"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
The other guy with funny hair: If you missed it, President Javier Milei of Argentina has been in the news lately. Let's see what he is up to down in the land of tango and….
If you missed it, President Javier Milei of Argentina has been in the news lately. Let’s see what he is up to down in the land of tango and “empanadas.” (By the way, here is a great idea for Christmas. Go to an Argentina restaurant, order some beef empanadas and a glass of red wine. It’s second to none, especially at this festive season of the year, to paraphrase the two businessmen who visited Scrooge.)
Anyway, down in Buenos Aires, there are some big news for that other president with funny hair. Let’s check this from Quico Toro:
When Javier Milei was sworn-in as Argentinian president a year ago, the smart money was on a spectacular train wreck. Impulsive, thin-skinned, hyper-ideological and irresistibly drawn to every culture war controversy, no matter how dumb, Milei doesn’t immediately strike you as the kind of leader that gets results. Taking over one of the world’s most notorious economic basketcases at a time of absolute fiscal disarray, Milei’s coming doom seemed all too predictable.
A year on, the naysayers have been, if not quite silenced, then given ample time to reconsider. Argentina’s economy hasn’t imploded — that was the job of the previous administration. It did go through the deep recession the president himself had almost cherished forecasting, but it’s coming out the other side with much lower inflation, and much improved prospects for growth. Yes, poverty spiked during the adjustment, as everyone knew it would. What’s remarkable is that, even so, Milei retains popularity ratings above 50% — an amazing feat in a region where incumbency and single-digit approval ratings increasingly go hand-in-hand.
His ideas are simple. He hates regulations and invites citizens to suggest which ones he can cut:
Alongside a tax and cost-cutting spree, Javier Milei has gone on a kind of crusade against the thicket of regulatory nonsense that had colonized every bit of the Argentinian state. His economy minister launched a new mechanism to invite Argentinians to suggest useless rules to be done away with: in the first eight hours it was in operation, it received over 1,300 suggestions. The government deregulated everything from imports to labeling to apartment rentals. Its Deregulation Minister thundered at the mass of absurd regulations that meant importing, say, $30,000 dollars worth of toys required you to spend $10,000 on paperwork.
As my friend from Argentina told me on the phone, it’s about time that we got lucky. I agree because they’ve had some bad luck, or more specifically bad leadership. Milei got lucky because things had hit bottom in Argentina and the public was willing to give him a chance. He had no government experience but the public already had too much of politicians with lots of experience. He was full of slogans but the public trusted that this time the slogans were right.
As the author points out, Argentina was ripe for a bit of libertarian disruption. The voters had had enough, threw the dice, and so far it’s working. Of course, we don’t know if it will work a year from now, but so far people are betting on Milei making it work.
We remember Maurice White who was born on this day in 1941. He died in 2016. Back in the 1970's, Maurice White founded "Earth wind & fire", a great band that sold 90 million records. They had a great sound! The band recorded so many great songs:
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On December 19 1972, Apollo 17 turned out to be the last NASA lunar mission:
"The Apollo lunar-landing program ends on December 19, 1972, when the last
three astronauts to travel to the moon splash down safely in the Pacific Ocean. Apollo 17 had lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, 10 days before."
Who would have believed that years ago? I certainly did not!
The moon landing program was one of our greatest accomplishments.
First, we beat the USSR to the moon. By the way, that was no small feat considering the the Soviets had an early start with Sputnik in 1957. Second, we expanded technology and showed the world that the US was indeed a superpower. NASA's scientists and engineers gave us computers, calculators and paved the way for what we have today. Will we go back to the moon? I don't know for sure. However, it is hard to believe that we spent the 1960's committed to a lunar program and then just pulled the plug.
We remember Al Kaline who was born in Baltimore in 1934 and died in 2020. Kaline broke with the Detroit Tigers in 1953. In 1955, he won the AL batting title, the youngest champion ever at age 20. Kaline played right field for the next two decades and finished in the top 3 of AL batting leaders five more times. He also hit 399 HR and won 10 Gold Gloves. In 1974, he retired with 3,008 hits and was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1980. One of my all time favorites. I saw him play several times.
