A Little Girl Was Born In Cuba

And Americans Should Know About It
{Updated: Sunday, November 8th, 2015}

        This little Cuban girl was born in Cuba on November 3rd, 2015. Her name is Lucia. She is shown here lying on her mother's stomach just moments after she was born. Americans, I believe, need to know the details about the birth of this healthy little girl. Those details will explain why the World Bank recently praised Cuba for devoting an extraordinary percentage of its wealth to the health and education of its people. And those details will explain why the World Health Organization and the United Nations rave about Cuba's low infant-mortality rate, which is lower than in the United States. And those details will explain why the U. S. is currently studying why the infant-mortality rate in Cuba is so low. Therefore, permit me to direct you to the details of Lucia's birth, a cherished event that explains the interesting, aforementioned facts.

       Fernando Ravsberg is, I believe, the best and most informed journalist regarding Cuba. He is the BBC's correspondent on the island and he has also worked for major networks in Spain, Sweden, Mexico, and the United States {Telemundo}. His blog -- Cartas desde Cuba {Letters from Cuba} -- is an absolute must for anyone interested in Cuba, its people, or how the island relates to the U. S., the region, and the world.

        Fernando Ravsberg knows more about Cuba than anyone because he spends more time with everyday Cubans than any notable journalist. His article this week about the birth of the little girl Lucia originated on his blog but, as with many of his gems, was picked up by many media outlets thirsty for honest and fair portrayals of the everyday lives of the Cuban people, as opposed to frequently slanted views from either pro-Cuban or anti-Cuban sources. Here are some engrossing highlights of his article about Lucia's birth on November 3rd, 2015:

                      "Letters from Cuba has a new member. Lucia, the daughter of our Webmaster, was born yesterday at the Gonzalez Cora hospital. We could see Cuba's Public Health system in action and understand why its Child Mortality Rate is so low. During the nine months of the pregnancy, the mother was provided about two consultations a week -- ultra-sound 3D tests, HIV blood tests to determine RH factors, etc."

        Fernando Ravsberg then explains in detail why Cuba's health system has such a low mortality rate for newborns. Then he concluded with this paragraph:

                         "It is worth reporting that Lucia's mother is Cuban and she received the same attention as the other 14 Cuban mothers, of different skin colors and social classes, which were put into labor at the same time. We thank the doctors and nurses and welcome Lucia into the world."

        Fernando Ravsberg was born in Uruguay but for the last twenty years he has been the best journalist providing insights on the lives of Cubans on the island. In the above photo Fernando is getting a scolding form none other than Fidel Castro pertaining to one of his articles from Cuba. But Fernando is neither a dissident nor a pro-government patsy. He loves the Cuban people and his reporting is both accurate and fair. That's interesting because the mainstream media in the U. S. is not capable of being as accurate or fair about Cuba as Fernando Ravsberg is, a fact recognized by England's BBC and other major international media outlets and a fact regularly demonstrated on Fernando's incomparable Letters from Cuba blog.

        The American journalist with the most knowledge and fairness in regards to Cuba is Sarah Stephens. She is the Founder and Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. Each Friday on that website she writes the Cuba Central blog that, each week, is the best weekly summary of U.S.-Cuban relations. This week -- Friday, November 6th -- she began that informative blog by excoriating two Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Senate -- Marco Rubio from Florida and Robert Menendez from New Jersey -- for blocking Roberta Jacobson's nomination as the U. S. Ambassador to Mexico. Everyone except the two narrow-minded Senators, it seems, understands that Ms. Jacobson's position in Mexico City is badly needed because of her superb qualifications and because of the vast pluses and minuses of America's relations with Mexico. Ms. Stephens, in this week's Cuba Central posting, explains that Rubio and Menendez have past histories of fuming pettiness in blocking qualified nominations and legislation if such things differ with their Batistiano-obsessed Cuban views. Roberta Jacobson is being punished because of her brilliant representation of the U. S. in the recent very successful diplomatic sessions with Cuba's Josefina Vidal. Sarah Stephens, the democracy-loving leader at the Center for Democracy in the Americas, astutely explains the anti-democracy bias of Senators Rubio and Menendez and how it is allowed, by both the U. S. media and U. S. citizens, to hurt most Cubans and most Americans, as well as the image of the U. S. and democracy around the world. Not to know Ms. Stephens is to not know Cuba.

