Cuba Has Problems

Unrelated to Miami & Congress

       Like all countries in a turbulent world, Cuba has problems...both natural and man-made. In the last six decades, most of the man-made problems have emanated from nearby Miami and the U. S. Congress. But since its creation many centuries ago, and throughout its existence, Cuba has also been forced to confront natural disasters -- such as hurricanes and tsunamis. And now in the 21st Century, such perilous things as global warming and earthquakes threaten the island that is home to over 11 million Cubans.

        Last Sunday -- January 17th -- was a sunny and peaceful day in Cuba. But the photo above, courtesy of Maria Carla O'Connor/Granma, shows that it turned mean. The sea north of Havana was turbulent and water splashed over the famed Malecon seawall, flooding Cuba's capital five to seven blocks into the city.

        That same day -- Sunday, January 17th -- a natural calamity on the southeastern tip of the island, around Santiago de Cuba -- sent Cubans out of their homes onto the streets, as shown by this photo courtesy of Miguel Rubiera Justiz/ACN. On that peaceful Sunday, early morning earthquakes, about a dozen of them, rattled both the ground and buildings. The strongest tremor registered 5.0 on the Richter scale.

       The above photo and caption is courtesy of OceanDoctor.org and its president and founder Dr. David E. Guggenheim, a great American and world-class marine biologist. Back in November Dr. Guggenheim was instrumental in getting Cuba and the United States to sign a Memorandum of Understanding {MOU} between America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration {NOAA} and Cuba's highly respected Minister of Science. Dr. Guggenheim is trying to save Cubans and Americans who are mutually threatened by natural and man-made calamities related to their contiguous sea and its maligned ecosystem. On January 19th the United Nations predicted that, very soon, plastic will "out-number" fish in the sea that America and Cuba share. Securing the cooperation of Cuba's and America's best marine scientists to deal with that acute situation makes Dr. Guggenheim an American treasure.

     Dr. David Guggenheim has been spotlighted on America's one remaining top-rank, must-see news program -- 60 Minutes, the Sunday night gem on CBS. Otherwise, America's increasingly deficient broadcast news coverage primarily relies on Talking Head pundits and, when it comes to Cuba, only the viewpoints of anti-Castro zealots from Miami and the U. S. Congress. Did you catch Dr. Guggenheim on 60 Minutes? If not, you probably never heard of him or the incredibly important work he and his Ocean Doctor associates are doing to try to save the sea lanes vital to North America, even more vital than Donald Trump's latest political jabs.

    Dr. David Guggenheim's Ocean Doctor program believes the United States and Cuba should work together to protect the ecosystem that both nations share. Of course, his work doesn't get nearly the media coverage or support routinely showered on self-promoting, obnoxious television Talking Heads or the endless rantings  of shady politicians during endless billion-dollar political campaigns.

        Dr. David Guggenheim's work as a marine biologist today is reminiscent of Rachel Carson's work from 1940 till 1964. If today you are an American who has children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren alive and healthy, you owe a debt of thanks to Rachel Carson, truly one of America's all-time super-heroes.

         Rachel Carson, already a renowned marine biologist and environmental writer, wrote a book called "Silent Spring" that was published in 1962. It made the United States and the world that we know today a far better place. Ms. Carson, knowing she was dying of cancer, was inspired to write "Silent Spring" when, sitting in her backyard, she noticed a silence that disturbed her: She didn't hear the peaceful chirps and songs of her beloved songbirds. Though sick and weak, she resumed her work as a marine biologist to discover what had caused the absence of songbirds in her backyard. She discovered that songbirds were dying, and their eggs were too brittle to hatch their babies. She also discovered that frogs were also dying or being born deformed. She discovered the cause was a prodigiously popular chemical called DDT.

        Rachel Carson's monumental book -- "Silent Spring" -- resulted in her becoming an unmerciful target of the $300 million pesticide industry, which had bought-off powerful members of Congress and even some influential newspaper publishers. Although dying of cancer, she defended her book with all of her might. She knew if those chemicals were killing her "voices of spring" -- her beloved songbirds -- and also killing and deforming frogs, eventually humans would also be vulnerable. For her findings and her beliefs, Rachel Carson was viciously attacked and ridiculed by the bought-and-paid-for pesticide advocates.

