Dictated by Rubio-like Extremists!!
As It Shames Most Cuban-Americans!!
Most journalists and newspapers in Florida are afraid to report the truth about U.S.-Cuban relations. But Paul Guzzo and the Tampa Bay Times are long-time, excellent exceptions.
Yesterday -- April 23rd, 2018 -- the photo above illustrated a major article in the Tampa Bay Times written by its renowned journalist-historian Paul Guzzo. The article is entitled: "Having Cuba in the Name of Your Company Can be a Financial Risk and THERE IS NO SOLUTION." The Tampa building above is headquarters for The Cuba Club, which easily qualified for a $190,000 loan -- TILL the bank was reminded that the word "Cuba" is in the company's title. Then the loan was denied -- TILL the company proved that the ISLAND OF CUBA had nothing to do with the company's name. The city of Tampa has the 3rd largest Cuban-American population in the USA and Cuban-American Vicente Amor, expressing the opinion of most Cuban-Americans, said, "It is ridiculous. Someone needs to do something about this."
"It is ridiculous. Someone needs to do something about this." Every decent and even slightly brave American and Cuban-American agrees with that Cuban-American comment in the aforementioned Paul Guzzo-Tampa Bay Times article. But Barack Obama has been the only U. S. President since 1959 with the necessary combination of courage, intelligence, and decency to seriously attempt to correct the insult to America and Democracy that garnered a 191-to-0 condemnation of the U. S. in the United Nations during the last year, 2016, of the Obama presidency. But Obama's courage, intelligence, and decency has fallen victim to a U. S. Congress in which right-wing, self-serving, Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans have been permitted to dictate America's apoplectic and nefarious Cuban policy, a policy SO ABSURD and UNDEMOCRATIC that no other topic in this very diverse world could possibly attain a 191-to-ZERO unanimity in the United Nations. Yet, the lament by the Cuban-American, Vicente Amor, in the Guzzo-Tampa Bay Times for "someone" to "do something about this" is a very sad commentary for Democracy-lovers like me...and like Tampa's U. S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor.
Although she was born in Miami, Kathy Castor has represented Tampa in the U. S. Congress. If you didn't know that, it's because the mainstream media is not in the business of reporting about members of Congress from Florida who bravely advocate a sane and decent Cuban policy, which Congresswoman Kathy Castor has done for over a decade. Meanwhile, the mainstream U. S. media is compelled to lavishly report on all the Counter Revolutionary zeal of Miami's members of the U. S. Congress -- Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, and Curbelo. That has been so, I believe, especially since Miami's top Cuban-American journalist, Emilio Milian, was car-bombed in 1976 for complaining about extreme Miami-based terrorism against totally innocent Cubans. And it's so, I believe, even though MOST CUBAN-AMERICANS EVEN IN MIAMI favor Obama-like and Kathy Castor-like normal relations with Cuba. In the Paul Guzzo-Tampa Bay Times article yesterday, Congresswoman Kathy Castor was quoted by a brave journalist working at a brave newspaper and she reiterated that a sane and decent Cuban policy remains uppermost on her radar. Her quote was: "This has been on my radar. But the only real solution is to repeal the Cuban Embargo."
But as Congresswoman Kathy Castor and other Democracy-loving Floridians well know, as long as the intimidated, incompetent, or unpatriotic mainstream U. S. media is too afraid to report fairly on Cuban issues, self-serving extremists like Marco Rubio will continue to dictate via the U. S. Congress and all Republican administrations a Cuban policy that has 191-to-0 worldwide unanimous condemnation.
Her brilliant work at the U. S. State Department alerted Emily Mendrala to the absurdity and indecency of having America's Cuban policy and its Cuban narrative dictated by a mere handful of Cuban-American extremists. Now Emily Mendrala is the Executive Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas. Each Friday her Cuba Central report on the CDA website provides the best summary of that week's U.S.-Cuban related news. The current posting of her Cuba Central update begins with Senator Marco Rubio's absurd and indecent Cuban directives...and later in that excellent update Emily Mendrala directs her readers to a Miami Herald article written by a famed anti-Castro Cuban-American editorial writer who also assails Rubio.
As this airplane-pulled banner flying over Senator Marco Rubio's home turf indicates, he is not popular in South Florida except for Little Havana in the heart of Miami. Most of the 2+ million Cuban-Americans favor normal relations with Cuba. Yet, only Counter Revolutionary extremists, it seems, can get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami. That Miami problem, as with others, is also America's problem.
And by the way:
For six decades Counter Revolutionary extremists in Miami and in the U. S. Congress try to dictate the Cuban narrative by insisting that Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba, lest they form their OWN OPINIONS about the island. In 2017 thanks to President Obama, Cuba's tourism exceeded 4 million for the first time, including over 600,000 Americans. In 2018 with Rubio designated by President Trump as America's new Cuban dictator, the U. S. currently has a "Cuba Travel Warning" in place, a warning that benefits Counter Revolutionary extremists but harms everyone else -- including most Cuban-Americans in Miami and Tampa as yesterday's Tampa Bay Tribune article explained.
The photo above was taken by Clara Johnson and used to illustrate a major article yesterday -- April 23rd -- in the financial giant Forbes. It's entitled: "Yes, Americans Can Still Travel to Cuba." If you are interested, you may want to dial up that article.
And yes, Cuba's Revolutionary flag still waves.
{In President Diaz-Canel's first full week}
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