Reactionaries 'round the Water Cooler - again
Hey Folks,
Recently the Editor at the Dispatch put on his Propaganda hat to attack an old, bearded cigar smoker who has never gotten ONE of our kids killed in a war or in "spreading" anything around the world.
It made use of the Forbes article I've already addressed earlier here http://www.ukuleleman.net/2006/05/castro-catherine-great.html.
For now I'm sharing the letter I sent off to to "Ohio's Greatest Ho Newspaper."
When "Dr. Grimaldi's Exhibition Fantastique" finishes its run, I'll write more.
- Uke Man
To the Editor,
Are you people out of your minds? "Keeping that many people that miserable for that many years" has been a simple matter for the greedy bastards slobbering over their lost opportunities to share in the exploitation of the Cuban people. The good old US of A is the major reason for any suffering experienced by the mass of Cubans.
What a joke! Steve Forbes, the googly-eyed nerd who inherited his old man's money comes up with an insane fantasy, and you put your dubious credibility behind it. You say the argument is "academic." What Academy did you go to? To say that the head of a socialist state owns everything in that state is beyond ludicrous: it's nuts! In this country evermore increasingly everything IS owned by half-wits like Forbes who inherited it from their (often Robber Baron) ancestors; and the voracious Republicans are bent on making it even more so - see the so-called "Death Tax."
The crap about dictatorship you put out fits our fuehrer G. W. Bush about as well as anyone. Don't you people have anything to do better than fretting over your treasure pile? Don't you think that the deaths of our children in this misbegotten war for empire rates a little bit above bad-mouthing an old man on a tiny island who HAS benefited his people at least in terms of education and medical care?
Couldn't your time be better spent attacking those here at home who believe themselves - because we are at "war" - to be above the law, to be above the Constitution, to be above decency, to be able to do whatever they damn well please to whomever they damn well please here and wherever else they damn well please?
No, I guess not. If you don't keep your eyes open, before long the people will expect to be treated honestly - that could bring about a "new world order" that W's daddy never anticipated.
Your editor is a credit to his class.
Yours,
Tom Harker
"Thief in chief" - the Dispatch Editorial
Fidel Castro, ranked among world’s richest leaders, stole it from Cuba’s people
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Poor Fidel Castro. The Cuban autocrat has spent almost half a century proving that communism is a superb system for creating poverty and distributing it equally. Just ask the 11 million Cubans who squeak by with food rations and an average of $10 a month.
Keeping that many people that miserable for that many years is no easy task. It requires a vast and elaborate police state, and those don’t grow on trees. Creating one requires long hours over many years and unrelenting attention to detail, all the while being harassed by human-rights watchdogs and others who yammer incessantly about liberty and democracy.
Other communist leaders and states have come and gone, such as the Soviet Union and most of its former satellites in eastern Europe. Or they’ve sold their Marxist inheritance for a mess of capitalist pottage, as in China and Vietnam.
So, in his twilight years, Cuba’s 79-year-old jefe maximo has every right to expect that his Marxist credentials would be above reproach.
But no. Forbes magazine, that mouthpiece of the global capitalist order, once again has soiled Castro’s socialist halo by suggesting that he is as greedy as a 19 th-century robber baron. The magazine reported that Castro is the world’s seventh-wealthiest leader, worth $900 million.
The estimate, included in the magazine’s May 5 edition, drew an angry challenge from Castro last week, who said that if anybody can prove he has vast wealth stashed away, he will resign, which presumably would create an opening for somebody else to be absolute dictator.
The magazine admits that the figure is an estimate that is open to question, and, in fact, the editors have never quite settled on what they think Castro is worth. In the 10 years that Forbes has published the annual ranking, Castro’s assets have been pegged at anywhere from $1.4 billion to as little as $100 million.
The $1.4 billion figure came from the magazine’s first estimate in 1997, when editors simply attributed to Castro a percentage of Cuba’s gross domestic product. Since then, the estimate has been derived from various formulas that the magazine defends but declines to lay out in detail. But the estimates are likely based on reports from Cuban defectors that Castro takes a cut from Cuba’s stateowned enterprises.
Forbes notes that the dictator has a fleet of black Mercedes. Anti-Castro activist Maria Werlau, who has studied Castro’s finances and who advised the magazine, says Castro also maintains overseas bank accounts, has numerous houses and controls stockpiles of food, fuel and luxury goods. She believes Forbes underestimates Castro’s wherewithal.
One could argue all day about exactly how to determine the value of Castro’s holdings. But the argument is academic. If everything of value in Cuba, including its people, belongs to the state, and if one man controls that state, then it’s all his to do with as he pleases, which is precisely what Castro has done for 47 years. Practically speaking, this is indistinguishable from ownership.
What’s important is not the total value of all that Castro controls, but how he came by it. The bottom line is that he has robbed the Cuban people of liberty and prosperity for five decades.
