A photoshopped photo by Ted Cruz's campaign is the perfect symbol for America's ugly 2016 campaign, and for Ted "Liar Liar" Cruz himself

Marco Rubio is happily shaking hands with President Obama - or is he?

By Patrick

Yes, finally a post about Ted Cruz again! We have missed him dearly, right? The 2016 campaign has largely been a Trump-show so far, but we shouldn't forget the that Ted Cruz is also part of the game. Some people even think that Ted Cruz is more dangerous than Donald Trump. I personally do not agree with this view, as a Trump-presidency would cause complete political and economic chaos worldwide, however, it is obvious to me that the habitual liar and religious extremist Ted Cruz is dangerous as well. However, he is dangerous in a slightly different way in my opinion.

But what I would like to talk about in this post is a photoshopped picture which brilliantly symbolizes the ugly face of Ted Cruz and his campaign. On the photo at the top of this post, Marco Rubio is shaking hands with Barack "The Antichrist" Obama, and Marco has a happy smile on his face, just like a little child. He clearly is in cahoots with the enemy, isn't he, the treacherous Marco Rubio, a friend of the Democrats and a part of the despicable Washington establishment! Who would vote for such a dishonest creature? Boooooo, Marco!

There is only one problem: The photo used by Ted Cruz's campaign is fake. It is a photoshopped "stock photo", but Ted Cruz had of course no hesitation to use it extensively. And, in order to put the cherry on top, the Cruz campaign then lied about the fact that it was a photoshopped picture. Thankfully, we have the internet to quickly expose such tricks.

In detail:

Here is a slightly larger version of this picture:

And here is the "stock photo" which it is based upon - the Cruz campaign simply photoshopped Marco Rubio's and President Obama's heads on this photo:

An internet sleuth found it:

The Rubio campaign is livid, and this is absolutely understandable:

Ted Cruz used this photo also in other "anti Marco Rubio" material. Interestingly, he also used it in the original, "mirrored" way:

The crooks and liars from the Cruz campaign had the audacity to deny that the campaign uses photoshopped pictures:

The people from the Cruz campaign might change their story later, but seriously, these people are obviously in a real competition with Donald Trump's campaign for "Huuuuugest liars of the universe."

We keep our fingers crossed that the American voters will keep these people far, far away from the White House! :-)

The "Sarah Palin Channel" - A Review: It's All About Sarah

By VinnieF

I could sum up my review of the Sarah Palin Channel by the following:

• This is just another cheap grifting attempt of Sarah's.
• The content is low-level meat for her Tea Party-loving fans.
• There are some rather crazy people who think Sarah is America's finest leader.

Of course, if you're a regular Po'Gates reader, this is nothing new to you. Still, I think it's important the we have an article here on Sarah's latest adventure. It is rather revealing about the true nature of Sarah and her fans.

In writing about Sarah I find myself wanting to say "I find it incredibly narcissistic that ...". This is certainly no exception. The fact that she thinks people should have to pay ten bucks a month to hear her ramblings is incredibly narcissistic. The fact that she thinks people should hear all about the boring details of her family is incredibly narcissistic. The fact that she still presents herself as some major political player is incredibly narcissistic. I think you get the point.

Simply Another Grifting Endeavor

Fortunately, Sarah's grifting power has significantly faded. Her last book was a flop. Her Fox News appearances are getting rarer and rarer. While "Amazing America" will continue, her role is rather minor and not the lucrative deal that Sarah Palin's Alaska was.

So, welcome to the Sarah Palin 'Channel' where you spend ten bucks a month to hear about everything Palin. Obviously, her reach is dwindling. The only people who will pay for this are her truly devoted fans.

Sarah's opening video talks about how this new site will finally allow all of the Palinbots to join together in some new found, Sarah-driven community. Of course, she could do all of this without them having to pay. But no, if you want Sarah to pretend to care about you and your views, you'll have to pay her for the privilege.

It's All About Sarah

The opening video also brags about how this is supposed to be some innovative, interactive site where you, the Palin devotee, gets to be a real part of it. However, it's very clear that the site is all about Sarah, her family and her thoughts on things. There are no investigative reporters of any kind. The initial video talked about 'special guests' but after several weeks there have been none. Many of the videos brag heavily about her former accomplishments. For example, the one that portends to talk about how her PAC selects candidates to endorse, brags profusely about the PAC's supposed successes and is effectively an advertisement for her PAC.

She has had a few videos where she actually answers questions from the website trying to give the impression that one can participate. Oh what a thrill it would be to have Sarah read your question out loud in one of her videos. Not surprisingly, the selected questions are all softballs and most of them are ones about her favorite subject - Sarah. The first question of all is whether she's going to run for President. (She gives the "won't close any doors" answer. More on this below.) There are some truly inane questions such as why Piper wears number 22 when playing basketball and does she prefer Eddie Van Halen or Sammy Hagar. Seriously! Recently, a block was added near the top of the page with links to all of her books just in case you haven't bought them all yet.

For at least a week now she's had a link up asking users to submit their own videos. None of these have yet been published. Knowing who her fans are, my guess is they simply haven't received any that don't reveal the true craziness of her fans.

Her family also figures prominently as if they matter at all. Mom contributes deep thought with "Sally's Word of the Day" (which doesn't even come every day). A link to Bristol's blog gets prime placement every day. She's included Trig in a number of videos. In some he's sitting besides her while she talks to the camera. In a video about little league star Mo'ne Davis, Sarah ends up talking more about her own kids sports endeavors than she talks about Mo'ne.

