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In Breakthrough, US and Cuba To Resume Diplomatic Relations
HughPickens.com writes: Peter Baker reports at the NYT that in a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, the United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century. In addition, the United States will ease restrictions on remittances, travel and banking relations, and Cuba will release 53 Cuban prisoners identified as political prisoners by the United States government. Although the decades-old American embargo on Cuba will remain in place for now, the administration signaled that it would welcome a move by Congress to ease or lift it should lawmakers choose to. "We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. It does not serve America's interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse. We know from hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state," said the White House in a written statement. "The United States is taking historic steps to chart a new course in our relations with Cuba and to further engage and empower the Cuban people."
Long overdue. Time for cigars and mojitos all around!
Great! I've always wanted to visit Cuba. My parents honeymooned there back in 1955. A trip to Havana has been on my bucket list since I was a boy, but the US government has always made it difficult and only questionably legal since I was born.
Cuban exiles are a big voting block in a big battleground state, , but obviously somebody decided to risk kicking this hornets' nest ...
The Cuban Exiles have never voted Democrat / Liberal, and have always been rabid right-wingers politically. I lived in Miami for a few years and learned that although certainly not a majority on the area, they are very vocal locally.
These people would never vote Democrat anyway, so they are not Obama's audience.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The 'older' exiled Cubans in America were never going to 'authorize' this. That Obama did, was, aside from the true purpose of stopping the absurdity that has been in place, a play to the youner generation of Cuban exiles that are in Florida and elsewhere that are of voting age. They're the ones this will affect in the coming generation, and not the ones who will die off in the next decade.
Politically, anyone who is damning this decision is an isolationist shill who prefers punishment, rather than progress. THAT, is 20th century thinking, and needs to be squashed hard and fast!
The curse is that a small few are about to make huge profits on land and state enterprises. I don't care how the laws will be worded, any time you have a major economic shift like this, opportunists will take incredible advantage of the situation.
The other curse is that Western 'culture' - McDonald's, Burger King, Coke and Pepsi will invade. They will do tremendous harm to the health of the average Cuban.
Lastly, the wonderful beaches and hotels will be overrun. Cuba is so close to the U.S. that development will explode and tourism will skyrocket. The 'pristine' aspect of Cuba will quickly disappear in a morass of tawdry tourist traps.
Adios Cuba viejo y bienvenido al futuro.
*** Don't be dull.***
Pushing Germany to collapse after WW1 was an incredible success! We need more successes like that!
> I hope 'no one starving in the streets' isn't how you measure success these days.
Actually it's a pretty good thing compared to 'people starving in the streets'.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
My god, are you that delusional?
You toppled a government, but you sure as hell didn't "conquer" them.
You barely got out of there with your asses intact, and every single justification for going in there in the first place was provably false before anybody got sent in. Oh, and your inept fumbling about led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians -- far far more than were killed in 9/11.
The entire reason for being in Iraq the second time was a colossal lie perpetuated by a chimpanzee of a president trying to finish what daddy started.
You were in the wrong fucking country, because Iraq had nothing at all to do with 9/11. And now you've left a giant power vacuum which has destabilized the entire region.
Being in Iraq was such an epic failure that only people who can call it a success were the private companies who made huge profits, and the lying bastards who got you in there in the first place.
If you think that's a template for how to fix the worlds problems ... the world doesn't want any more of your "help".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The property which was seized was mostly owned by foreign countries, and benefited the existing dictatorship of Bautista -- who was a brutal bastard, but friendly to the US so America was fine with it. America only objects to dictators who dislike them.
When Baustista was in power, the average Cuban worker was pretty much a serf, and all of the economy benefited only a few.
You're a drooling idiot.
I'm not an American, and I have no idea of what the DNCs talking points are on this. But your childish little hamster brain apparently needs to make this a Republican v Democrat issue, so you're only capable of seeing thatg.
I've been to Cuba a bunch of times. I've read books my Castro and Che, as well as the history of how the Platt Amendment came to be foisted on Cuba despite their not wanting it. I've also read about the history from non-Cuban sources so try to see the whole picture.
The vast majority of Americans really have no clue about Cuban history. They boil it down to about a 10 year period, and then haven't bothered to learn anything which happened before or since. Cuba and Casto are just the bogeymen to get yourselves worked up about.
So, it's tragic you're so ill informed and are tied to whatever idiotic talking points you're repeating.
Because clearly don't know a damned thing about it you haven't been spoon fed.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The abortion is a distraction cause.
Most people have a feeling one way or another on it. Which is good because it means you can keep a good part of the population who otherwise would vote for the other party on your side.
Many of the evangelical religious groups would actually support the democratic party if it weren't for the abortion issue.
A lot of women's groups would vote republican if it weren't for the abortion issue.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Yeah, he got succeeded by his brother. Wonder what is it about Commie countries nowadays? They started off by overthrowing monarchies wherever they could find them - Russia, Egypt, Libya, and so on. Nowadays, every surviving Communist country has de facto dynasties - North Korea, Cuba, Syria. If only the Romanovs had known and maneuvered to take over the Communist party, they may have saved themselves from getting massacred.
George H. W. Bush, George Bush, and now Jeb Bush trying for the job. No de facto dynasty there :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.