Patterico's Pontifications

11/26/2016

Fidel Castro Dead

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:05 am



Good riddance.

63 Responses to “Fidel Castro Dead”

  1. Well.

    Should we give him a proper burial?
    [YouTube]

    papertiger (c8116c)

  2. A dictator destined to spend Eternity in Hell is being cremated.

    Cubans do have a sense of humor after all.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  3. So, do Obama, Sanders and Warren go to the funeral?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  4. ESPN has this as one of their lead headlines.

    http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18138276/former-cuban-leader-fidel-castro-dies-age-90

    It’s pretty much all about how great Castro was for sports in Cuba. Enough to make me wonder if Variety ran a hagiographic piece after Stalin’s death.

    Demosthenes (09f714)

  5. the oppression lives on.

    crazy (d3b449)

  6. He was a Great Man. One of the Immortals who made his tiny little island nation important in the history of the world. Like William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, Garibaldi, Ivan the Great, Bismarck, Washington. Without him, Cuba would have been just another obscure little island “somewhere in South America”, important only in middle school geography quizzes. The hate for him is really tribute.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. BFD — He’s been brain dead for longer than most liberals….

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (668532)

  8. P.S., and Florence Henderson just died, too. Whose death overshadows the other? LOZ….

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (668532)

  9. Flo was “modern” with many revelations that would be standard TMZ fare these days.

    urbanleftbehind (99dd15)

  10. @ nk, #6:

    Ah, yes. Washington. Garibaldi. Castro.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b0ftfKFEJg

    Demosthenes (09f714)

  11. #9 urbanleftbehind, I think you’re confusing Shirley Jones with Florence Henderson. Jones is the one with the autobiography which revealed admissions about wild times with former hubby Jack Cassidy.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  12. Florence Henderson got the clap from NYC Mayor Jon Lindsay and had something with “Greg” Barry Williams.

    urbanleftbehind (99dd15)

  13. Ashes to ashes,
    Dust to dust.
    The proof of the pudding
    Is under the crust.

    nk (dbc370)

  14. Vaya con El Diablo, comrade.

    Bugg (820f2c)

  15. You guys are being a bit harsh. The media is saying, among his achievements, he improved health care in Cuba. He was the first to come up with the expression, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Of course he added, “Unless I decide he must die.”

    AZ Bob (f7a491)

  16. His image will become a Capitalist icon to sell to dumb teenagers looking to rebel.

    Dejectedhead (29a273)

  17. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1362435/

    When they talk about the great sports stars, almost every one of them had to flee Cuba on the sly, from Luis Tiant to Yoenis Cespedes. Link is to a documentary , “Lost Son of Havana” about Tiant returning ostensibly as a pitching coach but really to see what’s left of his family. And Tiant was never sure if they would prevent him from entering or leaving since even even though he is now an American citizen.And basically his family and everyone they live around are destitute and living in squalor. At one point, the narrator, actor Chris Cooper, notes how Tiant drove for miles without seeing a single gas station, grocery store, pharmacy nor even a bodega. While it’s rulers were not wonderful people, Cuba when he left was at least on it’s way to being the most prosperous country in latin America . Castro wrecked that.

    Andy Garcia’s “Lost City” also gives you a sense of what a monster Castro was, along with his murderous henchman Che.

    Bugg (820f2c)

  18. Here is a recent article about how some of our best current Cuban baseball players/stars got out of Cuba and got MLB contracts. Just horrific stuff all around.

    http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/22/news/mlb-cuban-smuggling/index.html?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool

    elissa (749046)

  19. Castro’s Cuba was the revenge of the defeated “Republican” forces of Spain.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  20. #12 urbanleftbehind, Florence Henderson didn’t have “anything” with Barry Williams. And he’s only spent the past 20 years clarifying that.
    She did admit to having a brief affair with Mayor Lindsay back in the day, but Shirley Jones was the one who admitted to wild and crazy times in her autobiography.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  21. Castro’s Cuba was the revenge of the defeated “Republican” forces of Spain.

    The Spanish American War. Castro’s father had been a soldier, from Galicia, in the Spanish army, who stayed behind.

    nk (dbc370)

  22. nk (dbc370) — 11/26/2016 @ 6:55 am
    I completely agree, nk.

    felipe (023cc9)

  23. Via Yahoo News:

    Venezuela’s Socialist President Nicolas Maduro said “revolutionaries of the world must follow his legacy,” while Pope Francis said he was grieving and praying for the repose of the professed atheist, whom he met in Cuba last year.

