Cuba Overwhelmed With Tourists

Obama Today Eases Embargo

{Tuesday, January 26th, 2015}

Photo courtesy: Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini.

         This photo of vintage American cars in old Havana was used to illustrate a major article by Reuters today -- Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. The article is entitled: "Surge of Americans Tests Limits of Cuba's Tourism Industry." The article stated: "Cuba's tourism industry is under unprecedented strains and struggling to meet demand with record numbers of visitors arriving a year after the United States renewed interest in the Caribbean island. It's tropical weather, rich musical traditions, famed cigars and classic cars were for decades off limits to most Americans under Cold War-era sanctions but those restrictions are fading. Once a rare sight, Americans are now swarming old Havana along with Europeans and Canadians. 3.52 million tourists visited Cuba in 2015, including 161,000 Americans, and that's not counting hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans." Charter flights, inconvenient and expensive to book, are the way Americans have been going to Cuba but Reuters said "commercial and ferry services are due to start this year."

         This photo of a Cuban flag on a car is courtesy of Carlos Garcia Rawlins and was used to illustrate yet another major Reuters article today, this one entitled: "U. S. Eases Air Travel, Export Financing Sanctions On Cuba." The article stated: "The United States on Tuesday {today} announced changes to its sanctions on Cuba, lifting export payments and financing restrictions and facilitating airline travel in Washington's very latest moves to ease the U. S. embargo."

   When it comes to Cuba, President Barack Obama has displayed more guts, more intelligence, and more decency than the previous ten U. S. Presidents combined. Today's new lifting of sanctions continue to slice into the egregious tenets of the U. S. embargo against Cuba that has, in the eyes of the world, shamed the U. S. since 1962. A few Cuban-American zealots aligned with the necessary right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress maintained, for all those decades, an embargo that the rest of the world, as validated by the yearly vote in the United Nations, abhorred along with democracy-lovers everywhere. Till Obama, no President was smart enough or brave enough to seriously challenge the self-serving grip Miami hard-liners and Congress have on a policy that denigrates the image of the U. S. while gaining pugnacious Cuba much international support.

Rosy-checked little Cuban girls should not be punished by embargoes.

President Obama agrees.

His enemies disagree.

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U.S., Israel, & Cuba

Plus Fox News and Congress
{Updated: Tuesday, January 26th, 2016}

       Havana, Cuba's capital, is a great place to visit but it has a myriad of problems -- such as nearby Miami, the U. S. Congress, Fox News, and, this week, floods. The above photo is courtesy of Juan Saurez and Havana Times.org. It shows that, beginning on January 22nd, turbulent seas, even on sunny days, have sent waves cascading over the famed Malecon seawall creating dire problems blocks away. 

        Denis McDonough is a very brave man. How in the world do I know that? Well, he's President Barack Obama's Chief of Staff and he's totally unafraid of Fox News.

       This month of January, 2016, Denis McDonough even showed up on Fox News Sunday. That proves how brave he is. Looking straight at Fox anchorman Chris Wallace, Mr. McDonough very bravely said that his boss, President Obama, will close the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba during these final 11 months of his two-term presidency. Mr. Wallace bristled, reminding Mr. McDonough that, essentially, only right-wing members of the U. S. Congress from Miami and New Jersey could make laws or decisions regarding Cuba! Mr. McDonough responded with these exact and brave words: "He feels an obligation to his successor to close that. And that's why we're going to do it. Sure we are." Mr. Wallace, unaccustomed to such effrontery, bristled anew and grilled Mr. McDonough on the constitution, insisting that only a handful of right-wingers in Congress should be allowed to make laws and decisions pertaining to Cuba. Didn't he know that? Mr. McDonough sternly and bravely held his ground, reminding Mr. Wallace that...no, he didn't know that!

       Chris Wallace unfairly grilled Dennis McDonough regarding the claim -- by Fox News and other powerful right-wing entities -- that McDonough's boss, President Obama, is anti-Israel. Wallace reminded McDonough that the U. S. Congress invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak against Obama's wishes. Many of the top Jewish scholars around the world, as well as Israel's leading supporters such as the New York Times, are direly concerned that Israel's dominance of the U. S. Congress as well as the conservative and right-wing media in the U. S., is encouraging Netanyahu's government to excesses that increasingly harm both its own security and the image of Israel and the U. S., which alarms many of their most fervent supporters. The free world, and surely the NY Times, is pro-Israel, and more realistic than Fox News or Congress.

