CUBA: Another Cold War?

Russia Seems Ready & Eager!!
{Updated: Wednesday, November 8th, 2017}

      Adult Americans and citizens of the world may be able to connect the building above with the huge circular listening device still depicted ominously off to the right to this day! The building now is a a focal point of a Cuban university; the listening devise is still there but just as a reminder of the incredibly dangerous Cold War that existed beginning in 1962 between the nuclear-Superpower United States and the nuclear-Superpower Soviet Union. What history calls the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 pitted the world's two nuclear powers in a standoff that remains the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust. The whole world trembled for eight October days in 1962 till the Kennedy-Khrushchev pull-back resulted in the Soviet Union removing nuclear missiles from Cuba aimed at the U. S. and, secretly, the U. S. removing nuclear missiles from Turkey that had been aimed at the Soviet Union. In that year, 1962, the Soviet Union had built the Lourdes spy base in Cuba and that remained for decades till 2002, after the Soviet Union collapsed economically. But the reconstituted Russia remains to this day the one nuclear power that could likely strike America as hard as America could strike Russia. So, study the Associated Press photo above. Taking full advantage of the Trump administration's acute antagonism directed at Cuba, Russia may ask Cuba to allow it to reopen the base.

       The former Russian Spy Base is located on the edge of Havana in Artemisa province. Russia wants to reopen it because it says, since the base was closed in 2002, the U. S. has surrounded Russian territory with more-and-more military operations. Russia also notes that Cuba adamantly wants the U. S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay on the island's southeastern tip to be closed with the plush acreage returned to Cuba for the first time since 1903, shortly after the U. S. gained dominance over Cuba after the 1898 Spanish-American War. But Russia insists it will return militarily to Cuba only with Cuba's permission, and it reminds Cuba that the Trump administration is determined to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959 and, in doing so, shocked the world, including the dictators in Moscow. Meanwhile, the world and Russia today remain shocked that Revolutionary Cuba has survived since 1959 despite daily efforts by remnants of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship, still backed by the U. S., to regain control of the Caribbean's biggest island. From 1959 till 1991 Cuba was the catalyst in the middle of the U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War. It has largely remained that way from 1991 till today even though the U. S. has maintained a huge economic edge over Russia. But Russia is the very last military power the U. S. wants to tangle with.

        An ultra-powerful Russian, Frants Klintsevich is the deputy head of the Russian senate's Defense and Security Committee. He has the attentive ear of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian media quotes Klintsevich as saying, "We need to ramp up a new Cuban presence. Our base on Cuba, naval and aviation, should exist, must exist, for our security now. It's a key issue. The USA has military all around us."

         Strongly supporting the views of Frants Klintsevich is General Viktor Bondarev. He is the Chairman of the Russian senate's Defense and Security Committee.

      A re-activation of the Lourdes Spy Base in Cuba would keep Russia attuned to American military and even diplomatic maneuvers in the Caribbean and southeastern United States, including submarine operations in the waters surrounding Cuba. A reopening of Lourdes, many fear, would also be a precursor to a more substantial Russian military presence just off the southeastern U. S. coast. While Russia in 2017 can't compete economically with the U. S., the Russian nuclear capability is the last thing the U. S. would want to provoke. Based on the mutually destructive power Russia has, the current high-profile nuclear threat posed by North Korea is many light-years removed from a potential threat that Russia currently possesses. While acknowledging the power that Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries have regarding America's Cuban policies, especially now that Trump has replaced the diplomatic Obama in the White House, it is sincerely hoped that the sanity of those not wanting a U.S.-Russian Cold War turning into a Trump-Putin Hot War will prevail.

      Thankfully in November-2017 the prime decision-makers in Cuba still seek Obama-like normal relations with the United States and thus, as things now stand, Cuba is not about to allow Russia to re-create a powerful military operation on Cuban soil. The two key spokes-people for Cuba are Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal but they are also Cuba's two main decision-makers on omnipotent U. S. relations, including Cuba's posture regarding such things as the Trump administration's efforts to reverse former President Obama's detente with Cuba and, more specifically, the U.S.'s ongoing claims of mysterious sonic-attacks against Americans in Cuba. Yet, Rodriguez and Vidal are respected enough that they can go to the UN in New York or to U. S. strongholds in Washington and convince almost everyone that the U. S. Cuban policy is outrageous and such anti-Cuban claims as the alleged acoustic attacks are false. In the photo above, that's Rodriguez in the middle and Vidal on the right holding court very successfully at the United States Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington last week. They came at the Chamber's invitation.

     At the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal addressed a roomful of top U. S. corporate executives who are very interested in trade relations with Cuba. Indications last week were that no one at the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and none of the above U. S. CEOs believed U. S. claims that Cuba is targeting Americans in Havana or doing anything else to discourage tourism to the island or commerce with America. The majority of Americans, especially CEOs, are eager to do business with Cuba. But intimidation and propaganda, since 1959, has trumped...uh, no pun intended...democracy when it comes to America's relations with Cuba.