         Above is an insightful book that bears the imprint of The Center for Democracy in the Americas. It is entitled: "21st Century Cuba: Women's Work, Gender Equality in Cuba and the Role of Women Building Cuba's Future." As the title and sub-titles indicate, anyone interested in Cuba and its role in the region and the world in 2015 and beyond should read and study this book. The documented facts include many that Americans are not suppose to know, especially when it contrasts the differences between the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 with Revolutionary Cuba since 1959. For example, Sarah Stephens points out this undeniable fact: "In 1953, only 1% of Cuba's college educated students were women, according to the CDA's 'Women's Work: Gender Equality in Cuba and the Role of Women Building Cuba's Future.' In 2011, the American Association of University Women noted that 'Cuban women make up more than 80% of all university students and nearly 68 percent of university graduates in Cuba.'"

      TRUTH BE KNOWN, brave Cuban women like these had more to do with starting the Cuban Revolution than the Castro brothers. The murders of Cuban children and other atrocities in Batista's Cuba outraged the female population that bravely took to the streets to denounce Batista, sparking the Cuban Revolution.

        TRUTH BE KNOWN, these three Cuban women had more to do with the victory of the Cuban Revolution than the Castro brothers. From left to right, that's Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, and Haydee Santamaria. As guerrilla fighters, as recruiters of vital rebels and supplies, and as the most inspired and motivated leaders, these three women were much more important than the Castro brothers and Che Guevara.

        TRUTH BE KNOWN, this was the Big Four of the Cuban hierarchy after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Flanking the Castro brothers, that's Vilma Espin on the left and Celia Sanchez on the right. Vilma married Raul Castro in 1959 and is the mother of his four children. Celia to this day remains the person that Fidel Castro has worshiped from the 1950s till this very day when Fidel is 89-years-old. {Celia died of cancer in 1980 and Vilma died of cancer in 2007}. Beginning in 1959, as a direct consequence of their power and their remembrance of the Batista brutality against women and children, Vilma Espin and Celia Sanchez devised such gigantic revolutionary laws as the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Federation of Cuban Women. To this day, such creations of Vilma and Celia constitute the prime reason that Cuba, against overwhelming odds, remains a viable and sovereign nation.

        TRUTH BE KNOWN, in today's Cuba women like Josefina Vidal -- Minister of North American Affairs -- make most of the day-to-day decisions on the island. That is so even though the 84-year-old Raul Castro is President and the 89-year-old Fidel Castro is and will always be Cuba's greatest revolutionary legend.

       AND TRUTH BE KNOWN, the next generation of Cuban leaders will look like...Cristina Escobar. At age 27 she is already Cuba's most influential journalist and an absolutely brilliant television anchor. Awesomely smart, well educated, fluent in Spanish and English, she is also fiercely pro-Cuban. People in California discovered those virtues at journalism seminars in 2014. In 2015 she awed veteran American journalists, as well as White House spokesman Josh Earnest, when she covered the 4th and final Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session. For 14 minutes she dominated a crowded news conference hosted by Mr. Earnest when she fired a blistering series of questions at him, wanting to know: If the new U. S. embassy in Havana will "respect" Cuba; if the unending "regime change" programs lavishly funded by the U. S. Congress will continue forever; will President Obama visit Cuba in 2016, etc. After the news conference rendered her, at least briefly, a Washington celebrity, Cristina -- in speeches around town and in numerous interviews -- blisteringly made this salient point: "Lies by the U. S. media about Cuba harm everyday Cubans the most."  

          IN OTHER WORDS: {1} Outraged Cuban women like William Soler's mother started the Cuban Revolution {she blamed Batista for the murder of her son}; {2} Cuban women like Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, and Haydee Santamaria were most influential in winning the Cuban Revolution; {3} Cuban women like Celia and Vilma set the parameters that have sustained Revolutionary Cuba all these decades; {4} Cuban women like Josefina Vidal today make most of the day-to-day Cuban decisions; and {5} Cuban women now in their twenties like Cristina Escobar will be the future leaders on the island of Cuba.

