As an American, I’d like the US to end it’s embargo on Cuba.
Well the US isn’t a democracy so our votes don’t matter.
Democracy index has it listed as a flawed democracy at 7.85. The cutoff for a hybrid regime is 6.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
“land of the free”
That which is pro-capitalist is utterly anti-democratic - so I wouldn’t trust anything The Economist has to say about the subject.
Please explain. Seems to me like democracy is people having a roughly equal say in what the government does. (If it’s a representative democracy, then though electing officials who will do so)
Please explain.
I have to explain this to you? Fine.
Do tell… how democratic is the place you work?
I don’t work in the government, so it isn’t.
so it isn’t.
So… despite you living in a (supposedly) “democratic” society, your actual day-to-day life is governed by that which is decidedly anti-democratic, correct?
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What, did your President chosen by a kiss from a bald eagle?
Edit: guys, issa joke.
That would be more acceptable than the real way, which is simply being chosen by the American oligarchs.
That would almost certainly be a better method than superdelegates and corporations/lobbyists/PACs influencing the election. The election is a year out and we already know with certainty who our two choices will be, and at least one of them would never be an option for most people.
The electoral college elects the president. We just vote on which side gets to send it’s people there. Don’t know a single name of one of these voters and they can and do vote against the will of the people. It’s a partial democracy at best and really needs to change to popular vote already.
It’s extremely rare for that to happen and I think last time it did happen the states made it illegal right after.
Last time I checked nobody in the US got an option to vote for “let’s not be an psychotic, thoroughly evil mass-murdering neocolonialist monstrosity that threatens the entire planet with nukes.”
I’m so tired of seeing thread #35738272 of Lemmy not understanding how a liberal democracy works. ‘WHY ARE WE NOT VOTING OUT THE OBVIOUS FASCISTS AND VOTING IN THE SOCIALIST UTOPIA RIGHT NOW, CLEARLY DEMOCRACY IS BROKEN’
liberal democracy works
It’s very easy to understand (so-called) “liberal” democracy - as long as you understand that there is absolutely nothing democratic about it.
Except loads of stuff, like your ability to vote, and for that vote to contribute to deciding who leads the country.
What does the word democracy mean?
Does it perhaps mean, “rule by the people?”
Or does it perhaps mean “engage in a rigged spectacle every four years where the majority of people get to choose between two overmoneyed bureaucrats whose allegiance to the status quo has been vetted by corporate interests?”
“Liberal democracy” is no more democratic than “social darwinism” is socialist - or Darwinist.
I suspect the bald eagle would have kissed someone else.
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People can freely travel to places like Saudi Arabia but somehow Cuba still on embargo
The difference is that Saudi dissidents aren’t a significant voting block in any US state.
Still we’ve been attacked in multiple ways by the Saudis but not Cuba.
fuck the power of oil
but not Cuba.
Ahhh, but you see, Cuba is attacking the US with it’s dangerous ideas - such as, for instance, the idea that you could not treat healthcare simply as a glorified scam to enrich billionaire parasites and nothing else.
That is far, far worse than people flying airplanes full of people into buildings full of people.
(/s - for the terminally bewildered)
Uhh, we have an embargo on being attacked by Cuba though.
Saudi Arabia never “threatened” the US with nukes
Saudi Arabia funded Osama to kill over 2,000 Americans on 9/11
This is what baffles me. Knowing what we know, how tf are they still considered an ally or friendly? Even recently with their manipulation of oil prices with Russia.
Because until we have energy independence (sometimes called green energy), they’re the devil we’re in bed with … Which is yet another reason to get away from oil
The US has energy independence. The US’ concern with oil prices is more based on the stability of its allies.
The link has plausible deniability, and in politics that matters more than what is likely
Cuba never flew a plane into a building.
No but they sent two planes into towers in NYC, dropping them both and killing thousands in an instant.
…and the US threatens everybody on the planet with nukes.
Who?
Are you lost?
No? Who does the US threaten with nukes. Outside of one case with Trump and North Korea I can’t think of any.
Who does the US threaten with nukes.
You mean… apart from literally every man, woman and child on the damn planet? What did you think they have those nukes for? As desert decorations?
You can thank the orange baby for cancelling all progress made by Obama, I’m surprised Biden didn’t start normalizing relations again…
I hadn’t even realized we reverted back. I remember Obama starting to normalize relationships with Cuba, but hadn’t read anything since.
