The Cuban Dissidents

Still Hiding Behind U. S. Skirts

      For many years, Fernando Ravsberg has been recognized by unbiased observers as the bravest and best journalist when it comes to telling the unvarnished and un-sanitized truth about Cuba and its relations with its northern neighbor, America. Ravsberg knows more about the Cubans on the island and in Miami than anyone else. Moreover, he has the courage and integrity to present that knowledge fairly, separating him from the mainstream media in the U. S. that -- propelled by such forceful combinations as incompetence, greed, and intimidation -- shy away from honesty when the topic is...the island of Cuba.

        Fernando Ravsberg's primary outlet is his popular blog -- Cartas Desde Cuba {Letters From Cuba}. His letters are often republished by fair-minded, un-intimidated sources such as the BBC, Havana Times.org, etc. His latest Letter, published internationally on Feb. 4-2016, is entitled: "Uncle Sam's Cuban Cousins" and is must-reading for anyone interested in getting a true understanding of U.S.-Cuban interactions, something not available from the mainstream U. S. media. Ravberg this week wrote: "Cuba's opposition seems tragically destined to cling to the skirts of the United States in the hopes the latter's strength will legitimate them in the eyes of their compatriots. It is a poor strategy that has earned them isolation at home, something even Washington has acknowledged. First they dreamed of an invasion by the marines, then with a blockade that would bring their compatriots to their knees through hunger, later they tried terrorist bombings and, finally, they put together a peaceful opposition, financed by Washington with US $20,000,000 a year." 

         Fernando Ravsberg is one of the few notable journalists in the world to have the sheer guts and basic integrity to write such a fair and accurate update on U. S.-Cuban relations. With the above words and throughout this week's letter, Ravsberg goes back to the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and its most significant development -- chasing the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to U. S. soil where they restructured their dictatorship and, while hiding behind "the skirts" of the world's richest and strongest nation, tried to recapture the island -- with the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961; the embargo in 1962 that was designed to create such hunger that Cubans on the island would rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government; terrorist bombings such as the downing of the child-laden Cubana Flight 455 that was hailed in the Miami media as "the biggest blow yet against Castro!;" and, more recently, devising "a peaceful opposition" designed to use an unending stream of tax dollars to enrich and empower a selected group of Cuban-American anti-Castro extremists. Considering that the mainstream U. S. media doesn't have the courage or integrity to point out such facts, perhaps you should Google Ravsberg's "Uncle Sam's Cuban Cousins" article. After all, it's YOUR tax dollars and YOUR democracy that a few Cuban-Americans, through two generations now, continue to diminish by continuing to, with the timid and unpatriotic acquiescence of Americans, "hide behind the skirts" of OUR great democracy in the U. S.

       Fernando Ravsberg this week used the above montage to point out that Uncle Sam's Cuban Cousins were left out of the recent U.S.-Cuban diplomacy -- led by Cuba's Josefina Vidal and America's Roberta Jacobson -- that has corrected many of the anti-American and anti-democracy aspects of America's Cuban policy that, since 1959, has been dictated by exiles from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship "hiding behind the skirts of the United States." Fernando Ravsberg is smart enough, decent enough, and brave enough to believe that six decades is long enough for Americans to allow such an affront to democracy to persist.

        Fernando Ravsberg also used the above photo to make a point about anti-Castro Cuban dissidents, pointing out that there actually aren't many of them either on the island or in the U. S. but that they SURE ARE well-funded and well-publicized!! This photo shows James Cason huddling with Cuban dissidents in Coral Gables, the wealthy suburb of Miami where Cason has been Mayor since 2011. He "earned" that job by being President George W. Bush's anti-Castro head of the U. S. Interests Section in Havana. The pompous and buffoonish Cason spent his time and a lot of tax dollars huddling with real and/or created dissidents in Cuba. He also shamefully used a lot of tax dollars on such things as putting up a huge electronic bulletin board across the 7-story Interests Section building in Havana to defame Castro and to demean the Cuban people by, for example, teasing them about the latest exploits of their baseball stars in the U. S. Major Leagues. Such tactics, once the sane and decent Obama replaced the Bush dynasty in the White House, got Cason elected Mayor of Coral Gables and, supposedly, Bush-aligned buffoons like him are poised to benefit anew if and when the next Republican becomes President and begins dismantling Obama's achievements. Ravsberg's aforementioned Letter stressed that well-funded and well-publicized dissidents, both in Miami and on the island, are self-serving but very loud minorities in both countries.

        Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the U. S. democracy has, in many ways, resembled a Banana Republic similar to the one in Cuba from 1952 till the leadership was chased back to South Florida. The increasingly intimidated and incompetent U. S. media is largely responsible. Americans are not supposed to get their news about Cuba or U.S.-Cuban relations from unbiased experts like Fernando Ravsberg or Sarah Stephens {founder of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas}. Instead, Americans are supposed to get their Cuban information from people like...Jose Diaz-Balart. Jose was born 55 years ago in Fort Lauderdale, Florida...after his father Rafael, a key Minister in the Batista-Mafia dictatorship, fled the Cuban Revolution for good. Based in Miami, Jose now anchors two hours of "news" each day on MSNBC. NOW DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO WHAT FERNANDO, SARAH, AND OTHER UNBIASED EXPERTS SAY ABOUT CUBA, BECAUSE JOSE WILL TELL YOU PRECISELY WHAT TO THINK.

         Jose Diaz-Balart has two brothers -- Mario Diaz-Balart {on the left} and Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Mario was born in Fort Lauderdale 54 years ago and Lincoln was born in Havana 61 years ago. Both...or at least one...have been in the U. S. Congress since 1993 from Miami. Like their father, the Batista Minister Rafael, Mario and Lincoln are anti-Castro zealots. Thanks to the fact that Rafael became one of the richest and most powerful Cuban exiles in Miami, and thanks to the fact that Miami sends only anti-Castro zealots -- Ros-Lehtinen, the Diaz-Balarts, Curbelo, Rubio -- to the U. S. Congress {and soon, maybe, to the White House} -- the Diaz-Balarts are able to craft binding U. S. laws related to Cuba and their brother Jose can then tell you all about how necessary such laws are because...you know...Fidel Castro is a villain and...you know...all the people he chased off the island in 1959 were...you know...sweet Mother Teresa-types.

        Alan Gomez is the top journalist on Cuban and Latin American issues for America's top newspaper, USA Today. Like Jose Diaz-Balart at MSNBC, Gomez's top qualification for that position is this: He is a Cuban-American from Miami with a big family-related gripe against Fidel Castro. He is very typical of the fact that the mainstream media in the U. S. is, it seems, not allowed to hire a Cuba-American who doesn't have a huge gripe against Fidel Castro. Such biased cowardice hurts America and democracy because there are few, if any, topics that shed as much international negativity on the U. S. as the Cuban topic.

Yet, lo 'n behold:

     Did you read this week's huge article by Alan Gomez in USA Today on February 4th, 2016? If not, you should dial it up online. It is entitled: "Anti-Cuba Dark Days Are Thing Of The Past." The first three paragraphs BY ALAN GOMEZ are just as startling. What follows are those exact words written from Miami:

                   "There used to be a time in this city when being too supportive of the Castro brothers could get you killed.

                 "Throughout the 1960s, bombings of businesses and people who dealt with Cuba were a surprisingly frequent occurrence. Anti-Castro operatives used a terrifying variety of attacks against travel agencies that sold trips to Cuba, shipping companies that exported to the island and anybody who wanted to open the doors to the communist island.

                "Even speaking out against the violence was a dangerous endeavor. In 1976, Cuban-American radio host Emilio Milian, who dared to call the bombers terrorists, had his legs torn off by a car bomb outside his Miami radio station."  

           Yes!!! Alan Gomez wrote those words listed above to start his long column in USA Today on February 4th, 2016. In this forum, I have longed for the day when an anti-Castro Cuban-American in Miami would admit that decent Cuban-Americans in Miami like Emilio Milian, whom I have written about often, were right and the ones dictating to the U. S. Congress and to the U. S. media WERE {AND ARE} WRONG.

         The top Republican presidential contenders -- at least once they eliminate Mr. Trump -- are Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The two first-term and totally unsuccessful U. S. Senators are anti-Castro zealots, typical of the only type Cuban-Americans who appear eligible to attain national office among a host of capable Cuban-Americans. Their prominence on the national stage -- in addition to being Cuban-Americans, Tea Party darlings, and former Bush-dynasty stalwarts -- is based on two factors: {1} The mainstream U. S. media, especially television, has neither the guts nor the integrity to tell the truth about them; and {2} of all the aspirants for the White House, Cruz and Rubio have by far the biggest "FOR SALE" signs attached to them, a dangerous situation considering the vast array of Cuban, Jewish, and right-wing billionaires who have already bought-and-paid for whatever they might do as President and Commander-in-Chief.

