La Gaceta Newspaper

Home

What You Missed This Week in La Gaceta

From As We Heard It, by Patrick Manteiga

► On a recent trip to our nation’s capital, we visited the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, a favorite of ours. The Jefferson quotation on the southeast portico of the rotunda reads, “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
This text is from a letter written by Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval on July 12, 1816.
It shows that one of our founding fathers, in reflecting on his and others’ work on the original documents that created this democracy, accepted and encouraged future generations to make changes as needed.
This text stands in contrast to the movement over the last few years for judges in our courts to embrace textualists and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
Jefferson, and many of his peers, expected future generations to cast off rules and laws that no longer fit our society – freeing slaves, women’s right to vote, desegregation, the right to an abortion.
As we face a new Trump administration and a new wave of Federalist judges willing to turn the clock back and treat items such as the Second Amendment as sacred, we sit and ponder what would Thomas Jefferson think of where we are about to go.(to read more, buy a paper)

► Francisco Sanchez has been awarded the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, in recognition of his contributions to improving relations between Spain and the United States.
Sanchez is an international trade attorney with Holland & Knight and a former Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade of the Department of Commerce under the Obama Administration.(to read more, buy a paper)

► Trump is promising as one of his first acts of president to place a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on goods from China.
Trump posted on social media that “This tariff will remain in effect until such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country.”
Democrats just lost an election because of inflation. The Republican winner, just days after the election, seems to no longer care about inflation.
Canada supplies 52 percent of the U.S. petroleum needs and Mexico supplies 10 percent. A 25 percent tariff would significantly raise the cost of gasoline. Is that what millions of Americans voted for when they voted for Trump?
Americans were mad at Biden and Harris over the high cost of groceries. America produces around 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables consumed in this country. Of the fruits and vegetables imported, Mexico provides over 60 percent of the vegetables and over 40 percent of the fruit and nuts. If Trump is a man of his word, grocery costs and restaurant bills will go up significantly on day one of Trump’s presidency.
During the campaign, Trump focused his tariff tough talk on China, saying he’d tax their goods coming into this country at 60 percent. Now he is adjusting that down to 10 percent and focusing his trade war on our neighbors – Canada and Mexico.
A 25 percent tariff would drastically hurt Canada’s economy. How does it help to economically hurt our neighbor? Tariffs would also hurt Mexico. The worse the economy is in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, the more of their people we’ll try to immigrate to the United states.
Trump supporters are betting that he is bluffing. Big business is betting that if Trump is serious, they can make deals with him to give exemptions on tariffs on the imports they need.(to read more, buy a paper)

From Chairman of the Bored, by Gene Siudut

► … In the privacy of our own homes and in closed company, we can and do get away with jokes that would not be appropriate for public consumption. That’s part of the joy of jokes. And when a comedian can dance that line of shocking, offensive and funny, it’s a great mix. A lot of comedy is offensive to someone. It’s about the deliverer and intent.
But these are stereotypical, BS, hack jokes. Not only are they not funny, but I could have wrote them in 5th grade before I knew any better. I certainly wouldn’t be telling them as an adult as an opener of the former and possible future president of the United States.
Truth be told, I’m almost more offended as someone who tries to be funny. I’m no comedian, but I know a half-ass bit when I hear it, and that was a half-ass bit.
I don’t completely fault Hinchcliffe. He read the Trump crowd the same way I would have and would think they would love jokes about Jews, Blacks and Hispanics. But they didn’t. Good for them.
Unfortunately, I imagine Hinchcliffe will become some sort of hero of the anti-cancel-culture movement, which is a shame because there are a lot of people out there who have been canceled, who shouldn’t have. I would like to see this man lose his job as a comedian. Not because of the offensive content, which was offensive, but more because he’s bad at it.(to read more, buy a paper)

From The Reasonable Standard, by Matt Newton

► Several weeks ago, as Hurricane Milton strengthened in the Gulf, our community endured a cruel, eerie wait.
We tried desperately to peek into the future: we scrutinized spaghetti models and cones of uncertainty. We watched experts on TV point to radar projections and guess where, when and how the storm would impact us.
Many were certain the storm would directly make landfall in Tampa Bay.
But after an impossible-to-predict “wobble,” the storm made landfall nearly 70 miles south.
Now, we wait for something else to make landfall: the 2024 general election results.
We find ourselves trying to peer into the future: this time scrutinizing the polls and early voter turnout. We listen to experts on TV. We speculate wildly about how non-party affiliated voters will cast their ballots. …(to read more, buy a paper)

