A Boost for Cuba's Economy

Vietnam Pledges Aid & Advice!!
{Sunday, April 1st, 2018}

      A very important airplane landed in Havana this week -- Thursday, March 29th, 2018. Vietnam's General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, in the center, was warmly greeted by Jose Ramon Balaguer Cabrera, the head of Cuba's Central Commission of Foreign Affairs, at Havana's Jose Marti Airport. Phu arrived with gifts of cash and computers but, more importantly, he provided two-days of economic advice.

      Vietnam's Phu spent public and private time with Cuban President Raul Castro. Both agreed that it is vital that Cuba develop a Vietnamese-style market economy.

  But the March 29th highlight of Secretary General Phu's arrival in Cuba came when he was hosted at the University of Havana by Miguel Diaz-Canel, the 57-year-old education-minded and soon-to-be {on April 19th} the next President of Cuba and the first non-revolutionary and non-Castro leader since 1959. Also in this significant photo, just at Phu's left, is Gustavo Cobreiro, the rector at the University of Havana.

    At the University of Havana this week, the Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong made a powerful and well-received economic speech. He said, "Vietnam was also sanctioned-embargoed by the United States after we won the Vietnam War, uniting the North and South into one independent nation. But the U. S. lifted our sanctions two decades ago and became our nice trade partner, and the last three U. S. Presidents have flown to Vietnam to congratulate our still-burgeoning market economy. Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel have both assured me that is the direction Cuba will go. So, we will help Cuba survive and thrive despite six decades of the longest and harshest embargo any small nation has ever had to confront from a strong nation, in this case the world Superpower. With such tenacity, the Vietnamese people believe the Cuban government and the Cuban people deserve all the help we can provide to our friends on this beautiful and sovereign island. No small nation has so many deserving people. We fought and won a long war against USA imperialism. Cuba fought and won a revolution against the same thing. I am proud of independent and united Vietnam and of Cuba."

      Cuba's Ambassador to Vietnam, Lianys Torres Rivera, had prepped Vietnam's General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong prior to his trip to Cuba this week. In the past two days Phu has made it a point to meet not only with top Cuban government officials but also with Cuba's leading educators. Phu brought with him a hefty cash gift for those educators and a large supply of educational tools, especially brand-new computers and laptops. During the exchange above, Phu told Ms. Torres, "After our war victory, the U. S. still sanctioned and embargoed us for 20 years, but then dropped them and became our nice trade partners. In the last 20 years we have lifted 30 million Vietnamese out of poverty. The U. S., after 60 menacing years, will not drop its revenge sanctions against Cuba but Cuba has proven it still deserves to survive as an independent nation free of Washington and, we think, with help it can soon thrive." 

     In Cuba this week, Vietnam's Nguyen Phu Trong asked if he could visit a Cuban elementary school. At this stop he said: "We in Vietnam, and the rest of the world outside the U. S., marvel at Cuba's free and excellent education and health systems. I personally am astounded it has provided such things against America's wishes."

Vietnam's Phu with Cuban students.

Phu visiting more Cuban students.

     One of the most dynamic and powerful Cubans is Ena Elsa Velazquez, the island's Education Minister. She thanked Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's General Secretary, with these words: "I receive these gifts on behalf of the students, professors, and teachers who have some nearby enemies but also, as you have shown today, some sweet, sweet friends. And the noble and generous Vietnamese people are our dearest friends. Be certain as we furiously protect our revolution and the independence it bequeathed to us, know too that we will continue to preserve the indissoluble bonds of friendships and solidarity that unites the great and bold people of Cuba and Vietnam."

The key Phu speech in Havana.

Listening to Phu's speech, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Phu congratulated by Miguel-Canel. 

     While Miguel Diaz-Canel, who has already closely studied Vietnam's market economy, will be Cuba's President starting next month, rest assured that Revolutionary Cuba's dependence on powerful women will continue. The island's Education Minister, Ena Elsa Velazquez, is both a powerful and truly brilliant woman.

