Journalism At Its Finest

Can Make You Cry

         I admire great journalists -- Americans like Kate O'Brien, Cubans like Elaine Diaz, etc. The lady above is a great journalist. Her name is Jabeen Bhatti. Now based in Berlin, she penned a long article in USA Today yesterday -- Tuesday, October 20th. I am not a particularly emotional person but her writing made me cry. She began the article with these words: "Earlier this month, militant thugs from the Islamic State..." I honestly couldn't remember the last time I cried, but it might have been in 1954 when my beloved Cleveland Indians lost all four World Series games to the New York Giants. Yet, by the time I finished the third paragraph of Jabeen Bhatti's article yesterday I was crying. She began that paragraph with these two sentences: "I wish I could look away. I wish I didn't know what I know." That in my opinion is great journalism. Yes, Jabeen Bhatti is a great journalist, and I forgive her latest gem for making me cry.

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Bankrolling The Bush/Clinton Dynasties

How Opaqueness Buys Democracy
Updated: Wednesday, October 21st, 2015

           Thomas Jefferson in 1816 correctly predicted the end of the Democracy and the Revolution that Founding Fathers like him forged. To their everlasting credit, the revolutionary U. S. democracy lasted for over two centuries as the greatest form of government ever devised. Two post-World War Two generations of Americans -- beset by cowardice, criminality and a lack of patriotism -- have squandered what was bequeathed to them, for the reasons presciently envisioned by Mr. Jefferson.

     This, unfortunately, is now the essence of the U. S. democracy, one already bought-and-paid-for by a handful of billionaires and one that has produced the moneyed dynasties of the Bush and Clinton political machines. Thus it is not surprising that in a stupefyingly flawed two-party system the two prime candidates in the ongoing {and seemingly endless} presidential campaign are the latest iterations of those two dynasties -- Jeb Bush the Republican and Hillary Clinton the Democrat. The above very pertinent image is courtesy of Vocatio/The Daily Beast. They teamed for an investigative report that revealed that the two bitter rivals -- Bush and Clinton -- are both being showered by bushels of money from the very same billionaires. That's because the unraveling of the U. S. democracy began when a few greedy and rich usurpers realized they had to purchase both parties if they were to be dictators of the entire U. S. government. Therefore, more than a year before voters go to the polls, the election has already been purchased by a handful of thuggishly rich billionaire individuals and corporations, who don't just buy up one party but both parties. Aided and abetted by an incompetent and greedy media that benefits from the incessantly long political campaigns and the tsunami of political ads, and by a Supreme Court ruling that legalized unlimited political donations, a few billionaires dictate a U. S. democracy that no longer embraces the vision and wisdom of the Founding Fathers.

       The montage depicted above was not supposed to happen to the American democracy, the greatest form of government ever devised. But, despite all the parameters set forth by the Founding Fathers, the Bush political dynasty did evolve, starting with Prescott Bush in the 1930s. The dynastic successions of George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Jeb Bush sparked what could be the usurpation and destruction of democracy as envisioned by the epic Americans who created it. The opaqueness of that unfortunate evolution is not supposed to be discussed in polite, money-crazed, capitalistic society. But let's discuss it anyway. While democracy in the United States is not totally extinct, it is an endangered species.

       Starting with Prescott Bush's controversial financial and political ties, which Americans are verboten to Google, the Bush political dynasty overwhelmed the U. S. democracy. The necessary ingredient, on the heels of Prescott Bush's political and economic chicanery, has been the untold millions of dollars, much of it unsavory and foreign, that has fueled in one family a one-term presidency, a two-term vice-presidency, a bloody one-year CIA directorship, a two-term governorship of Texas, a two-term presidency, a two-term governorship of Florida, and a leading candidate to be the next President of the United States in 2017.  

        Americans know, or at least should know, the biographies of the Bush family. But they do not know, nor are they supposed to know, the origin and the continuation of the vast sums of money that have enabled the Bush dynasty to exist generation after generation after generation with more generations yet to come.

           Craig Unger in the book "House of Bush/House of Saud" documented the synergy between the Bush dynasty and the oil wealth of Saudi Arabia and even Iran. Some of his documentations are chilling.

Is that why the Bush dynasty kisses up to the Saudis?

Should American voters care?

       This Eric Draper/Getty Images photo shows Saudi prince Bandar bin Sultan at President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in 2002. It appears President Bush is explaining something to the prince. Should American voters be privy to such clandestine encounters? With a Bush in the White House, it was well known that Prince Bandar was a frequent overnight guest. Should Americans have cared then...or now? 

        The 2016 election that will determine the 2017 U. S. President features yet another Bush, this time Jeb, as a prime Republican contender in a two-party political system in which most prospective voters understand is a bought-and-paid-for process. The money, much of it foreign-tinged, that put George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush in the White House is now trying to put Jeb Bush in the White House. On October 17th USA Today, America's largest newspaper, reported that 64 of the top donors to Jeb Bush's campaign also donated to his father's and his brother's campaigns. Should American voters care? Britain's top newspaper, The Guardian, had a major article this month expressing concern that by far the two biggest donors to Jeb Bush's current presidential campaign are {#1} a Cuban-American multi-billionaire and {#2} a Iranian-American multi-billionaire. If The Guardian in London is concerned about that, should Americans in America also be concerned? Since 2010 when the U. S. Supreme Court approved unlimited political donations from individual and corporate billionaires, the U. S. democracy has had a "For Sale" sign openly attached to it. Saudi money, Cuban money, Iranian money, Israeli money, American money...whatever! Even if the opaqueness of the American political system was imbued with transparency about where all there money is coming from, would this generation of Americans give a damn? Probably not.

