America's Batistiano Image

Indelibly Redefining the United States!!
{Updated for: Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017}

     An awesomely important and incredibly expensive trial ended in a U. S. Federal Courtroom in Newark, New Jersey, yesterday -- Nov. 16th, 2017. An entrenched, ultra-powerful Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American U. S. Senator, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, was charged with 18 felony counts. The U. S. government had spent almost five years investigating Menendez and then almost three months trying desperately to convict him. After exhausting all that time, energy, and money -- as predicted in this forum earlier -- there was zero chance of convicting a Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American in any Miami or Newark courtroom. The best the U. S. government could hope regarding Menendez was a show trial ending in a mistrial with a hopelessly hung jury. And that's what the U. S. got yesterday in Newark. A powerful and entrenched U. S. Senator being charged by the U. S. government with multiple corruption and bribery charges is a GIANT news story but one virtually ignored by the scared liberal media in the U. S. although the Fox network in the U. S. covered it as did international networks like the BBC, which is the world's best broadcast outlet. That in itself reveals anew how awesomely and indelibly the U. S. has been reshaped by the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba way back in 1959. That's because the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders merely reconstituted themselves on U. S. soil, namely the Miami and Newark regions. With the necessary aid of the Bush dynasty dating back to the 1950s, and especially since the 1980s, Cuban-American extremists embedded themselves deeply into the fabric of the U. S. government, riding the coattails of the Republican Party into dominant positions in the U. S. Congress and in all Republican presidential administrations.

        The Bob Menendez profile above was two years ago but it is still valid. He is now 63-years-old. A powerful politician in controversial New Jersey, he was elected to the U. S. Congress in 1993 and then appointed to the U. S. Senate by a controversial New Jersey governor-friend in 2006. He has been re-elected twice and will probably be re-elected again in 2018. As a Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American in the Senate he has held vital anti-Cuban positions, including the Chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Revolutionary Cuba is both a sovereign and a foreign nation.

      In the almost five years that he has been massively and expensively investigated by the U. S. government for corruption, and then in the last 11 weeks while on trial, Senator Menendez has shaken a BIG balled fist at Cuba every step of the way.

Photo courtesy: Seth Wenig/Associated Press.

     The photo above in Newark yesterday shows Senator Bob Menendez moments after the anticipated hung jury nullified the 18 felony corruption charges the U. S. government had charged him with after preparing its case for almost 5 years and then diligently prosecuting it for almost 3 months. Incredibly, Menendez said these exact words: "To those who were digging my grave so that they could jump into my seat, I know who you are and I won't forget you." And he remains a U. S. Senator.

     Speaking for the devastated U. S. Department of Justice, Nicole Navas said: "The DOJ will carefully consider the next step in this important matter and report to the court at the appropriate time." Even after five years of expensive efforts to accuse and then prosecute Senator Menendez on the felony corruption charges, the DOJ still wants to prosecute Menendez even after the expected hung jury yesterday.

     Even CNN predicted Sen. Menendez could not be convicted, and not just because he was a Cuban-American being tried in a federal courtroom in Newark, New Jersey. CNN asked the above question: Has the Supreme Court Legalized Public Corruption?" The army of multi-million-dollar lawyers that represented Menendez had, like CNN, pointed out that former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell's massive corruption convictions had been over-turned by the U. S. Supreme Court. Thus, Menendez's lawyers and supporters mocked his trial as useless, which it was except for the U. S. government spending five expensive years keeping the charges alive. If CNN asks the question above, there is probably something rotten in Washington. But SCOTUS? That is an acronym for "The U. S. Supreme Court." 

A part of the Menendez case above.

      Even conservative Talk Show giant Russ Limbaugh mocked the liberal media as "fake news" for not headlining one of the most expensive and important political trials in American history. With politicians and Hollywood stars falling right and left in the U. S. because of sex charges, Limbaugh pointed out that the FBI accused Senator Menendez of sex crimes related to Batistiano-havens in the Dominican Republic, "and nobody cares." Also, Limbaugh and others pointed out that the FBI accused Menendez of illegally helping get foreign females into the U. S. for a friend.

  The New York Post had this Front Page.

