Cuba's Post-Obama Plans

 It Plans to Survive 
{Updated: Tuesday, July 26, 2016}

      The London Daily Mail used the above photo of Hillary Clinton in an article that said that Ms. Clinton, as President Obama's Secretary of State, was the person who actually began the Obama administration's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The Daily Mail.com website is the largest online newspaper source in the world and it reports intently and fairly about Cuba. So, that revelation is significant considering that Ms. Clinton is expected to succeed Mr. Obama as U. S. President on January 20th, 2017.

      The Daily Mail.com used this photo to illustrate the day in December of 2014 that President Obama announced to the world that he planned to normalize relations with Cuba, and he has indeed been the first U. S. President since the assassination of John Kennedy on November 22, 1963 to seriously attempt to accomplish that nearly impossible task because Cuban abnormality benefits a lot of powerful people.

         The Daily Mail.com used the above photo to illustrate that Miami-led Cuban-Americans will likely thwart any and all efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, just as a visceral minority of Cuban-Americans have done since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. On the left above is U. S. Senator and failed-wannabe President Marco Rubio. In the middle is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, also from Miami. In 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager Ros-Lehtinen became the first of a steady stream of Bush-anointed Cuban-Americans in Miami who have been propelled to the U. S. Congress. On the right is Mirta Costa; her son Carlos was a pilot of a "Brothers to the Rescue" plane shot down by Cuba in the Florida Straits in 1996. At the photo-opt above, Rubio and Ros-Lehtinen used Ms. Costa to highlight their efforts to maintain their dominance of America's Cuban policy as opposed to President Obama's wishes for peaceful and normal relations. The Daily Mail.com and other international media outlets have reported fairly on that shoot-down of two small Brothers' planes in 1996. The U. S. media has not. In 1996 President Bill Clinton was the third Democratic president to attempt to normalize relations with Cuba, after failures by Presidents Kennedy and Carter. But then Brothers planes, ostensibly in the Florida Straits to rescue stranded Cubans, taunted Cuba with flyovers, even dropping anti-Castro material over Havana. Cuba for days begged the U. S. to stop the flights over Cuban land and/or waters. The U. S. didn't. Cuba then begged the UN to do something. It also didn't do anything because the U. S. has veto power. Cuba then shot down two planes killing four people either in international waters or on the edge of Cuban territorial waters. A third plane piloted by one of Miami's all-time most famed anti-Castro Cuban-Americans, Jose Basalto, turned back and landed safely. With the Miami narrative dictating anti-Cuban vitriol, Cuba was/is totally blamed for the 1996 shootdowns although highly respected and less biased Americans such as Wayne S. Smith, Peter Kornbluh, Sarah Stephens, etc. have pointed out that the Brothers' planes, the U. S. and the UN should also share the blame. In any case, as the Daily Mail.com and the international media have pointed out, the Brothers' shootdowns totally ended President Clinton's plans in 1996 to normalize relations with Cuba and instead caused Clinton to sign the Helms-Burton Act that to this day remains the primary vehicle designed to destroy Revolutionary Cuba via isolation, as opposed to the famously failed 1961 Bay of Pigs attack.

      This photo shows President Bill Clinton on March 12, 1996, signing the Helms-Burton Act into law. On the far left was Jesse Helms. Looking directly over Clinton's right shoulder in red was Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who has represented Miami in the U. S. Congress since 1989. The large man standing just to the right of President Clinton was Robert Menendez, the Cuban-American U. S. Senator from New Jersey. Second from the right was Havana-born U. S. Congressman from Miami Lincoln Diaz-Balart whose father Rafael was a key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship before becoming, after the 1959 revolution, one of the all-time richest and most powerful anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. Helms-Burton was supposed to be the final nail in Revolutionary Cuba's coffin. The Daily Mail.com indicates that President Bill Clinton reluctantly signed it into law only after the Brothers' shootdowns ended Clinton's plans to normalize relations with Cuba. That generally accepted fact is interesting because now the Daily Mail.com says that Hillary Clinton, expected to be the U. S. President beginning in January, used her power as Secretary of State to initiate President Obama's ongoing plans to normalize relations with Cuba. But in any case, Helms-Burton can only be changed by the U. S. Congress and that means it is not likely to be changed. There always seems to be enough Jesse Helms-types in Congress to align with a handful of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans to make it a permanent, if very controversial, part of the U. S. government, a cancerous portion of the U. S. democracy that is denounced yearly in the UN by a boisterous but helpless 191-to-2 vote. But let's not forget President Bill Clinton's original plans in 1996. Likewise let's assume that, most likely, President Hillary Clinton's plans beginning in 2017 will be to continue President Obama's sane and peaceful efforts regarding Cuba.

