Cuba To Ignore America

And Emphasize Friends!

Today is July 26, 2017.

       Since 1959 July 26th has been celebrated as Cuba's Day of National Rebellion. On July 26, 1953 a young lawyer named Fidel Castro led an ill-fated attack on Dictator Batista's Moncada Army Barracks. Most of the 120 rebels were killed in the attack or executed later and Fidel spent the next two years in a Batista prison. But throughout the Revolutionary War that finally ousted Batista in 1959, Fidel crowned July 26th as the symbol of the rebellion and the day has been celebrated in Cuba since 1959.

      Throughout the Cuban Revolutionary War, even when Fidel was in prison from July of 1953 till May of 1955, Celia Sanchez -- the incomparable female guerrilla fighter and revolutionary leader -- kept the July 26th symbol alive by wearing arm bands. 

      But this photo is the definitive one in Cuba on July 26, 2017. It may reflect Cuba's decision to no longer take negotiations with the United States seriously and instead the island will henceforth concentrate on dealing with friends -- such as Canada and Spain. Look at the sad expression on Josefina Vida's face. She has been Cuba's ultra-powerful Minister in charge of diplomatic affairs with the United States and in that capacity she negotiated remarkably positive advances in U.S.-Cuban relations with the friendly Obama administration. But the current Trump administration has sliced into those advances by restoring what Vidal calls "the Republican Batistiano rule." Therefore Vidal is quitting her post as Minister of North American Affairs and she will become Cuba's Ambassador to Canada. Her top assistant, Gustavo Machin, will become Ambassador to Spain. "Gus and I agree," Vidal said, "that wasting our time with Trump, Rubio and those who want to hurt us will be time that we should be spending with nations that want to treat us fairly as another sovereign nation."

        If Cuba's two top diplomats who know the United States best -- Josefina Vidal and Gustavo Machin -- believe it is no longer worth their time to deal with the U. S., suffice to say that post-Obama U.S.-Cuban relations are in the process of returning to the Cold War Bay of Pigs-Cuban Missile Crisis dark days of 1961 and 1962. The two skilled Cubans shown above had negotiated with Obama the reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since 1961; U. S. commercial flights to Cuba for the first time since 1962; and other major benefits for both countries. But Vidal and Machin have now decided that waiting for another Obama-type administration in Washington is, according to Vidal, "a bridge too far, especially when futility in U. S. relations distracts from fruitful relations with our very best friends."    

      The monumental decision of Josefina Vidal to step down as Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs is a strong signal that the Caribbean island has decided to de-emphasize relations with the United States and re-emphasize relations with more friendly nations. Now as Cuba's Ambassador to Canada, she will not be saddled with the endless enmity from the United States, a realism only briefly interrupted by the bravery and decency of President Obama. The decision was Vidal's and if Cuba's highly respected prime diplomat regarding relations with the U. S. finally gives up even trying to work with the island's main and perhaps only enemy, it heralds a major shift in the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. Vidal: "All I have asked of the United States is for Cuba to be treated as a sovereign nation, not a Mafia-ruled possession. Obama treated us with respect and we reciprocated in kind. But any Republican U. S. president is obliged to let counter-revolutionary elements dictate harsh, even deadly, measures to our people. Since January 20th we have wasted too much time dealing with that."

      During the Obama presidency, America's best diplomat Roberta Jacobson engaged in four important and riveting diplomatic sessions with Cuba's best diplomat Josefina Vidal. But their earnest work can be erased by miscreants.

  The three key U.S.-Cuban diplomats -- Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Roberta Jacobson, and Josefina Vidal -- had great respect for each other and, as above, rejoiced over the historic progress they forged. Jacobson had assured Vidal, "I think the advances we have made will hold because Obama will be replaced by another Democrat who will respect his overtures to Cuba and build on them." But Jacobson and other prognosticators were wrong and thus Cuba has been blind-sided by the Donald Trump phenomenon.

