A Place to vent: instead of hijacking threads to complain about unrecs, post the complaints here.

[naaman fletcher]

[Billy Burnett]

1. Notice that my other thread on the non unrec'd threads has been TS'd?

Hijackers United!

[Bacchus39]

2. is a pelvic abscess a euphemism for a sexually transmitted disease? n/t

s

[Billy Burnett]

3. That's a good start B39

Keep 'em coming. That's what this thread is for. :hi:

[Bacchus39]

5. thanks, I heard reports that Fidel and Raul have visited Hugo bedside during his recuperation

isn't that how he got the infection in the first place??

[naaman fletcher]

4. waah... someone stole my rec!!!

That person is against democracy! What is his/her agenda?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x53425

[nichomachus]

10. That's a good question -- unreccing is for cowards

I can see why someone who was an Obama fanboy would unrec a post even slightly critical of Obama, but I don't get the unrecs on articles that are interesting and not offensive to anyone -- and it happens all the time. I just think there are a lot of people who unrec as sort of an act of vandalism.

I really think the unrec feature is a stupid idea. If you have a complaint with a post, state it in the post. Don't be a coward and unrec it.

[libodem]

6. Why are we hidin' in the Latin American basement?

How did we get downstairs?

[Judi Lynn]

11. We used to post all the great articles on Latin America and the Caribbean in LBN, etc.,

but we kept getting bombed wildly by Free Republic people, yes they were, a great DU'er, Say_What took the time needed to track one down there who had been sustaining an ongoing anti-leftist filibuster for weeks before he finally got wild and crazy enough to earn his tombstone. He was sick enough to pitch a pro-Pinochet tantrum here, as well, claiming Pinochet SAVED Chile.

The threads used to be enormous in LBN. At some point it was decided to start burying everything back here, with few exceptions. That means a ton of really important information remains invisible, unless the posters take the time to go to the small forums. People in a hurry just don't have the time to do that, I know, I have the same problem. They cruise the one which has the most new information in a small space.

It takes no time to realize, after knowing what the process was to create a separate forum, to see it was precisely the insatiable appetite from the right to attempt to override real communication among Democrats by creating such stinking distractions that the real information gets lost, and the people involved in trying to tell the right-wingers to butt out sometimes get tombstoned themselves, like a fantastic poster from Canada who travels to Cuba regularly, good old "Freecancat." In the meantime, there are some right-wingers who have even been found boasting about their skill at staying embedded here, dodging tombstones by getting slick enough to bother Democrats without hacking off the moderators. One of them has even been caught, years ago, boasting in a small right-wing forum that he had managed to insinuate himself among the normals to the point he had become a mod, himself. Absolutely pathetic.

Doesn't matter. People can tell who these people are a mile away. We won't give up trying to correspond with our fellow citizens who look forward to Latin American solidarity and the coming REAL New World.

[Billy Burnett]

12. An example of DU's American exceptionalism, Judi.

In the halcyon days of DU LatAm breaking news actually stayed in LBN. Plus, there used to be a smidgeon of humor there too. No more. :(


Oh, yeah ... routine thread hijackers were TS'd.


:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

13. Yes, they were, weren't they? We had a HUGE group of posters, too, at that time.

Look how many amazing, well-informed, intelligent posters simply have given up after being attacked, harrassed, intimidated beyond endurance, while their tormenters stayed, in their place, on at a board designed, as advertised, for progressives.

The list is almost endless. They simply gave up because it was far much more trouble than it was worth, eventually, trying to reach out to other Democrats while meeting a barrage of crap from the assassins. As the great DU'ers moved elsewhere, to smaller forums with progressives only, the number of assassins here grew.

I believe, too, the answer is to ignore the visitors, simply tune them out. There are good people here worth the effort in communication. What we're after is the unadorned information, anyway, and we can manage that, can't we?

