The media points out that the two-decade alliance between the tycoon and the Government allowed the US to establish global dominance in space, bet on the introduction of electric cars and gain ground in the world of technology.

However, today in Washington they are grateful to Musk for the progress he has made in areas of national security, but they also call the businessman “too powerful and reckless.”

Following certain statements by Musk directed at American public figures, including Joe Biden, many White House officials spoke out about the billionaire’s personality, describing him, for the most part, as an erratic and arrogant but brilliant man.

“He believes he is such a gift to humanity that he doesn’t need protective barriers, that he knows what is best,” said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“He sees himself above the presidency,” said Jill Lepore, a Harvard historian who has presented several podcasts about the businessman.

“The bottom line is that people hang on to his every word because he’s said it many times,” said Illinois Sen. Richard J. Durbin. “I hope he shows some respect for that responsibility,” he added.

Meanwhile, Musk himself has limited himself to stating on occasion that the objective of his comments is “to improve the future of humanity.”
But the truth is that Musk’s relationship with Washington began in 2008, after signing a major contract with NASA at a time when the businessman was heavily in debt. Washington subsequently poured billions of dollars into SpaceX, and in return, Musk rebuilt the US space program.

However, today the businessman is increasingly critical of the federal government and at the same time establishes more links with foreign policy. Musk also maintains commercial ties with South Korea, Turkey, Germany and China, in addition to owning and controlling more satellites than any country: more than 3,000 units.
As time goes by, Musk needs Washington less, while the US leadership remains dependent on him.

“The US military uses its rocket and satellite communications services for its drones, ships and aircraft. NASA currently has no way of getting American astronauts to the International Space Station without their space capsule. And, at a time when climate change is a top White House priority, it has more electric cars on US roads than any other manufacturer,” the article says.
In this context, reports emerged about Washington’s efforts to lessen its dependence on Musk through interaction with other companies.
However, few seek a direct confrontation with the tycoon.

Biden has already made this mistake by not inviting Musk to a White House conference on electric vehicles in August 2021. In response, the businessman called the decision “next level of insanity” and accused the US president of be controlled by the unions.

Subsequently, he dedicated himself for quite some time to calling attention to every blunder by Biden on his social networks and in public statements.
The media highlights that there are many people who do like to do business with Musk, not only for fear of his possible reaction, but also because of his achievements. In this way, the number of projects that the billionaire is working on is far from decreasing, but, on the contrary, increasing.

“We should be concerned, not because it is inevitable that his influence will be negative, but because it is inevitable that he will be a major influence,” Jill Lepore concluded.
After the publication of The Washington Post, one of the billionaire’s followers on social networks dedicated a tweet to the article.

“WP says that Elon Musk is a threat to national security. ‘Democracy dies in the dark,’ says his tagline, but instead ‘democracy dies when influential people use journalism to protect powerful interests while misleadingly claiming they are protecting the interests of ordinary people,’” the comment reads. .
“Exactly,” Musk responded on Sunday. “WP are very hypocritical,” he stated.

(Taken from RT in Spanish)

When the first cases of covid-19 were detected in Cuba in March 2020 and the pandemic began to spread throughout the national territory, 243 measures were already weighing on the Cuban economy and people, which to date hit sources of income, operations as well as exports and tourism.

At the same time, unilateral decisions by Washington fractured relations between families in Cuba and abroad.

Although they were activated during the Trump administration, Biden has kept them unchanged. A demonstration that, in the United States, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party embody the same hegemonic strategy of imperial domination.

In the case of Cuba, in line with the speech enunciated from the White House, which sought to present the country as a failed state, on digital networks the media financed by the United States government tried to conceal the criminal nature of the system of coercive measures against the island.
Through the analysis of experts, testimonies and documents, this chapter of the audiovisual series Archivo.cu reveals why this unilateral policy denies rights to Cubans.

(By: Daily Perez Guillen)

Biden needs to act right now to help the Cuban people. Hurricane Ian caused great devastation. The power grid was damaged and the electrical system collapsed. More than 50,000 homes have been completely destroyed or severely damaged.

On her Twitter account, the Cuban ambassador to the United States Lianys Torres Rivera wrote:

The current blockade regulations are a major obstacle to all the purchases, and the financial transactions associated with them, that will have to be made for Cuba’s recovery from the enormous damage of Hurricane Ian. @PeoplesForumNYC #BestNoBlockade #ByeByeBlockade pic.twitter.com/CNoi9J0NmX

– Lianys Torres Rivera (@lianystr) October 2, 2022

TEXT OF THE APPEAL PUBLISHED IN NYTIMES
LET CUBA REBUILD ITSELF
Urgent Appeal to President Biden

US sanctions and embargo prevent Cuba from rebuilding after Hurricane Ian.

