The Unholy Alliance

 Bush Dynasty & Cuban Hardliners 

     Americans are NOT supposed to be smart enough or brave enough to make judgments on this kiss although it is very important to them and their democracy. That's Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen kissing presidential wannabee Jeb Bush on their stomping grounds in Miami. Yesterday -- August 18, 2016 -- these two political kissing cousins co-wrote a long, long article in a right-wing rag -- The National Review. The article is entitled: "The President's Rapproachement Has Not Helped the Struggling Cuban People." Every word of that article is a right-wing propaganda piece designed to make the insatiable point that anti-Castro zealots like the Havana-born Ros-Lehtinen and the fiercely anti-Cuban Jeb Bush have spent their self-serving political careers helping the struggling Cuban people while President Obama is not helping the struggling Cuban people, although Obama has done more to help the struggling Cuban people than any American in history. With exiles from the 1959 victorious Cuban Revolution like Ros-Lehtinen aligned with self-serving sycophants such as the Bush dynasty controlling the Cuban narrative in the United States, two generations of proselytized Americans have had neither the guts nor the intelligence to question a vile dictation of a Cuban policy that the rest of the world soundly abhors. Therefore, timid Americans are supposed to dial up yesterday's National Review article and BELIEVE EVERY WORD written by the Havana-to-Miami-to-Washington Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen and her Miami-based mentor Jeb Bush of the Bush dynasty -- you know, the same Bush dynasty that wants "to help" CUBA!!    

       In the 1980s Jeb Bush left the luxurious Bush mansions in Massachusetts and Texas to make his mark in politics. He was well aware of the Bush family connections to the anti-Castro Cuban exiles who dominated Miami's politics in Florida. On his urgent path to become Florida's governor on his way to the Bush family's White House, which they considered a birthright, Jeb became Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's Campaign Manager. The Bush dynasty put her in the U. S. Congress in 1989 and she's been there ever since, including Jeb's two-terms as Florida's governor and George W. Bush's two terms as President. Since 1989, Ros-Lehtinen has been followed to Congress by a string of Bush-aligned Cuban hardliners, including the Diaz-Balart brothers whose father Rafael was a key Minister in the brutal, ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship. It is interesting to note, I believe, that polls reveal that most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor Obama's decent Cuban policy but when it comes to Cuba it seems the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to have a moderate Cuban-American elected to the hallowed United States Congress.

       This photo shows three of the current members of the U. S. Congress from Miami -- Diaz-Balart, Rubio and Ros-Lehtinen. It is interesting to note that first-term U. S. Senator Rubio was a prime and highly financed Tea Party darling in the 2016 presidential race as was Jeb Bush. But the Cuban hardliners in Miami know where their considerable bread has been buttered all these years -- by the Bush dynasty. Even though Ros-Lehtinen guided Rubio through Florida's political maze, you can bet -- when push came to shove -- she is not going to support her Cuban-American soul-mate, Rubio, against a Bush candidate.

          So, for sure, in the presidential sweepstakes, Ros-Lehtinen and other Cuban hardliners in Miami strongly supported Jeb Bush over Marco Rubio, one of their very own Cuban-American hardliners.

      This photo shows President George W. Bush kissing Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen as Florida Governor Jeb Bush looks on. While Americans are not supposed to consider the longstanding Bush-Miami-Cuban connection an unholy alliance, some very brave and highly respected U. S. journalists -- such as former top Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede -- have had the guts to question it. Defede excoriated Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balarts for using their unchallenged political power to get Luis Posada Carriles and three other notable anti-Castro Cubans released from a Panamanian prison when, conveniently, an out-going Miami-friendly female Panamanian President pardoned them to Miami's safe havens. Similarly, this forum and many others have published proof that Jeb Bush put in writing a request to his father on behalf of Orlando Bosch, one of Ros-Lehtinen's best Cuban-born Miami friends. Caribbean and Latin American nations consider Posada and Bosch the two most notorious longtime Cuban-American terrorists.

What brave soul asked Jeb Bush about Orlando Bosch? 

         If you study some of the communications from Jeb Bush in Florida to his father President Bush on behalf of Orlando Bosch, you will note in the "Dear Jeb" reply depicted above that such audacity irked President Bush's aides. But President Bush responded very favorably and controversially regarding Bosch as concerned Americans can realize by simply Googling the appropriate 3 names -- Bush, Bush and Bosch.

