Cuba: Truth & Lies

In the U. S. media, mostly lies
With exceptions, of course:

      As I have stressed in this forum many times before, great and courageous investigative journalists, such as Tracey Eaton, are vital to the U. S. democracy. That's because the money-crazed, intimidated, and increasingly incompetent mainstream media has become a glaring weakness of the world's greatest government -- the increasingly fragile U. S. democracy. Take, for example, Cuba. The nearby Caribbean island, since the 1950s, has probably been at the forefront, more than any other topic on a day-to-day basis, in shaping the image of American around the world. Yet, the mainstream U. S. media does not have the guts or the integrity to tell the truth about U.S.-Cuban relations, thus leaving the Cuban narrative in the U. S., through two generations now, largely in the hands of a few of the most visceral and belligerent proponents of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that was ousted way back on January 1, 1959. In this digital and 24-hour Cable News era, the cowardice and incompetence of the U. S. media regarding the impact of Cuba on America's image is particularly glaring. For those reasons, the significance of a Tracey Eaton helps elevate the Cuban narrative in the U. S. beyond its Banana Republic-like sphere. He is not only the best investigative journalist regarding Cuba but he is also one of America's greatest Cuban experts, one who regularly presents both sides of the two-sided U.S.-Cuban conundrum. His Along the Malecon website routinely features pertinent Cuban data that only he procures via the Freedom of Information guidelines. His fair-minded articles are published in USA Today, the NY Times, etc. If you rely on the mainstream U. S. media, you will get a distorted view of U.S.-Cuban relations. If you rely on someone like Tracey Eaton, you will be able to make a sound judgment about a U. S. relationship that the rest of the world often uses to make its judgments about America and democracy. This week Tracey Eaton has published a widely distributed and highly informative update on Cuba entitled "Cuba's Fate Up To Cubans, Not Americans." If you missed it, you can Google that title and derive pertinent information regarding Cuba that the mainstream U. S. media does not have the courage or integrity to provide.

      Cristina Escobar is a 28-year-old Cuban who will likely have far more to do with Cuba's future than all of the antagonistic and wealthy Cuban-Americans on U. S. soil combined. Tracey Eaton's update this week -- "Cuba's Fate Up To Cubans, Not Americans" -- followed his interview with Cristina in Cuba. Two insightful videos of that interview are already posted on YouTube, an international forum that has recently spotlighted her brilliance as a Cuban and regional broadcaster as well as her significance as a prime influence on the pivotal young generation of Cubans that will shape the fast-approaching post-Castro era.

            This is an image of Cristina Escobar taken from the interview Tracey Eaton posted on YouTube this week. There is a 15 minute, 22 second version in Spanish and also a 3 minute, 29 second version in which she speaks in Spanish but with an English translation on the screen. You will see and hear her state firmly but matter-of-factly, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." She says it not impishly, defiantly or in an anti-democratic manner but to convey her stark opinion that Cubans on the island should make such choices. She forthrightly mentions the many Cubans who have died fighting for that right. She mentions "Obama," "Congress" and the punitive "Helms-Burton Act" in the context that many in her young-adult generation of Cubans, just like her, are willing to fight to the death for the right to make their decisions as opposed to having them made for them from afar, such as by a Batistiano-dominated U. S. Congress that sicced Helms-Burton on them. The mainstream U. S. media only favors those who agree that Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress should dictate what Cuba is and what it will remain. Tracey Eaton presents that point of view too but, almost uniquely in the U. S., he also airs contrasting views. So, go to YouTube or some other source and hear Cristina say, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." She doesn't mean she doesn't want democracy for her beloved island; she just means she wants Cubans on the island, not self-serving exiles, to decide that phase of Cuba's existence. Cristina and her generation of Cubans are deprived by Helms-Burton and other factors, but they are also well-educated. They have heard about 1952 when supposedly the U. S., the Congress, and the Mafia brought Batistiano-style 'democracy' to the island.

