Punishing Foreign Children

In America's Name!!!
{Updated: Sunday, October 8th, 2017}

      Friday -- Oct. 6, 2017 -- CounterPunch.org had an article written by John Kirk and Stephen Kimber entitled: "Sonic Attacks in Cuba: Who Benefits?" Of course, the benefactors are the vicious counter-revolutionary Batistiano exiles who, since 1959, have viciously used the wealth and power of the U. S. government, and the convenient stupidity of the American people, in their unending attempts to recapture Cuba. The article points out sanely that the big loser in the "sonic attacks" mystery is Cuba. That's why the article sanely points out that Cuba has begged the U. S. FBI and Canada's Mounties to come to Cuba and, without any restrictions, investigate. Of course, the Miami-based Batistianos have a long, long history of trying to provoke Cuba into reactions that they can use to excoriate Cuba because the Batistianos dictate the Cuban narrative in the United States. So, the "sonic attacks" eerily resemble the deadly hotel bombings in Havana that the Batistianos in Miami bragged were designed to hurt Cuba's vital tourism industry. The first big reaction by the Trump administration, of course, was to warn people not to visit Cuba. And so, the "sonic attacks" against Americans and Canadians in Havana almost assuredly are designed to induce the Trump administration to brutally assault Cuba for the benefit and delight of the Miami Batistianos. Any American who doesn't understand that is either biased, afraid, or an idiot. And, as always before for over half-a-century, the Batistianos could care less who suffers the most from such cruelty and they well know that the innocent Cuban children on the island suffer the most. 

      The photo above and the next two were taken this week in Havana and are used courtesy of Luis Jorge Joa Perez. This little girl is loved and well taken care of in Revolutionary Cuba. But like all little girls on the island since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, this little girl is targeted and punished on a daily basis by a mere handful of revengeful but also rich and powerful Cuban-Americans hiding behind the skirts of the nearby world superpower. And this unending cruelty is being done in the name of America's democracy and America's cowardly citizens who have neither the guts nor the patriotism to react to the gross but unending injustice.

      Cubans on the island are trying to afford this little girl the opportunity to be whatever she wants to be, maybe a world-class musician some day. But a handful of revengeful and self-serving Cuban-Americans -- in October of 2017 -- still want to punish this little girl in the name of "hurting the Castros." Most Cuban-Americans, even in Miami, favor normal relations with Cuba, as do most Americans and all the nations of the world as indicated by the current 191-to-0 unanimity vote in the United Nations. Yet, in the eyes of the world, the U. S. democracy seems unable or unwilling to correct a situation that shames America and punishes little Cuban girls.

     This very precious little girl is well-educated and very smart, but she is too young to speak knowingly about superpower America's lingering imperialistic designs on a much weaker sovereign nation, namely her island of Cuba. But flaunting its powerful Naval Base on plush Cuban soil is one thing and punishing little Cuban girls is another thing altogether. The handful of revengeful, self-serving Cuban-Americans orchestrating this unconscionable cruelty are not the main culprits. The main culprits are the majority of cowardly Americans that let it happen...decade after decade!!!

      A great and decent American president, Barack Obama, is the only major U. S. leader since the 1950s with both the guts and patriotism to challenge Cuban-American hardliners on behalf of the U. S. democracy and millions of totally innocent Cubans. Obama spent a considerable portion of his two-terms and 8 years as President correcting as much of America's asinine, Batistiano-directed Cuban policies as he possibly could. As shown above, Obama -- in his final State of the Union Address -- pleaded for cowardly Americans to "Recognize that the Cold War is over. End the embargo." But the lapdog, Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress holds too many of the aces that prevent even the greatness and kindness of Obama from defending the sanctity of U. S. democracy and the sanctity of little girls on the island of Cuba.