  The New York Daily News had this headline.

      The dear friend that helped get Senator Menendez in trouble with the FBI and the U. S. Department of Justice was a Miami multi-millionaire named Salomon Melgen who has already been convicted of MASSIVE Medicare fraud. Most of the many felony corruption and bribery charges against Menendez involved Melgen. But all 18 charges, as expected, got muted by a hopelessly hung jury in Menendez's stronghold of Newark, New Jersey. So, at the moment, Menendez is a shoo-in to be re-elected to a third full 6-year-term in the U. S. Senate next year. And that situation is very bad news for Cuba but, perhaps, even worse from an image standpoint for the United States, which already is condemned worldwide in the United Nations for its cruel, unending Counter Revolutionary policies regarding the sovereign nearby little nation of Cuba, which has pugnaciously been sovereign since over-throwing the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in January of 1959. SO...to say the mighty USA has a BIG Batistiano problem is an UNDER STATEMENT as wide as the Grand Canyon in the great state of Arizona.

Meanwhile, Cuba hangs on, 

with a little help from its friends:

      The Minister of State in Guyana, Joseph Harmon, is one of Cuba's friends trying to help the Caribbean's largest island to survive the latest efforts by U. S. President Trump and U. S. Senator Rubio to overthrow, once and for all, Cuba's Revolutionary government that, with unique pugnacity, has survived since January of 1959. Reacting to the Nov. 9th-2017 sanctions that Trump & Rubio believe will finally doom Cuba, Guyana's Joseph Harmon says, "Cuba has just one enemy, but it's the superpower United States. That doesn't, or shouldn't, mean the rest of us have to accept another half-century of a foreign superpower targeting the sovereign Cuban island." I'll shortly explain what Mr. Harmon is doing on Cuba's behalf but first some background. 

     The best newspaper in the Caribbean is the Jamaica Observer on the island just south of Cuba. This week -- on Nov. 16-2017 -- one of its major articles was entitled: "Fly Jamaica Airlines to Begin Direct Flights Between Guyana and Cuba." Cuba, the Caribbean's largest island, has no enemies in the region...except the nearby United States. During the Obama presidency -- from 2009-2017 -- the United States was Cuba's friend for the first time since 1959, which was the year the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafiosi dictatorship only to see the almost-immediate Batistiano revival on U. S. soil with a new capital of Little Havana in Miami and with the continued backing of the U. S. government, at least prior to and since Obama. The Jamaica Observer's aforementioned article reflected a Caribbean reaction to new and harsher sanctions against Cuba that took effect last week, on Nov. 9th, 2017. The fresh sanctions, engineered by Senator Marco Rubio on behalf of President Trump, reverted from Obama back to the original purpose of the the U. S. economic embargo of Cuba, which was imposed in 1962 for the purpose of starving, depriving, and making misery on the island to induce mistreated Cubans to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. The embargo has fulfilled its mission since 1962 except for fatally countering the Revolution, which apparently enough Cubans on the island prefer to a return of a U.S.-backed Batistiano/Mafisoi rule. Since 1962 all Republican administrations in America's two-party system have used the embargo and other vicious methods to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. The current Trump administration, taking a page out of three particularly cruel Bush administrations, is determined that the Nov. 9-2017 sanctions will finally cap the embargo's long-failed mission. Trump's anointed American dictator of Cuba, Miami's U. S. Senator Rubio, has mandated 180 new sanctions against Cuba designed to shut off tourism and other commercial entities vital to Cuba's survival, and that includes destroying Cuba's promising, state-of-the-art, deep-water Mariel Port Economic Zone 28 miles southwest of Havana. Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, scared off by Trump & Rubio, announced it WILL END its year-long flights to Cuba. The Jamaica Observer article revealed how the Caribbean is trying TO INCREASE flights to Cuba.

     Now back to Guyana's Cuban-loving Minister of State Joseph Harmon. He told the Jamaica Observer yesterday, "The government of Guyana has given Fly Jamaica Airways permission to begin a series of new flights between Guyana and Cuba."

      The gesture by Guyana and Fly Jamaica Airlines to help Cuba's vital tourism industry may, on the surface, appear to be a drop in the bucket compared to the omnipotent vitriol being newly imposed by President Trump and Senator Rubio. But it at least reflects continued efforts by Cuba's friends to boost Cuban tourism.