        This photo, courtesy of Chen Galili, shows Dan Shapiro making a speech at a major news conference in Tel Aviv on Jan. 18-2016. No one is more Jewish or pro-Israel than Dan Shapiro. He is also the U. S. Ambassador to Israel. In this speech Dan Shapiro said, "Too much Israeli vigilantism in the West Bank goes unchecked. At times it seems Israel has two standards of adherence to the rule of law in the West Bank -- one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. Israel has two legal systems in the West Bank leaving settlers' vigilantism unchecked." For those and other critiques, Dan Shapiro was called a "Jew Boy" by a key former aide to Prime Minister Netanyahu, among other assaults that the historically pro-Israel New York Times emphatically called "unusually personal and unfair" in a major editorial that strongly supported Shapiro's remarks.

        Dan Shapiro, the U. S. Ambassador to Israel, is shown here with his dear friend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Prime pro-Israel advocates such as Mr. Shapiro seem to believe that the right-leaning Israeli government is harming itself and the U. S. with such things as the continued settlements of sharply declining Palestinian land, something that even the George W. Bush and all recent U. S. administrations have opposed. But Israel, many pro-Israel entities believe, has more influence on the U. S. than Bush, Obama or any other U. S. President and thus the huge and unique economic and military aid from the U. S. is assured to keep Israel one of the world's most powerful nuclear powers. Indeed, Netanyahu last week asked and will receive a huge increase in U. S. aid to appease Israel after its disapproval of the Iranian deal. In the U. S., few are willing to criticize anything related to Israel out of fear of being called anti-Semitic. But Dan Shapiro is not anti-Semitic; neither is the New York Times; and neither am I and millions of other strong Israeli supporters who have, all our lives, repeated with sincere conviction that Israeli has a right to defend itself. But now Dan Shapiro, the New York Times, the United Nations, myself, and millions of other Israeli supporters are concerned that Israel's highly publicized treatment of the Palestinians and their small occupied territory is drastically injurious to both Israel and the United States.

       The same day the New York Times editorial strongly stated that Dan Shapiro, America's very Jewish Ambassador to Israel "correctly questioned" Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, Margot Wallstrom, the Foreign Minister of Sweden, made international headlines when she suggested that Israel should be fairly investigated for what she termed "extrajudicial executions." Ms. Wallstrom has since been sharply denounced by Israel and her comments have evoked such worldwide headlines as: "Adelson Newspaper Suggests Swedish Foreign Minister Deserves Assassination For Questioning Israeli Policy." Sheldon Adelson is the multi-billionaire American famed for contributing to pro-Israeli politicians and he owns major newspapers in both the U. S. and Israel. Such headlines and such comments from world leaders such as Margo Wallstrom deeply concern Israel's strongest supporters, such as Dan Shapiro and the editorial writers at the New York Times. Margo Wallstrom is "outraged over repeated examples of Palestinian teenage girls" committing suicide by supposedly threatening powerfully armed Israeli soldiers with knives or scissors after "saying good-bye" to their youthful peers in tightly occupied and devastated Palestinian territory.

     This breitbart.com photo shows Marco Rubio, the first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senator from Miami, trying to solicit a huge donation from Sheldon Adelson. The seriously ambitious Rubio is a very serious Republican presidential candidate and he also, many believe, has a very serious For Sale sign emblazoning his campaign. Such visits to court Mr. Adelson do not dispel that notion.

        Can a few billionaires like Sheldon Adelson propel their man, such as a Masrco Rubio, to the White House? Rubio's own comments help fuel such fears, such as his oft-stated comment that "my first flight on Air Force One will be to Israel." The inexperienced but For Sale Rubio doesn't seem to understand that on January 20th of 2017 there might be other priorities for the plane. 

