Don't cut off your nose to spite your face

Perhaps some third world leaders should look at the latest poll conducted among the citizens of Cuba before making bold statements about the United States. The latest poll reveals 79% of Cubans are dissatisfied with the country’s economic system; 70% want to start their own business and the Cuban government will not allow them to do so. Nearly two-thirds of Cubans (64%) believe normalizing relations with the U.S. could change the economic system, though only 37% thought the Cuban political system would allow the changes to take place because it would mean them surrendering control to the people.

Growth has slowed sharply in recent years. According to Cuba’s national statistical agency, the country’s gross domestic product in 2013 was 77.2 billion pesos – which, depending on which exchange rate one uses, could equate to anything from $77.2 billion (at the official rate of 1 convertible peso to $1) to $3.2 billion (at the internal rate of 24 regular pesos to 1 convertible peso). But either way, growth has slowed dramatically from the mid-2000's. The rate exchange of their money is different for Cuban citizens and foreigners visiting or doing business in the country. The growth rate in GDP is below 1.3 percent. They rank 177 out of 222 countries world wide. Compare that to the Philippine GDP - The Philippines economy grew an annual 7.0 percent in the second quarter of 2016. GDP is based on population that must be kept in mind.

The Soviet Union was the main trading partner and strategic ally of Fidel Castro during the time of the Cold War. The collapse of the socialist bloc put the island on the brink of economic collapse in the early 1990's. Since the Russian government could no longer provide the support they had given Cuba they agreed in 2014 to reduce the DEBT Cuba owed Russia by 35%. Cuba could not pay the debt anyway.  Cuba still owes Russia 3.5 billion dollars after the debt was reduced. In return for reducing the debt Cuba agreed to allow Russia to open a small spy facility in Havana.  

There was a time in the early 1960’s when Fidel Castro made statements like, “It will be Russia and Cuba against the United States.”  That did not work out so well! Obama in my opinion is making a bad mistake in giving Cuba any aid and relaxing the trade embargo with Cuba. It is obvious due to the Russian economy slowing Russia cannot provide what the Cuban government needs to survive so why should the United States bail Cuba out of their bad decision to “sever ties” with the United States in the 1960’s. Why should our incompetent President Obama be allowed to give them the $132 billion in aid he wants to give them, since in 2014 Cuba agreed to allow Russia to open a small spy station in Cuba?

Cuba is so desperate today that they are drifting out of Moscow’s orbit and wanting to return to the United States orbit. The people  not the leaders paid a price for fifty years by severing their ties with the United States for Russia and no longer can afford to pay the price. It seems some third world leaders do not do their research before making bold statements against the United States and other Western Nations.

It is best for third world countries not to sever ties with any first world country. They should try to maintain a relationship with them all. What does a third world country really have to offer a first world country? If Roosevelt and Truman believed they could attack and beat Japan without defending the Philippines I believe modern day Presidents realize they do not need the Philippines to defend themselves against China.  A war that most likely will never happen because China or the United States or Russia do not want that.

Cuba could not survive with the help they were getting from Russia and had to turn to Venezuela, the Cuban authorities made it clear that further economic cooperation with Moscow was not a priority.  Today the Venezuela economy is failing and Cuba cannot depend on Venezuela or Russia so they reach out to the United States to save them. Why should we?

Russia did build In northeast Cuba two nickel plants, but Russia has since turned them over to the Canadians. Why would Russia be interested in mining in the Philippines if they were not interested in maintaining mining in Cuba and turned the mines over to the Canadians? The Canadians presently mine in the Philippines. New hotels were built by Mexican and Spanish firms in Cuba they were not build by Russia or China. True, two years ago Cuba did seem to express renewed interest in working with Russian oil companies. But experience tells us to remain cautious. For two decades Russian experts explored for oil off the Cuban coast, finding a few juicy items along the way, but then suddenly turned all their discoveries over to  Mexico. I would tend to think any oil deal China makes with the Philippines will benefit China far more than it will the people of the Philippines. I doubt that the Russians really have any interest in the South China Sea oil production since it would possibly damage their relationships with China.

I have also been amused that all the contracts and deals China has proposed with the Philippines requires they use China Companies to build them which helps the Chinese economy not the Philippine economy. The loans to build go right back to the Chinese government and the Philippines pays interest on the money. I am not aware of any contract or deal that the United States has made with the Philippines that requires them to only use American companies.

