Of course Republicans respect Putin. He tanked an economy, started an illegal war, and hates gays.
— Jared Smith (@SkepticPugilist) December 16, 2014
The salty wingnut tears this morning over Cuba are delicious. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart is on and just told Donnie Deutsch that he was probably happy when people did business with South Africa. Diaz-Balart better look into the conservative position on South Africa during apartheid. When I told you these guys don’t know anything about history, I wasn’t joking.
Elizabelle
Butthurt. It’s what’s for breakfast.
You know if GWBush had done this, the puke funnel would be putting him up for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Lavocat
This Obama guy is sure looking mighty presidential w/ every passing day. I hear he’s black, too.
EconWatcher
Ah, yes, the South Africa divestment campaign. I remember it well from my college student days.
The conservatives who opposed divestment said that Nelson Mandela was a communist terrorist, which was a bit unsporting, since he had been rotting in prison for decades for nothing more than expressing political dissent, and so wasn’t in a great position to defend himself.
Come to think of it, did ANY of them see fit to apologize to him afterwards, when he was released and proved himself to be one of the greatest peacemakers of all time? Rhetorical question, of course.
Betty Cracker
To paraphrase poor, misunderstood Sylvia Plath:
Every wingnut adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like Pootie Poo.
Matt McIrvin
We could end up regretting Putin’s economic troubles. I’ve been worrying that the crash in Russia might spark a new global recession that will just make Democrats look worse here.
SRW1
That they don’t know history is only the half of it. The other half is that they assume everybody else to be as ignorant.
Though, on second thought, you gotta say they’re not that far off with that assumption.
Would I be correct to assume that Deutsch was polite enough not to point out the historical idiocy of this argument by Rep Diaz-Balart in too harsh terms?
debbie
Fifty-year embargoes that don’t work, 13-year wars that don’t work, Congresses that don’t work. I sense a pattern…
Baud
MSNBC said that one of the GOP senators from Alabama fully supports Obama’s policy towards Cuba and said so publicly. I have to assume he’s not up for reelection in 2016.
Mustang Bobby
@SRW1: Mario Diaz-Balart has more than just a political axe to grind. His aunt was Fidel Castro’s first wife.
It always comes down to the family.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: That has occurred to me as well. The Republicans will have absolutely no trouble turning on a dime — openly admiring Putin for pwning the naive, callow Obama a few months ago and then blaming feckless, Machiavellian Obama for orchestrating Russia’s downfall and triggering a global recession. They simultaneously entertain the notion that Obama is a socialist and a fascist without a shred of cognitive dissonance, so the leap should be easy.
Cervantes
@EconWatcher:
I hear you but … Nelson Mandela did not rot in prison.
All the rotting that happened in those years took place outside the prison.
EconWatcher
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m not sure our exposure to Russia is all that great. The gradual imposition of sanctions has given financial intitutions time to divest and hedge themselves from Russian risk, and Russia has already suspended various kinds of imports in retaliation for the sanctions. I’m not sure there’s that much shock left to be delivered from Russia from its economic crisis, except maybe to London real estate….
EconWatcher
@Cervantes:
???
C.V. Danes
Of course, those who are crying about Cuba see no hypocrisy in falling all over themselves to embrace China.
Nope, no hypocrisy at all.
Cervantes
@EconWatcher:
It was the apartheid system that was rotting away.
Whereas Mandela emerged from prison with his mind and spirit intact.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Poor BiP’s paychecks are gonna be worth more shredded for use as kitty litter than their face value.
Maybe the Republican Vladophiles will begin a kickstarter campaign.
David Koch
He sold us out. Worse than Bush. Bush’s third term. Primary him, now! No difference btwn Bush and Gore!
C.V. Danes
@EconWatcher: @Matt McIrvin: The problem with Russia is not so much economic as it is political. Russia may wind up being a test case for how a country devolves from a “managed” democracy to an all-out authoritarian state, with all the geopolitical consequences that involves.
SRW1
@Mustang Bobby:
You mean he couldda been in line to move into the presidential palace in Havanna?
David Koch
Obama Ended the Cold War
Lee
@SRW1:
There is one thing they still have no adjusted to: the internet. When the wingnuts get wingnutty on FB, just keep pointing out their mistakes. Especially when it comes to history. I’ve found out they really hate that.
