One of the ironies of the U.S. national-security state's never-ending efforts to effect regime change in Cuba is that the United States ended up adopting and embracing many of the dark-side policies and practices of what one might expect a communist regime to engage in. After the conversion of the U.S. government to a national-security state after World War II, the notion was that in order to defeat the Reds during the Cold War, America needed to become like them.

That's how the United States ended up being a nation based on such dark-side activities as torture, assassination, secret surveillance, and indefinite detention. In fact, it was appropriate that the Pentagon and the CIA established their premier torture and indefinite detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, given that torture, military tribunals, and indefinite detention without trial would fit perfectly in most communist regimes.

One of the most hilarious ways in which the United States became like the communists to defeat the communists involves a radio station named Radio Marti.

Haven't heard of it? Maybe the reason is that it is not allowed to broadcast to the American people even though it is based in Miami.

Why not?

Because that would be feeding propaganda to the America people!

You see, Radio Marti is owned and funded by the U.S. government. Its sole mission is to broadcast pro-U.S. propaganda into Cuba, with the aim of fomenting dissent there as part of the U.S. government's never-ending aim of achieving regime change in Cuba.

It's important to point out something important here: Radio Marti is a government-owned radio station Why is that important? Because that makes this station a socialist enterprise!

Look at the irony: To fight socialism, the United States adopts socialism! Is that hilarious or what?

The annual budget of Radio Marti and its sister station TV Marti is $27 million. Okay, not a large amount of money in the large scheme of things, but it's the principle of the thing. This socialist enterprise is being funded the same way that socialist enterprises are funded in Cuba — through coercion. Both the U.S. government and the Cuban government take money from the populace to fund socialist enterprises. Think about that the next time you're filling out your income-tax return and wondering why the IRS is taking so much of your income from you.

How large is the listening audience for Radio Marti. It's impossible to say given that there are no ratings services in Cuba. But once Radio Marti began broadcasting in 1985, the Cuban regime responded by jamming its signals. This had a boomerang effect because many privately owned American radio stations, whose signal was not previously being blocked, discovered that the Cuban jamming of Radio Marti's signal also jammed their signals as well. In any event, according to Wikipedia, less than 2 percent of Cubans listen to the propaganda issued by Radio Marti.