The Biden Administration needs to act right now to help the Cuban people. Hurricane Ian caused great devastation. The power grid was damaged and the electrical system collapsed. More than 4,000 homes have been completely destroyed or severely damaged.

Cuba must be allowed, even for the next six months, to purchase the necessary building materials to REBUILD. Cubans are facing a major humanitarian crisis because of Hurricane Ian.

Despite Cuba’s well-known preparedness for natural disasters, the damage from this hurricane has been immense. In the western province of Pinar del Río, famous for its tobacco production, more than 5,000 farms were destroyed. In small towns like San Luis, 80% of all houses were damaged.

People around the world are eager to sell building materials and provide aid, but the US embargo and sanctions policy against Cuba threatens US and other companies to do business with Cuba, even for the most basic goods and materials. This same policy also deters and makes it almost impossible for organizations in the US to send aid in a timely manner.

Cuba is also prevented from processing many financial transactions because the Trump administration absurdly placed it on the list of state sponsors of terrorism simply for hosting internationally recognized peace talks in Colombia.

It is inconceivable to undertake collective punishment against an entire people by preventing Cuba from buying construction materials or receiving aid at this critical hour.
President Biden set Cold War politics aside, even for six months!

The people of Cuba are part of our family, the human family. Don’t let outdated Cold War policies stop the world from helping the Cuban people rebuild and return to their homes, rebuild the power grid, and have clean drinking water and access to food. The time to act is now!

Cuba is our neighbor. People from all over the world want to help!

info@peoplesforum.org
+1 347-695-1095

https://letcubalive.info/

Written by Ramona Wadi, journalist and independent researcher, the report deals with the latest events in Cuba, Washington’s involvement and the aggression faced by the Antillean nation.

The analyst pointed out that the assumption that military intervention would solve the situation in Cuba only illustrates how the interests of anti-Cuban groups in Miami are aligned with those of the United States.

The assessment points out that while protests broke out on the island due to shortages of basic necessities, the decades-long illegal blockade on Cuba ceased to be part of the narrative of the media.

Meanwhile – he added – due to the blockade and Covid19, the island’s economy contracted further; however, the US government also continued its funding of anti-government groups, only their intentions are not democratic, despite what the mainstream propaganda spreads.

Wadi unmasks the compass of the U.S. rulers in their policy against the Cuban people, which was aimed, among other objectives, at accentuating economic deprivation, provoking hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government, he said.

President Biden was not particularly forthcoming on Cuba so far and built his policy on the foundation of the Trump administration and plays the humanitarian card to foment political unrest.

If the U.S. did not relent in its repressive tactics, there is nothing to suggest that the people would trade one rule of law for another that sought its downfall, to rebuild Cuba as the U.S. playground reminiscent of the days before the Cuban revolution, Wadi stresses in his approach.

For his part, Iñaki Etaio, a Spanish expert and analyst estimated that the U.S. blockade strained the living conditions of the population, stoked unrest and discontent among sectors of the society on the island.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

The Politico newspaper noted that Biden said he considers ‘many possibilities to help Cuban citizens, while trying to find out what actions the Cuban Government would not take advantage of’.

Among the actions in process, the president noted that he is weighing sending vaccines to Cuba to ‘help’ fight the increase in cases of Covid-19, and ignored the effects of the blockade on Cuba’s efforts to advance with ‘Abdala’ and four vaccine candidates.

He pointed out that he would not send remittances to the country at this time because it is ‘very likely that the regime will confiscate them, or large parts of them’, something that contrasts with his electoral promises.

The digital newspaper also referred to statements, according to which the White House is studying whether the United States has the ‘technological capacity’ to restore Internet access in Cuba, which in light of international law would be interference in the domestic affairs of another country.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel said recently that Cuba has the sovereign right to defend itself from media attacks promoted and financed from the United States.

Biden made the remarks after Florida Governor Ron Desantis sent him a letter, urging the federal government to take actions to restore Internet from the United States.

On Tuesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused Washington of inciting riots through a Twitter campaign with the #SOSCuba hashtag.

In 2010, the United States launched a social media network in Cuba that used text messages, known as ZunZuneo, with the aim of introducing political content to form ‘smart mobs’ that would demonstrate against the government, the site antiwar.com noted. ZunZuneo was funded by the US Agency for International Development.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On July 1, 2021, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken submitted his department’s ‘2020 Trafficking in Persons Report’, a document which, in common with others of the kind published by the Department, entirely lacks international or moral authority; it is a vehicle purely for false accusations and political blackmail.

