is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Could have waiting out Raul and made nice or influence the coming regime. Not sure how this helps us really, I don't see US products flooding the market. Strikes me as the President looking to pad his resume.
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Yup. And anyone vacations in Cuba while it's still under the yoke of Castro is an asshole. That money you spend there in those hotels and restaurants that ordinary Cubans are forbidden from entering sure as hell doesn't help the plight of the Cuban people.
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Yup. And anyone vacations in Cuba while it's still under the yoke of Castro is an asshole. That money you spend there in those hotels and restaurants that ordinary Cubans are forbidden from entering sure as hell doesn't help the plight of the Cuban people.
Exactly!!!
We really should try the current policy for another 60 years Â
will have an impact on that country. at first, things may not change that much - but I don't see them holding back the tide of our culture and ideas forever.
I agree with establishing relations with them. It is a relic of the past. I have an uncomfortable feeling that the fugitive issue will be handled in January 2017 by a pardon. Hope this turns out to be wrong.
When the ailing Fidel Castro ceded power to his less doctrinaire younger brother Raúl in 2008, the quasi-capitalist bubble expanded, but the economy remains heavily socialist. In the United States, we have a minimum wage; Cuba has a maximum wage—$20 a month for almost every job in the country. (Professionals such as doctors and lawyers can make a whopping $10 extra a month.) Sure, Cubans get “free” health care and education, but as Cuban exile and Yale historian Carlos Eire says, “All slave owners need to keep their slaves healthy and ensure that they have the skills to perform their tasks.”
Even employees inside the quasi-capitalist bubble don’t get paid more. The government contracts with Spanish companies such as Meliá International to manage Havana’s hotels. Before accepting its contract, Meliá said that it wanted to pay workers a decent wage. The Cuban government said fine, so the company pays $8–$10 an hour. But Meliá doesn’t pay its employees directly. Instead, the firm gives the compensation to the government, which then pays the workers—but only after pocketing most of the money. I asked several Cubans in my hotel if that arrangement is really true. All confirmed that it is. The workers don’t get $8–$10 an hour; they get 67 cents a day—a child’s allowance.
The maximum wage is just the beginning. Not only are most Cubans not allowed to have money; they’re hardly allowed to have things. The police expend extraordinary manpower ensuring that everyone required to live miserably at the bottom actually does live miserably at the bottom. Dissident blogger and author Yoani Sánchez describes the harassment sarcastically in her book Havana Real: “Buses are stopped in the middle of the street and bags inspected to see if we are carrying some cheese, a lobster, or some dangerous shrimp hidden among our personal belongings.” Perhaps the saddest symptom of Cuba’s state-enforced poverty is the prostitution epidemic—a problem the government officially denies and even forbids foreign journalists based in Havana to mention. Some Cuban prostitutes are professionals, but many are average women—wives, girlfriends, sisters, mothers—who solicit johns once or twice a year for a little extra money to make ends meet.
I agree with establishing relations with them. It is a relic of the past. I have an uncomfortable feeling that the fugitive issue will be handled in January 2017 by a pardon. Hope this turns out to be wrong.
I doubt it. If Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich continues to be a minor sour note with respect to his legacy, the pardon of a convicted cop killer would have a significant impact on Obama's. But what they've just done is pretty much given up the possibility of extradition for, as far as I can tell, nothing.
a little more about the glorious worker's paradise Â
Until a few years ago, ordinary Cubans weren’t allowed even to set foot inside hotels or restaurants unless they worked there, lest they find themselves exposed to the seductive lifestyles of the decadent bourgeoisie from capitalist nations like Mexico, Chile, and Spain. (I cite these three countries because most of the tourists I ran into spoke Spanish to one another.) A few years ago, the government stopped physically blocking Cubans from hotels and restaurants, partly because Raúl is a little more relaxed about these things than Fidel but also because most Cubans can’t afford to go to these places, anyway.
A single restaurant meal in Havana costs an entire month’s salary. One night in a hotel costs five months’ salary. A middle-class tourist from abroad can easily spend more in one day than most Cubans make in a year. I had dinner with four Americans at one of the paladars. The only Cubans in the restaurant were the cooks and the waiters. The bill for the five of us came to about $100. That’s five months’ salary.
The Floridita bar in downtown Havana was one of Ernest Hemingway’s hangouts when he lived there (from 1940 until 1960, the year after Castro came to power). He was in the Floridita all the time—and, in a way, he still is. There’s a statue of him sitting on his favorite bar stool, grinning at today’s patrons. The décor is exactly the same, but there’s a big difference: everyone in the bar these days is a tourist. Cubans aren’t strictly banned any more, but a single bottle of beer costs a week’s salary. No one would blow his dismal paycheck on that.
