Pushing Back Against Obama

Cuban-Americans vs. Cubans
{Updated: Sunday, February 21st, 2016}

      This photo, showing Cubans scampering across a street in Havana, is courtesy of Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times. It was used this week -- Friday, February 19, 2016 -- to illustrate an article in the NY Times written by Steven Rattner. The article is entitled "Will Democracy Follow Capitalism Into Cuba." Mr. Rattner wrote the article after taking his family to the island, and his analysis was acutely insightful. He ended his observations with these exact words: "In some ways, Cuba reminds me of China -- a country where the populace seems to put a lower priority on achieving democracy than on prospering economically. With so much of the economy remaining under state control, Cuba has an exceptionally long 'to do' list. But while our embargo didn't succeed in reforming the country, the slow, steady infiltration of capitalism just might." 

          Mr. Rattner's perception parallels what I detected on the island. More importantly, as you will see in this update, I believe it mirrors what the leaders on the island feel, and those leaders include two influential women -- Josefina Vidal and Cristina Escobar -- that I believe are the best barometers for checking the pulse of the island as the post-Castro era looms. Also pervasive among the significant beliefs of the next generation that will rule the island is the strong determination that no foreign nation, including the United States, will be allowed to influence its future, except on friendly terms decided by Cuba. Sovereignty supersedes even prosperity.

Photo courtesy of: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images.

      This excellent photo in February of 2016 shows a convertible auto from the 1950s driving past the brand-new splendid and magnificent U. S. embassy in Havana, Cuba.

       Thanks to President Obama, Cuba also has an embassy in Washington for the first time since 1961. As he tries to normalize relations, Obama this week greatly expanded, in defiance of Congress's stifling embargo, travel and trade to Cuba.

        And this week it was announced that Obama will visit Cuba next month, the first U. S. President to do so since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Obama's historic overtures to Cuba are strongly supported by most Americans, most Cuban-Americans, most American businesses, and most people worldwide. His Cuban ventures are, however, fiercely opposed by anti-Castro Cuban exiles, right-wing Republicans, and a Republican-dominated Congress, which has the power to maintain the Cuban embargo in perpetuity, meaning for eternity. With all that being said, Obama's prime obstacle still remains an increasingly incompetent and biased media.

       Cuba's uniqueness in the annals of U. S. history makes the island a window into the demise of both the print and electronic media in America. Alan Gomez at USA Today is a prime example. He is, unfortunately, the major Cuban reporter on America's largest newspaper. He also illustrates the fact that, when it comes to Cuba, only Cuban-Americans who are anti-Castro zealots are allowed to write about or report on Cuban issues. Friday -- February 19th -- Gomez's huge article in USA Today made the point that President Obama, on his upcoming visit to the island, will see "a glorified version of Cuba." In recent years, Cuba has allowed Gomez to make six trips to the island, well knowing his visits will promote the vast and profitable Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. In yesterday's anti-Cuba, anti-Obama article, Gomez wrote: "Obama has insisted that he will visit some of the most outspoken dissidents. But whether he's in Havana or Santiago or Cienfuegos, he probably won't see the Cubans who continue to secretly build boats and rafts to set sail for the country he {Obama} just left." Gomez and other high-profile Cuban-American "journalists," anointed to tell Americans all about Cuba, don't have the integrity to mention that U. S. laws massively entice Cubans, and only Cubans, with special residency and financial rewards the instant they touch U. S. soil.

        Jose Diaz-Balart is also emblematic of the fact that the mainstream U. S. media, with very few exceptions, doesn't dare hire a non-Cuban American/anti-Castro zealot to report on Cuban issues. Based in Miami, Jose, among other things, is a news anchor on MSNBC. His prime credential is apparently the fact that his father, Rafael Diaz-Balart, was a Minister in the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and after 1959's revolution he was one of the richest and most powerful anti-Castro zealots in the United States. Jose also has had two brothers, anti-Castro zealots Lincoln and Mario, elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress. But easily intimidated and propagandized Americans, since 1959, have been successfully told that "journalists" like Alan Gomez and Jose Diaz-Balart will give you true and unbiased information about Cuba so you can make fair judgments, particularly ones that defame Cuba and sate the revenge, economic, and political desires of America's embedded and unchecked Castro Cottage Industry. 