     Cubans on the island today have fond memories of what President Obama did for them...and what he tried to do. And a strong majority of Cubans in Miami, like Obama, support everyday Cubans on the island. But that is exactly where the problem lies. Even though most Cubans in Miami favor Obama's decent Cuban policies, only revengeful and self-serving Cuban hardliners in Miami can get elected to the U. S. Congress where they reign supreme with venom that doesn't hurt "the Castros" but surely hurts precious little Cuban girls on the island. Therefore, in my opinion, Miami's undemocratic problems drastically hurt both America and....little girls.

      In 1898 the U. S. quenched its thirst to take control of Cuba by declaring war against over-extended Spain. The U. S. then had a chance to make Cuba a democracy but greed from 1898 till today -- October-2017 -- has dictated America's Cuban policies. Of course, the two most egregious assaults on the U. S. democracy occurred in 1952 when the U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba and in 1959 when the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship was allowed to resettle on American soil.

       An American democracy in 2017 that allows only the most revengeful and hardest hardliners from Little Havana in Miami to dictate America's Cuban policy is not the American democracy that the great Founding Fathers envisioned in 1776.

   Punishing this little Cuban girl while lying to the American people that it is necessary because of the need to punish "the Castros" shames us all and makes Americans look like blatant cowards for permitting it to happen...decade after decade.

Little Cuban girls are precious too.

And by the way:

     Friday afternoon -- October 6th, 2017 -- President Trump at the White House hosted an Hispanic Heritage event and took the opportunity to excoriate Cuba and vowed to strengthen the "sanctions" against the island. In other words, the latest gutless promise intends to further hurt precious and totally innocent children in Cuba in the cowardly and stupid guise of "hurting the Castros," which means FINALLY recapturing the island. Of course, the Friday event, like Trump's gutless speech in Miami on April 16th, was before only 200 hard-line Hispanics to ignore the fact that the majority of Hispanics disagree with resorting to lies to punish little girls.

       But Trump represents U. S. politics today...as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the world's economic and military superpower. Regarding Cuba...democracy bedamned. Selling out to a mere handful of Cuban-American extremists is the order of the day, and that includes such gutless promises as depicted by the quotation above. When the leader of the world's most powerful nation, one long respected as the greatest democracy on the planet, can hold a news conference like Trump held Friday afternoon -- Oct. 6, 2017 -- not only is Cuba and the U. S. democracy being assaulted, so is the rest of the sane world that once depended on America for guidance. 

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Cuba Truth Hurts America

A Half-Century...and counting!!

    The photo above was taken this week at an art class in Havana, Cuba. The classmates and close friends are Alexandra and Mariana. These two precious little girls, like their parents and grandparents before them, will be punished the rest of their lives by generational handfuls of Cuban-exiles from the brutal, thieving Batista-Mafia dictatorship that was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. The United States made a huge undemocratic mistake when it supported that vile dictatorship from 1952 till 1959 just so rich Americans could also partake in the rape and robbery of the plush Caribbean island. But since 1959 two generations of cowardly, undemocratic Americans have made an even bigger mistake, by permitting the most vicious exiles from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to set up shop on U. S. soil and -- with the assistance of the Bush dynasty and a mere handful of right-wing sycophants in the U. S. Congress and the Republican Party -- they have been able to dictate America's Cuban policy, the policy that to this day severely punishes little girls on the island like Alexandra and Mariana just as it has punished their parents and grandparents. While the rest of the world, with a current 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations, has the guts to oppose that policy, a large and enabling percentage of Americans do not have either the courage or the patriotism to even inject opinions into the maelstrom that...on a daily basis...shames America and Democracy in the eyes of the world. Study the photo above. Anyone who punishes {or cowardly allows others to punish} these two little Cuban girls is a disgraceful human being.

         Sometimes the truth hurts. And this truth should hurt every democracy-loving American. Of course, I think it is too much to ask this particular generation of Americans to care one whit about precious little girls in a foreign nation. But at least Americans should care about their own country and their own souls, and have enough intelligence to realize that the daily punishment of little Cuban girls is being done in their name and being carried out, since 1959, by a few vicious remnants of a vile overthrown dictatorship that reaped and reaps vast political and economic rewards from the endless diaspora perpetrated from America's soil, America's Congress, America's Treasury, America's military, and America's White House.

