The "Forgotten" Fidel

And A little Car-Bomb!!

     By 1976, after forming everlasting alliances with powerful entities such as the Bush dynasty, the most extreme anti-Castro elements in Miami had attained such control of America's Cuban policy and Cuban narrative that they enjoyed a Banana Republic-like non-accountable existence on U. S. soil and within the bowels of the U. S. democracy. On Oct. 6-1976 the terrorist bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane...Cubana Flight 455...was openly heralded in the Miami media as "the biggest blow yet against Castro!" A brave and compassionate Cuban-American newsman in Miami...Emilio Milian...strongly denounced such acts of terrorism against innocent Cubans. For his bravery and decency, Emilio was car-bombed. That little bomb was meant to convey a LOUD message, and it has. As far as I know, from that day in 1976 till this day in 2016 no journalist in Miami...or in the U. S. for that matter...has dared display the compassion and courage that Emilio showed when it comes to reporting on Cuban issues in the United States, the world's superpower and the world's strongest democracy that, beginning in 1959, has allowed a handful of self-serving Cuban-Americans and their sycophants to dictate a Cuban policy that now gets a unanimous worldwide condemnation...191-to-0...in the United Nations. The mainstream media in the U. S. seems...for all the world to see...to employ only anti-Cuban Cuban-Americans to report on Cuban issues. Surely, the car-bombing message involving Emilio Milian remains a factor but an overly strict adherence to political and social correctness also contributes to the fact that the world's most renowned democracy is essentially only capable of extremely biased journalism when it comes to an important topic...Cuba. Of course, propagandized Americans are not supposed to think of little Cuba as important although America's cruel and imperialist Cuba relations have done more than anything else to diminish, in the eyes of the world, the images of the United States and democracy. Americans...propagandized idiots, you might say...who dismiss that fact are also left to try to explain why zero is a larger number than 191 while they Google their fingers raw trying to uncover another topic in which all the disparate nations of the world can actually agree.

     A case in point is Alan Gomez. He is a Miami Cuban-American with an extreme bias against Revolutionary Cuba. Without those qualifications, I don't believe Gomez would be the primary Cuban writer on America's largest newspaper, USA Today. Based in Miami, Gomez is allowed by Cuba to fly back-and-forth to the island as often as he wishes...which is often...even though Cuba well knows that the articles resulting from each visit will be extremely biased against Cuba. Cuba even provides passports for its most vehement dissidents to fly to Miami and Congress to refurbish their wherewithal to be far stronger anti-Cuban zealots upon their return to the island, a laxness that might yet cost Cuba its precious, hard-earned and fiercely maintained sovereignty. On his first trip back to Cuba after the death of Fidel Castro on November 25th, Gomez high-lighted the island's most vicious anti-Castro zealot to apparently convince the American people that every Cuban on the island, like those in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, were wildly celebrating the death at age 90 of Fidel Castro. Gomez and USA Today apparently believe that Americans are too stupid or too propagandized or too scared to question whatever lies and distortions they can concoct...even if the rest of the world is much freer to judge such things.

       On one of his more recent trips from Miami to Cuba since the death of Fidel Castro, Alan Gomez in USA Today blared this headline in another typical distortion: "FIDEL CASTRO IS ALREADY JUST A MEMORY." Again, Americans are supposed to accept such propaganda without a whimper, and many actually do. Less propagandized or intimidated people around the world, by a plurality of 191-to-0, don't so readily accept it.

       In contrast to the mainstream U. S. media using only Cuban-American distortionists to distort Cuban coverage, the photo above was used to illustrate a fair-minded Cuban article by Cuban journalist Abraham Jimenez, the director of the digital magazine El Este Mundo. His article is entitled: "A Journey Through Fidel Castro's Cuba" and, unlike Alan Gomez's distortions, Mr. Jimenez reported that Fidel Castro is "not forgotten" in Cuba. The photo above shows a small island on the outskirts of the large southeastern Cuban city of Santiago. The island is "Cayo Granma" and it is home to about 2,000 Cubans who live near the cemetery that now contains the remains...the ashes...of Fidel Castro. Mr. Jimenez went there to ascertain how those Cubans are dealing with Fidel's death. AND ALAS, he discovered they remember Fidel!!  