Orlando Bosch & Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Bosch & Posada in Miami.

        Latin American governments as well as the U. S. government, as confirmed by many declassified U. S. documents, consider Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles anti-Castro/anti-Cuban terrorists with powerful U. S. and CIA connections. Bosch & Posada for decades were openly proud of those facts. Bosch was born in Cuba on August 18, 1926 five days after Fidel Castro was born. Fidel turned 90 in Havana this month while Bosch died in Miami in 2011. Posada was born in Cuba 88 years ago and he still lives in Miami where he has been photographed in recent anti-Obama street marches. President George W. Bush famously said, Anyone who harbors terrorists is a terrorist. There are billions of people around the world who mock Mr. Bush's declaration because of Bosch and Posada. Wikipedia and countless other sources, including the FBI, tie Bosch and Posada to numerous anti-Cuba as well as famous Operation Condor terrorist acts on their behalf and even on behalf of the infamously murderous Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Such sources without fail tie Bosch and Posada to the 1976 bombing of the Cuban civilian plane Cubana Flight 455 in which all 73 people on board were killed as well as the infamous car-bombing within sound of the White House that killed Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his beautiful young American aide Ronni Moffitt. Both those famed terrorists acts occurred within days of each other in 1976, the only year George H. W. Bush was CIA Director and, indeed, you can easily Google historic accounts that accuse Bush's CIA of misleading the FBI's investigation of the Letelier-Moffitt murders. And, of course, Americans are not supposed to even know about such things as Cubana Flight 455.

Posada at an anti-Obama demonstration in Miami.

        Top Republicans -- including the respected Speaker of the House Paul Ryan -- seem compelled to visit Miami and drink Cuban coffee as they capitulate to Cuban-American hardliners regarding presidential or congressional elections.

      This extremely pertinent photo shows George H. W. Bush with Jorge Mas Canosa, the all-time most powerful Cuban-born American hardliner, thanks to the Bush dynasty. The Reagan-Bush presidency in the 1980s anointed Mas Canosa the leader of the Cubans-in-exile. In her book What Everyone Needs to Know About Cuba, America's top Cuban expert Julia E. Sweig explains that Mas Canosa was advised to study AIPAC, the omnipotent Israeli lobbying arm, and then replicate it on behalf of the Miami Cubans. The brilliant Mas Canosa did precisely that with his CANF and from that day to this day pro-Cuban American and anti-Cuban laws such as Helms-Burton, The Cuban Adjustment Act, Wet Foot/Dry Foot, The Torricelli Bill, etc., have been infamously mandated -- for eternity it seems -- by Congress, enriching selected Cuban-Americans and devastating Cubans on the island. Mas Canosa was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1939. He died as a billionaire at age 58 on November 23rd,1997 in Coral Gables, Florida. 

     Beyond question, the nexus between the Bush dynasty and Cuban-American hardliners has immensely benefited -- financially and politically -- a handful of rich and powerful people. But it does not stretch credulity to say that it has greatly harmed millions of Americans and, most notably, millions of innocent Cubans on the island. And most of all, I believe two generations of quiescent and unpatriotic Americans have forsaken democracy in allowing it to happen. The unending but so-far failed quest of Jeb Bush to be the third Bush President does not change the everlasting impact the Bush nexus with the Cuban hardliners will have on Congress, the White House, democracy and the United States of America.

       In fact, George P. Bush -- Jeb's 40-year-old son -- also has extreme desires to be President of the United States. The Tea Party and the huge Bush machine easily got George P. elected to the ultra-powerful position as the Texas Land Commissioner. While George and Bush are pivotal names for George P. Bush, the P. is just as significant. The P. stands for Prescott, as in Prescott Bush, the man who started the economic and political Bush dynasty.

      A young Prescott Bush is shown here tipping the hat of a young Richard Nixon when Prescott was far richer and more powerful than Richard, who like two Bushes became a fierce anti-Castro and Batistiano-loving U.S. President. Prescott Bush was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1895. Before he died in New York City in 1972, he was a Wall Street tycoon and a U. S. Senator on his way to establishing the Bush dynasty. If you Google "Prescott Bush" you will find page-after-page-after-page about Prescott Bush's notorious financial dealings leading up to and during World War II. {BUT THESE DAYS, who cares enough about the U. S. democracy to even Google such things?}.

