What Change Do We Believe In?

     The United States has gone through an amazingly difficult decade. The Clinton years, although he managed to do things to the American people that the Republican party at that time couldn't  have pulled off, came to an end and the people were left with an overall good feeling about the direction things were headed.  In general, people became complacent and after what may have been one of the grandest thefts of all time, George W. Bush was handed an electoral victory and would come to impose himself on the world through the partisan decision of the Supreme Court.
     Downright negligence and arrogance led the Bush administration to ignore signs from its own intelligence community and one of the most visually powerful and horrible terrorist attacks struck one of the most famous metropolises in the world on live television.  Panic, confusion, and a rush for revenge managed to give the cowboy president Bush the support he needed to invade Afganistan in order to get the terrorists "dead or alive".  Equally twisted was the president encouraging people to go shopping so that the terrorists wouldn't destroy our way of life.  Stuck in a war that likely couldnn't be won, the administration orchestrated a performance based on falsified documents and distortions to play on people's fears so that it could launch a war in an oil rich country, Iraq.  He deployed tremendous nubers of troops, many of which would never return alive, and many more thousands of merceenaries that are commonly referred to as "contractors".  He was basically wasting away what was left of the public's money after giving massive tax cuts for the richest minority in our society.  By the end of his presidency he had us involved in at least two wars and had created a record debt.  The American people were ready and looking for someone to alter the terrible direction our country was headed.
     In comes Senator Obama.  He shot onto the national scene after treating the previous Democrats' national convention to a fantastically inspiring speech which was refreshing after hearing the verbally challenged Bush speak almost incoherently for a few years.
     Senator Obama decided to take advantage of the people's readiness for someone so positive, so hopeful, and he announced his candidacy with a slogan of change you can believe in.  He captured the hearts of the good people, both young and old, in a campaign against the establishment's favorite Hillary Clinton.  By beating her for the nomination of the party, he had under him a wave of momentum with a base of support rooted in the people.  He continued inspiring, and took tough stances for any politician, and spoke on the side of just causes. He believed in a healthcare system for all and bringing home the soldiers by ending the terrible wars.  His mission would include restoring the country's reputation which was so damaged by the cowboy administration's abuses of human rights and its arrogant dismissal of opposing views from other countries.  He was promising that our country would be a better one basing itself on just priciples.  That is why we had to close down our torture prisons and never be responsible for such atrocities again.  A President Obama would stand with workers here at home and also abroad saying that he would even march side by side with them if necessary.  All of this and much more was what he seemed to be.  He was elected president on November 4, 2008 and got his chance to take office the following January.  His victory was felt to be a victory for the people.
     Things got off to a great start when he signed an order to close down the prison the we created in the base we shouldn't have on Cuba's soil.  Amazingly it seemed that we had elected someone who was really going to do what he had said.  But for whatever reason, little by little he began stepping back from his promises and twisted his fancy words in ways meant to explain why he was bargaining away all of the desires of those who had voted for him.  The wars dragged on and were intensified.  He shifted his focus away from Iraq and towards Afganistan.  He left thousands of soldiers and "contractors" in Iraq but the media left so we as a society wouldn't have to be bothered thinking about it too much anymore.
     He then moved his support for healthcare for all to a position of supporting what amounts to a give away to the insurance companies that are at the heart of the problem.  He extended the outrageous tax cuts implemented by his nearly discredited predecessor but gave assurances that he would not allow that to happen again.  The in the wake of uprisings in the Middle East and Africa, American workers from different states decided to defend their rights which were being robbed by the politicians who do the work of the rich and powerful.  As the protests became some of the strongest and largest in years, the people's president stayed quiet.  Quiet even though a governor was caught saying that he was contemplating bringing violent thugs to sabotage the peaceful protests.
     Now we are getting ready to enter the campaign season, which seems to last as long as the amount of time that the government actually conducts business, and Pesident Obama has kept almost none of the significant promises that he had made during the historical campaign.  He we find ourselved again in a similar situation except that this president's speeches, if nothing else, remain inspiring.  We will once again be faced with the dilemma of having to choose between a candidate that represents the values of the rich and powerful not only in action but in speech and the one that will certainly dress himself up as the people's champion once again.  We will have to choose "the lesser of two evils" and try to find ways to survive at least another four years once he is elected and puts his costume away.
     Looking in on this from the outside, it must be a bit comical hearing us suggest thaat this is the greatest form of government men have ever created.

