America's Right-Wing Problem

And How It Victimizes Cuba
But first:

        Ramon Castro, the oldest of Cuba's three Castro brothers, has died in Havana. He was 91-years-old. Ramon was not a revolutionary but he supported his brothers.

       This AP photo shows Ramon Castro with one of his very best friends, famous Florida businessman John Park Wright. Ramon, like his father Angel, was a farmer all his adult life and shunned the spotlight.

         This photo of the three Castro brothers was taken in 1941. That's Fidel on the left, Raul in the middle and Ramon on the right. Ramon's death at age 91 reflects the longevity of the Castro family. Fidel is now 89 and Raul is now 84. Ramon's body was cremated. His ashes will be spread over his farm near Biran, Cuba.

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     America's massive right-wing problem had its origin in 1898, the year that, I think, revealed conclusively and irredeemably that the island of Cuba says far more about the United States than it says about Cuba. In 1898 America's two most powerful newspaper publishers -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer -- wanted their man, Theodore Roosevelt, elected President of the United States. The way they made Teddy the 26th President from 1901 till 1909 can readily be Googled by anyone inclined to dispute this essay. Teddy's path to the White House started in 1898 when a U. S. warship, the USS Maine, blew up in Havana Harbor killing 266 innocent and young U. S. sailors. That very bloody historic event was the pretext for the Spanish-American War that had two prime goals: {1} To take control of Cuba from Spain; and {2} to get Teddy Roosevelt elected President. The two imperialist newspaper publishers, Hearst and Pulitzer, fashioned the Spanish-American War in Cuba, knowing it would be like taking candy from a baby because Spain was by then far too weak and over-extended to fight in America's backyard. So, Teddy and his Rough Riders were sent to Cuba to defeat Spain. The newspaper moguls sent their top writers, even the famed author Stephen Crane, and their top artists, even the great Frederic Remington, to Cuba to cover Teddy's easy-as-pie victory, which was presented to the American people as a great victory fueled by the ubiquitous mantra "REMEMBER THE MAINE!" The bloody pretext related to the USS Maine worked perfectly as did the easy triumph by Teddy's Rough Riders on Cuban soil. The over-matched U. S. citizens had no choice but to elect the Rough Rider hero, the inimitable Teddy Roosevelt, President of the United States of America for two 4-year terms.

       Theodore Roosevelt as President from 1901 till 1909 did some positive things, especially concerning the environment and national parks. But the fact remains...he was put in office to do the bidding of two right-wing, imperial-minded newspaper moguls -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

       In 1903 -- during the Teddy Roosevelt administration -- the U. S. crowned its new dominance of Cuba by stealing Guantanamo Bay from the island, like a bully taking candy from a baby. Afterward, the U. S. built a huge and lucrative Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. It remains the oldest U. S. base on foreign soil.

        To this day, Americans have been easily proselytized to believe that the United States of America, the world's nuclear superpower, absolutely deserves and absolutely needs that Naval Base on Cuban soil. The rest of the world believes it is a vivid reminder of America's dark, sordid, right-wing imperialist past.

 Guantanamo Bay belongs to Cuba, not America.
Just like the little boy's candy belonged to him, not the bully.

       All maps reveal that Guantanamo Bay is a part of Cuba, not the United States. In 1903, the year the U. S. stole Guantanamo Bay, imperialism was in vogue. But especially since the 1970s, nations of the world view the theft of land by powerful nations with opprobrium and other detestable descriptions. To this day right-wingers in the U. S. Congress hail the theft of Guantanamo Bay even as it severely harms the image of the U. S. worldwide. For example, the U. S. complains bitterly and loudly cries foul when, for example, Russia takes over Crimea. But what about the hypocrisy related to America's take-over of Guantanamo Bay?

      While right-wingers in the Teddy Roosevelt administration executed the theft of Guantanamo Bay, it was right-wingers in the George W. Bush presidency {2001-2009} that installed the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay that the world un-affectionately calls Gitmo and Amnesty International calls "the gulag of our time." Beyond doubt, the long-ago imperialist theft of Guantanamo Bay has greatly harmed the image of America and democracy every year since 1903. And then the Bush dynasty exacerbated that historic fact with the Gitmo prison that harms America's image and provides sustenance to America's enemies.