       The above photo is courtesy of Joe Burbank/Zuma. A quick Google check will reveal a plethora of updated and unbiased accounts of Jeb Bush's campaign financing, revealing the grip corporate and individual billionaires have on the Bush dynasty. An informative article in The Guardian, for example, is entitled "Jeb Bush Grabs Cash From Iran and Cuba Emigres While Opposing Obama Policy (On Iran and Cuba)." Miguel Hernandez, a Cuban-born billionaire in Miami/Coral Gables, and Hushong Ansary, an Iranian-born billionaire in Houston, Texas -- between them -- quickly donated $5 million to kick-start Jeb's current presidential bid ($3 million from Hernandez and $2 million from Ansary)...and perhaps to continue influencing or dictating Jeb's policies regarding Cuba and Iran. Mother Jones.com has a well-researched article you can Google that is entitled "Meet The Megadonors Bankrolling Jeb Bush's Campaign." U. S. voters should Google the names and bios of the mega-donors behind all the major presidential candidates because there is a good chance that, by the time voters go to the polls over a year from now, a handful of billionaires will already have purchased the election, especially if the two dynastic contenders -- Bush and Clinton -- are the two finalists in the only nation that permits interminable billion-dollar campaigns.  

        As noted, the Bush political dynasty started with the highly controversial political and economic affairs of Prescott Bush back in the 1930s and 1940s. The Bush dynasty not only plans for Jeb Bush to be President starting in 2017 but it already contemplates George P. Bush being President, perhaps starting in 2025. Uh, yes...George P. Bush is Jeb's son. And...uh, yes...the P. stands for Prescott. As indicated above, the Bush machine has already easily made George P. Bush the powerful Land Commissioner in the powerful state of Texas where an array of well-known billionaires support the Bush political machine.

        Money tied to overthrown U.S.-backed dictatorships have, many believe, greatly influenced major decisions by the Bush political dynasty. The photo above shows President George H. W. Bush signing crucial legislation designed to appease the most radical anti-Castro Cuban-exiles from Miami. Should Americans care about the Bush dynasty's longstanding and harsh antipathy towards Cuba? For example, in this year of 2015, who is by far the biggest contributor to Jeb Bush's presidential campaign? Answer: A Cuban-American billionaire from Miami/Coral Gables, Florida. And, who is by far the second biggest contributor to Jeb Bush's presidential campaign in 2015? Answer: An Iranian-American billionaire from Texas who was a top official in the U.S.-backed/installed Shaw Pahlavi dictatorship that was overthrown by U.S.-unfriendly Islamic extremists in 1979. Should Americans care about that and its aftermath in Iran or about the overthrown U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba and its aftermath since 1959? Now this is not to suggest that the Bush dynasty can be influenced by Cuban money in its positions on Cuba or by Iranian money in its decisions regarding Iran or by Saudi money in its decisions regarding Saudi Arabia or by Israeli money in its decisions regarding Israel or by American money in its decisions regarding America, but...at least I believe American voters owe it to their democracy to consider such possibilities. For heaven's sake, and America's sake, at least care enough about your democracy to Google these names and events.

        This Brian Snyder/Reuters photo shows Republican presidential contender Donald Trump making a point to rival contender Jeb Bush. They exchanged vitriol all weekend, especially on the Sunday talk shows. Bush fired off an expensive anti-Trump commercial. Amazingly, for the past four months of this endless, billion-dollar campaign, the non-politician Trump has strongly led all the polls. This at least reveals that Americans are fed up with bought-and-paid-for dynasties. But is Donald Trump qualified to be President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief, and leader of the Free World? Absolutely not! Is he more qualified than all the bought-and-paid-for contenders? Absolutely yes! The U. S. has a two-party commercialized political system and both parties -- Republican and Democrat -- are bought-and-paid-for.

         This photo is courtesy of Alex Wong/Getty Images. It shows leading Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton with Saudi Arabia's King Salman. The photo was used to highlight an article on October 16th by the highly respected journalist Michael Isikoff, the top Investigative Correspondent for Yahoo News. The article is entitled "Hillary Moneyman Highlights New Saudi Connection." If you do not go Online to read it, I assume you don't care very much about the U. S. democracy and about who can buy it or who sells it. Isikoff writes: "The Saudi government has just hired a powerhouse Washington lobbying firm headed by a top Hillary Clinton fundraiser. The Saudi contract with the Podesta Group, owned by veteran Washington lobbyist and Clinton campaign bundler Tony Podesta, calls for the firm to provide public relations and other services on behalf of the royal court of King Salman. Newly filed documents show that the Saudis paid a 'project fee' of $200,000 last month." That apparently is the ongoing monthly stipend. Isikoff added: "The retention comes at a time when the Saudis are being condemned by United Nations officials over reports that their bombings of Houthi strongholds in Yemen's civil war have resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of innocent civilians, including children. The Podesta Group is now on a roster of a half-dozen D. C. lobbying firms representing the Saudis. Tony Podesta is the brother and former business partner of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta." The Michael Isikoff article goes on to name former U. S. members of Congress that are typically doing the same lobbying as the Podesta Group.