        But like most issues, there are two sides to the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. The Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. represents one side. Josefina Vidal represents the other side. She is Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs. A brilliant diplomat, she changed the facade of U.S.-Cuban relations in four sessions with America's outstanding diplomat Roberta Jacobson. Vidal drew a line in the Cuban sand regarding Cuba being on the U. S. Sponsors of Terrorism list. Because it greatly benefited the Castro Industry in the U. S., no one expected her to win, but she did. She also negotiated such things as the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961, and she inspired President Obama to circumvent Congress and greatly expand U.S.-Cuban trade and travel.

       But Josefina Vidal is ready and able to call a halt to Obama-orchestrated advancements, depending on how successful the Castro Cottage Industry is in rolling back recent positives for both nations or in exacerbating the punitive nature of the ongoing embargo, as Miami-based Cuban-Americans aligned with easily acquired congressional sycophants, such as Jesse Helms and Dan Burton, grossly tightened the embargo in 1996 after President Clinton tried meekly to end it. Vidal, the quintessential expert on U.S.-Cuban relations, believes the same thing can happen with Obama's not-so-meek efforts. Regardless, Vidal says, "We have friends and supporters around the region and the world. If the United States does not want to be our friend, we must concentrate solely on our real friends to continue the positive changes we have made and are making." While Vidal greatly appreciates "the intelligence and kindness of Mr. Obama," she remains acutely aware of the anti-Cuban forces in the U. S. Beyond that, she has some other red lines in the U.S.-Cuban sand that Mr. Obama may not be able to meet. First off, when Obama or anyone else points a finger at Cuba about mistreating dissidents, she firmly points a finger right back, saying, "If the U. S. didn't fund Cuban dissidents in the U. S. and in Cuba, we would have fewer than almost any nation in the world. That needs to stop. Guantanamo Bay needs to be returned to us. Reparations concerning five decades of the embargo and about murderous and injurious terror acts against innocent Cubans must be seriously discussed."

       Cristina Escobar, like Vidal, is a feisty Cuban who represents the side of the U.S.-Cuban conundrum on the island that is not represented by Gomez, Diaz-Balart, Rubio, Cruz, etc. She is Cuba's and the region's most dynamic and influential broadcast journalist. At age 28, she is also the leader of the anxious young generation of patriotic Cubans determined to decide the island's future, which would mean not having it decided from a hostile foreign country.

       This photo captured Cristina Escobar during an historic moment at the White House in Washington where she covered the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session. She is shown asking President Obama's Press Secretary Josh Earnest one of her six back-to-back questions, the first six questions a Cuban journalist had ever asked at a White House news conference. She wanted to know if the new U. S. embassy in Havana would "respect Cuba?" She wanted to know if the U. S. would "continue to fund its regime-change programs on the island?" And she asked, "Can we expect President Obama to visit Cuba in 2016?" The Earnest answer was the first confirmation that Obama planned to visit Cuba this year. The 14-minute Cristina Escobar-Josh Earnest Q & A White House video is on YouTube.

       This image is taken from a interview that U. S. journalist Tracey Eaton got in Havana with Cristina Escobar last month. Two versions of it are posted on YouTube, one 3+ minutes and the other 15+ minutes. You can see and hear her make such firm statements as, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." She mentioned Cubans, like Jose Marti, who had died on Cuban soil fighting for independence and sovereignty prior to Fidel Castro. It is very plain that she indelibly believes that it is on Cuban soil, not U. S. soil, that "Cuba's do-or-die future must be decided."

        Cristina Escobar may appear to be no match for rich and powerful Cuban-American politicians like Rubio and Cruz or rich and powerful Cuban-American journalists like Gomez and Diaz-Balart, but she is probably more determined than Rubio and Cruz as well as being a better journalist than Gomez and Diaz-Balart. On her trip to Washington, she enthralled veteran U. S. broadcast journalists such as Andrea Mitchell of NBC when she stressed this theme: "The lies the U. S. media tell about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most." As a journalist and as a staunch defender of everyday Cubans, Andrea Mitchell and others eloquently praised her talent and her stoic patriotism.