       This graphic expresses the fear, a legitimate one, that one man worth $35.7 billion, meaning Mr. Adelson, might purchase the White House for someone like Marco Rubio. That feeling among democracy-lovers was greatly exacerbated when the U. S. Supreme Court recently and strangely ruled that billionaires could make unlimited political donations. Even before that ruling, democracy-lovers were appalled at the influence the richest Americans had over America's democracy. 

       The above photo courtesy of Hazem Baden/AFP is flashing around the world today. It shows the sister of 13-year-old Palestinian girl Rogaya Aber-Eid grieving as the girl was buried two days ago -- Sunday, January 24th -- after being shot because she supposedly threatened a soldier with a knife. The AFP also showed the world much more graphic photos of the girl's body and her distraught father. The constant international coverage of such tragedies provoke such things as the 28 EU nations sanctioning Israeli products made on Palestinian land, sharp denunciations of Israel by Sweden and others, and unfortunate headlines such as the one related to Mr. Adelson. That's why many of Israel's best friends and strongest supporters -- Dan Shapiro, the New York Times, etc. -- believe that the opinions of President Obama as well as all other living former Presidents Carter, Clinton, and the two Bushes should be considered in the U.S.-Israel equation that means so much to both countries and the entire world. President Obama's Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, and the U. S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, are all-too-often overwhelmed when they try to explain their viewpoints to the likes of Fox News and the United States Congress.

       The above photo also floats around the world on a yearly basis, although Fox News and the U. S. Congress successfully convince most Americans to ignore it. Yet, a widely publicized 191-to-2 vote is rather hard to ignore, especially by the world's greatest democracies. The vote each October in the United Nations reveals that the entire world opposes the U. S. embargo against Cuba, all the nations of the world except...the U. S. and Israel. Because Israel is by far the greatest recipient of financial and military aid from the U. S., Israel has been mocked for having its vote regarding Cuba bought-and-paid for. But that's an unfair appraisal because Israel is a sovereign nation that has every right to cast a UN vote as it sees fit. Yet, the U. S. gives away a lot of other money and the wonder is...why can't it purchase the Cuban vote of some other nations? 

        Cuba always refers to the U. S. embargo as a blockade, which has been in effect since 1962. Cuba had a record 3.5 million tourists in 2015 and, thanks to President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island, many of Cuba's best hotels are already sold-out for all of 2016. Tourists to the island, like the people in the blue car, will see billboards and signs such as the one above punctuated by a hanging noose. The billboard says: "Blockade: The Longest Genocide in History." While much of the world thinks the word genocide is an exaggeration, even historians attest to its longevity. Moreover, the vast majority of the world, including America's best friends, are ashamed about the image it casts, decade after decade, on the U. S and democracy. Supporters of the embargo, such as Fox News and the U. S. Congress, claim that Cuba merely uses the embargo as an excuse for its own multiple failures. Well, if that is so...why doesn't Fox News and the U. S. Congress have the guts to end it, like President Obama and the rest of world so fervently desire?

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LET'S RECAPTURE CUBA

And Get Rich Quick!!

     USAID is the acronym for United States Agency for International Development. It has been known to use tax dollars to help needy people around the world. But when it comes to Cuba, USAID, it seems, plunges head-first into CIA territory, which has been known to have participated in...uh, let's say...regime-change schemes in more than a few countries -- from the Congo to Chile, and that's just dipping into the countries that start with a "C." The fact that the results produced fiendish U.S.-friendly dictators -- Mobutu and Pinochet, to just mention the "C's" -- has never seemed to bother the American people, whom the Founding Fathers expected to be fierce defenders of their democracy, such as the ferocity the Greatest Generation in World War II exhibited. And since 1898 when the USS Maine blew up in Havana Harbor to become the pretext for the Spanish-American War, or since 1903 when the U. S. extracted Guantanamo Bay from Cuba, or since 1952 when the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, or since 1976 when Cubana Flight 455 was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb, or since USAID departed from its main course, which is helping needy people in foreign nations, to not-so-clandestinely fund regime-change operations in one particular country, Cuba, the two post-World War II generations of Americans have either been too timid or too ignorant to care, even one iota, about such things as a 191-to-2 UN vote denouncing America's Cuban policy mandated by a dysfunctional, Batistiano-infiltrated U. S. Congress and now, it seems, exacerbated by today's USAID.

