Fidel Castro Dead at 90

[Redondo]

Kaepernick booed in Miami for Castro comments

 

There were loud boos from the crowd when Kaepernick and the rest of the 49ers offense trotted onto the field for their first series, and more jeers just before the first down snap.

Kaepernick, who has kneeled during the National Anthem all season to protest police brutality and the treatment of minorities, defended Castro during a conference call Wednesday with South Florida reporters.

During the conference call, Miami Herald reporter Armando Salguero, who was born in Cuba, challenged Kaepernick about a T-shirt the quarterback wore in August featuring Castro and Malcolm X. 

In a column published hours before Castro's death was announced, Salguero said Kaepernick noted Cuba's high literacy rate and claimed that "they invest more in their education system than they do in their prison system, which we do not do here [in the U.S.] even though we’re fully capable of doing that."

When Salguero tried to ask Kaepernick about the disintegration of Cuban families under the Castro regime, the quarterback said "We do break up families here ... That’s what mass incarceration is. That was the foundation of slavery. So our country has been based on that as well as the genocide of native Americans."

Salguero concluded his column by calling Kaepernick a "fraud" and an "unrepentant hypocrite."

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2016/11/27/kaepernick-booed-in-miami-for-castro-comments.html

[Jason]

I'm over Kaepernick. He's kind of a tool

[fan_since79]

He's a bad quarterback too.

 

[Inside Pitch]

So...   In case you guys didn't know, I was born to Cuban parents ..  This whole thing has hit very close to home.

My Father grew up in a very political family... his Uncle, Carlos Hevia, was at one time an provisional president of Cuba, he had actually been installed as President after Batista (supported by US Ambassador Caffey) had forced the resignation of Grau, three days later he was replaced by one of Batista and Caffey's puppets.  He had been acting as the minster of agriculture at the time and his father in law either had been or was Chief Justice of Cuba.  Carlos Hevia was possibly most famous for having once purchased a bunch of weapons from the US Gov under the condition that they not be used against the Cuban gov...   No sooner had they unloaded the guns off the boats they started shooting in the direction of Batista's goons.   On my Mothers side, my Grandfather was one of Cuba's most famous journalists -- he was the headliner at Cuba's main newspaper, and the Cuban correspondent for both the UPI and AP.  His brother was likewise the editor of Cuba's other major paper and it's top selling magazine.   They were in essence the voices of what would be the NY Times and LA Times here..

Growing up I had no shortage of insight into the Cuban situation, I got to meet a lot of people and hear their stories.  You didn't grow up a Cuban exile without being privy to what happened, it was something the community was very passionate about -- the comparisons to Jews and the Holocaust may be a bit too much but it's the closest comparison and the Jews in Cuba that escaped both are the first to make it.  I saw first hand the scars on my Dad's back and the pictures of him at a robust 180 and then 110 after months in a Cuban work camp for non-communists. My Grandfather and his brother were at gunpoint forced onto the Granma staff to write glorious stories about how the Revolution was making the country a better place and to paint dissenters as traitors working with the Yanquis to bring down the Revolution.  My older sister was put into a room in kindergarten with the rest of her class and ask to pray to God for candy -- then had sit around while nothing happened then prodded to ask the Revolution to give her some candy and immediately given some.  

My Dad wasn't put in front of a firing squad in part because of his fame as a Cuban Judo national champion and for having succeeded in setting fire to the national library (as a 16 year old), in protest of the government's censorship of the press and attempts to rewrite Cuban history (and because his family were famously anti-Batista).  Still, because he wouldn't join the party he was forced into those work camps while Granma (the state run press named after the boat Castro started his revolution with). wrote a nice little story of how he was doing his part for the glorious Revolution by leading the "agriculture corps".  So yeah -- my Grandfather had to write a story about my Dad the hero knowing full well how he was being sent off to work camp to possibly die.  

Ask any Cuban exile above the age of 40 and they all tell a similar story.  They either knew someone who was killed, or had a family member impacted by the Castro regime.  They will all tell you how the Cuban school system that gets lauded as a Castro achievement was in place long before he took power as was the Cuban "clinica" medical system.  In fact, Miami and  South FL as a whole have several group health programs for seniors based on the systems that were in place as early as the 1940s.  Truth is most of the things that Castro gets credit for were actually put into place by the Cuban Constitution of 1940 only to be suspended by Batista in 1952.

Castro was a ****.  Che Gevara was an even bigger ****, and anyone championing either of them as anything other than sadistic ****s is also a ****.   

 

[Inside Pitch]

**** ryhmes with bunt...  

[Adam]

Thanks for sharing IP

[Blarg]

And all along I thought **** rhymed with puck. 

[Tank]

thanks for those details of your story, IP. for as long as i've known you, i hadn't heard them before. those were fascinating, and i'm glad your family survived.

one of my former students is/was a berner who likes to get high and be as contrarian as can be to anyone he perceives to 'drink the koolaid.' he thinks castro was a great man for standing up to the US and not letting us push cuba around. he's wrorng on many, many levels.

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

thanks for those details of your story, IP. for as long as i've known you, i hadn't heard them before. those were fascinating, and i'm glad your family survived.

one of my former students is/was a berner who likes to get high and be as contrarian as can be to anyone he perceives to 'drink the koolaid.' he thinks castro was a great man for standing up to the US and not letting us push cuba around. he's wrorng on many, many levels.

Honestly, I haven't said much about it before because of the whole internet and people being so full of crap, I didn't want that label attached -- you have long known my Dad was my biggest hero and with good reason.  But yeah my family was pretty deep into a lot of different aspects of the pre-Castro Cuba.  My Godfather's family was involved with one of the casinos out there which is kinda funny given he is my actual Godfather.  