     When Cuba's Minister of Education, Ena Elsa Velazquez, speaks, the leaders of a lot of countries, including Vietnam, listen. And so does Cuba's Miguel Diaz-Canel.

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Laughing at Counter Revolutionaries

But NOT at the Harm They Do!!
{Thursday, March 29th, 2018}

Photo courtesy: Claudio Pelaez/On Cuba Magazine.

     The photo above accurately reflects what American tourists see and experience if they get permission from Marco Rubio and other Counter Revolutionary extremists to visit the Caribbean's largest, most beautiful, and safest island. This tourist at Havana's famed Malecon seawall is being serenaded by a Cuban musician. Day or night, music is such an indelible part of the DNA in Cuba that you can hear it being played in nightclubs, on the streets, or in homes almost 24-hours a day. Of course, Rubio and a handful of Cuban-American Counter Revolutionary extremists, since 1959, have dictated that everyday Americans are the only people in the world that should be denied the freedom to visit Cuba. That, of course, is so Rubio and his ilk can dictate the Cuban narrative, as they have mostly done for six decades. In that vein, the photo above was used to illustrate an article in On Cuba Magazine/Website this week -- March 27th, 2018. Written by Julio Antonio Fernandez Estrada, the article is entitled: "Sonic Attack...Against Peace." The first line is: "If it were not that it increasingly distances us from the hope of normal relations with the United States, one would choke to death laughing with this thing about the sonic attack. Or not." In other words, Rubio's latest very successful ploy -- weird sonic attack accusations -- are designed to hurt Cubans on the island, Cuban-Americans in Miami, and everyone else except of course a handful of extremists Cuban-Americans who, for six decades, have benefited revengefully, economically, and politically from cruel, weird dictations of America's Cuban policies. As the insightful article by Julio Fernandez explains, such manufactured and absurd pretexts to hurt Revolutionary Cuba would be laughable IF THEY WERE NOT SO PAINFUL AND HARMFUL.

        Meanwhile, study the photo above from this week's On Cuba Magazine. The tourist seems to be enthralled and entertained by the trumpet-playing Cuban sitting on Havana's Malecon wall. Marco Rubio thinks she does not deserve that right and, sadly, that is an example of the cruel, self-serving opinions from a handful of Counter Revolutionary extremists that have shamed America and Democracy since the 1950s...all while gleefully hiding behind the skirts of the world's Superpower.

     For hurting Cubans on the island and hurting Cuban-Americans in Miami, even the Miami Herald has had three recent articles assailing Rubio's cowardly but extremely profitable Counter Revolutionary zealotry. The banner above pulled by an airplane flying over Rubio's home turf assailed Rubio for taking $3.3 million in alleged bribery money from the NRA, a typical tactic that led notable journalist Ken Silverstein to write a mammoth article labeling Rubio "head and shoulders" above everyone else in Washington when it came to "corruption and chicanery."

      Yet, courtesy of President Trump, not only is Rubio today essentially America's new dictator of Cuban policy, he is forever entrenched in the U. S. Senate from Miami even though a recent poll showed his approval rating in Miami dipping below 35%. All polls show that most Cuban-Americans even in Miami desire Obama-like normal relations with Cuba but ONLY COUNTER REVOLUTIONARY EXTREMISTS LIKE RUBIO APPEAR CAPABLE OF WINNING ELECTIONS. All the while the intimidated or incompetent mainstream United States media continues to portray Rubio as a choirboy, which keeps his insatiable presidential hopes alive along with Rubio's obscene campaign donations from right-wing billionaires.

     And that brings us back around to this week's insightful article by Julio Antonio Fernandez Estrada in On Cuba Magazine, which is one of the best and most influential publications related to the Caribbean island. Julio astutely explains that the Counter Revolutionary dictation of America's Cuban policies would be "laughable" except for the fact they hurt so many totally innocent Cubans, Americans, and Cuban-Americans. If Americans don't have the intelligence and the courage to agree with Julio, it says a lot more about America and its defrayed Democracy than it says about either Cuba or its Revolution.

