Cuba's Next Leader

An Anti-Imperialist Hardliner!
{Updated: Wednesday, October 11th, 2017}

      The best and surely the sanest article this week on the U.S.-Cuban conundrum was written by Mark Feierstein. It appeared on October 10-2017 in The Hill, the top Washington-based political website/magazine. The article is entitled: "America Should Strengthen, Not Abandon, Relationship With Cuba." During the Obama presidency, Mark Feierstein was the Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs on the National Security Council. Mr. Feierstein certainly realizes that America's decades-old, Batistiano-ruled Cuban policy not only shames America's international reputation but also constitutes a major threat to America's security. Working sanely with Cuba, as Obama did, means cooperation on such things as drug and human trafficking utilizing Caribbean waters and islands as well as vital cooperation on environmental issues affecting the region. Mark Feierstein has the background to understand all that, and he also has the guts to express it. The problem is...there are simply not enough Americans in this generation with his insight, intelligence, or concern for America. That has left America's reputation and security door wide open, enabling a handful of vicious Batistiano-types in Miami and in Congress to dictate America's Cuban policy much like Cuba was roiled by the Batista-Mafia dictatorship back in the 1950s. The Mark Feierstein article updates the stupidity, cowardice, and lack of patriotism that has permeated the U. S. democracy since 1959, the year Batistiano leaders reestablished their rule on U. S. soil -- PERMANENTLY, it seems. 

       For the first time since 1959, the next leader of Cuba will not be a Castro. Fidel Castro died at age 90 on November 25th, 2016, and the tired 86-year-old Raul Castro will step down as Cuba's President in February of 2018. His successor will be Miguel Diaz-Canel who was born 57 years ago in Villa Clara, Cuba. The photo shown here taken by Juvenal Balan shows Diaz-Canel on Sunday, October 9th, 2017, making a major speech in Santa Clara, Cuba, honoring revolutionary icon Che Guevara. Raul Castro was in the audience but Diaz-Canel made the major speech, which is already his role. Much of the world awaited what Diaz-Canel would say Sunday...and he said a lot. His enemy in Miami, the Miami Herald, focused on his comments about the so-called "sonic wave" attacks in Havana that have supposedly injured about two dozen Americans connected to the U. S. Embassy. Diaz-Canel believes Cubans in Miami or on the island who oppose normal relations with the U. S. are behind the attacks and he believes much of the information provided to the press in the United States is fabricated to hurt Cuba and thereby create excuses for President Trump to greatly weaken the embassies in Havana and Washington but also to "warn" tourists not to visit Cuba. Of course, Cuba depends mightily on tourism. Diaz-Canel equates the sonic-wave attacks to documented examples of Cuban hotels being bombed by famed Miami terrorists who openly explained it was to discourage tourism to Cuba. The Miami Herald October 9th quoted Diaz-Canel as saying in this insightful speech: "Some spokespeople and the media lend themselves to propagating unbelievable tall tales, without any evidence, with the perverse purpose of discrediting the impeccable performance of our country, universally considered a safe destination for foreign visitors, including Americans." But the Oct. 9th Miami Herald article significantly pointed out that, when it comes to the U. S., Diaz-Canel is more of a hardliner than Raul Castro, who worked closely with the Obama administration to normalize relations between the two countries. The Miami Herald stated: "Above all, Diaz-Canel hinted that he does not support the rapprochement with the United States." And the Herald, this time, got that right!!

      In preparation for his impending role as Cuba's next leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel has traveled quite extensively to meet with world leaders. In the photo above he was in Brussels, Belgium, meeting Federica Mogherini, the top official with the EU.

     As the Miami Herald opined, Miguel Diaz-Canel, the next Cuban leader, is less trustful of the United States than current Cuban President Raul Castro is. In that Sunday speech, Diaz-Canel said, "You CAN NOT TRUST IMPERIALISM, not even a little bit, not at all." Unlike Raul Castro, who was very willing to negotiate friendly terms with President Obama, Diaz-Canel wants to avoid the United States as much as possible. Shown above with his wife, Diaz-Canel wants to use the time avoiding the U. S. "to be devoted to our many friends," including Canada but also African, Asian and European nations. Interestingly, Diaz-Canel is supported by older hard-line Cubans who don't want friendly relations with the United States and by the all-important young-adult generation of restless Cubans who do want friendly ties to America.

