Foreign Digest: Russia, Georgia, Botswana, Brazil and Peru

Russia: The former leader in Wales of the anti-migrant pro-Russian Reform UK Party and European Parliament Member was convicted of accepting a Russian bribe. This evidence is the latest proof of Russian interference in the politics of the United Kingdom, as well as throughout Europe and in America, especially since Russia began invading Ukraine in 2014. Another example recently revealed that many of the most-followed Trumpist accounts on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), including some with tens of thousands of followers, are based abroad, including in multiple continents, even though they typically pose as Americans. About half of such accounts have been estimated to be either of Russian origin or Russian troll farms abroad. The Russian accounts spread propaganda and disinformation, and are especially associated with anti-vaccination disinformation. Russian accounts, in addition to promoting Kremlin policies, amplify Trumpists and their misleading or false statements, as well as conspiracy theories, and foment division, doubt in the integrity of elections or in the truth. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence officer who is trying to restore the Soviet Union and Russian Empire. Georgia: Georgians marked one year of daily peaceful protests against the pro-Russian and increasingly authoritarian Government of Georgia on November 28. There were protests in the capital and in other major cities across the former Soviet Republic in the southern Caucuses region. Georgians are demanding the release of political prisoners who were arrested for peaceful protests, and for membership in the European Union. Georgia’s Government reneged on a promise to pursue membership. Botswana: Botswana recently completed the first peaceful transfer of power since independence from the United Kingdom in 196 . The southern African State has been an oasis of peace, stability, elective representative government and liberty. But unlike neighboring States where one party has ruled through authoritarian means or rigged elections, Botswanans had elected one party for decades, which yielded power upon defeat and the certification of the votes. Botswana is now even more of a good example to other States in the Dark Continent. Brazil: Former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced last week to prison to serve out his 27-year sentence for attempting to overturn the presidential election three years ago, after he had recently attempted to escape. Peru: The former center-left Peruvian President Pedro Castillo was convicted of conspiracy for trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree to avoid impeachment for a corruption scandal, and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He had been impeached and removed from office in 2022 for “moral incapacity” for corruption, after taking office the year before. Castillo is the fourth former Peruvian President in a little over a year and the fifth in recent decades across the political spectrum to be sentenced to prison for corruption or oppression, while others have been forced from office for corruption, such as Castillo’s center-left successor, whom I posted about a few months ago.

17th Blog Anniversary and Pageview Report

Today is the seventeenth anniversary of the launch of this blog. Thank you for following or commenting, or for your offline expressions of appreciation, which encourage me to continue to post. It coincides with the date for the annual report of pageviews, as tracked by the blog host, Blogger. Although the tracking is less specific than StatCounter’s, Blogger tracks far more pageviews. There are usually between hundreds to thousands of daily pageviews of this blog from around the world, especially outside America. Please continue to visit this blog regularly to keep up matters of interest to conservatives, especially for this particularly challenging time for the defenders of liberty and the rule of law in America.

Happy Thanksgiving, 2025!

In the tradition of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and in celebration of the federal holiday of Thanksgiving established by President George Washington, we Americans give thanks today to God for the blessings He has given us. We are grateful to the Europeans who colonized the Americas and for their friendship with the Native Americans who helped the Pilgrims survive the harsh winter in the New World by teaching them agricultural practices for native plants that produced a bountiful harvest. In giving thanks publicly and in a civic manner through federal and state holidays, Americans acknowledge that their liberty comes not from man, but from God, as expressed in the American Creed in the Declaration of Independence. And like the Pilgrims and their Native American friends, we give thanks for the individual blessings we each enjoy. This year, we Americans should give thanks particularly not only for the military servicemen, intelligence and security agents, and emergency responders who keep us safe, but for the United States Constitution that formed the Union of States and safeguards our freedom and rights, and for the state Constitutions that similarly guarantee liberty. Americans should be especially grateful for federalism, the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary, and the rule of law, and for those federal and state officials who keep their oaths not to any man, but to the federal Constitution. May God continue to bless America and every American citizen, national and permanent resident (especially those aspiring to citizenship), as well as the refugees who believe in the American Creed who are seeking asylum from persecution, and each of the American States and territories!