NotMax
@David Koch
Leave us not forget, either, that it was Clinton who lacked the political fortitude to veto the bill making the embargo the law of the land.
EconWatcher
@Cervantes:
Of course I agree, and now I get what you meant
Elizabelle
Meanwhile, NBC’s Today show led.
With “The Interview” being cancelled in the wake of threats and the Sony Pictures hack. They were aghast.
SRW1
@EconWatcher:
According to the British papers, the economic fallout for London is going in the other direction: wealthy Russians are panic buying real estate in the city.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Never let it be said they don’t know which side their bread is buttered on.
Movie studios drop some serious $$ advertising holiday releases.
David Koch
A Banner Day
Sherparick
They are very forgetful, especially when it was convenient to forget. Further, although the U.S. eventually joined an International Sanctions movement against South Africa, it never broke diplomatic relations with apartheid regime and continued to trade with it. For more see Frank Morales: http://franklycurious.com/wp/2014/12/18/steve-biko/
Bruuuuce
Gonna go down with Nixon in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall as great moments in modern diplomacy. The only real question about why the regressives are pissing and moaning is whether they’re doing it because they never got to bomb Castro, or because their guys didn’t do this first. Or, more likely, both.
Mike J
@Elizabelle: The only thing worse than a Rogan/Franco movie is all the internet tough guys who will be out in force today.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I don’t know who’s stupider, Sony or Seth Rogan. Did no one think of making up a country and a dictator? It seemed to work out just fine for The Mouse that Roared at the height of the Cold War.
gvg
Russia worries me because I think they are warmongers and because I don’t think their leaders actually see that many options. They have already shown that they can start a war to distract their populace from how bad things are.
I don’t think the US is likely to have caused the Russian downfall. Destabilizing that regime seems obviously a bad idea because anything likely to replace it would be worse not to mention they were already flailing about. that isn’t to say we didn’t do a few things like sanctions which were straws on the camels back but there are a whole bunch of reasons things have gone bad for them starting from the wild looting of all the wealth with too little going into actual needs of society.
I can see the potential for a 2nd communist revolution. What they need is regulation with teeth but I don’t see how to get that.
EconWatcher
@SRW1:
Interesting. I moved to Europe this year, and it’s astonishing how much European real estate has been bought up by Russians. In parts of Spain, Austria, and other places we’ve visited, we’ve seen many signs for real estate agents in Russian–I mean only in Russian
Soprano2
@Lee:
Oh yeah, I was arguing with a FB friend once about a posting saying all presidents should have served in the military. When I pointed out this would have meant Saint Ronald wouldn’t have been able to be president she insisted that he had served. I said no, he didn’t, he made movies during the war and she should look it up. I didn’t hear anything else from her after that.
Mustang Bobby
@debbie: Yeah, but that was Peter Sellers, and Seth Rogan is no Peter Sellers.
rikyrah
tee hee hee
YOU sidlelined Russia Vlad.
YOU
…..
Putin accuses West of trying to sideline Russia
Associated Press
By LAURA MILLS, Associated Press1 hr ago
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to fix Russia’s economic woes within two years, pledging to diversify the gas-dependent economy and persuade businesses to help prop up the collapsing ruble.
While using a litany of accusations against the West, Putin acknowledged that Western economic sanctions over Russia’s course on Ukraine was just one factor behind the Russian economic crisis, saying a key reason was the nation’s failure to ease its overwhelming dependence on oil and gas exports. He estimated that sanctions accounted roughly for 25 to 30 percent of the ruble’s troubles.
As Putin spoke, the Russian currency was trading around 62 rubles a dollar, slightly lower than last night but up 12 percent after plummeting to historic low of 80 earlier in the week. Russia’s benchmark MICEX index rallied by 5.5 percent by midday Thursday.
Speaking with strong emotion, Putin sought to soothe market fears that the government could use administrative controls, such as obliging exporters to sell their currency earnings, to help stabilize the ruble.
He accused the West of trying to infringe on Russia’s sovereignty, adding that the Ukrainian crisis was just a pretext for Western action.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-accuses-west-of-trying-to-sideline-russia/ar-BBgWBv8?ocid=HPCDHP
Comrade Dread
@Mike J: I do find the utter capitulation to criminals and terrorists throwing a bloody tantrum to be disheartening, just as I found it to be so when everyone was afraid because some cartoonists drew Muhammad a few years back.
