"Cuba, What's That?"

"Well, uh, sir, it's...a country!"

        On Wednesday -- February 10th, 2016 -- the BBC used the above Reuters photo to illustrate a story about Cuba. The BBC and Reuters are two of the world's greatest media organizations. Because they are headquartered in the UK, they have the freedom to report freely on important Cuban stories, something the U. S. media -- especially cable "news" -- has neither the guts nor the integrity to do, unless it uncovers an anti-Cuban story. This photo updated a long-standing and important event in the annals of U.S.-Cuban relations. It shows some of the 113 Cuban migrants getting off an airplane in the Mexican town of Nuevo Laredo, right across the border from Laredo, Texas. The plane supposedly carried the most vulnerable 113 Cuban migrants -- pregnant women and sick children -- who have been stranded along with 8,000 others since mid-November in Costa Rica because Nicaragua closed its border to stop the influx of Cubans taking the long air and land route to the Mexican border, where they instantly obtain legal residence with financial benefits the moment their front foot touches U. S. soil. That extremely discriminatory U. S. law dates back to 1966 and is called Wet Foot/Dry Foot. It only favors Cuban migrants. Naturally, all other would-be migrants throughout Latin American strongly resent it, as indicated by the turmoil caused by a new wave of Cubans who fear President Obama's historic overtures to Cuba will put an end to Wet Foot/Dry Foot, which will not happen because the Cuban-American extremists dictate that and many other laws in the U. S. Congress favorable to them but injurious and discriminatory against everyone else. These Cuban migrants reportedly paid huge fees to human traffickers and others to get on this migratory route. At Laredo or any other border crossing, any non-Cuban, including pregnant mothers and children, trying to get to the U. S. would be instantly detained and very likely deported back to their country. So, the coverage of what's happening in Laredo today and on the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border since mid-November is a big story, but one the U. S. media tries real hard to avoid, leaving it up to great international media outlets, such as the BBC and Reuters, to inform Americans who, although propagandized about Cuba every day since 1959, only get biased coverage of all U.S.-Cuban relations in these 50 United States of America.

       This photo is courtesy of AP/Esteban Felix. It shows a Cuban wearing a U.S.-flag T-shirt. He is one of about 8,000 Cubans still stuck since mid-November in Costa Rica because Nicaragua closed its border to block the overland passage of Cubans flocking to the U.S.-Mexican border to take advantage of the U. S. Wet Foot/Dry Foot law, one of many that entices and favors Cubans while discriminating against all other would-be migrants, a fact highlighted by this young man. 

         The U. S. broadcast media has been obsessed for over a year with the 2015-2016 presidential campaigns that still have many months to drag on...and on...because it's a billion-dollar industry that continually enriches television stations, ad agencies, consultants, politicians, pundits, etc. -- and the sheer economics of these transgressions is far more important than electing a new President. Two prime Republican presidential candidates are the two first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Easily proselytized Americans are not supposed to connect these two facts: {1} Two controversial Cuban-Americans are prime Republican presidential contenders in 2016; and {2} they very powerfully oppose President Obama's ongoing and historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba.

          There have been 8 highly hyped Republican debates with television news journalists asking the questions. They have not had the courage or the integrity to ask a single question about Cuba DESPITE THE TWO AFOREMENTIONED VISCERAL POINTS. Here, for example, is a question those self-proclaimed TV journalists should have the guts and decency to ask:

              Q: "Mr. Rubio, Mr. Cruz...you are two first-term U. S. Senators who seem to be bored with the Senate because -- as products of the Bush dynasty, the Tea Party, and simply being Cuban-Americans -- both of you hit the Senate mainly running for President. Mr. Rubio, you and also Mr. Cruz rarely show up in the Senate...except to oppose everything President Obama tries to do and shut down the government if you don't get your way...and shamefully blocking such things as Roberta Jacobson's badly needed appointment as Ambassador to Mexico because she once was involved with Cuban diplomacy. Although the entire world, as indicated by the UN vote, and even Mr. Rubio's backyard in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood strongly favor ending the U. S. embargo of Cuba, both of you very strongly defy not only the President, the Pope, the world, and even Cuban-Americans who...after six decades...desire, for America's sake as well as 11 million innocent Cubans, an end to the embargo of Cuba. So first, Mr. Rubio, and then Mr. Cruz, will you explain to the American people watching this debate how you can justify the continuation of a Cold War approach to Cuba, dating back to 1962, that the rest of the world, including most Cuban-Americans, heartily disagree with. Mr. Rubio, you have stated that you didn't care if '99% of Americans' wanted the embargo to end, you would make sure, if elected President, that it continues. So, Mr. Rubio, explain your justification and then Mr. Cruz you can do the same."

