A Tearful Look at Cuba

The Tears Are for America!!

{Note: This essay -- "A Tearful Look at Cuba: The Tears Are for America" -- was posted Sunday, Nov. 12th, and, according to the Google and Amazon metrics, it quickly received an additional above normal thousands of views. Thus, I left it at the top of Cubaninsider for two more days, including today --Tuesday, Nov. 14th -- 2017}.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Rothman.

       Tears have flowed from my eyes very seldom during my lifetime. But I admit I cried...even sobbed...when I read the story behind the photo depicted above. I am an America, born and bred, and I love my country. But I am ashamed...as you should be if you are an American...that my country in 1952 sicced the Mafia on Cuba to support the vile Batista dictatorship so a few already rich, politically connected rogues in the Eisenhower administration -- such as the ultra-powerful Dulles brothers -- could partake in the rape and robbery of the Caribbean's biggest and most beautiful island. In January of 1959 the Cuban Revolution shocked the world by becoming the only nation to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship, but only managed to chase the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictators to their next haven on U. S. soil with the Little Havana neighborhood in nearby Miami becoming their new capital. Although never held accountable, the Bush dynasty from the outset supported and master-minded the Little Havana plague that quickly advanced to the U. S. Congress and is enmeshed in all Republican administrations. Americans are not supposed to know such things but de-classified U. S. documents connect George H. W. Bush to the CIA and the Little Havana power-base in the 1950s long before he became CIA Director in 1976 followed by two terms as Vice President and one term as President, setting up his son George W.'s two-terms as President and his son Jeb's two terms as Governor of Florida as well as Jeb's ongoing presidential ambitions for himself and Jeb's son George P. Bush. In other words, propagandized Americans have meekly accepted America's asinine Cuban policies since the 1950s that the rest of the entire world, including America's best friends, finds appalling. With that prologue, permit me to return to the photo that brought unabashed tears to my eyes:

      I urge you to study it again. This photo was taken in April of 2015. It shows an American student-journalist named Lauren Rothman visiting Cuba at the urging of President Barack Obama. During his two-terms as President, Mr. Obama was the only U. S. president with the guts, intelligence, and decency to severely challenge the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictation of America's cruel Cuban policies. For example, in order to support the Batistiano-Mafiosi propaganda lies, everyday Americans prior to Obama were the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba. Obama with Executive Orders changed that and other cruel and un-democratic Cuban-related practices although before, during, and after Obama the Bastiano-Mafiosi dictators have maintained primary control of America's Cuban policies with their undeserved power in the U. S. Congress regarding Cuba. Thus, Bush-anointed Counter Revolutionary Cubans such as pre-Obama extremists Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart dictated Cuban policy to Congress while post-Obama and Bush and now Trump-anointed Miami Cubans have been allowed to dictate Cuban policy to both Congress and every Republican White House. All brave journalists and politicians in Washington know that Miami's contributions to the U. S. Congress -- Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart -- dictated the freshly punitive Trump policies aimed at Cuba on November 9th, 2017. The Bush dynasty and now the Trump White House allow only vicious Cuban extremists to dictate America's Cuban policy because two generations of Americans have not had the guts or the patriotism to intervene. Meanwhile, the majority of Cuban-Americans...over two million of them...are perfectly decent U. S. citizens who strongly desire Obama-like normal relations with Cuba. However, only Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists get elected to the U. S. Congress and when even well-known decent Cubans, such as Miami's Hugo Cancio, complain about that catastrophic anti-democratic phenomenon, it is to no avail...a situation reminiscent of when the very decent Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, complained about Cuban-American terrorism against innocent Cubans only to get car-bombed himself in Miami. And that takes me back to the photo that brought tears to my democracy-loving eyes.

