×

Rush Limbaugh

For a better experience,
download and use our app!

The Rush Limbaugh Show Main Menu




RUSH: So, Obama lands in Cuba. We can call it one small step for man, one giant leap for Marxism. It’s incredible. Everything out there is just incredible today.

Greetings, my friends. It’s a delight to have you here, Rush Limbaugh, as we kick off a brand-new week of broadcast excellence. The telephone number is 800-282-2882. And the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

Yeah, so Obama is in Cuba. A bunch of the Drive-By Media are in Cuba and they’re wearing Che Guevara shirts and other Cuban revolutionary garb. Chris Cuomo, the son of Mario “The Pious” is wearing a shirt that Castro gave Mario “The Pious,” as he’s there with ABC.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: As I said to open the program, President Obama has landed in Havana. One small step for man, one giant leap for Marxism. We have a montage of Drive-By Media types. This is the most excited they have been for an airplane landing since Gorbachev touched down in the US in 1986. That’s when they all had the first collective known Gorbasm. Well, they are just thrilled. It doesn’t matter that Raul Castro did not show up at Jose Marti airport to greet Obama. They don’t care. Obama landed in Cuba, they’re excited. Here is the montage of what the media sounded like.

BECKY QUICK: A big day for the US and Cuba.

ERIC SHAWN: See that airplane? It’s Air Force One. And it’s been on a journey that’s taken 90 years.

DAVID MUIR: History has just been made. President Obama touching down, Air Force One landing here in Havana.

ROBIN ROBERTS: The first US president in nearly 90 years to step foot on Cuban soil.

NORAH ODONNELL: The first sitting American president to set foot on the island in 88 years.

LISANDRO PEREZ: I never thought I would live to see this day.

JIM ACOSTA: This is a momentous thing that we’re watching right now.

LESTER HOLT: Obama making history as the first American president to visit since Calvin Coolidge 88 years ago.

CHRIS CUOMO: To have the American president on Cuban soil. The implications are deep and yet unknown.

RUSH: That was Chris Cuomo. To have the American president on Cuban soil, the implications are deep and yet unknown. So today on CNN’s New Day, Alisyn Camerota spoke with Chris Cuomo about what he was wearing as he’s covering Obama’s trip to Cuba. Camerota said, “Hey, Chris, we can’t help but notice your culturally appropriate garb that you’re wearing. Tell us the history of your shirt.” Here’s what Chris Cuomo said.

CUOMO: My guayabera? This shirt belonged to my father. It was given to him by Fidel Castro. It marked conversations going on decades ago that were the same as those today. The concern was the freedom of the people.

RUSH: Come on.

CUOMO: What is the point of this communist regime if it is not to truly make everyone equal, not at the lowest level, not by demoralizing everyone,

RUSH: Do you hear this?

CUOMO: — but lifting everyone up. My father, generations of politicians have been fighting this.

RUSH: Good God.

CUOMO: So I wear this shirt as a reminder of that.

RUSH: Did you hear that? I gotta rein it back. I gotta dial it back here. Did you just hear how communism was defined here? Where did this guy pick it up? From his dad? From school? This is incredible. It marked conversations going on decades between Mario the pious and Fidel Castro. And they were the same then as they are today.

“The concern was the freedom of the people. What is the point of this communist regime if it is not truly to make everyone equal, not at the lowest level, not by demoralizing everybody, but lifting everyone up.” Are you kidding? That’s what communally is? Well, if they’ve been at it for, what, 40 or 50 years in Cuba, can anybody say success?

Did you know that? Did you know that the purpose of communism was to make everybody rich? Did you know the purpose of communism was to elevate everybody? Everybody was to be equal, everybody was to be the same, not demoralized, not at the lowest level, but lifting everyone up. “My father, generations of politicians have been fighting this, so I wear the shirt as a reminder.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Sound bites like this — I don’t know — slap me in the face and make me realize something that has escaped me all these years. For example, Chris Cuomo (who is the morning drive anchor, if you will, on CNN) is talking about the shirt that he’s wearing and he’s very happy that his dad, Mario the Pious, was in constant contact with Fidel Castro over the wonders of communism, the freedom of the people.


Communism imprisons people.

But not to these media people! No, no, no. See, I always thought that these people knew. This is where I was wrong. Back in the day, the seventies, eighties, I’m listening to these people speak glowingly of the Soviet Union, glowingly of the Soviet Union system, happily pronouncing Soviet expansionism — and opposing Ronald Reagan or any effort to rein in communism. That was considered the problem as far as the left and the media was concerned. I thought they knew that communism imprisoned people.

