U.S. Sanctions or Bombs

Awesome Regime-Change Tools!!

     After facing economic sanctions by the U. S., Venezuelan General Christopher Figuera has defected from the Nicolas Maduro government to the U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido. U. S. Vice President Mike Pence made the announcement at the State Department Tuesday, May 7th. Pence also repeated that "all options are on the table" to ensure the end of the Maduro regime, meaning U. S. military operations -- especially if it assumes that Russia and China will both sit on the sidelines after being assured their financial investments in Venezuela will be honored AFTER the regime-change.

    As with Israeli warplanes striking Gaza in recent days {above} or with Saudi Arabian warplanes pounding Yemen, top-of-the-line U. S. military assets are given or sold to nations considered U.S.-friendly. In the Venezuelan conundrum, such countries as Brazil and Colombia may likewise be at the forefront of any Venezuela military exercise.

   After General Figuera defected from Maduro, VP Mike Pence said the U. S. immediately lifted the sanctions against him and said others still under sanctions would be treated similarly. Recently the U.S.-backed Venezuela opposition had accused Figuera of "gross abuse and torture" violations, which induced the U. S. to sanction Figuera in the first place. Obviously, switching sides takes care of the accusations.

    The key to Maduro's continued survival in Venezuela is Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. Last week both Miami and Washington as well as opposition leader Guaido were all convinced Padrino was defecting and therefore it was believed Maduro's reign was over. But Padrino responded by standing beside Maduro and proclaiming that the bulk of the Venezuelan military would remain loyal to the government and they were not "mercenaries to be bought by dollars."

   As long as the U.S.-trained {at Fort Benning} Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino remains loyal to the embattled President Maduro, the Venezuelan stalemate's longevity may continue to surprise Latin American experts, but any such prospects remain precarious.

   Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition chief Juan Guaido admits he would welcome U. S. military action on his behalf, which has prompted President Nicolas Maduro to deepen his dependence on the Russia military to keep him in power.

    Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel fully realizes that his island is caught in the middle as the Venezuelan standoff features the world's two prime nuclear powers -- the United States and Russia. The Trump-led USA has assured Counter Revolutionary Cubans that the Venezuelan situation is the excuse they have needed to finally execute the regime-change in Cuba. Already, in fact, the activation of Title 3 of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act has severely exacerbated the U. S. embargo that has stifled Cuba's economy since 1962. President Diaz-Canel's Tweet shown above addressed the harm the extremely cruel Title 3 guidelines are causing as Cuba struggles to take care of its people. This Tweet says, "I want to go ahead today and congratulate you Cuban women, grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, companions, Cuban heroines of resistance, creators and illuminators of life. Congratulations and thanks. Together we are Cuba and FMC Congress."

   In Cuba this week new billboards like this are reminding the people that the latest sanctions by the USA are reducing the government's ability to provide free educations through college for students like these, along with additional Cuban reductions in free universal health care, electrical power, and food supplies. This billboard says, "Against my school, we do not understand." Of course, decent democracy-loving Americans also don't understand how the Trump administration gets away with such genocidal actions in Cuba, but it is obvious it can, much to the delight of a handful of Counter Revolutionary zealots and profiteers in Miami, Newark, and Washington.

      Is this one of the phone calls Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido made to Miami or Washington requesting U. S. military help to oust Maduro? Some observers believe it was, but some don't.

     Meanwhile, many Cubans on the island are wondering if the Revolution can survive the Trump administration without its "Eternal Commander" who died at age 90 on Nov. 25-2016. Other Cubans are wondering what Fidel Castro would be thinking now if he were still alive. But one thing is for sure: Most Cubans on the island believe it is still Fidel's Revolution and still Fidel's Cuba. All the while...most Americans are told and convinced...that most Cubans on the island...prefer a return of the U.S.-backed Batista-Lucky Luciano regime that the Eternal Commander booted off the island way back on January 1, 1959.

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Trump's NEW Cuban Plan

But Still Predicated On Venezuela!!

Photo credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images.

