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Yeah, but when Generalissimo Franco died — he’s still dead, I hear — Spanish facism died with him, after nearly thirty years.

And when Chairmen Mao went to join his ancestors, there was a sea change in China. Western levels of political freedom and democracy didn’t occur there, but the level of totalitarian control of people’s lives went down by at least an order of magnitude.

And Stalin’s death may not have made the Soviet Union free, but it did mark a huge change for the better. The country remained a totalitarian dicatorship, but it stopped being the slaughterhouse of millions it had become under “the Sun of the nations”.

I hope he’s dead

“Yeah, but when Generalissimo Franco died — he’s still dead, I hear — Spanish facism died with him, after nearly thirty years.”

Francisco Franco was not a totalitarin despot. At the worst, he was mildly authoritarian. He did almost nothing to perpetuate his regime after his death.

ML:

Agreed. He knew democracy was coming and did a few small things to encourage it, actually.

Dictators can be brought down easily. However, manipulation in world politics doesn’t allow that happen on time. Case in point is Iran. All Iranian want the present Mullacracy to join the toilet of history. However European for economic reason doesn’t allow that to happen. Of course they have BBC and Guardian to poison the environment.
The world politics and its dealing with Khomeinists has become a joke in Iran. If you put two and two together and understand what is going on in Iran, then you will realize how Iranian make jokes by combining Islamists laws and regulation (such as the law that allows a man to have few wives), and Khomeinist slogans (like US can’t do a damn thing and nuclear energy is our undisputed right). Here is what Iranian say these days:
A Mullah was asked: what is the difference between the first wife and the second one. The Mull responded by saying:
The second wife is like nuclear energy which is our undisputed right, and the first wife is like the US, who can’t do a damn thing.

I predict that Chavez will seize control of Cuba upon Castro’s death, perhaps with a Cuban puppet. Chavez could easily have his minions in place in Havana and claim he is protecting Cuba from a US takeover. Chavez seems to have plenty of access. Castro could be dead for weeks while Chavez implements his plan. We would be powerless to stop it.

It just seems like the obvious chain of events to me, virtually every image of Castro now includes Chavez at his bedside. What am I missing?