I thought they knew that communism denied upward economic mobility. I thought they held out hope for it. “If only the right people could be put in charge with a sufficient amount of money…” I did not know until this day… I probably shouldn’t admit this. I did not know until this day that every leftist, pro-Soviet Democrat in this country actually believes that communism is about lifting people up and actually believes that communism is about freedom and that communism is about elevating people. Not demoralizing them at the lowest level, but lifting everyone up.

I thought they knew the problems of communism but were holding out hope that its promise of equality and sameness could be marshaled into utopia. I did not know until this day that they think the original purpose of communism is to elevate people, to give them freedom and upward economic mobility. I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed to admit this. I’ve been laboring under a misconception. I was giving these people the benefit of the doubt that they knew communism — as currently constituted — was horrible.

But I thought they knew that. I thought they nevertheless held out hope it was the best way for sameness, equality, equality of outcomes. I did not know that they believed communism equals individual freedom. I did not know that they believed communism stands for upward mobility and equality. This explains a lot to me. Now, how is it that if they believe this, and if Chris Cuomo’s father’s been talking to Fidel about this for years, why hasn’t anybody been able to pull this off?


Why is it that no matter where you go in this world socialism, communism, is an abject failure and does the exact opposite of what these people believe it’s designed to do? I am a little bit more understanding now of these dolts, given what they think it is. If anybody were to come along and you’re a student in junior high, kindergarten, wherever — no matter where you go in school — and they tell you, “Communism is about individual freedom, economic prosperity. Everybody enjoying it, everybody being the best, everybody being the same.

“Nobody losing, no competition, total freedom. Do whatever you want, and the state will make sure that everybody ends up with a lot!” Well, what numskull wouldn’t find that attractive? If, on the other hand, you teach communism for what it really is: “They have to build walls to keep people in. If you disagree with the thinking of the state, you’re gonna end up in a dungeon like they have in Cuba. You’re gonna have people, political prisoners, who will be shot and starved.

“You’ll have a lot of your country… The people who believe that communism was about freedom, they’re gonna be in jail. They’re gonna be on trial. Many of them are gonna be shot. Many of them are gonna be killed. Many of them are gonna be executed. And, by the way, communism cannot promise upward mobility because it’s impossible in the system. And communism cannot guarantee individual liberty and freedom because you must all think the same way.” If it were taught that way, nobody would support it.

This has been the greatest question… You know, I’m a literalist. I’m the mayor of Realville. I say, “How many of these people believe in this stuff?” In the real world, it’s never worked. Never. The promise, the utopia, the dream, never. Not only has it never worked, it’s never even been approached. It’s never been near. Nobody’s ever gotten close to it no matter where you go. And yet they continue to hold on to it. They continue to believe in the promise. What promise? There isn’t any promise except prison, poverty, total mind control.

Chris Cuomo, look at what he thinks it is. It’s about freedom of the people! It makes everyone equal, lifting everybody up.

Unbelievable.

Why hasn’t it happened, then?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, folks, just this week an unfazed Associated Press reported: “Coast Guard: 9 Cuban Migrants Die, 18 Rescued off Florida — Nine Cuban migrants died at sea and 18 others were rescued by a cruise ship after their 30-foot boat was found about 130 miles from the Florida coast, the US Coast Guard said. The migrants were severely dehydrated when they were found Friday and said they had been at sea 22 days. The bodies of those who didn’t make it were placed overboard, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Barney.”

Well, what were these 27 Cubans thinking, for crying out?

Why in the world would you abandon such a paradise?

In fact, why would any of the people who have left Cuba — why would any of the people who were shot trying to get over the Berlin Wall, why would any of the people trying to get out of Venezuela, why would any of the people leaving these communist paradises — leave? What were they thinking? They need to have an immediate meeting with Chris Cuomo so that Chris Cuomo can explain to them that communism is about freedom of the people. Not at the lowest level. No, no, no! Everybody will be equal by lifting everyone up.

What were they thinking?

Why in the world would these 27 people leave such a place?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oh, look, there’s Obama meeting with Raul Castro. Yes, no doubt they’re talking about the freedom of the people and the equality and upward economic mobility of all communist citizens, and what a beautiful thing that it is. It makes me want to puke. Grab that. Grab sound bite number three. You’ve gotta hear this again, folks. This is Chris Cuomo in Cuba. He’s wearing a shirt that his dad Mario the Pious gave him, former governor of New York. Alisyn Camerota asks him about it.


