Cuba: Surrender or Fight?

Trump Leaves Two Choices!!
{Monday, June 12th, 2017}

       The AP photo above was used last weekend by the Voice of America to illustrate its article about President Donald Trump's planned visit to Miami June 16th to announce his plans to reverse much of former President Obama's peaceful gestures regarding Cuba. The photo shows a Cuban watching coverage of the Jan. 20th-2017 inauguration of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. The VOA mentioned the pressure Trump is receiving from visceral counter-revolutionary Cuban-American members of Congress from Miami, Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart. But the VOA also hinted that Trump is also getting vast requests from business interests and many other members of Congress to continue the Obama-orchestrated detente with the Caribbean island. The VOA article even hinted that Trump may temper his decision or postpone it while he ponders it some more, although both those prospects are very long-shots.

     This coming Friday -- June 16-2017 -- U. S. President Donald Trump will be in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood to announce his Cuban policy. The fact he will do it in Miami is the tip-off that he will do what decent, democracy-loving Americans feared he would do, which is to essentially turn America's Cuban policy back over to Counter-Revolutionary extremists in Miami and the U. S. Congress. It's a reversal of former President Obama's sane and decent Cuban policies and reverts back to the hateful, cruel, right-wing Cuban policy that currently has the United States condemned by a 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations. The unanimous worldwide denunciation of America's Cuban policy is well-deserved but neither Trump nor the Counter-Revolutionaries nor unpatriotic Americans care. 

       Back on Oct. 25-2016, two weeks before the presidential election, Trump went to Little Havana in Miami and displayed the gutless cowardice and stupidity that has marked his first four tumultuous months as President of the United States. As shown above, standing in front of a huge "Brigade 2506 Assault" banner, Trump promised the few remaining Counter-Revolutionary Cuban exiles who -- backed by the air, land and sea support from the U. S. military -- attacked Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in mid-April of 1961, an attack that was supposed to recapture Cuba from the revolutionary forces that had overthrown the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on Jan. 1-1959. But Revolutionary Cuba, led by Fidel Castro who raced to the frontlines, emphatically defeated the infamous and cowardly air-land-and-sea attack...and has somehow managed to maintain its independence ever since. But in the above speech, Trump promised, as President, he would reverse Brigade 2506's defeat. The apathetic and propagandized cowardice of this generation of Americans will surely afford Trump and the Miami counter-revolutionaries that opportunity. THUS, AS OF JUNE 16-2017 CUBA WILL BE LEFT WITH TWO CHOICES -- SURRENDER OR FIGHT. And there is no doubt that the island will choose to fight, and by sunset on June 16-2017 its do-or-die battle-plans will be firmed up...as if another Bay of Pigs, this time maybe nuclear-powered, was imminent.

        In Miami's Little Havana after he promised the surviving Brigade 2506 veterans that he would reverse the outcome of the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack against Cuba, Donald Trump was rewarded with the above keepsake -- the Brigade 2506 shield. 

      The most insightful Miami journalist is Marc Caputo. He formerly worked for the Counter-Revolutionary Miami Herald but now works in Miami for the Washington-based political juggernaut Politico. Caputo has Counter-Revolutionary instincts but those views intermingle with the fact that he is a brave and decent journalist even when the topic is CUBA!

       And so, it was Marc Caputo working in Miami for Politico who broke the long-awaited news that President Trump would venture to Miami on June 16th to announce that the U. S. would turn its Cuban policy over to a pair of Counter-Revolutionary/Cuban-American zealots from Miami -- Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. That revelation from Caputo instantly sent the unmistakable ultimatum to Cuba -- SURRENDER OR FIGHT. Caputo buttressed his Politico reporting by using Twitter updates that made it plain that President Trump, and therefore the United States, would -- beginning on June 16-2017 -- have a Cuban policy that bears "the stamp" of Rubio and Diaz-Balart. While Americans are not supposed to care or comprehend that meaning, Cuba does care and comprehends that it means Cuba must surrender to the dictates of Rubio and Diaz-Balart or fight, and to Cuba that is actually no choice at all. It will fight to keep its sovereignty.

      While pusillanimous Americans may well deserve a government or dictatorship ruled by Mario Diaz-Balart and Marco Rubio, there are eleven million innocent Cubans on the island who do not deserve such a dreadful humiliation. Those Cubans remember, or have learned, what it was like from 1952 till 1959 under the thieving, brutal Batista-Mafia dictatorship. It is those memories that will force Cuba to now embark on a do-or-die posture reminiscent of its Revolutionary War and its Bay of Pigs triumphs. Mario Diaz-Balart's father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista-Mafia dictatorship and, after 1959, was one of the richest and most volatile Counter-Revolutionary operatives in Miami. That Diaz-Balart nexus from the 1950s to today may be far beyond the scope of propagandized Americans but it surely is not lost on the still vivid memories of Cubans residing on the nearby island. Likewise beyond the scope of apathetic Americans is the fact that Cubans on the island view Rubio every bit as nefarious as the four rich and powerful Diaz-Balart brothers who have extended their father's fierce Counter-Revolutionary activities beyond the half-century mark but yet have not recaptured Cuba even as they lucratively hide behind the skirts of the superpower U. S. government AND the super-apathetic American citizens.

