Things going on in Cuba...

[bolverk 30,323]

25 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Yeah, hard to stop something like this when the people are this pissed. I hope the people are able to win this damn thing. Don't know how the regime survives this type of anger. 

Massive repression, mollifying concessions, or complete capitulation are pretty much the only options. I don't know how strong the genuine support for the regime is, but that'll determine which door they walk through.

[Gatorubet 30,711]

Given our track record in meddling, might be a spot to let the Cubans handle it themselves 

Narciso Lopez monument right across from my office, so….yeah

[InkaUtexas 26,863]

1 minute ago, bolverk said:

Massive repression, mollifying concessions, or complete capitulation are pretty much the only options. I don't know how strong the genuine support for the regime is, but that'll determine which door they walk through.

Also how well they have hidden their dollars and gold. 

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

Relatives of those arrested yesterday in the protests in Havana demand information this Monday from a police station. Most of them are women.

[Gatorubet 30,711]

Yes I am pretty sure most of us understand this. It sucks that it was the case and I for one am a lazy fuck that says hell yea handle your shit Cuban people when this happens while eating tacos and watching the home run derby. Hell I played baseball in Puerto Rico and saw crazy poverty while drinking and hollering at chicks  cause I didn't care about anything else. Was I an asshole for not recognizing what I was seeing in 2008? I definitely was and I was also a shitty baseball player compared to them. Your post and mine don't matter shit in this situation. Good on these people for doing this, I only hope it works out in their favor cause the alternative is probably not great. 
/csb while high

Pics of chicks not loading

[bolverk 30,323]

19 minutes ago, Zepol87 said:

The Venezuelans will probably chill in Cuba and try not to go back

Come to think of it, this has the potential to be the most chill and beautiful revolution ever. Just imagine all the protestors bouncing down the streets in rhythm to Buena Vista Social Club. The cops couldn't help but join the protestors in some awesome street party.

Edit: When I first got this album back in the 1990s, it changed everything I thought I ever knew about Cuba and immediately fell in love with the country.

Edited July 13, 2021 by bolverk

[bolverk 30,323]

oops

Edited July 13, 2021 by bolverk

[InkaUtexas 26,863]

Loved it from day one. 

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

Civilians starting to put out lists of their missing loved ones.

 

[GRHorn 105]

3 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Civilians starting to put out lists of their missing loved ones.

 

I count 114 names. I thought maybe you posted it was estimated at 80 earlier. I’m sure it’s not an exhaustive list though. 

Edited July 13, 2021 by GRHorn

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

1 minute ago, GRHorn said:

I count 114 names. I thought maybe you posted it was estimated at 80 earlier. I’m sure it’s not an exhaustive list though. 

Yeah, it was estimated at 80 earlier, but I wondered if it was missing a 0 or two.

As I said though, civilians are starting to step up and protect one another more and more.

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

That'll buff right out.

 

[troph 25,220]

3 hours ago, El Diablo said:

I don't know. I just keep hearing this in my head.

 

Raise you one … 

 

[troph 25,220]

1 hour ago, bolverk said:

Come to think of it, this has the potential to be the most chill and beautiful revolution ever. Just imagine all the protestors bouncing down the streets in rhythm to Buena Vista Social Club. The cops couldn't help but join the protestors in some awesome street party.

Edit: When I first got this album back in the 1990s, it changed everything I thought I ever knew about Cuba and immediately fell in love with the country.

That group did so much for the American view of Cuba. I saw them on tour it was a great great show. Have this in vinyl. Fantastic listen. 

[troph 25,220]

3 hours ago, twosheds said:

How do I link an article. Maybe I am old.

“The day the shit went down at the Randall’s”  best part is at the 2:00 mark if you aren’t up for a full song.

Edited July 13, 2021 by troph

[bolverk 30,323]

21 minutes ago, troph said:

That group did so much for the American view of Cuba. I saw them on tour it was a great great show. Have this in vinyl. Fantastic listen. 

Yep, prior to that album, pretty much the only images I had in my head I had about Cuba were:

Then, I heard the music.

[DonkeyCigars 143]

Say what you want about communism, but...

"You know who used to put out readable translations? The East Bloc, that’s who! I stand in awe of the East German Eugen Onegin. Drafted decades before under the forbidding regime of the Wilhelminian Empire, polished by trained Marxist-Leninists, its sparkling verse blends the wit and power of Byron with the grace of Heine. The charm of the GDR Platonov, the eloquence of the GDR Tolstoy . . . There’s simply no comparison with, say, the bumbling of the UK Flaubert, whose characters pursue “romantic assignments” because the translator doesn’t know assignations are a thing.

The GDR seated unwitting dissidents on gamma ray sources that gave them cancer, but its translations were brilliant. Coincidence? I think not. Under communism, an ex-Soviet friend explained to me, the best writers couldn’t publish their own stuff, so they translated and edited to survive. Imagine if the Confederacy had won and Paul Beatty had to get work translating Paulo Coelho. That’s what it was like.

