Obama's New Cuba

Alarms Right-wing Extremists!!

Especially the Bush-Batistiano Alliance

      This photo is actually courtesy of the White House, President Barack Obama. It shows the President late at night studying a report from his staff, perhaps an update from Simone Leiro on his brave and monumental efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Notice the lone candle-like light at his back.

      One of President Obama's key staffers in helping him shape his Cuban overtures is Simone Leiro. She is a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina but graduated from New York University. Yesterday -- Dec. 17-2016 -- was a big day for Simone because it was the second anniversary of the day her boss, Mr. Obama, announced to the world his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. At the White House celebration of the anniversary, Simone represented Mr. Obama and she did so proudly as one of the architects and defenders of his heroic Cuban policies. A Miami Herald article written by Patricia Mazzei and Nora Gamez Torres shamefully mocked and ridiculed the White House celebration with such derisive comments as, "And once out of office, Obama intends to remain involved in Cuba matters as a private citizen...hardliners are certain Trump will reverse Obama's approach entirely." Such articles from a once-great newspaper remind us that, since the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Miami's Little Havana is the capital of the transplanted Batistiano dictatorship. The Miami Herald article also derisively mentioned that an unnamed and unknown "female" Obama aide would stay on till March to assist the new Trump administration. We can inform the Herald that the unknown female has a name -- Simone Leiro.

      A few days ago, prior to yesterday's 2nd anniversary celebration, Simone Leiro brought Cuban entrepreneurs to Washington to testify how Obama's policies have helped thousands of Cubans to become successful entrepreneurs -- such as Julia de la Ortega, the happy lady shown above. They lavishly praised Obama and pleaded with the incoming Trump administration to "Please, don't turn your back on us." The U. S. media, as usual, mostly ignored the Obama praise and the pleas to Trump, apparently to appease the Batistianos, but the White House.gov website provided Julia's quotes: "We now run a real bed and breakfast with 10 bedrooms and have 17 people working with us as we provide services 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Now we are starting a small taxi service as transportation requests have increased. Thanks to the new times, we can right now even come to the United States to buy pieces to restore our eight American cars." 

      Another new Cuban entrepreneur basking in Obama's brave kindnesses is Fanny Acosta. She owns Casa Randy, a now thriving Bed & Breakfast in Centro Habana. Her enemy, the Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress, maintains the embargo that severely punishes everyday Cubans as well as everyday Americans, who have long been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. But Obama sliced into wicked congressional laws with Executive Powers and greatly increased the excuses for Americans to visit the island -- including now the first U.S.-to-Cuba commercial airplane flights and cruise-ship traffic since 1961. Also, Obama greatly increased the amount of money Cuban-Americans can send to Cubans, enabling many of them to own their own businesses that now take advantage of the Obama-generated increase in tourism. Fanny says, "Mr. Obama gave my family a new life." But Fanny is nervous. She's being told that the incoming U. S. president, Trump, will take away her "new life." At the moment, judging by his early transition team that includes Mauricio Claver-Carone and John Bolton, it appears Trump plans to do exactly that.

        Major American companies -- ten airlines, the top three cruise operators, Starwood-Marriott Hotels that now manage three renovated Cuban hotels, Google, Verizon, T-Mobile, Airbnb, TripAdvisor, etc., etc., are now making money on Cuban ventures thanks to Obama. The pending Trump reversals are expected to happen but reactions and fallouts will not be miniscule. U. S. companies like TripAdvisor and Airbnb, for example, are listing and helping to book customers for Julia, Fanny and over 10,000 other Obama-inspired Cuban entrepreneurs. The anticipated Trump reversals would once again enhance a Cuban policy that sates the revenge, economic and political appetites of a miscreant few while punishing everyone else, including powerful U. S. businessmen like Steven Kaufer who don't like to be punished by miscreants mocking the U. S. democracy and resulting in a 191-to-0 condemnation of the U. S. in the United Nations.

      A well-known Cuban-American businessman in Miami, Hugo Cancio, attended the Dec. 17th second year anniversary celebration at the White House. Like most Cuban-Americans in Miami, Hugo Cancio supports President Obama's decent Cuban policies. He also complains bitterly about "the opinions of the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami are not represented by our politicians, the local politicians and the politicians that are elected from here to the U. S. Congress. Why doesn't the U. S. media wonder about such things?" 