      Many Cuban-Americans who know Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz best don't like them. For example, Manny Roman {above} is the Miami-Dade County Republican Vice-Chairman right in Rubio's own backyard. But Roman thinks Rubio has sold out to billionaires not interested in the citizens of Miami. So, Roman is now the co-Chairman of Ted Cruz's Miami-Dade County campaign. Both Donald Trump and Cruz are out-polling Rubio in his home area. Both Cruz and Rubio are considered bought-and-paid-for; Cruz is the smarter of the two and the best debater but Rubio is the slicker and more charismatic politician, and the most dangerous considering who he has sold-out to and what journalist Ken Silverstein calls "the most corrupt" presidential contender, maybe ever. Both hooked on to the Bush dynasty and the Tea Party to get their trip to the U. S. Senate, which has bored both men because they hit Washington aiming for the White House. The Bush dynasty, still a power in Republican circles, now despises both Rubio and Cruz -- Rubio for double-crossing his mentor Jeb Bush. As for the extremist Cruz, the Bush dynasty and almost every established Republican literally hates Cruz, with George W. Bush, his former boss in Texas, saying openly, "I can't stand the guy." And Manny Roman, a top Miami Republican, can't stand his neighbor Rubio. Neither will misinformed Americans if he gets elected President. Voters, therefore, need to know the truth.

         The Miami-based Jorge Ramos is by far the most influential Latino journalist or broadcaster in the United States of America. And guess what? Jorge has the guts and the integrity to tell you how dangerous a Ted Cruz or a Marco Rubio presidency would be. Therefore, you should get to know Jorge Ramos.

           In Spanish on Univision, in English on Fusion, or in regular appearances on all the top television networks in America, Jorge Ramos is often introduced as "The Walter Cronkite of Spanish Broadcasting."

       In fact, Time Magazine has named Jorge Ramos as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the United States. In addition to his ubiquitous status on network television, Jorge is equally prolific in print in forums such as La Opinion, America's largest Spanish-language newspaper. This week the largest headline in La Opinion was for a scathing article written by Jorge Ramos in which he expressed his fear that either Cruz or Rubio -- as opposed to some qualified moderate Cuban-American -- might ascend to the presidency. Jorge wrote: "There is no greater disloyalty than the children of immigrants forgetting their roots. Ted Cruz, the first Latino to win the Iowa caucuses!! Why aren't we celebrating?" Living in the ritzy Coconut Grove area of Miami, and working out of Miami, Jorge Ramos knows all about..."children of immigrants" because he is one, having been born 57 years ago in Mexico City. He got his Masters degree at the University of Miami. Jorge undoubtedly has seen posters in his Miami neighborhood with such rebukes to Miami's own presidential candidate Rubio as: "BOYCOTT ISRAEL, NOT CUBA!" Although you would never know it from the biased and intimidated mainstream U. S. media, Cuban-Americans that know Cruz and Rubio best are quite aware they have sold out to right-wing billionaires, not to the Cuban-Americans and Americans even in their own neighborhoods. JORGE RAMOS WOULD LOVE TO SEE A LATINO OF CUBAN OR MEXICAN DESCENT MAKE IT ALL THE WAY TO THE WHITE HOUSE. But NOT Rubio or Cruz. That's because, unlike the mainstream U. S. media, Jorge Ramos is not afraid to tell the truth. IN OTHER WORDS, PERHAPS IT'S TIME YOU GOT YOUR CUBAN NEWS FROM JORGE RAMOS, NOT JOSE DIAZ-BALART!! 

AND BY THE WAY:

         Colonel Mario Mendez Mayedo, a very important and fast-rising Cuban, spent four days this week -- Monday through Thursday -- in Miami. Uh, no he didn't defect. At the request of the U. S. government, Colonel Mendez was in Miami at the head of a Cuban delegation to discuss ways the U. S. and Cuba can work together for their mutual benefits, especially in areas of migration. For many decades, both America and Cuba have been hurt by the 1966 Cuba Adjustment Act that was and is one of the countless laws easily rammed through the U. S. Congress designed to harm Cuba while also enriching and empowering selected Cuban-Americans and their easily acquired sycophants. The result of that particular 1966 law was something known as the infamous Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy designed to entice and reward Cubans who defect to the U. S. Such Cubans the moment their toes touch U. S. soil are home free with instant financial benefits. Even Marco Rubio questions the law because, he says, many Cubans thusly get on the U. S. payroll and then return to Cuba and still collect their monthly paychecks. But the grossly discriminatory law discriminates against all non-Cubans and grossly rewards and encourages human trafficking. For a couple of months now, fearing that Obama might stop Wet Foot/Dry Foot {which, of course, is not going to happen}, 8,000 Cubans have been stuck at the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border because fed-up Nicaragua stopped their trek to the U.S.-Mexico border where they would be home-free merely by saying they are Cuban while all non-Cubans would be detained and closely vetted, with most, including worthy children, being deported. This week a second plane-load of 184 Cubans, most of them able to purchase costly tickets, took airplane flights past Nicaragua so they and their well-paid coyotes could continue on their way to the U. S. border. Yet, 8,000 more remain in fed-up Costa Rica. THANKS, Wet Foot/Dry Foot!! That and a myriad of other U. S. laws designed to hurt Cuba and enrich defectors MAKE THE U. S. DEMOCRACY RESEMBLE A BANANA REPUBLIC. Yet, who cares? Well, this week in Miami, Colonel Mendez cared.

