Fidel Answers Obama

Fiercely Defends Revolution
{Tuesday, March 29th, 2016}

    No less a revolutionary legend than Fidel Castro himself has replied to U. S. President Barack Obama's historic 3-day visit to Cuba last week. Not surprisingly, Fidel was not very appreciative. His 1,500-word summary of the visit was best defined by his word "syrupy" and it got increasingly more critical. While Obama did not see Fidel in Cuba last week, the word from both Obama confidants and confidants of Fidel's wife Dalia reveal that in 2017, as ex-president, Obama "really hopes" to visit Fidel in his Havana home.

       Since his near-fatal intestinal illness in July of 2006, many Fidel-watchers are amazed that he is still alive in 2016. But recent visitors who have spent time with him -- from Pope Francis to French President Francois Hollande -- have confirmed that Fidel is both "remarkably healthy" and "still mentally sharp." Such confirmation was recently offered by {above} the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. 

       This photo, taken this week by his son Alex, shows Fidel at his writing station in the living room of his Havana home where he wrote this week's 1,500-word assessment of President Obama's visit to Cuba. In recent years, Fidel has written countless "Reflections" columns that originate in Cuba's main newspaper, Granma, and then garner international headlines, as his comments about Obama are doing this week. Most of Fidel's reflections have concerned such topics as the environment and food production. But the new headlines reveal that Fidel, still a newshound as he approaches his 90th birthday, closely followed Obama's every moves and words in Cuba on Cuban television as well as his international favorites such as the BBC and Aljazeera America and he reportedly likes the CBS station in Miami. In his sharp critique of Obama's visit, Fidel dissected line-by-line Obama's historic and televised speech to the Cuban people.

       Obama's 50-minute speech to the Cuban people, from the splendid setting of the Grand Theater in Havana as shown above, was the highlight of his visit and it was televised live all over Cuba. In the speech, Obama said, "It is time, now, for us to leave the past behind." In his almost line-by-line reply, Fidel's reaction to that Obama sentence was: "I imagine that any one of us ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the President of the United States." {Fidel doubts the U. S. can "leave the past."}.

      Actually, it is known that Fidel Castro admires Barack Obama. He has read and studied Obama's biographical books, as indicated by the photo above. However, he believes that "right-wing hardliners in Miami and Congress dictate America's Cuban vengeance and imperialism, with little or no hindrance from U. S. citizens." Is his essay Monday on Obama's visit, Fidel reviewed such things as the U. S. embargo against Cuba, the Bay of Pigs attack in 1961, and the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane "by exiles who have refuge in Miami." Fidel does not blame Obama for "any of those things" but he blames "criminals in Miami and in Congress but also the American people who have allowed them to thrive within their democracy."

        Fidel devoted a portion of his reply to Obama's visit by toasting revolutionaries that were willing to "fight to the death" for Cuba's "independence and sovereignty." In his Monday essay, he specifically referenced famed Cuban independence fighters "Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez." In his latest essay that he entitled "Brother Obama," Fidel wrote: "We do not need the empire to give us any presents. My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn't try to develop theories about Cuban politics."

       Fidel's essay made clear that he watched on television President Obama's camaraderie with his brother, Cuban President Raul Castro, such as when Obama and Raul were watching the baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and a Cuban national team. While Fidel acknowledged Obama's efforts to "build irreversible momentum" in U.S.-Cuban relations that even Republicans in Congress and a future White House will have "trouble reversing," he seemed to chide his younger brother Raul's "cozying up too much" with Obama. Fidel's definitive line that is getting the most international play -- "We don't need the empire to give us presents" -- appears to be aimed more at his brother Raul than at President Obama.

       Still sharp of mind and still in possession of a very sharp pencil, Fidel Castro remains the staunchest defender of his Cuban Revolution. In his essay about Obama's visit, he wrote these words: "No one should pretend that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights. We are capable of providing the food and material wealth that we need with only the work and intelligence of our people."