   President Obama's perfect choice to be America's Ambassador to Cuba was Jeffrey DeLaurentis, a seasoned U. S. diplomat with vast knowledge of U.S.-Cuban relations. But three Cuban-American counter-revolutionary U. S. Senators -- Rubio, Cruz and Menendez -- easily and selfishly blocked that appointment and wouldn't let it come up for a vote in the Senate. DeLaurentis had served honorably in many diplomatic capacities, including in Cuba. When Josefina Vidal realized that the treatment of DeLaurentis proved that a handful of viciously anti-Cuban Cuban Americans again, with the advent of Trump, could dictate the U. S. Cuban policy, both Vidal and DeLaurentis agreed it was time to toss in the towel. DeLaurentis earlier this month resigned as head of the U. S. embassy in Havana and last Saturday Vidal informed DeLaurentis, "I understand your enemies, Jeffrey, and I know you will understand my decision to no longer deal with the U. S. You have been the victim of a great democracy that simply can't shed its Mafia designs on Cuba. And Cuba has actually spent too much time dealing with outstanding people like you only to find them overruled by a few rogues, something not expected in what once was a great democracy."

            Born on February 18, 1961, Josefina Vidal has worked all her adult life while "waiting for our superpower northern neighbor to treat Cuba as a sovereign nation, not a punching bag or piggy-bank." She has been posted in capitals very vital to Cuba's existence, including Moscow, Paris and Washington. In addition to Spanish and Russian, she is fluent in English and French, which will serve her well as Cuba's new Ambassador to Canada. While working at the Cuban diplomatic mission, called an Interests Section, in Washington in 2003, the Bush administration -- always aligned with the most extremist Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries -- accused Vidal and her husband of being "spies," creating a tit-for-tat exchange in the Washington-Havana missions. But by then less-biased Americans fully recognized Vidal's brilliant defense of Cuba as well as her extraordinary knowledge of the island's decades-old primary opponents in Miami and in the Bush dynasty. In 2002 Caroline Kennedy hosted a gathering of top U. S. historians at the Kennedy Center in Boston but the speaker who got the loudest and longest ovation was Josefina Vidal. It is believed such recognition inspired Miami-Bush stalwarts to flagrantly try to counteract and demean her reputation by branding her a "spy" in 2003. 

        On September 26, 2013, at Columbia University in New York Josefina Vidal was the featured {and only} speaker at a seminar on U.S.-Cuban relations. It was a long, heart-wrenching speech that is still readily available in its entirety on YouTube. A video of the speech was made available to President Obama and he later referenced it as "a classic persuasion" that expedited his efforts to normalize Cuban relations.

           In 2004, a year when I happened to be in Cuba, Fidel Castro startled Josefina Vidal with this sentence: "If you have a desire to be the future leader of Cuba, you will have my full support." Quite aware of what that support entailed, she was teary-eyed when she explained that being President of Cuba was not her desire and she felt she could "serve you and Cuba best by devoting my time solely to issues with the United States." 2004 was two years before Fidel suffered what turned out to be his long-drawn-out fatal illness at age 90 in 2016 but by 2004 he realized his vibrancy as Cuba's leader was fading, as evidenced by a fainting spell during one long, sun-drenched speech and a fall from the stage following another speech that broke bones in his arm and knee. Before surprising Vidal, he had reminded her that his "loyal brother Raul" didn't savor the job because he preferred being the military leader who "also was home every night for family dinners." During his long life it is believed that Fidel Castro had just one true idol and soulmate -- Celia Sanchez. After she died of cancer in 1980, the one Cuban that reminded him of Celia Sanchez was Josefina Vidal.

           Like Fidel Castro in 2004, there are today a lot of Cubans who believe Josefina Vidal should be the leader of Cuba when 86-year-old Raul Castro steps down in February of 2018. Cubaninsider and other forums have long championed Vidal as a future top leader of Cuba. Some anti-Cuban narratives are already claiming Vidal's new assignment off the island relates to efforts among the Cuban hierarchy to quell talk about her being Raul Castro's successor. But the ambassadorship in Canada is her decision, one she now considers more vital than being Cuba's Minister of North American Affairs when the American portion of that title continues in its endless counter-revolutionary mode. Revolutionary Cuba, which elevated women to new heights on the island, is surely primed for a post-Castro female leader. But Vidal prefers that it would be someone like Johana Tablada, Rosa Miriam Elizalde or Ana Mari Machado. Having concluded that America's Cuban policy will continue to be "tainted" by Cuban-exile extremists, Vidal's diplomatic skills, she believes, need to be focused exclusivity on friendly nations. Canada is a key friendly nation where the current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his late Prime Minister father Pierre are/were both close friends of Cuba and Fidel Castro. Josefina Vidal's new job as Ambassador to Canada will serve Cuba and Canada well as America's Obama-orchestrated decency towards Cuba fades away into indecency.

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Cuban, American Realities

Intersect With Media Comparisons!!