Jeremy
@EconWatcher: Russia is not a big economic power. A recession in Russia won’t hurt the recovery in the US. Actually most economist expect 2015 to be a good year for the US economy.
Belafon
@debbie: Doctor Who has killed two American presidents. It has done nothing to hurt the relationship between the US and the UK. I doubt this movie would have much effect on our relationship with North Korea.
ETA: Like John Cole, I found parts of the End of the World funny. I especially liked that Emma Watson would rather deal with the Hell going on outside rather than stay in the house with the guys.
Manyakitty
On NPR this morning, they played a clip of Putin whining that we were trying to hurt Russia with the sanctions. Boo freaking hoo. What was his first clue? I want more insight into OPEC’s long game. They’re probably hurting Russia more than whatever we’re doing. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the lower gas prices.
Manyakitty
@Mustang Bobby: You done said a mouthful there, buddy.
Manyakitty
@Belafon: Which two presidents?
Amir Khalid
@Comrade Dread:
The Muhammad cartoons were offensive because the intent behind them was indeed to offend. Let’s at least recognise that, even as we rightly denounce the violent reactions to them.
hamletta
Real nice piece at TPM by a woman who’s working on a book about young Cubans:
JPL
@Elizabelle: So did CBS. The next story was on Cuba and Rubio’s dissent because his family came here during the Cuban Revolution. (btw, they came before) In defense of CBS, though, Scott Pelley is in Havana and he did a nice job describing the reaction there.
Baud
@Manyakitty:
Crimea river, Putin.
EconWatcher
@rikyrah:
This is kind of hilarious. He had a decade of high prices and huge oil revenues to try to divrsify the Russian economy, adn everyone in the world with any sense was saying that he needed to seize the opportunity. Now, in the midst of a freefall, he says he’s going to do it? Russians may get fed a lot of propaganda, but they’re not stupid.
Mr Stagger Lee
@C.V. Danes: Or Saudi Arabia, Central America when they were under brutal military or oligarchical dictatorships, which included Cuba under Batista.
Lee
@Soprano2: Actually he did serve in the military in a very limited way.
PurpleGirl
@debbie: Ah, but that was by Peter Ustinov, a very bright guy who was a spy during WWII.
Manyakitty
@Baud: Bahahahaha!
Fred
@debbie: Yeah but you just can’t make up a character as funny as Kim Jong un. From the name to the pudgy face, the hair cut, the history, and the trappings. It’s just like Tina Fey’s Palin. What made it so funny is the fact that it was real. You really can’t make the stuff up.
Now if I post this the Koreans will probably hack my computer and replace all my doggie photos with pictures of The Great Leader of World Socialism smiling over parades of dancing twelve year olds in full dress uniform. But hey, God hates a coward.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: My bad… The Mouse that Roared was written by Leonard Webberly. I was sure it was by Peter Ustinov. I need to double check before posting a comment.
rikyrah
New Jersey Paid Fees To Mary Pat Christie’s Firm After State Investment Was Terminated
By David Sirota @davidsirota [email protected] on December 17 2014 8:13 AM
When the New Jersey pension system terminated a $150 million investment in a fund called Angelo, Gordon & Co. in 2011, that did not close the books on the deal. In the three years since state officials ordered the withdrawal of that state money, New Jersey taxpayers have forked over hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to the firm. As those fees kept flowing, Angelo Gordon made a prominent hire: Mary Pat Christie, wife of Gov. Chris Christie, who joined the company in 2012 as a managing director and now earns $475,000 annually, according to the governor’s most recent tax return.
The disclosure that New Jersey taxpayers have been paying substantial fees to a firm that employs the governor’s spouse — years after state officials said the investment was terminated — emerged in documents released by the Christie administration to International Business Times through a public records request.
A spokesman for the New Jersey Treasury Department, Christopher Santarelli, said via email that while New Jersey “ended its investment” with Angelo Gordon in 2011, the payments were legitimate because the state continues to hold an “illiquid” investment in the firm. Christie officials declined to disclose details of what exactly that illiquid investment is and the justification for continuing to pay fees to Angelo Gordon. The governor, Mary Pat Christie and executives at Angelo Gordon all declined to comment.
http://www.ibtimes.com/new-jersey-paid-fees-mary-pat-christies-firm-after-state-investment-was-terminated-1760682#.VJJkNqPnbI8.twitter
Cervantes
@PurpleGirl:
Wibberley.