President Bill Clinton and Tony Podesta.

Hillary Clinton and John Podesta.

       The point of this essay is to point out that the U. S. has a two-party political system that worked beautifully for about 230 years, till both parties began to be bought and paid for by greedy Americans AND greedy foreigners, often the remnants of old U.S.-backed dictators still aligned with old U. S. politicians. That fact, I believe, accounts for the Republican Bush dynasty and the Democratic Clinton dynasty. If you disagree with that hypothesis, I suggest you at least Google any or all of the foregoing information and then point out where or if you think I am mistaken or biased. For the record, my passion is the U. S. democracy that we inherited from the Founding Fathers. I believe it is our fault as citizens that we have allowed their hallowed two-party political system to be bought-and-paid for, often with questionable foreign money. 

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The Logic of Adam Wainwright

And the Dung of Capitalism
Sunday, October 18th, 2015

       In this month of October many Americans and many Cubans are absorbed with America's Major League baseball playoffs. They know Adam Wainwright, the right-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was born 34 years ago in Brunswick, Georgia. He's pretty good. Twice he has had 20-win seasons for the Cardinals and twice he has been a 19-game winner. His 2015 salary is exactly $19.5 million. The Cardinals had the best regular season record in the Majors this year and if Adam had not been injured the Cards would also have been favored to win another World Series title. Because of an injury, he was only a reliever, not a starter, for the Cards in the playoffs. But Adam Wainwright, in my opinion, dominated these post-season games. And he did so with his pure guts and decency if not his enormous baseball skills.

            Adam Wainwright, you see, is a family man. He and his wife Jenny have three children -- Mary, Baylie, and Morgan. Adam is proud his annual salary with the Cardinals is $19.5 million and he understands the money-crazed aspect of American sports, including baseball where a 25-year-old oft-injured outfielder for the Miami Marlins recently got a guaranteed $300 million added to his already multi-million-dollar contract. But Adam Wainwright believes, as his above quotation indicates, that even in money-crazed America there are two things more important than money, namely decency and family. He spoke about that this week.

           In his home, Adam Wainwright -- when he is not pitching for the Cardinals -- likes to watch baseball on television with his family. He, like many Americans, finds that increasingly hard to do. The money-crazed and indecent commercialism of American sports resulted in Adam Wainwright, I believe, being the superstar of the ongoing post-season playoffs, not on the pitching mound but in the sanctity of his home. He had the guts and integrity to do what the rest of us should be doing. He railed about the indecency of commercial ads saturating the television coverage of the current baseball playoffs, sharply criticizing Major League Baseball for allowing a proliferation of puerile commercials featuring sultry women advising wimpy men to take expensive sex-enhancement pills so they can "get and keep an erection." Adam Wainwright believes it is disgusting and an affront to his wife and three children. He is, of course, correct.

        Anyone who watches American television without a clicker to delete or at least silence the wall-to-wall commercials is, in my opinion, either a sadist, a narcissist or an idiot. Approximately 40% of all TV ads are from billionaire pharmaceutical companies taking advantage of their ability to lobby Congress so they can essentially do whatever they want, which is to make billions of dollars off gullible and suffering Americans. For many, many centuries, humans had no trouble reproducing themselves. Then American capitalism, which Pope Francis calls "the dung of the devil," found a way to make billions of easy dollars from the reproduction process -- not just with pornography but also with sex-enhancement pills. Highly paid ad agencies saturate the airways with commercials designed to convince the populace that wimpy men who can't "get and keep erections" are actually the real men IF they take these expensive little blue pills. The epidemic of sex crimes on college campuses, ongoing headlines about a sports legend over-dosing on such things at a legal brothel in Las Vegas, and decent heads of families trying to shelter their children from sex-enhancement ads BE-DAMMED. Billionaire pharmaceutical companies making more billions is all that matters. Did, uh...someone say, "dung of the devil?" Yes, not Adam Wainwright but Pope Francis.

        And now the Food and Drug Administration has approved "Addyei." That is the female version of Viagra. It is designed to increase the libido of women who, according to the pharmaceutical giants and the ad agencies, need stronger sex drives or else there is no pleasure in life and making babies might become a lost art. Some nerd is probably writing a Saturday Night Live spoof: A man gobbles down his blue pills and a woman hastily swallows her pink pills and then the confluence of pills and bodies produces bliss -- especially for the pharmaceutical companies, lobbyists, ad agencies, and the denizens of Wall Street.