     The Carlos LaTuff image depicted above is the definitive international image of the U. S. embargo against Cuba, and it's an image that currently gets the U. S. condemned by a 191-to-0 unanimity in the United Nations. Yet, Americans are not supposed to be embarrassed by it...or by de-classified U. S. documents that reveal the embargo was imposed way back in 1962 for the purpose of starving and depriving Cubans on the island for the purpose of encouraging them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutinary government. That intent has failed to materialize, yet it exists to this day -- still shaming America and Democracy AFTER HALF-A-CENTURY...while still trying to starve and deprive Cuban children like the two sweet little girls shown earlier.

     America is regularly mocked around the world because of its anti-American and anti-Democracy embargo that cruelly persists against Cuba. I refer to such mockings as the one illustrated above, which makes fun of America's Homeland Security blocking the U. S. border with Mexico EXCEPT for making an opening for "Anti-Cuba Terrorists Only." There was a time, I believe, when previous patriotic generations of Americans would have been truly embarrassed by such a universal portrayal of America, but not today...not by the uncaring generations of Americans since 1959.

      But actual photos, not mocking cartoons, tell a much truer story of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. That reminder returns us to the photo above that was taken on Oct. 2nd, 2017 at an art class in Havana. The intent of the embargo and other assaults on Cuba is to punish...starve and/or deprive...Cuban children like Alexandra and Mariana to {1} Cause their parents to rise up and overthrow Cuba's revolutionary government; or {2} to sate the vile appetites of a few Cuban-Americans who still pine for the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959.

      In October of 2017 the chief spokesman for the American Batistianos is Miami's contribution to the U. S. Senate, Marco Rubio. He claims the embargo and other punitive measures against Cuba should be continued and expanded because they hurt "the Castros." With all due respect to the U. S. Senate, I believe Rubio is lying and I believe he knows it. The embargo and other punitive measures against Cuba have primarily, for over a half-century, hurt Cuban children like Alexandra and Mariana. And all the while, and continuing to this day, it is being done in the name of America and Democracy. Of course, neither the U. S. media nor many Americans have the guts or the integrity to challenge Rubio's endless lies.

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Unraveling Cuba-U.S. Detente

A Process Easily Foretold!

      On this October 3rd, 2017, the Voice of America is leading its daily international summary of America with the photo-graphic depicted above. It is a poignant lament regarding the massacre in Las Vegas when one-shooter armed with a military-style arsenal of a reported 23 automatic rifles equipped with silencers murdered at least 59 people attending a concert and injured well over 500 more. In the days to come, as always, there will be loud clamorings for the United States to at long last enact sane gun laws that would benefit innocent people instead of current laws that benefit mass murderers. But the United States is a nation whose laws are largely determined by lobbyists with unlimited special-interests money that can easily dictate to politicians. Except for the AIPAC Israeli lobby and possibly the CANF Cuban lobby, the most powerful lobby in Washington is reported to be the National Rifle Association. In other words, the Voice of America lament depicted above with the haunting reminder "Again," will only resonate like softballs in Washington and not produce meaningful gun laws. In other democracies, such decisions would be made not by politicians but by popular votes via referendums, as would such decisions as America's Cuban policies that currently garner a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations but those policies are in effect decade-after-decade in THE NAME OF AMERICA, policies advocated by a handful of self-serving counter-revolutionary Miami politicians -- Rubio/Ros-Lehtinen/Curbelo and Diaz-Balart {whose father was a powerful Minister in the Batista Dictatorship}. A referendum vote of the citizens would reflect what polls show -- that most Americans and most Cuban-Americans favor normalizing relations with Cuba. And the Voice of America seems to be saying via the photo-graphic depicted above that a referendum vote of the citizens would show that most Americans want something done about America's archaic gun laws.