       This political cartoon this week mocked the 8,000 Cubans now being airlifted by airplanes, like sling-shots, over Nicaragua so they can instantaneously hurt Cuba and also benefit from Wet Foot/Dry Foot.

And by the way:

     Meet Felito Cruz. Jorge Ramos said that was Cruz's real Spanish name when he was born 45 years ago in Calgary, Canada. Of course, by the time he moved to Texas, got rich as a rather ruthless class-action lawyer, then helped put George W. Bush in the White House for eight years, and then eyed the Senate as a quick stepping-stone to the White House himself, he had jettisoned his first name from Felito to Ted, assuming Americans wouldn't know about the switch. I didn't, till Jorge Ramos, one of America's 17.4 million Latinos, mentioned it.

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Obama's Cuban Advances

Targeted by Republicans

        In this first week of February, 2016, UC-Berkeley has announced that it is offering a Berkeley Study Abroad program in Havana for this coming summer. The above graphic provides pertinent details. It is one of many positive reactions to President Obama's brave and remarkable overtures aimed at normalizing relations with the nearby Caribbean island. UC-Berkeley and numerous educational and business entities are hoping that, in this final year of Mr. Obama's two-term presidency, that a myriad of Obama-orchestrated advances will hold off antiquated Cold War-era tactics of Cuban-exile and Republican extremists who will, beyond doubt, powerfully attempt to roll back Obama's sane and decent visions for U.S.-Cuban relations.

   Elizabeth Vasile, a Ph.D. and top administrator at UC-Berkeley, devised this summer's Berkeley Study Abroad program in Cuba. Dr. Vasile said: "Cuba is a great place to see rapid transformation taking place. The two primary objectives for the program are to instill in students a nuanced understanding of the complexity of Cuban history and the ability to critically observe the world around them." I hope you will take time to re-read that quotation from Dr. Vasile. It's decency and sanity regarding Cuba is in stark contrast to the indecent and insane Cuban policy in the United States that has been dictated since the 1950s by self-serving right-wing extremists. Perhaps, as President Obama has said, it is time in the year 2016 to consider input from people such as Dr. Vasile and not just have everyone forced to bend to the dictates of right-wingers in Miami and the U. S. Congress, and that undemocratic and unethical genuflection includes not just Americans but America's very best friends all around the entire world.

       Every day throughout 2016 the U. S. media, if not the U. S. people, will be obsessed with a presidential election that will determine who succeeds President Obama in the White House in January of 2017. The montage above is courtesy of the AP and Reuters and shows the three Republican contenders, all of whom hope to begin tearing apart President Obama's Cuban policy, returning it to one that serves a few right-wing extremists at the expensive of everyone else. America's democracy has a two-party system -- Republicans and Democrats. Both parties are bought-and-paid for with the approval of the current Supreme Court, which in 2010 sanctioned unlimited political donations from individual and corporate billionaires. All three of the Republican candidates depicted above should be universally known to be unqualified to be the next President of the United States. {I'm a lifelong conservative Republican displeased with the right-wing takeover of my party and with a money-crazed system that rules both parties}. Donald Trump is a multi-billionaire that is not bought-and-paid-for but, as a controversial lifelong businessman, he is not qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief. Yet, Trump would be less of a disaster than Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. That's not because they are first-term and unsuccessful Cuban-American U. S. Senators. It's because they are extreme right-wingers totally bought-and-paid-for by a few easily identifiable right-wing billionaire extremists. Therefore, any of the above three Republicans would be disastrous as President and Commander-in-Chief, not just regarding Cuba but regarding all things most dear to Americans and its worldwide friends, such as...security.

       Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton are the only two Americans who stand as obstacles to a Rubio-Trump-or-Cruz presidency. Mr. Sanders is a 74-year-old Socialist-Democrat and Ms. Clinton is the 68-year-old standard-bearer of the Clinton political dynasty. Because Americans are clearly fed-up with the Clinton and Bush dynasties, and with bought-and-paid-for politicians, Sanders would be the best President out of the five remaining contenders. But his age and his Socialist background will, in the end, obscure his lifelong fight for everyday Americans and his lifelong fight against Wall Street billionaires. The Clinton machine, fueled by decades of support from Wall Street and even foreign billionaires, will overwhelm Sanders, which means it will overwhelm his views that most Americans, especially young Americans, strongly support. If America's friends around the world didn't know it before, the elongated and money-crazed presidential campaigns are proof to them that a handful of billionaires can easily purchase the U. S. democracy and there is nothing 315 million Americans, the vast majority in a famed democracy, can collectively do about it.

       The ongoing 2016 presidential sweepstakes will come down to Democrat Hillary Clinton against Republican Marco Rubio. Both money-saturated political parties as well as the two individuals will literally have billions-of-dollars to back the two candidates. Democracy-lovers elsewhere in the world are aghast at this situation, which is drawn out for many months so rich people and rich media entities can get much richer. Consultants, television stations, and pundits are presented with legal means to become wealthy, undemocratic thieves. Any legal roadblocks to that insanity is easily brushed aside, such as the recent Iowa caucuses when the two win-at-all-costs Cuban-Americans, Cruz and Rubio, sent out last-minute officially looking flyers all across Iowa warning Iowans they would be breaking the law if they didn't do this or that, and Cruz's campaign, courting the evangelical voters supporting Dr. Ben Carson, loudly lied that Carson had dropped out of the contest so they should shift their votes to Cruz, who actually won in Iowa with such blatant, but acceptable, schemes. Cruz, however, is far too extreme to get the necessary support from the Republican establishment. That leaves Rubio to take the Republican banner, and Rubio would be even more dangerous -- domestically and internationally -- than Cruz. That's because America has never had a serious presidential contender as bought-and-paid-for as Rubio nor -- as journalist Ken Silverstein recently opined -- has America ever had a serious presidential candidate as "corrupt" as Rubio. Yet, he is supported by enough Wall Street, Hedge Fund, Jewish, and Cuban billionaires to purchase the White House for eight years...and beyond!! As February, the shortest month of the year, moves into high gear, Rubio is not a long-shot. He will soon lock-up the Republican bid for the White House and then have a 50-50 chance of beating Hillary Clinton.

       Even Bill O'Reilly, easily America's and Fox News's most influential conservative voice, mocks the money-crazed, pundit-driven political process. Before and after this week's final caucus voting in Iowa, O'Reilly had the sanest media appraisals. He mocked it as "nonsense." Months on end, the U. S. media obsesses over Iowa because it holds the "first" voting contest of the almost endless presidential cycles. Then the media obsesses over the results, which, as O'Reilly says, is nonsense. First off, almost all-white Iowa is totally unrepresentative of the United 50 States. Secondly, the most religious candidate is almost surely going to win in Iowa. Thirdly, in Iowa some of the caucus results were decided by...uh!...a coin flip. Fourthly {and I could go on and on...} the two Cuban-American candidates got away with scaring the voters with a saturation of official-looking "warning" flyers and even lying about another candidate having dropped out of the race, reminding some of Banana Republic tactics. Meanwhile, before, during and after the results, the media pundits obsessed over the "shocking" Iowa debacle that mostly just enriched a lot of folks who are now laughing over their newly bulging bank accounts.  One candidate who lost big-time, the ultra-rich Jeb Bush, actually spent thousands of dollars FOR EACH VOTE HE GOT, as did Cruz the winner. What Iowa proved is that both of the Cuban-Americans have enough ambition and more than enough money from right-wing billionaires to easily purchase the hallowed White House. O'Reilly summed Iowa up best: "It's clear that in Iowa religious voters preferred the religious conservative Ted Cruz. The media despises Trump and will paint him as a loser if they can but here on the Factor we're fair, and the truth is Trump remains very formidable." Mr. O'Reilly and Fox News, remarkably, had the most honest appraisal of this week's super-hyped Iowa debacle, just one step on the money-crazed, pundit-driven marathon known as a presidential campaign in America.

     Many millions of democracy-loving Americans have literally begged Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic U. S. Senator from Massachusetts, to run for President of the United States. Beyond any logic or question, she is the most qualified American to succeed Barack Obama as President and Commander-in-Chief, one who will likely get to name three new Supreme Court justices.

