Rubio's Cuban Genocide

AND GUESS WHAT??

He's Getting Away With It!!

     Headquartered in Havana as the Associated Press's Director of Caribbean News, Michael Wessenstein on Jan. 17-2019 penned this week's most important article related to Cuba. It is entitled: "Trump Weighs Dramatic Tightening of U. S. Embargo on Cuba." Wessenstein, an excellent journalist, explained that on the horizon is "the most serious tightening of the U. S. trade embargo on Cuba in more than two decades...a move that could unleash a flurry of lawsuits against foreign companies that have investments on the island." Of course, Wessenstein's most gutless quote came from the gutless U. S. Senator Marco Rubio from Little Havana in Miami. Wessenstein quoted Rubio as saying what lies directly ahead for Cuba as described by National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Western Hemisphere Director Mauricio Claver-Carone "is a strong indication of what's coming next." What SHOULD come next, of course, is for the mainstream U. S. media and the American/Cuban-American citizens TO FINALLY HAVE THE GUTS to stand up to the gutless and heartless Marco Rubio. And, of course, only during a Republican administration of a totally distracted and dysfunctional President like Donald Trump would and could a despicably greedy and heartless petty tyrant like Rubio orchestrate and then brag about a powerful nation "LEGALLY" expanding on plans to commit genocide against innocent people in a much smaller nation.

An America that allows a GUTLESS Rubio...........

     ...........and a GUTLESS Claver-Carone to orchestrate and then legally unleash genocide against innocent Cubans on a vulnerable island, while punishing more decent nations like Spain that disagree with the genocide, is a nation that deserves Rubio & Claver-Carone as American dictators with the euphemistic titles of President Rubio and Vice President Claver-Carone. For sure, American and Cuban-American citizens who allow Rubio & Claver-Carone to carry out a genocide against Cubans on the island deserve to lie down with Rubio & Claver-Carone and share their fleas. And that's where America is today.

*&***********************&*

USA's Biggest Weakness: The Media

Propaganda Machines, Not Journalists!!

      Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Father who wrote America's Declaration of Independence, is also famous for another quote; he wrote that newspapers...the media...were more important to the fledgling democracy than the government itself. That Jeffersonian quotation reminds me that the mainstream media in the United States has evolved into PROPAGANDA MACHINES as opposed to news-gathering operations. That also reminds me that easily the best journalist in the Western Hemisphere is Mariana van Zeller. She was born 42 years ago in Portugal and her unique journalism has existed for well over a decade, but because the mainstream media in the U. S. is involved primarily in propaganda, Americans may have to Google a bit to find America's best journalist. For example, this week in mid-January of 2018 by far the best news report in the Western Hemisphere came from Mariana van Zeller in the form of an 8-minute video report from Brazil. It's vital news...to the USA, to Cuba, and the rest of the world. Brazil is by far the largest, richest, most populated, and most powerful Latin American nation. It has just elected a new far-right President, Zair Bolsonaro, who is obsessed with the type military rulers that took over Brazil in 1964 and brutalized the nation for two decades. Then democratic elections put Cuba-friendly, anti-U.S. Presidents - - Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff -- in power in Brazil for four consecutive elections. But Lula is now in prison, some say to prevent him from winning the recent election, and Rousseff's second term was ended by what she calls a coup. So the recent Brazilian election put the militaristic, right-wing Bolsanaro in the presidential chair. Top journalists in Brazil and the USA {Tracey Eaton, for example} believe Bolsanaro has signaled to right-wingers in the Trump administration that Brazil will help the USA execute its long-desired revenge change in Cuba. Also, Bolsanaro quickly made headlines as President by saying he would welcome a U. S. military base in Brazil. With that backdrop, Brazil as now constituted is more important than ever to the USA, Cuba, and the world...especially as a possible harbinger to military conflicts in the Caribbean and Latin America. So, this week to understand what's happening in Bolsanaro's Brazil it behooves Americans, Cubans, and citizens of the world to view and heed Mariana van Zeller's brilliant 8-minute report that, if you've missed it, is easily and readily available worldwide on YouTube.

