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Things going on in Cuba...


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21 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

Is there anything actually happening right now that should be big news but isn't? Not what happened a week ago or what you wish was happening, but actual real events that are happening.

I think the idea that the corporate news media is trying to squash the story is silly because it worked very hard to make a handful of scattered, not-very-large protests look like the beginning of a popular revolution. The protests stopped so... what are they supposed to be reporting?

 

On 5/24/2021 at 6:02 PM, bad_teammate said:

Oh hell yeah here we go we're getting the true brain trust engaged.

 

Edited by blacklab
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17 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

There's a lot of noise that the Cuban government may go extremely easy on the detained, in the hopes it deflates the movement.  The movement doesn't have a central rallying figure, which is the one thing the Cuban government has going for it.  If they start tossing out 20 and 30 year sentences like originally floated, they will be creating martyrs and figures to rally around.

 

Why might that be? Could it be that the Cuban government, for as corrupt and inept as it might be, isn't actually a murderous, genocidal, totalitarian regime as portrayed by the Western press and anonymous people on the Internet?

I realize this will provoke "move to Cuba if you love it marry a Castro statue and kiss it!" responses, but at a certain point the lack of beef has to trigger some doubts about how trustworthy all of this supposition is. Right?

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Why might that be? Could it be that the Cuban government, for as corrupt and inept as it might be, isn't actually a murderous, genocidal, totalitarian regime as portrayed by the Western press and anonymous people on the Internet?
I realize this will provoke "move to Cuba if you love it marry a Castro statue and kiss it!" responses, but at a certain point the lack of beef has to trigger some doubts about how trustworthy all of this supposition is. Right?
2325e4b8665c265d53c3c5a9e7ef514e.gif77546aa25a9cc9018ee2f92c8976e6df.gif
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14 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Why might that be? Could it be that the Cuban government, for as corrupt and inept as it might be, isn't actually a murderous, genocidal, totalitarian regime as portrayed by the Western press and anonymous people on the Internet?

I realize this will provoke "move to Cuba if you love it marry a Castro statue and kiss it!" responses, but at a certain point the lack of beef has to trigger some doubts about how trustworthy all of this supposition is. Right?

They sound awesome. I expect you to send us a postcard from Havana when you move.

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bt, since you obviously haven't read anything coming out of Cuba, and haven't been following the current events there...

Angry Season 2 GIF by The Office

Would you like me to run a greatest hits out of this thread, of civilians getting the shit beat out of them?

Would you like me to run the NSFW stuff that I deliberately didn't post in this thread?

Edited by atomheartbevo
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Interesting op-ed from a dissident posted in Politico. 

Why is it happening? It’s an accumulation. It’s not just Covid-19. People have been believing in the revolution, following the government's mandate to sacrifice. But people are tired of the government’s abuse.

Cubans are doing eight hours in line just to get a piece of bread. And at the same time, the housing situation is worse. People said, “Enough.” …. They see people in power and their kids living the great life. A few months ago, the grandson of Fidel [Castro] did a video in a Mercedes Benz, very arrogantly showing off his life while the people are starving.

[The day the protests started], a friend messaged me and said, “You have to see this.” And then another friend called, saying: “Look at this.” That’s when I saw the scene in San Antonio de los Baños [a town about 20 miles southwest of Havana, where the islandwide protests began]. And that’s how the news spread: People calling each other in different provinces, telling each other what was happening.

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/07/21/opinion-theres-no-turning-back-a-cuban-dissident-on-whats-really-happening-in-cuba-1388819

 

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28 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

bt, since you obviously haven't read anything coming out of Cuba, and haven't been following the current events there...

Angry Season 2 GIF by The Office

Would you like me to run a greatest hits out of this thread, of civilians getting the shit beat out of them?

Would you like me to run the NSFW stuff that I deliberately didn't post in this thread?

I've read all of it. Cuba's regime is undoubtedly corrupt, controlling, inept, and anti-freedom. Very bad. No good. Would be awesome if they had a better government.

Cops beating the shit out of protesters doesn't reach "murderous, genocidal, totalitarian" levels for me.  If that were the case, I'd be using that phrase a LOT more commonly than I do now.

