Mike Gonzalez, writing for the Federalist, cracks a few out of the park today, bouncing some common sense and some history off the Kenyan's meanderings on his new-found Cuban policy. (He found it right next to his gay marriage policy. Same drawer, different day.) Enjoy a snip:

QuoteSure, the United States played a large role in Cuba until the Castro takeover in 1959. These were the results: in 1957, Cuba had the lowest infant mortality rate in all of Latin America, and thirteenth-lowest in the world. They've now dropped to twenty-fifth in the world. In the pre-revolutionary era, Cuba was third in all of Latin America in terms of caloric intake. It now ranks last in per capita daily caloric intake.

In the 1950s, Cubans had 58 newspapers to choose from; only four other countries in Latin America had more. By 1994, the print media had decreased to only 17; all are controlled by the Cuban government.

In other words, President Obama could have been proud of the role that the United States has played in Cuba, from 1898 to the present. Instead, he chose to spout the clichés of the internationalist Left and to curry their favor by recognizing Raul Castro.

Some well-known flunky & family will be forced by the Administration to go there and 'enjoy themselves'... like the mayor from Jaws when everyone on the beach was afraid to go in the water.

Meanwhile, a helluva lotta Cuban-Americans & friends are pissed-off and a helluva lotta tsunami-wave Republicans haven't changed their opinion of Dems or the Castro's.  There'll be a trickle of tourists, slightly bigger than the trickle that already go down there.

 

And Drug/contraband smuggling that the CUban Govt has sanctioned will increase.

Quote from: TboneAgain on December 19, 2014, 02:22:21 PM
Mike Gonzalez, writing for the Federalist, cracks a few out of the park today, bouncing some common sense and some history off the Kenyan's meanderings on his new-found Cuban policy. (He found it right next to his gay marriage policy. Same drawer, different day.) Enjoy a snip:

"Sure, the United States played a large role in Cuba until the Castro takeover in 1959. These were the results: in 1957, Cuba had the lowest infant mortality rate in all of Latin America, and thirteenth-lowest in the world. They've now dropped to twenty-fifth in the world. In the pre-revolutionary era, Cuba was third in all of Latin America in terms of caloric intake. It now ranks last in per capita daily caloric intake.

In the 1950s, Cubans had 58 newspapers to choose from; only four other countries in Latin America had more. By 1994, the print media had decreased to only 17; all are controlled by the Cuban government.

In other words, President Obama could have been proud of the role that the United States has played in Cuba, from 1898 to the present. Instead, he chose to spout the clichés of the internationalist Left and to curry their favor by recognizing Raul Castro."

The above is exactly what Obama would like to do to the United States.

One of our local talk shows pointed out that antique car enthusiasts will be happy.  Toy

Is it time to notice the pattern....yet  ?

Buddies with Chavez, Ayers, Dorn, Wright.......fervently working to replace Mubarak, Khadafi, Assad with radical jihadists, giving MB / ISIS a clear path across the ME (pretending to "slow" them).......ready to foment the thug army against the police at every opportunity.....dismantling the military......now he's making his move to support his hero Castro......still waiting on "more leeway" to support Putin / Medvedev........cozying up to the Chinese........

Everything he does is in support of everything anti-America.  I wonder how many years it will take to chip away and expose the guy's hidden path, on his way to being the greatest mole in western civilization.

Quote from: AndyJackson on December 20, 2014, 05:32:11 AM
Is it time to notice the pattern....yet  ?

Buddies with Chavez, Ayers, Dorn, Wright.......fervently working to replace Mubarak, Khadafi, Assad with radical jihadists, giving MB / ISIS a clear path across the ME (pretending to "slow" them).......ready to foment the thug army against the police at every opportunity.....dismantling the military......now he's making his move to support his hero Castro......still waiting on "more leeway" to support Putin / Medvedev........cozying up to the Chinese........

Everything he does is in support of everything anti-America.  I wonder how many years it will take to chip away and expose the guy's hidden path, on his way to being the greatest mole in western civilization.

Sadly some of us have watched with frustration at each step this President has taken.   It is even more sad to see the sheeple that have just followed along never putting anything together until it was too late.  Clean up will be a bitch but with the right person not impossible.

Toy 

So much for Papal infallibility.

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-welcomes-us-and-cuban-moves-to-normalise-rela

Perspective on Cuba? After the fall of socialisem they will be 3rd world country for another 30 years or maybe even longer.

Quote from: AlfredDrake on December 20, 2014, 07:35:29 AM
So much for Papal infallibility.

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-welcomes-us-and-cuban-moves-to-normalise-rela

The Catholic Church is politics epitomized, always has been, this is nothing new, or unexpected.

Quote from: european101 on December 20, 2014, 08:14:43 AM
Perspective on Cuba? After the fall of socialisem they will be 3rd world country for another 30 years or maybe even longer.