    Because she is easily the best broadcast journalist in the Western Hemisphere, Mariana van Zeller IS NOT ELIGIBLE to work for the propaganda/pundit-obsessed USA broadcasters -- especially the extreme left-wing CNN, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC networks but ALSO right-wing networks such as FOX. For example, the other day CNN -- only interested in propaganda-pundits -- added two new hires: an extreme left-wing Hispanic newly retired from Congress and an extreme left-wing person-of-color who recently lost her Congressional re-election bid. Like all the other major "news" networks in the USA, broadcast journalists are not welcome at CNN; only propaganda-pundits are welcome...to join the extreme plethora of on-set anchors and propaganda-pundits that dominate and saturate America's embarrassing "news" media.

     After graduating with honors from the University of Lisbon, Mariana van Zeller had a dream: She wanted to be a broadcast journalist in the USA. Three times she applied to what she believed was the world's best journalism school -- Colombia University in New York City. Three times she was rejected. Mariana then flew to New York City and faced the dean who had rejected her face-to-face. She told him of her dream. She was finally accepted. And Mariana got her Masters Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Colombia University. Since then, she has been the best Broadcast Journalist in the Western Hemisphere.

     If the broadcast networks in the United States disqualify Mariana van Zeller because she is the best Broadcast Journalist in the Western Hemisphere, Founding Father Thomas Jefferson would surely weep crocodile tears. Mr. Jefferson, you see, believed that a vibrant and unbiased media was more important to the viability of the U. S. democracy than the United States government itself.

     Today...left in the hands of the multi-billionaire propaganda-obsessed owners of the USA's major television networks as well as major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post...Thomas Jefferson himself, I believe, would be infuriated over what the U. S. media has become -- which is pundit-driven propaganda machines. When the major U. S. media forums are owned only by propaganda-motivated multi-billionaire individuals and corporations, the biggest threats to the United States are not Trump or Global Warming or Russia or China, etc. The BIGGEST THREAT to the United States and its Democracy is its pundit-driven propaganda media. And I sincerely believe that Thomas Jefferson would concur with that opinion.

ACTUALLY...............

       ...........there are some who believe that poor, little, embargoed Cuba has far better and fairer Broadcast News Channels than the United States has. For example, study the photo above that shows two truly outstanding Broadcast Anchors in Cuba -- Rosy Amaro and Cristina Escobar. Well-educated, smart, and talented, Rosy and Cristina are experts on U.S.-Cuban Relations and they have been quoted on two pertinent topics: {1} "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba;" and {2} "Cuba's fate must be determined by Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington." Americans programmed to immediately dismiss such opinions from the island should, I believe, get to know Rosy & Cristina. I'm a former television anchor in the USA and a democracy-lover. As such, I believe Rosy & Cristina are better and more believable than any anchors or pundits on USA's propaganda-obsessed networks.

     For example, Nicole Wallace is a prime anchor on MSNBC and a prime pundit on NBC in the USA. Her sole broadcast talent relates to anti-Trump fervor that computes with NBC's anti-Trump propaganda coup, typical of U. S. "news" networks that typically GAVE UP on hiring real broadcast journalists while only searching for Nicole Wallace-types.

     And for example, Ana Navarro is a prime pundit that saturates CNN's non-news coverage. Her only talent is as an extremely nasty and repugnant propaganda-pundit. Exacerbating hires like Wallace and Navarro is this: the USA networks hide the fact that Wallace and Navarro are Republican backstabbers with Wallace pinning for her old boss Ted Cruz to be President and Navarro obsessed with her old bosses Jeb Bush and/or Marco Rubio being President. So such obfuscations {lies} fit perfectly into the obsessions of the USA networks whose current propaganda involves ousting Trump while showing zero respect for the Office of President and for Democracy. I too want Trump ousted, BUT DEMOCRATICALLY.

    Each weekday morning from 6 AM till 9 AM, counting the replay of the first hour, NBC-MSNBC kick off their "news" day with Morning Joe hosted by the husband-wife team of Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. Masquerading as journalists, if the highly paid Mika & Joe are journalists I am an astronaut based on Mars. They are nothing more and nothing less than extreme left-wing propagandists who wouldn't know a news story if it inundated their studio.

    With no hints of journalists who actually cover and deliver the news that Americans need, propaganda anchors Mika & Joe always have two, four or six propaganda pundits as Talking Heads on the set...and the multi-billionaire propagandists who own such U. S. networks pretend they are providing news coverage...not propaganda...for their viewers. {The two above photos are courtesy of Salon.com}.

