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...who went off the Communist Cuba to record music? You know, the totalitarian state that does track everyone's movement, and jails people for illegally owning meat?

You must be referring to this bit of Iranian military genius:

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/iran-recruits-child-soldiers-%E2%80%93-again

After lengthy cult-like brainwashing sessions, the poor kids placed plastic keys around their necks, symbolizing martyrs’ permission to enter paradise, and ran ahead of Iranian ground troops and tanks to remove Iraqi mines by detonating them with their feet and blowing their small bodies to pieces.

Now China is going to claim that they own low Earth orbit, and forbid anyone else to move through it. But we will continue to do so, as the claim is ridiculous.

Granting the data is very noisy and cases are not equal.

The data is quite clear between the US (stimulus) versus Europe (austerity).

Why America's economy has recovered while Europe remains stuck near recession is largely a factor of two forces: Europe by and large chose the path of fiscal austerity while America chose stimulus, and America also has control over its own currency, while member states under the euro currency do not. Most economic analyses of the last four years begin and end there, concluding that the dual force of fiscal contraction and monetary skittishness has unreasonably slowed Europe's recovery and cost its economy dearly. Oxfam International estimates austerity across European governments could leave twenty-five million of its citizens in poverty by 2025.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/two-speed-recovery-us-vs-eu

He freely admits that he did so by manipulating a select group of reporters that he and staff think are idiots and molded them into his own personal echo chamber. "They literally know nothing."

The Left loves.....blogging their useless opinions to find people with similar views.

Conservatives love blogging a lot.

Bloviating is a human tradition that knows no political parties (a couple of those blogs look reasonably good, too).

I think of Abbot as a wannabe Putin. But without the power. Or the looks. Or the ability to kill someone with his bare hands. Or shoot tigers. Or rescue babies and dolphins. But asides from all that, he's just like Putin.

I took one of these person-to-person trips to Cuba two years ago and it was pretty awesome. It's nice to travel somewhere that hasn't been ruined by American interests yet (no Starbucks, no McDonald's, etc.) It wasn't that difficult, you can find tours through chambers of commerce or other travel groups.

The restrictions are not extremely enforceable, but know that the Cuban government is looking after you, too. Don't make an ass of yourself while there. In any case, roving around the country in an air conditioned tour bus was quite desirable,

Some different views on that.

A Graduate of my ‘Commie’ High School Goes to Cuba and Sees Paradise, or How One’s Education Can Warp You for Life
The Lost World, Part I

stations. There's no such thing as a 'chain' there, everything is one-off. Although, for some reason you can get M&M's and Pringles. Other than that, you're forced to go native and it was pretty great.

It is a lot less great if you live there. That is why they flee by the thousands, or tens of thousands, when they get a chance.

Fifty years later, Cubans still are fleeing the revolution

The Lost World, Part I

I’m used to seeing military and police checkpoints when I travel abroad. Every country in the Middle East has them, including Israel if you count the one outside the airport. The authorities in that part of the world are looking for guns and bombs mostly. The Cuban authorities aren’t worried about weapons. No one but the regime has anything deadlier than a baseball bat.

Castro’s checkpoints are there to ensure nobody has too much or the wrong kind of food.

Police officers pull over cars and search the trunk for meat, lobsters, and shrimp. They also search passenger bags on city busses in Havana. Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez wrote about it sarcastically in her book, Havana Real. “Buses are stopped in the middle of the street and bags inspected to see if we are carrying some cheese, a lobster, or some dangerous shrimp hidden among our personal belongings.”

If they find a side of beef in the trunk, so I’m told, you’ll go to prison for five years if you tell the police where you got it and ten years if you don’t.

No one is allowed to have lobsters in Cuba. You can’t buy them in stores, and they sure as hell aren’t available on anyone’s ration card. They’re strictly reserved for tourist restaurants owned by the state.

The Lost World, Part II

stations. There's no such thing as a 'chain' there, everything is one-off. Although, for some reason you can get M&M's and Pringles. Other than that, you're forced to go native and it was pretty great.

It is a lot less great if you live there. That is why they flee by the thousands, or tens of thousands, when they get a chance.

Fifty years later, Cubans still are fleeing the revolution

The Lost World, Part I

I’m used to seeing military and police checkpoints when I travel abroad. Every country in the Middle East has them, including Israel if you count the one outside the airport. The authorities in that part of the world are looking for guns and bombs mostly. The Cuban authorities aren’t worried about weapons. No one but the regime has anything deadlier than a baseball bat.

Castro’s checkpoints are there to ensure nobody has too much or the wrong kind of food.

Police officers pull over cars and search the trunk for meat, lobsters, and shrimp. They also search passenger bags on city busses in Havana. Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez wrote about it sarcastically in her book, Havana Real. “Buses are stopped in the middle of the street and bags inspected to see if we are carrying some cheese, a lobster, or some dangerous shrimp hidden among our personal belongings.”