     Fidel Castro is no longer the young rebel that hooked up with anti-Batista guerrilla leader Celia Sanchez in the Sierra Maestra Mountains {above} to create the combination/duo that won the Cuban Revolution.

      And Fidel Castro is no longer the dashing young rebel that, after winning the revolution, stirred the hearts of Hollywood starlets like Maureen O'Hara, which famously irked the much more pragmatic Celia.

      Approaching 90, Fidel has some vigor similar to that above when a video camera in the Sierra Maestra in 1958, while he was busy still fighting a supposedly far superior Batista army, videotaped him saying..."it is impossible to break down a revolutionary movement and guerrilla force that is supported by the people."

And in that epic rebel video, Fidel had some other thoughts.

He believed he was "inspired by a just cause."

      More importantly, Celia Sanchez -- the doctor's daughter who was the most important player in the Cuban Revolution -- believed that defeating the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship was "a just cause." The image above is taken from a documentary produced in January of 2016 by Mundo Latina Studies to highlight the 36th anniversary of Celia Sanchez's death from cancer at age 59 on January 11, 1980. You can watch that documentary on YouTube to get a comprehension of why Celia was the Cuban Revolution's most important player...as a guerrilla fighter, as the main procurer of rebels and supplies, and as the prime decision-maker, with Fidel's full blessing, during the Revolutionary War and later in Revolutionary Cuba. From the 1950s till today, Celia Sanchez also coined the most significant quotation related to Revolutionary Cuba: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives."

       With Fidel still alive, therefore so is the all-time most important quotation regarding Revolutionary Cuba, the quotation first coined by the greatest Cuban, Celia Sanchez, way back in April of 1959.

    Celia Sanchez's most modest quotation is the one above: "We rebels get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." Ouch!!

Is she still on the look-out for Fidel Castro's enemies??
And speaking of great women:

    Meet Ginger Kathrens. She is an award-winning film-maker with epic wildlife gems for the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, the BBC and PBS. Ginger loves people...and animals. Chris Bury, a reporter for Aljazeera America, spotlighted Ginger on Joie Chen's America Tonight program last night. Ginger is the world's greatest defender of the wild horses in Wyoming and Montana. She wants them to be free and wild...forever. Cattle ranchers and the Bureau of Land Management are fighting Ginger. The BLM is rounding up the wild horses and selling them, supposedly to buyers who will treat them humanely. But Ginger has proven that many of the magnificent animals are sold only to be slaughtered for their meat, and she has tracked the buyers as well as the slaughtering places in Mexico and border towns in Texas. Ginger has saved many of the wild horses from that fate, but she has also, of course, lost some battles.

      Ginger Kathrens has brilliantly documented the life of the wild stallion Cloud ever since she first saw him running free over 16 years ago. She has created The Cloud Foundation that has made him famous.

       This image is from the award-winning PBS documentary entitled "Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies" by the great Ginger Kathrens. She has also written three books about her favorite wild-and-free horse.

Ginger Kathrens keeps close tabs on Cloud's colts.

       This is Ginger Kathrens on her Rocky Mountain ranch. She is riding Trace, one of her beloved Wild Horse mustangs. I think that a lady who fights to preserve something precious is herself precious.