      The photo above shows Marco Rubio as a High School student in Miami. As far as the mainstream U. S. media is concerned, Rubio today has the same choirboy traits as he supposedly did back then. Such choirboy lies...coupled with allegedly being a diehard Counter-Revolutionary in Miami...has gotten Rubio elected twice to the U. S. Senate and also made him a serious Republican presidential candidate in 2016 when he and Donald Trump called each other vile names. While the mainstream American media delights in projecting Rubio as a choirboy, one of America's most respected investigative journalists -- Ken Silverstein in a long, famous, and easily Googled article -- depicts Rubio as being both the most "for sale" and the most "corrupt" politician in America. Also, many democracy-loving Americans are ashamed that Miami only seems to send a steady stream of Counter-Revolutionary Cuban-Americans to the United States Congress EVEN THOUGH MOST CUBAN-AMERICANS EVEN IN MIAMI FAVOR NORMALIZING RELATIONS WITH CUBA.     

      Americans who are neither patriotic enough nor brave enough to oppose or even acknowledge the Batistiano-grip on their democracy should read the above notation penned by the aforementioned Miami journalist Marc Caputo. It references the fact that both Diaz-Balart and Rubio have essentially black-mailed President Trump into doing their nefarious bidding regarding Cuba. Rubio reportedly used his position as one of the 10 U. S. Senators charged with investigating Trump's alleged ties with Russia to scare Trump into assaulting Cuba. Diaz-Balart, as reported above by Caputo, used his position on the House Appropriations Committee to remind Trump that the President will need Diaz-Balart's support to get financial backing in Congress for his key programs, such as replacing the Affordable Care Act. To forge a cruel, nefarious Cuban policy for all these decades, the tools include blackmail, payoffs and paybacks, intimidation, and apathy from American citizens. 

       In 1989 Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami when the self-serving Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager. She is still there as a visceral Counter-Revolutionary. And since 1989 a steady stream of Counter-Revolutionary Cuban-Americans in Miami, all powered by the Bush dynasty and by Little Havana's dominance of Miami politics, has reached the U. S. Congress. That, of course, includes prime Trump-"adviser" Rubio as well as Carlos Curbelo -- second from the left above -- as well as the Diaz-Balart Brothers, Havana-born Lincoln on the far left and, of course, Mario on the far right.

      Across the Atlantic Ocean in London, the BBC used the above AFP photo in an article telling the world about President Trump's upcoming trip to Miami on June 16-2017, the city and the date in which Trump will essentially declare war on Cuba to sate the fervent desires of a mere handful of Cuban-Americans.

     The side-by-side U. S. and Cuban flags fronting a street in Havana reflects how the BBC-AFP, as non-American -- thus non-intimidated -- international news organizations told their worldwide audiences how President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba has massively helped everyday Cubans on the island as well as many Americans and Cuban-Americans via increased business and social interactions.

       While the mainstream U. S. media is too afraid or too politically correct to report fairly about Cuba, there are exceptions in some key non-national newspapers -- such as the Houston Chronicle. The Ramon Espinosa/AP photo above, which shows Cubans at sunset on Havana's famed Malecon seawall, was used by the Chronicle this weekend to illustrate an article entitled: "ENGAGE CUBA: End The Embargo And Press Forward On Improving Relations with the Island Nation." The article stressed how Trump's June 16th-2017 declaration of war against Cuba will harm millions of innocent Cubans, Cuban-Americans and Americans to sate the nefarious appetites of a few Counter-Revolutionaries by reversing Obama's policies that "unwound bits and pieces of the U. S. trade embargo put in place in 1962 to topple Fidel Castro...it failed but remains in place." By remaining it place it has enriched and empowered some Counter-Revolutionaries and rightly resulted in an international 191-to-0 condemnation of the United States in the United Nations. The article also called Trump's upcoming June 16th announcement a "political payoff" to Counter-Revolutionaries, which he can do because he can assume apathetic and unpatriotic Americans will allow him to do it. The Houston Chronicle article this week also states bluntly and factually that "Trump's main goal is to curry favor with the same old Miami crowd that has held U.S.-Cuba policy hostage for years."

