Already Monumental
July 4th & 5th, 2015
Bald Eagle photo courtesy of Carol Dyer/Birds & Blooms Magazine.
Up, up and awayyyyyy!
July 4th & 5th, 2015
On Friday, July 3rd, 2015 -- on the eve of the July 4th Holiday Weekend -- Jet Blue became the first major airline to launch regular flights from New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport to Havana's Jose Marti Airport. A small airline, Sun Country, has operated New York-to-Havana flights for several months. It all represents an early July 4th celebration of President Barack Obama's mounting Cuban legacy!!
Earlier this week Dilma Rousseff, the President of Latin American superpower Brazil, paid an important visit to Barack Obama, the two-term President of world superpower America. In 2013 Rousseff, miffed by confirmation that the U. S. had spied on her private emails and phone calls, had huffily canceled a scheduled visit to the White House. Obama and Rousseff this week unveiled new political, economic, and military alliances. But their most ambitious agreement was a joint renewable energy plan that both strongly advocate for the region. Beyond that, in private, President Rousseff told President Obama, "Your overtures to Cuba will crown your legacy in the Caribbean and Latin America. They were long overdue, and I sincerely thank you. I know you will face counter-measures, perhaps vicious ones, but your efforts alone will cement your legacy in the Americas. I would love to be in Cuba next year when you visit. The Cuban people love you."
Dilma Rousseff, now 67, is a great admirer of Cuba's soon-to-be 89-year-old revolutionary icon Fidel Castro. They share a youthful camaraderie in their respective countries: Fidel spent two years in prison because he was a guerrilla fighter against a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba; Dilma spent three years in prison, where she was routinely tortured, because she was a guerrilla fighter against a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Brazil. As Brazil's President, Rousseff is vital to Cuba's economic revival, which is largely centered around the island's Mariel Economic Zone, which Brazil's billion-dollar investment made possible.
This is President Rousseff of Brazil celebrating the opening of Cuba's plush new, ultra-modern, deep-water Mariel Port. It's 28 miles southwest of Havana and 90 miles due south of Key West, Florida.
Dilma Rousseff -- re-elected Brazil's President last year -- has some major problems in her own country these days. Brazil's trillion-dollar economy, the 7th largest in the world, has slowed and executives at the state-owned oil company, Petrobras, have been charged with corruption. Demonstrations such as this one have helped to seriously deflate Rousseff's once lofty approval ratings throughout Brazil.
But Dilma Rousseff is still a two-term President of Brazil, Latin America's most important nation. And Barack Obama is still a two-term President of the United States, the world's most important nation. And they are friends again. This week Obama congratulated Rousseff for her help in making Brazil "a global power." He also thanked her for being "a reliable partner with the United States." Rousseff invited Obama to attend the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and she said she hoped to also see him in Cuba in 2016. He told her that he was "fully aware" that every nation in the Caribbean and Latin America "is hoping that Cuba and the United States will normalize relations. And to me, Dilma, that is more important than what my personal legacy will be."
President Obama this week proudly introduced President Rousseff to his family, which includes First Lady Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia. This photo shows Dilma talking to Sasha Obama.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- the Havana-born anti-Castro zealot -- was elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami way back in 1989 when Jeb Bush was her Campaign Manager soon after he moved to Florida to establish his political roots by ingratiating himself to the most radical, richest, and most powerful Cuban exiles. The entrenched Ros-Lehtinen, of course, remains in the U. S. Congress to this day. Like any and all Bush-connected Cuban-American politicians, Ros-Lehtinen has 24-hour access to the Fox News network to spew her demands that the U. S. should not only keep the Cuban embargo in place but should greatly expand it and all other anti-Cuban projects. In the above appearance on Megyn Kelly's Fox News program, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen is explaining why, earlier that day, she shamed and embarrassed America's decent Secretary of State, John Kerry, because of what she perceived as his softness on Cuba. As Jon Stewart and other brave observers have noted, Fox News is nothing more and nothing less than a very successful right-wing propaganda machine masquerading as a news operation. Thus, as expected, on July 1, 2015 -- the day President Barack Obama announced he was opening a U. S. embassy in Havana and Cuba was opening one in Washington -- Cuban-American extremists flocked to Fox News to vent their outrage. Nothing surprising there. But Ros-Lehtinen this time unveiled a fresh assault on President Obama, accusing him of trying to normalize relations with Cuba in order to enhance his "LEGACY." Ummmmm....? The use of the word "legacy" seems to indicate that Ros-Lehtinen is fully aware that President Obama's remarkable overtures to Cuba are supported by most Americans, most Cuban-Americans even in Miami, and most citizens of the world, especially throughout all of the Caribbean and all of Latin America.
