Cuba, Obama, and Bush

The Dichotomy: Peace or War
Thursday, October 8th, 2015

          Penny Pritzker arrived in Cuba Tuesday, October 6, 2015, for a key two-day visit. It's a very important mission designed to greatly enhance President Barack Obama's ongoing attempts to normalize relations with the island. Ms. Pritzker is the U. S. Secretary of Commerce. On the eve of her trip, she released this statement: "My goal is to support the emerging private sector on the island, bringing us closer to achieving President Obama's historic policy goals. We seek to further ease restrictions on authorized travel, enhance the safety of Americans traveling to the country and allow more business opportunities for the nascent private sector."  Ms. Pritzker is the second top-tier member of President Obama's cabinet to visit the island; Secretary of State John Kerry was there on July 20th to officially open the U. S. embassy in Cuba for the first time since 1961. Like Mr. Kerry's visit, Ms. Pritzker's arrival on the island is peaceful, friendly, and shows great respect for the Cuban people, which is a very refreshing American attitude regarding Cuba.

          This photo shows Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker yesterday, Tuesday, at Cuba's Mariel Port Economic Zone. The New York Times quoted her as saying: "What we're trying to do is be as open as we can until the blockade is lifted." Her use of the word "blockade" is significant because it reflects what Cuba calls the U. S. embargo against the island. The NY Times reported that, at this briefing at the Mariel Port, Ms. Pritzker said, "We're leaning in -- the president is leaning in -- to this relationship. But we're limited in what we can do to help them. The signal, hopefully, that they'll understand is that we're trying to lean in as far as we can under the law." Sane words from a decent, fair-minded person. The trouble is...a handful of individuals with a tight grip on America's Cuban policy can laugh very loud at them. When Ms. Pritzker says "we're limited in what we can do to help them," she is referencing a dire weakness in the U. S. democracy that allows a few to perpetually harm the vast majority of Cubans and all others throughout the Western Hemisphere.  

       With the help of a billion-dollar upgrade largely funded by Brazil, the Mariel Port has been made into an Economic Zone that Cuba hopes will be the island's financial linchpin. It is very strategically located -- 28 miles southwest of Havana and about 100 miles due south of Key West, Florida. Because of the blockade, all other nations are far less restricted than the U. S. from investing at the impressive Mariel Port.

      In Cuba yesterday, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker graciously said the Obama administration is trying to do all it can "UNTIL THE BLOCKADE IS LIFTED." The sad reality is, that simply won't happen because of a dysfunctional...some say corrupt...U. S. Congress. The image above has shamed the United States and democracy for many decades, but a handful of rich and revengeful Cuban-Americans in Miami can easily secure enough right-wingers in Congress to maintain an embargo/blockade against Cuba that the rest of the world deplores and America's best friends around the world are grossly ashamed of. But the dastardly image of America that the embargo/blockade presents for all the world to observe has never been a concern to Cuban-American extremists and their right-wing sycophants, and that simply will not change.

           Penny Pritzker has been Secretary of State since 2013. She was born in Chicago 56 years ago and is eminently qualified. She was a major coup for President Obama when he finally persuaded her to join his cabinet. She is a non-politician who is not interested in using her government job to get rich or to become a lobbyist when she transitions back to the private sector. Ms. Pritzker is personally worth at least $2.4 billion...yes, billion with a B; she founded Pritzker Realty Group and chairs four other corporations. Moreover, in regards to Cuba, Penny Pritzker is not bought-and-paid-for by the powerful right-wing Castro Industry in the United States that, especially since the 1980s, has made economic and political fortunes by hiding behind the skirts of Republican administrations and a Batistiano-dominated U. S. Congress that primarily dictates America's U. S. Cuban policy. Ms. Pritzker and her boss Mr. Obama have no revenge motives regarding Cuba and they have the courage and patriotism to stand up to powerful forces that are perfectly willing to shame the U. S. and democracy while basking in the personal satisfaction of using a superpower government to punish 11 million people in a nearby country in the guise of assassinating or overthrowing the now 89-year-old Fidel Castro and his now 84-year-old brother Raul. But, by contrast, Penny Pritzker is a world-class philanthropist and a quintessentially decent person. She was/is excited about her trip to Cuba this week. She said, "The President wants to empower the Cuban people. So do I."