        The Cuba-United States conundrum has actually held the U. S. hostage since 1952 when the American people didn't object to right-wing thugs in Washington aligning the U. S. with the Mafia to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the American people didn't object to an ongoing, unending and unpunished sequence of terrorist acts against totally innocent Cubans, such as the Oct. 6-1976 bombing of the child-laden civilian Cubana Flight 455 in which the Miami media was joyously used to herald the chant: "It's the biggest blow yet against Castro!!" Was it, or was it one of the many Biggest Blows against the U. S. democracy? In any case, with that backdrop since 1952, don't expect the American people, beginning on June 16th-2017, to give a damn even if Trump would announce plans for a nuclear Bay of Pigs against Cuba. But, for the record, decent Americans should at least be cognizant of that exact sentence in this week's Houston Chronicle:

                 "Trump's main goal is to curry favor with the same old Miami crowd that has held U.S.-Cuba policy hostage for years."

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America's Cuban Debate

NY Times vs. Miami Herald!
{Thursday, June 8th, 2017}

        This week -- June 5th, 2017 -- the New York Times used the above graphic created by Daniel Zander to illustrate a long and important article written by the Times' Editorial Board. The article is entitled: "Undoing All the Good Work on Cuba." It sanely and decently laments the insatiable work currently underway by counter-revolutionary Cuban-American extremists to erase...or "undo"...the sane and decent overtures towards Cuba undertaken by former President Barack Obama. In other words, this Editorial shows deep respect for both the United States of America and for democracy. BY CONTRAST, the very same day -- June 5th, 2017 -- the Miami Herald quite typically featured a major article penned by a renowned counter-revolutionary extremist to goad and lobby for current President Donald Trump to erase...or "undo all the good work"...the brave Mr. Obama did on behalf of AMERICA, DEMOCRACY and innocent CUBANS.

           Yes, this week -- June 5th, 2017 -- the Miami Herald very typically countered the sane and decent Editorial in the New York Times with an insane, indecent, anti-Cuban propaganda spiel written by notorious Cuban-American counter-revolutionary Frank Calzon. His article is entitled: "Cuba Continues to Support Terrorism." It reflects two things: {1} The latest tactic to push President Trump into targeting Cuba and keeping the voluminous cash pipelines flowing steadily to anti-Cuban Cuban-Americans; and {2} to continue the time-honored tactic of Cuban-American extremists, since 1959, believing they can say anything about Cuba and assume the American people are too stupid or too scared or too unpatriotic not to believe them. Calzon was born in Cuba in 1947 and came to the U. S. in 1960 shortly after the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Any Google search of "Frank Calzon, Cuba" will reveal that, since his days as a student at Georgetown University, he has been tied to just about every devious, well-funded {by U. S. taxpayers} counter-revolutionary effort in America -- with the CIA, infamous groups such as Alpha 66 and Abdala, steady streams of USAID dollars, the Bush dynasty, the Cuban American National Foundation, anti-Cuban propaganda tax-bunnies in Miami such as the still-lucratic Radio-TV Marti, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. Frank Calzon epitomizes how lucrative the counter-revolutionary Castro Cottage Industry in the United States has been for an elitist cast of Cuban-Americans since January of 1959. The title of Calzon's propaganda article in the Miami Herald June 5th-2017 is interesting: "Cuba Continues to Support Terrorism." It is also interesting, I believe, that THE VERY FIRST COMMENT beneath that article was from a Cuban-American who fired back at Calzon with a stark reminder of extreme terrorism against innocent Cubans and the Comment specifically mentioned the bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane and the fact that the well-known alleged bomber is to this day walking free as a celebrated celebrity in Miami. 

       Since 1959, rich and powerful counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans like Frank Calzon have been able to use such assets as the mainstream media; a handful of right-wing Congressmen like Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, and Bob Torricelli; the Bush dynasty; and the Tea Party to perpetuate their usually unchallenged agendas. More and more the prime agenda seems to be to keep the pipelines of tax dollars flowing unimpeded for projects such as Radio-TV Marti or any other propitiously named and always lucrative anti-Cuban enterprise. Secondly, seeking revenge against the Cuban Revolution from 1959 till today remains a bulwark of the counter-revolutionary architects. All the while, considering that the Cuban Revolution has yet to be countered, the primary victims have been totally innocent Cubans on the island, the U. S. tax-payers, and America's reputation. IF THAT IS NOT SO, then perhaps Frank Calzon should be asked to explain the current 191-to-0 condemnation of America's Cuban policy in the United Nations, with the very judicious reminder that the 191 number includes ALL of America's best friends in the world.

