Batistianos Hurt Louisiana

With Control of Congress!!

     This AP/Gerald Herbert photo shows John Bel Edwards, the Governor of Louisiana, holding a news conference at the airport in New Orleans. His plane had just touched down after a 5-day trip to Cuba that also included other top state officials, especially in the agricultural sector. Governor Edwards is desperately trying to position Louisiana in "the best possible position to expand trade with Cuba" if the U. S. government ends the embargo against Cuba. That won't happen because the U. S. government's Cuban policy is rigidly dictated by a U. S. Congress under the yoke of revengeful remnants of the Batista dictatorship that the Cuban Revolution overthrew on January 1, 1959. All these decades later, millions of Americans -- including Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana -- are still forced to suffer because of a grossly undemocratic Cuban policy designed to benefit a few extremists at the expense of everyone else.

      This Ismael Francesco/AP photo shows Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Cuba's National Port Administrator Manuel Perez signing tentative agreements potentially important to both Louisiana and Cuba. But the operative word regarding Cuban issues, of course, is tentative. After signing a plethora of "Memorandums of Understanding" with Cuba, Governor Edwards lamented the fact that the U. S. embargo of the island, in place since 1962, will continue to stifle trade agreements that would benefit his state. Louisiana wants badly to boost rice and soybean sales to Cuba while creating shipping traffic from Louisiana ports to Cuban ports. Governor Edwards said, "We are best positioned because of our geographic proximity to the island, and because of our deep-water ports, to really ship an awful lot of goods to Cuba." 

       At cordial meetings like the one depicted above, Governor Edwards of Louisiana and his team of executives found the Cubans "very receptive and friendly." Cuba currently buys rice and soybeans from faraway Vietnam but admits that it would save "money and time" if the products and shipping came from the more convenient New Orleans ports. Louisiana, skirting around the embargo, already exports more to Cuba than any other U. S. state and prior to the embargo in 1962 was also America's largest Cuban trading partner. But Governor Edward's trip to Cuba again reveals that, decade after decade, the U. S. Cuban policy is designed to revengefully, economically and politically benefit a few while harming everyone else.

Poor Little Cuba.

A Batista-Mafia paradise 1952-1959.

A Congress-mandated Batistiano punching bag 1959-2016.

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Cuba's Legitimate Gripes

Shame U. S. Democracy!!

And Mock U. S. Taxpayers!! 

       Cuba's Minister related to U. S. affairs, Josefina Vidal, has stunned even America's top diplomats with her skill in negotiating her David vs. Goliath points in her ongoing effort to normalize or least to improve relations between the two neighboring nations. In this month of October in the fast-fading year of 2016, Vidal is admitting that she has more to do or else she will abandon efforts to normalize U. S. relations so Cuba can concentrate on "dealing with friendly nations not under the yoke of self-serving Miami and Washington bashers of Cuba, those who have gotten rich and powerful by not just bashing the Cuban government but mostly by bashing the Cuban people." Vidal was apparently referencing Congress being able to maintain the Embargo against Cuba since 1962 and, also, she is undoubtedly aware that the leaders of more friendly nations -- China, France, Russia, Vietnam, South Korea, etc., etc. -- have recently visited Havana trying to take advantage of U. S. intransigence to gain "footholds" in Cuba because, as three of those leaders said within a two-week period, "Cuba is the pathway to closer ties in the Caribbean and Latin America." Such comments reminded Vidal that little Cuba, as the decent Obama administration draws to a close, is "not without leverage in dealing with the superpower to our north. There are other superpowers, none of whom are trying to starve Cuba. Except for the United States forever permitting a few in Miami to direct its basic Cuban policy, there is not a single nation in the whole world that can be described as anti-Cuba." 

       In October, 2016, Vidal's diplomacy is stronger than it was three years ago when she eagerly accepted the then-secretive and surprising overtures from the Obama administration to begin normalizing relations. With undeniable resolve, she immediately drew a line in the sand that many in Miami and Washington laughed at: "Remove Cuba from your State Sponsors of Terrorism list and then we'll talk." Having Cuba listed on that list was an absolute cornerstone for the Miami zealots who relished the undeserved shame it cast on Cuba and, significantly, enabled Cuban exiles to sue unrepresented Cuba in Miami courtrooms. Yet, Vidal's line in the sand moved the needle and Cuba, indeed, was taken off the onerous Sponsors of Terrorism list. Beyond that came more remarkable diplomacy that resulted in...the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961, the resumption of cruise ships and commercial airplane traffic from the U. S. to Cuba for the first time since 1962, more Americans being allowed to visit Cuba and judge it for themselves, U. S. business relations with the island at least afforded some openings, etc., etc.

