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No one reads your stupid links got
Obama Intends to Lift Several Restrictions Against Cuba on His Own
President Obama will move as soon as next month to defang the 54-year-old American trade embargo against Cuba, administration officials said Thursday, using broad executive power to defy critics in Congress and lift restrictions on travel, commerce and financial activities.
The moves are only the beginning of what White House officials and foreign policy experts describe as a sweeping set of changes that Mr. Obama can make on his own to re-establish commercial and diplomatic ties with Cuba even in the face of angry congressional opposition.
“The embargo is a container — it’s been that way since President Eisenhower — that’s had regulations and laws put into it and taken out of it and mixed about,”
The Treasury Department will issue a series of regulations to ease agricultural exports and establish banking relations, administration officials said, and the Commerce Department will move to allow United States companies to export construction and telecommunications equipment, among other things, for sale in Cuba.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control at the Treasury Department will scrap a measure that requires people who are already eligible for travel to Cuba to receive special permission from the government for trips such as those involving family visits, professional, religious or cultural programs and humanitarian projects.
New rules will also make it easier to get there, by allowing the direct purchase of airline tickets to Cuba rather than requiring travelers to go through a travel agent and charter a flight.
The Treasury Department is also quadrupling the amount of money that can be sent to Cubans each quarter, to $2,000 from $500, and is loosening banking restrictions. It plans to relax requirements, strongly opposed by American exporters, that mandate that cargo be paid for in advance or financed by a bank in a third country before it can be shipped.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/19...n-his-own.html
Like the War on Terrorism and the War on Drugs failed, likewise the War on Cuba has failed. America just ain't very good at warring, but excellent at believing bull , self-glorifying myths about itself.
No one reads your stupid links got
Rand Paul ethering Rubio
Rubio: “Like many people who have been opining, he has no idea what he’s talking about,”
“The embargo is not what’s hurting the Cuban people, it’s the lack of freedom and the lack of competent leaders,” Rubio continued.
Paul shot back on Friday in a pointed series of tweets and Facebook posts.
“Hey @marcorubio if the embargo doesn’t hurt Cuba, why do you want to keep it?” Paul began.
He fired off three more tweets:
“After 50 years of conflict, why not try a new approach?” the Kentucky senator followed up in a Facebook post. “[L]et’s be clear that Senator Rubio does not speak for the majority of Cuban-Americans.”
As of 3:30 p.m. Friday, Rubio had not responded.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/1...ba-113699.html
LOL Rubio is the Yonivore of Congress.
This is funny right there.
Rubio: “Like many people who have been opining, he has no idea what he’s talking about,”
“The embargo is not what’s hurting the Cuban people, it’s the lack of freedom and the lack of competent leaders,” Rubio continued.
Paul shot back on Friday in a pointed series of tweets and Facebook posts.
“Hey @marcorubio if the embargo doesn’t hurt Cuba, why do you want to keep it?” Paul began.
He fired off three more tweets:
“After 50 years of conflict, why not try a new approach?” the Kentucky senator followed up in a Facebook post. “[L]et’s be clear that Senator Rubio does not speak for the majority of Cuban-Americans.”
As of 3:30 p.m. Friday, Rubio had not responded.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/1...ba-113699.html
Freedom!
Democracy!
Off shore Cuban oil!
In Florida, GOP loyalty belongs to Jeb Bush, not Marco Rubio
Rubio, who at 43 is nearly two decades younger than Bush, enjoys loads of enthusiastic supporters among Florida’s deep pool of elite GOP fundraisers, but few, if any, of those top bundlers prefer him over Bush. It’s a simple fact of life for any Republican elected leader in Florida that even eight years after he left the governor’s office, Bush overshadows all.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/stat...#storylink=cpy
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/stat...le4782225.html
Wall St loves Jeb, too. His shady, even corrupt, business dealings, tax evasion show he's one of them.
US Corps Claim Billions In Assets In Cuba And Now They'll Want It Back
When the Castro regime assumed power in Cuba in 1959, it quickly nationalized the assets of almost every foreign corporation within its borders as the country transitioned to communism. For half a century now, American companies have laid claim to billions of dollars in lost assets on the Caribbean island 90 miles from U.S. shores. Under American law, the claims have been steadily accruing interest, but the companies have never seen a penny.
It's one of many knotty issues for the two Cold War adversaries to resolve as they end their prolonged estrangement that outlasted the Cold War itself by more than two decades. Like many of the other points of contention, the claims of U.S. companies against the Castro government dredge up difficult memories, long-buried grievances, and unpleasant histories that neither side may be eager to confront.
While it's not yet clear how the mid-century claims of U.S. companies will be handled, interviews in the days since President Obama's historic policy change with those involved in the claims and experts on Cuba reveal the claims have not been forgotten by the businesses and they're not going away.
"You can safely assume a large flare went up yesterday," Robert Muse, a Washington, D.C., attorney who specializes in Cuban issues, including corporate claims, told TPM last week the day after Obama's White House announcement. "They're right now sending memos down the line: 'What about our claim?'"
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/us-b...+%28TPMNews%29
How Republicans may use a law signed by Bill Clinton to chip away at Cuba deal
According to the Post, congressional critics of the Cuba deal are exploring whether the law conflicts with Obama’s move to allow the use of American credit and debit cards on the island.
Ros-Lehtinen has suggested that the deal “may be in direct violation” of a provision in the Helms-Burton law that calls for the release of political prisoners and the ins ution of democracy prior to the resumption of diplomatic relations.
