There is no equivalent to Iron Mike in his prime. GOAT

The big one is being beholden to the insurance companies and denying us universal health care. Employer tied healthcare is a huge stumbling block for worker mobility.

Singing meat!?

I’m no diplomat but having the government officially annex it sure seems like an escalation. Many (most?) of those settlements are illegal even under Israeli law* so the way to legitimize them is to annex the territory, because “it doesn’t have a government now”.

* According to Wikipedia, Israel’s Supreme court has said repeatedly (until 2012 at least) that the settlements are illegal, apparently against the word of the Executive branch of the government. And then last year, this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Israeli_judicial_reform

Yeah, the ick factor is high.

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”

― Benito Mussolini

Medicaid especially is in trouble. In two different budgets they tried to pull back on funding. Not sure how successful it was but they already tried.

I once read that 2/3 of Americans are “affected” by Medicaid, not that they use it but that they are related to or are otherwise involved with someone who does. That’s a lot of face eating.

Next do beer!
I dare you Parliament.

Yeah that doesn’t seem heathy, any more than thier trade deficits last year. The article even mentions energy export surplus and spells out that Argentina isn’t using the hydrocarbons locally.

If locals can’t pay for the products, export them!

At today’s spot price $100,000,000 of 24k gold weighs about 1140kg

… in case anyone was wondering

edit: huh. I was wondering if cash weighed more and the answer is no, if a $100 bill weighs 1g then $100,000,000 in $100 bills weighs 1000kg

Maybe not even the embargoes but that terrorist definition is keeping Cuba out of most of the banking systems and it’s pretty stupid.

It’s the “remove all brown m&m’s” rider of food service

Nah, it’s just the ick factor. Dirty hands can definitely contaminate food but the occasional hair won’t. Sure is gross, tho.

Well, three years of legal market economy businesses under their belt, it seems that quite a bit of inertia remains. I don’t know what’s up with their sugar crops, sucks they have failed lately. IMO Cuba should bring in some outside investment, probably from China, and like the Chinese are telling them… stop being so damn vertical. That shit doesn’t work long term.

Looks like hurricane Oscar just hit them today, I hope they ask for and receive emergency assistance. The people are going to need it.

deleted by creator

Or OpenWRT on a thrift store Linksys

I disagree with the sanctions. Hell, we trade with worse regimes every day. Lifting the sanctions would help the residents of Cuba immensely. The “sticking point” of the nationalized property back in '59 should be moot. It’s not about making property owners whole at this point, it’s about helping the people of Cuba. That is non-negotiable for the expats though.

The Castro’s fault? Absolutely.

My solar panels came from China, theirs can too. Cuba doesn’t have a single West German engineered power plant, those parts don’t come from modern Germany.

Embargoes (and especially the terrorist definition) are a big stumbling block but don’t act like corruption and terrible mismanagement aren’t the bulk of modern Cuba’s problems.

Naw, all that is still good to go.

Their real problem is dependence on Venezuela for fuel and since Maduro has fucked up that economy so completely they aren’t getting the oil they need. Doesn’t stop Cuba from blaming the embargoes though, I guess some people still believe it.

I mean, maybe they can’t pay for enough oil because they are broke but I’d think that Venezuela has enough problems they can’t help out with a socialist solidarity deal like Chavez used to give them.

Yes they do. It’s not a show stopper if you can’t pay, just be honest. “No sir/ma’am, I cannot pay that today as I live paycheck to paycheck. May I set up a payment plan with the clerk?”

Judges see it all the time and really since you don’t have any actual charges there’s nothing they can or will do to you.