Mind you, Cuba accomplished this while under the most excruciating sanctions. Imagine everything they could do if the US sanctions were lifted.
Long live the Cuban revolution!!! Long live Fidel!! Long live Raul!! Love live Che!!!
being a high functioning stoner is WILD because I’m not trying to “escape reality” - I simply want to soften the sharp edges of existing inside a brain that never stops fucking thinking.
"Our country doesn't drop bombs on other people, we don't have biological or nuclear bombs. But we train our doctors to help other nations."
- Fidel Castro
If capitalism is so great, why do corporations need so many tax breaks, subsidies, exemptions, grants, legal protections, bailouts, and trade protections?
When citizens need these things, why is it socialism?
They teach you about how much evil Hitler was in the 20th century while leaving out how Germany wiped out more than 80% of Namibians before even WWI
Germany only officially recognized it as a genocide in 2021, more than a century later, with no reparations and re-education
Michael Jackson died in 2009 with more than $500 million in debt. His estate also owed $40 million to the company organizing his comeback tour. Xscape, released 12 years ago today, was one of the first things they put out to start paying that down.
The album was built from old recordings Jackson never finished, sitting in his archive from 1980 through 1999. The estate hired Timbaland to update the sound. He finished about one song a day. The album hit number 2 in the US, sold 157,000 copies in its first week, and went number 1 in the UK, France, Spain, Belgium, and Denmark. The main song from it, a re-recorded duet with Justin Timberlake, became Jackson’s first top 10 hit after his death.
The catalog sales came next. In 2016, Sony bought out Jackson’s half of the company that owned the rights to the Beatles’ songs for $750 million. In February 2024, Sony paid at least $600 million more for half of Jackson’s own music, including Thriller, Bad, and the rest of his albums. That valued his music at $1.2 billion, the highest amount ever for a single artist’s catalog.
In April this year, the new Michael Jackson movie, “Michael,” made $217 million in its first weekend worldwide. His estate helped pay to make it. That was the biggest opening ever for a movie about a musician, more than four times Bohemian Rhapsody’s $51 million.
Forbes says the estate has earned over $3 billion since Jackson died. Court papers had described his finances as “in disarray.” Today his estate runs one of the most profitable businesses in music, and Xscape was one piece of how that started.