      This is 83-year-old Maria Caridad, one of the 2,000 Cuban citizens on Cayo Granma. She told Mr. Jimenez, "When my son called me to tell me Fidel had died, I could not eat during that day. I had a tremor all over my body and had to lie in bed." Her neighbor, 95-year-old Jose Perez, told Mr. Jimenez, "Fidel was the greatest thing that nature has ever given." Another one of Maria's neighbors, Alberto Rodriguez, told Mr. Jimenez, "Fidel is like Jesus Christ. He helped the children, the poor, the dispossessed. So I appreciate what he did for this country." Before Mr. Jimenez left the small island, Maria suggested, "Look all you want. You won't find anyone around here who didn't love Fidel, for always." Mr. Jimenez admitted she was right.

        This is not to suggest that everyone in Cuba thinks Fidel is grand. But it is to suggest that the distortions in the mainstream U. S. media regarding his life...and now his death...demean the United States and democracy a lot more than they demean either Cuba or Fidel Castro in the eyes of the entire world.

     In Cuba a few weeks after the death of Fidel Castro, Cuban children as well as adults want journalists to see their signs that say, "I am Fidel." Again, I am not suggesting that such displays are not encouraged or even rewarded. But I am suggesting that lies and distortions in the mainstream U. S. media...such as saying Fidel Castro is forgotten...are lies and distortions that hurt America and democracy far more than they hurt Cuba or the legacy of Fidel Castro. And my passion for Cuba strictly relates to my belief that Cuba, its Revolution, and its icon Fidel Castro all say a lot more about the United States than they say about Cuba.

        One thing journalists keep hearing Cubans on the island say is, "A box so small for a man so large." That oft-repeated reference alludes to the cremated ashes of the very big man that Cubans will always remember as their former Athlete of the Year and as their El Comandante who fought and won major battles against supposedly overwhelming odds. They have a right to those unforgettable memories, despite what the likes of Alan Gomez preach, just as some Cubans on the island and in the U. S. have a right to think of him harshly, even to revile him. But what the U. S. media does not have a right to do, in my opinion, is to continually lie about him, about Cuba and about whether or not a transplanted Batistiano-style Banana Republic booted off the island by Castro in 1959 merely landed first in Miami and then in Washington.

       In any case, this is the cemetery in Santiago de Cuba where the remains of Fidel Castro now rest peacefully. The cemetery is almost within sight of the U.S.-occupied fortress the non-imperialist world knows unkindly as Guantanamo Bay, site of an unwanted U. S. military base that features an infamous U. S. prison. Thus, this Cuban cemetery and America's nearby military base on Cuban soil add to the U.S.-Cuban conundrum that has mystified and bedeviled the world since 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered both countries...and certainly since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 reconfigured Cuba and America.

        Fidel Castro lived to be 90-years-old and ended up dying of old age in his modest Havana home despite what the Guinness Book of World Records says were "638" assassinations attempts on his life, and that doesn't count all the times during his Revolution, the Bay of Pigs attack, etc., that he ran to the front-lines to fight. If you listen to Alan Gomez and USA Today, Fidel Castro has already been forgotten. I believe, Mr. Gomez, that is wishful thinking and one giant step beyond just being a distortion. It is an outright lie.

