Irrevocable Cuban Advances

But too fragile to be permanent??
Can Congress Change Cuban Course??

Photo courtesy: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlings.

      The photo above -- taken on September 19, 2015 -- shows an American Airlines plane getting ready to land at Jose Marti Airport in Havana. This was a chartered flight because, for over half a century, commercial flights between Cuba and the United States have been illegal. But, thanks to President Obama's remarkably brave efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, that is about to change -- BIG TIME!!

        This photo -- courtesy of Augusto Gomez Rojas -- shows a Cuban airplane about to land in Mexico. This week marks exactly one year since President Obama announced his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. He has made amazing strides: Removing Cuba from the Sponsors of Terrorism list; opening embassies in Havana and Washington for  the first time since 1961; easing many restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba; etc. And then yesterday Reuters used its biggest article to report on another major advance in U.S.-Cuban relations:

                       "The U. S. and Cuba have agreed to restore scheduled commercial airline service for the first time in more than five decades in a deal allowing 110 round-trip flights a day between the former Cold War foes. That includes 20 flights to Havana and 10 to each of the other nine international airports in Cuba.

                           "There will be a 60-to-90 day process doing which U.S.-based air carriers will submit proposed routes, with target dates of the first few months of 2016. There are now 12 criteria for Americans to visit the island -- visiting family, educational tours, journalistic endeavors, etc. -- but the general travel ban remains."

    The "general travel ban" that keeps everyday Americans from visiting Cuba remains in place because the U. S. embargo, which dates back to 1962, can only be changed by the U. S. Congress. That means it won't change any time soon because the U. S. Congress, when it comes to Cuba, is firmly dictated to by a handful of self-serving Cuban-Americans and their easily acquired sycophants to maintain enmity between the two nations to sate their revenge, economic, and political motives. But that doesn't mean that all of the 535 members of the U. S. Congress can be easily intimidated or bought off when it comes to Cuba. Senator Jeff Flake, on the left in this photo, and Senator Patrick Leahy, are neither scared off or purchased by the Cuban extremists in Congress. Mr. Flake is a Republican from Arizona and Mr. Leahy is a Democrat from Vermont. In December of 2014 they flew to Cuba to return Alan Gross to America, paving the way for the announcement a year ago this week that Presidents Obama and Castro were trying to normalize relations. Then, as that grandiose plan advanced, Senators Flake and Leahy flew with Secretary of State John Kerry to Cuba in July to raise the U. S. flag at its U. S. embassy, the same flag that had been locked in storage since 1961.

     Jeff Flake was born 52 years ago in Snowflake, Arizona. A Republican, he represented Arizona in the U. S. House of Representatives from 2003 till 2013. Since 2013 he has been in the U. S. Senate. During all those years, Jeff Flake has fought against a U. S. Cuban policy that he believes has been purely designed since 1959 to benefit a handful of Cuban exiles-Cuban Americans while discriminating against everyone else and also smearing the images of the U. S. and democracy in the eyes of the rest of the world. Not only does Senator Flake have that belief about U.S.-Cuban relations, he has enough guts to back it up in a 535-member U. S. Congress that has long allowed a few extremists to dictate Cuban policy. This week Senator Flake and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont teamed to fire off a heart-wrenching letter to President Obama. You can go online and read its contents but, to summarize, they praised President Obama for the successes he has orchestrated to normalize relations with Cuba. The letter also strongly suggested that President Obama should fervently continue along that path during the final 400 days of his two-term presidency. This week Senator Flake told Politico that he believes more Republicans are beginning to resist the tight grip extremists, for decades, have had on dictating U. S. policy in Congress. He said, "To the extent that there was some resistance, maybe some broad resistance, there's now just pockets of resistance to diplomatic relations." Democracy lovers truly hope he is right.

        Study this photo. On the right is Marco Rubio, Miami's contribution to the U. S. Senate and to the Republican presidential primary. The image captures Rubio ranting in the Senate against President Obama's overtures to Cuba. On the left, you can see Senator Jeff Flake's expression as he listens to Rubio's diatribe about "blocking" or "rolling back" all of President Obama's Cuban advances once he replaces Obama in the White House. Senator Flake is aware that, thanks to the support from a cowardly and inept U. S. media, Rubio is totally convinced that his extremist views against Cuba will not cost him a single vote on his path to the White House, a path greased by the Tea Party and a lot of right-wing billionaires but not greased by any accomplishments as a first-term Senator. Senator Flake's frustration, as exhibited above, is from a democratic perspective: He is well aware that every recent poll in Miami, including Rubio's Little Havana neighborhood, reveals that even the majority of Cuban-Americans, like the rest of the world, strongly oppose the U. S. embargo of Cuba that Rubio wants continued and expanded for another six decades or so.

      If President Castro of Cuba and President Obama of the United States can shake hands and agree on normalizing relations between their countries, why can't Senator Flake and Senator Rubio do the same? One thing is certain, as the 192-to-2 vote in the UN indicates, the world, including Miami, now agrees with Flake's Cuban stance.

        This week's announcement that the U. S. and Cuba will resume commercial air service for the first time in over half a century is no small thing. It continues the Obama-orchestrated trend to bring decency and sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations. In that pro-democracy endeavor, Republican Senator Jeff Flake is probably Obama's biggest asset. Senator Flake is hoping that such commercial ties will prevent even Miami extremists from maintaining the embargo forever. But Obama's final 400 days in the White House will be fraught with opposition, even danger, as he tries to stamp Cuban reform as a primary legacy that will shine brightly for decades to come.

At least this is an Obama legacy.