      A prime example of the current status of the very influential broadcast media in the United States is Megyn Kelly. She was recently lured from Fox News to NBC thanks to a long-time contract that guarantees her about $20-million-a-year from salary alone. Kelly at Fox News was in the right place at the right time when successful presidential candidate Donald Trump demeaned her femininity and her broadcasting credentials with one of his crude narcissistic comments. The resulting outrage elevated Kelly's fame beyond the loyal conservative base at Fox all the way to the even more lucrative deal at the anti-Trump liberal-minded NBC behemoth.

      A prime example of the current status of the very influential broadcasting media in Cuba is Cristina Escobar. Although she might be...and probably is...the best broadcast journalist on either side of the Florida Straits, Escobar does not make $20 million a year. But she is far more popular and far more influential in Cuba than Megyn Kelly or any other broadcaster is in the United States. And that renown has helped Escobar to make history as the only Cuban to participate in and also dominate a White House news conference. She is also the only Cuban broadcaster to make speeches at U. S. universities related to both journalism and to torrid United States-Cuban relations.

      When Cristina Escobar is not on the air broadcasting in Cuba, she herself is in high demand for interviews. In a high-profile video-taped interview conducted in Havana by Tracey Eaton...still readily available on YouTube, the Pulitzer Center website, etc...Escobar, with a strong conviction, said, "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington." She has also raised eyebrows in the United States with comments such as: "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba."

     The salary and net worth of America's broadcast journalists, such as Megyn Kelly, are usually predicated on such assets as their celebrity, notoriety, beauty, punditry or other ratings-grabbing nuances. And recently broadcast journalism in the U. S. seems obsessed with being either extreme liberal or extreme conservative propaganda outfits...such as currently being strictly anti-Trump or pro-Trump...with not even a pretense of actually covering news events when broadcast monopolies in the hands of a few can fill its sets with in-house and hugely obnoxious propaganda pundits. 

     But to be fair, NBC has at least installed its high-priced anchor Megyn Kelly in the prime 7:00 P.M. Sunday night slot and the multi-billion-dollar network backs her informative hour with superbly researched journalistic reports by outstanding journalists such as Harry Smith. Thus, Kelly had only to read a Teleprompter on July 23rd-2017 to introduce Harry Smith taking renowned baseball manager Joe Madden back to his hometown of Hazeltown, Pennsylvania. Madden explains and shows how the city has changed from his childhood when it was a safe and prosperous American city. Then jobs were lost, many sent to lower-wage nations like Mexico. Not only poverty but crime inundated Hazeltown, fueling vicious Spanish gangs that created racial tensions and, all too often, violence. Madden decided to team with other rich liberals and revive Hazeltown...by lavishing expensive programs and other incentives on the 50% Spanish population. In the report one white lady asked why whites, many of them poorer than the Hispanics, were never included in such incentive-fueled projects. Injecting that question into the Smith-Madden report from Hazeltown made for good journalism, not propaganda. The same July 23rd Megyn Kelly hour also featured a report on a beautiful young actress who amazingly explained that her recent near-fatal bout with breast cancer was "the best thing" that had ever happened to her. Her reasoning was not so amazing: She believed the physical and emotional trauma had awakened her to the even-more-deadly-and-destructive path she had been on. Healthy people tend not to believe such comments but many people with severe physical disabilities believed and understood that young actress, I believe. That includes me. And it includes a dear, severely disabled friend who sincerely says that the reaction of healthy people to her disability is by far her worst problem because she has learned to cope with her disability but not with the reactions of healthy people, including those closest to her. So, when a broadcast entity in the U. S. sheds its role as a propaganda/pundit-laced machine to air programs like Megyn Kelly's new NBC hour, there is hope for America's broadcast industry.

     Meanwhile, Cuba's superstar broadcast journalist Cristina Escobar is not far...if at all...off-base in her succinct comparison of the industry on her island with that in the United States. As in the U. S., on state television in Cuba she is not at all adverse to criticizing the state if she thinks everyday Cubans are not being fairly treated. Also, if the bilingual Escobar's convictions were not genuine she would probably be a high-priced television anchor in Miami or New York. Indeed, NBC's highly respected top Foreign Correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, is one of Escobar's many American admirers. Also, it is known by both American and Cuban insiders that, following her coverage in Washington of the important Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, Escobar received...but never considered...lucrative offers from rich broadcasters in Miami. One of her most salient comments on the YouTube-Eaton tape chastised Americans for believing the propaganda they have been told about Cubans on the island, depicting them only as "rum-drinkers hopping into 1950s convertibles." Instead, Escobar described her fellow typical Cubans as extremely intelligent and well-educated free-thinkers who love their island. More than once, in Cuba and in the U. S.  -- including at two universities in Alabama -- Escobar has said: "As a journalist in Cuba I wouldn't dare lie to or mislead the Cuban people about Cuba or the U. S. because I respect journalism and because I respect the intelligence of the Cuban people. That is why I am surprised that U. S. journalists can get away with lying about Cuba both routinely and purposefully."

     When prominent Cuban-Americans, like Hugo Cancio, arrive in Cuba they are often interviewed by Cristina Escobar whether they are for or against her Revolutionary-ruled island. Hugo was born in Cuba in 1964 but since the 1980s has been a high-profile businessman in Miami. In the above interview, Hugo told Cristina, "Most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba as I do, but we -- even in the majority -- are not represented by the electoral process. And therefore only counter-revolutionary extremists can get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami."

      If a well-known Cuban-American like Hugo Cancio can make such comments to Cristina Escobar on one of his many travels to Cuba, Cristina has every right to question Miami's democracy and to question why the mainstream United States media is neither democratic enough or, perhaps, brave enough to interview someone like Hugo Cancio. For sure, counter-revolutionary zealots and anti-Cuban propaganda pundits are readily afforded 24-hour airtime to vent vicious attacks about Cuba.

      Most Cuban-Americans even in Miami, as Hugo Cancio told Cristina Escobar in Cuba, favor normal relations with Cuba but they complain that their voices are not heard by the elected politicians nor by the mainstream media in the United States.

       Decade after decade since 1959 the U. S. has allowed only counter-revolutionary zealots like Marco Rubio -- the Senator from Miami -- to dictate America's Cuban policy just as strenuously as the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship dictated Cuban policy from 1952 till it was chased to Miami's Little Havana in January of 1959. Today Cubans like Cristina Escobar blame Rubio more than anyone else for continuing to punish everyday Cubans from his Miami mansion and from his exalted seat in the U. S. Senate. Rubio, of course, got to the Senate still claiming that his parents escaped the Castro tyranny for the freedom of Miami, at least till it was revealed that his parents escaped the Batista tyranny in Cuba before Americans heard about Castro. Also, one of America's most respected investigative journalists, Ken Silverstein, has penned a deeply researched article, replete with names of key Rubio associates, that paints Rubio as the most corrupt presidential candidate in America's history, a position he will aspire to again in the 2020 election. Meanwhile, while denying Hugo Cancio airtime, the U. S. mainstream media affords Rubio and his ilk all the airtime they desire to assail Cuba. Rubio has never been to Cuba but his political and economic fortunes in Miami are tied to hurting Cubans.

       A simple "Ken Silverstein Rubio Article" Google search will take you to the entire article, which is one you should read.

    The mainstream U. S. broadcast media is simply a propaganda machine, like the above defense for Rubio concerning one of the many, many things he is accused of by Silverstein and others.

     And Rubio can create "Breaking News" headlines anytime he wants to rant against Cuba by using the mainstream U. S. propaganda machines where he never worries about rebuttals.

       Like her friend and colleague Cristina Escobar, Rosy Amaro Perez blames Cuban-American benefactors like Rubio the most for assaulting her beloved island while hiding behind the skirts of the world superpower. And whether it's Republicans like Senator Jesse Helms of Helms-Burton fame or Republican Presidents like the Bushes or Trump, Rosy is quite aware that it is "easy as pie" in the U. S. to "solicit unsavory and powerful allies who also benefit politically and economically from assaulting Cuba." Like most Cubans on the island, Rosy watched Trump's June 16th speech delivered in the Bay of Pigs Artime building in Little Havana in which Trump railed against Cuba as the prelude to signing a bill overturning positive Cuban advances made by former President Barack Obama. Then on her Facebook page Rosy wrote: "I've lived in Cuba all my life and I do not know the Cuba Trump talked about."