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Google and EU Modernize Cuba

Prior to Trump Presidency!
{Tuesday, December 13th, 2016}

      This photo, a significant one for Cuba, is courtesy of Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images. It shows Google Chairman Eric Schmidt in Havana yesterday -- December 12, 2016 -- signing a major telecommunications deal with Cuba. Signing for Cuba is Mayra Arevich, the President of Cuba's national telecom provider. Because of the U. S. embargo...the one stringently opposed by a 191-to-0 vote in the UN...the U. S. has not allowed a direct data line to the embargoed island, which has tried, with limited success, to make do with one that is routed from Venezuela. This important deal with Google -- the world's internet giant -- clears one of those obstacles thanks to President Obama's ongoing efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Every positive step forward that Cuba and the U. S. have taken with Mr. Obama's astute, pro-democracy cooperation meets massive resistance from a few hardline Cuban-Americans who dictate Cuban policy in Congress. Obama has circumvented Congress by bravely and skillfully using Executive Orders to open embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961, created commercial air and cruise traffic from the U. S. to Cuba for the first time since 1961, and otherwise sliced majestically into the U. S. embargo that has been in effect since 1962, the one every nation in the United Nations considers the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak one. The Google deal reflects Cuba's effort to accelerate contracts with U. S. companies in the remaining weeks that Obama is President and before Trump takes over on January 20th, 2017. Trump has promised the Cuban-American hardliners, which Cuba and the bravest of U. S. journalists call Batistianos, that he will quickly use his Executive Powers to erase all of the Obama-orchestrated advances, but that will take some doing and would further add to worldwide condemnation of America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy, a denunciation of America that doesn't concern the Batistianos at all and doesn't concern Americans nearly enough.

        After signing the major deal in Havana today, this is Google Chairman Eric Schmidt shaking hands with Myra Arevich, the President of Cuba's national telecom provider. It's a huge U.S.-Cuba breakthrough.

          After the signing, Ms. Arevich  and Mr. Schmidt posed in front of a large photo of Fidel Castro, Cuba's revolutionary icon who died at age 90 on November 25th, 2016. A purposeful gesture by Mr. Schmidt?

      As Cuba tries to chart its post-Fidel and post-Obama course, Mayra Arevich has emerged as one of the most powerful players on the island. After the major deal with Google Monday, she refused a direct answer about whether Cuba is trying to accelerate deals with U. S. companies while President Obama remains in office to help make the threatened reversals by incoming U. S. President Trump "more irreversible." But Ms. Arevich did say, "We will try to do what is best for the Cuban people and I am confident the progress we have made with President Obama's judicious understanding will continue, and I think that would be good for Cuba and America. There is enough turmoil in the world and the Caribbean doesn't need pain and strife." 

       This AFP photo also reflects a major deal for Cuba signed yesterday -- December 12, 2016. This one was in Brussels, Belgium. That's Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez shaking hands with Federica Mogherini, the European Union High Representative. Influenced by the U. S. embargo of Cuba, the island for years has been the only Latin American nation that had not signed a Dialogue and Cooperative agreement with the EU. That changed yesterday when Cuba and the EU inked a friendly deal to talk and cooperate. Ms. Mogherini said, "Today we recognize that there's been change in Cuba. We are at a real turning point in relations between the EU and Cuba. The EU is showing its willingness to support the process of economic and social modernization in Cuba." It's only coincidental that the new deal with the EU comes so soon after the death of Cuba's legendary Fidel Castro. The process leading to the Dialogue and Cooperative agreement with the EU began in 2014 shortly after U. S. President Barack Obama began his efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. It is also a gesture by the EU to remind incoming U. S. President Trump that the world will not take kindly to his vow to erase "the advances" Mr. Obama has forged with the island.

       This magnificent photo was taken by Jessica Botzan and is used courtesy of my favorite magazine -- Birds & Blooms. That's a Great Grey Owl flying through a snowstorm as winter hits North America.

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Cuba's Amazing Ambiguity

Post-Fidel and Pre-Trump!!