For the first time since 1961, the Cuban flag flies at its embassy in Washington.
Meanwhile:

       This week Major League Baseball sent some of its superstars to Cuba on a Good Will mission. After the 3-day visit ended yesterday, MLB called the experience "exhilarating." MLB now plans for the Cincinnati Reds to play two exhibition games in Havana in March!! Four Cubans made the journey back to Cuba. They are  -- left to right in this photo -- Alexei Ramirez, Jose Abreu, Brayan Pena, and Yasiel Puig. Right behind Abreu is Miguel Cabrera, the best hitter in baseball, and right behind Pena is Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher in baseball. Cabrera and Kershaw make well over $30 million a year. But the four Cubans also are now millionaires many times over in America.

        This photo shows Jose Abreu getting off the plane in Havana. It was, of course, a chartered flight but back in the U. S. this week it was announced that soon commercial flights between Cuba and the U. S. will fill the skies for the first time in 54 years. Such positives by Obama will be hard to roll back, even by Congress or President Rubio!!

       While in Cuba this week, the Major League superstars gave clinics for young Cubans. This MLB/Getty Images photo shows Jose Abreu instructing Cuban children. Jose was born 28 years ago in Cruces, Cuba. He defected to the U. S. in August of 2013 and signed a guaranteed $68 million, 6-year contract with the Chicago White Sox. After two powerful seasons in Chicago, the White Sox consider the $68 million investment a huge bargain, which means Jose's future earnings will easily exceed that $68 million. Jose's return to Cuba this week reunited him with his 5-year-old son Dariel Eduardo. Jose was asked how long had it been since he had seen Dariel. He quickly replied, "Two years, four months." Soon Jose's trips on commercial flights back and forth to Cuba will be more convenient. 

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The Media's View of Cuba

There Are Accurate Sources

     If Americans want an accurate portrayal of U.S.-Cuban relations, they should get to know great, fair-minded, and un-intimidated journalists like Daniel Trotta of Reuters, the superb international news organization headquartered in London. Otherwise, Americans are stuck with getting such information from a Batistiano-directed, increasingly incompetent, and grossly intimidated U. S. media. And that, I believe, is an important distinction for this reason: Whether Americans believe it or not, its relations with the island of Cuba have an out-sized influence on how the U. S. and its democracy are viewed by the rest of the world. For example, Americans are not supposed to react to the yearly 192-to-2 UN vote denouncing the U. S. embargo of Cuba, but the rest of the world reacts to it. Americans are not supposed to react to the 1903 theft of Guantanamo Bay from Cuba, or the deleterious aspects of the infamous U. S. prison on Cuban soil known as Gitmo. But the rest of the world still reacts to that territorial theft and to the Bush-era prison in the Caribbean that sends anti-U. S. vibes around the world. Americans are not supposed to wonder about the deadly explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898 that served as the pretext for the Spanish- American War, but the rest of the world still wonders. Americans are supposed to believe that the Cuban Revolution in 1959 kicked Mother Teresa, not top Mafiosi criminals, off the island, but the rest of the world knows that Mother Teresa never was in Cuba. Since 1959, Americans are not supposed to question the retrenchment of the Batistianos on U. S. soil, but the rest of the world questions it. As 2015 winds down, Americans are not supposed to question U. S. laws that greatly favor Cuban exiles and Cuban-Americans but grossly discriminate against everyone else, but the rest of the world's democracy lovers are embarrassed by that unique democratic anomaly. 

     Certainly, no one on this planet knows as much about U.S.-Cuban relations as Cuba's Josefina Vidal. That includes the good, the bad, the positives, and the negatives. Her perceptions have been formed both in Havana and Washington over the course of the past fifteen years on a daily...almost hourly...basis. In fact, if Vidal wasn't the planet's most brilliant diplomat, it is probable that the Batistianos would have surely recaptured Cuba at least during the no-holds-barred George W. Bush presidency from 2000 to 2008. Remarkably, since the current Obama presidency Vidal has negotiated some startling agreements that have rolled back much of the acute enmity that has served a few vicious Cuban-Americans so well since 1959. She has had Cuba, for example, removed from the U. S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list; she has negotiated the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961; she has recently paved the way for direct mail service between the two nearby nations for the first time in five decades, etc., etc. But she will not be satisfied until she gets breakthroughs on some of the most fervent Batistiano-directed anti-Cuban U. S. laws and policies, such as ending the embargo that has been in place since 1962; returning Guantanamo Bay to Cuba; ending Wet Foot/Dry Foot that mocks Cuba, America, and democracy by providing instant migratory and financial privileges to Cubans at the expense of all non-Cubans. Vidal will not get everything she wants but she is powerful enough and adamant enough that, till she does, the U. S. government and the U. S. businesses will also not get everything they want from Cuba. For Americans to be saturated only with the Batistiano narrative concerning Cuba reflects poorly on the U. S. government and on the U. S. media. For example, this week President Obama told Yahoo News that he wanted to visit Cuba as President in 2016 but only if he got to talk with "everybody." Vidal's interpretation of "everybody" was and is what counted, and she believed it meant President Obama's prime motivation to visit Cuba in 2016 would be to boost dissidents on the island. Based on her interpretation of "everybody," she has dis-invited President Obama from visiting Cuba in 2016. It reflects her continuing anger regarding an unending array of Congress-funded regime-change programs that create and encourage dissidents on the island. This forum presented Vidal's views regarding "everybody" on December 15th, the day Mr. Obama was interviewed by Yahoo News. Yesterday, December 16th, Daniel Trotta interviewed Vidal in Havana for a major Reuters article. She told him: "The day the President of America decides to visit Cuba, he will be welcome. Regarding what I just said, I'd like to recall that Cuba has always said...it is not going to negotiate matters that are inherent to its internal system in exchange for an improvement in or the normalization of relations with the United States." Go online to read Trotta's entire article if you want to understand Cuba.

