Cuba & U. S. Presidents

A Lesson To Be Learned
Updated: Tuesday, July 14th, 2015

         This AP photo shows a U. S. Coast Guard boat patrolling the waters between Florida and Cuba. It was used yesterday -- July 13th -- to illustrate a very fair Fox News Latino article written by Elizabeth Llorente. The article is entitled: "Calls To End So-Called 'Wet-Foot/Dry-Foot' Policy Grow As Ties Between U.S.-Cuba Improve." Wet-Foot/Dry Foot is one of many American laws inflicted on the U. S. democracy by powerful Miami Cubans and their right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress. It is designed to hurt Cuba and enrich or empower or appease revengeful Cuban exiles. The rest of the world considers it a discriminatory affront to democracy. It is. Because of Wet Foot/Dry Foot, any Cuban who touches U. S. soil is home free with instant benefits. Any non-Cuban, would-be immigrant is subject to imprisonment or instant deportation. In addition to being extremely unfair, Wet Foot/Dry Foot encourages Cubans on the island to risk their lives to make it to U. S. land where Wet Foot/Dry Foot and other discriminatory U. S. laws are designed strictly to hurt Cuba while also enriching or empowering Cuban exiles, and only Cuban exiles. Yet, despite the above headline yesterday on the Fox News Latino network, the current make-up of the right-wing dominated U. S. Congress will not rein in Wet Foot/Dry Foot or any of the other abysmal aspects of the U. S. Cuban policy that continues, decade after decade, to embarrass America's best friends.

      Meanwhile, yesterday -- July 13th -- Bloomberg Business -- used the above graphic to illustrate the upsurge of visitors to Cuba since President Barack Obama's bold and astounding efforts to normalize relations with the nearby island. The article said, "Each of the first five months has seen a double-digit increase in the growth of visitors compared to 2014, including a 21 percent jump in May, 2015." Canada, according to Bloomberg Business, has sent "779,576" tourists to Cuba in the first five months of 2015. Of course, Canadians and all other people in the world, except Americans, have the freedom to visit Cuba if they choose to do so. Right-wingers in the U. S. Congress applaud this infringement on democracy.

        Lindsey Graham {Graphic courtesy: heartland.org} is one of about two dozen declared Republican presidential candidates. Yes, he is among those who don't stand a chance to be elected but, since the Supreme Court in 2010 allowed unlimited financial donations, there are economic and publicity reasons to run for President in this money-crazed milieu. Mr. Graham, 60, is from a town called Central in South Carolina. He has been in the U. S. Senate since 2003. A nuance of congressional politics allows members of Congress to pork-barrel tax dollars back to their small areas to assure their incumbency for up to many decades -- such as Mr. Stevens in Alaska, Mr. Byrd in West Virginia, Mr. Helms in North Carolina, etc., etc. Lindsey Graham is solidly entrenched in the 100-member U. S. Senate but his radical politics not only affect people in the town of Central but they also direly affect you and me even though we do not live anywhere close to Central, South Carolina. Few Americans outside of South Carolina would ever consider voting for a Lindsey Graham, yet his incumbency in the U. S. Senate allows him to adversely affect our lives. Therein lies a conundrum, especially considering that Senator Graham seems to advocate bombing just about every nation on the planet except Israel. And his antipathy towards Cuba is especially pronounced.

      Senator Graham, of course, is a regular on Fox News, the popular and influential right-wing propaganda machine. But he uses other forums too, such as all the other networks and...Twitter! On Twitter here is one of Senator Graham's recent and exact tweets: "I will do all in my power to block the use of funds to open an embassy in Cuba. Normalizing relations with Cuba is a bad idea at a bad time." Of course, it doesn't matter to entrenched right-wingers like Graham that even the majority of Florida's 1.2 million Cuban-Americans, along with the vast majority of the rest of the civilized world, strongly disagree with him. Like Stevens, Byrd, Helms, and so many others from little pork-barreled sections of the U. S., Mr. Graham can remain in the U. S. Senate for decades to come, even if his basic philosophy harms most Americans, most citizens of the world, and 11.2 million totally innocent Cubans. And the majority of Americans must accept it.

        This is a photo from a July 10th segment on Business Insider by Amanda Macias. The segment, a superb portrait of the island, is entitled: "27 Gorgeous Photos of Ordinary Life in Havana." This photo shows an ordinary Cuban trying to make a decent and honest living by selling fruits and vegetables. All her life, Neanderthals like Senator Lindsey Graham, living high on the hog in a nearby country, have punished her with such things as the cruel embargo against her island, an embargo originally put in place in 1962 for the purpose, as revealed by declassified U. S. documents, of starving and depriving the Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro. {And replace him with what, Senator Graham? Another replica of a thieving, cruel, greedy, and brutal U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship?}. Unlike everyday Americans, Senator Graham can go to Cuba. He should. He has never caused any real trouble for Fidel Castro; in fact, right-wing tactics such as the Bay of Pigs helped immortalize Castro. But Senator Graham and others like him have greatly harmed everyday Cubans like this honest, hard-working lady. Yes, Senator Graham should visit the island and buy some fruit and vegetables from this woman...as he apologizes to her! This Cuban woman is not Senator Graham's enemy, and even if it feathers his political career, he should not be able to use the omnipotent powers of the U. S. government to be her enemy!

         Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is even more of a Neanderthal than Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. McConnell, in fact, is the most powerful man in the U. S. Senate as that body's omnipotent Majority Leader. As a right-wing Republican he, of course, is a regular on Fox News. This week -- July 12th -- McConnell was the star on Fox News Sunday. He used that forum to belittle President Obama's sane, decent, and long overdue peaceful overtures to Cuba. Among other diatribes, Senator McConnell said, "There are sanctions that were imposed by Congress. I think that the administration will have a hard time getting those removed." That, to America's shame, is true. McConnell was referring to the infamous Helms-Burton Act that was rammed through Congress in 1996 by the Bush-anointed Jorge Mas Canosa and the other most visceral Cubans in Miami, with able assistant from entrenched right-wing Republicans Jesse Helms and Dan Burton. Democracy-lovers to this day cringe at the mere mention of Helms-Burton. It grossly assails Cubans on the island and grossly enriches Cubans in Miami. It, in fact, grossly discriminates against everyone except Cubans. As a means of enticing Cubans to Miami, Helms-Burton, for example, includes such anti-democratic laws as Wet Foot/Dry Foot, which allows to this day any Cuban who touches U. S. soil -- such as at the Mexican border or at Key West, Florida -- to be home free in the United States with instant benefits. All other would-be immigrants in this world are subject to instant deportation or prison. America's best friends around the world have a lot of trouble believing that the United States is saddled with a Cuban policy dictated by such hubris as Helms-Burton, the undemocratic albatross that Senator McConnell referenced again on this week's Fox News Sunday. For endless decades now, Helms-Burton has boosted Fidel Castro's standing in the Caribbean and Latin America, and it will boost his soon-to-be legacy. Helms-Burton has also greatly enriched Miami Cubans with endless streams of tax dollars. But Helms-Burton, most of all, still severely punishes 11.2 million Cubans on the island who hope one day that America's Cuban policy will be refurbished by decent politicians, such as President Obama, and not kept in perpetuity by right-winger Neanderthals, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He is now 73-years-old. He has been in the U. S. Senate since 1985. He was recently reelected to yet another 6-year term.