       Last week for the 26th consecutive year the 193 nations at the United Nations, including all of America's best friends around the world, voted overwhelmingly against the U. S. embargo-blockade of Cuba, with only the Trump administration and its most dependent nation, Israel, supporting the embargo-blockade. Additionally, all polls show that most Americans and most Cuban-Americans oppose the embargo-blockade that was imposed in 1962 for the then-stated purpose of starving, depriving, and creating misery on the island to induce Cubans to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. Revolutionary Cuba has remarkably maintained its sovereignty for all these decades despite what is considered the longest and cruelest economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a much weaker one.

      But with the Republican Trump in the White House, U.S.-Cuba Relations once again are being dictated by a mere handful of revengeful Cuban-American/Miami-based miscreants in the United States Congress, led currently by Senator Marco Rubio. It is clear that such self-serving benefactors as Rubio don't care that their anti-Cuban belligerence is opposed even by most Cuban-Americans in Miami, a city that doesn't appear democratic enough to elect a moderate Cuban-American to the United States Congress. Similarly, it can be presumed that Rubio and his ilk could care less about how much their policies hurt Cuban-Americans in Miami, Cubans on the island, or the overall national security of the United States. And that's precisely why the two powerful aforementioned Russians...Frants Klintsevich and Viktor Bondarev...are trying to convince President Putin to try to convince Cuba to allow a Russian base on Cuban soil, a development that might well rekindle a Cold War or kindle a hot war between the world's two nuclear Superpowers -- the United States and Russia. As long as the likes of Marco Rubio can dictate America's Cuban policy, the most militant Russians will believe they can persuade Putin to install a military presence in Cuba on the premise that its massive nuclear arsenal can blunt massive U. S. objections.

     For the last tumultuous decade, the brilliant and level-headed Josefina Vidal has been the most important overall player in the often volatile U.S.-Cuban relations. That last decade has seen the transition of power in Cuba go from the ill Fidel Castro to his brother Raul and it saw the death of the incomparable Fidel Castro at age 90 on November 25th, 2016. Cuba also embraced the American presidency of Barack Obama who wanted to normalize relations with Cuba and, at least prior to the election of President Trump a year ago, pretty much succeeded. Also, Vidal still stands tall in Cuba as the retirement of Raul Castro nears in February of 2018. The new President will be 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel but Raul has laid the groundwork for more of a tribunal-type leadership with Vidal and Bruno Rodriguez joining Diaz-Canel as equal or near-equal leaders. And all three -- Vidal, Rodriguez, and Diaz-Canel -- are well-liked and respected by most Cubans on the island, including the restless young-adults.

     As indicated by the photo above, Raul Castro has groomed Miguel Diaz-Canel as the next President of Cuba and that will become a reality very soon in February of 2018. Miguel is a non-revolutionary and a non-Castro and he is far less convinced than Raul, Vidal and Rodriguez that Cuba needs close relations with the United States. Miguel, prepping for his soon-to-be Presidency, has traveled widely to countries he believes are more important and much friendlier to Cuba than the U. S., especially China and Russia but also Vietnam. But Raul cooperated closely with the Obama administration in almost normalizing relations with the United States other than in areas mandated strictly by the U. S. Congress. Now in his dwindling days as President, Raul is not dismissing Miguel's belief that the collective friendship of China, Russia and Vietnam will be more vital to Cuba than continuing to seek normal relations with America when, in a two-party system, the U. S. policy regarding Cuba is often dictated by Republicans like Trump and not Democrats like Obama. And that's why Cuba's first non-Castro leader since 1959, Miguel Diaz-Canel, will share leadership with more pro-American stalwarts, namely Vidal and Rodriguez, with Raul, even though he is now 86, remaining in charge of his first love, the Cuban military.

      As the photo above indicates, Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal have cultivated close relations with Americans and Cubans other than Counter Revolutionaries.

 The last two photos, for example, show Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal warmly welcoming Nancy Pelosi, America's top Democrat in the U. S. Congress, to Cuba.

      From Fidel to Raul to Miguel in Cuba and to most non-Republican and non-Cuban American extremists in the United States, Josefina Vidal has been considered the most important Cuban when it comes to Cuba's most important relationship, the one with the nearby Superpower, the United States. A brilliant diplomat, she negotiated with the Obama presidency a near-normal relationship with America, at least as normal as it could get considering the Batistiano control of the U. S. Congress seems permanent. But just in the last year, Fidel has died and Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States. And now Raul Castro is about to be succeeded as President by a non-revolutionary and non-Castro, Miguel Diaz-Canel. Miguel's first inclinations will lean toward tightening relations with China, Russia, and Vietnam as well as with European and African nations. Miguel's views will be tempered by Vidal and Rodriguez who believe Cuba should always hold out hope of having normal relations with the United States. If indeed Diaz-Canel/Vidal/Rodriguez form the non-Castro/non-revolutionary tribunal that rules Cuba beginning in February, the Vidal Doctrine, which says that Cuba should always be willing to normalize relations with the United States, will be well represented even during the bellicose Trump era.

