CUBA

[Nodack]

We have normalized relations with Cuba after 50+ years or something like that. It came out of nowhere and it was all Obama. What do you guys think?

OK so Fidel Castro did a military coup and took over the country making it a Communist dictatorship. We got pissed and even secretly helped put together an uprising of Cubans against him in the Bay of Pigs. Turns out after the uprising was launched we deserted the uprising alltogether and left them high and dry for some reason. Cuba paranoid as hell after that aligned with Russia and Russia was all to happy to put nukes in Cuba aimed at the U.S. in retaliation to us helping to put nukes in Europe aimed at Russia. We almost went to war over those missiles in Cuba, but after some back door negotiations Ruussia pulled the nukes out and we secretly pulled some of our nukes out of Europe in a deal reached between the two countries that also included the U.S. promising to never invade Cuba. Since then we have made Cuba a forbiden place and have had zero trade between the countries. You know, everybody wants to sneak in a Cuban cigar.

Now Obama out of the blue has normalized relations with them. Personally I never understood how we can be practically at war with Communist China while simultaniously having them as our biggest trading partner. Money trumps politics I guess. We have dealt with Russia a lot more than Cuba and are total adversaries at the moment with them, but still over the years have had a much closer relationship with Russia than Cuba.

Maybe Obama thought he needed a legacy or maybe Obama just said this has gone on long enough and 50+ years or sanctions has done nothing to change Cuba in any way other than making them the 1950s American car capital of the world. I am ok with the deal. we have relations with other communist countries. We don't have to like their politics to get along with them. They don't like out politics. I am positive Republicans will fight it just because Obama did it without asking their permission.

[Phoenix219]

It wasn't his decision to make, period.

[Mori Chu]

Republicans will hate this. They hate anything Obama does, and, they only support interacting with other nations if it's a Republican president declaring war on them or bombing them.

[Indy]

It wasn't his decision to make, period.

Why?

[Indy]

Maybe Obama thought he needed a legacy or maybe Obama just said this has gone on long enough and 50+ years or sanctions has done nothing to change Cuba in any way other than making them the 1950s American car capital of the world.

This isn't new. I am pretty sure it was part of his platform when running the first time.

[Nodack]

It wasn't his decision to make, period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... ba#History
President John F. Kennedy extended measures by Executive Order, first widening the scope of the trade restrictions on February 8, 1962 (announced on February 3 and again on March 23, 1962). These measures expanded the embargo to include all imports of products containing Cuban goods, even if the final products had been made or assembled outside Cuba.

The restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba lapsed on March 19, 1977;[20] the regulation was renewable every six months, but President Jimmy Carter did not renew it and the regulation on spending U.S. dollars in Cuba was lifted shortly afterwards. President Ronald Reagan reinstated the trade embargo on April 19, 1982.

It seems to me that Presidents have been able to do whatever they want.

This isn't new. I am pretty sure it was part of his platform when running the first time.

I don't remember that. Let me look it up because everything is on the internets.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=90781878

2008
Since the days of Ronald Reagan, Cuban-Americans have been a reliable Republican voting bloc in Florida. They helped George W. Bush win-narrowly-in 2000 and again by a wider margin in 2004.

But there are signs that Democrats may have an opening in the Cuban-American community. Democrats recently celebrated when they surpassed Republicans in registering Hispanics in Florida. And polls show that a majority of Cuban-Americans support a change in policy that would loosen restrictions on travel and on sending money to the island.

In his speech in Miami, Obama said there are no better people to promote freedom in Cuba than Cuban-Americans. To thunderous applause, he said, "That's why I will immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances to the island. It's time to let Cuba- Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers."

The question in November is whether the popularity of those ideas will translate into support for Democratic candidates.

[Dan H]

I don't really care about Cuba but this made me LOL. (BTW I've long thought normalizing travel restrictions would be good for our own citizens who travel there if nothing else. It's one thing to see news stories about how things are there and another entirely to see it firsthand.)

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/05/s ... y-release/