I agree on the time frame. However, if Cuba adopts a capitalistic economy money will flow into it from the US. It will become a tourist mecca and the influx of baseball will energize the Cuban people. The Cubans who settled in FL have assimilated and become entrepreneurs. This energy will flow back over time. Granted there are 3-4 generations who have never experienced freedom and it will be a struggle for those not willing to adopt new ways.

Quote from: supsalemgr on December 20, 2014, 09:25:01 AM
I agree on the time frame. However, if Cuba adopts a capitalistic economy money will flow into it from the US. It will become a tourist mecca and the influx of baseball will energize the Cuban people. The Cubans who settled in FL have assimilated and become entrepreneurs. This energy will flow back over time. Granted there are 3-4 generations who have never experienced freedom and it will be a struggle for those not willing to adopt new ways.

Experiences from Russia and former Eastern European countries shows that It's very hard to achieve high economic standard after 50 years of socialism. Socialism is so much economically inferior than capitalism that on my opinion is unrealistic to expect from Cuba to achive high living standard in the short term. 

Quote from: Solar on December 20, 2014, 08:20:04 AM
The Catholic Church is politics epitomized, always has been, this is nothing new, or unexpected.

I am Catholic, and as such, I am expected to accept the Pope as God's #1 spokesman on the earth.

Yet, this guy is just as clueless on the mechanics and dynamics of economic / social issues, as Obama & Gore & pals.  I often wonder if there was a blackmail / purge thing that kicked Ratzinger out because he was too traditional / conservative, to replace him with a progressive, a la the Obama experiment.

And yes, we know that the Church has been involved in a lot of hinky stuff.  From chumming up with Hitler, to being a well-oiled, massive money machine.  They've been there hand-in-hand with every big-money venture in the 3rd world since the year 1000.  I'm not a big fan of the image of a trillion-dollar portfolio for a church. 

Scale down to a couple billion for operations, and figure out a way to give back the rest, to the places that are most in need.

I'm amazed that there's a Pope who's basically a hard-core socialist & anti-capitalist......who won't liquidate the Vatican's trillion to the poor people, and sits on this treasure instead like the Queen of England.  Something just doesn't add up there.  Sort of reminds one of the UN, or the classic commies.  Huge on platitudes, but also huge on their own self-serving greed that they rail against for everybody else.

Quote from: AndyJackson on December 20, 2014, 10:52:51 AM
I am Catholic, and as such, I am expected to accept the Pope as God's #1 spokesman on the earth.

Yet, this guy is just as clueless on the mechanics and dynamics of economic / social issues, as Obama & Gore & pals.  I often wonder if there was a blackmail / purge thing that kicked Ratzinger out because he was too traditional / conservative, to replace him with a progressive, a la the Obama experiment.

And yes, we know that the Church has been involved in a lot of hinky stuff.  From chumming up with Hitler, to being a well-oiled, massive money machine.  They've been there hand-in-hand with every big-money venture in the 3rd world since the year 1000.  I'm not a big fan of the image of a trillion-dollar portfolio for a church. 

Scale down to a couple billion for operations, and figure out a way to give back the rest, to the places that are most in need.

I'm amazed that there's a Pope who's basically a hard-core socialist & anti-capitalist......who won't liquidate the Vatican's trillion to the poor people, and sits on this treasure instead like the Queen of England.  Something just doesn't add up there.  Sort of reminds one of the UN, or the classic commies.  Huge on platitudes, but also huge on their own self-serving greed that they rail against for everybody else.

First, let's not hijack this thread away from Cuba to rants about the Catholic church.

I am not Catholic, but have many Catholic friends. They are dedicated to church and serve it well and there are millions like that in the church. The church also does many great things and continues to make advances in South America and Africa. Anything that advances Christianity is good in my view. One reason I was never attracted to the Catholic church is I believe too much power is given to the pope. After all, he is nothing but an an elected politician and another flawed human being. It is becoming clear the current pope is a liberal and eventually this is going to cause some conflict among the followers.

Quote from: supsalemgr on December 20, 2014, 11:51:58 AM
First, let's not hijack this thread away from Cuba to rants about the Catholic church.

I am not Catholic, but have many Catholic friends. They are dedicated to church and serve it well and there are millions like that in the church. The church also does many great things and continues to make advances in South America and Africa. Anything that advances Christianity is good in my view. One reason I was never attracted to the Catholic church is I believe too much power is given to the pope. After all, he is nothing but an an elected politician and another flawed human being. It is becoming clear the current pope is a liberal and eventually this is going to cause some conflict among the followers.

You have to understand the Catholic church if you want to under stand CUba or rather Latin America, The Catholic Church I was raised in supports Catholic Countries, if those Catholic countries happen to be commies....wellllll......

I find it  hypocritical  that the Catholic Church supports Dems overwhelmingly when the Dem party are students of abortion on demand.