HEY: Cuban SANITY!!

Hardliners Challenged!!
{Updated: Thursday, February 23rd, 2017}

       A United States Senator named Thad Cochran arrived in Cuba this past Sunday -- Feb. 19-2017 -- and, after his four days on the island, what he tells President Donald Trump may well predicate America's Cuban policy for decades to come. After one month as U. S. President, Donald Trump has yet to keep his promise to anti-Cuban hardliners about reversing all of former President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The reason Trump has yet to target, assault or nuke the vulnerable island so far is...Thad Cochran. He is now 79-years-old. A staunchly conservative Republican, Thad Cochran was elected to the U. S. Congress from Mississippi in 1978. Despite his advanced age, he is a congressional giant who, among other things, currently chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. More significantly right now, Thad Cochran is an omnipotent supporter of Trump and, as such, his influence has so far kept President Trump from allowing Congressional hardliners like Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart to dictate his Cuban policy, something all previous Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan have routinely granted.   

         In 1965 Thad Cochran graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School when that state and that university were embroiled in desperately trying to block the then-nascent Civil Rights movement. To this day in 2017 Thad Cochran is still very proud of the Confederate flag and his Southern heritage, as the above photo attests. But in the U. S. Senate since 1978, Thad Cochran has emerged as a brilliant proponent of Democracy and America. As such, he is ashamed that a current vote in the United Nations reveals an international 191-to-0 condemnation of America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy, meaning that not a single one of America's best foreign friends support it. But primarily, in this pivotal year of 2017, Thad Cochran is ashamed that the American policy towards Cuba "so drastically" harms not only America's international reputation but also directly harms Americans "financially and democratically" by denying them trade opportunities with Cuba and by making Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, apparently so Cuban hardliners in Congress can dictate the Cuban narrative in the United States. So...Senator Thad Cochran spent four days in Cuba this week for these two reasons: {1} To finally challenge the Batistiano-directed Cuban policies in the U. S. Congress; and {2} to ascertain if he should tell President Trump not to end President Obama's sane Cuban overtures. Senator Cochran's state of Mississippi is already the U. S. leader in doing business with Cuba and is the main supplier of the main product -- frozen chicken -- purchased by the island. {Mississippi chicken farmers love their Senator}.

        There was a time back in the 1960s and 1970s that supporters of Thad Cochran were labeled right-wingers or even racists. But in 2017 the Thad Cochran supporters depicted above are not labeled anything other than progressive Americans. And like most Americans and most Cuban-Americans, they are tired of a handful of hardline Cuban Americans -- through two generations now -- dictating an American Cuban policy that rightfully gets a 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations. Senator Thad Cochran's four days in Cuba this week reflects perhaps the most serious challenge to the American Batistianos in many decades.

      With President Trump's powerful supporter -- U. S. Senator Thad Cochran from Mississippi -- gleefully looking on, Mississippi signed a huge commercial agreement with Cuba in Havana this week -- Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, 2017. The Mississippi ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport eagerly signed the deal with Cuba anticipating future commerce that will benefit the state and the island nation. Only Senator Cochran's dear friend, President Trump, can erase the impact of that agreement. That Trump decision is pending.

      The 79-year-old Senator Thad Cochran was the only Republican in the congressional delegation that visited Cuba this week, but the Democrats, of course, included the equally brave Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont. Senator Leahy is shown above taking photos of the media at a news conference in Havana on one of his many visits to the Cuban capital. The Congressmen visiting Cuba this week included:

 ***Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi.

***Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

***Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

***Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico.

***Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.

       Born in Minnesota 61-years-ago, Heidi Heitkamp is now a highly regarded U. S. Senator from North Dakota. A moderate Democrat, Senator Heitkamp has introduced a Senate bill providing for The Expansion of Agricultural Exports to Cuba. Her bill eliminates the Batistiano-imposed prohibition against financing exports to Cuba. It is a bipartisan bill that includes powerful Republicans like Mississippi's Thad Cochran.