AND THE USA SHAME IS......

      .......the USA television "news" networks are not interested in hiring Mariana van Zeller simply because Mariana is the best Broadcast Journalist in the Western Hemisphere. The USA television "news" networks are only interested in hiring extreme propaganda-pundits such as anchor Nicole Wallace and pundit Ana Navarro. The extreme left-wing/right tilts in the USA media put the unqualified Trump in the White House in 2016 and might re-elect him in 2020 OR create a bloody Civil War that neither the USA nor the world needs. And, yes, as a democracy-loving American I believe...as I believe that Thomas Jefferson would believe...that the pundit-driven USA propaganda media is THE BIGGEST THREAT to both the United States of America and to Democracy. In March of 2015 Mariana van Zeller became a Democracy-loving United States citizen after she had already established herself as the best broadcast journalist in the Western Hemisphere. Study the photo above. I tend to believe that Mariana van Zeller agrees with Thomas Jefferson and me. Yes, the biggest threat to the United States today is its propaganda-obsessed mainstream media. The second biggest threat to the United States today is what the wise outgoing President Dwight Eisenhower warned six decades ago as THE BIGGEST THREAT, which was the unchecked "Military-Industrial Complex" that makes money on wars OR the threat of wars. But today that is only the 2nd biggest threat to America; 1st in January of 2019 is the propaganda-obsessed mainstream U. S. media. If it begins to hire real journalists like Mariana van Zeller, I'll revise my opinion.

In 1961 Ike was right.

But in 2019 the biggest threat is the media.

*&***********************&*

USA Warns Cuba AGAIN

Trump PRIORITIZES Cuba!!

{Posted: Thursday, January 17th, 2019}

     The two top Foreign Policy executives flanking President Donald Trump are National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It is well known in Washington that Trump, in filling those two appointments, could not have found two more war-mongering/anti-Cuban zealots than John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.

    In one of his most publicized early acts as National Security Adviser to Trump, John Bolton, as shown above, not surprisingly hustled off to Miami and essentially declared war on Cuba.

    Then John Bolton flew to Rio to meet with the new extreme right wing/military obsessed President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro. Many believe Bolton got permission from Bolsonaro to cooperate with Bolton's eminent plans for a regime-change in Cuba.

   Veteran and highly respected U. S. journalist Tracey Eaton is America's best expert on topical U.S.-Cuban relations. After Bolton met with Bolsonaro Tracey Eaton said he would "not be surprised" if the United States launched a military attack from Brazil against Cuba. Brazil is BY FAR Latin America's largest, strongest, richest, and most populated nation. After four democratic elections in Brazil that put two extreme pro-Cuban Presidents -- Lulu and Rousseff -- in power, the recent election of extreme anti-Cuban right-winger Bolsonaro changes both the American and Latin American dynamic regarding Cuba.

     In that milieu on January 16-2019 U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo strongly followed up on John Bolton's declaration of war against Cuba. As a U. S. congressman, Pompeo advocated strong punishments for Cubans on the island and for a regime change. As Secretary of State under harassed President Trump, Pompeo is in a stronger position to assault Cuba. His State Department has already empowered notorious Cuban Counter Revolutionary zealots to strategic war-mongering positions, such as INCREDIBLY putting Mauricio Claver-Carone to head the USA's Western Hemisphere Affairs department -- a prime spot, of course, to assail Cuba. AND NOW Pompeo stupidly pretends that harmless Cuba is A BIG THREAT to mighty America. So, to appease Claver-Carone and the rest of the rich and powerful Counter Revolutionary zealots, Pompeo announced that he is devoting his time as Secretary of State to "review whether to move forward on the Libertad Act." The Libertad Act was written into the eternally cruel Helms-Burton Act in 1996 by the extreme billionaire Counter Revolutionary zealot Jorge Mas Canosa. It gave Cuban exiles the legal right to sue Cuba for property nationalized when the Cuban Revolution in 1959 booted the Batista-Mafia dictatorship off the island -- all the way to Miami, as it turned out. But each year since 1996 every U. S. President, even the tightly Batistiano-aligned George W. Bush, every six months has had to disclose that the U. S. IS NOT following through on the legal dictates of the LIBERTAD ACT...and for good reason. If acted upon, the Libertad Act would allow Cuba to point out a few internationally known facts, such as whether the Mafiosi that ruled Cuba from 1952 till 1959 had legal claims to such Cuban property and such as how much the USA owes Cuba for SUCH THINGS as the 1903-till-today theft of plush Guantanamo Bay and SUCH THINGS as the internationally declared illegal 1962-to-today Economic Embargo and SUCH THINGS as a wide range of U.S.-government-related terrorist acts against Cuba, most notably the bombing of the civilian CUBANA FLIGHT 455 that killed all 73 people on board. But the brash Pompeo, fueled by the brash and rash Trump presidency, has ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD THAT HE IS "REVIEWING" whether to act on the LIBERTAD ACT to appease a few of the remaining Counter Revolutionary Cubans. Even if that would enable Miami zealots to sue Cuba in Miami federal courtrooms, it would also shine a pro-Cuba spotlight on issues Cuba has long-claimed should be shone the light of day even in an America that in January of 2019 is dominated by BOLTON-TRUMP-AND-POMPEO.