         This interesting photo by Matt Rogers fronted a Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016 article that I think is the best Post-Fidel & Pre-Trump update on the vulnerable, ambiguous, always fascinating but fast-changing island of Cuba as it tries to accept the death of Fidel Castro, mourns the near-end of the President Obama kindnesses, and fears the upcoming President Trump threats. The article is written by Deepa Fernandes and you can dial it up via www.abc.net.au. The title is: "Cubans See Opportunities and Risks in Post-Fidel Era." Study the photo, which silently says a thousand words or more. The bikini-clad, beach-loving young woman seems mesmerized by the other side of the bucolic Cuban equation -- an old peasant driving an old, rubber-tired, horse-drawn wagon between the beach and the sea to gather debris washed ashore that he might later barter. The union or nexus of the young lady and the old man creates the perfect epilogue to summarize the fast-fading and memorable year of 2016 for Cuba. Notice that the old man, in his survival mode, totally ignores the young lady that is...at least for that pivotal moment in time...focusing all her attention on him, a typical Cuban less privileged than her. They are so close, just a few feet apart, and yet separated by different, non-converging worlds.

       This Matt Rogers photo also featured in the aforementioned Deepa Fernandes article shows an old dilapidated shed on a run-down, neglected Cuban beach. The caption reads: "Oceanfront real estate like this in Boca Camarioca can be..." CAN BE WHAT? Well, the shed could be demolished, the beach cleaned up and...maybe...a 5-star hotel could replace it IF Cuba succeeds in attracting foreign investments that could miraculously alter one of the planet's most beautiful and potentially most promising nations. America's outgoing President, Mr. Obama, would like to see that to enhance his legacy that already encompasses the best and kindest American overtures ever extended to the imperialist coveted but pugnacious, sovereignty-loving island. Perhaps the best line in the insightful Deepa Fernandes update is this one: "Many Cubans see opportunities as the tourism industry grows, but some are worried the island's egalitarian ethos will be effected." In other words, Cubans want to be a part of the modern world where they can embrace capitalism like China or Vietnam so they can aspire to at least a middle class existence, yet they want to chart their own course. They remember the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in the 1950s that brutally mandated extreme wealth for a few and extreme poverty for the vast majority. From their poor but egalitarian society that the Cuban Revolution ushered in beginning in 1959, many Cubans gaze over at the U. S. now and see things they don't envy -- such as the disparity between the haves and have-nots as well as what they nervously perceive as a tolerance for crime, even police shooting unarmed civilians, that they wouldn't want to be forced once again to tolerate. So, Sunday's Deepa Fernandes article, I believe, best illustrates those aspects and variables into the still vulnerable but extremely promising and fast-changing island of Cuba, an island that unwittingly has played such a mammoth role in reshaping America's image {as reflected by the 191-to-0 UN vote condemning America's cruel, Batistiano-directed Cuban policy} and by the cancerous Batistiano growth within the bowels of the U. S. democracy {as reflected by the fact that the U. S. government, even during the decent and brave two-term Obama administration, can't correct its onerous Cuban blight even as the entire world condemns it}. Deepa Fernandes addresses those nagging issues but so do the superb Matt Rogers photos -- especially the bikini-clad, upscale young lady mesmerized by the old man who is just trying to survive, and by the image of the old shed on a neglected beach that may be soon replaced by a big 5-star hotel...or something akin to it! 

But Cuba's unending melodramatic iterations have yet to decide who will chart the island's future course -- egalitarian Cubans on the island or rich Cubans living on foreign soil!! I bet this rosy-checked little Cuban girl is wondering about that unknown too.

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Cuba's Giant Steps Forward

Two Such Steps on Monday!!

      This photo is courtesy of Ireland's thejournal.ie and it heralds a major step forward for Cuba starting Monday, Dec. 12-2016. On Monday in Brussels Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan will sign an important document that is entitled: "EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperative Agreement." It's the product of an initiative begun by Ireland in April of 2014 after it was known that U. S. President Obama was trying to normalize relations with Cuba. Mr. Flanagan issued this official statement: "Cuba's relations with the European Union have improved significantly in recent years. This will put our relations firmly on a more forward looking footing." Mr. Flanagan said the aim of the agreement is "to support the transition process of the Cuban economy" while also encouraging more democracy on the island. It also, of course, reflects Cuba's willingness and eagerness to become more open to the world and less defensive while also adamantly insisting on charting its own course in continued defiance of the anti-Cuban dictates of Cuban-American hardliners in Congress and in Republican White Houses, including the upcoming belligerent Trump presidency that will replace the decent efforts forged by President Obama, who leaves office on January 20 of the fast-approaching New Year.

