Why Trump Worries Cubans

And Americans Too!!

     At age 58 Tom Nichols knows a lot about wars and the preparations for wars. He is the Professor of National Security Affairs at America's Naval War College.

      Yesterday -- May 14th, 2019 -- Tom Nichols dominated the Editorial Page of USA Today with an article entitled: "Trump Foreign Policy Is Spinning Into Chaos." His sub-title pointed out: "We're In A Scary Free-Fall."

     When Tom Nichols writes or speaks about wars or potential wars, intelligent and concerned people listen. In his USA Today article yesterday, Professor Nichols indicated that the "scary free-fall" for the Trump administration and for the USA began when John Bolton was incredibly named National Security Adviser. As a relic from the Bush dynasty, Bolton is clearly the most "scary" war-monger that Trump could have possibly selected for that crucial position.

    While the pundit-driven U. S. media primarily focuses on anti-Trump/pro-Trump rhetoric with left-wingers in control of the Democratic Party and right-wingers in control of the Republican Party, Americans should prize expert opinions from true experts. When it comes to wars and potential wars, Tom Nichols is the expert. In USA Today yesterday he wrote: "The easy answer is to blame it all on national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton doesn't know what he's doing; from Iran to Venezuela he is indulging a set of statistic reflexes -- a predilection for confrontation, a belief in the utility of intervention. There is no more a 'Bolton Doctrine' than there is a 'Trump Doctrine." For sure, Tom Nichols suggested that neither Trump nor Bolton knows what they are doing. And the Top Security Professor at the Naval War College then fashioned this exact conclusive sentence: "The more frightening answer is that no one is in charge."

     The USA's top security expert, Tom Nichols, is correct when he says "no one is in charge" of the USA's war machine right  now but it is the war-mongering John Bolton who appears to be directing what Tom Nichols deems to be America's "scary" and "frightening" posture permitted by Trump and orchestrated by Bolton who Tom Nichols says has "a predilection for confrontation, a belief in the utility of intervention, a disdain for negotiated solutions, and a hatred of treaties and international institutions."

      The first three targets in John Bolton's gunsights after being named National Security Adviser were, not surprisingly, "Cuba, Nicaragua & Venezuela." Cuba, of course, is #1 with Nicaragua and Venezuela rounding out Bolton's "TROIKA" because they are Cuba's two closest allies. Way back in 2002-2003 Bolton concocted a wild pretext and begged President George W. Bush to attack Cuba.

    But in 2019 President Donald Trump appears to be the perfect patsy for John Bolton's dark obsession regarding Cuba. As Trump's National Security Adviser, Bolton was quick to fly to Miami and assure the few remaining survivors of the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba that their ignominious defeat will be avenged with Trump in the White House. Twice Bolton has given that assurance standing before huge "BRIGADA ASALTO 2506" banners that were the Battle Flags for the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in April of 1961. What was it that Tom Nichols, the top security expert at the Naval War College, said yesterday in the USA Today about John Bolton? Let's see..."scary"..."frightening"..."doesn't know what he's doing."

     The Miami-based Progreso Weekly, with the above graphic, probably has the best insight as to what John Bolton IS DOING. Guided by his puppeteer from Miami's Little Havana, Marco Rubio, Bolton's prime business is putting Juan Guaido in place as the new President of Venezuela and then recapturing Cuba followed by a third regime-change in Nicaragua. Progreso Weekly, a prime expert on Little Havana, seems to think that Rubio worries that Bolton may actually start a war with Iran that would further delay Rubio's obsession with recapturing Cuba and dealing fatal blows to Cuba's friends in Venezuela and Nicaragua. REGARDLESS of which scenario prevails, with Bolton and his puppeteer Rubio in charge of the USA's war machine, it is indeed "scary" and "frightening" -- not only for the targeted nations but for America itself.

Rubio & Bolton. WOW!!!

May God Help Us All.