           Senator McConnell's "Vision Of America" is exactly what America, the Americas, and the world do not need. What America does need is the bright vision and pure decency of a lady named...Elizabeth Warren.

       This past weekend, my mailbox included my latest copy of Time Magazine. It features Elizabeth Warren on the cover with the bold headline: "Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Warren? Well, for starters, every right-winger in the U. S. Congress and every greedy banker on Wall Street should be afraid of Elizabeth Warren.

            New Yorker Magazine used this montage to contrast Elizabeth Warren with Ted Cruz, the first-term U. S. Senator from the Bush dynasty in Texas. Cruz, of course, is a Republican presidential candidate reportedly second only to Jeb Bush in raking in special interest donations in a political climate in which a few billionaires now have free rein to purchase just about anything they want, including -- unfortunately for Americans -- Senate seats and the White House. To the chagrin of millions of democracy lovers, Elizabeth Warren is not a presidential candidate but the likes of Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham are. Go figure.

        People Magazine used this montage to remind Americans that Hillary Clinton has a clear path to win the Democratic nomination in the presidential sweepstakes because Elizabeth Warren, who would be her prime challenger, is not a candidate. The insert of Mark Ruffalo in this montage is because People pointed out that many millions of Americans, like Ruffalo, are begging Senator Warren to change her mind and run. One reason she is not running is because a serious presidential contender in today's money-crazed climate {capitalist politics run amok} needs billions of dollars in order to be a serious candidate, with capitalist television stations and networks clamoring for the endless billions of dollars in political ads. Such money primarily comes from Wall Street and other multi-millionaires and billionaires who are now free to buy up huge chunks of the U. S. democracy. While Hillary Clinton, the prime Democrat, and Jeb Bush, the prime Republican, are perfectly winning to beg for such unsavory money, Elizabeth Warren is not.

      Thus, the elongated 2016 presidential race comes down to Hillary Clinton vs. Jeb Bush. They each have two qualifications to be President: {1} Their dynastic last names -- Clinton and Bush; and {2} their willingness to accept huge amounts of money from billionaires intent on buying their political influence.

       Elizabeth Warren is the antithesis to Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and others who flourish in America's money-crazed politics. She is the anathema to greedy politicians everywhere. Ms. Warren was born on June 22, 1949, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her father was a janitor and he had a debilitating heart attack when Elizabeth was 12-years-old. She took a job as a waitress to help her family. She understands poor people and middle-class people. She has struggled all her life to help them. She is a financial genius and she became a renowned Harvard professor. As a U. S. Senator from Massachusetts now, her politics is not for sale. That precludes her from running for President but there is a treasure trove of reasons she should be President of the United States, first among them being the fact that she cares most deeply for Americans who barely have enough money to survive and feed their families and surely don't have enough money to contribute to insatiable, money-hungry politicians.

        This AP photo shows Senator Elizabeth Warren, a non-presidential candidate, sitting beside Hillary Clinton, the only serious Democratic presidential contender. Sitting behind Senator Warren is a pensive John Kerry, the former long-time Senator who is now a very decent Secretary of State. As I studied this photo, I wondered what a career politician like John Kerry was thinking. I concluded he was perhaps mulling over the dichotomy between the non-presidential candidate, Senator Warren, and the serious presidential candidate, former First Lady and Senator Hillary Clinton. I am also reminded that Elizabeth Warren was herself a long-time Republican but in 1996 she became a Democrat when she realized that right-wingers -- such as the Bush dynasty -- had taken control of the Republican party. As a lifelong conservative Republican, I fully understand why Senator Warren switched parties. Yes, I have signed the petitions begging Elizabeth Warren to reconsider and submit her candidacy for President of the United States. I think, even without billions of dollars from millionaires and billionaires, she could defeat Hillary Clinton and then beat Jeb Bush. And that would indeed be a great day for America and for democracy.

Pleaseeeeeeee, Ms. Warren!!

We need you in the White House.

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

U. S. Embassy In Havana

It Will Happen, But Just Briefly

Barbara Lee; photo courtesy Wikipedia.

          It has been known for months that President Barack Obama hopes to name Barbara Lee as the U. S. Ambassador to Cuba. She is a great lady. She would be a great choice. Ms. Lee was born 68 years ago in El Paso, Texas. Since 1998 she has represented the people of California, not special interest billionaires, in the U. S. House of Representatives. Congresswoman Lee has won her California elections by 84.6%, 85%, 86.4%, 86.1%, 84.27%, and 86.8% of the votes. She deserved every vote because she cares for people, including the people of Cuba. She has visited the island 24 times since the 1970s. She admires Revolutionary Cuba for its emphasis on the educational and health needs of its citizens, in stark contrast -- she believes -- to the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in the 1950s that only emphasized robbing and brutalizing the island. In particular, Ms. Lee admired two unique Cuban programs inspired by Fidel Castro -- Operation Miracle and The Latin American School of Medicine. The former has provided free eye care -- including the restoration of eyesight -- to thousands of poor people in the region who previously had no access to doctors. And the latter is the world's largest medical school that, also at Cuba's expense, provides totally free 6-year scholarships, including room and board, to needy and qualified students. On one of her trips to Cuba Congresswoman Lee personally reminded Fidel Castro of some poor people who needed that eye care. And she also personally asked Fidel Castro if his medical scholarships could include poor but qualified American students. He said "yes" and reminded her that the only repayment to Cuba was the agreement that the students would return to the poor neighborhoods from whence they came and work for "reasonable but modest" salaries for at least five years. With that the only stipulation, Californians and many other Americans to this day are studying free at Cuba's renowned Latin American School of Medicine.