    Hillary following Barack as U. S. President is necessary. 

As a conservative Republican, I never thought I'd say that.

       The Daily News.com used this inauspicious photo of U. S. Senator Marco Rubio to point out that the Miami Cuban-American remains determined to lead the fight against normalizing relations with Cuba.

      The Daily News.com used this photo of Texas Cuban-American U. S. Senator Ted Cruz to point out that the 2020 presidential wannabe plans to out-do Rubio in making sure that the U. S. never normalizes relations with Cuba, at least not until its back under the U. S. yoke, meaning a few Cuban-Americans.

      The Daily Mail.com used this photo of Cuban-American U. S. Senator Robert Menendez to point out that the Congress-mandated Cuban policy is dictated by anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. Yet, polls show that most Cuban-Americans favor President Obama's Cuban policy, but it seems moderate Cuban-Americans are not candidates to be elected to the U. S. Congress or have much of a say on America's Cuban policy.

       Another Cuba-related nuance that seems to mock the U. S. democracy is the fact that the American broadcast news networks appear to only hire anti-Castro Cuban-American zealots as their anchors and talking heads and then sic them on Cuba...uh, always unbiased, of course. Jose Diaz-Balart based in Miami, for example, is a top anchor on NBC and MSNBC and his views on Cuba are not supposed to be questioned even though his father was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship before the Castro revolution chased him and many others to Miami. Two of Jose's brothers, Lincoln and Mario, have been elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami...but who's counting? And even if you can count, don't complain about the extraordinary wealth and power of the Diaz-Balarts, or about the absurd discrimination and cruelty of Helms-Burton, and certainly never mention the 191-to-2 anti-U.S./pro-Cuban vote in the UN.

       And similar to the American broadcast industry, the mainstream print media in the U. S. seems only to employ journalists who are anti-Cuban zealots -- such as the Miami-based Cuban-American Alan Gomez who regularly uses the pages of USA Today to assail and demean Cuba, with counter-views verboten. His latest vitriol was on July 21st when, as always, his massive USA Today article distorted Cuban reality and heralded what he perceived as the upcoming and wonderful demise of Cuba, with exact paragraphs like this: "Many hurdles remain. Cuba continues to arrest hundreds of political dissidents each month. Cuba's economy is faltering in ways not seen in decades, in part because its main benefactor, oil-rich Venezuela, is suffering a major economic crisis and massive food shortages. Cuban officials have warned of power outages and other shortages in the months to come." With such paragraphs, U. S. journalists regarding Cuba, such as Alan Gomez, seem to cheer loudest when they suspect that Cubans on the island will begin to starve or at least be without necessities such as electricity on the tropical island. Americans, meanwhile, have permitted a Batistiano-dominated Congress and a Batistiano-dominated news media to defame the U. S. and democracy a lot more than it has defamed Cuba. It that were not so, there wouldn't be a 191-to-2 anti-U.S./pro-Cuba vote in the UN, and if that were not so Revolutionary Cuba would have died long, long ago. Perhaps Alan Gomez can write a USA Today article and explain to the American people how little Cuba has survived over a half-century of...military attacks by overthrown exiles backed by the strongest military in the world, unpunished terrorist attacks such as the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a weak nation, and a U. S. Congress that mandates any law that anti-Cuban zealots believe will bring about the demise of Revolutionary Cuba.

