Brazil Elections

[angelburst29]

The American Museum of Natural History said on Friday that it is "concerned" an event booked to be held at the New York museum will honor far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as a "person of the year," a move that has triggered online outrage.

U.S. science museum 'concerned' by event to honor Brazil's Bolsonaro

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, reacts during a ceremony marking his first 100 days in office at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce is holding its annual Person of the Year gala at the museum on May 14,
during which it will give the award to Bolsonaro, according to the chamber’s website. The award is typically given to one Brazilian and one American each year, although this year’s American recipient is not listed.

Bolsonaro, who styled his campaign for office last year after that of U.S. President Donald Trump, has considered pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate change and railed against what he sees as indiscriminate fines for environmental crimes. He continues to support mining and other development in the Amazon rainforest region, considered by most scientists as the world’s biggest natural defense against climate change.

“The external, private event at which the current President of Brazil is to be honored was booked at the Museum before the honoree was secured,” the museum said on its official Twitter account. “We are deeply concerned, and we are exploring our options.”

The responses to the museum’s tweet included hundreds of messages urging that the event be canceled, with people identifying themselves as activists and scholars saying it was inappropriate that Bolsonaro be honored at an institution of science because of his views.

“It certainly is cause for outrage,” Philip Fearnside, an American professor at Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research and one of the most cited experts on the jungle, said in a telephone interview.

“He denies the existence of anthropogenic climate change and he’s appointed several other denialists to his Cabinet,” Fearnside said. “And he is also dismantling the environmental protections in Brazil ... so obviously it’s not something to be celebrated by science.”

Brazil house speaker, key to pension reform, accused of bribe-taking: document

FILE PHOTO: Brazil's Lower House President Rodrigo Maia attends a seminar in Brasilia, Brazil April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo

Brazilian police have accused Rodrigo Maia, Brazil's powerful lower house speaker, and his father of receiving bribes totaling at least 1.4 million reais ($361,869).

The federal police document was delivered to the Supreme Court, as part on an ongoing investigation into Maia. Brazilian politicians are protected from prosecution, unless the top court approves and agrees to hear a case.

The office of Rodrigo Maia, who has previously said he is innocent of graft allegations, did not respond to request for comment. Neither did his father, Cesar, a former federal congressman and mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

The accusations could prove a headache for the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, which is relying on Maia to guide its thorny pension reform through an unbiddable Congress.

The government argues that its proposed pension overhaul would slash public spending, restore finances and revive growth. Maia, speaking at an event in New York on Thursday, forecast the reform would pass within months.

However, the reform faces stiff political and popular opposition, as Bolsonaro’s team has stumbled in its attempts to woo lawmakers into voting for the measure.

Maia and Bolsonaro recently traded barbs in public over the bill, with Bolsonaro jabbing Maia over the fact that a former government minister married to Maia’s mother-in-law was arrested and charged with corruption in Brazil’s far-reaching ‘Car Wash’ probe.

Rodrigo Maia is under two separate graft investigations. Brazil’s Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge this week asked the Supreme Court to allow police to continue investigating him for another two months.

The allegations of wrongdoing are based on plea testimony from executives from Odebrecht, the scandal-plagued Brazilian construction firm at the heart of the Car Wash probe.

The Car Wash investigation has shaken the country’s political and business elites, with over 150 powerful figures convicted in what U.S. prosecutors have called the world’s largest ever corruption investigation.

Two dead after buildings collapse in militia-controlled Rio neighborhood

At least two people died and two more were injured when two unlicensed buildings in a militia-controlled outer borough of Rio de Janeiro collapsed on Friday, just days after deadly rains caused chaos in Brazil's second largest city.

 

[angelburst29]

Peru ex-President Alan Garcia has been accused of taking bribes in the famous Brazilian construction company, Odebrecht, scandal. When Police came to his home to arrest him - he shot himself in the head and is in critical condition.
April 17, 2019 - Peru ex-president Garcia shoots himself as police try to arrest him

Peru’s former president Alan Garcia shot himself in the head early on Wednesday after police arrived at his home to arrest him in connection with a bribery investigation, the interior ministry said.

Garcia, 69, underwent emergency surgery at the Casimiro Ulloa hospital and suffered three cardiac arrests, Health Minister Zulema Tomas said in broadcast comments.