      Even while flashing her sweet, sanguine smile, Vidal this month of October has drawn another line in the sand. Like with the one regarding terrorism, she is not bluffing with her current demand, which is an end to the embargo that...quite literally...has tried to starve Cuba ever since 1962. The Miami hold on the U. S. Congress -- cemented and made indelible by the almighty alliance of the Bush dynasty with Jorge Mas Canosa back in the early 1980s -- supposedly has codified the embargo against Cuba for eternity, an abomination opposed even by most Cuban-Americans and by the entire world {the UN vote each October is 191-to-2 against it}. Yet it is abundantly clear to Vidal and to others that the hardline zealots in Miami and Washington have never been concerned about the damage to America's image and democracy's image done for decades by the U. S. Cuban policy -- the image of the vile Batista dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s and, since 1959, by the Batistiano influence on a quite flawed and indefensible Cuban policy.

        The U. S. is not blessed with a diplomat as skilled as Vidal, but she says, "Hey! Any perceived advantage I have against the superpower is not me. My diplomatic opponents...good, smart people like Roberta Jacobson or whomever...try to defend a policy that serves just a few people...economically, politically and also the revenge motive...while they hide behind the world's richest and strongest nation. Any unbiased perspective spots a bully saying 'I can steal your lunch money because I'm strong and you're weak' or 'I can starve you into submission till you surrender totally.' Does that explain the theft of our Guantanamo Bay? Does that explain protected terrorists bombing a civilian Cuban plane loaded with children? Does that explain history's longest embargo? You tell me. I've answered your questions. Now you should answer mine." 

      Back in her purest diplomatic posture, Vidal actually started off this month of October-2016 with a Twitter Q & A session. I kid you not! She used that forum to finish drawing the line in the sand regarding the embargo, stressing that the U. S. end the embargo or Cuba -- with no options left like back in 1959 -- the island will be forced to "look elsewhere." She seems to feel that in 2016 Cuba would have more options than in 1959 when it actually had "just one," apparently meaning the Soviet Union. Vidal's most important quotation in this month's Twitter Q & A session was this exact sentence: "We have insisted once again on the need for the U. S. to end programs aimed at provoking bilateral relations." With that comment and with the above expression, Vidal is displaying frustration and surprise that the U. S. -- INCREDIBLY -- is spending millions of tax dollars each day on regime-change programs in Cuba even as it maintains the embargo and engages in efforts to normalize relations with the island. INCREDIBLE, even considering the complicity of the not-too-bright or bold taxpayers who have had six decades to muster courage to voice opinions.

     To grasp or begin to understand Vidal's staunch diplomatic stance, you need to study the above graphic. It is used courtesy of renowned Cuban expert Tracey Eaton and his Along the Malecon blog. Mr. Eaton used this graphic in regards to Vidal's Q & A session on Twitter. It references the incredible number of endless regime-change programs aimed at Cuba, specifically Mr. Eaton's new revelation concerning a propaganda effort lushly funded by unwitting taxpayers and aimed at "Cuban youth." It quickly produced a counter-effort on the island entitled: "Cuban University Students Condemn Subversive U. S. Schemes." It also rankles Vidal. Mr. Eaton also mentioned such ageless tax-sucking regime-change propaganda schemes as Radio-TV Marti, the lush and massive Miami-based operation that continues to this day although way back in the 1980s ABC News famously detailed that it was a useless "Broadcast to Nowhere" that Cuba could easily block, Cubans wouldn't believe anyway, and its apparent existence was to enrich certain Cuban-Americans in Miami. Thanks to Miami's control of Congress on Cuban issues, the Washington-to-Miami money pipeline for Radio TV-Marti still flourishes today even though neither my representative in Congress nor yours can remotely justify it...or any of the other myriad regime-change programs our tax dollars fund. Vidal says, "Expensive propaganda aimed at Cuba from the U. S. is one thing. Another thing is the expensive propaganda aimed at Americans about Cuba. And Americans pay for all that propaganda that eventually ends up hurting them perhaps more than it hurts Cubans. And are you telling me that all that regime-change money could not be better spent on worthy projects in the United States? But, uh...pardon me for asking. It's not really my place. It's actually Americans who should ask such questions." 