From In Context, by Doris Weatherford

► This will be my last column before the most important presidential election of my life. Until recently, I thought that the important was the first in which I voted, in 1964, when Republican Barry Goldwater threatened the use of nuclear weapons against the boogeyman of communism. It turned out my fears were unwarranted, as his Democratic opponent, incumbent Lyndon Johnson, won in a landslide. Instead of war against the Soviet Union, we got the War on Poverty, which greatly improved my life and those of many people, especially in the South.
Except for the Gallup Poll, which evolved in the 1940s, we had no polls to give us a hit of what would happen. Polls now are more sophisticated, yet this year’s results are all over the place, and I’ve given up following them. I think it’s more instructive to look in the rear-view mirror and see how fear and hatred historically have been used to get voters to vote against their own wellbeing. …(to read more, buy a paper)

From Silhouettes, an interview with John Seib, by Tiffany Razzano

► During his more than two decades working in financial services for companies like Washington Mutual and Chase, John Seib was always drawn to educating his clients.
The Portland, Oregon, resident spent much of his career working with large mortgage teams across the country. “One of the things that I always was kind of moved by or broken-hearted by were individuals, young couples, young families who would come in and didn’t qualify for a home and didn’t understand why,” he said. “So, I’d sit down with individuals and try to coach them, help them understand. They don’t know what a credit score is or why they can’t buy a house. They just didn’t understand financial literacy at its base.” …(to read more, buy a paper)

From Líneas de la memoria, por Gabriel Cartaya

► Durante las últimas elecciones en Estados Unidos, la población hispana ha ido adquiriendo cada vez una mayor visibilidad. Si décadas atrás entre las llamadas minorías de la nación los afroamericanos constituían una fuerza principal –detrás de los llamados blancos no hispanos–, y en diferentes épocas transitaron entre el apoyo a los republicanos o demócratas con razones que se apartan de este comentario, ahora ambos partidos miran hacia el componente hispano del país, conscientes de que su creciente influencia puede ser decisiva en el conteo de los votos para asumir no solo la presidencia, sino cada uno de los cargos y políticas sometidas a las urnas.
Ello se debe a que hace años la población hispana es la minoría más numerosa del país, contando en la actualidad con más de 65 millones de personas. Para estas elecciones de 2024, según el Centro Pew, 36,2 millones de latinos serán elegibles para votar, un aumento del 12% con respecto a las elecciones de 2020. La gran mayoría vive en estados como California, que dominan los demócratas; o Texas, que dominan los republicanos, por lo que los latinos que viven en estados de tendencia electoral oscilante como Arizona, Nevada o Pensilvania, pueden definir la presidencia.
Por ello, los políticos cada vez tienen mayor claridad en cuanto a la necesidad de contar con este voto para alcanzar sus aspiraciones electorales. Sin embargo, dentro de esta población, hay componentes históricos, culturales, económicos y de diferentes matices de pensamiento que influyen a la hora de decidirse por una u otra fuerza política. … (to read more, buy a paper)

From Briznas culturales, por Leonardo Venta

► Un 3 de noviembre de 1954, murió en Niza, el principal centro turístico de la Riviera francesa, el pintor Henri Matisse. Célebre por su ardiente sed cromática y originalidad en el uso del dibujo, es una de las figuras cardinales del arte contemporáneo. “El color, incluso más que el dibujo, es un medio de liberación”, es una de sus frases significativas.
Nacido en Le Cateau-Cambrésis, una pequeña localidad en el norte de Francia, el 31 de diciembre de 1869, Matisse supo expresar a través de su arte la probidad del instinto y la intuición. El genio ¬Picasso tomó mucho de este pintor francés líder del fauvismo, al extremo de que Matisse le llamó “un bandido esperando en la trampa”.
Neófito en materia de abogacía, a los 21 años de edad, mientras se recuperaba de una apendicitis, no pudo resistir el embrujo de una marejada pictórica que lo hechizara. Un año después desalmidonó su cuello abogadil para recorrer con su paleta y pinceles los majestuosos corredores de la parisina Escuela de Bellas Artes. …(to read more, buy a paper)