The Week: Cuba & Uncle Sam: A Brief History

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Ederik Schneider
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Source: The Week– Communist Republic of Cuba, Dictator Fidel Castro

Source:The Week

Cuba has never been a home of liberal democracy and liberal values, liberal utopia, or what have you. Similar to Iraq, they’ve always been ruled by one authoritarian regime or another and that includes America. So there’s never been this one grand moment or time in Cuban history that you can point to and say this was a great period for Cuba where their people lived in freedom and flourished. Because they’ve never had freedom and have never flourished as a country.

But given all of that and has much as Fidel Castro and his communist regime screwed up the Cuban economy, (and that might be putting it lightly) Cuba isn’t a hell hole, rat hole if you need a stronger word and I’m sure you can come up with a stronger one than that. Unlike Haiti, one of Cuba’s neighbors, there are some things that Cuba has done and does today very well and they’ve only gotten better and are going to get even better at that. As much as Fidel Castro was a communist dictator, he is a true Socialist, not democratic obviously, but certainly a Socialist, but unfortunately in the Marxist sense.

Cuba has a very good and developed social insurance and social welfare system. They have good schools, their kids get educated, but then have a hard time finding good jobs because of the Cuban state-owned industries. But that is improving thanks to the Communist State opening up the economy and allowing for private business’s, private property and private enterprise in general. And they have good health care and health insurance, especially considering we are still talking about a third-world country.

I think the direction that Cuba is headed into now, is like that of China and Russia. Where you’ll have a private enterprise economy, but with a generous welfare state like that in Scandinavia. And a country that will probably be even further advance when it comes to some personal freedom and civil liberty issues, just not guaranteed by a constitution. But where the country is still ruled by the Communist Party, without any real opposition to it. And where most of the political power is still centralized in Havana. So no to liberal or even social democracy in Cuba for now, but they are still further along than they ever have been.
The Daily Conversation: The History of U.S. Cuban Relations

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The American Mind: Charles Kesler Interviewing William Voegeli: ‘Secrets of The Liberal Agenda’

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Rik Schneider

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The title of this video is “The Secret Liberal Agenda”. So hearing that I thought to myself, oh no! The Right has figured out our secret agenda of economic and personal freedom and equality for everyone and are going to use that against us! And then I had a big drink of something, went to the bathroom as a result and calmed down and thought about a couple of things. Wait, why would it be bad if the public found out the Liberals want both personal and economic freedom for everyone and that for all of us to have quality opportunities to achieve those things. And why would keep those things a secret?

As far as what Charlie Kesler, lets call him and Bill Voegeli were talking about, I didn’t hear any mention about any so-called secret liberal agenda. I did hear them talk about compassion and feeling for other people especially when they are down, for lack of a better phrase. But I did hear them talk about compassion and if compassion makes people Liberals, then America has a lot of Liberals and probably the most in the world. Because we are the most generous country in the world when it comes to private charity at least, both for Americans and people outside of America. And perhaps even when it comes to public charity if you look at our foreign aid.

I do believe that America has a lot of Liberals, real Liberals that is and not just people who call themselves Liberals, but are actually more socialistic or social democratic at least as far as they practice their politics. But you don’t have to be a Liberal to be compassion. Just a decent and caring human being who doesn’t believe that you are entitled to everything, at least everything good. And don’t give a damn about anyone else, especially people who are struggling and are even barely surviving.

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Keith Hughes: Cuba Explained: Ending the Embargo

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Erik Schneider

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I’m not saying ending the Cuban trade embargo unconditionally is a good idea and sure as hell hope that is not what President Obama did. I’m in favor of ending the embargo conditionally. That any American trade and business that goes into Cuba goes to the Cuban economy and the Cuban people. That the Cuban Government doesn’t tax most of it away, or all of it way to boost up their communist regime. But as long as Cubans see, feel and get the benefits of American trade in their country and have all the access to Cuban resources like hotels and everything else as American tourists, than this is something we should definitely be doing.

Cuba is not a threat in any way to America. Economically, militarily in no way whatsoever. If anything Venezuela is a bigger threat to America than Cuba, because they have a larger military, more economic resources, better ties to other authoritarian regimes who don’t like America and everything else and yet we trade with Venezuela. We are the only at least developed country in the Western world that doesn’t trade with Cuba and that only hurts the American economy and American business’s. Cuba gets that economic activity back and then some from Europe, South America and Asia.

Cuba is moving in a better if not positive direction now under Raul Castro now the President of the Communist State. They have opened up their economy to private enterprise and they now have Cuban business people who work or own for private business’s and other companies. They’ve also lessened restrictions as it relates to personal freedom and allowing Cubans to have more access of their own country. You don’t open up countries by ignoring them. We are seeing that with China and saw that with Russia when they were under Soviet control. You open up countries through engagement and encouraging the people in those countries to take control of their own country.