          As an American democracy-lover and taxpayer, I have a question: "Why does a Cuban named Josefina Vidal appear to have far more of a genuine concern for America's image and for American taxpayers than our representatives in the U. S. Congress?" In October of 2016, wouldn't the answer to that question best define America's incredible self-demeaning Cuban policy, a policy that no U. S. politician can remotely justify?

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U.S.-Cuban Commonality

Hurricanes and Politics!!

       This REUTERS photo shows that President Obama, in the closing three months of his two-term presidency, is still trying to battle Miami hardliners and a belligerent Congress in his brave and sterling efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, the nearby island that has much in common with the United States -- including Hurricane Matthew that this week slammed ferociously into eastern Cuba and the eastern United States after devastating Haiti and much of the Caribbean. That's Jill Biden, the wife of U. S. Vice President Joe Biden, waving to well-wishers Thursday after arriving in Havana aboard Air Force Two. In the red dress on the right is Josefina Vidal, Cuba's Minister in charge of relations with the United States. Mrs. Biden was accompanied by U. S. officials specializing in educational, cultural and women's issues.

      On this week's visit to Cuba Jill Biden told Josefina Vidal, "Your country and mine are so close and our people have so much in common, even Hurricane Matthew. And there are so many people -- like me in the United States and you in Cuba -- who want so much for that closeness to not just be in physical distance but also in social, diplomatic, political and humanitarian endeavors." Vidal replied, "Your words are kind and appropriate. I am fully aware of the many Cubans and the many Americans who share your sentiments. I do."

       Generally speaking, it's neither healthy nor politically correct for the U. S. media to mention anything positive about Cuba but those restrictions don't apply to foreign journalists -- such as Sarah Marsh at the London-based REUTERS agency. Sarah's coverage of Hurricane Matthew's massive assault on eastern Cuba stressed the typically superb job the Cuban government did to protect its people and help them recover. She wrote: "Many people throughout Cuba's southeast praised the government's evacuation plans and shelters, where many remain. Authorities in convoys passed through to assess the damage. Hurricane Matthew reduced much of the Cuban town of Baracoa to rubble, whipping up giant waves that demolished cement buildings and winds that tore off roofs, but there is one thing it didn't do: take lives. Largely due to a rigorous evaluating scheme, Cuba managed to avoid the fate of neighboring Haiti, where nearly 900 deaths have been reported so far in the wake of the strongest hurricane to hit the Caribbean in nearly a decade." Ms. Marsh pointed out that the roads leading to the devastated and very historic city of Baracoa, including the La Farola highway, are "impassable" because of flooding or mudslides and a key bridge over the Toa River collapsed. The Cuban government has utilized soldiers, horses, tractors, and helicopters "to help victims" in areas where food crops, including tons of bananas, have been destroyed or severely damaged.

Sarah Marsh on Twitter wrote, "This is all that is left of this lady's home in Baracoa." 

      Sarah Marsh's Cuban coverage is fair and balanced. She is among the best for sensing the pulse of the Cuban people, especially those in the rural or remote areas. Her REUTERS articles and her Twitter page are informative and replete with photos that chronicle the joys, struggles, and rhythms of everyday Cubans.

      This Ramon Espinosa/AP photo shows a woman tearfully coming to grips with the total loss of her home in Baracoa, Cuba -- an island of wonderful people now dealing with the effects of Hurricane Matthew.

      Sarah Stephens at the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas writes the informative Cuba Central update on the CDA website each Friday. Cuba, while trying to deal with its own problems related to Hurricane Matthew, as always is the first to help Haiti. Sarah Stephens on Friday wrote: "In Haiti, Cuba is already present and pitching in. Members of the Cuban Medical Brigade, some 648 Cuban doctors and other professionals, remain on site. They...offer medical care and disease-prevention efforts in the aftermath of the storm." It is widely known, as referenced by Sarah Stephens, that Cuba has provided such help to Haiti since that poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere was hit by the murderous earthquake in 2010.

      If you Google "Cuban Doctors in Haiti" the first of many articles that comes up is entitled: "Cuba Medics in Haiti Put the World to Shame." You will discover the article is by the British media, the type article the United States media would not consider. The doctor above is Cuban and his patient is Haitian. The service is free-of-charge and ubiquitous, especially in the very poorest and most dangerous areas of Haiti. 

      This Cuban doctor is providing vital vaccination care for a Haitian child as the very appreciative mother watches. The photo is courtesy of canadahaitiaction.com and that non-U.S. source is free to report on the direly needed medical expertise that Cuba provides to Haitians -- with loving care and free of charge. 