         The point is: The gutlessness of the mainstream U. S. media in regards to Cuban issues harms the image of the United States far more than it harms Cuba, which, in fact, gains international sympathy for being subjected to it. Along the way, it greatly insults and harms democracy and Americans. What follows are examples: 

Example #One:

Example #Two:

Example #Three:

         The United States of America is the richest nation in the history of the world...by far. And in the United States of America...one out of every five children has hunger problems. The gutless U. S. media largely ignores that inexcusable abomination...just as it ignores -- decade after decade -- the unending streams of tax dollars devoted to anti-Cuban schemes and to enriching and empowering a select group of Cuban-Americans. Some...at least some...of those Cuban-related tax dollars, perhaps, COULD FIGHT CHILDHOOD HUNGER IN AMERICA. Consider, for example, the following excruciating facts in February of 2016:

        USAID is just one aspect of the U. S. government that continually uses tax dollars to hopefully bring about a regime-change in Cuba. Investigative journalist Tracey Eaton regularly, on his Along the Malecon blog, uses the Freedom of Information Act to re-publish, word-for-word, USAID and other solicitations offering millions of tax dollars to those who want to partake in anti-Cuban operations, the last such solicitation pointing out that it would not be responsible if such highly paid individuals were caught in Cuba, apparently referencing the fact that the jailed Alan Gross, after returning to his Maryland home, successfully sued unwitting taxpayers for millions of dollars because he was indeed caught in Cuba. But...as Mr. Eaton points out and hundreds of other mainstream journalists are aware of...such incredible streams of tax dollars regularly flow in steady pipelines out of Washington, propelled by whatever a few Cuban-American extremists want from the always cooperative U. S. Congress. AGAIN, THE POINT IS THIS: Perhaps some...at least some...of those tax dollars designed to hurt Cuba and to enrich a few Cuban-Americans should go to fighting childhood hunger in America. OR TO OTHER WORTHY CAUSES, such as:

     The startling and incredible amount of tax dollars the U. S. continues to use to bring about regime-change in Cuba reminds me of...Jean Casarez. Why, you ask? Ms. Casarez is an excellent investigative reporter for CNN. A few days ago she had a report about Spain Elementary-Middle School in Detroit. The school is so dilapidated that the students and their teachers are simply too afraid to learn or to teach. They are scared of...plaster falling from the ceilings, rats that might bite, ugly black and creeping mold, etc. The very day that I watched that report by Jean Casarez on CNN, I read about two more reports about how much money, tax dollars, the U. S. government is spending right now and planning to spend the rest of this year on over-throwing the elderly Castro brothers in Cuba where Raul is almost 85 and Fidel is almost 90. Jean Casarez's update on Spain Elementary-Middle School is just one of the millions of better reasons for U. S. tax dollars than continuing to shower millions upon millions of them on a regime-change in Cuba, although the primary reason in 2016 apparently is merely to continue the pipelines of cash to enrich selected people using Cuba as an excuse, an exceedingly poor excuse despite the endless propaganda that goes along with it. Meanwhile, what about more decent priorities...like dilapidated schoolrooms in the United States?

        Jean Casarez on her CNN report showed this girl's bathroom at Spain Elementary-Middle School, including the filth and mold and a stall without a door. At one point, while interviewing a concerned teacher, Jean said, "I have been in this building only about 40 minutes and now I'm hoarse. I wasn't hoarse when I came in." The teacher commiserated with Jean who, herself, was more worried about the children.

Jean Casarez with others concerned about conditions at the school.

         In addition to CNN's far-reach as an international network, Jean Casarez was so concerned about Spain Elementary-Middle School that she filed photos like this one on her Twitter page showing her stand-up outside the school. AGAIN, FOR WHAT'S IT'S WORTH, I ASK THIS QUESTION: Could U. S. tax dollars be better spent on upgrading projects like Spain Elementary-Middle School as opposed to continuing to shower, decade after decade, endless streams of tax dollars on already rich people who claim they can help the U. S. government bring about regime-change in Cuba even while President Obama is trying desperately to use this final year of his two terms in the White House to normalize relations with Cuba?? However, the American people since the 1950s haven't cared enough to weigh-in on a Cuban policy that shames both democracy and the United States of America. And that's why, in 2016, a handful of self-serving extremists in the U. S. Congress can continue to use Cuba to enrich and empower a selected few instead of, for example, using some tax dollars to make a classroom safe for its precious students.