Yep, in November 2017
Biden is a warm blanket of piss of a Democrat, don’t expect too much from his administration
I mean, by non-US Western standards the USA has never elected someone further left than center right so even Obama wasn’t very progressive either…
I would argue that Carter was, he was even pro solar energy back during his presidency. He got screwed by the whiplash from previous administrations economic policy and got all the blame, so that really framed his time in office. It’s only recently that people have really started looking at his tenure differently.
Just to add https://theconversation.com/jimmy-carter-in-cuba-46109
Yeah I guess he’s the exception, too bad he was sandwiched between Ford and Reagan…
Tell that to a Republican voter and their heads would explode. “YOU’RE AN IGNORANT LIAR, ALL OF THE DEMOCRATS ARE COMMUNISTS!”
This is what they’re told to think by the media they choose to consume. :/
I agree, there’s little to no benefit in making an enemy out of Cuba.
There’s a bunch of votes in Florida on the line. What I don’t understand is why Democrats care, since they aren’t getting most of them anyway.
That’s only changed in the last few years, Florida was a swing state before that
Capitalism versus socialism.
No benefit at all, but I doubt the U.S. will be discussing much with Cuba unless they agreed to get rid of the Chinese base that was built there. Id rather it be lifted but it’ll be staying for awhile.
Well, you see, the “good” part is that your opinion doesn’t matter to the US government, if it makes you feel any better. Most Americans don’t support many things, yet they still have to live with the decisions of a small elitist group that have hijacked power.
And instead of banding together and doing something about those evil motherfuckers, you all meekly submit to other rotting flesh bags who have no more right to rule over you than a sack of potatoes does.
They have no other choice, muh capitalism
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So? There’s no official language in the US, and there shouldn’t be. People should be able to speak whatever language they want.
That’s pretty wild actually. Can’t imagine that many of these votes are near unanimous.
It happens all the time
That one, and a bunch of other “common sense measures,” was/were because of internal US laws. I don’t agree with it, but the delegate has/had their hands tied because of our laws regarding the sovereignty of the US. Israel was just voting whatever way the US does, cause, again, their hands are tied politically.
Sounds like internal US laws are a bunch of bullshit that are causing harm to people all over the world including the US
Or maybe it’s that for a diplomat to recognize something is a right would cause a constitutional crisis.
The other countries seem fine with that, sounds like a US problem.
The US also has the longest lasting constitution, and some of the highest level of federalization. States are independent political entities.
Those votes are unfortunately not surprising considering both countries’ complicity in depriving millions of innocent people of food for the past 3 weeks
It’s actually quite common. Most votes have 3 digits voting for and single digit against. A few only have 1 vote against. The thing distinct about this vote is that it usually has the highest “turnout” with only a few abstaining/non-voting countries. They’ve done this same vote almost every year for decades so it’s become a tradition.
But why?
The US will do everything in its power to dismantle socialism and convince people that it “doesn’t work” (just ignore how much work they put in to dismantle it)
Scratching each other’s backs.
Being nice to Cuba would cost a shitload of Cuban votes in Florida. Florida was, and is still close to, a swing state.
What candidate is going to a) risk losing Florida’s 30 Electoral College votes and b) get called a socialist, and for what gain? It sucks, but here we are.
I really don’t understand what America gets out of the embargo?
Maybe someone more knowledgeable on the subject can chime in.
It just feels like being a dick for no reason at this point.
I looked it up it seems like Cuban Americans tend to support the embargo, as a means of combating the Cuban government. Lots of Cuban Americans were forced to flee Cuba do to how the government were treating them under Castro. So the embargo was meant to act as a means of changing Cuba’s government.
These Cuban Americans make up a significant amount of Floridians, a state who is very important during presidential campaigns. So candidates tend to want to appease them. It sounds like in recent year there’s increasingly Cuban American support for lifting the embargo though.
TLDR: Cuban Americans who fled the Cuban government don’t like the Cuban government very much & they vote.
