>>I am not aware of any actual practicing communist economies that work well without outside subsidies.

That's not evidence. Not are anecdotal sound bites. Nor is theorizing, especially after the capitalist US banking system greedily ate itself and then relied on socialist subsidies (funded by external borrowing) to save the day. Instead, if you have any evidence to support your view that the embargo did not trash the Cuban economy, can we see it please. FWIW, I don't believe you have any, apart from "Reds under bed = bad, Capitalists = good."

As my own example of trite argument: I am not aware of any actual socialist nation that was first to declare war on anybody else. Voila, all war and misery is caused by greedy capitalists. Not that I believe it- but it's the same argument style.