Although he was known for writing under numerous pseudonyms, so perhaps he wouldn’t have minded.
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: I believe wingnuts have so fried their hippocampus with constant ragegasms to the point they have very little short-term memory.
MomSense
@Baud:
HA!!!
I think the reason our wingnuts love Putin so much is because he is arrogant and mean. I really do think it boils down to that. Wingnuts do not understand the complexities of the world and prefer outmoded demonstrations of strength (bullying) and tough talk. That Putin loves to engage in ridiculous displays of manly man doing manly things (overcompensation??) is just a bonus. When they thought that this gay bashing, blond, blue eyed, manly man was going to get the better of our blah President they were ecstatic.
I get so tired of the Reagan/Putin strong! Obama weak! He needs to show tough leadership like Reagan did! Reagan said tough and stupid things and cut and ran from Lebanon on the down low. They don’t remember the cutting and running part. The simpler the portrayal of the world the better for these types. I think our media fall into that trap of portraying a world much simpler than it really is because their only hope of understanding the world is to create a false one that suits their limitations.
mai naem mobile
I had Mornin Ho on in the background this AM but i wasn’t actively watching it. I saw Diaz Ballarts face and at first i thought it was the brother but i thought he looked a little different and mad, just very mad and then the ID came up under his face. Anyhoo, he looked like a toddler just ready to have a massive tantrum. The kind of tantrum where its over something really silly and overdone for the issue and every body around the kid is trying not to laugh out loud at the kid so the kid doesn’t feel bad.
ellie
@Manyakitty: Agreed! I paid $1.97 a gallon yesterday at a Costco in suburban Denver.
debbie
@WereBear:
Ha! Glenn Beck’s been proving that this morning. After months of insisting there is no racism in America, he’s shrieking that Michelle Obama’s claim about her visit to Target is false racism and hurts the victims of real racism in this country. His hatred is such that he contradicts himself ceaselessly.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
They were offensive, unkind, and stupid.
jonas
@MomSense: how easily we forget the howls of outrage from the RW in the 80s when Reagan actually sat down to *negotiate* with the Soviets, rather than engaging in a bunch of mindless, counterproductive, and dangerous sabre-rattling. Total betrayal! Worst negotiator ever!!1!
jayjaybear
The Cuban exiles are up in arms because they really, truly believed that they were someday going to go back and get full restitution for the property Castro nationalized. It was obvious to sane people at least 30 years ago that that was NOT going to happen.
MomSense
@jonas:
I remember listening to the NBC broadcast of his funeral, procession and all, and thinking who the hell are they talking about?
C.V. Danes
@Mr Stagger Lee: Exactly. This whining about Cuba is just another case of conservative bipolarism. If Cuba were sitting on a huge oil deposit, we’d have put this embargo to bed decades ago.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
They do seem to want a simpler time don’t they? A simpler time that never existed, but still.
'Niques
@Ruckus: Someone pointed out (on this blog, if I remember correctly) a few years ago, that the “simpler time” conservaturds pine for was a time when they were still children — that they never asked their parents how wonderful that simplicity was.
Life was pretty cool when they were six.
MomSense
@Ruckus:
You can see it happening during the rare times when media hosts ask follow up questions about what “expert” A or politician B (usually McCain or Lindsey) would do beyond show tough leadership. It gets incredibly vague from there on out. They would have funded the Syrian rebels faster–but specifically which rebels is quickly glossed over.
It’s like admitting that there are no easy solutions just makes them too uncomfortable and there are few problems in the real world with easy solutions.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: Well, isn’t that special?
What’s next? Christie’s spawn got payments for playing in Little League?
Villago Delenda Est
@MomSense:
Which means you really, really have to be bright to come up with a good sound bite for them.
Which McBomb and Huckleberry are not.
MomSense
@‘Niques:
There was an interview at a tea party rally done by New Age or New Wave media and they asked these Taxed Enough Already people when they wanted to go back to. The answer was always around 1954. The interviewer was politely telling them that taxes were the highest they’ve ever been then–around 90% for the top earners. The responses were so bizarre. These people knew nothing about what they wanted–at all.
