Whoopi Goes Off on Bernie's Castro Remarks: 'There's Nothing Groovy About a Dictatorship!'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The women of The View continued to rail against Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Tuesday, this time taking issue with the democratic socialist senator doubling down on his praise of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s literacy program.

“There is nothing groovy about a dictatorship,” host Whoopi Goldberg exclaimed at one point.

Sanders has come under fire, including by many Democrats, for telling 60 Minutes that it was “unfair” to say “everything is bad” with Castro’s regime. Noting that he was opposed to the “authoritarian nature” of Castro’s government, Sanders did commend the communist leader for launching a “massive literacy program.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Sanders wondered aloud. “Even though Fidel Castro did it?”

https://news.yahoo.com/whoopi-goes-off-bernie-castro-172204463.html

[Hestia]

1. Truth-isms about relationships - macro to micro. Bernie is correct

Nobody is wholly good
Nobody is wholly bad (well, except for the usurpers in WH)

Nobody never does something
Nobody always does something

[denem]

19. Nazi Germany was not all bad.

They built the autobahns. Is that a bad thing? Even though Adolf Hitler did it?

[Cuthbert Allgood]

2. Did someone tell her Obama said the same thing?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. When?

[Cha]

10. NO.. because he DIDN'T

BS was talking about what he thinks Castro's revolution brought to Cuba in 1959.

President Obama was talking about the post 2014 strides that Cuba had made as part of the negotiated
pre-conditions for normalizing US-Cuba relations. Cuba had to meet benchmarks during the gradual process of moving towards normalization.

President Obama made the remarks at a joint press conference in Cuba in March 2016.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287576570

Link to tweet

[ehrnst]

23. Actually, no he didn't.

You're welcome.

[LexVegas]

3. Cue the "what about Obama?" talking point. nt

[Cuthbert Allgood]

7. It's a pretty solid point.

People get all shitty because they guy they hate said the same thing as the guy they love. Kind of makes on think that it isn't about what was said but the person that said it.

[Cha]

11. It Didn't Happen.. so there's NO "point"

Link to tweet

[ehrnst]

24. Nope. Obama was talking about something very different

BS was talking about what he thinks Castro's revolution brought to Cuba in 1959.

President Obama was talking about the post 2014 strides that Cuba had made as part of the negotiated pre-conditions for normalizing US-Cuba relations. Cuba had to meet benchmarks during the gradual process of moving towards normalization.

You're welcome!

[Cha]

13. Yeah, as you can see.. Only "President Obama was talking about post 2014 strides"

BS was talking about what he thinks Castro's revolution brought to Cuba in 1959.

President Obama was talking about the post 2014 strides that Cuba had made as part of the negotiated
pre-conditions for normalizing US-Cuba relations. Cuba had to meet benchmarks during the gradual process of moving towards normalization.

President Obama made the remarks at a joint press conference in Cuba in March 2016.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287576570

Link to tweet

[NoDakLinda]

5. 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America

Read Books:

Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution -T.J. English

“In the 1950s, the Mob; with the corrupt, repressive government of brutal Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in its pocket; owned Havana's biggest luxury hotels and casinos, launching an unprecedented tourism boom.”
When Castro and Che Guevara overthrew the brutal Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista all the American organized crime syndicate was finished in Cuba. That’s not bad either.

You know, Trump (in the debates of 2016) claimed a Cuban’s father was involved in the plot to assassination of JFK. That’s because there were Cuban’s who fled to America that were disenfranchised after organized crime and the corrupt government was ousted. There were people who just wanted to leave. But those people who wanted to go back and people in organized crime who were working to overthrow Castro together.

In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power when the revolution overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The US government distrusted Castro because of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev. Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the CIA developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion to overthrow Castro, and the establishment of a government friendly to the United States. It has been suggested that all of this could have played a role in the JFK assassination. Kennedy was furious at the CIA because he was lied to about the people raising up. He said he would smash the CIA into a thousand pieces.

One reason a dictator like Batista and others got control over the country and its people was their poor education and illiteracy. That’s what really does happen when you have an uneducated public.

Thomas Jefferson: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”

Bernie Sanders said, “Castro Immediate initiation of an intensive campaign against illiteracy was a good thing,” And Obama said the same about Castro. I saw that in a video.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. How about sticking to the topic at hand?

Oh and welcome to DU.

[Cha]

14. No.. President Obama is Not gping to save BS..

BS was talking about what he thinks Castro's revolution brought to Cuba in 1959.

President Obama was talking about the post 2014 strides that Cuba had made as part of the negotiated
pre-conditions for normalizing US-Cuba relations. Cuba had to meet benchmarks during the gradual process of moving towards normalization.

President Obama made the remarks at a joint press conference in Cuba in March 2016.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287576570

Link to tweet

[lapfog_1]

26. ummm

A. as has been pointed out by many others, Obama was not talking about Castro in the 1950s (or the Castro government)...

and

B. Fidel executed as many as 4000 people in the purges that followed the revolution. Without trials or at the most a show trial.

Should we normalize relations with Cuba... sure. Should any political figure here praise Castro's revolution? No... it's not god politics and shows a disregard for the legitimate feelings of many US citizens that fled Castro's Cuba.

