America's Ongoing Cuban Policy

It's More Harmful to U. S. Than to Cuba
Updated: Friday, December 12th, 2014

        President Salvador Ceren of El Salvador is in Cuba receiving urgent medical care. He took ill at a regional summit in Veracruz, Mexico. He was elected President of El Salvador in March of 2014. President Ceren is 70-years-old. His request to fly to Cuba for his critical medical care reflects a Latin American view of Cuba that most Americans simply do not comprehend. Why? Americans need an unbiased perspective on U.S.-Cuban relations if they are to judge things such as why President Ceren is in Cuba this week.

       This AFP photo was taken at a recent news conference in Havana that featured Josefina Vidal, Cuba's key Minister on all things related to the United States. Top international news agencies including London-based Reuters, Paris-based Agence France-Presse, Caracas-based TeleSUR, etc., highlighted the session with headlines such as "Cuba Condemns U. S. Punitive Mentality," in case you want to check what she had to say online. The AFP news agency identified Ms. Vidal as "The Director-General of the United States Department in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Whatever her title, she is the most important person -- in either Havana or Washington -- related to the day-by-day nuances of U.S.-Cuban relations. Moreover, I believe, Ms. Vidal is considered the fairest appraiser of the U.S.-Cuban quagmire in either Havana or Washington. Many of her comments at this news conference -- as reported by AFP, Reuters, TeleSUR, etc., should be of interest to Americans interested in their democracy. Among her comments:

***"The U. S. punitive mentality against Cuba clouds Washington's diplomacy."

***"The United States has not forgiven Cuba for deciding its own path."

***"The punishment philosophy is still running in Washington."

***"Most Americans desire a more sensible Cuban policy."

***"A few revengeful Cubans control America's Cuban relations."

                       ***"But if Havana and Washington are committed to overcome this disagreement, that they have had for more than 55 years, it can be done. As Cuba's top diplomat regarding the United States, I, for one, for Cuba's sake, desire friendly relations with our most powerful neighbor, a neighbor that should be our major friend and trading partner, not our major, or only, enemy. If Americans are disappointed in Cuba's government, they should understand that I, one who has spent much time in the United States, remain keenly disappointed in America and its government that, both now and historically, has treated Cuba in manners totally unrelated to the proud democratic principles that should have, and should be, applied. Recognizing that Cuba is a sovereign country, not an American playpen or piggy-bank, would, I think, be a good place to start. Is it too much to ask that sanity and decency finally applies to our relations?" 

              Note that the final quotation ended with a question mark, not a period. It posed a legitimate question that a democracy should be able to answer. The above comments by Josefina Vidal at a recent news conference in Havana parallel a speech she made at the Kennedy Library in Boston in 2002 when, at a forum that included Caroline Kennedy and many of America's top historians, she was the one that received the standing ovation. In this last month of 2014, now in Havana as Cuba's top official pertaining to American affairs, Josefina Vidal remains the most courageous and the most sensible governmental official involved in U.S.-Cuban relations. Additionally, she is the one significant player working the hardest to normalize a more sensible relationship between the two important neighbors whose hostility adversely affects the entire region. More and more, it is apparent that the U. S. is simply unable or unwilling to produce or allow a diplomat of comparable statue to negotiate freely with Josefina Vidal. That situation might whet the economic and revenge appetites of a few but, for sure, it harms everyone else.

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     This photo, taken by Yenny Munoa, dominated the front page of the Bahamas News Leader Monday -- December 8th, 2014. It shows Prime Minister Freundel Stuart of the Bahamas with Cuban President Raul Castro, who is hosting the 5th annual CARICOM Summit this week. The 15 leaders of the Caribbean nations are there. And, one by one, they have excoriated the United States because of its Cuban policy, which these nations consider hypocritical and harmful to the entire region. In April in Panama, the Summit of the Americas will take place. And there, with President Obama scheduled to be in attendance, the nations of Latin America will also excoriate America's Cuban policy. Panama has begged Cuba to attend the Summit of the Americas because a host of nations have said they will boycott the session if Cuba is not represented. In recent days, the President of Panama has been subjected to official rebukes via official congressional stationery from Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress. The CARICOM Summit began Monday with a sharp denunciation of that assault on sovereignty by a few Cuban-Americans. Prime Minister Stuart called America's Cuban policy, "Senseless, self-inflicted, and unnecessary anti-Americanism designed by a few Cuban-Americans in Congress."

      This AFP/Jorge Luis Banos photo shows the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, sharing a jovial moment with Raul Castro at the start of the CARICOM Summit of Caribbean nations Monday in Havana's Palace of the Revolution. Even before he left Jose Marti Airport upon his arrival, Prime Minister Gaston Brown made this comment: "I call on President Barack Obama to lift that senseless, gutless embargo against our sister nation Cuba. It is, in fact, an affront to every nation in the Caribbean. It reminds all us Caribbeans of forgettable old-time imperialism."

         This photo, courtesy of Trabajadores, shows the start of the 5th annual CARICOM {Caribbean Community} Summit Monday in Cuba's Palace of the Revolution. The 15 leaders of those Caribbean nations are unanimous in their anger over the U. S. treatment of Cuba. They said such unanimity among the Caribbean nations "should register" on the United States, the world's strongest and most famed democracy. 

       The island of Cuba dominates the Caribbean. It is on friendly terms with all of its neighbors, except the nearby United States just to the north. That unique situation is based purely on this historic fact: Cuba is the only Caribbean nation that overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship and then suffered the indignity of having the leaders of that ousted dictatorship regroup on U. S. soil beginning way back in January of 1959. In all the decades since, the U. S. Cuban policy has been, for the most part, dictated by the remnants of that overthrown Cuban dictatorship. While Americans are not supposed to agree with that analysis, all the Caribbean nations and all the Latin American nations do agree with it. In fact, so do all the nations around the world, except U. S. dependent Israel, as depicted by the yearly vote in the UN. Yet, the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas and all other such democracy-loving organizations remain direly concerned about the harm the U. S. Cuban policy does to both democracy and the United States.

 Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was born 49 years ago in the Bronx, New York, and he has received the best educations that Princeton University and the Stanford Law School can provide. Mr. Romero is a liberal Democrat; I am a conservative Republican. But we agree on one thing -- The U. S. Cuban policy. Monday -- December 8, 2014 -- Mr. Romero authored a long Editorial in the New York Times in which he excoriated the U. S. because of its Cuban policy, most notably the cancerous U. S. Military Base at Guantanamo Bay on 45 lush acres the U. S. un-democratically took from Cuba way back in 1903 shortly after the U. S. had wrested dominance of Cuba from Spain in the 1898 Spanish-American War. Mr. Romero laments the image that occupation and the U. S. prison at Guantanamo presents to the region.

       This Kevin Lamarque/Reuters photo was used Monday -- December 8th -- to illustrate the Editorial in the New York Times written by Anthony D. Romero. He wrote: "Before President George W. Bush left office, a group of conservatives lobbied the White House to grant pardons to the officials who had planned and authorized the United States torture programs. My organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, found the proposal repugnant. But with the impending release of the report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have come to think that President Obama should issue pardons, after all -- because it may be the only way to establish once and for all that torture is illegal. That officials at the highest level of government authorized and ordered torture is not in dispute. Mr. Bush issued a secret order authorizing the CIA to build prisons overseas. The CIA requested authority to torture prisoners in those 'black holes.' The National Security Council approved the requests and the Justice Department drafted memos providing the brutal program with a veneer of legality." This week's Romero-penned Editorial brings to eight the number of Editorials in recent days featured in the New York Times deploring America's Cuban policy. Also on December 8th, yet another glaring New York Times Editorial blared this headline: "Release the Guantanamo Force-Feeding Videos." That Editorial stated: "Americans should be able to see the conditions of detainees at Guantanamo and decide for themselves what is needed to protect human dignity." The U. S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, exacerbated by a U. S. Cuban policy dictated by a few zealous Cuban-Americans in the easily bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress, overwhelms the Checks and Balances of U. S. Presidents as it also generates anti-American and anti-democracy fervor around the world, especially throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Internationally, the New York Times is America's most influential media outlet. On December 9th the giant newspaper blared an Editorial around the world entitled "The Senate Report on the CIA's Torture and Lies." That long, scathing Editorial began with these exact words: "The world has long known that the United States government illegally detained and tortured prisoners after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and lied about it to Congress and the world. But the summary of a report released Tuesday of the Senate investigation of these operations, even after being sanitized by the Central Intelligence Agency itself, is a portrait of depravity that is hard to comprehend and even harder to stomach. The report raises again, with renewed power, the question of why no one has ever been held accountable." It is a weakness of the U. S. democracy that politically powerful perpetrators of crimes can often hide or classify data that protects them, and often even when incriminating evidence surfaces they remain too rich and too powerful to "be held accountable," as the New York Times references in its editorial. Similarly, a prime weakness of U. S. capitalism permits employees at Wall Street banks to make hundreds of billions of dollars illegally, after which they pay a few billions in fines but never do they have to worry about going to jail, just how they are going to spend their ill-gotten billions after easily paying off the fines. A mother shoplifting food to feed her starving children does not have that luxury. The NY Times Editorial states unequivocally that the Senate-revealed torturers "lied" to Congress. If a normal American did that, their perjury conviction would be swift and harsh. For these reasons, famed whistle-blower Edward Snowden is considered a pariah by the U. S. government but a hero to democracy-lovers who yearn for transparency from their government but all too often are denied easily classified/hidden evidence of questionable or criminal acts. The New York Times Editorial cogently pointed out that the torture in the U. S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was much "worse" than the torture that shocked the world at the U. S. prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. The Cuban equation, of course, regularly surfaces when the U. S. government tries to misrepresent or hide facts.

   As expected, the Bush-aligned Cuban-American right-wingers in the U. S. Congress were exceedingly quick to vehemently denounce the Senate's report on the revelations related to the Bush-connected torture scandal. Senator Marco Rubio from Miami, for example, said, "It's just intended to embarrass the Bush administration." Well, Senator Rubio, it does embarrass the Bush administration as well as the Bush political dynasty, and deservedly so. It also embarrasses democracy-loving Americans. And it also embarrasses America's best democracy-loving friends around the world. Senator Rubio, as you so strongly campaign to be the next President of the United States in 2016, it might be appropriate for you to drift a bit to the middle and discard at least some of your blatant right-wing, Cuban-focused partisanship. 

  

  Dilma Rousseff has just been re-elected President of Brazil, the Latin American superpower. She is Cuba's dearest friend; she is not too fond of the U. S. but, of course, acknowledges America's unique economic and military power. Like President Jose Mujica of Uruguay, who made anti-U.S./pro Cuban headlines this week, President Rousseff of Brazil once was tortured in a military prison by a U.S.-backed dictatorship. It is convenient that Americans today know very little of such Uruguayan and Brazilian history, although in modern times it surely has impacted democratic elections throughout the region. President Rousseff made this comment regarding the U. S. occupation of Quantanamo Bay: "Every Caribbean and Latin American nation sincerely believes Quantanamo labels the United States as the region's only imperialist bully. It is surprising to me that there apparently are not enough democracy supporters in the United States to seriously discuss what is right, and what is right is the return of Quantanamo Bay to its rightful owner, Cuba, and if the U. S. wants an unpopular prison in the region, the prison should be on U. S. soil, not Cuban soil. And as for military bases, it has more than enough in Florida and all around the world. Both the prison and the military base at Guantanamo Bay are superfluous and, in the eyes of the world, anti-American."

          The U. S. flag was first posted over Guantanamo Bay in "perpetuity" -- America's word -- in 1903. That dastardly occupation remains an albatross around America's neck to this day, especially since the expensive military base came into existence and, most especially, since the Bush-Cheney administration installed the infamous prison on the base. All other nations in the region believe that, if the U. S. needs such a prison, it should be on U. S. soil, not Cuban soil. Beyond that, all other nations in the region believe that the plush 45 acres of Guantanamo should belong to Cuba, not the powerful United States of America.