This is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen with her Miami friend, the late Orlando Bosch.
Miami stalwarts: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Felix Rodriguez. Ros-Lehtinen was born in Havana on June 15, 1952. Rodriguez was born in Havana on May 31, 1941. They have thrived in Miami's Little Havana.
This is Felix Rodriguez as he graduated from the infamous Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. Like Luis Posada Carriles, Jorge Mas Canosa, and many other young Cubans in 1959, Rodriguez was a prime candidate for the U. S. military that quickly wanted to wrest control of Cuba from the upstart Cuban Revolution. By the 1960s, Rodriguez, Posada, etc., etc., were also on the huge CIA payroll.
As a CIA superstar, Rodriguez oversaw the execution of Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967.
Felix Rodriguez and most of the other highly prominent anti-Castro Cuban exiles owe their prominence to the Bush dynasty, especially those lucky enough to be anointed long ago by CIA Director-Vice President-President George H. W. Bush, shown here hosting Miami's still-legendary Felix Rodriguez.
This photo of Felix Rodriguez was taken in 1988 when he was being grilled by Senator John Kerry about the arms-for-cash Iran-Contra scandal. Senator Kerry was most interested in quizzing Rodriguez about his boss, Lt. Col. Oliver North, who later, not surprisingly, had his own one-hour program on Fox News. Kerry wanted to know what Rodriguez, A.K.A. Max Gomez, knew about the alleged shipment of illegal drugs, specifically cocaine, out of Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador using U. S. military planes.
When George H. W. Bush was named CIA Director in 1976, it was widely reported that he had "never previously" worked for the CIA. However, investigative journalists such as Robert Parry {AP and Newsweek} have reported that Mr. Bush was a key CIA operative dating back to Cuban shenanigans in the 1950s. They base that on such things as declassified U. S. documents. For example, the above document from FBI Director John Edgar Hoover, in the last paragraph, references "George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency." As you can see at the top of the declassified document it was clearly dated "November 29, 1963."
Like the five other most vicious anti-Castro zealots in the U. S. Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen owes her congressional entrenchment to her connections to the Bush political dynasty. Jeb Bush was Ros-Lehtinen's Campaign Manager when she was first elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami in 1989 {photo above}. Democracy-lovers in the Americas -- President Obama among them -- believe that six Bush-connected Cuban-American members of the U. S. Congress from Miami, Union City, and Texas should not dictate America's Cuban policy that the rest of the world, including most Cuban-Americans, disagrees with.
Note:
As a lifelong democracy-loving conservative Republican, and as this blog consistently illustrates, I am a great admirer of Cuban talent and ingenuity. I would not be upset if all 535 members of the U. S. Congress were Cuban-Americans along with Cuban-Americans in the two top White House positions. However, since the 1950s I believe that the U. S. democracy has been shamed by the fact that only Bush-connected Cuban-American extremists have, for the most part, dictated America's nefarious Cuban policy. In other words, I and many other democracy lovers agree with a recent article written by Peter Kornbluh, America's top Cuban expert and the greatly respected director of the Washington-based U. S. National Security Archive. Kornbluh succinctly opined in a notable article last month that letting only a few Bush-connected Cuban-American extremists dictate America's Cuban policy makes the United States look like a "Banana Republic."
Peter Kornbluh and other democracy-loving Americans fully comprehend the significance of the above photo {Canosa-Bush} from the 1980s. Most Americans don't, and that's why a handful of unchecked Cuban-Americans, at the expense of the U. S. democracy, have grown rich and powerful via their dictation of a lushly tax-funded Cuban policy and narrative that vilifies Revolutionary Cuba and glorifies the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that preceded it. Benefactors of that policy since the 1950s, of course, care little about how that is perceived in the region and the world, as Mr. Kornbluh and Ms. Sarah Stephens {head of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas} and many others constantly remind us.
