#Cuban Council of State

[minnesotafollower]

Cuba’s Worsening Economic and Political Crisis 

Emilio Morales, a Cuban who has had wide-ranging marketing experience on the island, is now the President and CEO of Havana Consulting Group, a Miami-based consulting firm specializing in market intelligence and strategy for U.S. and and non-U.S. persons doing business in Cuba.[1] Morales has provided a detailed analysis of Cuba’s worsening economic and political crisis.[2] The following is part…

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Neither bombs nor permanent aggression will be enough to break hope

Havana marches for Palestine

By Carmen Maturell Senon, Granma

The lords of war, which is the horror of the peoples, are indifferent to children, women and men; the human being. It is strange for them to become sensitive and end it in the face of so many deaths; that is why they continue to agonize what is not theirs, what is alive.

The more than seven decades of the Palestinian people resisting the onslaught of Zionist colonialism are not enough; nor are the lives taken from more than 42,000 people since October 2023. The offensive continues, and it hurts.

That is why, aware that solidarity knows no decoys or borders, and that to fight for Palestine is also to fight for humanity, a representation of the Cuban people marched through the streets of Havana, from the Martí Forge to the Anti-imperialist Tribune.

"Our solidarity and sensitivity with just causes summon us to the most anti-imperialist of the tribunes, to repudiate the massacre being committed against the people of Palestine and which is also intensifying against Lebanon, Syria and Yemen," expressed Meyvis Estévez Echevarría, first secretary of the National Committee of the Union of Young Communists.

In view of the vile scenario experienced by the Palestinian people, she affirmed that it is not a question of figures, that they are entire families martyred, disappeared, and that every time a person from that land is murdered, the shame of the world also dies.

"This march of thousands of Cubans, and the rallies that have been held in the country during these days, honor each life taken by Israel; in addition, it reaffirms the political will and commitment of the Cuban State with peace, justice and respect for national sovereignty," highlighted Meyvis Estévez.

The march was led by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, accompanied by members of the Political Bureau, Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power and the Council of State, and Manuel Marrero Cruz, prime minister, as well as other leaders and representatives of political and mass organizations.

[txttletale]

hi I've been following you for a while and I had some questions about MLism. First, while I think I have a decent understanding of how it works economically, how would a ML government (after the revolution) ensure it doesn't become too powerful? like what systems would be put in place so that it hears public opinion and dissent (should there be any) and not try to maintain power through oppressive means?

Secondly, what would the aftermath of the revolution look like? once the government is overthrown, there will most likely be a period of instability where different factions trying to sieze control. How would the MLs make sure that they get seated in power?

I am genuinely trying to learn more about it, so I'm sorry if those questions are ignorant. Thanks!

i mean, that first part? i'll be completely honest with you and say that in my opinion that's a partially unsolved problem. i think that lenin's prescriptions in state & revolution, based on the actions of the paris commune--that all 'officials' should be subject to democratic recall at any time and paid no more than anyone else--would be a good start.

but of course the USSR did not ossify and see abuses of power because its leaders simply forgot about what lenin wrote--the centralization of power and limiting of worker democracy was a direct result of the newly formed state apparatus having to fight brutal years-long civil war followed as mere decade later by a brutal years-long international invasion. & this is of course a situation that will be faced by any serious socialist government & their newly formed apparatus!

however, on the other hand -- cuba has succesfully maintained an incredible system of participatory democracy. i think that mao's idea of the 'mass line' -- that theory must constantly be in dialogue with the situation on the ground and the situation of the workers -- is vital to maintaining this. in its own time of crisis, during the 90s, instead of 'pulling the ladder up' on workers' councils, cuba expanded and doubled down on its participatory democracy. i think if any nation has succesfully followed lenin's theory and example, it's cuba, and the mass workplace and municipal democracy that the cuban communist party has invited should be the model for any future socialist revolution.

and quite frankly the reason why MLs will 'take power' after the revolution is because marxism-leninism is the only revolutionary socialist ideology with a plan and ability to take and maintain power over the bourgeoisie. i think one thing reading lenin will very much clarify is that the socialist state is not something that is built after the revolution but a continuation of the revolution -- lenin explains aptly the marxist position that, having taken up arms in order to dethrone the bourgeoisie, to not establish a marxist dictatorship of the proletariat is to throw aside those arms that have already been wielded and used. 'not setting up a worker's state' isn't inaction, but a deliberate choice to be disarmed and helpless in the face of foreign intervention or counterrevolution.

and this is also why i think that while solving the (very real and dangerous!) spectres of bureaucracy, of revisionism, of socialist militias becoming police forces "special bodies of men apart from and above" the people instead of "self-acting armed organizations" of the people is a vital and pressing question for marxism-leninism to address in both theory and practice, it is just as vital to note that only marxism-leninism can succeed to the point where this becomes a problem--only marxism-leninism has shown the historical ability to put the workers in a position of political supremacy that they might risk losing to these flaws and missteps.

& seriously, don't be sorry for asking questions. any questions in good faith are welcomed on this blog, because i'm a communist and i do in fact think it is my job to explain communism to people. have a nice day & don't be so down on yourself!

