Propaganda Against Cuba

So Americans Will Approve Genocide!

    Currently CNN is airing a very effective and very propagandized promotional ad that ends with a true statement: "This is an apple" under the photo of an actual apple. Till that honest conclusion, the ad powerfully explained that incessant propaganda -- certainly in dictatorships but also in the world's greatest democracy -- can convince masses of people that the apple shown above is actually a banana. To CNN's credit the ad expertly is reminding Americans that, in the changing landscape of 2017, even the United States of America is fully susceptible to such extreme PROPAGANDA, especially when such modern tools as radio, newspapers, television, and the internet can so easily and readily be used as propaganda outlets. {CNN, you see, was coyly exposing itself}.

    The absolutely brilliant CNN promotional ad should corral an Emmy or even a Nobel Peace Prize. It is, I think, the best explanation that propagandized Americans will ever get about the awesomely negative and anti-democratic power of unchecked, force-fed propaganda. Most Americans already knew propaganda's power in other nations based on their knowledge of Nazi Germany and countless other despotic regimes -- both historic and topical. But the CNN Apple-Banana analogy graphically reminds Americans that unchecked...although perhaps very subtle...propaganda can...and has...infiltrated America's democracy while their...our...patriotic eyes were conveniently gazing elsewhere. Incessant propaganda that can convince Americans that an Apple is a Banana or vice-versa was never supposed to cripple the world's greatest democracy like an un-treatable cancer assaults a human body. But, as CNN not-so-subtly points out, America and Democracy are not immune to the crippling aspects of propaganda from the U. S. government nor from the U. S. media. Re-study CNN's Apple-Banana analogy depicted above and I think you will agree.

     Extreme propaganda related to America's centuries-old obsession to control the Caribbean island of Cuba is the very best example of how incessant propaganda can cripple even the world's strongest democracy. That extreme propaganda began in 1898 when a U. S. warship, The USS Maine, blew up in Havana Harbor killing hundreds of innocent and very young U. S. sailors. It very conveniently served as the much-desired pretext to Declare War On Spain knowing that imperial Spain was far too weak and far too extended to fight a war to defend its prized long-time colony, Cuba, in America's backyard. Prior to and after the very convenient explosion of The USS Maine in Havana Harbor, America's two most powerful newspaper publishers of that era -- Hearst and Pulitzer -- waged incessant propagandized articles about the necessity for the U. S. to gain control of Cuba from Spain. In 2017, if non-propagandized Americans are interested, a simple Google seach will reveal these facts about the 1898 Spanish-American War that changed the domination of Cuba from Spain to America. But the propaganda regarding Cuba was actually just beginning and it extends to this very day -- November 9th in 2017.

      In China yesterday, the Communist government royally welcomed U. S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. The Greg Baker/AP photo above shows China's First Lady Peng Lizuan and Chinese schoolchildren honoring Melania.

   President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are shown here flanked by their gorgeous and classy First Ladies. As this photo indicates, the world's two most powerful men have not only been cordial but best buddies. China even officially denounced the mainstream U. S. media for being overly harsh and unfair to Trump.

   While campaigning and then just politicking in the U. S., Trump has vowed to be tough on China's President Zi for throwing his massive weight around, particularly in the China Seas and the Korean Peninsula, but also for having a massive export-import trade advantage with the United States. But the mammoth U. S. trade deficit with China has helped Zi become the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao and Zi has vowed to make sure China overtakes the U. S. economy and the U. S. military with China soon becoming the world leader in both categories. And except for posturing just for Americans, Trump is in no position to bluff Zi economically or militarily. In fact, Trump is left to only beg Zi for help in key areas like North Korea.

      So in China yesterday -- Nov. 8th, 2017 -- President Trump was subordinate to the massive might of President Zi. In fact, Reuters reports that the two nations yesterday announced new trade deals valued at about $250 billion with U. S. giants like chip maker Qualcomm and aircraft maker Boeing among the U. S. companies increasing their stakes in China. While Communist China is so powerful and so ambitious it represents a serious threat to America, there is now little the U. S. can do other than what it is now doing, which is to help China soon become the world's #1 power.
     MEANWHILE, back in the continental United States President Trump's minions YESTERDAY -- November 8th, 2017 -- continued to pick on poor little CUBA, which pleases Zi because it greatly enhances China's prestige in Cuba and therefore also in the Caribbean and, of course, throughout Latin America.