      This photo {Courtesy: turnstylenews.com} shows the trip when Barbara Lee asked Fidel Castro, "Would you allow poor but academically qualified Americans to have free medical scholarships at the Latin American School of Medicine?" He took her hand {see above} and replied in English, "Yes, certainly, if you and these other members of the Black American Caucus help us select poor and worthy American students." Americans have benefited ever since from that question and that answer. It also reveals the anomaly, the paradox, and the shame of U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s. Extremists Cuban-Americans backed by a few self-serving Americans, including anti-Castro zealots famed for airplane/car/hotel bombings, are as free in the U. S. today as Congresswoman Lee is. Yet, Barbara Lee in the U. S. Congress still bravely advocates a sane Cuban policy even though she often loses out to the incongruity of a rich and powerful Miami minority. Her hopes and President Obama's hopes for a functional U. S. embassy in Havana will also soon fall victim to such insanity. And it will be a continuing insult to democracy and to...Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

       This is one of those "poor but worthy" American students. Her name is Lillian Burnett. She is from a poor, crime-ridden section of Oakland, California. She is shown above heading to her classes at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana where she is a prized student. Lillian is about to graduate. She is very appreciative of her impending medical degree and how she has been treated in Cuba for five years. She has Congresswoman Barbara Lee to thank. She has Cuba to thank. But that's about all. Americans and Cuban-Americans who have championed or tolerated a harsh embargo and terrorist hubris against Cuba for going on six decades are Lillian's enemies too. And she will tell that to your face...if you ask her.

       In recent years, 200 poor but qualified Americans have received or are receiving totally free 6-year medical degrees at the highly respected Latin American School of Medicine, courtesy of the Cuban government. These 12 U. S. citizens {Photo courtesy: MEDICC} will not owe Cuba a dime when they graduate. Their only repayment to Cuba is the promise to return to the U. S. and serve the poor communities from whence they came. Miami Cubans, who dictate the Cuban narrative in the U. S., easily convince Americans that "every dime we allow to reach Cuba goes into Fidel Castro's pockets or his Swiss bank account." Of course, such hurtful lies are not hurting these twelve American medical students. 

       There are three Cuban-American U. S. Senators -- Rubio, Menendez, and Cruz. They are all vicious and effective anti-Castro zealots, which constitutes much of their political and economic success. They can go on American television every day or night in the week and bellow the old refrain about why the U. S. embargo against Cuba should be kept enforce for another six decades or so, with that refrain being: "Every dime we allow to reach the island goes into Fidel Castro's pockets or his Swiss bank accounts." Intimidated or ignorant Americans are supposed to believe every word, and for over 50 years -- with the likes of Rubio, Menendez, and Cruz controlling the Cuban narrative in the U. S. -- Americans have meekly acquiesced to such propaganda. In the same manner, Americans for over five decades have meekly acquiesced to...the Bay of Pigs attack; the terrorist bombing of the child-laden Cuban civilian airplane Cubana Flight 455; the car-bombing of the Cuban-American newsman in Miami {Emilio Milian} who complained about such things; the firing of a great Miami Herald journalist {Jim DeFede} when he wrote a scathing column excoriating Miami members of the U. S. Congress for their unconscionable support and protection of the most famed Cuban-American terrorists, etc. In that milieu -- as epitomized today by Senators Rubio, Menendez, and Cruz -- most efforts by decent and brilliant people like Congresswoman Barbara Lee to bring sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations are doomed to failure, and that includes the upcoming U.S.-Cuban embassies. It is exceedingly easy for Cuban-American and right-wing zealots to scuttle such positives by, for example, provoking Cuba into doing something that can be used against it. Sure, pro-democracy Americans like Barbara Lee have managed some positives, such as her securing all those medical scholarships in Cuba for Americans. But Americans are not supposed to applaud such things. Instead, they are supposed to cheer the fate of Cubana Flight 455 as "The biggest blow yet against Castro."

And speaking of Barbara Lee......

.............the teenage Barbara Lee was a superb cheerleader.

       As an adult, the self-made Barbara Lee has simply been a superb and courageous leader, cheerleading for people not as fortunate as she is. She is, for example, the only member of the U. S. Congress that has ever proposed and advocated a Department of Peace. Yes, she prefers peace to war and she prefers friendship to hostility. However, in the current money-crazed political environment, she is an anomaly. A bevy of right-wing billionaires are unleashing millions of dollars to support the presidential bids of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, two first-time Cuban-American Senators who got to Congress by latching onto the Bush dynasty in Florida and Texas. They haven't accomplished anything, except for bellowing loudly about "shutting down the government" and "blocking all funds Obama needs to open an embassy in Cuba" and "making sure the Senate does not approve the nomination of an ambassador to Cuba," etc. But, hey! They're presidential candidates. No wonder Peter Kornbluh, the Cuban expert at the U. S. National Security Archive, wrote last month that Cuban-American extremists, as opposed to the majority of Cuban-Americans, make the United States look like "a Banana Republic." Barbara Lee, on the other hand, wants the United States to again look like what the Founding Fathers envisioned -- the world's greatest democracy.

         Yes, President Obama would like to have Barbara Lee as his Ambassador to Cuba. She would love that job, but she also loves her position in the U. S. House of Representatives where 84.27% is the lowest vote total she has received in her last six California elections. If she gives up her safe spot in Congress to be the U. S. Ambassador to Cuba, she realizes it would likely be both short-lived and daunting. Any post-Obama Republican president would erase whatever advances President Obama manages to accomplish in the remaining months of his two-term presidency. Also, she fully realizes that, while the majority of even Cuban-Americans desire normal relations with Cuba, only anti-Cuban Cuban-Americans reach the U. S. Congress -- Rubio, Cruz, Menendez, Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, etc. -- and they can easily acquire the support of enough right-wing Congressmen to dictate America's Cuban policy. Thus, Barbara Lee has reservations about giving up her safe dream job in the U. S. Congress even for another dream job, the U. S. Ambassadorship to Cuba, which she believes will be brief, filled with hubris, and imperiled. Even while Obama is in the White House for another 17 months, there are currently about 37 lushly funded regime change programs designed to overthrow the Cuban government or wreak havoc on the nearby island.

          Amy Goodman was born in 1958 in Bay Shore, New York. She is one of America's most honored broadcast journalists, in addition to being a renowned syndicated columnist and a best-selling author.

       Since 2001 Amy Goodman has been the top executive and the top host at DEMOCRACY NOW!, a very influential and expansive pro-democracy network. This week Ms. Goodman featured a long interview with a democracy lover named...BARBARA LEE! It's insightful and readily available on DemocracyNow.org.