    Also, of course, if Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stupidly activates the Batistiano-beloved Libertad Act, it will shine spotlights on such things as illustrated by the photo above that shows Pompeo kissing-up to a rather notorious dictator. Both of America's most powerful anti-Cuban war-mongers -- Pompeo and Bolton -- are famed for picking on small nations that might not cater to being dictated to by huge nations but KISSING UP to Big Boys with Big Armies and Nuclear Weapons -- like, uh...Russia, China, and North Korea. As Pompeo and Bolton well know, Cuba does not have either a big army or nuclear weapons.

     And one more addendum to Mike Pompeo's ignorant threat to activate the infamous Libertad Act to enable a few U. S. Cubans to sue Cuba for lost property. Prior to the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the top echelon of the Mafia had famously raped and robbed Cuba blind while supported by the United States. Those Mafiosi kingpins included Meyer Lansky. That's Meyer in the center above in the graphic that depicts the pre-Revolutionary rape and robbery of Cuba by the U.S.-backed Mafia. AND GUESS WHAT, AMERICA?? One of the families trying to use the LIBERTAD ACT to sue Cuba for lost property is Meyer Lansky's family. I wonder if Mike Pompeo will chew on that well-known fact for at least a moment or two????????????????

     There are great, impeccable sources for Americans to comprehend the fallacies of the Libertad Act or the many other evils associated with the Mafia being booted out of Havana to Miami by the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959. Two such sources are the great books -- The Corporation and Havana Nocturne -- by the great author T. J. English. A recent review of both the book and movie based on The Corporation was written by respected journalist David Minsky in the Miami New Times. Just in case you want to dial up that article online, it is entitled: "The Corporation, A History of the Cuban Mob, Is  A Made-in-Miami Story."

A classic...& legal to read.

Another classic & legal to read.

A trip & legal to take.

*&***********************&*

Brazen Anti-Cuba Cubans

Unchecked, UNPUNISHED, UnAmerican??
{Updated: Wednesday, January 16th, 2019}

      This photo was two days ago -- Jan. 14th, 2019 -- by David McAlpine and it has gone viral around the world a few times via the journalistic media and especially social media giants such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. It shows the controversial but entrenched Senator from New Jersey, Bob Menendez, on a plush beach in Puerto Rico. This was on Day 22 of the U. S. government shutdown and just a few days after Menendez -- a notorious Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American --  had co-sponsored YET ANOTHER bill in the Senate aimed at tightening the already stifling and cruel U. S. embargo against Cubans on the island. Even more INCREDIBLE than all that, the photo above shows how brazenly Menendez flaunts his incumbency in the U. S. Senate amidst scandals in the Caribbean involving females that are only a part of what the federal government has tried for years to put MENENDEZ in prison for.

    In 2017, after years of expensive investigations, the United States government put Senator Bob Menendez on trial charged with a litany of corruption and bribery charges.

    Above are some of the charges against Sen. Menendez, but those three white boxes being carried by federal prosecutors contained vast amounts of more serious charges against one of America's long-time most powerful anti-Cuban Cubans.

     The tabloids loved the FBI's reports on Sen. Menendez's involvements with female scandals in the Caribbean and Latin America, especially in the Dominican Republic with ties to a multi-millionaire Miami donor and a convicted criminal. The blocked-off portion in the lower-right starts off with this sentence: "Sen. Robert Menendez knows how to keep his friends happy."