      U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met at the White House yesterday -- Oct. 2, 2017 -- with U. S. President Donald Trump. They had a lot on their plate, such as: Whether to go to war with North Korea; how to save 3.4 million U. S. citizens in the hurricane-ravaged U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico; whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the longest war in America's history, now at 16+ years; how to react to the latest gun-massacre in Las Vegas, etc., etc.?But Tillerson and Trump yesterday also spent considerable time discussing Cuba. They thus decided that today -- Tuesday, Oct. 3rd -- they will announce they have told Cuba to withdraw most of its diplomats at the U. S. embassy in Washington, which was opened in 2015 for the first time since 1961 by President Barack Obama. Earlier the U. S. had removed most of its diplomats -- presumably including spies -- from its Obama-orchestrated embassy in Havana. The new Tillerson-Trump Cuban decisions are convenient reaction to the 21+ U. S. "diplomats" who suffered injuries from mysterious sonic-wave attacks in Havana although later it has been revealed that most of the victims were actually U. S. "spies" working at the embassy under the cover of being "diplomats." The minimization of the two embassies, of course, is just a start to unraveling Obama's policies that most Cuban-Americans supported.

        So now yellow "DO NOT CROSS" tape aligns the steps in front of the U. S. embassy in Havana. All of Rubio's Cuban schemes are supposedly designed to hurt "the Castros" but, of course, they mostly hurt everyday Cubans while getting America condemned for its cruelty worldwide. But reshaping the United States democracy to fit the Batistiano agenda has been par-for-the-course since 1959.

      It has been reported that one of the victims of the mysterious sonic-wave attacks in Havana was staying at the Capri Hotel. Thus, the U. S. has warned Americans not to visit Cuba. The counter-revolutionary hardliners in Miami since 1959 and in the U. S. Congress since the 1980s have relentlessly tried to discourage tourist visits to Cuba, knowing tourism was/is vital to the Cuban economy. Luis Posada Carriles is the most famed Cuban American-CIA connected anti-Cuban terrorist. He admits proudly to the bombing of a Cuban hotel in which a young Italian tourist was killed, and Posada has said and never recanted the purpose of such bombings -- to discourage tourism to Cuba. To this day Posada is a totally free and influential counter-revolutionary Cuban-American in Miami. And Miami's second generation of counter-revolutionary hardliners are not adverse to discouraging tourism to Cuba and they, in fact, have used the lapdog U. S. Congress for decades to make sure everyday Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. President Obama couldn't end that anti-democratic law but he did ease it as much as he possibly could. Of course, Miami hardliners led by Senator Marco Rubio are intent on reversing all of Obama's decent overtures to Cuba, and discouraging or ending tourism to Cuba is uppermost among Rubio's self-serving, devious plans. Rubio, the catalyst behind the Tillerson-Trump targeting of Cuba, is very fortunate indeed that reportedly at least one of the sonic-wave attacks occurred at the Capri Hotel. So, the Rubio clan can warn would-be American tourists to avoid Cuba because the Havana hotels are dangerus. The U. S. media is not brave enough to question Rubio on any aspects of his Cuban policies, but other knowledgeable elements are not so afraid...such as the BBC in London; Michael Palmly, President Bush's anti-Cuban head of the U. S. Interests Section in Cuba from 2005 till 2008; and Harold Cardenas, one of the top Cuba-U.S. insiders. They all seem to agree that the attacks wouldn't be stupidly perpetrated by the Cuban government but could be executed by "rogue" elements, in Cuba or in the U. S., determined to scuttle any improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations. In fact, the Cuban government has, everyone agrees, begged top investigators from both the United States and Canada to come and help Cuba solve the sonic-wave mysteries.

