U.S.-Cuba In The New Year

Advances vs. Roadblocks
{Sunday, January 10th, 2016}

      Marselha Goncalves Margerin has devoted her life to human rights, especially for women and children. A graduate of American University in Washington, her first job was with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Then she worked for the United Nations, especially earning plaudits for yeoman efforts in Haiti. Since August of 2014, Marselha has been Amnesty International's Advocacy for the Americas. On Jan. 7-2016 the Associated Press had a major article on human rights in Cuba written by the AP's Havana correspondents Andrea Rodriguez and Michael Weissenstein. Regarding Cuba's treatment of dissidents, Marselha was quoted with this succinct, one-sentence reply: "The reforms that have to be made in terms of restrictions of liberty must come from the Cuban government, not from the government of the United States." It was a very simple and forthright reply, but one that very few knowledgeable and informed Americans have the courage to make. Instead, proselytized or politically correct Americans routinely answer or suggest that the United States, not Cuba, should mandate and judge human rights in Cuba. The Rodriguez-Weissenstein AP article that quoted Marselha also stated: "Cuba's dissidents are viewed with skepticism by many ordinary Cubans who question their backing and motivation." NO KIDDING!! Most Americans who actually live or work in Cuba, including journalists, are surprised at the relatively small number of dissidents despite all the well-funded U. S. regime-change programs. YET, as the AP article in January of 2016 indicated, many skeptical "ordinary" Cubans "question their backing and motivation." In other words, the plethora of tax-funded regime-change programs routinely and lavishly funded by the U. S. Congress backfire time-and-again in Cuba, repeatedly making the pugnacious island more determined than ever to be a sovereign nation. Even hints of U. S. support or financing of dissidence in Cuba boosts the revolutionary government and leaves the normal influence of the U. S. government a non-factor. Americans for decades have been propagandized to base their opinions of Cuba on what Miami extremists or other biased politicians, journalists or bloggers tell them. But the aforementioned AP update from Havana reveals why Americans would be smarter to depend on what unbiased experts say. Regarding changes in Cuba, Amnesty International's rational is correct:

                "The reforms that have to be made in terms of restrictions of liberty must come from the Cuban government, not from the government of the United States."

        Andrea Schneider is a Law Professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee. She and two other law professors at Marquette are taking 25 of their students to Cuba for a week. Ms. Schneider told WISN 12 News in Milwaukee, "I think it's a real opportunity for students to learn about the people we've kind of seen as the other for so long in U. S. diplomatic relations." Ms. Schneider is among a fast-growing segment of Americans anxious to take advantage of President Obama's historic overtures to Cuba, slicing into six decades in which Americans, even in the world's greatest democracy, have been dictated to on the topic of Cuba. One of those dictates not only dissuaded Americans from traveling to Cuba to judge it for themselves but actual U. S. laws SINCE 1962 have long prevented everyday Americans from visiting one place on this planet -- Cuba. This helps Cuban-exile extremists to more easily proselytize Americans regarding their points of view about the nearby island. Andrea Schneider, and others...thanks to President Barack Obama...prefer having the freedom to judge Cuba first-hand as opposed to being at the mercy of having force-fed, biased opinions rammed down their throats.

      Sarah Stephens is the democracy-loving chieftain of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. Because she is a democracy-lover who happens to know more about U.S.-Cuban relations than anybody else, don't expect to see her on American television "news" programs discussing U.S.-Cuban relations. That's left up to anti-Cuban zealots like pundit Ana Navarro and the two Cuban-American presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Yet, when it comes to Cuba, she has had far more influence on President Obama than all those pundits and Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress combined. Each week on the Center for Democracy in the Americas website, Ms. Stephens posts a "Cuba Central" summary that is the best update, each and every week, on U.S.-Cuban relations. Her insightful article this second week of January is entitled: "Cuba and the U. S. -- The State of the Reunion." She wrote:
               "During the first days of the New Year, we got to see first-hand the benefits of the Obama policy when we joined a trade delegation led by Virginia's Governor Terry McAuliffe -- a visit that produced cooperation agreements between the Cuban and Virginia Port Authorities, and between Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Havana. McAuliffe, who delighted onlookers by driving a 1956 pink Chevrolet Bel Air named Lola around Havana, concluded his visit to Cuba by previewing an appeal he promised to make to Paul Ryan, the House Speaker; Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader; and the members of the House and Senate across the political aisle." Ms. Stephens said that Governor McAuliffe told Congressional leaders Ryan and McConnell: "2016 needs to be the year that we move our relationship forward, that we end the embargo and we do the right thing for the citizens of the United Sates of America and the citizens of Cuba." 

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe at Cuba's Mariel Port.

Governor McAuliffe making his case for improved U.S.-Cuban relations.

       But Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan -- the two leaders of the 535-member, Republican-controlled U. S. Congress -- tend only to merely grin and smirk when people like Governor McAuliffe plead for sanity and decency to prevail in America's Cuban policy. McConnell and Ryan only take their Cuban orders from self-serving benefactors of a failed policy that has existed since the 1950s. And that simply won't change.

       Which brings us back around to Sarah Stephens, the democracy-loving American who heads the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. In her January 9th CDA website update, she wrote: "What's exciting to us is that the administration continues moving forward on efforts to broaden and deepen the reforms. REUTERS broke an exclusive story this afternoon saying the U. S. government is finally considering putting an end to the program that lures Cuban doctors and nurses off their foreign postings with promises of easy entry into the United States. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and more than a dozen colleagues urged the administration to cancel the program, especially after lauding what Cuba had done to fight the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa." Ms. Stephens added that the U. S. effort to induce Cuban doctors to defect to the U. S. was "conceived under President George W. Bush as a brain-drain effort" and was not "consistent with Obama's new, long overdue direction."

       Rep. Rosa DeLauro, praised by Sarah Stephens for trying to end the "brain drain" of Cuban doctors, is emblematic of Americans tired of America's Cuban policy that, for decades, has been dictated by extreme elements from the ousted Batista dictatorship in Cuba aligned with self-serving acolytes such as the Bush dynasty. Most Americans, Cuban-Americans, and citizens of the world agree with Congresswoman DeLauro but, when it comes to Cuba, the U. S. democracy rarely considers the majority. YET, that doesn't mean that democracy-lovers like Rosa DeLauro...and Sarah Stephens...will give up trying to make things right.

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Miami's Cuban Politics

Democracy, Revenge, & Capitalism
{Updated: Saturday, January 9th, 2016}

         Patrick Oppman, CNN's Havana correspondent, has been reporting all week about a new deal frantically signed by Mexico and five other Latin American nations to finally use airplanes and buses to transport over 8,000 Cubans to the Mexico border. Once there, when their front toe touches U. S. soil, they instantly become, quite unlike all non-Cubans, legal residences of the U. S. complete with instant welfare. Since 1966, of course, this extremely discriminatory practice has been a "legal" law designed to entice Cubans, and only Cubans, to the U. S. for the purpose of hurting Castro, not so unlike the terrorist bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 that was heralded in the Miami media as the "biggest blow yet against Castro."

     Wet Foot/Dry Foot, enacted into law by the U. S. Congress in 1966, has much in common with Cubana Flight 455, although Wet Foot/Dry Foot is very legal and the terrorist bombing of the civilian airplane was not. Both, however, have been largely condoned by a huge segment of the intimidated or unconcerned American people. The demise of Cubana Flight 455 took place Oct. 6-1976 and, from that day till this day, Americans have been persuaded not to express an opinion about it. The same thing has happened to Wet Foot/Dry Foot since 1966 although non-American democracy-lovers in the Caribbean, Latin America and the world believe that it is -- like many U. S. laws designed to hurt Castro while also enriching and empowering Cuban migrants -- grossly discriminating against all non-Cubans, meaning such laws are unbecoming for the world's most famed democracy. That's why CNN's ongoing coverage of the months-long debacle in Costa Rica is so very important.  

         CNN's Patrick Oppmann this week has detailed how over 8,000 Cubans have been blocked in Costa Rica for many weeks because a lot of Latin American nations are not too pleased with America's Cuban laws that they feel discriminate against their citizens who would be detained and deported if they touched U. S. soil. Costa Rica as well as other nations such as Panama and Nicaragua are tired of putting up with thousands of Cubans, stranded or otherwise, heading to the U.S.-Mexican border, some of whom have reportedly paid as much as $15,000 apiece to human traffickers who claim, falsely, that President Obama is capable of ending Wet Foot/Dry Foot, which only Congress could do, as those human traffickers gleefully well know. Frantically, as Patrick Oppman reports on CNN, Costa Rica, Mexico, and other outraged countries have reached agreement to start flying and busing the stalled Cubans to the U.S.-Mexican border on January 12th. The whole mess centered in Costa Rica highlights the sheer insanity of the world's greatest democracy allowing, decade after decade, a handful of self-serving zealots to easily use the U. S. Congress to legalize laws that favor one group of people while alarmingly discriminating against all others.

Meanwhile:

Photo courtesy: The Miami Herald.

         The Miami Herald this week had a major article entitled: "Miami-Dade Pursuing Ferry Service To Cuba From Port-Miami." In fact, there are numerous commercial enterprises in the state of Florida, including Miami, and other cities and farms across America that long to do business with Cuba now that a bold and brave President, Mr. Obama, has opened some doors that had been closed since 1959. Ports from New Orleans to Miami to Virginia, as emphasized this week when Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe visited the Port of Mariel, have long competed to be at the forefront of doing business with Cuba when, or if, the embargo is ever lifted. Yet, with a stranglehold on Congress, a few extremists can easily prevent that, even though many experts believe that -- in capitalist America -- the vast plethora of American businesses, large and small, that desire opportunities to conduct commerce with Cuba will finally, one day, prevail. Sadly, that's not the way Congress operates.

     Carlos Gimenez is a smart and powerful man. He seems to believe that President Obama's commendable efforts to normalize relations with Cuba will help the vast majority of Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and all Americans...as well as enormously boost the worldwide image of the U. S. and its democracy. Carlos Gimenez was born on January 17th, 1954 in Havana. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship on January 1, 1959, the parents of Carlos Gimenez migrated to the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Carlos Gimenez since 2011 has been the Mayor of Miami. He was preceded as Miami's Mayor by like-minded anti-Castro zealots Carlos Alvarez and Alex Penelas. But more and more, Cuban-Americans like Carlos Gimenez disagree with the hard-line Miami members of the U. S. Congress who insist on maintaining and even strengthening anti-Castro laws that, coincidentally, enrich and empower Cuban-Americans and also provide powerful financial and residential incentives for Cubans on the island to defect to the USA.

   Carlos Gimenez, as the Cuban-born Mayor of Miami, seems to believe it is finally time to get past the Cold War treatment of a fast-changing Cuba. He understands that crafting U. S. laws to hurt the soon-to-be 90-year-old Fidel Castro, while enriching and empowering Cuban migrants, exiles and selected Cuban-Americans, has become somewhat counter-intuitive to the goals and ideals of most Americans, including moderate Cubans in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

     Meanwhile, as the New Year of 2016 sits atop the Old Year of 2015, four Cuban-American members of the U. S. Congress from Miami and one from New Jersey can easily dictate America's complex and layered Cuban laws...in a legislative body that has 535 mostly helpless and muted members. That's why the 1966 Wet Foot/Dry Foot law, in this first month of 2016, is roiling a host of Latin American countries that are trying desperately to do something about more than 8,000 Cubans stranded in Costa Rico on their way to seeking special privileges once they touch U. S. soil at the Mexican border. When that problem is finally resolved, many more will surely follow in 2016 and beyond. All the while, just as they were not supposed to react to Cubana Flight 455 and its lingering aftermath, Americans will be expected not to offer opinions on such tangible and visible things as Wet Foot/Dry Foot, the democracy-sapping U. S. embargo of Cuba, and other dreadful aspects of America's Cuban policy that would be fixable if this generation of Americans was just a tiny bit more courageous.

Cubana Flight 455-- Oct. 6, 1976.

9,000+ Cubans stranded in Costa Rica & Panama -- January, 2016.

        Perhaps the U. S. Congress should apologize to Costa Rica, Panama, and all the other countries harmed by a Cuban policy it so steadfastly clings to, not to mention an apology to the survivors of the 73 people that were aboard Cubana Flight 455.

      Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois, has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress since 1993. Yesterday -- Jan. 7th, 2016 -- he was furious at fellow Democrat, President Obama, for deporting non-Cubans. The Associated Press in articles today says that Mr. Gutierrez said, among other things, "In the Hispanic caucus, there is a real sense of outrage!" Puerto Rico, for example, is a U. S. Territory and its citizens can vote and are represented in Congress. But recent reports say A THOUSAND Puerto Ricans A WEEK are arriving permanently in Miami and New York to join millions of other Puerto Ricans in the U. S. because of the poverty and crime on their Caribbean island. As U. S. citizens they can't be deported but other non-Cubans can and readily are, according to Congressman Guiterrez, who was born in Chicago and is of Puerto Rican descent. So, favoring Cubans upsets everyone...EXCEPT CUBANS!!

       Every day of every year thousands of migrants risk their lives to get to the U. S., especially from poverty-stricken, crime-infested countries like Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. But they are all, including children, subject to being arrested and deported. All except Cubans, that is. Cubans are home-free merely by touching U. S. soil.

       This photo shows why many Cuban hotels are sold out for the entire year of 2016. It was raining in Havana yesterday when a German plane carrying Deputy Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabrile arrived with a 60-member delegation mostly made up German business executives. That's Mr. Gabriel in the center in the black coat. He announced that he and his entourage want to "create an economic opening on the island as Cuba's economy embraces major changes. Germany can invest and should be a participant in Cuba's economic revival. Bilateral trade and commerce between Germany and Cuba is a natural. Germany should be Cuba's major trade partner in Europe." Germany is Europe's richest country. It now trails France and Spain as Cuba's major trading partners in Europe.

And a Cuban very-hard-to-believe-but-true story:

       This photo shows a U. S. military helicopter firing two highly sophisticated, laser-guided Hellfire missiles. Today the U. S. government is frantic because one of its Hellfire missiles is missing and -- IN CUBA!! I kid you not!! The Hellfire missile was shipped from Orlando to Spain and then was, for some reason, being shipped back to the U. S. via France. But an Air France transport plane, on a regular flight to Cuba, dropped it off at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana. The United States badly wants it back because of fears it could be broken down and its secrets given to Russia, China, Iran, or some other military competitor. Cuba, meanwhile, apparently has no ill intentions with its unexpected Hellfire missile but, understandably, the Cuban government is wondering if its arrival in Cuba was just a stupid mistake or...something more devious. As I said, I kid you not BUT SOMETIMES I WISH I WERE.

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A Great Man Cries

And With Good Reason
{Updated for: Thursday, January 7th, 2016}

         America's Barack Obama has now started the final year of his two-term, 8-year presidency. This week -- Monday, January 5th, 2016 -- the whole wide world watched as the President of the United States unashamedly cried. And millions of democracy-lovers worldwide cried with him. The salient tears were for...the United States. An exceedingly smart and decent man, Mr. Obama -- the leader of the world's richest and strongest nation -- had ample reason to cry as the rest of the world watched. During his presidency, Mr. Obama has tried desperately to help the 300 million Americans not among the rich elite. And he has done as much as he can, such as: {1} Obamacare, a plan to help provide health care for those who can't afford it; {2} Iran, a plan to try to prevent a Middle Eastern power from getting nuclear weapons because it would exacerbate a part of the world that is already a tender-box largely due to the mistakes he inherited from the two-term George W. Bush presidency; {3} Cuba, a shameful U. S. policy that, perhaps more than any other issue, has mocked the U. S. image worldwide for well over half a century; {4+}, etc.

           During a tumultuous seven years as President, Mr. Obama -- a brave and deeply concerned man -- has cried many times as America's "Consoler-in-Chief." Time and again many Americans have cried with him as scores of innocent people -- such as the two-dozen little kids at Sandy Hook Elementary School -- were gun-downed in a gun-crazed society that arms vicious criminals and the mentally ill. And yet, his sane efforts to do something about it have consistently been met and thwarted by sheer right-wing insanity.

       Jonah Goldberg, the antithesis to President Obama, was born 46 years ago in Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York City. Within the bowels of the world's strongest democracy, he has never been a candidate for public office. Yet, on issues such as gun control, the environment, health care and educational opportunities for the non-affluent, Cuba, etc., Mr. Goldberg and his ilk often have more power than a two-term President. Mr. Goldberg is a lobbyist in a lobbyist-dictated U. S. government. He is an American Enterprise Institute fellow and National Review contributing editor. He is also a prime Editorial propagandist as a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors. As such, this week -- the day the President cried in front of the whole world -- Mr. Goldberg used almost a whole page in America's biggest newspaper to excoriate a great man, President Obama. One paragraph of Goldberg's scathing January 5th article was: "Obama doesn't really care. He sees his job as doing the things he wants to do and being the sort of president his biggest fans want him to be. That why over the holidays, he reportedly ordered his lawyers to 'scrub' the laws to find ways so he can take new unilateral action against gun ownership."

      Highly funded and normally unchallenged right-wing organizations in the U. S. with patriotic-sounding titles  -- such as The Heritage Foundation, Jonah Goldberg's American Enterprise Institute, The Tea Party, The National Rifle Association, etc. -- have not only infiltrated the pillars of the U. S. government but they have largely usurped both it and the Republican Party, which is one-half of the U. S. two-party system.

       And then, using a readily available and huge segment of the U. S. media, lobbyist such as Mr. Goldberg can endlessly preach to the choir, which unfortunately is now large enough to predicate who gets elected to the dysfunctional, largely bought-and-paid-for but ultra-powerful U. S. Congress, which "functions" despite having a national approval rating in the single digits. That's because the 535-member Congress can have a Tea Party zealot from South Carolina who alone can dictate abominations to the whole country on things such as gun control, or a Cuban-American zealot from Miami {whose father was a key Minister in the overthrown Batista dictatorship back in the 1950s} who can now dictate Cuban policy by such things as "slipping" anti-Cuban legislation into a multi-billion-dollar "must-paid" bill that is veto-proof and thus beyond the scope of a decent President's veto. In such a milieu, that decent President is also stymied when he tries to protect 5-years-olds at Sandy Hook Elementary School from a gun-crazed society.

        Yes, this week -- January 5th, 2016 -- a great, twice-elected President of the United States cried unabashedly as the whole wide world watched. You would cry too, I believe, if you were prevented from possibly saving 20+ children at an elementary school from being gunned down by a crazed gunman who had no problem getting access to an arsenal of military-type weapons. Mr. Obama, like America's great Founding Fathers, envisioned an ethereal America that would do all it possibly could to protect the most innocent and the most vulnerable among us -- such as those 5-year-old girls and boys at Sandy Hook Elementary School. What they didn't envision were loopholes in the U. S. Congress and a government at the mercy of self-serving and well-funded lobbyists. Therefore, Mr. Obama's tears yesterday were well-deserved and well-earned. His epic quest to avoid a post-apocalyptic United States will likely succumb to darker forces. Yes, I cried yesterday along with my President and those parents from Sandy Hook who, as shown above, bravely stood beside America's two-term President, Mr. Obama. An America that supports those parents, Mr. Obama, and the exalted office he holds, is the America that we and the entire world so badly needs. Money-crazed lobbyists overrunning Washington is the last thing America and the world needs.

Anyway, that's my sincere opinion.
Meanwhile:

Photo courtesy of: Desmond Boylan/Associated Press.

     The above photo shows the Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, stopping off at Cuba's refurbished, state-of-the-art, deep-water Port of Mariel on his three-day visit to the island this week. At the above microphone, Mr. McAuliffe made a long extemporaneous speech. While praising the reception his 30-member entourage received in Cuba, he repeated what he has being saying for years: "I always thought the embargo was a silly policy." But, of course, a silly policy that, since 1962, has continued to hurt Cuba and demean America. Among other things, while in Cuba this week, Governor McAuliffe signed an agreement that hopefully will greatly expand trade between the mammoth Port of Virginia in Norfolk and the Port of Mariel, 28 miles southwest of Havana and 100 miles directly south of Key West, Florida. 

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The U.S.-Cuban Circus

An Unending Carousel

Photo montage courtesy of: John Minchillo/Associated Press.

      Monday night {January 4, 2016}, even though I am an unabashed newshound, I turned off TV News because, as I often do, I tired of a saturation of Talking Head pundits incessantly Talking About a fresh uproar about presidential candidate Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly, the Anchor/Princess for Fox News. The latest fracas erupted when Kelly made this attention-getting, ratings-boosting comment: "Before Donald Trump launched his presidential bid, he tried to woo me. But I can't be wooed. I was never going to love him, and I was never going to hate him." WOW! That's a headline-grabbing statement, even in this money-crazed and media-distorted presidential election year of 2016!! First off, both Trump and Kelly are long-married with children. Secondly, Kelly's laughable statement that she doesn't "hate him" is ridiculous. She hates Donald Trump because, amazingly, she considers him a threat to win the Republican presidential nomination over her beloved obvious choice Marco Rubio. The high-profile Kelly anchored the Republican debate carried by Fox News. Kelly began that debate with a famous GOT-YOU question fired unceremoniously at Donald Trump. She asked, with a sly grin: "You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. You once told a contestant on 'Celebrity Apprentice' it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like a temperment of a man we should elect President?" The opening question, of course, was designed to undermine Trump's amazing position as front-runner in the Republican primary, ahead of Kelly's beloved Marco Rubio. For months now, Kelly's question and Trump's bloody reaction have made headlines, exacerbated this week by Kelly's amazing assertion that Trump once tried to...uh, uh..."woo" her.

         Meanwhile, while Megyn Kelly tries desperately to derail Donald Trump on behalf of Marco Rubio, Rubio himself has carte blanche to appear nightly on Megyn Kelly's highly rated prime-time "news" program on Fox "News." Now that's important, for this very specific reason: Fox News is by far the highest rated cable news operation in the United States...even though any unbiased analyst would consider it nothing more and nothing less than a right-wing propaganda machine that has long-since turned off even many lifelong conservative Republicans like me.

       Having Megyn Kelly and the other Fox News anchors promoting him nightly is a huge advantage, and perhaps a pivotal one, for Marco Rubio. Also, most CNN, MSNBC, Aljazeera America, NBC, CBS, and ABC network anchors favor Rubio. Also, so do most conservative, right-wing, and Jewish billionaires as well as the Tea Party. So did the Bush dynasty, at least until Rubio side-swiped and zoomed past his mentor, Jeb Bush, in his quest for the White House, a quest that began the very first day Rubio set foot in the Senate. Now, in the first week of January in the decisive year of 2016, Rubio has only to catch Donald Trump and Ted Cruz to lock up the Republican presidential sweepstakes. With influential "journalists" such as Megyn Kelly fervently promoting him, Rubio is on his way.

         This Vanity Fair cover illustrates just how influential Megyn Kelly and Fox News really are. Enough to hand the Republican nomination to Marco Rubio? Probably.

         On a given night in America, Fox News has over 3 million viewers in prime-time, far more than the other cable news networks combined. The 3 million loyal Fox News viewers are almost exclusively Republicans. So, yes, Fox can tilt the Republican presidential sweepstakes to Marco Rubio even with his many flaws and a track-record in the U. S. Senate that is nil, expect for blocking the highly qualified Roberta Jacobson's nomination as Ambassador to Mexico because of her alleged "sin" in brilliantly representing the U. S. in diplomatic negotiations with Cuba, one of many obstinate stances by Rubio that even most Cuban-Americans in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood oppose. Yet, a lot of billionaire dollars and Fox News can put Rubio in the White House as of January, 2017, thanks to the three-ring circus known as U. S. politics. UH, DID MEGAN KELLY ACTUALLY ACCUSE DONALD TRUMP OF TRYING TO "WOO" HER? The answer, I'm sorry to say, is...yes, she did! WOW!!

Meanwhile, great U.S.-Cuban news:

     Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe this week has made historic connections on his three-day trip to Cuba!! On Day #2 of his visit yesterday -- Jan. 4th-2016 -- McAuliffe signed an historic agreement for the Virginia Port Authority to work with its Cuban counterpoint, the refurbished Port of Mariel. McAuliffe's state airplane had special permission to land at Havana's Jose Marti Airport Sunday. His 30-person delegation includes other top Virginia officials as well as 20 key Virginia business executives. McAuliffe hopes Virginia can sharply increase its commerce with Cuba and that Virginia's huge port will take over as the main port doing business with Cuba. He chastised the head of Smithfield Foods for currently shipping pork to Florida to transport it to Cuba, saying such an arrangement was "stupid." The enthused Governor told newsmen, "I just think Cuba is a huge potential for us for many years to come. We're coming here to plant the American flag!" He also arranged for Virginia Commonwealth University, the huge public university in Richmond, to sign an historic agreement with the University of Havana to exchange collaborative programs and research.

          Terry McAuliffe has only been Virginia's Governor since 2014. But on the national stage...he is a former Chairman of the National Democratic Party...back in 2009 he went to Cuba to lobby for Virginia to sell apples and wine to Cuba. Yesterday back in Cuba as Virginia's Governor, McAuliffe met with two top economic Ministers for Cuba -- Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz and Rodrigo Malmierca -- and told them, "I've had long-standing opposition to the U. S. embargo targeting Cuba." He also reminded them of his "high-level Washington connections." He toured Havana yesterday, expecially the Havana Hilton and bars once frequented by famed Americans including Earnest Hemingway. On the street, a Cuban named Julio Alvarez asked McAuliffe, "Do you want to see my car?" It was a pink-and-white 1956 Chevy. McAuliffe took a look and said, "No, I want to drive it!" And so he did, all around Havana! His tour guide was Ayleen Robainas. At one stop she pointed out to the Governor a 1906 building that Cuba was renovating to make it a "nice hotel." McAuliffe wondered if Cuba could make use of Virginia material in the renovation process. Ayleen replied, "No, we will do it on our own." It was a gentle reminder that, as Cuba reshapes its economy, it has, at the moment at least, more trust in dealing with countries more friendly than the United States. But...Governor McAuliffe and the other 29 important Virginians traveling with him are trying to change that.

Terry McAuliffe.

Virginia's dynamic, Cuba-friendly Governor!!

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Cuba Captures America!!!

Don't Laugh! It's Possible!

       Naples, Florida is a luscious and gorgeous city of 21,000 well-to-do and highly intelligent souls. They and millions of tourists consider it the Garden Spot of America.

         Naples is located southeast of Tampa and due northwest of Miami on Florida's southwest coast. You can also notice that it is due northeast of Havana, Cuba.

      If you visit Naples you might want to stay at the splendid Ritz Carlton Hotel. Both the beach and one of America's very best golf courses are just a few yards away.

