Socialist anti-imperialist activist, real name Steve Patt. Media commentary & more since 2003 @lefti.blogspot.com & Twitter. Birder, ultrarunner, 🇨🇺 activist
California (Bay Area)
Joined March 2009
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These are Auschwitz-level pictures. Any comparison of Israel to Nazis, or of the genocide they’re carrying out in Gaza to the Holocaust, are entirely appropriate. And only someone who is a liar or willfully ignorant could fail to acknowledge the complicity of the West in this.
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
Trump's illegal war on Iran was never about threats to the American people. It was always just another rich man's war.
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
Dear god. Just one day after the world united to condemn the US blockade of Cuba, @POTUS illegally seizes critical oil bound for the country's homes, hospitals, and schools — doubling down on a siege that has already cost scores of innocent lives.
orinocotribune.com/us-coast-…
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
Sad to see countries keep complaining about the lawlessness Trump is bringing to the international arena, but when push comes to shove, they not only don't dare to push back; they acquiesce to US pressure.
See, for instance, the annual resolution at the UNGA condemning the US's decades-long embargo on Cuba.
This resolution gets huge support every year. But this year, the US's strong-arming tactics moved the needle significantly in Washington's direction.
Support for the Cuban resolution fell from 165 countries in 2025 to 130 in 2026, while opposition rose from 7 to 17 and abstentions more than doubled, from 12 to 25.
Colombia, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago and the UAE went from voting for it to voting against it.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Czechia, Ecuador, Lithuania, and Morocco moved from abstention in 2025 to an outright NO vote in 2026.
Then these countries went from supporting the resolution to abstaining:
Bahrain, Chile, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Jamaica, Montenegro, Netherlands, Palau, Peru, Qatar, South Korea, Solomon Islands.
The main common denominator for these states that have abandoned their longstanding opposition to an illegal embargo is their vulnerability to and dependence on the US. As US foreign policy grows more aggressive and unforgiving, the cost of defying it on this vote has become too high. For some of the smaller states, this is understandable given their near-total dependence on the US.
But this does not apply to states such as Germany, Italy, South Korea, and the Netherlands. They don't have this excuse. Their failure is beyond embarrassing.
Germany is particularly noteworthy. Germany, for the first time, lost a bid earlier this year for an elected seat at the UNSC. This is particularly embarrassing for Germany since it has long sought a permanent seat on the Council. The overarching reason for this failure is the common view that Germany has abandoned international law - it insisted on it in Ukraine, but abandoned it in Gaza, Venezuela, and Iran.
Add Cuba to that list. Rather than restoring its standing, Germany dug a deeper hole for itself with this vote.
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
"New records obtained by KARE 11 show the company that owned a vacant private prison in Appleton, Minnesota offered to sell it to the state in 2025 for $75 million.
One year later, the Trump administration agreed to use taxpayer funds to buy the same abandoned prison from CoreCivic, Inc., for $495.6 million.
The price difference, $420 million, is more than taxpayers are estimated to have lost in Minnesota’s much-publicized Feeding Our Future fraud scandal." kare11.com/article/news/inve…
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
🏥At the Holguín Pediatric Hospital, the night wears on and newborns sleep in their incubators. Suddenly, the power goes out. Darkness covers everything—but not the instinct of two nurses who, without hesitation, rise in unison.
Diana and Liliannis don't need to think. One turns on the rechargeable lamp; the other grabs a manual Ambu-type resuscitator and begins pumping air into the lungs of Leonardo, a baby connected to a ventilator that has just stopped. Their hands hold the thread of a life that has barely begun.
The incubator maintains the temperature, but it needs electricity. When it fails, time condenses and every second weighs like fear and responsibility.
While the blockade complicates spare parts and fuel, these workers sustain the lives of those who cannot wait. There are no sophisticated alarms—only one made by hand from radio parts and steady hands.
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
The US response to my UN report fails to refute any of my legal findings that the US has murdered 244 civilians at sea. Instead it resorts to childish name-calling. I’m obviously not a terrorist sympathizer - but the US is committing extrajudicial killings ohchr.org/sites/default/file…
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
El gobierno de Estados Unidos no tiene derecho ni prerrogativas para gobernar a la población cubana, entrometerse en los asuntos internos del país, determinar el destino de la Nación, imponer su voluntad sobre el pueblo, apropiarse de la riqueza o ejercer su dominio sobre el territorio nacional.
