Will USA's DEMOCRACY Ever Recover??
As historically illustrated by the photo and graphic above, at least since 9:41 P. M. on February 15th, 1898 the U. S. democracy has been mauled by America's obsession with controlling Cuba, the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful island. That was the exact moment when the warship U. S. Maine exploded while it was docked in Havana Harbor, killing 261 U. S. sailors. For months prior to the disaster powerful elements within the U. S. government and in the U. S. media had loudly lobbied for the U. S. to go to war with Spain for the purpose of acquiring possession of Cuba. Spain, which had owned Cuba for many decades, was at the time in no position to win a war against the U. S. in the U.S.'s backyard...but the U. S. and the U. S. media quickly and conveniently blamed Spain for the explosion. Some blamed an accident but the U. S. itself confirmed it was caused by a military mine. So, it surely wasn't an accident. And, surely the Spanish government didn't do it. Thus, in all likelihood the zealots in the U. S. government and the U. S. media finally got their wish to obtain a pretext, or excuse, to declare war against Spain to finally secure U. S. control of Cuba. Well, what about the 261 young U. S. sailors who perished? Collateral damage? In any case, the pretext related to the explosion of the U. S. Maine began the U.S.'s quest to become an imperialist power because it was the excuse for the easy U. S. victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898 in Cuba. In addition to Cuba, the U. S. used the Spanish-American War to also gain control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain...but the pretext for the war was Cuba!!!
On February 15th, 1898, with Spain's permission, the warship USS Maine was docked in Havana Harbor although Spain was well aware that the U. S. was seeking a reason to go to war to acquire Cuba. At 9:41 P. M. that night a mine below the ship exploded, killing 261 U. S. sailors.
The devastating explosion that destroyed the USS Maine in Havana Harbor quickly spawned the Battle Cry "REMEMBER THE MAINE" that fueled the excuse for the Spanish American War, fulfilling the fervent wishes of prime politicians and publishers in the U. S. who had longed sought an excuse to go to go with Spain to capture Cuba. But, as you see in the historical report below, the "Propaganda of the Spanish-American War" revealed the fact, and exposed the iron grip that greedy politicians and publishers had around the throat of the U. S. democracy...and, unfortunately, still do.
If you take a moment to read the accurate historical report above, you will see that the very first sentence starts with these accurate words: "The Spanish-American War {April-August 1898} is considered to be both a turning point in the history of propaganda and the beginning of the practice of yellow journalism." Americans, of course, have been programmed not to believe such honest sentences related to U.S.-Cuban relations, proving once again that Cuba, the Caribbean island, says a lot more about the United States than is says about Cuba!! Of course, the politicians and publishers who were/are responsible are never held accountable for atrocities such as...Remember the Maine; stealing the lush Cuban port of Guantanamo Bay from Cuba in 1903; teaming with the MAFIA to support the brutal-thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba in 1952; allowing the most feverish Batistianos chased out of Cuba by the Cuban Revolution in 1959 to create Little Havana in Miami; paying, training, and providing Batista exiles to lead an air-land-sea military attack on Cuba known as the Bay of Pigs in 1961; paying and allowing two vicious and self-declared Cuban exile terrorists named Posada & Bosch to spend decades killing and maiming totally innocent Cubans; etc.; etc.; etc.; etc. Prior to and apart from its age-old thirst to control and dominate Cuba, of course, the U. S. democracy had never been involved in such nefarious behavior!!! And now, go back and closely read the long third paragraph that explains how the nation's two most powerful newspaper publishers -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer -- used their enormous power to salaciously and repetitiously use propaganda to guide the U. S. into seeking a pretext to provoke a war with Spain so the U. S. could finally get control of CUBA!!
History correctly defines what Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst did to propel the U. S. into war with Spain so the U. S. could gain control of Cuba!! It was/is called "Yellow Journalism." And what Pulitzer and Hearst pioneered to drive the U. S. into war to get hold of Cuba in the 1890s is today called "Fake News." Unfortunately, "Fake News" -- what Pulitzer and Hearst invented as "Yellow Journalism" -- today saturates the mainstream U. S. media, especially regarding Cuba!!!
