CBC a conduit for US propaganda

Check out this CBC story on Cuba. A handful of anti-revolutionary agitators are interviewed, and to no-one's surprise, they are miffed that Canada isn't doing more to stand up to authoritarians in Havana.

For over 60 years the US has used all available means to strangle the Cuban revolution, so that the benighted Cuban people can partake of the fruits of democracy and American friendship.

While the US has been busy putting the screws to Cuba, there is another country, only fifty miles to the east, that has enjoyed the warm embrace of American friendship throughout that time; Haiti. The people of Cuba enjoy a better standard of living, by any conceivable metric, in spite of sixty years of American sanctions, sabotage, and subversion, than the people of Haiti.

Insofar as Canada is an independent nation with its own foreign policy, and insofar as we put actual human rights ahead of currying favour in Washington, we should be denouncing the American campaign against Cuba, not cheering it on.

Justin sells out his father's Cuba legacy

When you see stories like this you get a sense of which direction the winds 'o change are blowin' in.

Ever to the right, that's where.

Liberal Justin is staking out turf well to the right of Conservative Brian Mulroney, who made his mark in political history by being well to the right of Trudeau the Elder.

But that was just normal. Conservatives are by definition required to be to the right of Liberals.

To see a Lib PM so far right in foreign policy as Justin Trudeau is unprecedented.


This rotten apple fell far from the tree.


Then again, I think the entire spectrum has swung to the right. I read a Scheer speech the other day wherein he promised us tighter coordination with the US military, and by the way, we'll recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Huh?

As I said; ever to the right...

Sometimes it's best just to shut the f**k up

I recall an occasion where, towards the end of a generally positive job interview for a highly specialized and very well-paying welding job, I remarked that I couldn't work Tuesday evenings because it would interfere with my AA meetings.

WELL!

Needless to say, I'd talked my way out of that job. Sometimes it best just to shut the f@ck up.

I eventually gave up on AA. The more meetings I went to, the more I realized it was just a bunch of old drunks bragging about their drunkenness. "Hey you young whippersnapper, I've spilled more booze on my tie than you've ever drank."

Maybe so, but give me a few years to catch up and we'll chat again.

But we never did. I've done OK without AA for a good forty years now.

Nevertheless, the lesson should have been that sometimes the best thing to say is to not say a thing.

I'm recalling this because I ran into a guy the other day who was more than a little pleased to inform me that he's learned Spanish over the summer.

That reminded me of my career as a student of the Spanish language.

I'd taken first year Spanish at the U of Goo and got a middling mark. I think it remains the lowest pass mark on my transcript to this day. The only fail mark on that transcript is second year Spanish.

On the first day of my second year Spanish course, the Prof went around the room asking each student why they were taking Spanish.

When my turn came, I had an extremely long-winded explanation that invoked Simon Bolivar, Che Guevara, and liberation theology. "I want to speak Spanish because it is the language of revolution!"

I was very pleased with myself as I wrapped up my dissertation.

Much later into the course I learned that the Prof and her family had fled Cuba when the Batista regime collapsed.

No wonder I failed!


Sometimes it's best just to shut the fuck up.

Cuba meets American capitalism

Not that they haven't met before...

But here's a good one!

Yup, American hotel chain Starwood is gonna run three luxury hotels in communist Cuba!

Isn't that great! Capitalism uber alles!


Oopsie... while that good news story is seeping into the news, here's another story: communist China is buying Starwood!

Is it a fucked up world or what?

America still world's moral arbiter in Krauthammer's parallel universe

What Senate Torture Report?

CIA spokesman Charles Krauthammer rips into Obama for his imaginary "deal" with the communist regime in Cuba in today's Washington Post.

The Post has long been considered the semi-official house organ of the CIA. It's good to see this tradition is not threatened by the new ownership. Frankly, it's a little unsettling to see how these "new economy" billionaires like Bezos can so seamlessly slide into their supporting roles in the old power structure.

Krauthammer is pissy that Obama didn't come away with more concessions on this deal with the Castro brothers.

Come on, Charles... how "free" are elections in the USA?

America's political parties are independent? Really? Independent from the needs and wants and wishes of most Americans perhaps, but in this era of Citizens United and unlimited private finance in political campaigns, who are you kidding?

Yes, as long as you're speaking for big business and big money, America does remain a bastion for free speech. Otherwise, not so much.

Now, Cuba is obviously not a utopia. At the same time, they've managed to survive 50 years of punitive sanctions from their most logical trading partner. As far as I know, they've not been busy with serial invasions of other countries.

Nor do they operate an international network of torture centres.

Nor do they funnel billions of dollars to government run non-governmental organizations around the world to affect regime change of regimes they don't like.

Like Cuba's.

What Obama is doing is trying something different after fifty plus years of a failed policy.

Sometimes, Charles, you just have to accept reality and turn the page.