        All of which brings me back around to my #1 sports hero -- St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright. I hope the Cards win another World Series and then raise Adam's $19.5 million annual salary. But most of all, I hope he is able to protect his young family from the ravages and indecency of all those sex enhancement ads that he profoundly denounced this week. For centuries, real men and real women didn't need Viagra/Addyi. That, of course, was before greedy capitalists discovered how much money they could rake in from what Pope Francis calls "the dung of the devil."

       I agree with Adam Wainwright that Americans and Cubans should not be punished or embarrassed just because they want to watch their favorite players -- such as Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets -- on television. By the way, today -- October 18th, 2015 -- is the 30th birthday for Yoenis Cespedes. He was born on October 18th, 1985, in Campechuela, Cuba. Like scores of other Cuban defectors, he is now a multi-millionaire. Yoenis is making exactly $3.73 million this year with the Mets. But as soon as the World Series ends, he is a free agent. That means starting next year the Mets or some other team might have to start paying him upwards of $25 million a year. In the huge New York City market and nationally, Yoenis is in line to make far more from endorsement deals than he'll make from his baseball salary. It's not that way in Cuba, at least not yet. But Yoenis Cespedes and dozens of other Cuban stars have no reason to agree with the Pope...you know, about U. S. capitalism being the dung of the devil.  

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"We Are Not Denmark"

Uh, No...But We Should Be

           David Horsey is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, first with the Seattle Times and since December of 2011 with the Los Angeles Times. He is distributed nationally by Tribune Media Services. The above photo is courtesy of www.freerepublic.com. In today's money-crazed, talking-head pundits, wall-to-wall puerile commercials, and mostly incompetent cable "news" media world, editorial cartoons penned by truly great journalists like David Horsey are your best bet to get the pulse of what's really happening.

         A case in point is David Horsey's editorial cartoon he entitled "The Debate Summed Up..." Cable news outfits have spent untold hours hashing and rehashing this week's first Democratic presidential debate but it took Horsey to analyze it succinctly and correctly. The most important comment during the debate was uttered by Hillary Clinton: "We are NOT Denmark!" It was her retort to her top challenger, Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders, expressing admiration for Denmark's Democratic Socialism as opposed to America's capitalist system in which "one-tenth of one percent of Americans control 90% of America's wealth." Mrs. Clinton, who has ridden her politics to extreme personal wealth, strongly objects to Mr. Sanders, as do the rest of the one-tenth of one percent of Americans who dictate America's two-party political system. As Mr. Sanders pointed out in the debate, the decision of the Supreme Court in 2010 that allows unlimited political donations by billionaire individuals and corporations was the last hope of democracy-lovers who desire a decent and fair political system, not one legally bought-and-paid-for. Mr. Sanders harps on the fact that the U. S. has far more people in prisons than any other nation, per capita or otherwise, with poor people often unfairly targeted and sentenced in stark contrast to the one-percenters. Mr. Sanders, for example, takes exception to a single mother in West Virginia being sentenced to prison for shop-lifting two cans of Pork 'n Beans and one can of Vegetable Soup to feed her three hungry children while a Wall Street billionaire readily pays, say, a $10 billion fine after illegally acquiring, say, a $200 billion profit, leaving him and his cohorts a profit of $190 billion with no prospects of ever facing jail time. "Well, at least I don't want to turn America into Denmark." Of course not. The Wall Street billionaires have helped Mrs. Clinton become extremely wealthy and might put her, or someone like her, in the White House. After all, they have plenty of money to buy up a political system that even the U. S. Supreme Court says is up for sale to the highest bidder. That leaves out the shop-lifting mother who worries about her hungry children and, as Mrs. Clinton and the other politicos well know, doesn't have a dime to her name to contribute to greedy politicians. "We are not Denmark." Mrs. Clinton is right about that. And that is why she is wrong.

        The Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Capitalist Hillary Clinton mostly had a lovefest during the debate, as this Lucy Nicholson/Reuters photo illustrates. But Hillary loves bought-and-paid-for politics while Bernie thinks the U. S. democracy should be modeled after the five Nordic nations -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland -- because they govern at the behest of ALL their citizens.

           Denmark, with Copenhagen as its capital, has 5.6 healthy, happy, and well educated souls. It punches way above its weight in caring for its people. Scotland, for example, is contemplating leaving the UK so it can model itself after Denmark. Bernie Sanders, if he were in the White House, would try to do the same. Denmark, for example, tries to prevent alcohol abuse and imposes an extravagant tax that makes even beer almost prohibitive, and then uses such taxes to fund child care, college tuition, and health care. 

          Norway is a gorgeous Scandinavian country of 5.1 million hearty, healthy, and well educated souls. Oslo is its capital. There are international polls and surveys, many funded by the U. S. or the UN, to determine the world's Happiest, Healthiest, Best Educated, Most Equal, Safest, etc., people. Norway and Denmark often lead those rankings with other Nordic or Scandinavian nations rounding out the Top Five. 