     Tracey Eaton knows Cuba like the back of his hand. He spent years on the island as the Havana-based correspondent for the Dallas Morning News. He is now a journalism professor at Flagler College in Florida. His articles about Cuba are carried in high-profile forums such as USA Today, Huffington Post, Pulitzer.org, etc. He regularly revisits the island to obtain video interviews with everyday Cubans, dissident Cubans, and pro-revolutionary Cubans. You can see dozens of those interviews on Tracey's websites or on venues such as YouTube. As one of America's best and fairest Cuban experts, he is also America's very best investigative reporter when it comes to U.S.-Cuban relations. Expertly using the Freedom of Information act, a still-viable democratic tool, Tracey regularly reveals exact details on a myriad of tax-dollars devoted to countless regime-change programs that otherwise are never reported by a cowered U. S. media and which force Cuba to remain in a defensive mode to protect what it considers its sovereignty and its culture. On January 22-2016 a Tracey Eaton article revealed yet another open solicitation by USAID to make some more people rich if they hold up their hand and explain how they can oppose Cuba's revolutionary government. He wrote: "USAID announced a $6 million grant to anyone chosen to make political changes in Cuba. Grant amounts will range from $5,000,000 to $2 million. The application deadline is Feb. 25. The agency says that grant recipients will be going to Cuba at their own risk and may not hold USAID responsible for what might happen to them."

     The saga of Alan Gross is well known to Americans, except they have gotten a mostly pro-U.S./anti-Cuba spin that grossly sanitized it with the usual tilt against Cuba. His imprisonment in Cuba, his hunger strike, etc., will forever remain a microcosm of U.S.-Cuban relations in the post-Cold War period. Among the minimized truths, once he was freed, is the fact that he successfully sued the U. S. government -- TAXPAYERS! -- for his well-paid but dangerous anti-Cuban venture on the island.

         If you Google Wikipedia, it's first lines about Alan Gross are: "Alan Phillip Gross is a United States government contractor employed by the United States Agency for International Development {USAID}. In December 2009 he was arrested in Cuba while working on a program fueled under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act." The Helms-Burton Act -- like the Torricelli Bill, etc. -- was easily rammed through the U. S. Congress by the most ardent anti-Castro zealots in Miami aligned with Congressional acolytes like the infamous Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, Robert Torricelli, etc. From those days to this day, Helms-Burton, Torricelli, etc., have funneled vast sums of tax dollars from Washington to Miami to fund anti-Cuban programs and enrich just about anybody that concocts any program...such as the money-soaking Radio-TV Marti enterprise or the Wet Foot/Dry Foot boondoggle that dates back to 1966's Cuban Adjustment Act...that even remotely claims a desire to help eliminate or overthrow Cuba's revolutionary government. So, long before USAID got on the anti-Cuban bandwagon, tepid American taxpayers were and are being drained of tax dollars flowing freely and endlessly in pipelines from the U. S. Congress in Washington to anti-Castro zealots in Miami. The very day -- Jan. 22-2016 -- Tracey Eaton exposed yet another USAID multi-million-dollar package, there were updated news reports about a money-saving scheme in Flint, Michigan, that was grossly poisoning the water for its mostly black citizens. And on Jan. 22-2016 there was a news report about a school in Detroit where teachers and local officials said students could not learn because their classrooms were "unsafe" due to falling plaster from the ceilings and dangerous mold discolorations that scared them. In Flint, in Detroit, and elsewhere around America -- and the world, for that matter -- ARE THERE BETTER PLACES FOR USAID TO SPEND ITS TAX DOLLARS THAN ON COUNTLESS REGIME-CHANGE PROGRAMS AIMED AT CUBA OR ON ENRICHING ANTI-CASTRO ZEALOTS IN MIAMI OR "CONTRACTORS" LIKE ALAN GROSS?? And, as with Alan Gross, when such "contractors" sue the U. S. government for putting them in harms way, guess who pays the multi-million-dollar lawsuits? I believe the answer is...we very stupid or cowardly taxpayers.

