Cuba: A U.S. After-Thought?

So, the Overthrow Will Wait!!
{Updated for: Thursday, June 28th, 2018}

    America's Commander-in-Chief, President Donald Trump, has put his promise to the Assault Brigade 2506 survivors on the back-burner, it seems. He, uh, is embroiled in a few more urgent problems -- North Korea, Russia, China, the U.S.-Mexican border, Trade Wars with friends & foes alike, the mainstream U. S. media that is determined to impeach him, etc. As shown above, President Trump went to Little Havana in Miami and stood before a huge Brigade 2506 Assault banner and promised the survivors of the infamous April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba that he would reverse their humiliating defeat as well as all of former President Obama's most decent overtures to Cuba. 

         BUT, the rich & powerful Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans in Miami & the U. S. Congress -- such as the Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- are still strategizing to regain control of Cuba with or without the somewhat distracted President Trump. And, as with all five prior Republican presidential administrations since the 1950s, the Trump White House provides Counter Revolutionary extremists with a fantastic chance to recapture Cuba -- although, somehow, the vulnerable island has maintained its sovereignty since January 1, 1959. Just to give you a hint about who -- in 2018 -- is dictating America's Cuban policy: Lincoln & Mario, the Diaz-Balart brothers shown above, are the sons of a key Minister in the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s. OF COURSE, when the Diaz-Balart brothers are given free airtime and print-space by the mainstream U. S. media to spread their Counter Revolutionary propaganda, no one ever mentions who their father was.

     On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution shocked the world by becoming the first nation to ever overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship, in this case the vile Batista-Mafia regime that had egregiously robbed and brutalized Cuba.

     Since January 1, 1959, the vast North American and International ramifications of the Cuban Revolution have been almost incalculable, encouraging oppressed people around the globe to rise up against oppressors -- from Nelson Mandela's South Africa to Dilma Rousseff's Brazil, and beyond. But suffice to say it has forever changed the island too...giving Cubans at least 7 decades of sovereignty after many centuries of foreign domination -- especially by Spain for 400 years and then U. S. domination that occurred after the 1898 Spanish-American War. But, because the United States had emerged after the end of World War II in 1945 as the world's economic and military Superpower, the primary offshoots of the Cuban Revolution have been even more pronounced in America than on the island itself.

     The January 1-1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution made Fidel Castro a world-wide legend. After all, his little out-manned and out-gunned revolution had defeated a dictator backed by the United States, the world's richest & strongest nation, and by the Mafia, the world richest & strongest criminal organization. BUT it was the Bay of Pigs attack in mid-April of 1961 that cemented Fidel Castro as an everlasting international legend. Once the facts trickled out concerning the cowardly and ignorantly processed attack to overthrow Castro, it was Fidel himself who emerged as the fearless defender of his little island nation. The youthful President Kennedy in 1960 had inherited all the plans for the Bay of Pigs attack from the Eisenhower administration, meaning the same right-wingers who had sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952 were still around to dictate the plans for recapturing Cuba in 1960 and 1961. To Castro's advantage,  they were cowards and idiots. History now knows, for example, that President Kennedy was told: "Hey, don't worry. When our bombs start falling on Cuba, the Cubans will turn against Castro and overthrow him themselves; and when Castro hears our bombs falling on Camp Colombia on the outskirts of Havana, he'll race for his getaway airplane." Of course, Fidel...unlike the Batista-Mafia rulers...didn't have a getaway airplane. And, of course, Fidel, when he heard the bombs falling on Camp Colombia, raced for the front-lines to defend his Revolution, ignoring the falling bombs and racing to the Bay of Pigs where he correctly guessed the ground attack would commence. And of course, the CIA was also 100% wrong about Cubans turning against Castro "when our bombs start falling." None, because they were familiar with the Batista-Mafia rule, turned against him. Prior to 1961, if the U. S. launched a air-ground-and-sea attack against another nation, it would first declare war, as it did in 1898 against Spain when it wanted to gain control of Cuba. But after 1961...with anti-Cuban thugs dictating things in Washington...the U. S. no longer declared war before it launched the cowardly air-land-sea attack on supposedly helpless Revolutionary Cuba.

    In retrospect, Cuba's incomparable Revolutionary heroine, Celia Sanchez, best chronicled and contrasted the bravery of the Cuban rebels and the idiotic cowardice of their enemies: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." Idolized by Fidel Castro, Celia also laid down the mantra and proclamation that still defines the Revolution: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." She first uttered and wrote down that amazingly prescient dictum in 1959. So, her proclamation, against all odds, lasted beyond her death from cancer at age 59 in 1980, beyond Fidel's death from natural causes at age 90 in 2016, and, in fact, it still holds firm.