        This week -- the first full week of December, 2014 -- the U. S. prison at Guantanamo Bay is back in the world headlines as the U. S. Senate releases its report on U.S.-sanctioned torture. Good Americans, like Secretary of State John Kerry, tried their best to block disclosure of the findings because of the damage that will accrue to America's image and the propaganda America's enemies will derive from it. Yet, the New York Times and most other defenders of democracy believe such reports should see the light of day so "Americans can make proper judgments on their government and its leaders." One problem, many unbiased observers believe, is the apparent fact that this generation of Americans, inexplicably, doesn't care.

     Josefina Vidal is Cuba's very astute and influential Minister of North American Affairs. It is her comments, not those of her U. S. counterparts, that resonate across the width and breadth of the Caribbean and Latin America regarding such things as Guantanamo Bay. She says: "We are David vs. Goliath. But like Celia Sanchez said decades ago, don't give us too much credit for surviving against the nefarious intent of our superpower neighbor. Truth be known, we are not super men or super women on this island. We survive primarily because our superpower neighbor is nothing more or less than an imperialist bully when it comes to Cuba. If most Cubans on this island and most people around the world didn't believe that, America would have easily swallowed up our anti-imperialist revolution years ago. The U. S. policy is wrong, cruel, and out-dated. The other nations in the region and around the world understand that. But as long as the American people are not concerned enough to even weight in on the subject, the chasm between two neighbors that should be best friends will persist -- for at least another six decades and two more generations, I imagine. The insults the U. S. absorbs because of Guantanamo Bay's criminal occupation is self-inflicted, especially the ghastly prison. When the torture photos circled the world a few years ago, the U. S. began what it called a rendition program -- flying prisoners to unsavory foreign nations that tortured them and then supposedly relayed information derived from that process back to the U. S. So, tell me. Does the U. S. government believe that having the prison unfairly on occupied Cuban soil is less of a bad thing than having it on free U. S. soil? Sometimes I wonder if Americans care enough about their government to ask such questions? That wonderment always surprises me."

The moral of this essay:

      From 1953 till she died of cancer in 1980, Celia Sanchez on the island of Cuba had more guts, more intelligence, and more love of sovereignty than all of her enemies -- the Batistianos, the Mafia, and the United States -- possessed collectively. After she masterminded the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, she immediately created {or co-created with fellow rebels Vilma Espin and Haydee Santamaria} the two pillars that sustain Revolutionary Cuba to this day -- the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Federation of Cuban Women. Of course, Americans are not supposed to comprehend the lasting brilliance of Celia Sanchez because the transplanted Batistianos have effectively controlled the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1959. However, even the canniest Batistiano will today not be able to explain why, even hiding behind the unmatched economic and military power of the United States, they have not been able to regain control of the island, an island where Celia Sanchez in 1959 proclaimed: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." She died at age 59 on January 11, 1980; Fidel is 88 and unwell. How long will her proclamation live after Fidel dies? It remains to be seen.

      But Josefina Vidal -- in the tradition of Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, and Haydee Santamaria -- appears today to also be capable of out-smarting and out-fighting her far more powerful adversaries. And like Celia, it appears Josefina has the support of most Cubans on the island, most people in the region, and most people around the world. Thus, the demise of Revolutionary Cuba will probably not occur on the very day the Little Havana section of Miami wildly celebrates the passing of their self-proclaimed boogeyman -- Fidel Castro. Maybe later, but not the very day he dies. The Cuban stalwart, Ms. Vidal, once surprised a Reuters journalist with this comment: "I believe the revolutionary government of Cuba will survive, and it should, at least until regional and world opinion agrees with America's Cuban policy. I know one thing. As long as we have the support of most nations in our region, I will fight to the last breath to protect my country, Cuba, against whatever threatens us, be it small or large."

And by the way.........................

      ........................a hearty congratulations to 21-year-old Caitlyn Ricci {Photo via Facebook}! Caitlyn attended Rowan College in Pennsylvania and she believed her well-to-do parents should have helped pay her expenses. When they didn't, she sued -- AND WON! And guess what? Caitlyn is now attending Temple University in Philadelphia and she has sued her parents for $16,000 to cover what she owes to Temple! Hopefully, she will win that lawsuit too. In the U. S., college students owe bankers over a trillion dollars {yes, trillion with a "t"} on the dreaded capitalistic scheme known as "student loans." Caitlyn Ricci left Rowan College unburdened by student loans and she doesn't plan on having hefty student loan payments when she graduates from Temple University. One day, Caitlyn would make a great Secretary of Commerce on the way to the Oval Office. I bet every American saddled with student loan debts would eagerly campaign and vote for her. Perhaps Caitlyn's generation can gently steer the U. S. government away from one that currently is bought-and-paid for by rich lobbyists, lawyers, and bankers. Go girl! Improve the world. 

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Unbiased Cuban Experts

Hard, But Not Impossible, to Find
Monday, December 8th, 2014 

       My friend Tracey Eaton {on the left} is one of America's best, fairest, and most unbiased experts on anything related to Cuba. When he headed the Dallas Morning News Havana bureau, I not only read but clipped out all of his articles, which I still have. When I had questions, I emailed Tracey and he never failed to respond with precise answers. I told him I had permission in 2004 from the George W. Bush administration to visit Cuba for the purpose of researching the island's revolutionary icon, Celia Sanchez. Tracey gave me some tips, including a good, reasonably priced place to stay -- the Victoria Hotel. He met me at the Victoria Hotel the morning after my arrival. Since 2005 Tracey has been back in the U. S. as a Professor at Flagler College in Florida. But he returns often to Cuba because he remains one of the most quoted Cuban experts...by the New York Times, USA Today, etc. Also, he has a myriad of blogs related to Cuba including Along the Malecon, Cuba Money Project, and Tracey Eaton Photography. He is presently America's best investigative blogger regarding U.S.-Cuban relations. In recent days on Along the Malecon, for example, he has posted a plethora of data and documents regarding the astounding amount of money the Miami-based, tax-funded Radio-TV Marti has spent and is spending to undermine the Cuban government. I, of course, have been aware of this boondoggle since the 1980s when the Bush dynasty anointed Jorge Mas Canosa the leader of the Cuban exiles, after which Mr. Canosa, on his way to becoming a Miami billionaire, founded the unmatched and unchecked Cuban American National Foundation as well as the unmatched, unchecked, and ongoing Radio-TV Marti fiasco. But Tracey's recent postings reveal some of the exact amounts of tax money Radio-TV Marti has spent and is spending to wreak havoc in Cuba along with other tax-paid havoc including the embargo, unending USAID plots, etc. Also, till I read those recent postings by Tracey I had no idea how much of those hard-earned tax dollars are being sent to foreign contractors hired to do some of the anti-Cuban uncover dirty work.

