@ TAO Walker, January 2 at 12:35 am;

Give the Agonist a gander. You might find it interesting; or not.

Down with capitalism

Down with Liberals

Xntrk—Exactly!

If something (like health care) doesnt cost more than the Wall St bailout, nor the “war in Iraq”—dont tell me that we “cant afford it”! If you dont want to do it—just say so. And, then, YOU decide who goes without health care…look into the camera and say it, Dems, You took too much money from insurance lobbyists to do it, and you know it.

michael roloff is correct—Castro came to NY first, he was turned away (well, more than “turned away”!)

Excellent remarks here!

Folktruther:

As far as I remember what happened recently it was the American voter who “sent Obama to the White House”.

My piece was in part a “tongue in cheek” attempt to argue that the “Cuba-Problem” is peanuts compared to “Iraq, Iran, etc.”

“Cuba” is a textbook example of the advantage of having an absolute King as our ruler. Louis XIV would have ended our imbroglio with Cuba decades ago with one stroke of his royal pen.

Dihey—Obama was sent to the White House by Zionist neolibs, and his appointments mirror his rick backers.  If he regulized relations with Cuba, he would be endorsing, for the American people and Latin America, state and party controlled economiy.

I don’t see how he could do it.  I may be wrong but except for token gestures and placating American -Cubans, I think he will continue Bushite policies for Cuba, as he will generally.

Sure, our Cuba policy is the Edsel of the State Department. However, is it not remarkable how Iraq has disappeared from the websites? Our country does not occupy Cuba, it occupies Iraq. Ergo: Iraq is an infinitely more pressing issue for Pres. Obama than Cuba. And then there is Israel/Palestine. And Iran. And Afghanistan. Cuba? Just declare that Cuba is no longer a threat to our country, lift all restrictions on travel and commerce, and send an Ambassador to Havana. More than that is not needed. It can all be decided in one day. Need approval from the Congress? Ask Bush how to evade that little problem.

