Open Thread for Thursday
On February 16, 1959, Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro, who became commander in chief of Cuba's armed forces after Batista was ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Mir Cardona as head of the country's new provisional government.Castro was born in the Oriente province in eastern Cuba, the son of a Spanish immigrant who had made a fortune building rail systems to transport sugar cane. He became involved in revolutionary politics while a student and in 1947 took part in an abortive attempt by Dominican exiles and Cubans to overthrow Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. In the next year, he took part in urban riots in Bogotý, Colombia. The most outstanding feature of his politics during the period was his anti-American beliefs; he was not yet an overt Marxist.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 2/16/2006 12:00:00 AM
9 Comments:
The trade embargo against Cuba will end once Castro steps down or dies. In the meantime, Cubans suffer in poverty.
True, it would have been better to invade them -- like Iraq, than just continue sanctions.
Of course, if your read Castro's propanganda, Cuba is a paradise, so maybe the Cubans don't really know they're suffering.
If communist countries have been such "worker's paradises" then why did they build fences to keep their citizens inside their countries? Yes I know that Cuba is an island.
If anyone is resonsible for the shaping of U.S. policy toward Latin America, it is Fidel Catro.
Throughout the Cold War, U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan sought to prevent a second Cuba, or Castro/Communism as the State Department put it.
And now for something completely different, namely, L.A. housing prices.
DataQuick Real Estate reported today that "The number of Southern California homes sold in January edged down to the lowest level in five years. . . ."
If I recall my Econ 101 correctly, that means prices will be coming down. When supply exceeds demand, well, that's nature's way of saying prices are too high.
The median price for a home in L.A. last month was $487,000. I predict it will be lower in February, and lower still in March.
Keep this in mind when politicians come at you with their hands out to pay for "affordable housing."
Walter,
It almost does not matter that the prices are the lowest in five years, one still has to have a million dollars to buy a good home in L.A. Remember how much your old home in Westchester sold for?
Those who bought home in at the bottom of the market in 1994 and up to 2000 have seen their home values triple. I doubt many people's incomes have gone up that much even in a 10 year time frame.
Supply and demand have a way of working things out, provided you don't skew market mechanisms. Unfortunately, that's exactly what our government is doing in several ways, the most significant of which is rent control, which ties up the housing stock. Spending billions to subsidize mass transit likewise distorts the market by providing an artificial financial incentive for people to live farther from work than they would otherwise. Programs to tax some people in order to provide subsidies to others to buy or rent likewise drive up prices.
just for clarification, U.S. is the country that won't let its citizens travel to cuba... but - actually - cubans are free to travel to the U.S. I think its also the U.S. (or some of its more outgoing citizens) that are seriously considerring the fences on the southern border...
Thank you 7:34.Unless you have been to Cuba firsthand and have seen the heart and soul of the Cuban people you will never know what remarkable people they trully are. As for the comment of Castro being responsible for US foreign policy, your ignorance clearly came through. I'm sure Salvador Allende, Jacobo Arbenz, and all of the other democratically elected ousted leaders are responsible for the US sponsored CIA coups. Go back and re-learn your history.
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