It appears that part of the appeal to her fans is that you actually get an inside look at her family. You can filter her videos on the following four categories: America, Obama, Immigration and "Palin Family". There are already 14 videos in this last category. It really reeks of typical celebrity adulation as opposed to any serious political thinking.

There's a video (the "First Video") of her playing with their new dog. The poor quality of the video makes it hard to hear what little she's saying. For the most part she's just playing with the dog and showing it can respond to some basic commands. While the dog is supposed to be for Trig, we don't see him playing with it at all. While I'm a huge Obama fan, I have absolutely no interest in watching him or his family members playing with their dog.

A Lazy Effort

I'm convinced that Sarah is rather lazy by nature. Remember that she hired a City Manager in Wasilla to do much of the work Sarah was supposed to do as Mayor. Remember the "Where's Sarah" buttons were made before she was selected as McCain's VP nominee as people wondered where their governor was.

For this effort, she knows that she's appealing to her base so there's no need to excel. And indeed she doesn't.

The sheer amount of content is pretty small considering this is a 'channel'. For the two week period ending Thursday, August 28, only 19 videos were made. The total amount of published video footage averages 7 minutes and 30 seconds per day. The videos are getting shorter and shorter with the five videos from the week of August 25 averaging only 2 minutes and 28 seconds each. Sorry, the Word or Image of the day doesn't count as 'content'. By comparison, the Blaze, another pay site, had 40 stories published on Tuesday, August 27 alone. They have also had over 17 videos for the week of August 25.

The quality of her videos is quite amateur and getting worse. It's usually just Sarah rambling into a microphone, largely from a scenic location in her home along the lake. Her yapping face is interspersed with moving pictures that are inserted based on what she says. For example, if she mentions the Constitution they might show a rolling picture of the Constitution. My hunch is that she sends the raw footage off to some video editor who adds the pictures even though this is pretty basic video editing.

While some of the earlier videos appeared to have a somewhat cohesive script, that's changed in the last several weeks. The standard now appears to be that she just goes off with the word salad that we know so well. It's really embarrassing.

The Videos

Let's look at a few of the specific videos.

Richard Dawkins (link to video)

Of course, Sarah will use Trig as a political prop any time she can. So when a dreaded atheist makes a crass comment on Down's Syndrome babies, Sarah has to brag that she didn't abort Trig. This was her chance to make a profound statement on the subject. Instead we get this:

"Recently the world's most famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, he told a woman on Twitter that it was immoral to give birth to a baby with Down's syndrome. He said, and I quote 'Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world [if you have the choice].' The 'it' is a beautiful and innocent life that happens to have just one extra chromosome."

"Well, Mr. Dawkins, what a cold hard world you must live in to say such a thing. I truly feel sorry for you. Mr. Dawkins, I'd let you meet my son. If you promise to open your mind, your eyes, and your heart to a new kind of absolute (beauty?). But in my request for you to be tolerant, I'd have to warn Trig that you must be tolerant too (?) because he'd probably look at you as if you were kind of awkward. I'll make sure that he's polite though."

"And, Mr. atheist, my son and every child, every adult like him, they're winners. They do win! You see, they've got more chromosomes than you."

Yes, that's the sum total of what she had to say on this. Very deep!

Sarah's Ice Bucket Challenge (link to video)

This is supposed to be a joke. It's a copy of Patrick Stewart's challenge. She rambles on about how she's too old and 'prim and proper' to actually do the challenge the normal way. It's a slow and boring presentation. She then daintily prepares a glass with ice and a Diet Dr. Pepper, and proceeds to drink it as if that's her challenge.

She then challenges Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Odd that she would put the two in the same request. I'm sure Hillary really feels the need to respond. NOT!

Then, as if it's some big surprise, someone dumps a bucket from off camera. There was clearly no ice in the bucket. It was probably warm water. She then runs off screen not to be seen again. I guess she really is too 'prim and proper' to actually show herself after being dumped on. (Maybe a wig fell off. I don't know.)

Looking at Matt Damon's toilet water challenge and this one shows the contrast between a real political activist vs. a woman who's nothing but a grifter.

It's All the Same Jihad (link to video)

Time to discuss a really deep issue. Not surprisingly, her solution is simply to bomb ISIS.

"... It's all one and the same. They all have the same mission. Different name, same mission. Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas. They're completely united in their hatred of Christians and Jews in their mission to kill us all, in their quest to destroy the countries that they hate, Israel, and the United States. We need to wake up. Come on, we can't reason with Jihadists. Come on Barack. We can't negotiate with them. We can only defeat them. And we must. Who can defeat them? The United States military."

Yes, Sarah is simply throwing red meat to her war-loving, Obama-hating base. They cheer along with their Fox-based ignorance in the comments:

"What needs to be exposed is the Obama's Admin. complicity - being in cahoots with the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists to help them accomplish the NWO goal here ..."

"You Know some said the the Weapons of Mass Destruction that weren't found in Iraq when Saddam was the leader were actually moved to Syria."

"I think so, too. He [Obama] is sold out to our enemies."

"B. Hussein is a Muslim sympathizer, and possibly even a closet Muslim."