        But Elizabeth Warren refuses to run for President of the U. S. because she refuses to sell her soul and her political beliefs to Wall Street billionaires. But America and democracy need her badly.

      Because Elizabeth Warren is not running for President of the United States, the Wall Street obscenities will continue to shame America thanks to too many bought-and-paid-for politicians.

        In January of 2017 it will be the Wall St. billionaires celebrating the outcome of yet-another presidential campaign, not Elizabeth Warren and the millions of Americans who so direly wanted her to run for President. Conclusion: If the majority of Americans can't defend their democracy and avoid a bought-and-paid-for President in 2017, they will deserve the consequences, which will include the decent, brilliant Elizabeth Warren just shouting from the congressional sidelines.

      Millions of decent American voters like Dr. Elizabeth Vasile, whom you met at the top of this essay, are now being left out in the cold by our money-crazed, pundit-driven political process. They have no one to support in a two-party system in which both parties are bought-and-paid-for.

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Cuba & U. S. Journalism

A Candid Observation
{Thursday, February 4th 2016}

         This beautiful young lady is Katie Pavlich. She is 27-years-old. For years now, or almost since the day she graduated from the University of Arizona, she has been anointed as the face, or at least one of them, of broadcast journalism in the United States. That's important because television news, despite its precipitous decline in quality in recent decades, remains the dominant force in American journalism, long ago eclipsing newspapers and still far ahead of the digital explosion, at least regarding so-called hard news. Katie Pavlich majored in broadcast journalism at the University of Arizona and probably took a government-related class or two. That, plus her stunning looks and her strong opinions, made her an instant hit on network news operations that particularly covet Talking Heads, commentators, and pundits like Katie. The visionary Ted Turner in 1980 founded CNN as the first 24-hour cable news outfit. His idea was to hire the best broadcast journalists and send them out to cover the news. That viewpoint made him and CNN legends, but he sold out to a corporation, which also purchased his vision. Now huge corporations like Disney, General Electric, Comcast, etc., own the networks and their singular vision is money. Thus, Talking Heads and pundits as opposed to real broadcast journalists now dominate the airways...hour after nauseating hour. Talking Heads and pundits like Katie Pavlich are smart, educated, and easy to look at, but they are not broadcast journalists. In other words, they don't report the news as unbiased anchors nor do they go out and investigate the news as reporters. But they save the networks money by being studio pundits who are more than happy to be promoting themselves or their products.

Katie Pavlich happens to be a political conservative tilted to the right.

       She is thus a popular pundit and commentator on Fox News, especially Bill O'Reilly's top-rated program. Networks long ago determined that Talking Heads save them money that should be spent on sending journalists out to cover the news so viewers could be informed and also form their own opinions on issues. But Talking Heads and pundits are propagandists whose prime function is to proselytize the viewers to accept whatever it is they are selling -- their opinions, their books, etc. Katie, straight out of college, chronicled her conservatism or right-wingism with two highly publicized books. Her two books are: "Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up" and "Assault & Flattery: The Truth About the Left and Their War on Women." With books like that straight out of the University of Arizona, Katie Pavlich was sure to get flattering calls from every major conservative or right-wing radio or television newshound. Barack Obama still has eleven months to go in his two-term presidency, so Katie probably has one more anti-Obama book up her sleeve before he leaves office, knowing full-well she would get countless hours of free network promotion as a prime Talking Head. That, in essence, is what broadcast journalism in the U. S. has evolved into -- a capitalist propaganda and promotion machine prioritizing money with scant emphasis on actually covering and reporting the news.

       This beautiful young lady is Cristina Escobar. She is 28-years-old. Cristina is the top broadcast journalist in Cuba and a truly skilled anchor and interviewer in either Spanish or English. Like Katie Pavlich, Cristina is well-educated and opinionated. In fact, Cristina has a very low opinion of broadcast journalism in the U. S. and she has studied it minutely -- from her vantage point in Cuba, at a journalism seminar in California in 2014, in Washington this past summer when she covered the Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, etc. Both on Cuban and American soil, Cristina has pointedly made this point: "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most." Indeed, on her newscasts in Cuba Cristina will readily criticize the Cuban government if she feels everyday Cubans are being mistreated or could be better served. By contrast, she believes her counterparts in America do not have the broadcast freedom that she has in Cuba. Yes, she understands that broadcast journalists in the U. S. can and do regularly criticize their governments -- local, state and national. However, she believes that "the lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba" is "mostly speaking to the choir, telling the masses what they have been programmed to believe and then using that to make money and improve ratings." Moreover, Cristina seems to comprehend what Americans are not supposed to realize, which is: The stark preference for Talking Head pundits in the U. S. is merely designed to save the corporate owners money so they don't have to go to the expense of covering the news with real reporters. Cristina says, "Broadcast journalists, I believe, should report the news and be able to write it and be able to conduct intelligent and appropriate interviews. But having people on set to fill time and promote themselves or their views is not broadcast journalism. So, yes, I closely study the journalism in the U. S. to learn what not to do. I'm not a propagandist. I consider myself a broadcast journalist."