If they find a side of beef in the trunk, so I’m told, you’ll go to prison for five years if you tell the police where you got it and ten years if you don’t.

No one is allowed to have lobsters in Cuba. You can’t buy them in stores, and they sure as hell aren’t available on anyone’s ration card. They’re strictly reserved for tourist restaurants owned by the state.

The Lost World, Part II

... another significant visit to a place where Internet access is either forbidden or impractical for most of the citizenry; hopefully it heralds change on that front.

Good luck with that. Maybe they'll turn a few of their '57 Chevys into mobile hot spots.

Cuban rights abuses, jailings up in new repressive wave

The Lost World, Part I
The Lost World, Part II
Condom shortage hits Cuba

... another significant visit to a place where Internet access is either forbidden or impractical for most of the citizenry; hopefully it heralds change on that front.

Good luck with that. Maybe they'll turn a few of their '57 Chevys into mobile hot spots.

Cuban rights abuses, jailings up in new repressive wave

The Lost World, Part I
The Lost World, Part II
Condom shortage hits Cuba

Bullshit.

China is in complete violation of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China itself signed and had agreed to and ">ratified in 1996.

China has been building structures, hunting and mass poaching endangered species and destroying coral reefs within the maritime exclusive economic zones of The Philippines and Vietnam (200 nautical miles or 370km from the coastline of those countries) while at the same time, forming naval blockades and harassing fishermen from Vietnam and the Philippines in their own waters. Recently a Chinese fishing vessel was caught with the poaching and mass slaughter of over 500 endangered and protected sea turtles within Philippine waters. Pics of the slaughter.

This article is a must-read on the behavior of the 800lb gorilla China and its bullying tactics: China's Pre-Imperial Overstretch and follow-up article: China and the Mosquitoes.

Another must read is the NY Times article A Game of Shark And Minnow about the ragtag crew of Philippine marines stationed on a grounded derelict ship in the area as an outpost. That NY Times article has a very good diagram on the 200NM exclusive economic zones and China's ridiculous "nine-dash line" tongue-shaped delineation which claims the entirety of the area hundreds of miles away from their nearest legal territory, Hainan Island. The basis of China's 9-dash line claims? Fabricated bullshit. Pre-19th century maps show this. Even China's own historical maps contradict their absurd claims. Bullying, intimidation, violation, invasion and annexation of territories of smaller, weaker states. It's that simple. See also: Tibet.

Batista was a U.S. puppet, and his cronies (who are now a significant voting block in FL) lost a lot of money and power when Castro came in. They want it back, and they want it back BAD. The U.S. will murder, commit terrorism, or do anything else to accomplish this goal.

The most shameful incident (IMHO) came in 1976, when a CIA agent blew up a civilian Cuban airliner, killing 78 innocent people. And said CIA agent is still living free (and protected) in the U.S. to this day. The U.S., my country, openly committing terrorism for petty economic ends. Fucking pathetic.

Castro was a Soviet puppet, and his cronies (who are now a significant power block in Cuba) gained a lot of money and power when Castro came in. They want to keep it, and they want to keep it BAD. The Cuban communists will murder, commit terrorism, jail the opposition, or do anything else to accomplish this goal.

It is hard to pick the most shameful incident, but surely Che's bloodbaths must be considered.

The Truth About Che Guevara

Cuba is a police state and Che was its co-founder. Cubans “love” him the same way Romanians “loved” Nicolae Ceausescu and East Germans “loved” Berlin Wall architect Erich Honecker

You know what happens to Cubans who display open hatred of Che?

They get arrested.

When he was still alive, they were executed or herded into slave-labor camps.

So yeah, everyone “loves” him. It’s required by law. Woe to those who disobey State Security.

The human spirit is a powerful force, though, and some Cubans can’t take it. A million and a half fled to the United States to escape the instruments of Che Guevara’s repression, many across the Florida Straits where the odds of survival are no better than two out of three. Others resisted at home, especially during the 1960s, the decade of global rebellion.

CHE GUEVARA

In his book Che Guevara: A Biography, Daniel James writes that Che himself admitted to ordering "several thousand" executions during the first year of the Castro regime. Felix Rodriguez, the Cuban-American CIA operative who helped track him down in Bolivia and was the last person to question him, says that Che during his final talk, admitted to "a couple thousand" executions. But he shrugged them off as all being of "imperialist spies and CIA agents."

