Fidel is 89 today

[malaise]

Tomorrow the US Embassy reopens.

[DesertFlower]

1. it's about time. should have

happened years ago.

[Yupster]

2. Well what was he supposed to do?

Even the Commandante can't speed up time.

It took him 89 years to reach age 89 just like anyone else.

[DesertFlower]

3. don't you think it had more to do

with the US making the first move?

[Yupster]

5. Maybe has something to do with good Cuban doctors

and the health benefits of cigars.

I don't think the US had anything to do with Fidel turning 89. In fact we tried our best that he wouldn't.

[DesertFlower]

11. i was talking about reopening the embassy.

[Yupster]

18. Oh, that's very different

Never mind.

[Bluenorthwest]

15. And you too? He put gay people in forced labor camps.

This month is sure making things clear around here again. Fuck. Prison camps.

[Zorra]

19. Thank you for the education.

Being of several minorities, I try to make some allowances for historical time periods and cultures, because I don't want to be burdened with useless enmity towards a great many people.

I try to cut slack when appropriate, no one is perfect.

If there is any group of people that persecuted, oppressed, enslaved, and murdered my ancestors far more than any other, it would be the English, led by their sociopathic, greedy, bloodthirsty imperialist royalty. I struggle with this, but know that all English people are not responsible for the sins of their royalty, government, officials, slavers, and general scoundrels.

In the case of Castro and LGBT, I did a fair amount of research after I read your post, and there are no excuses for what he did. He's directly responsible, he knows he is responsible, and no matter how sorry he may be now, he will be taking these horrors to his grave with him. I can't really cut him any slack.

I sincerely appreciate your information, directness, and candor.

[ericson00]

6. 89 years too many

of one of this hemispheres most brutal and repressive regimes.

[Comrade Grumpy]

9. That's not even close to historically accurate.

In that time since the Cuban Revolution, we saw:

The rightist Argentine military juntas who killed tens of thousands.

The rightist Chilean military juntas who killed tens of thousands.

The rightist Salvadoran military and civilian governments supported by the US whose death squads murdered American nuns and thousands of Salvadorans.

The rightist Guatemalan military regime of Rios Montt that committed acts of genocide against the Mayan population to the tune of several hundred thousand.

And then there's the Colombian "democratic" state--again supported by the US--whose army murdered thousands of civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, and claimed to have killed them in combat.

And that's just off the top of my head.

Cuba has a relative handful of political prisoners, some restrictions on free association and free expression we don't have, and a one-party state.

[ericson00]

10. Those regimes are gone, Castro is still around

I was referring to the present tense. Also, as bad as the Contra were, the Sandinistas were no better. Outside of the US, "left" and "right" really don't mean too much.

Freedom House agrees with me that Cuba is a brutal vile oppressive communist dictatorship.

[brooklynite]

16. Okay-how about "one of the most CONSISTENTLY repressive regimes..."?

[malaise]

13. Absolute BS n/t

[U4ikLefty]

7. He won

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. Happy birthday. And he was hangin' with Evo and Maduro.

[bemildred]

12. "I'll dance on your grave." nt

[Bluenorthwest]

14. He put my people in forced labor camps. Of course that's fine by you.

He put us in labor camps. He made us prisoners. You celebrate him. Wow.

[bemildred]

17. Richard Blanco to read poem at U.S. Embassy in Cuba reopening

A gay Cuban American poet who took part in President Obama’s second inauguration will take part in Friday’s ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba where the American flag will be raised.

Richard Blanco will recite a new poem during the ceremony that will mark the official reopening of the U.S. embassy along Havana’s oceanfront promenade that overlooks the Florida Straits.

Blanco told the Washington Blade on Wednesday during a telephone interview that the poem’s inspiration comes from Cuba’s geographic proximity to the U.S. The gay Cuban American poet who lives in Maine added it will also contain a “very human-based, centered theme” that stresses “healing” between the two countries.

“My inspiration is thinking about 90 miles separating the two countries and the two people,” Blanco told the Blade. “90 miles is the sea between us.”

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/08/12/richard-blanco-to-read-poem-at-u-s-embassy-in-cuba-reopening/

[NuclearDem]

20. People here have supported Mugabe and Putin.

What's one more repressive homophobe? All that matters is that he's a thorn in the West's side.