Thoughts on Cuba

Why now, Cuba? First, when Castro took over they were propped up by the USSR. Then when it collapsed they turned to Venezuela which Cuba had infected with Communism. In turn it collapsed and Cuba lost again in the game of dictators. Both countries lost enormously in the exodus of its middle and upper class. When tourism finally came back to Cuba under Obama's circumventing the law, the pandemic soon followed. Supported by relatives in the U.S. for decades with remittances (billions), the Cuban government and its lackeys and apologists in the U.S. media and the Democrat party, the people have said, ENOUGH. Is it too late?

We could learn from Cuba and Venezuela, but will we? We have powerful socialism lovers in Congress and the White House.

https://providencemag.com/video/venezuelas-chavismo-disaster/  

Our media flunkies are bragging about the literacy rate in Cuba. What's to read? More Communist propaganda about how great the Castros were? More lies about the heroic Motherland? And who can trust the data from a Communist country? Other Latin American countries also saw literacy and health care improve in the same decades, and they didn't have to give up their freedoms. Also, if a family tried to provide their children with religious instruction, those children would then not be allowed a higher education and a career. How's that for literacy?

And it's all coming to the USA if you don't pay attention to your local school board, stop the cancel culture workshops in your churches and community organizations, if you don't put the NFL and MLB owners in their place by refusing to play (watch) their games or support their sponsors, if you don't go to the polls in 2022, if you don't insist on honest elections free of "pandemic" special rules for some.

Senator Sanders Is Wrong on Cuban Education and Healthcare | Cato at Liberty Blog

Cuba isn't the only western country with political prisoners. Compare the January 6 prisoners with those arrested for the ongoing assaults on Democrat run cities and federal property. You can't even find a total because our "free press" refuses to investigate. Here's just ONE list for ONE riot in ONE city. Our Columbus still hasn't recovered from the Floyd riots. 

More than two dozen Antifa rioters charged for Portland mayhem (nypost.com)

There will never be a fair investigation as long as Nancy Pelosi is in charge, because she's the one who dropped the ball (deliberately, I believe) when she knew from undercover investigation that people planned to storm the capitol. That said, she's ordered no investigation of who killed Ashli Babbitt, and unless that's included there should be no investigation.

Support for communism with our tax breaks

"Over the next several weeks, from late July through early August 2019, a little-known pilgrimage of American radicals will take place. The Venceremos Brigade, a group that traces its history to the far-Left activism of the late 1960s, will be making its 50th anniversary trip to Cuba in order to labor in solidarity with that country’s communist government. Though the size, structure, and organization of its activities have changed somewhat over the decades, the Brigade still retains its affinity for Cuba’s authoritarian socialist society and its disdain for U.S. foreign policy. And today, it operates as a project of a multi-million dollar 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization [Alliance for Global Justice] with financial ties across the mainstream center-Left."  https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-venceremos-brigade-fifty-years-of-cuban-solidarity/

It seems there is no end to the misuse of the 501c3 classification of "nonprofit."

“Alliance for Global Justice supports numerous leftist causes with it's 501c3 status and "in recent years it has received grants from numerous labor unions like the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and the SEIU, as well as other 501(c)(3) nonprofits like the Proteus Fund, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the Tides Foundation."

These organizations/labor unions all support Communism this way.

Cubans at the southern border

Imagine that. Mexico is overwhelmed by the illegal immigration headed for our southern border and over a thousand broke out of the holding facility. The majority of migrants moving through Mexico are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to Reuters, but Cubans are also joining in large numbers. More than 1,000 people from Cuba are now in Chiapas, according to Mexican officials.

The word has been put out by leftist non-profits that help them and Democrats (but I repeat) that if they can get to the U.S. they will be let go to "return" later for a hearing. And of course, very few do because most are not refugees. But I am curious why Cubans would take these risks to leave their socialist paradise.

