I'm all for normalizing relations with Cuba. The whole stopping communism thing is bullshit. If communism is a system doomed to fail, there shouldn't be any reason to embargo it - treat Cuba like any other country and it will fail on its own, right? And I don't even smoke cigars.
That's not how they think. Communism is the enemy, so we have to make it fail. It doesn't "work" in terms of producing the bananas and tourist hotels that we like for small nations to produce for us, so we need to make it fail. Whether it "works" in terms of producing a good life for the people living there is mostly out of their frame of reference, I think.
There's a whole separate issue that putting embargoes on communist countries is one of the most effective methods in history for ensuring that they will stay communist, but that's a separate issue.
Could've done it day one. Now it'll stay up what, a week?
yeah - it’s fresh in cheetos mind! if it was done day 1 he’d absolutely have forgotten it by now
proof that intensifying sanctions after a point don't work
I'm actually not convinced that the one has anything to do with the other. I mean, yes, it's true that a lot of times sanctions mostly just strengthen the regime they're aimed at, and cause a lot of suffering for no reason. But I think it might just be that Biden's doing some performative stuff on his way out and also some prisoners got freed, and it's a happy accident if they can make a deal to make it all happen together.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican, whose father is Cuban, criticized Biden’s actions. “Today’s decision is unacceptable on its merits,” he wrote in a statement. “The terrorism advanced by the Cuban regime has not ceased. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage from the decision.”
cruz ‘working’ from a lounge chair at the beach
I agree that overall it's a bit weird but also isn't it strange to do this as a cynical, calculated move after his party already lost the election? Like what's the love here, in 4 years people will have forgotten
I don't think it's purely a cynical calculated move. Those people are still going to be free regardless, and if anything that State Dept+Catholic Church+Cuba worked out enabled this to make it any smoother, then great. Also, every little good thing is one more thing that Trump has to spend time and effort undoing. Me saying it was "performative" wasn't intended to mean I thought it was purely cynical or not a good thing.
What took Biden so long?
Why do we vote for people who wait until the last possible minute to do something?
Politics in a nutshell. Politicians don't usually wanna do anything "controversial" because it can affect election results, but since they are in lame-duck session now, it doesn't matter anymore so they start to do whatever they feel like.
Supporting genocide wasn’t controversial?
Its not actually controversal. Both parties support giving weapons to Israel. Only like a few progressive Democrats opposed it. Like Biden could veto all he wants, its getting the 2/3 congressional override anyways.
Real life isn't like Lemmy. The average person doesn't care about a genocide overseas. Talk to people irl and you'll see just how much the average person cares. Its unfortunate, but it is reality. 😓
Pretty sure he's never going to do anything about the biggest existential threats: dismantling the nuclear arsenal and banning carbon imports/extraction
Because, right now, the other two options are to vote for the people who don't do anything at all... or just not vote and have that happen anyways.
It'd be nice if we had more options. But we won't get that while the aforementioned group retains control. While, with this group, there's at least a chance.
It sucks. It really really sucks... but at the moment it's our best chance for a better future.
You do realize you could apply the same complaint to literally anything at all he does this week, right? Like if he's not just sitting at home playing Helldivers, people like you are going to be launching this impassioned criticism at him any time he accomplishes anything at all. If ending Cuban sanctions and freeing these prisoners was more important than the other things he did, then sure, but I don't think it was.
If you want to be mad that he waited until the last possible minute, be mad about him failing to put Trump in prison. That, he waited too long on, and he really shouldn't have.
He could've ended these wildly unjust sanctions at any time and only chose to do so six days before they'll be reinstated.
Is your impression that being president and changing policy is like Star Trek, where you just sit around in a big room and stand up and go, "Make it so!" and everything changes?
Trump tried to do that, and he routinely got stymied because it didn't work like that. That's why he eventually took to making big announcements on Twitter of things he was ordering to have done. Some things work that way, but a lot of things don't.
What the fuck are you talking about? The state sponsors of terrorism list is under the sole purview of the State Department and can be modified at literally any time under literally any justification without the approval of Congress, the courts, or any other body. It literally is Joe Biden saying "Make it so!" in this case. He just chose to do so when it has zero meaningful consequence.
On December 17, 2014, an agreement to restore relations with Cuba was reached (Cuban thaw); President Barack Obama instructed the Secretary of State to immediately launch a review of Cuba's inclusion on the list, and provide a report to the President within six months regarding Cuba's alleged support for international terrorism.[25] President Barack Obama announced on April 14, 2015, that Cuba was being removed from the list.[26] Cuba would not come off the list until after a 45-day review period, during which the U.S. Congress could try blocking Cuba's removal via a joint resolution.[27] Congress did not act, and Cuba was officially removed from the list on May 29, 2015.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Sponsors_of_Terrorism_(U.S._list)#Cuba_(1982-2015,_2021-2025)
Biden is saying that he plans to notify congress that he seeks to have it removed from the list. It is, I think, a purely performative gesture, since between Trump and congress, nothing meaningful will happen. Doubly so because the full scope of the embargo and sanctions encompasses a lot more than just being on that one particular State Dept list. Except that, all those people did get freed. It sounds like it was some part of the deal that got them freed in the first place, which means it wasn't wholly performative. It mostly is, but what the hell, they're out now, however much or little this had to do with it.
I'm partly just annoyed at the number of people who are echoing one of the most easy bad-faith ways of criticizing any politician who ever does anything good. "Well, why is he doing it NOW! He could have done it earlier!"
I mean, yes. He was busy spending a trillion dollars on finally trying to do something about climate change, and trying in a limited way to make a start at reversing four decades of working-class wage fuckery. I'm not trying to sound like an after-school special, but that particular way of criticizing this particular thing that he did is a bunch of nonsense.
Edit: Rephrased so that I'm not making it sound like I think Biden fixed inequality
This is a State Department affair; none of what you listed that he was busy doing has to do with the State Department. He could've literally told them "Hey, I want Cuba off the list", they could've given him a report to sign off on, and boom. Done. I hope you understand that while the POTUS has final say over their Cabinet, they have a Cabinet so that they can, like, delegate things to them. So that, like, they don't have to be laser-focused on one or two issues for their entire term. The US' sanctions on Cuba have unjustly crippled the nation for decades, but he waits 99.9% of his presidency to actually effect change on the issue, which, again, amounts to telling some people in the State Department to make a report and then signing off on it. What Biden's done here is fucking meaningless, and it's surely only so late in his term out of sheer cowardice that he thought it'd hurt his/Kamala's election chances in Florida. Fuck him.
I literally sent you a well-sourced article explaining exactly what the process is. You can read footnote 27 if you want to find out more. And you want to sit here and think that if you insert "boom" "I hope you understand" "which, again" "fucking" "sheer cowardice" and "Fuck him.", then that'll mean you become right through sheer force of insistence.
Read what I sent you. Or don't. You are wrong.
Last I checked, 45 is less than 1460. I hope this helps.
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