THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Baseball is a business and Cuba has shown itself to be a fruitful source of talent. For more than 50 years the failed Cuban Embargo has required that ball players defect before any business deal can be done. And then a sensible man named Obama came along and worked out an agreement that allows MLB to do business with Cuban ball players in the same manner as every other Latin American Player. Trump wants to fuck that up becuz....Obama. And he is getting help from Little Marco Rubio representing all the old Moustache Petes in Miami who still hate Fidel.

The Trump administration is expected to take steps to block a historic agreement that would allow Cuban baseball players from joining Major League Baseball in the United States without having to defect, according to an official familiar with the discussions.

The administration wants to reverse an Obama-era ruling that says the Cuban government doesn’t run the island’s professional baseball league. Such a position gave MLB space to negotiate and reach the deal with Cuban baseball and circumvent the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who vowed to fight the deal between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball federation, has been pressing the State Department to review the 2016 ruling and asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo personally to rule that the Cuban government controls the island baseball league and therefore nullify the deal.

“The deal between MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation is both illegal and immoral,” Rubio told McClatchy. “This terrible one-sided agreement will only enrich the regime and further exploit the Cuban people.”

The crux of the agreement rests on the Obama administration ruling that the Cuban Baseball Federation is an independent entity from the government. In 2016, MLB obtained a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department to reach an agreement with the Cuban Baseball Federation.

It is up to Treasury to revoke the license, but it first needs guidance from the State Department. State is currently reviewing the foreign policy guidance from 2016. Once that process is complete, State will provide guidance to Treasury and then OFAC can provide a response to MLB. Without guidance from State, Treasury can’t revoke or grant a license.

The administration did not respond to specific questions about plans to scuttle the deal, but officials have been clear they feel the agreement would “institutionalize a system by which a Cuban body garnishes the wages of hard-working athletes who simply seek to live and compete in a free society.”

“Parties seeking to benefit from business opportunities in Cuba are on notice that the administration will continue to take actions to support human rights and restrict the Cuban regime’s ability to profit from U.S. business,” a senior administration official said.

MLB officials said they had been in regular contact with the Trump administration during the months of negotiations, including in the last several days with top officials at the White House and State Department who were supportive of the arrangement.

“Until the 11th hour, the messaging to MLB was that the administration would not have an issue with the agreement,” said Dan Halem, MLB’s deputy commissioner and chief legal officer.

The agreement is intended to give Cuban baseball players a chance to play baseball in the United States without having to make the perilous ocean journey or sign up with dangerous smuggling operations.

The Orange Bulk gets to smash another Obama achievement and Little Marco pleases his base. However, it does raise thequestion of whether Little Marco has any financial interest in the smuggling operations.