    China’s president, Xi Jinping, said “the Chinese people have lost a close comrade and a sincere friend”. U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump said on Twitter: “Fidel Castro is dead!”, without elaborating.

    elissa (749046)

  24. If SNL weren’t what it is they could riff on the old “Franco is still dead” bit for years.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  25. Lost City is a great movie!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  26. Teh Kaepernick Curse.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  27. It would be very difficult to find Americans who cherish what this country has given them in the way of freedom and opportunity more than my two colleagues who – as kids with their parents – fled Cuba with literally nothing more than the cardboard boxes of possessions they could hand carry. Castro wouldn’t even allow them their suitcases, too much dignity in that.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  28. ugh this pope is just sick in the head

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  29. Big question — if Havana has a State Funeral, will Obama go???

    Think about the funerals of US Officials he has skipped — most notably Scalia’s.

    Can he resist the lure of a “Fellow Traveler”??

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  30. Sonia Flew is a wonderful and poignant play I saw almost exactly a decade ago. Sonia’s Cuban parents sent her as a young child to America in 1961 because they were fearful of the new Castro regime. The parents had to stay behind. I won’t try to describe the script’s complexity but the thing that stood out then and stays with me still was how the parents suffered so terribly both because they had lost their only daughter and in other terrible ways, while Sonia, too, suffered for years because she felt that she had been abandoned and exiled by her parents. She had a hard time coming to grips with, and understanding the love and sacrifice her parents had made to assure a future for her.

    http://www.melindalopez.com/sonia-flew/

    elissa (749046)

  31. What ‘world figure’ is left around from Castro’s Cold War ‘hey-day’… Queen Elizabeth II comes to mind, but the everyone else is gone now.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  32. It has been reported that Castro’s life was lengthened through transfusions of blood from young Cubans and cold coconut milk enemas.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  33. Ditto with lost city, Andy Garcia spent 15 years, trying to get financing then distribution as with his other project, about the cristeros

    narciso (d1f714)

  34. Well DCSCA, I would take Castro’s longevity as a visible sign of God’s mercy in affording Castro ample time to repent. Or perhaps he was very good to his parents*

    *Honor your father and your mother,
    that your days may be long in the land
    which the LORD your God gives you.

    O.k., let’s go with the first one.

    felipe (023cc9)

  35. Fidel Catro is dead!

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/flaming_skull2a.gif

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  36. He was an asuang, a ghoul who sucked the marrow and soul from his peiple

    narciso (d1f714)

  37. Let us not forget his minions tortured col day, Stockdale, dentin even maverick.

    narciso (d1f714)

  38. What a cool skull, Colonel.

    felipe (023cc9)

  39. Trump has a pretty good statement.

    narciso (d1f714)

  40. @34. They might try to credit Cuba’s healthcare system.

    Maybe it’s the cigars after all. Stogie wielder George Burns cracked 100.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  41. The Spanish doctors saved him

    narciso (d1f714)

  42. @39. Dr. Leonard McCoy trumps Trump better:

    “He’s dead, Jim.”

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  43. Yes. It is not such an important milestone. Fidel was mostly a figurehead for the last few years, Raul is in charge, Cuba is no more free today than it was yesterday. And whatever celestial justice deals Fidel, he certainly seems to have escaped human justice.

    It is perhaps a bit of irony that Fidel died on the supreme day of the cult of consumerism, Black Friday.

    Kishnevi (41a4d3)

  44. Good stuff… http://youtu.be/SsKbHXWxNeY

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  45. “Trump has a pretty good statement.”

    Full Statement

    “Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades,” Trump said in a statement issued a couple of hours after his tweet.
    “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.”

    I’d rate it as “Excellent” rather than “pretty good”, Narciso.

    Rick Ballard (d17095)

  46. @43- Yes, but the swath of time he has been around coupled with the incredible events and changes in the world since he seized power is just something to ponder.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  47. It does say something when Pelosi is more critical of Fidel than Obama is.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/26/fidel-castro-death-obama-trump-response

    Kishnevi (41a4d3)

  48. Expect the Vatican and the disgraceful Pope Francis to bend over backward to give him a Requiem Mass he does not deserve after a life spent harassing the Catholic Church. Does happen that bishops with some nerve have refused such when confronted by lives of total criminality. The NY Archdiocese refused to give mob boss Paul Castellano a funeral mass,and the Brooklyn Diocese so refused John Gotti. Though the NYAD did offer to allow Castellano’s family to have a memorial mass dedicated to his soul(which in Catholicism is quite common; most churches have scheduled weekday masses which can de dedicated for deceased people for a small donation). Ironically some of Castellano family has settled amongst the shanty Irish of my mom’s parish and are no longer criminals and are instead upstanding and nice business people, which is not the case at all with the Gotti clan.