"Obama is a Sunni & 100% with them"

"Hussein 0Zero is a Hater. A Hater of Israel AND! the United States of America. That's right!"

The Anniversary of Her Being Selected as the VP Nominee (link to video)

Remember what I said earlier about hitting new heights of narcisstic behavior. Yeah, this is one of those.

As noted, most of her recent videos are 2-3 minutes long. This one is over 22 minutes. You'd think one would say something new, something deep in that much time. Of course, you'd be wrong.

The first 15 minutes is a rather slow-paced recounting of the story of her getting the nomination. Obviously, this was the biggest event of her life. But we all know the story already and there's really nothing new here. Of course, there's a lengthy discussion of how the teleprompter failed as she was giving her big speech. So why spend so much time on this?

"It was the night that my life changed and I think it's safe to say much of the political landscape changed."

Really?! She's really saying that there was a significant change in the 'political landscape' as a result of her being nominated. Let's look at what actually took place in the country at the time. Obama was ahead in the polls, there was a McCain bump from the Palin selection, the bump faded within a couple of weeks, and Obama then took over even stronger than before. Obama won dominantly in 2008. Is she saying her nomination led to the 'landscape' of Obama winning the Presidency? Twice? If that's really the case, I guess we should thank her.

She then asks what's changed since then. She jumps into the "criticize Obama" section which can be found in most of her videos. For this one, she cherry picks some economic numbers to make it look like things have been horrible under Obama. It never hurts to throw in something about food stamps too for racist effect. Oddly, at one point the moving picture is of a stock market ticker. I guess mentioning the radical rise in the market during Obama's regime wouldn't be appropriate.

The things that haven't changed? Her core team hasn't changed. She mentions a few people but fails to mention just how the team is still together. That at least four of them now have full time wages working for Sarah PAC and many others get lavish 'consulting' fees.

Finally, she has to brag about her great family and how all of the attacks haven't fazed her at all. She says is too focused on other families with real hardships that makes her blind to 'sticks and stones'. Did I mention that I find all this self-adulation rather narcissistic?

How Much More Of This Do We Have To Take?!

I think most of us Po'Gaters have been groaning as Sarah's 15 minutes continues to linger on. We can take some solace in the fact that it's fading even if the pace is agonizingly slow. While I'm sure she'll be around much longer to some extent, I honestly believe this is her last hurrah.

First of all, this isn't much of a hurrah. The press related to the release of the channel was pretty harsh. Even conservatives aren't saying much about it. Judging by the number of comments, there aren't many people subscribing. Again, using the two week period from August 15th through August 28th, there were a total of 1,110 comments. This averages about 70 comments per article or 80 comments per day. (Oddly, three articles have no comments.) C4P, on the other hand averages over 500 comments per day. However, there is much less back and forth on the Sarah Palin Channel.

One key difference I see is that the C4P crowd is somewhat reluctant on the subject of Sarah running for President. Yes, there are definitely nuts there thinking she'll run but I've seen many argue a modicum of common sense on this issue. The C4P site even has a disclaimer saying that they're for Sarah as Sarah not because of her being a possible candidate. Believe it or not, the commenters on the Sarah Palin Channel are even more deluded in thinking that Sarah will run for President in 2016.

I've written before that Sarah uses her potential candidacy as a tease. I think this is now accepted as fact by most of us. For the rabid Palin fan, the thought of her running for President is all they got. Given the 2012 election timetable, Sarah will likely announce that she's not running in 2016 about September of 2015. My prediction is that the Sarah Palin Channel will die soon after that.

However, there's also a strong possibility that Sarah will grow tired of spewing her nonsense to her fans well before then. She is indeed a quitter. She'd end up blaming Obama for it.

Postscript

I'm trying to finish up this article and the crazy videos just keep coming. They are seriously getting worse by the week. It continues to devolve to the level of celebrity idolatry (i.e. come see what I eat for breakfast) or tired old talking points. I just have to comment on one of her latest ones. It's a "behind the scenes", seven minute video that says nothing. It's so unprofessional it isn't funny. The whole premise is that two tourists from New Jersey showed up at the house and Todd told them to come on in and meet Sarah. They become the stars of the video. (If this is her first 'special guest' they're certainly not very special.) I'm not clear if she's trying to tell her fans that they should just drop by and she might put them on their own video or what. Just plain weird.

Ugh! I'm sick to death of watching her videos. Objectively, they're truly nauseating and boring. To think that this woman was a VP nominee is shocking!

Also, too, there's now a new "Sarah Palin Channel" on YouTube. The channel consists of a seemingly random selection of several videos uploaded in the last few days. This is obviously another attempt to give away the product hoping people will actually like it. Given the small number of views, and the heretofore mentioned poor quality of the videos, I doubt it will work.

Bonus

In the description of one of her uploaded videos titled "Vote them out", it is explained that Sarah fights against "Democrats" as well as "Republicans", because both belong in her opinion to the "permanent political class in DC". Surely the GOP has taken note.

Screenshot:

In new suppressed video at FreedomWorks-event from February 2013, Rafael Cruz describes in detail how he fought for Fidel Castro for four years, was "tortured", miraculously escaped the Batista-prison and then enrolled at university in Texas - BONUS: Rafael Cruz in speech from June 2013 about President Obama: "We need to get rid of this monster"

 Remember: Where Texas-Senator Ted Cruz is, his father Rafael is not far behind

By Patrick

During recent weeks, US media and US citizens made a new discovery: They have started to realize that Texas-Senator Ted Cruz, the darling of the Tea Party and potential GOP presidential candidate for 2016, has a very outspoken father with some rather peculiar views - as well as a rather mysterious background.