     While the Batistiano-directed machismo narrative in the U. S. since 1959 tries to ignore the leading role in the Revolution played by the petite doctor's daughter Celia Sanchez, many insiders...most of all Fidel Castro...place her at the forefront of the Revolution as the first major recruiter of rebels and supplies and then as a fearless guerrilla fighter, a military strategist, etc. After the triumph of the Revolution...as all experts including Castro's main U. S. biographer Georgie Anne Geyer well knew...Celia, with Fidel's total support, was the major decision-maker on the island from 1959 till she died of cancer at age 59 on January 11, 1980.

       In Cuba today...as mandated by Fidel Castro...there are many statues and other major tributes to Celia Sanchez but, also mandated by Fidel, there are no statues of him nor are there any roads, buildings, and other edifices named for him.

         Fidel Castro -- who survived hundreds of assassination attempts by the CIA, the Mafia, and the Cuban exiles -- died of natural causes at age 90 on November 25, 2016. The photo above shows Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, paying homage at Fidel's tomb on the far eastern tip of the island. As in 1961 during the Bay of Pigs attack, today the majority of the 11.24 million Cubans on  the island support Fidel's revolutionary legacy and Diaz-Canel's nascent leadership. Since the semi-retirement of Raul Castro, Diaz-Canel on April 19th of 2018 became the first non-Castro and the first non-revolutionary to lead Cuba since 1959.

      Born after the triumph of the Revolution, Miguel Diaz-Canel is the island's former Education Minister and he is shown above recently addressing Cuban schoolchildren as the island's President. Diaz-Canel's continuing popularity as Cuba's leader may hinge on how well he addresses the island's mammoth economic problems as the decent Obama presidency has been replaced by yet-another Republican administration in Washington that is tightly aligned with the top echelon of Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and in the United States Congress.

     The promise made by President Trump to the still-living Brigade 2506 survivors of the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack still stands. Trump, the USA's Commander-in-Chief, stood in front of a huge Brigade 2506 banner in a plush building named for a Bay of Pigs commander in Miami's Little Havana and promised to reverse their long-ago defeat.

    History registers the fact that the Bay of Pigs attackers captured by Fidel Castro's rebels were all later sold back to the United States in exchange for $53 million, most of it paid to Cuba in the form of Baby Aspirin. Of course, many of the returned attackers have continued...for six more decades...their fervent efforts to recapture Cuba, with golden but so-far unsuccessful opportunities provided by six Republican presidents SINCE 1959 AND five Republican presidents since the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack.

     In 1962...after the humiliating Bay of Pigs defeat and after many more assassination attempts against Fidel Castro...the U. S. imposed an economic embargo/blockade against Cuba. Still in effect, it is now history's longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a much-weaker nation. DE-classified U. S. documents confirm that the purpose of the Embargo was/is to STARVE, DEPRIVE, AND MAKE MISERABLE the lives of Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary Government. The United Nations...in 2016, the last year of the decent non-Republican Obama presidency...the UN vote, condoned and supported by President Obama himself, condemned the embargo with international unanimity -- 191-to-0. But it still exists...and in 1976 when the top Cuban-American newsman in Miami, Emilio Milian, bravely complained about murders and other atrocities against innocent Cubans, he was car-bombed. And today neither the U. S. media nor the intimidated and propagandized U. S. citizens have the guts to complain about the Embargo or about what President Trump might do to keep that promise he made to Bay of Pigs survivors in Miami.

     The decent but car-bombed Cuban-American newsman in Miami, Emilio Milian, still to this day represents to much of the world precisely who and what has dictated America's Cuban policies and narratives since the 1950s...brutal tactics that intimidate Americans, Cuban-Americans, and the mainstream media, shaming BOTH THE UNITED STATES AND DEMOCRACY.

     While President Trump, pressured by a mere handful of militant Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans and their sycophants, certainly has the nuclear-powered arsenal to recapture Cuba, to do so he would have to kill millions of Cubans like the ones depicted above marching in 2018. The very day Cuba would be attacked, even by an incomparable nuclear Superpower, another Revolution would immediately commence on the island -- another LONG-SHOT revolution, to be sure. But there are three reasons it might happen: {1} Trump; {2} a mere handful of Cuban-American extremists in Miami and in the U. S. Congress can dictate Cuban policy to Trump; and {3} a mere handful of Cuban-American extremists in Miami and in the U. S. Congress can dictate the Cuban narrative to this cowardly and unpatriotic generation of U. S. journalists and U. S. citizens. Therefore, for those three reasons it is as easy as pie to fabricate a Pretext or Excuse to attack Cuba in 2018. In 1898 the U. S. needed a Pretext to go to war against over-extended Spain and fulfill a centuries-old desire to capture Cuba. NO PROBLEM -- the U. S. warship USS MAINE blew-up in a violent explosion in Havana Harbor, killing 261 young U. S. sailors -- the PRETEXT for the easy Spanish-American War, in fact 261 pretexts.