If you disagree with the above summations.....

         ........I believe it might be because you are too susceptible to the dictates of The Miami Cuban Mafia, which hastily exited Revolutionary Cuba on January 1, 1959.

Thus:

This misogynistic hombre no longer rules Cuba.

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Mexico Beckons Cuba

Important Meeting Today

         Cuba's 84-year-old President Raul Castro will arrive in Mexico this morning -- Friday, November 6th -- after receiving a special invitation from his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. Mexico, which conducts over $500 billion worth of trade yearly with the United States, wants to sharply increase last year's $374 million worth of commerce with Cuba. Mr. Castro feels much more comfortable doing business with Mexico than with the United States. The Mariel Port, 28 miles southwest of Havana, has received a splendid billion-dollar upgrade largely financed by Brazil and is now a key Economic Zone for Cuba. Seven foreign companies, two of them Mexican, have already signed key investment deals at the Mariel Zone.

        Socorro Flores is Mexico's Deputy Foreign Minister for Latin American Affairs. She released this statement: "We believe we are in a privileged position to have more presence on the beautiful island of Cuba because it's close, we share the Caribbean Sea, and because of many things, including language, that unify us."

     Claudia Ruiz Massieu is Mexico's Minister of Foreign Affairs. She released this statement on the eve of Castro's arrival in Mexico today: "We are very happy this is his first state visit to our country amid the existing new, revitalized relations."

      Enrique Pena Nieto, the President of Mexico since 2012, personally requested today's visit from Cuban President Raul Castro. Taking advantage of a thawing in U.S.-Cuban relations engineered by U. S. President Barack Obama, President Nieto wants to sharply increas trade between Mexico and Cuba. The two prior Mexican Presidents -- especially Vincente Fox but also Felipe Calderon -- were conservatives who were antagonistic towards Cuba at the behest of the George W. Bush presidency. But Nieto is different from Fox much like Obama is different from Bush. Nieto says, "Except for Fox and Calderon following the Bush policy, Mexico had a history of being Cuba's best friend, or at least one of them. I want to reestablish that relationship." New trade agreements will help, but Nieto will also discuss with President Castro today a topic that irks him. He says human traffickers who make money enticing Cubans to defect to the U. S. through Mexico are worried that improved U.S.-Cuban relations will end U. S. laws that greatly favor Cuban exiles, such as the Wet Foot/Dry Foot law that allows Cubans, and only Cubans, to remain in the U. S. with welfare assistance merely if they touch U. S. soil. Fearing such laws may finally end, President Nieto says Mexico is having to deal with an influx of Cubans being told by traffickers that special U. S. privileges for Cubans will end soon. Some traffickers using the Mexican route for Cubans to reach the U. S., have upped their price from $5,000 to $10,000, says Nieto.

       Mexican President Pena Nieto is a great admirer of Cuba's revolutionary legend Fidel Castro, and he has visited the 89-year-old Fidel in his Havana home. Today marks Raul Castro's first visit to Mexico as Cuba's President but Fidel last visited Mexico as President in 2002 when Bush's ally, Vincente Fox, treated him rudely. 

      While in Havana, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto asked Fidel Castro, "In December of 1956 you, Raul, Che, Camilo, and 78 other rebels left Mexico to go to Cuba and overthrow Batista. How much of that hazardous voyage aboard the old leaky yacht Granma do you still remember?" Fidel's son Alex, a professional photographer, takes the photos inside the family home. Alex later said {as reflected by the above photo}, "Mr. Nieto got more than he bargained for with that question because Papa eagerly spent at least fifteen minutes, gesturing and all, answering that question."

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Can Vultures Buy U.S. Presidency?

Supreme Court Says "Yes"

        For each of the past ten weeks, USA Today has headlined its "Power Rankings" of the ongoing 2016 Republican presidential sweepstakes. As depicted above, in this first week of November...for the very first time in ten weeks...USA Today now ranks Miami's Cuban-American first-term U. S. Senator Marco Rubio #1.

