Hey before you find yourself visiting Cuba listen to this song.

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP5Xv7QqXiM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't people been able to travel there if they had blood relations or descendants from Cuba? Maybe it started at the end of the Bush Era. I graduated college in 2010 and it was one of my old roommates talking about it.

My aunt and uncle lived in Cuba during WWll and he was working for the government. He used to meet with Ernest Hemingway every morning and install sonar gear on Hemingway's fishing boat. He would then meet with him at the end off the fishing day to remove the gear. The USA believed the Nazi's had U-boats in the gulf of Mexico, and Hemingway was helping us try to locate them. We used to hear great stories about Cuba.

Haven't watched it in awhile SC maybe I'll watch Netflix later today see if it's on there.

He met with Hemingway everyday?

La, US trade and travel restrictions regarding Cuba have followed something of a tortured path. They were allowed to lapse through the Carter administration, but were reinstated during the Reagan administration.

One can travel to Cuba. However, US law and regulations prohibit the spending of US currency in Cuba which effectively makes travel to Cuba by a American an arduous if not impossible sojourn without violating US law.

Americans cannot legally travel to Cuba except for sanctioned family visits, or for "educational" purposes (i.e., tours organized by religious or cultural groups, etc.). However, many Americans travel to Cuba by first going to, say, Canada or Jamaica, then booking a flight from there to Cuba. The Cubans oblige by not stamping their passports. However, those "illegal" American tourists have to pay for everything by cash.

so this is going to change, how TB.?

As TB and I have pointed out in our posts above, travel to Cuba can take place legally, but as a function of very tight restrictions. It can take place illegally as TB has explained. However, some Americans have been prosecuted for doing so and have paid fines. The easing of Cuba travel and trade restrictions would remove the predicates for federal prosecution, but I imagine that some restrictions will remain in place. Keep in mind that many such restrictions are outside of the scope of Presidential authority. They would have to be mitigated by Congress. There's probably alot of negotiating left to be done between the US and Cuba and between the President and Congress.

Gotcha, Thanks for clearing that up!

They actually sank one off the coast of Louisiana, German Nazi U-Boat: U-166.

Here's a link:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...eology-history/

Hope the Yanks get some players out of this

Hahahahahahaha omg. I'm sorry for laughing at this but it's funny. But Pizza boy and I have generally the same political views from what I see him put on here so I agree with what he's saying. Can't stand obama. Can't stand how people say he lowered gas prices and killed Osama bin laden.

if they let Cuban bb players come to the u.s, there is going to be a lot of talented Cubans playing in the majors. they can play ball. the dodgers, angels, and Yankees would be the ones to offer them the most money, I believe.

Fidel Castro was a hotshot pitcher in his youth. He and his bride took a three month honeymoon in the US in 1948, including a trip to NYC. Though it was never confirmed, he was rumored to have had a tryout with the Yankees. Can you imagine: The future nonstop denouncer of "Yanquis" wearing Yankee pinstripes?

That's interesting..imagine how different history would be if he became a professional ball player instead.

I was going to post that he also they say had a look with the washington senators, but I dont know if that was really true or not.

You know this guy was a lawyer and he did play baseball for his college

I'm excited. The Yankees have been quiet this offseason maybe that'll change soon. We need some hitters. Also at least one more pitcher.

That's how I remember the story. I did hear this from him over 40 years ago so maybe it was 4-5 times a week but very frequently. He did work for the governmental agency who would have done this and as a reserve Navy Captain, had the background

Washington (CNN)Americans will face fewer obstacles in traveling to Cuba under new regulations announced by the Obama administration Thursday, continuing a promise to thaw relations with the country the President started last month.

While short of lifting the decades-old U.S. embargo on the island, a move that would require Congressional approval, the administration's new rules on travel and trade will likely herald a new era in ties between the two countries.

Under the softened regulations whose details were outlined in more detail Thursday, Americans will be able to visit Cuba without first seeking a license from the Treasury Department, so long as the travel meets certain criteria. The new regulations will take effect Friday, according to the U.S. Treasury.

Cuban Americans traveling to see family members, American officials on government trips, journalists on assignment on the island as well as every day citizen visiting for educational, cultural, religious reasons will no longer need permission first. The new regulations allow travel agents and airlines to book tickets for U.S. citizens to Cuba without a special license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control known as OFAC. Americans traveling to the island will also be allowed to use credit cards, a restriction that complicated trips to Cuba in the past.

I suspect there will be a lot of traffic between the U.S. and cuba now. eventually gambling will come up, and, the Cubans might go for it. cuba may become like china with hundreds of U.S companies taking advantage of cheap labor.

better relations with cuba is now and always will be about money.

No doubt about that.

How do most Americans see this whole new relations with Cuba thing?
I mean do they support lifting the embargo etc. ?
And why did it take so long for this to happen, even after the fall of the soviet union?
I can think of it only as a better thing but thats my opinion.

Make that Money

DP

It's a good thing. I believe if we really want to see the Castro-Communist regime fall, it needs exposure from the outside world, and what better way to do that than to get more people and cameras inside there? It can be the jewel of the Caribbean again. Down the road I can see it becoming a prominent trading partner. It'll take time though

Exactly what I taught. If the people taste freedom then they will maybe realize the change their country needs.
A guy at work always says that the US handled wrong during the 50s 60s with Cuba. He said that Cubans love baseball and had the US sent the Yankees then, to raise the spirits of the Cubans then the Castro regime could have been prevented, sort of Pingpong politics they did with China.

Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon all fucked up with Cuba. It was a part of the virulent anti-Communist culture that ran high in the U.S. at the time. The Cold War was at its height in the sixties and it was not policy of the U.S. Government or the CIA to tolerate communism in their own backyard. A hostile nation 90 miles away from you would put anyone on alert. But I agree with the guy you talked to at work. The situation got too nasty and fucked up to deal with effectively.

our relationship with cuba has always been idiotic, we trade with china, and people go there constandly, ever since Nixon went there in 1974. we trade with Vietnam, and travel there.

it has always been the far right wing who were against any ties with cuba, j. edgar hoover, the john birch society, its really been a stupid policy run by morons.

it should have happened even before we had dealings with china.

Yep, China just passed the US as the number one economy in the world. They did this by copying some US capitalist free market reforms.
Many exiled Cuban Americans lobbied against friendly relations with the Castro regime. This may have partly shaped US policy toward Cuba over the years.

Even the soviets fell because of reforms made by gorbachov which gave the Soviets a sense of freedom. The soviets weren't defeated by war, well maybe Afghanistan played part, but the people of the Soviet states chose to break apart from communism. This is also part why Gorbachov is seen as a weakling in Russia, his reforms led to the partitioning of Soviet-Russia.

The US had learned their lessons from castro I think. There were cells of students with the communist ideology operating in Turkey. It was so bad that for 3 years long everyday 10 murders were commited because of the left-right politics. But the CIA managed to keep them down in the beginning phase and even had a spy dismantle the leadership of a well known terrorist organization, which even operates today. They then backed a coup in 1980 which ended the communist ideology, taking down everyone affiliated with communism. Also they took down African and Latin-American governments leaning to the left. The fact that Vietnam was an exception is I think of the heavy soviet-Chinese support which the Latin-Americans and Africans didn't have like the Vietnamese. However the Truman doctrine did fail with Iran, Vietnam and the third world countries.

I never understood the Cuban American attitude, but then again that is their pride I think.