When elections for national leadership lose their legitimacy, chaos can be unleashed.  In Belarus, the presidential election of August 1, 2020 has been challenged as a travesty, generally regarded as fraudulent, with the official result a landslide victory for the incumbent.  The result has been large demonstrations in the streets in Minsk, the capital, and other cities, with some protesters erecting barricades, while the police have used tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and water cannons, against the peaceful protestoes of whom 6,000 have been detained. YouTube screen grab. Belarus is not unknown to Westerners.  It was the birthplace of Marc Chagall, and it was for a short time the home of Lee Harvey Oswald, the presumed assassin of JFK, who lived in Minsk in 1961–62.  The country of Belarus is strategically located among Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.  The country under a different name, the Byelorussian Soviet...(Read Full Post)