by cameron | Apr 15, 2009 | Cuba
Business Week has an article about the Cuban embargo that contains the following line:
“Castro has been able to spin the embargo as evidence of “cruel” U.S. policies that use human suffering as a means of political pressure.”
Spin it? Nice work with the biased reporting there Business Week.
There’s no spin involved. The UN has voted with an overwhelming majority that the US should end the embargo for 17 years straight. Why? Because it’s inhumane, immoral and cruel.
But Business Week, another tool of the ruling elite in the US, neglected to mention that fact in its article. It chose to suggest that Castro “spins” the embargo to try to win sympathy.
Just one more example of how the US media can’t be trusted to report impartially on subjects that effect US corporate interests.
by cameron | Mar 10, 2009 | Christianity, Cuba, Podcast
They are all featured in today’s show!
On today’s show I just have another little heart-to-heart chat with anyone out there who is still listening. Among other things, I talk about:
The State of TPN’s finances
The threat of marketing spam on Twitter
Obama’s plan for Cuba
Sean Penn’s interviews with Chavez and Raul Castro
Obama’s encourage of stem cell research
Some talk about my book Debunking Christianity For Dummies and why it’s important to debate Christians in public
My review of CS Lewis’ book ‘Mere Christianity‘
by cameron | Feb 2, 2009 | Cuba, Iraq, Podcast, US politics
When I was visiting my girl Chrissy in Seattle last October, I met her best friend Jed Montgomery. The four of us (including Jed’s partner Chris) had some vigorous debates about American politics. I was trying to make my point that for all of Obama’s intelligence and oratory, at the end of the day he’s a member of the Democratic Party. In the last 60 years, the Democrats have provided a pretty appalling list of Presidents:
Harry Truman – Among other things, authorized the only use of nuclear weapons on a civilian population in history
John Kennedy – Among other things, authorized the attempted invasion of Cuba, nearly brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, was sleeping with Marilyn Monroe, etc.
Lyndon Johnson – Among other things, escalated the Vietnam war. Possibly implicated in the Kennedy assassination.
Jimmy Carter – Actually, a pretty good guy, defender of human rights.
Bill Clinton – Bombed and starved the people of Iraq, decided the best way to spend his days in the White House was to get blowjobs and stick cigars up an intern’s vag.
So… will Obama be another Jimmy Carter? Or… one of the others?
Anyway, Jed joins me on the show today to talk about our hopes and concerns for the Obama administration.
by cameron | Dec 15, 2008 | CIA, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, US politics
Were the Mumbai attacks a false flag operation co-ordinated by the CIA?
Perhaps, according to this post:
informationliberation – Pakistani Security Consultant Calls Mumbai Attacks A “Botched” False Flag
False flags ops happen regularly and are a standard technique for creating violence and then blaming it on your enemies. Hitler used it in the burning of the Reichstag. According to “Legacy Of Ashes”, the CIA has funded and organised quite a few over the last 60 years, in places such as Iran and Cuba, as well as in Chile and Zaire.
Why would the CIA want to escalate the conflict between India and Pakistan?
Well in recent months, there have been growing tensions between Pakistan and the USA, in large part because of continual US bombings on Pakistani territory which have resulted in the deaths of Pakistani soldiers. The USA claims it is attacking “terrorists” (the catch-all excuse for everything these days) but the reality is probably that they are using drones to locate and destroy Pakistan’s nuclear facilities, as part of their long-term plan to protect Israel, their most important military base in the middle east, from attacks by regional Islamic interests.
In the last couple of years, we’ve seen the USA agree to assist India’s nuclear program and Australia do a deal with India to sell them uranium, despite India’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Australia’s historical position to NOT sell uranium to any nation not signed up.
Musharaff, until recently the President/military dictator of Pakistan, was a strong puppet ally of the USA during their “War On Terror”, especially after Bush’s Undersecretary of State, Richard Armitage made the General an offer he couldn’t refuse… “either cooperate with us militarily, against the will of your own military, security service and people…and accept more than $10 billion over the next five years…or we will bomb you back to the stone age.”
Then, of course, we saw the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, just as she seemed poised to bring a new era of democratic leadership to Pakistan, one which might have significantly altered the view of them worldwide. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardar, won the election just after her death and is the current President, after Musharaff was finally abandoned by George Bush and faced impeachment. Last week, Bhutto was posthumously awarded a human rights prize by the U.N. As we know, the last thing the USA truly wants is democracy in places like Pakistan. History has taught them that when a nation like that (take Venezuela for example) gets a democracy, they start looking after their citizens first and USA corporations end up getting the rough end of the stick. One can only imagine what kind of quid pro quo Musharaff signed up for when he took the $10 billion. It looks like the current administation aren’t as keen to get raped by the IMF.
So – back to Mumbai. If – and I have no evidence for this, it’s just a thinking point – if the CIA orchestrated a false flag op, blamed it on Pakistani ISI, and got their press puppets around the West to spin out the Pentagon-written media releases, just like they did during the Iraq invasion, then it might be their way of sending a message to the Zardar administration – “Take the money – and give in to our demands – or else.”
by cameron | Sep 12, 2008 | Cuba, Uncategorized
Oh yeah I want this!
![Che figure 01](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2850879318_ae0704b78b_m.jpg?w=1080)
![Che figure 02](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3153/2850048855_e93a24e811_m.jpg?w=1080)
You can also get the Fidel action figure:
![Fidel action figure](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3174/2850055503_d958e4b380_m.jpg?w=1080)
If I had both of them I’d stage re-enactments of the Cuban revolution on my living room floor. I wonder if you can get Batista, JFK, Khrushchev and the Granma as well?
Don’t forget it’s my birthday on Oct 10. With shipping times factored in, you need to order TODAY. It’s time for an outpouring of Cam love.
UPDATE:
Actually this Che figure is even better! He looks badass.
![Che figure 03](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/2850900336_5ca94c01a5_m.jpg?w=1080)
by cameron | Jul 8, 2008 | Cuba, Uncategorized
Today is day three in Ajaccio and I’m having an awesome time. This is my 2nd trip to Ajaccio (the first time was in 2004, just after I left Microsoft and before TPN) and I absolutely am in love with the place. Think Cuba but with modern cars and without the economic sanctions, and you’re pretty close. It has lots of old, beautiful but dilapidated buildings, lots of cobbled laneways filled to the brim with outdoor cafes and restaurants and bars, a hundred Cuban cigar stores (“Tabac Le Havana”), breath-taking mountain views across water filled with yachts, folk musicians playing bawdy French folk songs in restaurants, etc. I’m here with a terrific bunch of people, academics from around the world, scholars, musicians, and they are all wonderful, passionate, and hugely intelligent. I’ve spent many hours discussing Judaism, Israel, the Holocaust and the Palestine question with a party of Israelis scholars in their late 80s, who were alive during WWII, and I hope to get them recorded for the show before I leave.
We’re all staying up very late each night, drinking chestnut whisky, smoking Cuban cigars, in outdoor bars, debating religion, politics, history, art, you name it. I’m in my element.
![Ajaccio](https://i0.wp.com/www.villagecorse.com/Image/ajaccio_grand_place_foch.jpg?w=1080)
Internet access is spotty though, so I’ve hardly been online and haven’t churned out any podcasts yet, but I hope to before I leave.