[Plantagenet]

Fidel is Dead.

former-cuban-leader-fidel-castro-dies-at-age-90

It will be interesting to see if the Castro family wants him to receive a Catholic funeral, given the official atheism of the Communist Party.

[Cog]

Good riddance to a POS commie. Miami is celebrating and so am I. This has been the greatest November I can ever remember. Many tears are being shed at CNN, the White House, and of course this board. Obama will no doubt declare a national day of mourning and warm up Air Force One so he can play homage to his hero in Havana.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuban-revolu ... 26537.html

Havana (AFP) - Cuba's historic revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died Friday aged 90, after defying the United States during a half-century of iron-fisted rule and surviving the eclipse of global communism.

One of the world's longest-serving rulers and modern history's most singular characters, Castro defied 11 US administrations and hundreds of assassination attempts.

His younger brother, President Raul Castro, announced the news shortly after midnight (0500 GMT Saturday) but gave no details of the cause of death.

[Ibon]

Fidel is Dead.

former-cuban-leader-fidel-castro-dies-at-age-90

It will be interesting to see if the Castro family wants him to receive a Catholic funeral, given the official atheism of the Communist Party.

The family question Plant is far more complicated and was shared to me by cubans both in Miami and Havana.

Here it is: You are a family in Cuba, communism came and you folded up and went to Miami. You left your home and business assets behind. In Miami you built up a new life and enjoyed the affluence of living in America for 50 years. You left some siblings behind in Cuba. They continued to run the business and live in the same home now owned by the government but they persevered 50 years living in destitution. Most of these siblings left behind were not ideological communists, just folks that didn't have the gene to leap and start a new life.

Now here is the drama. Many of the cubans in Miami still want to reclaim their lost assets, they want to go back and own their lost homes and revive their lost businesses in spite of having spent 50 years living in affluence in Miami building a new life. Their siblings who stayed in Cuba and lived the past 50 years in destitution are not exactly in agreement. In their view they feel entitled to now having these assets go to them once communism opens up since they see themselves as the "loyal" ones who stayed and struggled for 50 years and they should now inherit these businesses without sharing this with their siblings who left.

Fortunately many life Fidel are dead. This problem passes to the offspring. But it is a family drama that will be played out with hundreds of thousands of families in Cuba in the years ahead after communism is eventually abandoned. Fidel's death moves us one step closer to this transition that will not be easy.

[Cog]

Good riddance to a POS communist. Say hello to Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, and Lenin for me.

[Shaved Monkey]

Fidel's death moves us one step closer to this transition that will not be easy.

Fidel is the only guy who successfully faced and navigated his country through PO.
He transitioned his country into the role model of sustainability,that we in the West find hard to swallow but eventually.will have to face.
The modern transition is a short term carrot chasing fantasy that only time will reveal how foolish it is

[ROCKMAN]

"...but gave no details of the cause of death." Perhaps the Trump "revolution" just claimed another victerm. LOL. But seriously given the presidernt-elect's deal making skills Cuba may have just jumped ahead of Canada on the list of the potential 51st US state.

[Tanada]

Merged the two Castro threads, no need for everyone to be repeating themselves.

Here is the thing, President Obama has already gone a long way towards normalizing relations with Cuba and I even read somewhere a claim that the Miami Cuban-American population overwhelmingly voted for President Elect Trump in response.

President Obama now has a rapidly closing window to completely normalize relations because it is highly unlikely President elect Trump would further normalize things in face of the deep opposition of the Miami Cuban-American population.

[Cog]

Mission accomplished.

[sparky]

.
Fidel Castro was a man of action and conviction , he fought for what he believed and magnetized those around him .

in many way he was the last of the great figures of the 20th century ,
certainly he failed where revolutions always fail
how to make the dreams live in a bureaucratic reality , he went the usual way , using compulsion when the dream faded.

he came to be an icon for all the third world countries fighting for their independence from colonial powers

"From its earliest days, the Cuban revolution has been a source of inspiration for all those who value freedom. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of the vicious imperialist and orchestrated campaign to destroy the awesome force of the Cuban revolution. Long live the Cuban Revolution! Long live comrade Fidel Castro!" - Former South African President Nelson Mandela, in a July 1991 speech.