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USA's Regime-Changers

Where Is The Next One????
{Wednesday, May 15th, 2019}
{Updated from May 14th}

     Author Jeb Sprague has a reputation as an expert on Caribbean and Latin American REGIME CHANGES. He has also been a notable professor/lecturer at the University of Virginia and the University of California. A recent article by Mr. Sprague in Monthly Review, a magazine published since 1949, is entitled: "Washington's Hybrid War on Venezuela -- A Very 21st Century Attempt At Regime Change."

 Books by Jeb Sprague include "GLOBALIZING THE CARIBBEAN" and prove he knows the Caribbean, including Marco Rubio's clearance from President Trump to use the dire situation in Venezuela as the pretext to recapture Cuba for Miami's Little Havana Counter Revolutionaries.

    The photo above was used to illustrate Jeb Sprague's Monthly Review article, which you can readily dial up online. It points out that once Rubio was allowed to flank Trump with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton it almost assured that Rubio, on behalf of Little Havana in Miami, had the key men in place to execute the regime-change in Cuba right after the regime-change in Venezuela and right before the regime-change in Nicaragua. Sprague made these pertinent and visceral points:

              "At the U. S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee on 7 March, Senator Marco Rubio pledged that Venezuelans 'were about to experience the most dramatic shortages they have ever faced.' Within hours, a mysterious black-out hit Venezuela, oil refinery storage tanks combusted, and an oil pipeline exploded."

      With 3.6 followers on Twitter, Marco Rubio used the above gruesome Tweet to supposedly warn Venezuelan President Maduro, Cuban President Diaz-Canel, and Nicaraguan President Ortega  that the "Gaddafi model" awaited them. One of Rubio's mouthpieces, Bolton, had earlier called Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua the "Troika of Tyranny" in obvious preparations for regime-change and Bolton also stupidly used the term "Gaddafi model" while, as you can see above, Rubio used this photo montage to coarsely and stupidly convey the world-message. Earlier, one of Rubio's Tweets was directly aimed at Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel with the  three-word warning "See you soon."

    Every journalist in Washington knew that when Rubio anointed the famed anti-Cuban war-monger Bolton as Trump's National Security Adviser that Rubio's war against Cuba was inevitable. Rubio this past week ridiculed the New York Times for making that point, and said any criticism of Bolton was "ridiculous." Of course, that's typical Rubio propaganda but he's used to getting away with it. As Ken Silverstein, the best investigative journalist in Washington, said: "Marco Rubio is head and shoulders above everyone else in Washington when it comes to corruption and chicanery." {And, yes, I urge you to Google Ken Silverstein's credentials and his extensive Rubio article that began with and then documented that quote}.

    And every journalist in Washington knew that when Rubio anointed Elliott Abrams as Trump's Special Envoy to Venezuela that Rubio's war against Cuban ally Venezuela was inevitable. Here is what the knowledgeable Jeb Sprague wrote in his aforementioned article:

           "The appointment of Elliott Abrams on 25 January 2019 as Washington's point man on Venezuela was glaring. Under Reagan-Bush in the 1980s Abrams was tied to countless gruesome events in Latin America. Under Abrams' watch it was common for U. S. intelligence operations to use front companies to illegally ship weapons into Latin America to arm death squads. On 3 February Venezuela discovered a secret cache of weapons and equipment on board a Boeing 767. The flight had flown from Miami to Valencia. Venezuela assumed U. S. authorities and far-right groups in Miami were responsible. The McClatchy newspapers reported the same plane had made 40 trips to Colombia and Venezuela, sometimes multiple times a day. The plane according to Amnesty International is owned by 21 Air LLD whose Chairman is Adolfo Moreno." With Abrams directing Rubio's anti-Cuban operations in Venezuela, it is no wonder that 3 sources -- Jeb Sprague, McClatchy newspapers, and Amnesty International -- report that arms shipments to expedite the regime-change in Venezuela were coming from "far-right groups in Miami" where far-right Cuban groups since 1959 have had what can be considered free-reins because of their ties to right-wing Republican federal officials.