There’s no compromise between getting it wrong and never trying in the first place. In this way it resembles all worthwhile endeavors—peace, justice, conservation, et cetera. You can approach it with a mix of laziness and demoralization, get ugly results, and still be doing the right thing."

[TKthunder2 5,059]

6 hours ago, elfenix said:

oops was boris not gorby, and yeah, visited nasa:

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/houston-matters/2020/02/21/361467/boris-yelstins-1989-visit-to-a-houston-grocery-store-is-now-an-opera/

Often confused/muddled by some people with the Kitchen debates between Khrushchev and Nixon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Debate

[gmr548 16,695]

while high

I was kind of thinking this but thanks for confirming

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

6 hours ago, bolverk said:

Yep, prior to that album, pretty much the only images I had in my head I had about Cuba were:

 

 

 

Then, I heard the music.

Those 2 WERE Cuba... The bottom one still is.....

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,999]

13 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

How do you get anything into a country locking down by the very regime everyone wants out?  Martial law is going to lock the entire island down.  This is going to be dicey and I think a lot of these protestors are going to "disappear" by the thousands.  This may be more akin to Bosnia and Herzegovina as the atrocities are going to mount.  

Food and medicine are fine and needed, but is about decades of abuse and oppression.  You'll just helping get them to half-time and refuel.  What happens when bullets start flying?  In Berlin we had a base of operations.  Outside of Gitmo, that luxury isn't there?  Just random airdrops?  How is it distrubuted?  

Trebuchets.

On the one hand, if Venezuela tries to send troops to Cuba it wouldn't terribly hurt my feelings if we parked an aircraft carrier or destroyer off the coast in international waters and just sort of prevented them from making landfall, but on the other hand, most of those soldiers are probably stuck in just as crappy a situation as the Cubans. Maybe we should just sit back and hope that if Venezuela sends troops over it just causes the revolutionary fever to spread to the mainland.

[Cheeseweasel 26,439]

They are reaching a point of no return -- either risk dying attempting to overthrow the government or end up on a list and die later.

[Capt. Squints 176]

I just hope this nonsense doesn't fuck up the Hemingway Billfishing Tournament. I haven't fished it in years and planned to fish it again in 2022.

[Armybrat 41,396]

19 hours ago, Sandman said:

Honest question: If this would work, why hasn't the US government dropped this level of aid on Detroit or West Virginia? Do we think the local authorities are any less corrupt than foreign ones?

Corruption... just like Puerto Rico. It is massive whether naive Americans want to hear it or not. Same in Austin as Boston & Louisiana.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

7 minutes ago, Capt. Squints said:

I just hope this nonsense doesn't fuck up the Hemingway Billfishing Tournament. I haven't fished it in years and planned to fish it again in 2022.

I'm glad someone has their priorities straight.

[Rip76 5,022]

18 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

They are reaching a point of no return -- either risk dying attempting to overthrow the government or end up on a list and die later.

I told a friend this last night.  It’s pretty much go time now.

[InkaUtexas 26,863]

1 hour ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Trebuchets.

On the one hand, if Venezuela tries to send troops to Cuba it wouldn't terribly hurt my feelings if we parked an aircraft carrier or destroyer off the coast in international waters and just sort of prevented them from making landfall, but on the other hand, most of those soldiers are probably stuck in just as crappy a situation as the Cubans. Maybe we should just sit back and hope that if Venezuela sends troops over it just causes the revolutionary fever to spread to the mainland.

And Let Colombia move east. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8,350]

My dad and uncle got to go to Cuba when they were kids. The whole family loaded up a car in West U, drove to Miami, got on an ocean liner, and hit the Bahamas and Havana, like three months before it caved in. Dad said it was tense as fuck -- machine gun nests on street corners, armored personnel carriers rumbling around...while they went to go see the jai alai at El Fronton Grande or whatever. (My grandfather was a big handball player so this was like a pilgrimage to Wembley or some shit.)

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57813704
 

Quote

In a four-hour-long televised address President Miguel Díaz-Canel slammed protestors as "counter-revolutionaries" while his foreign minister alleged the demonstrations had been financed and instigated by the United States.

4 hour speech on TV?  That’s a lot of insecurity and grievances being aired.  

[Cheeseweasel 26,439]

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57813704
 

4 hour speech on TV?  That’s a lot of insecurity and grievances being aired.  

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

[InkaUtexas 26,863]

4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57813704
 

4 hour speech on TV?  That’s a lot of insecurity and grievances being aired.  

Nah, its cuz we blocked the home run derby. 

[GopherRock 1,773]

I know a lot of people are comparing this to the end of the dictatorship in Romania. East Germany was quickly heading that way, too. 

Unfortunately, most of Ceausescu's cronies ended up in the government that followed the dictatorship. Without a clear path defining what's next, that's what is likely with Cuba. Contrast it with the eventual reunification of Germany. It helped that the Kremlin wanted no violence.

