HEY: Cuban SANITY!!

Hardliners Challenged!!
{Updated: Thursday, February 23rd, 2017}

       A United States Senator named Thad Cochran arrived in Cuba this past Sunday -- Feb. 19-2017 -- and, after his four days on the island, what he tells President Donald Trump may well predicate America's Cuban policy for decades to come. After one month as U. S. President, Donald Trump has yet to keep his promise to anti-Cuban hardliners about reversing all of former President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The reason Trump has yet to target, assault or nuke the vulnerable island so far is...Thad Cochran. He is now 79-years-old. A staunchly conservative Republican, Thad Cochran was elected to the U. S. Congress from Mississippi in 1978. Despite his advanced age, he is a congressional giant who, among other things, currently chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. More significantly right now, Thad Cochran is an omnipotent supporter of Trump and, as such, his influence has so far kept President Trump from allowing Congressional hardliners like Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart to dictate his Cuban policy, something all previous Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan have routinely granted.   

         In 1965 Thad Cochran graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School when that state and that university were embroiled in desperately trying to block the then-nascent Civil Rights movement. To this day in 2017 Thad Cochran is still very proud of the Confederate flag and his Southern heritage, as the above photo attests. But in the U. S. Senate since 1978, Thad Cochran has emerged as a brilliant proponent of Democracy and America. As such, he is ashamed that a current vote in the United Nations reveals an international 191-to-0 condemnation of America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy, meaning that not a single one of America's best foreign friends support it. But primarily, in this pivotal year of 2017, Thad Cochran is ashamed that the American policy towards Cuba "so drastically" harms not only America's international reputation but also directly harms Americans "financially and democratically" by denying them trade opportunities with Cuba and by making Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, apparently so Cuban hardliners in Congress can dictate the Cuban narrative in the United States. So...Senator Thad Cochran spent four days in Cuba this week for these two reasons: {1} To finally challenge the Batistiano-directed Cuban policies in the U. S. Congress; and {2} to ascertain if he should tell President Trump not to end President Obama's sane Cuban overtures. Senator Cochran's state of Mississippi is already the U. S. leader in doing business with Cuba and is the main supplier of the main product -- frozen chicken -- purchased by the island. {Mississippi chicken farmers love their Senator}.

        There was a time back in the 1960s and 1970s that supporters of Thad Cochran were labeled right-wingers or even racists. But in 2017 the Thad Cochran supporters depicted above are not labeled anything other than progressive Americans. And like most Americans and most Cuban-Americans, they are tired of a handful of hardline Cuban Americans -- through two generations now -- dictating an American Cuban policy that rightfully gets a 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations. Senator Thad Cochran's four days in Cuba this week reflects perhaps the most serious challenge to the American Batistianos in many decades.

      With President Trump's powerful supporter -- U. S. Senator Thad Cochran from Mississippi -- gleefully looking on, Mississippi signed a huge commercial agreement with Cuba in Havana this week -- Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, 2017. The Mississippi ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport eagerly signed the deal with Cuba anticipating future commerce that will benefit the state and the island nation. Only Senator Cochran's dear friend, President Trump, can erase the impact of that agreement. That Trump decision is pending.

      The 79-year-old Senator Thad Cochran was the only Republican in the congressional delegation that visited Cuba this week, but the Democrats, of course, included the equally brave Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont. Senator Leahy is shown above taking photos of the media at a news conference in Havana on one of his many visits to the Cuban capital. The Congressmen visiting Cuba this week included:

 ***Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi.

***Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

***Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

***Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico.

***Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.

       Born in Minnesota 61-years-ago, Heidi Heitkamp is now a highly regarded U. S. Senator from North Dakota. A moderate Democrat, Senator Heitkamp has introduced a Senate bill providing for The Expansion of Agricultural Exports to Cuba. Her bill eliminates the Batistiano-imposed prohibition against financing exports to Cuba. It is a bipartisan bill that includes powerful Republicans like Mississippi's Thad Cochran.

