Ace of Spades HQ

August 01, 2010

Raul Castro, Secret Chris Christie Fanboy?
— Dave in Texas

Does the large man make so much sense that the commies are listening?

HAVANA (AP) Â— Raul Castro said Sunday that his government will scale back controls on small businesses, lay off unnecessary workers and allow more self-employment Â— significant steps in a country where the state dominates nearly every facet of the economy

This in a country where 9 in 10 people (who are actually working) are employed by the government. And little brother says 20% of them are "redundant".

He's probably guessing low, but wouldn't that be an interesting target for, say, California? The list of things apparently being considered: "Cuban officials plan to reduce state control of small businesses, authorize more Cubans to become self-employed and build a new tax structure that will compel state employees to contribute more."

That's pretty interesting rhetoric from one of the last outposts of 20th century Marxism.

Despots don't do anything that doesn't keep them in power. Is this what they think they need to say to hold onto it?

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:54 PM | Comments (49)
Post contains 181 words, total size 1 kb.

1 BREAKING: NAACP brands Cuba as racist.

Posted by: nickless at August 01, 2010 06:00 PM (MMC8r)

2 Post Castro survival mode.

Posted by: YIKES! at August 01, 2010 06:00 PM (x+k6q)

3 This Raul guy sounds legit.

Posted by: Ghost of Howard Zinn at August 01, 2010 06:03 PM (YWziP)

USA: the last bastion of communism

Posted by: Ronster at August 01, 2010 06:04 PM (nnNfA)

5
America moving in wrong direction under insane rule of the corruptocrat.

Posted by: Lemon Kitten at August 01, 2010 06:04 PM (0fzsA)

6 They could pay off all their debt if they put all the vintage cars in Cuba up on Ebay.

Posted by: Mr. Dave at August 01, 2010 06:04 PM (66KYL)

7 Great,even the Cubans are less socialist that us now....

Posted by: steevy at August 01, 2010 06:05 PM (bm2js)

8 Hmmm.

Cuba or California?
California or Cuba?

My bet is on Cuba being more productive in the next decade than California.

Maybe I should learn Spanish after all.

Posted by: mpfs at August 01, 2010 06:05 PM (QuP9W)

9 Our despots obviously don't feel we have reached the point where they have to support a free market to stay in power.

Posted by: real joe at August 01, 2010 06:11 PM (w7Lv+)

10
Well Raul controls the Army, and like in China with the PLA and the siloviki in Russia, they run the key companies on the osland

Posted by: dr. lizardo at August 01, 2010 06:12 PM (4RSMH)

11 Maybe I should learn Spanish after all.

No thanks, I like to own things.
Like land and the crops that I grow on them.
Oh, and my house.

Posted by: Rickshaw Jack at August 01, 2010 06:13 PM (YWziP)

12 11

What makes you think California will even let us keep our land or our houses?

Posted by: mpfs at August 01, 2010 06:15 PM (QuP9W)

13 Those on a sinking ship always try to bail out before they sink.

Posted by: Kemp at August 01, 2010 06:15 PM (2+9Yx)

14 I AM ALL THAT IS MAN!!!

Posted by: Chris Christie at August 01, 2010 06:20 PM (zgZzy)

15 Chris Christie: Doing the work that American politicians won't do.

Posted by: Wyatt Earp at August 01, 2010 06:21 PM (zgZzy)

16 What makes you think California will even let us keep our land or our houses?

If they take that away, that is like one of the 7 seals right?

Posted by: Rickshaw Jack at August 01, 2010 06:22 PM (YWziP)

17 Raul, you're killing me man. Killing me.

Posted by: Fidel Castro at August 01, 2010 06:22 PM (zgZzy)

What makes you think California will even let us keep our land or our houses?

Ja, we're gonna get back to you, okay?

Posted by: The Governator. at August 01, 2010 06:24 PM (zgZzy)

You may have title to the land, and be taxed on its value, but actually be FREE to do something on it? California?

Nope.

Posted by: Reader C.J. Burch says... at August 01, 2010 06:30 PM (sJTmU)

20
Raul will come to Mee-ah-mee and request asylum to improve his English and be appointed as the Puta Czar in the Obama Continuing Criminal Enterprise.