          Because of an inept and cowardly U. S. media, Americans generally believe that President Obama's brave and decent efforts to normalize relations with Cuba will all be wiped away by a handful of Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots, especially the two first-term Senators -- Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- who are prime Republican presidential contenders. But that is over-estimating the self-serving vitriol and power of the likes of Cruz and Rubio while under-estimating the resolve of President Obama and...Cristina Escobar.

      This graphic has received much publicity throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. The "Casa Blanca" reference highlights her dramatic impact at the White House when she was in Washington to cover the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session prior to the 2015 reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. Tracey Eaton's aforementioned article this week references Cristina's Casa Blanca dominance of a White House news conference hosted by Josh Earnest, President Obama's chief spokesman. In a 14-minute span, Earnest answered six consecutive and very pertinent questions from the first Cuban journalist ever afforded such an honor. Afterward, in speeches and interviews around Washington, Cristina stressed one major theme: "Lies in the U. S. media about Cuba hurt everyday Cubans the most." At age 28 it is known that Cristina has turned down millions of dollars, as well as reportedly a free mansion in Miami, if she will defect to the U. S., where she could immediately become a top network news anchor in either English or Spanish.

         Cristina is shown above asking Josh Earnest one of those six questions at the White House news conference: "Will the U. S. continue its regime-change programs?" "Will the new U. S. embassy in Havana respect Cuba?" "Will President Obama visit Cuba in 2016?" Etc. After that very stunning news conference, Cristina, in speeches and interviews while she was still in Washington, repeatedly claimed, "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most." If that is not so, perhaps some brave mainstream U. S. journalist will address the issue, if even to disagree with Cristina. But don't bet on it.

       While the mainstream U. S. media doesn't want you to know who Cristina Escobar is, she is in such high demand for regional and international television interviews that she sometimes has trouble finding time for her main job -- which is being the top prime-time news anchor on Cuban television. Not only is she brilliant, she is feisty. She believes she has more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. in Cuba than U. S. broadcasters have to tell the truth about Cuba in the U. S. And Americans should ponder her belief.

        People who watch television news in the U. S. most likely believe Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and the other four Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress will shape post-Castro Cuba. But people who watch regional and international television news featuring Cristina Escobar most likely believe her generation of Cubans on the island will have the most to say about present and post-Castro Cuba.

        In addition to being a top-notch anchor, Cristina is one of the best television interviewers on the planet. Whether her subjects are pro-Cuba or anti-Cuba, she is unperturbed and gives vent to both sides.

        Hugo Cancio is a Cuban-American who has lived the last 35 years in Miami where he is a leading businessman. But he also has a nice office overlooking the Malecon seawall in Havana, so he divides his time between Miami and his beloved native country. Cristina Escobar {above} conducted an informative interview with Cancio. It is in English and available on YouTube where you can, and should, view it.

       In the English-language interview with Cristina, as you can see on YouTube, Cansio lamented that he and most other Cuban-Americans in Miami are not represented in the U. S. Congress because only anti-Castro zealots are elected in Miami. Cristina responded to that lament with some lamenting of her own.

Study this face. It's 100% Cuban, not 50%.

        Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, backed up by about 25 of America's richest billionaires and propped up by an incompetent and fawning mainstream U. S. media, might well squeeze out and erase much of the sanity President Obama has brought to the U.S.-Cuban quagmire. Then again, come to think of it, they might not.

      In Cuba, you see, there is a dynamic 28-year-old, Cristina Escobar, who is as protective of her island and its much-maligned people as Cruz and Rubio are of their bank accounts and their exalted political careers. She is the firewall of protection against more decades of a U. S. Cuban policy dictated by and for a mere handful of two generations of Cuban-American extremists. For five-plus decades since 1959, Cuba has doggedly remained Cuba...not a colony of imperialist powers such as Spain, the Mafia, or the United States. "Cuba's Fate Up To Cubans, Not Americans." That's the title of Tracey Eaton's article this week after his extensive interview with Cristina Escobar. Her words throughout the article and in the accompanying video oppose the vision of Cuba as espoused, unchallenged, by Cruz and Rubio in the U. S. But on the island, Cristina does challenge them. And she is a force to be reckoned with regarding what Cuba is now and what it will become in its post-Castro future.

