America's Banana Republic

South Florida: 1959-2018!!!

   Yes, indeed. Ken Blackwell is a powerful "Distinguished Fellow" at the famously left-leaning and omnipotent ACLU. Appearing this week -- Friday, Nov. 9th, 2018 -- on Fox News -- Ken Blackwell correctly labeled the politically ultra-powerful state of Florida as, "a Banana Republic and a failed state." Americans who care about their nation and their democracy should listen to Ken Blackwell. Since the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 chased the leaders of Cuba's Batista-Mafia dictatorship to their new capital of Little Havana in Miami, the U. S. democracy has taken a drastically undemocratic hit. That's what Ken Blackwell meant by labeling Florida a "Banana Republic and a failed state." Please understand, because of Florida's massive impact on national elections...meaning the U. S. Congress and the White House in Washington...Americans who discount Ken Blackwell's definition of Florida are, I believe, anti-American and anti-Democracy...or, if you're generous enough to permit me one more adjective, just plain stupid.

    President Donald Trump named Ken Blackwell a member of his Transition Team although Mr. Blackwell is a powerful spokesman for the anti-Trump and left-wing ACLU. But, as a democracy-lover, Ken Blackwell's depiction of Florida is both extremely important and extremely correct: "Florida IS a Banana Republic and a failed state." Yes, Florida is a Banana Republic that in 2000 put Batistiano-connected George W. Bush in the White House although Al Gore got more national votes and the whole world watched in horror as the world's greatest Democracy suffered day-after-day as officials in Florida counted "hanging chads" and a few other things to finally give another Bush the presidency, not the anti-Batistiano Al Gore. And prior to this troubled weekend following the important November 6th mid-term elections, Florida once again is holding up nationally important elections as it tries to let America know who its top elected officials will in the Florida capital of Tallahassee and the U. S. capital of Washington. Yes, Florida is "a Banana Republic and a failed state" and has been since 1959 when leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship fled to U. S. soil and made Little Havana in Miami their new capital...supposedly for a few weeks till the mighty U. S. government re-captured Cuba for them. In the 6+ decades since 1959 the re-capturing effort is still underway and still making many millionaires and billionaires out of selected Cubans, but it's still a failed objective as it still shames the U. S. democracy. 

       In the wee hours of January 1, 1959, the Batistianos and Mafiosi, who had brutally raped and robbed Cuba blind while using muscle and finances provided by USA officials and rich USA businessmen, fled the island's victorious Cuban Revolution for their safe sanctuary...and even more lucrative Banana Republic...on United States soil.

    After World War II's necessary victory in 1945 that prevented vile dictators in Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy from taking over the world, the USA emerged as the world's strongest, richest, and most respected nation. But by 1952, which happened to be the year the U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba, rich U. S. businessmen had bought-up enough key politicians that, by 1953, the U. S. government, on their behalf, began overturning Latin American governments to install U.S.-friendly dictators that would further enrich USA businessmen. Such vile coups continued deep into the 1970s with perhaps the vilest being the Nixon-Kissinger support of the bloody coup that killed the popular democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, to install for 17 bloody years, the U.S.-friendly dictatorship run by the extremely murderous General Pinochet. Because the post-World II generations of Americans have been far less brave and less protective of their democracy than all prior generations, the coups, etc., were allowed to take place for decades beginning in 1953, and neither Latin America nor America has been the same since.

   Even today in November of 2018 Americans are not supposed to realize that the photo depicted still resonates through Latin America and scares even democratically elected Latin American presidents. That's General Pinochet getting a congratulatory handshake from President Nixon's top adviser Henry Kissinger after a U.S.-CIA coup left Chile's democratically elected President Salvador Allende dead and installed the murderous Pinochet as the U.S.-friendly Chilean dictator for 17 bloody years. In November of 2018 any Google search would shame any democracy-loving America, especially considering that the U. S. perpetrators have not been held accountable for such things.

    There are today MANY observers in Washington who believe that President Trump's newly named top National Security adviser, John Bolton, is MUCH MORE of a war-monger in 2018 than Henry Kissinger who was President Nixon's top adviser for the 1973 Chilean coup. So, not surprisingly, as depicted in the photo above, John Bolton last week went to Miami and essentially declared war on Cuba and Cuban allies Nicaragua and Venezuela.

    Even as Americans are programmed to dismiss the evil specter of the bloody U.S.-friendly Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, Latin American fears remain very warn in the ashes of that U. S. endeavor.

    So, yes, there was a nice democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, that died in his palace office fighting against the coup-mongers because some rich and powerful Americans preferred the murderous dictatorship of General Pinochet. Of course, the Banana Republic that Pinochet created in Chile greedily suited rich U. S. businessmen throughout the 1970s and all of the 1980s just as Batista's Banana Republic had greedily suited rich U. S. businessmen in Cuba from 1952 till 1959. 