And by the way:

      President Trump's appointment last week of John Bolton as America's top National Security Adviser threatens America and other countries, including Cuba. An extreme right-wing warmonger, Bolton has long advocated attacking Revolutionary Cuba and it is assumed that will be his advice to Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump.

      This week -- March 27th, 2018 -- a front-page article in USA Today was dedicated to quoting former President Jimmy Carter's outrage over the John Bolton appointment. He said: "The worst mistake that President Trump has made since he's been in office is his employment of John Bolton. He's a disaster for our country."

       All sane and patriotic Americans should agree with Jimmy Carter concerning Trump's appointment of Bolton. Mr. Carter is now 93-years-old but still mentally alert and physically helping build homes for the poor. His IQ stands tallest among America's 45 Presidents and he also rates as the all-time most decent President. He deserved a second 4-year term as President in 1981 but was, unfortunately, brushed aside by the Bush dynasty. The Carter-to-Bush transition marked a precipitous rise of dangerous Bush-anointed right-wingers...like the war-mongering John Bolton. 

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John Bolton THREATENS Cuba

What Does John Bolton Plan?
{Tuesday, March 27, 2018}

      Last week John Bolton replaced General H. R. McMaster as America's top National Security Adviser in President Trump's White House. That development, many liberals and conservatives believe, brings the U. S. and Israel one giant step closer to an actual military attack on Iran and an actual U.S.-backed coup in Cuba. Of all the war-hawks on America's extreme right-wing, Bolton is the most hawkish and dangerous.

     This Ethan Miller/Getty Images photo explains what is wrong with America's coerced Democracy. John Bolton is such an extremist right-wing warmonger that he couldn't possibly get the approval of the U. S. Senate for any important appointment. His "recess appointment" as U. S. Ambassador to the UN was brief and, of course, withdrawn by President George W. Bush before it faced Senate approval, one of the subtle little jokes the Bush dynasty has pulled on the American people. But right-wingers like Bolton as well as left-wingers on the other extreme in the political spectrum can become very rich and very influential by serving on propaganda Think Tanks such as Bolton's right-wing American Enterprise Institute. Also, of course, extremists like Bolton can hang around for decades making millions of political dollars with propaganda-powered Political Action Committees. Bolton has two extremely lucrative Super PACs -- "John Bolton Super PAC" and "John Bolton PAC". A key Bolton PAC donor is right-wing billionaire Robert Mercer, also a key supporter of the right-wing Breitbart News propaganda media farce. So using extremists like Bolton is how wealthy extreme entities can purchase what remains of the U. S. democracy. Yesterday -- Monday, March 26th, 2018 -- the USA Today's Editorial was entitled: "McMaster's Out. Bolton's In. Be Very Careful." That pertinent warning has reached Havana because Bolton has long violently targeted Revolutionary Cuba, and now as Trump's National Security Adviser he has his best chance to follow-up on his diabolical Cuban desires. "Bolton's In. Be Very Careful." Yes. Yes indeed, FOR SURE.

Is that why Trump chose John Bolton?

   A disciple of the war-mongering Bush dynasty, John Bolton pushed a false narrative -- Weapons of Mass Destruction -- to justify Bush's endless trillion-dollar war in Iraq.

     Retired U. S. diplomat Vicki Huddleston has a new book entitled "Our Woman in Havana." She was head of the U. S. Interests Section in Havana from 1999 till 2002 and earlier she was the Coordinator for U. S. Cuban Affairs from 1989 till 1993. Last week, alarmed that John Bolton was named President Trump's top National Security Adviser, Vicki Huddleston Tweeted that John Bolton accused Cuba of having Weapons of Mass Destruction in an apparent effort to have the U. S. military make an all-out attack on Cuba. As a product of the war-mongering Bush dynasty, Bolton led the false but successful charge that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Vicki Huddleston worries about how much Bolton can influence Trump regarding Cuba.