Vengeance, much less justice, had little to do with the Castro/Che directed bloodbath in the first months of 1959. Che's murderous agenda in La Cabana fortress in 1959 was exactly Stalin's murderous agenda in the Katyn Forest in 1940. Like Stalin's massacre of the Polish officer corps, like Stalin's Great Terror against his own officer corps a few years earlier, Che's firing squad marathons were a perfectly rational and cold blooded exercise that served their purpose ideally. His bloodbath decapitated literally and figuratively the first ranks of Cuba's anti-Castro rebels.

Oh, and here are more of the people that you label as Batista "cronies," which ordinary people would refer to as people fleeing violent oppression.

Castro launches Mariel boatlift, April 20, 1980

On this day in 1980, Cuban President Fidel Castro proclaimed in Havana that any Cuban who wished to immigrate to the United States could board a boat at the nearby port of Mariel. During the ensuing months, some 125,000 Cubans fled to Florida in about 1,700 packed boats, at times overwhelming the U.S. Coast Guard and immigration authorities.

I guess anyone that wan

Well then, maybe you'll be interested in the experiences of this American.

The Lost World, Part I
The Lost World, Part II

Well then, maybe you'll be interested in the experiences of this American.

The Lost World, Part I
The Lost World, Part II

Cuba is a totalitarian police state. The problem is not too little infrastructure, it's too much oppression. And I don't see how an initiative like this could change the situation.

Cuba is a totalitarian communist dictatorship. That dictatorship has absolutely no interest in a decentralized Internet solution. Cuba's police state was set up by Che Guevara, who modeled it on that of his NKVD/KGB tutor, Lavrenty Beria.

The communist government has exactly zero interest in "decentralization."

Cuba is a totalitarian communist dictatorship. That dictatorship has absolutely no interest in a decentralized Internet solution. Cuba's police state was set up by Che Guevara, who modeled it on that of his NKVD/KGB tutor, Lavrenty Beria.

The communist government has exactly zero interest in "decentralization."

If you were a Cuban you would not have the chance because your first obstacle would be the Cuban government. The internet hardly touches the life of the Cuban people to begin with, let alone meat or cars.

The Lost World, Part I
The Lost World, Part II

If you were a Cuban you would not have the chance because your first obstacle would be the Cuban government. The internet hardly touches the life of the Cuban people to begin with, let alone meat or cars.

The Lost World, Part I
The Lost World, Part II

...than being denied particular coursework on an Internet they're not allowed to access anyway. Things like surviving on $20 a month and avoiding getting arrested for owning unauthorized shrimp.

"It's that fool on television getting paid to play the fool."

There are plenty of independent journalists doing real reporting: Michael Totten and Michael Yon are two.

Or if you don't want to watch an hour long video, read the following essay about Cuba.
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/welcome-cuba

“The surveillance and denunciation system is so rigorous,” Fontaine writes, “that family intimacy is almost nonexistent.”

Family intimacy is almost nonexistent.

Aside from the slave labor camps and the staggering body counts, I can think of no more devastating an indictment of totalitarian government than that sentence. Something broke inside me when I read it.

I certainly wasn’t intimate with anybody in Cuba—and I don’t mean physically any more than Fontaine did. I had to lie by omission every minute of every hour of every day just like the Cubans. A person could get used to this sort of thing, I suppose, but that does not make it less alienating. That’s the counterintuitive thing about totalitarian systems. They herd people into Borg-like collectives, yet every individual is savagely atomized.

I never felt so alone in my life.

That post is offtopic? Hardly.

From the fine story post:

"They tried to frame Iran as having an active nuclear weapons program. Then they try to frame WikiLeaks as the reason why that's not known to the public now."

Both of Assange's assertions are false as shown above. Iran isn't being framed, they do have an actual active nuclear weapons program, including design and testing of implosion based warhead components. What they have yet to do, so far as is publicly known, is to actually produce a real warhead. Anyone reading the papers, as shown in the parent post, or other sources, knows this. If fact, Iran may be making a move to surge their efforts. This isn't good.

Assnage's comments are just another example of Assange's self-glorification. Nobody knows about Iran because Wikileaks hasn't release anything? Please.

That isn't much different from the claim he makes in regard to planning the Arab Spring. I doubt that is even 5% true.

. . . The first time I went to Egypt, also in 2005, I met the same kinds of people I met in Lebanon. Cosmopolitan, liberal-minded individuals who were like Arab versions of me. Egypt had nothing like Hezbollah controlling large swaths of the country and warmongering against the neighbors. No foreign army smothered the country. Instead it had a police state. The narrative there at first seemed to be: democrats against the regime. That’s what it looked like. But my experience in Lebanon prompted me to ask a question of my liberal Egyptian friends that seems not to have occurred to some of the other journalists and Western internationalists who have been there. I asked these Egyptian liberals, “how many Egyptians agree with you about politics?” The answer stopped me cold: five percent at the most. . . . --- The International Elite Bubble , by Michael J. Totten