This is George H. W. Bush handing out souvenir pens to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Jorge Mas Canosa after signing anti-Cuban legislation that remains enforce to this very day along with a myriad of other expensive regime-change antics. From January of 1959 till July of 2015, the time, money, and mayhem the U. S. government has devoted to destroying Fidel Castro and overthrowing Revolutionary Cuba could have cured or assuaged many domestic U. S. problems. The image problems related to Cuba -- the theft of Guantanamo Bay, Batista, the Mafia, the Bay of Pigs, the terrorism associated with Cubana Flight 455, etc. -- cannot be erased, however, either by time or money. A lot of Cuban bells simply cannot be un-rung.
Roger Ailes, who turned 75 back in May, is the media-savvy Founder and still the President/Chairman of Fox News. Mr. Ailes created and minutely orchestrates by far the most commercially successful cable news outlet in the United States. "The Fox Effect" is influential enough, for example, to instantly project any of the ubiquitous books co-authored by Bill O'Reilly atop every best-seller list. It is influential enough, in fact, to put yet another Bush, this time Jeb, in the White House. Mr. Ailes earned his political and media reputation as a top consultant to Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush -- three famed anti-Cuban zealots. Fox News today is a haven for Bush-connected Cuban-Americans intent on seeking the White House, punishing Cuba, and successfully soliciting endless tax dollars to fund endless numbers of anti-Cuban projects. A question for Mr. Ailes: Peter Kornbluh, Sarah Stephens, and Wayne S. Smith are probably the three greatest experts on U.S.-Cuban relations. Is there any chance, Mr. Ailes, that Fox News will ever be impartial enough regarding Cuba to allow their views to be aired?
This is a typical smile Ted Cruz presents to the world right after he has unleashed a tirade against President Barack Obama, especially after a Cuban statement by President Obama that riles Mr. Cruz.
This is a typical frown Ted Cruz exhibits right after some journalistic fact-checker has challenged one of his ridiculous claims, which often are made when he knows he is speaking to the choir on such cozy outlets as Fox News. This week -- on July 2nd, 2015 -- America's largest newspaper -- USA Today -- had a major article entitled: "CRUZ OUTBURST REFLECTS RISE OF POLITICAL FACT-CHECKING." The sub-title of that article was: "Ted Cruz's Latest Rant Shows Importance of Fact-checking." It was written by regular USA Today columnist Rem Rieder. American voters concerned about their democracy should read it, and heed it. Ted Cruz is not the first nor will he be the last "serious" Presidential candidate who plays loose with the "facts," or the lack thereof. When there are vast propaganda outlets such as Fox News, plus vast amounts of special interest money to sanitize even extremist views, the sheer fragility of the U. S. democracy becomes alarmingly apparent. Ted Cruz is not the only prime example, but he is, for sure, a paradigm.
Rest assured that Ted Cruz, the first-term Senator from Texas, will not be elected President in 2016. He is too far to the right even for the right-wing dominated Republican Party. Yet, he is an ultra-smart and brilliant Harvard-trained lawyer who happens to be the best speaker, debater, and orator among the crowded field of presidential candidates. His father actually fought in the Cuban Revolution for Fidel Castro, although today the father is even more radically anti-Castro than the son. Yes, Ted Cruz was born in Canada but no one is saying that makes his presidential candidacy illegal. But his right-wing extremism will make his presidential bid impossible, at least at this point in time, although he probably has the financial support to remain a power in the U. S. Senate as long as he desires.. USA Today this week reported that Cruz is second only to Jeb Bush as a fund-raiser, with a bevy of right-wing and Jewish billionaires among his key supporters. That perhaps accounts for some of Cruz's strangest statements, such as his rant that a U. S. embassy in Havana will be "an insult" and "a slap in the face" to, uh, Israel.
Yes, Ted Cruz is a product of the Bush political machine in Texas.
This quotation from the top Republican presidential candidate, Jeb Bush, reflects much of what is wrong with a money-driven two-party system that the U. S. democracy has evolved into. Born into the ultra-rich Bush dynasty, Jeb Bush to this day exhibits a misunderstanding and disdain for the non-rich, which happens to constitute the majority of the 315 million Americans. But Jeb is awash as a presidential candidate with buckets of special interest money, a veritable tsunami of cash since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that there is no limit, and little transparency, attached to political contributions. That means a few billionaires can virtually purchase the Senate, the House of Representatives, and, of course, the presidency. Jeb Bush's comment about "the poor" is typical of the fact that dynastic politicians fully realize that they are beholden to the minority rich, not the majority middle class or poor. That's because it is not the middle class or the poor who contribute to those bulging, over-flowing, obscene, and anti-democratic Political Action Committees {PACs}. A bought-and-paid-for government was never envisioned by America's Founding Fathers on Independence Day {July 4th, 1776} but that is what we have on July 4th, 2015.