Tomas said he was in “very critical” condition. A doctor who spoke to journalists alongside Tomas at the hospital said the bullet entered and left his head.

Garcia was one of nine people a judge ordered to be arrested on Wednesday in connection with an investigation into bribes distributed by Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction company that triggered Latin America’s biggest graft scandal when it admitted publicly in late 2016 that it had secured lucrative contracts across the region with bribes.

Local TV channel America reported Garcia was in a coma and showed images of his son, supporters and lawmakers arriving at the hospital, where police in riot gear stood by.

“Let’s pray to God to give him strength,” Erasmo Reyna, Garcia’s lawyer, told journalists at the hospital, as Garcia’s supporters chanted slogans in support.

A skilled orator who led Peru’s once-powerful Apra party for decades, Garcia governed as a nationalist from 1985 to 1990 before remaking himself as a free-market proponent and winning another five-year term in 2006.

He had denied wrongdoing involving Odebrecht and blamed his legal troubles on political persecution.

“Others might sell out, not me,” Garcia said in broadcast comments on Tuesday, repeating a phrase he has used frequently as his political foes became ensnared in the Odebrecht investigation.

Interior Minister Carlos Moran said at a news conference that Garcia had told police he needed to call his attorney after they arrived at his home in Lima to arrest him.

“He entered his room and closed the door behind him,” Moran said. “Within a few minutes, a shot from a firearm was heard, and police forcibly entered the room and found Mr. Garcia sitting with a wound in his head.”

Last year, Garcia asked Uruguay for political asylum after he was banned from leaving the country to keep him from fleeing or obstructing the investigation. Uruguay rejected the request.

Garcia would have been the third former president in Peru to have been jailed in the Odebrecht case. Ollanta Humala spent nine months in pre-trial detention in 2017-2018 and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was arrested without charges last week.

A fourth former president, Alejandro Toledo, is fighting extradition from California after a judge in Peru ordered him jailed for 18 months in connection with Odebrecht in 2017.

All have denied wrongdoing in connection with Odebrecht.

In Peru, criminal suspects can be ordered to spend up to three years in jail before trial if prosecutors can show they have evidence that likely would lead to a conviction and the suspect would likely flee or try to interfere in the investigation.

Slideshow (3 Images)
Peru's ex-president Garcia dies after shooting himself to avoid arrest

Brazil police carry out raids linked to probe into Vale's deadly dam collapse: source

Federal police are serving five search warrants in connection with a Brazilian investigation into a deadly tailings dam failure at a mining site operated by Vale SA, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

 

[angelburst29]

Peru ex-President Alan Garcia has been accused of taking bribes in the famous Brazilian construction company, Odebrecht, scandal. When Police came to his home to arrest him - he shot himself in the head and is in critical condition.
April 17, 2019 - Peru ex-president Garcia shoots himself as police try to arrest him

Totally NUTS! Suicide is never the answer - NEVER! Family and friends pay the price of facing a double burden - the tragedy & the loss!

Peru's Garcia, former president and political chameleon, kills himself to avoid arrest

Alan Garcia was the charismatic chameleon of Peruvian politics, once popular enough to be elected president twice. But his terms were filled with ups and downs and he eventually became caught up in the Odebrecht bribery scandal that rocked Latin America.

 

[angelburst29]

Peru ex-President Alan Garcia has been accused of taking bribes in the famous Brazilian construction company, Odebrecht, scandal. When Police came to his home to arrest him - he shot himself in the head and is in critical condition.
April 17, 2019 - Peru ex-president Garcia shoots himself as police try to arrest him

This is from a week ago"
Peruvian judge orders arrest of ex-President Kuczynski in bribery probe

A Peruvian judge ordered the arrest of former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Wednesday while also authorizing a search of several properties as part of a probe into a bribery scheme linked to scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht.

 

[angelburst29]

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he wanted the country's vast Amazon rainforest to be exploited "in a reasonable way" and criticized the creation of new indigenous reserves by previous governments.

Brazil president says he wants the Amazon to be exploited 'in a reasonable way'
Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he wanted the country's vast Amazon rainforest to be exploited "in a reasonable way" and criticized the creation of new indigenous reserves by previous governments.

In a Facebook live video, the far-right leader also said he planned to travel to Hungary and Poland in the second half of the year.

Brazil's Bolsonaro no longer against sale of postal service: source

BRASÍBrazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's resistance to the privatization of the national postal office has been broken, a senior government source told Reuters on Friday asking for anonymity because the matter remains private.