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David Lindholm: The Girl Can’t Help it (1956) Starring Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O’Brien & Tom Ewell

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Erik Schneider

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Source:David Lindholm– Edmond O’Brien, Jayne Mansfield, & Tom Ewell.

“Theatrical trailer for the 1956 film THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell and Edmund O’Brien. Directed by Frank Tashlin. Based on the Broadway play “Do Rei Mi” by Garson Kanin.”

From David Lindholm

If you are familiar with Jayne Mansfield in real-life and you are familiar with this movie, you know that Jayne essentially plays herself in this movie. Except for one key factor, Jayne plays a woman who doesn’t want to be a star, an entertainer in this movie.

The real Jaynes Mansfield only wanted to be a star and move to Hollywood and make it big in the entertainment business as an actress, singer and perhaps even comedian, she could do it all. (At least when she was sober) But in this movie she plays someone who essentially just wants to be a good housewife to the man she loves and take care of their children.

Her boyfriend (played by Edmund O’Brien) has completely different ideas for Jerri Jordan. (Played by Jayne Mansfield) He plays an entertainment mogul who has produced big hits in the past and made a lot of money, but hasn’t produced one lately and is sort of looking for a big comeback.

Fats Murdoch (played by O’Brien) also has other business connections, including being involved in organized crime and has even done time in prison. Which is one of the reasons why his career in the entertainment business is in, shall we say recession, where he hasn’t been active lately.

Murdoch wants to marry Jerri, but the problem is she isn’t known yet and is worried that marrying someone who is unknown and perhaps seen as a nobody could hurt his image. He knows that she is physically a goddess, a hot baby-face and perhaps even baby girl voiced goddess, with an incredible body is a star in waiting and just needs someone to lead her in the right direction and to get noticed.

Where Tom Miller comes in (played by Tom Ewell) whose career is also in a bit of a slump. But who is a talented agent and scout who has made entertainers stars in the past, but hasn’t done anything lately.

Murdoch hires Miller to make Jerri Jordan a star. To show her around town and to get people in the entertainment business to see and know her and to lead her to people who can get her in the entertainment business and start a career for herself.

The problem is Jerri doesn’t want to be a star and Miller knows that, but also knows that his gangster boss Murdoch won’t be satisfied with that. Miller is scared of Murdoch and doesn’t want to be cut out or eliminated, but doesn’t want to force Jerri to do something that she doesn’t want to do. Murdoch also has other gangsters after him that want him killed. And Miller and Murdoch help each other with each other’s problems.

The Girl Can’t Help it is certainly not a great movie. Very funny, at times sure and pretty entertaining, but Jayne Mansfield like in real-life is so overwhelmingly adorable, hot and sexy in this movie, that she makes the movie worth watching on her own.

Jayne is also very funny in this movie like she is in most of her movies and Edmund O’Brien and Tom Ewell are very good and funny in this movie as well. This movie also features Julie London, who plays one of Miller’s former clients who became a big star, but dumped him after they get involved. So this is a pretty good movie and Jerry Jordan helps Miller get over Julie London who plays herself in the movie.

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Mike Gardner: Evans and Novak- Governor Mario Cuomo (1986)

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Derik Schneider
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Source: Mike Gardner– Governor Mario Cuomo, D, New York – 1983-95

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on WordPress.

“Mario Cuomo on anti-Italian slurs (1986). Cuomo on Evans & Novack circa 1986.”

Source:Mike Gardner 

Before I get into Italian slurs, I’m going to get into why Mario Cuomo never ran for president. Even though chances are had he ran, he probably would’ve won the Democratic nomination for president in 1988 or 1992. A big reason why Governor Cuomo never ran for president, or at least a big rumor why he didn’t run, had to do with his perceived connections with the Italian Mafia in New York. Especially in New York City and perhaps around New York State as well.

When Cuomo ran for Governor of New York and perhaps reelection as well, those same charges came up and perhaps not just by Anglo-Saxon Republicans who perhaps had supporters at least who were less than enthusiastic about Italian-Americans in general. As far as what Governor Cuomo said about one of his opponents and: “He made his bones with the Democratic organization in New York”, I don’t know if that is true or not. But I don’t doubt it because Mario Cuomo dealt with anti-Italian bigotry as an Italian-American throughout his political career and perhaps his whole live even in New York.

New York City which is supposed to be one of the most inclusive and progressive cities in America. But once you move upstate in New York and out of Manhattan in New York, the upstate part of the state resembles Central Pennsylvania, culturally, at least. And a lot of New York City outside of Queens and Brooklyn looks like Connecticut. Very Anglo, preppy, and quite frankly snobby and bigoted.

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Keith Hughes: What is a Liberal?

