The Soul of Cuba

Is It Cuban or Cuban-American?

Photo credit: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters.

       This insightful photo shows a young Cuban sitting on the famed Malecon seawall and gazing northward to Florida, which is only 90 miles across the Florida Straits. So, what is he thinking? Well, his shirt indicates that he is thinking about U. S. President Barack Obama's upcoming two-day trip to the island on the 21st and 22nd of March. Mr. Obama is considered a hero in Cuba because, more than any American since the 1950s, Obama has displayed a genuine concern for Cubans on the island and courageously attempted to normalize relations between the two nations. Cubans like this young man believe the prime motive behind Mr. Obama's overtures is to help the Cubans on the island, reversing a belligerent U. S. policy that has existed ever since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

 President Obama is the all-time most popular American in Cuba.

        Since 1962, or right after the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961 failed to recapture Cuba, a few Cuban exiles in Miami aligned with a few right-wing members of Congress have maintained an ongoing embargo against Cuba, the longest and many believe the cruelest in history. De-classified U. S. documents reveal that the 1962 purpose of the embargo was to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro. As Fidel approaches his 90th birthday in Havana, the embargo continues to deprive Cubans on the island but mostly it remains a revenge factor that has spawned a long-standing and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S.

         Granma, Cuba's state newspaper, was a bit hesitant to lavishly endorse President Obama's upcoming trip to the island because its editorial writers feared he might mostly succumb to pressure and spend most of his time pacifying dissidents, which Cuba maintains are mostly funded by the United States. But with the post-Castro era looming on the horizon {Fidel is 89 and Raul is 84}, Cuba has already largely embraced a Chinese-Vietnamese capitalist system and embraced most of Obama's overtures although it insists on more before he leaves office -- such as, an end to the embargo, a return of Guantanamo Bay, and a cessation of the never-ending U.S.-funded regime-change programs. Thus, Granma, after pondering Obama's impending visit for a few days, decided the positives outweighed that one negative regarding dissidents. The headline in red in the upper-right of the front page above says: "In Cuba, President Obama will be treated with respect and consideration." Right below that article, the black headline says: "In a statement from the White House." And the headline directly opposite that article says: "Fidel's voice of three generations." Yes, all these decades after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, it's not so surprising that the three top headlines on the front-page of Granma on a given day in 2016 concern...Obama, the White House, and Fidel.

Also not surprsing:

         The vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the United States is, to put it mildly, irked about President Obama's upcoming visit to Cuba on the heels of the President's Herculean efforts to normalize relations with the island. Dr. Javier Corrales, the Cuban-American professor at Amherst College, for example, released this scathing attack: "Obama is so eager to normalize relations without negotiating any concessions that the United States is very close to creating a situation where we now have a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba." That asinine and ridiculous statement, of course, was loudly heralded by a plethora of media outlets in the U. S. tightly aligned with the Castro Cottage Industry -- including the slick, well-funded Capital Hill Cubans blog and the once-prestigious Wall Street Journal, which is now owned by Rupert Murdoch who was born in Australia 84 years ago and also owns such entities as Fox News. It appears that Professor Corrales relishes a Batista-style "U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba," something Mr. Obama believes has hurt America's image enough, THANK YOU!

       In his tirades against the Cuban Revolution and as a prime promoter of the Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S., Professor Javier Corrales is often billed as "The Latin American Expert at Amherst College." No one is supposed to challenge his views because, after all, he is a Cuban-American with a visceral family-oriented hatred of Fidel Castro for booting the Batista-Mafia dictatorship off the island, all the way to Miami as it turned out. In his statement assaulting President Obama for creating a situation in which "we now have a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba," Corrales assumes the American people have neither the intelligence nor the courage to dispute such nonsense. And, of course, he is implying that from 1952 till 1959 the U. S. supported the nice, kind, sweet Mother Teresa dictatorship in Cuba...surely not the brutal and thieving Mafia dictatorship led by Fulgencio Batsita, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante Jr., etc. OH, NO WAY, MUSES PROFESSOR CORRALES!! THE U. S. WOULD NEVER SUPPORT MAFIA DICTATORS IN CUBA!! WE ALL KNOW THAT, DON'T WE?? THE U. S. WOULD ONLY SUPPORT MOTHER TERESA-LIKE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED LEADERS IN CUBA!! AND AS SOON AS WE OVERTHROW THE CUBAN REVOLUTION WE WILL MAKE SURE TO DEMOCRATICALLY ELECT ANOTHER MOTHER TERESA-LIKE LEADER OF CUBA, ONE THAT LUCKY LUCIANO WOULD BE PROUD OF!! EXCEPT FOR OBAMA, ALL AMERICANS UNDERSTAND THAT, DON'T THEY?

Uh, not really, Professor Corrales.

     These Cuban women objected to the murders {"asesinators"} of their children {"hijos} in Batista's Cuba in the 1950s. And...they surely didn't know Mother Teresa.