Recently the Editor at the Dispatch put on his Propaganda hat to attack an old, bearded cigar smoker who has never gotten ONE of our kids killed in a war or in "spreading" anything around the world.
It made use of the Forbes article I've already addressed earlier here http://www.ukuleleman.net/2006/05/castro-catherine-great.html.
For now I'm sharing the letter I sent off to to "Ohio's Greatest Ho Newspaper."
When "Dr. Grimaldi's Exhibition Fantastique" finishes its run, I'll write more.
- Uke Man
To the Editor,
Are you people out of your minds? "Keeping that many people that miserable for that many years" has been a simple matter for the greedy bastards slobbering over their lost opportunities to share in the exploitation of the Cuban people. The good old US of A is the major reason for any suffering experienced by the mass of Cubans.
What a joke! Steve Forbes, the googly-eyed nerd who inherited his old man's money comes up with an insane fantasy, and you put your dubious credibility behind it. You say the argument is "academic." What Academy did you go to? To say that the head of a socialist state owns everything in that state is beyond ludicrous: it's nuts! In this country evermore increasingly everything IS owned by half-wits like Forbes who inherited it from their (often Robber Baron) ancestors; and the voracious Republicans are bent on making it even more so - see the so-called "Death Tax."
The crap about dictatorship you put out fits our fuehrer G. W. Bush about as well as anyone. Don't you people have anything to do better than fretting over your treasure pile? Don't you think that the deaths of our children in this misbegotten war for empire rates a little bit above bad-mouthing an old man on a tiny island who HAS benefited his people at least in terms of education and medical care?
Couldn't your time be better spent attacking those here at home who believe themselves - because we are at "war" - to be above the law, to be above the Constitution, to be above decency, to be able to do whatever they damn well please to whomever they damn well please here and wherever else they damn well please?
No, I guess not. If you don't keep your eyes open, before long the people will expect to be treated honestly - that could bring about a "new world order" that W's daddy never anticipated.
Your editor is a credit to his class.
Yours,
Tom Harker
"Thief in chief" - the Dispatch Editorial
Fidel Castro, ranked among world’s richest leaders, stole it from Cuba’s people
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Poor Fidel Castro. The Cuban autocrat has spent almost half a century proving that communism is a superb system for creating poverty and distributing it equally. Just ask the 11 million Cubans who squeak by with food rations and an average of $10 a month.
Keeping that many people that miserable for that many years is no easy task. It requires a vast and elaborate police state, and those don’t grow on trees. Creating one requires long hours over many years and unrelenting attention to detail, all the while being harassed by human-rights watchdogs and others who yammer incessantly about liberty and democracy.
Other communist leaders and states have come and gone, such as the Soviet Union and most of its former satellites in eastern Europe. Or they’ve sold their Marxist inheritance for a mess of capitalist pottage, as in China and Vietnam.
So, in his twilight years, Cuba’s 79-year-old jefe maximo has every right to expect that his Marxist credentials would be above reproach.
But no. Forbes magazine, that mouthpiece of the global capitalist order, once again has soiled Castro’s socialist halo by suggesting that he is as greedy as a 19 th-century robber baron. The magazine reported that Castro is the world’s seventh-wealthiest leader, worth $900 million.
The estimate, included in the magazine’s May 5 edition, drew an angry challenge from Castro last week, who said that if anybody can prove he has vast wealth stashed away, he will resign, which presumably would create an opening for somebody else to be absolute dictator.
The magazine admits that the figure is an estimate that is open to question, and, in fact, the editors have never quite settled on what they think Castro is worth. In the 10 years that Forbes has published the annual ranking, Castro’s assets have been pegged at anywhere from $1.4 billion to as little as $100 million.
The $1.4 billion figure came from the magazine’s first estimate in 1997, when editors simply attributed to Castro a percentage of Cuba’s gross domestic product. Since then, the estimate has been derived from various formulas that the magazine defends but declines to lay out in detail. But the estimates are likely based on reports from Cuban defectors that Castro takes a cut from Cuba’s stateowned enterprises.
Forbes notes that the dictator has a fleet of black Mercedes. Anti-Castro activist Maria Werlau, who has studied Castro’s finances and who advised the magazine, says Castro also maintains overseas bank accounts, has numerous houses and controls stockpiles of food, fuel and luxury goods. She believes Forbes underestimates Castro’s wherewithal.
One could argue all day about exactly how to determine the value of Castro’s holdings. But the argument is academic. If everything of value in Cuba, including its people, belongs to the state, and if one man controls that state, then it’s all his to do with as he pleases, which is precisely what Castro has done for 47 years. Practically speaking, this is indistinguishable from ownership.
What’s important is not the total value of all that Castro controls, but how he came by it. The bottom line is that he has robbed the Cuban people of liberty and prosperity for five decades.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home