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Diminished President, Undiminished Ineptitude: The Biden Presidency in 4 Words
“Probe with bayonets. If you encounter steel, withdraw. If you encounter mush, continue.” — Attributed to Vladimir Lenin
Trepidation often occurs when a new US administration takes office. Nefarious totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, such as Iran, North Korea, and of course Communist China and Russia – often prod for weakness. But sometimes, crises take the form of opportunities.
Take Cuba, for example. The popular uprising that began Sunday across an Island of some 11 million people is an opportunity to support the freedom of people oppressed by a wicked communist totalitarian regime for 62 years.
It is not the first such uprising there. Remember the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, or the protests of 1994, which resemble those of today. But today’s may be the most opportune. That is because after the Soviet Union fell in 1989, financial support for Cuba ended. Its Gross Domestic Product – the value of all goods and services produced – is lower than New Mexico’s, which ranks 38th among states in the US. Its most recent sugar harvest was a failure, and the communist government’s failure to handle the COVID crisis, coupled with a lack of food and energy (blackouts typically extend for about 6 hours per day) are driving increasingly desperate Cubans to act.
And of course, so has Cuba’s dictator, Miguel Diaz Canel – by siccing brutal police and military forces to arrest, torture, and kill their protesters. Let’s consult Carlos Eire, writing for National Review and the New York Post, for a succinct explanation for the Cuban protests.
The protests are among the most dramatic proof ever offered of the failure of a tropical dictatorship that has driven 20 percent of its people into exile. Innumerable promises for a brighter future have been made during this time by the military junta that has ruled Cuba since the days when cars had tailfins and the top songs in the US charts were Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and Domenico Modugno’s “Volare.”
Well, surprise, surprise, the future is here, and the youngsters can clearly see that all of those promises have turned out to be lies. Now, those who were supposed to reap the benefits of decades of sacrifice, self-denial and unquestioning obedience demanded by Big Brother are out on the streets, shouting at their aging masters — and the world — that they are tired of living a lie.
But why now? A perfect storm of calamities caused this sudden eruption of fearless dissent. Lately, life in Cuba has become more unbearable than ever for just about every Cuban, except those who rule the place. The crisis is due to a long string of blunders and catastrophes.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Raphael Warnock – both Democrats who have spoken fondly of Fidel Castro and his thuggish regime – call your office. Maybe just say. . . something? Most Democrats have been eerily silent or very equivocal in their comments about events in a country about 90 miles from our Florida shoreline.
And the American media’s coverage, while crippled by Cuba’s internet and communications crackdown, pales in comparison to its coverage of similar revolutions in recent years, including the Philippines Yellow Revolution and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.
The response of Canada’s increasingly repressive “Liberal” government (e.g., our border is still mostly closed), under Justin Trudeau, was even worse. Canada, by its own admission, is one of the world’s largest donors to Cuba’s Communist government. Americans can’t openly vacation in Cuba, but Canadians can, and do – one million visitors from Canada annually, prior to the pandemic.
Canada’s Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, with Cuban dictator Miguel Diaz Canel
Meanwhile, Cuba’s dictator has cut off internet service and doubled down on their repressive brutality, and blamed the long-standing US embargo for their ills, echoed of course by the organization, Black Lives Matter. You can send a thank-you note to BLM’s corporate sponsors.
President Biden belatedly did issue a statement about standing with the Cuban people, and mischaracterizing Cuba’s repressive Communist government as “authoritarian.” You would think a former 30-year member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (serving as its chairman) would know the difference between “authoritarian” and “totalitarian.” And Democratic comments have been in support of “peaceful protests,” not addressing corruption, mismanagement, and abuse that has prompted them. Perhaps it’s because the protests disrupt their plans for a return to Obama’s policies of Cuban appeasement. But stay tuned.
And what’s the follow-up been? No travel to Miami to deliver a strongly-worded speech of support to the Cuban people. No calls for a Security Council meeting of the United Nations, nor any talk of resolutions of support for human rights and freedom in Cuba. No calls for a meeting of the Organization of American States to mobilize support in the region.
There are three Cuban American United States Senators (and a few more House members). Two are Republicans – Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). Both have spoken eloquently, constructively, supportively, and responsibly on the matter in recent days. The other is Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. While scandal-tainted, he is strongly opposed to Cuba’s thuggish government and supported Trump’s policies to reinstate an embargo and end the normalization of relations failingly established by Barack Obama. To his credit, Menendez appears to be the only Democrat in Congress to support regime change in Cuba.
Menendez, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), and others have suggested low-altitude satellites over Cuba to reinstate internet service (small satellite dishes would need to be smuggled in somehow). They are providing good, bipartisan guidance and support for the Cuban people from Congress that we’re not getting from the Biden Administration. And don’t count on it anytime soon.
Some are worried about Russian or Chinese stepping in, or perhaps the Iranians. The problem: the cost and the distance between their own supply lines. Russia closed its last Cuban military installation in 2002. China has “belt and road” assets in the Caribbean, but not near enough or of the kind to support supply lines of the magnitude necessary to meaningfully address Cuba’s crisis. Worse (for them), all three of their client states in our hemisphere – Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua – are suffering under their own economic crises. Cuba has exported secret police thugs, doctors, and others – an estimated 27,000 in all – in exchange for Venezuelan oil. China and Russia are no doubt watching closely and eyeballing opportunities. . . and American weakness. They have much to weigh. Watch this space.
Meanwhile, instead of seizing this opportunity by traveling to Miami for a speech on Cuban freedom, Biden skedaddled in the other direction to Philadelphia for a badly-written, error-riddled, deeply partisan, and hyperbolic speech in support of unconstitutionally nationalizing elections that would condone if not facilitate vote fraud. HR 1 and S 1, the badly misnamed “For the People” Act, are simply the largest assault on our democratic elections since Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the US Supreme Court for a few more sycophantic justices to advance his agenda.
As the Cuban people cry for food, electricity, medicine, and freedom, Biden’s gaze is towards making it easier to cheat in our elections so America will have the same kind of intolerant one-party elections that has turned Cuba into a basket case. And another Cuban American, US Homeland Secretary Anthony Mayorkas, has announced that while our southern border remains wide open to people smuggled by Mexican cartels, Cubans trying to flee their “paradise” by boat will be turned away.
He’s at least consistent – he won’t enforce the laws at our southern border and won’t execute asylum law for Cubans who are truly escaping political persecution. I get that he’s trying to prevent another 1980 or 1994 style boatlift. So he claims. Maybe if he weren’t so busy inviting and worsening our ongoing crisis at the southern border.
Adding insult to injury, Biden continues to dangle lifting US sanctions on Iran despite the arrest of four Iranians who were trying to kidnap an Iranian American journalist – in Brooklyn. The Biden Administration’s response? Silence.
Now, Biden’s Secretary of State has invited the United Nations to send its experts to investigate “systemic racism” in the United States. Somehow, Anthony Blinken thinks that by doing so, China will open up to a similar investigation of its own abuses of Uyghur Muslims. Good luck with that. Genuinely stupid.
Our adversaries are not only encountering mush with their bayonets, they are being invited in the front door to “probe” everything they can find. With plenty of support from the music industry and Hollywood.
Xi and Putin surely cannot believe their fortune. And I can’t help but wonder what Donald Trump would be doing right now if he were still in the White House.
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Dressed in Democratic blue, no less.
“If you encounter mush…”
Good Lord, what an apt description of Biden and his administration.
My only hope is that I encounter a Cuban, Libyan or Chinese UN “inspector”.