From Cuba to America...
with Greed!!
{Sunday, December 7th, 2018}
{Sunday, December 7th, 2018}
A couple of weeks ago someone sent me a copy of "The Breaking Point" by best-selling author James Dale Davidson. It's almost 600 pages and I just finished it. The 14th chapter -- entitled "The Domino Effect" -- is, I think, the best documentation I'm aware of that depicts the gigantic effect on the U. S. democracy of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba. It chronicles how the overthrown Batista-Mafia leaders were primarily chased to U. S. soil by the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1, 1959. James Dale Davidson minutely documents what has since become, in his words, a massive "Domino Effect" cascading through America and Democracy. In one of his Chapter 14 footnotes he credits as a source a Cubaninsider essay that I entitled "The Cruel War on Innocent Cubans." I published that post on Sept. 17, 2013 but it is still quickly available by just Googling "The Cruel War on Innocent Cubans." I am proud that an economist and author of Mr. Davidson's statue seems to agree with me concerning how the proud United States of America has been so drastically transformed by first supporting the brutal-thieving Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 and then -- after it was overthrown on the first day of 1959 -- the USA has simply allowed it to reconstitute itself on U. S. soil with Little Havana in Miami as its new and current capital.
As a best-selling author and renowned investor, James Davidson's latest book -- "The Breaking Point" -- is, I believe, a must-read for anyone interested in how the USA has been affected, effected, and infected by the transformation of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to the U. S. in 1959. And I say that not because in the crucial Chapter 14's "The Domino Effect" he credits Cubaninsider as one of his sources. Below are some pertinent excerpts from that Chapter 14 that Americans need to know about the "domino effect" the Batista-Mafia dictatorship has had on America since it was chased...in perpetuity, it seems...to the United States:
"It is a little known fact that Cuba would have become a U. S. state in the wake of the 1898 Spanish American War if not for the fierce opposition of Western sugar beet farmers. Cuba had become the chief sugar producer in the world after 1860. Following the Spanish American War, the Treaty of Paris assumed the United States would occupy Cuba. As a result of U. S. occupation, tariffs on Cuban sugar were reduced by 52 percent. This exposed Western sugar beet farmers to competition, to which they proved predictably allergic. Not to worry: Senator Henry Teller of Colorado had proposed and enacted the Teller Amendment prohibiting the annexation of Cuba out of fear that annexation would open the inefficient U. S. sugar market to competition.
"Remember, Cuba's penultimate dictator before Castro, the klelptocrat Fulgencio Batista, governed in conjunction with Mafia kingpins Meyer Lansky, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, and Santo Trafficante Jr. The Mafia bosses preferred to do business with Batista. It was well known that Batista's bag-men would call every night on Trafficante's casinos, including the iconic Tropicana Club, to collect 10 percent of the day's take."
After those indelible facts, James Dale Davidson in his Chapter 14 -- "The Domino Effect" -- explains how Batista's Cuban and Mafia henchmen regrouped in South Florida starting in January of 1959, after being booted off the island by the Cuban Revolution. On United States soil they immediately and eternally began to apply what they had learned in Cuba, which is how to purchase corrupt leaders. To quote Mr. Davidson:
"You probably don't know the Fanjuls, unless you see them lording around Palm Beach, as I sometimes do. To understand what happened next {After the Cuban Revolution's 1959 victory}, you have to appreciate the luminously corrupt way that business was conducted in pre-Castro Cuba. As the leading sugar plantation in mid-century Cuba, the Fanjuls had honed their political skills in dealing with a corrupt government whose leaders were only too keen to enrich the few at the expense of the many, especially when they could rake off a piece of the action for their pains."
Then James Davidson in "The Domino Effect" chapter of his great book explained how the Fanjul sugar monoply in Cuba prior to the Revolution became the far more lucrative sugar monopoly in the USA after the Revolution, and by employing the exact same tactics -- buying off the necessary corrupt politicians. Mr. Davidson wrote:
"They {the Fanjuls} rigged the markets so that American consumers and taxpayers had to lavishly subsidize them. The CNN/GAO estimate that rigged sugar markets put about $60 million a year into the Fanjuls bank accounts is really a gross underestimation. The total costs are much higher than that. Economists put the dead weight loss to consumers from inflated sugar prices to $3.5 billion annually, and that doesn't count the follow-on costs. The sugar barons also convinced politicians to make taxpayers absorb the lion's share of the costs for cleaning up the mess they made." {That latter fact referenced the Fanjuls' vast sugar operation that has caused billions of dollars in environmental damage to Florida's crucial Everglades, costing taxpayers billions of additional dollars to subsidize the Fanjuls' sugar monopoly in the United States}.