I know that the powers to be in the Philippines have far more knowledge of deals, contracts, trade agreements, foreign relationships than stupid little me. I have never work for any government in my life. I am just a simple man with little knowledge, but I cannot make sense of all the talk of ending a long term relationship for a promise that may never materialize and if it does the strings attached may be more than the strings you claim you want to break with the United States.

In my personal life I have never ended a long term friendship in order to gain a new friendship. In my professional life I have never ended a business relationship with an old reliable company to do business with an unknown company with no proven record. 

Revenge is hell and destroys! The Aquino's and some in the Philippines have spent three decades trying to get even with the Marcos family and it has not brought them peace. There are some that were and still are loyal to the Marcos family that have sought revenge on the Aquino family and the United States for not supporting Marcos and it has not brought them peace. Only forgiveness brings peace. 

To show how arrogant some in governments can be when it comes to revenge a United States Congressman is stopping the sale of 27,000 weapons to the Philippine National Police. Who does that hurt? Certainly not the Philippines. Duterte will purchase the weapons in China, Israel or Japan. It only hurts the people of the United States and the United States economy. The people we elect are not as smart as we think they are. 

Kennedy admired more after his death than during his life

On November 23, 2013 the USA was fixated on the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy's assassination and a CNN poll registers JFK as our most admired ex-president from the past half century. I was not an admirer of any of the Kennedy’s except Jacqueline. President Kennedy was not as beloved in life as he has been in death.  

During the 1960 campaign, Kennedy confronted anti-Catholic bigotry.  In Texas, the Baptist convention passed a resolution "cautioning members against voting for a Roman Catholic candidate.”  Many Protestant ministers, especially Fundamentalist minister preached from the pulpit a Catholic president would put loyalty to the Pope ahead of loyalty to the United States. Just weeks after his election, an anti-Catholic retired postal worker tried to assassinate Kennedy in Florida. I am Catholic so I had nothing against Kennedy’s religious affiliation.  In fact I am proud of the fact that Kennedy proved all the Fundamentalist Christians wrong.

I do blame Kennedy for the botched Bay of Pigs invasion. He abandoned Cuban’s fighting to overthrow Castro  on the Cuban beaches. I believe he handled the segregation issue in the South in such a way that violence was inevitable. He was slow in taking action. I know for a fact that he sent F.B.I. agents from Alabama back to Alabama undercover to spy on whites because my cousin was one of them. I did not like the way he dealt with our allies in the United Nations. It seems to me he was determined to weaken the sovereignty of the United States in the United Nation. I disagreed with his Immigration policies. He established Immigration policies that haunt us even in 2016. I opposed his family ties to the Mafia and history proves he used those ties to get elected. Kennedy was more of a philander in the White House than Clinton ever was, but people over looked it.

 Kennedy took numerous actions that increased the risk of war with the USSR. NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots loaded active nuclear bombs and advanced to an alert status in which individual pilots could have chosen to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb and this was done at Kennedy’s request. Kennedy had deployed medium-range "Jupiter" missiles to Italy and Turkey (which bordered the USSR) earlier in his term. The missiles had no deterrent value and were basically only useful as a means of attacking the Soviet nuclear arsenal as part of a first strike. That meant they were extremely destabilizing, something that was known at the time and provoked concern from Sens. Albert Gore Sr. a Democrat from Tennessee. Kennedy put missiles along the USSR border before the USSR put missiles in Cuba. Did Kennedy’s action cause the USSR to put missiles in Cuba?

Kennedy's decision to overthrow South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm was a decisive move for greater hands-on American involvement in the conflict. After that, the North Vietnamese escalated their attempt to destabilize the South Vietnamese state, which in turn spurred Lyndon Johnson's 1964 escalation.

 Kennedy authorized a 1963 coup against the pro-Soviet military leader of Iraq. The coup put the Iraqi Baath party in power, setting in motion the chain of events that would result in Saddam Hussein's decades-long rule over the nation.

He is responsible for Federal workers forming a union.

Everyone gives Kennedy credit for the Apollo Space Program, he did support it, but the Apollo Program was first conceived under the Eisenhower administration and  the Johnson administration did the heavy lifting in actually completing a manned moon landing.