      One example that could be cited to brand the U. S. news media as "Fake News" is the fact that, since 2006, John Boldon has been repeatedly referred to in the mainstream media as "the former U. S. Ambassador to the U. N.," which defers upon him an undeserved honor. Yes, Bolton was appointed by President George W. Bush as America's United Nations Ambassador but that is a misnomer unless it is quantified with this explanation: Bush well knew that Bolton was far too much of a war-mongerer to be confirmed by the U. S. Senate as the Ambassador to the UN. But Presidents incredibly can make short-lived "Recess Appointments" only to rescind them before the confirmation hearing in the Senate, which Bush surely did with John Bolton.

     While most Americans, including me, are staunch supporters of Israel, John Bolton and some right-wing Americans go beyond that and place Israel's welfare above that of America's. That is one reason Bolton spent 8 years vehemently denouncing and demeaning America's decent President Barack Obama. Bolton now can expound that extremism regarding any real or even perceived Israeli enemy.

      As a pro-Israel militant and extremist, John Bolton has urged America to attack Iran, something that Israel, an omnipotent nuclear power, is fully capable of doing all alone but especially in alliance with the U. S. such an attack now might be imminent.

      But closer to home, in the USA's backyard, John Bolton's appointment as President Trump's top National Security Adviser might well prove to be the final denouement to President Obama's sane promise: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." But with Trump as President and with the right-wing/Counter Revolutionary extremist Bolton as his top militant adviser, Cuba is back in the cross-hairs the way it was in April of 1961 when less-extremist right-wingers crafted the Bay of Pigs attack aimed at recapturing Revolutionary Cuba many, many decades ago.

     Since April 16th, 2017 -- when President Trump visited Little Havana in Miami -- Cuba has considered the Obama-Trump transition the difference between war & peace, sanity & insanity. That was the day, with the huge Bay of Pigs Assault Banner 2506 as a backdrop, Trump essentially promised the few remaining anti-Castro hardliners that he would reverse the Bay of Pigs disaster for them. That promise...if indeed that's what it was...has taken on added meaning this week with Trump's new choice as America's National Security Adviser -- the war-mongering John Bolton.

      One thing is now for sure, The Dangers of John Bolton may represent the gravest danger for Revolutionary Cuba since the Bay of Pigs attack in April of 1961.

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A Cuba Americans Don't Know

And Are NOT SUPPOSED to Know!!
{Friday, March 23rd, 2018}

     The Associated Press and the Jamaica Observer this week both featured major articles about Cuba opening its first wholesale market, another sign of the changing commerce on the island. The market is selling beans, beer, sugar, cigars, and many other goods for up to 30% less than similar products sold in state-owned stores. But at least initially only cooperative workers can utilize the popular experiment but the plan is to gradually expand it across the island.  Prior to the Counter Revolutionary Trump administration in Washington, during the 8 years of the friendly and non-punitive Obama presidency Cuba had opened up 500,000 private enterprises. The market experiment above is one way Cuba is trying to adjust to the belligerency emanating from the Trump administration and Miami-Cubans in the U. S. Congress. 

     At age 62 Chris Baker is generally recognized as the world's greatest Travel Writer-Photographer. That's why he has had top-rated Travel Shows on the BBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CCTV America, MSNBC, National Geographic Channel, and other networks. Being British, Baker doesn't have to ask Counter Revolutionaries like Marco Rubio what to say about Cuba, one of Mr. Baker's very favorite stops.

      Knowing Cuba like the back of his hand, one of Chris Baker's famous Moon books is about the Caribbean's largest, most beautiful, and certainly the most intriguing island. While the mainstream U. S. media is obliged to report only what revengeful Counter Revolutions like Rubio say about Cuba, the Brit Chris Baker is not so restrained, meaning he can tell & show the truth. For example, a few weeks ago -- hiding behind the Trump administration and the cowardly U. S. media -- Senator Rubio, speaking for the U.S.-Trump government, warned Americans not to visit Cuba because it was "unsafe," a ploy to hurt Cuba's vital tourism industry. That very same week the widely respected International Tourism Fair in Madrid named Cuba "the safest nation in the world for tourists." Well, Chris Baker, the world's top Travel expert, seconded that motion. In other words, someone is lying and it appears, as uusual, that it's the self-serving Counter Revolutionaries in the United States.