       Vowing to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and to deal sensibly with Cuba, the longest of long-shots, Barack Obama, was elected President of the United States, not just once but twice. He inherited a myriad of right-wing problems, including Gitmo, from the Bush presidency. Also, he has had to deal with a right-wing, dysfunctional U. S. Congress in which a handful of extreme Cuban hard-liners easily dictate America's Cuban policy. Now in the 8th and final year of his two-term presidency, Mr. Obama has made some remarkable advances in Cuban relations, such as reopening embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. But each step on the path to Cuban sanity and decency, Mr. Obama is still being vigorously opposed by a handful of right-wing Cuban-American zealots who should be allowed to vote in but not dictate to the U. S. democracy. This week the prison known as Gitmo is a prime example.

      The world has this image of America. Each October the 191-to-2 vote in the UN sharply rebukes the creators of this image -- right-wing thugs within the bowels of the world's greatest democracy. They are not in the least concerned with this image, but a very important and very decent man, Barack Obama, is.

         Last week President Obama announced his intention to visit Cuba next month, on March 21st and 22nd. This week he announced his plans to close the democracy-sapping prison at Guantanamo Bay. Right-wing thugs in the U. S. Congress plus all the Republican presidential candidates and all the right-wing radio and television commentators -- as well as millions of propagandized Americans who permit others to do their thinking for them -- vigorously oppose every one of President Obama's sane and decent initiatives regarding Cuba. In that milieu, since the 1950s, two generations of Cubans on the island have been severely punished by attempts to starve, deprive, and terrorize them -- all in the name of the United States of America that has a great democracy but, as its Cuban policy consistently points out, not one that is strong enough to deal adequately with a right-wing cancer that consumes so much of the political and media structures that should be pillars of the world's greatest democracy that right-wingers insult.

         The above image this week, or at least the fall-out, has dominated much of the news converge on American and international television screens. It shows the leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, flanked by his two sons, making his latest victory speech, this time after scoring a smashing victory Wednesday in the Nevada caucuses. In this speech, referencing President Obama's plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, Trump said: "We're gonna keep Gitmo open and fill it with bad dudes." Such comments are a sad testimony to the fragile status of the U. S. democracy in a two-party system in which most Americans believe both parties are bought-and-paid-for. As a lifelong conservative Republican, I was left, like many others, out in the cold when my party was usurped by right-wingers, a fact cemented by the longevity of the Bush dynasty. To their credit, Americans at last, during this presidential campaign in 2016, have concluded, with the demise of Jeb Bush, the need to end the Bush dynasty. And it is refreshing to see that a younger generation of Americans, as evidenced by the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders phenomenons, are tired of bought-and-paid-for politicians. But it still leaves thuggish right-wingers totally in charge of the Republican party, as indicated by Trump's salacious pandering to the pro-Gitmo crowd.

        This very popular 10-cent poster in 1898 explains why I maintain that powerful right-wing thugs have hurt Cuba so much and American democracy so much. It also helps explain why Cuba says more about the United States than it says about Cuba. And it also explains how unchecked propaganda can infiltrate a democracy even more powerfully and destructively than it infiltrates dictatorships and Banana Republics. Study the above poster in 1898 -- long before radio, television, and computers became the ultimate propaganda tools. This palpable poster effectively reflected these 1898 facts: {1} The USS Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor, killing 266 young sailors, and then used as the pretext for the Spanish-American War; {2} a couple of powerful right-wing newspaper publishers --- Hearst and Pulitzer -- used the Spanish-American War to capture Cuba and to make their man, Teddy Roosevelt, President; and {3} from 1898 till today right-wingers -- both inside and outside the U. S. democracy -- have used propaganda to greatly harm both Cuba and the U. S. democracy. Therefore, Americans who do not understand the USS Maine and the Rough Riders are not expected to understand the theft of Guantanamo Bay, the U. S. support of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba, nor the installation of an infamous American prison on nearby foreign soil. And unlike Hearst and Pulitzer in 1898, in 2016 right-wing propagandists have veritable bonanzas with radio {Russ Limbaugh, etc.}, television {Fox News, etc.} and computers {The Drudge Report, etc.}. 