       Time Magazine had a major article about Norway in which it was pointed out that young Norwegians, such as these two young women, can fluently speak about five foreign languages. And after graduating from universities, they don't owe a penny in student loans while young Americans are currently saddled with trying to repay about a trillion dollars in student loans. Norway spends less per student than the U. S. but Norway directs its money to actually educating its students while the U. S. capitalist system is more concerned with how much rich bankers and others can make off a politicized educational process. The Time article pointed out that Norway's oil wealth is equally distributed at the direct behest of the democratic voters and the nation has saved enough money that, if the oil spigots were closed today, it would have enough to care for its people in a like manner for the next 500 years. The Time article showed a farm family in Norway that was about to typically go on a 30-day worldwide vacation totally paid for by the state. Prior to their trip, they were told to advise the government what needed to be done to take care of their farm and home while they were away. That same day, the family had received a letter from the government asking when it would be convenient for a government worker to bring them a new-model flat-screen television...free of charge. All Norwegians, not just an elitist few, are treated in this manner.

         In Norway there is no need for a single mom to shoplift cans of Pork 'n Beans and Vegetable Soup to feed her hungry kids. And in Norway all children and citizens receive equal treatment in a political system that would not jail the harassed single mom while merely fining the corporations, not the individuals, of Wall Street billionaires who illegally make additional billions of dollars but are never subjected to prison time. That's all Bernie Sanders was pointing out during the Democratic debate when he contrasted Norway's democracy, which equally treats its citizens, with America's democracy, which so powerfully favors what Sanders calls the one-tenth of one percent richest Americans. Of course, with money being the prime determinant of American politics, someone like a Hillary Clinton or a Jeb Bush will surely end up in the White House. In Norway, a Clinton or a Bush wouldn't be elected dog-catcher or street-sweeper.

        This week -- on October 15th, 2015 -- the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its third World Happiness Report. Norway, of course, was in the Top Five as it is on all major Top Five positive surveys. The rest of the Top Five on the new Happiness Report are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, and Canada. America's northern neighbor Canada is to be congratulated for joining the four Scandinavian stalwarts on a coveted Top Five list. There was a time long ago when America would have dominated such surveys. That was before America's two-party system was purchased by just one-tenth of one percent.

       Switzerland is a Central European nation of 8 million happy, healthy, and well-educated souls. In fact, this week the UN listed the citizens of Switzerland "the happiest people in the world." Also this week -- on October 15th -- America's largest newspaper, USA Today, had a major full-page article entitled: "Across Switzerland, People Power Rules: No Bill Can Become Law Until Approved In A Referendum." In Switzerland, all laws that affect people's lives are approved or disapproved by ubiquitous referendums voted on by the citizens. The article said: "The active role the Swiss play in enacting laws may seem strange in the United States...but not in Switzerland where a centuries-old tradition of direct democracy gives people -- rather than lawmakers -- the power to shape local and national policies." So, why does that "seem strange" to Americans? It's because Americans have come to accept the fact that bought-and-paid-for lawmakers, especially in the 535-member U. S. Congress, make the laws to mostly suit their primary big-money donors who put them in office and keep them in office. If you read the biggest article in the October 15th USA Today you will understand that the Swiss people who control their democracy via direct-vote referendums find it "strange" that Americans have allowed bought-and-paid-for lawmakers to make laws that most Americans do not agree with. If you love democracy but don't have time to read the long USA Today article about Switzerland's democracy, at least take time to read the 5th short paragraph: "No measure can become a law in Switzerland until citizens approve it. Any constitutional change proposed by the parliament, for instance, must be approved in a referendum." By contrast, in the U. S. Congress, or parliament, an anti-Castro zealot from Miami can easily mandate a Helms-Burton Act or a Torricelli Bill that benefits and enriches a few but harms the vast majority who end up paying for it, unwittingly and unwillingly. 

Hillary Clinton: "We are NOT Denmark."

Bernie Sanders: Maybe we SHOULD be Denmark."

Elizabeth Warren: "Or maybe we should be Norway or Switzerland." 

 

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"Congress Controls Cuba"

"Worse Than Apartheid"
Wednesday, October 14th, 2015

       An interesting new book -- "Churchill Comes of Age: Cuba 1895" -- reviews Winston Churchill's 18 days in Cuba in 1895 where he celebrated his 21st birthday on November 30th. It was during colonial times when Churchill's England and Spain were major players. Churchill arrived in Cuba on loan from the British army to observe Spain's army fighting Cuban independence fighters. Reportedly he was fired upon by a rebel army led by Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez, two of Cuba's greatest independence leaders. Churchill, one of history's most important figures, supposedly shaped his formative international ideas during his Cuban trip. Later -- on March 7, 1896 -- he wrote in the Saturday Review that he wasn't impressed with Cuba's independence fighters: "They cannot win a single battle or hold a single town. Their army consists to a large extent of coloured men in an undisciplined rabble." Antonio Maceo {a mulatto}, Jose Marti, and other famed Cuban independence rebels died fighting the Spanish army. By 1898 the United States had decided it wanted to also become a colonial power and a good place to start was Cuba, which the U. S. had long craved. A U. S. warship, the USS Maine, blew up mysteriously in Havana Harbor on February 15th, 1898, killing 266 crew members. It conveniently provided the U. S. with the pretext for the Spanish-American War. The easy victory over Spain in Cuba established the U. S. as an imperialist power. It's subsequent dominance over Cuba included the theft of Guantanamo Bay in 1903 but the biggest mistake the U. S. made in Cuba was teaming with the Mafia to support the brutal Batista dictatorship in 1952, creating a Cuban Revolution that stunned the world on January 1, 1959, by booting the Batistianos, Mafiosi, and U. S. businessmen off the island. If Winston Churchill came of age in Cuba in 1895, Cuba itself came of age in 1959 when it became a sovereign nation. For sure, on the eve of the Spanish-American War, American military and business leaders had studied the opinions of the young Winston Churchill regarding the strength of Spanish soldiers and Cuban rebels. The aforementioned book indicates that England as well as the U. S. in the 1890s had visions of capturing the lush island of Cuba from a weakened Spain. Interesting.