      The transition from the Democratic Obama administration to the Republican Trump administration has clearly put America's Cuban policies back in the hands of Miami's dangerously ambitious and ever-revengeful U. S. Senator Marco Rubio. His two primary advantages, other than Trump, are the cowardice and unpatriotic traits of the U. S. media and the U. S. citizens. Thus, for Rubio to assault Cuba, including 11.2 totally innocent Cubans, it is like shooting fish in a barrel. Cuba's U. S. expert, Josefina Vidal, has said, "Cuba didn't deserve Batista and the Mafia long ago and doesn't deserve Rubio and his ilk in its future. But...maybe the U. S. deserves them."

     Since 1952 when right-wing rogues in the Eisenhower administration sicced the Mafia on Cuba, the only U. S. President with the guts and patriotism to deal fairly with Cuba was Obama. He used those truly admirable qualities to go on U. S. television and tell the American people: "It is long past time to reinstate relations with Cuba."

      To normalize relations with Cuba, President Obama became the first U. S. President to visit the island since 1928 when Herbert Hoover arrived on a warship.

        While in Cuba, President Obama went on live television all across the island to tell the Cuban people: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." It stands today as the kindest statement any American leader has ever made to the Cuban people since Columbus discovered the island in 1492. He sincerely made that promise with the backing of the world...a 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations later confirmed his decent Cuban policies and condemned the policies Obama also condemned. But neither the Batistiano-lapdog U. S. Congress nor the intimidated or undemocratic American people had/have the guts to support Obama's saneness.

     For the last two decades, Cuba's most brilliant diplomat, Josefina Vidal, fervently defended Cuba against Miami and Congress. And, as shown above, she superbly negotiated Cuban relations with Obama's representative Roberta Jacobson. The major successes included re-opening the two embassies that had been closed since 1961.

       But Vidal developed "an acute disappointment in the U. S. democracy" when she observed that Rubio, in the 535-member U. S. Congress, could block without even a vote President Obama's "perfect pick" Jeffrey DeLaurentis, as the U. S. ambassador to Cuba. Moreover, Rubio blocked for months Obama's badly needed Ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, because Rubio wanted to punish her for negotiating with Vidal. She was well aware that the Batistiano-written Helms-Burton Law left the U. S. embargo and other punitive measures against innocent Cubans in the hands of the Batistiano-lapdog Congress. So Vidal realized that with singular miscreants like Rubio still able to dictate America's Cuban policy, she was wasting her time trying to defend the advances that Cuba and Obama had wrought. A few days ago she was widely quoted as saying the U. S. was acting too "hasty" regarding the sonic-wave attacks. But in private, it is believed that Vidal has given up on trying to deal with Miami, Trump and the lapdog Congress. And if Vidal gives up, so, in all likelihood, will Cuba. Vidal believes that concentrating fully on dealing with Cuba's friends as opposed to wasting time with the island's "lone" enemy is now in order, especially with a gargantuan transition on the horizon after the Nov. 25-2016 death of 90-year-old Fidel Castro and prior to the Feb.-2018 retirement of 86-year-old Raul Castro.

      In the above photo, wearing an anti-embargo/blockade T-shirt, Josefina Vidal addressed a huge, outdoor crowd of Cubans, reminding them that, "Neither you, nor your parents and grandparents before you, deserve being punished by foreign imperialist thugs to sate their political and financial whims." Backed by self-serving sycophants and apathetic Americans, Rubio can beat Vidal in the post-Obama United States. But beating Vidal on her own Cuban soil will be something else altogether.

Vidal vs. Jacobson is now Vidal vs. Rubio.

May the better woman win!!

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The Predicted Cuba Siege Begins

It Was An Easy Prediction!
{Updated for: Monday, October 2nd, 2017}

      As expected, the sonic-wave mystery has virtually shut down the U. S. embassy in Havana, hurting Cubans and Americans. Major U. S. news outlets, including ABC News, today -- Monday, October 2nd, 2017 -- are reporting a new angle: "Frightening attacks on U. S. personnel in Havana struck the heart of the American spy network in Cuba with intelligence operatives being the first and most severely affected victims, the Associated press has learned. It wasn't until U. S. spies, posted to the embassy under diplomatic cover...the U. S. earlier had described the 21 sonic-wave victims as diplomats..." Those words from ABC News on Oct. 2nd puts a new wrinkle into the still evolving mystery, but there will be many more nuances in the coming days.

