Longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro is dead at age 90. While many around the world spoke highly of Castro’s success in greatly reducing illiteracy and proving basic services like health care, I have long been critical of his reign and his enablers in the West. Whatever success he achieved, he did so through a brutal dictatorship that denied freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and other basic civil liberties. For those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s, he was a defining character of our generation. The menace across the border. When we were being taught to shelter under our desks in any nuclear attack, it was his image with that of the Soviet premier that would be flashed across the screen. It was a time of utter madness and mania — on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
Castro clearly had the leadership skills and courage to be much more after overthrowing a corrupt puppet like President Fulgencio Batista. Instead, he elected to follow the Soviet communist model and reduced his economy to little more than an agrarian state that was frozen in time — as vividly shown by the cars from the 1950s that still drive around the island. He ordered the torture of thousands and the killing of opponents. It is certainly true that the United States has an equally horrific record in supporting Battista and his cronies and repeatedly trying to overthrow Castro or destroy the Cuban economy. However, Castro is quoted as saying that “history will absolve me.” Certainly there are some professors on the left who have always idealized dictators like Castro or Hugo Chavez. From Bernie Sanders to Dr. Jill Stein to 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick there have been expressions of support for Castro’s record on educational and health benefits. However, history can not wipe clean, let alone absolve, a man whose legacy is soaked in the blood and suffering of tens of thousands of political prisoners.
He was an interesting historical figure to be sure. Many do not know that Castro was a lawyer and came from a wealthy family. He was born in 1926 to a servant of a Cuban sugar plantation owner. He father eventually recognized him as his son but only when he was 17 and Castro then took his name. He attended Jesuit schools before joining the University of Havana law school. By then, he was a committed socialist. It was after the failed 1953 attack on a military barracks and the trial that he said in his own defense “history will absolve me.”
I do not question the remarkable life of someone who overthrow a dictator and stood off the world’s most powerful country. That took guts and leadership. However, he then replaced one dictatorship with his own dictatorship. People were tortured in the many of Communism rather than capitalism. Reporters and political dissidents were jailed in the name of the people. At a time when Communism was denying freedom in Eastern Europe and rolling tanks through the streets to prevent democratic elections, Castro embraced the Soviet empire. His government ultimately representing little beyond authoritarian power masked by collective rhetoric — a point driven home by the fact that he was replaced by his own brother like some Communist Aristocracy. Likewise, the claim of a government of the people would be a tad more convincing if the Castro brothers ever let the people choose their government. Instead, they jailed opponents, barred the free press, and stomped out any protests over their rule. Those apologists internationally (who often cite how teams of Cuban doctors would travel the world or literacy advances) did not live under their autocratic rule without democratic freedoms and basic rights. Castro offered doctors and education in a trade for basic civil liberties. Only the greatest moral relativists viewed that as a fair trade.
Nevertheless, world leaders like Justin Trudeau expressed “great sorrow” at the passing of Castro. Journalists like MSNBC Andrea Mitchell insisted Castro “will be revered” for “education and social services and medical care to all of his people.” Really? He will be “revered” because he gave his people services while torturing and jailing those who wanted democracy? Mitchell may want to check out the free medical care that Castro gave people like Armando Valladares, who was initially a supporter of Castro but was arrested when (as a worker at the Office of the Ministry of Communications for the Revolutionary Government) he refused to put a plaque on his desk that read, “I’m with Fidel.” He was arrested and spent 22 years in Castro’s prisons being tortured, starved and left in solitary confinement. He might not be as reverential about those services, but then again Mitchell did not have to live under the dictatorship of the Castros.
One can certainly argue that he had little choice when the CIA was mounting aggressive attacks. However, Castro had long before adopted the ideology of the “people’s revolution.” It was simplistic and violent. It ultimately denied the fundamental human rights that belong to all people. He did so in the name of equality. He succeeded in achieving equality by reducing a society of a level only slightly above agrarian status and became a willing pawn for the Soviet Union. Without the shipments from Soviets to keep his population alive, his government would have collapsed. To this day, the island operates on the lowest level of economic exchanges and production. His unquestioned success on literacy and health care is no substitute for human rights. He placed his name on a long list of dictators who emerged from political and economic chaos. He did not end the brutality but merely justified it as a means for a new cause.
That is what history will remember about Fidel Castro.
There is no logic in trying to hold up Fidel Castro as great leader when evidence exists that clearly demonstrates he was a brutal dictator. It’s also ridiculous to try and compare his rule to that of past American regimes; unless we are to point to how progressivism has led to the rise of the administrative state. Progressivism has led to the United States having Presidents who’s administrations were supported in their abuse of power, but only as long as that power favored the supporter’s ideology. The pendulum has swung left and right, that’s to be expected. But when these swings break through constitutional restraints, that’s when both sides of the political spectrum are supposed to be intellectually honest enough to withdraw support; principle over policy, right?
Time will tell whether the Trump administration will be a step forward towards constitutional restraint. One thing that will be certain to occur however is that Trump will be supported/opposed by many on the basis of ideology, regardless of constitutionality. It’s this lack of principles that lead to elections having consequences.
I suspect that Trump will not be the constitutional restraint some hope him to be. He may go that direction on some constitutional issues, but on others he may well go off the deep end. Given the authoritarian, bully nature of his personality he showed repeatedly during the campaign and throughout his business career, he is not likely to react well if – or when – a court decision does not go his way. He is also likely to throw the Constitution aside – even possibly mangle it – if it becomes an inconvenience or gets in his way of doing things his way.
The cigar celebrations by thiis nitwit are obnoxious. Millions hooked on tobacco because of a holes like Castro.
Castro’s family got wealthy on the backs of slaves. His DNA was already toxic long before his own conception. Genocide is nature’s mechanism to rid the gene pool of toxicity. Only problem, there is no more human DNA left that is not toxic.
Castro set the tone for U.S./ Cuban relations when he seized American assets, and simultaneously sided with the Soviet Union.
The USSR prop him up for decades with massive foreign aid.
When the Soviet Union collapsed 25 years ago, Cuba lost its major sponsor.
At the end of the day, Castro was irrelevant- merely a relic of the Cold War.
The romanticized, sanitized
version of Castro is not as prevalent today as in the past, but there are still some
Castro hero-worshippers around.
Comparisons can be made to Battista’s Cuba, but there is no way of knowing Cuba’s potential had it been allowed to function as a democracy with at least some features of capitalism.
Castro was a True Believer till the end, and he wasn’t having nuisances like democracy and property rights interferring with his utopia.
Reading some of the European papers today
One would think that a hero had died.
However I feel the history of this brutal Dictator
Wll escape the European press.
Finland is also a tiny, once mostly agrarian country, under the heel of Russia. But it’s citizen-soldiers, mostly farmers, fought off the mighty Russian military and established an independent country with an economy that boomed. Finland has the highest literacy rate in the world, free universal health care and education, its high school scores in math and science regularly rate in the top three in the world ( along with Japan and So. Korea), and companies such as Nokia export technological innovation. Point being, is that you don’t need the extremes of either capitalism or communism. You can have a social democracy that eliminates poverty and cares for all of its citizens while at the same time allowing the economic freedom that rewards hard work and innovation.
Certainly, Tin. Wouldn’t we love to know how Cuba would have turned out without 60 years of the big bully breathing down your neck, quarantining you from the rest of the world and trying to kill your leader?
Do we doubt it would have been another Finland?
“Do we doubt it would have been another Finland?”
Yes.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
What then, Squeeky, do you think it would have become had the U.S. not imposed the severe economic embargo that it did?
I suspect the same, whether there was an embargo or not. Tell me what the embargo accomplished. Nothing stopped Russia, China, South America, Europe, Canada, etc. from trading with Cuba. Wiki says, as an opinion:
“According to critics, one of the major problems with the embargo is that the United States is the only major country that has such an embargo against Cuba in place. Cuba still receives tourists and trade from other countries making the embargo appear both illegitimate and pointless.”
