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Relations between the U.S. and Argentina improve under the new Macri administration. U.S president Obama visits Argentina in March 2016.

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This report in the WSJ provides details on the groundwork that was laid by the Trump administration as it worked to find a solution to the problems facing Venezuela with refugees and economic crisis, and months of protests. The plans were set in the days before Nicholas Maduro took office for the second term as president. The night before Juan Guaido, head of the National Assembly, declared himself president, U.S. vice president Mike Pence stated that the U.S. would support him if he took the reins of government from Maduro by invoking a clause in the Venezuelan Constitution that makes the head of the National Assembly take the office of president if the existing president is declared illegitimate taking office unlawfully. About 60 nations did not recognize the elections that gave Maduro a second term. On Jan 2 Mr Trump who feels deeply about the collapse of the Venezuelan economy and rising poverty, the suffering of the Venezuelan people, met with presidents of Brazil and Colombia. Colombian president Ivan Duque and Trump hinted at a plan to cooperate to help people fleeing Venezuela and respecting its democratic heritage. Mr Pompeo spoke to allies of the U.S. The National Assembly laid out its plans on Jan 15, for using a constitutional mechanism that allows the head of the Assembly to lead an interim government till new elections are held if the existing president is declared illegitimate. A leading Republican senator of Cuban origin Mr. Rubio supported the move. On the eve of protests in Venezuela Rubio and two other senators from Florida met Mr. Trump and Pence at the White House. Also present were Bolton, Pompeo, Ross and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. Mr. Trump then decided to do it. He placed a call to Mr. Guiado  to tell him that if the National Assembly invoked Article 233 the U.S. president would back him.  The U.S. believes the rank and file in the military are with the opposition even though its leaders back Maduro. After the U.S. action, the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, backed the move for an interim government. The European Union called for free and credible elections. Russia and Mexico supported Maduro.  The State Department instructed the U.S. Federal Reserve about Guiado government as the sole representative for Venezuelan assets in banks. Sanctions could be placed on Venezuelan oil exports as backup efforts proceed to support the interim government. ...

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This like other reports in the NYT and other media fails to report the scale of people leaving Venezuela for neighboring countries in Latin America, the economic mismanagement, and the lack of fair elections. Venezuela has the highest inflation in Latin America leading to a continual flow of people overseas.  Inflation is at 270% in Venezuela and only Zimbabwe is worse. The country is an example of how the very socialist ideas to reduce poverty and increase social mobility can get mismanaged, lead to cronyism, corruption and increase inflation and poverty. About 7 million of 28 million people in Venezuela have left the country, or about 25% of the country's people a situation that is rare in the 20th and 21st century. A mixture of nationalism and socialist ideas led by the military -after failure of political parties to provide good governance-  have ruined Venezuela. US does not seek to intervene in other countries. It also has some version of the Monroe Doctrine by president Monroe 1823 not to let foreign or European powers  recolonize or intervene in the western hemisphere, renewed by Teddy Roosevelt 1903 and even in 1962 under Kennedy in the Cuban crisis with Russia's Khrushchev. Recent elections in Venezuela were not honored by the government in power. The question is how to not intervene and get embroiled in other nation's politics and confusion and yet preserve Latin America's independence from colonization of any sort or drug trafficking gangs. ...

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This editorial in the NYT praises the effort to bring peace to Colombia after years of conflict. President Santos of Colombia met U.S. president Obama at the White House in Feb 2016, following successful peace talks in Havana between the Santos government and the FARC guerilla group. The U.S. will provide $450 million in assistance for legal institutions, education and the economy. A new approach will have to be developed for the anti-drug effort.

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In a response to Mark Cuban about intelligent women around DJT Susie Wiles his co-campaign manager shares that she and Linda McMahon are two she can think of "Well, here we are." Very disciplined and to the point using just the right words, and getting her message across, Susie Wiles is a remarkable addition to DJT's team from the outset. She once worked for Reagan's political campaigns. Susie Wiles says- "You don’t have to shout to get noticed. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I think it hampers your ability to be effective.” She comes from Florida and was introduced to DJT by a Republican lobbyist in 2015. She has handled Rick Scott's transition with Matt Gaetz, and also worked on the De Santis campaign in Florida. In 2016 and 2020 she has the remarkable achievement of turning Florida once a swing state into a core part of the Republican states in the southern US. Susie Wiles says- "You don’t have to shout to get noticed. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I think it hampers your ability to be effective.” ...

