18.12.16

Obama's New Cuba

Alarms Right-wing Extremists!!
Especially the Bush-Batistiano Alliance
      This photo is actually courtesy of the White House, President Barack Obama. It shows the President late at night studying a report from his staff, perhaps an update from Simone Leiro on his brave and monumental efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Notice the lone candle-like light at his back.
      One of President Obama's key staffers in helping him shape his Cuban overtures is Simone Leiro. She is a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina but graduated from New York University. Yesterday -- Dec. 17-2016 -- was a big day for Simone because it was the second anniversary of the day her boss, Mr. Obama, announced to the world his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. At the White House celebration of the anniversary, Simone represented Mr. Obama and she did so proudly as one of the architects and defenders of his heroic Cuban policies. A Miami Herald article written by Patricia Mazzei and Nora Gamez Torres shamefully mocked and ridiculed the White House celebration with such derisive comments as, "And once out of office, Obama intends to remain involved in Cuba matters as a private citizen...hardliners are certain Trump will reverse Obama's approach entirely." Such articles from a once-great newspaper remind us that, since the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Miami's Little Havana is the capital of the transplanted Batistiano dictatorship. The Miami Herald article also derisively mentioned that an unnamed and unknown "female" Obama aide would stay on till March to assist the new Trump administration. We can inform the Herald that the unknown female has a name -- Simone Leiro.
      A few days ago, prior to yesterday's 2nd anniversary celebration, Simone Leiro brought Cuban entrepreneurs to Washington to testify how Obama's policies have helped thousands of Cubans to become successful entrepreneurs -- such as Julia de la Ortega, the happy lady shown above. They lavishly praised Obama and pleaded with the incoming Trump administration to "Please, don't turn your back on us." The U. S. media, as usual, mostly ignored the Obama praise and the pleas to Trump, apparently to appease the Batistianos, but the White House.gov website provided Julia's quotes: "We now run a real bed and breakfast with 10 bedrooms and have 17 people working with us as we provide services 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Now we are starting a small taxi service as transportation requests have increased. Thanks to the new times, we can right now even come to the United States to buy pieces to restore our eight American cars." 
      Another new Cuban entrepreneur basking in Obama's brave kindnesses is Fanny Acosta. She owns Casa Randy, a now thriving Bed & Breakfast in Centro Habana. Her enemy, the Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress, maintains the embargo that severely punishes everyday Cubans as well as everyday Americans, who have long been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. But Obama sliced into wicked congressional laws with Executive Powers and greatly increased the excuses for Americans to visit the island -- including now the first U.S.-to-Cuba commercial airplane flights and cruise-ship traffic since 1961. Also, Obama greatly increased the amount of money Cuban-Americans can send to Cubans, enabling many of them to own their own businesses that now take advantage of the Obama-generated increase in tourism. Fanny says, "Mr. Obama gave my family a new life." But Fanny is nervous. She's being told that the incoming U. S. president, Trump, will take away her "new life." At the moment, judging by his early transition team that includes Mauricio Claver-Carone and John Bolton, it appears Trump plans to do exactly that.
        Major American companies -- ten airlines, the top three cruise operators, Starwood-Marriott Hotels that now manage three renovated Cuban hotels, Google, Verizon, T-Mobile, Airbnb, TripAdvisor, etc., etc., are now making money on Cuban ventures thanks to Obama. The pending Trump reversals are expected to happen but reactions and fallouts will not be miniscule. U. S. companies like TripAdvisor and Airbnb, for example, are listing and helping to book customers for Julia, Fanny and over 10,000 other Obama-inspired Cuban entrepreneurs. The anticipated Trump reversals would once again enhance a Cuban policy that sates the revenge, economic and political appetites of a miscreant few while punishing everyone else, including powerful U. S. businessmen like Steven Kaufer who don't like to be punished by miscreants mocking the U. S. democracy and resulting in a 191-to-0 condemnation of the U. S. in the United Nations.
      A well-known Cuban-American businessman in Miami, Hugo Cancio, attended the Dec. 17th second year anniversary celebration at the White House. Like most Cuban-Americans in Miami, Hugo Cancio supports President Obama's decent Cuban policies. He also complains bitterly about "the opinions of the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami are not represented by our politicians, the local politicians and the politicians that are elected from here to the U. S. Congress. Why doesn't the U. S. media wonder about such things?" 
      The U. S. media only stresses the opinions of anti-Cuban extremists. The photo above shows Hugo Cancio expressing his opinions to Cristina Escobar, the island's superb young broadcast journalist.
       While the U. S. media is apparently not allowed to air Hugo Cancio's views although they represent the opinions of most Cuban-Americans, U. S. business executives seeking relations with Cuba continually knock on Hugo's door, call and text him constantly and, as above, even confront him on the streets.
        Vermont's patriotic veteran United States Senator Patrick Leahy attended yesterday's second anniversary celebrations of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Leahy has long been one of America's most powerful politicians and one of the most vocal advocates for a decent Cuban policy. The U. S. media often solicits his opinions on various topics...except Cuba. Cuban topics in the U. S. media, with rare exceptions, are reserved only for anti-Cuban extremists. Meanwhile, Senator Leahy is embarrassed by "the startling unanimity of the UN vote denouncing our Cuban policy, but I understand it."  
