6.10.18

Cuba-Cuba//FLORIDA-FLORIDA

USA'S ANTI-DEMOCRATIC JOKE!!
{Sunday, October 7th, 2018}
    In America's money-crazed, two-party Political System, millions of dollars have flowed into Florida to influence the heated U. S. Senate battle pitting Democrat Bill Nelson, the incumbent Senator from Florida, and Republican Rick Scott, the current Governor of Florida. Being long-time prominent politicians in Florida, both Nelson and Scott must genuflect before the Counter Revolutionary extremists in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, so regarding Cuba it doesn't much matter who wins the important Senate seat from Florida to join the state's other Counter Revolutionary extremist Marco Rubio in the U. S. Senate, with Rubio being the current Little Havana kingpin as anointed nationally by President Trump who hotly dislikes Rubio but Trump also needs Florida's massive 29 electoral votes if he hopes to be re-elected President in 2020. Also Trump needs his old enemy Rubio's support in Congress to avoid such things as possible impeachment procedures. With that background, the Nelson-vs.-Scott tug-of-war for the U. S. Senate seat is a billion-dollar joke on the American people, for this reason: Florida has a lot of money but just as many problems -- including crime, corruption, a lingering reputation as a hotbed of drugs and pill factories, Global Warming eroding its shores, and recently Governor Scott ruled that the so-called Red Tide threat to its shorelines was a dire emergency. Yet, as usual, Nelson & Scott seem most obsessed with campaigning on the Cuban issue -- namely, which one -- if elected to the U. S. Senate -- will overthrow the Cuban government THE QUICKEST.
    For example, with the above finger-pointing, Senator Bill Nelson stressed his anti-Cuban credentials were far more antagonistic than that of Governor Scott, his rival for the Senate spot. Nelson bragged that the Cuban government won't even allow him to visit the island!! And Nelson's quote, as carried by the mainstream Florida media, was: "I requested to go to Cuba to see the imprisoned fellow American that was imprisoned there for four years, and they would not let me in the country, because I've been so harsh." Well, Nelson's rival for the Senate seat, Governor Scott, is 100% aligned with the Little Havana Counter Revolutionary extremists too, including the few remaining remnants from the infamous 1961 Bay of Pigs air-land-and-sea military attack on Cuba. So, if Nelson is "harsh" against Cuba, it is hard to imagine that he is harsher than Governor Scott. But, of course, you don't get elected to the U. S. Congress from Florida without loudly brandishing your HARSHNESS against Cuba. Also, of course, while campaigning in Florida it is perfectly normal to distort facts.
  Of course, the "fellow American" that Senator Bill Nelson alleged he wanted to visit in a Cuban prison was Alan Gross. And, of course, the facts of that case -- as with the litany of other Cuban distortions on U. S. soil, are legendary. Gross was a highly paid operative sent to Cuba to undermine the government as a spy under a USAID program that supposedly helps worthy foreigners with U. S. tax dollars. Gross was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In the U. S. he was portrayed as a totally innocent tourist jailed by the wicked Cuban government. Five years into his sentence, during the decent Obama presidency, Gross was freed in a swap that returned five Cubans to the island from U. S. prisons.

    The photo above shows Alan Gross and his wife Judy being flown back to the U. S. from Cuba. The Cuba-friendly politicians, standing left-to-right on the government plane, were: Senator Jeff Flake, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Congressman Chris Van Holden.
   This photo of the now 69-year-old Alan Gross is courtesy of Haaretz and shows him on a visit to Tel Aviv, Israel. Once back on U. S. soil, Gross quickly became a millionaire thanks to a bundle of tax dollars. You see, no one could really deny that he had been sent to Cuba on a dangerous U. S. government mission that violated well-known Cuban laws. In fact, Alan Gross himself holds no ill-will towards Cuba and has said, "I would love to re-visit Cuba on a peaceful trip if they would allow me back on the island." Cuba might even allow such a visit, albeit a well-monitored one, but while Cuba welcomes visits from high-powered friendly politicians like Senators Leahy and Flake, for example, the Revolutionary Cuban government is not so stupid as to welcome visits from the likes of Senators Nelson and Rubio or Governor Scott because they are at the forefront of Florida's Counter Revolutionary movements that have been draining U. S. tax dollars since January 1, 1959, when the Cuban Revolution chased the Batista-Mafia leaders to their new capital of Little Havana in the heart of Miami.