      The U. S. media only stresses the opinions of anti-Cuban extremists. The photo above shows Hugo Cancio expressing his opinions to Cristina Escobar, the island's superb young broadcast journalist.

       While the U. S. media is apparently not allowed to air Hugo Cancio's views although they represent the opinions of most Cuban-Americans, U. S. business executives seeking relations with Cuba continually knock on Hugo's door, call and text him constantly and, as above, even confront him on the streets.

        Vermont's patriotic veteran United States Senator Patrick Leahy attended yesterday's second anniversary celebrations of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Leahy has long been one of America's most powerful politicians and one of the most vocal advocates for a decent Cuban policy. The U. S. media often solicits his opinions on various topics...except Cuba. Cuban topics in the U. S. media, with rare exceptions, are reserved only for anti-Cuban extremists. Meanwhile, Senator Leahy is embarrassed by "the startling unanimity of the UN vote denouncing our Cuban policy, but I understand it."  

       Bush-anointed anti-Cuban zealots like John Bolton shamefully use the media to denounce great Americans like Senator Leahy for either showing some respect for everyday, totally innocent Cubans or for being ashamed about how much America's Cuban policy belittles America and democracy in the eyes of the entire world. The U. S. media is not interested in sane Cuban opinions from people like Senator Leahy but afford bullies like John Bolton all the air-and-print time they desire. The media almost always refers to Bolton as "the former U. S. Ambassador to the UN," assuming Americans are too stupid to know the truth. Bolton was a recess appointment by the anti-Cuban President George W. Bush. Fully knowing that such a right-winger would not get approved by the Senate, Bush, of course, removed him at the UN prior to letting the Senate, back from recess, vote on the appointment. By not pointing out such things in boosting the likes of Bolton, the media is simply lying and such lies -- INCREDIBLY -- have President-elect Trump considering Bolton for Secretary of State, Under Secretary of State, or Ambassador to Cuba...any of which might start a war in the Caribbean and which would continue to mystify Americans like Senator Leahy.

     This photo shows the day President Bush named John Bolton the U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood by in silence. Yes, it happened...but remember it was only a "recess appointment" because no way would Bush allow Bolton to be subjected to Senatorial approval. Yet, word is that Trump might try to get Bolton approved to a key position by the Republican Senate or to a key anti-Cuba position that doesn't require Senate approval. Either way, both Cuba and America would be screwed. In between Republican administrations, people like Bolton, Reich, Noriega, etc., make tons of money as consultants, but that's better than actually being in the U. S. government. 

      U. S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor was born in Miami but, as Hugo Cancio says, Miami only sends anti-Cuban zealots to the U. S. Congress. Kathy Castor represents the Tampa-St. Petersburg area in the U. S. Congress and she attended the Dec. 17th celebration at the White House on the second-year anniversary of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, which Kathy Castor has long advocated.

      On behalf of harassed innocent Cubans on the island as well as her constituents in the Tampa area, the American economy and America's worldwide image, Kathy Castor has always worked bravely and tirelessly for a sane and decent Cuban policy that would "benefit most Americans and most Cuban-Americans."  

       The visceral Miami Cubans in and out of Congress are demanding that Trump halt all of President Obama's Cuban overtures. The photo above shows Havana-Born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen waiting her turn as she watches Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart put up his halt sign. Ros-Lehtinen has been in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when Jeb Bush, paving the way for his two-term Governorship of Florida, was her Campaign Manager. The aforementioned Miami Herald article about the Dec. 17th second-year anniversary of President Obama's normalization plans for Cuba, of course, stressed Ros-Lehtinen's scathing comments: "Hopefully with President-elect Trump and a new administration, we may be in a position to reverse some of the damage inflicted on the cause of freedom and democracy in Cuba." Yeah, right. The Havana-born Ros-Lehtinen is awash with family-connected hatred of the Cuban Revolution, as is the Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart whose father Rafael was a Minister in the ousted Batista dictatorship. 

      Lincoln Diaz-Balart was followed to the U. S. Congress by his younger brother Mario. Without ever mentioning that their father was a Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then the rich and powerful founder of the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit in Florida, the White Rose, the U. S. media allows the Diaz-Balarts to say anything about Revolutionary Cuba with never an iota of a challenge.

