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Lmao, you have been destroyed throughout the entire thread and you think my knowledge is self hype? How does Marco Rubio have access to intel on Cuba's military without being on any intelligence committee? It's funny because you keep saying he knows more than I do, but you can't really show how or why. I'm starting to believe that your opinion on Cubans being told what to think is a projection of your own political stances. You need a GOP bottom feeder like Rubio to tell you what to think so you think other people do too.
Yeah he's a Cuban-American senator
who serves on the senate foreign relations committee,
Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations,
Human Rights,
Democracy and Global Women's Issues, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere and Global Narcotics Affairs, and Select Committee on Intelligence.
I'd guess he knows a thing or two.
You on the other hand say you know someone who's Cuban. :lamo
Who wasn't born in Cuba, has never been to Cuba or for that matter held any relations with any office in Cuba. Strike #1.
It's almost like you don't know what this. I'll give you a clue, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee advises on policy, not intelligence. Strike #2.
They deal with Human Rights, not military capabilities. Strike #3!
Still has nothing to do with military intelligence. Strike #4!
Here is a clue, not a single one of those committees would have a single page on Cuba's military capabilities, because for the 3rd or 4th time: Cuba doesn't release those numbers. As such, there isn't a single person within the US who knows exactly how much Cuba spends on its military. There aren't foreign organizations with access to such information. There aren't even public reports for them. Estimates? Tons of them. However, they range from 70 to 100 million.
You'd guess wrong as you have no idea what any of those committees actually do.
Lmao, I've not been to Cuba and I've been married to a Cuban for the better part of 10 years. I didn't have to make that up like your silly "salsa dancing" friend. Not only have I actually been to Cuba more times than Marco Rubio (which isn't hard, as my daughter has been more times than Rubio and she's only been once), I've held conversations with Cuban soldiers about the country's capabilities. I have first hand accounts of Cuba's military capabilities (and they're pretty terrible - no fuel for vehicles, weapons from the 50s, low food rations, low morale, 25 operational jet fighters in total, etc) and Marco Rubio has never set foot in Cuba. As I stated, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
My point was he gets better info than you
, and on much more than just Cuba's military. But hey, you have been married to a Cuban woman for under a decade so you know better. :lamo
You still don't get it? I'll make it simple for you: He can't get information which doesn't exist. :lol:
Is that all you took from my statement? Good, I didn't want you to actually do any thinking. Last question: How did Mark Rubio get information which doesn't exist?
You keep making assertions you can't back.
US Conservative said:....
Military expenditure (% of central government expenditure)
Military expenditures data from SIPRI are derived from the NATO definition, which includes all current and capital expenditures on the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects; paramilitary forces, if these are judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and military space activities. Such expenditures include military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions of military personnel and social services for personnel; operation and maintenance; procurement; military research and development; and military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country). Excluded are civil defense and current expenditures for previous military activities, such as for veterans' benefits, demobilization, conversion, and destruction of weapons. This definition cannot be applied for all countries, however, since that would require much more detailed information than is available about what is included in military budgets and off-budget military expenditure items. (For example, military budgets might or might not cover civil defense, reserves and auxiliary forces, police and paramilitary forces, dual-purpose forces such as military and civilian police, military grants in kind, pensions for military personnel, and social security contributions paid by one part of government to another.)
US Conservative said:....
There is virtually no information on what is meant
by “defense and internal order” in Cuban budget statistics.
For example, Law No. 29, the budget law
passed in 1980, does not throw any light on the components
of this budget category (“Ley No. 29”
1980).
Estimates of Cuban ME are available from three external
organizations: 1) USACDA; 2) SIPRI; and 3)
IISS. Because of the way the estimates are compiled
and presented, it is not possible to develop continuous
time series from the IISS estimates.
The examination of patterns of Cuban ME are hampered
by the lack of adequate data. Official ME are
scarce and those that are available are subject to numerous
questions and uncertainties. The same is the
case for estimates of ME made by external organizations.
You keep making assertions you can't back. And you think others are to believe you-why? Because you say so.
Tell us all about it, guy. :2wave:
What is the first impact of Obama speech about restoration of full diplomatic relation with the Castroit tyrannical regime? That does Cubans working for foreign firms had their salaries fix at 8% of what those companies pay the regime, which is pocketing 92% of the workers’ salaries in the so call “workers’ paradise.”Cuban Gov. to Keep 92% of Worker Salaries
Cuban Gov. to Keep 92% of Worker Salaries - Havana Times.org
By Circles Robinson
December 16, 2014
Vice minister of Labor and Social Security Samira Marin (c) and other officials at a press conference. Foto Yami Ravelo/granma.cu
HAVANA TIMES — Cubans working for firms with foreign capital on the island received a bucket of cold water Tuesday when a NEW resolution published in the official Gazette fixes their salaries at only 8% of what the joint venture or foreign companies must pay the government in hard currency for their services.