It propagates yet another lie, by accusing Cuba of inadequate compliance with the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking in persons and of failing to make significant efforts in this respect. This accusation forms part of a campaign by Washington to discredit Cuba’s international cooperation efforts in the sphere of healthcare, for which Cuba has received recognition by dozens of governments and the gratitude of the populations which have benefited from it – almost entirely the humblest and most disadvantaged of the countries concerned; it has also evoked plaudits from the UN, the WHO and other international bodies.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects in the strongest possible terms this defamatory campaign by the US government, instigated in concert with America’s most reactionary and corrupt sectors, including extremist groups of Cuban origin represented in Congress by the likes of Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menéndez.

Cuba has a policy of zero tolerance of trafficking in persons in any form and an impeccable record of prevention, combating and victim protection in this field, as recorded at the UN and with other international organizations.

Access to medical attention is a human right. Washington is committing a crime when it seeks to prevent people from receiving such services under bilateral agreements entered into freely and as a sovereign act between Cuba and dozens of governments, to benefit from the professional, dedicated, selfless work in a spirit of solidarity by hundreds of thousands of Cuban medical co-workers.

By repeating the immoral prevarications of the Trump administration, the present US foreign policy casts doubt on the seriousness of America’s commitment to combating the terrible scourge of people trafficking, while trivializing the international efforts underway in this respect.

America itself is among the countries with the worst problems of person trafficking. Its policies aimed at stifling the Cuban economy and its failure to honor bilateral migration accords play into the hands of organizations linked to international crime, smuggling of emigrants and trafficking in persons.

Havana, July 3, 2021

It is stated in a report that Cuba will submit in May to the United Nations General Assembly about the impact of the economic, financial and commercial blockade in force over the last six decades.

It will be another exercise at the General Assembly against a practice that has been rejected repeatedly by the international community.

It will be the twenty-ninth occasion that the draft resolution, entitled ‘Necessity to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba’, will be submitted to that UN body.

The report covers the period between April 2019 and March 2020, which has been characterized by a rollback in bilateral relations and a progressive tightening of Washington’s blockade.

It is a period during which several regulations and provisions adopted by the Donald Trump administration reached unprecedented levels of hostility, as if the northern power were in a war against the neighboring small Caribbean nation.

The White House established the possibility of filing lawsuits in US courts against under the umbrella of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act those who ‘traffic’ in properties nationalized by Cuba according to its laws.

‘The law aims to tighten international sanctions against Cuba at a time when the Caribbean island is opening up much more to foreign investments,’ diplomat Yusnier Romero, an expert in the US General Department at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, told Prensa Latina.

He explained that the legislation is aimed at suffocating Cuba economically by enforcing four titles that promote financial persecution and extraterritorial lawsuits against third countries that are doing business in the Caribbean island.

With that purpose, the United States tightened the persecution of Cuba’s financial and commercial transactions.

It also banned flights to Cuban airports (except for Havana), as part of a reinforced practice of persecution and intimidation to companies that send fuel to Cuba.

According to the report, from April 2019 to March 2020, the blockade caused Cuba to lose some 5.57 billion dollars, accounting for an increase of 1.226 billion dollars compared to the previous period.

For the first time, the total damage due to the US blockade exceeds five billion dollars.

According to current prices, the accumulated damage in nearly six decades of blockade (without including last year) amounts to 144.413 billion dollars.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

As is known, the popular vote does not decide the winner of the elections, taking into account that it is a process of indirect suffrage. Candidates must win each state to add voters and obtain at least 270 electoral college votes out of a total of 538. According to Real Clear Politics, Biden has secured 226 electoral votes so far, Trump 125 and the remaining 187 are in dispute.

Taking into account the millions of dollars in advertising investment in television by the Democratic and Republican Party, the electoral battle is concentrated in Pennsylvania, with 20 electoral votes and Florida with 29, considered the most competitive and decisive states in these elections. Several studies indicate that if President Donald Trump does not succeed in Florida, he will lose reelection.

The Democratic candidate is also leading in Florida, by an average of 2 points. According to Real Clear Politics, 47.8% of those polled indicated that they would vote for Biden, while 45.8% would vote for Trump. It is precisely in that state where 70% of the Cuban-American community resides, with more than 1,200,000 people. Around 650,000 of them are registered to vote, which represents 6% of the electorate.

