Obama Betrays Cuba; Iran, North Korea Next On The Trifecta

Somewhere on the internets, I predicted that if the 2014 midterm national elections were a disaster for the Democrats, the Dear Leader, President Obama, would be even more extreme and as one of the extreme acts would re institute diplomatic relations with Red Cuba, Red Korea and Iran.
Well, well, well, what do we have here?!
Seemingly right on schedule, the Dear Leader, President Obama, announced yesterday that he was going to change course on Red Cuba and restore full diplomatic relations claiming that the 50+ years of an economic embargo had in fact "failed" and that Cuban "isolation" has not worked.
Well, I will take on the economic embargo first.
Of course it does not work when Red Cuba has relations with most of the nations of the world including the other two North American nations of Canada and Mexico. Does anyone think that Red Cuba does not have trade with these two nations? In fact and indeed the United States does have very limited economic ties with the regime of the Castro Bros. (Fidel and Raul).
But the economic rationale does not help because everything, I mean everything, runs through the clutches of the Castro Bros.
As noted here in this blog post by Mauricio Claver-Carone on the Huffington Post, It is a very complex way to do business with Cuba. But one thing is clear. It is ALL done thought the Castro Bros. and or other state entities. Mr. Claver-Carone notes that all trade to be done through the state and or it's entities is enshrined in article 18 of the Cuban constitution of 1976. Here is the article:

ARTICLE 18

The State directs and controls foreign commerce.
The law establishes the State institutions and authorities empowered to:
create foreign commerce enterprises;

standardize and regulate export and import operations; and

determine the natural or juridical persons with the legal capacity to engage in said

export and import operations, and to negotiate commercial agreements.
Even Red China, with a mix of crony capitalism is less doctrinaire than the Castro's Red Cuba.
What Mr. Claver-Carone does explain is about the so-called "private sector" or "self-employed" sector that is neither private nor self-employed.
Basically, those that can become "self-employed" do not have the same rights that one would have in an open market. Again, in Mr. Claver-Carone's words:

Cuba's military and intelligence services control and run the conglomerates of Cuba. The "self-employment" sector represents a very small part of the island's economy and it is important, in the debate over sanctions, to understand its nature and limits. During economic crises, the Castro regime typically authorizes a host of services that Cubans can be licensed to provide, keeping at least a portion of what they may be paid. The world's news media refers to these jobs as "private enterprise," which implies "private ownership." Yet Cuba's "self-employed" licensees have no ownership rights whatsoever - be it to their artistic or "intellectual" outputs, commodity they produce, or personal service they offer. Licensees have no legal entity (hence business) to transfer, sell or leverage. They don't even own the equipment essential to their self-employment. More to the point, licensees have no right to engage in foreign trade, seek or receive foreign investments. Effectually licensees continue to work for the state -- and when the state decides such jobs are no longer needed, licensees are shut down without recourse.

Essentially, the people that are supposed to be "self-employed" work for the state, again that being the Castro Bros. With such strict guidelines, there is no such thing as a truly self-employed worker in Red Cuba. There is no such thing as any private enterprise as we understand it in the West.
Which leads to the obvious of why now is not the right time to re institute relations with Cuba.
Because it is the ultimate economic lifeline to the Castro Bros. They will be the ones to determine if McDonalds or Starbucks will be available to the slew of American tourists that diplomatic relations are supposed to lead to. They will get the massive kickbacks. And they will still be in power.
As far as isolation, no, Red Cuba has not been all that isolated in the diplomatic world. Most of the nations in the world have some kind of diplomatic relations with Cuba. In all 105 nations and or pseudo nations have embassies in Havana. Only the United States has an interest section through the embassy of Switzerland. Out of the 105 nations that have relations with Red Cuba many are what can be characterized as market or free market nations. The European Union has relations. Individual nations include France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom. Australia and New Zealand have relations. Missing from the list is Israel. But "Palestine" has an "embassy" in Cuba.
So, how many of these nations have trade relations with the communist regime?
Or the better way to phrase the question is how can Cuba maintain it's communist government when it has become a discredited ideology?
Well, Red Cuba still has extensive trade with Russia, no longer a communist nation. Russia is still Cuba's largest trading partner.
But if you look at this, seven and a half nations (Sorry, Red China is not a free nation but at least has crony capitalism), are capitalist, market-driven economies. Oh, and for extra measure, do you know the major food exporter to Red Cuba is . . .wait for it . . .the United States!
Now I know that a lot of people will retort that we have diplomatic relations with very unsavory nations and why not with Cuba? Some will claim that the reason Republicans won't change on the issue is because it "exploits" the Cuban exile community. No, there is no exploitation. The fact is that the Cuban community is divided on whether full diplomatic relations are a good idea or not.
If Cuba was in fact showing signs that the Communist party was relinquishing power and a democracy was going to take it's place, the United States can and should help in that development. But there is not one bit of any indication that the Castro Bros. will end their totalitarian grip on Cuba.
And yet, the Dear Leader, President Obama, feels inclined that now is the time to reinstate diplomatic relations and prop up the communist system, and by extension, the Castro Bros.
It's mystifying to say the least.
But we know that relations with Cuba are going to change.
The real question is what nation is next for the Obama Trifecta. Will it be Iran or North Korea?

