A Special Cubaninsider Note

Why it started; Why it ends: 

 The Lion In Winter has died, age 90. 

     I started Cubaninsider about five years ago and this is about its 600th essay, with about 550 still posted and about 50 deleted for being totally out-dated. No one else has ever written or influenced a word on it and I have never made a penny off it because I think ads would distract from the photos, which I deem important, and I would never take a penny from a propaganda-lobbyist to influence my content.

       According to Alexa Rank, the top Online bean-counter, Cubaninsider has received as many as 7,005 pageviews in a single day and exceeded in excess of 50,000 pageviews in some months. It is strictly a one-trick-pony operation and I am told it gets more pageviews than some Cuban-related blogs that have more than 25 paid employees and contributors, including the extremely well-funded and fiercely anti-Castro propaganda rag Capital Hill Cubans run by Mauricio Claver-Carone, whom I consider the most dangerous individual appointed so far to President-elect Donald Trump's Transition Team. 

       Two things in all these essays that I have yet to explain are: {1} Why I started this blog; and {2} Why one of the everlasting shocks of my life came in 2004 when a 21-year-old Cuban female soldier and an also still-living Cuban media executive picked me up at the Victoria Hotel in Havana and drove me to meet Fidel Castro at his home. In the essay to be posted tomorrow -- Monday, Nov. 28, 2016 -- I will explain #1; then in the following essay that will be posted Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016  I will explain #2. After that, because of what happened at 10:29 P. M. on Nov. 25-2016, I will cease publishing Cubaninsider for good...unless the special lady who persuaded me to start it persuades me to continue it, which I don't think she will have the heart to do.

And lastly:

           This photo, I believe, explains why Fidel Castro's legacy will always say even more about the United States than it says about Cuba. The image is courtesy of CBS TV-Miami and it depicts a 44-minute, 21-second news conference that took place while a massive and loud celebratory demonstration heralding Fidel Castro's death was taking place outside in Miami's Little Havana section. Neither the news conference nor the wild demonstrations surprised anyone. Years ago, networks such as CNN had bought parking space near the famed Versailles Restaurant in anticipation of Castro's inevitable death. 

      The above news conference featured four visceral Cuban-American members of Congress from the Miami area although a fifth, Senator Marco Rubio, was elsewhere apparently holding his own news and celebratory event. On the left above is Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart; he actually resigned his safe seat in Congress to apparently create and expand other even more visceral anti-Castro endeavors. Second from the left is Congressman Carlos Curbelo. Standing before the microphones is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who began Miami's anti-Castro path to the U. S. Congress way back in 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager on the way to getting permission to be Florida's two-term Governor. On the right is Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln's younger brother. The Diaz-Balart brothers' anti-Castro zealotry comes naturally; their father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship before fleeing the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959 and becoming one of the all-time richest and most powerful anti-Castro zealots on U. S. soil. Ros-Lehtinen's family-oriented anti-Castro passion direct from Havana-to-Miami is just as strong as that of the Diaz-Balarts. The quartet never has to explain why only anti-Castro zealots can get elected to Congress from Miami even though the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami are moderates who prefer President Obama's sane and peaceful overtures toward Cuba and desire an end to the embargo, which has been the Batistiano's congressionally mandated Crown Jewel since 1962...a Crown Jewel unanimously condemned by all the nations of the world via a 191-to-0 UN vote. 

        I watched this news conference online via CBS TV-Miami. Each of the quartet took turns, first in English and then in Spanish, excoriating Fidel Castro while seeming to imply that the Batista-Mafia dictatorship was as sweet and kind to the Cuban people as a Mother Teresa government might have been. Ros-Lehtinen called Fidel "a sadistic murderer" apparently to distinguish him from the Batista-Mafia leaders he chased to Miami. Actually, the sadistic murderer label during Ros-Lehtinen's long rant was one of her milder depictions of Fidel. It reminded some, I assume, of the Jim DeFede article, when he was the top columnist at the Miami Herald, that excoriated Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers for their support of famed and self-avowed terrorists such as the infamous Luis Posada Carriles. DeFede's outrage concerned how Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balarts had used their congressional and other power to get Posada and 3 others out of a Latin American prison to safe havens in Miami. If you take time to dial up that article, you'll note that DeFede asked Ros-Lehtinen to comment on his disclosures and she refused. But she doesn't miss chances to use the media to vent her morbid, slanted excoriations of Castro.