       But all that is not to suggest that Josefina Vidal will advocate at all costs normal relations with the United States. On the contrary, the Vidal Doctrine is defined by her irrevocable and non-negotiable quotation depicted above. She maintains that Cuba will never renounce and will fight to the death to preserve the revolutionary principles that has made it a sovereign nation since January of 1959. She says, "That is the resolve in which, for all these decades, we have resisted such things as the Bay of Pigs military attack in 1961 and the U. S. economic blockade since 1962. And if necessary, that do-or-die attitude...that love of sovereignty...will prevail on this precious island now and for always." But, for sure, neither Vidal's earnest desire for normal U. S. relations nor her do-or-die resolve espoused above does not exclude leaning on a Russia or a China if she believes having normal relations with the U. S. is hopeless.

       And that brings us back around to powerful Russian militants -- such as General Viktor Bondarev -- who reportedly are trying to convince Vladimir Putin to install a Russian military presence on the island of Cuba at America's backdoor. Such Russian militants are obviously hoping that powerful Cuban moderates like Josefina Vidal are finally giving up all hope of normalizing relations with the United States, thus leaving Cuba receptive to such a U. S. provocation. General Bondarev obviously believes that Russia's nuclear might is enough to deter the U. S. from going to war over a Russian military operation in Cuba. Meanwhile, as evidenced by President Trump's current Asian trip, North Korea's nuclear threat will likely continue to suck up oxygen that, more appropriately, Russia's much more substantial arsenal might be deserving.

      Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have already met this year -- at the above G-20 summit in Germany -- and they are about to meet again, this time in Communist Vietnam on Trump's current Asian trip. That's because Trump while in Vietnam wants to solicit Putin's help in blunting North Korea's dire nuclear threat.

      The two men in charge of the world's two strongest nuclear arsenals, Putin and Trump, are supposedly close friends...even as the U. S. media and federal investigators are obsessed with determining whether Trump or his defeated presidential rival Hillary Clinton were the most deeply involved with Putin's Russia prior to and during the U. S. presidential race. Meanwhile, in Vietnam this week Trump will ask Putin for help in keeping North Korea in check. But the wonder is, even as an aside, if Trump will ask Putin, "Vladimir, what's this I hear about your top Generals insisting you install a military presence in Cuba? Uh, that's our backdoor, you know. Haven't you heard about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis? Well today, you and I have nuclear weapons that would make those 1962 missiles resemble cap pistols. So tell me...are your Generals just drinking too much vodka? That's it, isn't it, Vladimir?"

Meanwhile in a more peaceful world:

A friendly Zebra and Havana's Mariana.

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Lying About Cuba No Longer Easy

Anti-Cuba Antics Challenged!!
{Updated for: Monday, November 6th, 2017}

Photo courtesy: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

     Four days ago -- on Nov. 2nd, 2017 -- Cuba's respected Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez came to Washington and held a major news conference at The National Press Cuba. He strongly suggested that the United States is "deliberately lying" about alleged sonic-attacks in Havana against Americans, specifically 24 unknown Americans working at the U. S. Embassy. Rodriguez said, "It is high time for the United States to tell the truth or otherwise present evidence. The Cuba government has no responsibility whatsoever for these incidents." Rodriguez made a powerful...and so far unchallenged...case that the U. S. is "lying" about the alleged attacks to justify punishing Cuba by reversing positive relations attained during the former Obama presidency. Using the "lies" about the mysterious attacks, the Trump administration has greatly harmed tourism to Cuba by "warning" Americans not to visit the island, which Rodriguez pointed out is considered one of the safest places in the world for vacationers. He said, "If Havana was really an unsafe place, then U. S. authorities would not have requested 212 visas for relatives and friends of diplomats between January and October, nor would they have made more than 250 pleasure trips outside Havana." In addition to already using the phantom attacks to hurt Cuban tourism, the U. S. has hurt many Americans and Cuban-Americans by gutting the embassies in Havana and Washington. The U. S., Rodriguez claims, has become careless and complacent in manufacturing lies about Cuba for over half-a-century, knowing that by controlling the Cuban narrative Counter Revolutionary Cubans and right-wingers could say or brag about anything and it would be unchallenged -- such as bragging in the Miami media about such things as the terrorist bombing of a civilian child-laden airplane -- Cubana Flight 445 -- that the well-known and well-protected terrorists called "the biggest blow yet against Castro." The terrorists also had no problem getting away with deadly bombings of Havana hotels and bragging about how it hurt Cuban tourism. When Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian complained about such things, he was car-bombed in Miami. When the top columnist at the Miami Herald -- Jim DeFede -- excoriated Miami representatives in the U. S. Congress for helping free four of the most infamous Cuban-American counter-revolutionaries from a Panamanian prison, Jim DeFede was fired. When President Clinton was about to normalize relations with Cuba, airplanes from Miami taunted Cuba to provoke a reaction that would deter Clinton because the Miami taunters knew only their versions of events would count in the American media and in Miami courtrooms.