        On Monday morning, Dec. 12-2016 Eric Schmidt -- the Chairman of media giant G o o g l e -- will be in Havana to sign a major deal with the Cuban government, one that will severely disappoint the vast and lucrative beneficiaries of the Castro Cottage Industry in the United States and the self-serving supporters of the United States embargo against Cuba. The deal will be massively pro-Obama and starkly anti-Trump.

         The agreement to be signed Monday morning between Mr. Schmidt and Cuba will allow Cubans to have ready access to the massive Google Global Cache that includes other Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Gmail and Google Drive. Circumventing America's Cuban embargo, the agreement will dishearten the anti-Cuban Batistiano zealots who insist on dictating America's Cuban policy to fit their own whims. 

        Hooking up so emphatically with Eric Schmidt's incomparable Google behemoth will be a major step forward for Cuba and a giant step backwards for the anti-Cuban zealots in Miami, Congress and the incoming Trump White House. The 61-year-old, Virginia-born Mr. Schmidt is already personally worth $11.3 billion while Google itself is worth more than most countries. They will be great partners for Cuba.

       President Barack Obama entered the White House almost eight years ago marching to the awesome constraints of the cruel, decades-old embargo against Cuba, an abomination that had been greatly enhanced in the previous eight years by the Batistiano-aligned administration of George W Bush.

         Mr. Obama in recent years has done more than any previous American president or any previous American citizen in showing respect and kindness to everyday Cuban citizens and, in doing so, has also shown massive respect for America and its democracy. He has, simply put, tried mightily to correct an atrocious, extremely cruel, and cowardly Batistiano-directed Cuban policy that currently has a 191-to-0 condemnation vote in the United Nations. After slicing majestically into the omnipotent Batistiano-directed Congressional dictates relating to Cuba, last week Obama advised more U. S. businesses to sign deals with Cuba while he is still in office to make it harder for Mr. Trump to erase his Cuban advances beginning in January. Monday's Google contract with Cuba will be a direct response to Mr. Obama's request.

        Also last week Josefina Vidal -- Cuba's brilliant and bold Minister in charge of United States relations -- announced that she anticipated "at least half-a-dozen major new business deals with American companies" would be signed before President Obama leaves office. The Google deal Cuba will sign Monday morning reflects another gigantic accomplishment for Vidal. She, like President Obama, hopes to make the Obama-fueled positives "as irreversible as possible" although both well know that the Republican Trump in the White House will be backed by Republican control of both chambers of Congress, which capitulates to a handful of hardline Batistianos like a trained puppy-dog taught to roll-over on command. After learning of Cuba's deal with Google that will be signed Monday, one of the two main Obama advisors regarding Cuba quipped this weekend, "Trump might nuke Cuba but he and Congress won't out-smart the Cuban Vidal." 

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America's Embargo Lies

As Cuba's Coping Continues!!
{Updated: Saturday, December 10th, 2016}

       This photo was taken a few days ago by Mauricio Lima for the New York Times. It shows Cubans working in a lettuce field at a farm in Alamar on the edge of Havana. The photo was used to illustrate a major article in the NY Times this week -- Dec. 8, 2016 -- entitled: "Cuba's Surge in Tourism Keeps Food off Residents' Plates." The article began by quoting 42-year-old Lisset Felipe, who works for the Cuban government. She said: "It's a disaster. We never lived luxuriously but the comfort we once had doesn't exist anymore." She went on to explain that she now has trouble getting Cuban staples such as onions, green peppers, garlic, avocadoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, pineapples, cilantro, arugula, Zucchini, etc. Since President Obama began trying to normalize relations, the island has experienced record tourism -- 3.5 million tourists in 2015. The article stressed that the Cuban government's reaction has been to direct its meager food supply to the tourists while making it unavailable to its 11.2 million everyday citizens.