     In other words, the gospel according to Josefina Vidal...as great, un-intimidated journalists like Daniel Trotta realize...is vital in the delicate issue of U.S.-Cuban relations. If you doubt that assessment because of the Batistiano-controlled propaganda that rules the Cuban narrative in the U. S., or because you don't believe David should be so insane as to resist Goliath, please note that the Batistianos have amazingly not regained control of Cuba since January 1, 1959. That fact amazes the rest of the world while Americans are not expected to grasp any of the parameters, such as the 192-to-2 pro-Cuban vote in the United Nations. And surely, Americans are not supposed to comprehend that a brilliant Cuban woman can stand up against implacable forces that are supported by the world superpower whose Cuban policy, even with a Democrat in the White House, is dictated by Cuban-American extremists in the U. S. Congress.

        President Obama's interview this week with Oliver Knox, the chief Washington correspondent for Yahoo News, was timely because it coincides with the one-year anniversary of Mr. Obama's monumental announcement -- on Dec. 19th, 2014 -- of his plans to normalize relations with Cuba. He has accomplished some of his goal, including business ties that even a Republican or Cuban-American successor in the White House will have trouble turning back. But most of the headlines from the Knox interview resulted from Obama's wish to visit Cuba in 2016 during the last year of his presidency, as long as he can talk to "everybody." His "everybody" irked Cuba's Josefina Vidal because she is tired of having to deal with ongoing lushly funded regime-change programs that encourage and reward dissidents on the island. So, if that is Mr. Obama's intention, she dis-invited him yesterday in that interview with Daniel Trotta of Reuters. 

    This week Josefina Vidal has negotiated two more tentative agreements with the U. S.: Resuming direct mail service for the first time in five decades; and resuming regular commercial passenger flights between the two nations. Yesterday -- Dec. 16th -- in Havana, Vidal told the Associated Press's Michael Weissenstein: "We have made important advances in negotiating a memorandum of understanding on establishing regular flights between Cuba and the United States and shortly we will be ready to announce a preliminary agreement on the issue." That's important, and a bit surprising. Although its economy badly needs it, Cuba can barely handle the upsurge in tourism, at least till it builds more hotels. Thanks to President Obama's initiatives, American visits to Cuba are up 70% this year, with 138,000 arrivals in the first 11 months of 2015. But all such flights are chartered and not commercial. Also, Vidal is well aware that when the Batistianos, prior to Obama, had total control of America's Cuban policy, a Cuban airplane hijacked to Key West was confiscated and sold to help cover a judgment a woman in Miami had won against Cuba in a Miami courtroom when she claimed her husband had betrayed her by returning to Cuba. Vidal, in agreeing to regular commercial flights, surely pondered that lawsuit because she would not take kindly to having a Cubana Airlines plane mistreated by Miami courtrooms or Miami extremists. {She remembers the fate of the child-laden Cubana Flight 455}.

       The AP article yesterday that featured Vidal's comments about the resumption of commercial flights between the U. S. and Cuba used the above photo to illustrate the report. This photo was taken by Jose Goita on Nov. 1, 2001, and it shows a chartered Continental Airlines plane from Miami depositing passengers at Jose Marti Airport in Havana. The change from chartered flights like this one will be monumental because commercial flights are more normal, generally cheaper, and far more convenient. 

And by the way:

        This is Ana Margarita Martinez. She is the beautiful Miami woman who won that lawsuit in the Miami courtroom because her husband left her and went back to Cuba. Yes, as part of her multi-million-dollar settlement, the hijacked Cuban airplane that was flown to Key West was sold with the proceeds going to Ana and her lawyers.

      This is Juan Pablo Roque. He is the husband who left Ana Margarita in Miami and went back to Havana. Interviewed on the phone from Havana, Juan was asked, "Is there anything you still miss about Miami?" He instantly replied, "Yes, MY JEEP!"

       This is Ana with the Jeep that Juan still "misses." But Ana came out alright. She got to keep his beloved Jeep and the money from the hijacked Cuban airplane.

      The normally composed Josefina Vidal should be forgiven if she sometimes becomes annoyed, forlornly glancing off into space while she scratches her head in bewilderment. I mean, after all...she is Cuba's prime decision-maker on all things American and she has to deal with the ongoing Havana-Miami-Washington soap opera that features such things as hijacked Cuban planes, Miami courtrooms, and the break-up of Ana's and Juan's marriage when it fell victim to the endless bickering between the pugnacious revolutionaries in Cuba and the determined Batistianos in America.

Diplomat extraordinaire, Josefina Vidal.

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Cuban Baseball Diplomacy

Amid Tears & Laughter

Photo courtesy: Desmond Boylan/Associated Press.

        Today -- Wednesday, December 16th -- is the second day of Major League Baseball's Good Will visit to Cuba -- a nice, sweet gesture. Four Cubans who have already made tens of millions of dollars playing baseball in the United States are among the star-studded visitors. The photo above shows Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig in an emotional embrace with his former coach on the island, Juan Arechavaleta. Puig vacillated between smiles, laughs, and unabashed tears.

       This Kevin Baxter/Los Angeles Times photo shows Cuban relatives of St. Louis Cardinals catcher Brayan Pena. They awaited his return to the island for the first time in 17 years. His teary-eyed 84-year-old grandmother, Rosa Hernandez, was elated.

       This Kevin Baxter/LA Times photo shows Major League stars Alexei Ramirez on the left and Yasiel Puig flanking a worker at the Hotel Nacional in Havana. Cubans this week are welcoming the return of the multi-millionaire U. S. baseball stars.

      This photo is courtesy of Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images. It shows seven Major League Baseball stars visiting Cuba this week. They are left to right: Cuban Alexei Ramirez; Venezuelan Miguel Cabrera {baseball's best hitter}; Cuban Jose Abreu; American Clayton Kershaw {baseball's best pitcher}; Cuban Brayan Pena; Cuban Yasiel Puig; and Dominican Republican Nelson Cruz {baseball's home run champion}. The camaraderie between players, everyday Cubans, and the countries of Cuba and the United States is a positive reflection of President Obama's attempts to normalize relations between Cuba and the U. S., a process that will remain a work in process. Using baseball as a bridge to soothe a myriad of fierce animosity that has existed for decades is a natural. Cubans love baseball. The island, per capita, produces the best baseball players in the world, with the Dominican Republic second. All 30 Major League teams in the U. S. have state-of-the-art baseball fields and instructors year-around in the Dominican Republic. In contrast, the U. S. Cuban policy since 1959 -- when the overthrown Batista dictatorship fled Cuba for the U. S. -- has assaulted all things on the island, including its abiding love for baseball.