But it started with the Rough Riders in 1898.

Teddy Roosevelt's historic charge up Cuba's San Juan Hill!!

A blatant right-wing American lie.

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The Soul of Cuba

Is It Cuban or Cuban-American?

Photo credit: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters.

       This insightful photo shows a young Cuban sitting on the famed Malecon seawall and gazing northward to Florida, which is only 90 miles across the Florida Straits. So, what is he thinking? Well, his shirt indicates that he is thinking about U. S. President Barack Obama's upcoming two-day trip to the island on the 21st and 22nd of March. Mr. Obama is considered a hero in Cuba because, more than any American since the 1950s, Obama has displayed a genuine concern for Cubans on the island and courageously attempted to normalize relations between the two nations. Cubans like this young man believe the prime motive behind Mr. Obama's overtures is to help the Cubans on the island, reversing a belligerent U. S. policy that has existed ever since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

 President Obama is the all-time most popular American in Cuba.

        Since 1962, or right after the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961 failed to recapture Cuba, a few Cuban exiles in Miami aligned with a few right-wing members of Congress have maintained an ongoing embargo against Cuba, the longest and many believe the cruelest in history. De-classified U. S. documents reveal that the 1962 purpose of the embargo was to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro. As Fidel approaches his 90th birthday in Havana, the embargo continues to deprive Cubans on the island but mostly it remains a revenge factor that has spawned a long-standing and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S.

         Granma, Cuba's state newspaper, was a bit hesitant to lavishly endorse President Obama's upcoming trip to the island because its editorial writers feared he might mostly succumb to pressure and spend most of his time pacifying dissidents, which Cuba maintains are mostly funded by the United States. But with the post-Castro era looming on the horizon {Fidel is 89 and Raul is 84}, Cuba has already largely embraced a Chinese-Vietnamese capitalist system and embraced most of Obama's overtures although it insists on more before he leaves office -- such as, an end to the embargo, a return of Guantanamo Bay, and a cessation of the never-ending U.S.-funded regime-change programs. Thus, Granma, after pondering Obama's impending visit for a few days, decided the positives outweighed that one negative regarding dissidents. The headline in red in the upper-right of the front page above says: "In Cuba, President Obama will be treated with respect and consideration." Right below that article, the black headline says: "In a statement from the White House." And the headline directly opposite that article says: "Fidel's voice of three generations." Yes, all these decades after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, it's not so surprising that the three top headlines on the front-page of Granma on a given day in 2016 concern...Obama, the White House, and Fidel.

Also not surprsing:

         The vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the United States is, to put it mildly, irked about President Obama's upcoming visit to Cuba on the heels of the President's Herculean efforts to normalize relations with the island. Dr. Javier Corrales, the Cuban-American professor at Amherst College, for example, released this scathing attack: "Obama is so eager to normalize relations without negotiating any concessions that the United States is very close to creating a situation where we now have a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba." That asinine and ridiculous statement, of course, was loudly heralded by a plethora of media outlets in the U. S. tightly aligned with the Castro Cottage Industry -- including the slick, well-funded Capital Hill Cubans blog and the once-prestigious Wall Street Journal, which is now owned by Rupert Murdoch who was born in Australia 84 years ago and also owns such entities as Fox News. It appears that Professor Corrales relishes a Batista-style "U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba," something Mr. Obama believes has hurt America's image enough, THANK YOU!