       Yesterday -- Nov. 8, 2017 -- while President Trump was licking President Zi's boots in China -- U. S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchen was announcing Trump's final plans to bring Cuba to its knees. Mnuchen began his propaganda spiel with these exact words: "We have strengthened our Cuban policies to channel economic activity away from the Cuban military..." Such propaganda does not fool citizens in any other nation but it is effective in America because it has been consistently used by the U. S. government since the the Cuban Revolution in 1959 overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. The U. S. and Cuban exiles responded almost immediately with massive assassination attempts and terrorist attacks designed to regain control of the island. After the April-1961 Bay of Pigs military attack failed miserably, the U. S. in 1962 imposed an economic embargo that was, de-classified U. S. documents proved, designed to starve, deprive, and create misery that would induce the Cuban people to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. That embargo, denounced by the entire world, exists to this day even though it, too, has failed to recapture Cuba and it is already registered as the longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a a strong nation against a weak nation. Yesterday, with his boss in China, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin...his department oversees such sanctions...cruelly announced additional sanctions against Cuba that Mnuchin apparently believes will finally destroy the Cuban government. Beginning today -- Nov. 9th, 2017 -- the U. S. will enforce ultra-tight Trump-orchestrated laws designed to cripple Cuban tourism and cut-off other vital economic organs considered necessary to Cuba's survival. That even includes assaults on the island's ultra-modern, deep-water Mariel Port & Economic Zone 28 miles southwest of Havana. Mnuchin, like all the U. S. government anti-Cuban propagandists since 1962, insists such tactics are "to hurt the Castros" while the entire world -- apart from propagandized Americans -- fully know that the embargo -- as it was designed to do in 1962 -- HURTS TOTALLY INNOCENT EVERYDAY CUBANS. And so, with all due respect to Trump's Treasury Secretary, I believe Mnuchin knew his statement yesterday was a propagandized lie.

     Literally within minutes after Steve Mnuchen had announced the new and cruel sanctions on Cuba, Senator Patrick Leahy, the decent gentleman from Vermont, was appalled that news targeting Cuba was announced while Trump was sucking up to President Zi in China. Senator Leahy's exact words were: "The hypocrisy of the White House ideologues is glaring." In other words, on behalf of a handful of Batistiano-Mafiosi-type remnants from the long-ago overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba, the U. S. government shames itself by picking on totally innocent Cubans on a harmless island while being scared to death of mighty China. So let me repeat the exact words of Senator Leahy within minutes of Steve Mnuchen's gutless Cuban assault on November 8th, 2017: "The hypocrisy of the White House ideologues is glaring." Anyone who disagrees with Senator Leahy is either a coward or a propagandized idiot. Please, give Senator Leahy credit for these exact words:

"The hypocrisy of the White House ideologues is glaring."
Indeed, hypocrites should be called "hypocrites."

     The photo above depicts an innocent, everyday Cuban family. On the right is Carla Leon and she is shown with her loving parents Jorge and Mardy. Well educated and blessed with marketing skills, Carla took advantage of President Obama's brave and herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. She opened her own Bed & Breakfast, which thrived thanks to increased Obama-related tourism and to bookings for her business via the U.S.-based Airbnb corporation. But the incredible U. S. election that replaced the decent Obama with the Batistiano-loving Trump destroyed Carla's thriving business and thousands of others in Cuba. Carla told Reuters, "Because of Mr. Obama and my Airbnb connection, we had a lot of reservations from Americans from September through December. But on April 16th President Trump went to Miami and told the Cuban hardliners he was going to reverse all of the Obama positives related to Cuba. So, beginning on April 16th we have had far more cancellations than bookings. My biggest fear is my family and other Cuban families. Do Americans let their government do this to us knowing how it affects our livelihoods?" The rest of the world understands precisely what Carla is saying while propagandized and intimidated Americans are supposed to be too ignorant or too scared to disagree with whatever Trump, Mnuchin, Rubio, etc. do to harm totally innocent Cubans like Carla Leon in the cowardly guise of hurting "the Castros."

       Not surprisingly, Sen. Marco Rubio -- the Cuban-American "choirboy" from Little Havana in Miami -- was quickly quoted as saying Mnuchin's announcement yesterday "didn't go far enough" to hurt Cuba while Mnuchin seemed to think it went far enough to finally destroy Cuba, meaning U.S.-based Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio would be back in full control of the island, ala the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia travesty from 1952 till 1959. Because the mainstream U. S. media is afraid of Rubio and the Little Havana bastion that backs him, daily U. S. propaganda paints Rubio as a presidential wannabee choirboy while brave and respected journalists such as Ken Silverstein depict Rubio as the all-time FOR SALE U. S. politician, certainly not the sweet choirboy worthy of being America's Trump-anointed dictator of Cuba, which happens to be a sovereign nation that doesn't deserve to have its people forever targeted by foreign miscreants -- the types who loudly proclaimed in the Miami media that bombing Cubana Flight 455, a civilian child-laden airplane, into the ocean was "the biggest blow yet against Castro" and the types that proclaim hurting totally innocent Cubans like Carla Leon is necessary "to hurt the Castros." Such cruelty and depravity has been supported for over half-a-century by propaganda lies, and I believe Rubio knows that to be true but also knows how politically and economically beneficial such propaganda lies can be to a select few.

