The Wall Street Journal reports:“If Cuba asks for humanitarian aid and the U.S. gives it to them, that would be a real breakthrough,” says William LeoGrande, an expert on Cuba at American University in Washington.
On other occasions when Cuba has suffered from hurricanes,
the U.S. has offered humanitarian aid, but Cuba has turned it down.
“Fidel’s position was that Cuba would not take charity from a country that had an economic blockade against it,” says Mr. LeoGrande, referring to the late former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. “He did not want to justify the embargo.”
The Cuban request suggests that Russia, which has been a supporter of Cuba in past disasters, is in no shape to do so because of the war in Ukraine, Mr. LeoGrande said....
“Everybody is angry,” said Camilo Condis, a self-employed Havana electrical contractor. “The worst thing is food, which is so difficult to get, and it rots when the power is out.” Mr. Condis said he had no electric power or water pressure in his house.
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Castro Family(D) is worth billions. Why can't they do something?
Of course America should do it - we are good people. Even the 50% that are Ultra-MAGA extremists. Or the other half that are Bidenists.
MarcusB THEOLDMAN
Every dollar for Cuba is a dollar that we could be sending to Ukraine. Priorities people!
To hell with the Cubans. Let them handle their own shit.
The only help that would make a difference is regime change.
Biden has a choice of diverting resources to communist Cuba from conservative Florida…
Doesn’t seem like a hard choice for him
Hit me, Hurt me, Make me write Bad Checks.
We are too busy stealing taxpayer money to send to Ukraine to be laundered to cover up the Bidens corruption. Joe is bankrupting us faster than the Federal Reserve can print money.
Why can't we help Jackson, MS and Flint, MI get some clean water? Why can't we spend some money attacking the drugs flowing into our violent cities?
Why can't reduce the tax burden on the middle class? After everything, (fed, state, sales, fees and all other bullshit) probably 60% of every dollar earned goes to these assholes via taxes. One way or another they are going to piss away more American tax money and continue to suck the life out of the middle class.
Considering the unlimited billions going to Zelinsky, why not piss some away on Cuba too? Sure. Go ahead.
I'm pretty sure the deal is so many elite Americans are making coin off the tax tit...that you have to give it away to other countries for some fake form of altruism.
Then you keep the American people working their asses off till they die...so they are too tired and busy to even question having the life sucked out of them. It's working quite well.
We could always open the prisons and send the our criminals.
Surely that would be appreciated.
“ Every dollar for Cuba is a dollar that we could be sending to Ukraine. Priorities people!”
Every dollar for Cuba is a dollar that we could be sending to Florida.
The reason to send the money is that they have rejected our money in the past. They are asking. They are suffering. It would both relieve suffering and perhaps increase our influence, which is why we have tried to give them money in the past. Isn't this a historic opportunity, with Russia losing ground so badly?
"Every dollar for Cuba is a dollar that we could be sending to Florida."
Every dollar that we could be spending on Florida is a dollar we could be spending on Ukraine. Maslow's "hierarchy of needs" is quite clear on this, they just need it more.
Florida man and Florida woman are a tough breed. I'm sure they'd agree.
So is Cuba begging for help or are our socialists crying in their beer? If the Cuban government is talking to the U.S. government there should be an offer given in order to receive the charity.
Russia is in no position to assist because of their invasion of Ukraine, we are likewise crippled by the billions given to the Ukrainians and the rush to spend money on rescuing students and to throw money into environmentally nonsensical projects.
Why do we bail out folks who spend taxpayer money year after year to rebuild million-dollar homes in low areas after unstoppable hurricanes? Sometimes logic implies the correct answer to be "No way, Jose."
No.
But I suppose we will because the printing presses at the Treasury and Fed haven't run out of ink or pixels.
I miss the days when the fed gov't had a quasi-budget and priorities, and spending money on something additional meant raising taxes or cutting other budget items instead of just 'borrowing' more - or at least discussion of the tradeoffs.
But please don't expect gratitude from or influence in Cuba as a consequence. Expect muffled laughter from its gov't and you won't be disappointed.
This is not going to make a difference in our relationship with Cuba; they would just take the aid and laugh at us for being suckers. There are higher priorities right now. If people want to help Cuba, this presents a great opportunity for private charities.
Sure, send aide. But, the Castros and the entire top of the Cuban government have to leave. They can move to Moscow.
Sorry, all our extra money is going to Ukraine.
Ten percent for the Big Guy.
Ann Althouse said...
"The reason to send the money is that they have rejected our money in the past. They are asking. They are suffering. It would both relieve suffering and perhaps increase our influence, which is why we have tried to give them money in the past. Isn't this a historic opportunity, with Russia losing ground so badly?"
