Comments on: Calle Ocho

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 05:33:38 +0000

Annoying Russia may have been part of Cuba’s strategy on this move. Vladimir is not any more subtle than the Shrubbery when it comes to all things economic. He has wrung some major concessions from Cuba in exchange for buying sugar, and with the possible oil fields off the Cuban coast, Havana isn’t as dependent on Russia or Venezuela as it once was for fuel.

Cuba has its own reasons for going along with this change and may consider the US as the least of the evils available. With oil below $60/barrel the power of Russia and Venezuela has taken a hit.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:42:32 +0000

Annoying Russia also had to be part of the package. Russia is losing their onliest bestest friend in the Americas. Maybe not immediately, but the writing is on the wall. Economic conquest is something the US *does*.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 03:18:48 +0000

The Pope was pushing for it, and Obama got a US citizen released, but, yes, annoying Venezuela was certainly a feature for the deal. Cuba has also been a primary donor to the Ebola crisis, sending a lot of medical personnel to the area, while the West has been enacting laws to suppress involvement by their medical personnel.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 01:23:39 +0000

“the leaders of Venezuela who view this as a ‘stab in the back’.”

I was guessing that was the main reason for “why now”…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:01:24 +0000

They’ll probably stuff him like Lenin and put him on permanent display in a glass case when he is officially dead. If they re-broadcast his speeches after the two-hour mark no one will know he isn’t making them live because he is the only one in the country who was actually listening at that point. 😈

The two groups beyond Calle Ocho who want to block this are Big Sugar and the cigar makers, but they haven’t bought enough of the Congress to do them any good.

Oh, yeah, the stupid policy didn’t fail, we failed the policy, so we need to continue it.

The only people other than Calle Ocho who are pissed off about the normalization are the leaders of Venezuela who view this as a ‘stab in the back’.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 07:25:08 +0000

I’m suspecting Fidel isn’t even alive any more, or if so, he’s barely so, certainly not running the country anymore. I guess being dead, or in a vegetative state, is “moderated” though LOL :).

You’d think that 54 years of embargo would be enough to overthrow the Communist government of Cuba if it was going to happen, but apparently the only reason it didn’t work is because we need 108 years of embargo. Or somethin’. Huhn.

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin