Downhill as fast as you can run

I guess presidential elections are coming next year so el gobierno KKK feel they need to pull out all the stops.  Now they've decided to nationalize the largest manufacturer of newsprint.  

Para evitar un nuevo "pacto", el Ejecutivo enviará al Congreso un proyecto para declarar como servicio público la producción, distribución y comercialización del papel para diarios. El objetivo central de esta normativa buscará darle un trato igualitario a todos los diarios del país. A su vez, buscará ampliar la capacidad de producción de Papel Prensa para que no haya más importación. Con esta jugada, la Presidenta obligará a todo el arco opositor a discutir sobre un proyecto esencial "para la libertad de prensa", tal como fue definido por la propia mandataria. También se propondrá la creación de una comisión bicameral de control.

I almost get the feeling that with each move the excuses are getting deliberately more and more far fetched.  I guess this is a good strategy.  First you get people used to being lied to by changing technical little numbers like the inflation rate.  Then you move on to things that are arguably legal and even sensible, if controversial, but that at least play to popular issues, like the fight with the farmers over export tariffs a few years ago (I for one sided with the government on that question).  But, finally, you just make shit up as you go, like claiming that the fact that 40 years ago they strong-armed the paper company means the market today is incapable of providing newsprint.  I can't think of anything more ridiculous than this one, though I feel sure they've got something else up their sleeve.  In all of these cases there is an argument to be made for what they're doing.  Some justification can be invented that paints them as crafty fighters of the people's fight.  After a while though, you have to pick your head up and see the pattern, to reflect on where you've seen similar chains of justification lead.  At some point you have to quit trying to salvage the motives of government by fiat and realize that this turns the government into a political and economic weapon available to the highest bidder.  It's no secret that the Kirchner's have already mysteriously turned themselves into millionaires.  They might not be Boli, but they sure seem like garcas to me.

In the end it doesn't matter whether you think you're moving to the left or the right in these cases -- there's really nowhere to go but down into corruption.