      But, battling cancer and her powerful critics, Rachel Carson somehow summoned up the strength to courageously testify before a defiant United States Congress in defense of her book, her songbirds, and the human race. Today, in my opinion, "Silent Spring" is the most important American book ever written and Rachel Carson certainly stands at or near the top on the pantheon of All-Time Greatest Americans.

      This photo of Rachel Carson was taken in 1940 and is used courtesy of The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She was born on May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She died of cancer on April 14, 1964 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Every American who is alive today, young and old, should appreciate the life that Rachel Carson lived.

Rachel Carson...would have loved...this little guy.

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CUBA: Obama's Greatest Legacy

Already Etched in Stone

    Whether you love her or hate her, or are somewhere in between those two extremes, you must admit that 68-year-old Hillary Clinton is an extremely savvy and tough politician. In her fervent quest to be President of the United States starting in 2017, she would readily throw her Democratic soul-mate, President Barack Obama, under the next bus coming down the street if she though her close political ties to him would hurt her chances. No one can assess Mr. Obama's fast-closing two-term presidency more accurately than Hillary Clinton. She's done that. And she has concluded, correctly, that he was and is a great, even transformative President.

    In her no-holds-barred bid to keep a conservative or right-wing Republican out of the White House in 2017, the sage Hillary Clinton has decided to embrace and campaign on the sane and decent policies of President Obama. If she did not believe such a decision would help her become his successor, she would have distanced herself from Mr. Obama with a schism wider than the Grand Canyon. Fifty years from now, some great historian is likely to write an updated and accurate biography of Barack Obama. He'll likely be heralded for...correcting many of the global ills spawned by the two-term Bush-Cheney administration that preceded him. He'll be saluted for trying to provide health care to even the poorest Americans against the bought-and-paid-for dictates of a right wing-dominated U. S. Congress that catered only to the rich billionaires that bought-and-paid for them. He'll likely be praised for having stressed diplomatic solutions to foreign problems that right-wing warmongers insisted should have all been settled by wars that would begat more wars, devastating the civilian masses but enriching what President Eisenhower in 1960 warned was the biggest threat to the U. S. democracy, what he famously called, "the Military-Industrial Complex." On January 20, 2017, Barack Obama will still be a relatively young man at age 55. He'll go on to...write books, make speeches, and care for the most uncared-for Americans. He'll probably be a future president of a great US or UK university. He might well be a future Secretary-General of the United Nations, a thought currently rolling around in his mind. Regardless, when the bell tolls for Barack Obama, it will, or should, resoundingly bark out the fact that he was/is a great man -- like a George Washington, Abe Lincoln, or Franklin Roosevelt. The American Revolution crowned Washington's greatness; the Civil War and slavery stamped Lincoln as a great man; and World War II and Social Security were among the things that attest to Roosevelt's greatness. The greatness of Barack Obama has been proven by one glaring fact: He was and is the antipathy to right-wing thugs who sought or seek the exalted office that he so gallantly has served. For example, one of those Republican thugs seeking the presidency, Chris Christie, in the last debate bellowed loudly about kicking Obama's rear end out of the White House on January 20th, 2017. Such arrogant bullies, as brilliantly satirized by Saturday Night Live, might appeal to Americans brain-washed and proselytized by relentless far-right radio and television propagandists, but intelligent observers, such as Hillary Clinton, know better. They know that -- on Jan. 20, 2017 -- Mr. Obama, his wife Michelle, and their two daughters can leave the White House with their heads held high.

     Having said all that, I firmly believe that, fifty years from now, the greatest legacy attached to the greatness of Barack Obama will be his fervent effort as President to rescue the United States democracy from the abominable grips of a Cuban policy, dictated by right-wing thugs, that has shamed America in the eyes of the world, decade after decade, more than any other single topic. The albatross that Obama inherited as President dates back to 1952 when a handful of right-wingers -- Nixon, the Dulles brothers, etc. -- aligned the U. S. government with the Mafia to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba. That insult to democracy was exacerbated in January of 1959 when the remnants of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship fled the Cuban Revolution and were allowed to reconstitute their dictatorship on U. S. soil, in perpetuity it seems, with nearby Miami as their capital.