        I find the latest Republican Power Rankings in USA Today very interesting, hilarious actually. That's because many months ago, when Rubio was a distant also-ran with a 4% rating in a USA Today poll, Josefina Vidal, Cuba's almost infallible American expert, predicted that Marco Rubio would "emerge" as the Republican presidential contender in 2016. Considering that Vidal is Cuba's primary defender of the island's sovereignty, she assumes, if she is mistaken on her U. S. judgments, Cuba, at best, will become a U. S. Territory, like another Caribbean island, Puerto Rico. And she assumes, if she is mistaken, that Cuba might be annihilated...especially if a Republican like Rubio becomes Commander-in-Chief on January 20th, 2017. Back in March a Spanish journalist asked Vidal, "Rubio? Are you serious? What would that mean for Cuba?" She replied, "I'm serious. I wouldn't joke about it. It would mean that the Batistianos had captured the U. S. government before they re-captured the Cuban government." Vidal's rationale about Rubio "emerging" as the Republican presidential candidate is based on this logic: She believes {1} the two-party U. S. political system can now be easily purchased at the presidential level by a mere handful of billionaires, and {2} she believes that Rubio, more than any other would-be President, has signaled that his presidency is for-sale to the highest bidders. NOTE: By the time U. S. Today's Power Rankings this week listed Rubio #1, a flock of billionaires, with enough money to purchase the presidency with the blessing of an unfortunate ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court in 2010, had flocked shamelessly to Rubio, as Vidal has predicted all along.  

Photo courtesy: Steve Marcus/Reuters

         Meet Paul Singer, or at least Google him. He graduated from Harvard Law School and now, at age 71, he is a Hedge Fund billionaire in New York City. His Wikipedia biography includes this sentence: "Singer's business practices have been described by detractors as having the characteristics of a vulture fund." Hedge Fund billionaires are routinely described as vultures, but legal ones because they can well afford armies of lobbyists, the real wheelers-and-dealers in Washington. But billionaires like Mr. Singer rose to the top of the pecking order in U. S. politics in 2010 when the U. S. Supreme court legalized unlimited political donations to Super-PACs, the scourge of democracy. 

                On October 30, 2015, the New York Times -- in a major article written by Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Confessore -- revealed why Paul Singer, and political-minded billionaires like him, are dangers to democracy. The article included these exact words:

                                        "Mr. Singer sent a letter to dozens of other big-money donors urging them to support Rubio. The New York Times got a copy of the letter that claimed Rubio is the only candidate 'that can navigate this complex primary process and still be in a position to defeat Hillary Clinton in a general election.'

                                           "Singer last year gave more money to Republican candidates than any donor in the country, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Singer is a passionate pro-Israel supporter. Mr. Rubio has aggressively embraced the cause of wealthy pro-Israel donors like Mr. Sheldon Adelson, whom the Senator is said to call frequently, and Mr. Singer. who both serve on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, an umbrella group for Republican Jewish donors and officials." {From The New York Times; October 30, 2015}

         Paul Singer, shown here at the World Economic Forum, is one of a growing number of Jewish billionaires bound and determined to make sure that Marco Rubio is President of the United States beginning in 2017. Thanks to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling, they can now use their billions of dollars to make that happen. {Disclosure: I am a lifelong conservative Republican who is pro-Israel but also very passionately pro-American and pro-democracy}.

        The photos above are courtesy of AP/Jeff Schaid/J. Scott Applewhite and the montage is courtesy of Salon Magazine. That's multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson on the left and presidential candidate Marco Rubio on the right. Mr. Adelson is worth about $28 billion dollars after a storied career as a controversial hotel-casino magnet in Las Vegas and Macao/China. He is 84-years-old. He is a staunch supporter of Israel where he owns a major newspaper, etc., and where he flies and flatters important politicians...such as Marco Rubio. Mr. Adelson is determined to put Rubio in the White House and, in the present political climate, he certainly has the wherewithal to do just that.