[dissident]

For those that have a hate hard on for Castro: he would never have gained power if the f*cking USA did not support yet another bloody dictator (Batista) and put its money and "values" where its lying mouth is. If you claim to support democracy, then actually do it. Instead we have the US supporting every junta in Latin America and South-East Asia, the head-chopping theocracies in the Middle East, and terrorists in Syria. Then US drones get all hysterical when there is blowback. Grow a brain!

[Cog]

.
Fidel Castro was a man of action and conviction , he fought for what he believed and magnetized those around him .

in many way he was the last of the great figures of the 20th century ,
certainly he failed where revolutions always fail
how to make the dreams live in a bureaucratic reality , he went the usual way , using compulsion when the dream faded.

he came to be an icon for all the third world countries fighting for their independence from colonial powers

"From its earliest days, the Cuban revolution has been a source of inspiration for all those who value freedom. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of the vicious imperialist and orchestrated campaign to destroy the awesome force of the Cuban revolution. Long live the Cuban Revolution! Long live comrade Fidel Castro!" - Former South African President Nelson Mandela, in a July 1991 speech.

The man was a brutal dictator who tortured and killed all the years of his dictatorship. But like Pol Pot, Stalin, and Lenin, you are going to praise him. You are an idiot.

Many, if not most of the people in this country are a victim of our success. Never having known struggle or sacrifice. Never having a family member who was rounded up and put against a wall or persecuted in any way. The dumb asses actually believe that persecution is someone disagreeing with them.

It has led to moral relativity. Where every person, society, and system of government is "meh, pretty much the same, who am I to judge"...

Ironically, this ignorance will lead to REAL persecution and eventually other ugliness.

One good thing about him dying is it will bring out all the people on this board who would love to put you up against a wall and execute you communist style. Sparky would have no problem with this and would relish the opportunity to do so in his embrace of his ideology. Mark them well, they will kill you in a second when you disagree with their glorious Marxist vision.

[Plantagenet]

Now here is the drama. Many of the cubans in Miami still want to reclaim their lost assets, they want to go back and own their lost homes and revive their lost businesses in spite of having spent 50 years living in affluence in Miami building a new life.

The Cuban government created a number of "laws" that allowed them to expropriate private property. This is no different than the Nazi government creating laws to allow them to expropriate the property of jews or communist governments in eastern Europe creating laws so they could expropriate property owned by political dissidents and other people declared non-PC. All across Europe today families are slowly reclaiming houses, land, paintings etc. stolen by the Nazis and the communists. Cuba is no different.

When I was in Cuba I met with a Cuban government official who explained the problem very simply. He said "Everything in Cuba is stolen." I'm sure he was exaggerating---the communists didn't expropriate everything from everybody---but huge amounts of land, housing, businesses, art treasures etc. etc. were stolen by the communists and should now be returned to the rightful owners.

it is a family drama....

In some cases it is a family drama, where part of the family went to Miami while other family members stayed in Cuba. In still other cases the maids or gardeners were left with the house keys, and they wound up living in the nicer homes. But in many other cases the Cuban authorities beat up or even killed the actual owners and forced them out, and then moved politically connected families into the expropriated home. The new "owners" were the same thugs that had beaten the family and pushed them out on the street. Not only did the new "owners have no family relationships to the actual owners, but they were the same thieves who had stolen the property and attacked and expelled the family who actually owned it.

Thats why 20% of the Cuban population fled----the brutality of the Cuban regime forced them to flee. And they weren't all "living n affluence" in Miami either. I though you owned property in Miami? Surely you know there are many many many working class and poor Cuban refugees in Miami.

Its going to be an ungodly mess to straighten out. Hopefully Fidel will have an appropriate place in hell to reside in while the people he robbed try to get justice from whatever state is set up after the communist dictatorship falls.

Cheers!

[onlooker]

I do think the US had a particularly deep animosity for Castro due to the Cuban Missile Crisis and how he dared allow this infiltration by the Soviet Union so close to the US.