    The photo above was used to illustrate a new and interesting NBC News article written by Carmen Sesin. It is entitled: "Are U.S., Russia, and Cuba Going to Work to Break the Impasse in Venezuela." The key sentence said that the U. S. was "not adverse to opening conversations with countries that are allied with Maduro." Since January the U.S.'s plan to finally effectuate a regime-change in Cuba has used the critical situation in Venezuela as the pretext for gifting Senator Marco Rubio and a handful of other Little Havana zealots in Miami with the recapture of Cuba. The NBC News update above, which you can readily dial up online, touches on that basic fact by quoting two pertinent Tweets from President Trump after the anticipated regime-change in Venezuela failed to materialize last week. Those two Trump Tweets were directed at Cuba although Russia and China, the BIG BOYS, have far more military and thus much more Venezuelan influence than Cuba has. Trump said about Cuba: "The U. S. will impose the highest level sanctions if they {Cuba} do no immediately cease military and other operations in Venezuela.  With the right moves, Cuba could do very well. We could open it up but we're going to end up closing it up if they don't get out of Venezuela." Trump has already allowed Rubio to activate Title 3 of Helms-Burton, a starvation tactic that even the George W. Bush presidency refused to enforce. The rest of Trump's Tweet above surprised NBC News because it seemed to offer the first and only carrot to Cuba since the Republicans took over the White House from the decent Democratic president Barack Obama. But it wasn't a carrot; it was a pragmatic hint.

   The image above of President Trump using his tie to surround Cuba is both wicked and cruel, but it is nothing new. Since the Spanish-American War in Cuba in 1898...since the imperialist USA stole Guantanamo Bay from Cuba in 1903...since the U. S. sicced the Mafia on Cuba in 1952...and since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 chased the Batista-Mafia leaders to their safe and even more lucrative havens in Miami {Little Havana} and Newark, the USA's Cuban policies have insulted both America and Democracy. In 2016, the last year of the decent {and brave} Democratic Obama administration, the UN, with President Obama's concurrence, voted 191-to-0 to condemn the USA's Batistiano/Mafiosi-directed Cuban policies, namely the economic embargo that since 1962 has been designed to starve Cubans on the island into submission or to induce them to overthrow their government in favor of Little Havana. Unfortunately, the flagrant unanimity of that USA condemnation didn't embarrass enough democracy-lovers in this generation of Americans...and, of course, as the world's economic and military Superpower, the U. S. government simply doesn't have to worry about how the rest of the world feels about its shameful Cuban policies. The controversial Trump is fully aware of those facts and realities. Thus, a handful of the most extremist Little Havana zealots, including the few remaining losers from the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba, remain convinced that Trump, after all these decades, is about to recapture Cuba for them.

    This past Sunday on Face the Nation Secretary of State Mike Pompeo surprised Cuban watchers when he said: "We're working with with the Cubans to try to get an outcome that will let the Venezuelans have this opportunity," meaning for a better life. An amazing sentence. Whether it's North Korea, Saudi Arabia or any other questionable nation, Republicans are not just willing but anxious to talk but only a Democrat like Obama had the decency and guts to talk to key Cubans such as Josefina Vidal, who is now the outspoken Cuban Ambassador to Canada. In Congress, atop the CIA, and now as Secretary of State...all his adult life Pompeo has wanted a regime-change in Cuba, meaning U.S.-friendly or U.S. domination again. That apparently is why Little Havana U. S. Senator Marco Rubio, who is Trump's Cuban dictator, got Pompeo his powerful job as Secretary of State. Pompeo, however, is not as extreme in his hatred of Revolutionary Cuba as three other ultra-powerful positions Rubio has secured for John Bolton, National Security Adviser; Elliott Abrams, Special Envoy to Venezuela; and Mauricio Claver-Carone, the State Department's Western Hemisphere chief. But that doesn't mean Pompeo is not an extremist in advocating for a U. S. takeover of Cuba.