     Encouraged by President Obama, student-journalist Lauren Rothman visited Cuba in April of 2015. She traveled extensively and made friends with many everyday Cubans, including the little boy shown above. When she returned to America, the heart-broken Lauren penned an article still posted online and entitled: "AS PRESIDENT OBAMA EASES RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO CUBA, ONE STUDENT TAKES A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE ISLAND NATION." As noted, Counter Revolutionaries such as Rubio, Menendez, Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen, Curbelo, etc. in the U. S. Congress didn't want Lauren or any other free-thinking, freedom-loving American to visit Cuba because that might interfere with their lies about why they are enhancing, with President Trump's gutless cooperation, the embargo of Cuba that was imposed way back in 1962 to starve, deprive and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. That fact has been revealed by de-classified U. S. documents from 1962 but Americans are supposed to be too afraid to acknowledge it. But Lauren Rothman, the student-journalist, acknowledged such things after President Obama arranged for her to visit Cuba in 2015 prior to his own historic visit in 2016. While in Cuba, Lauren acutely observed how everyday Cubans, like the little boy she befriended, are punished everyday of their lives -- like all decent Cubans since 1959 -- by rich, powerful, revengeful, and unchecked Cubans hiding behind the skirts of the Superpower U. S. government. Lauren's article upon her return to the U. S. had photos of such totally innocent Cubans on the island "suffering" while the vicious Cubans in Miami and in Congress force the American people to accept the lie that they must punish them in order to punish "the Castros." Intimidated cowards, of course, are the only ones who accept such lies. Lauren Rothman, after visiting Cuba courtesy of Obama, certainly doesn't believe them...not now and not ever again.

        Lauren Rothman's article included photos of innocent Cubans on the island, such as the little boy she befriended, who have been and are being tortured, ever since 1962, by cruel and revengeful Cuban-Americans with the cowardly concurrence of most Americans. Lauren included photos of elderly Cubans who had suffered such torture all their lives from the shores of a foreign country, the United States. Those photos are too painful for me to show here. But I do show Lauren's photo depicted above of a totally innocent Cuban on the island who tries so hard to hide his suffering caused since 1962 by unchecked U. S. Cubans such as the Bush-anointed Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart long-ago to the Trump-anointed Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart today. Lauren Rothman concluded her heart-wrenching article with the words that brought tears to my democracy-loving American eyes. Those words, illustrated by the photo above, were and are:

              "Cuba tries hard, too hard, to cover up its poverty. The government struggles to put up a brilliant facade, and the question comes down to how sensitive you need to be to see it. With extra thought, you can look beneath the surface of the tourist-filled Cuba, and you can see the struggle of the people. Although there wasn't an immediate display of suffering, it's hard to say how we can help." Those were Lauren Rothman's concluding words, the words that made me cry. Like her, I have been to Cuba and I have seen the suffering of totally innocent Cubans being punished every day of their lives by greedy and powerful Cubans in the U. S. hiding behind the gutlessness of the American people who have allowed them to do it since 1959 and especially since 1962 when the still-viable embargo was imposed to starve, deprive and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans to induce them to overthrow their revolutionary government. To their credit, Cubans have not attempted to do that because, I believe, they do not want a return of the Batistianos, Mafiosi, and rich Americans who robbed and brutalized the island without mercy from 1952 till 1959.

One final Lauren Rothman thought:

    President Trump, un-patriotic Americans, and an incompetent or intimidated mainstream U. S. media is today permitting U. S. Senator Marco Rubio to be the prime dictator of America's Cuban policy, which is reversing President Obama's sane and decent Cuban policies that Obama bravely forged despite the Batistiano-controlled U. S. Congress. For example, Rubio was the prime architect of the avalanche of hateful Trump rules announced on November 9th, 2017. A lavishly funded presidential wannabee from Miami, Rubio is daily depicted in the U. S. media as a Mother Teresa-like choirboy. A braver and more accurate depiction of Rubio, I believe, is in a long and massively documented article by Ken Silverstein, one of America's all-time best and most respected investigative journalists. Silverstein -- in the article fronted by the graphic below -- depicts Rubio as America's greatest "For Sale" politician massively corrupted by...real estate deals, credit card shenanigans, Washington lobbyists, etc. As far as I know, no one has denied Silverstein's revelations nor has he been sued for so publicly revealing them.