         One of the writers of this week's New York Times article was anti-Castro zealot Frances Robles of Miami. That's a tip-off that the article was extremely biased against Cuba and extremely favorable to the vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the United States, an industry that has been in propaganda-crazed overdrive since the death of 90-year-old Fidel Castro on November 25th. That is not to say that the article was wrong to criticize Cuba for failing to adequately "plan" for the Obama-driven influx of tourists. But it is to say that, typically, the New York Times article didn't have the guts or the integrity to even mention the primary cause of deprivations in Cuba, including food. Frances Robles...her best friends call her "Frenchie"...got a John S. Knight Foundation scholarship to Stanford University. After a decade at the Miami Herald, she was hired by the New York Times in 2012. Ms. Robles has won many major journalism accolades. But the fact that she is extremely biased regarding Cuba is par for the course in the mainstream U. S. media that has become a primary propaganda vehicle for self-serving political views, massively harming millions of totally innocent Cubans in the name of the nearby superpower. Ms. Robles' contribution to this week's New York Times article that solely blamed Cuba for food shortages and other deprivations on the island perpetuates a blatant lie by conveniently failing to mention or even hint that the U. S. embargo of Cuba, in place since 1962 to sate the revenge and financial motives of a handful of two generations of egregious Batistianos, has...for all these decades...caused incredible deprivations in Cuba since a Revolution chased the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to the U. S. in 1959. 

        The world, but not millions of propagandized-&-scared Americans, recognizes that the U. S. embargo of Cuba is the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a powerful country against a weak country. That dire opinion is just about the only topic that attains unanimity worldwide, as reflected by the recent 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations. Yet, propagandized and intimidated Americans -- IN THE WORLD'S GREATEST DEMOCRACY -- are not supposed to react to either the perpetuity of the abomination in their name or to the incredible international negative effects it still has on America's reputation.

      As his decent two-term presidency nears its end, Barack Obama has done all he can to assuage the negative ramifications of an embargo that continues, decade after decade, to do more harm to America's image than any other issue...all because of the obscene bullying of an island nation that would like to just chart its own course and not eternally be dictated to by Batistianos and Mafiosi hiding behind the skirts of the world superpower while cowardly hurling self-serving grenades back at a nation they once ruled, prior to running scared to the U. S., as their brutally enforced personal piggy-bank and easy punching-bag.

         This is the precise image the world has of the U. S. embargo against Cuba: A mere handful of revengeful anti-Castro zealots dictating America's Cuban policy while it also benefits such miscreants economically and politically but greatly punishes...in America's name...everyone else. A handful of thuggish members of Congress, plus Republican White Houses, self-servingly perpetuate the atrocity -- atrocious for Cuba and even more atrocious for the United States of America and its democracy.

Prime Miami/Cuban-American {wall} embargo supporters.

        The sheer fact that poor little Cuba, since the 1950s, has managed to defy the wicked imperialism dictated by a few rogues in a superpower government next door has shamed America but also gained feisty little Cuba international recognition and support -- even if pusillanimous Americans don't admit it. 

And by the way: 

Kirk Douglas turned 100 on Dec. 9, 2016.

   He has long been a veritable Hollywood giant.

        My all-time favorite Kirk Douglas movie was/is the 1962 western "The Last Sunset" that included the scene above with Carol Lynley. His movies still grace cable television venues.

      Kirk Douglas has said that his favorite movie was the 1962 western "Lonely are the Brave." He played an outlaw trying desperately to evade capture as he and his beloved horse "Whiskey" battled mountainous terrain and hot pursuit to reach the Mexican border, a truly Herculean saga that tested the real-life endurance as well as the brilliant acting skills of a true superstar.