   The #EDlection2018-Florida campaign graphic above shows Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio flanked on the left by current Senator Bill Nelson and on the right by current Governor Rich Scott, the man with the Navy hat who covets Nelson's U. S. Senate seat. Rubio, Nelson, and Scott -- like all powerful politicians in Florida -- owe their political and economic fortunes to being livid anti-Cuban Counter Revolutionaries. And of all the Counter Revolutionaries in Florida, Rubio is now the most powerful and the most dangerous...and that will remain so at least as long as Donald Trump is President of the United States. Permit me to explain.
    During the 2016 Republican presidential campaign, Trump and Rubio called each other vile names. Trump, for example, pointed out that Rubio was at the mercy of his Jewish billionaire donors such as the controversial Sheldon Adelson. And, of course, Trump very effectively called Rubio "LITTLE Marco" as illustrated above.
   London's powerful newspaper The Guardian recently used the Sheldon Adelson graphic above to headline a scary article entitled: "Sheldon Adelson: The Casino Mogul Driving Trump's Middle East Policy" -- meaning it is 100% in Israel's favor. The Las Vegas-Chinese casino owner as of June-2018 was worth $43.4 billion and that's enough to "drive" the USA's Middle East-Israeli policies, I reckon.
     Donald Trump also has reminded the world that the now 85-year-old Sheldon Adelson has "total control over Rubio," which is not very nice especially when The Guardian says Adelson controls Trump's Middle East policies in a volatile region fraught with past, current, and future wars where Israel is the only nuclear Superpower.
    But after incredibly being elected President of the United States, Donald Trump reached out meekly to the biggest and most vicious fox in Trump's hen-house, and that's two-term U. S. Senator Marco Rubio. Trump had no choice because he needs the Little Havana's so-called choirboy to help him advance Republican agendas in Congress AND to help protect against possible impeachment before his first 4-year term as President ends. SO...what did Rubio demand from his former foe President Trump? Permit me to tell you. Back in the 1980s the Bush dynasty anointed Jorge Mas Canosa as the all-time most powerful Cuban dictator on U. S. soil. Mas Canosa not only became a Miami billionaire but he orchestrated such extreme and such infamous Counter Revolutionary measures as the Helms-Burton Act that since the 1990s has, more drastically than ever, punished Cubans on the island while also drastically enriching and empowering selected Cuban-Americans. Mas Canosa and his high-priced lawyers were smart enough to make sure that no Democratic president, such as the decent Obama, could touch the cruel tenets of the Helms-Burton monster legislation. It was Mas Canosa who founded, via a Batistiano-friendly U. S. Congress, such pipelines of tax dollars flowing from Washington to Miami as...the still-thriving Counter Revolutionary propaganda joke known as Radio-TV Marti. Once Trump became President, Rubio demanded that Trump anoint him the USA's new Cuban dictator...and Trump, for the aforementioned reasons, was forced to comply.
   This important historic photo shows former Vice President and President George H. W. Bush during the period Jorge Mas Canosa had emerged as the USA's Cuban dictator, thanks to Bush.
    Former key government official at the Council on Foreign Relations, Julia Sweig is America's top Cuban expert. In her classic book -- "What Everyone Needs to Know About Cuba -- Sweig pointed out that once Jorge Mas Canosa was anointed leader of the Cubans-in-Exile, he was advised to study Israel's AIPAC lobbying powerhouse and create one for the Cuban exiles. AIPAC to this day can absolutely dictate in the U. S. Congress and even in Republican or Democratic White Houses whatever Israel desires in arms, money, etc. Mas Canosa, as best documented by Sweig, took that advice and created CANF -- the Cuban American National Foundation, which became AIPAC's only rival as a lobbying Super Power in Washington.