      Back in June President Trump {above} went to Little Havana in Miami and signed Executive Orders reversing former President Obama's decent Executive Orders that had eased most of the Congress-mandated harsh sanctions against Cuba. Trump also essentially promised the Counter-Revolutionary choir in Little Havana that he would, AT LAST, regain control of Cuba for them. Note in the photo above that Rubio, the Little Havana "choirboy" entrenched in the United States Senate with dangerous presidential ambitions, is staring ominously down over Trump's right shoulder.

     The top U. S. television network for business news is CNBC, which -- like all the major U. S. networks except Fox News, is trying desperately to get President Trump impeached with the aid of an around-the-clock media coup. Thus, CNBC opposes everything Trump stands for, including his stringent Cuban policies. Yesterday -- May 16th -- a major CNBC article written by Ali Montag was/is entitled: "Yes, You Can Still Take A Great Vacation in Cuba -- Here's How." The article then stated: "Traveling to Cuba just got trickier, but you can still take a great vacation. If you've been thinking about taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Cuba, you haven't missed your chance." The article went on to explain how you can get around the Nov. 9th diatribes handed-down by Trump & Rubio to curtail tourism and commerce to Cuba. You can consult the article to see how CNBC provides some anti-Trump & Rubio advice regarding Cuba.

      The Getty Images photo above shows Cubans Dr. Aleida Guevara March and her brother Camilo this week commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination in Bolivia of their father, Che Guevara. A medical doctor like her Argentine father, the 56-year-old Aleida has spent this year traveling to the UK and elsewhere conducting fiery interviews and speeches in defense of the Revolutionary Cuba that her father mightily helped forge. Camilo Guevara, by the way, was named for Camilo Cienfuegos, Che's co-Commander when they captured the city of Santa Clara.

    Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara were not only co-Commanders during the Cuban Revolution, they were also best friends in 1959 in Revolutionary Cuba when Camilo was almost as powerful as Fidel Castro and Che. But at age 27 on Oct. 28th, 1959, Camilo died in the crash of a small plane during a coastal thunderstorm. 

     This photo of Dr. ALeida Guevara March, Che's oldest child, is included in a Nov. 16-2017 article written by British journalist David Walsh and entitled: "Aleida Guevara on Cuba, Trump and Her Revolutionary Father." As you may imagine, she loves Cuba and hates Trump but her non-Trump comments include: "I am a firm believer in the Cuba my father helped create and I, like the rest of the good world, believe that the U. S. embargo against Cuba since 1962 is a genocidal sin. Cubans are very hospitable people. They have been fighting for more than 100 years for their independence and they finally got it in 1959. The independence we now have we will defend with every fiber in our being." The journalist, David Walsh, pointed out that some people believe that Cuba got its independence in 1902 shortly after the U. S. won the 1898 Spanish-American War. But the U. S. Platte Amendment quickly gave the U. S. the right to have military control of Cuba and, of course, by 1903 the U. S. had control, "in perpetuity," of Cuba's plush Guantanamo Bay as a prime U. S. military base. With continuing U. S. dominance, in 1952 the U. S. government and the U. S. Mafia teamed to support the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, which the Cuban Revolution amazingly overthrew on January 1, 1959. So, Dr. Aleida Guevara March, and most Cubans on the island, consider JANUARY 1, 1959 their Independence Day, and certainly not 1902.

    The mother of Dr. Aleida Guevara March is Aleida March who is shown above as a very beautiful guerrilla fighter in the Cuban Revolution. Aleida, born in 1936, is now 81-years-old. She fell madly in love with the Argentine doctor, Che Guevara, when they fought together as anti-Batista rebels. Aleida was born in Santa Clara, Cuba. That was the Cuban city where Commander Che in the last week of Dec.-1958 scored his greatest victory. After Che captured Aleida's hometown city of Santa Clara, it quickly persuaded Dictator Batista and his top Mafia associates to bolt for their getaway planes, ships and boats, with Batista flying first to the Dominican Republic that was then ruled ruthlessly by U.S.-backed dictator Rafael Trujillo. The beautiful Aleida, as shown above, helped her future husband Che capture Santa Clara, the city where she was born, and that capture within hours resoundingly ended the Revolutionary War.

