My View by Silvio Canto, Jr.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

A winter that we will not forget!

Do you recall a winter like this one? I can't. I can't remember the last time that I saw snowstorms shutting down Atlanta, Georgia!

According to a new study, Lake Superior has more ice than ever:

"With no end in sight, the winter of 2014 rages on, ushering in frigid Arctic air and dumping record-breaking snow and ice on much of the nation. This season, ice coverage on Lake Superior has exceeded other measurements in recent history."By the long shot this is the most ice we've had on Lake Superior in 20 years," Associate Professor Jay Austin of the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., said.
During a typical winter, 30 to 40 percent of the Great Lakes are covered by ice, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson."

Anyway, maybe it's just Mother Nature reminding us that she always has the last word. At least, the "last snow".

Click here for CANTO TALK:

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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Tell the UAW to stop insulting the intelligence of the plant workers in Tennessee

(My new American Thinker post)

It never fails. Every time that the left loses or can't succeed it is "racism," "sexism," "Tea Party madness", and so on. This is getting as predictable as President Obama playing golf.

No one in the left has sat back and looked at the UAW defeat seriously. It is "a teachable" moment as President Obama likes to say. I just hope that the UAW takes the time to learn from this "teachable moment"!

The Wall Street Journal looks at the UAW's hysterical reaction:

"The union is blaming Tennessee politicians for raising this possibility, especially GOP Senator Bob Corker, a former mayor of Chattanooga who helped bring Volkswagen to the city and who said last week that he felt "assured" (he didn't say by whom) that the Tennessee plant would get the second production line if it rejected the union. The company disavowed that claim, but the union may use it as an excuse for defeat and to file an unfair labor practice complaint under the Wagner Act with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

This isn't likely to fly on the merits. Mr. Corker may have been impolitic. But he didn't give up his right to free speech when he joined the Senate, and every public action by Volkswagen had favored the union. State legislators had said they might withhold future tax incentives if the UAW organized the plant, and Tennessee had reason to believe that a UAW success would hurt its ability to recruit other companies that would fear the union precedent."

The UAW lost for a few reasons and they have nothing to do with outside influence. By the way, there was outside influence from both sides. In other words, both sides got to make their case in this one. In fact, Rich Lowry reported that the UAW spent $5 million over two years.

It failed because Volkswagen is an excellent employer and people are happy there. This is a huge lesson for employers.Take care of your people and they will stand by you.

It failed because they didn't get the votes. The workers simply did not want to change their situation. They don't see in the UAW what workers back in the 1930s did.

The UAW has a choice. It can accept defeat gracefully or continue to accuse the workers in Tennessee of being morons.

I hope that the UAW learn a lesson or they will continue to lose members, as they've been doing for a lot longer than Senator Cocker or "the tea party" have been around.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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Good luck to Pablo Kleinman, running for the US Congress in California

Our friend Pablo Kleinman is running for the US Congress in California.

Pablo has outlines those issues that his campaign will be based on:

"Education – I believe strongly in school choice. Rich kids already get to choose what kind of education they get. I believe other children should too. Middle class and poor children are forced into their local public school regardless of how good or bad it is. While charter schools are a good start, all of our public schools should compete to educate our children. No school should be given a monopoly on our children’s education. Parents need to have the possibility to immediately offer their children access to better education. Competition will force public schools to immediately improve.

Obamacare – Obamacare must be overturned in its current form. While most everyone believes we should fix the preexisting condition and portability problems; we shouldn’t have had a government take-over of the entire healthcare system. Taking away everyday Americans’ current health plans was and is a bad idea. Politicians that voted for Obamacare owe it to the rest of us to recognize that the program was built on a faulty assumption that we could keep our health plans if we liked them. The cost of medicine and prescription drugs is out of control and Obamacare fails to deal with this growing problem. I believe that more competition and more free markets is the way to lower the cost of healthcare.

National Debt – The current national debt of over $17 trillion is unsustainable. It isn’t enough to say that we care about our children’s future if we aren’t willing to prioritize the federal government’s spending. We need to make tough choices so that we have enough money in the budget to take care of vulnerable Americans and have a strong defense.Israel – Israel is America’s most trusted ally in the region and one of the best friends we have in the world. When other countries in the Middle East chose to ally with the Soviet Union, Israel was already our trusted and dependable ally. We must consistently stand with Israel as they seek to protect their citizens from hostile neighbors. Our allies should be able to trust us. I am concerned that Israel doesn’t feel like they can trust President Obama and the Democratic Party.