      This graphic is courtesy of BleacherReport.com. Major League Baseball's Good Will mission to Cuba this week, which includes a $200,000 MLB donation to a Cuban charity, is a positive gesture to the Cuban people. And that's what counts. They are the ones who have suffered the most from six decades of U.S.-Cuban relations dominated by greed, insanity, and abject criminality. Take baseball, for example. Beyond this week's Good Will visit to the island by American Major Leaguers, a peek "Inside MLB's Cuban Pipeline" reveals the sordid aspects of America's Batistiano-dominated Cuban policy. Revolutionary Cuba since 1959 has, per capita, produced far more talented baseball players, ballet stars, and doctors than any nation. As one of the priorities in trying to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba, vast human trafficking networks have unceasingly involved legal, via a Batistiano-controlled U. S. Congress, and illegal pipelines to continually entice and encourage defections from Cuba. Cuban ballet stars from San Francisco to New York to London to Paris and to Moscow are one example. The influx of Cuban baseball stars to America is another example. One of the last anti-Cuban remnants or vestiges of the pre-Obama George W. Bush administration was/is a well-funded U. S. program to entice Cuban doctors serving in the poorest areas of many foreign nations to defect...just to hurt Cuba, not to help America. That is always the first premise of human trafficking to entice Cubans to defect. Good people, like Mr. Obama, are trying to correct such injustices. 

     

     The United States has had professional baseball teams since 1876 and by the 20th century the National and American Baseball Leagues dominated sports in America long before the advent of television helped spark football's emergence in both the pro and collegiate ranks. White Cubans throughout the 20th century starred in the U. S. Major leagues. In 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. After that, black Cubans followed...such as Sandy Amoros. That's Sandy as a young star for Mendares in Cuba. Sandy is remembered in the U. S. for helping the Dodgers in 1955 beat the New York Yankees in the World Series, the only title the Dodgers ever won in Brooklyn.

    

    Prior to the Brooklyn Dodgers breaking the color barrier with Jackie Robinson in 1947, black players such as pitcher Satchel Paige and slugger Buck O'Neil would have been the top stars in Major League baseball. They played in the Negro Leagues in the U. S. but also played regularly in Cuba. In fact, some black stars in the U. S. played in Cuba because they were barred from the U. S. Major Leagues prior to 1947. Don Newcombe, shown here when he pitched for Almendares in Cuba, later joined Jackie Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers. Newcombe then became the Dodgers ace pitcher in both Brooklyn and after their move to Los Angeles, and he's now in the Cooperstown, New York, Hall of Fame with Jackie Robinson and many other black superstars.

       In fact, many Cuban and American baseball historians believe catcher Josh Gibson is baseball's all-time best hitter, and Babe Ruth, before he died in 1948, agreed. But Josh played his entire career in the Negro Leagues, as did other superstars like Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, etc. But after Jackie Robinson in 1947, 3-time National League MVP Roy Campanella, all-time home run champ Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays, probably the best all-around player in history, Ernie Banks, and Larry Doby were among those who left the Negro Leagues when they were young and then dominated Major League Baseball for years. But Josh Gibson, who died at age 35 in January of 1947, was most likely the best hitter that ever played baseball.   

      This photo shows two rabid Cuban baseball fans in 1959 right after the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. That's Camilo Cienfuegos on the left and Fidel Castro on the right, the two top rebel commanders. Once they had taken over the island, they formed a team of the bearded ones, the Barbudos, and played games against top Cuban teams. Fidel, a former Athlete of the Year in Cuba, was considered a Major League pitching prospect in the 1940s by the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics, but he chose law school and revolution. Camilo was also a fine player and was still in his 20s when he died in a plane crash in the fall of 1959. After shedding their guerrilla uniforms for baseball uniforms, Camilo and Fidel expected to have somewhat normal relations with the U. S., at least until April of 1959 when Vice President Richard Nixon told Fidel face-to-face in Washington that the U.S.-backed Cuban exiles would recapture Cuba in a matter of a few weeks. After that, not even a mutual love of baseball could create a friendship between the U. S. and Cuba.

   Americans familiar with the Havana Sugar Kings are aware of how close Havana came to beating Montreal and Toronto and becoming the first non-U. S. city to have a Major League Baseball franchise. The Havana Sugar Kings were an integral part of the International League, the top MLB minor league, from 1954 till 1960. The Triple-A games in Havana played to spine-tingling, sell-out crowds. In April of 1959 when Fidel spent twelve days in the U. S., he intended to discuss a Major League team for Havana till Richard Nixon soured him on the idea. Then and now baseball experts realize that a Major League team playing in a nice stadium in Havana would have been or would be even today a flamboyant success in the Major Leagues, more so than the nearby Miami Marlins, which draws the smallest attendance in the Majors although it recently gave its best player, the oft-injured Giancarlo Stanton, a guaranteed $300 million extension to his already huge contract. A MLB team in Havana would easily triple the attendance in Miami. But, of course, even the fond memories of the Havana Sugar Kings will not make that a reality. 

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Obama Capitulates on Cuba

Bows to Dissidents

      This week -- Monday, Dec. 14th -- President Barack Obama gave an interesting and exclusive interview to Yahoo News. The headline from the interview {above} concerned his strong desire to visit Cuba in 2016, the last year of his two-term presidency. But his desire to visit the island while he's still President didn't go over too well with two influential Cubans -- Josefina Vidal and Cristina Escobar.