     This CBS-TV photo was taken during the 41-minute news conference in Miami on Nov. 26-2016 that celebrated the death of Fidel Castro while wilder celebrations were taking place outside on the streets of Miami. Left to right are: Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Carlos Curbelo, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Mario Diaz-Balart. I though the most interesting moment came when Ros-Lehtinen at the rostrum turned and congratulated Lincoln Diaz-Balart for "writing" some of the laws in the Batistiano-infringed U. S. Congress that continue to infuriate all the nations of the world as well as great Americans like Obama, Leahy, Castor, Cancio, etc.

        A Cuban policy dictated by a Bush-ordained Castro Cottage Industry in the United States will continue to promote anti-Cuba zealots like Miami's incumbent Senator Marco Rubio to Congress or, maybe, soon to the White House. A U. S. democracy that can't correct this abomination is a U. S. democracy that gets a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations and gets a strong denunciation from most Cuban-Americans.

      Meanwhile, it's been exactly two years and one day since President Obama, on behalf of the innocent Cubans and the United States of America, announced gigantic plans to normalize relations with Cuba.

     President Obama, live on Cuban television, assured the Cuban people that "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." Unfortunately, that statement only resonated with Cubans during Mr. Obama's two terms as President and Commander-in-Chief. It surely didn't apply to the two-term Bush presidency that preceded Mr. Obama's and it surely doesn't apply to the Trump presidency that will follow.

       Cuba's young and influential broadcast journalist, Cristina Escobar, has been a huge supporter of President Obama's two-year effort to normalize relations with her island. She thinks the Republican Congress and the Republican Trump in the White House "will turn back all that progress and goodness with barely batting an eye." In the above photo, Escobar is studying a script just before airtime in Havana.

An anti-Obama Cuban-American demonstrator.

      This photo shows Cristina Escobar making history by becoming the first Cuban to ever ask a question at a White House news conference. She asked President Obama's White House spokesman Josh Earnest six questions, including this one: "Will the regime-change programs continue?" Josh Earnest gave her a diplomatic answer but she knows the real answer: As long as the American people allow an exceedingly unpopular, Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress to dictate America's Cuban policy, the world will vote 191-to-0 against it and Congress will continue vast pipelines of tax dollars flowing to Miami and even to Havana to eventuate a regime-change while, in the meantime, enriching and empowering a select few Cuban-Americans and their sycophants. Cristina Escobar says, "Even Cubans of my generation know all about long-ago Batista and Mafia brutality and pillaging on a beautiful island. I hope and believe the bulk of my generation will stay and defend what deserves to be defended. I know the odds against us remain high and the allure of Miami is strong, but our strength is the Cuban love for independence. I hope that never leaves us."

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New Cuba, Old Cuba

Coexisting With America!!
{Saturday, December 17th, 2016}

      This photo reflects the new Cuba as it continues its eternal efforts to try to coexist with its colossal northern neighbor -- the United States. My friend Tracey Eaton took this photo this week -- Dec. 13-2016 -- about 22 minutes before he boarded American Airlines Flight 801 from Charlotte to Havana. Notice that the departure was right on time and took 2 hours and 28 minutes to reach Havana. It was a very historic flight because American Airlines has just begun the first commercial flights from U. S. soil to Havana since 1961 after JetBlue Airlines had earlier begun U. S. flights to other Cuban cities. Now a host of other U. S. airlines are set to make commercial flights to Cuba from major U. S. cities -- four in Florida but also Atlanta, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, etc. It's all a product of President Obama's brave efforts to wrest Batistiano-like dictation of America's Cuban policy from a Batistiano-dictated U. S. Congress. Obama has already paved the way for cruise lines to make regular trips to the island; he has sharply increased the excuses for Americans to legally visit the island; he has made it possible for Cuban-Americans to send in excess of $3 billion a year to Cubans on the island, enabling many of them to become entrepreneurs; and the influx of tourism...well over 3 million in the past year...has veritably overwhelmed the new Cuba that Americans like Tracey Eaton can much easier fly into, easing the Batistiano-directed congressional law that has long made Americans the only people in the world not free to go to Cuba. But now there is a new Cuba, which still has to deal with the old Cuba, which is much too profitable in the U. S. to go away quietly.