[lgbtpopcult]

Best WLW News Stories of 2022

The state of Tamaulipas voted to recognise same-sex marriage, making it legal in all 32 states.

Jean-Pierre will formally begin following Psaki's last day, which will be May 13. President Joe Biden announced in a statement Thursday, becoming the first Black and out LGBTQ person to hold the position.

The Church of Scotland has voted to allow same-sex marriages, after fresh warnings that its historical opposition had increased the church’s decline towards irrelevance.

The church’s general assembly, its decision-making body, voted by 274 to 136 on Monday to allow its ministers and deacons to opt in to officiate at same-sex weddings, ending a centuries-old prohibition.

The church’s legislation will be updated to remove references to a marriage taking place between a husband and wife, and refer instead to “parties”.

Some ministers said within minutes of the vote that they had immediately applied to be registered to carry out same-sex weddings, including the Rev James Bissett, a chaplain to the Royal Air Force’s air cadets.

Cuba has legalized same-sex marriage after Cubans voted in favor of a family code that increased protections for minorities on the island, the country’s National Electoral Council announced on Monday.

The Electoral Council said 74.1% of those eligible to vote in Sunday’s national referendum had turned out to cast their ballot.

With 94% of the votes counted as of 9am ET on Monday morning, 3,936,790 had voted in favor and 1,950,090 against – signaling an overwhelming support for the new law.

The new family code extends greater protection to women, children and the elderly, as well as allowing LGBTQ couples to marry and adopt children.

Lawmakers in the tiny nation – which has a population of about 77,000 and is smaller than the city of Chicago in land mass – voted unanimously to allow same-sex couples access to civil marriage.

“Today we vote for a law for all, which includes us all, a law of a modern country that ensures the free development of citizenship and bases its success on the most important nucleus of organization, the family, with all its diversity,” said Carles Enseñat, president of the Democratic Parliamentary Group.

The models Fabiola Valentín, Miss Grand Puerto Rico 2020, and Mariana Varela, Miss Grand Argentina 2020, thrilled the world of beauty pageants by not only confirming their relationship, but also revealing that they joined their lives in marriage, on October 28, in an intimate celebration.

Slovenia is the first country in the region that gives same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples. The Parliament passed the amendment with 48 MPs in favour, 29 who voted against and one blank vote, Euronews reports.

The status does not carry the same rights as marriage, but allows LGBTQ partners to be treated as married couples for some public services in areas such as housing, health and welfare.

The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex marriages, an extraordinary sign of shifting national politics on the issue and a measure of relief for the hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide.

[lboogie1906]

Ambassador Carl Thomas Rowan (August 11, 1925 – September 23, 2000) was a prominent journalist, author, and government official who published columns syndicated across the US and was at one point the highest-ranking African American in the US government.

He was born in Ravenscroft, Tennessee, the son of Johnnie, a cook and cleaner, and Thomas Rowan, who stacked lumber. He was raised in McMinnville, Tennessee.

He worked cleaning porches at a tuberculosis hospital to attend Tennessee State University and Washburn University. He was one of the first African Americans to serve as a commissioned officer in the Navy. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He graduated from Oberlin College and was awarded an MA in journalism from the University of Minnesota. He began his career in journalism writing for the African-American newspapers Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder. He went on to be a copywriter for The Minneapolis Tribune and became a staff writer reporting extensively on the Civil Rights Movement.

He was denied membership in a club because it was racially segregated.

He was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State by President John F. Kennedy. He served as a delegate to the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He became the Ambassador to Finland. He was appointed director of the US Information Agency by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He became the first African American to hold a seat on the National Security Council. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #omegapsiphi

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Patricia Torres at The Guardian:

Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority – a result that appeared to dash opposition hopes of ending 25 years of socialist rule and was immediately contested by his rivals and several governments in the region.

After a six-hour delay in releasing the results of Sunday’s election sparked an outpouring of concern from South American governments, the national electoral council claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia. The council said with about 80% of votes counted, Maduro had secured more than 5m compared with González’s 4.4m. “I am Nicolás Maduro Moros – the re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela … and I will defend our democracy, our law and our people,” the 61-year-old proclaimed as he addressed supporters in the capital, Caracas. Independent observers had described this election as the most arbitrary in recent years, even by the standards of an authoritarian regime that started with Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Maduro dedicated his win to Chávez, his late mentor, who anointed Maduro as his successor shortly before his death in 2013. “Long live Chávez. Chávez is alive!” Maduro shouted.

The result was celebrated by Maduro’s allies including the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who hailed a “historic victory” and called it a triumph of “the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people”. “The people spoke and the revolution won,” he tweeted. Bolivia’s leftwing leader, Luis Arce, also celebrated the result of an election that was held on what would have been Chávez’s 70th birthday. “What a great way to remember the Comandante Hugo Chávez,” Arce tweeted. There was condemnation and questioning from elsewhere in the region, with many convinced the election had been stolen. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said his government had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people”.

