Working in Ottawa today --Miami's new suburb!

Good morning folks,

I will be working in Ottawa today.

Hey, Miami has a new suburb!

That's right folks, true to Obamarama's promise, the U.S. is taking some steps forward to normalizing relations with Cuba.  Yesterday, in a negotiation brokered by Canada and Pope Francis, the U.S. announced that John Kerry, Secretary of State, will pay a visit to the island nation on July 20.

For an extremely short recap of history, Cuba was ruled by the U.S. backed Fulgencio Batista regime until Jan. 1, 1959 when Fidel Castro over-through Batista and nationalized the farms and hotel-resorts and after failing to gain any U.S. aid for his nation, Fidel turned to the USSR.  The USSR agreed to give Cuba aid, in exchange for military installations in Cuba.  The Soviets parked some nuclear missiles there in 1962 and U.S. President Kennedy implemented a naval embargo around Cuba to block further Soviet aid and Soviet military equipment.  There was a tense several days while many thought the standoff would result in a first strike by the Soviets against the U.S.  But.. the Soviets capitulated and agreed to removal of the nuclear missiles.  Since that time, the U.S. has maintained a Cuban trade and travel embargo.

So why now?

I suggest it may have something to do with another news item from yesterday which I doubt anyone read.  Yesterday, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, produced a study that singles out Russia and China as aggressive countries and a threat to US security interests.

"Russia's military actions are undermining regional security directly and through proxy forces," it says.

The study points to the alleged presence of Russian troops in Ukraine as a source of tension between Washington and Moscow.

Relations between the United States and Russia are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War in 1991, largely due to the crisis in Ukraine.

So this new spirit of cooperation by the U.S. towards Cuba could be to ward off any new strategic use of Cuba by Russia in its cat and mouse game with the U.S. and avoid Cuban Missile Crisis Part Deux, just sayin'.

Meanwhile, back in Miami, U.S. presidential contender Marco Rubio is not impressed with the Obama announcement, he does not want to restore relations with Cuba until all issues are resolved.  This includes 'legal claims' for property seized when Castro nationalize property, has U.S. diplomats meet with dissidents in Cuba and secure greater freedom for the Cuban people.

Huh.. he wants this before diplomatic relations are restored?  How does his believe that such discussions take place?  And as for property claims, give it up guy, just not going to happen.  Other people have been living in your apartment for the last 50 odd years.

Anyway, out of typing time, plane is landing.

Have a good day, Buenos Dias!

Working in Ottawa today --Bolsheviks R Us

Good morning folks,

I will be working in Ottawa today.

I may be a Bolshevik.  Maybe not a card carrying member of the Russian Democratic Workers' Party, but certainly a believer in Social Democracy.   Yeah, I know what you are thinking, "gosh Uncle Daniel, nothing in your writings would have suggested that :p".

What prompted the invocation of the 'B' word?  This morning I was reading an account of President Obama in a Jay Leno interview from yesterday, where the Pres made the statement, "There is no spying on Americans, we don’t have a domestic spying program".  WOW what bullshit.

You see The POTUS was playing a bit of a word game, trying to make a distinction between gathering up banking, phone, email, browsing, purchasing, records of ordinary citizens and the separate process of looking at the records.  Obama's little word game with the outmatched Leno reminded me of a game of cat and mouse.

And then I remembered Tommy Douglas.  And the mice.  And the cats.  Douglas told a story of Mice and Cats to demonstrate the illogic of continuing to elect Black Cats or White Cats to administer and enact laws over the Mice of Mouseland, and how one mouse had the idea of not electing cats, but mice to administer the land and enact laws.  It was a great idea, of course the Cats called the mouse with the idea a Bolshevik and locked him up.  See prior pulp on Sedition (http://pulp.puckett.ca/2013/05/working-in-ottawa-today-sedition-r-us.html).

So to continue on what this Black Cat is up to and also to continue on with the domestic spying program, Obama has cancelled a planned meeting with Russia's Putin 'cause he's ticked that Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum.

Snowden.  You may recall the pulp that announced the exposure of the domestic spying program starting with the news that Verizon was providing phone records to the U.S. gov't (http://pulp.puckett.ca/2013/06/working-in-montreal-today-cover-your.html). Snowden, through an act of conscience revealed to the world the domestic spying program.  What you may not be aware of is that the majority (thin, but none-the-less a majority) of Americans see Snowden not as a treasonous bastard that the White House has labelled him but as a whistleblower.

And that is very interesting.  The U.S. gov't has lied to the population about there being no domestic spying, moreover the U.S. Constitution specifically provides against it (Obama should know that since he is a Constitutional Lawyer, whereas I just blog about Constitutional Law), and Snowden reveals the lie, and the ppl see him as a whistleblower and none-the-less, the POTUS risks diplomatic relations with Russia (another member of the UN Security Council I will add).

For the People, by the People?  No.  By Black and White Cats.

Have a good day folks, you Bolsheviks too.