Posted by Tina
President Obama announced today that the Cuban government will free American contractor Alan Gross who has been imprisoned there for five years along with a US intelligence source who had been imprisoned for 20 years. The agreement includes an exchange for three Cuban spies and an agreement to open diplomatic and trade relations between our nations. “We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries.” The President also said, “Neither the American nor Cuban people are well-served by a rigid policy that took place before most of us were born.” John Kerry has been instructed to open an American embassy in Havana.
The President’s actions today not only counter established policy but also established law as he continues to lead like a king.
Many Americans of Cuban decent, including Marco Rubio don’t agree with the President’s new policy:
“It’s absurd and it’s part of a long record of coddling dictators and tyrants that this administration has established,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview. … Like Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), who also slammed Obama Wednesday, Rubio warned that the deal will encourage other countries to kidnap Americans.
“It puts a price on every American abroad. Governments now know that if they can take an American hostage, they can get very significant concessions from the United States,” he said.
Rubio also said the deal will make the Castro brothers “permanent fixtures in Cuba for generations to come,” and would “do absolutely nothing to further human rights and democracy in Cuba.”
Senator Bob Menendez (Dem NJ) also had harsh words for the president:
“President Obama’s actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government,” he said in a statement. “There is no equivalence between an international aid worker and convicted spies who were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage against our nation. One spy was also convicted of conspiracy to murder for his role in the 1996 tragedy in which the Cuban military shot down two U.S. civilian planes, killing several American citizens. My heart goes out to the American families that lost love ones on that fateful day.”
“Trading Mr. Gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous precedent,” he added. “It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips. I fear that today’s actions will put at risk the thousands of Americans that work overseas to support civil society, advocate for access to information, provide humanitarian services, and promote democratic reforms.”
So what do you think. Good idea or bad idea?
Alan Gross called himself a “trusting fool” for going to Cuba. He also said prison was “not a life worth living. He lost 100 pounds, now has trouble with his hips, and lost most of the vision in one eye.
Maybe Gross should be moved to Gitmo, conditions there are much better.
Obama once again, lowers the bar for America
Obumble/Oblameo is the worst negotiator in the history of Man.
He’s also pretty free with his “Get Out Of Jail Free” cards . . . .
Why is a picture of Che on the wall of Gross’ attorney? There’s more to this story that needs to be told.
American Just Freed From Cuban Prison Accidentally (?) Sits for Picture in Front of Che Guevara Portrait:
”
American citizen Alan Gross was freed today after five years as a prisoner in Cuba. He was imprisoned for attempting to bring communications equipment to Cuban religious groups.
Che Guevara was a revolutionary who fought alongside Fidel Castro, whose brother Raul continues to lead the regime that imprisoned Gross. Guevara’s antipathy for human rights and dissent within Cuba is infamous.
Here’s a picture just tweeted by New York Times photographer Stephen Crowley. Note the upper right corner:”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/12/17/alan_gross_che_guevara_portrait_former_cuba_prisoner_captured_in_strange.html
From Ted Cruz.
In July 2013, I interviewed prominent Cuban dissidents Elizardo Sanchez and Guillermo Farinas.
They warned America not to fall for any offer of rapprochement from the Castro brothers.
They said that since 1959, Cuba has been a big jail.
They said that the Castro regime hates America and wants to harm us.
They said that the Castro regime rules by economic control, political repression and propaganda that touch the lives of every Cuban.
They said that Raul and Fidel Castro will try to trick the United States into finance their “Putinist” project—to give the illusion of change when there is no real change.
This week, the Obama administration fell for the Castros’ trick. They agreed to provide economic relief to the Castros, not liberty to the Cuban people.
Watch the full interview here:
http://bit.ly/1ALjb10
I’ll probably be the exception here, but I would have normalized relations with Cuba over 40 years ago. You can’t have two diametrically opposed political systems 90 miles apart, where one is in poverty and the other is rolling in doe and not have a lot of friction. Our blockade helped Castro contain his big lies, we played right into his hands. The masses in Cuba would see the difference eventually and then there goes Castro. Castro could never has stayed in office with Cubans and Americans exchanging ideas and commerce. However, after the corruption the people under Batista it would have taken at least a generation to remove Castro. Cuban people hated the wealth disparity and brutality under Batista and his Mafia pals. As for the exact terms Obama agreed too, I would have to study it more before I could give an opinion on this deal, I’m just saying what I would have done – not what he did.
Harold I had the same thought. Had Gross been a terrorist he’d still have his sight.
J those get out of jail cards have just begun! Obama also pardoned or commuted the sentences for several drug offenders:
Hmmm…life?
