Sunday, June 29, 2025

More Anti-Trumpist Conservative Republican Organizations

Since last year, more organizations have been founded by conservatives and Republicans against populist Trumpist policies, namely protectionism, nativism and isolationism, which are anathema to conservatism, and in favor of true conservative policies. The Reagan Caucus: A relatively grassroots organization, the Reagan Caucus (ReaganCaucus.org), focuses on promoting traditional conservative principles and opposing each of the populist Trumpist policies, and particularly supporting the election of conservative Republican candidates who do not share Trumpist views. The Cost Coalition: The Cost Coalition was formed recently, as a project of the bipartisan American Values Alliance. Led by Terry Holt, campaign staffer and former spokesman for President George W. Bush and House Speaker John Boehner, the Cost Coalition focuses on the cost of Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs, which it identifies as “the biggest middle class tax hike in modern history.” Austin Weatherford, the senior congressional staff person for United States Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, is another prominent Republican staffer for the organization. Our Republican Legacy: Our Republican Legacy (ORL Team & State Chairs | Our Republican Legacy) was founded last year by numerous prominent Republicans and conservatives to promote five traditional conservative Republican principles that the GOP has retreated from under the influence of Trumpism: unity, the Constitution, fiscal responsibility, free enterprise and peace through strength. ORL was founded by former Vice Presidents Dan Quayle and Mike Pence, former Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio, the late Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, Secretary of Defense William Cohen of Maine, and several other former members of Congress. It was recently relaunched under the joint leadership of Danforth, Cohen, former Montana Governor and Republican National Committee Chairman Mark Racicot, and former U.S. Representatives Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Barbara Comstock of Virginia. ORL is staffed and advised by former Washington State Republican Chairman Chris Vance, former Reagan and Bush Administration Treasury official Greg Wilson and former congressional staffers. The organization already has 17 State Chairmen, including one for Pennsylvania, many of whom are current or former elected officials, former congressional or federal or state administration staffers or Republican officials, as well as a former North Carolina State Supreme Court justice. There has been cross-promotion between ORL and Principles First, the grassroots organization I had posted about previously that hosts an increasingly popular alternative to the Trumpist Conservative Political Action Committee conference, and the Reagan Caucus, as it is critical for principled conservatives, though they focus on different niches and hold reasonable differences in perspectives and political strategies, to work together to stand for conservative principles versus Trumpist populism and toward the greater goal of taking back the GOP and especially the conservative movement from Trumpism. The American people deserve a center-right alternative to both the left and Trumpism.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Venezuela: The center-right Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Cortina Machado, noted last week that the Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela is producing drones with Iranian technology. The South American State is thus the only State in the Western Hemisphere, other than the Unted States, that can produce drones. Venezuela’s could possibly reach Florida. Machado observed a growing threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism, which has signed 400 accords with Venezuela. Iran, which foments Islamist revolution around the Islamic world, committed two terrorist attacks in Argentina in the 1990s. Late last week, the ex-head of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence pleaded guilty to narco-terrorism charges in the United States federal District Court in New York after having been extradited from Spain in 2023. He funded the Colombian Marxist narco-terrorists. Venezuela’s relationships with Iran and the Columbian terrorists are examples of why I include it in what I call the Axis of Rogues, including Russia, China, North Korea, and their allies. North Atlantic Treaty Organization: The 32 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including the U.S., pledged to increase the defense spending from 2% of gross domestic product to 5% within 10 years, with 3.5% for military spending and 1.5% for broader security (e.g. infrastructure, cyber, hybrid, and resilience). Although Donald Trump sought to take total credit for the increases in NATO spending during his times in office, the members had pledged in 2013 when Barack Obama was President to increase their spending to 2% which most of them had reached, and some members, especially those in Eastern Europe, had already begun increasing their spending in the face of the growing threat of Russian imperialism, more than Trump’s misleading claims that member States were not “paying” into NATO. Members, including the U.S., pay relatively little into the administration of NATO; their spending is independent of the organization. NATO was formed early in the Cold War to protect Western Europe against the Soviet Union. It has been the most successful defensive pact in history, having prevented the Soviets and their Russian successors, who are trying to restore the Soviet Union/Russian Empire, from any major military attack against its members. Ever since Trump travelled to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, he has complained that American allies supposedly have not spent enough for their defense, as if their increased spending would proportionately decrease U.S. spending. Moreover, he implies that American spending to defend its allies is a kind of favor to allies that only benefits them, instead of recognizing common interests and ignoring the many defensive benefits to the U.S. of having allies. The only time the NATO alliance’s defensive provision that an attack on one is an attack on all has been invoked was after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America.