Marco Rubio, Trump's Cuban dictator.
The graphic above fronts the aforementioned Ken Silverstein article.

      A photo Rubio doesn't want Americans to see shows a decent, democracy-loving American named Lauren Rothman befriending a totally innocent little Cuban boy. Lauren returned to America ashamed of the suffering she saw and openly wondered how Americans can do something about it. Well, Lauren, here's my opinion: To keep Cuban children on the island, like the little boy that touched your heart, from being punished all their lives...as their parents and grand-parents have been punished...I believe Americans should demand that America's Cuban policy, condemned by the whole world, should be taken out of the hands of a second generation of greedy, revengeful benefactors like Marco Rubio and the Diaz-Balarts. Most Cuban-Americans, like Hugo Cancio in Miami; and most members of Congress, like Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont and Kathy Castor from Florida, desire normal and decent relations with Cuba. But "most" doesn't count in the U. S. democracy, it seems, when a Batista or a Canosa or a Diaz-Balart or a Rubio are permitted to dictate a Cuban policy that shames America and Democracy in the eyes of the world. As Lauren Rothman points out, the little Cuban boy shown above is not America's enemy and a handful of miscreants in America should not be allowed to punish him the rest of his life. The rest of the non-American world agrees with that sentiment. But so do decent Congressmen like Senator Leahy, decent Miami Cubans like Hugo Cancio, and decent Americans like Lauren Rothman.

     So why does the mainstream U. S. media saturate proselytized Americans with Marco Rubio's sanitized lies about his Cuban cruelty while only U. S. media outlets like C-SPAN dare to vent Senator Patrick Leahy's Cuban truths???

        This is Hugo Cancio, the well known Miami businessman who travels often to Cuba. Hugo openly wonders why only Counter Revolutionary extremists like Rubio and the Diaz-Balart brothers get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami while the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami, like Hugo, desire Obama-like normal relations with Cuba. And forgive Hugo if he also wonders why more Americans don't have the guts or the patriotism to wonder about the same thing.

      Born in Miami on Aug. 20-1966, Kathy Castor has brilliantly represented the Tampa area of Florida in the U. S. Congress since 2007. In all that time, she has fervently fought for the U. S. to normalize relations with Cuba. Note above her appearnce on C-SPAN to promote her dedicated work as Co-Chair of the Cuba Working Group. The anti-Cuban zealots in the U. S. Congress from Miami, like Rubio and Diaz-Balart, can get on the mainstream U. S. television networks any hour of any day to spout-out their anti-Cuban venom. But the same U. S. networks do not have the courage or the integrity to air the views of the brilliant and decent Kathy Castor and Americans are not supposed to have the guts to question why that is so. But there is a brilliant broadcast anchor in Cuba that has questioned such things both in Cuba and on American soil in Washington, D. C. and at three U. S. universities.

 On both Cuban soil and American soil, Cuba's highly respected and influential television anchor, Cristina Escobar, has firmly stated: "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." NBC-TV's veteran Chief Foreign Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, the U. S. journalist who often visits Cuba, bravely congratulated Cristina Escobar for that comment.  Also, Cristina Escobar is so respected by American journalists that she is the only Cuban from the island ever to ask questions at a White House news conference, and she asked six that special day. But, of course, propagandized Americans are supposed to only get their Cuban "news" from the likes of Marco Rubio while dismissing truths from...for sure...Cristina Escobar or Andrea Mitchell.

     On her most recent visit to Cuba, Andrea Mitchell reported fairly back to NBC on two pertinent and current issues: {1} The mysterious {Miami?} sonic-acoustic attacks that Rubio and his ilk are using as an excuse to further punish innocent Cubans; and {2} Andrea Mitchell interviewed everyday Cubans who became successful entrepreneurs thanks to President Obama's kindnesses only to be brought to tears now that President Trump has anointed Rubio America's cruel Cuban dictator.