The above headline was the worst.

     The convicted Miami multi-millionaire donor, among other things, supposedly wanted Senator Menendez's help in getting his Latin American girlfriends legally into the United States and Menendez complied according to the federal charges. The Miami donor also allegedly and successfully solicited Menendez's help in the Senate to ease federal Medicare charges against him.

    The myriad of FBI charges against Senator Menendez boggled the minds of democracy-lovers who have long cringed over how in the world Menendez, even being from New Jersey, could maintain his incredibly lucrative and anti-Cuban role in the U. S. Senate for decades.

     The FBI and Federal prosecutors had spent fortunes in tax dollars trying to put Senator Menendez in prison "for up to 15 years."

    But entrenched incumbents in the U. S. Congress who will do the bidding of rich donors can afford to hire America's most expensive lawyers as indicated by the graphic above showing just one of Menendez's extremely high-priced lawyers. Also, of course, the Menendez trial was held in Menendez's New Jersery backyard.

     Despite the exhaustive realm of FBI evidence against Senator Menendez, even CNN pointed out it would be almost impossible to convict Menendez in a New Jersey Federal Court. CNN, as you can see above, also pointed out that SCOTUS -- the SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES -- had blessed Menendez and others like him when it ruled that billionaires could make unlimited political donations, a distortion of Democracy that exists to this day.

     So, after years of extensive FBI investigations and then months of the exhaustive trial, Senator Bob Menendez was spared what could have been a long prison sentence BECAUSE OF A HUNG JURY and not because of being found not guilty. At first the federal government announced it would retry the case, but it changed its mind considering the expense and the likelihood of another hung-jury verdict.

    Like other extreme Counter Revolutionary Cubans from New Jersey and Florida who become entrenched anti-Cuban zealots in the U. S. Congress, Senator Bob Menendez has seemingly been entrenched forever in the Senate as a powerful anti-Cuban zealot. Study the photo above. In 1996 a brave President Clinton was known to be about to normalize relations with Cuba...but Counter Revolutionary zealots not only changed his mind but a very scared President Clinton ended up signing the extremely cruel Helms-Burton Act that remains today the prime tool used to punish Cubans on the island via the Economic Embargo and other insanely cruel BUT LEGAL U. S. laws. As you see above, after reluctantly signing Helms-Burton into law, a scared President Clinton looked up at -- YOU GUESSED IT, Bob Menendez!! The U. S. Congressman next to the bespectacled Menendez was Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the son of a Minister in the Batista dictatorship and to this day Lincoln's brother Mario remains a fierce Counter Revolutionary member of the U. S. Congress from Miami. And yes, the saga of Bob Menendez shames America and Democracy and nothing is more evident of that than the Cuban-Americans who are allowed to dictate America's sordid Cuban policies decade after decade. After the hung-jury verdict in New Jersey, Bob Menendez, OR COURSE, was re-elected to another six-year term in the United States Senate. So, America's Cuban shame enters a 7th decade and the vaunted U. S. democracy seems totally unable to deal with it!!

   When extreme Counter Revolutionary Cubans like Marco Rubio, Bob Menendez, and Mario Diaz-Balart are incumbents forever in the U. S. Congress {if they so desire} because they come from Batistiano havens in Florida and New Jersey, the United States democracy can be extremely lucrative for a a few but extremely skewered for most.

    When the likes of Marco Rubio, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Bob Menendez can entrench themselves permanently in the U. S. Congress and dictate America's Cuban laws to suit their whims as well as their economic and political fortunes, they can also empower people like Berta Soler, who is Havana's most famed Counter Revolutionary force.

    And this week -- Jan. 14-2019 -- this photo went viral around the world showing Menendez flaunting his power on a lush excursion in Puerto Rico -- courtesy of a powerful Hispanic group that is a HUGE donor to Menendez's political career. This cozy event for Menendez took place during the longest partial government shutout in history, which is hurting millions of Americans, and it comes just days after Menendez co-sponsored with Miami's controversial Senator Marco Rubio yet another LET'S PUNISH CUBANS ON THE ISLAND bill. Of course, with huge and unlimited dollars and tens-of-thousands of money-crazed lobbyists in Washington, legalizing anti-Cuban cruelty in the U. S. Congress is easy -- "Hey, Senator, you support my Cuban bill and I'll support your Bridge to Nowhere bill. Then our donors will be happy and we'll be filthy rich forever." A wonderful system, right? And that CNN graphic, which pointed out the Supreme Court's ruling that gave greedy billionaires the big edge in American politics, is a key reason people like Bob Menendez remain incumbent powers in Washington.

