President Joe Biden and his administration were largely silent about Sunday's anti-communist protests in Cuba, the most extraordinary outpouring of pro-democracy sentiment in more than 60 years. The only response from the Biden administration came from a rather junior official who tweeted that the protests were about COVID deaths, and who urged Cubans to donate to each other.
Really.
The protests are political in nature, to the point where people have been marching openly with the American flag -- a banner that much of the Democratic Party today detests. Several conservatives have pointed out on Twitter that when truly oppressed people around the world march for freedom, they wave the American flag that our "woke" elites over here insult and disdain.
Even assuming, for argument's sake, that the Biden administration were right -- that the protest is about COVID -- it is a stunning failure for the left, which has praised Cuba for decades for its supposed medical advances. Cuba and Canada are both held up as examples to shame the U.S. over health policy and yet have both failed miserably during the pandemic, while American firms created the life-saving vaccines that are enabling us to return to normal.
I imagine there will be some damage control today from the Biden White House. I don't expect it to repeat the Obama administration's mistake with the Green Revolution in Iran, though it might. Remember that the uprising is evidence that the Obama-Biden policy of "normalization" with the regime was an utter failure, so a shift will require a bit of creative amnesia. Then again, Biden can't remember much anyway, so there's a chance to get this right.
UPDATE: Here's Biden's statement, a dramatic improvement from the day before:
We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime. The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