       Born in Louisiana 66-years-old, John Boozman is now a U. S. Senator from Arkansas. Influenced by Thad Cochran, Senator Boozman is among the growing number of Republicans in the U. S. Congress no longer afraid of the power and intimidation of the Cuban-American hardliners when it comes to America's Cuban policy. Senator Boozman readily co-sponsored Senator Heitkamp's pro-Cuban agricultural bill.

      Born in Miami 50-years-ago, Kathy Castor has represented Florida's Tampa-St. Petersburg area in the U. S. Congress since 2007. With unmatched and uncommon guts and decency, Congresswoman Kathy Castor has long fought for a decent U. S. policy regarding Cuba, and its' a fight she has waged from FLORIDA.

        In the U. S. House of Representatives Kathy Castor currently has a bill calling for the end of the embargo against Cuba. Although born in Miami and representing Tampa in the U. S. Congress, Kathy Castor is brave enough to stress two points: {1} The embargo against Cuba has shamed the U. S. and democracy since 1962; and {2} To appease a handful of revengeful and self-serving Cuban-Americans, the U. S. embargo against Cuba unfairly and grossly harms totally innocent Cubans and totally innocent Americans.

      Born in Indiana 55-years-ago, Tom Emmer represents Minnesota in the U. S. Congress. A staunch Republican, he co-sponsors Kathy Castor's non-partisan bill aimed at ending the embargo against Cuba.

       Both as a former Minnesota lawyer/lobbyist and now as a brave Republican member of the United States Congress from Minnesota, Tom Emmer has always advocated a decent, pro-American policy towards Cuba. His bravery, and that of other aforementioned members of Congress, probably surprises many Americans because the incompetent and intimidated mainstream U. S. media normally only serves as a forum for anti-Cuban extremists when it comes to Cuban "news" that is actually anti-Cuban propaganda.

       As far as network television "news" in the United States is concerned, only anti-Cuban extremists like U. S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart from Miami are afforded unlimited airtime for rants such as the ranting depicted above when President Obama was lambasted as "an Appeaser-in-Chief". And when any of the four Diaz-Balart brothers are ranting on television, never do the networks have the guts or the integrity to mention that they are the four sons of Rafael Diaz-Balart -- the former key Minister in Cuba's Batista dictatorship who became one of Florida's richest and most powerful anti-Cuban powerbrokers.

        This Washington Post photo shows former Batista Minister Rafael Diaz-Balart in the center flanked by his four sons, all of whom inherited their ultra-rich and ultra-powerful anti-Castro extremism that from 1959 till this day has dominated Congress, the U. S. media and both the Cuban political and economic spheres that so glowingly punctuate Miami. The Diaz-Balart son on the far left is a powerful banker. The Diaz-Balart sons second from the left and on the far right have both represented Miami in the United States Congress. And the Diaz-Balart son second from the right is a very powerful anti-Castro U. S. television anchor.

       The Diaz-Balart television connection is Jose Diaz-Balart and he is a prime anchor for NBC in English and Telemundo in Spanish. NBC and Telemundo have the highest rated American and Hispanic network "news" programs in America. It's a shame neither has the guts or the integrity to disclose Jose's Batistiano connections when he tells America all about how terrible Revolutionary Cuba IS while implying how fantastically nice Batista's Cuba WAS. So, both in the U. S. Congress and in the U. S. media, the Diaz-Balarts are synonymous with America's saturation of underhanded and undisclosed propaganda related to Cuba. 

And by the way:

       Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been denied entry to Cuba. The photo is courtesy of Reuters. Calderon planned to headline an anti-Cuban rally organized for Wednesday of this week by The Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy. He was the Bush-aligned President of Mexico from 2006 till 2012 and is still a pillar of Mexico's right-wing National Action Party. Note: Cuba, still a sovereign nation, apparently felt it had enough foreign anti-Cuban right-wingers on the island without allowing Calderon to join them.

      Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs, Josefina Vidal, is also the island's primary defender. She once said, "I do not want anyone to shoot Cuba in the foot and I don't want Cuba to shoot itself in the foot." With that brilliant and logical rationale from a Cuban of Vidal's significance, you can understand why Felipe Calderon was not allowed to fly from Mexico to Cuba yesterday.

She's very protective of Cuba's feet. 

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Obama's Cuban Imprint

Huge Till Trumped!