         Olivier Knox, the chief Washington correspondent for Yahoo News, conducted this week's presidential interview. Mr. Obama said: "If I go on a visit {to Cuba"}, the part of the deal is that I get to talk to everybody." It was an innocent enough and very democratic sentence. But that word "everybody" irked a very important Cuban.

        Josefina Vidal, Cuba's primary Minister on all things American, has never been afraid or reluctant to point a finger right back at anyone she feels "is not treating Cuba fairly." She took exception to President Obama's interview yesterday with Yahoo News, specifically his use of the word "everybody" and the tone in which he used it. To her, he meant that his impending visit to Cuba as President in 2016 would be to "encourage or create" anti-Cuban dissent on the island.

       Josefina Vidal's perceptions and rationale, which define Cuba's views of America, have never wavered even as she negotiated masterfully with President Obama's representatives to bring out massive changes in U.S.-Cuban relations, such as the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. But she insists that the neighboring world superpower treat Cuba "with mutual respect." She questions yesterday's use of the "everybody" by Obama to mean he would plan to spend most of his time in Cuba "encouraging and creating dissent." If so, she would prefer he stayed home, for these reasons: "On the island, there are relatively few dissidents, perhaps far fewer than U. S. dissidents. Yet, to this day the U. S. Congress is allowed to lavishly fund a host of regime change programs that manufacture and encourage dissidents in Cuba. That's because the U. S. democracy allows four members from Miami to dictate Cuban laws in a U. S. Congress that has 535 overall members. That's because the U. S., as the world's nuclear power, can ignore the 192-to-2 vote in the United Nations against the embargo-blockade of Cuba that has existed since 1962. I have lived in Washington and I admire democracy. But I am Cuban and I wish the U. S. would remember it is a democracy when it deals with Cuba. Yes, the U. S. has 535 members of Congress and just four -- aided by one more from New Jersey and one more from Texas -- to set Cuban laws that satisfy them and dissatisfy the rest of the world. There are 315 million Americans and just four, at most six, are allowed to set policy that hurts 11 million Cubans and millions of others. Perhaps, before it showers its form of democracy on us, the U. S. should respect its own democracy a bit more."

  Josefina Vidal is indeed striving to "normalize" relations with the United States but it is clear she knows that is impossible. Yet, she keeps trying. Yesterday in Paris Cuba reached agreement with the 15-nation Paris Club, which includes the U. S., to repay $2.6 billion to creditor nations over the next 18 years with the understanding that $8.5 billion in interest will be canceled. A few days earlier, the U. S. and Cuba agreed to direct mail service for the first time in five decades. Vidal trusts President Obama but she surely does not trust the U. S. Congress and she is prepared when and if a Republican replaces Obama in the White House in 2017. Meanwhile, if she thinks Cuba is being mistreated -- like with Obama's use of the word "everybody" yesterday -- she is perfectly willing to dis-invite him on his planned visit to Cuba in 2016. Furthermore, despite incredible inroads toward normalizing relations with Obama's America, Vidal holds no illusions about how fragile those steps are or how easily Congress or the next U. S. President can "smash them to bits and not expect the American people to care." With that mindset, Josefina Vidal is never far away from tossing in the towel herself. That is reflected in the fact that, as Cuba reshapes its economic posture, Vidal is much more comfortable having Cuba's financial sector deal with investment opportunities from "nations we trust." That phrase coming from Vidal presents a tone of mistrust towards the United States as she doggedly vacillates between the pros and cons of negotiating diplomatically with the colossus just off Cuba's northern coastline.

      Cristina Escobar, Cuba's dynamic and ultra-talented news anchor, is very influential, especially with the twenty-somethings that will have a lot to say about the island's future. She made history as a Cuban journalist when she was in Washington to cover the last Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session this summer. For 14 straight minutes she dominated a crowded news conference conducted by White House spokesman Josh Earnest, firing off a blistering series of pertinent questions, such as: "Will the new U. S. embassy in Havana treat Cuba fairly?"; "Will the regime-change programs continue?"; "Will Obama visit Cuba in 2016?", etc. If Josefina Vidal doesn't trust the United States intentions regarding Cuba, Cristina Escobar is even more dubious.

      During her journalistic endeavor in Washington -- at that headline-making news conference, in speeches around town, and even in one-on-one interviews with U. S. journalists -- Ms. Escobar stressed one particular point: "The lies the U. S. media tell about Cuba hurts the everyday Cubans the most." She is a great defender of Revolutionary Cuba and, particularly, "everyday Cubans." At the news conference exchange with Josh Earnest, she indicated she would be pleased if Mr. Obama, while still President, visited Cuba in 2016. Like Vidal, it can now be assumed that Cristina has reservations about that. She probably interprets his "everybody" reference to coincide with Vidal's interpretation, meaning she thinks Mr. Obama was implying his main thrust in Cuba would be to foster dissent. Escobar has said, "The piles of money Cubans in America make off of being Cuba's enemy insults the American democracy more than it insults Cuba. And the money Cubans on the island make off of being Cuba's enemy falls into that category too. I have no problem with the few genuine dissidents in Cuba. But I have a big problem with foreign-made dissidents. I have expressed both viewpoints on my newscasts."  

Photo courtesy of: Pablo Martinex Monsivais/Associated Press.

       In his Brave and Herculean efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, President Obama has done far more in confronting a Batistiano-dictated U. S. Congress and Republican right-wingers than any other human being, including the ten other U. S. presidents since the 1950s. But in Cuba, Vidal and Escobar tend to believe that fair-minded Americans like Mr. Obama are over-matched whenever it comes to Cuba.

Meanwhile:

       A star-studded contingent of Major League Baseball players and Hall of Famers have arrived in Cuba on a Good Will mission Tuesday, Dec. 15th. The players include Jose Abreu and Miguel Cabrera. The Cuban-born Abreu, on the left above, is the superstar first baseman for the Chicago White Sox. Cabrera is the first baseman for the Detroit Tigers and the best baseball hitter on the planet. The Hall of Famers leading the mission are top MLB executives Joe Torre and Dave Winfield. As an additional Good Will gesture, MLB made a $200,000 donation to Caritas Cubana.