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Erik Schneider

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Keith Hughes explained what is a Liberal in basically the first minute of this video and he even said that we all are a Liberal at least in some way. Because we all believe in liberty, equality, freedom, the ability to live our own lives. Those are the things that Liberals believe in and why I’m a Liberal and what liberalism is actually about. And if you want to call me a Classical Liberal, fine but I’m a Liberal because that is what Liberals believe in.

But if you listen to the stereotypes of what Liberals are and what liberalism is about, whether it comes from hyper-partisan right-wingers, the media and people on the Far-Left who have the balls to call themselves Liberals, you would think that liberalism is a democratic form of statism, or just statism in general, but under a different name. That the job of government is not to make sure that everyone can live in freedom, but that everyone is taken care of. That the job of government is to take care of people and even protect them from themselves, both from an economic and personal perspective.

The stereotypes of today’s Liberals is that we are essentially statists and perhaps even Neo-Communists. That individual freedom shouldn’t be the goal, but that what we want is a society where everyone is take care of. Where no one is poor and where no one is too rich, especially when others are struggling. Where no one is able to, or is making bad decisions with their own lives that society as a whole has to pay for.

So a statist today if they are democrats, are essentially Socialists or Social Democrats when it comes to economic policy. A huge welfare state mixed in with private enterprise to finance a welfare state, but are paternalists when it comes to personal issues as well. So people don’t make mistakes with their own lives that again society as a whole has to pay for. That it is the job of government to take care of people both from an economic and personal point of view.

I mention these things, because that is what so many Americans tend to believe when they think of Liberals and liberalism. People who statists essentially, both welfare statists when it comes to the economy and nanny statists when it comes to personal issues. But that is the opposite of what Liberals are and what liberalism is about. Liberals aren’t anti-state, meaning anti-government. We are anti-big government, we don’t want big government running our lives for us. Just to do what we can’t for ourselves as individuals, or can’t do as well.

Liberals believe in freedom and equality and that basically means freedom for everyone. Not that everyone has the same income and material wealth, but that everyone has good opportunities to live in freedom. So Liberals believe in safety net to help people who don’t have the skills to live in freedom because they lack the education needed, to use as an example. But with that public assistance we don’t want government simply taking care of people, which is what Socialists tend to believe in. We want government to help people help themselves so they can live in freedom as well. Things like education, job training and job placement for the less-fortunate.

The idea of a Liberal Utopia is not socialistic where everyone is completely equal, where big government has all the resources it needs to take care of everyone. The Liberal Utopia would be a place where everyone has the freedom to take care of themselves. Because everyone is well-educated and has the skills to take care of themselves and the freedom to live their own lives as long as they aren’t hurting any innocent people. And are living up to the consequences and responsibilities of their own freedom and decision-making.

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Howard Hoffman: Governor Mario Cuomo Nominates Bill Clinton For President (1992)

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Derik Schneider

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I don’t think Bill Clinton could’ve had a better person, at least not a better speaker or a better more intelligent speaker to nominate him for President of the United States than Governor Mario Cuomo in 1992. Other than maybe Bill Clinton himself, because in ten-minutes or less Governor Cuomo crystalized the entire 1992 presidential election and what Democrats were running on and running against. Not that Governor Clinton didn’t, because he certainly did time after time in that election.

But Cuomo was saying “we Democrats also believe in economic freedom and private enterprise. The difference being that Democrats believe in those things for everybody and not just the special few.” That lowering taxes on the rich doesn’t empower everyone else. That for everyone to succeed in America, they all need the skills and opportunities to make that happen for themselves. Especially the struggling middle class and people in poverty.

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PBS: Watergate Plus 30- Shadow of History

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Rik Schneider
WATERGATE PLUS 30 Part 1

Source:Chris Belch– Hugh Sloan, managed President Richard Nixon’s finances for his 1972 reelection campaign.

“WATERGATE PLUS 30 Part 1″

From Chris Belch

The Watergate burglary was short of just the tip of the iceberg as far as what happened during the Nixon Administration especially the White House. And without the Nixon coverup, we may of never known the full truth of what happened in the Nixon White House as far as their criminal activities. But once the coverup started, that brought in Congress, which started with the Senate’s 1973 hearings on Watergate, which were really about the 1972 presidential campaign as a whole. And then House took that and started looking into impeachment in 1974.

All President Nixon had to do was to let the Watergate investigation go forward and not interfere with the FBI and report on exactly what they knew about the Watergate burglary and that would’ve closed the door on that investigation. Watergate was just a burglary that Dick Nixon didn’t even know about until it was first reported. The major crimes in the Nixon White House had little if anything to do with Watergate. The real crimes were the other activities that the Nixon White House were involved in before Watergate.