And...neither did this Cuban mother.

     It so happens that a 99-pound doctor's doctor led the revolutionary fight against Batista and then, in Revolutionary Cuba, laid down the parameters to make sure the retrenched Batistianos in the U. S. didn't recapture the island that she cherished.

       In Cuba today, cast in the mold of Celia Sanchez, Cristina Escobar is the leader of the twenty-something generation on the island that plans to shape Cuba's soon-to-be post-Castro future. Like Celia Sanchez, Cristina Escobar has a do-or-die belief that Cubans on the island, not Cuban-Americans "propped up by the United States," should decide Cuba's future. She also adamantly and famously says {Check YouTube}, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy." She's 28 and wasn't around in the 1950s but she knows its dark Batistiano-Mafiosi history. In particular, she knows that Batista, Luciano, and Lansky had no resemblance to Mother Teresa.

       On Dec. 27-1956 {above} Fidel Castro was smart enough to anoint Celia Sanchez as the prime decision-maker in the Revolutionary War and later in Revolutionary Cuba. He got some things wrong, but he got Celia Sanchez right.

        In 1973 Fidel Castro was prescient enough to predict that the United States "will come to talk to us when they have a black president and the world has a Latin American Pope."  Making good use of their usually unchallenged propaganda apparatuses, Professor Corrales and the rest of the Castro Cottage Industry in safe U. S. havens conveniently misrepresent basic facts in the U.S.-Cuban quagmire. But they can't deny that America now has a black President who is indeed talking to Cuba and the world now has its first Latin American pope, Pope Francis form Argentina, who has recently talked with Fidel Castro in his Havana home. In other words, uncontested propaganda machines are powerful tools, as least until they are challenged. So, I challenge the exalted and normally unchallenged Professor Corrales who claims that President Obama's sane and decent approach to Cuba means that he "is creating a situation where we now have a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba." That's a lie, Professor Corrales, and I think you know it. The President is trying to create a situation in which the United States is viewed as trying to help the Cubans on the island, not starve them or deprive them or bully them. In your propaganda tirades, you might want to mention the "U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba" that spawned the Cuban Revolution instead of twisting history by ridiculously using such self-serving vitriol to discredit the unique decency and courage of President Obama.

       This was the situation in Cuba from 1952 till 1959. A handful of Batistianos, Mafiosi, and American businessmen made out like the bandits they indeed were. It is understandable that remnants of that situation, powerfully retrenched in the U. S. since 1959, would love to regain control of the plush, maligned island...again, of course, backed by the United States. DO THESE THREE GUYS LOOK LIKE MOTHER TERESA, PROFESSOR CORRALES?

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What If Rubio wins?

And Who Will It Hurt?

   Joe Henderson is a highly respected journalist at the Tampa Tribune, a great newspaper in Florida that, unlike the Miami Herald, is not scared to death of Cuban-exile hardliners. On Aug. 20-2016 Mr. Henderson's column was entitled: "Rubio's Anti-Normalization Plan With Cuba Could Backfire." His first sentence, referencing President Obama's upcoming trip to Cuba that infuriates Cuban hardliners, was: "President Barack Obama just stuck a sharp stick in Marco Rubio's eye." Then Mr. Henderson pointed out that polls in Florida support Obama's "thaw in relations" with Cuba and that includes "in a Miami district considered a stronghold for opposition to normalization." Then Mr. Henderson pointed out that Rubio says he, on his first day as President, will roll back all of Obama's Cuban overtures. And that's when Mr. Henderson got to the crux of his column, writing these exact, extremely sane, and very decent words:

          "The United States is fighting this battle of isolation against Cuba by itself, to the detriment of both nations. Would Rubio close newly opened embassies? Would he put Cuba back on a terrorist watch list? If he did, who would be hurt by those moves? The Cuban people, that's who."

    It doesn't require an extremely smart person or a particularly brave one to agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Henderson. But the result of over a half-century of the world's greatest democracy allowing a handful of the most vicious anti-Castro hardliners in Miami to dictate to the U. S. both the Cuban narrative and America's Cuban policy has made otherwise sane and brave Americans resemble idiots and cowards when it comes to Cuba. That fact is pointed out yearly with the 191-to-2 vote in the UN and by everyday Americans being the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. In 1976 when Cuban hardliners with CIA attachments downed a Cuban civilian airplane killing all 73 on board with a terrorist bomb, the successful celebration in the Miami media called it "The biggest blow yet against Castro!" When a brave Cuban-American newsman in Miami, Emilio Milian, harshly condemned such terrorism against innocent Cubans, he was car-bombed. Americans insouciantly and meekly accepted such things on their soil in their name financed by their tax dollars. Thus, the Cuban hardliners in Miami, with considerable assistance from the Bush dynasty and a few right-wing congressional stalwarts, have -- from 1959 till today -- maintained their control of both the U. S. media and America's Cuban policy, a policy that Rubio wants to extend until the Batistianos and Mafiosi regain control of Cuba. However, there are today some journalists, such as Joe Henderson, and some politicians, such as Kathy Castor, brave enough and decent enough to disagree.