        Sarah Stephens is the top executive at the Washington-based Center For Democracy In The Americas. She is a democracy lover and many, including President Obama, consider Sarah America's top expert on U.S.-Cuban relations. Sadly, those are two reasons U. S. television stations essentially ban Sarah from appearing on their programs, displaying an acute lack of integrity and an abundance of cowardice by the U. S. media. The photo and caption above was taken from Telesur this week when that Latin American network interviewed Sarah from Washington. Each Friday on the Cuba Central portion of the Center for Democracy In The Americas website, Sarah Stephens pens the best weekly summation of U.S.-Cuban relations. This week -- Friday, July 10th -- her Cuba Central article was entitled: "Rubio, Cuba, And A Tale Of Two Speeches." Each week on U. S. cable news programs, Miami Cubans such as Marco Rubio get to say anything in the world about Cuba that furthers their political, economic or revenge motives. And then each Friday, Sarah Stephens very bravely and very democratically resets the Truth and Democratic buttons. Amy Goodman at DEMOCRACY NOW; Sarah Stephens at THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE AMERICAS. Brilliant women. However, Americans are not supposed to inject Democracy into the U.S.-Cuban equation. 

     Remember two of the questions Cristina Escobar famously fired at White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest at a crowded news conference in Washington back in May? She was covering the Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session. Cristina is the young, audacious, and skilled Cuban journalist now with a huge audience in the Caribbean and Latin America. She asked Earnest these two earnest questions: "Will the U. S. diplomats at the new embassy in Havana be respectful to Cuba?" and "Will the regime change programs continue?" She then listened attentively to the answers from Josh Earnest but it is quite obvious that she believes any U. S. embassy in Havana will only be an asset to the "regime change programs" she resents. She is among the influential Cubans against such detente. Back in Cuba at the above anchor desk, she opined: "A U. S. embassy in Havana, I fear, will only help the Miami Cubans hurt Cubans on the island even more and enrich Cubans in Miami even more. We can't be suckers and still maintain our sovereignty."  

       This AP/Getty Images photo shows the 7-story U. S. Interests Section in Havana. It is strategically located, overlooking the famed Malecon seawall. Interests Sections in Havana and Washington date back to the Jimmy Carter presidency in the 1970s and are till this day compromises resulting from Mr. Carter's failed efforts to normalize relations with the nearby island. The two-term Reagan-Bush presidency anointed Jorge Mas Canosa, the richest and most powerful anti-Castro Cuban-American, as the leader of the Cuban-government-in-exile, advising him to take control of the Cuban narrative in the U. S. Congress by replicating AIPAC, the untra-powerful Israeli lobby. That pivotal advice was heeded. Mas Canosa created the Cuban-American-National-Foundation. After that it was easy for him to align his Cuban goals with the easily acquired and highly questionable goals of controversial members of Congress such as Robert Torricelli and Jesse Helms. They passed the still legendary Torricelli Bill and the even more punitive Helms-Burton Bill. President Barack Obama's ongoing bold efforts to normalize relations with Cuba will result in the monumental opening of a U. S. Embassy in the Interests Section building in Havana as well as a Cuban Embassy in Cuba's Interests Section in Washington. However, the embassies will be short-lived, for three reasons: {1} Torricelli and Helms-Burton still dictate the gist of America's Cuban policy and executive actions by a Democratic president cannot remotely change that in a Republican-dominated Congress; {2} any post-Obama Republican president will quickly erase Obama's executive overtures regarding Cuba; and {3} since Jorge Mas Canosa's Reagan-Bush anointment in the 1980s, the Bush political dynasty's tight alignment with only the most visceral anti-Castro politicians in Miami has both demanded and acquired the ability to dictate Cuban policy to suit their own insatiable revenge, political, and economic appetites.

       After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, most of the Cubans who viciously opposed Fidel Castro -- Jorge Mas Canosa, Luis Posada Carriles, Felix Rodriguez, etc. -- quickly ended up on the U. S. government's payroll at the infamous Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. {Note Mas Canosa's Fort Benning photo above}. It was the "school" where the U. S. trained soldiers from U.S.-friendly dictatorships -- Batista's in Cuba, Trujillo's in the Dominican Republic, Somoza's in Nicaragua, etc. -- and sent them back to their countries to help maintain those dictatorships. The Bay of Pigs attackers in April of 1961 -- Brigade 2506 -- were expensively trained at Fort Benning and in Nicaragua. While graduates of the Army School such as Posada Carriles and Felix Rodriguez are more notorious, Mas Canosa remains by far the all-time most powerful anti-Castro Cuban-American. That evolved after the Bush dynasty helped anoint Mas Canosa the Cuban-American leader in the 1980s. Mas Canosa was reportedly a billionaire when he died in Miami on November 23, 1997. His three sons -- Jorge Mas, Jose R. Mas, and Juan Carlos Mas -- remain powers in South Florida. As for Fort Benning's Army School of the Americas, it's true meaning became known during the Clinton administration, after which it was renamed and President Bill Clinton held one news conference to apologize to Latin America because of what it stood for.

       To this day the Bush dynasty and the Bush association with Miami Cubans, especially Jorge Mas Canosa, still dominates the U. S. Cuban policy. That's why any hope that someone like Barbara Lee might become a successful and peaceful U. S. Ambassador to Cuba is out of the question. It won't happen.

In other words..............

...................Cuba is still too close to Miami and to the Bush dynasty. 

****************************** 

Understanding Cuba

And Why That Is Important
Essay updated: Friday, July 10th, 2015

      For Americans to understand Cuba, I believe it is essential for them to get to know this young lady -- 26-year-old Cristina Escobar. She is pure Cuban and she happens to be the most popular and most influential journalist in Cuba. Both in Spanish and English, she is ubiquitous on Cuban television and on regional television networks such as Telesur. She is an absolute brilliant anchor in delivering both news and opinions. She is also an extraordinary interviewer, adept at listening acutely to replies before formulating her follow-up questions. She recently covered the last Josefina Vidal-Roberta Jacobson diplomatic meeting in Washington and stunned veteran journalists at a crowded White House News Conference when she fired a series of questions at Press Secretary Josh Earnest, an exchange that lasted exactly five minutes and 59 seconds and still is being talked about. {Check it out on YouTube} Five of her questions were the most pertinent five questions asked that day. {"Do you think U. S. diplomats at a new embassy in Havana will be respectful to Cuba?" "Will the U. S. continue its regime change programs?" "Can we expect President Obama to visit Cuba in 2016...?"}. After highlighting that news conference, she made a series of one-on-one interviews and several gripping speeches, in both Spanish and English, while in Washington. Before she landed back in Havana, it is known that she had been offered "3 million tax-free dollars" if she would defect to Miami, a price apparently quite available because she, indeed, would be a very luminous embarrassment to Cuba if she defected. But unlike many others, that is not in her DNA. She has a huge following on the island, Fidel Castro included, but primarily she has inspired other twentysomethings on the island to firmly believe that they can give Cuba a prosperous future, "With me the dictator, Ha!"

