26.6.19

Russia Taunts U.S. In Cuba

Opposing Warships Eyeing Each Other!!
         This Associated Press/Ramon Espinosa photo shows Russia's ultra-modern warship The Admiral Gorshkov entering Havana Harbor yesterday -- Tuesday, June 25th, 2019. For some, it harkens chillingly back to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis because U. S. President Trump has apparently given Counter Revolutionary extremists in Miami the go-ahead not only to reverse all of President Obama's normalization advances towards Cuba but to actually recapture the island. Russia, a military Superpower, might challenge that.
     The Admiral Gorshkov-454 is the pride and joy of the Russian navy and represents a new class of surface warships to buttress Russia's powerful submarine fleet. It carried 210 sailors into Havana as curious Cubans watched in awe. The Admiral carries advanced cruise missiles as well as a variety of anti-ship and land-attack missiles. Also, it reportedly has a deadly defense system the Russians call "deference." Its top speed is 29 knots. Ben Werner, the top writer at USNI News, said, "The Admiral Gorshkov is ultra-modern and it parallels the capabilities of modern U. S. and allied surface combatants."
    This Cuban woman was using her Smart Phone to video-tape the Admiral Gorshkov cruising into Havana Harbor. The surprise visit instantly was a hit on social media now that most Cubans are quite tuned to the Internet. A typical Cuban post was the one that said: "We Cubans who will stay here no matter what Miami and Washington have in store for us hope there is no war, but the Title 3-Helms Burton sanctions and the Miami courts now being allowed by Trump to sue everybody who has a relation with Cuba, leaves us no choice. We either starve or we fight this time, and maybe Russia's best warship gives us hope."
     For sure, Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending a message to the U. S. indicating his displeasure with "Trump trying to bring Cuba, after all these years, to its knees and then allow his political buddies in Miami to feast on the spoils." Indeed, Admiral Gorshkov-454 is Putin's personal toy and sailing it into the USA's backdoor might be a bit intimidating. Cuba welcomed the warship with a 21-gun salute as it entered Havana Harbor.
     This is the USS Jason Dunham. According to USNI News and its top writer Ben Werner, this is the U. S. warship that is in the waters 40 miles out from Key West, Florida, which puts it close enough to monitor the total of four Russian warships docked in Havana, three of which support Admiral Gorshkov's ubiquitous presence.
   President Trump has respect for President Putin's military arsenal, and well he should. While Trump perhaps can avoid the simmering war against strong but non-nuclear Iran in the Middle East, he surely needs to avoid tangling with Putin's nuclear capability...especially in the Caribbean or Latin America.
     This is Russia's TU-160 nuclear bomber that is code-named "Blackjack" by NATO allies who respect its power. When two TU-160s landed in Venezuela and caused an uproar at Maiquetia Airport outside Caracas, it quickly and sharply altered the military dynamics in that oil-rich but starkly troubled Latin American nation, which otherwise was expected to have a U.S.-friendly leader by now that would have replaced the Cuba-friendly Nicolas Maduro. At the moment, it's up to Trump to decide if Putin will allow U.S.-backed regime-changes in Cuba or in Venezuela...or is Putin bluffing?
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24.6.19

Russia-US Naval Power In Cuba

A Russian WARSHIP In Cuba!!
        These Cubans today -- Monday, June 24th, 2019 -- were surprised to see this ultra-modern Russian warship, the Admiral Gorshkov, steaming into Havana Harbor. The photo is courtesy of The London Sun, which reported that Moscow warned that "The world is on the brink of a repeat of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis." The excellent video & audio below of the Russian warship entering Havana Harbor today is courtesy of France's AFP News Agency:
     While the Russian Navy dominates Havana Harbor on the western tip of Cuba, the U. S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay on the eastern tip of the island is not amused. Tap the image above to see and hear the Russian warship arrive in Havana today, surprising Cubans.
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Can Rubio Capture Havana?

