U.S., Cuba Restore Full Diplomatic Ties After 5 Decades

We had a guy retire a few years ago and he had family in Cuba. his goal was to get some property and overnight sweet corn into the US during our off season.

Barrack Obama is going to prove to be the greatest president of all time.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Two Words: Cohiba Robustos

About damn time!

…for me nothing more needs to be said.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Of course not! We all know that when the government bans things, no one EVER uses those things again right? After all, why continue to ban things we don't like?

Funny how that doesn't apply to guns.

With Mao in the White House no wonder with Cuba.

originally posted by: HUMBLEONE
Barrack Obama is going to prove to be the greatest president of all time.

It already says so in his autobiography entitled, "I'm So Awesdome, And Here's Why"

originally posted by: HUMBLEONE

Barrack Obama is going to prove to be the greatest president of all time.

For who's side is the question.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: musicismagic

Who cares? Is any of that any real reason not to start trading with Cuba?

Of course you don't care, more so what is actually happening in Cuba. The castros have already told Obama's administration, and the U.S. government in general that nothing they do will stop them from continuing to strip Cubans of their rights...

on Sunday the "Ladies in White", among other Cubans, were once again beaten for trying to bring up the subject of human rights for Cubans and the atrocities of the communist regime...and Washington DC is going along with an authoritarian regime...

Ladies in White (100+) Arrested in Cuba

July 14, 2014

HAVANA TIMES — Around a hundred activists of the Ladies in White and other dissidents were temporarily detained Sunday during a protest march in Havana, reported dpa news.

The arrests took place when activists tried to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the tragedy of a boat in which at least 37 people were killed when trying to flee Cuba.

Opposition groups accuse the Cuban security forces of causing the tragedy by intentionally ramming the tugboat in which the victims tried to flee the island. The government maintains that it was an accident.

After celebrating their traditional march Sunday in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar, the Ladies detoured from their usual route to try to pay tribute to the victims of the tragedy, the group’s leader Berta Soler told dpa.

“We were detained along with human rights activists from other organizations when we sought to approach the coast, the sea, to lay flowers for the victims of the tugboat incident,” said Soler. “We were arrested in a violent manner,” she noted.

The leader of the group that began as wives and relatives of political prisoners also accused the government’s security agents of preventing 11 Ladies in White from reaching the march, which usually occurs outside a church after the noon mass.
...

www.havanatimes.org...

Kind of ironic...many of the same people who have always spoken against the U.S.' relations with authoritarian regimes are in favor of the U.S. having relations with...an authoritarian dictatorship...

Heck, most Cubans, except the infiltrated communists that work for the castros, can't go to Cuba like the rest of the western world soon will be able to do... But of course according to some, everyone else who have never lived as a Cuban knows better than Cubans what is happening in the island...

Oh and btw, you can't simply go to Cuba on a cruise line simply for tourism. Only people in one of 12 groups can go there, of course most of the people that will be able to go will be foreign sympathizers to the communist regime who fall in one of 12 categories.

...
The new regulations say travelers to Cuba no longer have to ask permission. Instead, the travelers should look over the rules and see if they qualify for one of 12 categories of travel permitted under a "general license."

Tourism for its own sake remains prohibited, but the policy makes it easier for Americans without family ties to travel to Cuba for a variety of reasons, including so-called“people-to-people” contacts -- a category of permitted travel based on the idea that exchanges between people from the two countries will strengthen Cuban civil society. Americans can also head to the island for religious purposes, to attend conferences or even for public performances or sporting events.

Most American travelers will still have to certify in writing that they have a valid reason to travel to Cuba under existing law and retain records proving that they fell under an exemption for five years, according to the Treasury Department. If the Office of Foreign Assets Control suspects someone of traveling to Cuba in violation of the rules published by the Treasury Department, that person could face an audit and fines.

“OFAC will enforce its sanctions and potential sanctions violations as they always have,” a Treasury Department spokesperson told The Huffington Post.
...

www.huffingtonpost.com...