Former Vice President of the United States Richard B. Cheney, in Memoriam

Former Vice President of the Unted States Richard Bruce Cheney, a staunch conservative Republican with a long career of public service, died November 3 at the age of 84 in Northern Virginia. He was born in Lincoln Nebraska on January 30, 1941. His family later moved to Wyoming, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Wyoming. Cheney then began serving in various roles in the administrations of Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford: in the Office of Economic Opportunity, from 1969 to 1970, as White House Staff Assistant in 1971, as Assistant Director of the Cost of Living Council, from 1971 to 1973, as Deputy Assistant to the President, from 1974 to 1975, rising to Chief of Staff to President Gerald R. Ford, from 1975 to 1976. He then managed Ford’s reelection campaign in 1976 that almost came all the way back from being well behind in the polls. Cheney was elected U.S. Representative from Wyoming in 1978 and was re-elected four times, serving from 1979 to 1989. He held leadership positions as Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, 1981 to 1987, Chairman of the House Republican Conference in 1987, and House Minority Whip the following year. Meanwhile, he was an early supporter of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential candidacy and supported Reagan’s defense and foreign policies while serving in Congress. Cheney was appointed Secretary of Defense by President George H.W. Bush in 1989 and served until the end of the Bush Administration in 1993. He was Defense Secretary during the overthrow of Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, the 1991 Liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi aggression in 1990, and the intervention in the Somali Civil War in 1991. Secretary Cheney implemented post-Cold War military reductions, but with the provision of necessary new weapons systems. He supported the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a bulwark of European and American security versus Russia. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush asked Cheney to lead the search for a vice-presidential nominee and general election running mate. Bush then recommended Cheney, who was nominated at the Republican National Convention in 2000. Cheney was elected Vice President of the United States and renominated four years later, serving from 2001 to 2009, becoming the only person ever from the Mountain West to be elected either Vice President or President, loyally supporting Bush’s conservative policies and providing wise counsel during the War on Terrorism. Throughout his career, he was a strong advocate for conservative policies, particularly in defense and foreign policy. Although Cheney supported the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the principled conservative characterized Russian interference in American politics and particularly on behalf of Trump’s candidacy as an “act of war.” Cheney publicly broke with Trump after Trump’s attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021, after the incumbent refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, which he lost. He backed his daughter, Rep. Lynn Cheney of Wyoming, in her criticisms of Trump and especially her participation in the House Committee that investigated the January 6th Insurrection. May Cheney’s legacy of public service and integrity inspire principled conservatives and Republicans and all Americans.

Conservative Analysis of the 2025 General Election Results in Pennsylvania and across America