Las escasas, draconianas y onerosas excepciones al bloqueo, mediante muy limitadas licencias gubernamentales no demuestran que el bloqueo no exista. Demuestran exactamente lo contrario.
#CubaNoEsUnaAmenaza El Bloqueo Sí.
Angel Reese pushes Jordin Canada into Veronica Burton and they call a foul on Burton! 🤦🏼♀️😡 #valkyries
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
⛔️🇨🇺 El bloqueo a Cuba solo existe por el peligro que su modelo representa para el viejo modelo neoliberal. Sin bloqueo, Cuba ya fuera el modelo a imitar; y aún con bloqueo, Cuba ha alcanzado logros inéditos para América Latina.
📹 entrevista para el sitio académico @cubanalysis
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
Since 1976, transgender women have been eligible to compete in the ladies' category at major tournaments such as Wimbledon, the United States Open, the Australian Open, and the French Open. Despite this, fifty years later, there has yet to be a transgender woman who has won a Grand Slam title.
In tennis, if a male athlete wishes to transition from the male to female category, the process typically requires the athlete to abstain from competition for several years.
The sport does not permit a male player to simply declare a gender change and immediately participate in female events at Wimbledon or other tournaments.
As both a researcher and a transgender athlete myself, I concur that no male athlete should be allowed to self-identify as female and compete in women’s categories without meeting established criteria.
For male athletes seeking to compete as females, the regulations specify strict hormonal requirements. They must undergo hormone therapy involving testosterone suppression and estrogen supplementation for a minimum of two years. During this period, they are required to maintain testosterone levels below 2.5 nmol/L and undergo additional physical assessments.
Such hormone treatment significantly impacts physical attributes related to athletic performance, including stamina, strength, recovery, and speed.
Research indicates that even in international sports such as cycling, transgender women lose their male advantage within one year of beginning hormone therapy. After three to four years of treatment, a male athlete would likely experience diminished physical capabilities, making it improbable to compete successfully or win at the Grand Slam level in women’s tennis.
transresearch.org.au/post/tr…
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
El señor Zelenski debería mirar bien estas imágenes… Es el líder de la Revolución cubana, Fidel Castro, recibiendo a miles de niños ucranianos que sufrieron exposición a radiación en el accidente de Chernobyl… fueron recibidos en Cuba y tratados integralmente durante más de 20 años sin ningún costo, como un deber humano con el pueblo soviético.
Ayer, Zelenski, en “agradecimiento” por aquel gesto, votó en la ONU a favor de que se mantenga el bloqueo cruel y genocida contra mi país… La miseria humana no tiene límites!
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
Ukraine did this after Cuba spent hundreds of millions of dollars treating thousands of sick Ukrainian children from Chernobyl. Cuba spent 20 years providing specialised care they couldn't afford in Ukraine. Ukraine paid nothing, voting to starve Cuba was their payment I guess.
The fascist, genocidal alliance expands, but the vast majority of the world’s countries and the world’s population still stands with Cuba in condemning the genocidal US blockade. This isn’t “America”, Mike Waltz, this is 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑.
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
The fuel blockade threatens the lives of Cubans. It is collective punishment and an act of war. #CubaIsNotAThreat, the blockade is.
Por esos niños y sus familias en Cuba estamos hoy aquí y por nuestro pueblo abnegado, estrechamente unido, instruido y consciente, noble y solidario, patriótico y digno que no se detiene, que se levanta todos los días superando obstáculos, buscando y participando en las soluciones con gran esfuerzo.
Ningún pueblo merece el sufrimiento y abuso que hoy se nos impone.
#CubaNoEsUnaAmenaza El Bloqueo Sí.
The ugly face (there is only an ugly face) of American arrogance and imperialism.
“Do you understand who you are dealing with? This is America. Back up.”
A United Nations meeting was dramatically suspended yesterday after US ambassador Mike Waltz and Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla both ignored the chair’s plea for order in the chamber.
The problem started when Waltz blamed Cubans for the shocking US embargoes and blockades that are causing huge suffering to the people of the island.
Cuban representatives, astonished at the way Waltz blamed the victims for the crisis, in their eyes, stood up and objected, citing Rule 71, which allows listeners to raise a point of order.