So much for freedom in Cuba brought by the all powerful Obama...

just throwing this out there!

a little Flash Back! Picture Party of the Good Old Days









Cuban-Missile-Crisis Site
www.cubanmissilecrisis.org...

a reply to: neo96

Oh? Guns have been banned now? I don't recall any Amendments to the Constitution occurring during Obama's Presidency... Plus Obama can't make changes to the Constitution. Are you from a different universe neo?

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Do you know what self-determination is? It is one of the principles we founded the United States government on. The RIGHT for one's own people to determine their OWN government WITHOUT the influence of a foreign government dictating its policy. For ONCE in the history of our nation, we are practicing such a thing and YOU think it is a bad thing?

I DON'T like the fact that Cuba has a crappy government, but that is CUBA'S problem, not the United States' problem. Do you suggest we go in and just bulldoze the place like in the Middle East? Because I'd rather not turn a part of the Caribbean into a demilitarized zone.

It's called minding your own business, and it is supposed to be one of the principles of being a conservative.

mating sephardic Raul and ashkenaz Obama , they are not teamed up and stuck together, wondering what place in this game good and bad blue assigned for red goyims - fire or smoldering

It's about damn time the government acknowledge that all the rhetoric and saber rattling of the past 50 or so years has gotten us nowhere with Cuba.As another poster said this should have happened sometime in the 90's.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Do you know what doing business with a DICTATORSHIP is?

I am pretty sure you have been one of the members who ALWAYS bashes the U.S. for doing business with countries that are dictatorships, but all of a sudden it is ok to do business with a communist dictatorship?...

BTW, in case you didn't know the regime of Cuba has also killed American residents and citizens who have been trying to help Cubans stranded in INTERNATIONAL WATERS as they try to flee the dictatorship...

U.S. SAYS CUBANS KNEW THEY FIRED ON CIVILIAN PLANES
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
Published: February 28, 1996

...
"The target is in sight, the target is in sight," the pilot of one MIG-29 told a nearby MIG-23, as the fighters closed in on the aircraft piloted by a members of an anti-Castro Cuban-American group, Brothers to the Rescue. "It's a small aircraft."

Copied," the ground controller answered. "A small plane in sight."

The MIG-23 crew clamored for authorization to shoot, then exulted in the destruction of the first plane: "This one won't mess around any more."
...
Several air-to-air and air-to-controller conversations in the transcript released today, translated from Spanish by the American Government, seem to demonstrate that at least in the case of one Cessna, the fighter planes made no effort to warn off the civilian pilot as required by international aviation procedures.
...
Although Cuba continues to insist that the aircraft were shot down about five miles from their coast -- well within the internationally recognized limit of territorial waters, which extends 12 miles from the shore -- American diplomats today released radar-tracking data from the Coast Guard locating the planes outside Cuban waters.
...
The Miami Herald reported today that it had interviewed a fishing boat captain who said he was in international waters when debris from the first plane fell around his boat. In the air traffic transcript released today, the Cuban pilots speak of a vessel immediately under the shooting.
...
On the transcript, in an exchange the Americans said suggests the Cubans knew the shooting would be illegal, the Cuban pilots consider holding their fire because they notice ships on the sea below. The Americans suggested that the reference indicated that the Cubans feared the incident might be witnessed by the vessels below.

MIG-29 to ground control: "We are going to give it a pass. We are going to give it a pass."

MIG-23 to MIG-29: "If we give it a pass, it will complicate things."

MIG-29 to MIG-23: "We are going to give it a pass. Because some vessels are approaching there, I am going to give it a pass."
...

www.nytimes.com...

Doing business with a dictatorship that has murdered American residents and American citizens...

Oh, and BTW, Americans, and the U.S. government should demand restitution from the government of Cuba for the about 2 billion dollars that are stolen from Medicare each year by Cuban communist criminals that come to the U.S. to commit fraud, and put all that money in banks in Cuba. The Cuban government knows this and has been profiting from the communist Cuban crime rings, and these criminals go back to Cuba to avoid U.S. law.

Money that goes into Cuban banks is controlled completely by the Cuban government. of course the Cuban government allows their criminals to keep a portion of said money.

