We Broke The Vase

Some 10 generations ago we were bequeathed a beautiful valuable Vase by our ancestors. They struggled mightily to build it, and some even gave their lives in that great effort. For 200 plus years many fought, bled, and died to protect that gift. In essence the Vase itself is simple and not of great monetary value, but what it represents cannot be purchased, valued, nor can it be replaced.

This week in an amateurish act a man sworn to protect the Vase decided he would tip it over just for kicks; just to please his friends. The issue is the Vase belongs to all of us, but he broke it. Regardless of what happens tomorrow and how much well-meaning citizens say they can fix it, we all know they can’t.
As the refrain goes “we cannot put the Genie back in the bottle”.

I was born on the island of Cuba; or as many would say a banana republic. That is the land of my birth and although it is upsetting to hear, I have always understood that the refrain is true. Banana republics are the places where former leaders are never safe when there is a new power regime in place. Vendettas and going after your political opponents is par for the course, just the way things are in those places.

One more thing, regardless of how you feel about Donald J Trump this is not about him. This is about that beautiful Vase we just broke. For years I have been asked on many occasions what political party I belong to, and the answer is simple “None”. My allegiance is to The Constitution of The United States and this week I’m hurting because they broke our Vase.

​Shame on you. . . 

Entra Yeyo

I grew up in an environment that had a fair amount of Cuban music. First in my native Matanzas and later in my adopted hometown of Miami. In the City of Matanzas music was all around. It was not unusual to see a group of improvised musicians going the down the street with a Rumba rhythm and a crowd of enthusiastic followers dancing behind them (arrollando). Later in Miami it was common to hear the neighbors having a jam session of mostly percussion instruments and a little horn. If I went to the beach or went to a party the conga drum would call out to me. It was inevitable that I would acquire a used drum while still a teen and the rest is history. I have been a conga player my whole life and I owe it to my dad. He instilled in me the appreciation for this music, passed on the “music gene” and then was my biggest cheerleader. My father passed away a couple of months ago and in the last few days it’s when I have gradually begun to listen to music again; it feels good. Recently there was a song with an upbeat conga tempo, and I instinctively said “Entra Yeyo”. (Remembering my dad)
 
Yeyo Griñanes was a tall black man who lived in my father’s hometown of Guira de Macuriges (Arsenio Rodriguez hometown). Yeyo was the master Conga player in Guira. My father told me on many occasions the stories of parties he was invited to where there were several percussionists playing. Should Yeyo walk in, the lead drum would immediately be his; hence the expression “Entra Yeyo”. As a grown adult I played with a band in Miami and my father frequently attended the functions the band played. When he wanted to complement me or encourage my playing, he would say “Entra Yeyo!”.  (With a big smile on his face)

My father was an exceptional human being, excellent son, husband, father, grandfather, friend to all and the most positive and enthusiastic human being I’ve ever known.

I will continue to listen to Cuban music thru the tears and keep saying “Entra Yeyo!”

Bare Grocery Shelves

We are watching the systematic destruction of our political, social, and economic systems. Our way of life is no more than a few steps away from vanishing all together. When I originally wrote about this subject in 2008 warning of the Socialist turn we were making, many said I was exaggerating after all this is The United States of America; things like that don’t happen here. Well, my friends they do happen, and they are happening at an ever-accelerating rate, right before our eyes. At the time the concern was that there were hints of Socialism with the proposal of Universal Health Care and other related policies. Today we don’t even have to worry about the health care issue; the government has already decided they are going to decide for us. (Have you had your vaccine yet?)

1. This vaccine is good, and it will totally protect you.
2. The reason the vaccine is not working is that there are unvaccinated people.
3. Once the unvaccinated people get vaccinated then the vaccine will work. (See #1)
   
   

It is very interesting that we are all so worried about this pandemic, vaccines, mandates and all the other nuances you navigate in this scary new world they have created for us. The virus can decide by itself if you die today or some day in the future; but we are all going to die eventually so why this hysteria over something with a survival rate in the high 90%’s. The fundamental question therefore is not the Pandemic and dying. The fundamental question is why is it that all these changes are needed to our political, social, and economic system to “fight a virus”? (Please read that last sentence again)