       Each of the above quartet seemed to conveniently confuse Fidel with Batista, simply because they can. For example, Mario Diaz-Balart raved about Fidel's "terrorism and narco-trafficking." Ummm, interesting. History proves -- with actual photographic and written documentations -- that the prime reasons the Cuban Revolution was spawned by Celia Sanchez and Fidel Castro in 1953 were the murders of Cuban children apparently to serve as warnings to Cubans not to resist the Batista-Mafia rule that created mass poverty and starvation among everyday Cubans while the Batistianos, Mafiosi and U. S. business interests were robbing the island blind, with the Mafia engaged in wholesale gambling, drug and prostitution rackets. As for terrorism, Miami stalwarts such as the still-living Posada Carriles and the late Orlando Bosch not only bragged about decades of extreme terrorist acts against Fidel's Cuba but are tied by Latin American history and declassified U. S. documents to such horrendous acts as the bombing of the child-laden Cubana Flight 455 civilian plane. When Miami's top Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, complained on the air against such terrorism against innocent Cubans, Emilio was car-bombed. {You might want to Google "Emilio Milian" and "Cubana Flight 455" and "Jim DeFede's Anti-Terror Article" because, for sure, they are not going to be mentioned by the mainstream U. S. media}. While Milian got car-bombed, DeFede only got fired although the last I saw him he was working at CBS10 in Miami; and yes, I exchanged emails with Jim to ascertain if he was still standing. I was, frankly, surprised...but pleased...he was.

      And lastly {I promise}. Assuming...I believe...that Americans are either totally stupid or totally scared, Ros-Lehtinen, speaking to the choir at the Nov. 25th news conference, turned and praised Lincoln Diaz-Balart for "writing" in the U. S. Congress some of the Cuban legislation that exists to this day and that was excoriated by that 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations. As noted, Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart's father Rafael was a key Minister in Batista's Cuban dictatorship before becoming with his four powerful sons a key anti-Fidel zealot in Miami. The U.S.-Cuban conundrum dictates that people like Lincoln Diaz-Balart "write" devastating Cuban directives that become "legal" and seemingly eternal U. S. laws that easily get sanctioned in Congress but then get a resounding 191-to-0 denunciation in the United Nations. {Unanimity doesn't impress Banana Republics but should, I think, impress a democracy}. WOW. Such laws and such things as the above news conference shame the U. S. and democracy, I believe, while also, in my opinion, unmercifully harming 11 million innocent Cubans on the island...all in the self-serving guise of harming the last six decades of Fidel Castro's 90-year life. And now that Fidel Castro has died of old age, I assume the adjustment in Miami and in Congress will be to maintain current very lucrative anti-Fidel laws and maybe craft some new ones to...you know...harm his legacy, the one that began at 10:29 P. M. on November 25th, 2016. WOW. Uh, did I already say that? If so, sorry. I was thinking about the kids aboard Cubana Flight 455.

Tomorrow I'll answer that #1 for you.

Yes, especially the United States.   

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FIDEL CASTRO HAS DIED

He Was Cremated This Morning 

August 13, 1926--November 25, 2016.
 {The exact time of death was 10:29 Friday night} 

     This was the very last publicly released photo of Fidel Castro. All in-home photos of Fidel were taken by his son Alex Castro. This last one released by Alex to the international media was taken on November 15, 2016 -- 10 days before Fidel died. The visitor was the President of Vietnam, Tran Dai Quang. 

         In recent months world leaders including Pope Francis and the top leaders of China, Russia, the Netherlands, Vietnam, France, Portugal, etc., had visited Fidel in his living room. The photo above shows French President Francois Hollande listening intently to Fidel. Sitting beside him in the blue blouse is his wife Dalia Soto del Valle, the mother of Fidel's last five sons. The fiercely devoted Dalia has approved or disapproved every visitor who has asked to meet Fidel. On November 16, the day after Vietnamese President Dai Quant had visited Fidel, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, asked to visit the Cuban icon. But Dalia told him no, that Fidel was too weak. If you go back and read my Cubaninsider post on Justin Trudeau's visit, you will note that, for the first time, I said that Dalia would not have said no to Prime Minister Trudeau unless Fidel was direly ill on November 16th of this month. Fidel has been extremely ill since his near-death from an intestinal illness in July of 2006, but the denial of Justin Trudeau's visit by Dalia was the biggest tip-off to me that the end was near. Here's why I make that statement:

       For over four decades, starting back when the now 44-year-old Justin Trudeau was a baby, Fidel has been extremely close to the Trudeau family. The photo above shows Justin Trudeau hugging Fidel in Montreal in 2000 when Fidel was a pallbearer at Pierre Trudeau's funeral. Pierre was Justin's father and the former Prime Minister of Canada. Three times Justin had visited Fidel prior to becoming Prime Minister and he dearly wanted to do so as the leader of Canada and Alex confirms that Fidel tried to persuade Dalia to let it happen on March 16th, but she refused. Justin was in Madagascar when he was awaken this morning and told of Fidel's death. He released this statement: "Fidel will forever be remembered as a legendary revolutionary leader and orator. I remember him as a friend. Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island people." 

     This photo shows Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife Margaret on their visit to Havana in 1976. Fidel is holding their 3-month-old baby who seems mostly interested in Fidel's famous beard.

      Justin Trudeau is shown above with Raul Castro at the University of Havana on November 16th, the day Fidel was too sick to see the young Canadian leader. The obligatory U. S. networks are flush with wild celebrations of Fidel Castro's death in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood by rich and powerful Cuban-born enemies of Fidel Castro such as Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Luis Posada Carriles and thousands of others. There are two sides to such celebrations and to the U.S.-Cuban conundrum but you would need to check with non-U.S. media sources such as the London-based BBC, Reuters and The Guardian to get both sides. With few exceptions, Americans are the only totally propagandized idiots when it comes to understanding the U.S.-Cuban conundrum and that is precisely why Americans basically have no clue why just about the only topic that has ever gotten a unanimous vote in the United Nations was back on October 26th when the 191-to-0 UN vote condemned and denounced the U. S. embargo of Cuba, which has existed since 1962 as the longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a small nation. Allowing a Batistiano-tainted U. S. Congress to maintain that atrocity to this day, as the UN expressed in unanimity, reflects the propagandized or intimidated idiots who have allowed it to happen all these decades, demeaning America and democracy while reminding the world that it was right-wing U. S. thugs in Washington who sicced the brutal-thieving Batista-Mafia dictatorship on Cuba in 1952 and it was Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution in 1959 that kicked those leaders off the island -- all the way to Miami, as it unfortunately turned out for the U. S.

 

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A Cuban Reflection

Exposing Batistiano Lies!!

      The lady above embracing a statue of Ernest Hemingway in Havana is Ellen Sabina, a travel writer for IndependentTraveler.com. Before U. S. President Barack Obama began his brave and Herculean efforts to wrest at least some of America's atrocious Cuban policy from the cruel, self-serving, and almost ironclad grip of a few Cuban-American Batistiano remnants in Miami and Washington, Ellen Sabina flew to Cuba and penned an article entitled "Cuba Reflections." You can, and should, dial it up online and read it. That's because, via intimidation and unchecked propaganda, the transplanted Batista exiles who fled the victorious Cuban Revolution  way back on Jan. 1-1959 don't want Americans to get first-hand views of Cuba, which is one reason they have teamed with a few right-wing rouges in the U. S. Congress to pass a law that, for a half-century, has left everyday Americans as the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. That makes it much easier for the Batistianos to tell self-serving lies and get Congress to pass self-serving laws, don't you think? Visits by everyday Americans, or articles by perceptive travel writers, would be the antidote to usually uncontested Batistiano lies about Cuba. Ellen Sabina began her article with these words: "One of the major aspects of this trip was the logistics of getting to Cuba. When you leave Miami and fly to Cuba via Toronto, the first odd thing you notice is that the plane starts its descent over the Everglades. The old platitude 'so close and yet so far' never seemed more apt." 

