Saturday Nov 26: Fidel Castro is dead and a few other thoughts....click to listen........ https://t.co/ebD3Vj0g8m— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) November 27, 2016
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Fidel Castro 1926-2016
A very hot place awaits Fidel
In the end, he died like most people do – i.e., old age. No CIA assassination. No overthrow. Just an old man probably connected to a bunch of machines staying alive.
For most of us Cubans, and the ones who grew up here like me, this is a moment when images fly in your head.
First, I recall the morning Batista fled and the expectations. My mother serving us breakfast and my father on the phone talking about the future of Cuba. The phone did not stop ringing. My mother kept bringing my father coffee and offering her opinions as well. The TV was on with constant reports of Cuba. The Voice of America in Spanish on my father’s short wave radio.
Most importantly, no one that morning had a clue of what would happen to Cuba in a few years.
Second, the Bay of Pigs and the Missile Crisis. As my mother would joke later: “¡Nosotros los primeros!” Or loosely translated, we would have been the first ones to go if the missiles were fired. Thankfully, the missiles were not fired, and my mother’s words did not come to pass.
Third, I will always remember the day we left and the look on my mother’s face when the plane took off.
Most of all, we remember how he destroyed Cuba. He came to power when Cuba was a very prosperous island with a growing middle class. It is not that country anymore, as Tim Worstall wrote:
Fidel Castro, the Communist Dictator of Cuba, has died at the age of 90. There have been those, over the decades, who have held him up as some paragon of a new world order, one in which people will not be subservient to either America nor capitalism. The truth is that he visited an economic disaster upon the island nation of Cuba. No, it was not the US, it was not any blockade or embargo, not anything external to Cuba that caused this, it was quite simply the idiocy of the economic policy followed, that socialism, which led to there being near no economic growth at all over the 55 years or so of his rule. What little that did occur happening when the strictest of his rules were relaxed.It is polite, human and common to withhold criticism of the dead in the immediate aftermath of their demise. But leaving 11 million people grossly poorer than they ought to be in the name of a bankrupt ideology is not the stuff of which hagiographic obituaries are made
He promised elections but kept delaying them. They never happened.
He denied that he was communist and locked up people like my dad’s cousin for publicly saying so. A bit later, he declared himself a communist but did not release those who called him one.
In the end, he leaves a poor island with very little hope. He leaves political prisons, families crushed, and empty store shelves.
What happens now? This is a great opportunity for President-Elect Trump to demand some real concessions from the island’s leadership.
Fidel’s death is really the end of communism in Cuba. Raúl is also an old man and probably won’t be around in a few years, either.
Cuba is screaming for change. Let’s hear it and demand real concessions from Raúl Castro.
And please don’t insult the memory of so many by sending a big delegation to his funeral. Stay away and show your respect for the thousands executed by this regime.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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Dear Mexico: Stop thinking about Trump
Let’s add Jorge Castaneda, Mexico’s foreign minister (2000 to 2003) and current professor at New York University, to the growing list of Mexicans who are just thinking too much about Trump.
Can we come to our senses, people of Mexico?
Mr. Castenada, who is generally a good guy but talks too much, posted this over at the New York Times:
This year, for the first time since Ronald Reagan assailed the Soviet Union in 1980, an American presidential candidate actively campaigned against another country’s national interests.By threatening to deport all undocumented immigrants, about half of whom are Mexican; to build a wall on the Mexican border; and to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is far more important for Mexico than for the United States, Donald J. Trump made Mexico one of the central issues of the campaign.How should Mexicans respond now that Mr. Trump has been elected?
How should Mexicans respond? They can start by not taking Mr. Castaneda too seriously.
First, candidate Reagan assailed the USSR in 1980 because it was a threat to the U.S., and Mexico. It was only sensible that the man running to be the leader of the free world would campaign against the old Soviet Union. Are you kidding me with that comparison?
Second, deporting undocumented immigrants is what Mexico does every day. Is Mr. Castaneda calling on Mexico to stop enforcing its immigration laws?
Third, building a wall is an option. It is an option that a sovereign country has to defend itself. Hasn’t Mexico spoken of building a “muro” on the Guatemala border?
Fourth, Mr. Trump has not called for ripping up NAFTA. He wants to renegotiate it, again an option for a sovereign country to exercise.
Let’s get real, please.
Mexico and the U.S. have huge mutual interests. I’m sure that Mr. Trump knows that and wants nothing to do with hurting a neighbor with one of the top 20 GDP’s in the world.