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They can get an expedited permanent residence (green card) after being here for one year I believe. Things were always dodgy. The wet foot, dry foot rules may have been ended though. That was a non official term for a policy created by Clinton. If your feet are on dry land, you can stay, if your feet are in a boat/raft/etc you were sent back to Cuba. There was a year where tens of thousands of Cubans that were trying to float across to florida. Rigging old cars up to makshift rafts in an effort to flee Cuba and make it to the U.S. That is where the slur “raft drifter” came about for Cubans I believe. Obama changed something to try to discourage that practice, traveling 100+ miles (160+ KM) in open water with makeshift transports Im sure was the end for to many lives. It’s horrible what people do to each other. The shit they had to go through to feel that was the necessary risk to better their families lives. Then the voyage, and then being treated like shit anyways if they got here.
I guess all we need to do is inform Republican voters of this fact and instantly their position on the embargo will change.
I count on their racism and hatred of the “other” way more than their hatred for an economic/governmental system they don’t even understand. I’d imagine the typical voter would say “fuck that, I’m not paying for their social security, they can rot in the communist hellhole they created for themselves!”
Boot licks that believe Republicans still
If socialism succeeds on America’s doorstep, it will give American citizens…ideas.
Best friends forever
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Israel
Christofascist
What? Can we stop using this stupid as fuck term already? They’re just fucking fascists. Empowering religious institutions are a core of fascism and not some unique Christian thing
Umberto Eco wrote this
Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.
I believe you can have a secular fascism. There is a current of that in France for example. There’s no harm in being more specific.
I’m of the opposite opinion. General use of highly specific terms just make y’all look like twats to less-involved people. Then there’s the fact that highly specific names often get treated like an attack on BOTH groups by people with crap critical thinking skills.
Remember that KISS still applies to political discussion and is a good rule. Even idiots and the poorly educated are entitled to a vote so it’s better to keep things closer to the common denominator.
Hmmm I think, but you want to hear a plot twist. Although post COVID there may be many moving more towards a collective thinking there is also the issue of group narcissism.
That anyone who is against the current group-think that we believe promotes social harmony, or promotes an agenda or idea that can be misinterpreted as anti social, or dangerous to the “harmonious” function of society can also apparently be considered a fascist or communist. Let’s not fall into that trap
I mean Israel’s main allies in the US are christofascists because of their stupid doomsday cult prophecy that for some reason nobody ever feels like calling them out on
Well… zionism is a Christian thing, first and foremost - it’s an idea that originated amongst British Christian movements in the 1840s. Like all right-wing ideology, it pretends to be far older than it actually is.
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Unironic sheeple posting and calling Israel christofascist? You can’t expect to be taken seriously.
I like Umberto Eco’s 14 signs of ur fascism as a functional definition - what definition are you using? I ask because Eco’s certainly isn’t descriptive of the Biden administration.
Seems to me that we have 2 “christofasist” countries, and at best, one isn’t Christian, while the other isn’t fascist.
This guy got my point. Neoliberals might suck, but they’re not fascists (just enablers)
Seems to me that we have 2 “christofasist” countries, and at best, one isn’t Christian, while the other isn’t fascist.
The one is Zionist - which has always been a decidedly Christian idea - and the other is the most prolific sponsor of fascist terrorism in world history. Sooooo… take your pick.
Words have meaning, my guy.
The one is Zionist - which has always been a decidedly Christian idea
The idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine is a distinctly Jewish idea, which has been adopted by specifically evangelical Christians. An alignment of values or similarities doesn’t make them the same thing. You’re not a Nazi because you and Hitler drank water, Jews aren’t Christian because they’re Zionist, and Israel definitionally can’t be christofasist because it’s not Christian.
the other is the most prolific sponsor of fascist terrorism in world history.
You’re using the term fascism in contradiction to the definition I’ve provided without putting forward an alternative - this is nonsense. Sponsoring fascism also isn’t indicative of a nation being fascist anymore than propping up Saudi Arabia and Israel makes the US Sunni or Jewish. What definition of fascism are you using that’s descriptive of the Biden administration - it’s certainly not Umberto Eco’s definition.
The idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine is a distinctly Jewish idea
I hate to be the one to break it to you, genius - Zionism is an invention of antisemitic Christians. We have dates, you know - Christian Zionism predates Jewish Zionism by at least two decades.
You’re using the term fascism
Which part of…
the other is the most prolific sponsor of fascist terrorism in world history.
…are you having trouble comprehending?
…are you having trouble comprehending?
Not at all - you’ve dumbed things down far enough that your response is little more than nuh-uh. When I’ve called out why your points are dumb and obviously wrong, you’ve just insisted you’re right rather than giving any kind of argument or evidence.