The announcement published by Granma daily quotes Vice-minister of Labor and SOCIAL SECURITY , Zamira Marín Triana, as saying the new wage involves a “significant increase” for workers.
Ever since the government announced in October that prospective employees of foreign companies at the Mariel Special Development Zone would be receiving nearly 40% of their real wages before taxes, workers of companies operating with foreign capital on the rest of the island were expecting to receive a higher cut of the wage paid by their employers to the State.
It is the custom in Cuba that if a foreign firm wants its employees to be productive they must pay them an additional amount of hard currency under the table, since the amount they officially receive after the government takes the lion’s share is not a living wage.
Lmao, here, I'll give you a chance, how are Cuba's military expenditures calculated? Last chance to not look really bad for taking the 3 minutes it takes to look up how Rubio came up with the numbers he'll swear by.
Military expenditure (% of central government expenditure) | Data | Table
View attachment 67177575
Okay, so let's start with military expenditure. Apparently, Marco Rubio now knows something the World Bank doesn't.
He knows more than think tanks dedicated to studying Cuba:
http://www.ascecuba.org/c/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/v06-23perlopez.fm_.pdf
TL/DR Version: Cuba self reports however it wants, doesn't actually have any clear or reliable reports on military spending, doesn't report its figures to outside sources, everyone estimates what they may or may not spend. It's starting to look really bad for you.
Prove he does not.
World bank. :doh
The great majority of countries nowadays make available at least basic military budget information, in many cases over the internet as well as in printed official documents. There are a few countries in the SIPRI database that at present make no data available at all: for the most recent years these are Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guyana, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Also no data is available for Somalia due to the lack of a functioning central government.
You made the claims guy, not me.
Of course they self report, just like many leftists facts are optional and they feel its more for PR than anything else. Now, prove what he knows.
Monitoring Military Expenditures — www.sipri.org
It's almost like you don't even know what you're defending anymore. As I stated: The numbers Rubio gave do not exist. They're not based on what is known by anyone.
Actually, Rubio made up the claims. I just disproved them. All it took was 10 minutes of research.
Marco Rubio is claiming to know what SIPRI(UN/World Bank/TI/IPU/CEIP all contribute to this database) doesn't. However that's not all he is claiming to know. Here is the CIA on military expenditure:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html
Guess what country is missing?
----------------------------------
So in short, Marco Rubio is claiming to know a figure that the CIA doesn't have, that foreign organizations don't have, and that the Cuban government doesn't publish. Are you really this partisan? Do you really believe that because Marco Rubio is a Cuban-American he has access to information that the CIA doesn't have, that foreign groups don't have and that the Cuban government isn't giving out?
You're failing hard in this thread.
Its amusing watching you dance but you still have not proven whats Rubio and his committees know.
That's not up for me to prove. What I have proven is that the numbers he has given out are contrary to what everyone - including our own intelligence community - knows.
Prove what our intelligence community knows.
I just did, lmao. Did you notice that the CIA has the military expenditure of 130 countries, many of them dictatorships, but not Cuba or any country which doesn't report it? Your ignorance on this topic is becoming so painfully obvious. Here's the link again:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html
You're just trying to save face now by saying that we don't know what the CIA knows. However, we do know what the CIA knows. We know that if the CIA had the numbers, the expenditure would be published like those of every other dictatorship out there. Venezuela, DRC, Vietnam, China, they're all there. Cuba? Not there. North Korea? Not there. Why? Because these countries do not report their military expenditure.
That you're still trying to argue that the CIA, SIPRI, the World Bank, etc know less than Rubio is pretty stupid at this point. The implications of your arguments are so ridiculous that you're basically saying that Rubio has more information than the CIA and global think tanks combined. Now that's just absurd for a guy whose argument hinged on the fact that Rubio's position as a senator gave him access to more data. What data is he using to get this information? The data that doesn't exist anywhere? lol.
You still have not proven what the CIA or the Senate knows despite your silly claims. Its just not flying.
I don't have to prove what they know. I just demonstrated what they don't know by their own admission. Their list of military expenditures doesn't include countries whose military expenditures the CIA doesn't not know. Because Cuba is not posted, they don't know what Cuba's military expenditure is anymore than they know what NKs military expenditure is. That you continue to try and save face after being completely destroyed in this thread is absolutely precious though. Please keep going?
Show us what data you have that the Senate does not. :2wave:
What are you blabbering about now? The Senate doesn't have the data because it doesn't exist. This has been proven to you with 3 different sources now: CIA, SIPRI, World Bank and independent studies.
You dont know what info they have
Already proven incorrect. I know what info they have because I know what Cuba does and doesn't release. Get serious.