Trump's New Target: Cuba

Well, a long time ago, they let the USSR to make nuke launch sites there. In 1959 Castro stole billions of $ of American assets in Cuba. They support terrorist/communist revolutions in Africa and latin America. And this-

Not to mention they are one of the last Communist nations on Earth, and their people have few human rights.

The government continues to repress and punish virtually all forms of dissent and public criticism, as Cubans continue to endure a dire economic crisis affecting rights, including access to health and food.

Hundreds of critics and protesters, including many who took to the streets in July 2021, remain arbitrarily detained

That was in response to our invasion of them after they overthrew the corrupt puppet we had installed. Ever hear of the Bay of Pigs? It did not inspire the Cuban people to rise up against Castro as we expected.

Not a single bit of it justifies what Little Marco… I mean Trump is threatening.

Every revolution has its refugees. Wasn’t New Brunswick settled by people who had to leave after the American revolution?

like the US hasn’t supported dozens of brutal dictatorships over the decades

I mean one of the anti-Castro crowd in Florida themes is that Cuba is COMMUNIST, so bad. SO!!

I mean Cuba has never killed one American, yet we do business with Vietnam who is still Communist and also killed thousand of our troops. We’ve done business for years with Communist Russia and China, so why Cuba obsession? 50,000 Cuban-American GOP voters running foreign policy

Not so much with sponsoring terrorism.

like Iran/Contra?

Is lying awake at night wondering if the door is going to be kicked in and masked men are going to drag you to the stadium where you can wait while they decide if you get to go on the helicopter ride to see the ocean one last time terrorism?

We often do the terrorism ourselves directly. And we trained an awful lot of future dictators and death squad members in terror tactics, torture methods and the use of rape as a political weapon.

TFG’s “reasoning” is in the linked NYT article. Or justification. Or whatever the hell it is.

On Jan. 29, Mr. Trump declared a national emergency, claiming that Cuba is a hotbed for spies and terrorists and threatening tariffs against any nation that provides petroleum products to the island.

It’s the same logic that TFG has used for pretty much everything horrible he’s done in this term, like the just struck down tariffs. Using the magic of “declare it a national emergency” and poof, he can do whatever he wants. And doesn’t even have to bother going through the trouble of having Congress pass the Enabling Act.

Should we call this the Bay of Swine?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/four-killed-cuba-shootout-9.7105978

Of course Rubio has no idea who these guys were or why they were headed from Florida to Cuba with violence on their minds.

“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time,” Rubio said.

It didn’t happen every day until Trump decided that all the cool kids are committing war crimes.

10 amateur crooks? Yeah, he had no idea.

He misread that, they where heading to Cuba to open a TACO restaurant.

Moderating:

Okay, I let the first go, because it’s a one off, then the second, because who wants to be a killjoy, but this is the third. I get gallows humor, but please, it’s still P&E, don’t post just for the yuks on Trump. You all know where to go for that. No warnings of course, but please and thank you.

For what its worth, I opened this thread in the pit for this very reason .

https://boards.straightdope.com/t/4-killed-6-injured-in-boat-shootout-cuban-government-says

Russian tanker full of oil headed for Cuba.
Russian oil tanker heading to Cuba amid US economic blockade | Cuba | The Guardian.

So nice when Russia shows the world that they’re more humanitarian than the USA.

(Not that they are human rights champions or anything, but this doesn’t help the image of the US abroad. Hopefully if at least helps the Cubans.)

Don’t know who is playing chess or checkers, but if the US attempts to block or attack a Russian flagged tanker…jeez what a mess. The oil blockade is really hurting the Cuban people, no power for electrical generation, food is spoiling,no power to hospitals or oil for vehicles etc etc…its a bad time there. (just hearing through NPR)