       Whether or not you agree with Cristina Escobar's views on broadcast journalism and her criticisms of the U. S. media, she is, I think, worth pondering. That's because: {1} broadcast journalism is the most domineering aspect of the U. S. media, because of the visuals and because its easier than reading print journalism; and {2} it is the medium that, as a proven propaganda tool, best proselytizes masses of people. From Cristina's Cuban viewpoint, the lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba results mostly from political correctness as opposed to hateful or punitive lies. "But," she says, "the end result is the same whether the lies are meant to hurt Cuba or meant to tell the viewers what they expect to hear, what they have been programmed to expect." Cristina believes that "lack of respect for journalism also has a capitalist bent -- money. If lies tend to make more network money than the truth, lies win out in U. S. broadcast journalism."

       From the beautiful young broadcast journalists Katie Pavlich and Cristina Escobar, we move to the pedestrian-looking, veteran print journalist Ken Silverstein. He helps explain the declining respect for the news media in the U. S., which is reflected by an approval rating in the single digits, even below class-action lawyers. Ken has earned a reputation as a top investigative journalist. He has worked for a myriad of highly respected organizations -- the Los Angeles Times, Harper's Magazine, and the Associated Press. Because of television and digital competition, many great newspapers have gone out of business, such as the superb Rocky Mountain News in Denver, or been forced to downsize print editions in favor of online coverage. But to this day magazines like Harper's, Time, etc., and print newspapers from the Los Angeles Times on the West Coast to the New York Times on the East Coast to the Kansas City Star in the Heartland remain the best sources to get actual news coverage. Ken Silverstein represents the divide between print journalism today and pundit-driven broadcast journalism. He recently wrote a long, well-researched article about a prime presidential candidate that he depicted as just about the most corrupt person to ever be considered a serious presidential candidate in the United States. Mr. Silverstein is a high-profile journalist and his eminently detailed corroborations were similarly high-profile, amply supportive of his conclusions as he cited incidents, names, and dates -- none of which, to my knowledge, will ever be denied. Yet, the broadcast networks don't dare mention such things because, if they did, that notable candidate and others like him might refuse to become Talking Heads, meaning the networks might have to cover the news.

       This is the graphic that accompanied the aforementioned article by Ken Silverstein in which he eviscerated Marco Rubio's character, which possibly -- unless disputed -- could, or should, be of interest to voters. You can go online to read the article and then judge it, Mr. Silverstein, and Mr. Rubio for yourself.

         Print journalists such as Ken Silverstein and the editorial writers at the New York Times still tell both sides of two-sided stories, something broadcast journalists in the U. S. appear incapable or unable to do. MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program -- featuring anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski -- is one of the most influential political programs. Morning Joe, a former Florida congressman, is more of a pundit than anchor. On the morning a major article in the New York Times revealed major financial mishaps and misdeeds by Marco Rubio in Florida, Morning Joe held up that article to the camera and loudly proclaimed, "This will get Marco elected President of the United States!!" And well it might, if the broadcast journalists have their way. Ken Silverstein's subsequent article was much more detailed in regards to what he called Rubio's unfathomably "corrupt" shenanigans but I don't know if Morning Joe held up Silverstein's article and declared that it would get Rubio elected President. But my contiguous and contaminant mosaic that includes such eclectic and diverse media personalities as Katie Pavlich, Cristina Escobar, Ken Silverstein, and Morning Joe is merely to illustrate a fact of life in the United States: What now passes for broadcast journalism in the U. S. would, I think, be reprehensible or unrecognizable to the great Walter Cronkite.

       The New York Times this week used this perceptive Political Cartoon to show an Anger Meter that aptly defines the growing distaste Americans have for both the money-crazed political process and the money-crazed/pundit-driven media coverage of it, which drags on endlessly to keep the unlimited financial donations and the ad money streaming in. THE PRIME VICTIMS ARE THE VOTERS AND THE VIEWERS.

{Photo courtesy: JSBICXY/Birds & Blooms Magazine}
Birds in winter need seeds/food from humans.