 

[Niall]

Responding to the original conversation in this thread, I think Bolsonaro is a nasty piece of work. He's worthy of the 'ugly populist' brush the centrist PC crowd uses against nationalist leaders. Bolsonaro, as his actions have revealed, isn't a real nationalist. He speaks the lingo of 'traditional values' but hasn't any real moral foundation. I feel all the more sorry for Lula now. He would have won another term if they hadn't thrown him in jail.

This is exactly why constitutional democracies need to adapt to the reality of pathocratic factors and find a way to 'lock in' good leaders once they find them (and thus keep out barbarians like Bolsonaro). See Ecuador for another LatAm example.

 

[angelburst29]

I think Bolsonaro is a nasty piece of work. He's worthy of the 'ugly populist' brush the centrist PC crowd uses against nationalist leaders. Bolsonaro, as his actions have revealed, isn't a real nationalist. He speaks the lingo of 'traditional values' but hasn't any real moral foundation. I feel all the more sorry for Lula now. He would have won another term if they hadn't thrown him in jail.

This is exactly why constitutional democracies need to adapt to the reality of pathocratic factors and find a way to 'lock in' good leaders once they find them (and thus keep out barbarians like Bolsonaro). See Ecuador for another LatAm example.

Brazil court trims Lula sentence, opening door to partial detention April 23, 2019

Brazil's jailed former leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, could gain partial freedom within five months following a court decision on Tuesday to reduce his sentence in one of two corruption convictions.

More Brazilians rejecting Bolsonaro: CNI/Ibope poll

The number of Brazilians rejecting the government of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro continued to rise this month,
according to an opinion poll released on Wednesday, underscoring his early struggles after easily winning an October election.

Bolsonaro's sons bash vice president, widening rifts in Brazil government

A barrage of criticism this week from the sons of Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro aimed at the vice president has laid bare stark divisions in his cabinet, raising serious concerns from senior members of his four-month-old government.

Brazil markets slump as pension reform reality bites
Brazilian markets slumped on Wednesday, a day after a planned pension overhaul cleared a congressional hurdle following a lengthy debate that highlighted the government's struggle to build support for its signature reform policy.

Brazil's president does not think truckers have reason to strike: spokesman

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro believes there is no reason for the country's truckers to go on strike, his spokesman said on Monday.

Brazil's indigenous tribes protest Bolsonaro assimilation plan

Thousands of people representing the more than 300 tribes native to Brazil marched to government offices in Brasilia on Friday to protest the policies of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro that threaten their reservation lands.

Brazil led world in rainforest losses in 2018 despite decline from 2017: research group

Brazil led the world in rainforest destruction last year, although deforestation in South America's largest country fell by 70 percent compared to 2017, according to an independent forest monitoring network.

Brazil states forge ahead in climate change fight despite Bolsonaro ambivalence

State governments in Brazil have agreed to work toward fulfilling the country's Paris Agreement climate change commitments, despite far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's ambivalence over the pact.

Brazil's vice president to visit China, top trading partner, next month

Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Wednesday he will travel to China on May 16, staying for 10 days with stops in Beijing and Shanghai.

 

[angelburst29]

Responding to the original conversation in this thread, I think Bolsonaro is a nasty piece of work. He's worthy of the 'ugly populist' brush the centrist PC crowd uses against nationalist leaders. Bolsonaro, as his actions have revealed, isn't a real nationalist. He speaks the lingo of 'traditional values' but hasn't any real moral foundation. I feel all the more sorry for Lula now. He would have won another term if they hadn't thrown him in jail.

This is exactly why constitutional democracies need to adapt to the reality of pathocratic factors and find a way to 'lock in' good leaders once they find them (and thus keep out barbarians like Bolsonaro). See Ecuador for another LatAm example.

Brazil's Bolsonaro faces backlash as sponsors ditch NY gala dinner

FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro attends a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

Delta Air Lines, The Financial Times and Bain & Co have pulled out of an event in New York honoring Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the firms said on Thursday, as the South American leader faces blowback for racist and homophobic comments.

Bolsonaro is due to be honored as the 2019 Person of the Year at the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce dinner.

The gala, which already had to move from its original venue at New York’s American Museum of Natural History after the museum decided not to host, is sponsored by various blue-chip firms, which have come under pressure to ditch their support of the event.