        Naples also has a splendid newspaper -- The Naples Daily News. All  citizens of Naples, of course, are familiar with America's, and especially Florida's, close but testy relationship with Cuba, especially since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 chased the Batistiano dictators to Florida -- drastically altering Cuba, Florida, and America. Some citizens of Naples are concerned that Cuba might be about to capture the United States. Now if that sounds far-fetched, it actually isn't. Cuba has a key official, Josefina Vidal, who...by necessity...probably knows more about the U. S. government than any person on the planet. She is, in fact, probably the prime reason the U. S., on behalf of a vicious segment of America's rich and powerful Cuban-American community, has not re-captured Cuba. And as Ms. Vidal assesses the 2016 Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns, she recently made this succinct and not-so-far-fetched comment: "The Batistianos seem to have a new plan to re-capture Cuba. Their plan is to capture the U. S. first and THEN re-capture Cuba." Ms. Vidal, and some astute citizens of Naples, have noticed that two Cuban-Americans -- Marco Rubio of Miami and Ted Cruz of Texas -- are cruising to the Republican nomination to be President of the United States. They also note that the new President -- who will take office on January 20th-2017 -- will also be America's Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, Ms. Vidal -- and some astute citizens of Naples -- anticipate something akin to the Bay of Pigs on or shortly after January 20, 2017. Now is this sounding less far-fetched? It should. This week, I believe the most interesting item in the Naples Daily News was a letter-styled article entitled "Isolating Cuba." It was penned by David Goldstein. Like Vidal in Havana, Goldstein in Naples worries about either Rubio or Cruz becoming the next Commander-in-Chief. Goldstein wrote these exact words in the Naples Daily News:
                       "It's too bad that both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are more focused on running for President than they are on their day jobs as U. S. Senators.
                   Even though both of them came from families that benefited from the special treatment given Cuban refugees, they both continue to oppose normalizing relations between Cuba and the U. S.
                          Until President Obama acted to reverse 50 years of a failed policy, the U. S. stood alone in its effort to isolate Cuba. Although Sen. Rubio refused to leave the campaign trail to vote on the trillion-plus dollar budget bill (which he opposed), he did find time to put a 'hold' on the nomination of Roberta S. Jacobson as ambassador to Mexico. Ms. Jacobson is a State Department veteran who is fluent in Spanish, and is exactly the kind of person we need to advance U. S. interests in Mexico and Central America. The Mexican government expressed support as did the Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
                            Unfortunately, because Ms. Jacobson, while serving as an Assistant Secretary of State, helped negotiate the thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba Sen. Rubio placed a 'hold' on her candidacy, thereby preventing her from receiving what should have been a pro forma vote of approval.
                           Although 'holds' are not in the Constitution, they are in the Senate's rules and, as in this instance, are often used to thwart the will of both the Senate and the President."
           The above article this week from the Naples Daily News is an exact word-for-word quotation. I use it for this reason: It points out that the mainstream U. S. media, unlike excellent small newspapers like the one in Naples, does not have the competence, patriotism, or courage to challenge even the most meretricious, hedonistic, avaricious, and indecent acts of anti-Americanism committed by Cuban-American extremists even in defiance of most Cuban-Americans who, for sure, oppose such extremism. From Florida, Texas, and New Jersey, only hard-line Cuban-American extremists make it to the U. S. Congress, where they can easily use nuances or loopholes to craft legal laws that harm everyone but them and their easily obtained sycophants. Take, for example, the point in the Naples Daily News about Rubio's "hold" to block the nomination of Roberta Jacobson as Ambassador to Mexico, which is harming America and Mexico. However, Rubio does not have to worry that it will cost him a single donation or a single vote on his White House bid.

      Undeniably, Roberta Jacobson is the most qualified American to be Ambassador to Mexico. But in diplomatic sessions with Cuba's Josefina Vidal in 2015, Ms. Jacobson brilliantly represented the United States in trying desperately to correct a failed and cruel U. S. policy that has been allowed to fester for decades thanks to Cuban-American extremism since 1959. Because of that, Marco Rubio is using a quirk in the U. S. Senate's playbook to deny her nomination. Of course, the mainstream U. S. media does not have the guts to call him on it, but the Naples Daily News did.

        Hiding behind the skirts of the U. S. government since 1959, Cuban-American extremists have harmed a lot of decent people -- Americans like Roberta Jacobson, Cuban-Americans like Emilio Milian, etc. Jacobson suffers because she represented the U. S. in diplomatic discussions with Cuba. Milian suffered because he opposed fellow Cuban-Americans committing terrorist acts against innocent Cubans. At one time, Emilio considered leaving his job as a broadcast journalist to run for office in Miami, but he realized that moderate Cuban-Americans couldn't get elected, not even in the greatest democracy in the history of the world. Not since 1959, anyway.

         The volatile Republican race for the White House in 2016 will evolve into a battle between two first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators -- Ted Cruz from Texas and Marco Rubio from Miami. Their only hurdle is the easily hurdled non-politician Donald Trump. Then their only hurdle will be Hillary Clinton, the Democrat who will be gradually worn down by her sex, her age, her Wall Street ties, her politics-as-usual mantle, and her dynastic Clinton name. That's why Cuba's prime defender, Josefina Vidal, expects Rubio to the next Commander-in-Chief of the world's strongest military. {Note: Vidal, of necessity, knows more about the U. S. presidential race than all the television pundits combined}. Vidal realizes that both Cruz and Rubio will be awash with money in a political arena that now allows for unlimited donations from billionaires. Conservative and right-wing billionaires love both Cruz and Rubio. Religious billionaires love Cruz; Jewish billionaires love Rubio. Either man has more than enough money to purchase the White House. Vidal believes that Rubio will triumph because Cruz is too radical for most traditional Republicans. For a lot of past months and future months pundits have and will make a lot of money forecasting 2016's presidential sweepstakes, no matter how wrong they might be. In Cuba, Vidal's forecasting might determine whether Cuba remains a sovereign nation. Vidal thinks Rubio will be the next U. S. president. And Vidal has a country, not just money, at stake. Plus, she's smarter than all those pundits combined.

