What is the goal of capitalism?

[Red Front]

Which country did you present as getting worse under capitalism?
I can list countries that got worse under communism.

I presented the countries that were colonized by European colonialism and later became property of capitalist elites. Those countries are now heavily exploited by capitalists and dirt poor. Before they were colonized the people of those nations enjoyed a higher standard of living and now they live in a capitalist-run shithole.

You keep saying that communist countries are shitholes when the vast majority of shitholes in this world aren't communist, but capitalist. The more capitalist these developing countries are, the more in debt and destitute they are. Look at Haiti, Congo, or Honduras. These are just a few of the crappy countries with capitalist economies. The most successful economies in the world are mixed, with plenty of socialism in them.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The communist countries being supposed "assholes" doesn't give the US empire the right to impose economic embargoes and continually threaten these countries with war and destruction. The reason Todds can't peacefully co-exist with developing communist nations is that the American capitalist class is scared that if communist countries successfully develop, it might give the American working class the idea that they don't need capitalism or capitalists to run their economy.

That's the nightmare of the American capitalist elites. Having a well-developed, industrialized, communist Cuba 90 miles away from Florida, setting a good example of what is possible with a communist economy, to all working-class Americans (94% of the US population). That's the only reason that the US imposes economic embargoes on communists and threatens the world not to trade or establish normal diplomatic relations.

The communist countries being supposed "assholes" doesn't give the US empire the right to impose economic embargoes

If the US doesn't want to trade with the commie assholes in Cuba, we don't have to.
Don't like it, try not to be such assholes.

The reason Todds can't peacefully co-exist with developing communist nations is that the American capitalist class is scared that if communist countries successfully develop

Over 100 years of evidence that will never happen.

Having a well-developed, industrialized, communist Cuba 90 miles away from Florida, setting a good example of what is possible with a communist economy,

What are they waiting for?

Still no evidence for your claim that capitalism causes poverty to get worse? LOL!

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I presented the countries that were colonized by European colonialism and later became property of capitalist elites. Those countries are now heavily exploited by capitalists and dirt poor. Before they were colonized the people of those nations enjoyed a higher standard of living and now they live in a capitalist-run shithole.

You keep saying that communist countries are shitholes when the vast majority of shitholes in this world aren't communist, but capitalist. The more capitalist these developing countries are, the more in debt and destitute they are. Look at Haiti, Congo, or Honduras. These are just a few of the crappy countries with capitalist economies. The most successful economies in the world are mixed, with plenty of socialism in them.

I presented the countries that were colonized by European colonialism and later became property of capitalist elites.

Capitalism, not colonialism. Don't try to change the subject.

The more capitalist these developing countries are, the more in debt and destitute they are. Look at Haiti, Congo, or Honduras.

Now post your evidence. Show when they were less capitalist, when they decided to become more capitalist and how they got worse. With facts.

 

[Red Front]

If the US doesn't want to trade with the commie assholes in Cuba, we don't have to.
Don't like it, try not to be such assholes.

Whether you believe Cuba is an asshole or not doesn't give the US Empire the right to force the rest of the world not to establish normal political and economic relations with Cuba. If the US decides not to normalize relations with Cuba, fine, but why get in the way of other countries establishing normal, political and economic relations with Cuba? I already know the answer to that question. The American capitalist elites are afraid that if communism proves to be successful, it will influence American public opinion and result in the US being more socialist, or perhaps even full-commie. That's the nightmare of the American capitalist class.

Over 100 years of evidence that will never happen.

OK, so if that's the case, then why continue with hostilities? Why are capitalists so triggered and scared of communism, if it amounts to nothing?

Why did the US, UK, France, and 10 other countries invade Soviet Russia immediately after WW1? Why did they spend the 1920s and 30s, trying their best to sabotage and undermine Soviet Russian society? Why did four million Nazis invade Soviet Russia and why and how, after losing much of its national infrastructure and 28 million people in WW2, did the Soviet Union rebuild and become a nuclear superpower rivaling the United States? How and why did the USSR have the second-largest economy in the world by 1970? You deny the stats but the UN and many Western, pro-capitalist experts don't.

The reason that all of the above was possible is due to the power of communism to quickly industrialize a nation and get it back on its feet, in every way imaginable. Communism is the most effective and resilient economic system in the world, and that's why encircled, besieged nations like Cuba and DPRK-North Korea, can still survive despite the overwhelming challenges and difficulties forced upon it by the American Empire.

Cuba, despite its economic problems, is an example of how capable socialism is in keeping a nation alive, despite being a few miles away from a hostile, capitalist empire that wants to annihilate it. Little Cuba is in the shadow of the United States and yet it's still there, alive.

What are they waiting for?

Get out of the way, and let Cuba develop. Stop imposing economic embargoes that force the world not to normalize relations with Cuba. Cargo ships can't anchor in Cuba, because if they do, they can't anchor in the US for six months. The international banking system doesn't touch Cuba, because it gets fined heavily when it does business with any country sanctioned by the US. The US owns and controls the world's reserve currency and has an incredible amount of leverage with the international banking system, auditing banks and forcing them to comply with American foreign policy.

You believe you're in the right, when you impose economic sanctions on countries, undermining their ability to function and meet their needs? The American Empire starves children:

​

It starts wars, that destroy countless innocent lives in pursuit of profits and power. It's the American capitalist-run empire, that is the real asshole, not the communists.

Still no evidence for your claim that capitalism causes poverty to get worse? LOL!

I'll let the people I'm writing to decide that. The audience will judge if I've presented evidence or not. I don't respond to your disingenuous asshole-posts for your sake but for theirs.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Whether you believe Cuba is an asshole or not doesn't give the US Empire the right to force the rest of the world not to establish normal political and economic relations with Cuba. If the US decides not to normalize relations with Cuba, fine, but why get in the way of other countries establishing normal, political and economic relations with Cuba? I already know the answer to that question. The American capitalist elites are afraid that if communism proves to be successful, it will influence American public opinion and result in the US being more socialist, or perhaps even full-commie. That's the nightmare of the American capitalist class.




OK, so if that's the case, then why continue with hostilities? Why are capitalists so triggered and scared of communism, if it amounts to nothing?

Why did the US, UK, France, and 10 other countries invade Soviet Russia immediately after WW1? Why did they spend the 1920s and 30s, trying their best to sabotage and undermine Soviet Russian society? Why did four million Nazis invade Soviet Russia and why and how, after losing much of its national infrastructure and 28 million people in WW2, did the Soviet Union rebuild and become a nuclear superpower rivaling the United States? How and why did the USSR have the second-largest economy in the world by 1970? You deny the stats but the UN and other experts don't.
The reason that all of the above was possible is due to the power of communism to quickly industrialize a nation and get it back on its feet, in every way imaginable. Communism is the most effective and resilient economic system in the world, and that's why encircled, besieged nations like Cuba and DPRK-North Korea, can still survive despite the overwhelming challenges and difficulties forced upon it by the American Empire.

Cuba, despite its economic problems, is an example of how capable socialism is in keeping a nation alive, despite being a few miles away from a hostile, capitalist empire that wants to annihilate it. Little Cuba is in the shadow of the United States and yet it's still there, alive.



Get out of the way, and let Cuba develop. Stop imposing economic embargoes that force the world not to normalize relations with Cuba. Cargo ships can't anchor in Cuba, because if they do, they can't anchor in the US for six months. The international banking system doesn't touch Cuba, because it gets fined heavily when it does business with any country sanctioned by the US. The US owns and controls the world's reserve currency and has an incredible amount of leverage with the international banking system, auditing banks and forcing them to comply with American foreign policy.

You believe you're in the right, when you impose economic sanctions on countries, undermining their ability to function and meet their needs? The American Empire starves children:

​

It starts wars, that destroy countless innocent lives in pursuit of profits and power. It's the American capitalist-run empire, that is the real asshole, not the communists.



I'll let the people I'm writing to decide that. The audience will judge if I've presented evidence or not. I don't respond to your disingenuous asshole posts for your sake but for theirs.

Whether you believe Cuba is an asshole or not doesn't give the US Empire the right to force the rest of the world not to establish normal political and economic relations with Cuba.

The rest of the world is free to side with the commie assholes in Cuba. No one is forced.

OK, so if that's the case, then why continue with hostilities? Why are capitalists so triggered and scared of communism, if it amounts to nothing?

Kicking you assholes when you're down is hilarious!

Why did the US, UK, France, and 10 other countries invade Soviet Russia immediately after WW1?

Because commie assholes suck.

Why did they spend the 1920s and 30s, trying their best to sabotage and undermine Soviet Russian society?

See above.

Why did four million Nazis invade Soviet Russia

I'll never understand why Stalin's best buddy, Hitler, turned against him.

how, after losing much of its national infrastructure and 28 million people in WW2, did the Soviet Union rebuild and become a nuclear superpower rivaling the United States?
Kill and enslave enough people, you can make some decent, temporary progress.

How and why did the USSR have the second-largest economy in the world by 1970?
Because commies lie about the numbers.

Communism is the most effective and resilient economic system in the world,

Until capitalists stop trading with it, then it's the most delicate

Cuba, despite its economic problems, is an example of how capable socialism is in keeping a nation alive,
They were alive before communism turned them into an economic basket case.

Get out of the way, and let Cuba develop. Stop imposing economic embargoes that force the world not to normalize relations with Cuba.
Sure, as soon as the commies take their boots off the neck of the Cuban people and have some free and fair elections, we'll take our boots out of their commie asses.
I'll let the people I'm writing to decide that.

