Posted on 06/08/2019 6:26:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
“If Cuban troops and militia do not immediately cease military and other operations for the purpose of causing death and destruction to the constitution of Venezuela, a full and complete embargo, together with highest-level sanctions, will be placed on the island of Cuba,” (President Trump, April 30, 2019.)
“Trump administration bans cruises to Cuba in clampdown on U.S. travel-– The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed heavy new restrictions on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens, including a ban on cruises, in a bid to further pressure the Communist island.” (Reuters, June 4, 2019.)
As is often documented hereabouts, Castro’s military and secret police (the only people in Cuba with guns, in case some have forgotten) majority-own everything related to Cuba’s tourism industry, which is the Castro-Crime –Syndicate’s second largest source of income, slightly behind what they extort and otherwise squeeze out of their miserable Venezuelan colony in stolen oil and drug-smuggling proceeds.
Any more questions about why the Trump team decided to attend to this travel matter? (i.e. to once again make good on a threat to a foreign adversary?)
But wasn’t Obama’s Cuba policy of forgiving The Castro-Crime-Syndicate’s mass theft of U.S. property, its torture and murder of U.S. citizens, its blatant terror-sponsorship and drug-smuggling while showering it with $billions of U.S. dollars–wasn’t this shrewd policy guaranteed to turn Cuba into a Spanish-speaking Switzerland? Well:
“Cuba continues to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up U.S. adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes. This administration has made a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime. These actions will help to keep U.S. dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services.” (Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.)
Some perspective: in 2017, Cuba received 1.5 million visitors from the U.S. Given a big spike in recent cruise ship landings, that figure was expected to balloon in 2019, and the Castro-Crime-Syndicate was rubbing its hands and whooping in anticipation of this Obama-generated financial windfall.
Those delighted whoops have now turned to wails of anger and grief.
But wasn’t Cuba historically a tourist playground for Americans, some might ask? Sure. But here’s some more perspective:
When travel to Cuba was promoted by the U.S. government and Cuba served as a “tourist playground” for Americans (the 1950s), the island annually received around 200,000 tourists from the U.S. In fact, up until 1953, more Cubans had vacationed in the U.S. annually than did Americans in Cuba, as befit a developed nation with a larger middle-class than much of Europe of the time.
But, as mentioned, on a year (2017) when tourism to Cuba from the U.S. was outlawed by congressionally-passed and presidentially-signed laws the island annually received upwards of ONE AND A HALF MILLION tourists from the U.S.
Sounds crazy, I know. But here it is straight from the U.S. State Dept. “Tourist travel to Cuba is prohibited under U.S. law for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and others subject to U.S. jurisdiction.”
Obviously there was something drastically wrong with that picture--with such a flagrant scoffing at U.S. law. Any more questions why the Trump team decided to attend to this travel matter? (i.e. to once again make good on a threat to a snickering foreign adversary who --catastrophically as it turned out!--thought he was still dealing with Obama?)
What happened recently is that, though U.S. tourism to Cuba remained technically illegal according to U.S. law, Obama had opened up so many loopholes that Americans became second only to Canadians as vacationers in Cuba (i.e. as financial partners with the Stalinist, terror-sponsoring regime’s military and secret-police.)
Sounds crazy, I know. But here it is straight from the U.S. State Dept. “Tourist travel to Cuba is prohibited under U.S. law for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and others subject to U.S. jurisdiction.”
Obviously there was something drastically wrong with that picture--with such a flagrant scoffing at U.S. law. Any more questions why the Trump team decided to attend to this travel matter? (i.e. to once again make good on a threat to a snickering foreign adversary who --catastrophically as it turned out!--thought he was still dealing with Obama?)
What happened recently is that, though U.S. tourism to Cuba remained technically illegal according to U.S. law, Obama had opened up so many loopholes that Americans became second only to Canadians as vacationers in Cuba (i.e. as financial partners with the Stalinist, terror-sponsoring regime’s military and secret-police.)
This (eminently predictable) Castroite wave of terror was verified even by leftist watchdog groups like Amnesty international.
As Obama implemented his Cuba “opening” (to cheers from libertarians) your humble servant went blue in the face trying to explain the horrible--but eminently predictable--consequence to some libertarians on John Stossel’s show.
In fact, contrary to all the media blather about Raul Castro and his successor’s (i.e puppet’s) Diaz-Canel’s “reforms,” Cuba hasn’t budged a millimeter from its spot in the Heritage Economic Freedom list. It still maintains its proud historic ranking of almost dead last, next to its partner in Stalinism North Korea.
And regarding all the Fake News Media blather about Cuba’s “new and burgeoning private sector!” and how it’s now employing a hefty chunk of Cuba’s working population! And how Trump’s “clamp-down” (i.e enforcement of U.S. law) will “hurt Cuba’s private sector hardest!”— some of us actually bothered to run the numbers.
In the process, your humble servant revealed that-- as a percentage of the Cuban population-- the number of Cubans currently “self-employed” in Cuba is about the same as were similarly employed when fanatical Maoist/Stalinist Che Guevara served as Cuba’s “Minister of the Economy.”
Hence, yet another Fake News Media lie about Cuba bites the dust.
It’s time to tell the cruise lines that any that stop in Cuba will be banned from US ports. That should do the trick.
Humberto writes gibberish.
Below is my favorite photo of the mass murdering Che. The only good Che is a dead one getting his feet tickled!:
That’s already happened. All of the major cruise lines have cancelled sailings to Cuba.
POTUS is going to go down in the History books as the best President of the US.
I’m always getting offers from the various lines. I’ll have to keep an eye open to verify that.
The pope arranged the bammy/castro deal. The pope must be seething with anger.
Excellent! I wish he had done this on day 1 in the White House. Another disastrous Obama policy scrapped.
I was hoping to hop on a sailing to Cuba at some point, but those itineraries have been about twice as expensive, or more, than the other options.
I kinda wished I would have taken a cruise that included Cuba when we could. Just thought we’d have time to. We go on a cruise at least once a year but never included Cuba but was going to. Oh well....
They already stopped going to Cuba. Some neighbors of mine are rather pissed off.
You can see the city by looking at lots and lots of pictures
You will of course have to forgo drinking the rum from the stolen Bacardi distilleries
Yup. I can see being disappointed, but why go to a Communist-run island where there are so many others? Titillation? Liberal Solidarity? Sure as Hell can't be curiosity with all the proof shown by other such Hellholes.
U.S. Cruise Operators Forced to Stop Cuba Sailings, Angering Travelers >
“Yup. I can see being disappointed, but why go to a Communist-run island where there are so many others? “
It’s no different than white people here voting for The Kenyan Usurper! There is so little real patriotism left in this country.
Yesterday a local talk radio show from S Florida was loaded with calls from pro Trump Cubans.
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law took the trip last fall. They enjoyed meeting the people and taking tours in 1950s convertibles. But they were astounded by how shabby and poor the place looked. His pictures reminded me of pictures of East Berlin in the 50s—except there hadn’t been a war.
“Humberto writes gibberish.”
Explain.
"As is often documented hereabouts, Castro’s military and secret police (the only people in Cuba with guns, in case some have forgotten) majority-own everything related to Cuba’s tourism industry, which is the Castro-Crime –Syndicate’s second largest source of income, slightly behind what they extort and otherwise squeeze out of their miserable Venezuelan colony in stolen oil and drug-smuggling proceeds."
Is that sentence? What's the subject? The predicate? What does it mean?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.