This Editorial Cartoon shows Pulitzer on the left and Hearst on the right pushing mightily against other to see which of their powerful New York newspapers would lead the propaganda effort to get the U. S. to declare WAR against Spain so the U. S. could capture Cuba. Yes, history calls that tactic Yellow Journalism and, thus, Pulitzer and Hearst are attired in yellow clothing. The graphic above was appropriate during and after the Spanish-American War in 1898...but in 2021 such Yellow Journalism from the mainstream media is called "Fake News" and it particularly pertains to prime U. S. media promoting -- IN MAY OF 2021 -- the Biden administration's recapture of Cuba after allowing a little more time for Trump's genocide against Cuba to further soften up the Cuban people on the island. Of course, the pusillanimous and gutless generation of Americans who allowed Yellow Journalism regarding Cuba in 1898 is no different than the pusillanimous and gutless generation of Americans who are currently and sanctimoniously permitting U. S. genocide against Cubans on the island, a plague often promoted by mainstream Yellow Journalism/Fake News media outlets...such as the Washington Post!!
Because the topic is Cuba, most of what Americans have been told about the 1898 Spanish-American War has been biased information. So, I suggest you take advantage {above} of the Age of Search Engines to learn about the historic truths regarding such things as...the Spanish-American War!!!
The death knell of honest mainstream news in the U. S. media was sealed when the money-crazed U. S. government allowed even controversial but extremely wealthy individuals and corporations to purchase the nation's most powerful U. S. news organizations. Prior to that disaster, there were strict rules against such things, as well as monopolistic limitations. For example, Jeff Bezos was born to destitute teenage parents in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but when he was adopted at age four by a rich Cuban father he was on the path to Princeton University. He then used his father's money to start Amazon, and therefore today he is the richest person in the history of the entire world!!!
A parody or not, Jeff Bezos used some of his pocket change to buy the iconic Washington Post. As a liberal {My favorite President is Barack Obama and my least favorite is Donald Trump}, I was a lifetime very devoted reader of the Post...at least till it was purchased by Jeff Bezos and then transformed into nothing more and northing less than a richly funded extreme left-wing Fake News propaganda dispenser. Along with corporate-owned extreme left-wing Fake News dispensers such as the NY Times, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC, the Washington Post specialized in Fake News to defeat Trump's reelection bid starting with the day Trump became President via the November-2016 election!!! While I am very much anti-Trump, I sincerely believe that the greatest threat to the U. S. democracy is the current status of the U. S. mainstream media giants, as named above, who now have collaborative and extreme and unlimited amounts of money that gives them the wherewithal to make the U. S. a one-party government -- namely, the extreme left-wing Democratic Party. I am a lifelong liberal Democrat but I believe the U. S. should forever remain at least a two-PARTY government. In other words, all aspects of the Republican Party must not be wiped out and all their backers should never be totally vilified and then demolished, which is now what the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post and the rest of the above-named media giants are in the process of doing. As far as Cuba is concerned, the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post allows the most vicious Counter Revolutionary Cubans to write prime anti-Cuban editorials, apparently because Jeff Bezos wants to please his very influential Cuban-American stepfather.
In the 2020 Election that defeated President Trump and put President Biden in the White House, Americans are programmed not to believe that "FAKE NEWS & MISINFORMATION" -- as perpetrated by the ultra-rich and extreme left-wing media -- was responsible. But...it was. And so, the Yellow Journalism/Fake News phenomenon now saturates the mainstream U. S. media, and everyday Americans seem to understand that fact but most Americans don't feel they can correct it, although actually they may have a chance to address such issues in the 2022 Congressional elections.