       Cuba's Minister most in charge of relations with the United States, Josefina Vidal, said, "The announcements by Secretary Mnuchin today, November the 8th, will, as the United States government well knows, have drastic repercussions that will further hurt Cuban families. But these newly strengthened assaults will not destroy this island nor revert it to the Batista and Mafia days of the 1950s. I tried for years to hold open the chances that my island and the United States could work together to mutually benefit Cubans, Americans, Cuban-Americans and good people the world over. President Obama raised my hopes, of course. President Trump, with today's Mnuchin announcement, is destroying them. For the first time in at least five years, I am beginning to think we must consider all other options, meaning friendly options." Beyond doubt, Mnuchin's announcement on November 8th, 2017 -- and Josefina Vidal's reaction to it -- greatly disappointed America's best friends around the world while also greatly pleasing America's worst international enemies. It's been that way for a long time now, and more and more it looks like the once vaunted U. S. democracy is incapable or unwilling to correct what every brave, intelligent, and decent person has believed should have been corrected long ago.

      Since the 1950s when the U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba...or actually since the Spanish-American War in 1898...Barack Obama has been the only U. S. president with the courage, the intelligence, and the patriotism to try desperately to correct America's depraved obsession and salacious desire to control Cuba. Study, if you will, President Obama's very last words about Cuba during his FINAL STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS. Those ten words, as listed above, were: "Recognize that the Cold War is over. Lift the embargo." After those sane and decent words, Barack Obama was replaced as U. S. President by Donald Trump. Thus, the insane and indecent words released yesterday -- Nov. 8, 2017 -- by Steve Mnuchin on Trump's behalf revived the Cold War that might well result in a Hot War. And if that happens, the primary fault will lie not with Trump and Rubio but with generations of propagandized and unpatriotic American people who have let it happen decade after Mafiosi-loving decade.

And of course:

       Truly the most innocent victims of America's Batistiano & Mafiosi-directed Cuban policies, which the UN has called genocide, have been {and still are} Cuban children on the island like 4-year-old Mariana. Fortunately since 1959 there have been devoted Cuban parents and grandparents on the island trying their best to protect children like Mariana from being completely starved, deprived or made miserable as defined by the U. S. embargo from 1962 till today -- November 9th, 2017. Decent Americans like Barack Obama believe that rogues should not be able to forever hide behind the skirts of the U. S. government and punish little girls like Mariana in a sovereign but weaker nation. Unfortunately, there are not enough Barack Obamas in the United States of America and, also unfortunately, there are too many Trumps & Rubios. 

In other words:

AND THE UNITED STATES IS NOT SO CRUEL AS TO HURT LITTLE GIRLS IN CUBA WHILE LYING TO AMERICANS THAT THEY ARE REALLY HURTING THE CASTROS WHILE SATING THE SALACIOUS REVENGE, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC  MOTIVES OF A HANDFUL OF CUBAN-AMERICAN REMNANTS FROM THE LONG-AGO VERY CRUEL BATISTA-MAFIA DICTATORSHIP!! 

     Propagandized Americans who agree with Trump & Rubio regarding Cuba also most likely can be easily persuaded, as CNN suggests, that the photo above shows two apples and not two bananas. And that is not a hyperbolic exaggeration because too many propagandized, scared, or unpatriotic Americans refuse to question Trump & Rubio when it comes to rich and pompous politicians in a powerful country targeting totally innocent little girls like Mariana in a much weaker country.

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CUBA: Another Cold War?

Russia Seems Ready & Eager!!
{Updated: Wednesday, November 8th, 2017}

      Adult Americans and citizens of the world may be able to connect the building above with the huge circular listening device still depicted ominously off to the right to this day! The building now is a a focal point of a Cuban university; the listening devise is still there but just as a reminder of the incredibly dangerous Cold War that existed beginning in 1962 between the nuclear-Superpower United States and the nuclear-Superpower Soviet Union. What history calls the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 pitted the world's two nuclear powers in a standoff that remains the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust. The whole world trembled for eight October days in 1962 till the Kennedy-Khrushchev pull-back resulted in the Soviet Union removing nuclear missiles from Cuba aimed at the U. S. and, secretly, the U. S. removing nuclear missiles from Turkey that had been aimed at the Soviet Union. In that year, 1962, the Soviet Union had built the Lourdes spy base in Cuba and that remained for decades till 2002, after the Soviet Union collapsed economically. But the reconstituted Russia remains to this day the one nuclear power that could likely strike America as hard as America could strike Russia. So, study the Associated Press photo above. Taking full advantage of the Trump administration's acute antagonism directed at Cuba, Russia may ask Cuba to allow it to reopen the base.