Liberal friend Jim (an electrician) believes Cuba’s government failed because of U.S. sanctions. Pfffft. The sanctions are gone, and they never had sanctions from other countries. They had no restricted trade from South America or Mexico or USSR. THE SYSTEM FAILED. I get travel brochures each week showing 1950s automobiles and happy, clappy Cuban dancers. Why do people like Jim still believe in socialism when he’s seen it fail his entire lifetime, and he’s educated and knows the end result is always Cuba or Venezuela or the USSR? Y

Yes, we have a system for asylum seekers, but bussing well dressed, well fed, freely traveling Hondurans and Salvadorans and Pakistanis illegally to swamp our borders, courts and safety net system isn't it.

Democrats are just being honest about who they are

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has pushed Democrats out of the closet--they are finally honest about who they are. Elizabeth Warren wants to tax wealth instead of income, Kamala Harris wants to raise taxes and make all medical care free for the asking, getting rid of health insurance, and Julian Castro thinks a 70% tax rate (AOC's suggestion) is too low--he's going for 90%. Meanwhile, Venezuela is in chaos--people are starving while the rulers stash away money for what they know is coming, Cuba looks like a 1950s used car lot, North Koreans don't have food or electricity, and 100 million East Europeans, Russians and Chinese are dead. All is forgotten by gen-x and millennial snowflakes due to erosion of the education system that began before their parents were born. It's been 30 years since Americans naively believed when that wall came down between the Germanys, Communism had failed. We have several generations who are reanimating the Socialist Zombies of history.

And what countries had the most liberal abortion laws in history, and are now suffering for it? USSR and China. Democrats are pushing that too.

A patriotic immigrant—not waving the flag of the country of his birth

“I grew up in communist Cuba. I remember standing in lines to get food and my mother holding her little card that allowed for our rations.

My father Raul came to this country with my mother and sister in 1977. I remember how Newark airport smelled. We moved in with my aunt, oh yeah, we were legal immigrants. My father was a CPA in Cuba, a proud man. My mother was a homemaker. When we immigrated, a social worker came to our apartment. She wanted to make sure my sister and I were in school.

My mother got a job in a factory. My Dad worked 3 jobs. I never saw him except on Sunday’s when we watched the Yankees or the NY Giants. My father spoke to the social worker. She explained  “ entitlements”. She explained  “ Food stamps “. My dad asks her, “ how do I work for the food?!” She laughs at him. , “ oh no! Mr. Diaz, they are free...”.

My dad looks at her, I never forgot his gaze, he said : “ Ms. Do you know where I came from?! Cuba! A communist/ socialist country. Where free food was never free. It was a form of slavery. I came here to work for all I have. I will not accept socialism in my life again!” He never accepted any “free” anything. All we got , we earned.

My father went to school at night after 3 jobs. He earned his CPA firm he still owns. My sister became a CPA as well. I have two Masters Degrees. My sister and I have 1st generation kids born here in the best country. My sons: one a micro biologist. The other working on PhD. The other will be applying to medical school. My sister : her daughter is an attorney, the other an engineer. No entitlements. Work hard. No affirmative action.

Immigrants are great. Just come here legally. Work for what you want. Don’t use race as your excuse. Thankful to this country.”

Marti Dias-Domm from the Walkaway Campaign

Attack on Sessions is to bring down Trump

The meeting for members of Congress with the Russian ambassador was set up by the Obama State Department during the RNC in Cleveland! How rich is that--spread a huge net and catch anyone who might be selected for any position in the Trump administration! The Democrats are two--or five--faced as usual. The Russian ambassador met with Obama over 20 times during the campaign, and when asked about h...er meeting with him, Nancy Pelosi said she never did, but there are photos of her meeting with him now circulating the Internet. And in that interview, which I watched, she seems to be having great trouble with her words and memory--and not just about Russia.  Republicans should gird their loins--after Attorney General Sessions (the goal is to take down Trump) it will be someone else who possibly met with someone from North Korea, or perhaps Cuba, which is a Communist government oppressing its citizens off our southern shore. Cuba. Don't people try to escape that workers' paradise? But Democrats celebrated that even though the U.S. got nothing from the deal.  Hmmm. Who in the government was plugging that? Former President Obama.