At the same time, most of modern Mexico’s problems have nothing to do with the U.S. PEMEX, the national monopoly, was made and corrupted by Mexicans. “El campo”, as Mexicans call their countryside, is inefficient because of politically motivated policies intended to control farmers rather than grow food. It is these farmers’ sons who pack up and leave because there is no future in Mexico.
So my advice to Mr. Castaneda is simple: stop thinking about Trump and start thinking about making Mexico into the economic powerhouse that it can be. Mexico has great resources, a wonderful people but too many “politicos” like Mr. Castaneda who always look north to point fingers.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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Friday, November 25, 2016
A chat with Don Surber about the 2016 campaign
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A chat with Don Surber about the 2016 campaign 11/25 by Silvio Canto Jr | News Podcasts:
Guest: Don Surber, author of 'Trump the press' and popular blogger, joins me for a discussion of the Trump candidacy and eventual election to the presidency.......Don was one of the first to predict that Trump would win in 2016..........the Trump transition and selections to the Cabinet........
Tags: Don Surber and the 2016 election To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
Obama greeted by "Yankee go home" signs in Peru and Greece
President Obama was in Greece and Peru a few days ago. He did not get a friendly welcome from the street according to news reports:
In Lima, Peru for the APEC summit, hundreds of angry protesters greeted his arrival, demonstrating against him and TPP in the city's financial district. Clashes with police erupted.One sign said Salga de Obama, La Bestia Capitalista (Get Out Obama, The Capitalist Beast). Another displaying a skull and crossbones said EL TPP MATA (TPP kills).According to Socialist Left alliance leader Martin Guerra, it "destroys the country's economy, diminishes labor rights, privatize territories and hinders access to basic medical care."
I guess that the Cairo speech, "hope and change" and "si se puede" did nothing for these demonstrations. They hate us just as much as they did when a pro-life cowboy from Texas was traveling on Air Force One.
To be fair to President Obama, these marches have been around for a long time, from VP Nixon in Caracas 1958 to President Reagan accused of starting a war by nuclear freeze nuts in 1983 to President Bush hailed as Hitler in 2003.
So what's new? Well, it was not supposed to happen with Mr. Obama. We never had a president who ran to be popular and loved around the world. It would have been better if he worked to be respected rather than loved!
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Tags: Obama and anti-US demonstrations To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Would it be that crazy to have California secede?
The Clinton-Trump election, and aftermath, has taken all of the oxygen out of the room. Yet, there are some interesting things happening in the country, from the GOP rout of state legislatures to a move for California to secede.
To be honest, I am not calling for California to leave. However, there are some really good signs that the Golden State and the other 49 are literally two ships going in different directions.
Let’s look at election night:
1) Mr. Trump won with 290 Electoral votes with Michigan’s 16 votes still up in the air. It will probably go to Mr. Trump, closing the books at 306-232; and,
2) In California, Mrs. Clinton beat Mr. Trump by 2.5 million votes.
Take California out of the picture, and Mr. Trump wins the popular vote and this big “blue” mark is not on the map.
So beyond election the 2016 results, the Golden State and the other 49 have indeed been travelling in different directions for some time. In other words, the 2010 & 2014 GOP landslides did not reach California either.
The people who want California to secede make a good point:
Supporters of a plan for California to secede from the union took their first formal step Monday morning, submitting a proposed ballot measure to the state attorney general’s office in the hopes of a statewide vote as soon as 2018.Marcus Ruiz Evans, the vice president and co-founder of Yes California, said his group had been planning to wait for a later election, but the presidential election of Donald Trump sped up the timeline.“We’re doing it now because of all of the overwhelming attention,” Evans said.The Yes California group has been around for more than two years, Evans said. It is based around California taxpayers paying more money to the federal government than the state receives in spending, that Californians are culturally different from the rest of the country, and that national media and organizations routinely criticize Californians for being out of step with the rest of the U.S.
California is different, as anyone with a liberal friend in out there will attest to.
It is not the “Pleasant Valley Sunday” that The Monkees sang about years ago. It is now a state that tolerates illegal immigration, defends sanctuary cities, has cities going bankrrupt, faces serious finance issues over public sector pension and leads the nation in people going east, i.e. the middle class who can’t afford to live there anymore!
Will California secede? Probably not.
Nevertheless, people in California should reflect in what they are doing that makes them so different. I don’t think that we’ve ever had a state that so looks different from the Union as today’s California.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Tags: California 2016 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
A post election day chat with Leslie Eastman & visit from Aaron Clarey
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A post election day chat with Leslie Eastman:
Guests: Leslie Eastman, contributor to Legal Insurrection, joins me for a chat about about the election and Trump transition..........the reaction from the left is bizarre........we will also hear from our old friend Aaron Clarey who is busy writing posts and books........and more thoughts about an election campaign unlike any other in recent history..........