With those and many other documented facts, James Dale Davidson chronicles how Cuban monopolies prior to the Revolution became far bigger monopolies in the U. S. after the Revolution beginning in 1959. And both in Cuba and then in the United States, easily purchasing politicians fueled the Cuban monopolies in both nations. The fiercely Counter Revolutionary Bush political-economic dynasty, for example, has been massively supported for decades by Cuban-American billionaires.
The photo above famously illustrates precisely how powerful the Fanjul brothers can influence USA Presidents and members of Congress that gullible voters send to Washington. One afternoon when First Lady Hillary Clinton was out of town, President Bill Clinton was having sex with intern Monica Lewinsky. Presidential aides made sure Bill and Monica weren't disturbed...and they weren't until a phone call from Miami was patched in to President Clinton because it was a Democratic billionaire that couldn't be put on hold until the Clinton-Lewinsky session was over. The caller was the Fanjul brother that took care of Democratic politicians and the Fanjuls just wanted to make sure that President Clinton supported the sugar subsidy bill that was upcoming. The call, as documented by history only after DNA proved there was sperm on Monica's now historic blue dress, lasted well over 20 minutes. The iconic Clinton-Lewinsky episode, and that phone call, corresponds with what James Dale Davidson proved in Chapter 14 of his book "The Breaking Point" and what I proved in the Cubaninsider essay that he referenced -- "The Cruel War on Innocent Cubans." Of course, it has also been a CRUEL WAR on innocent American taxpayers since 1959, as the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal also conclusively proved.
"It is a little known fact that Cuba would have become a U. S. state in the wake of the 1898 Spanish American War if not for the fierce opposition of Western sugar beet farmers. Cuba had become the chief sugar producer in the world after 1860. Following the Spanish American War, the Treaty of Paris assumed the United States would occupy Cuba. As a result of U. S. occupation, tariffs on Cuban sugar were reduced by 52 percent. This exposed Western sugar beet farmers to competition, to which they proved predictably allergic. Not to worry: Senator Henry Teller of Colorado had proposed and enacted the Teller Amendment prohibiting the annexation of Cuba out of fear that annexation would open the inefficient U. S. sugar market to competition.
"Remember, Cuba's penultimate dictator before Castro, the klelptocrat Fulgencio Batista, governed in conjunction with Mafia kingpins Meyer Lansky, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, and Santo Trafficante Jr. The Mafia bosses preferred to do business with Batista. It was well known that Batista's bag-men would call every night on Trafficante's casinos, including the iconic Tropicana Club, to collect 10 percent of the day's take."
After those indelible facts, James Dale Davidson in his Chapter 14 -- "The Domino Effect" -- explains how Batista's Cuban and Mafia henchmen regrouped in South Florida starting in January of 1959, after being booted off the island by the Cuban Revolution. On United States soil they immediately and eternally began to apply what they had learned in Cuba, which is how to purchase corrupt leaders. To quote Mr. Davidson:
"You probably don't know the Fanjuls, unless you see them lording around Palm Beach, as I sometimes do. To understand what happened next {After the Cuban Revolution's 1959 victory}, you have to appreciate the luminously corrupt way that business was conducted in pre-Castro Cuba. As the leading sugar plantation in mid-century Cuba, the Fanjuls had honed their political skills in dealing with a corrupt government whose leaders were only too keen to enrich the few at the expense of the many, especially when they could rake off a piece of the action for their pains."
Then James Davidson in "The Domino Effect" chapter of his great book explained how the Fanjul sugar monoply in Cuba prior to the Revolution became the far more lucrative sugar monopoly in the USA after the Revolution, and by employing the exact same tactics -- buying off the necessary corrupt politicians. Mr. Davidson wrote:
"They {the Fanjuls} rigged the markets so that American consumers and taxpayers had to lavishly subsidize them. The CNN/GAO estimate that rigged sugar markets put about $60 million a year into the Fanjuls bank accounts is really a gross underestimation. The total costs are much higher than that. Economists put the dead weight loss to consumers from inflated sugar prices to $3.5 billion annually, and that doesn't count the follow-on costs. The sugar barons also convinced politicians to make taxpayers absorb the lion's share of the costs for cleaning up the mess they made." {That latter fact referenced the Fanjuls' vast sugar operation that has caused billions of dollars in environmental damage to Florida's crucial Everglades, costing taxpayers billions of additional dollars to subsidize the Fanjuls' sugar monopoly in the United States}.