       When a decent U. S. President, Mr. Obama, bravely and decently tried to correct the insults to democracy caused by America's Cuban policy, well-funded counter-revolutionary zealots like Frank Calzon were anxious to pounce on Mr. Obama's pro-American advocacy. And the same day -- June 5th-2017 -- the NY Times Editorial Board penned a sane and decent article regarding Cuba, Frank Calzon countered it with a brazenly insane and indecent assault in the always available pages of the Miami Herald.

        Cuban-Americans in Miami, like Frank Del Rio, are AMONG THE MAJORITY OF CUBAN-AMERICANS EVEN IN MIAMI who support former President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Like most every one of the top Cuban-American business executives in Miami, Frank Del Rio is anxious for his cruise line to have the freedom to cruise back-and-forth to Cuba, providing jobs for Cubans and Americans.

        A Cuban-born businessman in Miami, Hugo Cancio, is "sick and tired" that his views, which parallel the opinions of MOST Cuban-Americans, are "not represented in Miami or Washington or very often in the media." He wonders aloud why only counter-revolutionary zealots get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami and he wonders aloud why someone like him can't contribute to the Miami Herald while high-profile counter-revolutionaries like Frank Calzon can use it to pen huge counter-revolutionary propaganda.

       If you ask why Cuban-American Hugo Cancio in Miami sometimes "throws his hands in the air in disgust" when asked to discuss America's Cuban policy, the answer is: Like most Cuban-Americans even in Miami, like most Americans, and like all 191 nations that voted on the topic in the UN, Hugo Cancio wonders why the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to include his "majority opinion" when it comes to Cuba.

       America's belligerent Cuban policy has been a failure for 50+ years merely to sate the greed and revenge motives of a handful of miscreants. Most democracy-lovers, and that includes most Cuban-Americans, are still waiting for America to have enough guts, enough decency, and enough intelligence to correct this disgrace that has persisted for over half-a-century.

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Trump's Cuban Pressure

Dark and Threatening!

         This photo-graphic is courtesy of Scott McIntyre. The photo shows the Little Havana neighbor of Miami and it's fronted by the graphic of the Cuban flag. It highlights a major editorial in today's New York Times entitled: "TRUMP'S HYPOCRISY ON CUBA." The opening words are: "The appalling cynicism of the Trump White House is on display once again in 'citing human rights abuses by the Castro government as justification for a more punitive approach to Cuba.' Repeatedly President Trump has shown fervent admiration for leaders who abuse human rights to the extent of murdering their own citizens, such as Rodrigo Dutarte of the Philippines, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and, of course, Vladimir Putin of Russia." The NY Times, of course, could also have pointed out this fact: Since 1952, while justifying its own dictatorial designs on Cuba, the U. S government supported many of history's most oppressive, thieving and  murderous dictators -- Batista, Somoza, Trujillo, Pinochet, Videla, Mobutu, etc. -- while blatantly lying about its reasons for supporting the Batista-Mafia rule in Cuba and, after that brutal dicatatorship was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution, for shamefully supporting the transplanted counter-revolutionary Batistiano-Mafiosi zealots headquartered in their new capital -- Little Havana in Miami. The NY Times editorial today -- June 5-2017 -- is merely a reminder that President Trump is on the eve of rehashing similar lies to justify doing the bidding of today's Batistiano leaders to erase former President Obama's sane and decent overtures to innocent Cubans. Obama, of course, was also trying to make a sane and decent gesture on behalf of America and democracy because he, unlike the Batistianos and unpatriotic Americans, was/is embarrassed by such things as the worldwide 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations of America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policies.

         Of course, in cities large and small across the U. S., there are demands calling for the impeachment of President Trump and that's a possibility but not before he lowers the boom on Cuba. The photo above is courtesy of WINA RADIO in the small university city of Charlottesville, Virginia. But far more emphatic than steady streams of anti-Trump protests like this is the full-time coup being waged 24-hours-a-day by powerful elements in the mainstream media -- led by the NY Times, Washington Post, CNN and NBC-MSNBC. Yet, if Trump is a threat to the U. S. as those entities claim, a media-powered coup is actually far more of a threat because it would leave in its wake a much more everlasting effect. Caught in the Trump-media vice in the world's superpower nation is poor little Cuba, which is still trying to chart its own sovereign course after finally gaining its independence with its remarkable 1959 revolutionary victory.