I want you to listen to this. Remember this guy grew up in the household of one of the most popular Democrat governors there’s ever been, Mario Cuomo. What Chris Cuomo knows and thinks is what he heard at the family dinner table being talked about within the family, wherever. This is, as I say, it was an eye-opening, almost embarrassing I didn’t have this figured out myself.

CUOMO: My guayabera? This shirt belonged to my father. It was given to him by Fidel Castro. It marked conversations going on decades ago that were the same as those today. The concern was the freedom of the people. What is the point of this communist regime if it is not to truly make everyone equal, not at the lowest level, not by demoralizing everyone, but lifting everyone up. My father, generations of politicians have been fighting this. So I wear this shirt as a reminder of that.

RUSH: I’m still almost speechless in stunned shock here. (imitating Cuomo) “My father’s been talking about this with people for years. The concern was the freedom of the people. What is the point –” he’s talking about the Castro regime — “what is the point of this Castro Regime if it’s not to truly make everybody equal? Not at the lowest level, but by lifting everyone up.”

What is the point of a communist regime? It is to deny every bit of that. A communist regime is built on so many frauds. It’s built on the fraud that everybody’s the same. It’s built on the fraud that everybody can be the same. It’s built on the fraud that every outcome can be made equal and that everybody can be upper middle class. It’s built on the fraud that everybody can have what they want and there will be total freedom, and there are no wants and no desires and most importantly, there will never be any competition. Communism is built on the belief that utopia is possible and can be provided by benevolent people running it.

Communism accomplishes just the exact opposite by design. Communism by design is designed to make everybody poor, it’s designed to make everybody miserable, it’s designed to make everybody the same. It’s designed to provide a system whereby the leaders are the only ones who get and have what they want.

So, once again, what are we back to? We’re back to good intentions. Communism fails every time it’s been tried. Socialism, ditto. But because of the good intentions we continue to have and invest our hope. And what are the good intentions? That everybody’s going to be elevated. It’s stupid. You talk about stupidity, this is rank ignorance, dangerous rank ignorance, that particular belief of communism. And that’s your modern-day Democrat Party, folks. That’s it. The American president posing in front of a picture of Che Guevara.

By the way, Snerdley were you upset like Trump was that Raul Castro was not at the airport to meet Obama? Trump said that you should turn the plane around. If Raul’s gonna be there to meet the pope, if Raul’s gonna be there to meet say Hugo Chavez when he was alive and land, if he’s not gonna be there to meet the president of the United States, you turn that plane around and you get out of there. You do not get off that airplane. Do you think Trump’s right about that, or not?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oh. No. No, no, no. Obama and Raul Castro, as we speak, are having a joint press conference. This little Raul just let Obama have it. He has called on Obama to lift even more restrictions on the blockade. That’s what the Castros call the embargo. They call it the blockade. Cuban people think there’s actually Navy ships out there blockading anybody from getting into Cuba, and then he demanded the return of Guantanamo Bay. Here are the sound bites. This is the first with Castro lecturing Obama that his efforts to remove the blockade have been insufficient.

TRANSLATOR: Much more could be done if the US blockade were lifted. We recognize the position of President Obama and his administration against the blockade and his repeated appeals to Congress to have it removed. The most recent measures adopted by his administration are positive, but insufficient.

RUSH: Can you believe this? And Obama stands there and nods. Jeeez. You know, folks, the blockade. Castro has told the poor Cuban people ever since 1962 that the reason they’re poor is the American blockade. The only reason they do not have jobs, the only reason they do not have parts for their ’57 Chevys, and the only reason why their buildings are falling apart — I saw, CNN did a stand up with one of their reporters this morning in Havana, and I don’t know what this guy was thinking, but he chose a location, it looked like bombed out Beirut behind him. He had a picture of Havana framed that would look like bombed out Beirut. It just looked dilapidated and 60 years old, which it is.


Now, normally these reporters would try to find some new hotel to stand in front of or some speakeasy little coffee shop or what have you. But, no, no, no, no. They chose an absolute picture to frame this report in that made Havana look like it had been bombed back to the Stone Age. There are a lot of Americans, a lot of liberals who think that Raul Castro and Fidel are right, that it’s our blockade, the embargo which has limited Cuba and deprived it of economic opportunity. And here’s the thing. We are the only country in the world that does not trade with Cuba. The only major country. I don’t know what they do in Myanmar and I don’t know what Belize does, but I can tell you that we are the only major country that does not trade with them. And yet that is portrayed as the reason why the Cuban people are still living in poverty.

