WHY GAY MARRIAGE, VISITING CUBA, AND POT MAY SOON BE LEGAL

II'm pretty aware of the poverty (mostly due to the US embargo) .

You truly are an ignorant and arrogant piece of work, aren't you, JTT?....
No, no, crap-for-brains, you're not going to explain anything to me. ...
Listen to me, you supercillious, condescending son of a bitch. ..

Laugh all you want boys, but the embargo has hurt the cuban people. I'm not forgiving Castro a thing, but it stands to reason that if the American government doesn't trade with Cuba and threatens sanction against other countries, multi-national companies and foreign nationals who do, it's probably going to affect the people of Cuba adversely.

But we don't impose sanctions on other countries that trade with Cuba - your premise is false:

don't complain about the restrictions to the political and economic freedom of the Cuban people that an authoritarian, regressive government has imposed on the Cuban people for more than a generation. Whatever political and economic misery exists on the unfortunate island is a direct result of that system - and not of the U.S. embargo.

BATISTA DICTATORSHIP AND REVOLUTION
In 1952, a young lawyer was running for Congress when General
Fulgencio Batista returned from Florida to stage a coup financed
and supported by the U.S. government. Batista suspended the
Constitution and canceled elections.

Just one of a long list of terrorist actions taken by the USA against world countries. Always countries that they can bully. My, but isn't the USA such a fine country.

That young man, Fidel Castro,
was not allowed to win or lose an election. The Helms-Burton Act,
signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, specifies that
neither Fidel Castro nor Raul Castro will be allowed to run in a
"free election" that would be certified by Washington.

So it's easy to comprehend why U.S. talk of "free elections" sounds hollow
to Cuban ears. Besides, the United States does not have a record
of supporting elections won by somebody not stamped with approval
in Washington; note Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973.

Under Batista, about 85 percent of Cuba's trade was with the
United States. Foreigners, mainly from the United States, owned 75
percent of arable land; 90 percent of services like water,
electricity, phones; and 40 percent of the sugar industry. Super
exploitation and Batista's dictatorship incited the revolution, led
by Fidel Castro, that finally triumphed on January 1, 1959.

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/resist.htm

Gob1 wrote: But we don't impose sanctions on other countries that trade with Cuba - your premise is false: it doesn't conform to the facts.

The Title III of this law also states that any non-U.S. company that "knowingly trafficks in property in Cuba confiscated without compensation from a U.S. person" can be subjected to litigation and that company's leadership can be barred from entry into the United States. Sanctions may also be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This restriction also applies to maritime shipping, as ships docking at Cuban ports are not allowed to dock at U.S. ports for six months.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba

By prohibiting foreign subsidiaries of US companies from trading with Cuba, the CDA reimposes controls that were relaxed in the 1970s. Direct flights between the 2 countries are banned, and aircraft carrying emergency medical supplies for Cuba are prohibited from landing in the US. In addition, foreign vessels are prevented from loading and unloading freight in US harbours for 6 months after having stopped in Cuba. The Helms"Burton Act threatens with prosecution in US courts any foreign investor who has interests involving property in Cuba that was confiscated from a US citizen by the Castro government. In direct violation of international law, the embargo explicitly prohibits the sale of food to Cuba by US companies and their foreign subsidiaries.

Medicines and medical supplies are nominally excluded from the embargo, but the almost insuperable bureaucratic restrictions imposed by the CDA on such shipments lead to inordinate delays, cost increases and limited access to some of the most important medical products. These obstacles amount to a de facto embargo onmedical supplies. In 1992 Cuba was in a severe economic depression, largely resulting from a loss of preferential trade with the Soviet bloc.

Cuba turned to US foreign sub-sidiaries, from whom it received $500"600 million per year in imports " 90% ofwhich was food and medicine. The American Public Health Association warned the US government that tightening the embargo would lead to the abrupt cessation of this supply of essential goods and result in widespread famine. Indeed, 5 months after passage of the CDA, food shortages in Cuba set the scene for the worst epidemic of neurologic disease this century. More than 50 000 people suf-fered from optic neuropathy, deafness, loss of sensation and pain in the extremi-ties, and a spinal cord disorder that impaired walking and bladder control.

A war crime of the highest order.


http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:y022AZEEcGQJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en

Gob1 wrote: While "you don't forgive Castro a thing" it is also an observable fact that you (and the UN) complain about the U.S. trade embargo, but don't complain about the restrictions to the political and economic freedom of the Cuban people that an authoritarian, regressive government has imposed on the Cuban people for more than a generation.

Gob1 wrote: The U.S. embargo is a consequence of previous opposition to this country by the regime in Cuba and its alignment with revolutionary movements that threatened us and our neighbors during a fairly dangerous period in our recent history. I agree that it doesn't have much relevance to the situation today: it is instead a political consequence of the recent past. However, it doesn't take much common sense

Gob1 wrote: Perhaps your concerns are misplaced.

I wonder why you'd want to laugh about innocent people being denied the food and medicine they need to sustain life, Merry.

Have you heard the latest? The UN voted to condemn the US blockade of Cuba 187 to 3?