Posted on 05/31/2014 9:16:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue was barely finished calling for the further impoverishment of American workers (i.e. “immigration reform”) when he shows up as a guest of Cuba’s Stalinist regime and gives a speech at the University of Havana calling for a further fleecing of American taxpayers (i.e. ending the so-called Cuba embargo.)
“For years, the US Chamber of Commerce has demanded that our government eliminate the commercial embargo on Cuba. It’s time for a new approach,” proclaimed Donohue this week to an ovation from communist apparatchiks, some who in 1960 stormed into almost 6000 U.S. owned businesses (worth almost $ 2 billion at the time) and stole them all at Soviet gunpoint.
A few American business-owners resisted. One of these was Howard Anderson who owned a filling stations and Jeep dealership (not a casino or brothel, which were relatively rare in pre-Castro Cuba, by the way.) I’ll quote from Anderson v. Republic of Cuba, No. 01-28628 (Miami-Dade Circuit Court, April 13, 2003). "In one final session of torture, Castro's agents drained Howard Anderson's body of blood before sending him to his death at the firing squad."
The Inter-American Law Review classifies Castro’s mass burglary of U.S. property as “the largest uncompensated taking of American property by a foreign government in history.” Rubbing his hands and snickering in triumphant glee, Castro boasted at maximum volume to the entire world that he was freeing Cuba from "Yankee economic slavery!" (Che Guevara's term, actually) and that "he would never repay a penny!"
This is the only promise Fidel Castro has ever kept in his life. Hence the imposition of the Cuba embargo, not that you’d know any of this from the mainstream media, much less from Thomas Donohue.
The burglarized (and often brutalized) American owners filed those property claims against Castro’s regime with the U.S. government. They’re worth $7 billion today--and must be settled before the so called embargo is lifted. This settlement provision for lifting the embargo was codified into U.S. law in 1996 by the Helms-Burton act, which means only Congress can lift the embargo, obviously after a vote. But the votes are not there.
Shouldn’t the President of an outfit like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce be aware of this? Or is Donohue calling for more of Obama’s “executive overreach?”
“The reforms under Raul Castro’s government demonstrate that Cuban leaders understand that direct economic investment can be a powerful tool for economic development,” proclaimed Donahue to another ovation from his communist audience.
Oh, Cuba’s Stalinist kleptocracy understands this alright. But this “economic development” via foreign investment exclusively benefits the tiny Stalinist nomenklatura that has run Cuba since 1959—and enthusiastically hosted Thomas Donahue this week. All foreign trade with “Cuba” is still conducted exclusively with the Stalinist regime—no exceptions. In fact private property rights still do not exist in Cuba, much less an independent judiciary and the rule of law.
According to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. has transacted almost $4 billion in trade with Cuba over the past decade. Up until four years ago, the U.S. served as Stalinist Cuba’s biggest food supplier and fifth biggest import partner. We’ve fallen a few notches recently but we’re still in the top half.
For over a decade the so-called U.S. embargo, so disparaged by Thomas Donahue, has mostly stipulated that Castro’s Stalinist regime pay cash up front through a third–party bank for all U.S. agricultural products; no Ex-Im (U.S. taxpayer) financing of such sales. And that’s the catch with Donahue’s gracious hosts. They’re desperate to abolish that provision.
Enacted by the Bush team in 2001, this cash-up-front policy has been monumentally beneficial to U.S. taxpayers, making them among the few in the world not screwed and tattooed by the Castro regime, which per capita-wise qualifies as the world’s biggest debtor nation, with a foreign debt estimated at $50 billion, a credit rating nudging Somalia’s and an uninterrupted record of defaults. Standard & Poors refuses even to rate Cuba, regarding the economic figures released by its Stalinist apparatchiks as utterly bogus. Just this year the Russians wrote off almost $30 billion Castro still owed them.
