So I’m right that the establishment press is pretty much all toxic bullshit when it comes to political news? Besides, in political coverage, nuance isn’t allowed. (For the record: Cooper’s interview was that rare exception.)
Now now Roy, let's not be rational or reasonable here. We must run around screaming about commies. Don't forget that when the stuff about Putin's interference in 2016 came out that number of people who insisted that it was COMMUNISTS and I mean real communists was amazing. Including if I recall correctly some on cable news.
The facts about Cuba matter not at all: No hunger, no uneducated, no homeless, LGBTQ rights preserved. Thousands of doctors sent out to help other third world countries every year. No Cuba needs to be more like say Honduras, yeah that's the ticket.
Oh, by the way te WSJ's stats about pre-revolutionary Cuba are BS as you noted.
We all have terms of approbation we throw at our enemies. They toss
“communist” and “socialist” (Bernie’s tone deaf, using the latter), we have “fascist” and “Nazi.” None of it elevates our discourse. That said, I look forward to the day that everyone agrees with me that the last time “Republican” wasn’t a insult was 1930’s Spain.
You know, Cuba is bad. I mean, really, really bad. Why, the Cubans throw people in prisons! Not like our really good friend Pinochet who threw people out of helicopters. No sir! And not like our other good friend Somosa who just had his goons chop off the top of people's skulls so they could stagger around for a few minutes before bleeding out.
Seriously, though--the whole rap about Cuba just doesn't resonate well anymore outside the fever swamps of the Right. The Cuban Revolution was 70 years ago, and there are several generations now who just don't understand why we hate Hate HATE!!! Cuba--especially now that Fidel has gone to the Great Cigar Bar in the Sky.
And don't let anyone get away with rewriting history about Nicaragua - Somoza and the contras were terrible, the CIA mined their harbors, and the Sandinistas gave up power after an election.
"The Cuban Literacy Campaign (Spanish: Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización en Cuba) was an eight-month long effort to abolish illiteracy in Cuba after the Cuban Revolution.[1][2] It began in April 1961 and ended on December 22, 1961, successfully raising Cuba's literacy rate to nearly one-hundred percent.[3][2]
"Before 1959 the official literacy rate for Cuba was between 60% and 76%, largely because of lack of education access in rural areas and a lack of instructors.[4] As a result, the Cuban government of Fidel Castro at Che Guevara's behest dubbed 1961 the "year of education" and sent "literacy brigades" out into the countryside to construct schools, train new educators, and teach the predominantly illiterate guajiros (peasants) to read and write. The campaign was "a remarkable success." By its completion, 707,212 adults were taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96%.[4]"
Sadly, here in Ohio, red-baiting never went away. Here in Cuckoo County, we're in the midst of a primary contest for county probate/juvenile court judge between the incumbent Tea Party-supported judge and a moderate Republican challenger. I support the moderate. My Facebook page shows my political views as "Socialist." When the two candidates were interviewed by the local newspapers' editorial board (we're still waiting for the endorsement), I'm told that the incumbent went on a rant about how I'm his challenger's "biggest supporter," and I'm a communist. I doubt the local rag will take the bait, but it's Ohio. Who knows?
The corporate class is all in for Donald Trump - they'd be fine with Bloomberg, Buttigieg or Biden but otherwise they want DJT. And what the corporate class wants, they get. That's the one thing that has always been constant in this country since the "Reagan Revolution". Red baiting is just a useful cudgel against Bernie. If it was Warren it'd be injun whoops. Yes, it's' dumb. It's a big dumb ass country too full of dumb ass, ignorant Americans who think DJT is smart because he was on a reality TV show that portrayed him as smart.
There's nothing to be done for that sort of dumbassery. Big, powerful countries can be dumb for a while and get away with it but eventually it catches up. What's that you say? Coronavirus striking a country with millions of uninsured people? And the response is being managed by DJT and his crack team in the white house? Well... we will just see. Maybe the USA luck out again.
Somewhere, an actual communist, former KGB officer, and FSB National Director who's made Donald Trump his very own piss-boy, is laughing his thieving billionaire ass off as he gives orders to sabotage our next election. But look! Sanders said something true about Cuba!