I can undoubtedly match you beat-for-beat with all of your photos and videos with stuff that would undoubtedly get me banned for being political for ... reasons. Cops running over protesters. Shooting them in the face with "less-than-lethals". Gassing women and kids. Running over them with cars and horses. Busting old men's skulls. Endless chemical warfare against peaceful demonstrators. Absurd arrests. Basically zero accountability for the state. Police actively coordinating with violent nationalist who beat/kill dissenters. Etc...

It's garbage and I hate it, but even natural, organic revolution rarely works out well for the poor. Astroturfed and externally-agitated revolution is even worse (because the natives are always left high and dry). 

Edited by bad_teammate
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2 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

Why might that be? Could it be that the Cuban government, for as corrupt and inept as it might be, isn't actually a murderous, genocidal, totalitarian regime as portrayed by the Western press and anonymous people on the Internet?

I realize this will provoke "move to Cuba if you love it marry a Castro statue and kiss it!" responses, but at a certain point the lack of beef has to trigger some doubts about how trustworthy all of this supposition is. Right?

For me it provokes sympathy and a recommendation to spend some time here: https://library.austintexas.gov/

The covid canard is a chuckle as well.

Edited by Harrison Bergeron
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5 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

Why might that be? Could it be that the Cuban government, for as corrupt and inept as it might be, isn't actually a murderous, genocidal, totalitarian regime as portrayed by the Western press and anonymous people on the Internet?

I realize this will provoke "move to Cuba if you love it marry a Castro statue and kiss it!" responses, but at a certain point the lack of beef has to trigger some doubts about how trustworthy all of this supposition is. Right?

What are you basing your take on? There's plenty of proof the Cuban government is oppressive and corrupt

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1 hour ago, InkaUtexas said:

Then let the Cuban protest. 

Why is it that when we see protests whose "regime" we don't like we assume that the protestors want nothing less than the downfall of those regimes? (If it's a government we don't like, it's always a regime.)

Maybe they have a list of grievances that does not include "dismantle the existing government so we can become an American vassal state again." 

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10 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Why is it that when we see protests whose "regime" we don't like we assume that the protestors want nothing less than the downfall of those regimes? (If it's a government we don't like, it's always a regime.)

Maybe they have a list of grievances that does not include "dismantle the existing government so we can become an American vassal state again." 

Where did I say they wanted the down fall of the regime? I just said let them protest. I respect a lot of what Cuba has done internally. I wish the rest of the Hemisphere had their literacy levels and life expectancy. 

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Stalinist Cuban official on Andrea Mitchell says:

  • US agitators are attempting to cause unrest.
  • Opponents of Cuba government are promoting a big lie. 
  • There is no proof Cuba using hypersonic weapons against diplomatic teams. 
  • Cuban government doesn't siphon off money sent to Cuba from US residents.
  • Reports of rolling disturbances in Cuba are false.
  • Summary trials are common in the world, so don't blame Cuba.
  • Cuba has not cut off the internet.

TLDR - Cuban government retains its Stalinist tactics and disinformation. 

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1 hour ago, washparkhorn said:

Stalinist Cuban official on Andrea Mitchell says:

  • US agitators are attempting to cause unrest.
  • Opponents of Cuba government are promoting a big lie. 
  • There is no proof Cuba using hypersonic weapons against diplomatic teams. 
  • Cuban government doesn't siphon off money sent to Cuba from US residents.
  • Reports of rolling disturbances in Cuba are false.
  • Summary trials are common in the world, so don't blame Cuba.
  • Cuba has not cut off the internet.

TLDR - Cuban government retains its Stalinist tactics and disinformation. 

Naked Gun Panic GIF

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1 hour ago, washparkhorn said:

Stalinist Cuban official on Andrea Mitchell says:

  • US agitators are attempting to cause unrest.
  • Opponents of Cuba government are promoting a big lie. 
  • There is no proof Cuba using hypersonic weapons against diplomatic teams. 
  • Cuban government doesn't siphon off money sent to Cuba from US residents.
  • Reports of rolling disturbances in Cuba are false.
  • Summary trials are common in the world, so don't blame Cuba.
  • Cuba has not cut off the internet.