El Hermanito del Miami Herald

El Nuevo Herald, el hermanito del Miami Herald, debe ser el periodico oficial de toda la estupidez en Miami.  Aqui esta mi repuesta a los Miamianos (un parte Batistiano y otra parte gusano) celebrando la vida de un terrorista.
(Nota: las palabras "Miamiano, Batistiano, y gusano" son para ofender a la mala gente y no a la buena.)

"Quedan pocos dias para las reliquias de la Guerra Fria en Miami. No hay mas Union Sovietica y Los Estados Unidos son dependiente en China. Se acabaron las excusas de los que pasan el tiempo en Las Versalles quejandose de Kennedy. Esta cambiando la actitud de la poblacion de este pais hacia Cuba. Se esta acabando la paciencia del gobierno y las industrias grandes que le pagan. Sus problemas personales no importan ni un tinsito a nadie a fuera de Miami. El resto del mundo sigue y ustedes todavia estan metido en el dia despues del fracaso de Playa Giron. Todo el mundo vio como se comportan los Miamianos cuando trataron de decir que Elian Gonzalez estuviera mejor sin su papa. El muchacho les gano, como es que piensan que su "movimiento" tiene un futuro?"

Read more: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/04/27/930121/murio-orlando-bosch.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1KokID5KX

Where Did The "Doctor" Named Bosch Go?

One of the most respectable jobs that a person can have is that of a pediatrician.  He is the one that we as parents run to when are babies are sick and sufferring.  They not only bring health back to our children but mend our broken hearts from having to see our kids that way, so helpless, them and us. Pediatricians are some of the everyday heroes everywhere. It's too bad that that was not the story of Orlando Bosch. He was once one of those pediatricians that does so much.  But that was a long, long time ago.  His honorable profession was traded for one dedicated to death, destruction, and pure hate.  He became one of history's terrible men.  The kind that is so offensive that his repugnanace challenges the thoughts of even the most benevolent of people. He was the kind of rotten shell of a human that planned to kill, planned to kill again, and yet seemed not to be bothered at all, yet proud of his ways.  The countless victims and their loved ones left behind are his legacy.  Sadness, emptiness, and horror were his major contributions to the world he lived in. The world will not miss him.  The only thing that will missed was the chance to bring him to justice.  But as luck would have it, he had made deals with powerful devils and was offered their protection. I'm not a religious person, but thinking of where he might be if the religious men were right, helps bring a smile to my face on the day his pathetic existence ended.
I'm amused as I think where the "doctor" might be.  Maybe......

......The Devil welcomes his pawn with a smile.  He takes the arm that had cause so much harm is his own and leads Orlando Bosch to an uncomfortable chair next to the flames.  Mr. Bosch takes his seat where his new master has put him.  The "anti-communist" terrorist is unsure what is happening and for what he seems to be waiting for.  He checks for the time on his wristwatch but it isn't there.  Just then he hears what must be a laugh coming from the devil who looks at the former doctor and says "You won't be needing that here, I've made some other arrangements."  The devil shows him a radio that was made in the USSR.  "I've been keeping this for you."  He flips it on and tunes in to the station, the only station.  Orlando hears "Tic toc tic toc tic toc. This is Radio Reloj."  He is filled with horror as he realizes that even after killing and terrorizing for most of his life, he couldn't make it stop. On earth the Revolution would go on.  Sounds of children laughing, people singing and dancing, it couldn't be stopped.  Orlando twisting and turning, gritting his teeth asks the devil "What's next?"  The Devil looks at his useless soldier with the same terrible smile and answers "We wait for Luis!"