Odds Are In His Favor Now!!
Photo credit: Sarah Marsh/Reuters.
    The photo above reflects a new reality in Cuba since President Trump enacted the total starvation section Title 3 of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which was mostly written and crammed into congressional legal law by Little Havana Cuban-born extremists Jorge Mas Canosa and Lincoln Diaz-Balart to merely just starve and deprive Cubans on the island to soften them up for recapture. Not even President George W. Bush, 100% controlled by the Little Havana extremists in Miami, was so extremely cruel and stupid to activate Helms-Burton's Title 3. But since Trump enacted it, the photo above is accurate. Shelves in Cuban food stores are empty and Cuban mothers, like these, are finding it hard not only to find vital food like eggs and chicken but also encountering a scarcity of medical and hygiene products. In other words, photos like this obviously bring joy to the uncaring heart of Little Havana's Marco Rubio, Trump's current Cuban dictator.
     Remember and please study the above graphic that shows when four young Cuban mothers, who had thrived as entrepreneurs thanks to the decency of President Obama, penned a heart-wrenching article IN RUBIO'S HOMETOWN MIAMI HERALD begging the heartless Rubio to hear their side of the story and stop trying to starve their children. And yes, these four Cuban mothers -- Niuris Higueras, Yamina Vicenta, Julia de la Rosa, and Marla Recio -- and 26 others took their heartfelt pleas to Washington. And still, neither Trump nor Rubio had the decency or the guts to pay them any attention. But at least, as you can see, Rubio's hometown Miami Herald gave them a lot of attention.
    President Trump's diabolical anointment of the lightweight Rubio to oversee the CUBA POLICY SHIFT from the sheer decency of President Obama to the startling indecency of President Trump not only shames American and Democracy but also reveals just how deeply ingrained into the bowels of the U. S. government the former rulers of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba are since they were chased to their new capital of Little Havana in Miami in January of 1959.
     The Trump-Rubio enactment of Helms-Burton Title III parallels the USA's past most evil designs on Cuba, such as the explosion that killed almost 300 young sailors aboard the USS Maine in Havana Harbor that served as the long-desired pretext in 1898 for the Spanish-American War on Cuban soil;  the theft "in perpetuity" of Cuba's plush Guantanamo Bay in 1903; the USA teaming with the Mafia to back the cruel and thieving Batista dictatorship in 1952; then the USA providing instant sanctuary and much more for the Batistiano-Mafiosi leaders who fled the victorious Cuban Revolution in 1959; the Bay of Pigs military attack on Revolutionary Cuba in April of 1961; history's longest and cruelest economic embargo ever enacted, 1962 till today, against a small country by a large country; the 1976 terrorist bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 that killed all on board; the 1976 car-bombing that silenced Miami's best Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian after he criticized such terrorist acts against innocent Cubans; the Batistiano-written Helms-Burton Act in 1996 that was successfully designed primarily to enrich {with tax dollars} selected Cuban-American extremists and secondarily to recapture Cuba; etc., etc., etc.!!! But Trump's Rubio-induced enactment of Helms-Burton Title III has put the U. S. and Democracy on a course just as cruel and dark as any of the aforementioned cruel and dark aspects of the U. S government when it comes to Cuba. Yes, indeed, Title III already has begun to starve and deprive Cubans on the island but, of course, it's main purpose is to enrich already rich Cuban-American extremists...and that has begun too, of course. {Read about such incredible new enrichments in new insightful but sad articles this week by the great Tracey Eaton on his "Cuba Money Project" blog}. In U. S. courts, companies are being successfully sued for involvement with Revolutionary Cuba and greedy Cuban-American lawyers in Miami, Newark, and Washington are acting like unchecked children in the world's largest CANDY & TOY store, which the United States is, of course, for Cuban extremists. So while Title III legally makes billionaires out of some Cuban-American millionaires it also is now CREATING another slew of Cuban-American millionaires, even as these recent and exact headlines depict the added punishment being doled out to totally innocent Cubans on the island by the greedy Title III enablers:
           ****Washington Post headline: "As Sanctions Bite In Cuba, the U. S. -- Once A Driver of Hope -- Is Now A Source of Pain." That articles explores the decency of Obama followed by the indecency of Trump.
               ****Wall Street Journal headline: "Cuba Ration Lines Grow Tense As Economy Flails." The once proud and still formidable Wall Street Journal now rejoices in reports about innocent Cubans being tormented.
              ****Reuters News Agency headline: "Shortages Plague Cuba As U. S. Sanctions Sharpen Economic Woes." The London-based Reuters covers Cuba like a blanket with great journalists such as Sarah Marsh, while most even mainstream U. S. journalists are simply too afraid to report truthfully about Cuba.
     And, of course, the U. S. is now inundated with extreme anti-Cuban propaganda "journalists" like Frances Martel who wrote another sordid anti-Cuba/pro-Batistiano propaganda piece this past weekend for Breitbart News. Highly financed by the billionaire Mercer family and others, Breitbart would have you believe that Revolutionary Cuba is worse than Nazi Germany while the Batista-Mafia rule of Cuba was the best government in the entire history of the world. Yes, in this day 'n age, extreme money sources have created massive and effective propaganda rags like Breitbart that can hire as many propagandists as they desire while calling them "journalists."
     That's why great and honest journalists like Sarah Marsh at the London-based Reuters News Agency remain your best sources for great and honest journalist from Cuba and not from some over-paid protagonist who has never been to Cuba and who is just masquerading as a journalist. Sarah Marsh goes out into Cuban fields and talks with Cuban farmers about what they can produce and what they can't produce because of restrictions from both the U. S. embargo as well as some longstanding and correctable Cuban bureaucratic blunders. Then back in the cities Sarah Marsh discusses the Cuban predicament with top government officials, such as Betsy Diaz.
     The powerful and forthright Betsy Diaz is Cuba's Interior Commerce Minister, which puts her in charge of trying to keep 11.4 million Cubans from starving for food or being deprived of other necessities.
     And, for sure, Betsy Diaz does not lie to Cuba's well-educated and knowledgeable people. She says: "We have made our own mistakes but I assure you that we are trying our best to correct them. At this particular time with Trump in Washington and with Rubio and the Diaz-Balarts in both Miami and Washington, the U. S. is using the Title 3 of Helms-Burton to starve and deprive us as never before. We must, as always, survive this...and we will. But it is tough, for me and for you and for all our children. Some Cuban-Americans benefit economically and politically from doing this to us, as you know. Some Cubans in Cuba are also bought off to help them. But as always there are enough Cubans in Cuba who will struggle through hard times...and fight to the last drop of blood...to protect our dignity and our independence. It so happens that our enemy is not only close by but also the strongest nation in the world. No other small country could have survived what we have survived from them...not even much larger countries than us. You know how sorry I am for what Title 3 in the United States has brought us. But you also know how hard we are working to get past it. This beautiful island doesn't deserve to be tortured by foreign criminals supported by the world's strongest nation. But that is the way it is. We must not only combat that but we must always strive to prosper...and someday we will."
      Although backed by the Cuban people, Betsy Diaz in little Cuba appears to be a mismatch for the unchecked Marco Rubio in mighty America.
    Incredibly, the frayed two-party USA political system has enabled a flyweight, self-serving Cuban puppeteer, Marco Rubio, to enlist three ultra-powerful puppets -- John Bolton, Donald Trump, and Mike Pompeo who are not only willing but anxious to provide Rubio with all the money, all the legality, and all the might he needs to reconquer Cuba. To combat such a force, what in the world does little Cuba have to possibly stand up to such a threat?? The answer, I believe, will surprise those who haven't been to the island to see for themselves or who haven't depended on top sources who are in touch with the rhythms and pulses of the island. So permit me to suggest what the Cubans on the island are depending on to ward off Rubio, who seemingly has all the cards & guns necessary to win this uneven fight.
     Revolutionary icon Fidel Castro died at age 90 on the evening of November 25th, 2016. But if Marco Rubio is to recapture Cuba, he will have to defeat Fidel Castro, something seven consecutive U. S. presidential administrations have been unable to do. Since Nov. 25-2016, there are indelible signs on the island that the legacy of Fidel is superseding his rather formidable lifelong extravagances. Posters like this are flashing up all over the island highlighting Fidel quotes...and appearing across the social media spectrums now that the well-educated Cubans have almost full Internet prowess. This particular inspirational Fidel quotation says, "That flag, that heaven, this earth. We will defend it at the Price that is necessary."
    This is another increasingly popular Fidel poster and quotation being spread across the island of Cuba and its now ubiquitous Internet social media interactions. This quote says, "Neoliberalism is not a theory of development, neoliberalism is the doctrine of the total looting of our peoples." While he lived, Fidel insisted on statues and monuments to honor revolutionary icons like Celia Sanchez and Jose Marti but before he died Fidel ordered...yes, dictated...that he didn't want to become a "cult figure" and therefore he didn't want statues in his honor or buildings, roads, and other edifices named for him. Those dictates have been honored, but the Internet social media, which has been mushrooming on the island since the Obama presidency, is busy crowning Fidel as an idol and as a teacher far more powerful than the "cult figure" he tried so hard to avoid becoming.

      And so, in late June of 2019 THE question is this: Can the TRUMPIFIED, PINOCCHIO-NOSED Marco Rubio defeat the legend of Fidel Castro and recapture Cuba for his pals and mentors still feasting and huddling with abated breath in Little Havana since January of 1959??????????? I know that is a lot of question marks but it entails a lot of factors, such as...Fidel is dead; Cuba is a small island; the United States is the world's economic and military superpower; and, of course, Rubio is totally unchecked -- except for FIDEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! {Uh, yes, I know...a lot of exclamation points; sorry}.
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20.6.19

Pompeo's Cuban War

It's Gutlessness Is Unconscionable!!
{UPDATED: Sunday, June 23, 2019}
    The photo above was taken Thursday -- June 20, 2019 -- by Saul Loeb for the AFP News Agency. I believe every democracy-loving American should study and try to comprehend the News Conference conducted by the USA's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. There are a FEW PROBLEMS for the USA in the Middle East and elsewhere but Pompeo Thursday concentrated on fomenting his long-desired WAR AGAINST CUBA. After imposing Helms-Burton Title 3 sanctions designed to starve Cubans on the island once and for all, Pompeo today slapped Cuba on the USA's punitive blacklist of nations that engage in HUMAN TRAFFICKING. Incredibly, Pompeo added one other nation -- dear friend Saudi Arabia -- to that list...even while the USA sells billions of dollars in ultra-modern military weapons to the aggressive Saudis. The 55-year-old Mike Pompeo has LONG desired to starve-punish-eviscerate Cubans on the island to appease radical Cubans in Little Havana/Miami...and that includes Pompeo's past roles as a Republican anti-Cuban war-monger when he was...CIA Director, in the U. S. Congress from 2011 till 2017, and now as Trump's omnipotent Secretary of State.
     Americans who do not take time to study the montage shown above are, I believe, Americans who don't care one iota about their Democracy. In the middle above is Mike Pompeo and he is flanked by four other extremely obsessed anti-Cuban war-mongers who have been anointed by President Trump into ultra-powerful positions to make war against several smaller nations -- especially against Cuba as directed by Little Havana's Marco Rubio.
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo loves Chairman Kim because North Korea has nuclear weapons. But picking on little weak nations like Cuba is Pompeo's cup of tea.
     For the United States of America to allow self-serving Cuban-obsessed lightweights like Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo to dictate Cuban policies that hurt the vast majority of Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and Americans is a GROSS INSULT to Democracy. Yet, a cowardly generation of Americans meekly allow it to happen...and do so without even attempting to judge Mike Pompeo's Marco Rubio-directed News Conference today. It's truly amazing; INCREDIBLY SAD!!
     Recently the 30 Major League Baseball teams in the United States signed an agreement with Cuba's Baseball Association in a totally decent and herculean effort to reduce gross HUMAN TRAFFICKING of Cuba's wealth of baseball talent coming to the U. S. to play baseball. But the Little Havana lightweight Marco Rubio dictated that the Trump administration block the sane MLB-Cuba agreement. After that, of course, the HUMAN TRAFFICKERS who already loved Rubio loved him more than ever.
     An America that allows Marco Rubio to dictate President Trump's genocidal Cuban policies is an America that favors Human Traffickers over DEMOCRACY while, as happened today, punishing Cuba for being a HUMAN TRAFFICKER. Incredible...and sad!!
A decent and brave American President.
But then came Trump.
Then came genocidal dangers.
Little Havana got its war-monger.
LITTLE HAVANA's WAR ON HAVANA.
Democracy? "What's democracy?"
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Russia-US Venezuelan Faceoff

 And Will Either Risk War?
     The Russian Ambassador to the United States, Vladimir Zaemski, has just had some interesting things to say about the U.S.-Russia standoff in Venezuela. His words are very interesting because many presumed the USA's desired regime-change in Venezuela -- from the troubled but Russia-friendly Maduro to the ambitious U.S.-friendly Guaido -- would have taken place as far back as January when the Trump administration insisted Guaido was/is Venezuela's rightful President. Now the U. S. claims it hasn't happened because POOR LITTLE CUBA is keeping Maduro afloat. Of course, it's the Big Boy, meaning Russia, that has stalled Trump's and Miami's designs on oil-rich but destitute and deeply U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela. So, here is what Vladimir Zaemski said to the U. S. and the world about Russia's current Venezuelan position:
                "The U. S. is lying when it says Russia has a new military contract with Venezuela. Our only military-technical deal with Venezuela was in 2001 with Hugo Chavez, but it is still valid. Saying such things, and saying tiny Cuba is the big military power keeping Maduro in office is stupid. It's a pretext in Washington to create a military situation. It bespeaks of John Bolton, the world's most dangerous war idiot and...what's his title, National Security Adviser? Well, our National Security adviser Franz klinsevich calls Bolton a lying conspiracy freak, and so do a lot of Americans in Washington, I see. And I call Bolton Mr. Trump's accident waiting to happen in Latin America...and that's a spot America doesn't need a war...uh, I mean a accident."
      Yes, while the U. S. has the world's strongest overall military, Russia can match the U. S. {some say exceed} the U. S. when it comes to nuclear power. Assuming Americans are stupid and sufficiently proselytized, Trump claims little Cuba is the POWER keeping Maduro afloat in Venezuela but, in reality, of course, it's Russia.
    Don't be fooled by Trump Tweets about Russia removing "most of their people from Venezuela." Russia still has enough "people" in Venezuela to keep Trump from turning his war-mongers like Bolton and Abrams on Venezuela, at least at the moment.
     But easily the stupidest and most dangerous thing Trump has done during the first 2.5 years of his presidency was anointing Little Havana lightweight Marco Rubio as the USA's Cuban dictator in an obvious trade-off for Rubio supposedly being able to deliver Florida's massive haul of 29 electoral votes that are considered vital to Trump's 2020 reelection. Rubio's entire economic and political career has been based on dancing to every tune sung by the Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists who rule his hometown of Little Havana in Miami. Rubio, as indicated by the graphic above, views the regime-change in Venezuela as the prelude to the regime-change in Cuba that the Little Havana extremists have violently championed since January of 1959.
     Months ago, as shown above, Rubio was so convinced that his regime-change in Venezuela was so imminent...just hours away...that he went to the Venezuelan-Colombian border to celebrate. But photos like this reminded the world that a Rubio in charge of America's modern Caribbean and Latin American imperialism might herald a return of vicious U.S.-backed dictators from the historical past such as...Batista in Cuba, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoso in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile, ETC., ETC., ECT.
     Since January, the U. S. has had enough major allies, including Latin American superpower Brazil as well as well-armed Colombia and the 28-nation European Union, to bring about the USA's desired regime-change in Venezuela. But there has been one huge problem: The people the Trump administration STUPIDLY put in charge of regime-changes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua were only extremely biased and well-known WAR-MONGERS. The Little Havana-dictated and Cuba-obsessed Rubio was Trump's biggest mistake but study the montage below and you will understand why supposedly easy 2019 regime-changes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua are not all that EASY.
     In the middle above is Juan Guaido and he is shown flanked by John Bolton and Elliott Abrams. Guido is Miami's and Trump's choice as the President of Venezuela. Bolton and Abrams have well-known reputations as the greatest war-mongers in America with Bolton, Trump's National Security Adviser, and Abrams, Trump's Envoy to Venezuela, both famed for advocating military operations against smaller nations such as Cuba and now Venezuela. When Trump ignorantly put Bolton and Abrams in charge of regime-changes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, snags were sure to follow because there is no official in the Caribbean or Latin America unaware of the reputations Bolton and Abrams have earned. Even moderately respected Republican diplomats that Trump could have named would have skirted America's reputation for past fierce regime-changes from 1953 deep into the 1970s, with 1973's coup that killed popular democratically elected President Salvador Allende in Chile to install the U.S.-friendly but infamously murderous dictator General Pinchot for 17 bloody years still being most vividly remembered throughout all of Latin America although Americans to this day are not supposed to GOOGLE such sordid details. But since then, opposition leaders in Latin America, like Juan Guaido now in Venezuela, hang on the phone to Miami and Washington supporters trying to solicit money and military might from the USA to, if necessary, install them the way Pinochet was installed in Chile.
       Go back to the top of this post and re-read what Russia's Ambassador to the United States, Vladimir Zaemski, had to say this week about Trump's and America's National Security Adviser John Bolton. If Americans didn't cringe when Trump resurrected a plethora of anti-Cuban war-mongers from the old Bush dynasty like Bolton, Abrams, Reich, Claver-Carone, etc., etc., rest assured that all of the USA's friends and all of the USA's enemies DID CRINGE.
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19.6.19