  The "Cuba Reflections" article by Ellen Sabina for "IndependentTraveler.com used the above photo to point out that in Revolutionary Cuba since 1959 three generations of Cuban females have been well taken care of -- free health care for life, free education through college, free food and shelter if needed, etc. After freely investigating on the island for herself, Ellen Sabina concluded that there were no traces of hunger problems in Cuba and that the women and children across the island reflected the benefits of decent support. The ousted Batistianos since 1959 have dictated the Cuban narrative in the U. S., thus insisting that women and children on the island were lovingly taken care of prior to the Revolution by the brutal, thieving Batista-Mafia dictatorship and that the opposite is true in Revolutionary Cuba. Ellen Sabina used the above photo to illustrate her point about women and children in Revolutionary Cuba. In sharp contrast, there are a plethora of photos from Batista's Cuba in the 1950s that discount the U. S. Batistiano lies.

Routine poverty in Batista's gluttonous Cuba in the 1950s.

      Visitors to Cuba are particularly concerned with observing how -- or if -- modern Cuba prioritizes its children. Ellen Sabina's insightful article used the above photo in explaining that Cuban children are now prioritized -- well taken care of, well educated, etc. She wrote: "The children of Cuba looked cheerful and well taken care of. I love watching the school children in their uniforms walking hand-in-hand along the streets. Kids played on the Prado. There didn't seem to be distinctions based on color. nor malnutrition of any kind." 

    Ellen Sabina's article mentioned her first-hand observations of Cuba's "school children" and "Prado." That reminded me of this Havana Times.org photo of the Cuban schoolgirl sitting atop the ubiquitous lion in the Prado neighborhood of Havana. Like Ellen Sabina, most visitors to Cuba are direly interested in the island's school children and fascinated by observing and photographing them. They are gorgeous, healthy, loved, and well educated children. U. S. Senator Marco Rubio and his ilk do not want Americans to know that and that's why everyday Americans for a half-century are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba to observe it for themselves, which would mitigate against all of those Batistiano lies and all of those Cuban laws in the U. S. Congress that enrich and empower the likes of Rubio but harm Cubans on the island like the little girl sitting on the lion in Havana's Prado section.

      Ellen Sabina noted that Cuban children today don't have much in the way of material things, and that is to be expected in a small country that is still coping with the longest and cruelest Economic Embargo {since 1962} ever imposed by a powerful country against a weak country. But Ellen Sabina pointed out that Cuban children today in Revolutionary Cuba are healthy, well educated, live in safe environs, and have loving parents and neighbors who look after them. As this photo indicates, they also have each other. These three girls live in the Regla neighborhood of Havana. The photo is courtesy of Amberly Alene Ellis and #CubaEsNuestra -- #Cuba Is Ours. It's apparent the U. S. Congress doesn't gave a damn about these three precious Cuban girls, but there are a lot of Americans & Cuban-Americans who do CARE ABOUT THEM.

      Forever allowing a few self-serving, revengeful, and very rich Cuban-Americans -- like the three Miami-based U. S. Congress incumbents above -- to dictate America's Cuban policy shames America, democracy and America's best friends around the world. On Oct. 26-2016 in the United Nations that exact assessment received a unanimous worldwide 191-to-0 vote. But these members of Congress can easily get away with insisting that, when it comes to Cuba, zero is a much larger number than 191. And oh yes, too many Americans for over half-a-century have been too afraid, too ignorant or too unpatriotic to even weigh in on the ignominious, undemocratic Cuban policy that most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and all nations of the world want changed. The little girl sitting on the lion in the Prado section of Havana is not America's enemy, as the Ellen Sabina article makes clear. And a handful of rich and powerful Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress should not be allowed to endlessly punish that little girl with atrocities such as the embargo...as her mother and grandmother have been punished for over half-a-century by self-serving and very well-to-do elements residing largely unchallenged in a nearby, much stronger foreign country.

     The child-loving Dr. Carissa F. Etienne is the Director of the Pan-American Health Organization. She says, "Despite over a half-century of an anti-child United States embargo against Cuba, Cuban children on the island today are better cared-for healthwise than the majority of children in the United States and certainly throughout the Pan-American region, an area including Cuba I know so well and an area I love so much."  

       The child-loving Dr. Margaret Chan is the Director-General of the World Health Organization. She says, "For many decades the embargo against Cuba has been a major hindrance, and yet the children on the island have better, and totally free, healthcare than most children in the United States, the richest country in history. Cuba should be the world model for healthcare, especially its emphasis on preventative medical care and its numerous and very accessible polyclinics. Regarding healthcare, the world should follow Cuba's example." 