Decide that you ran away with your little red tail between your legs?

 

[Red Front]

I presented the countries that were colonized by European colonialism and later became property of capitalist elites.

Capitalism, not colonialism. Don't try to change the subject.

The more capitalist these developing countries are, the more in debt and destitute they are. Look at Haiti, Congo, or Honduras.

Now post your evidence. Show when they were less capitalist, when they decided to become more capitalist and how they got worse. With facts.

It doesn't matter if, before European colonization and the introduction of capitalism into these countries, they were supposedly worse off. I already showed evidence that India and China were some of the wealthiest, most advanced nations on Earth before European warmongers invaded and colonized it, plunging them into abject poverty. The videos I presented provide all of the evidence for that. You of course will ignore the evidence, but others won't. Again, it doesn't matter what the condition of these nations were before capitalism. What matters is that capitalism is exploiting them and undermining their present development.

These capitalist-run nations are dirt poor, and yet they're not being sanctioned by the American Empire. Without an economic embargo, like the communists are facing, they're just as poor if not poorer than Cuba and North Korea. I'm only mentioning communist nations that don't have markets. Socialism, is the earlier state of communism, when markets are allowed and might even be necessary. Cuba and DPRK-North Korea have decided to go hardcore communist, despite not using advanced automation and artificial intelligence and they're still alive. They're implementing communism, without the required technology and yet they're still there, despite the American Empire's attempts to destroy them.

 

[Red Front]

Whether you believe Cuba is an asshole or not doesn't give the US Empire the right to force the rest of the world not to establish normal political and economic relations with Cuba.

The rest of the world is free to side with the commie assholes in Cuba. No one is forced.

OK, so if that's the case, then why continue with hostilities? Why are capitalists so triggered and scared of communism, if it amounts to nothing?

Kicking you assholes when you're down is hilarious!

Why did the US, UK, France, and 10 other countries invade Soviet Russia immediately after WW1?

Because commie assholes suck.

Why did they spend the 1920s and 30s, trying their best to sabotage and undermine Soviet Russian society?

See above.

Why did four million Nazis invade Soviet Russia

I'll never understand why Stalin's best buddy, Hitler, turned against him.

how, after losing much of its national infrastructure and 28 million people in WW2, did the Soviet Union rebuild and become a nuclear superpower rivaling the United States?
Kill and enslave enough people, you can make some decent, temporary progress.

How and why did the USSR have the second-largest economy in the world by 1970?
Because commies lie about the numbers.

Communism is the most effective and resilient economic system in the world,

Until capitalists stop trading with it, then it's the most delicate

Cuba, despite its economic problems, is an example of how capable socialism is in keeping a nation alive,
They were alive before communism turned them into an economic basket case.

Get out of the way, and let Cuba develop. Stop imposing economic embargoes that force the world not to normalize relations with Cuba.
Sure, as soon as the commies take their boots off the neck of the Cuban people and have some free and fair elections, we'll take our boots out of their commie asses.
I'll let the people I'm writing to decide that.

Decide that you ran away with your little red tail between your legs?

The rest of the world is free to side with the commie assholes in Cuba. No one is forced.

That's false. Your above statement demonstrates how ignorant you are of the situation. When the American Empire imposes economic and political sanctions upon your country, you're royally screwed. The United States owns the world's reserve currency, hence it essentially controls the international banking system. Banks won't do business with your country, if it's under American sanctions, because they don't want to get hit with fines. Cargo ships won't anchor in your ports to avoid being barred from American ports. The American Empire has the largest economy in the world, and no nation is going to risk losing access to that market to trade with a Caribbean Island, 90 miles away from Florida.

I just mentioned the economic aspect of the sanctions, not the political repercussions, which undermine Cuba's ability to establish normal, diplomatic relations with hundreds of nations that are afraid of offending the United States if they get too friendly with Cuba.

Kicking you assholes when you're down is hilarious!

It just shows who are the real assholes and instigators of violence, it's not the communists. You're the problem, not the communists.

Because commie assholes suck.

Because communism works and capitalists know that, hence they resort to violence to stop it.

Kill and enslave enough people, you can make some decent, temporary progress.

Who were these "slaves"?

Because commies lie about the numbers.

That's an empty claim being that the UN and other Western authorities recognized the numbers, placing the Soviet economy at second place to the US by 1970.

Until capitalists stop trading with it, then it's the most delicate

Any Island nation like Cuba, barred from trading with other countries because the American Empire is bullying the world to isolate it, will suffer. Yet it's still there.

They were alive before communism turned them into an economic basket case.

They were a mere colony of the United States, with much of its resources in the hands of American companies.

Sure, as soon as the commies take their boots off the neck of the Cuban people and have some free and fair elections, we'll take our boots out of their commie asses.

Nice try Todd, but the problem with your imaginary narrative is that most Cubans support their government and revolution. They want Cuba to remain sovereign, and not become a mere colony of the United States. Free and fair elections are held regularly in Cuba, and Cubans are able to recall the delegates (i.e. "deputies"/deputados) that they elect to parliament. Cuba in many ways, is actually more democratic than the United States.

​

That said, stop pretending you give a shit about the Cuban people. You claim to care about them while supporting a sixty-two-year economic embargo that hurts the Cuban people, including their children.

Decide that you ran away with your little red tail between your legs?

Stop projecting your self-image on me.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

It doesn't matter if, before European colonization and the introduction of capitalism into these countries, they were supposedly worse off. I already showed evidence that India and China were some of the wealthiest, most advanced nations on Earth before European warmongers invaded and colonized it, plunging them into abject poverty. The videos I presented provide all of the evidence for that. You of course will ignore the evidence, but others won't. Again, it doesn't matter what the condition of these nations were before capitalism. What matters is that capitalism is exploiting them and undermining their present development.

These capitalist-run nations are dirt poor, and yet they're not being sanctioned by the American Empire. Without an economic embargo, like the communists are facing, they're just as poor if not poorer than Cuba and North Korea. I'm only mentioning communist nations that don't have markets. Socialism, is the earlier state of communism, when markets are allowed and might even be necessary. Cuba and DPRK-North Korea have decided to go hardcore communist, despite not using advanced automation and artificial intelligence and they're still alive. They're implementing communism, without the required technology and yet they're still there, despite the American Empire's attempts to destroy them.

It doesn't matter if, before European colonization and the introduction of capitalism into these countries, they were supposedly worse off.

LOL! Thanks for playing.

I already showed evidence that India and China were some of the wealthiest, most advanced nations on Earth before European warmongers invaded and colonized it,
I'm not defending colonization, I'm defending capitalism.
You have no examples where a country was doing better before capitalism and then worse, after capitalism appears.

Again, it doesn't matter what the condition of these nations were before capitalism.

It does matter, because you claimed capitalism creates poverty.

These capitalist-run nations are dirt poor, and yet they're not being sanctioned by the American Empire.

Which ones?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

That's false. Your above statement demonstrates how ignorant you are of the situation. When the American Empire imposes economic and political sanctions upon your country, you're royally screwed. The United States owns the world's reserve currency, hence it essentially controls the international banking system. Banks won't do business with your country, if it's under American sanctions, because they don't want to get hit with fines. Cargo ships won't anchor in your ports to avoid being barred from American ports. The American Empire has the largest economy in the world, and no nation is going to risk losing access to that market to trade with a Caribbean Island, 90 miles away from Florida.

I just mentioned the economic aspect of the sanctions, not the political repercussions, which undermine Cuba's ability to establish normal, diplomatic relations with hundreds of nations that are afraid of offending the United States if they get too friendly with Cuba.




It just shows who are the real assholes and instigators of violence, it's not the communists. You're the problem, not the communists.



Because communism works and capitalists know that, hence they resort to violence to stop it.




Who were these "slaves"?



That's an empty claim being that the UN and other Western authorities recognized the numbers, placing the Soviet economy at second place to the US by 1970.



Any Island nation like Cuba, barred from trading with other countries because the American Empire is bullying the world to isolate it, will suffer. Yet it's still there.



They were a mere colony of the United States, with much of its resources in the hands of American companies.



Nice try Todd, but the problem with your imaginary narrative is that most Cubans support their government and revolution. They want Cuba to remain sovereign, and not become a mere colony of the United States. Free and fair elections are held regularly in Cuba, and Cubans are able to recall the delegates (i.e. "deputies"/deputados) that they elect to parliament. Cuba in many ways, is actually more democratic than the United States.

​

That said, stop pretending you give a shit about the Cuban people. You claim to care about them while supporting a sixty-two-year economic embargo that hurts the Cuban people, including their children.


Stop projecting your self-image on me.

When the American Empire imposes economic and political sanctions upon your country, you're royally screwed.

Because there are more benefits from trading with advanced, capitalist nations versus trading with commie shitholes.

The United States owns the world's reserve currency, hence it essentially controls the international banking system.

It's crazy, all the people want to hold the leading capitalist currency and nobody want to hold the commie currencies.

Because communism works and capitalists know that,

Communism works, just look at the dozens of successes...err...the dozen successes...err...these three successes...err...this incredible success over here...err...it works, we just can't prove it, because commie shitholes don't succeed.

Who were these "slaves"?

All the victims of their commie masters.

That's an empty claim being that the UN and other Western authorities recognized the numbers, placing the Soviet economy at second place to the US by 1970.

Many in the West were fooled by commie lies about their economies.

They were a mere colony of the United States, with much of its resources in the hands of American companies.

Damn, communism sucks so bad that those were the good old days, eh comrade?