       Television station WXYZ in Detroit also told its viewers about the "deplorable conditions" inside Spain Elementary-Middle School. Should such things in the United States of America be a priority for tax dollars at least remotely on a par with the endless stream of tax dollars continuing to fund senseless and unworkable regime-change programs in Cuba? Proselytized Americans are not supposed to ask that question, not since 1959 anyway. But in 2016, the year Fidel Castro turns 90-years-old, perhaps Americans should rise up out of their hiding places and at least say something, even if it's only, "I think maybe, uh, we should start using, uh, some of our tax money that is showered on anti-Castro zealots to, uh, kinda fix up some things that, uh, you know, need fixing." Even such a timid but intelligent sentence like that would be appreciated by millions of America's democracy-lovers...and the kids at Spain Elementary-Middle School.

          There are currently three Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Senate: Presidential candidate Ted Cruz from Texas; the powerfully entrenched Robert Menendez from New Jersey; and presidential candidate Marco Rubio from Miami, Florida. The United States of America, I believe, would be a better democracy if the U. S. media had the guts to ask these three Senators this question: "IN LIGHT OF THE FACT THAT ALL THREE OF YOU POWERFULLY SUPPORT THE STEADY STREAM OF HARD-EARNED TAX-DOLLARS THAT FLOW TO NUMEROUS ANTI-CUBAN AND PRO-CUBAN EXILE PROJECTS, DO YOU THINK THAT SOME OF THOSE TAX-DOLLARS SHOULD POSSIBLY BE DIVERTED TO FIGHTING CHILDHOOD HUNGER IN AMERICA?" I repeat: The day the U. S. media has the guts to ask such a question will be the very day the USA becomes better.

"Cuba, what's that?"

"Uh, sir, it's, uh...a country."

"See! See, sir! It's right there...in the Caribbean Sea!!"
{Note: It's been there a long time, before and after 1959}

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Goliath Beats David Again

U. S. Beats Cuba...Again
{Updated: Wednesday, February 10th, 2016}

    This lithograph is courtesy of Osmar Schindler/Wikipedia. It depicts the mythological battle between David and Goliath. Little David, the million-to-one underdog, by historic accounts, faced off against the awesomely armed Big Goliath. David was armed with just a sling-shot loaded with one small rock. A legend was created by the myth that David won, a victory that for centuries has thrilled and encouraged long-shots and underdogs. But reality is no myth. In the real world, David is no match against Goliath. And in the real world Cuba, in the role of David, is no match for the United States, in the role of Goliath. On Monday morning of this week, as on many previous Monday mornings, Cubans on the island were reminded of that fact yet again. By now, Cubans realize that, in truth, David cannot beat Goliath, except in a mythical sense.

    On Monday morning, February 8th, 2016, Cubans awoke to the news that their favorite baseball player, Yuliesky Gourriel, had defected along with his younger brother Lourdes. For the last twelve years, since he was a teenager, Yuliesky has been Cuba's most beloved player on the baseball-mad island. Year-after-year, Cuba's unmatched surfeit of baseball talent increasingly defected, lured by the incredible bonuses and salaries in the United States. But year-after-year, the now 31-year-old Yuliesky resisted that temptation, even after his performance in the 2006 World Baseball Classic resulted in U. S. scouts and General Managers salivating about luring Yuliesky off the island. More than one scout in 2006 rated Yuliesky better than Derek Jeter, who at the time was the superstar shortstop for the New York Yankees. U. S. teams were ready and eager to bless Yuliesky with a guaranteed $100 million-dollar deal...if he would defect. Yuliesky's fierce loyalty to Cuba caused him to refuse such blatant guarantees...until Monday!

     On Monday morning Yuliesky and his younger brother Lourdes, also a top prospect, put Cuba in their rear-view mirror when they eased out of their hotel room in the Dominican Republic during the Caribbean Baseball Tournament. Cuba for many years dominated all regional and international baseball competitions -- such as the Pan-American Games, the World Baseball Classic, and the Olympics. But no more, and never again. Per capita, Cuba produces more baseball talent than any nation in the world. But now the 30 U. S. Major League teams are routinely paying in excess of $30 million a year for baseball stars, including some who are far from being superstars. In addition, as with any huge money schemes, the enticement of Cuban players to defect has created a vast cottage industry of human traffickers, agents, and criminal activity that includes kidnappings and extortion rackets. The defections of Cuban baseball players also are impacted by U. S. laws that grossly pertain only to Cubans, laws intended to hurt Cuba's revolutionary government and to enrich and empower Cuban exiles and defectors. The infamous Wet Foot/Dry Foot U. S. law since 1966 has, for example, enticed everyday Cubans to defect with economic benefits -- totally unavailable to all non-Cubans -- that include instant financial rewards as well as unchallenged residence. An easily bought-and-paid for U. S. Congress readily passes such laws and decades of the dark alliance between the Bush dynasty and Cuban extremists has exacerbated much of what the world bemoans about one-sided U.S.-Cuban relations, a David vs. Goliath situation in which Goliath seeks to remake David into the Batista-Mafia regime that existed, with U. S. backing, from 1952 till the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The Bush contribution to that debacle includes one of the last acts of the George W. Bush presidential administration prior to the current Barack Obama administration, and that was a shameful law that Obama inherited, along with countless others, that to this day provides huge financial incentives for Cuban doctors and nurses to defect to the U. S., along with everyday Cubans and...most especially...BASEBALL PLAYERS. YES, ESPECIALLY BASEBALL PLAYERS!!