      I believe that Rosy Amaro Perez epitomizes the typical young-adult Cuban that Cristina Escobar went to great lengths to describe on that YouTube-Tracey Eaton tape. In other words, Rosy is smart, well-educated, healthy, focused, and very much a supporter of the Cuban Revolution and Cuba's sovereignty. Rosy like all Cubans has had totally free health care all her life...with no worries about outrageous health insurance or hospital bills. Rosy like all Cubans who want it received a totally free and excellent education through college. She's never had to worry about student loans but she's read in USA Today that U. S. students are having a hard-time repaying $1.3 trillion in student loans. Meanwhile, Rosy is also aware that someone like Rubio can starkly demean Revolutionary Cuba while lavishly implying that Batista's Cuba treated everyday Cubans as kindly as Mother Teresa would have treated them.

 Rosy Amaro Perez: a skilled broadcaster.

Rosy Amaro Perez: A devoted mother.

In identical dresses: Rosy & her daughter.

Rosy' daughter.

       On U. S. television and in the U. S. Congress, without any fear of being contradicted, Rubio claims he is more concerned about everyday Cubans than true Cubans like Rosy Amaro Perez are. Rosy, shown above on the pinto, not only contradicts Rubio, she says he benefits from such lies and in America he has no reason to stop them. Rubio's rants vs. Rosy's smiles define U.S.-Cuban relations.

Whether Americans believe Rubio...

who has never been to Cuba...

or believe Rosy Amaro Perez...

who has lived in Cuba all her life...

Americans finally need to realize

there are two sides

to the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. 

And Rosy's smile represents one side.

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Main Enemies of Decent Cubans

Are Indecent Cuban-Americans!

       The photo above, courtesy of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, emphatically reflects the decades-old battle of decent, democracy-loving Americans contesting the indecent handful of self-serving Cuban-Americans and their easily-acquired roguish-thuggish political sycophants who assault totally innocent Cubans on the nearby island. The folks above are hard-working Cuban entrepreneurs trying desperately to make honest livings in Cuba to support their families. Former American President Barack Obama bravely gave them those chances as he defied the vicious handful of Cuban-Americans in Miami and in the U. S. Congress who constitute the biggest enemies confronting these very decent Cubans. And that's why, for the second time, Cuban entrepreneurs made their way to Washington TO BEG the administration of President Trump to "not turn-back the advances in our lives orchestrated in recent years by President Obama and the Cuban government."

      The CDA photo above should touch the heartstrings of every democracy-loving American. It was taken this week in Washington as Cuban entrepreneurs begged the United States democracy to allow them to continue to make decent livings on their island with their private entrepreneurial businesses. It was an amazing plea, especially in the hallowed halls of the world's greatest and strongest democracy. The lady on the right...the one clapping and smiling...is Cuban entrepreneur Yamina Vicente. The lady in the middle is Cuban entrepreneur Julia de la Rosa. Julia is warmly hugging U. S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor, the brave democracy-loving, Miami-born member of the U. S. Congress from Tampa Bay, Florida. For the sake of America and for the sake of totally innocent and hard-working Cubans, Kathy Castor has worked hard all her political life doing only decent things for democracy and Americans, but she has been opposed every step of the way by rogues. 

             At the microphone above is Yamina Vicente, the Cuban entrepreneur who started her thriving private business in Havana thanks to Obama but now she has to plead with Trump ...who is now the President of the World's superpower..."not to close those doors that my family and thousands of other Cuban families so badly need to stay open." The saddest thing about Yamina's plea is this basic, sheer fact: Not enough Americans care enough about Yamina and about democracy to give a damn.

       The quotation above is from Yamina Vicente and is courtesy of the Center for Democracy in the Americas. It was taken from the written and verbal pleas decent Cubans like Yamina made to the President of the United States this week in Washington. If you study the quotation above, and if you love decency and democracy, you perhaps will weep: A decent, hard-working woman in a tiny country BEGGING A SUPERPOWER to allow her to continue making a decent living for her family. Americans who do not have the courage to support Yamina, I believe, should at least know the great Americans who do and the indecent Americans who do not. 

     Former U. S. President Barack Obama is a decent, democracy loving man. He supports decent and hard-working Cubans like Yamina Vicente. In 2016 Obama became the first sitting U. S. President to visit Cuba since 1928. In an address carried live on Cuban state television, Yamina and most of the other 11 millions Cubans heard Obama say: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." She also heard him say that the United States, at long last, would support private Cuban citizens who started their own businesses and employed other Cubans. Yamina, with happy tears flowing down her cheeks, rejoiced over the bold support President Obama was providing her and thousands of Cubans like her.