       In his tirades against the Cuban Revolution and as a prime promoter of the Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S., Professor Javier Corrales is often billed as "The Latin American Expert at Amherst College." No one is supposed to challenge his views because, after all, he is a Cuban-American with a visceral family-oriented hatred of Fidel Castro for booting the Batista-Mafia dictatorship off the island, all the way to Miami as it turned out. In his statement assaulting President Obama for creating a situation in which "we now have a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba," Corrales assumes the American people have neither the intelligence nor the courage to dispute such nonsense. And, of course, he is implying that from 1952 till 1959 the U. S. supported the nice, kind, sweet Mother Teresa dictatorship in Cuba...surely not the brutal and thieving Mafia dictatorship led by Fulgencio Batsita, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante Jr., etc. OH, NO WAY, MUSES PROFESSOR CORRALES!! THE U. S. WOULD NEVER SUPPORT MAFIA DICTATORS IN CUBA!! WE ALL KNOW THAT, DON'T WE?? THE U. S. WOULD ONLY SUPPORT MOTHER TERESA-LIKE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED LEADERS IN CUBA!! AND AS SOON AS WE OVERTHROW THE CUBAN REVOLUTION WE WILL MAKE SURE TO DEMOCRATICALLY ELECT ANOTHER MOTHER TERESA-LIKE LEADER OF CUBA, ONE THAT LUCKY LUCIANO WOULD BE PROUD OF!! EXCEPT FOR OBAMA, ALL AMERICANS UNDERSTAND THAT, DON'T THEY?

Uh, not really, Professor Corrales.

     These Cuban women objected to the murders {"asesinators"} of their children {"hijos} in Batista's Cuba in the 1950s. And...they surely didn't know Mother Teresa.

And...neither did this Cuban mother.

     It so happens that a 99-pound doctor's doctor led the revolutionary fight against Batista and then, in Revolutionary Cuba, laid down the parameters to make sure the retrenched Batistianos in the U. S. didn't recapture the island that she cherished.

       In Cuba today, cast in the mold of Celia Sanchez, Cristina Escobar is the leader of the twenty-something generation on the island that plans to shape Cuba's soon-to-be post-Castro future. Like Celia Sanchez, Cristina Escobar has a do-or-die belief that Cubans on the island, not Cuban-Americans "propped up by the United States," should decide Cuba's future. She also adamantly and famously says {Check YouTube}, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." She's 28 and wasn't around in the 1950s but she knows its dark Batistiano-Mafiosi history. In particular, she knows that Batista, Luciano, and Lansky had no resemblance to Mother Teresa.

       On Dec. 27-1956 {above} Fidel Castro was smart enough to anoint Celia Sanchez as the prime decision-maker in the Revolutionary War and later in Revolutionary Cuba. He got some things wrong, but he got Celia Sanchez right.

        In 1973 Fidel Castro was prescient enough to predict that the United States "will come to talk to us when they have a black president and the world has a Latin American Pope."  Making good use of their usually unchallenged propaganda apparatuses, Professor Corrales and the rest of the Castro Cottage Industry in safe U. S. havens conveniently misrepresent basic facts in the U.S.-Cuban quagmire. But they can't deny that America now has a black President who is indeed talking to Cuba and the world now has its first Latin American pope, Pope Francis form Argentina, who has recently talked with Fidel Castro in his Havana home. In other words, uncontested propaganda machines are powerful tools, as least until they are challenged. So, I challenge the exalted and normally unchallenged Professor Corrales who claims that President Obama's sane and decent approach to Cuba means that he "is creating a situation where we now have a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba." That's a lie, Professor Corrales, and I think you know it. The President is trying to create a situation in which the United States is viewed as trying to help the Cubans on the island, not starve them or deprive them or bully them. In your propaganda tirades, you might want to mention the "U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba" that spawned the Cuban Revolution instead of twisting history by ridiculously using such self-serving vitriol to discredit the unique decency and courage of President Obama.

       This was the situation in Cuba from 1952 till 1959. A handful of Batistianos, Mafiosi, and American businessmen made out like the bandits they indeed were. It is understandable that remnants of that situation, powerfully retrenched in the U. S. since 1959, would love to regain control of the plush, maligned island...again, of course, backed by the United States. DO THESE THREE GUYS LOOK LIKE MOTHER TERESA, PROFESSOR CORRALES?