     To say there are "Skeletons in the closet" of Elliott Abrams is a gross understatement. The tactics depicted above now being deployed and employed in Venezuela are classic tactics Abrams is famed for using in Latin America back in the 1980s during the Reagan-Bush years. Of course, later President George H. W. Bush granted Abrams a much-needed pardon. America's top Latin American experts, including Jeb Sprague in the aforementioned article, tie Abrams to the infamous Mozote Massacre in which all 800 Latin Americans in one village were murdered by U.S.-armed killers -- famously executing the men first, then the women after rapes, and then the children. While Americans are not supposed to know about such things, every detail of that massacre has been minutely studied by America's best historians and journalists, so Googling the Mozote Massacre is easy. It occurred on Dec. 11, 1981, in El Salvador.  On Jan. 27-1982 the great NY Times journalist-author Raymond Bonner told the world about what happened at El Mozote. But it was not until 1994 that explicit details and the truth about the U. S. involvement began coming out in Mark Danner's book "The Massacre at El Mozote." And then in this year of 2019 when Raymond Bonner was astonished that Elliott Abrams had been named Trump's Envoy to Venezuela the great Mr. Bonner penned a remarkable article in The Atlantic entitled: "What Did Elliott Abrams Have To Do With The El Mozote Massacre?" And now...in May of 2019...for unpatriotic Americans to sit back on their comfortable asses and ignore such things insults all democracy-lovers, I sincerely believe.

     Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is the Trump administration's choice as the next President of Venezuela. Americans and much of the world are programmed to believe that if the USA executes a regime-change it is to replace a bad leader with a GOOD leader...but Latin Americans believe otherwise because of the USA's past love of really bad dictators like Batista in Cuba, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoso in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile, etc., etc. etc. What Latin Americans fear is that the U. S. citizens will not hold right-wingers in the U. S. responsible for such things, with Chile being a prime example. In 1973 President Nixon and his prime adviser Henry Kissinger believed the popular Democratically elected President of Chile, Salvador Allende, would not allow rich Americans to raid his country's natural resources. So, a bloody coup ended up killing Allende and for the next 17 years the "U.S.-FRIENDLY" General Pinochet was one of history's most murderous dictators. Will the GOOD U.S.-friendly Guaido replace the BAD Maduro in Venezuela with then the BAD Diaz-Canel in Cuba and the BAD Ortega next on the Rubio-Bolton-Abrams agenda?

    With the dire situation in oil-rich but now dirt-poor Venezuela, many experts believed Maduro would have been replaced by Guaido as long ago as January. But it is still a "STANDOFF" because of Trump's utter stupidity in allowing Rubio to install people like Bolton, Abrams, Pompeo, Mauricio Claver-Carone, etc, in the most powerful positions to execute Latin American regime-changes. In other words, with Miami's Little Havana "right-wing groups" calling the shots, as pointed out by Caribbean-Latin American expert Ted Sprague, only die-hard right-wingers believe the USA should be defining the outcome in Venezuela...or Cuba and Nicaragua. The past USA FOOTPRINTS in those three nations and throughout the Caribbean and Latin America are historic reminders that such decisions in Washington should be be made by moderates, NOT right-wing or left-wing extremists.

     Appearing on one of the U. S.'s three major television networks, ABC News, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was asked if his days are numbered. He replied: "John Bolton and Elliott Abrams can believe that. But you should not believe that because you are a young man and knows that history will continue." In other words, both the good guys and the bad guys in the current Venezuelan conundrum realize that Trump and Rubio were stupid to assign Bolton and Abrams as the prime arbitrators when EVERYONE with the possible exception of propagandized Americans know their TRACK RECORDS in Latin America and the Caribbean.

    With Trump and Abrams calling the shots in Venezuela, Maduro has a chance to hang on as long as his top Generals and either Russia or China support him. In other words, Washington needs an intelligent and decent moderate to make such regime-change decisions. The utter stupidity of thrusting the likes of Abrams between Trump and Maduro highlights both the audacity and the ignorance of the seven Republican administrations since the 1950s.

