It is almost like a trial run for us here in the US. It reads of what he is having ice do to people. I have never know anyone so hateful in my life. I only read about this kind of hate with dictators in other countries growing up but this has that same feel . It is all trickle down affect. This regime in the white house reeks of hatred.
Teri...yes. You’re sensing the pattern...not just reacting to a headline. When a government’s instinct is pressure...punishment...and dehumanizing language...it doesn’t stay “over there” or confined to one agency.
It spreads through institutions and becomes normalized behavior.
And...you’re right about “trickle down.” Policies made at the top land in ordinary lives at the bottom...whether it’s blackouts and medicine shortages abroad...or fear and overreach at home.
The key is the thing you’re already doing...refusing to normalize it. Not with panic...with clear eyes. Democracies don’t die all at once. They erode...when people stop noticing what’s happening in real time.
(Yes, I know...I say this ALL the time. I tend to repeat the hell out of foundational truths. They never go out of style.)
Teri, I hate to admit the same thought crossed my mind. Is this what he plans to do here?
Cuba was FINALLY starting to come alive again. They were allowing a few tourists in, repair & rebuild was getting under way. Life was slowly improving and now this?? It would seem the cruelty has no bounds or bottom.
My questions: is pressuring the Congress critters enough? How do we let the regime know “not on my watch!! This is NOT the US I want exported” in an effective & unmistakable way??
Deb...the same thought crossed my mind too. Seeing pressure tactics abroad alongside escalation language at home...makes the “is this rehearsal?” question feel unavoidable. That isn’t paranoia...it’s vigilance.
On Cuba...you’re right that there were small openings (tourism, repairs, incremental rebuilding). When pressure ramps up during fragile recovery...it can look less like strategy and more like cruelty.
Is pressuring Congress enough? It’s necessary...BUT...rarely sufficient by itself. What moves policy is sustained...repeated...coordinated constituent pressure plus public narrative costs.
If you want an effective “not on my watch,” what actually lands is:
*Repeat contact (weekly calls/emails, not one burst)
*Public, calm framing (values + measurable harms, not rage)
*Local amplification (letters to editors, town halls, district office visits)
*Election leverage (supporting candidates who will say it plainly)
Sustained attention is the antidote to normalization. You’re asking the RIGHT kind of question!
Well congress voted to end ACA and no second thoughts on how it would kill people because of lack of insurance and close hospitals and people would not have medical help nearby. People with end srtage illness like COPD, cardiac disease, cancer patients and just getting a diagnosis will be all but impossible. This all leads to death especially the marginalized. Not a good look for the US. Its almost like cutting USAID
Hawkeye...you’re not wrong to see his fingerprints in the mindset. I agree.
But...if we stop at one villain...we miss the real leverage.
The most effective move is to keep the focus where it can’t HIDE:
*What specific actions are being taken (fuel pressure, transaction chilling, enforcement)
*What measurable civilian impacts are being reported (blackouts, water gaps, hospital strain)
*What oversight is being demanded...and who refuses it
That’s how you make this unmistakable: name the consequences...demand accountability...and don’t let anyone turn it into a personality fight they can shrug off.
Nicole L, you are welcome. That was my thought as well. Everyone grabs at the shiny stuff...while things like this are happening...just off the radar of MSN.
So many layers of "things like this" US government Actions - intentionally creating cruelty & hardship upon citizens @ home throughout US, massive detention centers 700,000 imprisioned here & abroad, plans & building 37 more, w/Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, Ukraine, Iran... Threats Greenland, EU, ICC, POC, Immigrants, murder of citizens & unlawful wrongful deaths on our streets , forced cruel conditions in mass detentions Threats on congress attorneys, judges,REFUSING THWARTING free speech, ATTACKING, IMPRISONINH independent media%
/journalists, DISMANTLING everycheck & balances of systems that oversee rule of law, finance and resources obliterated...
