Showing posts with label Fidel Castro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fidel Castro. Show all posts

Friday, January 01, 2016

What Did I Do?

2016: The Year For Barack Obama's Revolution From The Top
Right To Privacy Is Important



What Did I Do?

As a Barack Obama volunteer in 2007 and 2008 (I would not know much about 2008), you basically did two things. You knocked on doors. And you made phone calls. The guy had dumbed it down for the rest of us. While I mull about on foreign policy, here, you knock on doors. And you make some phone calls. If you might feel so enthused, here, knock on some more doors, make some more phone calls. It was almost patronizing. He read somewhere, 40% of Americans can’t point out the Pacific on a map. And so he be like, here, make some phone calls, and knock on some doors. Some of his most impassioned speeches were like, “If you will just knock on some doors for me, if you will just make some phone calls for me ……..” And then he would taper off. People be like, you got the looks. I am making the phone calls.

The more creative and original among us naturally gravitated towards the phone call regimen. But no, even there they gave you a script. Here, read this out. That took out the possibility of originality. There was no room for how you feel about Obama, and how it all came out to be, and what your particular story is that might inspire the person on the other end. None of that.

Too bad Donald Trump picked up a fight with Jeff Bezos or, for as uninspiring as he is, he could be hiring Amzon turks this season. Here, make some phone calls for me. He fills up auditoriums with struggling actors. Amazon turks are just a few blocks down that road.

I did not give Obama credit for the stimulus. I am like, he is filling a ditch he did not dig. The credit goes to Bush. This is too Soviet. But by the time health care reform showed up. You know when you volunteer for someone who becomes president, when you see him on TV, things like that, you feel a certain connection. I mean, I did meet the guy before he became president. When he signs a major bill, you feel like maybe you had something to do with. But then he soon became really unreachable. Health care was (and is) in this country so complex an issue that when he did get it passed, I am like, what did I do? Health care was supposed to be this issue. They have god, gay and guns. We have health care. It was supposed to just stick around permanently as an issue that you emote about. It was not supposed to be solved. No one was expecting any kind of resolution. And he goes ahead and solves. And I am like, what did I do? I did knock on some doors, and made some phone calls, but what is this?

Cuba really knocked me out. You don’t expect the Rocky Mountains to move. I was left scratching my head. What did I do? I did knock on some doors, and made some phone calls, but what is this?

I mean, I did take credit for Iowa. Like, deeply, personally. I met Michelle Obama at a Harlem event in the summer of 2007. I said, “You give us Iowa, we will give you New York. We will make it quick and painless for Hillary.” And she delivered oh so handsomely. And I am like, Michelle, we are talking! Not New York, but we almost delivered Brooklyn. We had Anthony Weiner worried. Hillary, you need to make one trip to Brooklyn. And she did. Make one trip. To Brooklyn.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Cuba And Cancer: Who Would Have Thought?

English: The Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Españo...
English: The Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Español: El líder cubano Fidel Castro. Italiano: Il leader cubano Fidel Castro Français : Le dirigeant cubain Fidel Castro. 日本語: キューバの最高指導者であるフィデル・カストロ Português: O líder cubano Fidel Castro. ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬: Cubas statsoverhode Fidel Castro. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have always admired Castro's medicine men. Fidel has done amazing work on basic medicine. He has sent doctors around the world over decades. His was the original Doctors Without Borders. But I had no idea his model also gave him an edge on the cutting edges of medicine.

Americans could soon be thanking Fidel Castro for their revolutionary cancer drugs
an accord between New York’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology that will bring the Cuban lung cancer vaccine Cimavax to the United States for clinical trials ..... While not a cure for cancer by any means, Cimavax is a powerful and incredibly cheap cancer drug in Cuba. “Medical researchers at the Center for Molecular Immunology worked on Cimavax for 25 years before the Ministry of Health made it available to the public — for free — in 2011”

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Barack Obama (Big Picture Guy) And Cuba

Official photographic portrait of US President...
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Barack Obama did not need to do this. No one would have noticed he did not do this. Although this should have been done 25 years ago. But he is doing it, because he gets the big picture. Like he got the big picture on health care. 50 years of presidents trying, and this guy goes ahead and makes the move. Cuba is like that. Half a century of American presidents not getting it right. And Barack Obama goes ahead and makes the move.

I think it is about his being black. Unless you are exceptionally good, a black guy does not end up in the White House. And so Barack Obama being amazingly good is everything about his being a black dude.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Kick Ortega Out

TRIPOLI. With leader of the Libyan Revolution ...Image via WikipediaThis revolution for democracy that started in the Arab world has to push out every single dictator in the region, but the fire also has to go to China, to black Africa, to Russia, and now looks like to Latin America as well.

The rats are coming out of their holes. Let them come out. One after another.

2011 is the year for democracy. 2011 has the option to become the biggest year for democracy the world ever saw. We have to make it happen. 2011 could end up being that year, which when it ended, there was not a single autocrat left anywhere. That can happen. But that will not happen on its own. We have to make it happen. And by we I mean people everywhere have to pitch in.

Kick Ortega out too. If he is with Gaddafi, he is not with us. We don't need him. Get out into the streets. Kick this guy out. We have no need for him.

Washington Post: Nicaragua prez call Gaddafi to expresses support Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity. .... Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation. ..... Human rights groups say more than 200 people have died as Libyan security forces crack down on protesters

The Straits Times: Gaddafi Latin American allies show solidarity, caution Gaddafi has responded over the years by awarding the Muammar Gaddafi International Human Rights Prize to Castro, Ortega, Chavez and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

The Fuck With Mugabe
The Chinese Communist Party Can Keep The Power If They Agree To Pluralism, Federalism
This Is Also About Women's Rights
The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too
Democracy: An Israeli Plot?
China: 2 PM, Sunday
Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards
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