        So, I believe that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was just blowing smoke...obfuscating? lying? stalling for time?...when he flatly stated on Face the Nation Sunday that he or at least some key person in his department is "talking with the Cubans." No one in the Trump administration has talked with Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel, nor have they talked with Cuba's two Ministers in charge of all U. S. Affairs -- Carlos De Cossio and Johana Tablada. Rubio has made sure that key Trump people talk ONLY to Cuban dissidents while the Trump minions direct money to dissidents but try to cut off every other dime or peso to a Cuban government that guarantees food, shelter, free health care for life, and free education through the university level for all Cubans. Regardless of what propaganda Rubio mouthpieces such as Pompeo spout off about Cuba, Pompeo's State Department should be considered cruel and gutless by activating Title 3 of Helms-Burton, something that even the Batistiano-Aligned George W. Bush presidency refused to do. If the Face the Nation moderators and all the other network "news" programs in America don't have the guts or decency to quiz Pompeo and the other Rubio mouthpieces about such things as Title 3, whatever else Pompeo and his ilk say about Cuba can rightfully be trashed as self-serving lies, or maybe this past Sunday...just stalling for time while the Venezuelan diaspora plays out.  At the moment, Pompeo's State Department seems mainly concerned with trying to get Russia's and China's approval for the regime-change in Venezuela that will set the stages for the prime regime-change in Cuba as well as a third one in Nicaragua. To get Russia and China to ease off in Venezuela, it appears to be Pompeo's new strategy of promising Russia and China that once Maduro is gone all three world powers can share Venezuela's oil reserves, which are the most in the world. At the moment, both Russia and China are concerned with the billions of dollars they have lent or invested in Venezuela, and Pompeo is trying to address that. But has Pompeo or his people talked to Cuba as he indicated on Face the Nation Sunday?? HELL NO, because Little Havana will only let Republicans talk to Cuban dissidents.

     Of course, JOHN BOLTON as Trump's National Security Adviser, is clearly the biggest threat to Cuba and regional stability among the mouthpieces that Rubio has positioned atop the current administration to recapture Cuba. A key Washington media source -- The Hill -- got that right with the war-mongering-monsters illustration shown above. It reads: "Monsters eating Monsters. I ate John Bolton. I NOW ITCHING FOR A FIGHT." All his adult life John Bolton has been itching to recapture Cuba. In 2002 he began pestering President George W. Bush about make-believe chemical warfare in Cuba being a dire threat to the USA, believing it would induce Bush to wipe out Cuba. But now...as Trump's and Rubio's National Security Adviser...it appears that whatever John Bolton cooks up will suffice as the pretext...the excuse...for  military-induced regime-change in Cuba.

     And, of course, John Bolton's pretext for recapturing Cuba is VENEZUELA!! All of Rubio's mouthpieces, including Bolton, preach that little Cuba has 20,000 soldiers in Venezuela supporting President Nicolas Maduro and keeping the U.S. choice as Venezuela's President, Juan Guaido, from taking over. Of course, Bolton really means the Russian and Chinese presence has kept Maduro in office since January when it appeared Guaido was surely about to take over. Meanwhile, Bolton's well-earned reputation as a war-monger relates to small, supposedly helpless nations -- like Cuba and certainly not like Big Boys such as Russia and China. As indicated by the photo above, John Bolton has insulted America and America's best friends -- including Canada and the EU nations -- by displaying and bragging about the Trump's administration's eagerness to represent BRIGADA ASALTO 2506 in recapturing Cuba. BRIGADA ASALTO 2506 was the attack force that unceremoniously and emphatically lost in the long-ago Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in April of 1961. Yet, to this day 2506 in the heart of Miami's Little Havana maintains an iron-grip on every Republican administration in Washington.

    Every Rubio mouthpiece, especially Secretary of State Pompeo and National Security Adviser Bolton, preach that Cuba has 22,000 soldiers in Venezuela keeping Maduro in power. Cuba says it has no soldiers in Venezuela but it does have doctors, nurses, and teachers...such as the ones shown above...doing yeoman's work in the poorest areas of Venezuela. There are international news agencies in Venezuela that are well aware of those Cuban doctors, nurses, and teachers...but those journalists haven't confirmed Cuban soldiers but have confirmed some Russian and Chinese military operatives in Venezuela. Yet, Rubio's operatives believe Americans have been programmed to believe anything the USA says about Cuba and disbelieve anything Cuba says about Cuba. For example, while the Bay of Pigs attack was underway in April of 1961, Cuba said the island was being attacked by U. S. warplanes but the U. S. told the world at the UN that Cubans flying Cuban planes were attacking Cuba. It, of course, turned out shortly that the attacking U. S. planes were falsely disguised as Cuban planes.

     Since January of 1959 a mere handful of the most radical Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami and in Newark...and in the U. S. Congress as well as all Republican White Houses...have totally dictated America's Cuban policies, reshaping the U. S. democracy. For example, study the image above. Most Cuban-Americans favor decent and normal relations with Cuba...and express themselves in organizations such as Cuban Americans for Engagement. Yet, a mere handful of Cubans in Little Havana and in the other prime sanctuary of Newark have, since 1959, dictated the USA's Cuban policies of revenge as well as lush economic and political rewards for a select few. Another example with another Republican in the White House: Little Havana and the Trump White just restricted the amont of money or goods Cuban-Americans can send to relatives in Cuba, an extremely cruel and gutless act considering the other additional sanctions added by the Trump minions. Only in a badly frayed democracy could a handful of spiteful Cubans continue to do such things to the majority of decent Cuban-Americans...and that includes the good people involved with Cuban Americans for Engagement.

