This is Red Square as it was in late summer of 1998, the last time any of us were there in person. We are running it this morning with a sense of loss, since we are 13 time zones away from Pyongyang, North Korea. We were playing with some of the images from the trip there to meet the leaders of the DPRK and decided this one, taken of the base of the Tower of the Juche Idea, is a sample of a place in which we feel we are waking up. And looking tall:

The term “Juche Idea” was the underlying principle to the idea of self-sufficiency proclaimed by Great Leader Kim Ill Song to guide the people of North Korea forward..

Feeling the Juche Idea’s power at this range is a bit of a comfort, since we have resolve\ed not to ger any closer in this century.

There was stuff going on that reflects the magnitude of the moment. The operation to arrest the President of Venezuela and his wife had folks stirred up yesterday. We only know what has been released, but there is agreement that it was an impressive operation. There was a force of some 150 aircraft and helicopters involved in surpressing air defenses before swarming an armored bunker, killing around 30 Cuban security personnel and grabbing the Maduro’s before they could flee into an impenetrable locked steel room.

There are some other Hemispheric issues now on the table and some old issues that may be crying for resolution in Korea, Columbia and Cuba.

This could be a very interesting new year. Some support the notion that should the House change hands, the first priority of the Mid-term Congress will be to support the unprecedented third impeachment of the current non-consecutive Chief Executive. We have decided that Melissa can fill in until some succession issues can be resolved.

We will be talking abot this for some years, if the previous example of the trial of former Panamanian Chief Noriega is any example. But win or lose, fraud or fail, we intend to have a grant year filled with all sorts of new adventures. And maybe some resolution right here in our own hemispheres, you know?

(John Candy in Spaceballs outfit, directed by Mel Brooks, overlooks Red Square where marching ladies imitate the show girls of the 1964 Indianapolis 500 as the Pace Car approaches from St. Basil’s Cathedral).

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra’

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