      It was in the above interview with Andrea Mitchell that proud Cuban entrepreneur Julia de la Rosa cried when she talked about how her 10-room Bed & Breakfast had thrived thanks to the Obama presidency but has now been destroyed by the cruel Trump presidency when Trump turned over his Cuban policies to Counter Revolutionary Miami members of Congress Rubio and Diaz-Balart. Assuming Americans are either cowards or idiots, they claim they are hurting "the Castros." For over half-a-century it has, of course, been non-political Cubans like Julia who have been most hurt by the likes of Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart from their entrenched sanctuaries in the U. S. Congress where their revenge against Cuba is grossly exacerbated when Republicans occupy the U. S. White House.

      If the photo above of the teary-eyes Julia de la Rosa didn't bring tears to your American eyes, I believe the photo above should. That's Yamina Vicente holding up and delivering a plea in Washington signed by Yamina and three dozen other young Cubans who had started their own successful businesses thanks to President Obama bravely confronting the cruelty of Rubio, Diaz-Balart, etc. The signed letter begged...BEGGED!!...President Trump to allow them to "continue to be able to make livings for their families in Cuba." In my opinion, any American who is not brought to tears by the letter Yamina is holding is both anti-American and anti-democracy.

Above is a quote by Yamina in Washington. 

      The montage above shows President Donald Trump flanked by Marco Rubio and by Mario Diaz-Balart. The two Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American extremists are among Miami's current contributions to the United States Congress. Rubio the "choirboy" arrived in the U. S. Senate with his bio still claiming his parents fled the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami; then it was pointed out that Rubio's parents had fled the tyranny of Batista's Cuba long before Americans had ever heard of Fidel Castro. Diaz-Balart's father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then in 1959 rich enough to create the first Counter Revolutionary paramilitary unit in South Florida. So now, as most Americans sit back on their cowardly rear-ends, Trump has turned America's Cuban policies over to Rubio and Diaz-Balart who in turn are busy reversing the decency of the Obama presidency. And that's why the decent, hard-working Cuban, Julia de la Rosa, cried when NBC's Andrea Mitchell interviewed her in Havana recently. And that's why Yamina Vicente, on behalf of dozens of other young Cuban entrepreneurs like her, brought that letter to Washington BEGGING President Trump and the United States of America to allow them to make decent livings in their own sovereign country.

     The Rubio/Trump/Diaz-Balart disaster is why decent Americans like Lauren Rothman are direly concerned about miscreants in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA punishing decent Cubans like Julia de la Rosa and Yamina Vicente and Cuban children like the little boy that touched the caring heart of Lauren Rothman. And the photo above is the precise reason Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio and Diaz-Balart try to dictate that Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba because in "legalizing" such laws in the U. S. Congress they can continue to punish totally innocent Cubans like Julia, Yamina, and this little boy.

*&***********************&*

            

A True Peek at Cuba

Daily Life on the Island!
{Updated for: Saturday, November 11th, 2017}

    The photo-graphic above is courtesy of The National Geographic and the Charles Krulwich blog. It reminds me of a phenomenon that I, a passionate bird-lover, observed on my visit to Cuba. Many Cubans I met were/are far more concerned about pigeons...as a hobby and as competitive athletes...than they are with the latest U.S.-Cuban turmoil, which they have become accustomed to all their entire lives.

     An excellent and fair-minded Associated Press journalist in Cuba is Andrea Rodriguez. This week on November 9th and 10th the Cuban headlines in the United States loudly heralded the Nov. 9th-2017 announcement of the Trump administration's latest torrid sanctions against Cuba designed to finally overthrow the Cuban Revolution that reshaped both nations in 1959. But on Nov. 9-2017 Andrea Rodriguez's major AP article from Cuba was headlined "Pigeon Competitions Take Flight Over Rooftops in Cuba." The superb article showed up in hundreds of American newspapers from the Washington Post in the East to the Los Angeles Times in the West. Andrea wrote: "Pigeons lovingly raised and trained in rooftop pens are daily turned loose across Havana. The magnificent birds dart through the air in feats of aerial acrobatics, competing to see whose pigeon can out-fly and out-maneuver their rivals and win over females in contests that draw huge audiences on the ground." I witnessed that fierce-but-fun competition in Cuba and you can experience it via the excellent writing of Andrea Rodriguez in the aforementioned AP article. Andrea noted that many Cubans in the U. S. are also addicted to the sport and often travel to Cuba to obtain the best trained pigeons.