     From Little Havana in Miami, Marco Rubio, and from Newark, Bob Menendez, are not only Cuban-American extremists in the U. S. Senate but they can easily dictate the harshest treatment of Cubans on the island as well as lush financial or political rewards for their favorite supporters. For example, Rubio...as Trump's Cuban dictator...just rewarded his old Little Havana mentor, a former Counter Revolutionary Mayor of Miami, as the new head of the famed Cuban-American Gold Mine known since the 1980's as Radio-TV Marti, which is purely a lush anti-Cuban propaganda machine in Miami lavishly funded by tax dollars.

    When a mere handful of only the most extremists and most self-serving Cuban-Americans...such as Rubio and Menendez...can dictate America's Cuba's policies that the whole world {and the decent President Obama} condemned 191-to-0, then it it perhaps time for both the mainstream U. S. media and the American people to do their democratic jobs and tell the truth while also trying to REINVIGORATE what once was BY FAR the greatest government on the face of the earth.

      There are in the USA today a plethora of organizations such as Cuba/US: PEOPLE TO PEOPLE PARTNERSHIP peopled by decent Americans and decent Cuban-Americans. They fully understand and intently promote decent people-to-people relations between Americans and Cubans on the island. That, of course, would benefit both nations. But as things now stand, and have stood for six decades and counting, the USA's Cuban policy is meant to sate the revenge of a handful of Cubans in Little Havana and Newark while also, most importantly, drastically enriching and empowering a self-serving minority of Cuban-Americans such as Rubio and Menendez.

    These two little Cuban girls are not enemies of America. Their mothers on the island work tirelessly to take care of them, and those mothers, despite what Americans are told, are supported in that endeavor by the Cuban government that the USA has tried to strangle every day since January 1, 1959. Yet, the World Superpower, for some reason, hasn't been able to finish off the strangulation of the vulnerable island. Tomorrow in the next edition of Cubaninsider I'll explain why that is so.

AND BY THE WAY:

    The feisty Lisa Hanna, the former Miss Jamaica, is now a member of Parliament and the Jamaica Observer reports she just gave her fellow politicians a verbal scolding for "turning your backs on friends who supported us when we were in need." She was chastising Jamaica for running scared against U. S. financial pressure in refusing to support Venezuela and Cuba. She said, "At the UN we were MIA when needed for a principled vote."

    In the Jamaican Parliament, Lisa Hanna was criticized for wearing this nice dress. The criticism made a big headline in Jamaica but her feisty retort to the misogynists made much BIGGER headlines.

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Starving Cuban Children

To Appease Cuban-American Extremists!?!
{Monday, May 6th, 2019}

    This photo was taken this past weekend -- Saturday, May 4th, 2019. It shows Cuban children playing on a sandy beach. Christopher P. Baker and the OTHER FOUR top Travel Writers in the world claim that Cuban children on the island are among the most closely protected children in the "entire world." American democracy-lovers who have visited the island, including me, agree with that assessment. And, sadly, these Cuban children need to be protected from a mostly unchecked minority of Cuban-Americans in the nearby United States of America. Why? I believe the answer is this: The last two generations of Americans, which includes me, have been the least patriotic and the most cowardly generations in America's history. To allow a mere handful of greedy and revengeful Cuban-Americans, for six decades, to unmercifully target totally innocent Cuban children on the nearby island is sinful, and we THE MAJORITY OF AMERICA'S PEOPLE are most to blame for not having the guts to stop it.

    This little Cuban girl is shown playing in the sand on Saturday, May 4th, 2019. No rich foreigner should be allowed to harm her.