RE: RE: Greg the only way I would illuminate you Â
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
but the reality is much different. The process of normalization offer lots of opportunities for addressing prior greivances. it can still happen. may even be more likely. Cheer up.
I agree with establishing relations with them. It is a relic of the past. I have an uncomfortable feeling that the fugitive issue will be handled in January 2017 by a pardon. Hope this turns out to be wrong.
I doubt it. If Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich continues to be a minor sour note with respect to his legacy, the pardon of a convicted cop killer would have a significant impact on Obama's. But what they've just done is pretty much given up the possibility of extradition for, as far as I can tell, nothing.
I tend to agree but I still have a feeling about it. Based on some things I have seen in the past, I would not rule it out. I also worry about a pardon for that cop killer in Philadelphia who has a substantial following.
RE: RE: To do that before they extradited Joanne Chesimard ... Â
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Switzerland because we don't have an extradition agreement regarding fugitives?
We do have an extradition treaty with Switzerland, and I expect that they would extradite Chesimard since killing a cop is probably a crime in Switzerland as here. Sample discussion below (re the FIFA guys):
"Q: What does the U.S. have to do now that the men are contesting their extradition?
A: Switzerland and the U.S. have an extradition treaty, which lays out the circumstances under which extradition can be granted. The U.S. government will have to file a detailed request to Swiss authorities presenting evidence that shows there’s a reasonable basis to believe the FIFA officials committed the crimes they’re charged with. A Swiss judge will make the ultimate ruling on whether the extradition should happen. Even if the judge rules in favor of extradition, the officials can appeal.
Q: What will the Swiss judge have to consider in deciding whether or not to order an extradition?
A: One important consideration for the judge in any extradition case is whether the crimes alleged by the requesting state (in this case, the U.S.) would also be crimes in the extraditing state (in this case, Switzerland). This concept, known as “dual criminality,” is a requirement for extradition in many countries. For instance, in past cases, the U.S. was not able to extradite white-collar criminals from Switzerland for certain tax-evasion schemes because they were not crimes in Switzerland."
A lot of stuff is happening that I never thought would happen. Granted it is coming from a warped mind but I would put it as long shot but not impossible.
RE: RE: RE: To do that before they extradited Joanne Chesimard ... Â
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Luis Posada Carriles says hi.
Excellent point. Link - ( New Window )
Actively harboring a mass murderer, 'one of the most dangerous terrorists in recent history'. But, you know, the speck of dust in another's eye...
RE: RE: Greg the only way I would illuminate you Â
that the normalization of relations between two countries would hinge on the extradition of one or two convicted criminals.
The hope now would be that the possibility of extradition now actually exists, where it didn't before.
that the normalization of relations between two countries would hinge on the extradition of one or two convicted criminals.
The hope now would be that the possibility of extradition now actually exists, where it didn't before.
will have an impact on that country. at first, things may not change that much - but I don't see them holding back the tide of our culture and ideas forever.
The "scuola di Coca-Cola" will work its magic as it has in other countries.
it's that it shouldn't have been handled as a diplomatic amateur hour and we should have something to show for handing Havana their biggest propaganda coup in a half-century. Fugitives, concessions on human rights, something that suggested this was more than a gift to a pauper dictatorship that was fresh out of benefactors.
Link - ( New Window )
Yup. And anyone vacations in Cuba while it's still under the yoke of Castro is an asshole. That money you spend there in those hotels and restaurants that ordinary Cubans are forbidden from entering sure as hell doesn't help the plight of the Cuban people.
Quote:
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Yup. And anyone vacations in Cuba while it's still under the yoke of Castro is an asshole. That money you spend there in those hotels and restaurants that ordinary Cubans are forbidden from entering sure as hell doesn't help the plight of the Cuban people.
Exactly!!!
+1
Tampa International has actually added a counter in ticketing recently for flights to Havana.
Hey, big surprise, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Please, illuminate us - explain to me the parallels between Cuba and Russia.
Even employees inside the quasi-capitalist bubble don’t get paid more. The government contracts with Spanish companies such as Meliá International to manage Havana’s hotels. Before accepting its contract, Meliá said that it wanted to pay workers a decent wage. The Cuban government said fine, so the company pays $8–$10 an hour. But Meliá doesn’t pay its employees directly. Instead, the firm gives the compensation to the government, which then pays the workers—but only after pocketing most of the money. I asked several Cubans in my hotel if that arrangement is really true. All confirmed that it is. The workers don’t get $8–$10 an hour; they get 67 cents a day—a child’s allowance.