"" Sean Spicer, the Trump White House spokesman, said, “The only new piece of information that has come to light is that political appointees in the Obama administration have sought to create a false narrative to make an excuse for their own defeat in the election.” He added, “There continues to be no there, there.”"

There's also news this morning that Trump Tower was wired by order of President Obama.  This attempt by Democrats to undo the election results is getting very serious. Joseph McCarthy redux. This should be the story of the day--if we had a free and honest media. The media reported negatively about Trump 88% of first four weeks of his presidency (Media Research Center) and had thrills up their legs and laps when writing about Obama. The question to be answered--does this help or hurt him? The general public knows how wrong they were about the election, do they even pay attention? And do they believe any of the non-Trump stories? 

Congress met with Russians all through the campaign, but the President especially met with them--22 times. And he assured the American people there was no truth to the Russia rumors. Obama's Justice Department investigated Hillary Clinton and his AG met with Clinton's husband privately to discuss grandchildren. Everything points to Obama as the campaign fixer, an attempt which failed.

 http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/02/russian-ambassador-sergey-kislyak-appeared-as-obama-white-house-visitor-at-least-22-times/?

http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/obama-administration-arranged-sessions-first-meeting-russian-ambassador-fmr-doj

Meltdowns of the left--where to start?

There are approximately 50 predominately Muslim countries, and the restriction (put in place by Obama) is for seven who harbor terrorists. The American left/Democrats went apoplectic even though it's shorter than Obama's "bans" and is temporary. Do they want to go on record as blocking all Muslim countries? Obama sent back Cuban refugees his final week--to a Communist country. Not a peep from the left.  And oh how they wept that the temporary attorney general decided to follow her own religion and defied her boss and the law and was fired. I guess judges are not members of unions.  This could be a step to a political career--not that she wasn't political already.  

Then the students are rioting in UC Berkeley--a gay, conservative was on campus to give a speech, and if you remember the 60s, it's sort of like that. Maybe grandpa had told them stories of the good old days.  Burning and trashing buildings and pepper spraying anyone who looked like a Trump supporter. Looks like the DeVos nomination might end in a tie in which case Mike Pence gets to cast the deciding vote. Meanwhile, they are busy trashing Gorsuch as the SCOTUS pick--and he's the one to replace a conservative.  They'd better save their big guns for the next choice, which might be to replace a liberal. If you ever thought opposition to Trump was about him being a fool, a fascist and sexist, then just look at what they are doing to Gorsuch, the closest to Jesus I've ever seen in politics. He's an "originalist" and believes judges should keep their personal politics off the bench.  Oh, horror for wise Latinas! 

And media--our third opposition party. They are horrified at Spicer and Bannon making changes in how they filter and chop and drop the news.  For 16 years we've had to put up with 8 years of anti-Bush, then 8 years of anything goes for Obama.  Now there's a new sheriff in town, and he hasn't even locked them up.  But he is adding to the select pool at the press conferences, and CNN and broadcast are now being called out like Obama demeaned Fox News for years. The media completely fail in its research and analysis during the campaign. Think about your own job/career. If your company, agency or library had misled millions of people for months, would it still be respected? Would the CEO, or even you, still have a job?

Canadian Prime Minister honors freedom loving Fidel Castro

Can you imagine a chief of state of a free, democratic country saying these things about the death of Stalin or Hitler? Yet what is the difference? Jailed or tortured for thought crimes. Killed for defying the state. Public parades with forced adoration. Reeducation camps for political dissidents. Suppression of religion. Equal opportunity poverty except for state officials who own vast real estate holdings and gorgeous palaces which they stole from the owners who fled the country. 

“It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest serving President.

“Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.

“While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for “el Comandante”.

“I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader.”