   Yulieski Gourriel, at least until this Monday morning, was Fidel Castro's favorite baseball player in all the world. Yulieski's father, who never defected, had been Fidel's favorite player before Yuliesky. This photo shows Fidel with Yulieski in 2006, just days before Fidel was stricken with an intestinal disorder that almost killed him and from which, as he nears his 90th birthday, he is still trying to recuperate. In his youth, Fidel as Cuba's Athlete of the Year and as a baseball pitcher, was offered bonuses by both the Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators. But history records the fact that he became a lawyer and a revolutionary. Yet, in February of 2016 he remains a huge baseball fan, albeit a sad one today. With Obama's two-term presidency having replaced the two-terms of George W. Bush, Cuba has tried to lessen the punitive aspects of the Bush-enhanced U. S. laws directed at the island. Cuba and Obama, in fact, are still trying to normalize relations, even reopening embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961, the year the U. S. and the Batistianos lost the Bay of Pigs attack that was intended to recapture the island. Cuba, with Obama in the White House, even tried desperately to stem its unique pools of talent from defecting -- including baseball players, doctors, nurses, ballet stars, etc. In 2013, for example, Yulieski made $1 million in Japan playing baseball for Yokohama, and then he returned to play in Cuba. It was hoped that such agreements could be worked out between Cuba and the U. S. Major League teams. But it is not to be. Anything that remotely appears to be a positive for Cuba is easily squashed...as will be the reopened embassies...by a vast cottage industry of benefactors in the U. S. who will not let go of the lucrative Castro Cottage Industry, which since the 1950s has created long lines of millionaires, billionaires, and political power-brokers. Obama has seriously dented the Castro Cottage Industry but, like a cancer that resists all treatments, it is still omnipotent and that all-powerful scourge will continue to kill many of the most important aspects of the world's greatest democracy, just like it is killing Cuban baseball.

       
    Since 1959, when the Cuban Revolution judiciously chased the Batistianos and Mafiosi off the island only to see them relocate to a new capital -- Miami, also now called Little Havana. In all the years since, the Cuban narrative in the U. S. has been dictated by the transplanted Batistianos and their sycophants, such as the Bush dynasty and the U. S. Congress. Therefore, propagandized Americans have timidly and insouciantly allowed Little Havana and the Castro Cottage Industry to use the CIA, the U. S. military, the U. S. treasury, the U. S. media and whatever else they needed to support their agenda, which involves revenge against Cuba and getting very rich and powerful in America. In that milieu, Americans don't have a clue about such things as...this week's defection of Fidel Castro's favorite baseball player Yulieski Gourriel. To understand it, Americans would need to understand this photo, which shows Jose Abreu playing first base for Cuba in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Abreu barely was good enough to make that team and rarely played. He had some home-run power but was very slow afoot and weak defensively, rated far behind the Cuban first baseman at the time, Ariel Borrero.

    But after the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Jose Abreu had some good years as a slugger in Cuba's top professional baseball league. Despite the U. S. embargo of most things related to Cuba, the lush island's prime national treasures -- such as baseball players, doctors, and ballet performers -- are relentlessly scouted and offered huge financial incentives to defect to the United States, an ongoing process that is primarily designed to hurt Cuba and help the vast Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S., which benefits a few and harms everyone else.