Delta said it would no longer be sponsoring the event, but declined to give further details, as did The Financial Times.

“We have decided to withdraw our sponsorship of the ... 2019 Person of the Year Awards Gala Dinner,” Bain said. “Encouraging and celebrating diversity is a core Bain principle.”

The Chamber of Commerce did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the boycott. Bolsonaro’s office declined to comment.

The moves are a blow for a president who has actively courted closer ties with the United States and particularly President Donald Trump, whom he has praised. Bolsonaro’s rejection by corporate heavyweights also hurts his vow to grow foreign investment in Brazil.

Bolsonaro is loved by his supporters for his outspoken views on guns, family values and the military. But his critics accuse him of racism, homophobia and misogyny. He once said a female lawmaker was too ugly to rape, and said he would not be able to love a gay son.

Not all sponsors have pulled out.

“Attending the dinner has never involved selecting or endorsing the honoree in any way,” UBS said.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co all declined to comment on whether they would abandon the event.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Refinitiv, Nomura Co, Morgan Stanley and HSBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Refinitiv is 45 percent-owned by Thomson Reuters Corp.

On its website, the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce said it had chosen Bolsonaro as its person of the year because of his “intention of fostering closer commercial and diplomatic ties between Brazil and the United States.”

 

[angelburst29]

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has canceled a trip to the United States, his office announced on Friday, after sharp protests against his being honored as the person of the year by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce.

Brazil's far-right president nixes U.S. trip in face of protests

FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro speaks with journalists after visiting Yasmin Alves at the Estrutural slum, in Brasilia, Brazil April 27, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

Due to Bolsonaro’s past racist, homophobic and misogynist remarks, organizers saw multiple venues in New York refuse to host the gala dinner, including the American Museum of Natural History.

Major sponsors such as Delta Air Lines, The Financial Times and Bain & Co this week yanked their support for the event.

Bolsonaro spokesman General Otavio Rego Barros said in a statement the president would not be attending the dinner due to “the resistance and deliberate attacks by the Mayor of New York and the pressure of interest groups” on its organizers and sponsors.

Delta said it would no longer be sponsoring the event, but declined to give further details.

The Financial Times also said it would no longer be a sponsor of the event while declining to give further details.

“We have decided to withdraw our sponsorship of the ... 2019 Person of the Year Awards Gala Dinner,” Bain said. “Encouraging and celebrating diversity is a core Bain principle.”

 

[angelburst29]

Brazil's far-right president nixes U.S. trip in face of protests
Due to Bolsonaro’s past racist, homophobic and misogynist remarks, organizers saw multiple venues in New York refuse to host the gala dinner, including the American Museum of Natural History.

Brazil President Bolsonaro mulls trip to Texas after NYC visit nixed

FILE PHOTO - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro speaks during a ceremony at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, Brazil May 3, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro is considering traveling to the United States to be honored at an event in Texas next week, his spokesman said on Monday, just days after he canceled a heavily criticized visit to New York City.

Spokesman Otavio Rego Barros, speaking at a regular press briefing, said plans were still being finalized for a potential trip by Bolsonaro to Dallas for an event to be held between May 14 and 16 at the invitation of Mayor Mike Rawlings.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had called Bolsonaro "a dangerous man" and several high profile sponsors had pulled out of the event. The gala was also moved from the American Museum of Natural History after the museum came under pressure not to host the event.

Barros did not say whether he would be received by the Brazilian-American chamber during his visit to Texas.

“Other authorities, other businessmen, other politicians, including those in the Democratic Party, have invited our president to share with them a positive and democratic environment in the United States of America,” Barros said.

Brazil's Bolsonaro signs decree easing gun import, ammo limits

Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree on Tuesday to ease restrictions on gun imports and increase the amount of ammunition a person can buy.

At least eight dead as cops raid Rio slum amid sharp rise in killings by police

At least eight people died when police raided a drug-scarred Rio de Janeiro neighborhood on Monday, amid a sharp jump in police killing of suspected criminals in the state that underlines the tough new security measures favored by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

Mexico to launch criminal probe into Odebrecht: attorney general
Mexico will launch a criminal probe into Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht SA within 60 days, Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said on Monday.