       Cristina Escobar, during that White House Q & A with Josh Earnest, not only wondered aloud if President Obama would visit Cuba in 2016, before she left Washington she made it clear that she was more concerned with {1} the "lies" the U. S. media tells about Cuba; {2} whether the U. S. would "respect" Cuba's sovereignty; and {3} whether the U. S. will continue to fund "regime-change programs" on the island. While Cristina, like Vidal, relishes normal relations with the United States, she also believes {1} Obama should stay home "if he plans to boost dissidents while he is here;" {2} "my generation of Cubans wants the United States, like other nations, to respect Cuba's sovereignty;" and {3} "my generation wants Guantanamo Bay returned to its rightful owner by the bully that stole it from us."

       In defense of Cuba, Cristina Escobar doesn't appear to be intimidated by Cuban-Americans like Rubio and Cruz or Gomez and Diaz-Balart, although she readily admits they "have unlimited resources and the desire to harm us." 

A two-way street.

The voice of a new generation of Cubans.

****************************************

Obama Will Visit Cuba

Official Announcement Today

     As we have been saying for days, President Barack Obama has a strong desire to visit Cuba, the nearby island that he has treated more decently and more bravely than any other American, including U. S. presidents dating back to 1898 when the Spanish-American War was concocted to make Cuba a U. S. colony, not a Spanish one. Today -- Wednesday, February 18th -- the White House will bravely, triumphantly, and officially announce that President Obama plans to visit Cuba...next month!!

     Mr. Obama has twice been elected President of the United States and over seven years ago he entered the Oval Office, as had nine Presidents before him, marching to a Cuban policy dictated for over half-a-century by the ousted remnants of the brutal-thieving U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba. But President Obama, with uncompromising decency and bravery, has chosen not to march to the self-serving and vile dictates of the Batistianos and their easily acquired sycophants in the U. S. Congress.

       More than anyone else, Mr. Obama resented this image of America, a diabolical image shared by the rest of the world as indicated yearly by a vote in the United Nations, a 191-to-2 vote propagandized Americans are told to ignore. Mr. Obama's enemies, and sadly many decent but intimidated American citizens, have not been shamed or embarrassed by the definitive image vividly depicted above.

        President Obama has the guts and decency to admit that Cubans on the island, like these two ladies, are not America's enemies but they have been punished for over half-a-century by U.S.-based Batistianos and their Congressional acolytes. The cowardly justification has been that it hurts Fidel Castro. When vicious and well-protected anti-Castro terrorists cowardly blew up the child-laden Cubana Flight 455 civilian airplane, cowardly Americans were advised by the Miami media that it was the biggest blow yet against Castro. And to this day that is why Americans are not supposed to know or surely not comment on such atrocities or their aftermaths. But President Obama knows and has the guts to loudly comment.

        On Dec. 17-2014 President Obama, after behind-the-scenes discussions with decent people like Pope Francis and Cuba's Josefina Vidal, told the world of his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. He well knew that a handful of belligerent members of the U. S. Congress have long dictated America's Cuban policy to suit their revenge, economic, and political motives related to Cuba. And he knew Congress would forever maintain anti-Cuban and anti-democratic policies such as the Embargo, which has existed since 1962...or right after the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack failed to recapture Cuba. But, using his Executive Powers, President Obama has bravely and astutely sliced deeply into the Batistiano and Congressional stranglehold on Cuba. He removed Cuba from the Sponsors of Terrorism list that had enabled Miami courts to successfully sue unrepresented Cuba for whatever they wanted to accuse Cuba of. He opened embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. He has greatly eased travel restrictions to Cuba that have made everyday Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to visit the island, a shameful and undemocratic law designed to make sure everyday Americans continue to not be able to make their own judgments about a Cuban policy opposed by America's friends around the world and by a majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Yet, a handful of remnants from the Batista dictatorship have been allowed to make America look like a Batista-style Banana Republic, an abomination that President Obama has sliced into. Just this week he defied the embargo by authorizing an Alabama company to build much-needed tractors in Cuba using Cuban workers. And just this week President Obama has authorized U. S. airlines, barred for half-a-century from making commercial flights to Cuba, to make up to 110 daily commercial, not charter, flights to and from ten Cuban cities.