A larger audience was first introduced to the extremist views of Rafael Cruz by David Corn at Mother Jones through an article he published on October 31, 2013, in which he quoted and displayed some of the fanatic speeches by Rafael Cruz - who for quite some time already has been traveling the country giving one outrageous speech after the other. Rafael Cruz very often speaks at events organized by groups like "FreedomWorks" and "Heritage Action", groups which are the new right-wing political armies, assigned with the task of brainwashing the general population, and which surely receive handsome funding from right-wing billionaires.

At Politicalgates we have also reported extensively about Rafael Cruz, first in a post from October 3, 2013 in which we reported for example that Rafael Cruz in a speech to a GOP-audience strongly suggested that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and that he in an interview explained how his son Ted is "destined for greatness" and how he politically educated his son. Note: If you click on the videos in our post from October 3, 2013, who will see that the clips with controversial remarks by Rafael Cruz are starting to disappear from the internet rather quickly!

In a follow-up post from November 3, 2013, we revealed how Rafael Cruz was caught blatantly lying about President Obama, trying to discredit Obama's Christan beliefs - and we also reported some more rather inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz, for example about his mysterious past.

We wrote:

The conservative non-profit organization "FreedomWorks" conducted a radio-interview with Rafael Cruz in February 2013, in which he explains in more detail his "official" life story: How he fought for Fidel Castro for four years (!), at the age of 14 to 18, how he was imprisoned and tortured, how he then somehow escaped to the USA, how he didn't speak English, still got a place at an university in Texas, then went briefly back to Cuba (?), but apparently was so appalled by Castro's version of communism that he promptly returned to the USA, disappointed about the "hope and change" that Fidel Castro had promised.

He conducted the interview with an ultra-conservative female host, who obviously thinks that government healthcare is the embodiment of evil, and who marvels how great it was how in the past when US citizens, after they got sick, first turned to their "families", then their "churches", then their "communities", and only then to the "government." Rafael Cruz, whose son Ted enjoys the luxurious Goldman Sachs-healthcare plan, immediately agreed with her. Oh, the good old days! Cruz also says in the interview that people turn into "slaves of the government" when they accept Government handouts or use any other services.

Daddy Cruz also has more incredibly original thoughts. He further says in the interview that that Democratic Party today follows "socialist policies", which are "not the policies which made America great." He also claims that America turned to Socialism when Carter was elected, and that Ronald Reagan then magically fixed the economy already in his first year. I guess Reagan waved his magic wand!

Now comes the follow-up to the follow-up. By coincidence we discovered another speech which now is apparently being deliberately suppressed by "FreedomWorks" - and in which Rafael Cruz speaks about his past as a fighter for Fidel Castro and about his move to the USA in great detail. However, this speech prompts even more questions than it provides answers - and was afterwards grossly misrepresented in a ludicrous manner in a tweet by the "FreedomWorks" organization.

This is what happened: While I searched youtube for new clips, I found a clip which was uploaded by a man called Paul LeBon. This clip contained excerpts from a speech by Rafael Cruz at an event by FreedomWorks which is very different from the clips we have seen so far - a speech in which Rafael Cruz extensively talks about his past, much more extensively than on other occasions. However, as much as a I searched, I could not for the life of me find the complete clip of this speech! Through extensive googling I finally found the clip embedded in a post on a right-wing blog in a post from March 3, 2013, and that was the only place I could find it anywhere.

When I examined the clip, I finally realized why this clip, although it had been posted on the official youtube-channel of FreedomWorks, was virtually impossible to find: It is now unlisted! Which means that it doesn't appear in the search engines, and without a direct link to the clip, you will never find it.

Screenshot:

Yes, I did indeed think twice about sharing it, but quickly realized that it would be considerate to share it with the public! :-)

I strongly believe that it wasn't unlisted right from the beginning, because more than 10.000 people have already watched it.

Here is the full clip, posted on the channel of "FreedomWorks":

Due to the fact that the content of this particular talk by Rafael Cruz is really unique and of great interest, Kathleen volunteered to spend a few hours transcribing the most important part of the speech. Thank you so much, Kathleen! :-)

Here is the transcript of this address by Rafael Cruz, which was apparently given on February 25, 2013 to activists from FreedomWorks in Washington D.C. :

RAFAEL CRUZ:

Thank you very much. Before I say anything else, I need to say thank you to Freedom Works. Without the passion, without the hard work that Freedom Works took into the race for Ted Cruz it would not have been possible. The biggest. most exciting, most energetic rally in the whole campaign was the one that Freedom Works put together at the American Airlines Center  with over 16,000 people. (applause) Thank you Matt (Matt Kibbe, CEO and President of Freedom Works).

So, without you this would not be possible. Today I had the opportunity of meeting people from North Carolina, and other places that told me  “We spent a lot of time on the phone calling for Ted Cruz”, so thank you.

I was born in Cuba and ah Cuba when I was in my early teens, Cuba ah became engulfed in a very bloody, very oppressive military dictatorship that began in 1952. I was thirteen years old. The dictatorship of Batista began killing everyone that disagreed with them. It was a military oppression. There was a lot of corruption. The mafia operated freely in Cuba and ah the military would come to any kind of establishment pretty much in the same way that the Chicago mobsters operated in the thirties with protectionism.