Should Ozzie Guillen Be Punished For Being An Idiot?

The new manager of the Miami, nee Florida, Marlins, Ozzie Guillen, stepped into it big time as he heaped praise on the Red Cuba former dictator, Fidel Castro in a recent interview with Time magazine.
Unfortunately, the cheapskates at Time won't let you read the whole article unless you are a subscriber.
But here is the link anyway.
The point is that Mr. Guillen is no stranger to controversy.
And once one reads the kind of gloss-over at Wikipedia, it kind of scratches the surface.
Mr. Guillen is a native of Venezuela. And in 2005, after as manager he led the Chicago White Sox to win the World Series, Mr. Guillen supposedly shouted "Viva Chavez!" in reference to the pseudo-dictator of his homeland, Hugo Chavez. In that situation, he later claimed that he does not support Mr. Chavez. And Mr. Guillen did not attend the celebration for the team's win at the White House. Hmm, could that be because of the president at that time? One George W. Bush?
Ahh, but what really got people's panties in a bunch was Mr. Guillen referring to a Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist, Jay Marrioti as a "fag".
Once one gets the gay and lesbian community in an uproar, well it is surprising that he remained with the White Sox after that.
But in the Political Correct world, they were in a pickle.
Dump the Venezuelan, Hispanic (or is that White-Hispanic?!) manager to please the homosexuals or keep Mr. Guillen so as to not offend the Venezuelan, Hispanic community.
Mr. Guillen stayed.
So, Mr. Guillen is one that likes to stir the pot.
But here is where the plain stupid enters in the whole controversy.
In case Mr. Guillen did not know, the team he is now manager of, the Miami Marlins, is in the largest Cuban city outside of Cuba. Oh, and the new baseball stadium, Marlins Park, sits right adjacent to. . .Little Havana!
So Mr. Guillen, who has already at one time seemingly praised Hugo Chavez, decided to show Fidel Castro some love. You know, how amazing it is that he stayed in power since 1959. How cool it is that Castro survived the Bay of Pigs and other attempts to bring him down.
OK, could the dude have just started a fire and burned the new baseball stadium?
He might as well have.
Because if one thing trumps angry homosexuals and potentially angry Venezuelan-Americans it is really angry Cuban-Americans.
Imagine that this comment drew a five-game suspension. Not from Major League baseball. But from the Marlins Management.
The Marlins slapped the unusual suspension because of the avalanche of bad publicity in the local Cuban-American community.
But here is the thing.
I do not think that Mr. Guillen should have been suspended.
Mr. Guillen is to the sports world what many a Hollyweird celebutard is.
Not all that bright.
I mean, I think that he has that dual thinking that many Central and South Americans have towards the United States.
Most of the people love the United States. But because of years of indoctrination, the same people have had a hate for what is a catch-all phrase.
That is "Yankee imperialism".
Many don't want to see a Cuba-like communist dictatorship. But they like, well kind of what Mr. Guillen said.
That Fidel Castro has essentially given the United States the middle-finger since 1959. And we have done nothing but keep them in the virtual stone-age with an endless economic embargo.
Hell, Fidel gave power over to his younger brother, Raul.
What Mr. Guillen reminds me of is the young, generally but not always, White skater boys that wear the Che Guevara t-shirts while skating down the road. Almost none of the kids have any idea about Guevara and the fact that he was to Communist revolution what Josef Mengele was to Nazi Germany.
I don't think that Mr. Guillen really has a clue about politics at all. He just spouts-off and then has to realize that he had no idea what he was talking about.
Maybe Mr. Guillen, in the first link, has a problem with alcohol. Read the article. Just sayin'.
That could be why he says such things.
But suspending Mr. Guillen for being stupid, well that is exactly the wrong message. After, he did apologize. I do not know if Marlins' management made him do it, but he did. And the Marlins knew what they were getting in the person of Mr. Guillen.
For the Cuban-American community in Miami, they are right to be mad at him. But take the opportunity to educate Mr. Guillen the truth about life under the Castro brothers. That means as uncomfortable as it is, they need to embrace him and educate him at the same time. Seeking to censor Mr. Guillen is not the way to go. It is exactly what they are fighting against in their old homeland.
Mr. Guillen, I believe, has been punished enough for being an idiot. Time to either get rid of him or let him manage and keep his politics to himself.