     When Trump stupidly says he "loves" dictators like Kim in North Korea, it makes it harder to explain why Trump hates, for example, Cuba's former Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel that most Cuban people know and love. Diaz-Canel in his own Tweets and Cubans on the island on their social media pages use the above photo to explain that Rubio and Little Havana "would never let a Republican president talk to President Diaz-Canel, but Kim is fine."

    For sure, President Trump assumes the American people are stupid when he puts "BAD CHOICES" like Elliott Abrams into positions to exact U.S.-friendly regime-changes in either the Caribbean or Latin America or elsewhere.

    Such stupidly Bad Choices regarding people like Elliott Abrams create insults to the USA and to Democracy resulting in images like this that shows Secretary of State Mike Pompeo resurrecting Elliott Abrams from the grave...meaning the Bush dynasty...to overthrow what Pompeo is calling "the Brutal dictatorships of Latin America." This Editorial Cartoon accurately reflects how Latin Americans feel about such things as the Mozote Massacre or replacing the decent democratically elected Allende with the murderous Pinochet in Chile, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.,.....and so forth.

     When a popular Editorial Cartoon like this mocks Trump, it is really mocking both the United States of America and Democracy...and it is time that Americans understand that. Even people who dislike Maduro and love Guaido should know that Maduro has cause to ask his top General the question depicted above.

      But, I believe, the bottom line is this: When this generation of Americans in October-2016 was not embarrassed when the nations of the world voted 191-to-ZERO in the United Nations to condemn the U. S. for its Cuban policy, it apparently reflected the fact that Americans now have very little respect for their Democracy. That's the point the great Brazilian Editorial Cartoonist Carlos Latuff was making with the definitive image depicted above. Thus, I believe Trump-Rubio-Pompeo-Bolton-Abrams are totally wrong and Carlos Latuff is totally right.

     U. S. President Barack Obama in 2016 approved that 191-to-0 condemnation of the USA in the UN because of America's Batistiano/Little Havana-directed Cuban policy. Obama also had the guts to try his best to give decent Americans and Cuban-Americans control of the USA's Cuban policy...and Obama, as shown above, actually went to Cuba and on state-wide television and radio assured the people that they had "no reason to fear the United States." That promise, through no fault of Obama's after he served the maximum two terms as President, turned out...to be...a lie.

President Obama's sacred promise to Cuba.

   But then THIS {see above} HAPPENED TO AMERICA and it seems the U. S. Democracy is no longer strong enough to correct it. And that's where we are in mid-May of 2019 with the USA TRYING TO STARVE INNOCENT CUBANS ON THE ISLAND WHILE ALSO TRYING TO EXECUTE THREE MORE RIGHT-WING REGIME-CHANGES IN THE CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA. Of course, the quartet above -- Trump, Rubio, Pompeo, and Bolton - - want the American people to not remember the USA's favorite past Caribbean and Latin American dictators -- Batista, Trujillo, Somoso, Pinochet, etc., etc., and so forth.

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USA's Troika of Tyranny?

 Or Triangle of Troglodytes??
{Sunday, May 12th, 2019}

     This week -- May 10, 2019 -- the Miami-based Progreso Weekly used the photo above to point out that the USA may have a "Triangle of Troglodytes" -- President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Adviser John Bolton. The Progreso Weekly called these three America's "war cabinet." The article hinted that the trio may be leading America into another war -- Iran?...Venezuela?...Cuba? It was a reference to Bolton's declaration in Miami that Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua constitute the "The Troika of Tyranny," apparently to justify Bolton's long-held desires for a regime-change in Cuba preceded by a regime-change in Venezuela and then followed by a regime-change in Nicaragua. The expected regime-change in Venezuela dating back to January has stalled, obviously delaying the Troglodytes' desired regime-changes in Cuba and Nicaragua. Meanwhile, the Progreso Weekly suggests that the Troglodytes at the moment seem more intent on a regime-change in Iran, which is a dire proposition that figures to delay the dire propositions closer to home at least for a time.

Trump vs. Iran.

   Tangling with Iran would surely create a conflagration involving supposed USA allies such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey. And Israel, the region's unmatched nuclear Superpower, would obviously love to join the USA in a war against Iran.

    Of course, no matter how much President Trump claims he "loves" North Korea's unpredictable dictator Kim, the fact remains that the USA is afraid of North Korea's nuclear threat.

      And all that doesn't even get us to the USA's two primary threats and competitors -- nuclear Superpowers Russia and China.

     A war in the USA's backyard with Cuba as the prize and Venezuela as the excuse/pretext became a distinct possibility when Trump turned over his Cuban/Latin American policies to Rubio, Bolton, Pompeo, Abrams, Claver-Carone, Reich, etc., with not a single moderate directing the USA's Cuba/Latin American/Western Hemisphere affairs.

     Even AFTER the United States won a war in its backyard, the United States would likely end up as the BIGGEST LOSER.

    And make no mistake, as indicated by this Trump Tweet, Cuba would be the prime target in any backyard USA war, with the Venezuelan crisis being the prime excuse for the Little Havana return to Havana.

     For sure, John Bolton believes these Cuban soldiers would provide little resistance to a military attack from the USA. While that might be true, Cuba's revolutionary spirit would still not likely capitulate.

     For two decades, John Bolton's reputation for wanting to attack just about everyone and everything not named Russia or China has been well-known. Not even the Batistiano-directed George W. Bush administration accepted Bolton's famous pretext to attack Cuba beginning in 2002. During this first full week of May-2019 President Trump was quoted as saying that Bolton wants to "get me into a war." Yet, John Bolton remains National Security Adviser...Rubio remains in charge of Cuban affairs, anti-Cuban extremist Claver-Carone remains in charge of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Pompeo remains as Secretary of State, and Abrams remains as the USA's Special Envoy to Venezuela. In other words, it seems there is no one in Washington at the moment WILLING OR ABLE to rein in John Bolton. God Bless America!!!

AND BY THE WAY:

    The photo above, taken by Bill Hackman, shows the family of Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo in Havana. Gerardo was the last of the "Cuba 5"/"Cuba Heroes" to be released from U. S. prisons in 2015 when U. S. President Barack Obama was trying so hard to normalize relations with Cuba. Gerardo had spent 16 years in a California federal prison and both he and his Havana wife thought he was there was life. His wife back in Cuba wanted his child and Obama allowed his sperm to be sent to the island to impregnate her. The baby was the little girl in the lower-right above. Since her birth, as you can see, Gerardo and his wife have had another little girl as well as a little boy between the births of the girls.

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CUBA JUSTICE: It's Possible

And An European Court Can Act!!
{Friday, May 10th, 2019}

    Since the Trump administration activated Title 3 of the Helms-Burton Act as a final step  to starve the Cuban economy once and all, it might have been a bridge too far for the USA's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy. That's because in addition to hurting Cubans on the island it also hurts other nations, as reflected by the typical international headline above. Translated from Spanish to English, the headline says: "The Activation of Title 3 of the Helms-Burton Act Is Rejected Beyond the Borders of Cuba." INDEED IT IS!!! In fact, the top officials of the 28-nation European Union are threatening to sue the USA in NON-U.S. COURTS and in forums such as the World Trade Organization. In Miami federal courts, unrepresented Cuba has routinely and successfully been sued for often ridiculous reasons, with the Batistiano-directed U. S. government guaranteeing some questionable rewards with frozen Cuban assets including cash and property. The EU leaders call the U. S. Embargo of Cuba, in place since 1962, "cruel and illegal." SO WHAT IF CUBA COULD SUE THE U. S. IN A EUROPEAN COURT FOR THE ILLEGAL EMBARGO, FOR THE THEFT OF GUANTANAMO BAY, FOR NUMEROUS TERRORIST ACTS INCLUDING THE BOMBING OF THE CIVILIAN CUBANA FLIGHT 455 IN WHICH ALL ABOARD WERE KILLED, etc., etc. And guess what? There indeed is such an European Court. I'll explain.

    This week -- on May 8th, 2019 -- the sensational trial in Italy of Amanda Knox was back in the headlines.  In 2007 she was an American exchange student in Italy when she was convicted in the murder of her roommate, British exchange student Meredith Kercher. Knox served four years in an Italian prison before her verdict was overturned. On May 8th she announced she was returning to Italy to participate in an Innocence Project for people unfairly imprisoned. That revelation also revealed this tidbit: The European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to pay Amanda Knox $20,600 "for failing to provide her a lawyer and an appropriate interpreter when she was first detained."

      The European Court of Human Rights is located in Strasbourg, France, and it has delivered more than 10,000 judgments since 1959. Since 1959, after the Cuban Revolution chased leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to Little Havana in Miami, thousands of Cubans...including some in Miami...have suffered massive Human Rights violations perpetrated by Cuban exiles, many of whom were U. S. government workers, such as the infamous Luis Posada Carriles.

    For centuries prior to the 1898 Spanish-American War, Cuba was dominated by Spain but after beating the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959 it has been a sovereign nation -- neither the property of America or Europe. The European Court of Human Rights in France could consider Cuban cases now that Title 3's activation of the "cruel and illegal" Helms-Burton Act includes violating what the European Union nations believe is their own Civil or Human Rights as independent nations that believe they should not have to abide by or be punished by the USA's harsh dictates regarding Cuba.

    In fact, this book published by Oxford University in England minutely explains "How to take a case to the European Court of Human Rights." And now with the international stretch of the "illegal and cruel" Helms-Burton Act, Europeans as well as totally innocent Cubans can possibly sue the United States for Human Rights violations.

   The High Representative and Foreign Affairs leader of the 28-nation European Union, Federica Mogherini, loves the Cuban people and visits the island often. She is shown above with Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. I am surprised that Rodriguez has NOT ALREADY solicited the help of his friend Mogherini to get Cuba some justice in international courts against the gross excessives the island has suffered since 1959 at the hands of the U.S.-backed Little Havana Batistianos.

   The European Court of Human Rights in France is one forum that might address Cuba's grievances against the United States, especially with EU leader Federica Mogherini strongly and famously defining the United States embargo against Cuba {since 1962} as "exceedingly cruel and grossly illegal." Beyond that, what about...the World Court, the World Trade Organization, etc.?

      NOW LET'S SEE: The undeniably "cruel and illegal" economic embargo of Cuba has cost the island how many billions...or trillions...of dollars since 1962? The Miami or Newark courts, of course, would say "zero." And U. S. courts would say the same about such things as the theft of Guantanamo Bay way back in 1903. The strong-armed treaty called for the U. S. to pay $2,000 a year for the lush land, which it did, but since 1959 Cuba has refused to cash the checks, which with interests now total just over $4,000 a year. What is Guantanamo Bay, for well over a century, worth? In an unbiased courtroom, Cuba would have a case...as it would, using de-classified USA documents, if the island nation could sue the USA for multiple terrorist acts, including but not ending with the civilian CUBANA FLIGHT 455.

       De-classified U. S. documents like this one could be used to support Cuba's claims that U. S. operatives were the terrorists that bombed Cubana Flight 455 into the ocean, killing all on board. This document and others indicate that the U. S. government almost immediately knew who the perpetrators were.

    In an international court, could the families of all the victims of Cubana Flight 455 sue the United States government???

     You know, Cubans on the island cry too. The sister and mother in this photo were waiting at the airport in Havana for the return of their brother and son on Cubana Flight 455 after he and 27 other teenage Cuban athletics had just won Gold Medals in the Central American Championships. When the photo above was taken, that sister and mother had just learned that the airplane had crashed into the ocean and there were no survivors. If Cuba could sue the U. S. for that tragedy, the sister shown above, still distraught as an adult, would surely travel to France if Cuba could sue the U. S. in a non-U. S. courtroom concerning such things as...Cubana Flight 455.

    If the European Court of Human Rights in France could successfully force Italy to pay American Amanda Knox $20,600 for two minor violations, what could the same court rule concerning what the United States owes Cuba and Cubans for such things as...the Embargo, Guantanamo Bay, Cubana Flight 455, etc., etc., etc.???

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