CUBA: What IF There Is No Blockade?

 

      In the mainstream U. S. media the daily refrain for the last six decades has informed Americans how necessary the U. S. Embargo/Blockade of Cuba is; how fantastically great the pre-Revolultionary Batista/Mafia rule of Cuba was; and how incredibly nice and correct the Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Little Havana/Miami are and have been since January of 1959 and since February of 1962 when the Embargo/Blockade against Cuba began. But...Cubans on the island also have opinions too, including Manuel Lopez Bello, the Director of the International Jose Marti Airport in Havana. On Cuban television today -- March 27th-2023 -- Manuel had a lot of opinions: "If there was no blockade of this island, our tourism could top Florida's. After all, Cuba has more beautiful beaches and other such lures. This month of March in 2023, after the pandemic and other recent calamities, despite the blockade more tourists are arriving in Cuba and repeatedly I hear from other would-be tourists that want to fly or cruise to Cuba but they are scared off by the economic and military power of Miami and the United States. Through it all, when there are glimmers of light in the dark tunnels between Key West and Havana, our tourism and our would-be tourism tries to flourish."

     Today -- March 27th-2023 -- these photos from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport reveals renewed tourism beginning to arrive in Cuba despite the longest and, many say, the cruelest Embargo/Blocade ever imposed by any powerful nation against any much weaker nation.

      Today -- March 27th-2023 -- this photo shows a rather busy Jose Marti Airport in Havana. But how much busier would it be if Cuba was not embargoed/blockaded since 1962 by the richest, most powerful, and most influential nation in the world??

     Today -- March 27th-2023 -- this Air France airplane is shown leaving Jose Marti Airport in Havana. How many other flights since 1962 have bowed to the dictates of the U. S. Embargo/Blockade and thus refused to fly to Cuba.

     The location of Cuba...namely its tragic closeness to Miami...remains Cuba's greatest tragedy since 1959.

      Of course, great authors such as T. J. English have minutely explained such pertinent U.S.-Cuban Facts as: "How the Mob Owned Cuba...and Then Lost It to the Revolution." But, of course, it appears that the Embargo/Blockade will endure.

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Miami Shames Baseball, Cuba, & USA

 

     Since January of 1959 Little Havana in Miami has been a rich and powerful political force in the USA as it leads the six-decade-old fight to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. Amazingly, it hasn't succeeded but has as of today -- March 24th-2023 -- it has succeeded in accomomplishing things such as starving, depriving, and making miserable generations of Cubans on the island.

     And, of course, this headline this week reveals -- in late March of 2023 -- more misery for Cubans on the island that apparently cheers Little Havana's Counter Revolutionaries. 

     Natural disasters such as Hurricane Ian coupled with man-made disasters such as the Little Havana-promoted U. S. Embargo/Blockade continue to devastate Cuba's vital crops and its overall economy.

     Despite struggling with a blockaded and largely depleted economy, Cuba somehow maintains an exceptionally strong and ultra-modern Television-Radio News operations, such as today's National TV Newscast shown above.

      Cuba's ubiquitous TV News Stations focus on live reports featuring everyday Cubans across the island, and live reports from its Parliament as shown above. Such reports reflect the moods of everyday Cubans as well as Parliamentarians such as Carlos Enrique Gonzalez who are still upset with how Team Cuba was so rudely treated in Little Havana-Miami in the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic.

     In the 20-nation, wildly popular and widely televised World Baseball Classic that spanned 13 days this month, Team Cuba thrilled Cubans by winning the 5-team Pool A in Taiwan and then surviving the Quarterfinals in Japan, and then had to fly to Little Havana/Miami for the Semi-Finals.

     Led by the Chicago White Sox's  and Team Cuba's switch-hitting Third Baseman Yoan Moncada, Cuba was the biggest surprise of the 2023 WBC...till it arrived in Miami for the Semi-Finals. As TV baseball fans in Cuba saw, Yoan Moncada, along with other WBC All-Stars such as Japan's superman pitcher-hitter Shohei Ortani, finished the World Baseball Classic being placed on the WBC All-Star Team.