         The gruesome Batistiano grip on America's Cuban policy is reflected by the photo above. It shows Alan Gomez, the primary writer on all things Cuban for America's largest newspaper, USA Today, which I have subscribed to since it was founded by Al Neuharth in 1982. Alan Gomez is a counter-revolutionary Cuban-American based in Miami. The intimidated, incompetent or politically correct mainstream U. S. media does not have the guts or integrity to have unbiased reporters report on Cuba. In fact, if a mainstream journalist in the U. S. wrote an unbiased article about Cuba, that journalist would likely be fired {like Jim DeFede was} or car-bombed {like Emilio Milian was} when they famously criticized deadly terrorist acts against totally innocent Cubans. In the past 24 hours the latest Alan Gomez article in USA Today blared this headline: "YOUR WINDOW TO VISIT CUBA MAY BE CLOSING." It began: "President Trump likely will fulfill a campaign promise this month by curbing some of the ties with Cuba that former President Barack Obama adopted..." An earlier article co-published with its affiliate newspaper in Naples, Florida, blared this headline: "PRESIDENT TRUMP'S CUBA POLICY, LARGELY INFLUENCED BY TWO FLORIDA LAWMAKERS, IS..."

        First off, the Trump "promise" that the mainstream media brags about refers to the above Al Diaz-AP photo taken in Miami's Little Havana on October 25, 2016. Standing before a huge Brigade 2506 Assault banner, Trump promised survivors of the April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba that he would, as President, reverse the outcome of that historic attack, which resulted in a monumental victory of Revolutionary Cuba over a U.S. government-CIA-Batistiano air-sea-and-land military assault funded by U. S. taxpayers with the expectation of recapturing Cuba. Tax dollars still fund further regime-change efforts.

          Secondly, when the mainstream U. S. media this week flashed the headline about the "TWO FLORIDA LAWMAKERS" dictating President Trump's anti-Obama and anti-democracy Cuban policy, it was referring to U. S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart and U. S. Senator Marco Rubio -- both from Miami and both Cuban-American counter-revolutionary zealots. USA Today did at least have the courage to report that Mario and Marco have some blackmail pressure on Trump because Mario sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee that doles out federal funds Trump needs while Marco sits on the Senate committee currently investigating Trump's alleged ties to Russia. Such articles remind many that only counter-revolutionary zealots can be elected to Congress from Miami EVEN THOUGH POLLS SHOW THAT MOST CUBAN-AMERICANS IN MIAMI STRONGLY FAVOR THE OBAMA APPROACH OF NORMALIZING RELATIONS WITH CUBA. When the mainstream media refuses to point out such facts, it is lying; and when the mainstream media refuses to tell the truth about Mario, such as his father was a key Batista minister in Cuba and then a rich and ultra-powerful counter-revolutionary operative in South Florida, then it is lying. And when the mainstream media refuses to tell the truth about Marco, such as his myriad of real estate, credit card and other controversies in Miami, then it is lying. But America's Cuban policy, dictated since 1959 by the likes of Mario and Marco, has shamed democracy-loving Americans AND America's best friends all around the world, as evidenced by the current 191-to-0 condemnation of America's Cuban policy in the United Nations, a unanimity that PROBABLY no other international issue could gain in a diverse world.

       From the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s till the 2-term, 8-year Obama administration that began in January of 2009 and ended in January of this year, America's Cuban policy was purely and undeniably crafted by self-serving, right-wing extremists to sate their economic greed and fuel their extreme right-wing political ideology and agendas. Prior to Obama, not a single U. S. President...not even the very smart and the very decent Jimmy Carter...could rally enough decent and patriotic Americans to correct a Cuban policy that defies all the great aspects so painstakingly enshrined in the U. S. democracy. In 1952 powerful entities in the malleable Eisenhower administration...including Vice-President Nixon and the Dulles brothers John and Allen, who were the Secretary of State and CIA Director -- teamed the U. S. government with the highest echelons of the Mafia to support the thieving and brutal Batista dictatorship in Cuba. In January of 1959 the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista-Mafia regime only to have the primary leaders flee and then quickly create a new capital...Little Havana in Miami...with the continued support of their sycophants in Washington. This means, since January of 1959, they have continued to have the support of unlimited tax dollars, the world's strongest military, and America's two most unpatriotic generations. Therefore Cuba...poor little embargoed Cuba...in June of 2017 still is the catalyst in presenting to the world the ugliest image of the United States of America, a fact that galls and embarrasses democracy-loving Americans but certainly doesn't faze the Batistianos and their self-serving supporters.

       Way back in 1952 miscreants in the U. S. government were allowed to sic the Mafia on Cuba. Today {in June of 2017} the remnants of that devious deed are still being sicced on Cuba but also on the U. S. government, both in Trump's Republican White House and in the Republican-controlled U. S. Congress. The end-result has yet to be determined but don't discount an ever-growing Batistiano-like influence on the United States of America, the world's most renowned democracy. With no interference to be feared or anticipated from either the U. S. media or unpatriotic U. S. citizens, a U. S. government dominated by a Mario or a Marco might be what Americans deserve but those same Americans would likely soon be reminded of the image depicted above, which spawned a rather famous revolution on a nearby island.

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Cuba Truth, Cuba Lies

Deciphering Them in 2017!