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An Historic Anniversary

Unknown to Americans!!

It Doesn't Compute with Cuban Narrative!! 

       Exactly 40 years ago this week -- back on October 6, 1976 -- a DC-8 civilian airplane was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb, murdering all 73 innocent souls on board. This week marked the 40th anniversary of that historic event -- the first and only mid-air terrorist bombing of a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere. It was a Cuban airplane known forever to history as Cubana Flight 455. The 40th anniversary this week was marked in Cuba, the Caribbean, Latin America and elsewhere. Yet, as historic as Cubana Flight 455 is and as intertwined as it has always been with the United States featured as the major player, Americans to this day are not supposed to really know about it or, if they do, they and the U. S. media are supposed to keep their mouths shut about it. With rare exceptions, that mantra is meticulously adhered to...or else Americans might have trouble meekly capitulating to the Cuban narrative in the United States that, since 1959, has been primarily dictated by only the most visceral remnants of the long-ago overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Cubana Flight 455, you see, is and will remain a prime reason for the haunting veracity of this absolute truth: CUBA SAYS A LOT MORE ABOUT THE UNITED STATES THAN IT SAYS ABOUT CUBA.

      Of all the people on this planet, Peter Kornbluh knows more than anyone about Cubana Flight 455 and other U.S.-Cuban relations that the U. S. government, the mainstream U. S. media, and the most vehement Cuban exiles want to keep hidden for posterity from the American people. Luckily, Mr. Kornbluh is an extremely brave and brilliant investigative journalist with an impeccable reputation for honesty and clarity. He is also, as noted above, the Director of the U. S. National Security Archive in Washington where he heads the Cuba Documentation Project. From that prism and platform, Mr. Kornbluh has declassified a plethora of official U. S. documents that for years had covered up high-level culpability in such historic events as...Cubana Flight 455. That includes the documents and their supporting data that he regularly posts on the U. S. National Security Archive website, a truly informative source.

       This week, to mark the 40th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455 on Oct. 6-1976, Peter Kornbluh posted an additional plethora of material on his National Security Archive. If you dial it up you will see the four glaring headlines that preamble his new documentations:

         ***"Bombing of Cuban Jetliner 40 years later."

         ***"Colgate Toothpaste Disguised Plastic Explosives in 1976 Terrorist Attack."

         ***"Confessions, Kissinger Reports, and Overview of Luis Posada Career Posted."

         ***"National Security Archive Calls on Obama Administration to Release Still-Secret Documents." 

       After those headlines, Mr. Kornbluh's first paragraph is:

                "On the 40th anniversary of the first and only mid-air bombing of a civilian airliner in the Western Hemisphere, the National Security Archive today called on the Obama administration to declassify all remaining intelligence records on Luis Posada Carriles to shed light on his activities, provide historical evidence for his victims, and make a gesture of declassified diplomacy towards Cuba. Toward that goal, the Archives today re-posted documents implicating Posada Carriles in that terrorist crime and identifying still-secret records to be declassified. Posada currently lives free in Miami. Declassified C.I.A. and F. B. I. files link Posada to the Cubana bombing."    

           As you can note, Peter Kornbluh -- as a democracy-loving American -- staunchly believes that the American government should not routinely use declassified documents to protect government-connected criminals even if it relates to high-level individuals and, yes, even if it relates to Cuban relations.

      This photo is courtesy of Adalberto Roque/Agence France Presse/Getty Images. It shows one of the many anniversary demonstrations honoring the memories of the 73 people killed aboard Cubana Flight 455 on Oct. 6, 1976.

     Ceremonies commemorating the 73 victims of Cubana Flight 455 routinely tie the tragedy to "Posada Carriles" and the "C. I. A." Material uncovered by Mr. Kornbluh and posted on the U. S. National Security Archive support those conclusions, which are no longer seriously denied. But backed by powerful Miami politicians and Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Congress, Posada remains a free citizen of Miami. As documented by Mr. Kornbluh, Posada -- the most famed and unabashed anti-Castro militant following the triumph of the revolution in 1959 -- for many years was on the U. S. government payroll, starting when he and many other anti-revolutionary zealots were quickly sent to Fort Benning in Georgia to prepare for recapturing the nearby island.