      But then the new U. S. President, Trump, went to Little Havana in Miami and stood before a huge Bay of Pigs Assault Banner and very cowardly vowed to the surviving Bay of Pigs veterans that he would essentially help them reverse their disastrous April-1961 military attack on Cuba. That Trump speech was also carried live from Little Havana USA on Cuban state television. It changed Yamina Vicente's Obama-produced happy tears to Trump-produced sad tears, revealing the undemocratic nuances of America's titillating and vacillating evil designs on sovereign, vulnerable Cuba. 

       And then on June 16, 2017, President Trump went to the lavish Artime Building in Little Havana in Miami that is named for an infamous Bay of Pigs veteran to announce before a counter-revolutionary choir his cowardly and indecent signing of a memorandum to reverse some of President Obama's sane and decent Cuban overtures. Again, that Trump speech was carried live from Miami on Cuba's state television. It made counter-revolutionary extremists like Mario Diaz-Balart very happy. That's Mario in the above photo on the far left looking over Trump's right shoulder. Mario's father Rafael was a key minister in the vile Batista-Mafia dictatorship who became one of the richest and most militant counter-revolutionaries in Miami after the victory of the Cuban Revolution in January, 1959. Mario is typical of a long-line of extremists Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries elected to the U. S. Congress since the 1980s. Americans, of course, are not supposed to wonder why Miami, the Little Havana city where most Cuban-Americans desire normal relations with Cuba, only sends counter-revolutionary extremists to Congress because, after all, the U. S. is still a democracy...ISN'T IT?...even with counter-revolutionary Cuban-American extremists dictating almost all of America's Cuban narratives and policies.

     A decent, democracy-loving American, Kathy Castor was born in Miami 50-years-ago. Since 2007 she has very bravely and decently represented the Tampa area of Florida in the U. S. Congress. In Florida, in Congress and in Cuba itself, Kathy Castor has done everything she can to bring decency and sanity to America's Cuban policy. Decent, hard-working Cubans on the island deeply appreciate democracy-loving Americans like Kathy Castor. A photo in Washington this week, the second one from the top in this update, shows Cuban entrepreneurs Yamina Vicente and Julia de la Rosa warmly and graciously thanking Kathy Castor. And so should Americans.   

      The United States of America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, has had only one sitting President since 1928 with the bravery and decency to not only visit Cuba but to do all he possibly could to bring sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy that rightfully garners that 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. But the Trump-led Republicans who now rule the White House and both branches of Congress can be expected, as we've already heard from Trump himself, to put America's post-Obama Cuban policy back solely in the greedy hands of only the most vicious counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans in Miami and in Congress. That is a slap in the face to both democracy and the Obama legacy. And yet, the current make-up of Americans -- arguably the most unpatriotic cowards in America's history -- can be expected to sit  back and let it happen. Meanwhile, America's and democracy's enemies around the world wildly cheer-on America's Cuban policy while America's best friends around the world feel embarrassed and ashamed. Yes, America!! In the heralded hallowed halls of the U. S. Congress there is a difference between Mario Diaz-Balart and Kathy Castor. And not to know that difference speaks volumes about how patriotic or unpatriotic Americans are during the Obama-to-Trump transition. 

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America's Hidden Cuban Truths

Assaulting Cuba AND Democracy!!

       The top Cuban-American journalist in Miami was Emilio Milian. He was also a decent and brave man. He voiced sharp criticism of Cuban-American extremists in Miami committing horrendous terrorist acts against totally innocent Cubans, all in the name of overthrowing Revolutionary Cuba. Emilio was then car-bombed in Miami.

      The top journalist-columnist at the Miami Herald was Jim DeFede. He was also a decent and brave man. He wrote a famous column poignantly expressing the opinion that "terrorism against innocent Cubans" was and is the same as terrorism against any other people or country.  In that column, still easily accessed online, Jim excoriated Miami Cuban-American members of the U. S. Congress -- namely Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers -- for their unconscionable support and protection of the most famed and most vicious Cuban-American terrorists freely residing in Miami's safe-haven. For his decency and bravery, Jim DeFede was fired.

        What happened to Emilio Milian and Jim DeFede sent the intended messages to the U. S. government and to the U. S. media: Democracy bedamned!! Cuban-American extremists -- not the majority of Cuban-Americans who are decent and brave citizens -- will dictate America's Cuban narrative in the media and America's Cuban policy in the Congress and in all Republican White Houses. Meanwhile, an unpatriotic generation of Americans, via silence and cowardice, has regretfully permitted a mere handful of Cuban-American extremists to dictate America's Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policies. With rare exceptions, unlike Emilio Milian and Jim DeFede, not enough members of Congress and not enough members of the U. S. media have the guts and integrity to challenge the Cuban-American extremists who have self-servingly defamed America and democracy in the eyes of the world.

