Maybe. Maybe Not. But Probably.
{Updated for: Thursday, November 16, 2017}
{Updated for: Thursday, November 16, 2017}
This week -- Nov. 14-2017 -- Alaska Airlines, headquartered in Seattle -- announced it is ending its year-long service to Cuba. After being scared off by the Batistiano-loving Trump presidency, the Alaska Airlines' decision is merely the latest of about a billion reasons since 1959 that the total demise of Revolutionary Cuba has been predicted. But, as with the other billion reasons, the new predictions need to be examined more closely than today's screaming United States headlines would lead you to believe.
The prime spokesman for Alaska Airlines is John Kirby. He rationalized ending the flights to Cuba this way: "You never want to exit a route. But ending the flights to Cuba will enable us to increase our LA-to-Hawaii flights." After that lame excuse, Kirby admitted that the real reason was the Nov. 9-2017 announcement by the Trump administration that sharply increased the already cruel targeting of the Cuban people that Trump's predecessor, President Obama, had so bravely and decently sliced into. Kirby said, "We saw a precipitous drop-off in traffic to Cuba entering the fall after the new Trump decisions. We really don't blame his administration. We knew going to Cuba was a very fluid environment. There was a risk." Of course, the "risk" involved a Batista-loving Republican administration, Trump's, replacing a decent Democratic administration, Obama's. Also, when Kirby said "we really don't blame" Trump he was prevaricating, which also means lying. Like all companies in the U. S. and even foreign companies, the incomparable economic and military might of the U. S. influences America's and the world's commerce. For example, a small Jamaican company on the island just south of Cuba once sent a box of baby aspirin to Cuba and that company was legally fined by the U. S. under Batistiano-directed laws that ruled the box of baby aspirin would benefit Fidel Castro. Huge companies worldwide have been fined billions-of-dollars for even minor deals with Cuba because of the U. S. embargo in effect since 1962, and all such companies pay up because of the omnipotent U. S. influence on their livelihoods. Such fines and other travesties are, of course, viable because two generations of unpatriotic Americans don't give a damn about Cuba or America. SO, on Nov. 14-2017 when John Kirby announced that he is ending Alaska Airlines flights to Cuba because he is afraid of President Trump, naysayers resume the decades-old predictions that Cuba will totally crumble -- "within days" as the crooked U. S. Congressman Torricelli once predicted and "within months" as the crooked Vice President Nixon once predicted. But you know what? Even after the Alaska Airlines headlines this week, Cuba might not crumble even with Trump calling the shots on behalf of the most vicious Counter Revolutionaries.
As the Alaska Airlines announcement indicates, for Cuba the difference between President Trump and former President Obama is the difference between decency and indecency.
Obama tried to normalize relations.
The decent President Obama even went to Cuba and, on live island-wide television, told the Cuban people: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." He was sincere but he did not anticipate his two-terms as President would be succeeded by a Batistiano-loving Republican, Donald Trump.
In stark contrast to President Obama, President Trump went to Little Havana in Miami and essentially promised the remaining Counter Revolutionary members of Brigade 2506 -- the CIA-trained Cuban-Americans who attacked Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961 -- that he would finally return Cuba to them. His speech above in front of the huge Brigade 2506 assault banner was in one of the many magnificent buildings in Miami named for Brigade 2506 leaders. It was a reminder, after all these decades, that the Batista dictatorship that was booted out of Cuba on Jan. 1-1959 has, since that historic day, been resurrected on U. S. soil. Yet, Revolutionary Cuba has survived all these many decades with truly unique pugnaciousness.
And Cuba might survive Trump.
The photo above is why I believe Cuba will probably survive the United States era of President Donald Trump, which...like most nagging headaches...will eventually pass. The lady above is Conner Gorry, a native of New York, USA. She has a Masters in International Relations. A superb writer and author, she is very smart...and very, very much an independent thinker. In 2002 she moved to Cuba...very permanently.
Once settled in the Vedado section of Havana, Conner Gorry founded Cuba Libro, which is now a famed library and cafe. She stocked the library with American books and American magazines such as The New Yorker and National Geographic. That's because she is very much an English-speaking American...and now a Spanish-speaking Cuban. As she predicted, her Cuba Libro landmark in Havana is a success because Cubans are fascinated with America and visitors to Cuba, including Americans, are fascinated with Cuba. The Cuba-America nexus, Conner knew, would succeed on Cuban soil...plus, she believed deep in her compassionate heart that Superpower America should cease trying to pulverize totally innocent Cubans to avenge the Cuban Revolution, which...way back in 1959...overthrew the vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship and, pugnaciously, has made it stick ever since.
At her library and cafe Cuba Libro in Havana, Conner Gorry stresses the graphic depicted above -- "Down with the Blockade." Conner sincerely believes that a nearby Superpower's economic blockade/embargo of Cuba since 1962 is America's sin.