       The former Russian Spy Base is located on the edge of Havana in Artemisa province. Russia wants to reopen it because it says, since the base was closed in 2002, the U. S. has surrounded Russian territory with more-and-more military operations. Russia also notes that Cuba adamantly wants the U. S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay on the island's southeastern tip to be closed with the plush acreage returned to Cuba for the first time since 1903, shortly after the U. S. gained dominance over Cuba after the 1898 Spanish-American War. But Russia insists it will return militarily to Cuba only with Cuba's permission, and it reminds Cuba that the Trump administration is determined to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959 and, in doing so, shocked the world, including the dictators in Moscow. Meanwhile, the world and Russia today remain shocked that Revolutionary Cuba has survived since 1959 despite daily efforts by remnants of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship, still backed by the U. S., to regain control of the Caribbean's biggest island. From 1959 till 1991 Cuba was the catalyst in the middle of the U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War. It has largely remained that way from 1991 till today even though the U. S. has maintained a huge economic edge over Russia. But Russia is the very last military power the U. S. wants to tangle with.

        An ultra-powerful Russian, Frants Klintsevich is the deputy head of the Russian senate's Defense and Security Committee. He has the attentive ear of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian media quotes Klintsevich as saying, "We need to ramp up a new Cuban presence. Our base on Cuba, naval and aviation, should exist, must exist, for our security now. It's a key issue. The USA has military all around us."

         Strongly supporting the views of Frants Klintsevich is General Viktor Bondarev. He is the Chairman of the Russian senate's Defense and Security Committee.

      A re-activation of the Lourdes Spy Base in Cuba would keep Russia attuned to American military and even diplomatic maneuvers in the Caribbean and southeastern United States, including submarine operations in the waters surrounding Cuba. A reopening of Lourdes, many fear, would also be a precursor to a more substantial Russian military presence just off the southeastern U. S. coast. While Russia in 2017 can't compete economically with the U. S., the Russian nuclear capability is the last thing the U. S. would want to provoke. Based on the mutually destructive power Russia has, the current high-profile nuclear threat posed by North Korea is many light-years removed from a potential threat that Russia currently possesses. While acknowledging the power that Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries have regarding America's Cuban policies, especially now that Trump has replaced the diplomatic Obama in the White House, it is sincerely hoped that the sanity of those not wanting a U.S.-Russian Cold War turning into a Trump-Putin Hot War will prevail.

      Thankfully in November-2017 the prime decision-makers in Cuba still seek Obama-like normal relations with the United States and thus, as things now stand, Cuba is not about to allow Russia to re-create a powerful military operation on Cuban soil. The two key spokes-people for Cuba are Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal but they are also Cuba's two main decision-makers on omnipotent U. S. relations, including Cuba's posture regarding such things as the Trump administration's efforts to reverse former President Obama's detente with Cuba and, more specifically, the U.S.'s ongoing claims of mysterious sonic-attacks against Americans in Cuba. Yet, Rodriguez and Vidal are respected enough that they can go to the UN in New York or to U. S. strongholds in Washington and convince almost everyone that the U. S. Cuban policy is outrageous and such anti-Cuban claims as the alleged acoustic attacks are false. In the photo above, that's Rodriguez in the middle and Vidal on the right holding court very successfully at the United States Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington last week. They came at the Chamber's invitation.

     At the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal addressed a roomful of top U. S. corporate executives who are very interested in trade relations with Cuba. Indications last week were that no one at the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and none of the above U. S. CEOs believed U. S. claims that Cuba is targeting Americans in Havana or doing anything else to discourage tourism to the island or commerce with America. The majority of Americans, especially CEOs, are eager to do business with Cuba. But intimidation and propaganda, since 1959, has trumped...uh, no pun intended...democracy when it comes to America's relations with Cuba.

       Last week for the 26th consecutive year the 193 nations at the United Nations, including all of America's best friends around the world, voted overwhelmingly against the U. S. embargo-blockade of Cuba, with only the Trump administration and its most dependent nation, Israel, supporting the embargo-blockade. Additionally, all polls show that most Americans and most Cuban-Americans oppose the embargo-blockade that was imposed in 1962 for the then-stated purpose of starving, depriving, and creating misery on the island to induce Cubans to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. Revolutionary Cuba has remarkably maintained its sovereignty for all these decades despite what is considered the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a much weaker one.