Posted by: Fish at August 01, 2010 06:37 PM (v1gw3)

21 Seriously, at the rate things are going Obama is going to be the last practitioner of Communism.

Posted by: Ian S. at August 01, 2010 06:43 PM (imD7p)

22 "Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right,"

Posted by: Hugo Chavez at August 01, 2010 06:56 PM (6gPn+)

23 I wouldn't start packing a bag for the worker's paradise just yet. As much fun as it is to lampoon this, y'all need to keep in mind that when autocrats are in trouble (or see trouble on the horizon), they always promise to ease the burden on the struggling small businesses. But when push comes to shove, they always renege.

It's an article of faith among leftists that entrepreneurs (and businessmen) are not only terminally stupid (thus easily fooled, repeatedly, by the same tricks), but also are infected with this kind of disease that makes them keep starting and trying to succeed at various businesses. To Leftists, it's like businessmen are too stupid to NOT keep trying to succeed.

I know y'all think I'm just being sarcastic. Not at all. Read John Maynard Keynes. This guy was one of the pillars of 20th century economic theory, and he and his followers were absolutely certain that businessmen would keep on putting a max effort into businesses *regardless of how hard government made it for them to do that.*

It's really amazing stuff to actually see in writing.

Thing is, Keynes had a handful of really solid principles and theories, but then also this goofy one about businessmen. And his disciples/followers never questioned any of the master's teachings. As a result, this completely loony notion--that the amount of entrepreneurial activity is essentially unaffected by the level of regulation and difficulty imposed by government--is an article of faith by all Keynesians to this day.

Posted by: sf at August 01, 2010 07:04 PM (eSMQV)

24 Rickshaw Jack, Cali will be pleased to let you keep your land. They just won't let you have any water to irrigate it.

Posted by: XBradTC at August 01, 2010 07:14 PM (wIQLU)

25 You putz, Raul- Semper Fidel! Viva Fidel!

Posted by: Barry Ogabe at August 01, 2010 07:31 PM (FcR7P)

26 When a Cuban dictator stakes out a position to the right of the US Congress you know we've got problems...

Posted by: Nighthawk at August 01, 2010 07:33 PM (KDfY7)

27 So Castro is more democratic than Obama?

Posted by: 48%er at August 01, 2010 07:35 PM (kcqZS)

28 The Soviets tried this under Gorby. It led to USSR meets the Trash Can of History. Oh, Goddess Irony, light the way with your smile.

Posted by: eman at August 01, 2010 07:43 PM (9Ep/N)

29 The funny (not ha-ha funny) part is that Obama and the rest of the Socialists in Washington will continue to insist that the European Model is where we need to be while the Continent burns.

Posted by: ErikW at August 01, 2010 07:45 PM (7BwF5)

30 The Cuban model has actually been more Maoist than Marxist, but either way I suppose it's a tiny step in the right direction.

Posted by: Soap MacTavish at August 01, 2010 07:48 PM (554T5)

31 Socialism will take its last breath here.

Posted by: eman at August 01, 2010 07:54 PM (9Ep/N)

32 Gasp! Do you mean that SOCIALISM is NOT working? Someone better send a news flash to BARRY!

Posted by: GarandFan at August 01, 2010 07:55 PM (XaWFq)

33 Onward comrades! Intrade has "Socialist Revolution" up by 10 points.

Posted by: fap-fap-fap dragon, riding on the back of erg, scaling Mount Trashmore at August 01, 2010 08:05 PM (IQBsP)

34 Socialism will take its last breath here.

Posted by: eman at August 01, 2010 11:54 PM (9Ep/N)

It sure as fuck will because I'm not going to let the next generation go in the shitter just because a bunch of selfish, lazy-ass Commie Libs decided that they didn't care about their kids.

Posted by: ErikW at August 01, 2010 08:15 PM (7BwF5)

35 O/T: Allen West fights back, defends his record. Talk about a real American.

Posted by: Dave at August 01, 2010 08:29 PM (WuQPu)

36 Civil war or bust.

Posted by: Libertarian at August 01, 2010 08:42 PM (lsjAg)

Allen West

Damn, I hope he gets elected, from what little I know about him we need more like him.

Posted by: Ronster at August 01, 2010 08:43 PM (nnNfA)

38 OT:
Spencer Ackerman is doing another one of his "huh huh the military is not like cool" with another one of his "awesomely bad" articles.
http://tinyurl.com/287qx2t

Someone put up a operation name making reference to his journolist shenanigans. If you are bored go upvote "Operation Racist Smear" and don't let him live down his bullshit.