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What If Rubio wins?

And Who Will It Hurt?

   Joe Henderson is a highly respected journalist at the Tampa Tribune, a great newspaper in Florida that, unlike the Miami Herald, is not scared to death of Cuban-exile hardliners. On Aug. 20-2016 Mr. Henderson's column was entitled: "Rubio's Anti-Normalization Plan With Cuba Could Backfire." His first sentence, referencing President Obama's upcoming trip to Cuba that infuriates Cuban hardliners, was: "President Barack Obama just stuck a sharp stick in Marco Rubio's eye." Then Mr. Henderson pointed out that polls in Florida support Obama's "thaw in relations" with Cuba and that includes "in a Miami district considered a stronghold for opposition to normalization." Then Mr. Henderson pointed out that Rubio says he, on his first day as President, will roll back all of Obama's Cuban overtures. And that's when Mr. Henderson got to the crux of his column, writing these exact, extremely sane, and very decent words:

          "The United States is fighting this battle of isolation against Cuba by itself, to the detriment of both nations. Would Rubio close newly opened embassies? Would he put Cuba back on a terrorist watch list? If he did, who would be hurt by those moves? The Cuban people, that's who."

    It doesn't require an extremely smart person or a particularly brave one to agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Henderson. But the result of over a half-century of the world's greatest democracy allowing a handful of the most vicious anti-Castro hardliners in Miami to dictate to the U. S. both the Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy has made otherwise sane and brave Americans resemble idiots and cowards when it comes to Cuba. That fact is pointed out yearly with the 191-to-2 vote in the UN and by everyday Americans being the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. In 1976 when Cuban hardliners with CIA attachments downed a Cuban civilian airplane killing all 73 on board with a terrorist bomb, the successful celebration in the Miami media called it "The biggest blow yet against Castro!" When a brave Cuban-American newsman in Miami, Emilio Milian, harshly condemned such terrorism against innocent Cubans, he was car-bombed. Americans insouciantly and meekly accepted such things on their soil in their name financed by their tax dollars. Thus, the Cuban hardliners in Miami, with considerable assistance from the Bush dynasty and a few right-wing congressional stalwarts, have -- from 1959 till today -- maintained their control of both the U. S. media and America's Cuban policy, a policy that Rubio wants to extend until the Batistianos and Mafiosi regain control of Cuba. However, there are today some journalists, such as Joe Henderson, and some politicians, such as Kathy Castor, brave enough and decent enough to disagree.

      Kathy Castor was born 49 years ago in Miami. Since 2007 she has bravely and brilliantly represented the Tampa area in the U. S. Congress. The Joe Henderson article in the Tampa Tribune Aug. 20-2016 pointed out that she is "ready to aggressive push through Congress a bill ending the U. S. embargo against Cuba." Mr. Henderson quoted Ms. Castor as saying: "Naysayers like Rubio and Cruz are wrong. They are shackled to the status quo and a Cold War policy that has hurt the Cuban people and infringed on the constitutional rights of Americans." The unquestionable decency of that quotation is contested by the unconscionable cruelty of Rubio and Cruz, both of whom are convinced that the American people are neither smart enough nor patriotic enough to hold such undemocratic attacks on innocent Cubans against them. Sadly, they are probably correct, especially when the gutless national U. S. media wouldn't dare contrast their views with Ms. Castor's or the 191-to-2 United Nations vote that, of course, agrees with her in loudly denouncing America's Cuban policy that the Amercan people simply do not have the courage or intelligence to correct.

      Congresswoman Kathy Castor of Tampa has fought long and hard for normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba. She is appalled at how decades of punishing innocent Cubans by Cuban exiles and other benefactors in the U. S. have so severely harmed the image of the United States and democracy around the world. However, she is not surprised that Rubio and Cruz could care less about such things. Multiple times Ms. Castor has led business leaders from Tampa to Cuba in efforts to help her constituents and Cubans on the island mutually benefit from sane commercial ties. So, if Kathy Castor is a brave, decent, and brilliant Congresswoman, why doesn't she get some traction in the national media and why isn't she, or someone like her, a serious candidate to be President of the United States?