[melman]

8. Oh Whoopi

Link to tweet

[Quixote1818]

9. Bernie seems to be an expert at turning Dems into hypocrites

He is magic that way

[KayF]

20. ha ha

[Beringia]

12. Sorry, I don't respect Whoopi's opinion, never have

[Cha]

15. I don't respect david sirota's

[budkin]

16. The whole controversy is laughable

They need to chill the F out

[betsuni]

17. Poor Bernie.

[KayF]

18. she should have gone off on Obama

but she didn't. when he said the same thing

[NurseJackie]

21. No he didn't.

Link to tweet

medium.com/@carlosmvizcarra/no-bernie-sanders-discussion-of-cuba-s-castro-is-nothing-like-obama-s-ab2a1621aa00

Eric Levitz in New York Magazine on Monday makes the case that Bernie Sanders’ 1985 interview admiring some aspects of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba was roughly the same as Barack Obama’s 2016 discussion of Castro. This is in large part just an amplification of ideas flying around Twitter this week, as in the tweet pictured above. A quick look at Sanders’ and Obama’s statements shows why this analysis is entirely incorrect.

In 2016, Obama was addressing hundreds of young business and social entrepreneurs from across Latin America in Buenos Aires, Argentina. If you read the transcript of his talk, you see immediately that Obama, in his signature style, was reinforcing the message of pragmatism and evidence-based decision making — as he puts it “be[ing] practical and just choos[ing] from what works.” He was in fact arguing against ideology, at a time when he must have been watching the destabilizing effects the surge in ideological politics was causing not just in the United States but in other countries long considered staid and practical.

In discussing Cuba, Obama relayed direct conversations he had with the Castros, insight into the diplomacy of highlighting policy areas where there might be more agreement in order to create common ground with space to push for change in other areas. I doubt many would think it rational to approach a nascent foreign relationship with a guns blazing, take no prisoners attitude, especially when any agreement depended on the other country’s support. Obama was relaying one relatively high stakes conversation with foreign leaders to another unaligned audience in a foreign venue. I expect it does not take an expert in international relations to see the U.S. interest in pitching this information a certain way for both of these audiences.

In contrast, Bernie Sanders’ 1985 interview was not conducted for foreign consumption or to support U.S. national interests, and it did not come at a time of opening up in the U.S.-Cuba relationship. Instead, it was given for a local public access TV show. It was effectively a vanity project giving Sanders a platform to expound his views of politics and the world. Because of this, the messaging here is all Sanders. Further contrasting Obama, it was rooted in ideology, with Sanders opening, “As a socialist, the word socialism doesn’t frighten me,” before launching into his discussion of self-described socialist regimes. While you could argue the interview might not be a perfect snapshot of today’s presidential candidate’s innermost thoughts, it was a clear statement of what Sanders believed at the time and unfiltered by the degree of drafting and review Obama’s messaging on this topic would have undergone....

From this brief look, we can see that Obama’s talk involved a little flattery, a little spin, and a good deal of appealing to an audience that he saw as future leaders. In contrast, Sanders’ words were simply praise without an intentional objective towards a defined audience. Conflating these two discussions is flimsy, misleading, and indicative of the pro-regime propaganda captured in Sanders’ own sentiment.

[NurseJackie]

22. No, President Obama did not say the same thing as BS about Cuba.

No, President Obama did not say the same thing as BS about Cuba.

BS was talking about what he thinks Castro's revolution brought to Cuba in 1959.

President Obama was talking about the post 2014 strides that Cuba had made as part of the negotiated
pre-conditions for normalizing US-Cuba relations. Cuba had to meet benchmarks during the gradual process of moving towards normalization.

President Obama made the remarks at a joint press conference in Cuba in March 2016.

US presidential visit

President Obama arrived in Cuba for a three-day visit on March 20, 2016. Obama headed a delegation of between 800 and 1,200, including business people and congressional leaders who had helped in establishing the 2014 normalization deal.

Obama was the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Obama said that he would only visit Cuba if he could meet with Cuban dissidents: "If I go on a visit, then part of the deal is that I get to talk to everybody. I've made it very clear in my conversations directly with President Raúl Castro that we would continue to reach out to those who want to broaden the scope for, you know, free expression inside of Cuba."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_thaw

***************************************************************************************

David Sirota used an abruptly edited short clip in order mislead people. Here's the context that Sirota failed to provide. It's not the first time

Remarks by President Obama and President Raul Castro of Cuba in a Joint Press Conference

Palace of the Revolution
Havana, Cuba
March 21, 2016

Our growing engagement with Cuba is guided by one overarching goal -- advancing the mutual interests of our two countries, including improving the lives of our people, both Cubans and Americans. That’s why I’m here.

I’ve said consistently, after more than five very difficult decades, the relationship between our governments will not be transformed overnight. We continue, as President Castro indicated, to have some very serious differences, including on democracy and human rights. And President Castro and I have had very frank and candid conversations on these subjects.

The United States recognizes progress that Cuba has made as a nation, its enormous achievements in education and in health care. And perhaps most importantly, I affirmed that Cuba’s destiny will not be decided by the United States or any other nation. Cuba is sovereign and, rightly, has great pride. And the future of Cuba will be decided by Cubans, not by anybody else.

At the same time, as we do wherever we go around the world, I made it clear that the United States will continue to speak up on behalf of democracy, including the right of the Cuban people to decide their own future. We’ll speak out on behalf of universal human rights, including freedom of speech, and assembly, and religion. Indeed, I look forward to meeting with and hearing from Cuban civil society leaders tomorrow.

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/03/21/remarks-president-obama-and-president-raul-castro-cuba-joint-press%20

It's disgusting the way Sirota continually tries to play the electorate for a fool and really sad that people keep falling for his dissembling.

[Cha]

25. No.. President Obama Did NOT "say the same"

BS was talking about what he thinks Castro's revolution brought to Cuba in 1959.

President Obama was talking about the post 2014 strides that Cuba had made as part of the negotiated
pre-conditions for normalizing US-Cuba relations. Cuba had to meet benchmarks during the gradual process of moving towards normalization.

President Obama made the remarks at a joint press conference in Cuba in March 2016.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1287576570

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Mahalo for the additional tweet, Goth!