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"Last Vestige of Cold War"

France Fights for Cuba
But Rubio Is Now #1 Republican

         As we have said in this forum for many months now, Josefina Vidal -- Cuba's indefatigable American expert -- has predicted that Marco Rubio will be the next U. S. president beginning in January of 2017. Because her expertise regarding the U. S. has been extremely accurate in the last fifteen years, many top Cuban observers, including those confused by America's prolific punditry, put much stock in Vidal's long-shot prediction. Today -- Feb. 2-2016 -- it is far less of a long-shot. Rubio was the big winner with a strong 3rd place finish in yesterday's first Republican primary voting in the Iowa caucus. Vidal and the Cuban government have embraced President Obama's massive efforts to normalize relations with Cuba but, following Vidal's lead, Cuba is resisting following up on economic and political ties with the U. S. that a Republican-dominated Congress along with a Republican in the White House can easily overrule beginning less than a year from now. For that reason, and because of Vidal, Cuba is stressing the need to firm up relations with all other countries other than the United States. In 2016, a year in which Fidel Castro turns 90 and Raul Castro turns 85, the future of post-Castro Cuba is more than ever in Vidal's hands. She is acutely aware that U.S.-backed right-wingers now powerfully challenge Cuban-friendly governments in Venezuela and Brazil. She is acutely aware that post-Castro Cuba must adopt the Chinese and Vietnamese styles of capitalism. And she is also acutely aware that a Republican, namely Marco Rubio, will defeat the Obama-like Democrat, Hillary Clinton, in America's ongoing 2016 presidential sweepstakes.

        Marco Rubio, the first-term U. S. Senator from Miami, can now seriously point to the White House. In the Iowa caucus yesterday he finished a strong third behind the winner, fellow Cuban-American first-term Senator Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump. But that showing projects Rubio as the strong favorite of the Republican financial and political establishment, which will, in the coming months, easily elevate Rubio.

      The two Cuban-Americans -- Rubio and Cruz -- will now begin to squeeze out the national poll-leader, Donald Trump, for the Republican presidential nomination. That's the way it looks now after Iowa and that's the way Vidal predicted months ago.

        French President Francois Hollande is warmly hosting Cuban President Raul Castro this week in Paris. After a state dinner at Elysee Palace, Hollande spoke profoundly against the U. S. embargo of Cuba, calling it "the last vestige of the Cold War and one the world wants ended once and for all against Cuba." 

Cuban President Raul Castro was given full military honors in Paris.

Presidents Hollande and Castro have met in both Havana and Paris.

        This AP photo shows Cubans enjoying internet connections thanks to one of the 50 wireless connection points in Havana. This week Cuba announced it will open 17 more wi-fi hook-ups in Havana and it is now launching broadband internet service in homes in two Havana neighborhoods and will later extend it to cafes, bars, and restaurants. The BBC says 150,000 Cubans now use Havana's wi-fi hook-ups.

     The makers of Bacardi Rum are furious at President Obama. Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the Bacardi family has been one of the many who have benefited massively from exiting the island to embrace American capitalism and decades of U. S. efforts to recapture what it had in Cuba during the Batista-Mafia years from 1952 till 1959. Bacardi Rum was founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862. Now based in the tax-haven of Bermuda and making its rum in the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico, Bacardi has multiple buildings in the Miami area. Bacardi for decades has enjoyed having the Bacardi trademark and a monopoly on rum sales in the U. S. and the massive areas it most influences. Also, historians have noted that considerable Bacardi money has supported numerous anti-Castro enterprises. In 1996, for example, Bacardi's highly financed lobbyists in Washington, led by anti-Castro zealot and Bush-connected Otto Reich, pushed through the infamous anti-Cuban Helms-Burton Act that has mightily enriched a few Cuban-Americans but massively harmed millions of Cubans on the island. But last month President Obama, in his continuing efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, bravely renewed the famous Havana Club trademark for Cuba's Cubaexport company. Bacardi, not surprisingly, has sicced its vast lobbying effort in the U. S. Congress on Obama.

     Except for the U. S., Cuba's famed Havana Club trademark is recognized by the rest of the world. Havana Club was officially introduced in Cuba in 1934 but it dates back to 1878 when Jose Arechabala founded a distillery in Cardenas, Cuba. It is now distributed via a propitious long-term deal with the French alcoholic giant Pernod Ricard. Havana Club is considered the only authentic Cuban rum and has earned a reputation as being a superior product to Puerto Rican-produced Bacardi. Thus, if President Obama's overture prevails and creates a level playing field, Havana Club could overtake Bacardi's huge multi-billion-dollar advantages in the U. S.

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