And Meanwhile:

     The very day this week -- Jan. 14, 2019 -- that the controversial Bob Menendez photo was taken in Puerto Rico, this photo was taken in Havana on the fiercely and unfairly targeted island of Cuba. It shows the togetherness of a mother-daughter -- Rosy Amaro and 5-year-old Mariana -- enjoying fun and excitement. Three generations of Cuban women -- including this mother-and-daughter plus Rosy's mother Carmen -- have been punished since 1962 by the U. S. economic embargo that, according to de-classified U. S. documents, was intended to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. And then what? A return of the brutal-thieving Batistianos, Mafiosi, and greedy U. S. businessmen? Carmen told Rosy and Rosy has already told Mariana about the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. And for that reason, three generations of Cubans have, somehow, considered the sovereignty of their vulnerable island priceless. Bob Menendez in the USA is backed by the Superpower U. S. government, the world's all-time richest treasury, and the world's all-time strongest military...plus a cowardly mainstream U. S. media and an equally cowardly U. S. citizenry. Rosy Amaro on the nearby island is backed by her knowledge of the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Thus, entering a 7th decade now, it's still a stand-off regarding whether, when or if the current Batistianos in Miami, Newark, and Washington will reclaim the island.

*&***********************&*

As Cubans Suffer, Some Rejoice

And Many Americans Don't Care!

    Cubans on the island had something else to mourn this past weekend. The bus shown above {the photo is courtesy of the BBC and Reuters} crashed while carrying 40 passengers...18 Cubans and 22 tourists from the UK, US, Canada, France, Netherlands, and Spain. The dead included one German and one French tourist. Overall seven people died and the other 33 were injured in the tragic disaster.

      The bus crashed soon after leaving Baracoa in Guantanamo Province on its long trip back to Havana. Baracoa is the oldest city in Cuba. It was founded shortly after Columbus landed at that spot in 1492, declaring it in his diary as, "The most beautiful land these eyes have ever seen." Because of its history and its incomparable beauty, Baracoa is a favorite destination for tourists flying into Havana. But on an island that has been the victim of the vicious U. S. Batistiano Economic Boycott since 1962, the transportation system in Cuba is dangerous...and in Washington this past week two Cuban-American U. S. Senators seemed intent on trying to make the island's transportation system even more dangerous than it currently is for Cubans and visitors.

     This past week Senator Bob Menendez, from the Batistiano-bastion of Newark, and Senator Marco Rubio, from the Batistiano-bastion of Miami, combined to introduce YET ANOTHER gutless bill in the Republican-controlled United States Senate designed to strengthen the six-decades-old gutless Embargo against Cuba. As I will discuss later, neither the mainstream United States media nor the majority of Americans have the guts to challenge the continuing and unchecked cruelty of self-serving miscreants like Bob Menendez & Marco Rubio.

    Cuba as of April 19th-2018 has a new President. His name is Miguel Diaz-Canel. He was born after the January 1st-1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship. It appears Diaz-Canel is determined to protect Cubans from Cuban-Americans like Menendez & Rubio who hide lavishly behind the skirts of the world's nearby Superpower. President Diaz-Canel mourned this past weekend with Cubans across the island after the deadly bus crash. The photo above was taken on May 18th-2018, exactly a month after Diaz-Canel became President of Cuba. That day he rushed to the site of a deadly plane-crash on the edge of Havana, a plane destined for Holguin, Cuba. The crash killed 112 on board with the lone survivor being a 19-year-old Cuban girl who is still recovering, under meticulous care, from her horrendous injuries. The plane crash and now the bus crash have reminded Diaz-Canel of his most urgent priority -- improving the safety of Cuba's highway, railway, and air transportation systems. To that end this week, just prior to the bus crash, Diaz-Canel demoted Cuba's elderly Transport Minister and replaced him with a much younger, more energetic, and hopefully more effective Transport Minister. 