Regarding the disconnect seen above between historic truth and Castroite propaganda, what we have here, amigos, is not a “failure to communicate.” Instead it’s perfect communication-- between Castro’s propaganda ministry and the U.S. media (and “business leaders”) to whom they issue press bureaus and visas, after careful vetting. These latter amply live up to their side of the bargain, “reporting” exactly what Castro wants them to report.
A Spanish businessman named Fernandez Gonzalez has an interesting story that might serve as an education for Thomas Donahue, or for those who might fall for his siren song, as composed by the kleptocratic Castro brothers:
“A few years ago, I created in the Hemingway Marina, a tourist zone near Havana, a bar/restaurant…then during a farce that would not hold water in any Western judicial system -- my business was taken from me and I became "an enemy of the people." Today, I remain deprived, without recourse, of the property that I steadfastly and honorably worked to create for many years. I don't want other foreign investors, who travel to Cuba under some siren song to suffer the same fate as I did. Thus I recommend, I beg, that you don't contribute with your money and knowledge to shore-up Cuba's dictatorship…Because there is not the slightest judicial guarantee. There is no Rule of Law that protects investors, nor anyone else. In Cuba, what prevails are not rights, but the will and whim of those who govern. The same thing that happened to business owners at the beginning of the revolution can happen, and does happen, to today's investors and businessmen.”
One fine morning in February 2009 the Castro brothers woke up and decided to freeze $1 billion that 600 foreign companies kept in Cuban bank accounts. Another fine morning in April 2012 the Cuban regime arrested the top officers of Britain-based Coral Capital that had invested $75 million in the Castro brothers’ fiefdom and was planning four and luxurious golf resorts. These hapless (greedy, unprincipled and stupid, actually) businessmen find themselves with no more recourse to law than the millions of Cubans and Americans who had their businesses and savings stolen en masse in August of 1960 by Castro’s gunmen.
After all, Che Guevara who served as Cuba’s “Finance Minister” during the initial mass burglaries of Cuban and U.S. owned properties explained the regime’s legal guidelines very succinctly in January 1959, when he served as chief hangman. “Judicial evidence is an archaic bourgeois detail. We execute (and jail and torture and steal) based on Revolutionary conviction.”
Easy peasy..
One World Scoundrel
Is he an idiot, scoundrel, or being BLACKMAILED like half of Congress?
Good article. Thanks for posting and maintaining the links.
Donohue is both stupid AND a scoundrel. Pro-amnesty POS.
I don’t see why it’s necessary to make a choice. It seems perfectly reasonable to accept that he is in fact both, and some how anti American got left out of the mix.
Agenda 21...Agenda 21...Agenda 21!!!!Wash..Rinse..Repeat!
How about “tool”?
The selfishness of many businessmen and politicians is beyond belief
All their care about are themselves and their buddies Never mind the divisive and dangerous environment they have created
You’re very welcome and bump
This @sshole Donohue is evidence that Big Business is no different than Big Government when it comes to the threats they represent to the liberty of free people.
blame the members
Donahue and Mary Kay Henry, SEIU president—political birds of a feather ... an unholy combination with one purpose: to screw working Americans.
There is really only one reason the embargo, once put in place by the Kennedy Administration, has never been lifted. It is a memorial to the Brothers Kennedy, it took on a life of its own, and like a National Monument, cannot be taken down.
Economically, there is no reason for its continued imposition. If the US can drizzle away whatever advantage they held against the Iranian regime, then there is even less reason to maintain one on Cuba.
Rather a misled, miss-focused chap, who is simply in beyond his depth.
To understand the stupid things that businessmen--and those who make their way representing businessmen--get into, you must look at what they tend to focus on; and that, clearly for most, is the next few quarters of business opportunity & profitability. If you look, instead, for deep understanding of what makes any community, tribe, race or nation thrive both economically & culturally, as well as spiritually, over generations, you had might as well consult with your next door neighbor's new puppy. At least the latter will be more likely not to embrace a completely stupid notion--and besides has more genuine love in his heart than the other short term focused subject.
