For Every Action, A Reaction

 One of my oldest opinions about politics is that for every action, there is a reaction. Yes, I apply Newtonian physics to politics.

Here is an example from today:

The Deeper Reason That Trump Is Raging Against Brazil Right Now (The New Republic)

The answer is obvious to Steve Bannon, MAGA’s leading anti-globalist, who said Brazil can easily solve its problem: “If you drop the trial and drop the charges, the tariffs go away.” When asked how this policy approach—which treats tariffs like sanctions—differed from extortion, he remarked that “it’s MAGA, baby … It’s a brave new world.” Effectively, Trump and his minions are demanding that the judicial system of Latin America’s largest nation, the fourth-biggest democracy in the world, do his bidding or suffer the consequences—specifically, a potential economic calamity that would impoverish millions of Brazilians. Furthermore, in addressing his letter to Lula, Trump is implying that the chief executive must be the one to break Brazil’s institutional order, even though the letter’s main complaints pertained to decisions by the judiciary.

Trump’s message to Brazil, and really all BRICS nations, is that he will not brook any dissatisfaction with unilateral U.S. policy, and indeed will punish any nations that dare to strengthen ties to better protect themselves from that policy—a threat that naturally makes such cooperation more appealing, and perhaps even existentially necessary. The prospect of the United Nation or World Trade Organization reining in Trump’s callous measures are remote at best. In his own way, Trump is making the case for BRICS more clearly than Lula ever could.

The Young GOPer Behind “Alligator Alcatraz” Is the Dark Future of MAGA (The New Republic) may not cheer the heart, but there will be reactions: emulation or dissent.

The real-world “Alligator Alcatraz” is already gaining notoriety for its very real cruelties. After Democratic lawmakers visited over the weekend, they sharply denounced the scenes they’d witnessed of migrants packed into cages under inhumane conditions. Meanwhile, detainees and family members have sounded alarms about worm-infested food and blistering heat. And the Miami Herald reports that an unnervingly large percentage of the detainees lack criminal convictions.

But Uthmeier is getting feted on Fox News and other right wing media for this new experiment in spite of such notorieties—or perhaps because of them. There’s good reason to think more red state politicians will seek to create their own versions of “Alligator Alcatraz” or get in on this action in other ways—and that more young Republican politicians will see it as a path to MAGA renown and glory.

For one thing, the money is now there. Buried in the big budget bill that Trump recently signed is a little-noticed provision that immigration advocates increasingly fear could fund more complexes like this one. It makes $3.5 billion available to “eligible states” and their agencies for numerous immigration-related purposes, including the “temporary detention of aliens.”

 Democratic-leaning Indiana donors want to 'turn our state around,' but lawsuit shows infighting (NewsBreak) is a reaction fumbling its way to ignition or extinction

Part of this was born of a recognition that where the American right wing excels at funneling influence through "dark-money" networks, Democrats have less of a footprint in Indiana.

The state party is limited in the coordination or strategy-sharing it can do with nonpartisan nonprofits, which is the gap groups like these can fill. They can organize year-round on particular issues or values ― not necessarily tied to a particular party, per se ― whereas parties with limited resources tend to be all-consumed with election cycles.