The two profiles of Cuba's future -- Maybe!!

The Face of Cuba's future -- Probably!!

Cristina currently curiously contemplating Cuba.

Not to know her is to not know the island.

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Can Rubio Buy The Presidency?

The Answer: Yes

Photo courtesy: Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press.

      The photo above was used to illustrate a report this week on NPR written by Greg Allen. The caption said: "Ferry from Casablanca in Havana Bay on the way to Old Havana in July of 2015." The first line of the article was: "It won't be long until passengers will be able to take a ferry to Cuba from Miami, an idea that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago in a city that's home to Cuban exiles who fled from the Castro regime." Unfortunately, when it comes to politics in Miami, first-generation extremists still dominate the second-generation moderates, such as the ones who want to ferry more commerce and decency across the Florida Straits.

     The NPR article is another reminder that the Cuban-dominated political atmosphere in Miami has changed drastically in recent years with most of its citizens, including Cuban-Americans, now favoring decent overtures to Cuba, such as ending the embargo that was first imposed in 1962 for the then stated purpose of starving and depriving Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. The problem, as reflected by this photo, is the fact that still today moderate, forward-thinking Cuban-Americans need not apply for election to the U. S. Congress from Miami. From the still-entrenched Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in 1989 to the Diaz-Balart brothers to Marco Rubio to Carlos Curbelo, only hard-line, right-wing, and even ethically-challenged Cuban-Americans need apply.

      For over three decades, George Will has probably been America's most read, most visible, and most indelible conservative journalist. But he is not a right-wing extremist. For example, as badly as he wants a Republican in the White House in 2017, Mr. Will is not too fond of the GOP's three leading candidates -- Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. At age 74 in 2016, Will is employed by three high-profile media outlets -- Fox News, Newsweek Magazine, and The Washington Post. His nationally syndicated newspaper column is widely distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group. He is also the most articulate of the conservative journalists. George Will's column this week is entitled: "Rubio's Senate Record of Misjudgment." Paragraph after paragraph, the conservative icon George Will explained why the right-wing, money-crazed, bought-and-paid-for Marco Rubio has, among many other "misjudgments," what Will called a "sugar addition." To quote Will precisely: "His sugar addiction is a reprehensible but not startling example of the routine entanglements of big government and big business. He has benefited from the support of Florida's wealthy sugar producers, who have benefited from sugar import quotas and other corporate welfare that forces Americans to pay approximately twice the world price for sugar. What is, however, startling is Rubio's preposterous defense of this corporate welfare as a national security imperative."

       Marco Rubio as President of the United States is a scary proposition for George Will, America's leading Republican conservative columnist. It should be a scary possibility for all Americans. Will stressed Rubio's sell-out both in Miami and in the U. S. Senate to the Fanjul brothers who have a firm grip on America's sugar monopoly, even more than the Fanjul family had on the sugar monopoly in Cuba prior to the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Rubio's "reprehensible" work in the Senate to secure even more tax-dollars in the form of "corporate welfare" for the Fanjul brothers, who long-ago became ultra-rich largely due to tax-funded corporate welfare from Washington, is just one example of Rubio's ethical lapses. Rubio's "preposterous defense" of his additional welfare for the Fanjuls typifies his shady sell-outs to a host of conservative, right-wing, Cuban-American, and Jewish billionaires, all of whom readily understand that -- of all the Republican presidential candidates, -- Rubio has the largest "for sale" sign on his back. Unfortunately, it might get him the nomination. The Republican party, in order to head-off the Trump bandwagon, will soon whittle down to one "establishment candidate" to take on Trump first and then go against Hillary Clinton. Although he currently trails fellow Cuban-American Ted Cruz in the polls, Rubio will likely end up as the Republican Party's Golden Boy. If so, lifelong conservatives like me...and probably like George Will...will cringe and be forced to support...Clinton.  