Photo courtesy: Adalberto Roque/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

       As we begin October-2017, we just passed a very sad weekend for Cubans on the island and awakened Monday to the horrendous shooting massacre in Las Vegas. The New York Times used the above photo to illustrate an article written by Ernesto Londono entitled: "Cubans Alarmed at U. S. Embassy Withdrawal and Travel Warning." The article began with these words: "It was grim, unsettling news: the United States warned Americans not to travel to Cuba and ordered the withdrawal of more than half its diplomats in Havana. The announcement...dealt a harsh blow to Cubans who had hoped the nascent normalization of relations with the United States that began in late 2014 would usher in a period of economic growth and greater prosperity." The NY Times article stated: "Groups of Cubans opposed to improved relations -- be it exiles or hard-line Cubans on the island -- could be to blame."

        What the New York Times wrote about on Sept. 29-2017 I had precisely and very easily predicted back on January 20-2017 with an essay on Cubaninsider entitled: "Cuba: Awaiting A Siege." It was posted, as you can research via Google, the day Trump replaced Obama as President of the United States. I knew then, as others should have known, that the Batistiano-controlled Trump would reverse the sane Cuban overtures his very decent predecessor, Obama, had made. Thus, predicting a "siege" on Cuba back on Jan. 20-2017 was easy as pie. That "siege" officially began this first weekend of October-2017 as reported by the worldwide media, including the aforementioned NY Times article.

    The above photo by Nicolas LaChance shows the thriving "La Dandy Restaurant" in Havana. After peaceful overtures from Obama, at age 25 Yaylen Vilches opened "La Dandy" two years ago. It became one of Havana's most popular privately owned restaurants. Its success, Yaylen told Nicolas LaChance, "was a dream come true." But in this weekend's aforementioned NY Times article, the devastated Yaylen was quoted as saying, "They keep throwing up obstacles against us," referring to the actions announced Friday-Sept. 29th by the U. S. government.

   The photo above by Emily Michot for the Miami Herald shows Americans leaving the U. S. Embassy in Havana this week -- Friday, Sept. 29th, 2017. The Miami Herald article written by Nora Gamez Torres lavishly quoted Miami members of the United States Congress -- counter-revolutionaries Marco Rubio and Carlos Curbelo -- ranting that the United States should "do more" against Cuba. Of course, "doing more" according to Rubio, Curbelo, and the Miami Herald might entail nuking Cuba.

      My "siege" prediction back on Jan. 20-2017 was predicated by past U.S.-Cuban history, including the photo-caption above. It shows a very scared President Clinton staring up at powerful counter-revolutionary Cuban-American U. S. Senator Robert Menendez. It was the day in 1996 when the reluctant but scared Clinton was forced to sign the cruel Helms-Burton Act into law, a Batistiano-directed act written by high-priced lawyers working at the behest of the all-time richest and most-powerful counter-revolutionary Cuban, Jorge Mas Canosa. The Helms-Burton Act, which can only be altered by Congress, to this day codifies the most stringent punishments of Cubans on the island while also enriching and empowering a handful of the most strident counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress. Americans who disagree with that assessment are cowards and enablers who have permitted such miscreants to dictate a Cuban policy...epitomized by Helms-Burton...that currently gets the U. S. condemned by a 191-to-0 unanimity in the United Nations. Helms-Burton evolved in 1996 when counter-revolutionary Cubans were alarmed with the knowledge that President Clinton intended to normalize relations with Cuba. Brothers to the Rescue planes, directed by one of Miami's most ardent counter-revolutionaries, began to torment Cuban airspace, even over Havana. After unheeded warnings to the US and the UN, Cuba shot down two of those planes either in or near its territorial waters. The provocational/shoot-down forced Clinton to end his plans to normalize relations with Cuba and go in the opposite direction -- signing Helms-Burton. The scared and unhappy Clinton soulfully glancing up at entrenched Cuban-American U. S. Senator Robert Menendez in 1996 eerily has a nexus to today because Menendez is currently facing corruption and bribery federal charges related to his close ties to a multi-millionaire in Miami.