Nice try Todd, but the problem with your imaginary narrative is that most Cubans support their government and revolution.

That's easy to say when all your critics flee to the US and the rest are afraid to speak freely.

Free and fair elections are held regularly in Cuba

OK Brandon.

 

[Red Front]

When the American Empire imposes economic and political sanctions upon your country, you're royally screwed.

Because there are more benefits from trading with advanced, capitalist nations versus trading with commie shitholes.

The United States owns the world's reserve currency, hence it essentially controls the international banking system.

It's crazy, all the people want to hold the leading capitalist currency and nobody want to hold the commie currencies.

Because communism works and capitalists know that,

Communism works, just look at the dozens of successes...err...the dozen successes...err...these three successes...err...this incredible success over here...err...it works, we just can't prove it, because commie shitholes don't succeed.

Who were these "slaves"?

All the victims of their commie masters.

That's an empty claim being that the UN and other Western authorities recognized the numbers, placing the Soviet economy at second place to the US by 1970.

Many in the West were fooled by commie lies about their economies.

They were a mere colony of the United States, with much of its resources in the hands of American companies.

Damn, communism sucks so bad that those were the good old days, eh comrade?

Nice try Todd, but the problem with your imaginary narrative is that most Cubans support their government and revolution.

That's easy to say when all your critics flee to the US and the rest are afraid to speak freely.

Free and fair elections are held regularly in Cuba

OK Brandon.

Because there are more benefits from trading with advanced, capitalist nations versus trading with commie shitholes.

Because a big bully capitalist empire with 700 military installations around the world, spending more on its military than ten of the largest economies in the world combined, controlling the world's reserve currency and banks, has decided you're its enemy. That's why, you're confirming everything I'm saying with your nasty imperialist attitude. You're complicit to all of the imperialist warmongering and crimes against humanity.

Todd is a real piece of work, and that's clear by how you respond to my arguments. Unfortunately, there are way too many Americans in this country that think like you and that's why America is destroying itself.

The world is waking up, seeing America for what it is. A big murderous, destructive bully that will do anything to pursue profits and power. The American imperialist elites, the big-money capitalists are like Todd, and they'll do anything to keep the world under its heel. BRICS is changing all of that.

​

BRICS is gaining momentum. All of those American sanctions, bullying smaller nations, isn't going to matter. China, a socialist country, is going to save the world from the United States, the big capitalist, imperialist bully.

You always accuse communists of being violent, but it's the Todds who are the most violent, and "commies" just respond to Todd as Todd treats them. You cry about the use of gulags in Soviet Russia. The gulags were for violent street criminals and Todds (pro-capitalist/pro-Tsarist/pro-monarchist, counter-revolutionaries, saboteurs, murderous bastards). Can you imagine a nasty, heartless person like Todd in your communist community? He'd be burning fields at night, destroying all of the tractors, murdering communist school teachers, burning down local government facilities..etc. Watch this interview between Todd and Harpal Brar, head of the British communist party:

​

For those who want to learn more about communism, watch Harpal Brar's videos. He's a great teacher and scholar.

​

It's crazy, all the people want to hold the leading capitalist currency and nobody want to hold the commie currencies.

Not true, all of that is changing. The only reason the US was in a position to place the dollar in its current dominant role was due to coming out of WW2 uncatched, due to being between two vast oceans that protected it from invasion. The USD isn't going to continue being the world's reserve currency for long and the US isn't going to be able to continue controlling the world's banks through its big bully tactics. China is heading a new world financial order, that will allow countries to survive and thrive even when sanctioned by the US. I wouldn't be surprised if, within the next 20 or 30 years, the UN will be headquartered in Beijing, Moscow, or Johannesburg, not NYC.

The world is sick of American, Canadian, and Western European hegemonic bullying. The majority of humanity is rising up and their technology is just as advanced if not more advanced in some fields than in the US and Western Europe, thanks to China and Russia. The imperialist Todds ensure the demise of Western hegemony and the American-led order (i.e. disorder). All communists have to do is remain patient and wait, while the Western capitalist imperialists destroy themselves.

Again, I repeat, in order to remind the truth seekers who are reading this, notice how Todd continues to ignore the fact that advanced 21st-century automation and artificial intelligence is eliminating wage labor in droves and in the not-too-distant future, that's going to force capitalist-run societies to adopt communism (a non-profit, marketless, more democratic, publicly controlled, centrally planned system of mass production and distribution).

Todd remains conspicuously silent, on this extremely relevant and important topic. Why? Because as nasty and disingenuous as Todd is, he's not an idiot. He's a well-educated, intelligent man. He knows, that advanced automation and artificial technology, along with a few other technologies like quantum computing, and nano-technology, pretty much guarantee that some form of communism is going to be required for humanity to continue producing the goods and services it mass-consumes. Communism is the natural successor of capitalism, just as capitalism was the successor of chattel slavery and feudalism.

Todd may not admit it, but he knows that and it irks him. That's why he's so irrationally nasty and close-minded. I wouldn't be surprised if Todd is a US government goon or the product of Eastern European aristocracy, the son or grandson of someone who was sent to the Soviet gulags for burning fields and planting explosives in communist party gatherings. etc. He's almost like a fictional character in an anti-communist propaganda cartoon of the 1950s.

Communism works, just look at the dozens of successes...err...the dozen successes...err...these three successes...err...this incredible success over here...err...it works, we just can't prove it, because commie shitholes don't succeed.

Yes exactly, the many successes and contributions made by communists and that continues into the future, with China and other communist nations and individuals. The writing is on the wall for capitalist imperialism, err.

All the victims of their commie masters.

Be more specific. Who are these "victims"? The ones living in your head?

Many in the West were fooled by commie lies about their economies.

Those commies are quite effective in convincing the experts in the West that their numbers are true, huh? It must be "commie magic" or something. The UN, Western, pro-capitalist governments, and academics, including financial institutions, not to speak of the American capitalist ruling elites, all acknowledged that the Soviet Union had the second-largest economy in the world.That was one of the reasons Western capitalists were pooping in their pants. But Todd can't come to terms with that, so he pretends the communist numbers are all "fudged", fooling all of the aforementioned Western authorities. This is just more disingenuous, desperate claptrap from Todd.

Damn, communism sucks so bad that those were the good old days, eh comrade?

It wasn't the good old days for most Cubans. My parents were born and raised in Cuba, in an aristocratic family in bed with the United States ruling class. My father studied in the United States and often traveled to conduct business here, along with my uncle and grandfather. My paternal grandfather was the third wealthiest man in Cuba, worth tens of millions of dollars (in today's money, he would be worth 400 million dollars).

The United States government had no problem investing plenty of money in building highways from the port to the sugar mills and from the sugar mills to the fields. When the American Empire takes control of your nation's economy it builds infrastructure for the wealthy capitalists, not for the common people.

My parents and grandparents, despite hating Casto, admitted that only about a quarter of Cubans were part of the middle class. The vast majority didn't have access to healthcare, or an education, and they lived in abject poverty.

Cuba was under the heel of American companies, amounting to nothing more than a highly exploited vassal state of the American Anglo ruling class. My Cuban family is half Anglo, with the other half being Spanish-Jewish. When my father's family left Cuba in 1960, it went to Spain, not Miami, Florida (moving to Miami later in the early 70s). They started SIMAGO (It's an acronym consisting of the first letters of the men and women in my family, who migrated to Spain), eventually selling half the company to Prisunic, a French chain of department stores.

​

I know how big-money, wealthy aristocrats think and behave because I was raised in that milieu. There's practically nothing you can tell me about Cuban history and its economy (and economics in general) that I don't already know.

That's easy to say when all your critics flee to the US and the rest are afraid to speak freely.

The wealthy Todds and their brainwashed minions leave. The vast majority of Cubans on the Island, despite the brutal economic sanctions imposed upon it by the American Empire, prefer to fight for the sovereignty of their country and remain truly free as they are now. They have more access to healthcare, education, housing, food..etc, than they did before the revolution, when people would die due to lack of doctors, and couldn't even read.

Today you can see hundreds of YouTubers because the Cuban government allows all Cubans to use the internet. Some of those Cuban YouTubers indeed, criticize their government and make videos that show the poverty in Cuba, often exaggerating it to get more subscribers from Miami. The Cuban exile community loves to watch videos by Cubans on the Island who shit on Cuba.

There's an industry now in Cuba for people who want to make money, receive gifts from Miami, and maybe move out of Cuba to the US, that consists of "Shitting On Cuba". If you're a Cuban living on the Island, you start an anti-Cuba/anti-communist YouTube channel, barabing, you're in the money. Here are a few of these anti-Cuba YouTube channels:

​

The existence of these Cuban YouTubers who often shit on Cuba proves that Cubans aren't as oppressed as Todd claims. They also show these Cuban YouTubers using technology, like smartphones, and personal computers, and they have houses and vehicles. WOW, those Cubans are so freaking destitute and are just starving to death. IT'S SO HORRIBLE IN CUBA! No, it may not be a walk in the park to live in Cuba under American sanctions, but it's not as bad as Todd and his capitalist-imperialist buddies claim.

Is Cuba a "shithole"? Well, that depends. If "shithole" means they're starving, don't have housing or clothing, lack access to healthcare or an education..etc, then no, Cuba isn't a "shithole". If by "shithole" you mean, they're not living with all of the amenities and toys we have here in the American Empire or a Western European country, then yes it's a shithole from that stupid, spoiled, decadent perspective. It depends on what you mean by "shithole". Todd is just a closeminded, butt-hurt, nasty capitalist-imperialist polemicist, who doesn't give a rats about truth or fairness.