      Kathy Castor was born 49 years ago in Miami. Since 2007 she has bravely and brilliantly represented the Tampa area in the U. S. Congress. The Joe Henderson article in the Tampa Tribune Aug. 20-2016 pointed out that she is "ready to aggressive push through Congress a bill ending the U. S. embargo against Cuba." Mr. Henderson quoted Ms. Castor as saying: "Naysayers like Rubio and Cruz are wrong. They are shackled to the status quo and a Cold War policy that has hurt the Cuban people and infringed on the constitutional rights of Americans." The unquestionable decency of that quotation is contested by the unconscionable cruelty of Rubio and Cruz, both of whom are convinced that the American people are neither smart enough nor patriotic enough to hold such undemocratic attacks on innocent Cubans against them. Sadly, they are probably correct, especially when the gutless national U. S. media wouldn't dare contrast their views with Ms. Castor's or the 191-to-2 United Nations vote that, of course, agrees with her in loudly denouncing America's Cuban policy that the Amercan people simply do not have the courage or intelligence to correct.

      Congresswoman Kathy Castor of Tampa has fought long and hard for normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba. She is appalled at how decades of punishing innocent Cubans by Cuban exiles and other benefactors in the U. S. have so severely harmed the image of the United States and democracy around the world. However, she is not surprised that Rubio and Cruz could care less about such things. Multiple times Ms. Castor has led business leaders from Tampa to Cuba in efforts to help her constituents and Cubans on the island mutually benefit from sane commercial ties. So, if Kathy Castor is a brave, decent, and brilliant Congresswoman, why doesn't she get some traction in the national media and why isn't she, or someone like her, a serious candidate to be President of the United States?

The answer:

        Cruel and unsuccessful first-term Senators Rubio and Cruz -- unlike decent, people-loving politicians like Kathy Castor -- benefit greatly from a money-crazed and media-deprived U. S. political system. Rubio and Cruz -- original products of the Bush dynasty aligned with right-wing Tea Party zealots -- hit the Senate begging every right-wing, Jewish, and evangelical billionaire on the planet for money to fund their presidential bids. After a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that allows unlimited donations from billionaires, Rubio and Cruz had no trouble locating rich, greedy souls who desire their own bought-and-paid-for President, and the "For Sale" invitations from Rubio and Cruz are being heeded. That undemocratic financial farce is coupled with a mainstream U. S. media owned by billionaires who are only interested in making more billions, certainly not in reporting unbiased news that would help Americans make democratic choices. But it is more profitable for the mainstream media to become propaganda machines that promulgate endless months of campaigning complete with millions of unlimited dollars in profits from political ads.

      Hugo Cancio is a Cuban-American who has lived the past 35 years in Miami where he is a very successful businessman. He is also a very decent, democracy-loving man. He travels frequently to Cuba for the sole purpose of helping Cubans on the island, the ones that Rubio, Cruz and other Cuban-American hardliners want to hurt, in the guise of hurting Castro and enriching themselves. Hugo, in an interview with Cuban broadcaster Cristina Escobar that is posted on YouTube, stated a fact of life, namely that Cuban-Americans like him "are not represented" by the hardline politicians who, he says, are the only ones who can get elected to local or national offices in Miami. Therefore, Hugo believes that the system, on U. S. soil, more resembles a Banana Republic than a democracy. The U. S. media showers Americans with the views of congressional hard-liners from Miami but doesn't have the guts or integrity to report what most Cuban-Americans, like Hugo Cancio, think.

      Joe Henderson {on the left above}, the superb journalist for the The Tampa Tribune, had the correct answer as to who a President Rubio would hurt the most. Mr. Henderson said, "The Cuban people." They are the ones who have been hurt the most by a right-wing U. S. policy that supported the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 and the ousted Batistiano-Mafiosi hardliners in the U. S. from 1959 till today. Sure, a Rubio or Cruz presidency might well finalize America, and not just Miami, becoming a Banana Republic but, if it happens, the American people will be getting what they deserve for not caring about their democracy or about innocent people on a nearby island. Yes, the prime victims, as Mr. Henderson opined, will be the Cuban people who do not deserve such treatment from self-serving bullies supported by the world's superpower and by American people who have never heard of Joe Henderson, Hugo Cancio, Emilio Milian, Cubana Flight 455 or...Kathy Castor.

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Pushing Back Against Obama

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A two-way street.

The voice of a new generation of Cubans.

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Obama Will Visit Cuba

Official Announcement Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tony Montana and the "Scarface" Miami mansion.

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

Marco Rubio, Miami's usually absent Senator.

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

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

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

Jimmy Carter also visited an ill Fidel Castro in 2011.

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