They would come into an establishment and say “Well Matt, you know, I don’t think your restaurant will pass health inspection.” And then this little sergeant would say “Well, you know, I’ve been thinking about going to Miami with my family for a week but it’s going to cost me $10,000.” And either Matt came out with $10,000 or this sergeant would close his place. And of course those who dared to oppose were killed. Thousands were killed. And of course as is happened with every revolution where do you think it started? It started in the high schools and universities.

So I found myself at fourteen years old involved in a revolution. And, ah, so, I spent nearly four years involved in ah sabotage, propaganda, and trying to collect ah weapons and training and so on and so forth. During this time a young charismatic leader rose up talking about “Hope and Change” (audience sniggers). His name was Fidel Castro and we all thought that he was the saviour of the country. So we blindly followed him and I did so for four years.

1957 I, ah, made the mistake of trying to recruit somebody who was a government informant. And so I found myself not in prison, because Batista tried to operate as if he was doing everything above the law,  I was in an army garrison. Not technically in prison but in a cell in an army garrison. Severely tortured, beaten half to death, in a little cell about seven foot by seven foot with nothing but a concrete floor  and about a thousand watt reflector on top. And they would beat me to a pulp to where nothing hurt, you were totally numb. They would throw you in that prison cell for about four hours. Now let me tell you, four hours later even your hair hurt and then they would take you out and do it again. And this went on around the clock for several days.

But, you know, God had other plans for my life. I thought that I was going to die because I had had friends who had been in the same position and a few days later had appeared dead in some street after being picked up by the army before. I truly thought I was going to die and that’s actually what gave me the strength to go through this torture.

I remember the last day, I got taken out of my cell at 2 o’clock in the morning, put in a jeep with four of these other soldiers, there was one with a pistol in his hand, there was another with a hand grenade, he had his finger on the ring, and they drove out of the army garrison and they said to me “Look, they’re going to kill you in the morning. We just wanted you to see the city for the last time.” And they drove around the army garrison. I guess they were figuring, what I figure is that they just want me to make a break for it so that they can shoot me. So I just sat very quietly in the jeep. They turned around, came back to the army garrison, and now actually, must have been God directing me because that was the right decision. That morning the colonel decided to turn me loose. They brought me to his office and he said “We’re gonna release you, but, if a bomb explodes anywhere in the city we’re going to pick you up.”

And I said to that colonel “How can I be responsible for what other people do?” He looked me in the eye and he said “I don’t care. If a bomb explodes in this city we’re coming to get you.”

Well I got home. My father took me home. I was eighteen years old and erm I had been home about an hour and a lady from the underground whom I didn’t know came and said “Look, you’re being followed. There are two people assigned to follow you around the clock in shifts of eight hours. She brought me to the window of the living room and she said “You see that guy in that corner, and that guy in the other corner, those are the two assigned to follow you now.” So I said “I want to go to the mountains” and she said “I’m sorry, it’s impossible.” Batista had at that time a very substantial raid. Had the mountains surrounded and she said that “The revolution says that the best thing you can do is to leave the country.” So that I would not jeopardize all the people who were involved.

So I figure, what’s the best way to get out of the country. I know, I’ll apply to a university in the United States and leave with a student visa. I wrote three letters, a letter to the University of Florida, a letter to LSU and a letter to University of Texas. UT was the first one to accept me and that’s how I became a Texan. (laughs and applause) So with my letter of acceptance from UT I went to the American Embassy got a four year student visa and then all I needed was a permit from the government to get out of the country. To the equivalent of the FBI or the KGB you could say. And a friend of the family who was a lawyer he bribed somebody in the government to stamp my passport.

So one morning, ah, with the car in the garage of my father’s house, I laid on the floor of the back seat, my father drove to Havana and I border, bordered a ferry boat to Key West. Landed in Key west with nothing but a few dollars sewn into my underwear. My mother was so afraid that they were going to steal my money, what several dollars my father could scrounge, that she sewed a pocket in my underwear. And I only had enough money for my bus fare to Austin and maybe to eat a couple of hamburgers along the way.

Got to Austin, went straight to the University office of student affairs and I said “Well here I am” Was a month before school started and I said “Well I need a job. I don’t have any money”  Well within twenty four hours they send me to the IRS and within twenty fours I had a social security number. A valid, legal social security number. And, because I needed to work to pay for my university. I couldn’t speak a word of English so the obvious job was being a dishwasher, you don’t have to talk to anybody to wash dishes.

So I got a job as a dishwasher, worked full-time, went to school full-time. And at the beginning of 1958, I learned English very quickly, I’d started speaking at different Rotary clubs around Austin, Texas, in favour of Castro. I still thought that he was the saviour of the country.

January 1st  1959 Castro takes over and I went back to Cuba that summer and I got the shock of my life. That same man that had been talking about hope and change now was talking about how the rich were evil, how they oppressed the poor, and about the need to redistribute the wealth. And, ah, along with that there were several things that were instituted by the Castro regime.