Zionism is an invention of antisemitic Christians. We have dates, you know - Christian Zionism predates Jewish Zionism by at least two decades.
Citations needed
Judaism draws its name from the kingdom of Judea, the capital of which was Jerusalem - in the iron age. The Torah says that Israel is a God-given inheritance of the children of Israel (the Jewish people), Sabbatai Zevi tried to settle the Jews in Gaza in the 17th century, and white the modern Zionist movement was certainly in no small part a response to antisemitism, I think you’re going to need to show how it was a Christian invention.
Which part of… the other is the most prolific sponsor of fascist terrorism in world history…are you having trouble comprehending?
The bit where the US meets the definition of fascism - I’ve already explained in terms an idiot can comprehend that sponsoring fascism doesn’t make you fascist any more than sponsoring Israel makes you Jewish.
So again, you’re insisting Israel is christofascist and that the US is christofascist. Both are laughable.
I see you. Christofascism has been around since 1970. I also understand their disagreement. It’s a preference.
Does anyone know what the embargo really accomplishes? Why is there so consistent opposition in the USA? Does Cuba actually represent any threat?
TLDR: Cuban Americans who fled Cuba tend to support sanctions on the government they fled. And no other group really is fighting to remove the embargo.
The embargo acts as an example to everyone else not to fuck with USA oil. Because if you do, they’ll be super petty and make you miserable until the end of time.
Florida was a swing state, Florida is full of Cubans who hate the Cuban government, Cuba is run by dirty socialists anyways, also they almost blew us up that one time that the boomers are probably all still traumatized from.
That last one isn’t a joke, THE SOVIETS were the ones who had to put a stop to Castro calling the launch, and him making them do that is why basically no world government has since cared enough about Cuba to do more about it than calling one of these votes the US will ignore anyways for reasons cited above. Similar to how nobody gave two shits when Iran’s embassy in Afghanistan was the target of a terrorist attack well before the US deployed.
But yeah, the funny part is that DeSantis might have actually saved Cuban American relations by driving Florida so far to the right it banned Democrats from wasting time on any strategic thinking on how to appease the Cubans in Florida. One of those lesser “once the boomers die” possibilities with the upcoming super progressive generation in the party.
The embargo is old-school US punishment. It fucks over their ability to do business in the US, which means no banking, data centers, and much more. This is incredibly inconvenient for Cuba but hasn’t meant as much as other LA countries have developed.
This is, of course, initially in response to the Cuban govt nationalizing the primarily US-owned oil industry.
Nonbinding resolutions prepared to embarrass nations is not a good look UN
Why not? Shame is good for bad behavior
It was the 31st straight year that the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned the crippling U.S. blockade on the socialist nation.
It doesn’t seem to be having much effect.
All nations should just start trading with cuba and sanction the US instead. They commit way more war crimes and crimes against humanity than cuba ever could
Excuse me but I got word of some horrible human rights abuses in Cuba, from a place called “Guantanamo Bay”.
Obama did a lot to normalize relationships, attempt to shift internal optics about the current Cuban government, now that Fidel is dead, and pave a way for a diplomatic and politically reasonable end to the embargo. But then the Cheeto came into power.
I don’t think it’s bad behavior any more than sanctions on bad world actors. Cuba knows how to approach the US, and the UN helps nothing.
And in what world is Cuba a bad world actor? Also, please make sure to point out why the US is a good world actor.
History of Cuba for young people…Castro’s revenge
Vague conspiracies, not a good look.
Ain’t conspiracies bub. Just stuff you never learned.
Teach me then. I love to learn.
Then, the whole world should sanction the US then.
Why not? It’s the only power orgs like the UN have in situations like these.
The UN exists to prevent another major war between great powers. Alienating such powers is counterproductive.
Letting those powers do whatever they want is counter productive.
Sure. But we’re talking about an embargo. Everyone has the right to use embargoes, and they’re a time-honored method of non-violent opposition. Framing this as the US transgressing some boundary is hyperbole at best.
What is the point of this embargo? What is it trying to accomplish? What is worse about the Cuban government, than all the other countries the US doesn’t embargo?
Whether the embargo is justified or not is beside my point.
No it isn’t. Non-violent opposition to what? Everyone also has the right to violent opposition, but the context makes all the difference.
So is letting such a power bully another country via pointless economic sanctions. Or do you not remember how Hitler got popular in Nazi Germany?
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