       In 1959 right after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the two guerrilla fighters -- Aleida March and Che Guevara -- got married just about the exact time two other famed Cuban guerrilla fighters -- Raul Castro and Vilma Espin -- also got married.

      Before he was assassinated in Bolivia on October 9, 1967, Che Guevara and Aleida March had four Cuban children. They are shown above, left to right: baby Celia, Camilo, Aleida, and baby Ernesto. Aleida March wrote a heart-wrenching and best-selling book entitled: "Remembering Che: My Life with Che Guevara." It is truly a gripping read, telling the other side of one of history's greatest stories.

     Of course, Aleida March's book -- "The story of a great legend and a great love" as it was accurately described on the front-cover above -- is an insider account of a two-sided legend that the Cuban narrative in the United States still viciously ignores. But at age 81 in Cuba today, Aleida March believes every word that she wrote.

      This photo shows Che in Bolivia in 1967. The female guerrilla fighter with him is Loyola Guzman-Lara. Shortly after this photo was taken, they were captured by CIA-directed Bolivian soldiers and executed. So this photo pains some people.

     A man who could be expected to dispute everything Aleida March says about Che is Felix Rodriguez. Aleida fought beside Che in the Revolution, then married him and had his four children. Rodriguez was born in Havana 76-years-ago, is now retired and well-to-do in Miami, and since the triumph of the Revolution he has spent all his days as a fierce U.S.-based Counter Revolutionary. Basking in his fame/notoriety, Rodriguez this month of Nov.-2017 was interviewed by London's BBC about his best-selling book and the 50th anniversary of Che's death.

       Most of Felix Rodriguez's fame is because he was the CIA-agent, as the photo he's holding indicates, credited with tracking down Che, interviewing him, and then overseeing his brutal execution by a Bolivian soldier in 1967. In his book, he mentioned he took Che's watch as a souvenir. Che's hands were cut off so finger-prints couldn't identify his body. He was buried in a grave that wasn't supposed to be found. But years later it was found. DNA confirmed the bones with the missing hands were Che's. The bones were flown to Cuba. They are massively treasured today.

      The photos above show Felix Rodriguez on the left and Luis Posada Carriles on the right. They, and many other counter-revolutionary Cubans beginning in 1959, were sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, to train for the recapture of Cuba. As the photos indicate, Rodriguez and Posada graduated from Fort Benning as 2nd Lieutenants in the U. S. Army as a part of Brigade 2506, the unit that was unceremoniously defeated in April-1961 in the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba. But both Rodriguez and Posada made most of their fame...or infamy...as CIA operatives engaged in assassination attempts and other activity designed to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. Posada, for example, is tied to decades of terrorism against Cuba -- such as the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455, which killed all 73 on board including two dozen teenage Cuban athletes, and the deadly 1990s hotel bombings in Havana designed to discourage tourism to Cuba. Today the 76-year-old Rodriguez and the 90-year-old Posada are heralded citizens of Miami but Posada is reported to be suffering from cancer.

      While Felix Rodriguez's fame and infamy are most tied to the capture and execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967, his notoriety with the U. S. government beginning in 1959 is mind-boggling. Most of that fame-infamy has been white-washed in the U. S. but a google search would easily take you to much de-classified U. S. documents and great sources such as the UK-based www.spartacus-educational.com. Such history ties Rodriguez to much more than just Che -- such as the Iran-Contra scandal with Oliver North, drug-running in U. S. airplanes from U. S. airbases, etc.

     One common thread connects almost all of the Miami Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American estremists to the Bush dynasty dating as far back as the 1950s although that has been denied but de-classified U. S. documents indicate that IT IS  historically factual. The photo above shows George H. W. Bush with his dear friend Felix Rodriguez. Such a self-serving nexus continued, of course, with the sons George W. Bush and Jeb Bush. Thus the Bush dynasty's decades-old alliance with many of the most infamous Cuban Counter Revolutionaries had the benefits of omnipotent CIA connections and finances plus...a CIA Directorship in one bloody year, 1976; two Vice Presidential terms; three Presidential terms; and two terms as Governor of Florida. And to this day Jeb and his son Georgia P. Bush still have highly financed presidential ambitions to fuel the dynasty for many more decades to come.