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The Biggest Threat To Cuba

And...to America

      Cal Thomas is one of America's most ubiquitous syndicated columnists, with his columns supposedly appearing in over 500 U. S. newspapers. In addition to being a superstar propagandist for right-wing newspapers such as The Washington Times, the 73-year-old Thomas is, of course, a regular on right-wing propaganda machines such as Fox News. As a thuggish right-wing propagandist, Mr. Thomas represents what is the biggest threat to both Cuba and the United States. An example is his latest column entitled: "OBAMA'S APOLOGY TOUR COMES FULL CIRCLE IN CUBA." A religious fanatic, Thomas's views are so anti-democracy, pro-imperialism, pro-Israel that it is amazing that anyone who reads his obvious slander wouldn't cringe at its repetitious extremism. Yet, controlled and unchallenged propaganda is effective, accounting for the ubiquity of Cal Thomas, Fox News, etc. Right-wingers like Cal Thomas assaulting President Obama for trying to bring sanity and decency to America's Cuban policy is surely anticipated although the rest of the world that is not susceptible to thuggish propaganda fully agrees with Mr. Obama, not Mr. Thomas. Obama's trip to Cuba was not AN APOLOGY TOUR. It was a decent gesture for 11 million nearby Cuban people who have, for many decades, been punished by right-wing imperialist thugs that Cal Thomas champions. What Thomas did not have the guts to acknowledge was that Mr. Obama, when he left the friendly confines of Cuba, flew to Argentina where, INDEED, he was FORCED TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE RIGHT-WING THUGS IN THE U. S., SUCH AS HENRY KISSINGER, WHO SUPPORTED THE BRUTAL ARGENTINE DICTATORS WHO SLAUGHTERED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN WHAT HISTORY CALLS "THE DIRTY WAR." Not only in Argentina, of course, but in Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, etc., right-wing thugs in the U. S. that Cal Thomas loved supported military dictators who also slaughtered many innocent people. A fact that Cal Thomas and his ilk do not have the guts or integrity to admit. SO, YES, DECENT AMERICANS LIKE PRESIDENT OBAMA NEED TO APOLOGIZE WHEN THEY GO TO COUNTRIES LIKE ARGENTINA WHERE A HENRY KISSINGER WILL NOT VISIT BECAUSE HE MIGHT WELL BE ARRESTED IF HE DOES SO. Meanwhile, right-wing promoters like Cal Thomas will never write about such things as Argentina's Dirty War.

     After leaving Cuba, this is what greeted U. S. President Barack Obama when he landed in Argentina. "FUERA OBAMA" means "Obama Get Out." As a democracy-loving American and as a conservative Republican who deeply admires Mr. Obama and the office he holds, I was saddened to see signs like this. But I was not surprised. Although Obama is the antipathy to what unrepentant right-wingers like Kissinger did to Argentina and other Latin American nations, what awaited the American president in Argentina was anticipated. But American right-wing propagandists like Cal Thomas will continue to assault the decent, democracy-loving Obama BUT NEVER WILL THEY hold right-wing imperialists like Kissinger accountable for having created the reasons for "Obama Get Out" signs that awaited the U. S. President in Argentina.

      Americans, inundated with right-wing propaganda and denied data that is CLASSIFIED to protect the reputations of people like Kissinger, know little about The Dirty War in Argentina that generations of Argentines know all about and will never forget. And President Obama was reminded of that fact this week.

Burning U. S. flags awaited Obama in Argentina.

Innocent Americans suffer today because of The Dirty War.

President Obama traveled this Argentine street.

But Obama is ashamed of The Dirty War.

And it's a shame Cal Thomas isn't.

       This photo shows U. S. President Obama alongside Argentina's President Mauricio Macri. Mr. Obama is shown tossing flowers into a river in honor of the thousands of Argentinians murdered in The Dirty War as the two presidents stand on one of the many monuments to those victims. Yes, Mr. Obama, on behalf of the American people, was apologizing for the role American leaders played in The Dirty War. This photo is a vivid reminder that, perhaps, the 73-year-old Cal Thomas and the 92-year-old Henry Kissinger are the ones who should be making "apology tours" throughout many Latin American nations.

Cal Thomas.

Henry Kissinger.

President Obama apologizing to Argentina.

     Even when President Obama held an internationally televised news conference with President Macri, a monument to the victims of The Dirty War was right behind them, embarrassing many democracy-loving Americans.

      Even as America's very decent President shakes hands with his Argentinian counterpart, the huge "LAS VICTIMAS DEL TERRORISMO" memorial is an indelible reminder of the U. S. role in The Dirty War that raged throughout the 1970s into the 1980s. Cal Thomas, meanwhile, was assaulting President Obama for his "Apology Tour" to Cuba and Argentina. Instead, Cal Thomas should be assaulting those who made the apology tour necessary.