Believe me, I am not anti-business. Over 90% of my assets are in common stocks. But, thankfully, that does not lead me to ignore the realities of civilization, societal interaction, or other essential elements of the human experience.
To understand how some business types are misled, see Another Variation On A Demonic Theme. To understand why America used to work much better for all of her peoples, see America Grounded On Experience & Reason. But that was before we listened to those who speak with the classic forked tongue.
William Flax
“Is U.S. Chamber Of Commerce President Thomas Donohue An Idiot? Or A Scoundrel?”
No.
He’s just bought and paid for.
LETTER TO ANOTHER IDIOT
Open Letter to Jimmy Carter
FOR FREEDOM & JUSTICE GROUP | 6/17/02 | Oscar B. Pichardo
June 16, 2002
Jimmy Carter
The Carter Center
453 Freedom Parkway Atlanta, GA 30307
Re: Hand written response: “To Mr. Pichardo You’re completely confused - I’m not shilling for anyone or promoting terrorism.” Jimmy C.
Mr. Carter: No Mr. Carter, I am not confused. In my previous communication, I presented a valid case why your visit to Cuba would serve no useful purpose, but legitimize the abominable dictatorship that has existed for the past 43 years. I requested you refrain from joining the succession of American elected representatives and corporate representatives placing profits over dignity and not meet with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
You chose to make the trip, - actions speak louder than words - and by your actions became a shill for American corporations, and a tacit promoter of terrorism.
“I’m not shilling for anyone” Yes you are Mr. Carter, you certainly are! You stated in Havana this past May 14 “First, my hope is that Congress will soon act…and repeal the embargo” (NY Times 5/14/02.)
Who would benefit? “Companies like Archer Daniels Midland, Riceland Foods, Gold Kist Inc. and about 18 others that have sold food to Cuba since late last year” (NY Times 5/26/02.) As a direct result of your proposal, American corporations would line their coffers, the Castro dictatorship economically sustained, and a dynasty begun - his brother is anointed as the successor. The Cuban people would continue to suffer oppression, denied human rights, and subjected to the continued reprisals of the Castro tyranny when daring to exercise a basic right such as freedom of speech. An unlikely scenario, I think not!
During the same speech you gave as a viable example “when I normalized relations with China in 1979.” Let us look at the progress of human rights in China the past 23 years, easily summarized in two specific cases: Tiananmen Square June 1989, and religious persecution.
Normalizing economic relations with the Chinese Communist Government has had zero impact on the rights of the average Chinese, but it has greatly profited the exceptionally corrupt and parasitic rulers and their collaborators.
The very same rulers who ordered the bloody crackdown on peaceful unarmed student and worker demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in June of 1989, to protect their personal fortunes and lifestyles. Who can forget the images of an unarmed man standing up to a tank? The failure of “normalization” with China paid in blood by the thousands of slain students and workers.
Religious persecution in China is an incessant abomination. Any and all religions are viewed as enemies of the state, whether Christianity or Falun Gong, and its followers are subjected to persecution by the Chinese government.
This systemic religious persecution is sanctioned at the highest levels of the communist Chinese regime. “During last December’s National Religious Working Conference in Beijing, President Jiang Zemin called for the elimination of spirituality’s encroachment on China’s Communist Party rule. The three-day meeting was attended by a “who’s who” list of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council.” (National Review 1/23/02.)
In calling to repeal the embargo Mr. Carter, you condemn the people of Cuba to another 40 years of systematic oppression, subjected to economic apartheid, virtually enslaved, and robbed of human dignity. Just as the “normalized relations with China” has allowed the communist regime to castigate the Chinese people for the past twenty plus years.
Furthermore, why do you not extend the oppressed population of Cuba the same solidarity and support you expressed for the people of South Africa and Rhodesia? You supported the trade embargo against those countries as a means of effecting changes in government that enfranchised those citizens to participate in self-determination. Yet, you would sentence the population of Cuba to the failed Chinese model. Why?