      Thus, when be became President of the United States in 2009 -- following the two-term presidency of the Batistiano-aligned George W. Bush -- President Obama inherited a range of anti-democratic and anti-American laws related to Cuba as well as pro-right wing and pro-Batistiano laws -- all easily rammed through Congress with the aid of right-wingers such as Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, and Bob Torricelli. In that milieu, Obama inherited a plethora of congressionally mandated laws designed to recapture Cuba and, incredibly, enrich and empower Miami's most extreme anti-Castro zealots. This graphic that depicts President Obama being forced to enforce the U. S. embargo against Cuba is typical of what he had to try to overcome for the sake of the U. S. democracy. He had and has the support of most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, and -- as revealed each October in a UN vote -- all the nations of the world {except Israel, which is the top recipient of U. S. military and economic aid}. Yet, as extremists in Miami well comprehend, democratic principles have never factored into formulating Cuban policy in America, the world's greatest democracy. Barack Obama, more than the previous eleven U. S. presidents combined, has tried mightily -- against dangerous and overwhelming odds -- to combat and correct the unfair and self-debilitating image of the U. S. democracy that an egregiously undemocratic Cuban policy has been allowed to convey to the entire world decade after decade. THAT HERCULEAN EFFORT INVOLVING CUBA, MORE THAN ANY OF HIS OTHER CONSIDERABLE ACHIEVEMENTS, WILL CROWN MR. OBAMA'S SUPERB LEGACY WHEN GREAT HISTORIANS STUDY HIS LIFE.

Take for example,

yesterday's major article

in the Miami Herald:

        Yesterday the Miami Herald used the above photo courtesy of Andrew Harnik and the Associated Press to illustrate a major article about the U.S.-Cuban quagmire. {The photo depicts a monumental achievement, the raising of the Cuban flag, for the first time since 1961, at its embassy in Washington}. Yesterday's Miami Herald article was/is entitled: "MIAMI READIES A FIGHT OVER CUBAN CONSULATE." It was/is a very fair article written by Douglas Hanks. Now that the U. S. has reopened embassies in Havana and Washington, it is customary for the U. S. to open a Cuban consulate in the most appropriate U. S. city. In Cuba's case, that, of course, is Miami, which is dominated by Cubans. Additionally, most Cuban-Americans in Miami strongly favor the Cuban consulate being in their city because so-called ex-patriots have the most need for such a consulate for things like processing visas, obtaining birth certificates from back home, and so forth. Yet, if you read the aforementioned Miami Herald article you will see that -- to this day -- Miami politics are tightly controlled by a handful of anti-Castro zealots even though most Cuban-Americans and many former anti-Castro zealots oppose their hard-line approach to Cuba.

      Tomas Regalado was born in Havana 68 years ago. He has been the Mayor of Miami since 2009, or since Obama became President. As an anti-Castro hard-liner, he vehemently opposes the U. S. putting a Cuban consulate in Miami although most citizens of Miami want it and would benefit from it being there. The Miami Herald reported that, not unexpectedly, Mayor Regalado would fight and sue any effort by the U. S. government to do what it customarily does, which is to put a consulate in the most appropriate U. S. city to serve the most Cuban-Americans following the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington. Mayor Regalado's stance is emblematic of what, since 1959, every U. S. president prior to Obama has been forced to succumb to, which is injecting the U. S. government with a self-serving Cuban policy designed to appease only a handful of the most anti-Castro extremists who still dictate America's Cuban policy, including even such policies that go against the wishes of most Cuban-Americans. Mayor Regalado told the Miami Herald that a Cuban consulate in Miami "could inflame passions and create security risks" and thus he would fight and sue against a Cuban diplomatic outpost in Miami.