       The pain resulting from terrorist acts is unending for the families of victims. The sister and mother depicted above had been waiting at the airport in Havana for the return of Cubana Flight 455, which included 24 Cuban teenage athletes that were coming home with the Gold Medals they had won in the Central American Championships in Caracas, Venezuela. When this black-and-white photo was taken on Oct. 6-1976, this sister and mother had just been told that Cubana Flight 455 had crashed in the ocean with no survivors.

      This modern color photo was taken by Roberto Leon for NBC News. The mourning, mustachioed Cuban holding up the black-and-white photo of his family is Carlos Cremata. Carlos in the Cowboy outfit is shown standing between his mom and dad, a dad that was in the cockpit of Cubana Flight 455.

     This is one of the many declassified documents re-posted by Peter Kornbluh on the National Archives website, and he this week asked President Obama to declassify many other documents that he has pinpointed as still being hidden.  

        Posada Carriles was one of the most notable anti-Castro zealots quickly put on the U. S. government's payroll after the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista-Mafia dictatorship on January 1, 1959. The Brigade 2506 mentioned in the caption above was the unit that attacked Cuba in April of 1961, an infamous event that ended up solidifying revolutionary control of the island from that day till this day in 2016.

Posada was born 88-years-ago in Cienfuegos, Cuba.

Posada at an anti-Obama demonstration in Miami.

In some other cities there are anti-Posada demonstrations.

         In 1976 Emilio Milian was the most popular Cuban-American newsman in Miami. After he complained on the air about such terrorism "against decent, totally innocent Cubans" as highlighted by Cubana Flight 455, he was famously car-bombed. 

      Since 1989 when Jeb Bush was Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's Campaign Manager, a steady stream of Bush-connected Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots {but no moderates} have been elected from Miami to the U. S. Congress. It appears they believe they alone should dictate Cuban policy and also control the Cuban narrative in the U. S. although polls in Miami show that more Cuban-Americans favor President Obama's peaceful overtures to Cuba than the endless animosity preferred by these three members of Congress. On the left above is Mario Diaz-Balart who followed his Havana-born brother Lincoln to Congress from Miami. Rafael Diaz-Balart, their father, was a key minister in the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship. As at the news conference depicted above, the mainstream U. S. media can be used 24-hours-a-day to denounce anything related to Revolutionary Cuba but it would be rare indeed for the U. S. media to criticize anything related to the extremely vile Batista-Mafia dictatorship or to the vile actions of a few extremist Cuban-Americans.

        This iconic photo shows a Cubana DC-8 at the airport in Madrid, Spain in May of 1976. Yes, this is the exact airplane that soon became the ill-fated Cubana Flight 455 on October 6, 1976 -- eternally making it memorable. It is a significant part of U.S.-Cuban history. On this week's 40th anniversary of the terrorist bomb that blew it out of the sky into the ocean, Peter Kornbluh at the U. S. National Security Archives believes Americans have the right to know that history. Moreover, he believes Americans have the right to know the topicality that is associated with that history.

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Matthew Hit Cuba Hard

Destruction Enormous!!

     Cuba's easternmost city, Baracoa, has mostly been destroyed by Hurricane Matthew. This AP photo shows an elderly Cuban woman and a young boy walking through rubble in Baracoa.

      Photos courtesy of Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press reveal that some areas of the five most eastern Cuban provinces were devastated by Hurricane Matthew. The woman above is crying as she sits in the rubble of her home in Baracoa, the "picture-postcard tourist town" in Guantanamo Province. Baracoa has 85,000 residents and is one of Cuba's oldest settlements; it was visited in 1492 by Christopher Columbus.

Hurricane Matthew as it reached Baracoa, Cuba.

Rubble in Baracoa left behind by Hurricane Matthew.

       As you can see on this map, Baracoa is located on the eastern tip of Cuba northeast of Guantanamo. The historic Columbus visit to Baracoa occurred on October 27, 1492. According to his log, it was where the famed explorer noted that Cuba was "the most beautiful land these eyes have seen." Baracoa became the first capital of Cuba before losing that honor to the much larger cities of Santiago de Cuba and Havana. Still a strong tourist attraction on Cuba's picturesque southeastern coast, Baracoa will need much time and lots of help as its 85,000 residents cope with and try to recover from Matthew's very chilling effects. 

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Targeting Cuba and Haiti

Congress and Hurricanes Take Turns!!

A CNN Image of Hurricane Matthew.

An enormous calamity for eastern Cuba and western Haiti.