But my Dad's story was pretty interesting -- he had been accepted into MIT at 16, which came in pretty handy after he set fire to the library -- the family sent him to the States for his safety, but that lasted all of a year before he worked his way back to Cuba.   He was one of Cubas best Judokas and a two time national Champ but his political views forced him off the national teams.  When they sent him to the work camps the intent was to work him to death -- they tried to stage an accident where basically a crate was supposed to fall on him but he was tipped off (by a military official no less) and surived that.   When the family was leaving Cuba they were pulled aside by military officials -- there was this huge panic for everyone because they didn't really believe they would be allowed to leave the country.  They were told that the government had sent word to hold the flight and my family in particular aside as someone from G-2 (the Cuban version of the CIA), wanted to speak to my Dad.  The soldiers  that manned the gates assumed the worst, did everything they could to berate and embarrass my family -- called them the typical names -- "Gusanos" (worms), traitors etc etc...  made lewd comments about my mom.  Anyway -- after a few minutes later two jeeps and a car pull up..  Out steps Sergio Alcevo, second in command of the G2, a life long friend of my Dad's (along with Ismael Suarez de la Paz, known as Commander Echemandia to history).  tears in his eyes and he throws his arms around my Dad and said out loud for everyone to hear -- treat this man with the greatest of respect, Cuba loses a true patriot and revolutionary.   So once this happened my dad knocked the guy that had made comments about my mom out...  According to my sister, everyone sat in total silence until Alcevo shugged his shoulders, laughed and simply asked that the guy be taken away.   The way she tells the story he was in tears the entire time and my Dad was the one consoling him.  Different ideologies couldnt destroy a friendship borne as children.

My Dad never really told us much, my sister was old enough to remember a lot of it and she was the only person in the family that ever talked about it..   Most everything I heard about my Dad I heard from other people, his friends, people that would come visit us and would be introduced to us as so so who had been this or that -- it was funny because it was always very clearly emotional for them but you could see so much of their connections had to do with that period of time between 1952 and 1961.  My Dad had been anti-Batista, but also Anti-Castro, he had been leery of the left-leaning tendencies of both Raul Castro and Che Gevera and because of his friendship with guys like Alcevo and Echemandia he was all too aware of the communist leanings of many within Fidel's inner circle.   It was always a trip to see pictures of my Dad in his youth hanging out with guys who would go on to be a General under Castro and part of his Secret police.  All I know is that everywhere we went people knew who he was and offered to buy him drinks..    

I've always wished he had told us more, but that brings me to the other part of his story...   Like I was saying, there was a real disbelief that they would ever actually make it to the states...   Even as the plane took off -- they were freaking out that some accident would occur and the plane would crash, be lost etc etc...  it wasnt until they set foot in the States that any of them allowed themselves to believe it was real.  Upon landing my Dad was again singled out -- he was taken aside into a room where a bunch of guys in suits were -- they were all very kind to my family and every effort was made to make us comfortable but everyone save for my Dad was allowed to pass through the processing -- my Dad was interrogated and mined for information for three weeks -- my Grandfather had opinions on by who, but my Dad has always refused to say what went down other than he told them he was done with everything to do with Cuba and it's politics and that he was perfectly fine with being sent back so long as the family got to stay put.  To this day we aren't sure if his involvement with crap ended or not, but there were times when guys in cars with US Gov plates came by and talked to my Dad for hours.

All I know -- my Dad loved this country -- loved everything it stood for, loved the Flag, and considered this the greatest nation that ever has existed.  He was always quick to tell us that every nation has it's faults but no nation had done more to take in those in need or help the rest of the world as had the US..  Above all he was grateful for what this country gave us...    

Colin Kapenwhatever is a ****.

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

one of my former students is/was a berner who likes to get high and be as contrarian as can be to anyone he perceives to 'drink the koolaid.' he thinks castro was a great man for standing up to the US and not letting us push cuba around. he's wrorng on many, many levels.

Castro stood up to nobody..  He just found the other biggest kid on the block and had him stand behind him while he ran his mouth.   Without the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro is a pissant Hugo Chavez type wannabe.

BTW -- I think Bernie is a kind man who genuinely cares about people.   

[Brandon]

thanks for sharing, ip. wild shit man, i dig those old stories...good and bad...as i like learning from others.

sadly, i just saw some bullshit from a chick i generally respect about how the media has it wrong about castro/cuba and her friends just got back from cuba and everyone there was happy and the ones that left were the rich because they didn't want to be economically oppressed......some kind of bullshit like that. 

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Taggart said:

thanks for sharing, ip. wild shit man, i dig those old stories...good and bad...as i like learning from others.

sadly, i just saw some bullshit from a chick i generally respect about how the media has it wrong about castro/cuba and her friends just got back from cuba and everyone there was happy and the ones that left were the rich because they didn't want to be economically oppressed......some kind of bullshit like that. 

Well -- that's because there are block committees in Cuba -- their whole purpose in life is to rat out anyone that says anything or acts like they aren't happy.   Rat someone in and you get special favors from the glorious Revolution...   Imagine living in a place where your neighbor can turn you in to the Gov for not acting like you love the Revolution.  Thats Cuba....

But yeah -- people visit and see food all over and smiling faces everywhere so everything is just great...

[Amazing Larry]

ITP's posts in this thread contain some of the best stuff I've read on this site. 

[Adam]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/fidel-castro-unwavering-champion-racial-equality-article-1.2888264

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 11/25/2016 at 11:50 PM, calscuf said:

I can't wait until cruise ships start stopping in Havana, McDonald's and Starbucks everywhere.  Finally, progress!

I'm just biding my time until Cohiba cigars start showing up in our tobacco shops - and I mean the real Cohiba, not the red dot Dominican crap that General Cigar has been foisting on us since they commandeered the name for the US market.