Monday, November 28, 2016

Full Hour on The Truth about Fidel

https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2016/11/28?autostart=true

Here is the full live show.  Transcript will follow.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Fidel and our Media


THE ABSURD TIMES









Time Announces the "Decay of Revolution"


We are very sad to see the vast ignorance displayed about Fidel Castro and Cuba, ignorance furthered by right-wing fanatics and our politicians.  We can understand Little Marco [Rubio] and Daffy Donald [Trump] joining in on celebrating Fidel's death, but they certainly must know better about how things happened.  If they don't, we are even in worse condition than we could have imagined.

Wikipedia, surprisingly, gives a fairly honest account of Castro, so we will content ourselves with clarifying a few other points.

First of all, his original interest was baseball.  A pitcher, the New York Yankees had the opportunity to sign him, but capitalism seems to be its own worst enemy.  He went to Law school instead.  Then the trouble started.

For a fairly accurate idea of what things were like under Batiste, however, even popular entertainment here is more accurate that our news media.  The "Godfather" movies, especially those scenes in Havana, depict very well the operation of that government and in whose interest it was run as well as its effect on the people.  In one scene, we see all the major corporations seated around the table with some major gangsters and also Batiste.   They were all very harmonious.

Castro nationalized the major industries so that they could be run in the interest of the people.  He offered to pay the corporations their value, but the corporations said that they were worth much more than he offered.  He replied that he was offering their appraised value, but they were adamant.  He then offered to buy them at their own valuation, but first they would have to pay back taxes on that amount.  They would not allow that either.  So, he just took them.  This did not go over very well with the Eisenhower administration.

There was the "Bay of Pigs" invasion that failed, a CIA operation that surprised JFK so far as we are led to believe.  The "Cuban Missile Crisis" was an interesting event.  Castro was now justifiable concerned about U.S. intentions to invade and also to assassinate him (over 300 attempts were made with estimates as high as 800) and the Soviet Union, particularly Russia, had always been surrounded by enemies as far back as the 16th century, and we had missiles aimed at them from Turkey and other places.   Castro, on the other hand, was concerned with further invasions from the U.S.

Much has been made about the standoff and how valiant the Kennedy brothers were at the time, but what really stopped a nuclear war was the refusal of a singular Soviet submarine to disobey the order to fire on the U.S. ships. 

Most of the invasions were during the early days (he only had 1,000 in all) of the Kennedy administration.  However, John Foster Dulles who had deposed a democratically elected leader of Iran and installed the right-wing Shah who supplied oil to Israel and in general did our bidding authorized them during the last years of the Eisenhower administration.  His brother Allen Dulles who often said that all his actions were "approved at the highest levels of the government," meaning his brother John, carried out these invasions.  When Kennedy saw what a disaster the CIA was, he fired Allen Dulles.  Kennedy was assassinated a year later. 

Castro was extremely worried that he would be accused of the assassination and was very much aware of the attempts.  He did what he could to warn John, despite their differences.  Oliver Stone presented the most plausible version of the conspiracy.  Obviously, no one of any familiarity with the facts believe the so-called "Warren Report," which was basically run by, that's right, the same Allen Dulles whom Kennedy fired.

Much is made of the political prisoners in Cuba.  Once Jimmie Carter demanded their release and Fidel maintained that they were all either criminals or insane.  Fidel bowed to the pressure and released them to the U.S., and they turned out to be criminals and lunatics. 

We can tolerate deliberate distortions, but there is no justification for genuine ignorance.  There is much more such as universal health care, aid to other countries, and so on, but this is enough and the Pope's visit should indicate at least something to our citizens. 




Saturday, November 19, 2016

THE TRUMP CALIPHATE

THE ABSURD TIMES




Hamilton




We have to pause our program to establish corrections in the Democratic Party for awhile.  First of all, almost every single one of them is so self-centered and self-serving that they would never organize themselves properly anyway, and second because the Trump Caliphate is starting to form.

It is not unlike ISIS, based on ignorance, bias, and prejudice.  The most obvious and latest one is the demand by Herr Donald that the cast of Hamilton apologize for the negative reception Mike Pence received when he attended the Broadway musical.  Actually, Brandon, one of the main actors, actually gave a rather mild speech urging inclusiveness. 

The vulgar masses of Trumpites, in an amazing display of ignorance, started a campaign to #boycottHamilton.  Obviously, none of them know a damn thing about Broadway, and we seriously doubt that any could name a Tony Award winner, of any time.  We even doubt that they know what a Tony award is.  Surely, someone could have told at least one of them that the play was sold out for a year in advance, but still they went ahead.  Twitter is now filled with people offering to purchase the offending tickets from Trumpites if they had tickets to sell.

The stage was once a place where ideas were placed on display: Ibsen, Shaw, Strindberg, Miller, Williams, and so on used it more as a church of the present (as it was in it’s origins in ancient Greece), but it has degenerated to the level of Cats (based on a T. S. Eliot poem) down to Annie (based on a comic book) and so on down.  Hamilton is a musical of some minor interest and, as such, show a bit of an improvement – even though it is still not quite Eugene O’Niel.  

Just a snapshot of what is still going on and no, I’m not going to explain the empty spots:

The guy who harassed Obama about his birth cert for years is whining about a lecture from theater kids. #boycottHamilton
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#BoycottHamilton the sad part is that a large number of these people have been deluded by a vehemently anti Trump media and believe a lie.
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.@mmontuori I see, you don't believe in the 1st amendment. Must be one of those 2nd amendment gun humpers. #boycotthamilton
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Trump fans all fake-outraged and calling to #BoycottHamilton. Uh, the show is sold out for the next two years, dumbasses.
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I think the immature publicity stunt put on by the cast of Hamilton and this #BoycottHamilton hashtag are both a waste of America's time
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Pence doesn't believe in climate change, evolution or that some ppl are born gay. Can't he just not believe he saw Hamilton?#BoycottHamilton
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Time to ignore the Racist Cast of @HamiltonMusical & focus on our Inauguration Funding! Donate @ Bikers4Trump.com #BoycottHamilton
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If #BoycottHamilton is anything like the Starbucks protest, then ticket sales must be skyrocketing.
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Let's be honest. Trump supporters were not going to the theater. #BoycottHamilton