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Cuban Americans fire back after top State Dept. official claims Cuba protests related to COVID



The Biden administration was raked over the coals Sunday after a top State Department official claimed historic protests in Cuba were related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

What was claimed?

Despite the overwhelming evidence pointing to freedom as the motive behind the demonstrations, Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, claimed that — actually — Cubans are angry about COVID and medicine shortages.

"Peaceful protests are growing in #Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortages. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need," Chung tweeted.

Peaceful protests are growing in #Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express con… https://t.co/Yizg3zsYiF

— Julie Chung (@WHAAsstSecty) 1626038662.0

Watching any video from Sunday's demonstrations, of course, quickly dispelled the claim. The Cuban people are heavily oppressed by Cuba's communist regime, which has resulted in generations of impoverished living.

In fact, videos showed mass crowds Cuban demonstrators shouting "libertad" and "patria y vida" (homeland and life, opposite of the regime's "patria o muerte," which means "homeland or death") while waving American flags, an international symbol of freedom embraced by oppressed peoples outside America.

What was the response?

Chung's clearly dubious claims triggered an eruption of backlash from, most importantly, Cuban Americans angry that the Biden administration would callously ignore the obvious motive for the Cuban people's freedom demonstrations.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whose parents immigrated from Cuba, rebuked President Joe Biden for not publicly supporting the Cuban people and condemned Chung, whom he praised for her work at the State Department, for her ridiculous assertion.

"COVID is the icing on the cake here because you have a socialist regime that says to people, 'You have no freedom. You have no independence. You have no ability to speak freely, but you have a really good health care system.' They don't!" Rubio began.

"Of course COVID has a role to play, but this began well before COVID. These people are frustrated. They want to live in a normal country," Rubio continued. "Why can't the State Department, why can't the White House just say it clearly: This is not about COVID, this is not about anything else! This is about freedom — say it!"

Alberto Miguel Fernandez, a retired U.S. diplomat who was born in Cuba, said, "What a dull, lifeless, dumb tweet by #Biden@StateDept official. People in Cuba aren't calling for COVID shots or medicine. They are calling for Freedom."

What a dull, lifeless, dumb tweet by #Biden @StateDept official. People in Cuba aren't calling for COVID shots or m… https://t.co/D1Mt4XrBfZ

— Alberto Miguel Fernandez (@AlbertoMiguelF5) 1626049323.0

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), who was born in Cuba, said, "The Biden Admin is totally deranged on #Cuba policy. This isn't some pesky protest over COVID vaccines. This is about opposing a brutal communist regime, freeing political prisoners, and demanding free elections. If you can't make that distinction, you are very bad at your job."

The Biden Admin is totally deranged on #Cuba policy.This isn’t some pesky protest over COVID vaccines. This is ab… https://t.co/NRNiP0hI0U

— Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) 1626049401.0

Did Chung respond?

While she did not respond to the criticism directly, she later followed up, "We stand by the Cuban people's right for peaceful assembly. We call for calm and condemn any violence."

The Cuban people, of course, do not have a right to "peacefully assemble" in their homeland.

Hispanic lawmaker punches back at Biden over use of 'Latinx,' unfounded claims that Hispanics won't get vaccine over deportation fears



Republican Rep. Carlos Giménez (Fla.) fired back at President Joe Biden over the weekend, calling out Biden for referring to Hispanic people as "Latinx" and baselessly claiming Hispanic people are reluctant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine because they fear deportation.

What did Biden say?

While speaking in North Carolina last Thursday, Biden said Hispanic Americans are reluctant to get vaccinated because they fear being deported.

"It's awful hard, as well, to get Latinx vaccinated as well. Why? They're worried that they'll be vaccinated and deported," Biden said.

Taking Biden's remarks at face value, the president was suggesting that all Hispanic people in America are here illegally, a claim that, of course, was widely criticized as racist and simply untrue.

How did Giménez respond?

The Florida congressman responded to Biden's comments during a Fox News interview on Saturday, focusing on Biden calling Hispanic people "Latinx," an artificial woke moniker that refers to Hispanic people.

"Look, I'm Hispanic, I'm a legal immigrant. I'm a citizen of the United States. I'm a U.S. congressman," Giménez said. "And so, no, we are just like everybody else. We came here looking for a better life. My father, my mother brought me here looking for a better life, escaping socialism and communism in Cuba. And we're really proud to be Americans, and so that somehow we're different than anybody else, and that we're afraid we're going to be deported, no, that's not the case."

"I think the president really is out of touch with what's really happening on the ground," he added.