Peggy that’s the lawyers office. it shows where the loyalties of lefties run if nothing else.
Jack in a perfect, free world I’d agree but man, the world has changed dramatically since the fundamental transformer came to town and not for the cause of freedom.
If I look at this move through Obama’s lens, the lens of the fundamental transformer, I’d say the goal here is not to free the Cubans as much as it is to make sure America is more like Cuba under Fidel and Raul.
Socialism moves toward dictatorship. Cubans that are not communist already want freedom. Those that do favor communism are like the radical left here and won’t be moved. South America has been moving left for a couple of decades now; the momentum favors their further success especially with the current leadership here.
Cuba under the Castro bros is aligned with Iran, China and Russia. Like Iran, they sponsor terrorism. Castro will get the wealth that opening Cuba will bring and we get what?
I sincerely hope I’m wrong.
With the Russian economy collapsing the money the US spends in Cuba will find its way to Russian and not to the people of Cuba. Cubans aren’t allowed to have US dollars. They are paid with worthless pesos.
Castro got everything he wanted, the Cubans will get nothing and the US got nothing because Obama doesn’t know what the he77 he’s doing. Unless like Tina said it’s to transform us even more into a socialist state with the wealth transfer from us to Cuba now.
Peggy the President talked about normalizing relations. But socialism is the normal state of things for Obama. He has more in common in that respect with the socialist nations of the world than he does with the founding principles of freedom and limited government. I just think his vision is to “normalize” American relations with Cuba by moving toward socialism and absolute control (central planning).
Remember back in 2009 when Hillary Clinton, Obama, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro supported the dictator in Honduras against the will of the people, their constitution and Supreme Court? See also here and here.
Good article in Forbes suggests that normalization could mean a move for Cuba to become more like European socialism as Obama moves us in that direction.
The problem with that is that the systems are ultimately unsustainable, as we are seeing in Europe, and when things fall apart dramatically dictators always resort to force and absolute control. either that or the people just live in miserable conditions like they are in Greece and Cuba!
Is this the “flexability” Obama talked about with Medvedev before the last election.
I wish this were about freedom and better conditions for the Cuban people but nothing Obama has done in six years suggests that this is about greater freedom.
The Washington Free Beacon reports that Hillary Clinton is the architect of this deal:
It’s too late to do a story tonight and I won’t have a lot of time tomorrow either, so I thought I’d post a link to “Hillary and the Immigration Bribe”, National Review. It is a related story in a way, Hillary being the architect of the Cuba deal and all:
The story originated in the NYT.
Tina, I was thinking the same thing about Obama’s, “I’ll have more flexibility…” comment caught on mic. prior to the 2012 election. These things don’t just happen over night. Individuals have been working on this for years. In fact, Gross himself even said so when he thanked those involved in obtaining his release, including his attorney. The one with Che’s picture hanging on his wall.
Mark my words, any money we give to Cuba will end up in Russia. Is on the brink of another great recession equal to their 2008-2009 recession. People in Russia are already buying everything they can now, because they know, just like last time, prices will shoot up and the value of the ruble will continue to drop. They are buying anything and everything of value to trade.
Our dollars will end up in Russia to help them through their recession. It’s not going to end up in the pockets of the Cuban people.
Russian economy stagnates in November – on track to recession in 2015:
“(Reuters) – The Russian economy stagnated in November, data published on Wednesday showed, making it even more likely that the ruble’s rapid collapse so far this month will push it into recession next year.
Investment by Russian companies, once a staple of the country’s economic performance, fell sharper than expected last month, underlining pressure from Western sanction imposed on Moscow for its role in the Ukraine crisis.
Retail sales rose in line with expectations, but at a 1.8 annual increase they were a fraction of what their rise had been in the post-2008 crisis when consumer demand fueled the economy.
The set of data, which also noted some increase in real wages, follows industrial production numbers, released on Monday, showing that industry output disappointed last month, falling by 0.4 percent, against analysts’ expectations of a 1.1 percent rise.
“In general the picture is still of an economy that is stagnating rather than collapsing,” Liza Ermolenko, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics in London, said in a note.
“The key point however is that these data predate the recent collapse in the ruble. The full effect of the recent events on the Russian economy will only start to show up in activity data next year, but the short point is that Russia is heading for a deep recession in 2015.”
