The beginning of the end for Fidel?

[Ned]

Here is more on Jeb's criticism of his brother.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=2&u=/ap/20030801/ap_on_re_us/cubans_bush_4

[Ned]

Here's a story on the bleakness of life in Castro's socialist paradise which the communist party blames solely on the US embargo.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=638&e=6&u=/nm/20030729/en_nm/cuba_film_dc_5

[Master Zen]

Originally posted by Ned
Just as a personal comment, I find it very difficult to stay a member of this forum. The leftist bullcraps is so deep here that it is really depressing.

Funny, I think the same of the right wingers.

[Lancer]

"Just as a personal comment, I find it very difficult to stay a member of this forum. The leftist bullcraps is so deep here that it is really depressing."

What I find odd is that this is the case and that this is a Civ forum. These people should be the ones versed in history, competition... Instead they're the type that suckle at the *** of government, drinking the milk of those that earned it...or support such stuff.

Though they are in denial of course, behind all sorts of high sounding excuses. So... you get places like California where the paycheck sucking vampires have chased out the business, and their last hope is a republican action hero...

I have a friend that has an ex-wife who gets $1700 a month from California because they decided she's crazy. I've never met her, maybe she is. Anyway, she's moved down to Brazil where her $1700 is a kings ransom, and is building herself a mansion. Well, is she crazy or are the Cali liberals who spend other peoples money in this fashion?

It's a rhetorical question of course.

That said I don't find it "really depressing" as you do Ned. With the nations conservative shift, it's more humorous than depressing. Also, better here than out in the street...

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Lancer
"Just as a personal comment, I find it very difficult to stay a member of this forum. The leftist bullcraps is so deep here that it is really depressing."

What I find odd is that this is the case and that this is a Civ forum. These people should be the ones versed in history, competition... Instead they're the type that suckle at the *** of government, drinking the milk of those that earned it...or support such stuff.

Are you for real? Most of the lefties on this forum are quite moderate (excluding myself and the other members of the CPA). The problem is you ultra-right Americans and Boddingtons. You are so out of touch with the rest of the world, that you seem to think that people who support public libraries are crypto-Stalinists.

Though they are in denial of course, behind all sorts of high sounding excuses. So... you get places like California where the paycheck sucking vampires have chased out the business, and their last hope is a republican action hero...

Who'll get elected and then be completely unprepared to deal with the crisis as it stands. It boggles the mind that anyone, let alone a half-witted illiterate womanising Austrian, would be interested in taking on the job.

I have a friend that has an ex-wife who gets $1700 a month from California because they decided she's crazy. I've never met her, maybe she is.

Probably, if she wants to live in Brazil.

Anyway, she's moved down to Brazil where her $1700 is a kings ransom, and is building herself a mansion. Well, is she crazy or are the Cali liberals who spend other peoples money in this fashion?

So there's a problem with the policy. Isn't agitating for change the best thing to do rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater: i.e. you collect it as long as you stay in the United States.

"Other people's money"? Are you telling me you don't benefit from lowering the number of crazy homeless people roaming the streets?

That said I don't find it "really depressing" as you do Ned. With the nations conservative shift, it's more humorous than depressing. Also, better here than out in the street...

You see, your "nation". No-one else really believes this kind of crap anymore. That's why nobody likes you. Don't blame the left.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ned
Here's a story on the bleakness of life in Castro's socialist paradise which the communist party blames solely on the US embargo.

So you think the embargo by Cuba's historically largest trading partner has no effect. Strange...

[rmsharpe]

Originally posted by Agathon


So you think the embargo by Cuba's historically largest trading partner has no effect. Strange...

Perhaps it was communism, not the embargo, that caused economic problems.

Rhodesia's economy advanced pretty well between 1968-79, despite an international trade and travel embargo.

[GePap]

1700 a month (or 20400 a year) is NOT a kings ransom in Brazil, at least not in any of the cities. Your friend must be getting the house in the Amazon, for that small amount of money.

Rhodesia's economy advanced pretty well between 1968-79, despite an international trade and travel embargo.

Did Apartheid South Africa participate in this embargo? If not, that makes all the difference in the world.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by rmsharpe

Perhaps it was communism, not the embargo, that caused economic problems.

Rhodesia's economy advanced pretty well between 1968-79, despite an international trade and travel embargo.

Cuba's done a pretty good job at providing universal health care to very high standards and one of the world's best education systems (so much so that US pharmaceutical companies were expressing a desire to employ Cuban researchers). Before Fidel, illiterate peasants were living like animals.

[rmsharpe]

Originally posted by GePap

Did Apartheid South Africa participate in this embargo? If not, that makes all the difference in the world.

South Africa was not nearly as powerful as Russia/Eastern Europe was to Cuba.

Originally posted by Agathon
Cuba's done a pretty good job at providing universal health care to very high standards and one of the world's best education systems (so much so that US pharmaceutical companies were expressing a desire to employ Cuban researchers). Before Fidel, illiterate peasants were living like animals.

You don't think the fact that 40 percent of Cuba's GNP was Russian aid had anything to do with these "high standards?"

About literacy - okay, so people now have the physical and mental capabilities to read, but what does Cuba's totalitarian system allow them to read? The state-run newspapers and Castro's speeches. Pretty much makes reading a waste of time.

On health care...does this include the prisons? I mean, something tells me that political prisoners, etc. don't have the best health when it comes to living in communist prisons...

[HershOstropoler]

Originally posted by Ned
Here's a story on the bleakness of life in Castro's socialist paradise which the communist party blames solely on the US embargo.

So lift the embargo and take away Castro's prime excuse.

[Ned]

After reading the description of the life average on average Cuban and Havana, it is hard to imagine that their lives under the Batista could possibly have been any worse. I would suggest that the average Cuban lives in pure misery and is a lot worse off under Castro than at any other timing in Cuban history. I remember reading that the time Castro took over, the Cuban standard of living was the highest in Latin America. Clearly it no longer is. Castro has been an unmitigated disaster for the Cuban people.

[HershOstropoler]

Originally posted by Agathon

It boggles the mind that anyone, let alone a half-witted illiterate womanising Austrian, would be interested in taking on the job.

Hey, he's a yank now. And he's not illiterate, he went to school in old Austria.

[Ned]

HO, how is Arnie's candidacy playing in Austria?

[HershOstropoler]

It's seen with great amusement.