I'm not going to continue going back and forth ad infinitum with Todd, being that it's a real waste of my precious time and energy. I have better things to do hence I might respond to a few more of his disingenuous, vitriolic bullshit posts, for the sake of all of you who are sincerely seeking the truth on these matters. If I stop responding it's not because I can't, but because I've decided to move on to other threads. If any of you want my response to Todd's rhetoric against communism, just PM me and I will return to the thread. I'll do it just for you. Todd is negative karma. Dark, nasty energy.

 

[Red Front]

Typo-correction: unscathed, not uncatched. The US came out of WW2 unscathed. I hate typos.

 

[Deplorable Yankee]

You're right about India and China getting checked into the wall by the British empire ...British were the biggest thief on planet ....they stole India's entire textile industry which was massive

Empires and capitalism are different things capitalism isn't an ideology
Capitalism is neither bad or good ...thier are no stages of capitalism
You have no capitalism in the US today

Communism and socialism on the other hand is an evil ideology that leaves mountains of bodies


I'll define modern western communism

 

[Red Front]

You're right about India and China getting checked into the wall by the British empire ...British were the biggest thief on planet ....they stole India's entire textile industry which was massive

Empires and capitalism are different things capitalism isn't an ideology
Capitalism is neither bad or good ...thier are no stages of capitalism
You have no capitalism in the US today

Communism and socialism on the other hand is an evil ideology that leaves mountains of bodies


I'll define modern western communism

View attachment 927026

Nice try but like Todd, you failed. Capitalism and imperialism are two sides of the same coin. As far as the image you embedded, it's capitalism that's responsible for the LGBTQ+ lunacy, not communism. The love of mammon is the root of all evil and that's what capitalism encourages and leads to hence it's truly way more Satanic than communism. Love of money, over all else = capitalism, not communism. Climate change, is another symptom of capitalism, due to the power and influence of fossil fuel companies that insist on keeping the world hooked on oil, gas, and coal. Lastly, big pharma is another example of capitalist greed at the expense of public health.

Communism will eventually eliminate all of the above problems and allow humanity to evolve and progress in every facet of life.

 

[Red Front]

Capitalism fills your browser with pop-up ads and gives people headaches.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Because a big bully capitalist empire with 700 military installations around the world, spending more on its military than ten of the largest economies in the world combined, controlling the world's reserve currency and banks, has decided you're its enemy. That's why, you're confirming everything I'm saying with your nasty imperialist attitude. You're complicit to all of the imperialist warmongering and crimes against humanity.

Todd is a real piece of work, and that's clear by how you respond to my arguments. Unfortunately, there are way too many Americans in this country that think like you and that's why America is destroying itself.

The world is waking up, seeing America for what it is. A big murderous, destructive bully that will do anything to pursue profits and power. The American imperialist elites, the big-money capitalists are like Todd, and they'll do anything to keep the world under its heel. BRICS is changing all of that.

​

BRICS is gaining momentum. All of those American sanctions, bullying smaller nations, isn't going to matter. China, a socialist country, is going to save the world from the United States, the big capitalist, imperialist bully.

You always accuse communists of being violent, but it's the Todds who are the most violent, and "commies" just respond to Todd as Todd treats them. You cry about the use of gulags in Soviet Russia. The gulags were for violent street criminals and Todds (pro-capitalist/pro-Tsarist/pro-monarchist, counter-revolutionaries, saboteurs, murderous bastards). Can you imagine a nasty, heartless person like Todd in your communist community? He'd be burning fields at night, destroying all of the tractors, murdering communist school teachers, burning down local government facilities..etc. Watch this interview between Todd and Harpal Brar, head of the British communist party:

​

For those who want to learn more about communism, watch Harpal Brar's videos. He's a great teacher and scholar.

​

Not true, all of that is changing. The only reason the US was in a position to place the dollar in its current dominant role was due to coming out of WW2 uncatched, due to being between two vast oceans that protected it from invasion. The USD isn't going to continue being the world's reserve currency for long and the US isn't going to be able to continue controlling the world's banks through its big bully tactics. China is heading a new world financial order, that will allow countries to survive and thrive even when sanctioned by the US. I wouldn't be surprised if, within the next 20 or 30 years, the UN will be headquartered in Beijing, Moscow, or Johannesburg, not NYC.

The world is sick of American, Canadian, and Western European hegemonic bullying. The majority of humanity is rising up and their technology is just as advanced if not more advanced in some fields than in the US and Western Europe, thanks to China and Russia. The imperialist Todds ensure the demise of Western hegemony and the American-led order (i.e. disorder). All communists have to do is remain patient and wait, while the Western capitalist imperialists destroy themselves.

Again, I repeat, in order to remind the truth seekers who are reading this, notice how Todd continues to ignore the fact that advanced 21st-century automation and artificial intelligence is eliminating wage labor in droves and in the not-too-distant future, that's going to force capitalist-run societies to adopt communism (a non-profit, marketless, more democratic, publicly controlled, centrally planned system of mass production and distribution).

Todd remains conspicuously silent, on this extremely relevant and important topic. Why? Because as nasty and disingenuous as Todd is, he's not an idiot. He's a well-educated, intelligent man. He knows, that advanced automation and artificial technology, along with a few other technologies like quantum computing, and nano-technology, pretty much guarantee that some form of communism is going to be required for humanity to continue producing the goods and services it mass-consumes. Communism is the natural successor of capitalism, just as capitalism was the successor of chattel slavery and feudalism.

Todd may not admit it, but he knows that and it irks him. That's why he's so irrationally nasty and close-minded. I wouldn't be surprised if Todd is a US government goon or the product of Eastern European aristocracy, the son or grandson of someone who was sent to the Soviet gulags for burning fields and planting explosives in communist party gatherings. etc. He's almost like a fictional character in an anti-communist propaganda cartoon of the 1950s.



Yes exactly, the many successes and contributions made by communists and that continues into the future, with China and other communist nations and individuals. The writing is on the wall for capitalist imperialism, err.



Be more specific. Who are these "victims"? The ones living in your head?



Those commies are quite effective in convincing the experts in the West that their numbers are true, huh? It must be "commie magic" or something. The UN, Western, pro-capitalist governments, and academics, including financial institutions, not to speak of the American capitalist ruling elites, all acknowledged that the Soviet Union had the second-largest economy in the world.That was one of the reasons Western capitalists were pooping in their pants. But Todd can't come to terms with that, so he pretends the communist numbers are all "fudged", fooling all of the aforementioned Western authorities. This is just more disingenuous, desperate claptrap from Todd.




It wasn't the good old days for most Cubans. My parents were born and raised in Cuba, in an aristocratic family in bed with the United States ruling class. My father studied in the United States and often traveled to conduct business here, along with my uncle and grandfather. My paternal grandfather was the third wealthiest man in Cuba, worth tens of millions of dollars (in today's money, he would be worth 400 million dollars).

The United States government had no problem investing plenty of money in building highways from the port to the sugar mills and from the sugar mills to the fields. When the American Empire takes control of your nation's economy it builds infrastructure for the wealthy capitalists, not for the common people.

My parents and grandparents, despite hating Casto, admitted that only about a quarter of Cubans were part of the middle class. The vast majority didn't have access to healthcare, or an education, and they lived in abject poverty.

Cuba was under the heel of American companies, amounting to nothing more than a highly exploited vassal state of the American Anglo ruling class. My Cuban family is half Anglo, with the other half being Spanish-Jewish. When my father's family left Cuba in 1960, it went to Spain, not Miami, Florida (moving to Miami later in the early 70s). They started SIMAGO (It's an acronym consisting of the first letters of the men and women in my family, who migrated to Spain), eventually selling half the company to Prisunic, a French chain of department stores.

View attachment 927017

View attachment 927018

View attachment 927019
​

I know how big-money, wealthy aristocrats think and behave because I was raised in that milieu. There's practically nothing you can tell me about Cuban history and its economy (and economics in general) that I don't already know.



The wealthy Todds and their brainwashed minions leave. The vast majority of Cubans on the Island, despite the brutal economic sanctions imposed upon it by the American Empire, prefer to fight for the sovereignty of their country and remain truly free as they are now. They have more access to healthcare, education, housing, food..etc, than they did before the revolution, when people would die due to lack of doctors, and couldn't even read.

Today you can see hundreds of YouTubers because the Cuban government allows all Cubans to use the internet. Some of those Cuban YouTubers indeed, criticize their government and make videos that show the poverty in Cuba, often exaggerating it to get more subscribers from Miami. The Cuban exile community loves to watch videos by Cubans on the Island who shit on Cuba.

There's an industry now in Cuba for people who want to make money, receive gifts from Miami, and maybe move out of Cuba to the US, that consists of "Shitting On Cuba". If you're a Cuban living on the Island, you start an anti-Cuba/anti-communist YouTube channel, barabing, you're in the money. Here are a few of these anti-Cuba YouTube channels:

​

The existence of these Cuban YouTubers who often shit on Cuba proves that Cubans aren't as oppressed as Todd claims. They also show these Cuban YouTubers using technology, like smartphones, and personal computers, and they have houses and vehicles. WOW, those Cubans are so freaking destitute and are just starving to death. IT'S SO HORRIBLE IN CUBA! No, it may not be a walk in the park to live in Cuba under American sanctions, but it's not as bad as Todd and his capitalist-imperialist buddies claim.