Cause & Effect ripples through every facet is critical damage!! The US's NEEDLESS Intentionality causing scarcity of BASIC humans needs is a CRIME, INHUMANE & VILE. 🙏 for this - guess it invoked a litany of too long living with this cruelty and intentionally invoked pain to my beloved humanity. We all deserve BETTER, I know we CAN BE BETTER & this ain't it. 👀 Actions to
Feed the World - Everything it NEEDS to Revive & Thrive now🖖🕊✌️
I’m just becoming aware of this Cuba thing( awful thing). I’m on often, and truly don’t remember an announcement of these sanctions and goal. What is our goal? Cruelty? Regime change? Why now? Do WE now want Cuba to be 51st State? Just distraction? Cruel power, I think. Illegal migration? Why now?
A lot of this gets announced in technical language and never translated into plain English.
Stated goal: pressure the Cuban government.
Real-world effect: squeeze fuel/finance and you squeeze daily life...electricity, water, transport, hospitals, food.
That’s why it reads as cruelty...it lands in kitchens, not offices.
Regime change? Often the unspoken bet: “turn up pain until something breaks.”
Why now? Usually a mix of domestic politics, “toughness” signaling...and choosing leverage points...that create fast pressure (and sometimes, distraction value).
51st state? No...unrealistic.
Migration? The irony...is these tactics can increase migration by making life less livable.
Your core question is the democratic one...what outcome is worth this cost...and where’s the proof it works?
The US caused Iran’s currency to tank, which collapsed their financial system, which led to all the protesters in the streets and how many deaths?? Rubio wants the embargo in Cuba and regime change. He sold his soul and does not care about the Cuban people - plus we are still bombing fishing boats. And today, the Cuban coast guard had a shoot out with a US registered boat. At least 4 people are dead. The people in the White House have no forward looking strategy of any kind….
Not the Cuba we see in propaganda media. Look to Russia. What is happening in Cuba now is similar to post WWII. No services to benefit people will most definitely lower their ability to create better family and community lifestyles. Tragic. Vote blue. Resist consciously and steady as we go. Thank you Jack.
Thank you for the eye-opener to these facts and the resulting tragedies, Jack. Why can’t everyone be caring instead of wanting to inflict pain and harm? What can be done to solve the problems, besides recognizing the horrible pattern stemming from sanctions and calling it to the attention of our legislators?
This news and Jim Acosta’s video of Dilly Detention Center and its horrid conditions both have arrived today in my messages. We need to help in so many places, so many ways. How can we keep up and make the needed differences? How can our Legislators manage all there is to take care of? How can we propose what we want to have done with our tax dollars? “Man’s inhumanity to man” is more than lacking. We nee everyone to know, see, and understand do they can care.
Keeping up is a full time job which only results in a tipping hat to the awarenesses we should have. When I was growing up, our 4-H clubs worked together to send a hog to people in Haiti so people there could begin to have better lives. What can be done now? There are people suffering in our country; other people are being put in concentration camps, where they are mistreated severely; and our own government is robbing from the population while lying about it so they and cronies can gain more wealth. I am sure there are some good, caring, wise people in our Legislature, but I am not sure how we can help everybody. “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love…..”.
Of course we need comprehension capable and informed minds in our population to put truly wise and caring people in each branch of our government, but the stew of needs right now seems to be overflowing. How I hope we can find ways to make the best positive differences! It seems that we could spend every waking hour studying situations, and then contacting our senators and representatives, whose lines are already full!
Many of our Congresspeople are largely under the control of AIPAC, a superpac that's dedicated to keeping US support of Israel at its current ridiculous high. They started with decent ideas and ideals, but in recent years, esp under the current regime, they have bc power-hungry and controlling. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are both owned by AIPAC and are unable to strike at what is obvious genocide and corruption, both in Israel and here.
They've started getting called out under AIPAC so they're starting to split their PACs into others that aren't as obviously owned, but with the same aims. Please look them up, there are MANY articles, easily found.
The law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head again. This is a typical Ready-Fire-Aim strategy used by every authoritarian regime. Regime change can only happen from within, and it takes a long time. Governments, especially the United States government, likes things to happen quickly to make the next news cycle. Blockading a country is not unlike Trump withholding funds to Democratic states to influence how they will vote in the mid terms. The citizens won't blame the state's governor but will heap their revenge on the Trump regime.
