Cuba Sí, Haiti Non

With Fidel Castro dead and Raul Castro retired, the Cuban revolution doesn't seem as noble or as glamorous as it once did.

Cubans took to the streets this week to demonstrate against shortages, power outages, and economic conditions worsened by COVID, many demanding freedom and the resignation of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who blamed the crisis on six decades of American sanctions.  White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan expressed support for the Cuban people, and - as soon as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) bitched about the lack of response from the Oval Office itself - so did President Biden. 

I know I'm going to lose a lot of friends among the progressive movement who regard U.S. policy toward Cuba as imperialist and paternalistic, but I'll be happy to see the Cuban Communist government go.  Yeah, yeah, I know that Castro was for the people and overthrew a corrupt dictator supported by the Mafia and all that, but if Communist Cuba was so wonderful, why did so many Cubans escape to Miami?  I don't agree with sanctions and tourist bans - they've only hurt the people and strengthened the Communist government's hand - but I can easily agree that communism is a failed economic system.  Capitalism - real capitalism, regulated capitalism, not the racketeering system we have now - is the best way to allocate and manage goods.  If you want to see how capitalism is supposed to work, look at any country - like Canada - that doesn't impose sanctions against Cuba. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Windward Passage, Haiti is dissolving into chaos yet again, but I don't think it's ever been this bad.  President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated last week, and the whole country has gone into a state of anarchy that makes previous eras of Haitian political instability look like mere trifles.  A Haitian doctor in Florida is rumored to have orchestrated the assassination, as Moïse was killed by mercenaries; seems he wanted to make himself president.  

Meanwhile, demonstrations run rampant in the streets of Port-au-Prince, gangs are more trusted to maintain order than the police, and there's practically no government - except for two guys both claiming to be prime minister.  I think it's time for the United Nations to send peacekeeping troops and set up a new system of government.  The United States can't do it.  No one country can.  Heck, the Americans had the Marines there to set things straight, from 1915 to 1934, and that didn't work.

It's hard to believe that Haiti is the second oldest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States.

Scary Matthew

This infra-red image of Hurricane Matthew is making the rounds on the Internet.  It shows the hurricane, just south of Haiti, with a well-defined eye, the hurricane itself in the shape of a skull - and apparent wind shear producing a demonic smile to boot to produce a perfect "Day of the Dead"-type skull face! :-O

And here's a picture of some of the diabolical destruction Matthew caused in Haiti, without a doubt the most cursed nation on earth: 

It's not better in the Bahamas, I'm sure.  That country is feeling the force of Matthew, and it will soon wreak havoc on the entire Florida Atlantic coast as a major hurricane (possibly Category 4 status again!) before going on to ravage Georgia and South Carolina.  

The Global Forecast System (GFS) and Euro models haven't changed in the most recent runs.  Both show the storm moving away from the East Coast this weekend before going in a clockwise loop.  The GFS shows it passing through the Bahamas and Florida again as a lesser storm weakened by wind shear and then heading toward the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico; the Euro backs it up before it makes a full circle and sends it out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Whatever happens, it will not affect the Northeast, and Tropical Storm Nicole isn't going to have an impact on anything except Matthew itself.  Northeasterners shouldn't get too complacent, though.  The experts are calling for nineteen named storms overall in this 2016 season, with six hurricanes and four major ones - and there have been fourteen named storms so far, with five hurricanes, two of them major.   It's not over yet.  After all, Hurricane Sandy was the eighteenth storm of the 2012 season, and that storm hit the Northeast toward the end of October. :-O

Mrs. Palin Goes To Haiti

A lot of people have been speculating on whether Sarah Palin's trip to Haiti on a humanitarian mission with Franklin Graham was either for truly altruistic means or for political purposes. I propose the following theory. I don't think she realized she was going on a humanitarian mission until she got there. I think she was going there to lounge on the beach and drink mai tais. But what happened was, when she landed at the airport, Graham told her where she was and she said, "Haiti? Oh, I thought we were going to Tahiti! I thought the flight was pretty short."