Is Cuba a "shithole"? Well, that depends. If "shithole" means they're starving, don't have housing or clothing, lack access to healthcare or an education..etc, then no, Cuba isn't a "shithole". If by "shithole" you mean, they're not living with all of the amenities and toys we have here in the American Empire or a Western European country, then yes it's a shithole from that stupid, spoiled, decadent perspective. It depends on what you mean by "shithole". Todd is just a closeminded, butt-hurt, nasty capitalist-imperialist polemicist, who doesn't give a rats about truth or fairness.

I'm not going to continue going back and forth ad infinitum with Todd, being that it's a real waste of my precious time and energy. I have better things to do hence I might respond to a few more of his disingenuous, vitriolic bullshit posts, for the sake of all of you who are sincerely seeking the truth on these matters. If I stop responding it's not because I can't, but because I've decided to move on to other threads. If any of you want my response to Todd's rhetoric against communism, just PM me and I will return to the thread. I'll do it just for you. Todd is negative karma. Dark, nasty energy.

Because a big bully capitalist empire

Poor Soviet Union, enslaved Eastern Europe for over 4 decades but got bullied by the US.

Todd is a real piece of work, and that's clear by how you respond to my arguments.

By debunking your BS and laughing at your idiocy.

The gulags were for violent street criminals and Todds (pro-capitalist/pro-Tsarist/pro-monarchist, counter-revolutionaries, saboteurs, murderous bastards).

Which one was Solzhenitsyn?

The USD isn't going to continue being the world's reserve currency for long

And the Ruble never will be.

I wouldn't be surprised if Todd is a US government goon or the product of Eastern European aristocracy, the son or grandson of someone who was sent to the Soviet gulags for burning fields and planting explosives in communist party gatherings. etc.

Of course.

He's almost like a fictional character in an anti-communist propaganda cartoon of the 1950s.

And you're almost like Harpal, giving excuses for purges and famines and gulags.

Those commies are quite effective in convincing the experts in the West that their numbers are true, huh?

They were. It's not like they allowed Westerners to doublecheck the data.

It wasn't the good old days for most Cubans.

It was better than the current Castro shithole. That's why people risk their lives on
rafts to escape your Cuban workers' paradise.

My parents and grandparents, despite hating Casto, admitted that only about a quarter of Cubans were part of the middle class.

What's the number now, 2%?

When my father's family left Cuba in 1960,

Your family fled Castro's Cuba? Were they stupid?

The wealthy Todds and their brainwashed minions leave.

Anyone with a brain and any sort of education or skill left. Like your family.

 

[Red Front]

Because a big bully capitalist empire

Poor Soviet Union, enslaved Eastern Europe for over 4 decades but got bullied by the US.

Todd is a real piece of work, and that's clear by how you respond to my arguments.

By debunking your BS and laughing at your idiocy.

The gulags were for violent street criminals and Todds (pro-capitalist/pro-Tsarist/pro-monarchist, counter-revolutionaries, saboteurs, murderous bastards).

Which one was Solzhenitsyn?

The USD isn't going to continue being the world's reserve currency for long

And the Ruble never will be.

I wouldn't be surprised if Todd is a US government goon or the product of Eastern European aristocracy, the son or grandson of someone who was sent to the Soviet gulags for burning fields and planting explosives in communist party gatherings. etc.

Of course.

He's almost like a fictional character in an anti-communist propaganda cartoon of the 1950s.

And you're almost like Harpal, giving excuses for purges and famines and gulags.

Those commies are quite effective in convincing the experts in the West that their numbers are true, huh?

They were. It's not like they allowed Westerners to doublecheck the data.

It wasn't the good old days for most Cubans.

It was better than the current Castro shithole. That's why people risk their lives on
rafts to escape your Cuban workers' paradise.

My parents and grandparents, despite hating Casto, admitted that only about a quarter of Cubans were part of the middle class.

What's the number now, 2%?

When my father's family left Cuba in 1960,

Your family fled Castro's Cuba? Were they stupid?

The wealthy Todds and their brainwashed minions leave.

Anyone with a brain and any sort of education or skill left. Like your family.

Poor Soviet Union, enslaved Eastern Europe for over 4 decades but got bullied by the US.

Assuming that's true (it's not), that's completely irrelevant to what I said. You say that as if it somehow justifies American imperialism with all of its crimes against humanity.

The Soviets did it, hence the Americans can do it too, even ten times worse!
​

That's fuzzy Todd "logic".

Read what a Ukrainian has to say about the Soviets in Eastern Europe:

" I'm from Eastern Europe (Ukraine). If you live in the West, you have been indoctrinated your entire life with the elite ruling class anti-communist narrative that 20th-century Communism was a horror show that brought nothing but misery and poverty everywhere it's even been implemented.

This is the Big Lie of neoliberal Western capitalism, and I know this from personal experience. The vast majority of Ukrainians, especially the elderly who actually experienced life under socialism firsthand, are very nostalgic for the old socialist system. People had guaranteed healthcare, education, housing, and employment. Now, the majority of people live in poverty, while a handful of oligarchs, mostly tied to organized crime, became fabulously wealthy.

Ukraine is a particularly disastrous case. A segment of the oligarch elite, allied with Western imperialism, have formed a coalition with far-right extremists, imposing a harsh, authoritarian regime on the Ukrainian people. Even though most Ukrainians are nostalgic for Communism, elderly pensioners have been sent to prison in Ukraine for praising Soviet socialism on social media, accused of "treason" and "terrorism". All left-wing parties in Ukraine are banned, and now, even bourgeois democratic parties opposed to extreme Ukrainian ethno-nationalism have been criminalized. This brutal, ultra-violent puppet regime of Washington D.C. neocons, which, among other things, burn alive peaceful left-wing protesters in Odessa on May 2, 2014, is openly backed by the West and supported by Western liberals on reddit and elsewhere!

Opinion polls repeatedly confirm widespread nostalgia for Communism in Eastern Europe. For some reason, linking them makes Reddit think my post is spam. Just google "Communist nostalgia" and you will see that what I'm saying is the truth. In Hungary, almost 80% are nostalgic for the "brutal communist regime". In Romania, over 60% would vote for the "brutal dictator" Ceausescu if he ran for President today. How can this be, if Communism was the horrible disaster that ruling class propagandists would like you to believe?"

Source:

Balkan Odyssey

History, philosophy & political economy For business inquiries: balkanodyssey@bossmgmtgrp.com For viewers: the.balkan.odyssey@gmail.com

www.youtube.com

Todd makes claims about the supposed crimes of the Soviet Union and communism in general, but if you do some research you'll find that the situation wasn't as bad as Todd asserts. Practically everything he says about the USSR and communism is bullshit (Old Cold War Western Propaganda).

​

By debunking your BS and laughing at your idiocy.

Todd's fantasy.

Which one was Solzhenitsyn?

The Soviet state in the middle of a war for its very survival, after being invaded by four million Nazis, losing almost thirty million of its citizens, in 1945 has a captain in the Red Army, writing scathing critiques of Stalin and the Soviet system, to one of his fellow officers. His name is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Todd).

The letter is intercepted by the SMERSH "Smert' Shpionam," which translates to "Death to Spies" in English. A set of counterintelligence departments within the Soviet Army was established during World War II to secure the rear of the active Red Army, on the fronts to arrest traitors, deserters, spies, and criminal elements (Todds).

He gets charged with "anti-Soviet Propaganda and Subversion", and sentenced to eight years in the gulag. He was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in the gulag, and treated for it. He was also treated for cancer after he was released from the gulag, eventually settling in central Russia where he as a religious, Eastern Orthodox Christian, who hated the secular Soviet government and society, began writing scathing propaganda against the Soviet Union. At the time he was a high school math teacher, with an ax to grind against communism (that same communism, that saved his butt when he was dying of cancer).

He was a Todd, spreading crap propaganda against the Soviet Union until he was kicked out in 1974, becoming part of the Western anti-Soviet propaganda machine. I wouldn't have condemned him to the gulag or kicked him out of the USSR, but that's what happened. I never claimed the USSR was perfect, did I?

In the middle of a major war, nations that are the most democratic, become more authoritarian. Power is centralized, there are more rules and restrictions. It happened here without the US being invaded by four million enemy troops. If you were a Japanese American, you had to go to a concentration camp.

There were a myriad of new laws in the United States during WW2, and again, I repeat, without being invaded by anyone. Can you imagine if the USA had been invaded by four million Nazis or four million Japanese? Losing thirty million Americans, including nine million American soldiers. Would the US government (federal, state and local) be stricter, and maybe even a bit authoritarian? Yes, sure.

During both World War I and World War II, the United States saw instances of individuals being arrested for spreading anti-American propaganda or expressing dissent against the government's war policies. In World War I we had the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a crime to interfere with military operations, support U.S. enemies during wartime, or promote insubordination in the military. This act was used to prosecute individuals who spoke out against the war, including socialists and political activists. Similarly, during World War II, the Smith Act of 1940 targeted those accused of advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government, including dissenters and those spreading propaganda deemed supportive of enemy nations.

Whenever Todd claims anything against communism or the USSR, just investigate and do a bit of research. You'll find that practically all of his arguments are based on faulty reasoning and false posturing, creating victims that don't exist, and exaggerating, even fabricating crimes that the Soviet Union never committed. Did the USSR commit crimes against innocent people? Yes, I'm not going to pretend we communists are perfect or have halos glowing over our heads. Communists in their revolutionary efforts to establish communism, have committed crimes against innocent people.