The answer:

        Cruel and unsuccessful first-term Senators Rubio and Cruz -- unlike decent, people-loving politicians like Kathy Castor -- benefit greatly from a money-crazed and media-deprived U. S. political system. Rubio and Cruz -- original products of the Bush dynasty aligned with right-wing Tea Party zealots -- hit the Senate begging every right-wing, Jewish, and evangelical billionaire on the planet for money to fund their presidential bids. After a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that allows unlimited donations from billionaires, Rubio and Cruz had no trouble locating rich, greedy souls who desire their own bought-and-paid-for President, and the "For Sale" invitations from Rubio and Cruz are being heeded. That undemocratic financial farce is coupled with a mainstream U. S. media owned by billionaires who are only interested in making more billions, certainly not in reporting unbiased news that would help Americans make democratic choices. But it is more profitable for the mainstream media to become propaganda machines that promulgate endless months of campaigning complete with millions of unlimited dollars in profits from political ads.

      Hugo Cancio is a Cuban-American who has lived the past 35 years in Miami where he is a very successful businessman. He is also a very decent, democracy-loving man. He travels frequently to Cuba for the sole purpose of helping Cubans on the island, the ones that Rubio, Cruz and other Cuban-American hardliners want to hurt, in the guise of hurting Castro and enriching themselves. Hugo, in an interview with Cuban broadcaster Cristina Escobar that is posted on YouTube, stated a fact of life, namely that Cuban-Americans like him "are not represented" by the hardline politicians who, he says, are the only ones who can get elected to local or national offices in Miami. Therefore, Hugo believes that the system, on U. S. soil, more resembles a Banana Republic than a democracy. The U. S. media showers Americans with the views of congressional hard-liners from Miami but doesn't have the guts or integrity to report what most Cuban-Americans, like Hugo Cancio, think.

      Joe Henderson {on the left above}, the superb journalist for the The Tampa Tribune, had the correct answer as to who a President Rubio would hurt the most. Mr. Henderson said, "The Cuban people." They are the ones who have been hurt the most by a right-wing U. S. policy that supported the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 and the ousted Batistiano-Mafiosi hardliners in the U. S. from 1959 till today. Sure, a Rubio or Cruz presidency might well finalize America, and not just Miami, becoming a Banana Republic but, if it happens, the American people will be getting what they deserve for not caring about their democracy or about innocent people on a nearby island. Yes, the prime victims, as Mr. Henderson opined, will be the Cuban people who do not deserve such treatment from self-serving bullies supported by the world's superpower and by American people who have never heard of Joe Henderson, Hugo Cancio, Emilio Milian, Cubana Flight 455 or...Kathy Castor.

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Pushing Back Against Obama

Cuban-Americans vs. Cubans
{Updated: Sunday, February 21st, 2016}

      This photo, showing Cubans scampering across a street in Havana, is courtesy of Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times. It was used this week -- Friday, February 19, 2016 -- to illustrate an article in the NY Times written by Steven Rattner. The article is entitled "Will Democracy Follow Capitalism Into Cuba." Mr. Rattner wrote the article after taking his family to the island, and his analysis was acutely insightful. He ended his observations with these exact words: "In some ways, Cuba reminds me of China -- a country where the populace seems to put a lower priority on achieving democracy than on prospering economically. With so much of the economy remaining under state control, Cuba has an exceptionally long 'to do' list. But while our embargo didn't succeed in reforming the country, the slow, steady infiltration of capitalism just might." 

          Mr. Rattner's perception parallels what I detected on the island. More importantly, as you will see in this update, I believe it mirrors what the leaders on the island feel, and those leaders include two influential women -- Josefina Vidal and Cristina Escobar -- that I believe are the best barometers for checking the pulse of the island as the post-Castro era looms. Also pervasive among the significant beliefs of the next generation that will rule the island is the strong determination that no foreign nation, including the United States, will be allowed to influence its future, except on friendly terms decided by Cuba. Sovereignty supersedes even prosperity.