        So, Abreu defected in 2013 and signed a 6-year, $68 million contract with the Chicago White Sox...with every penny guaranteed. But Abreu hit 66 homers in 2014 and 2015 with the White Sox, who now think they got a steal for a piddling 68 million dollars. In the last year of that contract in 2019 Abreu will be paid exactly $13,667,000.00. He turned 29 on January 29th and in 2020 he will be a free agent again. That's when his agent will command some REALLY BIG money, probably around $25 million a year. The 30 U. S. Major League teams -- with most of them owned by billionaires who often get huge tax benefits, tax-built stadiums, and billion-dollar television contracts -- now routinely pay $30 million per year to players who will never, like Abreu, hit 66 homers in a two-year span. Per capita, Cuba produces far more baseball talent than the United States...or the Dominican Republic. All 30 Major League teams now have year-around and state-of-the-art baseball complexes in the Dominican Republic, which unlike Cuba is not the victim of a decades-old embargo although when the ruthless U.S.-backed Batista ran Cuba the ruthless U.S.-backed Trujillo ran the Dominican Republic. State-of-the-Art baseball complexes in Cuba would increase the deluge of Cuban baseball talent but the revengeful Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. frowns on anything that resembles a positive for Cuba. Even so, Cuban defectors routinely and easily become superstars in the United States Major Leagues -- such as Jose Abreu, Aroldis Chapman, Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes, etc., etc., etc., etc. Human traffickers and many others share mightily in such spoils. Therefore, although the U. S. media doesn't have the guts to admit it, Jose Abreu and all the other former Cuban baseball stars...now including Yulieski Gourriel...are products of the Castro Industry that dictates the gluttonous U. S. Cuban policy.

Photo courtesy: Roberto Morejon/AIN.
Former Cuban baseball stars Yulieski and Lourdes Gourriel.

      This photo shows Yulieski Gourriel in the all-blue uniform for the Japanese team he played for in Yokohama. He got paid $1 million dollars in Japan, accounting for his thumbs-up portrayal. Cuba approved his Japanese venture because the million dollars was taxed 10% and he was back in time to play during Cuba's baseball season. I'm happy for the money Yulieski made in Japan and for the many millions of dollars he will now make in America. But it makes me very sad for Cuba. Of all the Cuban baseball, ballet, and medical stars induced to defect to the United States for the prime purpose of hurting Cuba, for the last twelve years Yulieski seemed to stand tall, high above the fray, in his fiercely intense loyalty to Cuba. To many, he was like David vs. Goliath, using only a sling-shot and his stoic character, to fight and to resist the unbeatable foe. Most of us root for underdogs; that's why we are enmeshed with the myth of David. That's why we admired Yulieski so much. At least until Monday morning. That's when he destroyed the comfort of that myth, reminding us of harsh realities we try so hard to dismiss, such as....human gluttony!!

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And speaking of gluttony:

Meet Peyton Manning.

     Now almost 40-years-old, Peyton is an American sports icon. Since age 22 he has made millions upon millions of dollars playing quarterback in the multi-billion-dollar National Football League. But it is the monumental endorsement money lavishly paid out by corporations that makes billionaires out of sports heroes like Tiger Woods, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and...Peyton Manning. The gluttonous offering and receiving of such money is as endless and seamless as it is greedy and unseemly, in a nation in which billboards announce that one in five children have hunger problems. Sunday night, at the conclusion of Super Bowl 50, Peyton Manning in the interview depicted here revealed to the entire world the sheer obscenity of soon-to-be billionaire athletes shamelessly displaying momentous gluttony. He had that opportunity because the super-hyped Super Bowl each year is supposedly viewed by almost the entire world, including those who have no comprehension of football, capitalism or gluttony. As a quarterback the oft-injured Peyton is over-the-hill; he threw far more interceptions than touchdown passes this season. But his team, the Denver Broncos, won the Superbowl in spite of Peyton because of a powerful defense that overwhelmed the favored Carolina Panthers. But Peyton, being Peyton, commanded the bulk of the post-game interviews, including the one depicted above when...seemingly tossed in out of nowhere...he told the world he was now going to drink hundreds of Budweiser beers. The viewers, including his young daughters, were not supposed to understand that sly endorsement. But most of the world did anyway...immediately. Budweiser is one of Peyton's many corporate sponsors. In fact, as the world's dominant beer, a Budweiser distributorship is better than a gold mine for spewing out money. Peyton already is a co-owner of two Budweiser distributorships, with more on the way. In fact, he is also a co-owner of Papa John's Pizza distributorships because Papa John's is also one of Peyton's many sponsors! You see, if you're a superstar athlete like Tiger, Magic, Michael, Peyton, etc., you aren't just paid hundreds of millions of easy dollars, you are also made an owner. Basketball icon Michael Jordon has been retired for almost two decades but one of his sponsors, Nike, is still in 2016 paying him about $200 million a year while shamefully making the Jordan-named products in slave-like conditions overseas!! Now digest that, if you will, in a nation in which one in five children have a hunger problem, a hunger problem that $200 million paid yearly to Michael Jordan could help alleviate. But the latest reminder of obscene gluttony is Peyton Manning shamefully tossing in that ad for Budweiser at the end of the Super Bowl. The headline in the Denver Post Monday, the next day, was: "Peyton Manning's 'Budweiser' Mention Valued at $13.9 Million." That figure was calculated based on the price of the programmed Super Bowl ads, not the character-defining free ad Peyton stupidly gave Budweiser. But anyway you slice it, digest it, camouflage it, or try to justify it...Peyton Manning, Budweiser, and runaway capitalism are, in a word, gluttonous.