            As of June, 2015, Forbes estimated that Sheldon Adelson, one of Rubio's prime Jewish backers, is worth $28 billion. Mr. Adelson is Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which also owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore as well as the ultra-plush Venetian Macao {shown above} in Macao, China. As he moves along on his presidential bid, Rubio will have to more deeply explain his obvious obsession with Israel and his more subtle fascination with China. He has, for example, often stated that his first flight on Air Force One will be to Israel and it is well known that his top aides took at least one questionable flight to China. Of course, billionaires stuffing Rubio's campaign coffers with cash have nothing at all to do with his political views. ABSOLUTELY NOT!! NOW SHUT UP!!

          Fox News, the Tea Party, and a long line of Jewish and Wall Street/Hedge Fund billionaires believe they can make Marco Rubio the next President of the United States. The Tea Party along with the Bush dynasty and a few Cuban-American billionaires in Miami thrust Rubio into the U. S. Senate in 2011. But he hit the Senate, which he admittedly disdains, breathlessly running for President, which these days mainly involves begging billionaires for money. Beyond doubt, Rubio, more than anyone else, has struck a gold mine with Jewish billionaires. Fox News, the right-wing propaganda machine, was among the first to encourage Rubio's presidential aspirations with proclamations like the one above loudly proclaiming "A POLITICAL STAR IS BORN" long before Rubio had done anything in the Senate except look cute and young while touting his Miami credentials as an anti-Castro zealot. {He made it to the U. S. Senate with his bio claiming his parents escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba for the freedom of Miami, then it was revealed his parents had escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba long before Castro took over}.

        Of course, Fox News fumed profusely when presidential rival Donald Trump said, "Sheldon Adelson would have total control over Rubio." A lot of people believe that, including many Cuban-Americans, although only the brash Mr. Trump has the gumption to state it publicly. Trump, the non-politician, like Dr. Ben Carson, riding a wave of voters tired of bought-and-paid-for politicians, is also reminding the pro-Rubio mainstream media to check on Rubio's past "financial misdeeds," such as alleged personal used of campaign funds, questionable real estate deals, etc., ETC. 

         Meanwhile, this photo montage is similar to others that will hamper Rubio as he hedges to the top of the Republican presidential sweepstakes. It shows Rubio eating a money-burger while he is flanked by two of his multi-billionaire supporters -- Mr. Adelson on the left and Mr. Koch on the right. To counter such images, his highly paid publicity staff should, perhaps, make sure he is photographed eating real hamburgers, like regular Americans.

       This photo reveals another problem for Marco Rubio that billions of dollars might not be able to erase. Being Cuban-American in Miami was a prime factor in getting him to the U. S. Senate. But most Cuban-Americans in Miami -- including people like Republican powerhouse Al Cardenas and Rubio's former boss, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (both of whom were born in Havana) -- strongly prefer Jeb Bush over one of their own, Marco Rubio. A further indication that Rubio, in his money-crazed race to the White House, has lost touch with his Miami roots is the blistering editorial in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last week that accused Rubio of "ripping off" the Cuban-Americans who sent him to the Senate and therefore the powerful Sun-Sentinel suggested that Rubio "resign" so they could get representation in the U. S. Senate. Rubio, of course, is vehemently against anything President Obama and most Cuban-Americans in Miami are trying to do to help Cubans on the island. They are also aware that Rubio appears to have sold-out to Jewish billionaires, suggesting that Cuban-Americans and Americans are lesser priorities to him. That's why he has seen placards and billboards like the one above: "EMBARGO ISRAEL NOT CUBA."

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

          ...............................I would like to congratulate this little guy. His name, literally and scientifically, is "Cow Knob." He is a salamander. He is also feisty and voracious in defending his turf. He just won a huge battle against Dominion, a powerful energy company that planned to run a natural-gas pipeline through his territory. Cow Knob only lives in one tiny place on earth -- on a few high ridges along the Virginia-West Virginia border. Some 5.5 miles of the 564-mile pipeline was due to run through Cow Knob's territory, till he and his supporters strongly objected. Dominion backed off and agreed to shift the route of its pipeline totally away from Cow Knob's beloved territory.

This Virginia map depicts in red Cow Knob's territory.

The little guy beat the billion-dollar energy company.

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Cuban Friends In High Places

Including The White House

         The pro-USA Voice of America Website used this Reuters photo to illustrate a pro-Cuban article this week entitled "U. S. Might Further Ease Embargo." The image, as well as Voice of America itself, reflects the very significant presence of both the U. S. government and U. S. businesses at Cuba's International Trade Fair this week.