         But as Bruno Rodriguez's huge news conference at The National Press Club in Washingon on November 2nd indicated, it is now not nearly as easy as it has been for either the United States government or Counter Revolutionaries in the U. S. to tell lies about Cuba or to get away with salacious, dastardly acts against innocent Cubans.

    The top Foreign and National Security expert at the Washington Post is Karen DeYoung whose articles have an international reach and resonance. Her coverage of the Bruno Rodriguez news conference reveals that, if the U. S. government or the Counter Revolutionaries are to continue getting away with lies about Cuba, they need to at least partially or parasitically convince powerful U. S. journalists like Karen DeYoung, and that is finally becoming harder to do. Her article clearly sided with Cuba's points-of-view regarding the sonic-attacks, pending at least a hint of U. S. evidence. Ms. DeYoung agrees, it seems, that the United States warning against visits to "unsafe" Cuba although the island is obviously considered "very safe" by U. S. diplomats who continued to assist a plethora of family-and-friend visitations to Cuba on "pleasure trips." Also, Ms. DeYoung wrote: "The U. S. has said that 24 diplomats assigned to the embassy have suffered 'attacks' that began late last year and continued until late summer. While saying that the victims were receiving comprehensive medical evaluations and care, the State Department has not released the names of the afflicted, any specific information about their health, or results of any investigations." And Ms. DeYoung went on to explain that Cuba, gravely concerned about attacks on its tourism, "has facilitated four visits by the FBI investigation teams to the island and said its own investigations have turned up no apparent cause."

     In other words, times have changed. If the U. S. government or Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress are to continue telling lies about Cuba, they are going to have to convince at least one powerful, unbiased Expert Journalist such as Karen DeYoung at the Washington Post. What happened to journalists such as Emilio Milian, Jim DeFede, etc., in the past may have dictated the Cuban narrative in the U. S. for decades but now, it seems, blatant lies and egregious acts are challenged in high places. That's why Cuba's erudite Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez could come to Washington on Nov. 2nd and express Cuba's opinion that the U. S. is "deliberately lying" so Counter Revolutionary Cubans in the U. S. can dictate America's Cuban policies to the Trump administration. Karen DeYoung wrote, "Rodriguez's comments marked a sky change in Cuba's approach to the sonic-wave charges. The Cuban government...has facilitated four visits by the FBI investigative teams to the island..." No evidence? No names of alleged victims? And she added that Rodriguez made his remarks in Washington after his scathing and well-received speech at the United Nations where, in the eyes of the world, the U. S. "stands alone on its Cuban policy except for Israel and an occasional Pacific island nation." Actually, Palau a few years ago was the last little Pacific island dependent to support the U. S. policy regarding Cuba so now only Israel, mortally dependent on massive U. S. economic and military aid as well as the U. S. veto in the UN, votes along with the U. S. at the UN. All the other nations in the world, 191 of them including all of America's best friends, strongly oppose the U. S. Cuban policy. And now the U. S. government and the Cuban Counter Revolutionary zealots cannot depend on an intimidated or easily-lied-to U. S. media to quietly sanction either lies or terrorist acts against the island of Cuba and its most innocent citizens. If Karen DeYoung just hints that the U. S. is simply lying about its latest Republican attempts to finally destroy Revolutionary Cuba, then PERHAPS they are indeed lies that Americans were supposed to swallow without questioning what they were ingesting.

     On the heels of former President Obama's decent detente with Cuba, President Trump intends to allow Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio to be the prime dictator of America's Cuban policy, as a means of pacifying Rubio and other such Republican rivals in both the presidential primary and now in the behind-the-back Trump impeachment efforts. After the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on Jan. 1, 1959, Counter Revolutionaries on U. S. soil have included the likes of Rafael Diaz-Balart, Jorge Mas Canosa, etc., and now Rubio. The processes have cost America and Democracy tons of international prestige PLUS billions upon billions of tax dollars to support assassination attempts, military and terrorist attacks, and massively unchecked and grossly expensive anti-Cuban propaganda outlets such as the ongoing Radio-TV Marti abomination in Miami. Now Rubio -- whom presidential candidate Trump mocked as Little Marco" -- has been anointed by President Trump as America's new Cuban dictator. That once was a very powerful economic and political sure thing but times may have changed, especially if Rubio can't count on powerful journalists such as Karen DeYoung to at least acquiesce to whatever he unleashes against Cuba. At the moment there are suspicions in both Havana and Washington that Rubio hopes to use the "sonic wave acoustic attacks" to convince the U. S. State Department to return Cuba to its Sponsors of Terrorism list, which would further tighten the noose and sharpen the cross-hairs that Rubio already has aimed at the vulnerable island. But, Senator, is Cuba a sponsor of terrorism or a target of terrorism? Perhaps you should ask an expert...like Karen DeYoung at the Washington Post...instead of just assuming that Miami and Congressional zealots still have total control of America's Cuban narrative.