“It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes. The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly,” Blinken added. Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, tweeted: “Maduro’s regime must understand that the results it has published are hard to believe … Chile will not recognise any result that is not verifiable.” Peru’s foreign minister, Javier González-Olaechea, said his government also rejected the result. “Peru will not accept the violation of the popular will of the Venezuelan people,” he tweeted. The government of Costa Rica said it categorically rejected what it considered a “fraudulent” result, while the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, said the count had been “clearly flawed”. “You cannot recognise a triumph if you do not trust the form and mechanisms used to achieve it,” Pou said.

The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado – who had thrown her weight behind González’s campaign after being banned from running herself – rejected the result, claiming the opposition had won in every single state. “We won and everybody knows it,” she said. “We haven’t just defeated them politically and morally, today we defeated them with votes,” Machado told journalists, claiming González had in fact won the contest and should be considered the country’s president-elect. The result was a bitter blow to Venezuela’s notoriously fractured opposition, which had united around the unlikely candidacy of González – a 74-year-old former ambassador and political neophyte - hoping he could help lead the country out of one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in modern history.

Incumbent autocratic Venezuelan “President” Nicolás Maduro coronated himself as the fraudulent winner of the 2024 Venezuelan elections over Edmundo González Urrutia (who is running in María Corina Machado’s stead).

[valkyries-things]

CELIA SANCHEZ // REVOLUTIONARY

“She was a Cuban revolutionary, politician, researcher and archivist. She was a key member of the Cuban Revolution and a close colleague of Fidel Castro. She started as an arms runner, later as a combatant in the Revolution, considered the first female guerilla of the Sierra Maestra. She would place telegrams inside a butterfly flower, so the messages remained secret. She later on served in office as secretary to the presidency of the Council of Ministers and in the Department of Services of the Council of State.”

[workersolidarity]

🇷🇺🇺🇲 🚨 DMITRY MEDVEDEV, FORMER RUSSIAN PRESIDENT SLAMS ZELENSKY VISIT WITH BIDEN

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian President and current Deputy Chair of the Russian Security Council slammed Zelensky's visit with U.S. President Joe Biden yesterday, and accused the Biden Administration of blackmailing the U.S. Congress.

Medvedev wrote on the Social Media platform X:

The primitive blackmailing that Biden Administration has unleashed against the Congress is not new and has historical precedents. “Give money to our guy (insert the necessary surname), otherwise we’ll have to go to war against the Russians,” said various American presidents in various times, extorting money from lawmakers.

The point of today is different:

1. Never have they clamoured for that much for a second-rate state in the stage of decay.

2. Never have they demanded the money, so brazenly and aggressively, for the country that has openly corrupted the acting US president and his family members.

3. Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, never has been the threat of direct confrontation between Russia and NATO, turning into WWIII, so real.

This is a new phenomenon in the US political discourse, created by the “Joe, Hunter & Partners” joint-stock company. They have impeachment prospect looming ahead (which is unlikely), and losing the election (which is quite likely). This is where this boorish blackmailing, unending hysteria and outrageous hints against us are coming from.

The Administration and their scared fosterling are sure to get the money. If not now, then in the coming year, to go on with their war business at all costs. And for this dough, new rivers of blood will flow, for which Biden family and their banderite scum are responsible.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[beardedmrbean]

A top American diplomat who used to be the US ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested for allegedly secretly working as a Cuban spy.

Manuel Rocha, 73, was taken into custody in Miami on Friday in what marked the culmination of a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation, according to the Associated Press.

Two sources told the agency that Mr Rocha is accused of secretly working to promote the Cuban government’s interests.

Investigators allege that this is a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act – a law which requires any individual lobbying and doing the political bidding of a foreign government on US soil to register with the Justice Department.

Further details about the 73-year-old’s alleged work as a Cuban government agent are expected to be revealed on Monday when he appears in federal court.

Neither the DOJ or Mr Rocha has yet publicly commented on his arrest.

Mr Rocha’s wife Karla Wittkop Rocha refused to comment and hung up the phone when reached for comment by the AP.

The bombshell arrest comes after Mr Rocha has spent 25 years working as a top US diplomat in several Latin American countries.

His diplomatic postings included a stint at the US Interests Section in Cuba during a time when the US lacked full diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s communist government.

Born in Colombia, Mr Rocha was raised in a working-class home in New York City and went on to obtain a succession of liberal arts degrees from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown before joining the foreign service in 1981.

He was the top US diplomat in Argentina between 1997 and 2000 as a decade-long currency stabilisation program backed by Washington was unraveling under the weight of huge foreign debt and stagnant growth, triggering a political crisis that would see the South American country cycle through five presidents in two weeks.

At his next post as ambassador to Bolivia, he intervened directly into the 2002 presidential race, warning weeks ahead of the vote that the US would cut off assistance to the poor South American country if it were to elect former coca grower Evo Morales.

“I want to remind the Bolivian electorate that if they vote for those who want Bolivia to return to exporting cocaine, that will seriously jeopardise any future aid to Bolivia from the United States,” Mr Rocha said in a speech that was widely interpreted as a an attempt to sustain US dominance in the region.