Armenia – The U.S. should broker an agreement between Turkey and Armenia whereby Turkey admits to the Ottoman Empire committing the 1^st genocide of the 20^thcentury. The Armenian people need closure. Turkey’s recognition of this horrific act would begin the healing and start the reconciliation. The current Turkish government policy of simply ignoring what took place is unacceptable.

Iran – The U.S. missed a crucial opportunity to assist the Green Revolution and the democratic forces inside and outside of Iran. Regime change is not only imperative, it is important to consistently articulate. I am concerned that President Obama is afraid to commit to regime change and therefore his timidity has become an increasing problem. Iran is still the largest state sponsor of terrorism and easing sanctions on the regime or undercutting the previous UN agreements demanding the Islamic Republic stop enriching all uranium is the wrong direction to take.

Free Trade – The U.S. should work towards a free trade pact with our friends and allies. More international trade will benefit American entrepreneurs and consumers. Free trade with America will also help stabilize the democratic regimes in the countries we upgrade our commercial relations with, increase American influence and prestige, and provide both peoples with many more economic and social benefits than any type of direct foreign aid could.

Budget Priorities – The federal government should not spend more money than it takes in. Politicians must prioritize spending so that government is able to provide its necessary services consistently. I believe the U.S. should enact zero based budgeting with regard to foreign aid. This will force foreign governments to articulate what they need our foreign assistance for on a yearly basis. There should be no automatic funding to foreign governments. The American people work too hard to give their tax dollars away without a clear strategy. The American people are very generous but they are also smart and don’t want to waste money.

Entrepreneurship – California is the cradle of some of the most innovative ideas that spawn many of the most successful emerging companies worldwide. Entrepreneurs are a constantly-renewing source of economic growth and employment. We should encourage them and not burden their creativity with red tape and increased taxes.

Immigration – Immigrating to the United States is a privilege, not a right. While we value the contributions made by every immigrant, we also expect people to follow the rules. We have a problem three decades in the making that needs to be resolved once and for all. The solution should include the necessary measures that will resolve the problem of illegal immigration and prevent it from recurring in the future. The United States gave me the opportunity to start a business and become a job producer for other Americans. I believe we can make sure our immigration system values those that contribute and refuses to help those that won’t."

We spoke with Pablo on Tuesday's show:

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A challenge to US low ranking in press freedom index

(My new American Thinker post)

The headline on Drudge caught my attention: USA Plunges To 46th In World Press Freedom Index...

I read a summary and here is what Reporters without borders say about the US:

"In the United States, 9/11 spawned a major conflict between the imperatives of national security and the principles of the constitution's First Amendment.

This amendment enshrines every person's right to inform and be informed.

But the heritage of the 1776 constitution was shaken to its foundations during George W. Bush's two terms as president by the way journalists were harassed and even imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources or surrender their files to federal judicial officials.

There has been little improvement in practice under Barack Obama.

Rather than pursuing journalists, the emphasis has been on going after their sources, but often using the journalist to identify them.

No fewer that eight individuals have been charged under the Espionage Act since Obama became president, compared with three during Bush's two terms.

While 2012 was in part the year of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 2013 will be remember for the National Security Agency computer specialist Edward Snowden, who exposed the mass surveillance methods developed by the US intelligence agencies.

The whistleblower is the enemy.

Hence the 35-year jail term imposed on Private Chelsea/Bradley Manning for being the big WikiLeaks source, an extremely long sentence but nonetheless small in comparison with the 105-year sentence requested for freelance journalist Barrett Brown in a hacking case.

Amid an all-out hunt for leaks and sources, 2013 will also be the year of the Associated Press scandal, which came to light when the Department of Justice acknowledged that it had seized the news agency's phone records."

To be fair, the report does say that there are countries like Cuba and others with no independent watchdogs or a state run media.

However, the assessment of the US is very harsh and unfair. Who are these 45 countries with more freedom of the press than the US?

Jamaica? Costa Rica? Romania? Spain? Botswana? El Salvador? Belize? and a bunch of other European countries?

Are you kidding me?

The report also treats Mr Manning and Mr Snowden as whistleblowers. Sorry but they are traitors who violated their oath. Mr Snowden actually went to Russia, hardly a place for journalists.

The "Reporters without borders" index makes no sense to me, at least as it applies to its very negative treatment of the US since 9-11.

