Thursday, February 04, 2016

The zika virus spreading to various countries & and other news from Latin America




Tags: Zika virus in Latin America, Peru politics and economy, Venezuela and medical supplies, Raul Castro in France To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Cruz won Iowa with a superb organization

Donald Trump learned a big lesson in Iowa, i.e. it takes an organization or lots of people on the ground!

 Senator Ted Cruz had a first class team on the ground, from volunteers calling on his behalf to others knocking on doors.     

 It works in Iowa, as The Des Moines Register wrote today:
In the final week of the campaign, he visited more than two dozen cities, shaking hands, answering voters’ questions and making his case that he should be the next president of the United States.
The Cruzin’ to Caucus bus hit Maquoketa, Manchester, Independence, Osceola, Albia, Centerville, Bloomfield, Ottumwa, Fairfield, Keosauqua. … When the bus got stuck in the mud at the Johnson County fairgrounds Sunday, Cruz hopped into a car with an aide and raced to the next stop on his schedule.
As Monday night’s caucus results showed, Cruz’s strategy, which included at least one visit to each of Iowa’s 99 counties, paid off. He slogged his way across Iowa by car and by bus, stopping in small-town cafes and gymnasiums, while his biggest threat, Donald Trump, traveled by personal jet and by helicopter to large-scale rallies

 This is how they do it in Iowa, as Mr Huckabee (2008), Mr Santorum (2012), Rev Robertson (1988) and Governor Jimmy Carter in 1976 showed us in previous years.

 Did skipping the debate hurt Mr Trump?   My guess is yes.   However, Trump's lack of an organization had more to do with it.

 P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

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Polls and Clinton sweeps The Coin Flip Bowl


Thank God we finally have voters to talk about.  
Once again, we have polls that did not see the results coming.  
To be fair, it is more complicated to do a poll in a caucus state than a primary or general election. I get that!
So why don’t these pollsters report a larger margin of error? Or simply admit that they don’t really know?
Or why doesn’t the media drop the polls and send human beings to the events? None of the pollsters saw the Rubio surge. Yet, people on the ground were saying that something was going on at his rallies.
Iowa also proves that a ground game is necessary. Trump did not have a ground game and Cruz did. It showed on the results!
In the end, Iowa always surprises us. Is this fascinating or what? This is from the Des Moines Register:
In a handful of Democratic caucus precincts Monday, a delegate was awarded with a coin toss.
It happened in precinct 2-4 in Ames, where supporters of candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton disputed the results after 60 caucus participants apparently disappeared from the proceedings.
As a result of the coin toss, Clinton was awarded an additional delegate, meaning she took five of the precinct’s eight, while Sanders received three.
Similar situations played out at various precincts across the state, but had an extremely small effect on the overall outcome, in which Clinton won 49.9 percent of statewide delegate equivalents, while Sanders won 49.5 percent. The delegates that were decided by coin flips were delegates to the party’s county conventions, of which there are thousands selected across the state from 1,681 separate precincts. They were not the statewide delegate equivalents that are reported in the final results.
Maybe the coin flips did not change the results but deciding results on a coin flip is crazy.  
First, how do “60 caucus participants” disappear? Where did they go? Was there an Iowa basketball game on the TV? Were they afraid of the snow?
Second, how did the Clinton win so many flips? Is that possible?
The Democrats need to look at their caucus proceedings. You don’t decide elections with coin flips!
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

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Iowa vote the day after with Barry Casselman, The Prairie Editor





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Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Iowa the day after


We finally had voters casting votes!   No more polls or predictions.    

 People voted and Senator Cruz, Mr Trump and Senator Rubio had something to cheer about.   On the Democrat side, it was almost a tie.

 Iowa sent two messages last night:

 1) Hillary Clinton has problems and I don't mean the emails issue.   How does the face of the Democrat Party end up in such a fight with a man who did not start campaigning in Iowa until a few months ago?

 2) Donald Trump has peaked.   Yes, he leads in the New Hampshire polls but that will probably change this week.   Also, Iowa showed that Mr Trump does not have much of an infrastructure.

 What happens in New Hampshire?  The word is surprise! 
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Will Argentina ever get to the bottom of the Jewish Center bombing?