       While President Obama has been determined to visit Cuba for a long time, either as President in 2016 or as a citizen in 2017, the graphic and photo above affords him the chance to visit the island next month as President. The graphic headlines these words, translated to English: "PEACE TALKS IN HAVANA, CUBA. Shaking hands, with a smiling President Raul Castro looking on, are: Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia, and Rodrigo Londono, the leader of FARC. No one ever expected such a handshake to take place, in Havana or anywhere else. For a half-century the Colombian government and FARC have been waging a bloody Civil War. It has cost 250,000 lives and an untold amount of injuries. It has also cost American taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. President Barack Obama, on his visit to Cuba next month, plans to witness in person the signing of a Declaration of Peace between Colombia and FARC, a Peace Treaty brokered by Cuba where the discussions have been hosted for many months at Cuba's expense. Americans, of course, are not supposed to give Cuba any credit, but well they should.

         Last week Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, visited the soon-to-be 90-year-old Fidel Castro. The Patriarch, a friend of the Cuban Revolution, had also visited Fidel in 1995, 2004, and 2008. But last week's visit was far more historic, easing a 1000-year-old schism that needed correcting.

       While Patriarch Kirill was in Havana last week, Pope Francis -- who had visited Fidel's home in 2015 -- flew back to Cuba to meet the Patriarch. As shown above, they signed a very, very historic Joint Declaration. Incredibly, it marked the first time in a thousand years that a Pope had met a Patriarch. Of course, Americans are not supposed to give Cuba any credit for that history-making and peace-loving gesture, but they should, even if they are frightened by the scary Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

      Not surprisingly, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have been all over the airways in the past 24 hours railing against President Obama's upcoming trip to Cuba. Their tirades began last night on CNN during a Town Hall hosted by Anderson Cooper. In a right-wing dominated Republican Party that has driven conservatives like me to seek more decent political havens, Cruz and Rubio, incredibly, are serious presidential contenders in this pivotal year of 2016. Cruz in Texas and Rubio in Miami got their political starts by being Bush dynasty and Tea Party darlings. Most significantly, both Cuban-Americans put gigantic "For Sale" signs on their chests and backs to propel them to the U. S. Senate. They immediately, as first-term Senators, showed disrespect for everything except their acute presidential ambitions. Even when key bills were coming up in the Senate, they were busy begging billionaires for money to fund their presidential bids. Now both Cruz and Rubio are awash with money from right-wing, Jewish, religious, and other billionaires -- enough money to purchase the White House for years to come. While there are many Cuban-Americans that should be in the U. S. Congress or the White House, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio are not among them.

        Cruz and Rubio are not only unfit to be President, they would be dangerous. Not because they are the most bought-and-paid-for major candidates; and not because they have displayed gross disrespect for the Office of President and not just President Obama himself. Donald Trump is not the only one who has labeled both Cruz and Rubio liars and dishonest. Their lies have been so dishonest it is amazing they, or their handlers, believe the American people are so naive and stupid to believe them...but many Americans do believe them in a political milieu in which well-funded propaganda machines overwhelm the media. Thus, Rubio can lie about whether his parents escaped the tyranny of Batista or Castro for the freedom of Miami. And, thus, Cruz can incessantly claim, as he did with Anderson Cooper on CNN again last night, that his father fought for Castro in the revolution but that somehow he conveniently blames Castro for his father being tortured by Batista thugs because blaming Batista, I guess, wouldn't be accepted by the sufficiently propagandized American voters who live in a nation where the Cuban narrative is dictated by remnants of the long-ago Batista dictatorship in Cuba. Not surprisingly, in the heated Iowa caucus voting, two campaigns -- Cruz's and Rubio's -- embarked on shady practices, standards even lower than past very low political campaigns -- such as saturating that state with government-like sheets apparently designed to scare the voters into voting for them, and propagating such last-minute lies as claiming Ben Carson had dropped out of the race so be sure to vote for TED CRUZ!! While a Marco Rubio-Nikki Haley Republican ticket would be far more electable, a ticket headed by Ted Cruz would be far more dangerous. And while both Cruz and Rubio are totally bought-and-paid-for, Cruz is even more of a right-wing extremist and he is much smarter than Rubio. And therefore, Cruz is much more dangerous but Rubio is much more electable.

