This is dead on. Both my parents fled Cuba, albeit it as separate times (Mom in the early 60's when Castro took over and my dad in the early 80's with the mariel boat lifts). My mom came from wealth (they were the owners of a chain of pharmacies all through Santiago. Their neighbors were the Bacardi's) and her and my grandfather both frame Castro as complete destruction of what they built while Batista was good to them. My dad and grandparents there were poor farmers from Pinar Del Rio and their perception of Castro is bit different, having seen Castro as more of a mixed bag, some good and some bad. I still have 2 uncles in Pinar Del Rio who come to the U.S every so often, and they speak of Castro in some ways as "the great equalizer".

A bit of a random tangent, but I've always found the variation on this subject between generations to be interesting. I'll go back to the n00b cave now.

 

This is fascinating, and please don't crawl back into the n00b cave.

My family were also from Santiago, and were also good friends with the Bacardi family. (I happen to have a bottle of Bacardi Ocho on the shelf next to me.)

Having not lived there, my understanding is that Cuba was a radically polarized place in the 1940s-50s. I fear that this history is a premonition of things to come in the US.

The biggest concern, in my mind, is that the US is a very large country, and thus, Canada / Australia / UK / Germany / France / South Africa / etc will not be able to absorb all of us (the ones with marketable skills and jobs) if things do indeed turn for the worse.

To an severalith-generation American, I'm sure this must seem paranoid. My family has had to flee from not one but two corrupt regimes within recent history. (Spain sucked during the civil war.)

 

As for the Florida things and teachers in general, would you like to hear a funny story that backs up the Harvard study showing that teachers are at best sub-par students? And they become teachers because they aren't intelligent enough to get real jobs?

I literally know someone with a Masters in education, I know her well enough that me, her, and her current husband nearly had a devil's 3-way in college, she literally told me one time:

"Oh you burned yourself, you need to run HOT water over the burn to pull the heat out."


And my girlfriend wonders why I don't want to have a child unless she can home school it. My lady, even though she is working on her BA in her 30s, is literally one of the most intelligent people I know.

 

those who cant do, teach.

this is law.

 

There are very rare exceptions, but yes. Most kids aren't in a position to critique the skills or knowledge of their teachers so it tends to be an insular place for dolts to work.

 

they also complain a lot of FB, and are the first post about a possible day off.

 

Ha, no kidding. I was also born here (Miami), but visited Santiago once as a kid (must've been 1994-1995?) . I wouldn't be surprised if my family there knew/knows some of yours. On the radicalization, I remember i delved into that, amongst other things, with my grandfather years back. Talking about Cuba was always a sore subject with him. He was always in a way glad to share stories with me about life there, but it always came with a hint of sadness of what he left behind. He would tell me things took a turn in the early 50's, but being higher up the wealth ladder, him and my grandmother were both pretty insulated from it. It wasn't until the family pharmacy chain was seized in the early 60's and his neighbors "disappeared", that he realized it was time to go. From what I've heard, the pharmacies are still there, and they still bear in really worn paint the "Farmacia Tamayo" logo on them.

My grandfather passed earlier this year, but we did fortunately talk a lot about this subject since i was always interested in it. Plenty of interesting stories of life there and the Batista to Castro transition.

 

for Joe:





when two made up things meet each other....

 

[laughs in a capitalism]

 

https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor...oKKX9-zDTJCHnU

 

^ That's the problem with identity politics. No matter how narrowly you define the groups, someone always has it a bit better than you do, which is an opportunity to castigate them as an oppressor (because any advantage clearly must have been unfairly gained). It is ironic that the right wing is accused of worshiping individualism when it's the policies of left that lead to ultimate individualism.

 

I identify as myself.

 

Joe Perez, party of one, your table is ready.

 

Well that is interesting, because I also identify as myself.

I do wonder what identifying as Joe Perez would be like.

 

just identify as him for a little bit and find out.

 

that would be easy if you knew his bank account details, social security number & a few dates etc

Rich.

 

^Are you able to lay in a hospital bed with a collapsed lung, catheter inserted, fresh out of surgery, mustache in full afterburner, half dead, and still able to pull the hot nurse changing your bedsheets?

If not, then you will never be able to identify as Joe Perez.

 

The truth wasn't far from that.

What really made me laugh was when she confided to me, several months later, that I was used as a prize on the floor for that week. Literally. The nurse manager on the night shift awarded me to whichever nurse had had a really rotten day otherwise. Little things like that build a guy's ego.

 

That reminds me (forgive me if I've missed something); isn't there a Joe Jr on the way?

 

No.

That was more of a general statement than an announcement of any specific impending doom.