Foreign Digest: Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia

Venezuela: Trinidad and Tobago offered the United States military access if it were necessary to defend Guyana against the Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela, with which the island State in the Caribbean Sea shares a maritime border. Trinidad and other States in the Caribbean are adversely affected by the drug trafficking from Venezuela. As I had noted in my last post, the U.S. has increased its bounty for the Socialist dictator of the South American State, Nicolas Maduro, who is wanted for drug trafficking. An American flotilla of warships has been dispatched for anti-drug trafficking operations, but which could also strike Venezuela. Ecuador and Colombia: Ecuador and the United States have intercepted shipments of tons of cocaine, as well as explosives coming from the neighboring South American State of Peru that officials believe would have been sent to the Marxist narco-terrorists in neighboring Colombia. As I noted in my last post, the Colombian narco-terrorists are holdouts of a rebel organization that had fought for over four decades until signing an agreement to end hostilities nine years ago. They have recently increased their activity. Meanwhile, a seventh suspect has been arrested in Colombia for his role in the assassination plot against a conservative Senator and presidential aspirant who died earlier this month from his wounds in June. Bolivia: Even ahead of the Bolivian presidential runoff election, in which a center-right political leader faces off against a conservative former President, thereby marking the two-decade streak of election wins by the Socialists in the South American State, Bolivia’s courts have been reviewing the criminal cases against conservative leaders, The conservatives were prosecuted in connection with the popular uprising against a Socialist Bolivian President. The increasingly authoritarian President, who was seeking a fourth term, despite a two-term constitutional limit and the rejection of a popular referendum to end term limits, was forced to flee the capital. One conservative leader has been released after his conviction was overturned and one of the cases of former interim President Jeannine Anez has been thrown out, but she remains imprisoned on other related charges.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela and Colombia

Venezuela: The United States increased the reward to $50 million for the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the Socialist Venezuelan dictator, for drug trafficking charges. It also advised Americans not to travel to the South American State for any reason. The Socialist regime released some political prisoners and sent others to house arrest, but many others remain behind bars. Colombia: There were deadly attacks in different regions of Colombia by dissident holdouts of the Marxist narco-terrorists who had signed a peace deal in 2016 after a nearly 40-year-long rebellion. The elected leftist Colombian Government has launched a counteroffensive. The Government of the South American State has failed to end the insurgency, despite its attempts to negotiate with the dissidents. The narco-terrorists rely on trafficking cocaine. The cultivation of coca leaves has reached record levels in Colombia.

Trump’s Oval Office Re-Design Is a Symbolic Rejection of its Federal Revival Style and the Founders’ Values It Represents

