Free markets harm children and people of Cuba, but communism doesn't, I'm sick of these leftists.
What part of the free market demands the blockade currently imposed on Cuba?
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The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
41–50 of 69 posts
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#42Odd to see no mention of the US government's rationale for intervening over their continuing to leave a vaguely weak enemy alone as past administrations have: the US believes that inhibiting Chinese covert activity (real or imagined) has risen in necessity to now outbid the cost of invasion.
This could have only come to pass because the administration has faith in the pessimistic forecasts for peace between Beijing and Washington. If so few private sector forecasters thought Tariffs and Hormuz were important black swans to consider, how can we give the forecasts of no US-China conflict as much credence as we do?
Idk if Hn is the place for my making such remarks, however, as the commentariat has gotten much less confident in the value of sober political analysis than before.
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#43Trump's problem is that he sees the US and the world only through the lens of maximizing profits for his cronies. In the face of global warming and climate change, this is extremely harmful to the country and the world. His attitude is always win-lose, never win-win.
On a recent podcast episode Ezra Klein mentioned something like "when making agreements one should be able to accept the deal of either side" which is something that's stuck with me and is basically an elegant way of describing a win-win situation.
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#44Free markets harm children and people of Cuba, but communism doesn't, I'm sick of these leftists.
What part of the free market demands the blockade currently imposed on Cuba?
America: Get rid of communism and become a democratic government so that your people are free and your government is not a threat to us. Are you upset that a liberal government is preventing the maturation of an authoritarian communist government so that a result similar to North Korea does not happen? Sanctions and blockades are what achieve this, and these things do not happen with diplomatic handshakes.
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The people in power in the US at the moment do not care about the civil and political rights of Cubans. They care about acquiring Cuba and its natural reaources for themselves and their clients. I thought the motivation was ideological, chiefly from the cuban exiles voter base, of which Rubio is a part of? Aside from maybe tobacco, cuba doesn't have much natural resources. That's why it's so poor.
The main reason Cuba was valuable to U.S. interests before the Revolution was as a playground for American vacationers. Las Vegas was basically spun up as a replacement Havana after the Revolution took it away from U.S. interests and jet air travel made Nevada a reasonable destination for well-heeled East Coasters. I think something similar could be true today, and it doesn't require any natural resources beyond chea…
Hot Springs, Arkansas was an alternative during that era.
The nations first national park anchored the attraction, complete with eponymous hot natural water baths. All the big celebrities of the day vacationed there ( alongside all the biggest gangsters, Al Capone included ) and professional baseball teams held spring training there.
Today, Hot Springs is still a pleasant place to visit, but it’s no longer a national draw.
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
What part of the free market demands the blockade currently imposed on Cuba?
America: Get rid of communism and become a democratic government so that your people are free and your government is not a threat to us. Are you upset that a liberal government is preventing the maturation of an authoritarian communist government so that a result similar to North Korea does not happen? Sanctions and blockades are what achieve this, and these things do not happen with diplomatic handshakes.
Yeah as an American I totally feel threatened by the Cuban government in the year 2026.
Holy hell man, get a grip.
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#47The person who wrote this never asked a Cuban immigrant how they felt about the government in Cuba. Many will tell you a story about how their family desperately escaped on a row boat, are lucky to be alive and blame Castro. The bottom line is that many Cuban immigrants in the United States feel that the current government destroyed the country and should be removed and Marco Rubio’s quest to fix Cuba is a reflection…
Having angry expats exercise control over foreign policy is stupid. The rest of us don't need to do anything that doesn't serve us just because they have an axe to grind. There's a good Scott Horton and Dave Smith conversation about this, but it's so obvious really, when you look at rich Cubans and rich Persians. Those revolutions happened because of their parents and grandparents, and now they want to pretend like t…
Because the US is a nation of expats, I find that US policy mostly aligns with how the people who moved here from there feel about the government they left.
Places like Canada and Europe, we are mostly friendly with and have slight disagreements. Ukrainians support their home country and we support Ukraine. Venezuelans, Cubans and Iranians hate the government and so do we. Chinese people have a so so view of the government and we have a so so relationship with China.
It doesn’t work perfectly, but it’s more the exception than the rule. I think it’s really a test of how compatible a society is with our society in how expats who live here view their home country and it’s more a correlation than a cause that expats views on their government mostly mirror our governments views on a country. It just very direct right now in regards to Cuba as Rubio has a lot of sway over the US policies.
Anyways, regardless this post was more a disagreement with the articles views than some sort of enforced doctrine.
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having angry expats exercise control over foreign policy is stupid. The rest of us don't need to do anything that doesn't serve us just because they have an axe to grind. There's a good Scott Horton and Dave Smith conversation about this, but it's so obvious really, when you look at rich Cubans and rich Persians. Those revolutions happened because of their parents and grandparents, and now they want to pretend like t…
Because the US is a nation of expats, I find that US policy mostly aligns with how the people who moved here from there feel about the government they left. Places like Canada and Europe, we are mostly friendly with and have slight disagreements. Ukrainians support their home country and we support Ukraine. Venezuelans, Cubans and Iranians hate the government and so do we. Chinese people have a so so view of the gove…
I have some small quibbles with what you're saying, but I think the main issue is that only Cubans and Persians really coerce our foreign policy into something different from what it would otherwise be.
I don't think Ukrainians in the US account for bipartisan US support for Ukraine. I think there are a host of geopolitical factors and basic inertia accounting for that.
But then, you look at Cuba, and see a bunch of Cubans donating to Republicans, and can easily tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans on what to do with Cuba. And it's not even like the Republican base really cares; it's just that one voting/money block that has its thumb on the scale.
edit: I guess with Iran, however, it's pretty clear who and what moved Trump on that, and it wasn't the expat community.
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#49The person who wrote this never asked a Cuban immigrant how they felt about the government in Cuba. Many will tell you a story about how their family desperately escaped on a row boat, are lucky to be alive and blame Castro. The bottom line is that many Cuban immigrants in the United States feel that the current government destroyed the country and should be removed and Marco Rubio’s quest to fix Cuba is a reflection…
>Marco Rubio’s quest to fix Cuba is a reflection of Cuban immigrants values.
How do you know that's his motivation?
There are countless countries around the world that need to be fixed
Re: The U.S. Is Terrorizing Cuba to Make Rich Men Richer
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Marco Rubio cares about his own quest to be the man who finally frees Cuba from communism. He doesn’t care about natural resources. It’s a pride thing. And I’m fine with that.
Rubio's family left Cuba before the revolution that put Castro in power. Rubio has been pushing a false narrative of his family's history for a long time.
Doesn’t matter what the history of his family is. That’s his stated goal. Or don’t you think they would have returned once Batista was removed from power?