Fidel Castro is finally dead

[ToysAreUs]

http://nypost.com/2016/11/26/cuban-president-fidel-castro-dies-at-90/

 

[KingOrfeo]

So what? He was retired anyway. His death won't mean a change in leadership.

 

[sr71plt]

"Retire" is a relative term and in the Cuban sense it was mostly an illusion. Up to his dying day if Fidel said "jump" to anyone in Cuba, including Raul, their only question was "How high would you like the jump to be?"

 

[ISeeYouToo]

he was 90.

 

[Ramone45]

This is one of the reasons I did not care for President Obama. He always left me with the impression that he didn't love America. He said history would judge Castro. Why doesn't he stand up and call Castro out for the evil dictator he was?

 

[rawsilk]

This is one of the reasons I did not care for President Obama. He always left me with the impression that he didn't love America. He said history would judge Castro. Why doesn't he stand up and call Castro out for the evil dictator he was?

History and time write a person's epitaph, great and small.

 

[KingOrfeo]

This is one of the reasons I did not care for President Obama. He always left me with the impression that he didn't love America. He said history would judge Castro. Why doesn't he stand up and call Castro out for the evil dictator he was?

Because he quite sensibly wanted to offer a friendly hand to Cuba, whose government currently is headed by Fidel's brother. If we can trade with China and Vietnam, why not Cuba? It will only spur Cuba to open up to free-market reforms, as China and Vietnam have done. I deeply fear Trump is now going to shit on that promising state of affairs.

As for Fidel, he was a great man -- as were Hitler and Stalin and Napoleon. A great man is not necessarily a good one.

 

[KingOrfeo]

And it looks like I'm right to be worried.

 

[Publius1990]

And it looks like I'm right to be worried.

Why worry? America has done fine for years without relations with Cuba. On the other hand, Castro's policies failed to move the country forward. Are you worried for America or for Cuba?

 

[sr71plt]

It makes sense to try to regularize relations with Cuba. It's positioned under the U.S. underbelly and we've already, as has been noted on this thread, had probably our closest brush with catastrophe from that fact. It's sort of just too bad if you can't understand that. KingOfeo has already provided a sensible discussion on that here.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Why worry? America has done fine for years without relations with Cuba. On the other hand, Castro's policies failed to move the country forward. Are you worried for America or for Cuba?

For Cuba, which I thought was clear enough from post #7. But at sr71plt points out, normalized relations are also in America's interest, and especially for the Florida Cubans who can re-establish ties with their relatives on the island.

One important fact to keep in perspective here is that Communism as such is no longer a threat. It is nowhere on the march. Almost no one any longer imagines it to be the wave of the future. The name of Marx has lost its power to conjure. The Cuban government is arbitrary and authoritarian and oppressive, but no danger to anyone other than its own people.

 

[sr71plt]

Communism isn't, but Putin's brand of troublemaking doesn't require communism.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Communism isn't, but Putin's brand of troublemaking doesn't require communism.

That is simply a great power trying to expand its sphere of influence -- a phenomenon much older and much easier to understand.

 

[sr71plt]

That is simply a great power trying to expand its sphere of influence -- a phenomenon much older and much easier to understand.

Which doesn't change the point in the least. The Russians didn't cultivate Cuba in the first place because of communism; they did it to disadvantage the United States in the U.S. sphere of influence--and they went to the brink militarily in Cuba. Communism has nothing necessary to do with the thorn that Cuba has been--as played by the Russians. And the relations aren't a bit better now between Russia and the United States than they were when it was a communist Soviet Union. Putin was a Russian strategist then and he's a Russian strategist now. Only now he has an American buffoon on a significant string.

 

[Hypoxia]

Back in the day, I offered a sovereign solution to the 'problem' of tyrannical Soviet and Chinese Communism. Bombard them with... CB radios. Dictators rule by (among other things) controlling communications. Take that control from them and watch the amazing consequences of people talking to each other, unfiltered.

Could such a ploy have worked in Cuba in, say, the 1970s, with Castro already entrenched and neighborhood informer networks operating? Can free communications help liberate other repressive regimes? Should we all have our VPRs and TOR nets in place?

 

[sr71plt]

Back in the day, I offered a sovereign solution to the 'problem' of tyrannical Soviet and Chinese Communism. Bombard them with... CB radios. Dictators rule by (among other things) controlling communications. Take that control from them and watch the amazing consequences of people talking to each other, unfiltered.

Could such a ploy have worked in Cuba in, say, the 1970s, with Castro already entrenched and neighborhood informer networks operating? Can free communications help liberate other repressive regimes? Should we all have our VPRs and TOR nets in place?

Umm, we did that in all three countries.

 

[JackLuis]

Umm, we did that in all three countries.

How'd it work out?

 

[John Blackhawk]

All fear the big C

 

[Hard_Rom]

All fear the big C

Don't worry Canada doesn't bite.

But we would prefer if you Yanks stayed out of Cuba. We got a nice thing going there with good cigars and cheap vacations. We don't want the whole thing fucked up by a bunch of noisy obnoxious Yanks turning the whole place into big-box retail space.

And that is not Justin. It's his younger brother.
https://postmediaottawacitizen2.fil...vana-margaret-hold-m.jpg?quality=55&strip=all

 

[John Blackhawk]

Don't worry Canada doesn't bite.

But we would prefer if you Yanks stayed out of Cuba. We got a nice thing going there with good cigars and cheap vacations. We don't want the whole thing fucked up by a bunch of noisy obnoxious Yanks turning the whole place into big-box retail space.

And that is not Justin. It's his younger brother.
https://postmediaottawacitizen2.fil...vana-margaret-hold-m.jpg?quality=55&strip=all

My intention was to make a cancer reference (i know i have a bad sense of humor)

 

[sr71plt]

My intention was to make a cancer reference (i know i have a bad sense of humor)

I understood it as "cancer." Guess some Canadians think it's all about Canada.

 

[DooleyDarter]

I am surprised Obama has not called for 10 days of national mourning

 

[Hard_Rom]

My intention was to make a cancer reference (i know i have a bad sense of humor)

I thought the reference was 'Communism'. Could easily have been Cuba.

My point was stay out of Cuba. That's our winter vacation spot. Get your own.

 

[sr71plt]

I am surprised Obama has not called for 10 days of national mourning

I'm not. Guess I'm more objective than you are.

 

[phrodeau]

I am surprised Obama has not called for 10 days of national mourning

I'm sure we'll get that for Kissinger, who deserves it far less.