Does that make capitalist imperialism better or less criminal? No. Does the fact that we communists are imperfect and have even committed crimes against humanity, make communism wrong in its critique of capitalism or disqualify it as the successor of capitalism? No, it doesn't. Todd just suffers from an inability to think rationally, hence he continues to make irrational claims against communism. He has no moral high ground upon which to stand and point his finger at communists.

And the Ruble never will be.

BRICS is coming: How Would a New BRICS Currency Affect the US Dollar? (Updated 2024)

Bye-bye, American imperialist bullying. Todd's beloved sanctions against communists will be defanged and declawed by BRICS.

Of course

In response to the following statement that I made:

"I wouldn't be surprised if Todd is a US government goon or the product of Eastern European aristocracy, the son or grandson of someone who was sent to the Soviet gulags for burning fields and planting explosives in communist party gatherings. etc."

Todd's response is "Of course". Is he being sarcastic? I don't think so.

And you're almost like Harpal, giving excuses for purges and famines and gulags.

I'm not "almost" like Harpal Brar, I agree with him 100%. The purges and famines are all exaggerated and misrepresented by Western anti-communist polemicists like yourself. Anyone can do some research and come to their own conclusions. If someone is interested in learning more about the so-called purges and famines, just PM me or leave me a message here and I will provide you with some sources to study. Not much of what Todd says about the USSR and communism is true.

They were. It's not like they allowed Westerners to doublecheck the data.

There was plenty of collaboration and interaction between Soviet and Western academia and institutions. Whole teams of scholars and specialists, from both sides exchanged information and conducted studies in each other's countries. You're claiming that most of the expert economists and government institutions in the West which agreed that the USSR had the second largest economy in the world, were all wrong. Todd your desperate claims are absurd.

It was better than the current Castro shithole. That's why people risk their lives on rafts to escape your Cuban workers' paradise.

No, it wasn't better for most people, for the reasons I explained (you conveniently ignore what I said). Very few people have left the country in a raft and I never claimed Cuba was a "worker's paradise". You don't have the ideological luxury as a defender of capitalist imperialism to argue that communism doesn't work in Cuba when your capitalist-run empire is imposing brutal economic sanctions upon it, undermining its ability to fully develop.

Perhaps Cuba would be a worker's paradise without being embargoed by the American Empire, that's why the American capitalist elites are so hard on Cuba and other developing communist countries. They can't allow communism to flourish in these countries out of fear that the American working class will feel inspired to establish communism in the United States.

Cuba is an Island nation in the Caribbean, it doesn't have all of the natural resources it needs to industrialize. It must import resources and materials to develop its infrastructure and economy. Cuba is in the shadow of the American capitalist-run Empire, a superpower that controls the world's reserve currency and banking system. Any country that is deemed the enemy of the American capitalist ruling class, will be sanctioned and isolated from the rest of the world, unable to properly function and develop itself. Your claim that communism doesn't work in light of the aforementioned facts renders your critique null and void.

BRICS is eventually going to save Cuba, allowing it to establish normal relations with most countries. Nations will no longer fear American sanctions once BRICS gains more influence and power. It's expanding by the day, and it will eventually seriously undermine the American Empire's hegemonic bully grip upon the world's economy.

What's the number now, 2%?

Most people in Cuba are better off now than they were before the revolution. You don't understand how poor most Cubans were before Castro, that's why you think they're worse off now than they were back then. Now they have food, housing, healthcare, education, and a sovereign nation that is admired and loved throughout the world, for thumbing its nose at the American empire and sending doctors and nurses to many countries. Cuba is going to be accepted in the not-too-distant future into the BRICS system, and that will be the end of America's ability to bully Cuba via sanctions.

The US might go to war with Cuba, as it has threatened to do in the past. The latest threats by the US against Cuba came in 2021 during the CIA-orchestrated demonstrations, organized by a decident group in Cuba funded by the US State Department. Marco Rubio, the Senator from Florida, and a few other neocons, threatened Cuba with war. If BRICS accepts Cuba as a member and it will according to many experts, it might spark a war, because the US capitalist ruling elites can't allow communism to succeed anywhere on the planet. It makes them poop in their pants.

As far as my family leaving Cuba. They had to, they were the capitalist aristocracy of the country. I do agree that trying to establish a full-communist country 90 miles away from the United States while it's in a Cold War with communists, isn't a good idea. Casto in the beginning could've negotiated with the US and established a mixed economy, that would've addressed many of the issues in Cuba with poverty, lack of access to healthcare, education..etc. All of that could've been addressed with a bit of socialism, in the same way, Western Europeans have done with their economies, while allowing American companies to continue doing business in Cuba.

Cuba is in a unique position geographically, being so close to the US, so it shouldn't have jumped into a marketless communist system the way it did, especially in the middle of the Cold War. That much I will admit. Oh and BTW, I'm not a liberal. I'm a communist. I'm actually quite conservative when it comes to social issues. I'm of the far-left when it comes to economics.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Assuming that's true (it's not), that's completely irrelevant to what I said. You say that as if it somehow justifies American imperialism with all of its crimes against humanity.

The Soviets did it, hence the Americans can do it too, even ten times worse!
​

That's fuzzy Todd "logic".

Read what a Ukrainian has to say about the Soviets in Eastern Europe:

" I'm from Eastern Europe (Ukraine). If you live in the West, you have been indoctrinated your entire life with the elite ruling class anti-communist narrative that 20th-century Communism was a horror show that brought nothing but misery and poverty everywhere it's even been implemented.

This is the Big Lie of neoliberal Western capitalism, and I know this from personal experience. The vast majority of Ukrainians, especially the elderly who actually experienced life under socialism firsthand, are very nostalgic for the old socialist system. People had guaranteed healthcare, education, housing, and employment. Now, the majority of people live in poverty, while a handful of oligarchs, mostly tied to organized crime, became fabulously wealthy.

Ukraine is a particularly disastrous case. A segment of the oligarch elite, allied with Western imperialism, have formed a coalition with far-right extremists, imposing a harsh, authoritarian regime on the Ukrainian people. Even though most Ukrainians are nostalgic for Communism, elderly pensioners have been sent to prison in Ukraine for praising Soviet socialism on social media, accused of "treason" and "terrorism". All left-wing parties in Ukraine are banned, and now, even bourgeois democratic parties opposed to extreme Ukrainian ethno-nationalism have been criminalized. This brutal, ultra-violent puppet regime of Washington D.C. neocons, which, among other things, burn alive peaceful left-wing protesters in Odessa on May 2, 2014, is openly backed by the West and supported by Western liberals on reddit and elsewhere!

Opinion polls repeatedly confirm widespread nostalgia for Communism in Eastern Europe. For some reason, linking them makes Reddit think my post is spam. Just google "Communist nostalgia" and you will see that what I'm saying is the truth. In Hungary, almost 80% are nostalgic for the "brutal communist regime". In Romania, over 60% would vote for the "brutal dictator" Ceausescu if he ran for President today. How can this be, if Communism was the horrible disaster that ruling class propagandists would like you to believe?"

Source:

Balkan Odyssey

History, philosophy & political economy For business inquiries: balkanodyssey@bossmgmtgrp.com For viewers: the.balkan.odyssey@gmail.com

www.youtube.com

Todd makes claims about the supposed crimes of the Soviet Union and communism in general, but if you do some research you'll find that the situation wasn't as bad as Todd asserts. Practically everything he says about the USSR and communism is bullshit (Old Cold War Western Propaganda).

​

Todd's fantasy.



The Soviet state in the middle of a war for its very survival, after being invaded by four million Nazis, losing almost thirty million of its citizens, in 1945 has a captain in the Red Army, writing scathing critiques of Stalin and the Soviet system, to one of his fellow officers. His name is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Todd).

The letter is intercepted by the SMERSH "Smert' Shpionam," which translates to "Death to Spies" in English. A set of counterintelligence departments within the Soviet Army was established during World War II to secure the rear of the active Red Army, on the fronts to arrest traitors, deserters, spies, and criminal elements (Todds).

He gets charged with "anti-Soviet Propaganda and Subversion", and sentenced to eight years in the gulag. He was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in the gulag, and treated for it. He was also treated for cancer after he was released from the gulag, eventually settling in central Russia where he as a religious, Eastern Orthodox Christian, who hated the secular Soviet government and society, began writing scathing propaganda against the Soviet Union. At the time he was a high school math teacher, with an ax to grind against communism (that same communism, that saved his butt when he was dying of cancer).

He was a Todd, spreading crap propaganda against the Soviet Union until he was kicked out in 1974, becoming part of the Western anti-Soviet propaganda machine. I wouldn't have condemned him to the gulag or kicked him out of the USSR, but that's what happened. I never claimed the USSR was perfect, did I?

In the middle of a major war, nations that are the most democratic, become more authoritarian. Power is centralized, there are more rules and restrictions. It happened here without the US being invaded by four million enemy troops. If you were a Japanese American, you had to go to a concentration camp.

View attachment 927113

View attachment 927114

View attachment 927115

There were a myriad of new laws in the United States during WW2, and again, I repeat, without being invaded by anyone. Can you imagine if the USA had been invaded by four million Nazis or four million Japanese? Losing thirty million Americans, including nine million American soldiers. Would the US government (federal, state and local) be stricter, and maybe even a bit authoritarian? Yes, sure.