My guess is that the Embargo just gave Castro an excuse for failure, and somebody else to blame the country’s woes on. Sooo, I think Cuba would have gone the same route as Venezuela, East Germany, North Korea, etc.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Come on, squeek…really… if embargo and economic sanctions have crippled Iran, Iraq and Syria, imagine what they did to an island, continuously for 54 years? The funny thing is that without the embargo, Cuba would have been an extension of Miami. Sorta like puerto Rico but richer.
——————-
“”Cuba says its economy is suffering a “systematic worsening” due to a US embargo, the consequences of which Havana places at $1.1 trillion since Washington imposed the sanctions in 1960, taking into account the depreciation of the dollar against gold.””
https://www.rt.com/business/186528-cuba-embargo-economic-damage/
Squeeky – the problem is the Cubans have rum, cigars and sugar to trade. That is about it. And they make their sugar in cones the way it was done in the 18th century.
So does Mexico. and they make much of their ham from turkeys. The number one largest group of opponents to the USA opening up Mexico is Canada. Canadiense’s know that where gringos go the prices go up and up and up. They want to keep their affordable mid winter playground.
I say that only partly in jest at my Canadian friends but there is a great deal of truth. When it comes to money the worst in the world are from the USA. Routinely they will poay Full Gringo Rate instead of the less expensive local rate for the exact same service or item. Tipping is present for example in mexico at 10% or less. Gringos all pre-conditions automatically do 15% or more. So the rest of us USA and Canadians and others from the around the world learn to say No Soy Gringo.. I am not a tonto from north of the border.
Michael Aarethun – how do you make ham from turkey?
They use the largest cut possible off the breast and whereever then smoke it with jamon alhumado flavoring. Very common a lot cheaper and less bad for the waistline stuff. The left overs are made into a sausage or salchicha. Mexico was and still is a major buyer of US Corn to feed their Turkey operations one of the affects of our economic crash of 2008 and before that the mandatory production of ethanol (good reason to have a diesel car or truck) was to drive up the price of animal feeds and that translated to human foods world wide.If you are in the area or a Latino market (mercado) look in the meat section or deli section for both the turkey variety and the regular ham cuts one will say puerco and the other pavo.
Other countries have achievements. Cuba partisans have to make do with excuses.
Like the 12 to 14 year old hookers that frequent hotels, beaches etc. THAT is a FACT JACK. Been there Seen that. it’s more common than not. Also the signs that urge people to use condomns etc.for disease prevention reasons. Somehow I immediately became tempted NOT!
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/10/15/bernie-sanders-scandinavia-not-socialist-utopia/lUk9N7dZotJRbvn8PosoIN/story.html
https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-of-scandinavian-socialism/
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yaronbrook/2016/10/25/tuesday-special-edition-is-sweden-a-socialist-utopia-memes-and-myths-guest?utm_source=bluehornet&utm_medium=impactweekly&utm_campaign=11102016
Here’s another one that verifies what you said. Sweden; is market capitalist with social programs. The story covers the plight of Osrid Lindgren author of Pipi Longstocking books who was forced to pay a 105% of income tax. Those days are gone and the asuthor of Harry Potter still paying a whopping tax bill is now an after tax billionaire.
Oh, this praise for Fidel makes me think about another misunderstood Dictator, whose good works are sooo often overshadowed by people who focus on the negative aspects of his career!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyM8E1PUoAAwnB-.jpg
For a full list of his achievements, which are remarkably similar to sought by the Democrats, check out:
http://www.dailystormer.com/50-things-that-people-should-know-about-adolf-hitler-and-national-socialism/
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
He was a Commie. If the world has totem poles then there is nothing lower. Maybe an ISIL human is lower.
Cannot expect the younger generation to understand especially with this 638 crap. On the other other hand one can hardly blame those with a pitiful education, feeble minds and social promotions. Weren’t those the one’s that suported a wannabe billionaire for leader of a party whose leaders started or got us into WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and currently is into the 8th year of non stop warfare? The one’s whose death ration of US service personnel many of them conscripted against there will of 18 for everyone who died in wars started bythe other party? And that does not include WWI and WWII in which case it gets into 200 or 300 to one ratio. The ones who ran up a 20 trillion dollar debt? No wonder snowflakes are treated with contempt and the hope a good ‘high temperature’ summer will melt them away.
Ask them sometime, the older ones’ why the started the anti draft movement then quit in the final minutes and left that law in place?
Or ask the working class people of the USA who after getting ripped off by tax tax tax tax still manage to out contribute the rest of the world in all sorts of medical, food etc. aid.
Melt little snowflake melt.
Yes those are the same people. Whine, cry, and poopers in the diapers. Inclusive? With them? Why?
What MichaelA said.
Which, obviously, you misunderstood.
It has been puzzling to me that so many academics criticize human rights abuses, and the record of the US, whilst simultaneously singing the praises of Communism and/or Socialism. The latter devolves, by design, into abusive dictatorships every time. It creates Big Government, erodes individual liberties including any rights of speech, all with the promises of taking more care of you from cradle to grave. Don’t worry, the government is there to solve all your problems. Then they tax more and more and more, and you lose more rights, until you end up with a dictator you helped rise to power. And, to loosely quote Margaret Thatcher, eventually socialists always run out of spending other people’s money.
Cuba taxes all of everyone’s income, leaving each person with a $20 monthly stipend. You cannot buy or sell real estate, but you can trade it, from a property base frozen in the 1950s. So, whatever house your ancestor owned in the 1950s, all of the descendants are sharing today. The only time you’re lucky enough to swap out for a larger home is if someone else was unlucky enough to have had no surviving children, and they need a smaller house. Healthcare is free, but it’s so substandard as to be absurd.
So, beware of any politicians claiming they can take better care of you than you can, if you only give them all your money in taxes and hand over your autonomy.
We’ve been through this, for millennia. That experiment has been taken to the same conclusion so many times that to dispute its outcome is to dispute the Earth is round.
Karen, Great analysis as usual.
Ah, thanks, Nick! Hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving.
It has been puzzling to me that so many academics criticize human rights abuses, and the record of the US, whilst simultaneously singing the praises of Communism and/or Socialism.
It’s not puzzling. There are self-aggrandizing frauds in this world. They tend to be employed as teachers and journalists. See Stanley Rothman’s comparative work on various occupaitonal types. Businessmen are achievement-motivated while journalists are power-motivated.
Is this the same dictator we, the US, tried to assassinate 638 times?
The same dictator whose country we, the US, have built a base on where we have been holding prisoner and torturing folks that the courts have found not guilty of anything?
The same dictator whose well trained doctors are found helping every people around the globe whose lot is made worse by our, yes, the US’s, policies/actions?
The same dictator who has established thriving and legitimate geopolitical and economic relationships with every country but, yes the US…
Yes, the same dictator who is better liked globally than any US president.
LOL! Is this the same dictator that his PEOPLE feared and hated? Is this the same dictator that more than a million of his PEOPLE fled, risking the lives of themselves and their children to escape the human right abuses of this horrible man. The vast majority of those millions fleeing to this great nation, that you hate and they love. That you would return to praise this guy is so damn predictable. Cuba is now open for you to move. I’ll start a GoFundMe if you would love to go to your idea of a great country.
My old man spent time in Cuba during WW2. He LOVED the country and it’s people. He said to me before he died, “If they ever get rid of that b@stard Castro, go to that beautiful country.” He loved the food, the culture and the people. I would tell him to go to Cuba, he could experience much of the culture and people. Just not the country.
The same dictator a million of his people fled?
As usual, missing the point. Castro’s power and dictatorship was enabled by the decades of economic warfare conducted upon the country by one single country, the US of A. Of thsoe who left Cuba ho wmany were leaving for economic reasons? What caused those reasons?
It was also further affirmed by , yes, those 638 attempts to assassinate the leader of another country.
Yep, same dictator without whose support the ANC would still be fighting apartheid in south Africa. Without whose support Nelson Mandela would still be deemed a terrorist by…uh, yes, the US of A.
Yes, the same dictator who offered to send help and doctors to the katrina victims while Bush the Dumb was twirling his thumbs.
The same dictator in whom every oppressed people around the globe foudn a supporter and ally. Same people oppressed by US and its allies.
Same dictator under whom Cubans are more literate than Americans.