According to the U. S. government and according to the mainstream U. S. media, the only people who are permitted to discuss or influence Cuban policies in the United States are self-serving and extreme Counter Revolutionary zealots such...Marco Rubio, Bob Menendez, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the Diaz-Balart brothers, etc., etc. For damn sure, as far as the U. S. government and the mainstream U. S. media is concerned, Cubans on the island are never allowed to express their opinions. But, in the digital-social media-internet era we now know that Cubans on the island like Daily Perez Guillen do, in fact, have powerful opinions!!! As shown by her statement above, Daily believes that the U. S. Blockade against Cuban families is genocidal, illegal, and immoral. Daily is a journalist who supports the Cuban government and she says almost of all Cubans on the island feel that way. She points out that if that was not so the ultra-powerful exiles and the United States would have recaptured the island "long, long ago!!" Like most of the Cubans on the island, Daily is well educated. She maintains that the "the incredible amounts of money the U. S. government doles out to dissidents and would-be dissidents creates anti-Cuban protests and incidents but the everyday Cubans disdain such foreign money doing such wicked things." And Daily says, "The U. S. media claims Cubans on the island all want to get to Miami but the fact is, despite the genocide inflicted by the world's superpower, most of us will stay on the island and, if necessary, fight-to-the-death to keep the sovereignty that the Cuban Revolution finally gave us on January 1, 1959. Americans might not believe that but that is because they are lied to. But ask a smart and informed American, especially one who has been to Cuba, and ask them...uh, how in the heck has Revolutionary Cuba survived for over six decades? The reason....from the 1950s until today -- in May of 2021 -- there have always been enough Cubans on the island willing to fight to the death to make sure no foreign country -- or an entity like the U.S.-backed Mafia -- ever again controls us." Of course, Americans are programmed not to believe a thing that Daily Perez Guillen says...because she is a Cuban on the island and not a Cuban in the U. S. Congress or a Cuban in Little Havana USA/Miami. On the other hand, Daily Perez Guillen is well-educated, smart and she actually has opinions on the island. In that milieu, she has asked a pertinent question...you know, about "how in the heck has Revolutionary Cuba survived for over six decades?" And, uh...that's a good question considering that viciously determined Cuban exiles, backed by the strongest and richest nation in the world, have unsuccessfully tried for over six decades to recapture the pugnacious and much misunderstood island nation!!!! As a journalist in Cuba, working for the state, Daily says, "The internet and social media shows us that the U. S. media lies to its readers and viewers about Cuba and, I guess, about other things. We journalists in Cuba believe our readers and viewers and listeners are too smart to be lied to, so fake news is not our gig."
The powerful international media giant El Pais, based in Madrid, echoes what Daily Perez Guillen said regarding Cubans on the island having opinions, including about fighting to the death to keep Little Havana and the U. S. from recapturing Havana. So, El Pais is a place Americans could get some real honest news about Cuba...as is the London-based BBC World News and the Paris-based Agence France-Presse {AFP}. For example, today -- May 7th, 2021 -- El Pais sent the above article around the world: "Cuba playing all or nothing amid urgent need for change." As you can see it is written by an honest journalist, Mauricio Vicent, who is stationed in Havana for El Pais. Such updated and honest journalism about Cuba by an international source is important.
As far as the U. S. Yellow Journalism/Fake News is concerned Carlos Lazo is a Cuban-American who doesn't exist...or at least doesn't have opinions. Yet, like most Cuban-Americans, he believes that the U. S. blockade of Cuban families on the island is illegal, immoral, and genocidal. Carlos Lazo is a Cuban-American professor in Seattle. He is famed for riding his bicycle, accompanied by some of his students, the 3,000 miles from Seattle to Washington to beg the U. S. Congress and the White House to end the Blockade against Cubans on the island. Carlos Lazo is ubiquitous on Facebook and other social media outlets, and he is a leader of anti-Embargo/Blockade street protests from Seattle to Washington to Tampa to Miami, etc. Of course, the mainstream U. S. is too yellow or too fake to even report that Cuban-Americans like Carlos Lazo exist. But...he does exist, and the mainstream U. S. media that caters to everything the Little Havana zealots maintain should have the courage and the integrity to tell about the decent and democracy-loving Carlos Lazo, a Cuban-American who now devotes his life to ending what he says is the cruel and genocidal U. S. Embargo/Blockade against innocent Cuban families on the island.
As far as the U. S. Yellow Journalism/Fake News is concerned Carlos Lazo is a Cuban-American who doesn't exist...or at least doesn't have opinions. Yet, like most Cuban-Americans, he believes that the U. S. blockade of Cuban families on the island is illegal, immoral, and genocidal. Carlos Lazo is a Cuban-American professor in Seattle. He is famed for riding his bicycle, accompanied by some of his students, the 3,000 miles from Seattle to Washington to beg the U. S. Congress and the White House to end the Blockade against Cubans on the island. Carlos Lazo is ubiquitous on Facebook and other social media outlets, and he is a leader of anti-Embargo/Blockade street protests from Seattle to Washington to Tampa to Miami, etc. Of course, the mainstream U. S. is too yellow or too fake to even report that Cuban-Americans like Carlos Lazo exist. But...he does exist, and the mainstream U. S. media that caters to everything the Little Havana zealots maintain should have the courage and the integrity to tell about the decent and democracy-loving Carlos Lazo, a Cuban-American who now devotes his life to ending what he says is the cruel and genocidal U. S. Embargo/Blockade against innocent Cuban families on the island.