And by the way:

  One of Cuba's most popular young broadcast journalists, Lazaro Manuel Alonso, recently had a serious operation. When he was fully recovered, Lazaro returned to the hospital to thank his doctors and nurses, including Dr. Milene Vazquez. Health care and university educations in Cuba are totally free. Yet, Rubio and other Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and the U. S. Congress repeatedly tell the American people they must keep the embargo in place and expand it because every dollar that reaches the island goes into the bank accounts of the Castros." Since 1962, many Americans have quite shamefully accepted such cruel, self-serving lies hook, line, and sinker.

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Cuba Says U.S. Is Lying

About Alleged "Sonic Attacks"!!
{Posted for: Sunday, November 5th, 2017}

Photo courtesy: Alex Brandon/Associated Press.

     At a major news conference at The National Press Club in Washington this week -- November 2nd, 2017 -- Cuba's frustrated Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the United States was "deliberately lying" about the alleged sonic-wave attacks at the American embassy in Havana and at Havana hotels including Capri and Nacional. Rodriguez said: "I can categorically affirm that those that say there have been attacks are deliberately lying. No attack has occurred. No deliberate action has taken place. If the United States government thinks otherwise, I invite it to present evidence." At Cuba's request, U. S. FBI teams have made four exhaustive trips to the island to investigate, as have units from the Royal Canadian Mounties plus 3,000 of Cuba's own investigators. Rodriguez maintained the "lies" were fabricated to hurt Cuba and to serve as a pretext to harm tourism to Cuba, not unlike the series of deadly hotel bombings in Havana in 1997 that well-known CIA-Cuban American terrorists admitted were designed to scare-off visits to the island. Rodriguez pointed out that after announcing the attacks months ago the U. S. government "requested 212 visas for relatives and friends of diplomats to make more than 251 pleasure trips outside Havana knowing that Cuba was not unsafe" even while it was "warning Americans" not to visit Cuba. ABC News asked the U. S. State Department to respond to the Rodriguez statements but says it got no immediate reaction.

          Acoustic experts in Cuba, the U. S., and Canada agree with Rodriguez's claim that no single device could possibly have caused the health damages to the 24 Americans as claimed by the U. S. government. Even anti-Cuban zealots from the George W. Bush administration, such as Michael Palmly, agree that the Cuban government "wouldn't shoot itself in the foot with such tactics" but, as Palmly opined, such acts would only benefit someone interested in hurting Cuba and reversing the positive relations extended to Cuba by the Obama presidency.

            So this week, Bruno Rodriguez in Washington invited the United States to show Cuba some evidence proving the sonic-attacks actually occurred. He said, "If the United States has proof of such intentional and devious wrong-doing, Cuba is the country that most wants to know about it to clear up the mystery or the lies."

And by the way:

      This week in the U. S. the handful of Counter-Revolutionary Cuban-Americans who still, after all these decades, dictate America's Cuban narrative do not want Americans to know about the important photo above that should have made U. S. headlines this week. It shows two ultra-powerful Cubans -- Bruno Rodriguez in the middle and Josefina Vidal on the right -- meeting in Washington with American business executives at the headquarters of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.

      While the miscreants who dictate America's Cuban narrative highlight the "mysterious" sonic-attacks as their latest tool to wipe-out Cuba, the photo above shows Vidal and Rodriguez discussing business opportunities in Cuba with top U. S. business executives who were obviously very interested and very attentive.

       Of course, the intimidated or politically correct mainstream news media wouldn't dare mention this important and very positive U.S.-Cuban meeting arranged this week by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. And by the way, the two invited Cubans -- Bruno Rodriguez and Josefina Vidal -- will, I believe, be two of the three most important Cubans on the island starting in February of 2018 when Raul Castro steps down as President, with 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel making up the other third of Cuba's new Big Three. While remnants from the long-ago ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship still want to keep U.S.-Cuban relations in an unending Cold War era, most Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and Americans want to move on to a mutually beneficial and decent relationship, and so do all of America's best friends around the world, as registered again this week by the yearly vote at the United Nations. 