      This Cuban-American gentleman represents the old Cuba. His name is Antonio Rodiles and the photo above shows him on CBS TV this week lobbying powerfully against President Obama's sane and decent overtures to Cuba. His fervent hope is that incoming President Donald Trump will erase all of the Obama gains and then, I guess, recapture Cuba on behalf of a handful of rich and powerful, now second-generation Cuban-Americans. That recapturing thing would be somewhat akin, I reckon, to the Batista-Mafia rule from 1952 till 1959 when the victorious Cuban Revolution reconfigured Cuba and America by keeping Havana as the Cuban capital but creating Little Havana in Miami as the Batistiano capital on U. S. soil. In addition to his CBS gig, I also noticed this week that Rodiles took his anti-Castro/pro-Batistiano zealotry to...the Voice of America, the Heritage Foundation, the Miami Herald, etc., etc., etc. And remember, other rich and powerful anti-Castro/pro-Batistiano lobbyists -- Mauricio Claver-Carone, Roger Noriega, Otto Reich, the Diaz-Balart brothers, Ros-Lehtinen, Rubio, Cruz, Curbelo, even John Bolton, etc. -- are also in overdrive preparing for the Obama-to-Trump transition on January 20th. Note that the aforementioned names all seem to have sprung up from the roots of the Bush dynasty and, after the 8-year Obama hiatus, all seem to be lavishly salivating over the impending let's finally recapture Cuba Trump presidency.

     This Roberto Kollum-El Nuevo Herald photo shows Antonio Rodiles making a threatening speech in Miami this week. At least, the Miami Herald's very first sentence in its long article about the speech said Rodiles "warned" President-elect Trump not to go easy on Cuba. The article, which you are welcome to dial up, quoted Rodiles as saying, "The Cuba regime is never going to be a friend of the U. S, never going to be a friend of the democratic world. The main focus needs to be on real change, a regime change in Cuba." If history is any judge, such warnings must be heeded whether the U. S. presidents are Democrats or Republicans. Since the Eisenhower administration in 1959, all Republican presidents have sought to bring about what Rodiles called "a regime change" in Cuba, without success. Let's see...assassination attempts, military attack at the Bay of Pigs, terrorist acts that included hotel and airplane bombings, and Batistiano-directed laws in the U. S. Congress designed to starve and deprive Cubans on the island for the purpose of having them create a regime change. Declassified U. S. documents from 1962 confirm that the starve and deprive motive created the embargo against Cuba that has been in existence since 1962 because only the Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress can eliminate it. Mr. Rodiles, of course, never mentioned that the majority of Cuban-Americans support President Obama's decent and sane Cuban overtures. He also, of course, never mentioned that the entire world -- via a 191-to-0 UN vote -- drastically opposes the cruel and inhumane policies that he advocated in the above Miami speech. So, how can a handful of lobbyists such as Antonio Rodiles maintain, decade after decade, a Cuban policy in the world's greatest democracy that most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and the entire world opposes?? In the eyes of the world...note the UN vote...the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to correct a Cuban policy that so drastically diminishes the images of the U. S. democracy around the world. And the primary culprits, in my opinion, are not benefactors like Mr. Rodiles. The primary culprits are the American people who sit back on their comfortable asses and refuse to defend their great nation and their great democracy against a domestic problem that might be more dangerous to America than all the foreign anti-American entities combined.