      Among Americans in Miami, Collin Laverty knows the most about U.S.-Cuban relations. He is President of Cuba Education Travel and thus has close working relationships with both governments, including intricate legalese details. He adamantly opposes punitive U. S. actions against Cuba such as using the sonic-wave mystery as an excuse to warn travelers against visiting Cuba, like the warnings that arose from the Havana hotel bombings by Miami terrorists. Laverty says it is well known that "Cuba is one of the safest places in the whole world for visitors."

      The Collin Laverty photo above was used in his explanation about Cuba being one of the world's safest countries. Laverty, like Miguel Diaz-Canel, believes the sonic-wave attacks are being perpetrated by people -- in Miami or in Cuba -- who want to discourage the island's vital tourism industry, which Cuba wants to protect. Laverty's photo above points out that the young lady visiting Cuba feels very safe.

      As expressed by this letter, Collin Laverty has gone into great detail about the sonic-wave attacks being used to hurt Cuban tourism, the last thing Cuba would want to hurt. To solve the mystery, Cuba has begged top U.S. CIA and Canadian Rocky Mounted investigators to come to Cuba and "uncover the culprits." In the above letter, four paragraphs from the bottom, Laverty writes, "Moreover, pulling out of Cuba will set a terrible precedent for the U. S. presence around the world. If there are targeted attacks, the culprits could use the same technology and techniques elsewhere."

      While anti-Cuban counter-revolutionaries in the U. S. are using the sonic-wave mystery to pound Cuba anew, even Bush dynasty stalwarts like Michael Palmly, President Bush's head of the U. S. Interests Section in Cuba from 2005 to 2008, says Cuba itself would never do such things but that U. S. or Cuban operatives trying to drive a deeper wedge between the two nations would. Palmly says Cuba is in a transition period "searching for the soul of the Revolution." While not a friend of Cuba, Palmly is far more honest and decent than the counter-revolutionaries.

       Americans...HEAVENS FORBID!!...are not supposed to have the slightest idea what the photo-montage depicted above means. But it means quite a lot to the understanding of U.S.-Cuban relations, including perhaps the current sonic-wave attacks, so permit me to explain it. On the left is Fabio de Celmo. In the center is his father Guistino de Celmo. And on the right is Luis Posada Carriles, the all-time most infamous CIA-connected Cuban terrorist who today is still a very honored citizen of Miami, Florida. Fabio, a 32-year-old Italian, was killed in a hotel bombing in 1997 during which smuggled plastic explosives were used to bomb many hotels in Havana including the Nacional de Cuba, Capri, Melia Cohiba, Copacabana, etc. After the murder of his son, Guistino moved permanently from Italy to Havana. Posada has bragged for decades about such terrorist attacks on Cuba and he plainly explained that the hotel bombings were to discourage tourism to Cuba. When notable author Ann Louise Bardach, in an article for the New York Times, asked Posada about Fabio's death, Posada called it "collateral damage." But of course, that's not what Guistino and the rest of the non-U.S. world call such things.

And by the way:

     Shown at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, Wes Edens is an American billionaire and Chairman of New Fortress Energy. He is investing heavily in Jamaica and his company will supply massive amounts of liquefied natural gas to the Caribbean island. He told the Jamaica Observer, "I give Jamaica an A. I absolutely do with pride. Our experience in Jamaica is among the top we've had anywhere in terms of working with a government." The Jamaican investments by Wes Edens' company also include a large truck-loading facility on Montego Bay on the island's northwest tip.

      As you can see above, Jamaica is due south of southeastern Cuba. Of course, Cuba is the only Caribbean nation that overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship that quickly resettled in the U. S. in 1959, resulting in, among other things, a U. S. embargo against Cuba since 1962. The embargo by the nearby world superpower even penalizes some other nations that might want to do business with Cuba. Much of the rest of the Caribbean is composed of island nations that are territories of rich, imperialist-minded nations such as the US, the UK, France and the Netherlands. But Cuba has been sovereign since 1959. So, billionaires like Wes Edins can invest billions in nations like Jamaica but the U. S. would turn warlike if Cuba received such treatment under the 1962 U. S. premise that if the Cubans on the island are starved and deprived, they might rise up and overthrow their government. But countries like Jamaica only need to worry about natural hurricanes, not U.S.-made hurricanes.

And then there is this:

      International headlines this week are telling the world that B-1B Lancers, America's incomparable bomber, are flying over the Korean Peninsula to remind North Korea what its bellicose nuclear threats might mean, which is annihilation.