       Born in Louisiana 66-years-old, John Boozman is now a U. S. Senator from Arkansas. Influenced by Thad Cochran, Senator Boozman is among the growing number of Republicans in the U. S. Congress no longer afraid of the power and intimidation of the Cuban-American hardliners when it comes to America's Cuban policy. Senator Boozman readily co-sponsored Senator Heitkamp's pro-Cuban agricultural bill.

      Born in Miami 50-years-ago, Kathy Castor has represented Florida's Tampa-St. Petersburg area in the U. S. Congress since 2007. With unmatched and uncommon guts and decency, Congresswoman Kathy Castor has long fought for a decent U. S. policy regarding Cuba, and its' a fight she has waged from FLORIDA.

        In the U. S. House of Representatives Kathy Castor currently has a bill calling for the end of the embargo against Cuba. Although born in Miami and representing Tampa in the U. S. Congress, Kathy Castor is brave enough to stress two points: {1} The embargo against Cuba has shamed the U. S. and democracy since 1962; and {2} To appease a handful of revengeful and self-serving Cuban-Americans, the U. S. embargo against Cuba unfairly and grossly harms totally innocent Cubans and totally innocent Americans.

      Born in Indiana 55-years-ago, Tom Emmer represents Minnesota in the U. S. Congress. A staunch Republican, he co-sponsors Kathy Castor's non-partisan bill aimed at ending the embargo against Cuba.

       Both as a former Minnesota lawyer/lobbyist and now as a brave Republican member of the United States Congress from Minnesota, Tom Emmer has always advocated a decent, pro-American policy towards Cuba. His bravery, and that of other aforementioned members of Congress, probably surprises many Americans because the incompetent and intimidated mainstream U. S. media normally only serves as a forum for anti-Cuban extremists when it comes to Cuban "news" that is actually anti-Cuban propaganda.

       As far as network television "news" in the United States is concerned, only anti-Cuban extremists like U. S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart from Miami are afforded unlimited airtime for rants such as the ranting depicted above when President Obama was lambasted as "an Appeaser-in-Chief". And when any of the four Diaz-Balart brothers are ranting on television, never do the networks have the guts or the integrity to mention that they are the four sons of Rafael Diaz-Balart -- the former key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship who became one of Florida's richest and most powerful anti-Cuban powerbrokers.

        This Washington Post photo shows former Batista Minister Rafael Diaz-Balart in the center flanked by his four sons, all of whom inherited their ultra-rich and ultra-powerful anti-Castro extremism that from 1959 till this day has dominated Congress, the U. S. media and both the Cuban political and economic spheres that so glowingly punctuate Miami. The Diaz-Balart son on the far left is a powerful banker. The Diaz-Balart sons second from the left and on the far right have both represented Miami in the United States Congress. And the Diaz-Balart son second from the right is a very powerful anti-Castro U. S. television anchor.

       The Diaz-Balart television connection is Jose Diaz-Balart and he is a prime anchor for NBC in English and Telemundo in Spanish. NBC and Telemundo have the highest rated American and Hispanic network "news" programs in America. It's a shame neither has the guts or the integrity to disclose Jose's Batistiano connections when he tells America all about how terrible Revolutionary Cuba IS while implying how fantastically nice Batista's Cuba WAS. So, both in the U. S. Congress and in the U. S. media, the Diaz-Balarts are synonymous with America's saturation of underhanded and undisclosed propaganda related to Cuba. 

And by the way:

       Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been denied entry to Cuba. The photo is courtesy of Reuters. Calderon planned to headline an anti-Cuban rally organized for Wednesday of this week by The Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy. He was the Bush-aligned President of Mexico from 2006 till 2012 and is still a pillar of Mexico's right-wing National Action Party. Note: Cuba, still a sovereign nation, apparently felt it had enough foreign anti-Cuban right-wingers on the island without allowing Calderon to join them.

      Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, Josefina Vidal, is also the island's primary defender. She once said, "I do not want anyone to shoot Cuba in the foot and I don't want Cuba to shoot itself in the foot." With that brilliant and logical rationale from a Cuban of Vidal's significance, you can understand why Felipe Calderon was not allowed to fly from Mexico to Cuba yesterday.

She's very protective of Cuba's feet. 

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