Cuba

Edgy MD
Dec 18 2014 11:43 AM

I always got the idea that no president-elect in either party ever thought our Cuba policy was fully thought out, and resolved to change it, and then when they came into office, somebody in the State Department threw the top-secret "Cuba" folder on the president's desk, and he opened it up, started reading, and thought, "Oh... now I get it." Through 10 administrations, changing from party to party, the policy remained the same, no matter how inadequate and how much circumstances had changed. I guess Israel policy is similar in this way.

Anyhow, very exciting to see this development and it surprisingly didn't need the death of the Castros to do it. I wish Hyman Roth had lived to see the day.

d'Kong76
Dec 18 2014 12:22 PM
Re: Cuba

I could probably think of ten things Obama would be
better suited spending his time on, but this is the Cuba thread.
Funny, I instantly though of Hyman when I heard the news.
I guess I know more about The Godfather Cuba than I know
about the real one?

Edgy MD
Dec 18 2014 12:31 PM
Re: Cuba

Yeah, I have no doubt that there are other priorities. But you take your opportunities as they present themselves.

I take a generally dim view of our diplomatic progress during President Obama's tenure. I don't really pretend to know what this will lead to. But with Russia re-asserting herself, it would perhaps be a lost opportunity if we let Cuba fall under the Russian sphere of influence again.

Mets – Willets Point
Dec 18 2014 12:51 PM
Re: Cuba

d'Kong76
Dec 18 2014 12:53 PM
Re: Cuba

Russia really is no position of re-asserting anything. They may
go bankrupt in coming months if they don't think of something
and quick.

MFS62
Dec 18 2014 01:56 PM
Re: Cuba

Edgy MD wrote:

I wish Hyman Roth had lived to see the day.

Yeah.
He was dying of the same heart attack for 20 years.

Later

metirish
Dec 18 2014 08:22 PM
Re: Cuba

I think this is a great step , of course I am looking at this as a euro liberal

Frayed Knot
Dec 18 2014 08:40 PM
Re: Cuba

You always knew this would happen at some point, it was always just a question of when. Maybe it was just simply a matter of waiting until both the Castro brothers and the Cuban-Americans who so hated the Castro regime ("he's our Hitler" I've heard some say) grew old together.
And while there's still a long way between yesterday and full, normal relations, I think once things start happening they'll start happening pretty fast (like a Berlin wall type of situation).

metirish
Dec 18 2014 08:49 PM
Re: Cuba

Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Dec 18 2014 09:06 PM

No doubt FK, the older Cuban exiles interviewed yesterday were livid while the young ones for the most part seemed very excited ...except Rubio , of course his parents fled there . Change has to start somewhere , some interesting articles out there from an MLB point of view.

Frayed Knot
Dec 18 2014 09:01 PM
Re: Cuba

From an MLB viewpoint, I think it's long been thought (be me anyway) that there's a ton of quality in Cuba, the question remains how much quantity there is. IOW, like the old Negro leagues, even its most devoted fans admitted that, while the stars were at least as good as the white ones in MLB, the depth of the league wasn't the same simply because of the population differences. So, once this opens up, it'll be interesting to see how deep their talent pool goes; maybe we've already seen the best of what they've got or maybe there are two or three more waves to come from that baseball mad and tradition rich island.
It'll also be interesting to see how MLB handles things. This could turn into a huge free-for-all although there are those who are saying that they've all got plans for this since they knew this day would be coming eventually also.