The gambit worked but three years later Bolivians elected Morales anyway and the leftist leader would expel Rocha’s successor as chief of the diplomatic mission for inciting “civil war”.

Mr Rocha also served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and worked as a Latin America expert for the National Security Council.

Following his retirement from the State Department, Mr Rocha began a second career in business, serving as the president of a gold mine in the Dominican Republic partly owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold.

More recently, he’s held senior roles at XCoal, a Pennsylvania-based coal exporter; Clover Leaf Capital, a company formed to facilitate mergers in the cannabis industry; law firm Foley & Lardner and Spanish public relations firm Llorente & Cuenca.

[mariacallous]

Is the Cuban government on the verge of collapse? Has the moment that Washington has waited for, hoped for, and worked toward for 65 years finally arrived? Some U.S. officials seem to think so. But so eager are they to see the dream of regime change finally come true that they underestimate the Cuban regime’s resilience, skewing U.S. policy to the detriment of the Cuban people that they purport to support.

At a recent conference in Madrid, Brian Nichols—the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs—gave a glimpse into how the Biden administration views Cuba’s current crisis. “Cuba is at a key moment,” he said, referring to recent protests over shortages of food and electricity in Santiago, the symbolic birthplace of Cuban revolutions. “And the solution is democracy.”

In a similar vein, U.S. President Joe Biden previously called Cuba a “failed state” following an unprecedented spate of nationwide protests that began on July 11, 2021. In normal usage, a failed state is one that has lost the capacity to govern its national territory. Haiti is a failed state; Cuba is certainly not. Nevertheless, the possibility that the protests marked the onset of a “people’s power” revolution caused Biden to freeze plans for relaxing some of former President Donald Trump’s draconian economic sanctions.

“After July 11, we hit the pause button,” said Juan Gonzalez, Biden’s National Security Council advisor for Latin America, in an interview with NBC.

Cuba was not a failed state in 2021, nor is it now—but its economy is failing under the combined weight of U.S. sanctions, misguided government policies, and the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” was designed to starve the economy of foreign exchange currency by curtailing travel, limiting remittances, impeding energy supplies, and coercing other countries into canceling medical services contracts with Cuba.

Just as these sanctions were taking effect, COVID-19 closed the tourist industry, the centerpiece of the Cuban economy, resulting in a loss of as much as $3 billion annually. When Trump blocked the wire service transfers of remittances and the pandemic prevented Cuban Americans from hand-carrying cash to help their families, annual remittances fell from more than $3 billion to just $1.9 billion in 2021. All in all, foreign exchange earnings dropped by some 40 percent.

With the economy under this severe stress, the government decided to undertake a long awaited currency and exchange rate reform that was poorly implemented, touching off runaway inflation that has eroded the real purchasing power of the Cuban peso by as much as 90 percent in certain informal markets.

As a result, Cubans are suffering critical shortages of basic necessities—food, fuel, and medicine. Electrical blackouts lasting half a day are common. Life has become so hard that more than 5 percent of the population has emigrated over the past two years, exacerbating the migration problem on the U.S. southern border.

On top of the economic crisis, Cuba’s leaders face unprecedented political challenges. Fidel Castro, whose prestige and charisma held the regime together through past hardships, is gone. His brother Raúl and the rest of the “historic generation” that brought about the revolution have stepped back from the helm, and their successors lack the credibility of the founders. The internet, and especially social media, have awakened Cuban civil society, confronting leaders with demands from below that they have no experience managing. Rising inequality, produced by the very market reforms that the government introduced to stimulate the economy, is exacerbating popular frustration.

The depth of people’s desperation and discontent is why some U.S. officials think the denouement of the Cuba regime may finally be at hand. U.S. analysts made that same mistake in the early 1990s, when the Cuban economy suffered a similar meltdown after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1993, a CIA National Intelligence Estimate predicted “a better than even chance” of regime collapse “within the next few years.”

In fact, official Washington has been predicting the Cuban regime’s imminent demise ever since 1959, when the Eisenhower administration expected to overthrow Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government before leaving office. When U.S. Ambassador to Cuba Philip Bonsal proposed offering Castro an olive branch to counter the rising influence of the Soviet Union, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Thomas Mann replied, “Our best bet is to wait for a successor regime.” Subsequent U.S. administrations thought the Cuban regime would be toppled by exile paramilitary attacks, a comprehensive economic embargo, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, finally, Castro’s death.

These predictions have been consistently wrong because they focused on the Cuban government’s vulnerabilities, neglecting its sources of resilience. First, despite widespread and deep popular discontent, there is no organized opposition able to mobilize and channel that discontent into a movement for political change. The one major attempt, in November 2021, to organize a nationwide “Civic March for Change” demanding political reform was a total failure. Today, most leading dissident activists are either in jail or in exile. The protests on July 11, 2021, and the recent ones in Santiago de Cuba were spontaneous outbursts of frustration over the hardships of everyday life, not the result of an organized opposition movement with staying power.