     Using an extraordinary amount of courage and skill, America's two-term President, Barack Obama, has done far more than the previous ten U. S. presidents to normalize relations with Cuba. He has bravely and astutely defied a right-wing Republican Congress to chisel away at a nefarious embargo, in effect since 1962, that only Congress can totally remove. Congress won't do that because it has no shame, not even when -- each October -- the nations of the world at the United Nations scream loudly for the end of an embargo that even America's best friends consider to be cruel and in multiple violations of international laws. On behalf of the majority of Cubans and Americans, and in defense of democracy, Obama has brought about the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. He has also eased anti-democratic travel restrictions, authorized telecommunications companies to operate in Cuba, and promoted trade and amity with Cuba's growing private sector, among many other friendly measures. 

           David Thorne is the top senior adviser to U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Both men strongly believe that an economically viable Cuba will have "beneficial pluses for the United States." In an interview with Reuters, as referenced by Voice of America, Thorne said that President Obama "could further relax the U. S. trade embargo against Cuba. We are making progress. We are making regulatory changes. We'll make more. But the pace is really going to be set by the Cubans and we are satisfied with how they want to do this."

         David Thorne, representing the U. S. State Department, has spent three very productive days and nights in Cuba this week. He is advising Cuban officials and Cuba's fledgling entrepreneurial community on how to deal with foreign investors, including many important U. S. business leaders attending the Cuban International Trade Fair on the outskirts of Havana. Mr. Thorne's trip to Cuba is a key element in the State Department's "Shared Prosperity Agenda," quite a contrast to the still-viable myriad regime change schemes lavishly funded by the U. S. Congress. David Thorne's father, Landon Thorne, was appointed by President Eisenhower in 1953 to administer the Marshall Plan in Italy that restored democracy to an important nation that had been a major ally of Hitler's in World War II. David Thorne grew up in Rome, speaks fluent Italian, and is a former U. S. Ambassador to Italy. He got his BA from Yale and his Masters from Columbia. He would like to replicate in Cuba something akin to what his father achieved in Italy.

            Marcelo Claure is a 44-year-old Bolivian-American and he would like to see Cuba prosper. He is the CEO of Sprint, the telecommunication giant headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. This week Mr. Claure engineered a major deal with the Cuban government. Sprint became the first U. S. carrier to partner with ETECSA, Cuba's telecommunications company. Americans visiting Cuba will now be able to use their cellphones and Smart Phones like they do in other "modern places." Mr. Claure told U. S. Today, "At the beginning, we thought, 'Oh, my God, it's the Cuban government, negotiations are going to be slow.' But I was blown away...and we signed an agreement in record time." He said Sprint customers who had traveled to Cuba informed the company that they had no service on the island. Now they do, thanks to Mr. Claure.

         This photo, courtesy of Alan Gomez/USA Today, shows Sprint CEO Marcelo Clasure signing that major telecommunications deal with the Cuban government in Havana. One thing American CEOs doing business with Cuba will discover is this: Many of the top officials in the Cuban government are women, and that's a revolutionary tradition. Sitting just to the right of Mr. Clasure, and signing for Cuba, is Vivian Iglesias. She is the Director of International Services for ETECSA, Cuba's telecommunication company. She told USA Today that payment for the Sprint charges will have to go through third parties because of the United States embargo against the island. But she said Cuba is pleased that American tourists can now "make and receive calls, send and receive text messages, and use data throughout Cuba's telecommunication network."

         Sprint, the American telecommunications giant, this week has forged ties with Cuba that bring the two neighboring countries a little closer together. The flags of both Cuba and the U. S. are red, white, and blue.

         The Cuban flag has one star. the American flag has 50 stars. It is not coincidental that both flags feature the same colors -- red, white, and blue. For the first time since 1961, this year, 2015, the flags have resumed flying at embassies in Havana and Washington. Separated by a mere 90 miles, the two nations have a lot in common. The Cuban people and the American people like each other. The biggest impediment to friendly and prosperous relations between Cuba and the United States right now is a U. S. Congress that caters to a handful of people who continue to benefit -- revengefully, economically, and politically -- from unfriendly relations. It's been that way since 1959. But now, more than ever, a lot of good people, including the ones mentioned above, are trying to move forward beyond the Cold War animus that has hurt so many people, especially Cubans on the island, for so long. Animosity may benefit a few but it hurts others. 