         On state television in Cuba and on regional networks like Telesur, Cristina Escobar is a great ambassador for Cuba because of her journalistic talent and her sincere devotion to the island and its people. Beyond that, she has integrity and is fair-and-balanced in her presentations. She realizes that Cuba has a ways to go to realize its "unlimited potential as a sovereign nation." She staunchly believes that Cubans on the island, not "defectors" in Miami nor "right-wing thugs" in Washington, should predicate Cuba's future. Americans wonder, after all these decades, how in the world Revolutionary Cuba has survived when fiercely determined anti-Castro zealots in Miami, for all these years, have had the incomparable support of the U. S. military, the U. S. treasury, and the U. S. Congress -- as well as the acquiescence of the U. S. public -- to assist their primary goal, which is to regain control of the nearby vulnerable but pugnacious island. Understanding Celia Sanchez from 1953 till she died of cancer in 1980 would be a place to start. Then understanding Josefina Vidal from 2000 till 2015 would be the next place to go. But understanding Cristina Escobar from 2015 well into the foreseeable future is where Americans should concentrate now if they want to understand Cuba. She is Cuba's present and Cuba's future.

       And in the current digital age, it is incredibly easy for Americans to get to know Cristina Escobar. She is shown above interviewing an awesomely important, decision-making Cuban -- Josefina Vidal. This particular interview lasted exactly 39 minutes and 57 seconds and has been shown regionally and around the world. It is in Spanish and you can see and hear the entire interview on YouTube merely by dialing up: "Interviews From Cuba: Cristina Escobar" when you visit YouTube. That simple search will quickly reveal a page of Escobar interviews and one that shows her extreme anchoring talents. But it's the interviews on YouTube that will best introduce Americans to both Cristina Escobar and Cuba. One of her interviews in English with Hugo Cancio runs 13 minutes and 11 seconds. It is particularly insightful. Cancio was born in Havana but has been a successful businessman in Miami for three decades. He mentions that when he has said some positives about Cuba in Miami he has needed protection from authorities. He tells Cristina that the majority of Cuban-Americans agree with him but he strongly laments the fact that the only Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress are radical anti-Castro zealots bent on punishing all Cubans on the island, apparently because they, through two generations now, haven't been able to recapture the island since 1959. After Cancio expresses that opinion, you'll be interested to see Cristina's reaction. Her Cancio interview on YouTube is in English. Americans are being told that Marco Rubio is Cuba's future, especially when he or Jeb Bush becomes Commander in Chief. That's not so. Cristina Escobar is Cuba's future.

       To understand Cuba and U.S.-Cuban relations in the year 2015, one needs to understand Cristina, the island's young journalistic superstar. Americans need to know why "3 million un-taxed dollars" do not mean nearly as much to Cristina as staying on the island to help make sure that young Cubans like her, not "defectors" or "right-wing thugs" in Washington, dictate Cuba's future. With their dominance of the U. S. media, Miami Cubans control the Cuban narrative in the U. S. but Cristina Escobar is the countermeasure in Cuba, the Caribbean, and, more and more, in Latin America. She is a force because she is effective in articulating that such things as the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455 "was wrong" while the Miami narrative effectively convinced the American people that it was "the biggest blow yet again Castro." In regard to the terrorist bombing of the child-laden Cuban airplane, Cristina is aware of de-classified U. S. documents that reveal the U. S. government and the FBI knew the culprits had informed the CIA beforehand about their plans to bomb a Cuban plane. Afterward, declassified documents prove that the U. S. knew of a code message the actual bomber sent to the actual mastermind: "73 dogs just went over the cliff." Cristina Escobar believes 73 innocent people, not "dogs," died on that plane, including two dozen young athletes. Except for proselytized Americans, the rest of the world agrees with Cristina Escobar.

       Ever since the 1950s Americans have been proselytized and propagandized to focus on the soon-to-be 89-year-old Fidel Castro. But to have gotten a clearer understanding of how an island defeated a dictator supported by the Mafia and the United States, Americans would understand it better if they had concentrated on Celia Sanchez. To understand how that island has maintained its sovereignty from 1959 till today, Americans would comprehend that phenomenon better by concentrating on Josefina Vidal. And to understand how Cuba might manage to maintain its identify in the face of super threats from Miami and Washington, Americans need to understand Cristina Escobar. If you study this photo, you might conclude that she doesn't look all that formidable, certainly not as a primary barrier to Miami Cubans in the U. S. Congress who can dictate unlimited tax dollars and, if they secure the proper pretext and capture the White House, they can also deliver massive military force to thwart her dreams for Cuba's future. But Celia Sanchez, the doctor's daughter, was underestimated. Josefina Vidal, the stoic intellectual, is underestimated. And it is likely Cristina Escobar, the 26-year-old superstar journalist, will be underestimated. Beyond all that, if there comes a day when Cristina Escobar puts intimidation or millions of un-taxed dollars ahead of her dreams for Cuba, the island as a sovereign nation will likely cease to exist. Just as Celia Sanchez was Cuba's best hope in 1953 and Josefina Vidal has been Cuba's best hope since 2000, Cristina Escobar is its best hope in 2015 and beyond. An underdog? Yes. Impossible? No. Meanwhile, carrying out their propaganda machine as long as possible, the Miami Cubans insist Americans be fixated on 84-year-old Raul Castro and Fidel Castro, who turns 89 on August 13th. They surely don't want you to know anything about Celia Sanchez, Josefina Vidal or Cristina Escobar. And, of course, as long as that propaganda machine works, the four Miami Cubans in the U. S. Congress can continue to stuff the Washington-to-Miami pipeline with ongoing billions of hard-earned U. S. tax dollars to fund what now is 37 known regime change projects, money also designed to enrich elite Miami Cubans. {Respected journalist and Cuban expert Tracey Eaton, on his AlongTheMalecon website, recently listed 32 of those regime change projects and the tax dollars devoted to them. He also listed -- via data secured under the Freedom of Information law -- the exact obscene salaries being paid to the dozens of Miami Cubans working at Radio-TV Marti, providing the names and their salaries. Of course, ABC-TV News nearly two decades ago revealed Radio-TV Marti as "The Broadcast To Nowhere" but one soaking up "hundreds of millions" of tax dollars.} Remember one of those questions Cristina Escobar fired at White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest? In case you forgot or didn't hear it on YouTube, she asked, "Will the U. S. continue those regime change programs?" U. S. taxpayers should love Cristina. U. S. journalists don't have the guts to ask such questions but American taxpayers might eventually garner enough courage to do so. Most Cuban watchers understand that those ubiquitous regime change schemes, repeated assassination attempts against Castro, the Bay of Pigs attack that served to crown the Castro legend, the terrorist bombing of the child-laden civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane, etc., etc. are prime reasons one man on one island has survived all these decades with a soon-to-be legacy that will also resonate. Cristina Escobar, the young and brilliant Cuban journalist, seems to understand what she calls the "Miami Cubans." Perhaps it is time Americans do too, not because they have any concern for Cuba but because they should have concern for their democracy and for the image the Miami Cubans are sending around the world.