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Pope Leo XIV Chooses a Refugee as His First Episcopal Appointee in America

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a refugee who fled Communist persecution in Vietnam as a child with his family as the Bishop of Sand Diego, the American Pontiff’s first appointment of a Bishop in America. Pope Leo, the Bishop of Rome, has clearly preached against divisions and in favor of unity and has emphasized Christian love for the poor and marginalized, including migrants and refugees. His first episcopal appointment thus sends a clear message. The new Bishop of San Diego and his auxiliary Bishops will stand with refugees at their asylum hearings on June 20, International Refugee Day. The presence of clergy is a favorable factor for refugees seeking asylum who must prove a credible fear of persecution. As I have posted, the Trump Administration has ended legal protections that had been granted to certain groups of refugees already present and ended legal pathways for refugees seeking asylum in America, while conducting mass deportations of migrants, including some present legally, and even without due process, including refugees seeking court hearings for their asylum claims, for which it has been criticized by various Christian denominations, as well as by employers; lawyers, human rights advocates, and law enforcement officers; and by liberals, libertarians and conservatives.

Latin American Digest: Bolivia, Argentina, Cuba, Columbia, and Nicaragua

Bolivia: The Bolivian Government has barred the former left-wing authoritarian President from being a presidential candidate in the August 17 Bolivian presidential election. Bolivia is led by the same Socialist party as the former President, who served three five-year terms, despite a constitutional term limit of two terms and was forced from office by a popular uprising in 2019 when he sought a fourth term. After a period in which a center-right leader held power as the constitutional successor, the Socialists were elected in 2020 to lead the South American State, but the current President and the former President had a falling out. The former President, who has been fomenting civil unrest, is being investigated for crimes. Another member of the ruling party will stand as a presidential candidate instead. Argentina: The former leftwing Peronist President last week was sentenced to prison for corruption and barred for life from holding office. She had been elected as President of the South American State in 2007 and served until 2015, succeeding her husband, who had served the previous four years. She was elected Vice President four years later, serving a four-year term and continued to be the leader of the left-wing party that is one of the legacies of Peronism, named for the Argentine fascist leader Juan Peron. Columbia: Some of the offshoots of the Marxist narco-terrorists since who fought a civil war in Columbia from 1964 until a peace deal in 2016 have continued fighting. There was a deadly flare-up of fighting by one group a few months ago in one part of the South American State near the Venezuelan border and another flareup by another group recently in the southeastern part of Columbia. The war killed tens of thousands of people. Cuba: The United Nations issued a report last week on the many Cuban violations of human rights in its prisons. Communist Cuba holds many political prisoners. After a deal reached with the United States, in which Cuba released some of its political prisoners, two prominent ones were returned to prison. Today, all of the Catholic Bishops of the Caribbean Island State called for structural, social, economic and political changes that are urgently needed amidst the suffering of the Cuban people. Nicaragua: Former Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro died yesterday in exile in Costa Rica at the age of 94. She was elected President in 1990 and served until 1997. Her election ended the civil war that was caused by oppression by the Marxist Sandinista regime that seized power in 1979 after a guerilla war, led by Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinistas. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union backed the Sandinista regime while the U.S. backed the rebels after it became clear the Sandinistas would not share power. Chamorro, like the Sandinistas, had opposed Nicarabua’s Somoza dictatorship that had murdered her husband, the publisher of La Prensa, the only independent newspaper still published in the Central American State. She had been appointed by the Sandinistas as one of two right-wing representatives to the Ortega-led junta that officially ruled until Ortega’s election as President in 1985, but when it became apparent they had no real power, she and the other conservative resigned in 1980. She is credited as President with maintaining a constitutional republic, reestablishing international banking relationships and ending hyperinflation. Ortega was elected President again in 2007, promising not to rule as a dictator again, but he has instead been tyrannical, as I have posted. Chamorro fled the increasing persecution in Nicaragua in 2023.