       The Cuban who diplomatically and fervently defends Cuba against the Batistiano-directed threats emanating from the U. S. is Josefina Vidal. Normally the U. S. media distorts or ignores the Cuban side of all equations but, amazingly, in the aforementioned USA Today article, Alan Gomez actually included this quotation from Vidal: "It's up to the United States to disassemble the hostile, unilateral policies that created a confrontational character on the links between the two countries. Cuba doesn't have similar policies toward the United States." Of course, with revengeful Cuban-Americans controlling the Cuban narrative in the United States, Americans are supposed to accept any and all assaults on Cuba -- such as teaming with the Mafia to support the brutal Batista dictatorship in Cuba and, after it was overthrown in 1959, trying to recapture the island via military and terrorist attacks orchestrated from the United States. When that failed, history's longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak one has been imposed to punish Cubans on the island while enticing, enriching and empowering Cubans in America. As Cuba's primary bulwark against America's intransigence, Vidal says, "Eleven million Cubans on this island would not be targeted every day if the American people had the courage and patriotism to respect and protect their democracy more. I believe the world, despite the incomparable U. S. influence, agrees with me on that. If the U. S. wants to impose its will on Cuba, as it has tried to do since the 1898 Spanish-American War, it will have to destroy our revolution completely. If the U. S. allows us to exist and breathe freely, we will work with the reasonable people in the U. S. government to make things better for Cubans and for Americans." 

       A lot of people around the world love Cuba or at least admire its tenacious efforts to fight against 500 years of imperial domination and, since 1959, to wage its underdog battle to remain a sovereign nation. I have been to Cuba and I admire and like Cubans on the island and most Cubans in America. But my love is America and democracy, and therein lies my passion for Cuba. I believe Cuba and especially the Cuban Revolution say a lot more about the United States, the world superpower, than they say about Cuba. And what it says, as reflected by that 191-to-2 yearly vote in the UN, is that America's Cuban policy for centuries, especially since 1898 and most particularly since 1959, has been dictated by a handful of right-wing rogues who have usurped the U. S. democracy for their own salacious and greedy purposes. Yes, I am disappointed that the U. S. democracy has not been strong enough since 1898 to ward off its Cuban abomination that daily demeans the image of the United States around the world, an image that the Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. couldn't care less about. So yes, I like Cuba but I love America. And I believe America's Cuban policy should be predicated by the hands and hearts of decent Americans, not rogues.

       It is my opinion that rosy-cheeked little Cuban girls and their loving mothers should not be punished all their lives by revengeful and greedy exiles and natives of a foreign power that target their very vulnerable island. Punishing little girls like this in the guise of hurting Castro is a lame and gutless excuse. And if that is not the case since 1898, perhaps some self-anointed American or Cuban-American patriot should attempt to convince me and the United Nations why it is not so. 2, not 191, should be the underdog.

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Bashing Cuba Still Pays

For the U. S. Media 

      The largest and most-read newspaper in the United States is USA Today. Like the rest of the mainstream U. S. media, USA Today has neither the guts nor the integrity to tell the truth about Cuba. And USA Today is not even a right-wing publication; it is simply politically and socially correct. After a half-century of visceral Cuban-exiles dictating America's Cuban narrative and Cuban policy, USA Today -- which I have subscribed to for 20 years -- simply provides Americans with what they are accustomed to hearing or reading about Cuba. And that, for the most part, is a pack of self-serving distortions or pure purposeful lies. USA Today's prime writer about Cuba, for example, is a visceral anti-Cuban Cuban-American based in Miami named Alan Gomez. That's Mr. Gomez in front of the USA Today banner above. Even though the Republican Convention, Hillary Clinton's VP pick, and continuing terrorist acts dominated much of this week's news, one of the biggest articles in USA Today was just another Alan Gomez tirade against Cuba. It dominated a whole page Thursday, July 21st, and its blaring across-the-whole-page headline was "U. S. Urges Cuba to Carry Its Own Weight." 

        Alan Gomez, as a part of the vast Anti-Cuban Cottage Industry in the United States, is, of course, trying to counter any and all of the positive Cuban gestures orchestrated so bravely by President Obama. As the above photo indicates, Gomez is also USA Today's writer on "Immigration Reform." As a self-serving anti-Cuban Cuban-American, Gomez seems to promote such uncontested views as: Hey, Cubans are the only immigrants in the entire world who are home free the second they touch U. S. soil and are instantaneously provided economic, political, and residential-citizenship advantages not available to any non-Cuban. We must maintain that nice policy forever. Of course, everyday Americans are also the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba, and that's good because we Cuban-Americans can do their thinking for them when it comes to Cuba. Etc., etc., etc. Of course, Americans are supposed to be too stupid, too intimidated or too unpatriotic to challenge anything Alan Gomez and his ilk say about Cuba or U.S.-Cuban relations.