The ruble, which fell against the dollar by as much as 20 percent at one point earlier this week, is now trading some 45 percent lower for the year to date.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/17/us-russia-crisis-economy-idUSKBN0JV1XO20141217
I would even bet Obama’s delay in approving the Keystone pipeline is done to benefit the Russians by keeping the oil off of the world market forcing Europe to get their oil supply from Russia. Even at the expense of Americans who would benefit from the jobs and the environmental benefits by getting the oil from north America out of truck and train containers off of our roads and rails.
Obama’s agenda has been from day one to do what’s best for the global interest over the American people. He only has two years left to do as much damage as he can. I expect him to put his foot all of the way down knowing Congress will do nothing to stop him since they’ve done nothing in the past.
Obama said he’d done lowest executive orders in the last hundred years, but is that true? Turns out he needs to define his version of what “is” is.
There are executive orders, executive actions and executive memorandas. Add them all up and Obama’s done a whopping 393 “acts” with his pen and without congressional approval.
Obama did the immigration reform by executive memoranda, therefore, avoiding it being added to his list of executive orders. Got that?
From JR Review.
Obama Says He’s Issued the Fewest Executive Orders in 100 Years. And Now for the Real Story.:
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/12/219462-white-house-claims-obama-issued-less-executive-actions-george-bush-fox-news-reporter-tells-real-story/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=conservativedaily&utm_campaign=Politics
Was his action on Cuba an order or memoranda? You tell me, cuz I don’t see it in the WH press release below.
FACT SHEET: Charting a New Course on Cuba:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/17/fact-sheet-charting-new-course-cuba
Of course, everyone knows they ALL the “acts” are under the umbrella of executive AUTHORITY.
Our king has no clothes on.
The Washington Post
editorial board reports on the opinions of those in Cuba that have been working for freedom for the Cuban people for decades and they are not happy with this move by Obama. He apparently promised them he would consult with them before doing anything and then didn’t bother:
Tell you what Peggy, the only thing America has going for itself right now is that our economy sucks less than everyone else’s.
It’s the giving season and the news just keeps on giving. From Breitbart, just ahead of the big announcement the Cuban government changed it’s law so that the government will pocket 92% of the money workers make when they work for a foreign company in Cuba…and that ain’t all:
In addition to the 92% of salaries being pocketed by the Cuban government, Cuban government employment offices will charge 20% of the salary of each worker they connect to the corporation for the service of finding said corporation employees. Employees will also lose 9.09% of their salaries for “vacation time.”
After watching the Venezuelan government in action, I sure wouldn’t invest in Cuba.
(Don’t want the locals to find out what real wages would look like? Freedom my ^$$)
Hate saying, “Told you so,” but I could see that one coming. The Cuban people won’t benefit from Obama lifting the sanctions, only the Cuban government will.
It’s the socialist/communist Cuban government that’s hurting the Cuban people and we’re on our way to the very same type of government here.
No doubt the first to benefit will be the Cuban government, but if they don’t share the new wealth they will wind up in the same place as Batista. That wealth gap is a very powerful thing and has started many revolutions and torn down dictatorships. Either way, the days of communism in Cuba are numbered. We’ll also gain much more influence over decisions in Cuba as our leverage increases in foreign trade. I think I would like to visit Cuba before prices get too high. Then again, Canada and most of South America have been visiting them and prices have become fairly high already.
The only reason communism in Cuba has made it this far was because the USSR poured in subsidy money, they were never a self supporting operation until they turned to more free enterprise and loosened their grip on people. This hints at better things to come for them as they embrace more and more capitalism.
Peggy, you might be right, but I’m hoping eventually the people will do okay.
Jack, I wish they would too, but after learning the people aren’t allowed to have anything but almost worthless pesos and with the government in control of how much it’s worth I don’t see how they can. Any US dollars will go to the government and all profits from exchange into it’s pocket instead.
Buying Cuban merchandise isn’t going to help the poor people with a socialist/communist dictator in command.
Those from Cuba like democrat Menendez and republicans Cruz and Rubio all speak out against Obama’s policy change. Not hearing from others who have lived their or their family members have I’ll have to go with their experience and expertise until a better argument is presented.
I really like Rand Paul, but think he’s wrong on this issue.
Side note.
Fox News and Fox Business are in a contract dispute with Dish satellite so any updates from those not on Dish would be appreciated. Otherwise we’re stuck with MSNBC and CNN until it’s settled. Yuk!
I emailed Dish and told them if they can use my payment to subsidize al Jazzeara, with its very low viewer rating they can drop them and bring back Fox soon or I’d drop them. Urge others to do the same.
No? Al Jazeera?? You bet I will protest.
Dish just announced they are in negotiations with FOX to renew their agreement, but FOX pulled some of their channels. This has DISH upset, but they say they are working on it.