      Sarah Stephens is an American treasure as the founder and director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. As the world-class expert on U.S.-Cuban relations, her Cuba Central segment of the CDA website each Friday is America's best update on that week's latest U.S.-Cuban developments. In her Cuba Central report this past Friday, Ms. Stephens started off with Tracey Eaton's latest USAID solicitation for more anti-Cuban contractors although, of course, reminding them that...while they would get rich...USAID "would not be responsible" if and when they got arrested in Cuba, which has a reputation for being on the alert for such get-rich-quick Americans. Ms. Stephens pointed out that much of that USAID money is designed to provoke or entice dissidents on the island to make headlines by, for example, getting arrested while being photographed or videotaped. She thanked Mr. Eaton for his continuing revelations and she wrote: "I think it's worth pointing out that many of those arrested for political reasons are taking part in programs funded by the U. S. government or U.S. government-financed organizations."

         28-year-old Cristina Escobar is Cuba's most popular television news anchor and journalist and, as indicated by the above photo, her cogent, precise, and unabashed opinions about U.S.-Cuban relations are sought-after by regional and international news outlets, including last summer in Washington when she made headlines while covering the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session. Either in Spanish or English, Cristina is the leader on the island of the twenty-something generation that is determined "to have more of a say in post-Castro Cuba than Miami Cubans or the U. S. Congress will ever have." Cristina, in Spanish or English, will readily tell you all about "the Cubans who have died fighting for sovereignty against Spanish and American imperialists, and my generation of Cubans now on the island who are willing to do the same."

       On his frequent trips to Cuba, Tracey Eaton has gotten video-taped interviews with many of the most vehement anti-Castro dissidents all across the island. But he is fair enough to present both sides of the two-sided menagerie. The above image is taken from Eaton's interview with Cristina Escobar. A 15 minute, 22-second version in Spanish is posted on YouTube as is a 3 minute, 29 second segment that includes the English translation. You'll hear Escobar's opinions on items uppermost on her mind, such as Cuban sovereignty and American regime-change programs. Based on his interview with Cristina, Eaton wrote an informative article widely published last week entitled: "Cuba's Fate Up To Cubans, Not Americans." 

         Not to know Cristina Escobar in 2016 is to not know why the Batistianos and the Mafiosi have not regained total control of Cuba, especially considering the fact that, since 1959, the recapture-Cuba forces have been backed by a nearby nation that happens to be the strongest and richest nation in the history of the world. A rebel named Celia Sanchez was the main reason the Batista-Mafia rulers in Cuba were booted off the island on New Year's Day in 1959. A diplomat named Josefina Vidal is the main reason the Miami/Congress-based Cuban-Americans have been held at bay in recent years. Cristina Escobar -- a rebel who prefers diplomacy, like Vidal, but is willing to fight, like Sanchez -- is a third-generation Cuban who direly believes her island should be a sovereign nation, not one dominated by an imperialist power and not one that "forever must defend itself against regime-change schemes concocted by money-crazed rogues." In the Eaton-produced video, she says, "I don't want {Obama, the U. S., Miami} to bring me democracy." She means, if and when it comes, she wants Cubans on the island to do it. And she means what she says. Cast in the mold of the fighting rebel, Sanchez, and the diplomat, Vidal, Cristina Escobar -- unlike most of the U. S. media and most Americans -- is not afraid of extremists in Miami and Congress. And that's why Cuba, in 2016, might continue to shock the world by remaining a sovereign nation for a few more days...at least.

Celia Sanchez: Cuba's pivotal fighter.

Josefina Vidal: Cuba's pivotal diplomat.

Cristina Escobar: Cuba's pivotal anchor.

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Unafraid of Cuba Haters

And Other Injustices

       Don Cheadle was born in Kansas City 51 years ago. Since 1987 he has been one of America's greatest actors, producers, directors, writers, and husbands. He has been married to the talented actress Bridgid Coulter since 1992 and they have two children, Imani and Ayana. In the U. S. and internationally, Don has won more awards than I have space to list. And...oh yes...he won a Nobel Peace Prize too. He co-authored a great book -- "Not On My Watch" -- that helped end the genocide in Darfur. He has worked tirelessly with the United Nations to correct or at least make the world acutely aware of other crimes against humanity. It is, therefore, no surprise that Don Cheadle has taken a Hollywood film crew to Cuba to shed light on injustices against the people of Cuba perpetrated by usurpers from a foreign power, a foreign power that happens to be the world's greatest and strongest democracy. Mr Cheadle told CNN, "Cuba is a place to shoot authentic scenes. It's a place that deserves to be brought onto the world stage. Cuba has a culture of its own. It shouldn't be squashed by a foreign power." Such words could only come from a very decent and very brave man. Don Cheadle is one of America's greatest talents as well as being a decent and brave man. Regarding Cuba, that makes him somewhat unique in the United States.