My mother was an elementary school teacher, she taught sixth grade and, ah, the Castro regime told all teachers that they had to teach Marxism in school. And my mother did something for which I am extremely proud. She walked one day into her sixth grade class and faked an attack of insanity. She began foaming at the mouth, screaming, running up and down the halls, pulling her hair in the middle of her classroom and so she was dismissed for reason of mental illness. And in her own words she said “I would rather suffer public humiliation than poison the minds of children with communist indoctrination.” And I’m extremely proud of that stand.

There are a number of very interesting points to note about this speech by Rafael Cruz - just a few examples, there are certainly much more:

- From age 14 to 18, Rafael Cruz was engaged in "sabotage, propaganda, weapons, training and so forth" for Fidel Castro - while he according to his own account never noticed that Fidel Castro was a Marxist.

- His claims about him being tortured by the Batista regime and his miraculous, virtually unbelievable lucky escape leave a lot of open questions and are not supported by any hard evidence.

- To escape the regime of president Batista, as a fighter for Fidel Castro, he chose to leave the country, and the "best way" he could think of was to apply to a university in the USA. In this context it should be noted that the USA only stopped supplying the Batista regime with arms in March 1958. However, Rafael Cruz left Cuba long before that point. According to a very detailed article in the "Dallas News", Rafael Cruz already arrived in the USA in 1957. Therefore it doesn't seem logical that the USA, who were the allies of Batista at this point, were the obvious country for Rafael Cruz to seek refuge. Again, more questions than answers.

- I found particularly noteworthy that Rafael Cruz then claims that he "started speaking at different Rotary clubs around Austin, Texas, in favour of Castro." Therefore, by his own account, he continued with the "propaganda" for Fidel Castro in the USA. His claim that he never noticed that Fidel Castro was a Marxist seems even more unbelievable in this context.

In any case, Fidel Castro's socialist/marxist sympathies were not exactly a secret. Fidel Castro said for example already in a speech in 1953 which I is available in full on the internet:

The five revolutionary laws that would have been proclaimed immediately after the capture of the Moncada Barracks and would have been broadcast to the nation by radio must be included in the indictment. It is possible that Colonel Chaviano may deliberately have destroyed these documents, but even if he has I remember them.

The first revolutionary law would have returned power to the people and proclaimed the 1940 Constitution the Supreme Law of the State until such time as the people should decide to modify or change it. And in order to effect its implementation and punish those who violated it - there being no electoral organization to carry this out - the revolutionary movement, as the circumstantial incarnation of this sovereignty, the only source of legitimate power, would have assumed all the faculties inherent therein, except that of modifying the Constitution itself: in other words, it would have assumed the legislative, executive and judicial powers.

This attitude could not be clearer nor more free of vacillation and sterile charlatanry. A government acclaimed by the mass of rebel people would be vested with every power, everything necessary in order to proceed with the effective implementation of popular will and real justice. From that moment, the Judicial Power - which since March 10th had placed itself against and outside the Constitution - would cease to exist and we would proceed to its immediate and total reform before it would once again assume the power granted it by the Supreme Law of the Republic. Without these previous measures, a return to legality by putting its custody back into the hands that have crippled the system so dishonorably would constitute a fraud, a deceit, one more betrayal.

The second revolutionary law would give non-mortgageable and non-transferable ownership of the land to all tenant and subtenant farmers, lessees, share croppers and squatters who hold parcels of five caballerías of land or less, and the State would indemnify the former owners on the basis of the rental which they would have received for these parcels over a period of ten years.

The third revolutionary law would have granted workers and employees the right to share 30% of the profits of all the large industrial, mercantile and mining enterprises, including the sugar mills. The strictly agricultural enterprises would be exempt in consideration of other agrarian laws which would be put into effect.

The fourth revolutionary law would have granted all sugar planters the right to share 55% of sugar production and a minimum quota of forty thousand arrobas for all small tenant farmers who have been established for three years or more.

The fifth revolutionary law would have ordered the confiscation of all holdings and ill-gotten gains of those who had committed frauds during previous regimes, as well as the holdings and ill-gotten gains of all their legates and heirs. To implement this, special courts with full powers would gain access to all records of all corporations registered or operating in this country, in order to investigate concealed funds of illegal origin, and to request that foreign governments extradite persons and attach holdings rightfully belonging to the Cuban people. Half of the property recovered would be used to subsidize retirement funds for workers and the other half would be used for hospitals, asylums and charitable organizations.

Furthermore, it was declared that the Cuban policy in the Americas would be one of close solidarity with the democratic peoples of this continent, and that all those politically persecuted by bloody tyrannies oppressing our sister nations would find generous asylum, brotherhood and bread in the land of Martí; not the persecution, hunger and treason they find today. Cuba should be the bulwark of liberty and not a shameful link in the chain of despotism.

These laws would have been proclaimed immediately. As soon as the upheaval ended and prior to a detailed and far reaching study, they would have been followed by another series of laws and fundamental measures, such as the Agrarian Reform, the Integral Educational Reform, nationalization of the electric power trust and the telephone trust, refund to the people of the illegal and repressive rates these companies have charged, and payment to the treasury of all taxes brazenly evaded in the past.

I get the impression that Rafael Cruz liked socialism so much than he now wants his Tea Party audiences to believe, and my suspicion is also aroused by another rather surprising fact Rafael Cruz mentions at his speech at FreedomWorks: Rafael Cruz rather proudly explains in the speech how he got his "social security number" in the USA already two days after arrival. Well, Mr. Cruz, for somebody who now believes that US citizens are in danger of becoming "slaves of the government", you were surely very keen to benefit from the advantages of US social security!