          The Pulitzer Prize-winning political Watch-dog -- The Center for Public Integrity -- is your best bet to ascertain whether or not money-crazed politicians, such as Marco Rubio, in a money-crazed political arena, such as the 2016 presidential race, can actually purchase the hallowed White House. Democracy-lovers know that is a distinct possibility since the Supreme Court in 2010 ruled that billionaires can make unlimited donations to support their favorite candidates. An updated article written by Cady Zuvich of The Center for Public Integrity confirms what many already suspected, that Rubio has more than enough conservative, right-wing, and Jewish billionaires to purchase the presidency for at least eight years beginning in January of 2017. {If the White House is for sale, perhaps so is the two-term presidential limit}.

 The two best candidates money can buy!!

Wow!!

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Miami Is NOT Cuba's Capital

Havana Still Has That Distinction
Yet, the Miami-Havana debate is ongoing 

        The above photo is courtesy of the El Salvador Foreign Ministry. It shows the first of the more than 8,000 Cubans, blocked at the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border since November, on an airplane yesterday -- Wednesday, January 13th. They were flown over Nicaragua so they could continue on their way to the Mexico-Texas border. Thanks to a U. S. law known as Wet Foot/Dry Foot, included in the 1966 Cuba Adjustment Act, any Cuban that touches U. S. soil instantly has legal residence and economic welfare. It applies only to Cubans and is one of many U. S. laws -- such as the embargo that dates back to 1962 -- designed to hurt Cuba and provide special privileges and incentives to entice Cubans to defect to the U. S. All other nations strongly resent the discriminatory favoritism accorded only to Cubans. When Nicaragua stopped the land route from Cuba to Texas back in November, the chaos caused acute regional problems.

       The El Salvadorean government Wednesday released this photo showing Cubans being processed on their way to the Mexico-Texas border. Since 1966 all Caribbean and Latin American nations have resented the Wet Foot/Dry Foot U. S. policy that grossly favors Cubans and discriminates against all non-Cubans.

            The above map shows two favored routes human traffickers have devised to get Cubans to the Texas border: {1} Cuba to Guyana by airplane and then by land to Venezuela and then up through Central America to Mexico; and {2} Cuba to Ecuador by airplane and then by land to Colombia to Panama and on up through Central America to Mexico. In November Nicaragua began blocking these tedious land routes.

         This Marco Ruiz/Miami Herald graphic back in November explained how thousands of Cubans got stuck two months ago when Nicaragua stopped their Cuba-to-Texas-to-Miami journey. Only this week have airplane flights, after tedious discussions among a host of involved countries, tried to alleviate this aspect of the ongoing Wet Foot/Dry Foot problem that was legalized by the U. S. Congress in 1966 as one of many laws designed to hurt Cuba by giving very special incentives for Cubans to defect to the United States.

        Tomas Regalado was born 68 years ago in Havana. Since 2009 he has been the Mayor of Miami. He told Aljazeera America Wednesday {January 13th} that Miami, already crowded if not overwhelmed with Cuban exiles, might not be ready to handle the latest influx from the Mexican border. Mayor Regalado said, "We don't need people living on the streets for weeks." Miami is not Florida's capital city; that honor is held by Tallahassee, which is far to the northeast. But Miami is Florida's most dominant city and also, in essence, the capital city for millions of Cuban exiles, making Miami truly an extension of old Havana.

       While Tomas Regalado, born in Havana 68 years ago, is the Mayor of Miami, Carlos Gimenez {above} has been the Mayor of Miami-Dade County since 2011. Mr. Gimenez was born in Havana 61 years ago. So there is not much difference between old Havana in Cuba and modern Miami in nearby South Florida.