     Although the U. S. Congress consists of 535 members, the counter-revolutionary Cubans since 1959 have had no trouble getting the necessary few Congressmen -- such as Jesse Helms and Dan Burton -- to pass their self-serving legislation, such as the Helms-Burton Act that the rest of the world, by a 191-to-0 vote, condemns. Of course, like President Clinton in 1996, most Americans are too afraid to condemn it.

       Thus, the Helms-Burton saga in 1996 made it easy for me to predict back on January 20th, 2017, that a "siege" of Cuba was imminent. That "siege" started this first weekend of October-2017. The convenient provocation this time didn't involve Brothers to the Rescue planes. Instead it involves an equally convenient and very mysterious episode of U. S. diplomats in Havana being attacked by some sort of sonic waves that cause debilitating physical problems, such as loss of hearing.

      While counter-revolutionary zealots in the U. S. blame the Cuban government for the sonic-wave attacks against U. S. diplomats in Havana, not even the Trump administration -- after months of intense Cuba-assisted U. S. investigations in Havana -- blames Cuba. Not even Bush-connected anti-Cuba stalwarts like Michael Palmly blame the Cuban government, and Palmly is an expert on that subject. He was President Bush's anti-Cuban boss at the U. S. Interests Section in Havana from 2005 till 2008. Palmly knows the Cuban government is not so stupid as to purposely try to end the revolutionary rule of the island. Cuba has begged the U. S. FBI and CIA and even the Canadian government to help Cuba find the sonic-wave culprits. Palmly believes the perpetrator may be a single rogue Cuban on the island who opposes peaceful U.S.-Cuban relations. Palmly says, "There is a struggle for the soul of the Cuban Revolution. It's entirely possible there are rogue elements." He meant either Cubans on the island or Cubans, say, in Miami. The London-based BBC, which has excellent reporters on the island, seems to agree with Palmly. The BBC this week featured sonic-wave experts that explained how easy it would be for one rogue person to Google and then purchase an apparatus that he or she could use to inflict such damage at the U. S. embassy or in Cuban hotels or homes.

      To understand the Helms-Burton Act and terrorist-provoked actions by CIA-connected Cuban-exiles determined to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, Americans need to read the great author Ann Louise Bardach's classics such as "Without Fidel." Her website references her brilliant books, essays and articles. On July 12th, 1998, her article in the New York Times quoted Luis Posada Carriles, the all-time most famous Cuban-exile/CIA-connected terrorist, explaining why he bombed a hotel in Havana, which killed an Italian tourist. It was to deter tourism to Revolutionary Cuba.

     To this day, very proud of decades of deadly terrorism against Cuba, Luis Posada Carriles remains a heralded citizen of Miami. He was on the CIA payroll for years and presumably has a nice pension. At one time in that 1998 Ann Louise Bardach interview in the NY Times, Posada mentioned his role in the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and even mentioned, in addition to the U. S. government, he was paid by the Bush-anointed richest and most powerful Cuban-exile Jorge Mas Canosa. But later Posada recanted those last two involvements but he has never recanted such things as his "collateral damage" from hotel bombings, etc., etc. 

        Cuba's top U. S. expert, veteran diplomat Josefina Vidal, told the NY Times in this weekend's scintillating article that the U. S. is unfairly punishing Cuba for the sonic attacks Cuba is trying to solve. She said, "It's a hasty decision that will affect the bilateral relations, specifically the cooperation in matters of mutual interest."