MomSense
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s all sound bites and fury signifying nothing. Luntz should be the first in line for the tumbrel rides or the surgical meteor strikes.
Cervantes
@Sherparick:
Chester Crocker, an academic and eventually one of Reagan’s diplomats, had accused Jimmy Carter of being “too confrontational” towards the apartheid regime in Pretoria. In office, he came up with a policy of “constructive engagement,” which meant, basically, that Reagan would call for no struggle or sacrifice — and instead do nothing, at best, to help dismantle evil. Meanwhile, South-West Africa (now Namibia) was in turmoil, seeking independence from South Africa — with the help of Cuban soldiers.
In a meeting called so that the Administration could (figuratively) sing yet another hollow paean to the policy of “constructive engagement,” someone began to (literally) sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the fifth verse, reaching a crescendo at “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free …” — and then there was a moment of quiet — rather a long moment, actually.
SRW1
@EconWatcher:
Apparently, some in the moneyed class in Russia are less convinced that Putin is going to lead the country to new heights than some on the right in the US.
Btw, there were also some reports recently that posh Swiss ski ressorts had seen less Russian business than in previous years. I don’t think that is necessarily a contradiction. All it probably indicates is that wealthy Russians are feeling the squeeze of the sanctions as well as panic about their ruble-denominated assets at the same time.
Matt McIrvin
@SRW1: That’s how it was during the Cold War too: nobody had more faith in the robustness and competency of the Soviet Communist Party than American right-wingers.
Cervantes
@David Koch:
Nicely put.
It’s delicious revenge, of course.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Soprano2: You were wrong. Reagan enlisted as a private in 1937, got his officer’s commission about three weeks later, was in as a public relations officer until 1945.
You’re right about him doing nothing during that time but making movies, but they were all for the US Government.
Pretty sure the first president since WW2 who did not serve was Clinton. Also pretty sure that Obama’s the only other president who hasn’t. Of course, Bush II went AWOL but I’m sure through the agency of wingnut magic that’s totally OK.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin:
True, but I think a good deal of that expressed faith was really a bad-faith argument.
Matt McIrvin
@MomSense: There’s been some guy commenting at Washington Monthly arguing that Democrats promised “70 years ago” that they’d eliminate poverty and racism, and things are worse now, so their iron-fisted control of the government needs to be overthrown.
70 years ago was 1944; I assume he’s talking about Roosevelt. I guess getting rid of Hitler was a mistake. And apparently poverty is worse than during the Great Depression/WWII and racism is worse than under Jim Crow. I mean, the recent past hasn’t been a song of glorious progress, but that is hardcore.
Joey Maloney
@rikyrah: You put Vladdy in the corner. NOBODY puts Vladdy in the corner!
Cervantes
@Bruuuuce:
They’re doing it because they need Enemies.
MomSense
@Matt McIrvin:
How do you even counter so much stupid?
NotMax
@CONGRATULATIONS!
King’s Row? Juke Girl?
srv
When will the madness end:
Pretty soon the 47% will be the 87%.
Suffern ACE
@Cervantes: If someone put that in a novel, I would not believe it would ever happen. But it makes perfect sense.
Shalimar
@Mustang Bobby: I wasn’t a fan of the movie, the books were much better. I understand, very broad comedy, who could have been better for that than Peter Sellers in his prime? It still didn’t work for me since I had read the books first and had my preconceived ideas of the characters. I love Sellers in so many other movies, but playing the queen especially was disconcerting.
Full metal Wingnut
@srv: There’s obese because you have a medical condition. But just being a lazy fat fuck is not a disability.
Seanly
@Betty Cracker:
But, but, but Jonah Goldberg told me that those are the same. He wrote a whole booky thing about it. Plus the nat-zees were fascists who had socialist in their name. In their NAME!
chopper
@SRW1:
Which means selling rubles. Which just helps spike it even more.
Matt McIrvin
@MomSense: Mostly you just laugh at it, I suppose. But the effectiveness of that is limited.