        

       The $200,000 MLB baseball donation to Caritas Cubana apparently slipped past the anti-Cuban cabal of Cuban-Americans in the United States Congress, possibly because Senators Rubio and Cruz were too busy campaigning for President and preparing for tonight's Republican debate. In any case, Caritas Cubana is one of the very few pro-Cuban projects actually allowed by the U. S. embargo to help everyday Cubans, not just dissidents. It provides them humanitarian, social, and emergency services -- obviously to the chagrin of the vast Castro Industry in the U. S.

And finally:

      In a war-ravaged world, sanity and children are sadly over-matched. Notice two things about this precious little girl: The expression on her face and the toy truck in her right hand. Well-dressed and well-groomed, someone cared about her. I wish everybody did. But both you and I know, that's not the world we live in today.

       This little girl, about 8, is trying to to build a barrier to protect her younger siblings. I hope she succeeded. But the odds were stacked very high against her.

    This photo was taken by Swedish journalist Niclas Hammarstrom. Unicef, the UN's children's agency, selected it as the "Photo of the Year." The Unicef caption said the Syrian girl's name is Donia. That made me feel a little better. It could have said was.  

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U.S.-Cuba: Who Is To Blame?

Greed and Gutlessness Are Factors

       This photo is courtesy of Jim Wyss/Miami Herald. It shows some of the 4,500 would-be Cuban migrants stuck for weeks at Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua because Nicaragua has blocked them from continuing on to the Mexican border where, once their front foot touches U. S. soil, they would instantly be legal residents complete with welfare. That is known as Wet Foot/Dry Foot and has been a part of the Cuban Adjustment Act since 1966, one of a litany of U. S. laws that provide special privileges to Cubans, and Cubans only. While other would-be migrants throughout the Caribbean and Latin America strongly resent such laws, the proselytized American people are supposed to be too ignorant, too intimidated, or to unpatriotic to even offer an opinion. And, since January of 1959, two generations of Americans have not, for sure, had either the guts, the intelligence or the patriotism to weigh in on this affront to democracy. Thus, we are primed to pass it along to the next two generations.

              This graphic is also courtesy of Jim Wyss/Miami Herald. It shows the circuitous journey from Cuba all the way to the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border where the 4,500 Cubans are stuck. In recent months over 30,000 Cubans have used the Wet Foot/Dry Foot law to touch U. S. soil at the Mexican border. The sharp uptick is because of fear that, thanks to President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, such laws that favor Cubans and discriminate against everyone else will be ended. That won't happen, of course, because a few Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress can easily continue old or dictate new laws designed supposedly to hurt or seek revenge against 89-year-old Fidel Castro but, in essence, such Cuban laws drastically hurt innocent Cubans on the island as well as discriminate against all others, including U. S. democracy lovers, U. S. taxpayers, and all other would-be migrants. It has been reported that the Cubans, at least some of them, stuck at the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border have paid human traffickers up to $15,000 each to follow the above route to the U. S. Meanwhile, it has also been reported that the U. S. recently has deported thousands of destitute migrant children back to Central American nations where their parents and other observers believe their lives are threatened daily not just by poverty but by murderous gangs that control entire towns, gangs known to murder 11-or-12-year-old girls who refuse to sell drugs for them or refuse to be prostitutes for them. That dichotomy between all Cuban migrants being home-free merely if they touch U. S. soil and non-Cuban children being deported back to horrendous situations does not register with Americans but, believe me, it does register with non-Americans. Such laws that encourage and favor only Cubans, of course, are also layered with vast financial advantages and other privileges made legal for Cubans but not for any non-Cubans. "U.S.-Cuba: Who Is To Blame?" The answer to that pertinent question, in my opinion, is: Two generations of gutless, stupid, and unpatriotic Americans are to blame. If that answer seems too harsh or too exaggerated, then I invite you to use the "comment" section at the end of this essay and justify such things as Wet Foot/Dry Foot, The Cuban Adjustment Act, The Torricelli Bill, The Helms-Burton Act, and all the other congressional laws that shame the U. S. democracy merely to sate the revenge and greed motives of a few Cuban-Americans and a few of their favorite sycophants. AND I ASSUME IF YOU CAN justify SUCH LAWS, YOU CAN ALSO justify SUCH THINGS AS THE TERRORIST BOMBING OF A CHILD-LADEN CUBAN CIVILIAN AIRPLANE AS WELL AS THE LUSH SANCTUARY IN MIAMI PROVIDED FOR THE WELL-KNOWN TERRORISTS, all anti-American abominations.

Cubana Flight 455. Yes, America, it happened.
So did this: "IT'S THE BIGGEST BLOW YET AGAINST CASTRO!"

       Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The lush port was stolen from Cuba in 1903.  Oh, yes!! I know you've been told it was "acquired" via a legal treaty in 1903 and then "sanctified" anew by another legal treaty in 1934. AND, OF COURSE, YOU BELIEVE IT. Let's say...an 80-pound fifth grader hands his lunch money each morning over to a 160-pound classmate. The little kid does it because the big bully beat him to a pulp the first day he stole the lunch money. As twin continuums, if you agree that Guantanamo Bay was "legally" acquired by the U. S., I assume you also agree that the bully is "legally" acquiring the little kid's lunch money each morning.

        President Barack Obama is a very decent and extremely patriotic American. Now finishing the 7th year of his 8-year, two-term presidency, Mr. Obama has done more than any other American to normalize relations with Cuba. His motives are two-fold: {1} So the world doesn't forever view the U. S. as a big bully unfairly punishing innocent Cubans on the island; and {2} he believes in democracy and human decency.