Mexico asks Brazil's Moro for help with its Odebrecht graft probe: source

The Mexican attorney general's office has asked Brazil Justice Minister Sergio Moro to give its investigators access to evidence of alleged corruption by construction firm Odebrecht SA in Mexico, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

 

[Yas]

Responding to the original conversation in this thread, I think Bolsonaro is a nasty piece of work. He's worthy of the 'ugly populist' brush the centrist PC crowd uses against nationalist leaders. Bolsonaro, as his actions have revealed, isn't a real nationalist. He speaks the lingo of 'traditional values' but hasn't any real moral foundation. I feel all the more sorry for Lula now. He would have won another term if they hadn't thrown him in jail.

This is exactly why constitutional democracies need to adapt to the reality of pathocratic factors and find a way to 'lock in' good leaders once they find them (and thus keep out barbarians like Bolsonaro). See Ecuador for another LatAm example.

I couldn't agree more. And Ecuador is indeed a good example.

What's interesting though is that Bolsonaro's close adviser is familiar with Political Ponerology. So he seems to know about the pathocratic factors you mention, yet, from what I've heard, he's not really adapting his views to that knowledge but adapting the ideas to his own preconceived views instead.

I'm speaking about Olavo de Carvalho. Here's an article to give a bit of an introduction to who he is:
(Keep in mind that this is from El País, which isn't the best source of info out there, to say the least)

Olavo de Carvalho, el ‘filósofo’ de Bolsonaro

Excéntrico, ignorado por los intelectuales, se ha convertido en referente de la nueva derecha brasileña

elpais.com

One of the most influential men in Jair Bolsonaro's government is neither military nor political. At the age of 71, Olavo de Carvalho has been living in seclusion in the United States since 2005, where he teaches philosophy through the Internet. Up until recently, he was treated as a caricature of the extreme right and neoconservatism in Brazil, but something radically changed with Bolsonaro's victory in the October presidential elections. Not only did Brazilians learn that Carvalho is the intellectual guru of some of the elected president's closest advisers, but they discovered that it was this controversial social networking philosopher who recommended the new foreign and education ministers.

The so-called new right that came to power in Brazil under Bolsonaro - a movement that mixes the defense of economic ultraliberalism with moral conservatism - has the philosopher Olavo de Carvalho as a clear intellectual reference. Both Flávio Bolsonaro, elected senator and eldest son of the new president, and his brother Eduardo made pilgrimages to Richmond, Virginia, to participate in YouTube broadcasts next to Carvalho and listen to him denounce an imaginary communist plot to destroy the values of the family and the Judeo-Christian civilization.

[...]

Carvalho's success on the new Brazilian right, to the point of becoming a publishing phenomenon, can be explained mainly by his militancy on the Internet in recent years. He has a Facebook profile with more than 540,000 followers, and on his website he offers an online philosophy seminar for 60 reais (about 15 euros) per month. The themes of his videos are varied. In one he defines former president Lula da Silva as "the supreme leader of Latin American communism"; in another he condemns "gender ideology, abortionism and gayzism" as part of a "cultural revolution" coordinated by the left.

[...]

Carvalho is often presented as the mind that rebelled against the supposed monopoly of leftist thinking in the Brazilian press and schools. He frequently alludes to "cultural Marxism," a conspiracy theory that adopts texts of the Marxist thinker Gramsci to denounce an alleged communist infiltration into cultural institutions.
(Translated from Spanish with DeepL)

We know that some of the subjects mentioned there are important to discuss and hold some truth in them, but I can't help but think about what Zizek said in his debate with Jordan Peterson when commenting on this "cultural Marxism" as some sort of invention by the right to create an enemy with the consequence of dividing the society even more. I'm not saying that all about these ideas are wrong, but I think they are reductionist and lead to wrong conclusions. In the case of Olavo de Carvalho, some of his comments are blatant lies.

Here's more about him from a old post on another thread:

[...]

Reading a little about him, he's a rather controversial character who seems to like to cause controversy. He says he is the father of the new Brazilian right-wing movement, he likes hunting and loves weapons, he says that Temer (the new neo-liberal president of Brazil who got there after what is know as a coup-de-Etat) is better than Dilma Rousseff (the former president that was impeached), and he is totally against the PT (Workers Party). He's also in favor of closing the doors to Muslim migrants, and he says that applying the measures of the World Bank in Brazil is what really helped to bring economic growth to the country.