Thank you for this. I am a Warren supporter but this shit is for the birds. I am really mad at the FTFNYT and the WaPo for their stupid coverage. Meanwhile Biden makes up stories about law school, Nelson Mandela and god knows what else and it's somehow supposed to be endearing.
"It suggests not that we never learn anything, but that we learn and then keep getting dragged back into the darkness from which we emerged by the same bunch of con artists as before."
Well, professional reactionaries need radicals to complete them, else what is the point of their existence. And if no commies can be found, they'll pony up for a RealDoll, dress it in a Che! t-shirt, and commence to hate-fucking it for clicks.
Generals always fight the last war, Right Wingers always fight the last culture war, which is why nearly everything we thought settled or at least arcing toward justice -- abortion, race relations, labor rights -- is a free fire zone again. There's no such thing as peace or even settled law with these revanchists, no treaty or truce is possible. I'm beginning to think the Romans were right about Carthage.
The 50s and 60s, when I was a grade-schooler being warned that in Russia, the Communist government decided what college you could go to, and what degree you could get. I had no idea that the punch line today would be, Americans who want to avoid a lifetime (plus) of debt, have businessmen to do that deciding.
This is what comes from coddling the wealthy, which has been the national sport for more than 150 years, but has gone into overdrive in the last forty or so. It's why Lloyd Blankfein, the Vampire Squid-in-Chief, can say, with a straight face, that a net worth of <i>$1.3 billion</i> is just "well-to-do," not wealthy.
Nathanael West is all but forgotten these days, but to understand the United States today, one has to read him, particularly his last two books, <i>A Cool Million</i> and <i>Day of the Locust</i>. I imagine George W. Bush as Shagpoke Whipple and T.rump as a Hollywood impresario. For me, that explains a great deal.
So I’m right that the establishment press is pretty much all toxic bullshit when it comes to political news? Besides, in political coverage, nuance isn’t allowed. (For the record: Cooper’s interview was that rare exception.)
Now now Roy, let's not be rational or reasonable here. We must run around screaming about commies. Don't forget that when the stuff about Putin's interference in 2016 came out that number of people who insisted that it was COMMUNISTS and I mean real communists was amazing. Including if I recall correctly some on cable news.
The facts about Cuba matter not at all: No hunger, no uneducated, no homeless, LGBTQ rights preserved. Thousands of doctors sent out to help other third world countries every year. No Cuba needs to be more like say Honduras, yeah that's the ticket.
Oh, by the way te WSJ's stats about pre-revolutionary Cuba are BS as you noted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRVv2b-hL_0
We all have terms of approbation we throw at our enemies. They toss
“communist” and “socialist” (Bernie’s tone deaf, using the latter), we have “fascist” and “Nazi.” None of it elevates our discourse. That said, I look forward to the day that everyone agrees with me that the last time “Republican” wasn’t a insult was 1930’s Spain.
You know, Cuba is bad. I mean, really, really bad. Why, the Cubans throw people in prisons! Not like our really good friend Pinochet who threw people out of helicopters. No sir! And not like our other good friend Somosa who just had his goons chop off the top of people's skulls so they could stagger around for a few minutes before bleeding out.
Seriously, though--the whole rap about Cuba just doesn't resonate well anymore outside the fever swamps of the Right. The Cuban Revolution was 70 years ago, and there are several generations now who just don't understand why we hate Hate HATE!!! Cuba--especially now that Fidel has gone to the Great Cigar Bar in the Sky.
We have red-baiting because accusing someone of witchcraft just doesn't carry the same gravitas it had in the Middle Ages.
And don't let anyone get away with rewriting history about Nicaragua - Somoza and the contras were terrible, the CIA mined their harbors, and the Sandinistas gave up power after an election.
