President Obama will soon land in Cuba.  He will shake Raúl Castro's hand and apparently visit with a "selected" group of dissidents.  It will be a great photo op for Raúl Castro, a vicious dictator who must be wondering how he got so lucky.

Fidel and Raúl Castro are two of the world's most strident anti-U.S. leaders.  They killed their fellow citizens in order to impose an inhumane anti-freedom regime.  You can read it all in Armando Valladares's international bestseller, Against All Hope.  Read it, and I guarantee that you will punch the next clown you see wearing a "Che" t-shirt.

They stole the property of U.S. citizens.  They killed U.S. citizens as recently as 1996.  They've made zero concessions and keep demanding that President Obama return Guantanamo Bay or end the Cuban embargo unilaterally.

Eighteen months ago, Raúl Castro was drowning in the ocean after Venezuela's economy hit the fan.  He had no idea that a U.S. president would bail him out.  Today, Raúl is on top of the world now that President Obama has given Castro Inc. a cash flow injection.

I hope that one of "the yes we can" screamers who travels with President Obama reminds him of this side of Cuba – the people who can't wait to get out:

A cruise ship off the Florida coast on Friday rescued 18 Cuban migrants who said nine fellow travelers died during their 22-day-long journey, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard said the migrants were picked up by Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas cruise ship west of Marco Island. The survivors were suffering from severe dehydration, and they reported that nine others had already died, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard could not confirm the veracity of the statements. The 18 people would be taken to the cruise ship's next port of call, in Cozumel, Mexico, the Coast Guard said.

"Our deepest condolences to the families of the nine people who recently did lose their lives," said Coast Guard Captain Mark Gordon, who heads up enforcement for the Coast Guard 7th District. "Unfortunately, tragedy is all too common when taking to the sea in homemade vessels with no safety or navigation equipment."

Coast Guard officials also repatriated 42 other migrants to Cuba on Friday, as a result of two interdictions earlier in the week.

The Coast Guard said it has seen a steady increase in illegal immigration attempts to the U.S. southeast from Cuba since diplomatic relations between the two countries were normalized in late 2014.

They keep telling me that this is about President Obama's legacy.  I don't know for sure.  I do know that this is not about the Cuban people – the thousands who keep showing their approval of the new U.S. approach by risking their lives to leave.

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