During both World War I and World War II, the United States saw instances of individuals being arrested for spreading anti-American propaganda or expressing dissent against the government's war policies. In World War I we had the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a crime to interfere with military operations, support U.S. enemies during wartime, or promote insubordination in the military. This act was used to prosecute individuals who spoke out against the war, including socialists and political activists. Similarly, during World War II, the Smith Act of 1940 targeted those accused of advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government, including dissenters and those spreading propaganda deemed supportive of enemy nations.

Whenever Todd claims anything against communism or the USSR, just investigate and do a bit of research. You'll find that practically all of his arguments are based on faulty reasoning and false posturing, creating victims that don't exist, and exaggerating, even fabricating crimes that the Soviet Union never committed. Did the USSR commit crimes against innocent people? Yes, I'm not going to pretend we communists are perfect or have halos glowing over our heads. Communists in their revolutionary efforts to establish communism, have committed crimes against innocent people.

Does that make capitalist imperialism better or less criminal? No. Does the fact that we communists are imperfect and have even committed crimes against humanity, make communism wrong in its critique of capitalism or disqualify it as the successor of capitalism? No, it doesn't. Todd just suffers from an inability to think rationally, hence he continues to make irrational claims against communism. He has no moral high ground upon which to stand and point his finger at communists.



BRICS is coming: How Would a New BRICS Currency Affect the US Dollar? (Updated 2024)

Bye-bye, American imperialist bullying. Todd's beloved sanctions against communists will be defanged and declawed by BRICS.



In response to the following statement that I made:

"I wouldn't be surprised if Todd is a US government goon or the product of Eastern European aristocracy, the son or grandson of someone who was sent to the Soviet gulags for burning fields and planting explosives in communist party gatherings. etc."

Todd's response is "Of course". Is he being sarcastic? I don't think so.



I'm not "almost" like Harpal Brar, I agree with him 100%. The purges and famines are all exaggerated and misrepresented by Western anti-communist polemicists like yourself. Anyone can do some research and come to their own conclusions. If someone is interested in learning more about the so-called purges and famines, just PM me or leave me a message here and I will provide you with some sources to study. Not much of what Todd says about the USSR and communism is true.



There was plenty of collaboration and interaction between Soviet and Western academia and institutions. Whole teams of scholars and specialists, from both sides exchanged information and conducted studies in each other's countries. You're claiming that most of the expert economists and government institutions in the West which agreed that the USSR had the second largest economy in the world, were all wrong. Todd your desperate claims are absurd.



No, it wasn't better for most people, for the reasons I explained (you conveniently ignore what I said). Very few people have left the country in a raft and I never claimed Cuba was a "worker's paradise". You don't have the ideological luxury as a defender of capitalist imperialism to argue that communism doesn't work in Cuba when your capitalist-run empire is imposing brutal economic sanctions upon it, undermining its ability to fully develop.

Perhaps Cuba would be a worker's paradise without being embargoed by the American Empire, that's why the American capitalist elites are so hard on Cuba and other developing communist countries. They can't allow communism to flourish in these countries out of fear that the American working class will feel inspired to establish communism in the United States.

Cuba is an Island nation in the Caribbean, it doesn't have all of the natural resources it needs to industrialize. It must import resources and materials to develop its infrastructure and economy. Cuba is in the shadow of the American capitalist-run Empire, a superpower that controls the world's reserve currency and banking system. Any country that is deemed the enemy of the American capitalist ruling class, will be sanctioned and isolated from the rest of the world, unable to properly function and develop itself. Your claim that communism doesn't work in light of the aforementioned facts renders your critique null and void.

BRICS is eventually going to save Cuba, allowing it to establish normal relations with most countries. Nations will no longer fear American sanctions once BRICS gains more influence and power. It's expanding by the day, and it will eventually seriously undermine the American Empire's hegemonic bully grip upon the world's economy.



Most people in Cuba are better off now than they were before the revolution. You don't understand how poor most Cubans were before Castro, that's why you think they're worse off now than they were back then. Now they have food, housing, healthcare, education, and a sovereign nation that is admired and loved throughout the world, for thumbing its nose at the American empire and sending doctors and nurses to many countries. Cuba is going to be accepted in the not-too-distant future into the BRICS system, and that will be the end of America's ability to bully Cuba via sanctions.

The US might go to war with Cuba, as it has threatened to do in the past. The latest threats by the US against Cuba came in 2021 during the CIA-orchestrated demonstrations, organized by a decident group in Cuba funded by the US State Department. Marco Rubio, the Senator from Florida, and a few other neocons, threatened Cuba with war. If BRICS accepts Cuba as a member and it will according to many experts, it might spark a war, because the US capitalist ruling elites can't allow communism to succeed anywhere on the planet. It makes them poop in their pants.

As far as my family leaving Cuba. They had to, they were the capitalist aristocracy of the country. I do agree that trying to establish a full-communist country 90 miles away from the United States while it's in a Cold War with communists, isn't a good idea. Casto in the beginning could've negotiated with the US and established a mixed economy, that would've addressed many of the issues in Cuba with poverty, lack of access to healthcare, education..etc. All of that could've been addressed with a bit of socialism, in the same way, Western Europeans have done with their economies, while allowing American companies to continue doing business in Cuba.

Cuba is in a unique position geographically, being so close to the US, so it shouldn't have jumped into a marketless communist system the way it did, especially in the middle of the Cold War. That much I will admit. Oh and BTW, I'm not a liberal. I'm a communist. I'm actually quite conservative when it comes to social issues. I'm of the far-left when it comes to economics.

Assuming that's true (it's not),
The USSR didn't enslave Easter Europe for over 4 decades?
Tell me more!

a captain in the Red Army, writing scathing critiques of Stalin and the Soviet system, to one of his fellow officers. His name is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

8 years in the gulag for writing letters? That's some awesome system you're supporting there, so fragile, so afraid of criticism. I'm surprised it lasted so long before it finally
collapsed into the sewer of communist failures.

BRICS is coming:

Which currency will you rely upon? Brazil's, Russia's, India's or China's? Or is there a 5th?
Or is this new wonder currency going to be a mix of all 4 (or more)?

You know what you get when you mix together 4 buckets of shit? DURR

I'm not "almost" like Harpal Brar, I agree with him 100%.

Of course you do.

You're claiming that most of the expert economists and government institutions in the West which agreed that the USSR had the second largest economy in the world, were all wrong.

When you base your estimates on commie lies, of course you'll be wrong.

No, it wasn't better for most people,

Of course it was. Cuba used to be one of the more prosperous nations in the region. Now it's a shithole.

 

[Red Front]

Assuming that's true (it's not),
The USSR didn't enslave Easter Europe for over 4 decades?
Tell me more!

a captain in the Red Army, writing scathing critiques of Stalin and the Soviet system, to one of his fellow officers. His name is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

8 years in the gulag for writing letters? That's some awesome system you're supporting there, so fragile, so afraid of criticism. I'm surprised it lasted so long before it finally
collapsed into the sewer of communist failures.

BRICS is coming:

Which currency will you rely upon? Brazil's, Russia's, India's or China's? Or is there a 5th?
Or is this new wonder currency going to be a mix of all 4 (or more)?

You know what you get when you mix together 4 buckets of shit? DURR

I'm not "almost" like Harpal Brar, I agree with him 100%.

Of course you do.

You're claiming that most of the expert economists and government institutions in the West which agreed that the USSR had the second largest economy in the world, were all wrong.

When you base your estimates on commie lies, of course you'll be wrong.

No, it wasn't better for most people,

Of course it was. Cuba used to be one of the more prosperous nations in the region. Now it's a shithole.

The USSR didn't enslave Easter Europe for over 4 decades?
Tell me more!

It saved Eastern Europe from the Todds.

8 years in the gulag for writing letters? That's some awesome system you're supporting there, so fragile, so afraid of criticism. I'm surprised it lasted so long before it finally collapsed into the sewer of communist failures.

More Todd fussy logic. The fact it was letters has no bearing on the gravity of the crime, nor does it describe the context. You ignored every point I made on that issue, but that's expected with Todd the capitalist-imperialist polemicist. Others won't ignore them.

Which currency will you rely upon? Brazil's, Russia's, India's or China's? Or is there a 5th? Or is this new wonder currency going to be a mix of all 4 (or more)?

Whatever they decide. It's going to be an alternative to the USD-Todd currency. Todd won't be able to bully any more developing countries with economic embargoes, because there will be another international financial system in place.

When you base your estimates on commie lies, of course you'll be wrong.

It's Todd's lies, not the supposed "commie lies" that are wrong. Are you also a flat earther? Did the moon landing happen?

The Wiki’s List of countries by largest historical GDP shows the Soviets as still Number Two in 1990 if you use Purchasing Parity.

Angus Maddison statistics of the ten largest economies by GDP (PPP) - Wikipedia shows it second and doing OK in 1950 and 1973.

​

" Beginning in 1930, the course of the economy of the Soviet Union was guided by a series of five-year plans. By the 1950s, the Soviet Union had rapidly evolved from a mainly agrarian society into a major industrial power.[15] Its transformative capacity meant communism consistently appealed to the intellectuals of developing countries in Asia.[16] Impressive growth rates during the first three five-year plans (1928–1940) are particularly notable given that this period is nearly congruent with the Great Depression.[17] During this period, the Soviet Union saw rapid industrial growth while other regions were suffering from crisis.[18] The White House National Security Council of the United States described the continuing growth as a "proven ability to carry backward countries speedily through the crisis of modernization and industrialization", and the impoverished base upon which the five-year plans sought to build meant that at the commencement of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the country was still poor.[19][20]"

They were still poor at the time they were invaded by Germany in 1941, compared to the US, but they were rapidly developing....The Wikipedia article goes on to say:

"Even so, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy in the world from the end of World War II until the mid 1980s. "

Economy of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Thomas J. Watson, former head of IBM and U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the Carter administration, who declared shortly after leaving his post:

"During my tenure as Ambassador, we heard frequent reports of alleged food shortages, work stoppages and die like. On occasion, I sensed that various wishful thinkers back home were ready to seize on such reports as evidence that the Soviet system could not long survive in its present form. In my judgment, nothing could be further from the truth, nor more likely to lead the U.S. toward unwise policy decisions... In no case have we found evidence of public unrest or any serious challenge to the established authority. The Soviet economy has made good progress since World War II and does provide the Soviet people with much more than they had earlier." (N.Y. Times, Jan. 19, 1981.)