      In both Taiwan and Tokyo Team Cuba and Yoan Moncada, and their fans -- including Yoan's wife and daughter -- were treated well. But in Miami facing Team USA in the WBC Semi-Finals, Cuban fans including this woman and girl were chased out of their seats by anti-Team Cuba zealots.

      The two photos directly above show Cuban fans in the stands in Miami having insults and water being hurled at them. Of course, the Team Cuba players saw this happening up in the stands as they tried to play against Team USA.

     This photo shows Team Cuba in red uniforms in the top of the First Inning taking a 1-0 lead over Team USA and Team Cuba still had no one out with the bases loaded!! But as you see above, the Cuban player on First Base and the Cuban First Base coach were watching play being stopped while security forces were moving an anti-Team Cuba protester off the field. Even with the 1-0 lead and still having a huge threat, how did having on-field protesters halting play make the Cuban players feel in the hostile atmosphere in Miami...a city in which Team Cuba should not have been forced to play Team USA. After that quick 1-0 lead, Team Cuba went on to lose this game 14-to-2.

     Despite what happened in the Semi-Final game in Miami, Team Cuba still had a hugely successful participation in the 20-team World Baseball Classic in 2023...finishing 4th behind only Japan, the USA, and Mexico.

      But Team Cuba and Yoan Moncada were treated unfairly when they had to play the Semi-Finals of the 2023 World Baseball Classic in Little Havana-Miami.

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US Media Used WBC to Assault Havana!!

 While Promoting Wonderful Little Havana!!

    The hugely entertaining and successful 2023 World Baseball Classic ended its 13-day run last night in Miami with Japan beating the United States 3-to-2 in the Championship Game. It started on March 8th featuring the world's Top 20 baseball-loving nations, led by the two richest nations -- USA & Japan. The event included many of the richest and best players in Baseball History, including the highest paid player in history, Mike Trout of the USA, the second highest paid player in history, Mookie Betts of the USA, etc., and it also featured #16 Shohei Ortani of Japan, the best player in baseball history who this year is being paid only $30 million this year by the Los Angeles Angels but, because he becomes a Free Agent after the 2023 season, will become in 2024 the highest paid player in the world.

     Today -- March 22nd-2023 -- the WBC All-Star Team was revealed and it shows that poor Cuba was well represented. Cuba-born Randy Arozarena and Cuba-born Yoan Moncada made the WBC All-Stars. Randy, the great young outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays, led Mexico to the Semi-Finals of the WBC in Miami and Yoan, the great switch-hitter for the Chicago White Sox, led Cuba to the Semi-Finals of the WBC in Miami.

  Yes, because Yoan Moncada had the courage to play for Cuba in the World Baseball Classic, Cuba reached the Semi-Finals in Miami after winning the 5-team WBC Pool A in faraway Taiwan and then winning its Quarter-Final game in faraway Japan. The photo on the right shows Yoan Moncada then arriving at the Miami Airport to lead Cuba in the WBC Semi-Finals to play the star-studded and ultra-rich Team USA in a sold-out and hostile venue for the Cuban players, especially for Yoan who had the courage and audacity to play for Team Cuba in the shadow of Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Intimidated and rudely attacked -- in sharp contrast to how they were treated in Taiwan and Japan -- Yoan and Team Cuba lost 14-to-2 to Team USA on the very unfair soil of Little Havana/Miami.

    This Little Havana/Miami photo by the Associated Press was published in many U. S. newspapers and widely used on the various Fox News platforms to explain how the Cuban players were wonderfully assaulted as they tried to play Team USA in the WBC Semi-Finals in Little Havana/Miami. The rich and politically powerful Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami since 1959 have been virtually unopposed in wildly promoting how the Batista-Mafia rule of Cuba was WONDERFUL in the 1950s and how TERRIBLE Cuba has been since 1959 while the USA and Little Havana have tried so hard for six decades to starve, terrorize, and otherwise try to overthrow the Revolution.