Photo courtesy of: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images.

      This excellent photo in February of 2016 shows a convertible auto from the 1950s driving past the brand-new splendid and magnificent U. S. embassy in Havana, Cuba.

       Thanks to President Obama, Cuba also has an embassy in Washington for the first time since 1961. As he tries to normalize relations, Obama this week greatly expanded, in defiance of Congress's stifling embargo, travel and trade to Cuba.

        And this week it was announced that Obama will visit Cuba next month, the first U. S. President to do so since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Obama's historic overtures to Cuba are strongly supported by most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, most American businesses, and most people worldwide. His Cuban ventures are, however, fiercely opposed by anti-Castro Cuban exiles, right-wing Republicans, and a Republican-dominated Congress, which has the power to maintain the Cuban embargo in perpetuity, meaning for eternity. With all that being said, Obama's prime obstacle still remains an increasingly incompetent and biased media.

       Cuba's uniqueness in the annals of U. S. history makes the island a window into the demise of both the print and electronic media in America. Alan Gomez at USA Today is a prime example. He is, unfortunately, the major Cuban reporter on America's largest newspaper. He also illustrates the fact that, when it comes to Cuba, only Cuban-Americans who are anti-Castro zealots are allowed to write about or report on Cuban issues. Friday -- February 19th -- Gomez's huge article in USA Today made the point that President Obama, on his upcoming visit to the island, will see "a glorified version of Cuba." In recent years, Cuba has allowed Gomez to make six trips to the island, well knowing his visits will promote the vast and profitable Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. In yesterday's anti-Cuba, anti-Obama article, Gomez wrote: "Obama has insisted that he will visit some of the most outspoken dissidents. But whether he's in Havana or Santiago or Cienfuegos, he probably won't see the Cubans who continue to secretly build boats and rafts to set sail for the country he {Obama} just left." Gomez and other high-profile Cuban-American "journalists," anointed to tell Americans all about Cuba, don't have the integrity to mention that U. S. laws massively entice Cubans, and only Cubans, with special residency and financial rewards the instant they touch U. S. soil.

        Jose Diaz-Balart is also emblematic of the fact that the mainstream U. S. media, with very few exceptions, doesn't dare hire a non-Cuban American/anti-Castro zealot to report on Cuban issues. Based in Miami, Jose, among other things, is a news anchor on MSNBC. His prime credential is apparently the fact that his father, Rafael Diaz-Balart, was a Minister in the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and after 1959's revolution he was one of the richest and most powerful anti-Castro zealots in the United States. Jose also has had two brothers, anti-Castro zealots Lincoln and Mario, elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress. But easily intimidated and propagandized Americans, since 1959, have been successfully told that "journalists" like Alan Gomez and Jose Diaz-Balart will give you true and unbiased information about Cuba so you can make fair judgments, particularly ones that defame Cuba and sate the revenge, economic, and political desires of America's embedded and unchecked Castro Cottage Industry. 

        But like most issues, there are two sides to the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. The Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. represents one side. Josefina Vidal represents the other side. She is Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. A brilliant diplomat, she changed the facade of U.S.-Cuban relations in four sessions with America's outstanding diplomat Roberta Jacobson. Vidal drew a line in the Cuban sand regarding Cuba being on the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list. Because it greatly benefited the Castro Industry in the U. S., no one expected her to win, but she did. She also negotiated such things as the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961, and she inspired President Obama to circumvent Congress and greatly expand U.S.-Cuban trade and travel.