The Nixon crimes had to do with ordering illegal break ins and bugging’s on private American citizens. The Brookings Institution perfect example of that. The secret bombings of Cambodia without Congressional approval or authorization. And as Richard Reeves put it in this film, “had the Democratic Congress been alive back then, they would’ve discovered the real crimes of the Nixon White House pre-Watergate”. Those crimes happened at around 1970 or so with the Nixon White House concern about the anti-war movement and the New Left in America in general. Watergate was small potatoes in comparison.

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Foreign Affairs: Matthias Matthijs & Daniel R. Kelemen- ‘Reforms That Will Save The EU From Irrelevance’

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Erik Schneider

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Source:Foreign Affairs– European Union flag.

“In 1982, The Economist marked the 25th anniversary of the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union, by featuring a tombstone dedicated to the organization on its cover. “Born March 25, 1957. Moribund March 25, 1982,” it read. Then came an epitaph courtesy of the ancient Roman historian Tacitus: Capax imperii nisi imperasset, “It seemed capable of being a power, until it tried to be one.” Inside, the magazine pilloried the community for its institutional weakness, bemoaned its citizens’ growing disenchantment with European integration, and warned of a possible British exit…

From Foreign Affairs

I’m not suggesting that in the short-term the European Union go from essentially a regional United Nations, even though it’s a lot more effective and run a lot better and I would argue a lot more important and perhaps the most important international player in the Western world outside of the United States and the United Kingdom, to a Federal Republic and state. Even though long-term I believe that would be in Europe’s best interest would be as one federal state in Western Europe going from Belgium and Portugal in the West over to Poland and Italy in the East, with every other state in between.

The European Union as a Federal Republic would be a superpower economically, militarily, diplomatically, and everything else. And the economies in Europe would be much better off as part as this one huge market of three-hundred and fifty-million people or so. Instead of one mid-size market of forty or sixty-million or so, or even smaller depending on the country.

But short-term for the EU to be stronger and more relevant, they need to be a little more centralized as far as the Commission and Parliament being in the same European capital and being part of the same organization under the EU.

As well as the EU should be more democratic with a real executive branch (lets say) that comes under the President of the European Union. Who would be elected by European Union voters. Voters in each EU state, instead of the EU rotating the presidency every few years or so. The people in these states would elect the EU President. And Commission would come under the President, with the President having their own Commission and appointing essentially cabinet members to the Commission, that would need to be approved by the Parliament. Whether the Parliament is bicameral or unicameral.

These reforms would make the EU more relevant and more effective, because the EU under the President and their commission would be able to act and act effectively dealing with issues that effect Europe and have a Parliament. Organizations like a united European Defense Force, that could eventually replace NATO and be a major partner of the Britain, Canada and America would be able to respond to either attacks inside of the EU, or attacks nearby like human rights and military crisis’ nearby, like in Africa or in Arabia like with what we saw in Libya in 2011 or in Syria today.

The United Nations is essentially a joke and not much more than a debating society. But especially if you compare the UN with the EU and that is not what you want the EU to become a place where nothing is essentially done other than debating and critical issues are never addressed. Which is what we saw with Russia in their invasion of Ukraine and with Syria as well.

A united EU whether it is a federal state or not with a strong Commission under a President and a strong Parliament, would be able to address these issues in a timely and effective way. Because now you wouldn’t need all the EU members to agree on anything before anything is done.

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Governor Cuomo 1984: Mario Cuomo’s Tale of Two Cities (1984)

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Derik Schneider

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The Tale of Two Cities, one city looks like a paradise, perhaps like downtown Washington or New York in the summer time. And the other city looking a place that you would only send your worst enemies to. Perhaps North Baltimore, no offense to Baltimore, I love that city, but parts of it are a living hell. Or Compton Los Angeles perhaps would be another example of an urban hell. Or rural America, where as Governor Cuomo said people there still live in shacks and trailer parks, go without indoor plumbing and even air conditioning and heat. Why, because they can’t afford those things, they can’t afford to live in an apartment.

Ronald Reagan’s City on a Shining Hill, sure if you were already doing well before he became President. And there were also unemployed Americans who found good jobs before the 1984 presidential election in time of course to reelect President Reagan. But how about the rest of the country that was still living in poverty. And the millions of Americans who now found themselves homeless in the 1980s or living in prison. Thanks to President Reagan closing down mental institutions and cutting people off public assistance who couldn’t get themselves a good job. And of course the escalation of the War on Drugs in the 1980s.

Governor Cuomo wasn’t playing class warfare in 1984. He was stating some inconvenient facts for the Republican Party and America in general and without him and his big microphone, those facts don’t get heard then. Sure others would’ve stated them, but not as many people would’ve heard them and they wouldn’t have been stated as intelligently and clearly as someone with the intelligence and communications ability of a Mario Cuomo. And as a result wouldn’t have gotten played over and over by the media and others. So this was a great speech and a perfectly timed speech by one of the best speakers ever.

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