      Bernie Sanders is hanging around as a presidential contender because millions of young Americans {if not their parents and grandparents} are fed-up with right-wing politicians. In his speech depicted above, Mr. Sanders assailed "the destructive Henry Kissinger" and assailed his rival Hillary Clinton for "supporting Kissinger." Argentinians would understand what Mr. Sanders meant, even if many Americans {thanks to the likes of Cal Thomas} don't.

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Cuba's BIG Week

Capped By Rolling Stones!!

{Updated: Saturday, March 26th, 2016}

        Study Josefina Vidal's smile. It's important whether she cries or smiles. That's because she's the most important person in Cuba and the most vital person regarding today's Cuba as well as tomorrow's Cuba. Oh, yeah. I know, if you're in America, you think that's a ridiculous statement because you're convinced that Barack Obama, Raul Castro, Fidel Castro, Berta Soler, Ted Cruz, etc., are far more important when it comes to the island of Cuba than Vidal. And, you would, of course, be wrong. Vidal is the reason the two-term George W. Bush presidency -- from 2000 till Obama arrived in 2009 -- didn't finish off Revolutionary Cuba once and for all. Moreover, Vidal is the reason that Obama has been able to correct much of America's Cuban policy that shames the American democracy as well as America's best friends around the world. And therefore, Vidal has ample reasons to show you her best smile, especially this week. As dawn began to shine over Cuba yesterday -- Friday, March 25th -- Vidal sipped some strong Cuban coffee and sighed, "Well, we survived President Obama being in Cuba for three days this week. Now, if we can survive the Rolling Stones today, it will have to be classified as one of the greatest weeks in the history of this amazing island."

         Friday night the Rolling Stones gifted the Cuban people with a free concert courtesy of the legendary band's legendary leader Mick Jagger. The outdoor venue accommodated over 500,000 excited Cubans!!

        The BBC and Aljazeera America showed live portions of the Rolling Stones concert from Havana's Ciudad Deportivo. Mick Jagger began it by saying, "Hello, Havana! Good evening, my people of Cuba!" He then opened the spirited, deeply appreciated performance with the 1966 hit "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

Cubans waited all afternoon for the Rolling Stones.

 And Mick Jagger made sure the Stones delivered.

               There were 61 shipping containers holding 500 tons of equipment shipped to Havana ahead of the Rolling Stones. The last three containers were aboard a Boeing 747 that took off from Mexico. Mick Jagger was born 72 years ago in Kent, England. Before the free concert, he had arranged for a huge array of instruments to be given free to Cuban musicians. The Rolling Stones concert Friday night capped off an historic Cuban week that started with the arrival of U. S. President Barack Obama Sunday afternoon.

      Mr. Obama's 3-day visit to Cuba this week -- the first by a sitting U. S. president since 1928 -- is still being analyzed. Vidal, the most important analyzer, has a lukewarm reaction. She appreciated Obama's assurance that the U. S. "will not/should not" dictate Cuba's future, presumably even if he is succeeded in the White House by a Republican. But Vidal is still fuming that Obama met with Cuban dissidents whom Vidal insists are "created and funded" by the U. S. Congress. Further, Vidal thought Obama could have mentioned her other two pet peeves -- the U. S. funding of Cuban regime-change schemes and the U. S. refusing to discuss the return of Guantanamo Bay to Cuba. "Despite all we and he have achieved, those three things will prevent the normalization that he and most other Americans desire," Vidal says.

      Veteran Cuban journalist Rosa Miriam Elizalde once again offered the most visceral and the most substantive summation of President Obama's visit to Cuba. Rosa, a revolutionary power, wrote: "Obama has a gentle and seductive face, and that's a danger. No apology for crimes against Cuba. He did not mention the continued theft of Guantanamo Bay. And he did not say what needs to be said about the blockade."