Under whom the rate of infant and mother mortality is lower than in the US, at 1/20 the per capita income…
Just saying…
Have you considered going to prison? You’d have perfect equality there as long as you obey all the rules. The rule obeying prisoners are all treated the same. They get the same size accommodations. Eat the same food. Free healthcare. You’re only discriminated against and treated less equally if you disobey the rules the bureaucrats who run the place lay down. Like in Cuba, you can’t say certain things that the bureaucrats who run the place don’t like. If you do, then they will send you to a prison within the prison. The great thing is that you can be a total parasite there while enjoying your perfect equality. You won’t have to have a job and provide value to others in the economy to sustain your life. Instead, everything is provided by the state, which gets the money it needs to support prisoners by stealing it from the labor of free people.
Prison sounds like it may be the Utopian socialist wonderland you seek. You may want to give it a shot.
Scott, tell that to the 2.5 million prisoners in US jails, working for 10 cents an hour. Most of whom are in for drug related charges, right, drugs they should be, in a democracy have the right to for their personal use. Many of them are in for 3 strikes law related crimes, neither a felony.
Most of whom lose their civil rights, cannot vote, cannot get certain jobs, cannot get government benefits and are forever tapped into a loop of poverty and prison.
Additionally, tell that to the 7 countries being bombed currently by the US.
To the millions of women. men and children blown up through these last couple of decades by the most moral country in the world.
Being a prisoner for life ought to be your wet dream. Bureaucrats dictating every aspect of your life to create perfect equality. “Free” food, “Free” healthcare. You don’t have to work to provide your own way. Just be a parasite.
What’s not to like?
Scott just won by knockout in the 3rd round!
Nick in action…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVNHcob3oJg
Scott, of all that could be said about this issue, the fact you cannot move it away from the prison realm, ill fitting and irrelevant, speaks of a wet dream indeed, yours.
Po, you seem to be willfully ignoring or overlooking an important point. Sure, Castro did some things that could be labeled as good, but what good he did is no substitute or excuse for the harm done. Furthermore, the good he did could have been even greater — and without the harm — if he had pursued a democratic system of governance, a system that placed value in the principles of liberty. In other words it was possible to have had the good done by Castro without the dictatorship. Castro had the chance and the choice to be a leader in the mold of admirable freedom fighters who were champions of human and civil rights. Instead he chose the autocratic model represented by the likes of Soviet dictators.
Certainly, Dogfight, I don’t claim Castro was a saint by any means. What I am asking is that we judge people/history according to its context. And a context where the greatest power in the globe is trying to assassinate you for near 60 years is an essential one to be aware of.
Additionally, Castro was a supporter of any group around the globe fighting to free itself from racial or political oppression including Black Americans and Black south africans.
Fascinating to me how us, Americans, are so willing to condemn others for how they react to our attempts to destroy their country!
We conduct a coup in Iran and blame them for becoming, in reaction, a theocracy.
We mass troops alongside Russia and blame it for reacting.
We arm Sadaam with chemical weapons then blame it for…well, having those chemicals weapons…which it did not have.
We blow up a Cuban airliner, occupy its territory, arm rebels to attack the county, target the leader for assassination for half a century, invade the country etc…etc… and blame the man for tightening his grip on power?????
Yes, Po, it is easy to blame him for tightening his grip on power since he could have chosen to go the democratic, humans rights route. Instead, his tightening grip on power resulted in more oppression. Nothing excuses this.
Po:
Castro’s power and dictatorship was enabled by the decades of economic warfare conducted upon the country by one single country, the US of A. Of thsoe who left Cuba ho wmany were leaving for economic reasons?
******************************
That’s like saying Jean Valjean was enabled by Javert.
Well, Mespo… how about you show me where I am wrong 🙂
was enabled by the decades of economic warfare conducted upon the country by one single country,
You’re off message.
Refusing to buy Cuban sugar is not ‘economic warfare’. They were perfectly free to sell to anyone they cared to, and Soviet Russia bought their (single) export crop at concessionary prices.
Aren’t you even a little bit embarrassed by your lack of knowledge? HARVEY Oswald was on the CIA payroll. Silly goose.
He was not on the CIA payroll, except in your imagination. He could barely hold down a job. He was far too erratic to be of use to anyone, even his desperate wife (who could provoke him to violent rages by calling attention to his failures as a provider).
He was not a good shooter either. He had to reshoot to make Marksman the lowest level acceptable. Above that is Sharpshooter and then Expert. I believe the Corps had one called High Expert as well. So how with a POS Carcano from Klein’s of Chicago did one person pull off that feat when it took the FBI’s best a decade maybe two using a tuned weapon to come close? Second question. When those documents are unsealed how will we know they are real or fabricated?
On a subjective note I nominate LBJ as the culprit.
Look, if fantasy helps you feel better, that’s fine. In the world in which we live, he showed up for work carrying ‘curtain rods’, made a sniper’s nest on the 6th floor of the book depository and shot the president and Gov. Connolly. The deed was done with his rifle, to the exclusion of all others in the world. He then departed the scene and subsequently murdered a Dallas city police officer in front of a cloud of witnesses. No clue what you fancy LBJ stood to gain from Ofc. Tippet’s death.
Keep reading. In the world I live in objective thought and facts are not replaced with fairy tails and as I said picked on LBJ out of all the candidates because I despised the SOB. Sorry you wrote to soon but then in the world I live and lived in subjective thinking was a way to not survive.
Po – Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by everyone including Amnesty International. His wife Winnie (sp?) is also a murderer/terrorist.
Nope, Paul. Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by all the allies of the south african government, namely, the US, Britain, Israel.
The usual dictatorship enablers.
South Africa was then made a target by the USA BUT the USA then became and still is the operator of the largest apartheid system in the world. Apart is like reserved and reserved is like Reservations. Prior to that the latgest operator of apartheid system was the Soviet Union the dictatorship enabler you conveniently forgot to mention. You are out of your depth here. Ahogado like the Burro.
Po – an Anmesty International, which is why they never declared him a political prisoner.
Amnesty international is covered under allies, Paul.
Po – Amnesty International, unlike the SPLC, is neutral. It is not an ally of the U.S.
Voting statistics showed Latinos of Cuban origin went heavily against Hillary. Way out of proportion to the rest of the Latino citizens of the country although there pro Hillary voting numbers were down and the big time Latino ballot box revolt never occurred.
As I stated earlier Clinton’s latino supporters for the most part could NOT vote. Latino citizens of the US that could vote did not vote as expected. Same with African Amereicans, female Americans, rural Americans etc. etc. etc.
And Michigan but it was a squeaker! North Carolina is still recounting.
Michael Aarethun – it appears that Hillary Clinton has decided to challenge the voting in the same states that Jill Stein is. Wasn’t she the one who got all huffy about Trump not accepting the election results?
Amnesty International Is Cheerleading For War
So called human rights organizations are increasingly used as propaganda tools against the enemy du jour of western imperialism.
When Georgia attacked Russia peacekeepers in South-Ossetia resulting in a short and lost war Human Rights Watch misidentified cluster ammunition used during that war as Russian when it was, according to its own mine identification charts, indeed Georgian ammunition which had been purchased from Israel. Human Rights Watch continued to push the false claim even weeks after it had been proven wrong
When the French wanted to attack Libya Amnesty International’s French director falsly claimed that Gaddhafi was using black mercenaries. Such claims later resulted in violent atrocities by the Libyan rebels against all black people.
Human Rights Watch lamented about Syria putting mines on its borders against weapon smuggling. It claimed that such mines are internationally banned which they are not. But it did not say a word when Israel mined its border with Syria to prevent Syrian refugees from coming in.
The partisanship of these organizations has now reached a new level with Amnesty International openly calling for NATO to prolong the war on Afghanistan.
Amnesty International Advertisement for the NATO summit in Chicago
bigger
Amnesty’s new slogan: “NATO: Keep the progress going!”
What progress?
Amnesty International is cheerleading the war ostensibly for “Human Rights for Women and Girls in Afghanistan”. In that it is joining Laura Bush on the neo-conned Washington Post opinion pages.