         Ken Silverstein is a respected investigative journalist with an easily scrutinized background from his many years working at Harper's Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, etc. He recently turned his investigative skills on Marco Rubio, resulting in a major article entitled: "MARCO RUBIO: Poor Little Rich Boy Runs Into Real Estate Trouble." His very first sentence was/is: "When it comes to sheer brazen corruption, chicanery and dishonesty there is one candidate who stands head and shoulders above everybody else and that is the right-wing Cuban-American and Tea Party darling Senator Marco Rubio." I remind you of that article with this caveat: Even superb investigative print journalists these days are easily smothered and overwhelmed by politicians who have millions and millions of dollars to pay high-priced publicists/lobbyists/propagandists and who have total access to television news networks who will readily accept lies and distortions because to challenge them might discourage the Talking Head politicians and pundits they need to fill their airtime and also save them from having to send real reporters out to actually cover important news.

        So, yes, in that milieu -- a pundit-crazed media and a money-crazed political system -- Marco Rubio can be elected President of the United States, which means he could probably name three new Supreme Court justices and, as Commander-in-Chief, exploit his views of Cuba and other bought-and-paid-for topics.

       Barack Obama, now in his 8th year as U. S. President, has had to battle a money-driven political system and a pundit-driven media to accomplish many things on behalf of democracy and the American people. While right-wing Republicans like Rubio, Cruz, and Jeb Bush assail Mr. Obama from all sides, and mostly behind his back, they are being opposed in the current presidential sweepstakes by a flawed but extremely astute politician named Hillary Clinton, who is smart enough to be campaigning on Obama's record of achievements. Fifty years from now, the highlight of Obama's legacy will likely be his brave overtures to Cuba. While sufficiently proselytized and completely propagandized Americans today cannot be expected to see through many fog-dazed lies, it does appear that a young generation of Americans -- based on the amazing presidential support even Bernie Sanders is receiving -- are verily desperate to restore sanity and decency to the greatest form of government, the U. S. democracy, ever devised by men and women. When Obama's brave and sane Cuban policy is supported by the entire world and even by almost all of the young Cuban-Americans in Miami's Little Havana area, it should be evident that America's democracy is in dire trouble when right-wing, highly financed Cuban-American thugs can vow to destroy Obama and his Cuban policy and still be considered legitimate presidential candidates to succeed him.

         Cuba, an island, says more about the United States, the world's most powerful nation, than it says about Cuba. One thing it says is...the American citizens in 1952 should have objected when right-wingers so soon after World War II aligned the United States with the Mafia to support the brutal and thieving Batista dictatorship in Cuba. Another thing it says is...the American citizens in 1959 should have objected when the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship reconstituted itself on American soil from which, since the 1950s, it has dictated America's shameful Cuban policy. And yet another thing in 2016 it says is...Americans should object to putting Batistiano/Mafiosi-types in the White House as President of the United States. If it happens, we Americans in 2016 will be as shameless, as stupid, and as guilty as were the Americans who in 1952 insanely helped, for 8 more brutal years, the likes of Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Fulgencio Batista to rape and rob Cuba at will. In the above graphic, that's Mafia kingpin Lansky upfront flanked by Mafia kingpins Luciano and Batista, depicted when they were in charge of Cuba. It is interesting to note, I think, that in 2016 Lansky heirs are demanding that the U. S. government help them get financial restitution for things, like hotels, Lansky left behind in Cuba in 1959 when he fled back to his safe soil, American soil.

          Meyer Lansky, before he died of old age in Miami in 1983, famously said that the Mafia was "bigger than U. S. Steel." In being allowed to construct such a criminal enterprise in the United States and Cuba, it is interesting to note, I think, that Mr. Lansky didn't have to worry about the U. S. government but it seems he was very scared, for some reason, when the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista dictatorship.

        It is also interesting, I think, that fictional movies based on real life have been far, far more truthful in the U. S. about telling the truth about the remnants of Cuba's Batista dictatorship. Tony Montana, as famously depicted in the movie Scarface, is a prime example. Tony, you see, was a Batista remnant. The famed movie opens with live and real footage of Tony arriving in Miami via U. S. laws that, then and now, entice Cubans to leave the island and, once in the U. S., they are instantly legal residents, with benefits. Tony Montana, as played by the great Al Pacino, quickly became the richest and most vicious drug kingpin Miami ever saw...although, for sure, real life documentaries such as "Cocaine Cowboys" and great crime reporters such as Edna Buchanan of the Associated Press documented true Tony Montana-types that ruled Miami for decades, with Ms. Buchanan at one point in "Cocaine Cowboys" pointing back at Miami's impressive skyline and saying, "It was built with drug money."

