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?

Of Shaking Hands With A Dictator And Selfies And Barack's Excellent Adventure In South Africa

Yeah, all in one day, the president of the United States, the Dear Leader, Barack Obama, had an excellent adventure in South Africa.
Shaking hands with the vile dictator of Red Cuba, Raul Castro in a reception line at the memorial service for the late South African president, Nelson Mandela. And really, he did not have to. Seriously, he didn't. Yet he did and it was not just an obligatory hand shake with the dictator Castro. Nah, there were smiles and they were yucking it up, beaming smiles at each other. It was not long. I mean, the Dear Leader, President Obama, did not hold up the line or anything like that. He could have all but ignored the dictator Castro. And yet there he was. At a memorial service making a clear political statement.
Now it would not be much but I did have a sneaky suspicion that maybe, just maybe there was more to that handshake.
And I was right.
According to Eli Lake and Josh Rogin at The Daily Beast, Team Obama has been holding mid-level talks on such issues as direct postal service, disaster response, and migration, re: immigration issues.
Why would there be such talks if not for the eventuality of reinstating diplomatic relations with Red Cuba?
Here is a prediction.
When the Republicans increase their numbers in the House and take the senate next year, the Dear Leader, President Obama, will be a total lame-duck. Unless he totally abandons his socialism liberalism and adopts the GOP agenda, he will get not one thing done in congress.
So, can anyone say foreign policy?
The Dear Leader, President Obama, will reinstate full diplomatic relations with Red Cuba. He will recognize the communist dictatorship of the Castros.
And it will not stop there.
The talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran? Another precursor of what the Dear Leader, President Obama, will do and reinstate full diplomatic relations with Iran. He will recognize the Shiite Islamics, the Islamic republic as the government of Iran.
I know it seems improbable, but that is where I see things going.
There is not more to say on this topic.
But the selfie, the selfie the Dear Leader, President Obama, took with the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, that is something I would expect from a
teenage gal.
Which leads me to something my friend Social Extinction said on my Facebook page in my reaction to this:

Our president is such a teenager. Wasn't stoicism expected of them once upon a time?

Why yes Mr. Social Extinction, stoicism was expected at a funeral/memorial service for a current or former head of state. Granted it was more celebratory than solemn, it is no excuse to mock the occasion.
Mr. Social Extinction made me come up with the correct new phrase to describe the Dear Leader, President Obama:

TEENAGER-IN-CHIEF

There is not other way to describe it.
There is the titular leader of the free world, the Dear Leader, President Obama, the prime minister of Britain and the prime minister of Denmark in between the two. And they yuck it up for the cell phone camera. All of them. And if you look at the photo in the last link, you see a very teed-off First Lady, Michelle Obama.
And she is right to be teed-off.
At some point, Mrs. Dear Leader, Michelle Obama, had enough and had to change places with the awe-struck Dear Leader, President Obama, so he was not continuing to laugh and yuck with the Danish Prime Minister Mrs. Thornin-Schmidt. Another photo shows the titular leader of the free world kissing his wife's hand. Seemed to appear to be some kind of teenage 'do you forgive me?' if you ask me.
That makes me think about when the teenager-in-chief got to shake hands with the dictator Castro. It made me think of what was said in those very brief moments:

Like, OMG! There you are! Comadante Castro! AWESOME dude! Oh I'm sorry I'm not meeting with the big dude himself, Fidel! Hey, can you tell him a 'what up?' from me? Oh man, AWESOME to meet you dude.

At this point, would anyone expect less than such a dialogue from the teenager-in-chief? No wonder the dictator Castro feigned a smile and seemed to try to move the Dear Leader, President Obama, along. He couldn't take it anymore.
Folks, the president of the United States, no matter who he or she is and no matter what party they belong to represents all of us at occasions such as a state memorial. As Mr. Social Extinction pointed out, there does need to be a certain stoicism at occasions such as this. Our president, no my president, did not show any of this.
Could he have avoided shaking the dictator Castro's hand? Possibly and he should have made every effort to not do so. The image of the American president recognizing the legitimacy by doing what he did must send a chill down the spine of every freedom-loving Cuban everywhere.
Did he have to participate in the childishness of the selfie? Of course not. There was nothing wrong with exchanging pleasantries, but a selfie?! The line was crossed. The shark was jumped.
Watching the events unfold Wednesday in Johannesburg made me think that, sadly, this was nothing more than Barack Obama's Excellent South African Adventure.