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rubio, Rubio, and RUBIO!!!

Repeat Ten Times

Then Donate!!

         Walt Handelsman is a world-class Editorial Cartoonist for The New Orleans Advocate. Among his awards, he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 and again in 2007.

       To honer Daylight Saving Time and Marco Rubio, this is the latest gem by Mr. Handelsman. It was featured in USA Today and hundreds of other U. S. newspapers. It shows Rubio, the first-term U. S. Senator from Miami, leapfrogging over his mentor Jeb following Rubio's betrayal of Bush in the last Republican presidential debate.

       Rubio's brutal knockout of Jeb Bush in 2015 reminded me of Rocky Marciano's brutal knockout of Joe Louis in 1951, as depicted above by this classic David Jukic photo. Marciano, at age 28, was in his prime as a heavyweight boxer; Louis, at age 37, was over-the-hill. Yes, Rubio's KO of Bush was reminiscent of Marciano's KO of Louis.

          From black-and-white to color, from 1951 to 2015, this photo captured young Marco Rubio's knockout of over-the-hill Jeb Bush. Rubio's scripted, memorized retort was brutal and fatal.

The KO of Bush clears the way for Marco Rubio's path to the White House.

         The KO of Jeb Bush starkly refurbished Marco Rubio's substantial and pivotal support from Fox News, the mainstream media, the Tea Party, and five extremely wealthy Jewish billionaires. More than any other presidential candidate, Rubio has signaled that he is the one that can be bought-and-paid-for by special interests. It has turned out to be a pivotal, but undemocratic, ploy.

      Voters are supposed to dismiss this photo. At age 26 when the now 44-year-old Marco Rubio entered the political arena in Florida, his first donation was a check from Jeb Bush. Rubio's trek from Miami-Tallahassee to the U. S. Senate was paved by Jeb Bush and from the beginning in 2011 Rubio has merely used his Senate platform to run for President, as pointed out by his hometown newspaper, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which suggested that he "resign" because he was "ripping off" his South Florida constituents. Letters-to-the-Editors in three South Florida newspapers, including The Miami Herald, have excoriated Rubio for betraying them by selling out to Jewish billionaires. Rubio's contemptuous response was to state repeatedly on the campaign trail that his first flight on Air Force One will be to Israel, not Miami. Regardless, Rubio's KO of Jeb Bush separates him from the Bush dynasty that greased his seat to the Senate, but Rubio firmly believes that he has garnered enough money-crazed right-wing acolytes to no longer need the Bush machine. But before this long, long presidential campaign is over, Rubio may regret throwing the still-viable Bush dynasty and some key supporters in Miami under the bus, proverbially and politically speaking. They gave Marco Rubio his very first political toy -- a leap-frogging trampoline. 

         All of which is a vivid reminder of the prescience and astuteness of Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. Vidal knows more about U.S.-Cuban relations and politics than all the pundits combined that nightly pollute U. S. cable news programs. Those pundits, mostly promoting themselves or their favorite politicians, can say anything regardless of how biased or absurd, and they'll still be back on the airways night-after-night. {Talking-head pundits save the networks from having to spend money to go out and actually cover the news}. Vidal comes from a far different perspective: Her job is to keep Cuba a sovereign nation. If she makes a major mistake in judging U.S.-Cuban relations, Revolutionary Cuba would probably become another Puerto Rico -- that is, a U. S. Territory. As I have documented earlier via reliable Spanish sources, Vidal many, many months ago predicted Rubio would be the next U. S. President.

       Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Cuba's Josefina Vidal already preparing for a Rubio presidency is her opinion of what it would mean for her tenacious but vulnerable island. She discussed her thoughts about Rubio with a surprised friend, a trusted journalist, visiting from Spain. The friend asked, "Then what would a Rubio presidency mean for Cuba?" Vidal instantly replied, "It would mean the Batistianos had captured the United States government before re-capturing the Cuban government." Americans are invited to ponder that quotation and that scenario, just as they would be wise to Google data and then decide if Josefina Vidal indeed knows more about U. S. politics than all the American political pundits combined!!