Note: Americans are supposed to believe that Dr. Chan and Dr. Etienne -- brilliant, loving doctors -- are liars and that Marco Rubio, the U. S. Senator and presidential wannabee, would never, ever lie to them about Cuba for his own self-serving reasons.

     This AP photo was taken on Sept. 15-2016 and it shows U. S. Senator Marco Rubio using and abusing Congress to make one of his typical anti-Cuban rants. That particular Rubio tirade got wide-spread coverage in the mainstream media -- including a J. J. Gallagher report on ABC's Good Morning America and on Yahoo News. The mainstream U. S. media, of course, wouldn't dare balance its distorted Rubio coverage with the unbiased opinions of...say...Dr. Chan or Dr. Etienne. Thus, unchallenged in the mainstream U. S. media are incessant Rubio rants and tirades such as: We must not only keep the embargo against Cuba intact but we must enhance it to make sure Fidel Castro doesn't pocket every dollar that gets to the island; we must block and turn back every one of Obama's initiatives regarding Cuba; we must...!"   

Note #2: There is nothing Rubio can say or do about Cuba that the mainstream U. S. media will ever challenge, especially the pundit-driven and propaganda-driven broadcast media. But for the sake of America and for the sake of democracy, not to mention the totally innocent little Cuban girl sitting on the lion, I believe democracy-loving Americans should challenge him.      

  BREAKING NEWS, AMERICA! Marco Rubio has some more anti-Cuban propaganda everyone needs to hear and fully accept!!

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Trump Declares War on Cuba

Thanksgiving, Nov. 24th, 2016 

      President-elect Donald Trump has named Mauricio Claver-Carone  {photo courtesy of NBC News} to his transition team. While out-of-the-loop Americans are not supposed to realize it, that is equivalent to Mr. Trump -- beginning Jan. 20-2017 when he becomes America's Commander-in-Chief -- declaring war on the nearby Caribbean island of Cuba. But since the infamous Bay of Pigs military attack on Cuba in April of 1961, rogues in either the White House, the CIA or the U. S. Congress -- or a joint combination of all three -- have repeatedly declared war on Cuba, but never won, at least not yet. This time, Cuba could lose.  

       Mauricio Claver-Carone is the Poster Guy for the vast, lucrative and diabolical Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. While revenge against the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution over the vile Batista-Mafia dictatorship is a mitigating factor, beyond doubt the economic and political rewards have always been and will remain the primary fuels that power America's Cuban engine, a policy -- although softened somewhat by the decency of the outgoing President Obama -- that is dictated by a handful of benefactors who could care less about democracy or about the international 191-to-zero denunciation of it. Like most of the major rulers of the Castro Cottage Industry, Claver-Carone is a product of the Bush dynasty. He was a lawyer-adviser to President George W. Bush till 2003 before branching out to become...a radio propagandist with his own national anti-Cuba show, his anti-Cuba "U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee" {PAC}, his anti-Cuba blog "Capital Hill Cubans," etc. His PAC, according to El Nuevo Herald, plowed "$600,000" into making sure that Castro Cottage Industry stalwarts such as Miami's Marco Rubio and Carlos Curbelo continue as incumbents in the U. S. Congress. In all the world, nothing has demeaned and continues to demean the U. S. and democracy over an extended period as has America's Cuban policy, a policy that all of America's best friends deplore. Yet, because of sheer intimidation, apathy, and a lack of patriotism on the part of too many Americans, it persists decade after decade -- with maestros like Claver-Carone waving the batons and laughing all the way to their banks and their mansions while innocent Cubans suffer along with the reputations of both the United States and democracy.  