      This happy photo shows Kirk Douglas and his co-star Gena Rowlands enjoying a break during the filming in 1962 of "Lonely are the Brave." Ms. Rowlands, by the way, is now 86 and she is among many millions of Americans wishing Kirk Douglas, an American treasure, a HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY.

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Cuba Addresses Trump

Vidal Speaks Bluntly!!

        The above photo is courtesy of Reuters/Carlos Barria. It was taken March 21-2016 in Havana and shows the left hand of U. S. President Barack Obama reaching out to the right hand of Cuban President Raul Castro. The photo eerily documents the historic and brave overtures Obama has made in a valiant attempt to normalize relations with Cuba. His trip to Cuba was the first by a sitting U. S. president since Herbert Hoover in 1928 arrived on a warship. Obama came in peace displaying deep respect for both the Cuban people and for America's democracy, which is currently being denounced in the United Nations with a 191-to-0 vote that unanimously condemns America's vile, Batistiano-driven Cuban policy. Before and after shaking hands with Castro, Obama has astutely used executive powers to sharply slice into the bastardly U. S. Congress policy regarding Cuba -- reopening embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961; arranging commercial air traffic and sea cruises to Cuba for the first time since 1962, etc., etc. But a rich and powerful contingent of revengeful Cuban-Americans, with massively cancerous tentacles in Congress and in Republican White Houses, can and will fight back furiously to continue its now vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the United States. Obama, the decent Democratic president, is concluding his two-term presidency and will make way for Republican Donald Trump on January 20th. Trump has already stated that he will reverse the positive Cuban overtures that Obama has made, and Trump will have the support of the Republican & Batistiano-controlled Congress. The photo above illustrates a major Reuters article today -- Dec. 8-2016 -- that fairly updates Cuba's thoughts on the impending Obama-to-Trump transition that will determine much of the coming U.S.-Cuban relations. The article, which you should read, is entitled: Cuba Wants to Sign Accords With U. S. Before Obama exits."  

     Beyond doubt, Sarah Marsh of Reuters has emerged as the best source of information from Cuba. Since April of 2016 she has had the title of that powerful news agency's Chief Cuban Correspondent. She is both brilliant and fair. Although still young, she has reported for Reuters from Berlin, London, Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, Vienna and now Havana. Incredibly, she speaks these languages fluently: English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Sarah wrote today's aforementioned article that superbly updates the major face-to-face bilateral U.S.-Cuban session that took place yesterday concerning the imminent Obama-to-Trump presidential transition in the United States. She made these points:  

                  "Cuba said on Wednesday it hoped to sign off on at least a half a dozen agreements with the United States before businessman Donald Trump, who has threatened to derail detente between the former Cold War foes, becomes United States President on January 20th. The more Cuba and the United States deepen their detente prior to Trump, the more irreversible it will become." 

            With that preamble, Sarah Marsh then got to the crux of yesterday's significant U.S.-Cuban meeting by liberally quoting the session's most important participant -- Cuba's American expert Josefina Vidal.

       For going on fifteen years, Cuba has put its omnipotent relations with the United States in the skilled and determined hands and heart of Josefina Vidal. Almost three years ago, top aides of President Obama contacted Vidal and told her Obama, in the closing years of his two-term presidency, wanted to normalize relations between the two countries. Vidal was both receptive and excited but she drew a line in the sand: "If you remove Cuba from your Sponsors of Terrorism list, I will sincerely discuss the normalization process with any of Obama's representatives." She actually did not believe Obama had the courage to meet her demand, but he surprised her. Then Vidal faithfully kept her very sincere promise to talk to the United States.

       Obama chose his most skilled diplomat, Roberta Jacobson, to go head-to-head against Vidal in four historic sessions, two in Havana and two in Washington. They hammered out the detente that will be a major thrust of Obama's legacy, regardless of how the Batistianos and the Republicans counteract it. 