Tony Montana and the "Scarface" Miami mansion.

Edna Buchanan, now 76, Miami's greatest crime journalist.

Marco Rubio, Miami's usually absent Senator.

Have a nice visit to Cuba, Mr. President.
And by the way:

       Calvin Coolidge in 1928 was the last U. S. President to visit Cuba. That is President Coolidge and his wife Grace on the left and Cuban President and General Gerado Machado and his wife Elvira on the right. The photo was taken on January 19th, 1928, at Machado's estate.

Jimmy Carter as ex-President visited Fidel Castro in 2002.

Jimmy Carter also visited an ill Fidel Castro in 2011.

****************************************

Obama's Cuban Brilliance

up, Up, and AWAY...to Cuba!!!!
{Updated: Wednesday, February 17th, 2016}

      Yesterday a bold and brilliant President Obama continued to drastically slice into America's Batistiano-directed and Congress-mandated Cuban policy that the entire democracy-loving world strongly opposes.

       For over half a century, to appease revengeful Cuban exiles and their sycophants in the U. S. Congress, everyday Americans have been the only people in the world deprived of the freedom to visit the nearby island of Cuba. No U. S. President since the 1950s has had the necessary combination of skill, decency, and guts to correct such anti-democratic atrocities. Until Obama! Yesterday he devised a plan to saturate Cuba with commercial airline flights to the island that have been barred for over a half century.

     This photo is courtesy of Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini. It was taken yesterday at the famed Hotel Nacional in Havana. On the right is Cuba's Minister of Transportation Adel Rodriguez. On the left is America's Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Their handshake sealed an incredible, Obama-orchestra deal. It paves the way for up to 110 daily U. S. airline flights to and from Cuba. The agreement stipulates the flights can be "from any city in the U. S. to any city in Cuba." Ten Cuban cities have acceptable and approved international airports. That includes Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the two largest cities on each end of the island, as well as Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Camaguey, and Santa Clara. USA Today today says all of the major U. S. airlines are excited about the agreement and will file flight plans within the next fifteen days hoping to be operative by the fall. Mr. Rodriguez said: "Cuba and America are closest of neighbors. We should be closest of friends." Mr. Foxx said: "This is an historic day in the relationship between Cuba and the United States. For the first time in more than five decades the United States and Cuba will allow American airline service between our two countries."

         This photo is courtesy of Chip Somodeville/Getty Images. It shows an American Airlines charter flight unloading passengers at Jose Marti Airport in Havana. Prior to Obama, only charter flights have flown from the U. S. to Cuba and only specially approved people could be on them. Obama has already drastically increased...to 12...the reasons Americans can go to Cuba, but tourism is not one of the 12 because the Batistiano-directed U. S. Congress has the power to maintain the embargo, at least the self-serving evils that Mr. Obama can't correct with his own executive powers. American is the largest U. S. airline and, of course, it is excited about having the Obama-blessed freedom to bid on the commercial flights. The new agreement allows ten flights a day to each of ten Cuban airports but it is expected that Jose Marti Airport in Havana will get about 20 flights per day. With that anticipation, Cuba has been spending money to sharply upgrade its already busy airports. The agreement does not include Cuban airplanes flying to the U. S., but, in time, Obama-orchestrated trade agreements are designed to create mutual benefits that even anti-Cuban zealots in Miami and Congress might have trouble crushing, at least with democratic tactics.

      Obama's opening of the Cuban spigot has already created an influx of tourism to the island and Cuba is hustling to not only improve its airports but also it roads and hotels. This is the very appealing hotel in Cienfuegos, one of the ten Cuban cities that yesterday's agreement in Havana will affect with up to ten daily U. S. commercial flights. Cienfuegos is a very gorgeous city Americans might want to check out.

