OT Castro dead
flagooner
Everything written by this member is a fact.
It is rare that I don't pay respect to one'side passing. Osama bin Laden was one. Fidel Castro is another.
I'm sure SJG is in mourning, but there are quite a few that have been looking forward to this day for a long time. He caused so much pain to so many.
Let's enjoy watching the celebrations in Miami. I am guessing the violence will be non-existent and destruction of property a minimum and accidental.
I'm sure SJG is in mourning, but there are quite a few that have been looking forward to this day for a long time. He caused so much pain to so many.
Let's enjoy watching the celebrations in Miami. I am guessing the violence will be non-existent and destruction of property a minimum and accidental.
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Is there still a sugar embargo on Cuba? That was supposed to last until Castro died because of the Cuba missile crisis.
They are diehards in their beliefs unlike the Chinese. The Chinese wanted to stay communist but they saw no problem with using a capitalist market system to make their country rich and make their economy strong while improving the lives of their people. The Castros? They want everyone to stay in poverty and apparently want their country to stay poor.
Also read he died on the 17 year anniversary of Elian Gonzalez's rescue at sea.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.nydailyne…
Raul Castro (Fidel's brother currently in power) has put his son in a key position and also his grandson and said he would step down either in 2017 or 2018, one would think the next generation would make changes but who the hell knows - they need to be out of power and let Cuba be democratic w/ free elections
Capitalism --- self sponsored (and endorsed) exploitation of labor. Market decides price
Socialism --- state sponsored ( and endorsed) exploitation of labor. State decides the price, then it's currency gets devalued in relation to other markets.
"Under Capitalism everything is Dog eat Dog. Under Socialism, it is just the reverse".
(Yay human nature!)
You want to watch something interesting, watch the "parts unknown" episode with Anthony Bourdain on Cuba. Pretty sad how poor that country is thanks to Fidel.
Second, policies don't change if the regime is founded on extreme principles. So Castro's successor would enforce his visionary (or questionable) policies more fervently. When Osama died a worse person replaced him and after they killed him, the next guy was even worse (they gotta prove it).
Unless you have a Gorbachev who does a volte-face and fucks his daddy's world. Where the principles / liberties are taken for granted you get a lot of variance in the type of people taking office ( Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump). Do you think if there is some common policy among those 4?
I don't live in Cuba and I don't know if people are really unhappy there. We see what the media projects. I would say the Quality of life 100 years back and now is almost same in US and other developed countries just smaller faster more powerful electronic devices, better healthcare (it's only for rich) and cosmetic surgeries. But we must keep making progress unless there is no meaning of human civilization.
@papi the difference b/w totalitarian and free system is a fucked up Gini index. Yeah everybody gets something trickled down to them in a capitalist free market even if that's just few dew drops. the 1% vs 99% is just masking the truth , the real difference is 0.1% holding 99% of the wealth. I would tell you a story and interview question from Goldman Sachs but it would be too long for here.
Quite good:
https://www.amazon.com/Che-Graphic-Biogr…
SJG
Remember you snooze you lose.
Remember you snooze you lose."
That's exactly what the "Parts Unknown" episode was talking about.
I'm glad 2016 finally got around to killing someone who deserved it.
It's too bad he's going to be cremated. Fueling a Cuban economic recovery would be so simple if they'd build an outhouse on top of his grave and charge $100 a dump to shit on him.
I wonder what he knew about Hillary.
SJG
Back when normalization was set forward, I was just fine with it because, as I saw it, if the US normalized relations with fuckin' Vietnam we can normalize them with anyone. Cuba did not cost us 57,000 dead, hundreds of thousands messed up, and kids shot in campus protests. And Vietnam and China and (name-any-of-a-bunch-of-countries) remain entrenched institutionalized dictatorships yet we make deals with them.
Which is something we can't forget, they DID establish a brutal opression, with firing squads and forced labor and abuse of old ladies making peaceful protests; filling the prisons and "mental hospitals" with those who failed to get in line and then dumping them abroad together with the real criminals. It was not just the properties of the Mob and the foreign corporations that got seized, it was anything of any productive value, and then they proceeded to render it utterly unproductive.
People don't try to cross the sea aboard a truck bed converted into a raft just because life is inconvenient.
Problem is, the Cuban Commies' whole point of existing by now is to claim they stood up to us. Fidel and Raul stubbornly insisted to not back off from actual communist policies, even as it ruined everything they had once tried to build up, because they were standing up to the Yanquis. How long can they keep that up? Vietnam and China were willing to make deals and open up business opportunities and lighten up a bit on some nonthreatening independent activity, just as long as everyone understood the Party stays in power. But would anyone in the PCC settle for THAT? Would the US?
Cuba deservse better. Much better. Maybe in burying the icon and eventually in a transition, those in charge of the transition can bury the need to prove a point even if it kills them.
https://democracynow.org/shows/2016/11/2…
SJG