    Cuba's hero in the island's smashing WBC victories in Taiwan and Japan, Yoan Moncada was treated like Public Enemy #1 when he arrived in Little Havana/Miami for the WBC Semi-Finals. It, of course, says more about the U. S., the U. S. media, Batista, the Mafia, and Little Havana/Miami than it says about Yoan Moncada, Cuba, and the Cuban Revolution. But most of all, as a Democracy-loving American, I believe it reveals the greatest weakness of the world's richest and strongest nation, and that is its propaganda-crazed mainstream media. Like the U. S. Founding Fathers, I believe that Democracy must be allowed to thrive and survive within the parameters of an honest and unbiast meida. And in recent years, many polls have revealed that most Americans "don't trust" the mainstream U. S. Media, nor should they trust it.

    Take, for example, the Top Cuban Headlines today -- March 22nd-2023. Note that the London--based Reuters News Agency today reports the good and the bad aspects of an election Cuba is having. But also note, as always, the propaganda-crazed mainstream U. S. media -- Fox News, ESPN, and the New York Times in this case -- is not about to report anything regarding Cuba except what Little Havana wants reported, even about the World Baseball Classic that thrilled the baseball-loving Cubans on the island, as least until their players had to go to Miami/Little Havana in the WBC Semi-Final round. See above what the propaganda-crazed and jubilant mainstream headlined: "Cuba baseball player defects after team's loss to USA in World Baseball...!!"

    As far as the mainstream U. S. media is concerned, the Big Cuban Story is that, while in Miami, "26-year-old first baseman and catcher Ivan Prieto Gonzalez of Team Cuba" defected to Little Havana/Miami, as shown above as reported by Fox News, which still mightily loves Batista and still cries every night about the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Actually, "Ivan" never played for Team Cuba in the WBC. He was only the Bullpen Catcher that warmed up relief pitchers. Team Cuba did play three catchers in the WBC and none of them defected {yet} despite lofty and constant lures to do so. I mean...if we can't starve and overthrow Revolutionary Cuba after six decades, let't keep luring more of them to rich and powerful Little Havana USA!!!

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Miami Ends Cuba's WBC Hopes

    Last night -- March 19th-2023 -- the 2023 World Baseball Classic ended for Cuba in hostile Miami, of all places, against the hostile United States team that is comprised at every one of the 9 positions by the highest-paid baseball players in history. Yet the highlights for Cuba included the fact that the U. S. permitted Cuba to play at all and to even have a couple of U. S. Major League Cuban superstars. Also, the highlights will attest that Cuba was the surprise of the 20-nation 2023 WBC because the island nation won the 5-team Pool A in Taiwan, then survived the quarter-finals in Japan, and then at least showed up in Miami to face the United States multi-millionaries in the WBC semi-finals!!!

     If you study the two scoreboard photos above from last night's WBC semi-final in Miami, you will see that Cuba in the top of the First Inning led 1-0 and still had the bases loaded with no one out!! But, alas!!, please note that the final score of the game revealed that poor little Cuba had been blasted 14-2 as the multi-millionaries for the United States celebrated in Miami.

    This photo shows the surprising Team Cuba ending its blow-out 14-2 loss to Team USA in Miami last night.