Viva Cuba's love of pigeons.

Viva Andrea Rodriguez for reminding us!!

      My old friend and antagonist Larry Daley surfaces in the "Comment" sections of many U. S. articles I read about Cuba. For example, Karen DeYoung's major article in the Washington Post on Nov. 9, 2017, recapped the Trump administration's blisteringly cruel new sanctions against Cuba's Cubans spotlighting the fervent attempts of all Republican stalwarts in Washington trying to starve-deprive-make misery the lives of Cubans on the island so they will rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. I didn't count or read all the "Comments" Larry contributed to the Karen DeYoung November 9th article but there must have been about fifteen, all viciously supporting Trump's efforts to recapture Cuba to appease a handful of old U. S. Counter Revolutionaries like Larry who remain obsessed with excoriating the Castros and the Revolution that overturned the Batista-Mafia dictatorship way back on Jan. 1-1959. Larry Daley...I once knew but now forget his Cuban name...seems typical of the vast Castro Cottage Industry that has thrived unchecked for decades in America. I have old-fashioned America beliefs that people should use their real names to substantiate their viewpoints, hopefully some of which would be a little unbiased.

     In 2005 when my biography of Cuba's revolutionary heroine Celia Sanchez was published, Larry Daley gave it a 3-star rating on Amazon and then proceeded to dismiss it as a pro-Communist review of Celia's incomparable impact on both the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. {P.S.: I'm passionately pro-Democracy and that's why I resent the transfer of the Batista dictatorship to America}. Larry's review got a reaction from me that resulted in about 35 candid exchanges with Larry Daley that are still posted on Amazon. I wasn't concerned with criticism of me but his self-serving distortions about Celia Sanchez infuriated me because I thought he was {is}, like so many others, hiding behind his Americanized name and behind the intimidated political correctness in the U. S. that dictates that only Counter Revolutionary Cubans should be allowed to control the Cuban narrative in America -- in other words, proclaiming that the Batista-Mafia regime in Cuba was a Mother Teresa-like heavenly gift to the Cuban people while Revolutionary leaders such as Celia Sanchez were/are fiends. In the 35 or so heated exchanges with me, Larry Daley claimed he knew a lot more about Celia than I did BECAUSE HE FOUGHT WITH HER UNDER FIDEL CASTRO DURING THE REVOLUTION THAT OUSTED THE BATISTA-MAFIA DICTATORSHIP, chasing many of its leaders to an even more lucrative reconstitution on U. S. soil.

      This is a photo of Larry Daley when he still had a Cuban name, the way he looked when he presumably fought with Celia Sanchez in what Larry calls Fidel Castro's Assault Group 6 Column One.  The photos of Larry Daley were used in an article he wrote on February 6, 2015 in the Corvalis Gazette-Times in Oregon. It was/is entitled: "As I See It: A Witness to the Cuban Revolution." It was/is a scathing attack on Raul Castro. Larry Daley wrote: "Perhaps it is a presumption of mine, but I believe my knowledge of Raul Castro's record is more extensive than that of most in the area. After all, in 1958 I was a member of assault group 6 in his brother's Column One." Then Larry Daley added: "I know that Raul 'suicided' his sister-in-law Nilsa Espin, empting a full magazine from a submarine gun in her body." Ummmmmm, Larry? Are we really supposed to believe that, or believe any of the "Comments" you added to Karen DeYoung's Nov. 9th-2017 article?

     Historians, at least unbiased ones, know that Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin were legendary guerrilla fighters in Cuba's Revolutionary War. In the historic photo above taken by famed female War Photographer Dickey Chapelle {who died on a battlefield in Vietnam in 1965}, that's the always studious Celia and the always merry Vilma between battles against the supposedly vastly superior U.S.-backed Batista armies. Vilma actually was a student at one of America's great universities, MIT, when Celia wrote a letter to Boston saying, "Return home. Our underground has commenced an exciting revolution that is about to turn hot. I know you don't want to miss it." And Vilma didn't. By the time Dickey Chapelle took the above photo, Fidel Castro worshiped Celia Sanchez and Raul Castro was madly in love with Vilma.