      It was Josefina Vidal who brilliantly represented Cuba in the touchy negotiations with the Obama administration that produced peaceful results in U.S.-Cuban relations that counter-revolutionaries, not surprisingly, are determined to scuttle. She told the NY Times this weekend, "Cuba, as the U. S. knows, was committed deeply to working with the top U. S. and Canadian experts to determine the cause of the terrible symptoms experienced by the American and Canadian diplomats." Clearly, Vidal believes that no one...except extremist counter-revolutionaries...could possibly maintain that Cuba's revolutionary government would try to sabotage its own government with "such asinine and cruel stupidity."

      But in 2017, with the Trump administration having replaced the Obama presidency, America's CUBA POLICY is largely in the hands of the U. S. counter-revolutionary U. S. Senator from Miami, Marco Rubio. That today is as dangerous to Cuba and to the U. S. democracy as 1996 was when America's CUBA POLICY scared President Clinton because it was then being dictated by counter-revolutionary Helms-Burton-orchestrator Jorge Mas Canosa. Today Rubio, falsely projected as a choirboy by the U. S. media, claims that punishing 11.2 million totally innocent Cubans on the island is necessary to punish "the Castros." Like President Clinton in 1996, most Americans today are too afraid to challenge Rubio and even too afraid to wonder why only counter-revolutionaries like Rubio keep getting elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress when the vast majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba. But Congressmen like Mr. Rubio primarily represent themselves, not the majority of people/Cuban-Americans in Miami. 

     Meanwhile, because of a handful of rich and powerful Cuban-Americans like Rubio, totally innocent Cubans every day of their entire lives are severely punished in the name of the United States of America. I'm speaking of Cubans like the ones shown above who recently endured hurricane ravaged streets in their capital city. All their lives, like their parents before them, they suffer, not just from natural calamities, but mostly from self-serving counter-revolutionaries hiding behind the might of superpower America because two generations of Americans have not had the guts or decency to challenge politicians such as Rubio, Helms, Burton, etc.

      Instead of hurting "the Castros," this is the type Cuban that Rubio hurts. Her name is Julia de la Rosa. Thanks to the decent overtures by President Obama, Julia created a thriving 10-room Bed & Breadfast business that includes a pool and a stunning view of Havana. She was scared when Trump {Rubio} replaced Obama and those fears surfaced for Julia this weekend as she told the NY Times and as she tearfully told Andrea Mitchell of NBC News a couple of months ago. She told the NY Times this weekend, "Preventing two countries that are so close to engage culturally is a crime. This doesn't just hurt us; they are hurting people in both countries." Of course, Americans are not supposed to pay attention to Julia's tears because they are required to support Rubio's vengeance against "the Castros."

        Thousands of private Cuban entrepreneurs thrived thanks to President Obama and the drastic changes Cuba made to accommodate Obama's wishes. But when Trump became the U. S. President, worried entrepreneurs composed a letter...the letter being displayed above...and took it to Washington. The letter, plus their statements, begged President Trump to "let us keep making livings for our families." But Republican President Trump, like Democratic President Clinton in 1996, is afraid of counter-revolutionaries like Rubio. So the sweet letter was doomed.

        A Cuban that understands Cuba is Harold Cardenas who authors the popular "La Joven Cuba" blog. He agrees with the popular opinion that some rogue, not the Cuban government, is behind the sonic-wave attacks on the diplomats in Cuba. This weekend's NY Times article used this exact quote from Harold Cardenas: "In Cuba there is a sector that considers improved relations with the United States a betrayal."

      And so, Cubans on the island are very sad this weekend, including Cristina Escobar. She is Cuba's superstar broadcast journalist and an influential leader of the all-important young-adult generation of Cubans. In Cuba and on U. S. soil she has made these two firm statements: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island" and "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." So, she doesn't just blame counter-revolutionaries like Menendez and Rubio. She blames the U. S. media for lying about Cuba and about the likes of Menendez and Rubio. But most of all, she blames the American people for letting rogues dictate Cuban policies.

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