Ambassador Waltz responded that the Cubans didn’t like the substance of his speech, so were not raising a point of order.
But when complaints continued, this caused Ambassador Waltz to lose his temper and shout “Back up! Back away. Do you understand what you’re dealing with? This is America.”
.
INTERNATIONAL TERRITORY
The rest of the United Nations was outraged by this attitude, as the UN building is legally international territory.
When Waltz refused to stop his tirade, Khalilur Rahman, chair of the 81st session, ordered that the meeting be instantly suspended. Waltz ignored him.
The meeting was then resumed, but footage of the argument created a huge storm on social media.
Some people in the US defended Waltz’s narrative, blaming Cubans for the suffering caused by the US embargos.
But much of the commentary from the rest of the world said that the United Nations, for the safety of the delegates and the organization itself, should no longer be situated in New York.
When New York was originally chosen as the site, the US pledged not to politicize US visa access to meetings—but has regularly broken the pledge, such as refusing to allow visas for Palestinians.
.
.
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
Look, this is America.
At an international organization like the United Nations, a US representative can actually use the words “Do you understand who you’re dealing with? This is America!” as a way to intimidate others.
What this reveals is not strength, but a deeply ingrained hegemonic mindset: in their eyes, international rules can constrain everyone else, but they need not constrain the United States; other countries may voice objections, but they must not challenge American authority.
What is even more ironic is that when a country spends years pressuring another through sanctions and blockades, only to turn around and blame that country for its own predicament, how much credibility do its much-vaunted claims of “freedom,” “democracy,” and “human rights” really have left?
The United Nations is not America’s private property, and the international community is not a subordinate institution of Washington.
If the United States cannot even respect procedures and listen to dissent in the UN chamber, what gives it the right to portray itself as the defender of the international order?
A genuine international order should not be one in which whoever has the biggest fist gets to decide who must shut up.
And that is precisely the lesson the United States most needs to learn.
“Do you understand who you are dealing with? This is America. Back up.”
A United Nations meeting was dramatically suspended yesterday after US ambassador Mike Waltz and Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla both ignored the chair’s plea for order in the chamber.
The problem started when Waltz blamed Cubans for the shocking US embargoes and blockades that are causing huge suffering to the people of the island.
Cuban representatives, astonished at the way Waltz blamed the victims for the crisis, in their eyes, stood up and objected, citing Rule 71, which allows listeners to raise a point of order.
Ambassador Waltz responded that the Cubans didn’t like the substance of his speech, so were not raising a point of order.
But when complaints continued, this caused Ambassador Waltz to lose his temper and shout “Back up! Back away. Do you understand what you’re dealing with? This is America.”
.
INTERNATIONAL TERRITORY
The rest of the United Nations was outraged by this attitude, as the UN building is legally international territory.
When Waltz refused to stop his tirade, Khalilur Rahman, chair of the 81st session, ordered that the meeting be instantly suspended. Waltz ignored him.
The meeting was then resumed, but footage of the argument created a huge storm on social media.
Some people in the US defended Waltz’s narrative, blaming Cubans for the suffering caused by the US embargos.
But much of the commentary from the rest of the world said that the United Nations, for the safety of the delegates and the organization itself, should no longer be situated in New York.
When New York was originally chosen as the site, the US pledged not to politicize US visa access to meetings—but has regularly broken the pledge, such as refusing to allow visas for Palestinians.
.
.
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️⚧️ retweeted
El gobierno de EEUU miente de forma grosera y permanente en la Asamblea General de @ONU_es.
Su Representante Permanente en Naciones Unidas, con su prepotencia y soberbia, olvida que se encuentra en Naciones Unidas, no está en el Consejo de Seguridad Nacional de EEUU ni en una unidad de boinas verdes ni en un grupo de Signal, donde ha mostrado reiteradamente su incompetencia e incapacidad.
El gobierno de EEUU, con sus burdas mentiras en la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas, lanzó un nuevo intento desesperado por justificar la agresión económica contra Cuba y su criminal cerco energético. Sus declaraciones de hoy forman parte del circo mediático, de amenazas y de campaña electoral, al que el gobierno estadounidense dedica cuantiosos recursos económicos y humanos.
No hay pretexto para sostener el acto de castigo colectivo al que someten al pueblo cubano.
#CubaNoEsUnaAmenaza El Bloqueo Sí