          This image of Don Cheadle on a street in Havana is courtesy of CNN. On January 22, 2016, CNN's Cuban bureau, headed by Patrick Oppmann, had a feature entitled: "Don Cheadle's 'House of Lies' Makes Friends in Cuba." Using Americans and Cubans as paid workers and actors, Mr. Cheadle is filming "House of Lies" in Cuba and encouraging other Hollywood power-brokers to take advantage of President Obama's "overdue friendly overtures" to Cuba and "start bringing these worthy neighbors in from the chilly cold."

           This Cuban T-shirt salutes the decent wages being paid by Don Cheadle to film "House of Lies" on the island. On January 22nd both CNN and CBS told Americans about the camaraderie among Cubans and Americans working on the project. This T-shirts reads: "Island Film Cuba and House of Lies 2016."

         This iStock photo backs up Don Cheadle's reminder that Cuba is a great place to shoot movies, especially if you want an eager workforce and, perhaps, scenes depicting the 1950s. In Cuba, it's not hard to find a plethora of fine-tuned 1950s American cars or to find Cubans very friendly to Americans.

         But the main thing that Don Cheadle is trying to convey this week is the Truth about Cuba, and WHO DOESN'T LOVE THE TRUTH. Well, according to Don, the last two generations of Americans -- since the 1950s -- have accepted lies about U.S.-Cuban relations, lies that have hurt the worldwide image of the U. S. just as much as they have hurt millions of innocent Cubans. Thanks to the Miami-Batistiano control of the U. S. Congress regarding Cuba, the Cuban laws and narratives in the U. S. have included such things as...denying everyday Americans the freedom to travel to one place on this planet -- Cuba. That, of course, has allowed self-serving misinformation about Cuba that wouldn't be possible if Americans could visit the island and make their own judgments. Thanks to a decent and brave U. S. president, Mr. Obama, more Americans are being allowed to visit Cuba although Batistiano-dictated Congressional laws are still quite restrictive in continuing defiance of the freedoms Americans otherwise enjoy. Don Cheadle's film crew in Cuba is trying to project the Truth about U.S.-Cuban relations. Americans deserve the Truth about Cuba.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann actually tells the truth about Cuba.

How about that!!!!!

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Miami's Much Maligned Majority Moderates

Are They Unrepresented?

         Hugo Cancio is a Cuban-American moderate who has lived in Miami for 35 years. He is a successful businessman with offices in both Miami and Havana. He opposes the U. S. embargo against Cuba as well as other congressionally mandated U. S. laws supposedly designed to hurt Fidel Castro that actually have hurt, for decades now, everyday Cubans on the island while also enriching and empowering Cubans who are enticed to defect to the freedom of Miami. Cancio believes that he is among the majority of Cuban-Americans who are un-represented by elected officials who, to his reckoning, are anti-Castro extremists more focused on Cuba than on the needs and interests of Americans and Cuban-Americans in Miami.

        Miami massively dominates southeastern Florida and is a mere 100 miles or so north of Cuba. North to Hialeah and Miami Shores then south to Coral Gables and South Miami, the Miami metropolis has a population of about 5.5 million with Miami itself being home to about 418,000. East of Miami is Miami Beach, South Beach, Fisher Island, and Virginia Key -- where countless millionaires and billionaires reside.

This Wikipedia photo looks at Miami from the Virginia Key.

This Wikipedia photo looks at Miami from South Beach.

Tomas Regalado has been the Mayor of Miami since 2009.
Mr. Regalado was born in Havana in 1947.

Carlos Gimenez has been Mayor of Miami-Dade County since 2011.
Mr. Gimenez was born in Havana in 1954.