     That same precious little Cuban girl is shown later on Saturday, May 4th, 2019 taking a break from the Caribbean sun under a shade tree. She seems to be gazing across the Florida Straits where, 90 miles distant,  a handful of a second generation of revengeful Cuban-Americans are allowed to threaten this little girl everyday...as they or their fathers have been allowed to threaten all little girls on the island since January of 1959 when the Cuban Revolution chased the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to a safe and lucrative haven on U. S. soil. During the latest Republican administration in Washington, Marco Rubio and his ilk can take advantage of this cowardly, unpatriotic generation of Americans and rejoice in making the far more decent Cuban mothers on the island fearful for their children. Every American and every true citizen of the world knows that undeniable fact but few have the guts to even admit that the famous New York Times Editorial was and is 100% correct and has come to define the Batistiano-Little Havana grip on America: "There is, finally, something indecent about vociferous exiles living safely in Miami prescribing more pain for their poorer cousins." Rubio should  be ashamed of himself, but he's not.

    As far as visitors to the island can detect, every mother in Cuba believes Little Havana's U. S. Senator from Miami, Marco Rubio, is a liar when he claims he is trying to help everyday Cubans on the island. To date, although even the left-wing mainstream media in the USA is too afraid to admit it, President Trump's most salacious and most anti-democratic collusion so far is with Rubio, whom Trump has appointed as the USA's Cuban dictator. Rubio trying to help everyday Cubans on the island? As far as is known, every mother on the island of Cuba believes that Rubio is perfectly willing to punish every child on the island in order to pad his economic and political nests. And so...on Saturday, May 4th, 2019...that is precisely where U.S.-Cuban relations stand. And for allowing the likes of Marco Rubio to leave Little Havana in Miami and direct punishment of innocent Cubans from Washington should shame every American and every Cuban-American.

    Each week the Batistiano-directed Trump administration ratchets up its ongoing effort to totally starve the Cuban economy once and for all, well knowing the prime victims of starvation will be millions of totally innocent children and mothers. As of the first week in May, 2019, the Trump White House starvation goals against Cubans reached a peak that not even the George W. Bush presidency would accept -- which was to activate Title 3, which is the meanest and most anti-democratic of all the Batistiano-written Helms-Burton rules that are all designed to enrich and empower selected Cuban-Americans while also easing the pathway to recapturing Cuba. Starting now about 200,000 lawsuits have begun hitting U.S. courtrooms to reward and award any and all claims against Cuba for property left behind when the Revolution booted the Batista-Mafia leaders back to U. S. soil in 1959 -- with the prime Batistiano sanctuaries of Miami and Newark being the favorite destinations for the fleeing Mafiosi. The very first company to be sued under Title 3 is Carnival Cruise Lines whose headquarters are in Miami and which happens to be the world's largest cruise line with over 100 vessels under 10 brand names. In U. S. courtrooms, as routinely happened after Helms-Burton became eternal U. S. law beginning in 1996, anyone suing Cuba basically was locked-in for a win. Proving or disproving legitimate money or property claims from the Batista-Mafia control of 1950's Cuba is absurd, but so too is every aspect of a great democracy turning over Cuban issues strictly to only a handful of the most extreme Cuban-Americans -- and in the Trump era that means Rubio, the Diaz-Balart brothers, Claver-Carone, etc.

   The top man at Carnival Cruise Lines is Arnold W. Donald.  Every port in the Miami area, where Carnival is headquartered, wants the cruise line business from Florida to Cuba and Mr. Donald was eager to oblige them thanks to the sane and decent pre-Trump presidency of Barack Obama. But even during the Batistiano-directed Trump administration, Mr. Donald's own high-priced lawyers will tell the courts that every cruise Carnival made to Cuba was totally legal according to U. S. laws and regulations even with Trump as President. Mr. Donald also suggests that even a totalitarian government would have trouble denying that claim, but from his office in Miami Mr. Donald also is aware that, since 1959 and particularly since Helms-Burton in 1996, democracy has not been a driving principle when it comes to challenging the economic and political excesses of the Batistiano Americans.

     An Israeli-American who graduated from the University of Miami, Micky Arison is the Chairman of Carnival Cruise Lines, which he molded into the largest international cruise line. Mr. Arison in 2019 personally chose Arnold W. Donald as the company's President and CEO. Attuned to Miami's unique economic and political structures, Mr. Arison now must confront a legal system that revolves around the offshoots of the Helms-Burton Act that is strictly by and for a handful of Cuban-American extremists who use alarming right-wing cracks in the U. S. democracy to perpetuate their two prime goals -- money and...oh, YES...the recapture of Cuba.

   Although most Americans are too afraid to admit it out loud, the Batistiano-gold mine known as the Helms-Burton Act is a HUGE insult to America and to Democracy.