      This photo also illustrates President Diaz-Canel's eagerness to solicit help from Cuba's friends to "construct and to help rebuild a transportation system that will be much safer for everyone, Cubans and visitors." On the left is Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez shown shaking hands with Diaz-Canel in Havana on March 22nd, 2018.

     This photo shows the very moment Cuban President Diaz-Canel asked Spain's Prime Minister Sanchez if he would consider helping Cuba improve the island's transportation system, including the "roads, highways, bridges, railways, airways...any way you can?" To his credit and to his country's credit, Prime Minister Sanchez replied, "Mr. President, as long as I am the leader of Spain, I will do all in my power to help you with those enterprises." A kind reply from a very decent leader.

     There was a time in the past seven decades when even the United States...for one brief, shining moment...had a leader that had similar decency and courage to match that of Spain's current leader Pedro Sanchez. That American leader, of course, was President Barack Obama. As America's leader, as shown above, Mr. Obama had the guts and decency to go to Cuba and speak directly to the Cuban people...on the streets, at a baseball game, and on state-wide television. He told them: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." He was not lying, he just did not anticipate that his administration would be replaced by another Batistiano-aligned Republican administration.

    Thus, one of Donald Trump's first shameful acts as President and Commander-in-Chief of the United States was to go to Little Havana in Miami and vow to reverse all of President Obama's sanity and decency in regards to Cuba. He made that pledge, as shown above, while standing in front of a Brigade 2506 Assault Banner, which reflects the shame and humiliation the U. S. sustained way back in April of 1961 with its stupid and cowardly and LOSING air-land-and-sea BAY OF PIGS attack on Cuba. Such gutless Trump pandering in Little Havana  to a handful of Counter Revolutionary Cubans proves two things about the Batistiano-propelled deterioration of the once-proud American democracy: {1} Even the mainstream left-wing U. S. media that is engaged in an all-out media conspiracy to dethrone Trump prior to the next election does not have the guts to criticize Trump for his most egregious acts that relate to Cuba; and {2} a third generation of Americans since the 1950s has neither the guts nor the patriotism to even weigh-in seriously on Cuban policies that shame America, Democracy, and Decency...yet this generation of Americans has been propagandized to sanctimoniously criticize a China or a Russia if such large nations remotely target innocent people in a much smaller nation for one day not to mention six+ decades when it's U.S. vs. Cuba.

   Thus, for 6+ decades now, Counter Revolutionary extremists like Senators Menendez and Rubio have been permitted, within the bowels of the U. S. democracy, to whet their revenge, economic, and political appetites by trying to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans on the island...while using even the mainstream U. S. media to promote their repetitive refrains about...trying to help Cubans on the island. And such repetitive propaganda -- supported by left-wing, right-wing, and mainstream media sources -- is incredibly effective.

     While trying to severely punish everyday Cubans on the island, Rubio & Menendez -- as shown above -- are quite willing to host in the hallowed offices and hallways of the U. S. Senate any well-known Cuban dissident strongly opposed to the Cuban government.

    Even the world's most famed Cuban dissident, Yoani Sanchez, can fly from Cuba to Miami to the U. S. Congress...and then back to Cuba. Allegedly...please, PLEASE remember that I said "allegedly"...after such lucrative sessions with Senators Rubio & Menendez as shown above Yoani Sanchez returned to Cuba with enough money to powerfully staff and powerfully promote what remains today the most powerful digital dissident anti-Cuban blog-newspaper in the world. In other words, anyone who holds up their hands and vows to help overthrow Revolutionary Cuba's government can ALLEGEDLY expect bundles of tax dollars, especially as long as the likes of Rubio & Menendez are allowed to make such decisions with unlimited amounts of tax dollars.

      The now 61-year-old Ken Silverstein is enshrined as one of America's all-time greatest investigative journalists and authors.

     For decades Ken Silverstein has earned lofty journalistic credentials and accolades working for such respected organizations as...Harpers Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press. So, it's not surprising that Ken Silverstein has done the best investigative reporting on Senator Marco Rubio, whom the cowardly right-wing, left-wing, and mainstream U. S. media usually promotes as a choirboy from Little Havana in Miami. In an almost book-length essay on Rubio, Ken Silverstein calls Rubio "head and shoulders above everyone else in Washington when it comes to corruption and chicanery." In that exhaustive investigative report Ken Silverstein documents a plethora of names, dates, and incidents to prove his case. And as far as I know, no one has denied a single word nor has Ken Silverstein been sued by Rubio's well-heeled and well-funded publicity machine.

