Posted on 12/17/2014 7:00:18 AM PST by WhiskeyX
Besides, the Cubans very well know that with better relations with the USA, it could mean a dramatically improved standard of living for them. The island of Cuba has huge swaths of land that can grow a huge variety of tropical agricultural products plus tobacco--and that includes sugar cane and possibly even cacao trees, where the seeds are the base ingredient for chocolate. And there are many miles of beaches for tourist development, too.
In short, the embargo against Cuba has become obsolete, especially with Russia no longer supporting them and Venezuela on the verge of complete collapse. Besides, with better relations with the USA, it may even have the strategic advantage of denying the Russians a base for ships and aircraft, too.
Correct. Most of the older Cuban-Americans who escaped from Cuba in 1959-1962 and opposed ending the embargo have pretty passed on by now.
You may check what I have written earlier http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:admsmith/index?tab=comments;brevity=full;options=no-change
The GOP and Wall Street see big investments in Cuba. It has been called a paradise with regards to land and water. I think they are just as happy to be able to travel and start buying up land. Big opportunity to have many Hilton Resorts or The Hyatt Resort or the Marriott Resort. Yes big money awaits. I thought they would at least wait until Castro died but I guess everyone wants to get this show on the road. It would have been helpful had they banned every communist country and not just Cuba...China for example. I can go and visit China (which I did) but I can’t go to Cuba?
Sadly you are missing out big time.
Obama is working on a second Nobel Prize and a Job at the United Nations
If he resigned tomorrow, I would be all for him getting a second Nobel and a job at the United Nations for 2 mil a year for the rest of his life. Yep, that is how much I want him out of office.
Hard to believe how many liberals post here.
Actually many long time great FRiends are replying here. What is your problem with lifting the long embargo? Did you feel the same when Nixon went to China? Were you hurt that now Cubans will be able to come and go? Are you pissed that Cubans in Florida will now be able to see their relatives? What is it and why do you think we should not lift the embargo?
Liberalism that won't defend itself & its values against evil isn’t liberalism—it’s weakness & cowardice disguised in progressive slogans.Liberalism by definition is the absence of “values” (read: morals). So for liberalism to defend against evil is for liberalism to destroy itself, being evil.
I have no problem with this.
I’ve said for years:
“Drop McDonalds, Coca Cola and other American products on them and that regime is done”.
Hell, reunite families.
I mean WTF. This ain’t the Korea’s.
Alas, I have no reason to buy Cuban Cigars anymore, as they are no longer verboten.
Unlike Russia, Venezuela and the Opecker Companies, we don’t export oil as part of our GDP. Actually, when we import oil, our economy can be hurt.
Go to the link below and see how lower gas prices are helping the average American and how lower prices will not be a negative in the short and long run.
The impact is especially significant for low- and middle-income Americans, who have been largely left behind by the anemic economic recovery that began in the middle of 2009. Even as the job market has improved, most workers have received only modest wage increases. Median income remains roughly 5 percent below the peak it hit in 2007.
Of course, the shifting energy picture will create losers as well as winners. Falling crude prices could eventually slow surging domestic oil and gas production, dimming one of the major economic bright spots of recent years. But while a further decline in oil prices would make it harder to tap the most costly oil shale deposits and deep offshore reserves, economists say the overall momentum will more than compensate for any potential slowdown in the energy patch.
“When oil prices fall, the benefit to consumers outweighs the loss to producers,” said Dean Maki, chief United States economist at Barclays. “Investment in oil and gas production is still less than 1 percent of gross domestic product. Consumer spending is 68.5 percent of G.D.P.”
Even in Texas, the estimated loss of 15,000 energy production jobs that might occur if lower crude prices persist would be offset by increased employment in sectors like refining and transportation, as well as in businesses that rely on consumer spending, according to Mine K. Yucel, senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“There may be some slowing, but it’s not going to be dramatic if we stay around $80,” Ms. Yucel said. “If the price goes below $70, we will probably see a tapering off of production.”
In the meantime, the most economically fragile part of the population is already feeling some relief, which is likely to lead to extra spending on a variety of other goods and services.
i AM NOT SURPRISED BY THIS MOVE BY THIS gOD-AWFUL ADMINISTRATION.
We give up three actual spys/moles with American citizen blood on their hands (some were involved in passing info back to Cuba so they could shoot down a US private aircraft over international waters which was simply seerching for Cuban refugees).
As I say, I am not surprised by this treacherous, traitorous administration.
They gave up the absolute worst Gitmo terrorists for a AWOL American who sought the Taliban enemy out, and faced absolutley no real cosequences over it...so of course they would continue in that mold. I expect more of the same by this Administration over the next two years.
“I’m not a student of Cuba, but it seems to be that they would be ripe for a democratic takeover of the government.”
Unfortunately, a very large % of the Good People of Cuba have come to America since the 1960’s. Those left are for the most part, multi generational socialists dependent on a socialist government. Many Cubans in Cuba, if not most would be lost in a democratic government dependent on capitalism.
The same thing happened when East Germany folded in to West Germany. Everyone predicted what a great economic boom that was for Germany. It wasn’t, and there is still a problem with some of the older leftover socialist Germans from East Germany.
So the answer is, because liberals were hypocrites (what else is new) over Tiananmen Square back in 1989, that we must move further left along with Obama on the matter of Cuba? Really?
Love the liberal talking points. Obama isn’t doing this for any of those alleged reasons. Relations with Cuba should only be normalized on US terms, not on internationalist socialistic terms.
As for Nixon, his liberal record speaks for itself, and badly.
Why are you portraying the NYSlimes as a legitimate news source?
This is a capitulation. We will get zilch from Cuba in return. They will not have to payback for everything they stole.
BOL: “I’ve said for years:
“Drop McDonalds, Coca Cola and other American products on them and that regime is done”.
Go to the link below. Many of us have said what you posted for decades. Want to kill a communist regime give them what you noted and Walmart.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3238133/posts?page=165#165
“I’m guessing Walmart already has plans drawn up for a new store in Havana.”
BOL! A couple of months after the Cuban Missile Crisis was over, I was on a ship in Gitmo. The CO’s attended a meeting of CO’s and other brass. I went as an assistant if needed.
During a coffee hour discussion, one of the CO’s said “We should demand that Castro allow Sears, Wards, KMart, McD and other American businesses be allowed to have stores in Cuba and American TV shows/news to be shown on tvs bought at the Cuban Sears, Wards, and Kmart. He said that would kill communism in a couple of years instead of embargos and restrictions which would only make life miserable for the Cubans not in power.
A couple of decades, later I have felt that he was correct.
He's making our friends our enemies, and making our enemies our friends. How convoluted is that?
You seem bitter. Get over it. It really is not a big deal. The way you worry about nonsense worries me that you will have a heart attach any day. This is not the end of the World by a long shot. I guess you are just a JFK lover and will miss the embargo. Well you had 50 years to enjoy it and JFK is dead. Time to get on with life.
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