        Back on January 12th, just 8 days before his 8 years as America's two-term President ended, Barack Obama signed a final Executive Order that concluded his massive effort to normalize relations with Cuba, defying the United States Congress and the cabal of Cuban-American hardliners who effectively use their Congressional and Republican ties to dictate America's Cuban policy, one that currently is condemned by a 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations. Obama's January 12th decision ended, at least for now, the controversial and discriminatory Wet Foot-Dry Foot congressional law that legalized the entry of Cubans into the U. S. the moment their foot touched U. S. soil, an incentive that was not available to non-Cubans.

      This photo was used by the Jamaica Observer to update President Obama's decision to end the Wet Foot-Dry Foot incentive for Cubans to exercise their unique invitations to enter the United States and immediately begin enjoying an array of special discriminatory residence and economic privileges.

     The Jamaica Observer reports that since January 12th, 2016, 683 Cubans have been deported back to Cuba following Obama's ending Wet Foot-Dry Foot. The Cubans have been returned from Mexico, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands where they had ended up, often aided by human traffickers, on their way to the U. S. Mexico deported 264 Cubans and turned back 144 more; the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands deported a combined 156. In 2016 a total of 56,082 Cubans entered the U. S. -- 38,310 via Wet Foot-Dry Foot while 11,772 had legal visas. Anticipating that Obama might end the special rules for Cubans, 2016 had the highest number of Cuban migrants to the U. S. since 1980 when Fidel Castro himself allowed 125,000 Cubans to go to Florida from the Port of Mariel in what history calls the Mariel Boatlift, with some historians claiming that Castro wanted to get shed of burdensome dissidents, imprisoned criminals, etc. The Jamaica Observer, like the rest of the media in the Caribbean, is waiting to see if U. S. President Trump will use his own Executive Orders to overturn the massive changes former President Obama made in U.S.-Cuban relations with his own series of Executive Orders, such as the last one just before leaving office that currently equates Cuban migrants on a par with others seeking entry into the United States.

         President Donald Trump at a scathing pre-election speech in Miami before Brigade 2506 veterans seemed to foreshadow his Cuban imprint that would surely please and excite the most fierce Cuban-American hardliners. Trump assured Brigade 2506 veterans he would reverse Obama's entire Cuban policy.

       Brigade 2506 led the ground attack to complement the air and sea assault on Revolutionary Cuba in April of 1961. To this day -- Feb 20th-2017 -- the Brigade 2506 veterans in Miami blame "U. S. Miscalculations" for their long-ago failure to recapture Cuba. In the decades since, the Brigade 2506 veterans have erected massive monuments in Miami celebrating their 1961 attempt and, via strong representation from Miami in the U. S. Congress, they have played a huge role in America's Cuban policy.

      But as of today -- Feb. 20-2017 -- President Trump has not lived up to his pre-election Brigade 2506 rants and that is now leading to massive anti-Trump protests in Miami and other South Florida cities, such as the volatile pro-migrant demonstration depicted above. Democratic presidents, especially Barack Obama, tend to support normalizing relations with Cuba, so the anti-Cuban zealots await Republican administrations -- such as Trump's -- to accentuate their stern counter-revolutionary Cuban desires.

       The current Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party is Juan Cuba. Yes, that is his real last name and that is Juan Cuba shown above with America's former Democratic President Barack Obama.

      This photo shows Juan Cuba campaigning with Hillary Clinton, who was supposed to be the Democrat that would easily trounce Republicans in the President sweepstakes. It didn't happen, of course, because millions of Americans were tired of bought-and-paid-for establishment and dynastic politicians -- Republicans OR Democrats -- so the voters...at least in the decisive Electoral College forum...opted for the non-politician but unqualified contender, the billionaire businessman Donald Trump. But so far President Trump has neither nuked Cuba nor reversed President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island. That led to a major USA Today article today -- Feb. 20, 2017 -- entitled "Miami Goes From Apathetic to Anti-Trump." The article was written by Alan Gomez, USA Today's primary and obligatory anti-Cuban/Cuban American journalist. The democratic leader in Miami-Dade County, Juan Cuba, told Gomez he welcomes the anti-Trump protests. He said, "I think they make us stronger as a party." {Juan Cuba IS his actual name}.