    Anyone who is unfamiliar with Julia E. Sweig's speeches, essays, articles, and books about U.S.-Cuban relations is also unfamiliar with pertinent facts needed to understand U.S.-Cuban relations, creating what some believe is essentially a three-headed government -- American, Israeli, and Cuban.
     The Bush dynasty actually was tightly aligned with the Cuban exiles beginning decades earlier but since 1976 it has included...a CIA Director, two Vice-Presidential terms, three Presidential terms, a two-term Governor of Florida, a 2016 Presidential contender, and still two Presidential wannabes in Jeb Bush and his son George P. Bush. All of the politically inclined Bushes, including two-term President George W. Bush shown above, have been tightly allied with the most powerful and most Counter Revolutionary Cubans.
    The all-time most powerful leader of the Counter Revolutionary Cubans in the USA was the Bush-anointed Jorge Mas Canosa. He was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1939 and he died unexpectedly at age 58 in Coral Gables in 1997. All around the Miami area today there are major edifices named in his honor -- statues, buildings, streets, schools, etc., etc. Mas Canosa left his business empire, including the billion-dollar Mas Tec company, to his three sons but no one on U. S. soil will ever match Mas Canosa's power when it comes to dictating America's Cuban policies to the U. S. Congress and to all U. S. Presidents, including Democrats.
 During the two-term Ronald Reagan presidency, Jorge Mas Canosa cemented his USA-Cuban rule because George H. W. Bush was Reagan's Vice President.
   But even Democratic Presidents like Bill Clinton could not out-flank or over-rule Jorge Mas Canosa when it came to America's Cuban policies -- meaning both laws and actions as well as tax dollars. In early 1996 two-term President Bill Clinton decided to normalize relations with Cuba. Then came the Brothers to the Rescue episode in the waters between Cuba and Florida. That ended President Clinton's normalization plans.
    Instead of normalizing relations with Cuba in 1996, an intimidated and scared President Clinton, at the ceremony above was forced to sign the infamous Helms-Burton Act into law, the act that Jorge Mas Canosa, just months before he died, had made so indelible that only Congress could change it...and to this very day Congress does not have the guts to do that...even those it is opposed by most Cuban-Americans as well as by THE ENTIRE WORLD as confirmed, during the decent Obama presidency, by the UN vote CONDEMNING the U. S. Cuban policies via a 191-to-0 vote, probably the only topic in a diverse world that could attain such unanimity.
    And so...in October of 2018 that is where we are at the highest levels of America's frayed political structure. The photo above reflects just how frayed the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 has left America's politics to this day. In the middle above is Little Havana's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio, President Trump's newly anointed USA Cuban dictator. {In the next Cubaninsider essay, I will discuss three recent and totally atrocious Counter Revolution appointments that Rubio has shamefully made}. On the left above is Florida's other current U. S. Senator, Bill Nelson. On the right is Florida's current Governor, Rick Scott. Now Nelson and Scott are battling each other for Nelson's Senate seat...and like Rubio, both Nelson and Scott are forced to be fierce Counter Revolutionaries against Cuba to appease Little Havana although most Cuban-American EVEN IN MIAMI are not Counter Revolutionaries. As President Trump's anointed Cuban ruler, will Rubio dictate the Nelson-Scott winner. We'll have to wait and see, but as I opined earlier -- Marco Rubio is no Jorge Mas Canosa.
Cuba-Cuba
FLORIDA-FLORIDA
America-America
And by the way:
     Today is October 6th, a day that will live in infamy in Cuba. On October 6, 1976, Cubana Flight 455 was bombed into the sea by a terrorist bomb and all on board, including two dozen teenage athletes, were killed.
   History, including de-classified U. S. documents, forever ties CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles to that infamous terrorist bombing. Posada, who bragged about his Counter Revolutionary activities all his adult life after 1959, was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on February 15, 1928. He died at age 90 on May 23, 2018, as a Little Havana hero in the Miami area. On November 26, 2016, Posada was heralded by the media in Miami participating in a street demonstration celebrating the death of Fidel Castro at age 90 in Havana.