             The very last Tracey Eaton article from Cuba for the Dallas Morning News remains one of my favorites. It recounted a nostalgic last ride around the island before he relocated back to America. The article was perceptive regarding everyday life on the island and even gave a hint of why decades of a superpower's exalted efforts to overthrow the revolutionary government have failed. Tracey drove his jeep all over the island on that nostalgic trip. In the beautiful colonial coastal city of Trinidad in southern Cuba, he stopped for gas. At the pump, he noticed a young girl eyeing him and also jotting down some pertinent data, such as, I suppose, "PEXT*412" -- the license plate on his jeep. In 1959 the two most indispensable Cuban rebels -- Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin -- concocted the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. The young girl who took note of Tracey's trip to Trinidad, like most Cubans, undoubtedly belonged to a Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. Having read Tracey's articles, on my travels around the island I was not surprised to notice everyday, very watchful Cubans with notepads in their hands. Tracey's article as well as my own experiences on the island helped explain to me why the Bay of Pigs attack, the embargo, and all other schemes to overthrow the revolutionary government have failed for going on six decades. Most Cubans are investigators, not dissidents.

        This historic photo captured the Big Four of the Cuban Revolution and the Big Four in Revolutionary Cuba. If that doesn't compute with what you have been told, then you have been conveniently lied to. Left to right is Vilma Espin, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, and Celia Sanchez. Fidel Castro and other insiders rated the Big Four in this order of importance: #1 Celia Sanchez; #2 Fidel Castro; #3 Vilma Espin; and #4 Raul Castro. Again, if that doesn't compute with what you have been told, you have been conveniently lied to.

Now back to my friend Tracey Eaton. 

Did I mention that he is a great photographer?

       Tracey Eaton aptly named this photo "Morning Out." It shows a young Cuban woman performing a morning ritual common to everyday people around the world -- taking their house-broken dog outside so he/she can do what they need to do. Yes, decent and beautiful everyday people populate the island.

         Tracey Eaton named this photo "Hitchhiker." It, too, captured everyday life in Cuba and epitomized a pervasive fact of life that is far more common and ubiquitous in Cuba than elsewhere. Cubans, including young ladies like this, routinely hitchhike to get from one place to another. It is uncommonly safe in Cuba, which is a non-rich society whereby everyday Cubans routinely help others. So, if you have private transportation in Cuba you are expected to oblige hitchhikers, and that includes, as I noticed, police cars and other government vehicles, even trash trucks. When I was in Cuba I hired a driver, Jose, and he explained why he was obligated to stop and pick up hitchhikers unless our Honda was already over-loaded. Sitting in the passenger seat, I noticed Jose used his headlights to signal oncoming cars or trucks. It was, he said, like Morse Code. "I was telling that last car," Jose said, "to be on the look-out for two motorcycle cops parked on the right side of the road three miles back." Those of us who have been to Cuba soon picked up on such nuances endemic to the island. And those of us who want a fair appraisal of Cuba, be it good or bad, depend on journalists like Tracey Eaton -- journalists who have been to Cuba, who know Cuba, and who are not inclined to throw hand-grenades at the island out of revenge or for money.

By the way....................

         The 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games is over and 32 nations participated in the event held in Veracruz, Mexico. Little Cuba won the team championship with a whopping 123 gold medals. Mexico, the host country, finished second. The photo above shows the Cuban baseball team celebrating its 9-3 victory over Nicaragua in the title game. In the past two years, U. S. Major League teams have signed a plethora of Cuban baseball stars with some initial contracts exceeding $72 million guaranteed dollars. Cuba allows its best players to sign professional contracts in baseball-mad Japan and stars such as sluggers Yadier Hernandez, Alfredo Despaigne, Yulieski Gourriel, Frederich Cepeda, and ace pitcher Hector Luis Mendoza returned from Japan in time to help Cuba win the baseball title in the just-completed Central American and Caribbean Games. These popular Games are played every four years. Back in 2010 Cuba did not participate because the Games were played in Puerto Rico, a U. S. territory. Mexico, the 2014 site, is not a U. S. territory despite the major disagreement at the Alamo in San Antonio back in 1836.

        This Havanatimes.org photo shows Freddy Asiel Alvarez, the winning pitcher for Cuba in the championship game at the 2014 Central American And Caribbean Games. Cuba opened its regular baseball season recently -- Friday, December 5th -- and all 16 professional teams were in action on Opening Day. 

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U. S. Isolated Regarding Cuba

Angering the Rest of the World
Monday, December 8th, 2014 

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Jose Mujica is the 79-year-old President of Uruguay.

             This weekend President Jose Mujica of Uruguay sent a letter to President Barack Obama of the United States. In the letter, President Mujica included among his suggestions this sentence: "I call on you, President Obama, to end the unjust and unjustifiable embargo on our sister republic of Cuba."

             President Jose Mujica of Uruguay has also lectured President Barack Obama of the United States face-to-face about "your unending Cuban policy that is doing more than any other thing to smear your country and your democracy in the eyes of the world, especially in the Caribbean and all of Latin American."

               This is Dr. Felix Baez Sarria of Cuba. He was among the first 256 medical personnel Cuba sent to West Africa to battle the Ebola crisis. Dr. Baez contracted the dreaded disease while working in Sierra Leone. He was flown to Switzerland's University Hospital in Geneva. After 21 days of intense treatment, he has been declared totally free of the disease. Dr. Baez is being flown back to Cuba this weekend but he has expressed a desire to return to work in Sierra Leone. "I am badly needed there," he said.