Remember, the USS MAINE?

Shhhhhhhhh...you're not supposed to remember it.

      Of course, thanks to the great investigative journalist-author James Bamford -- Operation Northwoods still looms as the most infamously documented Pretext in the annals of U.S.-Cuban history. Many of the same U. S. generals who had egged neophyte President Kennedy to attack Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, in 1962 begged Kennedy to allow them to carry out Operations Northwoods as the secret Pretext for an ALL-OUT TOTAL WAR AGAINST CUBA. All seven of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for example, had helped create Operation Northwoods. Among other horrendous domestic terror, it called for the rampant murder of innocent Americans so it could be blamed on Fidel Castro and used an as EXCUSE to attack Cuba.

   So, whatever you do, don't Google-search Operation Northwoods because then you might learn two things you are not supposed to know: {1} How easy it is to classify-hide official U. S. documents to protect the reputations, pensions, bank accounts, and legacies of powerful people like General Lyman Lemnitzer; and {2} how classified-hidden U. S. documents have protected much of America's Cuban policy since the 1950s -- such as the vile purpose of the still-ongoing Embargo, the terrorists who downed the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane killing all 73 on board, etc., etc.

        And whatever you do, don't dare Google-search Operation Northwoods, because, lo & behold!!, you might begin to think that well-known people who concocted elaborate plans to murder innocent Americans and blame it on Cuba to serve as a pretext for war against Cuba perhaps should be held accountable. But remember, if the issue is Cuba...the chances of that happening in the USA is slim & none. If it involved any other nation besides Cuba, then sure...the U. S. democracy would kick in. But Cuba is unique as the only nation that overthrew a vile U.S.-backed dictatorship and then had that dictatorship quickly and permanently resurface on U. S. soil!!

Now...fast-foward to 2018:

     Since 1959...with the reconfiguration of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship on U. S. soil...Revolutionary Cuba has been abundantly aware of fabricated Pretexts that could be used by the U. S. government as an excuse to regain control of Cuba once and for all. Prime examples include Operation Northwoods, provocative flights by Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue airplanes, and many others. And now for well over a year alleged and mysterious sonic-wave or acoustic attacks in Havana against Americans are being used by Counter Revolutionaries to pressure President Trump into starving Cuba, nuking Cuba, or whatever would please the Counter Revolutionaries. Cuba and many impartial observers believe the accusations are a Pretext that has already induced Trump to gut embassies in Havana and Washington that President Obama had bravely reopened for the first time since 1961. Also, the "sonic" Pretext has been used by Trump to gut American tourism to Cuba, which Obama had increased to record levels. Impartial observers are quite aware that the "sonic" accusations have drastically hurt Cuba, which is vitally dependent on tourism, and drastically aided the Counter Revolutionary Cuban Americans as well as their economic-and-political sycophants. Thus, the "sonic" Pretext is greatly hurting Cuba and greatly benefiting anti-Cuban hardliners...so, uh, who might be behind them?

     One of the world's most respected experts on acoustical waves happens to be Cuba's own Dr. Luis Velazquez Perez, the President of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. For over a year he has worked tirelessly investigating the Sonic-Acoustic wave accusations. He has provided his findings to U. S. experts and, further, he has begged both U. S. and Canadian experts to come to Havana and meticulously investigate the situation. Dr. Perez believes the perpetrators are people who want to hurt the Cuban government and have created the situation as a Pretext to do just that. He points out that the "last thing" Cuba wants is to have its vital tourism industry harmed as well as "the other things resulting from this that are hurting Cuba and bolstering those who want to harm us." Impartial sources tend to very much agree with Dr. Perez, among them the two top neuro-scientists at the University of Edinburgh who conducted an exhaustive research and then, in the Journal of Neurology, reported the "serious flaws" in the U. S. accusations and also "wondered" why the U. S. was not being more "cooperative" with them or with Cuban's respected experts like Dr. Perez.

