US/Cuba Look to Normalize Relations

I'll meet you in the cigar shop, Set.


All those maiden's thighs.......


Sigh.

American policy toward Cuba has been held hostage by a pitifully small expatriate community in Miami for two generations. It's been bad for the U.S. economy and disastrous for the Cuban economy.

It has also suppressed the display of maidenly thighs.

I think that is why the Kerry team gets kudos for keeping this under wraps. I think if this had been debated, you would have heard that Miami group screaming from every rooftop.

Wait. What? Maiden's thighs?

I never agreed with the way we dealt with Cuba, from the first, before or after Castro. Great news.

News of great joy.
For the Americas, but mostly for the Cuban people, who will be helped in the path of the needed recovery of democracy.

The Embargo has always been counterproductive: it has given the Cuban regime, for decades, an excuse for their utter failure to guarantee decent living conditions and minimal freedoms to the citizens.
No toilet paper? Blame it on American imperialism.
I doubt Congress will lift it, but it should.

Revolutionary Cuba, after a short lively period, became, economically, a parasite State. First of the Soviet Union; then of Iran & Venezuela, and recently Putin's Russia. In the few years they had to live on their own, without huge subsidies, the economy and the standard of living plummeted badly.
Iran has become moderate and is defreezing its relationship with the United States. Venezuela's economy is in shambles and will be in more trouble now with falling oil prices. Same thing with Russia, doomed for a severe recession. None of these countries can subsidize Cuba the way they had.
Raúl is a shrewd fellow. He knows that the Cuban economy will have to depend more and more on foreign investment. This is no time for ideological baths of purity. The Chinese model looks more and more appealing.

The Cuban refugees in Miami belong to different generations, each more liberal and less attached to the Isla than the former. The old, bitter generation of first comers is mostly dead... or over 80. Most of the second and third generation Cuban-Americans, and the second generation of Marielitos think more like Americans than like Cuban refugees, mainly because they're not.
Some politicians may be very vocal, but they do not reppresent the community, in my opinion.

As for Obama, kudos for his audacity.
Pope Francis and the Canadian government should also be praised for their discrete intermediation.

Following for now.

a truly crazy cole slaw

Canada's Conservative government - resolutely non-religious

a pope

America's Democrat president

Very likely--presenting a fait accompli takes the wind out of their sails.

Bout time. Our hostility towards Cuba has not made sense in a long time. The only justification for not fixing this that I have heard over the last twenty years is " a few people who were once Cubans or whos families came from there demand it" to which I say " that is not a reason".

If the cruise industry does not implode cuba will be the jewel of the caribbean again by 2025.

Most importantly, cuban cigars should get back to primo quality and will be available again. I took a liking to them while I lived in Germany.

I heard the news on NPR yesterday while at work.
I personally think its a great idea.
After 50+ years of the embargo not working, its time to try something new.

I have read comments on other forums opposing the idea, and I am sure that there will be people on here that are opposed to it, but lets look at the real world.
We have normalized relations with China, with Russia, with Vietnam, and with other countries whose political ideology we disagree with, so why not Cuba.
The embargo has always been a joke anyway.
No other country goes along with it, so its only American companies that it affects.

I have to give kudos to the Vatican for working behind the scenes to get negotiations going also.
And while I am not a big fan of President Obama, this is one thing I can 100% agree with and support, I just hope those idiots in congress, on both sides of the aisle, go along with him on this.

Well, it could not have been that much behind the scenes if were are hearing about it at the very same time we hear about the new policy. However anytime the Vatican works the better the lives of people it is helping itself and the rest of us too. This Pope seems to be a bit smarter than the last few.

If the R's are dumb enough to say much of anything on this then I have vastly overrated them.

I see the Vegas crowd turning Cuba back into a tropical casino again.

That's pretty much what Latin George said on page 1.

I don't really know too much about that part of Cuba's history, and shall have to read up on it as it sounds pretty wild.

But the important issue of the day is will the price of authentic Cojiba cigars come down?

What about what this might do to the price of sugar?

How about how this affects those amazing Cuban baseball players and their world-class athletes?

And even more interestingly, will this be the final blow that finishes Fidel?

This guy holds onto this world like the proverbial junkyard dog!

Damn! Isn´t there anyone here who is against this? Able2know is no fun when you all agree.

Your cigar prices will go down, but ours will now go up.

If I hadn't packed it all in a few years ago, I would be greatly upset.

Great news on several counts.

It was a stupid policy...and is decades late in coming. But glad it finally is happening.

I am a cigar smoker...and this is great news on that front.

And about that "lame duck president" notion...you can now stash that where the sun will not bleach it.

A couple of them will...but I suspect most will realize this is the proper way to go and stay reasonably quiet. Some of the Florida politicians will have to butter up to the heavy Cuban exile population, but that might be it.

Wonder how this is going to impact on Jeb Bush's plans.