I am confused, Jack. Why does the US have a foreign policy that supposedly was designed to undermine the Cuban government, when trump gives homage to every other despot?
We know that he doesn't care if the Cuban people suffer, anymore than he cares for American citizens. So what is the driving force? And why hasn't Putin jerked trump's chain?
Cruelty is the #1 tool in Trump’s kit. He has unleashed unmitigated cruelty on residents of the US, why not world wide? He tries to put a bow on it by talking about the horrible regime (horrible is his only vocabulary, except beautiful) and ‘sanctions’. That makes it all better. What is really happening is the extension of cruelty from us to Cuba. He still has his dream of making the western world order his the ~sigh~ DonRoe Doctrine. I’d like to say I am shocked, but his cruelty and continued self-imposed lack of imagination are nothing new. He is beyond the pale and his sickness needs to be removed.
Hey, the goal is to bring democracy to Cuba, just like we have elsewhere in the region. Like in Haiti, an example of what U.S. support can do to develop a modern democratic society!
Thank you for writing about Cuba. I've been reading about our sanctions and such there off and on for years (Russia too, similar idea) The situation should have been revisited much more publicly DECADES ago. Economic sanctions on dictatorships are invariably visited on the population, NEVER on the leaders.
It's a Republikkkan pet project that never seems to be publicized, so very few people understand the reality on the ground. If it got the media coverage it should have, any time since the 60s, it might have been reversed, or partially so, because it DOESN'T affect the leaders.
We're not too far away from experiencing sanctions from previously allied governments ourselves.
It is almost like a trial run for us here in the US. It reads of what he is having ice do to people. I have never know anyone so hateful in my life. I only read about this kind of hate with dictators in other countries growing up but this has that same feel . It is all trickle down affect. This regime in the white house reeks of hatred.
Teri
Teri...yes. You’re sensing the pattern...not just reacting to a headline. When a government’s instinct is pressure...punishment...and dehumanizing language...it doesn’t stay “over there” or confined to one agency.
It spreads through institutions and becomes normalized behavior.
And...you’re right about “trickle down.” Policies made at the top land in ordinary lives at the bottom...whether it’s blackouts and medicine shortages abroad...or fear and overreach at home.
The key is the thing you’re already doing...refusing to normalize it. Not with panic...with clear eyes. Democracies don’t die all at once. They erode...when people stop noticing what’s happening in real time.
(Yes, I know...I say this ALL the time. I tend to repeat the hell out of foundational truths. They never go out of style.)
You’re noticing!
-Jack
Teri, I hate to admit the same thought crossed my mind. Is this what he plans to do here?
Cuba was FINALLY starting to come alive again. They were allowing a few tourists in, repair & rebuild was getting under way. Life was slowly improving and now this?? It would seem the cruelty has no bounds or bottom.
My questions: is pressuring the Congress critters enough? How do we let the regime know “not on my watch!! This is NOT the US I want exported” in an effective & unmistakable way??
Deb...the same thought crossed my mind too. Seeing pressure tactics abroad alongside escalation language at home...makes the “is this rehearsal?” question feel unavoidable. That isn’t paranoia...it’s vigilance.
On Cuba...you’re right that there were small openings (tourism, repairs, incremental rebuilding). When pressure ramps up during fragile recovery...it can look less like strategy and more like cruelty.
Is pressuring Congress enough? It’s necessary...BUT...rarely sufficient by itself. What moves policy is sustained...repeated...coordinated constituent pressure plus public narrative costs.
If you want an effective “not on my watch,” what actually lands is:
*Repeat contact (weekly calls/emails, not one burst)
*Public, calm framing (values + measurable harms, not rage)
*Local amplification (letters to editors, town halls, district office visits)
*Election leverage (supporting candidates who will say it plainly)
Sustained attention is the antidote to normalization. You’re asking the RIGHT kind of question!
-Jack
Well congress voted to end ACA and no second thoughts on how it would kill people because of lack of insurance and close hospitals and people would not have medical help nearby. People with end srtage illness like COPD, cardiac disease, cancer patients and just getting a diagnosis will be all but impossible. This all leads to death especially the marginalized. Not a good look for the US. Its almost like cutting USAID
You can blame Rubio for this. It’s his dream to do this for the people!! Right!?!