      A key antagonist to the Castro Cottage Industry is Ben Rhodes, which also connotes his concern about how America's Cuban policy denigrates the images of the United States and democracy around the world. Mr. Rhodes is a key National Security Advisor for President Obama and he is the prime architect of Obama's brave and historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Considering the ageless hold Cuban hardliners have had on the U. S. Congress and its bevy of anti-Cuban but pro-Cuban exile laws, Mr. Rhodes has crafted many of the Executive Orders that sliced deeply into the congressional dictates of a Cuban policy that has the current 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. He is proud of what has been accomplished, such as the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961; commercial airline flights and sea cruises from the U. S. to Cuba for the first time since 1961; and a drastic easing of the U. S. embargo against Cuba that has shamefully been in effect since 1962. Ten U. S. airlines -- Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Silver, Southwest, Spirit, Sun, and United -- now have regularly scheduled commercial flights to Cuba for the first time since 1961. Three major cruise lines - - Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian -- are now setting sail for Cuba for the first time since 1962. San Francisco-based Airbnb is now assisting over 8,000 Cuban private homes in renting out rooms to help alleviate the Obama-Rhodes influx of tourism. TripAdvisor is now helping paladares {home restaurants} and regular Cuban restaurants with pre-arrival listings. Starwood Hotels and Resorts, owned by Marriott International, has sharply renovated and now manages three key Cuban hotels. Ben Rhodes has had a direct hand in those and many other negotiations, but he knows the clock is ticking on the two-term Obama presidency with President-elect Donald Trump threatening to "reverse" such advances that have already helped millions of Cubans on the island and portend to help millions of U. S. workers and businesses. Mr. Rhodes says, "We'll use the remaining times till January 20th to continue trying to help Cubans on the island and American business interests while also, we think, trying to improve America's regional and international images. We will make our case to the incoming Trump administration and also directly to the public. We've done everything we could to show that our new approach works much better than the old Cold War one."   

      This Reuters photo shows Ben Rhodes holding the White House news conference that announced President Obama's trip to Cuba back in March, a truly historic and courageous visit that marked the first time a sitting American president had visited the island since Herbert Hoover in 1928. Today -- Dec. 17-2016 -- President Obama and Ben Rhodes will host an event in the White House to mark the two-year anniversary of the day when President Obama first announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba.

      President Obama's bold Dec. 17-2014 Cuban announcement.

      This photo will always be an integral part of the Obama-Rhodes legacy in their historically decent and courageous efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The photo was taken in March aboard Air Force One and it shows President Obama and Ben Rhodes looking out windows as the presidential plane flew low over Havana. With Republicans having control of both chambers of the Batistiano-infringed U. S. Congress and Trump's incoming Republican White House already being laced with extreme anti-Cuban advice from the likes of Claver-Carone, Bolton, Noriega, Reich, and six Cuban-Americans in Congress, it appears likely that the decent and sane Obama-Rhodes efforts will be largely reversed, meaning that the U. S. Cuban policy will revert back to starkly benefiting a roguish few while also starkly harming everyone else, not to mention a return of the extreme harm a Batistiano-type Cuban policy does to America's and democracy's worldwide images. Yet, Mr. Obama and Mr. Rhodes should be saluted for what they have done and for what they tried to do in regards to America's Cuban policy that deservingly gets the 191-to-0 UN denunciation.

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Cuba's Fate, What Now?

Peace...or War?

       Study this photo. It speaks loudly, and more than a thousand words. If you are an American and you read a thousand words in the U. S. media about Cuba, or listen to a thousand words on network television, you are willing to be propagandized and lied to about U.S.-Cuban relations -- where they have been and where they are going in the closing days of 2016 as President Obama's two-term presidency draws to a close to make way at the start of 2017 to the presidency of Donald Trump. From Cuba's standpoint, going from a decent and respectful Democrat president to an unknown but suspiciously indecent Republican president, is the equivalent of going from Peace to War. If that sounds too harsh or too much of an exaggeration, I believe it's because you do not comprehend the pulse or the rhythms of Cuba. Aspects of the Obama government will speak the truth; unfortunately, there are no aspects of the U. S. media that has either the courage or the integrity to tell you the truth about Cuba. Typically for the U. S. media, America's largest newspaper -- USA Today -- sends a visceral anti-Castro Cuban-American Alan Gomez --  back-and-forth from Miami to Cuba for the purpose of spewing lies and distortions; in recent days, Mr. Gomez has told his readers that all of Cuba's 11.2 million citizens are wildly happy that Fidel Castro has died and are joyous over the prospect that an incoming Republican president aligned with a Republican dominance of Congress will quickly in 2017 restore the Batistiano-Mafiosi rule to Cuba. Maybe, maybe not. Have you studied the photo above? That's Cristina Escobar. She is a superbly talented broadcast journalist in Cuba...bilingual, well-educated, healthy, married, awesomely intelligent and pure Cuban. It is highly likely that young adults on the island, twentysomethings like Cristina, will predicate Cuba's fate going forward...either that or the incoming U. S. Commander-in-Chief will have to annihilate them because Cristina's Cuban-based love for Cuba easily matches the U.S.-based Batistiano's hatred of Revolutionary Cuba. In the above photo, Cristina had a lot to ponder -- including Obama, Trump, and the impact of Fidel Castro's death. In Washington and in Havana Cristina, as a journalist and as a Cuban, has laid down her two prime mantras: {1} "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington;" and {2} "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than journalists in the U. S. have to tell the truth about Cuba." The nearby world superpower has the capacity to dismiss or wipe out Cristina's views and plans for Cuba -- especially with a Republican president, a Republican Congress, and an incompetent or cowardly U. S. media. Cristina understands that, but it's not likely to deter her. She seems to possess Celia Sanchez-type Cuban grit.