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America's Darkest Cuba Images

Relate to its genocidal Cuban policies!!
{Updated: Friday, November 3rd, 2017}

      I would like to invite democracy-loving Americans to study the first three photos is this essay. The photos were taken this week at the start of November, 2017. They show a little Cuban boy named Diego and his friend, a little Cuban girl named Mariana. On the island of Cuba, there are people who love them dearly and do all they can to care for them. But in a neighboring country, the superpower United States, there is a small contingent of self-serving and revengeful Cuban-Americans who, through several generations now, have punished these children...as well as their parents and grandparents...all their lives. The punishment dates back to January of 1959 when the Cuban Revolution overthrew the vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, which essentially and quickly resurfaced on U. S. soil, particularly nearby Miami. After a record number of assassination attempts in 1959 and 1960; after a blistering series of terrorist bombings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, after a failed Bay of Pigs military attack in 1961, and after a genocidal embargo-blockade imposed in 1962, Revolutionary Cuba, against all odds, remains a beleaguered sovereign nation. But the genocidal embargo-blockade imposed against the vulnerable island in 1962 remains to this day and is already enshrined in history as the all-time longest and cruelest embargo-blockade ever imposed by a strong nation against a much weaker nation. As we study this week's photos of the two Cuban children, I believe Americans should be ashamed that they have allowed a handful of rogues...for all these decades...to continually threaten and punish totally innocent foreign children.

Cuban children -- Mariana & Diego.

      Cuban children -- Mariana & Diego. Most of the whole wide world truly believes that a few rouges hiding behind the skirts of the world's superpower should not be allowed to punish and threaten totally innocent children in a much smaller, sovereign nation. AND THAT PRECISE ISSUE, to America's everlasting shame, was vividly examined this week -- November 1, 2017 -- on the global stage at the United Nations.

         "Genocide" is a word that the United States has used to describe what powerful rogue nations sometimes do to masses of people in weaker nations. The billboard above accuses the United States of "genocide" against the Cuban people because of the U. S. embargo-blockade against Cuba that was first imposed in 1962 and continues to this day, with the U. S. government and, more importantly, the U. S. people, apparently oblivious to the image this projects around the world. That "genocidal" image came up for a vote again this week in the United Nations...and never have such votes on the global stage done anything other than condemn the United States in the eyes of the entire world. There are many Americans who are appalled about this image but, unfortunately, they are not the decision-makers.  

Photo courtesy: Doug Mills/The New York Times.

       The photo above was taken in September of 2017 and it shows President Trump, his Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, and his Chief of Staff John Kelly when they all appeared at the United Nations in New York. By the time this photo was taken, it was known that the Trump administration would reverse the decent and sane overtures that the Obama presidency had made to correct the issue -- Cuba -- that has most defiled and soiled the image of the United States and democracy since the 1950s. And now, ten months into Trump's first year as U. S. President, his UN Ambassador Haley this week defiled and soiled America's image at the UN.

     On the global UN stage this week, U. S. Ambassador Nikki Haley tried to defend what the entire world considers indefensible -- the genocidal U. S. embargo of Cuba. She, of course, didn't mention that the embargo was imposed way back in 1962 for the purpose of straving, depriving and bringing misery to the innocent masses on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. Incredibly, neither that cruel fact nor many other cruel facts have succeeded in regaining control of Cuba but Nikki Haley is shown above trying to justify it this week at the UN. In doing so, she fully knew that all the other nations -- 192 of them -- knew she was lying. And in doing so she was assuming the American people and the mainstream U. S. media were/are too stupid or too afraid to challenge her statements. Her lies included: {1} "The United States does not fear isolation in this chamber or anywhere else." With that statement she was reminding the other 192 nations that the U. S. is the world's nuclear superpower and thus their opposition to America's Cuban policy was/is pointless. And {2} "We want to demonstrate continued solidarity with the Cuban people." That sentence was Nikki Haley's cruelest lie at the UN this week and to emphasize that point was the reason I opened this essay with the three photos of the two precious Cuban children that she so coldly referenced.

      Exactly one year ago President Obama's very decent Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, as shown above, stood proudly and told the other 192 nations that the United States was not so heartless that it would support the Congressionally-mandated genocidal embargo against Cuba. The delegates of all the other nations, including Israel, responded to Samantha Power with what the Associated Press called "sustained, standing-room-only applause." And then, one year ago, those nations voted in unanimity...191-to-0...to condemn the cruel U. S. embargo against Cuba. The U. S., refusing to support its own embargo, abstained from voting. Thus, so did Israel, which is dependent on massive economic and military aid from the United States. But Israel's abstentions or votes merely point out that the U. S., the world's richest and most powerful nation, is unable to buy off or scare off any other nation in the entire world to get it to support its Cuban policies.

    So this week, instead of the unanimous 191-to-0 condemnation of the United States last year when Barack Obama was President, the UN vote during the first year of the Trump presidency was a 191-to-2 condemnation of the U. S. embargo against Cuba. The photo above registered that vote -- Yes 191; No 2; and Abstain 0. Again, only bought-and-paid-for Israel voted with the United States to support the genocidal embargo against Cuba. If Americans had enough courage to study the photo above, which registered that vote this week at the United Nations, I believe they would...and certainly should...be ashamed of themselves for letting that vote condemn what once was by far the world's most admired and most respected nation. But this week -- Nov. 1, 2017 -- at the United Nations the U. S. Ambassador, Nikki Haley, coldly reminded the world that, because of America's unmatched nuclear power, "The United States does not fear isolation in this chamber or anywhere else." With that statement, the Trump presidency reminded the world that America's Cuban policy was back fully in the hands of a handful of Batistiano benefactors and while Trump is President there is nothing the rest of the world can do about it.