I actually wonder whether these remarks by Rafael Cruz, which are not very much in line with contemporary Tea Party politics, and the fact that Rafael Cruz rather openly admits in the speech that he basically tricked his way into university in the USA were the reasons why FreedomWorks decided to suppress the speech.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but I have a hard time to believe that any US university would have accepted a student from abroad who doesn't speak a word of English.

But one of the most important contradictions in the account by Rafael Cruz in this speech from February 2013 to other accounts of his life becomes obvious when we compare a quote by his son Ted Cruz with the claims by Rafael Cruz, as reported by the "Dallas News" in October 2011:

He (Ted Cruz) said his father began fighting against Batista’s regime when he was 14, in 1953. When the elder Cruz was 17, he was imprisoned and tortured by Batista’s government, his son said. The next year, 1957, Rafael Cruz legally went to Texas on a student visa issued by the Batista regime, Ted Cruz said.

He went to Texas "on a student visa issued by the Batista regime"...?

Wait a moment! This sounded slighty different from when Rafael Cruz told the story in February 2013. According to his own account, Rafael Cruz fled Cuba because he was a persecuted pro-Castro figher against the Batista regime, somebody who was thrown in jail and tortured - and then escaped because a bribed official "stamped his passport":

So with my letter of acceptance from UT I went to the American Embassy got a four year student visa and then all I needed was a permit from the government to get out of the country. To the equivalent of the FBI or the KGB you could say. And a friend of the family who was a lawyer he bribed somebody in the government to stamp my passport.

I get the impression that Ted and Rafael Cruz haven't really "synchronized" their stories.

Another detail from the speech by Rafael Cruz caught my eye: Cruz said that he "needed to work to pay for my university." This remark strikes me as grossly misleading as well, considering the fact that the Houston Chronicle reported in a major piece about Ted Cruz and his father Rafael that Rafael Cruz actually had his tuition paid while he studied the in the USA.

It is important to have this particular speech by Rafael Cruz, which FreedomWorks obviously was not keen to promote any further, become part of the public record. He probably said more about his past in this speech than in hindsight it was advisable from his point of view.

It's absolutely unclear how much we can believe what Rafael and Ted Cruz are telling us. But one thing is certain: It has probably dawned on them that Rafael has said some unwise things in the past. The fact that clips of Rafael's speeches and interviews are disappearing from the internet at an alarming rate is an obvious sign that some very inconvenient facts and speeches are about to be purged.

To conclude the report about the speech by Rafael Cruz from February 2013, I present the "icing of the cake": When FreedomWorks tweeted this speech on February 25, 2013, they distorted the facts in a way which is virtually beyond imagination - they claimed that the militant pro-Castro fighter Rafael Cruz, who fled Cuba about two years before Fidel Castro came to power, was "being tortured and abused for his political beliefs during Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba":

 Well - say it ain't so, Rafael!

This certainly won't be the last which we will hear from Rafael Cruz here at Politicalgates.

The man who only became an American citizen in 2005, which is 48 years after he left Cuba, and who now tries to lecture Americans about how they should govern their country, and who uses lies and sinister distortions while doing so, remains the subject of great interest.

+++

BONUS:

Above, I mentioned that I found the clip from February 2013 originally through the youtube-account of Paul LeBron, who had posted excerpts from this speech. This man recently posted another very interesting clip featuring Rafael Cruz, which definitely receives a wider audience. This clip is an excerpt from a speech by Rafael Cruz from June 6, 2013, at Parker County Tea Party. There, in a very obvious way, he calls President Obama a "monster"

Watch:

There, Rafael Cruz says:

"Get rid of this monster that is trying to destroy the free enterprise system and trying to create a society where everybody is a serf to the government." Straight out of Karl Marx. All we got left is our honor. If we prostitute our honor, we deserve whatever we get. (...) We are going to retake the Senate, and and when we do that, we are going to be able to clip the wings of this out of control Obama monstrosity that is destroying us."

One thing I believe without any doubt: That Rafael Cruz is an expert on propaganda.I have seen him full of vicious propaganda, and many of his speeches have a frightening totalitarian tone.

Who, I wonder, is the monster?

Election 2012: Week Two in Review

by Sunnyjane

Admiral Romney, the USS Pinafore's Ruler of the Navy: "A partnership is the only ship that I ever have seen!"

Military Madness

Readers familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan's delightful Victorian-era operetta HMS Pinafore will easily recognize and understand the correlation between that comedy's Sir Joseph Porter character and Mitt Romney.  Sir Joseph went on to say: 

      I grew so rich that I was sent 
     By a pocket borough into Parliament. 
     I always voted at my party's call 
     And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.  
     I thought so little, they rewarded me, 
    By making me the Ruler of the Queen's Navy.  

The jab here, of course, is that too often people who are extremely unqualified are elevated to positions of power simply because they are wealthy and are willing to kiss the, uh, rings of their puppeteers.

Pinafore also pokes fun at the British class system of the period, to which we can all relate during this election cycle, when Sir Joseph states, A British sailor is any man's equal -- except mine!

Mitt Romney desperately wants the title of Chief in Command.  But during the final presidential debate on October 22, President Obama  proved conclusively that the Republican candidate's foreign -- and domestic -- policy expertise is limited to sending jobs to China, putting his money in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, and lying to get votes.  These things make him frighteningly incompetent to assume the position of Commander in Chief of the United States of America.