     This is Carlos Lazo, the Cuban-born professor from Seattle, shown on July 7, 2021 when he walked from Miami to Washington to beg the Biden administration to end the Embargo/Blockade of Cuba. Earlier he had ridden his bicycle the 3,000 miles from Seattle to Washington to beg the Trump administration to end the Embargo/Blockade against Cuba. While ignored by the mainstream U. S. media because he is obsessed with helping Cuban families on the island, including his own mother, Carlos has founded the Bridges of Love foundation that flies medicines and food to Cuba, prompting Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio to ask the FBI to check on Carlos. Today -- March 20th-2023 -- Carlos used his Facebook page to lambast the mainstream U. S. media for its ageless and extremely biased coverage of  what Carlos, and a few billion other people, think about the USA's six-decade-old Embargo/Blockade of Cuba's baseball-loving families:

     This is the Facebook post today by Carlos Lazo, the Seattle professor who leads the strong Cuban-American outrage in the U. S. by a strong contingent of Cuban-Americans, the contingent that the mainstream U. S. media ignores. Carlos read the blazing headlines in the Miami Herald, USA Today, New York Times, etc. damning Team Cuba before it played Team USA in Miami in the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic. Yet, as shown above, today Carlos Lazo used his Social Media platforms to say: "We won! You might think that the results of the game gave Team USA the undisputed victory. But the results of this match surpass the final result. We won! Even before the game, we had already won....We won because despite the pressure, the hatred, the media manipulation..."

   This was Team Cuba/Team Asere relaxing in Miami before its WBC semi-final contest vs. the United States. "Asere" means "friend" or "buddy." Yes. Despite losing 14-to-2 to the U. S. in Miami Sunday night, Team Cuba won. It won because it SHOWED UP TO PLAY the best it could.

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Cuba vs. USA in WBC Semi-Finals Tonight in Little Havana!!

 U. S. Media Promotes Violence for Cuba!!

    This is Yoan Moncada, the powerful 27-year-old switch-hittingThird Baseman for the Chicago White Sox and for Team Cuba in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The heralded event started with the world's top 20 Baseball nations and it now is down to just four nations alive in the Semi-Finals -- Cuba, USA, Mexico,and Japan. It is being played at the sold-old Major League Stadium in Miami. Yoan Moncada very bravely and proudly chose to play for Cuba. He flew 14-hours to Taiwan to help Cuba win the 5-team WBC Pool A round, and then flew to Tokyo to help Cuba win in its WBC Quarterfinals game. Then he flew to Miami because Cuba, thanks to him, was the first of the 20 teams to make the WBC semi-finals. The photo below shows Yoan Moncada bravely arriving at the Miami airport.

 Tonight in Miami's sold-out Major League stadium and a massive live television audience, Team Cuba plays the mighty, ultra-paid Team USA that has ultra-priced Major League superstars at every position. But saddest of all for the Cuban players, especially Yoan Moncada, much of the gutless mainstream U. S. media is reporting and seeminly promoting violence in Maimi tonight for the Cuban players. See below and judge for yourself.

     As a part of their typical disgrace to journalism, as you can see above, today the Miami Herald, NBC , USA Today, etc., have joined other propaganda dispencers to predict or promote violence in Miami tonight -- March 19th-2023 -- for Cuban players brave enought to play a great USA team in Miami/Little Havana in the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic.

    Today -- March 19-2023 -- above is the blazing Headline and Sub-Headline in the famed but propaganda-riddled New York Times.

     The highly regarded Armando Johnson is the Manager of Team Cuba that plays Team USA tonight in Miami in the semi-finals of the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The photo above shows Armando and one of his star players asking media questions today in Miami. Armando has said repeatedly, "We just play baseball the best we can. We don't ever try to hurt anyone." Of course, all decent Americans and Cuban-Americans hope that Armando and his players are not hurt in Miami tonight. They deserve to be treated with respect and with dignity.

    This photo was posted on Facebook today. These children in Havana will root for Team Cuba tonight in the semi-final game of the World Baseball Classic against Team USA. These children also need to be respected with dignity by Miami, USA.

Brave Cuban players in Miami tonight.

    Domingo {Sunday} night in Miami tonight, Team USA, literally the richest team that money can buy, will defeat Team Cuba. But the hope is that Team USA will do it with dignity and respect.

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