      But with the Republican Trump in the White House, U.S.-Cuba Relations once again are being dictated by a mere handful of revengeful Cuban-American/Miami-based miscreants in the United States Congress, led currently by Senator Marco Rubio. It is clear that such self-serving benefactors as Rubio don't care that their anti-Cuban belligerence is opposed even by most Cuban-Americans in Miami, a city that doesn't appear democratic enough to elect a moderate Cuban-American to the United States Congress. Similarly, it can be presumed that Rubio and his ilk could care less about how much their policies hurt Cuban-Americans in Miami, Cubans on the island, or the overall national security of the United States. And that's precisely why the two powerful aforementioned Russians...Frants Klintsevich and Viktor Bondarev...are trying to convince President Putin to try to convince Cuba to allow a Russian base on Cuban soil, a development that might well rekindle a Cold War or kindle a hot war between the world's two nuclear Superpowers -- the United States and Russia. As long as the likes of Marco Rubio can dictate America's Cuban policy, the most militant Russians will believe they can persuade Putin to install a military presence in Cuba on the premise that its massive nuclear arsenal can blunt massive U. S. objections.

     For the last tumultuous decade, the brilliant and level-headed Josefina Vidal has been the most important overall player in the often volatile U.S.-Cuban relations. That last decade has seen the transition of power in Cuba go from the ill Fidel Castro to his brother Raul and it saw the death of the incomparable Fidel Castro at age 90 on November 25th, 2016. Cuba also embraced the American presidency of Barack Obama who wanted to normalize relations with Cuba and, at least prior to the election of President Trump a year ago, pretty much succeeded. Also, Vidal still stands tall in Cuba as the retirement of Raul Castro nears in February of 2018. The new President will be 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel but Raul has laid the groundwork for more of a tribunal-type leadership with Vidal and Bruno Rodriguez joining Diaz-Canel as equal or near-equal leaders. And all three -- Vidal, Rodriguez, and Diaz-Canel -- are well-liked and respected by most Cubans on the island, including the restless young-adults.

     As indicated by the photo above, Raul Castro has groomed Miguel Diaz-Canel as the next President of Cuba and that will become a reality very soon in February of 2018. Miguel is a non-revolutionary and a non-Castro and he is far less convinced than Raul, Vidal and Rodriguez that Cuba needs close relations with the United States. Miguel, prepping for his soon-to-be Presidency, has traveled widely to countries he believes are more important and much friendlier to Cuba than the U. S., especially China and Russia but also Vietnam. But Raul cooperated closely with the Obama administration in almost normalizing relations with the United States other than in areas mandated strictly by the U. S. Congress. Now in his dwindling days as President, Raul is not dismissing Miguel's belief that the collective friendship of China, Russia and Vietnam will be more vital to Cuba than continuing to seek normal relations with America when, in a two-party system, the U. S. policy regarding Cuba is often dictated by Republicans like Trump and not Democrats like Obama. And that's why Cuba's first non-Castro leader since 1959, Miguel Diaz-Canel, will share leadership with more pro-American stalwarts, namely Vidal and Rodriguez, with Raul, even though he is now 86, remaining in charge of his first love, the Cuban military.

      As the photo above indicates, Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal have cultivated close relations with Americans and Cubans other than Counter Revolutionaries.

 The last two photos, for example, show Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal warmly welcoming Nancy Pelosi, America's top Democrat in the U. S. Congress, to Cuba.

      From Fidel to Raul to Miguel in Cuba and to most non-Republican and non-Cuban American extremists in the United States, Josefina Vidal has been considered the most important Cuban when it comes to Cuba's most important relationship, the one with the nearby Superpower, the United States. A brilliant diplomat, she negotiated with the Obama presidency a near-normal relationship with America, at least as normal as it could get considering the Batistiano control of the U. S. Congress seems permanent. But just in the last year, Fidel has died and Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States. And now Raul Castro is about to be succeeded as President by a non-revolutionary and non-Castro, Miguel Diaz-Canel. Miguel's first inclinations will lean toward tightening relations with China, Russia, and Vietnam as well as with European and African nations. Miguel's views will be tempered by Vidal and Rodriguez who believe Cuba should always hold out hope of having normal relations with the United States. If indeed Diaz-Canel/Vidal/Rodriguez form the non-Castro/non-revolutionary tribunal that rules Cuba beginning in February, the Vidal Doctrine, which says that Cuba should always be willing to normalize relations with the United States, will be well represented even during the bellicose Trump era.