Second, although the Cuban political elite is clearly divided over economic policy, there is no evidence of any split over the fundamental structure of the political system. That is a critical difference from Eastern Europe in 1989. Ironically, U.S. hostility has strengthened elite unity, since Cuba’s leaders know that if they don’t hang together, they will surely hang separately.

Finally, there is no sign of disloyalty within the armed forces. On the contrary, the military enjoys exceptionally strong influence within the upper echelons of the Communist Party, and it manages key sectors of the economy. Its interests are well protected by the status quo.

With a cohesive elite, a loyal military, and no effective organized opposition, there is no plausible path to sudden regime transition in Cuba in the foreseeable future. Change will only come through evolution, not cataclysmic collapse. And regimes under siege are rarely disposed to embark on significant reforms. Former U.S. President Barack Obama recognized the futility of pursuing regime collapse, and he instead sought to engage with Cuba to shape its evolutionary change in a positive direction. But a normalization agreement reached a decade ago was quickly rolled back by the Trump administration.

Biden and his foreign-policy team are holding on to a Cuba policy inherited from Trump, built on the premise that there is no point engaging with a dead man walking. But the real zombie is U.S. policy, an “outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests,” as Obama put it.

Even though the current U.S. approach has no prospect of producing regime change, it is impoverishing the Cuban people who Biden claims to support, deepening the humanitarian crisis on the island and accelerating uncontrolled migration—none of which serves the interests of the United States, let alone the Cuban people.

[eaglesnick]

“The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.”   Caroline Kennedy

Spot the difference.

1. “RUSSIA’S upper house of parliament has approved a plan to grant President Putin new powers over the judiciary, despite growing international outcry over the Kremlin’s efforts to re-establish central government control.”  (The Times: 01/10/04)

2. “In November 2016, The Daily Mail ran a cover story with the now infamous title “Enemies of the People” attacking the three judges of the High Court of England and Wales who had ruled that the UK Government needed Parliament’s consent to give notice of Brexit.” (Springer Link: (05/02/21)

3. “Tens of thousands of Israelis have rallied in Jerusalem in support of controversial plans by the far-right government to reform the judiciary. It was the biggest demonstration of its kind yet. Plans include curbing the Supreme Court and giving the government control over the appointment of judges.”

4. “Home Office accused of pressurising judiciary over immigration    decisions���That the Home Office has sought to pressure the immigration tribunal over its bail decisions during a global pandemic shows alarming disrespect for the right to liberty, the rule of law and the separation of powers.” (Guardian: 06/05/20)

5. According to the (Cuban) constitution, the National Assembly controls judicial appointments and suspensions, and the Council of State exercises these powers when the assembly is not in session. The Council of State is also empowered to issue “instructions of a general character” to the courts, whose rulings typically conform to the interests of the PCC in practice. Judges are tasked with enforcing laws on vaguely defined offences such as “public disorder,” “contempt,” “disrespect for authority,” “precriminal dangerousness,” and “aggression,” which are used to prosecute the regime’s political opponents.”  (Freedom House; Cuba: 2021)

6.” Erdogan criticises top court, stoking judicial crisis in Turkey Main opposition party calls it president’s ‘attempt to eliminate the constitutional order…’ The latest crisis showed that Erdogan wants “more control over what happens in Turkey, including a judicial system that does what he wants, such as prosecuting and imprisoning his critics and opponents”, according to analyst Gareth Jenkins." (Aljazeera: 10/11/23)

7. “Supreme Court Judges branded 'enemies of the people’ after blocking Rwanda plan. Philip Davies MP told the Express that the ruling had sparked a “constitutional crisis”. He said: “I think we have a constitutional crisis on our hands. It is clear that Parliament has passed all the necessary legislation for this to happen, and the job of judges is to implement the laws passed by Parliament, not to rule on whether or not they like the policy.” (Express: 15/11/23)

Did you spot the difference? No, of course not as there are no differences. Dictators,  far-right and far-left governments across the world try - and often succeed - in controlling their   judiciary in order to minimise any legal opposition to their policies. That this is now happening in our country, a country that once prided itself on its democracy and the rule of law is a worrying, dangerous and unwelcome development in UK politics and must be vigorously resisted.

[minnesotafollower]

Once Again, U.N. General Assembly Condemns U.S. Embargo of Cuba

On November 2, 2023, the U.N. General Assembly again condemned for the 31st time, the U.S. embargo of Cuba. This time the vote was 187-2 with one abstention. The negative votes were cast by the U.S. and Israel; the abstention by Ukraine. Three other countries did not vote on the resolution: Somalia, Venezuela and Moldova.[1] U.S. Deputy Ambassador Paul Flambee, after the vote, told the Assembly…

[yatescountyhistorycenter]

From Penn  Yan, with love

By Jonathan Monfiletto

Depending on how you look at it, it was either the height of the Cold War or the early days of this standoff between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Fourteen years after World War II ended, the Iron Curtain had indeed descended as Russia wrestled Eastern European countries into its orbit, and the Space Race was on after Sputnik and Sputnik II were launched. Still, the Cuban Missile Crisis had not yet unfolded, the Vietnam War had not yet erupted, and there were still more than 30 years before the USSR fell along with the Berlin Wall.