       But to his credit, while in Cuba and while being covered by a media throng, President Obama did salute Cuba for its totally free and "terrific" health care system. He also praised Cuba for "working with the U. S. and the UN to help stamp out Ebola in Africa. Medicine is an area our two nations need to cooperate."

      Obama saluted Cuba for being the first "Latin nation" to eradicate polio and he referenced Cuba's "world-class low" infant mortality rate. Among his battles with the U. S. Congress, Obama is trying to help American doctors get access to unique and proven Cuban-invented cancer and diabetes medicines that other nations have found to be extremely beneficial and which Cuba provides free to poor countries. 

       In Cuba this week, President Obama applauded Cuba's totally free "and superb" educational system, which First Lady Michelle Obama also praised. In that regard, Obama even bravely hinted that Cuban independence hero Jose Marti would "appreciate" Cuban sovereignty. WOW! Obama made it a point to get an international photo-op laying a wreath at the Marti memorial in Havana. Marti, of course, died in 1895 on a Cuban battlefield trying in vain to gain Cuban independence from Spain. Three years later, in 1898, the U. S. fulfilled a long-held dream by gaining control of Cuba with the easy victory in the U.S.-provoked Spanish-American War. But, as it turned out and as Marti would have hated, U. S. rule replicated Spanish rule in denying Cuban independence -- at least until the Cuban Revolution in 1959 achieved that coveted goal.

     While in Cuba this week, President Obama was criticized back home for spending so much "cordial and fun time" with Cuban President Raul Castro. This iconic photo was taken by the AP's Ramon Espinosa.

      89-year-old Fidel Castro, a newshound, watched this week's Obama festivities in Cuba on state television. Some pundits had wondered aloud if Obama would visit Fidel's home, as most leaders from Pope Francis to French President Hollande have been anxious to do. But Obama visiting Fidel was not in the cards, even for the brave Obama. And, first off, Fidel himself would not permit it, not for a sitting U. S. president. But already, Fidel's wife Dalia has been contacted by an Obama confidant about a visit by Obama in 2017, when Fidel will be 90-years-old and Obama will be an ex-president. Fidel actually admires Obama and has predicted "he will one day be Secretary-General of the United Nations, a role he very well deserves."

Jimmy Carter, as a former U. S. president, visited Fidel twice.  

       On his trip to Cuba this week, President Obama was gracious enough to include 93-year-old Rachel Robinson aboard Air Force One. Rachel is the widow of Jackie Robinson who died in 1972 as one of America's greatest baseball and civil rights legends. Rachel married Jackie in 1946, the year before he broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The photo above shows Rachel with Obama at Tuesday's baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and a Cuban national team.

       Jackie Robinson, by the way, was a great admirer of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Jackie, shown above with his Cuban friend Fidel, once said, "Fidel's Cuban Revolution was acutely necessary."

       Before the Cuban Revolution, Jackie Robinson played many games in Cuba because his Triple-A team, the Montreal Royals, and his Major League team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, trained there. In the photo above, that's Jackie in 1946, playing for the Montreal Royals, stealing second base against a Cuban team. Obama this week knew that the 93-year-old and still healthy Rachel would love to see the game at Havana's Latin American Stadium where her Jackie played long ago. Needless to say, her memories were precious.

     In Havana this week, the above photo depicted one of the miracles Obama has wrought to the chagrin of the pro-embargo zealots in America. The photo shows bags of mail from the United States being off-loaded in Cuba, the first time in half-a-century that direct mail from the U. S. to Cuba has been permitted. 

       And finally, this photo of President Obama's Air Force One flying low over Havana was taken by Ismael Francisco for the Associated Press. As Josefina Vidal said, Cuba "survived" President Obama's historic 3-day visit to the island this week. HECK!! Cuba has survived...Batista, the Mafia, the United States, the Bay of Pigs, and the Miami Cubans!! AND HELL!! It might even survive the U. S. Congress and Ted Cruz!!

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