       The Fanjul sugar monopoly reigned in Cuba from the 1920s until 1959. After the Cuban Revolution defeated the Batista dictatorship in January of 1959, in short order the Fanjul family -- now led by the brothers Alfonso and Jose Fanjul {above} -- took over the sugar monopoly in South Florida, the Dominican Republic, and the United States!! These ultra-rich brothers exemplify the basic fact that, despite a half-century of hostility, there is not a lot of difference between Havana, the capital of Cuba, and Miami.

Photo courtesy: The Cuban History.com.

        Little Havana is a neighborhood of about 80,000 people, mostly Cuban-Americans, in the heart of Miami, Florida. It's where many of the leaders of the Batista dictatorship quickly settled after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. The still-living remnants from the ousted Batista dictatorship have grown very old, like the soon-to-be 90-year-old Fidel Castro, or have passed away. The first generation in Little Havana still has a visceral hatred of Mr. Castro and his revolution, even perpetrating the myth that Little Havana is the capital of Cuba, at least until they regain control of the pugnacious revolutionary island, in which case many would return to where Havana would be their capital. However, the second generation, born in Little Havana and more Americanized than their parents, is not as stuck in Cold War ideology regarding Cuba.

     The majority of the second generation of Cuban-Americans in Little Havana actually favor normalizing relations with Cuba, including the end of the U. S. embargo that has greatly harmed Cubans on the island and just as greatly harmed the image of the United States and democracy worldwide every year of its existence since 1962. Yet, because of Little Havana's first generation, the Miami area only sends extreme hard-liners to the U. S. Congress, and that includes first-term Senator Marco Rubio as well as both Diaz-Balart brothers {Lincoln Diaz-Balart first and then Mario Diaz-Balart, the sons of an important Batista Minister, Rafael Diaz-Balart)}.

       The talismanic and cataclysmic U. S. support of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was immediately continued in January of 1959 after the Batistianos and Mafiosi fled the victorious Cuban Revolution, with many of the leaders making a bee-line to {or back to} South Florida. With Vice President Richard Nixon, CIA Director Allen Dulles, and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles making the prime U. S. decisions regarding Cuba, the most hard-line exiles from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship were sent to the then-secretive Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, where the U. S. was already training exiles from U.S.-friendly Latin American dictatorships so they could be sent back to protect those dictators. One of the most visceral anti-Castro exiles from Cuba, of course, was Luis Posada Carriles. He quickly graduated as a 2nd Lt. at Fort Benning's then-secretive but now infamous and renamed Army School of the Americas. As you can see in the caption, 2nd Lt. Posada Carriles was a member of the Brigade 2506 that was quickly formed to serve as the CIA/Cuban exile army that would attack Revolutionary Cuba, which it did in April of 1961 at the Bay of Pigs after U. S. bombers had destroyed Cuba's only three military bases. To this day, Posada, who will turn 87 on February 15th, is a heralded and famous citizen of Miami thanks to incredible help, including from Miami members of the U. S. Congress, in getting out of prisons in Venezuela and Panama. But it is not as a soldier that Posada earned his fame; he has been a well-documented, decades-long, unabashed terrorist against anything connected to Fidel Castro or Revolutionary Cuba. He has bragged about deadly bombings of Cuban hotels, etc., and once even bragged about his primary role in the downing of the Cuban civilian airplane, Cubana Flight 455, but later recanted that claim. Posada and many of the other Fort Benning Cuban graduates became key CIA operatives and were well-funded and well-trained in various anti-Cuban, anti-Castro missions. With Castro vilified and Batista sanitized as the Batistianos controlled the Cuban narrative in the U. S., politically powerful Americans, such as the Bush dynasty, could become sycophantic allies of even the most extreme Cuban exiles without having to worry about it hurting their reputations.