 "Today, the media take a brief time-out from worrying about Trump being a dictator to praise Fidel Castro." – Anne Coulter

Of Democrats and dogs

In today's program at Lakeside Chautauqua about Cuba in the 1950s after the revolution, the Cuban born American lawyer Jose Mas mentioned the nationalization of all businesses, not just that owned by foreigners (Americans). Musing, I wondered if that's like stealing bakeries, flower shops and pizza parlors because the owners don't cotton to the government party line, so thus the jailing or fining of the owners. It's also why you see major corporations supporting pride parades--hush money and blackmail, or rainbowmail. Little businesses can't afford that, or have too many scruples.

In the afternoon I attended a delightful program at the Lakeside Women's Club, Officer Josh Young and Joe Joe of the Danbury Police K-9 Unit.  What a beautiful dog (born, raised and trained in the Czech Republic) and a terrific bond between officer and dog.  He is trained to find 5 drugs, and any derivative of those drugs.  And if you try to hurt Josh, he will probably tear you apart. There many children there, and I loved seeing how wonderful he was with the kids.

http://www.tactical-life.com/news/danbury-township-police-department-k-9/

Pavlo, Elvis and Noone

Wonderful program by Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits at Hoover Auditorium in Lakeside Saturday night. What a performer! He looks 45 when he comes out, and 75 when he finishes--really puts everything into it (he's 68). Noone and the Hermits had outsold the Beatles by 1965. The audience loved the sing a longs, and the impersonation of some other performers like Jagger and Cash (he's great at that).

Friday night we had a great Elvis impersonator, Mike Albert, and he'd shortened his show a bit which strengthened it. He's so great with the kids. I think he had them on stage at least 3 times.  Also his mother.

 The Saturday before we enjoyed Pavlo, (Pavlo Simtikidis) and because my husband takes guitar lessons, he was really thrilled.

Sunday there was a lecture on the Ross cottages (large, hip roof style, about 100 years old) for the archives program.  I blogged about them years ago. Learned we had stayed in 2 as rentals back in the 70s.

Art show begins this Tuesday and my husband is teaching perspective drawing at the Rhein Center this week. Day time programs are on Cuba.

Obama's Cuban Legacy

While our President cavorts with the dictator of Cuba, and the smoke clears and the bodies are counted in Brussels, let us remember that ISIS would be but a failed footnote in history if Obama hadn't turned tail and run from Iraq. He's so anxious for a legacy? He's got one.

 How is it Obama is able to connect the history of the two countries with the slave trade and leaves out 60 years of Communism which devastated the economy and culture of a vibrant island nation and which the U.S. defeated economically? He must have brought thousands into the Trump movement with that speech, unfortunately.

 Have you ever noticed how Obama gets his little digs into American blacks and the civil rights struggle by pointing out his father was from Kenya, who had no slavery in his background (but he was a Communist and atheist)? He let the Cubans know today that his blood lines are above all that, no history of slavery for him. Such a snob.

Obama's legacy--Cuba, Russia and Iran--all stronger

Paula Priesse writes: "Barack Obama didn’t feel the need to attend the funerals of Margaret Thatcher, Chris Kyle, Antonin Scalia or Nancy Reagan. Nor (unlike Michael Brown & Freddie Gray) did he send WH representatives to the funerals of police officers senselessly murdered, such as slain NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos & Wenjian Liu. And O didn’t have the time to march in solidarity with other world leaders in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo attack. But somehow he has found the time to play hundreds of rounds of golf, fill out his NCAA brackets for eight straight years and to pose in Cuba for the photo below. Perhaps someday America will once again have a president who believes in freedom. Because we sure as hell don’t have one now!"
 

"The truth about Che now has its boots on. He helped free Cubans from the repressive Batista regime, only to enslave them in a totalitarian police state worst than the last. He was Fidel Castro’s chief executioner, a mass-murderer who in theory could have commanded any number of Latin American death squads, from Peru’s Shining Path on the political left to Guatemala’s White Hand on the right." World Affairs, Feb. 7, 2014

State sponsored terrorism—Cuba and Iran

I understand why Obama lied about traditional marriage in order to get elected, but what does he have to gain from getting cuddly with Cuba and Iran? Both are top listed for state sponsored terrorism. http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2013/224826.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/world/americas/obama-cuba-remove-from-state-terror-list.html?_r=0

Leader of the swap was serving 2 life sentences

“The three Cubans released as a part of the deal belonged the so-called Cuban Five, a quintet of Cuban intelligence officers convicted in 2001 for espionage. They were part of what was called the Wasp Network, which collected intelligence on prominent Cuban-American exile leaders and U.S. military bases.