      Cuba's 28-year-old broadcast journalist, Cristina Escobar, has made three recent and pertinent visits to the United States -- attending journalism seminars in California and then two professional trips to Washington. She made some headlines with comments such as, "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." I am not suggesting that you believe that entirely, but I am suggesting that Cristina believes it and her views should be respected. She is well educated, extremely intelligent, an expert on U.S.-Cuban relations and fluent in English as well as Spanish. She anchors a top Cuban news program in Spanish and a popular regional program in English. In fact, she is so talented and so pro-Cuban that she reportedly has been offered huge sums to defect to Miami and become anti-Cuban. That's highly unlikely. She strongly supports Revolutionary Cuba, yet is not adverse to pointing out its "imperfections, but ones we must correct, not Americans." And she insists that "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami or Cubans in Washington." She also firmly says, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island of Cuba."    

         In 2015 when she was in Washington to cover the fourth and final Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, Cristina Escobar made history by becoming the first Cuban to ask questions at a White House news conference. It was hosted by President Obama's chief spokesman Josh Earnest. In fact, she asked six questions, all of which were quite pertinent. She was the first to nail down whether Obama would "visit Cuba in 2016." She also wanted to know if the U. S. would "respect" Cuba at its new Washington embassy and she asked if the U. S. planned to "continue its regime-change programs." If you click the button in the center of the above graphic, you can hear her ask those questions and then hear all the answers.

         After that Washington news conference that featured the history-making Cristina Escobar, Air Force One, descending above Havana in this photo, did bring President Obama to Cuba. The last six photos are courtesy of REUTERS, the London-based news agency that covers Cuba intently and, I might add, fairly.

       This photo shows an elderly Cuban woman eagerly waiting her chance to see President Obama in Havana. She has never been America's enemy and she has never deserved being punished by America.

Obama waving while speaking at Havana's Gran Teatro.

        This Cuban is 54-year-old Carlos Alvarez. He told REUTERS that he was "totally thrilled" by President Obama's visit and he said, "It was a true blessing that he came to see us." Isolating Cubans has been cruel.

    On July 20th, 2015, the Cuban Embassy re-opened in Washington.

       And U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry was on hand a year ago when the U. S. flag was raised at the re-opened U. S. Embassy in Havana. Both embassies had been closed since 1961 to please a selected few.

      America's Secretary of State John Kerry and his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez shook hands in agreement about President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Of course, while most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and most citizens of the world agree with President Obama's Cuban policies, some vigorously and continuously oppose it...in Miami's Little Havana, for example.

       This REUTERS photo was taken at an anti-Cuban demonstration in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. It urgently demanded a continuation of the archaic Cold War as opposed to peace, handshakes and the re-opening of embassies in the two capital cities. Cristina Escobar thinks there are more "SPIES + TERRORISTS" in Miami than in Havana. If that premise is debatable, there is no debating the fact that the U.S.-Cuban conundrum is a two-way proposition and one that hurts America's image much more than it hurts Cuba's, a fact emblazoned around the world yearly by that 191-to-2 pro-Cuba/anti-U.S. vote in the UN. 

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Republicans Still Want Cuba

For Their Very Own!! 
Updated: Friday, July 22nd, 2016 

    Last night in Cleveland, Donald J. Trump officially accepted the nomination of the Republican Party to be President of the United States. No, the billionaire businessman is not qualified for that position but he is more qualified than the 16 Republican candidates he wiped out in the primary and, as a non-politician, he may be more qualified than his lone remaining challenger, the Democrat who happens to be a long-established, dynastic politician whose husband is a former and now very rich two-term President. Although African-Americans, Hispanics and women are strongly against Trump, he incredibly has a chance because he is not a "qualified" politician, something that many Americans are fed-up with. Mr. Trump is a politically in-correct politician. 