        If THE TRUTH IS KNOWN, in the Republican primary election, the only county in Florida that Donald Trump lost was Miami-Dade and he lost it BIG because the majority of Cuban-Americans favor a sane, decent Cuban policy that would include ending the embargo. Cuban hardliners use propaganda and fake news to dispute such facts. The photo above showing Trump speaking in Miami is courtesy of Michele Eve Sandberg and The Miami New Times, which explained the above-stated truth in a Feb. 17-2017 article. 

Meanwhile, Cuba tries to remain Cuba:

        Cuba's National Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials, founded in 1991, continues to receive plaudits from the World Health Organization, the Pan Am Health Organization, American clinics, and even the World Bank for its "innovative advances in medical research and testing procedures as well as the continuous support it receives from the Cuban government," according to the WHO. The Director of the National Coordinating Center, Dr. Carlos Manuel Garcia, says, "Since cancer is the main cause of death for the Cuban population, we prioritize those clinical trials for neoplasias, although we develop many others." 

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Declaring War ON CUBA

Did Trump Do It Thursday?

       At his Thursday {Feb. 16-2017} news conference President Trump finally pointed a finger at Cuba although, for sure, his Caribbean winds are much calmer than the far more toxic and stronger tsunami-like torrents from places like...Russia, Iran, North Korea, China and the mainstream U. S. "news" media that is far more interested in destroying Trump's presidency than it is in actually delivering news. But Trump's brief but pertinent reference to Cuba essentially declared war on the Caribbean island with the almost oblique but palpable declaration that he and Marco Rubio had "similar views on Cuba."  Dismissed by most as a tiny ripple in a big ocean, to some it was more of a thunderous declaration of war against Cuba.

     Cuba's prime Minister regarding the U. S., Josefina Vidal, merely confirmed that "Yes, I heard  it" in reference to Trump's brief statement about Cuba Thursday. It was made by President Donald Trump and thus Vidal considers it more significant than Trump's pre-election anti-Cuban and war-like promises made to the fiercely revengeful Brigade 2506-Bay of Pigs veterans during a campaign appearance in Miami. 

       It turns out that President Trump and his wife had hosted Senator Marco Rubio and his wife at dinner in the Blue Room at the White House. That session, not surprisingly, prompted this exact quote from President Trump: "We had dinner with Senator Rubio and his wife, who was, by the way, lovely, and we had a very good discussion about Cuba because we have very similar views on Cuba." If Trump's views on Cuba are, in fact, the same as Rubio's, then Cuba needs to revert back to a war footing, not necessarily another Hot War such as the 1961 Bay of Pigs air, land and sea attack on Cuba but at least another Cold War, which evolved for decades after two 1962 events -- the scary Cuban Missile Crisis and the prurient U. S. embargo against Cuba, which the genuflecting U. S. Congress maintains to this day even after President Obama and other American democracy-lovers tried so hard to abolish it. For sure, if the Rubio-Trump war against Cuba is a hot one, one U. S. submarine in the Florida Straits could end it in about 15 minutes but the fallout would be more harmful to the U. S. democracy than to whatever was left of Cuba. And if the Rubio-Trump war against Cuba is merely a cold one, the drip-drop of the unending embargo would merely enhance its original premise that, according to declassified U. S. documents, was/is designed to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government.

      And speaking of the embargo...as you can see from the declassified page listed above...it became effective at "12:01 A. M., Eastern Standard Time, February 7, 1962" and it remains in effect to this day in the second half of February, 2017. Most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and the entire world -- based on the current 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations -- want the embargo to end but the sheer fact that a handful of hardline Cuban-Americans, such as Rubio, can maintain it DECADE AFTER DECADE reflects servile genuflection of the 535-member U. S. Congress that bows to a few revengeful or otherwise self-serving benefactors who obviously are unconcerned with how injurious it is, internationally, to the United States.

        The democracy-loving Sarah Stephens, head of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, on her February 17th website, assailed Trump's new war-like alliance with Rubio. A very powerful advocate for American and Cuban engagement, she decried Trump's "...anti-engagement position aligned with hardliners like Sen. Rubio and the other three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida."   