      The photo above also shows George H. W. Bush with his dear friend Felix Rodriguez. Google searches intimately connect them in many crucial decades past.

    The above photo shows the Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Havana-born Felix Rodriguez. Although a strong majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba and, indeed, financially support Cubans on the island, it seems only Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami get elected to the U. S. Congress. Ros-Lehtinen has been in the U. S. Congress since 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager on his way to being twice elected governor of Florida. It is in that manner that politicians like Ros-Lehtinen and the Bushes desire the support of Counter Revolutionary icons like Rodriguez and even the less-sanitized Posada.

   The photo above shows Felix Rodriguez helping Miami's Marco Rubio get elected to two 6-year terms in the U. S. Senate. Although the mainstream U. S. media meekly portrays Rodriguez as a Cold War icon and Rubio as Miami's latest choirboy, Google searches of historic and topical facts would reveal, in both cases, some shocking and non-sanitized results, even more shocking than the FBI's accusation's concerning Senator Bob Menendez. Today Trump's former vicious competitor for the White House, Rubio, is Trump's designated American dictator of Cuba. Now please understand...I am not suggesting that Trump-Rodriguez-Rubio in 2017 are worse than 1952 when the U. S. government sicced the Mafia kingpins Luciana-Lansky-Trafficante on Cuba so rich U. S. politicians-businessmen could also partake in the rape and robbery of the island. But also understand that I am, indeed, suggesting you study the 1952 & 2017 comparisons to see if you equate the two extremely anti-democratic events that pulverize America's democratic image...then and now.

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

Can Cuba Survive Trump?

Maybe. Maybe Not. But Probably.
{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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A Tearful Look at Cuba

The Tears Are for America!!

{Note: This essay -- "A Tearful Look at Cuba: The Tears Are for America" -- was posted Sunday, Nov. 12th, and, according to the Google and Amazon metrics, it quickly received an additional above normal thousands of views. Thus, I left it at the top of Cubaninsider for two more days, including today --Tuesday, Nov. 14th -- 2017}.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Rothman.

       Tears have flowed from my eyes very seldom during my lifetime. But I admit I cried...even sobbed...when I read the story behind the photo depicted above. I am an America, born and bred, and I love my country. But I am ashamed...as you should be if you are an American...that my country in 1952 sicced the Mafia on Cuba to support the vile Batista dictatorship so a few already rich, politically connected rogues in the Eisenhower administration -- such as the ultra-powerful Dulles brothers -- could partake in the rape and robbery of the Caribbean's biggest and most beautiful island. In January of 1959 the Cuban Revolution shocked the world by becoming the only nation to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship, but only managed to chase the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictators to their next haven on U. S. soil with the Little Havana neighborhood in nearby Miami becoming their new capital. Although never held accountable, the Bush dynasty from the outset supported and master-minded the Little Havana plague that quickly advanced to the U. S. Congress and is enmeshed in all Republican administrations. Americans are not supposed to know such things but de-classified U. S. documents connect George H. W. Bush to the CIA and the Little Havana power-base in the 1950s long before he became CIA Director in 1976 followed by two terms as Vice President and one term as President, setting up his son George W.'s two-terms as President and his son Jeb's two terms as Governor of Florida as well as Jeb's ongoing presidential ambitions for himself and Jeb's son George P. Bush. In other words, propagandized Americans have meekly accepted America's asinine Cuban policies since the 1950s that the rest of the entire world, including America's best friends, finds appalling. With that prologue, permit me to return to the photo that brought unabashed tears to my eyes:

      I urge you to study it again. This photo was taken in April of 2015. It shows an American student-journalist named Lauren Rothman visiting Cuba at the urging of President Barack Obama. During his two-terms as President, Mr. Obama was the only U. S. president with the guts, intelligence, and decency to severely challenge the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictation of America's cruel Cuban policies. For example, in order to support the Batistiano-Mafiosi propaganda lies, everyday Americans prior to Obama were the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba. Obama with Executive Orders changed that and other cruel and un-democratic Cuban-related practices although before, during, and after Obama the Bastiano-Mafiosi dictators have maintained primary control of America's Cuban policies with their undeserved power in the U. S. Congress regarding Cuba. Thus, Bush-anointed Counter Revolutionary Cubans such as pre-Obama extremists Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart dictated Cuban policy to Congress while post-Obama and Bush and now Trump-anointed Miami Cubans have been allowed to dictate Cuban policy to both Congress and every Republican White House. All brave journalists and politicians in Washington know that Miami's contributions to the U. S. Congress -- Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart -- dictated the freshly punitive Trump policies aimed at Cuba on November 9th, 2017. The Bush dynasty and now the Trump White House allow only vicious Cuban extremists to dictate America's Cuban policy because two generations of Americans have not had the guts or the patriotism to intervene. Meanwhile, the majority of Cuban-Americans...over two million of them...are perfectly decent U. S. citizens who strongly desire Obama-like normal relations with Cuba. However, only Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists get elected to the U. S. Congress and when even well-known decent Cubans, such as Miami's Hugo Cancio, complain about that catastrophic anti-democratic phenomenon, it is to no avail...a situation reminiscent of when the very decent Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, complained about Cuban-American terrorism against innocent Cubans only to get car-bombed himself in Miami. And that takes me back to the photo that brought tears to my democracy-loving eyes.

     Encouraged by President Obama, student-journalist Lauren Rothman visited Cuba in April of 2015. She traveled extensively and made friends with many everyday Cubans, including the little boy shown above. When she returned to America, the heart-broken Lauren penned an article still posted online and entitled: "AS PRESIDENT OBAMA EASES RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO CUBA, ONE STUDENT TAKES A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE ISLAND NATION." As noted, Counter Revolutionaries such as Rubio, Menendez, Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen, Curbelo, etc. in the U. S. Congress didn't want Lauren or any other free-thinking, freedom-loving American to visit Cuba because that might interfere with their lies about why they are enhancing, with President Trump's gutless cooperation, the embargo of Cuba that was imposed way back in 1962 to starve, deprive and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. That fact has been revealed by de-classified U. S. documents from 1962 but Americans are supposed to be too afraid to acknowledge it. But Lauren Rothman, the student-journalist, acknowledged such things after President Obama arranged for her to visit Cuba in 2015 prior to his own historic visit in 2016. While in Cuba, Lauren acutely observed how everyday Cubans, like the little boy she befriended, are punished everyday of their lives -- like all decent Cubans since 1959 -- by rich, powerful, revengeful, and unchecked Cubans hiding behind the skirts of the Superpower U. S. government. Lauren's article upon her return to the U. S. had photos of such totally innocent Cubans on the island "suffering" while the vicious Cubans in Miami and in Congress force the American people to accept the lie that they must punish them in order to punish "the Castros." Intimidated cowards, of course, are the only ones who accept such lies. Lauren Rothman, after visiting Cuba courtesy of Obama, certainly doesn't believe them...not now and not ever again.

        Lauren Rothman's article included photos of innocent Cubans on the island, such as the little boy she befriended, who have been and are being tortured, ever since 1962, by cruel and revengeful Cuban-Americans with the cowardly concurrence of most Americans. Lauren included photos of elderly Cubans who had suffered such torture all their lives from the shores of a foreign country, the United States. Those photos are too painful for me to show here. But I do show Lauren's photo depicted above of a totally innocent Cuban on the island who tries so hard to hide his suffering caused since 1962 by unchecked U. S. Cubans such as the Bush-anointed Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart long-ago to the Trump-anointed Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart today. Lauren Rothman concluded her heart-wrenching article with the words that brought tears to my democracy-loving American eyes. Those words, illustrated by the photo above, were and are:

              "Cuba tries hard, too hard, to cover up its poverty. The government struggles to put up a brilliant facade, and the question comes down to how sensitive you need to be to see it. With extra thought, you can look beneath the surface of the tourist-filled Cuba, and you can see the struggle of the people. Although there wasn't an immediate display of suffering, it's hard to say how we can help." Those were Lauren Rothman's concluding words, the words that made me cry. Like her, I have been to Cuba and I have seen the suffering of totally innocent Cubans being punished every day of their lives by greedy and powerful Cubans in the U. S. hiding behind the gutlessness of the American people who have allowed them to do it since 1959 and especially since 1962 when the still-viable embargo was imposed to starve, deprive and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans to induce them to overthrow their revolutionary government. To their credit, Cubans have not attempted to do that because, I believe, they do not want a return of the Batistianos, Mafiosi, and rich Americans who robbed and brutalized the island without mercy from 1952 till 1959.