Responding to the Ridiculous

   With the events that are occuring in Africa and the Middle East, the Cuban "exile" community through their typical platforms are trying to link their losing struggle and find sypathy for their greedy cause.  On the second of April, a pitiful excuse of an opinion was published in the Miami Herald.  I don't like to put down others' opinions but if one is more of a distortion than an opinion, I'll have to point it out.
   The link to the column follows the response.  Read that too if possible to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

My response to "Cubans ask:Why should Cuba be different?"

Mr. Cardona, there are a few things in your opinion column that need to be adressed and clarified so that any person who knows little to nothing of the history of relations between the US and Cuba doesn't become confused (which actually may be yor reason for writing such things).

You say that you are surprised at how little the west and other democracies demand of Cuba? Really? What is the cause for your surprise? Are you not aware of the demands placed upon Cuba by the US? There seems to be, depending upon the what year it is and what the global situation is, an endless list of demands that seems to change whenever certain factors change.  In case you may like at least one example, let me start with a simple one.  The US said since Cuba had been aligned with the Soviet Union it was a threat, also being accused of exportring revolutions.  Nevermind that we actually dealt with the Soviet Union, supposedly Cuba was dangerous! The Soviets are long gone and there are no revolutions being exported (unless you count the ones that are being waged at the ballot box like Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and almost every country in the hemisphere tired of having leaders falling all over themselves to make Washington happy). The reasons shifted to civil rights and political prisoners. Well civil rights seem to be a matter of perspective. I think Americans would understand, especially in light of the Patriot Act as a response to terrorist attacks on our country, that Cuba, a country constantly dealing with open attemps of suversion and sabotage, that out of self-defense some civil rights may suffer. As for political prisoners? Well, if people have taken money from and worked with an enemy government, it would be hard to call that political persecution. But let's play your game for a moment and suppose that they are all political prisoners. Amnesty International has now stated that there are no more political prisoners in Cuba. This didn't occur as a result of Cuba bending to US demands, but of apparently out of sensible dicussions with church leaders(civil society) and possibly some arangements with Spanish authorities. What will be the new excuses?

You say other governments use Cuba as an issue to get more concessions from the "Americanos"? What?  Mr. Cardona, turn around, the real world is this way!  Do you not know that Kennedy's Alliance for Progress was put forward by the US as a way to prevent the people's in Latin America discontent from boiling over and causing similar damage to "US interests" all over  the US' "backyard"? As forseen though by Che Guevara (who you call bloodthirsty so as to attempt to portray him negatively to those who know nothing of the topic) the Alliance for Progress did almost nothing to better the lives of the masses in Latin America who did end up taking up arms in various countries in search of an end to the injustices and dictatorships supported by the US (good dictatorships that did the business of Washington). Every government in South and Central America broke diplomatic relations and trade with Cuba except Mexico. That seems to suggest that these countries tried to impress the US instead of using Cuba as a way to "wring concessions" from them as you claim.

You are curious to know how the US would respond to Cuba firing upon its own people? I guess you may be left to wonder unless Washington has plans to dress some mercenaries in Cuban uniforms and stage an event for the cameras similar to what was twarted once in the 1960's when people dressed in Cuban uniforms working for the US were supposed to fire upon the Guantanamo base so we could say Cuba attacked us. It was called "Remember the Maine" just in case that little bit of history has escaped you.

Will we ever learn what happened to cause the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion? Seriously sir, most people already know why it failed so miserably. There seems to be relatively few people still scratching their heads wondering about that. Most of those wondering are the same people that think the hard-line policy towards Cuba is somehow logical and productive.