         And so, like Winston Churchill's 18-day visit to Cuba in 1895, the deadly explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, was an epic event in Cuban history. Indeed, "Remember the Maine!!" It spawned the Spanish-American War in 1898, which spawned the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s. In 2015, remember the Maine as you analyze President Barack Obama's influence on U.S.-Cuban relations. 

         Famed entertainer Mick Jagger is shown above enjoying the nightlife at the Shangri La Club in Havana. The 72-year-old leader of the Rolling Stones band is determined to arrange a concert...or two...at Havana's Latin American Baseball Stadium. The acclaimed Brit, like almost every notable individual around the world, is astounded that "the American people for all these decades allow a few individuals to commit apartheid, akin to genocide, against this smaller country." According to a Cuban that Jagger partied with, Jagger also commented, "The real criminals are two generations of Americans that have allowed this to persist." She also said that he said, "The U. S. Congress controls Cuba like a school bully controls the little kid who hands over his lunch money every morning, except this island has never run scared like that little kid."

        Mick Jagger's acute and aesthetic opinions regarding U.S.-Cuban relations are significant not because he is or has been a world-class entertainer for five decades. It's because his comments reflect the attitudes of the vast majority of people from nations that are America's best friends -- UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc. Jagger's alleged comments in Cuba also indicate that both his insight and courage are far superior to that of the "two generations of Americans" that "have allowed this to persist."

         President Barack Obama in the last two years of his two-term presidency has chipped away at the embargo against Cuba more than anyone thought he could, and far more than previous Democratic presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton. The embargo was first imposed in 1962 for the purpose, according to declassified U. S. documents, of depriving and starving the Cuban people to pressure them to overthrow Fidel Castro, which the U. S. government had failed to do despite numerous assassination attempts beginning in 1959, the Bay of Pigs attack in April of 1961, and the murderous Operation 40 boondoggle. All Republican administrations since 1959 have aligned with Congress and the most visceral anti-Castro Cubans in the ongoing all-out effort to eliminate the now 89-year-old Fidel Castro and his now 84-year-old brother Raul. But the failed and flawed effort to regain control of Cuba has grossly harmed the image of the United States, as reflected by the graphic above, and also severely dented the U. S. Treasury because, it seems, any individual or group that proclaims itself anti-Castro can expect to receive a steady and enormous flow of tax-dollars in the Washington-to-Miami pipeline. Although the mainstream U. S. media does not have the courage or integrity to mention that fact, Tracey Eaton -- the highly respected investigative journalist and Cuban expert -- regularly lists on his Along the Malecon website exact dollar figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information law, that a vast army of benefactors receive via huge salaries in a vast array of regime change programs aimed at Cuba. American taxpayers are not supposed to be smart enough to figure out that the primary purpose of that Washington-to-Miami pipeline is to simply fatten the bank accounts of people favored by Cuban-Americans in Congress. For sure, even anti-Castro zealots such as the legendary Luis Posada Carriles in Miami have come to realize that recapturing Cuba or assassinating Fidel Castro are lost causes, but continuing to rake in astounding rewards from the lucrative Castro Industry in the U. S. is unending, presumably even after the old revolutionary dies of old age. Mick Jagger and most other interested and informed people around the world seem to fully understand U.S.-Cuban relations far better than Americans who have been successfully propagandized since the 1950s to accept without debate whatever the transplanted Batistianos and Mafiosi who fled the Cuban Revolution tell them to accept. {"It's the biggest blow yet against Castro!!" That's the mantra Americans were successfully told to accept when terrorists blew a civilian Cuban plane into the ocean killing all 73 on board. Accepting such things leaves Americans outside the Cuban equation.}.

         The image depicted in this graphic embarrasses America's two-term president, Barack Obama. It should also embarrass every American. It embarrasses Mick Jagger and America's best friends all around the world. Later this month, on October 27th, the United Nations will hold its yearly vote on the U. S. embargo against Cuba. In recent years the vote has been 188-to-2 with only Israel supporting the U. S. and the Israeli vote is considered purchased by billions of dollars each year in economic and military aid. At the moment, the Obama administration is planning to abstain when the vote comes up again on October 27th. {Presumably Israel would also abstain}. In other words, no nation in the entire world -- including the United States and Israel -- will likely vote in October of 2015 to support the decades-old embargo of Cuba. Yet, the embargo will continue because a handful of revengeful and greedy people who benefit immensely from the everlasting Castro Industry in the U. S. can easily dictate the embargo in the U. S. Congress, along with a myriad of other cruel abominations against the Cuban people. On October 27th, if the U. S. itself refuses to vote to support its own embargo against Cuba, it will merely confirm to Mick Jagger and the rest of the world that, amazingly, the U. S. democracy -- when it comes to Cuba -- is not strong enough to rein in the remnants of the ousted but relocated Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s. In other words, the obscene assaults on the island, on democracy, on the U. S. image, and the U. S. treasury will likely continue for another six decades or so. Mick Jagger blames an easily bought-and-paid-for U. S. Congress. He's probably right. At least he's astute enough and brave enough to have an opinion on the subject of Cuba.