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A BIG Day for Cuba

Biggest In Half A Century!!

      The graphic above heralds the fact that today -- Monday, November 2nd, 2015 -- might be the biggest day in over half a century for the island of Cuba. Today starts the 33rd International Trade Fair on the outskirts of Havana. It is the first event since the thawing of Cold War animus in U.S.-Cuban relations, highlighted by the re-opening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. More than 120 nations, including the U. S., are major participants in this year's Cuban Trade Fair.

       This photograph explains why today is a seminal day in the annals of Cuba. This is a brand-new Oggun Tractor. It was made at a Cleber LLC factory in Alabama. It is shown above after arriving at a port in Cuba and it will be one of the U. S. highlights at today's opening of the Cuban Trade Fair. Moreover, with the thawing of U.S.-Cuban relations, Cleber LLC plans to build a factory in Cuba to make such tractors using Cuban workers and Cuban materials. A major article in USA Today today points out that this tractor is "an unusual sight" in Cuba because "for decades Cuba was barred from importing most U. S. goods" such as "an American-owned, American-made tractor ready for sale." This tractor is already breaking fallow Cuban ground.

         Contrast the photo of the brand-new tractor with this photo. This image still coats the minds of Americans, like me, who have visited Cuba and witnessed hard-working Cuban farmers using Oxen to plow their fields. This photo was taken in the ultra-beautiful and fertile Vinales Valley. It helps explain why Cuba has to purchase about 80% of its food. It also explains one of the corollary, even genocidal, offshoots of the U. S. embargo against Cuba, which has shamed America as much as it has hurt Cuba since 1962. America's unmatched economic and military power influences all nation's of the world, including punishment of other nations that do business with Cuba. The embargo also prohibits modern farming equipment and spare parts that Cuban farmers sorely need. That's why, thanks to a brave President Obama, Americans should comprehend the difference between the photo of the new tractor and the photo of the Cuban farmer plowing his field using a pair of oxen.

Jodi Hanson Bond is Vice President of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.

         Jodi Bond has visited Cuba many times in her untiring and courageous effort to help American businesses and the Cuban people in defiance of a U. S. embargo dictated by a handful of vicious Cuban-Americans and their easily acquired, self-serving sycophants in the U. S. Congress. In today's U. S. Today {November 2nd, 2015} Jodi Bond, a key participant in Cuba's International Trade Fair, said, "Who does the best entrepreneurial work in the world? U. S. businesses. So we have significant expertise in showing how entrepreneurs can grow a business and grow the island of Cuba to a place of prosperity." But she also told U. S. Today that obstacles remain, not only the embargo but also such Cuban impediments as its out-moded and confusing dual currency.

        The monumental detente/rapprochement/cordiality forged in 2015 by Presidents Castro and Obama is still strongly and shamefully opposed by a rich and powerful minority of second generation of Cuban-Americans who have massively benefited since 1959 by the lucrative Castro Industry in the United States, still going strong as Fidel, battling severe health issues, ages to 89.

         This Ramon Espinosa photo shows Josefina Vidal, Cuba's top Minister on all matters concerning the United States, hosting New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in Cuba back in April. Mr. Cuomo is being joined by a long, long list of American leaders who desire friendly business relations with Cuba as boons to their states' economy. Such a relationship would not only benefit most Cubans and most Americans but also strongly improve the image of the United States and democracy in the eyes of the entire world, as an emphatic statement in the UN stressed last week.

       Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mario Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Robert Menendez and their easily acquired, self-serving sycophants in the U. S. Congress maintain that this Cuban farmer should be forced to continue using oxen -- instead of new tractors from Alabama -- to till his land. After over a half-century of sheer cowardice and unfathomable ignorance that has enabled such anti-democratic and inhumane dictations to exist, perhaps it is time for Americans to stand up for this innocent farmer...and for democracy...and challenge a policy that the civilized world abhors.

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