Now that the election results for the 2025 General Election are being certified, a conservative analysis can be made. Republican Party leader Donald Trump and his populist non-conservative Trumpist policies of protectionism, nativism, isolationism and authoritarianism provoked a voter rebuke against the GOP in Pennsylvania and across the American Union. In the Keystone State, Republicans failed in their main goal of opposing the retention for another ten-year term for three Democratic Supreme Court Justices, based on the Justices’ upholding of Pennsylvania’s reasonable public health restrictions during the Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic. The Trumpist Pennsylvania GOP was attempting to gain control of the state’s highest court by creating vacancies on the State’s highest court, but the results were not even close. As I had posted before the election, a campaign against the Democratic Justices for liberal opinions might have been justified, but not for an anti-public health reason. Pennsylvanians nearly always retain judges. Similarly, they usually vote in favor of referendums, which the State’s Republicans took advantage of in the 2021 Primary Election to get Pennsylvanians to vote in favor of weakening the Governor’s emergency powers, based on their opposition to reasonable public health policies. The GOP’s failure in the 2025 judicial retention vote suggests their anti-public health policy was not as popular as they thought the 2021 Primary vote in favor of the referendums suggested. There were also two other statewide judicial offices on the ballot, in which Democrats held seats on lower appellate courts. There were significant Republican losses in Counties and municipal elections across the Keystone State. In other States, Trump and his supporters backed a liberal Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York City over a conservative Republican. An socialist Democratic candidate was instead elected. Republicans were not only unsuccessful in capturing control of the office of Governor in New Jersey, but lost control of the Governor’s office in Virginia. There were heavy GOP losses in other statewide, legislative and municipal offices across America. Every candidate endorsed by Republican Party leader Donald Trump lost election. Among those candidates were several Trumpists who denied Trump’s loss of the 2020 election, despite the lack of evidence for their claim. The Trump Administration’s protectionist tariffs and harsh anti-migrant policies, violations of the rule of law both at home and abroad, and the federal government shutdown weighed heavily against the Grand Old Party. Voters particularly blamed Trump for the increase of prices from tariffs and labor shortages exacerbated by the targeting of working immigrants without criminal records while Trump focused on aiding Argentina and punishing Brazil for business or personal reasons, and on his White House renovations. They also blamed the GOP leader for the budget impasse, while reacting negatively to his policies of retribution while rewarding political supporters and business associates through is pardon power. Although the 2025 General Election was an off-year election, it is often a harbinger of further losses for the party holding the presidency in the mid-term elections the following year. A return to conservatism and away from Trumpism is needed for the Republican Party to avoid a devastating loss in the 2026 mid-term elections, when every seat in the United States House of Representatives and one third of the Senate will be on the ballot.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Has Issued an Extraordinary Rebuke of the Trump Administration’s Anti-Migrant Policies

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the organization that includes all the Catholic Bishops in America, issued an extraordinary and unprecedented rebuke of the policies of a sitting President of the United States. The body of over 200 Bishops, in whose Dioceses reside tens of millions of Catholics – the largest Christian denomination in America – voted nearly unanimously for a statement criticizing the immigration polices of the Trump Administration. In their statement and a video that featured readings of the statement by Bishops, including conservative ones, they observed profiling, the creation of a climate of fear, and dehumanizing and violent language. The USCCB, particularly cited a loss of access to pastoral care by migrants and refugees caused by the Trump policies, as well as the policy of arrests at churches, and hospitals and schools. The Catholic Church operates many hospitals and schools across America. The conference of American Bishops noted the loss of legal status of some refugees, meaning that their legal permission to stay in America had been taken away. The USCCB urged comprehensive immigration reform in the statement that considers both security and the scriptural and moral obligation to fellow human beings, which they said are not contradictory goals. Trumpists responded with their usual whataboutism, complaining that the Bishops had not made such a statement against the abortion policies of previous Administrations, as if to imply the Bishops were partisan or ideological, but the Bishops had repeatedly and consistently expressed a pro-life message. Trumpists also made their typical cynical ad hominem arguments against the Bishops, falsely claiming that these shepherds were concerned primarily for the loss of money, and not for the spiritual, moral and material wellbeing of their flocks. As I have posted, the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church and other religious and secular non-profit organizations had been contracted by the U.S. to provide for the needs of migrants, particularly for integrating refugees, but the Trump Administration cut off the funding, even declining to pay for services already rendered. But the Catholics and other Christians were motivated to provide for the refugees in the first place for religious reasons and the payments were not for profit. Thus, the Trump Administration’s policies decrease religious freedom in multiple ways, by diminishing the ability of churches and religious organizations in carrying out their spiritual vocations to care materially for those in need, by denying pastoral care to migrants, and by intimidating migrants from attending religious services at places of worship without fear of being arrested, even if they are refugees legally permitted to stay. It is necessary for all Americans to continue to speak out against the un-Christian, un-American and non-conservative anti-migrant policies of the Trump Administration, and to encourage Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