Amid this period of tension – sometimes with sharp words, other times with nuclear threats – as the world’s two superpowers stared each other down, a dozen Soviet graduate students – with an average age of 27 – spent a week in Penn Yan in November 1959, during a monthlong tour of the United States. They visited various businesses and industries and other establishments, and they learned about what life is like in a democratic, capitalist society during what was billed as an activity to build better international cooperation and understanding.

The group, which also included three American guides, arrived in Penn Yan on Wednesday, November 4 from the Boston, Massachusetts area – having visited Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, WGBH Educational Television, and the like – and then departed Penn Yan one week later for a two-day visit to Washington, D.C. and a weeklong stay in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of these things is not like the others, as the old Muppets song goes, but it seems Penn Yan got the nod for a tour stop because of its prior connections to the Experiment in International Living, one of the entities that organized the experience.

But unlike the group’s other stops, Yates County could offer a look into life in a rural, agrarian community. While six local families each housed two of the Soviet group members during their weeklong stay, the activities during the day kept the Soviet students learning about the agricultural and industrial components of the area and enjoying the recreation offered by the Finger Lakes region. Following a reception at the Oliver House on Thursday, November 5, the group took a walking tour of downtown Penn Yan and later visited three local farms – the Loomis poultry farm, the Miller dairy farm, and the Emerson poultry processing plant. The next day took them to Cornell University to tour the campus as a whole and then visit the animal husbandry, agricultural engineering, and home economics schools.

Other notable activities included attending classes and an assembly at Penn Yan Academy, touring Penn Yan Boat Company and Urbana Wine Cellar, and being feted at a dinner held by the Penn Yan Central School District Adult Education Advisory Council on the final night in the village. There was plenty of time in the itinerary for fun, however – group rides on Keuka Lake and even group flights over the lake as well as the senior play, a high school football game, a bowling outing, free time with their host families, and more. Civic organizations from the Chamber of Commerce to the Rotary Club to the American Legion and other groups hosted the visitors at different points in time.

The group included a medical student, a correspondent for a youth newspaper, a post-graduate agricultural student, a pianist, and even an actress, who was the only member of the group to be singled out in a newspaper headline. None of them had visited the United States before, but all of them seemed to leave with a good impression, especially of the Penn Yan and Yates County community. The goodwill extended to their hosts as well, as the families who hosted the Soviet students wrote letters – now contained within the subject files of the Yates County History Center – commenting on their positive interactions and experiences with their foreign guests. The local American Legion, seemingly contrary to its tenets, even allowed the students to use its facilities to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the Russian Revolution – an event compared to the Fourth of July in an editorial in The Chronicle-Express.

Generally, the Penn Yan families who hosted the Soviet students had good things to say about their guests and the visit, noting the students were well mannered and well educated and the families and their visitors enjoyed discussing their respective lifestyles without getting into politics. Two main criticisms of the weeklong tour were the television coverage that distracted the Soviet students from the task at hand and the lack of free time in the schedule with which the students could have spent more time with their host families. Overall, it seems as if everyone – the Soviet students and their American hosts alike – believed the experience was a pleasant and worthwhile undertaking.

The words of one of the Soviet students, Vadim Loginov, as quoted in a newspaper article, might sum up the feelings of goodwill on both sides of this moment of U.S.-Soviet cooperation: “We know we have a different approach to things, and a different philosophy of life, but we did not come here to look for the differences, but rather want to see the many things we share alike.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.25 (after 1950)

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows the United Nations Security Council reconnaissance photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba. 1968 – A Fairchild F-27 crashes into Moose Mountain while on approach to Lebanon Municipal Airport in Lebanon, New Hampshire, killing 32 people. 1971 – The People's Republic of China replaces the Republic of China at the United Nations. 1973 – Egypt and Israel accept United Nations Security Council Resolution 339. 1980 – Proceedings on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction conclude. 1983 – The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état. 1990 – The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic declares its sovereignty from the Soviet Union. 1995 – A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students. 1997 – After a civil war, Denis Sassou Nguesso proclaims himself President of the Republic of the Congo. 1999 – A Learjet 35 crashes in Mina near Aberdeen, South Dakota, killing all six people on board, including PGA golfer Payne Stewart and golf course designer Bruce Borland. 2001 – Microsoft releases Windows XP, which becomes one of Microsoft's most successful operating systems.[10] 2009 – The October 2009 Baghdad bombings kill 155 and wound at least 721. 2010 – Mount Merapi in Indonesia begins a month-long series of violent eruptions that kill 353 people and cause the evacuation of another 350,000 people. 2010 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes off Indonesia's Mentawai Islands, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 400 people. 2023 – A mass shooting occurs in two locations in Lewiston, Maine. 18 people are killed and 13 more injured.

[chloeworships]

Quick Updates:

1. Someone's mom is going to discover she has cervical cancer. I saw her cervix dripping with pus and discharge. This is as a result of her wickedness.