     Esteban Bovo is the ultra-powerful Commissioner of Miami-Dade County, Florida. In yesterday's Miami Herald, Mr. Bovo, the son of a Bay of Pigs veteran, was quoted as saying that a potential Cuban consulate in Miami would be "a travesty." Like anti-Castro extremists who insist on making America's Cuban laws, Mr. Bovo excoriated President Obama with these Miami Herald quotations: "President Obama has more in common with the Castro brothers than he does with the American people. The President probably had a Che Guevara poster affixed to his wall in college. He has much more in common with the Castros on broad issues." Of course, with such vitriol against President Obama, Mr. Bovo was taking advantage of the fact that, since 1959, Americans have been thoroughly propagandized or intimidated into accepting almost anything anti-Castro zealots say or do related to Cuba.

     Carlos Gimenez was born in Havana 62 years ago. He has been Mayor of Miami-Dade County since 2011. {Don't confuse Mayor Gimenez with Havana-born Tomas Regalado, who is Mayor of the city of Miami}. While Mr. Gimenez as Mayor of Miami-Dade County is famed for his anti-Castro zealotry too, Mr. Gimenez is also aware that more normal relations with Cuba will sharply benefit Miami's business community. Thus, in yesterday's Miami Herald Mr. Gimenez seemed to favor a Cuban consulate in Miami. A Gimenez spokesman said, "The Mayor would work with Washington if it ever chose to put a Cuban consulate in Miami. Mayor Gimenez will work with the federal government should that decision be made." Conspicuously, more former anti-Castro zealots are joining Mayor Gimenez in recognizing that capitalist, money-oriented Miami stands to benefit enormously from the sane Obama-orchestrated overtures to Cuba. For example, the Miami Herald article pointed out that "American Airlines plans to begin regularly scheduled flights between Miami and Havana, ending the need for the current chartered flights. Carnival, the world's largest cruise company, plans to use Port Miami as a launching pad for Cuba-bound itineraries later this year." Anti-Castroism is one thing; money is another.

    Miguel "Mike" Fernandez is probably the most powerful man, politicians included, in Miami-Coral Gables, Florida. He is a billionaire many times over. He has donated many, many millions of dollars to Republicans, especially the Bush dynasty. Mr. Fernandez migrated from Cuba at age 12 in 1964. He briefly attended Northern Virginia Community College but does not have a college degree. After exiting the U. S. army, he founded CarePlus Health, which he sold to Humana, and then he founded MBF Healthcare, the company that has made him billions. Among many other things, he reportedly owns the 4,000-acre Little River Plantation outside Tallahassee, 25,000 prime acres in Alabama, etc. An anti-Castro zealot of the first order, Mr. Fernandez is also a business zealot. Thus, his comments in the Miami Herald indicates he favors a Cuban consulate in Miami. He said, "Miami is logically the place for a consulate...if I was Mayor of Miami, I would say I represent everyone in Miami, and I represent the future of Miami. And this is business. It's absolutely time to forgive. It's way overdue." {Miguel, remember, is Jeb Bush's biggest financial supporter}.

   This image of Miguel Fernandez, the Cuban-American money-man in Miami, and Jeb Bush, the prime beneficiary of Miguel's prodigious political donations, reflects the reality that many Americans, including many Cuban-Americans, have grown tired of, namely Cuban-Americans aligned with the self-serving Bush dynasty dictating to America a Cuban policy that most of the world -- including Americans and Cuban-Americans -- clearly disapprove of. The Bush-loving billionaire Miguel Fernandez, based on his comments in yesterday's Miami Herald, seems to comprehend the new paradigm in Cuban relations permeated by a very, very brave U. S. President, Barack Obama.

    And speaking of Cuban-American billionaires famous for their anti-Castro zealotry and for being tightly tied to the Bush dynasty, meet Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul. {The photo of Alfy is courtesy of The Cuban History.com}. From the 1920s till January of 1959, the Fanjul family had a sugar monoply in Cuba. They didn't realize it at the time but Fidel Castro did them a massive favor, by chasing them to South Florida. After amassing key political friends, such as the Bush dynasty, the Fanjuls quickly amassed a sugar monopoly in the U. S. that today dwarfs, many times over, the one they had in Cuba. Today Americans pay about double what smarter people in other countries pay for Domino and other sugar brands, because Congress incredibly, thanks to us stupid or cowardly taxpayers, subsidizes the Fanjul sugar monopoly with incredible sums of tax dollars the Fanjuls don't need but still get. If you think, for example, that Bill Gates is rich, you should check out the too-many-to-count mansions in South Florida owned by the extended Fanjul family, as well as their other enormously wealthy properties in the United States and the Dominican Republic, etc. Also, a lot of that Fanjul money in the U. S. has reportedly funded, not only necessary politicians such as the Bushes and the Clintons but also many, many of the regime-change programs designed to overthrow or eliminate Fidel Castro. BUT GUESS WHAT?? Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul AGREES WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA ABOUT NORMALIZING RELATIONS WITH CUBA!! Alfy, in fact, has been back to Cuba and has talked about INVESTING in Cuba, which apparently means he no longer is interesting in INVESTING in regime-change programs to unseat his old nemesis Fidel Castro, who is due to turn 90-years-old later this year in his rather modest home in Havana. {To know Alfy is to know why your sugar is SO COSTLY}.

    Many times in this forum I have criticized the Miami Herald for siding with or capitulating to the Cuban-American extremists regarding Cuba. But it is a great newspaper. Yesterday's article about a possible U. S. consulate in Miami was fair in its presentation and summation: "The contretemps over a hypothetical Miami Cuban consulate is largely seen as a symbolic fight, because Washington decides where a foreign power may open diplomatic outposts around the country. It's the latest example of a Miami political leadership resisting a rapid expansion of governmental and business ties between the United States and Cuba following Obama's announcement in December 2014 that he was pursuing full diplomatic relations with the Castro regime." That's a fair-minded Miami Herald observation on January 18th.  

        Hugo Cancio is another rich Cuban-American businessman in Miami, where he has lived for the last 35 years of his life. But he also spends a lot of time in Cuba and has a nice office in Havana. He has met and doesn't dislike Fidel Castro. Hugo, whether in Miami or Havana, will beguile you with his abiding love for both his adopted country and his native country, which is...Cuba!!!!!! 

        On YouTube you can watch an English-language interview that Cuba's Cristina Escobar had {above} with Hugo Cancio. At one point you will hear Hugo passionately complain that he and most Cuban-Americans in Miami are not represented by a political process that favors only anti-Castro zealots. Ms. Escobar followed up on that comment by Hugo by referencing, for example, Alfy Fanjul's change-of-heart regarding Cuba as well as polls in Miami favoring normalization.

      The 28-year-old Cristina Escobar is not only Cuba's top broadcast journalist, she is now in demand for interviews by many regional and international networks, as well as highly regarded American journalist Tracey Eaton who last week published a long article and two YouTube videos after he went to Cuba and interviewed Cristina. On Cuban, Spanish, and American soil recently, Cristina Escobar has staunchly proclaimed that she and many twenty-somethings like her on the island strongly support President Obama's kind overtures to Cuba, but she also staunchly maintains they she, and others, will fight to the death to maintain Cuba's sovereignty as a nation. She eventually wants democracy for her island but she told Tracey Eaton, as you can see on the YouTube video, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." With those words, she is correct. If and when her beloved island gets democracy, she and other Cubans on the island, not lying right-wingers from afar, should make those decisions. Cristina adores Cuba, and knows its history.

To summarize:

       Study this graphic. It's the work of the brilliant 47-year-old Brazilian political cartoonist Carlos Latuff. This essay is entitled: "CUBA: Obama's Greatest Legacy." I believe this graphic explains why that is so, regardless of his many past and future achievements. The image of America depicted above is one that shames him. Indeed, it should shame all Americans just as, according to the yearly vote in the UN, it obviously shames America's best friends all around the world. During his still viable two-term presidency, Mr. Obama has tried his best -- against overwhelming and very dangerous odds -- to soothe this image of America. He might not succeed, not entirely anyway. But, at least, he tried...really hard. That's a legacy he can always be proud of, even as powerful right-wing thugs try to demolish all he has constructed.

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Yes, America, Cuba Is Changing

And It's Alright If You Know

         The London Daily Mail is a powerful force in its print edition in the UK and a powerful force around the world with its exceedingly popular Website. On Sunday, January 17th, 2016, the Daily Mail provided an expansive profile of the fast-changing Cuba that Americans may want to check out. That's because, for the most part, the cowering U. S. media reports only what a handful of the most hard-line Cuban exiles want them to report, which usually focuses only on the negative. But the Daily Mail is not quite as intimidated. The above photo was used by the British powerhouse Sunday to illustrate that there is more to the island than 1950s cars, rum, sugar, and depressed people. The nightlife, for example, is bustling at venues such as the famed Tropicana...not as risque as the 1950s when the Mafia, Batista, and U. S. businessmen controlled things but, nevertheless, in 2016 Cuba is very exciting, lively and colorful...as you can see.

       The Daily Mail used this photo of the MSC Opera cruise ship in Havana Harbor to illustrate that the U. S. embargo may still be in effect to appease a few hard-liners in Miami and Congress but the rest of the world, taking a cue from U. S. President Barack Obama, has a bit more of a "democratic" approach to the intriguing, beguiling island. The Daily Mail Sunday had these suggestions: "Cruise into cool Cuba." "Beat the crowds set to flock to the island by sailing on top cruises." "The country is changing forever." Currently there are no Starbucks or McDonalds but that could change too." "Make 2016 the year to visit on a cruise."

            The Daily Mail on Sunday showed this Voyager cruise ship in the harbor at Santiago de Cuba, the former capital and still its second largest city on the southeastern tip of the famed alligator-shaped island. The Daily Mail told its millions of readers and viewers that Cuba is "750 miles long from tip-to-tip," and breathtakingly interesting and accessible from Havana in the north to Santiago de Cuba in the south.

        While modernity is more-and-more visible "from tip to tip," the Daily Mail illustrated that nostalgic Americans, if or when they visit the island, will get to see fine-tuned and colorful cars from the 1950s. 

         Tourists who visit Cuba in 2016 will notice that many of its historic buildings have already undergone refurbishing with more underway. Cubans in 2016 can buy and sell homes, apartments, and restaurants.

The dominant island in the magnificent Caribbean is America's southern neighbor.

Cuba's strategic location is one reason it is the Pearl of the Caribbean.

         Cuba has been right there...right between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea...for a long time, even long before Christopher Columbus discovered it in 1492.

       Moreover, Cuba and its fourteen provinces...plus thousands of keys, cays, and smaller islands...will stay there for a long, long time to come, irrespective of the U. S. embargo, rising seas because of global warming, and a host of other calamities.

Photo courtesy: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters/Business Insider.

Dancing in the shade & white sands at Varadero.

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U.S., Cuba & Journalism

Eclectic Portraits

            In the modern 24-hour Cable News era, the precipitous decline of American journalism is fully capable of reshaping the U. S. democracy. That's why great journalists, like Trudy Rubin at the Philadelphia Inquirer, are so vital today. If Americans don't realize that fact, be assured that the Founding Fathers created America's fledgling, magnificent government with the clear understanding that "a free and energetic press is essential to preserving democracy." The digital and electronic evolutions and revolutions have spawned 24-hour Cable News operations that symbolize the decline and fall of American journalism, which would have certainly dismayed the Founding Fathers. Watching television news -- from right-wing Fox to left-wing MSNBC to middle-of-the-road CNN -- is easier these days then seeking out great print journalists...such as Ms. Rubin. The Cable News outfits, however additive they may be, are controlled by capitalist-corporate interests only concerned with profits. Thus, instead of hiring competent reporters to actually go out and cover the news, the Cable outfits stress useless and obnoxious Talking Head pundits along with constant reruns to fill out their 24-hour repetitions that merely masquerade as news coverage. But then...there are gems like Trudy Rubin. So, on this tranquil Sunday, let's, uh... see what she's up to.

        Today is Sunday, January 17th, 2016. The major article in today's Philadelphia Enqurer is penned by Trudy Rubin, that great newspaper's top columnist and editorial writer. She had just returned from Cuba and presented an in-depth, fair, and balanced portrait of the island as reflected by the drastic changes taking place during this crucial new year. That's important because, if you get most of your news from the Cable News operations, you probably believe that the vile revolutionary government in Cuba spends most of its time harassing, berating, beating, imprisoning or murdering its citizens -- the image promulgated by remnants of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship that have controlled the Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy virtually since January 1, 1959. By contrast, in Cuba today there are good things, bad things and -- like in a lot of other countries -- a lot of in-between things. Cable News outfits in the U. S. lack the competency and the courage to counter the dominant propaganda about Cuba espoused by a handful of second-generational Cuban exiles and their easily acquired sycophants. To support such propaganda, those exiles and their sycophants have, amazingly, been allowed to get away with taking the freedom away from everyday Americans who might want to visit Cuba, the only nation in the world to which that anti-democratic rule applies!! But Trudy Rubin just got back from Cuba and her article today brings you up to date on the fast-changing island. You should read her entire article but her exact opening words are:

             "At the darkened Delirio Habanero nightclub on top of Havana's National Theater, a group of young Cubans listen to an all-girl band dressed in Micro miniskirts belt out salsa lyrics. Through the windows behind them, the glowing faces of revolutionary heroes Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos shine down, outlined in neon several stories high on the facades of neighboring buildings. The young people are too busy texting to take any notions, even as the older folks dance. Cuba is a society going through immense changes -- generational, economic and, at some levels, even political. These changes were underway even before President Barack Obama made his historic announcement on Dec. 17, 2014, about restoring relations."

            MY POINT IS THIS: There are still in America some great print journalists -- such as Trudy Rubin at the Philadelphia Enquirer -- who will actually report the truth even about complex and controversial topics such as...Cuba. But a lazy, less patriotic generation of Americans prefers getting their news from television sitting on their couches as opposed to physically stepping outside to obtain that day's copy of, say, the Philadelphia Enquirer. And mostly, from their couches, Americans get self-serving promotional tidbits from Cable News Talking Head pundits who are greatly preferred by the corporate owners unwilling to go to the expense of actually hiring reporters to go out from the studios and cover or investigate the news.

  

   

     Kate O'Brian is the greatest television-broadcast journalist in the United States of America. She cried this week, a fact reported by the Associated Press and other top news agencies. Those tears were very important. Americans should know why she cried and why her tears were and are important. So, permit me to tell you.

    For many years Kate O'Brian was the shining light as the boss at ABC TV-Radio News. She believed, and still believes, in hiring the best broadcast journalists and sending them out to actually cover the news. In a bygone era, the other two major networks, CBS and NBC, felt the same. Then came the saturation of Cable television. A visionary, Ted Turner, founded CNN in 1980 as a 24-hour news operation and Mr. Turner, like Kate O'Brian, believed in great reporters actually going out to cover the news. But AOL bought CNN and from that day to this day copy-cat Cable news outfits like Fox and MSNBC have all been ruled by corporate billionaires only interested in making more billions. That philosophy also wiped out the news-gathering expertise of the major networks -- CBS, NBC, and ABC. Money and profits, not great broadcast journalists like Kate O'Brian, suffered massively...to the point of tears this week for Ms. O'Brian. The Disney Corporation, which is awash in billions of dollars, owns ABC and its only interest in news is making more billions of dollars. Thus, Ms. O'Brian, the boss at ABC News, was told to hire more Talking Heads to replace actual reporters because the Talking Heads were/are a lot cheaper because their prime "talent" is promoting themselves or their projects, such as their latest book or whichever politician is paying them. Ms. O'Brian left ABC News. An upstart network -- Aljazeera, owned by the rulers of Qatar -- hired Ms. O'Brian only after she was assured she could hire the rest reporters she could find and send them out to actually cover the news. That was in the summer of 2013. Ms. O'Brian then raided the networks for the best anchors and reporters she could hire for Ajazeera America. She landed 700 of them, many of the very best such as...John Siegenthaler, John Schuster, Joie Chen, Soledad O'Brien, Ali Velshi, Sheila MacVicar, etc., etc. She hired the best reporters covering the U. S., Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She hired what many consider the three best network reporters covering Latin America -- Lucia Newman, Virginia Lopez, and Teresa Bo. In an interview that is still posted on YouTube, Kate O'Brian explained in detail that her idea of great broadcast journalism detested Talking Head pundits and championed great reporters actually going out and covering the news. At ABC and then for the past two-plus years at Aljazeera America, Kate O'Brian's viewpoints prevailed, resulting in great television journalism. But the Arabic-sounding Aljazeera name doomed Kate O'Brian despite the array of well-known, high-profile U. S. journalists she had hired. Also, the drastic decline in oil prices affected oil-rich Qatar. This week came the news that Aljazeera America would cease operations by April of this year. That's why Kate O-Brian cried this week in New York City. She knew her desire to emphasize great reporters actually going out and covering the news had been quashed a second time, first at ABC and now at Aljazeera. She realized that the money-crazed corporate billionaires who dearly love Talking Head pundits had won.