  And so, let's crack open a Bud and drink to the The Great America Lie, which is that American capitalism is not gluttonous but a glorious tribute to freedom and democracy. {Tell that to hungry children}. On second thought, let's don't drink to it. To do what Peyton Manning suggested about Budweiser beer at the end of the Supper Bowl is, I think, an insult to the one-in-five American children who have hunger problems. Also, come to think of it, it is an insult to me. I have lived a long life and never once have I ever tasted a drop of beer or whiskey. I'm no more saintly than others but I am not as easily proselytized, it seems. Budweiser doesn't have an ad budget large enough to entice me to drink or become addicted to its product, no matter how many Peyton Manning-like superstars try to propagandize me. But I admit: Billboards across America reminding me that one-in-five American children have hunger problems do impress me, especially when I'm also told that a long-retired former athlete is still being paid $200 million a year by just one of his many sponsors.

    In Havana Sunday night, Cristina Escobar probably did not watch the Super Bowl. I hope not anyway. Peyton Manning's gluttonous plug for Budweiser would perhaps have riled her so much that she might have mentioned it on her prime-time newscasts on Cuban television. But that's just a guess. Yet, Peyton and Budweiser are prime examples of what the feisty Ms. Escobar most dislikes about the United States and capitalism: GLUTTONY!! And her opinion, at least on the island, carries more weight than those of even Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. At age 28, she even influences more young Cubans than her U.S.-based adversaries such as Ted and Marco. If you haven't seen her on Cuban, regional or international news programs, check her out on YouTube, either in Spanish or English. In the Tracey Eaton interview on YouTube, she makes many salient points, such as, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." In other words, she is not a fan of gluttony. BUT, CHRISTINA! WHAT ABOUT DEMOCRACY WITHOUT GLUTTONY? Yes, she has been asked that exact question, to which she replied, "If the two can be separated, I'll surely listen." She then laughed, softly and cutely, before adding, "Are you trying to tell me you can work miracles?" Anyway...if you can, contact Cristina.

       Sunder Pichai was born 43 years ago in India. He graduated from the famed Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He began working for Google in 2004, meaning he is a very, very rich man. In August of 2015 he became Google's CEO. On one day this week, whether he needed it or not, he got very much richer -- $199 million dollars richer!! On Monday Mr. Pichai was awarded that bonus. In 2018 Mr. Pichai has another stock option worth $250 million dollars, but that doesn't mean he won't get more bonuses, in addition to his salary, in 2016 and 2017. In Cuba the perceptive non-capitalist Cristina Escobar takes note of such gluttony, one reason she staunchly told journalist Tracey Eaton, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." The vast U. S. disparity between the rich and poor helps shape her opinions.

And lastly, a very sad note: 

        This photo is courtesy of WLS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Chicago. The beautiful young lady's name was Aaren O'Connor, age 25. She recently moved from California to Chicago to take a new job and be near her boyfriend. Friday after work she was in her car when she was killed by a stray bullet to her head. Her father, David O'Connor, told WLS-TV, "I pleaded with her when she told me she was going to Chicago." His fear, unfortunately, was obvious. In the first 35 days of 2015, 35 people were killed by gunfire in Chicago. In the first 35 days of this year, 2016, that figure has doubled to 70. Aaren O'Connor...was one of the 70. 

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Anti-Democracy Billionaires

Meet the Poster Man

         Jeff Bezos is the Poster Man for the precipitous decline of the bought-and-paid-for U. S. media and the bought-and-paid-for U. S. democracy, both of which the proud Founding Fathers considered as key pillars of their seminal achievement -- the creation of the world's greatest form of government. All that is unraveling, with Bezos a prime example. He was born 52-years-ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1994 he founded Amazon. In January of 2015 Forbes listed his worth at $46.7 billion, more than the net worth of many countries. In January of 2016 Forbes listed his worth at $53.2 billion. With such incredible...actually obscene...wealth, Bezos could do wonders in the United States where we are repeatedly told via television ads and billboards that one in five children in the U. S. "have hunger problems;" where a cost-saving scheme in the mostly black city of Flint, Michigan has resulted in children being poisoned by unfit water; etc. Instead of helping alleviate such things, Bezos -- like about fifty of America's other anti-democracy billionaires -- is busy buying up and tearing down the fabrics of the world's greatest democracy.