2. The Lord said "Rabbi" to me. Not sure in what context. Something may occur with a Rabbi. Rabbi means teacher in Hebrew.

3. I was shown "Safe(r) House in Berlin" 👀 #iykyk

4. I saw a woman in an all black Burka being impaled as per Esther 7:10 "So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided". She fell from a tall building right onto the wooden pole. It was a gruesome scene to witness. Israel FYI 🇮🇱 You babes know this story more than anyone. Someone (a Muslim woman) will try to come against you to set you up to lose, God will stop it somehow but you need to know who. Lives will be saved.

5. I was shown the word "Council". Some council somewhere is planning something. The other day, in addition to this, I heard "Reggae Council". I tried to find if a GOVERNMENT department/entity in Jamaica existed by that name and could not find one. Perhaps someone else knows what that means. Sometimes the LORD speaks to me in parables so he could be using the word REGGAE instead of JAMAICA to let me know this involves both Jamaica AND music. Regardless of what, I get the feeling this "council" is up to no good.

6. I received MAJOR warnings for journalists: Visegard, Anderson Cooper, News Canada (CP 24), and I was shown Ultra-A (not sure what the A is for) and Rachel in scuba gear in a speed boat starting an engine to leave STAT. That made me so happy because the warning I received was to leave NOW. PS. Rachel Maddow has a new docu-movie called "From Russia with Lev" airing soon (I am shamelessly pluggin' 🔌😁) -- Babes be careful though -- cause you're onto something(s). I am concerned for your well-being 😣

7. Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling are two names I have been seeing along with Kendrick, recently. I do hope all these men are doing well. Sometimes I receive names to pray and intercede for them 🙏🏾 sometimes the reason is unknown to me until it's revealed to the world. I was also shown IIhan Omar 👀

8. I heard "the state is monitoring you" .... STATE as in an actual state or Country.

9. I had a vision of what I thought was three separate men coming towards me in a beautiful garden with a uniform on. I stood at the top of cement stairs outside a building while they approached me -- God did his face swap thingy. The men looked like 1. Ron Rivera, NFL Coach of the Commanders, 2. Prince Harry, and 3. An unknown Asian man who the LORD said was "a general". They were getting "closer" to me. Someone could be getting close to you. Not sure if that is good or bad but please pray about it. I didn't feel anything negative and I am fond of both Ron and Prince Harry so I pray it is excellent news for you, however the presence of a general could mean something else. UPDATE: after this I was shown Prince William in a separate message.

10. I heard "Anna Barra is sick or hurting". I thought I had seen hurting but I wrote down sick.

11. I saw Cuban construction workers or airport workers, trying to get my attention. Then I saw them walk in the middle of a road in Florida with a black woman. I heard something about "Dean". You may want to look into this or they may come to you. Hear them out. They need help 🇨🇺 Guns are involved.

12. I received another STI warning ⚠️ It was written in someone's discharge and was dripping. It was gross! 🤢

13. I had a vision of a mighty King who looked like a serpent/alligator. He was doing the most despicable thing... rubbing the butt of a baby girl in his arms. She was dressed like an adult which was also sickening, wearing a pink bra-like crop top and short pink shorts. I am sorry but this was too revealing for a child. Now I know sometimes we say "soft as a baby's butt" but the imagery was very disturbing. Why would you rub the booty of a baby? ugh I am abhorred. Either way, this is about lust. Also, someone could be trying to rub a child or relationship in your face. Some people are weird like that. It reminds me of poor Hannah and Peninnah:

'Year after year it was the same—Peninnah would taunt Hannah as they went to the Tabernacle. Each time, Hannah would be reduced to tears and would not even eat. So Peninnah would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children.

1 Samuel 1:6-7 https://www.bible.com/bible/116/1SA.1.6-7

They might be laughing now but BAY-BEE when the LORD is ready to open thy WOMB, the baby is going to be revered like the prophet Samuel. Recall, the LORD has been showing us people giving BIRTH to new ideas also. They laughed at Noah too until BAM, the LORD wiped them the hell out...Carry ON, babes, carry ON. Ignore the HATEFUL (I was shown a vision of the movie the Hateful 8). Stay laser focused on you and the LORD's plan. God always humbles the proud.

14. I was shown some of your enemies have been"snooping" around. mmhhmmmmmmmmm... they wanna know how you do ittttttt. They wanna know how come the witchcraft attacks aint working NO MO, they wanna understand why God keeps on blessing ya when they keep cursing ya, they wanna know, why you keep WINNING cause they in secret competition with you....well to put it simply.... it's THEE ANOINTING, the DIVINE FAVOUR God has on your life. What they should be doing is studying the good book...THE BIBLE and not you. The LORD is telling you this because he is (for the umpteenth time) telling us to HUSH UP about our plans. Speaking of that I heard "tell Kenneth Cruz to be quiet"... I heard this DIRECTLY from God verbatim 👀 As we Jamaican's would say "unno chat too much!!" LOL 😂 ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh 🤐

15. I also heard the LORD say "Warn Taye of Delilah" 👀 Who's Taye and who is THIS Delilah chick coming for what's yours TAYE???? Now ... I am leaning towards an actual Delilah aka the woman who finds out a mans weakness and uses it to betray him, aka another spirit of deception BY a woman OR// a warning against going to club Delilah to avoid a confrontation. Please pray about it and MY GOD may the LORD protect him against *HER*. A woman that has this spirit will take everything from you for $$$. This spirit is the ancient gold digger spirit with a TWIST lol 😅 but fo real tho... ion like it.