        This is a graphic image of Cubana Flight 455 on fire as it crashed into the ocean because of a terrorist bomb. When Emilio Milian, the great Cuban-American newsman in Miami, complained about such things, he was car-bombed. When Jim DeFede, the great Miami Herald columnist, excoriated Miami's members of the U. S. Congress for their incredible support and protection of the well-known bombers, he was fired. The Miami-Cuban narrative about Cubana Flight 455 is: "It's the biggest blow yet against Castro." and "73 dogs just went over the cliff." Cristina Escobar's narrative about Cubana Flight 455 is: "73 innocent people, many of them children, died on Cubana Flight 455." and "Such things, by contrast, have helped sustain support and respect for Fidel all these years." and "Terrorism against innocent civilians anywhere is wrong." So, who is correct about Cubana Flight 455 and other issues that separate the U. S. from Cuba? Are the Miami Cubans right? Or is Cristina Escobar right? If Americans had the insight and the courage to ask those two questions, they would better understand two things: {1} What created Fidel Castro and what will sustain his soon-to-be legacy; and {2} why the very vulnerable island of Cuba is still standing in 2015...and beyond.

          Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was born in Long Island (New York} 48 years ago but she has represented South Florida as a Democrat in the U. S. Congress since 2005 {AP photo}. This week she excoriated a fellow Democrat, President Obama, for his overtures to Cuba. She assailed him about Cuba's "horrendous human rights record." Of course, she'll never comment about Batista's human rights record in Cuba prior to the revolution or about the Cuban-exile human rights record in South Florida since 1959, such as the terrorist airplane bombing of Cubana Flight 455 or with the terrorist car bombing of Cuban-American newsman Emilio Millian for going on the air and bravely/decently complaining about such things.

         Fox News is a veritable haven for right-wing Republicans who are seemingly provided unlimited airtime to bash Cuba and/or President Obama. But a Democrat from South Florida who will do the same, like Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is often afforded the same free airtime. She, by contrast, is a reminder of the YouTube interview Cristina Escobar had with Cuban-born Miami businessman Hugo Cancio. He complained to Escobar about two things: {1} He has needed police protection when he has said something positive about Cuba; and {2} he said most of Florida's 1.2 million Cuban-Americans agree with him but only anti-Cuban zealots end up in Washington in the U. S. Congress.  And whether entrenched Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz admits it or not, many democracy-lovers believe that the points Hugo Cancio made are more U. S. problems than they are Cuban problems.

She and Rubio will heatedly deny all that.

But...ask Cristina Escobar.

She is Cuba's antithesis to the Miami Cubans. 

       This is my favorite photo this week. {If you thought my favorite photo this week was the latest one of Cristina Escobar, you would be wrong} This one was taken by Marie Read and is used courtesy of Birds & Blooms Magazine, which I have no connection with except for being a loyal subscriber. I also subscribe to Time, National Geographic, The Saturday Evening Post, Major League Baseball, and both the print and digital versions of USA Today. In Marie Read's stunningly superb photo above, that is a male Great Blue Heron bringing nesting material to his mate who is very busy building a home for their future family.

       I received this book from Amazon on July 7th, the very day it was published. I believe the now 90-year-old Jimmy Carter was America's smartest and most decent President although fate, such as Iran, intervened to reduce his effectiveness and prevent a second term. But Mr. Carter's post-presidency, I believe, has far exceeded that of all other American presidents. I have also read all 27 of Mr. Carter's other books. In addition, other bios or memoirs from Amazon that I have recently devoured are about: Hope Solo, Brooke Shields, Sissy Spacek, Elizabeth Smart, Rachel Carson, Tete Puebla, and Amanda Knox. As you may detect, I admire the accomplishments of many women and a mere handful of men, with Jimmy Carter atop that list. I also recently purchased from Amazon Charles Leerhsen's "Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty;" "The Romanov Sisters" by Helen Rappaport; and "Toward The Setting Sun" by Brian Hicks. That latter book is about the Cherokees and the Trail of Tears, and it reminded me anew that Andrew Jackson should have been in prison instead of being elected President in 1828. {And Jimmy Carter deserved a second term}.

       Speaking of books, 82-year-old David McCullough is still America's best author/historian. His latest gem -- "The Wright Brothers" -- should earn him a third Pulitzer Prize. This one I didn't buy; it was a birthday gift.

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

Harmful Cuban Lies

They Hurt Cubans and Americans
Updated: Wednesday, July 8th, 2015

        The mainstream U. S. media normally is not too interested in reporting positive things about Cuba. But this week the mighty Carnival cruise line received permission from the U. S. Department of Commerce and the U. S. Treasury to begin regular commerce with Cuba. The sailings will not begin until May of 2016. For one thing, Cuba is presently handling about as many tourists as it can accommodate. The World Bank confirms that the Cuban economy is increasing at an impressive 4% clip thanks largely to a boost in tourism since the U. S. and Cuba back in December announced a thaw in their relations. Cuba is using some of that income to improve roads, streets, restaurants, bridges, railroad tracks, and hotel rooms. Carnival will launch 7-night people-to-people tours to Cuba on a bi-weekly basis out of Miami. The 710-passenger Adonia will be one of the ships utilized. $600 deposits are being accepted now but the price is $2,990 per person plus taxes and port fees. That's steep, and three times the price for similar Caribbean sailings. But...Cuba is Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles and the whole region. Thanks to a brave and benevolent President, Mr. Obama, there are now a whopping twelve reasons Americans can visit the island, enough new reasons for companies like Carnival to salivate over Cuba's commercial potential. In January of 2017, even if a Bush or a Rubio replaces Obama in the White House and as Commander in Chief, they will not likely be able to nuke all of the advances that Obama is making. Heck, the owners of businesses like Carnival would feel nuked too, so even anti-Castro zealots like Bush and Rubio will eventually have to ease their self-serving hubris. Yes, Cuba is only an island, but it is a special island that will always be an out-sized player on American and international stages. That per-person Carnival price is too steep for me, but I'm wondering now if I can make it back to the island in a canoe or maybe on an inner-tube?