      And this week -- March 19th, 2018 -- Ann Lee, another renowned Travel Writer, penned an internationally published article entitled: "Why Cuba's Colourful Capital of Havana Should Be Your Next City Break." Like Chris Baker and the International Tourist Fair in Madrid, it is obvious that Ann Lee didn't ask Marco Rubio for permission to write her article about Cuba. That means Americans who have never been to Cuba should dial up Ann Lee's insightful article to learn a few things about Cuba that Rubio and his ilk don't want Americans to know and that explains why, for six decades, everyday Americans have been the only people in the world without the easy freedom to visit Cuba.

     This week Ann Lee's article about Cuba features Getty Images photos to take her readers around Cuba. She calls Havana, "One of the most fascinating cities in the world," pointing out that its U.S.-imposed "isolation" only adds to its fascination.

     Travel Writer Ann Lee, for example, was quite fascinated with Havana's Gran Teatro de La Habana -- the Grand Theater of Havana. It is the world-famed home of the National Ballet of Cuba as well as music-dance concerts. Visitors to Havana, including those who can't get tickets to the Gran Teatro, can hear music and dancing out on the streets or from the apartments at all hours of the days and nights in Havana, Cuba.

      Ann Lee used this photo of Playa de Este, a beach just outside Havana, and wrote: "Most people coming to Cuba head to the resort of Varadero but Playa de Este is just as beautiful." When I was in Cuba I drove the one-hour down the coastal highway to Varadero, which has been named the most beautiful beach in the world, but at the time I didn't know about Playa de Este. Ann Lee raved about its "soft white sand, dazzling blue sea, and palm trees swaying gently in the tropical breeze."

      Travel Writer Ann Lee was totally mesmerized by the unique beauty of Vinales. She wrote: "If you only have time for a one-day trip from Havana, make it Vinales -- a two-and-one-half hour drive away. The beautiful terrain of mountains, caves, and valleys makes it one of the most stunning landscapes in Cuba...and in the world."

     Even little towns like Vinales, like in Havana, have casa particulars, which are private rooms to sleep, with paladars, which are nice places to eat in private homes.

     If you want to stay at a 5-star hotel in Havana, Ann Lee suggests the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski. She says, "The rooms are huge but the real showstopper is the rooftop bar and pool." Ann Lee said that sipping a mojito and lounging poolside atop the Kempinski is the best way to see scintillating sunsets or sunrises in Havana.

    The photo above, courtesy of Intrepid Travel, is one Marco Rubio doesn't want to see. It shows tourists, including Americans, in Havana. For six decades Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans, who have been allowed to dictate America's Cuban narrative and policies, have insisted that everyday Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. That has a two-fold purpose: {1} To destroy Revolutionary Cuba's economy; and {2} to make sure Americans can't visit Cuba because, if so, they could judge it for themselves. Unfortunately, all Republican administrations as well as the intimidated mainstream media perpetuate the Counter Revolutionary lies about Cuba. And that's why, I believe, those of us Americans who have visited the island agree with the way it is depicted by great Travel Writers like Chris Baker and Ann Lee as well as by non-intimidated tourist advisers such as the International Tourism Fair in Madrid. To believe what America's Counter Revolutionaries like Senator Rubio say about Cuba is to be gullible, stupid, or afraid.

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America's Cuban Shame

During Transition Time in Cuba!

{Emily Mendrala vs. Marco Rubio}
{Monday, March 19th, 2018}

     A very decent and patriotic American, Emily Mendrala is the antithesis to Marco Rubio. Mendrala is one of America's greatest national security experts and in that capacity she was an important advisor to Democratic Presidents Clinton and Obama. Now with a Republican, Donald Trump, in the White House, Mendrala is the Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, the ten-year-old organization founded by the great American patriot Sarah Stephens. As a brilliant National Security and Latin American expert, Mendrala is the most important American championing a sane and decent U. S. policy towards Cuba, as I will explain.