The leader of the five, Gerardo Hernandez, was linked to the February 1996 downing of the two civilian planes operated by the U.S.-based dissident group Brothers to the Rescue, in which four men died. He is serving a two life sentences. Luis Medina, also known as Ramon Labanino; and Antonio Guerrero have just a few years left on their sentences.”

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3951389545001/family-of-brothers-to-the-rescue-victim-rips-cuba-deal/?#sp=show-clips

Slap in the face of the families of the killed men.  They were not told the swap was going to take place.

Dennis Prager on the Pope and the Dictator

It took a Pope, a President and a Prime Minister to bring down the USSR. now a President and a Pope are propping up a dictator regime.

I don’t get to hear talk show host Dennis Prager often, but had him on today during a late lunch.  He is not happy with the Pope. And I paraphrase him on Obama's normalizing relations with the Castro dictatorship. The Pope is a very nice man, he said, but he is a Latin American. They find it hard not to love a leftist dictator. Can we imagine such nice things being said about the right wing dictatorship of South African apartheid?

Gloria Estefan

Another really terrific CD--this one for $2.00 from the library Friends' sale--Gloria Estefan's "Hold me, thrill me, kiss me," a collection of cover tunes, and all very nice. The title song was a 1952 big hit. If I can just find a boom box that plays cds, I'm getting a nice collection of love songs for our anniversary background music.

Gloria's family fled Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959. Her father was imprisoned while taking part in the Bay of Pigs invasion and was not released until President John F. Kennedy arranged a prisoner exchange. She on the other hand, displeased many Cuban Americans by throwing a $30,000 a head fund raiser for President Obama in April, although she claims to be non-partisan. Well, the marxists, socialists and progressives who people his staff are not, so she has chosen a political philosophy that has torn Cuba apart for 50 years. I think many celebrities and entertainers have a huge guilt complex about their wealth, and believe if they swing left they can shake some of it.

Attention Black Caucus

Still wearing your Che t-shirts? Swooning over all those wonderful medical benefits Castro doles out ala Michael Moore's propaganda pics?

"Afro-Cubans officially make up 62 percent of the Cuban population and possibly 70 percent. Afro-Cubans “are experiencing strong and growing instances of racism on the island, with their 25-odd civil rights movements reporting a wide range of discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion and access to Cuba’s socialized medicine and educational system,” according to the U.S. State Department." Read article by Matt Hentoff, Rampant racism in Cuba

HT SafeLibraries

American Cubans cry foul

Capitol Hill Cubans find this very odd--the duplicity of a prominent environment organization which claims to work with business and governments to promote a healthier globe. Coziness with Castro doesn't sound very business-friendly to me, and I remember his promises from the 1950s! Interesting web site.

"The Environmental Defense Fund ("EDF") is an advocacy organization that vehemently opposes oil drilling, whether in mainland areas such as Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or off-shore in the Gulf of Mexico and other U.S. coastal zones.

Therefore, it was shocking to read the following press release:

Environmental Defense Fund will send a team of experts to Havana, Cuba, on Sunday to discuss ways to eliminate overfishing, protect coral reefs, conserve coastal areas, and tap potential ocean energy - a signal that greater environmental cooperation may be on the horizon.
"...and tap potential ocean energy"?

Their website further elaborates:

Environmental Defense Fund has been in Cuba since 2000, working with our Cuban partners on scientific research and strategies for protecting coastal and marine resources. Our experts are working with Cuban scientists on research to ensure that if Cuba taps offshore oil and gas reserves, it is done right — in an environmentally sustainable way.

"...if Cuba taps oil and gas reserves"?