Esteban Bovo is the powerful Commissioner of Miami-Dade County.
Mr. Bovo was born in 1962 and his father fought at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

        Miguel Fernandez, shown above in a montage with his primary benefactor Jeb Bush, arrived from Cuba at age 12 in 1964. Mr. Fernandez is a billionaire who is legendary for donating huge sums to conservative Republicans, especially the Bush dynasty and particularly Florida's two-term governor and 2016 presidential contender Jeb Bush. The Bush dynasty for decades has been so tied to the Cuban-American power-brokers that most of them strongly support Jeb over even one of their own -- Miami's Cuban-American presidential contender Marco Rubio, a fact that Americans are not supposed to ponder.

       The depiction above, which I do not like to see in America, reflects the fact that many in Miami, like Hugo Cancio, are tired of an electoral process that so heavily favors white anti-Castro zealots -- such as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Marco Rubio. The Havana-born Ros-Lehtinen has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when Jeb Bush began his rise in Florida politics by being her Campaign Manager. Diaz-Balart is the son of Rafael Diaz-Balart, a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship that was overthrown in 1959 by Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. Rubio is a first-term U. S. Senator and highly funded Republican presidential candidate from Miami that many Miamians, including Hugo, believe has purely benefited from being born a Cuban-American in a Cuban-American city. Contrary to Rubio's political rhetoric about overcoming poverty in Miami, Hugo Cancio and others believe Rubio's fame and fortune has mostly resulted from financial and political advantages accorded Cuban-Americans in Miami via local politics and a Batistiano-aligned U. S. Congress that sends veritable pipelines of tax dollars from Washington to Miami to hurt Cuba, entice Cuban defections to Miami, and empower Cuban-Americans in both local and national {the U. S. Congress} political arenas.

         The above graphic created by Dale Stephanos was used this week to illustrate an almost book-length article in the New York Observer, both its print and online editions. The article was written by respected journalist Ken Silverstein and, in case you want to Google it, is entitled: "Poor Little Rich Boy Runs Into Real Estate Trouble" with this sub-title: "The Senator's Three Houses, Various Lady Friends, Assorted Con Artists Pals and Piles of Unexplained Cash." The first line was gentlest of all but stated: "When it comes to sheer brazen corruption, chicanery and dishonesty there is one candidate who stands head and shoulders above everyone else and he is the right-wing Cuban-American and Tea Party darling Senator Marco Rubio of -- naturally -- the great state of Florida." The rest of the article involves Ken Silverstein's investigative conclusions as to why and how Rubio emerged from Miami's political cauldron to the U. S. Senate where, in a display of disrespect for the exalted legislative body, he hit Washington running for President and -- too busy campaigning and begging billionaires for money -- is dead last among the 100 Senators when it comes to actually showing up to vote. The Silverstein article pulls no punches in forthrightly naming and displaying photos of controversial politicians and lobbyists who steered Rubio's abundant political pots. For example, Silverstein describes Rubio's connections to the ultra-powerful Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban Bovo, whom he described as the "notoriously corrupt Floridian and lobbyist named Esteban Bovo." Silverstein was no easier on such Rubio-connected politicians as David Rivera and Ana Alliegro as well as Rubio lobbyists such as Dana Hudson in Washington. The article was published in the New York Observer on January 18, 2016. I thought, within a day or two, Ken Silverstein and the newspaper would be inundated with lawsuits. But, it seems, apparently not. Yet, it begs the question: Why Marco Rubio, a controversial extremist? Why can't one of the moderate Cuban-Americans in Miami become a member of the U. S. Congress and, yes, a presidential candidate?

            The Washington-based Ken Silverstein is not your run-of-the-mill, easily dismissed journalist. He has carved out quite a reputation as a former editor of and still a reporter for Harper's Magazine as well as a star journalist for the likes of the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. Therefore his aforementioned excoriation of Marco Rubio as a product of Miami's unique Cuban-saturated economic and political structure will probably not get him sued by either Marco Rubio or the myriad of other players that he aligned by name and photos to Rubio's ascendancy.