      While Emily Mendrala is on the sane and decent side of America's Cuban conundrum, the self-serving U. S. Senator Marco Rubio represents the other end of that political divide. Rubio, now in his second 6-year Senate term after his 2016 presidential bid was swamped by Republican rival Trump in Rubio's home-state of Florida, is essentially America's and Trump's new Cuban dictator along the lines that future billionaire Jorge Mas Canosa was the Bush dynasty's anointed American Cuban dictator...both with the U.S.-backed goal of recapturing Cuba. Although a safe Senate incumbent till his next presidential bid, Rubio's approval rating in Florida, according to a recent poll, is 35%, which reflects the fact that only anti-Cuban Cuban-American extremists can get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami although polls show most Cuban-Americans EVEN IN MIAMI favor normal relations with Cuba. Intimidation and a lack of democracy fuel Rubio's economic and political power, plus a cowardly and incompetent mainstream U. S. media that portrays Rubio as a choirboy, the same mainstream U. S. media that wouldn't dare mention the Cuban viewpoints of unbiased, decent Cuban experts...such as Emily Mendrala. Yet, even Rubio's Cuban-dominated home-town newspaper, the Miami Herald, has begun to point out how far-removed United States Senator Rubio is from representing his constituents, including two million Cuban-Americans, as opposed to representing himself...Marco Rubio!!

    While the mainstream United States media is obliged to promote Marco Rubio as a choirboy, America's best investigative journalist Ken Silverstein {yes, you may Google his reputation} in the notable article illustrated above stated that Rubio was "head and shoulders above everyone else in Washington when it comes to corruption and chicanery." That's quite a statement, don't you think? Yet, Silverstein's long and precise documentations, to my knowledge, have never been questioned nor has he been sued. And yet, Rubio has been designated by President Donald Trump to lead the reversal of President Barack Obama's decent and sane Cuban policies. While propagandized Americans are deigned to be too stupid, too scared, or too unpatriotic to object, great Democracy-loving Americans like Emily Mendrala are ashamed that Rubio is the latest Republican nominee put in charge of America's shameful genocidal assault on both innocent Cubans and on America's international reputation, which has taken a very loud 191-to-0 UN condemnation hit.

   While the mainstream U. S. media doesn't have the guts or the integrity to mention the Cuban views of decent Americans like Emily Mendrala, The Hill, the best and most influential Washington-based political source, this week featured Mendrala's article entitled: "In Cuba, Let's Get Back In The Game." Caring every bit as much for America's democracy as she does for innocent Cubans on the island, Mendrala wrote: "It's game time in Cuba and the United States isn't on the field, on the sidelines, or even in the stands; we're at home {alone}. Cuba is on the brink of an historic transition. In April, President Raul Castro will step down and usher in a new era of Cuban leadership. At this complex time, when diplomacy matters most, the U. S. Embassy in Havana is operating on life support."

      With unique courage, intelligence, and decency, President Barack Obama re-opened the U. S. Embassy in Havana for the first time since 1961. It was fully staffed heading into the Obama-Trump transition and vitally served both sides of the Florida Straits, including two million Cuban-Americans in South Florida who praised the manner it was helping them interact with family and friends in Cuba. Obama had also nominated a great diplomat, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, as the U. S. Ambassador to Cuba. But one man in the 535-member U. S. Congress and 100-member U. S. Senate -- MARCO RUBIO -- blocked that badly needed nomination and now one man -- MARCO RUBIO -- has been put in charge of totally gutting both the new U. S. Embassy in Havana and the Cuban Embassy in Washington. Even the Miami Herald is raving about RUBIO'S self-serving gutlessness, as are all of the greatest, bravest, and best experts regarding U.S.-Cuban relations, with Emily Mendrala being at the forefront of opposing RUBIO's affront against Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Democracy.

