Monday's video: The Biden pardon & tariffs dispute with Mexico

Hug a South Korean

Hug a South Korean: Over the Thanksgiving break, I didn't think a lot about politics. Nevertheless, I found this story fascinating. After all, we are talking about South Korea, a country that we've been protecting for decades. Check this out: 

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Hug a South Korean - American Thinker https://t.co/rfQkBkfB3Z

— Silvio Canto. Jr. (@silvio_canto) December 2, 2024

Over the Thanksgiving break, I didn’t think a lot about politics. Nevertheless, I found this story fascinating. After all, we are talking about South Korea, a country that we’ve been protecting for decades. Check this out:

South Korea’s fertility rate, already the world’s lowest, continued its dramatic decline in 2023, as women concerned about their career advancement and the financial cost of raising children decided to delay childbirth or to not have babies.

The average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to a record low of 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022.

As they say, I didn’t see that one coming. I had no idea that South Korea was doing this to itself.  At this rate, we may have more troops on their border than South Koreans to protect.

It gets more interesting. Check this out:

South Korea’s leader on Thursday said he plans to create a new government ministry to tackle the “national emergency” of the country’s infamously low birth rate as it grapples with a deepening demographic crisis.

In a televised address, President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would ask for parliament’s cooperation to establish the Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter-planning.

“We will mobilize all of the nation’s capabilities to overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency,” he said.

Not sure how you mobilize people to have more babies. Tax credits or something like that?

So hug a South Korean and tell them how much you appreciate them. Truthfully there may not be a lot of them to hug in a few decades.

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

 

We remember Alexander Haig (1924-2010)

We remember former Secretary of State Alexander Haig who was born on this in 1924 and died in 2010.   He lived a very consequential life in the military and later in government.

Mr. Haig was a soldier, a diplomat and dedicated public servant. He was also a "straight shooter" by all accounts.

He served the country as a soldier in Korea and rose to become a 4-star general. Later, he was a key player in managing the White House during President Nixon's resignation and the transition to President Ford.

In 1981, Haig was named Secretary of State by President Reagan.    I remember being very happy about the selection.

Secretary Haig will also be remembered for his comments on the day that President Reagan was shot and rushed to the hospital.  His remarks about "being in charge" were misunderstood but he never recovered from the incident.

Overall, a very good man and public servant.

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).  If you like our posts, click send drop a dime here.

 

We remember Alexander Haig (1924-2010) and how he tried to deal with Castro

We remember former Secretary of State Alexander Haig who was born on this in 1924 and died in 2010.   He lived a very consequential life in the military and later in government.

Mr Haig was a soldier, a diplomat and dedicated public servant. He was also a "straight shooter" by all accounts.

He served the country as a soldier in Korea and rose to become a 4-star general.

Later, he was a key player in managing the White House during President Nixon's resignation and the transition to President Ford.

In 1981, he was named Secretary of State by President Reagan.    I remember being very happy about the selection.

In the summer of 1981, the US and Cuba had talks in Mexico City, as James Chace wrote in a review of Secretary Haig's memoirs.     

President Reagan was hoping to persuade the Castro regime to take back some of the criminals that sailed into Florida during the Mariel Boatlift in the spring of 1980.    

This is the account of those meetings:    

At one point in early 1981 the National Security Council even tried to arrange a meeting with Fidel Castro through the good offices of the columnist Jack Anderson. 
Naturally when Mr. Haig got word of this, he was upset at seeing such a maneuver undermine his military efforts to put ''fear into the hearts of the Cubans.'' 
Though he was reluctant to ease the pressure at so early a date, Mr. Haig felt it necessary to follow up on a suggestion from the Mexican President to mediate between Havana and Washington. 
It is hard to see what Mr. Haig hoped to gain by this, since ''there could be no talk about normalization, no relief of the pressure, no conversations on any subject except the return to Havana of the Cuban criminals (in the United States) and the termination of Cuba's interventionism.'' 
Indeed, he may well have gone ahead because of the President's desire to see if Cuba would receive the some 4,000 criminals who had left Cuba along with 120,000 other refugees in the 1980 Mariel boatlift who were now in American prisons. 
Deciding to test the waters, as he puts it, he met in November 1981 in Mexico City with Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, the vice premier and the man who, after Fidel Castro, is the most authoritative spokesman of Cuban foreign policy. 
The conversations were amiable. The Cuban denied that Havana was sending arms to El Salvador but did not want a confrontation with the United States.
Mr. Haig did not appear eager for another meeting, but, at the President's request, he dispatched Gen. Vernon Walters to meet with Mr. Castro and Mr. Rodriguez in March 1982. 
At this meeting, Mr. Castro said that the return of the Cuban criminals was ''a solvable problem''; nor did he deny Cuban involvement in Central America. 
Although the President continued to press for a solution to the criminal question, Mr. Haig recommended that Mr. Castro be given an ultimatum to receive the criminals or ''we would simply load them aboard an expendable ship, sail it into a Cuban anchorage under escort of the U.S. Navy and inform Castro that we had returned his citizens to him.'' 
At this point, Mr. Haig's report over possible negotiations with Havana breaks off.   

And so another round of talks with Cuba failed.    My guess is that Secretary Haig never put a lot of faith on these talks, specially after the Cubans gave confusing signals about their involvement in Central America.

Unfortunately, Secretary Haig will always be associated with the day that President Reagan was shot.

Secretary Haig said that "I'm in charge here" during a press conference.

He also said that he was in touch with VP Bush and in contact with him. (VP Bush was out of town and on his way back to Washington DC)

Sec Haig did not mean to say that he was the "acting president". However, a lot of people read it that way, specially in the Reagan team.

It clearly hurt his image with a lot of Americans and led to his removal as Secretary of State in June 1982.

We remember Alexander Haig as a great American!

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).  If you like our posts, click send drop a dime here.

 

 

1973: The day that Gerald Ford became VP

On this day in 1973,  Representative Gerald Ford became Vice President of the US following the resignation of VP Agnew.   

David Shribman wrote an article reminding us of just how fortunate we were that Gerald Ford was the man who assumed the office.

Put me down as one of those who believes that President Ford was a great president.  He did not fight a war or deal with an economic depression.  He did restore the presidency and that's no small achievement.

As President Carter said after taking the presidential oath:   

"For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land.."

Yes, we should all thank President Ford for healing the nation.  It was no small task.

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World War II: The great military leaders with Barry Jacobsen

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World War II: The great military leaders with Barry Jacobsen 07/23 by Silvio Canto Jr | History Podcasts:

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............