Mass Protests in Cuba

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This gives Maria Elvira Salazar, Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio more ammo to call Dems "socialist" and a preview of what is to come....

This really isn't about random Florida Republicans, bronz.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This gives Maria Elvira Salazar, Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio more ammo to call Dems "socialist" and a preview of what is to come....

This really isn't about random Florida Republicans, bronz.

Yes it is because they will milk the living daylight out of this in Florida in 2022

Okay, but right now it's 2021 and this is happening in Cuba, not Florida.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Anyway, it's pretty obvious what the goal is here, and it's not wealth for the masses of Cuba. 

This is an operative point. Anybody who thinks a post-communist Cuba would nicely transition to a Nordic-style social democracy has a very rosy view of the history of US involvement in the Caribbean. The best-case scenario (which would, admittedly, probably be at least a little better than the status quo) is a tourism-and-remittance-driven economy that keeps some but not all of the Castro-era health care system intact.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The US will treat Cuba like a clearance sale if it has the chance to. Everything must go; especially if it's deemed too 'socialist.'

Cuba will either be under America's heel as it is now under a continued Castro regime, or at it's teat like it was under Batista.

Why would they when they don't with Canada which has over its history had some pretty socialistic elements.  While not much state ownership today, we did in 70s have a lot more including a state owned oil company (Petro-Canada, which is now privatized), government run health care which unlike most European countries actually bans private competition for basic care (or at least tries to).  Canada historically had very restrictive foreign ownership laws and even had a foreign investment review board that frequently blocked foreign investments up until early 80s.  Yet US never intervened.  They may have not liked our more left wing approach, but we were able to do so.  Thus I think as long as no more socialistic than Canada has been at its left wing peak they should be fine.  And right now, millennials are very left wing in Canada so good chance you see us zoom quite a bit left in next 20 years.  If US intervenes in Cuba but not Canada would look hypocritical. 

Off course US isn't always consistent in foreign policy thus maybe won't let Cuba do some things that allow in Canada, but at least I think as people are more aware, American public won't react too kindly to a double standard.

oh my God are you serious

I don't think even the most anti-Castro posters in this thread would dare hope that the US would treat a post-communist Cuba as well as it treats Canada. Dear Lord.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Also, I would say people here defending Cuba were supportive of the reforms made in the past few decades, and want them to accelerate into a healthy democracy.

I wouldn't say I've been "defending Cuba", but, as one of the relatively more anti-anti-Castro people who's been posting in this thread (but also as someone with actual Cuban exiles in my extended family), I can confirm that I definitely don't want the country to just stay the way it is.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

This thread is a good opportunity to share one of my favorite family stories, courtesy of my late Uncle Manuel, a Hemingwayesque man's man who had a classic Cuban-émigré life story but somehow ended up a center-left Resistance lib after marrying my Bryn Mawr professor aunt. It's a story that I think says a lot about the highs and lows of life in Cuba.

One of Manuel's relatives, at some point a decade or two after Castro came to power, wanted to start some sort of local cooperative. Instead of getting permission through the official channels, he tried to pull some strings with a relatively obscure Castro brother, Ramón Castro, who lived nearby and whom he had met before.

The meeting went well at first, with lots of drinks and smokes and free-flowing conversation. The person plying Ramón Castro thought he was doing a pretty good job making his case, until he made the mistake of saying "You know, you look just like your brother."

"I am the older brother," Ramón shouted, suddenly enraged. "Fidel looks like me!"

True story, or so my uncle always claimed.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

"The literacy rate is good" is the "They made the trains run on time" of the left.

The only person in this thread who's been focusing on this point, possibly even who's mentioned it at all, has been you. You can do better than this, Dule.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Fidel Castro was a brutal arsehole, no different to a Bokassa or Selassie.

I understand what point you're making here, but Castro, Bokassa, and Selassie are a really motley crew to make it with, as far as groupings of autocrats go.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Muhammad only turned his cult into a new religion after the Jewish leadership in Mecca rejected his claim to be a prophet. An article in The Times of London at the time of the ISIS crisis said that given what would happen in later centuries, maybe they should have accepted him…

Not many Jews or Muslims in Cuba, is the thing about bringing this up in this thread.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Muhammad only turned his cult into a new religion after the Jewish leadership in Mecca rejected his claim to be a prophet. An article in The Times of London at the time of the ISIS crisis said that given what would happen in later centuries, maybe they should have accepted him…

Not many Jews or Muslims in Cuba, is the thing about bringing this up in this thread.

Some people have one track minds.

Some people would do well to become a decent person and not taint the memory of people such as Leon Klinghoffer by uncritically swallowing “Nakba” propaganda.

I'm mixed to tepidly pro-Israel on ~The Conflict~. That's not the issue. The issue is it's simply not relevant to this thread.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Muhammad only turned his cult into a new religion after the Jewish leadership in Mecca rejected his claim to be a prophet. An article in The Times of London at the time of the ISIS crisis said that given what would happen in later centuries, maybe they should have accepted him…

Not many Jews or Muslims in Cuba, is the thing about bringing this up in this thread.

Some people have one track minds.

Some people would do well to become a decent person and not taint the memory of people such as Leon Klinghoffer by uncritically swallowing “Nakba” propaganda.

I'm mixed to tepidly pro-Israel on ~The Conflict~. That's not the issue. The issue is it's simply not relevant to this thread.

Some people has one track minds, other is denialist and turns a blind eye. Apartheid Israel is everywhere poisoning discussions in this forum, it seems. Shame on you. Mr Natphali Bennett is a rashist scum and makes me feel sick. But here the topic is Cuba and the Cubans, not the apartheid state and its victims

Do you not realize what my display name is in reference to or do you just not have a sense of humor? Obviously I don't actually like Naftali f**king Bennett.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Muhammad only turned his cult into a new religion after the Jewish leadership in Mecca rejected his claim to be a prophet. An article in The Times of London at the time of the ISIS crisis said that given what would happen in later centuries, maybe they should have accepted him…

Not many Jews or Muslims in Cuba, is the thing about bringing this up in this thread.

Some people have one track minds.

Some people would do well to become a decent person and not taint the memory of people such as Leon Klinghoffer by uncritically swallowing “Nakba” propaganda.

I'm mixed to tepidly pro-Israel on ~The Conflict~. That's not the issue. The issue is it's simply not relevant to this thread.

Some people has one track minds, other is denialist and turns a blind eye. Apartheid Israel is everywhere poisoning discussions in this forum, it seems. Shame on you. Mr Natphali Bennett is a rashist scum and makes me feel sick. But here the topic is Cuba and the Cubans, not the apartheid state and its victims

Do you not realize what my display name is in reference to or do you just not have a sense of humor? Obviously I don't actually like Naftali f**king Bennett.

What about Ayelet Shaked?

Ayelet Shaked is Naftali Bennett for people who fantasize about getting railed by dark-haired SFF villainesses, so of course I adore her and would never pretend otherwise.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

British voters showed they don’t want Old Labour style socialism.

"Old Labour style" is an...interesting way of describing Corbyn's leadership.

Regardless, I really don't understand why you're so reluctant to let "Re: Mass Protests in Cuba" be a thread about mass protests in Cuba.