It's hard to think of a country with a more "free press" than the US.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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Throwing strikes and worrying about your family back in Venezuela

(My new American Thinker post)

Every major league team these days has its share of Venezuelan players.The Texas Rangers have a couple of good ones, young lefty Martin Perez and All Star shortstop Elvis Andrus. They are torn between events back home and getting ready for the baseball season, according to The Dallas Morning News:

"Just as spring training camps were about to open last week, the country was rocked by a wave of student protests and police retaliation. In the days since, it has only ramped up. On Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, under fire for rising inflation, food shortages and sharp increases in crime, ejected three U.S. diplomats for allegedly helping to fuel the protests, which have turned deadly in some of the country's biggest cities.
It is against this backdrop that Perez and six other Venezuelan-born players on the Rangers' spring roster prepare for the season. With the exception of Elvis Andrus, who is arriving from Dallas on Tuesday, all the players made it to camp safely. Before Monday's first workout, the Venezuelan contingent, all close, congregated near Robinson Chirinos to talk baseball, but the state of their homeland also came up.
"It is hard for us," Perez said. "We call every day, and people don't have food for eating, things like that. We have a great country, and you look at the situation and things are just terrible. It's bad. I love my country, but things are bad. People want and need things, and they don't have it."
It is one of the reasons Perez and Andrus were so willing to sign long-term contracts with the Rangers within the last year. The financial security gave them both the ability to buy homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Perez, who signed a four-year, $12.5 million contract over the winter, closed on a home in Arlington only two weeks before coming to camp. His wife is there, but his parents remain in Guanare in the central part of the country.
It has also led the two players to become unlikely political activists. Perez and Andrus have taken to actively tweeting and retweeting to bring awareness to the situation."

Venezuela exploded last week and it's hard to see what happens next, as Daniel Duquenal reports:

"The regime is paralyzed, it has no idea what to do so it threatens, kicks out a few USA embassy personnel, accuses Uribe of planning everything. As if Uribe, or anyone for that matter could convince groups to riot from San Cristobal to Puerto Ordaz which surprisingly has had some of the largest gatherings in spite of having one of the worst climate for such rallies."

Spring training will have a new meaning for many Venezuelan ballplayers, who must get in shape and keep an eye on the news back home.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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The world wants Cuba to change but the Castro regime doesn't

(My new American Thinker post)

We've seen this movie many times before. It starts with a country giving Cuba a line of credit or going around the US embargo. It is followed by high expectations that Cuba will change once Cubans in the island greet foreign tourists or Spaniards build hotels.

However, the movie always ends the same way: Cuba can't pay the loans and Cubans are still living in a repressive state.

We've seen that movie several times since the collapse of the Soviet Union in '92. Just ask all of the countries who've had to reschedule their loans to Cuba or just forgive old ones.

The Miami Herald has a great editorial about US and Cuba"

"Suddenly, there appears to be movement, or at least the start of a conversation, regarding policy toward Cuba on the part of the European Union and Americans interested in the welfare of the Cuban people.

This is a healthy development. No policy should be declared sacrosanct and off-limits for periodic review, particularly those framed during the height of the Cold War.

There's just one thing missing in this picture: The Cuban government.

The government's hard-line stance on human-rights issues represents an obstacle in the thawing of relations that cannot be ignored. Moreover, not only is there no sign that the Castro regime is interested in any sort of dialogue or negotiation over its despotic policies, but rather the opposite.

The latest evidence of the regime's perfidy puts the Castro government squarely in the middle of a global weapons-supply chain to North Korea, in violation of explicit U.N. sanctions.

And just days before pollsters in this country released findings indicating that majorities across the board, including people of Cuban descent, favored a thaw in relations between the two countries, police raided the home of prominent dissident Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as Antunez.

He was hauled away and detained for hours - and so was his wife, after demanding his freedom - before being released. Their home was vandalized and sacked.

This is standard operating procedure by the Castro security apparatus. Both at home and abroad, Cuba stands on the side of the oppressors, as it always has."

This is why I've supported the US embargo. I have not seen any evidence that lifting the embargo will bring democracy to Cuba or help the Cuban people. On the contrary, lifting the embargo will simply bail out the communist state and put more dollars in the Castro family accounts.

Our policy should be very clear and simple:

First, no talks at any level until Cuba releases Mr. Allan Gross unconditionally. Simply hand him over to the Red Cross so that he can be reunited with his family. No meeting or talks until that happens first;

Second, the world should demand a democratic transition in Cuba. No more "wishful thinking" about reforms that don't really reform or "expectations" of change that never comes.

