Author |
Message |
Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master Username: bob_uk
Post Number: 1200 Registered: 5-2015
| Posted on Sunday, 27 November, 2016 - 01:08: | |
The plot thickens. Brexit Trump And now Raul Castro who is a less left wing than Fidel. I suspect Trump will make overtures to Raul and Cuba. Interesting times ahead as the worlds general population gets more freedoms....or not. The Arab Spring was a sort of misfire. |
Christian S. Hansen
Grand Master Username: enquiring_mind
Post Number: 422 Registered: 4-2015
| Posted on Sunday, 27 November, 2016 - 06:56: | |
Misfire? No. Total disaster. Cost the US and its allies (you, UK) trillions of dollars, thousands of military lives lost, tens (hundreds?) of thousands of civilian lives lost, and uncountable lives ruined due to injuries. Sure, Saddam and Kadaffy and the Egyptian ruler (forget his name) may not have been choir boys, but they kept the lid on things and with their passing and the attempts to "democratize" the region, the world is actually a more destabilized and dangerous place now than before. My opinion only, but probably 99.9% accurate. |
Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Grand Master Username: soviet
Post Number: 644 Registered: 2-2013
| Posted on Sunday, 27 November, 2016 - 07:02: | |
The Fidel Finale. He's with Hemmingway now and probably sucking hard on the Opium Pipe in another distant universe. Trump has announced that Fidel "oppressed his own people for six decades". Well Jetsetters I used to be a minder for a stripper who after she gave up stripping lived on a boat in the Virgin Islands and used to run legal drugs into Cuba to help Cubans. That was 33 years ago. Her words to me were "The Cubans f***ing hate Fidel Castro". So Trump is at least 50 percent right and given my almost lifetime study of dictators from the left or right, I would venture to suggest that after perhaps one year of the post revolution honeymoon period they started to realize that Fidel's concept of communism and theirs was a tad different. No Shadows for Cubans but Castro did have a Zil which he picked Gorby and other political socialites up in at the Havana airport. |
Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Grand Master Username: soviet
Post Number: 645 Registered: 2-2013
| Posted on Sunday, 27 November, 2016 - 07:08: | |
Christian's right on the money with that one. Perhaps I should write to Trumpy and see if I can convince him the penquins at the South Pole need a dose of napalm as he is going to have to give the US military industry something to do. I mean seriously we just can't have the entire US military guarding the Mexican wall or can we ? |
Geoff Wootton
Grand Master Username: dounraey
Post Number: 1492 Registered: 5-2012
| Posted on Sunday, 27 November, 2016 - 07:33: | |
I'm with Christian on this as well. I'm hoping Trump will be much less interventionist. Let's just hope when Raul snuffs it Cuba does not fall into a civil war of opposing militias, as we have seen in the Middle East. One of the interesting side effects of Fidel's dictatorship is he has made Cuba a Classic Car enthusiasts dream. About 1/3 of the cars on the road there are 1950s American cars. If you google/image Havana, you will see what I mean. Geoff |
Brian Vogel
Grand Master Username: guyslp
Post Number: 2115 Registered: 6-2009
| Posted on Sunday, 27 November, 2016 - 09:12: | |
Geoff, re: "classic car enthusiasts' paradise" Yes and no. For those in the originality is everything camp it's a wasteland. The "by hooks and by crooks" techniques used to keep these cars running involves mui molestation. Brian |
Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Grand Master Username: soviet
Post Number: 646 Registered: 2-2013
| Posted on Sunday, 27 November, 2016 - 09:45: | |
Indeed Brian is right. Unless you fancy a Cadillac convertible full of rust caused by the humidity and powered by an industrial diesel engine or a Lada engine Cuba is definitely no US classic car heaven. One has to give the battling Cuban people 10 points for keeping their US cars on the road with anything from a Russian kitchen egg beater to a hundred kilos of wall plaster. We should never forget that Fidel almost got his own way and fried the entire world during the Cuban Missile Crisis. My brother Sasha who has never left Russian soil in his life often complains that the Soviet Union spent a total insane amount of money keeping Castro in power and the Bay of Pigs caper cost wise was microscopic compared to what the Kremlin spent on Fidel's adventures. |
Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master Username: bob_uk
Post Number: 1202 Registered: 5-2015
| Posted on Monday, 28 November, 2016 - 08:53: | |
total destruction ----- point taken! Lets pray and hope that this all works out. Worst still for Cuban cars is the deluded cuban who think Ernest Hemmingways car is worth millions of dollars and similar cars. The reality is that these cars are parts only sheds The embargo should be lifted because it hurts the Cubans not the leaders. I wish USA and Cuba bury the hatchet and have a bright future together, rather than looking to past arguments. |