Down in Argentina, President Mauricio Macri is hearing it every day: “Justicia” or Justice. 
Many people want to know the truth of who was behind that terrible terrorist attack on July 18, 1994 that killed 87 people.  
According to Jonathan Gilbert, we may get to the bottom of the story after all of these years:
For more than two decades, an investigation into the suicide bombing of a Jewish center here in 1994 that killed 85 people has faced setbacks and controversy. It caused an intractable rift between Argentina and Iran. A former president has been put on trial, accused of orchestrating a cover-up. And a prosecutor involved in the case died last year in murky circumstances.
But now, Argentina’s new government is pledging to finally get to the bottom of a case that cost the country about $3.5 million last year alone, and that took on a life of its own, swallowing up many who touched it.
President Mauricio Macri, who took office in December, has revamped the government department assigned to the bombing investigation and has vowed to introduce legislation that would allow for the trial of suspects in absentia.
The question is whether those efforts, which face considerable legal hurdles and political opposition, will translate into lasting results in the long-running case.
There are many outstanding questions:  
1)  Was Iran’s role covered up by the Kirchner-Fernandez administration?  
2)  Who killed Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor on the case, the night before he was to make a presentation to Congress? 
3)  Will President Macri risk a political crisis to get to the bottom of this? Would it be better for him to focus on more immediate economic problems, such as job growth and a very unhappy middle class?  
As with Benghazi, emotions are high because there are dead people and families seeking answers. Furthermore, there is also a sense that the administration withheld evidence to protect itself.  
We don’t know all of the answers today. We do know that this story won’t go away until someone gets to the bottom of this mess.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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Monday, February 01, 2016

A chat before they vote in the Iowa Caucus today




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Rubio is right that the US is off track


Over the last few months, we've heard from Senator Rubio that the US is off track.    Check out the latest freedom index, as reported by CNSNews:
 
The U.S. has fallen from the 6th freest economy in the world, when President Barack Obama took office, to 11th place in 2016. America’s declining score in the index is closely related to rapidly rising government spending, subsidies, and bailouts.
Since early 2009:
  • Government spending has exploded, amounting to $29,867 per household in 2015.
  • The national debt has risen to $125,000 for every tax-filing household in America—a total over $18 trillion.
  • The government takeover of health care is raising prices and disrupting markets.
  • Bailouts and new government regulations have increased uncertainty, stifling investment and job creation.

This is bad and a country in the wrong direction.   Our next president needs to put the country back on track and the sooner the better.
 

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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Not much fun down in Brazil


In a few months, Brazil will welcome athletes and visitors to the Olympics. It will probably bring thousands of tourists and millions of dollars to the economy. 
But will that really happen? We hope so, but the health crisis in Brazil could have the last word.  
According to Simon Romero, the country is in shock:
Before last fall, medical reports of babies born with brain damage and unusually small heads — a condition known as microcephaly — were so uncommon in Brazil that only about 150 cases were registered each year in the entire country. Now Brazilian officials are investigating thousands of them, and they contend that the mosquito-borne Zika virus is the cause.
Virus specialists are racing to understand the connection, if any, between Zika and the rash of microcephaly cases in Brazil, an undertaking that international officials warn could take six months or more.
But whatever the cause, “There is no doubt that Brazil is experiencing a significant increase in microcephaly,” said an official for Brazil’s Health Ministry who was not authorized to speak publicly. “We wouldn’t have declared this situation a health emergency if this increase had not been detected.”
Poor Brazil.  
They’ve gone through a rather rough time lately. Even the national “futbol” team was humiliated at home in the World Cup.
It started with a very divisive election in 2014. The left won a very close election but they took demagoguery to new levels. It poisoned the politics and made a lot of people angry.    
It was followed by daily accusations of corruption in a country famous for crony capitalism. Brazil and Mexico are case studies of why the government should not be running the country’s resources, specially oil.
Just a few weeks ago, we got terrible news about the economy.  
And now, arguably the worst of all, a health crisis that affects more than babies, as the BBC reported that three UK nationals were impacted. 
Again, what about the Olympics? Will anyone show up? We hope so but maybe not.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda




Tags: Iowa 2016, Iran and the USS Truman, China and the US Navy, US economy slowdown. Iran and Europeans share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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