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You've listed a whole bunch of commodity bulk goods and consumer goods. The embargo doesn't affect those, which is why they can happen. The embargo isn't a blo

by eesmith 7mo ago

You've listed a whole bunch of commodity bulk goods and consumer goods. The embargo doesn't affect those, which is why they can happen. The embargo isn't a blockade. It's a series of laws which make it harder even for non-US companies to trade with Cuba. Consider the Helms–Burton Act. "any non-U.S. company that deals economically with Cuba can be subjected to legal action and that company's leadership can be barred from entry into the United States. Sanctions may be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This means that internationally operating companies have to choose between Cuba and the U.S., which is a much larger market." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms%E2%80%93Burton_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms%E2%80%93Burton_Act Suppose you are the Dutch company Philips. You make MRI machines. Cuba wants to buy a few from you. You could do that, but then you would not be able to sell thousands of MRI machines to the US. What do you do? Hence why there are articles like https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-cuba-u-s-relations-thaw-medical-researchers-still-struggle-to-connect/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-cuba-u-s-relat... "The embargo has crippled Cuba’s medical sector since the U.S. set up the economic barrier in the early 1960s. Although the export of medical supplies to Cuba is legal, extensive restrictions limit such sales. “As a matter of [U.S.] policy, the sale of state-of-the-art technology in this sector is not authorized,” according to a 2011 United Nations report. ... The embargo has crippled Cuba’s medical sector since the U.S. set up the economic barrier in the early 1960s. Although the export of medical supplies to Cuba is legal, extensive restrictions limit such sales. “As a matter of [U.S.] policy, the sale of state-of-the-art technology in this sector is not authorized,” according to a 2011 United Nations report." You write 'the profits never go to the poor'. That is, of course, nonsense. Some of the international purchases go to health care or electricity generation, a portion of which does go to the poor. Education funding gets high priority, and the country has effectively 100% literacy. You don't get that by having the poor fund their own education. The Cuba emergency response system is famous for its hurricane preparations. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_emergency_response_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_emergency_response_system , "Cuba is the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean yet consistently experiences the lowest death tolls during hurricane season.[6][1] According to United Nations, it's not because Cubans are lucky but because they're prepared." Yet somehow you believe poor people weren't part of the 1.5 million people evacuated by the civil defense program during Hurricane Ivan? Compare that to the US civil defense plan to help the poor evacuate from New Orleans should another Katrina threaten, and you'll see how 'the profits never go to the poor' is hyperbole to the point of nonsense. What you should take from this is you don't understand the topic and your Spidey sense is imaginary.

SilentM68 7mo ago
">> What you should take from this is you don't understand the topic and your Spidey sense is imaginary." Is it imaginary though? First, let me congratulate you on having enough electrical power, cool fresh air while posting from your high-end/air-conditioned Cuban compound/hotel while the rest of the population bakes and dies. While the embargo isn't a total blockade, Cuba trades freely with China, Canada, Spain, EU, even buys US "food/meds" worth "$500M+" yearly in cash. But that's the point: Helms-Burton deters some deals, yet the regime's communist central planning, GAESA military cartel controlling tourism (55% hotels, $4B+ hoarded while grids collapse), and dual MLC system are why poverty persists. ">> Foreign investment?'" Profits go straight to regime elites/military, not people, hotels are prioritized over food and power, doctors are exported for hard currency (regime takes 80-90%), leaving hospitals short. Locals died from blackouts, shortages, malnutrition in 2024-26 crisis (1M+ fled or died, protests crushed). ">> Literacy and hurricane evacuations?" Real, but irrelevant when daily life starves under totalitarianism that values tourist dollars over citizens. Sigh, poor Dutch! The bottom line is that the regime's policies outweigh any embargo. Lost USSR billions + mismanagement did this, not Philips MRI sales. Don't worry annexation, updated extradition laws and fair public trials will resolve all of Cuba's issues by providing a fair legal system that holds its leaders, businesses and citizens equally, retroactively, accountable and punishes abuses in a court of law. It is clear that the island's hardliners have made the conscious choice to sacrifice the population's wellbeing for foreign tourists and dollars. There needs to be some accountability, some sort of sense of justice in a post-Castro Cuba or the only law that will exist is "The Law of The Jungle," aka "An Eye for An Eye," and nothing will be resolved.
- eesmith 7mo ago
  > let me congratulate you I don't follow - I've never been to Cuba. I assume this is an ad hominem or other irrelevant commentary? > "Foreign investment" You must be quoting someone else, as I didn't bring it up. > Real, but irrelevant It was relevant evidence of your hyperbolic exaggeration. > totalitarianism that values tourist dollars over citizens Now tell me again that why the US doesn't have a similar economic embargo on communist Vietnam? The US bought the biggest share of Vietnam's exports - and Cuba is a lot closer. Vietnam does not have an extradition treaty with the US. "Vietnamese authorities severely restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion, and prohibit human rights organizations and independent labor unions, media, and political parties. Under the Communist Party-controlled judiciary, the courts routinely deny defendants their due process rights. Public Security agents patrol the internet and arrest critics they deem threatening to the Party’s monopoly on power." - https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/vietnam https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/vietn... > Sigh, poor Dutch! Sigh. You think that my illustrative example of how your listing of commodity and consumer goods missed the point of the embargo was instead meant as the totality of the issue. Okay, yes, it's horrible on Cuba. Now, how do you demonstrate that the primary issue for Cuba's situation is communism, and not a 60 year US embargo?