         While the world votes 191-to-0 to condemn America's Cuban policy, and great American democracy-lovers like Sarah Stephens agree with that unanimity, Ms. Stephens cringes at the stranglehold "Sen. Rubio and the three Cuban-American representatives from South Florida" have in the U. S. Congress.

       Cuban-American U. S. Senators Marco Rubio & Robert Menendez this week introduced legislation to "reform the human trafficker report produced annually by the State Department" because the last one produced by the courageous President Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry reflected a positive regarding Cuba. Sometimes it appears that Rubio & Menendez -- and the other Cuban-Americans in Congress -- are only concerned with counter-revolutionary activity aimed at Cuba, indicating they feel there are no issues concerning the American people that needs their attention. Also, some democracy-lovers -- such as Sarah Stephens -- wonder when or if a moderate Cuban-American will get elected to Congress, especially considering that polls even in Miami show that most Cuban-Americans oppose the embargo and other salacious anti-Cuban bills easily rammed through a Batistiano-friendly Congress.

       Of course, any counter-revolutionary Cuban dissident, such as Yoani Sanchez, are hailed in Congress by Rubio & Menendez as world-class heroes and heroines totally deserving of U. S. support and tax dollars by the time they return to Cuba. The intended impression of photos like the one above is that most Cubans on the island are dissidents, which unbiased visitors to the island readily understand is not so. But, of course, that also is one reason that everyday Americans, SINCE 1962, have been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba because, apparently, if they did, they might not accept the Cuban narrative in the United States that, for the most part, is dictated by self-serving counter-revolutionaries.

      This rather interesting photo -- apparently orchestrated with care by Senator Rubio -- shows, left to right, President Trump, Lilian Tintori, Vice President Pence, and Senator Rubio himself. Rubio seemed to make sure that the Tintori visit duly impressed the two White House leaders. Tintori is the wife of the imprisoned Venezuelan political activist-dissident Leopoldo Lopez. Why is Rubio such a powerful advocate of Tintori and her husband? Well, Venezuela has for years been Cuba's primary supporter and at the moment its Cuba-friendly Madura government is barely hanging on in the midst of grave economic and political turmoil, which many observers believe will surely doom the Venezuelan government and, subsequently, perhaps the Cuban government too. And so, if you forgive me, I assume Rubio's interest in Venezuela is at least partially related to Rubio's ongoing counter-revolutionary activities related to Cuba.

     The current Venezuelan saga related to the imprisoned but powerful Leopoldo Lopez and his dissident wife Lilian Tintori is eerily reminiscent of the George W. Bush White House. Rubio this week making sure that President Trump and Vice President Pence got to meet Tintori evokes images of 2002 when the Bush White House was tightly tied to the coup that briefly overthrew Venezuela's Cuba-friendly President Hugo Chavez, a coup that most historians believe was promoted by Bush-appointed anti-Cuban zealots.

     Shown here with former CIA Director, Vice President and President George H. W. Bush, Otto Reich for decades has been one of the richest and most powerful anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. Born in Havana in 1945, the now 71-year-old Otto Reich, like most of the ultra-powerful and counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans, rode the coattails of the Bush dynasty to fame, fortune, and infamy related to their mutual counter-revolutionary Cuban ideals. When Republicans control the White House, people like Otto Reich end up with appointive power directly from the White House. When Democrats control the White House, people like Otto Reich generally revert to rich, ultra-powerful anti-Cuban consultants and lobbyists.