        This is the Tampa Bay Times building. It's a very important building in Florida because it is actually an anomaly in the United States of America because it is the place where the TRUTH about Cuba is actually published. I know of no other mainstream American newspaper that has both the guts and the integrity to do that. Also, it's a great newspaper that has recently won twelve Pulitzer Prizes for its excellence.

      A great writer-editor at the Tampa Bay Times is Ron Brackett. While the Miami Herald and most of the rest of the mainstream American newspapers merely act as conduits for anti-Cuban propaganda, the Times and Ron Brackett dismiss the lies and actually tell the truth about Cuban issues, whether the truth is pro-Cuban, anti-Cuban or something in between. Ron Brackett's first major article this month -- on June 1, 2017 -- was entitled: "Trump's Cuba Plans Would Reward Marco Rubio, Mario Diaz-Balart." Any journalist, especially in Florida, who has the guts and the integrity to point out that President Trump's upcoming gutless capitulation to Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart in reversing President Obama's decent and sane overtures to Cuba is not only a great journalist but also a truly great, democracy-loving American.

       In stark contrast to the guts and integrity of the Tampa Bay News in reporting the gutlessness of allowing self-serving counter-revolutionary zealots like Congressmen Mario Diaz-Balart and Marco Rubio from Little Havana in Miami and from the U. S. Congress to dictate America's Cuban policy, consider such anti-Cuban propaganda conduits as the Naples {Fla.} Daily News and USA Today. Those latter two newspapers combined, these first two days of June-2017, to publish such propaganda articles as: "Trump's Cuba Policy Likely to be 'Drastically Different' Lawmaker Says." Of course, that "Lawmaker" is Mario Diaz-Balart. The U. S. media, with the Tampa Bay Times being the rare exception, doesn't have the guts to explain that Mario's father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship in Cuba and then, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, one of the richest and most powerful counter-revolutionaries in Florida. That article heralding Mario also, of course, liberally quote Marco and pretended his extreme belligerence directed at Cuba is not intended to sate Marco's nefarious goals but to show respect and concern for everyday Cubans on the island, which I believe is a purposeful and cowardly lie. While the mainstream U. S. media makes Marco out to be a choirboy, a highly respected veteran journalist named Ken Silverstein penned a long, deeply researched article depicting Marco as quite possibly the most corrupt and "for sale" politician ever to make it to the U. S. Congress or to run for President. Marco also got all the way to the U. S. Congress from Miami claiming his parents escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba...till it was pointed out that his parents escaped the Batista tyranny long before Americans ever heard of Castro.

      Americans...via cowardice, stupidity or a sheer lack of patriotism...have allowed since 1959 a handful of self-serving counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans in Miami, and eventually the U. S. Congress, to largely dictate an American Cuban policy that currently has earned a resounding 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. In the above photo that is Rubio assaulting the bank of microphones. The man on the left is the Havana-born former U. S. congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart. The man on the right is current Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. The lady on the lower-right is the Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress since 1989 when her Campaign Manager was Jeb Bush of the counter-revolutionary Bush dynasty. The politicos above are all from the Miami area, an area in which MOST Cuban-Americans want normal relations with Cuba, not wicked anti-Cuban laws or cruel anti-Cuban acts paid for by both America's reputation and by American tax dollars. But as far as I can tell, moderate Cuban-Americans cannot be elected to the U. S. Congress from the Miami area. If that is a problem for Cuba, I believe it is much more of a problem for the United States of America and its democracy.

      This 1989 photo indicates how Jeb Bush and the Bush dynasty have for many decades ingratiated themselves to the most extreme Cuban-Americans in Miami, including greasing the skids to put Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the United States Congress from 1989 till today.

        If you pretend to care about the U. S. democracy, you might want to Google this: "Ken Silverstein Article About Marco Rubio's Corruption." It's a long article because Ken Silverstein says the corruption has been extensive. And, oh yes, also Google "Ken Silverstein" to ascertain his journalistic credentials.

       The above photo reflects the shameless propaganda aspect of the mainstream U. S. media, certainly when it comes to anything related to falsely vilifying Revolutionary Cuba while, of course, also supporting the counter-revolutionaies. For example, the Morning Joe co-hosts -- soon-to-be wife and husband Mika and Joe -- are shown above on MSNBC white-washing corruption charges against their choirboy, Marco Rubio. On one such program Joe and the Diaz-Balart brothers waxed endlessly about Fidel Castro being a murderous thug while the Batista-Mafia thugs that preceded Castro were depicted as being Mother Teresa-type sweethearts. Such mainstream propagandists in the U. S. actually posture themselves as being real broadcast journalists in the fashion of real broadcast journalists such as Walter Cronkite. 