      
    The all-time most powerful Cuban-American has been Jorge Mas Canosa. He too graduated from Fort Benning's Army School of the Americas as a 2nd Lt. {see photo} and as an anti-Castro zealot of the first order. By the 1980s the Bush dynasty had anointed Mas Canosa as the leader of the Cuban exiles, as explained in detail by Julia E. Sweig in her book "What Everyone Needs To Know About Cuba." Sweig, a renowned and unquestioned Cuban expert, told how Mas Canosa was advised to study and then replicate AIPAC, the ultra-powerful Israeli lobby. He did, and created the Cuban American National Foundation, which...like AIPAC on behalf of Israel...quickly came to greatly influence the U. S. Congress and all Republican presidents on behalf of the most hard-line Cubans. The sanguine, proselytized, or intimidated American citizens have never questioned such notoriety or influence within their government. 

      In 1983 President Ronald Reagan made an eventful trip to Miami and had important discussions {see photo} with Mas Canosa. From that moment till his death in 1997, Mas Canosa, with the blessing of the Reagan-Bush administration {especially Bush}, was unchallenged as the leader of what essentially became the Cuban-government-in-exile. Mas Canosa became a billionaire in Miami and his dictation to Congress and to Presidents regarding Cuban issues equaled that of AIPAC regarding Israeli issues. Along with Julia E. Sweig, Ann Louise Bardach comprises America's two best expert journalist-authors regarding how Mas Canosa virtually created a Cuban-exile government within the bowels of the U. S. government. Ms. Bardach, in addition to her insightful books {especially "Cuba Confidential"} conducted a famed interview with Luis Posada Carriles for the New York Times. Carriles bragged about his terrorism and thanked U. S. taxpayers and Mas Canosa for funding his enterprises, but later recanted Mas Canosa's support.

       Peter Kornbluh at the National Security Archive in Washington {nsarchive.gwu.edu} has de-classified and posted on its website many U. S. government documents, including the one above from 1965, that Kornbluh says ties the top Cuban-exile leaders to bomb-making related to notorious terrorist acts.

     
      Starting with the two-term Reagan-Bush administration in the 1980s, Mas Canosa's influence on Congress and all Republican administrations was supreme. But, shown here with President Bill Clinton, Mas Canosa also easily controlled or overwhelmed even Democratic presidents on all matters related to Cuba. Mas Canosa was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1939 and died at age 58 in Coral Gables, Florida, just outside Miami, in 1997. By then his MasTec construction company was a billion-dollar enterprise and his name adorned major edifices and buildings all around Miami and Coral Gables.

        Mas Canosa left his three sons his anti-Castro Cuban fervor and his ultra-valuable, billion-dollar MasTec company. But the sons, like most second generation Cuban-Americans, are not nearly as hard-line on America's relations with Cuba as the first generation that their father gigantically epitomized. However, the moderate views of this generation of Cuban-Americans has not translated to moderate Cubans being elected either in Miami or to the U. S. Congress from Miami.

        In 1989 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen became the first in a continuing parade of Bush-connected extreme Miami hard-liners elected to the U. S. Congress. She was followed in short-order by Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, sons of Rafael Diaz-Balart, a key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship and later second in power and wealth only to Mas Canosa in Miami. In the above photo, that's Lincoln on the left and Mario on the right flanking Ros-Lehtinen.

          But it wasn't until the most visceral Cuban exiles had aligned themselves tightly with the Bush political and economic dynasty that a handful of anti-Castro zealots took almost total control of America's Cuban policy, especially in the U. S. Congress. That fact was indelibly manifested in 1976, the only year George H. W. Bush was CIA Director. But de-classified U. S. documents, as revealed by the highly respected Peter Kornbluh and others, show G.H.W. Bush had tight involvement with the CIA and Cuban exiles long before his infamous year {at least for Cuba} as CIA Director. The Bush alliance with the Cuban hard-liners, cemented in 1976, became greatly exacerbated during G. H. W. Bush's two terms as Vice President and one-term as President, and then was just as strongly perpetrated during George W. Bush's two-term presidency and Jeb Bush's two terms as Governor of Florida. All along the way, the convenient nuance of top government officials being able to classify {hide} unseemly details from public knowledge greatly aided the Bush-Cuban alliance, at least until -- decades later -- great investigative journalists such as Peter Kornbluh, Robert Parry, etc., de-classified pertinent U. S. government documents related to nefarious Cuban acts.