          This photo shows the early days of Miami's first Cuban-born member of the U. S. Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.  Standing behind her on the left is anti-Castro buddy Jeb Bush -- her former Campaign Manager and the then Governor of Florida. Standing between her and Jeb Bush is the then Cuban-born Mayor of Miami Joe Carollo, who once vowed to defy U. S. Marshals regarding the Elian Gonzalez episode.

    This photo shows Cuban-born Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Florida Governor Jeb Bush behind Cuban-born Miami Mayor Joe Carollo. Before becoming an anti-Castro Mayor of Miami, Joe Carollo was born in Caibarian, Cuba, in 1955 -- the year an emerging revolutionary rebel named Fidel Castro was sentenced to 15 years in Dictator Batista's prison. The Cuban-born Carollo was preceded as Miami Mayor by Cuban-born Xavier Suarez and succeeded by Cuban-born Manny Diaz, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc, etc.

        A well known Cuban-American in Miami, Hugo Cancio, has a very brave and very politically incorrect thought: "Miami politics only elects anti-Castro zealots to office, including Congress, it appears. That leaves moderate Cuban-Americans like me on the outside looking in, searching for democracy, if I may say so." 

        Meanwhile, ABC News used this Johnny Lewis/Getty Images photo of Havana-born United States Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Miami yesterday -- Thursday, August 18, 2016. ABC News said Ros-Lehtinen made news yesterday by saying she would "write-in" Jeb Bush's name on the presidential ballot. She, of course, had earlier endorsed Bush as President till he was wiped out by Donald Trump. Then she endorsed Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio till he quit after being soundly beaten in the Florida primary by Trump. So now it's back to her first choice, Jeb Bush, for President of the United States as a write-in.

       And that brings us back around to the article that Ros-Lehtinen and Jeb Bush co-authored in yesterday's great contribution to journalism, the National Review. The article shamefully excoriated the decent President Barack Obama for NOT HELPING what they called  "the struggling Cuban people," -- the very people Mr. Obama is trying to help as much as he possibly can despite the enormous roadblocks thrown in his face by the likes of Ros-Lehtinen and Jeb Bush. Such flagrant propaganda, in my opinion and in the opinion of the world based on yearly votes in the United Nations, would be a joke were it not so seriously a major part of the decades-old Cuban exile/Bush dynasty-led U. S. policy that has and continues to so drastically hurt "the struggling Cuban people." Americans who agree with that article penned by Jeb Bush and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen are, in my opinion, unpatriotic cowards and idiots...if I may say-so myself.

But I love America even more.

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America's Cuban Stigma

Should the U. S. Address It?
{Updated: Thursday, July 18th, 2016}

        This week the New York Times used the above graphic crafted by superb artist Jeffrey Decoster to illustrate a major article that all American democracy-lovers should read. The article is entitled: "How to End the Guantanamo Stigma." When it comes to the topic of Cuba, since the 1950s Americans have been propagandized NOT to care about anything related to Cuba even if it shames the United States, the world's greatest and most respected democracy. Therefore, I assume in August of 2016 Americans will continue to lack the intelligence, the courage and the patriotism to take note of the aforementioned New York Times article. Yet, though leery of wasting my time, I will hereby attempt to explain why they should...not because of any concern for Cuba but for the concern Americans should have for the U. S. and for democracy. 

Stigma: noun -- a mark of disgrace; shame; dishonor; ignominy; opprobrium; and humiliation. {The definition provided by Merriam-Webster Dictionary}.

      Prior to the shocking triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba's three greatest patriots were Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez.

      Jose Marti, internationally known as a poet and writer, lived comfortably in the United States but went back to his beloved Cuba to fight for independence against Spain. Marti died on a Cuban battlefield in 1895. From a superb Cuban family of independence fighters led by the great matriarch Mariana Grajales Maceo, Antonio Maceo was killed by Spanish soldiers on Cuban soil in 1896.