     If you Google "Ken Silverstein and Marco Rubio" you will be put in touch with the above graphic that fronts the aforementioned Ken Silverstein article on Marco Rubio...who typically this past week teamed with the also very controversial BOB MENENDEZ to introduce YET ANOTHER "Let's Punish Cubans in Cuba" bill in the U. S. Senate.

    United States Senator Bob Menendez is shown above on the Batistiano-friendly Fox News Network after he had barely escaped a long prison sentence. For years the U. S. government investigated Menendez on serious bribery and corruption charges related to shenanigans in Miami and the Dominican Republic. And then there was a long and expensive federal trial, which ended in a hung jury. The federal justice system, which had spent a ton of tax dollars already on first the investigations and then the trial, vowed to retry Menendez, but then changed its mind, apparently believing another expensive hung trial would result. Political incumbents and court trials in Newark or Miami, you see, tend to sort of favor Counter Revolutionary Cubans and disfavor those who might oppose them. Shortly after his emotional reaction depicted above, Menendez, of course, was re-elected to another 6-year term in the U. S. Senate. And, of course, because Cuba is a foreign country and in the Western Hemisphere, Congressional Counter Revolutionaries like Menendez and Rubio make bee-lines to become Chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations and Western Hemisphere Senate committees...all the better, of course, to punish innocent Cubans on the island!! A wonderful democratic system for the Newark/Miami-to-Washington/Congress pipeline? It kinda seems that way for Cuban-Americans like Rubio & Menendez, doesn't it?

     Now allow me to ask a question. As a democracy-loving American, during the longest-ever government shutdown while millions of Americans are suffering from an amalgam of ills caused by a dysfunctional and money-crazed Congress, my question is: How in the hell can Senator Menendez and Senator Rubio be allowed to prioritize HURTING innocent Cubans on the island as opposed to HELPING Americans, including Cuban-Americans. I know, I KNOW...Menendez is from Newark and Rubio is from Little Havana, so they'll never be voted out of office. But that does not excuse the cowardice of the mainstream U. S. media and the gutlessness of most U. S. citizens for allowing...even this past week...Senators Menendez & Rubio to introduce YET ANOTHER "Let's Punish Cubans in Cuba" bill in the U. S. Senate. That latest Menendez-Rubio insult to democracy makes me wonder if Menendez and Rubio wouldn't be far better suited as Ministers in the long-ago Batista government than as Senators in today's USA.

Cuba...Cuba...Cuba!!!!!

        {The only topic in the entire world that could possibly get the United States and Democracy unanimously condemned 191-to-0 in the United Nations. BUT...if you're an American...you're not supposed to have enough guts to even think about that, let alone mention it. And where we are today is precisely where we've been regarding Cuba for 7 decades.}

   Yet, on the island of Cuba this past weekend...as Cubans mourned the bus crash and as Rubio & Menendez tried harder to use U. S. laws to punish Cubans in Cuba...pugnacious and resilient Cubans still found reasons to smile...perhaps because Rubio and Menendez weren't dictating their lives, at least not yet. That's Cuban journalist Rosy Amaro Perez above and her 5-year-old daughter Mariana. Professional photographers Norbel Lazcano and Adriana Robreno chronicled their mother-daughter outdoor togetherness around Havana on 01-13-2019.

Notice above:

Dressed identically, including the shoes.

    In this photo Mariana is whispering, "Mama, por que nos estan tomando fotos?" {"Mama, why are they taking so many pictures of us?"}.

      Like other little girls, Mariana looks up to her mother and likes to wear very smilar clothes. And Rosy tries to accommodate Mariana.

In Havana Saturday, Rosy & Mariana.

Best of friends, mother & daughter.

      These six photos from Havana this past weekend remind me that Cubans on the island, like Rosy & Mariana, don't deserve to be targeted unfairly by anybody on their island. And MOST ESPECIALLY they don't deserve to be unfairly targeted by greedy, sanctimonious, and revengeful Cuban-Americans OFF the island, such as the rich, powerful, and unscrupulous United States Senators Rubio and Menendez.

*&***********************&*