Mauricio Claver-Carone 

Trump's Cuban Commander-in-Chief 

    Not surprisingly, the El Nuevo Herald article heralding Mauricio Claver-Carone's appointment by President-elect Trump lavishly quoted perhaps the Bush dynasty's most notorious anti-Cuban zealot -- Otto Juan Reich. Reich is shown above with his fellow anti-Cuban zealot, President George W. Bush. Reich was born in 1945 in Havana. After hooking up with the Bush dynasty in the 1980s when George H. W. Bush was Vice President, Reich has had a very long and very lucrative anti-Cuba career that continues to this day, always riding the coattails of the self-serving Bush dynasty. You would not have to do much Googling to ascertain Reich's known and/or alleged ties to right-wing coups in Honduras, Haiti, Venezuela, etc. While much of his efforts most lucrative Cuban ventures in the U. S. have been clandestinely behind the scenes, some have been upfront -- especially after President George W. Bush appointed Reich {above photo} Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Cuba, not coincidentally, is in the Western Hemisphere. Many of the most notorious anti-Cuba pardons by Bush President #1, such as for the terrorist Orlando Bosch, remain chilling; and anti-Cuba appointments by President Bush #2 were so-called "recess" appointments that would have total power but then be with-drawn before they would have to get Senate approval -- key Bush recess appointments such as anti-Cuba zealots and benefactors like Reich, John Bolton, Roger Noriega, etc. Reich's recess appointment regarding Western Hemisphere Affairs alarmed political leaders throughout the Caribbean and Latin America -- even prior to the brief 2002 coup that overthrew Cuba's friend Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to spark wild White House celebrations, at least till Chavez was quickly returned to power. The shame of that coup has been covered up but till this day it alarms democratically elected Latin American governments. Of course, even after his "RECESS" appointment ended, Reich remains at age 71 an ultra-powerful and ultra-rich anti-Cuban operative. His El Nuevo Herald quote regarding Claver-Carone's appointment by Trump follows: "It's a clear signal...that the president-elect will carry out the promises he made to the Cuban-American community. In my opinion, not many other people know as much about Obama's mistakes on Cuba policy and how to change them, as Mauricio." That quotation by Otto Reich is probably correct, and that is precisely why it is so obscenely dangerous -- for 11 million innocent Cubans on the island but also for America and democracy.

Otto Reich was President George W. Bush's "Point Man."

       But, of course, Otto Reich obtained his original anti-Cuba power during the presidency of George H. W. Bush {above}, power merely passed along during subsequent Republican administrations such as George W. Bush and now, it seems, the upcoming Donald Trump miasma. Such obvious repetitions of blatant anti-American and anti-democracy disasters are allowed to perpetuate because there obviously are not enough brave, intelligent and patriotic Americans to rise-up and protect their country or their democracy. 

     The Executive Director of CubaNow is Ricardo "Ric" Herrero. Mr. Herrero understands that most Cuban-Americans, most Americans and most citizens of the world strongly desire a sane and decent Cuban policy, not one that benefits the economic, political and revenge motives of a few extremists while ignoring the best interests of decent Cubans and Americans. Regarding President-elect Trump's appointment of Claver-Carone, Mr. Herrero defines Claver-Carone as a prime benefactor "who has dedicated his long career as a lobbyist in our capital to dividing Cuban families and defending the interests of those politicians who have benefited from the failed embargo policy." No intelligent American can deny or challenge such a quotation, but for decades they have been schooled -- via intimidation and propaganda -- to ignore such truths.

       But as long as a few vicious anti-Cuban Cuban-Americans, backed by deplorable entities such as the Bush dynasty, can dictate America's Cuban policy via propaganda and intimidation, even such things as a decent two-term President like Obama and a resounding 191-to-0 UN vote will not be able to protect democracy from the vile and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry. President-elect Trump's appointment of Mauricio Claver-Carone reflects a continuation of America's and democracy's Cuban disaster, a situation that neither democracy itself nor a majority of Americans appear capable of ending or ameliorating.

        This photo shows presidential candidate Donald Trump making a few cowardly but off-hand promises in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Prior to this trip he had said Obama's Cuban policies were "fine." 

         Then on Oct. 25-2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump stood before a "Brigade 2506" poster -- which honors the CIA-backed unit that infamously attacked Cuba in April of 1961 -- and gutlessly promised the Little Havana crowd in Miami that he would reverse all of President Obama's positive overtures to Cuba. Trump shamefully lived up to that gutlessness yesterday with his appointment of Mauricio Claver-Carone. If Americans don't comprehend just how gutless and shameful that appointment is, it's probably a tip-off to how ignorant and unpatriotic too many Americans really are when their democracy is assaulted.