    Bugg (820f2c)

  49. just shameful

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  50. Big question — if Havana has a State Funeral, will Obama go???

    Think about the funerals of US Officials he has skipped — most notably Scalia’s.

    Can he resist the lure of a “Fellow Traveler”??

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 11/26/2016 @ 8:59 am

    Naw- more likely he’ll send Biden. 2 points: Slow Joe can’t do much damage to our new relationship with Cuba, and anyway there likely won’t be anyone at the funeral Preezy 404 can take a selfie with.

    Bill H (971e5f)

  51. Bill-

    Also, no decent golf courses in the worker’s paradise. Though he could be anywhere in Florida in a half hour from Havana, so The One could use this as an excuse to squeeze in 18 with Reggie Love. Not that there’s anything….

    Bugg (820f2c)

  52. He was a Great Man. One of the Immortals who made his tiny little island nation important in the history of the world. Like Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and the Kim Il Sung. Without him, Cuba would have been just another obscure little island “somewhere in South America”, important only in middle school geography quizzes. The millions that fled these rulers or died trying are really tribute.

    FIFY.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  53. *the

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  54. Big question — if Havana has a State Funeral, will Obama go???

    Naw- more likely he’ll send Biden

    Considering that he sent NO ONE to Thatcher’s funeral, I’d nope not; but also expect him to make it a state visit.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  55. I’d be careful about any claims that we hear of what Pope Francis allegedly says about how much he grieves for Castro. One new parlor trick of the left is to take the Pope’s words out of context and make them seem even more leftist than they really are. The recent announcement that a parish priest can offer absolution for the sin of abortion to the truly penitent instead of her having to go to her diocesan bishop is a great example: the media made it sound as if was this huge liberalization of policy when in face it was merely the codification of the policy as it had informally existed for years.

    Here is Pope Francis’s formal message to the other Castro thug, as reported by Vatican Radio:

    On receiving the sad news of the death of your dear brother, His Excellency Mister Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, former president of the State Council and of the Government of the Republic of Cuba, I express my sentiments of sorrow to Your Excellency and other family members of the deceased dignitary, as well as to the people of this beloved nation. At the same time, I offer prayers to the Lord for his rest and I entrust the whole Cuban people to the maternal intercession of our Lady of the Charity of El Cobre, patroness of that country.

    Francisco, PP.

    Yeah, this pontiff is too leftist for my tastes, and yeah, his immediate predecessors would have had come up with something less obsequious, but I don’t find this statement to be particularly objectionable. Especially since he is trying to make inroads into the Cuban people.

    JVW (6e49ce)

  56. the fool deserves proper opprobrium,

    https://twitter.com/darksecretplace/status/802633708918292480

    narciso (d1f714)

  57. one of the basilisk’s saving graces

    https://twitter.com/mcmoynihan/status/802515055124344832

    narciso (d1f714)

  58. Among the more recent and obscure memoirs inked by American astronauts, a space shuttle crewman, who shall go nameless, had to relieve himself on orbit of some solid waste. Accordingly, he had his fellow crewmates give him a countdown and as the orbiter passed over Castro’s Cuba, he pinched off a loaf into the shuttle’s toilet for jettison. An appropriate memory to recount today.

    “Dump it.” – Gordon Gekko [Michael Douglas] ‘Wall Street’ 1987

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  59. Couple recurring skits on SNL dealt directly with the stupidity of socialism.

    No Coke! Pepsi.
    The Scotch tape store.

    Both of them hilarious. Both blocked on YouTube.

    Due to Obama’s thaw in relations with Cuba and an impromptu visit of Havana by Conan O’Brian it’s safe to make fun of socialism again, despite NBC’s unilateral censoring.

    “Visit to the market in Cuba.”
    [YouTube]

    Enjoy!

    papertiger (c8116c)

  60. he improved health care in Cuba.

    Yes, the same way Mussolini made the trains run on time, and the same way Hitler achieved his “economic miracle” in the mid-’30s. “Or let’s not and say we did.” If you control the publication of the statistics, you can achieve whatever result you like.

    Milhouse (40ca7b)


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