       So, let's revisit Josefina Vidal's epic prognostication about the 2016 U. S. presidential race: "The Batistianos seem to have a new plan to re-capture Cuba. Their plan is to capture the United States first and THEN re-capture Cuba." WOW! The Batistianos and the U. S. have tried, on a daily basis since 1959, to regain control of Cuba. I mean...the record number of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961, the embargo in 1962, terrorism such as befell Cubana Flight 455, etc. BUT, nothing has worked as Fidel Castro prepares to celebrate his 90th birthday in 2016 at his modest home in Havana. SO NOW, Cuba's primary protector, Vidal, thinks that on or around Jan. 20-2017, with Rubio as Commander-in-Chief, Cuba must prepare for a new tactic -- uh, THE ONE OUT-LINED IN HER QUOTATION ABOVE.

         And speaking of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, I have nothing against a Cuban-American being President of the United States. In fact, I have so much admiration for Cubans, I would gladly accept Cubans, at one and the same time,  being President, Vice President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense. But my problem is this: Only Cuban-American extremists -- and ones who will readily sell-out to the Tea Party, billionaires, and the vast Castro Industry in the United States -- need apply for important electable offices. That sheer and unmistakable fact, I believe, demeans democracy, which is and always will be my first love. In fact, just about every aspect of America's Cuban policy since the 1950s, starting with teaming with the Mafia to support the brutal Batista regime in nearby Cuba in 1952, has demeaned democracy. That's why, for example, all of America's best friends around the world, each October at the United Nations, use their UN vote to express strong disapproval of the U. S. policy regarding Cuba. It is my strong belief that the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba say a lot more about the United States than they say about Cuba. Cuba, after all, is a vulnerable island. The United States, after all, is the world's economic and military superpower. For one vulnerable island to so massively coat the image of the United States around the world is stunning, to say the least. It points out massive chinks in America's vast democratic arsenal, not the least of which is the precipitous decline of the U. S. media. I don't think it necessarily involves the intimidation factor, such as the car-bombing of Emilio Milian when he voiced opposition to terrorism against innocent Cubans. I think it has more to do with the evils of capitalism, not the many positives derived from capitalism. The evils manifest themselves in meretricious hedonism that spawns acerbic and avaricious ludicrousness that callously and userpically eat away at the democratic pillars of a great nation. One of those pillars, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers centuries before the digital age, was the media. That pillar has dissolved, leaving democracy itself vulnerable. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, as contrasted with moderate Cuban-Americans, reflect that vulnerability. For example, the mainstream media -- on a daily basis or in forums such as the ubiquitous Republican debates -- has neither the guts nor the integrity to ask either Cruz or Rubio pertinent questions, such as those raised this week by the aforementioned article in the Naples Daily News {my favorite newspaper, at least this week}. On the campaign trail, for instance, Cruz gets standing ovations when he raves about how his father left Cuba with only "one bill attached to his underwear," BUT LOOK AT ME NOW LIVING THE AMERICAN DREAM JUST TWO STEPS OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. Or, for example, take Rubio who raves on the campaign trail and in the televised debates that his mother and father were hotel maids and bartenders in Miami after "leaving the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of America!" That standard line, almost a tear-jerker, is sure to garner loud applause and plenty of votes. Of course, the mainstream U. S. media will never point out such facts as...Rubio's parents left the tyranny of Batista's Cuba, not Castro's Cuba, and Cubans who touch U. S. soil have privileges, economically and politically, that non-Cubans DO NOT HAVE. Other massive debits attached to Cruz and Rubio -- such as Rubio's financial shenanigans in Florida and the tale Cruz's father tells about fighting with Castro's rebels -- will never be challenged by the mainstream media. Thus, for example, revelations by the Naples Daily News should circumvent the mainstream media when that little newspaper challenges extremist Cuban-Americans about how they got to the U. S. Senate and what they have actually done during their first terms there, aside from running for President/Commander-in-Chief.

{"poco a poco" = "step by step"}

     Poco a poco, the Batistianos may have finally discovered how to re-capture Cuba after so many failures: "The Batistianos seem to have a new plan to re-capture Cuba. Their plan is to capture the United States first and THEN re-capture Cuba."

Now don't blame me for that salient quote:

It should be credited to...Josefina Vidal!! 

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