      Not too long ago, Jim DeFede was a top columnist and the best investigative reporter at the Miami Herald. Then, fully knowing he was risking his high-profile job, Jim wrote a scathing article excoriating Miami's representatives -- namely Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers -- for what Jim considered their unconscionable support of Miami's most famed anti-Cuban Cuban-American terrorists. In the article, Jim pointed out that terrorism against innocent Cubans is/was the same as terrorism against Britons, Americans, etc. {Needless to say, Jim was soon an ex-Miami Herald columnist and investigator reporter, but he now works for the CBS television station in Miami}.

     Today Michael Putney is a high-profile, Miami-based television reporter and columnist. And he regularly writes Op-Ed editorial columns for the Miami Herald. He's angry President Obama might visit Cuba. Recently Mr. Putney's column was entitled: "THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO GO TO CUBA, MR. PRESIDENT." A sub-title stated: "Planned Trip To Cuba In March Would Make Obama Look Weak." Because I am a democracy-lover, I believe that in the United States of America, even in Miami, both sides of two-sides stories should see the light of day. Therefore, I believe the Miami Herald should be able to embrace the views of, say, a fired Jim DeFede as well as, say, a Michael Putney. But sadly, I do not believe that Miami is capable of such fairness although polls clearly reveal that most Miami citizens, even in Little Havana, favor Obama's rapprochement with Cuba as opposed to the hostility espoused by Mr. Putney and all four of Miami's members of the U. S Congress -- Ros-Lehtinen, Rubio, Diaz-Balart, and Curbelo. 

        If Cuban President Raul Castro and American President Barack Obama can agree to speak civilly to each other, both in person and on the phone as they did in 2015, and if those truly remarkable gestures can greatly benefit most Cubans and most Americans, perhaps continuing that sane approach in 2016 is better than the half-century of hostility that has benefited only a few self-serving antagonists.

   An out-dated relic of the Cold War.

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Obama, Cuba & 2016

Obama's Cuban Legacy
{Updated: Wednesday, January 13th, 2016}

    Mary Anastasia O'Grady of the Wall Street Journal revealed yesterday -- January 12, 2016 -- why Barack Obama is a great President and why the nation and the world should fear that a right-wing thug might replace him in January of 2017. In yesterday's Wall Street Journal on the eve of President Obama's State of the Union address that night, Ms. O'Grady wrote a scathingly distorted article typically spewing right-wing vitriol and anti-Obama propaganda. She ended the article with these exact words: "But Obama is busy about shaping his legacy. I'm not sure why: He's the first president to bow to a Saudi king, the first to open the door for Iran to get the bomb, and the first to prop up the Castros even while they hold a stolen Hellfire missile. His place in history is already secure." INDEED IT IS!!! President Obama's place in history and his already secure legacy have been and are vital because his two-term presidency, and hopefully his subsequent legacy, has and will help thwart the right-wing thugs that Ms. O'Grady champions. High-profile propagandists, I truly believe, demean America and the free world. 

Photo courtesy: REUTERS/ENRIQUE DE LA OSA.

        This photo was taken Monday -- Jan. 11th, 2016 -- and shows Lilianne Ploumen, the Netherlands Foreign Trade Minister, making an important announcement at Cuba's deepened and refurbished Mariel Port. She announced that Unilever, a Dutch-British company, will build a $35 million factory at Mariel's Economic Zone 28 miles southwest of Havana. The factory will make Sedal Shampoo, Rexona Deoderant, Omo Detergent, Lux Soap, and Close-Up Toothpaste. Ms. Ploumen was accompanied by 60 business executives and she said more Dutch companies will invest at Mariel. Unilever is the 9th and largest company to sign on in the Mariel Zone that is a key to Cuba's economic future. Ms. Ploumen said, "President Obama's advancements in normalizing relations with Cuba makes for a brighter day all around." Unilever will own 60% of the new factory to Cuba's 40%. Till recently, foreign companies were restricted to less than 50% ownership in Cuba, but the island is changing fast.