      This photo shows Otto Reich with President George W. Bush, the son of former President George H. W. Bush. On January 11, 2002, President Bush appointed Reich Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs, essentially putting Reich in charge of Cuba in the Caribbean and Cuba's Latin American friends. It was a recess appointment -- one that didn't require Senate confirmation, of course -- that lasted until Nov. 22, 2002. All of Latin America cringed with Reich in such a powerful position. On April 11, 2002 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was ousted in a coup that is tied to the Bush White House and to Otto Reich. For a few hours there were wild White House celebrations as U.S.-friendly anti-Cuban Pedro Carmona took over as Venezuela's President. But Carmona's regime lasted only a few hours until massive anti-coup street demonstrations and dire threats induced the coup-leaders to release Hugo Chavez and reinstall him as President. Latin America -- from 1953 until 1973 -- had tried desperately for democratic elections despite U. S.-backed coups that favored U.S.-friendly dictatorships. In 1973 the Nixon-Kissinger ties to the bloody coup in Chile resulted in the death of the beloved, democratically elected Salvador Allende, a dear friend of Fidel Castro. Allende's death installed the U.S.-friendly Augusto Pinochet as Chile's brutal, murderous dictator for the next 17 years. To this day the coup that resulted in Allende's death to make way for the murder-fueled Pinochet dictatorship chills Latin America, and today the twice democratically elected Chilean President is Michelle Bachelet, who was also Fidel Castro's dear friend. Michelle Bachelet's father was one of Pinochet's many murder victims. Pinochet's famed Condor international murder squads often included well-trained Cuban-American assassins {You can Google the infamous murders of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his beautiful American aide Ronni Moffitt within sound of the White House in 1976, for example}. Latin America's democratically elected governments to this very day still cringe over {1} the 1973 coup in Chile and {2} the brief but memorable coup in Venezuela in 2002. And that's why the Reich-Bush photo above still haunts all of Latin America and the Trump-Rubio photo scares Latin America.

To understand U.S.-Cuba relations, study "Salvador Allende."

     Allende's best political friend was...Fidel Castro.

Pinochet & Allende prior to the bloody 1973 coup.

Pinochet & Henry Kissinger after the 1973 coup.

 Ronni Moffitt, 1976 Pinochet murder victim in D. C.

       At the start of what turned out to be Donald Trump's startling presidential election, the early favorite was Jeb Bush because of the wealth and power of the Bush dynasty but Americans, extremely tired of establishment and dynastic control of their democracy, elected the most non-political candidate, billionaire businessman Trump as their for-change, non-establishment President. But as you can see from the above graphic, Jeb Bush's "Foreign Policy Team" was dominated by famed anti-Cuban zealots led by Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart whose father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship. And the other names on Jeb Bush's foreign policy team were also like a who's-who of anti-Cuban counter-revolutionaries -- such as Otto Reich, Roger Noriega, Paul Wolfowitz, John Negroponte, Porter Goss...all names closely tied to the Bush dynasty and anti-Cuban zealotry as any serious Googler would know. But even though Jeb Bush, the establishment and dynastic favorite, was quickly eliminated in the 17-person Republican presidential race, any Republican in the White House -- most certainly including Donald Trump -- is obligated, it seems, to appoint Bush cronies to powerful anti-Cuban positions, defying the well-known desires of American voters who long for a democracy devoid of self-serving incumbents and recycled unelected, appointed cronies.

      This photo deserves a second look. It shows Venezuela dissident Lilian Tintori and U. S. Vice President Pence sandwiched between President Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio. It's a reminder that Cuba, which shed itself of vile dictator Batista in 1959, doesn't deserve -- after all these decades -- a Rubio-type or Rubio-directed government on the island. However, that seems to be Rubio's plan, with the help of his old bitter Republican rival Trump. And, of course, Rubio plans on being Trump's successor in 2020 -- or sooner if the embattled Trump is impeached, a prime desire of the mainstream U. S. media. And considering pugnacious little Cuba's resilience, don't be totally shocked if the Batistianos capture the U. S. government before they recapture the Cuban government. In 2002 the brief Venezuelan coup seems to have merely been a prelude to recapturing Cuba. This week Lilian Tintori's prominent presence in the photo above seems to be a harbinger portending the fall of Venezuela's current government, which once again might be a logical step toward...orchestrating Cuba's demise. Rubio's interest in Cuban dissidents like Yoani Sanchez is understandable. But Venezuela's Tintori seems to be a key piece of his Cuban puzzle too.

And by the way:

        The above presidential photo has gone viral online this third weekend in February of 2017, punctuated by Irish comments. The jolly, neatly-attired fellow is Michael Higgins, the President of Ireland who has had "a totally fabulous and wonderful time visiting Cuba and the great Cuban people this week." President Higgins has long been an unabashed and outspoken admirer of the late Fidel Castro and the still viable Cuban Revolution, which he acutely contrasts with "the bastardly and brutalizing Batistas." 