EconWatcher
At this point in the game, I’d say of Obama that:
1. The notion that he’s a poor planner or strategist is bogus; he’s quite good at both. And while he may not be playing “11 dimensional chess,” there is truth to the notion that his moves are usually dictated by a long view; and
2. I think there’s some truth to the notion that he’s a little too cerebral and aloof. While it’s completely bogus that he could have made more headway with wingnuts by “reaching out to them” more, you do hear enough stories from our own side to believe he could help himself and the cause a little by gladhanding a bit more, at least among sympathizers;
3. Overall, you gotta give the guy an A minus or so. And there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s a better president than Hillary would have been (or will be).
lamh36
Bill OReilly is a racist bigot.
I don’t care who your parents are or how nice your relatives are otherwise, if any of them watch and “appreciate” Bill OReillys “view”then I consider then to be as racist and bigoted as he is.
samiam
I have never been able to understand why all you laser light dot chasers always obsess over what the right is doing. What their latest poutrage is. WGAFF!!! I don’t even go to wingnut sites but as far as I can tell from second hand stuff I read on left wing sites, they don’t give a sheit what we are thinking!
Besides, it’s ALWAYS just political theater anyways and you are morons if you believe otherwise!
chopper
@SRW1:
and they have to sell rubles to do that, which only helps spike the currency further.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: And, as predictably as the sun rising in the east, militants displayed their eternal butthurt on cue, rather than ignoring the provocation and frustrating those who made it.
Villago Delenda Est
@samiam: Of course it’s political theater.
We’re laughing at the running joke of these clowns.
WereBear
Probably not; it’s my theory that you make a wingnut by giving them an unhappy childhood… and them doing nothing about fixing that.
But it was certainly clear and understandable, the way they like it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Seanly: It’s amazing to me that Jonah Goldberg has never understood that the “Socialist” in “National Socialist” was a marketing ploy.
Mike E
@Amir Khalid: Lest we forget the (Southern) US fundies’ reaction to John Lennon’s “we’re more popular” quote…he was trying to refer to a survey in the UK, but it certainly didn’t translate well here.
WereBear
Well, you know, we might have… if certain parties had gotten out of the way.
One of FDR’s grand accomplishments was winning WWII with Republicans constantly trying to stop him.
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est:
He’s no rocket surgeon.
D58826
@JPL: First of all I think the Castro s are thugs but we have diplomatic relations with thugs all over the world. The GOP in general and Rubio in particular are dumping a lot of information down the memory hole. The regime that Castro overthrew was just as much a thug regime as Castro. Batista was a crook, torturer and human rights violator of the first order. Of course he was ‘our’ thug so that made it ok. The Cuban elite or the 1% as we would call them today spent more money on vet bills for their polo ponies than they did in wages for their ’employee’s’ or as some might call them slaves. The American mob ran the nightspots in Havana and various American companies owned much of the rest of the island. I have no idea where Rubio’s family fits into that picture but I would be surprised if they were not part of the 1%. Most of the original refugees in the early 60’s were from the Cuban uppercrust and have an economic grudge with Castro. They no more believe in liberal democracy than the Castros.
In a nutshell Castro did not overthrow a liberal democratically elected government.
srv
@Villago Delenda Est: Or that “National Socialism” took a state with a destroyed economy and hyperinflation and turned it into the dominant superpower in Europe in less than a generation. Also got rid of those people and jailed teh gay.
You’d think he’d stop and say “hmm”
Cacti
@D58826:
First of all I think the Castro s are thugs but we have diplomatic relations with thugs all over the world. The GOP in general and Rubio in particular are dumping a lot of information down the memory hole. The regime that Castro overthrew was just as much a thug regime as Castro. Batista was a crook, torturer and human rights violator of the first order. Of course he was ‘our’ thug so that made it ok.
The reason we’ve thrown the cold shoulder to Cuba for the last 50 years is because Castro wounded our national pride.
He ousted our puppet ruler in Batista, then defeated all of our subsequent efforts to overthrow and assassinate him. Foreign leaders in the western hemisphere weren’t supposed to be able to openly defy the American empire, especially during the height of the cold war, and Castro was able to wave his ass at us over and over again.
That was his unpardonable sin in the eyes of the US government.
gogol's wife
@C.V. Danes:
Yes, it’s totally ridiculous. China always gets a pass.
NotMax
@Cacti
Yup. It was “our” hemisphere. Until 1959.