And this is a plausible conclusion, because, for all of Sarah Palin's strengths, thinking ain't one of them.

Besides, it's an honest (for her) mistake, right? A tropical island, the locals speak French - easy to confuse one with the other, what with the names being so close. Haiti, Tahiti, Haiti, Tahiti, let's call the whole thing off!

As for her trip, I wish she had. Because, all kidding aside, this trip was politically motivated. The known caribou murderer wants to prove she has a heart. Palin is clearly thinking (but not thinking clearly) about running for President, and she wants to show how warm and caring she is (despite using the kind of language to describe her Republican critics that would have embarrassed National Lampoon's Animal House's Doug Neidermeyer) to appeal beyond her arch-conservative base. If she weren't seriously thinking of running, do you think she'd spend her time pretending to help poor black people?

Port, Au-Prince, I wanna catch a glimpse . . ..

Strange Days

A few media reports that made me wonder what the hell is going on:

President Obama brought former President Bill Clinton to the White House to help him handle the "deal" he worked out with Republicans over tax policy and figure out how to sell it. At a joint White House press conference, the President had to excuse himself to tend to personal affairs, leaving Clinton on his own and owning the press room. I thought I was in a time warp and it was 1995 again - Bill Clinton in the White House, explaining how to foster bipartisanship over economic issues!

Wesley Snipes reported to prison to begin serving his sentence for tax evasion. Well, they got Al Capone for tax evasion, too; they couldn't get Snipes on legitimate charges for his real crime, bad acting. Hey, as long as they're getting Snipes for not paying his fair share, why not arrest the beneficiaries of the Bush tax plan?

Sarah Palin is going to Haiti, apparently on a humanitarian mission. She's going to show Haitians how there are worse things than a disputed election, like the prospect of someone like her as a leader. Haiti? She must have thought she was going to Tahiti. Oh, well, its the same difference to her, right - tropical island, the locals speak French, and the names are close enough! Sorry, Sarah, I don't think you can get a Mai Tai where you're going!

PBS did a story on its NewsHour broadcast about rap lyrics as poetic art. This is the wackiest story of them all.

Strange days indeed . . ..

The Earthquake In Haiti

I watched with interest a report on Haiti on the PBS NewsHour on Monday, before the devastating earthquake hit the the Port-au-Prince area, and it explained how the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation was trying to pick itself up after over two hundred years of anarchy and poverty. many international organizations were providing Haiti with aid and many of its debts were being foreign so that it could invest more in its people. The report explained how Haiti - the second oldest independent nation in the Americas, after the United States - was bring given one more chance - possibly one last chance - to get things right.

With this 7.0-Richter scale quake, which has left hundreds of thousands of people dead, all bets are now off. It is the most cosmic form of irony that Haiti should find its fortunes, which began to look promising after the election of President René Preval in 2006, reversed in a single natural disaster. Now, more than ever, anyone who can help with aid should do so. It's hard to find anyone without sympathy for the Haitian people.

But not impossible. Many people have already heard Rush Limbaugh's assertion that Preisdent Obama is sending aid to the Haitians to shore up support among his fellow black Americans and that he cares more about Haiti than about terrorism. But Limbaugh's racially bigoted, logically bewildering rhetoric pales in comparison to Pat Robertson's insistence that the earthquake was divine retribution for a pact Haitians supposedly made with the devil to win their independence from France.

Here's what Robertson said: "They were under the heel of the French, you know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.' True story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it’s a deal.' And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got . . . themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another."

For the record, the Haitians revolted against France because the French parliament tried to restore slavery in the colony (then called Saint-Domingue) after it had been abolished by the National Convention government that took over France in 1792. Napoleon Bonaparte (not Napoleon III, the nephew of the original Napoleon) sent an army to crush the slave revolt, but the army was defeated by the slaves and done in by yellow fever - not the devil. Napoleon's troubles in Haiti led him to sell the Louisiana territory to the United States, including New Orleans.

Speaking of which, I don't want to repeat Robertson's interpretation of Hurricane Katrina.