WOW do you feel the difference???

[underpants]

After all those years and all that money and all that energy Castro is finally out.

Wow isn't today just so much different than yesterday??? :sarcasm:

As I learned once in a Key West bar
I mention that first so you realize that this wisdom comes from a bar in Key West (whatever you make of that)

A guy who was sailing to Cuba to trade medical supplies for artwork and I had struck up a conversation. Being not from the area I was under the impression that aside from a few people flying into Cuba Americans visiting Cuba was strictly verboten I soon learned that the guy sitting next to me (with a 60 footer moored up just outside the bar) and every waitress and bartender that I talked to had all visited Cuba ....and loved it. Okay so sailor guy tells me that all these people in Miami who think they are ever going to get their grandfather's house back are out of their minds. No way that is going to happen at this point. He went on to say that the dreams of hotels and casinos returning to the island at this point are fantasy as well BUT the gold mine that even the Cubans don't understand that they are sitting on is all those vintage Chevy's that will bring top dollar from the leisure class that has WAY TOO MUCH disposable income.

He shook my hand paid for his breakfast and sailed off.

Just something to think about.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Just one more instance of the hypocrisy of this government.

No doubt there has been a lot more going on than we may ever know.
It was pure stubbornness and an inability to face reality that kept Cuba on that "official" no-go list for so long.

[Virginia Dare]

2. The people of Haiti and Jamaica really feel those tourist dollars don't they?..

you can learn a lot sitting in a bar in Key West, can't you?

[underpants]

3. Yes you can

this was a NICE boat too


It was surprising how the locals see Cuba as a nice day trip there. Just go on over there, have lunch, lay around take a nap, maybe have dinner and then come back

Everyone just gushed about how nice it was there and the people were.

[Virginia Dare]

6. Hubbie and I met some guys in a bar in Key West once..

their job was to take ultra-rich people's yachts from up north down to Florida for the Winter. They had some interesting stories to tell.

[ThomWV]

4. You ever see what happens to an old Chevy in salt-air?

[underpants]

5. Well from what this guy said and what I have seen

they appear to be holding up rather well

:shrug:

Yes I have what salt and sea does to a car.

[LWolf]

7. Am I the only one to see the irony in this quote?

<snip>

"Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections — and I mean free, and I mean fair — not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy," Bush said.

[EFerrari]

11. We're going to be hearing a lot of this head exploding irony.

Clinton and Obama have called for political prisoners to be released. In Cuba.

[Virginia Dare]

15. He has no idea what comes out of his mouth..

they're just words on a paper to him, and it's all he can do to get them out in a coherent fashion. He's able to do it about 50 percent of the time if he's lucky.

Ask your brother Jebby about free and fair elections shrub....:crazy:

[KG]

8. Castros retirement does not mean the revolution is over.

those who have power in Cuba aren't going to give it up because Castro step aside.

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Nor are the ones with POWER in amerika

going to give it up just because we have a new president.

[KG]

10. they never do.

cheney, rumsfeld, wolowitz, etc., actually accrued power during the clinton years.

[Virginia Dare]

16. They're all just corporate yes-men...

they are given the power by those whose bidding they do.

[L. Coyote]

12. What is the price of Cuban medicine? That will be the big boom when the walls come down.

Medical tourism to Cuba, for better care and drugs at low prices, is what I'd expect unless we socialize medicine. Easier than flying to Costa Rica for your dentist!

[lunatica]

13. A Cuban American friend told me

That she travels to Cuba all the time to visit her family. She said that as an American herself she was allowed to go into the hotels and bars but that Cuban natives can only go in as service workers. Without Castro and without idiot American Presidents punishing the people Cuba will rise again simply because Cubans are irrepressible. They are among the most joyful people I've ever met.

[underpants]

14. Welcome to DU

:hi: if'n I haven't before

As I ahve understood it Americans could go to Cuba but couldn;t spend money ...yeah that is a dumb as it sounds but that was the Clinton policy I have read news rpeorts :eyes: that they cracked down on visiting (just tourists not people with family there) under the Bush administration, who knows.

From what everyone told me in Key West that was the general description of Cubans--they happiest people you will ever meet, nice clean place with FANTASTIC FOOD <--- everyone raved about the food

[lunatica]

18. Thanks!

:hi: back atcha! And thanks for the welcome!

What American Presidents tell people they can't do in Cuba is mostly a waste of time, and it's pretty much understood to be so. Who's going to police the American tourists in Cuba to make sure they don't spend money? The American government has tried to tell people they can't travel to Cuba, but that's regularly circumvented by traveling through any other country, including Mexico. They all have diplomatic relations with Cuba. In this regard the US is ridiculous and only serves to keep people of the country poor, because I don't see how they've punished Castro at all.

[blindpig]

17. Very true

The Cuban people are very proud of their achievement and have no intention of being recolonized. Theirs is an egalitarian society, not only just but absolutely necessary for societal and planetary survival. We should be taking tips from them instead of salivating in anticipation of laying waste to the place.

Thing about those old cars, they keep the bodies up beautifully but the engines have largely been replaced, often by Russian made engines.