Cuba's communists take a page from Obama and Bernie about really being socialists

The gerontocrats running Cuba have cooked up a new public relations line, expecting the Western press will eat it up and everyone will love them.

Reuters, for one, reported the story:

Cuba aims to build socialism, not communism, in draft constitution

It's such baloney, hardly worthy of headlines, other than to say they've got a new public relations tack. Communism and socialism are essentially the same thing when you get down to it - the USSR after all, was the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. And this is not the first time communists have used 'socialism' in a charm-offensive aim to seem politer.

So right there, we have a red-flag (to put it that way) about the nonsense at work.

Because right there in the Reuters report, in one of the Cuban party apparatchiks quoted (this is why I don't criticize the Reuters report, its reporter actually tried to find out what these clowns mean), there's a clear statement that nothing changes with this PR move. Reuters reports:

Instead, it simply talks about building socialism, reflecting the fact Cuba has moved into a different era following the fall of the Soviet Union, according to the president of the National Assembly Esteban Lazo.

"This does not mean we are renouncing our ideas," Lazo was quoted as saying by state-run media.

O.K., so nothing's changed. The communism to socialism is just cosmetic. What it really looks like is a bid to jump on the Bernie Sanders bandwagon and seem cuddlier. Bernie and his sidekick, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, call themselves 'socialists' too. The Castroites likely want to be part of something that's actually winning.

Here's more evidence that nothing's changed. For all the talk about private property and foreign investment, the communists have other ideas. Here is some proof of that from Babalu's Alberto de la Cruz a few days ago:

To the surprise of no one except the Obama Bros™ and the Castro-sycophants in media and academia, Cuba’s communist Castro dictatorship announced on Monday it is tightening its iron grip on private businesses and raising taxes. For those still waiting for the “Hope and Change” and “reforms” in Cuba to kick, here they are.

As we say over and over and over again: The more things “change” in Castro’s Cuba, the more they stay the same.

Nora Gamez Torres reports in The Miami Herald:

Cuba imposes more taxes, controls on private sector

The Cuban government issued new measures on Monday to limit the accumulation of wealth by Cubans who own private businesses on the island. The provisions stipulate that Cubans may own only one private enterprise, and impose higher taxes and restrictions on a spectrum of self-employment endeavors, including the arts.

The government announced that it will start issuing licenses to open new businesses — frozen since last August — but established greater controls through a package of measures intended to prevent tax evasion, limit wealth and give state institutions direct control over the so-called cuentapropismo or self-employment sector.

Give you an idea of what they mean by 'socialism'? They want socialism the way Obama practiced it, allowing the existence of nominal private property and private business, but regulating it so badly its existence becomes meaningless. It's as if they have borrowed from Bernie the P.R. and Obama the execution.

Sound like change? Only in Obama's sense of the word 'change.' They're speaking with their usual forked tongues.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/07/cubas_communists_take_a_page_from_obama_and_bernie_about_really_being_socialists.html