         A great journalist and renowned Latin American expert, Penelope Purdy, I believe, has coined the best quotation ever applied to America's Cuban policy. I also believe any American who loves the U. S. democracy should know and memorize that quotation. It is: "The U. S. Cuban policy has been conducted all these decades with the IQ of a salamander." If Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balarts have their way, that "policy" will be "conducted" for many "decades" to come, something that would displease Ms. Purdy.

       The photo above shows a contemplating Cristina Escobar awaiting the signal from the camera's red light to inform her it's time to start her main job, which is to anchor Cuba's most popular television news program. By the time she graduated from the University of Havana she had written a thesis eerily predicting almost precisely what President Obama's effect on Cuba would be. By the time she was in her mid-20s she was already perhaps the best broadcast journalist in North America. In Spanish or in English, on Cuban soil and on American soil, Cristina Escobar has made these quotations: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington;" "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba;" and "Americans who have not been allowed to visit Cuba have a distorted opinion of Cuba and Cubans. Drinking rum, hopping into 1950s-era convertibles and being unhappy with our lot in life is not who we are. We are well-educated, opinionated, and we love Cuba -- especially our hard-earned sovereignty and independence. The Cubans I know and respect the most are the Cubans who would die fighting to maintain our independence while also working to make the revolutionary gains even more emphatic and less influenced by foreign obstacles." In Washington while covering the last of the four Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic sessions; in California at a journalism seminar; in Alabama in speeches before students at two universities; and on YouTube and Pulitzer Center videos, Cristina Escobar has made such comments. And as long as Cuba has Cubans like Cristina Escobar, the counter-revolutionaries in the U. S. may continue to have trouble in their quest to recapture the island.

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U. S. Democracy Fails U. S.

Putting Cuba in Its Crosshairs!

Photo courtesy: Adalberto Roque-AFP-Getty Images.

        The photo above was used to illustrate a major article yesterday -- May 31, 2017 -- in Billboard Magazine. It shows a Cuban standing on the Malecon waterfront proudly waving a Cuban flag at a cruise ship entering Havana Harbor. The article in America's top entertainment magazine was written by Judy Canto-Navas and entitled: "5 Cuba Music Tours to Book Before Possible Travel Tightening." Ms. Canto-Navas lamented the fact that President Trump is about to announce his Batistiano-pressured plans to roll back the thawing of U.S.-Cuban relations that had been stamped by a more decent, more intelligent and more democracy-loving President, Barack Obama. Even after Obama's brave challenge to the long-standing Batistiano dictation of America's Cuban policies, everyday Americans remain today the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. That assault on democracy has been designed to prevent Americans from judging U.S.-Cuban relations themselves and instead forces them to mainly rely on the self-serving distortions and propaganda of a few counter-revolutionaries who reside mostly in Miami and in the U. S. Congress. Obama eased as many of those cruel and undemocratic restrictions as he possibly could, opening up extremely popular slivers of democratic daylight regarding Cuba. Obama's Cuban overtures are supported by a vast majority of Americans, Cuban-Americans and, of course, by ALL of America's best friends around the world, friends mightily embarrassed by America's Bastistiano-driven Cuban policy, which is reflective of how the Batista-Mafia dictatorship ruled Cuba in the 1950s prior to the victory of the Cuban Revolution. Beyond that, America's biggest enemies in the world gleefully point HUGE FINGERS at America's Cuban policy whenever the U. S. criticizes other nations that deserve criticism.

     Today -- June 1, 2017 -- on the eve of President Trump's capitulation to Batistiano extremists -- Pearl Seas Cruises has full-page color ads appearing in America's top magazines advertising its upcoming cruises to Cuba. The Pearl Seas ads stress these points: "THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE CUBA EXPERIENCE: Be the very first to experience the captivating heritage of this fascinating island nation on our exclusive 10-night Cuba Cultural Voyage. Relax as you cruise aboard the most modern small cruise ship, Pearl Mist."

       Each time the Pearl Mist would have the freedom to sail from Fort Lauderdale-Miami to Cuba, a lot of Americans, including many Cuban-Americans, would be making money off the trips. Because of Obama, 12 major U. S. airlines and cruise lines are currently taking eligible Americans and Cuban-Americans to Cuba. Other major U. S. companies -- including Marriott Hotels, Google, AIRbnb, etc., etc., are already deeply involved in Cuba creating jobs on the island and across the U. S., but the Batistiano-faction in Miami and Congress -- which represents a decisive MINORITY of Cuban-Americans even in Miami -- could care less about America and democracy as long as they can dictate a revengeful, self-serving and extremely hurtful Cuban policy, apparently because since 1959 they have been unable to recapture Cuba even with massive support from sycophants in the U. S. Congress such as Robert Torricelli, Jesse Helms, Dan Burton, etc. Also, of course, the cowardice and lack of patriotism on behalf of large segments of two generations of Americans have fueled the Batistiano-dictated damage to America's and democracy's image...with that segment of Americans not even embarrassed by the 191-to-0 pro-Cuban/anti-American vote in the UN.