     Earlier this year Mr. Obama became the first sitting U. S. President to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge arrived on a warship in 1928. While on the island, President Obama treated the Cuban people with the decency and respect they deserve from a powerful neighbor. As you can see above, he told them: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." He meant those decent, appropriate words. However, back home in the U. S. and especially in a Batistiano-tainted Congress, there apparently are not enough decent, courageous and democracy-loving Americans to support that decent and brave sentence shown above that President Obama said to the Cuban people. IF Americans sit back on their comfortable, scared asses and allow President-elect Trump to go forward with his appointment of Mauricio Claver-Carone, they will deserve the backlash that will result when a tiny but gritty nation fights back, a tiny and gritty nation that might lose but again will have at least the moral support of the rest of the world -- 191-to-zero.

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Running to Cuba

For Fun, Scenery and Business!!

       Back on Sunday, Nov. 20-2016 the Havana Marathon was very successful. The photos are courtesy of MarabanaCuba. The event is only three years old, starting in 2014 as one of the offshoots of President Obama's historic efforts to engage with the island and slice into the embargo and other assaults successfully engineered by right-wing benefactors in the U. S. since 1962 and denounced unanimously {191-0} recently {October 26th} in the United Nations. Some 350 Americans ran in the Havana Marathon last year and there were more this year although the entry fee for Americans was $499. Cubans run free and the event is attracting more and more foreign runners. It is produced by a U. S. company -- MultiRace.

The renovated Havana Capitol is a tourist attraction.

Havana's Parque Central Hotel has been spruced up.

  The Parque Central Hotel inside.

Havana's renovated Telegrafo Hotel.

Havana Marathoners at the Catalonia Plaza Hotel.

The Havana Marathon is now a huge success.

Cuban visitors see spectacular scenery.

Renovated houses at Santa Lucia Beach.

Touring Old Havana.

Tourists running in...and to...Cuba.

   Cubans fish or relax at sunset at Havana's Malecon seawall. 
 Today is Nov. 22, 2016. 

Remembering Nov. 22, 1963 still makes me cry.
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Will Trump Target Cuba?

It Appears He Will!

Not as a Priority but as a Capitulation 

      The top Cuban writer for USA Today is Miami-based Alan Gomez. He has a major and surprisingly fair-minded Cuban article today entitled: "U. S. Businesses To Pressure Trump To Keep Ties To Cuba." 

     Appropriately, today's USA Today article by Alan Gomez features the above photo of President-elect Donald Trump. It was taken by the AP on Oct. 25-2016 when Trump took his campaign to Little Havana in Miami and stood before the "Brigade Asalto 2506" poster and promised Cuban hardliners that he would "reverse" President Obama's peaceful overtures to Cuba and revert back to the Bush-era Cold War cruelty and stupidity that the very next day -- Oct. 26-2016 -- a vote in the United Nations denounced unanimously with a resounding 191-to-0 vote. {Brigade 2506 was the CIA-funded unit that was beaten in its infamous Bay of Pigs attack on Revolutionary Cuba in April of 1961}. But before cowardly capitulating in Miami, Trump had said he was "fine" with Obama's decency towards Cuba and that "50 years of a failed policy is enough." So Alan Gomez of USA Today today is trying to fathom which Trump will emerge regarding Cuba -- the sane one or the cruel one. Gomez is aware that a large percentage of Miami Cubans of his generation favor Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba while only the aging hardliners oppose it. Gomez also understands that large, medium and small U. S. businesses strongly desire to benefit from closer ties to Cuba. Today Alan Gomez explains that U. S. businesses want Cuba's business:   

                  "That list includes most major airlines, which have started regularly scheduled commercial flights to Cuba, and Carnival Corporation. which is already running a regular Cuban cruise. It will include Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which is operating three Cuban hotels, and Airbnb, which is being used by 8,000 Cubans to rent their rooms to travelers. There are tech giants, like Google and Cisco, trying to develop Cuba's bare-bones telecommunications infrastructure, cellphone giants offering roaming services and banks starting to offer U.S.-issued credit and debit card services." 