16. I was told someone is going to be suspended and they will be losing bank $

17. I was shown something about Jonathan and revenge. It could be that someone is going or has exacted revenge against someone named Jonathan or he will seek revenge. HOWEVER as children of the Most High God, we ask the LORD to avenge us so we can keep our hands, minds and conscience squeaky clean. Let God handle it. Revenge is a lose-lose situation. The temporary happiness from seeking to destroy someone and watch them lose it all, always backfires in your life some way EVEN if you were justified in seeking that revenge. Why? Because the eye for an eye commandment has been updated and revised by Jesus Christ. We do not extract a persons eye for taking ours anymore (no matter how much we might enjoy it haha), God does the surgery for us. Amen 👓

18. I saw RiRi in a wedding dress and her underboob tattoo. However this was far later in life. She was older. I believe the LORD was trying to say that a marriage delay curse (tied up) could be on her life. I rebuke the DEVIL in Jesus name. God is removing that.

19. I overheard myself telling someone by the name "Antonia"..."Thank me later"... why? Something MAJOR is going to transpire in her life and it is going to surprise her. She didn't believe it would but it did.

20. I was shown a red dot 🔴 following me around. Then the LORD said "targeted" 👀

21. I was shown the word "JOY". The word was written as if someone was tracing the letters or they were stitched. Someone could receive some good news about their health. YYaaayyyyy. One thing I have come to learn that true wealth is having good health.

22. I had a black and white image of the laughing fat Buddha. I often see him in relation to anyone who is from an Asian country. Whenever I see it, something financial happens. This time he was shown with other Black figures on either side of him.

23. A scandal is coming.

pphheeewwwwwwwwwwww chileeee 🥵 I am done ✅...

The LORD woke me up at 2:28 am the other day to share most of these messages with me. He was like my man trying to talk on the phone all night while I need to sleep and go to work the next day haha! Awww. I love him ✝️

Stay blessed and never forget God loves YOU! 🫵🏾

[head-post]

Putin warns US of Cold War-style missile crisis, Ukraine seeks “respite”

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the United States that if Washington deployed long-range missiles in Germany, Russia would place equivalent missiles within the West’s strike zone. Meanwhile, a security council official stated that Ukraine was allegedly exploiting the peace talks to provide itself with a “respite” amid military and domestic issues, according to Russian media.

In a speech to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria, and India on the occasion of Russian Navy Day in St. Petersburg, Putin warned the United States that it risked provoking a Cold War-style missile crisis with the move.

The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes. We will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.

On 10 July, the US announced that it would begin deploying long-range missiles to Germany from 2026 in preparation for a longer-term deployment. It will include the SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and hypersonic weapons under development.

Cold War threat

Russian and US diplomats argue that their diplomatic relations are worse than during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Moscow and Washington call for de-escalation while both parties make moves towards escalation.

Putin stated that the US was escalating tensions and had transferred Typhon missile systems to Denmark and the Philippines. He also compared the US plans to NATO’s decision to deploy Pershing II launchers in Western Europe in 1979.

This situation is reminiscent of the events of the Cold War related to the deployment of American medium-range Pershing missiles in Europe.

In 1983, the Soviet leadership, including General Secretary Yuri Andropov, and the KGB interpreted a number of US moves, including the deployment of Pershing II and major NATO exercises, as signs that the West was about to launch a preemptive strike against the Soviet Union.

Putin repeated an earlier warning that Russia might resume production of nuclear-capable medium- and shorter-range missiles and then consider where to deploy them after the United States delivered similar missiles to Europe and Asia.

Respite for Ukraine

Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev noted that the Ukrainian authorities’ statements about possible peace talks with Russia were just a ploy to get the necessary “respite” against the backdrop of internal challenges in the country.

During the special military operation [war in Ukraine] we now have an advantage, the West and Ukraine are interested in restoring their forces, they need a respite. Therefore, all these statements have precisely the tactical nature of a respite. In fact, if we look at their actions, no steps are being taken to conduct peace talks.

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Guangzhou that Ukraine was preparing for dialogue and negotiations with Russia. However, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged Ukraine to take concrete actions rather than sending “incomprehensible signals.”

Russia’s conditions for peace talks are as follows: the lifting of international sanctions, the withdrawal of Ukraine’s troops and its renunciation of its claims to Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia regions, and Crimea. The president also claimed that Kyiv should refuse to join NATO, but the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the Russian party’s conditions, calling them “an ultimatum.”

Read more HERE