If you don't like my phrasing, then perhaps you should tell me why it wasn't illegally disbanded. The RSFSR, SDPU, and BSSR leaders met independently and agreed independently to secede from the USSR. That's just as illegal as the example I provided about the US.

I'm not going to mince words over partisan bs. It was illegally disbanded, just as the US would be illegally disbanded if California, Texas, and New York agreed to leave the US.

It's like you have no historical context for the topic you're trying to discuss. They do have some heavy industry, they produce 4% of worldwide nickel (and therefore also cobalt). Oil production is also heavy industry. They didn't develop it very much because it's an island, so after the Cuban revolution they relied on the USSR for heavy industry. That was a major flaw in international soviet socialism, relying on the USSR for most industry. However it made sense for an island nation, but impacted them substantially after the USSR was illegally disbanded.

This article has the backdrop of the energy revolution program within the country, started in 2005 to diversify energy production and fight climate change. You want to talk about how the embargo hasn't impacted them? Let's start with how they've been trying to modernize and decarbonize for 20 years, but hurricanes, the embargo, and the historical effects of the embargo have hindered this program.

There's more to growth than literal expansion. The Helms–Burton Act is what I'm referring to. The companies that trade with Cuba are banned from operating in the US. That doesn't mean no country can trade with Cuba, it's just forcing foreign companies to choose between one of the wealthiest and most populous countries in the world and a poor little island in the Caribbean.

So a couple things:

1. I'm not entirely blaming the US embargo, the Cuban government is also at fault and are responsible for ensuring food security and electrical production.
2. It's ridiculous to claim that the embargo hasn't seriously hindered the growth of Cuba or made it more difficult to maintain status quo for their citizens. The embargo prevents any trade with the Cuba if it involves the US, including foreign companies that want to do business in the US. Food and medicine purchases are allowed but still bound with significant red tape.

They specifically pointed to the embargo twice, as points for wavering food security and oil for energy. It's part of the problem.

That's fair, it's relatively unattempted as far as political systems go. However I think it's pretty promising based on the anarchist communes out there and the success of the CNT during the Spanish revolution

For fucking real. Same deal with autism for me.

It's nonsense to assume that every vote for Stein in 2016 would have voted for Clinton. Most exit polls showed that people who voted for Stein or Johnson would not have voted in the first place. Hillary was a losing candidate from the start.

Next to the peace deal and the stop order for arms shipments.

I've come back around to the thought that even by the metric of working as intended, the system is broken

Walz walks the walk. MN is a sanctuary state for trans people in the Midwest. Age appropriate gender affirming care for minors is protected by law, and the state refuses to work with subpoenas about traveling for healthcare.