       That brings us right up to today -- December 8, 2016 -- and Vidal's up-to-the-minute quotes in Sarah Marsh's Reuters article summarising yesterday's bilateral meeting with Obama's Cuban experts. Here are Vidal's exact words and, yes, she speaks for Cuba on any and all things related to the United States: 

                 "At the moment we are negotiating 12 more accords with the aim to absolutely conclude and sign a majority of them. Cuba would hope the new U. S. government takes into account the results of the existing differences between us and do so without having to make demands for concessions to the principles in which Cuba firmly believes." 

          With those words, Vidal merely restates her willingness to continue with incoming President Trump the path toward normalization she has paved with outgoing President Obama. She also, as Sarah Marsh opined, remains anxious to sign more major "accords" with the Obama administration prior to the Trump administration, believing that businessman Trump will be reluctant to quash Obama-related business deals that have already acutely benefited thousands of everyday Cubans on the island as well as thousands of American workers. But Vidal is not naive. She is aware that, for decades, only the most radical Cuban exiles aligned with the most self-serving U. S. right-wingers have successfully carved out a vast Castro Cottage Industry that caters to the revenge, economic and political goals of a select few. Vidal is also aware that most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and all the nations of the world, as reflected by the 191-to-0 UN vote, support her quest and Obama's quest to normalize relations between her pugnacious Cuba and Obama's more decent America. Vidal was recently asked a simple question by a Spanish "El Pais" journalist: "What would you most like to see changed about the United States' attitude toward Cuba." Without hesitation Vidal replied: "All I ask is that the United States respect our hard-earned independence and sovereignty and treat Cuba within the boundaries and parameters of its most famous democratic tenets."  

      Apart from yesterday's bilateral meeting that featured Josefina Vidal representing Cuba once again, two Miami-based cruise giants -- Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines -- jointly announced they have now received Cuban and American approval for both brands to operate voyages to Cuba from Florida. 

       Just last week, thanks to President Obama, American Airlines became the first commercial airline to fly from U. S. soil to  Cuba's capital city of Havana since 1961. The historic event enthused all those U. S. workers shown above jubilantly displaying a huge Cuban flag. It, of course, angered a few hardcore Cuban-Americans in Congress who, right now, are depending on President-elect Trump to end all such sanity. 

And by the way:

        Do you know this All-American beauty? If you don't, you soon will. Her ubiquity in the coming years will overwhelm you. Her name is Tomi Lahren. As you can probably guess, she is of Norwegian and German ancestry. She is 24-years-old and from South Dakota. She graduated from the University of Nevada in 2014. She has many millions of followers on Facebook where her nascent but now mammoth fame began with political videos. She is fiercely conservative and combative enough to face and defeat veteran liberals on a moment's notice. She has awesome talent for extemporaneous speaking and, additionally, exceptional skill in both writing and reading teleprompters. The networks noticed. Bill O'Reilly, whose mighty Fox program overwhelms all other cable "news" shows, is mesmerized by Tomi's...well her looks, her youth, her talent, her views or...whatever. Tomi now has her own mesmerizing program on Ken Beck's The Blaze network while the larger and more conventional networks are salivating about Tomi's potential. Did I say potential? Hell, ready or not, Tomi's already arrived!! And she'll likely stick around for awhile. 

       And, uh...OH, YES. Tomi Lahren staunchly believes that the "trend" toward all-consuming political correctness, out-of-control diversity programs, and media cowardness "should not" be allowed to subjugate or stamp out the entire white race. And...lo 'n behold...Tomi's voice is getting louder not just day-by-day but literally by the hour. As Bill O'Reilly opined, Tomi's looks and youth snare your attention but then her talent and her views encapsulate you. By the time she turns 25, she might change America...or even replace Van Jones on CNN and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC!! Fresh looks, check. Fresh voice; check.

WOW!!

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