       This photo shows Cristina Escobar and her co-anchor Lazaro Manuel Alonzo on a very tough day as they reported on the death of 90-year-old Fidel Castro. Americans are told by the U. S. media that there is no lingering sadness over the passing of the island's revolutionary icon, but Cristina and Lazaro didn't try to hide their acute sadness. In the U. S. only the most anti-Castro zealots -- Alan Gomez, Boris Sanchez, the Diaz-Balart brothers whose father was a key Batista Minister chased to Miami, etc. -- are allowed to use the U. S. media to propagandize against Revolutionary Cuba. Cuba even allows the three most famed dissidents on the island to fly back-and-forth to Miami and Congress where they continually get refurbished to return to Cuba and try to unseat the government or cause mayhem that puts it in a bad light -- and them in a good light as patriots, not Castro Cottage Industry benefactors. When U. S. journalists go to Cuba, they don't have the freedom to ask important young Cubans like Cristina and Lazaro what they think, and they are important not just as talented journalists but as young adults who care deeply about Cubans on the island as they try to chart a sovereign nation in which greedy and revengeful miscreants hiding behind the skirts of the world's superpower can't eternally use Cubans as pawns and guinea pigs.

        After their live broadcasts on November 26th about the death of Fidel Castro, Cristina and Lazaro still shared their heartfelt grief. Propagandized Americans belittle them that right, or sanctimoniously maintain that these two young Cubans are not as smart as they are or have not had the insight and clarity about the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and the Revolution that they have. It is for those reasons that Cuba's post-Fidel fate should reside solely in the hands of young Cubans like Cristina and Lazaro, not a few foreign thugs.

      This photo of Cristina Escobar reflects the sadness she feels over the death of Fidel Castro. The exceedingly rich and always unchallenged Diaz-Balarts in Miami and Washington don't believe Cristina in her own sovereign country should have the freedom to feel sad over the death of the Cuban rebel famed for chasing the Diaz-Balarts and other Batista-connected "saints" to Miami and Washington two generations ago. But I think she deserves her opinions, and I say that not just because I respect her and 11 million other innocent Cubans on the island but because, most of all, I respect the U. S. democracy that has taken...and continues to take...a terrible hit from a Cuban policy mostly dictated by rogues in shameful defiance of decent Americans like President Obama. With unanimity, that recent 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations agrees wholeheartedly with me and I believe it is an undemocratic shame that many Americans don't. Cristina Escobar: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington."  

       Great Cuban patriots died on Cuban battlefields fighting for what young Cuban patriots Cristina Escobar and Lazaro Manuel Alonzo believe in today -- sovereignty and independence for their island.

      For the last 70 of his 90 years, Fidel Castro ended up as the most successful fighter for Cuban sovereignty, a fact that will eternally make him a pariah and his legacy an historical blight for his enemies, but just a few weeks before he died the 191-to-0 vote in the UN supported his Cuba, not America's Cuba. 

      If indeed Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington, the island's future should in the hands and hearts of young Cuban patriots like Cristina Escobar and Lazaro Manuel Alonso, not a few American and Cuban-American rogues who get away with dictating to Americans such absurdities as...0 is a larger number than 191. TRUST ME, it's not. 191 is larger than zero. Really!!  

Cristina Escobar: Night-out with two good friends. 
They like their Cuba, and they have a right to.

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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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