       This photo is courtesy of Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization. It certainly is not courtesy of any mainstream news organization in the U. S. That's because it illustrates a positive on the island of Cuba and the mainstream U. S. media, for the most part, have neither the guts nor the integrity to report on a Cuban positive. NPR -- National Public Radio -- is not so cowardly or unethical. Thus yesterday -- July 6th -- NPR, which has over 900 stations in the U. S., used this photo online to illustrate an article written by Susan Brink that was entitled "Cuba Is First To Earn WHO Seal For Ending Mother-Baby HIV Transmission." The article started off with these words: "On June 30, Cuba became the first country to receive a global seal of approval -- the official World Health validation -- for essentially ending the transmission of AIDs from a mother to her baby. Cuba has eliminated the transmission of Syphilis as well." That meticulous research and revelation by the World Health Organization was also confirmed by the Pan American Health Organization. Of course, the mainstream U. S. media is not supposed to report such things because it simply would not compute with the Cuban narrative in the U. S. that for decades has been dictated by the most vicious anti-Castro Cuban exiles, especially the Miami Cubans now in the U. S. Congress. 

     
      NPR and its 900-plus stations in the United States are strictly non-commercial. It and its online division are supported by private donations and public taxes. It has a reputation as a liberal entity but also as an extremely high-quality journalistic operation.

         This photo is also courtesy of the Pan American and World Health Organizations, certainly not courtesy of the mainstream U. S. media. It was also used in that NPR report by Susan Brink. It shows pregnant Cuban women at one of the ubiquitous "poli-clinics" in Cuba that cater to health needs of women and their unborn children. Margaret Chen, the President of the World Health Organization, has singled out these clinics for Cuba's astonishingly low Infant Mortality Rate, which is lower than that in the United States and most other far richer countries. The World Bank, which basically does the bidding of rich nations, has recently praised Cuba for the extraordinarily high percentage of its Gross National Product devoted to the health and educational needs of its 11.2 million people. Of course, Americans are not supposed to know about such reports from the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, NPR, the World Bank, etc. Such information simply would not compute with what Americans are told about Cuba, you know: "We've got to keep the embargo in place, and greatly strengthen it to make sure no money gets to Cuba because we all know it would all go into Fidel Castro's pockets or his Swiss bank accounts." The Miami Cubans in Congress -- Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, etc. -- can readily say that to the American people but they can't tell it to the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, NPR, the World Bank, the United Nations, etc., and they can't tell it to the pregnant Cuban women in the above photo.

        Americans interested in their democracy should study and comprehend this recent photo. It is used here courtesy of www.timesunion.com. That's New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on the left. At the podium is Dr. Candace Johnson, the President and CEO of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. It is one of America's leading cancer clinics and Dr. Johnson is one of America's top cancer experts. Recently, Dr. Johnson learned that Governor Cuomo was leading a group of New York business people to Cuba on an important Trade Mission. Dr. Johnson begged to go along. She is aware that Cuba's outstanding medical scientists -- such as the ones praised so lavishly above by the WHO and the Pan American Health Association -- had discovered perhaps the world's best vaccine to fight lung cancer. It is known as Cimavax and it has been successfully tested in Cuba and other nations. But not in the U. S...because of the embargo. Dr. Johnson, while in Cuba, got permission from Cuba to make the vaccine available to cancer patients in the United States. Back in the United States she is begging the U. S. government and the Food and Drug Administration to approve the vaccine in the U. S. Yet, because it's a Cuban vaccine there is a hurdle -- the embargo that was first instituted in 1962 for the purpose, according to de-classified U. S. documents, of starving and depriving the Cuban people on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government after the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack couldn't do it.

        For 53 years, the embargo against Cuba has endeavored to "starve and deprive" Cubans on the island, but it has failed because, although it has caused millions of innocent Cubans to suffer, it has failed to fulfill its purpose -- which was to force the Cuban people to rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro so, presumably, the remnants of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship of the 1950s could return and reclaim the island. Also, Peter Kornbluh at the U. S. National Security Archives and Sarah Stephens at the Center for Democracy in the Americas, both based in Washington, have repeatedly stated that the cruel and archaic embargo -- in the eyes of the world, particularly all of Latin America -- makes the U. S. appear to be an imperialistic bully and, as Kornbluh very succinctly said recently, "a banana republic." A yearly vote at the UN reflects the unanimity of world opinion against the embargo. Recent polls of Cuban-Americans in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood show that the majority of Florida's 1.2 million Cuban-Americans also oppose the embargo. But those opinions don't count -- not from around the world and not even in Little Havana. That is because, since the 1950s, the most visceral anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and their right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress, have demanded the right to dictate America's policy in regards to Cuba. And even in the world's greatest and strongest democracy, two generations of Americans since 1959 have had neither the courage, nor the intelligence, nor the patriotism to stand up and defend their democracy against a Cuban policy that, decade after decade, is allowed to do more than any other thing to cast a negative image on the United States. The image in the Latuff graphic above is one that should embarrass all Americans. It embarrasses Margaret Chen, the head of the World Health Organization. It embarrasses Dr. Candace Johnson at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. It embarrasses America's best friends all around the world, as indicated by the yearly vote in the UN. 

But it doesn't embarrass..........

       ...........Marco Rubio. Rubio is a first-term U. S. Senator from Miami. He is hailed as a "serious" and "top tier" Republican presidential candidate. His alignment with the Bush dynasty got him to the U. S. Senate with his bio still using the obligatory claim that his parents escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba when, in fact, they had escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba long before Castro's revolution chased the Batistianos to Florida. Four particular billionaires, including one in Miami who has pledged whatever amount of money it takes to put Rubio in the White House, are supporting Rubio in the money-crazed presidential campaign. But, in all likelihood, Rubio will have to await his White House takeover till after the Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton duel plays out in November of 2016. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Havana-born anti-Castro zealot from Miami, has been in the U. S. Congress since 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager. She and most other top-tier Cuban-American politicians in Miami support Jeb Bush over Marco Rubio, although Rubio once worked for her as an intern, etc. The Bush dynasty connection to the most visceral Miami-Cubans far exceeds what even one of their own, Rubio, brings to the table. Ros-Lehtinen, his old boss, is suggesting that young Rubio leave the Senate, serve as Florida's governor for two terms, and then, after Jeb's two presidential terms, Rubio himself would be ready for his two presidential terms. If that scenario appears far-fetched, it is not. Unlimited amounts of money now predicate presidential races in the United States. Clinton, Bush, and Rubio are amassing unlimited amounts from both savory and unsavory sources. Bush will edge Clinton in the 2016 sweepstakes, with Rubio bidding his time as Florida's governor. At least, that's the prediction of a lady in Cuba who probably knows more about U. S. politics than all the American TV pundits combined.