     At the United Nations this week, Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said, "The United States lacks the slightest moral authority to criticize Cuba or to even criticize other strong nations that prey on smaller, weaker nations." With their votes, all the other 190 nations -- other than bought-and-paid-for Israel -- agreed with Cuba's official statement delivered by Bruno Rodriguez. The New York Times and the Associated Press also used basically the same sentence to say that the U. S. destruction of its international image is "self-inflicted related to Cuba and the Trump administration is undermining its goals to improve relations with Latin America because all Latin American nations vehemently oppose and resent America's targeting of Cuba." And not surprisingly, on the CBS News website that reported on this week's UN vote, the first two comments were: {1} "What utter hypocrisy..." in scathingly comparing the U. S. sweet trade deals with Big Boys like China compared to bullying little Cuba; and {2} "Americans are such hateful rotten people." That latter comment atop the CBS News website is not true, of course, but America's cruel Cuban policy generates such opinions to the acute embarrassment of America's best friends and to the massive joy of America's worst enemies around the world.

     The graphic above depicts the worldwide image of America's Cuban policy. It is one that the United States cannot justify at the United Nations or any other domestic or international forum, and even Nikki Haley as well as her boss know that is true.

       Revolutionary Cuba, through hell and high water, has been a sovereign nation since January 1, 1959. It is not beyond being criticized. But it has tried so hard to take care of its people far better than they were cared for during the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship and also far better than the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictation of America's Cuban policy since January 1, 1959. The rest of the world understands that even if propagandized Americans do not. But with each yearly vote at the UN, the world reminds Americans that America's Cuban policy is acutely cruel and unjust.

Mariana & Diego.

     The rest of the world agrees that these two precious Cuban children, photographed on their island this week, do not deserve to be targeted in 2017 by a United States embargo first imposed way back in 1962 for the stated purpose of starving, depriving, and making misery on the island to induce Cubans to overthrow their revolutionary government, presumably so the U.S.-backed Batistianos-Mafiosi can regain control and once again allow rich American businessmen to partake of the spoils. The UN vote this week revealed yet again that worldwide opinion favors Cuban children, like the two shown above, over vile and greedy urchins who target them from the sanctuary of a nearby Superpower, the United States of America.

And by the way:

    On November 1, 2017, Iberostar Hotels & Resorts announced that it will have 12,000 rooms in Cuba by the year 2020. Iberostar is located in Palma, Majorca, Spain. It specializes in 4 and 5-star hotels and shows faith in Cuba's "exciting future."

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Cuba: Defending the Indefensible

The Vile U. S. Embargo of Cuba!!

   Today -- Wednesday, November 1st, 2017 -- the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump will shame America and Democracy on a global stage at the United Nations in New York. Trump's stooge at the UN, Nikki Haley, will defend the U. S. embargo of Cuba before a world that has the guts and the decency to oppose it.

      This is the worldwide image of the United States that the Trump administration will defend at the United Nations today. The U. S. embargo against Cuba was imposed in 1962 for the purpose, as revealed by de-classified U. S. documents, of starving, depriving and bringing misery to the Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government that had overthrown the vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in January of 1959. From 1962 till today -- November 1st of 2017 -- the embargo has remained in place at the behest of a handful of Batistiano-Mafiosi miscreants and their mere handful of thuggish right-wing sycophants.

      Exactly one year ago this week, the U. S. embargo of Cuba was unanimously condemned 191-to-0 with two abstentions -- the U. S. and Israel -- at the UN. Under the decent U. S. President Barack Obama, American did not vote to support America's own embargo of Cuba that is mandated by a handful of Batistianos in the U. S. Congress. Israel, which is dependent on billions of dollars in economic and military aid from the U. S., also abstained last year but the entire world saw and applauded the unanimity of the vote shown above, 191-to-0 condemning the imperialist embargo.

       Last year President Obama's very decent U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, as shown above, explained why the United States, under a decent President, could not support the cruel and genocidal embargo against Cuba.

     But President Trump's U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations is Nikki Haley and today she will speak before a totally disbeliving United Nations trying to defend the indefensible, which is the longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a much weaker nation. Haley was Governor of South Carolina when she accepted Trump's offer to become UN Ambassador. She considers it a stepping stone to, first, becoming Secretary of State and, then, using that as a foundation to sate her presidential ambitions or the presidential plans of her beloved Marco Rubio.

      As Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley campaigned furiously for Marco Rubio AGAINST DONALD TRUMP during the 2016 Republican presidential race.

     While Haley was campaigning wickedly for Senator Marco Rubio against Trump, both of them mocked and demeaned Trump as a human being and as a presidential candidate. Stupidly, and perhaps fatally, President Trump now has the two self-serving foxes in his teetering Republican hen-house devouring his very favorite chickens behind his back while serious impeachment drums are pounding loudly as Trump desperately tries to survive this first year of his four-year term as President.