     Seumas Milne {left} is one of the world's most influential journalists because he has a huge forum at the London-based The Guardian, one of the world's most influential newspapers both in print and online. Mr. Milne, like the yearly vote in the UN, reflects the fact that the rest of the world is fed up with America's Cuban policy that, for going on six decades, has been directed by the remnants of a Cuban dictatorship that many, Mr. Milne included, believe was justly booted off the island in 1959. This week -- on 12-03-2014 -- Mr. Milne's column originated in The Guardian and then flashed around the world. It was entitled "Cuba's Extraordinary Global Medical Record Shames The US Blockade." The subtitle was: "From Ebola To Earthquakes, Havana's Doctors Have Saved Millions; Obama Must Lift This Embargo!" The last paragraph summed up the long, scathing article with these words: "If the blockade really were to be dismantled it would not only be a vindication of Cuba's remarkable record of social justice, backed by the growing confidence of Latin America. It would also be a boon for millions around the world who would benefit from a Cuba unshackled -- and a demonstration of what can be achieved when people are put above corporate profits." Mr. Milne pointed out that the World Health Organization lauded Cuba for "leading the world" by sending health care workers to fight the Ebola crisis in west Africa while "the US and Britain sent thousands of troops." Mr. Milne stressed that Cuba has for decades been the leader in responding to disasters, citing the earthquake in Haiti four years ago and "the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, after which Cuba left 32 field hospitals behind and gave a thousand medical scholarships to students from the area." He added: "Cuban doctors have carried out three million free eye operations. That's how Mario Teran, the Bolivian sergeant who killed Che Guevara on CIA orders in 1967, had his eyesight restored 40 year later by Cuban doctors in Bolivia." Mr. Milne wondered what victims in Haiti, Kashmir and other nations would have done without help from Cuba. He emphasized how the U. S. embargo against Cuba shames the U. S. democracy. He wrote: "But the island is still suffocated by the U. S. trade embargo that has kept it in an economic and political vise for more than half a century. If Barack Obama wants to do something worthwhile in his final years as president..." Mr. Milne suggested that President Obama has within his executive powers the chance to benefit the world and democracy by wresting at least some of the bitter hold vicious Cuban exiles have on America's Cuban policy. Mr. Milne wrote: "The embargo can only be scrapped by Congress, which is still stymied by the heirs of the corrupt U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship...but the U. S. President has executive scope to lessen it substantially and restore diplomatic ties." Like most of the world's top journalists have also pointed out, Mr Milne suggested that Mr. Obama could start by releasing the remaining three Cubans sentenced to up to life terms by a Miami court 13 years ago, a process that  shamed democracy by, first off, merely having such a trial in the toxic atmosphere of Miami. Mr. Obama also could use his executive power to remove Cuba from the Sponsors of Terrorism list, which Mr. Milne and others believe only serves the revenge and financial motives of Cuban exiles who continually use that list to sue unrepresented Cuba in Florida courtrooms. As far as Mr. Milne and others are concerned, Mr. Obama -- like all Presidents since the 1963 assassination of John Kennedy -- have simply been afraid to challenge the dictates of ultra-powerful and ultra-rich Cuban exiles.

The moral of Mr. Milne's article:

The U. S. Cuban policy should not shame its best friends around the world. 

       The rest of the world agrees with Seumas Milne at The Guardian regarding the U. S. embargo against Cuba. That fact is revealed each October by the vote in the United Nations. Yet, for going on six decades the United States of America has allowed this insult to democracy to persist. Sure, the U. S. is the world's economic and military superpower and thus it can do whatever it wants. But time and again, in a world threatened by terrorism and extremists as well as natural calamities, the U. S. begs other nations to join it in coalitions against an amalgam of threats. It would, of course, be far more sensible and diplomatic for the world's superpower to adjust its Cuban policy in alignment with the rest of the democracy-loving world.

The moral of this graphic:

Imperialism against small countries is out-dated in 2014.

        Even in America, journalists -- such as the creator of this political cartoon -- are more and more mocking America's Cuban policy. The weather-caster above is referencing Charlie Crist, who had the courage or temerity to suggest, while campaigning to be Florida's governor, that the U. S. should ease its sanctions against Cuba. A lot of Floridians -- not just this weatherman -- laughed aloud at Mr. Crist's bold suggestion in a state dominated since 1959 by the remnants of the overthrown Batista dictatorship in Cuba. But more and more, democracy lovers around the world are not laughing at the continuing joke America's anti-democratic Cuban policy has been since the 1950s. Perhaps most pertinent of all, this cartoon suggests that Mr. Crist, as a serious politician in Florida, would have to quickly...very quickly!...amend his suggestion about easing sanctions against Cuba, which he did. That's why democracy lovers in the U. S. and around the world do not consider this insightful political cartoon to be a joke. Instead, it is a sad fact of life. {This political cartoon is courtesy of the South Florida Sun Sentinel}.

The moral of this political cartoon:

Americans should be allowed to disagree with a failed Cuban policy.

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Revenge and Money Fuel Cuban Policy

Americans Are Too Timid to Complain
Friday, December 5th, 2014

       Meet Yasmany Tomas. He's a young Cuban who turned 24-years-old on November 14, 2014. Recently he signed a guaranteed $68.5 million dollar contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, which had a record of 64-98 last season, the worst of America's 30 Major League teams, all of whom are very rich because of massive television contracts, corporate sponsorships, and huge tax breaks. The Deamondbacks can thus easily afford guaranteeing Yasmany Tomas $68.5 million. If he turns out to be a good Major Leaguer, he'll earn much more than that.