     Americans including their representatives in the U. S. Congress AND EVEN the powerful left-wing news media that is trying so hard to impeach Trump are too afraid to oppose the Helms-Burton Act. Therefore, in 1996 it was allowed to create a Cuban government within the bowels of the U. S. government. But even the George W. Bush presidency, which was 100% aligned with the Little Havana extremists, refused to activate Title 3 of Helms-Burton. Yet, this week -- on Thursday, May 2nd, 2019 -- the Trump presidency ACTIVATED TITLE 3.

    The USA's bravest Editorial Cartoonists relish making fun of Helms-Burton and particularly the absurdly cruel and anti-democratic Title 3. But it is apparent that the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to rein in Helms-Burton, not even Title 3.

     In the 2016 Republican primary Marco Rubio's bid to become U. S. President ended with a thud when rival Donald Trump pinned the "Little Marco" tag on him and he was  also accused of selling out to every right-wing and Israeli billionaire or company on the planet.

    Yet, President Trump anointed Rubio as the USA's Cuban dictator. Many say it is Trump's way to pay homage to Little Havana's control of Florida's 29 electoral votes heading into the 2020 presidential race; but some say it is because Rubio and Miami's Little Havana denizens have damaging insight into something Trump doesn't want divulged. In any case, whether Americans or the media admit it or not, the USA, which supported the brutal Batista dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s, now has its own Cuban dictator on U. S. soil -- Rubio.

      As the USA's Cuban dictator, Rubio has been allowed to stack President Trump's National Security, Foreign Policy, and State Department teams with only fierce anti-Cuban zealots such as John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Elliott Abrams, Mauricio Claver-Carone, etc., etc., etc. Beyond the U. S. Senate, it appears that Rubio plans to use his Cuban dictatorship to {1} Recapture Cuba for Little Havana; and {2} replace Trump as the head of the Republican Party, even prior to the upcoming election if his forces can stab Trump in the back by then. In any case, Rubio's current National Security, Foreign Policy, and State Department teams seem absolutely willing, even anxious, to start a Latin American War as a step to recapturing Cuba.

 President Trump's collusion with Senator Rubio may well be the most evil collusion the Trump White House has engaged in. But unlike Russian, North Korean, Saudi Arabian, and a myriad of other supposed collusions, neither the majority of Americans nor the mainstream U. S. media have the courage to question Trump's much more obvious and devious collusion with Rubio. And for that reason, I believe, the U. S. democracy is not strong enough to stop or even discourage the current Trump-Rubio U. S. government goal of starving children on the island of Cuba.

   A Cuban mother in 2019, during the Trump-Rubio era in the nearby United States, needs to tightly hug her child and say this prayer {as shown above}: "I give my life for my kids. May God care for me and bless you always." A Cuban mother trying to survive Trump-Rubio so she can care for and feed her child? Yes, whether Americans admit it or not, that situation in May of 2019 exists on the island of Cuba.

The U. S. government at work.

But the U. S. has enough nuclear weapons to make it stick.

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US-Cuba: WHO'S LYING?

Prior To The War!

    When U. S. President Barack Obama bravely put U.S.-Cuban relations on a sane and mutually beneficial plateau, Johana Tablada was Cuba's highly respected Ambassador to Portugal. But when Donald Trump, quite surprisingly, became the latest Republican U. S. President, Johana and her two young children returned to Cuba because, as an expert on U.S.-Cuban relations, she was needed as the Deputy Minister of U. S. Affairs.

    The above Tweet was posted a few hours ago by CNN's Patrick Oppmann. It shows Johana Tablada at a news conference May 1st, 2019, in Havana. As Oppmann pointed out {and he seemed to agree with her} Johana Tablada was providing Cuba's view regarding the prime pretext that RUBIO/BOLTON/POMPEO/CLAVER-CARONE, Trump's four prime war-mongers targeting Cuba, are using to justify their impending regime-change on the island. Rubio and his three main puppets repeatedly say that 20,000 Cuban soldiers in Venezuela are the only thing keeping harried President Maduro in power. As you can see above, Johana Tablada said, "There are no Cuban troops in Venezuela." Her position is this: "Rubio and his people in Miami, Newark, and Congress claim that if we don't remove our 20,000 troops in Venezuela that we will be wiped out. Rubio knows we can't do that because we have no troops in Venezuela, yet he believes that excuse will convince Trump to attack us.  I see that news agencies say that Russia and China have troops and weapons in Venezuela but they are nuclear superpowers and Rubio is afraid of them. But we are small and poor so he thinks Cuba will be easy pickings and Trump is the President that will finally let his Miami friends recapture our cherished island."

