{"id":1911,"date":"2015-04-22T14:55:12","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T18:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2015-04-22T14:55:12","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T18:55:12","slug":"cuba-pope-francis-makes-andrew-cuomo-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=1911","title":{"rendered":"Cuba: Pope Francis Makes Andrew Cuomo Proud"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Big<\/a>

Big deals and a bright Cuban Francisfuture<\/p><\/div>\n

Local New York CBS reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to return\u00a0to New York from Cuba on Tuesday with two major business<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/a>\u00a0deals in hand.<\/p>\n

As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported,\u00a0although the trade mission was supposed to be about developing future business<\/a>, the group actually came back to the states with two deals<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/a> made, including one where an upstate medical facility is going to be able to run clinical trials of a lung cancer vaccine developed by Cubans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s what’s been going on in Cuba all these years.\u00a0 They developed a vaccine for lung cancer!\u00a0 Thank you Pope Francis for this new arrangement.\u00a0 Obama couldn’t have done it without you.\u00a0 Can I be in the clinical trial?<\/p>\n

Cuomo, who became the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba in decades<\/a>,\u00a0said he also laid the groundwork for more New York-based businesses<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/a> to get a foot in the door on the island nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh, no news yet on any U.S. businesses starting up in Cuba though.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe this is going to be a dramatic change that is going to be to the benefit of the people of Cuba and also to the people of the United States,\u201d Cuomo said.<\/p>\n

While the embargo would have to be lifted by Congress, President Barack Obama can grant licenses to businesses to trade<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/a> with Cuba.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the embargo is still in effect except when Obama says it isn’t.\u00a0 There are so many laws like that now!<\/p>\n

The governor was accompanied by other New York lawmakers and executives from JetBlue, MasterCard, Pfizer, Chobani and other companies.<\/p>\n

Cuomo took a tour of a new nearly $10 million deep water Port of Mariel, which could be just the ticket for New York businesses to get their goods to Cuba and the rest of Latin America.<\/p>\n

Cuomo is no stranger to big construction projects, but still, he was suitably impressed with the Cuban government\u2019s efforts to build a massive commercial port and duty free zone west of Havana that could revolutionize the way Cuba does business,\u00a0Kramer reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a friendship that went on for decades. It is about rekindling that\u00a0friendship,\u201d Cuomo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What is it with New York Italians, politicians, unions, ports, big construction projects, places like Cuba, and Catholic bishops?<\/p>\n

Cuomo\u00a0also met with Cuban Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino while in Havana.<\/p>\n

The governor expressed admiration for the cardinal\u2019s efforts in expanding the church\u2019s reach in the Communist-ruled country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very proud of what his eminence has done,\u201d Cuomo said. \u201cWe\u2019re very proud of what the Catholic church has done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Isn’t that nice?\u00a0 Andrew Cuomo is very proud of our Church.\u00a0 I guess we can all be proud <\/a>of that then.<\/p>\n

When asked if his decision\u00a0to move so quickly to help end the embargo had anything to do with his late father Mario, Cuomo said \u201cMy father said isolation\u00a0is not going to work. Isolation is just going to cause bitterness and it\u2019s going to accomplish nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in New York, Republicans called the governor\u2019s trade mission a political stunt.<\/p>\n

One lawmaker said it was offensive\u00a0to Cuban-Americans whose families have been victims of the Castros\u2019 rule.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who was that one lawmaker?\u00a0 What a silly thing to say.\u00a0 Castro is nice now.\u00a0 It was all America’s bitter isolation as they sinned against dialogue, encounter, accompaniment, heartfelt closeness, and that Catholicism whose flag Communism stole.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local New York CBS reports: Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to return\u00a0to New York from Cuba on Tuesday with two major business\u00a0deals in hand. As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported,\u00a0although the trade mission was supposed to be about developing future business, the group actually came back to the states with two deals made, including …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[228,230,227,207,59,226,231,229,19],"class_list":["post-1911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-barack-obama","tag-cardinal-ortega","tag-castro","tag-communism","tag-cuban-church","tag-cuban-embargo","tag-havana","tag-pope-francis"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1911"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1922,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911\/revisions\/1922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}