I think we can.http://th202.photobucket.com.nyud.net:8090/albums/aa148/CiscoKiDD1/th_laurelnhardydance.gif

[joshcryer]

14. I have never intimidated anyone here.

However, I have been slandered and relentlessly called out over simply showing a side of Latin America that people are in denial about.

[Judi Lynn]

15. You haven't shown anything, have you? I never looked for a lot of info. on your topic,

so I just took a quick look a moment ago, and look what I found:

Is Cuba a Sex Mecca?
posted Sun, December 4, 2005 - 10:10 PM by Cáemgen

This disscusion is a continuation of the "NY times article" thread but I thought this topic should have a thread of it's own since sex is such a controversial topic in this country.

Firstly, calling Cuba a sex mecca would generate laughter from those familiar with places like Brazil, Thailand, Japan, ect. The only ones who bring up Cuba as a sex tourism location is groups who are looking to bring down the Cuban government. Yes, there's sex happening in Cuba, it would be happening with or without tourism. The vibe in Cuba is a very sexual one and to Americans and some Europeons this can be very exciting or disturbing.

Pornography is illegal in Cuba as is prostitution. Sex with a minor in Cuba if you are a foreigner will get you 25 years in prison. There are a few Canadians in jail down there who were told a girl was older then she was and got busted. Sex meccas, I would think are a place where one can do almost whatever and the government doesn't get in the way. In Cuba a foreign man or women with a Cuban of the opposite sex will get the attention of the police and there will be many questions.

For those who don't know, this whole "sex mecca" thing got started when the soviets pulled out in the early Ninties and the Cuban economy collasped. This caused the beginning of the jineteras/jineteros, also called prostitutes, to begin hustling for money with the tourists. There were thousands of young girls from the provinces flooding into Havana to have sex with tourists just to survive. This went on thoughout the ninties and the Cuban government let it go on as they were in no position to stop it, some say that they let it go on to bring in revenue. But anyway, Cuba in the Ninties could be considerd a sex mecca as there were girls everywhere all over the streets. This went on until the Cuban government, "which reacts when they have all the information they need and a plan that's well thought out" decided to make their move.

The efficiency in which the government rounded up all the hookers is amazing. For a long time they gave em rope and waited till they knew who were providing the rooms for the girls, who the pimps were, the look-outs were, who brought the girls from the provinces to the cities and every other detail. And this was done in every town in Cuba simultaneously in one night. The next day it was a different country. They sent all the girls back to the countryside, arrested the ones in Havana along with the pimps and madams. They rounded everyone up and stopped it. This happened in 1999 and what you see now in Cuba as far as prostitution is a far cry from what was going on in the Ninties "kinda like the music scene too." Now you just see girls hanging out on the Malecon or in front of some nightclubs hoping someone will pay their way in and buy them drinks, is this a sex mecca?

More:
http://vivacuba.tribe.net/thread/6d7e1555-140d-4ff4-9fed-3de1bec8279a

~~~~~
The Dallas Morning News
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Cuban prostitutes go off the street to online

Police crackdown takes country off top list of sex tourist destinations

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – Cuba is no longer one of the world's top destinations for sex tourism after five years of relentless police crackdowns, travel experts say. But another trend has emerged: More travelers are using the Internet to find prostitutes in Cuba. And rights advocates say that computer-assisted sex tourism is troubling because it makes it easier for men to sexually exploit Cuban women and teenagers.

The online sex trade is a multibillion-dollar industry that often targets the Third World and treats women and teenagers as "sexual commodities," said Donna Hughes, a University of Rhode Island professor and women's rights advocate, and author of a report titled "Pimps and Predators on the Internet – Globalizing Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children."

Sex tourists frequently log on to adult travel Internet sites and rate the Cuban prostitutes they find, remarking on everything from hair and skin color to mood, sexual attributes and performance. Some also take nude or semi-nude photos of the women and post them on the Internet. Some of these photos are shot without permission or captured by hidden icamera. Others are casual snapshots, but the women have no idea that these intimate pictures will be available on the Internet for years to come, Ms. Hughes and other rights advocates say.

Sex tourists who travel to Cuba are unapologetic. They call themselves "hobbyists" and say they enjoy nothing more than traveling the world in pursuit of easy,
preferably cheap sex.

Disappointment

But these days, they're not happy with Cuba. Police enforcement has driven many prostitutes off the streets, they say, and in some towns, few can be found at all.

More:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/cuba-prostitution-11-03.htm

~~~~~
Sex in Cuba?