 

 

[6th Street 6,688]

40 minutes ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

My dad and uncle got to go to Cuba when they were kids. The whole family loaded up a car in West U, drove to Miami, got on an ocean liner, and hit the Bahamas and Havana, like three months before it caved in. Dad said it was tense as fuck -- machine gun nests on street corners, armored personnel carriers rumbling around...while they went to go see the jai alai at El Fronton Grande or whatever. (My grandfather was a big handball player so this was like a pilgrimage to Wembley or some shit.)

Just like in Godfather

[Bevo 13,870]

 

2 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Trebuchets.

On the one hand, if Venezuela tries to send troops to Cuba it wouldn't terribly hurt my feelings if we parked an aircraft carrier or destroyer off the coast in international waters and just sort of prevented them from making landfall, but on the other hand, most of those soldiers are probably stuck in just as crappy a situation as the Cubans. Maybe we should just sit back and hope that if Venezuela sends troops over it just causes the revolutionary fever to spread to the mainland.

I'm sure that this is fake news, but if it isn't... The US should disarm the Venezuelan military and then have them continue on to Cuba.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,999]

Would it be too meddlesome to just set up a military blockade around the island and only let trade and aid through? Make our policy to let the Cubans determine their own direction and anybody who tries to interfere gets to fafo? Or would that make our spooks too giddy to not try and interfere?

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

38 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57813704
 

4 hour speech on TV?  That’s a lot of insecurity and grievances being aired.  

Financed, and instigated by the US you say ?  Where do I send my check for financing, and instigation services....  Sorry BT, I just love me some instigation, and FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM !!!!!!

[BabaYaga 15,623]

22 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Financed, and instigated by the US you say ?  Where do I send my check for financing, and instigation services

It's always someone else's fault why it fails.  Rinse.  Wash.  Repeat.  

[ABSR 5,369]

16 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

I think it would put a serious kink in their revenue. Let's see. Cuba, beaches, tropical location, same gambling experience, same shows, 1 hour away, golf year round  or Vegas 3-6 hours away, hot as shit, in the middle of nowhere still.  It's Vegas, and they do it well,  but it would be a huge competitor for them in this hemisphere.

I think Atlantic City would be the real loser.  Las Vegas will be okay.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

2 minutes ago, ABSR said:

I think Atlantic City would be the real loser.  Las Vegas will be okay.

Good point, but yeah Vegas will be OK, but this would hurt them some for sure. I'm going to Cuba 99 X out of 100 over Vegas, 'cept when I'm visiting the son in Vegas.

[Trey3216 15,452]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-57813704
 

4 hour speech on TV?  That’s a lot of insecurity and grievances being aired.  

Counter-revolutionaries.    Lulz

 

in a few days I hope we hear those immortal words of Jeffrey Lebowski, the other Jeffrey Lebowski…”Your revolution is over,  Mr.  Canel.  Condolences.  The bums lost.   My advice is to do what your parents did; grab the end of a rope with your head, sir” 

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

14 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

It's always someone else's fault why it fails.  Rinse.  Wash.  Repeat.  

It’s pretty aggy-esque.  BOMC

[AUS-97HORN 12,050]

38 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Would it be too meddlesome to just set up a military blockade around the island and only let trade and aid through? Make our policy to let the Cubans determine their own direction and anybody who tries to interfere gets to fafo? Or would that make our spooks too giddy to not try and interfere?

by definition a blockade is an act of war.    which is why Kennedy called it a quarantine.

and we basically as a country have to steer as far away as possible from any implication we have anything to do with this

even if we dont do anything, we are still going to be blamed as having been the genesis of this particular uprising.

 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

Just now, AUS-97HORN said:

by definition a blockade is an act of war.    which is why Kennedy called it a quarantine.

and we basically as a country have to steer as far away as possible from any implication we have anything to do with this

even if we dont do anything, we are still going to be blamed as having been the genesis of this particular uprising.

 

And we should care because ?  Our blockade of Cuba for better, and worse is part of the reason we're here at this point in history.  Hope this isn't veering too much into CR if so I'll take it down.

[GRHorn 105]

 

[BabaYaga 15,623]

16 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

by definition a blockade is an act of war.    which is why Kennedy called it a quarantine.

and we basically as a country have to steer as far away as possible from any implication we have anything to do with this

even if we dont do anything, we are still going to be blamed as having been the genesis of this particular uprising.

 

There needs to be an international coalition of nations who's actions are predicated on bringing in relief aid and supplies.  As mentioned earlier, let the LA countries take the lead.  

[Cheeseweasel 26,439]

Yeah, when your go to tactic is jail the reporters and shut down communications, I'm siding with the other guys without having to dig to deep into the issue.

[GRHorn 105]

 

[atomheartbevo 90,641]

 

[Harrison Bergeron 1,798]

I spent a week there in 2003. Beautiful country with great people. Especially then it felt like walking into a time capsule.