cubaninsider: Can Vultures Buy U.S. Presidency?

Supreme Court Says "Yes"

For each of the past ten weeks, USA Today has headlined its "Power Rankings" of the ongoing 2016 Republican presidential sweepstakes. As depicted above, in this first week of November...for the very first time in ten weeks...USA Today now ranks Miami's Cuban-American first-term U. S. Senator Marco Rubio #1.

I find the latest Republican Power Rankings in USA Today very interesting, hilarious actually. That's because many months ago, when Rubio was a distant also-ran with a 4% rating in a USA Today poll, Josefina Vidal, Cuba's almost infallible American expert, predicted that Marco Rubio would "emerge" as the Republican presidential contender in 2016. Considering that Vidal is Cuba's primary defender of the island's sovereignty, she assumes, if she is mistaken on her U. S. judgments, Cuba, at best, will become a U. S. Territory, like another Caribbean island, Puerto Rico. And she assumes, if she is mistaken, that Cuba might be annihilated...especially if a Republican like Rubio becomes Commander-in-Chief on January 20th, 2017. Back in March a Spanish journalist asked Vidal, "Rubio? Are you serious? What would that mean for Cuba?" She replied, "I'm serious. I wouldn't joke about it. It would mean that the Batistianos had captured the U. S. government before they re-captured the Cuban government." Vidal's rationale about Rubio "emerging" as the Republican presidential candidate is based on this logic: She believes {1} the two-party U. S. political system can now be easily purchased at the presidential level by a mere handful of billionaires, and {2} she believes that Rubio, more than any other would-be President, has signaled that his presidency is for-sale to the highest bidders. NOTE: By the time U. S. Today's Power Rankings this week listed Rubio #1, a flock of billionaires, with enough money to purchase the presidency with the blessing of an unfortunate ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court in 2010, had flocked shamelessly to Rubio, as Vidal has predicted all along.

Photo courtesy: Steve Marcus/Reuters

Meet Paul Singer, or at least Google him. He graduated from Harvard Law School and now, at age 71, he is a Hedge Fund billionaire in New York City. His Wikipedia biography includes this sentence: "Singer's business practices have been described by detractors as having the characteristics of a vulture fund." Hedge Fund billionaires are routinely described as vultures, but legal ones because they can well afford armies of lobbyists, the real wheelers-and-dealers in Washington. But billionaires like Mr. Singer rose to the top of the pecking order in U. S. politics in 2010 when the U. S. Supreme court legalized unlimited political donations to Super-PACs, the scourge of democracy.

On October 30, 2015, the New York Times -- in a major article written by Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Confessore -- revealed why Paul Singer, and political-minded billionaires like him, are dangers to democracy. The article included these exact words:

"Mr. Singer sent a letter to dozens of other big-money donors urging them to support Rubio. The New York Times got a copy of the letter that claimed Rubio is the only candidate 'that can navigate this complex primary process and still be in a position to defeat Hillary Clinton in a general election.'

"Singer last year gave more money to Republican candidates than any donor in the country, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Singer is a passionate pro-Israel supporter. Mr. Rubio has aggressively embraced the cause of wealthy pro-Israel donors like Mr. Sheldon Adelson, whom the Senator is said to call frequently, and Mr. Singer. who both serve on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, an umbrella group for Republican Jewish donors and officials." {From The New York Times; October 30, 2015}

Paul Singer, shown here at the World Economic Forum, is one of a growing number of Jewish billionaires bound and determined to make sure that Marco Rubio is President of the United States beginning in 2017. Thanks to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling, they can now use their billions of dollars to make that happen. {Disclosure: I am a lifelong conservative Republican who is pro-Israel but also very passionately pro-American and pro-democracy}.

The photos above are courtesy of AP/Jeff Schaid/J. Scott Applewhite and the montage is courtesy of Salon Magazine. That's multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson on the left and presidential candidate Marco Rubio on the right. Mr. Adelson is worth about $28 billion dollars after a storied career as a controversial hotel-casino magnet in Las Vegas and Macao/China. He is 84-years-old. He is a staunch supporter of Israel where he owns a major newspaper, etc., and where he flies and flatters important politicians...such as Marco Rubio. Mr. Adelson is determined to put Rubio in the White House and, in the present political climate, he certainly has the wherewithal to do just that.