      Meanwhile, the Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress, like Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey, are pounding the sonic-acoustic attacks for all they are worth -- and as a Pretext to hurt Cuba they are indeed worth a lot. Although most Cuban-Americans favor Obama's decency towards Cuba, it is rather apparent that only Counter Revolutionary extremists -- Menendez, Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen, Curbelo, Diaz-Balart, Cruz, etc. -- are eligible to be elected to Congress, regardless of their extremists reputations. And...once in Congress...they all seem to flock to the Western Hemisphere Committee and Foreign Relations Committee to better deal with the Western Hemisphere's foreign nation  -- CUBA. Indeed, in those two committees it is normal for Cuban American extremists to be the Chair, the Sub-Chair and the Ranking Member. But what if the extremists Counter Revolutionary Cuban Americans in Congress are HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL? No problem. We're talking about Cuba, remember? For example, for three years the U. S. Justice Department/FBI conducted an expensive and exhaustive investigation of Senator Menendez and then in 2017 charged him in an expensive and exhaustive three-month trial with 17 criminal acts related to a multi-millionaire operator in Miami. The long trial in Newark, a Menendez stronghold, ended in a hung jury...meaning his Senate seat is secure and he is sure to be re-elected to another 6-year term in November. {Have I mentioned Cuba's uniqueness as the only little nation to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship and then, for going on 7 decades, having to deal with the revengeful and self-serving remnants on U. S. soil, still unchecked and still backed by the world's Superpower? Well, yes, I guess I have mentioned it; BUT it bears repeating.}

      Immediately after the Menendez trial ended in a hung jury, the U. S. Federal prosecutors vowed to re-try him. But apparently reminded of how much time and money they had already expended in trying so hard to prosecute him, and reminded that another hung-jury was very possible, the Federal Government finally decided not to retry Senator Menendez.

     And so, when it comes to the Sonic-Acoustic Wave/Pretext being used to drastically hurt Cuba and drastically aid the U. S. Counter Revolutionaries, who do you believe -- Dr. Luis Velazquez Perez or Senator Bob Menendez? It's a fair question, I believe, and further...as a democracy-loving American, I believe America's mendacious Cuban policies since the 1950s have hurt America even more than they have hurt Cuba. And that leaves me...and I'm sure others like Dr. Perez...wondering why the U. S. democracy has not been strong enough to deal with it.

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Good People vs. U.S. Batistianos

Trying to Help Targeted Cuban Children!!
{UPDATED Monday, June 25th, 2018}

      Most of America's 325 million people...and most of the 2 million+ Cuban-Americans in South Florida...are GOOD PEOPLE. That means the vast majority disapprove of Republican administrations aligned with the Miami Mafia in targeting Cuban children in 2018 to avenge the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution that chased the vile leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship permanently to U. S. soil -- at least "permanent" until-or-if Cuba is FINALLY recaptured. Since 1959, for going on 7 decades, the vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry has carved a niche in the bowels of the U. S. democracy, with a handful of three Batistiano generations getting incredibly rich and politically powerful at the expense of America taxpayers and Democracy's reputation. Jerome Harvey is an example of decent, democracy-loving Americans who are tired of a few Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists, aligned with a few right-wing politicians, assaulting totally innocent Cuban children on the nearby Caribbean island. Jerome Harvey is the Director of Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity {MEMO} that has gained an international reputation for helping Latin American countries recover from catastrophes. But the Batistiano-directed U. S. embargo of Cuba since 1962 has prevented good people like Jerome Harvey from helping even grossly targeted Cubans on the island, including Cuban children. Jerome Harvey has decided to defy the Batistianos and their U.S.-government mandated laws to help Cuban children via his MEMO organization.

      In recent years...and as recently as May-2018, a few weeks ago...Cuba, like other Caribbean nations, has been assaulted by wicked tropical storms and hurricanes. That includes the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico that is comprised of U. S. Citizens and has received billions of dollars in aid as it still tries to recover from devastating 2017 hurricanes...the same ones that also devastated Cuba. But the U. S. embargo effectively prevents Relief Efforts for Cubans on the island because three generations of a handful of Cuban-Americans in Miami and in the U. S. Congress have been able to continue such inhuman assaults on Cuba as multiple terrorist attacks and, of course, the Embargo. All those things, incredibly, have been "justified" by mostly unchecked Batistiano propaganda and intimidation, including the car-bombing of the decent Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, who complained about such things as terrorist bombings that killed innocent Cubans in a civilian airplane and innocent foreign tourists on the island to discourage tourism. All this has been done in the name of the intimidated and propagandized American/Cuban-American people. And that's so even though DE-classified U. S. documents revealed that the purpose of the U. S. embargo against Cuba, from 1962 till today, was/is for the purpose of starving, depriving, and making miserable the lives of Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. It hasn't worked...PERHAPS because there have always been enough Cubans on the island who don't want a return of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia crowd, also known as the Miami Mafia, that had raped, mauled and robbed Cuba so vilely from 1952 till 1959.