ATS member xuenchen wrote an article about this in 2012.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have been travelling to Cuba for 15 years and have seen many changes. I know that communism is a beautiful dream where everyone has a roof over their head, no body starves, no one is in debt and everyone has free education and medical care. However, that’s where the dream ends. Cubans, who make $10 a month, can hardly buy enough food to supplement the little free rations they get from the government. State run stores sell tv’s , toilets and shoes at marked up prices bought by tourists, American Cubans, a few people who know how to profit from the thriving underground black market and I’m sure through some government corruption.
When I first went to Cuba, I had to follow my girlfriend around the city just in case the undercover cops saw her with her “tourist”. She would have been arrested as a prostitute just for walking with me. We now have a beautiful family together – so no jokes. It was illegal to own a vcr or dvd or make and sell bread ( I know people who went to jail for this ). In fact, it was illegal to run a business and make money or even sell your house and car ( if you were lucky enough to have a 57 or older car ).
Prostitution was and still is an epidemic in Cuba due to the fact that nobody can buy anything at the state stores. Imagine being able to visit Walmart and saying “wouldn’t it be nice” and walking out empty handed every time. Most Cubans have no hot water, toilet seats or glass in their windows. Water is rationed and turned on certain times of the day. Things we take for granted and things worth risking your life on a raft to reach the Promised Land.
Now under the control of Raul Castro, things have changed for the better. It is now legal to run a few businesses according to a limited list dictated by the government. This includes making and selling food. Imagine seeing a dozen bread and barbequed pork sandwich vendors all in a straight line during some all-night beer and rum festival down on the waterfront. I think I’ll have the pork sandwich please ( didn’t want a burger anyway ). You can also sell your car and house and watch an American movie on your dvd player. Prices are ever higher in stores now and things like soap just run out of the shelves for weeks.
I am hopeful that the lives of Cubans will improve and at the same time, troubled that Cuba will turn into a new Venezuela where Cubans will be worse off than they already are. It all depends on how the corporations and bankers who really run this world attempt to take over the natural resources Cuba – which till now have been off limits.
Will these institutions bargain fairly with Cuba and give a fair days pay for a fair days work or will they clap their hands in delight at a workforce who are used to $10 a month. A new China at our doorsteps – Oh MY !!!
I dread the day that a new puppet government, set up by “special interests” or whatever you want to call them will be born in the near future and Cubans will realize that their revolution against “the system” was all in vain.
Venezuela tried the Communist route under Chavez while still having Capitalism. His crime was almost “Robin Hood” like by challenging the Oil companies who ran the country to give a little more to the poor. I am afraid this will be Cuba's future as well. However, communism does not work and capitalism is the best we have come up with so far.
I can only hope that the corporations of this world and those that control the money flow will realize if they finally get a conscious and behave like they actually care about the people they profit from then the world will rise above poverty and in return work so much better for them.
Now is their chance with Cuba to do it right.


CIA COUP

ALT

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www.youtube.com...
or
freedocumentaries.org...-film
CIA involvement in central/south America
johnpilger.com...

a reply to: jimmybob

A lot of members are not going to believe you. I am a Cuban-American, who was born in Cuba and know what life is like over there. I still have family in Cuba, including 2 sisters, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins among other family members. We stay in contact with them. But in this website I have found many members who claim I am lying, that in Cuba it isn't that bad, etc, etc. And this people claim this because some "tourist friends" told them so... You are probably not going to be believed. On the other hand, I believe you.

The ignorance in this thread is remarkable. The same people that have been so quick to throw their opinion in on this subject are probably the same people wearing Che shirts touting about how he was a "revolutionary" knowing nothing at all about the true circumstances. I am a Cuban-American living in Tampa, FL. My family escaped Cuba in pursuit of a better life. The oldest in my family remember Che by "the butcher of havana". One of the most ruthless, inhumane, despicable individuals to ever set foot on Cuban soil and we parade him here. Lifting the embargo is one of the biggest mistakes our excuse for a president can make. It would be a slap in the face to all the Cubans rotting in jail for attempting to flee the regime to find a better life. Coming to this relations agreement is no different then negotiating with terrorists and losing. All the while all everyone cares about is getting cuban cigars, opening businesses, vacationing, and claiming the country for their own. Merica! # Off