        Astutely using his Executive Authority, President Obama has made remarkable strides in slicing into the U. S. Congress-mandated U. S. policy that the whole world strongly opposes -- from Pope Francis to all 192 nations in the UN {except Congress-dependent Israel}. Mr. Obama has eased some of the undemocratic laws that have barred Americans from visiting the island, laws apparently designed so Americans can easily be propagandized about Cuba. He has also removed Cuba from the State Department's Sponsors of Terrorism list, a designation that allowed anti-Castro zealots in Miami to sue unrepresented Cuba in Miami courts. He paved the way for opening the U. S. and Cuban embassies for the first time since 1961. And now, for the first time in five decades, he has opened direct mail routes to Cuba.

       President Obama is shown above applauding one of the positive inroads he has made regarding a bit of sanity added to America's maligned Cuban policy. But all along the way, for the past seven years, he has faced a dysfunctional, bought-and-pay-for U. S. Congress that, unfortunately, has the power to thwart much of the good he has done and is trying to do -- not only with Cuba but also global warming, gun control, attempting to correct costly Bush-era mistakes in foreign policy, etc. Mr. Obama has been criticized for not doing more, but constitutionally he is blocked by Congress from achieving more. For example, he would like to close the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay and return the plush port to its rightful owner, Cuba. Yet, he can't do either of those things. In the U. S. Congress, incompetents or crooks can be elected from small areas of the country and then remain there for decades literally screwing the rest of the nation while pork-barreling enough tax dollars to enough supporters back home to keep them in Congress forever. Remember Jesse Helms of Helms-Burton fame? Remember Ted Stevens and his Bridge to Nowhere to benefit just one particular donor? Then, once in Congress, a dinosaur like Jesse Helms can easily, for example, reap rewards by participating in anti-Cuban legislation and solicit converts with just one line, "Support my Cuban bill and I'll support your Bridge to Nowhere." That's how, for example, literally billions of tax dollars have flowed and continue to flow from Washington to Miami to lushly finance the anti-Castro propaganda machine Radio-TV Marti, which ABC-TV News many years ago correctly and famously labeled "The Newscast to Nowhere." Another severe defect of the U. S. Congress is the process whereby a congressman can attach his own personal bill to a must-pass piece of legislation and that bill becomes as "legal" as the original intent of the bill, which might be a must-pass $700 billion defense bill or a multi-billion-dollar transportation bill. The intimidated or incompetent U. S. media didn't report it but recently such an anti-Cuban bill was attached to one of those must-pass laws. The cowardly add-on stipulated that the prison at Guantanamo Bay could not be closed and the port could not be returned to Cuba. Mr. Obama and other democracy lovers cringed when they read that add-on to the huge bill that President Obama signed into law. But let it be known that he was informed that IN A DYSFUNCTIONAL AND EASILY BOUGHT-AND-PAID-FOR CONGRESS there were enough votes to over-ride his veto. In that manner, with Americans neither smart enough nor patriotic to care, anti-Cuba laws that shame America and democracy have remained U. S. laws for decades with more added recently, such as the cowardly add-ons about Guantanamo. with nary a peep from Americans who should care enough to defend their democracy. Mr. Obama, a man who does care, has done all he can in the face of such apathy and a deeply flawed United States Congress -- a combination that is made-to-order for self-serving, greedy, self-proclaimed "patriots."

       On January 1, 1959, the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution, shocking the world. It was an even bigger shock to the U. S. democracy. That's because much of the fleeing Batistiano-Mafiosi leadership quickly regrouped in nearby Miami, creating Little Havana USA and continuing to be supported and perpetuated by the U. S. government in the decades-old quest to reclaim the island. All along the way the two bywords were: DEMOCRACY BEDAMNED!! By the 1980s, the richest and most powerful anti-Castro zealots in Little Havana had aligned themselves with the Bush dynasty. In 1989, with Jeb Bush her Campaign Manager, Little Havana stalwart and Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen became the first Cuban-American elected to the U. S. Congress. She is still there. Closely behind came not one but TWO sons of Rafael Diaz-Balart, a former key Minister in the Batista dictatorship who soon became one of the richest and most virulent anti-Castro exiles. His sons, first Lincoln and now Mario, have had little problems fashioning anti-Castro laws in the U. S. Congress. More recently, Marco Rubio and Carlos Curbelo have joined the steady parade of Little Havana stalwarts as anti-Castro zealots from Miami elected to the U. S. Congress. As a democracy lover, I have a bit of a problem with that persistent, preposterous parade. THERE HAVE BEEN A SLEW OF RECENT POLLS THAT SHOW CONCLUSIVELY THAT MOST CITIZENS IN LITTLE HAVANA FAVOR AN END TO THE DASTARDLY U. S. EMBARGO OF CUBA, WHICH HAS SHAMED AMERICA AND DEMOCRACY SINCE 1962, A FACT VIVIDLY REVEALED EACH YEAR WITH A VOTE IN THE UNITED NATIONS. So, my question is this: Why is it that Miami and Little Havana only send anti-embargo zealots -- Ros-Lehtinen, the Diaz-Balarts, Rubio, Curbelo, etc. -- to the U. S. Congress? Is it because...Miami and Little Havana more resemble a Batista-like Banana Republic than a Jefferson-like democracy? 

