Cuba, Colbert.
Dec. 18th, 2014 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogI was encourged by yesterday's White House announcement of the normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba. This standoff, between the last bastions of both traditional communism (there) and rabid anti-communist sentiment (mostly in South Florida), was a Cold War relic that should have come down ages ago. You have to admire Obama's stones in making the likes of Marco Rubio practically explode.
"Normalization" is by no means complete. Travel is still limited to certain categories, and no direct JFK-HAV flights will be boarding anytime soon. Nor can Buffalonians cash in on the move by self-importing Cuban cigars from Canada over the border; they're still illegal to import unless brought back direct from Cuba by authorised travelers and then only to the extent of $100 (or about 5 of the good ones, or so I'm told). Most hypocritically, none of this will change the Front of the Line immigration policy that has welcomed "dry foot" cubanos to this country, no questions asked and with almost automatic citizenship, for most of my lifetime. (Boaters and others whose feet don't touch dry US land can still be intercepted and returned.) Harmonizing Cuban immigration with the rest of the nation's policies would take Congressional action, which is about as likely as pigs flying direct between JFK and HAV.
Several of those reporting from South Florida have noted a major division in the local reaction: the original expatriates are livid, likening Castro to Hitler and promising revenge on all politicians who acquiesce in this treason. On the other hand, their children and grandchildren are far more likely to be accepting of their neighbor nation as it is, and are welcoming the trend. And fortunately, they, too, are all citizens eligible to vote FOR those so-called traitors, and their numbers will only be increasing as the grumpy old abuelos die off.
----
I'd have loved to see what "Stephen Colbert" has to say about this development tonight, but I suspect he'll busy with other things. It's the final night of the Colbert Report, before the Real Stephen prepares to take over for Letterman next month and his many-year persona goes to its ironically truthy grave.
We watch very little episodic television, and I never followed the show regularly, but he made enough headlines with his over-the-top pronouncements in the best Bill-O tradition. To this day, his detractors haven't forgiven him for his 2006 Correspondents Dinner appearance which "savaged President Bush" (there's a link to that, but I'm not dignifying it with extra clicks).
Seeing the Report taped in May 2006 was one of the Bucket List moments of my life, one I'm trying to duplicate with Daily Show tickets for Emily and me for the taping on the afternoon of the Billy Joel show. Tickets just came and went for some January dates, so I'm watching the ticket site carefully to try to catch the mid-February block for the two of us.
Off now to set the DVR for tonight's finale- a disk that will also eventually include Dave's final moments and the Real Stephen's first ones at 11:35.
"Normalization" is by no means complete. Travel is still limited to certain categories, and no direct JFK-HAV flights will be boarding anytime soon. Nor can Buffalonians cash in on the move by self-importing Cuban cigars from Canada over the border; they're still illegal to import unless brought back direct from Cuba by authorised travelers and then only to the extent of $100 (or about 5 of the good ones, or so I'm told). Most hypocritically, none of this will change the Front of the Line immigration policy that has welcomed "dry foot" cubanos to this country, no questions asked and with almost automatic citizenship, for most of my lifetime. (Boaters and others whose feet don't touch dry US land can still be intercepted and returned.) Harmonizing Cuban immigration with the rest of the nation's policies would take Congressional action, which is about as likely as pigs flying direct between JFK and HAV.
Several of those reporting from South Florida have noted a major division in the local reaction: the original expatriates are livid, likening Castro to Hitler and promising revenge on all politicians who acquiesce in this treason. On the other hand, their children and grandchildren are far more likely to be accepting of their neighbor nation as it is, and are welcoming the trend. And fortunately, they, too, are all citizens eligible to vote FOR those so-called traitors, and their numbers will only be increasing as the grumpy old abuelos die off.
----
I'd have loved to see what "Stephen Colbert" has to say about this development tonight, but I suspect he'll busy with other things. It's the final night of the Colbert Report, before the Real Stephen prepares to take over for Letterman next month and his many-year persona goes to its ironically truthy grave.
We watch very little episodic television, and I never followed the show regularly, but he made enough headlines with his over-the-top pronouncements in the best Bill-O tradition. To this day, his detractors haven't forgiven him for his 2006 Correspondents Dinner appearance which "savaged President Bush" (there's a link to that, but I'm not dignifying it with extra clicks).
Seeing the Report taped in May 2006 was one of the Bucket List moments of my life, one I'm trying to duplicate with Daily Show tickets for Emily and me for the taping on the afternoon of the Billy Joel show. Tickets just came and went for some January dates, so I'm watching the ticket site carefully to try to catch the mid-February block for the two of us.
Off now to set the DVR for tonight's finale- a disk that will also eventually include Dave's final moments and the Real Stephen's first ones at 11:35.
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Date: 2014-12-19 04:12 pm (UTC)