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Post by Don on Nov 27, 2016 7:00:11 GMT -5
It's bizarre to me to see many of my friends on the left who are terrified of Trump are praising Castro, who has a pretty shitty record with regard to civil rights, e.g., with regard to LGBTQ people, and a pretty strong record of suppressing opposition and free speech. More later -- I have shopping to do. (Damn, now I have at least three threads marked for some serious rants on my part.) Killing dissidents by the truckload, interring gays and political enemies, destroying an economy, suppressing free speech and denying a nation the democrat process for 50 years is apparently A-OK if you're a leftist. I note that of all the liberals who claimed they would leave the country if Trump were elected, they all seemed to choose cold, snowy, mostly capitalist Canada over warm, tropical, mostly socialist Cuba. I wonder why that is?
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Post by robeiae on Nov 28, 2016 6:52:34 GMT -5
On the "Man, you're an idiot" front: www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/us/nfl-colin-kaepernick-castro-feud/index.html49ers came to Miami yesterday. After the game, Kaepernick came to the press conference wearing a pro-Castro shirt. The guy is 29 years old. He's running around poking bears with sticks like he was in high school. Frankly, I don't believe he believes any of the stuff he's been saying at this point. Not a bit of it. It was all about getting attention. He's a troll in a football helmet, imo.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2016 8:43:01 GMT -5
A new demographic for politicians to consider -- insincere celebrity attention whore.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2016 12:52:55 GMT -5
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Post by robeiae on Nov 28, 2016 15:59:12 GMT -5
On the "Man, you're an idiot" front: www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/us/nfl-colin-kaepernick-castro-feud/index.html49ers came to Miami yesterday. After the game, Kaepernick came to the press conference wearing a pro-Castro shirt. The guy is 29 years old. He's running around poking bears with sticks like he was in high school. Frankly, I don't believe he believes any of the stuff he's been saying at this point. Not a bit of it. It was all about getting attention. He's a troll in a football helmet, imo. Colin Kaepernick really has zero shits to give whether you, I or anyone else believes any of the stuff he's been saying. As long as he believes it is all that matters. That's kind of one of the freedoms Kaepernick has here he wouldn't have over there in Cuba, so ironic, right? I don't believe he does believe it, as I said. But he's free to act like a jackwagon, no doubt. And people are free to defend his schtick. It would be better schtick if he appeared to have some sort of a clue, however.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2016 16:01:42 GMT -5
I can't see why using a keyboard to heckle a wealthy helmet-headed jackass from a couch is any more cowardly than using a keyboard to heckle, say, a wealthy tribble-headed jackass from a couch.
Keyboard heckling is another one of those freedoms we rejoice in here. Good thing, or I'd have to take up knitting again. And no one wants that.
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Post by robeiae on Nov 28, 2016 17:27:52 GMT -5
Who is "suppressing"? "Criticizing" is not "suppressing." Neither is "ridiculing."
Regardless, the fact that Kaepernick's actions might cost him millions doesn't prove they're a product of principles. And I would argue that his lack of participation in the election demonstrates that it's not principles, at all. Because there was more on the ballot than just the Presidential race (and Kaepernick could have written in a vote or simply passed on that race if he couldn't bring himself to vote for any of the candidates). Yet, Kaepernick couldn't be bothered with voting. Telling.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2016 17:34:01 GMT -5
Kaepernick is free to protest. Rob is free to ridicule Kaepernick's way of protesting. Ohio is free to slam Rob for ridiculing Kaepernick's way of protesting.
It's beautiful, really, when you stop to think about it.
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Post by robeiae on Nov 28, 2016 17:37:26 GMT -5
We should develop it into a figure skating routine.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2016 18:43:46 GMT -5
We'll have to find a sequined Castro shirt for the Kaepernick costume. I envision you in a glittery jester's cap and Ohio twirling a shotgun. And of course, the routine will be set to the star-spangled banner.
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Post by celawson on Nov 28, 2016 19:25:56 GMT -5
I don't even know what to say about those on the left who speak about Castro "fondly" (thanks, Jimmy C) or in complimentary, or even glowing terms. Who the f**k cares if the literacy rate is high, if the people aren't free to read or write or even say what they want to? Oh, but at least they can read the government's propaganda.
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Post by Rolling Thunder on Nov 28, 2016 19:26:49 GMT -5
Did Castro make the trains run on time? Only truly great despots can make the trains run on time.
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Post by robeiae on Nov 29, 2016 2:26:35 GMT -5
Wearing a t-shirt with the face of someone that pisses off right-wingers is a freedom of choice each American has. Even if the mug on the T-shirt is Fidel Castro. Or Barack Obama. Or Donald Trump. Absolutely. And making that choice with that intention opens the door to get criticized for behaving like a jackass.
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Post by celawson on Nov 29, 2016 11:32:34 GMT -5
I just don't think Kaepernick, or anyone who praises Castro's Cuba, has thought things through. First of all, Cuba tightly controls its own narrative. As do all totalitarian governments. How can we know the reality? Some people work very hard to try to give outsiders the reality. Maybe we should listen to them instead of Fidel and Raul. www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/us/nfl-colin-kaepernick-castro-feud/index.htmlDoes Kaepernick not think Cuba has invested in its prison system? They sure throw a lot of people in it, for the most dubious of reasons and oftentimes for months before a trial. It's one of the largest per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean per Human Rights Watch. www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-05.htmAs for Cuba's literacy program: From The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/how-education-shaped-communist-cuba/386192/Is that the kind of education Kaepernick would want for himself or his children? Indoctrination and the absolute inability to express the views Kaepernick himself thinks are so important to express? Come on, Colin (and much or all of the left in the U.S.)-- THINK CRITICALLY!
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Post by Vince524 on Nov 29, 2016 13:33:32 GMT -5
Here's someone who has a different take on Castro. www.nationalreview.com/article/442515/fidel-castro-brutal-dictatorship-armando-valladeres-cuban-dissidents-tortured“I spent eight years locked in a blackout cell, without sunlight or even artificial light. I never left. I was stuck in a cell, ten feet long, four feet wide, with a hole in the corner to take care of my bodily needs. No running water. Naked. Eight years,” Valladares recalled. “All of the torture, all of the violations of human rights, had one goal: break the prisoner’s resistance and make them accept political rehabilitation. That was their only objective.” After nearly a decade, prison officials adjusted their terms. If Armando would simply sign a document renouncing his beliefs and embracing Communism, he could return to his family. The choice was simple: physical freedom or spiritual liberty. “For many people, it wasn’t practical to resist. Better to sign the paper and leave,” Valladares said. “But for me, signing that paper would have been spiritual suicide.” So how did Valladares do it? How did his faith and spirit endure during those years alone in prison? “In the beginning, I embraced God perhaps for fear of losing my life, since I was in danger of being executed,” he told the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983. But hearing those men proclaim their love for Christ just prior to their executions moved him in ways he could not have imagined: I realized then that Christ could be of help. Not merely by saving my life, but also giving my life, and my death if that was the case, an ethical sense that would dignify them. I believe that it was at that particular moment, and not before, when Christianity, besides being a religious faith, became a way of life that in my own circumstances resulted in resistance — resisting torture, resisting confinement, resisting hunger, and even resisting the constant temptation to join the political rehabilitation and indoctrination programs that would end my predicament.
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