In other words, the same organization that absolutely opposes offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, or off any U.S. coast, is now looking to work with the Castro regime in order to ensure that they drill "in an environmentally sustainable way."

It's fascinating how the EDF is willing to provide such leeway to the Castro regime, whose environmental record includes grazing half of the island's eco-system for overambitious sugar cane harvests and polluting Havana's skyline with sulfuric acids, while being absolutist in their opposition to drilling in the U.S."

Also read at their site what happens when bloggers displease a totalitarian, statist government.

Has Bill McKibben abandoned Jesus for Al Gore?

Looking back through his writings, I'd say YES. Five or ten years ago he was obsessed with correcting self-centered, me-and-Jesus Christianity, the failures of dispensationalism on the one end and Rick Warren on the other, with some CO2 and environmentalism as top dressing. Oddly, I didn't find much criticism of the humanistic, communistic, peace and justice Christians. The ones whose churches have emptied out from lack of following Jesus. From admiring Cuba's agriculture, to criticizing just about everything in American culture, his Christian veneer is desperately thin, even five years ago. Yesterday, the big 350 event, shows he's completely moved to climate changism. Algorism. No more "let's pretend". Since Jesus put all Creation in motion, (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1:1-3 RSV), it's odd to see yet another man-made, spiritual but not Christian, movement go global. Ah, the power of the internet. Paul was much more convincing back in the first century and demanded much more of people than demonstrating, painted faces, group projects, and protests. Yes, much more demanding.

Hundreds of photos at the 350 site. From expensive sail boats to high tech bicycles. But I thought this one on the site of a destroyed culture seemed to best illustrate what eco-fundamentalists want for us--especially America. Didn't the rulers of some of these civilizations need human sacrifice to stay in power?

Is WaPo reporter complicit in blaming U.S.?

So it was the fault of President Carter and all those nasty capitalists of the 1970s that these coddled, wealthy, ungrateful people were spies for Communist Cuba?

"What Walter Kendall Myers kept hidden, according to documents unsealed in court Friday, was a deep and long-standing anger toward his country, an anger that allegedly made him willing to spy for Cuba for three decades.

"I have become so bitter these past few months. Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience," he wrote in his diary in 1978, referring to what he described as greedy U.S. oil companies, inadequate health care and "the utter complacency of the oppressed" in America. On a trip to Cuba, federal law enforcement officials said in legal filings, Myers found a new inspiration: the communist revolution.

Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn, 71, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy, being agents of a foreign government and wire fraud. Their arrest left friends and former colleagues slack-jawed, unable to square the man depicted in the indictment with the witty intellectual with a prep-school background they knew. Washington Post in a much too sympathetic story for my tastes by Mary Beth Sheridan

Don't you wonder about wealthy people, children of privilege and elitist educations (like our first couple) deciding that everyone should be poor like the Cubans? What kind of guilt does that?

The author of this piece apparently was really stunned 4 years ago when through her "embedded" experience with the military she discovered such shocking things about our soldiers--they were decent, patriotic, and non brainwashed. Imagine.

"First of all, she said she was "overwhelmed by the military," but she did learn by being embedded that members of our armed forces were not "blood-thirsty maniacs." Yes, she really did say that.

In fact, she said, they were "really decent people." And even "sweet." Of course, after being shot at they were eager to shoot back — a military attitude that seemed to surprise her.

She also reported that when she asked soldiers why were they in Iraq, every single one told her, "to help the Iraqi people." Again she was surprised that the military could create such a unity of purpose even though, she said, she didn't see any "brainwashing" going on. She also noted that many soldiers had no opinion about the war. They had gone where they were ordered to go, like all good soldiers. Such an attitude seemed to dazzle her as well.

She didn't have anything much to say about "reporters as citizens," but clearly she appeared to be one citizen who had very little familiarity with, or understanding of, or even quite possibly respect for the military before her tour of duty. In a way, it is kind of sad that only after some first-hand experience did she learn what most American citizens believe: that American soldiers are "decent people." And that it is those soldiers, not our journalists, after all, who protect our freedom of the press." Reporters as citizens