Act Two. Kings do not fold.

Solid This American Life piece on NPR - Know When To Fold 'Em.

I particularly liked Pod 3 - Kings do not fold ... Producer Nancy Updike shares a pattern that she's noticed recently: eleven steps that Middle Eastern dictators have been taking on the path to losing power. (7 minutes)

1. Shut down the internet

2. Send thugs (on foot or horseback)

3. Attack and arrest journalists

4. Shoot people

5. Promise to investigate who shot people

6. Do a meaningless political reshuffle

7. Blame Al Jazeera

8. Organize paid demonstrations in favor of your regime

9. Make a condescending speech about how much you love the youth

10. Threaten that the country will fall into chaos without you

11. Blame foreign agitators

Stage 12 which remains unspoken is simply 'Leave - get out'.

Either way I wouldn't know "when to fold em" because my family plays poker with matchsticks which means no one ever folds em. Which sort of sounds like some kind of parable for the banking crisis...

My Belgian ancestors playing Strip Poker