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Venezuela faces an uncertain future after U.S. efforts to support Mr. Guaido and call for new free and fair elections have failed. With help from Russia the Venezuelan economy is showing signs of recovery from the steep decline and high inflation in 2019. Oil production is expected to reach 1 million barrels a day in 2020 after falling to 650,000- 700,000 barrels a day in 2019. Russia's oil company Rosneft provides critical help for Venezuelan oil sales and maintenance in oil fields.  National Security Adviser John Bolton is faulted for his advice to president Trump on Venezuela, that merely voicing support for 36 year old Guaido, would lead to regime change without action from the U.S. With the recovery in Venezuela with help from Russia and Cuba, Mr. Guaido's popularity has dropped by 20 points to 38%, according to a Venezuelan pollster Datanalisis. Most Cubans and Venezuelans in the U.S. are in Florida where there is support for new elections, and Mr. Trump continues to support Mr. Guaido. The lack of support for change from other countries including Europe, India, Turkey, and Mexico have led to a stalled situation in Venezuela. There is concern for the steep inflation, the migration of about 4.5 million Venezuelans, the shortages of critical supplies as a result of the economic collapse in 2019. The situation is stabilizing for the government yet the future of Venezuela with U.S. sanctions and weak economy leaves Venezuela in a precarious situation. Venezuela continues to be an example of how well meaning changes for social justice can lead to political changes that bring about economic collapse. This happens  when business and the economy flounder under mismanagement and corruption under crony socialism, a variant of crony capitalism. The old capitalist class and the privileged families who ran the country under its old two party system are gone. Replaced with a new class. The trying out of untested economic ideas in the quest for social balance leads to economic mismanagement, loss of critical human resources which leave the country, and a higher degree of poverty with shortages than before.  Today in Latin America Brazil shows how allowing generous pension benefits at the expense of basic needs and public services in the budget can hurt the economy. Argentina's overborrowing once again shows how this leads to IMF loans and harsh economic austerity. Chile shows how not financing pensions and public services can lead to collapse of public confidence and riots. Venezuela shows how the quest for social justice and reducing privilege can itself get flawed, leading to mass migration of as many as 4.5 million citizens. This happens under models that vary from free enterprise models to socialist or nationalist models showing that models can be less relevant than good sense and good management. In the beginning and for some time each of these models worked well, commodity price supported booms concealed real problems. Avoiding extremes, prudent spending, good investment and hard work, investment in education and infrastructure, building consensus, and good management, is critical for the future to avoid the bad outcomes facing much of Latin America. A lesson also for Asian and African countries that basic virtue is more important than socialism or free enterprise or nationalism when it comes to development.   ...

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This editorial in the WSJ says Puerto Rico is a failed welfare state and has similiarities to the problem in Greece with a bloated public sector (25% of the workforce in the public sector). It points out that the benefits are generous even though the employment is shrinking by 14% since 2005, as 300,000 young people have left for the U.S. since 2005. Welfare benefits it points out are $1743 a month compared to $1159 for minimum wage work. Puerto Rico's Governor Alejandro Padilla says the $72 billion debt "is not payable." Debt is 100% of GNP. Three public pension funds and the Electric Power Authority face serious problems. To manage its finances Puerto Rico has taxed ever higher, increasing sales taxes to 11.5%. The editorial says Puerto Rico is ready for a Detroit style restructuring of the debt, and rewriting of labor and other contracts following the U.S. giving access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy to Puerto Rico, doing this with orderly restructuring.

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This photos essay in The Guardian can be seen for pictures of US presidents since John Adams, at pivotal moments or moments that captured some symbolism of the times. John Kennedy is simply bending to look at a newspaper on the Oval office desk just  moments before meeting the French ambassador, yet the pressures of office show such as Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.  On November 22, 1963, Freedland says Kennedy warned against extreme groups. Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 had warned of radicalist groups if needed action for sharing the wealth and opportunity of the Nation were not taken. Kennedy said- "America’s leadership must be guided by learning and reason, or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain popular ascendancy, with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.” Sometimes leaders are faced with difficult situations  “I want to tell you how grateful I am, and how worthy I’m going to try to be of all your hopes.”  a phone call to Martin Luther King Jr in 1963. Who was this US president? LBJ of Texas got it right for America, but lacked in international affairs knowledge of what John F. Kennedy had learned about aspirations in Asia and colonial rule during the war years in the Pacific. One president brought about 40 years experience in Congress to four major crises – the pandemic, crumbling infrastructure, loss of manufacturing in the US, and climate change– and passed the most far reaching legislation for trillions of dollars of investment since Franklin Roosevelt.  The most famous of these photos is the one showing Harry Truman holding the Chicago Tribune in 1948, which said "John Dewey Wins."   ...

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U.S. president Obama's speech at the Mandela memorial included the words: "It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailer as well, to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you. To teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth. He changed laws but he also changed hearts."

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The NYT's Thomas Erdbrink makes a road trip from Mashad in the west to Tehran, just before elections in 2017. He sees abandoned factories and other signs of the impact of sanctions particularly on small businesses. Iran's economy has not rebounded from the sanctions period in the way it was expected. Lower oil prices have had an impact. Signs of decay and the effect of sanctions on people's lives can be seen, including the isolation from the outside world. It reminds one of a road trip across Cuba following the lifting of sanctions recently.

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NYT reporter Neuman takes a17 hour road trip across the island of Cuba in a 1956 Ford Fairlane. He heads west from Havana near the west end of the island to Guantanamo on the east end. He sees a changing Cuba with houses for sale, little sign of ideological signs in the countryside, old cars, oxcarts, horsecarts, a Cuba that looked like it was stuck in the past. In the five years that Raul Castro took over from Fidel Castro, money and business have gradually taken the place of politics. The average salary of $20 a month is not enough for most workers even with free healthcare and education, and most people dream of making more money to enjoy a better life. Many rely on relatives abroad for additional funds, or buying and selling on the black market, or a second job.