     In 1959, within a few days after ousting Batista, Vilma Espin married Raul Castro. They remained married until June 18, 2007, which was the day Vilma died of cancer.

      Vilma Espin Castro gave birth to four children by her husband Raul. The photo above shows their dear friend Celia Sanchez admiring one of Vilma's newborns. Vilma named her four babies Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro. Larry Daley claims Raul "emptied" a machine gun into the body of Vilma's sister Nilsa Espin. It is quite obvious that Vilma Espin never believed that...or believed much else of the Cuban narrative in the U. S. dictated since 1959 by Counter Revolutionaries like Larry Daley. And neither should Americans in 2017.

    The photo above depicts what Fidel Castro himself considered the Big Four of the Cuban Revolution and of Revolutionary Cuba. Of that quartet, Fidel rated Celia Sanchez #1 with himself, Vilma, and Raul bunched behind Celia. They were all prime guerrilla fighters and decision-makers during the war but Celia was the most important recruiter of rebels and supplies as well as being, with Fidel's fervent blessing and support, the prime decision-maker during the war and in Revolutionary Cuba till January 11-1980 when she died, at age 59, of cancer. In fact, in 2005 Marta Rojas told me, "Since Celia died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has continued to rule Cuba only as he precisely believes Celia would want him to rule it." And Marta would know.

     The photo above shows Marta Rojas and Fidel Castro in 1959. Marta was two years younger than Fidel. She was born on May 17, 1928, in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

      At age 89, Marta Rojas, beyond doubt, knows more about Celia Sanchez, Fidel Castro, and the Cuban Revolution than any living soul. As a journalist {beginning during the Batista dictatorship}, Marta helped save Fidel Castro's life when he was imprisoned from 1953 till 1955 and, via an exchange of crucial notes she carried to-and-from his prison cell in her bra, Marta created the ultra-vital Fidel-Celia nexus before they ever laid eyes on each other. Marta wrote the obituary of Celia Sanchez in 1980 that appeared on the front page of the Granma newspaper where she was an editor. Marta emerged in Revolutionary Cuba as an internationally acclaimed author and historian with her publishers including the U. S. giant Random House. She is a dear, sweet lady and, I repeat, the world's greatest expert on the Cuban Revolution.

      I believe the best book by Marta Rojas was and is "Tania: The Unforgettable Guerrilla." Later, as indicated above, Marta contributed to various historical accounts of Tania, the guerrilla fighter who died fighting with Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967.

      Marta Rojas's fascinating book forever attached the moniker "The Unforgettable Guerrilla" to the Tania that died fighting with Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967. She was waist-deep in a creek firing her rifle at soldiers mostly obscured by dense foliage when she was felled by a hail of bullets. She is remembered for her beauty as well as her fearlessness as a guerrilla fighter. Tania's real name was Tamara Bunker and the name she used in Bolivia while fighting with Che Guevara was Laura Gutierrez. 

     One of America's all-time most fascinating crime stories dates from the 1970s and relates to newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. After being kidnapped by an extremist rebel group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, Patty Hearst incredibly evolved into a bank-robbing guerrilla fighter herself. During that frantic period, Patty Hearst adopted the rebel name "Tania" based on Marta Rojas's "Unforgettable" guerrilla fighter.

      In 1974 the biggest headlines in America were reserved for the Patty Hearst saga and how the heiress to the Hearst newspaper fortune turned into the American guerrilla fighter and bank robber named "Tania." The first paragraph of the above article said Patty's kidnapping created "the biggest manhunt in U. S. history." As a guerrilla fighter, Patty chose the name "Tania" after Marta Rojas's "Unforgettable" guerrilla fighter who died with Che Guevara in Bolivia.

*&***********************&*  

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.

  *&***********************&*