       But Yasmany Tomas is merely the latest in a long and continuing line of Cuban baseball players anxious to defect from the island for a very logical reason: Huge, guaranteed contracts that await them in the U. S., especially after a multitude of Cuban players such as Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, and many others have become instant superstars in the American Major Leagues. But these baseball signings, like the wholesale recruitment of Cuban doctors serving in foreign nations, reflects how Cubans are treated differently than any other people because of very special U. S. laws that pertain only to Cubans, laws enacted at the behest of a few powerful Cuban exiles and their easily procured sycophants. If Tomas was a non-Cuban his very first baseball contract in the U. S. would not have been for $68.5 million. An American or any player from any other country with comparable talent would have commanded about $3 million in a similar contract. Why? Well, a U. S. player with similar talent would have had to undergo a draft and only the team that drafted him could sign him. But being Cuban, Tomas' agents could negotiate with all 30 major league teams that would be required to bid against each other if they wanted to sign Tomas. Competitive bidding naturally and acutely drives up the money. Therefore, you have the difference between, say, $3 million and, say, $68.5 million. Of course, because of the Cuban exile-fueled Wet Foot/Dry Foot law, Cubans are the only immigrants in the world who are home free in the U. S. merely by touching U. S. soil. Americans are supposed to accept or certainly not question such U. S. laws and policies that pertain only to Cubans although it has been ingrained within us the proposition that the masses of people should not be punished to sate the whims of a few. Such special U. S. laws related only to Cubans produce vast sums of money to many Cubans as well as their lawyers, agents, traffickers, etc. Also, such special Cuban laws punish Cuba, stoking the massive revenge motives against Revolutionary Cuba, which ousted the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. The vast cottage industry in the U. S. that facilitates the defection of Cuban baseball players, Cuban ballet performers, Cuban doctors, etc., to the U. S. has two prime motivations: {1} Money; and {2} Revenge. Those ware the two prime motivations that created the Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act as cornerstones of America's Cuban policy, a policy that the rest of the world, and millions of democracy-loving Americans, verily deplore. Additionally, pusillanimous U. S. taxpayers pay for such U. S. policies that recruits/traffics Cuban doctors serving in foreign countries to defect to the U. S., not for altruistic purposes but simply to make money for traffickers or to exact revenge and punishment on Cuba. 

       The United States embargo against Cuba dates back to 1960, the year after the Cuban Revolution overturned the U.S.-and-Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba. Many of the leaders in the Batista dictatorship, of course, quickly found safe havens on U. S. soil, especially South Florida and Union City from whence many of them had ventured to Batista's Cuba in the first place. In 1962 -- after many failed assassination attempts against Fidel Castro and the failed Bay of Pigs attack against Cuba -- the United States officially codified the embargo against Cuba. De-classified U. S. documents from 1962 reveal that the purpose of the embargo was to starve and deprive Cubans on the island for the purpose of inspiring them to rise up against Castro and the revolutionary government. Then in the 1980s the Reagan-Bush presidency anointed one of the most visceral anti-Castro exiles, the Fort Benning-trained Jorge Mas Canosa, the leader of the Cuban exiles. Canosa, riding the coattails of the emerging Bush dynasty, soon emerged as one of the richest and most powerful citizens of Miami. As minutely explained in notable books by Ann Louise Bardach and Julia E. Sweig, Canosa was advised to study the Jewish AIPAC lobby and then create a similar one related to Cuba. Canosa took that advice and created CANF, the Cuban American National Foundation. To many observers of the U. S. democracy, AIPAC and CANF essentially created a 3-headed U. S. government -- American, Israeli, and Cuban. {Note: Julia E. Sweig in her brilliant book "CUBA: What Everyone Needs To Know" best explains how that 3-headed U. S. government became a reality}. In any case, Canosa and CANF in the 1980s and 1990s were able to greatly strengthen the U. S. embargo against Cuba via the Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act. As great investigative journalists-authors -- Bardach, Sweig, Peter Kornbluh, James Bamford, etc. -- have minutely documented, getting the support of right-wingers in the U. S. Congress -- such as Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms, and Dan Burton -- to support their Cuban laws was incredibly easy. Also, the CANF quickly amassed huge amounts of money to assist its lobbying interests and, as Americans have learned, telling members of Congress you will support their Bridges to Nowhere if they support your Cuban policy was also, shall we say, incredibly easy.  

          The Helms-Burton Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on March 12, 1996. Notice above President Clinton's right shoulder are two visceral anti-Castro Cuban-Americans -- Robert Menendez of Union City and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami. Mr. Menendez is now entrenched in the U. S. Senate and the Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. Ms. Ros-Lentinen has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress since 1989 and she recently served as Chair of the House's Foreign Relations Committee. Cuba is still a foreign country and thus the Menendez and Ros-Lehtinen Chairs took on magnanimous proportions. Democratic Presidents like Bill Clinton are shamed by the anti-democratic tenets of the Helms-Burton Act, especially the fact that the Act severely punishes other sovereign nations, including America's best friends, if they have the temerity to interact economically or otherwise with Cuba. So, why did President Clinton sign the Helms-Burton Act? Americans concerned with their democracy should do some Goggling and get their answers from unbiased experts such as Ann Louise Bardach, Julia E. Sweig, Peter Kornbluh, Wayne S. Smith, etc. President Clinton in 1995, like democratic Presidents before and after him, wanted to ease the punitive U. S. sanctions against Cuba. Aware of that, well-known anti-Castro zealots in Miami began more flagrantly than ever to taunt Cuba via their Brothers to the Rescue program, apparently for the purpose of soliciting a reaction from Cuba that they could use to exacerbate the punishment of Cuba by the U. S. government. Miami airplanes repeatedly invaded Cuban airspace, even dropping anti-Castro leaflets over Havana. The Miami news media was used to further taunt Cuba. Cuba begged the U. S. and the UN to stop the overflights. To no avail. The U. S. has a UN veto. Cuba then said it would, like any other sovereign nation, be forced to do something on its own. In the Miami media, the taunts increased, saying Cuba had neither the means nor the courage to do anything about the intrusions. On February 24, 1996, two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by two Cuban jets, killing four people aboard the planes although the lead plane, piloted by lifelong anti-Castro zealot Jose Basulto, turned back safely to Miami. That episode, and its one-sided portrayal in the U. S. media, usurped President Clinton's plans to ease the sanctions against Cuba, inducing him to sign the Helms Burton Act that greatly, to this day, increased the U. S. government's punishment of Cuba as well as sharply punishing other countries that might wish to have certain relations with Cuba. Americans are not supposed to Google such drastically significant aspects of the U. S. democracy as the infamous Helms-Burton Act or the Brothers shoot-downs. But all other nations around the world are not so ignorant or intimidated. Thus, each October in the United Nations a vote is taken that shows the world, via a 182-to-2 vote, strongly opposes the U. S. embargo of Cuba, especially the provisions added by the Helms-Burton Law. In all the world, only Israel votes in the United Nations to support the U. S. policy regarding Cuba and the world is aware that Israel depends mightily on billions of dollars each year on U. S. economic and military aid, not to mention Israel's dependency on the U. S. veto power in the UN Security Council that, at times, severely admonishes Israel. I am a strong supporter of Israel but an even stronger supporter of the U. S. democracy, which I think has taken enough hits since the 1950s from a Cuban policy that the rest of the world disagrees with and which many Americans are too proselytized or too intimidated to challenge.