I found him a bit cocky, stating that he is the only reason why the new Brazilian right is starting to have more participation, but at the same time saying that no one really understands his ideas because they are very complex.

In a video published in November this year called "How the Russians corrupted world politics? What is the objective?" He says that the weapons of terrorists are always Russian and that Russia is promoting terrorism in the world… In another video about Russia, he says that Putin is establishing a dictatorship in Russia and, among other things, that if you take all the immorality in the United States, it is nothing compared to the one in Russia.

In the other videos, he makes an apology for "Western Christian values" and the danger of the Islamization of the world (something like Muslim ideology controlling the world). In the last video I saw, he said that the intervention in Iraq was good and that the Iraqis themselves were very happy with it.

So, although he speaks of Political Ponerology and mentions it in the above video, and says some interesting things there, it seems that he only applies the term "psychopath" for any leftist leader and not for the right-wing ones. And yes, the left in the US today is quite bad, as you've been discussing here and elsewhere, yet this man seem to have a very black and white thinking about it all, and he minimizes the mistakes made by the right.

So, all in all, it seems that this man cannot see any nuances and is basically promoting his own agenda while using Political Ponerology without really understanding what the book is about and cherry-picking ideas that justify his own world-view.

He's made other videos about psychopaths in power and ponerology that I plan to watch as well, just out of curiosity. (The videos are in Portuguese).

I wanted to mention this because I find it interesting that a man like him is Bolsonaro's "highest adviser", and it could bring some more information about his own thinking.

 

[angelburst29]

A Brazilian court on Wednesday ordered that former President Michel Temer be jailed again over an ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption.

May 9, 2019 - Brazilian court orders former President Temer to be jailed again
A Brazilian court on Wednesday ordered that former President Michel Temer be jailed again over an ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption.

Temer has been charged six times in connection with various corruption investigations. The court decision on Wednesday relates to an alleged corruption scheme involving a nuclear power plant operated by Eletronuclear, a subsidiary of state-run Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA.


The former president has repeatedly denied corruption charges against him. Following the arrest order, Temer’s attorney told reporters that there were no grounds for the arrest, saying it was an “injustice.”

Temer, speaking to reporters in Sao Paulo, said he would turn himself in to authorities the following morning. Temer had been held for several days in March over charges related to the alleged nuclear scheme.


Ex-ministers blast Bolsonaro for dismantling Brazil's environment protections
Eight former Brazilian environment ministers blasted new right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and his administration in a letter on Wednesday, saying it is dismantling the country's environmental protections.


U.S. group confirms Brazil's Bolsonaro slated to speak at Texas event
Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro will speak at a foreign affairs event in Texas next week, organizers said on Wednesday, after he canceled a heavily criticized visit to New York City.


Brazil federal prosecutors open probe into Rio army killing
Brazilian federal prosecutors have opened a probe into a botched army operation in Rio de Janeiro that killed two innocent civilians, arguing that a decision to have military prosecutors investigate the case violated the constitution.

 

[Niall]

I wanted to mention this because I find it interesting that a man like him is Bolsonaro's "highest adviser", and it could bring some more information about his own thinking.

Well now. That is interesting. It reminds me of that Venezuelan guy who translated (I think?) Ponerology. He's on a mission to inform the world about the pathocracy that is the Bolivarian regime.

It just goes to show you that people will read into literally anything what they want to see. That includes Ponerology, which cannot, by itself, inoculate society from pathologicals. Quite the contrary, apparently.

 

[Niall]

Ponerology really needs to be updated for the current era. It was written during a rigidly binary Cold War era, and the siren call of 'the West is the Best' was not also subjected to study. That's prolly why the book is attractive to anti-Left, pro-Empire hardliners in LatAm today.

 

[Yas]

Well now. That is interesting. It reminds me of that Venezuelan guy who translated (I think?) Ponerology. He's on a mission to inform the world about the pathocracy that is the Bolivarian regime.

It just goes to show you that people will read into literally anything what they want to see. That includes Ponerology, which cannot, by itself, inoculate society from pathologicals. Quite the contrary, apparently.

My thoughts exactly, it's quite amazing, but as you said, maybe the context in which Ponerology was written makes it more likely for it to be attractive to the anti-Left in LatAm. But it is indeed a testimony of how some people will do exactly what is exposed in the book about picking and substituting facts in order to arrive to a particular conclusion that justifies their view, with any information or source of knowledge.