The maximum wage is just the beginning. Not only are most Cubans not allowed to have money; they’re hardly allowed to have things. The police expend extraordinary manpower ensuring that everyone required to live miserably at the bottom actually does live miserably at the bottom. Dissident blogger and author Yoani Sánchez describes the harassment sarcastically in her book Havana Real: “Buses are stopped in the middle of the street and bags inspected to see if we are carrying some cheese, a lobster, or some dangerous shrimp hidden among our personal belongings.” Perhaps the saddest symptom of Cuba’s state-enforced poverty is the prostitution epidemic—a problem the government officially denies and even forbids foreign journalists based in Havana to mention. Some Cuban prostitutes are professionals, but many are average women—wives, girlfriends, sisters, mothers—who solicit johns once or twice a year for a little extra money to make ends meet.
Link - ( New Window )
You are, without a doubt, the most grotestquely ignorant and willfully stupid human being I have ever had any contact with in my entire life.
I doubt it. If Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich continues to be a minor sour note with respect to his legacy, the pardon of a convicted cop killer would have a significant impact on Obama's. But what they've just done is pretty much given up the possibility of extradition for, as far as I can tell, nothing.
A single restaurant meal in Havana costs an entire month’s salary. One night in a hotel costs five months’ salary. A middle-class tourist from abroad can easily spend more in one day than most Cubans make in a year. I had dinner with four Americans at one of the paladars. The only Cubans in the restaurant were the cooks and the waiters. The bill for the five of us came to about $100. That’s five months’ salary.
The Floridita bar in downtown Havana was one of Ernest Hemingway’s hangouts when he lived there (from 1940 until 1960, the year after Castro came to power). He was in the Floridita all the time—and, in a way, he still is. There’s a statue of him sitting on his favorite bar stool, grinning at today’s patrons. The décor is exactly the same, but there’s a big difference: everyone in the bar these days is a tourist. Cubans aren’t strictly banned any more, but a single bottle of beer costs a week’s salary. No one would blow his dismal paycheck on that.
Quote:
would be to send 1000 volts of electricity through you other than that illuminate yourself
You are, without a doubt, the most grotestquely ignorant and willfully stupid human being I have ever had any contact with in my entire life.
I literally lol'd at this one.
Luis Posada Carriles says hi.
Quote:
I agree with establishing relations with them. It is a relic of the past. I have an uncomfortable feeling that the fugitive issue will be handled in January 2017 by a pardon. Hope this turns out to be wrong.
I doubt it. If Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich continues to be a minor sour note with respect to his legacy, the pardon of a convicted cop killer would have a significant impact on Obama's. But what they've just done is pretty much given up the possibility of extradition for, as far as I can tell, nothing.
Quote:
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Luis Posada Carriles says hi.
Excellent point.
Link - ( New Window )
We do have an extradition treaty with Switzerland, and I expect that they would extradite Chesimard since killing a cop is probably a crime in Switzerland as here. Sample discussion below (re the FIFA guys):
"Q: What does the U.S. have to do now that the men are contesting their extradition?
A: Switzerland and the U.S. have an extradition treaty, which lays out the circumstances under which extradition can be granted. The U.S. government will have to file a detailed request to Swiss authorities presenting evidence that shows there’s a reasonable basis to believe the FIFA officials committed the crimes they’re charged with. A Swiss judge will make the ultimate ruling on whether the extradition should happen. Even if the judge rules in favor of extradition, the officials can appeal.
Q: What will the Swiss judge have to consider in deciding whether or not to order an extradition?
A: One important consideration for the judge in any extradition case is whether the crimes alleged by the requesting state (in this case, the U.S.) would also be crimes in the extraditing state (in this case, Switzerland). This concept, known as “dual criminality,” is a requirement for extradition in many countries. For instance, in past cases, the U.S. was not able to extradite white-collar criminals from Switzerland for certain tax-evasion schemes because they were not crimes in Switzerland."
Quote:
In comment 12350945 njm said:
Quote:
is an utter travesty. I think this gives her resident-for-life status in Cuba. And it tells the family of a murdered police officer that they count for nothing.
Luis Posada Carriles says hi.
Excellent point. Link - ( New Window )
Actively harboring a mass murderer, 'one of the most dangerous terrorists in recent history'. But, you know, the speck of dust in another's eye...
Quote:
would be to send 1000 volts of electricity through you other than that illuminate yourself
You are, without a doubt, the most grotestquely ignorant and willfully stupid human being I have ever had any contact with in my entire life.
LOL
The hope now would be that the possibility of extradition now actually exists, where it didn't before.
The hope now would be that the possibility of extradition now actually exists, where it didn't before.
The "scuola di Coca-Cola" will work its magic as it has in other countries.
Fuck Castro.
Fuck Castro.
Is this Jamaica's new slogan?