Before I continue let’s clarify something, the virus is real, the vaccines offer some protection and we must behave sensibly considering this challenge; however, it is not the prerogative of your state, local or national government to dictate to you what course of action you take medical or otherwise. I come from the school of thought that believes that governments’ role is to do a few things and only a few things. (Stay out of our lives)

Let’s look at a few of the actions taken:

• Initially we shut down to slow the spread. Then let’s do it on and off on the whims of your government. Totally inconsistent with the ability of businesspeople to plan and run a successful business. This was OK for the government since a profitable and successful business sector is not a priority for a Socialist agenda, control is.
• We must give money to businesses to help them move along. To receive the money, you must do and comply with certain things as directed by your government. Control was the objective again.
• The suddenly unemployed must be taken care of, so both the States and the Federal government started handing out benefits and companies were required to maintain certain benefits. Again, control is the objective. Disrupting and damaging the American economy was the icing on the cake.
• Every citizen must wear a mask, when medical personnel are telling us that the masks are at best a placebo. This one is about control. How many leaders have been seen not wearing the masks. . . . . . . , exactly.
• You must be six feet apart even in places where the air moves around and does not stop at six feet. Placebo time and control.
• You can’t send your kids to school because they are not vaccinated, and this will harm society. It is a basic tenet of Socialism that kids are the purview of the State, not the parents. Control again.
• You can’t go to Church because we cannot have major gatherings. Do you recall seeing other major gatherings during 2020/2021? Religious gatherings are diametrically opposed to Socialism and its control, so the church was unduly punished.
• You shouldn’t go to your family’s annual Thanksgiving or Christmas gathering and if you do ask for passports at the door. Divide and conquer.
• I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.
  
  

A vast majority of the actions taken and imposed on the American people have nothing to do with a public health crisis. They have a lot to do with damaging America and finally achieving the objective to “Fundamentally Change” the country. To fundamentally change America, you must destroy her greatest assets; Her Constitution, rule of law, economic system, political structure, our voting system, and you must demoralize her citizenry. We’re there, all these things are happening simultaneously, which is a clear indication of the premeditation and intent to do harm to The United States of America.

One last thing we now have, empty grocery stores in many places or at least partially empty and for me this is both a flashback and a sign of hope. It is a flashback because I was born on the island of Cuba where Socialism “thrives”, and I clearly recall my father’s store with the empty shelves. It’s hard to take in that image. My family lost everything to the experiment the Socialist made in Cuba. That experiment has not worked and will never work. If you hear someone saying they didn’t do it right, they are lying. Cuba did it (Socialism) by the book, and it ended up where it always ends up, with empty shelves. There is nothing more indicative of a failing society that its inability to supply and feed itself. We are there and I am hopeful, because for the first time in almost two years it is hitting the American public right in the face.

We all go to the grocery store weekly and we all must buy supplies to take care of our families. They can’t hide behind the mandates, the media and all the other non-sense anymore. The shelves are empty and if you order something it could take weeks or months. The Socialist policies are bearing fruit.

We are there, and I am Hopeful; because those of us who lived it can now point to the empty shelves and repeat what we have been warning about, to help our fellow citizens understand where we are.
 
We are there and I am hopeful!
 
God help and Bless The United States of America!

Willing Accomplices
How the Media Failed Cuba

For years those of us who were born in Cuba or grew up in a Cuban family; have wondered about the media and why they report things on Cuba so differently from the way we hear them at home and from relatives on the island. The American media has for the better part of a century leaned left. This left leaning bent was always interpreted as adhering to more liberal ideologies with respect to government programs and issues of social justice. This was a left leaning bent, we all tolerated and could accept.

The left leaning reporting and manipulation that is going on today however, has long ago crossed over into a completely different territory. While in the past they parroted whatever the talking points were as issued by the Castro regime, now they are running a “hide and deflect” campaign against liberty.

For example, over the first three days of the demonstrations in Cuba I looked at multiple news outlets and how they reported and worded their stories (TV & Websites). There has been a focus on the Covid 19 pandemic, the lack of resources and a significant mention of the so called “US Embargo”. What they failed to say is that the demonstrators were screaming “Down with the dictatorship” and “Libertad”. They were not screaming, “we want vaccines”; they were screaming we want LIBERTY. Many in the public did not get that report in the Media, but why?