    Maximo Gomez devoted his adult life trying to wrest Cuban independence from the centuries-old Spanish grip. General Gomez led the Cuban military in the Ten Year War from 1868 till 1878, but Spain prevailed. He then led the Cuban military in the War of Independence from 1895 till 1898, but again Spain proved too powerful. But Gomez had weakened the Spanish military for the United States to take notice that Spain was far too extended militarily to maintain control of Cuba against an emerging world power close to Cuban shores. And almost since its inception in 1776, the United States had mortally craved Cuba, once offering Florida to Spain for the island. But by 1898, thanks to General Gomez, the U. S. realized it could take Cuba like taking candy from a baby...IF IT COULD COME UP WITH A PRETEXT TO START A WAR. With retired General Gomez watching in Havana...he died there at age 68 in 1905...the U. S. devised that pretext in 1898. So, Maximo Gomez lived long enough to observe the United States create what continues as its ignominious stigma related to its craving to dominate the magnificent, nearby island of Cuba. So, General Gomez was around to take note of...the U. S. pretext for the Spanish-American War and the easy U. S. victory in the war and the U. S.'s even easier theft of Cuba's plush Guantanamo Bay in 1903.

     The website The Spanish-American War Centennial.com begins its elaborate coverage of that war with the above graphic that features, at the bottom, the banner "Remember the Maine," which was the battle-cry and the pretext for the easy war.

       This iconic photo shows the U. S. warship, the USS Maine, sailing slowly into Havana Harbor in 1898 as two Cuban fishermen barely take notice. After all, they couldn't foresee the historic portent it would have on Cuba, the U. S. and the world.

       On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine was anchored in Havana Harbor. Most of its officers were on break in Havana. A gigantic explosion blew the USS Maine to bits, killing 261 young American sailors. To this day the debate rages as to the culprit -- the U. S. to get its pretext for a war; Spain; or simply an accident? Most historians rule out Spain because its government knew the rumors about the U. S. seeking a pretext to acquire Cuba, and Spain well knew it didn't want a war far from home against the emerging superpower. So, was it an accident? Perhaps. Was it U. S. saboteurs? Maybe. In any case, rich and powerful American right-wingers had their pretext for an easy war against Spain that would {#1} give the U. S. its long-desired control of Cuba; and {#2} make their man Theodore Roosevelt the next President of the United States if they could fabricate him as the military hero of the Rough Riders sent to Cuba.

     Indeed, the Spanish-American War in Cuba was an easy victory for American right-wingers. And, inundated with images like this one, Americans were convinced that Teddy Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders were super-heroes, leading to his stint as U. S. President. The Spanish-American War also began the U. S. ascendancy as a world power. The Treaty of Paris that parceled out the spoils, with Cuba the main prize, also gave the U. S. control of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. No Cuban, of course, was in Paris to participate in the denouement. In Havana, the retired General Maximo Gomez who had fought the Spanish so bravely for two decades, was invited to attend the treaty signing. He refused, saying, "Cuba is still a colony." 

      By 1903 -- five years after the Spanish-American War -- General Maximo Garcia in Havana indeed saw that Cuba was still a colony, America's now instead of Spain's. That was the year, two years before General Garcia died, that the U. S. took over Cuba's plush Guantanamo Bay, soon making it a powerful military and relaxation operation. As Cuba began to say more about the U. S. than it said about Cuba, Americans were told it was a legal theft because Cuba was paid $2,000 a year for it. In 1934 the U. S. increased the payments to $4,085. Since 1959 Cuba has continued to received yearly U. S. checks in that amount but Fidel Castro has refused to cash them; they are stashed in the bottom drawer of his desk. To this day, the vast Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S., which dictates America's Cuban narrative, insists that Guantanamo Bay legally belongs to the United States. The Castro Cottage Industry, of course, sanctions anything that hurts Cuba or projects as revenge against Castro.

         Maps today point out the "U. S. Naval Base" at Guantanamo Bay. While Americans are not supposed to question or consider all the dichotomy it entails, the rest of the world views it as a flagrant anointment of America's imperialist past. Yes, Cuba says much more about the United States than it says about Cuba.

      The United States flag flies over many military bases around the world, but the U. S. flag flying over Guantanamo Bay is easily the most notorious. Moreover, except to appease anti-Castro right-wingers in Miami and Washington, there is little or no justification from a military standpoint that, this deep into the nuclear age, the USA has any real need for Guantanamo Bay, which is an albatross around its own neck.