      A single B-1B Lancer can drop dozens of conventional bombs with laser-guided pinpoint accuracy {as above} OR deliver nuclear bombs or missiles against any selected target. Not even nuclear-superpower Russia can match the B-1B Lancer.

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America's Unending Infamy

Right-Wing Thugs Attacking Children...

That Live in a Foreign Nation!!
{Updated: Tuesday, October 10th, 2017}

      The AP/Ramon Espinosa photo above reflects the huge transition that will saturate Cuba in just a few months -- February of 2018 -- when the island will be led by a non-Castro for the first time since January of 1959. The big man upfront is Miguel Diaz-Canel and he will replace the retiring 86-year-old Raul Castro shortly. Diaz-Canel is 57. This photo shows him hosting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife on their Cuban visit. Diaz-Canel was born on April 20, 1960, in Villa Clara, Cuba. A Beatles fan, motorcycle enthusiast, and a strong backer of educational opportunities, Miguel Diaz-Canel has considerable popular support on the island. Last week -- Sunday, October 8th, 2017 -- Diaz-Canel made a PERTINENT SPEECH.

      The next big man in Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel on Sunday was the prime speaker at an important Cuban commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Che Guevara's death. His comments are traveling around the world: "Changes needed in Cuba will solely be carried out by the Cuban people. Imperialism can never be trusted, not even a tiny bit, never. Cuba will not make concessions to its sovereignty and independence, nor negotiate its principles or accept the imposition of conditions." Those words, quite obviously, were aimed directly at U. S. president Donald Trump and were deemed necessary by Diaz-Canel after Trump, last Friday at an anti-Cuban Hispanic gathering in Washington, excoriated Cuba and indicated the U. S. is about to harden its Cuban policy that former President Obama had remarkably and bravely softened. Diaz-Canel, and many impartial observers agree, believes that the current sonic-wave attacks in Cuba are being perpetrated by elements in Cuba or Miami that oppose normal relations between the U. S. and Cuba. Diaz-Canel used these exact words: "Some unnamed officials are propagating unusual nonsense without any evidence, with the perverse aim of discrediting the impeccable reputation of our country as a safe destination for foreign visitors, including from the United States." 

         Meanwhile, as has been the case since 1959, Revolutionary Cuba is trying to keep the U.S.-backed Batistianos in Miami and in the U. S. Congress from recapturing the island, and doing so just as hard as the Cuban Revolution tried to defeat the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in the 1950s. The photo above reflects that effort. It shows a birthday party held last week for a little Cuban girl, the one wearing the cone-hat to make her more ubiquitous. In 1962 -- after the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack and after countless CIA-Batistiano-Mafiosi assassination attempts and after endless Cuban-exile terrorist attacks -- the U. S. imposed an embargo/blockade on Cuba that, based on de-classified U. S. documents, was designed to starve and deprive Cubans on the island for the purpose of inducing them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. The embargo-blockade is still in effect for that very reason, yet it has failed miserably even though it is now registered as the longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak nation. Understandably, the nations of the world currently oppose the malicious, genocidal-intended embargo by a 191-to-0 vote, surely the only issue that could possibly attain such unanimity in a very diverse world. Yet, the U. S. democracy, at the mercy of Batistianos, is unable or unwilling to challenge a few Cuban-American extremists. 

     Thus in October of 2018 totally innocent Cuban children on the island, like the ones shown above at that birthday party, are being punished in the guise of a bald-faced lie that maintains they must be punished because of the necessity to punish "the Castros." Because the last two generations of Americans have had neither the guts nor the patriotism to even enter the fray on behalf of their democracy, the parents and grandparents of the children shown above have been punished by American miscreants and liars who are still punishing and depriving these precious children. 

      Because the Batistiano-Mafiosi exiles have been allowed to dictate the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1959, cowardly and propagandized Americans have been too afraid to challenge the lie that the most vicious Batistianos-Mafiosi in Miami and in Congress are far better human beings than Cubans on the island. The photo above illustrates the mammoth dimensions of that gross distortion. The totally decent young Cuban parents shown above at the birthday party for their little girl are, according to proselytized Americans, inferior and worse humans than the Batistiano exiles who basically have total dictation of America's Cuban policy. Such lies have now gotten America universally condemned by that LOUD 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations. 