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The EU Tests Cuba

With Warmer Relations!
{Friday, February 17th, 2017}

      The photo above shows Cuban President Raul Castro hosting Ireland's President Michael Higgins this week in Havana.

       The President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, is in Cuba this week on a very important mission. It is the first visit by a leader of the 28-nation European Union since the EU and Cuba recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement to work more closely on mutually beneficial trade and cultural issues.
        President Higgins is a huge fan of both Cuba and its revolutionary icon Fidel Castro. When Castro died at age 90 on November 25, 2016, Higgins made headlines in Europe by saying that it was with "great sadness" that he received the news. He also, rather bravely, has championed Revolutionary Cuba's sharp contrast to the Batista dictatorship that it replaced on January 1, 1959. President Higgins said, "Cuba achieved 100% literacy many years ago and built up a health system that is one of the most admired in the world. Inequality and poverty are much less pronounced in Cuba than in surrounding nations. Fidel Castro will be remembered as a giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people but for all of the oppressed and excluded people on this planet."
      Those are exact quotes from Irish President Michael Higgins, obviously reflecting the fact that in Ireland he has not been subjected to the Batistiano-dictated Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959. More importantly, in the pivotal year of 2017 for Cuba, the Michael Higgins influence on the European Union's relations with Cuba might bode well for the island.

        Oceania Cruises is adding six voyages to its Cuban itinerary between November 14th and December 21st, 2017.  It already has scheduled stops in Cuba beginning on March 7th on its 1,250-passenger Marina cruise ship. Oceania Cruises is a part of the Cuba-friendly, Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

            The President and CEO of Oceania Cruises is Bob Binder. He says, "There is tremendous demand from consumers for voyages to Cuba and we are reacting to it." Like many U. S. executives, Bob Binder is both "hoping and assuming" that the historic openings to Cuba orchestrated by former President Barack Obama will not be "quashed" by current U. S. President Donald Trump.

       On the other hand, JetBlue Airlines is reducing its service to Cuba. Beginning on May 3rd, 2017 JetBlue will use smaller planes for routes from Fort Lauderdale and other U. S. cities to Havana, Santa Clara, Holguin and Camaguey. In total JetBlue will fly 300 fewer seats a day to four Cuban destinations. This is an adjustment to demand. Nine major airlines, as a key part of former President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, have permission to make up to 120 flights a day to the island, the first time since 1961 that commercial flights from the U. S. to Cuba had been allowed because of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. But the embargo, which only can be lifted by the Batistiano-mired U. S. Congress, to this day still prohibits everyday Americans the freedom to travel to Cuba, although Obama sliced into some of those restrictions. Of course, Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, apparently to prevent Americans from being able to judge the island for themselves as opposed to being told what to think. With few exceptions, the Cuban narrative in the United States is dictated by the most visceral counter-revolutionaries in Miami and the U. S. Congress, a fact that the intimidated or incompetent U. S. media strictly adheres to. 

       Cuba's permanent United Nations representative is Anayansi Rodriguez. She is one of the UN's most outspoken anti-terrorism experts and perhaps the UN's most vocal critic of "a few powerful nations, including leading democracies, who arm and fund proxy soldiers to fight continuous wars in which civilian children and women are the primary victims." Also this week at the United Nations, Anayansi Rodriguez commanded center-stage at one point when she railed against "terrorism in all its forms and shapes committed by unspeakable groups of hellions that defy all the charters we at the UN stand for. My country, as small as it is, is happy to be a leader in this august forum to condemn all aspects of terror against civilians or against those who try to protect civilians against terror activities and plots." If you Google Anayansi Rodriguez's comments at the UN this week, you will note that she mentioned Cuba "as a victim of known but unpunished terrorism," specifically referencing the Oct. 6-1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane -- Cubana Flight 455 -- in which all 73 on board perished. Anayansi Rodriguez, by the way, exemplifies the fact that most...not all, but most...of Cuba's day-to-day affairs are conducted by strong, dedicated women.

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