Hawkeye...you’re not wrong to see his fingerprints in the mindset. I agree.
But...if we stop at one villain...we miss the real leverage.
The most effective move is to keep the focus where it can’t HIDE:
*What specific actions are being taken (fuel pressure, transaction chilling, enforcement)
*What measurable civilian impacts are being reported (blackouts, water gaps, hospital strain)
*What oversight is being demanded...and who refuses it
That’s how you make this unmistakable: name the consequences...demand accountability...and don’t let anyone turn it into a personality fight they can shrug off.
-Jack
I’ve been watching this for a while now and it’s incredibly concerning… and not just for the Cuban people but possibly for us.
Thank you for laying this all out so clearly, Jack. This is not getting the attention it deserves.
This regime isn’t only hurting us here in the United States. It’s hurting innocent civilians in many areas of the world.
#HOLDFAST
~Susan
@Jack, thank you for writing about this. It's truly being underreported.
Nicole L, you are welcome. That was my thought as well. Everyone grabs at the shiny stuff...while things like this are happening...just off the radar of MSN.
-Jack
oops..."MSM"
So many layers of "things like this" US government Actions - intentionally creating cruelty & hardship upon citizens @ home throughout US, massive detention centers 700,000 imprisioned here & abroad, plans & building 37 more, w/Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, Ukraine, Iran... Threats Greenland, EU, ICC, POC, Immigrants, murder of citizens & unlawful wrongful deaths on our streets , forced cruel conditions in mass detentions Threats on congress attorneys, judges,REFUSING THWARTING free speech, ATTACKING, IMPRISONINH independent media%
/journalists, DISMANTLING everycheck & balances of systems that oversee rule of law, finance and resources obliterated...
Cause & Effect ripples through every facet is critical damage!! The US's NEEDLESS Intentionality causing scarcity of BASIC humans needs is a CRIME, INHUMANE & VILE. 🙏 for this - guess it invoked a litany of too long living with this cruelty and intentionally invoked pain to my beloved humanity. We all deserve BETTER, I know we CAN BE BETTER & this ain't it. 👀 Actions to
Feed the World - Everything it NEEDS to Revive & Thrive now🖖🕊✌️
Trump is a very evil man.
No argument from me, Charli!
-Jack
I’m just becoming aware of this Cuba thing( awful thing). I’m on often, and truly don’t remember an announcement of these sanctions and goal. What is our goal? Cruelty? Regime change? Why now? Do WE now want Cuba to be 51st State? Just distraction? Cruel power, I think. Illegal migration? Why now?
Beverly, you’re not imagining it.
A lot of this gets announced in technical language and never translated into plain English.
Stated goal: pressure the Cuban government.
Real-world effect: squeeze fuel/finance and you squeeze daily life...electricity, water, transport, hospitals, food.
That’s why it reads as cruelty...it lands in kitchens, not offices.
Regime change? Often the unspoken bet: “turn up pain until something breaks.”
Why now? Usually a mix of domestic politics, “toughness” signaling...and choosing leverage points...that create fast pressure (and sometimes, distraction value).
51st state? No...unrealistic.
Migration? The irony...is these tactics can increase migration by making life less livable.
Your core question is the democratic one...what outcome is worth this cost...and where’s the proof it works?
Smart questions!
-Jack
The US caused Iran’s currency to tank, which collapsed their financial system, which led to all the protesters in the streets and how many deaths?? Rubio wants the embargo in Cuba and regime change. He sold his soul and does not care about the Cuban people - plus we are still bombing fishing boats. And today, the Cuban coast guard had a shoot out with a US registered boat. At least 4 people are dead. The people in the White House have no forward looking strategy of any kind….
It is a sad time for the United States.
Not the Cuba we see in propaganda media. Look to Russia. What is happening in Cuba now is similar to post WWII. No services to benefit people will most definitely lower their ability to create better family and community lifestyles. Tragic. Vote blue. Resist consciously and steady as we go. Thank you Jack.