Giménez also pushed back against the suggestion that Hispanics are fearful of deportation. In fact, people being vaccinated in Miami-Dade County, for example, are not asked for their immigration status before being vaccinated, Giménez explained.

Never mind the racist undertones in implying all Latinos are undocumented, using the term “Latinx” is the stupidest… https://t.co/OOZt13hE3k

— Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) 1624754079.0

How did Hispanic people feel about 'Latinx'?

Analysis from the Pew Research Center discovered that practically no Hispanic people use the term "Latinx." ThinkNow Research similarly found that 98% of Hispanics do not identify as "Latinx," instead preferring "Hispanic," "Latino," or "Latina," the Houston Chronicle noted.

The disconnect between the woke phraseology and reality reflects the fact that Spanish, like most languages, is grammatically gendered.

Linguistically speaking, grammatical gender is completely unrelated to biological gender except when referring to people. Indeed, attempts by woke Western academia to make the Spanish language politically correct is ironically imperialistic, something woke Western academics claim to hate.

Newly elected GOP 'Freedom Force' unites to fight socialism and the 'Squad'



Four incoming Republican members of Congress with personal experiences with communist or socialist countries are teaming up to form a "Freedom Force" to stand up to the radical left, and they want more members of the freshman class of lawmakers to join them.

Reps.-elect Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) are positioning themselves to be a "conservative counterweight" to the democratic socialist "Squad" and its ringleader, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), according to a Politico profile of the newly elected GOPers. These representatives, who will be sworn into office on Jan. 3, bonded during orientation over their shared experiences with socialist countries, pledging to unite to fight big government here in the U.S.

"It was a natural alliance that formed. … We understand what it's like in other countries. We understand how truly special this nation is," Malliotakis, whose mother is from Cuba, said. "And we look forward to working together to push back on anyone who tries to bring a socialist agenda to America."

Gimenez, 66, is an immigrant from Cuba who fled to the United States as a child, around the time of the communist revolution led by Fidel Castro. Salazar, another Cuban-American, is a former TV journalist for the Spanish-language network Telemundo and the daughter of Cuban exiles. Both Republicans campaigned heavily on opposing socialism, messages that resonated with Hispanic voters and helped them each defeat Democratic incumbents.

Spartz is a Ukrainian-American who immigrated to the U.S. in 2000 at age 22 and became a U.S. citizen in 2006. When she was born in Ukraine in 1978, the country was still under communist control and did not gain independence until 1991, when she was 13. Spartz will be the first immigrant member of Congress from the former Soviet Union.

These four are joined by other freshman Republicans, including Reps.-elect Young Kim and Michelle Steel, Korean immigrants who will represent districts in California. Steel tells stories about how her parents escaped Korea and fled to Japan before the communist takeover of the northern part of the country.

Malliotakis explained to Politico that she and other Republicans want young people to understand the dangers posed by socialist ideology.

"We want to make sure, particularly young people, understand that socialism is not something grand," she said.

This newly elected generation of Republicans comprises historic numbers of women and minorities joining the lawmaking body and leveraging social media to galvanize their supporters and establish their brands.

We are the New Face of the @GOP!So proud of my colleagues @Victoria_Spartz, the 1st immigrant from the former Sov… https://t.co/3l6vMxKlGT
— María Elvira Salazar 🇺🇸 (@María Elvira Salazar 🇺🇸)1606956405.0

Politico credited Ocasio-Cortez with inspiring this new style of transparent, "pull-back-the-curtain style of politics":

Many members of the GOP Force — who, like the Squad, are mostly young and female — have even adopted Ocasio-Cortez's pull-back-the-curtain style of politics. Ocasio-Cortez is known to post videos as she preps meals while casually discussing legislation coming to the floor.

Mace recently documented her journey through freshman orientation, which included getting lost in the Capitol building and racing across the campus. Salazar, who is credited with coining the Force moniker, posted a picture of the female group members with the caption: "We're all working moms & we're a true FORCE to be reckoned with!"

And earlier this summer, Salazar, a former broadcast journalist for Telemundo,got nearly 600,000 views on a Twitter video in which she recorded herself in the Goya aisle of a grocery store blasting Ocasio-Cortez for pushing a boycott on the company for its leadership's support for Trump.

"I want to be different. I don't want it to be the same old, same old. This is a new Republican Party," said Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who made history as the first woman to graduate from the Citadel. "We have to be different if we want to survive and be successful in the long term."

Asked what she thought of "the Force," Ocasio-Cortez told Politico, "Imitation is a high form of flattery, right? So, I'm glad they think that way of me."