       There is a consistent clamor around the world for the U. S. to "close Guantanamo" because of its lingering imperialist attachments and because of the infamous Bush-era U. S. prison maintained there. But the anti-Castro right-wingers consider Cuba the perfect place for such things as opposed to keeping the prisoners in safe U. S. federal prisons. The Guantanamo prison for all these years has been a major inspiration for America's most vile enemies around the world, but only democracy-lovers give a damn.

        Throughout the Caribbean, including the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico, the U. S. has closed major unneeded military bases. The once-mighty Ramey Air Force Base in the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico has been closed for decades, and for economic reasons Puerto Rico wants Ramey reopened. The U. S. today has no Air Force or Naval military bases even in Puerto Rico! But it seems the U. S. government will never get permission from the anti-Castro zealots in Miami or Washington to close unneeded and very expensive Guantanamo Bay, an unwanted occupation that defames America's image around the world.

        And that brings us back to this Jeffrey Decoster graphic that this week illustrated the article in the New York Times entitled: "How to End the Stigma of Guantanamo." My point, with all due respect, is this: The Guantanamo stigma that belittles the U. S. and democracy will not end because there are simply not enough Americans who care about such things. {I surely hope someone can prove me wrong in that pro-democracy and pro-American assessment, but I regretfully believe my careful judgment is correct}. 

And by the way:

       One of the world's most famed and exciting people -- Madonna -- is the latest super-entertainer that supports Cuba. Madonna celebrated her 58th birthday this week -- August 16, 2016 -- in Havana. Undeterred by Smart Phones video-taping her, she danced and sang from atop a bar at a Cuban nightclub.

      Both Tuesday and Wednesday Madonna {above} thrilled Cubans by just strolling around Havana. The BBC and YouTube were among the international venues that aired video-audio coverage of Madonna's exploits in Cuba. And, as has been the case for decades, her simplest gestures are major exploits.

Madonna with a young Cuban in Havana. 

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Fidel's Legacy at Age 90

 A Canadian Appraisal 
{Updated: Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016}

     The Reuters photo above shows an attentive Fidel Castro at the Karl Marx Theatre in Havana on Saturday, August 13th, 2016 -- his 90th birthday. He is flanked by Cuban President Raul Castro on his right and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on his left. Having passed nine decades on this earth as one of history's all-time most famous and infamous men, appraising his legacy is in order.

      To accurately and freely assess Fidel Castro's legacy, one must first go outside Cuba and then, for sure, outside the United States. So, let's go up to Canada where resides a man named John M. Kirk. He is a renowned professor and one of the world's greatest Latin American experts/scholars. He has written sixteen books about Cuba and he has visited the island many times since 1976. Unvarnished by pro-Fidel or anti-Fidel rhetoric and propaganda, John M. Kirk is a good place to start if you are interested in a fair appraisal of the Fidel Castro legacy on the occasion of his 90th birthday, which will be celebrated for a solid month in Cuba. The celebration will include, among other things, a Guinness Book of World Records 90-meters-long cigar to commemorate each of the historic 90 years of his life. Guinness has already registered Fidel Castro's World Record for Having Survived the Most Assassination Attempts in History, a legacy not likely to be broken.

     But beyond the somewhat piddly things such as assassination attempts by the CIA, the Mafia and Cuban exiles he booted off the island, one of the best sources for the rest of Fidel Castro's legacy can be found in the prolific speeches and writings of John M. Kirk, Canada's greatest authority on both Fidel and Cuba. Mr. Kirk describes Fidel thusly: "A polarizing figure for many, he is revered in developing countries and public health programmes he instituted. Cuba currently has 50,000 medical personnel working in 60 developing countries, and that has been praised profusely by such notables as Nelson Mandela and Ban Ki-moon. Always short on money, largely because of the U. S. embargo, he nevertheless has found some to finance Operation Miracle, which has restored or greatly improved eye-sight for many poor people. He has also financed the world's largest medical school and it gives totally free scholarships to poor but qualified students, including Americans. His Polyclinics, which blanket the island, are credited with Cuba's extremely low infant mortality rate and extremely high longevity. His medical clinics have discovered some of the best vaccines against cancer, diabetes, etc. Yes, he is seen as both a totalitarian dictator and an anti-imperialistic humanitarian giant.  Under his rule, Cuba became the symbol of resistance to the dictates of Washington and he has thus inspired other resistance that has resulted in democratic rule as opposed to imperial domination in a host of countries. At the same time, much of the criticism of Castro is justified but first you must totally dismiss the American criticism that has been dominated since the 1950s by those he rightfully booted off the island, meaning the Batista Cubans, the Mafia and the greedy Americans that raided Cuba throughout the 1950s right up until the victorious Cuban Revolution. As one assesses his legacy, one must also wonder what the last five decades of his life would have accomplished had he not had to fight off the assassination attempts that have been a part of the efforts to recapture the island by U.S.-supported exiles. His humanitarian lack of greed would surely have manifested itself more."   