         Carlos Gutierrez was born 61 years ago in Havana. He is an exemplar of Cuban-Americans who have grown extremely rich and powerful via the lucrative Castro Industry in the United States. And like so many other anti-Castro zealots, Mr. Gutierrez's political ascendancy took flight when he latched parasitically onto the Bush dynasty as almost every extremely rich and powerful Cuban-American has done.

       The two-term George W. Bush presidency directly preceded the current two-term Obama presidency. Carlos Gutierrez was Bush's Secretary of Commerce. Especially when the Bush dynasty is concerned, the difference between a Republican presidency and a Democratic presidency, when it comes to Cuba, is virtually the difference between peace and war, insanity and sanity, decency and indecency...with the propagandized and intimidated American people unwilling or unable to factor into the equation. For example, when anti-Castro Cuban-American terrorists bombed a civilian Cuban airplane into the ocean, killing all 73 innocents on board, the mantra in Miami loudly proclaimed it "the biggest blow yet against Castro." Proselytized Americans accepted that with their usual meekness because the innocents were Cubans, including two dozen teenage athletes returning to Havana after winning a Central American title in Caracas. To grossly exacerbate the affront to the U. S. and democracy, the well-known terrorists received incredible support and protection from the U. S. government, especially members of Congress from Miami. When Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian complained about such atrocities, he was car-bombed in Miami; when the Miami Herald's top columnist, Jim DeFede, complained, he was fired. The American people, for the most part, have had neither the courage nor the insight to complain about any atrocity regarding Cuba. Thus, don't expect Americans to contrast Obama's current Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, with Bush's Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez. During Gutierrez's term, two back-to-back hurricanes devastated Cuba, destroying 200,000 homes. Many nations reacted with aid. Gutierrez repeatedly held news conferences stating that the U. S. had millions of dollars in aid, each time increasing the bogus amount, but he stipulated that it would not be handed over to the Cuban government. Cuba instantly realized that the Bush administration desired to use the hurricane devastation as yet another means to fund dissidents on the island. Every nation in the Caribbean, although quite aware that the U. S. Cuban policy was/is dictated by Cuban-American extremists, cringed at the Gutierrez news conferences that many felt were making fun of them as well as the everyday Cubans suffering from the natural disasters of the back-to-back hurricanes coupled with the unending man-made tsunamis aimed at the island from Miami and Washington since January of 1959. Therefore, the arrival of Obama's Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in Cuba this week is a reminder of the stark contrast to Bush's Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. The difference is peace and war, sanity and insanity. {Disclosure: I am a lifelong conservative Republican who is not a fan of the right-wing extremists who now control the Republican Party}.

A second generation Cuban-American Republican in Washington.

Already very rich and powerful.
And abundantly aware of the lucrative Castro Industry in the U. S.

         This is President Obama with his Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Her arrival Tuesday on a decent mission to Cuba  is a reminder that Mr. Obama only has 15 months remaining in his two-term presidency. Cuba and the Western Hemisphere will miss him, especially if a Republican replaces him. The difference between someone like Penny Pritzker and someone like Carlos Gutierrez using the awesome power of Washington...for good or for bad...is striking, as Cuba and all of its other neighbors fully realize. Ms. Pritzker views Cuba as a potentially very valuable U. S. ally and a mutually beneficial commerce partner. Gutierrez, when he was in Pritzler's current position, appeared to view Cuba in terms of revenge against Castro and, probably, as a future Batista-like piggy-bank. The next Republican president will depend on a Bush-aligned Gutierrez, or a Otto Reich, or a Roger Noriega, etc., to carry out its Cuban policy. And the American people, by and large, won't give a damn. Meanwhile, Penny Pritzker in Cuba this week is trying her best to do some good for Cubans and Americans. And, at least, that's something...I guess.

And by the way............

         Famed entertainer Mick Jagger, the leader of the legendary Rolling Stones band, arrived in Cuba over the weekend. Since then he has toured Havana hot-spots, including a concert by the Cuban band Bomboleo. Jagger, long fascinated with Cuba, is planning a concert at Cuba's largest baseball stadium, Latin American Stadium, next month and/or next spring. Jagger, now 72, remains a worldwide phenomenon.

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