As of June, 2015, Forbes estimated that Sheldon Adelson, one of Rubio's prime Jewish backers, is worth $28 billion. Mr. Adelson is Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which also owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore as well as the ultra-plush Venetian Macao {shown above} in Macao, China. As he moves along on his presidential bid, Rubio will have to more deeply explain his obvious obsession with Israel and his more subtle fascination with China. He has, for example, often stated that his first flight on Air Force One will be to Israel and it is well known that his top aides took at least one questionable flight to China. Of course, billionaires stuffing Rubio's campaign coffers with cash have nothing at all to do with his political views. ABSOLUTELY NOT!! NOW SHUT UP!!

Fox News, the Tea Party, and a long line of Jewish and Wall Street/Hedge Fund billionaires believe they can make Marco Rubio the next President of the United States. The Tea Party along with the Bush dynasty and a few Cuban-American billionaires in Miami thrust Rubio into the U. S. Senate in 2011. But he hit the Senate, which he admittedly disdains, breathlessly running for President, which these days mainly involves begging billionaires for money. Beyond doubt, Rubio, more than anyone else, has struck a gold mine with Jewish billionaires. Fox News, the right-wing propaganda machine, was among the first to encourage Rubio's presidential aspirations with proclamations like the one above loudly proclaiming "A POLITICAL STAR IS BORN" long before Rubio had done anything in the Senate except look cute and young while touting his Miami credentials as an anti-Castro zealot. {He made it to the U. S. Senate with his bio claiming his parents escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba for the freedom of Miami, then it was revealed his parents had escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba long before Castro took over}.

Of course, Fox News fumed profusely when presidential rival Donald Trump said, "Sheldon Adelson would have total control over Rubio." A lot of people believe that, including many Cuban-Americans, although only the brash Mr. Trump has the gumption to state it publicly. Trump, the non-politician, like Dr. Ben Carson, riding a wave of voters tired of bought-and-paid-for politicians, is also reminding the pro-Rubio mainstream media to check on Rubio's past "financial misdeeds," such as alleged personal used of campaign funds, questionable real estate deals, etc., ETC.

Meanwhile, this photo montage is similar to others that will hamper Rubio as he hedges to the top of the Republican presidential sweepstakes. It shows Rubio eating a money-burger while he is flanked by two of his multi-billionaire supporters -- Mr. Adelson on the left and Mr. Koch on the right. To counter such images, his highly paid publicity staff should, perhaps, make sure he is photographed eating real hamburgers, like regular Americans.

This photo reveals another problem for Marco Rubio that billions of dollars might not be able to erase. Being Cuban-American in Miami was a prime factor in getting him to the U. S. Senate. But most Cuban-Americans in Miami -- including people like Republican powerhouse Al Cardenas and Rubio's former boss, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (both of whom were born in Havana) -- strongly prefer Jeb Bush over one of their own, Marco Rubio. A further indication that Rubio, in his money-crazed race to the White House, has lost touch with his Miami roots is the blistering editorial in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last week that accused Rubio of "ripping off" the Cuban-Americans who sent him to the Senate and therefore the powerful Sun-Sentinel suggested that Rubio "resign" so they could get representation in the U. S. Senate. Rubio, of course, is vehemently against anything President Obama and most Cuban-Americans in Miami are trying to do to help Cubans on the island. They are also aware that Rubio appears to have sold-out to Jewish billionaires, suggesting that Cuban-Americans and Americans are lesser priorities to him. That's why he has seen placards and billboards like the one above: "EMBARGO ISRAEL NOT CUBA."

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

...............................I would like to congratulate this little guy. His name, literally and scientifically, is "Cow Knob." He is a salamander. He is also feisty and voracious in defending his turf. He just won a huge battle against Dominion, a powerful energy company that planned to run a natural-gas pipeline through his territory. Cow Knob only lives in one tiny place on earth -- on a few high ridges along the Virginia-West Virginia border. Some 5.5 miles of the 564-mile pipeline was due to run through Cow Knob's territory, till he and his supporters strongly objected. Dominion backed off and agreed to shift the route of its pipeline totally away from Cow Knob's beloved territory.