But as Sonali Kolhatkar, founder of the Afghan Women’s Mission (AWM) and Mariam Rawi of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) wrote a while ago on AlterNet:
Under the Taliban, women were confined to their homes. They were not allowed to work or attend school. They were poor and without rights. They had no access to clean water or medical care, and they were forced into marriages, often as children.
Today, women in the vast majority of Afghanistan live in precisely the same conditions, with one notable difference: they are surrounded by war. The conflict outside their doorsteps endangers their lives and those of their families. It does not bring them rights in the household or in public, and it confines them even further to the prison of their own homes. Military escalation is just going to bring more tragedy to the women of Afghanistan.
…
Waging war does not lead to the liberation of women anywhere. Women always disproportionately suffer the effects of war, and to think that women’s rights can be won with bullets and bloodshed is a position dangerous in its naïveté.
This Amnesty campaign should make clear to anyone that some prominent organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are now mostly tools of imperialism with no credibility for any real humanitarian concern. Fortunately there are still other organizations though which do real humanitarian work.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/05/amnesty-international-is-cheerleading-for-war.html
Paul, as for every other organization out there that relies on funding from “”donors””, very quickly we find that the agenda of the organization becomes defined by the source of the money.
Including political entities such as the democratic and republican parties. https://muslimvillage.com/2012/10/29/30740/amnesty-international-imperialis%E2%80%8Bt-tool/
Po – the “doctors” under Castro are not well-trained and are more like upgraded medics. When you go to the hospital in Cuba you bring you own linens, towels, toilet paper, etc. The show hospital has the only real doctors in it. That is where foreigners go to visit to be shown the quality of Cuban health care, it is a Potemkin village. It is all hat and no cattle as we say in the West.
Having said that, yes we did try many times under President Kennedy to assassinate him. We even involved the Cosa Nostra to help us. Didn’t help. And then we owed them a favor and a big favor it was.
Paul, the cuban doctors are present in most developing countries doing what doctors do, saving lives and teaching and training…
Many US doctors actually trained in Cuba.
Po – you are going to have to prove your claim that many US doctors trained in Cuba. Need a cite. Since it was illegal to visit the county, they would have been in Cuba illegally.
http://academic.udayton.edu/health/02organ/providers01.htm
Po – I do see that they are training them, I do not see a doctor yet. That article is 12 years old, anything more current?
Don’t expect much there is a distinct lack of ability to do even the most minor research. Try “2015 Cuba Medical Doctors Certified or Trained.” I do not guarantee the credibility of the content but it is, at the least, not stale propaganda. How do you tell propaganda from fact? If it’s reprinted in the NY Times, Atlantic, Reason, Huffington, Washington Post or aired on CNN, NBC, CBS, or ABC. That’s more than less likely propaganda
In a countries like Cuba or North Korea or Washington DC there is no real way short of a full on espionage operation to find out much in the way of facts. But to what purpose?.
Michael Aarethun – it appears that few Cuban doctors qualify as doctors in the U.S. because they have to retake the exams in English,and take a residency. They have half the education a U.S. doctor does to start.
Paul, in that time i took you to type that post, you could have found your answer already.
The internet is for all of us, no?
We are no tin Cuba after all.
Since you made the wild ass claim to begin with why is it our responsibility to do your work for you. Should have done that before you started spouting the party line. I guess he imperialism controlling Amnesty Int’l was the one that used to be called the USSR? they are so far left they never arrived to leave.
Reframing is an art. Your not up to it.
Michael Aarethun – Amnesty International used to be pretty neutral, although I have heard they have cut some corners.
Well Po calling them tool of the imiperialists was such a stretch of reality I had to ask. But now we have a real stretch with the manic depressive still trying to find votes. Wisconsin won’t make any difference now he has Michigans Sixteen But the worst part is listening to the war monger party act like something they are definitely not. Enjoy your Irish movie send me the name I haven’t seen that documentary. Thanks.
Michael Aarethun – knocked off three documentaries today:
Weiner
The Nazi Games – PBS
The Irish Rebellion – PBS
Now I am watching a reconstruction of the Battle of Hastings.
thanks I was on a westerns kick for a while just ordered Lone Ranger and the Black Keys I mean Crows. PBS here I come!
Michael Aarethun – if you want to go old-timey, I have all the Charlie Chan’s except the last one and all the Japanese Godzillas.
Michael, the pumpkin pie got to you…I offered 2 different links highlighting exactly the veracity of my claim. You ought to read that which you attack before you …well, attack it.
I made the case for my argument Now if you need more sources, you can do your homework and research it yourself. Ask Paul, I no longer do people ‘s homework for free.
The idea of Amnesty international not being the ally of the west is ignorant at best. Who funds it? Who sits on its board? Who operates it?
Po – you asked the questions about Amnesty International. You answer them.
paul, you asked the question, you answer it….especially after I indulged you once or twice already.
Po – as usual you have skidded around the edges and told everyone that you will not answer questions. I was just testing the waters.
But…Paul….I already answered the question…twice…
Po – you avoided the answer twice.
Truly the Trump era indeed, where yes means not and no means yes.
I think through the above, we got irrefutable proof Paul has been winging his comments, typing them wearing blindfolds. Only reason I can imagine for denying reality so.
Like I said, :”your ability at reframing is shite.” I’m therefore changing your name to Po op.
and they were out of date and bogus. Radical Reasoning and now you probably want to claim your own bad posts as proof of something or another. Po Boy. It’s an adult world here You have made your case but you made a good case for your own lack of credibility. End of a very poor effort. Yoda will be not happy with iyou.
Haha…careful you don’t pull something patting yourself in the back, Michael. You are like the proverbial fly and the horse carriage, huffing and puffing, pushing and pulling, eager to claim credit for something happening without you…in fact, you are a distraction in this process, better done without your help 🙂
If my links are out of date, does it mean that the statement I made is currently wrong? “”Many”” suggests an occurrence in the past, which would not have changed, would it? If many American doctors attended Cuban med schools, that is a fact that defies time. That “”many”” is unchangeable whether yesterday, today or tomorrow.
Your only hope is to challenge the meaning of Many. Wanna try?
So unless you can undermine my case, perhaps, out of decency and honesty, I say leave it to stand, eh?
Po – I did check out your statement on Cuban doctors coming to the US and found that darn few of them become US doctors. Many stay in the medical field as nurses, medical asst., etc. Some become auto mechanics. Only a couple become doctors.
Paul, do you have a source?
Po – a little research will find it for you.
Po – I could have, but I am multi-tasking. I am watching a documentary on the Irish Easter Rebellion.
Many disproved but schools in Cuba Yes both sides of the story and how to do the Caribbean schools they are prolific that’s for surel! Google Medcal Schools Caribbean for a wikpedia listing.
On with the facts.
man·y
ˈmenē/
determiner, pronoun, & adjective
determiner: many; pronoun: many; adjective: many; comparative adjective: more; superlative adjective: most
1.
a large number of.
“many people agreed with her”
synonyms: numerous, a great/good deal of, a lot of, plenty of, countless, innumerable, scores of, crowds of, droves of, an army of, a horde of, a multitude of, a multiplicity of, multitudinous, multiple, untold; More
several, various, sundry, diverse, assorted, multifarious;
copious, abundant, profuse, an abundance of, a profusion of;
informallots of, umpteen, loads of, masses of, stacks of, scads of, heaps of, piles of, bags of, tons of, oodles of, dozens of, hundreds of, thousands of, millions of, billions of, zillions of, gazillions of, bajillions of, a slew of, a boatload of, more —— than one can shake a stick at;
literarymyriad, divers
“many animals were killed”
antonyms: few
noun
plural noun: many
1.
the majority of people.
“music for the many”
synonyms: people, common people, masses, multitude, populace, public, rank and file, proletariat, mob; More
On the other end of the more likely scale is few meaning two or three and several meaning four to seven.
I would not believe ‘many.’
While most countries in the Caribbean have medical training Cuba leads the pack with 14 producing MD’s A US Citizen would have to go via Mexico or Canada and if later producing a Cuban MD Certificate – like any other country- would have to Board Certify in the USA probably taking other courses . Not unusual.BUT a that point a visit from some US LEA would be expected. Far easier to attend one of the other schools such as Trinidad oor where the diving was great. Check for those who instruct in English. I have friends who were medics in the Army who did exactly that then returned and applied for US medical school and fouond it far easier being accepted.