One reason not to send money or aid to Cuba is that it would not do anything to increase our influence there. Their payback to us would probably be another Mariel boatlift. Beside that, it's arguable that their influence here is greater than anything would hope to gain.
Can't Justin Trudeau do something for them?
Mike of Snoqualmie: "Sure, send aide. But, the Castros and the entire top of the Cuban government have to leave. They can move to Moscow."
Moscow?!
LOL
They can move to positions of authority at each Ivy League University and major media outfits where they will be amongst their peers and co-believers and followers of their "faith".
I’m sure that the Biden administration would rather be sending money to Cuba instead of Florida. To me, it’s a question of how the aide is to be distributed. If we just send money to the people who are currently running the country then the ignorant Robert Cook is the only person who thinks the citizens will see more than pennies on the dollar. On the other hand, if the US distributes cases of food stamped with the Stars and Stripes from trucks painted with the Stars and Stripes, we can be fairly sure it will reach the people.
This represents an historic opportunity for Cuba and the United States. The US has been sending dollars to foreign leaders to skim and move to their Luxembourg private accounts for decades. Due to racism and anticommunist sentiment, the US has excluded Cuban leaders from this graft.
Sadly, Cuban leadership is willing to fall in line with a much smaller skim. Puerto Ricans and Ukrainians could teach them a few things.
Beasts of England said...
Ten percent for the Big Guy.
Ten percent is a remarkably small taste for a first world leader. Such civic spirit demonstrated by the Biden family.
Added:
Biden joins China and Latin American leftists in effort to oust American president of IDB (Inter-American Development Bank)
"It’s nothing short of sinister how the Biden administration has joined together with China and Latin American leftists to oust Mauricio Claver-Carone, the first American president of the Inter-American Development Bank. Claver-Carone has made great strides in beating back communist China’s corrupt influence in Latin America, which understandably upset Beijing. But to have the Biden administration join China in a political witch hunt is beyond the pale. This is seriously troubling.
Mary Anastasia O’Grady has the story in The Wall Street Journal:
China and Biden Oust a Reformer
Treasury joins in toppling a regional bank head who stood up to Beijing.
Socialist governments in Latin America, along with China, wanted to topple the American president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Mauricio Claver-Carone. But the U.S. owns 30% of the bank and the anti-American left in the region needed the Biden Treasury’s help.
They got it on Thursday, when Treasury’s representative on the IDB’s executive board of directors, Fabiana Jorge, led a vote in favor of Mr. Claver-Carone’s dismissal. The matter now goes to the full board of governors, which is expected to vote this week to end the tenure of the only American president in the bank’s 62-year history.
One notable element of this story is Treasury’s decision to misrepresent the facts about the case and smear Mr. Claver-Carone in its press release last week—more on that in a minute. Character assassination was undoubtedly necessary to justify the overthrow of someone who was implementing policies beneficial to the U.S. and pushing back against China’s privileges at the bank. It’s a loss for Latin American development and a win for Beijing.
Mr. Claver-Carone took the bank’s helm in 2020, and his success in raising private capital for co-financing of projects allowed the bank to reach total financing of $23.5 billion in 2021, well above historic norms. By boosting market confidence in its policies and project design, the bank was able to tap more private money and rely less on government resources. This is explicitly what the Biden administration has asked multilateral banks to do.
But Mr. Claver-Carone also has been breaking rice bowls. The IDB has long served as a slush fund for Latin governments, a dumping ground for politically connected, mediocre economists, and a source of patronage jobs. He ended the practice of reserving key posts for countries that assumed they were entitled to holding them and maintaining designated slots for their lower-level personnel. His refusal to shovel assets out the door to reform-resistant governments won him no friends."
Isn't this a historic opportunity, with Russia losing ground so badly?
I suppose so, but right now it's hard to think that wins for the regime are wins for America and get enthusiastic about them.
Don't send money. Send goods. And relief workers. If we send money it will end up making repairs to resort hotels owned by the Castro clan and its apparatchiks. The rest will be used to fatten numbered Swiss bank accounts. Money will do little or nothing for the poorest Cubans. Perhaps we should finally learn the lessons taught by famines and disasters all over the world, particularly in dictatorships like Somalia and Haiti.
We should send a carrier battle group to provide electricity and a Marine expeditionary unit to provide transport, followed by food, medical supplies, and electrical grid repairmen along with their infrastructure (i.e. bucket trucks, cranes, aerial poles, cable, etc.) If Manuel Marrero Cruz rejects aid in kind rather than cash, fuck him and his island. The Cuban people will never be told the truth in any event.
We should also recall how our food aid sent to North Korea was represented by the regime. The hapless Norks were told it was tribute paid to the Almighty Kims by the craven Yankee imperialists, the lesson being that if the American taxpayer wants some credit for the help he is forced to provide, the Cubans should see with their own eyes American hands distributing food and relief.