But critics like Ros-Lehtinen aren’t emphatically declaring that the Cuba deal violates the Helms-Burton law — and the president enjoys the right to change regulations under the act.
“The president can go very far,” Serena Moe, a former Treasury Department sanctions official, told the Wall Street Journal. “He’s gone very far in his recommendations and he can go further.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/12/22/how_..._at_cuba_deal/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31668056A cold-blooded murder more than 40 years ago, a cinematographic prison escape and a multimillion-dollar reward have become a stumbling block for Cuba and the United States in their quest to normalise their diplomatic relations.
The main character in this story is JoAnne Chesimard. Or, rather, this is what she is called in the US, where she is considered a domestic terrorist. She was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 during a gun battle.
She prefers to go by the name Assata Shakur. She is the aunt of the late rapper Tupac Shakur and was a member of the Black Liberation Army, an underground organisation that fought for the self-determination of black people in the US.
Chesimard was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977, but less than two years later three black men armed with automatic pistols seized two guards as hostages at the prison where she was being detained and released her. From there she disappeared off the US radar for a number of years.
GOP-Led House Votes To Keep Restrictions On Travel To Cuba
House Republicans have voted to keep restrictions on Americans seeking to travel to Cuba. That's a setback to Obama administration efforts to ease the five-decade Cold War standoff.
The GOP-controlled chamber voted 247-176 to keep a Cuba-related provision in a transportation funding bill.
The provision would block new rules issued in January that would significantly ease travel restrictions to Cuba and allow regularly scheduled flights for the first time.
The administration rules lifted a requirement that U.S. travelers obtain a license from the Treasury Department before traveling to Cuba. Instead, all that is required is for travelers to assert their trip would serve educational, religious or other permitted purposes.
The GOP provision is the handiwork of congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American Republican from the Miami area.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/us...+%28TPMNews%29
thanks, Repugs!
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...atic-relationsPresident Obama on Wednesday announced the formal resumption of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba after more than half a century of hostilities. The two countries have agreed to reopen embassies in Washington and Havana.
What took him so God-damned long?
Barry's working down his "buck it list", which he should have been doing since 2009. Repug scorched-earth obstructionism and intimidation mostly worked, blocking PROGRESS and SOLUTIONS on many fronts.
Maybe you can explain how republicans block such executive functions to us.
defunding, as the Repugs are threatening to do with the Havana embassy, and as they did with closing Gitmo.
As I said, Barry had a fantasy that he could reach across the isle, he ed up, shoulda been in "buck it list" since 20 Jan 09
Kenyan socialist antichrist seeks to establish a beachhead for US commerce:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...e35646882.htmlThe Obama administration is working to finalize a change in U.S.-Cuba trade rules that experts called a major development that would significantly open the door to expanded business on the island.
The regulation has not yet been released, although a 27-page do ent, dated Sept. 7 and marked to be reviewed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, was provided to McClatchy.
It couldn’t be determined if the version that is ultimately released will match the Sept. 7 version. The Department of Commerce didn’t respond to a request for comment about it.
As indicated in the do ent, the rules could amend existing ones to boost engagement between American and Cuban people, accelerate the free flow of information to and from Cubans, and ramp up independent economic activity generated by Cubans.
In many ways, the rule would merely be a continuation of the process begun Dec. 17, when President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. was seeking to thaw the five-decade freeze in its relations with the island nation 90 miles from Florida.
The new rules, which could be announced as early as Friday, could amend the terms of existing license exceptions available for Cuba, create new licensing policies, and take other steps to further promote economic activity in Cuba.
After that momentous December announcement, the Commerce and Treasury departments in January took steps to put in place parts of the president’s policy. The new rules, which could be announced as early as Friday, could amend the terms of existing license exceptions available for Cuba, create new licensing policies, and take other steps to further promote economic activity in Cuba.
Robert L. Muse, a Washington-based lawyer and expert on Cuba trade who reviewed the Commerce do ent Thursday, said the moves could be significant.
“They’re greater than the ones in January,” he said in an interview. “The rules in January were important – they established the precedent. But it was more of a beachhead, and it was a bit murky. Now they are engaging the business community in a way that’s going to be interesting and important to them. It begins to give them some real commercial traction.”
Among the key changes, Muse said, was that companies engaged in exporting authorized items to Cuba will be able to establish, maintain and operate physical premises in Cuba.
That, he said, is significant.
“Maintaining a presence is brand new – that’s the big further step they have taken here,” Muse said. “The intention is to bring American businesses to the island.”
still waiting for the cigars.
although after 50 years, cubans are probably no longer the 'best'.
Had one a couple of years ago at a festival in Kentucky via a Canadian drummer. Damn fine cigar and I'm an Arturo Fuente guy.
Arturo Fuente
Robusto all the way.
I've had around 6 or 8 in the last 10 years. They were all excellent.
http://www.texastribune.org/2015/11/...uba-relations/Nearly a year after Obama's decision, Abbott is heading to Havana on Monday for a three-day trip, hoping to leverage the renewed relationship between the two countries into an economic boon for Texas, among Cuba's top trading partners in the United States.
At least initially, most critics of Obama's efforts in Cuba weren't ready to pounce on Abbott's trip. Neither Cruz nor Rubio responded to requests for comment. Nor did a number of Republican members of the Texas congressional delegation who had criticized Obama on the issue.
State Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, tweeted in August that Obama's Cuba policy "does nothing more than empower a communist tyrant & enrich a communist regime." Reached on Wednesday, Zedler said he wanted to learn more about Abbott's trip before commenting on it.
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