       This map shows that Cienfuegos is located in south-central Cuba, just northwest of the beautiful colonial coastal city of Trinidad. You probably already know the locations of Havana and Santiago de Cuba but in between them are cities such as Holguin, Camaguey, Santa Clara, and Matanzas that are also getting primed for those upcoming commercial flights from the U. S., thanks to an innovator named Obama.

      Cuba is the biggest island in the Caribbean in both size and population with 11.26 million people. The main island is surrounded by thousands of cays, some of which are so popular with tourists that there are nice hotels and international airports on them. That includes the two -- Cayo Coco and Cayo Largo -- that are among the ten airports mentioned in that significant U.S.-Cuban agreement yesterday. As you can see on this map, Cayo Largo is southwest of Cienfuegos and due east of the Cuban island of Isla de Juventud, which was called the Isle of Pines when Fidel Castro was there in a Batista prison. Cayo Coco, as you can see, is just off the north-central coast of the main island. Both Largo and Coco have absolutely great beaches. This map shows the 250 kilometer dimension; 250 kilometers equal 155 miles. Obama is trying to make it easy for you to visit Cuba. Don't say you are a "tourist" but study the 12 reasons Obama will permit you to go and then choose one. Next, await the commerical airplane flights that Obama has just approved.

This is a part of the newly refurbished Hotel Cayo Largo.

       The Associated Press this week {Feb. 15th} used the above photo to illustrate an article that defines, as of this moment in time, how President Barack Obama's ongoing overtures to Cuba might well go down in history as among the bravest and most intelligent acts ever devised by an American President -- rivaling Abe Lincoln's Civil War brilliance that saved the union and ended slavery and Franklin Roosevelt's creation of Social Security in the 1930s and his incredible efforts to get the U. S. into and through World War II to keep vile dictators in the German-Japanese-Italian axis from, perhaps, capturing the world. If that sounds like pro-Obama hyperbole, read the AP article before rendering that judgment. Lincoln was direly threatened by pro-slave elements in the U. S. and Roosevelt was direly threatened by anti-war zealots in the U. S. Congress and elsewhere. But unbiased contemporary journalists and future historians will, I think, agree that every American President since John Kennedy in the 1960s has been direly threatened by the vast Castro Cottage Industry in America and that President Obama has confronted that threat more bravely than any President since the 1960s. Having said that, let me explain the above AP photo. It shows a Cuban farmer on a very old tractor in Pinar del Rio province. Actually, he's very lucky because many Cuban farmers are still using oxen to work their land, one reason Cuba for decades has had to spend billions of dollars each year to purchase food instead of producing it. The U. S. embargo was engineered in 1962 and maintained every year since by Batistiano-exiles from the overthrown Batista dictatorship, along with easily acquired sycophants such as the Bush dynasty and entrenched right-wing members of the U. S. Congress such as Jesse Helms, Dan Burton and Robert Torricelli. {Perhaps you have heard of the Helms-Burton Act and the Torricelli Bill engineered by Miami-based anti-Castro zealots to recapture Cuba and secondarily to make selected Cuban-Americans very, very rich}. BUT THIS WEEK, as the above tractor indicates, PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS CONTINUED TO SLICE DRASTICALLY INTO ANTI-DEMOCRATIC ATROCITIES SUCH AS THE Helms-Burton and Torricelli LAWS.

        Meet Saul Berenthal {on the left} and Horace Clemmons. They own the small Kleber Tractor Factory in Alabama. This week President Obama, via an extremely brave and monumental Executive Decision, gave Saul and Horace permission to build a tractor factory in Cuba and make their superb little tractors available to Cuba's hard-pressed farmers. If you think it was not a brave and monumental decision, I invite you to read the vicious and powerful anti-Castro blog Capital Hill Cubans and study its reaction to Obama's belief that these little tractors that will be built in Cuba will help millions of Cubans as well as Americans. Saul is a Cuban-American who came to the U. S. at age 16 and got rich as an IBM executive, where he met his dear friend Horace. Saul, a brave Cuban-American, this week said: "These two countries for 60 years have been in the worst of terms. Anything I can do to bring the two countries and the two people together is tremendously satisfying." Reread that statement, if you will. Most Cuban-Americans feel that way. However, for 60 years when it comes to Cuba, only anti-Castro zealots and their self-serving right-wing sycophants have been permitted to set U. S. Cuban policy. That is, till President Obama came along. And then, lo 'n behold, Obama defies Congress by removing Cuba from the punitive Sponsors of Terrorism list, opening embassies in Havana and Washington, easing the anti-democratic travel barriers that denied everyday Americans the freedom to visit the nearby island, and...easing trade restrictions -- SUCH AS WITH U. S. TRACTORS!!