One final Lauren Rothman thought:

    President Trump, un-patriotic Americans, and an incompetent or intimidated mainstream U. S. media is today permitting U. S. Senator Marco Rubio to be the prime dictator of America's Cuban policy, which is reversing President Obama's sane and decent Cuban policies that Obama bravely forged despite the Batistiano-controlled U. S. Congress. For example, Rubio was the prime architect of the avalanche of hateful Trump rules announced on November 9th, 2017. A lavishly funded presidential wannabee from Miami, Rubio is daily depicted in the U. S. media as a Mother Teresa-like choirboy. A braver and more accurate depiction of Rubio, I believe, is in a long and massively documented article by Ken Silverstein, one of America's all-time best and most respected investigative journalists. Silverstein -- in the article fronted by the graphic below -- depicts Rubio as America's greatest "For Sale" politician massively corrupted by...real estate deals, credit card shenanigans, Washington lobbyists, etc. As far as I know, no one has denied Silverstein's revelations nor has he been sued for so publicly revealing them.

Marco Rubio, Trump's Cuban dictator.
The graphic above fronts the aforementioned Ken Silverstein article.

      A photo Rubio doesn't want Americans to see shows a decent, democracy-loving American named Lauren Rothman befriending a totally innocent little Cuban boy. Lauren returned to America ashamed of the suffering she saw and openly wondered how Americans can do something about it. Well, Lauren, here's my opinion: To keep Cuban children on the island, like the little boy that touched your heart, from being punished all their lives...as their parents and grand-parents have been punished...I believe Americans should demand that America's Cuban policy, condemned by the whole world, should be taken out of the hands of a second generation of greedy, revengeful benefactors like Marco Rubio and the Diaz-Balarts. Most Cuban-Americans, like Hugo Cancio in Miami; and most members of Congress, like Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont and Kathy Castor from Florida, desire normal and decent relations with Cuba. But "most" doesn't count in the U. S. democracy, it seems, when a Batista or a Canosa or a Diaz-Balart or a Rubio are permitted to dictate a Cuban policy that shames America and Democracy in the eyes of the world. As Lauren Rothman points out, the little Cuban boy shown above is not America's enemy and a handful of miscreants in America should not be allowed to punish him the rest of his life. The rest of the non-American world agrees with that sentiment. But so do decent Congressmen like Senator Leahy, decent Miami Cubans like Hugo Cancio, and decent Americans like Lauren Rothman.

     So why does the mainstream U. S. media saturate proselytized Americans with Marco Rubio's sanitized lies about his Cuban cruelty while only U. S. media outlets like C-SPAN dare to vent Senator Patrick Leahy's Cuban truths???

        This is Hugo Cancio, the well known Miami businessman who travels often to Cuba. Hugo openly wonders why only Counter Revolutionary extremists like Rubio and the Diaz-Balart brothers get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami while the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami, like Hugo, desire Obama-like normal relations with Cuba. And forgive Hugo if he also wonders why more Americans don't have the guts or the patriotism to wonder about the same thing.

      Born in Miami on Aug. 20-1966, Kathy Castor has brilliantly represented the Tampa area of Florida in the U. S. Congress since 2007. In all that time, she has fervently fought for the U. S. to normalize relations with Cuba. Note above her appearnce on C-SPAN to promote her dedicated work as Co-Chair of the Cuba Working Group. The anti-Cuban zealots in the U. S. Congress from Miami, like Rubio and Diaz-Balart, can get on the mainstream U. S. television networks any hour of any day to spout-out their anti-Cuban venom. But the same U. S. networks do not have the courage or the integrity to air the views of the brilliant and decent Kathy Castor and Americans are not supposed to have the guts to question why that is so. But there is a brilliant broadcast anchor in Cuba that has questioned such things both in Cuba and on American soil in Washington, D. C. and at three U. S. universities.