       But all that is not to suggest that Josefina Vidal will advocate at all costs normal relations with the United States. On the contrary, the Vidal Doctrine is defined by her irrevocable and non-negotiable quotation depicted above. She maintains that Cuba will never renounce and will fight to the death to preserve the revolutionary principles that has made it a sovereign nation since January of 1959. She says, "That is the resolve in which, for all these decades, we have resisted such things as the Bay of Pigs military attack in 1961 and the U. S. economic blockade since 1962. And if necessary, that do-or-die attitude...that love of sovereignty...will prevail on this precious island now and for always." But, for sure, neither Vidal's earnest desire for normal U. S. relations nor her do-or-die resolve espoused above does not exclude leaning on a Russia or a China if she believes having normal relations with the U. S. is hopeless.

       And that brings us back around to powerful Russian militants -- such as General Viktor Bondarev -- who reportedly are trying to convince Vladimir Putin to install a Russian military presence on the island of Cuba at America's backdoor. Such Russian militants are obviously hoping that powerful Cuban moderates like Josefina Vidal are finally giving up all hope of normalizing relations with the United States, thus leaving Cuba receptive to such a U. S. provocation. General Bondarev obviously believes that Russia's nuclear might is enough to deter the U. S. from going to war over a Russian military operation in Cuba. Meanwhile, as evidenced by President Trump's current Asian trip, North Korea's nuclear threat will likely continue to suck up oxygen that, more appropriately, Russia's much more substantial arsenal might be deserving.

      Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have already met this year -- at the above G-20 summit in Germany -- and they are about to meet again, this time in Communist Vietnam on Trump's current Asian trip. That's because Trump while in Vietnam wants to solicit Putin's help in blunting North Korea's dire nuclear threat.

      The two men in charge of the world's two strongest nuclear arsenals, Putin and Trump, are supposedly close friends...even as the U. S. media and federal investigators are obsessed with determining whether Trump or his defeated presidential rival Hillary Clinton were the most deeply involved with Putin's Russia prior to and during the U. S. presidential race. Meanwhile, in Vietnam this week Trump will ask Putin for help in keeping North Korea in check. But the wonder is, even as an aside, if Trump will ask Putin, "Vladimir, what's this I hear about your top Generals insisting you install a military presence in Cuba? Uh, that's our backdoor, you know. Haven't you heard about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis? Well today, you and I have nuclear weapons that would make those 1962 missiles resemble cap pistols. So tell me...are your Generals just drinking too much vodka? That's it, isn't it, Vladimir?"

Meanwhile in a more peaceful world:

A friendly Zebra and Havana's Mariana.

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Lying About Cuba No Longer Easy

Anti-Cuba Antics Challenged!!
{Updated for: Monday, November 6th, 2017}

Photo courtesy: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

     Four days ago -- on Nov. 2nd, 2017 -- Cuba's respected Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez came to Washington and held a major news conference at The National Press Cuba. He strongly suggested that the United States is "deliberately lying" about alleged sonic-attacks in Havana against Americans, specifically 24 unknown Americans working at the U. S. Embassy. Rodriguez said, "It is high time for the United States to tell the truth or otherwise present evidence. The Cuba government has no responsibility whatsoever for these incidents." Rodriguez made a powerful...and so far unchallenged...case that the U. S. is "lying" about the alleged attacks to justify punishing Cuba by reversing positive relations attained during the former Obama presidency. Using the "lies" about the mysterious attacks, the Trump administration has greatly harmed tourism to Cuba by "warning" Americans not to visit the island, which Rodriguez pointed out is considered one of the safest places in the world for vacationers. He said, "If Havana was really an unsafe place, then U. S. authorities would not have requested 212 visas for relatives and friends of diplomats between January and October, nor would they have made more than 250 pleasure trips outside Havana." In addition to already using the phantom attacks to hurt Cuban tourism, the U. S. has hurt many Americans and Cuban-Americans by gutting the embassies in Havana and Washington. The U. S., Rodriguez claims, has become careless and complacent in manufacturing lies about Cuba for over half-a-century, knowing that by controlling the Cuban narrative Counter Revolutionary Cubans and right-wingers could say or brag about anything and it would be unchallenged -- such as bragging in the Miami media about such things as the terrorist bombing of a civilian child-laden airplane -- Cubana Flight 445 -- that the well-known and well-protected terrorists called "the biggest blow yet against Castro." The terrorists also had no problem getting away with deadly bombings of Havana hotels and bragging about how it hurt Cuban tourism. When Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian complained about such things, he was car-bombed in Miami. When the top columnist at the Miami Herald -- Jim DeFede -- excoriated Miami representatives in the U. S. Congress for helping free four of the most infamous Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries from a Panamanian prison, Jim DeFede was fired. When President Clinton was about to normalize relations with Cuba, airplanes from Miami taunted Cuba to provoke a reaction that would deter Clinton because the Miami taunters knew only their versions of events would count in the American media and in Miami courtrooms.