      

      

         I admire 48-year-old New Yorker Anderson Cooper as a genuinely talented broadcast journalist, especially his work at CBS's 60 Minutes, which remains the best and most intelligent news program on network television.

    I also admire Anderson Cooper's work when his main employer, CNN, allows him to go out and actually cover Breaking News! But that's very rare. Mostly, Cooper is stuck in the studio as host of "CNN's" prime-time 360 program. That's when, I confess, I feel sorry for Anderson Cooper as a broadcast journalist. On 360, as with all network anchors in America, Anderson Cooper mostly gets to introduce and talk to useless and obnoxious TALKING HEAD PUNDITS. Now, please, let me give you an example.

      Ana Navarro is one of the most ubiquitous Talking Heads on network television in the United States. CNN is her prime employer. In this presidential election year of 2016, Ana Navarro is nothing more and nothing less than a promoter and propagandist for Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both of whom she has worked for tirelessly. Yet, CNN constantly has her on the air as a Talking Head "political analyst" supposedly to inform potential voters who is the best presidential candidate. DUH!!!! Hour-after-hour as a Talking Head pundit on CNN, Ana Navarro is allowed to masquerade as a "journalist" or "political analyst" while doing nothing more than propagandizing and promoting Bush and Rubio while also saving CNN the trouble and expense of sending a real journalist out to actually cover the news. That is, of course, an insult to CNN viewers. Moreover, I also believe it nightly insults Anderson Cooper. I actually feel sorry for Anderson, and cringe for him, when he introduces Ana Navarro with these familiar words: "We now want to welcome on the set Ana Navarro, who works for Jeb Bush and is also a dear friend of Marco Rubio." I believe most Americans, even those who still depend on CNN for Breaking News, immediately cut away when Talking Heads dominate the "news." THE PROBLEM IS...with television news in the U. S. now having no place for truly great broadcast journalist decision-makers like Kate O'Brian, WHERE DO WE TURN???

          Which brings me back around on this circuitous journalistic journey to probably the best current broadcaster in North America. I speak of 28-year-old Cristina Escobar, the prime-time anchor on Cuban television. As an anchor or as a reporter, either in Spanish or English, she is of such high-caliber that even the dastardly embargo of her island can't keep her a secret. This past summer she stunned even veteran U. S. reporters with her coverage of the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session in Washington, which included her dominance of a White House news conference hosted by Josh Earnest, President Obama's chief spokesman. On the island, she is not only the top newscaster but she is also the most influential leader of the twenty-something generation of Cubans that will likely predicate Cuba's impending post-Castro future. As a broadcaster, her reputation is spreading like wildfire with repeated requests from regional and international networks. This week Tracey Eaton, the Florida-based journalism professor and certainly one of America's most respected and unbiased Cuban experts, posted two insightful videos of Cristina on YouTube, where she was already a star, and Mr. Eaton also penned a long, widely distributed article about her entitled: "CUBA'S FATE UP TO CUBANS, NOT AMERICANS." That title reflects the fact that Cristina believes she and the other twenty-somethings on the island, not powerhouse Cuban-Americans like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, will determine Cuba's future. She's very adamant about that, and about her belief that, in Cuba, she is freer to report U. S. news than American journalists are to report Cuban news. Indeed, if that sounds far-fetched or untrue, it might be because Americans basically get their news from Talking Heads like Ana Navarro, not true broadcast journalists like...Cristina Escobar.

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