      On U. S. soil since 1959 the Miami Mafia has essentially been allowed to dictate America's Cuban policies and America's Cuban narrative.

     But, as the above photo illustrates, there have always been decent Americans and decent Cuban-Americans who have tried their very best to defy the longest and most visible insult to America and to Democracy -- namely, the Cuban policy and narrative dictated all these decades by a mere handful of Batistianos and their self-serving sycophants. The photo above shows Jerome Harvey's charitable MEMO organization daring to deliver medicine and other much-needed supplies to a Children's Hospital in Cuba's Matanzas area to help children suffering from the effects of the U. S. embargo and a series of devastating tropical storms, including Alberto in May, 2018. The very decent and brave American, Jerome Harvey, released this brave statement: "Cuban children are being punished by the U. S. embargo. The Minister of Health in Cuba told us at MEMO that since we've been helping them, healthcare for children in Cuba's Matanzas province has taken a 180-degree turn for the better."

    Decent Cuban-Americans in Miami...like the car-bombed Emilio Milian...would and will applaud the decency of the brave MEMO group that is trying to help the Children's Hospital in Matanzas in defiance of the unending U. S. embargo targeting the island and aimed directly at everyday Cubans and their children.

So, THANK YOU, Jerome Harvey!!!

       But in this post-Obama era in the USA, a sad fact takes precedence over the good Americans and the good Cuban-Americans when it comes to trying to help grossly targeted {from U. S. soil} Cuban children: As in the previous five Republican administrations, the Trump White House has returned America's Cuban policies back over to a handful of vile Cuban-Americans in Miami and in the U. S. Congress.

     And the saddest truth of all, as illustrated by the above photo, is this: A mere handful of Miami Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries in the U. S. Congress, during any Republican administration, can dictate the harshest "laws" against Cuban children on the island while continuing to simply tell the American people "It's necessary to hurt Castro." Amazed that three generations of Americans have meekly capitulated to such lies, the international vote in the United Nations condemning America's Cuban policy in the last year of the decent Obama presidency was 191-to-0. All polls in Miami show that most Cuban-Americans favor Obama's decent Cuban policies, not Trump's indecent ones. The top three journalists at the Miami Herald are Cuban-born Editorial Chief Fabiola Santiago, Nora Gamez Torres, and Mimi Whitefield and ALL THREE have recently penned major articles lambasting Miami's Mario Diaz-Balart and Marco Rubio as "hypocrites" for dictating laws in the U. S. Congress that allegedly benefit them economically and politically while hurting most Cubans on the island and most Cuban-Americans in Miami. Yes, Diaz-Balart {whose father was a key Minister in the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba} and Rubio {designated by Trump as America's new Cuban dictator} are both products of Counter Revolutionary extremists in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Although most Cuban-Americans in Miami favor a decent Cuban policy, it is apparent that only anti-Cuban extremists like Diaz-Balart and Rubio can get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami. And that has been so since the still-serving Counter Revolutionary extremist Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was propelled to the U. S. Congress from Little Havana by the Bush dynasty in 1989 when Jeb Bush was her self-serving Campaign Manager.

      Havana-born, anti-Revolutionary Miami legend Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is still in the U. S. Congress staunchly representing Miami's Little Havana as well as sycophants like the Bush political and economic dynasty.

     The photo above chronicles why America's anti-Cuban-children policy got that 191-to-0 condemnation in the yearly UN vote. The photo above was taken in 1989 in Miami when Jeb Bush, on his way to becoming the two-term Governor of Florida, was the Campaign Manager using the power of the Bush dynasty to put Counter Revolutionary, Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the U. S. Congress from Miami, starting a steady stream of only Counter Revolutionary zealots reaching Congress from Miami.

     Since 1959 Cuban-born Counter Revolutionary extremists such as Orlando Bosch, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Luis Posada Carriles, etc., as well as sycophants such as the Bush dynasty, have benefited from being able to dictate, from Miami and from Washington, America's asinine Cuban policy. That is still true in 2018 because Americans, even in the discerning Google age, are programmed not to do an Internet search on the extremes of...Bosch, Ros-Lehtinen, Posada, the Cuban-related Bush dynasty, etc., etc. And, sadly, the mainstream U. S. media is far too intimidated or simply too politically correct to honestly inform U. S. citizens on Cuban issues.

     In June of 2018 the mainstream U. S. media is not about to mention someone like Jerome Harvey when his charitable company MEMO bravely defies the Batistianos and the Trump administration by delivering helpful medicinal and other supplies to the Children's Hospital in Matanzas, Cuba...following the latest Tropical Storm-Embargo disaster for those innocent and beloved children. And so, as a democracy-loving American, I would like to thank Jerome Harvey for his decency and bravery.