       Most democracy lovers -- including, I believe, Executive Director Sarah Stephens at the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas -- are not pleased that Americans, most of them, are not concerned enough about their democracy to even weigh in on anti-democratic aspects of the U. S. policy related to Cuba. And that is precisely why it has continued to plague democracy for all these decades. 

       Peter Kornbluh's Washington-based National Security Archive is a prime source for definitive and pertinent data regarding U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s. Mr. Kornbluh is America's best and most persistent investigative journalist when it comes to unveiling long-classified U. S. documents that, for many decades, hid nefarious right-wing American/Cuban American plots against Cuba -- its government and its people. Googling "Peter Kornbluh" or "National Security Archive" is rather easy in 2014 but perhaps too hard or too time-consuming for many Americans who should be defenders of their democracy.

      In the grossly overcrowded blogosphere, there are too many self-serving, revengeful, and economically motivated Cuban blogs. But the best Cuban blog is "Cartas Desde Cuba" {"Letters From Cuba"} by Fernando Ravsberg. {Note: If you are looking for the best blog that blends a nexus of topical Cuban events with historic Cuban events, your current location, Cubaninsider, is probably your best bet}. Mr. Ravsberg is the best and bravest blogger concerning current Cuban affairs. His recent blog entitled "Leaving Cuba Alone A Sound Policy" garnered international attention, and deservedly so, from the BBC and other media giants. He wrote: "Cuban-American Senator Bob Menendez recommends that the administration should confront all of the countries in the region to keep Cuba from attending next year's Summit of the Americas."  In other words, Mr. Ravsberg believes very sanely that the entrenched Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress from Miami and Union City should devote more time to American issues than to assailing foreign sovereign countries that, in their minds, do not do enough to assail Cuba. And Mr. Ravsberg added: "Anti-Castroists outside and inside Cuba want foreign governments, particularly the United States, to do their job for them. It is a policy they have maintained since 1959, when opponents of the government left for Miami, to wait for Americans to overthrow Castro. In the Bay of Pigs invasion, they received training, weapons, ships, and planes from the United States. Despite this, they blamed their defeat on President Kennedy, despite the fact it was the anti-Castro Cubans who surrendered en masse in less than 72 hours. Half a century later, very few things have changed." Mr Ravsberg is unique. He has the insight and the courage to state such absolute truths in an atmosphere that is greedily toxic and vehemently misrepresented.

        Take, for example, this image of Antony John Blinken. You may note that this image, courtesy of C-SPAN, shows Mr. Blinken acutely embarrassed, scared, and humiliated. That should never have happened recently, especially not in the hallowed halls of the U. S. Senate, but it is a frequent happening perpetrated by Cuban-American members of the U. S. Congress. Mr. Blinken is a decent member of President Barack Obama's administration and he has input regarding America's relations with Cuba. Thus, Mr. Blinken was unmercifully grilled recently by U. S. Senator Marco Rubio from Miami in a manner that many other innocent souls have been grilled in the U. S. Congress by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen from Miami, Mario Diaz-Balart from Miami, Robert Menendez from Union City, etc. Mr. Blinken was assailed by Senator Rubio apparently because Mr. Rubio did not like hearing rumors that President Obama was considering easing sanctions against Cuba in his final two lame-duck years as President. Four times...four times...Senator Rubio asked the same question of Mr. Blinken before he apparently got the answer or assurance he was seeking...uh, no sir, Senator Rubio, sir, President Obama will not even th...think about Cuba wi...without your permission!

         Senator Marco Rubio is now campaigning hard to be President of the United States in 2016. He might succeed. At least, it is for sure there is nothing he can do in his zealotry regarding Cuba that would cost him votes from a proselytized or intimidated U. S. citizenry, which also likely would not object too much if a President Rubio in 2016 named Ted Cruz his Secretary of State, Robert Menendez his Secretary of Defense, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen the head of Homeland Security. Of course, in that event other pressing needs of the United States of America would take a backseat to the Cuban issue, but who the heck would care? Surely, the many problems that need addressing in the United States are not nearly as important as regaining control of Cuba or, at least, continuing to severely punish Cuba for another six decades or so!

       Curt Anderson {above} is one of the best and most knowledgeable journalists when it comes to writing fairly and without bias or fear when it comes to the complex vagaries and foibles of U.S.-Cuban relations. He is not a lone wolf. There are other U. S. journalists/authors/bloggers that also report fairly and bravely on the U.S.-Cuban conundrum, such as: Ann Louise Bardach, Julia E. Sweig, Peter Kornbluh, Tracey Eaton, Sarah Stephens, Wayne S. Smith, etc. However, they are in the minority because many otherwise fair-minded U. S. journalists are simply afraid to be unbiased when it comes to Cuba, ever mindful of such things as the mysterious death of ABC-TV anchorwoman Lisa Howard for standing up to the Johnson administration's Miami-based policies; the anti-Cuban car-bombing of newsman Emilio Milian in Miami when he complained about Cuban-American terrorists; and the firing of the Miami Herald's Jim DeFede when he had the temerity to excoriate Miami-based members of the U. S. Congress -- namely Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers -- because of their support of the best known Cuban-American terrorists, including Luis Posada Carriles. Even more significantly than the fear factor, since 1959 when the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was overthrown, there has been a vast, well-funded Cuban exile-fueled industry that insists on controlling the Cuban narrative in two vital components of the U. S. democracy -- the media and the U. S. Congress. For example, the Radio-TV Marti boondoggle in Miami has siphoned off billions of tax dollars since the 1980s because of the Cuban-exile alignment with the Bush dynasty and other key political sycophants -- Richard Nixon, Jesse Helms, Robert Torricelli, Dan Burton, etc. During the George W. Bush presidency, for example, tax dollars were sent to Miami to pay 'journalists" with the so-called mainstream media, including the Miami Herald, to write and publish anti-Castro, anti-Cuban articles. Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers would have cringed in disbelief over such things. Jefferson famously once said if there was a choice between having a government or free newspapers, he would take the free newspapers. But sadly, a presidential administration paying for biased, anti-Cuban articles in major newspapers did not worry this generation of Americans who, it appears, have neither the intelligence nor the courage to defend their democracy. That being said, decent and courageous journalists such as Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede, Lisa Howard, etc., are badly needed in the modern era when democracy, as Mr. Jefferson would define it, is more endangered than ever. That's why today's best journalists, such as Curt Anderson, should be appreciated by democracy lovers. On November 23, 2014, Mr. Anderson penned an Associated Press article from Miami entitled: "Bay of Pigs Vet, Families Seek Billions From Cuba." The article revealed how, since 1959, the Cuban conundrum has done more than just about anything else to make the sacrosanct U. S. democracy resemble a Banana Republic-type governance, with most Americans too timid or ignorant to defend their democracy as judgments in Florida courtrooms against unrepresented Cuba reach into bank vaults from New York to Spain. Two generations of the most vicious anti-Castro Cuban-Americans have been allowed to hide behind the huge skirts of the U. S. military and the U. S. treasury to sate their two prime motives -- Revenge and Money. 

