That's a heavy sentence. I am curious if she is the most sympathetic case or what are the situations with those other 12 who appear to have received lesser sentences?
The court also announced sentences of between four and 14 years for 12 other participants in the demonstration for the same crimes.
"Keep your democracy. I saw democracy failing somewhere and being displaced by authoritarianism so I'm just opting for going straight to authoritarianism. I am smort but, also, do not trust me with the ability to influence my own society. I also don't see the irony of expressing here how my society should be run (even though I'm anti-democracy)."
effort that might be unreasonable to expect under the circumstances, having abandoned your commitment to an educated electorate more than 40 years ago now. Shit has consequences.
A third take: Authoritarian groups have been historically successful in wiping out (usually by force) less authoritarian groups and their methods of organizing.
I frequently think this too, but then remember that progress towards less authoritarianism does occasionally actually happen. For example the USA PATRIOT Act used to be everyone's example of authoritarianism in the US, but that has by now expired. For another example, the Snowden revelations actually led to everyone's devices and communications getting encrypted. When is the last time you heard about random small people being sued for copyright infringement by the RIAA or MPAA or something?
For less recent examples, consider the 1989-1991 fall of communism in Eastern Europe, making those countries a lot less authoritarian.
When the world gets better, we tend not to notice as much as when it gets worse.
Cuba is overall liberalising, just have a look at the gazillion of reforms after Castro. OTOH authoritarian habits die hard especially in places such as courts backing up the "thin blue line".
Honestly I'd respect them more if they went with that more frequently. At least we could agree on facts, then, even if we might depart on moral judgements.
Sanctions aren’t relevant here to the outcome though you could relate them to the need for protest which still wouldn’t justify the outcome. It would let you side with the protesters for being the power of the people and exemplifying Juche
however the US’ track record with both Cuba and the governments of other American countries does reasonably lead to paranoia
Also worth noting Cuba is a dictatorship not communist
Agreed, but to your last point, it is also worth noting that there are different economic models under authoritarian regimes. Both Nazi Germany and the USSR were dictatorships. Is it Marixist Communism in Cuba? No. But it is recognizable as a communist state as was perpetuated by the Soviet Union historically, regardless if you feel the term has been misappropriated.
One person being able to kill and erase from the country's history books anyone under him, but is unable to micromanage every detail for a country with millions of people and is still forced to delegate tasks, does not make a dictatorship. Got it CIA. Thanks for the details of the semantics of the situation of these authoritarian regimes.
“Every possible means should be undertaken to promptly weaken the economic life of Cuba,” Lester D. Mallory, then the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in April 1960, arguing that U.S. policy should aim “to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”
I'm not a tankie, and it's not a good thing, but this isn't exactly a great time for the US to puff it's chest out about our right to protest and protections for whistle blowers.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols also criticized the convictions. " The harsh sentencing this week of up to 15 years in prison for Cubans who peacefully assembled in Nuevitas in 2022 is outrageous,” he said on X. “The Cuban government’s continued repression of Cubans striving to fulfill their basic rights and needs is unconscionable.”
By referring to "tankies" it was already an implied comparison between Cuba and more western democracies, and this is the Midwest instance. Accusations of "Whataboutism" are way overdone.
The president has had over three years to cure cancer and he has done nothing. I'm planning to write in 'Cancer' this November because at least it has a proven track record.
Mali has a significant mine that France essentially controls. In America, we have mines but import a lot too.
We actually currently buy about 25% of our uranium supply from Russia, though Congress just passed a ban that’ll go in effect in 90 days. It allows for waivers if there are supply issues, though, so it might end up being more than 90 days. (I have no idea how quickly a country can find a new uranium supplier but it sounds complicated.)
Just one note, nuclear power plants run at around 35% efficiency. This is because they are basically steam generators and tend to not push as hard for safety. I think they can get up to 40-45% with combined cycles and such, but then we are in the "very large" territory
I know it's a joke, but just wanted to say that Uranium used for fuel is not something you can actually use for weaponry directly. It requires enrichment to increase the concentration of U-235 to weapons-grade levels.
When you have cloud providers growing faster than the region's grid capacity, something has to give ... throttle growth there, or plan for mega growth? I guess it helps that nuclear is green again. 😁
WNP-2 was the only unit of the five that was completed and put into operation. WNP-3 and WNP-5 are located on 1,600 acres (650 ha) on the Satsop Site near Elma in Grays Harbor County, Washington. Today the site hosts the Satsop Business Park and the Overstock.com Call Center.
Not sure if this is still accurate, but definitely know that they never actually finished or started up these reactors and now it's a generic business park. So it at least has some sort of precedent, even though this isn't exactly the same as having the facilities generating power for the business.
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