       Now that he has somehow reached the age of 90, Fidel Castro's legacy will be discussed and debated far into the future, both regionally and internationally. John M. Kirk is neither an idolater nor a hater from his vantage point in Canada, where a much freer perspective than in the United States is possible. So, Mr. Kirk's unique knowledge of both Castro and Cuba deserves a prominent place in that assessment even as fading but lingering memories of the Cuban's battle-tested fervor, fiery oratory, proud nationalism, and his role as an underdog warrior will surely stamp the would-be lawyer as an historic revolutionary figure. 

 And by the way: 

          The chief CNN correspondent in Havana, Patrick Oppman, provided the best and most continuous American coverage leading up to Fidel Castro's rather memorable 90th birthday this past Saturday.

       Interestingly enough, Patrick Oppmann's most viewed CNN report on August 13th, Fidel's 90th birthday, included the photo and graphic above. That's because the majority of the report centered around the "potentially more than 600 assassination attempts." Oppmann detailed many of them, including the young female lover the CIA recruited to kill him. She arrived at his suite in the Hotel Hilton with two vials of poison pills hidden in her jaw of cold cream. But Fidel had been tipped off...uh, yes, he had some friends in high U. S. places. But his reaction to her, face-to-face, was rather remarkable, as Oppmann explained. He took out his loaded pistol and handed it to her, saying, "You came here to kill me, didn't you?" She looked at the pistol in her hand, but then melted and started to cry before throwing herself into his arms. That's a true story, and one that Hollywood would not have to embellish for dramatic and emotional effect. And by the way, the photo used in Oppmann's report above showed Fidel in a wheelchair meeting with the Chinese leader. That was in October of 2004 when Fidel was 78-years-old. He had fallen from the stage after making a speech in Santa Clara, Cuba, and suffered broken bones in his left knee and left arm.

      But I know you want to know more about that young girl the CIA recruited to...almost...kill Fidel. Her name is Marina Lorenz. That's her at age 20 in February of 1959 with Fidel and with her father, the captain of a German cruise ship that had stopped off in Havana. Marina, like a lot of young foreign girls and some Hollywood starlets, was smitten with the bearded, cigar-smoking young rebel who had just defeated the combined might of the dreaded Batistianos, the Mafia and the United States. Thanks to her father, she got to meet Fidel and then fell madly in love with him, and he reciprocated. The AP photo above made her famous and the CIA, when she visited New York City, somehow managed to convince her to kill Fidel. The manner in which she agreed is truthfully depicted above because she confirmed it in her book and with a lie-detector test. But she fell back in love with Fidel after she looked down at his loaded pistol in her hand. And she also confirmed that the two CIA poison pills...remember them?...had melted in the cold cream jar.

      Marina Lorenz only briefly, and only because of CIA persuasion, had thoughts of killing Fidel. She still treasures the black-and-white photo above. In her book she said, "I fell in love with Fidel in 1959 and tried to kill him in 1960." Since then, she's been back in love with him...at least her memories of FIDEL CASTRO!!! 

Marina Lorenz in 1960 when Fidel Castro knew her. 

Marina Lorenz was born in Bremen, Germany in 1939.

      This Cubaninsider blog has been getting over a thousand hits each week from the gorgeous nation of Norway, which is home to 5 million hearty, caring and peace-loving souls. There is amazingly beautiful scenery such as this all over Norway, from the national capital of Oslo to Bergen, the capital of the fjords.

This map shows 21 major airports in Norway.

Norway is kinda at the top of the world.

      One of the absolute best Country & Western singers is Heidi Hauge. She is 100% Norwegian but her singing in English is nonpareil. For example, no American female covers great songs such as "Seven Spanish Angels" and "Crystal Chandeliers" as well as Heidi. You're welcome to test that theory on YouTube.  

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