Report from Havana as Trump Threatens to "Take" Cuba & Pushes for Ouster of Cuban Leader

[Uncle Joe]

Cuba's electrical grid has collapsed. The island-wide blackout comes amid a harsh U.S. oil blockade and recent comments from President Donald Trump that he wants to "take" Cuba. No oil shipments have reached the country, located just south of Florida, in three months, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by decades of severe U.S. sanctions. "Sanctions are literally killing people right now," says Cuban journalist Daniel Montero, speaking from Havana. "We understand what this oil embargo means, and [what] sanctions have always meant. This is regime change through starvation." Historian Sara Kozameh, who recently returned from Cuba, adds, "Cubans have fought for sovereignty many, many times. And they're not going to just sort of lie there while this is happening."

[intrepidity]

1. He probably wants to make it a larger Mar A Lago

And employ all the citizens to work there for minimum wage. Any who decline will be deported to somewhere awful.

[JBTaurus83]

2. This infuriates me

And I’m very surprised China doesn’t call the bluff and send oil.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. Vendepatria. I doubt that either Orange Julius or Lil' Marco have thought about what Cubans

are willing to have that epithet saddled on their backs.

Orange Julius might send troops onto the island, but I doubt that the island Cubans will be willing to collaborate.

[Gaugamela]

4. I have the feeling Cuba will become Trump's distraction from Iran and eventually his off ramp

from the Gulf. Invading Iran would be a bloodbath, so he’ll invade Cuba instead, calling it a critical humanitarian intervention, and leave sorting out the mess in the Strait of Hormuz to the rest of the world. In the meantime Trump will continue to suspend any sanctions on Russian oil ostensibly to keep prices down but in actuality to make Putin happy.

[JBTaurus83]

5. And he will say he's removed the sanctions

Because NATO didn’t help him in Iran.

[Gaugamela]

6. Yes, good point!