Donald Trump’s recent changes to the interior design style of the Oval Office are highlighted by the controversial use of gilding and golden décor items. This change in style represents a significant symbolic rejection of the values of the Founding Fathers reflected in the room’s original Federal Revival style. Architecture is a language, through which architects speak the spirit of their age. The elements that characterize a particular design style symbolize the values of its era. Architectural styles are mirrored also in the styles of furniture and décor items, which are inspired by similar structures and motifs. Together with architectural design, they form a consistent interior design style. The Oval Office is in the West Wing extension of the Executive Mansion, commonly called the “White House.” It was built during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration in the Federal Revival style. An understanding of the origins of the style reveals the values it represents. Neo-Classical Origins of the Federal Style as the “American Style” The origins of the Federal Revival style begin in the late Italian Renaissance, with the Neo-Classical style, named for its new interpretation of the styles of the Classical civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome, the ideals of which the Renaissance esteemed. Neo-Classical is typified by such design elements as classical columns, pediments and arches, and by the color white. The inspiration for white arose from the color of ancient structures and sculptures, some of which were white, while others had simply lost their paint, unbeknownst at the time of the Renaissance. The British substyle of the Neo-Classical is the Georgian style, named for the three Kings named George of the House of Hanover from the early Eighteenth to the early Nineteenth Centuries. The American version is the Federal style, which arose after the establishment of the federal Union of States under the Constitution. As it differs slightly from the Georgian style, it is the true “American Style.” Federal style is inspired by the Roman Republic, which was fitting for the new American Republic based on the ideals of equality, liberty and representative government. It thus emphasizes more curvilinear forms than the rectilinear Georgian. The Romans had not invented the arch, but they had taken it to new heights, both literally and figuratively, expanding them into vaults and domes. Federal style emphasizes columns, arches (which are often elliptical instead of rounded), and domes. Ellipses are a defining shape of the style. Architect Thomas Jefferson’s dome over his home Monticello and the rotunda of the main edifice of the University of Virginia he founded and the serpentine walls of its campus are archetypal examples of the style the Founding Father pioneered. The Federal style’s emphasis on symmetry and proportion is symbolic of the balance between the three Branches of Government. Its restrained elegance and understated characteristic symbolize the restraint expected of a chief executive in a constitutional republic, versus the excessive power of a monarch. The style’s Classical-inspired color of white represents the chasteness of the young Republic. As one of the colors of the American Flag, white also represents purity. The choice of color for the “White House” was thus obvious. Roman-inspired design motifs for architecture, furnishings and décor typical of Federal style include the eagle, the mace and the goddess Liberty. The Federal style lasted until it was supplanted in part by the Greek Revival style, which symbolized the democratizing trend of the populist Jacksonian Democrats, who took their inspiration from the democracy of the ancient Greek city states, in preference for that form of government over the representative governance of the Roman Republic. The Federal Revival Style Renewed interest in America’s Colonial and Federal era heritage during the American Centennial of 1876 led to the Colonial and Georgian Revival styles and the Federal Revival style. These revival styles had their own distinct features and modern elements that differentiated them from the original styles they were reviving, but they were at least somewhat faithful to the styles that inspired them. The Federal Revival style for the West Wing fittingly matches the Federal style of the Executive Mansion. The Oval office, with its elliptical shape and white interior, is particularly representative of the style. Theodore Roosevelt’s selection of the style was in sharp contrast to the “Gilded Age” style of the era, which literally takes its name from its characteristic gilding of interior spaces with gold leaf paint. The Gilded style reflects the extreme ornateness of the late Victorian Era, which is not an American style. Its excessive ornamentation communicates ostentatiousness, which was a status symbol of American industrialists during the turn of the Twentieth Century. Trump’s Gilded Design Symbolically Clashes with the Federal Revival Style Trump makes use of both gilding and golden décor items as status symbols to prove his wealth, which is his characteristic marketing strategy and reflective of his narcissist ego. He once said, for example, that one had to be wealthy to be considered “great.” The real estate tycoon’s heavily gilded Trump Tower penthouse interior is thus as over the top figuratively as it is literally. Restraint is not one of Trump’s qualities and chasteness is not associated with him. Trump’s gilding of the Oval Office and motif of golden decor clashes with its Federal Revival design. Although some gilding could be incorporated into the style to highlight its architectural features, Trump’s is too excessive to be consistent with the style. His imitation of the Gilded Age industrialists’ mansions reflects his lack of respect for the Federal style and the Founders’ federal principles it symbolizes. All the glitter makes a statement, versus being understated, thereby symbolizing the excessive exercise of power versus restraint. The heavy use of the yellow metal greatly detracts from the characteristic white of the Federal Revival style, symbolizing brashness versus chasteness. Trump, who admires Andrew Jackson, could have chosen Greek-style décor to symbolize the populist Trumpist emphasis of democracy over representative government as a more subtle change. Instead, Trump has chosen a style that is based neither on Classical democratic or republican ideals, nor even completely American in its heritage, but which most clearly represents a display of wealth and power. Trump’s gilded style is thus the design equivalent of squaring the walls of the Oval Office. Moreover, instead of conserving the American Style, Trump’s rejection of the Federal style reveals his general lack of conservative inclination. Restoring the Oval Office to its intended design would be one of the most symbolic means for a future occupant to supplant Trumpism.

Foreign Digest: Colombia and Bolivia

Colombia: A center-right Colombian Senator died last week of wounds suffered in June by an assassin. The murdered Senator had been a leading possible presidential candidate. The leftwing Government of Colombia has arrested the juvenile assassin and several of the other conspirators. The ruling party won the elections two years ago for the first time in the South American State. Bolivia: Bolivia is holding the first round of presidential elections today. The ruling Socialist party has been in power for 20 years, but is split three ways between a candidate favored by the incumbent President, a second candidate who is a former authoritarian President who is term-limited but advocating for Bolivians to cast blank ballots to undermine the legitimacy of the vote, and a third candidate who is a legislator who offers himself as a conciliatory choice between the other two Socialist candidates. A conservative former President and a center-right legislator are the two candidates leading in the polls. Bolivia was swept up by the Socialist revolution in Latin America that emanated from Venezuela in 2002, but which has since been set back in several States. The revolution led to the election of socialists and far-left anti-American leaders who became increasingly authoritarian and eliminated or tried to eliminate presidential term limits, while wrecking their economies with socialist policies, and often fostering public corruption. As no candidate is expected to win a majority in today’s balloting, Bolivians will head to the polls for a runoff election in several weeks.