Thank you for the eye-opener to these facts and the resulting tragedies, Jack. Why can’t everyone be caring instead of wanting to inflict pain and harm? What can be done to solve the problems, besides recognizing the horrible pattern stemming from sanctions and calling it to the attention of our legislators?
#HOLDFAST!
P. S.
This news and Jim Acosta’s video of Dilly Detention Center and its horrid conditions both have arrived today in my messages. We need to help in so many places, so many ways. How can we keep up and make the needed differences? How can our Legislators manage all there is to take care of? How can we propose what we want to have done with our tax dollars? “Man’s inhumanity to man” is more than lacking. We nee everyone to know, see, and understand do they can care.
Keeping up is a full time job which only results in a tipping hat to the awarenesses we should have. When I was growing up, our 4-H clubs worked together to send a hog to people in Haiti so people there could begin to have better lives. What can be done now? There are people suffering in our country; other people are being put in concentration camps, where they are mistreated severely; and our own government is robbing from the population while lying about it so they and cronies can gain more wealth. I am sure there are some good, caring, wise people in our Legislature, but I am not sure how we can help everybody. “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love…..”.
Of course we need comprehension capable and informed minds in our population to put truly wise and caring people in each branch of our government, but the stew of needs right now seems to be overflowing. How I hope we can find ways to make the best positive differences! It seems that we could spend every waking hour studying situations, and then contacting our senators and representatives, whose lines are already full!
#HOLD-HOLDFAST!!!
Many of our Congresspeople are largely under the control of AIPAC, a superpac that's dedicated to keeping US support of Israel at its current ridiculous high. They started with decent ideas and ideals, but in recent years, esp under the current regime, they have bc power-hungry and controlling. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are both owned by AIPAC and are unable to strike at what is obvious genocide and corruption, both in Israel and here.
https://www.trackaipac.com/congress
They've started getting called out under AIPAC so they're starting to split their PACs into others that aren't as obviously owned, but with the same aims. Please look them up, there are MANY articles, easily found.
Carlye, thank you for sharing that.
The law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head again. This is a typical Ready-Fire-Aim strategy used by every authoritarian regime. Regime change can only happen from within, and it takes a long time. Governments, especially the United States government, likes things to happen quickly to make the next news cycle. Blockading a country is not unlike Trump withholding funds to Democratic states to influence how they will vote in the mid terms. The citizens won't blame the state's governor but will heap their revenge on the Trump regime.
It’s RUBIO!!! Pulling the chain!
I am confused, Jack. Why does the US have a foreign policy that supposedly was designed to undermine the Cuban government, when trump gives homage to every other despot?
We know that he doesn't care if the Cuban people suffer, anymore than he cares for American citizens. So what is the driving force? And why hasn't Putin jerked trump's chain?
Sue
Cruelty is the #1 tool in Trump’s kit. He has unleashed unmitigated cruelty on residents of the US, why not world wide? He tries to put a bow on it by talking about the horrible regime (horrible is his only vocabulary, except beautiful) and ‘sanctions’. That makes it all better. What is really happening is the extension of cruelty from us to Cuba. He still has his dream of making the western world order his the ~sigh~ DonRoe Doctrine. I’d like to say I am shocked, but his cruelty and continued self-imposed lack of imagination are nothing new. He is beyond the pale and his sickness needs to be removed.
#HoldFast
Hey, the goal is to bring democracy to Cuba, just like we have elsewhere in the region. Like in Haiti, an example of what U.S. support can do to develop a modern democratic society!
Thank you for writing about Cuba. I've been reading about our sanctions and such there off and on for years (Russia too, similar idea) The situation should have been revisited much more publicly DECADES ago. Economic sanctions on dictatorships are invariably visited on the population, NEVER on the leaders.
It's a Republikkkan pet project that never seems to be publicized, so very few people understand the reality on the ground. If it got the media coverage it should have, any time since the 60s, it might have been reversed, or partially so, because it DOESN'T affect the leaders.
We're not too far away from experiencing sanctions from previously allied governments ourselves.