     For these reasons, fair-minded journalists like Curt Anderson are more vital to the U. S. democracy than ever before because, since the 1950s, the Cuban conundrum has done more than just about anything else to make the sacrosanct U. S. democracy resemble, in the eyes of the rest of the world, a Banana Republic-type governance. 

         The aforementioned 11-23-2014 AP article by Curt Anderson started with this photo of 78-year-old CIA/Cuban-exile and Bay of Pigs veteran Gustavo Villoldo. Mr. Villoldo flew an American warplane to bomb Cuba prior to the land invasion at the Bay of Pigs in April, 1959. But neither that infamous attack or any other carefully calculated scheme eliminated Fidel Castro or his Cuban Revolution. In fact, affording Castro such triumphs on silver platters have helped embellish and entrench Castro as well as his revolution and his soon-to-be legacy. However, two generations of Cuban-Americans since 1959, transplanted to the U. S., have been permitted to grow rich and powerful with the support of the U. S. government and the non-interference of intimidated or uncaring American citizens. Cuban exile-fueled laws -- Torricelli and Helms-Burton -- rammed through the U. S. Congress have given a relative handful of Cuban-Americans -- mostly from Miami and Union City -- free reigns to punish Cuba and use it as a gravy train in an ongoing parade of almost unlimited tax dollars coupled with legal U. S. laws designed to punish Cuba. For example, by keeping Cuba on the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list, something that no unbiased observer could currently justify, Cuban-Americans, even in Miami courts in which Cuba is not represented, can sue Cuba for...well, for whatever they want to sue Cuba for. Yes, many multi-millionaires in Miami have resulted from such nuances. Such lawsuits against another sovereign nation would not be allowed if Cuba was not on that Sponsors of Terrorism list, so judge for yourself why Cuba remains on it. Mr. Villoldo, shown above talking in his lawyer's office, won a $2.8 billion judgment in Florida against Cuba in 2011. According to Curt Anderson's article, there are still several billion {billions with a "B"} dollars of so-called frozen Cuban money in New York and Spanish banks and that money is subject to lawsuits in Miami with the U. S. government, as many times before, bound by law to make sure any money won in such lawsuits is sent to the victorious lawyers and their clients. Such easy victories in U. S. courtrooms, indeed, plague Cubans on the island as well as the U. S. democracy but who cares as long as it sates the money and revenge appetites of a few Cuban-Americans, their lawyers, and their acolytes??? Mr. Villoldo's lawyers also have angered Spain by claiming they have the rights to any Cuban money or assets in Spanish banks! Curt Anderson's insightful Associated Press article from Miami also reported that the lawyer for Mr. Villoldo expects the Cuban money frozen in the New York banks to start reaching Miami shortly.

        This is the very beautiful Ana Margarita Martinez. She was born in Cuba but made her mark in Miami where she was married for several years to another Cuban, the very handsome Juan Pablo Roque. 

But...Juan Pablo Roque left Ana Margarita in Miami and moved back to Cuba.

The very beautiful Ana Margarita was furious at Juan and decided to sue.

       But Ana Margarita realized there was no need to sue Juan. After all, he was back in Cuba and, anyway, the only thing he owned of any value was his beloved Jeep and Ana Margarita already had possession of that in Miami. But...here in Little Havana...there must be...some way..........................................................

          ................................to get reimbursed for what Juan did to her, especially considering that the Miami media was saying he was in Miami not because he loved her but because he loved Cuba so much he was spying for Cuba while using her to ingratiate himself among Miami's seething anti-Castro zealots. Ummmmmm....everyone in Miami knew that Cuba was still on the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list and that meant Cuba could be sued in Miami courts in which Cuba would not even bother to defend itself. Moreover, it was well known that the U. S. government would abide by such lawsuits and make sure wads of so-called frozen Cuban assets, meaning bundles of cash, went from Washington to Miami pronto!  And, of course, there were lawyers all over Miami waiting for phone calls from Cuban-Americans wanting to sue Cuba for...something, anything! Yes, Ana Margarita put through one such call, and sued Cuba. It was said that the lawyer answered on the first ring. And guess what? She won! $27.3 million tax-free dollars.

       The Miami New Times did the best job of covering the love-story-gone-sour involving Ana Margarita Martinez and Juan Pablo Roque, one of the many fascinating chapters within the endless U.S.-Cuban saga -- one that, as the title to this essay indicates, is fueled by Revenge and Money. It was the Miami New Times that put through a phone call to Juan after his return to Cuba. The Q and A I liked best was this: Question: "Juan, now that you are back in Cuba, what do you miss most about Miami?" Answer: "My jeep!"

And by the way...................

      ...............................the best source to comprehend how Miami-based Cuban exiles managed to pull off dominance of America's Cuban policy via such tactics as the self-serving Torricelli Bill and the Helms-Burton Act is the brilliant book "Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana" by Ann Louise Bardach. Not to know Ann Louise Bardach is to not know U.S.-Cuban relations since 1959.

          Because of photos like this, my favorite magazine is Birds and Blooms. This little guy is a Chipping Sparrow. The ice-cycles remind me that in wintertime our fabulous flying friends need help with seeds because ample food fuels their warmth in winter. This photo is courtesy of Steve and Dave Maslowski. 

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