Of course it was. Cuba used to be one of the more prosperous nations in the region. Now it's a shithole.

Cuba suffered from gross inequality, with most of that wealth concentrated at the top, and the vast majority of Cubans living in abject poverty. Moreover, most of the important, vital resources and industries, including utility companies, were in the hands of Americans (owned by foreigners). Most Cubans didn't have access to healthcare, an education, adequate housing and public infrastructure outside of Havana was dismissal. That's why a motley crew of socialist revolutionaries was able to win the support of most Cubans leading to the ousting of the Fulgencio Batista regime.

Most Cubans on the Island, are for their revolution, even today, despite the difficulties caused by the US economic embargo. If Cuba is a "shithole" it's due to being economically and politically isolated by the American Empire. You have no leverage in arguing against socialism in Cuba, pretending it's an ineffective economic system, when the US, the world's capitalist hegemon-bully that controls the world's reserve currency and banking system, is economically and politically embargoing Cuba.

Essentially go sit in the corner and shut up because you have nothing of value to add to the discussion about the effectiveness of socialism in Cuba until the US economic and political embargo is lifted. Lift the economic and political sanctions against Cuba, and if socialism still doesn't eliminate poverty in Cuba, then you'll have a much better argument. I'll listen then to what you have to say, otherwise, you're just being disingenuous and nasty.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

It saved Eastern Europe from the Todds.



More Todd fussy logic. The fact it was letters has no bearing on the gravity of the crime, nor does it describe the context. You ignored every point I made on that issue, but that's expected with Todd the capitalist-imperialist polemicist. Others won't ignore them.



Whatever they decide. It's going to be an alternative to the USD-Todd currency. Todd won't be able to bully any more developing countries with economic embargoes, because there will be another international financial system in place.



It's Todd's lies, not the supposed "commie lies" that are wrong. Are you also a flat earther? Did the moon landing happen?

The Wiki’s List of countries by largest historical GDP shows the Soviets as still Number Two in 1990 if you use Purchasing Parity.

Angus Maddison statistics of the ten largest economies by GDP (PPP) - Wikipedia shows it second and doing OK in 1950 and 1973.

​

" Beginning in 1930, the course of the economy of the Soviet Union was guided by a series of five-year plans. By the 1950s, the Soviet Union had rapidly evolved from a mainly agrarian society into a major industrial power.[15] Its transformative capacity meant communism consistently appealed to the intellectuals of developing countries in Asia.[16] Impressive growth rates during the first three five-year plans (1928–1940) are particularly notable given that this period is nearly congruent with the Great Depression.[17] During this period, the Soviet Union saw rapid industrial growth while other regions were suffering from crisis.[18] The White House National Security Council of the United States described the continuing growth as a "proven ability to carry backward countries speedily through the crisis of modernization and industrialization", and the impoverished base upon which the five-year plans sought to build meant that at the commencement of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the country was still poor.[19][20]"

They were still poor at the time they were invaded by Germany in 1941, compared to the US, but they were rapidly developing....Tne Wikipedia article goes on to say:

"Even so, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy in the world from the end of World War II until the mid 1980s. "

Economy of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Thomas J. Watson, former head of IBM and U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the Carter administration, who declared shortly after leaving his post:

"During my tenure as Ambassador, we heard frequent reports of alleged food shortages, work stoppages and die like. On occasion, I sensed that various wishful thinkers back home were ready to seize on such reports as evidence that the Soviet system could not long survive in its present form. In my judgment, nothing could be further from the truth, nor more likely to lead the U.S. toward unwise policy decisions... In no case have we found evidence of public unrest or any serious challenge to the established authority. The Soviet economy has made good progress since World War II and does provide the Soviet people with much more than they had earlier." (N.Y. Times, Jan. 19, 1981.)



Cuba suffered from gross inequality, with most of that wealth concentrated at the top, and the vast majority of Cubans living in abject poverty. Moreover, most of the important, vital resources and industries, including utility companies, were in the hands of American companies (owned by foreigners). Most Cubans didn't have access to healthcare, an education, adequate housing and public infrastructure outside of Havana was dismissal. That's how a motley crew of socialist revolutionaries was able to win the support of most Cubans leading to the ousting of the Fulgencio Batista regime.

Most Cubans on the Island, are for their revolution, even today, despite the difficulties caused by the US economic embargo. If Cuba is a "shithole" it's due to being economically and politically isolated by the American Empire. You have no leverage in arguing against socialism when the US, the world's capitalist hegemon bully that controls the world's reserve currency and banking system, is economically and politically embargoing Cuba.

It saved Eastern Europe from the Todds.

By enslaving them.

More Todd fussy logic. The fact it was letters has no bearing on the gravity of the crime,

OMG! Free speech, 8 years in the gulag, because gravity! DURR

Whatever they decide. It's going to be an alternative to the USD-Todd currency.

You don't need a new currency to stop holding US dollars, you can buy rubles now.
What are you waiting for?

The Wiki’s List of countries by largest historical GDP shows the Soviets as still Number Two in 1990 if you use Purchasing Parity.

And where are they if you convert into a real currency?

"During my tenure as Ambassador, we heard frequent reports of alleged food shortages, work stoppages and die like. On occasion, I sensed that various wishful thinkers back home were ready to seize on such reports as evidence that the Soviet system could not long survive in its present form. (N.Y. Times, Jan. 19, 1981.)
How much longer did they last?

Cuba suffered from gross inequality, with most of that wealth concentrated at the top, and the vast majority of Cubans living in abject poverty.
Now the vast majority of Cubans are living in abject poverty while most of the wealth is held by the Party insiders.

 

[Red Front]

It saved Eastern Europe from the Todds.

By enslaving them.

More Todd fussy logic. The fact it was letters has no bearing on the gravity of the crime,

OMG! Free speech, 8 years in the gulag, because gravity! DURR

Whatever they decide. It's going to be an alternative to the USD-Todd currency.

You don't need a new currency to stop holding US dollars, you can buy rubles now.
What are you waiting for?

The Wiki’s List of countries by largest historical GDP shows the Soviets as still Number Two in 1990 if you use Purchasing Parity.

And where are they if you convert into a real currency?

"During my tenure as Ambassador, we heard frequent reports of alleged food shortages, work stoppages and die like. On occasion, I sensed that various wishful thinkers back home were ready to seize on such reports as evidence that the Soviet system could not long survive in its present form. (N.Y. Times, Jan. 19, 1981.)
How much longer did they last?

Cuba suffered from gross inequality, with most of that wealth concentrated at the top, and the vast majority of Cubans living in abject poverty.
Now the vast majority of Cubans are living in abject poverty while most of the wealth is held by the Party insiders.

By enslaving them.

By liberating them from Todd. You'll then respond again "by enslaving them" and then I repeat, "By protecting and freeing them from Todd" and then you say "by enslaving them" and then I respond again "by saving them from Todd the capitalist imperialists" . Since you don't have a life, you are willing to continue going back and forth like this forever ad infinitum. I have better things to do with my time and energy.

OMG! Free speech, 8 years in the gulag, because gravity! DURR

No "free speech" against the country, hurting the morale of the troops, in a world war that has cost the lives of 30 million Soviets. The country was fighting for its survival so no Todd doesn't have a right to shit on the country when it is fighting for its life. They would send your treacherous, nasty, disingenuous, and ungrateful ass to the gulag, where you belong. And if you're diagnosed with cancer while you're in the gulag, you will be treated for it, at the expense of the Soviet State, as your punk, ingrate buddy was when he was in the gulag.

You don't need a new currency to stop holding US dollars, you can buy rubles now. What are you waiting for?And where are they if you convert into a real currency?

BRICS is going to establish a separate international financial system, that won't rely on the American-controlled banking cartel or the USD. Boohoo for you.

Now the vast majority of Cubans are living in abject poverty while most of the wealth is held by the Party insiders.

No that's Todd-bullshit. Cubans are housed, many having houses with yards. I've been to Cuba, and I have family and friends there. You've chosen the wrong country to debate me on. They have food, housing, healthcare, an education, a job, and a rich social and professional life. They have smartphones, internet access, computers. beautiful beaches and great weather..etc. Todd is a decadent, spoiled brat who needs much more than that to feel like he's doing well, but the Cuban people for the most part have more than they did before the revolution. And that's with being under a brutal economic and political embargo by the world's big-bully imperialist hegemon, supported by nasty people like Todd.

They also have self-respect and can be proud that Cuba is a sovereign nation, no longer being raped by the American capitalist ruling class. Cuba is a sovereign nation that belongs to Cubans, not Todds. A nation respected and admired by billions of people around the world, as the underdog and David in the shadow of the American-Goliath. Humanity is going to be victorious in its struggle against Todd's beloved bully empire. BRICS is coming.