Fidel condemned Posada.
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3.10.18

Diaz-Canel's NEW Cuba

His Imprint Is Indelible
{Updated: Friday, October 5th, 2018}
       After what actually was a scintillating week spent in New York City, Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, was back on the island by October 3-2018 addressing his Ministers and, most importantly, the everyday Cuban people. He has told his Ministers to appear often on Cuban television and radio programs to let the people know what they are doing..."if anything"...to help solve "their daily problems." The address above was broadcast on state television and radio. Meanwhile, President Diaz-Canel is concentrating on making sure the Cuban people understand the new Constitution the Cuban Parliament has drafted, one that contains drastic changes from the previous 1970's Constitution. On TV and radio, but also at 24,000 spots across the island, the new Constitution is being discussed and it will face a referendum vote early in 2019. With Diaz-Canel's direction, the news Constitution is expected to pass.
    With the words above, here is precisely what President Diaz-Canel is telling the attentive Cuban people: "In the constitutional reform we have expanded our vision on civil rights, human rights. It is a responsible, objective, realistic look." The Cuban people believe those words. Of course, Cubans in Miami's Little Havana, Cuban's in the U. S. Congress, and Republicans in Trump's White House all must pretend they don't  believe them, lest the lucrative USA Castro Cottage Industry would greatly suffer.
  This photo shows Diaz-Canel's Ministers of Communications listening intently to what their President, Cuba's former Education Minister, had to say on Oct. 3-2018.
     The Cubans listening to President Diaz-Canel on Oct. 3-2018 represented a cross-section of what the island looks like -- with an emphasis on women -- the gender that has always been the prime supporters of the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. They strongly support Diaz-Canel but they are not awarding him a free pass; they are restless and they expect him to perform two primary tasks: {1} Sharply improve the economy; and {2} protect their island against regime-change antics of yet another Republican-Batistiano administration in Washington.
    The three photos above are courtesy of Ailyn Febles Estrada. Since 2010 she has been a prime leader of the island's powerful "I Am Fidel" movement that fiercely supports the Revolution and fiercely opposes the Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and in the U. S. Congress...and all Republican White Houses like Trump's. At the moment, Ailyn is also very much "I Am Miguel" but, for sure, she has an open mind and very keen eyes. Women like Ailyn, not the USA's Rubio-types, are paramount in Cuba.
     This is Jose Manuel Valido Rodriguez monitoring President Diaz-Canel's Oct.3rd-2018 speech at the Ministers of Communication session in Havana. Journalists like Jose, of course, strongly support the new Cuban leader's emphasis on using the island's strong, well-educated Radio & TV journalists to communicate more directly with the people. That's why Jose flashed that genuine smile on October 3rd, 2018.
        And so, back on Cuban soil after his New York City adventure, the island's new leader on Oct. 3-2018 appeared very comfortable as he confronts the major tasks that he is obligated to tackle with gusto in the days ahead. The Cuban people now support him.
    It is an historic fact that Fidel died at age 90 on Nov. 25-2016. He had ordered that there were to be no statues of him on the island and no edifices, such as buildings or streets, named for him. But it is still his island and it will remain that way unless a regime-change orchestrated from Miami and Washington is successful in overturning his pugnacious Revolution.
     The strongest movement in Cuba today is "Yo Soy Fidel" -- "I Am Fidel." That is so even though Miami and Washington will deny it. But the island's new leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel, DOES NOT deny it and a visit to Cuba would confirm that fact.
Diaz-Canel at Fidel's tomb.
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2.10.18

YES, Cuba Has A New President

But be real quiet Because....
Americans Are Not Supposed to Know!