“Actually, US agribusiness is exporting huge amounts of food to Cuba.”

~~~

I’m not so sure this is a good thing at all for Cuba. In fact, US agribusiness isn’t a good thing for ANYBODY!!

Now of course if they can’t eat otherwise, then that’s a different story. They managed well enough before though, just by keeping US agribusiness and all other US business OUT!!

Meantime, if I needed health care or a place to survive a hurricane, I’m still sane enough to choose Cuba over the US. I’m sure that the once thriving Cuban community in New Orleans feels the same way.

So hopefully Obama WILL change the stupid policy of the last 5 decades, but I’m not so sure that I agree that Cuba WOULD have been ‘better off’ if this had been the case 50 years ago. They obviously would NOT have been better off if they’d become another US satellite, which is exactly what would have happened. That was the ‘plan’ for Cuba then, (another mob made city like Las Vegas and Atlantic City)and Castro wasn’t having it.

So that old 5% of the Cuban Royalty may not get to go back, but it’s hard to feel terribly sorry for them. The ones I know seem to have lived quite well in their newly adopted homes here in the US. (More in San Juan than there are in Florida.) And yep, like Brusays, the expats are finally dying off.

Tao Walker hits the nail on the head! The problem with the USA is that it is not so much a country or state or nation, but a real estate controlled by the corporations with a fake “American dream” based on “individualism”. In essence being the richest country in the world and not having universal health care is in itself a slap in the face to any decent human. Cuba however has and it is sending its Armies of doctors across the globe.
The self indulgence in individualism of the all American dream is flawed in the sense that we as humans are a “Social Species”! Therefrom comes the word Socialism! Without being the cooperative social being, we would have never evolved beyond being the monkey in the trees. Capitalism however is exactly the counter punch to this social cohesiveness!
I always shudder when I hear Americans wail against “nationalizing” corporations, natural resources and so forth. But as a citizen of a nation, even if the oil is found in my back yard, the back yard is still part of the territory of the country I reside in, therefore it is “National” property. So in essence the idea is to take the power away from the private corporations and return the national wealth to the people of the nation. And Cuba has done just that, as is Venezuela doing and some others.
With a global depression looming, the blame can be laid squarely at the capitalistic system of unchecked greed. Lucky for us, a few islands of sanity have remained on this planet, as Cuba has shown.

My husband was born on the Isle of Cuba on November 27th, 1954. His parents locked the door to their home on December 30, 1961, leaving every possession that they had to their names.  They left with the hope one day of returning.

My husband passed away on July 21, 2001, never having been able to return for some badly needed closure, or to be able to show his two sons where he had come from. You can make all the political arguments for or against what the US should do regarding Cuba, but you cannot take away the human element that will always be part of this tragedy.

Ever hear of a place called Gaza, Mr Robinson or is it just that your editors don’t allow you to write about it?

The US government should not attempt to “export” any more “democracy” until we have some here!  Our failed ideology in both Iraq & Afghanistan should be proof enough that “we” need to stop meddling with other nations!  Stop the embargo, it’s stupid, and not only did it not produce desired results, it only strengthened the regime’s claim in regards to US imperialism!

As for those expats living in Florida, last time I checked - Florida is still considered a US state - so is your allegiance to the country you live in, or the country you fled from so as not to be treated like everyone else?

For the past 50 years our policies towards Cuba have been largely dictated by the 5% of Cuba’s “haves” who fled under Castro. These are the ones who’d previously benefitted under Batista’s fantastically corrupt administration - an administration that favored the large U.S. corporations and with them, shared in the wealth sucked from the nation. All this at the expense of a destitute majority.

As those expats die off, the South Florida political balance will continue its inevitable shift to a more sane policy between these two neighbors. With politicians no longer having to step so carefully around those bitter expats, money will start to flow back to Cuba. My only hope is that whoever or whatever directs Cuba after Castro, they avoid a re-attachment with the same U.S. corporate corruption that helped bring about their revolution 50 years ago.

Wishful thinking, I’m sure. Just look how corporate greed has mangled our own nation. Here’s little Cuba, just 90 miles away. Bet WalMart, Coca-Cola, Chase, Bank of America, etc. etc. etc. are drooling.

Another example of failed U.S. foreign policy.

Thank the small, organized expat sugar lobbys for creating the stone wall for the rest of the Americans who wish to engage with the Cubans publically and privately. 

Doe’s this remind you of another (1.7%) minorities’ inordinate control over the general public’s policy preferences?

Guantanamo is a stain on the soul of America and the founders of it.  The way we have treated our close neighbor, Cuba is rephrehensible and shameful.

We need people held accountable in this lifetime

At this point American shouldn’t be exporting any of it’s politiacal ‘methodologies’ and certianly not our Corp ideologies. Why would we wish such things on others?
Our political system has been undermined, Our Corps have made US Indentured slaves and our Religious fanatics are trying to throw US back into the Dark ages!
Perhaps give US a few years to disinfect the place and then we can begin interaction again with others. Until our ideology changes from ‘Imposing our will on others’ to building Working relationships, we should not allow this disgusting doctrine which has plagued our nation for 40 yrs to spread any further.
Really what do we have to offer Cubans..Certainly not more honorable leadership, Not much of an economic stradegy, and certainly not Ways to ‘Make Friends and Influence people’
Unitl we get our Public Servants back to Serving th ePublic and our Corps being tools instead of Masters, We’d better keep to ourselves for a few years (decades).
We may have done the people of Cuba a favor for the last 40 yrs, By not infecting them with this contagious disease carried by the Neo Con Inc.

This old Indian visited Havana briefly early last year.  The Cuban people are as susceptible to the blandishments of the “global” gewgaw factory as any other members of the sub-species homo domesticus.  That they haven’t become as enmeshed in toxic consumerism as so many others, however, should prove much to their benefit as that dead-end “ethic” reaches its inevitably painful conclusion.

It may or may not’ve been part of Fidel Castro’s thinking to prepare his island country to weather calamitous events and deteriorating conditions few foresaw fifty years ago.  That they are in a relatively better position to do that than the so-called “advanced democracies” with their consumption-driven and self-destructive economies, however, was quite evident to this old eye-witness….if only because the Cubans don’t have anywhere near as far to fall.

Eugene Robinson is surely not suggesting here that “americanizing” Cuba, even as theallamericandream disintegrates in “the homeland” into the nightmare it has for so long been for so many peoples in so many places, is something that’ll be “greeted with flowers” there.  As an ordinary Person who’s talked with ordinary Cubans, this old Man can tell him that’d just be more-of-the-same allamericanexceptionalism singing its own praises.

How’bout theamericanpeople grow-up some before they indulge any further in their self-centered presumption that everybody else in the world is just dying to be just like them.  After only the last eight years of america rampant (nevermind the last four hundred), how can anyone with any sense even entertain such a cock-eyed notion?

HokaHey!