TLDR - Cuban government retains its Stalinist tactics and disinformation. 

Wow, I didn't see that coming. I can't wait to see Andrea Mitchell's hard hitting questions.

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3 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Where did I say they wanted the down fall of the regime? I just said let them protest. I respect a lot of what Cuba has done internally. I wish the rest of the Hemisphere had their literacy levels and life expectancy. 

I should have not replied to you; I was generalizing. Sorry about that. 

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Just now, InkaUtexas said:

No worries man. Plus bad ass avatar. 

That was a big moment in my life....I got to see that in the theater when I was 12....Just two years before I'd fallen in love with her when she was in an SRA I read in class and then I got in to see Fast Times and I swear time stopped.... 

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2 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

Most definitely.  See Right Opposition and the rise of Stalinism. 

That's vague. I'm just curious which of the specific aspects of dishonesty and political theater are specific to Stalin/Stalinism. Because everything there seems like standard governments-lie stuff.

The "right opposition" you refer to was within the party/ideology, so that doesn't really work.

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20 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

The "right opposition" you refer to was within the party/ideology 

Stalinism is not communism or socialism to some. Cuba adopted Stalinist tactics with Castro. 

Though their conclusions are radically different, defenders of both “socialist” and “neither socialist, nor capitalist” theories about Cuba and other statified societies nevertheless coincide in the view that the nationalization of private enterprises constitutes a partial, or perhaps even wholesale, negation of capitalism and its laws of motion.

Throughout this essay, I will attempt a critical analysis of the aforementioned theories employing an approach that is methodologically Marxist and forthright in its commitment to workers’ self-emancipation.

I will argue, moreover, that “socialist” Cuba is really a society based on wage labor and capital accumulation. The defining characteristics of this society, to which we will assign the designation ‘state-capitalism’, are the hyper-concentration of capital and collective exercise of de facto control over the means of production by a state bourgeoisie.

https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol6/iss2/2/

See in general, Sugarcane Stalinism.

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6 hours ago, Nicole44 said:

I saw their baseball team didn’t make the Olympics. Thought I would share the tweet anyway…

Only 6 teams this go-round:

Spoiler

Six national teams qualified for the Olympic baseball tournament. The sport is under the auspices of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). Japan automatically qualified, as Japan is the host nation. 

Israel qualified, by winning the September 2019 Europe/Africa continental tournament. 

Two teams qualified through the 2019 WBSC Premier12 tournament in November 2019. South Korea qualified as the best-placed team from the Asia/Oceania region (other than Japan, which already qualified as host), while Mexico qualified as the best-placed team from the Americas. 

The United States qualified by winning the Americas Qualifying Event that was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020, but was postponed to May/June, 2021, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The final spot was awarded to the Dominican Republic which won a world Final Qualifying Tournament in late June 2021

 

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27 minutes ago, washparkhorn said:

Stalinism is not communism or socialism to some. Cuba adopted Stalinist tactics with Castro. 

I get that as a political/economic descriptor, but you were using it to refer to the interview on MSNBC. That's what confused me.

Looked like a government official lying/propagandizing like is normal for every government of every type. Didn't see what was "stalinist" about it.

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On 7/21/2021 at 7:58 PM, Scooter Monzingo said:

It is because they don’t want to report what the Cuban government is doing to those they hold accountable for the uprising. 

 

On 7/21/2021 at 8:00 PM, InkaUtexas said:

Yeah it does if you want to sustain it. One thing is impromptu marches in the streets, but for massive mobilization there are plenty of examples of preparation, especially for symbolic dates. Just look at how Syria started. First it was just walking and screaming, then became organized. Of course for both events Assad and company gave zero fucks about what the world thinks. Same thing is going on in Burma. They did not stop to organize and now are trying to, but from a position of ah shit....... 

Doing something large on the 26th is a massive fuck you to the Cuban government and could become a new rallying cry. Not saying it is going to work, but it is not an oddity. 

So uh.... about this? Any news updates? 

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