       Bush-anointed anti-Cuban zealots like John Bolton shamefully use the media to denounce great Americans like Senator Leahy for either showing some respect for everyday, totally innocent Cubans or for being ashamed about how much America's Cuban policy belittles America and democracy in the eyes of the entire world. The U. S. media is not interested in sane Cuban opinions from people like Senator Leahy but afford bullies like John Bolton all the air-and-print time they desire. The media almost always refers to Bolton as "the former U. S. Ambassador to the UN," assuming Americans are too stupid to know the truth. Bolton was a recess appointment by the anti-Cuban President George W. Bush. Fully knowing that such a right-winger would not get approved by the Senate, Bush, of course, removed him at the UN prior to letting the Senate, back from recess, vote on the appointment. By not pointing out such things in boosting the likes of Bolton, the media is simply lying and such lies -- INCREDIBLY -- have President-elect Trump considering Bolton for Secretary of State, Under Secretary of State, or Ambassador to Cuba...any of which might start a war in the Caribbean and which would continue to mystify Americans like Senator Leahy.
     This photo shows the day President Bush named John Bolton the U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood by in silence. Yes, it happened...but remember it was only a "recess appointment" because no way would Bush allow Bolton to be subjected to Senatorial approval. Yet, word is that Trump might try to get Bolton approved to a key position by the Republican Senate or to a key anti-Cuba position that doesn't require Senate approval. Either way, both Cuba and America would be screwed. In between Republican administrations, people like Bolton, Reich, Noriega, etc., make tons of money as consultants, but that's better than actually being in the U. S. government. 
      U. S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor was born in Miami but, as Hugo Cancio says, Miami only sends anti-Cuban zealots to the U. S. Congress. Kathy Castor represents the Tampa-St. Petersburg area in the U. S. Congress and she attended the Dec. 17th celebration at the White House on the second-year anniversary of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, which Kathy Castor has long advocated.
      On behalf of harassed innocent Cubans on the island as well as her constituents in the Tampa area, the American economy and America's worldwide image, Kathy Castor has always worked bravely and tirelessly for a sane and decent Cuban policy that would "benefit most Americans and most Cuban-Americans."  
       The visceral Miami Cubans in and out of Congress are demanding that Trump halt all of President Obama's Cuban overtures. The photo above shows Havana-Born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen waiting her turn as she watches Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart put up his halt sign. Ros-Lehtinen has been in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when Jeb Bush, paving the way for his two-term Governorship of Florida, was her Campaign Manager. The aforementioned Miami Herald article about the Dec. 17th second-year anniversary of President Obama's normalization plans for Cuba, of course, stressed Ros-Lehtinen's scathing comments: "Hopefully with President-elect Trump and a new administration, we may be in a position to reverse some of the damage inflicted on the cause of freedom and democracy in Cuba." Yeah, right. The Havana-born Ros-Lehtinen is awash with family-connected hatred of the Cuban Revolution, as is the Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart whose father Rafael was a Minister in the ousted Batista dictatorship. 
      Lincoln Diaz-Balart was followed to the U. S. Congress by his younger brother Mario. Without ever mentioning that their father was a Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then the rich and powerful founder of the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit in Florida, the White Rose, the U. S. media allows the Diaz-Balarts to say anything about Revolutionary Cuba with never an iota of a challenge.
     This CBS-TV photo was taken during the 41-minute news conference in Miami on Nov. 26-2016 that celebrated the death of Fidel Castro while wilder celebrations were taking place outside on the streets of Miami. Left to right are: Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Carlos Curbelo, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario Diaz-Balart. I though the most interesting moment came when Ros-Lehtinen at the rostrum turned and congratulated Lincoln Diaz-Balart for "writing" some of the laws in the Batistiano-infringed U. S. Congress that continue to infuriate all the nations of the world as well as great Americans like Obama, Leahy, Castor, Cancio, etc.
        A Cuban policy dictated by a Bush-ordained Castro Cottage Industry in the United States will continue to promote anti-Cuba zealots like Miami's incumbent Senator Marco Rubio to Congress or, maybe, soon to the White House. A U. S. democracy that can't correct this abomination is a U. S. democracy that gets a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations and gets a strong denunciation from most Cuban-Americans.
      Meanwhile, it's been exactly two years and one day since President Obama, on behalf of the innocent Cubans and the United States of America, announced gigantic plans to normalize relations with Cuba.
     President Obama, live on Cuban television, assured the Cuban people that "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." Unfortunately, that statement only resonated with Cubans during Mr. Obama's two terms as President and Commander-in-Chief. It surely didn't apply to the two-term Bush presidency that preceded Mr. Obama's and it surely doesn't apply to the Trump presidency that will follow.
       Cuba's young and influential broadcast journalist, Cristina Escobar, has been a huge supporter of President Obama's two-year effort to normalize relations with her island. She thinks the Republican Congress and the Republican Trump in the White House "will turn back all that progress and goodness with barely batting an eye." In the above photo, Escobar is studying a script just before airtime in Havana.
An anti-Obama Cuban-American demonstrator.
      This photo shows Cristina Escobar making history by becoming the first Cuban to ever ask a question at a White House news conference. She asked President Obama's White House spokesman Josh Earnest six questions, including this one: "Will the regime-change programs continue?" Josh Earnest gave her a diplomatic answer but she knows the real answer: As long as the American people allow an exceedingly unpopular, Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress to dictate America's Cuban policy, the world will vote 191-to-0 against it and Congress will continue vast pipelines of tax dollars flowing to Miami and even to Havana to eventuate a regime-change while, in the meantime, enriching and empowering a select few Cuban-Americans and their sycophants. Cristina Escobar says, "Even Cubans of my generation know all about long-ago Batista and Mafia brutality and pillaging on a beautiful island. I hope and believe the bulk of my generation will stay and defend what deserves to be defended. I know the odds against us remain high and the allure of Miami is strong, but our strength is the Cuban love for independence. I hope that never leaves us."
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