      If Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs {meaning the U. S.}, didn't know more about U. S. politics than all the TV pundits, it is likely that Cuba would have ceased being a sovereign nation years ago. In that milieu, it is interesting to know that Ms. Vidal would personally prefer Marco Rubio to Jeb Bush as President of the United States. She has confided to intimates, even as she has led the diplomatic efforts to normalize relations with the U. S., that Cuba would prepare "for war" if either Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio reached the White House in January of 2017. But, in her heart of hearts, she considers Rubio the lesser of the "two prime" anti-Cuban evils in the U. S., which indicates what she thinks of the Bush dynasty.

       Many Americans are surprised that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- the firmly entrenched {since 1989} Cuban-American Congresswoman from Miami -- strongly supports Jeb Bush over Marco Rubio, her protege and now the Cuban-American Senator from Miami. Well, there is a very astute and vastly important lady in Cuba that is not at all surprised. Her name, again, is Josefina Vidal. If the Bush/Miami stalwarts ever reclaim Cuba, they would first have to out-smart or soundly defeat Vidal, and that might be tough to pull off.

        This is Cuban Minster Josefina Vidal being interviewed by 26-year-old Cristina Escobar, Cuba's top journalist. While the anti-Cuban narrative in the U. S. still focuses on 88-year-old Fidel Castro and 84-year-old Raul Castro, the two generations of women represented by Vidal and Escobar should be commanding America's primary focus. The Castros for years now have left U. S. decisions up to Vidal; Escobar has emerged as the leading voice of Cuba's twentysomethings, the generation determined to decide Cuba's future and determined to make sure that, as Escobar says, "not to let Miami and Washington rule us like it's the 1950s when a foreign Mafia force made sure Cubans on the island were voiceless and helpless."

        While the Miami Cubans control the Cuban narrative in the U. S., the luminous Cristina Escobar leads the Cuban narrative on state and regional television, and more and more she is in demand for interviews by Latin American journalists. When she attended journalistic seminars in California back in December, and more recently when she covered the Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic meetings in Washington, Escobar was a stunner, and not just because of her looks and her fluency in English. Her fierce passion for Cuba was quite evident at a crowded White House news conference and in speeches around Washington. "Cuba's future will be determined by my generation of well educated, healthy Cubans on the island, not by Miami Cubans and right-wingers in Washington," she stated boldly in Washington and on state television when she returned to the island. When she was interviewed on the Telesur network, she buttressed that theme with these words: "We are an island. The Miami Cubans are backed by the strongest military and the richest treasury in the world. We may one day lose, but I believe they will respect the fight that we will have put up." In other words, if Bush-Rubio eventually get past Vidal, they still will have the gritty Escobar to deal with.

        Cubans on the island, like this swimmer, are being punished by the embargo and other aspects of a Cuban policy designed to appease the most visceral Cuban-exiles. This swimmer is in one of the world's safest countries and she has the benefit of an excellent totally free education and an excellent totally free health system. Rubio/Cruz/Diaz-Balart/Ros-Lehtinen/Menendez and their acolytes spend an exorbitant amount of government time and a vast amount of tax dollars assaulting the island from nearby safe havens or by sending agents to the island to disrupt it. Perhaps some of that anti-Cuban time and some of those anti-Cuban tax dollars could better be spent on problems in the U. S., such as crime and well over a trillion dollars in stifling student loan debt. Two top headlines to start this first full week in July were: 47 gun deaths in Chicago over the past weekend, including a 7-year-old boy caught in the ceaseless cross-fire; and an illegal Mexican immigrant protected by San Francisco's sanctuary status murdered a beautiful young woman although the U. S. government had deported him for gross crimes five times and wanted to deport him a sixth but San Francisco and other cities don't allow the federal government to do that. Protecting innocent Americans and helping deserving Americans or America's declining infrastructure perhaps should be a higher priority than harming innocent Cubans like this swimmer...or like the two dozen young Cuban athletes aboard Cubana Flight 455, the civilian airplane bombed into the ocean by a terrorist bomb. The Miami Cubans assume Americans have no knowledge of or interest in Cubana Flight 455...although citizens of every nation in the Caribbean and Latin America do.

         This Wikipedia photo shows ten typical Cuban college students. They seem happy and healthy, and they are receiving a good education, with all their health care and education through college totally free. No bills for any health care. No college expenses or student loans to pay back. Their island is safe. But when Rubio and the other Miami Cubans tell Americans that life on the island resembles hell on earth and the Cuban government spends most of its time, energy, and money making life miserable for its citizens, Americans are supposed to believe every word. And, of course, Rubio and his ilk insist that everyday Americans should not have the freedom to visit one place on this earth -- Cuba. Why? Well, I guess it's so you'll believe everything Rubio and the other Miami Cubans say about Cuba and they must worry that if you could go there and make your own judgement it might differ from what they tell you. Meanwhile, why not ask Rubio if that is so or not. And you might remind him that it appears these ten Cuban college girls haven't been punished by their government in at least a week or so. But they are being punished everyday by a U. S. Cuban policy that Rubio wants to keep in place for another five decades or so, regardless of how much it hurts the U. S. image around the world. Of course, if and when Rubio becomes Commander in Chief, I assume these ten carefree college girls on the island had better duck and run for a bomb shelter.

If it has failed for 50+ years, why not try for 50+ more years?????? 

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

          ..........recent photos of Fidel Castro, and especially a video of his appearance at a food seminar over the July 4th weekend, are being scrutinized by eager Castro watchers. In the past two years, photos taken of him by his son Alex in their home as Fidel hosted several world leaders -- from Russia, China, Brazil, etc. -- it appeared he was extremely weak and tired. But at that seminar a few days ago it has been confirmed that he spoke vigorously and with a strong voice for four long hours...about cheese and other foods. In recent months, several prime pro-Castro and anti-Castro watchers have predicted he would not live to see his 89th birthday, which is August 13th. After this past weekend, those predictions are being revised. Except for food seminars and other things that interest him, Fidel seems content to leave Cuban affairs in the hands of others, including Vidal and Escobar. He's always been famously partial to women, especially his four favorite female guerrilla fighters -- Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, Vilma Espin, and Tete Puebla.

        Just days shy of his 89th birthday, and about 9 years removed from his near-fatal illness in July of 2006, Fidel Castro made headlines last weekend when he appeared at the food seminar and he made some more Tuesday, July 7th. Obviously alert and attentive, he sent a note to the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. It said, in part: "I warmly congratulate you on your brilliant political victory, the details of which I followed closely on Telesur. Greece arouses admiration among Latin American and Caribbean peoples."

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