Obama ends the Cuban embargo, at last.

[Xavier_Onassis]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/president-obama-delivers-statement-cuba

Alan Gross comes home, President Obama shows that he actually understands that the Cold War is over and the embargo was worthless.

[Plane]

Ok.

Will vacations in Cuba be practical?

Will we buy Cuban sugar and sell them American rice?

What is the price of a classic car there now?

If the results of ending the embargo are good I won't be surprised.

But I wouldn't invest much in Cuba , they are still unrepentant for nationalizing all foreign investments so long ago.

[Xavier_Onassis]

It is not about you investing in Cuba. The thing is, the embargo has been a sham for years. The main two elements of the Cuban diet are black beans and rice,  and more of each comes from the US than is produced in Cuba. The embargo serves to inflate the price of phone calls, airline tickets and packages sent to Cuba, with the surcharges going to a handful of rich Miami Cubans and the Castro government.  It is incorrect to say that the Castros have no support in Cuba. Most of the Cubans who hated Castro are here in Florida. Those that remain are mostly pro Castro or indifferent politically. My Cuban girlfriend came here in 2003 and finally realized that she really belonged in Cuba and left for good last year.

At present, Cubans can visit Cuba in theory once every year, in practice, anytime they wish. Who cannot visit? American citizens. The main reason more Americans do not  pay the extra fees and go is that it is more expensive than other Caribbean islands, travel is somewhat restricted (public transportation is horrible, car rental and gas is expensive) and credit cards on US banks cannot be used, so one has to take cash.

Smart travelers change their dollars to Euros. The dummies change them for Convertible pesos at the official rate of CUC $1.25  for US $1.00, losing aboiut 25% o9f their value. There is no surcharge on Euros. Of course, it is supposed to be illegal to change money to visit Cuba.

Marco Rubio and Jebbie are throwing a fit over this, because those fatcat Cubans are VERY rich and will lose their monopoly if the restrictions are lifted. 

This is a clever move by the President, as it will provoke more dissent between the various factions of the GOP. The bankers and the agrobusinessmen want the trade,  old Cold Warriors and the fatcat Cubans want the embargo to stay in place.Of course, as I said, it is not really an embargo.

[Christians4LessGvt]

obviously this helps Cuba
but what's in it for us?
a new beach playground?
do we really need new beach destinations?
i dont really see what's in it for us
again a "one way street".
i think this could hasten the Cuban people finally getting rid of their failed leadership
that has kept them in many ways in a 1950's time warp....

[Christians4LessGvt]

Marco Rubio and Jebbie are throwing a fit over this,

while hammering Republicans Rubio & Jeb Bush you coincidentally fail
to mention that US Democratic Senator Bob Menendez blasted Obama too.



Menendez blasts Obama on Cuba

DECEMBER 17, 2014, 10:57 AM

WASHINGTON: U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), whose parents immigrated from Cuba and who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a blistering critique Tuesday of the Obama administration's decision to release Cuban spies as the Castro regime freed American Alan Gross from imprisonment.

"President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government," Menendez said in a news release. "There is no equivalence between an international aid worker and convicted spies who were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage against our nation."

Menendez added, "Trading Mr. Gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous precedent.  It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips."

Gross was an American contractor who was serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba. He was trying to bring internet service to the country.

Administration officials have said the simultaneous releases were not part of a "swap" but part of a larger agreement. Menendez was not convinced.

"Let's be clear, this was not a "humanitarian" act by the Castro regime. It was a swap of convicted spies for an innocent American," Menendez said in his statement.

Menendez, a hard-liner on Cuba policy, will give up the gavel on the foreign relations committee in January. He has butted heads with Obama over several foreign policy flare-ups.

He did call Gross' return "a moment of profound relief for Alan Gross and his family."

"He should have been released immediately and unconditionally five years ago," Menendez said. "He committed no crime and was simply working to provide internet access to Cuba's small Jewish community.  His imprisonment was cruel and arbitrary, but consistent with the behavior of the Cuban regime."

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/capitolinq/Menendez-blasts-Obama-on-Cuba.html

[Plane]

  I think this will help Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

   Isn't this move likely to reduce the price of sugar?

   There is a premium paid for Mexican made Coca-Cola it uses the old formula and cane sugar.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Cuba is not a major exporter of Cuba.  Menéndez, just like all the Cubans in Congress, gets massive donations from the fatcats in Miami that benefit from the embargo. He is a sellout, as are they all.

Soft drink companies will not start using sugar instead of corn syrup, because the price of corn syrup does not fluctuate as the price of sugar does. Most Americans cannot tell the difference, and only a few will pay more for a made with sugar.

What the US gets out of this is that we finally stop looking like drooling idiots, maintaining a stupid embargo that has never produced any results and could never produce anything. Cuba is not a terrorist state, as the old farts in Miami claim: there is no reason for the embargo. With no embargo, the US cannot be blamed for the incompetence of the current government, and that will change the way that the Cubans regard their government. This will make a major change over the next several years in Cuba, while maintaining the stupid embargo would not.


Gross was sent as a spy. His purpose was to set up a network of agents to pester the Cuban government. While I agree that nothing he could do would be illegal in the US and that it was unfair to arrest and jail him, there was no way he would have been released without the US releasing the Cubans who were spying on the fatcat Miami Cubans and held in the US.  There is no purpose served by any of these people  (including the Cuban double agent whose name has not been revealed) being imprisoned.

Cuba is no more oppressive than many countries that the US recognizes, including China and Vietnam.

[Christians4LessGvt]

"Regarding Cuba, Obama says that we should get over things that happened
before we were born, does this also apply to slavery and segregation?"

DS

[Xavier_Onassis]

The embargo did not work. It was time to get rid of it.

Slavery has already been gotten rid of.