Foreign Digest: Netherlands, Iran and Syria

Netherlands: The rightwing Dutch Prime Minister resigned earlier this month and the far-right anti-migrant party left the governing coalition because its demands for severely limiting the grant of asylum to refugees were not met by the other coalition parties. The main center-right and two other parties had formed a coalition government for the Netherlands after the far-right party won the most votes and seats in the Dutch parliamentary elections, but fell short of the required majority to govern alone, as I had posted. There will have to be new elections and likely another protracted negotiation to form a coalition government. The Netherlands is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Iran: The International Atomic Energy Agency censured the Islamic Republic of Iran last week for violating its nuclear non-proliferation obligations. It is the first time in decades that the UN watchdog composed of a number of member States has censured Iran. Iran claims its nuclear program is only for peaceful means, but the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism has enriched uranium beyond the threshold needed for energy production and could assemble nuclear weapons within months. Iran’s threat to increase enrichment in response prompted strikes on its nuclear program by Israel, which the Islamic Republic has repeatedly threatened. As with previous Iranian attacks on Isreal this year, the U.S. and some of its allies are intercepting Iranian missiles and drones targeting the Jewish States. Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy foments Islamist revolution throughout the Islamic world, backing guerillas and terrorists, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. Syria: The United States struck Islamic State targets in Syria last week. The IS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, the Sunni Islamist terrorist organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed a record 3,000 people. The U.S. has maintained since the Syrian Civil War left a power vacuum a small force in northeast Syria against the IS and al-Qaeda and also sometimes strikes Iranian-backed militia when attacked by them. The American forces are being kept there since the fall of Syria’s Assad regime under the leadership of the new Islamist-led government that is cooperating with the U.S. against the IS.

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Update: Measles Outbreak in America

Because of vaccine hesitancy caused by anti-vaccine disinformation, the measles outbreak in America continues to worsen, after the disease had been domestically eradicated by the 2000s. There have been nearly 1,100 cases, many hospitalizations and at least 2 deaths. Most cases were of children who were unvaccinated. There are now 30 States reporting cases, between the main outbreak that started in Texas and others. Measles, the most contagious virus, is not the deadliest disease, but can cause serious illness and death, and was the leading cause of deafness before a vaccine was developed. Numerous scientific studies have confirmed the safety and effectiveness of the measles vaccine. Because not everyone can be effectively vaccinated against contagious diseases because of immunity deficiencies, those who cannot are protected if a high percentage of others in the community are vaccinated. America, Europe and Central Asia have been suffering an increase in measles and other diseases that had nearly been locally eradicated because of vaccines. Far-left, far-right and libertarian ideologies oppose vaccination, or at least vaccine mandates, while Russia has deliberately spread anti-vaccine disinformation in the West in an effective biological warfare campaign. Christian and conservative beliefs in personal responsibility toward the community compel vaccination to protect the vulnerable.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela, Romania, Cuba, Poland

Venezuela: There were multiple arrests of opposition figures by the Venezuelan Socialist dictatorship ahead of and during the elections last week. The opposition boycotted the elections because the South American State’s regime does not allow free and fair elections. As I have posted, it did not accept the results of the presidential elections in July, in which the center-right opposition easily won, according to the documentary evidence the opposition secured, international observers, many Latin American States, the United States, and its allies. The boycott was successful in denying legitimacy to the dictatorship, as the rate of abstention exceeded 85%. Romania: The presidential election held a week ago was confirmed by Romania’s election authorities and the new President has been sworn in. He is moderately conservative and is pro-European and pro-Ukrainian. The defeated Russian-backed far-right anti-Ukrainian Trumpist candidate conceded, but then alleged fraud. As I have posted, the first-round vote in December was annulled because of heavy Russian interference on behalf of an unknown candidate with no party and no spending, who came in first, but was later charged with election crimes and barred from running. The Trumpist candidate defeated last week had promised to name the barred candidate prime minister. Romania has thus demonstrated how to thwart attempted Russian interference, instead of acquiescing to it, like the U.S. did in 2016 and again in 2024. Romania, a former Communist and Soviet satellite state, is a strategic U.S. ally as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Cuba: Donald Trump removed temporary protected status from 300,000 Cuban refugees in America, in addition to Venezuelans, Afghans, and others seeking asylum from persecution. Cubans fleeing the Communist tyranny on their Caribbean island State had previously been less restricted than other refugees. Because of their experience of suffering under socialism and dictatorship, Cubans who become naturalized U.S. citizens usually are conservative, register as Republicans and vote for GOP candidates, including Trump. Thus, Trump’s nativist policies, in addition to undermining American security, the economy and the budget, deprive America of the benefit of those who especially appreciate freedom. Poland: The Polish presidential election was held today. The centrist pro-European pro-Ukrainian Mayor of Warsaw backed by the ruling center-right-led coalition was leading against the far-right party candidate whose party was put out of power last year because of its increasing authoritarianism. The far-right candidate was backed by the Trump Administration against the pro-Western candidate. Poland, a former Communist and Soviet satellite state, is a strategic U.S. ally as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.