Posted by: Sam at August 01, 2010 08:46 PM (Cxsey)

39 #36: You're pathetic.

Posted by: Uncle Jed at August 01, 2010 09:48 PM (ARdx8)

40 And the punchline to that joke is. And if it works there they are going to give it a try in the USA.

Posted by: tmitsss at August 02, 2010 03:04 AM (FIbU0)

41 This is just another superficial "change" in Cuba aimed at garnering support for the lifting of US travel restrictions and a change in trade policy where Cuba will be allowed credit for agricultural purchases. Those with vested interests in these changes realize that come November, all that lobbying and money thrown at congressmen may be all for naught and are pulling out all the stops.

Posted by: Val Prieto at August 02, 2010 03:21 AM (GSKW/)

42 HAVANA (AP) Â— Raul Castro said Sunday that his government will scale back controls on small businesses, lay off unnecessary workers and allow more self-employment Â— significant steps in a country where the state dominates nearly every facet of the economy

Oh wow. They're finally abolishing slavery over there?

Posted by: lauraw at August 02, 2010 03:26 AM (DbybK)

43 Is our president, Barry G.M. Dolt, paying attention to Cuba?

Posted by: CoolCzech at August 02, 2010 04:01 AM (tJjm/)

Commiefornia's economic woes don't stem from its public sector...the ratio of state employees to citizens is quite low. In fact it could make more money in revenue if it carefully employed more in certain areas.

Excess spending occurs in what it buys. It buys expensive contract help. It buys unnecessary vehicles.It buys stupid stem cell research and globull warming inititives. It even buys per diem/cars for legislators who already earn $150000/yr. It buys property it doesn't use and thereby foregoes the taxes on that property. I could go on.

The point is that this state simply spends money on stuff it doesn't need. It's not Cuber.

Posted by: torabora at August 02, 2010 04:46 AM (FFe+c)

45 Is Raul laying off his cops yet?

Posted by: maverick muse at August 02, 2010 04:55 AM (H+LJc)

46 Barry: Obviously, Raul acted stupidly.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at August 02, 2010 04:59 AM (1Jaio)

47 So real commies, like Brother Raul, understand that their system doesn't work and needs fixing (same-O, same-O Rooshia and the Chinese), while armchair, students-getting-stoned-and-Saving-the-World commies like Osama Obama stick to failing and failed theories?

Makes sense to me.

All communist revolutions seem to start with nationalizing businesses, centralizing control of people's lives and spending non-existent money. Then the leaders start realizing, slowly, that there are flaws in their system that need to be corrected.

It basically took the Russkies the better part of 70 years to get the message. The Chinese and Cubans were faster; it took them a mere 40 years or so.

Given the masses of laws our commies (and their fellow-travelers who are simply stoned on power and spending) have put in place and the debt they've rung up, I suspect we'll be more like the Russians in this respect.

Therefore, I see a rosy future for the Traitor-in-Chief's America. In 2070 or thereabouts.

Of course each of the "model" communist states have huge peasant/slave classes and rotten living conditions for all but the incredibly wealthy, so we can look forward to that, too.

Posted by: J. Pinkerton Snoopington at August 02, 2010 05:09 AM (Ulu3i)

48 In the current days, PDF is not a mysterious format at all, many softwares come out to deal with PDF files, such as PDF cracker, PDF converter, PDF encrypter, etc. This PDF to GIF Converter is one of them which is specially designed for converting PDF to GIF format with 1:1 quality of original files. With the easy-to-use PDF to GIF Converter, you can not only convert PDF to GIF, but convert PDF to most of other image formats, such as TIFF, PNG, GPEF, BMP, etc. PDF to PPT Converter.

Posted by: taoruankeji at August 11, 2010 05:50 PM (MQ8Pt)

49 Do you think it is a good thing that the country's most of people are employed by the local government? It must lead to a great burden to the government in the economy.

Posted by: jailbreak iphone 4 at March 21, 2011 02:07 AM (7gCqX)

Hide Comments | Add Comment | Refresh | Top

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.

87kb generated in CPU 0.0908, elapsed 0.227 seconds.
64 queries taking 0.2032 seconds, 177 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.