    Ted Cruz is the Cuban-American politician who most harbors the lofty twin goals of re-capturing Cuba as soon as he first captures America. He is a first-term U. S. Senator from Texas backed by the right-wing Tea Party and a host of right-wing billionaires. Donald Trump eliminated Cruz, whom Trump called "Lying Ted," in the Republican presidential primary but, incredibly, Trump allowed Cruz to make the most heralded speech at Wednesday's crucial third night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where Trump has been officially anointed the Republican presidential nominee. The AP photo above shows Cruz, an accomplished speaker who tries to hide his right-wing extremism, just before he was booed off the rostrum in Cleveland. The eager crowd supported Cruz's speech but kept assuming he would endorse Donald Trump. But he refused, even after he condescendingly stared down at delegates screaming for him to at least announce his support of the Republican candidate, Mr. Trump. As Cruz was booed off the stage, Tea Party zealot Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia whisked Cruz's wife Heidi to safety when an angry crowd closed in around her. Many interpret Cruz's speech as a prelude to his anticipated 2020 victory speech. He expects Trump to lose to Democrat Hillary Clinton this year, leaving him at the top of the Republican Party and primed to be President in 2020. That's not likely. Even Republican icons like the venerable Bob Dole consider Cruz "the most dangerous politician in America." But when it comes to Cuba, any Republican in the White House teamed with a Republican Congress would try to destroy Revolutionary Cuba, although Trump, the controversial billionaire businessman who is now the top Republican, supports President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, as would Hillary Clinton. Trump's glaring inexperience as a politician is an asset because Americans have tired of bought-and-paid-for politicians.

Ted Cruz's anti-Trump speech in Cleveland Wednesday.

 Trump Vs. Cruz, internecine warfare.

      Peter King is a Republican giant in the U. S. Congress where he has represented New York since 1993. Typically outraged at Ted Cruz's pompous, self-eulogizing speech at the Republican National Convention, Mr. King angrily called Cruz "a liar and a fraud." He was talking about the Ted Cruz that plans to be the next Republican President of the United States. GOOD LUCK!!

      This week's Republican National Convention in Cleveland and next week's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia will both reveal that the nadir of the U. S. democracy may be upon us. The best journalists in America today are the great Editorial Cartoonists. So, it's no surprise that David Horsey of the Los Angeles Times best sums up these next two political weeks in America, as you can see above. Donald Trump, a controversial billionaire businessman, is the Republican presidential nominee. Hillary Clinton, a controversial bought-and-paid-for establishment icon, is the Democratic nominee. A strong majority of Americans do not want either Trump or Clinton to be the next President of the United States starting in January, 2017. But U. S. voters are left in a bind. In a flawed, money-crazed two-party system, voters have two choices: {1} Vote for the lesser of two evils; or {2} do not vote at all. Many democracy-lovers believe that the U. S. Supreme Court in 2010 pounded the final nail in democracy's coffin when it legalized unlimited donations to political campaigns by individual and corporate billionaires, many with foreign-tinged aspects or relations. That's not what America's Founding Fathers in 1776 envisioned for their truly great democracy. And that's why David Horsey's political statement depicted above is so very accurate and...so very sad.  

       This week in Cleveland the Republican National Convention crowned  controversial businessman Donald Trump and Tea Party darling Mike Pence, the Governor of Indiana, as its Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees. More than 60% of Americans consider Mr. Trump unqualified to be President of the United States, but that's barely better than his bought-and-paid-for Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. The scenarios playing out this week in Cleveland and next week in Philadelphia affects the entire world because of America's superpower status as the unequaled economic and military power. And of all the nations in the world, perhaps little Cuba has the most at stake next to the United States itself. Before you casually dismiss that suggestion, at least Google major Cuban-Republican involvements from 1898 till today and, most particularly, from 1952 till...this very day.

     You should start with this Wikipedia photo. It shows the USS Maine warship in the upper-center entering Havana Harbor on January 25, 1898. Since 1776 the United States had coveted ownership of Cuba, once offering to trade Florida to Spain for the biggest and greatest Caribbean island. By 1898 America's two most powerful newspaper moguls -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer -- had two goals, ownership of Cuba and Teddy Roosevelt as their very own U. S. President. They knew imperialist Spain was too extended to defend Cuba in a war with the U. S., which is next door to Cuba. But they needed a pretext to start the war in which they would make sure that Teddy Roosevelt would get the most credit for winning. That's where the USS Maine came into play. It was a proud warship. The U. S. taxpayers had paid exactly $4,677,788.75 -- don't forget the 75 cents -- in 1890 for the USS Maine.

        There was, of course, no problem in searching for a pretext to declare war on Spain for the purpose of acquiring Cuba and making Teddy Roosevelt the U. S. President. On February 15, 1898 a massive explosion in Havana Harbor blew the USS Maine to smithereens. The officers, by chance, were on shore in Havana but 261 young sailors were killed. Later, one of the officers died merely from shock. Whether it was accidental or deliberate, the explosion in Havana Harbor gave Hearst and Pulitzer their pretext for the Spanish-American War. "REMEMBER THE MAINE!" was the battle-cry emblazoned in America's top newspapers although Spain was in no position to purposely provoke a war with the United States.

