“A high school (in Seattle) hosted a candlelight vigil that honored Fidel Castro, who students were told was “martyred while working on behalf of advancing civil rights, social justice and decolonization,” reported Hot Air’s David Strom via the Jason Rantz radio show last week.
“You can’t make this up,” added the apparently outraged radio host
Actually--though Cuban exiles certainly appreciate misters Strom and Rantz outrage--it’s very easy to make up. In fact, there’s really no need to make it up. Because compared to many other honors and commemorations to Fidel Castro by prominent Democrats and celebrities, the Seattle high school gig comes across as relatively mild offense against human rights, national security and common sense. Let’s have a look at some and compare. But first, some perspective:
The Castro regime (many of the same people running Cuba today) jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin did during the Great Terror. They murdered more Cubans in their first three years in power than Hitler’s regime murdered Germans during their first six.
And yet:
“Fidel Castro could have been Cuba’s Elvis!” (Dan Rather)
The Castro regime shattered — through mass-executions, mass-jailings, mass larceny and exile — virtually every family on the island of Cuba. Many opponents of the Castro regime qualify as the longest-suffering political prisoners in modern history, having suffered prison camps, forced labor and torture chambers for a period three times as long in Fidel Castro’s Gulag as Alexander Solzhenitsyn suffered in Stalin’s Gulag.
And yet:
"Fidel Castro is very shy and sensitive, I frankly like him and regard him as a friend." (Democratic presidential candidate, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and “Conscience of the Democratic party,” George McGovern.)
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Fidel and Raul Castro beat ISIS to the game by over half a century. As early as January 1959 they were filming their murders for the media-shock value.
And yet:
“Fidel Castro first and foremost is and always has been a committed egalitarian. He wanted a system that provided the basic needs to all. Cuba has superb systems of health care and universal education…We greeted each other as old friends.” (Former President of the United States and official "Elder Statesman” of the Democratic party, Jimmy Carter.)
The Castro brothers also came closest of anyone in history to (wantonly) starting a worldwide nuclear war.
In the above process, the Castros converted a highly-civilized nation with a higher standard of living than much of Europe and swamped with immigrants into a slum/sewer ravaged by tropical diseases and with the highest suicide rate in the Western hemisphere.
And yet:
“Fidel Castro is old-fashioned, courtly–even paternal, a thoroughly fascinating figure!” (NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.)
Over TWENTY TIMES as many people (and counting) have died trying to escape Castro’s Cuba as died trying to escape East Germany. Yet prior to Castroism, Cuba received more immigrants per-capita than almost any nation on earth—more than the U.S. did including the Ellis Island years, in fact.
And yet:
“Viva Fidel! Viva Che!” (Two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Jesse Jackson, bellowed while arm in arm with Fidel Castro himself in 1984.)
Fidel Castro helped train and fund practically every terror group on earth, from the Weathermen to Puerto Rico’s Macheteros, from Argentina’s Montoneros, to Colombia’s FARC, from the Black Panthers to the IRA and from the PLO to Al-Fatah.
Would anyone guess any of the above from reading or listening to the mainstream media, or the (Fake) History Channel?
"Castro's personal magnetism is still powerful, his presence is still commanding. Cuba has very high literacy, and Castro has brought great health care to his country." (Barbara Walters.)
“Fidel Castro is one helluva guy!” (CNN founder Ted Turner.)
“God Bless you, Fidel!” boomed (head) Pastor Calvin Butts of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church (where current Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock was also on staff) while introducing Fidel Castro during a famous New York visit in 1996. The People’s Weekly World provides more fascinating details:
“The audience which included New York Democratic representatives Charles Rangel enthusiastically greeted the Communist leader with a ten minute standing ovation. Chants of ‘FIDEL!-FIDEL! VIVA-FIDEL!’ resounded from the rafters,” the report read.
Shortly the delirious ovation rose to the level of an earthquake, to a veritable hurricane. The very walls and rafters shook with shrieks of "FIDEL! VIVA FIDEL!!" You see, Elmore Breathe, head of the "Patrice Lumumba Coalition" and chair for the meeting, asked the audience, "Who would you rather come to Harlem? Fidel or Giuliani?"
"FIDEL!" They erupted. "FIDEL! VIVA FIDEL!" roared and stomped Pastor Warnock’s flock while standing and whooping and clapping deliriously.
Not that New York’s delirious reception for the mass-murdering, terror-sponsoring dictator who almost nuked New York ended at New York’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. Far from it!
“The Toast of Manhattan!” crowed a Time magazine story of the day.
“The Hottest Ticket in Manhattan!” also read a Newsweek story that week. Both articles referred to the social swirl and acclaim that engulfed Fidel Castro upon his visit to New York by the very Manhattan media and business luminaries who barely escaped incineration at his hand. The occasion was the UN’s 50th anniversary celebration. In fact, New York’s Castromania almost recaptured the hysteria for Simon and Garfunkel’s 1981 reunion in Central Park.
Along with his visit to the Abyssinian Baptist Church, the Stalinist dictator’s itinerary also involved a luncheon at the Council on Foreign Relations. After holding court there for a rapt David Rockefeller, along with Robert McNamara, Dwayne Andreas, and Random House’s Harold Evans, Castro flashed over to Mort Zuckerman’s Fifth Avenue pad, where a throng of Beltway glitterati, including Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Tina Brown, Bernard Shaw, and Barbara Walters, all jostled for photo-ops and stood in line for the warmongering mass-murderer's autograph.
Diane Sawyer was so overcome in the mass-murderer’s presence that she rushed up, broke into a toothy smile, wrapped her arms around Fidel Castro, and smooched him warmly on the cheek.
"You people are the cream of the crop!" beamed the mass-murderer to the rapt and smiling throng he’d come within a hair of incinerating and now surrounded him.
"Hear, hear!" chirped the delighted guests while tinkling their wine glasses in appreciation and glee. But many more were left panting, because according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Fidel Castro had gotten over 250 dinner invitations from Manhattan celebrities and power-brokers.
Everything above—however outrageous it may seem—is meticulously documented here.
The jailer and torturer of the longest-suffering black political prisoners in modern history was bear-hugged by Charles Rangel and cheered (presumably) by Raphael Warnock.
The jailer and torturer of the most female political prisoners in the modern history of the western hemisphere was hugged and smooched by feminist Diane Sawyer.
The jailer and torturer of the most journalists in the modern history of the Western hemisphere found everyone from Dan Rather to Mike Wallace to Tina Brown lining up for his autograph.
The jailer and torturer who abolished private property within his Stalinist fiefdom found David Rockefeller and Mort Zuckerman crowding around him for a handshake.
The Communist dictator who abolished capitalism under penalty of firing squad and torture chamber was honored in the board room of the Wall Street Journal with a VIP luncheon.
So some dingbat teachers at some grammar school honored Fidel Castro last week. How does that compare Wall Street Journal and Manhattan’s elite’s commemorations?
Seven years ago a 90 year old Fidel Castro died peacefully in bed—a longevity and manner of passing he denied tens of thousands of his subjects. Naturally, the big guns of the Democrat Party and Mainstream Media tried to give “balance” to his Stalinist regime’s “achievements” vs. its methodology. And some of them paid dearly—made to look like total jackasses—for their asinine commentary, Soledad O’Brien in particular.
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