Castro ALMOST outlived the USA

I never thought of Warhol as a revolutionary Marxist until I read AZ's revelations in this thread.

Maybe not. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

Tell me: what happens to the people who would rather not participate in the communist system? Are they allowed to voice their opinions publicly? Not merely to criticize a particular policy or government action -- to openly call for a different type of government?

Is it true that the comrades are under strict State surveillance for political, media and cultural issues?

Even in a communist system, a doctor probably lives a good life. At least he's needed by the State. Unlike the average "worker" who would be used as aggregate in the concrete of State. Perhaps he's smart enough to consciously decide to keep his personal political thoughts to himself.

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Seems like more people then ever are trying to leave Cuba permanently.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...elations-warm/

I'd like to know which western country that doesn't have its citizens under surveillance.

This is how the UK do it....

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-a7426461.html

And all these organisations have access to your data......

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How many people leave the countries around Cuba? I've never heard it mentioned before.

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Viva la Revolucion!

Dude wanted to be a mass murderer. Khrushchev figured out leaving missiles there was a terrible idea because Fidel would push the button if he got his hands on them. Between Fidel and RFK, it's amazing we're having this conversation now.

No one's saying it's a great system, only that it brought huge improvements to the lives of Cubans. I met dozens of Cubans, all of who openly and without prompting expressed gratitude and even love for Castro and Guevara, but I guess a random Googler with no personal experience whatsoever but bucket loads of prejudices knows so much more about this.

Re. people leaving - what a great metric - I don't suppose many Americans are thinking of moving abroad now, are they?

Man, tell us more about your grievances with Nelson Mandela. Go into details, plz.

One of us has misinterpreted that post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...01ba68ac4b0e9?

It's good that even though your argument for the President being a communist based entirely on this ornament (you thought it was soooooo good you repeated it again later, LOL) didn't turn out so well, you can still pivot and use it for something else totally unrelated!

What is it with these right-wingers that just transparently lie about everything? Like Fly said we have Losing All attacking liberals from the left in other threads making arguments he obviously doesn't believe in whatsoever, now the Warhol ornament is clearly a huge deal to AZMountainHiker to the extent that it means...something, we don't know what, and that meaning keeps changing, but it means SOMETHING dammit! Thanks, Obama.

Yeah, I think that's more pro-Castro than anti-Mandela. Cuba was fighting the South African Army to free Namibia and (along with my protests back in college) to free Nelson Mandela and end Apartheid, all while the US Government was pretending it didn't exist.

http://www.salon.com/2011/02/05/rona..._south_africa/

http://nationalinterest.org/commenta...oves-cuba-9705

You are worried about a Mao Christmas tree ornament yet have no problem with Russia blatantly interfering in the US election?

Do you know how stupid this makes you?

Why don't you expand on the imaginary grievances I hold against Mandela? Lots of details please.

Only Nixon could have put Mao in the Christmas tree.

The decorations were chosen by volunteer community groups. It was not 'the White House Christmas tree', it was one of a number in the building. The National Gallery of Art in DC holds 21 versions of the original Warhol print. Don De Lillo wrote a novel called 'Mao II', referring to that print and what it said about the iconographic use of recopied images for propaganda and publicity in the modern world (where the image of such a singular and terrible person as Mao can become a bland and banal 'product' of the publicity machine).

Castro had no control over the Soviet missiles.

A dictator is still a dictator, though. 'Health and education' is a lot better than 'bread and circuses' -- and Cuba has done well in health and education -- but it's the same game, at root.

Are Cubans free to openly criticize the government?

Call for regime change?

another good thing to come out Castro's death

Trudeau’s turn from cool to laughing stock

"By the early hours of Saturday morning, Havana time, Trudeau was an international laughing stock. Canada’s “brand,” so carefully constructed in Vogue photo essays and Economist magazine cover features, seemed to suddenly implode into a bonspiel of the vanities, with humiliating headlines streaming from the Washington Post to the Guardian, and from Huffington Post to USA Today."

right, that is the reason we are still alive.

lol

Supply proof or STFU

Anyone who sticks up for Castro in this thread is pathetic. End of thread/

Obama could have choosen not to put it on the "White House Christmas tree" and he chose to allow it. Captain of the ship, and all....