   Meanwhile, Cubans like internationally acclaimed singer Haydee Milanes must adjust "VIDA" {"LIFE"} to a six-decades-old insanely cruel Cuban policy dictated by a mere handful of THREE GENERATIONS of Batista exiles. Hiding behind the U. S. government in avenging the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution AND feasting on the economic and political largess attached to the vast Castro Cottage Industry in the United States is heading into its 7th decade. I'll explain Haydee's adjustment.

      The lady in red above is Haydee Milanes. She is shown performing back in May at the Kennedy Center in Washington along with her father Pablo, the world-wide legendary Cuban musician. The Miami-Mafia and the Counter Revolutionaries in Congress assailed the Kennedy Center for allowing Haydee and other world-class Cuban artists to perform in Washington. Haydee Milanes, by the way, is, in my humble opinion, a far superior person compared to her enemies in Miami and in Congress.

Super-talented, super-decent Haydee Milanes.
AND BY THE WAY:

   While the lucrative Castro Cottage Industry continues to thrive in the USA into a 7th decade, Fidel Castro died on Nov. 25-2016 in Havana at age 90. Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, is shown above paying homage at Fidel's tomb. Diaz-Canel is a non-Castro and he was born after the triumph of Fidel's Cuban Revolution. Which is not to say that the USA's Castro Cottage Industry cares OR that Diaz-Canel wants a return of America's Batistianos & Mafiosi any more than Fidel did.

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Counter Revolutionary Cubans Worried

Demanding Trump OVERTHROW Cuba!!
{Thursday, June 21st, 2018}

       This week -- in a LONG LETTER dated June 16, 2018 -- a fierce, rich, and powerful Counter Revolutionary anti-Cuban group of American Cubans fired off a no-nonsense letter to President Donald Trump. Signed by Marcell Felipe, the leader of Inspire America Foundation, the letter included the names of 24 people that include a virtual Who's Who of Counter Revolutionary zealots  in both Miami and Washington -- such as Otto Reich, Tomas Regalado, Daniel Diaz-Balart, etc., etc. The fierce urgency of the letter seems to emphasize the group's fear that, if they don't regain control of Cuba during the Trump presidency, they may never have such a chance again.

     In addition to being head of the fiercely Counter Revolutionary and ultra-rich-and-powerful Inspire America Foundation, Marcell Felipe is head of a fiercely Counter Revolutionary and ultra-rich-and-powerful Miami law firm. He is shown above being interviewed on Jaime Bayly's Spanish-language program. According to Wikipedia, Felipe is so omnipotent that he has advised...some say dictated...drastic anti-revolutionary Cuban policy to America's most Counter Revolutionary presidents -- Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush; BUT ALSO TO FOREIGN LEADERS SUCH AS SPAIN'S JOSE MARIA AZNAR and even to Russian and Mexican leaders. And now, based on his LONG, SCATHING letter this week to President Trump, Marcell Felipe seems to believe that Trump might be the last chance for the ultra-powerful, ultra-rich Cuban Counter Revolutionaries to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, which somehow has survived Mr. Felipe even when he was supported by U. S. presidents as well as the leaders of such strategics nations as Mexico and Russia. Mr. Felipe's letter to President Trump this week included these points:

         *****Trump was praised for his June 16th-2017 trip to Little Havana in Miami when he promised the Counter Revolutionary choir that he would "reverse" former President Obama's Cuban policies.

         ******Trump was praised for appointing such well-known Counter Revolutionary zealots -- like "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton" -- to such hugely important positions.

           ******Trump was praised for recently appointing Tomas Regalado -- a former Miami mayor and longtime Counter Revolutionary zealot -- to head Radio-TV Marti, the fierce anti-Cuban propaganda outlet in Miami that, according to many well-known unbiased sources, has merely sucked vast sums of tax-dollars to Miami since the 1980s even though, as ABC News famously explained two decades ago in its "Broadcast to Nowhere" report, it consisted of nothing but propaganda aimed at Cuba that Cuba easily blocks and that, even IF it got through to the island, few would believe its content.

          After making such points to President Trump, the LONG, FIERCE letter dated June 16th from Marcell Felipe and his Inspire America Foundation concluded with these words:

              "Mr. President, it is time now to finish this job of reversing the policies implemented by the Obama administration. For that end, we ask that your administration consider taking the following ten {10} key initiatives:...."

