May You Live In Interesting Times

I believe it may be too early to discuss the legacy of Barack Obama’s presidency just yet, and I love that, because it only means that there is still so much more that this brilliant, progressive man has to offer. In what is supposed to be his so-called “lame duck” session, this man has proven that there is still so much that can be done, even in your last years as president. Sure George W Bush proved that too, but his was just the opposite. Just when you thought he didn’t have one more, big “fuck up” left in him, we had the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression, in 2008. Thanks Dubya!

In the span of a few weeks since getting an old fashioned Mississippi ass whoppin’ in the mid-term elections, you would think Barack would slow down a bit, well to hell with that! Gas prices are at their lowest in years, and this president has appointed a Surgeon General, reformed immigration, and just yesterday announced the normalization of relations with Cuba.

This stunning historical announcement, needless to say has been a long time coming. Seriously have these 54 year old sanctions been effective on getting Fidel Castro out of power? The only thing that has worked against Castro is cancer, and we were too incompetent to give him that, he got that one on his own. Since 1959 six US Presidents have dropped dead, Castro is still going. Must be that Adidas track suit he always wears. Or maybe someone has finally woken up and realized that these sanctions only serve to hurt the Cuban people, and not the Cuban leadership. Seriously do you think that if Fidel wanted to get a bucket of KFC anyone would be able to stop him? He isn’t starving or broke, his people are, and finally we have a President that decided not to ignore the obvious just to appease a group of Cubans who always vote Republican anyway.

Now for all you wanna-be intellectual revolutionaries (JB Random Report "The 19 Girls You Meet before You Find "The One") and first-world anarchists who are so enthusiastic about this, calling Cuba a beautiful place that you are dying to visit…slow down, “freshman-at-a-pep-rally.” You have no idea how it looks now, or how you will be received. Cuba is still an incredibly repressive regime that will not necessarily welcome you with open arms just because you wear a Che Guevara t-shirt.

The government still has a great deal of progress to make. Cuba still imprisons political dissidents and intellectuals. People you say you want to emulate and protect. The press is censored and there is limited internet access and communication with the rest of the world. How many facebook friends do you have from Havana? Exactly, so don’t prop up this dictatorship just because you think it’s cool and rebellious to support a government that hates yours. I’m already seeing the turn once they realize that Assata Shakur, a murder suspect that fled to Cuba decades ago, might now be subject to extradition. Remember, the right to dissent doesn’t end when it disagrees with YOU.

Needless to say, there are those who are against this. Usually it is easy to point these people out, but on this issue, it is actually a bit more complicated. I love to take this time to mention the ignorant who are against anything that the Kenyan Muslim US President does because he is black and they are stupid. But this time, I actually feel a bit of sympathy. The non-progressive isn’t an evil person, he is just afraid. Think about it. He has lived his whole life with the security of knowing who to hate because he was told who his enemy was. Now that enemy is fading, and he is forced into the difficulty of accepting that he has been misled for so long. Here is a new group of people with a different culture and language only 90 miles away, that he has to come to terms with accepting. Not all people know how to do that. It really is easier to hate the unknown than to learn to embrace it. (Umm that was a nice quote. I had a moment there)

The other side of this is the Cuban population here in America. Not the criminally insane that came over on the Mariel boat lift in 1980, (another famous “fuck you” from Fidel to the US) but those whose families came to the US after the fall of the Batista dictatorship. These people had loved ones killed by the Castro regime. These people fled here with nothing and trusted us to look out for them, how do you tell them to “just get over it?”

I acknowledge that this is a delicate situation, and while I have no sympathy for the rich people who lost millions after Castro took over, (rich people that include famous US gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Charles “Lucky” Luciano) I do feel some responsibility to at least be sensitive to the opinions of those who were directly affected by this regime. It will take a great deal of diplomacy to navigate this, but I am optimistic. Interesting times indeed.

 

THIS WEEK’S REASON WHY TERRORISTS WANNA KILL US

No amount of advertising in the world would have ever gotten me to see a shitty movie. But maybe SONY Pictures are on to something, because now I actually want to see “The Interview.” If indeed North Korea and that little runt Kim Jong Un are behind the cyber attack that threatened anyone who saw this movie, then I will gladly be the first one on line, and I am sure that I would not be alone.

From the beginning SONY should have stood by their film, theaters should have not refused to show the film, and more importantly, the two actors who are the face of the film should not have cancelled their appearances to promote it. You people all make millions, have some balls. This cowering to terror is what they wanted, and you just gave an asshole who cannot even provide basic services for his people a great victory.  
In this case, I agree with (long gasp of air) Mitt Romney. He suggested that they release the film for free (or a small charitable donation) online so everyone can see it. I think we should make 1 million DVDs and drop them over North Korea.  
I am, as an American, deeply disturbed by the fact that an empty threat actually succeeded in limiting freedom of expression in my country. This is a freedom we fought for, and this threat should absolutely be responded to. Those of you who say “we shouldn’t get into a war over a movie,” are 100% absolutely right. But this is not about a movie, this is about freedom of expression in our own country, and that is worth fighting for.