*The greater the fear [the corrupter] feels, the more sinister his threats become.*

The article also asserts that anyone with the slightest scruple of conscience who tries to obey orders from the corrupter eventually gets an order that per conscience can't swallow, and the corrupter orders hisfollowers to cancel per. This is what happened to McCarthy after he compromised to avoid a shutdown.

Robert Reich: the insurrectionist's current destabilization strategy is to create chaos and make it appear that the US can't be governed democratically. He hopes that people who defend democracy and human rights will give up on them and let him take over.

This follows a line of development from Reagan's sabotage strategy of trying to make Americans forget the great effectiveness of the New Deal and the War on Poverty — government programs to help people who needed help — and claiming that government was bizarrely a problem. itself.

When Iran took the US embassy personnel hostage, President Carter ordered a military rescue mission. The mission messed up before any contact with the enemy, but Carter's decision was correct.

What did Reagan do? He made a deal with the hostage takers that they would hold the hostages until after the election. Then Reagan paid a ransom for the hostages.

Today's Republicans don't need to ransom hostages taken by foreign enemies. Instead they take the hostages and demand the ransom.

Brazil's latest campaign to stop illegal deforestation: seizing the cows that the deforesters are raising.

I expect it will be difficult for deforesters to resist this approach. They can't hide or move the cows, and if they can't raise cows, they can't profit from the deforestation (aside from places where there is gold to filter).

I think some deforested areas are used to grow soybeans to be shipped elsewhere and fed to cows. The soybean plants can't be hidden or moved either. But it would be a shame to waste the current year's harvest by destroying the plants. Perhaps the state can bring in workers temporarily to harvest and remove the soy beans. This would still be effective for deterring further deforestation because the people who expected to profit will not profit.

Brazil should not limit this campaign to land designated as reserves for indigenous groups. The whole world depends on keeping the Amazon forest going, and we need to preserve as much of it as we can. Any parcel that can be identified as having been illegally deforested should get this treatment.

If a neoliberal government did these things, it would push many desperately poor Brazilians into hoepless poverty. But Lula rejects neoliberalism; he is committed to helping them escape poverty in ways that won't do harm.

*Tunisia detains cartoonist over drawings mocking prime minister.*

For a decade, Tunisia enjoyed hard-won human rights and democracy, but the authoritarian president has abolished them completely.

*The American dream has been sold and replaced with a Ponzi scheme meant to benefit the investor class.… The American education system has become a way of forcing lower-class citizens into a form of indentured servitude.*