Since the early days of “The Cuban Revolution” the American left and the American left leaning media treated Cuba as petri dish for all their hopes an aspiration. Cuba was the example (the testing ground) of all that could be accomplished if we could just try that socialism thing (without the green fatigues and uniforms). The petri dish festered for 62 years, and the observers kept telling us that Cuba had achieved great strides in Medicine and Education. It was all a lie, a very BIG LIE.

For us Cubans the lie started with your esteemed colleague Herbert Matthews of the New York Times in the 1950’s, who did an expose story on the “Robin Hood” who would come down from the mountains and make everything alright in Cuba. Well, he did come down from the mountains and it turned out he was a psychopath, a very shrewd and manipulative psychopath. Then throughout the six decades of this dictatorship the left leaning media dutifully reported stories on Cuba, always in the best light possible for the dictatorship.

So here we are after six decades, and the petri dish is no more. The experiment failed and the lab is a mess, a real BIG MESS. The problem remains however, how do we clean it up We sure will not get any help from the media, they are still working on the premise the experiment has a possibility of working. They are so convinced they are even willing to promote trying it in the US. Two tasks remain for all Cubans.

If you are a Cuban on the island – Keep fighting.

If you are a Cuban on the outside – Keep speaking out.

We have few friends, and it takes times like this to sort those details out.

“Estamos Solos con Dios” (I like those odds!)

Cuban Lives Don’t Matter
 
In recent months it has become apparent that the group known as “Black Lives Matter” is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Marxist Left (someone planned, paid and directed this). That is a darn shame, but it is unquestionably true. The organization’s name and their objectives no longer lineup, perhaps they never did. This stopped being a peaceful legitimate protest within a couple of days of Mr. Floyd's killing in Minneapolis. The Black population in this country has been sold a bill of goods for many years and in recent months its been taken to a whole new level.

Since its founding this nation embraced a set of principles that work for any nation that chooses to embrace them. Self-government, democratically elected officials, the rule of law, property rights, freedom of speech, free enterprise system and so on. These principles were valid then and they are valid now. Black Americans were initially left out; and to correct it the country fought a long and bloody civil war and has done many other things to correct that initial error. Is there some racism out there? You bet there is and have felt it myself and seen it, however that racism is not what stops any determined American of any race from succeeding in this land.

What stops you is your mindset. So long as you are willing to play into the hand of those who tell you that they are going to fix things for you because you couldn’t possibly take care of it yourself; you’re doomed. You were freed 150 years ago (actually it was your great, great, great grandfather). You’ve never had chains on you, you’ve never been whipped; but yes, you have been discriminated. So, lets go burn up some businesses and loot them, because that will improve things? You know what people are saying; “there they go again”. You are trapped in a circle.

Now let me tell you what I’m thinking. I was born on the island of Cuba; the last true bastion of Communism-Socialism in the western hemisphere. The very thing that BLM espouses to establish in the U.S.  We had a revolution down there and as I heard one of the leaders of BLM say, “we burned it all down”. That was 60 years ago, and we haven’t been able to build it back up. We will never be able to build it back up; its done. This is what I see happening here in the U.S. when I see the type of destructive atmosphere and rhetoric coming from BLM and other sympathizers. You embrace Socialist heroes without even knowing who they were, what they were and what they really stand for. You wear shirts of Che Guevara with such pride and I call you a fool. (you also piss me off beyond imagination)

Che Guevara was one of the leaders of that Cuban Revolution where we burned it all down. He was also one of its most distinguished executioners. He murdered, executed more Cubans than just about anyone of that time. The true number will never be known. During my lifetime I have had to endure more Che Guevara T-Shirt wearing fools than you might imagine. Those are the times where I quietly say to myself “Cuban Lives Don’t Matter”. You see I understand your passion and the fight for freedom and justice; but I also understand the manipulation that is going on here. You’re all being used, and in the process, you are tearing down the only country where you might be able to achieve your dreams. If you believe this Socialism thing is the answer; seek out a Cuban and have a chat with him or her. We’re all over the U.S. and we know a lot about Socialism. It’s not that pretty.
 
God Bless and keep these United States of America safe; man’s last best hope on earth!