      The aforementioned full-page, expensive color ads in America's major magazines by Pearl Seas Cruises include the above map. It shows its planned cruises from Fort Lauderdale-Miami that would circle the nearby island of Cuba with stops in six cities -- Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Casilda, El Cobre, and Santiago. Every port and almost every business in South Florida -- with many or most of them owned and/or managed by non-hostile Cuban-Americans -- strongly desire normal relations and commerce with Cuba. But it is most evident -- IN THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL DEMOCRACY -- that such moderate Cubans and the vast majority of Americans are over-ruled by just a mere handful of extremists in Miami and in Congress.

      With all polls showing that a clear majority of Cuban-Americans in the Miami area support normal relations with Cuba and an end to the embargo, Americans are not supposed to be brave enough or smart enough to ask, "Why is it that only visceral pro-embargo {and worse} Cuban-Americans, as depicted above, seem eligible to be voted into the U. S. Congress?" But in both topical and historic pantheons and judgments of U.S.-Cuban relations, the greatest sin, I believe, is the decades-long cruel punishments of totally innocent Cubans by a self-anointed, mostly unchecked band of counter-revolutionaries.

     Study the above AP photo and the AP caption. The photo was taken in January of 1960 in South Florida. It was one year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, which booted many of the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship mostly to eternal sanctuaries in South Florida. Immediately, still backed by the Washington-based politicos that had backed the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba, tax-supported paramilitary units flared up in the Miami area intent on recapturing Cuba. They had access to U. S. warplanes, military bases, etc., as well as the apathy of a post-World War II generation of U. S. citizens. Most Americans are aware of such things as the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in April of 1961 and the constant reports of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, a number that reached 638 according to the Guinness Book of World Reports. But re-study and re-read the AP photo and caption depicted above. You will note the date -- January of 1960, long BEFORE the Bay of Pigs attack, etc. -- when warplanes from South Florida began regularly attacking "Cuban fields with napalm-type bombs." The bombs were not meant to assassinate Fidel Castro; they were meant to recapture Cuba and harm innocent Cubans.

   That brings us to today -- June 1, 2017

      From January 1 of 1959 till June 1 of 2017 counter-revolutionary tactics centered in Miami and the United States Congress have failed to recapture Cuba but the ceaseless efforts have been "successful" in creating the current 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations of America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy. The graphic above was created by Garrett Evans. It was used to highlight a major article in The Hill, an influential publication in Washington. The article was written on May 30-2017 by Melanie Zanona and it pointed out that President Trump's impending plans to cave in to Batistiano demands regarding Cuba will turn back the widely popular and pro-democracy advances instituted by former President Obama that are "widely popular with the U. S. business community and a growing number of {even} Republican lawmakers." 

         This is a Cuban entrepreneur named Diana Elilanne Benitez. Taking advantage of openings provided by U. S. President Barack Obama and thus a less-pressured Cuban President Raul Castro, Deana has co-founded a successful company -- Knales. She and her company were spotlighted this week by the London-based BBC in an article written by Natalie Sherman and entitled: "How Cuba's Growing Internet Is Fueling New Businesses." Such articles, of course, are not permitted by the intimidated U. S. media that is, generally speaking, afraid to report on Cuban positives that might displease the counter-revolutionaries. But Cuba abounds with Cuban-loving and well-educated, talented young people like Diana. Her company provides updates on weather, news and other events via hook-ups involving text messages and phone calls. Diana, as well as her parents, waited for the day when extreme pressure from the U. S., such as the embargo, would no longer punish her and prevent the realization of her entrepreneurial dreams. President Obama bravely and decently eased that pressure; President Trump cowardly and indecently appears poised to restore it on behalf of a handful of extremists. But even then very decent and very talented Cubans on the island like Diana hope...that one day the American people will reclaim their superpower nation so a neighboring little nation can chart its own path. Below is an exact quote that Diana gave to Natalie Sherman in the aforementioned BBC article this week:

"Cubans are disrupters by definition."

     Perhaps Diana's five words explain how and why Cubans have, for six decades, disrupted the nefarious plans of far richer and more powerful foreign miscreants to reclaim their island.

      This Casey Strong photo shows a Cuban mother feeding pigeons while her precious daughter poses beautifully for the cameraman. Neither this Cuban mother, all her life, nor her little girl, all her life, deserve to be punished by rich, powerful and unchecked miscreants flourishing in a foreign country. 

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