*****

President Obama: "The Republicans are peddling fiction."
"Lift the Cuban embargo." 

{State of the Union address; January 12, 2016}

       Tuesday -- January 12th, 2016 -- a decent man and a great President, Barack Obama, made his 8th and final State of the Union message. He discussed his two-term presidency and his hope for the future in a very tumultuous world. And he mentioned his legacy, which includes Cuba. Of the last eleven American presidents, Mr. Obama has shown the most decency, the most intelligence, and the most guts in trying to correct a Cuban policy that, perhaps, each year since the 1950s has caused more harm to the worldwide image of the United States and democracy than any other issue. His Herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba have, among other things, included the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. Many of his other efficacious and humane Cuban plans have been...and will continue to be...blocked by a dysfunctional, Republican-dominated, self-serving, right-wing U. S. Congress, which also, with derogatory impunity, has opposed a caring President's efforts to provide affordable health care for all Americans, to enlist sane gun control methods to curb at least some of the unimaginable slaughter that occurs daily in America's great cities, and to narrow the abominable disparity between the rich and poor in the world's great democracy.

         When Mr. Obama was still a long-shot to be President of the United States, I had been a lifelong conservative Republican. His principled and astute campaigning convinced me that right-wingers had usurped my Party. In a two-party system, that left me one choice -- Mr. Obama's Democratic Party. Now into the 8th and final year of his presidency, he has more than fulfilled my expectations of him. The State of the U. S. Union today -- on January 12th, 2016 -- is in a better and more decent situation because of him.

       President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba have curbed right-wing U. S. assaults on 11 million innocents Cubans on the nearby island, and improved America's image around the world. Except for the right-wing tentacles in control of the U. S. Congress, he would have done more to improve U.S.-Cuban relations. But decades from now, what he did and what he tried to do in regards to Cuba will be heralded by democracy-lovers as a linchpin of his overall legacy that should forever be celebrated.

         Just before he leaves office in January of 2017 as America's 44th President, Barack Obama will turn 55-years-old on August 4th of this year. He'll still be in his prime and his two daughters will soon be away in college. As a former President, Mr. Obama will...make speeches, write books, and likely become President of a prestigious University, where he'll probably resume his old job as a Law Professor, either in the USA or the UK. But in 2017, conveniently, there is a job opening that Mr. Obama aspires to in the state of New York -- Secretary-General of the United Nations!! That position would be perfect for him. Unfortunately, that's why Benjamin Netanyahu and right-wingers in the U. S. Congress are already waging fierce campaigns to line up international opposition to the world's best candidate to be the next UN Secretary-General.

And Speaking of Cuba:

Photo courtesy: Robert Rausch/The New York Times.

       The New York Times this week advised its readers that Cuba's plush Valley of Vinales, depicted above, is one of the Top 10 places in the entire world to visit in this New Year of 2016. The NY Times said, "It's a lush valley of wooded hills and fields of dark red, with impressive limestone outcrops." I've been there and totally agree!

            The limestone mountains in Vinales Valley are unique in all the world and the world's top mountain-climbing clubs list it as a top priority for their eager members.

The Main Street in Vinales, Cuba.

      If you follow the advice of the New York Times and visit Vinales in 2016, there are neat, safe, and quaint hotel rooms as well as rooms in private homes you could rent.

Vinales is a nice, bucolic drive southwest of Havana.

      Cuba's men's volleyball team has ample reason to celebrate. They went to Edmonton and upset a powerful Canadian team in three straight sets -- 25-15, 25-21, and 25-21. The victory clinched a spot in this summer's Rio Olympics for Cuba!!!

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