Before and during World War II, one of the most controversial American politicians/businessmen was Prescott Bush, the patriarch of the Bush political and economic dynasty. America's Founding Fathers in the 18th century surely never anticipated a political dynasty or monarchy, and neither do democracy-lovers in this 21st century. But a two-party system dictated by money is why Jeb Bush plans to succeed his father and his brother as the President of the United States. Meanwhile, Americans are not supposed to Google "Prescott Bush" to discover why the Bush patriarch was reprimanded by the U. S. government during World War II or Google "George Prescott Bush" to ascertain why Jeb's son, already a top elected official in Texas, is expected one day to also be called President George Prescott Bush. The Founding Fathers tried, but obviously failed, in their attempt to save the U. S. democracy from money-crazed political dynasties.
Yes, George P. Bush {The P. is for Prescott} is already being groomed to be the 4th generational Bush in the White House, right after his dad Jeb finishes his two terms. P. is already the powerful Land Commissioner in Texas. It's an elective position, but that was no problem at all for the Bush machine.
If your name is Jeb Bush you can be a serious presidential candidate who does not have to worry about the mainstream media ever asking you about even close associations with a host of infamous Miami Cuban exiles. That's what inherited political power and tons of special interest money can provide. {You are free to Google to ascertain whether the handcuffed Orlando Bosch was later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush at the written request of his politically ambitious son Jeb down in Florida}.
Mr. Bosch, shown handcuffed by federal agents in 1968, lived out his long life a free and heralded citizen of Miami. Immediate and now declassified U. S. documents forever label Mr. Bosch and his associate Luis Posada Carriles, still a free and heralded man in Miami, as the masterminds of anti-Cuban terrorist acts -- including the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, bombing Cuban hotels, etc., etc.
For her seminal books -- such as the classic CUBA CONFIDENTIAL: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana -- Ann Louise Bardach interviewed all the prime players, including Orlando Bosch {above} and Luis Posada Carriles. The two most notorious Cuban exiles often bragged about their decades of anti-Castro mayhem, especially Posada in a famous New York Times article penned by Ms. Bardach. Also, way back on August 17, 1989, an investigative report in the New York Times revealed how Jeb Bush and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pressured George H. W. Bush to pardon Mr. Bosch, who died in 2011 in suburban Miami at age 84. Mr. Bosch was born in Cuba on August 18, 1926 -- only five days after Fidel Castro was born.
This is a recent photo of Luis Posada Carriles demonstrating in a Miami street against President Obama's Cuban overtures. Posada Carriles was born in Cuba on February 15, 1928, so he is now 87.
The Bush dynasty, within the confines of the great U. S. democracy, is actually a joke. At least, helpless democracy-lovers are reduced to laughing about it as opposed to the alternative, which is crying about it. Of course, America's best comedians -- such as Jimmy Fallon {above}, the host of NBC's Tonight Show -- often help us laugh, instead of cry, when we are reminded of the Bush dynasty. This particular Jimmy Fallon joke about the Bush dynasty reminds me of a more pleasant piece of Americana -- Yogi Berra.
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And speaking of Yogi...........
.............................he turned 90-years-old on May 12th, 2015. He was born in the slums of St. Louis and quit school in the 8th grade to work to help his family. He is famed for his pithy and paradoxical quotes, such as the one above. Yogi was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. He spent 19 Major League seasons with the New York Yankees. A star catcher and lefty hitter, Yogi was the American League's Most Valuable Player three times. As a player, coach, and manager, he won thirteen World Series titles. Yogi, at age 90, is now a very rich man but he still concentrates on helping "poor people, 'cause they are the ones who need it." In other words, Yogi would have made a good politician, along the lines of a Elizabeth Warren or a Bernie Sanders, as opposed to more typical modern-day politicians who "help billionaires because they contribute to our PACs." Yogi's most famous quote is: "It ain't over till it's over." It's getting close, but it's not quite over for Yogi. He's had a great run. So did the U. S. democracy.