Michael…
– about 50% of graduates from foreign med. schools do not make it through their resident program, or internship, in tbe U.S.
94% of med. students from U.S. university complete their residency.
Paul Schulte…
I think there has been an “embargo exception” for U.S. students to enroll on Cuban med schools, since c. 2001.
As far as I can tell, there may currently be about 200 U.S. students in their med schools, out of about 20,000 total enrollment.
Given that there are c
750,000 MDs in America, I wouldn’t say that “many U.S. doctors actually trained in Cuba”.
A classmate in college could not get accepted to a U.S. med school, so he got his M.D. in the Phillipines.
There are American graduates of foteign med schools practising in the U.S.— most of them could not make the grade for acceptance to an American med school.
And a very tiny percentage were “Cuban-trained.
“”ELAM’s six-year program includes more than 10,000 students from more than 120 countries, according to MEDICC, a non-profit organization that works to facilitate cooperation in medical education between the U.S., Cuba and other countries. As of 2014, ELAM had graduated a total of 23,000 students from 83 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas since its first class finished in 2005. American graduates — as of 2014 there were more than 100, along with about 100 current students from the U.S. — are “overwhelmingly young people of color from low-income families, over half women,” according to MEDICC.””http://mashable.com/2015/06/11/cuba-medical-schools/#HE2330Dd5kq3
So, Tom, what constitutes many?
Po.
Cuban,medical schools are now avcepting 10 U.S. students per year.
-since you ate the one who claimed that many American doctors are Cuban trained, you already have YOUR definintion of “many”.
So we good then, tom, since we share the idea of what constitutes many.
Nice try, Po.
Certainly not 10,000 from 120 countries. But as compared to the other medical schools in Cuba (14 last I looked an hour or so ago it might qualify as many of the students studying Medicine in Cuba if the total studying in the other schools came to say 1,000. But it’s a somewhat flexible term with in it’s own realm.No moe than that. What was the total period of time – how many years did it take to produce those 10,000 graduates?
Zap!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsnXeQDqOOg
https://www.aei.org/publication/interesting-fact-of-the-day-cuban-slaves-in-1842-ate-better-than-cubans-today-under-castros-food-rationing-system/
In early September 1963, Castro delivered a speech at the Brazilian embassy.
He accused the Kennedy administration of plotting to kill him…those CIA plots were not publically known in America…and said that “they themselves will not be safe” since he was the target of U.S. plots.
10 weeks later JFK was assassinated. The timing of these events, Lee Harvey Oswald’s support for Castro, and his attempt to defect to Cuba raise some interesting questions.
These facts are not “proof” of anything, but conspiracy theorists could probably build a more solid case around these facts than “the
CIA/ the mob/ LBJ/ Cuban exiles, etc. killed JFK theories”.
Almost all conspiracy theories I’ve seen involve nefarious domestic forces, and if I thought that Oswald was part of a conspiracy (I don’t), I’d look at the possibilty of foreign actor(s).
No, they don’t raise interesting questions. The subject’s been done to death.
Not THAT subject…..virtually every assassination conspiracy theory involves CIA/ the mob/LBJ etc.
They almost all “lead inward” to various domestic plots, and eliminate any possibilty of foreign involvement.
Virtually every assassination conspiracy ‘theory’ is the issue of the imagination of it’s purveyors. You have a scatter of conspiracy pushers like Josiah Thompson who reason inductively. Thompson has never, to my knowledge, named any posited perpetrators. He’s kept his focus on what can be gleaned from forensic evidence and witness testimony which suggests some sort of co-operation between parties. (My wager is he’s dead wrong, but he is sensible).
A Secret Service agent who investigated the assassination had a book out a few years ago and addressed you’re point in interviews: it is very difficult to credit the idea that a foreign intelligence service would hire Lee Harvey Oswald, an erratic and incompetent human being who’d failed at everything he’d ever done.
Stepon….
-I said in my 10:16 AM comment that I didn’t believe Oswald was part of a conspiracy.
My point (again) is that one can “build a conspiracy theory” around Cuba/ Castro just as easily as “building a conspiracy theory” around domestic ( CIA, etc.) forces.
Yet virtually no JFK assassination theories put forward involve allegations against a foreign government.
For whatever reason, there is “a need” to blame Americans, or American agencies.
1. Well let’s look at the possibilities and probabilities Motive above all
LBJ gains Presidency as a major crony capitalist and deal maker providing certain legal tax evasions or circumventing certain standards he was beyond ‘par excellence’. One might all him. Papa Patronage. He would shaft anyone for votes above all else. For example the voters of Texas on the Civil Rights Bill knowing he would get a huge increase in the Black votes. especially since Eisenhower had cleared the way with Federal troops.
Even then he had a ‘sound’ reason to keep his homies happy. planning to send a ton of federal money to Texas at the expense of other States. The bases at Mobile Bay for example when Alabama voted against him. Even so he had to win over a majority of the Republican Minority to make up for his loss of the majority of the Democrat Majority in Congress.
Sending the Turner Joy and the Maddox across the line by redefining the line for International waters was right out of the FDR playbook and it not only got him a ton of money to spend on the military industry contracts it got him back in the fold with Texas voters.
He saw all that coming and virtually no chance of making President on his own.
2. Members of the Government within the United States. Lots of axes to grind and especially in the Kennedy faction. Contacts with various other possibilities via many routes not the least of which was JFK’s father who made his pile as a rum runner during Prohibition. As long as the rum was good whiskey. Playing the nouveau riche role to the hilt the Kennedy’s cold shouldered LBJ.
To them he was avote getting machine and nothing else. CIA possibly with certain factions. Military? More doubtful but possible. MAny were from the WWII/Korea era and supported MCarthy. Not only that the military had money making contacts with the industrial sector.
Kennedy had, in fact, ordered the advisers and others out of South Vietnam. and the military itself wads divided. Special Forces for example was not the ‘ kewl’ thing to d2ndo back then and Kennedy stopped their being absorbed into the 82nd, marginalized the 82nd by visiting Bragg and honoring the SF troops , promoting their commander to General and authorized the berets. Lots of pssibilities in that direction and I didn’t mention politicians..
3. Organized industry. Really just a part, in large part of the poltiical/commercial/labor leaders triumverate.
4. Organized Crime. Except for the deal on getting hired to hit Castro the least likely unless something had directly affected their incomes. Along with members of the military, civil government and industry
5. Given opportunity and motive I put the list in order of most likely but a combination was also possible.
Motives you ay recall are of limited kinds. Money, Sex, Power, Revenge, and Patriotism. That’s the list.
I have not factual reason to put LBJ on top beyond that. I just despised the son of a bitch. i wonder if the missing gold from Fort Knox had anything to do with a buy out and….
I forgot one other possibility . A Foreign Nation.
The embarassment of the Cuban Blockade when JFK backed them down with revenge motive OR it could have involved a change of bullion. No evidence but possibilities.
Oswald? Might very well have been a patsy. And I’d look close at the timing and route selection for parade through the Dealy Plaza area. As was done. Zapruder film. etc yes but the magic bullets? and the unlikely shooting by Oswald? The willingness of the Warren Commission to ignore witnesses and evidence?
By the way….who sat in for hiim in the court while he was doing the Commission work? No one. It was an eight Judge court was it not?
Castro? More likely Raul and Che who was hustled out of the country not to long after. Raul survived. Ernesto died in Bolivia as a failure and one result awas the move from rural guerrilla warfare to Urban guerrilla warfare in Peoples Revolutions. Cycle of Repression Strategy in Mini Manual for Urban Guerrilla by Carlos Marighella. a Brazilian. Used their and in Uruguay. It’s only been used in one place by one group successfully. USA and it wasn’t Jihadis who became the ultimate terrorists but both won that particular war.
No need for conspiracy whackos. Common sense, ability to think,kobjective reasoning, and an honest investigation is enough. But as to the answer. I don’t think I’m slated to delay the third rule of life for that long.