Why should Cuba be different? I don't think it should be.  The extremists in Miami and Washington ( and a couple in New Jersey) try to make it seem so.  Cuba should be treated with the same repect that any soveriegn country should be given. Ask yourself that question. Try to have more objective thoughts about it and you may find yourself an answer.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/02/2145932/cubans-ask-why-should-cuba-be.html#ixzz1KaEtOIxo

 

Lessons Not Learned

April 17, 1961 Adlai Stevenson at the UN - "These exiles nurse a natural, burning desire to bring freedom to Cuba, and towards that end they work with the dedicated concentration which Jose Marti and other Cuban exiles in the United States have shown in the tradition which is now nearly 100 years old.""Dr. Roa now tells us that the revolutionary government wants only to live in peace, that it does not threaten its neighbors.."It is not the United States which is the cause of Dr. Castro's trouble"

My resopnse.  The exiles are and have been led by a group of people who benefitted from the system that existed before the Revolution.  Their sytem is the one that led to the Revolution. The system that they preferred was one of inequality and they were "free" to abuse their fellow Cubans.  To lump them together with Jose Marti is disgraceful.  Jose Marti understood the desires of the United States and was proven correct as the US imposed itself at the end of Cuba's war for independence.  Those who were invading Cuba at Playa Giron were trained and supported by the US government.  They were not acting independently.  The US has long been a source of trouble for Cuba.


April 18, 1961 Adlai Stevenson at the UN - "Let me be absolutely clear: that the present events are the uprising of the Cuban people"

My response:  History has shown that there was no uprising and Mr. Stevenson's statement was pure fiction.

April 20, 1961 Adlai Stevenson at the UN - "Let me say that we don't deny that the exiles from Cuba have received the sympathy of many people inside and outside the United States". "And what are the lessons to be learned?"

My response: Received money, training, jobs with the CIA all over the hemisphere, and some even the ability to live a life as a terrorist and retire in Miami.


April 20, 1961 John F. Kennedy to the American Society of Newspaper Editors - "I have decided in the last 24 hours to discuss briefly at this time the recent events in Cuba."."We intend to profit from this lesson.  We intend to re-examine and reorient our forces of all kinds- cur tactics and our institutions here in this community.  We intend to intensify our efforts for a struggle in many ways more difficult than war, where disappointment will often accompany us."
My response:  It is a shame that there were no lessons learned from this unfortunate event.  The US continues its attempted subversion of Cuba.  Up until now, the sovereignty of Cuba and other nations is ignored by the great power that feels that it has a special right to act how it pleases with no reprecussions.  The tactics certainly have changed but they will remain useless because the Cuban people have no desire to become trapped in the heartless system that they overcame through struggle 52 years ago.For Washington, in the case of Cuba, disappointment has been its accompaniment as JFK predicted.

Progress

A letter dated August 20,1918 and addressed to American workers is quite interesting in the sense of how little has changed over the past century. One of the interesting paragraphs goes like this:

"The American people, who set the world an example in waging a revolutionary war against feudal slavery, now find themselves in the latest, capitalist stage of wage slavery to a handful of multimillionaires, and find themselves playing the role of hired thugs who, for the benefit of wealthy scoundrels, throttled the Philippines in 1898 on the pretext of "liberating" them..."

Afganistan, Iraq, now Lybia and how many others since the letter.  The obvious attack on workers rights that has received some media coverage.  The multimillionaiers are now multiBillionaires and still aren't satisfied.  That is a symptom of greed. It is amazing how far we haven't come.

Oh yeah, the letter was written by Vladimir Lenin.