        The little but strong Kleber tractors that will now be made and sold in Cuba will do wonders for Cuban farmers, whom extremists in the U. S. have punished for years in the guise of hurting Castro. The tractors will sell for under $10,000 in Cuba and there are many rich Cuban-Americans who will readily finance them.

      The Telemundo TV network used this photo to illustrate how the Kleber tractors made and sold in Cuba will tremendously help Cuban farmers, many of whom in 2016 are still using oxen to till their land. These affordable tractors will be among the brave gifts that President Obama is giving to the Cuban people in stark defiance of America's Cuban policy that has been mandated since 1959 by a handful of Cuban exiles and a few Americans, including Jeb Bush and the still-viable Bush dynasty, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz.

       This is Saul Berenthal. The photo is courtesy of Voice of America's voa.news. Saul masterminded this week's decision by President Obama to allow Saul and his Alabama partner Horace Clemmons to build a factory in Cuba that will provide affordable and badly needed tractors to Cuban farmers. Saul is a multi-millionaire Cuban-American. Unlike many others, he has no desire to make money off the hardships of Cubans on the island. He wants to help them. And it is time, I believe, that Americans finally have the courage and insight to support the majority of Cuban-Americans like Saul, as opposed to capitulating to the dastardly, self-serving dictates of a handful of Cuban-Americans who have, for many decades now, eked out revenge against Fidel Castro while also...don't forget...eking out wealth and power for themselves at the expense of both the U. S. democracy and millions of innocent Cubans on the island. Like most Cuban-Americans, Saul Berenthal is a decent, democracy-loving man. President Obama supports people like Saul. Presidential wannabes like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz powerfully support rich and powerful anti-Castro zealots/lobbyists like Mauricio Claver-Carone of Capital Hill Cubans fame. You may check Claver-Carone's highly sophisticated and hugely financed blog and see what he says about Obama's tractor deal this week...but, then again, you may want to stay right here on Cubaninsider. I am the only person who has ever written a word on these Cubaninsider essays, over 500 in four years with about 150 deleted for being out-dated. The rest are left in place because, for example, "The U.S.-Cuba-Mafia Triangle: A Nexus From 1952 Till Today" got 52 hits today although it was posted back on Dec. 10-2015. According to Google and Alexa Rank, Cubaninsider gets far more hits each day than many viciously anti-Cuban blogs, including Capital Hill Cubans. I have never promoted this blog with ads or social media or anything else and never made a single penny off of it, and I never will. I doubt that the rich Claver-Carone can make the same statement.

But:

          I strongly support decent and brave Cuban-Americans like the Jewish Saul Berenthal as well as decent and brave Americans like President Obama who believe little tractors like this one, made and sold in Cuba, will do two important things: {1} Help the Cubans on the island; and {2} help soothe the images of America and democracy that have been so badly bruised for six decades by cruelly hurting innocent Cubans on the island. In 2016 Americans are still being told by rich and powerful lobbying outfits that continuing to deprive Cubans on the island is justified because it hurts the soon-to-be 90-year-old Fidel Castro who, unlike his prime enemies in the U. S., actually lives quite modestly in Havana although he was born very rich. Prior to this generation of genuflecting Americans, the previous generation in 1976 was effectively told via the Miami media that the terrorist bombing of the child-laden civilian Cuban airplane, Cubana Flight 455, was the "biggest blow yet against Castro!" Now along comes a decent and brave President, Mr. Obama, who believes that six decades of such genuflections are six decades too many. 

       A great and courageous U. S. President believes that normalizing relations with Cuba can correct six decades of an American policy that has teamed the U. S. and its democracy with the Mafia to support the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba and then to support the transplanted Batistianos in the United States. 

       He may yet lose his battle to normalize relations with Cuba. If he does, it will be because the majority of Americans will have been too cowardly and too unpatriotic to support him and America's democracy.

****************************************