Historically, Cuban-American voters have favored the Republican Party, although that trend has been weakening in recent years. That is why both parties strive to secure the largest number of votes from that community, taking into account the closeness of the contest, and that it could decide if the competition is very close.

In this context, a new survey was carried out by Florida International University on the position of Cuban Americans, which has been carried out every two years since the 1990s. The results were published this Friday and are based on a telephone survey – between the July 7 and August 17, 2020- 1002 Cuban-Americans residing in Miami-Dade County. The criteria of the interviewees are very diverse and ambivalent, although there are greater percentages of agreement on some issues such as President Trump’s handling of the economy, medical care, and policy towards the island. [1]

The study shows that 59% of the Cuban-Americans interviewed indicated that they would vote for Trump, and only 25% would vote for Biden. 68% approve the imposition of new sanctions to force a “regime change” in Cuba and 54% support the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US government against their country of origin.

However, 66% consider that the blockade has not worked or has not worked very well, and 57% support suspending sanctions against Cuba during the COVID-19 pandemic. 58% approve the resumption of the issuance of visas in the US embassy in Havana and 60% the family reunification program.

Research also shows that the community supports some of the policies implemented by then-President Barack Obama towards Cuba. 74% support the sale of medicines, 69% the sale of food, 65% the resumption of air travel to all regions of the country and 58% in maintaining diplomatic relations.

For Guillermo J. Grenier, director of the study and head of the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University, the biggest surprise in the results is the progress of the Republican Party in the community, mainly among Cubans who recently arrived United States. 76% of respondents who arrived between 2010 and 2015 said they were Republicans.

This is a very complex subject to analyze and one that would require further investigation. The reality is that it is still very difficult to forecast the Cuban-American vote on November 3. It should be taken into account that these elections take place in the middle of a scenario of systemic crisis in the United States, aggravated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exceeds 208 thousand deaths and 7 million 300 thousand people infected ; the economic recession that has caused that 30 million people have had to request unemployment benefits and almost 40 million are threatened of being expelled from their homes due to accumulated defaults; and anti-racist mobilizations and police abuse.

In the past seven months, political polarization has increased and the current administration has fostered division, hatred and violence in American society. In this environment, the Cuban-American extreme right encourages the US executive to escalate hostility against the Cuban Revolution, using the alleged “communist threat” as a pretext. The unusual thing is that on this occasion they accuse the democrats of embracing socialist ideas, which has no theoretical or practical support.

It is part of his strategy to promote fear, chaos and uncertainty within the Cuban-American community. Trump uses the far-right of Cuban origin to discredit the Democrats and exacerbate the phobia against socialism. Furthermore, it is clear that there is a mutual convenience in employing Cuban Americans as a spearhead in the Latino community, which overwhelmingly rejects the tenant of the White House.

In recent weeks, desperate actions have been seen in the face of a possible Republican electoral defeat. It was the panorama that was experienced in the first presidential debate, which left much to be desired due to the embarrassing performance of Trump, who in the middle of the show showed serious personality problems and used his main political weapon: the lie.

The Washington Post recently acknowledged that past presidents have lied or misrepresented the truth, but Trump’s distortions are on an epic scale. As of July, according to a database maintained by the Post, Trump had made more than 20,000 false or misleading statements in just three and a half years, including more than 1,000 exclusively about the coronavirus. The most common false claims are that you have been a participant in the best moment of the economy of all time, and that you approved the largest tax cut in history. [two]

Among these repeated lies are those dedicated to attacking Cuba and trying to distance the Cuban-American community from its homeland, sowing hatred and neglect. For these purposes they allocate millionaire sums of money and use all the methods at their disposal, including internet social networks. It was to be expected that these positions would be stoked by Trump in the next presidential debate scheduled for October 15 in Miami, but it will not be possible because, paradoxically, the US president tested positive for COVID-19 and is admitted to be cured of the disease.

More than a century ago, the most universal of Cubans, José Martí, visited several American cities to contribute to the dissemination of the work that was being carried out in the resumption of the fight for the independence of Cuba, submitted as a colony and threatened by the desires of the “ a thriving and ambitious neighbor ”. On November 26, 1891, he gave an emotional speech at the Cuban Lyceum in Tampa and is known by the phrase “With everyone and for the good of all.” Due to its validity, I share only one fragment that invites all worthy Cubans to reflect: “Enough of mere words! From the torn entrails let us raise an inextinguishable love for the Homeland without which no man lives happily, neither the good nor the bad ”. [3]

(By: Abel González Santamaría/ Cubadebate)