Batista regime's own figures varied, and we can assume (that was a dictatorship too!) the low end is closer to accurate than the high end https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Literacy_Campaign:
"The Cuban Literacy Campaign (Spanish: Campaña Nacional de Alfabetización en Cuba) was an eight-month long effort to abolish illiteracy in Cuba after the Cuban Revolution.[1][2] It began in April 1961 and ended on December 22, 1961, successfully raising Cuba's literacy rate to nearly one-hundred percent.[3][2]
"Before 1959 the official literacy rate for Cuba was between 60% and 76%, largely because of lack of education access in rural areas and a lack of instructors.[4] As a result, the Cuban government of Fidel Castro at Che Guevara's behest dubbed 1961 the "year of education" and sent "literacy brigades" out into the countryside to construct schools, train new educators, and teach the predominantly illiterate guajiros (peasants) to read and write. The campaign was "a remarkable success." By its completion, 707,212 adults were taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96%.[4]"
Sadly, here in Ohio, red-baiting never went away. Here in Cuckoo County, we're in the midst of a primary contest for county probate/juvenile court judge between the incumbent Tea Party-supported judge and a moderate Republican challenger. I support the moderate. My Facebook page shows my political views as "Socialist." When the two candidates were interviewed by the local newspapers' editorial board (we're still waiting for the endorsement), I'm told that the incumbent went on a rant about how I'm his challenger's "biggest supporter," and I'm a communist. I doubt the local rag will take the bait, but it's Ohio. Who knows?
The corporate class is all in for Donald Trump - they'd be fine with Bloomberg, Buttigieg or Biden but otherwise they want DJT. And what the corporate class wants, they get. That's the one thing that has always been constant in this country since the "Reagan Revolution". Red baiting is just a useful cudgel against Bernie. If it was Warren it'd be injun whoops. Yes, it's' dumb. It's a big dumb ass country too full of dumb ass, ignorant Americans who think DJT is smart because he was on a reality TV show that portrayed him as smart.
There's nothing to be done for that sort of dumbassery. Big, powerful countries can be dumb for a while and get away with it but eventually it catches up. What's that you say? Coronavirus striking a country with millions of uninsured people? And the response is being managed by DJT and his crack team in the white house? Well... we will just see. Maybe the USA luck out again.
Somewhere, an actual communist, former KGB officer, and FSB National Director who's made Donald Trump his very own piss-boy, is laughing his thieving billionaire ass off as he gives orders to sabotage our next election. But look! Sanders said something true about Cuba!
Thank you for this. I am a Warren supporter but this shit is for the birds. I am really mad at the FTFNYT and the WaPo for their stupid coverage. Meanwhile Biden makes up stories about law school, Nelson Mandela and god knows what else and it's somehow supposed to be endearing.
Go ahead and call Sanders a communist. It was the communists who defeated the Nazis, after all.
"Got called a pinko, commie tool/Got through it stinko by the pool..."
I got through all of half of the last century, and I'm here.
"It suggests not that we never learn anything, but that we learn and then keep getting dragged back into the darkness from which we emerged by the same bunch of con artists as before."
Well, professional reactionaries need radicals to complete them, else what is the point of their existence. And if no commies can be found, they'll pony up for a RealDoll, dress it in a Che! t-shirt, and commence to hate-fucking it for clicks.
Generals always fight the last war, Right Wingers always fight the last culture war, which is why nearly everything we thought settled or at least arcing toward justice -- abortion, race relations, labor rights -- is a free fire zone again. There's no such thing as peace or even settled law with these revanchists, no treaty or truce is possible. I'm beginning to think the Romans were right about Carthage.
The 50s and 60s, when I was a grade-schooler being warned that in Russia, the Communist government decided what college you could go to, and what degree you could get. I had no idea that the punch line today would be, Americans who want to avoid a lifetime (plus) of debt, have businessmen to do that deciding.
This is what comes from coddling the wealthy, which has been the national sport for more than 150 years, but has gone into overdrive in the last forty or so. It's why Lloyd Blankfein, the Vampire Squid-in-Chief, can say, with a straight face, that a net worth of <i>$1.3 billion</i> is just "well-to-do," not wealthy.
Nathanael West is all but forgotten these days, but to understand the United States today, one has to read him, particularly his last two books, <i>A Cool Million</i> and <i>Day of the Locust</i>. I imagine George W. Bush as Shagpoke Whipple and T.rump as a Hollywood impresario. For me, that explains a great deal.