{UPDATED: Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018}
    In a major Miami Herald article yesterday {Oct. 2-2018} written by Nora Gamez Torres, Miami readers, including those in Little Havana, were told that Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel was treated like a Superstar during his week in New York City at and all around the United Nations. He was hosted and wined & dined by Harlem's Riverside Church, by many Cuba-friendly U. S. politicians including Miami-born Kathy Castor who has represented Tampa in the U. S. Congress since 2007, by top U. S. executives including Google's Top Boss Eric Schmidt, by A-list Hollywood celebrities including Robert De Niro, AND by an enthusiastic throng of well-known Cuban-Americans that included Saul Berenthal, Isabel Alfonso, and Hugo Cancio...with some of them singing the Revolution's famed July 26th theme song. Cancio, a notable Cuban-American businessman in Miami, was quoted by the Miami Herald as saying, "To attend an event with the President of your country is more than an opportunity. It is a duty. Those of us who were there had something in common, our love of Cuba. I was moved by Diaz-Canel..."
     It was President Diaz-Canel's first time on U. S. soil but he mingled well with famed U. S. admirers like Robert De Niro.
    Some celebrities who met President Diaz-Canel, such as Robert De Niro above, took to social media to advocate for normal U.S.-Cuba relations, excoriating U. S. belligerence.
     The generational exiles in the United States who fled the Cuban Revolution in 1959 have been permitted to dictate the Cuban narrative in the USA for all these decades, while also dictating most of the USA's egregious Cuban laws. While still failing to recapture Cuba, the USA Castro Cottage Industry has been so incredibly rewarding, economically and politically, that it is very hard for rich and powerful Batistianos to let go of their Gold Mine. Therefore, Americans are not supposed to know...or at least acknowledge...that Cuba has a new leader who is not a Castro, not a revolutionary icon, and in fact is the island's former Education Minister, not a guerrilla fighter. Always clean-shaven, President Miguel Diaz-Canel spent this past week making a great impression around New York City...at the UN, at Google headquarters where he met with top U. S. executives, at famed Riverside Church in Harlem where the parishioners still remember and still love Fidel Castro, at the famed Dakota Apartments where John Lennon was slain and where Diaz-Canel was wined and dined by Hollywood elites, at a session where he was feted by Cuba-friendly politicians such as Miami-born Kathy Castor who represents Tampa-Florida in the U. S. Congress, at a session where he was hosted by significant Cuba-friendly Cuban-Americans like Arturo Lopez-Levy, etc.! AND, OH YES: Diaz-Canel, as indicated by the above photo, joined a notable Cuban band and enthusiastically displayed his skill as a drummer. The video of his lively performance as a talented drummer, by the way, has gone viral on the Internet.
     So, yes, America!! Cuba has a new President. His name is Miguel Diaz-Canel, the drummer shown above. And Perhaps...the U. S. government should be democratic enough to acknowledge that basic fact and it would also be nice if the mainstream U. S. media had the guts to admit it -- even if it might harm the economic and political might of the Castro Cottage Industry in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
     {P.S.: Cubans on the island love their new President but Batistianos in the United States hate him, perhaps because they haven't created a Diaz-Canel Cottage Industry yet}.
And by the way:
     One of the world's top providers of energy information -- S & P Global Platts -- reports that Cuba is investing $100 million and Russia is investing $165 million to upgrade Cuba's steel industry. The island's two steel companies are Antillla de Acero and Acinox.
     Cuba's Energy Minister Raul Garcia Barreiro spent this week in India and then announced yesterday -- on October 2nd, 2018  -- that India will help the island build two badly needed bio-electric plants. They will take advantage of two great Cuban resources that are both abundant and renewable -- SUN & WIND.
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1.10.18

Cuba and the Propaganda Media

Masquerating as Real Journalists!!