       A top Cuban-American lawyer in Miami, Pedro Freyre, was quoted in today's USA Today article. His firm represents businesses operating in Cuba now and ones trying to get a future foot-hold. He said: "All of us who are stakeholders in Cuba are very active in lobbying. At this very moment, we are seeking an audience with the teams that will be part of the new Trump administration." But USA Today seemed to recognize that a mere handful of self-serving Cuban-American politicians can still thwart the hopes of most Cuban-Americans, most Americans and most people of the world who live in nations that vote in unanimity -- 191-to-0 -- against the imperialist evils of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. Today Alan Gomez pointed out: "On the other side, the long-standing political coalitions that oppose any opening with Cuba will be tugging at Trump's ear as well. That is led by a powerful bloc of Cuban-American members of Congress." 

     Allan Gomez's USA Today article today heralds Marco Rubio as the current leader of "the powerful bloc of Cuban-Amrican members of Congress" trying desperately to keep in place "the long-standing political coalition" that has -- since the 1950s -- benefited so revengefully, financially and politically from a Cuban policy that the world rightfully opposes by a 191-to-0 plurality. But majority opinions and democracy have consistently been primary victims -- along with millions of innocent Cubans on the island -- of the cruel Cold War Cuban policies that Rubio and his ilk cling to, backed by the equally self-serving entities such as the Bush dynasty, the Tea Party and other conservative and right-wing benefactors. Rubio this month has been re-elected from Miami to a second 6-year term in the U. S. Senate that, like his first term, will consist of begging billionaires for money to feather his 2020 presidential bid after his 2016 bid ended unceremoniously when Trump wiped him out in a primary in Rubio's home-state of Florida. Yet, in a grossly flawed political arena in which billionaires can make unlimited donations designed to purchase the U. S. democracy, Rubio's famous "for sale" status will make sure that he and 7 other Cuban-Americans in Congress will continue as primary dictators of America's Cuban policies. In today's USA Today Rubio makes this asinine quotation: "Rolling back President Obama's one-sided concessions to the Castro regime, a key campaign promise shared with President-elect Trump, will be a top priority for me next year." TOP PRIORITY? Cuba is not a priority with Trump but it is surely Rubio's TOP PRIORITY because it seems it butters his bread. That grossly punishes everyday Cubans on the island as Rubio preaches that it's only designed to hurt the elderly Castros, whose careers, final days and legacy depend on selfish stupidity such as that, which leaves Rubio at zero regarding Cuba while most Cuban-Americans in his Miami backyard are at 191 on Cuba's worldwide barometer scale. Punishing Cubans on the island to feather his nest may be personally profitable and beneficial, but Rubio perhaps should be concentrating on issues that citizens of Florida, Miami and America need ALL U. S. Senators to address. For example, my new special issue of Time Magazine -- dated "November 28-December 5, 2016" -- arrived today, Oct. 21-2016, and it states: "Cuts in health spending contributed to a 23% rise in people living with HIV in Miami since 2004. Miami has the fastest-growing rate of new infections in the U. S." Why not, Senator Rubio, devote your time to such issues in Miami...or to Miami's crime-rate that massively exceeds Havana or that Havana devotes a massively larger percentage of its wealth than Miami or the U. S. to such worthy endeavors as free education through college, free health care from birth to death, etc. Of course, Senator Rubio, if you don't have to prioritize worthy American projects we can expect you to repeat the cruel zero comment you made in USA Today today about "the top priority for me next year" will be your self-serving assaults on innocent Cubans.

       By telling USA Today "the top priority for me next year" is Cuba, Rubio means January-2017 when he begins another 6-year term as Little Havana's -- but it seems not America's -- representative in the U. S. Senate. His second Senate term will likely resemble his first when many feel he feasted on money-burgers paid for by billionaires who still would love to see Rubio replace Trump in the White House in 2020.

     The Alan Gomez article in USA Today is a fair-minded, balanced update on what Americans can expect from a Donald Trump presidency regarding Cuba during a period when Republican Trump's White House will also have both chambers of Congress dominated by Republicans, not all of whom are Cuban extremists like Rubio. But Congress has and deserves a very low approval rating because of its money, lobbying, and special interests stigmas -- "Hey, buddy, you support my Cuban bill and I'll support your Bridges to Nowhere for your top donors. Then we can both stay incumbents forever, get rich and then get richer by becoming lobbyists so we can continue selling pieces of our government." Alan Gomez and the rest of the mainstream U. S. media is usually one-sided in its anti-Cuban coverage but Gomez, on two recent C-SPAN appearances, discussed Cuba fairly and his major article in USA Today today is also a fair appraisal.

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