         Day after day and month after month, the brilliant wisdom of all the Talking Heads on television news programs in the United States have grossly misled the American people about how and why a pompous non-politician -- Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman -- has dominated the ongoing Republican presidential race. Americans, often belittled for their political expertise and general intelligence, apparently are smart enough to have tired of a money-crazed, bought-and-paid-for political system that caters to the millionaires and billionaires who so easily purchase politicians who, in turn, lavish favors on the extremely rich at the expense of everyone else.

         Incredibly, two first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators -- Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas -- are two of the top three in the Republican presidential sweepstakes. Both hit the Senate running for President and, when they have shown up, they have achieved nothing -- except venting their anti-Castro vitriol, vowing to shut down the government if they didn't get their way, etc., etc. Both launched their Senate bids by, first, latching onto the Bush dynasty and, secondly, latching onto the Tea Party. Both have unabashedly and successfully seemingly begged every conservative, right-wing, Jewish, and religious billionaire for money to grease their paths to the White House where they would also be Commander-in-Chief and where the next U. S. President can be expected to appoint from one to four Supreme Court justices. If you think this week's article by Ken Silverstein in the New York Observer excoriated Marco Rubio, you REALLY SHOULD READ the scathing January 20th editorial in the New York Times entitled: "Two Sides of Ted Cruz: Tort Reformer and Personal Injury Lawyer." The NY Times editorial pointedly explains why, earlier this week, Republican icon Bob Dole said that a Cruz victory in the Republican primary would be "cataclysmic." CRUZ? RUBIO? HEY, WHY NOT A CUBAN-AMERICAN STRAIGHT-SHOOTER??

          Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have used their first terms in the U. S. Senate to strictly run for President and assail every positive aspect of Barack Obama's two-term presidency -- such as normalizing relations with Cuba, providing affordable health care for even poor Americans, trying to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill so the slaughter in U. S. cities will at least slow down, using diplomacy to deal with international problems instead of carpet bombing or sanctioning everyone who has an opposing viewpoint, etc. Disrespecting President Obama is one thing, but disrespecting democracy and the office of the presidency is something else altogether. 

        My passion for Cuba -- as opposed to, say, my passion for Jamaica -- relates to the fact that my primary passions are America and democracy. I believe the Cuban Revolution, 1953 till 1959, and Revolutionary Cuba, since 1959, say a lot more about the United States than they say about Cuba. One thing they say is...the world's greatest and strongest democracy can be vulnerable to cancer-like attacks from within unless greed, thugs, and criminals are overruled or at least held in check by the supposedly sane, decent, and patriotic majority. In 1952 apathetic Americans let the U. S. team with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba. That was undemocratic and anti-American. But the supposedly sane, decent, and patriotic majority that let that happen also has, in two generations since, not been sane enough, decent enough, or patriotic enough to deal democratically with the remnants of the long-ago flirtation with the Mafia and Batista in Cuba.

        That brings me back around to Hugo Cancio, one of Miami's much maligned majority moderates. Hugo is a Cuban-American who has lived in Miami for 35 years and, like most of his peers, is not an anti-Castro zealot. He travels frequently to Cuba and tries to help Cubans on the island, not punish them in the guise of hurting Castro while hiding behind the might of the U. S. Congress, the U. S. treasury, the U. S. military, and the right-wing Tea Party. Hugo says that he and the majority Cuban-American moderates in Miami like him are not represented by Miami's Banana Republic-style political system. DOES HE HAVE A POINT? I think he does. Now...if a moderate Cuban-American gets elected to high office in Miami-Dade County, or if a moderate Cuban-American is sent from Miami-Dade County to the U. S. Congress, that would show that Miami's Cold War mentality regarding Cuba had taken a democratic turn.

     When or if Miami is ever capable of sending someone like Hugo Cancio to the U. S. Congress, America and democracy will be much obliged, I think. As a lifelong democracy-loving conservative Republican, I would support a Cuban-American such as Hugo Cancio for President in a heartbeat. But on a national level, the Cuban-American political contribution comes from Ros-Lehtinen, the Diaz-Balarts, Rubio, Cruz, etc. That leaves moderates like Hugo Cancio out in the cold in what he considers a cruel and undemocratic fashion. Hugo is a Cuban-American businessman in Miami, not a politician. He just wants to be represented by politicians.

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