        Those "ten {10} key initiatives" are, of course, orders to President Trump from 24 of the most ultra-powerful, ultra-rich Counter Revolutionaries on U. S. soil. After reading that LONG, FIERCE, NO-NONSENSE letter this week, as published by many right-wing media outlets, I am left to wonder anew HOW IN THE WORLD REVOLUTIONARY CUBA HAS RULED THE NEARBY,  VULVERABLE ISLAND FOR GOING ON SEVEN {7} DECADES.

    And yet...Cuba's revolutionary flag still waves in the Caribbean breezes on June 20th, 2018 -- almost two years after the death of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro at age 90 in Havana AND ALMOST one month after the death at age 90 of history's and the CIA'S most famed anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles in Miami.

     A famed documentary as well as the Guinness Book of World Records reports that Fidel Castro survived "638" assassination attempts after his Cuban Revolution defeated the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959, but he died of natural causes in Havana at age 90 on Nov. 25, 2016. Whatever the number of assassination attempts, no one can argue that Fidel survived the most although he was furiously targeted by the powerful exiles, the CIA, and the Mafia. As Fidel knew and as CIA operative Posada bragged about for many decades, Posada was instrumental in many of those assassination attempts prior to his death in Miami also at age 90 on May 23rd, 2018. Each of them living to age 90 and then dying of old age in Havana and Miami is a startling anecdote in the annals of U.S.-Cuban history. We can all agree on that,  I think.

     But like Fidel Castro, Latin American history as well as de-classified United States documents will forever tie Posada to such acts as the terrorist bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 on Oct. 6, 1976, that killed all 73 on board. Memorials to those victims, like the one above, still abound but few Americans have ever heard of Cubana Flight 455 or of Emilio Milian, the brave Cuban-American newsman in Miami who was car-bombed when he complained about such atrocities against innocent Cubans.

      But as any Google search would quickly and graphically confirm, Cubana Flight 455 as well as Emilio Milian will forever be crucial elements in the history of U.S.-Cuban relations.

     Yet, with Counter Revolutionaries since 1959 dictating most of America's Cuban narrative and much of America's Cuban policies, Americans to this day...and forever...are saddled with muddled, propagandized minds regarding the "good guys" and the "bad guys" related to the ongoing Cuban Revolution.

     And that's why, I believe, the Cuban Revolution has done more than anything in history to puncture the USA's reputation as the best government of all-time. Any American who disagrees with that, I believe, should re-study the U. S. embargo against Cuba, as depicted above. You know...the vile embargo that has existed since 1962 and, according to de-classified U. S. documents, was/is designed to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government, which hasn't happened. So, in the annals of history, the U. S. embargo stands as the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak nation. Yes, 1962 until today -- June 20th, 2018. In 2016, the final year of the decent Obama presidency, the UN, with Obama's consent, voted 191-to-0 to condemn that embargo. Yet, for going on seven decades neither the U. S. democracy nor the American people have been strong enough to correct it. And yes, as a democracy-loving American, that fact and that image depicted above makes me ashamed...and I will forever be mystified that the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave has not been free enough or brave enough to correct that fact and that image.

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Rubio Lies Hurt Cubans

While Defaming America & Democracy!!
{Updated: Monday, June 18th, 2018}

     The world's most renowned Travel Writers/Authors -- Chris Baker, Tony Perrottet, and Heidi Hollinger -- don't have a drop of Cuban blood in their veins but they deeply love and are utterly fascinated with Cuba. That also means they are not afraid of incurring the wrath of the Cuban Counter Revolutionaries who dictate most of America's Cuban narratives via intimidation, propaganda, and other unsavory methods. Baker, for example, wrote a major international article explaining why he agreed with the highly respected Madrid International Tourism Fair, which advises nations about tourism safety AND WHICH in 2018 named Cuba the world's "SAFEST" nation for tourists. At about the same time, of course, the U. S. media was highlighting Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio's designation of Cuba as "unsafe" in order to destroy the island's vital tourism industry.  In May-2018 the famed Travel Writer/Author Tony Perrottet had an 18-page article in Smithsonian Magazine that heralded Cuba as one of the world's greatest tourist attractions. And now Heidi Hollinger has followed the legendary Baker and Perrottet as a world-famed Travel Writer touting Cuba as a world-class destination for tourists.

       In her current article, Heidi Hollinger used 11 photos that she took herself, like this one, to illustrate Cuba. She wrote: "Cuba's capital is changing and a lot of cutting-edge art and new wave restaurants are in characterful districts away from  the much-visited city. Havana will be 500 years old next year. I have been coming here for 30 years, and while I have experienced just a small part of the city's history it has had an out-sized impact on my life. I fell hopelessly in love with Havana on the spot -- hooked by its openhearted people and weathered beauty. Come here to be mesmerized..."