by eesmith 7mo ago

SilentM68 7mo ago

">> What you should take from this is you don't understand the topic and your Spidey sense is imaginary." Is it imaginary though? First, let me congratulate you on having enough electrical power, cool fresh air while posting from your high-end/air-conditioned Cuban compound/hotel while the rest of the population bakes and dies. While the embargo isn't a total blockade, Cuba trades freely with China, Canada, Spain, EU, even buys US "food/meds" worth "$500M+" yearly in cash. But that's the point: Helms-Burton deters some deals, yet the regime's communist central planning, GAESA military cartel controlling tourism (55% hotels, $4B+ hoarded while grids collapse), and dual MLC system are why poverty persists. ">> Foreign investment?'" Profits go straight to regime elites/military, not people, hotels are prioritized over food and power, doctors are exported for hard currency (regime takes 80-90%), leaving hospitals short. Locals died from blackouts, shortages, malnutrition in 2024-26 crisis (1M+ fled or died, protests crushed). ">> Literacy and hurricane evacuations?" Real, but irrelevant when daily life starves under totalitarianism that values tourist dollars over citizens. Sigh, poor Dutch! The bottom line is that the regime's policies outweigh any embargo. Lost USSR billions + mismanagement did this, not Philips MRI sales. Don't worry annexation, updated extradition laws and fair public trials will resolve all of Cuba's issues by providing a fair legal system that holds its leaders, businesses and citizens equally, retroactively, accountable and punishes abuses in a court of law. It is clear that the island's hardliners have made the conscious choice to sacrifice the population's wellbeing for foreign tourists and dollars. There needs to be some accountability, some sort of sense of justice in a post-Castro Cuba or the only law that will exist is "The Law of The Jungle," aka "An Eye for An Eye," and nothing will be resolved.

eesmith 7mo ago
> let me congratulate you I don't follow - I've never been to Cuba. I assume this is an ad hominem or other irrelevant commentary? > "Foreign investment" You must be quoting someone else, as I didn't bring it up. > Real, but irrelevant It was relevant evidence of your hyperbolic exaggeration. > totalitarianism that values tourist dollars over citizens Now tell me again that why the US doesn't have a similar economic embargo on communist Vietnam? The US bought the biggest share of Vietnam's exports - and Cuba is a lot closer. Vietnam does not have an extradition treaty with the US. "Vietnamese authorities severely restrict the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion, and prohibit human rights organizations and independent labor unions, media, and political parties. Under the Communist Party-controlled judiciary, the courts routinely deny defendants their due process rights. Public Security agents patrol the internet and arrest critics they deem threatening to the Party’s monopoly on power." - https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/vietnam https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/vietn... > Sigh, poor Dutch! Sigh. You think that my illustrative example of how your listing of commodity and consumer goods missed the point of the embargo was instead meant as the totality of the issue. Okay, yes, it's horrible on Cuba. Now, how do you demonstrate that the primary issue for Cuba's situation is communism, and not a 60 year US embargo?