         But as Bruno Rodriguez's huge news conference at The National Press Club in Washingon on November 2nd indicated, it is now not nearly as easy as it has been for either the United States government or Counter Revolutionaries in the U. S. to tell lies about Cuba or to get away with salacious, dastardly acts against innocent Cubans.

    The top Foreign and National Security expert at the Washington Post is Karen DeYoung whose articles have an international reach and resonance. Her coverage of the Bruno Rodriguez news conference reveals that, if the U. S. government or the Counter Revolutionaries are to continue getting away with lies about Cuba, they need to at least partially or parasitically convince powerful U. S. journalists like Karen DeYoung, and that is finally becoming harder to do. Her article clearly sided with Cuba's points-of-view regarding the sonic-attacks, pending at least a hint of U. S. evidence. Ms. DeYoung agrees, it seems, that the United States warning against visits to "unsafe" Cuba although the island is obviously considered "very safe" by U. S. diplomats who continued to assist a plethora of family-and-friend visitations to Cuba on "pleasure trips." Also, Ms. DeYoung wrote: "The U. S. has said that 24 diplomats assigned to the embassy have suffered 'attacks' that began late last year and continued until late summer. While saying that the victims were receiving comprehensive medical evaluations and care, the State Department has not released the names of the afflicted, any specific information about their health, or results of any investigations." And Ms. DeYoung went on to explain that Cuba, gravely concerned about attacks on its tourism, "has facilitated four visits by the FBI investigation teams to the island and said its own investigations have turned up no apparent cause."

     In other words, times have changed. If the U. S. government or Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress are to continue telling lies about Cuba, they are going to have to convince at least one powerful, unbiased Expert Journalist such as Karen DeYoung at the Washington Post. What happened to journalists such as Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede, etc., in the past may have dictated the Cuban narrative in the U. S. for decades but now, it seems, blatant lies and egregious acts are challenged in high places. That's why Cuba's erudite Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez could come to Washington on Nov. 2nd and express Cuba's opinion that the U. S. is "deliberately lying" so Counter Revolutionary Cubans in the U. S. can dictate America's Cuban policies to the Trump administration. Karen DeYoung wrote, "Rodriguez's comments marked a sky change in Cuba's approach to the sonic-wave charges. The Cuban government...has facilitated four visits by the FBI investigative teams to the island..." No evidence? No names of alleged victims? And she added that Rodriguez made his remarks in Washington after his scathing and well-received speech at the United Nations where, in the eyes of the world, the U. S. "stands alone on its Cuban policy except for Israel and an occasional Pacific island nation." Actually, Palau a few years ago was the last little Pacific island dependent to support the U. S. policy regarding Cuba so now only Israel, mortally dependent on massive U. S. economic and military aid as well as the U. S. veto in the UN, votes along with the U. S. at the UN. All the other nations in the world, 191 of them including all of America's best friends, strongly oppose the U. S. Cuban policy. And now the U. S. government and the Cuban Counter Revolutionary zealots cannot depend on an intimidated or easily-lied-to U. S. media to quietly sanction either lies or terrorist acts against the island of Cuba and its most innocent citizens. If Karen DeYoung just hints that the U. S. is simply lying about its latest Republican attempts to finally destroy Revolutionary Cuba, then PERHAPS they are indeed lies that Americans were supposed to swallow without questioning what they were ingesting.

     On the heels of former President Obama's decent detente with Cuba, President Trump intends to allow Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio to be the prime dictator of America's Cuban policy, as a means of pacifying Rubio and other such Republican rivals in both the presidential primary and now in the behind-the-back Trump impeachment efforts. After the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on Jan. 1, 1959, Counter Revolutionaries on U. S. soil have included the likes of Rafael Diaz-Balart, Jorge Mas Canosa, etc., and now Rubio. The processes have cost America and Democracy tons of international prestige PLUS billions upon billions of tax dollars to support assassination attempts, military and terrorist attacks, and massively unchecked and grossly expensive anti-Cuban propaganda outlets such as the ongoing Radio-TV Marti abomination in Miami. Now Rubio -- whom presidential candidate Trump mocked as Little Marco" -- has been anointed by President Trump as America's new Cuban dictator. That once was a very powerful economic and political sure thing but times may have changed, especially if Rubio can't count on powerful journalists such as Karen DeYoung to at least acquiesce to whatever he unleashes against Cuba. At the moment there are suspicions in both Havana and Washington that Rubio hopes to use the "sonic wave acoustic attacks" to convince the U. S. State Department to return Cuba to its Sponsors of Terrorism list, which would further tighten the noose and sharpen the cross-hairs that Rubio already has aimed at the vulnerable island. But, Senator, is Cuba a sponsor of terrorism or a target of terrorism? Perhaps you should ask an expert...like Karen DeYoung at the Washington Post...instead of just assuming that Miami and Congressional zealots still have total control of America's Cuban narrative.