        Katy Perry, the superstar American singer, enjoyed a lush dinner at Havana's El Cocinero Restaurant this past weekend. She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and had advised her Cuban contacts that she wanted to attend a live concert by Cuban singer Isaac Delgado. She saw two Delgado performances.

       This photo is courtesy of Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images. It shows U. S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker purchasing coffee in Havana last week. She was the first U. S. Secretary of Commerce to visit Cuba since way back in 1950. Ms. Pritzker is a billionaire and she is an American who is ashamed of the embargo against Cuba. She told Cubans that she believes the embargo will end "but it will take time." It's been in effect since 1962, a long, long time ago. It is presumed Ms. Pritzker is ashamed of the U. S. Congress.

            Dr. Eusebio Leal is renowned as the official Historian of Havana and he is also a member of the Cuban Parliament. He made an insightful speech at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. It reflects Obama-fueled progress in U.S.-Cuban relations. Prior to Obama, Americans and Floridians -- with few exceptions -- were subjected only to the Batistiano-Mafiosi side of the two-sided Cuban conundrum.

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Cuban Laws Mock Democracy

While Harming, Shaming America
Sunday, October 11th, 2015

              This week, October 8th, Fox Nation used this AP photo to illustrate an article written by Ben Shapiro/The Daily Wire. Any Fox reference to Cuba, of course, is a propaganda piece bashing the island's very existence but one of Shapiro's paragraphs was, nevertheless, interesting. He wrote:

           "Today, Democrats clearly believe America's allies are her enemies, and her enemies are her allies. How else to explain a new Morning Consult survey showing that Democrats now view communist Cuba more favorably than they do our democratic ally Israel." 
            I'm a lifelong conservative Republican, not a liberal Democrat and not a right-wing Republican in America's two-party political system. Mr. Shapiro's interesting paragraph, I believe, could have included this explanation: Billions upon billions of U. S. tax dollars each year are routinely given to Israel in economic and military support; millions and millions of U. S. tax dollars each year are swallowed up by unchallenged Cuban-American sources supposedly to bring about a long-long-awaited {since 1959} regime change on the island while subliminally creating a lot of very rich Cuban-Americans who seemingly only have to hold up their hands and say, "Hey! I'm anti-Castro. How much is that worth?" It is worth a lot. If you check Tracey Eaton's Along the Malecon blog, it might take you all day to read the actual names and actual salaries {from Freedom of Information statistics} of anti-Castro zealots getting very rich on, at last count, 32 regime change programs lushly funded by unwitting or uncaring tax payers. Eaton recently posted the exact and staggering salaries of the scores of "journalists" at the plush Radio-TV Marti operation in Miami. And later he posted a new Radio-TV Marti advertisement seeking highly paid workers who can produce programs/documentaries that will mock the Cuban government. In essence, it is U. S. taxpayers and democracy that are being mocked. Fidel Castro is now 89-years-old and unwell. But if his revolution survives beyond his lifetime, be assured that the lucrative Fidel Castro Industry in the United States will continue for another six decades or so. Regarding the poll that Fox Nation mocked yesterday because it had a positive notation about Cuba, perhaps it indicates that a majority of Democrats believe that some of the billions in tax dollars routinely given to help Israel and some of the millions routinely given to hurt Cuba {or enrich Cuban-Americans} could, perhaps, be spent on some needy and worthwhile U. S. projects. If that analysis is politically and socially incorrect, it is also, I believe, realistic. Ask the over-worked U. S. Coast Guard.   

         This photo is courtesy of the U. S. Coast Guard. This week spokesmen for the Coast Guard expressed dire concern about the uptick in Cubans making dangerous treks across the Florida Straits to reach the "freedom" or maybe the welfare and/or luxury of Miami. One of the reports showed a 14-year-old Cuban girl debarking from a flimsy craft and wading ashore with others to touch U. S. soil where she joined her father, who was shown on video with his arms around her leading her away. She said that human traffickers have spread the word that U. S. laws favoring Cubans might be changed. As the Coast Guard knows, U. S. laws designed to entice Cubans to Florida grossly discriminate against all non-Cubans because only Cubans are home free with benefits starting when their front foot touches down on U. S. soil. That's known as the Wet Foot/Dry Foot law and is one of countless U. S. laws designed to hurt Cuba while sating the revenge motives against Fidel Castro that still fester in a second generation of a few rich and powerful Cuban-Americans. Secondarily, the U. S. is grossly over-burdened by an endless plethora of laws designed to enhance the bank accounts and political ambitions of Cuban-Americans, and only Cuban-Americans. Cuba's Fidel Castro-led Revolution overturned the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on the first day of January, 1959...with the Batistianos and Mafiosi fleeing to quickly restructure their economic and political empire in South Florida with Miami as their capital and where unchallenged paramilitary units were created to quickly recapture the island. As it turned out, they have...incredibly...been unable to recapture Cuba after all these many decades. But, by the 1980s they had captured the U. S. Congress, which permits them to dictate Cuban policy, which is enforced on their behalf by the financial and military superpower.
             {NOTE: If you doubt that calculated deduction, it probably means, among other things, that you are totally unfamiliar with two brilliant books -- Julie E. Sweig's "What Everyone Needs To Know About Cuba" and Ann Louise Bardach's "Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana."}.