 On both Cuban soil and American soil, Cuba's highly respected and influential television anchor, Cristina Escobar, has firmly stated: "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." NBC-TV's veteran Chief Foreign Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, the U. S. journalist who often visits Cuba, bravely congratulated Cristina Escobar for that comment.  Also, Cristina Escobar is so respected by American journalists that she is the only Cuban from the island ever to ask questions at a White House news conference, and she asked six that special day. But, of course, propagandized Americans are supposed to only get their Cuban "news" from the likes of Marco Rubio while dismissing truths from...for sure...Cristina Escobar or Andrea Mitchell.

     On her most recent visit to Cuba, Andrea Mitchell reported fairly back to NBC on two pertinent and current issues: {1} The mysterious {Miami?} sonic-acoustic attacks that Rubio and his ilk are using as an excuse to further punish innocent Cubans; and {2} Andrea Mitchell interviewed everyday Cubans who became successful entrepreneurs thanks to President Obama's kindnesses only to be brought to tears now that President Trump has anointed Rubio America's cruel Cuban dictator.

      It was in the above interview with Andrea Mitchell that proud Cuban entrepreneur Julia de la Rosa cried when she talked about how her 10-room Bed & Breakfast had thrived thanks to the Obama presidency but has now been destroyed by the cruel Trump presidency when Trump turned over his Cuban policies to Counter Revolutionary Miami members of Congress Rubio and Diaz-Balart. Assuming Americans are either cowards or idiots, they claim they are hurting "the Castros." For over half-a-century it has, of course, been non-political Cubans like Julia who have been most hurt by the likes of Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart from their entrenched sanctuaries in the U. S. Congress where their revenge against Cuba is grossly exacerbated when Republicans occupy the U. S. White House.

      If the photo above of the teary-eyes Julia de la Rosa didn't bring tears to your American eyes, I believe the photo above should. That's Yamina Vicente holding up and delivering a plea in Washington signed by Yamina and three dozen other young Cubans who had started their own successful businesses thanks to President Obama bravely confronting the cruelty of Rubio, Diaz-Balart, etc. The signed letter begged...BEGGED!!...President Trump to allow them to "continue to be able to make livings for their families in Cuba." In my opinion, any American who is not brought to tears by the letter Yamina is holding is both anti-American and anti-democracy.

Above is a quote by Yamina in Washington. 

      The montage above shows President Donald Trump flanked by Marco Rubio and by Mario Diaz-Balart. The two Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American extremists are among Miami's current contributions to the United States Congress. Rubio the "choirboy" arrived in the U. S. Senate with his bio still claiming his parents fled the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami; then it was pointed out that Rubio's parents had fled the tyranny of Batista's Cuba long before Americans had ever heard of Fidel Castro. Diaz-Balart's father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then in 1959 rich enough to create the first Counter Revolutionary paramilitary unit in South Florida. So now, as most Americans sit back on their cowardly rear-ends, Trump has turned America's Cuban policies over to Rubio and Diaz-Balart who in turn are busy reversing the decency of the Obama presidency. And that's why the decent, hard-working Cuban, Julia de la Rosa, cried when NBC's Andrea Mitchell interviewed her in Havana recently. And that's why Yamina Vicente, on behalf of dozens of other young Cuban entrepreneurs like her, brought that letter to Washington BEGGING President Trump and the United States of America to allow them to make decent livings in their own sovereign country.

     The Rubio/Trump/Diaz-Balart disaster is why decent Americans like Lauren Rothman are direly concerned about miscreants in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA punishing decent Cubans like Julia de la Rosa and Yamina Vicente and Cuban children like the little boy that touched the caring heart of Lauren Rothman. And the photo above is the precise reason Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio and Diaz-Balart try to dictate that Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba because in "legalizing" such laws in the U. S. Congress they can continue to punish totally innocent Cubans like Julia, Yamina, and this little boy.

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