China rising in our backyard

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…..

Click to read:

China rising in our backyard - American Thinker https://t.co/6ZpZQM1pk0

— Silvio Canto. Jr. (@silvio_canto) November 26, 2024

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.

P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos 

A 2016 Thanksgiving chat with Frank Burke

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO LISTEN:

A 2016 Thanksgiving chat with Frank Burke 11/23 by Silvio Canto Jr | News Podcasts:

Guest: Frank Burke, author, businessman and contributor to American Thinker, joins me for a look at Thanksgiving.......the great American holiday.........

 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.

---

The story of World War I , part 3, with Barry Jacobsen..

FRIDAY: The story of World War I , part 3, with Barry Jacobsen.......Listen in now at http://t.co/fJuspx1QM6. #BlogTalkRadio
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) August 22, 2014

2013: Cuban Americans and the first Thanksgiving in the US

We looked back at our first Thanksgiving in the US with 3 fellow Cuban Americans who came here with their families years ago.

Guests:  

Marta Sosa, BTR host of Cubanarama,

Tersi Bendiburg, storyteller &

Amarilys Rassler, author.

 --------------

 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.

---

Why all of the turkey posters? My first Thanksgiving in the U.S.

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.

In my case, I did not know a thing about Thanksgiving when our family settled in Wisconsin in the fall of 1964.  I began to detect that something was coming when the kids in school started putting “turkey posters” about the upcoming holiday.  

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.

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.

As I told a friend years ago, you cannot understand American exceptionalism unless you get familiar with the Thanksgiving story. 

 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.

Thanksgiving 2020 with Frank Burke, author & businessman

Thanksgiving 2020 with Frank Burke, author & businessman 11/25 by Silvio Canto Jr | Politics: 

Guest: Frank Burke, businessman and author.......Thanksgiving 2020 and a few thoughts about the great American holiday and other stories.........click to listen:

 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.

Our 2018 Thanksgiving chat with Frank Burke, author

Our Thanksgiving chat with Frank Burke, author

 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.

2013 post: Our first Thanksgiving in the US

(My new American Thinker post)

First of all, let me say thanks to the AT family for letting me post a few thoughts over the last year.  

Let me say "muchas gracias" for my great family, parents and lots of good friends.

And now let me tell you about my first Thanksgiving in the US.

Like most immigrants, we learned about Thanksgiving when we got here.  I had heard of "The Lone Ranger," "Mickey Mouse," "Rin Tin Tin," "Mickey Mantle," New York Yankees, "Santa Claus" in Cuba but had no idea of the Thanksgiving holiday.  

Nevertheless, it was the kind of holiday that Cuban "refugees" could easily relate to:

1) we like family meals;

2) we like telling stories; and best of all,

3) we had a lot to be thankful for.

Our family's first Thanksgiving gave my dad "a day off" from those two jobs that he was working back then. It gave my cousins a chance to tell us all of those Mayflower and Pilgrim stories that they had learned the year before.

My uncle told us about The Mayflower Compact.  He said that it set the tone for the self government that would follow later. And we got to eat "turkey" and all of the other stuff that goes with it.  I had never eaten turkey before!

In the early evening, my mom and aunt were in the kitchen cleaning things up.  As we were putting the food and leftovers away, I said:   "No entiendo.....porque le dicen "turkey" a un pavo de Wisconsin"?   ("I don't understand. Why do they call a bird from Wisconsin a turkey"?)

No one knew the answer but the "turkey from Wisconsin" was great!

 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.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and "Plymouth Adventure"

Our blog will take a little time off from the politics during the Thanksgiving holiday.

We thank you for reading our posts. We wish you a good holiday with family.

However, we do understand the meaning of Thanksgiving.

This is a good family moment and opportunity to catch a great movie.

 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.

Thanksgiving 1863: A message from President Abraham Lincoln

(My new American Thinker post)

 Let me wish you and your family a happy Thanksgiving.  We should remember the words of President Abraham Lincoln from October 1863.  They set the table for what we now call Thanksgiving and the message is just as current as ever.  We must remember that it was not until 1941 that the fourth Thursday of November was designated as Thanksgiving.

Of course, the Lincoln proclamation came in the middle of a Civil War and a nation divided. We are not that divided in 2021, though sometimes I wonder.   

Here it goes:

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. 

To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. 

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. 

Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. 

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. 

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the 

Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Enjoy the day with your family.  We have many things to be thankful for, from good health to strong families.  And last but not least, it's okay to check the Raiders-Cowboys game.

Note: M.E. Boyd has also commented on what Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation means in 2021. You can read it here.

 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.

1864: Happy Thanksgiving & President Lincoln's proclamation

---------

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!

 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.

Charles Schulz (1922-2000), the man who gave us Charlie Brown

Charles Monroe Schulz was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on this day in 1922. He died in 2000. Schulz created Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts Gang.

Back in the early days of “el exilio”, we learned English going to school, playing baseball with our new friends and watching TV. I don’t want to show my age but TV circa 1970 was “mucho mejor” than what we have today. Back then, we had 3 or 4 channels and something worth watching. Today, we have 300 channels and “mucha basura” as my late mother used to say.

We loved Mr. Schulz’ characters so much that we watched them on TV and holiday specials. What would Thanksgiving be without Charlie and the gang planning their celebration? What would a Christmas’ playlist be like without “Snoopy’ Christmas”?

Happy San Giving and catch Snoopy this weekend.

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.