         Two vicious anti-Castro Cuban-American first-term U. S. Senators -- Marco Rubio from Miami and Ted Cruz from Texas by way of Canada -- have emerged as the two leading "establishment politicians" seeking the red-hot Republican nomination to be President of the United States. They have a lot in common in addition to being anti-Castro Cuban-American zealots. Sure, Rubio got all the way to the U. S. Senate with his bio still making the obligatory claim that his parents escaped the Castro tyranny in Cuba when, in fact, they escaped Batista's Cuba in 1957. Rubio also got all the way to the U. S. Senate despite alarming financial deals involving credit cards, real estate, etc., back in Florida. And, of course, Rubio has shown an avowed disdain for the Senate where he and his huge staff are highly paid but he, more than any of the 100 Senators, often doesn't even bother to show up to vote. Much of the same, except for the credit cards and real estate, can be said for Senator Cruz. Both men latched on to the right-wing Tea Party to launch their political ascendancy. Both men early-on latched onto the Bush dynasty; Mario's mentor in Florida was Jeb Bush and Cruz in Texas worked for George W. Bush. Neither Rubio nor Cruz have accomplished anything of note in the Senate, except vowing to shut down the government if they didn't get their way and to block or erase any of the positive overtures made by President Obama regarding Cuba. Rubio's stump speech on the campaign trail and in the debates also includes his amazing rise from abject poverty in Miami where his dad was a bartender and his mom a maid. That goes over big with the choir and the cable news outfits but it omits one key fact: BEING CUBAN-AMERICAN IN MIAMI MEANS YOU HAVE ADVANTAGES NON-CUBANS DON'T HAVE. At one time there were 17 Republicans running in the ongoing presidential primary. Rubio and Cruz will be the last two standing. That relates to the fact that both hit the Senate running for President, which entailed something they have been extremely successful at -- begging every known conservative and Jewish billionaire for money. Rubio and Cruz each have enough such money, as three articles in USA Today confirmed last week, to purchase the White House for the next sixteen years!! With money from multi-billionaires such as Paul Singer, Art Pope, Ken Griffin, Norman Braman, Sheldon Adelson, etc., Rubio will have enough cash to buy just about anything he wants in the next 25 years, including the White House. The same goes for Cruz, whom a pair of billionaire brothers in Texas gifted with a $15 million check for starters. As for the current primary race, look for the smarter, better organized Cruz, a superb orator, to cruise past both Rubio and the front-running non-politician Donald Trump to secure the Republican nod.

      I like photos and graphics and this one is courtesy of Carolyn Kaster/AP with the Broken Heart graphic courtesy of Cliport.co/Yahoo News. Till they both ended up atop the polls, Cruz and Trump had only good things to say about each other, even while the Cable News anchors were going ballistic and devouring hour-after-hour of valuable time solely in trying to destroy Trump. But as this photo-graphic illustrates, now Cruz and Trump realize they have to attack and insult each other, even if it breaks their ever-loving hearts!!

     Nick Anderson, in a downward spiral for the U. S. media, is an example of why great Editorial Cartoonists are probably your best bet to get a real pulse on the news, including politics. Anderson won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2007 with the Louisville Courier-Journal. Now his Pulitzer-worthy work is at the Houston Chronicle and his gems are syndicated nationally by The Washington Post Writers Group. In the past two weeks the anchors on cable news networks -- especially Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough, Chris Cuomo, and Stephanie Sy -- have all gone ballistic -- hour after hour, day after day -- berating Donald Trump for his latest proposal, which is/was to keep Muslims out of the U. S. "till we find out what's going on." Judging the anti-Trump anchors is actually hilarious for this old former {small-time} television anchor. But I am a {big-time} newshound and I want sharp, precise, fair, balanced news coverage -- as opposed to biased rants. So, I'm mostly relegated to depending on Pulitzer prize-winning Editorial Cartoonists such as Nick Anderson. One Nick is worth all those anchors combined. A case in point is Nick's political cartoon below.

       This is a Nick Anderson gem that appeared in USA Today and other newspapers. Yes, it's anti-Trump specifically regarding his Muslim comment, but it is also precise and to the point without wasting hour-after-hour, day-after-day ranting about it.

       This Gary Varvel "Campaign Blizzard" gem is also a case in point regarding great Editorial Cartoonists. Using an economy of words, he is saying, I believe, that the poor American voters are being swamped, or literally buried, in an avalanche...more like a tsunami, really...month-after-month-after-month of furious and nauseating campaigning, even involving a host of candidates who have zero chances of winning the endless primaries that have...aghast!!...more than another whole year to go. Sure, in money-crazed America, the billion-dollar campaigns enrich candidates, television stations, networks, pundits, ad agencies, etc. BUT WHY IS THIS INSANITY ALLOWED ONLY IN AMERICA and in no other democracy? I believe Gary Varvel in the above cartoon was asking the same question, and using just five precise words to ask it. 

       Now back to Rubio-Cruz, Cruz-Rubio. I am not a pundit nor am I a political expert. That, I believe, qualifies me to be a prognosticator regarding the ongoing Republican primary. {I'm a lifelong conservative Republican not elated that my Party has been usurped by right-wingers. My passion for Cuba -- as opposed to, say, Jamaica -- relates to my belief that America's Cuban policy has and is doing more to hurt America and democracy than any other day-to-day thing}. I now hereby predict that one of the two gentlemen shown above will be the first Cuban-American to be President of the United States. AND...a drum roll might be in order here...I PREDICT THAT MAN WILL BE.......TED CRUZ!! But...hold on! I don't think that monumental event will happen in January of 2017. However...I think it will happen in January of 2021. I think Cruz, better than Rubio, will use Hillary Clinton's White House term to better consolidate and meld his cash and political forces. Both men can use their huge cash stashes to aid other politicians in a well-known ploy to buy political supporters.

       But I believe the Castro brothers from Texas will have more political success in the next 25 years than Rubio or Cruz. They are identical twins; that's Julian on the left and Joaquin on the right. You can Google their astounding meteoric rise in politics, guided by a fantastic Mexican-Texas mother. Her sons have off-the-wall intelligence, political acumen, and a genuine concern for people less fortunate than themselves. {Also the Castro twins from Texas are simply not self-serving anti-Castro zealots}.

       This montage is a reminder that Latinos from this time forward will play an increasingly powerful role in the fabric of America, including politics. ABC News recognized that fact recently when it named the three talented Latinos above to its prestigious 2016 Presidential Team. And that's a good thing. I look forward to the day when the twin Castro brothers -- Joaquin and Julian -- spend 16 years flip-flopping as President-Vice President of the United States!! {But we'll have to amend that silly old rule about the President and Vice President needing to be from different states}.  

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