This is the moment for the US to draw the line and say "enough" in Cuba.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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Spanish is a great asset in today's US-Latin America marketplace

We spoke with Carlos A Roncal, CEO of World Language School in Dallas, TX. We are seeing more and more trade between the US and Spanish speaking countries, like Mexico, Venezuela and Chile. The facts are clear, according to Congressional Research Service:

"Latin America is far from the largest U.S. regional trade partner (see Figure 1 for U.S. direction of trade), but it has long been one of the fastest growing ones. Between 1998 and 2009, total U.S. merchandise trade (exports plus imports) with Latin America grew by 82% compared to 72% for Asia (driven largely by China), 51% for the European Union, 221% for Africa, and 64% for the world (individual country data appear in Appendix A and Appendix B.).
Only trade with Africa has grown faster, and this represents growth from a very small base and variations in the price. "

So speaking Spanish is now a necessity as more and more US companies go south for new customers. Here is our show with Carlos:

SPANISH FOR BUSINESS with Carlos A Roncal, CEO, World Language School....Listen in now at http://t.co/MTI76NcHpj. #BlogTalkRadio
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) February 18, 2014

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Monday, February 17, 2014

Let the voters decide the fate of same-sex marriage

(My new American Thinker post)

Another week and another judge telling us what he or she thinks of same sex marriage.

The latest is a judge that has found the Virginia ban unconstitutional.

First, how can something be "unconstitutional" that isn't in the US Constitution? Can anyone find the word "marriage" in the document? I only find that word in state laws. Unlike other countries, we do not issue a federal marriage license in the US.

Second, why are judges sticking their noses in anyway? Who said that federal judges define what marriage is anyway?

My position on same sex marriage is that it should be decided by voters and state legislatures.

Why don't supporters of same sex marriage take their fight to the state legislatures? Same sex marriage will have more legitimacy if voters or state legislatures make it the law.

The country is bitterly divided today. It would tear up the country even further to have a 5-4 Supreme Court decision ( a la Roe v Wade) making same sex marriage the law of the land.

It would be very wise for the Supreme Court to return this to the states and let voters define marriage.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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Sunday, February 16, 2014

UAW vote: Not a landslide but it wasn't close either.

(My new American Thinker post)

By any election standard, we would call a 53-47% victory a strong win. It's not a landslide but wasn't close either.

The workers in a Tennessee plant shook up union leaders in the last 24 hours, as reported by The Wall Street Journal:

"Volkswagen workers rejected the union by a vote of 712 to 626. The defeat raises questions about the future of a union that for years has suffered from declining membership and influence, and almost certainly leaves its president, Bob King, who had vowed to organize at least one foreign auto maker by the time he retires in June, with a tarnished legacy.

"If the union can't win [in Chattanooga], it can't win anywhere," said Steve Silvia, a economics and trade professor at American University who has studied labor unions."

The unions are trying to spin it by saying that they lost by 80-something votes. No way! They lost 53-47%.

I think that the voters rejected the union for a few reasons:

1) Union membership means little these days. It does not guarantee jobs as we've learned in Michigan or Ohio. In fact, you can argue that union membership will drive plants elsewhere.

2) What do you get for paying dues? You support Democrats and not much else. Union contributions go Democrat and that does not play well in Tennessee.

Last,but not least, union membership gets you leaders who didn't read Obama Care or how it would impact jobs. Why vote for unions that don't read or understand the laws that they fight to pass?

Why join a union? I think that is why 53% said "no thanks"! 53% said that they are happy keeping their own money rather than paying dues.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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A couple of “fechas” to remember this weekend

(My new Babalu post)

We recall a couple of dates from Cuban history this weekend.

First, the Maine blew up in Cuba on February 15, 1898. This is from the front page of The NY Times the next day:

"At 9:45 o'clock this evening a terrible explosion took place on board the United States battleship Maine in Havana Harbor.

Many persons were killed or wounded. All the boats of the Spanish cruiser Alfonso XII. are assisting.

As yet the cause of the explosion is not apparent. The wounded sailors of the Maine are unable to explain it. It is believed that the battleship is totally destroyed.

The explosion shook the whole city. The windows were broken in nearly all the houses.

The correspondent of the Associated Press says he has conversed with several of the wounded sailors and understands from them that the explosion took place while they were asleep, so that they can give no particulars as to the cause."

Second, Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister on this day in 1959:

"The United States initially recognized the new Cuban dictator but withdrew its support after Castro launched a program of agrarian reform, nationalized U.S. assets on the island, and declared a Marxist government."

He also closed newspapers, threw people in prison and executed many. He started the destruction of Cuba that day!

These two events ignited changes in Cuba.

The Maine explosion led to the US-Spanish War and the eventual independence of Cuba in 1902. Castro's promotion to prime minister legitimized a man who never wanted democracy in Cuba.

A couple of "fechas" to tell your kids about.

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