BUT THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS.

For example:

     There is actually a Washington-based journalist who, amazingly, has the sheer guts and the basic integrity to write fairly about Cuban issues. Her name is Melanie Zanona. In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, Melanie therefore stands out as a beacon of hope for both the U. S. media and the American democracy.

  In recent articles for one of Washington's most influential political publications -- "The Hill" -- Melanie Zanona has written fair articles related to Cuba. And she actually goes to Cuba and talks to everyday Cubans about their lives, their dreams, and their hopes and expectations for the future. This week, heading into the second half of July-2017, Melanie Zanona's insightful article was/is entitled: "In Cuba, Trump's Policy Shift Casts Dark Shadow." Writing from Havana, she began with these exact words:
                      "All around Havana, local Cuban entrepreneurs refer to the day President Trump unveiled his new policy toward the country simply as 'June 16.' 
                      "It's easy to see why the date would be seared into their memories: Private businesses ranging from car companies to bed-and-breakfasts have already seen an alarming number of cancellations from American travelers since the White House announced it would be lifting Obama-orchestrated travel and commercial ties between the two countries. They fear the White House will have a devastating impact on their lives -- even though Trump's effort was billed as a way to help the Cuban people working in the growing private sector. Instead, Cuban entrepreneurs worry they will be hit hardest by the crackdown."

     For a high-profile Washington journalist to go to Cuba, do her diligent research, and then write such a truthful Cuban article proves this salient point: Melanie Zanona has more guts and more integrity than the multitude of biased, politically correct or scared U. S. journalists who wouldn't dare point out Cuban truths. Remember Mr. Milian and Mr. DeFede? Most U. S. journalists shamefully write about or report on Cuba precisely and only just as the most vicious counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in Congress insist that they do. For example, the Melanie Zanona article depicted above exposes perhaps the most important lie about Cuba, one that has grossly harmed two generations of totally innocent people on both sides of the Florida Straits. That lie -- which emanated in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood in 1959 and then, with the supreme help of the self-serving Bush dynasty -- invaded Congress and Republican administrations like a deadly cancer invades the human body. It has embedded and cemented this premise into the otherwise sacred preambles of the U. S. democracy: Anything we do against Cuba -- the unending embargo, not letting everyday Americans visit Cuba, military and terrorist attacks, cannon-fire against coastal fishing cabins, assassinations, etc. -- is to prevent the Cuban government from getting access to money BECAUSE EVERY PENNY GOES TO THE CASTROS. With the counter-revolutionaries in charge of the Cuban narrative and the Cuban laws in the U. S., there have not been enough American citizens with the guts, intelligence or patriotism to question such self-serving lies. Even in the rare instances when someone like Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede or Melanie Zanona tell truths about Cuba and the counter-revolutionaries, the post-World War Two generations of Americans tend to keep their heads buried deep in the sand. Meanwhile, billionaires sprout up in Miami like mushrooms while U. S. college students are burdened with $1.3 TRILLION dollars of student-debts and while many millions of Americans are fearful about having health care because BIG BANKS and BIG PHARMA lobbyists can easily buy-and-sell the politicians who do ONLY their bidding. And meanwhile, in Cuba in stark contrast to the Batista-Mafia pre-revolutionary brutality and thievery, every Cuban has free educations through college and every Cuban has totally free health care from birth till death. And this, please note, is despite the persistence of the lies that Melanie Zanona's brave report from Cuba this week exposed concerning who America's Batistiano policy really hurts -- IT HURTS EVERYDAY CUBANS!

        The still-ubiquitous memorial depicted above attests to some of the lies that Melanie Zanona exposed this week. When the civilian Cubana Flight 455 was blown into the ocean killing all 73 innocents on board, the battle-cry in the Miami media was, "It's the biggest blow yet against Castro." Of course, it was and remains a BIG BLOW against America and against democracy, just as Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede and other brave people have pointed out...and it has also been pointed out that, to this very day, the CIA-connected self-avowed counter-revolutionary terrorist most associated with SUCH BOMBINGS as Cubana Flight 455 is still an honored Miami citizen.