2025 General Elections in Pennsylvania and Other American States

Tuesday, November 4 is General Election Day in Pennsylvania and in some of the other States of the American Union. On the ballot in the Keystone State, where polls are open from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, are statewide judicial offices, county and municipal, offices, as well as the offices of school director, magisterial district judge, and constable. Two States, New Jersey and Virginia, are electing Governors and legislators, while there are important contests elsewhere, including a redistricting ballot question in California, among others. Pennsylvanians will choose whether to retain three State Supreme Court Justices. State voters almost always vote to retain judges, but the state Republicans are campaigning against retention, to gain control of Pennsylvania’s highest court. But their justification is not conservative, and therefore, disqualifying, as they are complaining that the Justices had approved the State’s emergency public health policy of imposing reasonable restrictions because of the deadly Coronavirus 2019 Pandemic. Protecting people from contagious illness and death through reasonably limited and temporary restrictions is morally responsible and consistent with conservative beliefs about past outbreaks of contagion, such as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Ebola, when they favored quarantines and restrictions on the freedom of travel, respectively, for example. Governments across America and the globe from right to left imposed similar restrictions, based upon advice from scientists and public health officials, as I have posted, starting in Italy, where the Trumpist right-wing parties first demanded closures. I have further observed that although the extraordinary restrictions were implemented by governments were late, insufficient and poorly enforced, and prematurely lifted, they did prevent many cases and deaths. But, as I posted, Donald Trump politicized the pandemic by denying and minimizing the threat, doubting and undermining public health policy and suggesting unproven and dangerous cures because of his concern about the economy. His concern was both because of his family business and his reelection and thus his protection from federal prosecution for crimes. Many of Trump’s supporters similarly doubted the public health officials, whom they baselessly thought were liberal engaged in some kind of political conspiracy, or presumptuously rejected science in favor of faith-healing, or held libertarian views such as that there is some right to spread disease during a pandemic of a deadly illness with no cure at the time, which combined to cause the contagion to spread and thus more illnesses, including long-term symptoms, and deaths. More Republicans died than Democrats because of the rejection of public health policy and vaccine hesitancy that I have also been posting about. Trumpism is a populist mix of protectionism, nativism and isolationism, none of which are conservative principles, as I often note. But the rejection of reasonable public health is another example, among others, of Trump’s lack of conservative principles and the abandonment by his supporters’ who claim to be conservatives of their own principles, or at least their exposure for also having lacked them in the first place, although it is noteworthy that some of his far-right supporters admit they oppose conservatism. Despite public support from Pennsylvanians for the Commonwealth’s public health policy during the pandemic, the Republicans successfully campaigned for referendums in the low-turnout 2021 Primary Election that limited executive power to respond to such emergencies, as the public tends to vote for referendums, unless there is organized opposition, which there was none. The Pennsylvania GOP took the vote as a validation for their opposition to reasonable public health policy. This time, however, there is some opposition to their campaign against the judicial retentions, as the Trumpist state Republicans would again take a No vote as validation for their opposition to reasonable public health policy. Therefore, although it would benefit conservatism to reject retention of the liberal Democratic Justices, doing so for the wrong reason would undermine the conservative movement. A vote of neither Yes, nor No would thus be justified for non-Trumpist conservatives, just as I advise every election not to vote either for liberal Democratic or Trumpist Republican candidates on the ballot and instead write in the names of better candidates or skip the race, as it is necessary to continue to try to restore the GOP to its center-right core, instead of acquiescing to Trumpism by trying to justify one’s vote as “the lesser of two evils,” or justifying a vote for Democrats, unless they are centrist or pro-life, as an emergency option for principled conservatives to force the Republicans to turn back to their own beliefs. Non-Trumpist conservatives or moderates should consider seeking office, whether as Republicans, non-partisan or third party candidates, or even as Democrats, instead of accepting the absence of the names of principled conservatives on the general election ballot.