At her beloved Cuba Libro library and cafe as well as in her books, blogs, and internationally published articles, Conner Gorry emphasizes this point: "Cubans want to make a decent living and no foreign nation has a right to deny them that right and neither does their own government." With her Masters degree in International Relations and with her compassionate heart, Conner Gorry, as an American-Cuban who will live out her life as a Cuban, is a fervent defender of basic rights for Cubans on the island. The Revolutionary Cuban government tolerates Conner's passion even if the U. S. government and Cuban-American extremists in the United States do not.
Sitting in her beloved Cuba Libro business in Havana, Conner Gorry watched live on Cuban television as U. S. President Barack Obama in December of 2014 bravely, emphatically, and historically declared that the United States was normalizing relations with Cuba. And then, euphorically, Conner Gorry penned an article that, by Dec. 18-2014, had been published internationally by newspapers such as The New York Daily News and The London Guardian. That article, in case you would like to review it online, was/is entitled: "Does This Mean We're Going to Get Internet? Cubans Stunned and Excited at End of Isolation From U. S." Her article was written in sheer joy after President Obama's Dec.-2014 announcement but, of course, in a very cruel twist of fate, Obama's two terms as U. S. President would end and he would be replaced by President Trump. But still, prior to Trump's reversal in 2017 of Obama's decent overtures to Cuba, it is worthwhile, I think, to revisit the decent Conner Gorry's Dec. 18-2014 article reacting to President Obama's Herculean statement vowing to normalize relations with Cuba after all previous U. S. presidents since the 1950s had, willingly or not, condoned terrorism and starvation as acceptable U. S. assaults on the Cuban people to sate the revenge, economic, and political goals of a handful of Cuban-American extremists. So, for what it's worth, here is the way Conner Gorry's euphoric Dec. 18th article reacted to President Obama's announcement:
"We awoke to a sunny Wednesday. Made coffee. Greeted our neighbors. Walked the dog. Then the news broke. Three Cubans who had spent more than 16 years in U. S. jails are back home. And the United States and Cuba are normalizing relations. Boom! Just like that. The hugs and cheers, applause and tears ringing out through my corner of Havana were, are, real. After receiving scads of emails, text messages, phone calls and hugs today, it still feels like reality hasn't sunk in. We're stunned. A little slap-happy maybe."
The red quotation marks above exactly encase the first words of Conner Gorry's euphoric article spawned in Dec.-2014 by President Obama's vow to normalize relations with Cuba. As a decent American, and now as a decent Cuban, Conner Gorry felt secure in such exhortations...at least until Nov. 8th-2016, the day Republican Donald Trump was elected President of the United States replacing the decent and brave Democratic President Barack Obama. Conner Gorry only needed her intelligence, not her Masters degree in International Relations, to know that the Trump election in the U. S. meant a return of the cruel persecutions of innocent Cubans as mandated by the Republican Bush dynasty via one CIA directorship, two Vice Presidential terms, three Presidential terms, and two terms as the Governor of Florida where the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful remnants of the long-ago Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba still reign and, although a distinct minority, still control Florida politics and that state's often decisive 29 electoral votes in presidential elections...electoral votes that helped put George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump in the White House despite the still-nagging fact that their OPPONENTS got the MOST VOTES. As far as Conner Gorry is concerned, a Bush or a Trump as U. S. President equates to having a Fulgencio Batista or a Lucky Luciano in the U. S. White House and in control of the U. S. military and the U. S. Blockade/Embargo of Cuba.
SO NOW YOU KNOW PRECISELY WHY CONNER GORRY IN 2002 LEFT HER NATIVE UNITED STATES TO BECOME A CUBAN ON THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND SHE BELIEVES HAS BEEN UNFAIRLY AND CRUELLY TARGETED BY BATISTIANOS, MAFIOSI, CUBAN-AMERICANS, AND AMERICANS. I have explained Conner's reaction to President Obama. I don't think I need to explain Conner's reaction to Mr. Trump.
And by the way, Lonely Planet Country Guides are the best ways to learn about foreign nations and their people. Regarding the island of Cuba, Lonely Planet relies on insightful, insider experts -- such as Conner Gorry with the book above -- to dispense accurate information worldwide so travelers will get to know about the Caribbean's largest, most beautiful, most targeted, and most beguiling island.
In other words, feisty and pugnacious Little Cuba -- as personified by Carlos LaTuff's pugnacious Little girl depicted above -- might even survive Donald Trump.
And IF Cuba survives Donald Trump, little Cuban girls like this will be happy...because rosy-cheeked little Cuban girls don't deserve to be targeted by rich and powerful miscreants living in a foreign country. Anyone who claims that such things as the U. S. embargo of Cuba don't hurt little Cuban girls is a liar or an idiot.
And by the way:
This photo was taken by Emmy Park. Conner Gorry says Senor Tobes "wandered into Cuba Lebro exactly 3 years ago." He's still there and she says he has "changed my life forever." Both Senor Tobes and Cuba Lebro say a lot about Conner Gorry.
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