     Although the mainstream U. S. media is too afraid, too politically correct, or too incompetent to report fairly on issues involving Cuba, the island's new President, former Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel, had a successful week on his first trip to the United States. The prime lure to New York City was and then were the two major speeches he delivered flawlessly at the United Nations but his ancillary sessions were just about as significant. Google's Top Boss, Eric Schmidt, hosted Diaz-Canel at a meeting that included many other top U. S. business executives. Actor Robert De Niro hosted Diaz-Canel at a session that involved other Hollywood heavyweights. In addition to Latin American Presidents that included the tightly U.S.-aligned leader of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, Diaz-Canel had key meetings with Cuba-friendly politicians such as...the Miami-born Kathy Castor who represents Tampa-Florida in the U. S. Congress; European Union leader Federica Mogherini, etc. And, equally important, the photo above shows Diaz-Canel, on the right, meeting with important Cuban-Americans such as Arturo Lopez-Levy. Most Cuban-Americans oppose the extreme U. S. belligerence against Cubans on the island but most Americans, thanks to an incompetent or intimidated media, don't comprehend that. And, influenced by the U. S. media and political correctness, the conservative and right-wing British media often relishes hurling vindictive propaganda at Cubans on the island.
    This photo, courtesy of Twitter, shows Poppy McKenzie Smith. She is, in my estimation, a liar and a hypocrite but pretends to be a legitimate journalist at the London Telegraph, which has the 8th largest newspaper circulation in the UK plus a strong tabloid-fueled impact on the Internet. In picking on innocent Cubans far from England, Poppy's Sept. 29-2018 article was entitled: "Cuba's Classic Cars Aren't Cuba -- They're An Enduring Symbol of Deprivation." That cowardly headline is typical of right-wing propaganda rags masquerading as informative media. In other words, if Poppy masqueraded in the USA she could be working for anti-Cuban right-wing propaganda machines like Breitbart News, the Babalu blog, etc.
   The aforementioned article by Poppy McKenzie Smith featured the above photo with this gutless caption: "Unsafe, unclean and unfit for purpose, Cuba's aging fleet is not something to celebrate." That's a lie from a cowardly, lying hypocrite.
    The Mashable.com photo above shows a skilled, innovative, and dedicated Cuban mechanic preparing to get a 1950s automobile running smoothly. Embargoed by the world superpower since 1962 {all this mechanic's entire life and then some}, this Cuban is denied normal spare parts for this car, so he has to invent suitable substitutions. But Cubans like him have been doing that since 1959 and especially since 1962 when the embargo was emphatically imposed by American and Cuban right-wingers intent on regaining control of the island in short order. But going on 7 decades later, it's turned into a long order.
    This Anywhere.com photo shows a decent, enterprising Cuban mechanic-taxi driver making a living for his family using his restored 1950s classic American convertible, the kind tourists like to be chauffeured in. This is the Cuba I saw when I visited the island. And that is why I call Poppy McKenzie Smith a liar and a hypocrite when she calls Cubans like this vile names for having overcome massive obstacles thrust upon them by a few sanctimonious hypocrites in a rich foreign country.
     In ridiculing and making fun of Cubans and their classic cars, Poppy McKenzie Smith and her ilk don't have the guts to mention the U. S. embargo that has purposely tormented totally innocent Cubans on the island since 1962 to merely appease the revenge, economic, and political motives of a handful of miscreants, many of them remnants from the 1950s Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba that the Cuban Revolution chased to the USA in 1959. It is, beyond question, history's longest and cruelest embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a smaller, much weaker nation. Somehow Cubans like those innovative mechanics have survived that ordeal but also consider this fact: The United States, the architect of the embargo against Cuba, is the world's economic and military Superpower. Its economic and military influence can make huge, powerful nations like China, Russia, and Iran tremble if the U. S. imposes financial sanctions or boycotts or tariffs on them EVEN FOR A FEW WEEKS. But similar actions against Cuba have lasted for 6+ DECADES!!
        Therefore: if you are not a liar or a hypocrite, study this Carlos LaTuff image AGAIN and then try to explain how little Cuba is probably the only nation in the world that could have possibly survived such an embargo imposed on it for 6+ decades by the strongest nation in the world. And then, if you are not a liar or a hypocrite, I'd surely like to hear your explanation.
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cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story)

cubaninsider: "The Country That Raped Me" (A True Story) : Note : This particular essay on  Ana Margarita Martinez  was first ...