The three rules or facts of life? Born, lives, dies. only one of each per customer.
Aren’t you even a little bit embarrassed by your lack of knowledge? HARVEY Oswald was on the CIA payroll. Silly goose.
He was not on the CIA payroll.
Prove it? Fact is you can’t. It’s like being asked when did you stop beating your wife. The only way is to answer. Never been married.
No matter what form a government takes or what its ideology, it seems to commit heinous acts of police brutality and oppression. Some governments only do this to their own citizens. Others do it around the world.
Montesqueiu noted that Despots NEVER seize power it is handed to them. If you are the recipient of that which you mentioned it’s caused by the same hand that punched the ballot or didn’t bother to bote.
Litltle known study by Cato Institute. They police/LEA acts of misconduct represented one that’s 1 percent to 1.5% of the total police community across all sectors of criminal conduct – Nation wide. They also found that criminal conduct across the nation was also 1 to 1. 5% of the nations population. That study concluded in 2008 if memory serves when the required since 1994 police reporting system finally got into gear. Clinton signed and did nothing Neither did Bush II. Someone started it up fnally and the problem was. We have not funds to do all these reports.
CATO Institute
http://www.policemisconduct.net/arguing-the-case-for-police-accountability-part-1/
Arguing The Case For Police Accountability – Part 1
May 9, 2010 @ 4:56 PM by David Packman
cut I didn’t cut the meat of it but you should go look it up yourself…..the best part is in the last half
The argument of small percentages
I’ve seen people point to one of our daily reviews of police
misconduct reports and say, “Look, 28 cases in one day! That’s a problem!” to which an antagonist will say “No it’s not, 28 officers is a very small number of the 800,000 police officers in the US!”
Well, they are right, 28 out of 800,000 is a small percentage and nowhere near a majority of the police population in the US. In fact, our statistics indicate that just under 1000 per 100,000 police officers per year are involved in credible reports of police misconduct. Yes, that translates to under 1% of all police officers.
cut
So, what am I talking about?
Making a point that police misconduct is a problem worth study is a matter of comparing the rates of police misconduct with the rate of crime in the US.
Why?
Because, as a percentage of population, criminal activity represents a relatively equally small percentage of the overall population in the US as does the rate of police misconduct… so if you believe that crime is a problem in the US worthy of trillions in tax fund expenditure, then surely police misconduct is worthy of study if it represents an equally large percentage of the police population.
How So? Well, here’s some numbers taken from the 2008 UCR statistics and 12-months worth of statistics taken from the NPMSRP between April 2009 – March 2010 (a combination of our 2009 annual statistics and our Q1 2010 quarterly statistics):
As you can see, when we examine violent crime statistics, law enforcement officers appear to be involved in violent crime in a comparable rate with the general population. 432 officers out of every 100,000 compared to 454.5 people out of every 100,000. So, roughly 0.43% vs 0.45%.
Both seem like small numbers, don’t they? Yet most people would probably tell you that they are worried about the rate of violent crimes… but not police misconduct even though both occur at similar rates statistically.
If you’re wondering about the homicide rates, “Homicide Charged” compares the number of alleged homicides in general population with the number of police officers actually charged with homicide or murder. The “Homicide” number compares the same general population statistic with the number of officers involved in questionable non-vehicular homicide deaths including deaths in custody as a result of excessive force that were not charged as homicides.
The statistic for sexual assaults is the stunner for us though. 29.3 per 100,000 in the general population vs 73.3 per 100,000 for law enforcement officers. That would seem to catch people’s attention as a problem, but apparently it doesn’t.
So, you see, it’s all a matter of context. Sure, .073% is a small percentage of the population of police officers in the US, but that number represents 522 officers per year and is a larger, by over 2x, ratio of the population of police than are the number of alleged sexual assailants in the US general population at .029%.
So, the next time you find yourself challenged by a law enforcement officer who says that police misconduct isn’t a problem because it only represents a small percentage of the number of police officers in the US. Remember that it really does represent a small percentage but so does crime in the general population but that doesn’t stop people from worrying so much about it that they’ll spend a majority of their tax dollars to fight it.
That’s it for this time, if you have questions about how to argue the case for improving police accountability and transparency, please let us know and maybe your question will appear in a future article.
The site contains the charts needed. They wouldn’t copy
That ends the Cato section
this part is another related subject area that might prove useful
Wikpedia time to find 37 seconds.
We researched this on another site so look down half way for the CATO report and URL information.
Listed below are lists of people killed by law enforcement in the United States, whether in the line of duty or not, and regardless of reason or method. Inclusion in the lists implies neither wrongdoing nor justification on the part of the person killed or the officer involved. The listing merely documents the occurrence of a death.
These lists are incomplete. Although Congress instructed the Attorney General in 1994 to compile and publish annual statistics on police use of excessive force, this was never carried out, and the FBI does not collect these data either.
[1] The annual average number of justifiable homicides alone was previously estimated to be near 400.
[2] Updated estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics released in 2015 estimate the number to be around 930 per year, or 1240 if assuming that nonreporting local agencies kill people at the same rate as reporting agencies.
The Wikpedia article is backed up sufficiently to have merit.
But there are some serious questions never asked nor answered.
What happened to the Attorney General in 1994 who refused to carry out the instructions of Congress presumably signed in to law by —wait for it— Bubba himself. Well for one thing she was busy gassing and burning children in Waco Texas. Which if you haven’t noticed is why I dubbed her Jackboot Janet Von Flamethrower Reno.
But that law was in effect for six years of the Clinton Presidency who having laid off a huge number of federal law enforcement in units such as the Border Patrol then back tracked with the 100,000 Cops Project. Which did lower crime by 8% or so in some very heavily targeted areas but also had two major flaws. It only paid for the first year leaving the local area to continue or not continue through higher taxes. Reportedly a good deal of the 100,000 figure was used to replace previously laid off federal agents I recall specifically Border Patrol.
To find the missing information needed to support the original post took about 40 minutes. go look at it if for nothing else thatn the graph which didn’t allow copying very well. But here is where the real credibility lies and has lain since 2010.
Clinton Admininstration failed to provide the required reporting for six years too busy gassing and burning children.
Bush Administation for eight years so ditto the Republican half.
Obeyme Administration for it’s entire time in office. too busy heisting FIFA, running guns, and too busy continuing to set up the Schutz Staffel national police.
During all of those years the federal government had the perfect big stick and that was aid to local local enforcement money. No report no check.
The commentary I wrote myself early this year.
Castro received a warm reception on America after he overthrew Battista.
He was intially coy about his intentions and allegiances, and I think he waited about a year to announce that he was in the Soviet camp.
He didn’t have much luck exporting Communism to other Latin American countries.
I don’t think Castro was “forced to choose” aligning with either superpower…he might have had more of an influence encouraging and leading non-aligned countries in the region.
Too bad he died before he was able to deliver on his promise for free elections ( nearly 58 years ago).
Should be “warm reception IN America”
Surely economic freedom, freedom of speech, and of the press, and others, are not worth sacrificing in exchange for modest gains in education, health care. May the West not forget the tragic lessons of the failures of Castro, and other authoritarians, who have come and gone, brutal Ozymandiases, that fade from memory with the passage of time.
Castro will be lionized by the MSM and it appears the Pope would like to canonize this atheist, murderous, thug. And whenever I hear about the alleged literacy and health accomplishments by this dictator, I reply that “Mussolini had the trains run on time.” Two dictators @ both ends of the political spectrum.
Mussolini was also a much better dresser.
mespo – the nazis and fascists were much better dressed than the communists.
Paul:
That’s why they were always in the movies. Somehow Related Aside: Hacksaw Ridge is just fabulous. Got a native-born Virginia, too.
LOL! And his speeches weren’t 6 hours long.
Plus he knew how to mug a striking pose unlike our island dwelling friend:
http://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-mussolini
OMG. Looking @ the classic pose of IL Duce, I realize the great George C. Scott could have played him. Then Scott would have played the man who ruthlessly ruled Italy, and the man who took it back.
Ed Harris.
Roscoe, Yes. Ed Harris looks the part and is a superb actor.
Nick…
I think George C. Scott DID play Mussolini….a c.1980s? movie..
