Orts #816

Napoleon quotes:

     Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

    The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

     Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

     In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.

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A magnificent NYTimes Op-Ed by Roger Cohen   from which here are two quotes:
     — Technology has enabled many things, among them the apotheosis of stupidity.
     — The lifeblood of autocracies is the glorification of a mythical past and the designation of enemies who stand in the way of greatness.

IMHO the most insightful explanation so far of what is going on.  The author, Joel Whitebook,  is the director of the Psychoanalytic Studies Program at Columbia University. One of the Comments sums up the main premise: "We used to joke that a neurotic might build a Castle in the air, but the psychotic moves in. Now it turns out that the Castle he moved in to was on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the joke was on us."