business with the U.S. They all say something like “we know you, we trust you and you respect contracts.” Again, they are not saying that about China, a country with no history of investing in the region.
So there is a great opportunity to change the trajectory and pay attention to our growing neighborhood. Why? Because China is focusing on mining of critical minerals, electricity generation and transmission, and digital and transport infrastructure.
It sounds like China is thinking 50 years forward and we are not.
This is something for the future Secretary of State to focus on.
Guest: Frank Burke, author, businessman and contributor to American Thinker, joins me for a look at Thanksgiving.......the great American holiday.........
Pres Lincoln signed this proclamation in 1864, the last winter of the US Civil War:
"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations."
Of course, Thanksgiving has grown way beyond that proclamation. More importantly, enjoy this day with your family!
Go after criminals for a change: Alvin Bragg needs to drop the Trump case and go after the real criminals on the streets. You know, the ones terrorizing….
Alvin Bragg needs to drop the Trump case and go after the real criminals on the streets. You know, the ones terrorizing “bodegas” and women in the subway. Go after them because the Trump case is over no matter you try to keep it around.
You know that DA Bragg is on thin ice when the New Yorker wants him to move on:
The hush-money case against Donald Trump is moving inexorably towards its final resting place — back on the same scrap heap it came from. But the DA’s office isn’t quite ready to give up just yet. In a court filing this week, prosecutors conceded that Trump’s sentencing should be postponed while the parties litigate whether he has constitutional immunity, along with other novel issues arising from his status as president-elect. That part is entirely reasonable.
But the marvel is that prosecutors somehow managed to type the following sentence without using Comic Sans font: “Consideration must be given to various non-dismissal options that may address any concerns raised by the pendency of a posttrial criminal proceeding during the presidency, such as deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term.” In other words, the DA argues, we might still want to sentence this guy after he’s done with his second term as president. In 2029.
Yes, in 2029. Heck, one of his sons may be mayor or governor by that time. Not sure that Trump will be happy to see this nonsense continue.
Of course, it was DA Bragg who dug a big hole here. He wanted to run for something higher and thought that having the former President hanging from a tree would be a cool TV commercial. “I got Trump,” or something like that.
It’s time for a native New Yorker, or a Democrat who is concerned about what this nonsense is doing to the state and the business climate, to call on the DA to let go of this case and start focusing on the real criminals terrorizing the city.
Again, Alvin is saving face. He doesn’t know how to get out of the hole or help Judge Juan Merchan out of his hole, either. It’s tough, but maybe the new Trump AG can text him something about seeing the Bragg-Mercham duo in federal court for such disregard for the rule of law.
In the meantime, all those people yelling Alvin are Democrats reminding the DA and Judge that this game blew up in their faces in the last election.
Growing up with El Tiante’s baseball cards: We remember the great Luis Tiant, who was born in Marianao, Cuba on this day in 1940 and died in 2024.
Luis was born in a family of pitchers. His father was Luis Eleuterio Tiant, who pitched professionally in the old Negro Leagues…
We remember the great Luis Tiant, who was born in Marianao, Cuba on this day in 1940 and died in 2024.
Luis was born in a family of pitchers. His father was Luis Eleuterio Tiant, who pitched professionally in the old Negro Leagues in the U.S. as well as in Mexico. Unfortunately, he never got to the majors because of the color line, but it happened. My father did remember Luis Senior in the Cuban leagues. He was a nasty left-hander!
Our family came to the U.S. in 1964, and it coincided with Tiant’s debut season with what they used to call the Cleveland Indians, or “los indios,” as we called them. It was a stellar debut: 10-4, 9 complete games, 3 shutouts, and a 2.83 ERA. It didn’t take long for my brother and me to get his baseball card, along with Tony Oliva, who won the batting title and Rookie of the Year. It was a good year for the Cuban rookies.
A few years later, Luis led the AL in 1968 with a 1.60 ERA! By the late 1960s, El Tiante was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Back then, we had very little baseball on TV, so the daily sports page kept our family updated on Tiant’s starts. It was a thrill to have my dad open the newspaper and say that Tiant had thrown another complete game or something that pitchers used to do back then.
Suddenly, he suffered a series of arm injuries in 1970–71 and was released and passed up by several teams who thought that he was finished. I remember watching him start a game, leave with an arm injury, and it seemed as though our favorite, El Tiante, would never pitch again.
Everything changed when the Red Sox gave him a chance in 1972: 15 wins and an AL-leading 1.91 ERA. Tiant won 81 games over the next 4 seasons and became the darling of Fenway Park. I got to see a lot of Luis in those years because I was going to school in Maryland, and the Orioles-Red Sox rivalry was wonderful baseball. Watching El Tiante go through that winding motion at the old Memorial Stadium is just a great memory.
Up in New England, they remember Tiant and the 1975 post-season. He shut down the A’s in game 1 of the ALCS and beat the Reds in Games 1 and 4 of the World Series. And his aforementioned father had a chance to watch him pitch. It was a wonderful post-season for father and son. By the way, his 10-inning, 163-pitch complete game in Game 4 was maybe the best Tiant ever. The Red Sox needed that victory to tie the series, and El Tiante did his job.
Luis Tiant retired with 229 wins, a 3.30 ERA, and 189 complete games. In my opinion, he should be in the Hall of Fame. Let’s hope he goes in the next time around.
It’s a shame that he passed away and we won’t hear him give that acceptance speech. Nevertheless, I want future generations of baseball to learn about the man with that winding motion that kept batters seeing psychiatrists.
On this day in 1963, millions of people watched Jack Ruby, a Dallas businessman, shoot Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged killer of President Kennedy. Oswald died shortly after. It happened as the authorities were taking Oswald to another jail and about 48 hours after the assassination of the president. To say the least, the shooting shocked the nation and opened the door to a ton of conspiracy theories about the president's assassination. For the record, I believe that Oswald shot President Kennedy on his own. I came to that conclusion after reading Gerald Posner's "Case closed" in the 1990's. Ruby died of cancer in 1967. As far as we know, He never changed his story about why he killed Oswald. Apparently, Ruby did not want Jackie Kennedy to come to a trial. He took that explanation to his grave. P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