    From 1959 till today the Caribbean island of Cuba has been a catalyst as Latin America has tried mightily to shed itself of U.S.-backed Banana Republics. Cuba in 1959 shocked the world by defeating the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship and Cuba has further shocked the world by pugnaciously remaining a sovereign nation from 1959 till today...and counting. That inspired other successful revolutions against U.S. hegemony in important nations like Brazil, Nicaragua, etc. The graphic above illustrates the significance of the United Fruit Company in all this. That was the symbol of U. S. businesses in U.S.-friendly Banana Republics robbing Latin American and Caribbean countries blind, including the United Fruit Company in Cuba and all over the Caribbean and Latin America. For example, Che Guevara graduated with honors from Medical School in Argentina and planned to be a doctor. But, after graduation, he decided to ride a motorcycle down through Latin America as a vacation. What he observed were United Fruit-like U. S. companies robbing those countries blind. Che ended up in Mexico in 1956 where he met the Castro brothers. Fidel and Raul told Che the United Fruit-like U. S. companies were also robbing Cuba blind and brutalizing poor Cubans, including children chosen as examples, to make it possible and shut down dissent. And Che was told the Castro brothers were going back to Cuba to do something about it. Che thus joined the outraged Cubans and the rest is history. The image of the United Fruit Company remains a striking symbol of that history, which is well-known all across the Caribbean and Latin America but, even in the era of the Google search engine, Americans are programmed to ignore the United Fruit-like torment that the Cuban Revolution is credited with resisting with a startling result that changed the Caribbean and Latin America forever. Yet, as is very evident...especially when Republican administrations rule the White House...powerful forces to this day try to prey on smaller Western Hemisphere nations, with most of those forces situated in Washington, Miami, and Newark...and closely resembling what ruled Cuba from 1952 till 1959.

The graphic below illustrates those facts.

*****************

     The map and graphic above documents the insatiable greed of rich Americans and the U. S. politicians that used the U. S. government to sate their appetites for the national resources in much weaker Caribbean and Latin American nations from 1895 into the 1930s, extracting wealth from those nations. Notice that Cuba was at the top as a catalyst and that's why the 1898 Spanish-American War was concocted by the USA to take full charge of Cuba. The greedy U. S. businessmen and politicians who ransacked the Caribbean and Latin America from 1895 into the 1930s, as depicted above, had precious little opposition from the American citizens. So, by 1952 the Mafia was sicced on Cuba and by 1953 right-wingers in the U. S. were free to begin a frightening series of coups designed to enable a few rich Americans to gruesomely exploit smaller, weaker nations. In the current Age of Goggle, search engines can provide Americans all the details of such undemocratic tactics executed by greedy Americans from 1895 into the 1930s and beyond, resulting eventually in the Coups and Banana Republics that STILL resonate to this very day. Of all the U. S. actions in Latin America, the one that still scares Latin America and the Caribbean the most remains the bloody coup that killed the democracy-elected Chilean President Allende to install for almost two decades the murderous General Pinochet. {I say that as a democracy-loving American who believes that perpetrators of such anti-democratic acts in America's name should be held accountable by the decent American people...especially in 2018 with Trump-Rubio-Bolton-and-Pompeo acting like war-mongering Banana Republic/United Fruit-like thieves calling the increasingly shameful Cuban-related shots in Washington}. If you disagree with that, I'm sure you can't comprehend that the important state of Florida today is "a Banana Republic and a failed stated" as depicted on Nov. 9-2018 by a very smart, democracy-loving American.

     And that American is Ken Blackwell, the "Distinguished Fellow" at the powerful ACLU, The American Civil Rights Union. When Americans like Ken Blackwell go on national television on Nov. 9-2018 in prime-time and call Florida "a Banana Republic and a failed state," perhaps Americans should finally realize that allowing the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship to resurrect itself permanently on U. S. soil, namely South Florida dating back to 1959, is a colossal mistake for the United States and for democracy.

     And all six Republican Party U. S. presidents since 1959 have turned America's Cuban policies over to Counter Revolutionary right-wing Cubans, Cuban-Americans, or Mafiosi-like characters quite similar to those that surrounded Dictator Batista in Cuba in the 1950s. The fact that the current Republican President Donald Trump has designated a Little Havana "choirboy" named Marco Rubio as America's new Cuban dictator, has created such things as...the photo above in which Rubio laughingly informed his Little Havana audience that, thanks to Trump, he...meaning Rubio...now essentially had the wherewithal to recapture Cuba. And to America's shame and Democracy's shame, perhaps he does. And that, I believe, is why a decent American, Ken Blackwell, on Nov. 9-2018 labeled Rubio's Florida "a Banana Republic and a failed state." The fact is, I believe, that if Rubio and his ilk are not reined-in by democracy-loving U. S. citizens, America may also become "a Banana Republic and a failed country."

And by the way:

     This weekend -- on Saturday, Nov. 10-2018 -- The Cuban Ministry of Tourism used the above photo in announcing that Cuba had reached the 4 million mark in tourism for 2018. This was just 4 days later than the island attained that total in 2017. The Ministry stated: "This 4-million result this year is achieved despite media campaigns by the Trump administration to discredit Cuban tourism and amidst the Trump measure to reinforce the U. S. blockade again Cuba. The USA is the only country in the world whose citizens, by law, cannot travel freely as tourists to Cuba."

*&***********************&*