        In 2013 Jeff Bezos bought the venerable Washington Post, which for many decades had been one of America's greatest newspapers and a keen watchdog when its democracy was threatened, such as when it exposed President Richard Nixon's right-wing Watergate shenanigans. But since 2013 the Post has become a cancerous scourge as far as democracy is concerned. Recently, a blistering series of right-wing Post editorials have unfairly and cowardly assailed President Obama's brave and decent efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, which reflects a brave and smart President's desperate attempt to correct an atrocious Cuban policy that dates back to 1952 when a few greedy right-wingers aligned the U. S. government with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba. The Cuban Revolution overturned those brutal dictators in 1959 but the right-wingers in Washington made sure the Batistianos got reconstituted on U. S. soil, mainly nearby Miami. The Bezos-owned Post is obviously a great admirer of the Batistianos and imperialism but apparently totally unconcerned about the negative connotations America's Cuban policy has on the worldwide image of the U. S., as reflected by the 191-to-2 yearly vote in the United Nations. The recent Washington Post right-wing editorials have been entitled: "Failure in Cuba;" "Obama's Olive Branches Are Lifelines For Authoritarian Regimes;" "The One-Sided Relationship With Cuba;" "One Year After Rapprochement, Cuba Is Not Free;" and "Despite Mr. Obama's Engagement, Cuba Continues Its Repression."

     Jeff Bezos and far too many multi-billionaires like him don't seem to care about the one-in-five American children who have "hunger problems," but they appear to be determined to maintain an American Cuban policy, dating back to 1962, that strives to cause enough hunger problems for innocent Cubans that they will be induced to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. USA Today last week, in an article written by its anti-Castro, Miami-based Cuban-American journalist Alan Gomez, at least was honest enough to point out the U. S. embargo against Cuba was begun in 1962 to "cause hunger" in Cuba after the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961 had failed to recapture the island. Instead of having his Washington Post repeatedly firing off editorials advocating an endless continuation of the pro-hunger embargo of Cuba, perhaps Bezos could encourage his editorial writers to fight hunger in Cuba and the U. S.

      This is the Cuba that, it seems, the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wants President Obama to maintain. The fact that the rest of the world is shamed by this image, as yearly indicated by the UN vote, hasn't bothered self-serving right-wingers for the past six decades and also won't bother them for the next six decades either.

       Barack Obama, in the final year of his two-term presidency, is doing all he can to bring at least a modicum of decency and sanity to America's Cuban policy. He has done far more already than the previous ten U. S. presidents combined, and he has more to do in his final eleven months in office. But a Republican-dominated U. S. Congress  and a bevy of right-wing Batistiano-loving billionaires and editorial writers have, and will, battle him all the way...and a Republican-successor in the White House beginning in 2017 would seal the deal in reversing Obama's democracy-loving gains.

      President Obama has been decent enough, informed enough, and brave enough to cry in front of the entire world as his sincere emotions pour out when his America, the richest and strongest nation in the history of the world, fails in its obligations to care for its children. The right-wing billionaires who are his enemies seem far more concerned with buying up the U. S. media and the U. S. government to further their greedy agendas, which include purchasing U. S. politicians.

        This billboard brings tears to the eyes of President Obama as he tries his best to end the U. S. embargo of Cuba that began in 1962 for the stated purpose of causing hunger problems in Cuba for the purpose of inducing the people on the island to rise up against Fidel Castro. It should, I believe, bring tears to the eyes of America's self-serving billionaires and bought-and-paid-for politicians who spend tons of money designed to keep the embargo in place...for another six decades or so...as America's friends around the world grimace in shame. Such money could possibly be better spent on making sure little American girls, like the one on the above poster, do not go hungry. 

       The little American girl in this photo got fed when she got to school but she also should not suffer hunger pains at home. American billionaires who readily make millionaires out of politicians they purchase should, perhaps, help alleviate childhood hunger in the U. S. before they spend so much money trying to support an embargo designed to create childhood hunger in Cuba.

       President Obama is aware that the U. S. embargo, from 1962 till today, has existed to create hunger and deprivation on the island of Cuba, even as the proponents of the Cuban embargo ignore the childhood hunger problems in the United States -- not, of course, with their own children but with millions of other people's children. A nation overrun with billionaire executives and bought-and-paid-for millionaire politicians should not also be overrun with childhood hunger problems after decades of funding regime-change schemes in Cuba, with the most everlasting scheme, ironically, being to bring about hunger problems in Cuba. At least, that's the thinking of a special young Cuban woman who rather strenuously opposes foreign interference on her island.