     Meanwhile, Rubio -- while not openly stabbing President Trump in the back yet -- has incredibly secured Trump's blessing as America's dictator of Cuban policy from Rubio's entrenched perch in the U. S. Senate from Miami's Little Havana.

     As the anointed prime dictator of America's Cuban policy, Senator Marco Rubio, as a vicious and cruel Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American, assumes no matter what undemocratic cruelty he directs at innocent Cubans, it will not adversely effect his insatiable presidential aspirations. That's because he brashly assumes...probably correctly...that the mainstream U. S. media doesn't have the guts to challenge him and this generation of Americans simply doesn't have the patriotism to challenge him.

     In addition to Rubio, Miami's other "contributions" to the U. S. Congress have also included only vicious and revengeful Cuban Counter Revolutionaries ALTHOUGH most Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normal relations with Cuba. Democracy-lovers, of course, have a dire problem with that but, unfortunately, many Americas are simply too afraid to question it. Shown above celebrating their unchecked power at a Miami news conference are Havana-born former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart on the left and current Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart on the right. The Diaz-Balart brothers are the sons of Rafael Diaz-Balart who was a key Minister in the overthrown Batista dictatorship who then, beginning in 1959, was one of the richest and most powerful Counter Revolutionaries in the history of Florida. Second from the left is Congressman Carlos Curbelo and at the microphones is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who has been entrenched as a Counter Revolutionary zealot in the U. S. Congress since 1989 when Jeb Bush, paving the way for his two terms as Florida's governor, was her Campaign Manager. The entire world, except for self-serving American right-wingers, believes that leaving America's cruel and revengeful Cuban policies in the hands of a few revengeful miscreants is stupid, wrong, hurtful, and grossly undemocratic.

    The above graphic depicts a few Counter Revolutionaries defying most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and almost all the citizens of the world in defending the insanely cruel U. S. embargo against Cuba. This has shamed America for over half-a-century...and counting. And the indefensible shame will be defended today on the global stage at the United Nations by United States UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

     Born 51-years-ago in Miami, Kathy Castor has represented the Tampa area of Florida in the United States Congress since 2007. In all those years she has always -- on behalf of her constituents, America, and totally innocent Cubans -- brilliantly and bravely defied the visceral Counter Revolutionaries in Florida and in Congress, fighting tirelessly to normalize relations with Cuba.

      The photo above shows Congresswoman Kathy Castor, in the red sweater, being hugged by a decent Cuban, Julia de la Rosa, while another decent Cuban, Yamina Vicente, claps and smiles her approval. The two Cubans had flown to Washington to beg the Trump administration to allow them to continue their successful businesses in Cuba that they had opened after decent overtures from U. S. President Obama. Julia owned a thriving Bed & Breakfast that employed 17 Cubans; Yamina own a successful company called Decorazon that planned weddings and other events. The two Cuban women and dozens more like them felt it necessary...as did Congresswoman Castor...for them to come to Washington to beg the United States -- namely Trump and Rubio -- to allow them to continue to make decent livings for their families in their nearby sovereign nation, the island of Cuba.

     Study the photo above. It shows Yamina Vicente in Washington begging the Trump administration to allow her to continue to make a living. Yamina is a decent, well educated Cuban. She was a college professor till U. S. President Obama gave her a chance to start her own business -- Decorazon. The McClatchy Washington Bureau quoted her as saying: "I have an older sister who is a photographer and her work complemented my idea of organizing weddings and birthday celebrations. I truly love design and manual arts and this was a business that would not demand a lot of capital to start. I love it and it is successful." Have you studied the photo of Yamina begging the United States to allow her to continue to make a living in her own sovereign country? Are you ashamed as an American that she had to do this?

      Above is another quotation that Yamina Vicente left behind in Washington on her heart-wrenching visit from Cuba. Only heartless cretins would not support her.

       One thing is for sure: Yamina Vicente is a more decent and more honorable person in Cuba than any of the Cuban-Americans or Americans trying to punish her...and that includes Trump, Rubio, the Diaz-Balart brothers, Ros-Lehtinen, etc.

And it also includes:

U. S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

      Today at the United Nations in New York, she will defend the indefensible -- the U. S. embargo against Cuba. It's a self-inflicted American albatross and tragedy that was first imposed in 1962 TO STARVE, DEPRIVE, AND BRING MISERY TO INNOCENT CUBANS ON THE ISLAND TO INDUCE THEM TO RISE UP AND OVERTHROW THEIR REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT. Over a half-century later, the failed embargo remains in place to the everlasting shame of America and Democracy. While self-serving miscreants like Trump, Rubio, the Bush dynasty, and Haley are primarily to blame, the biggest indictment of all lies with the gutlessness and lack of patriotism of the American people for allowing it happen in our name for all these decades.

On behalf of America and Democracy...

Nikki Haley's sharp claws...

will be on display today at the United Nations.

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