Havana and other parts of western Cuba remained without power on Wednesday in the wake of the major hurricane. As of yesterday upwards of 1.8 million electrical customers remained without service in Havana with services restored elsewhere on the island.
A foreign monitoring group reported that Cuba's internet and cellphone service shut down for the second time in two days on Thursday, saying it appeared to be unrelated to problems from the storm but rather an attempt to keep information about two days of protests in Havana from spreading.
BTW, Cubans with food spoilage problems might have tried cooking on an open fire outdoors. Words of protest don't contain nourishment.
Again- The Castro Family fortresses are fine. If we send money - would should have demands and strings attached.
The best one I can think of: The Castro family gives up power and leaves the island.
The American left will never figure that out. The left are brothers in arms with crony communists and the left adore human suffering and crony communism+ crushing state power.
Althouse said...
They are suffering. It would both relieve suffering and perhaps increase our influence, which is why we have tried to give them money in the past.
You're right. They are suffering. For the sake of Christian charity fine. I'll bet there are a shitload of Americans suffering as well, but spending money here is so cliché.
Considering what the United States has become, and the trajectory of where we are heading, is our "influence" really good for the Cuban people? Give them the money with no American strings attached.
What influence do we want over them? We could send University of Wisconsin Health doctors to Cuba to perform charitable gender affirming surgeries on their daughters. Let's emaciate their young men. Or maybe we can send woke libs down there to teach them the cultural value of LatinX. We could even open up a new control group of children to use as mRNA experimental mice. Let's give them all smart phones so they never talk to each other again, and then we can destroy their nuclear families.
Yeah!! Give them whatever they need. They NEED us. Just ask the Haitians, the Iraqis, and Ukrainians. By God we'll free them with our charity!!
The Castros stole wads of money from the Cuban people - Scrooge McDuck wads. Let the Castros pay. And I mean that in all sincerity.
Up next - Gadfly(D) to blame Cuba's misery on Donald Trump.
The corrupt America left would love to funnel money to the Castro family.
I'm not trying to say what we should do. I have no idea. I was just trying to answer the question what reason is there to do it. To say there is reason isn't to say there aren't better reasons against doing it. I would not purport to say.
“BTW, Cubans with food spoilage problems might have tried cooking on an open fire outdoors. Words of protest don't contain nourishment.
Gadfly to Cuban people…. Shut up, you’re stupid.
I've been to Cuba.
Really nice people who live in what could be a paradise if they'd only let go of the commie shit.
Time will tell...
'Why can't we help Jackson, MS and Flint, MI get some clean water? Why can't we spend some money attacking the drugs flowing into our violent cities?'
The democrats in those towns can go fuck themselves. They run the show. No bailouts.
Same with the democrat-run cities. They can wallow in their own filth until they wake up.
I'd rather give it to Cuba.
All of most of any US Funding will end up enriching Castro Family and their insider cronies.
All while the people stay under the thumb of the ruling elite.
and hundreds of thousands of political dissenters remain in prison.
All of most of any US Funding will end up enriching Castro Family and their insider cronies.
All while the people stay under the thumb of the ruling elite.
and hundreds of thousands of political dissenters remain in prison.
F the left.
'Havana and other parts of western Cuba remained without power on Wednesday in the wake of the major hurricane. As of yesterday upwards of 1.8 million electrical customers remained without service in Havana with services restored elsewhere on the island.'
Living in crap government houses, cooking on open fires, no indoor plumbing, no power or gas for the car you don't have.
So just a regular day?
Ian missed pr, thank God. But we did get hit by Tropical Storm Fiona as it passed south of the island. Lots of rain and wind but not a hurricane except barely as it crossed te SW corner of PR.
Yet here we are 13 days later and as of 10am today 10%of the island is still without power and the govt owned utility won't explain why. (they talk a lot but the more they talk the less sense they make)
Fortunately Brandon is coming to save us. Tuesday, apparently.
I guess he feels forced into this by our president emeritus. In 89, after cat 4 Hugo hit us directly, Bush stayed away. Ditto Clinton in 98 after cat5 George's.
But President Trump came after Maria in 17. He caught a lot of flak because, you know, trump. But even the flaketrs quietly that showing up was a big deal.
So I guess this is why Brandon is coming
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
Gadfly - go vote democrat and shut the F up.
Since it has been the policy of the United States to offer disaster aid to Cuba in the past, it doesn't sound contradictory that we should give them aid now. In fact, it would look really bad if we didn't give them aid now.
Disaster aid is one of those things that you give based on need, not politics.
Just look at the trouble that Vice President Harris got into when she said that Florida disaster aid would be given out based on "equity" rather than need.
Ask the Democrats - should US help Cuba or Florida....
What Quaestor said…
- Krumhorn
Well...our Idiot Vice President Harris already publicly stated that FEMA funds will be doled out to Florida based on equity and focusing on the 'communities of color'.