Tags: A look at 2016 and the election To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
President Obama is going to be one lonely ex‐president
In 2009, President & Mrs. Bush landed in Texas after watching his successor get sworn in. His remarks were gracious and very kind about President Obama. He did not say that he’d spend his retirement fighting the new president. Furthermore, love or hate him, he has slept comfortably since leaving office knowing that he put the country first and did the best he could in a very difficult situation.
Well, it does not look like President Obama has anything like that in mind. We just read that he plans to “jump into the fray” to defend his policies against President Trump. Add to all of this, he is not moving anywhere. He will stay in Washington DC, not far from the White House.
Unfortunately for President Obama, and his legacy, history won’t be kind at all. Of course, he will always be the first black president but not much more than that.
ObamaCare is collapsing on its own. Yes, the GOP majority will move to repeal it but that’s a bit like signing the death certificate on a person dead for months.
President Obama’s foreign policy is in total disarray. It’s hard to see anyone defending any of it, except for liberal Democrats from safe seats who just want to oppose President Trump.
The U.S. economy is desperately calling for liberation of Mr. Obama’s regulations. Most of them will be reversed by another executive order. One pen cancels another!
So what exactly is ex-President Obama going to “jump in the fray” for? What U.S. Senate Democrats running for reelection in 2018 are going to show up and follow their leader?
Yes, the fall of the House of Obama is coming and he can spend the rest of his life blaming himself, and no one else, for it. Yes, he made his own bed and now will have to sleep on it for years, as Marc A. Thiessen pointed out:
It’s not just Obama’s executive actions that will soon be reversed. His signature legislative achievement, Obamacare, is headed for repeal — and he has no one to blame but himself.Obama passed his health-care reform without any Republican buy-in or any effort to reach bipartisan consensus.He controlled both houses of Congress, and so he imposed his will over the objection of every single Republican.Now that Republicans control both Congress and the White House, they have no incentive to preserve the law.
Last, but not least, I hope that someone updates his contacts list. It’s a much shorter list of elected Democrats eight years after he walked into the Oval Office.
As Michael Barone pointed out, the party has not been this weak since 1930.
Therefore, President Obama may hear a lot of recorded messages (“this number is no longer in service”) when he calls Democrats from his new home office not far from where he works now.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Tags: Ex-president Obama To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
Monday, November 21, 2016
The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda
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The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda 11/21 by Silvio Canto Jr | News Podcasts:
Guest: Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda......we will look at the Trump transition and some of the people already selected and more names under consideration........President Obama's trip to Europe and Latin America......The Democrats and Mrs. Pelosi..........the Democrats still looking for reasons to explain the 2016 election, specially the collapse of the party at the state level.........more discussion about The Electoral College............and more thoughts about an election campaign unlike any other in recent history.................
Tags: Trump transition, President Obama overseas for the last time, the Democrats in denial, Mrs. Pelosi's future To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
Why do the Democrats always want to change the Electoral College after they lose?
It’s not 2000 but it sort sounds like it. Senator Boxer, who is retiring, has introduced a bill to end the Electoral College, as we see in this report from CNN:
Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who was an outspoken supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, is set to introduce a Senate bill that aims to end the Electoral College.Boxer announced in a statement on Tuesday that the bill, which she planned to introduce later Tuesday afternoon, would determine the winner of presidential elections by the outcome of the popular vote.She cited President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the Electoral College despite Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s apparent popular vote advantage.
Of course, we don’t really know who won the popular vote. We have unofficial calculations based on state results. There is no such thing as a certified final popular vote figure.
Let’s file this one under the “grandstanding” category, since Mrs. Boxer will be gone soon.
The real challenge is that such a change will actually require a constitutional amendment. In other words, as we learned in our U.S. history high school class, such an amendment would require two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate and then in three-quarters of states.
It is more likely that the Cubs will repeat as World Series champs than we will see this change anytime soon.
All of this uproar concerning the Electoral College begs two questions:
First, why didn’t Democrats vote for this when they had 60 votes in the Senate and a nice majority in the House, circa 2009-2010? I guess that they were busy pushing ObamaCare through at any cost.
Second, why didn’t Senator Boxer call on Mrs. Clinton to say that she would not accept the presidency unless it came with a popular vote? I guess that walking the walk is not something that Democrats do!
This “abolish” campaign will pass.
After that, the Democrats may actually get down to understanding why they lost. It’s not hard at all. Blue collar workers would rather hear about jobs than global warming!
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Tags: Democrats and The Electoral College 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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