[dissident]

I do think the US had a particularly deep animosity for Castro due to the Cuban Missile Crisis and how he dared allow this infiltration by the Soviet Union so close to the US.

Pathological hypocrisy. The US deployed nuclear missiles to Turkey first. Then it crapped its pants with "indignation" when it got to taste some of its own medicine.

[onlooker]

I do think the US had a particularly deep animosity for Castro due to the Cuban Missile Crisis and how he dared allow this infiltration by the Soviet Union so close to the US.

Pathological hypocrisy. The US deployed nuclear missiles to Turkey first. Then it crapped its pants with "indignation" when it got to taste some of its own medicine.

Thanks Dissident. That would make sense never can believe as you said in the Western MSM. Guess my problem has been I live in the US.

[dissident]

I do think the US had a particularly deep animosity for Castro due to the Cuban Missile Crisis and how he dared allow this infiltration by the Soviet Union so close to the US.

Pathological hypocrisy. The US deployed nuclear missiles to Turkey first. Then it crapped its pants with "indignation" when it got to taste some of its own medicine.

Thanks Dissident. That would make sense never can believe as you said in the Western MSM. Guess my problem has been I live in the US.

Sorry if I sound as if my anger is directed at you. What I posted is not exactly news in the US. I remember seeing a PBS Frontline documentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis and they openly covered this fact. But they did waffle to an extent by claiming the Jupiter missiles were "old". I found this to be ludicrous since in 1962 no missile of this type could possibly be old since they did not even exist in 1957.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGM-19_Jupiter

[Cog]

I do think the US had a particularly deep animosity for Castro due to the Cuban Missile Crisis and how he dared allow this infiltration by the Soviet Union so close to the US.

Fidel Castro encouraged Khrushchev to launch a nuclear attack on the USA from Cuba using those missiles that the Soviet Union put there. Thankfully, calmer heads prevailed.

[ROCKMAN]

T - "President Obama now has a rapidly closing window to completely normalize relations because it is highly unlikely President elect Trump would further normalize things in face of the deep opposition of the Miami Cuban-American population." FYI President Obama didn't "normalize" sh*t. LOL. He just signed some executive orders that might not have the half life of a snowball in hell in a couple of months. The embargo etc are still in place. Only the Congress has authority to make big changes.

And did you see the big jubilant street party in Miami today celebrating Castro's death? President Obama's EO's did very little if anything to make the Cuban-Americans happy. Their words...not mine. Between President-elect Trump's ego and Venezuelan's quickly shrinking support for Cuba ole Raul might have to take a big bite from a US sh*t sandwich. LOL.

What the Cuban-Americans seem to want more then anything is free movement between the two countries. Which shouild be a big plus for the Cuban economy. The tricky part for the president-elect will be supporting business development in Cuba that might suck jobs out of the US.

[Sixstrings]

A painting of Cuba's former president Fidel Castro is seen at a factory in Havana, Cuba November 26, 2016.

Cubans fret over life after Castro with Trump next door

Late in his election campaign, Trump sought to reassure the Cuban-American vote in Florida that he was firm in his opposition to the Castros, and pledged that, if elected, he would close down the newly re-opened U.S. embassy in Havana.

Earlier on, in the primaries, he said he thought restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba was fine, but that Obama ought to have cut a better deal.

Having won the presidency, it is hard to know what Trump's approach to Cuba will be.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-castro-trump-idUSKBN13M060

Just kneejerk closing the embassy and stopping the trade and travel again without any cause, wouldn't make sense. And the embassy shouldn't be shut down anyway.

Here's what's ironic -- if Trump embargoes Cuba again, then it's possible Russia may just re-open the old naval base they had.

Trump says Putin is great yet he says Raul Castro is bad.

Do you guys see how transactional politics, in the global sphere, makes no sense?

It makes no sense to say Putin is great, but Raul Castro is bad. And care about "democracy in Cuba" but not east Europe, Ukraine, and the Baltics.

[Cog]

You really have no historical perspective do you Sixstrings?