That was not received well. Coming from a university professor it would be a ridiculous enough statement. But coming from our Vice President it's head-slammingly dumb. Ignorant. I continue to marvel that there are those who claim that 81 million people voted for this ticket. Seriously. I cannot believe it.
So, sure. Go ahead and offer the 'equity plan' to Cuba. They've already been living the 'equity system' for decades and it's worked out marvelously. I'm sure one more schtup in the ass won't matter.
I led a group from our church to Cuba for one week in 2017. The strongest impression we had, and we spent most if not all our time with Cubans, is they work with what they have, which often isn't much. The national motto of Cuba could well be "make it work".
Had a delightful conversation with a groundkeeper who used to be in a rock band. Guitar strings? Telephone cable. Drum heads? X-rays. Drum sticks? Those little trees you see everywhere. Car parts? Cannibalize what they have and/or cobb together what they need. I can easily see Cuba saying, Gracias, but we will Make It Work.
BTW, this discussion applies as well to charity to any country that is run by a dictatorship. Sending aid to those countries just makes the situation worse - they are in the condition they are in because of their corrupt governments. Providing aid just strengthens the corrupt aspects, which makes things worse for the people at the bottom who who hope to help.
Puerto Rico is still in need of aid as well the nearest US state to Puerto Rico. Rebuild our supply chain, and it will be easier for us to recover from disaster and then help others.
I hear Cubans like guinea pig.
I hear Cubans like guinea pig.
Althouse wrote: "The reason to send the money is that they have rejected our money in the past. They are asking. They are suffering. It would both relieve suffering and perhaps increase our influence, which is why we have tried to give them money in the past. Isn't this a historic opportunity, with Russia losing ground so badly?"
No, it's not a "historic opportunity."
Why? Because it assumes facts not in evidence.
Would this money, in fact, relieve suffering? Or would the money be diverted into the wallets of the communists who have kept Cuba living in 1950 for the past 50 years? Who created the suffering? Didn't the Cuban people create this suffering for themselves? By choosing poor leadership for their small island?
And frankly, nothing is stopping Ann Althouse from starting a GoFundMe for the people of Cuba and sending food and supplies to them, providing the seed money for that fund from the millions of tax dollars she's been paid over the years.
Always wants to spend money as long as it's somebody ELSE's money. Sure, why not? There's no cost to Ann Althouse.
But is that offer even on the table? Does it even occur to her to do that? Nope. Wouldn't it relieve suffering? Sure it would, but not if it's going to come out of Ann Althouse's purse. Only if OTHERS are made to pay (by force, through taxation). And out of who's mouths would this money come from, Ann? I notice you don't have any funding proposals to explain who we would take the money from to give to Cuba. Aren't we hurting THOSE people? Isn't that the exact same suffering?
Same old, same old. Always want to help the Communists. Pass.
Althouse wrote: "The reason to send the money is that they have rejected our money in the past. They are asking. They are suffering. It would both relieve suffering and perhaps increase our influence, which is why we have tried to give them money in the past. Isn't this a historic opportunity, with Russia losing ground so badly?"
No, it's not a "historic opportunity."
Why? Because it assumes facts not in evidence.
Would this money, in fact, relieve suffering? Or would the money be diverted into the wallets of the communists who have kept Cuba living in 1950 for the past 50 years? Who created the suffering? Didn't the Cuban people create this suffering for themselves? By choosing poor leadership for their small island?
And frankly, nothing is stopping Ann Althouse from starting a GoFundMe for the people of Cuba and sending food and supplies to them, providing the seed money for that fund from the millions of tax dollars she's been paid over the years.
Always wants to spend money as long as it's somebody ELSE's money. Sure, why not? There's no cost to Ann Althouse.
But is that offer even on the table? Does it even occur to her to do that? Nope. Wouldn't it relieve suffering? Sure it would, but not if it's going to come out of Ann Althouse's purse. Only if OTHERS are made to pay (by force, through taxation). And out of who's mouths would this money come from, Ann? I notice you don't have any funding proposals to explain who we would take the money from to give to Cuba. Aren't we hurting THOSE people? Isn't that the exact same suffering?
Same old, same old. Always want to help the Communists. Pass.
“If Cuba asks for humanitarian aid and the U.S. gives it to them, that would be a real breakthrough,” says William LeoGrande, an expert on Cuba at American University in Washington.
Huh? Giving them 'free stuff' is gonna do what other than make Communism last longer in Cuba.
From a purely humanitarian position I can see giving them food and medicine but only if we distribute it. Not the Cuban government. Something I'm sure they wouldn't agree to. Otherwise we're just supporting the Cuban elite.
Ever notice how other countries don't tax the shit out of their middle class in order to send us money?
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