William Webster, in Memoriam

William Webster, the only person ever to head both the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, passed away last week in Warrenton, Virginia at the age of 101. The career public servant was a conservative Republican who was appointed by both Democratic and Republican Presidents to high offices. Born in St. Louis, Missouri I 1924, Webster served in the Navy during the Second World War and Korean War. Appointed a U.S. Attorney in 1960 by President Dwight Eisenhower, he next was appointed federal District Judge in 1970 and then Appeals Court Judge three years later by President Richard Nixon. Judge Webster was then appointed CIA Director in 1978 by President James Carter, serving until 1987, when he was appointed FBI Director by President Ronald Reagan, a role in which he served until 1991. President George W. Bush appointed the octogenarian Webster Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, where he served until 2020, among other federal or legal professional commissions upon which he served. Webster also spent his last years as a private citizen serving America by warning of the danger that Donald Trump’s poor character would cause the U.S. and the world, like many former security and intelligence officers from both Democratic and Republican administrations, with whom he publicly joined. Webster won many awards for his service to American security, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. May Webster’s legacy of service inspire patriotism, duty and honor among Americans for another hundred years and more.

Armenia and Azerbaijan Have Signed a Peace Deal

Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed a peace deal that ends the conflict between the two former Soviet Republics since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 in the South Caucuses region. I had posted about an agreement reached between the two States in an earlier phase. After the Muslim Azeri dictator defeated the separatist ethnic Armenian Christians in an enclave, Nagorno-Karabakh, that was the basis of the conflict and the failure of Russian peacekeepers to protect the ethnic Armenians that Armenia was defending, the peace deal has become necessary to defend Armenia against a feared Azeri invasion of the Armenian corridor between Azerbaijan to its east and an Azeri exclave on its western border. The American-mediated agreement extends United States influence at the expense of Russia’s role that it had exercised since the end of the Cold War and breakup of the Soviet Union. An aspect of the deal are the rights to the transportation route from Azerbaijan to Turkey through the afore-mentioned Armenian corridor. The deal thus respects Armenian sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also ends the Organization for Security and Cooperation’s Minsk Group co-chaired by the U.S., Russia and France on Nagorno-Karabakh, from which most of the over 100,000 Armenian residents fled. There was no agreement about their right to return or their property losses. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have become more diplomatically distant from Russia with Armenia, having been let down by its Russian ally, and Azerbaijan angered over the Russian shootdown of an Azeri civilian airliner over Ukraine during Russia’s aggression against that former Soviet Republic that I had posted about. As I have posted, Armenia has been turning toward Europe and the West. Azerbaijan has been forging closer ties with Turkey, which is Armenia’s western neighbor and which is a traditional Russian enemy. The Azeri friendliness with both Islamist Turkey and Iran, which borders both Armenia and Azerbaijan to the south, added pressure on Armenia to conclude the best deal it could to protect the traditional Christian State’s sovereignty.

Foreign Digest: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Belarus, Venezuela, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzogovina

El Salvador: El Salvador amended its Constitution to remove the limit on presidential terms, which had been one term, and extended the term office from 5 to 6 years. The current President, who as I have posted is becoming increasingly authoritarian, is in his second term, despite the previous one-term limit. Life presidencies have been a hallmark of growing autocracy in Latin America, whether the elected leaders are leftist or populist far-right like the Salvadoran strongman. Nicaragua: The Marxist Nicaraguan dictatorship recognized Russian sovereignty over conquered Ukrainian lands, despite the Russian Federation’s recognition of the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, making the Central American State’s regime one of the few to legitimize aggression. Cuba and Belarus: Communist Cuba has been arresting more dissidents for their peaceful dissent against the Caribbean State’s tyrannical dictatorship. Meanwhile, Belarus has been modernizing Cuban missiles. The former Soviet Republic of Belarus was complicit in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Belarusian support for Cuba is an example of cooperation among what I call the “Axis of Rogues,” which work together to oppose liberty, representative government, the United States and the West, which their dictatorial governments recognize as threats to their tyrannical rule. Venezuela: The arrests and imprisonment of many political prisoners under harsh conditions by the Venezuelan Socialist dictatorship have become so frequent that even Venezuela’s Communist Party has increasingly been speaking out against the tyrannical regime in the South American State. Lebanon: The Lebanese Government voted unanimously to disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization backed by the Islamist Republic of Iran that also has a political party that has sometimes dominated Lebanon’s politics and that has American blood on its hands. Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Bosniak Republic leader’s sentence of imprisonment for violating the constitution has been confirmed. Electoral Commission has voted to remove him from office, which will take effect after appeals have been exhausted. Elections must then be called within 90 days. But he is refusing to give up power. The pro-Russian ethnic Serbian nationalist who favors succession from Bosnia and Herzegovina and union with Serbia and who denies the genocide committed by Serbs is under United States sanctions for corruption. Bosnia, a former Yugoslav Republic, is divided into a Croat (Catholic Slavic) and Bosniak (Muslim Slavic) republic and a Serbian (Orthodox Slavic) republic, with a relatively weak central government ruled by a European Union-appointed High Representative. The arrangement was part of the 1995 Dayton Accords negotiated by the U.S. under the Clinton Administration that ended the civil war, but ratified the genocidal “ethnic cleansing” inspired by Yugoslav and Serbian Communist dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who was trying to create a “Greater Serbia” amidst the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia into its religious and ethnic components.