    
    The battle-cry "Remember the Maine" resonated across America in 1898 after the two most powerful newspaper publishers -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer -- repeatedly blared headlines about the "Spanish Murderers." They also had enough political pull to make sure that their dear friend Teddy Roosevelt was sent to Cuba to fight the easy war that would make him a successful presidential candidate. Hearst and Pulitzer also sent their top journalists to cover the war -- including Pulitzer's Stephen Crane who later wrote the classic Civil War novel "The Red Badge of Courage" in 1905. Hearst sent the great and expensive painter Frederic Remington to Cuba to lavishly portray the war. Crane and Remington were well-paid to fulfill their assignments, which were to glorify Teddy Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" for their heroic and magnificent victory in the convenient Spanish-American War.

        Back in 1898 there were no radio, television or computer/Smart Phone coverage of the Spanish-American War. So, America's two richest and most powerful newspaper publishers -- Hearst and Pulitzer -- had propaganda field days. Thus their portrait of Teddy Roosevelt's Charge Up San Juan Hill would become the biggest image of the war. It helped Teddy become President of the United States. But first, The Treaty of Paris in which no Cuban was represented ended the war. It ceded Cuba from Spain to the United States. That and Teddy's later presidency were the two big things but the U. S. also paid defeated Spain $20 million to acquire the imperial rights to the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. But make no mistake about the fact that gaining dominion over Cuba was the reason the United States fought the Spanish-American War.

          As the above graphic indelibly points out, the Spanish-American War in 1898 was purely designed to give the United States control of Cuba. Many believed that the world's greatest and most admired democracy would then create a democratic paradise in Cuba, the largest next-door island in the nearby Caribbean. Sadly, democracy never happened. The first prime benefactors of the Spanish-American War were the rich newspaper moguls Hearst and Pulitzer but, from those days in 1898 till these days in 2016, America has viewed Cuba as a piggy-bank for rich Americans. And, after the theft of the plush Cuban port of Guantanamo Bay in 1903, America has also viewed Cuba as a plush but unneeded military base.

           The term "Yellow Journalism" got its origin because of the role Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst played in the Spanish-American War. The word "yellow" also defined the war in Cuba.

       Teddy Roosevelt, the most famed "Rough Rider" in the Spanish-American War, was President of the United States from 1901-1909. It ushered in a new era of money getting an iron grip on U. S. politics.

          Yet, 1952 was the year that America's right-wing fetish for Cuba reached its greedy zenith. This photo shows U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower joyfully hosting Cuba's brutal, thieving dictator Fulgencio Batista. Ike, World War II's supreme hero, was a good man. But in 1952 his Vice-President Richard Nixon, his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his CIA Director Allen Dulles were instrumental in teaming the U. S. democracy with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba. By the 1970s when Nixon was President Americans would find out what a crook he was. And a couple of decades after that, Americans would learn that the Dulles brothers had private interests in the United Fruit Company, the most infamous U. S. business associated with the rape and robbery of helpless Latin American nations. Meanwhile, thanks to classified data and a lot of propaganda, Americans to this day have been proselytized not to blame Nixon, the Dulles brothers, Henry Kissinger, etc. for Latin American ventures that included America, beginning in 1953 and going deep into the 1970s, overthrowing democratically elected governments to install thieving and murderous but U.S.-friendly dictators, with the most notorious being in 1973 when the democratically elected Salvador Allende in Chile was killed in a coup that put the U.S.-friendly but thieving and extremely murderous Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in power for 17 bloody years.

       From an image standpoint, arguably the biggest mistake the United States has made was teaming with the Mafia to support the Batista dictatorship in Cuba beginning in 1952. If you disagree with that, you probably also think that the yearly 191-to-2 pro-Cuba & anti-U. S. vote in the United Nations makes the U. S. look good in the eyes of the world. The above image recaps the Mafia-fueled U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba. That's the thuggish Batista in the upper-right. That's #1 Mafia kingpin Lucky Luciano in the upper-left. And that's #2 Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky in the lower-middle. There are some democracy lovers who believe the U. S. could have found a better Cuban partner than...the notorious Mafia.