Rand Careaga
Fidel is certainly no saint, but any reproaches coming out of a country that has yet to pack Dick Cheney in salt and remand his sorry ass to The Hague to face justice are bound to ring a bit hollow.
D58826
Another reason that Obama’s move makes sense is our old friend Putin. Putin has been trying to restart the Cuban-Russian relationship that fell apart alter the demise of the Soviet Union. Putin is trying to do to us what we are trying to do to him in the Ukraine. Why would;d the US want to give Putin a free pass to meddle in our back yard?
Paul in KY
@debbie: Maybe they might re-cut it that way.
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: Oh, he understands. He’s just paid to write books obscuring that fact.
Liberty60
@EconWatcher: Obama is aloof, which is another reason to admire him, in my book.
His contempt for the Beltway social scene and Village idiots radiates from him.
Paul in KY
@srv: If it hadn’t all gone to shit, you can bet that Mr. Goldberg would have wanted to emulate Alfred Rosenberg.
Paul in KY
@Cacti: He also nationalized a lot of assets controlled by very wealthy people, who give large amounts of money to our political parties.
Paul in KY
@Liberty60: FDR had the same contempt, but he schmoozed them when it was prudent to do so.
Liberty60
@Paul in KY: And like Castro, Obama’s unpardonable sin has been that his contempt for the Village was visible.
Manyakitty
@ellie: Wow! We’re in the $2.25 range here in NEOhio.
D58826
While the US Congress ties itself in knots over an embassy in Havana the Chinese are developing a new Silk Road to connect their economy with Europe. From Juan Cole’s’ place
The ultimate plan is to have 2 day bullet train service between China and Europe. Meanwhile in the US the potholes in the roads get bigger and bigger. Long live american exceptionalism!!!!!!!!
Shalimar
@Paul in KY: In addition to the nationalizing of wealth part, Mario has a more personal family reason for hating Castro. Fidel’s first wife was Mario’s aunt (the Diaz-Balarts were a prominent Batista-era political family). They were divorced 5 years before Mario was born, causing a major falling out between the families. This was the environment the Diaz-Balart children (including 2 US congressmen and a Telemundo news anchor) were raised in.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
Oh, they were stupid to rise to the provocation, I don’t deny that at all. But the cartoonists and the editors who ran their work were also stupid to supply the provocation in the first place.
Suffern ACE
@Cacti: Still laughing about this. Our policy of “Regime Change” failed. I can see why the right is freaking out. It’s been obvious for some time that we had set this critical success factor for this policy where Castro would get ousted and since that didn’t work, we fell back on the a definition of “ousted” that included “Castro Dies of Old Age.” Since in general, people do eventually die one way or another, it always seemed lame to claim credit for the death of Castro as a successful regime change. Obama robbed us of our “victory” since we were probably going to normalize these relations eventually in 10 years when the Castros died.
Paul in KY
@Shalimar: Interesting. I did not know that. Thanks!
Paul in KY
@Liberty60: I think FDR seemed to buck up a bit more & go ahead with the distasteful business of flattering some worthless pieces of shit more so than Pres. Obama. Maybe FDR was just a better actor than Pres. Obama. I know I couldn’t do it.
grandpa john
@Villago Delenda Est: Just as his “not understanding was his marketing ploy to sell his continuing string of fantasy filled books. grifters are gonna grift. As Samuel Butler was aware of many years ago
ron
@Manyakitty: nah, the sanctions are hurting them much more.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/business/russia-forecasts-a-recession-in-2015-signaling-a-toll-from-sanctions-and-oil-prices.html?_r=0
“This [oil price drop] is all peanuts compared to the financing crisis,” said Vladimir Milov, a former deputy energy minister turned opposition politician.
Nearly $700 billion is owed to Western banks, economists said, much of it by the giant state-run companies that constitute the heart of the Russian economy. But sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and adventurism in southeastern Ukraine have blocked access to Western financing.
Despite Moscow’s plans to turn East as an alternative, China’s banks just do not have the capacity. Instead, the debt threatens to drain the Kremlin of its $400 billion in foreign currency reserves.
Among the companies with their hands out are Rosneft, Novatek, VTB Bank, Rusnano and Russian Railways, asking for sums well beyond the $90 billion held by the National Welfare Fund, a sovereign wealth fund for rainy days.