      The photo above was taken at a news conference in Miami on Nov. 26-2016 and it shows Cuban-Americans celebrating the death of Fidel Castro at age 90 in Havana. On the left is Lincoln Diaz-Balart and on the right is Mario Diaz-Balart. Their father, Rafael Diaz-Balart, was a key Minister in the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and then, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Rafael Diaz-Balart was one of the richest and most powerful counter-revolutionaries in South Florida, and the creator, in fact, of the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit. Of course, with only vicious counter-revolutionaries elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress, both the Havana-born Lincoln first and then Mario were elected to the U. S. Congress. Most of the Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba but Americans are not supposed to wonder why at least one of them can't get elected to Congress. But, of course, counter-revolutionary Carlos Curbelo...that's him second from the left...gets an easy ride from Miami to the U. S. Congress. And the lady at the microphones above, Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen...perhaps the most consistently vicious counter-revolutionary...has been entrenched in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager, which, of course, paved the way for his two terms as Florida's Governor. Since 1959, as this photo attests, the United States democracy has been revamped and reshaped...and not for the better. Today cowered Americans are supposed to ignore the updated color photos of the birthday party that show Cuban children, even on their targeted and embargoed island, being loved and protected. By the same token, for sure, Americans today are supposed to ignore definitive black-and-white photos and all other documentations from Batista's Cuba in the 1950s when non-Mafia children on the island were very callously mistreated. 

      Prior to 1959, I do not believe that any generation of Americans would have allowed totally innocent children in a foreign sovereign nation, like those above at that birthday party in Havana, to be unmercifully punished by self-serving miscreants operating freely from U. S. soil and hiding behind the big skirts of the superpower.

      The photo above shows a typical peasant mother and her two little children in Batista's Cuba. They were not even a mere afterthought while the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and rich U. S. businessmen were robbing the island blind from 1952 till 1959.

      The photo above shows brave Cuban mothers marching in protest against the most egregious trait of Batista's Cuba -- the murder of Cuban children that was meant to quell resistance against the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. The courageous Cuban woman near the middle wearing the cut-off, light-colored jacket was the mother of the gruesomely murdered little Willie Soler. Today in Cuba a major Children's Hospital is named for...Willie Soler. It exists as a tribute to Willie and all the brave mothers.

   The three incomparable Cuban heroines depicted above -- Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, and Haydee Santamaria -- were not only prime guerrilla fighters and stupendous recruiters during the Revolutionary War, but after defeating the Bastista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959, this trio, truth be know, had more say-so in reshaping the new Cuba than the male quartet consisting of the Castro brothers, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Che Guevara. That pure fact is true because Fidel Castro made sure that Celia Sanchez was Revolutionary Cuba's main decision-maker and Celia, in turn, insisted that Vilma and Haydee join her in making the most important domestic decisions on the island, decisions such as guaranteeing totally free health care for life and totally free educations through college. If you disagree with that assessment, you are biased or you have simply been lied to about the transition from Batista's Cuba to Revolutionary Cuba. The two historic black-and-white photos above -- the one depicting the typical peasant mother-and-child in Batista's Cuba and the one showing outraged mothers protesting the murders of their children by Batista's goons -- explain why Celia, Vilma, and Haydee were left in charge of re-figuring priorities in Cuba, refigured priorities that favored mothers and children.

     Thus, the image above of Celia Sanchez is the one that lingers to this day on the island of Cuba. The 99-pound doctor's daughter was inspired by her passionate love of Cuban children. As the prime recruiter of both rebels and supplies, as a fearless guerrilla fighter, and as the prime decision-maker, Celia Sanchez was the most important figure in Cuba's Revolutionary War and in Revolutionary Cuba.     

     Of course, the very last things the counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress want to discuss are...Celia Sanchez and the definitive black-and-white photos from Batista's Cuba. Such discussions might supersede propaganda lies.

      This is the little Cuban girl that had that birthday party in Havana a few days ago. She is far better off to have been born in sovereign Revolutionary Cuba than in U.S.-backed Batista's Cuba. The fact that Americans are not supposed to know that simple, basic fact says a lot more about America than it does about Cuba, and it highlights how very much the U. S. democracy has changed since the seminal year of 1959.

And by the way:

       The excellent photo above is courtesy of Wendy Williams. The barrage of deadly hurricanes that have recently assaulted the entire Caribbean as well as significant parts of the United States seem unending by whatever names -- Harvey, Irma, Maria, Nate, etc., etc. But Wendy's seaside photo appears to flaunt the destructive nature of natural or man-made hurricanes while tauntingly celebrating the resilient nature of humans to survive with a fierce will to live. Wendy's message should resonate.

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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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