I’ll have to check.
Scott was a much better Patton and here’s my favorite scene that might surprise some: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/1035801/Patton-Movie-Clip-You-Know-Who-The-Poet-Was-.html
Now, why would I be surprised about this being your favorite clip? I’ve always seen the mespo that loves a clip like that. I saw it in the great posts you would make on weekends. It’s so good to see him return. And, that clip reminds me of the great casting in this movie. Karl Malden was perfect as Omar Bradley.
One of my uncles served under Patton. He hated him. My uncle spoke Italian which came in handy. Patton had many northeast Italians in the 7th Army.
Nick:
I had an uncle to who served under Patton, too. He hated him but said he was the best leader he ever saw foreign or domestic. That line about “Yeah Old Blood and Guts: his guts; our blood” was accurate. There were lots of Americans of Italian descent in the Seventh Army. BTW, look how much a young Patton looks like Congressman Try Gowdy (R – S.C.) one of my favorites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton#/media/File:George_S._Patton_1919.jpg
As for your complimentary comments on me, it’s still the same ol’ me calling it the way I see it albeit with less time to do it. You know my liberalism is based mostly on free speech and any infringement of that puts me in the other camp. And I can’t tolerate a grifter. My sometimes left-wing sensibilities end precisely at the water’s edge. This election was pure proof of all those concepts.
Is that story about the Pope “fake news”?
Allow me to summarize the brilliant displays of knowledge and wisdom of Saint Nick Spaghetti:
The only good dictator that the Bushes & fellow travelers admired was one Adolph Hitler.
Nice. You have suceeded in stating the obvious. Bush believed in Government over Citizens. Therefore Bush was/is a leftist. Leftists include many examples Adolf Hitler of National SOCIALISM was one. Stalin and Lenin etc of International SOCIALISM was another. FDR and LBJ and Obama are three more. Nothing new there. Of those leftists mentioned how many were fascist in nature and to what degree?
Stripped of PC or Political Crap’s Fictionary one could cite a number of successes, almost successes, failures and …wait for it…DRACONIAN failures in the application of left wing socialism but they all have things in common. Government over Citizens for one and mistaking a political control system for a viable economic system.
Actually the National Socialists tried but failed to correct that which put them ahead of the International Socialists. Little to choose between those two leftist extremes. More recently Sweden tried a full blown version and now proudly announce to the world they are a market capitalist country with a social conscience but refute being called Socialist.
But you did state the obvious. Under Bush I and Clinton the amount of Police Agencies at the federal level blossomed and grew exponentially. Under Bush II and Obama they became the source of a single Protective Echelon and went from DOHS to DHS. Under the Obama regime the acceptability to some of an Autocracy became acceptable. Toi Some not All. thus the counter revolution using ballots not bullets.
Question? Which President and which Political Party and poltical philosophy — A Constitutional Republic using delegates ( The indirect vote system based on a foundation of self governing direct vote democratic principles) OR a Socialist Autocracy — is more prone to become DIS for Directorate of Internal Security? State Why. or why not.
Protective Echelon by the way is from the German for SchutzStaffel.
Having stated the obvious does it matter at this point who or which?
Is there any difference other than the degree of autocracy?
i should think not since in our own experience the left seems fully satisfied with the latter to the point o violence when their system is refused. Kind of fits the non stop war mongering don’t you think?
Meanwhile a Constitutionally based Republic using a democratic foundation as the center is not satisfied.
We’ll call them Citzens Over Government faction versus the Government over Citizens faction of the left and since this is still a Constiutional Republic obviously the Constitutionis the Center…..not the center of the left.
And we’ll call the left’s system a one party with two faces operation versus the centers system as a two or more party system. Government Party dicating versus freedom of choice.
1913 to pick a practical start point to 2016 has provided enough testing or 1898 if you wish.
Obviously having placed, both the Bush Presidents in the right milieu the rest should obviously make sense.
Is there any diffence at this point betwen a Bush or a Clinton? Or is it (KISS principle) boxer or briefs?
Wrong as usual with PC fictionary defintiions. Communism and Nazi-ism are joined at the hip brothers and sisters. There are only two differences. besides their names of National and International Socialism. Communists maintain no one owns anything. the Nazis and Fascist of National Socialism allowed personal owners hip but retained fascist control and used something called Fascist or State Economics. if the owner didn’t deliver.
He or she got to keep the suit of clothes use for the funeral. The left right urban myth is an invention of the left to fill a spot they left empty (in all but the USA) the ‘divine right of Kings. The terms wrere invented by the French Assembly in the late 1700’s when the created a leadership class for a classless society. but retained the term Left. It all has to do with where they sat at that first meeting in Paris. Later it served a useful purpose when the Italians and Germans broke with International Socialism and formed the National Socialist Party.
Both of them together represent the Extreme Left. followed closely by Progressivism and the milder forms of socialism. The extremists of the right would be hermits and anarchists those who shy away from or want the very notion of government abolished. Left wing wants it made Supreme over all people. In the history of the US and it’s development of the proposition of self government that spot was referred to as the source of ultimate power the responsible voting citizen.and the center is of course the Constitution.
The political spectrum you refer to is a very bad ruse that transferred to the USA in 1898 with the arrival of the (pick one of the following – progressives, darwinists, materialists, liberals, democrats, socialists etc.
You should have followed Frank Zappa’s advice and gone to the library instead of to college. Although that and Democrat party functions are where I went when following the other half of Zappa’s dictum.
.
One dictator leaves and another is being cultured by his own thugs. Great article from that fascist, left wing, snowflake, ???? rag, the New York Times, that has been around since way before Trump was born and will still be here after his sorry a** is dead and buried.
“Donald Trump schlepped across town on Tuesday to meet with the publisher of The New York Times and some editors, columnists and reporters at the paper.
As The Times reported, Trump actually seemed to soften some of his positions:
He seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t seek to prosecute Hillary Clinton. But he should never have said that he was going to do that in the first place.
He seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t encourage the military to use torture. But he should never have said that he would do that in the first place.
He said that he would have an “open mind” on climate change. But that should always have been his position.
You don’t get a pat on the back for ratcheting down from rabid after exploiting that very radicalism to your advantage. Unrepentant opportunism belies a staggering lack of character and caring that can’t simply be vanquished from memory. You did real harm to this country and many of its citizens, and I will never — never — forget that.
As I read the transcript and then listened to the audio, the slime factor was overwhelming.
After a campaign of bashing The Times relentlessly, in the face of the actual journalists, he tempered his whining with flattery.
At one point he said:
“I just appreciate the meeting and I have great respect for The New York Times. Tremendous respect. It’s very special. Always has been very special.”
He ended the meeting by saying:
“I will say, The Times is, it’s a great, great American jewel. A world jewel. And I hope we can all get along well.”
I will say proudly and happily that I was not present at this meeting. The very idea of sitting across the table from a demagogue who preyed on racial, ethnic and religious hostilities and treating him with decorum and social grace fills me with disgust, to the point of overflowing. Let me tell you here where I stand on your “I hope we can all get along” plea: Never.
You are an aberration and abomination who is willing to do and say anything — no matter whom it aligns you with and whom it hurts — to satisfy your ambitions.
I don’t believe you care much at all about this country or your party or the American people. I believe that the only thing you care about is self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. Your strongest allegiance is to your own cupidity.
I also believe that much of your campaign was an act of psychological projection, as we are now learning that many of the things you slammed Clinton for are things of which you may actually be guilty.
You slammed Clinton for destroying emails, then Newsweek reported last month that your companies “destroyed emails in defiance of court orders.” You slammed Clinton and the Clinton Foundation for paid speeches and conflicts of interest, then it turned out that, as BuzzFeed reported, the Trump Foundation received a $150,000 donation in exchange for your giving a 2015 speech made by video to a conference in Ukraine. You slammed Clinton about conflicts of interest while she was secretary of state, and now your possible conflicts of interest are popping up like mushrooms in a marsh.
You are a fraud and a charlatan. Yes, you will be president, but you will not get any breaks just because one branch of your forked tongue is silver.
I am not easily duped by dopes.