As you can see I was not impressed with JFK for many reasons and I could list more. Those Christian Democrat Fundamentalist that love him so much today never mention his swimming nude in the White House Pool and using it to have sex with women other than his wife and all the other immorality that existed in the White House during his administration. They have selected memories.

Contrary to what many Democrats would like us to believe about Kennedy he was never fully embraced by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He certainly was disliked by Texas Democrats whom at the time I was one of them. I was a an officer in the Young Democrats and a supporter of Ralph Yarborough.

I believe his Immigration policies and open border philosophy stemmed from the fact that his family immigrated in the 1840’s from Ireland. Few restrictions were placed on whites that wanted to immigrate to the U.S., but it is a fact the Irish immigrants were not treated fairly once they arrived in the U.S. The discrimination against the Irish was extreme. There being Catholic made the discrimination worse.

The Kennedy’s are responsible for the wholesale shift in the face of our nation today. In 1960 there were less than 1 million foreign born from Latin America, but by 2012 the number had increased to 21.2 million. In 1958 Kennedy was calling for open borders in his public speeches. In  1963 before his assassination he was working to get support for more of his immigration reforms. Kennedy ignored the economic needs, the cultural traditions and the public sentiment of the citizens of the United States when it came to immigration policies much like Obama has done.

Kennedy was warned that the sharp increase in immigration would shake the stability of the United States and he ignored the warnings. Ted Kennedy even argued that the Founding Fathers would support open borders if that were true why did they restrict immigration only to white folks with good morals.

Few people know that it was Ted Kennedy that led the fight in 1979 to allow more political refugees into the U.S.  In 1986 he helped President Reagan pass legislation that allowed 2.7 million illegals to become legal residence of the U.S. In 2007 he helped President Bush pass legislation that allowed another 12 million illegal immigrants a chance to become citizens of the U.S. Yes, I blame the Kennedy for the problems with immigration we face in 2016 and have good reasons to do so.  The Obama victories in 2008 and 2012 are directly tied to immigrant vote.

Senator Kennedy prior to his death admitted he had not anticipated that the rise of immigration would lead to such a dramatic shift in the composition of the American population.  SORRY – A LITTLE TOO LATE THE HORSE WAS ALREADY OUT OF THE BARN BEFORE THE BARN DOOR WAS SHUT!!

The United States does not need Bernie Sanders.

I think Hillary will have to start attacking Sanders for his 1980 era. He was a representative for the Socialist Party which at the time had ties to the Communist Party. He was actually part of the revolutionary Socialist Party. He was tied to a guy name Pulley. They called for solidarity with Iran and Cuba. They wanted President Carter to turn over the Shah of Iran to the mullahs. They both called for eliminating all U.S. Military operations and the C.I.A. They also wanted the rail, oil and automobile industries nationalized. They supported Ortega.  You would like the fact they wanted people to work a 30 hour week and be paid for 40 hours. Sanders said in the 80’s the U.S. was a dying society and the sooner it died the better the world would be. Sanders has proposed raising payroll taxes, income taxes, estate taxes, and capital gains taxes to help cover all the stuff he wants to give away. I think he may have mellowed since the 80’s, but I am surprised since Hillary is losing to him they are not using the 80’s against him. Of course the young voter would not remember those things and probably would not care. 

I am really surprised the Republican candidates are not going after him harder.  If they think he will be easier to beat than Clinton I think they are wrong. People love the myth of getting something for nothing.

Regardless of what you may have thought of the Shah of Iran he supported the interest of Americans for over thirty years and our relationships in the Middle East were certainly better than they are today. If you do not like the present government medical care you really will not like Bernie Sanders medical care. If the government cannot run V.A. Hospitals how do you expect them to run all the hospitals in the United States? If you work or have friends or relatives working in the oil, rail, automobile industries how well do you think they will do with the government taking control of them? Are you really pleased with Obama's secret Iran deal - Bernie is! If you are upset with the present National Debt how happy will you be with Bernie adding 19 trillion more to it to pay for all his freebies. I don't know about you, but I do not want increased taxes and that is how Bernie will pay for his birth to grave guarantees. 