With those and many other documented facts, James Dale Davidson chronicles how Cuban monopolies prior to the Revolution became far bigger monopolies in the U. S. after the Revolution beginning in 1959. And both in Cuba and then in the United States, easily purchasing politicians fueled the Cuban monopolies in both nations. The fiercely Counter Revolutionary Bush political-economic dynasty, for example, has been massively supported for decades by Cuban-American billionaires.
For example, if in 2018 you Google "Jeb Bush's major billionaire supporter" you will instantly be engaged with numerous historic and topical reports about how Miguel "Mike" Fernandez has fueled and funded Jeb Bush's political success that has included such things as two-terms as Florida's governor as well as a lushly funded 2016 presidential bid. Mike Fernandez was born in Manzanillo, Cuba...the southeastern Cuban city where the greatest of all revolutionary heroines, the incomparable Celia Sanchez, so bravely started the Cuban Revolution. Of course, Mike Fernandez didn't make his billions-of-dollars in Manzanillo, Cuba; those Mike Fernandez billions have been made in Miami-Coral Gables, Florida.
And of course, after her revolution chased the Batistianos and Mafiosi to South Florida in January of 1959, the incomparable Celia Sanchez, as chronicled above by The Woman Project.org, made the most definitive quotation regarding the Cuban Revolution: "We rebels get far too much credit for winning the Revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots."
These are the Fanjul brothers that control the USA's Fanjul sugar monopoly. Prior to the Cuban Revolution it was a monopoly in Cuba. That's Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul on the left with Jose "Pepe" Fanjul on the right. Any Google search takes you to a Bloomberg article that not only reveals their multi-billions-of-dollars but also the billions they have spent on politicians to buttress their billions. The incredible subsidies and other advantages the Fanjul brothers receive from Washington politicians has caused sugar prices in the USA to be by far the highest in the world.
Miami's most famed author and most popular columnist for the Miami Herald -- Carl Hiaasen -- has amassed a fortune writing about the Cuban-related corruption of Miami and Florida politics, which long-ago extended to Washington -- both Congress and the White House. In 2001 Hiaasen was quoted in Variety as saying: "The most telling thing about Alfy Fanjul is that he can get the President {Clinton} on the phone during the middle of a blow-job. That tells you all you need to know about their influence."
Miami, of course, was America's Tropical Paradise but Carl Hiaasen and other brave Miami residents realize it has been a "Paradise Screwed" since January of 1959 when the Cuban Revolution chased top leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to their new haven, Little Havana in Miami. That included Mafia thugs like Meyer Lansky who returned to their homes in Miami...and Rafael Diaz-Balart, a key Batista Minister. Rafael quickly created the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit in South Florida. Two of his sons, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, have been elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress. To this day Miami sends a steady stream of only Counter Revolutionary extremists to Congress although, as Hiaasen has referenced, most Cuban-Americans in Miami favor normalizing relations with Cuba. So, since 1959 "Paradise Screwed" pertains not only to Miami but to America. The ease with which Cuban monopolies and corrupt politics transferred from Cuba to the U. S. after the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution has not only reshaped Miami but all of America. The Fanjul sugar monopoly is only one of the examples of how pre-revolutionary Cubans learned to deal with corrupt politicians and then expanded that knowledge in the U. S. after 1959. If you disagree with that, you should read Chapter 14 -- "The Domino Effect" -- of James Dale Davidson's book that is entitled "The Breaking Point" regarding the U. S. democracy...a breaking point that started in 1952 when right-wingers in the Eisenhower administration were allowed to team the U. S. with the Mafia to support the wicked, thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba so rich American businessmen could partake in the rape and robbery of the plush island. Then in 1959 that assault on Democracy was exacerbated when right-wingers in Washington welcomed the remnants of the overthrown Batistianos into the basic and cherished fabrics of the American Democracy. So Carl Hiassen's Paradise Screwed analogy, like James Dale Davidson's book, is both accurate and precise.
