Foreign Digest: Turkey, Russia, Nicaragua, Cambodia and Zimbabwe

Turkey

            Oppression continues in Turkey, even after the lifting of the state of emergency, now that the Islamist authoritarian President has assumed greater constitutional powers a few weeks ago, as several hundred Turks were arrested for alleged ties to the attempted military coup two years ago.  Tens of thousands across a broad swath of Turkish society have been sacked or arrested.

Russia

            There have been more anti-corruption protests this week against Russian Federation tyrant Vladimir Putin and his authoritarian and kleptocratic regime.

Nicaragua

            Deadly protests continue in Nicaragua against the authoritarian Marxist Sandinista regime.

Cambodia and Zimbabwe

           Both Cambodia and Zimbabwe held elections this week that were not entirely free and fair.  As expected, the ruling leftist authoritarians prevailed.  Zimbabwe’s were the first since the ouster by his own socialist party of longtime dictator Robert Mugabe.  Cambodia and Zimbabwe are examples of how authoritarian regimes use elections to try to obtain legitimacy.

Foreign Digest: Nicaragua, Turkey, Syria and Russia

Nicaragua

            There have been more protests and killings by the authoritarian Marxist Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Turkey

            There have continued to be purges up to the second anniversary of the attempted military coup and the constitutional amendment granting the President more powers has now gone into effect, which he is using already to crack down on all dissent as presidentialism has supplanted rule by a prime minister.  Secular, democratic Turkey, which had been a model state, has become Islamist and, especially, authoritarian. 

Syria

            Israel has continued to strike military targets in Syria because of threats to its security from the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad or its allies, Iran or the Iranian-sponsored Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization, Hezbollah.  Iran and Hezbollah, together with the Russian Federation, are backing the tyrannical Assad in a civil war against non-Islamist Muslim and Islamist rebels, as well as Kurdish rebels.  The United States leads an international coalition of Western and Arab states against the Islamist terrorists, al-Qaeda and the “Islamic State.”  

Russia

           A Briton was killed last week and another sickened because of contamination from the Russian Federation chemical attack in the United Kingdom last month against a Russian émigré and his daughter.  The authoritarian and oligarchical regime of Vladimir Putin murders critics or potential witnesses to its crimes abroad, just as it does at home.

Conservative Thoughts on the 2017-2018 Pennsylvania Budget

           Last month, the 2017-2018 budget for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was approved by the Republican-majority General Assembly and signed into law by the liberal Democratic Governor.  The budget, which was the result of compromise between divided branches of government, contains mixed results from a conservative perspective, as expected.

The $37 billion budget, which was approved on time, includes an increase in spending over the rate of inflation, when all spending is added together, despite statements and reports to the contrary that did not include all spending.  It includes more spending on education and school safety, as well as increased funding for scholarships for non-public schools.    

The budget was approved without any tax increases, except for an increase in hospital assessments.  Governor Tom Wolfe was forced by the legislature to abandon his annual demand for an additional tax on natural gas extraction. 

There was still no privatization of alcohol, which would increase revenues significantly, or pension reform, which would reduce expenditures dramatically.

On Independence Day 2018, Americans See Democracy Weakening

As Americans celebrate the 242^nd anniversary of the independence of the States, Freedom House, https://freedomhouse.org/, has issued a new study, the Democracy Project, https://www.democracyprojectreport.org/, which suggests a weakening of democracy in America.

On the positive side, a large majority of Americans do recognize the benefits of liberty and representative government and support equality.  However, a majority of Americans consider democracy in their country to be weak and a larger majority consider it to be getting weaker, with a clear danger of authoritarianism, such as has been rising around the world, even among popularly-elected governments.  A disturbingly significant portion of Americans do not even recognize the benefit of representative government at home, while a majority of Americans do not appreciate the benefit of promoting it abroad, except among those who are better educated. 

The survey was conducted in partnership with the George W. Bush Institute, https://www.bushcenter.org/explore-our-work/index.html, and the Penn Biden Center.  

Education, both formally and informally and through public discourse, greater public virtue and certain reasonable political reforms are necessary to increase support for freedom and representative government and to strengthen the institutions meant to safeguard them in order to secure the blessings of liberty for all Americans, now and in the future, as well as to be an example to the rest of the world.