       But Josefina Vidal is ready and able to call a halt to Obama-orchestrated advancements, depending on how successful the Castro Cottage Industry is in rolling back recent positives for both nations or in exacerbating the punitive nature of the ongoing embargo, as Miami-based Cuban-Americans aligned with easily acquired congressional sycophants, such as Jesse Helms and Dan Burton, grossly tightened the embargo in 1996 after President Clinton tried meekly to end it. Vidal, the quintessential expert on U.S.-Cuban relations, believes the same thing can happen with Obama's not-so-meek efforts. Regardless, Vidal says, "We have friends and supporters around the region and the world. If the United States does not want to be our friend, we must concentrate solely on our real friends to continue the positive changes we have made and are making." While Vidal greatly appreciates "the intelligence and kindness of Mr. Obama," she remains acutely aware of the anti-Cuban forces in the U. S. Beyond that, she has some other red lines in the U.S.-Cuban sand that Mr. Obama may not be able to meet. First off, when Obama or anyone else points a finger at Cuba about mistreating dissidents, she firmly points a finger right back, saying, "If the U. S. didn't fund Cuban dissidents in the U. S. and in Cuba, we would have fewer than almost any nation in the world. That needs to stop. Guantanamo Bay needs to be returned to us. Reparations concerning five decades of the embargo and about murderous and injurious terror acts against innocent Cubans must be seriously discussed."

       Cristina Escobar, like Vidal, is a feisty Cuban who represents the side of the U.S.-Cuban conundrum on the island that is not represented by Gomez, Diaz-Balart, Rubio, Cruz, etc. She is Cuba's and the region's most dynamic and influential broadcast journalist. At age 28, she is also the leader of the anxious young generation of patriotic Cubans determined to decide the island's future, which would mean not having it decided from a hostile foreign country.

       This photo captured Cristina Escobar during an historic moment at the White House in Washington where she covered the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session. She is shown asking President Obama's Press Secretary Josh Earnest one of her six back-to-back questions, the first six questions a Cuban journalist had ever asked at a White House news conference. She wanted to know if the new U. S. embassy in Havana would "respect Cuba?" She wanted to know if the U. S. would "continue to fund its regime-change programs on the island?" And she asked, "Can we expect President Obama to visit Cuba in 2016?" The Earnest answer was the first confirmation that Obama planned to visit Cuba this year. The 14-minute Cristina Escobar-Josh Earnest Q & A White House video is on YouTube.

       This image is taken from a interview that U. S. journalist Tracey Eaton got in Havana with Cristina Escobar last month. Two versions of it are posted on YouTube, one 3+ minutes and the other 15+ minutes. You can see and hear her make such firm statements as, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." She mentioned Cubans, like Jose Marti, who had died on Cuban soil fighting for independence and sovereignty prior to Fidel Castro. It is very plain that she indelibly believes that it is on Cuban soil, not U. S. soil, that "Cuba's do-or-die future must be decided."

        Cristina Escobar may appear to be no match for rich and powerful Cuban-American politicians like Rubio and Cruz or rich and powerful Cuban-American journalists like Gomez and Diaz-Balart, but she is probably more determined than Rubio and Cruz as well as being a better journalist than Gomez and Diaz-Balart. On her trip to Washington, she enthralled veteran U. S. broadcast journalists such as Andrea Mitchell of NBC when she stressed this theme: "The lies the U. S. media tell about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most." As a journalist and as a staunch defender of everyday Cubans, Andrea Mitchell and others eloquently praised her talent and her stoic patriotism.

       Cristina Escobar, during that White House Q & A with Josh Earnest, not only wondered aloud if President Obama would visit Cuba in 2016, before she left Washington she made it clear that she was more concerned with {1} the "lies" the U. S. media tells about Cuba; {2} whether the U. S. would "respect" Cuba's sovereignty; and {3} whether the U. S. will continue to fund "regime-change programs" on the island. While Cristina, like Vidal, relishes normal relations with the United States, she also believes {1} Obama should stay home "if he plans to boost dissidents while he is here;" {2} "my generation of Cubans wants the United States, like other nations, to respect Cuba's sovereignty;" and {3} "my generation wants Guantanamo Bay returned to its rightful owner by the bully that stole it from us."

       In defense of Cuba, Cristina Escobar doesn't appear to be intimidated by Cuban-Americans like Rubio and Cruz or Gomez and Diaz-Balart, although she readily admits they "have unlimited resources and the desire to harm us." 

A two-way street.

The voice of a new generation of Cubans.

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