    At age 28, Cristina Escobar is Cuba's top broadcast journalist and she is a major influence on the island's young-adult generation that aims to determine its post-Castro future. {Later this year Fidel turns 90 and Raul turns 85}. Escobar's brilliance as a journalist and as a staunch defender of Cuba's sovereignty is well known on the island and throughout the region, and became known in the U. S. when her journalism took her to California in 2014 and Washington in 2015. The Bezos-owned Washington Post wouldn't be interested in Escobar's opinions but those concerned about fair-and-honest appraisals of Cuba are very interested in what she has to say. Last month, as you can see and hear on YouTube, Escobar told respected journalist Tracey Eaton, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." What she least wants is for a foreign power, namely the U. S, to dictate Cuba's future, as it did from 1952 till 1959 when it teamed with the most vicious/thieving Mafia kingpins to support and prop-up the vicious/thieving Batista dictatorship, all the while claiming it was America's way of bringing democracy to the island. Very astutely, Escobar says: "From 1898, after the Spanish-American War, till 1959 the United States had every chance in the world to make Cuba a paragon of democracy. But it chose to make Cuba an oppressed and occupied colony to be used as a piggy-bank and a money spigot. Yet, today the very same types in Miami and in Washington try to convince yet another generation of Americans that now 'we really need democracy in Cuba and we'll starve or destroy the people there to make it happen.' This is after assassination attempts, military assaults, multiple terrorist acts against innocent Cubans, and the embargo failed to return Cuba to the U. S., which to me means returning it to the Batistianos and the Mafiosi. Perhaps Americans don't but the rest of the world seems to understand our pugnacious nature. I want a sovereign Cuba ruled by Cubans on the island, not foreign Cubans or foreign Mafia types. I don't want a Cuba that is once more an occupied piggy-bank for criminals that they will conveniently call a 'democracy.'" 

      Obviously, Cristina Escobar is well aware of the above photo while Americans then and now are supposed to pretend it didn't relate to the U.S.-backed rape and robbery of Cuba from 1952 till 1958. This photo was published in February of 1958 by American's top magazine at the time -- Life Magazine. It's caption said: "America's Jewish Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky leaving Riviera Hotel-Casino with $200,000 cash in the satchel." It so happens that, by February of 1958, Fidel Castro and the Cuban rebels had already begun their march to Havana from the Sierra Maestra foothills on the eastern end of the island. Ten months later the ultra-rich Lansky and other Mafia kingpins had been chased to their tax-free and jail-free safe havens, such as Lansky's mansion in South Florida. Remnants of the Lansky-directed terror in Cuba still control the Cuban narrative in the U. S., not to mention the unending congressionally funded regime-change schemes designed to return Lansky-types to the island against the stern wishes of...the very determined Cristina Escobar.  

      Either Cristina Escobar will remain the new face of Cuba or Jeff Bezos {or Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz} will become the new face of Cuba. That means she is a huge underdog, but not one to be underestimated. Bezos alone has, according to Forbes, 53.2 billion dollars plus the editorial pages of the Washington Post to make his case. Rubio and Cruz are supported by a vast and unseemly array of right-wing billionaires, plus a propagandized U. S. media and citizenry that has never and will never react to atrocities against the nearby island. Escobar wants democracy for Cuba if that is what Cubans on the island want. And she wishes the U. S. democracy wasn't so susceptible to being bought by anti-Cuban, right-wing billionaires. It is well known that, on her recent journalistic visit to Washington, she was offered $3 million plus a Miami mansion if she would defect. But she has a far different agenda -- Cuban sovereignty. She doesn't have billions of right-wing dollars but, as Cuba's top broadcaster, she does have the attention of the twenty-something generation of Cubans on the island to make her case. Apparently she is familiar with the Post editorials just as she keeps abreast of other foreign threats to her very vulnerable island. Therefore, while most Americans are uninterested in the politics of a Jeff Bezos or a Marco Rubio or a Ted Cruz, Cristina Escobar is very interested. Earlier this week she said, "I envy the Cuban patriots who fought and died for Cuban sovereignty...like Marti and Maceo...more than I'll ever envy the rich Cuban exiles and their supporters in the United States." She laughed and added, "I'm old-fashioned, but I sleep well."

       In February, 2016, the island of Cuba belongs more to Cristina Escobar than to Jeff Bezos or Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. That might change by this time next year, but don't hold your breath while you wait. As long as there are Cubans on the island like Cristina Escobar, Cuba might remain an island country and not an occupied piggy-bank.

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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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