No More $ For Radio Marti

Times are tough. Families are hurting, bills are mounting, households that are dependent on two incomes scrape by with just one in many cases. We wait for the market gods to make things right. In the meantime everyone is tightening their belts trying to make due with less. We are led to believe that our always responsible leaders are looking for ways to help by cutting government budgets.  There is always talk of "hard decisions" that have to be made.  Oh who would want to be in the position of telling people that the small amount of help that our society affords to people, usually the ones who need it most, will have to be cut back?  Not me.  I would rather hear that our rediculously large military budget be slashed. We could perhaps not employ mercenaries to do the jobs that our soldiers traditionally have done. Maybe we could end a war or two, possibly a bombing campaign or something. There certainly must be a base or two somewhere on earth that could be closed. I know of one in Guantanamo, Cuba.  The lease we signed over a hundred years ago while occupying Cuba has expired.  The Cuban government and people don't want it there.  It may be the only base in the world being completely imposed on the host country.  But we know that the military budget is off limits so lets find something from domestic expenditures we could do without.  Hey, I have another idea!  Maybe we can stop funding radio Marti. Also we can get rid of the TV version of it too.  I know, I know Florida is a battleground state. Maybe it will have to wait until after the 2012 election cycle. But how about making tough decisions now? People would be hard pressed to explain what is the use of maintaining this gift to this small group of people in South Florida when it is only seen and heard right there in South Florida.  Cubans don't even want to see it.  Go to Cuba and you will see them more interested in game shows, soap operas, and reality TV than the obvious garbage coming from those "Made in Miami" atrocities.  Let's do something inteligent that won't cut essential programs for people in our country.Let's get rid of these Cold War relics.

The "Dissidents" in Cuba

 I'd just like to put the "dissidents" in perspective.  The other day it was reported that cables released through Wikileaks show that Washington has been funneling cash to Syrian exiles who were recognized by the US as an "illegal political group." I'm sure that clever people can understand why that is so important when we are talking about "dissidents in Cuba! People like that might even be referred to as mercenaries.  As in any country, there are people who disagree with things and complain about others.  But there is a huge difference between trying to make your country a better place and working for a hostile foreign government.

Miami Still Blames Kennedy!

In the Sun Sentinel columnist(?) Guillermo I. Martinez is blaming Kennedy for the failure of the mercenaries at Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs).  These clowns never tire of pumping this lie.  Everyone knows that the U.S. is and was militarily capable of destroying Cuba. What folks like Mr. Martinez try to do is confuse people about is the popularity of the Cuban revolution and the leadership of Fidel Castro. His article is named "US, Cuba, Latin America still paying for JFK's weakness at Bay of Pigs". The link is:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-gmcol-bay-of-pigs-martinez-0421-20110421,0,1472632.column

My response is here.

The fairy tales continue in South Florida. What would our hemisphere look like, the author asks, had things gone differently during the invasion of Playa Giron?  It would look actually quite similar to how it is today.  There would still be huge numbers of impoverished people and tremendous wealth in the hands of a few. He claims ignorantly that Venezuela, Bolivia,  Ecuador, Nicaragua, and many others believe in Cuba's totalitarian model.  Not one of those countries have aspired to copy the Cuban model.  Each one has moved in a direction according to its own situation.  Of course when these countries find inspiration in Cuba's revolution and its independence, it is absolutely horrifying to those who cannot admit that there is even one genuine smile on the island. I suppose that not wanting to be dominated by the US and the local oligarchs is the part that these countries have borrowed from Cuba's example. 
This group of people say that up is down, and left is right.  They say such obvious obsurdities that they expose themselves for what they really are.  They left their homeland with the belief that someone else would do their dirty work and then all would be the way it was.  They would continue to exploit their fellow countrymen or live lives out of the reach of the majority of the Cuban people. More than 52 years later they have come to the realization that they were an indesireable minority and most of them will be living in what they call "Little Havana" until the end.  They have exiled themselves and I suppose in a certain sense have gotten a little of what they wanted.  They have adapted to Miami and exploited the Cubans and other immigrants in Miami instead of in Cuba.  They have also survived on government handouts that are in the millions of dollars. Why would they want to do anything else? 
Well the thing that they fail to accept is that the American people have learned of their games and aren't exactly as supportive as they once were.  The Cold War mentality is gone exept in Miami and most Americans don't support continuing the embargo.  Also, big business lobbies are itching to do business with Cuba. These powerful lobbies are starting to grumble in Washington. I think we'll see that Washington is listening.