The obvious answer, is economic pressure. There were no corporations lobbying for trade with South Africa and Rhodesia; you would have been pilloried in the media as conspiring with governments that trampled on the human rights of their oppressed citizens. Yet, the plight of the Cuban people provokes no cry for justice.
You genuflect at the altar of corporate profits, mindlessly repeating the mantra of your corporate sponsors - repeal the embargo for “humanitarian” reasons. You sir are shilling for Archer Daniels Midland, Riceland Foods, and Gold Kist Inc. “or promoting terrorism.”
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Reverend Martin Niemoller’s oft-quoted condemnation of the bystanders. You Mr. Carter are one of those bystanders.
Over the past years some of the most notorious terrorist organizations in the world - PLO, IRA FARC ETA, FALN, Hamas - have been hosted and encouraged to open training facilities on Cuban soil by Fidel Castro. When you fail to denounce Castro’s involvement with these organizations, you are promoting terrorism.
The US State Department lists Cuba and Iran as terrorist states. Five short months before the cowardly attacks of September 11, Castro visited Teheran where he and Ayatollah Khamenehi stated Iran and Cuba would hand in hand defeat America, and swore publicly to destroy the United States. When you share a meal with Castro, you are promoting terrorism.
The World Health Organization classifies countries into five categories depending on the development of their biological industry. Cuba is classified as category 4.based on its capacity to produce bioweapons.
There is a bilateral agreement between Cuba and Libya, Cuba and Iraq, and Cuba and Iran on biotechnology. Iran’s major Biotechnology Center, was inaugurated by Castro on May 2001. When you tour the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana and naively state there is no danger of Castro transferring technology that can be used to make weapons of mass destruction, you are promoting terrorism.
“Mr. Carter said the Cuban government would now have to decide how to respond to the petition (Varela Project) campaign’s demands” (NY Times 5/18/02)
Well Mr. Carter the Castro government has decided: “Defying calls …for democratic reforms, Fidel Castro led a march of hundreds of thousands of people Wednesday to ratify as ``untouchable’’ the one-party socialist system that has ruled this Caribbean island for four decades.” (AP 6/12/02)
It appears Castro has made a dupe out of you. It has been a month since your visit and Castro has said nothing publicly about Project Varela. He led you by the nose in his VIP “dog and pony show” as you praised his corrupt oppressive regime, used your visit to legitimize his tyrannical political system, and had his failed economic policies validated as you foolishly called for a unilateral repeal of the embargo.
In truth sir, you have done a great disservice to the Cuban dissidents and the Varela Project. Even before your visit, the Castro regime began a campaign to discredit the Varela Project as the “work of marginal people paid by the United States.” At the same time turning “to more direct dissuasion with threats and home searches. Some were detained and taken miles from their homes, then forced to walk or hitchhike back.” (NY Times 5/14/02.)
Despite your assertion “I did not come here to interfere in Cuba’s internal affairs” (NY Times 5/14/02) you handed the communist regime the perfect excuse to reject the Varela Project - the first time the majority of Cubans are introduced to the Varela Project is through a speech by a foreigner and an American to boot! You simplistically played right into the hands of the dictator, validating the Castro regime’s claim that “it was crafted by foreigners” and therefore has no merit.
Castro has thumbed his nose at you, Mr. Carter, using his typical propaganda machinations: “The proposed constitutional amendment declaring Cuba’s socialist system to be ``untouchable,’’ and the mobilization, appear to be Castro’s response to the Varela Project, the proposed reform referendum.” (AP 6/12/02.)
Foolishly Mr. Carter, you made your asinine visit. Paying homage to Castro the repressive dictator, who for the past 40 years has systematically oppressed and trampled the human rights and dignity of the Cuban people.
Respectfully, Oscar B. Pichardo
2109 Ernest Ave. Redondo Beach, CA 90278
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