==The Democrat elitists in the party decided they definitely did not need Bernie Sanders. Even though what they did to keep him out was dishonest it was probably the smartest move they have made in nearly eight years.

Can the United States survive Obama?

I hope all the Republican candidates realize the importance of closing our borders to illegal aliens. You read my statement correctly ‘ILLEGAL’ aliens. If they are in our country without the proper documentation they have broken our immigration laws and they are ‘ILLEGAL’.

Donald Trump started the conversation on illegal aliens, closing our borders and building a wall. I hope others will pick up the conversation and if elected see his ideas to completion. It would be difficult for me to support Donald Trump regardless of the fact that he supports many of the things I do. I have a difficult time voting for a man or woman whom I do not respect.

I would think because of the events from last week in Paris, immigration and our open border with Mexico should become the No. 1 issue in America. All the presidential candidates if they are smart will adopt Trumps ideas. Trump is now in command of the most important issue facing America.

Trump in my opinion is mean, vicious, combative, offensive, and bombastic, he doesn’t care about political correctness and he doesn’t care whose feelings he hurts. As much as I dislike him I am beginning to think he is the only person for the job.

It may become necessary to have a Trump for four or eight years not only to clean up the terrorist problems, immigration problems and border problems, but to clean up the messes our lame President Obama has made with his Executive Orders and his ignoring the U.S. Constitution.

I don’t think Trump believes he can deport 12 to 15 million illegals, but I do think he is using that as a negotiating tool to get what he will be satisfied with. Trump is not a fool.

What would Trump settle for in my opinion – closing the borders, the wall, no welfare for aliens, and Mexico agreeing to pay the cost of our housing their criminals in our prisons or we will send them back to Mexico immediately.  

You still do not think building a wall and closing our borders will work then tell me why the first thing the Socialist president of France did after a terrorist attack was close the borders. Even a Socialist understood how important it was to control the borders in order to help protect his citizens.

I do not think Donald Trump would allow the Obama-Kerry plan to import tens of thousands of Syrian refugees into America to stand. It’s insane to allow thousands of potential terrorists into America. It’s self-destructive. Everyone should know it is a lame idea if Obama and Kerry proposed it. Everything else they have done or proposed like the Iran agreement, withdrawing the troops, downsizing the military has proven to be lame. If taking in the refugees is such a great idea then Obama should tell us how many of them will be living with him and his family in the White House.

I have one more question for our lame President Obama - if we can afford to take in thousands of refugees, house them, clothe them, feed them and provide medical care for them why do we not have the money to take care of our OWN poor and homeless - why do we have homeless VETERANS?

It is the Muslim nation’s responsibility to take care of the refuges. I do think we should offer help to provide a safe haven for them in Muslim nations.

The day before the attacks in Paris, our lame President told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the Islamic State had been “contained”. Barack Obama has been thinking about his legacy from the beginning of his presidency. Obama’s aim to end “Bush’s wars” is in shambles. I think his legacy now is he contributed to the threats from the Islamic State. I think Obama’s legacy will be that he was the worst President since Jimmy Carter.

Obama is a speech maker, but he is not a decision maker. His lack of commitment has set the United States back a decade. Do you remember the “red line threat” he gave Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Obama’s position on Iran is dangerous for the United States. It has nothing to do with America’s security and everything to do with him desperately trying to build a legacy around it. The Nobel Peace Prize went to his head. He thought by being passive on terrorist his legacy would be that of a peace maker – he failed! He thinks his passive (cowardice) attempt to negotiate with Iran regardless of the cost will be the key to a legacy of peace maker – he will fail again.

Let us not forget how lowly Iran regarded Carter’s pathetic groveling, they only released the hostages minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn-in as president- a man who the Iranians knew would put a stop to the whole embarrassing episode.

Obamacare continues to fail and the worst is yet to come after Obama has vacated the office - his signature domestic achievement that bears his name is likely to be repealed or be shown to be a disastrous piece of legislation. He thought that would add to his legacy – he failed again.

With his foreign policy in shambles and Iraq being conquered by Islamic fanatics, and his economic agenda having damaged the U.S. significantly and Obama’s dealings with Iran guaranteed to fail his only hope may be Cuba for a legacy.

Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like George Patton. Until Obama is out of office we should hang a sign in all U.S. airports “Terrorist Welcome!”