And of course it would makes sense for the Castros to say this. They’re not gonna blame themselves, and they obviously are not gonna blame communism. They blame America for it, for standing in the way. But they’re able to trade with Saudi Arabia, they’re able to trade with the UK, every nation in Europe, they trade with Canada, they trade with the ChiComs, they trade with everybody. The only reason the Cuban people are poor is the Cuban government. The only reason the Cuban people don’t have any freedom or economic upward mobility is communism. You know, it is striking to have to still explain this. It amazes me to think of the number of people to whom the truth and realities of communism is news that they’ve not heard before. Here is Raul Castro now demanding that we give back Guantanamo bay.

TRANSLATOR: The blockade stands as the most important obstacle to our economic development and the well-being of the Cuban people. That’s why its removal will be of the essence to normalize bilateral relations. And actually it will also bring benefits to the Cuban immigrants who wish the best for their families and their country.

RUSH: Oh, my God.

TRANSLATOR: In order to move the forward to its normalization, it would also be necessary to return the territory illegally occupied by Guantanamo naval base.

RUSH: Why don’t you kick us off, Raul? You’re such a major power, why don’t you kick us out of there? If we’re illegally occupying Guantanamo Bay, just move in your military, kick us out. But they can’t. But did you notice this little thing about immigrants? “And actually it will also bring benefits to the Cuban immigrants who wish the best for their families and their country.” So he’s making a pitch for amnesty. He’s joining Obama in his illegal amnesty push. But right there he said it, “The blockade stands as the most important obstacle to our economic develop.”

Really? What a crock. You know, there was a period of time in the first Clinton administration where the Clinton administration began talking about lifting the embargo. I don’t know that it was Bill Clinton per se. He might have. But there were others in his State Department who began to publicly talk about it. And do you know what, any time that happened — and it wasn’t just that one time. There have been many instances in the last 30, 40 years where an American official here or there publicly speaks about the proposition it’s time to lift the embargo. You know what Castro did in every instance? The one involving the Clinton administration, he shot down a little Cessna 172, some charity flight.

It was a single-engine prop plane that was flying charity goods from software to Cuba, he shot it down, thereby stopping all talk of lifting the embargo. The last thing they want is lifting the embargo. If the embargo is really totally lifted, they’re out of excuses. The Cuban people are not going to begin prospering. The Cuban people are not going to experience upward economic mobility. If we totally eliminate the embargo it isn’t gonna happen, because it’s still gonna be a communist country. And old Raul and his Regime clearly know that.

His demanding the embargo be lifted is the actually intended to make sure that it isn’t. “What do you mean, Rush? That doesn’t make sense.” Yes, it does. You get the president of the United States standing next to you. Now, any other president this would be true. With Obama you don’t know. But if it’s any other president standing next to him and he starts ridiculing the embargo, no president could then lift it after such a demand without appearing to be a total sellout, a total coward. Oh, you lift the embargo ’cause this little communist tells you to?

Raul Castro knows that that’s the wrong way to get the embargo lifted, to publicly demand it. There’s no way Obama can then go back and do it without people saying, “You’re kowtowing to a little communist thug.” But that may not be applicable with Obama. It’s his last year in office and he doesn’t care about any of that. So with Obama it might work. I don’t know. Anybody else that would be the fastest way to keep that embargo intact, is to publicly demand that it be lifted.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, it’s kind of fun watching this press conference here with Obama and Raul Castro. Raul Castro does not like this. You know in communist Cuba, the press doesn’t get to do press conferences. They go out, they made commandment speeches, whatever, and the press is then sent a memo with what to write, and they do it. And here Obama has brought along the US press, and Raul is routinely taking off his headphones and interrupting. He’s clearly not familiar with this format here.

Raul looks a little irritated while Obama, of course, is in his element. He’s on the same soil that Che Guevara once walked. He’s in the same soil occupied by Fidel Castro. He’s the first president since Calvin Coolidge to go to Cuba. By the way, you know, I have to revise and extend my remarks. I erred. I goofed up big mere moments ago. I said that Raul Castro demanding that Obama lift the embargo with Obama standing there was the absolute worst way of going about it. I forgot this is exactly how the Iranians did it.

The Iranians got their way with Obama by publicly demanding what they wanted, and he acquiesced. John Kerry, too. These guys are routinely humiliated by the Iranians and now we’ve got a nuke deal with ’em.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This