       During the 1952-1959 Batista dictatorship in Cuba, propagandized Americans were incessantly told that the island was the "Paradise of the Tropics" and indeed it was -- for the Batistianos, Mafiosi and Americans who were robbing Cuba blind. The three main enterprises were gambling, drugs and prostitution.

       But the peasants, not involved in the money-making schemes, were destitute in Batista's Cuba. They went hungry and they had zero help from the government in regards to health care, education or shelter.

      A peasant mother in Batista's Cuba. If they had been thrown a few crumbs, it is unlikely that this situation would have spawned a revolution. After all, a U.S.-backed dictatorship was deemed rock-solid.

      But this is the type photo that spawned the Cuban Revolution in Batista's U.S.-backed Cuba. Instead of at least throwing crumbs to the peasants, the Batista thugs routinely murdered dissidents. If you read the sign these brave women are heralding, it was the murders of children -- their hijos -- apparently as a warning to dissidents that led to these street marches, which in turn led to the Cuban Revolution.

This mother bravely blamed Batista for her son's murder.

     But the most famous childhood murder in Batista's Cuba was that of William Soler. The bodies of little Willie and three of his classmates were left in an abandoned warehouse. In the above photo in the center wearing the white jacket is Willie Soler's mother. Marches like this spurred the Cuban Revolution. Today in Revolutionary Cuba, the William Soler Children's Hospital is named for him and his very brave mother.

       The Cuban Revolution will always be synonymous with its leader, Fidel Castro. The victorious revolution shocked the world and cemented his legend, but his longevity -- which included his front-line defense at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961 -- crowned his fame or, as his detractors say, his infamy. His revolution, against all odds, still rules Cuba and Fidel turns 90-years-old in a few days -- August 13th.

       Headlines like this greeted Americans on January 1, 1959. But beginning on that day, the "fleeing" Batistianos and Mafiosi resettled on U. S. soil with the full cooperation of the U. S. government. The plan was to recapture Cuba in short order. Many of the most visceral anti-Castro exiles -- Luis Posada Carriles, Jorge Mas Canosa, etc. -- were sent to the then-secretive Army of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. They were trained there and in U.S.-friendly dictatorships -- such as Somoza's Nicaragua -- to attack Cuba, which they famously and unsuccessfully did, after a fierce bombing attack, at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961. The Army of the Americas had already been set up at Fort Benning to secretly train soldiers and police from U.S.-friendly dictatorships who were then sent back to protect the dictators. Americans finally learned about the school when President Clinton held a news conference to apologize for it. And since the headline above on January 1, 1959, the Cuban narrative in the U. S. and the U. S. Cuban policy have largely or solely been dictated by two generations of the most visceral anti-Castro exiles and Cuban-Americans. 

     And that brings us right up to date with this Denver Post photo-montage. It shows New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during his cruel anti-Cuban tirade this week -- Tuesday, July 19th -- at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. It's a reminder that the self-serving anti-Cuban zealots in Miami, New Jersey and Washington STILL WANT CUBA, which you'll recall is the title of this Cubaninsider essay.

       This week -- Wed.-July 20th -- Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz made major speeches at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. They are first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators and renowned anti-revolutionary zealots. Although polls show that most Cuban-Americans support President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, only anti-revolutionary Cuban-American zealots can get elected to Congress. Rubio and Cruz were prime presidential contenders because a huge contingent of right-wing and Israeli billionaires along with the right-wing Tea Party powerfully champion Rubio and Cruz. Donald Trump soundly trounced Rubio, Cruz, Christie and 13 other challengers for the Republican presidential nomination but Rubio and Cruz clearly have the financial backing, if not the qualifications, to purchase the White House in 2020 and beyond. Mr. Trump's personal decision to spotlight them last night in Cleveland is a decision he will regret. They will strive to trample Trump and all others politically.

In other words: 

        The bold New Era in U.S.-Cuba relations that President Obama created is more a fantasy than a reality. The fierce Cuban Cottage Industry in the U. S. remains a cornucopia of revenge, economic and political rewards for the counter-revolutionaries entrenched in the fabric of the U. S. democracy. It's been that way since 1959 and the U. S. does not seem strong enough to correct the luminescent situation that most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and almost all of America's worldwide friends badly want corrected.

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