      Heidi Hollinger used the photo above to remind tourists, when they visit Cuba, to not be satisfied with just visiting Havana. Using her above photo as an illustration, she wrote: "And whatever you do, explore beyond the borders of beautiful Habana Vieja {old Havana} to discover the city's distinct neighborhoods."

        As a best-selling author, Heidi Hollinger wrote the book  "300 Reasons to Love Havana." But as she makes very clear in her updated article, she loves all of Cuba.

         Obviously, the world's greatest Travel Writers and tourism experts like Heidi Hollinger, Chris Baker, Tony Perrottet, and the Madrid International Tourism Fair do not have to get permission from Marco Rubio to freely express their opinions about Cuba. Heidi and other great Travel Writers earned their reputations by being unbiased about the countries they visit. Rubio and other Cuban American anti-Cuban extremists have built their political and economic fortunes on being biased against Cuba and particularly against the Cuban Revolution that in 1959 kicked the Batista-Mafia extremists to U. S. soil, namely Rubio's hometown of Miami. Rubio, a second generation anti-Cuba extremist, has never set foot on the island of Cuba; Heidi Hollinger has been visiting Cuba on a regular basis for "30 years." So...who knows more about Cuba and its people--Heidi or Rubio? And who is the most biased about the fascinating island? As Heidi Hollinger suggests, Americans should defy Rubio and visit the island...if only to discover WHY the U.S.-based Batistianos and Mafiosi want so DESPERATELY to recapture it!!

      Heidi Hollinger took the above photo of Cuban artist Niels Reyes to illustrate how, when the decent Obama was the U. S. president, young Cuban artists and entrepreneurs began to thrive on the island. Now with President Trump anointing Marco Rubio as America's latest Cuban dictator, young Cuban entrepreneurs like Niels are being assaulted from the soil of the nearby Superpower. Heidi Hollinger wrote: "Niels Reyes is one of the most exciting artists on the roaring art scene in Cuba, prized by collectors from New York to Beijing." Should young Cubans on the island, like Niels, be assaulted by a handful of powerful Cuban-Americans in the United States? Rubio apparently THINKS SO; Heidi Hollinger obviously THINKS NOT. 

     The photo above was used by Heidi Hollinger to illustrate how Cuba, after peaceful and historic overtures from former U. S. President Obama, has encouraged thousands of private businesses, creating thousands of new entrepreneurs. Heidi said the hotel above was "brain-childed by Sandra Esposito and her husband Orlandito Mengual. The roof terrace has great views of the Malecon, Havana's famous promenade, and it has a cocktail and tapas bar on the ground floor..." Rubio and six Cuban-American extremists in the U. S. Congress, 4 from Miami, have gained permission from the Trump administration to destroy Cuba's vital tourism industry, which was robust when Obama was President. The U. S. extremists incessantly repeat the old refrain about "hurting Castro" when, of course, they well know they are hurting everyday Cubans, like Sandra and Orlandito who struggled to make a success of their little hotel. So, again the question is: Should Americans have the courage, patriotism, and intelligence to believe Heidi Hollinger or should Americans continue to believe the likes of Marco Rubio?

       Although President Donald Trump successfully belittled Senator Marco Rubio as "Little Marco" when they competed against each other in the Republican presidential primary, now as President of the United States Trump has shamefully anointed "Little Marco" as America's latest Cuban dictator. Some of the most informed sources in both Miami and Havana believe Rubio..."Little Marco"...has been chosen by Trump to be the most powerful Cuban dictator on U. S. soil since the 1980s when the Bush dynasty anointed Jorge Mas Canosa to that infamous position for the purpose of having Batista exiles and the Mafia regain control of their 1950s-era piggy-bank -- CUBA!! Of course, without recapturing Cuba, the vast Castro Cottage Industry in the United States since 1959 has become a gold-mocked piggy-bank and a rampaging political bonanza for the likes of "Little Marco," so, paradoxically, recapturing Cuba might put some dents in that lucrative enterprise on U. S. soil.

        With biased extremists like Senator Marco Rubio dictating America's Cuban Policy {as well as America's Cuban narrative} since 1959, perhaps it is time Americans summoned up enough respect for AMERICA and for DEMOCRACY to correct a wrong that has shamed both AMERICA and DEMOCRACY for going on seven decades. Supposedly, Rubio is abundantly aware of that shame but if he addresses it his political and economic fortunes might suffer. So, as this week's Heidi Hollinger article suggests, don't hold your breath waiting for Rubio and his cohorts to forsake their Golden Goose. Preying on Cubans on the island is simply too easy and too uncontested in the once-sacred Land of the now-less Free and the Home of the now-less Brave.

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