Remember the still famed 1976 "Taxi Driver" movie that starred Robert De Nero and Jodie Foster. Decades later both of them were among the most powerful actors-directors-producers in Hollywood...and they had the power to make any movie they desired...and they desired to make a movie entitled "Sugar Kings" about the Fanjul sugar monopoly that to this day causes Americans to pay by far the highest price in the world for sugar. But...tuh...the normally fearless De Nero was in for a rude awakening regarding ultra-rich Cuban-Americans "Domino Effect" on America.
There are few Hollywood superstars as powerful as Robert De Nero. He spent a lot of time and money preparing to make "Sugar Kings." He was the producer and he would have played Alfy Fanjul. He hired high-priced Jodie Foster as the director and she would have played a lawyer fighting for the sugarcane workers that the Fanjul sugar monopoly was...huh...allegedly mistreating. After incoming flak, De Nero agreed to change the title from "Sugar Kings" to "Sugarland." But incoming flak persisted.
Even teamed with the equally super-powerful Jodie Foster, Robert De Nero's "Sugar Kings" was not made into a movie. They were, in fact, very naive.
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Now 78-years-old, Edna Buchanan is renowned as one of America's most successful authors of crime novels. But prior to that career she was America's best actual crime reporter for the Associated Press and the Miami Herald. As a journalist, Edna Buchanan won a plethora of awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.
Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s Edna Buchanan was stationed in Miami for the AP and the Miami Herald because Miami had replaced Havana as the drug and crime capital. The Batista-Mafia leaders in Cuba were booted off the island with most of them debarking from their cash-and-gold-strewn ships, yachts, and airplanes in Miami. The drug wars alone in Miami fueled unspeakable violence along with unchallenged anti-Cuba terrorism from famed anti-Castro Cuban exiles. In 1976 a decent and well-known Cuban newsman in Miami, Emilio Milian, complained about the ceaseless crime such as car bombings but also the murders of totally innocent people caught in the crossfires or merely just killed to hurt or embarrass Cuba, such as the 1976 terrorist bombing of the child-laden Cubana Flight 455 in which all 73 aboard were killed. Then the brave Emilio himself was car-bombed. The great Edna Buchanan wrote the above article about the car-bombing that silenced Emilio.
In 2006 Billy Corben's award-winning documentary "Cocaine Cowboys" brilliantly chronicled the transition of Cuba's Batista-Mafia dictatorship to Miami in 1959, transitioning Miami into a very rich but crime-ridden city with tentacles that spread across the USA as USA Today has repeatedly headlined regarding Miami as the "epicenter" of drug trafficking, Medicare fraud, etc. Of course, Edna Buchanan was a prime expert in the "Cocaine Cowboys" documentary. One of her typical revelations was: The entire Miami police academy graduating class ended up dead or in jail." She stressed that the police that didn't sell out to the drug-dealers were either killed or jailed. At the end of "Cocaine Cowboys" in 2006 Edna Buchana is shown pointing back at the magnificent Miami skyline. She then looked back at the camera and said that it "was built by drug money." Today Edna Buchanan is a great crime novelist but she is the journalist that best chronicled the unprecedented crime waves that, then and now, followed the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba to U. S. soil.
The Fanjul Sugar Monopoly was founded in Cuba in 1924 but, unwittingly, it got a huge break in 1959 when it was chased to South Florida. If the Fanjuls made millions in Cuba, it is for sure they have made and are making MANY BILLIONS in the United States. And as James Dale Davidson's great book -- "The Breaking Point" -- expertly explains, the Fanjul Sugar Monopoly in the United States of America since 1959 learned about corrupt governments on the besieged Caribbean island. The Fanjul tie-in with the President Clinton-intern Monica Lewinsky scandal is merely one tip-off to how very, very much the USA has changed since the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship fled the Cuban Revolution only to resettle, stronger than ever, on American soil beginning on January 1, 1959. And that fact spawned the theme for Cubaninsider, which is: THE CUBAN REVOLUTION SAYS A LOT MORE ABOUT THE UNITED STATES THAN IT SAYS ABOUT CUBA. If propagandized Americans don't understand that, I believe Alfy and Pepe Fanjul do understand it, as do great American journalists like Edna Buchanan and great American authors like James Davidson.