       This Dieu Nalio Chery/AP photo shows a Haitian woman trying to take her child to safety as Hurricane Matthew began to assault Port-au-Prince last night and early this morning. A few minutes later a major bridge on the edge of the city was washed away. Hurricane Matthew is the most powerful Atlantic and Caribbean tropical storm in over a decade. Parts of Haiti got 40 inches of rain amid 145 MPH winds. Then the eye of the hurricane reached eastern Cuba with similar ferocity as Cubans hunkered down.

       This Wikitravel map shows the five targeted Cuban provinces in eastern Cuba {shaded in Blue} that felt the brunt of Hurricane Matthew -- Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin, Granma and Las Tunas.

       Hurricane Matthew in the last few hours has left death and destruction in its wake from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. Historically Cuba and Haiti are the two most vulnerable islands in the Caribbean, from both natural and man-made hurricanes. Haiti, the region's poorest nation, is still trying to recover from the earthquake and cholera outbreak that devastated its western portion of Hispaniola island that it shares with the Dominican Republic. Richer nations who have failed to help the Haitians should be ashamed of themselves. When calamities like Hurricane Matthew hit, poverty-stricken Haitians have cut so many trees to use as fuel that floods and mudslides wipe out helpless towns and neighborhoods. The gross discrimination against Haitians by politicians in Miami and the U. S. Congress assail decent Haitians daily and unmercifully. An overlooked AP headline in my newspaper this week blared this headline: "U. S. WIDENS EFFORTS TO DEPORT HAITIANS." The first AP sentence said: "The U. S. Department of Homeland Security says it is widening efforts to deport Haitians, a response to thousands of immigrants from the Caribbean nation who overwhelmed California border crossings with Mexico in recent months." That gutless sentence contrasts sharply with the fact that Cubans, with far less reasons to emigrate to the United States, are lured by the U. S. government to reach that Mexican border and then the moment their front toe touches U. S. soil they are home-free with extremely discriminatory incentives that instantaneously include -- for Cubans and Cubans only -- financial, residence and citizenship rewards. Americans are supposed to be too stupid, too unpatriotic, and too intimidated to cringe at such extreme discriminatory practices by a government that routinely criticizes other governments for far less discriminatory practices. Of course, the difference between Haitian and Cuban immigrants is this: Unlike Cuba, Haiti never had a U.S.-and-Mafia-backed dictatorship that was overthrown by a popular revolution and simply fled to U. S. soil.

      Standing at the U. S border and quickly waving Cubans into the United States with no questions asked, while just as quickly blocking entry for more deserving, poverty-stricken Haitians and routinely deporting them strikes democracy-lovers as being unfair. It shames the U. S. far more than it demeans Haitians.

      Even the politicians in Miami and Washington that dictate America's Cuban-Haitian laws admit that the U. S. doesn't really need a continuous influx of Cubans lured from the island to hurt Cuba. But the laws greasing that migration WHILE IGNORING THE PLIGHT OF HAITIANS {and even U. S. security} will eternally be lushly funded with tax dollars as a means to hurt Cuba -- you know, AT LEAST UNTIL REVENGEFUL MIAMIANS CAN RE-CAPTURE CUBA AND RE-STORE IT TO ITS BATISTIANO GLORY DAYS OF THE 1950S.  

MEANWHILE: 

   A Houston Chronicle photo shows Haitians confronting Hurricane Matthew.

    This uk.news photo shows Cubans confronting Hurricane Matthew.

      Storms, natural and man-made, have always threatened Cuba as this iconic image attests. This photo was taken in 1963 as Hurricane Flora approached Cuba. Fidel Castro is shown getting a meteorological update. He had spent the previous 18 hours on Cuban television and radio warning the Cuban people about the storm. When he was told above where the brunt of the storm would likely strike, Fidel, as he was prone to do, whisked away from Havana to that location, to wait out the storm with everyday Cubans. In 1963 Hurricane Flora killed 1,200 Cubans. In the decades since, top U. S. and international meteorologists have lavishly praised Cuba for its emphasis on hurricane preparations.

        This photo is courtesy of www.bradenton.com. It shows a Haitian girl yesterday in the town of Tabarre hoping to survive her latest storm, Hurricane Matthew. Haitians like her deserve help and comfort.

        Cubans and Haitians fortunate enough to survive Hurricane Matthew will then have to get back to worrying about Hurricane Miami and Hurricane Washington. Somehow, the longer that Cold War outrage persists, the more unfair it seems...and the more it demeans both the United States and democracy.

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