I have not only an ethical and professional duty to call out how obscene your very existence is at the top of American government; I have a moral obligation to do so.
I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, but rather to speak up for truth and honor and inclusion. This isn’t just about you, but also about the moral compass of those who see you for who and what you are, and know the darkness you herald is only held at bay by the lights of truth.
It’s not that I don’t believe that people can change and grow. They can. But real growth comes from the accepting of responsibility and repenting of culpability. Expedient reversal isn’t growth; it’s gross.
So let me say this on Thanksgiving: I’m thankful to have this platform because as long as there are ink and pixels, you will be the focus of my withering gaze.
I’m thankful that I have the endurance and can assume a posture that will never allow what you represent to ever be seen as everyday and ordinary.
No, Mr. Trump, we will not all just get along. For as long as a threat to the state is the head of state, all citizens of good faith and national fidelity — and certainly this columnist — have an absolute obligation to meet you and your agenda with resistance at every turn.
I know this in my bones, and for that I am thankful.”
Allow me to break down what the Canadian said in his trademarked polemic fashion, “Trump is stupid and dangerous.” You can now save some of your finite and precious time. You’re welcome.
Trump lacked an edit button, but he was never anti-Semitic or racist. The Progressive ad hominem machine just geared up and ascribed evil tendencies against anyone non-Progressive, and then blamed the resulting hysteria on Trump. Since many of us have been called evil names for merely criticizing Obamacare or taking other conservative positions, it’s hard to take the cry of wolf too seriously when it’s been so overused.
Many of us fiscal conservatives have viewed Trump as a longtime Democrat who only recently found the Republican Party. He has a history of negotiating, and leaning Left. Realistically, he’s actually far less threatening to the Left than many of the Republican candidates in the Primary, and more likely to accommodate, negotiate, and appease the Left. I found him irritating in his campaign, in the fact that he was his own worst enemy. He’d have a wonderful week, and then his thumbs would get busy on Twitter. His best move was hiring Kellyanne Conway, who sweetly convinced him to lay off social media for a while at the end. As I’ve explained to some of my family who supported him from the beginning, Trump thought it was OK to insult women because he insulted men in a similar fashion, too. He thought it was OK to spaz out mocking that reporter because he spazzes out mocking himself and many other people. But women and men are not, in fact, completely equal in all ways. Women are absolutely destroyed, from without and within, over our youth and beauty, which realistically has a 10 year shelf life at prime levels. It’s quite common for 65 year old well kept men to be described as sexy and powerful, but equally rare for a 65 year old woman to be. Too much of our worth is tied to youth. We’re valued as we age, but we don’t feel as attractive. So it’s not the same when you insult a woman’s appearance as a man’s. And sure he spazzes out whenever he mocks his own stupid decisions or others, but even though that’s equal, it’s like saying you made a “retarded” mistake. Those kinds of jokes have fallen out of vogue and are no longer viewed as funny, but more in the realm of “go sit on an egg and rotate.” It’s nice that he crusades against PC, and I applaud him for that, but he’s going to suffer some slings of arrows when he mocks polite custom as well as correctness.
And that’s what I always viewed him as, mocking our inhibitions, but not an existential threat planning to murder everyone. And he was the only one in the ring with the slightest chance of repealing Obamacare, shrinking government, focusing on jobs, and valuing the middle class instead of ascribing racist tendencies to them. No other contender was even considering it. Sure, he’s got a long Democratic history, and we all expected him to negotiate and make peace with the Democrats, but it was the only chance we had in this election. So I understand why anyone would vote for him, and not be a racist, bigot, anti-Semite, etc. I have to say, though, that if a third party can’t make it with these two as the final Duopoly candidates, they never will under our current system.
Also, how unfortunate that those rumors went around that the first sitting President in history with a Jewish first family and a great relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu, was secretly an anti-Semite. Because I seriously doubt the minority of racists and anti-Semites would have liked him if the media had focused on his Jewish connections. Oops. And when the anti-Semites actually believe those rumors and salute him, they blame the victim of all the gossip, Trump. Hopefully they won’t have damaged our relationship with Israel.
Karen
Whatever Trump wasn’t directly he was willingly indirectly guilty of. Trump, by association, knowingly, and as an obvious strategy partnered with some of the most vile and disgusting aspects of America, which were loosely connected to less vile and disgusting aspects which were connected to that mysterious white uneducated and angry big bunch. The lawyer speak on this blog pointing out the careful wording and explaining away still doesn’t whitewash Trump for what he is, capable of whatever suits him. Trump made his fortunes from the ultra rich who are above the law and he will be dealing with these pals for the benefit of the ultra rich, above the law. If ever there was a con game this is it.
Don’t mention it, Nicks
Are you the REAL Isaacbaconsandwich??? Because sometimes your name is in blue letters, and other times it is in black letters. I am asking because I don’t want to call the wrong one an idiot.
Thank you for your help in this matter!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I’ll wager in meatworld that Isaac reminds people of David Helfgott.
Seriously IBK, Trump is just a standard role model for The President has his agenda and fights to implement his instead of the agenda being handed to him which is what we have seen since W came into office.
Neither W or O lead in any way that was a conclusive statement about what they believed in. Standard DC operating procedure which makes Wall St. happy. Trump is the new Reagan, not so much in personal character but in it’s going to be my way come hell or high water , all you educated haters be damned,which is what 48% of the electorate apparently wants.
HRC was the epitome of the system runs autonomously with a figure head to show some kind of phantom validity.
All the other attributes you have a problem with are systematic my friend. hope you can get over your idealistic pipe dreams of what really goes on in the district.
One cannot compare Bush and Obama. Bush was given carte blanche; first by virtue of inheriting a budget surplus, a healthy economy due to the tech explosion, lots of money moving around due to the easy mortgages and corruption within the insurance industry, and some very astute handlers in Cheney, Rumsfeld, and his Dad. However Bush was a joke and embarrassment and would not have made it to a second term if it were not for 9/11. 9/11 galvanized the country to a degree that Mickey Mouse could have run it. Mickey would have done a far better job. The combination of decades of ignoring the manufacturing/middle class/ high income base, combined with a mortgage fiasco that spiraled out of control, and outright incompetence on the Bush team created a mess that Obama inherited. Whatever Obama’s faults the lion’s share of the blame for just about everything that irks the Americans who are irked is on the traitorous Republican Congress and then Senate. The ultimate objective of the traitorous Republicans was to ruin Obama in order to force the demand for a change with the hope that America was stupid enough to vote in a Republican. Trump came in out of right right field upon seeing this nonsense and Clinton facilitated his election by lowering herself to his level, thus frustrating the voters even more, and not addressing the basic TV dinner crowd.
As for Wall Street, that is with us for some time to come. Until Americans take a cue from countries such as Canada that regulate the monetary influence corporations, unions, and the rich can have on their democracy, America will remain the shameful oligarchy that it is. Of course, this wolf might not eat any sheep. But then there’s this bridge for sale in Brooklyn, brokered by Trump, and if Nick drops out, you can buy it.
Again, a time saver for all you good folks. The Canadian just said, America is stupid and Canada is smart. That we should be like Canada. You’re all welcome for the service.
IKB-
You are a gifted and talented writer.
Well said!
Great post Issac. So very true.
Former Hearst style newspaper famous for yellow journalism and reporters who make up stories for listeners who like fairy tails. Not surpassed by Huffington, Guardian, Reason, and the like.
Only yo be replaced by another his brother.
His brother has been the President of Cuba for several years. It’s a reasonable inference that Fidel Castro has been non compos mentis for some time. As for Raul Castro, in a country with decent public health, a man his age has a life expectancy of about 5 years and a satisfactory chance of descending into senility in that time.
China has instituted a rotation in office scheme and mandatory retirement for its cabinet ministers and party secretariat, so the top echelon is occupied by men (and some women) in late middle age and early old age. Not so in Cuba, whose institutions are top heavy with people about 85 years old.
You’ll have some sort of generation shift in the next half-dozen years in Cuba, because you can cheat the actuarial tables for only so long.
Fidel suffered from the disease that all those who acquire un-checked power contract regardless of their good intention – hubris.
He never had any good intentions.