         In addition to Cuba, there are in 2017 many nations around the world who know all about the "Cubana Flight 455 Air Disaster." As indicated by the graphic above, countries like Guyana on each October 6th anniversary of the downing of Cubana Flight 455 hold ceremonies honoring the victims, two dozen of whom were teenage athletes, while those nations' "leaders call for justice." Even in this digital age with ultra-powerful Search Engines like Google, few Americans know about Cubana Flight 455 and few Americans care that the current vote in the United Nations condemning America's Cuban policy is 191-to-0. In a very diverse world, America's Cuban policy might be THE ONLY TOPIC that could garner such unanimity on an international scale, and yet a handful of counter-revolutionaries in Miami and in Congress can saddle the United States of America's extremely precious democracy with such a cancerous blight...decade after decade.

Meanwhile:  

       This photo shows Cuba's superstar news anchor Christina Escobar and star reporter Sadiel Leon on the set of their spanking new and already very popular Canal Habana television enterprise. On Cuban soil and U. S. soil -- including at the White House and in talks at U. S. universities -- Cristina has, with stern conviction, poignantly made this statement: "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." Cristina is not only a brilliant broadcast journalist, in Spanish or English, she is also considered one of the region's top experts on Cuban-U.S. relations. Her thesis at the University of Havana eerily predicted the effects U. S. President Obama would have on Cuba as well as the reactions to those effects in both countries. Her admirers include NBC's top foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell...and other Americans.

        And speaking of the U. S. media, study the above image. It shows the Voice of America reminding us that President Trump reached the six-month plateau of his administration this week -- on July 20th, 2017. He's depicted looking over his shoulder, as he should, at the U. S. media and at un-loyal forces within his Republican Party and even within his White House -- forces that have the desire and the firepower to maybe overthrow him later in his first term. Except for Fox News -- led by Sean Hannity -- and a strong array of conservative radio anchors -- led by Russ Limbaugh -- the mainstream U. S. media is engaged in an electronic and conspiratorial coup to end the Trump presidency PRONTO, although it might take a couple of years and then might evoke a Civil War-like resistance from his hardcore supporters, which comprise about 36% of Americans, easily enough in these divisive times to spawn something akin to a second American Revolution. The undisguised and ongoing media conspiracy against Trump consists of entire elements and efforts at NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post unapologetically trying to destroy Trump -- with no attempts to hide their biased disdain even as they still pretend to be legitimate journalists instead of coup-mongering propagandists. It is easy for even non-political or disinterested viewers and readers to see that Mr. Trump is in dire trouble. That leaves many millions of Americans, like me, who don't support Trump but are deeply concerned about the mainstream media's total lack of respect for the Office of President and for the Electoral Process that put him in the White House, much to their chagrin. But waiting for the next election, not a coup, is the democratic way to oppose Trump. 

But guess what?

           The AP photo above  defines President Trump's problems and his impending termination even better than the aforementioned VOA photo does. This one was taken on April 16th at the Manuel Artime building in Miami's counter-revolutionary Little Havana neighborhood. Mr. Artime was a major architect and "hero" of the April-1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Revolutionary Cuba. It was where Trump very cowardly bellowed his plans to the choir, the counter-revolutionaries, to reverse former President Obama's peaceful overtures to Cuba. The man shown above congratulating Trump and patting his back is the U. S. Senator from Miami Marco Rubio, the most ambitious and the most dangerous of the counter-revolutionaries. Rubio, supported by the mainstream U. S. media and billions of right-wing dollars, still failed in his 2016 presidential bid when he viciously mocked Trump. Now pretending to support Trump and patting him on the back, Rubio in the coming months might stab Trump in the back to try to take control of the Republican Party prior to the 2020 presidential race. And perhaps someone should remind Trump that many of his top appointments -- including Vice President Pence and UN Ambassador Haley -- strongly supported Rubio and strongly mocked Trump during the 2016 presidentical campaign. Rubio's two very dangerous and self-aggrandizing goals seemingly are to become the President of the United States and the Dictator of Cuba. And -- considering America's money-crazed, lobby-administered, propagandized, volatile, and pundit-driven political atmosphere -- he might eventually attain those goals although the latter one, regarding Cuba, might be the hardest...minus a nuke attack.

And by the way:

      Tourists are beginning to discover that Playa Jibacoa is one of the most beautiful, most accessible and now one of the most increasingly popular beaches in Cuba.

  As shown by the red circle, Playa Jibacoa is just east of Havana.

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