And by the way:

  One of Cuba's most popular young broadcast journalists, Lazaro Manuel Alonso, recently had a serious operation. When he was fully recovered, Lazaro returned to the hospital to thank his doctors and nurses, including Dr. Milene Vazquez. Health care and university educations in Cuba are totally free. Yet, Rubio and other Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and the U. S. Congress repeatedly tell the American people they must keep the embargo in place and expand it because every dollar that reaches the island goes into the bank accounts of the Castros." Since 1962, many Americans have quite shamefully accepted such cruel, self-serving lies hook, line, and sinker.

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Cuba Says U.S. Is Lying

About Alleged "Sonic Attacks"!!
{Posted for: Sunday, November 5th, 2017}

Photo courtesy: Alex Brandon/Associated Press.

     At a major news conference at The National Press Club in Washington this week -- November 2nd, 2017 -- Cuba's frustrated Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the United States was "deliberately lying" about the alleged sonic-wave attacks at the American embassy in Havana and at Havana hotels including Capri and Nacional. Rodriguez said: "I can categorically affirm that those that say there have been attacks are deliberately lying. No attack has occurred. No deliberate action has taken place. If the United States government thinks otherwise, I invite it to present evidence." At Cuba's request, U. S. FBI teams have made four exhaustive trips to the island to investigate, as have units from the Royal Canadian Mounties plus 3,000 of Cuba's own investigators. Rodriguez maintained the "lies" were fabricated to hurt Cuba and to serve as a pretext to harm tourism to Cuba, not unlike the series of deadly hotel bombings in Havana in 1997 that well-known CIA-Cuban American terrorists admitted were designed to scare-off visits to the island. Rodriguez pointed out that after announcing the attacks months ago the U. S. government "requested 212 visas for relatives and friends of diplomats to make more than 251 pleasure trips outside Havana knowing that Cuba was not unsafe" even while it was "warning Americans" not to visit Cuba. ABC News asked the U. S. State Department to respond to the Rodriguez statements but says it got no immediate reaction.

          Acoustic experts in Cuba, the U. S., and Canada agree with Rodriguez's claim that no single device could possibly have caused the health damages to the 24 Americans as claimed by the U. S. government. Even anti-Cuban zealots from the George W. Bush administration, such as Michael Palmly, agree that the Cuban government "wouldn't shoot itself in the foot with such tactics" but, as Palmly opined, such acts would only benefit someone interested in hurting Cuba and reversing the positive relations extended to Cuba by the Obama presidency.

            So this week, Bruno Rodriguez in Washington invited the United States to show Cuba some evidence proving the sonic-attacks actually occurred. He said, "If the United States has proof of such intentional and devious wrong-doing, Cuba is the country that most wants to know about it to clear up the mystery or the lies."

And by the way:

      This week in the U. S. the handful of Counter-Revolutionary Cuban-Americans who still, after all these decades, dictate America's Cuban narrative do not want Americans to know about the important photo above that should have made U. S. headlines this week. It shows two ultra-powerful Cubans -- Bruno Rodriguez in the middle and Josefina Vidal on the right -- meeting in Washington with American business executives at the headquarters of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.

      While the miscreants who dictate America's Cuban narrative highlight the "mysterious" sonic-attacks as their latest tool to wipe-out Cuba, the photo above shows Vidal and Rodriguez discussing business opportunities in Cuba with top U. S. business executives who were obviously very interested and very attentive.

       Of course, the intimidated or politically correct mainstream news media wouldn't dare mention this important and very positive U.S.-Cuban meeting arranged this week by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. And by the way, the two invited Cubans -- Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal -- will, I believe, be two of the three most important Cubans on the island starting in February of 2018 when Raul Castro steps down as President, with 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel making up the other third of Cuba's new Big Three. While remnants from the long-ago ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship still want to keep U.S.-Cuban relations in an unending Cold War era, most Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and Americans want to move on to a mutually beneficial and decent relationship, and so do all of America's best friends around the world, as registered again this week by the yearly vote at the United Nations. 

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