    Emily Mendrala and her Center for Democracy in the Americas, as her above statement indicates, has shown the U. S. Congress, the Miami Herald, and all others how Obama's Cuban policies helped everyday Cubans as well as everyday Americans and Cuban-Americans. Mendrala brought a host of young female Cuban entrepreneurs to Washington...and to Miami...so they could plead for decency. Even the Miami Herald allowed four of those female entrepreneurs to co-write a major article in which they openly blamed one man -- MARCO RUBIO -- for punishing them and their children. The vast majority of Americans and Cuban-Americans agree with Emily Mendrala but never, except when Obama was President, has the United States paid any attention to what the majority thinks about its Cuban policies and, of course, as the world's Superpower with a veto in the United Nations, the U. S. can brazenly ignore the 191-to-0 UN vote condemning America's Cuban policy. And that, since 1959, is what has made billionaires out of leading Miami Counter Revolutionary extremists like Jorge Mas Canosa and, today, like budding billionaire MARCO RUBIO.

      Because Cuba is a foreign nation, Rubio is entrenched on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate has to confirm major presidential appointees, each of whom is sure to be grilled by Rubio apparently to ascertain if they will help him recapture Cuba. The image above captured the moments when Rubio grilled Rex Tillerson who was President Trump's successful nominee for Secretary of State.

     And Rex Tillerson,  after becoming Secretary of State, marched to the dictatorial Cuban drumbeat of Marco Rubio. BUT this past week Tillerson was fired by Trump who then nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new Secretary of State, the most powerful position in the presidential cabinet. BUT GUESS WHAT?? Emily Mendrala, who would know, says that Pompeo IS EVEN MORE UNDER RUBIO'S ANTI-CUBAN THUMB THAN TILLERSON WAS. That's bad for Cuba, but worse for America.

    This is the actual photo when Mike Pompeo smiled up at Marco Rubio when Pompeo was being grilled by Rubio during Pompeo's Senate confirmation hearing as CIA Director, which Rubio heartedly supported. U. S. CIA Directors, starting with Allen Dulles in the 1950s and most pointedly with George H. W. Bush in bloody 1976, have traditionally been America's most ardent enemies of Cuban sovereignty, especially since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 gained independence for Cuba after 500 years of Spanish and American domination. As Trump's CIA Director, Pompeo was aligned with Rubio in turning back Obama's decency towards Cuba. So, Pompeo's impending job as Trump's Secretary of State greatly concerns Emily Mendrala just as it should concern any American concerned about a Rubio-ruled Cuban policy or...heavens FORBID...a Rubio-ruled America!!

      IN OTHER WORDS, the image above -- courtesy of Donald Trump Jr. -- should concern all democracy-loving Americans. It relates to the fact that President Trump erased the Marco Rubio presidential candidacy in 2016 by branding the Little Havana Senator as "Little Marco." Trump further got over the point that Rubio was a "whiner" when he stated that the reason he wasn't even in the Senate to vote very often was because "Congress never got anything done anyway." Of course, with that "whine" Senator Rubio was ignoring the fact that, for six decades, Congress has gutlessly rubber-stamped the embargo and all other acts of genocide and terrorism against Cuba. And then to rub in the fact that Rubio is a "whiner," President Trump pointed out that "Little Marco the whiner" initially whined that he wasn't going to run for a second 6-year term in the U. S. Senate. Of course, Little Marco {note the baby pacifier} changed his mind when his billionaire donors reminded him that his 2020 presidential bid depended on him reclaiming his high-profile Senate seat from Little Havana, which he did. But the Donald Trump Jr. graphic above, I think, should be very scary to Americans. Why? Well, it depicts a very unpopular U. S. President reading a children's book to a very unpopular U. S. Senator that the unpopular U. S. President has anointed as America's new unpopular dictator of Cuba. THAT should be enough to scare ANY democracy-loving American.

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