Washington Post
October 19, 2003
COMINGANDGOING

At a recent briefing, President Bush announced he was cracking down on travel to Cuba because of the government's "brutal oppression" and to thwart what he called a "rapidly growing illicit sex trade" that is " encouraged by the Cuban government."

CoGo was surprised to hear the latter. On a trip last spring, there was no evidence of an open sex trade, let alone anything like the markets in downtown Bangkok. In fact, Cubans complained to CoGo that they had to have a date to go to the best clubs -- a rule they said was to keep sex hustlers from seeking partners at clubs that attract foreigners. Plus, advocates of the U.S. travel ban have long complained that Cubans are prohibited from hotels and beaches frequented by foreigners.

So what's the evidence? The State Department's 2003 "Trafficking in Persons" report, said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. The report lists 80 countries as having a human exploitation problem. Cuba is on the list, as is the host of next summer's Olympics, Greece.

CoGo turned to the World Wide Web and found that while sex is for sale everywhere, including Cuba, sex tour operators most frequently extoll Thailand and Brazil. In the pedophile category, Brazil, India and Thailand lead the pack; Brazil alone has a half-million kids in the sex trade, according to the group ECPAT, whose full name describes its mission: End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children. Cuba, ECPAT said, has fewer underage kids in the sex trade than any country in the region.

More:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/1189.html

~~~~~
I'll stick with information from a SERIOUS, RESPONSIBLE source like UNICEF. I'm not interested in hearing a word from an unmitigated a-hole running his sex-tourism blog who wants to talk dirty about women in other countries. I've unfortunately had to bump into these fools working, who have a grotesque attitutde toward women, and are too damned stupid to realize how twisted their understanding is, how wildly little they know. Women laugh at these clowns, when they aren't gagging.

[joshcryer]

16. Well, at least you admit you "never looked for a lot of info" on the topic.

Which is telling. I look for info on a plethora of topics and I don't just stop due to confirmation bias. For instance, if you continued reading that thread in your first link, you'll get mixed opinions. And naturally, there is a long term deflection being used.

I don't use deflection, they are useless and idiotic and contribute zero substance to a discussion. Finger pointing is irrelevant. If I think teenage prostitution in Cuba is a bad thing that does not mean that somehow I think it is OK in the United States. Teen prostitution is going up in the United States, for example, that's horrible. And if someone insisted that the United States was a great protector of teens I'd happily show the statistics for that one.

I'll note that Cuba's prostitution problem (particularly teens / underage) isn't as bad as now as it was in the 90s. And I would have happily told anyone this who actually accepted the veracity of the problem. But instead full on denial takes place and people don't even want to know how the problem is. But it exists. And the revolution didn't stop it from happening.

[libodem]

7. It's kinda dark

I'll light this candle. When my kids were little we had a definitive policy on the n- word and the c-word usage in our home. It was verboten. No one could say them aloud.

What about you?

[intheflow]

8. I hate my boss - she's a total asshole.

Oh wait. You mean vent about DU? Sorry, can't do it. I come here to escape the assholes in my real life. When I meet them here, I can put them on ignore. Would that I could do the same about my boss!

[Control-Z]

9. Right now

it is my children I want to put on ignore. So, yeah, I know what you mean.

[joshcryer]

17. This thread was +7 today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x53415

Now it's +4.

Hypocrites.

[cayanne]

18. OR

one can quit complaining about it. Unrecs are up to each person. If you take unrecs away, take recs away with it.