      Cubans on the island, including Johana Tablada, believe that the Rubio-directed Trump administration will attack their vulnerable island as soon as the denouement in Venezuela plays out: you know, the dire threat of a Latin American War that could involve the world's three top nuclear Superpowers -- the USA, Russia, and China. But, of course, Rubio claims it will mostly involve Cuba's 20,000 phantom soldiers. Through it all, Johana Tablada and the adult Cubans on the island appear quite stoic. "We have to be, for the sake of the children. We are not going anywhere. How does the song go -- 'Whatever will be...will be'"

          The May Day photo above on May 1-2019 shows Cubans overflowing the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana. Johana Tablada posted it on her social media pages. She knows that Rubio may now have "the right President to finally destroy our Revolution. But if so, those of us still standing will start another one."

   Meanwhile, in the USA the conservative/right-wing media is ready to lavishly hail Marco Rubio when he recaptures Cuba...and the mainstream USA media is too afraid not to hail him. In the image above the Fox-10 television station in Miami as well as the Fox News Network was showing Rubio's WE WILL RECAPTURE CUBA speech at Little Havana's "Manuel Artime Theater" that was named for one of the leaders of the April-1961 BAY OF PIGS military attack on Cuba. That, of course, turned out to be a massive humiliation for the attackers, the United States, and for Democracy. But in the spring of 2019 Rubio has all the cards in his favor -- Trump, the world's strongest military, the world's largest Treasury, a supportive or intimidated U. S. media, and a U. S. population programmed since 1959 to believe that all the good Cubans are in the USA and all the bad Cubans are on the island.

   Americans just got through paying millions of dollars for a 2-year investigation to determine if Donald Trump's election as President was because of his collusion with Russia. Perhaps the more interesting investigation would concern Trump's collusion with Cuban extremists in Miami's Little Havana. During the 2016 presidential campaign Trump and Marco Rubio hated and mocked each other...with Trump labeling Rubio "Little Marco" as DONALD JR. mocked with the above graphic. But then, as President, Trump anointed Little Marco as THE CUBAN DICTATOR ON U. S. SOIL, a coveted Florida prize both economically and politically because members of the U. S. Congress from Little Havana can ROUTINELY gush massive pipelines of tax dollars from Washington to Miami...and for a myriad of excuses such as the wildly lucrative anti-Cuba propaganda machine known as Radio-TV Marti.

    So why, as President, did Trump quickly make Little Marco into BIG Man Rubio? Sure, all Republican presidents capitulate to Little Havana because of Florida's often decisive electoral votes. But Trump making Rubio a BIG MAN seems to have a more diabolical twist, such as...MAYBE??...a tip Rubio got that ties Trump to something a lot more damning than Trump's alleged Russian ties????

    People who know Pinocchio Rubio the best don't believe a word Rubio says about Cuba...or even about himself. The Pinocchio image above, for example, is from Alvaro Fernandez's Progreso Weekly published in Rubio's hometown of Miami. Rubio made it all the way to the U. S. Senate from Little Havana still claiming his parents escaped the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami. But then Progreso Weekly, the Miami New Times, etc., pointed out that Rubio's parents escaped Batista's Cuba long before Castro chased the Batistianos to Miami. Likewise, anyone who believes anything Rubio says about Cuba is probably an idiot or someone too afraid to question it.

    And that brings me back around to Johana Tablada, Cuba's Ambassador to Portugal who was summoned back to Havana as the island's USA expert when Donald Trump became the latest and most surprising Republican to take over the USA White House. Johana, to my knowledge, has never been accused of having a Pinocchio nose.

   And this week, as Tweeted above by CNN's Patrick Oppmann in Havana, Johana Tablada says: "There are no Cuban troops in Venezuela. Doctors, nurses, teachers...yes. Troops...no."

    Decade after decade since the 1950s, poor little Cuba has astounded the world by essentially holding its own in its tussles with the rich and mighty USA. But I believe at long last, in this 3rd year of Trump's first presidential term, the island is destined to finally lose to the nearby Superpower. But that is likely to ignite another Revolution, and one that might pugnaciously linger until...and IF...all the Cubans on the island, like Johana Tablada, are finally eviscerated...for once and for all.

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