       This photo is courtesy of Tracey Eaton. Tracey is a professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. I knew Tracey when he was the chief of the Dallas Morning News bureau in Havana. He remains the best investigative journalist, via his Along the Malecon blog, regarding U. S. laws related to Cuba. The above photo shows Alan Gomez making a speech this week at Flagler College. Gomez is the primary USA Today columnist on Cuban issues; he qualifies for that position on America's largest newspaper because he is an anti-Castro Cuban-American zealot. As with other mainstream U. S. media, an unbiased journalist would not be permitted to report on Cuban issues. It's been that way at least since 1976 when Emilio Milian, a Cuban-American journalist, complained about such things as the terrorist bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455, and then got car-bombed himself. That being said, Gomez this week focused his speech at Flagler College on the possibility, as remote as it is, that President Obama's efforts at normalizing relations with Cuba might...HEAVENS FORBID!!!...result in doing away with some of the most flagrant U. S. laws that empower and enrich Cuban exiles while grossly discriminating against everyone else -- laws such as Wet Foot/Dry Foot and the scores of tax-funded laws supposedly aimed at creating a "regime change" in Cuba but mostly designed to funnel an endless stream of tax dollars to Miami for such lucrative projects as Radio-TV Marti, the laughable anti-Castro propaganda machine that has sucked and pipe-lined enough money from Washington to Miami to fund an endless string of mansions from Miami to Coral Gables. Gomez, in that insightful speech at Flagler College this week, seemed mightily worried that the recent detente with Cuba might...HEAVENS FORBID!!!...mark the demise of U. S. laws that starkly benefit Cubans and grossly discriminate against everyone else. Speaking of the very infamous Cuban Adjustment Act, Gomez said, "I think it's absolutely going to end, but I think it's going to take a while. It's harder and harder to justify specialized treatment of Cuban migrants." WOW!!! Did he really say, "specialized treatment?"

        The mainstream U. S. media mocks democracy when the chief qualification to report on Cuban issues is to have a vendetta against Fidel Castro that fuels anti-Cuban zealotry that mitigates against innocent Cubans on the island while providing Cuban-Americans unfair advantages, codified by easily mandated Congressional laws that discriminate against anyone not a Cuban-American or Cuban-American sycophant. USA Today's Alan Gomez is a case in point. So was his speech at Flagler College.

          It was wrong in 1952 when the world's greatest democracy teamed with the Mafia to support a vile Banana Republic dictatorship on a nearby island for the purpose of raping and robbing the island at will.

         And, as Cuban-American Emilio Milian tried to explain before he was car-bombed, it was also wrong for the world's greatest democracy in 1959 to accept the immediate and eternal resurrection of that overthrown Banana Republic on U. S. soil. Two generations of pusillanimous Americans allowed those two things to happen way back in the 1950s. The U. S. democracy is still paying dearly for those two mistakes. Alan Gomez, USA Today's Miami-based expert on all things Cuban, didn't mention either Cuba's 1950s Banana Republic or America's ongoing Banana Republic in his speech this week at Flagler College.

Meanwhile...............

        ....................U. S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker has concluded her trip to Cuba this week. She is shown above being hosted by Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. Ms. Pritzker, on behalf of President Obama, spent two days trying to assure the Cuban people that the U. S. is sincerely trying to reverse its belligerence course towards the island. Upon her arrival back in the U. S., Ms. Pritzker said, "President Obama wants to see the embargo lifted but he realizes it will take time." That official statement is a reflection or recognition that a handful of Cuban-Americans in Congress can continue to dictate a Cuban policy that benefits them and harms everyone else. But Ms. Pritzker's trip was friendly and successful.

          These two members of the U. S. Congress from Illinois, Cherl Bustos and Rodney Davis, will arrive in Cuba on Sunday. They will be leading a huge agricultural trade mission seeking to increase commerce with the island. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Farm Bureau, the Illinois Soybean Growers, and all other major farm enterprises in Illinois will be represented on the trip to Cuba Sunday. Cherl Bustos and Rodney Davis, on behalf of their constituents, are confronting a few powerful entities in the U. S. Congress that remain intent on perpetrating a Cuban policy that appeases a few and displeases everyone else.

          Tom Donahue, the President of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, strongly supports President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Mr. Donahue has made significant trips to Cuba, including a speech at the University of Havana in which he praised the renewed entrepreneurial spirit of Cubans.   

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