Florida Extends Batista Dictatorship

From 1952 Till 2019!!
{With Only A Slight 1959 Pause}
     The Havana-based Gente de Zona band -- consisting of Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom -- is one of the best, most honored, and most popular musical acts in the Western Hemisphere. They were signed up to perform on July 4th in Hialeah, Florida, and most Cuban-Americans in the area were anxious to see them. But a handful of generational exiles from 1959's ousted Batista dictatorship in Cuba continue to dictate Florida's politics and Florida's economy. Thus, the mayor of Hialeah this week -- on June 17th, 2019 -- canceled the appearance of Gente de Zona.
      Yes, the Gente de Zona duo {Randy Malcom and Alexander Delgado} are super-talented musicians and they are nice guys. But a handful of Batistiano-types in Florida in 2019 are not embarrassed by resembling the Batista dictatorship that ruled Cuba from 1952 till 1959 when the Cuban Revolution shocked the world by booting the Batista-Mafia rulers off the island, where their quick resurrection in South Florida reshaped America by proving to be an extension of the Batista dictatorship on U. S. soil. The victims, not to mention the U. S. democracy itself, are endless...with Randy Malcom and Alexander Delgado merely the latest. But saddest of all from the overall standpoint is the fact that the vast majority of Americans and Cuban-Americans, through three generations now, have been reduced to meekly accepting such insults to democracy. "Uh, ye...yes, I a...agree. If, uh...Randy and Alexander sti...still...li...live in Cuba...they wo...would...be...be a gr...great th...threat to...to A...America...if they pe...performed in Fl...Florida...on Ju...July 4th. We...uh, a...agree wi...with you...Ma...Mayor, sir."
In 1959 Fidel chased the Batistianos.....
all the way to Miami!!!
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cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story)

cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story) : Note : This particular essay on  Ana Margarita Martinez  was first ...