The Professor Puts the Dunce in the Corner
 

Um... Subs?  Aircraft carriers?
 Can I respond retroactively?

After about thirty minutes, the stench of Roasting Romney permeated the air in Boca Raton, FL.  Trotting out his well worn apocalypse-now whine that the United States has fewer naval vessels than it did in 1916, the President took the opportunity to do a little schooling: Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.  Obviously, Mitt  Romney's definition of naval supremacy means that the finest citrus fruit comes from Florida.  Yes, he's just that daft.

Romney also thought it a dandy idea to bring up the President's oft-debunked 2009 Apology Tour.  That was a mistake, a big mistake.   A little fact checking would have been helpful, but the Romney campaign does not care about facts or, as we know, the truth. But they thought their candidate could get away with this lie.  The President did, indeed, visit other countries -- Europe, the Mid-East, and Latin America -- after he assumed office.  It was not, however, to apologize for America, but rather to clean up the mess George W. Bush had made over the previous eight years, when our reputation went into the toilet.  Romney was especially gleeful to report that President Obama had skipped Israel.  The President did not hesitate to say he had been there as a candidate and I didn’t take donors. I didn’t attend fundraisers. I went to the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself of the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable.  The donors and fundraisers jab was, of course, in reference to Romney's embarrassing Geopolitical Magic Carpet Trip in July when he dragged along big-bucks Sheldon Adelson and scheduled a $50,000 fund-raising dinner on a sacred day of fasting in Israel. 

The President's Apology Tour -- which was actually a Mending Fences Tour -- seems to have been successful, since of the twenty-one countries listed here, only Pakistan would rather see Mitt Romney in the White House.

Map Maker, Map Maker, Make Me a Map

Iran: Big Green Blob, Two Big Waters.
Syria: Small Brown Blob, One Big Water.
Romney:  Big Gray Blob, No Clue.

Cartographers the world over are said to be popping antacid pills at an alarming rate, due to Mitt Romney's five-time claim that Syria is Iran's only route to the sea. 

Romney can spout all the correct words -- Syria, Assad, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Iran, Israel -- without having a clue what he's talking about. 

Now, admittedly, I am not the sharpest needle in the pin cushion, but I've looked at this map rather closely -- far more than it deserves -- and if Syria is Iran's only route to  the sea, then I'm a two-year old Pop-Tart.  Did the only  candidate for president that the Republican Party could come up with sleep through the 1980s' Iraq-Iran War and the 1990s' Persian Gulf War? 

A Village in Indiana Has Found Its Idiot

I disagree with what the fool said, 
but I fully support what the fool said.

On the same night Mitt Romney was demonstrating to more than fifty-six million American voters that he is unfit for the Office of the Presidency, the only Republican senate candidate he has endorsed in the 2012 General Election was telling the Hoosier State electorate that if a woman became pregnant as a consequence of rape, it was what God intended.  While Richard Mourdock made a small effort to, um, purify his statement, let's make one thing clear -- he meant exactly what he said: I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God.  And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.

Make no mistake, this is Romney's kind of far-right-wing Christianista nut job.  Mourdock is right up there with Rick Santorum who believes that rape babies are gifts from God; Paul Ryan who believes that rape is just another form of conception; and Todd Akin who believes that with a legitimate rape, the woman has magical powers to shut down conception. If there is a Romney/Ryan administration, every rapist will be assured that his violently conceived child will have an advocate in the White House.  Yes, seriously.

Hurricane "Superstorm" Sandy

The mother of all hurricanes hit the East Coast of the United States during Week Two, and  President Obama cancelled his scheduled campaign stops to take control of the situation.  Mitt Romney was taking advantage of that situation by running around Ohio campaigning, but keeping the people in harms way in his prayers.  Uh huh.   Then Romney decided that he had to get in on the action and started urging people to donate disaster relief items for the victims.  Never mind that the Red Cross does not want donated items.  

On behalf of all Politicalgates readers and commenters, special thanks to Sleuth1 for her devoted and far-ranging coverage of the hurricane.  Excellent and extremely beneficial effort, Sleuth1! 

       

Let's imagine a Romney presidency during this crisis:

Aide:  Mr. President, there's a huge hurricane coming that's threatening the United States! 

President Romney:  Really?  OK, get FEMA on the phone and tell them to handle it. 

Aide: Um, Mr. President, you got rid of FEMA.  You sent responsibility for disaster relief to the states so you could shrink government and save money. 

President Romney:  I saved money?  Well, money is more important than people’s lives, right?  I’ll take a nap now; call me when it’s over.  Oh, and if any governors want to whine to me about their state's desperate situation, switch the phones to the Call Center in India.

Remember Michelle Obama's statement at the Democratic National Convention:  Being President doesn't change who you are.  It reveals who you are.
 

A natural or national disaster is one of the best arguments for early voting in every state, no restrictions and no justifications required.

END NOTE

Courtesy of Rolling Stone

 We have a real leader in the White House.  Let's keep him there.

Who supports American workers, and who supports Chinese workers?  Just askin'.

  V  O  T  E     B  L  U  E

Congratulation to Politicalgates' newest citizen, Linda, who voted in her first ever U.S. election -- for the Obama/Biden ticket!